Aether Animated or the subtle Fiery Substance that pervadeth all things the God of the Heracliticks and Stoicks or the Sun the Cleanthaean God Page 455 456 Though Macrobius refer so many of the Pagan Gods to the Sun and doubtless himself lookt upon it as a Great God yet does he deny it to be Omnipotentissimum Deum the Most Omnipotent God of all he asserting a Trinity of Divine Hypostases Superiour to it in the Platonick way Page 456 457 That the Persians themselves the most Notorious Sun-worshippers did notwithstanding acknowledge a Deity Superiour to it and the Maker thereof proved from Eubulus As also that the Persians Countrey-Jupiter was not the Sun confirmed from Herodotus Xenophon Plutarch and Curtius Cyrus his Lord God of Heaven who commanded him to build him a house at Jerusalem the same with the God of the Jews Page 458 That as besides the Scythians the Ethiopians in Strabo and other Barbarian Nations anciently acknowledged One Sovereign Deity so is this the Belief of the generality of the Pagan World to this very day Page 458 459 XXVIII Besides Themistius and Symmachus asserting One and the same Thing to be worshipped in all Religions though after different ways and that God Almighty was not displeased with this Variety of his Worship Plutarch's Memorable Testimony That as the same Sun Moon and Stars are common to all so were the same Gods And that not onely the Egyptians but also all other Pagan Nations worshipped One Reason and Providence ordering all together with its Inferiour Subservient Powers and Ministers though with different Rites and Symbols Page 459 460 Titus Livius also of the same Perswasion That the Same Immortal Gods were Worshipped every where namely One Supreme and his Inferiour Ministers however the Diversity of Rites made them seem Different Page 460 Two Egyptian Philosophers Heraiscus and Asclepiades professedly insisting upon the same thing not onely as to the Egyptians but also the other Pagan Nations the Latter of them Asclepiades having written a Book Entitled The Symphony or Harmony of all Theologies or Religions To wit in these Two Fundamentalls That there is One Supreme God and besides him Other Inferiour Gods his Subservient Ministers to be worshipped From whence Symmachus and other Pagans concluded That the Differences of Religion were not to be scrupulously stood upon but every man ought to worship God according to the Law and Religion of his own Country The Pagans Sense thus declared by Stobaeus That the Multitude of Gods is the work of the Demiurgus made by Him together with the World Page 461 XXIX That the Pagan Theists must needs acknowledge One Supreme Deity further Evident from hence Because they generally believed the whole World to be One Animal Actuated and Governed by One Soul To deny the Worlds Animation and to be an Atheist all one in the sense of the Ancient Pagans Against Gassendus that Epicurus denyed the Worlds Animation upon no other account but onely because he denyed a Providential Deity This whole Animated World or the Soul thereof to the Stoicks and others The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First and Highest God Page 462 Other Pagan Theologers who though asserting likewise the Worlds Animation and a Mundane Soul yet would not allow this to be the Supreme Deity they conceiving the First and Highest God to be no Soul but an Abstract and Immoveable Mind Superiour to it And to these the Animated World and Mundane Soul but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Second God Page 463 But the Generality of those who went Higher than the Soul of the World acknowledged also a Principle Superior to Mind or Intellect called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The One and The Good and so asserted a Trinity of Divine Hypostases Subordinate Monad Mind and Soul So that the Animated World or Soul thereof was to some of these but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Third God ibid. The Pagans whether holding Soul or Mind or Monad to be the Highest acknowledged onely One in each of those severall Kinds as the Head of all and so always reduced the Multiplicity of things to a Unity or under a Monarchy Page 464 Observed That to the Pagan Theologers Vniversally the World was no Dead Thing or meer Machin and Automaton but had Life or Soul diffused thorough it all Those being taxed by Aristotle as Atheists who made the world to consist of nothing but Monads or Atoms Dead and Inanimate Nor was it quite Cut off from the Supreme Deity how much soever Elevated above the same the Forementioned Trinity of Monad Mind and Soul being supposed to be most intimately united together and indeed all but One Entire Divinity Displayed in the World and Supporting the same Page 464 465 XXX The Sense of the Hebrews in this Controversy That according to Philo the Pagan Polytheism consisted not in worshipping Many Independent Gods and Partial Creators of the World but besides the One Supreme other Created Beings Superior to men Page 465 466 That the same also was the Sense of Flavius Josephus according to whom This the Doctrine of Abraham That the Supreme God was alone to be Religiously Worshipped and no Created thing with him Aristaeus his Assertion in Josephus That the Jews and Greeks worshipped one and the same Supreme God called by the Greeks Zene as giving Life to all Page 466 467 The Latter Rabbinical Writers generally of this Perswasion That the Pagans acknowledging One Supreme and Universal Numen worshipped all their Other Gods as his Ministers or as Mediators and Intercessors betwixt him and them And this Condemned by them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strange Worship or Idolatry The first Commandment thus interpreted by Maimonides and Baal Ikkarim Thou shalt not set up besides me any Inferiour Gods as Mediators nor Religiously Worship my Ministers or Attendants The Miscarriage of Solomon and other Kings of Israel and Judah This That believing the Existence of the One Supreme God they thought it was for his Honour that his Ministers also should be worshipped Abravanel his Ten Species of Idolatry all of them but so Many several Modes of Creature-Worship and no mention amongst them made of many Independent Gods Page 467 c. Certain Places of Scripture also Interpreted by Rabbinical Writers to this purpose That the Pagan Nations generally acknowledged One Sovereign Numen Page 469 470 The Jews though agreeing with the Greeks and other Pagans in this That the Stars were all Animated nevertheless denyed them any Religious Worship Page 470 471 XXXI This same thing plainly confirmed from the New Testament That the Gentiles or Pagans however Polytheists and Idolaters were not Vnacquainted with the True God First from the Epistle to the Romans where that which is Knowable of God is said to have been manifest amongst the Pagans and they to have Known God though they did not Glorify him as God but hold the Truth in Unrighteousness by reason of their Polytheism and Idolatry
the Second Book The Confutation of the Divine Fate Immoral There is a large Account given of the Pagan Polytheism to satisfy a very considerable Objection that lay in our way from thence Against the Naturality of the Idea of God as Including Oneliness and Singularity in it For had that upon enquiry been found True which is so commonly taken for granted That the generality of the Pagan Nations had constantly Scattered their Devotions amongst a multitude of Self-Existent and Independent Deities they acknowledging no One Sovereign Numen This would much have Stumbled the Naturality of the Divine Idea But now it being on the Contrary clearly Proved That the Pagan Theologers all along acknowledged One Sovereign and Omnipotent Deity from which all their other Gods were Generated or Created we have thereby not onely Removed the forementioned Objection out of the way but also Evinced That the Generality of mankind have constantly had a certain Prolepsis or Anticipation in their Minds concerning the Actual Existence of a God according to the True Idea of him And this was the rather done Fully and Carefully by us because we had not met with it sufficiently performed before A. Steuchus Eugubinus having laboured mâ—st in this Subject from whose profitable Industry though we shall no way detract yet whosoever will compare what he hath written with ours will find no Just Cause to think ours Superfluous and Unnecessary much less a Transcription out of his In which besides other things there is no Account at all given of the Many Pagan Poetical and Political Gods what they were which is so great a part of our Performance to prove them Really to have been but the Polyonymy of one God From whence it follows also That the Pagan Religion though sufficiently Faulty yet was not altogether so Nonsensical as the Atheists would represent it out of design that they might from thence infer all Religion to be nothing but a meer Cheat and Imposture they worshipping onely One Supreme God in the several Manifestations of his Goodness Power and Providence throughout the World together with his Inferiour Ministers Nevertheless we cannâ—t deny that being once engaged in this Subject we thought our Selves the more Concerned to doe the business thoroughly and effectually because of that Controversy lately Agitated concerning Idolatry which cannot otherwise be Decided then by giving a True Account of the Pagan Religion and the so Confident Affirmations of some That none could possibly be Guilty of Idolatry in the Scripture Sense who Believed One God the Creator of the whole world Whereas it is most certain on the contrary that the Pagan Polyteism and Idolatry consisted not in worshipping Many Creators or Uncreateds but in giving Religious Worship to Creatures besides the Creator they directing their Devotion as Athanasius plainly affirmeth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To One Uncreated onely but besides him to many Created Gods But as for the Polemick Management of this Controversy concerning Idolatry we leave it to other Learned Hands that are already engaged in it Moreover We have in this Fourth Chapter largely Insisted also upon the Trinity The Reason whereof was Because it came in our way and our Contents engaged us thereunto in order to the giving a full Account of the Pagan Theology it being certain that the Platonicks and Pythagoreans at least if not other Pagans also had their Trinity as well as Christians And we could not well avoid the Comparing of these Two together Vpon which Occasion we take notice of a Double Platonick Trinity the One Spurious and Adulterated of some latter Platonists the Other True and Genuine of Plato himself Parmenides and the Ancients The Former of which though it be Opposed by us to the Christian Trinity and Confuted yet betwixt the Latter and that do we find a Wonderfull Correspondence which is Largely Pursued in the Platonick Christians Apology Wherein notwithstanding nothing must be lookt upon as Dogmatically Asserted by us but onely Offered and Submitted to the Judgment of the Learned in these Matters We confining our selves in this Mysterious Point of the Holy Trinity within the Compass of those its Three Essentials declared First That it is not a Trinity of meer Names and Words or of Logical Notions onely But of Persons or Hypostases Secondly That none of those Persons or Hypostases are Creatures but all Uncreated And Lastly That they are all Three Truely and Really One God Nevertheless we acknowledge That we did therefore the more Copiously insist upon this Argument because of our then Designed Defence of Christianity we conceiving that this Parallelism betwixt the Ancient or Genuine Platonick and the Christian Trinity might be of some use to satisfy those amongst us who Boggle so much at the Trinity and look upon it as the Choak-Pear of Christianity when they shall find that the Freest Wits amongst the Pagans and the Best Philosophers who had nothing of Superstition to Determine them that way were so far from being shy of such an Hypothesis as that they were even Fond thereof And that the Pagans had indeed such a Cabbala amongst them which some perhaps will yet hardly believe notwithstanding all that we have said might be further convinced from that memorable Relation in Plutarch of Thespesius Solensis who after he had been lookt upon as Dead for Three days Reviving Affirmed amongst other things which he thought he saw or heard in the mean time in his Ecstasy This Of Three Gods in the Form of a Triangle pouring in Streams into one another Orpheus his Soul being said to have arrived so far accordingly as from the Testimonies of other Pagan Writers we have proved that a Trinity of Divine Hypostases was a part of the Orphick Cabbala True indeed our Belief of the Holy Trinity is Founded upon no Pagan Cabbala's but onely Scripture Revelation it being that which Christians are or should be all Baptized into Nevertheless these things are Reasonably noted by us to this end That that should not be made a Prejudice Against Christianity and Revealed Religion nor lookt upon as such an Affrightfull Bugbear or Mormo in it which even Pagan Philosophers themselves and those of the most Accomplished Intellectuals and Uncaptivated Minds though having neither Councils nor Creeds nor Scriptures had so great a Propensity and Readiness to entertain and such a Veneration for In this Fourth Chapter We were necessitated by the Matter it self to run out into Philology and Antiquity as also in the other Parts of the Book we do often give an Account of the Doctrine of the Ancients which however some Over-severe Philosophers may look upon Fastidiously or Undervalue and Depretiate yet as we conceived it often Necessary so possibly may the Variety thereof not be Ungratefull to others and this Mixture of Philology throughout the Whole Sweeten and Allay the Severity of Philosophy to them The main thing which the Book pretends to in the mean time being the Philosophy of Religion But for our
Prince of the World that is of the Eternal Intellect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 24. Aristotle an Acknowledger of Many Gods he accounting the Stars such and yet an express Asserter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Prince One Immoveable Mover 25. Cleanthes and Chrysippus Stoicks though they filled the whole Heaven Earth Air and Sea with Gods yet notwithstanding they acknowledged only One Gâ—d Immortal Jupiter all the rest being consumed into him in the Successive Conflagrations and afterwards made anew by him Cleanthes his excellent and devout Hymn to the Supreme God 26. Eâ—dless to cite all the Passages of the later Pagan Writers and Polytheists in which one Supreme God is asserted Excellent Discourses in some of them concerning the Deity particularly Plotinus Who though he derived all things even Matter it self from one Supreme Deity yet was a Contender for Many Gods 27. This not only the Opinion of Philosophers and Learned men but also the General Belief of the Pagan Vulgar that there was One Supreme God proved from Maximus Tyrius The Romans Deus Optimus Maximus The Paâ—ans when most serious spake of God singularly Kyrie Eleeson part of the Pagans Litany to the Supreme God The more civilizâ—d Pagans at this very day acknowledge one Supreme Deity the Maker of the World 28. Plutarch's Testimony that notwithstanding the variety of Paganick Religions and the different Names of Gods used in them yet One Reason Mind or Providence ordering all things and its Inferiour Ministers were alike every where Worshipped 29. Plain that the Pagan Theists must needs acknowledge One Supreme Deity because they generally believed the whole World to be One Animal gâ—vernâ—d by One Soul Some Pagans made this Soul of the World their Supreme God others an Abstract Mind Superiour to it 30. The Hebrew Doctors generally of this Perswasion that the Pagans worshipped one Supreme God and that all their other Gods were but Mediatours betwixt him and men 31. Lastly this confirmed from Scripture The Pagans Knew God Aratus his Jupiter and the Athenians Unknown God the True God 32. In order to a fuller Explication of the Pagan Theology and shewing the Occasion of its being misunderstood Three Heads requisite to be insisted on First that the Pagans worshipped One Supreme God under Many Names Secondly that besides this one God they worshipped also Many Gods which were indeed Inferiour Deities Subordinate to him Thirdly that they worshipped both the Supreme and inferiour Gods in Images Statues and Symbols sometimes abusively called also Gods First that the Supreme God amongst the Pagans was Polyonymous and worshipped under several Personal Names according to his several Attributes and the Manifestations of them his Gifts and Effects in the World 33. That upon the same accompt Things not Substantial were Personated and Deified by the Pagans and worshipped as so many several Names or Notions of One God 34. That as the whole Corporeal World Animated was supposed by some of the Pagans to be the Supreme God so he was worshipped in the several Parts and Members of it having Personal Names bestowed upon them as it were by Parcels and Piece-meal or by so many Inadequate Conceptions That some of the Pagans made the Corporeal World the Temple of God only but others the Body of God 35. The Second Head proposed that besides the One Supreme God under several Names the Pagans acknowledged and Worshipped also Many Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made Gods Created intellectual Beings Superiour to Men. 36. The Pythagorick or Platonick Trinity of Divine Hypostases And the Higher of the Inferiour Deities according to this Hypothesis Nous Psyche and the whole Corporeal World with particular Noes and Henades 37. The other Inferiour Deities acknowledged as well by the Vulgar as Philosophers of Three Sorts First the Sun Moon and Stars and other greater Parts of the Vniverse Animated called Sensible Gods 38. Secondly their Inferiour Deities Invisible Ethereal and Aereal Animals called Daemons These appointed by the Supreme Deity to preside over Kingdoms Cities Places Persons and Things 39. The Last sort of the Pagan Inferiour Deities Heroes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Men-gods Euemerus taxed by Plutarch for making all the Pagan Gods nothing but Dead Men. 40. The Third general Head proposed That the Pagans worshipped both the Supreme and Inferiour Gods in Images Statues and Symbols That first of all before Images and Temples Rude Stones and Pillars without Sculpture were erected for Religious Monuments and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bethels 41. That afterwards Images Statues and Symbols were used and housed in Temples These placed in the West-end of the Temples to face the East so that the Pagans entering worshipped towards the West One probable Occasion of the Ancient Christians Praying towards the East The Golden Calf made for a Symbolick Presence of the God of Israel 42. All the parts of the entire Pagan Religion represented together at once in Plato 43. That some late Writers not well understanding the Sence of Pagans have confounded all their Theology by supposing them to Worship the Inanimate parts of the World as such for Gods therefore distinguishing betwixt their Animal and their Natural Gods That no Corporeal thing was worshipped by the Pagans otherwise than either as being it self Animated with a Particular Soul of its own or as being part of the whole Animated World or as having Daemons presiding over it to whom the Worship was properly directed or Lastly as being Images or Symbols of Divine Things 44. That though the Egyptians be said to have Worshipped Brute Animals and were generally therefore condemned by the other Pagans yet the wiser of them used them only as Hieroglyphicks and Symbols 45. That the Pagans worshipped not only the Supreme God but also the Inferiour Deities by Material Sacrifices Sacrifices or Fire-offerings in their First and General Notion nothing else but Gifts and Signs of Gratitude and Appendices of Prayer But that Animal Sacrifices had afterwards a Particular Notion also of Expiation fastned on them whether by Divine Direction or Humane Agreement left undetermined 46. The Pagans Apology for the Three forementioned Things First for Worshipping one Supreme one God under Many Personal Names and that not only according to his several Attributes but also his several Manifestations Gifts and Effects in the Visible World With an Excuse for those Corporeal Theists who Worshipped the whole Animated World as the Supreme God and the several Parts of it under Personal Names as Living Members of him 47. Their Apology for Worshipping besides the One Supreme God Many Inferiour Deities That they Worshipping them only as Inferiour could not therefore be guilty of giving them that Honour which was proper to the Supreme That they Honour'd the Supreme God Incomparably above all That they put a Difference in their Sacrifices and that Material Sacrifices were not the proper Worship of the Supreme God but rather below him 48. Several Reasons of the Pagans for giving Religious Worship
