You are an excellent Proficient Hylobares that can thus vary emprove and maintain things from so few and slender hints I never spoke with better success to any one in all my life touching these matters Hyl. I finde my self hugely at ease since your freeing me O Philotheus from that prejudice that whatsoever is extended must be Matter Whence I can now easily admit the Existence of Spirits but have therefore the greater Curiosity and find my self finely at leisure to be more punctually instructed concerning the nature of them Philoth. I dare say Hylobares you will be able abundantly to instruct your self touching that Point if we do but first carefully settle the Notion of Matter whose essence I conceive consists chiefly in these three Attributes Self-disunity Self-impenetrability and Self-inactivity Hyl. But I desire O Philotheus to know the distinct meaning of every one of these terms Philoth. By Self-disunity I understand nothing else but that Matter has no Vinculum of its own to hold it together so that of it self it would be disunited into a Congeries of mere Physicall Monads that is into so little particles that is implies a Contradiction they should be less Hyl. I understand the Notion well enough But what makes you attribute Disunity to Matter rather then firm Union of parts especially you attributing Self-inactivity thereto Philoth. Because there is no Vinculum imaginable in Matter to hold the parts together For you know they are impenetrable and therefore touch one another as it were in smooth Superficies's How therefore can they hold together what is the Principle of their Union Cuph. O that is very clear Philotheus that sâ—upendious Wit Des-Cartes plainly tells us that it is Rest. Philoth. But I pray do you tell me Cuphrophron what is Rest Cuph. That is easily understood from Motion which Des-Cartes intimates to be the Separation or translation of one part of Matter from the other Philoth. And so Rest is the Vnion or Vnseparateness of one part of Matter from another Cuph. I can imagine nothing else by it For if a whole mass of Matter move together in one hard piece the whole is moved but the parts in respect of one another because they do not separate one from another are said to rest And on this account Motion is said to be reciprocall because indeed Separation is so Philoth. Then Rest and Vnseparateness of parts are all one Cuph. It seems so Philoth. And Vnseparateness and Vnion all one Cuph. The very same I think Philoth. Why then Rest and Vnion is all one and so the Principle of the Vnion of the parts of Matter is the Vnion of their parts Hyl. That is they have no Principle of Vnion at all and therefore of themselves are disunited Philoth. And there is great reason they should have none forasmuch as they are to be bound together in such forms and measures as some more Divine cause shall order Cuph. I think in my heart Philotheus and Hylobares have both plotted a conspiracy together against that Prince of Philosophers our admired Des-Cartes Hyl. Philotheus and I have conspired in nothing O Cuphophron but what so noble a Philosopher would commend us for that is the free searching out of truth In which I conceive we are not unsuccessfull For I must confess I am convinced that this first Attribute of 〈◊〉 as Philotheus has explained 〈◊〉 true And for Self-impenetraâ—â—â—â—â—y it is acknowledged of all sides but what do you mean O Philotheus by â—â—â—finactivity Philoth. I mean that Matter does not move nor actuate it self but is or has been alwaies excited by some other and cannot modifie the motion it is excited into but moves directly so as it is first excited unless some externall cause hinder Hyl. This I understand and doubt not of the truth thereof Cuph. This is no more then Des-Cartes himself allows of Bath And good reason O Cuphophron he should doe so For there being no Medium betwixt Self-activity and Self-inactivity nor betwixt Self-union and Self-disunity nor any immediate Genus to these distributions as Cogitation and Figure are to the kindes or modes under them it is necessary that one of the twain and 〈◊〉 an indifferency to either should 〈◊〉 the innate Property of so simple an Essence as Matter and that therefore Self-inactivity and Self-disunity should be the Properties thereof it being a passive Principle and wholly to be guided by another Philoth. You say right Bathynous and the Consectary from all this will be That Sympathy cannot immediately belong to Matter Hyl. Very likely Philoth. We are fully agreed then touching the right Notion or nature of Matter Hylobares Hyl. We are so Philotheus Philoth. Can you then miss of the true Notion of a Spirit Hyl. Methinks I finde my self able to define it by the rule of Contraries For if Self-disunity Self-inactivity Self-impenetrability be the essential Attributes of Matter or Body then the Attributes of the opposite species viz. of Spirit must be Self-unity Self-activity Self-penetrability Philoth. Very right And have you not as distinct a Notion of every one of these Attributes as of the other Hyl. I will try By the Self-unity of a Spirit I understand a Spirit to be immediately and essentially one and to want no other Vinculum to hold the parts together but its own essence and existence whence it is of its own nature indiscerpible Philoth. Excellently well defined Hyl. This I am carried to by my Reason But methinks my Imagination boggles and starts back and brings me into a suspicion that it is the Notion of a thing that cannot be For how can an extended Substance be indivisible or indiscerpible For quatenus extended it must be divisible Philoth. It is true it is intellectually divisible but Physically indiscerpible Therefore this is the fallacy your Phancy puts upon you that you make Indivisibility and Indiscerpibility all one What is intellectually divisible may be Physicallâ— indivisible or indiscerpible as it is manifest in the nature of God whose very Idea implies Indiscerpibility the contrary being so plain an Imperfection For whatsoever is discerpible is also movable But nothing is movable but must be conceived to move in that which is a necessary and immovable Essence and which will necessarily be though there were nothing else in the world which therefore must be the holy Essence of God as Bathynous has very well noted already and seems to have light upon the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle sought for above the Heavens but Bathynous has rightly found to be every-where Wherefore at length to make our Inference If it imply a Contradiction Hylobares that the Divine Extension should be discerpible extended Essence quatenus extended cannot imply Physicall Divisibility Hyl. It is very true Philotheus Philoth. What hinders then but Spirit quatenus Spâ—rit according to the right Idea thereof be immediately or essentially one that is to say indiscerpible For what is immediately and essentially one and
ingenuous I think the Authour will not easily seem to have over-shot himself in any thing unless in his over-plain and open opposing that so-much-admired Phâ—losopher Renatus Des-Cartes on whom persons well versed in Philosophicall Speculations have bestowed so high Encomiums especially a Writer of our own who besides the many Commendations he up and down in his Writings adorns him with compares him in his Appendix to the Defence of his Philosophicall Cabbala to Bezaliel and Aholiab as if he were inspired from above with a Wit so curiously Mechanicall as to frame so consistent a Contexture of Mechanicall Philosophy as he did And the late learned Authour of Philosophia Scripturae Interpres after an operose subtile and copious endeavour of evincing that Philosophy is the best Interpreter of Scripture as if all that pains had been intended in the behalf of Des-Cartes to set him in the infallible chair he concludes all at last with a very high and unparallel'd Elogie of the Cartesian Philosophy Wherefore it may very well be questioned whether it was so advisedly done of the Writer of these Dialogues to adventure the exposing of his own Credit by so openly opposing and oppugning the great Name and Authority of so very famous and eminent a Philosopher as Cartesius But for my part I must confess the more he may have exposed himself by this freedome provided that he be in the right which the impartial Reader must judge of the Points that are controverted are of such great consequence that I think it is in him the more conspicuous Act of Vertue and that that very ground upon which this Imputation of Over-shooting himself is raised is a Principle to be abhorred by all good and generous Spirits namely As if it were a point of Imprudence to be less tender of a man 's own private Credit then of the Glory of God and the publick Good or As if any one ought to lose any esteem by doing what is râ—ally â—orthy and laudable Besides he does but follow the Pattern of that very Authour that is observed so highly to have commended Des-Cartes most of the Allegations against his Philosophy being more fully pursued in that Encomiast's Writings And in that very Epistle to V. C. where he makes it his business to apologize for him and to extoll him and magnifie him to the skies yet he does plainly and apertly declare That it is a kinde of vile and abject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superstitious idolizing of Matter to pretend that all the Phaenomena of the Universe will arise out of it by mere Mechanical Motion And yet in the same Epistle he seems to acknowledge that there may be some few effects purely Mechanicall Which I believe was from his over-great desire of making Des-Cartes seem as considerable as he could with any judgement and Conscience But for my part upon my more seriously considering what occurrs in these Dialogues I am abundantly assured that there is no purely-Mechanicall Phaenomenon in the whole Vniverse Nor ought that Authour so to be understood in the comparing Cartesius with Bezaliel and Aholiab as if he did really believe he was supernaturally inspired For with what face can any one put that sense upon such an high-flown Complement whenas he does as well up and down in his Works plainly and zealously confute Des-Cartes where he findes him faulty in things of any concern as praise him and commend him where he deserves it Which is a plain indication he did not take him to be infallibly inspired And it may be the right Exegesis of Bezaliel and Aholiab's being filled with the Spirit of God is but their being filled with wisedome of heart for those Mechanicall Curiosities of Work as it is signified toward the end of that Chapter That they had a special and extraordinary Genius that way which was the gift of God in Nature Besides that every great thing in Nature according to the Hebrew Idiom has its denomination from God And therefore to be filled with the Spirit of God in wisedome and understanding c. is to have a great measure of Wisedome and Vnderstanding in such and such things As without question Des-Cartes had a great deal of Wit and Sagacity to finde out the most credible Material Causes of the Phaenomena of the World and to order them into the most specious Contexture that the thing is capable of to make up a Mechanicall Philosophy But that these things can neither arise nor hold together without an higher Principle that must superintend and guide them this great Encomiast of his does as plainly declare in severall places as the Contriver of these present Dialogues does But as for the Authour of Philosophia Scripturae Interpres I must confess I do much admire that after he has laboured so much to make good his Argument he should pitch upon Des-Cartes his Philosophy as such a safe Oracle to consult about the meaning of Scripture It is true that severall strokes of it are very fitly applicable to a Philosophical sense of the Six daies Creation but those are such as are comprehended in the Pythagorick frame of the Vniverse and correspond with the ancient Cabbala are no new Inventions of the Cartesian Wit And the truth is that which makes Des-Cartes his Philosophy look so augustly on 't is in that he has interwoven into it that noble System of the World according to the Tradition of Pythagoras and his Followers or if you will of the most ancient Cabbala of Moses But the rest of his Philosophy is rather pretty then great and in that sense that he drives at of pure Mechanism enormously and ridiculously false But now for those Principles or Passages in his Philosophy that are more peculiarly his own there is nothing more estranged from the Genius of the Scripture and the service of Theologie then they For fuller satisfaction and for the suavity of the Coâ—ceit's sake let us make triall in some few It is a grand Principle with him that where-ever we cannot but conceive an Extension or Expansion we must likewise necessarily conceive there is Matter And therefore because we cannot but conceive an indefinite Space round about us extended we cannot but conceive Matter all along extended Which plainly implies we cannot but conceive there is Matter what-ever else there is Whence it follows that its existence is necessary of it self and independent of God because in its very Notion or Idea it cannot but â—e conceived to be we being not able otherwise to conceive but that there is an indefinite Extension round about us How this will comport with the absolute Perfection of God or how sound a sense it will render of the first Verse in Genesis I leave to any one to conjecture Again It is as confessed a Principle with him that Matter alone with such a degree of Motion as is supposed now in the Vniverse will produce all the Phaenomena of the World Sun Moon and Stars Air
