which really came to pass And this is evident because they do note all the crcumstances and particularities which are observed in true Histories and by which we are wont to discern Romances and Poetical Fictions from true Narrations They would have us to hold and believe those Narrations for very truths and things which have really and certainly happened To what end should this be if their Narrations are but Dreams Do those good VVriters that will instruct and profit use such means In no wise And although one would write some Moraliz'd Romance to instruct men yet would not he publish it for a true History Besides that we have noted before that these Sacred Histories have none of the stile and garb of Romances And as to the Doctrines Sayings and Sentences of which the Sacred Books are full will the Atheists say that they are Paradoxes wild and extravagant opinions If it is so I will ask them To what good end could such things have been forged and invented For we have shewed heretofore that they could not be invented to any ill intent or pernicious design If they are meer Inventions and that there is no reality in them to what good end can they have been invented Moreover these Sacred Authours do propose these Doctrines that men may stedfastly believe them and that they may be held for undoubted truths can there be any good or reasonable end in this if these things are in effect but Extravagancies VVill they say that these Persons being willing to win men to the exercise of Virtue Justice Temperance Fortitude Truth Faithfullness Friendship Charity Patience Honour Respect Obedience Observation of the Laws of Humane Society c. did think that the perswasion though a false one of a God Creatour and Governour of this Universe Judge Avenger and Remuneratour of the good and evill and that the examples though but fictitious and false of Vices and Virtues which are rewarded or punished by a Providence would be a Powerfull motive to induce men to attain this end And that this is it which hath made them to invent this opinion of a Providence with all the consequences of it and to compile all these Stories to Patronize Vices and Virtues Almost as Horace doth pretend in that Epistle which begins Trojani belli Scriptorem Maxime Lâ—lli that Homer in his Iliad and Odyssea doth tell us all these fine Tales and Stories to serve as Morall documents unto all men It is very true that the beliefe of a God such as he is represented to us in the Sacred Writings is the true and only meanes and the most strong and efficacious motive to induce men to true Virtue as it appears by the Examples of the Lives of the truely-faithfull under both the Testaments in comparison of which the most splendid Virtue of the Heathen is but dross and dung As an exact comparison of them would easily verifie And the first Christian Fathers that have writ against the vanity of the Heathen shewed this evidently as Tertullian Minutius Felix and others But it is also very true that if this perswasion of a Deity and Providence such as it is represented to us by the Christian Religion was false and imaginary it could not produce such an effect as to induce men to exercise the true Virtue And we may not Object that an opinion though false if it be believed for true and certain doth produce the same effect as if it were really true as many Examples do testifie For those false impressions which the mind receives do last but for a little while They deceive only for a small time It is as paint upon a face which for a time doth give some lustre but abideth not But this belief of a Deity and Providence is stable and as constant and unalterable as the Heavens And it is not a Fiction of the Holy Writers For those that never heard of them or saw their Writings have had and yet have this perswasion for we have shewed heretofore that all men in all ages were perswaded there was a Deity and a Providence There is also too manifest and palpable a difference between the Fables and Poetical Fictions of Homer and the Narrations of Holy Writ It was not Homer's intention if his design was such as Horace tells us it was viz. to instruct and please men by his Fables that we should take his Fables for Truths Nor hath he divulged these Fictions for true Histories but composed only a fine Moraliz'd Romance But as we have said the Sacred Writers do tell us their Histories as certain and indubitable things And as to the false Deities of Homer and to all those things he tells of them I think that there is none of the strong Wits at this day dares maintaine without blushing but that which the Christian Religion doth teach of a God Creatour Preserver Judge and Governour of all this Universe of his Cult and Service and of the meanes to attain to true happiness by Jesus Christ alone is farr more agreeable to the Deity if there is any and also more conformable to right Reason then all the fabulous Tales of the false Gods of Homer yea then what he hath best and more refined concerning the Deity So then it is unreasonable to say of the Sacred VVriters of the Old and New Testament that they have invented or got from some others that preceded them the things that they reach us in their VVritings All manner of reason is against this To these I will add some few remarks which may serve as a Modell for any one who will treat of this matter more at large as well it may be done CHAP. XIV Wherein there follow some more Proofs of the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures THose things which are contained in Scripture are two-fold viz. Doctrines and Histories Neither of these can proceed from man's or Devils inventions The Doctrines also are two fold 1. Dogmata so properly called because they are delivered as the objects of our faith and knowledge as that there is a God a Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour and Redeemer of the VVorld 2. Moral Doctrines which are conversant in the regulating of life and exercise of Virtue These Doctrines which respect Faith and Knowledge are so high so sublime so excellent so admirable so profound and abstruse especially those Mysteries of the Trinity Incarnation and Redemption that the Soul of man is not at all capable to comprehend them so as to have invented or divined such things and they are so contrary to the humour nature and Genius of the Devil that he could not nor would not have thought or invented any such things much less would he have taught them unto men And if these things are false good Angels would not have invented them such a Fiction being wholy repugnant to their integrity And as to the Moral Precepts they contain so exact perfect and incomparable a form of holiness to which all the Virtues of the
THE HINGE OF FAITH AND RELIGION OR A Proof of the Deity against Atheists and Profane Persons by Reason and the Testimony of Holy Scripture the Divinity of which is demonstrated By L. Cappel Doctour and Professour in Divinity Translated out of French By Philip Marinel M. A. and Fellow of Pembroke-College in Oxford Printed for Thomas Dring at the George near St Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1660. To the WORSHIPFULL St-JOHN CHERNOCK Esquire IT was not any desire I had to appear in Publick that incited me to set forth these Dr. Cappel's last Works in English I am conscious enough to my self of my defects Neither would I have ventured ever to let this Translation see the light but that some Friends perswaded me that this piece against Atheism was very seasonable in these Times where almost every body through our late unhappy Distractions and Toleration of the wildest Phansies in matter of Divine Worship is to seek for his Religion And it is to be feared that many who profess outwardly the Principles of Religion have yet no sound apprehensions of the main Foundation of it viz. Of the Deity which they I mean most part of the Common people seldom think of or if they do they have such conceptions of it as that it would make a man of Reason think he is not of the same kinde So grossly and so absurdly they do talk of the Almighty and of those matters in Religion which Natural Reason teacheth that I have often been in the mind to think with an antient Philosopher that the Forms of Asses and Hogs did now and then animate those Bodies which are framed in the shape of a Man and which are common amongst us But I have since perceived that these things for I knew not what other names to give them were apt to be taught that they indeed had Reason and that really they were men and therefore had Souls to save which I am sure they cannot do unless they have a right apprehension of the Deity in these places especially where they have means enough afforded them to effect this This small Treatise will I am sure if read seriously and without prejudice help such ignorant people very much But it is not the main end for which it was intended It is wholly to confute a company of Ruffling Fellows who call themselves the Strong Wits forsooth and that with an Emphasis too who think it is a piece of Gallantry to deny a God and a Providence and who indeed would have it so for the Reasons alleadged in the first Chapter of this Book They shall find here satisfaction enough if they do but take the leisure to peruse it I am not ignorant that there have been many pieces made by sundry Learned men upon this subject but I never read or heard of any who hath handled it in this Method and so clearly And since I am utterly uncapable to express and set forth the Praises and Elogies due to the worthy Authour I will rather choose to bury them in silence and let him gain it himself in his Book the Translation of which I undertook at first but to satisfie a Friend's desire I have done it as well as I could and to a sincere end and therefore I do not much fear to be blamed As for the Publication of it your own incitement Honoured Sir was a sufficient Motive to attempt it and