to Sanchuniathon the Globe being said to signifie the First Incomprehensible Deity without Beginning or End Self-existent the Serpent the Divine Wisdom and Creative Vertue and lastly the Wings that Active Spirit that cherisheth quickneth and enliveneth all things How far credit is to be given to this we leave others to judge but the clearest footsteps that we can find any where of an Egyptian Trinity is in Jamblichus his Book written concerning their Mysteries which whole place therefore is worth the setting down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to another order or method Hermes places the God Emeph as the Prince and Ruler over all the Celestial Gods whom he affirmeth to be a Mind understanding himself and converting his Cogitations or Intellections into himself Before which Emeph he placeth One Indivisible whom he calleth Eicton in which is the first Intelligible and which is worshipped only by silence After which Two Eicton and Emeph the Demiurgick Mind and President of truth as with wisdom it proceedeth to Generations and bringeth forth the hidden Powers of the occult Reasons into light is called in the Egyptian Language Ammon as it Artificially effects all things with truth Phtha which Phtha the Greeks attending only to the Artificialness thereof call Hephestus or Vulcan as it is productive of Good Osiris besides other names that it hath according to its other Powers and Energies In which Passage of Jamblichus we have plainly Three Divine Hypostases or universal Principles Subordinate according to the Hermaick Theology First an Indivisible Vnity called Eicton Secondly a Perfect Mind converting its Intellections into it self called Emeph or Hemphta and Thirdly theimmediate Principle of Generation called by several names according to its several Powers as Phtha Ammon Osiris and the like So that these Three Names with others according to Jamblichus did in the Egyptian Theology signifie one and the same Third Divine Hypostasis How well these Three Divine Hypostases of the Egyptians agree with the Pythagorick or Platonick Trinity of First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnity and Goodness it self Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul I need not here declare Only we shall call to mind what hath been already intimated that that Reason or Wisdom which was the Demiurgus of the World and is properly the Second of the forementioned Hypostases was called also amongst the Egyptians by another name Cneph from whom was said to have been produced or begotten the God Phtha the Third Hypostasis of the Egyptian Trinity so that Cneph and Emeph are all one Wherefore we have here plainly an Egyptian Trinity of Divine Hypostases Subordinate Eicton Emeph or Cneph and Phtha VVe know not what to add more to this of Jamblichus concerning an Egyptian Trinity unless we should insist upon those Passages which have been cited by some of the Fathers to this purpose out of Hermaick or Trismegistick Books whereof there was one before set down out of St. Cyril or unless we should again call to mind that Citation out of Damascius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that according to the Egyptians there is One Principle of all things praised under the name of the Vnknown Darkness and this Thrice repeated Agreeably to which Augustinus Steuchus produces another Passage out of the same Philosophick VVriter that the Egyptians made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Principle of all to be Darkness above all Knowledge and Vnderstanding or Vnknown Darkness they Thrice repeating the same VVhich the forementioned Steuchus takes to be a clear acknowledgement of a Trinity of Divine Hypostases in the Egyptian Theology Our Second Observation is this That the Egyptian Theology as well as the Orphick which was derived from it asserting One Incorporeal Deity that is All Things as it is evident that it could not admit a Multitude of Self-existent and Independent Deities so did the seeming Polytheism of these Egyptians proceed also in great measure from this Principle of theirs not rightly understood they being led thereby in a certain sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Personate and Deifie the Several Parts of the World and Things of Nature bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Not that they therefore worshipped the Inanimate Parts of the VVorld as such Much less Things not Substantial but meer Accidents for so many Real Distinct Personal Deities but because conceiving that God who was All things ought to be Worshipped in All things such especially as were most Beneficial to Mankind they did according to that Asclepian and Trismegistick Doctrine before-mentioned Call God by the Name of every â—hing or Every thing by the Name of God And that the wiser of them very well understood that it was really One and the same Simple Deity that was thus worshipped amongst them by piece-meal in the several Parts of the World and Things of Nature and under different Names and Notions with different Ceremonies is thus declared by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isis is a Greek Word which signifies Knowledge and Typhon is the Enemy to this Goddess who being puffed up by Ignorance and Error doth Distract and Discerp the Holy Doctrine of the Simple Deity which Isis collects together again and makes up into One and thus delivers it to those who are initiated into her sacred Mysteries in order to Deification In which words Plutarch intimates that the Egyptian Fable of Osiris being Mangled and Cut in pieces by Typhon did Allegorically signifie the Discerption and Distraction of the Simple Deity by reason of the Weakness and Ignorance of vulgar minds not able to comprehend it altogether at once into several Names and Partial Notions which yet True Knowledge and Vnderstanding that is Isis makes up whole again and unites into One. XIX It is well known that the Poets though they were the Prophets of the Pagans and pretending to a kind of Divine Inspiration did otherwise embue the minds of the Vulgar with a certain Sense of Religion and the Notions of Morality yet these notwithstanding were the grand Depravers and Adulterators of the Pagan Theology For this they were guilty of upon several Accounts As First Their attributing to the Gods in their Fables concerning them all manner of Humane Imperfections Passions and Vices Which abuse of theirs the wiser of the Pagans were in all ages highly sensible of and offended with as partly appears from these Free Passages vented upon the Stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis est mortalium Qui scelera patrat exigunt poenam Dei At nonne iniquum est vos suas leges quibus Gens debet hominum jure nullo vivere To this sence Since mortal men are punished by the Gods for transgressing their Laws is it not unjust that ye Gods who write these Laws should your selves live without Law And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
it was perpetually to Personate Things and Natures But the Philosophick Theology properly so called which according to Varro was that de qua multos libros Philosophi reliquerunt as it admitted none but Animal Gods and such as really existed in Nature which therefore were called Natural namely one Supreme Universal Numen a Perfect Soul or Mind comprehending all and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other Inferiour Understanding Beings his Ministers Created by him such as Stars and Demons so were all those Personated Gods or Natures of Things Deified in the Arcane Theology interpreted agreeably thereunto St. Austin often takes notice of the Pagans thus Mingling and as it were Incorporating Physiology with their Theology he justly condemning the same As in his 49. Epistle Neque illinc excusant impii sua Sacrilega Sacra Simulachra quòd eleganter interpretantur quid quaeque significent Omnis quippe illa Interpretatio ad Creaturam refertur non ad Creatorem cui uni debetur Servitus Religionis illa quae uno nomine Latria Graecè appellatur Neither do the Pagans sufficiently excuse their Sacrilegious Rites and Images from hence because they elegantly and ingeniously interpret what each of those things signifieth For this Interpretation is referred to the Creature and not to the Creator to whom alone belongeth Religious Worship that which by the Greeks is called Latria And again in his Book De Civ D. L. 6. c. 8. Atenim habent ista Physiologicas quasdam sicut aiunt id est Naturalium Rationum Interpretationes Quasi verò nos in hac Disputatione Physiologiam quaeramus non Theologiam id est Rationem Naturae non Dei. Quamvis enim qui verus Deus est non Opinione sed Natura sit Deus non tamen omnis Natura Deus est But the Pagans pretend that these things have certain Physiological Interpretations or according to Natural Reasons as if in this Disputation we sought for Physiology and not Theology or the Reason of Nature and not of God For although the True God be not in Opinion only but in Nature God yet is not every Nature God But certainly the First and Chief Ground of this Practice of theirs thus to Theologize Physiology and Deifie in one sence or other all the Things of Nature was no other than what has been already intimated their supposing God to be not only Diffused thorough the whole World and In all things but also in a manner All things and that therefore he ought to be worshipped in All the Things of Nature and Parts of the World Wherefore these personated Gods of the Pagans or those Things of Nature Deified by them and called Gods and Goddesses were for all that by no means accounted by the Intelligent amongst them True and Proper Gods Thus Cotta in Cicero Cum Fruges Cererem Vinum Liberum dicimus genere nos quidem sermonis utimur usitato sed ecquem tam amentem esse putas qui illud quo vescatur Deum esse credat Though it be very common and familiar language amongst us to call Corn Ceres and Wine Bacchus yet who can think any one to be so mad as to take that to be really a God which he feeds upon The Pagans really accounted that only for a God by the worshipping and invoking whereof they might reasonably expect benefit to themselves and therefore nothing was Truely and Properly a God to them but what was both Substantial and also Animant and Intellectual For Plato writes that the Atheistick Wits of his time therefore concluded the Sun and Moon and Stars not to be Gods because they were nothing but Earth and Stones or a certain Fiery Matter devoid of all Understanding and Sense and for this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unable to take notice of any Humane Affairs And Aristotle affirmeth concerning the Gods in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all men conceived them to Live and consequently to Act since they cannot be supposed to sleep perpetually as Endymion did The Pagans Universally conceived the Gods to be Happy Animals and Aristotle there concludes the happiness of them all to consist in Contemplation Lucretius himself would not debar men of that Language then vulgarly received amongst the Pagans of calling the Sea Neptune Corn Ceres Wine Bacchus and the Earth the Mother of the Gods too provided that they did not think any of these for all that to be Truly and Really Gods Hîc siquis Mare Neptunum Cereremque vocare Constituit fruges Bacchi nomine abuti Mavolt quam Laticis proprium proferre vocamen Concedamus ut hic Terrarum dictitet Orbem Esse Deum Matrem dum non sit re tamen apse And the reason why the Earth was not really a Goddess is thus given by him Terra quidem vero caret omni tempore Sensu. Because it is constantly devoid of all manner of sense Thus Balbus in Cicero tells us that the first thing included in the notion or Idea of a God is this Vt sit Animans That it be Animant or endued with Life Sense and Vnderstanding And he conceiving the Stars to be undoubtedly such therefore concludes them to be Gods Quoniam tenuissimus est Aether semper agitatur viget necesse est quod Animal in eo gignatur idem quoque Sensu acerrimo esse Quare â—um in Aethere Astra gignantur consentaneum est in iis Sensum inesse Intelligentiam Ex quo efficitur in Deorum numero Astra esse ducenda Because the Aether is most subtil and in continual agitation that Animal which is begotten in it must needs be endued with the quickest and sharpest sense Wherefore since the Stars are begotten in the Aether it is reasonable to think them to have Sense and Vnderstanding from whence it follows that they ought to be reckoned in the number of Gods And Cotta in the Third Book affirms that all men were so far from thinking the Stars to be Gods that Multi ne Animantes quidem esse concedant many would not so much as admit them to be Animals plainly intimating that unless they were Animated they could not possibly by Gods Lastly Plutarch for this very reason absolutely condemns that whole practice of giving the names of Gods and Goddesses to Inanimate things as Absurd Impious and Atheistical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who give the names of Gods to Sensless and Inanimate Natures and Things and such as are destroyed by men in the use of them beget most wicked and Atheistical opinions in the minds of men since it cannot be conceived how these things should be Gods for nothing that is Inanimate is a God And now we have very good reason to conclude that the Distinction or Division of Pagan Gods used by some into Animal and Natural by Natural being meant Inanimate is utterly to be rejected if we speak of their True and Proper Gods since nothing was such to the
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
in way of opposition to those who think God to be nothing else but the Heaven it self and those Heavenly things which we see or the whole Sensible World Animated Wherefore Cicero that he might shew the Omnipotence of the First and Supreme God to be such as could scarcely be understood but not at all perceived by Sense he calleth whatsoever falleth under humane sight His Temple that so he that worshippeth these things as the Temple of God might in the mean time remember that the chief Worship is due to the Maker and Creator of them as also that himself ought to live in the World like a Priest or Mysta holily and religiously And thus we see that the Pagans were universally Cosmolatrae or World-worshippers in one sence or other not that they worshipped the World as a Dead and Inanimate thing but either as the Body of God or at least as the Temple or Image of him Neither of which terminated their worship in that which was Sensible and Visible only but in that great Mind or Soul which Framed and Governeth the whole World Understandingly though this was called also by them not the Nature of things but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Common Nature and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nature of the Vniverse because it contained under it the Spermatick Reasons or Plastick Principles of the whole World Furthermore these Pagan Theists Universally acknowledging the whole World to be an Animal and that Mundane Animal also to be a God those of them who supposed it not to be the First and Highest God did consequently all conceive it as hath been already observed to be either a Second or at least a Third God And thus Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greeks do plainly affirm the whole World to be a God some of them as the Stoicks the First God others as the Platonists to whom may be added the Egyptians also the Second God though some of these Platonists call it the Third God Those of the Platonists who called the Mundane Animal or Animated World the Second God look'd upon that whole Platonick Trinity of Divine Hypostases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all but as One First God but those others of them who called it a Third God supposed a greater distinction betwixt those Three Hypostases and made so many several Gods of them the First a Monad or Simple Goodness the Second Mind or Intellect the Third Psyche or the Universal Soul which also without any more ado they concluded to be the Immediate Soul of this Corporeal World Existing likewise from Eternity with it Now this Second God which was the whole Animated World as well to the Egyptians as the Platonists was by them both said to be not only the Temple and Image but also the Son of the First God That the Egyptians called the Animated World the Son of God hath been already proved and that the other Pagans did the like also is evident from this of Celsus where he pretends that the Christians called their