Homer's For my part I am apt to think that Hell is of a Vast Extent and that the bounds and limits of it are not so strict and narrow as the most imagine It may not be confined within the Air nor within a certain Cavity and Hollow under the Earth Happily it is as large and comprehensive as the whole Elementary World which that indeed it is what already hath been urged about it upon the several Opinions does in some degree Evince And it may be Hell hereafter will not be the same with that which now is Hell But secret things belong to God This for the Place of Hell and for the Kind and Nature of the Punishment which is therein It doth not only consist in Loss and Deprivation but also in Pain and Exquisite Torments For this Reason it is called Fire and the rather called so because that Hell it self is styled in the Sacred Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word deriv'd from others in the Hebrew which signifie the Valley of Hinnon a Place wherein the superstitious Israelites with an Inhumanity that cannot be expressed did offer up their Children in the Fire to Moloch Not that Infernal Fire is Material and Corporeal or that it is a Proper but only Metaphorical Fire A Fire it is but such an one as is prepared for the Devil and for his Angels which if it were Corporeal or Material since Corporeal and Material Beings act not on Incorporeal Immaterial Spirits it could not be imagined to be Again as the Worm that never dyes is Metaphorical and Figurative so is the Fire that never goeth out Besides Hell is generally called Tartarus and that as Plutarch tells us for the Coldness of it ex frigore Tartarus appellatus est Nor is this a Fancy only of Poets or of some few Philosophers 't is Scripture That in Hell is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of teeth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est algentem quassari contremiscere to shake and gnash ones Teeth for cold In Plato's Hell which he describes in his Phâ—do there is both Fire and Water But though in Hell there be no Proper Fire yet since the torments in it are frequently compared to Fire and with the addition of Brimstone it must needs consist whatever some imagine in some thing equally as Dire as Insupportable as Tormenting and as Vexatious as that Which that it does we have not only Plato's Testimony but if we will believe him the common sentiment of all the World to Evince and Prove iâ— It is saith he a Common and Receiv'd Tradition that Infernal Torments are most Atrocious and Insupportable a Tradition so received in his time that he most Pathetically inveighs against the Irreclaimable Obdurateness and Obstinacy of men whom that Consideration could not awe and terrifie You may read it in his own terms in his Book of Laws Again Infernal Torments are not only most Atrocious and severe but extended both to body and soul. And it is so great Reason that the Body should as well suffer as the Soul That some have thought it not unlikely that the soul as it did not sin but in the Body so it doth not suffer but with it That 't is Soul and Body in conjunction that do make man and it is man not the Soul without the Body not the Body without the Soul but Soul and Body soder'd into one Compositum that sins and that which sins must suffer The Man sins and the man must suffer But I drive it not so far for the Soul in state of Union to the Body as it liveth in it so it acteth by it the Soul as so is Actus corporis and is nothing but what relateth to the Body and consequently all its Actions are Organical yet since it can be separated and though not as Anima yet as Ens can subsist alone without the Body It is in that Estate Responsible and just it should for what it did in the other I say just it should For the Soul it guides the Body it governs it and to use a comparison that hath had the Honour to have been a Philosophers is to it as a Rider to his Horse who though he goeth no where but where the Horse carries him and Acteth nothing but by it yet since he governs the Horse which goeth as Directed no wonder if unhors'd and on his own legs he suffer for the Trespasses he made his Horse to commit He suffers on foot for what he did on Horseback All I infer is That 't is highly Reasonable that the man who sinned with his Body should suffer in it as well as in his Soul and that 't is Just that they who were together in the Crime should also be conjoyn'd in the Punishment as indeed they shall for we must all Appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body 2 Cor. 5.10 So much for the first Particular that there are Eternal and Atrocious Punishments ordained to be inflicted in the other World both on Soul and Body for the sins of Men committed in this I am now in Prosecution of the Order I proposed to my self to Evidence the Second which is That there is not any Inequality in the Punishment ordained to the sin but great Equality and Proportion Which to effect with all imaginable