omne convenit Ex quo nata sunt omnia Cujus Spiritu vivimus Totum suis partibus inditum se sustinentem sua vi Cujus Consilio huic mundo providetur ut inconcussus eat actus suos explicet Cujus Decreto omnia fiunt Divinum Spiritum per omnia maxima minima aequali intentione diffusum Deum potentem omnium Deum illum maximum potentissimumque qui ipse vehit omnia Qui ubique omnibus praesto est Coeli Deorum omnium Deum a quo ista Numina quae singula adoramus colimus suspensa sunt and the like The Framer and Former of the Vniverse the Governour Disposer and keeper thereof Him upon whom all things depend The Mind and Spirit of the World The Artificer and Lord of this whole Mundane Fabrick To whom every name belongeth From whom all things spring By whose Spirit we live Who is in all his parts and susteineth himself by his own force By whose Counsel the World is provided for and carried on in its Course constantly and uninterruptedly By whose Decree all things are done The Divine Spirit that is diffused through all things both great and small with equal intention The God whose power extends to all things The Greatest and most Powerful God who doth himself support and uphold all things Who is present every where to all things The God of Heaven and of all the Gods upon whom are suspended all those other Divine Powers which we singly worship and adore Moreover we may here observe from St. Austin that this Seneca in a Book of his against Superstitions that is now lost did not only Highly extol the Natural Theology but also plainly censure and condemn the Civil Theology then received amongst the Romans and that with more Freedom and Vehemency than Varro had done the Fabulous or Theatrical and Poetical Theology Concerning a great part whereof he pronounced that a wise man would observe such things tanquam Legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata only as commanded by the Laws he therein exercising Civil Obedience but not at all as Grateful to the Gods M. Fabius Quintilianus though no admirer of Seneca yet fully agreed with him in the same Natural Theology and sets down this as the generally received Notion or Definition of God Deum esse Spiritum omnibus partibus immistum That God is a Spirit mingled with and diffused through all the part◠of the World he from thence inferring Epicurus to be an Atheist notwithstanding that he verbally asserted Gods because he denyed a God according to this Generally received Notion he bestowing upon his Gods a circumscribed humane form and placing them between the Worlds And the Junior Pliny though he were a Persecutor of the Christians he concluding qualecunque esset quod faterentur pervicaciam certè inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri that whatsoever their Religion were yet notwithstanding their Stubbornness and Inflexible Obstinacy ought to be punished and who compelled many of them to worship the Images of the Emperour and to sacrifice and pray to the Statues of the Pagan Gods and lastly to blaspheme Christ yet himself plainly acknowledged also One Supreme Universal Numen as may sufficiently appear from his Panegyrick Oration to Trajan where he is called Deus ille qui manifestus ac praesens Coelum ac Sydera insidet that God who is present with and inhabits the whole Heaven and Stars himself making a Solemn Prayer and Supplication to him both in the beginning and close thereof and sometimes speaking of him therein Singularly and in way of Eminency as in these words Occultat utrorumque Semina Deus plerumque Bonorum Malorumque Causae sub diversâ specie latent God hideth the Seeds of good and evil so that the causes of each often appear disguised to men L. Apuleius also whose pretended Miracles the Pagans endeavoured to confirm their Religion by as well as they did by those of Apollonius doth in sundry places of his writings plainly assert One Supreme and Vniversal Numen we shall only here set down one Cum Summus Deorum cuncta haec non solùm cogitationum ratione consideret sed Prima Media Vltima obeat compertaque intimae Providentiae ordinationis universitate Constantia regat Since the Highest of the Gods does not only consider all these things in his mind and Cogitation but also pass through and comprehend within himself the Beginning Middle and End of all things and constantly Govern all by his occult Providence Lastly Symmachus who was a zealous Stickler for the Restitution of Paganism declared the Pagans to worship One and the same God with the Christians but in several ways he conceiving that there was no necessity God should be worshipped by all after the same manner Aequum est quicquid omnes colunt VNVM putari Eadem spectamus Astra Commune Coelum est Idem nos Mundus involvit Quid interest qua quisque prudentia Verum requirat Vno Itinere non potest perveniri ad tam grande Secretum We ought in reason to think that it is One and the same Thing which all men worship As we all behold the same Stars have the same Common Heaven and are involved within the same World Why may not men pursue One and the same thing in different ways One Path is not enough to lead men to so Grand a Secret The Sence whereof is thus elegantly expressed by Prudentius Vno omnes sub sole siti vegetamur eodem Aere Communis cunctis viventibus Aura Sed quid sit qualisque Deus diversa secuti Quaerimus atque Viis longè distantibus Unum Imus ad Occultum suus est mos cuique genti Per quod iter properans eat ad tam Grande Profundum And again afterward Secretum sed grande nequit Rationis opertae Quaeri aliter quà m si sparsis via multiplicetur Tramitibus centenos terat orbita calles Quaesitura Deum variata indage latentem And the beginning of Prudentius his Confutation is this Longè aliud verum est Nam multa ambago viarum Anfractus dubios habet perplexius errat Sola errore caret simplex via nescia flecti In diverticulum biviis nec pluribus anceps c. We shall now instance also in some of the Latter Greek Writers Though the Author of the Book De Mundo were not Aristotle yet that he was a Pagan plainly appears from some passages thereof as where he approves of Sacrificing to the Gods and of Worshipping Heroes and Dead men as also because Apuleius would not otherwise have translated so much of that book and incorporated it into his De Mundo He therefore does not only commend this of Heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is one Harmonious System made out of all things and that All things are derived from One But doth himself also write excellently concerning the Supreme God whom he
look'd upon as Barbarians and yet did they not only acknowledge One Supreme Deity but also such as was distinct from the world and therefore Invisible he writing thus concerning them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They believe that there is One Immortal God and this the Cause of all things and another Mortal one anonymous but for the most part they account their Benefactors and Kings Gods also And though Caesar affirm of the ancient Germans Deorum numero eoâ— solos ducunt quos cernunt quorum opibus apertè juvantur Solâ—m Vulcanum Lunam yet is he contradicted by Tacitus who coming after him had better information and others have recorded that they acknowledged One Supreme God under the name of Thau first and then of Thautes and Theutates Lastly the Generality of the Pagans at this very day as the Indians Chineses Siamenses and Guineans the Inhabitants of Peru Mexico Virginia and New England some of which are sufficiently Barbarous acknowledge One Supreme or Greatest God they having their several Proper Names for him as Parmiscer Fetisso Wiracocha Pachacamac Vitziliputzti c. though worshipping withal other Gods and Idols And we shall conclude this with the Testimony of Josephus Acosta Hoc commune apud omnes penè Barbaros est ut Deum quidem Omnium rerum Supremum summè Bonum fateantur Spirituum vero quorundam perversorum non obscura opinio sit qui à nostris Barbaris Zupay vocari solent Igitur quis ille Summus idemque Sempiternus rerum omnium Opifex quem illi ignorantes colunt per omnia doceri debent mox quantum ab illo illiusque fidelibus Ministris Angelis absint gens pessima Cacodaemonum This is common almost to all the Barbarians to confess one Supreme God over all who is perfectly Good as also they have a Perswasion amongst them of certain Evil Spirits which are called by our Barbarians Zupay Wherefore they ought to be first well instructed what that Supreme and Eternal Maker of all things is whom they ignorantly worship and then how great a difference there is betwixt those wicked Daemons and his faithful Ministers the Angels XXVIII It hath been already declared that according to Themistius and Symmachus two zealous Pagans One and the same Supreme God was worshipped in all the several Pagan Religions throughout the world though after different manners Which Diversity of Religions as in their opinion it was no way inconvenient in it self so neither was it Ungrateful nor Unacceptable to Almighty God it being more for his Honour State and Grandeur to be worshipped with this Variety than after one only Manner Now that this was also the opinion of other ancienter Pagans before them may appear from this remarkable Testimony of Plutarch's in his Book De Iside where defending the Egyptian Worship which was indeed the main design of that whole Book but withal declaring that no Inanimate thing ought to be look'd upon or worshipped as a God he writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Inanimate thing ought to be esteemed for a God but they who bestow these things upon us and afford us a continual supply thereof for our use have been therefore accounted by us Gods Which Gods are not different to different Nations as if the Barbarians and the Greeks the Southern and the Northern Inhabitants of the Globe had not any the same but all other different Gods But as the Sun and the Moon and the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea are common to all though called by several names in several Countries so ONE REASON ordering these things and ONE PROVIDENCE dispensing all and the Inferiour subservient Ministers thereof having had several Names and Honours bestowed upon them by the Laws of several Countreys have been every where worshipped throughout the whole world And there have been also different Symbols consecrated to them the better to conduct and lead on mens undeâ—stâ—ndings to Divine things though this hath not been without some hazard or danger of casting men upon one or other of these Two Inconveniences either Superstition or Atheism Where Plutarch plainly affirms that the Several Religions of the Pagan Nations whether Greeks or Barbarians and among these the Egyptians also as well as others consisted in nothing else but the worshipping of One and the Same Supreme Mind Reason and Providence that orders all things in the world and of its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its Subservient Powers or Ministers appointed by it over all the several parts of the World though under different Names Rites and Ceremonies and with different Symbols Moreover that Titus Livius was of the very same opinion that the Pagan Gods of several Countreys though called by several Names and worshipped with so great Diversity of Rites and Ceremonies yet were not for all that Different but the same common to all may be concluded from this passage of his where he writeth of Hannibal Nescio an Mirabilior fuerit in adversis quà m secundis rebus Quippe qui mistos ex colluvione omnium gentium quibus alius Ritus alia sacra alii PROPE Dii essent ita uno vinculo copulaverit ut nulla seditio extiterit I know not whether Hannibal were more admirable in his adversity or Prosperity who having a mixt colluvies of all Nations under him which had different Rites different Ceremonies and Almost different Gods from one another did notwithstanding so unite them all together in one common bond that there hapned no sedition at all amongst them Where Livy plainly intimates that though there was as great diversity of Religious Rites and Ceremonies among the Pagans as if they had worshipped several Gods yet the Godâ— of them all were really the same Namely One Supreme God and his Ministers under him And the same Livy elsewhere declares this to have been the General opinion of the Romans and Italians likewise at that time where he tells us how they quarrel'd with Q. Fulvius Flaccus for that when being Censor and building a new Temple in Spain he uncovered another Temple dedicated to Juno Lacinia amongst the Brutii and taking off the Marble-Tyles thereof sent them into Spain to adorn his new erected Temple withal and how they accused him thereupon publickly in the Senate-house in this manner Quod ruinis Templorum Templa aedificaret tanquam non Iidem ubique Dii immortales essent sed spoliis aliorum alii colendi exornandique That with the ruines of Temples he built up Temples as if there were not every where the Same Immortal Gods but that some of them might be worshipped and adorned with the spoils of others The Egyptians were doubtless the most singular of all the Pagans and the most odly discrepant from the rest in their manner of worship yet nevertheless that these also agreed with the rest in those Fundamentals of worshipping one Supreme and Vniversal Numen together with his Inferiour Ministers as Plutarch sets himself industriously to
