doubt O Atheist the Reality of them if thou canst Finally How disguised soever Truth was in those Successive Traditions as necessarily it must have been in passing through so many and so diversly affected hands yet as in other Reports so also in these when one becomes acquainted with the Original Truth he will be able by comparing and conferring to Discover the Causes or rather the first Occasions and Rises of Mistakes and Errors what grounds there were for such since it is as certain that all Mistake Error Falsity hath for its bottom and foundation one or another Truth as that Evil has some Good to ground it This consideration will administer abundant Light to those that mind it for their understanding of the cogency of some of those Discourses I have made before about the Christianity disguised in many of the Gentile Rites and it was for that Purpose and with that Design namely that it might reflect upon them somewhat of strength and confirmation that I made any mention of it here for doing which after I have offered this Apology I hope I need no Pardon Thus Tradition was one way But though Tradition was One yet the only way it was not whereby the Gentiles became acquainted with the Mysteries of the True Religion for besides that we are to conceive they had some Extraordinary Revelations and Discoveries of them by Inspiration or Oracle There not being any Nation under Heaven and in the whole Universe wherein if you will credit Cicero Divination was not And indeed the Antient Superstition was Magick Of which truth we are assured not only by the Definition Plato gives of Magick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is the worship of the Gods but also by the more Authentick History of Balaam who when he would Divine did nothing but perform Rites of Religion he caused Altars to be built and offered Bullocks and Rams Yes and Strabo tells us that all the Heathen as well Barbarians as Greeks had certain Festive Sacrifices wherein they were inspired by the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausanias also having mentioned the Persians eminent for Divination adds Et haec quidem de foeminis viris quibus ad hunc usque diem Divinandi Scientia Divinitus contigit memoriae prodita sunt In sequentibus dehinc seculis credi facile potest alios ejusmodi homines qui futura praedicant non defuturos As for the Rise and Origin of heathen Inspiration of Oracle I do not hold my self obliged to discourse thereof here farther than as generally hinted it may serve to regulate our Apprehensions in the present matter and therefore omitting what Peripatetiques and Stoicks say who make it the Effect of certain Preparations or Dispositions of mind or what Plutarch who ascribes it unto Qualities and Temperatures of places I impute it to Religion and to the state and condition of the first times wherein Inspirations while there was no other certain way of knowing the Divine mind and of being guided by it were far more frequent and common than in the more remote And no question but among the many other Traditions given by Noah Father of the Second World to his Children this was One In Extraordinary Cases to consult God for Resolutions and Direction by a way of extraordinary Worship and Religion for instance by Extraordinary Prayers and Extraordinary Sacrifices it being the acknowledged Nature of Religion and Worship by qualifying and accommodating of the mind to God to Invite and draw him down and make him present to the Religious and Worshippers Thus all men all the world over mov'd by that Tradition as by Instinct of Nature did in all unusual and uncommon Emergencies or when they would be counselled and resolved in any matter immediately apply themselves to the Deity which the superstitious Doing in wayes and methods not appointed by the true God expected him in vain he for the most part disdaining to approach unto them on such allurements whence it came to pass they were abused by the False I mean the Devil who readily espying and improving this Occasion Slily intruded himself so that appearing in the place of God he passed for him It was thus the Devil became the God of this World or of the Gentiles The superstitious invocated God in false wayes who therefore refusing to approach and visit them the Devil takes the opportunity he comes in his stead and so passes for him I am the more confirmed in this Opinion by considering that among the Superstitious there were the same wayes of Responses by Visions by Dreams by Voice c. as among the truly Religious as also by the Cessation and defect of Oracles or Inspiration which on this Notion and in this way is more accountable than in any other For when the Superstitious ceasing to be so became as in process of time they did diffident and faithless of the Power and Aptness of the means for effecting of the Ends pretended and consequently either innovated New Rites more agreeable to their