I do here humbly present it to you as a Testimony of that Gratitude I am bound to pay you for those manifold favours you have Honoured me withall and as a Token of that Respect I ow unto your Piety and Virtue which is the Nobility God hath eminently endowed you with besides that of Blood that your Illustrious Ancestours have conferred on you Whom I beseech the Almighty to protect and preserve in all prosperity in this life and in the life to come to give you an immortal Crown of Glory And remain Honoured Sir Your most humble most obedient and obliged Servant P.M. THE AUTHOURS PREFACE TO THE READER THIS small Treatise is not compiled with any Hopes to reduce wholly those against whom I argue For such persons are not recall'd by Disputations Discourses or Humane Reasonings That they may be healed and converted God himself must speak must scourge and terrifie them with his revengefull Judgements The sin of such Persons is like that of Sodom and Gomorrah viz Pride Fulness of Bread and Abundance of Idleness Ezech. xvi 49. They most especially are troubled with this Disease who live in this World according to their own desires who abound with the Goods of this present World who are overwhelmed with the Wealth Honours Sweets and Pleasures of this Life For the turning away of the Simple shall slay them and the Prosperity of Fools shall destroy them Prov. i. 32. Whilest they enjoy this Prosperity and have their ease and quiet they avert their thoughts from God the Remembrance of whom would but make them sad and would much trouble their Repose since they cannot promise to themselves any good from him who loveth Virtue Justice and Holiness which in no waies is consistent with that kind of Life which they have chosen to pass it in Pleasure Delicateness and Effeminacy Then do they stop their Ears as the Serpent against the Charms of the Charmer they leave off to be wise and to do good therefore they are not capable of receiving Instruction and they would be very angry to acknowledge their Errour because if so they must be bound to amend their Lives which is that they will not do finding it wonderfully sweet and delicious But when they are met with by Death and that they be a grapling with her when shee doth over-power them or when by some notorious wonderfull and exemplary Judgement of God they are fallen from their Greatness Wealth Goods Pleasures and are reduced to the State of Job or the Prodigal Son in the Gospel then sometimes they may be healed then their affrighted Conscience doth awake them from their deep slumber then at sometimes they open their eyes to the acknowledgement and detestation of their Errour Without this they are like those who being sick of a Lethargy may be pinch'd spoken to c. yet never budg nor will not awake because they take more pleasure in their sleep and drowsiness which at last layes them in their Grave This Treatise is rather intended to these ends viz. First To keep from this horrible Precipice those that have some Natural bent and inclination that way For the general and Natural Corruption of man is to them an hidden Master and Teacher of Atheism which now and then suggests these thoughts into their hearts Who hath told you that there is a God whom you never saw And Where have they learn'd it who taught you this What greater assurance of this have they themselves And Whence did it proceed Secondly It is to uphold their Faith in whom these thoughts have taken some
Impression Thirdly To shew the mistake of those who think that setting aside the Revelation of the word of God those persons viz. The Atheists are not void of Reason and speak not without some warrant For it is here shewed that they oppose Reason and bely it in divers manners Finally This is to beat down in some manner the vain-glory and the profane mockings of those persons who laugh at the simplicity as they think of the World which is of so light a belief as they call it as to give credit to those Writings which are called the Bible without any more warrant of their Belief then the common Report or an hear-say or else the Testimony of some men that take upon them the Authority to give to these Sacred Writings the Credit which it hath amongst us and yet cannot in any other ways shew upon what their Testimony is grounded and thereby do weaken the Faith of those who are taught to attribute more then meer Reason to the Testimony of these Books and Sacred Writers For here it is shewed against the Atheists that they make themselves absurd and ridiculous in doubting without any appearance of Reason of the Authority of these Sacred Books It is now three years ago since this Treatise was dictated to some young Divines in this place without any other Design then their own satisfaction and this was also done at their Request and to be to them as a Basis and Foundation of their Faith and Religion For it is that by which we must begin That there is a God which many do not know but because they have heard other say so without having pondered and examined upon what ground this Common belief is seated But since that time after this small piece had been viewed and approved by able Masters to whose Judgement I as it is my duty do submit I by their perswasions have thought that this being made publick cannot do any harm to any and may profit some And this the rather that I might evidence that we ought to serve God to the utmost of our abilities in maintaining his cause against his most furious Adversaries and that those of our Coat and Profession are not such as some would willingly make the world believe them to be viz. Enemies of God and of his Truth since we do as much as in us lies establish the grounds of it clean contrary to those of their Profession who feigning to lay this Foundation firm do in effect overthrow it setting it upon rotten Pillars and by a secret intelligence with those enemies against which they seem to fight do betray abandon that Truth whereof they would have men believe them to be the Assertours If by the reading of this small Treatise which cannot much divert the Readers from their other employments any find themselves edified and strengthened in the faith and belief of this so important Article which is the Ground of Religion I shall have attained my end and will believe that my Meditation on this point hath not been vain And to God who directs by his Wisdom the thoughts of men to his own Glory and for his own Work be ascribed all Honour Praise and Glory for ever Amen ATHEISME CONVICTED AND PROFANENESSE CONFUTED By the Light of Right Reason and by the Testimony of GOD and MEN. CHAP. I. The reach of Atheisme its first spring divers Branches of this Notorious Infidelity IT is a strange and wonderfull thing that seeing the Knowledge of divine and Celestial matters is far greater and clearer in most of men that are upon the face of the Earth then ever it was we see nevertheless more Atheists and profane persons then ever were even among the Heathen which do appeare by the stupendous wickednesse and abominable Corruption of good manners which is at this day so common among Christians being most true which the Apostle saith That many do acknowledge God with their Lips but by their works do deny him The spring of this Evill is the unlimited Love of the Wealth Pleasures Commodities honours dignities of this present World For men being hurried by their Passions towards these things and neverthelesse having a naturall Resentment of a Deity and some Knowledge of the Difference between Good and Evill Vice and Vertue and of the Punishments and Rewards which they do justly deserve which is to them as most bitter Gall and Wormwood and doth deprive them of the pleasure and content which they do take in glutting themselves with these false and deceiving Goods do endeavour to quench in themselves this strong perswasion they have of a Deity or at the least do frame false Opinions of him and of his Nature that they may go on with more loosenesse lesse Remorse and more pleasure in the Execution of their evill desires and to fortifie themselves in this Opinion they do seek and gather all the Reasons and Arguments which the subtillnesse of their Wits and Parts can furnish them withall Now there are two sorts of Atheists the first are formally and openly so The second are close and reserved Again of these first there are two kinds The first of which acknowledge and professe that there is no God and even do upon all occasions endeavour to make others beleeve the same the other sort is of those which perswade themselves that there is no God and notwithstanding dare not vent that Opinion openly either for fear of the Justice of men which doth most justly chastice and punish this horrible Impiety or for shame of the World which doth abhor and detest such Monsters as these Now they whose profaneness is not so open do indeed acknowledge a Deity but they have erroneous Opinions of it which cannot consist with the Reality of its Nature The God of such persons is nothing else but an Idoll a False God and only a Phantasme of the Deity now he that hath but this is not far from Atheisme Of all these Opinions some are more gross and less agreeing with the Nature of the Deity the other are more subtill and harder to be apprehended which nevertheless do oppugne its Nature and cannot really agree with the true Deity Of the former is the Tenet of Epicurus who did acknowledge a Deity but such a one as had nothing to do with the World and had neither made it nor did governe it and was without any care what was done in it Next to this was the Opinion of the Peripateticks who did hold that there was a first matter but to whom they did attribute only the moving of the Primum mobile and a generall and undeterminated Action without any Cognizance or Government of particular things who was neither the efficient cause of this world which they did assert had beene from all Eternity without any Beginning The same also was the Opinion of the Heathen who did believe a Plurality of Gods either Independent one upon another or generated and procreated the one by the other to which also