Repugnancy at all to Reason but that there may be as well Aerial and Etherial as there are Terrestrial Animals and that the Dull and Earthy Stupidity of mens Minds is the Only thing which makes them so prone to think that there is no Vnderstanding Nature Superior to Mankind but that in the world all is Dead about Us and to disbelieve the Existence of any thing which themselves Cannot either See or Feel Assuredly The Deity is no Phancy but the Greatest Reality in the world and that without which there could be Nothing at all Real it being the only Necessary Existent and Consequently Atheism is either meer Sottishness or else a strange kind of Irreligioas Fanaticism We now further add that the Belief of Ghosts and Spirits Incorporeal and consequently of an Incorporeal Deity sprung neither from any Ridiculous Mistake of the Abstract Names and Notions of meer Accidents for Substances nor from the Scholastick Essences said to be Eternal For as for the Latter none of those Scholasticks ever Dream'd that there was any Vniversal Man or Vniversal Horse Existing alone by it self and Separate from all Singulars nor that the Abstract Metaphysical Essences of men after they were Dead Subsisting by themselves did Walk up and down amongst Graves in Airy Bodies It being absolutely impossible that the Real Essence of any thing should be Separable from the thing it self or Eternal when that is not so And were the Essences of all things look'd upon by these Scholasticks as Substances Incorporeal then must they have made all things even Body it self to be Ghosts and Spirits and Incorporeal and Accidents also they having their Essences too to be Substantial But in very Truth these Scholastick Essences said to be Eternal are nothing but the Intelligible Essences of things or their Natures as Conceivable and Objects of the Mind And in this Sense is it an acknowledged Truth that the Essences of things as for example of a Sphere or Triangle are Eternal and such as were never Made because there could not otherwise be Eternal Verities concerning them So that the True meaning of these Eternal Essences is indeed no other than this That Knowledge is Eternal or that there is an Eternal Mind that comprehendeth the Intelligible Natures and Ideas of all things whether Actually existing or Possible only their Necessary relations to one another and all the Immutable Verities belonging to them Wherefore though these Eternal Essences themselves be no Ghosts nor Spirits nor Substances Incorporeal they being nothing but Objective Entities of the Mind or Noemata and Ideas yet does it plainly follow from the Necessâ—ry Supposition of them as was before declared That there is One Eternal Vnmade Mind and Perfect Incorporeal Deity a Real and Substantial Ghost or Spirit which comprehending It self and all the Extent of its own Power the Possibilities of things and their Intelligible Natures together with an Exemplar or Platform of the whole World Produced the same accordingly But our Atheistick Argumentator yet further urges That those Scholasticks and Metaphysicians who because Life or Cogitation can be considered alone Abstractly without the Consideration of Body therefore conclude it not to be the Accident or Action of a Body but a Substance by it self and which also after men are Dead can Walk amongst the Graves that these I say do so far Abuse those Abstract Names and Notions of meer Accidents as plainly to make Substances Incorporeal of them To which therefore we Reply also That were the Abstract Notions of Accidents in General made Incorporeal Substances by those Philosophers aimed at then must they have supposed all the Qualities or Affections of Bodies such as Whiteness and Blackness Heat and Cold and the like to have been Substances Incorporeal also a thing yet never heard or thought of But the Case is far otherwise as to Conscious Life or Cogitation though it be an Abstract also because this is no Accident of Body as the Atheist Serving his own Hypothesis securely takes it for granted nor indeed of any thing else but an Essential Attribute of another Substance distinct from Body or Incorporeal after the same manner as Extension or Magnitude is the Essential Attribute of Body and not a meer Accident And now having so copiously Confuted all the most Considerable Atheistick Grounds we are necessitated to dispatch those that follow being of lesser Moment with all possible Brevity and Compendiousness The Four next which are the Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Atheistick Argumentations pretend to no more than only this to disprove a Corporeal Deity or from the Supposition That there is no other Substance in the World besides Body to infer the Impossibility of a God that is of an Eternal Vnmade Mind the Maker and Governour of the Whole World all Which therefore signifie nothing at all to the Asserters of a Deity Incorporeal who are the only Genuine Theists Nevertheless though none but Stoicks and such other Corporealists as are notwithstanding Theists be directly concerned in an Answer to them yet shall we first so far consider the Principles of the Atheistick Corporealism contained in those Two Heads the Fifth and Sixth as from the Absolute Impossibility of these Hypotheses to Demonstrate a Necessity of Incorporeal Substance from whence a Deity will also follow Here therefore are there Two Atheistick Hypotheses founded upon the Supposition That All is Body The First in the way of Qualities Generable and Corruptible which we call the Hylopathian The Second in the way of Vnqualified Atoms which is the Atomick Corporealism and Atheism The Former of these was the most Ancient and the First Sciography or Rude Delineation of Atheism For Aristotle tells us That the most Ancient Atheists were those who supposed Matter or Body that is Bulkie Extension to be the only Substance and Vnmade thing that out of which all things were Made and into which all things are again Resolved Whatsoever is else in the world being nothing but the Passions Qualities and Accidents thereof Generable and Corruptible or Producible out of Nothing and Reducible to Nothing again From whence the Necessary Consequence is That there is no Eternal Vnmade Life or Vnderstanding or that Mind is no God or Principle in the Universe but Essentially a Creature And thiâ— Hylopathian Atheism which supposeth whatsoever is in the Universe to be either the Substance of Matter and Bulk or else the Qualities and Accidents thereof Generable and Corruptible hath been called also by us Anaximandrian Though we deny not but that there might be formerly some Difference amongst the Atheists of this Kind nor are we ignorant that Simplicius and others conceive Anaximander to have asserted besides Matter Qualities also Eternal and Vnmade or an Homoeomery and Similar Atomology just in the same manner as Anaxagoras afterwards did save only that He would not acknowledge any Vnmade Mind or Life Anaximader supposing all Life and Vnderstanding whatsoever all Soul and Mind to have Risen up and been
nor be touched but would run through all things without fastening upon any thing but if Corporeal then the same thing was both Materials and Architect both Timber and Carpenter and the Stones must hew themselves and bring themselves together with discretion into a Structure XX. In the last Place the Atheists argue from Interest which proves many times the most effectual of all Arguments against a Deity endeavouring to perswade that it is First the Interest of Private Persons and of all Man-kind in General and Secondly the Particular Interest of Civil Sovereigns and Commonwealths that there should neither be a God nor the Belief of any such thing entertained by the minds of Men that is no Religion First they say therefore that it is the Interesse of Mankind in General Because so long as men are perswaded that there is an Understanding Being infinitely Powerful having no Law but his own Will because he has no Superiour that may do whatever he pleases at any Time to them they can never Securely enjoy themselves or any thing nor be ever free from disquieting Fear and Solicitude What the Poets Fable of Tantalus in Hell being alwaies in fear of a huge stone hanging over his Head and ready every Moment to tumble down upon him is nothing to that true fear which men have of a Deity and Religion here in this Life which indeed was the very thing mythologized in it Nec miser impendens magnum timet aëre Saxum Tantalus ut fama est cassâ formidine torpens Sed magìs in vita Divûm Metus urget inanis Mortales casúmque timent quemcumque ferat Fors. For besides mens Insecurity from all manner of present Evils upon the Supposition of a God the Immortality of Souls can hardly be kept out but it will crowd in after it and then the fear of Eternal Punishments after Death will unavoidably follow thereupon perpetually embittering all the Solaces of Life and never suffering men to have the least sincere Enjoyment si certam finem esse viderent Aerumnarum homines aliquâ ratione valerent Relligionibus atque minis obsistere Vatum Nunc ratio nulla est restandi nulla facultas Aeternas quoniam Poenas in morte timendum Ignoratur enim quae sit natura Animaï Nata sit an contrà nascentibus insinuetu◠Et simul intereat nobiscum morte dirempta An Tenebras Orci visat vastásque Lacunas Wherefore it is plain that they who first introduced the Belief of a Deity and Religion whatever they might aim at in it deserved very ill of all Mankind because they did thereby infinitely debase and depress mens Spirits under a Servile Fear Efficiunt animos humiles formidine Divûm Depressósque premunt ad Terram As also cause the greatest Griefs and Calamities that now disturb Humane Life Quantos tum gemitus ipsi sibi quantáque nobis Volnera quas lachrymas peperere Minoribu ' nostris There can be no comfortable and happy Living without banishing from our Mind the belief of these two things of a Deity and the Souls Immortality Et metus ille foràs praeceps Acheruntis agendus Funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo Omnia suffundens Mortis Nigrore neque ullam Esse voluptatem Liquidam Furámque relinquit It was therefore a Noble and Heroical Exploit of Democritus and Epicurus those two good-natured Men who seeing the World thus oppressed under the grievous Yoke of Religion the Fear of a Deity and Punishment after death and taking pity of this sad Condition of Mankind did manfully encounter that affrightful Spectre or Empusa of a Providential Deity and by clear Philosophick Reasons chase it away and banish it quite out of the World laying down such Principles as would salve all the Phaenomena of Nature without a God Quae bene cognita si teneas Natura videtur Libera continuò Dominis privata Superbis Ipsa suâ per se sponte Omnia Dis agere expers So that Lucretius does not without just Cause erect a Triumphal Arch or Monument to Epicurus for this Conquest or Victory of his obtained over the Deity and Religion in this manner Humana ante oculos foedè quum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Relligione Quae caput à Coeli regionibus ostendebat Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans Primùm Graius homo mortales tendere contrà Est oculos ausus primúsque obsistere contrà Quem nec fama Deûm nec fulmina nec minitanti Murmure compressit coelum c. XXI That it is also the Interess of Civil Sovereigns and of all Common-wealths that there should neither be Deity nor Religion the Democritick Atheists would perswade in this manner A Body Politick or Common-wealth is made up of parts that are all naturally Dissociated from one another by reason of that Principle of private Self-love who therefore can be no otherwise held together than by Fear Now if there be any greater Fear than the Fear of the Leviathan and Civil Representative the whole Structure and Machin of this great Coloss must needs fall a-pieces and tumble down The Civil Sovereign reigns only in Fear wherefore unlese his Fear be the King and Sovereign of all Fears his Empire and Dominion ceases But as the Rod of Moses devoured the Rods of the Magicians so certainly will the fear of an omnipotent Deity that can punish with eternal Torments after Death quite swallow up and devour that comparatively Petty Fear of Civil Sovereigns and consequently destroy the Being of Commonwealths which have no Foundation in Nature but are mere Artificial Things made by the Enchantment and Magical Art of Policy Wherefore it is well observed by a Modern Writer That men ought not to suffer themselves to be abused by the Doctrine of Separated Essences and Incorporeal Substances such as God and the Soul built upon the vain Philosophy of Aristotle that would fright men from obeying the Laws of their Country with Empty Names as of Hell Damnation Fire and Brimstone as men fright Birds from the Corn with an empty Hat Dublet and a crooked Stick And again If the fear of Spirits the chief of which is the Deity were taken away men would be much more fitted than they are for Civil Obedience Moreover the Power of Civil Sovereigns is perfectly Indivisible 't is either All or Nothing it must be Absolute and Infinite or else 't is none at all now it cannot be so if there be any other Power equal to it to share with it much less if there be any Superiour as that of the Deity to check it and controul it Wherefore the Deity must of Necessity be removed and displaced to make room for the Leviathan to spread himself in Lastly 'T is perfectly inconsistent with the Nature of a Body Politick that there should be any Private Judgment of Good or Evil Lawful or Vnlawful Just or Vnjust allowed but Conscience which Theism and Religion introduces is Private Judgment concerning Good
