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
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
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
Cogitantis It is a great Abuse that some Metaphysicians make of these Abstract Names because Cogitation can be considered alone without the consideration of Body therefore to conclude that it is not the Action or Accident of that Body that thinks but a Substance by it self And the same Writer elsewhere observes That it is upon this Ground that when a Man is dead and buried they say his Soul that is his Life can walk separated from his Body and is seen by night amongst the Graves By which means the Vulgar are confirmed in their Superstitious Belief of Ghosts Spirits Daemons Devils Fayries and Hob-goblins Invisible Powers and Agents called by several Names and that by those Persons whose work it ought to be rather to free men from such Superstition Which Belief at first had another Original not altogether unlike the former Namely from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Things Really existing without them For as in the sense of Vision men are commonly deceived in supposing the Image behind the Glass to be a Real thing existing without themselves whereas it is indeed nothing but their own Phancy In like manner when the Minds of Men strongly possess'd with Fear especially in the Dark raise up the Phantasms of Spectres Bug-bears or Affrightful Apparitions to them they think them to be Objects really existing without them and call them Ghosts and Spirits whilst they are indeed nothing but their own Phancies So the Phantasm or Phancy of a Deity which is indeed the Chief of all Spectres created by Fear has upon no other Accompt been taken for a Reality To this purpose a Modern Writer From the Fear that proceeds from the Ignorance it self of what it is that hath the Power to do men Good or Harm men are inclined to suppose and Feign to themselves several kinds of Powers Invisible and to stand in awe of their own Imaginations and in time of Distress to invoke them as also in the time of an expected good Success to give them thanks making the Creatures of their own Fancies their Gods Which though it be prudently spoken in the Plural Number that so it might be diverted and put off to the Heathen Gods yet he is very simple that does not perceive the reason of it to be the same concerning that one Deity which is now commonly worshipped and that therefore this also is but the Creature of Mens Fear and Phancie the Chief of all Phantastick Ghosts and Spectres as it were an Oberon or Prince of Fayries and Phancies This we say was the first Original of that Vulgar Belief of Invisible Powers Ghosts and Gods mens taking their own Phancies for Things really Existing without them And as for the Matter and Substance of these Ghosts they could not by their own natural Cogitation fall into any other Conceit but that it was the same with that which appeareth in a Dream to one that sleepeth or in a Looking-glass to one that is awake Thin Aerial Bodies which may appear and vanish when they please But the Opinion that such Spirits were Incorporeal and Immaterial could never enter into the minds of men by Nature Unabused by Doctrine but it sprung up from those deceiving and deceived Literati Scholasticks Philosophers and Theologers enchanting mens Understandings and making them believe that the Abstract Notions of Accidents and Essences could exist alone by themselves without the Bodies as certain Separate and Incorporeal Substances To Conclude therefore To make an Incorporeal Mind to be the Cause of all things is to make our own Phancie an Imaginary Ghost of the World to be a Reality and to suppose the mere Abstract Notion of an Accident and a Separate Essence to be not only an Absolute thing by it self and a Real Substance Incorporeal but also the first Original of all Substances and of whatsoever is in the Universe And this may be reckon'd for a Fourth Atheistick Ground IX Fifthly the Atheists pretend further to prove that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body as also from the Principles of Corporealism it self to evince that there can be no Corporeal Deity after this manner No man can devise any other Notion of Substance than that it is a thing Extended existing without the Mind not Imaginary but Real and Solid Magnitude For whatsoever is not Extended is Nowhere and Nothing So that Res Extensa is the only Substance the solid Basis and Substratum of all Now this is the very self-same thing with Body For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Resistence seems to be a necessary Consequence and Result from Extension and they that think otherwise can show no reason why Bodies may not also penetrate one another as some Corporealists think they do From whence it is inferred that Body or Matter is the only Substance of all things And whatsoever else is in the World that is all the Differences of Bodies are nothing but several Accidents and Modifications of this Extended Substance Body or Matter Which Accidents though they may be sometimes call'd by the names of Real Qualities and Forms and though there be different apprehensions concerning them amongst Philosophers yet generally they agree in this that there are these two Properties belonging to them First that none of them can subsist alone by themselves without Extended Substance or Matter as the Basis and Support of them And Secondly that they may be all destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance Now as Blackness and Whiteness Heat and Cold so likewise Life Sense and Understanding are such Accidents Modifications or Qualities of Body that can neither exist by themselves and may be destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance or Matter For if the Parts of the Body of any Living Animal be disunited and separated from one another or the Organical Disposition of the Matter alter'd those Accidents Forms or Qualities of Life and Understanding will presently vanish away to Nothings all the Substance of the Matter still remaining one where or other in the Universe entire and Nothing of it lost Wherefore the Substance of Matter and Body as distinguished from the Accidents is the only thing in the world that is Uncorruptible and Undestroyable And of this it is to be understood that Nothing can be made out of Nothing and Destroyed to Nothing i. e. that every entire thing that is Made or Generated must be made of some preexistent Matter which Matter was from Eternity Self-existent and Unmade and is also undestroyable and can never be reduc'd to Nothing It is not to be understood of the Accidents themselves that are all Makeable and Destroyable Generable and Corruptible Whatsoever is in the World is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter so and so Modified or Qualified all which Modifications and Qualifications of Matter are in their own nature Destroyable and the Matter it self as the Basis of them not necessarily determin'd to this or that Accident is the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Necessarily
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
fuit Inundatio quae non secus quà m Hyems quà m Aestas Lege Mundi venit Whatsoever from the beginning to the end of it it can either Do or Suffer it was all at first included in the Nature of the whole As in the Seed is conteined the Whole Delineation of the Future man and the Embryo or Vnborn infant hath already in it the Law of a Beard and Gray Hairs The Lineaments of the whole Body and of its following age being there described as it were in a little and obscure Compendium In like manner the Original and First Rudiments of the World conteined in them not only the Sun and Moon the Courses of the Stars and the Generations of Animals but also the Vicissitudes of all Terrestrial things And every Deluge or Inundation of Water comes to pass no less by the Law of the World its Spermatick or Plastick Nature than Winter and Summer doth XXVIII We do not deny it to be possible but that some in all Ages might have entertained such an Atheistical Conceit as this That the Original of this whole Mundane System was from one Artificial Orderly and Methodical but Sensless Nature lodge in the Matter but we cannot trace the footsteps of this Doctrine any where so much as among the Stoicks to which Sect Seneca who speaks so waveringly and uncertainly in this point Whether the World were an Animal or a Plant belonged And indeed diverse learned men have suspected that even the Zenonian and Heraclitick Deity it self was no other than such a Plastick Nature or Spermatick Principle in the Universe as in the Seeds of Vegetables and Animals doth frame their respective Bodies Orderly and Artificially Nor can it be denied but that there hath been just cause given for such a suspicion forasmuch as the best of the Stoicks sometimes confounding God with Nature seemed to make him nothing but an Artificial Fire Orderly and Methodically proceeding to Generation And it was Familiar with them as Laertius tells us to call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spermatick Reason or Form of the World Nevertheless because Zeno and others of the chief Stoical Doctors did also many times assert that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Rational and Intellectual Nature and therefore not a Plastick Principle only in the Matter of the Universe as likewise that the whole World was an Animal and not a mere Plant Therefore we incline rather to excuse the generality of the first and most ancient Stoicks from the imputation of Atheism and to account this Form of Atheism which we now speak of to be but a certain Degeneracy from the right Heraclitick and Zenonian Cabala which seemed to contain these two things in it First that there was an Animalish Sentient and Intellectual Nature or a Conscious Soul and Mind that presided over the whole World though lodged immediately in the Fiery Matter of it Secondly that this Sentient and Intellectual Nature or Corporeal Soul and Mind of the Universe did contain also under it or within it as the inferiour part of it a certain Plastick Nature or Spermatick Principle which was properly the Fate of all things For thus Heraclitus defined Fate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A certain Reason passing through the Substance of the whole World or an Ethereal Body that was the Seed of the Generation of the Vniverse And Zeno's first Principle as it is said to be an Intellectual Nature so it is also said to have contained in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Spermatick Reasons and forms by which every thing is done according to Fate However though this seem to have been the genuine Doctrine both of Heraclitus and Zeno yet others of their Followers afterwards divided these two things from one another and taking only the latter of them made the Plastick or Spermatick Nature devoid of all Animality or Conscious Intellectuality to be the highest Principle in the Universe Thus Laertius tells us that Boethus an eminent and famous Stoical Doctor did plainly deny the World to be an Animal that is to have any Sentient Conscious or Intellectual Nature presiding over it and consequently must needs make it to be but Corpus Naturâ gubernante ut Arbores ut Sata A Body governed by a Plastick or Vegetative Nature as Trees Plants and Herbs And as it is possible that other Stoicks and Heracliticks might have done the like before Boethus so it is very probable that he had after him many Followers amongst which as Plinius Secundus may be reckoned for one so Seneca himself was not without a doubtful Tincture of this Atheism as hath been already shewed Wherefore this Form of Atheism which supposes one Plastick or Spermatick Nature one Plantal or Vegetative Life in the whole World as the Highest Principle may for distinction sake be called the Pseudo-Stoical or Stoical Atheism XXIX Besides these Philosophick Atheists whose several Forms we have now described it cannot be doubted but that there have been in all Ages many other Atheists that have not at all Philosophized nor pretended to maintain any particular Atheistick System or Hypothesis in a way of Reason but were only led by a certain dull and sottish though confident Disbelief of whatsoever they could not either See or Feel Which kind of Atheists may therefore well be accompted Enthusiastical or Fanatical Atheists Though it be true in the mean time that even all manner of Atheists whatsoever and those of them who most of all pretend to Reason and Philosophy may in some sence be justly stiled also both Enthusiasts and Fanaticks Forasmuch as they are not led or carried on into this way of Atheizing by any clear Dictates of their Reason or Understanding but only by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Blind and Irrational Impetus they being as it were Inspired to it by that lower Earthly Life and Nature which is called in the Scripture-oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of the World or a Mundane Spirit and is opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit that is of God For when the Apostle speaks after this manner We have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit that is of God he seems to intimate thus much unto us That as some men were Led and Inspired by a Divine Spirit so others again are Inspired by a Mundane Spirit by which is meant the Earthly Life Now the former of these Two are not to be accompted Enthusiasts as the word is now commonly taken in a Bad Sence because the Spirit of God is no Irrational thing but either the very self same thing with Reason or else such a thing as Aristotle as it were Vaticinating concerning it somewhere calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain Better and Diviner thing than Reason and Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Root of Reason But on the contrary the Mundane Spirit or Earthly Life is Irrational Sottishness and they who are Atheistically Inspired by it how
