Atheism And though we do not doubt at all but that Plato in his Tenth De Legibus where he attacques Atheism did intend the Confutation as well of the Democritick as the Anaximandrian Atheism yet whether it were because he had no mind to take any notice at all of Democritus who is not so much as once mentioned by him any where or else because he was not so perfectly acquainted with that Atomick way of Physiologizing certain it is that he there describes the Atheistick Hypothesis more according to the Anaximandrian than the Democritick Form For when he represents the Atheistick Generation of Heaven and Earth and all things in them as resulting from the Fortuitous Commixture of Hot and Cold Hard and Soft Moist and Dry Corpuscula this is clearly more agreeable with the Anaximandrian Generation of the World by the Secretion of Inexistent Contrarieties in the Matter than the Democritick Cosmopoeia by the Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms devoid of all manner of Qualities and Forms Some indeed seem to call that Scheme of Atheism that deduces all things from Matter in the way of Qualities and Forms by the name of Peripatetick or Aristotelick Atheism we suppose for this reason because Aristotle Physiologized in that way of Forms and Qualities educing them out of the Power of the Matter But since Aristotle himself cannot be justly Taxed for an Atheist this Form of Atheism ought rather as we conceive to be denominated from Anaximander and called the Anaximandrian Atheism XXV Now the Reasons why Democritus and Leucippus New-modelled Atheism from the Anaximandrian and Hylopathian into the Atomick Form seem to have been chiefly these First because they being well instructed in that Atomick way of Physiologizing were really convinced that it was not only more Ingenious but also more agreeable to Truth the other by Real Qualities and Forms seeming a thing Unintelligible Secondly because they foresaw as Lucretius intimates that the Production of Forms and Qualities out of Nothing and the Corruption of them again into Nothing would prepare an Easie way for mens Belief of a Divine Creation and Annihilation And lastly because as we have already suggested they plainly perceived that these Forms and Qualities of Matter were of a doubtful Nature and therefore as they were sometimes made a shelter for Atheism so they might also prove on the contrary an Asylum for Corporeal Theism in that it might possibly be supposed that either the Matter of the whole World or else the more Subtle and Fiery Part of it was Originally endued with an Understanding Form or Quality and consequently the Whole an Animal or God Wherefore they took another more Effectual Course to secure their Atheism and exclude all Possibility of a Corporeal God by deriving the Original of all things from Atoms devoid of all Forms and Qualities and having nothing in them but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion as the First Principles it following unavoidably from thence that Life and Vnderstanding as well as those other Qualities could be only Accidental and Secundary Results from certain Fortuitous Concretions and Contextures of Atoms so that the World could be made by no Previous Counsel or Understanding and therefore by no Deity XXVI We have here represented Three several Forms of Atheism the Anaximandrian the Democritical and the Stratonical But there is yet another Form of Atheism different from them all to be taken notice of which is such as supposes one kind of Plastick and Spermatick Methodical and Artificial Nature but without any Sense or Conscious Understanding to preside over the whole World and dispose and conserve all things in that Regular Frame in which they are Such a Form of Atheism as this is hinted to us in that doubtful Passage of Seneca's Sive Animal est Mundus for so it ought to be read and not Anima sive Corpus Naturâ Gubernante ut Arbores ut Sata Whether the whole World be an Animal i. e. endued with one Sentient and Rational Life or whether it be only a Body Governed by a certain Plastick and Methodical but Sensless Nature as Trees and other Plants or Vegetables In which words are two several Hypotheses of the Mundane System Sceptically proposed by one who was a Corporealist and took it for granted that all was Body First that the whole World though having nothing but Body in it yet was notwithstanding an Animal as our Humane Bodies are endued with one Sentient or Rational Life and Nature one Soul or Mind governing and ordering the Whole Which Corporeal Cosmo-zoism we do not reckon amongst the Forms of Atheism but rather account it for a kind of Spurious Theism or Theism disguized in a Paganick Dress and not without a Complication of many false apprehensions concerning the Deity in it The Second is that the whole World is no Animal but as it were one Huge Plant or Vegetable a Body endued with one Plastick or Spermatick Nature branching out the whole Orderly and Methodically but without any Understanding or Sense And this must needs be accounted a Form of Atheism because it does not derive the Original of things in the Universe from any clearly Intellectual Principle or Conscious Nature XXVII Now this Form of Atheism which supposes the Whole World there being nothing but Body in it not to be an Animal but only a Great Plant or Vegetable having one Spermatick Form or Plastick Nature which without any Conscious Reason or Understanding orders the whole though it have some nearer Correspondence with that Hylozoick Form of Atheism before described in that it does not suppose Nature to be a mere Fortuitous but a kind of Artificial thing yet it differs from it in this that the Hylozoick supposing all Matter as such to have Life Essentially belonging to it must therefore needs to attribute to every part of Matter or at least every Particular Totum that is one by Continuity a Distinct Plastick Life of its own but acknowledge no one Common Life as ruling over the whole Corporeal Universe and consequently impute the Original of all things as hath been already observed to a certain Mixture of Chance and Plastick or Methodical Nature both together Whereas the Cosmo-plastick Atheism quite excludes Fortune or Chance subjecting all things to the Regular and Orderly Fate of one Plastick or Plantal Nature ruling over the Whole Thus that Philosopher before mentioned concludes that whether the World were an Animal in the Stoical sence or whether it were a mere Plant or Vegetable Ab initio ejus usque ad exitum quicquid facere quicquid pati debeat inclusum est Vt in Semine omnis futuri ratio hominis comprehensa est Et Legem Barbae Canorum nondum natus Infans habet Totius enim Corporis sequentis aetatis in parvo occultoque Lineament a sunt Sic Origo Mundi non magis Solem Lunam Vices Syderum Animalium Ortus quà m quibus mutarentur Terrena continuit In his
Interpreters it being resolved by many of them to be the Divine Intellect and commonly by others a Foreign Thing Whence it must needs be left doubtful whether he acknowledged any thing Incorporeal and Immortal at all in us And the rather because laying down this Principle That nothing is Incorporeal but what acts independently upon the Body he somewhere plainly determines that there is no Intellection without Corporeal Phantasms That which led Aristotle to all this positively to affirm the Corporeity of Sensitive Souls and to stagger so much concerning the Incorporeity of the Rational seems to have been his Doctrine of Forms and Qualities whereby Corporeal and Incorporeal Substance are confounded together so that the Limits of each could not be discerned by him Wherefore we cannot applaud Aristotle for this but that which we commend him for is chiefly these Four things First for making a Perfect Incorporeal Intellect to be the Head of all and Secondly for resolving that Nature as an Instrument of this Intellect does not merely act according to the Necessity of Material Motions but for Ends and Purposes though unknown to it self Thirdly for maintaining the Naturality of Morality and Lastly for asserting the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Autexousie or Liberty from Necessity CHAP. II. In this Chapter are contained all the pretended Grounds of Reason for the Atheistick Hypothesis 1. That the Democritick Philosophy which is made up of these two Principles Corporealism and Atomism complicated together is Essentially Atheistical 2. Though Epicurus who was an Atomical-Corporealist pretended to assert a Democracy of Gods yet he was for all that an Absolute Atheist And that Atheists commonly Equivocate and Disguise themselves 3. That the Democritical Philosophy is nothing else but a System of Atheology or Atheism swaggering under the glorious Appearance of Philosophy And though there be another Form of Atheism which we call Stratonical yet the Democritick Atheism is only considerable all whose Dark Mysteries will be here revealed 4. That we being to treat concerning the Deity and to produce all that Profane and Vnhallowed Stuff of Atheists in order to a Confutation the Divine Assistance and Direction ought to be implored 5. That there are Two things here to be performed First to shew what are the Atheist's pretended Grounds of Reason against the Deity and Secondly how they endeavour either to Salve or Confute the Contrary Phaenomena The First of those Grounds That no man can have an Idaea or Conception of God and that he is an Incomprehensible Nothing 6. The Second Atheistick Argument That there can be no Creation out of Nothing nor no Omnipotence because Nothing can come from Nothing and therefore whatsoever Substantially is was from Eternity Self-existent and Vncreated by any Deity 7. The Third pretended Reason against a Deity That the Strictest Notion of a God implying him to be Incorporeal there can be no such Incorporeal Deity because there is no other Substance but Body 8. The Atheists Pretence That the Doctrine of Incorporeal Substances sprung from a Ridiculous Mistaking of Abstract Names and Notions for Realities They Impudently make the Deity to be but the Chief of Spectres and an Oberon or Prince of Fairies and Phancies Their Fourth Argument against a Deity That to suppose an Incorporeal Mind to be the Original of all things is but to make a mere Accident and Abstract Notion to be the First Cause of all 9. Their Fifth Argument a Confutation of a Corporeal Deity from the Principles of Corporealism it self That Matter being the only Substance and all other Differences of things nothing but Accidents Generable and Corruptible no Living Vnderstanding Being can be Essentially Incorruptible The Stoical God Incorruptible only by Accident 19. Their Sixth Ratiocination from a Complication of Atomicism That the First Principle of all things whatsoever in the Vniverse is Atoms or Corpuscula devoid of all Qualities and consequently of Sense and Vnderstanding which spring up afterwards from a certain Composition of them and therefore Mind or Deity was not the First Original of all 11. In the Seventh place they disprove the Worlds Animation or its being govern'd by a Living Vnderstanding Animalish Nature presiding over the Whole Because Sense and Vnderstanding are a Peculiar Appendix to Flesh Blood and Brains and Reason is no where to be found but in Humane Form 12. The Eighth Atheistick Ground That God being taken by all for a most Happy Eternal and Immortal Animal or Living Being there can be no such thing because all Living Beings are Concretions of Atoms that were at first Generated and are liable to Death and Corruption by the Dissolution of their Compages And that Life is no simple Primitive Nature but an Accidental Modification of Compounded Bodies which upon the Disunion of their Parts vanisheth into Nothing 13. The Ninth pretended Atheistick Demonstration That by God is meant a first Cause or Mover which was not before moved by any thing else without it But Nothing can move it self and therefore there can be no Vnmoved Mover nor any First in the order of Causes that is a God 14. Their further Proof of this Principle That Nothing can move it self with an Atheistick Corollary from thence That no Thinking Being could be a First Cause no Cogitation arising of it self without a Cause which may be reckoned a Tenth Argument 15. Another Mystery of Atheism That all Knowledge and Mental Conception is the Information of the things themselves known existing without the Knower and a Passion from them and therefore the World must needs be before any Knowledge or Conception of it and no Knowledge or Conception before the World as its Cause 16. The Twelfth Argumentation That things could not be made by a God because they are so Faulty and Ill made that they were not contriv'd for the Good of Man and that the Deluge of Evils that overflows all shows that they did not proceed from any Deity 17. The Thirteenth Instance of the Atheists against a Deity from the Defect of Providence That in Humane Affairs all is Tohu and Bohu Chaos and Confusion 18. The Fourteenth Atheistick Ground That it is not possible for any one Being to Animadvert and Order all things in the distant places of the whole World at once But if it were possible That such Infinite Negotiosity would be Absolutely Inconsistent with Happiness 19. Several bold but slight Queries of Atheists Why the World was not made sooner and What God did before Why it was made at all since it was so long unmade and How the Architect of the World could rear up so huge a Fabrick 20. The Atheists Pretence That it is the great Interest of Mankind That there should be no God and that it was a Noble and Heroical Exploit of the Democriticks to chase away that affrightful Spectre out of the World and to free men from the continual Fear of a Deity and Punishment after Death imbittering all the Pleasures of Life 21. Another Pretence of