Evidence and clearness I will first lay down a Truth acknowledged by all that know any thing viz. That every sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good unto the sinner himself and consequently that 't is Infinite in Aggravation Then in the second place I will make it Evident and Undenyable that that Infinite Aggravation which is in every sin by Reason of its Object is the Bottom Ground and Foundation whereon the Perpetuity of its Punishment is Erected Thirdly I will fully prove to Obviate some exceptions which may lye before me that though Insernal Punishments be all of them Perpetual and consequently Infinite protensively and in duration yet that Intrinsecally and Subjectively they are but Finite And when I have acquitted me of what I promise you on these points then in the fourth place I shall lay before your eyes in a full and more express delineation the great Equality and Proportion between the Sin and Punishment which I will abundantly confirm by many more considerations I shall add And for the first That every Sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good and to the sinner himself cannot be denyed by one that Understands the Nature of sin Against thee the Royal Psalmist saith thee only have I sinned The Wrong and Injury may be against man as that of David was against Uriah but the Sinfulness therein is only against God There is in every sin a Transgression Their Transgressions in all their sins or a Breach and Violation of the Law of God
and as I minded you before affirmed the Body to be Hell and that Souls were sent into it but by way of Punishment to expiate that Guilt they had contracted long before And indeed the great Hypothesis of Pre-existence of Souls though as stated and interpreted by Hierocles it seem a Depravation of the History of the Fall of Man yet as displayed by Plato himself in Phaedrus what is it other than a Disguise of that Tradition of the Fall of the Angels which we may Presume transmitted to him and conveyed from most antient times For there he treateth of a threefold condition of the Soul or Mind one before its Immersion in the Body while it was above in Heaven the other after its immersion in the Body while it is in Union and Conjunction with it and how it came to be so the third the state of Separation and dis-Dis-union from the Body again and what becomes of it then He saith of the Soul that before its Immersion into this Terrestrial Body she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect and Winged and that while she was so she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she kept above flying as she pleased over all the world but afterward by reason of her turpitude and Pravity the Feathers falling from her wings she sunk lower and at last meeting with convenient matter in this Inferiour Region took up her residence and habitation in it This is his Notion of the Pre-existence of souls and of the cause of their incorporation in terrestrial Vehicles or Bodies which in his own terms you may read in his Phaedrus thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Divine Nature is Amiable Wise Good and whatever else Resemble this and by these the Wing of the Soul is chiefly both nourisht and augmented but by contrary things as Turpitude and Pravity c. it is clipped and dissolved The feathers fall off And who seeth not in this Hypothesis or Notion that he supposeth there were Unconcreted Minds or Spirits which fell and left their first Habitation which in their state of Fall or Apostasie not concerned with terrestrial Bodies are Daemons and concerned are Souls Souls and Daemons differing in no other wife with Plato than according to the Notion of a Learned Person that understands him well enough as Swords in Scabbards do from Swords without them And truly to render my Discourse on this matter beyond Exception I am but to demonstrate this the sense of many of the Antients namely That Souls and Angels differ not in substance but only in condition and state which that it was you will easily be induced to believe when I have proved it Received even among the Iews who not unlikely might derive the same as well as many other of their Vulgar Placits from the Greek Philosophers And that it was a Received though false Opinion among the Iews is evident from that of those Disciples met together to Pray for Peter who on Rhoda's insisting that she heard his voyce at the Gate whom they knew before in Prison and then Imagined Dead conclude it was his Angel that is not his Guardian as the most think nor his Messenger as some for it would not follow from the Premises it was Peters voyce therefore his Guardian Angel or it was Peters voyce therefore 't is his Messenger but that it was his Spirit or as we call it his Ghost his Spectrum his Apparition Mens Ghosts therefore called Apparitions usually appearing in the same shape and dissembling the same voyce that was owned by the living Persons whom they