abhorrent soever they may otherwise seem to be from Enthusiasm and Revelations are notwithstanding really no better than a kind of Bewitched Enthusiasts and Blind Spiritati that are wholly ridden and acted by a dark narrow and captivated Principle of Life and to use their own Language In-blown by it and by it bereft even in Speculative things of all Free Reason and Understanding Nay they are Fanaticks too however that word seem to have a more peculiar respect to something of a Deity All Atheists being that Blind Goddess Natures Fanaticks XXX We have described four several Forms of Atheism First the Hylopathian or Anaximandrian that derives all things from Dead and Stupid Matter in the way of Qualities and Forms Generable and Corruptible Secondly the Atomical or Democritical which doth the same thing in the way of Atoms and Figures Thirdly the Cosmoplastick or Stoical Atheism which supposes one Plastick and Methodical but Sensless Nature to preside over the whole Corporeal Universe And lastly the Hylozoick or Stratonical that attributes to all Matter as such a certain Living and Energetick Nature but devoid of all Animality Sense and Consciousness And as we do not meet with any other Forms or Schemes of Atheism besides these Four so we conceive that there cannot easily be any other excogitated or devised and that upon these two following Considerations First because all Atheists are mere Corporealists that is acknowledge no other Substance besides Body or Matter For as there was never any yet known who asserting Incorporeal Substance did deny a Deity so neither can there be any reason why he that admits the former should exclude the later Again the same Dull and Earthly Disbelief or confounded Sottishness of Mind which makes men deny a God must needs incline them to deny all Incorporeal Substance also Wherefore as the Physicians speak of a certain Disease or Madness called Hydrophobia the Symptome of those that have been bitten by a mad Dog which makes them have a monstrous Antipathy to Water so all Atheists are possessed with a certain kind of Madness that may be called Pneumatophobia that makes them have an irrational but desperate Abhorrence from Spirits or Incorporeal Substances they being acted also at the same time with an Hylomania whereby they Madly dote upon Matter and Devoutly worship it as the only Numen The Second Consideration is this because as there are no Atheists but such as are mere Corporealists so all Corporealists are not to be accompted Atheists neither Those of them who notwithstanding they make all things to be Matter yet suppose an Intellectual Nature in that Matter to preside over the Corporeal Universe being in Reason and Charity to be exempted out of that number And there have been always some who though so strongly captivated under the power of gross Imagination as that an Incorporeal God seemed to them to be nothing but a God of Words as some of them call it a mere Empty Sound or Contradictious Expression Something and Nothing put together yet notwithstanding they have been possessed with a firm belief and perswasion of a Deity or that the System of the Universe depends upon one Perfect Understanding Being as the Head of it and thereupon have concluded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain kind of Body or Matter is God The grossest and most sottish of all which Corporeal Theists seem to be those who contend that God is only one particular Piece of Organized Matter of Humane Form and Bigness which endued with Perfect Reason and Understanding exerciseth an Universal Dominion over all the rest Which Hypothesis however it hath been entertained by some of the Christian Profession both in former and later times yet it hath seemed very ridiculous even to many of those Heathen Philosophers themselves who were mere Corporealists such as the Stoicks who exploded it with a kind of Indignation contending earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God though Corporeal yet must not be conceived to be of any Humane Shape And Xenophanes an Ancient Philosophick Poet expresseth the Childishness of this Conceit after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Oxen Lions Horses and Asses had all of them a Sense of a Deity and were able to Limn and Paint there is no question to be made but that each of these several Animals would paint God according to their respective Form Likeness and contend that he was of that shape no other But that other Corporeal Theism seems to be of the two rather more Generous and Gentile which supposes the whole World to be one Animal and God to be a certain Subtle and Etherial but Intellectual Matter pervading it as a Soul which was the Doctrine of others before the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippasus of Metapontus and Heraclitus the Ephesian supposed the Fiery and Etherial Matter of the World to be God However neither these Heracliticks and Stoicks nor yet the other Anthropomorphites are by us condemned for downright Atheists but rather look'd upon as a sort of Ignorant Childish and Vnskilful Theists Wherefore we see that Atheists are now reduced into a narrow Compass since none are concluded to be Atheists but such as are mere Corporealists and all Corporealists must not be condemned for Atheists neither but only those of them who assert that there is no Conscious Intellectual Nature presiding over the whole Universe For this is that which the Adepti in Atheism of what Form soever all agree in That the first Principle of the Universe is no Animalish Sentient and Conscious Nature but that all Animality Sense and Consciousness is a Secondary Derivative and Accidental thing Generable and Corruptible arising out of particular Concretions of Matter organized and dissolved together with them XXXI Now if the First Principle and Original of all things in the Universe be thus supposed to be Body or Matter devoid of all Animality Sense and Consciousness then it must of necessity be either perfectly Dead and Stupid and without all manner of Life or else endued with such a kind of Life only as is by some called Plastick Spermatical and Vegetative by others the Life of Nature or Natural Perception And those Atheists who derive all things from Dead and Stupid Matter must also needs do this either in the way of Qualities and Forms and these are the Anaximandrian Atheists or else in the way of Atoms and Figures which are the Democritical But those who make Matter endued with a Plastick Life to be the first Original of all things must needs suppose either One such Plastick and Spermatick Life only in the whole Mass of Matter or Corporeal Universe which are the Stoical Atheists or else all Matter as such to have Life and an Energetick Nature belonging to it though without any Animal Sense or Self-perception and consequently all the Particular Parts of Matter and every Totum by Continuity to have a
of a Wooden Hand For thus these Physiologers declare the Generations and Causes of Figures only or the Matter out of which things are made as Air and Earth Whereas no Artificer would think it sufficient to render such a Cause of any Artificial Fabrick because the Instrument happened to fall so upon the Timber that therefore it was Hollow here and Plane there but rather because himself made such strokes and for such Ends c. Now in the close of all this Philosopher at length declares That there is another Principle of Corporeal things besides the Material and such as is not only the Cause of Motion but also acts Artificially in order to Ends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is such a thing as that which we call Nature that is not the Fortuitous Motion of Sensless Matter but a Plastick Regular and Artificial Nature such as acts for Ends and Good declaring in the same place what this Nature is namely that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul or Part of Soul or not without Soul and from thence inferring that it properly belongs to a Physiologer to treat concerning the Soul also But he concludes afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the whole Soul is not Nature whence it remains that according to Aristotle's sence Nature is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either part of a Soul or not without Soul that is either a lower Part or Faculty of some Conscious Soul or else an Inferiour kind of Life by it self which is not without Soul but Suborditate to it and dependent on it 22. As for the Bodies of Animals Aristotle first resolves in General that Nature in them is either the whole Soul or else some part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature as the Moving Principle or as that which acts Artificially for Ends so far as concerns the Bodies of Animals is either the whole Soul or else some Part of it But afterward he determines more particularly that the Plastick Nature is not the whole Soul in Animals but only some part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Nature in Animals properly so called is some Lower Power or Faculty lodged in their respective Souls whether Sensitive or Rational And that there is Plastick Nature in the Souls of Animals the same Aristotle elsewhere affirms and proves after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that which in the Bodies of Animals holds together such things as of their own Nature would otherwise move contrary ways and flie asunder as Fire and Earth which would be distracted and dissipated the one tending upwards the other downwards were there not something to hinder them now if there be any such thing this must be the Soul which is also the Cause of Nourishment and Augmentation Where the Philosopher adds that though some were of Opinion that Fire was that which was the Cause of Nourishment and Augmentation in Animals yet this was indeed but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only the Concause or Instrument and not simply the Cause but rather the Soul And to the same purpose he philosophizeth elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is Concoction by which Nourishment is made in Animals done without the Soul nor without Heat for all things are done by Fire And certainly it seems very agreeable to the Phaenomena to acknowledge something in the Bodies of Animals Superiour to Mechanism as that may well be thought to be which keeps the more fluid parts of them constantly in the same Form and Figure so as not to be enormously altered in their Growth by disproportionate nourishment that which restores Flesh that was lost consolidates dissolved Continuities Incorporates the newly received Nourishment and joyns it Continuously with the preexistent parts of Flesh and Bone which regenerates and repairs Veins consumed or cut off which causes Dentition in so regular a manner and that not only in Infants but also Adult persons that which casts off Excrements and dischargeth Superfluities which makes things seem ungrateful to an Interiour Sense that were notwithstanding pleasing to the Taste That Nature of Hippocrates that is the Curatrix of Diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Archeus of the Chymists or Paracelsians to which all Medicaments are but Subservient as being able to effect nothing of themselves without it I say there seems to be such a Principle as this in the Bodies of Animals which is not Mechanical but Vital and therefore since Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity we may with Aristotle conclude it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain part of the Soul of those Animals or a Lower Inconscious Power lodged in them 23. Besides this Plastick Nature which is in Animals forming their several Bodies Artificially as so many Microcosms or Little Worlds there must be also a general Plastick Nature in the Macrocosm the whole Corporeal Universe that which makes all things thus to conspire every where and agree together into one Harmony Concerning which Plastick Nature of the Universe the Author de Mundo writes after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Power passing thorough all things ordered and formed the whole World Again he calls the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit and a Living and Generative Nature and plainly declares it to be a thing distinct from the Deity but Subordinate to it and dependent on it But Aristotle himself in that genuine Work of his before mentioned speaks clearly and positively concerning this Plastick Nature of the Universe as well as that of Animals in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seemeth that as there is Art in Artificial things so in the things of Nature there is another such like Principle or Cause which we our selves partake of in the same manner as we do of Heat and Cold from the Vniverse Wherefore it is more probable that the whole World was at fiâ—st made by such a Cause as this if at least it were made and that it is still conserved by the same than that Mortal Animals should be so For there is much more of Order and determinate Regularity in the Heavenly Bodies than in our selves but more of Fortuitousness and inconstant Regularity among these Mortal things Notwithstanding which some there are who though they cannot but acknowledge that the Bodies of Animals were all framed by an Artificial Nature yet they will needs contend that the System of the Heavens sprung merely from Fortune and Chance although there be not the least appearance of Fortuitousness or Temerity in it And then he sums up all into this Conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it is manifest that there is some such thing as that which we call Nature that is that there is not only an Artificial Methodical and Plastick Nature in Animals by which their respective Bodies are Framed and Conserved but also that there is such a General Plastick Nature likewise in the Vniverse by which the Heavens
suspicable that it was really a Design or Policy of the Devil by imitating the Miracles of our Saviour Christ both in Apollonius and Vespasian to counter-work God Almighty in the Plot of Christianity and to keep up or conserve his own Usurped Tyranny in the Pagan World still Nevertheless we shall here show Apollonius all the favour we can and therefore suppose him not to have been one of those more foul and black Magicians of the common sort such as are not only grosly sunk and debauched in their Lives but also knowingly do Homage to Evil Spirits as such for the gratification of their Lusts but rather one of those more refined ones who have been called by themselves Theurgists such as being in some measure freed from the grosser Vices and thinking to have to do only with good Spirits nevertheless being Proud and Vainglorious and affecting Wonders and to transcend the Generality of Mankind are by a Divine Nemesis justly exposed to the illusions of the Devil or Evil Spirits cunningly insinuating here and aptly accommodating themselves to them However concerning this Apollonius it is undeniable that he was a zealous Upholder of the Pagan Polytheism and a stout Champion for The Gods he professing to have been taught by the Samian Pythagoras his Ghost how to Worship these Gods Invisible as well as Visible and to have converse with them For which cause he is stiled by Vopiscus Amicus verus Deorum A true Friend of the Gods that is a hearty and sincere Friend to that old Pagan Religion now assaulted by Christianity in which not One only True God but a Multiplicity of Gods were Worshipped But notwithstanding all this Apollonius himself was a clear and undoubted Asserter of One Supreme Deity as is evident from his Apologetick Oration in Philostratus prepared for Domitian in which he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God who is the Maker of the whole Vniverse and of all things And as he elsewhere in Philostratus declares both the Indians and Egyptians to have agreed in this Theology insomuch that though the Egyptians condemn'd the Indians for many other of their Opinions yet did they highly applaud this Doctrine of theirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God was the Maker both of the Generation and Essence of all things and that the cause of his making them was his Essential Goodness So doth he himself very much commend this Philosophy of Jarchas the Indian Brachman viz. That the whole World was but One Great Animal and might be resembled to a Vast Ship wherein their are many Inferiour subordinate Governours under One Supreme the Oldest and Wisest as also expert Mariners of several sorts some to attend upon the Deck and others to climb the Masts and order the Sails 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which the first and highâ—st seat is to be given to That God who is the Generatour or Creator of this great Animal and the next under it to those Gods