thing as those people did fancy and besides that it is unimaginable that in so minute bodies such as those are there should be found various and infinite qualities which we deprehend in the bodies composed of them or if they be without any quality that out of their concourse there should spring forth so many and so various qualities there is yet this very palpable absurdity which is that out of so fortuitous and casuall concourse which is not directed by any Superiour intellect there should be produced a work so admirable as the world is all the parts of which are conformed with such a Harmony and Symmetry that it confounds the thoughts of those who do sedulously consider it and so constant a duration of this order in the perpetuall succession of bodies which we see are formed by nature and again that if by this fortuitous concourse the world hath been so made by the same motion of those Atoms it may likewise be dissolved and so we must imagine in an Eternity an infinite number of worlds made and again dissolved successively one after another by the motion and fortuitous concourse of Atoms and by this is destroyed the pretended Eternity of this world for the defending of which the Atheists do so much trouble themselves CHAP. IIII. A third Argument Drawn from the Difference which is between Vice and Vertue AS in the works of Nature there is that Symmetry and wonderfull disposition so well managed so constant and regular of which hath been spoken in the precedent chapter that it doth clearely evidence to us an admirable and infinite wisdom which is the Author of it so also in humane things even in the actions of men and in the products and emergencies of their intellects and wills we may plainly see an Order and Symmetry so wonderfull that it cannot be conceived to be a product of fate from which nothing but confusion doth proceed This Principally doth appeare in the wisdom and subtlety of a mans Spirit and in the effects of these faculties of his Soule or in the rectitude of his actions flowing from the practicall part of his soul which is called Morall vertue both of which do point at something of Divine in Man and which cannot have its birth from a fortuitous and blinder cause that is supposed to act without Knowledge and from this also is drawn another Argument against Atheisme of which we will treat in its place To this Virtue and Morall good Evill Sin and Vices are opposed which opposition doth not wholy depend on mans Free Will for things of this Nature easily do change and vary but this difference of Good and Evill Vice and Virtue is fixed and altogether immutable and is so deeply tooted in the heart of man who doth naturally know it that all the men in the World cannot alter it and it will be knowne by them even in despight of themselves for the most barbarous and desperate although they be Virtues grand Adversaries cannot but often admire its Excellency and highly value it where shee is found and although they many times know not the Vice which resides in their hearts and the evill Actions which they blinded by their Passions do commit yet they will with facility deprehend it in others and detest and condemn it if especially it turns against their interest and to their prejudice And as all acknowledge the Beauty and Excellency of Virtue and the deformity of its contrary Vice so all agree in this that the former calls for the Love Praise and Commendation of men Contrarily that the latter is worthy of the bitterest hatred and of all mens detestations and ought to draw after it selfe severe punishments as its due from thence we draw another Argument against Atheisme This difference of Good and Evill is not a meer Fancy and Opinion but Essentially reall as in naturall things Black and White Light and Darknesse Neither doth it proceed from any custome that by degrees hath gained upon mens minds for that which comes by custome doth grow by little and little and is weaker in the bud then afterwards may be altered easily and insensibly turnes to nothing which is not seen in the difference of Good and Evill which hath alwaies beene deepely rooted in all mens Hearts at all times and more strong perswasions were there of it in the Beginning then now in this age where the Corruption of men is stronger then ever And this cannot be abolished by any contrary Custome for it alwaies remaines the same in it selfe The Lawes of Magistrates or the Morall Precepts of Philosophers have not given to Virtue its Being they have only apprehended it in the Actions and Deportments of men and according to their apprehensions they have framed their Precepts and Lawes to rule the lives of men and to hinder them from Vice its contrary As we may say of Aristotle That he hath not meerly invented out of his owne Brain the Rules and Precepts of Argumentation but only hath framed them upon the Remarks which he hath made of all mens Discourses and Arguments And upon these Remarkes hath compiled his Organon where the Rules of Argumentation are layd which are neither mutable or arbitrary but certain and unchangeable effected upon the right and Naturall Reason common to all men This Virtue hath its Rise and Foundation in Mans Nature as he is Rationall and endowed with that Will and Understanding which ought to have the Supremacy over the Affections and to hold them in their Right Compasse and this doth consist in the Symmetry and proportion which is in the Rationall Souls Faculties from this doth spring forth the Beauty and Excellency of virtue which doth compel the most barbarous to admire it as in Bodies Works either artificiall or naturall their Beauty proceeds from the due Position of all their parts for the one is no more Arbitrary or Imaginary then the other but both are True and Reall that of Virtue being so much the more glorious as the spirituall exceed the Corporeall in worth and dignity This Virtue as we have described it cannot proceed from a blind fate or fortuitous cause which can produce nothing well regulated but ought to have a most certain constant and invariable Cause which hath in it selfe all manner of virtues in the highest Degree which is the most perfect pattern and the exactest modell of all humane Virtues and which is the Author and efficient cause of it in man seeing it cannot come from any other principle which if it were supposed would be much lesser then its Effect for there is nothing in all that man can imagine in Nature more divine and excellent then Virtue by which man is not only infinitely more excellent then beasts but is in some manner deified and in some respects surpasses himselfe And here we need not to constitute two Principles with the Manichees the one of all good the other of all evill one only being sufficient for as the streight line
is the rule of it self and of the oblique so this pattern and Modell of all Vertue and perfection which is the Deity is the rule of all human vertues and by it is known its contrary viz. Vice which of it selfe hath no more need of a Principle or efficient cause then darknesse which only proceeds from the privation and absence of light The Spirit of Man being so wavering and unconstant cannot be so good a rule of this most excellent and glorious vertue as it is of it self Again that knowledge of the difference of good and evill which all men have so deeply and naturally inprinted in their soules doth not simply proceed from any Tradition or Institution there being severall barbarous Nations who having no such Institutions neverthelesse acknowledge and admire vertue and highly detest vice many also who want those Traditions or may be are taught the contrary to this Truth do often notwithstanding their bad education acknowledge the difference between vice and virtue Now from whence can proceed so strong lively and constant impression in the soule of man but from some Superior cause which hath engraved this in the Creation of it Which cause can be none else but the Deity there being none but it above man to effect this CHAP. V. The fourth Argument Drawn from the disorder which is seen in Man which Disorder of necessity hath a beginning and an ending WE have in the preceding Chapters drawn two Arguments against Atheisme the one from the order of Nature and the other from Man We will now draw one from the disorder which is in both Vertue is indeed proper to Man as he is rationall and by it he chiefly differs from brutes which are not capable of it but yet it is not naturall or essentiall to him for then man should never sin but accidentall from which he hath departed himselfe witnesse the great corruption of manners which we see in the World which of necessity hath had some beginning and cannot have existed from everlasting for disorder is a perturbation of order and a confusion introducted since in mens natures and that disorder and confusion cannot possibly be Eternall is evidenced from this that to be without a begining is one of the greatest perfections that can be imagined And truely experience teacheth that the more we go on forward we see corruption to be greater and greater and wonderfully to encrease for corruption and all evill is at this day much rifer then it was a hundred yeares agoe and was greater a hundred yeares agoe then it was one hundred yeares before which a Heathen hath very well noted about sixteen hundred yeares ago in these Verses Aetas parentum pejor Avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem And so going upwards corruption will be found sensibly to diminish untill we come unto a first beginning If then Vice hath had its first rise in Man man cannot be from everlasting and this World of necessity hath had a beginning from this viz. that the World was Created we