Atheism besides those Four already mentioned because all Atheists are Corporealists and yet all Corporealists not Atheists but only such as make the first Principle of all things not to be Intellectual 31. A Distribution of Atheisms producing the former Quaternio and showing the Difference between them 32. That they are but Bunglers at Atheism who talk of Sensitive and Rational Matter and that the Canting Astrological Atheists are not at all considerable because not understanding themselves 33. Another Distribution of Atheisms That they either derive the Original of things from a Merely Fortuitous Principle the Vnguided Motion of Matter or else from a Plastick and Methodical but Sensless Nature What Atheists denied the Eternity of the World and what asserted it 34. That of these Four Forms of Atheism the Atomick or Democritical and the Hylozoick or Stratonical are the chief and that these Two being once confuted all Atheism will be confuted 35. These Two Forms of Atheism being contrary to one another how we ought in all reason to insist rather upon the Atomick but that afterwards we shall confute the Hylozoick also and prove against all Corporealists that no Cogitation nor Life belongs to Matter 36. That in the mean time we shall not neglect any Form of Atheism but confute them all together as agreeing in one Principle as also show how the old Atomick Atheists did sufficiently overthrow the Foundation of the Hylozoists 37. Observed here that the Hylozoists are not condemned merely for asserting a Plastick Life distinct from the Animal which with most other Philosophers we judge highly probable if taken in a Right Sence but for grosly misunderstanding it and attributing the same to Matter 〈◊〉 The Plastick Life of Nature largely explained 38. That though the Confutation of the Atheistick grounds according to the Laws of Method ought to have been reserved for the last part of this Discourse yet we having reasons to violate those Laws crave the Readers Pardon for this Preposterousness A considerable Observation of Plato's that it is not only Moral Vitiosity which inclines men to Atheize but also an Affectation of seeming wiser than the Generality of Mankind As likewise that the Atheists making such pretence to Wit it is a Seasonable undertaking to evince that they fumble in all their Ratiocinations That we hope to make it appear that the Atheists are no Conjurers and that all Forms of Atheism are Non-sence and Impossibility I. WE have now represented the Grand Mysteries of Atheism which may be also called the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Darkness though indeed some of them are but briefly hinted here they being again more fully to be insisted on afterward where we are to give an account of the Atheists Endeavours to Salve the Phaenomenon of Cogitation We have represented the chief Grounds of Atheism in General as also of that most Notorious Form of Atheism in particular that is called Atomical but whereas there hath been already mentioned another Form of Atheism called by us Hylozoical the Principles hereof could not possibly be insisted on in this place where we were to make the most Plausible Plea for Atheism they being directly contrary to those of the Atomical so that they would have mutually destroyed each other For whereas the Atomick Atheism supposes the Notion or Idea of Body to be nothing but Extended Resisting Bulk and consequently to include no manner of Life and Cogitation in it Hylozoism on the contrary makes all Body as such and therefore every smallest Atom of it to have Life Essentially belonging to it Natural Perception and Appetite though without any Animal Sense or Reflexive Knowledge as if Life and Matter or Extended Bulk were but two Incomplete and Inadequate Conceptions of one and the same Substance called Body By reason of which Life not Animal but only Plastical all parts of Matter being supposed able to form themselves Artificially and Methodically though without any Deliberation or Attentive Consideration to the greatest advantage of their present respective Capabilities and therefore also sometimes by Organization to improve themselves further into Sense and Self-enjoyment in all Animals as also to Vniversal Reason and Reflexive Knowledge in Men it is plain that there is no Necessity at all left either of any Incorporeal Soul in Men to make them Rational or of any Deity in the whole Universe to salve the Regularity thereof One main difference betwixt these two Forms of Atheism is this that the Atomical supposes all Life whatsoever to be Accidental Generable and Corruptible But the Hylozoick admits of a certain Natural or Plastick Life Essential and Substantial Ingenerable and Incorruptible though attributing the same only to Matter as supposing no other Substance in the World besides it II. Now to prevent all Mistakes we think fit here by way of Caution to suggest That as every Atomist is not therefore necessarily an Atheist so neither must every Hylozoist needs be accounted such For who ever so holds the Life of Matter as notwithstanding to assert another kind of Substance also that is Immaterial and Incorporeal is no way obnoxious to that soul Imputation However we ought not to dissemble but that there is a great Difference here betwixt these two Atomism and Hylozoism in this regard That the former of them namely Atomism as hath been already declared hath in it self a Natural Cognation and Conjunction with Incorporeism though violently cut off from it by the Democritick Atheists whereas the latter of them Hylozoism seems to have altogether as close and intimate a Correspondence with Corporealism Because as hath been already signified if all Matter as such have not only such a Life Perception and Self-active Power in it as whereby it can Form it self to the best advantage making this a Sun and that an Earth or Planet and fabricating the Bodies of Animals most Artificially but also can improve it self into Sense and Self-enjoyment it may as well be thought able to advance it self higher into all the Acts of Reason and Vnderstanding in Men so that there will be no need either of an Incorporeal Immortal Soul in Men or a Deity in the Universe Nor indeed is it easily conceivable how any should be induced to admit such a Monstrous Paradox as this is That every Atom of Dust or other Sensless Matter is Wiser than the greatest Politician and the most acute Philosopher that ever was as having an Infallible Omniscience of all its own Capabilities and Congruities were it not by reason of some strong Prepossession against Incorporeal Substance and a Deity there being nothing so Extravagánt and Outragiously Wild which a Mind once infected with Atheistical Sottishness and Disbelief will not rather greedily swallow down than admit a Deity which to such is the highest of all Paradoxes imaginable and the most affrightful Bug-bear Notwithstanding all which it may not be denied but that it is possible for one who really entertains the belief of a Deity and a Rational Soul Immortal
that the Mediterranean Sea forced open that passage of the Herculean straits being a continual Isthmus or neck of Land before that many parts of the present Continent were heretofore Sea as also much of the present Ocean habitable Land So it cannot be doubted but that the same Strato did likewise suppose such kind of Alternations and Vicissitudes as these in all the greater parts of the Mundane System But the Stoical Atheists who made the whole World to be dispensed by one Orderly and Plastick Nature might very well and agreeably to their own Hypothesis maintain besides the Worlds Eternity one Constant and Invariable Course or Tenor of things in it as Plinius Secundus doth who if he were any thing seems to have been one of these Atheists Mundum hoc quod nomine alio Coelum appellare libuit cujus circumflexu reguntur cuncta Numen esse credi par est Aeternum Immensum neque Genitum neque Interiturum Idem rerum Naturae Opus rerum ipsa Natura The World and that which by another name is called the Heavens by whose Circumgyration all things are governed ought to be believed to be a Numen Eternal Immense such as was never Made and shall never be Destroyed Where by the way it may be again observed that those Atheists who denied a God according to the True Notion of him as a Conscious Vnderstanding Being presiding over the whole World did notwithstanding look upon either the World it self or else a mere Sensless Plastick Nature in it as a kind of Numen or Deity they supposing it to be Ingenerable and Incorruptible Which same Pliny as upon the grounds of the Stoical Atheism he maintained against the Anaximandrians and Democriticks the Worlds Eternity and Incorruptibility so did he likewise in way of Opposition to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Infinity of Worlds of theirs assert that there was but One World and that Finite In like manner we read concerning that Famous Stoick Boethus whom Laertius affirms to have denied the World to be an Animal which according to the language and sence of those times was all one as to deny a God that he also maintained contrary to the received Doctrine of the Stoicks the Worlds Ante-Eternity and Incorruptibllity Philo in his Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Incorruptibility of the World testifying the same of him Nevertheless it seems that some of these Stoical Atheists did also agree with the Generality of the other Stoical Theists in supposing a successive Infinity of Worlds Generated and Corrupted by reason of intervening Periodical Conflagrations though all dispensed by such a Stupid and Sensless Nature as governs Plants and Trees For thus much we gather from those words of Seneca before cited where describing this Atheistical Hypothesis he tells us that though the World were a Plant that is governed by a Vegetative or Plastick Nature without any Animality yet notwithstanding ab initio ejus usque ad exitum c. it had both a Beginning and will have an End and from its Beginning to its End all was dispensed by a kind of Regular Law even its Successive Conflagrations too as well as those Inundations or Deluges which have sometimes hapned Which yet they understood after such a manner as that in these several Revolutions and Successive Circuits or Periods of Worlds all things should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly alike to what had been Infinitely before and should be again Infinitely afterwards Of which more elsewhere XXXIV This Quadripartite Atheism which we have now represented is the Kingdom of Darkness Divided or Labouring with an Intestine Seditious War in its own Bowels and thereby destroying it self Insomuch that we might well save our selves the labour of any further Confutation of Atheism merely by committing these several Forms of Atheism together and dashing them one against another they opposing and contradicting each other no less than they do Theism it self For first those two Pairs of Atheisms on the one hand the Anaximandrian and Democritick on the other the Stoical and Stratonical do absolutely destroy each other the Former of them supposing the First Principle of all things to be Stupid Matter devoid of all manner of Life and contending that all Life as well as other Qualities is Generable and Corruptible or a mere Accidental thing and looking upon the Plastick Life of Nature as a Figment or Phantastick Capritio a thing almost as formidable and altogether as impossible as a Deity the other on the contrary founding all upon this Principle That there is a Life and Natural Perception Essential to Matter Ingenerable and Incorruptible and contending it to be utterly impossible to give any accompt of the Phaenomena of the World the Original of Motion the Orderly Frame and Disposition of things and the Nature of Animals without this Fundamental Life of Nature Again the Single Atheisms belonging to each of these several Pairs quarrel as much also between themselves For the Democritick Atheism explodes the Anaximandrian Qualities and Forms demonstrating that the Natural Production of such Entities out of Nothing and the Corruption of them again into Nothing is of the two rather more impossible than a Divine Creation and Annihilation And on the other side the Anaximandrian Atheist plainly discovers that when the Democriticks and Atomicks have spent all their Fury against these Qualities and Forms and done what they can to salve the Phaenomena of Nature without them another way themselves do notwithstanding like drunken men reel and stagger back again into them and are unavoidably necessitated at last to take up their Sanctuary in them In like manner the Stoical and Stratonical Atheists may as effectually undo and confute each other the Former of them urging against the Latter That besides that Prodigious Absurdity of making every Atom of Sensless Matter Infallibly Wise or Omniscient without any Consciousness there can be no reason at all given by the Hylozoists why the Matter of the whole Universe might not as well Conspire and Confederate together into One as all the single Atoms that compound the Body of any Animal or Man or why one Conscious Life might not as well result from the Totum of the former as of the latter by which means the whole World would become an Animal or God Again the Latter contending that the Stoical or Cosmo-plastick Atheist can pretend no reason why the whole World might not have one Sentient and Rational as well as one Plastick Soul in it that is as well be an Animal as a Plant. Moreover that the Sensitive Souls of Brute Animals and the Rational Souls of Men could never possibly emerge out of one Single Plastick and Vegetative Soul in the whole Universe And lastly that it is altogether as impossible that the whole World should have Life in it and yet none of its Parts have any Life of their own as that the whole World should be White or Black and yet no part of it