Jesus the Son of God in imitation of those Ancient Pagans who had styled the World so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence these Christians came to call their Jesus the Son of God I shall now declare Namely because our Ancestors had called the World as made by God the Son of God and God Now is there not a goodly similitude think you betwixt these two Sons of God theirs and ours Upon which words of his Origen writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus supposed us Christians to have borrowed this Appellation of the Son of God from the Pagans they calling the World as made by God the Son of God and God Wherefore these Pagans who look'd upon the whole Animated World only as the Second God and Son of God did unquestionably also worship the First God in the World and that probably by Personating and Deifying his several Parts and Members too Thus do we understand what that was which gave occasion to this mistake of late Writers that the Pagans worshipped the Inanimate Parts of the World as such for True and Proper Gods viz. their not perceiving that they worshipped these only as the Parts or Living Members of One Great Mundane Animal which was to them if not the First God yet at least the Second God the Temple Image and Son of the First God And now have we as we conceive given a full account of the Seeming Polytheism of the Pagans not only in their Poetical and Fabulous but also their Political or Civil Theology the Former of which was nothing but Phancy and Fiction and the Conforming of Divine to Humane Things the Latter nothing but Vulgar Opinion and Errour together with the Laws and Institutes of States-men and Politicians designed Principally to amuze the Vulgar and keep them the better in obedience and subjection to Civil Laws Besides which the Intelligent Pagans generally acknowledged another Theology which was neither Fiction nor meer Opinion and Law but Nature and Philosophy or Absolute Truth and Reality according to which Natural and Philosophick Theology of theirs there was only One Vnmade Self-originated Deity and many other Created Gods as his Inferiour Ministers So that those many Poetical and Political Gods could not possibly be look'd upon otherwise than either as the Created Ministers of One Supreme God whether taken Singly or Collectively or else as the Polyonymy and Various Denomination of him according to several Notions and Partial Conceptions of him and his several Powers and Manifestations in the World Personated and Deified Which latter we have already proved to have been the most generally received Opinion of the Pagan Theologers according to that of Euclides the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is One Supreme Good or Highest Deity called by Many Names and according to that of Antisthenes before cited That the Many Popular Gods were but One and the same Natural God viz. as Lactantius adds Summae totius Artifex The Maker of the whole World We shall conclude with repeating what hath been already suggested that though the Intelligent Pagans did Generally disclaim their Fabulous Theology St. Austin telling us that when the absurdities thereof were urged against them they would commonly make such replies as these Absit inquiunt Fabularum est ista Garrulitas and again Rursus inquiunt ad Fabulas redis Far be it from us say they to think so or so this is nothing but the garrulity of idle Fables and You would bring us again to Fables and though they owned another Theology besides their Civil also which was the Natural and Philosophical as the only True yet did they notwithstanding acknowledge a kind of necessity that in those times at least there should be besides the Natural and Philosophical Theology which the Vulgar were not so capable of another Theology framed and held forth that might be more accommodate to their
Being which is the proper Notion of a Creature So that the Animated World is by Plato made to be only the chief of all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Creature-Gods Wherefore it is plain that in this Trinity of some Platonists and Pythagoreans wherein the World is made to be the Third God there is a confused Jumble of Created and Vncreated Beings together For the First of those Gods is the Father and Fountain of all or the Original of the Godhead And the Second forasmuch as he is called by them both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Maker and the Opificer of the whole World he therefore can be no Creature neither whereas the Third which is said to be the World was by Numenius himself also expresly called both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Work or Thing Made that is plainly the Creature of both the Former Proclus thus fully represents his sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numenius called the First of the Three Gods the Father the Second of them the Maker and the Third the the Work or Thing Made so that according to Numenius there were two Opificers or Creators of the World the First and the Second God and the World it self that is the Thing Made and Created by them both is said to be the Third God And that this Notion of the Trinity is an Adulterated One may be also further concluded from hence because according to this Hypothesis they might have said that there were Three Hundred and more Gods as well as that there are Three since all the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generated Gods might have come into the Number too as well as the World they being Parts thereof and Gods that differ not in kind from it but only in degree Wherefore these Philosophers ought not to have made a Trinity of Gods distinguished from all the rest but rather First to have distributed their Gods into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Eternal or Vncreated and Created Gods and then to have subdivided those Created Gods into the Whole World and the Parts thereof Animated But because it may be here alledged in favour of this Spurious Hypothesis of the Trinity That the World was accounted the Third God only by Accident in respect of its Soul which is properly that Third God though Numenius with others plainly affirm the World it self as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Work and Thing Made to be the Third we shall therefore reply to this that even the Soul of the Mundane Animal it self according to Timaeus and Plato and others is affirmed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Generated God that is such as was produced from Non-existence into Being and therefore truly and properly a Creature Which Aristotle observing therefore took occasion to taxe Plato as contradicting himself in making the Soul of the World a Principle that is the Third God and yet supposing it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Eternal but Made or Created together with the Heaven of which something before Wherefore we conclude that this ancient Cabala of the Trinity was Depraved and Adulterated by those Platonists and Pythagoreans who made either the World it self or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Informing Soul of the World to be the Third Hypostasis thereof they Mingling Created and Vncreated Beings together in that which themselves notwithstanding call a Trinity of Causes and of Principles And we think it highly probable that this was the true Reason why Philo though he admitted the Second Hypostasis of the Platonick and Phythagorick if not Egyptian Trinity called by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Word and styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Second God and as Eusebius adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Second Cause yet he would not Platonize or Pythagorize any further so as to take in that Third God or Cause supposed by so many of them to be the Soul of the whole World as an Animal because he must then have offer'd violence to the Principles of his own Religion in making the whole Created World a God which Practice is by him condemned in the Pagans It is true that he somewhere sticks not to call God also the Soul of the World as well as the Mind thereof whether he meant thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God who is before the Word or else rather the Word it self the Second God according to him the Immediate Creator and Governour of the same nevertheless he does not seem to understand thereby such a deeply Immersed Soul as would make the World an Animal and a God but a more Elevated One that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Supermundane Soul To this First Depraviation of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Theology of Divine Tradition and ancient Cabbala of the Trinity by many of the Platonists and Pythagoreans may be added another That some of them declaring the Second Hypostasis of their Trinity to be the Archetypal World or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls it the World that is compounded and made up of Ideas and conteineth in it all those kinds of things Intelligibly that are in this Lower World Sensibly and further concluding that all these several Ideas of this Archetypal and Intelligible World are really so many distinct Substances Animals and Gods have thereby made that Second Hypostasis not to be One God but a Congeries and Heap of Gods These are those Gods commonly called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible Gods not as before in way of distinction from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sensible Gods which is a more general notion of the word but from from those other Gods of theirs afterwards to be insisted on also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intellectual Gods Proclus upon Plato's Politia concludes that there is no Idea of Evil for this reason because if there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very Idea of Evil also would it self be a God because Every Idea is a God as Parmenides hath affirmed Neither was Plotinus himself though otherwise more sober altogether uninfected with this Phantastick Conceit of the Ideas being all of them Gods he writing thus concerning the Second God The First Mind or Intellect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he being begotten by the First God that is by way of Emanation and from Eternity generated all Entities together with himself the Pulchritude of the Ideas which are all Intelligible Gods Apuleius also as hath been already noted grosly and fulsomely imputes the same to Plato in those words Quos Deos Plato existimat Veros Incorporales Animales sine ullo neque fine neque exordio sed prorsus ac retrò aeviternos ingenio ad summam beatitudinem porrecto c. And he with Julian and others reduce the Greater part of the Pagan Gods to these Ideas of
or Image Worship The Latter of which accounted by the Jews the greatest Enormity of the Pagans as is proved from Philo and this the Reason why their Polytheism called also Idolatry Plainly declared by S. Paul that the Pagan Superstition consisted not in worshipping Many Independent Gods and Creators but in joyning Creature-worship some way or other with the worship of the Creator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How to be Vnderstood and in what Sense the Pagans though acknowledging the Creator might be said to have Worshipped the Creature beyond him Page 471 472 Again from S. Pauls Oration to the Athenians where their Unknown God is said to be that same God whom S. Paul Preached Who made the World and all things in it And these Athenian Pagans are affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religiously and Devoutly to Worship this True God Page 473 474 Lastly that Aratus his Zeus was the True God whose Offspring our Souls are Proved not onely from the Context of that Poet himself undeniably and from the Scholiast upon him but also from S. Pauls Positive Affirmation Nor was Aratus Singular in this That Ancient Prayer of the Athenians Commended by M. Antoninus for its Simplicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rain Rain O Gracious Jupiter c. no otherwise to be understood And how that other Passage of S. Paul That in the Wisedom of God the World by Wisedom knew not God does not at all Clash herewith Page 475 476 XXXII In order to a Fuller Explication of the Pagan Theology and makeing it the better appear that the Polytheism thereof was not Contradictions to the acknowledgment of One Supreme Omnipotent Numen Three Things to be Considered First That much of their Polytheism was but Seeming and Phantasticall onely and really nothing but the Polyonymy of One God Secondly That their Reall and Naturall Polytheism consisted onely in Religiously Worshipping besides this One Supreme Universall Numen Many other Particular and Inferiour Created Beings as Animated Stars Demons and Hero's Thirdly That they Worshipping both the Supreme and Inferiour Gods in Statues Images and Symbols these were also sometimes Abusively called Gods To one or other of which Three Heads all the Pagan Polytheism Referrible Page 477 For the better perswading That much of the Pagan Polytheism was Really nothing but the Polyonymy of One Supreme God or the Worshipping him under severall Personall Names to be Remembred again what was before Suggested That the Pagan Nations Generally besides their Vulgar had another more Arcane Theology which was the Theology of Wise men and of Truth That is besides both their Fabulous and Poeticall their Politicall and Civil Theology they had another Natural and Philosophick one This Distinction of the Vulgar and Civil Theology from the Nataral and Reall owned by the Greeks Generally and amongst the Latins by Scaevola the Pontifex Varro Cicero Seneca and others ibid. That the Civil Theology of the Pagans differed from the Natural and Reall by a certain Mixture of Fabulosity in it Of the Romans suffering the Statue of Jupiters Nurse to be kept in the very Capitol as a Religious Monument Jupiters Nativity or his having a Father and a Mother Atheistically Fabulous Poets themselves acknowledging so much of the Natural and True Teology That Jupiter being the Father of Gods and Men the Maker of the whole World was himself Eternall and Unmade Page 478 That the Civil as well as Poeticall Theology had some appearance of Many Independent Deities also they making Severall Supreme in their severall Territories and Functions One Chief for one thing and another for another But according to the Naturall and Philosophick Theology the Theology of Wise men and of Truth all these but Poeticall Commentitious Fictitious and Phantastick Gods such as had no distinct Substantiall Essences of their own and therefore Really to be accounted nothing else but severall Names or Notions of One Supreme God Page 478 479 Certain that the Egyptians had severall Proper and Personal Names for that One Supreme Universal Numen that Comprehends the whole World according to several Notions of it or its several Powers as Ammon Phtha Osiris Neith Cneph to which may be added Serapis and Isis too Besides Iamblichus Damascius his Testimony also to this purpose concerning the Egyptian Theology This the Pattern of the other especially European Theologies the Greek and Roman Page 479 480 That the Greeks and Romans also often Made More Gods of One or affected a Polyonymy of the Same Gods Evident from those many Proper and Personal Names bestowed First upon the Sun of which Macrobius who therefore had this Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given to him and then upon the Moon Styled also Polyonymous as well as her Brother the Sun and Lastly upon the Earth famous likewise for her Many Names as Vesta Cybele Ceres Proserpina Ops c. Wherefore not at all to be Doubted but that the Supreme God or Sovereign Numen of the whole World was much more Polyonymous This Title given to him also as well as to Apollo in Hesychius He thus Invoked by Cleanthes Zeno the Writer De Mundo Seneca Macrobius clearly confirm the same Maximus Madaurensis in S. Austin his full acknowledgment thereof Page 480 481 The First Instances of the Polyonymy of the Supreme God amongst the Pagans in such Names as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And amongst the Latins Victor Invictus Opitulus Stator Tigillus Centupeda Almus Ruminus c. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all several Names of the One Supreme God as likewise were Clotho Lachesis and Atropos in the Writer De Mundo And amongst the Latins not onely Fate but also Nature and Fortune too as Cicero and Seneca affirm Page 482 But besides these there were other Proper Names of the Supreme God which had a greater shew and appearance of so many Several Gods they having their Peculiar Temples and several Appropriated Rites of Worship And First such as signifie the Deity according to its more Universal Nature As for example Pan which not the Corporeal World Inanimate or endued with a Sensless Nature onely but a Rational or Intellectual Principle displaying it self in Matter framing the World Harmoniously and being in a manner All things This also the Universal Pastor and Shepherd of all Mankind Page 483 Again Janus First Invoked by the Romans in their Sacrifices and never omitted The most Ancient God and First Beginning of all things Described by Ovid Martial and others as a Universal Numen Concluded by S. Austin to be the Same with Jupiter the Soul or Mind of the whole World The word Janus probably derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Aetolian Jupiter Page 483 484 Genius also one of the Twenty Select Roman Gods according to Festus a Universal Numen that God who is the Begetter of All things And according to Varro in S. Austine the same with Jupiter Page 484 485 That Chronos or Saturn no particular Deity but a Universal Numen
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