have heretofore proved a Deity that Created it for the beginning of this corruption cannot be so far stretched upwards but that an infinite space of time preceded necessarily the beginning of this corruption Now if man could for an infinite space of time remaine uncorrupted why could not he continue so still Add to it that if Vice and Corruption hath begun after an infinite time of uprightnesse it may justly be asked whether it hath begun in one man only or in all men at once Which of these two questions be asserted it matters not in the assertion of either there is a very grosse absurdity For if they say that it began in one man only we may ask again why it begun in one rather then in another and if one was the first Author of Vice why the rest did not suddenly dispatch him for fear that he might infect and spoile the rest as at this day we see Magistrates putting the wicked to death that they may not by their ill example draw the rest to their exorbitancies And if all have at once it is a thing beyond imagination how it could be so after infinite time of their persevering in Vertue and uprightness chiefely if there is no other Governor of this Universe then the fatall order of Nature as the Atheists say which doubtlessely should alwayes have remained the same as it was before in an infinite space of time and there cannot be given or imagined any reason of so sudden and universall a change The same cannot be objected to us who hold that the World and Man have had a beginning who though he was Created by God pure and without Vice was not therefore immutable there being nothing immutable to speak properly but that which is Eternall and therefore he being naturally mutable it is no wonder if some time after he hath suffered some change and alteration We have said that Corruption growes more and more but yet it cannot grow to the infinite both because evill being a defect and imperfection it cannot be infinite because to be infinite doth denote perfection and also for that if evill should grow to be infinite the Society of men could not subsist but should be at last wholly abolished and the humane kinde annihilated by this evill all men at last coming to kill and destroy one another which again is against the pretended Eternity of the World and opinion of the Atheists who say that as this world hath no beginning so it ought to endure for ever And the World being made for Man and all things in it ministring to him if humane kinde should come wholly to perish as we have shewed it would come to passe if evill grew infinitely the root of the World would of necessity totally perish being deprived of its Principall end which is the service and good of man It is easie for those that consider diligently the works of Nature to see in them a wonderfull order and a firm constancy but it is also easie to deprehend in them besides and against this order a manifest disorder and as it were an extravagancy or exorbitancy of nature for if there is in Nature a regulated and constant vicissitude of the seasons of the yeare following one another the Spring after the Winter and Summer after the Spring there is in it also a manifest alteration of these seasons as excessive cold in Summer extraordinary heat in Winter one season intrenches upon another a Winter we many times see in the spring and a Summer-in Autumn If raine and snow ice and mists and dewes have their regulated times for the production of the fruits of the Earth and to furnish Man and all Animalls with food yet also often we see them confused and altered hence proceed droughts and extraordinary moisture which spoile the fruits of the Earth and bring famine and want of all things along with them hence also proceeds the corruption of
but indubitably is from a supreame Wisdome which hath so managed and disposed of these things and given to every one so much as it judged fit as a dying Father doth justly and wisely give to every one of his Children their Portions to avoid the Suits and Quarrells that might arise among them This distinction of Heritages and Possessions doth not proceed from the Fancy â—nd meere Will of man see the forecited passage of Moses for that but is grounded upon Justice and Reason it proceeds I say from that Reason by which man is above bruits and is the Foundation of all those virtues which make him so wonderfull and excellent above beasts for without the distinction of Mine and Thine there could not be amongst men any Operation of Virtue The Earth of it selfe brings forth and affords to all living Creatures all that is necessary for them to keep them alive Man only excepted therefore they have nothing of their own but live in common with what they meet withall but as for man if he will supply his necessary wants he must labour till the Earth and in sundry manners seek out of it that which is profitable to or necessary for him And to this end he is endowed with Reason which guides and instructs him in his undertakings Now it is just and consonant to Reason that every one should enjoy the fruits of his Labours and possesse the incoms of them Add to this that man comes naked into the World and hath need of Cloathes to cover himselfe as well for decency as to protect him from the injuries of Weather and therefore needs a house also to shelter himselfe and of severall Utensills to supply the needs of this Life which obligeth him to betake himselfe to divers kinds of Handy-crafts and Workmanships the possession and disposition of which ought to belong to those that made them Moreover Man in this differs from Beasts in that he ought not to follow his Lusts loosely without Rule or measure but ought to be tied to one woman by an indissoluble Bond and this Nature hath taught to all Peoples and Nations even the most wild and barbarous all which of them do practise Marriage as a Doctrine taught them by Nature and Reason it followes then that the breeding and education of the Children which are born from Marriage ought rather to be given them by their Fathers and Mothers then by any others From all these forementioned it appeares that the distinction of Mine and Thine and the difference of Possessions of Goods and Heritages proceeds from an immutable and Naturall Right grounded in Reason Equity and Justice and not an arbitrary thing meerly depending upon the Fancy of men that would have it so whence the impertinency of Plate is evident who would in his Common Wealth have all things even Women and Children common for besides that in this state of sin which man is now involved in such a thing is both absurd and impossible and would introduce in the society of men a monstrous confusion of things I say that even if there were no sins in man and that he was in his first are of purity it could not with any pretence of Reason have place any where as before it hath beene shewed Now in this difference of Mine and Thine which is and ought to be among men and without which their society cannot subsist is grounde the Exercise of all Virtues as of Justice Temperance Truth Fidelity Magnanimity Liberality c. This being so we must necessarily acknowledge a Providence and infinite Wisdome which hath endowed man with this Reason and ground of this difference of Mine and Thine and so consequently of all Morall Virtues which all do acknowledge to be the most glorious admirable excellent things in all the world and which could never have had for its Author Fate or change or any irrationall thing such as necessarily the order of Nature is unlesse it be rul'd and governed by a superiour wisdome If the order which is seen in the Actions of men and in the regulating of their states is a sufficient argument to inforce us to the acknowledgement of a Providence which over rules them as it hath been before shewed the disorder which we evidently see among them is no lesse valid and clear to demonstrate this same Providence which is alwaies imployed in regulating and amending of it Now as Order in the forenamed Actions doth consist in Virtue and the Exercise of it so the disorder consists in vices and crimes which are contrary to Virtue and as it was concluded before that unlesse there was a Providence to containe within certain bounds the disorders which are seen in Nature all this Masse of the World would presently be in a confusion and would be resolved in its first Chaos so we must confesse that the disorder in the lives and actions of men is so enormous and great that unlesse it were bridled by Providence the Society of men could not subsist and would be nothing else then meer robberies and like enormities every man endeavouring as much as in him could lie to fulfill his lusts to the prejudice of any body and by what meanes soever he could devise This disorder is regulated and suppressed two manner of wayes First by Lawes and Politick constitutions the Authority and Power of Magistrates both Supreme and inferior and besides this by a Power and imperceptible instinct of Providence And in this Constitution of Lawes and humane Policies we must of necessity acknowledge a Providence that directs them and makes them strong and valid in the spirits of men for otherwise who is it that would obey them seeing mens corruption of humours and manners to which these Sanctions are directly opposite Against this it may be it will be objected that necessity hath compelled and obliged men to make such Lawes and to submit to them because otherwise the Society of men could not subsist and that they would devoure and kill one another It 's true indeed that this consideration hath been a Powerful motive to this but yet it is not this alone which hath been the cause of enacting Lawes and Constituting Governments in the World For among these Lawes there are some which though they do only provide for the safety necessary for Society and communication as all the Lawes against Murther Theft Perjury or false witnesses yet there are others which concern only honesty Civility and temperance as Man is a rationall creature and concerning Piety towards God and the charity and humanity which we have one towards another as those concerning the Honor due from the children to their Parents against adultery and other excesses and villanies of this nature and concerning the cult due to the Deity and the exercise of charity and humanity towards men which clearly evidences that there is something else then this necessity here objected to us that hath induced men to frame and obey such Lawes to wit a Deity the pattern