own conceits or else grew cold and formal in the use of the Old it followed that they lost the advantage of such communication and direction from their Gods as formerly they had with their Faith and Zeal in those Performances that is with that Religion which possessed them of it False Religion made Oracles and Irreligion ruin'd them Sublata causa tollitur effectus And who can doubt of this Account or Reason that seriously considers First That we read not of the Cessation or Defect of any Oracle but about the time that Scepticism and Epicurism obtained That great Oracle at Delphos so celebrate in all the Earth then ceasing to answer as it had before in Verse when the Seeker Pyrrho was followed And Secondly That Iamblicus is of the same Opinion who informs us that it was the innovating and unsteady humour of the Greeks that rendred inspiration so unfrequent and rare among whom he sayes it was for that Reason of a duration and continuance much shorter than among the Grave Barbarians Oportet igitur sayes he in his Mysteries Ritus adorationis antiquos tanquam sacros conservare semper intactos neque demere quicquam neque aliunde quid addere ferme namque hac causa nuper extitit ut omnia nomina vota debilirata jam sint propterea quod propter ipsam proevaricationem invocandi cupiditatem permutata sunt semper permutari non desinunt Graeci namque natura rerum novarum studiosi sunt ac proecipites usquequaque feruntur instar navis saburra carentis nullam habentis stabilitatem neâ—abque conservant quod ab aliis acceperunt Sed hoc cito dimittunt omnia propter instabilitatem novoeque inventionis elocutionem transformare solent Barbari vero sicut moribus graves firmique sunt sic in iisdem sermonibus firmiter perseverant ob quam sane stabilitatem ipsi Diis sunt amici orationes offerunt
and I believe such a mind as yours can both inlarge and improve the subject Without doubt 't is true what you suggest that it is a Satanical illusion That God Rules by will that he hath no consideration of his creatures comfort but only of his own Glory that he made the greatest part of men to damn them and triumph in their ruine and that he cruelly exacts impossibilities and obliges men to come when yet he knows ' they cannot But Sir they are not Atheists but men of great Devotion and in the last Age admired for their parts and piety that confidently asserted such things as the Christian Doctrine These are not only the Dogma's of the Hobbists and Mahometans but of Gentlemen of the Geneva Twang and therefore whatsoever an Atheist may be in his practice according to these principles he is speculatively Orthodox and Godly I suggest this because in your making the Atheist to personate you know whom you make too severe a reflection upon either their Learning or their Religion Since Sir you have been pleased so happily to enter upon so good and gracious a subject might it not be worthy your consideration to give an account How it is consistent with the Divine Goodness to inflict infinite and eternal Punishments for finite Transgressions Punishment according to the Notion we have of it is either for the Good of the whole or of the part and 't is inflicted not to torment the Criminal but either to amend him or the society of which he is a member that both may enjoy the comforts and the sweets of it But what of good in everlasting Punishment is there to either of these or how doth it agree with the Notion of Infinite Goodness according to your own description Not to urge that the most that are Christians lye and live under such odd circumstances that they are very near in impossibility wholly to subdue and suppress the influences of sense and yet must they be plagued or punisht with unspeakable and eternal tortures How much more dismal and tremendous doth it look that those People in America Japan China Lapland c. that live under an unavoidable ignorance I mean morally so that yet these poor creatures for what they cannot help shall be cast into Everlasting Darkness and sorrows and that there are no reserves for their acting for a happiness they have no notice of or very little or if they have yet are ignorant of the proper methods to attain it How agrees this with Infinite and Eternal Goodness A return to such an Enquiry in order to a farther explication of Divine Goodness would do a great deal of service to the Religion which we own Some such thoughts as these have disturb'd mine about the receiv'd and common Faith of future punishments and if ever your inclinations lead you to a second Edition of yours some Considerations about such an Objection may not I think be impertinent I hope I need not beg a Pardon for this trouble from a person that pleads for so much Goodness but question not but you will candidly entertain and construe this bold offer of Your real Friend and Admirer W. A. CAUSA DEI OR AN APOLOGY FOR GOD. SIR ALthough I am not so vain as to flatter my self into