themselves Intend and act for Ends that therefore Nature doth the like And they might as well say that Nature Laughs and Cryes Speaks and Walks Syllogizes and Philosophizes because themselves do so But as a Modern Philosopher concludeth The Vniverse as one Aggregate of things Natural hath no Intention belonging to it And accordingly were all Final Causes rightly banished by Democritus out of Physiology as Aristotle recordeth of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he reduced all things to Natural and Necessary Causes altogether rejecting Final To all which we briefly reply That there are indeed two Extremes here to be avoided the One of those who derive all things from the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Matter which is the Extreme of the Atomick Atheists the Other of Bigotical Religionists who will needs have God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do all things himself immediately as if all in Nature were Miracle But there is a Middle betwixt both these Extremes namely to suppose that besides God and in Subordination to him there is a Nature not Fortuitous but Artificial and Methodical which governing the Motion of Matter and bringing it into Regularity is a Secondary or Inferiour Cause of Generations Now this Natura Artificiosa this Artificial Nature though it self indeed do not understand the Reason of what it doth nor properly Intend the Ends thereof yet may it well be conceived to act Regularly for the sake of Ends Vnderstood and Intended by that Perfect Mind upon which it depends As the Manuary Opificers understand not the Designs of the Architect but only drudgingly perform their several tasks imposed by him and as Types or Forms of Letters composed together Print Coherent Philosophick Sence which themselves understand nothing of upon which Artificial or Spermatick Nature we have largely insisted before in the Appendix to the Third Chapter And thus neither are all things performed Immediately and Miraculously by God himself neither are they all done Fortuitously and Temerariously but Regularly and Methodically for the sake of Ends though not Vnderstood by Nature it self but by that Higher Mind which is the Cause of it and doth as it were continually Inspire it Some indeed have unskilfully attributed their Own Properties or Animal Idiopathies to Inanimate Bodies as when they say that Matter desires Forms as the Female doth the Male and that Heavy Bodies descend down by Appetite toward the Centre that so they may rest therein and that they sometimes again Ascend in Discretion to avoid a Vacuum Of which Fanciful Extravagances if the Advancer of Learning be understood there is nothing to be reprehended in this following passage of his Incredibile est quantum agmen Idolorum Philosophiae immiserit Naturalism Operationum ad Similitudinem Actionum Humanarum Reductio It is incredible how many Errours have been transfused into Philosophy from this One Delusion of Reducing Natural actions to the Mode of Humane or of thinking that Nature acteth as a Man doth But if that of his be extended further to take away all Final Causes from the things of Nature as if nothing were done therein for Ends Intended by a Higher Mind then is it the very Spirit of Atheism and Infidelity It is no Idol of the Cave or Den to use that Affected Language that is no Prejudice or Fallacy imposed upon our selves from the attributing our own Animalish Properties to things without us to think that the Frame and System of this whole World was contrived by a Perfect Vnderstanding Being or Mind now also presiding over the same which hath every where Printed the Signatures of its own Wisdom upon the Matter As also that though Nature it self do not properly Intend yet it acteth according to an Intellectual Platform Prescribed to it as being the Manuary Opificer of the Divine Architectonick Art or this Art it self as it were Transfused into the Matter and Embodied in it Thus Cicero's Balbus long since declared concerning it that it was not Vis quaedam sine Ratione ciens Motus in Corporibus Necessarios sed Vis particeps Ordinis tanquam via progrediens cujus Solertiam nulla Ars nemo Artifex consequi potest imitando Not a force Vnguided by Reason Exciting Necessary Motions in Bodies Temerariously but such a Force as partakes of Order and proceeds as it were Methodically whose Cunning or Ingeniosity no Art or Humane Opificer can possibly reach to by Imitation For it is altogether Unconceivable how we Our Selves should have Mind and Intention in us were there none in the Universe or in that Highest Principle from which all proceeds Moreover it was truly affirmed by Aristotle that there is much more of Art in some of the things of Nature than there is in any thing Artificially made by men and therefore Intention or Final and Mental Causality can no more be secluded from the consideration of Natural than it can from that of Artificial things Now it is plain that Things Artificial as a House or Clock can neither be Understood nor any true Cause of them assigned without Design or Intention for Ends and Good For to say that a House is Stones Timber Mortar Iron Glass Lead c. all put together is not to give a Definition thereof or to tell what indeed it is it being such an Apt Disposition of all these Materials as may make up the whole fit for Habitation and the Vses of men Wherefore this is not sufficiently to assign the Cause of a House neither to declare out of what Quarry the Stones were dugg nor in what Woods or Forests the Timber was felled and the like Nor as Aristotle addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one should go about thus to give an account of a House from Material Necessity as the Atheistick Philosophers then did of the World and the Bodies of Animals That the Heavier things being carried downward of their own accord and the Lighter upward therefore the Stones and Foundation lay at the bottom and the Earth for the Walls being Lighter was Higher and the Timber being yet Lighter Higher than that but above all the Straw or Thatch it being the Lightest of all Nor lastly if as the same Aristotle elsewhere also suggesteth one should further pretend that a House was therefore made such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. meerly because the Hands of the Labourers and the Axes and Hammers and Trowels and other Instruments Chanced all to be moved so and so We say that none of all these would be to assign the true cause of a House without declaring that the Architect first framed in his Mind a Model or Platform of such a thing to be made out of of those Materials so aptly disposed into a Foundation Walls Roof Doors Rooms Stairs Chimneys Windows c. as might render the whole fit for Habitation and other Humane uses And no more certainly can the Things of Nature in whose very Essence Final Causality is as much included be either rightly Understood or the Causes of
Deity not Servilely bound to doe the Best but this the Perfection of its Nature No Atheist able to prove The World to be Ill Made Page 872 874 Not to be Concluded That whatsoever we cannot find out the Reason or Use of is therefore Ineptly Made For example The Intestinum Caecum though seemingly an Odd Appendix and which the Generality of Anatomists give little Account of yet that with the Valve at its Enterance both together an Artificiall Contrivance of Nature to hinder the Regurgitation of the Faeces Page 874 875 The First Atheistick Instance of the Faultiness of things In the Disposition of the Aequator and Ecliptick Intersecting each other in such an Angle whereby the Terrestrial Globe rendered not so Habitable as it might have been This Objection Founded upon a False Supposition That the Torrid Zone Uninhabitable But this the Best Disposition which being Contrary to Mechanick Causes therefore its Continuance together with the Constant Parallelism of the Earth's Axis a manifest Eviction of Providence and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Best is a Cause in Nature Page 875 In the next place The Atheists would prove against some Theists That All things not Made for the Sake of Man This at First but the Doctrine of Streight-laced Stoicks onely recommended afterward by mens Self-Love Whereas Plato's Doctrine That the Whole not made for any Part but the Parts for the Whole Nevertheless Things in the Lower World made Principally though not Onely for Man Atheists no Judges of the Well or Ill-Making of Worlds they having no Standing Measure of Good That Nature a Step-Mother to Man but a froward Speech of some discontented Persons seeking to Revenge themselves by Railing upon Nature that is Providence Page 875 876 Evils in Generall from the Necessity of Imperfect Beings and Incompossibility of things Page 876 Men Afflicted more from their own Phancies then Reality of things Pain which a Real Evil of Sense often Link'd with Pleasure according to the Socratick Fable This not the Evil of the Whole Man but of the Outside onely Serviceable to free men from the Greater Evils of the Mind Death according to the Atheistick Hypothesis an Absolute Extinction of all Life but according to Genuine Theism onely a Withdrawing into the Tiring-House and putting off the Terrestriall Cloathing The Dead Live to God Christian Faith gives assurance of a Heavenly Body hereafter The Christian Resurrection not the Hope of Worms This the Confutation of the Twelfth Atheistick Argument Page 876 877 The Thirteenth but Second Objection a-Against Providence as to Humane Affairs Because all things Fall alike to all and sometimes Vicious and Irreligious Persons most Prosperous Page 877 878 Granted That this Consideration hath too much Staggered weak Minds in all Ages Some concluding from thence That there is no God but that blind Chance Steereth all Others That though there be a God yet he Knows nothing done here below Others That though he do know yet he Neglecteth Humane Affairs Page 878 Vnreasonable to require That God should Miraculously Interpose at every turn or to think That every Wicked person should presently be Thunder-struck That which Steers the whole World no Fond and Passionate but an Impartial Nature Yet That there want not Instances of an Extraordinary Providence Good Reasons for the Slowness of Divine Vengeance The Notoriously Wicked commonly met with at the long Run Page 878 879 The Sometimes Impunity of Wicked Persons so far from Staggering Good men as to Providence that it confirms them in their Belief of Future Immortality and Judgement after Death The Evolution of Humane affairs a kind of Dramatick Poem and God Almighty the Skilful Dramatist who always Connecteth that of Ours which went before with what of His follows after into Coherent Sense A Geometrical Distribution of Rewards and Punishments Page 879 880 That there ought to be a Doubtful and Cloudy State of things for the Exercise of Faith and the more difficult Part of Vertue Had there been no Monsters to Subdue there could have been no Hercules Here we to Live by Faith and not by Sight Page 880 But that to make a full Defence of Providence would require a large Volume The Reader therefore referred to others for a Supplement Onely some Few Considerations to be here propounded not so much for the Confutation of Atheists as Satisfaction of Theists sometimes apt to call in Question the Divine Goodness though the very Foundation of our Christian Faith ibid. First That in Judging of the Works of God we ought not to consider the Parts of the World alone by themselves but in order to the Whole Were Nothing made but the Best there could have been no Harmony for want of Variety â—lotinus That a Limner does not make all Eye nor place Bright Colours every-where nor a Dramatist introduce onely Kings and Hero's upon the Stage Page 880 882 Secondly That we ought not to Confine God's Creation to the Narrowness of Vulgar Opinion which Extends the Universe but little beyond the Clouds and Walls it in with a Sphear of Fixed Stars The World Vncapable of Infinity of Magnitude as well as of Time Nevertheless as the Sun is much Bigger then we can Imagine it so much more may the World be The New Celestiall Phaenomena widen the Corporeal Universe and make those Phansied Flaming Walls thereof to fly away before us Not reasonable to think That all this Immense Vastness should be Desert and Uninhabited Page 882 883 Thirdly That we cannot make a Right Judgement of the Ways of Providence without looking both Forwards upon what is Future and Backwards upon what is Past as well as upon the Present That the Platonists and Pythagoreans salved many Phaenomena from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things done in a Prae-Existent State Our Common Christianity supposeth but a kind of Imputative Prae-Existence to Salve the Pravity of Mankind and the Evils of this State The different Fates and Conditions of Men here in this Life to be resolved into a Just though Occult Providence Page 883 The Third Objection against Providence or Fourteenth Atheistick Argument That it is Impossible for any One Being to Animadvert and Order all things and if it were Possible that it would be Distâ—actious and Inconsistent with Happiness Moreover That an Irresistibly Powerfull and Happy Being would not concern it self in the welfare of others Benevolence arising onely from Imbecillity Page 883 884 The Reply That because our Selves have but a Finite Animadversion and Narrow Sphear of Activity to measure the Deity accordingly is but an Idol of the Cave or Den. Certain that were there Nothing but what we could fully Comprehend there could be no God Had the Sun Life Equally Coextended with its Rays it would perceive every thing touched by them Creatures but the Rays of the Deity Men able to manage affairs in many distant places without Distraction And innumerable Notions lie together in our Minds without Crowding one another or any Disturbance
of the Creation of Humane Souls which salves their Immortality without Preexistence is Rational 35. A new Hypothesis to salve the Incorporeity of the Souls of Brutes without their Postexistence and successive Transmigrations 36. That this will not prejudice the Immortality of Humane Souls 37. That the Empedoclean Hypothesis is more Rational than the Opinion of those that would make the Souls of Brutes Corporeal 38. That the Constitution of the Atomical Physiology is such that whosoever entertains it and thoroughly understands it must needs hold Incorporereal Substance in five Particulars 39. Two general Advantages of the Atomical or Mechanical Physiology first that it renders the Corporeal World intelligible 40. The second Advantage of it that it prepares an easie and clear way for the Demonstration of Incorporeal Substance 41. Concluded That th◠ancient Moschical Philosophy consisted of two Parts Atomical Physiology and Theology or Pneumatology 42. That this entire Philosophy was afterwards mangled and dismembred some taking one part of it alone and some the other 43. That Leucippus and Democritus being Atheistically inclined took the Atomical Physiology endeavouring to make it subservient to Atheism and upon what occasion they did it and how unsuccessfully 44. That Plato took the Theology and Pneumatology of the Ancients but rejected their Atomical Physiology and upon what accounts 45. That Aristotle followed Plato herein with a Commendation of Aristotle's Philosophy THEY that hold the Necessity of all humane Actions and Events do it upon one or other of these two Grounds Either because they suppose that Necessity is inwardly essential to all Agents whatsoever and that Contingent Liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thing Impossible or Contradictious which can have no Existence any where in Nature The sence of which was thus expressed by the Epicurean Poet Quòd res quaeque Necessum Intestinum habeat cunctis in rebus agendis c. That every thing Naturally labours under an Intestine Necessity Or else because though they admit Contingent Liberty not only as a thing Possible but also as that which is actually Existent in the Deity yet they conceive all things to be so determin'd by the Will and Decrees of this Deity as that they are thereby made Necessary to us The former of these two Opinions that Contingent Liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a Thing as can have no Existence in Nature may be maintained upon two different Grounds Either from such an Hypothesis as this That the Universe is nothing else but Body and Local motion and Nothing moving it self the Action of every Agent is determined by some other Agent without it and therefore that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Material and Mechanical Necessity must needs reign over all things Or else though Cogitative Beings be supposed to have a certain Principle of Activity within themselves yet that there can be no Contingency in their Actions because all Volitions are determined by a Necessary antecedent Understanding Plotinus makes another Distribution of Fatalists which yet in the Conclusion will come to the same with the Former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man saith he will not do amiss that will divide all Fatalists first into these two General Heads namely That they derive all things from One Principle or Not The former of which may be called Divine Fatalists the latter Atheistical Which Divine Fatalists he again subdivides into such as First make God by Immediate Influence to do all things in us as in Animals the Members are not determined by themselves but by that which is the Hegemonick in every one And Secondly such as make Fate to be an Implexed Series or Concatenation of Causes all in themselves Necessary whereof God is the chief The Former seems to be a Description of that very Fate that is maintained by some Neoterick Christians the Latter is the Fate of the Stoicks Wherefore Fatalists that hold the Necessity of all Humane Actions and Events may be reduced to these Three Heads First such as asserting the Deity suppose it irrespectively to Decree and Determine all things and thereby make all Actions necessary to us Which kind of Fate though Philosophers and other ancient Writers have not been altogether silent of it yet it has been principally maintained by some Neoterick Christians contrary to the Sence of the Ancient Church Secondly such as suppose a Deity that acting Wisely but Necessarily did contrive the General Frame of things in the World from whence by a Series of Causes doth unavoidably result whatsoever is now done in it Which Fate is a Concatenation of Causes all in themselves Necessary and is that which was asserted by the Ancient Stoicks Zeno and Chrysippus whom the Jewish Essenes seemed to follow And Lastly such as hold the Material Necessity of all things without a Deity which Fate Epicurus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fate of the Naturalists that is indeed the Atheists the Assertors whereof may be called also the Democritical Fatalists Which three Opinions concerning Fate are so many several Hypotheses of the Intellectual System of the Universe All which we shall here propose endeavouring to shew the Falseness of them and then substitute the true Mundane System in the Room of them II. The Mathematical or Astrological Fate so much talked of as it is a thing no way considerable for the Grounds of it so whatsoever it be it must needs fall under one or other of those two General Heads in the Plotinical Distribution last mentioned so as either to derive all things from one Principle or Not. It seems to have had its first Emersion amongst the Chaldaeans from a certain kind of blind Polytheism which is but a better sort of disguised Atheism but it was afterwards Adopted and fondly nursed by the Stoicks in a way of subordination to their Divine Fate For Manilius Firmicus and other Masters of that Sect were great Promoters of it And there was too much attributed to Astrology also by those that were no Fatalists both Heathen and Christian Philosophers such as were Plotinus Origen Simplicius and others Who though they did not make the Stars to necessitate all Humane Actions here below yet they supposed that Divine Providence fore-knowing all things had contrived such a strange Coincidence of the Motions and Configurations of the Heavenly Bodies with such Actions here upon Earth as that the former might be Prognosticks of the latter Thus Origen determines that the Stars do not Make but Signifie and that the Heavens are a kind of Divine Volume in whose Characters they that are skilled may read or spell out Humane Events To the same purpose Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Motion of the Stars was intended for the Physical Good of the whole but they afford also another Vse collaterally in order to Prognostication namely that they who are skilled in the Grammar of the Heavens may be able from the several Configurations of the Stars as it were Letters to spell out future Events
by making such Analogical Interpretations as they use to do in Augury As when a Bird flies high to interpret this of some High and Noble Exploit And Simplicius in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fatal Conversion of the Heavens is made to correspond with the Production of Souls into Generation at such and such times not Necessitating them to will this or that but conspiring agreeably with such Appetites and Volitions of theirs And these Philosophers were the rather inclinable to this Perswasion from a Superstitious Conceit which they had that the Stars being animated were Intellectual Beings of a far higher Rank than Men. And since God did not make them nor any thing else in the World singly for themselves alone but also to contribute to the Publick Good of the Universe their Physical Influence seeming inconsiderable they knew not well what else could be worthy of them unless it were to portend Humane Events This indeed is the best Sence that can be made of Astrological Prognostication But it is a business that stands upon a very weak and tottering if not Impossible Foundation III. There is another Wild and Extravagant Conceit which some of the Pagans had who though they Verbally acknowledged a Deity yet supposed a certain Fate superiour to it and not only to all their other Petty Gods but also to Jupiter himself To which purpose is that of the Greek Poet Latin'd by Cicero Quod fore paratum est id summum exuperat Jovem and that of Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible for God himself to avoid the destin'd Fate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself is a Servant of Necessity According to which Conceit Jupiter in Homer laments his Condition in that the Fates having determined that his beloved Sarpedon should be slain by the Son of Menaetius he was not able to withstand it Though all these passages may not perhaps imply much more than what the Stoical Hypothesis it self imported for that did also in some sence make God himself a Servant to the Necessity of the Matter and to his own Decrees in that he could not have made the smallest thing in the World otherwise than now it is much less was able to alter any thing According to that of Seneca Eadem Necessitas Deos alligat Irrevocabilis Divina pariter atque Humana cursus vehit Ille ipse omnium Conditor ac Rector scripsit quidem Fata sed sequitur Semper paret semel jussit One and the same Chain of Necessity ties God and Men. The same irrevocable and unalterable Course carries on Divine and Humane things The very Maker and Governour of all things that writ the Fates follows them He did but once command but he always obeys But if there were this further meaning in the Passages before cited that a Necessity without God that was invincible by him did determine his Will to all things this was nothing but a certain Confused and Contradictious Jumble of Atheism and Theism both together or an odd kind of Intimation that however the Name of God be used in compliance with Vulgar Speech and Opinion yet indeed it signifies nothing but Material Necessity and the blind Motion of Matter is really the Highest Numen in the World And here that of Balbus the Stoick in Cicero is opportune Non est Natura Dei Praepotens Excellens siquidem ea subjecta est ei vel Necessitati vel Naturae quâ Coelum Maria Terraeque reguntur Nihil autem est praestantius Deo Nulli igitur est Naturae obediens aut subjectus Deus God would not be the most Powerful and Excellent Being if he were subject to that either Necessity or Nature by which the Heavens Seas and Earth are governed But the Notion of a God implies the most Excellent Being Therefore God is not Obedient or Subject to any Nature IV. And now we think fit here to suggest that however we shall oppose those three Fatalisms before mentioned as so many false Hypotheses of the Mundane System and Oeconomy and endeavour to exclude that severe Tyranness as Epicurus calls it of Universal Necessity reigning over all and to leave some Scope for Contingent Liberty to move up and down in without which neither Rational Creatures can be blame worthy for any thing they do nor God have any Object to display his Justice upon nor indeed be justified in his Providence Yet as we vindicate to God the glory of all Good so we do not quite banish the Notion of Fate neither nor take away all Necessity which is a thing the Clazomenian Philosopher of old was taxed for Affirming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nothing at all was done by Fate but that it was altogether a vain Name And the Sadduceans among the Jews have been noted for the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They take away all Fate and will not allow it to be any thing at all nor to have any Power over Humane Things but put all things entirely into the hands of Mens own Free-Will And some of our own seem to have approached too near to this Extreme attributing perhaps more to the Power of Free-Will than either Religion or Nature will admit But the Hypothesis that we shall recommend as most agreeable to Truth of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Placable Providence of a Deity Essentially Good presiding over all will avoid all Extremes asserting to God the Glory of Good and freeing him from the Blame of Evil and leaving a certain proportionate Contemperation and Commixture of Contingency and Necessity both together in the World As Nature requires a mixture of Motion and Rest without either of which there could be no Generation Which Temper was observed by several of the Ancients as the Pharisaick Sect amongst the Jews who determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That some things and not all were the Effects of Fate but some things were left in Mens own Power and Liberty And also by Plato amongst the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato inserts something of Fate into Humane Lives and Actions and he joyns with it Liberty of Will also He doth indeed suppose Humane Souls to have within themselves the Causes of their own Changes to a Better or Worser State every where declares God to be blameless for their Evils and yet he somewhere makes the three Fatal Sisters notwithstanding Clotho Lachesis and Atropos to be busie about them also For according to the sence of the Ancients Fate is a Servant of Divine Providence in the World and takes place differently upon the different Actings of Free-willed Beings And how Free a thing soever the Will of Man may seem to be to some yet I conceive it to be out of Question that it may contract upon it self such Necessities and Fatalities as it cannot upon a suddain rid it self of at pleasure But whatsoever is said in the Sequel of this Discourse by way of Opposition to that Fatalism of the
and since too have done We see here that Plato expresly asserts a Substance distinct from Body which sometimes he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incorporeal Substance and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible Substance in opposition to the other which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sensible And it is plain to any one that hath had the least acquaintance with Plato's Philosophy that the whole Scope and Drift of it is to raise up mens Minds from Sense to a belief of Incorporeal Things as the most Excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he writes in another place For Incorporeal Things which are the greatest and most excellent things of all are saith he discoverable by Reason only and nothing else And his Subterraneous Cave so famously known and so elegantly described by him where he supposes men tied with their backs towards the Light placed at a great distance from them so that they could not turn about their Heads to it neither and therefore could see nothing but the shadows of certain Substances behind them projected from it which Shadows they concluded to be the only Substances and Realities and when they heard the Sounds made by those Bodies that were betwixt the Light and them or their reverberated Eccho's they imputed them to those shadows which they saw I say all this is a Description of the State of those Men who tak◠Body to be the only Real and Substantial thing in the World and to do all that is done in it and therefore often impute Sense Reason and Understanding to nothing but Blood and Brains in us XX. I might also shew in the next place how Aristotle did not at all dissent from Plato herein he plainly asserting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another Substance beside Sensibles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Substance separable and also actually separated from Sensibles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Immoveable Nature or Essence subject to no Generation or Corruption adding that the Deity was to be sought for here Nay such a Substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hath no Magnitude at all but is Impartible and Indivisible He also blaming Zeno not the Stoick who was Junior to Aristotle but an ancienter Philosopher of that Name for making God to be a Body in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno implicitly affirms God to be a Body whether he mean him to be the whole Corporeal Vniverse or some particular Body for if God were Incorporeal how could he be Spherical nor could he then either Move or Rest being not properly in any Place but if God be a Body then nothing hinders but that he may be moved From which and other Places of Aristotle it is plain enough also that he did suppose Incorporeal Substance to be Unextended and as such not to have Relation to any Place But this is a thing to be disputed afterwards Indeed some learned men conceive Aristotle to have reprehended Zeno without Cause and that Zeno made God to be a Sphear or Spherical in no other sence than Parmenides did in that known Verse of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein he is understood to describe the Divine Eternity However it plainly appears from hence that according to Aristotle's sence God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Incorporeal Substance distinct from the World XXI Now this Doctrine which Plato especially was famous for asserting that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incorporeal Substance and that the Souls of Men were such but principally the Deity Epicurus taking notice of it endeavoured with all his might to confute it arguing sometimes after this manner There can be no Incorporeal God as Plato maintained not only because no man can frame a Conception of an Incorporeal Substance but also because whatsoever is Incorporeal must needs want Sense and Prudence and Pleasure all which things are included in the Notion of God and therefore an Incorporeal Deity is a Contradiction And concerning the Soul of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They who say that the Soul is Incorporeal in any other sence than as that word may be used to signifie a Subtil Body talk Vainly and Foolishly for then it could neither be able to Do nor Suffer any thing It could not Act upon any other thing because it could Touch nothing neither could it Suffer from any thing because it could not be Touch'd by any thing but it would be just like to Vacuum or Empty Space which can neither Do nor Suffer any thing but only yield Bodies a Passage through it From whence it is further evident that this Opinion was professedly maintained by some Philosophers before Epicurus his time XXII But Plato and Aristotle were not the first Inventors of it For it is certain that all those Philosophers who held the Immortality of the Humane Soul and a God distinct from this visible World and so properly the Creator of it and all its parts did really assert Incorporeal Substance For that a Corporeal Soul cannot be in its own Nature Immortal and Incorruptible is plain to every one's Understanding because of its parts being separable from one another and whosoever denies God to be Incorporeal if he make him any thing at all he must needs make him to be either the whole Corporeal World or else a part of it Wherefore if God be neither of these he must then be an Incorporeal Substance Now Plato was not the first who asserted these two things but they were both maintained by many Philosophers before him Pherecydes Syrus and Thales were two of the most ancient Philosophers among the Greeks and it is said of the former of them that by his Lectures and Disputes concerning the Immortality of the Soul he first drew off Pythagoras from another Course of life to the study of Philosophy Pherecydes Syrus saith Cicero Primus dixit animos hominum esse sempiternos And Thales in an Epistle directed to him congratulates his being the First that had designed to write to the Greeks concerning Divine Things which Thales also who was the Head of the Ionick Succession of Philosophers as Pythagoras of the Italick is joyned with Pythagoras and Plato by the Writer De Placitis Philosophorum after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these determined the Soul to be Incorporeal making it to be Naturally Self-moving or Self-active and an Intelligible Substance that is not Sensible Now he that determines the Soul to be Incorporeal must needs hold the Deity to be Incorporeal much more Aquam dixit Thales esse initium rerum saith Cicero Deum autem eam Mentem quae ex aqua cuncta fingeret Thales said that Water was the first Principle of all Corporeal things but that God was that Mind which formed all things out of Water For Thales was a Phoenician by Extraction and accordingly seemed to have received his two Principles from thence Water and the Divine Spirit moving upon the Waters The First whereof is thus
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
That Corporeal things could not be apprehended by us otherwise than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Sense and a kind of Spurious or Bastardly Reason that is that we could have no clear Conceptions of them in our Understanding And for the same reason Plato him-himself distinguisheth betwixt such things as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comprehensible by the Vnderstanding with Reason and those which are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which can only be apprehended by Opinion together with a certain Irrational Sence meaning plainly by the Latter Corporeal and Sensible things And accordingly the Platonists frequently take occasion from hence to enlarge themselves much in the disparagement of Corporeal things as being by Reason of that smallness of Entity that is in them below the Understanding and not having so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence as Generation which indeed is Fine Phancie Wherefore we must either with these Philosophers make Sensible things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether Incomprehensible and Inconceivable by our Humane Understandings though they be able in the mean time clearly to conceive many things of a higher Nature or else we must entertain some kind of favourable Opinion concerning that which is the Ancientest of all Physiologies the Atomical or Mechanical which alone renders Sensible things Intelligible XL. The Second Advantage which this Atomical Physiology seems to have is this That it prepares an easie and clear way for the Demonstration of Incorporeal Substances by setling a Distinct Notion of Body He that will undertake to prove that there is something else in the World besides Body must first determine what Body is for otherwise he will go about to prove that there is something besides He-knows-not-what But now if all Body be made to consist of two Substantial Principles whereof one is Matter devoid of all Form and therefore of Quantity as well as Qualities from whence these Philosophers themselves conclude that it is Incorporeal the other Form which being devoid of all Matter must needs be Incorporeal likewise And thus Stobaeus sets down the joint Doctrine both of Plato and Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the same manner as Form alone separated from Matter is Incorporeal so neither is Matter alone the Form being separated from it Body But there is need of the joint concurrence of both these Matter and Form together to make up the Substance of Body Moreover if to Forms Qualities be likewise superadded of which it is consentaneously also resolved by the Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Qualities are Incorporeal as if they were so many Spirits possessing Bodies I say in this way of Philosophizing the Notions of Body and Spirit Corporeal and Incorporeal are so confounded that it is Impossible to prove any thing at all concerning them Body it self being made Incorporeal and therefore every thing Incorporeal for whatsoever is wholly compounded and made up of Incorporeals must needs be it self also Incorporeal Furthermore according to this Doctrine of Matter Forms and Qualities in Body Life and Vnderstanding may be supposed to be certain Forms or Qualities of Body And then the Souls of men may be nothing else but Blood or Brains endued with the Qualities of Sense and Understanding or else some other more Subtle Sensitive and Rational Matter in us And the like may be said of God himself also That he is nothing but a certain Rational or Intellectual Subtle and Firie Body pervading the whole Universe or else that he is the Form of the whole Corporeal World together with the Matter making up but one Substance Which Conceits have been formerly entertained by the best of those Ancients who were captivated under that dark Infirmity of mind to think that there could be no other Substance besides Body But the ancient Atomical Philosophy setling a distinct Notion of Body that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thing Impenetrably extended which hath nothing belonging to it but Magnitude Figure Site Rest and Motion without any Self-moving Power takes away all Confusion shews clearly how far Body can go where Incorporeal Substance begins as also that there must of necessity be such a Thing in the World Again this discovering not only that the Doctrine of Qualities had its Original from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Absolute Realities in Bodies themselves but also that the Doctrine of Matter and Form Sprung from another Fallacy or Deception of the Mind in taking Logical Notions and our Modes of Conceiving for Modes of Being and Real Entities in things without us It shewing likewise that because there is nothing else clearly intelligible in Body besides Magnitude Figure Site and Motion and their various Conjugations there can be no such Entities of Forms and Qualities really distinct from the Substance of Body makes it evident that Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding can be no Corporeal things but must needs be the Attributes of another kind of Substance distinct from Body XLI We have now clearly proved these two things First that the Physiology of the Ancients before not only Aristotle and Plato but also Democritus and Leucippus was Atomical or Mechanical Secondly that as there is no Inconsistency between the Atomical Physiology and Theology but indeed a Natural Cognation so the Ancient Atomists before Democritus were neither Atheists nor Corporealists but held the Incorporeity and Immortality of Souls together with a Deity distinct from the Corporeal World Wherefore the First and most Ancient Atomists did not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they never endeavoured to make up an Entire Philosophy out of Atomology but the Doctrine of Atoms was to them onely one Part or Member of the whole Philosophick System they joining thereunto the Doctrine of Incorporeal Substance and Theology to make it up complete Accordingly as Aristotle hath declared in his Metaphysicks that the Ancient Philosophy consisted of these two Parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physiology and Theology or Metaphysicks Our Ancient Atomists never went about as the blundering Democritus afterwards did to build up a World out of mere Passive Bulk and Sluggish Matter without any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Active Principles or Incorporeal Powers understanding well that thus they could not have so much as Motion Mechanism or Generation in it the Original of all that Motion that is in Bodies springing from something that is not Body that is from Incorporeal Substance And yet if Local Motion could have been supposed to have risen up or sprung in upon this Dead Lump and Mass of Matter no body knows how and without dependance upon any Incorporeal Being to have Actuated it Fortuitously these Ancient Atomists would still have thought it Impossible for the Corporeal World it self to be made up such as now it is by Fortuitous Mechanism without the Guidance of any higher Principle But they would have concluded
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.