and from thence that he growes melancholly and sad and that this troubles his repose and content and in some manner abates from his felicity Whence then did proceed this Philosophers so low and base thought and imagination unworthy his great parts It seemes to me indeed that it was rather an evasion then any certain and fixed opinion of his That is that he not daring as I have said before to deny flatly and plainly all manner of Deities for feare of being persecuted hated and detested by the World laught at hissed and neglected by honest men and men of parts he hath yielded to the commonly received opinion concerning the Deity but hath debarred him from any knowledge of or care for the World which is that which all his Disciples and followers would have granted to them And when he was asked why he denied that the Deity had any such knowledge or care he hath waved this question by this evasion that then God would have too much trouble upon him and that it would disquiet him and would something diminish of his happiness and tranquility And when it hath been objected to him that then it is a vaine and unprofitable thing to serve and honour this Deity that he might not seeme altogether prophane in granting that Gods service is superfluous and unprofitable he hath eluded this question by saying that although we receive nothing from the Deity for all the service we do him yet it is to be served and adored as being in it selfe most glorious and excellent and as such it ought to be honoured and adored by us as we honour and have in great esteeme those Kings and Princes that are strangers although we do not expect any reward from them nor feare their punishments And upon this to give some colour to his Witty but prophane answer he hath built many sublime speculations of the excellency of the nature of God of his immutability of his perfection that he needeth nothing out of himselfe having in himselfe all manner of perfections which make him perfectly happy and contented And because quiet and tranquility of spirit doth conduce much to yea doth almost wholly make up the happinesse of man he would in no way deprive God of it but hath exalted it highly both in God and in men and held that this said tranquility consisted in vertue and in the exercise thereof and hath enlarged upon these Noble speculations much more then any other of those heathen Philosophers that were before him and by these he hath got both the admiration and commendation of men and all this was that his opinion might be received and pass for currant amongst the refinedst wits But all this was that he might establish his assertion viz. That God hath neither care nor knowledge of humane things as not having need himselfe for the perfecting of his happiness of contentment and tranquility or the enjoyment of any of these visible things without which he may very well be and the care and Government of which would rather be a care and tediousness to him then any pleasure and contentment Now it is very true that God is perfect yea much more perfect then ever this man believed him to be and that for his happiness and perfection he hath no need of any Terrestriall Worldly and visible things and that he was very well without them in an infinite number of ages before the World began Neither hath he created all these for any need that he had of them or that by them he might add something to his happiness but incited by his own goodness that he might communicate out of himselfe as much as might be his goodness vertues and perfections Which is an argument of his perfection to be not only good and happy in himself but also to be willing to do good to others in communicating to them something of his goodness and perfections We see a shadow and image of this in those persons which are vertuous and liberall who not being contented to be rich and to abound themselves do communicate to others as much as in them lieth of their vertues and riches which all naturally do esteem to be a great perfection This great but profane Philosopher hath not considered or at least would not do it that this viz. Communication being a vertue most commendable in man he was not to alienate it from God but attribute it to him as a quality and property most consonant to the excellency of his nature and from thence he was to conclude that this World was the production and workmanship of God according to this his propriety and that he had in his hands the ruling and Government of it being it is in no wise rationall that the Creation Subsistence Preservation Conduct and Administration of so admirable a piece of workmanship should properly belong to any other but him And albeit some will say in his favour that it was so farr from him to be an enemy to vertue and a friend to vice that he hath extolled it the most of any and hath made it to seem more glorious then ever it was thought she was before that which he hath done was in effect nothing else then to make a vaile to cover his profanenesse and by his doing so make his poyson to be swallowed down with more ease by the fine wits which he hath entangled and caught by his discourses for this spot and staine will never be taken away viz. That he taught that we must not hope any thing from God or feare him who did not meddle with any thing we have to do in this World By which doctrine he doth cry down Prayer Invocations and Thanksgiving to the Deity which is the very heart and marrow of true Religion and Piety yea the very feare and respect and love which we owe to God For what feare and respect and love can we have towards a Deity which by their tenents we cannot know because it hath neither made the World nor Governs it and which hath no commerce with Man there being no other way to come to the knowledge of a Deity then either the consideration of the World and of the works of God in it or the Revelation that he may make to us of himselfe in his own Word And therefore all that Epicurus and his followers can say touching the Service and Honour due to God is in effect nothing but a slight evasion which they framed that they might avoid the envy and hatred of men against their impiety at which cults and services as in no wise agreeing to their maxims they did laugh within themselves as Cicero doth report that the ancient Augurs did laugh among themselves at their Doctrine of the Auspicia though they did recommend it to the simple people as a Divine thing Which the Disciples of Epicurus have verified sufficiently by their practise in which there was little or no respect rendered by them to the Deity witnesse a Latin Poet in
these Verses Parcus deorum cultor infrequens Jusanientis dum sapientiae Consultus erre CHAP. VIII The sixth Argument Drawn from the Immortality of the soule THose that do deny a Deity do also consequently deny that there is another life after this and that mans soule is immortall and will acknowledge neither Paradise nor Hell nor Angells nor Devills and these things indeed are so firmely conjoyned together that whosoever denyeth or affirmeth one of them ought also to affirm or deny the rest So that the Sadduces among the Jewes who denyed that there was either Angell Spirit or Resurrection were in effect right Epicures and Atheists like those of these times who for the feare of the Lawes and shame of the World not daring openly to say what they think make an outward Profession of the Religion which is Publiquely received in the Land or State of which they are members though they really believe nothing of it but laugh and gibe at it secretly and hold it to be a meere tale The Reason of this impiety and Prophanesse is that which we have noted in the beginning viz. That these persons are wholy sensuall and carnall bewitched with the pleasures and sweets of this World in which they constitute their supream good happinesse which is that that makes them to hold for Fables all that is said of another Life after this and the Happinesse and Misery which attends men there They hold also that the Soule dyeth and perisheth with the Body neither will they acknowledge that there are any Angells or Devills that so they may not be forced to confesse that the Soule is immortall and that there is an Eternall punishment of the wicked after this Life and by this means they do deny also the Deity and his Providence For they plainly perceive that if there is a God he is a just Judge and a Revenger of the sins and iniquities of men and that the God of Epicurus is in effect nothing but an Idoll and a vain imagination From the Deity they cannot expect or promise to themselves any favour since that they do not love and cherish Virtue but only desire to satisfie their evill Concupiscences in which they think the Summum bonum is contained which is that that makes them to deny the Deity the Immortality of the Soule and another Life where there is a Hell and a Paradise their Conscience telling them that they cannot have a part in the Paradise and that Hell if there is any is for them and their like On the other side if the Soule is immortall there is another Life and in it a place of pleasure or sorrow for man there are also Angels Copartners of this Joy and Devills the Executioners of these Supplices and above all a God who doth justly reward the one and punish the other For if the Soule is immortall being as it is