that govern the several parts of it respectively so that the Poets were to be approved of here when they affirm that there are Many Gods in the Heavens Many in the Seas Many in the Rivers and Fountains Many also upon the Earth and some under the Earth Wherein we have a true representation of the old Paganick Theology which both Indians and Egyptians and European Poets Greek and Latin all agreed in That there is One Supreme God the Maker of the Universe and under him Many Inferiour Generated Gods or Understanding Beings Superiour to Men appointed to govern and preside over the several parts thereof who were also to be religiously honoured and worshipped by Men. And thus much for Apollonius Tyanaeus The first Pagan Writer against Christianity was Celsus who lived in the times of Adrian and was so professed a Polytheist that he taxes the Jews for having been seduced by the Frauds of Moses into this Opinion of One God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those silly Shepherds and Herdsmen following Moses their Leader and being seduced by his Rustick frauds came to entertain this Belief that there was but One only God Nevertheless this Celsus himself plainly acknowledged amongst his Many Gods One Supreme whom he sometimes calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First God sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greatest God and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Supercelestial God and the like and he doth so zealously assert the Divine Omnipotence that he casts an imputation upon the Christians of derogating from the same in that their Hypothesis of an Adversary Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Christians are erroneously led into most wicked Opinions concerning God by reason of their great ignorance of the Divine Enigms whilst they make a certain Adversary to God whom they call the Devil and in the Hebrew Language Satan And affirm contrary to all Piety that the Greatest God having a mind to do good to men is disabled or withstood by an Adversary resisting him Lastly where he pleads most for the worship of Demons he concludes thus concerning the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But God is by no means any where to be laid aside or left out neither by Day nor by Night neither in Publick nor in Private either in our Words or Actions but in every thing our Mind ought constantly to be directed towards God A Saying that might very well become a Christian. The next and greatest Champion for the Pagan Cause in Books and Writings was that Famous Tyrian Philosopher Malchus called by the Greeks Porphyrius who published a Voluminous and elaborate Treatise containing Fifteen Books against the Christians and yet He notwithstanding was plainly as zealous an Assertor of One Supreme Deity and One Onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmade or Self-existent Principle of all things as any of the Christians themselves could be he strenuously opposing that forementioned Doctrine of Plutarch and Atticus concerning Three Unmade Principles a Good God an Evil Soul or Demon and the Matter and endeavouring to demonstrate that all things whatsoever even Matter it self was derived from One Perfect Understanding Being or Self-originated Deity The Sum of whose Argumentation to which purpose we have represented by Proclus upon the Timaeus Page 119. After Porphyrius the next eminent Antagonist of Christianity and Champion for Paganism was Hierocles the Writer of that Book entituled in Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Lover of the Truth which is noted to have been a Modester Inscription than that of Celsus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or True Oration For if Eusebius Pamphili were the Writer of that Answer to this Philalethes now Extant as we both read in our Copies and as Photius also read then must it needs be granted that Hierocles the Author of it was either contemporary with Porphyrius or else but little his Junior Moreover this Hierocles seems plainly to be the person intended by Lactantius in
delivered down to us from very ancient Times that the Stars are Gods also besides that Supreme Deity which contains the Whole Nature But all the other things were Fabulously added hereunto for the better Perswasion of the Multitude and for Vtility of Humane Life and Political Ends to keep men in Obedience to Civil Laws As for example that these Gods are of Humane Form or like to other Animals with such other things as are consequent hereupon In which words of Aristotle these Three Things may be taken notice of First That this was the General Perswasion of the Civilized Pagans from all known Antiquity downwards that there is One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comprehends the whole Nature Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Aristotle plainly taken for the Supreme Deity And his own sence concerning this Particular is elsewhere thus declared after the same manner where he speaks of Order Harmony and Proportion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Work of the Divine Power which also conteinâ— this Vniverse Which Divinity Conteining and Compâ—ehending the Whole Nature and Vniverse must needs be a Single and Solitary Being according to that Expression of Horace before cited Nec viget quicquam Simile aut Secundum That which hath nothing Like it nor Second to it The next thing is That according to the Pagan Tradition besides this Vniversal Numen there were certain other Particular and Infeferiour Deities also that is Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to Men namely the Animated Stars or Spheres according to the Vulgar Apprehension though Aristotle's Philosophy would interpret this chiefly of their Immovable Minds or Intelligences Lastly that all the rest of the Pagan Religion and Theology those Two Things only excepted were Fabulous and Fictitious invented for the better Perswasion of the Vulgar to Piety and the conserving of them in Obedience to Civil Laws amongst which this may be reckoned for one that those Gods are all like Men or other Animals and therefore to be worshipped in Images and Statues of those several Forms with all that other Fabulous Farrago which dependeth hereupon Which being separated from the rest the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ancient Tradition of their Pagan Progenitors would remain comprized within those Two Particulars above mentioned namely that there is One Supreme Deity that Conteins the whole Vniverse and that besides it the Animated Stars or their Minds are certain Inferiour Gods also To Aristole may be here subjoyned Speusippus and Xenocrates his Equals and Corrivals they being Plato's Successors together with Theophrastus his own Scholar and Successor Concerning the former of which it is recorded in Cicero that agreeably with Plato he asserted Vim quandam quâ omnia regantur eamque Animalem One Animal and Intellectual Force by which all things are governed by reason whereof Velleius the Epicurean complains of him as thereby endeavouring Evellere ex animis cognitionem Deorum To pluck out of the minds of men the Notion of Gods as indeed both he and Plato did destroy those Epicurean Gods which were all supposed to be Independent and to have no Sway or Influence at all upon the Government of the World whereas neither of them denied a Plurality of Subordinate and Dependent Deities Generated or Created by One Supreme and by him Employed as his Ministers in the Oeconomy of the Universe For had they done any such thing as this they would certainly have been then condemned for Atheists And Xenocrates his Theology is thus represented in Stobaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That both a Monad and Dyad were Gods the one Masculine having the order of a Father which he calleth Zen and Mind and which is also to him the First God the other Feminine as it were the Mother of the Gods which is to him the Soul of the Vniverse besides which he acknowledgeth the Heaven to be Divine that is Animated with a Particular Soul of its own and the Fiery Stars to be Celestial Gods as he asserted also certain Sublunary Gods viz. the Invisible Demons Where instead of the Platonick Trinity Xenocrates seems to have acknowledg'd only a Duality of Divine Hypostases the First called a Monad and Mind the Second a Dyad and Soul of the Vniverse And lastly we have this Testimony of Theophrastus besides others cited out of his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is one Divine Principle of all things by or from which all things subsist and remain XXV The Stoicks and their chief Doctors Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus were no better Naturalists and Metaphysicians than Heraclitus in whose footsteps they trode they in like manner admitting no other Substance besides Body according to the true and proper Notion thereof as that which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distant and Extended but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resisting and Impenetrable So that according to these Stoicks the Souls not only of other Animals but of Men also were properly Corporeal that is Substances Impenetrably Extended and which differ'd from that other part of theirs commonly called their Body no otherwise than that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more Thin and Subtil Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Hot and Fiery Spirit it being supposed by these Philosophers that Cogitation Reason and Vnderstanding are lodged only in the Fiery Matter of the Universe And though the Generality of these Stoicks acknowledged Humane Souls to have a certain Permanency after Death and some of them till the next Conflagration unless perhaps they should be crushed and broken all to pieces in their Passage out of the Body by the down-fall of some Tower Steeple or the like upon them yet did they all conclude against their Immortality there being nothing at all Immortal with them as shall be afterwards declared save only Jupiter or the One Supreme Deity And as for the Punishment of Wicked Souls after death though some of them seem to have utterly exploded the same as a meer Figment of Poets insomuch that Epictetus himself denies there was any Acheron Cocytus or Phlegethon yet others granted that as the better Souls after Death did mount up to the Stars their First Original so the Wicked wandred up and down here in certain Dark and Miry Subterraneous Places till at length they were quite extinct Nevertheless they seem to have been all of this Perswasion that the Frightning of men with punishments after Death was no Proper nor Accommodate means to promote Virtue because that ought to be pursued after for its own sake or the Good of Honesty as Vice to be avoided for that Evil of Turpitude which is in it and not for any other External Evil consequent thereupon Wherefore Chrysippus reprehended Plato for subjoyning to his Republick such affrightful Stories of Punishments after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysippus affirmeth that Plato in the Person of Cephalus does not rightly deterr men from Injustice
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
quo quid absurdius Jupiter enim sine Contubernio Conjugis Filiaeque coli non solet Vnde quid sit apparet nec fas est id nomen eo transferri ubi nec Minerva est ulla nec Juno It is a vain perswasion of those who would give the name of Jupiter to the Supreme God For some are wont thus to excuse their errours when they have been convinced of one God so as that they could not contradict it by saying that themselves worshipped Him he being called by them Jupiter Than which what can be more absurd since Jupiter is not worshipped without the Partnership of his Wife and Daughter From whence it plainly appears what this Jupiter is and that the name ought not to be transferred thither where there is neither any Minerva nor Juno The ground of which argumentation of Lactantius was this because the great Capitoline Temple of Jupiter had three Sacella or lesser Chappels in it all conteined under one roof Jupiter's in the middle Minerva's on the right hand and Juno's on the left according to that of the Poet. Trina in Tarpeio fulgent consortia Templo Which Juno according to the Poetick Theology is said to be the Wife of Jupiter and Minerva his Daughter begotten not upon Juno but from his own Brain Where it is plain that there is a certain mixture of the Mythical or Poetical Theology together with the Natural as almost evey where else there was to make up that Civil Theology of the Pagans But here according to the more Recondit and Arcane Doctrine of the Pagans these three Capitoline Gods Jupiter Minerva and Juno as well as some others may be understood to have been nothing else but Several Names and Notions of One Supreme Deity according to its several Attributes and Manifestations Jupiter signifying the Divine Power and Sovereignty as it were seated and enthroned in the Heavens Minerva the Divine Wisdom and Vnderstanding and Juno the same Deity acting in these Lower parts of the world Unless we would rather with Macrobius Physiologize them all Three and make Minerva to be the Higher Heaven Jupiter the Middle Ether and Juno the Lower Air and Earth all Animated that is One God as acting differently in these Three Regions of the world Which yet seems not so congruous because it would place Minerva above Jupiter Nevertheless it may justly be suspected as G. I. Vossius hath already observed that there was yet some higher and more sacred Mystery in this Capitoline Trinity aimed at namely a Trinity of Divine Hypostases For these three Roman or Capitoline Gods were said to have been First brought into Italy out of Phrygia by the Trojans but before that into Phrygia by Dardanus out of the Samothracian Island and that within eight hundred years after the Noachian Flood if we may believe Eusebius And as these were called by the Latins Dii Penates which Macrobius thus interprets Dii Per quos Penitus â—pâ—ramus per quos habemus Corpus per quos rationem animi possidemus that is The Gods by whom we live and move and have our being but Varro in Arnobius Dii qui sunt Intrinsecus atque in Intimis Penetralibus Coeli the Gods who are in the most Inward Recesses of Heaven so were they called by the Samothracians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cabiri that is as Varro rightly interprets the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divi Potes The Powerful and Mighty Gods Which Cabiri being plainly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives just occasion to suspect that this Ancient Tradition of Three Divine Hypostases unquestionably entertained by Orpheus Pythagoras and Plato amongst the Greeks and probably by the Egyptians and Persians sprung originally from the Hebrews The First of these Divine Hypostases called Jove being the Fountain of the Godhead and the Second of them called by the Latins Minerva which as Varro interprets it was that wherein Ideae Exempla rerum the Ideas and first Exemplars or Patterns of things were conteined fitly expressing the Divine Logos and the Third Juno called Amor ac Delicium Jovis well enough answering as Vossius thinks to the Divine Spirit But Lactantius hath yet another objection against the Roman Jupiter's being the Supreme God Quid quod hujus nominis proprietas non Divinam vim sed Humanam