Represent Nor is this Interpretation groundless or a meer conceit for I find in Philo a passage that will much contribute both to illuminate and strengthen it for he saith That the belief that Souls Genius's and Angels do not differ really and in deed so much as nominally and in name will effectively redeem and free the mind from grievous Superstition and so Apuleius Animus humanus etiam nunc in corpore situs Daemon nuncupatur that the Soul of man even while it yet resideth in the Body is called a Daemon or Angel In a word That there is a Devil as well as a God an Evil Principle the cause of all the Evil in the world as well as a Good the Author of every Good and Perfect Gift was a common Tenent in Antient times Zoroaster Father of the Magi held there was an Oromazes and an Arimaneius and conform to the Scriptures adds de rebus sub sensum cadentibus illum maxime similem esse Luci hunc Tenebris ignorationi That the One was best compared to Light the other to Darkness and Ignorance Of which Opinion also were the Greeks Philosophers and Poets Qui faith Plutarch bonam partem Jovi Olympio malam Diti Averrunco assignant who ascribe all Good to the God of heaven and all the Evil in the World to the Devil of hell Yes sayes Plutarch most emphatically Uerustissima autem sacrarum professoribus rerum legum latoribus derivata est Opinio Autore incognito fide firma indelebili non in sermonibus ea tantum in rumoribus sed in mysteriis ac Sacrificiis tam Barbaris quam Graecanicis extans What neque casu ferri à fortuna pendere Universum mente ratione ac Gubernatore destitutum neque unicam esse rationem quae contineat id dirigat tanquam clavum aut fraena moderans Sed cum per multa è bonis juxta malisque sunt confusa Ergo à duobus Principiis contrariis adversisque duabus facultatibus quarum Altera ad Dextram recta ducat altera retrorsum avertatur atque reflectat cùm vitam esse mixtam tum ipsum mundum c. And more than this It was a common Tenent amongst them that between the Good and Evil Principle there was War commenced and carryed on iâ— the world which under the management and conduct of a third or middle One called by Zoroaster Mithra and as Plutarch tells us by the Persians Mesites Mediator by the Greeks Harmonia Agreement It was in conclusion to be finisht by the Ruine of Arimanius All which the Author last mentioned in his Treatise of Isis and Osiris shews at large wherein with many other you may read the following Passage Oromazan natum aiunt è luce purissima Arimanium è caligine eos bellum inter se gerere Sex Deos fecisse Oromazan primum Benevolentiae secundum Veritatis tertium AEquitatis reliquos Sapientiae Divitiarum Voluptatis quae honesta consequitur opisicem Arimanium totidem numero his adversa efficientem This shews the Nature of the War and for the Success and event of it hear Theopompus Theopompus ait de sententia Magorum vicibus ter miâ—e annorum alterum Deorum superare alterum succumbere per alia tria annorum millia bellum eos inter se gerere pugnare alterum alterius opera
his Note-book and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter unwillingly takes notice of it and so Erasmus understands them who tells us sero dat aut punit gravatim id facere videtur That whoso deferreth either to oblige or punish He seems unwillingly to do it It is thus that God delighteth not in the death of a sinner and that He willeth it not comparatively he wou'd rather that he should Repent and Live and interpretatively he delayeth to inflict Punishment as it were expecting an occasion that he might with Honor omit it And this in answer to the General Exceptions you put in namely The seeming Improportion betwen a Finite Transgression and an Infinite Punishment and the Inconsistency of Eternal Punishment with the End of Punishment As for the more Particular ones I shall in their order now consider them and first for that of the odd Circumstances of the most that are Christians You say Not to urge that the most that are Christians lye and live under such odd Circumstances that they are very near an impossibility wholly to subdue and suppress the influences of Sense and yet must they be Plagued or Punisht with Unspeakable and Eternal Tortures I answer no for 't is impossible for any while immur'd in the Body wholly to subdue the Influences of sense and should none arrive at Heaven but who had first arrived to a State of Perfection here on Earth Heaven would be empty and Hell full That Perfection which is to be our aim on earth cannot be our attainment or our achievement but in Heaven Here sin will be Indwelling in us as long as there is flesh incompassing us It is not Perfect but Sincere Obedience that is exacted by Grace For that Perfection cannot be attained in the present world by any that descend from Adam is evident in that Concupiscence or Lust is Original Native inlayed with our very Tempers We are begotten in sin and in the Fervency or Heat of Lust and Appetite and consequently