determines the Motion of it Vitally must needs do it by some other Energy of its own as it is Reasonable also to conceive that it self hath some Vital Sympathy with that Matter which it Acts upon But we apprehend that Both these may be without Clear and Express Consciousness Thus the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Life is Energie even the worst of Lives and therefore that of Nature Whose Energie is not like that of Fire but such an Energie as though there be no Sense belonging to it yet is it not Temerarious or Fortuitous but Orderly Regular Wherefore this Controversie whether the Energy of the Plastick Nature be Cogitation or no seems to be but a Logomachy or Contention about Words For if Clear and Express Consciousness be supposed to be included in Cogitation then it must needs be granted that Cogitation doth not belong to the Plastick Life of Nature but if the Notion of that Word be enlarged so as to comprehend all Action distinct from Local Motion and to be of equal Extent with Life then the Energie of Nature is Cogitation Nevertheless if any one think fit to attribute some Obscure and Imperfect Sense or Perception different from that of Animals to the Energie of Nature and will therefore call it a kind of Drowsie Vnawakened or Astonish'd Cogitation the Philosopher before mentioned will not very much gainsay it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any will needs attribute some kind of Apprehension or Sense to Nature then it must not be such a Sense or Apprehension as is in Animals but something that differs as much from it as the Sense or Cogitation of one in a profound sleep differs from that of one who is awake And since it cannot be denied but that the Plastick Nature hath a certain Dull and Obscure Idea of that which it Stamps and Prints upon Matter the same Philosopher himself sticks not to call this Idea of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spectacle and Contemplamen as likewise the Energy of Nature towards it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Silent Contemplation nay he allows that Nature may be said to be in some Sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lover of Spectacles or Contemplation 17. However that there may be some Vital Energy without Clear and Express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense and Consciousness Animadversion Attention or Self-perception seems reasonable upon several accompts For first those Philosophers themselves who make the Essence of the Soul to consist in Cogitation and again the Essence of Cogitation in Clear and Express Consciousness cannot render it any way probable that the Souls of Men in all profound Sleeps Lethargies and Apoplexies as also of Embryo's in the Womb from their very first arrival thither are never so much as one moment without Expresly Conscious Cogitations which if they were according to the Principles of their Philosophy they must ipso facto cease to have any Being Now if the Souls of Men and Animals be at any time without Consciousness and Self-perception then it must needs be granted that Clear and Express Consciousness is not Essential to Life There is some appearance of Life and Vital Sympathy in certain Vegetables and Plants which however called Sensitive Plants and Plant-animals cannot well be supposed to have Animal Sense and Fancy or Express Consciousness in them although we are not ignorant in the mean time how some endeavour to salve all those Phaenomena Mechanically It is certain that our Humane Souls themselves are not always Conscious of whatever they have in them for even the Sleeping Geometrician hath at that time all his Geometrical Theorems and Knowledges some way in him as also the Sleeping Musician all his Musical Skill and Songs and therefore why may it not be possible for the Soul to have likewise some Actual Energie in it which it is not Expresly Conscious of We have all Experience of our doing many Animal Actions Non-attendingly which we reflect upon afterwards as also that we often continue a long Series of Bodily Motions by a mere Virtual Intention of our Minds and as it were by Half a Cogitation That Vital Sympathy by which our Soul is united and tied fast as it were with a Knot to the Body is a thing that we have no direct Consciousness of but only in its Effects Nor can we tell how we come to be so differently affected in our Souls from the many different Motions made upon our Bodies As likewise we are not Conscious to our selves of that Energy whereby we impress Variety of Motions and Figurations upon the Animal Spirits of our Brain in our Phantastick Thoughts For though the Geometrician perceive himself to make Lines Triangles and Circles in the Dust with his Finger yet he is not aware how he makes all those same Figures first upon the Corporeal Spirits of his Brain from whence notwithstanding as from a Glass they are reflected to him Fancy being rightly concluded by Aristotle to be a Weak and Obscure Sense There is also another more Interiour kind of Plastick Power in the Soul if we may so call it whereby it is Formative of its own Cogitations which it self is not always Conscious of as when in Sleep or Dreams it frames Interlocutory Discourses betwixt it self and other Persons in a long Series with Coherent Sence and Apt Connexions in which oftentimes it seems to be surprized with unexpected Answers and Reparties though it self were all the while the Poet and Inventor of the whole Fable Not only our Nictations for the most part when we are awake but also our Nocturnal Volutations in Sleep are performed with very little or no Consciousness Respiration or that Motion of the Diaphragmae and other Muscles which causes it there being no sufficient Mechanical accompt given of it may well be concluded to be always a Vital Motion though it be not always Animal since no man can affirm that he is perpetually Conscious to himself of that Energy of his Soul which does produce it when he is awake much less when asleep And Lastly the Cartesian Attempts to salve the Motion of the Heart Mechanically seem to be abundantly confuted by Autopsy and Experiment evincing the Systole of the Heart to be a Muscular Constriction caused by some Vital Principle to make which nothing but a Pulsifick Corporeal Quality in the Substance of the Heart it self is very Unphilosophical and Absurd Now as we have no voluntary Imperium at all upon the Systole and Diastole of the Heart so are we not conscious to our selves of any Energy of our own Soul that causes them and therefore we may reasonably conclude from hence also that there is some Vital Energy without Animal Fancy or Synaesthesis express Consciousness and Self-perception 18. Wherefore the Plastick Nature acting neither by Knowledge nor by Animal Fancy neither Electively nor Hormetically must be concluded to act Fatally Magically and Sympathetically And thus that Curious
aâ—firms of these his Inferiour Intelligences likewise as well as of the Supreme Mover that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Move only as the end Where it is Evident that though Aristotle did plainly suppose a Mundane Intellectual Soul such as also conteined either in it or under it a Plastick Nature yet he did not make either of these to be the Supreme Deity but resolved the First Principle of things to be One Absolutely Perfect Mind or Intellect Separate from Matter which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Immoveable Nature whose Essence was his Operation and which Moved only as being Lovâ—d or as the Final Cause of which he pronounces in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That upon such a Principle as this Heaven and Nature depends that is the Animated Heaven or Mundane Soul together with the Plastick Nature of the Universe must of necessity depend upon such an Absolutely Perfect and Immoveable Mind or Intellect Having now declared the Aristotelick Doctrine concerning the Plastick Nature of the Universe with which the Platonick also agrees that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either Part of a Mundane Intellectual Soul that is a Lower Power and Faculty of it or else not without it but some inferior thing depending on it we think sit to add in this place that though there were no such Mundane Soul as both Plato and Aristotle supposed distinct from the Supreme Deity yet thâ—re might notwithstanding be a Plastick Nature of the Universe depending immediately upon the Deity it self For the Plastick Nature essentially depends upon Mind or Intellect and could not possibly be without it according to those words before cited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature depends upon such an Intellectual Principle and for this Cause that Philosopher does elsewhere joyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Nature both together 25. Besides this General Plastick Nature of the Universe and those Particular Plastick Powers in the Souls of Animals it is not impossible but that there may be other Plastick Natures also as certain Lower Lives or Vegetative Souls in some Greater Parts of the Universe all of them depending if not upon some higher Conscious Soul yet at least upon a Perfect Intellect presiding over the whole As for Example Though it be not reasonable to think that every Plant Herb and Pile of Grass hath a Particular Plastick Life or Vegetative Soul of its own distinct from the Mechanism of the Body nor that the whole Earth is an Animal endued with a Conscious Soul yet there may possibly be for ought we know one Plastick Nature or Life belonging to the whole Terrestrial or Terraqueous Globe by which all Plants and Vegetables continuous with it may be differently formed according to their different Seeds as also Minerals and other Bodies framed and whatsoever else is above the Power of Fortuitous Mechanism effected as by the Immediate Cause though always Subordinate to other Causes the chief whereof is the Deity And this perhaps may ease the Minds of those who cannot but think it too much to impose all upon one Plastick Nature of the Universe 26. And now we have finished our First Task which was to give an Accompt of the Plastick Nature the Sum whereof briefly amounts to this That it is a certain Lower Life than the Animal which acts Regularly and Artificially according to the Direction of Mind and Vnderstanding Reason and Wisdom for Ends or in Order to Good though it self do not know the Reason of what it does nor is Master of that Wisdom according to which it acts but only a Servant to it and Drudging Executioner of the same it operating Fatally and Sympathetically according to Laws and Commands prescribed to it by a Perfect Intellect and imprest upon it and which is either a Lower Faculty of some Conscious Soul or else an Inferiour kind of Life or Soul by it self but essentially depending upon an Higher Intellect We procede to our Second Vndertaking which was to shew how grosly those Two Sorts of Atheists before mentioned the Stoical or Cosmo-plastick and the Stratonical or Hylozoick both of them acknowledging this Plastick Life of Nature do mistake the Notion of it or Pervert it and Abuse it to make a certain Spurious and Counterfeit God-Almighty of it or a First Principle of all things thereby excluding the True Omnipotent Deity which is a Perfect Mind or Consciously Vnderstanding Nature presiding over the Universe they substituting this Stupid Plastick Nature in the room of it Now the Chief Errors or Mistakes of these Atheists concerning the Plastick Nature are these Four following First that they make that to be the First Principle of all and the Highest thing in the Universe which is the Last and Lowest of all Lives a thing Essentially Secondary Derivative and Dependent For the Plastick Life of Nature is but the mere Vmbrage of Intellectuality a faint and shadowy Imitation of Mind and Vnderstanding upon which it doth as Essentially depend as the Shadow doth upon the Body the Image in the Glass upon the Face or the Eccho upon the Original Voice So that if there had been no Perfect Mind or Intellect in the World there could no more have been any Plastick Nature in it than there could be an Image in the Glass without a Face or an Eccho without an Original Voice If there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if there be a Plastick Nature that acts Regularly and Artificially in Order to Ends and according to the Best Wisdom though it self not comprehending the reason of it nor being clearly Conscious of what it doth then there must of necessity be a Perfect Mind or Intellect that is a Deity upon which it depends Wherefore Aristotle does like a Philosopher in joyning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature and Mind both together but these Atheists do very Absurdly and Unphilosophically that would make a Sensless and Inconscious Plastick Nature and therefore without any Mind or Intellect to be the First Original of all things Secondly these Atheists augment the Former Error in supposing those Higher Lives of Sense or Animality and of Reason or Vnderstanding to rise both of them from that Lower Sensless Life of Nature as the only Original Fundamental Life Which is a thing altogether as Irrational and Absurd as if one should suppose the Light that is in the Air or Aether to be the Only Original and Fundamental Light and the Light of the Sun and Stars but a Secondary and Derivative thing from it and nothing but the Light of the Air Modificated and Improved by Condensation Or as if one should maintain that the Sun and Moon and all the Stars were really nothing else but the mere Reflections of those Images that we see in Rivers and Ponds of Water But this hath always been the Sottish Humour and Guise of Atheists to invert the Order of the