exprimit Jovem enim Junonem que à Juvando esse dictos Cicero interpretatur Et Jupiter quasi Juvans Pater dicitur Quod nomen in Deum minimè convenit quia Juvare hominis est c. Nemo sic Deum precatur ut se Adjuvet sed ut Servet c. Ergo non Imperitus modo sed etiam Impius est qui nomine Jovis Virtutem Summae Potestatis imminuit What if we add that the propriety of this word Jupiter does not express a Divine but only a Humane force Cicero deriving both Jove and Juno alike à Juvando that is from Helping For Juvans Pater or a Helping Father is not a Good Description of God forasmuch as it properly belongeth to men to Help Neither doth any one pray to God to Help him only but to Save him Nor is a Father said to help his Son whom he was the Begetter of c. Wherefore he is not only Vnskilful but Impious also who by the Name of Jove or Jupiter diminishes the power of the Supreme God But as this of Lactantius seems otherwise weak enough so is the Foundation of it absolutely ruinous the true Etymon of Jupiter though Cicero knew not so much being without peradventure not Juvans Pater but Jovis Pater Jove the Father of Gods and Men which Jovis is the very Hebrew Tetragrammaton however these Romans came by it only altered by a Latin Termination Wherefore as there could be no impiety at all in calling the Supreme God Jove or Jovis it being that very name which God himself chose to be called by so neither is their any reason why the Latins should not as well mean the Supreme God thereby as the Greeks did unquestionably by Zeus which will be proved afterwards from irrefragable Authority Especially if we consider that the Roman Vulgar commonly bestowed these Two Epithets upon that Capitoline Jupiter that is not the sensless Statue but that God who was there worshipped in a Material Statue of Optimus and Maximus the Best and the Greatest they thereby signifying him to be a Being Infinitly Good and Powerful Thus Cicero in his De Nat. Deorum Jupiter à Poetis dicitur Divum atque Hominum Pater à majoribus autem nostris Optimus Maximus That same Jupiter who is by the Poets styled The Father of Gods and Men is by our ancestors called The Best The Greatest And in his Orat. pro S. Roscio Jupiter Optimus Maximus cujus nutu arbitrio Coelum Terra Mariaque reguntur Jupiter the Best the Greatest by whose beck and command the Heaven the Earth and the Seas are governed As also the Junior Pliny
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
before produced is so doubtful whether he should call the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that takes care of all things here below Zeus or Hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether thou hadst rather be called Jupiter or Pluto Lastly Hermesianax the Colophonian Poet in those Verses of his afterward to be set down makes Pluto in the first place with many other Pagan Gods to be really one and the same with Jupiter That Neptune was also another Name of the Supreme God from another Particular Consideration of him namely as acting in the Seas at least according to the Arcane and Natural Theology of the Pagans is plainly declared by divers of the Ancients Xenocrates in Stobaeus and Zeno in Laertius affirm that God as acting in the water is called Posidone or Neptune To the same purpose Balbus in Cicero Sed tamen his Fabulis spretis ac repudiatris Deus Pertinens per Naturam cujusque rei per Terras Ceres per Maria Neptunus alii per alia poterunt intelligi qui qualesque sint c. But these Poetick Fables concerning the Gods being despised and rejected it is easie for us to understand how God passing through the Nature of every thing may be called by several Names as through the Earth Ceres and Pluto through the Seas Neptune and through other parts of the world by other Names so that all these Titular Gods were but so many several Denominations of one Supreme Deity And Cotta afterward thus represents the sence of this Theology Neptunum esse dicis Animum cum Intelligentiâ per mare pergentem idem de Cerere Your meaning is Neptune is a Mind which with understanding passes through the Sea and the like of Ceres through the Earth Lastly to name no more Maximus Tyrius agreeth also herewith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are to call Jupiter that Princely Mind which all things follow and obey c. and Neptune that Spirit which passing through the Earth and Sea causes their State and Harmony Lastly that these Three Jupiter Neptune and Pluto were not Three really Distinct Substantial Beings but only so many Several Names for One Supreme God according to the True and Natural Theology of the Pagans is thus plainly declared by Pausanias in his Corinthiacks he there expounding the meaning of a certain Statue of Jupiter with Three Eyes called the Country Jupiter of the Trojans in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that this Statue of Jupiter was made to have Three Eyes one may guess this to have been the reason Because first the common speech of all men makes Jupiter to reign in the Heaven Again he that is said to rule under the Earth is in a certain Verse of Homer called Zeus or Jupiter too namely the Infernal or Subterraneous Jupiter together with Proserpina And lastly Aeschylus the son of Euphorion calls that God who is the King of the Sea also Jupiter Wherefore this Statuary made Jupiter with Three Eyes to signifie that it is One and the same God which ruleth in those Three several Parts of the World the Heaven the Sea and the Earth Whether Pausanias were in the right or no as to his Conjecture concerning this Three-ey'd Statue of Jupiter it is evident that himself and other ancient Pagans acknowledged Jupiter Neptune and Pluto to be but Three several Names and Partial Considerations of one and the same God who ruleth over the Whole World And since both Proserpina and Ceres were really the same with Pluto and Salacia with Neptune we may well conclude that all these Jupiter Neptune Salacia Pluto Proserpina and Ceres though several Poetical and Political Gods yet were really taken but for One and the same Natural and Philosophical God Moreover as Neptune was a Name for God as manifesting himself in the Sea and ruling over it so was Juno another Name of God as acting in the Air. This is expresly affirmed both by Xenocrates in Stobaeus and Zeno in Laertius And St. Austin propounding this Quaere Why Juno was joyned to Jupiter as his wife and Sister makes the Pagans answer thus to it Quia Jovem inquiunt in Aethere accipimus in Aere Junonem because we call God in the Aether Jupiter in the Air Juno But the reason why Juno was Feminine and a Goddess is thus given by Cicero Effaeminarunt autem eum Junoni que tribuerunt quod nihil est aere mollius they effeminated the Air and attributed it to Juno a Goddess because nothing is softer than it Minerva was also sometimes taken for a Special or Particular God and then was it nothing else as Zeno informs us but a Name for the Supreme God as Passing through the Higher Aether Which gave occasion to St. Austin thus to object against the Pagan Theology Si aetheris partem Superiorem Minerva tenere dicitur hac occasione fingere Poetas quod de Jovis Capite nata sit cur non ergo ipsa potius Deorum Regina deputatur quod sit Jove Superior If Minerva be said to possess the Highest part of the Aether and the Poets therefore to have feigned her to have been begotten from Jupiter 's head why is not she rather called the Queen of the Gods since she is superiour to Jupiter Furthermore as the Supreme God was called Neptune in the Sea and Juno in the Air so by the same reason may we conclude that he was called Vulcan in the Fire Lastly as the Sun and Moon were themselves sometimes worshipped by the Pagans for Inferiour Deities they being supposed to be Animated with Particular Souls of their own so was the Supreme God also worshipped in them both as well as in the other Parts of the world and that under those names of Apollo and Diana Thus the Pagans appointing a God to preside over every Part of the world did thereby but make the Supreme God Polyonymous all those Gods of theirs being indeed nothing but Several Names of him Which Theology of the Ancient Pagans Maximus Tyrius treating concerning Homer's Philosophy after he had mentioned his Tripartite Empire of the world shared between Jupiter Neptune and Pluto thus declareth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You may find also in Homer other Principles and the Originals of Several names which the ignorant hear as Fables but a Philosopher will understand as Things and Realities For he assigns a Principle of Virtue and Wisdom which he calls Minerva another of Love and Desire which he calls Venus another of Artificialness and that is Vulcan who rules over the Fire And Apollo also with him presides over Dancings the Muses over Songs Mars over War Aeolus over Winds and Ceres over Fruits And then does he conclude thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that no part neither of Nature nor of the World is to Homer Godless or void of a God none
Powers all of them salutiferous and procuring the good of that which is made c. Moreover by these Powers and out of them is the Incorporeal and Intelligible World compacted which is the Archetype of this visible World that consisting of Invisible Ideas as this doth of visible Bodies Wherefore some admiring with a kind of astonishment the Nature of both these worlds have not only Deified the whole of them but also the most excellent parts in them as the Sun and the Moon and the whole Heaven which they scruple not at all to call Gods Where Philo seems to speak of a double Sun Moon and Heaven as Julian did the one Sensible the other Intelligible Moreover Plotinus himself sometimes complies with this Notion he calling the Ideas of the Divine Intellect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible Gods as in that place before cited where he exhorteth men ascending upward above the Soul of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To praise the Intelligible Gods that is the Divine Intellect which as he elsewhere written is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and Many We have now given a full account of Apuleius his sence in that Book De Deo Socratis concerning the Civil and Poetical Pagan Gods which was not to assert a Multitude of Substantial and Eternal Deities or Minds Independent in them but only to reduce the Vulgar Theology of the Pagans both their Civil and Poetical into some conformity with the Natural Real and Philosophick Theology and this according to Platonick Principles Wherein many other of the Pagan Platonists both before and after Christianity concurred with him they making the Many Pagan Invisible Gods to be really nothing but the Eternal Ideas of the Divine Intellect called by them the Parts of the Intelligible and Archetypal World which they supposed to have been the Paradigms and Patterns according to which this Sensible World and all Particular things therein were made and upon which they depended they being only Participations of them Wherefore though this may well be look'd upon as a Monstrous Extravagancy in these Platonick Philosophers thus to talk of the Divine Ideas or the Intelligible and Archetypal Paradigms of things not only as Substantial but also as so many several Animals Persons and Gods it being their humour thus upon all slight occasions to multiply Gods yet nevertheless must it be acknowledged that they did at the very same time declare all these to have been derived from One Supreme Deity and not only so but also to exist in it as they did likewise at other times when unconcerned in this business of their Pagan Polytheism freely acknowledge all these intelligible Ideas to be Really nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conceptions in the Mind of God or the First Intellect though not such Slight Accidental and Evanid ones as those Conceptions and Modifications of our humane Souls are and consequently not to be so many Distinct Substances Persons and Gods much less Independent Ones but only so many Partial Considerations of the Deity What a Rabble of Invisible Gods and Goddesses the Pagans had besides those their Dii Nobiles and Dii Majorum Gentium their Noble and Greater Gods which were the Consentes and Selecti hath been already showed out of St. Austin from Varro and others as namely Dea Mena Deus Vagitanus Dea Levana Dea Cunina Diva Rumina Diva Potina Diva Educa Diva Paventina Dea Venilia Dea Agenoria Dea Stimula Dea Strenua Dea Numeria Deus Consus Dea Sentia Deus Jugatinus Dea Virginensis Deus Mutinus To which might be added more out of other places of the same St. Austin as Dea Deverra Deus Domiducus Deus Domitius Dea Manturna Deus Pater Subigus Dea Mater Prema Dea Pertunda Dea Rusina Dea Collatina Dea Vallonia Dea Seia Dea Segetia Dea Tutilina Deus Nodotus Dea Volutina Dea Patelena Dea Hostilina Dea Flora Dea Lacturtia Dea Matura Dea Runcina Besides which there are yet so many more of these Pagan Gods and Goddesses extant in other Writers as that they cannot be all mentioned or enumerated by us divers whereof have Very Small Mean and Contemptible Offices assigned to them as their names for the most part do imply some of which are such as that they were not fit to be here interpreted From whence it plainly appears that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing at all without a God to these Pagans they having so strong a Perswasion that Divine Providence extended it self to all things and expressing it after this manner by assigning to Every thing in Nature and Every part of the World and whatsoever was done by men some particular God or Goddess by name to preside over it Now that the Intelligent Pagans should believe in good earnest that all these Invisible Gods and Goddesses of theirs were so many Several Substantial Minds or Vnderstanding Beings Eternal and Vnmade really existing in the World is a thing in it self Vtterly Incredible For how could any possibly perswade themselves that there was One Eternal Unmade Mind or Spirit which for example Essentially presided over The Rockings of Infants Cradles and nothing else another over the Sweeping of Houses another over Ears of Corn another over the Husks of Grain and another over the Knots of Straw and Grass and the like And the Case is the very same for those other Noble Gods of theirs as they call them the Consentes and Selecti since there can be no reason given why those should all of them be so many Substantial and Eternal Spirits Self-existent or Vnmade if none of the other were such Wherefore if these be not all so many Several Substantial and Eternal Minds so many Selfexisting and Independent Deities then must they of necessity be either Several Partial Considerations of the Deity viz. the Several Manifestations of the Divine Power and Providence Personated or else Inferiour Ministers of the same And thus have we already shewed that the more High-flown and Platonick Pagans as Julian Apuleius and others understood these Consentes and Select Gods and all the other Invisible ones to be really nothing else but the Ideas of the Intelligible and Archetypal World which is the Divine Intellect that is indeed but Partial Considerations of the Deity as Vertually and Exemplarily conteining all things whilst others of them going in a more plain and easie way concluded these Gods of theirs to be all of them but several Names and Notions of the One Supreme Deity according to the Various Manifestations of its Power in the world as Seneca expresly affirmeth not only concerning Fate Nature and Fortune c. but also Liber Pater Hercules and Mercury before mentioned by him that they were Omnia ejusdem Dei Nomina variè utentis suâ potestate all Names of One and the same God as diversly using his power and as Zeno in Laertius concludes of all the rest or else which amounts to the same thing that they were the Several Powers and Vertues