having such Impressions made upon us in our very Rise and Conception and augmented and improved in us by our after Acts 't is as impossible for us totally to rid our selves of these as of any other Instincts and Propensions of Nature We may check them and restrain them but cannot destroy and eradicate them This Body must be new-moulded new-cast before it can be wholly freed of the lusts that infect it Therefore the Apostle when he would be Discharged from his sin thus expresses his Option who will deliver me from the Body of this Death I know that Jesus Christ was a Man and that he lived in the midst of Temptations without the Danger and the Power of any and that he is the Great Example of Divine Life but I also know the Devil who coming unto us doth find so much coming unto him found nothing in him For he not being begotten or conceived in the Ordinary way of Generation as all others are with the common Fervency and Heat of Lust or Appetite but on a Pure and cold Virgin and by the Holy Ghost had no Original Concupiscence or Lust to be awakened and excited in him as in us by the many Objects presented daily to the sense Now external causes work little without there be internal ones to co-operate Inefficax est causa Procatarctica sine Proegumena But to return Again the Christian Life here is compared to imperfect things to Fighting to Running to Growing to Walking in a word compared to Motions and what is Motion but Imperfect Act Actus entis in Potentiâ quatenus in potentiâ What is in Motion is but in tendency unto Perfection but hath not yet arrived to it In Motion there are two terms The Term from which and that in this is here on Earth And the Term to which and this is in Heaven and between these is the Motion Truly Sir Our Holiness is not our Righteousness to justifie our Persons 't is too Imperfect and Defective to do that 'T is not our Inherent but Adherent Righteousness not the Righteousness within us but the Righteousness imputed to us that must bottom all our Hopes And I the rather say this because I am a little jealous by reason of the supposition on which the Argument you urge is grounded that you hold the Opinion which is now the Ascendent That Imputed Righteousness is Phancy and that it was not the Design of Jesus Christ nor of the Gosple to advance and set up that but only that which inheres in us Were I sure of what I but suspect that you are indeed of this Opinion and that your Argument hath Aspect that way I should more fully set my self to oppose it and to establish that Egregious Verity and Truth of Christian Doctrine concerning Righteousness imputed as One that ministers as much unto the Comfort and Repose and Quiet of Conscience as any other But since I am not sure I shall say the less of it now Only thus much I will say that certainly the great Design of God in sending Iesus Christ into the world was to make His Righteousness the Righteousness of God Illustrious in opposition unto that of man or the Righteousness of the Law there being Nothing within the compass of the Humane Understanding that can more contribute to illustrate and set off the Infinite and Transcendent Majesty of the great God as to his Wisdom Goodness and Justice than the Declaration he hath made from Heaven of his Righteousness in Jesus Christ that he is Just and a Justifier Iust to Punish Christ that assumed on himself the sin of man and a Iustifier of those that are in Christ whose Punishment he bore The Inherent Righteousness that Romanists and others so insist upon is nothing as a Righteousness to boast of but that Pharisaical one displayed by our Blessed Saviour in the Instance of it which he gives in Luke I thank thee O God that I am not this nor that but do this and that Wherein there is an Acknowledgement of God as Author and Inspirer of all the Good he doth but withal an Exaltation and Advancement of self I thank thee there is the One I am no Extortioner no Adulterer nor Unjust I fast twice in the Week I give Tythes of all that I possess there is the Other It was very well done that he fasted that he gave Alms c. but yet not so well as to Incourage him to boast therein before God Verily the Great Design of Jesus Christ and Christianity is not to exalt but to depress self He that glories must not glory in the Flesh not in anything he is not in any thing he doth though by Divine Assistance For by that must all have been done that either was or could be done by Adam in Innocence it must have been done by Gods Assistance and yet for all that Room enough there was for Boasting and Glorying then in that Transaction whereas in this of Grace or in the Dispensation