Atheism And though we do not doubt at all but that Plato in his Tenth De Legibus where he attacques Atheism did intend the Confutation as well of the Democritick as the Anaximandrian Atheism yet whether it were because he had no mind to take any notice at all of Democritus who is not so much as once mentioned by him any where or else because he was not so perfectly acquainted with that Atomick way of Physiologizing certain it is that he there describes the Atheistick Hypothesis more according to the Anaximandrian than the Democritick Form For when he represents the Atheistick Generation of Heaven and Earth and all things in them as resulting from the Fortuitous Commixture of Hot and Cold Hard and Soft Moist and Dry Corpuscula this is clearly more agreeable with the Anaximandrian Generation of the World by the Secretion of Inexistent Contrarieties in the Matter than the Democritick Cosmopoeia by the Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms devoid of all manner of Qualities and Forms Some indeed seem to call that Scheme of Atheism that deduces all things from Matter in the way of Qualities and Forms by the name of Peripatetick or Aristotelick Atheism we suppose for this reason because Aristotle Physiologized in that way of Forms and Qualities educing them out of the Power of the Matter But since Aristotle himself cannot be justly Taxed for an Atheist this Form of Atheism ought rather as we conceive to be denominated from Anaximander and called the Anaximandrian Atheism XXV Now the Reasons why Democritus and Leucippus New-modelled Atheism from the Anaximandrian and Hylopathian into the Atomick Form seem to have been chiefly these First because they being well instructed in that Atomick way of Physiologizing were really convinced that it was not only more Ingenious but also more agreeable to Truth the other by Real Qualities and Forms seeming a thing Unintelligible Secondly because they foresaw as Lucretius intimates that the Production of Forms and Qualities out of Nothing and the Corruption of them again into Nothing would prepare an Easie way for mens Belief of a Divine Creation and Annihilation And lastly because as we have already suggested they plainly perceived that these Forms and Qualities of Matter were of a doubtful Nature and therefore as they were sometimes made a shelter for Atheism so they might also prove on the contrary an Asylum for Corporeal Theism in that it might possibly be supposed that either the Matter of the whole World or else the more Subtle and Fiery Part of it was Originally endued with an Understanding Form or Quality and consequently the Whole an Animal or God Wherefore they took another more Effectual Course to secure their Atheism and exclude all Possibility of a Corporeal God by deriving the Original of all things from Atoms devoid of all Forms and Qualities and having nothing in them but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion as the First Principles it following unavoidably from thence that Life and Vnderstanding as well as those other Qualities could be only Accidental and Secundary Results from certain Fortuitous Concretions and Contextures of Atoms so that the World could be made by no Previous Counsel or Understanding and therefore by no Deity XXVI We have here represented Three several Forms of Atheism the Anaximandrian the Democritical and the Stratonical But there is yet another Form of Atheism different from them all to be taken notice of which is such as supposes one kind of Plastick and Spermatick Methodical and Artificial Nature but without any Sense or Conscious Understanding to preside over the whole World and dispose and conserve all things in that Regular Frame in which they are Such a Form of Atheism as this is hinted to us in that doubtful Passage of Seneca's Sive Animal est Mundus for so it ought to be read and not Anima sive Corpus Naturâ Gubernante ut Arbores ut Sata Whether the whole World be an Animal i. e. endued with one Sentient and Rational Life or whether it be only a Body Governed by a certain Plastick and Methodical but Sensless Nature as Trees and other Plants or Vegetables In which words are two several Hypotheses of the Mundane System Sceptically proposed by one who was a Corporealist and took it for granted that all was Body First that the whole World though having nothing but Body in it yet was notwithstanding an Animal as our Humane Bodies are endued with one Sentient or Rational Life and Nature one Soul or Mind governing and ordering the Whole Which Corporeal Cosmo-zoism we do not reckon amongst the Forms of Atheism but rather account it for a kind of Spurious Theism or Theism disguized in a Paganick Dress and not without a Complication of many false apprehensions concerning the Deity in it The Second is that the whole World is no Animal but as it were one Huge Plant or Vegetable a Body endued with one Plastick or Spermatick Nature branching out the whole Orderly and Methodically but without any Understanding or Sense And this must needs be accounted a Form of Atheism because it does not derive the Original of things in the Universe from any clearly Intellectual Principle or Conscious Nature XXVII Now this Form of Atheism which supposes the Whole World there being nothing but Body in it not to be an Animal but only a Great Plant or Vegetable having one Spermatick Form or Plastick Nature which without any Conscious Reason or Understanding orders the whole though it have some nearer Correspondence with that Hylozoick Form of Atheism before described in that it does not suppose Nature to be a mere Fortuitous but a kind of Artificial thing yet it differs from it in this that the Hylozoick supposing all Matter as such to have Life Essentially belonging to it must therefore needs to attribute to every part of Matter or at least every Particular Totum that is one by Continuity a Distinct Plastick Life of its own but acknowledge no one Common Life as ruling over the whole Corporeal Universe and consequently impute the Original of all things as hath been already observed to a certain Mixture of Chance and Plastick or Methodical Nature both together Whereas the Cosmo-plastick Atheism quite excludes Fortune or Chance subjecting all things to the Regular and Orderly Fate of one Plastick or Plantal Nature ruling over the Whole Thus that Philosopher before mentioned concludes that whether the World were an Animal in the Stoical sence or whether it were a mere Plant or Vegetable Ab initio ejus usque ad exitum quicquid facere quicquid pati debeat inclusum est Vt in Semine omnis futuri ratio hominis comprehensa est Et Legem Barbae Canorum nondum natus Infans habet Totius enim Corporis sequentis aetatis in parvo occultoque Lineament a sunt Sic Origo Mundi non magis Solem Lunam Vices Syderum Animalium Ortus quà m quibus mutarentur Terrena continuit In his
This Opinion is further Confuted by that Slow and Gradual Process that is in the Generations of things which would seem to be but a Vain and Idle Pomp or a Trifling Formality if the Agent were Omnipotent as also by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls them those Errors and Bungles which are committed when the Matter is Inept and Contumacious which argue the Agent not to be Irresistible and that Nature is such a thing as is not altogether uncapable as well as Humane Art of being sometimes frustrated and disappointed by the Indisposition of Matter Whereas an Omnipotent Agent as it could dispatch its work in a Moment so it would always do it Infallibly and Irresistibly no Ineptitude or Stubbornness of Matter being ever able to hinder such a one or make him Bungle or Fumble in any thing 5. Wherefore since neither all things are produced Fortuitously or by the Unguided Mechanism of Matter nor God himself may reasonably be thought to do all things Immediately and Miraculously it may well be concluded that there is a Plastick Nature under him which as an Inferior and Subordinate Instrument doth Drudgingly Execute that Part of his Providence which consists in the Regular and Orderly Motion of Matter yet so as that there is also besides this a Higher Providence to be acknowledged which presiding over it doth often supply the Defects of it and sometimes Over-rule it forasmuch as this Plastick Nature cannot act Electively nor with Discretion And by this means the Wisdom of God will not be shut up nor concluded wholly within his own Breast but will display it self abroad and print its Stamps and Signatures every where throughout the World so that God as Plato after Orpheus speaks will be not only the Beginning and End but also the Middle of all things they being as much to be ascribed to his Causality as if himself had done them all Immediately without the concurrent Instrumentality of any Subordinate Natural Cause Notwithstanding which in this way it will appear also to Humane Reason that all things are Disposed and Ordered by the Deity without any Sollicitous Care or Distractious Providence And indeed those Mechanick Theists who rejecting a Plastick Nature affect to concern the Deity as little as is possible in Mundane Affairs either for fear of debasing him and bringing him down to too mean Offices or else of subjecting him to Sollicitous Encumberment and for that Cause would have God to contribute nothing more to the Mundane System and Oeconomy than only the First Impressing of a certain Quantity of Motion upon the Matter and the After-conserving of it according to some General Laws These men I say seem not very well to understand themselves in this Forasmuch as they must of necessity ether suppose these their Laws of Motion to execute themselves or else be forced perpetually to concern the Deity in the Immediate Motion of every Atom of Matter throughout the Universe in order to the Execution and Observation of them The Former of which being a Thing plainly Absurd and Ridiculous and the Latter that which these Philosophers themselves are extremely abhorrent from we cannot make any other Conclusion than this That they do but unskilfully and unawares establish that very Thing which in words they oppose and that their Laws of Nature concerning Motion are Really nothing else but a Plastick Nature acting upon the Matter of the whole Corporeal Universe both Maintaining the Same Quantity of Motion always in it and also Dispensing it by Transferring it out of one Body into another according to such Laws Fatally Imprest upon it Now if there be a Plastick Nature that governs the Motion of Matter every where according to Laws there can be no Reason given why the same might not also extend further to the Regular Disposal of that Matter in the Formation of Plants and Animals and other things in order to that Apt Coherent Frame and Harmony of the whole Universe 6. And as this Plastick Nature is a thing which seems to be in it self most Reasonable so hath it also had the Suffrage of the best Philosophers in all Ages For First it is well known that Aristotle concerns himself in nothing more zealously than this That Mundane things are not Effected merely by the Necessary and Vnguided Motion of Matter or by Fortuitous Mechanism but by such a Nature as acts Regularly and Artificially for Ends yet so as that this Nature is not the Highest Principle neither or the Supreme Numen but Subordinate to a Perfect Mind or Intellect he affirming that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Mind together with Nature was the Cause of this Vniverse and that Heaven and Earth Plants and Animals were framed by them both that is by Mind as the Principal and Directive Cause but by Nature as a Subservient or Executive Instrument and elsewhere joyning in like manner God and Nature both together as when he concludes That God and Nature do nothing in Vain Neither was Aristotle the First Broacher or Inventor of this Doctrine Plato before him having plainly asserted the same For in a Passage already cited he affirms that Nature together with Reason and according to it orders all things thereby making Nature as a Distinct thing from the Deity to be a Subordinate Cause under the Reason and Wisdom of it And elsewhere he resolves that there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain Causes of a Wise and Artificial Nature which the Deity uses as Subservient to it self as also that there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-causes which God makes use of as Subordinately Cooperative with himself Moreover before Plato Empedocles Philosophized also in the same manner when supposing Two Worlds the one Archetypal the other Extypal he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Friendship Discord to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Active Principle and Immediate Operator in this Lower World He not understanding thereby as Plutarch and some others have conceited Two Substantial Principles in the World the one of Good the other of Evil but only a Plastick Nature as Aristotle in sundry places intimates which he called by that name partly because he apprehended that the Result and Upshot of Nature in all Generations and Corruptions amounted to nothing more than Mixtures and Separations or Concretion and Secretion of Preexistent things and partly because this Plastick Nature is that which doth reconcile the Contrarieties and Enmities of Particular things and bring them into one General Harmony in the Whole Which latter is a Notion that Plotinus describing this very Seminary Reason or Plastick Nature of the World though taking it in something a larger sence than we do in this place doth ingeniously pursue after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seminary Reason or Plastick Nature of the Vniverse opposing the Parts to one another and making them severally Indigent produces by that means War and Contention
the World but the Fortuitous Mechanists who exploding Final Causes will not allow Mind and Vnderstanding to have any Influence at all upon the Frame of things can never possibly assign any Cause of this Grand Phaenomenon unless Confusion may be said to be the Cause of Order and Fortune or Chance of Constant Regularity and therefore themselves must resolve it into an Occult Quality Nor indeed does there appear any great reason why such men should assert an Infinite Mind in the World since they do not allow it to act any where at all and therefore must needs make it to be in Vain 8. Now this Plastick Nature being a thing which is not without some Difficulty in the Conception of it we shall here endeavour to do these Two things concerning it First to set down a right Representation thereof and then afterwards to show how extremely the Notion of it hath been Mistaken Perverted and Abused by those Atheists who would make it to be the only God Almighty or First Principle of all things How the Plastick Nature is in general to be conceiv'd Aristotle instructs us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the Naupegical Art that is the Art of the Shipwright were in the Timber it self Operatively and Effectually it would there act just as Nature doth And the Case is the same for all other Arts If the Oecodomical Art which is in the Mind of the Architect were supposed to be transfused into the Stones Bricks and Mortar there acting upon them in such a manner as to make them come together of themselves and range themselves into the Form of a complete Edifice as Amphion was said by his Harp to have made the Stones move and place themselves Orderly of their own accord and so to have built the Walls of Thebes Or if the Musical Art were conceived to be immediately in the Instruments and Strings animating them as a Living Soul and making them to move exactly according to the Laws of Harmony without any External Impulse These and such like Instances in Aristotle's Judgment would be fit Iconisms or Representations of the Plastick Nature That being Art it self acting Immediately upon the Matter as an inward Principle in it To which purpose the same Philosopher adds that this thing might be further illustrated by an other Instance or Resemblence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature may be yet more clearly Resembled to the Medicinal Art when it is imployed by the Physician in curing himself So that the meaning of this Philosopher is that Nature is to be conceived as Art Acting not from without and at a Distance but Immediately upon the thing it self which is Formed by it And thus we have the first General Conception of the Plastick Nature That it is Art it self acting immediately on the Matter as an Inward Principle 9. In the next Place we are to observe that though the Plastick Nature be a kind of Art yet there are some Considerable Preeminences which it hath above Humane Art the First whereof is this That whereas Humane Art cannot act upon the Matter otherwise than from without and at a distance nor communicate it self to it but with a great deal of Tumult and Hurliburly Noise and Clatter it using Hands and Axes Saws and Hammers and after this manner with much ado by Knocking 's and Thrustings slowly introducing its Form or Idea as for Example of a Ship or House into the Materials Nature in the mean time is another kind of Art which Insinuating it self Immediately into things themselves and there acting more Commandingly upon the Matter as an Inward Principle does its Work Easily Cleaverly and Silently Nature is Art as it were Incorporated and Imbodied in matter which doth not act upon it from without Mechanically but from within Vitally and Magically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Here are no Hands nor Feet nor any Instrument Connate or Adventitious there being only need of Matter to work upon and to be brought into a certain Form and Nothing else For it is manifest that the Operation of Nature is different from Mechanism it doing not its Work by Trusion or Pulsion by Knocking 's or Thrustings as if it were without that which it wrought upon But as God is Inward to every thing so Nature Acts Immediately upon the Matter as an Inward and Living Soul or Law in it 10. Another Preeminence of Nature above Humane Art is this That whereas Humane Artists are often to seek and at a loss and therefore Consult and Deliberate as also upon second thoughts mend their former Work Nature on the contrary is never to seek what to do nor at a stand and for that Reason also besides another that will be Suggested afterwards it doth never Consult nor Deliberate Indeed Aristotle Intimates as if this had been the Grand Objection of the old Atheistick Philosophers against the Plastick Nature That because we do not see Natural Bodies to Consult or Deliberate therefore there could be Nothing of Art Counsel or Contrivanee in them but all came to pass Fortuitously But he confutes it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is absurd for Men to think nothing to be done for Ends if they do not see that which moves to consult although Art it self doth not Consult Whence he concludes that Nature may Act Artificially Orderly and Methodically for the sake of Ends though it never Consult or Deliberate Indeed Humane Artists themselves do not Consult properly as they are Artists but when ever they do it it is for want of Art and because they are to seek their Art being Imperfect and Adventitious but Art it self or Perfect Art is never to seek and therefore doth never Consult or Deliberate And Nature is this Art which never hesitates nor studies as unresolved what to do but is always readily prompted nor does it ever repent afterwards of what it hath formerly done or go about as it were upon second thoughts to alter and mend its former Course but it goes on in one Constant Unrepenting Tenor from Generation to Generation because it is the Stamp or Impress of that Infallibly Omniscient Art of the Divine Understanding which is the very Law and Rule of what is Simply the Best in every thing And thus we have seen the Difference between Nature and Humane Art that the Latter is Imperfect Art acting upon the Matter from without and at a Distance but the Former is Art it self or Perfect Art acting as an Inward Principle in it Wherefore when Art is said to imitate Nature the meaning thereof is that Imperfect Humane Art imitates that Perfect Art of Nature which is really no other than the Divine Art it self as before Aristotle Plato had declared in his Sophist in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those things which are said to be done by Nature are indeed done by Divine Art 11. Notwithstanding which we are to take notice in the next place that as Nature
is not the Deity it self but a Thing very remote from it and far below it so neither is it the Divine Art as it is in it self Pure and Abstract but Concrete and Embodied only for the Divine Art considered in it self is nothing but Knowledge Vnderstanding or Wisdom in the Mind of God Now Knowledge and Understanding in its own Nature is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Separate and Abstract thing and of so Subtil and Refined a Nature as that it is not Capable of being Incorporated with Matter or Mingled and Blended with it as the Soul of it And therefore Aristotle's Second Instance which he propounds as most pertinent to Illustrate this business of Nature by namely of the Physicians Art curing himself is not so adequate thereunto because when the Medicinal Art Cures the Physician in whom it is it doth not there Act as Nature that is as Concrete and Embodied Art but as Knowledge and Vnderstanding only which is Art Naked Abstract and Vnbodied as also it doth its Work Ambagiously by the Physician 's Willing and Prescribing to himself the use of such Medicaments as do but conduce by removing of Impediments to help that which is Nature indeed or the Inward Archeus to effect the Cure Art is defined by Aristotle to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reason of the thing without Matter and so the Divine Art or Knowledge in the Mind of God is Vnbodied Reason but Nature is Ratio Mersa Confusa Reason Immersed and Plunged into Matter and as it were Fuddled in it and Confounded with it Nature is not the Divine Art Archetypal but only Ectypal it is a living Stamp or Signature of the Divine Wisdom which though it act exactly according to its Arthetype yet it doth not at all Comprehend nor Understand the Reason of what it self doth And the Difference between these two may be resembled to that between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of the Mind and Conception called Verbum Mentis and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reason of External Speech the Latter of which though it bear a certain Stamp and Impress of the Former upon it yet it self is nothing but Articulate Sound devoid of all Vnderstanding and Sense Or else we may Illustrate this business by another Similitude comparing the Divine Art and Wisdom to an Architect but Nature to a Manuary Opificer the Difference betwixt which two is thus set forth by Aristotle pertinently to our purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We account the Architects in every thing more honourable than the Manuary Opificers because they understand the Reason of the things done whereas the other as some Inanimate things only Do not knowing what they Do the Difference between them being only this that Inanimate Things Act by a certain Nature in them but the Manuary Opificer by Habit. Thus Nature may be called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Manuary Opificer that Acts subserviently under the Architectonical Art and Wisdom of the Divine Understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which does Do without Knowing the Reason of what â—t Doth 12. Wherefore as we did before observe the Preeminences of Nature above Humane Art so we must here take Notice also of the Imperfections and Defects of it in which respect it falls short of Humane Art which are likewise Two and the First of them is this That though it Act Artificially for the sake of Ends yet it self doth neither Intend those Ends nor Vnderstand the Reason of that it doth Nature is not Master of that Consummate Art and Wisdom according to which it acts but only a Servant to it and a Drudging Executioner of the Dictates of it This Difference betwixt Nature and Abstract Art or Wisdom is expressed by Plotinus in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How doth Wisdom differ from that which is called Nature Verily in this Manner That Wisdom is the First Thing but Nature the Last and Lowest for Nature is but an Image or Imitation of Wisdom the Last thing of the Soul which hath the lowest Impress of Reason shining upon it as when a thick piece of Wax is thoroughly impressed upon by a Seal that Impress which is clear and distinct in the superiour Superficies of it will in the lower side be weak and obscure and such is the Stamp and Signature of Nature compared with that of Wisdom and Vnderstanding Nature being a thing which doth only Do but not Know. And elsewhere the same Writer declares the Difference between the Spermatick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reasons and Knowledges or Conceptions of the Mind in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether are these Plastick Reasons or Forms in the Soul Knowledges But how shall it then Act according to those Knowledges For the Plastick Reason or Form Acts or Works in Matter and that which acts Naturally is not Intellection nor Vision but a certain Power of moving Matter which doth not Know but only Do and makes as it were a Stamp or Figure in Water And with this Doctrine of the Ancients a Modern Judicious Writer and Sagacious Inquirer into Nature seems fully to agree that Nature is such a Thing as doth not Know but only Do For after he had admired that Wisdom and Art by which the Bodies of Animals are framed he concludes that one or other of these two things must needs be acknowledged that either the Vegetative or Plastick Power of the Soul by which it Fabricates and Organizes its own body is more Excellent and Divine than the Rational Or else In Naturae Operibus neque Prudentiam nec Intellectum inesse sedita solùm videri Conceptui nostro qui secundùm Artes nostras Facultates seu Exemplaria à nobismetipsis mutuata de rebus Naturae divinis judicamus Quasi Principia Naturae Activa effectus suos eo modo producerent quo nos opera nostra Artificialia solemus That in the Works of Nature there is neither Prudence nor Vnderstanding but only it seems so to our Apprehensions who judge of these Divine things of Nature according to our own Arts and Faculties and Patterns borrowed from our selves as if the Active Principles of Nature did produce their Effects in the same manner as we do our Artificial Works Wherefore we conclude agreeably to the Sence of the best Philosophers both Ancient and Modern That Nature is such a Thing as though it act Artificially and for the sake of Ends yet it doth but Ape and Mimick the Divine Art and Wisdom it self not Understanding those Ends which it Acts for nor the Reason of what it doth in order to them for which Cause also it is not Capable of Consultation or Deliberation nor can it Act Electively or with Discretion 13. But because this may seem strange at the first sight that Nature should be said to Act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sake of Ends and Regularly or Artificially and yet be
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
and Diligent Inquirer into Nature before commended resolves Natura tanquam Fato quodam seu Mandato secundùm Leges operante movet Nature moveth as it were by a kind of Fate or Command acting according to Laws Fate and the Laws or Commands of the Deity concerning the Mundane Oeconomy they being really the same thing ought not to be looked upon neither as Verbal things nor as mere Will and Cogitation in the Mind of God but as an Energetical and Effectual Principle constituted by the Deity for the bringing of things decreed to pass The Aphrodisian Philosopher with others of the Ancients have concluded that Fate and Nature are but two different Names for one and the same thing and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both that which is done Fatally is done Naturally and also whatever is done Naturally is done Fatally but that which we assert in this place is only this that the Plastick Nature may be said to be the True and Proper Fate of Matter or the Corporeal World Now that which acts not by any Knowledge or Fancy Will or Appetite of its own but only Fatally according to Laws and Impresses made upon it but differently in different Cases may be said also to act Magically and Sympathetically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The true Magick is the Friendship and Discord that is in the Vniverse and again Magick is said to be founded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Sympathy and Variety of diverse Powers conspiring together into one Animal Of which Passages though the Principal meaning seem to be this that the ground of Magical Fascination is one Vital Vnitive Principle in the Universe yet they imply also that there is a certain Vital Energy not in the way of Knowledge and Fancy Will and Animal Appetite but Fatally Sympathetical and Magical As indeed that Mutual Sympathy which we have constant Expâ—rience of betwixt our Soul and our Body being not a Material and Mechanical but Vital thing may be called also Magical 19. From what hath been hitherto declared concerning the Plastick Nature it may appear That though it be a thing that acts for Ends Artificially and which may be also called the Divine Art and the Fate of the Corporeal World yet for all that it is neither God nor Goddess but a Low and Imperfect Creature Forasmuch as it is not Master of that Reason and Wisdom according to which it acts nor does it properly Intend those Ends which it acts for nor indeed is it Expresly Conscious of what it doth it not Knowing but only Doing according to Commands Laws imprest upon it Neither of which things ought to seem strange or incredible since Nature may as well act Regularly and Artificially without any Knowledge and Consciousness of its own as Forms of Letters compounded together may Print Coherent Philosophick Sence though they understand nothing at all and it may also act for the sake of those Ends that are not intended by it self but some Higher Being as well as the Saw or Hatchet in the hand of the Architect or Mechanick doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ax cuts for the sake of something though it self does not ratiocinate nor intend or design any thing but is only subservient to that which does so It is true that our Humane Actions are not governed by such exact Reason Art and Wisdom nor carried on with such Constancy Eavenness and Uniformity as the Actions of Nature are notwithstanding which since we act according to a Knowledge of our own and are Masters of that Wisdom by which our Actions are directed since we do not act Fatally only but Electively and Intendingly with Consciousness and Self-perception the Rational Life that is in us ought to be accompted a much Higher and more Noble Perfection than that Plastick Life of Nature Nay this Plastick Nature is so far from being the First and Highest Life that it is indeed the Last and Lowest of all Lives it being really the same thing with the Vegetative which is Inferiour to the Sensitive The difference betwixt Nature and Wisdom was before observed that Wisdom is the First and Highest thing but Nature the Last and Lowest this latter being but an Umbratile Imitation of the former And to this purpose this Plastick Nature is further described by the same Philosopher in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spermatick Reason or Plastick Nature is no pure Mind or perfect Intellect nor any kind of pure Soul neither but something which depends upon it being as it were an Effulgency or Eradiation from both together Mind and Soul or Soul affected according to Mind generating the same as a Lower kind of Life And though this Plastick Nature contain no small part of Divine Providence in it yet since it is a thing that cannot act Electively nor with Discretion it must needs be granted that there is a Higher and Diviner Providence than this which also presides over the Corporeal World it self which was a thing likewise insisted upon by that Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The things in the world are not administred merely by Spermatick Reasons but by Perileptick that is Comprehensive Intellectual Reasons which are in order of Nature before the other because in the Spermatick Reasons cannot be contained that which is contrary to them c. Where though this Philosopher may extend his Spermatick Reasons further than we do our Plastick Nature in this place which is only confined to the Motions of Matter yet he concludes that there is a higher Principle presiding over the Universe than this So that it is not Ratio mersa confusa a Reason drowned in Matter and confounded with it which is the Supreme Governour of the World but a Providence perfectly Intellectual Abstract and Released 20. But though the Plastick Nature be the Lowest of all Lives nevertheless since it is a Life it must needs be Incorporeal all Life being such For Body being nothing but Antitypous Extension or Resisting Bulk nothing but mere Outside Aliud extra Aliud together with Passive Capability hath no Internal Energy Self-activity or Life belonging to it it is not able so much as to Move it self and therefore much less can it Artificially direct its own Motion Moreover in the Efformation of the Bodies of Animals it is One and the self-same thing that directs the Whole that which Contrives and Frames the Eye cannot be a distinct thing from that which Frames the Ear nor that which makes the Hand from that which makes the Foot the same thing which delineates the Veins must also form the Arteries and that which fabricates the Nerves must also project the Muscles and Joynts it must be the same thing that designs and Organizes the Heart and Brain with such Communications betwixt them One and the self-same thing must needs have in it the entire Idea and the complete Model or Platform of the whole Organick Body For the
those Atheistick Arguments and so stand upon our defensive Posture but we shall also assault Atheism even with its own Weapons and plainly demonstrate that all Forms of Atheism are unintelligible Nonsence and Absolute Impossibility to Humane Reason As we shall likewise over and above Occasionally insert some as we think Undeniable Arguments for a Deity The Digression concerning the Plastick Life of Nature or an Artificial Orderly and Methodical Nature N. 37. Chap. 3. 1. That neither the Hylozoick nor Cosmo-plastick Atheists are condemned for asserting an Orderly and Artificial Plastick Nature as a Life distinct from the Animal however this be a Thing exploded not only by the Atomick Atheists but also by some Professed Theists who notwithstanding might have an undiscerned Tang of the Mechanically-Atheistick Humour hanging about them 2. If there be no Plastick Artificial Nature admitted then it must be concluded that either all things come to pass by Fortuitous Mechanism and Material Necessity the Motion of Matter unguided or else that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do all things himself Immediately and Miraculously framing the Body of every Gnat and Fly as it were with his own hands since Divine Laws and Commands cannot Execute themselves nor be the proper Efficient Causes of things in Nature 3. To suppose all things to come to pass Fortuitously or by the Vnguided Motion of Matter a thing altogether as Irrational as it is Atheistical and Impious there being many Phaenomena not only above the Powers of Mechanism but also contrary to the Laws of it The Mechanick Theists make God but an Idle Spectator of the Fortuitous Motions of Matter and render his Wisdom altogether Vseless and Insignificant Aristotle's Judicious Censure of the Fortuitous Mechanists with the Ridiculousness of that Pretence that Material and Mechanical Reasons are the Only Philosophical 4. That it seems neither decorous in respect of God nor congruous to Reason that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do all things himself Immediately and Miraculously Nature being quite Superseded and made to signifie nothing The same further confuted by the Slow and Gradual Process of things in Nature as also by those Errors and Bungles that are committed when the Matter proves Inept and Contumacious arguing the Agent not to be Irresistible 5. Reasonably inferred that there is a Plastick Nature in the Vniverse as a Subordinate Instrument of Divine Providence in the Orderly Disposal of Matter but yet so as not without a Higher Providence presiding over it forasmuch as this Plastick Nature cannot act Electively or with Discretion Those Laws of Nature concerning Motion which the Mechanick Theists themselves suppose really nothing else but a Plastick Nature 6. The Agreeableness of this Doctrine with the Sentiments of the best Philosophers in all Ages Aristotle Plato Empedocles Heraclitus Hippocrates Zeno and the Paracelsians Anaxagoras though a Professed Theist severely censur'd both by Aristotle and Plato as an Encourager of Atheism merely because he used Material and Mechanical Causes more than Mental and Final Physiologers and Astronomers why vulgarly suspected of Atheism in Plato's time 7. The Plastick Nature no Occult Quality but the only Intelligible Cause of that which is the Grandest of all Phaenomena the Orderly Regularity and Harmony of Things which the Mechanick Theists however pretending to salve all Phaenomena can give no accompt at all of A God or Infinite Mind asserted by them in vain and to no purpose 8. Two Things here to be performed by us First to give an Accompt of the Plastick Nature and then to shew how the Notion of it hath been Mistaken and Abused by Atheists The First General Accompt of this Plastick Nature according to Aristotle that it is to be conceived as Art it self acting Inwardly and Immediately upon the Matter as if Harmony Living in the Musical Instruments should move the Strings of them without any External Impulse 9. Two Preeminencies of the Plastick Nature above Humane Art First that whereas Humane Art acts upon the Matter from without Cumbersomely and Moliminously with Tumult and Hurliburly Nature acting on it from within more Commandingly doth its Work Easily Cleaverly and Silently Humane Art acts on the Matter Mechanically but Nature Vitally and Magically 10. The Second Preeminence of Nature above Humane Art that whereas Humane Artists are often to seek and at a loss anxiously Consult and Deliberate and upon Second thoughts Mend their former Work Nature is never to seek nor Vnresolved what to do nor doth she ever Repent afterwards of what she hath done changing her Former Course Humane Artists themselves Consult not as Artists but only for want of Art and therefore Nature though never Consulting may act Artificially Concluded that what is called Nature is really the Divine Art 11. Nevertheless that Nature is not the Divine Art Pure and Abstract but Concreted and Embodied in Matter Ratio Mersa Confusa Not the Divine Art Archetypal but Ectypal Nature differs from the Divine Art as the Manuary Opificer from the Architect 12. Two Imperfections of the Plastick Nature in respect whereof it falls short even of Humane Art First That though it act for Ends Artificially yet it self neither Intends those Ends nor Vnderstands the Reason of what it doth and therefore cannot act Electively The Difference between the Spermatick Reasons and Knowledge Nature doth but Ape or Mimick the Divine Art or Wisdom being not Master of that Reason according to which it acts but only a Servant to it and Drudging Executioner of it 13. Proved that there may be such a thing as acts Artificially though it self do not comprehend that Art by which its Motions are Governed First from Musical Habits The Dauncer resembles the Artificial Life of Nature 14. The same further evinced from the Instincts of Brute-animals directing them to act Rationally and Artificially in order to their own Good and the Good of the Vniverse without any Reason of their own The Instincts in Brutes but Passive Impresses of the Divine Wisdom and a kind of Fate upon them 15. The Second Imperfection of the Plastick Nature that it acts without Animal Phancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Express Con-sense and Consciousness and is devoid of Self-perception and Self-enjoyment 16. Whether this Energy of the Plastick Nature be to be called Cogitation or no but a Logomachy or Contention about Words Granted that what moves Matter Vitally must needs do it by some Energy of its own distinct from Local Motion but that there may be a simple Vital Energy without that Duplicity which is in Synaesthesis or clear and express Consciousness Nevertheless that the Energy of Nature might be called a certain Drowsie Vnawakened or Astonish'd Cogitation 17. Instances which render it probable that there may be a Vital Energy without Synaesthesis clear and express Con-sense or Consciousness 18. The Plastick Nature acting neither Knowingly nor Phantastically acts Fatally Magically and Sympathetically The Divine Laws and Fate as to Matter not mere Cogitation in the Mind of