them that is no Contingent Vncertainty in their Motion without bringing of Something out of Nothing which was contrary to the Fundamental Principles of the Atomick Philosophy though this were intolerably absurd in him thus to suppose Contingency and a Kind of Free Will in the Motions of Sensless Atoms so that indeed he brought his Liberty of Will out of Nothing certainly Sense and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind in Animals and Men could not Possibly be Generated out of Atoms or Matter devoid of all Sense and Vnderstanding For the very same Reason Quoniam De Nihilo Nil fit Because Nothing can be Made out of Nothing For unquestionably were all Life and Vnderstanding all Souls and Minds Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter and were there no Substantial or Essential Life and Vnderstanding in the whole Universe then must it of Necessity be all Made out of Nothing or without a Cause and consequently Real Entities and Substantial things be Made out of Nothing which is absolutely Impossible For though we do not say that Life and Cogitation Sense and Vnderstanding abstractly considered are Substances yet do we affirm them to be Entities Really distinct from Matter and no Modifications or Accidents thereof but either Accidents and Modifications or rather Essential Attributes of Substance Incorporeal as also that Souls and Minds which are the Subjects of them are indeed Substantial Things Wherefore We cannot but here again condemn the Darkness of that Philosophy which Educes not only species Visible and Audible Entities Perfectly Unintelligible and Real Qualities distinct from all the Modes of Body and even Substantial Forms too as they call them but also Sensitive Souls themselves both in men and brutes Ex Potentia Materiae Out of the Power of the Matter that is indeed Out of Nothing For as much as this prepares a direct way to Atheism because if Life and Sense Cogitation and Consciousness may be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter then might this well be supposed the first Original of All things nor could there Reasonably be any Stop made at Rational Souls especially by these men who also conclude them to be Rasae Tabulae meer White Sheets of Paper that have nothing at all in them but what is Scribbled upon them by Corporeal Objects from without there being nothing in the Vnderstanding or Mind of Man which was not before in Sense so that Sense is the First Original Knowledge and Vnderstanding but a Secondary and Derivative thing from it more Vmbratile and Evanide Hitherto have we Demonstrated that all things whatsoever could not possibly be Made out of Matter and particularly that Life and Sense Mind and Vnderstanding being no Accidents or Modes of Matter could not by Motion be Generated out of it without the Production of Real Entities out of Nothing But because some may Possibly Imagine that Matter might otherwise than thus by Motion by a Miraculous Efficiency Produce Souls and Minds we shall add in the last place that Nothing can Efficiently Produce any Real Entity or Substantial thing that was not before unless it have at least equal Perfection to it and a Substantially Emanative or Creative Power But scarcely any man can be so sottish as to Imagine that every Atom of Dust hath Equal Perfection in it to that of the Rational Soul in man or to Attribute a Creative Power to all Matter which is but a Passive thing whilst this is in the mean time denied by him to a Perfect Being both these Assertions also in like manner as the Former Producing Real Entities out of Nothing Causally And thus have we Demonstrated the Impossibility and Non-sense of all Atheism from this very Principle by which the Atheists would assault Theism in the true Sense thereof that No thing can be Made without a Cause or that Nothing cannot be the Cause of Any thing Now if there be no Middle betwixt Atheism and Theism and all things must of Necessity either spring from Sensless Matter or else from a Perfect Vnderstanding Being then is this Demonstration of the Impossibility of Atheism a Sufficient Establishment of the Truth of Theism it being such a Demonstration of a God as the Geometricians call a Deduction Ad Impossibile which they allow of for good and frequently make use of Thus Either there is a God or else Matter must needs be acknowledged to be the only Self-Existent thing and all things else whatsoever to be Made out of it But it is Impossible that all things should be made out of Sensless Matter Therefore is there a God Nevertheless we shall here for further satisfaction show how the Existence of a God may be Directly Demonstrated also from this very Principle which the Atheists endeavour to take Sanctuary in and from thence to impugne Theism De Nihilo Nihil that Nothing can be Made out of Nothing Causally or That Nothing cannot be the Cause of Any thing In the first place therefore we shall fetch our Beginning from what hath been already often declared That it is Mathematically Certain that Something or other did Exist Of It Self from all Eternity or without beginning and Vnmade by any thing else The Certainty of which Proposition dependeth upon this very Principle as its Foundation That Nothing can come from Nothing or be Made out of Nothing or That Nothing which once was not can of it self come into Being without a Cause it following unavoidably from thence That if there had been once Nothing there could never have been Any thing And having thus laid the Foundation we shall in the next place make this further Superstructure that because Something did certainly Exist of it Self from Eternity Vnmade therefore is there also Actually a Necessarily Existent Being For to suppose that any thing did Exist Of It Self from Eternity by its own Free Will and Choice and therefore not Necessarily but Contingently since it might have Willed otherwise this is to suppose it to have Existed before it Was and so Positively to have been the Cause of it self which is Impossible as hath been already declared When a thing therefore is said to be Of It Self or the Cause of It self this is to be understood no otherwise than either in a Negative Sense as having Nothing else for its Cause or because its Necessary Eternal Existence is Essential to the Perfection of its own Nature That therefore which Existed Of It self from Eternity Independently upon any thing else did not so Exist Contingently but Necessarily so that there is undoubtedly something Actually in Being whose Existence is and always was Necessary In the next place it is certain also that Nothing could Exist Necessarily Of it Self but what included Nâ—cessity of Existence in its own Nature For to suppose any thing to Exist Of it self Necessarily which hath no Necessity of Existence in its own Nature is plainly to suppose that Necessary Existence of it to Come from Nothing since it could neither proceed from that Thing
all Matter as such but without Animal Consciousness as an Essential part thereof or Inadequate Conception of it From which Fundamental Life of Nature in Matter Modified by Organization they phancy the Lives of all Animals and Men to have proceeded So that though the Modificated Lives of Animals and Men as such according to them be Accidental things Generated and Corrupted produced out of Nothing and reduced to Nothing again yet this Fundamental Life of Matter which is the Basis upon which they stand being Substantial is also Eternal and Incorruptible These Hylozoists therefore to avoid a Deity Suppose every Atom of Sensless Matter to have been from all Eternity Infallibly Omniscient that is to know all things without either Errour or Ignorance and to have a Knowledge before Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles quite contrary to the Doctrine of the Atomick Atheists who make all Knowledge Sense or the Product thereof though without any Animal Consciousness and Self Perception But as nothing can be more Prodigiously Absurd than thus to attribute Infallible Omniscience to every Atom of Matter so is it also directly Contradictious to suppose Perfect Knowledge Wisdom or Vnderstanding without any Consciousness or Self Perception Consciousness being Essential to Cogitation as also that the Substantial and Fundamental Life in men and other Animals should never Perish and yet Notwithstanding their Souls and Personalities in Death utterly vanish into Nothing Moreover this Hypothesis can never possibly Salve the Phaenomenon of Men and Animals neither not only because no Organization or Modification of Matter whatsoever could ever produce Consciousness and Self Perception in what was before Inconscious but also because every Smallest Atom thereof being supposed to be a Percipient by it self and to have a Perfect Life and Vnderstanding of its own there must be in every one Man and Animal not one but a Heap or Commonwealth of innumerable Percipients Lastly whereas these Hylozoick Atheists make every Atom of Matter Omniscient but nothing at all Omnipotent or assert Perfect Knowledge without any Perfect Power a Knowledge without Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles we demand of them where the Intelligibles or Objects of this Knowledge are and whence the Ideas thereof are derived for since they proceed not in a way of Passion from Sensibles Existing without nor could result from those Atoms neither as Comprehending themselves they must needs Come from Nothing and many of them at least be the Conceptions of Nothing There cannot possibly be any other Original by the wit of man devised of Knowledge and Vnderstanding than from an Absolutely Perfect and Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Infinite Power or all Possibilities of things that is all Intelligibles But there can be but One such Omnipotent Being and therefore no more than One Original and Eternal Vnmade Mind from whence all the other Minds are Derived Wherefore this Hylozoick Atheism is nothing but the Breaking and Crumbling of the Simple Deity One Perfect Understanding Being into Matter and all the several Atoms of it And now have we made it manifest that these Atheists are so far from being able to disprove a God from this Topick of Cogitation Knowledge or Vnderstanding that they cannot possibly Salve the Phaenomenon thereof without a God it indeed affording Invincible Arguments of his Existence For First If no Life or Cogitation Soul or Mind can possibly Spring out of Matter or Body devoid of Life and Vnderstanding and which is nothing but a Thing Extended into Length Breadth and Thickness then is it so far from being True that all Life and Vnderstanding is Junior to Sensless Matter and the Off-spring thereof that of necessity either all Lives and Souls were Self-Existent from Eternity or else there must be One Perfect Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all other Imperfect ones were derived there must be an Eternal Knowledge before Sense and Sensibles which is that that hath printed the Stamps and Signatures of it self upon the Matter of the whole world Indeed nothing can be more certain than this that all Knowledge and Vnderstanding in Our selves is not a meer Passion from Singular Sensibles or Bodies Existing without us as the forementioned Atheists also conclude from whence they would again Infer that Knowledge as such is in its own Nature Junior to Sensibles and the meer Creature of them and Consequently no Creator There being nothing which comes to us from the Objects of Sense without but Only Local Motion and Pressure and there being other Objects of the Mind besides Singular Sensibles not only all Vniversals but also such Intelligibles as never were nor can be in Sense Now if our Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding be not a Passion from things Existing without us then can it have no other Original than in way of Participation from a Perfect Mind the Mind of an Infinitely Fecund and Powerful Being comprehending It self and in It self all things all the Possibilities of things before they were Made their Respects and the Verities belonging to them So that a Perfect Omnipotent Being together with the Possibilities of things contained in it is the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible or Object of Mind and Vnderstanding by which all other Singulars are Understood And were there no such Perfect Infinitely Fecund and Powerful Being there could have been no Mind or Understanding at all As also were there no Perfect Mind viz. That of an Omnipotent Being Comprehending It self and all Possibilities of things vertually contained in it all the Knowledge and Intelligible Ideas of our Imperfect Minds must needs have Sprung from Nothing And thus is the Existence of a God again Demonstrated from that Phaenomenon of Knowledge or Vnderstanding HAving quite Routed and Vanquished the Atheists Main Body we shall now blow away the Remainder of their weaker and scattered Forces viz. Their Objections against Providence their Queries and their Arguments from Interest with a Breath or two Their First Objection is against Providence as to the Fabrick of the World from the Faultiness of the Mundane System Intellectually considered and in Order to Ends Quia tantâ stat Praedita Culpâ That Because it is so Ill-Made therefore it could not be made by a God Where the Atheist takes it for granted that whosoever asserts a God or a Perfect Mind to be the Original of all things does therefore ipso facto suppose All things to be Well Made and as they Should be And this doubtless was the Sense of all the Ancient Theologers however some Modern Theists deviate there from these Concluding the Perfection of the Deity not at all to consist in Goodness but in Power and Arbitrary Will only As if to have a Will determined by a Rule or Reason of Good were the Virtue of Weak Impotent and Obnoxious Beings only or of such as have a Superior over them to give Law to them that is of Creatures but the Prerogative of a Being Irresistibly Powerful