of One God Fictitiously Personated and Deified as the Pagans in Eusebius apologize for themselves that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie nothing but the Invisible Powers of that God which is over all Nevertheless because those Several Powers of the Supreme God were not supposed to be all executed immediately by himself but by certain other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subservient Ministers under him appointed to preside over the Several Things of Nature Parts of the World and Affairs of Mankind commonly called Demons therefore were those Gods sometimes taken also for such Subservient Spirits or Demons collectively as perhaps in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When will Zephyrus or the West-wind blow When it seemeth good to himself or to Aeolus for God hath not made thee Steward of the Winds but Aeolus But for the fuller clearing of the whole Pagan Theology and especially this one Point thereof that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in great part nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Polytheism or Multiplicity of Gods nothing but the Polyonymy of One God or his being called by Many Personal Proper Names Two Things are here requisite to be further taken notice of First that according to the Pagan Theology God was conceived to be Diffused throughout the whole World to Permeate and Pervade all things to Exist in all things and Intimately to Act all things Thus we observed before out of Horus Apollo that the Egyptian Theologers conceived of God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit pervading the whole World as likewise they concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Nothing at all Consisted without God Which same Theology was Universally entertained also amongst the Greeks For Thus Diogenes the Cynick in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are full of him And Aristotle or the Writer De Plantis makes God not only to comprehend the whole world but also to be an Inward Principle of Life in Animals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is the Principle in the Life or Soul of Animals certainly no other than that Noble Animal or Living Being that encompasses and surrounds the whole Heaven the Sun the Stars and the Planets Sextus Empiricus thus represents the sence of Pythagoras Empedocles and all the Italick Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we men have not only a conjunction amongst our selves with one another but also with the Gods above us and with Brute Animals below us because there is One Spirit which like a Soul pervades the whole World and unites all the parts thereof together Clemens Alexandrinus writeth thus of the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They affirm that God doth Pervade all the Matter of the Vniverse and even the most vile parts thereof which that Father seems to dislike as also did Tertullian when he represented their Doctrine thus Stotci volunt Deum sic per Materiam decucurrisse quomodo Mel per Favos the Stoicks will have God so to run through the Matter as the Honey doth the Combs Strabo testifies of the ancient Indian Brachmans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in many things they Philosophized after the Greekish manner as when they affirm that the World had a beginning and that it would be Corrupted and that the Maker and Governour thereof Pervades the whole of it The Latins also fully agreed with the Greeks in this For though Seneca somewhere propounds this Question Vtrum Extrinsecus operi suo Circumfusus sit Deus an toti inditus Whether God be only extrinsically circumfused about his work the World or inwardly insinuating do Pervade it all yet himself elsewhere answers it when he calls God Divinum Spiritum per omnia maxima ac minima aequali intentione diffusum A Divine Spirit Diffused through all things whether Smallest or Greatest with equal intention God in Quintilians Theology is Spiritus omnibus partibus Immistus and Ille fusus per omnes rerum Naturae partes Spiritus a Spirit which insinuates it self into and is Mingled with all the parts of the world And that Spirit which is diffused through all the parts of Nature Apuleius likewise affirmeth Deum omnia permeare That God doth permeate all things and that Nulla res est tam praestantibus viribus quae viduata Dei auxilio sui natura contenta sit There is nothing so excellent or powerful as that it could be content with its own Nature alone void of the Divine Aid or Influence and again Dei Praesentiam non jam cogitatio sola sed Oculi aures sensibilis Substantia comprehendit That God is not only present to our Cogitation but also to our very eyes and ears in all these sensible things Servius agreeably with this doctrine of the Ancient Pagans determineth that Nulla Pars Elementi sine Deo est That there is no part of the Elements devoid of God And that the Poets fully closed with the same Theology is evident from those known passages of theirs Jovis omnia plena and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. All the things of Nature and Parts of the world are full of God as also from this of Virgil Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum Lastly we shall observe that both Plato and Anaxagoras who neither of them Confounded God with the World but kept them both distinct and affirmed God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmingled with any thing nevertheless concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did order and govern all things passing through and pervading all things which is the very same with that Doctrine of Christian Theologers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God permeates and passes through all things Vnmixedly Which Plato also there in his Cratylus plainly making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Name for God etymologizeth it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. passing thorough all things and thereupon gives us the best account of Heraclitus his Theosophy that is any where extant if not rather a Fragment of Heraclitus his own in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who affirm the Vniverse to be in constant motion suppose a great part thereof to do nothing else but move and change but that there is something which Passes through and Pervades this whole Vniverse by which all those things that are made are made and that this is both the Most Swift and Most subtil thing for it could not otherwise pass through all things were it not so Subtil that nothing could keep it out or hinder it and it must be most swift that it may use all things as if they stood still that so nothing might scape it Since therefore this doth preside over and Order all things Permeating and Passing through them it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Letter Cappa being only taken in for the more handsom pronunciation Here we have therefore Heraclitus
as these there was an innumerable company amongst the Pagans And in their Civil Theology they were wont to be considered as certain Minds or Spirits appointed by the Supreme God to preside over the Affections fo Things They supposing that God whom they called the Best and the Greatest did not immediately himself take care of every thing since that must needs be a distraction to him and a hinderance of his happinessâ— but that he had as a King many He and She-Ministers under him which had their several offices assigned to them Thus Justice which was called also Astrea and Themis was by them thought to preside over all those actions in which Justice was concerned And Comus over all Revellings and the like Which Gods if considered after this manner will no otherwise differ from Angels good and bad than only in this that these Latter are Beings really created by God but the former the Figments of men only they according to the number of Affections that have any greater force in them devizing and imagining certain Minds to preside over each of them And the vulgar might therefore be the more easily led into this perswasion by their Priests because it seemed reasonable to them that that Supreme Mind who is the King of all the Gods should have many other Minds as his subservient Ministers under him both to free him from Solicitous Care and also to add to his Grandeur and Majesty And such was the Doctrine of the Civil Theology Where though Vossius speak Particularly of that kind of Pagan Gods which were nothing but Affections and Accidents Deified which no man in his wits could possibly suppose to be themselves True and Proper Gods they having no Subsistence of their own That these by the generality of the Vulgar Pagans were conceived to be so many Created Minds or Spirits appointed by the Supreme God to preside as his Ministers over those several Affections of Substances yet does he plainly imply the same of all those other Political Gods of these Pagans likewise that they were not look'd upon by them as so many Vnmade Self-existent and Independent Beings but only as Inferiour Minds or Spirits created by the Supreme God and by him appointed to preside over the Several Parts of the World and Things of Nature and having their Several Offices assigned to them Wherefore as to the main We and Vossius are now well agreed viz. That the ancient Pagans asserted no such thing as a Multitude of Independent Deities so that there only remain some Particular Differences of smaller moment betwixt us Our selves have before observed that Aeolus was probably taken by Epictetus in Arrianus not indeed for One but for Many Created Ministers of the Supreme God or Demons Collectively appointed by him to preside over the Winds in all the several Parts of the World And the Pagans in St. Austin seem to interpret those Deified Accidents and Things of Nature after the same manner as the Names of certain Unknown Gods or Demons one or more that were appointed to preside over them respectively or to dispense the same Quoniam sciebant Majores nostri nemini talia nisi aliquo Deo largiente concedi quorum Deorum nomina non inveniebant earum rerum nominibus appellabant Deos quas ab iis sentiebant dari aliqua vocabula inde flâ—ctentes sicut à Bello Bellonam nuncupaverunt non Bellum sicut à cunis Cuninam non Cunam sicut à segetibus Segetiam non Segetem sicuâ— Ã Pomis Pomonam non Pomum sicut à bobus Bobonam non Bovem Aut certè nulla vocabuli declinatione sicut res ipsae nominantur ut Pecunia dicta est Dea quae dat pecuniam non omninò pecunia Dea ipsa puâ—ata Ita Virtus quae dat virtutem Honor qui honorem Concordia quae concordiam Victoria quae victoriam dat Ita inquiunt cum Felicitas Dea dicitur non ipsa quae datur sed Numen illud attenditur à quo Felicitas datur Because our Forefathers knew well that these things do not happen to any without the special Gift and Favour of some God therefore were those Gods whose names they knew not called from the names of those very things themselves which they perceived to be bestowed by them there being only a little Alteration made in them as when the God that causeth War was called not Bellum but Bellona the God which presideth over Infants Cradles not Cuna but Cunina that which giveth Corn Segetia and that which affordeth apples Pomona c. But at other times this was done without any Declension of the Word at all they calling both the Thing and the God which is the Bestower of it by one and the self same name As Pecunia doth not only signifie Money but also the Goddess which giveth Money Virtus the Goddess which giveth Virtue Honor the God that bestoweth honour Concordia the Goddess