be look'd upon as the Rising Sun of Atheism Et tanquam Spes altera Trojae it seeming to smile upon them and flatter them at a distance with some fairer hopes of supporting that Ruinous and Desperate Cause Whereas on the Contrary that other Atomick Atheism as it insists upon a True Notion of Body that it is nothing but Resisting Bulk by which means we joyning issue thereupon shall be fairly conducted on to a clear Decision of this present Controversie as likewise to the disintangling of many other points of Philosophy so it is that which hath filled the World with the Noise of it for Two Thousand years past that concerning which several Volumes have been formerly written in which it hath been stated and brought into a kind of System and which hath of late obteined a Resurrection amongst us together with the Atomick Physiology and been recommended to the World anew under a Specious Shew of Wit and profound Philosophy Wherefore as we could not here insist upon both these Forms of Atheism together because that would have been to confound the Language of Atheists and to have made them like the Cadmean Off-spring to do immediate Execution upon themselves so we were in all reason obliged to make our First and Principal Assault upon the Atomick Atheism as being the only considerable upon this accompt because it is that alone which publickly confronts the World and like that proud Vncircumcised Philistine openly defies the Hosts of the Living God Intending nevertheless in the Close of this whole Discourse that is the Last Book where we are to determine the Right Intellectual System of the Vniverse and to assert an Incorporeal Deity to demonstrate That Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding do not Essentially belong to Matter and all Substance as such but are the Peculiar Attributes and Characteristicks of Substance Incorporeal XXXVI However since we have now started these Several Forms of Atheism we shall not in the mean time neglect any of them neither For in the Answer to the Second Atheistick Ground we shall Confute them all together at once as agreeing in this One Fundamental Principle That the Original of all things in the Vniverse is Sensless Matter or Matter devoid of all Animality or Conscious Life In the Reply to the Fourth Atheistick Argumentation we shall briefly hint the Grounds of Reason from which Incorporeal Substance is Demonstrated In the Examination of the Fifth we shall confute the Anaximandrian Atheism there propounded which is as it were the First Sciography and Rude Delineation of Atheism And in the Confutation of the Sixth we shall shew how the ancient Atomick Atheists did preventively overtherthrow the Foundation of Hylozoism Besides all which in order to a Fuller and more Thorough Confutation both of the Cosmo-plastick and Hylozoick Atheism we shall in this very place take occasion to insist largely upon the Plastick life of Nature giving in the First Place a True Accompt of it and then afterwards shewing how grosly it is misunderstood and the Pretence of it abused by the Asserters of both these Atheistick Hypotheses The Heads of which Larger Digression because they could not be so conveniently inserted in the Contents of the Chapter shall be represented to the Readers View at the End of it XXXVII For we think fit here to observe that neither the Cosmo-plastick or Stoical nor the Hylozoick or Stratonical Atheists are therefore condemned by us because they suppose such a thing as a Plastick Nature or Life distinct from the Animal albeit this be not only exploded as an Absolute Non-entity by the Atomick Atheists who might possibly be afraid of it as that which approached too near to a Deity or else would hazard the introducing of it but also utterly discarded by some Professed Theists of later times who might notwithstanding have an Undiscerned Tang of the Mechanick Atheism hanging about them in that their so confident rejecting of all Final and Intending Causality in Nature and admitting of no other Causes of things as Philosophical save the Material and Mechanical only This being really to banish all Mental and consequently Divine Causality quite out of the World and to make the whole World to be nothing else but a mere Heap of Dust Fortuitously agitated or a Dead Cadaverous thing that hath no Signatures of Mind and Vnderstanding Counsel and Wisdom at all upon it nor indeed any other Vitality acting in it than only the Production of a certain Quantity of Local Motion and the Conservation of it according to some General Laws which things the Democritick Atheists take for granted would all be as they are though there were no God And thus Aristotle describes this kind of Philosophy That it made the whole World to consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of nothing but Bodies and Monads that is Atoms or Small Particles of Matter only ranged and disposed together into such an order but altogether Dead and Inanimate 2. For unless there be such a thing admitted as a Plastick Nature that acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sake of something and in order to Ends Regularly Artificially and Methodically it seems that one or other of these Two Things must be concluded That Either in the Efformation and Organization of the Bodies of Animals as well as the other Phenomena every thing comes to pass Fortuitously and happens to be as it is without the Guidance and Direction of any Mind or Vnderstanding Or else that God himself doth all Immediately and as it were with his own Hands Form the Body of every Gnat and Fly Insect and Mite as of other Animals in Generations all whose Members have so much of Contrivance in them that Galen professed he could never enough admire that Artifice which was in the Leg of a Fly and yet he would have admired the Wisdom of Nature more had he been but acquainted with the Use of Microscopes I say upon supposition of no Plastick Nature one or other of these Two things must be concluded because it is not conceived by any that the things of Nature are all thus administred with such exact Regularity and Constancy every where merely by the Wisdom Providence and Efficiency of those Inferior Spirits Daemons or Angels As also though it be true that the Works of Nature are dispensed by a Divine Law and Command yet this is not to be understood in a Vulgar Sence as if they were all effected by the mere Force of a Verbal Law or Outward Command because Inanimate things are not Commandable nor Governable by such a Law and therefore besides the Divine Will and Pleasure there must needs be some other Immediate Agent and Executioner provided for the producing of every Effect since not so much as a Stone or other Heavy Body could at any time fall downward merely by the Force of a Verbal Law without any other Efficient Cause but either God himself must immediately impel it or else there must be some other subordinate Cause in
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
of Darkness Another God makes a World out of it c. And again afterwards he writes further to the same purpose Discat ergò Faustus Monarchiae Opinionem non ex Gentibus nos habere sed Gentes non usque adeò ad Falsos Deos esse dilapsas ut Opinionem amitterent Vnius Veri Dei ex quo est Omnis qualiscunque Natura Let Faustus therefore know that We Christians have not derived the Opinion of Monarchy from the Pagans but that the Pagans have not so far degenerated sinking down into the Worship of false Gods as to have lost the Opinion of One True God from whom is all Whatsoever Nature XIV It follows from what we have declared that the Pagan Polytheism or Multiplicity of Gods is not to be understood in the sence before expressed of Many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many Vnproduced and Self-existent Deities but according to some other Notion or Equivocation of the word Gods For God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of those words that hath been used in many different sences the Atheists themselves acknowledging a God and Gods according to some Private Sences of their own which yet they do not all agree in neither and Theists not always having the same Notion of that Word Forasmuch as Angels in Scripture are called Gods in one sence that is as Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men Immortal Holy and Happy and the word is again sometimes carried down lower to Princes and Magistrates and not only so but also to Good men as such when they are said to be Made Partakers of the Divine Nature And thus that learned Philosopher and Christian Boethius Omnis Beatus Deus sed Natura quidem Vnus Participatione verò nihil prohibet esse quamplurimos every Good and Happy man is a God and though there be only One God by Nature yet nothing hinders but that there may be Many by Participation But then again all Men and Angels are alike denied to be Gods in other Respects and particularly as to Religious Worship Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou Serve Now this is that which seems to be Essentially included in the Pagan Notion of the word God or Gods when taken in general namely a Respect to Religious Worship Wherefore a God in general according to the sence of the Pagan Theists may be thus defined An Vnderstanding Being superiour to Men not originally derived from Sensless Matter and look'd upon as an Object for mens Religious Worship But this general Notion of the word God is again restrained and limited by Differences in the Division of it For such a God as this may be either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenerate or Vnproduced and consequently Self-existent or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generated or Produced and Dependent on some Higher Being as its Cause In the former sence the Intelligent Pagans as we have declared acknowledged only One God who was therefore called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that of Thales in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the oldest of all things because he is Vnmade or Vnproduced and the only thing that is so but in the latter they admitted of Many Gods Many Vnderstanding Beings which though Generated or Produced yet were Superiour to Men and look'd upon as Objects for their Religious Worship And thus the Pagan Theists were both Polytheists and Monotheists in different Sences they acknowledged both Many Gods and One God that is Many Inferiour Deities subordinate to One Supreme Thus Onatus the Pythagorean in Stobaeus declares himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seemeth to me that there is not only One God but that there is One the Greatest and Highest God that governeth the whole World and that there are Many other Gods besides him differing as to power that One God reigning over them all who surmounts them all in Power Greatness and Vertue This is that God who conteins and comprehends the whole World but the other Gods are those who together with the Revolution of the Vniverse orderly follow that First and Intelligible God Where it is evident that Onatus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Many Gods were only the Heavenly Bodies or Animated Stars And partly from those words cited but chiefly others which follow after in the same place that will be produced elsewhere it plainly appears that in Onatus his time there were some who acknowledged One Only God denying all those other Gods then commonly Worshipped And indeed Anaxagoras seems to have been such a one forasmuch as asserting One Perfect Mind Ruling over all which is the True Deity he effectually degraded all those other Pagan Gods the Sun Moon and Stars from their Godships by making the Sun nothing but a Globe of Fire and the Moon Earth and Stones and the like of the other Stars and Planets And some such there were also amongst the Ancient Egyptians as shall be declared in due place Moreover Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus tells us that there hath been always less doubt and controversie in the World concerning the One God than concerning the Many Gods Wherefore Onatus here declares his own sence as to this particular viz. that besides the One Supreme God there were also Many other Inferiour Deities that is Vnderstanding Beings that ought to be Religiously Worshipped But because it is not impossible but that there might be imagin'd One Supreme Deity though there were many other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmade made and Self-existent Gods besides as Plutarch supposed before One Supreme God together with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Irrational Soul or Daemon Vnmade Inferiour in power to it therefore we add in the next place that the more Intelligent Pagans did not only assert One God that was Supreme and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Powerful of all the Gods but also who being Omnipotent was the Principle and Cause of all the rest and therefore the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Vnproduced and Self-existent Deity Maximus Tyrius affirms this to have been the general sence of all the Pagans that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One God the King and Father of all and many Gods the Sons of God reigning together with God Neither did the Poets imply any thing less when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so often called by the Greeks and Jupiter by the Latins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Hominum Pater atque Deorum or Hominum Satórque Deorum and the like And indeed the Theogonia of the ancient Pagans before mention'd was commonly thus declared by them universally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Gods were Generated or as Herodotus expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every one of the Gods was Generated or Produced which yet is not so to be understood as if they had therefore supposed no God at all Vnmade or Self-exâ—stent which is Absolute Atheism but that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the
the Pagans did distinguish and put a difference betwixt the One Supreme Vnmade Deity and all their other Inferior Generated Gods Which we are the rather concerned to do because it is notorious that they did many times also confound them together attributing the Government of the Whole World to the Gods promiscuously and without putting any due Discrimination betwixt the Supreme and Inferior the true reason whereof seems to have been this because the supposed the Supreme God not to do all immediatly in the Government of the World but to permit much to his Inferior Ministers One Instance of which we had before in Ovid and innumerable such others might be cited out of their most sober Writers As for Example Cicero in his First Book of Laws Deorum Immortalium vi ratione potestate mente numine Natura omnis regitur The Whole Nature or Vniverse is governed by the Force Reason Power Mind and Divinity of the Immortal Gods And again in his Second Book Deos esse Dominos ac Moderatores omnium rerum eáque quae geruntur eorum geri Judicio atque Numine eosdémque optimè de genere hominum mereri qualis quisque sit quid agat quid in se admittat qua mente qua pietate Religiones colat intueri piorúmque impiorum habere Rationem à Principio Civibus suasum esse debet The Minds of Citizens ought to be first of all embued with a firm perswasion that the Gods are the Lords and Moderators of all things and that the Conduct and Management of the whole World is directed and over-ruled by their Judgement and Divine Power that they deserve the best of mankind that they behold and consider what every man is what he doth and takes upon himself with what Mind Piety and Sincerity he observes the Duties of Religion and Lastly that these Gods have a very different regard to the Pious and the Impious Now such Passages as these abounding every where in Pagan Writings it is no wonder if many considering their Theology but slightly and superficially have been led into an Error and occasioned thereby to conclude the Pagans not to have asserted a Divine Monarchy but to have imputed both the making and Governing of the World to an Aristocracy or Democracy of Co-ordinate Gods not only all Eternal but also Self-existent and Vnmade The contrary whereunto though it be already sufficiently proved yet it will not be amiss for us here in the Close to shew how the Pagans who sometimes jumble and confound the Supreme and Inferior Gods all together do notwithstanding at other times many ways distinguish betwixt the One Supreme God and their other Many Inferior Gods First therefore as the Pagans had Many Proper Names for One and the same Supreme God according to several Particular Considerations of him in respect of his several different Manifestations and Effects in the World which are oftentimes mistaken for so many Distinct Deities some supposing them Independent others Subordinate so had they also besides these other Proper Names of God according to that more full and comprehensive notion of him as the Maker of the Whole World and its Supreme Governour or the Sole Monarch of the Universe For thus the Greeks called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Latins Jupiter and Jovis the Babylonians Belus and Bel the Persians Mithras and Oromasdes the Egyptians and Scythians according to Herodotus Ammoun and Pappaeus And Celsus in Origen concludes it to be a Matter of pure Indifferency to call the Supreme God by any of all these Names either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ammoun or Pappaeus or the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus thinks it to be a matter of no moment whether we call the Highest and Supreme God Adonai and Sabaoth as the Jews do or Dia and Zena as the Greeks or as the Egyptians Ammoun or as the Scythians Pappaeus Notwithstanding which that Pious and Jealous Father expresseth a great deal of Zeal against Christians then using any of those Pagan Names But we will rather endure any torment saith he than confess Zeus or Jupiter to be God being well assured that the Greeks often really worship under that Name an Evil Demon who is an enemy both to God and Men. And we will rather suffer death than call the Supreme God Ammoun whom the Egyptian Enchanters thus Invoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the Scythians call the Supreme God Pappaeus yet we acknowledging a Supreme God will never be perswaded to call him by that name Which it pleased that Daemon who ruled over the Scythian Desert People and Language to impose Nevertheless he that shall use the Appellative name for God either in the Scythian Egyptian or any other Language which he hath been brought up in will not offend Where Origen plainly affirms the Scythians to have acknowledged One Supreme God called by them Pappaeus and Intimates that the Egyptians did the like calling him Ammoun Neither could it possibly be his intent to deny the same of the Greeks and their Zeus however his great Jealousie made him to call him here a Demon it being true in a certain sence which shall be declared afterward that the Pagans did oftentimes really worship an Evil Demon under those very Names of Zeus and Jupiter as they did likewise under those of Hammon and Pappaeus In the mean time we deny not but that both the Greeks used that word Zeus and the Latins Jupiter sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Aether Fire or Air some accordingly etymologizing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence came those Formes of Speech Sub Jove and Sub Dio. And thus Cicero Jovem Ennius nuncupat ità dicens Aspice hoc sublime candens quem invocant omnes Jovem Hunc etiam Augures nostri cùm dicunt Jove Fulgente Jove Tonante dicunt enim in Coelo Fulgente Tonante c. The reason of which speeches seems to have been this because in ancient times some had supposed the Animated Heaven Ether and Air to be the Supreme Deity We grant moreover that the same words have been sometimes used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also for an Hero or Deified Man said by some to have been born in Crete by others in Arcadia And Callimachus though he were very angry with the Cretians for affirming Jupiter's Sepulchral Monument to have been with them in Crete as thereby making him Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cretes semper mendaces tuum enim Rex Sepulchrum Extruxerunt Tu verò non es mortuus semper enim es Himself nevertheless as Athenagoras and Origen observe attributed the beginning of death to him when he affirmed him to have been born in Arcadia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because a Terrene Nativity is the Beginning of Death Wherefore this may