and Phancies This the Fourth Atheistick Argument That to suppose an Incorporeal Mind to be the Original of all things is nothing else but to make the Abstract Notion of a meer Accident to be the First Cause Page 67 IX A Fifth Pretended Ground of Atheism That an Incorporeal Deity being already confuted a Corporeal one may be disproved also from the Principles of Corporealism in General Because Matter being the onely Substance and all other Differences of things nothing but the Accidents thereof Generable and Corruâ—tible no Living Vnderstanding Being can be Essentially Incorruptible The Stoical God Incorruptible onely by Accident Page 69 X. Their further Attempt to doe the same Atomically That the First Principle of all things whatsoever in the Vniverse being Atoms or Corpuscula devoid of all manner of Qualities and consequently of Sense and Understanding which sprung up afterwards from a certain Composition or Contexture of them Mind or Deity could not therefore be the First Original of all Page 70 XI A farther Atheistick Attempt to impugn a Deity by disproving the World's Animation or its being governed by a Living Vnderstanding Animalish Nature presiding over the whole Because forsooth Sense and Understanding are peculiar Appendices to Flesh Bloud and Braines and Reason is no where to be found but in Human Form Page 73 XII An Eighth Atheistick Instance That God being taken by all for a Most Happy Eternal and Immortal Animal or Living Being there can be no such thing because all living Beings are Concretions of Atoms that were at first generated and are liable to Death and Corruption by the Dissolution of their Compages Life being no Simple Primitive Nature but an Accidental Modification of compounded Bodies onely which upon the Disunion of their Parts or Disturbance of their Contexture vanisheth into Nothing Page 75 XIII A Ninth Pretended Atheistick Demonstration That by God is meant a First Cause or Mover and such as was not before moved by any thing else without it but Nothing can move it self and therefore there can be no unmoved Mover nor any First in the Order of Causes that is a God Page 76 XIV Their farther Improvement of the same Principle That there can be no Action whatsoever without some external Cause or that Nothing taketh Beginning from it self but from the Action of some other Agent without it so that no Cogitation can arise of it self without a Cause all Action and Cogitation being really nothing but Local Motion from whence it follows that no Thinking Being could be a First Cause any more than a Machin or Automaton Page 76. XV. Another Grand Mystery of Atheism That all Knowledge and Mental Conception is the Information of the things themselves known existing without the Knower and a meer Passion from them and therefore the world must needs have been before any Knowledge or Conception of it but no Knowledge or Conception before the world as its Cause Page 77 XVI A Twelfth Atheistick Argumentation That things could not be made by a God because they are so Faulty and Ill made That they were not contrived for the Good of Man and that the Deluge of Evils which overflows all shows them not to have proceeded from any Deity ibid. XVII A Thirteenth Instance of Atheists from the Defect of Providence That in Human Affairs all is Tohu and Bohu Chaos and Confusion Page 79 XVIII A Fourteenth Atheistick Objection That it is impossible for any one Being to Animadvert and Order all things in the distant places of the whole world at once But if it were possible That such Infinite Negotiosity would be absolutely inconsistent with Happiness Page 80 XIX Quaeries of Atheists Why the world was not made sooner and What God did before Why it was made at all since it was so long unmade and How the Architect of the world could rear up so huge a Fabrick Page 81 XX. The Atheists Pretence That it is the great Interesse of Mankind There should be no God And that it was a Noble and Heroical Exploit of the Democriticks to Chase away that Affrightfull Spectre out of the world and to free men from the Continual Fear of a Deity and Punishment after Death Embittering all the Pleasures of Life Page 83 XXI The Last Atheistick Pretence That Theism is also inconsistent with Civil Sovereignty it introducing a Fear greater than the Fear of the Leviathan and that any other Conscience besides the Civil Law being Private Judgment is Ipso Facto a Dissolution of the Body Politick and a Revolt to the State of Nature Page 84 XXII The Atheists Conclusion from all the former Premisses as it is set down in Plato and Lucretius That all things sprung Originally from Nature and Chance without any Mind or God or proceeded from the Necessity of Material Motions Vndirected for Ends. And that Infinite Atoms Devoid of all Life and Sense Moving in Infinite Space from Eternity did by their Fortuitous Rencounters and Entanglements produce the System of this whole Vniverse and as well all Animate as Inanimate things Page 97 CHAP. III. An Introduction to the Confutation of the Atheistick Grounds wherein is contained a particular Account of all the Severall Forms of Atheism together with a necessary Digression concerning a Plastick or Artificial Nature I. THat the Grounds of the Hylozoïck Atheism could not be insisted on by us in the former Chapter together with those of the Atomick they being directly opposite each to other with a farther Account of this Hylozoïck Atheism P. 104. II. A Suggestion in way of Caution for the Preventing of all mistakes That every Hylozoïst must not therefore be presently condemned as an Atheist or but a meer Counterfeit Histrionical Theist Page 105 III. That nevertheless such Hylozoïsts as are also Corporealists or acknowledge no other Substance besides Body can by no means be excused from the Imputation of Atheism for Two Reasons Page 106 IV. That Strato Lampsacenus commonly called Physicus was probably the First Asserter of the Hylozoïck Atheism he acknowledging no other God but the Life of Nature in Matter Page 107 V. Further Proved that this Strato was an Atheist and of a different Form from Democritus he attributing an Energetick Nature but without Sense and Animality to all Matter Page 108 VI. That Strato not deriving all things from a meer Fortuitous Principle as the Democritick Atheists did nor yet acknowledging any one Plastick Nature to preside over the whole but deducing the Original of things from a Mixture of Chance and Plastick Nature both together in the several parts of Matter must therefore needs be an Hylozoïck Atheist ibid. VII That the Famous Hippocrates was neither an Hylozoïck nor Democritick Atheist but rather an Heraclitick Corporeal Theist Page 109 VIII That Plato took no notice of the Hylozoïck Atheism nor of any other save what derives the Original of all things from a meer Fortuitous Nature and therefore either the Democritical or the Anaximandrian Atheism which Latter will be next
All is Body and That the First Principles of Body are devoid of Life and Understanding it would follow unavoidably That there is no God Therefore the Stoicks who were Corporeal Theists denied the Latter they supposing an Understanding Fire Eternal and Unmade the Maker of the whole Mundane System Truly Observed by Origen That this Corporeal God of the Stoicks was but by Accident Incorruptible and Happy and onely because Wanting a Destroyer This no Genuine Theism Page 837 838 But an Absolute Impossibility in both these Atheistick Corporealisms not onely because they suppose no Active Principle but also because they bring Life and Understanding that is Something out of Nothing or Make them without a Cause Where the Atomick Atheists of the Two most to be Condemned because so grosly Contradicting themselves From that True Principle That Matter as such is devoid of Life and Understanding an Absolute Necessity of another Substance Incorporeal which is Essentially Vital and Intellectual That All Life cannot possibly be Factitious and Accidental Generable and Corruptible but there must be Substantial Life and also some Eternal Page 838 839 The Truth of this Vnderstood and Acknowledged by the Hylozoists That there must of Necessity be both Substantial and Unmade Life and Understanding who therefore Attribute the same to all Matter as such but without Animality which according to them is all Factitious and Accidental Wherefore this Hylozoick Atheism also brings Conscious Life and Animality out of Nothing or Makes them without a Cause The Argument of the Epicurean Atheists against Stratonism or Hylozoism Unanswerable That upon this Supposition there must be in every Man and Animal a Heap of Innumerable Percipients as many as there are Atoms of Matter and so no One Thinker The Pretence of the Hylozoists That all the Particles of Matter in every Animal do Confederate Ridiculous and Impossible Page 839 840 Thus the Fifth and Sixth Atheistick Argumentations fully Confuted and from that True Supposition in them That Matter as such is Devoid of Life and Understanding Incorporeal Substance plainly Demonstrated Which was our Second Undertaking Page 840 The Third and Last That there being Vndeniably Substance Incorporeal the Two Following Atheistick Argumentations built upon the Supposition of the Contrary altogether Insignificant The Seventh not properly directed against Theism but against a Religious kind of Atheism or Theogonism which supposed a God or Soul of the World Generated out of Sensless Matter and the Offspring of Night and Chaos A Sober and True Sense of the World's Animation That there is a Living Sentient and Understanding Nature Presiding over the whole World But the Sense of Pagan Theists That the Whole Corporeall World Animated is a God Exploded by us This Argument therefore being not against Theism but Theogonism the Confutation thereof might be here well Omitted without any Detriment to our Cause But because the denying of a Living Understanding Nature presiding over the World is Atheisticall the Ground of this Assertion briefly Declared That Life and Understanding are Accidents of Bodies resulting onely from Such a Contexture of Atoms as produce Flesh Bloud and Brains in Bodies Organized and That there is no Reason to be found any-where but onely in Humane Form which also Confuted A Brutish Passage of a Modern Writer That it is Vnconceivable by Men How God can Understand without Brains Page 840 841 The Next which is the Eighth Atheistick Argumentation That there can be no Living Being Immortall nor Perfectly Happy built upon that False Supposition also That all Life and Understanding results from a Contexure of Dead and Sensless Atoms and therefore is Dissolvible and Annihilable But that there is Life Essentiall and Substantiall which Naturally Immortall as also a Necessity of an Eternall Life and Mind Unmade and Unannihilable which Perfectly Happy Page 841 842 SECT IV. THE Epicurean Atheists further Endeavour to Disprove a God from the Phaenomena of Motion and Cogitation in the Three Following Argumentations the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh From Motion thus That from this Principle Nothing can move It Self but Whatsoever is Moved is moved by Another it will follow That there can be no First Cause and Unmoved Mover but One thing Moved Another from Eternity Infinitely Because Nothing could Move Another which was not It Self First Moved by Something else Page 842 843 Answer The meaning of this Axiome Not That Nothing can Act from It Self as the Atheist Supposes he taking it for granted that every Thing is Body and that all Action is Locall Motion but That no Body Resting could ever Locally Move It Self A False Supposition of the Atheists and some Cartesians That were there but once Motion in the Matter this would of it Self continue to all Eternity True that of Aristotle That to make an Infinite Progress in the Causes of Motion and no First Mover is all one as to say That there is No Cause at all thereof or That all the Motion in the World is a Passion without an Agent or Comes from Nothing Clearly Impossible That there should be any Motion at all were there Nothing Self-Moving or Self-Active Page 843 Wherefore from this Principle That no Body can Move It Self it follows Vndeniably That there is Some other Substance in the World besides Body that hath an Active Power of Moving Body Page 843 844 Another Corollary from the same Principle That there is another Species of Action distinct from Locall Motion and which is not Heterokinesy but Autokinesy That the Action by which Local Motion is first Caused could not be it self Local Motion All Local Motion Caused Originally by Cogitation Thus the Ninth Atheistick Argument from Motion Confuted and from hence That no Body can Move it Self Demonstrated That there is Something Incorporeal the First Cause of Local Motion by Cogitation ibid. But the Atheists further Pretend to Prove That Cogitation it self is Heterokinesy the Passion of the Thinker and the Action of some other External Agent upon him Because Nothing taketh Beginning from It Self and No Cogitation can rise of It Self without a Cause That therefore Thinking Beings themselves are Machines and Cogitation Local Motion And No Understanding Being a First Cause nor Perfectly Happy because Dependent upon something else Page 844 845 Answer True That no Substance taketh Beginning from it Self as also That no Action Causeth it Self But False That No Action taketh Beginning from the Immediate Agent or That Nothing can Act otherwise then as Acted upon by Something else Atheists here Affirm onely what they should Prove and so Beg the Question If Nothing Self-Active then all the Motion and Action in the Universe must Come from Nothing or be Made without a Cause Page 845 True also That our Humane Cogitations are frequently occasioned from Externall Objects and that the Concatenations of Thoughts and Phantasms often depend upon Mechanick Causes But False That all Cogitations are Obtruded upon us from without and That no Transition in our Thoughts which was not