a conceit that either the first or the second Apprehensions of All or of Most are like to be as partial in my Favour or Candid as a Generous and Noble friends Yet to obey you and to acquit my self of some part of what I owe you for your Kindness to my former Discourse and for your Civility to me I am at last resolv'd to Expose Another to Mercy well Assured that whatever Entertainment Ruder hands may give it It shall receive in Yours and in those of worthy Persons none but what is Fair and Equitable And this is all it desires Which that you may afford without Repugnance I must oblige you to consider that if you do not find in this Essay no more than in the Former the Gratification and Delight that Novelty in things is wont to bring with it you ought not to impute it either as a Fault to the Author or as a Defect to the Work but to ascribe it purely to the Fulness and Riches of your own Mind it being that alone which renders you uncapable of such agreeable Surprize and Pleasure as not a Few Resent in what appeareth New to them because indeed there can but little seem so to one of your Endowments and Knowledge But what talk I of things New For as to my first Essay whosoever shall but give himself the trouble to Remind the Method I imployed therein will easily Determine I never had design of innovating new Notions seeing if I had I could not hope to evidence them in the wayes I there propos'd to do it either from the Scriptures by which I was to regulate my self in all I said or from the Philosophers You may believe I only courted Truth and that I resolved to express my self in common Notions and to common sense in Reasons that were suitable to Mankind fully Perswaded that the things I treated on were of so ample and so large a Nature that no Arguments no Notions of Scholasticks or of any other private Faction Party Sect or Division of men would ever Adaequate and Suit and fit them Notions deduced from common sense are only capable of Adjusting things of common Concernment And if I my self have any regard for these Conceptions which have had the Fortune to entertain the World with Variety of Discourse 't is only for their plainness and facility because I take them generally to be such as every body that attends will think he had the same before and that he never thought otherwise Which if they were not I should be very much inclined to suspect them False since I am apt enough to think it to be as true of Truth as of the God of Truth that it is not far from any of us if we will but feel and grope after it Certainly those Conceptions are not most likely to be truest which are most elaborate and farthest fetcht but which are easiest and most natural Truth lyeth not so deep in the Well as many with Democritus think and who thinking so do often overlook it And having made you this Apology for the Plainness of my first Essay I hope I need not add that in this second you are not to expect Profound Uncommon Deep Elaborate Notions but Easie Natural Sensible Plain and Obvious Ones such as whoever reads may comprehend in what I shall rejoyn to your Letter which that my Reply unto it may be the more distinct and orderly I shall distribute into three Parts and so proportion and adjust my Answer of which The First containeth matter of Reflection on Others The Second matter of charge on Me. The Third matter of Exception or Argument against Divine Goodness Of these in Order And first concerning the first
of Eternal Punishment in order to the compassing the Present and the Future Weal of Man is an Instance of Divine Benignity and also that the Infliction of them on the irreclaimable and Obstinate is a great Evincement of Divine Justice and none of any want of Goodness Kindness or Clemency And now when I recall my thoughts I find them tempted to suggest to me That all the labour I have put my self to in writing and put you to in reading is superfluous the matter might have been concluded more effectually in fewer words For what if God whose only End is his Glory and the Demonstration of Himself in all his Attributes and Perfections willing to shew his Just and Dreadful Wrath upon his Open enemies should execute and hang them up in chains of Darkness to make them Everlasting Instances and Monuments thereof to Saints and Angels What if God will And I the rather stand on this Argument because it looks so like the Great Apostle's But O man who art thou that Replyest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that form'd it why hast thou made me thus What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath sitted to Destruction We ought to acquiesce in all Divine Appointments and to believe them to be Just when we know them to be Gods because his Will is Justice and it is his Prerogative not only to Ordain the time when and the manner how but also the Duration and extent of all the Punishments of the wicked how long they are to endure as