to Inferiour Created Beings First that this Honour which is bestowed upon them does ultimately redound to the Supreme God and aggrandize his State and Majesty they being all his Ministers and Attendants 49. That as Daemons are Mediatours betwixt the Celestial Gods and Men so those Celestial Gods and all the other Inferiour Deities are themselves also Mediatours betwixt Men and the Supreme God and as it were Convenient steps by which we ought with Reverence to approach him 50. That there is an Honour in Justice due to all those excellent Beings that are above us and that the Pagans do but honour every thing as they ought in that due rank and place in which the Supreme God hath set it 51. That Daemons or Angels being appointed to preside over Kingdoms Cities and Persons and the several parts of the Corporeal Vniverse and being many ways Benefactors to us Thanks ought to be returned to them by Sacrifice 52. That the Inferiour Gods Demons and Heroes being all of them able to do us either Good or Hurt and being also Irascible and therefore Provokable by our neglect of them it is as well our Interest as our Duty to Pacifie and Appease them by Worship 53. Lastly that it cannot be thought that the Supreme God will envy those Inferiour Gods that Worship or Honour which is bestowed upon them nor suspected that any of those Inferiour Deities will Factiously go about to set up themselves against the Supreme God 54. That many of the Pagans worshiped none but Good Daemons and that those of them who worshipped Evil ones did it only in order to their Appeasment and Mitigation that so they might do them no hurt None but Magicians to be accompted properly Devil-Worshippers who honour Evil Daemons in order to the gratification of their Revenge Lust and Ambition 55. The Pagans plead that those Daemons who delivered Oracles and did Miracles amongst them must needs be Good since there cannot be a greater reproach to the Supreme God than to suppose him to appoint Evil Daemons as Presidents and Governours over the World or to suffer them to have so great a sway and share of Power in it The Faith of Plato in Divine Providence that the Good every where prevails over the Bad and that the Delphick Apollo was therefore a Good Daemon 56. The Pagans Apology for Worshipping the Supreme God in Images Statues and Symbols That these are only Schetically Worshipped by them the Honour passing from them to the Prototype And that since we living in Bodies cannot easily have a Conception of any thing without some Corporeal Image or Phantasm thus much must be indulged to the Infirmity of Humane Nature at least in the Vulgar to Worship God Corporeally in Images to prevent their running to Atheism 57. That though it should appear by this Apology of the Pagans that their Case were not altogether so Bad as is commonly supposed yet they cannot be Justified thereby in the Three Particulars above mentioned but the Scripture-Condemnation of them is Irrefragable That knowing God they did not Glorifie him as God or Sanctifie his Name that is Worship him according to his Vncommon and Incommunicable his Peerless and Insociable Transcendent and Singular Incomparable and Vnresembleable Nature but mingled some way or other Creature-worship with the Worship of the Creatour First that the Worshipping of One God in his Various Gifts and Effects under several personal Names a thing in it self absurd may also prove a great occasion of Atheism when the things themselves come to be called by those Names as Wine Bacchus Corn Ceres The Conclusion easily following from thence that the Good things of Nature are the only Deities But to Worship the Corporeal World it self Animated as the Supreme God and the Parts of it as the Members of God plainly to Confound God with the Creature and not to Glorifie him as Creatour nor according to his Separate and Spiritual Nature 58. To give Religious Worship to Daemons or Angels Heroes or Saints or any other Intellectual Creatures though not honouring them equally with the Supreme God is to deny God the Honour of his Holiness his Singular Insociable and Incommunicable Nature as he is the only Self-originated Being and the Creator of all Of whom Through Whom and To Whom are all things As God is such a Being that there is nothing Like him so ought the Worship which is given him to be such as hath nothing Like to it A Singular Separate and Incommunicate Worship They not to be Religiously Worshipped that Worship 59. That the Religious Worship of Created Spirits proceeded chiefly from a Fear that if they were not worshipped they would be provoked and do hurt which is both highly Injurious to Good Spirits and a Distrust of the Sufficiency of God's Power to protect his Worshippers That all Good Spirits Vninvok'd are of themselves officiously ready to assist those who sincerely Worship and Propitiate the Supreme Deity and therefore no need of the Religious Worship of them which would be also Offensive to them 60. That Mens praying to Images and Statues is much more Ridiculous than Childrens talking to Babies made of Clouts but not so Innocent they thereby Debasing both themselves and God not Glorifying him according to his Spiritual and Vnresembleable Nature but changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Likeness of Corruptible Man or Beast 61. The Mistake of those who think none can be guilty of Idolatry that believe One God the Maker of the World 62. That from the same ground of Reason That nothing ought to be Religiously Worshipped besides the Supreme God or whom he appoints to represent himself because he ought to be Sanctified and dealt withal according to his Singular Nature as unlike to every thing it follows contrary to the Opinion of some Opposers of Idolatry that there ought also to be a Discrimination made between things Sacred and Prophane and Reverence used in Divine Worship Idolatry and Sacrilege allied 63. Another Scripture-Charge upon the Pagans that they were Devil-worshippers not as though they intended all their Worship to Evil Daemons or Devils as such but because their Polytheism and Idolatry unacceptable to God and Good Spirits was promoted by Evil Spirits delivering Oracles and doing Miracles for the Confirmation of it they also insinuating themselves into the Temples and Statues therefore the Worship was look'd upon as done to them The same thing said of others besides Pagans that they Worshipped Devils 64. Proved that they were Evil Daemons who delivered Oracles and did Miracles amongst the Pagans for the carrying on of that Religion from the many Obscene Rites and Mysteries not only not prohibited but also injoyned by them 65. The same thing further proved from other cruel and bloody Rites but especially that of Man Sacrifices Plutarch's Clear Acknowledgement that both the Obscene Rites and Man-Sacrifices amongst the Pagans owed their Original to Wicked Daemons 66. That the God of Israel neither required nor accepted
also inserted into their Almanacks or Ephemerides together with the times of their Risings and Settings and the Prognosticks or significations of future Events from them For he observed that those Egyptians who made the Sun the Demiurgus or Architect of the World interpreted the Stories of Isis and Osiris and all those other Religious Fables into nothing but Stars and Planets and the River Nile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and referred all things universally into Natural or Inanimate nothing into Incorporeal and Living Substances Which Passage of Porphyrius concerning Chaeremon we confess Eusebius lays great stress upon endeavouring to make advantage of it first against the Egyptians and then against the Greeks and other Pagans as deriving their Religion and Theology from them It is manifest from hence saith he that the very Arcane Theology of the Egyptians Deified nothing but Stars and Planets and acknowledged no Incorporeal Principle or Demiurgick Reason as the Cause of this Vniverse but only the Visible Sun And then he concludes in this manner See now what is become of this Arcane Theology of the Egyptians that deifies nothing but sensless Matter or Dead Inanimate Bodies But it is well known that Eusebius took all advantages possible to represent the Pagans to the worst and render their Theology ridiculous and absurd nevertheless what he here urgeth against the Egyptians is the less valuable because himself plainly contradicts it elsewhere declaring that the Egyptians acknowledged a Demiurgick Reason and Intellectual Architect of the World which consequently was the Maker of the Sun and confessing the same of the other Pagans also Now to affirm that the Egyptians acknowledged no other Deity than Inanimate Matter and the Sensless Corporeal World is not only to deny that they had any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Arcane Theology at all which yet hath been sufficiently proved but also to render them absolute Atheists For if this be not Atheism to acknowledge no other Deity besides Dead and Sensless Matter then the word hath no signification Chaeremon indeed seems to impute this Opinion not to all the Egyptians but to some of them and it is very possible that there might be some Atheists amongst the Egyptians also as well as amongst the Greeks and their Philosophers And doubtless this Chaeremon himself was a kind of Astrological Atheist for which cause we conclude that it was not Chaeremon the Stoick from whom notwithstanding Porphyrius in his Book of Abstinence citeth certain other things concerning the Egyptians but either that Chaeremon whom Strabo made use of in Egypt or else some other of that name But that there ever was or can be any such Religious Atheists as Eusebius with some others imagine who though acknowledging no Deity besides Dead and Sensless Matter notwithstanding devoutly court and worship the same constantly invoking it and imploring its assistance as expecting great Benefit to themselves thereby This we confess is such a thing as that we have not Faith enough to believe it being a sottishness and contradictious Non-sence that is not incident to humane Nature Neither can we doubt but that all the devout Pagans acknowledged some Living and Vnderstanding Deities or other nor easily believe that they ever Worshipped any Inanimate or Sensless Bodies otherwise than as some way referring to the same or as Images and Symbols of them But as for that Passage in Porphyrius his Epistle concerning Chaeremon where he only propounds doubts to Anebo the Egyptian Priest as desiring further Information from him concerning them Jamblichus hath given us a full answer to it under the person of Abammo another Egyptian Priest which notwithstanding hath not hitherto been at all taken notice of because Ficinus and Scutellius not understanding the word Chaeremon to be a Proper name ridiculously turn'd it in their Translations Optarem and Gauderem thereby also perverting the whole sence The words in the Greek MS. now in the hands of my Learned Friend Mr. Gale run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Chaeremon and those others who pretend to write of the first Causes of the World declare only the Last and Lowest Principles as likewise they who treat of the Planets the Zodiack the Decans the Horoscopes and the Robust Princes And those things that are in the Egyptian Almanacks or Ephemerides contain the least part of the Hermaical Institutions namely the Phases and Occultations of the Stars the Increase and Decrease of the Moon and the like Astrological Matters which things have the lowest place in the Egyptian Aetiology Nor do the Egyptians resolve all things into Sensles Nature but they distinguish both the Life of the Soul and the Intellectual Life from that of Nature and that not only in our selves but also in the Vniverse they determining Mind and Reason first to have existed of themselves and so this whole World to have been made Wherefore they acknowledge before the Heaven and in the Heaven a Living Power and place pure Mind above the World as the Demiurgus and Architect thereof From which Testimony of Jamblichus who was but little Juniour to Porphyrius and Contemporary with Eusebius and who had made it his business to inform himself thoroughly concerning the Theology of the Egyptians it plainly appears that the Egyptians did not generally suppose as Chaeremon pretended concerning some of them a Sensless Inanimate Nature to be the first Original of all things but that as well in the World as in our selves they acknowledged Soul superiour to Nature and Mind or Intellect superiour to Soul this being the Demiurgus of the World But we shall have afterwards occasion more opportunely to cite other Passages out of this Jamblichus his Egyptian Mysteries to the same purpose Wherefore there is no pretense at all to suspect that the Egyptians were universally Atheists and Anarchists such as supposed no Living Understanding Deity but resolved all into Sensless Matter as the first and highest Principle But all the question is whether they were not Polyarchists such as asserted a Multitude of Understanding Deities Self-existent or Unmade Now that Monarchy was an essential part of the Arcane and True Theology of the Egyptians A. Steuchus Eugubinus and many other learned men have thought to be unquestionably evident from the Hermetick or Trismegistick Writings they taking it for granted that these are all genuine and sincere Whereas there is too much cause to suspect that there have been some Pious Frauds practised upon these Trismegistick Writings as well as there were upon the Sibylline and that either whole Books of them have been counterfeited by pretended Christians or at least several spurious and supposititious Passages here and there inserted into some of them Isaac Casaubon who was the first Discoverer has taken notice of many such in that first Hermetick Book entituled Paemander some also in the Fourth Book inscribed Crater and some in the Thirteenth call'd the Sermon in the Mount concerning Regeneration which may justly render those Three whole Books or at least
also of Xenophanes with them both concerning the Deity is well declared by Simplicius after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perhaps it will not be improper for us to digress a little here and to gratifie the studious and inquisitive Reader by showing how those Ancient Philosophers though seeming to dissent in their Opinions concerning the Principles did notwithstanding harmoniously agree together As first of all they who discoursed concerning the Intelligible and First Principle of All Xenophanes Parmenides and Melissus of whom Parmenides called it One Finite and Determined because as Vnity must needs exist before Multitude so that which is to all things the cause of Measure bound and Determination ought rather to be described by Measure and Finitude than Infinity as also that which is every way perfect and hath attained its own end or rather is the end of all things as it was the beginning must needs be of a Determinate Nature for that which is imperfect and therefore indigent hath not yet attained its Term or Measure But Melissus though considering the Immutability of the Deity likewise yet attending to the Inexhaustible perfection of its Essence the Vnlimitedness and Vnboundedness of its Power declareth it to be Infinite as well as Ingenit or Vnmade Moreover Xenophanes looking upon the Deity as the Cause of All things and above All things placed it above Motion and Rest and all those Antitheses of Inferiour Beings as Plato likewise doth in the first Hypothesis of his Parmenides whereas Parmenides and Melissus attending to its Stability and constant Immutability and its being perhaps above Energy and Power praised it as Immovable From which of Simplicius it is plain that Parmenides when he called God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Finite and Determined was far from meaning any such thing thereby as if he were a Corporeal Being of Finite Dimensions as some have ignorantly supposed or as if he were any way limited as to Power and Perfection but he understood it in that sence in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken by Plato as opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for the Greatest Perfection and as God is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Term and Measure of All Things But Melissus calling God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infinite in the sence before declared as thereby to signifie his Inexhaustible Power and Perfection his Eternity and Incorruptibility doth therein more agree with our present Theology and the now received manner of speaking We have the rather produced all this to shew how Curious the ancient Philosophers were in their Enquiries after God and how exact in their Descriptions of him Wherefore however Anaximanders Infinite were nothing but Eternal Sensless Matter though called by him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divinest thing of all yet Melissus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infinite was the true Deity With Parmenides and Melissus fully agreed Zeno Eleates also Parmenides his Scholar that One Immovable was All or the Original of All things he meaning thereby nothing else but the Supreme Deity For though it be true that this Zeno did excogitate certain Arguments against the Local Motion of Bodies proceeding upon that Hypothesis of the Infinite Divisibility of Body one of which was famously known by that name of Achilles because it pretended to prove that it was impossible upon that Hypothesis for the Swift-footed Achilles ever to overtake the creeping Snail which Arguments of his whether or no they are well answered by Aristotle is not here to our purpose to enquire yet all this was nothing else but Lusus Ingenii a sportful exercise of Zeno's Wit he being a subtil Logician and Disputant or perhaps an Endeavour also to show how puzling and perplexing to humane Understanding the conception even of the most vulgar and confessed Phaenomena of Nature may be For that Zeno Eleates by his One Immovable that was All meant not the Corporeal World no more than Melissus Parmenides and Xenophanes is evident from Aristotle writing thus concerning him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno by his one Ens which neither was moved nor moveable meaneth God Moreover the same Aristotle informs us that this Zeno endeavoured to Demonstrate that there was but One God from that Idea which all men have of him as that which is the Best the Supreme and most Powerful of all or as an absolutely Perfect Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God be the Best of All things then he must needs be One. Which Argument was thus pursued by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is God and the Power of God to prevail conquer and rule over all Wherefore by how much any thing falls short of the Best by so much does it fall short of being God Now if there be supposed more such Beings whereof some are Better some worse those could not be all Gods because it is Essential to God not to be transcended by any but if they be conceived to be so many Equal Gods then would it not be the nature of God to be the Best one Equal being neither better nor worse than another Wherefore if there be a God and this be the nature of him then can there be but One. And indeed otherwise he could not be able to do whatever he would Empedocles is said to have been an Emulator of Parmenides also which must be understood of his Metaphysicks because in his Physiology which was Atomical he seems to have transcended him Now that Empedocles acknowledged One Supreme and Universal Numen and that Incorporeal too may be concluded from what hath been already cited out of his Philosophick Poems Besides which the Writer De Mundo who though not Aristotle yet was a Pagan of good antiquity clearly affirmeth that Empedocles derived all things whatsoever from One Supreme Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All the things that are upon the Earth and in the Air and Water may truly be called the works of God who ruleth over the World Out of whom according to the Physical Empedocles proceed all things that were are and shall be viz. Plants Men Beasts and Gods Which notwithstanding we conceive to be rather true as to Empedocles his sence than his words he affirming as it seems in that cited place that all these things were made not immediately out of God but out of Contention and Friendship because Simplicius who was furnished with a Copy of Empedocles his Poems twice brings in that cited Passage of his in this connexion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things are divided and segregated by Contention but joyned together by Friendship from which Two Contention and Friendship all that was is and shall be proceeds as trees men and women beasts birds and fishes and last of all the long lived and honourable Gods
Wherefore the sence of Empedocles his words here was this that the whole created World together with all things belonging to it viz. Plants Beasts Men and Gods was made from Contention and Friendship Nevertheless since according to Empedocles Contention and Friendship did themselves depend also upon one Supreme Deity which he with Parmenides and Xenophanes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Very One the Writer De Mundo might well conclude that according to Empedocles all things whatsoever and not only men but Gods were derived from One Supreme Deity And that this was indeed Empedocles his sence appears plainly from Aristotle in his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Empedocles makes Contention to be a certain Principle of Corruption and Generation Nevertheless he seems to generate this Contention it self also from the Very One that is from the Supreme Deity For all things according to him are from this Contention God only excepted he writing after this manner From which that is Contention and Friendship all the things that have been are and shall be Plants Beasts Men and Gods derived their Original For Empedocles it seems supposed that were it not for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discord or Contention all things would be One So that according to him all things whatsoever proceded from Contention or Discord together with a mixture of Friendship save only the Supreme God who hath therefore no Contention at all in him because he is Essentially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnity it self and Friendship From whence Aristotle takes occasion to quarrel with Empedocles as if it would follow from his Principles that the Supreme and most Happy God was the Least wise of all as being not able to know any thing besides himself or in the World without him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This therefore happens to Empedocles that according to his Principles the most Happy God is the least Wise of all other things for he cannot know the Elements because he hath no Contention in him all Knowledge being by that which is like himself writing thus We know Earth by Earth Water by Water Air by Air and Fire by Fire Friendship by Friendship and Contention by Contention But to let this pass Empedocles here making the Gods themselves to be derived from Contention and Friendship the Supreme Deity or most Happy God only excepted who hath no Contention in him and from whom Contention and Friendship themselves were derived plainly acknowledged both One Unmade Deity the Original of all things under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very One and many other Inferiour Gods generated or produced by him they being Juniors to Contention or Discord as this was also Junior to Vnity the First and Supreme Deity Which Gods of Empedocles that were begotten from Contention as well as Men and other things were doubtless the Stars and Demons Moreover we may here observe that according to Empedocles his Doctrine the true Original of all the Evil both of Humane Souls and Demons which he supposed alike Lapsable was derived from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discord and Contention that is necessarily contained in the Nature of them together with the the Ill Use of their Liberty both in this Present and their Pre-existent State So that Empedocles here trode in the footsteps of Pythagoras whose Praises he thus loudly sang forth in his Poems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Horum de numero quidam praestantia norat Plurima Mentis Opes Amplas sub pectore servans Omnia Vestigans Sapientum Docta Reperta c. XXII Before we come to Socrates and Plato we shall here take notice of some other Pythagoreans and Eminent Philosophers who clearly asserted One Supreme and Vniversal Numen though doubtless acknowledging withal Other Inferiour Gods Philo in his Book De Mundi Opificio writing of the Hebdomad or Septenary Number and observing that according to the Pythagoreans it was called both a Motherless and Virgin Number because it was the only number within the Decad which was neither Generated nor did it self Generate tells us that therefore it was made by them a Symbol of the Supreme Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans likened this Number to the Prince and Governour of All Things or the Supreme Monarch of the Vniverse as thinking it to bear a resemblance of his Immutability which Phancy of theirs was before taken notice of by us However Philo hereupon occasionally cites this Remarkable Testimony of Philolaus the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith he is the Prince and Ruler over all alwayes One Stable Immovable Like to himself but Vnlike to every thing else To which may be added what in Stobaeus is further recorded out of the same Philolaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This World was from Eternity and will remain to Eternity One governed by One which is Cognate and the Best Where notwithstanding he seemeth with Ocellus to maintain the Worlds Pre-eternity And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore said Philolaus the World might well be called the Eternal Energy or Effect of God and of Successive Generation Jamblichus in his Protrepticks cites a Passage out of Archytas another Pythagorean to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever is able to reduce all kinds of things under One and the same Principle this man seems to me to have found out an excellent Specula or high Station from whence he may be able to take a Large View and Prospect of God and of all other things and he shall clearly perceive that God is the Beginning and End and Middle of All things that are performed according to Justice and Right Reason Upon which words of Archytas Jamblichus thus glosseth Archytas here declares the End of all Theological Speculation to be this not to rest in Many Principles but to reduce all things under One and the same Head Adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this knowledge of the first Vnity the Original of All things is the end of all Contemplation Moreover Stobaeus cites this out of Archytas his Book of Principles viz. That besides Matter and Form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There is another more necessary cause which Moving brings the Form to the Matter and that this is the First and most Powerful Cause which is fitly called God So that there are Three Principles God Matter and Form God the Artificer and Mover and Matter that which is moved and Form the Art introduced into the Matter In which same Stobean Excerption it also follows afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there must be something better than Mind and that this thing better than Mind is that which we properly call God Ocellus also in the same Stobaeus thus writeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life contains the bodies of Animals the Cause of which
is common or the same to them both to the Ruler and them that are Ruled but they that are ruled could not orderly conspire and agree together into one work were they destitute of a Leader as the Singers and Dancers could not conspire together into one Dance and Harmony were they destitute of a Coryphaeus nor Soldiers make up one orderly Army were they without a Captain or Commander And as the Supreme God is here called by Onatus the Coryphaeus of the Gods so is he in like manner by the Writer De Mundo stiled the Coryphaeus of the World or the Praecentor and Presultor of it in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in a Chorus when the Coryphaeus or Precentor hath begun the whole Quire compounded of men and sometimes of women too followeth singing every one their part some in higher and some in lower notes but all mingling together into one complete Harmony so in the world God as the Coryphaeus the Praecentor and Praesultor beginning the Dance and Musick the Stars and Heavens move round after him according to those numbers and measures which he prescribes them all together making up one most excellent Harmony It was also before observed that Ecphantus the Pythagorean and Archelaus the Successor of Anaxagoras who were both of them Atomists in their Physiology did assert the World to have been Made at First and still to be governed by One Divine Mind which is more than some Atomists of ours in this present age who notwithstanding pretend to be very good Theists will acknowledge We shall in the next place mention Euclides Megarensis the Head of that Sect called Megarick and who is said to have been Plato's Master for some time after Socrates his death whose Doctrine is thus set down by Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which we understand thus That Euclides who followed Xenophanes and Parmenides made the First Principle of all things to be One the very Good called sometimes Wisdom sometimes God sometimes Mind and sometimes by other Names but that he took away all that is Opposite to Good denying it to have any Real Entity that is he maintained that there was no Positive Nature of Evil or that Evil was no Principle And thus do we also understand that of Cicero when he represents the Doctrine of the Megaricks after this manner Id bonum solum esse quod esset Vnum Simile Idem Semper to wit that they spake this concerning God that Good or Goodness it self is a Name properly belonging to him who is also One and Like and the Same and Alwayes and that the true Good of man consisteth in a Participation of and Conformity with this First Good Which Doctrine Plato seems to have derived from him he in like manner calling the Supreme Deity by those Two Names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the One and the Good and concluding true humane Felicity to consist in a Participation of the First Good or of the Divine Nature In the next place we shall take notice of Antisthenes who was the Founder also of another Sect to wit the Cynick for he in a certain Physiological Treatise is said to have affirmed Esse Populares Deos Multos sed Naturalem Vnum That though there were many Popular Gods yet there was but One Natural God Or as it is expressed in Lactantius Vnum esse Naturalem Deum quamvis Gentes Vrbes suos habeant Populares That there was but One Natural God though Nations and Cities had their Several Popular Ones Wherefore Velleius the Epicurean in Cicero quarrels with this Antisthenes as one who destroyed the Nature of Gods because he denied a Multitude of Independent Deities such as Epicurus pretended to assert For this of Antisthenes is not so to be understood as if he had therein designed to take away all the Inferiour Gods of the Pagans which had he at all attempted he would doubtless have been accounted an Atheist as well as Anaxagoras was but his meaning was only to interpret the Theology of the Pagans concerning those other Gods of theirs that were or might be look'd upon as Absolute and Independent that these though Many Popular Gods yet indeed were but One and the same Natural God called by several Names As for example when the Greeks worshipped Zeus the Latins Jovis the Egyptians Hammon the Babylonians Bel the Scythians Pappaeus these were indeed many Popular Gods and yet nevertheless all but One and the same Natural God So again when in the self same Pagan Cities and Countries the respective Laws thereof made mention of several Gods as Supreme and Absolute in their several Territories as Jupiter in the Heavens Juno in the Air Neptune in the Sea or as being Chief in several kinds and Functions as Minerva for Learning Bellona for War c. for this Aristotle takes notice of in his Book against Zeno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to the Laws of Cities and Countries one God was Best for one thing and another for another Antisthenes here declared concerning these also that they were indeed Many Popular or Civil Gods but all really One and the same Natural God To Antisthenes might be added Diogenes Sinopensis of whom it is recorded by Laertius that observing a Woman too superstitiously worshipping the Statue or Image of a God endeavouring to abate her Superstition he thus bespake her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take you not care O Woman of not behaving your self unseemly in the sight of that God who stands behind you for all things are full of him Thereby giving her occasion more to mind and regard that Supreme and Universal Numen that filleth the whole World and is every where XXIII It hath been frequently affirmed that Socrates died a Martyr for One only God in opposition to those Many Gods of the Pagans and Tertullian for one writeth thus of him Proptereà damnatus est Socrates quia Deos destruebat Socrates was therefore condemned to die because he destroyed the Gods And indeed that Socrates asserted one Supreme God the Maker and Governour of the whole World is a thing not at all to be doubted In his discourse with Aristodemus in Xenophon's first Book of Memoirs he convinced him that the things of this world were not made by Chance but by Mind and Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now convinced from what you say that the things of this world were the workmanship of some wise Artificer who also was a Lover of animals And so he endeavoured to perswade him that that Mind and Understanding which is in us was derived from some Mind and Understanding in the Universe as well as that Earth and Water which is in us from the Earth and Water of the Universe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do you think that you only have Wisdom in your self and that there is none any where else in the whole World without you though you know that you
accordingly Manilius Quâ pateat Mundum Divino Numine verti Atque Ipsum esse Deum Whereby it may appear the World to be Governed by a Divine Mind and also it self to be God As likewise Seneca the Philosopher Totum hoc quo continemur Vnum est Deus est This whole World within which we are contained is both One thing and God Which is not to be understood of the Meer Matter of the World as it is nothing but a Heap of Atoms or as endued with a Plastick and Sensless Nature only but of it as Animated by such a Soul as besides Sense was originally endued with perfect Understanding and as deriving all its Godship from thence For thus Varro in St. Austin declares both his own and the Stoical Sence concerning this Point Dicit idem Varro adhuc de Naturali Theologia praeloquens Deum se arbitrari esse Animam Mundi quem Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hunc ipsum Mundum esse Deum Sed sicut Hominem Sapientem cum sit ex Corpore Animo tamen ab Animo dici Sapientem ita Mundum Deum dici ab Animo cum sit ex Animo Corpore The same Varro discoursing concerning Natural Theology declareth that according to his own sence God is the Soul of the World which the Greeks call Cosmos and that this World it self is also God But that this is so to be understood that as a Wise man though consisting of Soul and Body yet is denominated Wise only from his Mind or Soul so the World is denominated God from its Mind or Soul only it consisting both of Mind and Body Now if the Whole Animated World be the Supreme God it plainly follows from thence that the Several Parts and Members thereof must be the Parts and Members of God and this was readily acknowledged by Seneca Membra sumus Corporis magni We are all Members of One great Body and Totum hoc Deus est Socii ejus Membra sumus This whole World is God and we are not only his Members but also his Fellows or Companions as if our Humane Souls had a certain kind of Fellowship also with that Great Soul of the Vniverse And accordingly the Soul of the World and the whole Mundane Animal was frequently worshipped by the Pagans in these its several Members the chief Parts of the World and the most important Things of Nature as it were by Piece-meal Nevertheless it doth not at all follow from thence that these were therefore to them Really so many Several Gods for then not only every Man and every Contemptible Animal every Plant and Herb and Pile of Grass every River and Hill and all things else whatsoever must be so many several Gods And that the Pagans themselves did not take them for such Origen observes against that Assertion of Celsus That if the Whole were God then the Several Parts thereof must needs be Gods or Divine too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From hence it would follow that not only Men must be Divine and Gods but also all Brute Animals too they being Parts of the World and Plants to boot Nay Rivers and Mountains and Seas being Parts of the World likewise if the Whole World be God must according to Celsus needs be Gods also Whereas the Greeks themselves will not affirm this but they would only call those Spirits or Demons which preside over these Rivers and Seas Gods Wherefore this Vniversal Assertion of Celsus is false even according to the Greeks themselves That if the whole be God then all the Parts thereof must needs be Divine or Gods It following from thence that Flyes and Gnats and Worms and all kind of Serpents and Birds and Fishes are all Divine Animals or Gods Which they themselves who assert the World to be God will not affirm Wherefore though it be true that the Pagans did many times Personate and Deifie the Chief Parts of the World and Things of Nature as well as they did the Several Powers and Vertues of the Mundane Soul diffused through the whole World yet did not the intelligent amongst them therefore look upon these as so many True and Proper Gods but only worship them as Parts and Members of One Great Mundane Animal or rather Worship the Soul of the whole World their Supreme Deity in them all as its various Manifestations This St. Austin intimates when writing against Faustus the Manichean he prefers even the Pagan Gods before the Manichean Jam verò Coelum Terra Mare Aer Sol Luna caetera sydera omnia haec manifesta oculis apparent atque ipsis sensibus praesto sunt Quae cum Pagani tanquam Deos colunt vel tanquam PARTES VNIVS MAGNI DEI nam universum Mundum quidam eorum putant MAXIMVM DEVM ea colunt quae sunt Vos autem cum ea colatis quae omninò non sunt propinquiores essetis Verae Pietati si saltem Pagani essetis qui Corpora colunt etsi non colenda tamen vera Now the Heaven Earth Sea and Air Sun Moon and Stars are Things all manifest and really present to our senses which when the Pagans Worship as Gods or as PARTS OF ONE GREAT GOD for some of them think the Whole World to be the GREATEST GOD they Worship things that are so that you worshipping things that are not would be nearer to true Piety than you are were you Pagans and worshipped Bodies too which though they ought not to be worshipped yet are they True and Real Things But this is further insisted upon by the same St. Austin in his Book De C. D. where after that large Enumeration of the Pagan Gods before set down he thus convinces their Folly in worshipping the Several Divided Members Parts and Powers of the One Great God after that manner Personated Haec omnia quae dixi quaecunque non dixi non enim omnia dicenda arbitratus sum Hi omnes Dii Deaeque sit Vnus Jupiter sive sint ut quidam volunt omnia ista Partes ejus sive Virtutes ejus sicut eis videtur quibus eum placet esse Mundi Animum quae sententia velut magnorum multorumque Doctorum est Haec inquam si ita sint quod quale sit nondum interim quaero Quid perderent si Vnum Deum colerent prudentiori Compendio Quid enim ejus contemneretur cum ipse coleretur Si autem metuendum sit nè Praetermissae sive Neglectae Partes ejus irascerentur non ergo ut volunt velut Vnius Animantis haec tota vita est quae Omnes simul continet Deos quasi Suas VIRTVTES vel MEMBRA vel PARTES sed suam quaeque Pars habet vitam à caeteris separatam si praeter alteram irasci altera potest alia placari alia concitari Si autem dicitur Omnia simul id est Totum ipsum Jovem potuisse offendi si PARTES ejus non etiam
immovably and unchangeably Good always fixed in the same Happiness and never indigent of Good or falling from it because they are all Essentially Goodnesses Where afterward he adds something concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also that though these were a Rank of Lower Beings and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Essentially Goodnesses but only by Participation yet being by their own Nature also Immovable they can never degenerate nor fall from that Participation of Good Notwithstanding which we must confess that some of these Platonists seem to take the word Henades sometimes in another sence and to understand nothing else thereby but the Intelligible Ideas before mentioned though the ancient Platonists and Pythagoreans were not wont to call these Vnities but Numbers And now have we discovered more of the Pagans Inferiour Gods Supermundane and Eternal viz. besides those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Intelligible Gods Troops of Henades and Autoagathotetes Vnities and Goodnesses and also of Noes Immovable Minds or Intellects or as they frequently call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Henadical or Monadical Gods and Intellectual Gods But since these Noes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are said to be all of them in their own nature a Rank of Beings above Souls and therefore Superiour to that First Soul which is the Third Hypostasâ—s of this Trinity as all those Henades or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Simple Monadical Gods are likewise yet a higher Rank of Beings above the Noes and therefore Superiour to the Second Hypostasis also the First Mind and yet all these Henades and Noes however supposed by these Philosophers to be Eternal forasmuch as they are Particular Beings only and not Vniversal cannot be placed higher than in the Rank of Creatures it follows from hence unavoidably that both the Second and Third Hypostasis of this Trinity as well the First Mind as the First Soul must be accounted Creatures also because no Created Being can be Superiour to any thing Vncreated Wherefore Proclus and some others of those Platonists plainly understood this Trinity no otherwise than as a certain Scale or Ladder of Beings in the Universe or a Gradual Descent of things from the First or Highest by steps downward lower and lower so far as to the Souls of all Animals For which cause Proclus to make up this Scale complete adds to these three Ranks and Degrees below that Third of Souls a Fourth of Natures also under which there lies nothing but the Passive Part of the Universe Body and Matter So that their Whole Scale of all that is above Body was indeed not a Trinity but a Quaternity or Four Ranks and Degrees of Beings one below another the First of Henades or Vnities the Second of Noes Minds or Intellects the Third of Souls and the Last of Natures these being as it were so many Orbs and Spheres one within and below another In all which several Ranks of Being they supposed One First Vniversal and Vnparticipated as the Head of each respective Rank and Many Particular or Participated Ones as One First Vniversal Henade and Many Secondary Particular Henades One First Universal Nous Mind or Intellect and Many Secondary and Particular Noes or Minds One First Vniversal Soul and Many Particular Souls and Lastly One Vniversal Nature and Many Particular Natures In which scale of Beings they Deified besides the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and Good not only the First Mind and the First Soul but also those other Particular Henades and Noes universally and all Particular Souls above Humane leaving out besides them and Inferiour Souls that Fourth Rank of Natures because they conceived that nothing was to be accounted a God but what was Intellectual and Superiour to Men. Wherein though they made Several Degrees of Gods one below another and called some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Eternal and some Generated or Made in time yet did they no where clearly distinguish betwixt the Deity properly so called and the Creature nor shew how far in this Scale the True Deity went and where the Creature began But as it were melting the Deity by degrees and bringing it down lower and lower they made the Juncture and Commissure betwixt God and the Creature so smooth and close that where they indeed parted was altogether undiscernible They rather implying them to differ only in Degrees or that they were not Absolute but Comparative Terms and consisted but in More and Less All which was doubtless a gross Mistake of the ancient Cabbala of the Trinity This is therefore that Platonick Trinity which we oppose to the Christian not as if Plato's own Trinity in the very Essential Constitution thereof were quite a Different Thing from the Christian it self in all probability having been at first derived from a Divine or Mosaick Cabbala but because this Cabbala as might well come to pass in a thing so Mysterious and Difficult to be conceived hath been by divers of these Platonists and Phytagoreans Misunderstood Depraved and Adulterated into such a Trinity as Confounds the Differences between God and the Creature and removes all the Bounds and Land-marks betwixt them sinks the Deity lower and lower by Degrees still multiplying of it as it goes till it have at length brought it down to the Whole Corporeal World and when it hath done this is not able to stop there neither but extends it further still to the Animated Parts thereof Stars and Demons The Design or Direct Tendency thereof being nothing else but to lay a Foundation for Infinite Polytheism Cosmolatry or World-Idolatry and Creature-Worship Where it is by the way observable that these Platonick Pagans were the only Publick and Professed Champions against Christianity for though Celsus were suspected by Origen to have been indeed an Epicurean yet did he at least Personate a Platonist too The reason whereof might be not only because the Platonick and Pythagorick Sect was the Divinest of all the Pagans and that which approached nearest to Christianity and the Truth however it might by accident therefore prove the worst as the Corruption of the Best thing and by that means could with greatest confidence hold up the Bucklers against Christianity and encounter it but also because the Platonick Principles as they might be understood would of all other serve most plausibly to defend the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry Concerning the Christian Trinity we shall here observe only Three Things First that it is not a Trinity of meer Names or Words nor a Trinity of Partial Notions and Inadequate Conceptions of One and the Same Thing For such a kind of Trinity as this might be conceived in that First Platonick Hypostasis it self called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The One and The Good and perhaps also in that First Person of the Christian Trinity namely of Goodness and Vnderstanding or Wisdom and Will or