the Ruling or Governing Principle being put for the Effect or that which was Ruled and Governed by it And thus was War frequently styled Mars and that of Terence may be taken also in this Sence Sine Cerere Libero friget Venus And Plutarch who declares his great dislike of this kind of Language conceives that there was no more at first in it than thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As we when one buyes the Books of Plato commonly say that he buyes Plato and when one acts the Plays of Menander that he acts Menander so did the ancients not spare to call the Gifts and Effects of the Gods by the names of those Gods spectively thereby honouring them also for their Vtility But he grants that afterward this Language was by ignorant Persons abused and carried on further and that not without great Impiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their followers mistaking them and thereupon ignorantly attributing the Passions of Fruits their Appearances and Occultations to the Gods themselves that preside over them and so not only calling them but also thinking them to be the Generations and Corruptions of the Gods have by this means filled themselves with absurd and wicked Opinions Where Plutarch well condemns the Vulgar both amongst the Egyptians and Greeks for that in their mournful Solemnities they sottishly attributed to the Gods the Passions belonging to the fruits of the earth thereby indeed making them to be Gods Nevertheless the Inanimate Parts of the World and Things of Nature were frequently Deified by the Pagans not only thus Metonymically but also in a further Sence as Cicero plainly declares Tum illud quod erat à Deo natum Nomine ipsius Dei nuncupabant ut cum Fruges Cererem appellamus Vinum autem Liberum Tum autem Res ipsa in qua Vis inest Major sic appellatur ut ea ipsa Res nominetur Deus Both that which proceeds from God is called by the name of a God as Corn is sometimes thus called Ceres and Wine Liber and also whatsoever hath any greater Force in it That thing it self is often called a God too Philo also thus represents the Religion of the Pagans as first Deifying Corporeal Inanimate Things and then bestowing those Proper Personal Names upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Some have Deified the Four Elements the Earth the Water the Air and the Fire Some the Sun and the Moon and the Planets and Fixed Stars Others the Heaven others the whole World But that Highest and most Ancient Being the Parent of all things the Chief Prince of this great City and the Emperour of this invincible Army who governeth all things salutiferously Him have they covered concealed and obscured by bestowing Counterfeit Personal Names of Gods upon each of these things For the Earth they called Proserpina Pluto and Ceres the Sea Neptune under whom they place many Demons and Nymphs also as his Inferiour Ministers the Air Juno the Fire Vulcan the Sun Apollo the Moon Diana c. and dissecting the Heaven into Two Hemispheres one above the Earth the other under it they call these the Dioscuri feigning them to live alternately one one day and the other another We deny not here but that the Four Elements as well as the Sun Moon and Stars were supposed by some of the Pagans to be Animated with Particular Souls of their own which Ammianus Marcellinus seems principally to call Spiritus Elementorum the Spirits of the Elements worshipped by Julian and upon that account to be so many Inferiour Gods themselves Notwithstanding which that the Inanimate Parts of these were also Deified by the Pagans may be concluded from hence because Plato who in his Cratylus etymologizeth Dionysus from Giving of Wine and elsewhere calls the fruits of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gifts of Ceres doth himself nevertheless in compliance with this Vulgar Speech call Wine and Water as mingled together in a Glass or Cup to be drunk Gods where he affirmeth that a City ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so temper'd as in a Cup where the furious Wine poured out bubbles and sparkles but being Corrected by another Sober God that is by Water both together make a good and moderate Potion Cicero also tells us that before the Roman Admirals went to Sea they were wont to offer up a Sacrifice to the Waves But of this more afterward However it is certain that meer Accidents and Affections of Things in Nature were by these Pagans commonly Personated and Deified as Time in Sophocles his Electra is a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Time is an easie God and Love in Plato's Symposium where it is wondred at that no Poet had ever made a Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Love being such and so great a God Though the same Plato in his Philebus when Protarchus had called Pleasure a Goddess too was not willing to comply so far there with Vulgar Speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My fear O Protarchus concerning the Names of the Gods is extraordinary great Wherefore as to Venus I am willing to call her what she pleases to be called but Pleasure I know is a Various and Multiform thing Wherefore it cannot be denied but that the Pagans did in some sence or other Deifie or Theologize all the Parts of the World and Things of Nature Which we conceive to have been done at first upon no other Ground than this because God was supposed by them not only to Permeate and Pervade all things to be Diffused thorough All and to Act in and upon All but also to be Himself in a manner All things which they expressed after this way by Personating the Things of Nature Severally and bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Only we shall here observe that this was done especially besides the Greater Parts of the World to Two Sorts of things First such in which Humane Vtility was most concerned Thus Cicero Multae aliae Naturae Deorum ex Magnis Beneficiis eorum non sine causa à Graeciae Sapientibus à Majoribus nostris constitutae nominataeque sunt Many other Natures of Gods have been constituted and nominated both by the wise men of Greece and by our Ancestors meerly for the great Benefits received from them The Reason whereof is thus given by him Quia quicquid magnam Vtilitatem generi afferret humano id non sine Divina Bonitate erga homines fieri arbitrabantur Because they thought that whatsoever brought any great Vtility to mankind this was not without the Divine Goodness Secondly such as were most wonderful and Extraordinary or Surprizing to which that of Seneca seems pertinent Magnorum Fluminum Capita Veneramur Subita ex abdito vasti amnis eruptio Aras habet Coluntur Aquarum Calentium Fontes Stagna quaedam vel Opacitas vel immensa Altitudo
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
accordingly Manilius Quâ pateat Mundum Divino Numine verti Atque Ipsum esse Deum Whereby it may appear the World to be Governed by a Divine Mind and also it self to be God As likewise Seneca the Philosopher Totum hoc quo continemur Vnum est Deus est This whole World within which we are contained is both One thing and God Which is not to be understood of the Meer Matter of the World as it is nothing but a Heap of Atoms or as endued with a Plastick and Sensless Nature only but of it as Animated by such a Soul as besides Sense was originally endued with perfect Understanding and as deriving all its Godship from thence For thus Varro in St. Austin declares both his own and the Stoical Sence concerning this Point Dicit idem Varro adhuc de Naturali Theologia praeloquens Deum se arbitrari esse Animam Mundi quem Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hunc ipsum Mundum esse Deum Sed sicut Hominem Sapientem cum sit ex Corpore Animo tamen ab Animo dici Sapientem ita Mundum Deum dici ab Animo cum sit ex Animo Corpore The same Varro discoursing concerning Natural Theology declareth that according to his own sence God is the Soul of the World which the Greeks call Cosmos and that this World it self is also God But that this is so to be understood that as a Wise man though consisting of Soul and Body yet is denominated Wise only from his Mind or Soul so the World is denominated God from its Mind or Soul only it consisting both of Mind and Body Now if the Whole Animated World be the Supreme God it plainly follows from thence that the Several Parts and Members thereof must be the Parts and Members of God and this was readily acknowledged by Seneca Membra sumus Corporis magni We are all Members of One great Body and Totum hoc Deus est Socii ejus Membra sumus This whole World is God and we are not only his Members but also his Fellows or Companions as if our Humane Souls had a certain kind of Fellowship also with that Great Soul of the Vniverse And accordingly the Soul of the World and the whole Mundane Animal was frequently worshipped by the Pagans in these its several Members the chief Parts of the World and the most important Things of Nature as it were by Piece-meal Nevertheless it doth not at all follow from thence that these were therefore to them Really so many Several Gods for then not only every Man and every Contemptible Animal every Plant and Herb and Pile of Grass every River and Hill and all things else whatsoever must be so many several Gods And that the Pagans themselves did not take them for such Origen observes against that Assertion of Celsus That if the Whole were God then the Several Parts thereof must needs be Gods or Divine too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From hence it would follow that not only Men must be Divine and Gods but also all Brute Animals too they being Parts of the World and Plants to boot Nay Rivers and Mountains and Seas being Parts of the World likewise if the Whole World be God must according to Celsus needs be Gods also Whereas the Greeks themselves will not affirm this but they would only call those Spirits or Demons which preside over these Rivers and Seas Gods Wherefore this Vniversal Assertion of Celsus is false even according to the Greeks themselves That if the whole be God then all the Parts thereof must needs be Divine or Gods It following from thence that Flyes and Gnats and Worms and all kind of Serpents and Birds and Fishes are all Divine Animals or Gods Which they themselves who assert the World to be God will not affirm Wherefore though it be true that the Pagans did many times Personate and Deifie the Chief Parts of the World and Things of Nature as well as they did the Several Powers and Vertues of the Mundane Soul diffused through the whole World yet did not the intelligent amongst them therefore look upon these as so many True and Proper Gods but only worship them as Parts and Members of One Great Mundane Animal or rather Worship the Soul of the whole World their Supreme Deity in them all as its various Manifestations This St. Austin intimates when writing against Faustus the Manichean he prefers even the Pagan Gods before the Manichean Jam verò Coelum Terra Mare Aer Sol Luna caetera sydera omnia haec manifesta oculis apparent atque ipsis sensibus praesto sunt Quae cum Pagani tanquam Deos colunt vel tanquam PARTES VNIVS MAGNI DEI nam universum Mundum quidam eorum putant MAXIMVM DEVM ea colunt quae sunt Vos autem cum ea colatis quae omninò non sunt propinquiores essetis Verae Pietati si saltem Pagani essetis qui Corpora colunt etsi non colenda tamen vera Now the Heaven Earth Sea and Air Sun Moon and Stars are Things all manifest and really present to our senses which when the Pagans Worship as Gods or as PARTS OF ONE GREAT GOD for some of them think the Whole World to be the GREATEST GOD they Worship things that are so that you worshipping things that are not would be nearer to true Piety than you are were you Pagans and worshipped Bodies too which though they ought not to be worshipped yet are they True and Real Things But this is further insisted upon by the same St. Austin in his Book De C. D. where after that large Enumeration of the Pagan Gods before set down he thus convinces their Folly in worshipping the Several Divided Members Parts and Powers of the One Great God after that manner Personated Haec omnia quae dixi quaecunque non dixi non enim omnia dicenda arbitratus sum Hi omnes Dii Deaeque sit Vnus Jupiter sive sint ut quidam volunt omnia ista Partes ejus sive Virtutes ejus sicut eis videtur quibus eum placet esse Mundi Animum quae sententia velut magnorum multorumque Doctorum est Haec inquam si ita sint quod quale sit nondum interim quaero Quid perderent si Vnum Deum colerent prudentiori Compendio Quid enim ejus contemneretur cum ipse coleretur Si autem metuendum sit nè Praetermissae sive Neglectae Partes ejus irascerentur non ergo ut volunt velut Vnius Animantis haec tota vita est quae Omnes simul continet Deos quasi Suas VIRTVTES vel MEMBRA vel PARTES sed suam quaeque Pars habet vitam à caeteris separatam si praeter alteram irasci altera potest alia placari alia concitari Si autem dicitur Omnia simul id est Totum ipsum Jovem potuisse offendi si PARTES ejus non etiam