Original of all things Maximus Madaurensis a confident and resolved Pagan in St. Austin's time expressed both his own and the general sence of Pagans after this manner Equidem Vnum esse Deum Summum sine initio Naturae ceu Patrem Magnum atque Magnificum quis tam demens tam mente captus neget esse certissimum Hujus nos virtutes per Mundanum opus diffusas multis vocabulis invocamus quoniam nomen ejus cuncti proprium videlicet ignoramus Ita sit ut dum ejus quasi quaedam Membra carptim variis supplicationibus prosequimur Totum colere profectò videamur Truly that there is One Supreme God without beginning as the Great and Magnificent Father of Nature who is so mad or devoid of sense as not to acknowledge it to be most certain His Vertues diffused throughout the whole World because we know not what his proper name is we invoke under many different names Whence it comes to pass that whilst we prosecute with our supplications his as it were divided Members severally we must needs be judged to worship the whole Deity And then he concludes his Epistle thus Dii te servent per quos Eorum atque cunctorum mortalium Communem Patrem universi mortales quos terra sustinet mille modis concordi discordia venerantur The Gods keep thee by and through whom we Pagans dispersed over the whole World do worship the common Father both of those Gods and all Mortals after a thousand different manners nevertheless with an agreeing discord Longimanus likewise another more modest Pagan Philosopher upon the request of the same St. Austin declares his sence concerning the way of worshipping God and arriving to happiness to this purpose Per Minores Deos perveniri ad Summum Deum non sine Sacris Purificatoriis That we are to come to the Supreme God by the Minor or Inferior Gods and that not without Purifying Rites and Expiations he supposing that besides a vertuous and holy Life certain Religious Rites and Purifications were necessary to be observed in order to that end In which Epistle the Supreme God is also stiled by him Vnus Vniversus Incomprehensibilis Ineffabilis Infatigabilis Creator Moreover that the Pagans generally disclaim'd this Opinion of Many Vnmade Self-existent Deities appeareth plainly from Arnobius where he brings them in complaining that they were falsly and maliciously accused by some Christians as guilty thereof after this manner Frustrà nos falso calumnioso incessitis appetitis crimine tanquam inficias eamus Deum esse Majorem cùm à nobis Jupiter nominetur Optimus habeatur Maximus cúmque illi augustissimas sedes Capitolia constituerimus immania In vain do you Christians calumniate us Pagans and accuse us as if we denied One Supreme Omnipotent God though we both call him Jupiter and accompt him the Best and the Greatest having dedicated the most august seats to him the vast Capitols Where Arnobius in way of opposition shows first how perplexed and intangled a thing the Pagans Theology was their Poetick Fables of the Gods nonsensically confounding Herology together with Theology and that it was impossible that that Jupiter of theirs which had a Father and a Mother a Grandfather and a Grandmother should be the Omnipotent God Nam Deus Omnipotens mente una omnium communi mortalitatis assensu neque Genitus scitur neque novam in lucem aliquando esse prolatus nec ex aliquo tempore coepisse esse vel saeculo Ipse enim est Fons rerum Sator saeculorum ac temporum Non enim ipsa per se sunt sed ex ejus perpetuitate perpetua infinita semper continuatione procedunt At verò Jupiter ut vos fertis Patrem habet Matrem Avos Avias nunc nuper in utero matris suae formatus c. You Pagans confound your selves with Contradictions for the Omnipotent God according to the natural sence of all mankind was neither begotten or made nor ever had a Beginning in time he being the Fountain and Original of all things But Jupiter as you say had both Father and Mother Grandfathers and Grandmothers and was but lately formed in the womb and therefore he cannot be the Eternal Omnipotent God Nevertheless Arnobius afterwards considering as we suppose that these Poetick Fables were by the wiser Pagans either totally rejected or else some way or other Allegorized he candidly dismisseth this advantage which he had against them and grants their Jupiter to be the true Omnipotent Deity and consequently that same God which the Christians worshiped but from thence infers that the Pagans therefore must needs be highly guilty whilst worshipping the same God with the Christians they did hate and persecute them after that manner Sed sint ut vultis unum nec in aliquo vi numinis majestate distantes ecquid ergò injustis persequimini nos odiis Quid ut ominis pessimi nostri nominis inhorrescitis mentione st quem Deum colitis eum nos an t quid in eadem causa vobis esse contenditis familiares Deos inimicos atque infestissimos nobis Etenim si una religio est nobis vobÃsque communis cessat ira coelestium But let it be granted that as you affirm your Jupiter and the Eternal Omnipotent God are one and the same Why then do you prosecute us with unjust hatreds abominating the very mention of our names if the same God that you worship be worshipped by us or if your Religion and ours be the same why do you pretend that the Gods are propitious to you but most highly provoked and incensed against us Where the Pagans defence and reply is Sed non idcirco Dii vobis infesti sunt quòd Omnipotentem colatis Deum sed quod hominem natum quod personis infame est vilibus crucis supplicio interemptum Deum fuisse contenditis superesse adhuc creditis quotidianis supplicationibus adoratis But we do not say that the Gods are therefore displeased with you Christians because you worship the Omnipotent God but because you contend him to be a God who was not only born a mortal man but also died an ignominious death suffering as a Malefactor believing him still to survive adoring him with your dayly prayers To which Arnobius retorts in this manner Tell us now I pray you who these Gods are who take it as so great an injury indignity done to themselves that Christ should be worshipped Are they not Janus and Saturn Aesculapius and Liber Mercurius the son of Maia and the Theban or Tyrian Hercules Castor and Pollux and the like Hice ergo Christum coli à nobis accipi existimari pro Numine vulneratis acipiunt auribus obliti paulo ante sortis conditionis suae id quod sibi concessum est impertiri alteri nolunt Haec est Justititia Coelitum hoc Deorum judicium sanctum Nonne
well understand they affirm these Gods of theirs so to preside over the several parts of the World as that there is only One chief Rectour or Governour Whence it follows that all their other Gods can be no other thing than Ministers and Officers which one Greatest God who is Omnipotent hath variously appointed and constituted so as to serve his command and beck Now if all the Pagan Gods be not equal then can they not be all Gods since that which ruleth and that which serveth cannot be the same God is a name of absolute Power and implies Incorrubtibility Perfection Impassibility and Subjection to nothing Wherefore these ought not to be called Gods whom necessity compels to obey one Greatest God Again in the same Book Nunc satis est Demonstrare summo ingenio viros attigisse veritatem ac propè tenuisse nisi eos retrorsum infatuata pravis opinionibus consuetudo rapuisset qua Deos alios esse opinabantur ea quae in usum hominis Deus fecit tanquam sensu praedita essent pro Diis habenda colenda credebant It is now sufficient to have shown that the more ingenious and intelligent Pagans came very near to the truth and would have fully reach'd it had not a certain customary Infatuation of Evil Opinions snatch'd them away to an acknowledgment of other Gods and to a belief that those things which God made for the use of men as endued with sense or animated ought to be accompted Gods and Worshipped namely the Stars And afterward Quòd si Cultores Deorum eos ipsos se colere putant quos summi Dei Ministros appellamus nihil est quod nobis faciant invidiam qui Vnum Deum dicamus Multos negemus If the Worshippers of the Gods think that they worship no other than the Ministers of the one Supreme God then there is no cause why they should render us as hateful who say that there is one God and deny Many Gods Eusebius Caesariensis likewise gives us this accompt of the Pagans Creed or the Tenour of their Theology as it was then held forth by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pagans declare themselves in this manner That there is One God who with his various Powers filleth all things and passeth through all things and presideth over all things but being incorporeally and invisibly present in all things and pervading them he is reasonably worshipped By or In those things that are manifest and visible Which Passage of Eusebius will be further considered afterward when we come to give a more particular accompt of Paganism What St. Austin's sence was concerning the Theology of the Pagans hath been already declared namely That they had not so far degenerated as to have lost the knowledge of One Supreme God from whom is all whatsoever Nature and That they derived all their Gods from One. We shall now in the last place conclude with the Judgment of Paulus Orosius who was his Contemporary Philosophi dum intento mentis studio quaerunt scrutantúrque omnia Vnum Deum Authorem omnium repererunt ad quem Vnum omnia referrentur unde etiam nunc Pagani quos jam declarata Veritas de contumaciâ magis quà m de ignorantia convincit cùm à nobis discutiuntur non se Plures sequi sed sub Vno Deo Magno Plures Ministros venerari fatentur Restat igâ—tur de intelligentia veri Dei per multas intelligendi suspiciones Confusa dissensio quia de Vno Deo omnium penè una est opinio The Philosophers of the Gentiles whilst with intent study of mind they enquired and searched after things found that there was One God the Author of all things and to which One all things should be referred Whence also the Pagans at this very day whom the declared truth rather convinceth of Contumacy than of Ignorance when they are urged by us confess themselves not to follow Many Gods but only under One God to worship Many Ministers So that there remaineth only a confused dissension concerning the manner of understanding the true God because about One God there is almost one and the same opinion of all And by this time we think it is sufficiently evident that the Pagans at least after Christianity though they asserted Many Gods they calling all Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men by that Name according to that of St. Jerom Deum quicquid supra se esset Gentiles putabant yet they acknowledged One Supreme Omnipotent and only Vnmade Deity XVI But because it s very possible that some may still suspect all this to have been nothing else but a Refinement and Interpolation of Paganism after that Christianity had appeared upon the Stage or a kind of Mangonization of it to render it more vendible and plausible the better able to defend it self and bear up against the Assaults of Christianity whilest in the mean time the Genuine Doctrine of the ancient Pagans was far otherwise although the contrary hereunto might sufficiently appear from what hath been already declared yet however for the fuller satisfaction of the more strongly prejudiced we shall by an Historical Deduction made from the most ancient times all along downwards demonstrate that the Doctrine of the Greatest Pagan Polytheists as well before Christianity as after it was always the same That besides their Many Gods there was One Supreme Omnipotent and Only Vnmade Deity And this we shall perform not as some have done by laying the chief stress upon the Sibylline Oracles and those reputed Writings of Hermes Trismegist the Authority whereof hath been of late so much decried by Learned Men nor yet upon such Oracles of the Pagan Deities as may be suspected to have been counterfeited by Christians but upon such Monuments of Pagan Antiquity as are altogether unsuspected and indubitate As for the Sibylline Oracles there may as we conceive be Two Extremes concerning them One in swallowing down all that is now extant under that Title as Genuine and Sincere whereas nothing can be more manifest than that there is much Counterfeit and Supposititious stuff in this Sibylline Farrago which now we have From whence besides other Instances of the like kind it appears tooevidently to be denied that some pretended Christians of former times have been for Pious and Religious Frauds and endeavoured to uphold the Truth of Christianity by Figments and Forgeries of their own devising Which as it was a thing Ignoble and Unworthy in it self and argued that those very Defenders of Christianity did themselves distrust their own Cause so may it well be thought that there was a Policy of the Devil in it also there being no other more Effectual way than this to render all Christianity at least in after-ages to be suspected Insomuch that it might perhaps be question'd Whether the Truth and Divinity of Christianity appear more in having prevail'd against the open force and opposition of its professed Enemies or in not being at last
Principle of all things praised under the name of the Vnknown Darkness and that thrice repeated Which Unknown Darkness is a Description of that Supreme Deity that is Incomprehensible But that the Egyptians amongst their Many Gods did acknowledge One Supreme may sufficiently appear also even from their vulgar Religion and Theology In which they had first a Peculiar and Proper Name for him as such For as the Greeks called the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Jupiter or Jovis so did the Egyptians call him Hammon or Ammon according to Herodotus whose Testimony to this purpose hath been already cited and confirmed by Origen who was an Egyptian born Thus also Plutarch in his Book de Iside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is supposed by most that the proper name of Zeus or Jupiter that is the Supreme Deity amongst the Egyptians is Amous which we Greeks pronounce Hammon To the same purpose Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammous according to Aristotle is the same with Zeus Whence it came to pass that by the Latin Writers Hammon was vulgarly called Jupiter Hammon Which Hammon was not only used as a proper name for the Supreme Deity by the Egyptians but also by the Arabians and all the Africans according to that of Lucan Quamvis Aethiopum populis Arabumque beatis Gentibus atque Indis unus sit Jupiter Ammon Wherefore not only Marmarica which is a part of Africa wherein was that most famous Temple of this Ammon was from thence denominated Ammonia but even all Africa as Stephanus informs us was sometimes called Ammonis from this God Ammon who hath been therefore stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Libyan Jupiter Indeed it is very probable that this word Hammon or Ammon was at first derived from Ham or Cham the son of Noah whose Posterity was chiefly seated in these African parts and from whom Egypt was called not only in the Scripture the Land of Ham but also by the Egyptians themselves as Plutarch testifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chemia and as St. Jerome Ham and the Coptites also to this very day call it Chemi Nevertheless this will not hinder but that the Word Hammon for all that might be used afterwards by the Egyptians as a name for the Supreme God because amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in like manner was supposed to have been at first the name of a Man or Hero but yet afterwards applied to signifie the Supreme God And there might be such a mixture of Herology or History together with Theology as well amongst the Egyptians as there was amongst the Greeks Nay some learned men conjecture and not without probability that the Zeus of the Greeks also was really the very same with that Ham or Cham the son of Noah whom the Egyptians first worshipped as an Hero or Deified Man there being several considerable agreements and correspondencies between the Poetick Fables of Saturn and Jupiter and the true Scripture-story of Noah and Cham as there is likewise a great affinity betwixt the words themselves for as Cham signifies Heat or Fervour so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived by the Greek Grammarians from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus will that forementioned Testimony of Herodotus in some sence be verified that the Greeks received the names of most of their Gods even of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself from the Egyptians Perhaps it may be granted also that the Sun was sometime worshipped by the Egyptians under the Name of Hammon it having been in like manner sometimes worshipped by the Greeks under the Name of Zeus And the word very well agreeth herewith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew Language signifying not only Heat but the Sun from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chamanim also was derived Nevertheless it will not follow from hence that therefore the Visible Sun was generally accounted by the Egyptians the Supreme Deity no more than he was amongst the Greeks But as we have often occasion to observe there was in the Pagan Religion a confused Jumble of Herology Physiology and Theology all together And that the Notion of this Egyptian God Ammon was neither confined by them to the Sun nor yet to the whole Corporeal World or Nature of the Vniverse as some have conceived is evident from hence because the Egyptians themselves interpreted it according to their own Language to signifie That which was Hidden and Obscure as both Manetho an ancient Egyptian Priest and Hecataeus who wrote concerning the Philosophy of the Egyptians in Plutarch agree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manetho Sebennites conceives the Word Amoun to signifie that which is Hidden And Hecataeus affirmeth that the Egyptians Vse this Word when they call any one to them that was distant or absent from them Wherefore the First God because he is Invisible and Hidden they as it were Inviting him to approach near and to make himself Manifest and conspicuous to them call him Amoun And agreeably hereunto Jamblichus gives us this account of the true Notion of this Egyptian God Ammon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Demiurgical Intellect and President of Truth as with Wisdom it proceedeth to Generation and produceth into Light the Secret and Invisible Powers of the hidden Reasons is according to the Egyptian Language called Hammon Wherefore we may conclude that Hammon amongst the Egyptians was not only the Name of the Supreme Deity but also of such a one as was Hidden Invisible and Incorporeal And here it may be worth our observing that this Egyptian Hammon was in all Probability taken notice of in Scripture though vulgar Interpreters have not been aware thereof For thus we understand that of Jeremy 46.25 The Lord of Hosts the God of Israel saith behold I will visit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not the Multitude of Noe but Ammon the God of Noe and Pharaoh and Egypt with her other Gods and Kings and all that trust in him I will deliver them into the hands of those that seek their lives and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon For the understanding of which place we must observe that according to the Language of those ancient Pagans when every Country or City had their Peculiar and Proper names for the Gods presiding over them or Worshipped by them the several Nations and Places were themselves commonly denoted and signified by the names of those their respective Gods With which kind of Language the Scripture it self also complieth as when the Moabites are called in it the People of Chemosh Numbers 21. And when the Gods of Damascus are said to have smitten Ahaz because the Syrians smote him 2 Chron. 28. Accordingly whereunto also whatsoever was done or attempted against the several Nations or Countries is said to have been done or attempted against their Gods Thus Moab's Captivity is described Jeremy 48. Thou shalt be taken and Chemosh shall go into captivity And the overthrow of Babylon is predicted after the same manner