his Language This God and that Person And thus does there seem not to be so great a Difference betwixt the more Genuine Platonists and the ancient Orthodox Fathers in their Doctrine concerning the Trinity as is by many conceived However our Platonick Christian would further add that there is no necessity at all from the Principles of Platonism it self why the Platonists should make any other or more Subordination in their Trinity than the most severely Orthodox Fathers themselves For according to the Common Hypothesis of the Platonists when the Character of the First Hypostasis is supposed by them to be Infinite Goodness of the Second Infinite Wisdom and of the Third Infinite Active Love and Power these not as Accidents and Qualities but as all Substantial it is more easie to conceive that all these are really but One and the same God than how there should be any considerable Inferiority in them But besides this there is another Platonick Hypothesis which St. Austin hinteth from Porphyrius though he professeth he did not well understand it wherein the Third Hypostasis is made to be a certain Middle betwixt the First and Second And this does Proclus also sometimes follow calling the Third in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Middle Power and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Relation of both the First and Second to one another Which agreeth exactly with that apprehension of some Christians that the Third Hypostasis is as it were the Nexus betwixt the First and the Second and that Love whereby the Father and Son Love each other Now according to this Latter Platonick Hypothesis there would seem to be not so much a Gradation or Descent as a kind of Circulation in the Trinity Upon all which Considerations the Platonick Christian will conclude That though some Junior Platonists have adulterated the Notion of the Trinity yet either there is no such great difference betwixt the Genuine Platonick Trinity righty understood and the Christian or else that as the same might be modell'd and rectified there need not to be But though the Genuine Platonists do thus suppose the Three Hypostases of their Trinity to be all of them not only God but also One God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Entire Divinity upon which Latter accompt the Whole may be said also by them to have One Singular or Numerical Essence yet notwithstanding must it be acknowledged that they no where suppose each of these Three Hypostases to be Numerically the very same or to have no Distinct Singular Essences of their own this being in their apprehensions directly contradictious to their very Hypothesis it self and all one as if they should affirm them indeed not to be Three Hypostases but only One. Nevertheless the Christian Platonist would here also apologize for them after this manner That the ancient Orthodox Fathers of the Christian Church were Generally of no other perswasion than this that that Essence or Substance of the Godhead which all the Three Persons or Hypostases agree in as each of them is God was not One Singular and Individual but only One Common and Vniversal Essence or Substance that word Substance being used by them as Synonymous with Essence and applied to Universals likewise as it is by the Peripateticks when they call A Man or Animal in General Substantiam Secundam A Second Substance Now this is Evident from hence because these Orthodox Fathers did commonly distinguish in this Controversie of the Trinity betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essence or Substance of the Godhead and the Hypostases or Persons themselves after this manner namely that the Hypostasis or Person was Singular and Individual but the Essence or Substance Common and Vniversal Thus does Theodoret pronounce of these Fathers in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the Doctrine of the Fathers as that which is Common differs from that which is Proper and the Genus from the Species or Inviduum so doth Essence or Substance differ from Hypostases that is to say that Essence or Substance of the Godhead which is Common to all the Three Hypostases or whereby each of them is God was concluded by the Fathers not to be One Singular or Individual but One General or Vniversal Essence and Substance Theodoret notwithstanding there acknowledging that no such Distinction was observed by other Greek Writers betwixt those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence or Substance and Hypostasis as that the Former of them should be restrained to Vniversals only Generical or Specifical Essences or Substances but that this was peculiar to the Christian Fathers in their doctrine concerning the Trinity They in the mean time not denying but that each Hypostasis Prosopon or Person in the Trinity might be said in another sence and in way of Opposition to Sabellius to have its own Singular Individual or Existent Essence also and that there are thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three Singular Existent Essences in the Deity as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three Hypostases an Hypostasis being nothing else to them but an Existent Essence however for distinctions sake they here thought fit thus to limit and appropriate the signification of these Two words that a Singular and Existent Essence should not be called Essence but Hypostasis and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence or Substance should be meant that General or Vniversal Nature of the Godhead only which is Common to all those Three Singular Hypostases or Persons or in which they all agree We might here heap up many more Testimonies for a further Confirmation of this as that of St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Common is to Proper the same is Essence or Substance in the Trinity to the Hypostases But we shall content our selves only with this full acknowledgment of D. Petavius In hoc Vno Graecorum praesertim omnium judicia concordant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Essentiam sive Substantiam aut Naturam quà m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant Generale esse aliquid Commune ac minimè desinitum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verò Proprium Singulare Circumscriptum quod ex illo Communi Peculiaribus quibusdam Notis ac Proprietatibus veluti componitur In this One Thing do the Judgments and Opinions of all the Greeks especially agree that Usia Essence or Substance and Nature which they call Physis in the Trinity is something General Common and Vndetermined but Hypostasis is that which is Proper Singular and Circumscribed and which is as it were compounded and made up of that Common Essence or Substance and certain Peculiar Notes and Properties or Individuating Circumstances But besides this it is further certain that not a few of those Ancient Fathers who were therefore reputed Orthodox because they zealously opposed Arianism did entertain this opinion also That the Three Hypostases or Persons of the Trinity had not
only one General and Vniversal Essence of the Godhead belonging to them all they being all God but were also Three Individuals under One and the same Vltimate Species or Specifick Essence and Substance of the Godhead Just as Three Individual men Thomas Peter and John under that Vltimate Species of Man or that Specifick Essence of Humanity which have only a Numerical Difference from one another Wherefore an Hypostasis or Person in the Trinity was accordingly thus defined by some of these Fathers viz. Anastasius and Cyril to be Essentia cum suis quibusdam Proprietatibus ab iis quae sunt ejusdem Speciei Numero differens an Essence or Substance with its Certain Properties or Individuating Circumstances differing only Numerically from those of the same Species with it This Doctrine was plainly asserted and Industriously pursued besides several others both of the Greeks and Latins especially by Gregory Nyssen Cyril of Alexandria Maximus the Martyr and Damascen whose words because Petavius hath set them down at large we shall not here insert Now these were they who principally insisted upon the Absolute Co-Equality and Independent Co-Ordination of the Three Hypostases or Persons in the Trinity as compared with one another Because as Three Men though one of them were a Father Another a Son and the Third a Nephew yet have no Essential Dependence one upon another but are Naturally Co-Equal and Vnsubordinate there being only a Numerical Difference betwixt them so did they in like manner conclude that the Three Hypostases or Persons of the Deity the Father Son and Holy Ghost being likewise but Three Individuals under the same Vltimate Species or Specifick Essence of the Godhead and differing only Numerically from one another were Absolutely Co-Equal Vnsubordinate and Independent and this was that which was Commonly called by them their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Co-Essentiality or Con-Substantiality Wherefore it is observable that St. Cyril one of these Theologers finds no other fault at all with the Platonick Trinity but only this that such an Homoousiotes such a Co-Essentiality or Consubstantiality as this was not acknowledged therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There would have been nothing at all wanting to the Platonick Trinity for an Absolute agreement of it with the Christian had they but accommodated the right Notion of Co-Essentiality or Con-Substantiality to their Three Hypostases so that their might have been but one Specifick Nature or Essence of the Godhead not further distinguishable by any Natural Diversity but Numerically only and so no one Hypostasis any way Inferiour or Subordinate to another That is had these Platonists complied with that Hypothesis of St. Cyril and others that the Three Persons of the Trinity were but Three Independent and Co-Ordinate Individuals under the same Ultimate Species or Specifick Essence of the Godhead as Peter Paul and John under that Species or Common Nature of Humanity and so taken in this Co-Essentiality or Con-Substantiality of theirs then had they been completely Orthodox Though we have already shewed that this Platonick Trinity was in another sence Homoousian and perhaps it will appear afterwards that it was so also in the very sence of the Nicene Fathers and of Athanasius Again these Theologers supposed the Three Persons of their Trinity to have really no other than a Specifick Vnity or Identity and because it seems plainly to follow from hence that therefore they must needs be as much Three Gods as Three Men are Three Men these learned Fathers endeavoured with their Logick to prove That Three Men are but Abusively and Improperly so called Three they being really truly but One because there is but One the same Specifick Essence or Substance of Humane Nature in them all and seriously perswaded men to lay aside that kind of Language By which same Logick of theirs they might as well prove also that all the men in the world are but One Man and that all Epicurus his Gods were but one God neither But not to urge here that according to this Hypothesis there cannot possibly be any reason given why there should be so many as Three such Individuals in the Species of God which differ only Numerically from one another they being but the very same thing thrice repeated and yet that there should be no more than Three such neither and not Three Hundred or Three Thousand or as many as there are individuals in the Species of Man we say not to urge this it seems plain that this Trinity is no other than a kind of Tritheism and that of Gods Independent and Co-Ordinate too And therefore some would think that the Ancient and Genuine Platonick Trinity taken with all its faults is to be preferred before this Trinity of St. Cyril and St. Gregory Nyssen and several other reputed Orthodox Fathers and more agreeable to the Principles both of Christianity and of Reason However it is evident from hence that these Reputed Orthodox Fathers who were not a few were far from thinking the Three Hypostases of the Trinity to have the same Singular Existent Essence they supposing them to have no otherwise one and the same Essence of the Godhead in them nor to be One God than Three Individual Men have one Common Specifical Essence of Manhood in them and are all One Man But as this Trinity came afterwards to be decried for Tritheistick so in the room thereof started there up that other Trinity of Persons Numerically the Same or having all One and the same Singular Existent Essence a Doctrine which seemeth not to have been owned by any publick Authority in the Christian Church save that of the Lateran Council only And that no such thing was ever entertained by the Nicene Fathers and those First opposers of Arianism might be rendered probable in the First place from the free Confession and Acknowledgment of D. Petavius a Person well acquainted with Ecclesiastick Antiquity and for this reason especially because many are much led by such new Names and Authorities In eo praecipuam vim collocasse Patres ut Aequalem Patri Naturâ Excellentiâque Filium esse defenderent citra expressam SINGVLARITATIS mentionem licet ex eo conjicere Etenim Nicaeni isti Praesules quibus nemo melius Arianae Sectae arcana cognovit nemo qua re opprimenda maximè foret acrius dijudicare potuit nihil in Professionis suae formulâ spectarunt aliud nisi ut Aequalitatem illam Essentiae Dignitatis Aeternitatis astruerent Testatur hoc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vox ipsa quae arx quaedam fuit Catholici Dogmatis Haec enim Aequalitatem potius Essentiae quam SINGVLARITATEM significat ut Capite Quinto docui Deinde caetera ejusdem modi sunt in illo Decreto ut c. The chief force which the Ancient Fathers opposed against the Arian Hereticks was in asserting only the Equality of the Son with the Father as to Nature or Essence without any express mention of the SINGVLARITY of the same
though Formally Idolaters according to their own false Hypothesis yet were not Materially and Really so whereas these Religious Angel and Saint-Worshippers must be as well Materially as Formally such And here it is observable that these Ancient Fathers made no such Distinction of Religious Worship into Latria as peculiar to the Supreme God it being that whereby he is adored as Self-Existent and Omnipotent or the Creator of all and Dulia such an Inferiour Religious Worship as is communicable to Creatures but concluded of Religious Worship Universally and without Distinction that the due Object of it all was the Creator only and not any Creature Thus Athanasius plainly in his Third Oration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the Son or Word of God were to be Worshipped though a Creature because transcending us in glory and dignity then ought every Inferiour Being to Worship what is Superiour to it Whereas the case is otherwise For a Creature doth not Religiously worship a Creature but only God the Creator Now they who distinguish Religious Worship into Latria and Dulia must needs suppose the Object of it in general to be that which is Superiour to us and not the Creator only which is here contradicted by Athanasius But because it was objected against these Orthodox Fathers by the Arians that the Humanity of our Saviour Christ which is unquestionably a Creature did share in their Religious Worship also it is worth the while to see what account Athanasius gives of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We give no Religious Worship to any Creature far be it from us For this is the Errour of the Pagans and of the Arians But We Worship the Word of God the Lord of the Creation Incarnated For though the Flesh of Christ considered alone by it self were but a part of the Creatures nevertheless was it made the Body of God And we neither Worship this Body by it self alone divided from the Word nor yet intending to worship the Word do we remove it at a great distance from this flesh but knowing that of the Scripture The Word was made Flesh we look upon this Word even in the Flesh as God And again to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let these Arians Know at length that we who Worship the Lord in Flesh Worship no Creature but only the Creator cloathed with a Creaturely Body And for the same cause was it that Nestorius afterwards dividing the Word from the Flesh the Divinity of Christ from the Humanity and not acknowledging such an Hypostatick Vnion betwixt them as he ought but nevertheless Religiously Worshipping our Saviour Christ was therefore branded by the Christian Church with the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Man-Worshipper or Idolater To conclude they who excuse themselves from being Idolaters no otherwise than because they do not give that very same Religious Worship to Saints and Angels which is pecular to God Almighty and consists in honouring him as Self-Existent and the Creator of all things but acknowledge those others to be Creatures Suppose that to be Necessary to Idolatry which is Absolutely Impossible viz. to acknowledge more Omnipotents as Creators of all than One or to account Creatures as such Creators as they imply all those to be Uncapable of Idolatry who acknowledge One Supreme God the Creator of the whole World which is directly contradictious to the Doctrine of the Ancient Church Hitherto in way of Answer to an Atheistick Objection against the Naturality of the Idea of God as including Oneliness in it from the Pagan Polytheism have we largely proved that at least the Civilized and Intelligent Pagans generally acknowledged One Sovereign Numen and that their Polytheism was partly but Phantastical nothing but the Polyonymy of one Supreme God or the Worshipping him under different Names and Notions according to his several Vertues and Manifestations And that though besides this they had another Natural and Real Polytheism also yet this was only of Many Inferiour or Created Gods Subordinate to One Supreme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vncreated Which notwithstanding is not so to be understood as if we did confidently affirm that Opinion of Many Independent Deities never to have so much as entred into the Mind of any Mortal For since Humane Nature is so Mutable and Depravable as that notwithstanding the Connate Idea and Prolepsis of God in the Minds of Men some unquestionably do degenerate and lapse into Atheism there can be no reason why it should be thought absolutely impossible for any ever to entertain that false Conceit of More Independent Deities But as for Independent Gods Invisible we cannot trace the footsteps of such a Polytheism as this any where nor find any more than a Ditheism of a Good and Evil Principle Only Philo and others seem to have conceived That amongst the ancient Pagans some were so grosly sottish as to suppose a Plurality of Independent Gods Visible and to take the Sun and Moon and all the Stars for Such However if there were any such and these Writers were not mistaken as it frequently happened it is certain that they were but very few because amongst the most Barbarian Pagans at this day there is hardly any Nation to be found without an acknowledgment of a Sovereign Deity as appears from all those Discoveries which have been made of them since the improvement of Navigation Wherefore what hath been hitherto declared by us might well be thought a sufficient Answer to the forementioned Atheistick Objection against the Idea of God Notwithstanding which when we wrote the Contents of this Chapter we intended a further Account of the Natural and Real Polytheism of the Pagans and their Multifarious Idolatry chiefly in order to the Vindication of the Truth of Christianity against Atheists forasmuch as one grand Design hereof was unquestionably to destroy the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry which consisted in Worshipping the Creature besides the Creator But we are very Sensible that we have been surprized in the Length of this Chapter which is already swelled into a Disproportionate Bigness by means whereof we cannot comprehend within the compass of this Volume all that belongs to the Remaining Contents together with such a Full and Copious Confutation of the Atheistick Grounds as was intended Wherefore we shall here Divide the Chapter and reserve those Remaining Contents together with a further Confutation of Atheism for another Volume which God affording Life Health and Leisure we intend shall follow Only subjoyning in the mean time a Short and Compendious Confutation of all the Atheistick Arguments proposed A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM CHAP. V. HAving in the Second Chapter revealed all the Dark Mysteries of Atheism and producâ—d the utmost strength of that Cause and in the Tâ—ird made an Introduction to the Coâ—â—utation of those Atheistick Grounds by representing all the several Forms and Schemes of Atheism and shewing both thâ—ir Disagreements amongst themselves and wherein they all agree together
of Humane Nature mens Fear and Ignorant Credulity do much dispose and incline them to the Belief of a God or else of a Rank of Beings Superiour to men whether Visible or Invisible commonly called by the Pagans Gods yet would not this be so generally entertained as it is especially that of One Supreme Deity the First Original of all things and Monarch of the Universe had it not been for the Fraud and Fiction of Lawmakers and Civil Soveraigns who the better to keep men in Peace and Subjection under them and in a kind of Religious and Superstitious Observation of their Laws and Devotion to the same devized this Notion of a God and then possessed the Minds of men with a Belief of his Existence and an Awe of him Now we deny not but that Politicians may sometimes abuse Religion and make it serve for the promoting of their own private Interests and Designs which yet they could not so well do neither were the thing it self a meer Cheat and Figment of their own and had no Reality at all in Nature nor any thing Solid at the bottom of it But since Religion obtains so universally every where it is not conceivable how Civil Sovereigns throughout the whole World some of which are so distant and have so litle Correspondence with one another should notwithstanding all so well agree in this One Cheating Mystery of Government or Piece of State-Coozenage nor if they could how they should be able so effectually to posses the Generality of mankind as well wise as unwise with such a Constant Fear Awe and Dread of a meer Counterfeit thing and an Invisible Nothing and which hath not only no manner of Foundation neither in Sense nor Reason but also as the Atheists suppose tends to their own great Terrour and Disquietment and so brings them at once under a miserable Vassallage both of Mind and Body Especially since men are not generally so apt to think that how much the more any have of Power Dignity they have therefore so much the more of Knowledge and Skill in Philosophy and the Things of Nature above others And is it not strange that the world should not all this while have suspected or discovered this Cheat and Juggle of Politicians and have Smelt out a Plot upon themselves in the Fiction of Religion to take away their Liberty and enthral them under Bondage and that so many of these Politicians and Civil Soveraigns themselves also should have been unacquainted herewith and as simply awed with the Fear of this Invisible Nothing as any others All other Cheats and Juggles when they are once never so little detected are presently thereupon dashed quite out of countenance and have never any more the Confidence to obtrude themselves upon the world But though the Atheists have for these Two Thousand years past been continually buzzing into mens Ears that Religion is nothing but a meer State-Juggle and Political Imposture yet hath not the Credit thereof been the least impaired thereby nor its Power and Dominion over the Minds of men abated from whence it may be concluded that it is no Counterfeit and Fictitious thing but what is deeply rooted in the Intellectual Nature of man a thing Solid at the bottom and Supported by its own strength Which yet may more fully appear from Christianity a Religion founded in no Humane Policy nor tending to promote any Worldly Interest or Design which yet by its own or the Divine Force hath prevailed over the Power and Policy the Rage and Madness of all Civil States Jewish and Pagan and hath Conquered so great a Part of the Persecuting World under it and that not by Resisting or Opposing Force but by suffering Deaths and Martyrdoms in way of Adherence to that Principle That it is better to obey God than Men. Which thing was thus Presignified in the Prophetick Scripture Why do the Heathen Rage and the People imagine a Vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ c. He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in Derision Then shall he speak unto them in his Wrath c. Yet have I set my King upon my Holy Hill of Sion I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the Vttermost Parts of the Earth for thy Possession Be wise now therefore O ye Kings c. But that Theism or Religion is no Gullery or Imposture will be yet further made unquestionably Evident That the generality of Mankind have agreed in the acknowledgment of one Supreme Deity as a Being Eternal and Necessarily Existent Absolutely Perfect and Omnipotent and the Maker of the whole World hath been already largely proved in the foregoing Discourse To which purpose is this of Sextus the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men have this common Prolepsis concerning God that he is a Living Being Incorruptible Perfectly Happy and Vncapable of all manner of Evil. And the Notion of that God which Epicurus opposed was no other than this An Vnderstanding Being having all Happiness with Incorruptibility that Framed the whole World Now I say that if there be no such thing as this Existing and this Idea of God be a meer Fictitious Thing then was it altogether Arbitrarious But it is unconceivable how the Generality of Mankind a few Atheists only excepted should universally agree in one and the same Arbitrarious Figment This Argumentation hath been formerly used by some Theists as appeareth from the forementioned Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is altogether Irrational to think that all men should by Chance light upon the same Properties in the Idea of God without being Naturally mov'd thereunto Neither is that any sufficient account which the Atheists would here give that Statesmen and Politicians every where thus possessed the Minds of men with One and the same Idea the Difficulty still remaining how Civil Soveraigns and Law-makers in all the distant parts of the world and such as had no Communication nor Entercourse with one another should universally Jump in one and the same Fictitious and Arbitrarious Idea Moreover were there no God it is Not Conceivable how that forementioned Idea should ever have Entred into the Minds of men or how it could have been Formed in them And here the Atheists again think it enough to say that this Notion or Idea was Put into the Minds of the Generality of mankind by Law-makers and Politicians Telling them of such a Being and perswading them to believe his Existence or that it was from the first Feigner or Inventor of it propagated all along and conveyed down by Oral Tradition But this argues their great Ignorance in Philosophy to think that any Notion or Idea is put into mens Minds from without meerly by Telling or by Words we being Passive to nothing else from words but their Sounds and the Phantasms thereof they only occasioning the
Soul to excite such Notions as it had before within it self whether Innate or Adventitious which those words by the Compact and Agreement of men were made to be Signs of or else to reflect also further upon those Ideas of their own Consider them more Distinctly and Compare them with one another And though all Learning be not the Remembrance of what the Soul once before actually understood in a Pre-existent State as Plato somewhere would have it according to that of Boetius Quod si Platonis Musa personat Verum Quod quisque Discit Immenior Recordatur Yet is all Humane Teaching but Maieutical or Obstetricious and not the filling of the Soul as a Vessel meerly by Pouring into it from Without but the Kindling of it from Within or helping it so to excite and awaken compare and compound its own Notions as whereby to arrive at the Knowledge of that which it was before Ignorant of as the thing was better expressed by the forementioned Philosophick Poet in these words Haeret profecto Semen introrsum Veri Quod excitatur Ventilante Doctrina Wherefore the meer Telling of men There is a God could not infuse any Idea of him into their Minds nor yet the further giving this Definition of him that he is a Being Absolutely Perfect Eternal and Self-Existent make them understand any thing of his Nature were they not able to Excite Notions or Ideas from within themselves correspondent to those several words However the Difficulty still remains How those Civil Soveraigns and Law-makers or how Critias his very first Inventor of that Cheat of a God could Form that Idea within themselves since upon supposition of his Non-Existence it is the Idea of Nothing or of a Non-Entity And this was Judiciously Hinted also by the same Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Atheists affirming that certain Law-makers first put this Notion of a God into the minds of men do not consider that they still remain intangled in the Difficulty if any one further demand of them how those Law-makers themselves could first form that Idea From whence it is afterward concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That therefore the Notion of a God sprung not from the Arbitrarious Fiction of Law-makers and Politicians But some Atheists will yet further Reply That â—here is a Feigning Power in the Humane Soul whereby it can Frame Ideas or Conceptions of such things as actually never were nor will be as of a Centaur or of a Golden Mountain and that by such a Feigning Power as this the Idea of God though there be no such thing Existing might be Framed And here we deny not but that the Humane Soul hath a Power of Compounding Ideas and Things together which Exist Severally and Apart in Nature but never were nor will be in that Conjunction and this indeed is all the Feigning Power that it hath For the Mind cannot make any New Cogitation which was not before but only Compound that which Is. As the Painter cannot Feign Colours but must use such as exist in Nature only he can Variously Compound them together and by his Pencil draw the Figures and Lineaments of such things as no where are as he can add to the Head and Face of a Man the Neck Shoulders and Body of a Horse In like manner that more Subtle Painter or Limner the Mind and Imagination of man can frame Compounded Ideas of things which no where Exist but yet His Simple Colours nothwithstanding must be Real He cannot Feign any Cogitation which was not in Nature nor make a Positive Conception of that which is Absolutely Nothing which were no less than to make Nothing to be Something or Create Something out of Nothing And though the whole of these Fictitious Ideas as of a Golden Mountain does not any where actually Exist yet for as much as it doth not Absolutely Imply a Contradiction for it so to do therefore hath it also a Possible Entity too and otherwise it could not be Conceivable As a Triangular Square for example being a Contradictious Thing hath not so much as a Possible Entity and therefore is not Conceivable as such though both a Triangle and a Square severally be Conceivable it being meer None-Sence Nothing and no Idea at all Nay we Conceive that a Theist may presume with Reverence to say that God Almighty himself though he can Create More or Fewer Really Existent things as he pleaseth and could make a whole world out of Nothing yet can he not make more Cogitation or Conception then Is or was before contained in his own Infinite Mind and Eternal Wisdom nor have a Positive Idea of any thing which hath neither Actual nor Possible Entity But the Idea of God is not a Compilement or Aggregation of things which Exist Scatteredly and Apart in the World for then would it be a meer Arbitrarious thing and it might be what every one pleased one Adding more things together and another Fewer but each of them writing the Name or Title of God as bungling Painters did under these there several Figments Whereas we have already proved that the Idea of God is One most Simple Idea of an Absolutely Perfect Being though having several Partial and Inadequate Conceptions so that nothing can be Added to it nor Detracted from it there being nothing included therein but what is Demonstrable of a Perfect Being and therefore nothing at all Arbitrarious Moreover many of those Partial Conceptions contained in the entire Idea of God are no where else to be found in the whole world Existing Singly and Apart and therefore if there be no God they must needs be Absolute Non-Entities as Immutability Necessary Existence Infinity and Perfection c. so that the Painter that makes this Idea must here Feign Colours themselves or Create New Cogitation and Conception out of Nothing upon the Atheistick Supposicion Lastly If there be no God now Existing it is Impossible that ever there should be any and so the Whole Idea of God would be the Idea of that which hath no Possible Entity neither whereas those other Fictitious Ideas made by the Mind of man though they be of such things as have no Actual Existence yet have they all a Possible Entity as was said before But that we may Conceal nothing of the Atheists Strength we must here acknowledge that some of them have yet pretended further that besides this Power of Compounding things together the human Soul hath also another Ampliating or Increasing and Improving Power by both which together though there be no God Existing nor yet Possible the Idea of him may be Fictitiously made those Partial Ideas which are no where else to be found arising as they say from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Transition and Gradual Procession from men in way of Amplification Augmentation and Improvement Thus do we read in Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ideas of the Eternity Incorruptibility and Perfect Happiness
of the Deity were Fictitiously made by way of Transition from men For as by encreasing a man of an ordinary Stature in our Imagination we Fictitiously make the Phantasm of a Cyclops so when beholding a Happy Man that aboundeth with all good things we Amplifie Intend and as it were Swell the same in our Minds higher and higher we then arrive at length to the Idea of a Being Absolutely Happy that is a God So did the Ancients taking notice of a very Longeve man and encreasing this length of Age further and further Infinitely by that means Frame the Notion or Idea of Eternity and attribute the same to God But to this we Reply First that according to the Principles of the Atheists themselves there could not possibly be any such Amplifying and Feigning Power of the Soul as whereby it could Make More than Is because they suppose it to have no Active Power at all but all our Conceptions to be nothing but meer Passions from the Objects without according to that of Protagoras in Plato's Thaeetetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is neither possible for a man to conceive that which is not nor any more or otherwise than he Suffers Again as Sextus the Philosopher also intimates the Atheists are here plainly guilty of that Fallacy or Errour in Ratiocination which is commonly called a Circle or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas they could not otherwise Judge the greatest Perfection and Happiness which ever they had experience of in men to be Imperfect then by an Anticipated Idea of Perfection and Happiness with which it was in their minds compared by vertue of which Idea also it comes to pass that they are able to Amplifie those lesser Perfections of men further and further and can take occasion from Imperfect Things to think of that which is Absolutely Perfect that is whereas these Atheists themselves first make the Idea of Imperfection from Perfection they not attending to this do again go about to make up the Notion or Idea of that which is Absolutely Perfect by way of Amplification from that which is Imperfect But that men have a Notion of Absolute Perfection in them by which as the Rule or Measure they comparing other things therewith Judge them to be Imperfect and which is therefore in Order of Nature First may appear from hence because all Theologers as well Pagan as Christian give this Direction for the Conceiving of God that it should principally be done Per Viam Remotionis by way of Remotion of all Imperfection from him Thus Alcinous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first way of Conceiving of God is by Remotion or Abstraction We add in the last place That Finite things put together can never make up Infinite as may appear from that Instance of Humane Longevity proposed for if one should Amplifie that never so much by adding of more and more Past Time or years to it yet would he never thereby by able to arrive at Eternity without beginning God differs not from these Imperfect Created things in Degrees only but in the Whole Kind And though Infinite Space may perhaps be here Objected as a thing taken for granted which being nothing but Extension or Magnitude must therefore consist or be made up of Finite Parts yet as was it before declared we have no certainty of any more than this that the Finite World might have been made Bigger and Bigger Infinitely or Without End which Infinity of Magnitude is but like that of Number Potential from whence it may be inferred as well of the one as the other that it can never be Actually Infinite Wherefore were there no Infinitely Perfect Being in Nature the Idea thereof could never be made up by any Amplifying Power of the Soul or by the Addition of Finites Neither is that of any moment which Gassendus so much objecteth here to the contrary that though there were no God or Infinite Being yet might the Idea of him as well be Feigned by the Mind as that of Infinite Worlds or of Infinite Matter was by some Philosophers For Infinite Worlds and Infinite Matter are but words Ill Put-together Infinity being a Real thing in Nature and no Fiction of the Mind as well as the World or Matter but yet proper to the Deity only But it is no wonder if they who denied a God yet retaining this Notion of Infinity should misapply the same as they did also other Properties of the Deity to Matter To conclude this Our humane Soul cannot Feign or Create any New Cogitation or Conception that was not before but only variously compound that which Is nor can it ever make a Positive Idea of an Absolute Non-Entity that is such as hath neither Actual nor Possible Existence Much less could our Imperfect Beings Create the Entity of so Vast a Thought as that of an Infinitely Perfect Being out of Nothing this being indeed more then for God Almighty or a Perfect Being to Create a Real World out of Nothing because there is no Repugnancy at all in the Latter as there is in the Former We affirm therefore that Were there no God the Idea of an Absolutely or Infinitely Perfect Being could never have been Made or Feigned neither by Politicians nor by Poets nor Philosophers nor any other Which may be accounted another Argument for a Deity But that Religion is no Figment of Politicians will further unquestionably appear from that which now shall follow As the Religion of an Oath is a Necessary Vinculum of Civil Society so Obligation in Conscience respecting the Deity as its Original and as the Punisher of the Violation thereof is the very Foundation of all Civil Sovereignty For Pacts and Covenants into which some would resolve all Civil Power without this Obligation in Conscience are nothing but meer Words and Breath and the Laws and Commands of Civil Sovereigns do not make Obligation but presuppose it as a thing in Order of Nature Before them and without which they would be Invalid Which is a Truth so Evident that the Writer De Cive could not dissemble it though he did not rightly understand this Natural Obligation but acknowledgeth it in these words Obligatio ad Obedientiam Civilem cujus vi Leges Civiles Validae sunt Omni Lege Civili prior est Quòd si quis Princeps Summus Legem Civilem in hanc Formulam conciperet Non Rebellabis nihil efficeret Nam nisi prius Obligentur Cives ad Obediendum hoc est ad Non Rebellandum Omnis Lex Invalida est si prius Obligentur est Superflua The Obligation to Civil Obedience by the force of which all the Civil Laws become Valid is before those Civil Laws And if any Prince should make a Law to this purpose That no man should Rebel against him this would signifie nothing because unless they to whom it is made were before Obliged to Obey or not to Rebel the Law is Invalid and if they were then is it