demoliri Tandem Plutonem desscere tun◠Homines fore Beatos neque alimento utentes neque umbram edentes When all the Devils works are Demolisht and his Government overthrown then blessed and happy shall men be They shall be as the Good Angels they shall not live on Elementary Aliment but they shall have glorious and heavenly Bodies So I interpret that neque umbras edentes That man was created upright and in the Divine Image and that He was Invested in a state of honour as well as of Innocence and had at first bestowed upon him all the Creatures God had made I have already evinced known among the Gentiles in the little Treatise that occasioned your Letter not only by the Testimonies of the Poets Hesiod and Ovid but of grave Philosophers of Plato of Hierocles and of others And therefore I will add here but one more and that shall be out of Hermes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father of all the Mind Being Life and Light produced man in his likeness in whom he was delighted as in his Off-spring for he was very beautiful and lovely bearing the Image of the Father And in very deed God was in love with his own similitude and assigned over unto him all that he had made That Men fell and by Temptation of the Devil or Serpent were cheated out of Paradise was a Truth no less acknowledged among the Heathen than that they once stood of which as I have given several Testimonies in my former Discourse so you may find more in Morney and Dr. Stillingfleet who both make the Table of Ophioneus whom Coelius Rhodiginus calls Daemonicum Serpentem the Devilish Serpent and Leader of the Rebels and Apostates from God to be a Depravation of the History of Moses concerning mans fall effected by the crafty Serpent Once that man at first was taken up in Contemplation and Enjoyment of the Great Creator but that afterwards converting to the Creature instead of walking in the way of Understanding which lyes above to the Wise and of conforming to the Dictates of the superiour faculties he took the lower way of Sense and Appetite and so of a man became a Brute and of Free a Vassal sold to Sin and Lust. As it is hinted in the Metamorphosis and Transmutations of the Pythagoreans and Poets wherein they feigned men transformed into the shapes of Beasts so it is expressed plainly by Iamblicus Contemplabilis ipse in se Intellectus homo erat quondam Deorum contemplationi conjunctus deinde vero alteram ingressus est animam circa humanam formae speciem coaptatam sive contemperatam atque propterea in ipso necessitatis fatique vinculo est alligatus Nor were they less acquainted with the way of mans Recovery and with the method wherein he is to be restored again unto felicity than with his fall and the cause of it For as they took the Fall and Infelicity of man to consist in his Oblivion and Forgetfulness of God and in a foolish forsaking of himself abused as he was by false Appearances to Lust and Sensitive Appetite instead of firm adhering to Reason so they understood his Liberation and Redemption from that Servitude and Bondage no otherwise to be Effected than by his again Recovering that Acquaintance and Knowledge of God which he had formerly lost This is life Eternal to know thee sayes our Saviour and the same saith Iamblicus who speaks as much as here I have both as to the Fall of man and to his rise Considerare itaque decet qua praesipue ratione ab ejusmodi vinculis solvi potest est autem solutio nulla praeter ipsam Deorum cognitionem Idea namque felicitatis est ipsum cognolcere bonum Quemadmodum est Idea malorum ipsa quidem Bonorum oblivio fallacia circa malum c. Haec autem à Principiis cadens atque repulsa seipsam projicit ad corporalem Ideam dimetiendam That the Gentiles had heard of the Promise of Christ or God Incarnate and that some among them looked for him is not obscurely intimated by the Prophet in the Attribute he gives him that he was the Desire of all Nations For though the Incarnation of God or as our Apostle the manifestation of him in the flesh be a thing of so much difficulty to be apprehended that in the Judgement both of Epicurus and Laertius it is no less than plain folly and madness to believe it Quippe etenim mortalem arterno jungere una Constare putare fungi mutua posse Desipere est Yet 't is Undenyable that many as well Philosophers as others thought it possible And I make no question but moved by some old Tradition they earnestly expected such an One to come of which there are no Dark Evincements For not to insist on what the Noble Morney hath so closely pressed that Iulian himself believed Aesculapius the Son of Iupiter to have descended from Heaven to be incarnate to have appeared among men as a man in order to the restistution of both souls and bodies to their Pristine Perfection I say not to stay on that 'T is evident as well from Aristotle in his Ethicks as from others that they thought the like of Many great and eminent Persons among them of All which that I may not too much exercise your Patience with instancing in more than need I will elect but two for Examples For what did many of them think of great Pythagoras but what we believe of Iesus Christ that he was the Son of God a God incarnate sent to men in Humane shape on purpose to Reform and Correct