naturally very active it cannot be alwaies without any sentiment and remain so forever for that would be little lesse then death it must needs then follow that it participates of some joy and content or that it is tormented and hath an infinite share of sorrow and that for the Reward of that good or evill vice or virtue to which it hath been addicted in this Life for we have shewed heretofore that Virtue is worthy of Commendation and Reward and Vice of shame and of sorrow Which not being sufficiently according to their merits rewarded in this Life it must needs be rewarded in the other otherwise both vice virtue should be deprived of their due which is against Nature and Right Reason And this is to grant a Paradise and a Hell And if the Soule is immortall there is no reason to deny that there are Angells and Devills since either of them are immateriall spirituall and incorporeall substances And indeed nothing makes these men to deny that there are Angells and Devills but that if they grant this they must also confesse that the soule is immortall and so that there is a Heaven and a Hell which is that which they so much feare and tremble at Now it may be proved both by testimony and by reason that the soule is immortall by the Testimony I say of all men that are or have ever been upon the face of the Earth for if the records of Antiquity be looked into and History both Ancient and Modern be read it will be found that there never was yet neither at this day is there any People or Nation whether civiliz'd or not which doth not acknowledge that the soule of man doth subsist and lives after the death of the body but of the strength of this proofe we will speak hereafter as for the arguments that prove the immortality of the Soule they cannot be a priori for there is none but God that is the cause of it whose existency we are now about to demonstrate These arguments then must be taken a posteriori and we must prove this immortality by the effects of the Soule and indeed they are such effects so great and admirable as cannot proceed from a mortall and materiall cause Now its effects and operations are either internall in the soule it selfe and those either in the Intellect as Knowledge or in the Will as the Virtues or externall as the Speech and the motions of the body and the parts of it whence doe proceed the wonderfull and stupendious works of liberall and mechanicall arts In all the things that are seen in this great World there are severall degrees of the excellency of things the one being above the other by which as by so many Ladders we ascend at last to the knowledge of immateriall and eternall things the lower degree of these is of insensible things that have neither Life nor Motion as Stones Metalls c. The second is of those that have some life by which they grow and are nourished c. The third is of those that besides this kind of life have a sensitive facultie and locall motion by which they are carried from one place to another as all the Animalls Amongst which there are severall degrees of perfection For there are some of them that have only the sense of feeling as Oysters some besides the sense of feeling have the sense of tasting also as Bees and many other Insects Others again have the senses of smelling and hearing as the Moles or Wants And finally these are the most perfect Animalls which have the five externall senses and among these there are some that excell in one sence some in another as the Eagles which have a very quick and sharp sight and the Vultures Wolves and Dogs have a very exqisite faculty of smelling These Senses do receive in them the Spcies and Ideas of the materiall qualities that are inherent in their Subjects from these senses they are afterwards conveyed to the Imagination or common sence which receiveth them and from which doth straightwaies proceed the knowledge of the things
it they be such as have overwhelmed and drowned their reason in carnall delights and pleasures and who are like a Malefactor who makes himselfe drunk in the prison whilest the Sentence is pronouncing against him But all their reason and subtileness will never perswade it to those that are perplexed and tormented within themselves by the guilt of their crimes and they themselves very often are not free from the scourges of these Furies which in spite of them do sometimes give them terrible checks which is an invincible argument of this great truth naturally imprinted in the hearts of men that there is a just Judge and a severe Revenger of their sins which he never leaves unpunished It is also a poor evasion to say that such are not bred in the Schole of Epicurus whose followers and disciples laugh at these phantasmes and Chimeras For first experience sheweth that they themselves are not exempted from these terrours of conscience and I think they will grant Caligula and such like Monsters were of their tribe who yet have felt these compunctions and terrors Secondly every one through the corruption of his Nature and his strong inclinations to evill is to himselfe a Master of Epicurism and a professor of Atheism and would if he could perswade this to himselfe that so he might with more freedom let the reins loose to all his passions And though it may be those that have these alarums and terrours are not open and professed Atheists yet they are so in their will and desires and nevertheless they cannot do so much as to free themselves from these fears and to loose the opinion they have of a Deity and of a Providence which will avenge it self of their crimes which doubtlesse they could easily do since they defire and endeavour after it if this opinion was false and vaine and did proceed from nothing but from a vaine institution or the phansy of some that should at first have taught it And it is much to be wondered at if the opinion of the Atheists be true how those that have rid Common wealths of Tyrants and oppressors have been commended by all have had their Statues erected and Panegyricks have been composed to praise them and extoll them unto Heaven whereas if Epicurus in Athens or Lucretius in Rome had ascended the Theatre to perswade men to their opinion and to free them from these Tyrannicall insulting and by them pretended Panicall terrors of Conscience which do perplex and torment the soules of men instead of being applauded they had been stoned and branded with the execrations and curse of every one And although all those that are laden with vices and enormous crimes are not vexed or tormented by these Furies yet this is not an argument to evince that therefore these terrours are vaine no more then because all here below do not receive the just punishment due to their crimes is an argument that there is no Providence that taketh notice of them but is rather a clear evidence of the sottishness and brutishness of men which drown their reason in the torrent of their vices and the remorses and worme of conscience in the rest are sure proofes and effects of the Deity which never leaves it self without a witness in man whose conscience is his own accuser witness judge and executioner altogether If man knowes and is certain of the evill that he doth and if his conscience accuses and affrights him he knowes also and is very certain of the good he doth and that knowledge that he hath of his innocency and good life doth cause in him a great rest and quietness and a wonderfull tranquillity of minde which he values and esteemes more and which makes him more happy and content then wicked men are with the enjoyment of all their goods honors pleasures and riches And of this felicity and content which honest men do partake of more then the wicked men the writings of heathen Philosophers themselves are full without excepting even Epicurus who hath been forced to acknowledge this truth which is a strong argument that vertue hath a more reall and nobler recompense in it selfe then that happiness which is pretended to consist in the goods honours pleasures of this life and that it carries along with it selfe its own reward and expects another somewhere else then in this life and that cannot be altogether the praise and esteem of men and the posterities romembrance of their good works because most commonly vertue and vertuous men are deprived of this which shewes unto us its excellency above vice and an infinite distance between her and evill Moreover when men are wrongfully and unjustly blamed their goods life and laudable actions calumniated and their persons abused and diffamed they justifie and defend themselves as much as they can and passionately and vehemently endeavour to prove their innocency and this very thing do the Atheists against whom we dispute if they are at any time calumniated or blamed without a cause Why this I pray unlesse there was a vast difference between good and evill vice and vertue unlesse the one was worthy of praise the other of disgraces the one of punishment the other of reward I say what need they care to be praised or vilified if these praises or disgraces are in effect but imaginary things without any reall ground and if all this doth confist but meerly in fancy and opinion These pretended strong wits should laugh at all the ill opinion that men can have of them for their crimes and should not put themselves to the trouble of making any Apologies then when they are wrongfully accused for why should one trouble himself for a false imagination that hath no real and solid foundation And this is an Argument to prove that those men maugre themselves are forced to acknowledge even against their own Maxims what a vast difference there is between good and evill vice and virtue the recompense due to the one and the punishments which the other doth deserve Again experience teacheth us that when men are violently and unjustly oppressed without any means or hopes to revenge themselves they have recourse to the Deity from whose Justice they expect and promise to themselves the revenge of that wrong which is done to them Which Tertullian doth remark very well in his Apologetick against the Heathen and saith that if any one of them was oppressed he did cry out Deus videt Deus reddet God sees and God will render it and that in saying so he did not look towards the Capitoll where was the Temple of Jupiter but toward Gods Throne and he adds that it is an evidence of a Soul really Christian For this motion doth not proceed from a preconceived opinion of a Deity which hath been imprinted in a mans soul by education but which proceeds from his conscience and from the bottom of his heart and from the judgement of his best and purest reason which dictates and suggests to him