well as of what weight they ought to be For so Pindarus in Plutarch so Religious was he in this point Quod c. inter multos alios Pindarus quoque testatur qui optimum appellat Artificem Gubernatorem Dominum rerum omnium Deum utpote verè Justitiae factorem creatorem cui soli definite conveniaâ— quando quomodo ac quousque scelestorum unusquisque plecti debeat And so much for the First Argument the seeming inequality of Infinite and Eternal Punishments to Finite Transgressions I now proceed to the Second from the Nature of Punishment Punishment say you According to the Notion We have of it is either for the Good of the whole or of the Part and 't is inflicted Not to torment the Criminal but either to Amend him or the Society of which He is a Member that both may Enjoy the Comforts and the Sweets of it but what of Good in Everlasting Punishment is there to either of These c. I know not whether the Present Argument will signifie the less with you for with me it will not after I have told you that the Notion it is Bottomed on is Mr. Hobbs's and that it is in him I find That the Law of Nature ordaineth that no Revenge be taken upon consideration only of the Offence Past but of the Benefit to come that is to say That all Revenge by which he means Punishment ought to tend to amendment either of the Person offending or of others by the example of his Punishment which sayes he is sufficiently apparent c. A Notion so Unhappy in its Tendency and Influence that it will effectually Perform what you urge it for in all that can design so ill to improve it Of this its Tendency Mr. Hobbs himself is well aware and therefore he endeavours to remove the Scandal he foresaw his Dogme would on this account administer to serious and considerate Persons but in such â— way as really does Aggravate it concerning which I shall say more hereafter But to return to you It was not I believe from Mr. Hobbs for whom you manifest no good Resentment that you received this Notion of Punishment nor do I think you comprehend the Hobbists though you see you might when you say the Notion WE have of it there are other Persons of a fairer Reputation in the World both for Learning and Religion than you perhaps esteem Mr. Hobbs or any of his Sectaries to be who are of the same side you take What Plutarch's Notion of Punishment is you may inferr from what I have already offer'd on the first Argument and for Seneca and Plato both of them seem entirely yours Seneca sayes expressly and for what he saith he quoteth Plato that this ought to be consider'd in every infliction of Punishment that it be designed either to amend the wicked or to remove them and that in both respect ought not to be had to what is Past but to the Future for asmuch as Plato affirmeth No Prudent Rector will inflict Punishment on any man because he hath offended already but lest he should offend again it being impossible that things Past should be recall'd but not so that things future should be Prevented But happily you will like it better in his own language and therefore take it so Hoc semper in omni animadversione saith he servabit ut sciat alteram adhiberi ut emendet malosâ—â— alteram ut tollat In utroque non praeterita sed futura iutuebitur Nam ut Plato ait Nemo Prudens punit quia peccatum est sed ne peccetur Revocari enim Praeterita non possunt futura prohibentur quos volet nequitiae male cedentis exempla fieri palam occidet non tantum ut pereant ipsi sed ut alios pereundo deterreant Lipsius affirmeth this Passage to be cited out of Plato de Legibus and for that purpose he produceth the following Text which indeed hath something like it E Platone haec sumpta 9. de Legib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I find a more express and pertinent one in his Protagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is this the only Pertinent Citation to be had in Seneâ—a there are many more of like Import of which yet there is but One that for its Fulness and Conformity of sense to yours I shall at present note 't is in his first Book of Clemency wherein there is the following Paragraph Transeamus saith he ad alienas injurias in quibus vindicandis â—aec tria lex secuta â—st quae princeps quoque sequi debet aut ut cum quem punit emendet aut ut pâ—â—na â—jus caeteros meliores reddat aut ut sublatis malis securiores caeteri vivant But to come nearer home I find a Learned man and he One that though he were not a Profest Divine yet in Divinity has merited in many things as much as most that are I mean Grotius who owns the same Notion of Punishment with that which you Propose as yours For he saith Ius puniendi in rectore c. non est aut jus absoluti Dominii aut Ius Crediti Probatur hoc primo ex fine qui optime soleâ— distinguere facultates Nam Ius absoluti dominii ut jus Crediti comparatum est ejus gratiâ qui