majorum summus Summorum Maximus Maximorum Regnator Osiris That God who is the chiefest of the Greater Gods and the Greatest of the Chiefest and which Reigneth over the Greatest Wherefore the same Apuleius also tells us that Isis and Osiris were really one and the same Supreme Numen though considered under different Notions and Worshipped with different Rites in these words Quanquam connexa imo vero unica ratio Numinis Religionisque esset tamen Teletae discrimen esse maximum though Isis and Osiris be really One and the same Divine Power yet are their Rites and Ceremonies very different The proper notion of Osiris being thus declared by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that First and Highest of all Beings which is the same with Good Agreeably whereunto Jamblichus affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God as the Cause of all Good is call'd Osiris by the Egyptians Lastly as for Sarapis though Origen tells us that this was a new upstart Deity set up by Ptolemy in Alexandria yet this God in his Oracle to Nicocrion the King of Cyprus declares himself also to be a Universal Numen comprehending the whole World in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to this Sence The Starry Heaven is my Head the Sea my Belly my Ears are in the Ether and the bright Light of the Sun is my clear piercing Eye And doubtless he was worshipped by many under this Notion For as Philarchus wrote thus concerning him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Sarapis was the Name of that God which orders and governs tbe whole World so doth Plutarch himself conclude that Osiris and Sarapis were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of them Names of One God and the same Divine Power Accordingly whereunto Diodorus Siculus determines that these Three Hammon Osiris and Sarapis were but different names for one and the same Deity or Supreme God Notwithstanding which Porphyrius it seems had a very ill conceit of that Power which manifested it self in the Temple of this God Sarapis above all the other Pagan Gods he suspecting it to be no other than the very Prince of evil Demons or Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We do not vainly or without ground suspect and conjecture that the evil Demons are under Sarapis as their Prince and Head this appearing saith he not only from those Rites of Appeasment used in the Worship of this God but also from the Symbol of him which was a Three-headed Dog signifying that Evil Demon which ruleth in those Three Elements Water Earth and Air. Neither indeed can it be doubted but that it was an Evil Demon or Devil that delivered Oracles in this Temple of Sarapis as well as elsewhere among the Pagans however he affected to be worshipped as the Supreme God Besides all this Eusebius himself from Porphyrius informs us that the Egyptians acknowledged One Intellectual Demiurgus or Maker of the World under the name of Cneph whom they worshipped in a Statue of Humane Form and a blackish Sky-coloured Complexion holding in his hand a Girdle and a Scepter and wearing upon his Head a Princely Plume and thrusting forth an Egg out of his Mouth The reason of which Hieroglyphick is thus given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because that Wisdom and Reason by which the World was made is not easie to be found out but hidden and obscure And because this is the Fountain of Life and King of all things and because it is Intellectually moved signified by the Feathers upon his head Moreover by the Egg thrust out of the Mouth of this God was meant the World created by the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from this Cneph was said to be Generated or Produced Another God whom the Egyptians call Phtha and the Greeks Vulcan of which Phtha more afterwards That the Egyptians were the most eminent Asserters of the Cosmogonia or Temporary Beginning of the World hath been already declared for which cause the Scholiast upon Ptolemy thus perstringeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Egyptians were wont to talk perpetually of the Genesis or Generation of the World And Asclepius an ancient Egyptian Writer in his Myriogenesis affirms that according to the Egyptian Tradition the Sun was made in Libra But that the Egyptians did not suppose the world to have been made by Chance as Epicurus and other Atheistical Philosophers did but by an Intellectual Demiurgus called by them Cneph is evident from this Testimony of Porphyrius Which Cneph was look'd upon by them as an Vnmade and Eternal Deity and for this very cause the Inhabitants of Thebais refused to worship any other God besides him as Plutarch informs us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilest the other Egyptians paid their proportion of Tax imposed upon them for the nourishment of those sacred Animals worshipped by them the Inhabitants of Thebais only refused because they would acknowledge no Mortal God and worshipped him only whom they call Cneph an Vnmade and Eternal Deity Having now made it undeniably manifest that the Egyptians had an acknowledgement amongst them of One Supreme Vniversal and Vnmade Deity we shall conclude this whole Discourse with the Two following Observations First that a great part of the Egyptian Polytheism was really nothing else but the Worshipping of One and the same Supreme God under many different Names and Notions as of Hammon Neith Isis Osiris Sarapis Kneph to which may be added Phtha and those other names in Jamblichus of Eicton and Emeph And that the Pagans universally over the whole world did the like was affirmed also by Apuleius in that fore-cited Passage of his Numen Vnicum multiformi specie ritu vario nomine multijugo totus veneratur orbis the Whole World worshippeth one only Supreme Numen in a multiform manner under different names and with different Rites Which different names for one and the same Supreme God might therefore be mistaken by some of the sottish Vulgar amongst the Pagans as well as they have been by learned men of these later times for so many distinct Vnmade and Self-existent Deities Nevertheless here may well be a Question started whether amongst those several Egyptian Names of God some might not signifie distinct Divine Hypostases Subordinate and particularly whether there were not some Footsteps of a Trinity to be found in the old Egyptian Theology For since Orpheus Pythagoras and Plato who all of them asserted a Trinity of Divine Hypostases unquestionably derived much of their Doctrine from the Egyptians it may reasonably be suspected that these Egyptians did the like before them And indeed Athanasius Kircherus makes no doubt at all hereof but tells us that in the Pamphylian Obelisk that First Hieroglyphick of a Winged Globe with a Serpent coming out of it was the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of a Triform Deity or Trinity of Divine Hypostases he confirming the same from the Testimony of Abenephius an Arabian Writer and a Chaldaick Fragment imputed
upon all of the like kind And there are several other Instances of this Poets using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods for God But it is possible that Hesiod's meaning might be the same with Plato's that though the Inferiour Mundane Gods were all made at first by the Supreme God as well as Men yet they being made something sooner than Men did afterwards contribute also to the Making of men But Hesiod's Theogonia or Generation of Gods is not to be understood universally neither but only of the Inferiour Gods that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter being to be excepted out of the number of them whom the same Hesiod as well as Homer makes to be the Father of Gods as also the King of them in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And attributes the Creation of all things to him as Proclus writeth upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By whom all Mortal men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom all things are and not by chance the Poet by a Synechdoche here ascribing the making of all to Jupiter Wherefore Hesiod's Theogonia is to be understood of the Inferiour Gods only and not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter who was the Father and Maker of them though out of a Watery Chaos and himself therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-existent or Vnmade In like manner that Pindar's Gods were not Eternal but Made or Generated is plainly declared by him in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnum Hominum Vnum Deorum genus Et ex Vnaspiramus Matre utrique There is one kind both of Gods and Men and we both breath from the same Mother or spring from the same Original Where by the common Mother both of Gods and Men the Scholiast understands the Earth and Chaos taking the Gods here for the Inferiour Deities only and principally the Stars This of Pindar's therefore is to be understood of all the other Gods That they were made as well as men out of the Earth or Chaos but not of that Supreme Deity whom the same Pindar elsewhere calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Powerful of the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of all things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of every thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God who is the best Artificer or was the Framer of the whole World and as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Vniverse Which God also according to Pindar Cheiron instructed Achilles to worship principally above all the other Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence of which words is thus declared by the Scholiast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he should honour and worship the Loud-sounding Jupiter the Lord of Thunder and Lightning transcendently above all the other Gods Which by the way confutes the Opinion of those who contend that the Supreme God as such was not at all Worshipped by the Pagans However this is certain concerning these Three Homer Hesiod and Pindar that they must of necessity either have been all absolute Atheists in acknowledging no Eternal Deity at all but making sensless Chaos Night and the Ocean the Original of all their Gods without exception and therefore of Jupiter himself too that King and Father of them or else assert One only Eternal Unmade Self-existent Deity so as that all the other Gods were Generated or Created by that One. Which latter doubtless was their genuine sence and the only reason why Aristotle and Plato might possibly sometime have a suspicion of the contrary seems to have been this their not understanding that Mosaick Cabbala which both Hesiod and Homer followed of the World's that is both Heaven and Earth's being made at first out of a Watery Chaos for thus is the Tradition declared by St. Peter Ep. 2. Ch. 3. There might be several remarkable Passages to the same purpose produced out of those two Tragick Poets Aeschylus and Sophocles which yet because they have been already cited by Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus and others to avoid unnecessary tediousness we shall here pass by Only we think fit to observe concerning that one famous Passage of Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vnus profectò Vnus est tantùm Deus Coeli solique machinam qui condidit Vadumque Ponti coerulum vim Spiritus c. There is in truth One only God who made Heaven and Earth the Sea Air and Winds c. After which followeth also something against Image-worship That though this be such as might well become a Christian and be no where now to be found in those extant Tragedies of this Poet many whereof have been lost yet the sincerity thereof cannot reasonably be at all suspected by us it having been cited by so many of the Ancient Fathers in their Writings against the Pagans as particularly Justin Martyr Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Justin Martyr Eusebius Cyril and Theodoret of which number Clemens tells us that it was attested likewise by that ancient Pagan Historiographer Hecataeus But there are so many Places to our purpose in Euripides that we cannot omit them all In his Supplices we have this wherein all mens Absolute Dependence upon Jupiter or one Supreme Deity is fully acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miseros quid Homines O Deûm Rex Pater Sapere arbitramur Pendet è nutu tuo Res nostra facimusque illa quae visum tibi We have also this excellent Prayer to the Supreme Governour of Heaven and Earth cited out of the same Tragedian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tibi Cunctorum Domino Vinum Salsamque Molam fero seu Ditis Tu sive Jovis nomine gaudes Tu namque Deos Superos inter Sceptrum tractas Sublime Jovis Idem Regnum Terestre tenes Tu Lucem animis infunde Virûm Qui scire volunt quo sata Mentis Lucta sit ortu Quae Causa Mali Cui Coelicolûm rite litando Requiem sit habere laborum Where we may observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter and Pluto are both of them supposed to be Names equally belonging to One and the same Supreme God And the Sum of the Prayer is this That God would infuse Light into the Souls of men whereby they might be enabled to know What is the Root from whence all their Evils spring and by what means they may avoid them Lastly there is another Devotional Passage cited out of Euripides
which seems to be a Probable Opinion Wherefore since according to Plato the Soul of the World which is the chief of all his Inferiour Gods was not Self-existent but Made or Produced by God in time all those other Gods of his which were but Parts of the World as the Sun Moon Stars and Demons must needs be so too But lest any should suspect that Plato might for all that suppose the World and its Gods not to have been made by One only Unmade God but by a Multitude of Co-ordinate Self-existent Principles or Deities conspiring we shall observe that the contrary hereunto is plainly declared by him in way of answer to that Quaere Whether or no there were Many and infinite Worlds as some Philosophers had maintained or only One he Resolving it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether have we rightly affirmed that there is only One Heaven or World or is it more agreeable to reason to hold Many or Infinite We say there is but One if it be made agreeable to its Intellectual Paradigm conteining the Ideas of all Animals and other things in it For there can be but One Archetypal Animal which is the Paradigm of all created Beings wherefore that the World may agree with its Paradigms in this respect of Solitude or Onliness therefore is it not Two nor Infinite but One-only-begotten His meaning is that there is but One Archetypal Mind the Demiurgus or Maker of all things that were produced and therefore but One World And this One God which according to Plato was the Maker of the whole World is frequently called by him in his Timaeus and elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God or The God by way of Excellency sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Architect or Artificer of the World sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Maker and Father of this Vniverse whom it is hard to find out but impossible to declare to the Vulgar again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the God over all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creator of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sole Principle of the Vniverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind the King of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Sovereign Mind which orders all things and passes through all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Governour of the Whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which always is and was never made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greatest God and the Greatest of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that Generated or Produced the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that makes Earth and Heaven and the Gods and doth all things both in Heaven and Hell and under the Earth Again he by whose Efficiency the Things of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were afterwards made when they were not Before or from an Antecedent Non-existence brought forth into Being This Philosopher somewhere intimating that it was as easie for God to produce those Real Things the Sun Moon Stars and Earth c. from himself as it is for us to produce the Images of our selves and whatsoever else we please only by interposing a Looking-glass Lastly he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that