that causeth Concord Victory the Goddess which affordeth Victory So also when Felicity is called a Goddess by it is not meant that thing which is given but that Divine Power from whence it is given Here I say the Pagans may seem to have understood by those Deified Things of Nature certain Inferiour Gods or Demons One or More the Ministers of the Supreme God appointed by him to preside over those several Things respectively or to dispense the same Neither can we deny but that in so much ignorance and diversity of Opinions as there was amongst the Pagans some might possibly understand those Political Gods and Deified Things also after the way of Vossius for so many Single Minds or Spirits appointed to preside over those Several Things respectively throughout the whole World and nothing else Nevertheless it seemeth not at all probable that this should be the General Opinion amongst the Civilized Pagans that all those Gods of theirs were so many Single Created Minds or Spirits each of them appointed to preside over some One certain thing every where throughout the Whole World and nothing else As for Example that the Goddess Victory was One Single Created She-Spirit appointed to bestow Victory to whosoever at any time enjoyed it in all parts of the World and so that the Goddess Justice should be such another Single Mind or Spirit created to dispence Justice every where and meddle with nothing else And the like of all those other Accidental Things or Affections Deified as Virtue Honour Concord Felicity c. And Lactantius Firmianus taking notice of that Profession of the Pagans to worship nothing but One Supreme God and his Subservient Ministers Generated or created by him according to that of Seneca in his Exhortations Genuisse Regni sui Ministros Deum that the Supreme God had generated other Inferiour Ministers of his Kingdom under him which were called by them also Gods plainly denies all the Pagan Gods save One to be the Created Ministers of that One Supreme he making this Reply Verum hi
too in another sence that is Produced and Derived by way of Emanation from that One who is every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnderived and Independent upon any other Cause And thus Proclus Universally pronounces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Gods owe their Being Gods to the First God He adding that he is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fountain of the Godhead Wherefore the Many Gods of the Intelligent Pagans were derived from One God and but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch somewhere calls them The Subservient Powers or Ministers of the One Supreme Vnmade Deity Which as hath been before observed was frequently called by these Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in way of Eminency as likewise were those other Inferiour or Generated Gods in way of distinction from him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gods And accordingly the sence of Celsus is thus represented in Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Gods were the Makers of the Bodies of all Animals the Souls of them only being the Work of God Moreover these Inferiour Gods are styled by Ammianus Marcellinus Substantiales Potestates Substantial Powers probably in way of distinction from those other Pagan Gods that were not Substantial but only so many Names and Notions of the One Supreme God or his Powers severally Personated and Deified Which Substantial Powers of Am. Marcellinus as Divination and Prophecy was by their means imparted to men were all said to be subject to that One Sovereign Deity called Themis whom saith he the ancient Theologers seated In Cubili Solio Jovis in the Bed-chamber and Throne of Jupiter as indeed some of the Poets have made her to be the wife of Jupiter and others his Sister And Anaxarchus in Plutarch styles her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter's Assesor though that Philosopher abused the Fable and grosly depraved the meaning of it as if it signified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That whatsoever is done by the Sovereign Power is therefore Just and Right whereas the True Moral tâ—ereof was this That Justice or Righteousness sits in Counsel with God and in his Mind and Will prescribes Laws to Nature and the whole World Themis therefore was another Name of God amongst the 〈◊〉 according to his Universal Confideration besides those befoâ—â— mentioned and when Plato in his Book of Laws would have men to swear by the Names of those Three Gods Jupiter Apollo and Themis these were but so many several Partial Notions of the One Supreme Deity the meaning thereof being no other than this as Pighius observeth Timore Divino Veritate ipsa ac Aequitate sanciri debere Juramenta In Jove enim Summi Numinis Potestatem Falsi ac Perjurii Vindicem in Apolline Veritatis Lumen in Themide Jus Fas atque Licitum esse intelligitur Est enim Themis ipsa Lex aeterna atque Vniversalis Mundo ac Naturae praescripta or according to Cicero Ratio recta Summi Jovis And Ficinus in his Commentary as to the main agreeth herewith So that when the Pagan Theologers affirmed the Numen of Themis to preside over the Spirits of the Elements and all those other Substantial Powers from whom Divination was participated to men their meaning therein was clearly no other that this That there was One Supreme Deity ruling over all the other Gods and that the Divine Mind which prescribeth Laws to Nature and the whole World and conteins all the Fatal Decrees in it according to the Evolution of which things come to pass in the World was the Fountain from whence all Divination proceeded as these Secrets were more or less imparted from thence to those Inferiour Created Spirits The Philosophy of the Pagan Theology amongst the Greeks was plainly no other than this That there is One Vnmade Self-existent Deity the Original of all and that there are many other Substantial Powers or Spirits created by it as the Ministers of its Providence in the World but there was much of Poetry or Poetick Phancy intermingled with this Philosophy as the Flourish to it to make up their Pagan Theology Thus as hath been before declared the Pagans held both One God and Many Gods in different sences One Vnmade Self-existent Deity and Many Generated or Created Gods Onatus the Pythagorean declaring that they who asserted one only God and not Many Vnderstood not what the Dignity and Majesty of the Divine Transcendency consisted in namely in ruling over Gods and Plotinus conceiving that the Supreme God was most of all Glorified not by being Contracted into One but by having Multitudes of Gods Derived from him and Dependent on him and that the Honour done to them redounded unto him Where there are Two Things to be distinguished First that according to the Pagan Theists God was no Solitary Being but that there were Multitudes of Gods or Substantial Powers and Living Understanding Natures Superiour to men which were neither Self-existent nor yet Generated out of Matter but all Generated or Created from One Supreme Secondly that forasmuch as these were all supposed to have some Influence more or less upon the Government of the World and the Affairs of Mankind they were therefore all of them conceived to be the due Objects of mens Religious Worship Adoration and Invocation and accordingly was the Pagan Devotion scattered amongst them all Nor were the Gods of the Oriental Pagans neither meer Dead Statues and Images as some would conclude from the Scripture but Living Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men though worshipped in Images according to that Reply of the Chaldeans in Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar when he required them to tell his Dream There is none other that can shew this thing before the King Except Those Gods whose Dwelling is not with Flesh that is The Immortal Gods or who are exalted above the Condition of Humane Frailty Though some conceive that these words are to be understood of a Peculiar sort of Gods namely that this was such a thing as could not be done by those Demons and Lower Aerial Gods which frequently converse with men but was reserved to a Higher Rank of Gods who are above humane converse Now as to the Former of these Two Things that God is no Solitary Being but that there are Multitudes of Understanding Beings Superiour to Men the Creatures and Ministers of One Supreme God the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament fully agree with the Pagans herein Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him and Ye are come to an innumerable Company of Angels But the Latter of them That Religious Worship and Invocation doth of right belong to these Created Spirits is constantly denied and condemned in these Writings that Being a thing peculiarly reserved to that one God who was the Creator of Heaven and Earth And thus is that Prophecy of Jeremy to be understood expressed in the Chalday Tongue
Power or Agent Invisible Moreover it is concluded that from the same Originals sprang not only that vulgar opinion of Inferiour Ghosts and Spirits also subservient to the Supreme Deity as the Great Ghost of the whole World Apparitions being nothing but mens own Dreams and Phancies taken by them for Sensations but also mens taking things Casual for Prognosticks and their being so Superstitiously addicted to Omens and Portents Oracles and Divinations and Prophecies this proceeding likewise from the same Phantastick Supposition that the things of the World are disposed of not by Nature but by some Vnderstanding and Intending Agent or Person But lest these Two forementioned Accounts of that Phaenomenon of Religion and the Belief of a Deity so Epidemical to Mankind should yet seem insufficient the Atheists will superadd a Third to them from the Fiction and Imposture of Civil Soveraigns Crafty Law-makers and Designing Politicians Who perceiving a great advantage to be made from the Belief of a God and Religion for the better keeping of men in Obedience and Subjection to themselves and in Peace and Civil Society with one another when they are perswaded that besides the Punishments appointed by Laws which can only take place upon open and convicted Transgressors and are often eluded and avoided there are other Punishments that will be inflicted even upon the secret violators of them both in this Life and after Death by a Divine Invisible and Irresistible Hand have thereupon Dextrously laid hold of mens Fear and Ignorance and cherished those Seeds of Religion in them being the Infirmities of their Nature and further confirmed their Belief of Ghosts and Spirits Miracles and Prodigies Oracles and Divinations by Tales or Fables publickly allowed and recommended According to that Definition of Religion given by a Modern Writer Fear of Power Invisible Feigned by the Mind or Imagined from Tales publickly allowed Religion not allowed Superstition And that Religion thus Nursed up by Politicians might be every way Compliant with and Obsequious to their Designs and no way Refractory to the same it hath been their great care to perswade the People that their Laws were not meerly their own Inventions but that themselves were only the Interpreters of the Gods therein and that the same things were really displeasing to the Gods which were forbidden by them God ruling over the world no otherwise than in them as his Vicegerents according to that Assertion of a Late Writer Deum nullum Regnum in homines habere nisi per eos qui Imperium tenent that God Reigneth over men only in the Civil Soveraigns This is therefore another Atheistick Account of Religions so generally prevailing in the world from its being a fit Engine of State and Politicians generally looking upon it as an Arcanum Imperii a Mystery of Government to possess the Minds of the People with the Belief of a God and to keep them busily employed in the exercises of Religion thereby to render them the more Tame and Gentle apt to Obedience Subjection Peace and Civil Society Neither is all this the meer Invention of Modern Atheists but indeed the old Atheistick Cabal as may appear partly from that known Passage of the Poet That the Gods were first made by Fear and from Lucretius his so fequently insisting upon the same according to the mind of Epicurus For in his First Book he makes Terrorem animi Tenebras Terrour of Mind and Darkness the Chief Causes of Theism and in his Sixth he further pursues the same Grounds especially the Latter of them after this manner Caetera quae fieri in Terris Coeloque tuentur Mortales pavidis quom pendent mentibu ' saepe Efficiunt animos humiles formidine Divûm Depressosque premunt ad terram proptereà quod IGNORANTIA CAVSARVM conferre Deorum Cogit ad Imperium res concedere Regnum Quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre Possunt haec fieri Divino Numine rentur To this Sence Mortals when with