yea makes him in effect to acknowledge that there is a Deity and Providence which seeth from above the wrongs that are done here below and takes notice of them to the end that they may be revenged and innocence defended For it would be a poor refuge and a small comfort to have then and in such a case recourse unto a false perswasion which should have no other foundation then the authority and institution of a man that should have invented and given for currant so gross a falshood such as the Atheists would have the opinion of the Deity to be It is true indeed that in things where we have no interest we are sometimes perswaded by those persons that are eminent either in learning or Authority and do believe things the falshood of which we cannot easily discover but in those things that do so nearly relate to us that are so important and that do excite in us so violent motions and passions we do not rest upon those perswasions that have so groundless a foundation By all this it doth appear that man hath not only an acquired but also a naturall knowledge of the Deity and Providence and of the reall and essentiall difference there is between good and evill vice and virtue his own conscience and reason dictating and perswading him both the one and the other Again experience shews us that man hath a natural knowledge and resentment of the Deity and his Providence for when he is surprized in a moment by a manifest evident and unavoidable danger of death as if a bouse falls upon him in an instant or that he sall into a precipice c. he lifts up presently his heart and minde towards Heaven and in this extremity and distress hath his recourse to the Deity and prays unto it that it would aid and succour him and casts himself in the arms of his protection as a child doth in the arms of his father Likewise the firmness constancy and quietness of minde of the truly-faithfull and Christians when they did depart from this World as also the constancy of the holy Martyrs of the Lord Jesus and the hope which they have of a better life is an evident testimony of this truth For then and in that place it is not a time to sooth ones self and feed ones hopes with Fables And how could the imagination of a meer Chimara cause in them so wonderfull a resolution and so great tranquillity of minde If the perswasion of a Deity did meerly proceed from Institution and Authority which should make us believe it without any ground of Reason it would not doubtless make so deep an impression in our Souls and would quickly vanish of it self at deaths encounter Chap. X The eighth Reason drawn from Wizards Magicians Enchantours and from all the Heathens Idolatry and Superstition IT is a certain thing which the experience of our days and that of all ages doth averr which the Monuments of History both antient and modern confirm and that the Writings as well of Heathens as Christians certifie That there are and have been at all times in the World Witches Magicians Diviners Enchantours and such like notoriously-wicked people that have a familiar communication and a frequent commerce with the Devils by whose help power they do many strange and prodigious things above and beyond all human wisdome All which consequently doth inferr that these things proceed from a supernatural and immaterial cause such as the Daemons be The Laws made and promulgated in all wel-governed States and Common-wealths as well that of the Jews by Moses as those of the Christians and of the Heathens themselves do evidence this to us The executions and supplices which justice doth frequently inflict upon such persons their Processes the Relations and Informations that are made about them do assure as of this and leave no doubt of it The damnable curiosity of many persons which every day have recourse to such as they to know see and do those things that cannot be done by any other means doth also confirm this The writings of the Heathens as well Greeks as Romans are full of instances of such persons and of their effects which are stupendious and wonderfull So that a man must wholly renounce his reason and believe nothing of those things that are done if he will not also believe that there are such persons which is true and manifest by all those kinds of Testimonies and Monuments which may induce us to believe any thing Now if there are any Witches Enchantours c. it necessarily followes that there are Daemons by whose help and power they cause these prodigious effects to come to pass which men do wonder at and look upon with horrour and amazement it being not possible that these things should be done by any humane Power The Histories therefore and writings of all Nations and even of the Heathen themselves are full of examples of the Devils apparitions and of their strange effects The Sybills so much taken notice of among the Heathen are a clear testimony of this seeing their Predictions could not proceed but from a Deity or from some Daemon that did possess them Now if there are any Daemons as cannot be denied it followes that there is a Deity above them which doth restrain them so as that they shall not overthrow all things by their might for they have strength and malice enough to do it The Sacred and Ecclesiastical History which is in this conformable to dayly experience teacheth us that there have been in former ages and that there are now persons possessed by Devils which is evident and clear and plainly appeareth by the strange effects which proceed from them This same Sacred History lets us know that there have been Magicians and Enchantours as it appears by the History of Moses and the Magicians of Egypt by the History of Saul who went to consult with a woman who had a Familiar spirit and by that of the maid of whom mention is made in the book of the Acts of the Apostles But of the truth recorded in these Sacred writings something may be spoken hereafter The books which since have been written of these Diabolical and Magical Arts and which are to be got too easily even among Christians whose damnable curiosityleads them to this The publique profession of such Magical Arts which hath been sometimes tolerated in some of the most samous Universities of Christendom to the great dishonour of Christianity The common distinction of black and white Magick which hath been invented by some antient Philosophers of the Sects of Plato and Pythagoras who would have found a way by which they might have subjected the good Daemons to them and reconcile them to themselves and which hath from them passed to the Jewish Cabalists and from them to the Christians are an invincible argument that there are Magicians and Daemons The certain and averr'd Relations of the Northern Countries and of both the Indies
Hereticks amongst Christians have done which never intended their inventions and absurdities to any good end as the Publick good or the concernment of humane kind or to induce men to follow virtue and shew them the way to true happiness I believe that no man in his wits will say that the Sacred Histories of the Old and New Testament are Romances invented to delight men and to gain the Writers the credit of worldly-eloquent persons and of that politenesse of Wit which is accounted so among men The stile and manner of writing these Books is farr different from that of the Romances and all the circumstances of time places and persons are so punctually observed and every where so agreeing that one must be barbarous and wilde or altogether stupid and besotted that doth not perceive the wonderfull and infinite difference there is betwixt these Sacred Histories and the fabulous Romances Besides that those who make Romances compile them so if they are able men as that there is some likelihood in what they relate and shun as much as they can the prodigious Fictions of Amadis Nevertheless they clearly evidence that they do not desire to be believed in those things which they relate but that their design is to charm by the elegancy of the stile their ingenious inventions and the likelihood of those things the eyes of the minde and to make it see those things which really are not and to delight their Readers by this pleasant cheat But the Pen-men of the Sacred Histories do propose them as things certain true and indubitable and desire that they may be believed for such Which would be a grosse folly in them and a thing unworthy men of parts if they were Romances forged and invented on purpose Besides that the stile of these Writings is very mean and popular and far from the way of writing of those whose design it is to abuse and deceive the World Neither will it be proved that the Authours of these Sacred Books have endeavoured to entrap and deceive men by their fictions and inventions of honors pleasures estates or riches Neither Moses or Joshua have endeavoured to leave the conduct of the Jewish Common-Wealth to their children Moses had no need to leave Pharaoh's Court to enjoy Honour and Riches since if he had staid there he might have been reputed the Son of the Daughter of Pharach David hath not by his Writings and Psalms acquired that glory and power which he had but hath got it by his Valour