and upon that Contingency that arises from the Indifferency or Equality of Eligibility in Objects Lastly such things as do not at all depend upon External Circumstances neither nor are caused by things Natural Anteceding but by some Supernatural Power I say when such Future Events as these are foretold and accordingly come to pass this can be ascribed to no other but such a Being as Comprehends Sways and Governs all and is by a peculiar Priviledge or Prerogative of its own Nature Omniscient Epicurus though really he therefore rejected Divination and Prediction of Future Events because he denied Providence yet did he pretend this further reason also against it because it was a thing Absolutely Inconsistent with Liberty of Will and Destructive of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divination is a thing which hath no Existence nor possibility in nature and if there were such a thing it would take away all Liberty of Will and leave nothing in mens own Power Thus also Carneades in Cicero maintained Ne Apollinem quidem futura posse dicere nisi ea quorum Causas Natura ita contineret ut ea fieri necesse esset That Apollo himself was not able to foretel any future Events other than such as had Necessary Causes in Nature antecedent And some Christian Theists of latter times have in like manner denied to God Almighty all Foreknowledge of Humane Actions upon the same pretence as being both Inconsistent with mens Liberty of Will and Destructive thereof For say they If mens Actions be Free then are they Vnforeknowable they having no Necessary Causes and again if there be any Foreknowledge of them then can they not be Free they being ipso facto Necessitated thereby But as it is certain that Prescience does not destroy the Liberty of mans Will or impose any Necessity upon it mens Actions being not therefore Future because they are Foreknown but therefore Foreknown because Future and were a thing never so Contingent yet upon supposition that it will be Done it must needs have been Future from all Eternity So is it extreme Arrogance for men because themselves can Naturally Foreknow nothing but by some Causes Antecedent as an Eclipse of the Sun or Moon therefore to presume to measure the knowledge of God Almighty according to the same Scantling and to deny him the Prescience of Humane Actions not considering that as his Nature is Incomprehensible so his Knowledge may well be looked upon by us as such too that which is Past our finding out and Too Wonderful for us However it must be acknowledged for an Undoubted Truth that no Created Being can Naturally and Of it self Foreknow any Future Events otherwise than in and by their Causes Anteceding If therefore we shall find that there have been Predictions of such Future Events as had no Necessary Antecedent Causes as we cannot but grant such Things therefore to be Foreknowable So must we needs from thence infer the Existence of a God that is a Being Supernatural Infinitely Perfect and Omniscient since such Predictions as these could have proceeded from no other Cause That there is Foreknowledge of Future Events to men Naturally Unforeknowable hath been all along the Perswasion of the Generality of Mankind Thus Cicero Vetus opinio est jam usque ab Heroicis ducta temporibus eaque Populi Romani omnium Gentium firmata consensu Versari quandam inter homines Divinationem quam Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant id est Praesensionem Scientiam rerum Futurarum This is an Old opinion derived down all along from the Heroick times or the Mythical Age and not only entertained amongst the Romans but also confirmed by the consent of all Nations that there is such a thing as Divination and Presension or Foreknowledge of Future Events And the same Writer elsewhere in the Person of Balbus Quamvis nihil tam irridet Epicurus quà m Praedictionem rerum Futurarum mihi videtur tamen vel maximè confirmare Deorum Providentia consuli rebus humanis Est enim profecto Divinatio quae multis locis rebus temporibus apparet cùm in privatis tùm maximè in publicis Multa cernunt Aruspices multa Augures provident multa Oraculis providentur multa Vaticinationibus multa Somniis multa portentis Although Epicurus deride nothing more then the Prediction of Fature things yet does this seem to me to be a great confirmation of the Providence of the Gods over humane affairs Because there is certainly Divination it appearing in many Places Things and Times and that not only Private but especially Publick Soothsayers foresee many things the Augurs many many things are declared by Oracles many by Prophecies many by Dreams and many by Portents And indeed that there were even amongst the Pagans Predictions of Future Events not discoverable by any Humane Sagacity which accordingly came to pass and therefore argue a Knowledge superiour to that of men or that there are certain Invisible understanding Beings or Spirits seems to be undenyable from History And that the Augurs themselves were sometimes not Unassisted by these Officious Genii is plain from that of Attius Navius before mentioned as the circumstances thereof are related by Historians that Tarquinius Priscus having a mind to try what there was in this skill of Augury Dixit ei se cogitare quiddam id possétne fieri consuluit Ille augurio acto posse respondet Tarquinius autem dixit se cogitasse cotem novaculâ posse praecidi tum Attium jussisse experiri ita Cotem in Comitium illatam inspectante Rege Populo novaculâ esse discissam Told Navius that he Thought of something and he would would know of him Whether it could be done or no. Navius having performed his Augurating Ceremonies replied that the thing might be done Whereupon Priscus declared what his Thought was namely that a Whetstone might be cut in two with a Razor Navius willed them to make trial wherefore a Whetstone being brought immediatly into the Court it was in the sight of the King and all the People divided with a Razor But the Predictions amongst those Pagans were for the most part only of the Former Kind such as proceeded meerly from the Natural Presaging Faculty of these Demons this appearing from hence because their Oracles were often expressed Ambiguously so as that they might be taken either way those Demons themselves it seems being then not confident of the Event as also because they were sometimes plainly mistaken in the Events And from hence it was that they seldom Ventured to foretel any Events remotely distant but only what were nigh at hand and shortly to come to pass and therefore might be Probably Conjectured of from things then in being Notwithstanding which we acknowledge that there are some Few Instances of Predictions amongst the Pagans of the other Kind Such as that intimated by Cicero in his Book of Divination where he declareth the Doctrine of Diodorus concerning Necessity
to speak more particularly it is certain notwithstanding all the vain pretences of Lucretius and other Atheists or Semi-Atheists to the contrary that Life and Sense could never possibly spring out of Dead and Sensless Matter as it s only Original either in the way of Atoms no Composition of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions being ever able to produce Cogitation or in the way of Qualities since Life and Perception can no more result from any Mixture of Elements or Combinations of Qualities of Heat and Cold Moist and Dry c. than from Unqualified Atoms This being undeniably Demonstrable from that very Principle of Reason which the Atheists are so fond of but misunderstanding abuse as shall be manifested afterward that Nothing can come from Nothing Much less could Vnderstanding and Reason in men ever have Emerged out of Stupid Matter devoid of all manner of Life Wherefore we must needs here freely declare against the Darknâ—ss of that Philosophy which hath been Sometimes unwarily entertained by such as were no Atheists That Sense may Rise from a certain Modification Mixture or Organization of Dead and Sensless Matter as also that Vnderstanding and Reason may result from Sense the plain consequence of both which is that Sensless Matter may prove the Original of all things and the only Numen Which Doctrine therefore is doubtless a main piece of the Philosophy of the Kingdom of Darkness But this Darkness hath been of late in great measure dispelled by the Light of the Atomick Philosophy restored as it was in its first Genuine and Virgin State Undeflowred as yet by Atheists this clearly Showing how far Body and Mechanism can go and that Life and Cogitation can never Emerge out from thence it being built upon that Fundamental Principle as we have made it evident in the first Chapter that Nothing can come from Nothing And Strato and the Hylozoick Atheists were so well aware and so sensible of this that all Life and Vnderstanding could not possibly be Generated or Made but that there must be some Fundamental and Substantial or Eternal Vnmade Life and Knowledge that they therefore have thought necessary to attribute Life and Perception or Vnderstanding with Appetite and Self-moving Power to all Matter as such that so it might be thereby fitly Qualified to be the Original of all things Than which Opinion as nothing can be more Monstrous so shall we else where Evince the Impossibility thereof In the mean time we doubt not to averr that the Argument proposed is a Sufficient Demonstration of the Impossibility of Atheism which will be further manifested in our Answer to the Second Atheistick Objection against a Divine Creation because Nothing can come from Nothing But this Controversie betwixt Theists and Atheists may be yet more Particularly Stated from the Idea of God as including Mind or Vnderstanding in it Essentially Viz. Whether Mind be Eternal and Vnmade as being the Maker of all or else Whether all Mind were it self Made or Generated and that out of Sensless Matter For according to the Doctrine of the Pagan Theists Mind was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Oldest of all things Senior to the World and Elements and by Nature hath a Princely and Lordly Dominion over all But according to those Atheists who make Matter or Body devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding to be the First Principle Mind must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Post-Nate thing Younger than the world a Weak Umbratil and Evanid Image and next to Nothing And the Controversie as thus Stated may be also Clearly and Satisfactorily decided For First we say That as it is certainly True That If there had been once Nothing at all there could never have been Any thing So is it true likewise that If once there had been no Life in the whole Universe but all had been Dead then could there never have been any Life or Motion in it and If once there had been no Mind Vnderstanding or Knowledge then could there never have been any Mind or Vnderstanding produced Because to suppose Life and Vnderstanding to rise and spring up out of that which is altogether Dead Sensless as it s only Original is plainly to Suppose Something to come out of Nothing It cannot be said so of other things as of Corporeal World and Matter that If once they had not been they could never Possibly have been because though there had been no World nor Matter yet might these have been produced from a Perfect Omnipotent Incorporeal Being which in it self Eminently containeth all things Dead and Sensless Matter could never have Created or Generated Mind and Vnderstanding but a Perfect Omnipotent Mind could Create Matter Wherefore because there is Mind we are certain that there was some Mind or other from Eternity without Beginning though not because there is Body that therefore there was Body or Matter from Eternity Vnmade Now these Imperfect Minds of ours were by no means Themselves Eternal or without Beginning but from an Antecedent Non-Existence brought forth into Being but since no Mind could spring out of Dead and Sensless Matter and all Minds could not Possibly be Made nor one produced from another Infinitely there must of necessity be an Eternal Vnmade Mind from whence those Imperfect Minds of ours were derived Which Perfect Omnipotent Mind was as well the Cause of all other things as of humane Souls But before we proceed to any further Argumentation we must needs take notice here that the Atheists suppose no small part of their strength to lie in this very thing namely their disproving a God from the Nature of Vnderstanding and Knowledge nor do they indeed swagger in any thing more than this We have already set it for the Eleventh Atheistick Argument That Knowledge being the Information of the Things themselves Known and all Conception the Action of that which is Conceived and the Passion of the Conceiver the World and all Sensible things must needs be before there could be any Knowledge or Conception of them and no Knowledge or Conception before the World as its Cause Or more briefly thus The world could not be made by Knowledge and Vnderstanding because there could be no Knowledge or Vnderstanding of the world or of any thing in it before it was made For according to these Atheists Things made Knowledge and not Knowledge Things they meaning by Things here such only as are Sensible and Corporeal So that Mind and Vnderstanding could not be the Creator of the world and these Sensible things it self being the Creature of them a Secondary Derivative Result from them or a Phantastick Image of them the Youngest and most Creaturely thing in the whole world Whence it follows that to Suppose Mind and Vnderstanding to be the Maker of all things would be no better Sense that if one should suppose the Images in Ponds and Rivers to be the Makers of the Sun Moon and Stars and other things represented in them And upon such a
Ground as this does Modern Writer presume to determine that Knowledge and Vnderstanding are not to be attributed to God Almighty because they Imply Imperfection and Dependence upon Corporeal things without Quoniam Scientia Intellectus in nobis nihil aliud sunt quà m suscitatus à Rebus Externis Organa prementibus Animi Tumultus non est putandum aliquid tale accidere Deo Signum enim est Potentiae ab alio dependentis Which is again Englished thus Knowledge and Vnderstanding being in us nothing else but a Tumult in the Mind raised by External things that press the Organical parts of mans Body there is no such thing in God nor can they be attributed to him they being things which depend upon Natural Causes Where this Writer thus denying Knowledge and Vnderstanding to God upon pretence that it speaks Imperfection and Dependence upon External Corporeal things it being nothing but a Tumult raised by the Motions and Pressures of them he must needs Absolutely deny the First Principle of all things to be any Knowing Vnderstanding Nature unless he had asserted some other kind of Knowledge distinct from that of men and clearly attributed the Same to God Almighty Hitherto the sense of Atheists Now we shall for the present only so far forth concern our selves in Confuting this Atheistick Doctrine as to lay a Foundation thereby for the Demostration of the Contrary Namely the Existence of a God or a Mind Before the World from the Nature of Knowledge and Vnderstanding First therefore it is a Sottish Conceit of these Atheists proceeding from their not attending to their own Cogitations that not only Sense but also Knowledge and Vnderstanding in Men is but a Tumult raised from Corporeal things without pressing upon the Organs of their Body or else as they declare themselves more distinctly nothing but the Activity of Sensible Objects upon them and their Passion from them For if this were true then would every thing that Suffered and Reacted Motion especially Polite Bodies as Looking-Glasses have something both of Sense and of Vnderstanding in them It is plain that there comes nothing to us from Bodies without us but only Local Motion and Pressure Neither is Sense it self the meer Passion of those Motions but the Perception of their Passions in a way of Phancy But Sensible things themselves as for example Light and Colours are not Known or Vnderstood either by the Passion or the Phancy of Sense not by any thing meerly Forreign and Adventitious but by Intelligible Ideas Exerted from the Mind it self that is by something Native and Domestick to it nothing being more true than this of Boetius that Omne quod Scitur non ex Sua sed ex Comprehendentium Naturâ Vi Facultate Cognoscitur Whatsoever is Known is Known not by own Force and Power but by the Force and Power the Vigour and Activity of that thing it self which Knows or Comprehends it Wherefore besides the Phantasms of Singular Bodies or of Sensible things Existing without us which are not meer Passions neither it is plain that our Humane Mind hath other Cogitations or Conceptions in it namely the Ideas of the Intelligible Natures and Essences of things which are Vniversal and by and under which it understands Singulars It is a Ridiculous Conceit of a Modern Atheistick Writer that Vniversals are nothing else but Names attributed to many Singular Bodies because whatsoever Is is Singular For though whatsoever Exist without the Mind be Singular yet is it plain that there are Conceptions in our Minds Objectively Vniversal Which Universal Objects of our Mind though they Exist not as such any where without it yet are they not therefore Nothing but have an Intelligible Entity for this very reason because they are Conceivable for since Non-Entity is not Conceivable whatsoever is Conceivable and an Object of the Mind is therefore Something And as for Axiomatical Truths in which something is affirmed or denied as these are not all Passions from Bodies without us for what Local Motions could Impress this Common Notion upon our Minds That Things which agree in one Third agree amongst themselves or any other so neither are these things only gathered by Induction from repeated and reiterated Sensations we clearly apprehending at once that it is Impossible they should be otherwise Thus Aristotle Ingeniously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is evident that there is no knowledge of the Vniversal Theorems of Geometry by Sense For if we could perceive by Sense that the Three Angles of a Triangle were equal to Two Right yet should we not rest satisfied in this as having therefore a sufficient Knowledge hereof but would seek further after a Demonstration of it Sense reaching only to Singulars but Knowledge to Vniversals When from the Vniversal Idea of a Triangle which is neither here nor there nor any where without our Mind but yet hath an Intelligible Entity we see a plain necessity that its Three Angles must be Equal to two Right then do we know the Truth of this Vniversal Theorem and not before as also we Understand that every Singular Triangle so far as it is true hath this Property in it Wherefore the Knowledge of this and the like Truths is not derived from Singulars nor do we arrive to them in way of Ascent from Singulars to Vniversals but on the contrary having first found them in the Vniversals we afterwards Descending apply them to Singulars so that our Knowledge here is not After Singular Bodies and Secundarily or Derivatively From them but in order of Nature Before them and Proleptical to them Now these Vniversal Conceptions some of which are also Abstract as Life Sense Reason Knowledge and the like many of them are of such things whose Singulars do not at all fall under Sense which therefore could never possibly be Impressed upon us from Singular Bodies by Local Motion and again some such as though they belong to Corporeal and Sensible things yet as their Accuracy cannot be reached to by Sense so neither did they ever Exist in that Matter of this lower world which here encompasseth us and therefore could not be stamped upon us from without as for example the Ideas of a Perfect Strait Line and a Plain Superficies or of an exact Triangle Circle Sphere or Cube no Material thing here amongst us being terminated in so Strait Lines but that even by Microscopes there may be discovered much Irregularity and Deformity in them and very probable it is that there are no Perfectly Strait Lines no such Triangles Circles Spheres or Cubes as answer to the Exactness of our Conceptions in any part of the whole Material Universe nor never will be Notwithstanding which they are not Absolute Non-Entities since we can Demonstrate things concerning them and though they never were nor will be yet are they Possible to Exist since nothing can be Conceived but it either Is or else is Possible to be The Humane Mind therfore hath a Power
of framing Ideas and Conceptions not only of what Actually Is but also of things which never were nor perhaps will be they being only Possible to be But when from our Conceptions we conclude of some things that though they are Not yet they are Possible to be since nothing that Is not can be Possible to be unless there be something Actually in Being which hath sufficient Power to produce it we do Implicitely suppose the Existence of a God or Omnipotent Being thereby which can make whatsoever is Conceivable though it yet be not to Exist and therefore Material Triangles Circles Spheres Cubes Mathematically Exact The Result of what we have hitherto said is this that Since Singular Bodies are not the only Objects of our Mind and Cogitation it having also Vniversal and Abstract Ideas of the Intelligible Natures or Essences of things some of which are such whose Singulars do not at all fall under Sense others though they belong to Bodies yet Sense can never reach to them nor were they ever in Matter moreover since our Mind can conceive of things which no where Actually Exist but are only Possible and can have such a Demonstrative Science of Vniversal Truths as Sense can never ascend to That therefore Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding it self is not the meer Image and Creature of Singular Bodies only and so Derivative or Ectypal from them and in order of Nature Junior to them but that as it were hovering aloft over all the Corporeal Vniverse it is a thing Independent upon Singular Bodies or Proleptical to them and in Order of Nature Before them But what Account can we then Possibly give of Knowledge and Vnderstanding their Nature and Original Since there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Intelligible in order of Nature before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intellection Certainly no other than this that the First Original Knowledge is that of a Perfect Being Infinitely Good and Powerful Comprehending it self and the utmost Extent of its own Fecundity and Power that is the Possibilities of all things their Ideas with their several Relations to one another all Necessary and Immutable Truths Here therefore is there a Knowledge before the world and all Sensible things that was Archetypal and Paradigmatical to the same Of which one Perfect Mind and Knowledge all other Imperfect Minds being Derived from it have a certain Participation whereby they are enabled to Frame Intelligible Ideas not only of Whatsoever doth actually Exist but also of such thing as never Were nor Will be but are Only Possible or Objects of Divine Power Wherefore since it is certain that even Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding it self is not a meer Passion from Sensible Things and Singular Bodies Existing without which is the only Foundation of that fore-mentioned Atheistick Argument that Things Made Knowledge and not Knowledge Things and consequently it must needs have some other Original moreover since Knowledge and Vnderstanding apprehend things Proleptically to their Existence Mind being able to frame Conceptions of all Possible Entities and Modifications and therefore in their Nature do plainly Suppose the Actual Existence of a Perfect Being which is Infinitely Fecund and Powerful and could produce all things Possible or Conceivable the First Original Knowledge or Mind from whence all other Knowledges and Minds are derived being that of an Absolutely Perfect and Omnipotent Being Comprehending It Self and the Extent of its own Power or of its Communicability that is the Ideas of all Possibilities of things that may be Produced by it together with their Relations to one another and their Necessary Immutable Truths accordingly as Wisdom and Understanding are described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Breath or Vapour of the Power of God and an Efflux or Emanation from the Glory of the Almighty a clear Mirrour or Looking Glass of his Active Energy or Vertue and the Image of his Goodness I say the Result of all is this that the Nature of Knowledge and Vnderstanding is so far from being a Ground of disproving a Deity as the Atheists ignorantly pretend that it affordeth a Firm Demonstration to us on the contrary of the Existence of a God a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending It self and the Extent of its own Power or all Possibilities of Things a Mind Before the world and Senior to All Things no Ectypal but Archetypal thing which comprehended in it as a kind of Intellectual World the Paradigm or Platform according to which this Sensible World was made And this may be Further confirmed from what is generally acknowledged and indeed cannot reasonably be denied by any viz. That there are Eternal Verities such as were never Made and had no Beginning nor can ever be Destroyed or Cease to be as for Example such Common Notions as these That Equals added to Equals make Equals That the Cause is in order of Nature before the Effect c. together with all Geometrical Theorems as Aristotle himself declareth he writing in his Ethicks after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concerning Eternal and Immutable Things no man does consult as for Example concerning the Diameter or Diagonial of a Square whether it should be Incommensurable to the Sides or no. Where he plainly affirmeth this Geometrical Theorem that the Diameter or Diagonial of a Square is Incommensurable to the Sides to be an Eternal Truth Neither are there such Eternal Truths as these only in Mathematicks and concerning Quantity but also in Ethicks concerning Morality there being here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr calls them Things Eternally Just which were not Made such at some certain times by Law and Arbitrary Command but being such in their own Nature Immutably were from Everlasting to Everlasting and as it is said of that Eternal Word which comprehends all Truth the Same Yesterday to Day and For ever For of these is that famous Passage of Sophocles in his Antigona 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are not things of to Day or Yesterday but they ever Live and no man knows their Date or from whence they came No man can declare the time when all Common Notions and Geometrical Truths were first Made and Generated out of Nothing or brought out of antecedent Non-Existence into Being Certain it is that such Truths as these that the Diameter and Sides of a Square are Incommensurable or that the Power of the Hypotenuse in a Rectangular Triangle is Equal to the Powers of both the Sides were not made by any Man 's Thinking or by those first Geometricians who Discovered or Demonstrated the same they Discovering and Demonstrating only that which Was. Wherefore these Truths were before there was any man to Think of them and they would continue still to be though all the men in the World should be Annihilated Nay though there were no Material Squares and Triangles any where in the whole world neither no nor any Matter at all for they were ever
Substance but a certain Middle Nature or Essence betwixt both To which Subterfuge of his that we may not quarrel about Words we shall make this Reply That unquestionably Whatsoever Is or hath any kind of Entity doth either Subsist by it self or else is an Attribute Affection or Mode of something that doth Subsist by it self For It is Certain That there can be no Mode Accident or Affection of Nothing and consequently that Nothing cannot be Extended nor Mensurable But if Space be neither the Extension of Body nor yet of Substance Incorporeal then must it of necessity be the Extension of Nothing and the Affection of Nothing and Nothing must be Mensurable by Yards and Poles We conclude therefore That from this very Hypothesis of the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists that Space is a Nature distinct from Body and Positively Infinite it follows undeniably that there must be some Incorporeal Substance whose Affection its Extension is and because there can be nothing Infinite but only the Deity that it is the Infinite Extension of an Incorporeal Deity just as some Learned Theists and Incorporealists have asserted And thus is the Argument of these Democritick and Epicurean Atheists against an Incorporeal Deity abundantly confuted we having made it manifest that from that very Principle of their own by which they would disprove the same it is against themselves Demonstrable To which it might be here further added that Epicurus who professedly opposed Plato's Incorporeal God as an Impossibility did notwithstanding manifestly Contradict himself when he asserted such a Democracy of Monogrammous Gods as were not Compounded of Atoms and Vacuum though according to him the only Principles of Body that so they might be Incorruptible nor yet could Touch or be Touched but were Penetrable as is declared in those Verses of Lucretius Tenvis enim Natura Deûm longeque remota Sensibus à nostris Animi vix mente videtur Quae quoniam manuum Tactum suffugit Ictum Tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet Tangere enim non quit quod Tangi non licet ipsum Though Tangibility and Impenetrability were elsewhere made by him the very Essence of Body and Lastly such as had not Corpus but Quasi-Corpus and therefore must needs be Really Incorporeal Though there is no doubt to be made but that Epicurus Colluded in all this himself not Believing a jot of it nor any such Gods at all But other Atheists there were who concluding likewise That whatsoever was Vnextended was Nothing were sensible of the Inconvenience of making Space thus to be a thing really distinct from Body from whence it would follow unavoidably that it was an Affection of Incorporeal Substance and therefore acknowledged not Two Natures of Extended Things but as we had it before in Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One only Nature and that Bodily Space being therefore to them either a meer Imaginary Thing that hath no Reality without our Minds but only a Phantasm of our own and in their Modern Language a kind of Ghost Apparition or Spectre of a Body or else indeed the very Extension of Body it self considered in General and Abstractly from this or that Singular Body Moveable And these men therefore framed their Argumentation against an Incorporeal Deity after this manner Nothing truly Is but what is Extended or hath a Certain Magnitude because that which is Vnextended and hath no Magnitude is No-where and consequently Nothing But whatsoever is Extended and in a Place is Body Therefore is there no other Substance besides Body and Consequently there can be no Incorporeal Deity Or else to put the Argument into a more Approveable Syllogistick Form Whatsoever is Extended is Body or Corporeal But Whatsoever Is is Extended Therefore Whatsoever Is is Body or Corporeal And by Consequence there can be no Incorporeal Deity To which Argumentation the Assertors of Incorporeal Substance have Replied Two manner of ways For First the Generality of the ancient Incorporealists taking it for granted that whatsoever was Extended in Magnitude and had Parts one without another was Divisible as also probably Impenetrable by any thing else Extended because there can be no Penetration of Dimensions and therefore no One Magnitude can be Imbibed or Swallowed up into another but must of necessity stand without it adding so much to the Quantity thereof They readily gave their Assent to that Proposition That Whatsoever is Extended into Longitude Latitude and Profundity is Body But being strongly perswaded of the Existence of some other Substance besides Body they denied that Other Proposition of theirs That Whatsoever Is is Extended or What is Vnextended is Nothing maintaining that besides Body or Extended Substance there was another Substance Incorporeal which therefore was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnextended and devoid of Quantity and Magnitude without Parts and Indivisible That Plato himself Philosophized after this manner might be proved from sundry Passages of his Writings as that in his Tenth De Legibus where he affirmeth that the Soul it self and those things which belong to it as Cogitative are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Order of Nature before the Longitude and Latitude and Profundity of Bodies Where doubtless his meaning was not as if there were a Longitude Latitude and Profundity in Souls but of a different kind from that Longitude Latitude and Profundity of Bodies and before it but that Longitude Latitude and Profundity being the Essential Properties of Body only Soul and Cogitation as devoid of these was in order of Nature Before them Again from that in his Timaeus where speaking of Place Space and Matter he condemneth this for a Vulgar Error That Whatsoever Is must of necessity be in some Place or other and what is in No Place is Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Third Kind is that of Space which gives room to all things that are Generated And when we look upon this we dreamingly affirm That every thing that Is must of necessity be in some Place and possess a certain Room and Space and that whatsoever is not Somewhere either in Earth or in Heaven is Nothing Which Drowsie or Dreaming Imagination saith he like a Ghost continually haunteth and possesseth men and that even then when they think of that True and Awakened Nature of the Deity Whereas this Philosopher himself discoursing elsewhere of God under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Vast Sea of Pulcritude describeth him after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As that which is not Any where either in Earth or in Heaven but it self alone by It self and With It self all other Beautiful things Partaking of it And as for Aristotles Sense in this Particular that he here departed not as he did in some other things from his Master Plato may appear from that Whole Chapter or Section at the End
Subtle Body such as Wind or Vapour Air or Aether it is certain that according to the Principles of the most ancient Atomick Philosophy before it was Atheized there being no such Real Quality of Subtlety or Tenuity because this is altogether Vnintelligible but this Difference arising wholly from Motion Dividing the Insensible Parts and every way Agitating the same together with a certain Contexture of those Parts it is not Impossible but that the Finest and most Subtle Body that is might become as Gross Hard Heavy and Opake as Flesh Earth Stones Lead or Iron and again that the Grossest of these Bodies by Motion and a Different Contexture of Parts might not only be Crystalized but also become as Thin Soft and Fluid as the Finest Aether So that there is no Specifick Difference betwixt a Thick and Thin a Gross and Fine an Opake and Pellucide and Hard and Soft Body but Accidental only and therefore is there no reason why Life and Vnderstanding should be thought to belong to the one rather than to the other of them Besides which the Reasons of the ancient Incorporealists afterwards to be produced will Evince that the Humane Soul and Mind cannot possibly be any Body whatsoever though never so Fine Thin and Subtle whose Parts are by Motion Dividable and Separable from one another But it is further Objected against this Vnextended Nature of Incorporeal Substances as they are said to be All in the Whole and all in every Part of that Body which they are united to or Act upon that this is an Absolute Contradiction and Impossibility because if the Whole of the Deity be in this One Point of Matter then can there be Nothing at all of it in the Next adjoyning but that must needs be another Whole and Nothing the same with the former In like manner if the whole Humane Soul be in this one Part of the Organized Body then can there be none at all of it in any other Part thereof and so not the Whole in the Whole To which Objection the ancient Incorporealists made this Twofold Reply First in way of Concession That this is indeed an Absolute Contradiction for an Extended Substance or Body to be All of it in every one Part or Point of that Space which the whole occupieth Thus Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Impossible for a Body or Extended Substance to be one and the same All of it in every Part of that Space which it possesses and for every Part thereof to be the same with the Whole But Secondly as for an Vnextended and Indistant Substance which hath no Parts one without another it is so far from Being a Contradiction that it should be All of it in every Part of that Body which it Acts upon that it is Impossible it should be otherwise only a Part in a Part thereof so that an Equal Quantity of both should Co-Exist together because this is to suppose an Vnextended Substance to be Extended We say it is Contradictious to the Nature of that Substance which is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devoid of Magnitude and of Quantity and of Parts Indistant and Indivisible that it should be otherwise United to or Conjoyned with an Extended Body then after this way which is look'd upon as such Conjuring namely that the Whole of it should be present with and Act upon every Part thereof Thus Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Form of Doctrine concerning Incorporeals is necessarily taken from the thing it self Viz. the nature of them as Vnextended and hath Nothing in it Aliene from that Essence as confounding the Corporeal Nature therewith Whatsoever is Vnextended and Indistant cannot possibly Co-Exist with an Extended Substance Point by Point and Part by Part but it must of necessity be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All of it one and the same Numerically that is like it self Vndividedly in every Part of that which it Acts upon Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Form when it is said that the Whole Deity is in every Part of the World and the Whole Soul in every Part of the Body is not to be taken in a Positive sense for a Whole consisting of Parts one without another but in a Negative only for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Whole Vndivided so that the meaning thereof is no more than this that the Deity is not Dividedly in the World nor the Soul Dividedly in the Body a Part here and a Part There but The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every where All of it Vndividedly Thus again Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If therefore God be every where it cannot possibly be that he should be so Dividedly because then himself would not be every where but only a Part of him Here and a Part of him There throughout the whole World himself being not one Vndivided Thing Moreover this would be all one as if a Magnitude were Cut and Divided into many Parts every one of which Parts could not be that whole Magnitude Lastly this would be the very same as to make God a Body Now if these things be Impossible then must that so much Disbelievd thing look'd upon as such a Puzzling Griphus or rather as Contradictious Non-sense be an Undoubted Truth according to the Common Notions of mankind that God is Every where to wit that He is All of him the same Whole Undividedly Every where The sum of all is That though it be an Absolute Contradiction for a Body or Quantum to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All of it in every Part of that Space which the Whole is in yet it is no Contradiction at all for an Vnextended and Indistant Being to be All of it Vndividedly in every Part of that Body it Acts upon but on the contrary it would be statly Contradictious to it to say that it is only Part of it in a Part this being to Divide an Indivisible thing into Parts The Fourth and Last Objection against Incorporeal and Vnextended Substance is from that Illocality and Immobility which will follow thereupon of Humane Souls and other Finite Particular Spirits such as Demons or Angels That this is not only in it self very Absurd to suppose these Finite and Particular Beings to be thus Illocal and Immoveable No where and Every where from whence it would seem to follow that they might Act the whole Corporeal Vniverse or take cognizance of all things therein Every where but also that this Conceit is Contradictious to the Very Principles of Religionists themselves and plainly Confuted by the same they acknowledging Universally that Humane Souls at Death departing out of this Body do Locally move from thence into a certain other Place Called Hades Hell or Inferi Now the Latter Part of this Objection is First to be Answered And this is indeed a thing which the ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended were not unaware
and them Thus Pletho declares their Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this Etherial Body is our Humane Soul Connected with its Mortal Body the whole thereof being Implicated with the whole Vital Spirit of the Embryo for as much as this it self is a Spirit also But long before Pletho was this Doctrine declared and asserted by Galen as agreeable both to Plato's and his own sense He first Premising that the Immediate Organ or Instrument of Sight was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Luciform and Ethereal Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore we may reasonably affirm that the Organ of Sight is a Luciform or Etherial Body as that of Hearing is Aerial that of Smelling Vaporous that of Tast Moist or Watery and That of Touch Earthy like being perceived by like And He accordingly thus understanding those Known Verses of Empedocles which as Aristotle otherwise interprets them are Nonsense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And this was that which Empedocles meant to signifie in those famous Verses of his it being certain that by the most Earthy of our Senses the Touch we perceive the Earthy Nature of Sensibles and by the most Luciform viz. that of Sight the Passions of Light by that which is Aerial Sounds by that which is Moist and Sponge-like Tasts and Lastly by the Organ of Smelling which is the Extremity of those Former Cavities of the Brain as replenished with Vapours Odours After which he writeth of the Essence or Substance of the Soul in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if we should now declare any thing concerning the Essence or Substance of the Soul we must needs affirm one or other of these Two things That either it self is this Luciform and Etherial Body which the Stoicks whether they will or no by consequence will be brought unto as also Aristotle himself or else that the Soul is it self an Incorporeal Substance but that this Luciform Etherial Body is its First Vehicle by which as a Middle it communicates with the other Bodies Wherefore we must say that this Etherial Lucid Body is Extended throughout the whole Brain whence is that Luciform Spirit derived that is the Immediate Instrument of Sight Now from hence it was that these Philosophers besides the Moral Purgation of the Soul and the Intellectual or Philosophical recommended very much a Mystical or Telestick way of Purifying this Etherial Body in us by Dyet and Catharms Thus the forementioned Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since to our Lucid or Splendid Body this Gross Mortal Body is come by way of Accession we ought to Purifie the Former also and free it from Sympathy with the Latter And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Together with the Purgations of the Rational Soul the Purification of the Luciform or Etherial Vehicle is also to be regarded that this being made Light and Alate or Wingy might no way hinder the Souls Ascent upward But he that endeavours to Purifie the Mind only neglecting the Body applies not himself to the whole Man Whereupon he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I therefore call this the Telestick or Mystick Operation which is Conversant about the Purgation of the Lucid or Etherial Vehicle And whereas Philosophy was by Plato and Socrates Defined to be a Continual Exercise of Dying which yet Pliny thought to be nothing but an Hypochondriacal or Atrabilarian Distemper in them in those words of his which Salmasius and other Criticks can by no means understand Est etiam quidam Morbus Per Sapientiam Mori That the Dying by Wisdom or Philosophy is also but a certain kind of Bodily Disease or Over-grown Melancholy Though they supposed this principally to consist in a Moral Dying to Corporeal Lusts and Passions yet was the design thereof partly Mystical and Telestick also it driving at this further thing that when they should put off this Terrestrial Body they might at once Dye also to the Spirituous or Aerial and then their Soul have nothing left hanging about it but only the Pure Etherial Body its Light winged Chariot which in Virgil's Language is Purumque relinqui Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Notwithstanding which the Pythagoreans and Platonists seem not to have been all of them of this Perswasion that the same Numerical Etherial Body which the Soul was at first Created with continueth still about it and adhereth to it Inseparably to all Eternity during its Descents into other Grosser Bodies but rather to have supposed that according to the Moral Disposition of the Soul it always finds or makes a Cognate and Suitable Body Correspondently Pure or Impure and consequently that by Moral Vertue and Philosophy it might again recover that Celestial Body which was lost by its Fall and Descent hither This seemeth to have been Porphyrius his sense in these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However the Soul be in it self affected so does it alwaies find a Body suitable and agreeable to its present Disposition and therefore to the Purged Souls does Naturally accrue a Body that comes next to Immateriality that is an Etherial one And probably Plato was of the same Mind when he affirmed the Soul to be alwaies in a Body but sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another Now from what hath been declared it appeareth already that the most Ancient Asserters of the Incorporiety and Immortality of the Humane Soul supposed it notwithstanding to be Always Conjoyned with a Body Thus Hierocles plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rational Nature having alwaies a Cognate Body so proceeded from the Demiurgus as that neither it self is Body nor yet can it be without Body but though it self be Incorporeal yet its whole Form notwithstanding is Terminated in a Body Accordingly whereunto the Definition which he gives of a Man is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rational Soul together with a Cognate Immortal Body he concluding there afterwards that this Enlivened Terrestrial Body or Mortal man is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Image of The True man or an Accession thereunto which is therefore Separable from the same Neither doth he affirm this only of Humane Souls but also of all other Rational Beings whatsoever Below the Supreme Deity and Above Men that they always Naturally Actuate a Body Wherefore a Demon or Angel which words are used as Synonymous by Hierocles is also Defined by him after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rational Soul together with a Lucid Body And accordingly Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That every Demon Superiour to our Humane Souls hath both an Intellectual Soul and an Ethereal Vehicle the Entireness thereof being made up or Compounded of these Two things So that there is hardly any other Difference left betwixt Demons or Angels and Men according to these Philosophers but only this That the Former are Lapsable into Aereal Bodies only