their lives and by his own example to inflame and kindle in them ardent affections and desires after true Philosophy and Happiness And Aristotle meant no less when in a Book he wrote of the Pythagorean Philosophy he maketh mention of a certain Distribution of Beings possessed of Reason that was he sayes preserved of Holy men as one of the greatest and most Sacred Mysteries they had in keeping viz. That it was either God or Man or as Pythagoras as who would say as God-man or One Participating both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that you may not fancy I have put a false interpretation on the Text of Aristotle or have affirmed more of Pythagoras than ever entred into Humane Cogitation in respect of him before you shall have as much as I have said of him represented to you by Iamblicus who wrote his Life as the common sentiment of very many of Old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But others reported him to be one of the Coelestial Gods who came for the Benefit and Reformation of the mortal Life Affirming that he appeared in humane Form to men that he might graciously afford to corrupt nature a saving Incentive both to Philosophy and Blessedness And little less was said of Plato another great Luminary or Star that shined in the Gentile Orb for of him
of the Daemons Who from the Beginning Assigned every One His Own Daemon and does in Sacrifices according to His Own Pleasure shew every Man His Own Nor is Iamblicus's Testimony the only One I have in this matter for Plato in his Convivium having spoken somewhat of the Nature and of the Offices of Love to the End he might Discourse more confidently of it Introduces one Diotima a Stranger but a Prophetess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and makes her answer Socrates inquiring what that Love should be That it was not God himself as he had apprehended it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Great Daemon Mediator between God and Man She sayes the Great Daemon for she supposeth there are many Daemons but this the Great One or LORD-DEMON 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many and Diverse Daemons and Love is one of them I know you do not startle at the Name nor at the Thing Daemon though I believe some others will who are less acquainted with the Antient Learning and who know no other meaning of the word than what common usage now enstamps upon it But there will be little Reason for any man to Boggle at either if he can have the Patience but to hear Diotima describing the Demonial Nature That it is a middle one between God and what is Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 't is its office to interpret and to carry the Prayers and Sacrifices of men to God and the Precepts and Commands of God with all his Gracious Retributions and Returns to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it filleth being of a middle nature Both the Upper and the Lower Region or is as a haps or common Ligament to bind the Universe in all its parts together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the Rise and Spring of Divination or Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In fine That God and Man have no immediate communion or commerce together but what intelligence and Intercourse soever is between them Proceeds from this Daemonial Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Diotimae And how well has her Discourse it is so deep and so surprizing Rewarded our Attention to it For all she spake in General of the Daemonial Nature was intended as the scope of that Discourse evinces Principally if not solely for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Great Daemon and if she mention'd others it was by way of caution only to secure her self and Umbrage what she said that it might down the better amid the many Prejudices of the Vulgar that opposed it Nor durst Plato who was well acquainted with the Fate of Socrates and with the charge that made it more apertly explicate the matter It was the great Crime imputed to the Master and for which he was condemned and Executed that he Introduced New Daemons and it would have been a greater in the Scholar and after such Example less Excusable wholly to exclude the Old Wherefore it is not Injudicious to Understand the Proâ—hetess in the Argument preceding principally to Regard the great Daemon and who is He but Christ For it is He and indeed only He that is a Mediator between God and man and that participates them both It is He Interpreteth the mind of God and that presenteth all our Prayers and that Reporteth all his Answers and Returns By him alone we hold Communion and Intelligence with God 'T is he that filleth All things which no other Daemon can and in all the Aethereal Region in the form of God the Inferiour in the form of man and it is he that is the common Ligament that holdeth Heaven and Earth together by whom all the Parts and Members of the Universe