Trembling Minds they behold the Objects both of Heaven and Earth they become depressed and sunk down under the Fear of the Gods Ignorance of Causes setting up the Reign and Empire of the Gods For when men can find no Natural Causes of these things they suppose them presently to have been done by a Divine Power And this Ignorance of Causes is also elsewhere insisted upon by the same Poet as the chief Source of Religion or the Belief of a God Praeterea coeli rationes ordine certo Et varia annorum cernebant tempora verti Nec poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere causis Ergo PERFVGIVM sibi habebant omnia Divis Tradere ipsorum nutu facere omnia flecti Moreover when a Modern Writer declares the Opinion of Ghosts to be one of those things in which consisteth the Natural Seeds of Religion As also that this Opinion proceedeth from the Ignorance how to distinguish Dreams and other strong Phancies from Vision and Sense he seemeth herein to have trod likewise in the Footsteps of Lucretius giving not obscurely the same Account of Religion in his Fifth Book Nunc quae causa Deûm per magnas Numina gentes Pervolgarit ararum compleverit Vrbes c. Non ita difficile est rationem reddere Verbis Quippe etenim jam tum Divûm mortalia Secla Egregias animo facies vigilante videbant Et magis in Somnis mirando corporis auctu His igitur Sensum tribuebant c. That is How the Noise of the Gods came thus to ring over the whole world and to fill all places with Temples and Altars is not a thing very difficult to give an account of it proceeding first from mens Fearful Dreams and their Phantasms when awake taken by them for Visions and Sensations Whereupon they attributed not only Sense to these things as really Existing but also Immortality and great Power For though this were properly an Account only of those Inferiour and Plebeian Gods called Demons and Genii yet was it supposed that the belief of these things did easily dispose the minds of men also to the Perswasion of One Supreme Omnipotent Deity over all Lastly That the Ancient Atheists as well as the Modern pretended the Opinion of a God and Religion to have been a Political Invention is frequently declared in the writings of the Pagans as in this of Cicero Ii qui dixerunt totam de Diis Immortalibus Opinionem sictam esse ab hominibus Sapientibus Reipublicae causa ut quos Ratio non posset eos ad Officium Religio duceret nonne omnem Religionem sunditus sustulerunt They who affirmed the whole opinion of the Gods to have been feigned by wise men for the sake of the Commonwealth that so Religion might engage those to their Duty whom Reason could not did they not utterly destroy all Religion And the sence of the Ancicient Atheists is thus represented by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They First of all affirm that
is some confirmation of the Truth of Christianity the Scripture insisting so much upon these Evil Demons or Devils and declaring it to be one design of our Saviour Christ's coming into the World to oppose these Confederate Powers of the Kingdom of Darkness and to rescue mankind from the Thraldom and Bondage thereof As for Wizards and Magicians Persons who associate and confederate themselves in a peculiar manner with these Evil Spirits for the gratification of their own Revenge Lust Ambition and other Passions besides the Scriptures there hath been so full an attestation given to them by persons unconcerned in all Ages that those our so confident Exploders of them in this present Age can hardly escape the suspicion of having some Hankring towards Atheism But as for the Demoniacks and Energumeni It hath been much wondred that there should be so many of them in our Saviour's time and hardly any or none in this present Age of ours Certain it is from the Writings of Josephus in sundry places that the Pharisaick Jews were then generally possessed with an Opinion of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demoniacks men Possessed with Devils or Infested by them And that this was not a meer Phrase or Form of Speech only amongst them for persons very Ill-affected in their Bodies may appear from hence that Josephus declares it as his opinion concerning the Demons or Devils that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirits or Souls of wicked men deceased getting into the Bodies of the Living From hence it was that Jews in our Saviour's time were not at all Surprised with his casting out of Devils it being usual for them also then to Exorcise the same an Art which they pretended to have learn'd from Solomon Of whom thus Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also taught Solomon an Art against Demons and Devils for the benefit and Cure of men Who composed certain Incantations by which diseases are cured and left forms of exorcisms whereby Devils are expelled and driven away Which Method of curing prevails much amongst us at this very day Notwithstanding which we think it not at all probable what a late Atheistick Writer hath asserted that the heads of the Jews were then all of them so full of Demons and Devils that they generally took all manner of Bodily Diseases such as Feavers and Agues and Dumbness and Deafness for Devils Though we grant that this very thing was imputed by Plotinus afterward to the Gnosticks that they supposed all Diseases to be Devils and therefore not to be cured by Physick but expelled by Words or Charms Thus he En. 2. Lib. 9. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they affirm Diseases to be Demons or Devils and pretend that they can expel them by words undertaking to do the same they hereby indeed render themselves considerable to the vulgar who are wont not a little to admire the powers of Magicians But they will not be able to perswade wise men that Diseases have no natural Causes as from Repletion or Inanition or Putrefaction or the like Which is a thing manifest from their cure they being oftentimes removed by purgation and bleeding and abstinence Vnless perhaps these men will say that the Devil is by this means Starved and made to Pine away Nor can we think that the Jews in our Saviour's time either supposed all Mad-men to be Demoniacks or all Demoniacks Mad-men though this latter seems to be asserted by an Eminent Writer of our own we reading of Devils cast out from others besides Mad-men and of a woman which had a Spirit of Infirmity only and was bowed together and could not lift up her self which is said by our Saviour Christ to have been bound by Satan Wherefore the sense of the Jews formerly seems to have been this that when there was any unusual and extraordinary Symptoms in any bodily Distemper but especially that of Madness this being look'd upon something more than Natural was imputed by them to the Possession or Infestation of some Devil Neither was this proper to the Jews only at that time to suppose Evil Demons to be the Causes of such bodily diseases as had extraordinary Symptoms and especially Madness but the Greeks and other Gentiles also were embued with the same Perswasion as appeareth from Apollonius Tyanaeus his curing a Laughing Demoniack at Athens he ejecting that Evil Spirit by threats and menaces who is said at his departure to have tumbled down a Royal Porch in the City with great noise As also from his freeing the City of Ephesus from the Plague by stoning an old Ragged Beggar said by Apollonius to have been the Plague which appeared to be a Demon by his changing himself into the form of a Shagged Dog But that there is some Truth in this Opinion and that at this very day Evil Spirits or Demons do sometimes really Act upon the Bodies of men and either Inflict or Augment bodily Distempers and Diseases hath been the Judgment of two very experienced Physicians Sennertus and Fernelius The Former in his Book De Mania Lib. 1. cap. 15. writing thus Etsi sine ulla Corporis Morbosa Dispositione Deo permittente hominem Obsidere Occupare Daemon possi◠tamen quandoque Morbis praecipuè Melancholicis sese immiscet Daemon forsan frequentius hoc accidit quam saepè creditur Although the Devil may by Divine permission Possess men without any Morbid Disposition yet doth he usually intermingle himself with Bodily Diseases and especially those of Melancholy and perhaps this cometh to pass ostner than is commonly believed or suspected The other in his De Abditis rerum Causis where having attributed real Effects upon the bodies of men to Witchcraft and Enchantment he addeth Neque solum morbos verum etiam Daemonas scelerati homines in corpora immittunt Hi quidem visuntur Furoris quadam specie distorti hoc uno tamen à Simplici Furore distant quod summè ardua obloquantur praeterita occulta renuntient assidentiúmque arcana reserent Neither do these wicked Magicians only inflict Diseases upon mens Bodies but also send Devils into them By means whereof they appear distorted with a kind of fury and madness which yet differs from a Simple Madness or the Disease so called in this that they speak of very high and difficult matters declare things past unknown and discover the Secrets of those that sit by Of which he subjoyns two Notable Instances of Persons well known to himself that were plainly Demoniacal Possessed or Acted by an Evil Demon one whereof shall be afterwards mentioned But when Maniacal Persons do not only discover Secrets and declare things Past but Future also besides this speak in Languages which they had never learnt this puts it out of all doubt and question that they are not meer Mad men or Maniaci but Demoniacks or Energumeni And that since the time of our Saviour Christ there have been often
said They have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him and whosoever will not hearken to the words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Which is all one as if he should have said I will no more speak to them with Thunder and Lightning nor reveal my will with a Terrible Voyce out of Flaming Fire but the next great Manifestation of my self or further Revelation of my Will shall be by a Prophet from amongst their own Brethren I putting my words into his mouth and speaking to them by him Whose words they shall be as much obliged to hearken to as if I had spoken them as before from the top of the Fiery Mount And that they may have no Colour for their Disbelieving this great Prophet especially or their disobeying of him I plainly declare that whosoever cometh in my Name and does True and Real Miracles shall be acknowledged undoubtedly for a True Prophet sent by me and accordingly Believed and Obeyed and none rejected under the Notion of False Prophets but only such as either do not Real Miracles or else if they do come in the name of Other Gods or Exhort to Idolatry Nevertheless our Saviour Christ wrought other Miracles also of a higher Nature by the Immediate Power of God Almighty himself as for example when before himself he raised Lazarus who had been dead four days to life since it cannot be conceived to be in the Power of Created Spirits whether Bad or Good when ever they please to bring back the Souls of men deceased to their Bodies again or change the Laws of Nature and Fate However it must not be thought that God will ever set this Seal of his to a Lye or that which is plainly contrary to the Light and Law of Nature The conclusion is that though all Miracles promiscuously do not immediatly prove the Existence of a God nor Confirm a Prophet or whatsoever Doctrine yet do they all of them evince that there is a Rank of Invisible Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men which the Atheists commonly deny And we read of some such Miracles also as could not be wrought but by a Power Perfectly Super Natural or by God Almighty himself But to deny and disbelieve all Miracles is either to deny all Certainty of Sense which would be indeed to make Sensation it self Miraculous or else monstrously and unreasonably to derogate from Humane Testimonies and History The Jews would never have so stifly and pertinaciously adhered to the Ceremonial Law of Moses had they not all along believed it to have been unquestionably confirmed by Miracles and that the Gentiles should at first have entertained the Faith of Christ without Miracles would it self have been The Greatest of Miracles The Last Extraordinary Phaenomenon proposed was that of Divination Oracles Prophecies or Predictions of Future Events otherwise Unforeknowable to men which either Evince a God or at least that there are Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men For if there be Presention or Foreknowledge of such Future Events as are to Humane Understanding alone altogether Unforeknowable then is it certain that there is some more Perfect Vnderstanding or Knowledge in the World than that of men And thus is that Maxim of the Ancient Pagan Theists in the Genuine and proper sense thereof unquestionably true Si Divinatio est Dii sunt If there be