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
could not have thought it possible that ever any man should have given entertainment to such a Conceit but that this was rather a meer Slander raised upon Atheists were it not certain from the Records of Antiquity That whereas the old Religious Atomists did upon Good Reason reduce all Corporeal Action as Generation Augmentation and alteration to Local Motion or Translation from place to place there being no other Motion besides this Conceivable in Bodies the ancient Atheizers of that Philosophy Leucippus and Democritus not contented herewith did Really carry the business still on further so as to make Cogitation it self also Nothing but Local Motion As it is also certain that a Modern Atheistick Pretender to Wit hath publickly owned this same Conclusion That Mind is Nothing else but Local Motion in the Organick parts of Mans Body These men have been sometimes indeed a little Troubled with the Phancy Apparition or Seeming of Cogitation that is The Consciousness of it as knowing not well what to make thereof but then they put it off again and satisfie themselves worshipfully with this that Phancy is but Phancy but the Reality of Cogitation nothing but Local Motion as if there were not as much Reality in Phancy and Consciousness as there is in Local Motion That which inclined these men so much to this Opinion was only because they were Sensible and Aware of this that if there were any other Action besides Local Motion admitted there must needs be some other Substance acknowledged besides Body Cartesius indeed undertook to defend Brute Animals to be Nothing else but Machines but then he supposed that there was Nothing at all of Cogitation in them and Consequently nothing of true Animality or Life no more than is in Artificial Automaton as a Wooden Eagle or the like Nevertheless this was justly thought to be Paradox enough But that Cogitation it self should be Local Motion and Men nothing but Machines this is such a Paradox as none but either a Stupid and Besotted or else an Enthusiastick Bigotical or Fanatick Atheist could possibly give entertainment to Nor are such men as these fit to be Disputed with any more than a Machine is But whereas the Atheistick Objecter adds also over and above in the last place that no Vnderstanding Being can be Perfectly Happy neither and therefore not a God because Essentially Dependent upon something else without it This is all one as if he should say That there is no such thing as Happiness at all in Nature Because it is certain that without Consciousness or Vnderstanding nothing can be Happy since it could not have any Fruition of it self and if no Vnderstanding Being can be Happy neither then must the Conclusion needs be that of the Cyrenaicks that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happiness is a meer Chimera a Phantastick Notion or Fiction of Mens Minds a thing which hath no Existence in Nature These are the men who afterwards Argue from Interesse also against a God and Religion Notwithstanding that they confess their own Principles to be so far from promising Happiness to any as that they absolutely Cut off all Hopes thereof It may be further observed also in the last place that there is another of the Atheists Dark Mysteries here likewise couched That there is no Scale or Ladder of Entity and Perfection in Nature one above another the whole Universe from top to bottom being Nothing but One and the same Sensless Matter diversly Modified As also that Vnderstanding as such rather speaks Imperfection it being but a meer Whisling Evanid and Phantastick thing so that the most absolutely Perfect of all things in the Universe is Grave Solid and Substantial Sensless Matter of which more afterwards And thus is the Tenth Atheistick Argumentation also Confuted But the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists will make yet a further Assault from the Nature of Knowledge Vnderstanding after this manner If the World were Made by a God or an Antecedent Mind and Understanding having in it self an Exemplar or Platform thereof before it was made then must there be Actual Knowledge both in order of Nature and Time before Things whereas Things which are the Objects of Knowledge and Vnderstanding are unquestionably in order of Nature before Knowledge this being but the Signature of them and a Passion from them Now the only Things are Singular Sensibles or Bodies From whence it follows that Mind is the Youngest and most Creaturely Thing in the world or that the World was before Knowledge and the Conception of any Mind and no Knowledge or Mind before the world as its Cause Which is the Eleventh Atheistick Argumentation But we have Prevented our selves here in the Answer to this Argument which would make all Knowledge Mind and Vnderstanding Junior to the World and the very Creature of Sensibles having already Fully Confuted it and clearly Proved That Singular Bodies are not the only Things and Objects of the Mind but that it containeth its Immediate Intelligibles within it self which Intelligibles also are Eternal and That Mind is no Phantastick Image of Sensibles nor the Stamp and Signature of them but Archetypal to them the First Mind being That of a Perfect Being comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Omnipotence or the Possibilities of all things So that Knowledg is Older than all Sensible things Mind Senior to the World and the Architect thereof Wherefore we shall refer the Reader for an Answer to this Argument to Page 729. and so onwards where the Existence of a God that is a Mind before the World is Demonstrated also from this very Topick viz. the Nature of Knowledge and Vnderstanding We shall in this place only add that as the Atheists can no way Salve the Phaenomenon of Motion so can they much less that of Cogitation or Life and Vnderstanding To make which yet the more Evident we shall briefly represent a Syllabus or Catalogue of the many Atheistick Hallucinations or Delirations concerning it As First That Sensless Matter being the only Substance and all things else but Accidental Modifications thereof Life and Mind is all a meer Accidental Thing Generable and Corruptible Producible out of Nothing and Reducible to Nothing again and that there is no Substantial Life or Mind any where In Opposition to which we have before proved That there must of necessity be some Substantial Life and that Humane Souls being Lives Substantial and not meer Accidental Modifications of Matter they are consequently in their own Nature Immortal since No Substance of it self ever vanisheth into Nothing Again the Democriticks and other Atheists conclude that Life and Mind are no Simple and Primitive Natures but Secondary and Compounded things they resulting from certain Concretions and Contextures of Matter and either the Commixtures and Contemporations of Qualities or else the Combinations of those Simple Elements of Magnitude Figure Site and Motion and so being Made up of that which hath Nothing of Life or Mind in it For as Flesh is
So that it will still continue after death to live to God whether in a Body or without it Though according to Plato's Express Doctrine the Soul is never quite Naked of all Body he writting thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul is always conjoyned with a Body but sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another which many Christian Doctors also as is before declared have thought highly probable However our Christian Faith assures us that the Souls of Good men shall at length be clothed with Spiritual and Heavenly Bodies such as are in Aristotle's Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Which Christian Resurrection therefore to Life and Immortality is far from being as Celsus reproched it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Meer Hope of Worms And thus much shall suffice in way of Confutation of the First Atheistick Objection against Providence which is the Twelfth Argumentation propounded in the Second Chapter The Thirteenth Atheistick Argument or Second Objection against Providence is from the Seeming Confusion of Humane Affairs That all things fall alike to all the Innocent and the Nocent the Pious and the Impious the Religious and the Prophane nay That many times the Worser Causes and Men prevail against the Better as is intimated in that Passage of the Poet though in the Person of a Theist Victrix Causa Deo placuit sed Victa Catoni And That the Vnjust and Vngodly often flow in all kind of Prosperity whilst the Innocent and Devout Worshippers of the Deity all their Lives long conflict with Adversity Whereas were there a God and Providence as they conceive Prophane and Irreligious Persons would be presently Thunder-struck from Heaven or otherwise made remarkable Objects of Divine Vengeance as also the Pious Miraculously protected and rescued from Evil and Harms Now we grant indeed that this Consideration hath too much puzled and staggered Weak Minds in all Ages Because Sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily therefore is the heart of the Sons of men fully set in them to do Evil. And the Psalmist himself was sometime much perplexed with this Phaenomenon the Prosperity of the Vngodly who set their Mouths against Heaven and whose Tongue walketh through the Earth so that he was Tempted to think He had cleansed his Heart in Vain and Washed his hands in Innocency till at length entring into the Sanctuary of God his Mind became Illuminated and his Soul fixed in a firm Trust and Confidence upon Divine Providence Whom have I in Heaven but thee c. My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever For as some will from hence be apt to infer That there is no God at all but that blind Chance and Fortune steer all the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God So will others conclude That though there be a God yet he either does not know things done here below How does God Know and is there Knowledge in the most High or else will not so far Humble himself or Disturb his own Ease and Quiet as to concern himself in our Low Humane Affairs First of all therefore we here say That it is altogether unreasonable to require that Divine Providence should Miraculously interpose upon every turn in Punishing the Vngodly and Preserving the Pious and thus perpetually interrupt the Course of Nature which would look but like a Botch or Bungle and a violent business but rather carry things on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Still and Silent Path and shew his Art and Skill in making things of themselves fairly unwind and clear up at last into a Satisfactory Close Passion and Self Interest is blind or short sighted but that which steers the whole world is no Fond Pettish Impatient and Passionate thing but an Impartial Disinteressed and Vncaptivated Nature Nevertheless it is certain that sometimes we have not wanted Instances in Cases extraordinary of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God appearing as it were Miraculously upon the Stage and manifesting himself in taking immediate Vengeance upon Notorious Malefactors or delivering his Faithful Servants from imminent Dangers or Evils Threatned as the same is often done also by a secret and Undiscerned overruling of the things of Nature But it must be granted that it is not always thus but the Periods of Divine Providence here in this World are commonly Longer and the Evolutions thereof Slower According to that of Euripides which yet has a Tange of Prophaneness in the Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deity is Slow or Dilatory and this is the Nature of it For it is not from Slackness and Remisness in the Deity but either from his Patience and Long-suffering he willing that men should Repent or else to teach us Patience by his Example as Plutarch suggesteth or that all things may be carried on with the more Pomp and Solemnity or Lastly for other particular Reasons as Plutarch ventures to assign one why it might not be expedient for Dionysius the Tyrant though so Prophane and Irreligious a Person to have been cut off suddainly But Wicked and Ungodly Persons often times fail not to be met withal at last and at the long run here in this Life and either in Themselves or Posterity to be notoriously Branded with the Marks of Divine Displeasure according to that of the Poet Rarò antecedentem Scelestum c. It is seldom that Wickedness altogether scapes Punishment though it come slowly after limping with a Lame Foot and those Proverbial Speeches amongst the Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mills of the Gods do slowly wind But they at length to powder grind And Divine Justice steals on Softly with Woollen Feet but Strikes at last with Iron Hands Nevertheless we cannot say that it is always thus neither but that Wicked Persons may possibly sometimes have an Uninterrupted Prosperity here in this Life and no visible Marks of Divine Displeasure upon them but as the generously vertuous will not Envy them upon this account nor repine at their own condition they knowing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is neither any thing truly Evil to the Good nor Good to the Evil so are they so far from being staggered herewith in their Belief of a God and Providence that they are rather the more confirmed in their Perswasions of a Future Immortality and Judgment after Death when all things shall be set straight and right and Rewards and Punishments Impartially Dispensed That of Plutarch therefore is most true here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is a Necessary Connexion betwixt those Two things Divine Providence and the Permanence or Immortality of Humane Souls one and the same Reason confirming them both neither can one of these be taken alone without the other But they who because Judgment is not presently Executed upon the Vngodly blame the Management of things as Faulty and Providence as Defective are like such Spectators
Spectators of a Picture who condemn the Limner because he hath not put bright Colours every where whereas he had suited his Colours to every part respectively giving to each such as belonged to it Or else are we like those who would blame a Comedy or Tragedy because they were not all Kings or Heroes that acted in it but some Servants and Rustick Clowns introduced also talking after their Rude fashion Whereas the Dramatick Poem would neither be Compleat nor Elegant and Delightful were all those Worser Parts taken out of it Again We cannot certainly conclude that the Works of God and his Creation do not transcend those narrow Limits which Vulgar Opinion and Imagination sets them that commonly terminates the Universe but a little above the Clouds or at most supposes the Fixed Stars being all fastned in One Solid Sphere to be the Utmost Wall or Arched Roof and Rowling Circumference thereof Much less ought we upon such Groundless Suppositions to infer That the World might therefore have been made much Better than it is because it might have been much more Roomy and Capacious We explode the Atheistick Infinity of Distant Worlds nor can we admit that Cartesian seemingly more Modest Indefinite Extension of one Corporeal Universe which yet really according to that Philosophers meaning hath Nullos Fines no Bounds nor Limits at all For We perswade our selves that the Corporeal World is as Uncapable of a Positive Infinity of Magnitude as it is of Time there being no Magnitude so Great but that more still might be Added to it Nevertheless as we cannot possibly Imagine the Sun to be a Quarter or an Hundredth Part so big as we know it to be so much more may the whole Corporeal Vniverse far transcend those narrow Bounds which our Imagination would circumscribe it in The New Celestial Phaenomena and the late Improvements of Astronomy and Philosophy made thereupon render it so probable that even this Dull Earth of ours is a Planet and the Sun a Fixed Star in the Centre of that Vortex wherein it moves that many have shrewdly suspected that there are other Habitable Globes besides this Earth of ours which may be Sayled round about in a year or two as also more Suns with their respective Planets than One. However the Distance of all the Fixed Stars from us being so Vast that the Diameter of the Great Orb makes no discernible Parallax in the Site of them from whence it is also probable that the other Fixed Stars are likewise vastly distant from one another This I say widens the Corporeal Vniverse to us and makes those Flammantia Moenia Mundi as Lucretius calls them Those Flaming Walls of the World to fly away before us Now it is not reasonable to think that all this Immense Vastness should lie Waste Desert and Vninhabited and have nothing in it that could Praise the Creator thereof save only this One Small Spot of Earth In my Father's House saith our Saviour are Many Mansions And Baruch Chap. 3. appointed by our Church to be read publickly O Israel how great is the House of God and how large is the place of his Possession Great and hath no End High and Vnmeasurable Which yet we understand not of an Absolute Infinity but only such an Immense Vastness as far transcends Vulgar Opinion and Imagination We shall add but one thing more That to make a right Judgment of the Ways of Providence and the Justice thereof as to the Oeconomy of mankind we must look both Forwards and Backwards or besides the Present not only upon the Future but also the Past Time Which Rule is likewise thus set down by Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is that Doctrine of the Ancients to be neglected that to give an Account of Providence we ought to look back upon former Periods as well as forward to What is Future Indeed he and those other Philosophers who were Religious understood this so as to conclude a Pre-Existent State of all Particular Souls wherein they were at first Created by God Pure but by the Abuse of their own Liberty Degenerated to be a Necessary Hypothesis for the Salving that Phaenomenon of the Depraved State of Mankind in general here in this Life And not only so but they endeavoured in like manner to give an account also of those Different Conditions of Particular Persons as to Morality from their Infancy and their other different Fates here deriving them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their several Demeanors heretofore in a Pre-Existent State And there have not wanted Christian Doctors who have complied with these Philosophers in both But our Common Christianity only agrees thus far as to suppose a Kind of Imputative Pre-Exstence in Adam in whom all were created Pure and so consequently involved in his after miscarriage to salve the Pravity of Humane Nature upon which account we are all said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nature Children of Wrath. But as for the different Conditions of Persons and their several Fates more disadvantageous to some than others this indeed the Generality of Christian Doctors have been content to resolve only into an Occult but Just Providence And thus does Origen himself sometimes modestly pass it over As in his Third Book against Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It happeneth to many so to have been brought up from their very Childhood as that by one means or other they could have no opportunity at all of thinking of the Better things c. And it is very probable that there are Causes of these things in the Reasons of Providence though they do not easily fall under Humane Notice But there is yet a Third Atheistick Objection against Providence behind That is is impossible any One Being should Animadvert and Order all things in the Distant places of the world at once and were this possible yet would such Infinite Negotiosity be very Vneasie and Distractious to it and altogether Inconsistent with Happinâ—ss Nor wâ—â—ld a Being Irresistibly Powerful concern it self in the Good or Welfare of any thing else it standing in Need of nothing and all Benevoleâ—ce and Good will arising from Indigency and Imbecillity Wherefore such a Being would wholy be taken up in the Enjoyment of it self and its own Happiness utterly Regardless of all other things To which the Reply is First That though our selves and all Created Beings have but a Finite Animadversion and Narrow Sphere of Activity yet does it not therefore follow that the Case must be the same with the Deity supposed to be a Being Infinitely Perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath no manner of Defect either of Knowledge or Power in it But this is a meer Idolum Specus an Idol of the Cave or Den Men Measuring the Deity by their own Scantling and Narrowness And indeed were there Nothing at all but what we our selves could fully Comprehend there could be no God Were the Sun an Animal and had Life
the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ought it self Decreeing Willing and Acting Neither does God Punish any out of a delight in Punishment or in the Evil and Suffering of the Persons Punished but to those who are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether Incurable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Punishment is Physick in order to their recovery and amendment so that the Sourse and Fountain thereof is Goodness to the Persons themselves Punished But to such as are Incurable the Punishment inflicted on them is Intended for the Good of the Whole So that this Attribute of Justice in God doth not at all Clash with the Attribute of Goodness it being but a Branch thereof or particular Modification of the same Goodness and Justice in God are alwayes Complicated together neither his Goodness being Fondness nor his Justice Cruelty but he being both Good in Punishing and Just in Rewarding and Dispensing Benefits Wherefore it can be the Interest of none that there should be no God nor Immortality unless perhaps of such Desperately and Incurably Wicked persons who abandoning their true Interest of being Good have thereupon no other Interest now left them than Not to be or become Nothing To be without a God is to be without Hope in the World for Atheists can have neither Faith nor Hope in Sensless Matter and the Fortuitous Motions thereof And though an understanding Being have never so much Enjoyment of it self for the present yet could it not possibly be Happy without Immortality and Security of the Future Continuance thereof But the Atheists conclude that there is Nothing Immortal and that all Life Perishes and Vanishes into Nothing and consequently also that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happiness is a thing that hath no Existence in Nature a meer Figment and Chimaera or Idle Wish and vain Dream of Mortals Wherefore it cannot be the Interest of Mankind that this Hypothesis should be True which thus plainly cuts off all Hope from men and leaves them in an utter Impossibility of being ever Happy God is such a Being as if he could be supposed not to be there is nothing which any who are not desperately engaged in Wickedness no not Atheists themselves could possibly more Wish for or Desire To Believe a God is to Believe the Existence of all Possible Good and Perfection in the Universe It is to Believe That things are as they Should be and That the World is so well Framed and Governed as that the Whole System thereof could not Possibly have been Better For Peccability arises from the Necessity of Imperfect Freewilled Beings left to themselves and therefore could not by Omnipotence it self have been excluded and though Sin Actual might perhaps have been kept out by Force and Violence yet all things Computed it was doubtless most for the Good of the Whole that it should not be thus Forcibly Hindered There is Nothing which cannot be Hoped for by a Good man from the Deity Whatsoever Happiness his Being is Capable of and such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can now enter into the Heart of man to Conceive Infinite Hopes lie before us from the Existence of a Being Infinitely Good and Powerful and our Own Souls Immortality and nothing can Hinder or Obstruct these Hopes but our own Wickedness of Life To Believe a God and Do well are Two the most Hopeful Cheerful and Comfortable things that possibly can be And to this purpose is that of Linus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore as for Democritus and Epicurus whose Encomiums the Atheists here so loudly sing forth we say That however they have made so great a noise in the World and have been so much cried up of late yet were they really no better than a Couple of Infatuated Sophists or Witty Fools and Debauchers of Mankind And now come we to the Last Atheistick Argumentation wherein they endeavour to recommend their Doctrine to Civil Sovereigns and to perswade them that Theism or Religion is absolutely Inconsistent with their Interest Their Reasons for which are these Three following First Because the Civil Sovereign Reigns only in Fear and therefore if there be any Power and Fear greater than the Power and Fear of the Leviathan Civil Authority can signifie little Secondly Because Sovereignty is in its own nature absolutely Indivisible and must be either Infinite or None at all so that Divine Laws Natural and Revealed Superiour to it circumscribing it would consequently Destroy it Wherefore Religion and Theism must of necessity be Displaced and Removed out of the way to make room for the Leviathan to Roll and Tumble in Thirdly and Lastly Private Judgment of Good and Evil Just and Vnjust is also Contradictious to the very Being of a Body Politick which is One Artificial Man made up of many Natural men United under One Head having one Common Reason Judgment and Will ruling over the whole But Conscience which Religion introduceth is Private Judgment of Good and Evil Just and Vnjust and therefore altogether Inconsistent with true Politicks that can admit of no Private Consciences but only One Publick Conscience of the Law In way of Answer to the First of which we must here briefly Vnravel the Atheistick Ethicks and Politicks The Foundation whereof is first laid in the Villanizing of Humane Nature as that which has not so much as any the least Seeds either of Politicalness or Ethicalness at all in it nothing of Equity and Philanthropy there being no other Charity or Bâ—nevolence any where according to them save what resulteth from Fear Imbecillity and Indigency nothing of Publick and Common Concern but all Private and Selfish Appetite and Vtility or the Desires of Sensual Pleasure and Honour Dominion and Precellency before others being the only Measures of Good in Nature So that there can be nothing Naturally Just or Vnjust nothing in it self Sinful or Vnlawful but every man by Nature hath Jus ad omnia a Right to Every thing whatsoever his Appetite inclineth him unto or himself judgeth Profitable even to other mens Bodies and Lives Si occidere Cupis Jus babes If thou Desirest to Kill thou hast then Naturally a Right thereunto that is a Liberty to Kill without any Sin or Injustice For Jus and Lex or Justitia Right and Law or Justice in the Language of these Atheistick Politicians are directly contrary to one another their Right being a Belluine Liberty not Made or Left by Justice but such as is Founded in a Supposition of its Absolute Non-Existence Should therefore a Son not only murder his own Parents who had tenderly brought him up but also Exquisitely torture them taking pleasure in beholding their rusul Looks and hearing their lamentable Shreiks and Outcries there would be Nothing of Sin or Injustice at all in this nor in any thing else because Justice is no Nature but a meer Facticious and Artificial thing Made only by Men and Civil Laws And according to these mens
Apprehensions Nature has been very kind and indulgent to mankind herein that it hath thus brought us into the World without any Fetters or Shackles upon us Free from all Duty and Obligation Justice and Morality these being to them nothing but Restraints and Hinderances of True Liberty From all which it follows that Nature absolutely Dissociates and Segregates men from one another by reason of the Inconsistency of those Appetites of theirs that are all Carried out only to Private Good and Consequently that every man is by Nature in a State of War and Hostility against every man In the next place therefore these Atheistick Politicians further add that though this their State of Nature which is a Liberty from all Justice and Obligation and a Lawless Loose or Belluine Right to every thing be in it self Absolutely the Best yet nevertheless by reason of mens Imbecillity and the Equality of their Strengths and Inconsistency of their Appetites it proves by Accident the Worst this War with every one making mens Right or Liberty to every thing indeed a Right or Liberty to Nothing they having no security of their Lives much less of the Comfortable enjoyment of them For as it is not possible that all men should have Dominion which were indeed the most desirable thing according to these Principles so the Generality must needs be sensible of more Evil in such a State of Liberty with an Universal War against all than of Good Wherefore when men had been a good while Hewing and Slashing and Justling against one another they became at length all weary hereof and conceived it necessary by Art to help the Defect of their own Power here and to choose a Lesser Evil for the avoiding of a Greater that is to make a Voluntary Abatement of this their Infinite Right and to Submit to Terms of Equality with one another in order to a Sociable and Peaceable Cohabitation and not only So but also for the Security of all that others should observe such Rules as well as themselves to put their Necks under the Yoke of a Common Coercive Power whose Will being the Will of them all should be the very Rule and Law and Measure of Justice to them Here therefore these Atheistick Politicians as they first of all Slander Humane Nature and make a Villain of it so do they in the next place reproach Justice and Civil Sovereignty also making it to be nothing but an Ignoble and Bastardly Brat of Fear or else a Lesser Evil submitted to meerly out of Necessity for the avoiding of a Greater Evil that of War with every one by reason of mens Natural Imbecillity So that according to this Hypothesis Justice and Civil Government are plainly things not Good in themselves nor Desireable they being a Hinderance of Liberty and Nothing but Shackles and Fetters but by Accident only as Necessary Evils And thus do these Politicians themselves sometimes distinguish betwixt Good and Just that Bonum Amatur Per Se Justum Per Accidens Good is that which is Loved for it self but Just by Accident From whence it follows unavoidably that all men must of necessity be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnwillingly Just or not with a full and perfect but Mixt Will only Just being a thing that is not Sincerely Good but such as hath a great Dash or Dose of Evil blended with it And this was the Old Atheistick Generation of Justice and of a Body Politick Civil Society and Soveraignty For though a Modern Writer affirm this Hypothesis which he looks upon as the only true Scheme of Politicks to be a New Invention as the Circulation of the Blood and no older than the Book De Cive yet is it Certain that it was the commonly received Doctrine of the Atheistick Politicians and â—hilosophers before Plato's time who represents their Sense concerning the Original of Justice and Civil Society in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am to declare first what Justice is according to the sense of these Philosophers and from whence it was Generated They say therefore that by Nature Lawless Liberty and to do that which is now called Injustice and Injury to other men is Good but to Suffer it from others is Evil. But of the two there is more of Evil in suffering it than of Good in doing it Whereupon when men had Clashed a good while Doing and Suffering Injury the Greater part who by reason of their Imbecillity were not able to take the Former without the Latter at length Compounded the business amongst themselves and agreed together by Pacts and Covenants neither to Do nor Suffer Injury but to Submit to Rules of Equality and make Laws by Compact in order to their Peaceable Cohabitation they calling that which was required in those Laws by the Name of Just. And then is it added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is according to these Philosophers the Generation and Essence of Justice as a certain Middle thing betwixt the Best and the Worst The Best to exercise a Lawless Liberty of doing whatsoeves one please to other men without Suffering any inconvenience from it And the Worst to Suffer Evil from others without being able to revenge it Justice therefore being a Middle thing betwixt both these is Loved not as that which is Good in it self but only by reason of mens Imbecillity and their Inability to do Injustice For as much as he that had sufficient Power would never enter into such Compacts and Submit to Equality and Subjection As for Example if a man had Gyges his Magical Ring that he could do whatsoever he listed and not be seen or taken Notice of by any such a one would certainly never Enter into Covenants nor Submit to Laws of Equality and Subjection Agreeably whereunto it hath been concluded also by some of these Old Atâ—eistick Philosophers that Justice was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not properly and directly ones own Good the Good of him that is Just but another mans Good partly of the Fellow Citizens but chiefly of the Ruler whose Vassal he is And it is well Known that after Plato's Time this Hypothesis concerning Justice that it was a meer Factitious thing and sprung only from mens Fear and Imbecillity as a Lesser Evil was much insisted on by Epicurus also But let us in the next place see how our Modern Atheistick Philosophers and Politicians will mannage and carry on this Hypothesis so as to Consociate men by Art into a Body Politick that are Naturally Dissociated from one another as also Mâ—ke Justice and Obligation Artificial when there is none in Nature First of all therefore these Artificial Justice-Makers City-Mâ—kâ—rs and Authority-Mâ—kers tell us that though men have an Infinite Right by Nâ—ture yet may they Alienate this Right or part thereof from themselves and either Simply Renounce it or Transfer the same upon some other Person by means whereof it will become Unlawful for themselves afterwards to make use thereof Thus late Writer Mâ—n
different from the Hylozoick in that it takes away all Fortuitousness Subjecting all things Vniversally to the Fate of this One Methodical Unknowing Nature Page 132 XXVIII Possible that some in all ages might have entertained this Atheistical Conceit That all things are dispensed by One Regular and Methodical Senseless Nature nevertheless it seemeth to have been chiefly asserted by certain Spurious Heracliticks and Stoicks Vpon which account this Cosmo-plastick Atheism may be called Pseudo-zenonian Page 133 XXIX That besides the Philosophick Atheists there have been always in the World Enthusiastick and Fanatick Atheists though indeed all Atheists may in some sense be said to be both Enthusiasts and Fanaticks as being meerly led by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Irrational Impetus Page 134 XXX That there cannot easily be any other Form of Atheism besides these Four already mentioned because all Atheists are Corporealists and yet not all Corporealists Atheists but onely such of them as make the First Principle not to be Intellectual ibid. XXXI A Distribution of Atheisms Producing the forementioned Quaternio and shewing the Difference that is betwixt them Page 136 XXXII That they are but meer Bunglers at Atheism who talk of Sensitive and Rational Matter Specifically Differing And that the Canting Astrological Atheists are not at all considerable because not Vnderstanding themselves Page 137 XXXIII Another Distribution of Atheisms That they either derive the Original of all things from a meerly Fortuitous Principle and the Unguided Motion of Matter or else from a Plastick Regular and Methodical but Senseless Nature What Atheists denied the Eternity of the World and what asserted it Page 138 XXXIV That of these Four Forms of Atheism the Atomick or Democritical and the Hylozoick or Stratonical are the Principal which Two being once confuted all Atheism will be confuted Page 142 XXXV These Two Forms of Atheism being contrary to each other that we ought in all Reason to insist rather upon the Atomick nevertheless we shall elsewhere confute the Hylozoick also and further prove against all Corporealists that no Cogitation nor Life can belong to Matter Page 145 XXXVI That in the mean time we shall not neglect the other Forms of Atheism but Confute them all together as they agree in one Principle As also by way of Digression here insist largely upon the Plastick Life of Nature in order to a fuller Confutation as well of the Hylozoick as the Cosmo-plastick Atheism Page 146 1. That these Two Forms of Atheism are not therefore Condemned by us meerly because they suppose a Life of Nature distinct from the Animal Life however this be a thing altogether Exploded by some professed Theists therein symbolizing too much with the Democritick Atheists ibid. 2. That if no Plastick Artificial Nature be admitted then one of these two things must be concluded That either all things come to pass by Fortuitous Mechanism or Material Necessity the Motion of Matter Vnguided or else that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe all things Himself Immediately and Miraculously framing the Body of every Gnat and Fly as it were with his own hands forasmuch as Divine Laws and Commands cannot execute themselves nor be alone the proper Efficient Causes of things in Nature Page 147 3. To suppose the Former of these that all things come to pass Fortuitously by the Unguided Motion of Matter and without the Direction of any Mind a thing altogether as Irrational as Impious there being many Phaenomena both Above the Mechanick Powers and Contrary to the Laws thereof That the Mechanick Theists make God but an Idle Spectatour of the Fortuitous Motions of Matter and render his Wisedom altogether useless and insignificant Aristotle's Judicious Censure of this Fortuitous Mechanism and his Derision of that Conceit that Material and Mechanical Reasons are the onely Philosophical Page 148 4. That it seems neither Decorous in respect of God nor Congruous to Reason that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe all things Himself Immediately and Miraculously without the Subserviency of any Natural Causes This further Confuted from the Slow and Gradual Process of things in Nature as also from those Errours and Bungles that are Committed when the Matter proves Inept and Contumacious which argue the Agent not to be Irresistible Page 149 5. Reasonably inferred from hence That there is an Artificial or Plastick Nature in the Vniverse as a Subordinate Instrument of Divine Providence in the Orderly Disposal of Matter but not without a Higher Providence also presiding over it forasmuch as this Plastick Nature cannot Act Electively or with Discretion Those Laws of Nature concerning Motion which the Mechanick Theists themselves suppose Really Nothing else but a Plastick Nature or Spermatick Reasons Page 150 6. The Argeeableness of this Doctrine with the Sentiments of the best Philosophers of all Ages Anaxagoras though a professed Theist severely Censured both by Plato and Aristotle as an encourager of Atheism meerly because he used Material and Mechanical Causes more than Mental and Final Physiologers and Astronomers for the same Reason also vulgarly suspected of Atheism in Plato's time Page 151 7. The Plastick Artificial Nature no Occult Quality but the onely Intelligible Cause of that which is the Grandest of all Phaenomena the Orderly Regularity and Harmony of Things which the Mechanick Theists however pretending to Salve all Phaenomena give no accompt of A God or Infinite Mind asserted by these in vain and to no purpose Pag. 154 8. Two things here to be Performed To give an accompt of the Plastick Artificial Nature and then To show how the Notion thereof is Mistaken and Abused by Atheists The First General Accompt of this Nature according to Aristotle That it is to be conceived as Art it self acting Inwardly and Immediately upon the Matter as if Harmony Living in the Musical Instruments should move the Strings thereof without any External Impulse Page 155 9. Two Preeminences of Nature above Humane Art First That whereas Humane Art acts upon the Matter without Cumbersomely or Moliminously and in a way of Tumult or Hurlyburly Nature acting upon the same from Within more Commandingly doth its work Easily Cleverly and Silently Humane Art acteth on Matter Mechanically but Nature Vitally and Magically Page 155 10. The Second Preeminence of Nature That whereas Human Artists are often to seek and at a loss Anxiously Consult and Deliberate and upon Second thoughts Mend their former work Nature is never to seek or Vnresolved what to doe nor doth she ever Repent of what she hath done and thereupon correct her Formâ—r Course Human Artists themselves Consult not as Artists but always for want of Art and therefore Nature though never Consulting nor Deliberating may notwithstanding act Artificially and for Ends. Concluded that what is by us called Nature is Really the Divine Art Page 156 11. Nevertheless That Nature is not the Divine Art Pure and Abstract but Concreted and Embodied in Matter the Divine Art not Archetypal but Ectypal Nature differs from