Disbanded in the Fall are Re-united under one Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Recapitulate is the Apostles word And well might Iesus Christ the Great Daemon of Plato be styled by him as he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love who as one composed all of Love has given greater Demonstrations in Effect of His than it is possible for Men to represent in words Nor is it contradicted by the Story which the Author tells us of the Origin and Rise of Love namely that it was the Offspring of Porus and Penia of Plenty and Poverty for what more easie Applications can be made of it than to our blessed Saviour who is the Issue of the Grace and Goodness of Almighty God and of the Indigency Need and Poverty of Man Had not Man been Indigent and Needy and God Infinitely Rich in Grace and Mercy Christ had never come As for the Resurrection of the Dead Another Article of Christian Religion it was Believed by the Druids it was Preached by the Sibylls it was implyed in the Doctrine of the Immortality of Humane Souls in the Sepulture of Bodies and in the Rights of Sepulchres which for that they preserved the Dust and Ashes of Men against the time of Restitution were esteemed all the World over Sacred and Inviolable So Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Humane to afford Earth unto Unburied Carkases Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not violate the Sepulcher of the Dead nor discover to the Sun things not to be looked on The next Verse is to the same Purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Infamous to dissolve the Humane frame or disturb his Ashes And why He annexes the Reason in the following Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we hope that ere long the grave â—hall render up again to light the Reliques of the Dead And though in St. Pauls time â—he Multitude at Athens were so abâ—olutely unacquainted with the Resurrection of the Dead that when they had the Happiness to hear him Preach concerning it some of them apprehended him to speak of a God and all of a new and strange thing yet we know that at the same time there were Philosophers Rome that were most clear and full in their Belief and Faith of it who not unlikely with their other knowledges Received even this at Athens from some above the many Once Philosophy came from Greece to Rome and at Rome we have some Notice of this Article Seneca shall speak thereof Mors saith he intermittit vitam non cripit Veniet iterum qui nos in Lucem reponat Dies Death is but a sleep an Interruption not an Abolition of Life there wiâ— a Day come when we may Repossess the Light Thus He of the Resurrection of the Body which yet both Portius Festus and Pliny derided Democritus indeed seems to have spoken of it and that occasioned in part the Extravagant Sally and Talk of Pliny And having treated of the Resurrection of the Body I will now tell you why I premised to it nothing of the State and Immortality of the soul It was because I did esteem it as a Point supposed in all Religions and taken for granted However in regard you may
expect I should say something not to mention that Pherecides Syrus Master of Pythagoras is said by some by others Thales to be the first that asserted it which I will then credit when I am convinced that before them there was neither Worship nor Theologie I affirm it a Doctrine so Universally believed and known to be so that it were superfluous to be much in Citations You shall therefore have the trouble but of reading one Testimony which for Pregnancy and Fulness of its Sense and its Conformity with that of Holy Writ will supersede all others It is Moschion's or as some Menanders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Permit the Dead to be covered with Earth And every thing whence it came into the Body Thither to Return the Spirit to Heaven And the Body to Earth So Solomon Then shall the dust Return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall Return unto God that gave it And Socrates was sure of it that he should go to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Gods Lords As for Iudgement 'T is manifest by a Passage which I cited out of Iamblicus upon the first Argument that the great Pythagoras both believed and taught it And what Apprehensions the more Antient Times had and how conformable to those that Christians have from Christ in Matthew is deduceable from the Old Story of Erus Son of Armenius which we have in Plato and which I mention'd in the Preface to my former Treatise The Story is this Erus Son of Armenius was in a great Combat slain with many others and after ten dayes when the Bodies of the rest all purified and rotten were removed his was found as sweet and as found as ever which his friends carrying home in order to perform to it all the requisite Funeral Ceremonies on the twelfth day from his decease as they were laying him upon the Funeral Pile Behold Erus reviv'd and being