Figure Site and Motion and Partly something that is Phantastical in the Sentient That the Atomical Physiology did emerge after this manner from that Principle of Reason that Nothing comes from Nothing nor goes to Nothing might be further convinced from the testimony of Aristotle writing thus concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ancient Physiologers concluded that because Contraries were made out of one another that therefore they were before one way or other Inexistent Arguing in this manner That if whatsoever be made must needs be made out of Something or out of Nothing and this latter that any thing should be made out of Nothing is Impossible according to the general Consent of all the ancient Physiologers then it follows of Necessity that all Corporeal things are Made or Generated out of things that were really before and Inexistent though by reason of the smallness of their Bulks they were Insensible to us Where Aristotle plainly intimates that all the ancient Philosophers whosoever insisted upon this Principle that Nothing comes from Nothing nor goes to Nothing were one way or other Atomical and did resolve all Corporeal things into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain Moleculae or Corpuscula which by Reason of their smallness were insensible to us that is into Atoms But yet there was a difference between these Atomists forasmuch as Anaxagoras was such an Atomist as did notwithstanding hold Forms and Qualities really distinct from the Mechanical Modifications of Bodies For he not being able as it seems well to understand that other Atomical Physiology of the Ancients that exploding Qualities salved all Corporeal Phaenomena by Mechanism and Phancy and yet acknowledging that that Principle of theirs which they went upon must needs be true That Nothing could of it self come from Nothing nor go to Nothing framed a new kind of Atomology of his own in supposing the whole Corporeal World or Mass of Matter to consist of Similar Atoms that is such as were originally endued with all those different Forms and Qualities that are vulgarly conceived to be in Bodies some Bony some Fleshy some Firie some Watery some White some Black some Bitter some Sweet and the like so that all Bodies whatsoever had some of all sorts of these Atoms which are in a manner Infinite specifically differing from one another in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all things were in every thing mingled together because they saw that every thing was made of every thing but that things seemed to differ from one another and were denominated to be this or that from those Atoms which are most predominant in the Mixture by reason of their Multiplicity Whence he concluded that all the Generations Corruptions and Alterations of Bodies were made by nothing but the Concretions and Secretions of Inexistent and Preexistent Atoms of different Forms and Qualities without the Production of any new Form and Qualitie out of Nothing or the Reduction of any into Nothing This very account Aristotle gives of the Anaxagorean Hypothesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaxagoras seemeth therefore to make Infinite Atoms endued with several Forms and Qualities to be the Elements of Bodies because he supposed that Common opinion of Physiologers to be true that Nothing is Made of Nothing But all the other ancient Physiologers that were before Anaxagoras and likewise those after him who insisting upon the same Principle of Nothing coming from Nothing did not Anaxagorize as Empedocles Democritus and Protagoras must needs make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissimilar Moleculae and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atoms unformed and unqualified otherwise than by Magnitude Figure and Motion to be the Principles of Bodies and cashiering Forms and Qualities as real Entities distinct from the Matter resolve all Corporeal Phaenomena into Mechanism and Phancie Because if no Real Entity can come from Nothing nor go to Nothing then one of these two things is absolutely Necessary that either these Corporeal Forms and Qualities being real Entities distinct from the Matter should exist before Generations and after Corruptions in certain insensible Atoms originally such according to the Anaxagorean Doctrine Or else that they should not be Real Entities distinct from the Matter but only the different Modifications and Mechanisms of it together with different Phancies And thus we have made it evident that the genuine Atomical Physiology did spring originally from this Principle of Reason that no Real Entitie does of it self come from Nothing nor go to Nothing XXIX Now we shall in the next place show how this very same Principle of Reason which induced the Ancients to reject Substantial Forms and Qualities of Bodies and to Physiologize Atomically led them also unavoidably to assert Incorporeal Substances and that the Souls of Men and Animals were such neither Generated nor Corrupted They had argued against Substantial Forms and Qualities as we have shewed in this manner that since the Forms and Qualities of Bodies are supposed by all to be Generated and Corrupted made anew out of Nothing and destroyed to Nothing that therefore they could not be Real Entities distinct from the Substance of Matter but only different Modifications of it in respect of Figure Site and Motion causing different Sensations in us and were all to be resolved into Mechanism and Fancie For as for that Conceit of Anaxagoras of Prae and Post-existent Atoms endued with all those several Forms and Qualities of Bodies Ingenerably and Incorruptibly it was nothing but an Adulteration of the genuine Atomical Philosophy and a mere Dream of his in which very few follow'd him And now they argue contrariwise for the Souls of Men and Animals in this manner Because they are plainly Real Entities distinct from the Substance of Matter and its Modification and Men and Brutes are not mere Machins neither can Life and Cogitation Sense and Consciousness Reason and Understanding Appetite and Will ever result from Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions that therefore they are not Corporeally Generated and Corrupted as the Forms and Qualities of Bodies are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible for a real Entity to be made or Generated from Nothing preexisting Now there is Nothing of Soul and Mind Reason and Understanding nor indeed of Cogitation and Life contained in the Modifications and Mechanism of Bodies and therefore to make Soul and Mind to rise out of Body whensoever a man is generated would be plainly to make a real Entity to come out of Nothing which is impossible I say because the Forms and Qualities of Bodies are Generated and Corrupted Made and Unmade in the ordinary course of Nature therefore they concluded that they were not real Entities distinct from the Substance of Body and its various Modifications but because Soul and Mind is plainly a real Entity distinct from the Substance of Body its Modification and Mechanism that therefore it was not a thing Generated and Corrupted Made and Unmade but such as had a Being of its own a Substantial Thing by
it self Real Entities and Substances are not Generated and Corrupted but only Modifications Wherefore these Ancients apprehended that there was a great difference betwixt the Souls of Men and Animals and the Forms and Qualities of other inanimate Bodies and consequently betwixt their several Productions Forasmuch as in the Generation of Inanimate Bodies there is no new real Entity acquired distinct from the Substance of the thing it self but only a peculiar Modification of it The Form of Stone or of Timber of Blood Flesh and Bone and such other Natural Bodies Generated is no more a distinct Substance or Entity from the Matter than the Form of an House Stool or Table is There is no more new Entity acquired in the Generation of Natural Bodies than there is in the Production of Artificial ones When Water is turn'd into Vapour Candle into Flame Flame into Smoak Grass into Milk Blood and Bones there is no more miraculous Production of Something out of Nothing than when Wool is made into cloth or Flax into Linnen when a rude and Unpolish'd Stone is hewen into a beautiful Statue when Brick Timber and Mortar that lay together before disorderly is brought into the Form of a stately Palace there being Nothing neither in one nor other of these but only a different Disposition and Modification of preexistent Matter Which Matter of the Universe is alwaies Substantially the same and neither more nor less but only Proteanly transformed into different Shapes Thus we see that the Generation of all Inanimate Bodies is nothing but the change of Accidents and Modifications the Substance being really the same both before and after But in the Generations of Men and Animals besides the new disposition of the Parts of Matter and its Organization there is also the Acquisition and Conjunction of another Real Entity or Substance distinct from the Matter which could not be Generated out of it but must needs come into it some other way Though there be no Substantial difference between a Stately House or Palace standing and all the Materials of the same ruinated and demolished but only a difference of Accidents and Modifications yet between a living Man and a dead Carcase there is besides the Accidental Modification of the Body another Substantial difference there being a Substantial Soul and Incorporeal Inhabitant dwelling in the one and acting of it which the other is now deserted of And it is very observable that Anaxagoras himself who made Bony and Fleshy Atoms Hot and Cold Red and Green and the like which he supposed to exist before Generations and after Corruptions alwaies immutably the same that so Nothing might come from Nothing and go to Nothing yet he did not make any Animalish Atoms Sensitive and Rational The Reason whereof could not be because he did not think Sense and Understanding to be as Real Entities as Hot and Cold Red and Green but because they could not be supposed to be Corporeal Forms and Qualities but must needs belong to another Substance that was Incorporeal And therefore Anaxagoras could not but acknowledge that all Souls and Lives did Prae and Post-exist by themselves as well as those Corporeal Forms and Qualities in his Similar Atoms XXX And now it is already manifest that from the same Principle of Reason before mentioned That Nothing of it self can come from Nothing nor go to Nothing the Ancient Philosophers were induced likewise to assert the Soul's Immortality together with its Incorporeity or Distinctness from the Body No substantial Entity ever vanisheth of it self into Nothing for if it did then in length of time all might come to be Nothing But the Soul is a Substantial Entity Really distinct from the body and not the mere Modification of it and therefore when a Man dies his Soul must still remain and continue to have a Being somewhere else in the Universe All the Changes that are in Nature are either Accidental Transformations and different Modifications of the same Substance or else they are Conjunctions and Separations or Anagrammatical Transpositions of things in the Universe the Substance of the whole remaining alwaies entirely the same The Generation and Corruption of Inanimate Bodies is but like the making of a House Stool or Table and the Unmaking or Marring of them again either different Modifications of one and the same Substance or else divers Mixtures and Separations Concretions and Secretions And the Generation and Corruption of Animals is likewise nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Conjunction of Souls together with such Particular Bodies and the Separation of them again from one another and so as it were the Anagrammatical Transposition of them in the Universe That Soul and Life that is now fled and gone from a lifeless Carcase is only a loss to that particular Body or Compages of Matter which by means thereof is now disanimated but it is no loss to the whole it being but Transposed in the Universe and lodged somewhere else XXXI It is also further evident that this same Principle which thus led the Ancients to hold the Souls Immortality or its Future Permanency after Death must needs determine them likewise to maintain its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Preexistence and consequently its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration For that which did preexist before the Generation of any Animal and was then somewhere else must needs Transmigrate into the Body of that Animal where now it is But as for that other Transmigration of Human Souls into the Bodies of Brutes though it cannot be denied but that many of these Ancients admitted it also yet Timaeus Locrus and divers others of the Pythagoreans rejected it any otherwise than as it might be taken for an Allegorical Description of that Beastly Transformation that is made of Mens Souls by Vice Aristotle tells us again agreeably to what was declared before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Ancient Philosophers were afraid of Nothing more than this one thing that any thing should be made out of Nothing Preexistent And therefore they must needs conclude that the Souls of all Animals Preexisted before their Generations And indeed it is a thing very well known that according to the Sence of Philosophers these two things were alwaies included together in that one opinion of the Soul's Immortality namely its Preexistence as well as its Postexistence Neither was there ever any of the Ancients before Christianity that held the Souls future Permanency after Death who did not likewise assert its Preexistence they clearly perceiving that if it were once granted that the Soul was Generated it could never be proved but that it might be also Corrupted And therefore the Assertors of the Souls Immortality commonly begun here first to prove its Pre-existence proceeding thence afterward to establish its Permanency after Death This is the Method used in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul was somewhere before it came to exist in this present Humane Form and from thence it appears to