Meadow-pastures Cuph. Away Hylobares you are a very Wag. I perceive you will break your brown study at any time to reach me a rap upon the thumbs Euist. Gentlemen I know not whether you be in earnest or in jest touching these Aereall Genii in remote Solitudes But this I can assure you that besides the usual and frequent fame of the dancing of Fairies in Woods and desolate places Olaus and other Historians make frequent mention of these things and that there are Daemones Metallici that haunt the very inside of Mountains and are seen to work there when men dig in the Mines What merriment they also make on the outside of vast and remote Hills that one Story of Mount Athos may give us an Instance of as the matter is described in Solinus The impression of the passage sticks still fresh in my memory even to the very words Silet per diem universus nec sine horrore secretus est lucet nocturnis ignibus choris Aegipanum undique personatur audiuntur caâ—tus tibiarum tinnitus cymbalorum per oram maritimam But of a more dreadfull hue is that Desart described by Paulus Venetus near the City Lop as I take it in the Dominions of the great Cham. This Wilderness saith he is very mountainous and barren and therefore not fit so much as to harbour a wilde Beast but both by day and especially by night there are heard and seen severall Illusions and Impostures of wicked Spirits For which cause Travellers must have a great care to keep together For if by lagging behinde a man chance to lose the sight of his company amongst the Rocks and Mountains he will be called out of his way by these busie Deceivers who saluting him by his own name and feigning the voice of some of his Fellow-travellers that are gone before will lead him aside to his utter destruction There is heard also in this Solitude sometimes the sound of Drums and Musicall Instruments which is like to those noises in the night on Mount Athos described by Solinus Wherefore such things as these so frequently occurring in History make Bathynous his Conceit to look not at all extravagantly on it Sophr. Our Saviour's mentioning Spirits that haunt dry places gives some countenance also to this Conceit of Bathynous Euist. And so does the very Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Notation is from the field But all these must be lapsed Spirits therefore Bath I as sure as men themselves are lapsed then which nothing is more Euistor Euist. And so lapsed Spirits and lapsed men divide the Earth amongst them And why not the Sea too Bathynous Bath You mean the Air over the surface of the Sea For the Sea is sufficiently well peopled with Fishes Euist. 'T is true Sophr. If this were not as Poeticall as Lucretius his Poetry it self his Arguments against Providence were very weak indeed But this is to bring in again the Nereîdes and Oreades of the Pagans Euist. And if so why not also the Hamadryades and other Spirits of the Woods that the vast Woods Lucretius complains of may not be left to wilde Beasts onely no more then the Sea to the Fishes Sophr. In my apprehension Lucretius seems mightily at a loss for Arguments against Providence while he is forced thus to fetch them from the Woods Cuph. Because you think Sophron that no Arguments can be brought from thence but wooden ones Sophr. Indeed Cuphophron I was not so witty But because the plentifull provision of Wood and Timber is such a substantial pledge of Divine Providence the greatest Conveniences of life depending thereupon Euist. That is so plain a case that it is not to be insisted upon And yet it is not altogether so devoid of difficulty in that the great Woods are such Coverts for wilde Beasts to garrison in Bath But you do not consider what a fine harbour they are also for the harmless Birds But this is the Ignorance and rude Immorality of Lucretius that out of a streight-lac'd Self-love he phansies all the World so made for Man that nothing else should have any share therein whenas all Vnregenerate persons are as arrant brute Animals as these very Animals they thus vilifie and contemn Sophr. I thank you for that Bathynous for from hence methinks an Answer is easily framed against his Objection from Man's being liable to be infested by horrible and hurtfull Beasts For considering the general Mass of Mankinde was grown such an Herd of wicked Animals that is Beasts what repugnancy to Providence is it that one Beast invades another for their private advantage But yet Providence sent in such secret supplies to these Beasts in humane shape that seemed otherwise worse appointed for fight then their savage enemies armed with cruel Teeth and Stings and Horns and Hoofs and Claws which she did partly by endowing them with such Agility of body and Nimbleness in swarming of trees as Apes and Monkeys have now but chiefly by giving them so great a share of Wit and Craft and combining Policy that Lucretius has no reason to complain against Nature for producing these Objects that do but exercise mens Policy and Courage and have given them an opportunity of so successfull a Victory as we see they have obtained in a manner throughout the whole World at this very day And lastly for that lamentable Story of the circumstances of the entrance of Infants into this life it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is mere poeticall Smoke or Fume that vanishes in the very uttering of it and is so far from being a just Subject of Lucretius his complaining Rhetorick against Providence that it is a pregnant Instance of the exactness and goodness of Providence in Nature For there being so much wit and care and contrivance in Mankinde both Male and Female the weakness and destituteness of the Infant is a gratefull Object to entertain both the skill and compassion of that tenderer Sex both Mother Midwife Nurse or what other Assistents Though perhaps there has come in a greater debility in Nature by our own defaults But how-ever that Body that was to be an Habitacle for so sensible a Spirit as the humane Soul ought to be more tender and delicate then that of brute Beasts according to that Physiognomonicall Aphorism of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is the crying of the Infant so much a presage of the future Evils of life as a begging of aid against the present from them about him by this natural Rhetorick which Providence has so seasonably furnished him with And for Lambs and Calves and Cubs of Foxes they are not so properly said to need no Rattles as not to be capable of them they having not so excellent a spirit in them as to be taken up with the admiration of any thing For the Child's amusement at the Rattle is but the effect of that Passion which is the Mother of Reason and all Philosophy And for that last
Water Earth Plants Animals and the Bodies of Men in such order and organization as they are found Which Principle in his Philosophy certainly must prove a very inept Interpreter of Rom. 1. 19 20. where the eternall Power and Godhead is said clearly to be seen by the things that are made insomuch that the Gentiles became thereby unexcusable But if the Cartesian Philosophy be true it was their ignorance they could not excuse themselves For they might have said That all these things might come to pass by Matter and mere Mechanicall Motion and that Matter excludes Motion in its own Idea no morè then it includes Rest so that it might have Motion of it self as well as its Existence according to the former Implication See also how fit a Gloss this Principle will afford upon Acts 14. 17. and how well that Text agrees with the first Section of the first Chapter of Des-Cartes his Meteors A third peculiar property of his Philosophy is A seeming Modesty in declining all search into the Final causes of the Phaenomena of the World as if forsooth that were too great a presumption of humane wit to pry into the Ends of God's Creation whenas indeed his Philosophy is of that nature that it prevents all such Researches things coming to pass according to it as if God were not at all the Creatour and Contriver of the World but that mere Matter Mechanically swung about by such a measure of Motion fell necessarily without any more to doe into this Frame of things we see and could have been no otherwise then they are and that therefore all the particular Vsefulnesses of the Creation are not the Results of Wisedome or Counsel but the blinde issues of mere Material and Mechanicall Necessity And things being so it is indeed very consistent to cast the consideration of the Final Cause out of the Mechanicall Philosophy But in the mean time how fit an Interpreter of Scripture this Philosophy will be in such places as that of the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all I understand not For according to this Philosophy he has made noâ—e of them so Let the zealous Cartesian reade the whole 144 Psalm and tune it in this point if he can to his Master's Philosophy Let him see also what sense he can make of the first to the Corinthians Ch. I. v. 21. Fourthly The Apparitions of Horsemen and Armies encountring one another in the Air 2 Macch. 5. let him consider how illustrable that passage is from the last Section of the 7. Chapter of Des-Cartes his Meteors and from the conclusion of that whole Treatise Fifthly That of the Prophet The Oxe knows his owner and the Ass his Master's Crib as also that of Solomon The righteous man regardeth the life of his Beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel what an excellent Gloss that Conceit of Des-Cartes his of Brutes being senseless Machina's will produce upon these Texts any one may easily foresee And lastly Gal. 5. 17. where that Enmity and conflict betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit is mentioned and is indeed as serious and solemn an Argument as any occurrs in all Theologie what light the Cartesian Philosophy will contribute for the more 〈…〉 this so important Mystery may easily be conjectured from the 47th Article of his Treatise of the Passions where the Combate betwixt the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit as they are termed in Scripture and Divinity is at last resolved into the ridiculous Noddings and Ioggings of a small glandulous Button in the midst of the Brain encountred by the animal Spirits rudely flurting against it This little sprunt Champion called the Conarion or Nux pinea within which the Soul is entirely cooped up acts the part of the Spirit as the animal Spirits of the Flesh. And thus by the Soul thus ingarrison'd in this Pine-kernell and bearing herself against the Arietations or Iurrings of the Spirits in the Ventricles of the Brain must that solemn Combat be performed which the holy Apostle calls the War betwixt the Law of our Members and the Law of our Minde Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amiâ—i Would not so trivial and Iudicrous an account of Temptation and Sin occasion Bodâ—nus his â—â—lack-smith to raise as derisorious a Proverb touching actual Sin as he did touching original and make them say What adoe is there about the wagging of a Nut as well as he did about the eating of the Apple Besides if this Conflict be not a Combat betwixt two contrarie Lives seated in the Soul her self but this that opposes the Soul be merely the Spirits in such an Organized body as Cartesius expresly affirms the Souls of the wicked and of the godly in the other state are equally freed from the importunities of Sin These few Tasts may suffice to satisfie us how savoury an Interpreter the Cartesian Philosophy would prove of Holy Scripture and Theologicall Mysteries So that Religion can suffer nothing by the lessening of the Repute of Cartesianism the Notions that are peculiar thereto having so little tendency to that service Indeed if Cartesius had as well demonstrated as affirmed that Matter cannot think he had directly deserved well of Religion it self But how-ever Providence has so ordered things that in an oblique way his Philosophy becomes serviceable to Religion whether he intended it or no or rather that of it that was most against his intention namely the Flaws and Defects so plainly discoverable in it For the unsuccessfulness of his Wit and Industry in the Mechanicall Philosophy has abundantly assured the sagacious that the Phaenomena of the Vniverse must be entitled to an higher and more Divine Principle then mere Matter and Mechanicall Motion Which is the main reason that his greatest Encomiast does so affectionately recommend the reading of the Cartesian Philosophy as you may see in the Preface to his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul These things I think duly considered will easily clear the Authour of these Dialogues from all imputation of Imprudence in opposing the renowned Philosopher in such things as it is of so great concern thus freely to oppose him especially he going very little farther then his highest Encomiasts have led the way before him Nor can I bethink me of any else that may have any colourable Pretense of a just Complaint against him unless the Platonists who haply may judge it an unfit thing that so Divine a Philosophy should be so much slurred by introducing Cuphophron a Platonist uttering such tipsie and temulent Raptures and Rhetoricall Apologies as he does in the Second and Third Dialogues for the extenuating the hideousness of Sin besides the ill Tendency of such loose and lusorious Oratorie And yet the judicious I believe will finde those passages as pertinent and usefull as those that bear the face of more Severity and Reservedness and will easily remember that
unsatisfied touching the Goodness of Providence by reason of the sad Scene of things in the World 470. XXVII An Hypothesis that will secure the Goodness of Providence were the Scene of things on this Earth ten times worse then it is 473. XXVIII Bathynous his Dream of the two Keys of Providence containing the above-mentioned Hypothesis 480. XXIX His being so rudely and forcibly awaked out of so Divine a Dream how consistent with the Accuracy of Providence 492. XXX That that Divine Personage that appeared to Bathynous was rather a Favourer of Pythagorism then Cartesianism 496. XXXI The Application of the Hypothesis in the Golden-Key-Paper for the clearing all Difficulties touching the Moral Evils in the World 502. XXXII Severall Objections against Providence fetch'd from Defects answered partly out of the Golden partly out of the Silver-Key-Paper 514. XXXIII Difficulties touching the Extent of the Universe 520. XXXIV Difficulties touching the Habitableness or Unhabitableness of the Planets 523. XXXV That though the World was created but about six thousand years ago yet for ought we know it was created as soon as it could be 536. XXXVI Hylobares his excess of Ioy and high Satisfaction touching Providence from the Discourse of Philotheus 549. XXXVII The Philosopher's Devotion 552. XXXVIII The Hazard and Success of the foregoing Discourse 556. XXXIX The Preference of Intellectual Joy before that which is Sensual 557. XL. That there is an ever-anticipative Eternity and inexterminable Amplitude that are proper to the Deity onely 559. Errata Pag-75 lin 2. reade Ac Aq. p. 151. l. 24. r. Res cogitantes p. 213. l. 16. r. as in p. 278. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 339. l. 13. r. neighbour Pâ—ilotheâ—s p. 340. l. 4. r. Philoth p. 345. l. ulâ— r. bear p. 441. l. 14. for have r. hear p. 457. l. 20. r. Hathney and the Brasilian The proper Characters of the Persons in the ensuing Dialogues with some Allusion to their Names Philotheus A zealous and sincere Lover of God and Christ and of the whole Creation Bathynous The Deeply-thoughtfull or profoundly-thinking man Sophron The Sober and wary man Philopolis The pious and loyall Politician Euistor A man of Criticism Philologie and History Hylobares A young witty and well-moralized Materialist Cuphophron A zealous but Airie-minded Platonist and Cartesian or Mechanist The general Character All free spirits mutually permitting one another the liberty of Philosophizing without any breach of Friendship DIVINE DIALOGVES CONTAINING Several Disquisitions and Instructions touching the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE IN THE WORLD THE FIRST DIALOGUE Philotheus Bathynous Sophron Philopolis Euistor Hylobares Cuphophron Cuph. THrice welcome O Philotheus who have brought along with you two such desireable Associates as Bathynous and Sophron Will you please to make a step up into the Garden Philoth. With all our hearts There â—s nothing more pleasant these Summer Evenings then the cool open Air. And I 'll assure you it is very fresh here and the Prospect very delightsome Cuph. Methinks I envy Greatness for nothing so much as their magnificent Houses and their large Gardens and Walks their Quarters contrived into elegant Knots adorned with the most beautifull Flowers their Fountains Cascades and Statues that I might be in a more splendid capacity of entertaining my Friends This would be to me no small prelibation of the Joys of Paradise here upon Earth Philoth. For my part Cuphophron I think he need envy no body who has his Heart full fraught with the Love of God and his Mind established in a firm belief of that unspeakable Happiness that the vertuous and pious Soul enjoys in the other State amongst the spirits of just men made perfect The firm belief of this in an innocent Soul is so high a prelibation of those eternal Joys that it equalizes such an one's Happiness if he have but the ordinary Conveniences of life to that of the greatest Potentates Their difference in external Fortune is as little considerable as a Semidiameter of the Earth in two measures of the highest Heaven the one taken from the Surface of the Earth the other from its Centre The disproportion you know is just nothing Cuph. It is so Philoth. And for gratifying your Friends They that are in a capacity of being truly such are as fully well satisfy'd with your ordinary Entertainment as if you were Master of the Fortunes of Princes Besides that it would be hazardous to your self to live in that affected Splendour you speak of as it is not altogether safe to affect it For both the desire and enjoyment of external Pomp does naturally blinde the eyes of the Mind and attempts the stifling of her higher and more heavenly Operations engages the Thoughts here below and hinders those Meditations that carry the Soul to an anticipatory view of those eternal Glories above Cuph. What you say Philotheus may be and may not be These things are as they are used But I must confess I think worldly Fortunes are most frequently abused and that there is a danger in them which makes me the more contented with the state I am in Philoth. And so you well may be Cuphophron for though you will not admit you live splendidly yet it cannot be deny'd but that you live neatly and elegantly For such are the Beds and Alleys of this little spot of Ground and such also that Arbour if the Inside be as neat as the Outside Cuph. That you may quickly see Philotheus Philoth. All very handsome Table Cushions Seats and all Cuph. Here I love to entertain my Friends with a frugâ—l Collation a cup of Wine a dish of Fruit and a Manchet The rest they make up with free Discourses in Philosophy And this will prove your greatest Entertainment now Philotheus if Philopolis Euistor and Hylobares were come Sophr. No Entertainment better any-where then a frugal Table and free and ingenuous Discourse But I pray you Cuphophron who is that Hylobares Is it he who is so much famed for holding That there is nothing but Body or Matter in the world That there is nothing Iust or Vnjust in its own nature That all Pleasures are alike honest though it be never so unaccountable a satisfaction of either a man's Cruelty or his Lust Cuph. O no it is not he For I verily believe I know who you mean though it never was yet my fortune to be in his company and I least of all desire it now For he is a person very inconversable and as they say an imperious Dictatour of the Principles of Vice and impatient of all dispute and contradiction But this Hylobares is quite of another Genius and extraction one that is as great a Moralist on this side rigour and severity of life as he is a Materialist and of a kind and friendly nature Bath That is not incredible For I see no reason why a Soul that is infortunately immersed into this material or corporeall Dispensation may not in the main be as