Iews and on the Philosophy of the Gentiles was to oblige both the one and the other to abandon and forsake their A B C. And that since there is a fuller and a clearer Demonstration or Discovery in the Gospel of the way of Life It is to wean them from those Darker Ones that serv'd their turn before And indeed though God connived at men in the dayes of their Ignorance yet now he calleth all to Repent And verily it is a great Truth that as he would not have the Jewish Law so much less would he have the Gentile Wisdom to supplant the Gospel All the Light before Christ whether that among the Jews or that among the Gentiles was but Moon or Star-light designed only for the night preceding but it is the Sun must Rule by Day Now the Gospel dispensation is the Day and Christ the Sun that makes it by whose Alone Light we must walk For as in Nature the Light afforded by the Moon and Stars which is of great Advantage and very much administers to our Direction and Comfort in a Journey by night yet in the day is none The Moon and Stars that shine by night and then make other things Visible they are Invisible themselves and Dark by day So in the Moral world not only the Law of Moses to the Jews but that Philosophy and Wisdom among the Gentiles that before the coming of the Lord Christ while it was yet extream Dark was of extraordinary Use and Benefit It is no longer new of any to them nor to be insisted on since He is come For now 't is broad Day One would be glad of Moon-light or Star-light that is to travel by night but he delires and is out of his Wits that would preferr it before the Sun by Day By this time you see how my Opinion of the Old Philosophy that it was a kind of Star-light derived from the Sun of Righteousness and pointing to him is so far from being in Derogation to the Gospel Grace that it rather highly Illustrates and Establishes it the Philosophers themselves as well as the Prophets being as it were as so many Stars that shined in a Dark Place and with a borrowed lustre until in Peters own expression the Day-Star arose from on high But this Assertion so many prejudices lye against it is not of a Nature to be entertain'd assoon as presented wherefore I shall crave your leave to offer somewhat by way of Confirmation which though I might do by very probable conjectures both from the Paerabolical and Figurative way of Institution used by Jesus Christ so conformable to that of Plato and the Interrogatory and Questionary so like to that of Socrates and others and from the Honour put upon Philosophy and Philosophers not only by God himself in giving some of them the Preheminence in an extraordinary manner by a Starry Messenger sent on purpose first of all others to behold the blessed Jesus in the Flesh and to Recognize him King but also by the Antient Christians who not only Permitted but Assumed their Formalities and Customs I say though I might confirm this Truth by these and many other very Probable Conjectures yet I rather choose to go a Plainer and more Demonstrative way by particularly Instancing the several Doctrines of the Grave Philosophers and Wise men among the Gentiles and shewing how agreeable they are to those of Christians and that to vindicate my self from all Temerity and Rashness in affirming what I have as well as to afford an entertainment that will neither be unpleasing nor unuseful to many Indeed it will put the Doctrines of the Christian Religion beyond the Contradictions of the Atheist to a Person that shall see them to be such as have obtained among wise men in the most Antient Ages and Universally over all the World And forasmuch as to the Moral part of Christian Religion there is not so much doubt but that the Heathen had a great Intelligence and Understanding of it as whoever readeth Homer Hesiod Theognis Socrates Plato Xenophon's Cyrus and Oeconomus Isocrates Tully's Offices and Seneca cannot but acknowledge therefore I shall not stay you here with any long Discourse on that point Wherein that I may not overwhelm you with a multitude of Instances that do occurr for to say all I might were to translate whole Volumes I shall only offer for a taste what is at present in the compass of my memory upon the three Heads Of Piety to God of Righteousness to man and of Sobriety to our selves Resolving for your greater satisfaction and that the argument in hand may have the more Light and Efficacy to Parallel the Testimonies of the Poets and Philosophers which I produce with others of a like Importance in the Holy and Inspired Pen-men And first for Piety to God First That God is to be worshipped Pythagoras that great Philosopher referred all to this and before him Orpheus whom Pythagoras imitated but to be particular He must be worshipped First Spiritually Purely Holily Cato and the Heathen Liturgies Si Deus est Animus nobis ut Carmina dicunt Is tibi praecipue sit purâ mente colendus If God be a Spirit as Poets say or rather as we are taught in Liturgies or solemn Prayers he is chiefly to be worshipped by thee and with a Pure mind Christ in Iohn 4.24 God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Tibullus Casta placent superis pura cum mente venite Et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam Holy things do please those above come you with Pure and Holy minds and with Pure hands take Fountain water In Leg. 12. Tabul Ad Divos adeunto casté Approach Holily unto the Gods David in Psal. 93.5 Holiness becometh thy house James 4.8 Cleanse your Hands ye sinners and Purifie your Hearts c. Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having put off thy Shoos do thou Sacrifice and worship Exodus 3.5 Put off thy Shoos for the Place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground Secondly In the best manner we can In Leg. 12. Tabul Ex patriis ritibus colunto optima Among all the Countrey Rites of Religion those which are best must be observed So Apollo Pythius For when the Athenians had consulted him about Religion and Ceremonies and put the Question to which they should adhere He answers They should adhere to those of their Ancestors quae essent in more majorum and when coming again they told him that the Religion of their Ancestors had undergone so many mutations that they were to seek among so many where to find it and therefore pray him to vouchsafe his Direction which among them ought to be Observed To this he answers The Beâ—t Malachi 1.14 Cursed be the Deceiver which hath in his flock a Male and Voweth and Sacrificeth unto the Lord a Corrupt thing Socrates as Zenophon tells us was wont to commend this saying of the Antients Secundùm
and hell there are so many and so obvious Testimonies both of Poets and Philosophers of which occasionally I have mentioned some already that to offer any in so plain a matter and here especially may seem superfluous yet that I be not altogether wanting unto this Article in its Order since I have not yet been so to others in theirs I will present you One Evidence concerning it and because it will indeed be absolutely unnecessary after that to offer more I will Present but One. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the Law and Sanction of God concerning Men in the Reign of Saturn and the same was alwayes and even now is in force And what is that Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That whosoever among men did live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteously and Holily should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whensoever he dyed go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the Islands of the Blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there to dwell in all felicity without the Mixture of Evils This was the Law for the Good So Christ Blessed are they that dye in the Lord thenceforth they rest from their labours and their works follow them There shall be no night there There shall be no Curse there But what is the Law for the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he that lived without God or Impiously in the World and Unrighteously was to go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Place of Punishment and Iustice which they call Tartarus And Dives in Hell c. I confess the Life Everlasting by which I understand that Glorious and Immutable Condition or Estate to be possessed by the Godly in the Resurrection or the Re-union of the Body with the Soul is an Article wherein if in any the Gentiles generally were but Dark And yet what is not easily believed it is true that some of them had Light and Information of it for that very Poet whom I lately cited for the Resurrection from the Dead immediately to what I have already quoted out of him on that head adds this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Afterwards viz. after the Resurrection they shall be Gods And not the Poet only but the Old Magi believed Another and that an Immortal Life So Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who saith he speaking it of Theopompus affirmeth that according to the Doctrine of the Magi men shall live again and then be Immortal A Belief that is not much short of that the Christians had of old I know faith Iob that my Redeemer liveth that in the latter Day He shall stand upon the Earth and that I shall see him with these Eyes When I awake saith David I shall be satisfied with thy Likeness And what is that Likeness I know how some understand it viz. That it does consist in Holiness or in the correspondency of our Natures to the Divine But I rather understand it as Analogie and common sense of Scripture prompts me to consist in Glory I mean in the conformation of the Vile Bodies of Believers to the Glorious Body of Iesus Christ. For as they have born the Image of the Eart hly they shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Beloved we are now the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall Appear we shall be lik◠〈…〉 is He that shall 〈…〉 Christ and the 〈◊〉 proveth it 1 Ioh. 2. 