the Rational Soul the Incorporeity of any Substance and by consequence the Existence of any Deity distinct from the Corporeal World And as for that Pretence of theirs that Senseless Matter may as well become Sensitive and as it were kindled into Life and Cogitation as a Body that was devoid of Light and Heat may be Kindled into Fire and Flame this seems to argue too much Ignorance of the Doctrine of Bodies in men otherwise Learned and Ingenious The best Naturalists having already concluded That Fire and Flame is nothing but such a Motion of the Insensible Parts of a Body as whereby they are violently agitated and many times dissipated and scattered from each other begetting in the mean time tâ—â—se Phancies of Light and Heat in Animals Now there is no difficulty at all in conceiving that the Insensible Particles of a Body which were before quiescent may be put into Motion this being nothing but a New Modification of them and no Entity reâ—lly distinct from the Substance of Body as Life Sense and Cogitation are There is nothing in Fire and Flame or a Kindled Body different from other Bodies but only the Motion or Mechanism and Phancie of it And therefore it is but a crude conceit which the Atheists and Corporealists of former times have been always so fond of That Souls are nothing but Firie or Flammeous Bodies For though Heat in the Bodies of Animals be a Necessary Instrument for Soul and Life to act by in them yet it is a thing really distinct from Life and a Red hot Iron hath not therefore any nearer approximation to Life than it had before nor the Flame of a Candle than the extinguisht Snuff or Tallow of it the difference between them being only in the Agitation of the Insensible Parts We might also add that according to this Hypothesis the Souls of Animals could not be Numerically the same throughout the whole space of their Lives Since that Fire that needs a Pabulum to prey upon doth not continue alwaies one and the same Numerical Substance The Soul of a new born Animal could be no more the same with the Soul of that Animal several years after than the Flame of a new lighted Candle is the same with that Flame that twinkles last in the Socket Which indeed are no more the same than a River or Stream is the same at several distances of time Which Reason may be also extended further to prove the Soul to be no Body at all since the Bodies of all Animals are in a perpetual Flux XXXVIII We have now sufficiently performed our first Task which was to show from the Origin of the Atomical Physiology that the Doctrine of Incorporeal Substance must needs spring up together with it We shall in the next place make it manifest that the Inward Constitution of this Philosophy is also such that whosoever really entertains it and rightly understands it must of necessity admit Incorporeal Substance likewise First therefore the Atomical Hypothesis allowing nothing to Body but what is either included in the Idaea of a thing Impenetrably extended or can clearly be conceived to be a Mode of it as more or less Magnitude with Divisibility Figure Site Motion and Rest together with the Results of their several Combinations cannot possibly make Life and Cogitation to be Qualities of Body since they are neither contained in those things before mentioned nor can result from any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conjugations of them Wherefore it must needs be granted that Life and Cogitation are the Attributes of another Substance distinct from Body or Incorporeal Again since according to the Tenour of this Physiology Body hath no other Action belonging to it but that of Local Motion which Local Motion as such is Essentially Heterokinesie that which never springs originally from the thing it self moving but alwaies from the Action of some other Agent upon it That is since no Body could ever move it self it follows undeniably that there must be something else in the World besides Body or else there could never have been any Motion in it Of which we shall speak more afterwards Moreover according to this Philosophy the Corporeal Phaenomena themselves cannot be salved by Mechanism alone without Phancie Now Phancie is no Mode of Body and therefore must needs be a Mode of some other kind of Being in our selves that is Cogitative and Incorporeal Furthermore it is evident from the Principles of this Philosophy that Sense it self is not a mere Corporeal Passion from Bodies without in that it supposeth that there is nothing really in Bodies like to those Phantastick Idaea's that we have of Sensible things as of Hot and Cold Red and Green Bitter and Sweet and the like which therefore must needs owe their Being to some Activity of the Soul it self and this is all one as to make it Incorporeal Lastly from this Philosophy it is also manifest that Sense is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Truth concerning Bodies themselves it confidently pronouncing that those supposed Qualities of Bodies represented such by Sense are merely Phantastical things from whence it plainly follows that there is something in us superiour to Sense which judges of it detects its Phantastry and condemns its Imposture and determines what really is and is not in Bodies without us which must needs be a higher Self-active Vigour of the Mind that will plainly speak it to be Incorporeal XXXIX And now this Atomical Physiology of the Ancients seems to have two Advantages or Preeminences belonging to it the first whereof is this That it renders the Corporeal World Intelligible to us since Mechanism is a thing that we can clearly understand and we cannot clearly and distinctly conceive any thing in Bodies else To say that this or that is done by a Form or Quality is nothing else but to say that it is done we know not how or which is yet more absurd to make our very Ignorance of the Cause disguised under those Terms of Forms and Qualities to be it self the Cause of the Effect Moreover Hot and Cold Red and Green Bitter and Sweet c. formally considered may be clearly conceived by us as different Phancies and Vital Passions in us occasioned by different Motions made from the objects without upon our Nerves but they can never be clearly understood as absolute Qualities in the Bodies themselves really distinct from their Mechanical Dispositions nor is there indeed any more reason why they should be thought such than that when a Man is pricked with a Pin or wounded with a Sword the Pain which he feels should be thought to be an Absolute Qualitie in the Pin or Sword So long as our Sensible Idaea's are taken either for Substantial Forms or Qualities in Bodies without us really distinct from the Substance of the Matter so long are they perfectly unintelligible by us For which Cause Timaeus Locrus Philosophizing as it seemeth after this manner did consentaneously thereunto determine
it the greatest Impudence or Madness for men to assert that Animals also consisted of mere Mechanism or that Life and Sense Reason and Understanding were really nothing else but Local Motion and consequently that themselves were but Machins and Automata Wherefore they joyned both Active and Passive Principles together the Corporeal and Incorporeal Nature Mechanism and Life Atomology and Pneumatology and from both these united they made up one entire System of Philosophy correspondent with and agreeable to the true and real World without them And this System of Philosophy thus consisting of the Doctrine of Incorporeal Substance whereof God is the Head together with the Atomical and Mechanical Physiology seems to have been the only Genuine Perfect and Complete XLII But it did not long continue thus for after a while this entire Body of Philosophy came to be Mangled and Dismembred some taking one Part of it alone and some another some snatching away the Atomical Physiology without the Pneumatology and Theology and others on the contrary taking the Theology and Doctrine of Incorporeals without the Atomical or Mechanical Physiology The former of these were Democritus Leucippus and Protagoras who took only the dead Carcase or Skeleton of the old Moschical Philosophy namely the Atomical Physiology the latter Plato and Aristotle who took indeed the better Part the Soul Spirit and Quintessence of it the Theology and Doctrine of Incorporeals but Unbodied and Devested of its most Proper and convenient Vehicle the Atomical Physiology whereby it became exposed to sundry Inconveniences XLIII We begin with Leucippus and Democritus Who being Atheistically inclined quickly perceived that they could not in the ordinary way of Physiologizing sufficiently secure themselves against a Deity nor effectually urge Atheism upon others forasmuch as Heraclitus and other Philosophers who held that all Substance was Body as well as themselves did notwithstanding assert a Corporeal Deity maintaining that the Form of the whole Corporeal World was God or else that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain kind of Body or Matter as for Example a Methodical and Rational Fire pervading as a Soul the whole Universe the particular Souls of men and Animals being but as it were so many pieces cut and sliced out of the great Mundane Soul so that according to them the whole Corporeal Universe or Mass of Body was one way or other a God a most Wise and Understanding Animal that did frame all Particularities within it self in the best manner possible and providently govern the same Wherefore those Atheists now apprehending upon what ticklish and uncertain Terms their Atheistical Philosophy then stood and how that those very Forms and Qualities and the Self-moving power of Body which were commonly made a Sanctuary for Atheism might notwithstanding chance to prove contrariwise the Latibulum and Asylum of a Deity and that a Corporeal God do what they could might lie lurking under them assaulting mens minds with doubtful Fears and Jealousies Understanding moreover that there was another kind of Physiology set on foot which banishing those Forms and Qualities of Body attributed nothing to it but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion without any Self-moving Power they seemed presently to apprehend some great Advantage to themselves and Cause from it and therefore greedily entertained this Atomical or Mechanical Physiology and violently cutting it off from that other part the Doctrine of Incorporeals which it was Naturally and Vitally united to endeavoured to serve their turns of it And now joining these two things together the Atomical Physiology which supposes that there is nothing in body but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion and that Prejudice or Prepossession of their own Minds that there was no other Substance in the World besides Body between them both they begat a certain Mongrel and Spurious Philosophy Atheistically-Atomical or Atomically-Atheistical But though we have so well proved that Leucippus and Democritus were not the first Inventors but only the Depravers and Adulterators of the Atomical Philosophy yet if any will notwithstanding obstinately contend that the first Invention thereof ought to be imputed to them the very Principles of their Atheism seeming to lead them naturally to this to strip and devest Body of all those Forms and Qualities it being otherwise Impossible for them surely and safely to exclude a Corporeal Deity yet so as that the Wit of these Atheists was also much to be admired in the managing and carrying on of those Principles in such a manner as to make up so Entire a System of Philosophy out of them all whose parts should be so coherent and consistent together We shall only say thus much That if those Atheists were the first Inventors of this Philosophy they were certainly very unhappy and unsuccessful in it whilst