is also the Light it self and it is certain that Darkness cannot comprehend this Light nor insinuate it self with it In like manner the Nature of the Holy Ghost is such as can never receive Pollution it being Substantially and Essentially Holy But whatsoever other Nature is Holy it is only such in way of Participation and by the Inspiration of this Holy Spirit so that Holiness is not its very Nature and Essence but only an Accident to it and whatsoever is but Accidental may fail All Created Beings therefore having but Accidental Goodness and Wisdom may Degenerate and fall into Evil and Folly Which of Origen's is all one as if he should have said there is no such Rank of Beings as Autogaathotetes Essential Goodnesses there being only one Being Essentially Good or Goodness it self Nor no such Particular Created Beings existing in Nature as the Platonists call Noes neither that is Minds or Intellects Immovable Perfectly and Essentially Wise or Wisdom it self whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Essence is their Operation and who consequently have no Flux at all in them nor Successive Action only the Eternal Word and Wisdom of God being such who also are absolutely Ununitable to any Bodies It is true that Origen did sometimes make mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minds or Intellects but it was in another sence he calling all Souls as first Created by God and before their Lapse by that name which was as much as if he should have said though some of the Platonists talk much of their Noes yet is there nothing answerable to that name according to their Notion of them but the only Noes really existing in Nature are Vnfallen but Peccable Souls he often concluding that the Highest Rank of Created Beings are indeed no better than those which the Platonists commonly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Souls By which Souls he understood first of all Beings in their own nature Selfmoveable and Active whereas the Noes of the Platonists are altogether Immoveable and above Action And then again such Beings or Spirits Incorporeal as exist not Abstractly and Separately from all Matter as the Noes of the Platonists were supposed to do but are Vitally Vnitable to Bodies so as together with those Bodies to compound and make up One Animal Thus I say Origen conceived even of the Highest Angelical and Arch-Angelica Orders that they were eall of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls United to Bodies but such as were Pure Subtil and Ethereal however he supposed it not Impossible for them to sink down into Bodies more Gross and Feculent And it is certain that many of the Ancient Christian Writers concurred with Origen herein that the Highest Created Spirits were no Naked and Abstract Minds but Souls cloathed with some Corporeal Indument Lastly Origen's Souls were also supposed to be all of them endowed with Liberum Arbitrium or Free-Will and consequently to be Self-improvable and Self-impairable and no Particular Created Spirits to be absolutely in their own Nature Impeccable but Lapsible into Vitious Habits Whereas as the Platonick Noes are supposed to be such Beings as could never Fall nor Degenerate And the Generality of the Christian Writers seem'd to have consented or conspir'd with Origen in this also they supposing him who is now the Prince of Devils to have been once an Angel of the Highest Order Thus does St. Jerome determine Solus Deus est in quem Peccatum non cadit caetera cùm sint Liberi Arbitrii possunt in utramque partem suam flectere voluntatem God is the only Being that is absolutely uncapable of sin but all other Beings having Free Will in them may possibly turn their Will to either way that is to Evil as well as to Good It is certain that God in a sence of Perfection is the most Free Agent of all neither is Contingent Liberty Universally denied to him but here it is made the only Privilege of God that is of the Holy Trinity to be devoid of Liberum Arbitrium namely as it implieth Imperfection that is Peccability and Lapsibility in it It is true that some of the Platonick Philosophers suppose that even in that Rank of Beings called by them Souls though they be not Essentially Immutable but all Self-moveable and Active yet there are some of them of so high a Pitch and Elevation as that they can never Degenerate nor sink down into Vitious Habits Thus Simplicius for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the First and Highest of Souls which were Immediately produced from what are Essentially Good although they have some abatement in them they being not Goodnesses Essentially but desirous of Good nevertheless are they so near a kin to that Highest Good of all as that they do Naturally and Indivulsively cleave to the same and have their Volitions always uniformly directed towards it they never declining to the worser Insomuch that if Proaeresis be taken for the Choosing of one thing before another perhaps there is no such thing as Proaeresis to be imputed to them unless one should call the choosing of the First Goods Proaeresis By these higher Souls Simplicius must needs understand either the Souls of the Sun Moon and Stars or else those of the Superiour Orders of Demoniack or Angelick Beings Where though he make a Question Whether Proaeresis or Deliberation belong to them yet does he plainly imply that they have none at all of that Lubricous Liberum Arbitrium or Free-will belonging to them which would make them capable of Vice and Immorality as well as Vertue But whatever is to be said of this there seems to be no necessity at all for admitting that Assertion of Origen's that all Rational Souls whatsoever even those of Men and those of the highest Angelical Orders are Universally of one and the same Nature and have no Fundamental or Essential Difference in their Constitution and consequently that all the difference that is now betwixt them did arise only from the Difference of their Demeanour or Use of that Power and Liberty which they all alike once had So that Thrones and Dominions and Principalities and Powers were all made such by their Merits and Humane Souls though now sunk so low yet are not absolutely Uncapable of Commencing Angels or ascending to those highest Altitudes as it is not impossible according to him neither but that the Highest Angels also the Seraphim and Cherubim might in length of time not only Degenerate into Devils but also sink down into Humane Bodies His reason for which Monstrous Paradox is only this that the Divine Justice cannot otherwise well be salved but God must needs be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Acepter of Persons should he have Arbitrarily made such vast Differences amongst Intellectual Beings Which Ground he also extendeth so far as to the Humane Soul of our Saviour Christ himself as being not Partially appointed to that transcendent
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
such may be made evident from the Records of credible Writers Psellus in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Operat Daem averrs it of a certain Maniacal Woman That though she knew nothing but her own Mother tongue yet when a Stranger who was an Armâ—nian was brought into the Room to her she spake to him presently in the Armâ—nian Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We all stood amazed when we heard a woman that had never seen an Armenian before in all her life nor had learnt any thing but the use of her Distaff to speak the Armenian Language readily Where the Relater also affirmeth the same Maniacal Person to have foretold certain Future Events which happened shortly after to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then looking upon me she or rather the Demon said thou shalt suffer wonderful pains and torments in thy Body For the Demons are extremely angry with thee for opposing their Services and Worship and they will inflict great evils upon thee out of which thou shalt not be able to escape unless a Power greater than that of Demons exempt thee from them All which things saith he happened shortly after to me and I was brought very low even near to Death by them but was by my Saviour wonderfully delivered Whereupon Psellus concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is there therefore that considering this Oracle or Prediction will conclude as some Physicians do all kind of Madnesses to be nothing but the Exorbitant Motions of the Matter or Humours and not the Tragick Passions of the Demons But because this Instance is remoter from our present Times we shall set down another remarkable one of a later Date out of the forementioned Fernelius who was an eye-witness thereof A young man of a Noble Family who was strangly Convulsed in his Body having sometimes one member and sometimes another violently agitated insomuch that four several persons were scarcely able to hold them and this at first without any distemper at all in his head or crazedness in brain To whom Fernelius with other skilful Physicians being called applied all manner of remedies Blisters Purgations Cupping-Glasses Fomentations Unctions Plaisters and Strengthening Medicines but all in vain The reason whereof is thus given by the the same Fernelius Quoniam omnes longe aberamus à cognitione veri Nam Mense Tertio primum deprehensus Daemon quidam totius Mali Author Voce insuetisque verbis ac sententiis tum Latinis tum Graecis quanquam ignarus Linguae Graecae Laborans esset se prodens Is multa â—ssidentium maximáque medicorum Secreta detegebat ridens quòd irritis Pharmacis corpus hoc penè jugulassent Because we were all far from the Knowledge of the truth For in the Third Month it was first plainly discovered to us that it was a certain Demon who was the Author of all this mischief He manifesting himself by his Speech and by unusual Words and Sentences both in Greek and Latin though the Patient were altogether ignorant of the Greek Tongue and by his revealing many of the Secrets of those who stood by especially of the Physicians whom also he derided for tormenting the Patient in that manner with their frustraneous remedies Here therefore have we an unquestionable Instance of a Demoniack in these Latter times of ours and such a one who at first for two Moneths together had no manner of Madness or Mania at all upon him though afterward the Demon possessing his Whole Body used his tongue and spake therewith Fernelius concludes his whole Discourse in this manner These things do I produce to make it manifest that Evil Demons or Devils do sometimes enter into the very Bodies of men afflicting and tormenting them after an unheard of manner but that at other times though they do not enter into and possess their whole body yet partly by exagitating and disturbing the profitable humours thereof partly by traducing the noxious into the principal parts or else by by obstructing the Veins and other Passages with them or disordering the structure of the Members they cause innumerable Diseases There are many other Instances of this kind recorded by Modern Writers unexceptionable of Persons either wholly Demoniacal and Possessed by Evil Demons this appearing from their discovering Secrets and speaking Languages which they had never learnt or else otherwise so Affected and Infested by them as to have certain Vnusual and Super-Natural Symptoms which for brevities sake we shall here omit However we thought it necessary thus much to insist upon this Argument of Demoniacks as well for the Vindication of Christianity as for the Conviction of Atheists we finding some so staggering in their Religion that from this one thing alone of Demoniacks they being so strongly possessed that there neither is nor ever was any such they are ready enough to suspect the whole Gospel or New Testament it self of Fabulosity and Imposture We come now to the Second Head proposed of Miracles and Effects Supernatural That there hath been some thing Miraculous or Above Nature sometimes done even among the Pagans whether by Good or Evil Spirits appears not only from their own Records but also from the Scripture it self And it is well known that they pretended besides Oracles to Miracles also even after the times of Christianity and that not only in Apollonius Tyanaeus and Apuleius but also in the Roman Emperours themselves as Vespasian and Adrian but especially in the Temple of Aesculapius thus much appearing from that Greek Table therein hung up at Rome in which amongst other things this is Recorded That a blind man being commanded by the Oracle to kneel before the Altar and then passing from the Right side thereof to the Left to lay five fingers upon the Altar and afterwards lifting up his hand to touch his eyes therewith all this being done accordingly he recovered his sight the people all applauding that great Miracles were done under the Emperour Antoninus c. But we have in the Scripture an account of Miracles both greater in Number and of a higher Nature done especially by Moses and our Saviour Christ and his Apostles Wherefore it seems that there are Two Sorts of Miracles or Effects Supernatural First such as though they could not be done by any Ordinary and Natural Causes here amongst us and in that respect may be called Supernatural yet might notwithstanding be done God Permitting only by the Ordinary and Natural Power of other Invisible Created Spirits Angels or Demons As for example If a Stone or other Heavy body should first ascend upwards and then hang in the Air without any Visible either Mover or Supporter this would be to us a Miracle or Effect Supernatural and yet according to Vulgar Opinion might this be done by the Natural Power of Created Invisible Beings Angels or Demons God only permitting without whose special Providence it is conceived they cannot thus intermeddle with our humane affairs Again If a perfectly Illitterate Person should readily speak
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
of that Earthy Body into its Elements Certainly it can be no other than this Pneumatical or Spirituous Body which we now speak of For in this are Seated as their Subject the Irascible and Concupiscible Passions and they are inseparable from the same nor could they be in the Soul disunited from all Body And that Soul which is freed from these would be forthwith freed from Generation nor would it be concerned in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons but be carried up aloft to the higher Celestial Regions c. After which he endeavours further to confirm this Opinion from the Vulgar Phaenomena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Furthermore that there is such a Pneumatical Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body which accompanieth Souls Vnpurged after Death is evident also from the Phaenomena themselves For what account can otherwise be given of those Spectres or Phantasms which appear Shadow-like about Graves or Sepulchres since the Soul it self is neither of any Figure nor yet at all Visible Wherefore these Ancients say that Impure Souls after their departure out of this Body wander here up and down for a certain space in their Spirituous Vaporous and Airy Body appearing about Sepulchres and haunting their former Habitations For which cause there is great reason that we should take care of Living Well as also of abstaining from a Fouler and Grosser diet these Ancients telling us likewise that this Spirituous Body of ours being fouled and incrassated by Evil Diet is apt to render the Soul in this Life also more Obnoxious to the Disturbances of Passions And here Philoponus goes on to gratifie us with a further Account of some other of the Opinions of these Ancients concerning this Spirituous or Airy Body accompanying the Soul after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They further add that there is Something of the Plantal and Plastick Life also Exercised by the Soul in those Spirituous or Airy Bodies after Death they being Nourished too though not after the same manner as these Gross Earthy Bodies of ours are here but by Vapours and that not by Parts or Organs but throughout the Whole of them as Sponges they imbibing every where those Vapours For which cause they who are wise will in this Life also take care of using a Thinner and Dryer Diet that so that Spirituous Body which we have also at this present time within our Grosser Body may not be Clogged and Incrassed but Attenuated Over and above which those Ancients made use of Catharms or Purgations to the same end and purpose also For as this Earthy Body is washed by Water so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours some of these Vapours being Nutritive others Purgative Moreover these Ancients further declared concerning this Spirituous Body that it was not Organized but did the Whole of it in every Part throughout exercise all Functions of Sense the Soul Hearing and Seeing and Perceiving all Sensibles by it every where For which Cause Aristotle himself affirmeth in his Metaphysicks That there is properly but One Sense and but One Sensory He by this One Sensory meaning the Spirit or Subtle Airy Body in which the Sensitive Power doth all of it through the Whole immediately apprehend all Variety of Sensibles And if it be demanded How it comes then to pass that this Spirit appears Organized in Sepulchres and most commonly of Humane Form but