the Divine Art or Wisedom as the Manuary Opificer from the Architect Page 155 12. Two Imperfections of Nature in respect whereof it falls short of Humane Art First That though it act for Ends Artificially yet it self neither Intends those Ends nor Understands the Reason of what it doeth for which cause it cannot act Electively The Difference betwixt Spermatick Reasons and Knowledge That Nature doth but Ape or Mimick the Divine Art or Wisedom being it self not Master of that Reason according to which it acts but onely a Servant to it and Drudging Executioner thereof Page 156 13. Proved that there may be such a thing as acteth Artificially though it self do not comprehend that Art and Reason by which its Motions are Governed First from Musical Habits the Dancer resembles the Artificial Life of Nature Page 157 14. The same further Evinced from the Instincts of Brute Animals Directing them to act Rationally and Artificially in order to their own Good and the Good of the Vniverse without any Reason of their own These Instincts in Brutes but Passive Impresses of the Divine Wisedom and a kind of Fate upon them Page 158 15. The Second Imperfection of Nature that it Acteth without Animal Phancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense or Consciousness and hath no express Self-Perception and Self-Enjoyment ibid. 16. Whether this Energy of the Plastick Nature be to be called Cogitation or no Nothing but a Logomachy or Contention about Words Granted that what moves Matter Vitally must needs do it by some Energy of its own distinct from Local Motion but that there may be a Simple Vital Energy without that Duplicity which is in Synaesthesis or clear and express Consciousness Nevertheless that the Energy of Nature may be called a certain Drousie Unawakened or Astonished Cogitation Page 159 17. Severall Instances which render it probable that there may be a Vital Energy without Synaesthesis clear and express Con-sense or Consciousness Page 160 18. Wherefore the Plastick Nature acting neither Knowingly nor Phantastically must needs act Fatally Magically and Sympathetically The Divine Laws and Fate as to Matter not meer Cogitation in the Mind of God but an Energetick and Effectual Principle in it And this Plastick Nature the True and Proper Fate of Matter or of the Corporeal World What Magick is and that Nature which acteth Fatally acteth also Magically and Sympathetically P. 161 19. That Nature though it be the Divine Art or Fate yet for all that is neither a God nor Goddess but a Low and Imperfect Creature it acting Artificially and Rationally no otherwise than Compounded Forms of Letters when Printing Coherent Philosophick Sense nor for Ends than a Saw or Hatchet in the hands of a skillfull Mechanick The Plastick and Vegetative Life of Nature the Lowest of all Lives and Inferiour to the Sensitive A Higher Providence than that of the Plastick Nature governing the Corporeal World it self ibid. 20. Notwithstanding which forasmuch as the Plastick Nature is a Life it must needs be Incorporeal One and the self same thing having in it an entire Model and Platform of the Whole and acting upon several Distant parts of Matter cannot be a Body And though Aristotle himself do no where declare this Nature to be either Corporeal or Incorporeal which he neither clearly doth concerning the Rational Soul and his Followers commonly take it to be Corporeal yet according to the Genuine Principles of that Philosophy must it needs be otherwise Page 165 21. The Plastick Nature being Incorporeal must either be a Lower Power lodged in Souls which are also Conscious Sensitive or Rational or else a distinct Substantial Life by it Self and Inferiour Soul That the Platonists affirm Both with Aristotle's agreeable Determination That Nature is either Part of a Soul or not without Soul ibid. 22. The Plastick Nature as to the Bodies of Animals a Part or Lower Power of their respective Souls That the Phaenomena prove a Plastick Nature or Archeus in Animals to make which a distinct thing from the Soul would be to Multiply Entities without Necessity The Soul endued with a Plastick Nature the Chief Formatrix of its own Body the contribution of other Causes not excluded Page 166 23. That besides the Plastick in Particular Animals Forming them as so many Little Worlds there is a General Plastick or Artificial Nature in the Whole Corporeal Vniverse which likewise according to Aristotle is either a Part and Lower Power of a Conscious Mundane Soul or else something depending thereon Page 167 24. That no less according to Aristotle than Plato and Socrates Our selves partake of Life from the Life of the Universe as well as we do of Heat and Cold from the Heat and Cold of the Vniverse From whence it appears that Aristotle also held the World's Animation which is further Vndeniably proved An Answer to Two the most considerable Places in that Philosopher objected to the contrary That Aristotle's First Immoveable Mover was no Soul but a Perfect Intellect abstract from Matter which he supposed to move onely as a Final Cause or as Being Loved and besides this a Mundane Soul and Plastick Nature to move the Heavens Efficiently Neither Aristotle's Nature nor Mundane Soul the Supreme Deity However though there be no such Mundane Soul as both Plato and Aristotle conceived yet may there be notwithstanding a Plastick or Artificial Nature depending upon a Higher Intellectual Principle Page 168 25. No Impossibility of other Particular Plasticks and though it be not reasonable to think every Plant Herb and Pile of Grass to have a Plastick or Vegetative Soul of its own nor the Earth to be an Animal yet may there possibly be one Plastick Artificial Nature presiding over the Whole Terraqueous Globe by which Vegetables may be severally organized and framed and all things performed which transcend the Power of Fortuitous Mechanism Page 171 26. Our Second Undertaking which was to Show How grosly those Atheists who acknowledge this Artificial Plastick Nature without Animality Misunderstand it and Abuse the Notion to make a Counterfeit God Almighty or Numen of it to the exclusion of the True Deity First In their Supposing That to be the First and Highest Principle of the Vniverse which is the Last and Lowest of all Lives a thing as Essentially Derivative from and Dependent upon a Higher Intellectual Principle as the Echo on the Original Voice Secondly In their making Sense and Reason in Animals to emerge out of a Sensless Life of Nature by the meer Modification and Organization of Matter That no Duplication of Corporeal Organs can ever make One Single Inconscious Life to advance into Redoubled Consciousness and Self-Enjoyment Thirdly In attributing some of them Perfect Knowledge and Understanding to this Life of Nature which yet themselves suppose to be devoid of all Animal Sense and Consciousness Lastly In making this Plastick Life of Nature to be meerly Corporeal The Hylozoïsts contending That it is but an Inadequate Conception of Body as the onely
where he calls his Ideas Animals Nor was Apuleius Singular herein Julian in his Book against the Christians going the very same way and no otherwise understood by S. Cyril than as to make the Invisible Gods worshipped by the Pagans to be the Divine Ideas A Phancy of the same Julian who opposed the Incarnation of the Eternal Word that Aesculapius was first of all the Idea of the Medicinal Art Generated by the Supreme God in the Intelligible World which afterwards by the Vivifick Influence of the Sun was Incarnated and appeared in Humane Form about Epidaurus And that this Pagan Doctrine Older than Christianity proved out of Philo writing of a Sun and Moon Intelligible as well as Sensible Religiously worshipped by the Pagans That is the Ideas of the Archetypal World And thus were these Ideas of the Divine Intellect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible Gods to Plotinus also Page 496 c. 501 Wherefore Julian Apuleius and those others who thus made all the Pagan Invisible Gods to be nothing else but the Divine Ideas the Patterns of Things in the Archetypal World supposed them not to be so many Independent Deities nor Really Distinct Substances Separate from one another but onely so many Partiall Considerations of One God Julian before affirming them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to have been Generated out of him so also to Coexist with him and Inexist in him Page 501 502 That the Pagans appointed some Particular God or Goddess by Name to preside over Every thing there Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing at all without a God to them appeareth from that Catalogue of their Ignoble or Petty Gods Collected by S. Austine out of Varro Now it is Incredible that they should think all these to be so many Single Substantiall Spirits of each Sex Really Existing apart in the World they must therefore needs take them to be so many Partiall Considerations of the Deity either in the way of the more High-flown Platonists as his Ideas Exemplarily and Vertually containing all things or else in that more Common and easâ—y way of the Generality as so many Several Denominations of him according to the Several Manifestations of his Power and Providence or as the Pagans in Eusebius declares themselves those Several Vertues and Powers of the Supreme God themselves Personated and Deifyed Which yet because they were not executed without the Subservient Ministery of Created Spirits Angels or Demons appointed to preside over such things therefore might these also Collectively taken be included under them Page 502 503 But for the fuller clearing of this Point that the Pagan Polytheism was in great part Nothing but the Polyonymy of one God Two Things here to be taken notice of First that the Pagan Theology Vniversally Supposed God to be Diffused thorough all to Permeate and Pervade all and Intimately to Act all Thus Horus Apollo of the Egyptians Thus among the Greeks Diogenes the Cynick Aristotle the Italick and Stoicall Philosophers Thus the Indian Brachmans before Strabo Thus also the Latin Poets and Seneca Quintilian Apuleius and Servius besides others Page 503 504 That Anaxagoras and Plato also though neither of them Confounded God with the World but affirmed him to be Unmingled with any thing yet Concluded him in like manner to Permeate and Pervade all things Plato 's Etymology of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as taken for a Name of God to this purpose in his Cratylus Where a Fragment of Heraclitus and his Description of God agreeably hereunto a most Subtle and Swift Substance that Permeates and Passes through every thing by which all things are made But Plato disclaiming this Corporeity of the Deity will neither have it Fire nor Heat but a Perfect Mind that Passes through all things Unmixedly Page 505 Wherefore no wonder if the Pagans supposing God to be Diffused thorough all things called him in the Several Parts of the World and Things of Nature by several Names as in the Earth Ceres in the Sea Neptune c. This accompt of the Pagan Polytheism given by Paulus Orosius That whilst they believed God to be in Many things they indiscreetly made Many Gods of Him Page 505 506 Further to be observed That many of the Pagan Theologers seemed to go yet a Strain higher they supposing God not onely to Pervade all things but also to Be himself all things That the Ancient Egyptian Theology ran so high Evident from the Saitick Inscription A strong Tang hereof in Aeschylus as also in Lucan Neither was this proper to those who held God to be the Soul of the World but the Language also of those other more Refined Philosophers Xenophanes Parmenides c. they affirming God to be One and All. With which agreeth the Authour of the Asclepian Dialogue that God is Vnus omnia One all things and that before things were made he did then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hide them or Occultly contain them all within himself In like manner Orpheus Page 506 507 This not onely a further Ground of the Polyonymy of One God according to the Various Manifestations of himself in the World but also of another Strange Phaenomenon in the Pagan Theology their Personating the Inanimate Parts of the World and Natures of things and bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Thus Moschopulus before cited and Arnobius This Plutarch thinks to have been done at first Metonymically onely the Effects of the Gods being called Gods as the Books of Plato Plato And thus far not disliked by him But himself complaineth that aftewards it was carried on further by Superstitious Religionists and not without great Impiety Nevertheless that Inanimate Substances and the Natures of things were formerly Deifyed by the Ancient Pagans otherwise than Metonymically proved from Cicero Philo and Plato For they supposing God to Pervade all things and to be All things did therefore look upon every thing as Sacred or Divine and Theologize the Parts of the World and Natures of Things Titularly making them Gods and Goddesses But especially such things as wherein Humane Utility was most concerned and which had most of Wonder in them Page 507 510 This properly the Physiological Theology of the Pagans their Personating and Deifying the Natures of things and Inanimate Substances That the Ancient Poetick Fables of the Gods were many of them in their first and true meaning thus Physiologically Allegorical and not meer Herology affirmed against Eusebius Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus Famous for thus Allegorizing the Fables of the Gods Chrysippus his Allegorizing an Obscene Picture of Jupiter and Juno in Samos Plato though no Friend to these Poetick Fables yet confesses some of them to have contained Allegories in them the same doth also Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Cicero likewise who affirmeth this Personating and Deifying the Natures of things to have filled the World with Superstition Page 510 512 Against Eusebius again That the whole Theology of the Pagans consisted not in thus Deifying the Natures of things and
Assert an Infinite Progress in the Causes of Motion according to Aristotle to assign no Cause thereof at all Epicurus though an Exploder of Qualities forced here to fly to an Occult Quality of Gravity Which as Absurd in Infinite Space and without any Centre of Rest so indeed nothing but to make his own Ignorance and He Knows not Why to be a Cause The Motion of Body from the Activity of something Incorporeal Though Motion taken for Translation be a Mode of Matter yet as it is taken for the Vis Movens a Mode or Energy of Something that is Incorporeal and Self-Active The Motion of the whole Corporeal Universe Originally from the Deity Thus the Ignorance of the Cause of Motion another Ground of Atheism Page 667 669 Thirdly The Atheists also Ignorant of the Cause of that Grand Phaenomenon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regular and Artificial Frame of the Mundane System and of the Bodies of Animals together with the Harmony of all They who boast they can give Causes of all things without a God able to give no Cause of this but onely that it Happened by Chance so to be This either to make the Absence of a Cause a Cause Chance being but the Absence of an Intending Cause or their Own very Ignorance of the Cause and They Know not Why to be a Cause or to make One Contrary the Cause of Another Confusion of Order and Harmony Chance of Art and Skill or Lastly to deny it to have any Cause at all since they deny an Intending Cause Page 669 But here the Atheists make several Pretenâ—es for this their Ignorance First That the World is not so Well Made but that it might have been much Better and many Flaws to be found therein whereas a God or Perfect Being would have Bungled in Nothing but have made all things after the Best manner But this a Twelfth Athâ—istick Argumentation and the Confutation thereof to be expected afterward Reasons why some Modern Theists give Atheists so much advantage here as to acknowledge Things be Ill Made whilst the Ancient Pagan Theists stood their Ground and generously maintained that Mind being the Maker of all things and not Blind Fortune or Chance nor Arbitrary Will and Irrational Humane Omnipotent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Absolutely the Bâ—st in order to the Good of the Whole so far as the Necessity of things would admit the Measure and Rule of Nature and Providence Page 669 670 Again the Atomick and Epicurean Atheists Pretend That though many things serve for Uses yet it does not therefore folâ—ow that they were made Intentionally for those Uses because things that Happen by Chance may have Uses Consequent Thus Lucretius and the old Atheistick Philosophers before Aristotle of the Parts of the Bodies of Animals and all other things The Answer That when things consist of many Parts all Artificially Proportioned together with much Curiosity as for example the Eye no man who considers the Anatomy thereof and its whole Structure can reasonably conclude that it Happened so to be made and the Use of Seeing Followed but that it was made Intentionally for the Use of Seeing But to maintain that not onely Eyes Happened to be so made and the Use of Seeing Followed but also Ears and a Mouth and Feet and Hands and all the other parts Organical and Similar without any of which the Whole would be Inept or Vseless all their several Uses Vn-Intended following Gross Insensibility and Stupidity Galen of the Use of Parts Page 671 672 Democritus his Dotages Countenanced also by Cartesius His Book of Meteors first written with design to Salve all those Phaenomena without a God but Vnsuccessfully Nevertheless we acknowledge That God and Nature doe all things in the most Frugal and Compendious way and that the Mechanick Powers are taken in so far as they will serviceably comply with the Intellectual Platform But Nature not Mechanical and Fortuitous onely but also Vital and Artificial the Archeus of the whole World ibid. Again Atheists further Pretend That though it may well seem strange that Matter Fortuitously Moved should at the very First fall into such a Regularity and Harmony as is now in the World yet not at all strange that Atoms moving from all Eternity and making all manner of Combinations and Contexturâ—s and trying all Experiments should after innumerable other Inept and Discongruous Forms at length fall into such a System as This. They say therefore That the Earth at first brought forth divers Monstrous and Irregular Shapes of Animals some wanting Feet some Hands some without a Mouth c. to which the Ancients added Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's mixtly Boviform and Hominiform Animals Though Epicurus ashamed to own these would seem to exclude them but without Reason But because we have now no such Irregular Shapes Produced out of the Earth they say that the Reason is because none could Continue and Propagate their kind by Generation but onely such as Happened to be fitly made Thus Epicurus and the Atheists before Aristotle They also adde hereunto their Infinite Worlds amongst which they Pretend not one of a Thousand or of Ten thousand hath so much Regularity in it as this of ours Lastly they Presage likewise that this World of ours shall not always continue such but after a while fall into Confusion and Disorder again and then may we have Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's as before Page 672 674 Nevertheless because this Universal and Constant Regularity of things for so many Ages together is so Puzzling they would perswade us that the Sensless Atoms Playing and Toying up and down from Eternity without any Care or Thought were at length Taught by the Necessity of things and driven to a kind of Trade or Habit of Artificialness and Methodicalness Page 674 675 To all which Atheistick Pretences Replied First That this an Idle Dream or Impudent Forgery That there was once an Inept Mundane System and in this World of ours all manner of Irregular Shapes of Animals not onely because no Tradition of any such thing but also because no Reason possibly to be given why such should not be Produced out of the Earth still though they could not Continue long That also Another Atheistick Dream That in this World of ours all will quickly fall into Confusion and Nonsense again And as their Infinite Worlds an Impossibility so their Assertion of the Irregularity of the supposed other Worlds well enough Answered by a Contrary Assertion That were every Planet a Habitable Earth and every Fixed Star a Sun having all more or fewer such Habitable Planets moving round about them and none of them Desert or Un-inhabited there would not be found so much as one Ridiculous or Inept System amongst them all the Divine Act being Infinite Page 675 Again That the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Atoms should in length of Time grow Artificial and contract a Habit or Trade of Acting as Regularly as if directed
by perfect Art and Wisedome This Atheistick Fanaticism Page 675 676 No more Possible That Dead and Sensless Matter Fortuitously Moved should at length be Taught and Necessitated by it self to produce this Artificial System of the World then that a dozen or more Persons unskilled in Musick and striking the Strings as it Happened should at length be Taught and Necessitated to fall into Exquisite Harmony Or that the Letters in the Writings of Plato and Aristotle though having so much Philosophick Sense should have been all Scribbled at randome More Philosophy in the Great Volume of the World then in all Aristotle's and Plato's Works and more of Harmony then in any Artificial Composition of Vocall Musick That the Divine Art and Wisedom hath printed such a Signature of it self upon the Matter of the Whole World as Fortune and Chance could never Counterfeit Page 676 677 But in the next place the Atheists will for all this undertake to Demonstrate That things could not Possibly be made by any Intending Cause for Ends and Uses as Eyes for Seeing Ears for Hearing from hence Because things were all in Order of Time as well as Nature before their Uses This Argument seriously propounded by Lucretius in this manner If Eyes were made for the Use of Seeing then of necessity must Seeing have been before Eyes But there was no Seeing before Eyes Therefore could not Eyes be made for the sake of Seeing Page 677 678 Evident that the Logick of these Atheists differs from that of all other Mortalls according to which the End for which any thing is designedly made is onely in Intention First but in Execution Last True that Men are Commonly excited from Experience of things and Sense of their Wants to Excogitate Means and Remedies but it doth not therefore follow that the Maker of the World could not have a Preventive Knowledge of whatsoever would be Usefull for Animals and so make them Bodies Intentionally for those Vses That Argument ought to be thus framed Whatsoever is made Intentionally for any End as the Eye for that of Seeing that End must needs be in the Knowledge and Intention of the Maker before the Actual Existence of that which is made for it But there could be no Knowledge of Seeing before there were Eyes Therefore Eyes could not be made Intentionally for the sake of Seeing Page 678 This the True Scope of the Premised Atheistick Argument however disguised by them in the first Propounding The Ground thereof Because they take it for granted That all Knowledge is derived from Sense or from the Things Known Pre-Existing without the Knower And here does Lucretius Triumph The Controversy therefore at last resolved into this Whether all Knowledge be in its own Nature Junior to Things for if so it must be Granted that the World could not be Made by any Antecedent Knowledge But this afterwards fully Confuted and Proved That Knowledge is not in its own Nature Ectypall but Archetypall and that Knowledge was Older then the World and the Maker thereof Page 679 But Atheists will Except against the Proving of a God from the Regular and Artificiall frame of things That it is unreasonable to think there should be no Cause in Nature for the Common Phaenomena thereof but a God thus Introduced to salve them Which also to suppose the world Bungled and Botcht up That Nature is the Cause of Naturall things Which Nature doth not Intend nor Act for Ends. Wherefore the Opinion of Finall Causality for things in Nature but an Idolum Specûs Therefore rightly banished by Democritus out of Physiology Page 679 680 The Answer Two Extreams here to be avoided One of the Atomick Atheists who derive all things from the Fortuitous Motion of Sensless Matter Another of Bigoticall Religionists who will have God to doe all things Himself Immediately without any Nature The Middle betwixt both That there is not onely a Mechanicall and Fortuitous but also an Artificiall Nature Subservient to the Deity as the Manuary Opificer and Drudging Executioner thereof True that some Philosophers have absurdly attributed their own Properties or Animal Idiopathies to Inanimate Bodies Nevertheless this no Idol of the Cave or Den to suppose the System of the World to have been framed by an Understanding Being according to whose Direction Nature though not it self Intending Acteth Balbus his Description of this Artificiall Nature in Cicero That there could be no Mind in us were there none in the Universe That of Aristotle True That there is more of Art in some things of Nature then in any thing Made by Men. Now the Causes of Artificiall things as a House or Clock cannot be declared without Intention for Ends. This Excellently pursued by Aristotle No more can the Things of Nature be rightly Vnderstood or the Causes of them fully Assigned meerly from Matter and Motion without Intention or Mind They who banish Finall or Mentall Causality from Philosophy look upon the Things of Nature with no other Eyes then Oxen and Horses Some pitifull Attempts of the Ancient Atheists to salve the Phaenomena of Animals without Mentall Causality Democritus and Epicurus so cautious as never to pretend to give an Account of the Formation of the Foetus Aristotle's Judgement here to be Preferred before that of Democritus Page 680 683 But nothing more Strange then that these Atheists should be justified in this their Ignorance by Professed Theists and Christians who Atomizing likewise in their Physiology contend that this whole Mundane System resulted onely from the Necessary and Unguided Motion of Matter either Turned Round in a Vortex or Jumbled in a Chaos without the Direction of any Mind These Mechanick Theists more Immodest then the Atomick Atheists themselves they supposing these their Atoms though Fortuitously moved yet never to have produced any Inept System or Incongruous Forms but from the very first all along to have Ranged themselves so Orderly as that they could not have done it better had they been directed by a Perfect Mind They quite take away that Argument for a God from the Phaenomena and that Artificiall Frame of things leaving onely some Metaphysicall Arguments which though never so good yet by reason of their Subtlety cannot doe so much Execution The Atheists Gratified to see the Cause of Theism thus betrayed by its professed Friends and the Grand Argument for the same totally Slurred by them Page 683 684 As this Great Insensibility of Mind to look upon the Things of Nature with no other Eyes then Brute Animals do so are there Sundry Phaenomena partly Above the Mechanick Powers and partly Contrary to the same which therefore can never be Salved without Mentall and Finall Causality As in Animals the Motion of the Diaphragma in Respiration the Systole and Diastole of the Heart Being a Muscular Constriction and Relaxation To which might be added others in the Macrocosm as the Intersection of the Planes of the Equator and Ecliptick or the Earth's Diurnall Motion upon an Axis not
Existent Being is Contingent to be or not to be which a Contradiction The Absurdity of this will better appear if instead of Necessary Existence we put in Actuall No Theists can otherwise prove that a God though supposed to Exist might not Happen by Chance to Be. Nevertheless God or a Perfect Being not here Demonstrated à Priori when from its own Idea The Reader left to make a Judgment Page 723 724 A Progymnasma or Praelusory Attempt towards the proving of a God from his Idea as including Necessary Existence First From our having an Idea of a Perfect Being Implying no manner of Contradiction in it it follows that such a thing is Possible And from that Necessary Existence Included in this Idea added to the Possibility thereof it further follows that it Actually Is. A Necessary Existent Being if Possible Is because upon the supposition of its Non-Existence it would be Impossible for it ever to have been Not so in Contingent things A Perfect Being is either Impossible to have Been or else it Is. Were God Possible and yet Not He would not be a Necessary but Contingent Being However no Stress laid upon this Page 724 725 Another Plainer Argument for the Existence of a God from his Idea Whatsoever we can frame an Idea of in our Minds implying no Contradiction this either Actually Is or else if it Be Not is Possible to Be. But if God Be Not he is not Possible to Be. Therefore He Is. The Major before Proved That we cannot have an Idea of any thing which hath neither Actuall nor Possible Existence Page 725 A Further Ratiocination from the Idea of God as including Necessary Existence by certain Steps First Certain that something or other did Exist of It self from Eternity without Beginning Again Whatsoever did Exist of It self from Eternity did so Exist Naturally and Necessarily and therefore there is a Necessary Existent Being Thirdly Nothing could Exist of It self from Eternity Naturally and Necessarily but what contained Necessary Self-Existence in its Nature Lastly A Perfect Being and nothing else containeth Necessary Existence in its Nature Therefore It Is. An Appendix to this Argument That no Temporary Successive Being could be from Eternity without Beginning This Proved before Page 725 726 Again The Controversie betwixt Atheists and Theists First Clearly Stated from the Idea of God and then Satisfactorily Decided Premised That as every thing was not Made so neither was every thing Unmade Atheists agree in both The State of the Controversie betwixt Theists and Atheists Whether that which being it self Unmade was the Cause of all other things Made were the Most Perfect or the Most Imperfect Being A certain kind of Atheistick Theism or Theogonism which acknowledging a God or Soul of the World presiding over the Whole supposed him notwithstanding to have Emerged out of Night and Chaos that is to have been Generated out of Sensless Matter Page 726 728 The Controversie thus Stated easily Decided Certain That Lesser Perfection may be derived from Greater or from that which is Absolutely Perfect but Impossible That Greater Perfection and Higher Degrees of Entity should rise out of Lesser and Lower Things did not Ascend but Descend That Life and Sense may Naturally rise from the meer Modification of Dead and Sensless Matter as also Reason and Understanding from Sense the Philosophy of the Kingdom of Darkness The Hylozoists so Sensible of this that there must be some Substantial Unmade Life and Understanding that Atheizing they thought it Necessary to Attribute Life and Understanding to all Matter as such This Argument a Demonstration of the Impossibility of Atheism Page 728 729 The Controversie again more Particularly Stated from the Idea of God as including Mind and Understanding in it Viz. Whether all Mind were Made or Generated out of Senseless Matter or Whether there were an Eternal Unmade Mind the Maker of all This the Doctrine of Theists That Mind the Oldest of all things of Atheists That it is a Postnate thing Younger then the World and an Umbratile Image of Real Beings Page 729 The Controversie thus Stated again Decided Though it does not follow That if once there had been no Corporeal World or Matter there could never have been any yet is it certain That if once there had been no Life nor Mind there could never have been any Life or Mind Our Imperfect Minds not Of Themselves from Eternity and therefore Derived from a Perfect Unmade Mind Page 729 730 That Atheists think their chief strength to lie here in their Disproving a God from the Nature of Understanding and Knowledge According to them Things made Knowledge and not Knowledge Things All Mind and Understanding the Creature of Sensibles and a Phantastick Image of them and therefore no Mind their Creatour Thus does a Modern Writer conclude That Knowledge and Understanding is not to be Attributed to God because it implieth Dependence upon Things without which is all one as if he should have said That Sensless Matter is the most Perfect of all things and the Highest Numen Page 730 A Compendious Confutation of the Premised Atheistick Principles Knowledge not the Activity of Sensibles upon the Knower and his Passions Sensible things themselves not Known by the Passion or Phancy of Sense Knowledge not from the Force of the Thing Known but of the Knower Besides Phantasms of Singular Bodies Intelligible Idea's Vniversal A late Atheistick Paradox That Universals nothing but Names Axiomatical Truths in Abstract Sciences no Passion from Bodies by Sense nor yet gathered by Induction from Many Singulars we at once Perceiving it Impossible that they should be otherwise An Ingenious Observation of Aristotle's That could it be Perceived by Sense the Three Angles of a Triangle to be Equal to Two Right yet would not this be Science or Knowledge Properly so called which is of Universals First and from thence descends to Singulars Page 730 732 Again We have Conceptions of things Incorporeal as also of such Corporeals as never did Exist and whose Accuracy Sense could not reach to as a Perfect straight Line and Plain Superficies an Exact Triangle Circle or Sphear That we have a Power of framing Idea's of things that never were nor will be but onely Possible Page 732 Inferred from hence That Humane Science it self not the meer Image and Creature of Singular Sensibles but Proleptical to them and in order of Nature Before them But since there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligibles before Intellection the onely true Account of Knowledge and its Original is from a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Power or the Possibilities of all things their Relations and Immutable Truths And of this one Perfect Mind all Imperfect Minds Partake Page 732 733 Knowledge therefore in the Nature of it supposeth the Existence of a Perfect Omnipotent Being as its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intelligible This Comprehending it self the First
Difference of Matter Page 781 The Third Argument against Un-Extended Substance That to be All in the Whole and All in every Part a Contradiction and Impossibility This Granted by Plotinus to be True of Bodies or that which is Extended That it cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Impossible that what hath no Parts should be a Part here and a Part there Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Whole in the Whole and Whole in every Part to be taken onely in a Negative Sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Undivided The Whole Undivided Deity Every-where and not a Part of it Here onely and a Part There Page 782 783 The Last Objection is against the Illocality and Immobility of Finite Created Spirits and Humane Souls onely That this not onely Absurd but also Contrary to that Generally Received Tradition amongst Theists of Souls Moving Locally after Death into another Place called Hades Two Answers of Plotinus to this First That by Hades may be meant onely the Invisible or the Soul 's Acting without the Body Secondly That if by Hades be Meant a Worser place the Soul may be said to be there where its Idol is But when this same Philosopher supposeth the Soul in Good men to be separable also from this Idol he departeth from the Genuine Cabbala of his own School That Souls alwaies united to some Body or other This asserted here by Porphyrius That the Soul is never quite naked of all Body and therefore may be said to be there wheresoever its Body is Page 784 785 Some Excerptions out of Philoponus wherein the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Soul's Spirituous or Airy Body after Death is Largely declared Page 785 787 Intimated here by Philoponus That according to some of these Ancients the Soul hath such a Spirituous Body here in this Life as its Interiour Indument which then adheres to it when its Outer Garment is stript off by Death An Opinion of some That the Soul may in this Spirituous Body leave its Grosser Body for some time without Death True That our Soul doth not immediately Act upon Bones and Flesh but certain Thin and Subtile Spirits the Instruments of Sense and Motion Of which Porphyrius thus The Bloud is the Food of the Spirit and the Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul Page 787 788 The same Philoponus further Addeth That according to the Ancients besides both the Terrestrial and this Spirituous or Airy Body there is yet a Third kind of Body peculiar to such as are Souls as are more thoroughly purged after Death called by them a Luciform and Heavenly and Aetherial and Starre-like Body Of this Proclus also upon the Timaeus who affirmeth it to be Un-organized as likewise Hierocles This called the Thin Vehicle of the Soul in the Chaldee Oracles according to Psellus and Pletho By Hierocles a Spiritual Body in a Sense agreeable to that of the Scripture by Synesius the Divine Body This Distinction of Two Interiour Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides the Terrestrial Body called by Plato the Ostreaceous no Invention of Latter Platonists since Christianity it being plainly insisted upon by Virgil though commonly not Vnderstood Page 788 790 That many of these Platonists and Pythagoreans supposed the Soul in its First Creation when Made pure by God to be Clothed with this Luciform and Heavenly Body which also did alwaies Inseparably adhere to it in its After-Descents into the Aërial and Terrestrial though Fouled and Obscured Thus Pletho And the same Intimated by Galen when he calls this the First Vehicle of the Soul Hence was it that besides the Moral and Intellectual Purgation of the Soul they recommended also a Mystical or Telestick way of Purifying the Aetherial Vehicle by Diet and Catharms This much Insisted on by Hierocles What Pliny's Dying By Wisedom or the Philosophick Death Page 790 792 But this not the Opinion of all That the Same Numerical Aetherial Body always adhereth to the Soul but onely that it every where either Finds or Makes a Body suitable to it self Thus Porphyrius Plato also seems to have been of that Perswasion Page 792 793 This Affirmed by Hierocles to have been the Genuine Cabbala of the Ancient Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards followed Hierocles his Definition of a Man A Rational Soul together with a Cognate Immortal Body he declaring This enlivened Terrestrial Body to be but the Idol or Image of the True man or an Accession to him This therefore the Answer of the Ancient Incorporealists to that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Created Incorporeals That these being all Naturally Vnited to Some Body or other may be thus said to be in a Place and Locally Moved And That it does not follow that because Created Incorporeals are Un-extended they might therefore inform the whole Corporeal Universe Page 793 794 That it would be no Impertinent Digression here To Compare the forementioned Pythagorick Cabbala with the Doctrine of Christianity and to consider their Agreement or Disagreement First therefore A Clear Agreement of these most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the Highest Happiness and Perfection of Humane Nature consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls Un-united to any Body as some High-flown Persons have Conceited Thus Plotinus who sometimes runs as much into the other Extream in supposing Humane Souls to Animate not onely the Bodies of Brutes but also of Plants Thus also Maimonides amongst the Jews and therefore suspected for denying the Resurrection His Iggereth Teman written purposely to purge himself of this Suspicion The Allegorizers of the Resurrection and of the Life to come Page 794 795 Again Christianity Correspondeth with the Philosophick Cabbala concerning Humane Souls in this That their Happiness consisteth not in Conjunction with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these we now have Scripture as well as Philosophy complaining of them as a Heavy Load and Burthen to the Soul which therefore not to be taken up again at the Resurrection Such a Resurrection as this called by Plotinus a Resurrection to Another Sleep The Difference betwixt the Resurrection-Body and this Present Body in Scripture The Resurrection-Body of the Just as that of the Philosophick Cabbala Immortal and Eternal Glorious and Lucid Star-like and Spiritual Heavenly and Angelical Not this Gross Fleshly Body Guilded and Varnished over in the outside onely but Changed throughout This the Resurrection of Life in Scripture Emphatically called The Resurrection Our Souls Strangers and Pilgrims in these Terrestrial Bodies Their proper Home and Country the Heavenly Body That the Grossest Body that is according to Philosophy may meerly by Motion be brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Aether Page 795 799 But whether Humane Souls after Death alwaies Vnited to some Body or else quite Naked from all Body till the Resurrection not so Explicitly determined in Christianity Souls after Death Live unto God According to Origen This a Priviledge Proper to the Deity to Live and