28. But to conclude this tedious Entertainment of the Gentile Divinity I will only add that many Heathen held Opinion that the World should have End by Fire Of which perswasion Generally were all the Stoicks Seneca is press and full At illo tempore solutis Legibus sine modo fertur Qua ratione inquiris eadem qua Conflagratio futura est Utrumque sit cum Deo visum ordiri meliora Vetera finiri At that time absolved from all Laws it doth observe no measure How can that be dost thou say Why in the same manner wherein the Conflagration shall both the one and the other is when it pleaseth God either to give beginning unto new Things or else to put an end to old c. Ovid sayes as much Esse quoque in Fatis 〈…〉 affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret That time shall come when both the Earth and Sea With Heavens Arch so Glorious to behold Shall burn and shall turn unto Decay So also Lucretius Una dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Accidet exitium coeli terraeque futurum The World which stood so many years Shall in one day destroyed be Destruction likewise shall appear For Heaven and Earth most suddenly To this also agreeth the Poet Lucan his words be these Invida fatorum series summisque negatum Stare diu nimioque graves sub pondere Iapsus Nec se Roma ferens Sic cum compage soluta Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mistis Sidera Sideribus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nollet Excutietque fretum Fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi The Fates envy the States of mortal men The Highest Seats do not continue long Great is the fall under the greater burden And Greatest things do to themselves great'st wrong Rome was so great whom all the World did fear That Rome her self she could no longer bear So when this well couch't frame of World shall burn And the last hour so many ages end To former Chaos all things shall Return The Envious Fates this Issue do portend Then all the Planets shall confus'dly meet And fires coelestial on the floods shall fleet The Earth shall grudge to make the Sea a shore And cast it off and push the flood away The Moon enrag'd shall cross her Brother sore And seek to alter course to shine by day Thus all at odds in strife and out of frame They shall disturb the World and spoil the same So great a Light was that afforded to the Gentiles in all Essential points of true Religion which perhaps if we possessed all the Volumes perisht by the Injury of Times and the Destiny of Letters would have appeared much greater yet so great it seems now by what Discourses I have made already the which I might enlarge on every Article That none that does unprejudicedly weight them can have cause to wonder either at Clement's or at Lactantius's sense in favour of the old Philosophers or that St. Austin should say That the Jews dare not averr that no man was saved after the Propagation of Israel but Israelites Indeed there was no other People properly called the People of God
But they can't deny that some Particular Men lived in the world in other Nations that were belonging to the Heavenly Hierarchie And Vives in his Notes is of the same Perswasion But do you ask by what means Gentiles who were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and without the Line of that Communion became acquainted with those great Truths of which the Iews only had the solemn keeping I answer that as I have often intimated It was either I. By a Catholick or General Tradition from the first and most Antient Fathers Or 2. By some Extraordinary Revelation or Discovery made to them Or 3. By Communication from the Hebrews the Israelites and Jews who as a Church were a Candlestick to hold the Light committed to them out to all the Earth That most of those Doctrines I have noted were communicated down from hand to hand by Immemorial Tradition from the first and most Antient Fathers is not difficult to be conceived by those that know that as all men came from Adam in the first World so that in the second all did Descend from Noah who had the knowledge of the true Religion and instructed all his children in it which children cannot be imagined but also to instruct and teach theirs and so onward But this is not all for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mos majorum was a thing insisted on by all the Heathen who ever pleaded for the Rites of their Religious that they had received them from their forefathers and that they were of Antient Usage yes and that Plato whom Aristobulus the Iew affirmeth to have been a follower of the Law of his Nation and to be very studious of the Doctrines in the Sacred Oracles and whom Numenius for the same Reason styles the Attick Moses he sayes expresly That he Gleaned all he had and wrote in that kind out of Immemorial and Unwritten but almost expired and worn out Traditions For in his Politic