solid a Moralist as a Mathematician For the chief Points of Morality are no less demonstrable then Mathematicks nor is the Subtilty greater in Moral Theorems then in Mathematicall Sophr. In my mind it is a sign of a great deal of natural Integrity and inbred Nobleness of spirit that maugre the heaviness of his Complexion that thus strongly bears him down from apprehending so concerning Metaphysicall Truths yet he retains so vivid râ—sentments of the more solid Morality Philoth. That will redound to his greater Joy and Happiness whenever it shall please God to recover his Soul into a clearer knowledge of himself For even Moral Honesty it self is part of the Law of God and an adumbration of the Divine life So that when Regeneration has more throughly illuminated his Understanding I doubt not but that he will fall into that pious admiration and speech of the ancient Patriarch Verily God was in this place and I knew not of it Wherefore those that are the true lovers of God must be friendly and lovingly disposed towards all his Appearances and bid a kinde welcome to the first dawnings of that Diviner Light Cuph. But besides the goodness of his Disposition he has a very smart Wit and is a very shrewd Disputant in those Points himself seems most puzzled in and is therein very dexterous in puzzling others if they be not through-paced Speculatours in those great Theories Sophr. If he have so much Wit added to his Sincerity his case is the more hopefull Cuph. What he has of either you will now suddenly have the opportunity to experience your selves for I see Philopolis and the rest coming up into the Garden I will meet them and bring them to you Gentlemen you are all three welcome at once but most of all Philopolis as being the greatest Stranger Philop. I pray you Cuphophron is Philotheus and the rest of his Company come Cuph. That you shall straightways see when you come to the Arbour Philop. Gentlemen we are very well met I am afraid we have made you stay for us Philoth. It was more fitting that we should stay for Philopolis then he for us But we have been here but a little while Cuph. A very little while indeed but now our Company is doubled so little will be twice as little again I am very much transported to see my little Arbour scored with such choice Guests But that mine own Worthlesness spoils the conceit I could think our Company parallel to the Seven wise men of Greece Hyl. I warrant the Septenary will be henceforth much more sacred to Cuphophron for this day's Meeting Cuph. The Senary at least Hyl. You are so transported with the pleasure of the presence of your Friends O Cuphophron that you forget to tell them how welcome they are Cuph. That is soon recounted I sent into my Arbour just before Philotheus came this dish of Fruit and this Wine the best I hope in all Athens and I begin to Philopolis and bid you now all welcome at once Hyl. You was very early in your provision Cuphophron Cuph. I did early provide for our privacy that there might be no need of any body 's coming here but our selves Hyl. A large Entertainment Cuph. I keep touch both with my promise to Philopolis and with my own usual Frugality in these kind of Collations And yet Hylobares you have no cause to complain you have to gratifie all your five Senses Here is another Glass tast this Wine Hyl. It is very good Cuphophron and has an excellent flavour Cuph. There 's to gratifie your Tast then Hylobares besides the delicacy of these ripe Fruit which recreate also the Nostrils with their Aromatick sent as also does the sweet smell of the Eglantines and Hony-suckles that cover my Arbour Hyl. But what is there to gratifie the Touch Cuphophron Cuph. Is there any thing more delicious to the Touch then the soft cool Evening-Air that fans it self through the leaves of the Arbour and cools our bloud which youth and the season of the year have overmuch heated Hyl. Nothing that I know of nor any thing more pleasant to the Sight then the Faces of so many ingenuous Friends met together whose Candour and Faithfulness is conspicuous in their very Eyes and Countenances Cuph. Shame take you Hylobares you have prevented me It is the very Conceit and due Complement I was ready to utter and bestow upon this excellent Company Hyl. It seems good wits jump and mine the nimbler of the two But what have you to gratifie the Ear Cuphophron Cuph. Do you not hear the pleasant Notes of the Birds both in the Garden and on the Bowre And if you think meanly of this Musick I Pray you give us a cast of your skill and play us a Lesson on your Flagellet Hyl. Upon condition you will dance to it Sophr. I dare say Philopolis thinks us Athenians very merry Souls Philop. Mirth and Chearfulness O Sophron are but the due reward of Innocency of life which if anywhere I believe is to be found in your manner of living who do not quit the World out of any Hypocrisie Sullenness or Superstition but out of a sincere love of true Knowledge and Vertue But as for the pretty warbling of the Birds or that greater skill of Hylobares on the Flagellet I must take the liberty to profess that it is not that kind of Musick that will gain my Attention at this time when I see so many able and knowing persons met together but the pursuance of some instructive Argument freely and indifferently managed for the finding out of the Truth Nothing so musicall to my ears as this Cuph. Nor I dare say to any of this Company Philopolis Philop. But I am the more eager because I would not lose so excellent an opportunity of improving my Knowledg For I never met with the like advantage before nor am likely again to meet with it unless I meet with the same Company Cuph. We are much obliged to you for your good opinion of us Philopolis But you full little think that you must be the Beginner of the Discourse your self Philop. Why so Cuphophron Cuph. For it is an ancient and unalterable Custome of this place that in our Philosophical Meetings he that is the greatest Stranger must propound the Argument Whether this Custome was begun by our Ancestors out of an ambition of shewing their extemporary ability of speaking upon any Subject or whether out of mere civility to the Stranger I know not Philop. I believe it was the latter I am so sensible of the advantage thereof and do not onely embrace but if need were should claim the privilege now I know it but shall use it with that modesty as to excuse the choice of my Argument if it shall appear rather a Point of Religion then Philosophy For Religion is the Interest of all but Philosophy of those onely that are at leisure and vacant from the affairs of the world
Philoth. Let not that trouble you Philopolis For for my part I look upon the Christian Religion rightly understood to be the deepest and the choicest piece of Philosophy that is Philop. I am glad to hear you say so Philotheus for then I hope the Argument I shall pitch upon will not appear over-unsuitable It is touching the Kingdome of God Cuph. Philopolis hath both gratify'd Philotheus and most exquisitely fitted himself in the choice of his Argument his Genius and Affairs being so notedly Politicall It must be a very comprehensive Argument in which Religion Philosophy and Policy do so plainly conspire Philoth. It must indeed But what are the Quere's you would propose touching the Kingdome of God O Philopolis Philop. They are chiefly these First What the Kingdome of God is Secondly When it began and where it has been or is now to be found Thirdly What Progress it hath made hitherto in the world Lastly What Success it is likely to have to the End of all things Philoth. These are grand Questions indeed Philopolis insomuch that I am mightily surprised that so weighty and profound Quere's should come from a person that is so continuedly taken up with affairs of the World Cuph. I dare pawn my life that the noise of the fifth Monarchy or the late plausible sound of setting Jesus Christ in his Throne did first excite Philopolis to search after these Mysteries Philoth. I am not so curious to enquire into the first occasions of Philopolis his search after these things as solicitous for what end he now so eagerly enquires after them For it is a great and general errour in mankind that they think all their Acquisitions are of right for themselves whether it be Power or Riches or Wisedom and conceit they are no farther obliged then to fortifie or adorn themselves with them whenas they are in truth mere Depositum's put into their hands by Providence for the common good so that it were better they had them not then not to use them faithfully and conscienciously to that end for they bring the greater snare upon their own heads by such acquired Abilities and make themselves obnoxious to the greater condemnation unless they use them as I said as the Depositum's of God not to their own Pride or Lust but to the common good of the Church of their Prince and of their Countrey Philop. I acknowledge that to be exceeding true Philotheus And next to those are they obnoxious that craftily decline the acquisition of any Power or Knowledge that they may not run the risques of Fortune in witnessing to the Truth or assisting the publick Concern which Hypocrisie I being aware of am so far from being discouraged that my Zeal is the more enkindled after important Truths that I may the more faithfully and effectually serve God and my Prince in my Generation though with the hazard of all that I have Euist. Which he has once already more then hazarded in the Cause of his Sovereign besides the hazard of his life in five or six bloudy Battels But I hope he will never have the occasion of running that hazard again Philoth. O admired Philopolis you are of a right faithfull and upright spirit verily I have not discovered more true Vertue and Nobleness no not in the most famous Philosophical Societies Philop. I love to feel my self of an express and settled Judgement and Affection in things of the greatest moment and nothing I think can be of greater then the Affairs of the Kingdome of God to know who are more properly and peculiarly his People that my Heart may be joyned with them where-ever they are discoverable in the world and my Hand may relieve them to the utmost extent of the activity of my narrow sphear For it seems to me both a very ignoble and tedious condition to be blown about with every winde of Doctrine or transitory Interest and not to stick to that wherein a man's loss proveth his greatest gain and Death it self a translation into eternal Life and glory Hyl. This were an excellent Temper in Philopolis indeed to be thus resolved if he were sure not to fall short in his account Sophr. But suppose he was not sure seeing he ventures so little for so great a stake I think his Temper is still very singularly excellent and commendable Philoth. But what needs any such supposition O Sophron for as sure as there is a God and a Providence such a single-minded soul as Philopolis will after this life prove a glorious Citizen of Heaven Hyl. I am fully of your opinion O Philotheus that Philopolis his future Happiness is as sure as the Existence of God and Divine Providence But the assurance of these has hitherto seemed to me very uncertain and obscure whence according to right Method we should clear that Point first For there can be no Kingdome of God if God himself be not or if his Providence reach not to the Government of the Universe but things be left to blinde Chance or Fate Philop. For my part Gentlemen I could never yet call such Truths into doubt though Hylobares has divers times attempted to dissettle me at my House near the other Athens where sometimes he gives me the honour of a Visit. But all his Reasonings have seemed to me Sophistical Knots or Tricks of Legerdemain which though they might a little amuse me yet they could not move me at â—ll from my settled Faith in God and â—is Providence Philoth. So great a firmitude is there â—n Life against all the subtle attaques â—f shifting Reason This farther conâ—â—rms me in an Observation I have made a long time ago That there is a kind of Sanctity of Soul and Body that is of more efficacy for the receiving or retaining of Divine Truths then the greatest pretences to Discursive Demonstration Philop. But though I want nothing to confirm me in these Points yet if Philotheus could convince Hylobares of the truth of them and beat him at his own weapon it would be to me a pleasant spectacle provided he come to my proposed Theme at the last Philoth. It is a great wonder to me that a person so ingenious as Hylobares and so much conversant in Philosophy should at all doubt of the Existence of the Deity any more then he does of Philopolis his Existence or my own for we cannot so audibly or intelligibly converse with him as God doth with a Philosopher in the ordinary Phaenomena of Nature For tell me O Hylobares whether if so brief a Treatise as that of Archimedes de Sphaera Cylindro had been found by chance with the delineations of all the Figures sutable for the design and short Characters such as they now use in specious Arithmetick and Algebra for the setting down of the Demonstrations of the orderly-disposed Propositions could you or any else imagine that the delineating and fitting these things together was by Chance and not from a knowing and designing Principle I