by the Wars which he made and the favour and blessing of God who hath protected and directed him What needed he being a great and mighty King to busie himself in composing of those Psalms if they be but meer empty inventions What humane end could he propose to himself in this Solomon his son hath not acquired nor sought after that Honour Glory and Riches which he hath possessed in greater measure then all the rest of the Kings of the Earth Jin the composition of the Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Canticles He enjoyed all these things afore he writ any thing of these Books and in his Ecclesiastes he shews plainly enough the little or no esteem he had of them Have Isaiah Jeremiah Ezechiel and the twelve small Prophets sought by their Writings the goods honours and pleasures of this World They who have been for this thing hated derided persecuted and put to death and this not contrary to their design and expectation and against their will for they submitted willingly and have undergone all those evils in obedience to this God who sent them Did our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles follow and endeavour after these things No but quite contrariwise they do exhort and perswade their Disciples and followers not to love or seek them and rather to expect the crosses tribulations and persecutions of the World for the Profession of that Doctrine they taught them Shall we say that vanity and desire of glory have led these Persons to this that they might gain the reputation of men of Parts and of subtile Persons Nothing lesse Could the Apostles who were poor fishermen rude illiterate and ignorant persons aspire to this Glory and could they expect this credit from the men of their times or from posterity Besides that their Writings are full of the contempt they had and would every one of their Disciples to have of such a glory Solomon hath not sought for this by his Writings afore he writ he had that great Wisdom which hath gained him the reputation of the most Learned and Wise of all the men that went before him And he hath had this credit and reputation not by holding or putting forth Paradoxes and extravagant Opinions invented by him against the common Tenents of other men but by a true and right Wisdom and an admirable Knowledge which in effect he had of the Nature of all things David and Joshua had acquired Glory and Credit enough by their Archievements without affecting this by their Writings and maintaining Fantastical Opinions If Moses would have sought after worldly glory he would rather have acquired it by the VVisdom of the Egyptians in which he had been instructed and which was then in great repute in the World then by inventing new Opinions Doctrines Daniel had enough of the Learning of the Chaldeans which he knew well to gain esteem and reputation amongst men without broaching a new unheard-of and strange Doctrine So then it is evident that the desire of vain-glory hath not induced these Holy VVriters to tell us Dreams and Phantasms of their brain VVhat then is it Is it the affection to the Publique good and their desire they had to profit men that hath moved them to tell us their new inventions and stories of their own making Sometimes indeed Fictions are used in Moral and Politick documents Aesop's Fables are all of this nature And many times Oratours do use such Fictions in their Orations as that of Menenius Agrippa of the dissension there was between the belly and the other parts of the body And the Scripture it self uses these sometimes as that of the Son of Geaeon of the Trees that chose themselves a King Parables also are a kind of instructing Moral Fiction as that of Gad to David of the Poor man and his Sheep And of such Parables are the Gospels full and in the Discourses of our Lord Jesus Christ they are very frequent But these things have nothing common nor do not relate to that of which we treat now The question is Whether the Histories of the Old and New Testament are Tales and Fables or whether they be Relations of things that have really and truely came to pass Those who do write Apologues Parables c. do not write them for true Histories they shew plainly enough that they speak such things meerly to instruct and not for things that have really happened But the Sacred Writers do give us their Histories for the true Narrations of things
not against pure and right Reason enlightned by this Revelation though it cannot fathom the depth of them And what wonder is it if our Reason which is short weak and blind even about Natural things that the greatest of Philosophers hath compar'd it to the sight of Owls at mid-day cannot reach so far as perfectly to apprehend and understand so high a Mystery which is all that is most sublime in the Divine Nature which of it self is Spiritual Immaterial Infinite Eternal Invisible and Incomprehensible It is farr a greater wonder if the Opinion of the Atheists is true who acknowledge neither God nor Angel nor Spirit that so high so wonderfull and sublime a thought should have entered into the spirit of man wallowing in the mud and who cannot nor ought not according to their Opinion to raise himself above corporeal senses being as they think altogether corporeal and sensual How comes it to pass that so wonderfull Wisdom which shineth in all the Dogmes of Christian Religion and particularly appears in these two Mysteries which are so wonderfully linked with the rest of the Doctrine how is it I say that this can be the product of such a vile and low soul as they would have the soul of man to be which is as they think composed of little Atoms and Indivisible Bodies or which is nothing but a little refined Air which by Death vanisheth into nothing As to Atheism it is so far from being free from Extravagancies and Absurdities that it is altogether full of them as it appears evidently by what we have said before wherein we have convinced by many Arguments this monstrous Opinion Against which Arguments nothing but Extravagancies Absurdities and Impertinencies can be excepted What Madness and Extravagancy is it to imagine with Epicurus that this VVorld is framed and composed by the fortuitous concourse of Atoms or small Indivisible Bodies Or with some others to imagine that it is without any beginning or ending the same at this day as it was 600000. millions of years before which Opinion draws after it all the imaginable Absurdities and Contradictions that may be as it hath been shewed before And what an Impertinency is it to attribute the Government of this admirable work and the Conduct of this VVorld and of the Affairs of all Humane kind to two blind and opposite Governours viz. the insensible Fate and the temerary Hazard inconsiderate Fortune in which there is not a whit of Understanding Prudence or Knowledg What Absurdity Impertinency is it to attribute more sense and understanding to the most stupid of men to the least of all Animals then to that which doth move and conduct all this great Fabrick For what is Fate in it self but a Chimaera wanting all true existence And what is the pretended satal order of Nature but a brutish thing sui nescia There are not to say truth in the Atheists Profession any of these ridiculous absurd impertinent and wild extravagancies practises and uses which the ignorance temerity and superstition of men hath introduced in most of the false Religions but that which is more wild monstrous in them is that they as much as in them lies abolish and extinguish out of the world all true Religion and piety and drown men in impiety profaness irreligion which comprehends in it all sorts of imaginable Monstrosities For what is a man that hath no sense knowledge nor fear reverence nor love nor respect for the Deity but the most abominable monster that can be imagin'd What honesty good what virtue or civility can be hoped for or expected from a man that thinks that all the difference there is between good and evil vice virtue is nought else but an imagination and depends meerly from mans fancy which would have it so and not from the most perfect immutable eternal pattern of the Deity the only model of all perfection as well moral as Physical Is not it evident that this Maxim and opinion of the Atheists leads men directly to all kind of vice pollution evil and Injustice to which their concupiscence the pleasure of their carnal sense may carry them without any remorse of conscience or fear of any other punishment then that which may be inflicted on them by men which if any one of them shall hope or think to escape he will let himself loose to whatsoever his sense shall dictate to him For according to their Principles Reason which dictates this to be good and that to be evil setting aside the consideration of the Deity which is the pattern of Good is nothing else according to their opinion but a meer phantasie which may be chang'd and which obligeth none but to what they please to do And doth not this lead directly to the overthrowing of all humane society and to the subversion of all estates bodies commonalties in the whole world so to the confusion and ruine of all humane kind and to the most horrible Chaos that ever was feigned or imagined That God who is Gracious and Just who resideth in the highest Heaven grant in his great Compassions that those who fear and reverence him may be kept from this abominable precipice Let him open the eyes of those who are led blind-fold by their sensuality and the vanity of their corrupted Reason in this dangerous Abyss that they may see and know how terrible this Precipice is Let him give Repentance Acknowledgment of their errour to the one and Wisdom to the other that so they may never fall into it and to overy one the right knowledge fear and reverence of his Holy Name that he may be praised served and glorified by all as Honour Fear and Reverence is most due unto him by all men eternally Amen FINIS