Divination or Presention of Future Events Vndiscoverable by men then are there Gods which in their Language was no more than to say Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men Wherefore we must here distinguish of Oracles and Predictions after the same manner as we did before of Mirâ—â—les that they may be of Two Kinds First such as might proceed only from the Natural Presaging Power of Created Spirits Superiour to men whether called Angels or Demons For these being supposed to have not only clearer understandings than men and a greater insight into Nature but also be reason of their Agility and Invisibility opportunity of knowing things remotely distant and of being privy to mens Secret Machinations and Consultations it is easily conceivable that many Future Events nigh at hand which cannot be foreknown by men may be probably at least foreseen by them and that without any Miraculous Divine Revelation their Causes being already in Being As men learned in Astronomy can foretel Eclipses of the Sun and Moon which to the Vulgar are altogether Unforeknowable And as Princes or States-men that are furnished with great Intelligence Foreign and Domestick can presage more of War and Peace either at home or abroad and of the Events of Kingdoms than Ignorant Plebeians And such were those Predictions which Democritus though otherwise much addicted to Atheism allowed of Cicero Writing thus of him Plurimis Locis gravis auct or Democritus Praesensionem rerum futurarum comprobat Democritus a grave Writer doth in many places approve of the Presention of Future Events The reason whereof was because he supposed certain Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men called by him Idols which having a larger Comprehension of things and other advantages of Knowledge could therefore foretel many Future Events that men were ignorant of And though perhaps it may be thought that Democritus would not have entertained this Opinion of the Foreknowledge of Humane Events had he not asserted the Necessity of all humane Actions and Volitions but held Liberty of Will as Epicurus afterwards did as if this were Inconsistent with all manner of Presage and Probable or Conjectural Foreknowledge yet is it certain that there is not so much Contingency in all Humane Actions by reason of this Liberty of Will as heretofore was by Epicurus and still is by many supposed it being plain that men act according to an Appearance of Good and that in many cases and circumstances it may be Foreknown without any Divine Revelation what such or such persons would do As for example that a voluptuous Person having a strong Temptation to satisfie his Sensual Appetite and that without incurring any inconvenience of shame or punishment would readily close with the same Besides which such Invisible Spirits as Angels or Demons may sometimes Predict also what themselves Cause and Effect Secondly there is another Sort of Predictions of Future Events which cannot be imputed to the Natural Presaging Faculty of any such Created Spirits but only to the Supernatural Prescience of God Almighty or a Being Infinitely Perfect As when Events remotely distant in time and of which there are yet no immediate Causes actually in Being which also depend upon many circumstances and a long Series of things any one of which being otherwise would alter the case as likewise upon much Uncertainty of Humane Volitions which are not always necessarily linked and concatenated with what goes before but often loose and free
and Contingency non necesse fuisse Cypselum regnare Corinthi quanquam id Millesimo antè anno Apollinis Oraculo editum esset that is was not Necessary Cypselus the Tyrant should reign at Corinth though that were a thing Predicted by Apollo 's Oracle a thousand years before As also this recorded by Varro of Vectius Valens an Augur in the Time of Romulus who when Rome was a building from the flying of Twelve Vultures presaged that the continuance of that City would be for Twelve Hundred years which seems to have been accordingly fulfilled in the year of our Lord Four hundred fifty and five immediatly after the death of the Third Valentinian whom some make to be the last Real Emperour of the West or Rome when Gensericus the Vandal took the City the second time and fired it But above all that of the Sibyls of whose Prophecies such things are recorded by Pagan Writers as makes it very suspicious that they did foretel the coming of our Saviour Christ and the times of Christianity but were these and the like Pagan Prophecies Real then must they needs have had some higher Original than the Natural Presaging Faculty of their Demons especially those of the Sibyls who for ought we know might be as well assisted Super-Naturally to predict our Saviour Christ amongst the Pagans in the West as Balaam was in the East But here the Scripture triumpheth over Paganism and all its Oracles and Divinations there being contained in it so many unquestionable Predictions of Events to follow a long time after and such as can be imputed to nothing but the Supernatural Foreknowledge and Omniscience of God Almighty As for example those concerning the Messiah or our Saviour Christ delivered by Jacob Moses David Isaias Jeremy Daniel and most of the Prophets foretelling sundry particular circumstances of his coming and that grand Event which followed after of the Gentiles or Pagans so general Reception and Entertainment of Christianity that is the Belief of the Messiah promised to the Jews together with the shaking off of their Gods and Idols Amongst which Scripture Prophecies concerning our Saviour Christ we must needs reckon for one and none of the least considerable neither that of Daniel's Weeks or of Four hundred and ninety years to commence from the Going forth of the Word or the Decree made by Artaxerxes the Son of Xerxes in the seventh year of his Reign for the return of the People of Israel Priests and Levites to Jerusalem and to terminate in the Death of the Messiah and the Preaching of the Gospel to the Jews only though we are not ignorant how some learned men both of former and latter times have stretched their wits they sometimes using no small violence to divert this Prophecy another way For that these Prophecies concerning our Saviour Christ could have no other Original than the immediate Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty is Evident from the thing it self it being such as depended on no Natural Causes much less upon those Constellations of the Astrological Atheists but only upon his own Secret Will and Counsel But besides these Prophecies concerning our Saviour Christ there are others contained in the Scripture concerning the Fates and Successions of the chief Kingdoms Empires and Polities of the World as of the Rise of the Persian Monarchy of its Fall and Conquest by the Macedonean Alexander of the Quadripartite Division of this Greekish Empire after Alexander's death of the Succession of the Seleucidae and Lagidae a Prophetick History so agreeable with the Events that it was by Porphyrius pretended to have been written after them and lastly of the Rise and Continuance of the Roman Empire For notwithstanding the endeavours of some to pervert all those Scripture Prophecies that extend to the present times it is clearly demonstrable that this was Daniel's Fourth Ten horned Beast or the Legs and Toes of Nebuchadnezar's Statue that Fourth Empire strong as Iron which came at length to be broken or divided into Ten or many Principalities called in the Prophetick Language and according to the Eichon Hornes amongst whom was to start up another Horn with Eyes speaking great words against the most High and making War with the Saints and prevailing against them for a Time Times and Half a Time Which Prophecy of Daniels is the Ground-work of St. John's Apocalypse it being there further insisted upon filled up and enlarged with the addition of several particulars so that both Daniel and John have each of them from their respective ages set down a Prophetick Calendar of Times in a continued Series the former more Compendiously and Generally the latter more Copiously and Particularly to the very end of the World And thus do we see plainly that the Scripture-Prophecies Evince a Deity neither can these possibly be imputed by Atheists as other things to mens Fear and Fancy nor yet to the Fiction of Politicians Nor do they only Evince a Deity but confirm Christianity also partly as predicted by them in its several circumstances a grand one whereof was the Gentiles Reception of it and partly as it self predicting Future Events this Spirit of Prophecy being the Testimony of Jesus Both which Scripture-Prophecies Of Christ in the Old Testament and From him in the New are of equal if not greater force to us in this present Age for the Confirmation of our Faith than the Miracles themselves recorded in the Scripture we having now certain knowledge our selves of many of those Events and being no way able to suspect but that the Prophecies were written long before To conclude all these Extraordinary Phaenomena of Apparitions Witchcraft Possessions Miracles and Prophecies do Evince that Spirits Angels or Demons though Invisible to us are no Phancies but Real and Substantial Inhabitants of the World which favours not the Atheistick Hypothesis but some of them as the Higher kind of Miracles and Predictions do also immediatly enforce the acknowledgment of a Deity a Being superiour to Nature which therefore can check and controul it and which comprehending the whole fore-knows the most Remotely distant and Contingent Events And now have we not only fully Answered and Confuted all the Atheistick Pretences against the Idea of God tending to disprove his Existence but also occasionally proposed several Solid and Substantial Arguments for a Deity as That all Successive things the World Motion and Time are in their own Nature absolutely uncapable of an Ante-Eternity and therefore there must of necessity be something else of a Permanent Duration that was Eternal without Beginning That no Atheist according to his Principles can possibly give any account of the Original of his own Soul or Mind That the Phaenomenon of Motion cannot be Salved without an Incorporeal Principle presiding over the whole That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Artificial Regular and Orderly Frame of things together with the Harmony of the whole Demonstrate an Vnderstanding and Intending Cause of the World that Ordered things for Ends and Good
wherein God is Visible to them and again Corporeal in that other Part wherein themselves are Visible to men Moreover Fulgentius writeth concerning Angels in this manner Planè ex Duplici eos esse Substantia asserunt Magni Docti Viri Id est Ex Spiritu Incorporeo quo à Dei contemplatione nunquam recedunt ex Corpore per quod ex tempore hominibus apparent Corpora vero Aetherea id est Ignea eos dicunt habere Daemones vero Corpus Aereum Great and learned men affirm Angels to consist of a Double Substance that is of a Spirit Incorporeal whereby they contemplate God and of a Body whereby they are sometimes Visible to men as also that they have Etherial or Fiery Bodies but Devils Aereal And perhaps this might be the meaning of Joannes Thessalonicensis in that Dialogue of his read and approved of in the Seventh Council and therefore the meaning of that Council it self too when it is thus declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That the Catholick Church acknowledges Angels to be Intellectual but not altogether Incorporeal and Invisible but to have certain Subtle Bodies either Aiery or Fiery For it being there only denied that they were Altogether Incorporeal one would think the meaning should not be that they were Altogether Corporeal nor indeed could such an Opinion be fastened upon the Catholick Church but that they were partly Incorporeal and partly Corporeal this being also sufficient in order to that design which was driven at in that Council However Psellus who was a Curious Enquirer into the Nature of Spirits declares it not only as his own Opinion but also as agreeable to the Sense of the Ancient Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Demoniack or Angelick kind of Beings is not altogether Incorporeal or Bodiless but that they are conjoyned with Bodies or have Cognate Bodies belonging to them Who there also further declares the Difference betwixt the Bodies of Good Angels and of Evil Demons after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angelical Body sendeth forth Rays and Splendours such as would dazle Mortal Eyes and cannot be born by them But the Demoniack Body though it seemeth to have been once such also from Isaias his calling him that fell from Heaven Lucifer yet is it now Dark and Obscure Foul and Squalid and grievous to behold it being deprived of its Cognate Light and Beauty Again the