That may very well be But then they had not that true and precise Notion of a subtile Body that most Philosophers have in this Age but it is likely they understood no more thereby then that it was a subtile extended Substance which for my part I conceive in the general may be true But to say it is properly a subtile Body is to acknowledge it a Congeries of very little Atomes â—oying and playing one by another which is too mean a conception of the Majesty of God Besides that it is unconceivable how these loose Atoms which are so independent of one another should joyn together to make up the Godhead or how they do conspire to keep together that there is not a dissolution of the Divinity Or thus If this multitude of Divine Atoms be God be they interspersed amongst all the matter of the World or do they keep together If they be dispersed God is less one then any thing else in the World and is rather an infinite number of Deities then one God or any God and this infinite number in an incapacity of conferring notes to contrive so wise a frame of the Universe as we see But if there be one Congeries of Divine Atomes that keep together in which of those infinite numbers of Vortices is it seated or amongst which or how can it order the matter of those Vortices from which it is so far distant or how again do these Atomes though not interspersed communicate Notions one with another for one Design Do they talk or discourse with one another or what do they doe And then again Hyl. Nay forbear Bathynous to go any farther for you have put me quite out of conceit with a Material Deity already the more my grief and pain For to make a Material Deity I must confess seems extremely ridiculous and to make a Spiritual one impossible So that I am in greater streights then ever I was Philoth. Why Hylobares what conceit have you of a Spirit that you should think it a thing impossible Hyl. Is it not infinitely incredible Philotheus if not impossible that some thousands of Spirits may dance or march on a Needle 's point at once Cuph. I and that booted and spurred too Hyl. And that in one instant of time they can fly from one Pole of the world to the other Philoth. These things I must confess seem very incredible Hyl. And that the Spirit of man which we usually call his Soul is wholly without flitting in his Toe and wholly in his Head at once If the whole Soul be in the Toe there is nothing left to be in the Head Therefore the Notion of a Spirit is perfectly impossible or else all things are alike true for nothing seems more impossible then this Philoth. But whose description of a Spirit is this Hylobares Hyl. It is Philotheus the description of the venerable Schools Philoth. But did I not preadvertise you that no humane Authority has any right of being believed when they propound Contradictions Wherefore their rash description of a Spirit ought to be no prejudice to the truth of its Existence And though the true Notion of a Spirit were incomprehensible yet that would be no solid Argument against the Reality of it as you may observe in the nature of eternall Succession which we cannot deny to be though we be not able to comprehend it Hyl. That is very true indeed and very well worth the noting But how shall we be so well assured of the Existence of a Spirit while the comprehension of its Nature is taken for desperate Philoth. That there is some Intellectual Principle in the World you were abundantly convinced from the works of Nature as much as that Archimedes his Treatise De Sphaera Cylindro was from a Rational Agent and even now it seemed ridiculous to you beyond all measure that a Congeries of Atomes should be Divine and Intellectual Wherefore there is something that is not Matter that is Intellectual which must be a substance Immaterial or Incorporeal that is in a word a Spirit Hyl. I am I must confess very strongly urged to believe there is a Spirit as well as an eternall Duration though I can comprehend neither Philoth. And that you may be farther corroborateâ— in your belief consider the manifold Stories of Apparitions and how many Spectres have been seen or felt to wrastle pull or tug with a man which if they were a mere Congeries of Atomes were impossible How could an arm of mere Air or Aether pull at another man's hand or arm but it would easily part in the pulling Admit it might use the motion of Pulsion yet it could never that of Attraction Hyl. This indeed were a palpable demonstration that there must be some other substance in these Spectres of Air or Aether if the Histories were true Euist. We reade such things happening even in all Ages and places of the world and there are modern and fresh examples every day so that no man need doubt of the truth Hyl. These Experiments indeed strike very strongly on the Imagination and Senses but there is a subtile Reason that presently unlooses all again And now methinks I could wish the nature of a Spirit were more unknown to me then it is that I might believe its Existence without meddling at all with its Essence But I cannot but know thus much of it whether I will or no that it is either extended or not extended I mean it has either some Amplitude of Essence or else none at all If it has no Amplitude or Extension the ridiculous Hypothesis of the Schools will get up again and millions of Spirits for ought I know may dance on a Needle 's point or rather they having no Amplitude would be nothing If they have any Amplitude or Extension they will not be Spirits but mere Body or Matter For as that admired Wit Des-Cartes solidly concludes Extension is the very essence of Matter This is one of the greatest Arguments that fatally bear me off from a chearfull closing with the belief of Spirits properly so called Philoth. It is much Hylobares that you should give such an adamantine Assent to so weak and precarious an Assertion as this of Des-Cartes For though it be wittily supposed by him for a ground of more certain and Mathematicall after-Deductions in his Philosophy yet it is not at all proved that Matter and Extension are reciprocally the same as well every extended thing Matter as all Matter extended This is but an upstart conceit of this present Age. The ancient Atomical Philosophers were as much for a Vacuum as for Atomes And certainly the world has hitherto been very idle that have made so many Disputes and try'd so many Experiments whether there be any Vacuum or no if it be so demonstratively concludible as Des-Cartes would bear us in hand that it implies a Contradiction there should be any The ground of the Demonstration lies so shallow
not instrumentally or one by virtue of some other is necessarily and immutably one and it implies a Contradiction to be otherwise while it at all is and therefore is indiscerpible Cuph. Why Philotheus cannot the Omnipotence of God himself discerp a Spirit if he has a minde to it Philoth. He may annihilate a Spirit if he will But if a Spirit be immediately and essentially one he can no more discerp it then he can separate that Property of having the power of the Hypotenusa equal to the powers of both the Basis and Cathetus from a rectangle-Triangle Cuph. You know Philotheus Des-Cartes asserts that God might change this Property of a rectangle-Triangle if he would Philoth. He does indeed say so but by way of a slim jear to their ignorance as he deems it that are not aware of his supposed mechanicall necessity of the result of all the Phaenomena of the World from the mere motion of the Matter This piece of wit I suspect in this Paradox of that great Philosopher However I will not contend with you Cuphophron Let but a Spirit be no more discerpible then that Property of a rectangle-Triangle is separable from it and then we are agreed Cuph. I am well pleased that we can agree in any thing that is compliable with the Dictates of the noble Des-Cartes Philoth. So I dare say should we all O Cuphophron But I must pursue my purpose with Hylobares What do you understand by Self-activity in a Spirit Hylobares Hyl. I understand an active power in a Spirit whereby it either modifies it self according to its own nature or moves the Matter regularly according to some certain Modifications it impresses upon it uniting the Physicall Monads into particles of such magnitude and figure and guiding them in such Motions as answer the end of the spiritual Agent either conceived by it or incorporated into it Whence there appears as was said the reason why both Disunity and Inactivity should belong to Matter Philoth. Very accurately and succinctly answered Hylobares You are so nimble at it that certainly you have thought of these Notions before now Hyl. I have read something of them But your dexterous defining the Attributes of Matter might of it self make me a little more chearfully nimble at defining those of a Spirit especially now I can close with the belief of its Existence which I could never doe heartily before And for the last Attribute which seemed to me the most puzzling I mean that of Self-penetrability it is now to me as easie a Notion as any and I understand nothing else by it but that different Spirits may be in the same space or that one and the same may draw its Extension into a lesser compass and so have one part of its essence lie in the same space with some others By which power it is able to dilate or contract it self This I easily conceive may be a Property of any created and finite Spirit because the Extension of no Spirit is corporeall Philoth. Very true But did you not observe Hylobares how I removed Sympathy from the Capacity of Matter Hyl. I did Phiâ—â—theus and thereby I cannot but collect that it is seated in the Spiritual or Incorporeall Nature And I understand by this Sympathy not a mere Compassivity but rather a Coactivity of the Spirit in which it does reside which I conceive to be of great use in all perceptive Spirits For in virtue of this Attribute however or in what-ever circumstances they are affected in one part they are after the same manner affected in all So that if there were a perceptive Spirit of an infinite Amplitude and of an infinite exaltedness of Sympathy where-ever any perceptive Energie emerges in this infinite Spirit it is suddenly and necessarily in all of it at once For I must confess Philotheus I have often thought of these Notions heretofore but could never attribute them to a Spirit because I could not believe there was any such thing as a Spirit forasmuch as all Extension seemed to me to be corporeall But your Aequinoctial Arrow has quite struck that Errour out of my minde For the more I think of it the more unavoidable it seems to me that that Extenâ—â—on in the Aequinoctial Circle wherein the Arrow is carried in a curvilinear motion is not onely an Extension distinct from that of the Aereall Circle but that it is an Extension of something real and independent of our Imagination Because the Arrow is really carried in such a curvilinear line and we not being able to dis-imagine it otherwise we have as great a certainty for this as we have for any thing For it is as certainly true as our Faculties are true And we have no greater certainty then that of our Faculties And thus was the sole obstacle that kept me off â—rom admitting the Existence of Spirits demolished at once by the skilfull assaults of Philotheus Philop. I am exceeding glad of it Hylobares and must owe Philotheus many thanks for his successfull pains The Spirituality of God then is not the least prejudice to your belief of his Existence Hyl. Not the least Phiâ—opolis The Notion of a Spirit is now to me as easie and comprehensible as that of Matter and the Attributes of a Spirit infinitely more easie then the competibleness of such Properties as they must be forced to give to Matter who deny there is any such thing as a Spirit in the world Philop. Why then you may without any more adoe proceed to the last Attribute of God which you propounded Hyl. I will Philopolis It was Omnipresency I mean the essential Omnipresency of God For attending to the infinite Perfection of God according to his Idea I cannot but acknowledge his Essence to be infinite and therefore that he is essentially present every-where And for those that would circumscribe the Divine Essence I would ask them how they can make his Essence finite and his Attributes infinite or to what extent they conceive him circumscribed To confine him to a Point were intolerably ridiculous And to pretend that the amplifying of his Essence beyond this were any advantage or Perfection were plainly to acknowledge that the taking away his essential Omnipresency is to attribute to him an infinite Imperfection For any Circumscription implies an infinite Defect These considerations O Philopolis force me to believe that God is essentially Omnipresent and that he pervades all things even to all infinite imaginable spaces But when I have thus concluded with my self I am cast off again with a very rude and importune check as if this were to draw down the Divinity into miry Lakes and Ditches and worse-sented places and to be as unmannerly in our thoughts to the true God as Orpheus is in his expressions to the Pagan Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euist. It is the very verse that Gregory Nazianzen quotes in his Invectives against Iulian the Apostate and does severely reproch the Poet for the Slovenliness and
represented to the sons of men in a more unusual disguise by hooting at it they may doe that piece of justice as to reproch themselves thereby who are upon their own cost and charges more reprehensibly wicked then they that never came within any capacity of being vertuous if there be any such and more outrageously mad and abominably sottish in the eyes of him that can judge rightly then any natural Fool or Bedlam or rather that using that seasonable reflexion which Plato somewhere commends upon the consideration of the ill carriage of others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may finde by such analogies as I have hinted at that they are far worse Fools and Mad-men then are hooted at in the Streets and so for very shame amend their lives and become truly wise and vertuous For what can be more effectuall for the raising an horrour and detestation of what is ugly and dishonest in our selves then the reflexion that what we so abhorr in others is more in our selves both as to degrees and other circumstances and that whereas others may seem an Object of pity our selves deserve the highest reproof and scorn So that you see Hylobares that even in these pieces of Providence that seem most forlorn most dark and desperate a very comfortable account of the Divine Goodness does unexpectedly emerge and shine forth Which would still clear up into a more full satisfaction the more leisure and ability we had to search into things But if you cannot keep your Eye from being fixed on the black side of Providence rather then on the bright side thereof and must ruminate on the particular Evils of Plagues and Pestilences of War and Famine of devouring Earthquakes of that cruel and savage custome of both Birds Beasts and Fishes in preying and feeding one upon another which is a shadow of the most outrageous Violence and Iniquity imaginable if you will melancholize your Phancie with the remembrance of the groans of the maimed and sick the dread of ravenous Beasts and poisonous Serpents the destroying Rage of the Elements the outrageousness of the Distracted and the forlornness and desolateness of that forsaken Habitacle the Body of a natural Fool whom therefore we most usually call a mere Body this consideration also has its grand use and it is fit that so sunk a condition of mankinde as this terrestriall life is should be charged with such a competency of Tragicall Fatalities as to make the considerate seriously to bethink himself of a better state and recount with himself if he be not as they say in a wrong box if he be not stray'd from his native Countrey and therefore as the Platonists exhort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he ought not seriously to meditate a return and to die betimes to this World that Death at last striking off the Fetters of this mortal Body the Soul may emerge far above the steam of this Region of Misery and Sin O praeclarum diem cùm ad divinum illud Animorum concilium coetúmque proficiscar cúmque ex hac turba ac colluvione discedam Euist. It is part of that excellent Speech of Cato to Scipio and Laelius What say you now Hylobares to