Causeth or produceth both All other things and even Himself the meaning whereof is this He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Plato also calls him a Self-originated Being and from no other Cause besides Himself but the Cause of All other things Neither doth Lactantius Firmianus himself refuse to speak of God after this very manner that Scipsum secit and that he was Ex Seipso procreatus propterea Talis Qualem se esse voluit that He made Himself and that being Procreated from Himself He therefore was every way such as he Willed himself to be Which unusual and bold strain of Theology is very much insisted upon by Plotinus in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concerning the Will of the First One or Vnity He there writing thus of the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is the Cause of himself and he is from Himself and Himself is for Himself And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is He who is the Maker of himself and is Lord over himself in a certain sence for he was not made that which Another willed him to be but he is that which he willeth himself to be Moreover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Supreme Deity loving himself as a Pure Light is himself what he loved Thus as it were begetting and giving subsistence to himself he being a standing Energy Wherefore since God is a Work or Energy and yet he is not the Work or Energy of any other Being he must needs be in some sence his own Work or Energy so that God is not that which he happened to be but that which he willeth himself to be Thus also a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must of necessity make Will and Essence the same in the First Being Wherefore since his Willing is from himself his Being must needs be from himself too the consequence of which Ratiocination is this that He made himself For if his volition be from himself and his own work and this be the same with his Hypostasis or Substance he may be then said to have given subsistence to himself Wherefore he is not what he happen'd to be but what he willed himself to be But because this is so unusual a Notion we shall here set down yet one or two passages more of this Philosophers concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Essence of the Supreme God is not without his Will but his Will and Essence are the same so that God concurreth with Himself himself willing to be as he is and being that which he willeth and his Will and Himself being one and the same For Himself is not One thing as happening to be that whichhe is and that he would will to be Another For what could God will to be but that which he is And if we should suppose that it were in his own choice to be what he would and that he had liberty to change his Nature into whatsoever else he pleased it is certain that he would neither will to be any thing else besides what he is nor complain of himself as being now that which he is out of necessity he being indeed no other but that which himself hath willed and doth always will to be For his Will is his Essential Goodness so that his Will doth not follow his Nature but concurr with it in the very Essence of this Good there being contained his Choice and Willing of himself to be such Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is all Will nor is there any thing in him which he doth not Will nor is his
Greatest Wisdom in him And Lastly to be able to effect and bring to pass all those things which he had thus decreed argues an insuperable Power Maximus Tyrius in the close of his first Dissertation gives us this short Representation of his own Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will now more plainly declare my sence by this similitude Imagine in your mind a great and powerful Kingdom or Principality in which all the rest freely and with one consent conspire to direct their actions agreeably to the will and command of one Supreme King the Oldest and the best And then suppose the bounds and limits of this Empire not to be the River Halys nor the Hellespont nor the Meotian Lake nor the Shores of the Ocean but Heaven above and the Earth beneath Here then let that great King sit Immovable prescribing Laws to all his subjects in which consists their safety and security the Consorts of his Empire being many both Visible and Invisible Gods some of which that are nearest to him and immediately attending on him are in the highest Royal dignity feasting as it were at the same table with him others again are their Ministers Attendants and a Third Sort inferiour to them both And thus you see how the order and chain of this government descends down by steps and degrees from the Supreme God to the Earth and Men. In which Resemblance we have a plain acknowledgment of One Supreme God the Monarch of the whole World and Three subordinate ranks of Inferiour Gods as his Ministers in the Government of the World whom that Writer there also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods the Sons and Friends of God Aristides the famous Adrianean Sophist and Orator in his first Oration or Hymn vowed to Jupiter after he had escaped a great tempest is so full to the purpose that nothing can be more he after his Proeme beginning thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jupiter made all things and all things whatsoever exist are the works of Jupiter Rivers and Earth and Sea and Heaven and what are between these and Gods and Men and all Animals whatsoever is perceivable either by sense or by the mind But Jupiter first of all made himself for he was not Educated in the flowery and odoriferous Caves of Crete neither was Saturn ever about to devour him nor instead of him did he swallow down a stone For Jupiter was never in danger nor will he be ever in danger of any thing Neither is there any thing older than Jupiter no more than there are sons older than their parents or works than their Opificers But he is the First and the Oldest and the Prince of all things he being made from himself nor can it be declared when he was made for he was from the beginning and ever will be his own Father and greater than to have been begotten from another As he produced Minerva from his brain and needed no wedlock in order thereunto so before this did he produce himself from himself needing not the help of any other thing for his being But on the contrary all things began to be from him and no man can tell the time since there was not then any time when there was nothing else besides and no work can be older than the maker of it Thus was Jupiter the beginning of all things and all things were from Jupiter who is better than Time which had its beginning together with the World And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All the several kinds of Gods are but a Defluxion and Derivation from Jupiter and according to Homer 's Chain all things are connected with him and depend upon him He amongst the first produced Love and Necessity Two the most powerful Holders of things together that they might make all things firmly to cohere He made Gods to be the Curators of men and he made men to be the Worshippers and Servers of those Gods All things are every where full of Jupiter and the Benefits of all the other Gods are his work and to be attributed to him they being done in compliance with that order which he had prescribed them It is certain that all the Latter Philosophers after Christianity whether Platonists or Peripateticks though for the most part they asserted the Eternity of the World yet Universally agreed in the acknowledgment of One Supreme Deity the Cause of the whole World and of all the other Gods And as Numenius Plotinus Amelius Porphyrius Proclus Damascius and others held also a Trinity of Divine Hypostases so had some of those Philosophers excellent Speculations concerning the Deity as particularly Plotinus who notwithstanding that he derived Matter and All things from One Divine Principle yet was a Contender for Many Gods Thus in his Book inscribed against the Gnosticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man ought to endeavour with all his might to become as Good as may be but yet not to think himself to be the only thing that is good but that there are also other Good men in the World and Good Demons but much more Gods who though inhabiting this inferiour world yet look up to that Superiour and most of all the Prince of this Vniverse that most Happy Soul From whence he ought to ascend yet higher and to praise those Intelligible Gods but above all that great King and Monarch declaring his Greatness and Majesty by the Multitude of Gods which are under him For this is not the part of them who know the power of God to contract all into one but to shew forth all that Divinity which himself hath displayed who remaining One makes Many depending on him which are by him and from him For this whole World is by him and looks up perpetually to him as also doth every one of the Gods in it And Themistius the Peripatetick who was so far from being a Christian that as Petavius probably conjectures he perstringes our Saviour Christ under the Name of Empedocles for making himself a God doth not only affirm that one and the same Supreme God was worshipped by Pagans and the Christians and all Nations though in different manners but also that God was delighted with this Variety of Religions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Author and Prince of the Vniverse seems to be delighted with this Variety of Worship He would have the Syrians worship him One way the Greeks another and the Egyptians another neither do the Syrians or Christians themselves all agree they being subdivided into many Sects We shall conclude therefore with this full Testimony of St. Cyril in his First Book against Julian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is manifest to all that amongst those who Philosophize in the Greek way it is Vniversally acknowledged that there is One God the Maker of the Vniverse and who is by Nature
which interpretations it is supposed that the Pagans did worship the True God the Creator of the whole World though they worshipped the Creature also Besides him or perhaps in some sence Above him and More than him also But as for that other Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza chose rather to follow that they worshipped the Creature the Creator being wholly Passed by this is no true Literal Version but only a Gloss or Commentary upon the words made according to a certain preconceived and extravavagant opinion that the Pagans did not at all worship the Supreme God or Creator but universally transfer all their worship upon the Creature only But in what sence the Pagans might be said to worship the Creatures Above or Beyond or More than the Creator because it is not possible that the Creature as a Creature should be worshipped with more Internal and Mental Honour than the Creator thereof look'd upon as such we leave others to enquire Whether or no because when Religious Worship which properly and only belongeth to the Creator and not at all to the Creature is transferred from the Creator upon the Creature according to a Scripture-Interpretation and Account such may be said to worship the Creature more than the Creator Or whether because some of these Pagans might more frequently address their Devotions to their Inferiour Gods as Stars Demons and Hero's as thinking the Supreme God either Above their Worship or Incomprehensible or Inaccessible by them Or lastly Whether because the Image and Statue-worshippers among the Pagans whom the Apostle there principally regards did direct all their External Devotion to Sensible Objects and Creaturely Forms However it cannot be thought that the Apostle here taxes the Pagans meerly for worshipping Creatures Above the Creator as if they had not at all offended had they worshipped them only in an Equality with him but doubtless their sin was that they gave any Religious Worship at all to the Creature though in way of Aggravation of their crime it be said that they also worshipped the Creature more than the Creator Thus we see plainly that the Pagan Superstition and Idolatry according to the True Scripture notion of it consisted not in Worshipping of Many Creators but in Worshipping the Creatures together with the Creator Besides this we have in the Acts of the Apostles an Oration which St. Paul made at Athens in the Areopagitick Court beginning after this manner Ye men of Athens I perceive that ye are every way more than ordinarily Religious for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be taken there in a good sence it being not only more likely that St. Paul would in the beginning of his Oration thus captare benevolentiam conciliate their benevolence with some commendation of them but also very unlikely that he would call their worshipping of the True God by the name of Superstition for so it followeth For as I passed by and beheld your sacred things or monuments I found an Altar with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 TO THE VNKNOWN GOD. It is true that both Philostratus and Pausanias write that there were at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altars of Vnknown Gods but their meaning in this might well be not that there were Altars Dedicated to Unknown Gods Plurally but that there were several Altars which had this Singular Inscription TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. And that there was at least One such besides this Scripture-record is evident from that Dialogue in Lucian's Works entituled Philopatris where Critias useth this form of Oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No by the Vnknown God at Athens and Triephon in the close of that Dialogue speaketh thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But we having found out that Vnknown God at Athens and worshipped him with hands stretched up to Heaven will give thanks to him as having been thought worthy to be made subject to this power Which passages as they do unquestionably refer to that Athenian Inscription either upon One or more Altars so does the latter of them plainly imply that this Vnknown God of the Athenians was the Supreme Governour of the World And so it follows in St. Paul's Oration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom therefore you ignorantly worship under this name of the Vnknown God Him declare I unto you the God that made the World and all things in it the Lord of Heaven and Earth From which place we may upon firm Scripture-Authority conclude these Two Things First that by the Vnknown God of the Athenians was meant the Only True God He who made the World and all things in it who in all probability was therefore styled by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vnknown God because he is not only Invisible but also Incomprehensible by mortals of whom Josephus against Appion writeth thus That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowable to us only by the Effects of his Power but as to his own Essence Vnknowable or Incomprehensible But when in Dion Cassius the God of the Jews is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Invisible but also Ineffable and when he is called in Lucan Incerius Deus an Vncertain God the reason hereof seems to have been not only because there was no Image of him but also because he was not vulgarly then known by any Proper Name the Tetragrammaton being religiously forborn amongst the Jews in common use that it might not be prophaned And what some learned men have here mentioned upon this occasion of the Pagans sometimes sacrifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Proper and Convenient God without signifying any name seems to be nothing to this purpose that proceeding only from a Superstitious Fear of these Pagans supposing several Gods to preside over several things lest they should be mistaken in not applying to the Right and Proper God in such certain cases and so their Devotion prove unsuccessful and ineffectual But that this Vnknown God is here said to be ignorantly worshipped by the Athenians is to be understood chiefly in regard of their Polytheism and Idolatry The Second thing that may be concluded from hence is this That these Athenian Pagans did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religiously Worship the True God the Lord of Heaven and Earth and so we have a Scripture-confutation also of that opinion That the Pagans did not at all worship the Supreme God Lastly St. Paul citing this passage out of Aratus a Heathen Poet concerning Zeus or Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we are his Off-spring and interpreting the same of the True God in whom we live and move and have our being we have also here a plain Scripture-acknowledgment that by the Zeus of the Greekish Pagans was sometimes at least meant the True God And indeed that Aratus his Zeus was neither a man born in Crete nor in Arcadia but the Maker and Supreme Goveâ—nour of the whole World is evident both from the antecedent and the subsequent Verses