Angelical Body is so devoid of gross Matter that it can pass through any Solid thing it being indeed more Impassible than the Sun-beams for though these can Permeate Pellucid Bodies yet are they hindered by Earthy and Opake and refracted by them whereas the Angelical Body is such as that there is no thing so Imporous or Solid that can resist or exclude it But the Demoniack Bodies though by reason of their Tenuity they commonly escape our sight yet have they notwithstanding Gross Matter in them and are Patible especially those of them which inhabit the Subterraneous places for these are of so Gross a Consistency and Solidity as that they sometimes fall also under Touch and being strucken have a Sense of Pain and are capable of being burnt with Fire To which purpose the Thracian there addeth more afterwards from the Information of Marcus the Monk a person formerly Initiated in the Diabolick Mysteries and of great Curiosity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Demoniack Spirit or Subtle Body being in every part of it capable of Sense does immediately See and Hear and is also Obnoxious to the affections of Touch insomuch that being suddainly divided or cut in two it hath a Sense of Pain as the Solid Bodies of other Animals have it differing from them only in this that those other Bodies being once discontinued are not easily consolidated together again whereas the Demoniack Body being divided is quickly redintegrated by Coalescence as Air or Water Nevertheless it is not without a Sense of Pain at that time when it is thus divided c. Moreover the same Marcus affirmeth the Bodies of these Demons to be Nourished also though in a different manner from ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are some of them Nourished by Inspiration as the Spirit contained in the Nerves and Arteries others by sucking in the adjacent Moisture not as we do by mouths but as Spunges and Testaceous Fishes And now we may venture to conclude that this Opinion of Angels being not meer Abstract Incorporeal Substances and Vnbodied Minds but consisting of Something Incorporeal and Something Corporeal that is of Soul or Spirit and Body Joyned together is not only more agreeable to Reason but hath also had more suffrages amongst the Ancient Fathers and those of greater weight too than either of those Two other Extreams viz. That Angels are meer Bodies and have nothing at all Incorporeal in them or else that they are altogether Incorporeal without any Bodily Indument or Clothing Notwithstanding which this latter Opinion hath indeed prevailed most in these Latter Ages Time being rightly compared to a River which quickly sinks the more Weighty and Solid things and bears up only the Lighter and more Superficial Though there may be other Reasons given for this also as partly because the Aristotelick Philosophy when generally introduced into Christianity brought in its Abstract Intelligences along with it and partly because some Spurious Platonists talking so much of their Henades and Noes their Simple Monads and Immoveable Vnbodied Minds as the Chief of their Generated and Created Gods probably some Christians might have a mind to vie their Angels with them And lastly because Angels are not only called in Scripture Spirits but also by Several of the Ancients said to be Incorporeal whilst this in the mean time was meant only either in respect of that Incorporeal Part Soul or Mind which they supposed to be in them or else of the Tenuity and Subtlety of their Bodies or Vehicles For this account does Psellus give hereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is usual both with Christian Writers and Pagans too to call the Grosser Bodies Corporeal and those which by reason of their Subtlety avoid both our Sight and Touch Incorporeal And before Psellus Joannes Thâ—ssalonicensis in his Dialogue approved in the Seventh Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you find Angels or Demons or Separate Souls called Sometimes Incorporeal you must understand this in respect of the Tenuity of their Bodies only as not consisting of the Grosser Elements nor being so Solid and Antitypous as those which we are now Imprisoned in And before them both Origen in the Proeme of his Peri Archon where citing a passage out of an Ancient Book Intituled The Doctrine of Peter wherein our Saviour Christ is said to have told his Disciples That he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Incorporeal Demon though rejecting the Authority of that Book he thus interprets those words non idem Sensus ex isto
However it is certain that Atheists who maintain the contrary must needs assert that every Thought and whatsoever belongeth to Soul Mind as Knowledge Virtue c. is not only Mentally and Mathematically Divisible so that there may be Half a Third Part or a Quarter of a Thought and the Rest supposed but also Physically Separable or Discerpible together with the Soul wherein it is They must also deny that there is any Internal Energy at all or any other Action besides that Outside Superficial Action of Local Motion and Consequently make all Cogitation nothing but Local Motion or Translation And Lastly they must maintain that no Substance can Co-exist with any other Substance as Soul with Body otherwise than by Juxta-Position only and by Possessing the Pores or filling up the Intervals thereof as a Net with the water And this is the First Answer to the forementioned Atheistick Argument against Incorporeal Substance That though whatsoever is Extended be Body yet Every thing is not Extended but that Life and Mind or Cogitation are an Vnextended Indistant and Indivisible Nature But as we have already intimated There are other Learned Asserters of Incorporeal Substance who lest God and Spirits being thus made Vnextended should quite Vanish into Nothing Answer that Atheistick Argumentation after a different manner by granting to these Atheists that Proposition that whatsoever Is is Extended and what is Vnextended is Nothing but then denying that other of theirs That whatsoever is Extended is Body They asserting Another Extension Specifically Differing from that of Bodies For whereas Corporeal Extension is not only Impenetrable so as that no one Part thereof can Enter into another but also both Mentally and Really Divisible one Part being in its Nature Separable from another they affirm that there is another Incorporeal Extension which is both Penetrable and also Indiscerpible so that no One Part thereof can possibly be Separated from another or the whole and that to such an Incorporeal Extension as this belongeth Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding the Deity having such an Infinite Extension but all Created Spirits a Finite and Limited one which also is in them supposed to be Contractible and Dilatable Now it is not our part here to oppose Theists but Atheists wherefore we shall leave these Two Sorts of Incorporealists to dispute it out friendly amongst themselves and indeed therefore with the more Moderation Equanimity and Toleration of Dissent Mutually because it seemeth that Some are in a manner Fatally Inclined to think one way in this Controversie and Some another And what ever the Truth of the Case be it must be acknowledged that this Latter Hypothesis may be very useful and Serviceable to retain some in Theism who can by no means admit of a Deity or Any thing else Vnextended Though perhaps there will not be wanting others also who would go in a middle way betwixt these Two or Compound them together by supposing the Deity to be indeed altogether Vnextended and all of it Every where but Finite Incorporeals or Created Spirits to have an Vnextended Inside a Life or Mind Diffusing it self into a certain Amplitude of Outward Extension whereby they are Determined to a Place yet so as to be all in every Part thereof which Outward Extension is therefore not to be Accounted Body because Penetrable Contractable and Dilatable and because no one Part thereof is Separable from the rest by the Rushing or Incursion of any Corporeal thing upon them And thus is the Atheists Argument against Incorporeal Substance Answered Two manner of ways First That there Is Something Vnextended and Secondly That If there were none yet must there of necessity be a Substance otherwise Extended than Body is so as to be neither Antitypous nor Discerpible And Our selves would not be Understood here Dogmatically to Assert any thing in this Point save only what all Incorporealists do agree in To wit That besides Body which is Impenetrably and Divisibly Extended there is in Nature another Substance that is both Penetrable of Body and Indiscerpible or which doth not Consist of Parts Separable from one another And that there is at least such a Substance as this is unquestionably manifest from what hath been already declared But the Atheist will in the next place give an Account of the Original of this Errour as He calls it of Incorporeal Substance and Undertake to show from what Mistake it proceeded which is yet another Pretended Confutation thereof Namely that it sprung Partly from the Abuse of Abstract Names and Notions Men making Substances of them and Partly from the Scholastick Essences Distinct from the Things themselves and said to be Eternal From both which Delusions and Dotages together the Atheist conceives that Men have been first of all much Confirmed in the Belief of Ghosts and Spirits Demons and Devils Invisible Beings called by several Names Which Belief had also another Original mens Mistaking their own Phancies for Realities The Chief of all which affrightful Ghosts and Spectres according to these Atheists is the Deity the Oberon or Prince of Fairies and Phancies But then whereas men by their Natural Reason could not conceive otherwise of these Ghosts and Spirits then that they were a kind of Thin Aerial Bodies their Understandings have been so Enchanted by these Abstract Names which are indeed the Names of Nothing and those Separate Essences and Quiddities of Scholasticks as that they have made Incorporeal Substances of them The Atheistick Conclusion is That they who assert an Incorporeal Deity do Really but make a Scholastick Separate Essence or the meer Abstract Notion of an Accident a Substantial Thing and a Ghost or Spirit presiding over the whole world To which our Reply in General first of all is That all this is Nothing but Idle Romantick Fiction The Belief of a Deity and Substance Incorporeal standing upon none of those Imaginary Foundations And then as for that Impudent Atheistick Pretence That the Deity is Nothing but a Figment or Creature of Men's Fear and Imagination and therefore the Prince of Fairies and Phancies This hath been already Sufficiently Confuted in our Answer to the First Atheistick Argumentation Where we have also over and above shew'd that there is not only a Natural Prolepsis or Anticipation of a God in the Minds of Men but also that the Belief thereof is Supported by the strongest and most Substantial Reason His Existence Being indeed Demonstrable with Mathematical Evidence to such as are capable and not blinded with Prejudice nor Enchanted by the Witchcraft of Vice and Wickedness to the Debauching of their Understandings It hath been also shewed that the Opinion of other Ghosts and Spirits besides the Deity Sprung not meerly from Fear and Phancy neither as Childrens Bugbears but from Real Phaenomena True Sensible Apparitions with the Histories of them in all Ages without which the Belief of such things could never have held up so Generally and Constantly in the World As likewise that there is no