Philotheus his assoiling these your last and most puzzling and confounding Difficulties about natural Evils Hyl. I say Philotheus discourses excellently well Euistor and beyond my expectation And I cannot deny but that there being such a Lapsed state of mankinde that Providence upon this supposition does manage things to the best even in those Phaenomena we call natural Evils and that the frame of things taking them in their full comprehension could scarce be better so far as my understanding reaches then it is But the greatest Difficulty of all remains touching this sinfull Lapse which is the second Head of Evils I had in my thoughts to propose to Philotheus That Providence should ever suffer so abominable so diabolicall and destructive a thing as Sin ever to appear on this Stage of the Universe a thing that has brought in such a Tragicall train of Miseries upon us and is in it self so detestable and hatefull both to God and man I know not how to make sense of these things Cuph. I am even glad at heart to see Hylobares so much puzzled with this Difficulty it giving me the opportunity with Philotheus his leave to raise him into as high a pleasure by the agreeableness and perspicuity of the Solution And methinks I finde upon me a very great impetus of spirit to doe him this friendly office Philoth. I pray you proceed then Cuphophron I hope your success will be the better Cuph. That I shall doe right willingly For I hold it a matter of great importance that mankinde have a right understanding of one another's actions and manners and that they be not over-harshly censorious and think every thing Infernall and Diabolicall that is not in so high a degree Good as the rest For my purpose is O Philopolis to clear unto the world such Principles as may sweeten the Passions of men or excite in them onely the sweet Passions and take off all Anger Hatred and Indignation against their mutuall carriages that seeing so little hurt done or meant they may live quietly and neighbourly one with another Philop. That is an excellent Plot O Cuphophron and very advantageous to as many of us Justices of Peace as desire to get as much time as we can to bestow upon the more profitable parts of Philosophy But I would rightly understand this Plot of yours Cuph. I perceive Hylobares which is a symptome of his great sense of Vertue looks upon that which we ordinarily call Sin or Wickedness to have such an essential and infernal Poison and hellish Perverseness in it so abominable and detestable and so contrary and repugnant to the nature of God that it seems a Contradiction that they should both coexist in the world together but that the wrath of the Almighty ought to have thunder-struck or stifled so horrid a Monster in the very birth not onely by reason of those natural Evils it unavoidably brings upon mankinde but even for its own diabolical Vgliness and Detestableness But for my part Gentlemen I commend his zeal more then his judgement in his adhering to so groundless an imagination Sophr. I wish Cuphophron you beginning so daringly that your judgement do not prove as little as your zeal You are such an extoller of the sweet Passions and so professed an enemy to those more grim and severe ones that I fear to bid adieu to them for the milder repose of our mindes you would persuade us to shake hands and be friends with Sin it self Cuph. You know not what I would Sophron nor I scarce my self but something I am very big of and desire your Assistence or Patience in my delivering of my self of it Hyl. I pray you let it be neatly then and a cleanly conveiance O Cuphophron Cuph. It shall be very
dry and clean For it shall be onely a disquisition touching the mere nature of Sin and Wickedness in what it consists Whence we shall make the duest estimate of the Poison of its condition And I wish my breath may be as gratefull and agreeable to your eares as this fresh Evening-aire wafted through the sides of my Arbour and steeped in the cooling beams of the moist Moon whose strained light through the shadow of the Leaves begins to cast a tremulous Chequer-work on the Table our Clothes and Faces is delightfull and comfortable to my heated Temples Philop. It begins indeed to be late of the Night Cuphophron but it is not the less pleasant to continue our discourse in this chequer'd Moon-shine especially you having thus raised our expectations Wherefore I pray you proceed Cuph. In my judgement no man has so luckily pointed at the true nature of Wickedness as Mercurius Trismegistus in that short saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Wickedness is connate or natural to Beasts Which yet I am so far from believing in that sense the words sound in that I hold it incompetible to them But rather as that mirrour of Wisedom Moses has defined in his Law when the Leprosie is all over a man no part untainted that he is to be reputed as clean so Brutes who are constituted onely of Sense and the Animal Affections without any participation of an higher Principle they are uncapable of Sin And if there were any Rational Animals be they in what shape they will from the sight of whose mindes that higher Principle was ever excluded fatally and naturally they would be as the Mosaicall Leper or rather as an ordinary Brute devoid both of Sin and Conscience relishing onely the Laws of the Animal Life wherein when we have considered how much there is of the Divine Wisedome and Goodness that contrived them we shall not have so venemous a conceit concerning the Creation of God or be cast upon Manicheism or Gnosticism phansying the sign of the Devil's paw or senting the Sulphur of Hell in every thing as strongly as the Bishop's foot in milk burnt to the Skillet bottom Nay I may say that those mysterious depths of Satan which the Theosophers so diligently discover such as are Ipseity Egoity or Selfishness it is nothing else but that sovereign or radicall Principle in the Animal life which is Self-love Of which if there be no necessity in Nature that it should be as indeed we see sometimes the Affections of Creatures to be carried out so to others that they forget themselves yet it was fit for Divine Providence to settle this Principle in them all That every thing should love it self very heartily and provide for it self as the Roots of Trees without all scruple draw to themselves all the nourishment they are capable of not regarding what Tree withers so they flourish in which notwithstanding there is nothing of either Devil or Sin But now that Providence did very well in implanting so smart a Self-love in every Animal is manifest For those more notable Functions of the Animal life such as depend on Strength and Agility Craft and Sagacity could not be exercised to any considerable degree without this Principle A Crow would not have the heart to pick at a Worm nor a Swallow to snatch at a Fly And there is the same reason for those more notable and industrious Insidiations of other stronger and more crafty Creatures that hunt after their prey Besides every Animal in respect of it self has in some sense or measure a resemblance of that Divine Attribute of Omnipresence for be it where it will it cannot leave it self behinde Wherefore it is fit it should be indued with this great Love and care of it self being in a more constant readiness to pleasure help and provide for it self then for another Lastly it is a thing unimaginable unless Brutes were indu'd with intellectual Faculties and then they would be no longer Brutes that they should be able to have so free and reflexive Cogitations as to seek the emprovement and live in the sense of the publick good And if their thoughts and phancies were always taken up or gadding after the welfare of others the height of life and joy in every one would much be diminished and obscured For Phancy is far weaker then the present sense of the body And if you would have it any thing strong how calamitous must the lives of these Animals be who must die must be maimed and suffer mischief as often as any of their Fellow-animals suffer any of these things Wherefore it is better for the whole generations of brute Animals that every one love and regard it self then that they be all distracted and tortured with ineffectual thoughts concerning the welfare of others We see therefore O Philopolis the Wisedome and Benignity of Providence that has so firmly engrafted this Principle of Self-love the root of undisturbed Joy and of Self-preservation in the Animal life From whence is also in Animals that eminent love of their young and their kindness and tameness to them that feed them And for those Passions in Animals that look more grimly and infernally on 't or at least seem to have a more nauseous and abominable aspect as Wrath Envy Pride Lust and the like they are but the branches or modifications of this one primitive and fundamental Passion Self-love For what is Wrath but Self-love edged and strengthned for the fending off the assaults of evil What Envy but Self-love grieved at the sense of its own Want discovered and aggravated by the fulness of another's enjoyment What Pride but Self-love partly desiring to be the best or to be approved for the best and partly triumphing and glorying that it is now become none of the meanest And lastly what is Lust but Self-love seeking its own high delight and satisfaction in the use of Venery These are the main misshapen Spawn of that monstrous Fiend that deeply-couched Dragon of Hell Self-love which if we eye more accurately we shall find as necessary and usefull in the Animal Life as the Mother that bears them For as for Wrath and also Craft which I forgot to mention before it is plain they are as unblameable in Beasts as Prudence and Valour in men And for Pride and Gloriation it is but a natural Spur to quicken their Animal Powers or but the overflowing of that tickling sense they have of those perfections Nature has bestowed upon them and shews how mightily well-pleased they are with them and what thankfull witnesses they are of that Goodness and Wisedom that framed them And for Lust who dare blame it in the brute Creature there being distinction of Sexes fitness of Organs and sufficiency of Spirits prepared by the Divine Wisedom in Nature for it Besides that it is one of the most important Acts as well as accompanied with the greatest and most enravishing Joy that the Animal Life will afford A matter of
that consequence that the Generations of living Creatures would cease to be without it and the Sun and Moon be constrained once again to shine on an empty Earth and the shadows of the Trees to shelter nothing but either the Trees themselves or the neighbouring Herbs and Flowers That which looks most like a Fury of all this litter is Envy which as bad as it is yet methinks Aristotle slanders it whiles he would make it such a Passion as was not raised from the sense of our own Want but merely out of the sense of another's good without reference to our selves which for my part I look upon to be such a Monster as I suspect is scarce to be found in the Regions of Hell Philop. That 's a marvellous charitable conceit of your's Cuphophron Cuph. But that Envy that is O Philopolis is a genuine result of the Animal Life and more usually in a passive melancholick Spirit and is a Grief arising from the sense of our Want discovered as I said and set off more stingingly to us by the more flush and full representations of another's Happiness But that there should be any more wickedness in Grief then in Joy or in Pain then in Pleasure is a thing my understanding cannot reach to For then Repentance it self would be a Sin Sophr. It 's well you pass so favourable a censure on those more sowr Passions O Cuphophron I thought you had been onely for the sweet Affections Cuph. It is in virtue of the sweet Affections O Sophron that I speak so favourably of the sowr But to tell you the truth I had rather give them good words at a distance then to receive them into my house or entertain any more inward familiarity with them To my peculiar temper they are but harsh Guests Sophr. I have but interrupted you Cuphophron I pray you go on Cuph. Wherefore we conclude that no branch of the Animal Life is simply sinfull poisonous or diabolicall they being really the Contrivances of the good and wise God in the frame of Nature or else the necessary sequels of such Contrivances And that therefore those men that are so strongly enveagled in the Pleasures and allurements of this lower life are rather lapsed into that which is less good then detained in that which is absolutely evil And it is but a perpetuall gullery and mistake while they are so hugely taken with so small matters they being in the condition as I may so say of Children and Fools of whom it is observed That a small thing will please them though it be a doubt whether these things be so small and contemptible if that be true that the Divinest of Philosophers have asserted That the whole World and the parts thereof are but so many Symbols and Sacraments of the Deity every thing being either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some more perfect image or at least some picture shadow or footstep of the Divinity Upon which if our eyes be stayed and our Affections entangled as it is a real testimonie of our approvement of the excellency of the Archetype so are we in some meaner sort religious we adoring thus and doting upon these congruous Gratifications we receive from these particular Shadows of that perfect Good untill we are called up to an higher participation of him But that even those that seem to flie from God seek after him in some sort is apparently necessary there being nothing but Himself or what is from Him in the World otherwise he could not be that absolutely-perfect Good whose Goodness Wisedome and Power fills all things And I think there is no perceptive Being in the whole Universe so estranged from its Original but it is either courting or enjoying these or some of these Attributes in some rank and measure or other they ever trying and proving what they can doe in matters of either Pleasure Wit or Dominion And the sincere and undistracted fruition of any one part of any of these has so mightily taken up the minds of some men in complexion fitly framed for such delights that they have sacrificed even their Lives Liberties and Fortunes to these slighter glimpses of the great Godhead whom they thus unwittingly and unskilfully seek to adore and so become in a sort religious Martyrs for a part which they that make profession of their love and honour of the entire Deity seldome are persuaded to undergoe Now sith it is something of God that the mindes of all Spirits even of those that seem to be in actual Rebellion against him are set after it is a very hard thing to find out how he should look upon himself as disesteemed whenas all the Creatures are mad after something or other of His most religiously prizing it even above their own Beings For it is onely their ridiculous mistake to cleave to that which is of less worth and moment and therefore deserves laughter and pity more then fury and revenge Not to adde what a childish and idiotick conceit it is to phansie God in the similitude of some Aged tetricall person impatient of and obnoxious to Affronts and Injuries wâ—en neither any can be really done him nor any is intended against him but men out of a debasing Modesty or Laziness of spirit take up with smaller good things when they may be more welcome to greater Which Solution as it may well satisfie Hylobares touching his Querie why God Almighty did not at the first appearance of Sin straightway with sulphureous Thunderbolts strike it dead upon the spot so it may be also an excellent Antidote against the rage of the more grim and severe Passions mitigate the harshnesses of severall Disgusts in humane life and generally sweeten the Conversation of men one with another Hyl. Sweet Cuphophron and mellifluous young Nestor in Eloquence that hast conceived such raised Notions from the wafts of the Evening-air and the chequered Moon-shine whose Tongue is thus bedew'd with bewitching Speech from the roscid Lips and nectarine Kisses of thy silver-faced Cynthia But dost thou think thus to drown our sense of solid Reason by the rapid stream or torrent of thy turgid Eloquence No Cuphophron no one touch of right Reason will so prick the tumour of thy Brain thus blown up by the percribrated influence of thy moist Mistress the Moon that these Notions that look now so fair and plump shall appear as lank and scrannell as a Calf that sucks his Dam through an hurdle and all thy pretences to right Ratiocination shall be discovered as vain and frivolous as the idlest Dream of Endymion Sophr. In the name of God what do you mean Hylobares to answer so phantastically in so serious a cause Hyl. Did not he begin thus O Sophron I onely answer my phantastick Friend according to his own Phantastry Which yet you may observe I have done very hobblingly it being out of my rode But yet the sense is very serious and in earnest viz. That it is a kinde of Lunacy not