sacravit We adore the rising Heads and Springs of great Rivers Every sudden and plentiful Eruption of Waters out of the hidden Caverns of the Earth hath its Altars erected to it and some Pools have been made Sacred for their immense Profundity and Opacity Now this is that which is properly called the Physiological Theology of the Pagans their Personating and Deifying in a certain sence the Things of Nature whether Inanimate Substances or the Affections of Substances A great part of which Physiological Theology was Allegorically conteined in the Poetick Fables of the Gods Eusebius indeed was of opinion that those Poetick Fables were at first only Historical and Herological but that afterwards some went about to Allegorize them into Physiological Sences thereby to make them seem the less impious and ridiculous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such was the ancient Theology of the Pagans namely Historical of men deceased that were worshipped for Gods which some late Vpstarts have altered devising other Philosophical and Physiological sences of those Histories of their Gods that they might thereby render them the more specious and hide the Impiety of them For they being neither willing to abandon those Fopperies of their forefathers nor yet themselves able to bear the Impiety of these Fables concerning the Gods according to the Literal Sence of them have gone about to cure them thus by Physiological Interpretations Neither can it be doubted but that there was some Mixture of Herology and History in the Poetick Mythology Nor denied that the Pagans of latter times such as Porphyrius and others did excogitate and devise certain new Allegorical sences of their own such as never were intended Origen before both him and Porphyry noting this of the Pagans that when the absurdity of their Fables concerning the Gods was objected and urged against them some of them did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apologizing for these things betake themselves to Allegories But long before the times of Christianity those First Stoicks Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus were famous for the great pains which they took in Allegorizing these Poetick Fables of the Gods Of which Cotta in Cicero thus Magnam molestiam suscepit minimè necessariam primus Zeno pòst Cleanthes deindè Chrysippus Commentitiarum Fabulalarum reddere rationem vocabulorum cur quidque ita appellatum sit causas explicare Quod cum facitis illud profecto confitemini longè aliter rem se habere atque hominum opinio sit eos qui Dii appellantur Rerum Naturas esse non Figuras Deorum Zeno first and after him Cleanthes and Chrysippus took a great deal more pains than was needful to give a reason of all those Commentitious Fables of the Gods and of the names that every thing was called by By doing which they confessed that the matter was far otherwise than according to mens opinion in as much as they who are called Gods in them were nothing but the Natures of things From whence it is plain that in the Poetick Theology the Stoicks took it for granted that the Natures of Things were Personated and Deified and that those Gods were not Animal nor indeed Philosophical but Fictitious and nothing but the Things of Nature Allegorized Origen also gives us a Taste of Chrysippus his thus Allegorizing in his interpreting an obscene Picture or Table of Jupiter and Juno in Samos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Grave Philosopher in his writings saith that Matter having received the Spermatick Reasons of God conteineth them within it self for the adorning of the whole World and that Juno in this Picture in Samos signifies Matter and Jupiter God Upon which occasion that pious Father adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the sake of which and innumerable other such like Fables we will never endure to call The God over all by the name of Jupiter but exercising pure Piety towards the Maker of the World will take care not to defile Divine things with impure Names And here we see again according to Chrysippus his Interpretation that Hera or Juno was no Animâ—l nor Real God but only the Nature of Matter Personated and Deified that is a meer Fictitious and Poetick God And we think it is unquestionably evident from Hesiod's Theogonia that many of these Poetick Fables according to their First Intention were really nothing else but Physiology Allegorized and consequently those Gods nothing but the Natures of things Personated and Deified Plato himself though no friend to these Poetick Fables plainly intimates as much in his Second De Rep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fightings of the Gods and such other things as Homer hath feigned concerning them ought not to be admitted into our Commonwealth whether they be delivered in way of Allegory or without Allegories Because Young men are not able to judge when it is an Allegory and when not And it appears from Dionysius Halicarnass that this was the General opinion concerning the Greekish Fables that some of them were Physically and some Tropologically Allegorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let no man think me to be ignorant that some of the Greekish Fables are profitable to men partly as declaring the Works of Nature by Allegories partly as being helpful for humane life c. Thus also Cicero Alia quoque ex ratione quidem Physicâ magna fluxit Multitudo Deorum qui induti specie humana Fabulas Poetis suppeditaverunt hominum autem vitam Superstitione omni refercerunt Eusebius indeed seems sometimes to cast it as an Imputation upon the whole Pagan Theology that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie the Inanimate Nature but this is properly to be understood of this Part of their Theology only which was Physiological and of their Mythology or Poetick Fables of the Gods Allegorized it being otherwise both apparently false and all one as to make them downright Atheists For he that acknowledges no Animant God as hath been declared acknowledges no God at all according to the True Notion of him whether he derive all things from a Fortuitous Motion of Matter as Epicurus and Democritus did or from a Plastick and Orderly but Sensless Nature as some Degenerate Stoicks and Strato the Peripatetick whose Atheism seems to be thus described by Manilius Aut neque Terra Patrem novit nec Flamma nec Aer Aut Humor faciuntque Deum per quatuor artus Et Mundi struxere Globum prohibentque requiri Vltra se quidquam Neither ought this Physiological Theology of the Pagans which consisted only in Personating and Deifying Inanimate Substances and the Natures of Things to be confounded as it hath been by some late Writers with that Philosophical Theology of Scaevola Varro and others which was called Natural also but in another sence as True and Real it being indeed but a Part of the Poetical first and afterward of the Political Theology and owing its Original much to the Phancies of Poets whose Humour
Exquiliis So great is the number of these Gods that even Hell or the state of death it self Diseases and Many Plagues are numbred amongst them whilst with a trembling fear we desire to have these pacified And therefore was there a Temple publickly Dedicated in the Palace to the Fever as likewise Altars elsewhere erected to Orbona and to Evil Fortune Of the latter Balbus in Cicero Quo ex genere Cupidinis Voluptatis Lubentinae Veneris Vocabula Consecrata sunt Vitiosarum rerum non Naturalium Of which kind also are those Names of Lust and Pleasure and Wanton Venery things Vicious and not natural Consecrated and Deified Cicero in his Book of Laws informs us that at Athens there were Temples Dedicated also to Contumely and Impudence but withal giving us this censure of such practices Quae omnia ejusmodi detestanda repudianda sunt All which kind of things are to be detested and rejected and nothing to be Deified but what is Vertuous or Good Notwithstanding which it is certain that such Evil Things as these were Consecrated to no other end than that they might be Deprecated Moreover as these Things of Natures or Nature of Things were sometimes Deified by the Pagans plainly and nakedly in their own Appellative Names so was this again sometimes done disguisedly under other Counterfeit Proper Names as Pleasure was Deified under the Names of Volupia and of Lubentina Venus Time according to the Opinion of some under the Name of Cronos or Saturn which as it Produceth all things so devours all things into it self again Prudence or Wisdom likewise under the Names of Athena or Minerva For it is plain that Origen understood it thus when Celsus not only approved of Worshipping God Almighty in the Sun and in Minerva as that which was Lawful but also commended it as a thing Highly Pious he making this Reply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We speak well of the Sun as a good work of God's c. but as for that Athena or Minerva which Celsus here joyneth with the Sun this is a thing Fabulously devised by the Greeks whether according to some Mystical Arcane and Allegorical Sence or without it when they say that she was begotten out of Jupiter 's Brain All Armed And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be granâ—ed that by Athena or Minerva be Tropologically meant Prudence c. Wherefore not only according to the Poetical but also to the Political and Civil Theology of the Pagans these Accidental Things of Nature and Affections of Substances Personated were made so many Gods and Goddesses Cicero himself in his Book of Laws approving of such Political Gods as these Benè verograve quod Mens Pietas Virtus Fides consecratur manu quarum omnium Romae dedicata publicè Templa sunt ut illa qui habeant habent autem omnes boni Deos ipsos in animis suis collocatos putent It is well that Mind Piety Virtue and Faith are consecrated all which have their Temples publickly dedicated at Rome that so they who possess these things as all Good men do may think that they have the Gods themselves placed in their minds And himself makes a Law for them in his own Common-wealth but with a Cautionary Provision that no Evil and Vicious Things be Consecrated amongst them Ast olla propter quae datur homini adscensus in Coelum Mentem Virtutem Pietatem Fidem earumque laudum delubra sunto Nec ulla vitiorum Solemnia obeunto Let them also worship those things by means whereof men ascend up to Heaven and let there be Shrines or Temples Dedicated to them But let no Religious Ceremonies be performed to Vicious things Notwithstanding all which according to that Theology of the Pagans which was called by Varro Natural whereby is meant not that which was Physiological only but that which is True and Real and by Scaevola Philosophical and which is by both opposed not only to the Poetical and Fabulous but also to the Political and Civil I say according to this Theology of theirs these Accidental Things of Nature Deified could by no means be acknowledged for True and Proper Gods because they were so far from having any Life and Sense in them that they had not so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Real Subsistence or Substantial Essence of their own And thus does Origen dispute against Minervas Godship as Tropologically interpreted to Prudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Athena or Minerva be Tropologized into Prudence then let the Pagans show what Substantial Essence it hath or that it Really Subsists according to this Tropology Which is all one as if he should have said Let the Pagans then shew how this can be a God or Goddess which hath not so much as any Substantial Essence nor Subsists by it self but is a meer Accidental Affection of Substances only And the same thing is likewise urged by Origen concerning other such kind of Gods of theirs as Memory the Mother of the Muses and the Graces all naked in his First Book where Celsus contended for a multiplicity of Gods against the Jews that these things having not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Substantial Essence or Subsistence could not possibly be accounted Gods and therefore were nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer Figments of the Greeks Things made to have Humane Bodies and so Personated and Deified And we think there cannot be a truer Commentary upon this Passage of Origen's than these following verses of Prudentius in his Second Book against Symmachus Desine si pudor est Geniilis ineptia iandem Res Incorporeas Simulatis Fingere membris Let the Gentiles be at last ashamed if they have any shame in them of this their folly in describing and setting forth Incorporeal things with Counterfeit Humane Members Where Accidents and Affections of Things such as Victory was whose Altar Symmachus there contended for the Restauration of are by Prudentius called Res Incorporeae Incorporeal Things accordingly as the Greek Philosophers concluded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qualities Incorporeal Neither is it possible that the Pagans themselves should be insensible hereof and accordingly we find that Cotta in Cicero doth for this reason utterly banish and explode these Gods out of the Philosophick and True Theology Num censes igitur subtiliore ratione opus esse ad haec refellenda Nam Mentem Fidem Spem Virtutem Honorem Victoriam Salutem Concordiam caeteraque ejusmodi Rerum Vim habere videmus non Deorum Aut enim in nobismet insunt ipsis ut Mens ut Spes ut Fides ut Virtus ut Concordia aut optandae nobis sunt ut Honos ut Salus ut Victoria Quare autem in his Vis Deorum sit tum intelligam cum cognovero Is there any need think you of any great Subtilty to confute these things For Mind Faith
Gregory Nazianzen Epiphanius Chrysostom Hilary Ambrose Austine Faustinus and Cyril of Alexandria all of them charging the Arians as guilty of the very same Idolatry with the Gentiles or Pagans in giving Religious Worship even to the Word and Son of God himself and consequently to our Saviour Christ as he was supposed them to be but a Creature But we shall content our selves here only to cite one remarkable passage out of Athanasius in his Fourth Oration against the Arians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why therefore do not these Arians holding this reckon themselves amongst the Pagans or Gentiles sence they do in like manner worship the Creature besides the Creator For though the Pagans worship one Vncreated and many Created Gods but these Arians only one Vncreated and one Created to wit the Son or Word of God yet will not this make any real difference betwixt them because the Arians One Created is one of those many Pagan Gods and those many Gods of the Pagans or Gentiles have the same nature with this One they being alike Creatures Wherefore these wretched Arians are Apostates from the truth of Christianity they betraying Christ more than the Jews did and wallowing or tumbling in the Filth of Pagan Idolatry worshipping Creatures and different kinds of Gods Where by the way we may take notice that when Athanasius affirmeth of the Arians what St Paul doth of the Pagans that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his meaning could not well be that they worshipped the Creature More than the Creator forasmuch as the Arians constantly declared that they gave less worship to Christ the Son or Word of God he being by them accounted but a Creature than they did to the Father the Creator but either that they worshipped the Creature Besides the Creator or the Creature Instead of the Creator or in the Room of him who was alone of right to be Religiously Worshipped Again when the same Athanasius declareth that the Greeks Gentiles or Pagans did Universally worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only One Vncreated he seems to imply that the Platonick Trinity of Hypostases affirmed by him to be all Uncreated were by them look'd upon only as One entire Divinity But the Principal Things which we shall observe from this Passage of Athanasius and those many other places of the Fathers where they Parallel the Arians with the Pagans making the Former guilty of the very same Idolatry with the Latter even then when they worshipped our Saviour Christ himself or the Word and Son of God as he was by them supposed to be nothing but a Creature are these following First That it is here plainly declared by them that the generality of the Pagans did not worship a Multitude of Independent Gods but that only One of their Gods was Vncreated or Self-Existent and all their other Many Gods look'd upon by them as his Creatures This as it is expresly affirmed by Athanasius here that the Greeks or Pagans did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worship only One Vncreated and Many Created Gods so is it plainly implied by all those other forementioned Fathers who charge the Arians with the Guilt of Pagan Idolatry because had the Pagans worshipped Many Vncreated and Independent Gods it would not therefore follow that the Arians were Idolaters if the Pagans were But that this was indeed the sence of the Fathers both before and after the Nicene Council concerning the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry that it consisted not in worshiping Many Vncreated and Independent Gods but only One Vncreated and Many Created hath been already otherwise manifested and it might be further confirmed by sundry Testimonies of them as this of Saint Gregory Nazianzen in his 37. Oration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What then would some say is there not One Divinity also amongst the Pagans as they who Philosophize more fully and perfectly amongst them do declare And that full and remarkable One of Irenaeus where he plainly affirmeth of the Gentiles Ita Creaturae potius quam Creatori serviebant his qui non sunt Dii ut Primum Deitatis Locum attribuerent Vni alicui Summo Fabricatori hujus Vniversitatis Deo That they so served the Creature and those who are not Gods rather than the Creator that notwithstanding they attributed the First place of the Deity to One certain Supreme God the Maker of this Vniverse The second thing is that Athanasius and all those other Orthodox Fathers who charged the Arians with Pagan Idolatry did thereby plainly imply Those not to be Vncapable of Idolatry who worship One Soveraign Numen or acknowledge One Supreme Deity the Maker of the whole World since not only the Arians unquestionably did so but also according to these Fathers the very Pagans themselves The Third Thing is that in the Judgement of Athanasius and all the Orthodox Anti-Arian Fathers to give Religious Worship to any Created Being whatsoever though Inferiour to that worship which is given to the Supreme God and therefore according to the Modern Distinction not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is absolutely Idolatry Because it is certain that the Arians gave much an Inferiour worship to Christ the Son or Word of God whom they contended to be a meer Creature Made in Time Mutable and Defectible than they did to that Eternal God who was the Creator of him As those Fathers imply the Pagans themselves to have given much an Inferiour Worship to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Many Gods whom themselves look'd upon as Creatures than they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To that One Vncreated God Now if the Arians who zealously contended for the Vnity of the Godhead were nevertheless by the Fathers condemned as guilty of Idolatry for bestowing but an Inferiour kind of Religious Worship upon Christ the Son or Word of God himself as he was supposed by them to be a Creature then certainly cannot they be excused from that Guilt who bestow Religious Worship upon these other Creatures Angels and Souls of men though Inferiour to what they give to the Supreme Omnipotent God the Creator of all Because the Son or Word of God however conceived by these Arians to be a Creature yet was look'd upon by them as the First the most Glorious and most Excellent of all Creatures and that by which as an Instrument all other Creatures as Angels and Souls were made and therefore if it were Idolatry in them to give an Inferiour kind of Religious Worship to this Son and Word of God himself according to theiâ— Hypothâ—sis then can it not possibly be accounted less to bestow the same upon those other Creatures Made by him as Angels and Men deceased Besides which the Word and Son of God howsoever supposed by these Arians to be a Creature yet was not Really such and is in Scripture unquestionably declared to be a True Object of Religious Worship Worship him all ye Gods so that the Arians