where he calls his Ideas Animals Nor was Apuleius Singular herein Julian in his Book against the Christians going the very same way and no otherwise understood by S. Cyril than as to make the Invisible Gods worshipped by the Pagans to be the Divine Ideas A Phancy of the same Julian who opposed the Incarnation of the Eternal Word that Aesculapius was first of all the Idea of the Medicinal Art Generated by the Supreme God in the Intelligible World which afterwards by the Vivifick Influence of the Sun was Incarnated and appeared in Humane Form about Epidaurus And that this Pagan Doctrine Older than Christianity proved out of Philo writing of a Sun and Moon Intelligible as well as Sensible Religiously worshipped by the Pagans That is the Ideas of the Archetypal World And thus were these Ideas of the Divine Intellect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible Gods to Plotinus also Page 496 c. 501 Wherefore Julian Apuleius and those others who thus made all the Pagan Invisible Gods to be nothing else but the Divine Ideas the Patterns of Things in the Archetypal World supposed them not to be so many Independent Deities nor Really Distinct Substances Separate from one another but onely so many Partiall Considerations of One God Julian before affirming them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As to have been Generated out of him so also to Coexist with him and Inexist in him Page 501 502 That the Pagans appointed some Particular God or Goddess by Name to preside over Every thing there Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing at all without a God to them appeareth from that Catalogue of their Ignoble or Petty Gods Collected by S. Austine out of Varro Now it is Incredible that they should think all these to be so many Single Substantiall Spirits of each Sex Really Existing apart in the World they must therefore needs take them to be so many Partiall Considerations of the Deity either in the way of the more High-flown Platonists as his Ideas Exemplarily and Vertually containing all things or else in that more Common and easâ—y way of the Generality as so many Several Denominations of him according to the Several Manifestations of his Power and Providence or as the Pagans in Eusebius declares themselves those Several Vertues and Powers of the Supreme God themselves Personated and Deifyed Which yet because they were not executed without the Subservient Ministery of Created Spirits Angels or Demons appointed to preside over such things therefore might these also Collectively taken be included under them Page 502 503 But for the fuller clearing of this Point that the Pagan Polytheism was in great part Nothing but the Polyonymy of one God Two Things here to be taken notice of First that the Pagan Theology Vniversally Supposed God to be Diffused thorough all to Permeate and Pervade all and Intimately to Act all Thus Horus Apollo of the Egyptians Thus among the Greeks Diogenes the Cynick Aristotle the Italick and Stoicall Philosophers Thus the Indian Brachmans before Strabo Thus also the Latin Poets and Seneca Quintilian Apuleius and Servius besides others Page 503 504 That Anaxagoras and Plato also though neither of them Confounded God with the World but affirmed him to be Unmingled with any thing yet Concluded him in like manner to Permeate and Pervade all things Plato 's Etymology of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as taken for a Name of God to this purpose in his Cratylus Where a Fragment of Heraclitus and his Description of God agreeably hereunto a most Subtle and Swift Substance that Permeates and Passes through every thing by which all things are made But Plato disclaiming this Corporeity of the Deity will neither have it Fire nor Heat but a Perfect Mind that Passes through all things Unmixedly Page 505 Wherefore no wonder if the Pagans supposing God to be Diffused thorough all things called him in the Several Parts of the World and Things of Nature by several Names as in the Earth Ceres in the Sea Neptune c. This accompt of the Pagan Polytheism given by Paulus Orosius That whilst they believed God to be in Many things they indiscreetly made Many Gods of Him Page 505 506 Further to be observed That many of the Pagan Theologers seemed to go yet a Strain higher they supposing God not onely to Pervade all things but also to Be himself all things That the Ancient Egyptian Theology ran so high Evident from the Saitick Inscription A strong Tang hereof in Aeschylus as also in Lucan Neither was this proper to those who held God to be the Soul of the World but the Language also of those other more Refined Philosophers Xenophanes Parmenides c. they affirming God to be One and All. With which agreeth the Authour of the Asclepian Dialogue that God is Vnus omnia One all things and that before things were made he did then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hide them or Occultly contain them all within himself In like manner Orpheus Page 506 507 This not onely a further Ground of the Polyonymy of One God according to the Various Manifestations of himself in the World but also of another Strange Phaenomenon in the Pagan Theology their Personating the Inanimate Parts of the World and Natures of things and bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Thus Moschopulus before cited and Arnobius This Plutarch thinks to have been done at first Metonymically onely the Effects of the Gods being called Gods as the Books of Plato Plato And thus far not disliked by him But himself complaineth that aftewards it was carried on further by Superstitious Religionists and not without great Impiety Nevertheless that Inanimate Substances and the Natures of things were formerly Deifyed by the Ancient Pagans otherwise than Metonymically proved from Cicero Philo and Plato For they supposing God to Pervade all things and to be All things did therefore look upon every thing as Sacred or Divine and Theologize the Parts of the World and Natures of Things Titularly making them Gods and Goddesses But especially such things as wherein Humane Utility was most concerned and which had most of Wonder in them Page 507 510 This properly the Physiological Theology of the Pagans their Personating and Deifying the Natures of things and Inanimate Substances That the Ancient Poetick Fables of the Gods were many of them in their first and true meaning thus Physiologically Allegorical and not meer Herology affirmed against Eusebius Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus Famous for thus Allegorizing the Fables of the Gods Chrysippus his Allegorizing an Obscene Picture of Jupiter and Juno in Samos Plato though no Friend to these Poetick Fables yet confesses some of them to have contained Allegories in them the same doth also Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Cicero likewise who affirmeth this Personating and Deifying the Natures of things to have filled the World with Superstition Page 510 512 Against Eusebius again That the whole Theology of the Pagans consisted not in thus Deifying the Natures of things and
to wit of him who can Inflict Eternal Punishments Sensless Matter the Atheists Natural God the Leviathan or Civil Sovereign his Artificial One. Religion thus disowned and disclaimed by Politicians as Inconsistent with Civil Power could not be the Creature of Political Art Thus all the Three Atheistick Pretences to Salve the Phaenomenon of Religion from Fear Ignorance of Causes and Fiction of Politicians fully Confuted Page 698 700 But because besides those Ordinary Phaenomena before mentioned there are certain other Extraordinary ones that cannot be Salved by Atheists which therefore they will impute Partly to Mens Fear and Ignorance and Partly to the Fiction and Imposture of Civil Governours viz. Apparitions Miracles and Prophecies the Reality of these here also to be briefly Vindicated Page 700 First as for Apparitions Though much of Fabulosity in these Relations yet unquestionably something of Truth Atheists imputing these things to mens mistaking their Dreams and Phancies for Sensations Contradict their own Fundamental Principle That Sense is the onely Criterion of Truth as also Derogate more from Humane Testimony then they ought ibid. That some Atheists Sensible hereof have acknowledged the Reality of Apparitions concluding them nevertheless to be the Meer Creatures of Imagination as if a Strong Phancy could produce Real Substances or Objects of Sense The Fanaticism of Atheists who will rather Believe the greatest Impossibilities then endanger the Being of a God Invisible Ghosts Permanent easily introduce One Supreme Ghost of the whole World Page 700 701 Democritus yet further Convinced That there were Invisible Beings Superiour to Men Independent upon Imagination and Permanent called by him Idols but having nothing Immortal in them and therefore that a God could be no more proved from the Existence of them then of Men. Granted by him that there were not onely Terrestrial but also Aerial and Aetherial Animals and that all those Vast Regions of the Universe above were not Desert and Uninhabited Here something of the Fathers asserting Angels to have Bodies but more afterwards Page 701 702 To this Phaenomenon of Apparitions may be added those Two others of Witches and Demoniacks both of these proving That Spirits are not Phancies nor Inhabitants of mens Brains onely but of the World as also That there are some Impure Spirits a Confirmation of the Truth of Christianity The Confident Exploders of Witchcraft suspicable for Atheism As for Demoniacks or Energumeni certain from Josephus That the Jews did not take these Demons or Devils for Bodily Diseases but Real Substances possessing the Bodies of Men. Nor probable that they supposed as the Gnosticks afterward all Diseases to be the Infestation of Evil Spirits nor yet as some think all Demoniacks to be Mad-men But when there were any Unusual and Extraordinary Symptoms in any Bodily Distemper but especially that of Madness they supposing this to be Supernatural imputed it to the Infestation of some Devil Thus also the Greeks Page 702 704 That Demoniacks and Energumeni are a Real Phaenomenon and that there are such also in these Times of ours Asserted by Fernelius and Sennertus Such Maniacal Persons as not onely discover Secrets but also speak Languages which they had never learnt Vnquestionably Demoniacks or Energumeni That there have been such in the Times since our Saviour proved out of Psellus as also from Fernelius This for the Vindication of Christianity against those who suspect the Scripture Demoniacks for Figments Page 704 706 The Second Extraordinary Phaenomenon Proposed That of Miracles and Effects Supernatural That there have been such things amongst the Pagans and since the Times of Christianity too Evident from their Records But more Instances of these in Scripture Page 706 Two Sorts of Miracles First Such as though they cannot be done by Ordinary Causes yet may be effected by the Natural Power of Invisible Spirits Angels or Demons As Illiterate Demoniacks speaking Greek Such amongst the Pagans that Miracle of the Whetstone cut in two with a Razour Secondly Such as transcend the Natural Power of all Second Causes and Created Beings Page 706 707 That late Politico-Theological Treatise denying both these Sorts of Miracles Inconsiderable and not deserving here a Confutation Page 707 Supposed in Deut. That Miracles of the Former sort might be done by False Prophets in Confirmation of Idolatry Wherefore Miracles alone not sufficient to confirm every Doctrine ibid. Accordingly in the New Testament do we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lying Miracles that is Miracles done in Confirmation of a Lie and by the Power of Satan c. God permitting it in way of Probation of some and Punishment of others Miracles done for the promoting of Creature-Worship or Idolatry in stead of Justifying the same themselves Condemned by it Page 708 Had the Miracles of our Saviour been all of the Former Kind onely yet ought the Jews according to Moses Law to have acknowledged him for a True Prophet he coming in the Name of the Lord and not Exhorting to Idolatry Supposed in Deut. That God would not Permit False Prophets to doe Miracles save onely in the Case of Idolatry or when the Doctrine is discoverable to be False by the Light of Nature because that would be an Invincible Temptation Our Saviour That Eximious Prophet foretold by whom God would again reveal his Will to the World and no more out of Flaming Fire Nevertheless some Miracles of our Saviour Christ 's such also as could be done onely by the Power of God Almighty Page 708 709 All Miracles evince Spirits to disbelieve which is to disbelieve Sense or Vnreasonably to Derogate from Humane Testimony Had the Gentiles entertained the Faith of Christ without Miracles This it self would have been a Great Miracle Page 709 The Last Extraordinary Phaenomenon Divination or Prophecy This also evinces Spirits called Gods by the Pagans and thus that of theirs True If Divination then Gods 710 Two Sorts of Predictions likewise as of Miracles First such as might proceed from the Natural Presageing Power of Created Spirits Such Predictions acknowledged by Democritus upon account of his Idols Not so much Contingency in Humane Actions by reason of Mens Liberty of Will as some suppose Page 710 711 Another Sort of Predictions of Future Events Imputable onely to the Supernatural Prescience of God Almighty Epicurus his Pretence That Divination took away Liberty of Will either as Supposing or Making a Necessity Some Theists also denying the Prescience of God Almighty upon the same Account Certain That no Created Being can foreknow Future Events otherwise then in their Causes Wherefore Predictions of such Events as had no Necessary Antecedent Causes Evince a God Page 711 712 That there is Foreknowledge of Future Events Unforeknowable to Men formerly the general Perswasion of Mankind Oracles and Predictions amongst the Pagans which Evince Spirits as that of Actius Navius Most of the Pagan Oracles from the Natural Presageing Power of Demons Nevertheless some Instancâ—s of Predictions of a higher kind amongst them as that