pray you Hylobares make your address to Philotheus you know how successfull he has been hitherto Philoth. If that would quiet your minde Hylobares I could indulge to you so far as to give you leave to think that although Sin be in it self absolutely evil as being an Incongruity or Disproportionality onely betwixt Things not the things themselves for all things are good in their degree yet the Motions Ends or Objects of sinfull Actions are at least some lesser good which I charitably conceive may be all that Cuphophron aimed at in that Enthusiastick Hurricane he was carried away with and all that he will stand to upon more deliberate thoughts with himself Cuph. Yes I believe it will be thereabout to morrow morning after I have slept upon 't And I return you many thanks Philotheus for your candid Interpretation Philoth. But methinks the Question is in a manner as nice Why God should suffer any Creature to chuse the less good for the greater as permit him to sin For this seems not according to the exactness of a perfectly-benign Providence Hyl. You say right Philotheus and therefore if you could but clear that Point I believe it will go far for the clearing all Philoth. Why this Scruple Hylobares concerning the Souls of men is much-what the same if not something easier with that concerning the Bodies of both men and beasts For the Omnipotency of God could keep them from diseases and death it self if need were Why therefore are they subject to Diseases but that the Wisedome of God in the contrivance of their Bodies will act onely according to the capacity of corporeal matter and that he intends the World should be an Automaton a self-moving Machina or Engine that he will not perpetually tamper with by his absolute power but leave things to run on according to that course which he has put in Nature For it is also the perfection of his Work to be in some sort like its Artificer independent which is a greater Specimen of his Wisedome Hyl. But you should also shew that his Goodness was not excluded the Consultation O Philotheus Philoth. No more is it so far as there is a Capacity of its coming in for any thing that humane reason can assure it self to the contrary For let me first puzzle you Hylobares with that Position of the Stoicks That the minde of Man is as free as Iupiter himself as they rant it in their language and that he cannot compell our Will to any thing but what-ever we take to must be from our own free Principle nothing being able to deal with us without our selves As a man that is fallen into a deep Ditch if he will not so much as give his fellow his hand he cannot pull him out Nor may this seem more incongruous or inconsistent with the Omnipotency of God then that he cannot make a Square whose Diagonial is commensurate to the Side or a finite Body that has no figure at all For these are either the very Essence or the essâ—ntial Consequences of the things spoken of and it implies a contradiction they should exist without them So we will for dispute sake affirm that Liberty of Will is an essential Property of the Soul of Man and can no more be taken from her then the proper Affections of a Geometricall Figure from the Figure unless she once determine or intangle her self in Fate which she cannot doe but of her self or else fix herself above Fate and fully incorporate with the simple Good For to speak Pythagorically the Spirits of men and of all the fallen Angels are as an Isosceles betwixt the Isopleuron and Scalenum not so ordinate a Figure as the one nor so inordinate as the other so these Spiriâ—s of men and Angels are a middle betwixt the more pure and Intellectual Spirits uncapable of falling from and the Souls of Beasts uncapable of rising to the participation of Divine Happiness Wherefore if you take away this vertible Principle in Man you would make him therewithall of another Species either a perfect Beast or a pure Intellect Hyl. This Opinion of the Stoicks is worth our farther considering of But in the mean time why might not Man have been made a pure Intelligence at first Philoth. Why should he so Hyloares sith the Creation of this middle Order makes the numbers of the pure Intellectual Orders never the fewer Not to adde that your demand is as absurd as if you should ask why every Flie is not made a Swallow every Swallow an Eagle and every Eagle an Angel because an Angel is better then any of the other Creatures I named There is a gradual descension of the Divine Fecunditie in the Creation of the World Hyl. This is notable Philotheus and unexpected But were it not better that God Almighty should annihilate the Individuals of this middle vertible Order as you call it so soon as they lapse into Sin then let such an ugly Deformity emerge in the Creation Philoth. This is a weighty Question Hylobares but yet such as I hope we both may ease our selves of if we consider how unbecoming it would be to the Wisedome of God to be so over-shot in the Contrivance of the Creation as that he must be ever and anon enforced to annihilate some part of it as being at a loss what else to doe and if they should all lapse to annihilate them all Hyl. Why he might create new in a moment Philotheus Philoth. But how-ever these would be very violent and harsh though but short Chasma's in the standing Creation of God I appeal to your own sense Hylobares would that look handsomely Hyl. I know not what to think of it Besides if that were true that some Philosophers contend for That all the whole Creation as well particular Souls and Spirits as the Matter and Universal Spirit of the World be from God by necessary Emanation this middle vertible Order can never be turned out of Being But that the Stability of God's Nature and Actions should not be according to the most exquisite Wisedome and Goodness would be to me the greatest Paradox of all Philoth. Why who knows but that it is better for them to exist though in this Lapsed state and better also for the Universe that so they may be left to toy and revell in the slightest and obscurest shadows of the Divine fulness then to be suddenly annihilated upon their first Lapse or Transgression For to be taken up with a less good is better then to be exiled out of Being and to enjoy no good at all Hyl. That it is better for them is plain according to the opinion of all Metaphysicians but how is it better for the Universe Philotheus Philoth. How do you know but that it is as good for the Universe computing all respects if it be not better And that is sufficient For Man is betwixt the Intellectual Orders and the Beasts as a Zoophyton betwixt the Beasts 〈◊〉 the Plants I
sundry respects And this native Freedom in it challenges of his Wisedome that she shew her best skill in dealing with a Creature that is free with as little violence done to its nature as may be Which we see the Wisedome of God has practised upon Matter as I noted awhile agoe And yet the defacement of rightly-organized Matter is as real an entrenchment upon or opposition of what is Intellectual or Divine I mean the Divine Idea's themselves as Vice or Immorality As the Divine Wisedome therefore forces not the terrestriall Matter beyond the bounds of its own natural capacity to fend all Animals Bodies from Diseases and Death no more should the Divine Goodness universally in all free Creatures irresistibly prevent the use of their own nature And therefore being free they ought according to the congruity of their condition be put to the triall what they will doe And if the miscarriage be upon very strong Temptations that did even almost over-power the strength of the free Creature this state of the case is a meet Object of the Mercy of God But if it have strength enough and has been often and earnestly invited to keep close to and to pursue after those things that are best and yet perpetually slights them and shuffles them off the party thus offending is a congruous object of the Divine Slight and Scorn it is but just that such an one be left to follow his own swindge and to finde such a fate as attends such wilde courses For it seems a kinde of disparagement to pin Vertue and divine Grace upon the sleeves of them that are unwilling to receive it It would be as unseemly as the forcing of a rich beautifull and vertuous Bride upon some poor slouching Clown whether he would or no. Hyl. But God may make them willing Philoth. That is Hylobares you may give the Clown a Philtrum or Love-potion But is not this still a great disparagement to the Bride Wherefore for the general it is fit that God should deal with free Creatures according to the freedom of their nature But yet rather then all should goe to ruine I do not see any incongruity but that God may as it were lay violent hands upon some and pull them out of the fire and make them potent though not irresistible Instruments of pulling others out also This is that Election of God for whom it was impossible for others that have arrived to a due pitch of the Divine Life But for those that still voluntarily persist to run on in a rebellious way against God and the Light that is set before them and at last grow so crusted in their Wickedness that they turn professed enemies of God and Goodness scoff at Divine Providence riot and Lord it in the world with the contempt of Religion and the abuse and persecution of them that profess it that out of the stubborn Blindness of their own hearts being given up to Covetousness Pride and Sensuality vex and afflict the consciencious with abominable Tyranny and Cruelty I think it is plain that these are a very sutable Object for Divine Fury and Vengeance that sharp and severe Modification of the Divine Goodness to act upon Hyl. Truly this is very handsome Philotheus and pertinent if not cogent Philoth. But lastly Hylobares though we should admit that the whole design of Divine Providence is nothing else but the mere disburthening of his overflowing Goodness upon the whole Creation and that he does not stand upon the terms of Justice and Congruity or any such punctilio's as some may be ready here to call them but makes his pure Goodness the measure of his dealing with both Men and Angels yet I say that it does not at all contradict but that God may permit Sin in the World he having the privilege of bringing Light out of Darkness and the nature of things being such that the lessening of Happiness in one is the advancement of it in another As it is in the Motion of Bodies what agitation one loses is transferred upon another or like the Beams of the Sun that retunded from this Body are received by another and nothing is lost So that in gross the Goodness of God may be as fully derived upon the Creation though not so equally distributed to particular Creatures upon his permitting Sin in the World as if he did forcibly and against the nature of free Creatures perpetually keep it out This is that therefore that I would say that the Vices of the wicked intend and exercise the Vertues of the just What would become of that noble Indignation of minde that holy men conceive against wicked and blasphemous people if there were neither Wickedness nor Blasphemy in the world What would become of those enravishing Vertues of Humility Meekness Patience and Forbearance if there were no Injuries amongst men What had the Godly whereupon to employ their Wit and Abilities if they had no enemies to grapple with How would their Faith be tried if all things here below had been carried on in Peace and Righteousness and in the Fear of God How would their Charity and Sedulity be discovered in endeavouring to gain men to the true Knowledge of God if they were alwaies found so to their hands Terrestriall Goodness would even grow sluggish and lethargicall if it were not sharpened and quickned by the Antiperistasis of the general Malignity of the World There are no generous Spirits but would even desire to encounter with Dangers and Difficulties to testifie their love to the parties they are much endeared to and it is an exceeding great accession to their enjoyments that they have suffered so much for them But if the World were not generally wicked for a time no Soul of man could meet with any such adventure and the History of Ages would be but a flat Story Day it self upon this Earth would be tiresome if it were alwaies Day and we should lose those chearfull Salutes of the emerging Light the cool breathings and the pleasing aspects of the Rosie Morning The Joys and Solemnities of Victories and Triumphs could never be if there were no Enemies to conflict with to conquer and triumph over And the stupendious undertakings of the Saviour of Mankinde and the admirable windings of Providence in her Dramatick Plot which has been acting on this Stage of the Earth from the beginning of the World had been all of them stopped and prevented if the Souls of men had not been lapsed into Sin And the sweetest and most enravishing Musicall touches upon the melancholized Passions so far as I know of both men and Angels had never sounded in the consort of the Universe if the Orders of free Agents had never played out of tune Nothing therefore of the Divine Goodness seems to be lost whenas the very Corruption of it as in a grain of Corn cast into the ground makes for its encrease and what of it is rejected by some is by the Wisedome of God