sometimes in the Form of some other Animals to this those Ancients Replied That their appearing so frequently in Humane Form proceedeth from their being Incrassated with Evil Diet and then as it were stamped upon with the Form of this Exteriour Ambient Body in which they are as Crystal is Formed and Coloured like to those things which it is fastned in or Reflects the Image of them And that their having sometimes other different Forms proceedeth from the Phantastick Power of the Soul it self which can at pleasure transform this Spirituous Body into any shape For being Airy when it is Condensed and Fixed it becometh Visible and again Invisible and Vanishing out of Sight when it is Expanded and Rarefied Now from these Passages cited out of Philoponus it further appeareth that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality did not suppose Humane Souls after Death to be quite strip'd Stark Naked from all Body but that the Generality of Souls had then a certain Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body accompanying them though in different Degrees of Purity or Impurity Respectively to themselves As also that they conceived this Spirituous Body or at least something of it to hang about the Soul also here in this Life before Death as its Interiour Indument or Vestment which also then sticks to it when that other Gross Earthly Part of the Body is by Death put off as an Outer Garment And some have been inclinable to think by reason of certain Historick Phaenomena these Two to be things so distinct that it is not Impossible for this Spirituous Body together with the Soul to be Locally separated from the other Grosser Body for some time before Death and without it And indeed thus much canâ—ot be denied that our Soul Acteth not Immediatly only upon Bones Flesh and Brains and other such like Gross Parts of this Body but first and chiefly upon the Animal Spirits as the Immediate Instruments of Sense and Phancy and that by whose Vigour and Activity the other Heavy and Unwieldy Bulk of the Body is so nimbly Moved And therefore we know no reason but we may assent here to that of Porphyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Blood is the Food and Nourishment of the Spirit that is that Subtle Body called the Animal Spirits and that this Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul or the more Immediate Seat of Life Nevertheless the same Philoponus there addeth that according to these Ancients besides the Terrestial Body and this Spirituous and Airy Body too there is yet a Third kind of Body of a Higher Rank then either of the Former peculiarly belonging to such Souls after Death as are Purged and Cleansed from Corporeal Affections Lusts and Passions called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Luciform and Celestial and Ethereal Body The Soul saith he continueth either in the Terrestrial or the Aereal Body so long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vntil that having Purged it self it be carried aloft and freed from Generation And then doth it put off both the Irascible and Concupisciple Passions at once together with this Second Vehicle or Body which we call Spirituous Wherefore these Ancients say that there is another Heavenly Body always conjoyned with the Soul and Eternal which they call Luciform and Star-like For it being a Mundane thing must of necessity have some Part of the World as a Province allotted to it which it may administer And since it is always Moveable and ought always to Act it must have a
Body Eternally conjoyned with it which it may always Enliven And for these Causes do they affirm the Soul always to have a Luciform Body Which Lucid and Etherial Body of the Soul is a thing often mentioned by other Writers also as Proclus in his Commentary upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Humane Soul hath also saith he such an Ethereal Vehicle belonging to it as Plato himself intimâ—tâ—s when he affirmeth the Demiurgus at first to have placed it in a Chariot For of necâ—ssity every Soul before this Mortal Body must have an Eternal and easily Moveable Body it being Essential to it to move And elsewhere the same Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we remain above we have no need of these Divided Organs which now we have descending into Generation but the Vniform Lucid or Splendid Vehicle is sufficient this having all Senses Vnited together in it Which Doctrine of the Vnorganized Luciform and Spirituous Vehicles seems to have been derived from Plato he in his Epinomis writing thus concerning a Good and Wise man after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom whether I be in Jest or Earnest I constantly affirm that when dying he shall yield to Fate he shall no longer have this Variety of Senses which now we have but One Vniform Body and live a happy Life Moreover Hiâ—rocles much insisteth upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Luciform and Ethereal Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which also saith he the Oracles call the Thin and Subtle Vehicle or Chariot of the Soul he meaning doubtless by these Oracles the Magical or Chaldaick Oracles before mentioned And amongst those now Extant under that Title there seems to be a clear acknowledgment of these Two Vehicula of the Soul or Interiour Induments thereof the Spirituous and the Luciform Body the latter of which is there Enigmatically called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Plain Superficies in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take care not to Defile or Contaminate the Spirit nor to make the Plain Superficies Deep For thus Psellus glosseth upon that Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaick Philosophers bestow upon the Soul Two Interiour Tunicles or Vestments the one of which they called Pneumatical or the Spirituous Body which is weaved out as it were to it and compounded of the Gross Sensible Body it being the more Thin and Subtle part thereof the other the Luciform Vestment of the Soul Pure and Pellucide and this is that which is here called the Plain Superficies Which saith Pletho is not so to be understood as if it had not Three Dimensions for as much as it is a Body also but only to denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof Wherefore when the aforesaid Hierocles also calls this Luciform and Etherial Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Vehicle of the Rational Soul he takes not the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Sense wherein it is used by Philoponus and Others as if he intended to confound this Etherial Body with that other Spirituous or Airy Body and to make but one of them but rather styles it Spiritual in a higher Sense and which cometh near to that of the Scripture as being a Body more Suitable and Cognate with that Highest and Divinest Part of the Soul Mind or Reason then the other Terrestial Body is which upon that account is called also by the same Hierocles as well as it is by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Animal or Natural Body So that this Spiritual Body of Hierocles is not the Airy but the Etherial Body and the same with Synesius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Divine Body And that this Distinction of two Interior Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides that Outer Vestment of the Terrestial Body styled in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crustaceous or Ostrâ—aceous Body is not a meer Figment of the latter Platonists since Christianity but a Tradition derived down from Antiquity appeareth plainly from Virgil in his Sixth Aenead where though not commonly understood he writeth first of the Spirituous or Airy Body in which Unpurged Souls receive Punishment after Death thus Quin Supremo cum Lumine Vita reliquit Non tamen omne Malum miseris nec funditus omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad Ventos aliis sub gurgite Vasto Infectum eluitur Scelus aut exuritur Igni And then again of the other Pure Ethereal and Fiery Body in this manner Donec Longa dies perfecto temporis Orbe Concretam exemit labem Purumque reliquit Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Now as it was before observed that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality supposing it to have besides this Terrestial Body another Spirituous or Airy Body conceived this not only to accompany the Soul after Death but also to hang about it here in this Life as its Interiour Vest or Tunicle they probably meaning hereby the same with that which is commonly called the Animal Spirits diffused from the Brain by the Nerves throughout this whole Body in like manner is it certain that Many of them supposing the Soul besides those Two forementioned to have yet a Third Luciform or Etherial Body conceived this in like manner to adhere to it even in this Mortal Life too as its Inmost Clothing or Tunicle yet so as that they acknowledged the Force thereof to be very much weakned and abâ—ted and its Splendour altogether obscured by the Heavy Weight and Gross Steams or Vapours of the Terrestial Body Thus Suidas â—poâ— the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us out of Isidore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to some Philosophers the Soul hath a certain Luciform Vehicle called also Star or Sun-like and Eternal which Luciform Body is now shut up within this Terrestrial Body as a Light in a dark Lanthorn it being supposed by some of them to be included within the Head c. With which agreeth Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Splendid or Luciform Body lieth in this Mortal Body of ours continually Inspiring it with Life and containing the Harmony thereof The ground of which opinion was because these Philosophers generally conceived the Humane Soul to have Pre-Existed before it came into this Earthly Body and that either from Eternity or else from the First beginning of the World's Creation and being never without a Body and then in a Perfect State to have had a Lucid and Etherial Body either Co-Eternal or Co-Eve with it though in order of Nature Junior to it as its Chariot or Vehicle which being Incorruptible did always inseparably adhere to the Soul in its After Lapses and Descents into an Aerial first and then a Terrestrial Body this being as it were the Vinculum of Union betwixt the Soul
Account which the Scripture it self giveth us of the Resurrection and First in General when S. Paul Answering that Querie of the Philosophick Infidel How are the dead raised or with what Body do they come Replieth in this manner Thou Fool that is thou who thinkest to puzzle or baffle the Christian Article of the Resurrection which thou understandest not That which thou sowest is not Quickened to the Production of any thing except it first die to what it was And thou sowest not that Body that shall be but bare Grain as of Wheat or of Barley or the like but God in the ordinary course of Nature giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him that is a Stalk and an Eare having many Grains with Husks in it and therefore neither in Quantity nor Quality the same with that which was Sowed under Ground Nor does he give to all Seeds one and the same kind of Body neither but to every seed it s own correspondent Body as to Wheat one kind of Eare and to Barley another As if he should have said Know that this Present Body of ours is to be look'd upon but as a kind of Seed of the Resurrection-Body which therefore is accordingly in some sense the Same and in some sense not the Same with it Besides which General Account the Particular Oppositions which the Scripture makes betwixt the Present and Future Body seem very agreeable to those of the Philosophick Cabala For First the Present Body is said to be Sowed in Corruption but the Future Raised in Incorruption For the Children of the Resurrection cannot die any more And then Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Wherefore the Christian Resurrection-Body as well as that of the Philosophick Cabala is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too 2 Cor. 5.1 an Immortal and Eternal Body Again the Body Sowed is said to be a Dishonourable Ignominious and Inglorious Body and therefore called also by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Body of our Humility or Humiliation A Body agreeable to this Lapsed State of the Soul But the Body which shall be Raised shall be a Glorious Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conformable to that Glorious Body of Christ. Who when he was but Externally Transfigured his Face did shine as the Sun and his Raiment was white as the Light The Glory of a Body consisteth only in the Comliness of its Proportion and the Spendor thereof Thus is there one Glory of the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars that is a different Splendor of them Wherefore the Future Body of the Righteous according to the Scripture also as well as the Philosophick Cabala will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Glorious Splendid Luciform and Star-like Body Wisd. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous in the time of their Visitation shall shine forth Daniel 12. the 2. and 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And Matthew the 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father And therefore probably this Future Glorious Resurrection Body is that Inheritance of the Saints in Light which the Scripture speaks of Col. 1. the 12. Moreover there is another difference betwixt this Present and that Future Body of the Righteous wherein S. Paul and Hierocles do well agree the First being called by both of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Animal Body The Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Spiritual Body Which latter expression in Scripture does not only denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof but also as this Present Body is called an Animal Body because it is suitable and agreeable to that Animal Life which men have Common with Brutes so is that Future called Spiritual as bearing a fit proportion and correspondency to Souls renewed in the Spirit of their Mind or in whom the Divine Spirit Dwelleth and Acteth exercising its Dominion There is an Animal Body and there is a Spiritual Body And the First Adam was made a Living Soul the Last Adam a Quickning Spirit And thus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who have not the Spirit And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Animal Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Which Spirit is also said in Scripture to be the Earnest of that our Future Inheritance Ephesians the 1. the 14. and the Earnest of this Spiritual and Heavenly Body 2 Corinth the 5. the 5. It is also said to be that by which Efficiently these Mortal Bodies shall be Quickened Romans the 8. the 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also Quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Neither doth Hierocles fall much short of this Scripture Notion of a Spiritual Body when he describes it to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is Agreeable to the Intellectual Perfection of the Soul This Spiritual Body is that which the Ancient Hebrews called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eagles Wings We reading thus in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin c. 11. fol. 92. col 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you Ask what shall become of the Righteous when God shall renew the world the Answer is God shall make them wings like Eagles whereby they shall fly upon the Face of the Waters Again as this Present Body is called in Scripture an Earthly Body so is the Future Body of the Righteous styled by S. Paul as well as the Pythagoreans a Heavenly Body and they who shall then be possessors thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heavenly men 1 Cor. 15. As is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly Besides which as Philosophers supposed both Demons or Angels and Men to have one and the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a like Lucid Heavenly and Etherial Body so from that of our Saviour when he affirmeth that they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the Resurrection from the dead will neither Marry nor be given in Marriage nor can die any more for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels from hence I say we may venture to call this Resurrection-Body of the Just also an Angelical or Isangelical Body and the rather because the Ancient Hebrews as we learn from Nachmonides in Shaar Haggemul styled it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angelical Clothing of the Soul and Tertullian himself Angelificatam Carnem Angelified Flesh. But Lastly S. Paul is not only Positive in his Doctrine here but also Negative Now this I say brethren that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit
Origenick Hypothesis the same with the Pythagorick That in Angels there is a Complication of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance both together or that they are Animals consisting of Soul and Body We shall now make it appear that the Greater part of the Ancient Fathers were for neither of the Two fore-mentioned Extreams Either That Angels were wholly Incorporeal or that they were wholly Corporeal but rather for the Middle Hypothesis That they Had Bodies and yet Were not Bodies But as other Terrestrial Animals Spirits or Souls Clothed with Etherial or Aerial Bodies And that the Generality of the Ancient and most Learned Fathers did not conceive Angels to be meer Vnbodied Spirits is unquestionably Evident from hence because they agreed with the Greek Philosophers in that Conceit that Evil Demons or Devils were therefore delighted with the Blood and Nidours of Sacrifices as having their more Gross Aiery and Vaporous Bodies nourished and refreshed with those Vapours which they did as it were Luxuriate and Gluttonize in For thus does Porphyrius write concerning them in his Book De Abstinentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are they who take pleasure in the Incense Fumes and Nidours of Sacrifices wherewith their Corporeal and Spirituous Part is as it were Pinguified for this Lives and is Nourished by Vapours and Fumigations And that before Porphyrius many other Pagan Philosophers had been of the same Opinion appeareth from this of Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We ought to give Credit to wise men who affirm that most of these Lower and Circumterraneous Demons are delighted with Geniture Bloud and Nidour and such like things and much gratified therewith though they be not able to do any thing more in way of recompence then sometimes perhaps to cure the Body or to foretel good and evil Fortunes to Men and Cities Upon which account himself though a zealous Pagan perswadeth men to moderation in the Use of these Sacrifices as Principally gratifying the Inferiour and Worser Demons only In like manner Origen frequently insisteth upon the same thing he affirming that Devils were not only delighted with the Idolatry of the Pagans in their Sacrifices but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their very Bodies were Nourished by the Vapours and Fumes arising from them and that these Evil Demons therefore did as it were Deliciate and Epicurize in them And before Origen most of the Ancient Fathers as Justine Martyr Athenagoras Tatianus Tertullian c. and also many others after him endeavour to disparage those Material and Bloody Sacrifices upon the same Account as things whereby Evil Demons were principally Gratified We shall here only cite one passage to this purpose out of St. Basil or who ever were the Author of that Commentary upon Isaiah because there is something Philosophick in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifices are things of no small pleasure and advantage to Demons because the Blood being evaporated by Fire and so attenuated is taken into the Compages and Substances of their Bodies The whole of which is throughout nourished with Vapours not by Eating and Stomachs or such like Organs but as the Hairs and Nayls of all Animals and whatsoever other things Receive nourishment into their whole Substance And thus do we see it undeniably manifest that many of the Ancient Fathers supposed Devils to have Bodies neither can it at all be doubted but that they concluded the same of Angels too these being both of the same kind and differing but as Good and Evil men And though they do not affirm this of Good Angels but of Devils only that they were thus Delighted and Nourished with the Fumes and Vapours of Sacrifices and that they Epicurized in them yet was not the reason hereof because they conceived them to be altogether Incorporeal but to have Pure Etherial or Heavenly Bodies it being proper to those Gross and Vaporous Bodies of Demons only to be Nourished and Refreshed after that manner And Now that all these Ancient Fathers did not suppose either Angels or Devils to be altogether Corporeal or to have nothing but Body in them may be concluded from hence because many of them plainly declared the Souls of Men to be Incorporeal and therefore it cannot be imagined that they should so far degrade Angels below Men as not to acknowledge them to have any thing at all Incorporeal But we shall now Instance in some few amongst many of these Ancients who plainly asserted both Devils and Angels to be Spirits Incorporate and not to Be meer Bodies but only to Have Bodies that is to consist of Soul and Body or Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance joyned together That Angels themselves Have Bodies is every where declared by St. Austine in his Writings he affirming that the Bodies of Good men after the Resurrâ—ction shall be Qualia sunt Angelorum Corpora Such as are the Bodies of Angels and that they shall be Corpora Angelica in Societate Angelorum Angelical Bodies fit for Society and Converse with Angels and declaring the difference betwixt the Bodies of Angels and of Devils in this manner Daemones antequam transgrederentur Coelestia Corpora gerebant quae conversa sint ex poena in Aeream Qualitatem ut jam possint ab Igne Pati That though Devils before the Transgression had Celestial Bodies as Angels now have yet might these afterwards in way of Punishment be changed into Aerial ones and such as now may suffer by Fire Moreover the same St. Austin some where calleth Good Angels by the name of Animae Beatae atque Sanstae Happy and Holy Souls And though it be true that in his Retractations he recalleth and correcteth this yet was this only a Scrupulosity in that Pious Father concerning the meer word because he no where found in Scripture Angels called by the name of Souls it being far from his meaning even there to deny them to be Incorporeal Spirits joyned with Bodies And certainly he who every where concludes Humane Souls to be Incorporeal cannot be thought to have supposed Angels to have nothing at all but Body in them Again Claudianus Mamertus writing against Faustus who made Angels to be meer Bodies without Souls or any thing Incorporeal maintaineth in way of Opposition not that they are meer Incorporeal Spirits without Bodies which is the other Extream but that they consist of Corporeal and Incorporeal Soul and Body Joyned together he writing thus of the Devils Diabolus ex Duplici diversaque Substantia constat Corporeus est Incorporeus The Devil consisteth of a double and different Substance he is Corporeal and he is also Incorporeal And again of Angels Patet Beatos Angelos Vtriusque Substantiae Incorporeos esse in ea sui parte qua ipsis Visibilis Deus in ea itidem Parte Corporeos qua hominibus sunt ipsi Visibiles It is manifest that the blessed Angels are of a Two-fold Substance that they are Incorporeal in that part of theirs
the Regurgitation of the Faeces upward towards the Ventricle The First Atheistick Instance of the Faultiness of things in the Frame of Nature is from the Constitution of the Heavens and the Disposition of the Aequator and Ecliptick intersecting each other in an Angle of Three and Twenty Degrees and upwards whereby as they pretend the Terrestrial Globe is rendred much more Uninhabitable than otherwise it might be But this is built upon a False Supposition of the Ancients that the Torrid Zone or all between the Tropicks was utterly Uninhabitable by reason of the Extremity of Heat And it is certain that there is nothing which doth more demonstrate a Providence than this very thing it being the most Convenient Site or Disposition that could be devised as will appear if the Inconveniences of other Dispositions be considered especially these Three First If the Axes of those Circles should be Parallel and their Plains Coincident Secondly If they should Intersect each other in Right Angles and Thirdly which is a Middle betwixt both If they should cut one another in an Angle of Forty Five Degrees For it is evident that each of these Dispositions would be attended with far greater Inconveniences to the Terrestrial Inhabitants in respect of the Length of Days and Nights Heat and Cold. And that these two Circles should continue thus to keep the same Angular Intersection when Physical and Mechanick Causes would bring them still nearer together this is a farther Eviction of a Providence also In the next place the Atheist supposes that according to the general Perswasion of Theists the world and all things therein were Created only for the Sake of Man he thinking to make some advantage for his Cause from hence But this seemeth at first to have been an Opinion only of some strait-laced Stoicks though afterward indeed recommended to others also by their own Self-love their Over Weaning and Puffy Conceit of themselves And so Fleas and Lice had they Understanding might conclude the Bodies of other greater Animals and Men also to have been made only for them But the Whole was not properly made for any Part but the Parts for the Whole and the Whole for the Maker thereof And yet may the things of this Lower World be well said to have been Mâ—de Principally though not Only for Man For we ought not to Monopolize the Divine Goodness to our selves there being other Animals Superiour to us that are not altogether Unconcerned neither in this Visible Creation and it being reasonable to think that Even the Lower Animals likewise and whatsoever hath Conscious Life was made partly also to Enjoy it self But Atheists can be no Fit Judges of Worlds being made Well or Ill either in general or respectively to Mankind they having no Standing Measure for Well and Ill without a God and Morality nor any True Knowledge of themselves and what their own Good or Evil Consisteth in That was at first but a Froward Speech of some sullen discontented Persons when things falling not out agreeably to their own Private Selfish and Partial Appetites they would Revenge themselves by Railing upon Nature that is Providence and calling her a Stepmother only to Mankind whilst she was a Fond Partial and Indulgent Mother to other Animals and though this be Elegantly set off by Lucretius yet is there nothing but Poetick Flourish in it all without any Philosophick Truth The Advantages of Mankind being so notoriously conspicuous above those of Brutes But as for Evils in general from whence the Atheist would conclude the God of the Theist to be either Impotent or Envious it hath been already declared that the True Original of them is from the Necessity of Imperfect Beings and the Incompossibility of things but that the Divine Art and Skill most of all appeareth in Bonifying these Evils and making them like Discords in Musick to contribute to the Harmony of the Whole and the Good of Particular Persons Moreover a great part of those Evils which men are afflicted with is not from the Reality of Things but only from their own Phancy and Opinions according to that of the Moralist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not Things themselves that disturb men but only their Own Opinions concerning things and therefore it being much in our own Power to be freed from these Providence is not to be Blamed upon the account of them Pain is many times nearly linked with Pleasure according to that Socratick Fable That when God could not reconcile their Contrary Natures as he would he Tyed them Head and Tayl together And good men know that Pain is not the Evil of the Man but only of the Part so affected as Socrates also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It goes no further than the Leg where it is But this is many times very Serviceable to free us from the Greater Evils of the Mind upon which all our Happiness dependeth To the Atheists who acknowledge no Malum Culpae No Evil of Fault Turpitude or Dishonesty Death is the Greatest and most Tragical of all Evils But though this according to their forlorn Hypothesis be nothing less than an Absolute Extinction of Life yet according to the Doctrine of the Genuine Theists which makes all Souls Substantial no Life of it self without Divine Annihilation will ever quite Vanish into Nothing any more than the Substance of Matter doth And the Ancient Pythagoreans and Platonists have been here so Kind even to the Souls of Brutes also as that they might not be left in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility after Death as to bestow upon them certain Subtle Bodies which they may then continue to Act in Nor can we think otherwise but that Aristotle from this Fountain derived that Doctrine of his in his Second Book De Gen. An. c. 3. where after he had declared the Sensitive Soul to be Inseparable from Body he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls therefore seem to have another Body and Diviner than that of the Elements and as themselves differ in Dignity and Nobility so do these Bodies of theirs differ from one another And afterwards calling this Subtle Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit he affirmeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Only as Galen and S. Austin and others have conceived Aristotle deviated here from the Pythagoreans in this that he supposed the Sensitive Soul it self to be really nothing else but this Very Subtle and Star-like Body and not a distinct Substance from it using it only as a Vehicle Nevertheless he there plainly affirmeth the Mind or Rational Soul to be really distinct from the Body and to come into it From Without Pre-Existing and consequently should acknowledge also its After-Immortality But whatsoever Aristotles Judgment were which is not very Material it is Certain that Dying to the Rational or Humane Soul is nothing but a withdrawing into the Tyring-house and putting off the Clothing of this Terrestrial Body
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