in the Place which I have cited in my Advertisement to the Reader he plainly tells us That the points he speaks of were transmitted from our first Predecessors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That those that lived in the former Ages Preached it is his own Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were Preachers of the very things that now are causelesly rejected of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like in his Philebus which I also noted before wherein he sayes that the Antients better men than we and dwelling nearer to the Gods delivered to us the Report or Fame of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yes and in his Republique he maketh Adimantus in Address to Socrates to speak the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deducing your Discourses from the Anâ—ient Heroes who were from the Beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remains of whose Discourses are arrived even down to us 'T is very probable that these whom Plato calls the first Ancestors the Antients better men than we nearer to the Gods Heroes that were from the Beginning I mean the first Patriarchs for so I understand him Noah for instance and his children are the same designed by the fam'd Apollo when in answer to a grave and serious Inquiry made by Zeno Citticus how he might institute and frame and order his Life Best He sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would institute and frame and order it best if he made it to conform to the Dead Apollo's Dead and Plato's Heroes are the same Thus by Oral Tradition or Report by which I mean a delivery down of Doctrines from hand to hand by Words or else by visible and significant Actions many things were transferred from preceding to succeeding ages But Report or Oral Tradition and Delivery is in it self a means of conveyance so Uncertain and fallible that when it passes many hands there can but little be consided to it in controverted matters for then it proveth most commonly so diversified and various that it is the cause of Controversies not the cure the persons that convey it are so lyable either to mistake and Imposture or to design Interest Nothing is more Obvious or more frequently experienced than this For the Report of an Accident but at One End of the Town albeit it may Retain as for the most part it doth some general likeness and similitude of the First and Original Truth yet 't is disguised with a thousand Errors though perhaps in some places with more in some with less according to the different Capacities Numbers Tempers Affections and Designs of those that have the conveying of it Report the further it goes the more it loses of Truth and the more it gains of Error In this Instance we have a lively Pourtraict of the False Religion of the Gentiles and the plain Reason why it seemeth in so many things an Apish Imitation of the True why it is so diversified in it self and yet withall Retaineth such Resemblance and Conformity with Ours It is because that all men came from one and that all men came from one and that not only Adam but Noah did instruct his children in the Mysteries of the True Religion and in the Rites of it and these again Reported to theirs and so onward But we may easily believe it to have hapned in this Tradition as it doth in all others that there was almost in every New delivery and Transmission for the mentioned causes some departure and Recess from the Former and thence arose so great Diversity in several parts of the World yet what also is in all Reports notwithstanding so much Variation in Particulars as there was among them all Retained some Agreement in the General and that Greater or Lesser as those that made them were either nearer to the first Reporters or more Remote or else were more or less Intelligent Faithful careful and sincere in Transferring them Cunning and Designing men foisted in something of their own and made the Catholick Traditions to father their conceits But others were more Honest Hence the Variety and hence the Agreement in the Religions of the World Now those General Articles Heads or Points of Religion wherein all men all the World over commonly agree and which are therefore called common sentiments though they be not what by some they be imagined Innate Idea's or Notions ingrafted and imprinted on the Minds of Men by Nature but as I have evinced them main and substantial Points of the first Tradition and consequently Retained in all the following with more or less Disguise yet be they as Infallibly and Indubitably true as if they were since 't is as impossible that they should obtain so Universally all the World over if indeed they were not the Traditions of a first and common Parent as that they should be false if they were For grant one first Parent common to all the World who could not but know the Truth and that he so delivered things to his Children and