Souls have been made Burnt-offerings to the Luciferian Pride of the Roman Hierarchy and the Sons of God which is worse then the Mexicans case thus cruelly and perfidiously sacrificed to the first-born of the Devil Euist. This is too true to contend against it Hyl. I wish it were not so But in the mean time we can never take Cuphophron at a loss Euist. So methinks and I have but one kinde more of Tragicall Instances to pose him with Cuph. What 's that Euistor Euist. In some parts of the World they are their own Executioners as those of Narsinga and Bisnagar who cut their Flesh in pieces and cast it on the Idol's face or putting a piece of their own Flesh on the pile of an Arrow shoot it up into the Air in honour to their Pagods as Gotardus writes After which Ceremony they cut their own Throats offering themselves a Sacrifice to their Idol The King of Quilacare upon a silk Scaffold in view of his people after some solemn Washings and Prayers having first cut off his Nose Ears Lips and other parts cuts his own Throat as a Sacrifice to his Idol Gotardus as I remember addes that theâ—e is loud Musick sounding all the time This is done every Jubilee Cuph. Whether Satan put them upon this Slavery out of his scorn and hatred of Mankinde or that he pleases himself in feeling his own Power or in seeing examples of the great affection and fidelitie of his Vassals as imperious Whores pride themselves in commanding their Lovers some signall Hardship or Penance as being a more sure testimony if they perform it of a more then ordinary worth in themselves that has engaged them in so perfect a Bondage or whether it be out of all these put together is not so requisite to dispute Hyl. No more is it Cuphophroâ— it is so little to the present purpose Cuph. But I was coming to something which is more near to the purpose namely That the nearest to these Self-Sacrificers to Satan are those sad Disciples of certain Mystae of dark and sowr Dispenâ—ations who having no knowledge of a Deity but such as is represented unto them in the dreadfull shape of the Indian Deumo above described that is Will and Power disjoyned from all Iustice and Goodness having first almost frâ—tted a-pieces their very Heart-strings with tormenting thoughts and anxious Suspicions do at last either hang or drown themselves or else â—â—t their own Throats as a sad Sacriâ—â—ce to that ghastly Idol which their false Teachers had set up in their melancholiâ—ed Phancies But no Amulet against such diabolical Impostures comparable to that divine saying of S. Iohn God is Love and he that abideth in love abideth in God and God in him Sophr. That is very profitably and seasonably noted O Cuphophron and though my Judgement is not so curious as to criticize on the perpetuall exactness of your applications of the sad Miscarriages of the Civilized parts of the World to those gross Disorders of the Barbarians yet your comparisons in the general have very much impressed that note of Philotheus upon my spirit That the more externall and gross Enormities committed by the barbarous Nations are as it were a reprehensive Satyr of the more fine and Hypocriticall Wickednesses of the Civilized Countries that these civilized Sinners abominating those wilder Extravagancies may withall give Sentence against their own noless Wickedness but onely in a lesseugly dress Whence it cannot be so great wonder that Providence lets such horrid Usages emerge in the World that the more affrightfull face of Sin in some places might quite drive out all similitude and appearance of it in others Bath True Sophron but this also I conceive may be added That Divine Providence having the full comprehension of all the Periods of Ages and the Scenes of things succeeding in these Periods in her minde permitted at first and afterwards some parts of the lapsed Creation to plunge themselves into a more palpable Darkness that a more glorious Light might succeed and emerge The lovely splendour of which Divine Dispensation would not strike the beholder so vigorously did he not cast his eyes also upon that Region of Blackness and sad Tyranny of the Devil in preceding Ages over deluded mankindâ— such as Euistor has so plentifully discovered All these things therefore seem to have been permitted in design to advance the Glory and adorn the Triumph of the promiâ—ed Messâ—as the tâ—ue Son of God and Saviour of the World Sophr. That may very well be Bathynous Nor is it any Injustice or Severity in God to make use of the Impenitency of Sinners to better purposes then either themselves or wiser persons are many times aware of But we interrupt Euistor by this unseasonable descanting upon Cuphophron's performances Euist. I was onely a-going to adde something of the Madness of the Heathenish Priests as the last Note of the Satanicalness of their Religion But it is scarce worth the while Cuph. Nay by all means let 's hear that also Euistor Euist. That the Maenades the Priests of Bacchus were mad appears in their very Name whose Notation is from that distemper The Priest of the Samadees a People subject to the Muscovite begins his holy things with howling which he continues till he grows mad with it and then falling down dead after orders his Sacrifice and finishes the Solemnity he was about The Hoxiones also or Priests of China when they consult their Oracles cast themselves on the ground stretching out their hands and feet another reading in a Book to whom are Responses made by some Assistents that sing and make a noise with Bells or Cymbals In the mean time the Spirit comes upon him that lies prostrate who rising with staring eyes and distorted countenance falls a-prophesying and answering such Questions as the By-standers demand Cuph. These are mad guizes of Religion indeed and yet not an unfit resemblance of as mischievous a Madness amongst too many of our more civilized Religionists Euist. I believe you mean the howling Quakers as uncivil as they are For they began in that tone at first and fell down dead in Trances and afterwards getting up fell a-propheâ—ying uttering out of their swoln breasts very dark Oracles declaring against all Ordâ—r and Ordinances decrying all Reason as a work of the Flesh and pretending to an unaccountable Spirit and to a Light within that is invisible to all without who have not lost their spiritual eye-sight None conceive they see it but such as are either blind or in the dark Cuph. There are great and good things the Quakers pretend to Euistor but they soil them by so wild a way of profession of them and indeed in particulars seem to contradict what with so loud a voice they in the general extoll But that Madness I hinted at is more Epidemicall then this Sect there being more besides these that never think themselves Divinely-wise till they grow so staringly mad that
the eye of Reason seems to have quite started out of their head and Fumes and Phancies to be the sole guides of their Tongue Sophr. I suppose Cuphophron you perstringe that general Disease of ungovernable Enthusiasâ— dispersed up and down in Christendome And yet there is another kind of religious Madness more spreading and no leâ—s mischievous then this Cuph. I pray you what is that Sophron Sophr. So fix'd and fierce a belief in an infallible Priesthood that what they dictate for an Oracle be it never so repugnant to all our outward Senses to all our internall Faculties of Imagination Reason and Vnderstanding never so contradictious to whatsoever is holy vertuous or humane yet they embrace and stick to it with that zeal and heat that they fly in the faces and cut the throats of not onely them that gainsay but even of those that will not profess the same abominable Errours with themselves If so enraged an Heat kindled upon so enormous a Mistake as never any Lunatick could think or speak more contradictiously joyn'd with as high Outrages as ever mad-man did commit for all manner of Murther and Cruelty if this temper or spirit be not the Spirit of Maâ—ness and that of the higheâ—t strain I know not what belongs to the Spirit of Sobriety Cuph. Certainly it must be a great matter that thus transports Sophron and makes him something unlike his usual self Sophr. To tell you the truth I had mine eye on the Artolatria of the Romanists and their Article of Transubstantiation with all the wild Concomitants and Sequels thereof Cuph. You could not have pitched upon a greater reproch of the Civilized World I profess unto Sophron though no man can have a greater aversation then my self from slighting or reviling that which others embrace as the most sacred and solemn Point of their Religion yet amongst ourselves I cannot but declare that this Figment of Transubstantiation comprises in it such a bundle of Barbarities of unheardâ— of Sottishnesses and savage Cruelties that there is no one thing parallel to it in all Paganism The manifold Impostures of the Priests of the Pagans their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—hether it be the feeding â—n the Flesh of Enemies or entombing the bodies of their dead Friends in their own Bellies whether their gross Idolatries in the general or their Sacrificing men to their Idols all these Abominations are as it were tied together in this fictititious Fardel of Transubstantiation For was there ever any Indian so imposed upon by their Priests as to believe they had a power by a certain form of woâ—ds to turn a Cake of Maize into a living Man and that the Miracle is done by them though the Cake of Maize appear still to their Sight to their Touch and all their other Senses as perfect a Cake of Maize as before And how can these look upon the Indians as such a barbarous people for either feeding on their Enemies or burying their dead Friends in their own Bowells whenas they themselves profess that they eat and grinde a-pieces with their teeth not dead but living Man's-flesh and â—hat not of an Enemie but their dearâ—st Friend and Saviour Can any â—hing â—eem more barbarous then this And then to uphold this Figment which seems invented onely for the pomp and vain-glory of the Priest that he may be accounted a stupendious Wonder-worker a Creatour of his Creatour to maintain this Fiction I say by the murthering many a thousand innocent Souls that could not comply with the Imposture what is this inferiour to Sacrificing Captives to the Idol Vitziliputzly as I intimated before Sophr. I am glad to see you Cuphophron so heartily resent the unsufferable Wickedness of that Point of the Roman Religion I thought you had been so high-flown a Philosopher that you had taken no notice no not so much as of these grosser Miscarriages in the Religions of the World which had been an unpardonable neglect Cuph. If I flew higher then the strongest-winged Fowls are said to do in the time of Pestilence yet the sent and noisomeness of this crass and barbarous Miscarriage could not but strike my nostrills very hotly and detain my Sight Sophr. The truth is Cuphophron that no Phaenomenon in all Providence has more confoundingly astonished me and amazed me then this of Transubstantiation in all its circumstances If the Priests of Peru had thus imposed upon those Savages how should we either have bemoaned them or derided them O poor Peruvians O sottish and witless Paynims devoid of all Sense and Reason that are thus shamefully imposed upon by their deceitfull Priests Or else O miserable people that must either profess what it is impossible for any one entirely in his wits to believe or else must be murthered by the grim Officers of the Ingua incensed against them by the Complaints of an imposturous and bloudy Priesthood But this to be done in the most Civilized parts of the world Hyl. Nay this consideration would make any one sigh deeply as well as your self but me especially Does not this O Sophron subvert utterly all the belief of Providence in the world Sophr. God forbid Hylobares No it more strongly confirms it there nothing happening to degenerated Christendome in all this but what is expresly predicted in the holy Oracles That in the time of the Man of Sin God would send upon them that loved not the truth strong Delusions that they should believe â—a Lie and particularly pointing at this reproachfull Figment of Transubstantiation it is said of the Beast that he should blaspheme the Tabernacle of God which undoubtedly is the Body of Christ which for the enhancing of the glory of the Priest they thus foully debase and abuse Hyl. These things neither Cuphophron as I think nor my self are so well versed in as fully to judge of but we presume much of your judgement and gravity O Sophron which is no small ease to us for the present Cuph. In the mean time Hylobares I hope you have spent all your force against me and my Paynims Hyl. Not all but the chiefest or rather in a manner all for my other Remarks on the barbarous Nations touching their Religions are more slight and such as bear too obvious a resemblance to the known Miscarriages of Christendome such as the over-severe or over-loose methods of living in reference to future Happiness An example of the latter whereof may be the Doctrine of the Boâ—zii of Iapan who teach the people that if they pray but to Amida and Zaca two holy men that lived here and satisfied for the Sins of the World though they doe it but carelesly and remissly yet they shall not fail of everlasting Happiness Euist. But Gotardus taxes these Bouzii for a Religious Order of Atheists Cuph. And yet severall Sects in Christendome that would be thought no Atheiâ—ts as the Antinomians and Liberâ—ines and others that would be loth to be noted by those names have too great
an affinity with these Bouzii and their Followers in their Life and Doctrine But I spare them But what instances have you of the over-severe method Euistor Euist. There is an odd example of the Indian Abduti who for a time lived very rigidly and severely but that Dispensation once being passed over they gave themselves up to all Dissoluteness and conceited they might doe so with authority Cuph. That is very easie to parallel to the condition of some Spiritualists who under pretence of having subdued the Flesh by more then ordinary Austerities and of having arrived to the Liberty of the Spirit return again to the gross Liberties of the Flesh to the great grief and scandal of the more sober Professours of Religion Euist. Some chast Votaries of the Turks set a great Iron ring on their yard using themselves as we do our Mares that they may not take Horse Those of Mexico slit that member for the same devout purpose Cuph. This is a sign that these hast Votaries are in good earnest But to pretend to undertake a Vow of Chastity more strong then iron or adamant and yet to lie with other mens Wives rather then to break it is such a mysterious Juggle or contradictious point of Hypocrisie that the very Pagans would be ashamed of it Euist. They might be so indeed Cuphophron nor does there any thing of importance occurr to my minde that looks like a sullen piece of Severity in Paganism but the same may be produced in the very same terms in the present Romanism as long and tiresome Pilgrimages voluntary Whippings and Scourgings immoderate Watchings and Fastings and the like These are the Exercises also even of them that serve Idols and worship the Devil as well as of them that pretend to be the genuine Servants of the Lord Iesus Hyl. But is there nothing observable touching their Opinions of the other State in order to which they may undergo these Hardships Euist. That is worth the noting that most of the barbarous Nations have some glimpse or surmize of the Soul's Immortality and of a State after this Life But it is often mixed with very feat Conceits As they of Peru hold that after death men eat and drink and wantonize with Women Cuph. Who knows but that they may understand that mystically as the Persians expound like passages in Mahomet's Alcoran Bath Besides these Europaeans seem to me in some sort to Peruvianize that think they can by bargain and contract buy future Happiness with Mony as we do Fields and Orchards in this life not considering that if Paradise be not opened within us by virtue of true Regeneration into the Divine Life all the Wealth in the Indies will not purchase an entrance into the eternall â—aradise in Heaven Euist. The Brammans also in the East-Indies have a most ridiculous conceit touching the Transmigration of Souls namely That the Reward of a vertuous Soul is that she may pass out of a Man's body into the body of a Cow Cuph. That 's ridiculous indeed if the expression be not Symbolicall and hint not some more notable thing to us then we are aware of For that the Transmigration of mens Souls into the bodies of Beasts has a Mysticall or Moral meaning both Plato and some of his Followers have plainly enough intimated Euist. And Goâ—ardus expresly writes that these Braâ—â—nanâ— had the knowledge of Pythagoras and of his Philosophy then which nothing was more Symbolicall I will produce but one observable more and then give Cupâ—ophron or rather my self no farther trouble For Cuphophron turns all off with sport and pleasantry Cuph. You have produced nothing yet Euistor at all hard or trouâ—â—esome Euist. Nor will I begin now For it is onely that they of S. Sebastian de la Platâ— have neither Image nor Idol Cuph It is a sign they are the more pure Worshippers of the Deity Euist. If they be not Atheists But that which I was going to adde was that fond imagination of theirs that after Death they should come into a pleasant place which they dreamed to