to us Page 884 But for the easing the Minds of weak Mortals already Suggested That there is no Necessity God should Himself Immediately do all things he having Ministers Vnder him Executioners of his Providence as an Artificial Plastick Nature for this reason partly before insisted on Instincts also in Animals a Part of that Divine Fate which is the Servant of Providence Above which other Knowing and Understanding Ministers of the Deity appointed to Preside over Humane Affairs But all over-look'd by the watchfull Eye of God Almighty who may Himself Extraordinarily Interpose Page 884 885 Wherefore no need to Confine Providence to a Few Greater things onely to free the Deity from Distraction Small things upon which Greater often depend not Neglected by it Nevertheless the Chief Employment of Divine Providence in the Oeconomy of Souls by Plato Reduced to this Compendium The Translating of them into Better or Worser States according to their Demeanours Thus may the slow wits of Mortals more easily conceive Providence not to be Laborious and Distractious to the Deity Page 885 But that all Benevolence arises from Imbecillity and that what is Perfectly Happy would be troubled with no Business but enjoy its own Ease Idols of the Atheists Den. These other The Narrow Contractedness of their Minds by Vice and Immorality Page 885 886 The Atheistick Queries next to be Answered The First Querie If there were a God who was Perfectly Happy in himself Why would he go about to make a World Answ. The Reason of God's making the World was from his Over-flowing and Communicative Goodness That there might be other Beings Happy besides Himself This consistent with God's making the World for his own Glory The reason why Plotinus would explode that True that God did not make the World meerly to Ostentate his Skill and Power but to Display his Goodness which is Chiefly his Glory The Atheists further Demand What hurt would it have been for us never to have been Made Answ. No other then this That we could never have Enjoyed Good nor been Capable of Happiness If no hurt not to have been Made then none to be Annihilated the Distance being as great from Nothing to Something as from Something to Nothing Page 886 The Second Atheistick Querie If God's Goodness were the Cause of his making the World Why then was it not made Sooner This Question capable of a Double Sense First Why was not the World from Eternity The Reply This not from any Defect in the Divine Goodness but because there is an Impossibility of the Thing it self the Necessity and Incapacity of such an Imperfect Being Hindering it Our selves Proue to Think That Could the World have been from Eternity it should have been so Thus Philoponus in his Confutation of Proclus his Arguments for the World's Eternity And now no place left for those Atheistick Cavils against the Novity of the Creation as if God must therefore have Slept from Eternity or had Contracted a Satiety of his former Solitude Another Sense of the Question Why though the World could not be from Eternity yet was it not made Sooner Answ. The World could not Possibly have so been made in Time as that it should not have been once but a Day Old and also once no more then five or six Thousand years Old Page 886 887 The Third Atheistick Querie How could God move the Matter of the whole World especially if Incorporeal Answ. That all things being derived from the Deity and Essentially depending on him they must needs be Commandable by him and Obsequious to him And since no Body can Move it self that which first Moved the Matter must be Incorporeal and not move it by Machines and Engines but by Cogitation or Will onely That Conceit That an Incorporeal Deity could not Move Matter because it would Run through it Absurd This moving not Mechanically but Vitally That Cogitative Beings have a Naturall Power of Moving Matter Evident from our own Souls Moving our Bodies not by Machines or Engines but meerly by Thought More easy for the Deity to move the Whole World by Will and Cogitation then for us our Bodies Page 887 888 The Last Head of Atheistick Argumentation From Interest First That it is the Interest of Particular Persons there should be no being Infinitely Powerfull who hath no Law but his own Will The First Reply Wishing is no Proving Nor will any man's Thinking make Things otherwise then they are Page 888 But Secondly This Wish of Atheists Founded upon a Mistaken Notion of God Almighty That he is nothing but Arbitrary Will Omnipotent God's Will not meer Will but Law and Equity Ought it self Willing Nor does Justice in God clash with Goodness but is a Branch or Particular Modification thereof The Interest of none There should be no God unless perhaps of such as are Irreclaimably Wicked and wilfully abandon their own True Good Page 888 889 To be Without God to be Without Hope No Faith nor Hope in Senseless Matter According to the Atheistick Hypothesis no Possibility of Happiness nor Security of Good Page 889 God such a Being as If he were not Nothing more to be Wished for To Believe a God to Believe the Existence of all Good and Perfection and that things are all Made and Governed as they Should be Peccability from the Necessity of Imperfect Free-Willed Beings Infinite Hopes from a Being Infinitely Good and Powerfull Democritus and Epicurus however cried up so much of late but Infatuated Sophists or Witty Fools and Debauchers of Mankind Page 889 890 The Last Atheistick Argumentation That Theism or Religion is Inconsistent with the Interest of Civil Sovereigns Their First Pretence for this That the Civil Sovereign Reigns onely in Fear and therefore there must be no Power nor Fear Greater then that of the Leviathan Page 890 In Answer to this The Atheistick Ethicks and Politicks to be Vnravelled Their Foundation laid in the Villanizing of Humane Nature That there is no Natural Justice Equity nor Charity No Publick nor Common Nature in Men but all Private and Selfish That every Man by Nature hath a Right to every thing even to other Mens Bodies and Lives That an Appetite to Kill and Torment by Nature gives a Right That Nature hath brought men into the World without any Fetters or Shackles of Duty and Obligation the Hinderances of Liberty Lastly That Nature absolutely Dissociates and Segregates Men from one another by reason of the Inconsistency of Appetites and Private Good Every Man by Nature in a State of War against every Man Page 890 891 But in the next place They adde That though this State of Nature which is Belluine Liberty and Lawless Freedom to every thing be in it self the Best yet by Accident and by reason of mens Imbecillity does it prove the Worst Wherefore when Men had been weary of Hewing and Slashing they then bethought themselves at length of Helping Nature by Art By Submitting to a Lesser Evil for the Avoiding
of a Greater Abating their Infinite Right and Yielding to Terms of Equality with others and Subjection to a Common Power Page 891 Where these Atheists First Slander Humane Nature and then Debase Justice and Civil Authority making it the Ignoble and Bastardly Brat of Fear or a Lesser Evil Submitted to out of Necessity for the avoiding of a Greater According to which Atheistick Hypothesis No man is Willingly Just. This no New Invention of the Writer De Cive but the old Atheistick Generation of Justice and of a Body Politick Civil Society and Sovereignty before Plato's time it being fully described in his Second Book of a Common-wealth Where the Philosopher concludes Justice according to these to be but a Middle thing betwixt the Best and the Worst Loved not as Good in it Self but onely by Reason of Mens Imbecillity Or That Justice is indeed Another man's Good and the Evil of him that is Just. The same Hypothesis also concerning Justice as a Factitious thing that sprung onely from Fear and Imbecillity and was chosen but as a Lesser Evil Insisâ—ed on by Epicurus Page 891 893 The vain Attempts of our Modern Atheistick Politicians to Make Justice by Art when there is None by Nature First by Renouncing and Transferring mens Right by Will and Words For If Nothing Naturally Unlawfull then can no man by Will and Words make any thing Unlawfull to himself What Made by Will may be Destroyed by Will The Ridiculous Conceit of these Atheistick Politicians That Injustice is nothing but Dati Repetitio and such an Absurdity in Life as is in Disputation when a man Denies a Proposition he had before Granted No Real Evil in the Man but onely a Relative Incongruity in him as a Citizen Again These Justice-Makers and Authority-Makers pretend to derive their Factitious Justice from Pacts and Covenants But Pacts and Covenants without Naturall Justice as themselves confess Nothing but Words and Breath and therefore can have no Force to Oblige Wherefore they make another Pretence also from certain Counterfeit Laws of Nature of their own Devising that are Nothing but meer Juggling Equivocation they being but the Laws of Fear or their own Timorous and Cowardly Complexion They Ridiculously Dance Round in a Circle when they Derive the Obligation of Civil Laws from Covenants of Covenants from Laws of Nature and of Laws of Nature again from Civil Laws Their vain Attempt by Art to Consociate what Nature hath Dissociated like tying Knots in the Wind or Water Their Artificial Obligation or Ligaments by which the Members of their Leviathan are held together more slender then Cobwebs Page 893 895 These Artificial Justice-Makers and Obligation-Makers Sensible of the Weakness of these Attempts Artificially to Consociate what Nature hath Dissociated therefore fly at last from Art to Force and Power making their Sovereign to Reign onely in Fear This the True meaning of that Opinion That all Obligation is derived from Law that is the Command of him who hath Power to Compell If Obligation to Obey Civil Laws onely from Fear of Punishment then is no man Obliged to hazard his Life for the Safety of his Prince and whoever can promise themselves Impunity may Justly Disobey If Civil Sovereigns Reign onely in Fear then is their Authority Nothing but Force and Power would Justify Rebellion Lastly If Civil Right or Authority Nothing but Force and Violence then could it not last long What Naturall prevailing against what is Violent Page 895 Wherefore since Civil Authority and Bodies Politick can neither be meerly Artificiall nor yet Violent things there must be some Naturall Vinculum to hold them together such as will both Oblige Subjects to Obey the Commands of Sovereigns and Sovereigns in Commanding to seek the Good of their Subjects Something of a Common Publick and Conglutinating Nature Which no other then Naturall Justice The Authority of God himself Founded in Justice of which Civil Authority a Participation Sovereignty no Creature of the People and of Mens Wills but hath a Stamp of Divinity upon it Had not God made a City Men neither by Art or Political Enchantment nor by meer Force could have made any The whole World One City of God and Rational Beings The Civil Sovereign no Leviathan that is No Beast but a God He Reigns not in meer Brutish Force and Fear but in Naturall Justice and Conscience and the Authority of God himself Nevertheless need of Force and Fear too to compell Some to their Duty nor is the Sovereign's Sword here alone Sufficient but he must Reign also in the Fear of God Almighty Page 895 896 The Second Atheistick Pretence to Make Religion Inconsistent with Civil Sovereignty Because it Limits and Confines that which in its own Nature Is and Ought to be Infinite The Reply That the Atheists Infinite Right and Authority of Civil Sovereigns is nothing but Belluine Liberty But true Right and Authority is Essentially Founded in Natural Justice there being no Authority to Command where there is not an Obligation to Obey and Commands not Creating Obligation but Presupposing it without which they would signify Nothing The First Originall Obligation not from Will but Nature The Errour of those Theists who derive all Obligation to Morall Things from the Will and Positive Command of God as Threatning Punishments and Promising Rewards From whence it would follow that no man is Good and Just but By Accident onely and for the Sake of Something else Justice a different Species of Good from that of Private Utility Infinite Justice as Absurd as an Infinite Rule or Measure If no Infinite Justice then no Infinite Right and Authority God's own Authority bounded by Justice His Will ruled by Justice and not Justice by his Will. Atheists undeâ— a Pretence of giving Civil Sovereigns Infinite Right Really Devest them of all Right and Authority leaving them nothing but Brutish Force Proved here That the Summae Potestates must of necessity be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 896 898 The Last Atheistick Pretence for the Inconsistency of Religion with Civil Power Because Conscience is Private Judgement of Good and Evil. Answer That not Religion but Atheism introduceth such Private Judgement as is Absolutely Inconsistent with Civil Sovereignty it acknowledging nothing in Nature that tends to Publick and Common Good but making Private Appetite the onely Rule or Measure of Good and Utility of Justice The Desperate Consequence from hence Thâ—t Private Vtility may justify Rebellion and Parricide The Atheists Professed Assertion That they who have once Rebelled may Justly Defend themselves afterward by Force Though Private Persons must make a Judgement in Conscience for themselves the Atheists Publick Conscience being Nonsense and Contradiction yet is the Rule of Conscience not Private but Publick except onely to Mistaken Fanaticks who therefore Sometimes make a Pretence of Conscience and Religion in order to Sedition and Rebellion Religion and Conscience Oblige Subjects in all Lawfull things Actively to Obey the Sovereign Powers in Vnlawfull Not to Resist Page 898 899 The Conclusion of the Whole Book That all the Atheistick Grounds being fully Confuted and the Impossibility of Atheism Demonstrated it is certain That the Original and Head of all things is no Blind and Inconscious Nature but a Perfect Understanding Being Self-Existent Who hath Made all that was fit to be Made and after the Best manner and Exerciseth a Just Providence over all To whom be All Honour and Glory c. ibid. The End of the Contents ERRATA PAge 15. Line 2. read XIV Besides p. 49. l. 9. to 16. read And thus Body p. 61. l. 8. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 63.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 66.10 Unextended 76.25 dele but. Lin. ult read To this purpose 102. l. ult dele with 103. l. 3 4. read could not rise from an Egg of the Night nor be the Off-spring of Chaos but must be something 106. Title r. Hylozoist 168.19 r. Irregularity 173.19 20. Reason and Vnd Line 37. a Perfect 201.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 212.34 read Scholiast upon him writing thus 231.27 plures erunt 251.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 276.22 Longinianus 299.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 300.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 304.30 Excerption 331.9 Manifested 339. Title r. Invisible 344.17 Phornutus 351. false printed 411. l. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 354. f. pr. 414. l. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 355.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 357.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 358.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 363.17 dele Justin Martyr 364.31 read Third and Fourth Verses 379.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 385.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 397. Title read Very Good 404. Marg. l. ult r. L. 10.433.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 457.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 461.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lin. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 482.29 by him determined 508.14 respectively 516.14 his Fecundity 518.4 adored 519.30 Nature or Natures 543 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 549.13 as an Image in a Glass 553.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 566.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 582.2 The Word 585.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 587.6 Son and Grandson 620.31 it is there 624. Title adde Trinity 632.31 if need be for another 684.17 therefore not 696. l. ult as it was .717.39 and also 742.5 Similar Atoms 745.23 that their Souls cannot 752.2 3 4. read Proclus and other Platonists expresly denied it to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmade or Self-Existent and 753.8 no not that 765.24 Matter together 777.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 787.16 Incrassated 794.31 the Vnevenness 798.11 Earth in Line 33. dele it 805. Marg. l. 14. solveret 816.35 ought to be 831. l. penult Extended Outside and an Vnextended Inside 843.38 dele yet 883. Marg. l. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 884.35 was One Reason FINIS
Cogitantis It is a great Abuse that some Metaphysicians make of these Abstract Names because Cogitation can be considered alone without the consideration of Body therefore to conclude that it is not the Action or Accident of that Body that thinks but a Substance by it self And the same Writer elsewhere observes That it is upon this Ground that when a Man is dead and buried they say his Soul that is his Life can walk separated from his Body and is seen by night amongst the Graves By which means the Vulgar are confirmed in their Superstitious Belief of Ghosts Spirits Daemons Devils Fayries and Hob-goblins Invisible Powers and Agents called by several Names and that by those Persons whose work it ought to be rather to free men from such Superstition Which Belief at first had another Original not altogether unlike the former Namely from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Things Really existing without them For as in the sense of Vision men are commonly deceived in supposing the Image behind the Glass to be a Real thing existing without themselves whereas it is indeed nothing but their own Phancy In like manner when the Minds of Men strongly possess'd with Fear especially in the Dark raise up the Phantasms of Spectres Bug-bears or Affrightful Apparitions to them they think them to be Objects really existing without them and call them Ghosts and Spirits whilst they are indeed nothing but their own Phancies So the Phantasm or Phancy of a Deity which is indeed the Chief of all Spectres created by Fear has upon no other Accompt been taken for a Reality To this purpose a Modern Writer From the Fear that proceeds from the Ignorance it self of what it is that hath the Power to do men Good or Harm men are inclined to suppose and Feign to themselves several kinds of Powers Invisible and to stand in awe of their own Imaginations and in time of Distress to invoke them as also in the time of an expected good Success to give them thanks making the Creatures of their own Fancies their Gods Which though it be prudently spoken in the Plural Number that so it might be diverted and put off to the Heathen Gods yet he is very simple that does not perceive the reason of it to be the same concerning that one Deity which is now commonly worshipped and that therefore this also is but the Creature of Mens Fear and Phancie the Chief of all Phantastick Ghosts and Spectres as it were an Oberon or Prince of Fayries and Phancies This we say was the first Original of that Vulgar Belief of Invisible Powers Ghosts and Gods mens taking their own Phancies for Things really Existing without them And as for the Matter and Substance of these Ghosts they could not by their own natural Cogitation fall into any other Conceit but that it was the same with that which appeareth in a Dream to one that sleepeth or in a Looking-glass to one that is awake Thin Aerial Bodies which may appear and vanish when they please But the Opinion that such Spirits were Incorporeal and Immaterial could never enter into the minds of men by Nature Unabused by Doctrine but it sprung up from those deceiving and deceived Literati Scholasticks Philosophers and Theologers enchanting mens Understandings and making them believe that the Abstract Notions of Accidents and Essences could exist alone by themselves without the Bodies as certain Separate and Incorporeal Substances To Conclude therefore To make an Incorporeal Mind to be the Cause of all things is to make our own Phancie an Imaginary Ghost of the World to be a Reality and to suppose the mere Abstract Notion of an Accident and a Separate Essence to be not only an Absolute thing by it self and a Real Substance Incorporeal but also the first Original of all Substances and of whatsoever is in the Universe And this may be reckon'd for a Fourth Atheistick Ground IX Fifthly the Atheists pretend further to prove that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body as also from the Principles of Corporealism it self to evince that there can be no Corporeal Deity after this manner No man can devise any other Notion of Substance than that it is a thing Extended existing without the Mind not Imaginary but Real and Solid Magnitude For whatsoever is not Extended is Nowhere and Nothing So that Res Extensa is the only Substance the solid Basis and Substratum of all Now this is the very self-same thing with Body For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Resistence seems to be a necessary Consequence and Result from Extension and they that think otherwise can show no reason why Bodies may not also penetrate one another as some Corporealists think they do From whence it is inferred that Body or Matter is the only Substance of all things And whatsoever else is in the World that is all the Differences of Bodies are nothing but several Accidents and Modifications of this Extended Substance Body or Matter Which Accidents though they may be sometimes call'd by the names of Real Qualities and Forms and though there be different apprehensions concerning them amongst Philosophers yet generally they agree in this that there are these two Properties belonging to them First that none of them can subsist alone by themselves without Extended Substance or Matter as the Basis and Support of them And Secondly that they may be all destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance Now as Blackness and Whiteness Heat and Cold so likewise Life Sense and Understanding are such Accidents Modifications or Qualities of Body that can neither exist by themselves and may be destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance or Matter For if the Parts of the Body of any Living Animal be disunited and separated from one another or the Organical Disposition of the Matter alter'd those Accidents Forms or Qualities of Life and Understanding will presently vanish away to Nothings all the Substance of the Matter still remaining one where or other in the Universe entire and Nothing of it lost Wherefore the Substance of Matter and Body as distinguished from the Accidents is the only thing in the world that is Uncorruptible and Undestroyable And of this it is to be understood that Nothing can be made out of Nothing and Destroyed to Nothing i. e. that every entire thing that is Made or Generated must be made of some preexistent Matter which Matter was from Eternity Self-existent and Unmade and is also undestroyable and can never be reduc'd to Nothing It is not to be understood of the Accidents themselves that are all Makeable and Destroyable Generable and Corruptible Whatsoever is in the World is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter so and so Modified or Qualified all which Modifications and Qualifications of Matter are in their own nature Destroyable and the Matter it self as the Basis of them not necessarily determin'd to this or that Accident is the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Necessarily
Existent The Conclusion therefore is that no Animal no Living Understanding Body can be Absolutely and Essentially Incorruptible this being an Incommunicable Property of the Matter and therefore there can can be no Corporeal Deity the Original of all things Essentially Undestroyable Though the Stoicks imagined the whole Corporeal Universe to be an Animal or Deity yet this Corporeal God of theirs was only by Accident Incorruptible and Immortal because they supposed that there was no other Matter which existing without this World and making Inrodes upon it could disunite the Parts of it or disorder its Compages Which if there were the Life and Understanding of this Stoical God or great Mundane Animal as well as that of other Animals in like Cases must needs vanish into nothing Thus from the Principles of Corporealism it self it plainly follows that there can be no Corporeal Deity because the Deity is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing that was never made and is Essentially Undestroyable which are the Privileges and Properties of nothing but Senseless Matter X. In the next place the Atheists undertake more effectually to confute that Corporeal God of the Stoicks and others from the Principles of the Atomical Philosophy in this manner All Corporeal Theists who assert that an Understanding Nature or Mind residing in the Matter of the whole Universe was the first Original of the Mundane System and did Intellectually frame it betray no small Ignorance of Philosophy and the Nature of Body in supposing Real Qualities besides Magnitude Figure Site and Motion as Simple and Primitive things to belong to it and that there was such a Quality or Faculty of Understanding in the Matter of the whole Universe coeternal with the same that was an Original thing Uncompounded and Underived from any thing else Now to suppose such Original Qualities and Powers which are Really Distinct from the Substance of Extended Matter and its Modifications of Divisibility Figure Site and Motion is Really to suppose so many Distinct Substances which therefore must needs be Incorporeal So that these Philosophers fall unawares into that very thing which they are so abhorrent from For this Quality or Faculty of Understanding in the Matter of the Universe Original and underiv'd from any other thing can be indeed nothing else but an Incorporeal Substance Epicurus suggested a Caution against this Vulgar Mistake concerning Qualities to this purpose Non sic cogitandae sunt Qualitates quasi sint quaedam per se existentes Naturae seu Substantiae siquidem id mente assequi non licet sed solummodo ut varii modi sese habendi Corporis considerandae sunt Body as such hath nothing else belonging to the Nature of it but what is included in the Idaea of Extended Substance Divisibility Figure Site Motion or Rest and the Results from the various Compositions of them causing different Phancies Wherefore as vulgar Philosophers make their first Matter which they cannot well tell what they mean by it because it receives all Qualities to be it self devoid of all Quality So we conclude that Atoms which are really the first Principles of all things have none of those Qualities in them which belong to compounded Bodies they are not absolutely of themselves Black or White Hot or Cold Moist or dry Bitter or Sweet all these things arising up afterwards from the various Aggregations and Contextures of them together with different Motions Which Lucretius confirms by this reason agreeable to the Tenour of the Atomical Philosophy That if there were any such Real Qualities in the first Principles then in the various Corruptions of Nature things would at last be all reduc'd to Nothing Immutabile enim quiddam superare necesse est Nè res ad Nihilum redigantur funditùs omnes Proinde Colore cave contingas semina rerum Nè tibi res redeant ad Nilum funditùs omnes Wherefore he concludes that it must not be thought that White things are made out of White Principles nor Black things out of Black Principles Nè ex Albis Alba rearis Principiis esse Aut ea quae nigrant nigro de semine nata Neve alium quemvis quaesunt induta colorem Proptereà gerere hunc credas quòd materiaï Corpora consimuli sint ejus tincta colore Nullus enim Color est omnino materiaï Corporibus neque par rebus neque denique dispar Adding that the same is to be resolved likewise concerning all other Sensible Qualities as well as Colours Sed nè fortè putes solospoliata colore Corpora prima manere etiam secreta Teporis Sunt ac Frigoris omnino CalidÃque Vaporis Et sonitu sterila Succo jejuna feruntur Nec jaciunt ullum proprio de corpore Odorem Lastly he tells us in like manner that the same is to be understood also concerning Life Sense and Understanding that there are no such simple Qualities or Natures in the first Principles out of which Animals are compounded but that these are in themselves altogether devoid of Life Sense and Understanding Nunc ea quae Sentire videmus cunque necesse ' st Ex Insensilibus tamen omnia confiteare Principiis constare neque id manifesta refutant Sed magìs ipsa manu ducunt credere cogunt Ex insensilibus quod dico Animalia gigni Quippe videre licet vivos existere vermes Stercore de tetro putrorem cum sibi nacta ' st Intempestivis ex imbribus humida tellus All Sensitive and Rational Animals are made of Irrational and Senseless Principles which is proved by Experience in that we see Worms are made out of putrified Dung moistned with immoderate Showers Some indeed who are no greater Friends to a Deity than our selves will needs have that Sense and Understanding that is in Animals and Men to be derived from an Antecedent Life and Understanding in the Matter But this cannot be because if Matter as such had Life and Understanding in it then every Atom of Matter must needs be a Distinct Percipient Animal and Intelligent Person by it self and it would be impossible for any such Men and Animals as now are to be compounded out of them because every Man would be Variorum Animalculorum Acervus a Heap of Innumerable Animals and Percipients Wherefore as all the other Qualities of Bodies so likewise Life Sense and Understanding arise from the different Contextures of Atoms devoid of all those Qualities or from the Composition of those simple Elements of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions in the same manner as from a few Letters variously compounded all that Infinite Variety of Syllables and Words is made Quin etiam refert nostris in versibus ipsis Cum quibus quali Positurâ contineantur Namque eadem Coelum Mare Terras Flumina Solem Significant eadem fruges arbusta animantes Sic ipsis in rebus item jam materiaï Intervalla viae connexus pondera plagae Concursus motus ordo Positura Figurae Cùm permutantur mutari res quoque
Co-Extended with its Rayes and Light it would see and perceive every Atom of Matter that it s out stretched Beams reached to and touched Now all Created Beings are themselves in some sense but the Rayes of the Deity which therefore cannot but Feel and Sensibly Perceive all these its own Effluxes and Emanations Men themselves can order and manage Affairs in several distant Places at once without any Disturbance and we have innumerable Notions of things in our Mind that lie there easily together without Crowding one another or Causing any Distraction to us Nevertheless the Minds of weak Mortals may here be somewhat eased and helped by considering what hath been before suggested That there is no necessity God Almighty should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do all things himself Immediately and Drudgingly but he may have his Inferiour Ministers and Executioners under him to discharge him of that Supposed Encumberment As First of all an Artificial Plastick Nature which without Knowledge and Animal Consciousness disposes the Matter of the Universe according to the Platform or Idea of a Perfect Mind and forms the Bodies of all Animals And this was the Reason why we did before insist so much upon this Artificial Regular and Methodical Nature namely that Divine Providence might neither be excluded from having an Influence upon all things in this Lower World as resulting only from the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Matter unguided by any Mind nor yet the Deity be supposed to do every thing it self Immediatly and Miraculously without the Subservient Ministery of any Natural Causes which would seem to us Mortals to be not only a Violent but also an Operose Cumbersom and Moliminous Business And thus did Plato acknowledge that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain Causes of a Prudent that is Artificial and Orderly Nature which God makes use of as Subservient to himself in the Mundane Oeconomy Besides which those Instincts also impressed upon Animals and which they are Passive to directing them to Act for Ends either not understood or not attended to by them in order to their own Good and the Good of the Universe are another part of that Divine Fate which inserted into things themselves is the Servant and Executioner of Providence Above all which there are yet other Knowing and Vnderstanding Ministers of the Deity as its Eyes and Hands Demoniack or Angelick Beings appointed to preside over Mankind all Mundane Affairs and the Things of Nature they having their several distinct Offices and Provinces assigned them Of which also Plato thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are certain Rulers or Presidents appointed by that Supreme God who Governs the whole world over all the several things and Parts therein even to the smallest Distribution of them All which Inferiour Causes are constantly over looked and supervised by the Watchful Eye of God Almighty himself who may also sometimes Extraordinarily Interpose We need not therefore restrain and confine Divine Providence to a Few Greater things only as some do that we may thereby consult the ease of the Deity and its Freedom from Distraction but may and ought to Extend it to all things whatsoever Small as well as Great And indeed the Great things of the World cannot well be ordered neither without some regard to the Small and Little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Architects affirm that great stones cannot be well placed together in a Building without little Neither can Generals of Armies nor Governours of Families nor Masters of Ships nor Mechanick Artificers discharge their several Functions and do their Works respectively as they ought did they not mind the Small things also as well as the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the forementioned Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not therefore make God Almighty Inferiour to Mortal Opificers who by one and the same Art can order Small things as well as Great and so suppose him to be Supine and negligent Nevertheless the Chief Concernment and Employment of Divine Providence in the World is the Oeconomy of Souls or Government of Rational Beings which is by Plato contracted into this Compendium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There is no other work left for the Supreme Governour of all then only to Translate Better Souls into Better places and Conditions and Worser into Worser or as he after addeth to dispose of every one in the world in such a manner as might best render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue victorious and triumphant over Vice And thus may the slow and Imperfect wits of Mortals be satisfied that Providence to the Deity is no Moliminous Laborious and Distractious thing But that there is no higher Spring of Life in Rational Animals than Contracted Self Love and that all Good Will and Benevolence arises only from Indigency and Imbecillity and That no Being whatsoever is concerned in the welfare of any other thing but only what it self stands in Need of and Lastly therefore That what is Irresistibly Powerful and Needs nothing would have no manner of Benevolence nor concern it self in the Good and Welfare of any thing whatsoever This is but another Idol of the Atheists Den and only argues their Bad Nature Low-sunck Minds and Gross Immorality And the same is to be said also of that other Maxim of theirs That what is perfectly Happy would have nothing at all To Do but only enjoy its own Ease and Quiet whereas there is nothing more troublesome to our selves than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this having Nothing to Do and the Activity of the Deity or a Perfect Being is altogether as Easie to it as its Essence The Atheistick Queries come next to be Answered which being but Three are Naturally to be disposed in this order First If there were a God or Perfect Being who therefore was sufficiently Happy in the enjoyment of himself Why would he go about to make a World Secondly If he must needs make a World why did he not make it sooner this Late production thereof looking as if he had but newly awaked out out of a long sleep throughout Infinite Past Ages or else had in length of time contracted a Satiety of his Solitude Thirdly and Lastly What Tools or Instruments what Machines or Engines had be or How could he move the Matter of the whole world especially if Incorporeal because then he would run through all things and could not lay hold nor fasten upon any thing To the First therefore we say That the reason why God made the World was from his own Overflowing and Communicative Goodness that there might be other Beings also Happy besides him and enjoy themselves Nor does this at all clash with God's making of the world for his own Glory and Honour though Plotinus were so shy of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is ridiculous to say that God made the world that he might be Honoured this being to transfer the affections of humane Artificers and Statuaries upon him
But the chief Reason of his saying so was because that Philosopher conceived the World to have proceeded not so much from the Will of the Deity as the Necessity of its Nature Though this be true also that God did not make the World meerly to Ostentate his Skill and Power but to communicate his Goodness which is chiefly and properly his Glory as the Light and Splendor of the Sun is the Glory of it But the Atheist demands What hurt had it been for us never to have been made and the Answer is easie we should then never have enjoyed any Good or been capable of Happiness and had there been no Rational Creatures at all made it must have been either from Impotent Sterility in the Deity or else from an Invidious Narrow and Contracted Selfishness or want of Benignity and Communicative Goodness both which are Inconsistent with a Perfect Being But the Argument may be thus Retorted upon these Atheists What Hurt would it be for us to Cease to Be or Become Nothing And why then are these Atheists as well as others so Unwilling to Die But then in the next place they Urge Why was not the World made Sooner since this Goodness of God was without Date and from Everlasting But this Question may be taken in two different Senses Either Why was not the world from Eternity as God and his Goodness are Eternal or else Secondly If the World could not be from Eternity yet notwithstanding Why was it not sooner but so lately made In both which Queries the Atomick Atheists take it for granted that the System of the World was not from Eternity but had a beginning Now we say That the Reason why the world was not Made from Eternity was not from any Defect of Goodness in the Divine Will but because there is an Absolute Impossibility in the thing it self or because the Necessity and Incapacity of such an Imperfect Being hindered For we must confess that for our parts we are prone to believe That could the world have been from Eternity it should certainly have been so And just thus does Philoponus in his Confutation of Proclus his Arguments for the World's Eternity declare himself and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our selves also supposing the world not to have been Eternal do neither ascribe this to any Defect either of Godness or of Power in the Deity but only to the Impossibility of the Thing it self Where in the following words he gives a Two fold Account of this Impossibility of the worlds Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First because There can be nothing Actually Infinite and yet Run through as all the Past Duration of the World hath been and Secondly because that which is Made or brought into Being by another as a distinct thing from it cannot be Co-Eternal with its Maker Where it is probable that Philoponus being a Christian designed not to oppose the Eternal Generation of the Son of God but only to assert that Nothing which was properly Made or Created by God and nothing which was not it self God could be from Eternity or without Beginning And now we see How those Atheistick Exceptions against the Novity of the Divine Creation as if God must therefore either have Slept from Eternity or else have at length contracted a Satiety of his former Solitude and the like do of themselves quite vanish into Nothing But then as to the Second Sense of the Question Why the World though it could not possibly be from Eternity yet was no sooner but so lately made we say that this is an Absurd Question both because Time was made together with the World and there was no Sooner or Later before Time and also because Whatsoever had a beginning must of necessity be once but a Day Old Wherefore the World could not possibly have been so Made by God in time as not to be once but Five or Six Thousand years old and no more as now it is And as for the Third and Last Query How God could move and command the Matter of the whole World especially If Incorporeal We Reply First That all other things being derived from God as their only Fountain and Original and Essentially depending on him who by his Absolute Power also could Annihilate whatsoever he Created he must needs have a Despotick Power over all and every thing whatsoever be Naturally Subject and Obsequious to him And since no Body can possibly Move it self that which first moved Matter must of necâ—ssity be Incorporeal nor could it move it by Local Motion as one Body moves another or as Engines and Machines move by Trusion or Pulsion they being before moved but must do it by another kind of Action such as is not Local Motion nor Heterocinesie but Autocinesie that is by Cogitation Wherefore that Conceit of the Atheists that an Incorporeal Deity could not possibly move the Matter of the World because it would run through it and could not fasten or lay hold thereupon is Absurd because this moves Matter not Mechanically but Vitally and by Cogitation only And that a Cogitative Being as such hath a Natural Imperium over Matter and Power of Moving it without any Engines or Machines is unquestionably certain even from our own Souls which move our Bodies and Command them every way meerly by Will and Thought And a Perfect Mind presiding over the Matter of the whole world could much more irresistibly and with Infinitely more ease move the whole Corporeal Universe meerly by Will and Cogitation then we can our Bodies The Last Head of Atheistick Argumentation is from Interest And First the Atheists would perswade that it is the Interest of mankind in General and of every particular person that there should be no God that is no Being Infinitely Powerful that hath no Law but it s own Will and therefore may punish whom he pleases Eternally after Death To which our First Reply is That if there be a God and Souls be Immortal then is it not any man's Thinking otherwise that will alter the Case nor afford the Atheists any Reliâ—f against those two Imagined Evils of theirs For Things are Sullen and will be as they are what ever we Think them or Wish them to be and men will at last discover their Errour when perhaps it may be too late Wishing is no Proving and therefore this Atheistick Argument from Interest is no Argument at all against the Existence of a God it being nothing but the ignorant wish and vain desire of Besotted Atheists In the next place this Wish of Atheists is altogether founded upon a Mistaken Notion of God Almighty too That he is nothing but Arbitrary Will Omnipotent which indeed is not the most Desirable thing But as it hath been often declared the Will of God is the Will of Goodness Justice and Wisdom it self Omnipotent His Will is not meer Will such as hath no other Reason besides it self but it is Law Equity and Chancery it is