reviv'd related all that he had seen and heard from the time that he first departed His Relation follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He said That after the Separation of his Soul from the Body he went with many in his company and at last arrived at a certain Divine Place whence he saw two Openings or Hiatus in the Earth one near another and as many also above in Heaven right opposite to them That betwixt these Openings there sate Judges That these Iudges after they had taken Iudicial Cognizance of all Persons and Matters and accordingly had passed Sentence commanded the JUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go to the RIGHT HAND up into Heaven Which they did carrying on their Breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Records of all the Good things acknowledged in that Iudgement to have been done by them But the Wicked and UNJUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were ordered to the LEFT HAND and to descend to the Infernals they also bearing but upon their backs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intimations as it were Records in writing of all that they had done That Erus himself for his part when he came before the Iudges was told by them that he must return again to Mortals to Report to them all that he had seen and heard and therefore that he should exactly observe c. And how agreeable I say is this Relation of Erus for so much of it as concerns Judgement to that we have from Iesus Christ who tells us that in the last day there shall a Separation be made as of Sheep from Goats The Sheep shall stand at the RIGHT the Goats at the LEFT HAND and that then the Good omitted by the Wicked as that performed by the Just shall come to Light and stand Eternally Recorded with the Sentence passed on them to shew Divine Justice You have another Old Story to Demonstrate the Antient Faith of Gentiles in the point of Iudgement who maketh Socrates to tell it to one Callicles Therein he speaks of Two wayes one to Heaven another to Hell Of three Iudges Rhadamanthus Judge of the Asians Aeacus Judge of the Europeans and Minos presiding over both with a many other not impertinent matters But as he tells the Tale it is so prolix and after what I have already said from Erus so unnecessary here that I will not give my self the trouble to Transcribe or you to Read it only there is a passage in it that imports how Just and how impartial a Judgement that shall be which for that it is Important and concerning I think not fit to omit For Socrates having in Discourse on some part of his Relation said what the Holy Penmen in many places also do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That many of the Dynastes or Rulers of the World are wicked thence he takes occasion to resume his Story and to tell how Uprightly how Equally how Impartially Judge Rhadamanthus does Acquit himself towards them and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the foresaid Rhadamanthus taketh such an one in hand to examine him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He taketh cognizance of nothing in him neither of what Rank or Quality he is or from whom descended but only that he is Wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finding him so dismisseth him to Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Putting on him ◠Mark to signifie that he is Curable or else Incurable It seems they held Purgatory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he see another soul that of a man that hath lived Holily and according to Truth and Justly whether it be that of a plain and Unlearned man or else of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Principally I say O Callicles if it be a Philosophers I had almost rendered it if a Christians One that minds his own matters and is no busie-body in other mens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he huggs and sends to the Islands of the Blessed AEacus does the like Minos sits by superintending according to Ulysses in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holding a Golden Scepter and ordaining Right to the Dead This for the Iudgement to come But if any urges that the Testimonies I have cited do concern the Particular one which every soul assoon as it abandons and forsakes the Body undergoes rather than the General wherein all men all together souls and bodies re-united shall appear at the Bar I say 1. Particular Judgement and General differ not essentially but accidentally 2. And who knows but that they meant both But 3. If they apprehended not the Article in all its Circumstances so distinctly as we now do it will not much matter if for all they did believe the substance That All must answer one day for what they do in the Body and be Rewarded accordingly Since this sufficeth for both the Ends of that Discovery namely to Influence the Humane Life and to Justifie Divine Procedure As for the two States of heaven