be situated beyond certain Hills which they could point at with their fingers Cuph. It were a question worth the starting whether this American Elysium or the Scholastick Empyreum be the more likely Rendezvous of blessed Souls departed this life Hyl. I pray you what think you of that Cuphophron Cuph. I think the Coelum Empyreâ—m of the Schools is a childish Figment For what ground is there that the first Heaven should be Cubicall unless it be for the young Angelick shapes to whip their Gigs on the flat and smooth floor thereof Wherefore the rude Indians so far as I know may come nearer the mark then the subtil Schoolmen though they both seem to me widely enough to miss it Hyl. But I am for the Empyreum of the Schools rather then for that â—lyâ—ium of the Americans For the American Elysium is somewhere viz. beyond the Hills that those of S. Sebaâ—tian de la Plata use to point at But if the Empyreum of the Schâ—ols be a mere childish Figment it is no-where Cuph. There 's a reason indeed Hylobares how can it then be the real Rendezvous of separate Souls Hyl. Separate Souls are Spirits Cuphophron but Spirits are no-where where can they therefore more fitly have their Rendezvous then in the Scholastick Empyreum which is nowhere also Cuph. Shame take you Hylobares have you hit on that piece of Waggery once again Is this all the thanks I have for besâ—irring my â—elf so stoutly to ease your aggrieved imagination that was so oppressed and burthened with the consideration of the sad Scence of affairs in the Pagan World and Ages Hyl. For that friendly Office I return you many thanks O Cuphophron and must confess you have in your attempts shewn a great deal of Versatility of wit and nimbleness of phancy and that not without the mixture of some Solidity sometimes But the less there had been of that it had been the better Cuph. That 's a Paradox indeed why so I pray you Hylobares Hyl. For your endeavour being perpetually to shew that things were as ill in a manner in the Civilized parts of the World as in the Barbarous this was not to ease me of my sad perplexing thoughts but to redouble the burthen and make the waies of Providence appear to me twice as dismall as before Cuph. This Hylobares has a mind to baffle me and make me ridiculously unsuccessfull in every thing I attempt Did I not persist in the way thâ—t Philotheus himself seemed to point at viz. to undeceive your Phancy that was so horribly struck with the strange Enormities of the Pagan World by intimating that for the Civilized Nations that you had a better conceit of that the Heathen were in a manner little worse in their Opinions and Practices then they Hyl. Nay I confess Cuphophron that that was pretty well levelled at my Phancy But in thus quieting my
You know Hylobares what high strains of Philosophy are delivered in Somnium Scipionis Hyl. You say right I was but in jest and expect no less Truth now nor of meaner importance then before Euist. I pray you Bathynous what kind of Dream was it For there are five severall sorts according to Macrobius namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bath Truly Euistor I have not yet considered that so Critically never since I had it Euist. But you could easily tell me did I but describe the natures of these five severall sorts of Dreams to you Hyl. O impertinent Euistor that wouldst cause such needless delaies by catching at this occasion of shewing thy skil in Critical Trifles whiles I in the mean time am almost quite consumed with excess of desire to have so important an Arcanum communicated unto me for the establishing my Minde in that great and fundamental Truth I so eagerly seek after Euist. Let me beg of you Bathynous to put Hylobares out of pain for I see he is highly impatient Bath It is a Dream I had in my youth of an Old man of a grave countenance and comportment speaking unto me in a Wood. Euist. That very intimation shews it to be that kinde of Dream that the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Oraculum Hyl. A good Omen Euistor I thank you for that I 'll forgive thee all thy Criticall Impertinencies hereafter for this passage sake Euist. And I will jointly beg of Bathynous to tell us this Dream of his for I am almost as eager of it as your self I would fain see how exquisite an example it is of that kinde of Dream which in English we should call an Oracle Bath I profess Gentlemen I am much ashamed to seem so light-minded as to tell my Dreams before Strangers especially before so grave a person as Philopolis Hyl. The proper term Bathynous is not a Dream but an Oracle Bath But I am more ashamed to pretend to speak Oracles then to tell my Dreams Cuph. You did not speak the Oracle but the Oracle was spoke to you Bath But if I had not spoke it afterwards Cuphophron none of you had ever heard it Philop. Call it a Dream or an Oracle or an Oracular Dream it matters not Bathynous so we may enjoy the hearing of it For I am neither so unskilfull nor morose as to have the slighter conceit of any one for telling his Dream especially in such circumstances nay I think it is his duty rather so to doe Bath Well then since it must be so Gentlemen upon the permission of Philopolis and the importunity of Hylobares I shall recite to you my Dream as exquisitely and briefly as I can You must know then first Philopolis of what an anxious and thoughtfull Genius I was from my very Childhood and what a deep and strong sense I had of the Existence of God and what an early Conscienciousness of approving my self to him and how when I had arrived to riper years of Reason and was imbued with some slender Rudiments of Philosophy I was not then content to think of God in the gross onely but began to consider his Nature more distinctly and accurately and to contemplate and compare his Attributes and how partly from the natural Sentiments of my own Minde partly from the countenance and authority of holy Scripture I did confidently conclude that infinite Power Wisedome and Goodness that these three were the chiefest and most comprehensive Attributes of the Divine Nature and that the sovereign of these was his Goodness the Summity and Flower as I may so speak of the Divinity and that particularly whereby the Souls of men become Divine whenas the largest communication of the other without this would not make them Divine but Devils In the mean time being versed in no other natural Philosophy nor Metaphysicks but the vulgar and expecting the Laws of the externall Creation whether visible or invisible should be sutable to that excellent and lovely Idea of the Godhead which with the most serious devotion and affection I entertained in my own breast my Minde was for a long time charged with inextricable Puzzles and Difficulties to make the Phaenomena of the World and vulgar Opinions of men in any tolerable way to consort or sute with these two chiefest Attributes of God his Wisedome and his Goodness These Meditations closed mine eyes at night these saluted my memory the first in the morning These accompanied my remote and solitary walks into Fields and Woods sometimes so early as when most of other mortals keep their Beds It came to pass therefore O Philopolis that one Summer-morning having rose much more early then ordinary and having walk'd so long in a certain Wood which I had a good while frequented that I thought fit to rest my self on the ground having spent my Spirits partly by long motion of my Body but mainly by want of Sleep and over-anxious and solicitous thinking of such Difficulties as Hylobares either has already or as I descry'd at first is likely to propose I straight way reposed my wearie Limbs amongst the Grass and Flowers at the foot of a broad-spred flourishing Oak where the gentle fresh morning Air playing in the Shade on my heated Temples and with unexpressable pleasure refrigerating my bloud and spirits and the industrious Bees busily humming round about me upon the dewy Honey-suckles to which nearer noise was most melodiously joyned the distanced Singings of the chearfull Birds reechoed from all parts of the Wood these Delights of Nature thus conspiring together you may easily phansie O Philopolis would quickly charm 〈◊〉 wearied body into a profound Sleep But my Soul was then as much as ever awake and as it seems did most vividly dream that I was still walking in these solitary Woods with my thoughts more eagerly intent upon those usual Difficulties of Providence then ever But while I was in this great Anxiety and earnestness of spirit accompanied as frequently when I was awake with vehement and devout Suspirations and Ejaculations towards God of a sudden there appeared at a distance a very grave and venerable Person walking slowly towards me His Statuâ—e was greater then ordinary He was clothed with a loose silk Garment of a purple colour much like the Indian Gowns that are now in fashion saving that the Sleeves were something longer and wider and it was tied about him with a Leviticall Girdle also of Purple and he wore a pair of Velvet Slippers of the same colour but upon his Head a Montero of black Velvet as if he were both a Traveller and an Inhabitant of that place at once Cuph. I dare warrant you it was the Ghost of some of the worthy Ancestors of that noble Family to whom these Woods did belong Hyl. You forget Cuphophron that Bathynous is telling of a Dream as also this third time that Ghosts that is Spirits are no-where and therefore cannot be met with in a Wood. Philop. Enough
aid for the increase of his Joy but rather for the regulating of it For in my apprehension he is in a very great Emotion of minde Philoth. Melancholick persons are sometimes in such a condition upon such like occasions Truth being to the eye of the Soul what Beauty is to that of the Body very transporting Sophr. I believe a solemn Lesson on the Theorbo would finely compose him and Bathynous I know has skill on that Instrument and can sing to it Philoth. You say right he can I pray you Bathynous give us a cast of your Skill Bath I am a very sorry Musician to venture to sing in such company I sing sometimes and play to my self in the dark some easie Songs and Lessons but have not the confidence to think others can be pleased with such mean Musick Cuph. You may play and sing in the dark here too Bathynous if you will The Moon 's light comes not so plentifully through the Leaves of the Arbour as to discover whether you blush or no in case you should be out Come I pray you be confident I 'll reach you the Theorbo Philop. I pray you Bathynous let 's hear what you can doe I know it will be gratefull to Hylobares Hyl. I shall like a Song of Bathynous his chusing I know it will not be impertinent to our present purpose Bath It 's an excellent Theorbo Cuphophron It deserves a more skilfull Hand to touch it then mine How sweet and mellow and yet how majestick is the Sound of it Hyl. O how that Flourish charms my Spirits You have a very good Hand on the Lute Bathynous Bath I 'll sing you a good Song Hylobares though I have but a bad Hand and a worse Voice and it shall be out of your own beloved hobbling Poet The Philosopher's Devotion Hyl. None better I pray you let us hear it Bath Sing aloud His Prâ—â—â—e reseâ—rse Who 〈◊〉 mâ—â—e the Vniversâ— He the boundless Heaven has spred All the vital Orbs has knâ—d He that on Olympus high Tends his Flocks with watchfull Eye And this Eye has multiply'd ' Midst each Flock for to reside Thus as round about thâ—y stray Toucheth each with out-stretch'd Ray. â—imbly they hold on their way Shâ—ping â—ut their Night and Day Summer Winter Autumn Spring Their inclined Axes bring Never slack they none respires Dancing round their Central Fires In due order as they move Echo's sweet be gently drove Thorough Heav'n's vast Holloâ—ness Which unto all corners press Musick that the heart of Jove Moves to Ioy and sportfull Love Fills the listening Sailors ears Riding on the wandring Sphears Neither Speech nor Language is Where their voice is not transmiss God is good is wise is strong Witness all the Creature-throng Is confess'd by every Tongue All things back from whence they As the thankfull Rivers pay Sprung What they borrowed of the Sea Now my self I do resign Tâ—ke me whole I all am tâ—inâ— Save me God from Self-desire Death's pit dark Hell's raging Fire Envy Hatred Vengeance Ire Let not Lust my Soul bemire Quit from these thy Praise I 'll sing Loudly sweep the trembling String Bear a part O Wisedom's Sons Freed from vain Religions Lo from far I you salute Sweetly warbling on my Lute India Aegypt Arabie Asia Greece and Tartarie Carmel Tracts and Lebanon With the Mountains of the Moon From whence muddy Nile doth run Or where-ever else you wone Breathing in one vital Air One we are though distant far Rise at once let 's sacrifice Odours sweet perfume the Skies See how Heav'nly Lightning fires Hearts inflam'd with high Aspires All the substance of our Souls Vp in clouds of Incense rolls Leave we nothing to our selves Save a Voice what need we else Or an Hand to wear and tire On the thankfull Lute or Lyre Sing aloud His Praise rehearse Who hath made the Vniverse Hyl. Your Judgement is very sound O Sophron this solemn Lesson on the Theorbo did not so much increase my Passion of Joy as regulate establish and fix it Methought I was placed in the third Heaven all the while I heard so sweet an Instrument so lively a Voice and so exalted Philosophy and Morality joyn'd together in one Harmony Cuph. You was a very great way off then Hylobares if you mean the Cartesian third Heaven Hyl. I mean an higher Mystery Cuphophron A man may be in the Cartesian third Heaven and yet be as silly a fellow as I was before I conferred with Philotheus Philop. You are the most rapturous and ecstaticall Company of people that ever I met with in all my life a kind of Divine Madness I think rules amongst you and the efficacy of your Converse is able to make others mad for Company I am sure when Philotheus comes to my beloved Theme if he manage it with the like success he has done this it will hazard my being at least inwardly as much transported as Hylobares Which I would willingly try to morrow more timely in the afternoon betwixt three and four of the Clock because my occasions will call me next day out of Town Philoth. I am sorry to hear of your so sudden departure Philopolis but we shall not fail at that time you appoint to give you the meeting here Sophr. And I hope Philotheus will manage your Theme Philopolis with a more steddy and secure Success then that of Hylobares For the truth is I have had many an aking Heart for you all in this doubtfull Dispute your Hardiness seeming to me as reprovable as theirs who when they may securely stand on the firm Land or safely pass over a strong-built Bridge will chuse to commit themselves to some weather-beaten Cock-boat when the Winde is very rough and the Waves high and tossing onely out of a careless Wantonness or desire to conflict with Danger Methought ever and anon I saw the Boat râ—ady to â—opple over and your selves put to swim for your lives or drown Philop. But Providence did marvellously assist her so earnest and affectionate Advocate O Sophron. Sophr. She did and I heartily congratulate your safe arrivall to Land Cuph. But this is but a dry and ineffectual Congratulation O Sophron. Come begin to them in a Glass of good Canarie to comfort their chill hearts after the perill of this Shipwreck and sad Sea-storm Hold I 'll open the Bottle Hyl. Stay your hand O Cuphophron There 's none so chill or cold at heart as you imagine I am sure I am all Joy and Warmth without the help of any such Liquour Cuph. It may be you are over-hot Hylobares Sack is good even in Fevers and it is not unlikely but that a Glass of it may cool you Hyl. All the heat that I have at this time be it never so much is so sacred and divine that I will not diminish it in the least degree upon any pretense Philop. I pray you Cuphophron keep your Bottle entire till another time I perceive it