endeavouring by it to secure themselves from the Possibility and Danger of a Corporeal God they unawares laid a Foundation for the clear Demonstration of an Incorporeal one and were indeed so far from making up any such coherent Frame as is pretended that they were forced every where to contradict their own Principles so that Non-sence lies at the bottom of all and is interwoven throughout their whole Atheistical System And that we ought to take notice of the invincible power and Force of Truth prevailing irresistibly against all Endeavours to oppress it and how desperate the Cause of Atheism is when that very Atomical Hypothesis of theirs which they would erect and build up for a strong Castle to garrison themselves in proves a most Effectual Engine against themselves for the battering of all their Atheistical Structure down about their Ears XLIV Plato's Mutilation and Interpolation of the old Moschical Philosophy was a great deal more excusable when he took the Theology and Metaphysicks of it the whole Doctrine of Incorporeals and abandoned the Atomical or Mechanical way of Physiologizing Which in all Probability he did partly because those forementioned Atheists having so much abused that Philosophy adopting it as it were to themselves he thereupon began to entertain a Jealousie and Suspicion of it and partly because he was not of himself so inclinable to Physiology as Theology to the study of Corporeal as of Divine things which some think to be the reason why he did not attend to the Pythagorick System of the Corporeal World till late in his old Age. His Genius was such that he was Naturally more addicted to Idaea's than to Atoms to Formal and Final than to Material Causes To which may be added that the way of Physiologizing by Matter Forms and Qualities is a more Huffie and Phanciful thing than the other and lastly that the Atomical Physiology is more remote from Sense and vulgar Apprehension and therefore not so easily understood For which cause many learned Greeks of later times though they had read Epicurus his Works and perhaps Democritus his too yet they were not able to conceive how the Corporeal and Sensible Phaenomena could possibly be salved without
World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicurus according to Vulgar Opinion leaves a God but according to the Nature of things none at all And as Epicurus so other Atheists in like manner have commonly had their Vizards and Disguises Atheism for the most part prudenly chusing to walk abroad in Masquerade And though some over-credulous Persons have been so far imposed upon hereby as to conclude that there was hardly any such thing as an Atheist any where in the World yet they that are Sagacious may easily look through these thin Veils and Disguises and perceive these Atheists oftentimes insinuating their Atheism even then when they most of all profess themselves Theists by affirming that it is impossible to have any Idaea or Conception at all of God and that as he is not Finite so he cannot be Infinite and that no Knowledge or Understanding is to be attributed to him which is in effect to say that there is no such thing But whosoever entertains the Democritick Principles that is both rejects Forms and Qualities of Body and makes all things to be Body though he pretend never so much to hold a Corporeal Deity yet he is not at all to be believed in it it being a thing plainly Contradictious to those Principles III. Wherefore this Mongrel Philosophy which Leucippus Democritus and Protagoras were the Founders of and which was entertained afterwards by Epicurus that makes as Laertius writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sensless Atoms to be the first Principles not only of all Bodies for that was a thing admitted before by Empedocles and other Atomists that were Theists but also of All things whatsoever in the whole Universe and therefore of Soul and Mind too this I say was really nothing else but a Philosophical Form of Atheology a Gigantical and Titanical Attempt to dethrone the Deity not only by Salving all the Phaenomena of the World without a God but also by laying down such Principles from whence it must needs follow that there could be neither an Incorporeal nor Corporeal Deity It was Atheism openly Swaggering under the glorious Appearance of Wisdom and Philosophy There is indeed another Form of Atheism which insisting on the Vulgar way of Philosophizing by Forms and Qualities we for distinction sake shall call Stratonical such as being too modest and shame-faced to fetch all things from the Fortuitous Motion of Atoms would therefore allow to the several Parts of Matter a certain Kind of Natural though not Animal Perception such as is devoid of Reflexive Consciousness together with a Plastick power whereby they may be able Artificially and Methodically to Form and Frame themselves to the best advantage of their Respective Capabilities something like to Aristotle's Nature but that it hath no dependence at all upon any higher Mind or Deity And these Atheists may be also called Hylozoick as the other Atomick because they derive all things in the whole Universe not only Sensitive but also Rational Souls together with the Artificial Frame of Animals from the Life of the Matter But this kind of Atheism seems to be but an unshapen Embryo of some Dark and Cloudy Brains that was never yet digested into an entire System nor could be brought into any such tolerable Form as to have the confidence to shew it self abroad in full and open View But the Democritik and Atomick Atheism as it is the boldest and rankest of all Atheisms it not only undertaking to salve all Phaenomena by Matter Fortuitously moved without a God but also to demonmonstrate that there cannot be so much as a Corporeal Deity so it is that alone which pretending to an entire and coherent System hath publickly appeared upon the Stage and therefore doth in a manner only deserve our Consideration And now we shall exhibit a full View and Prospect of it and discover all its Dark Mysteries and Profundities we being much of this Perswasion that a plain and naked Representation of them will be a great part of a Confutation at least not doubting but it will be made to appear that though this Monster big-swoln with a Puffy shew of Wisdom strutt and stalk so Gigantically and march with such a kind of stately Philosophick Grandeur yet it is indeed but like the Giant Orgoglio in our English Poet a mere Empty Bladder blown up with vain Conceit an Empusa Phantasm or Spectre the Off-spring of Night and Darkness Non-sence and Contradiction And yet for all that we shall not wrong it the least in our Representation but give it all possible Advantages of Strength and Plausibility that so the Atheists may have no Cause to pretend as they are wont to do in such Cases that either we did not understand their Mysteries nor apprehend the full strength of their Cause or else did purposely smother and conceal it Which indeed we have been so far from that we must confess we were not altogether unwilling this business of theirs should look a little like something that might deserve a Confutation And whether the Atheists ought not rather to give us Thanks for Mending and Improving their Arguments then complain that we have any way Empaired them we shall leave it to the Censure of impartial Judgments IV. Plato tells us that even amongst those Pagans in his time there was generally such a Religious Humor that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever had but the least of Seriousness and Sobriety in them whensoever they took in hand any Enterprize whether great or small they would always invoke the Deity for Assistance and Direction Adding moreover that himself should be very faulty if in his Timaeus when he was to treat about so grand a point concerning the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it were made or unmade he should not make his Entrance thereinto by a Religious Invocation of the Deity Wherefore certainly it could not be less than a piece of Impiety in a Christian being to treat concerning the Deity it self and to produce all that Prophane and Unhallowed stuff of Atheists out of their Dark Corners in order to a Confutation and the better Confirmation of our Faith in the Truth of his Existence not to implore his Direction and Assistance And I know no Reason but that we may well do it in that same Litany of Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we may first speak agreeably to his own mind or becomingly of his Nature and then consentaneously with our Selves V. Now there are these two things here to be performed by us First to discover and produce the Chief Heads of Arguments or Grounds of Reason insisted on by the Atheists to disprove a Deity evincing withall briefly the Ineffectualness and Falsness of them And Secondly to shew how they Endeavour either to Confute or Salve consistently with their own Principles all those Phaenomenae which are commonly urg'd against them to prove a Deity and Incorporeal Substance manifesting likewise the Invalidity thereof The grounds of Reason alledged for the Atheistical Hypothesis
Cogitantis It is a great Abuse that some Metaphysicians make of these Abstract Names because Cogitation can be considered alone without the consideration of Body therefore to conclude that it is not the Action or Accident of that Body that thinks but a Substance by it self And the same Writer elsewhere observes That it is upon this Ground that when a Man is dead and buried they say his Soul that is his Life can walk separated from his Body and is seen by night amongst the Graves By which means the Vulgar are confirmed in their Superstitious Belief of Ghosts Spirits Daemons Devils Fayries and Hob-goblins Invisible Powers and Agents called by several Names and that by those Persons whose work it ought to be rather to free men from such Superstition Which Belief at first had another Original not altogether unlike the former Namely from mens mistaking their own Phancies for Things Really existing without them For as in the sense of Vision men are commonly deceived in supposing the Image behind the Glass to be a Real thing existing without themselves whereas it is indeed nothing but their own Phancy In like manner when the Minds of Men strongly possess'd with Fear especially in the Dark raise up the Phantasms of Spectres Bug-bears or Affrightful Apparitions to them they think them to be Objects really existing without them and call them Ghosts and Spirits whilst they are indeed nothing but their own Phancies So the Phantasm or Phancy of a Deity which is indeed the Chief of all Spectres created by Fear has upon no other Accompt been taken for a Reality To this purpose a Modern Writer From the Fear that proceeds from the Ignorance it self of what it is that hath the Power to do men Good or Harm men are inclined to suppose and Feign to themselves several kinds of Powers Invisible and to stand in awe of their own Imaginations and in time of Distress to invoke them as also in the time of an expected good Success to give them thanks making the Creatures of their own Fancies their Gods Which though it be prudently spoken in the Plural Number that so it might be diverted and put off to the Heathen Gods yet he is very simple that does not perceive the reason of it to be the same concerning that one Deity which is now commonly worshipped and that therefore this also is but the Creature of Mens Fear and Phancie the Chief of all Phantastick Ghosts and Spectres as it were an Oberon or Prince of Fayries and Phancies This we say was the first Original of that Vulgar Belief of Invisible Powers Ghosts and Gods mens taking their own Phancies for Things really Existing without them And as for the Matter and Substance of these Ghosts they could not by their own natural Cogitation fall into any other Conceit but that it was the same with that which appeareth in a Dream to one that sleepeth or in a Looking-glass to one that is awake Thin Aerial Bodies which may appear and vanish when they please But the Opinion that such Spirits were Incorporeal and Immaterial could never enter into the minds of men by Nature Unabused by Doctrine but it sprung up from those deceiving and deceived Literati Scholasticks Philosophers and Theologers enchanting mens Understandings and making them believe that the Abstract Notions of Accidents and Essences could exist alone by themselves without the Bodies as certain Separate and Incorporeal Substances To Conclude therefore To make an Incorporeal Mind to be the Cause of all things is to make our own Phancie an Imaginary Ghost of the World to be a Reality and to suppose the mere Abstract Notion of an Accident and a Separate Essence to be not only an Absolute thing by it self and a Real Substance Incorporeal but also the first Original of all Substances and of whatsoever is in the Universe And this may be reckon'd for a Fourth Atheistick Ground IX Fifthly the Atheists pretend further to prove that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body as also from the Principles of Corporealism it self to evince that there can be no Corporeal Deity after this manner No man can devise any other Notion of Substance than that it is a thing Extended existing without the Mind not Imaginary but Real and Solid Magnitude For whatsoever is not Extended is Nowhere and Nothing So that Res Extensa is the only Substance the solid Basis and Substratum of all Now this is the very self-same thing with Body For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Resistence seems to be a necessary Consequence and Result from Extension and they that think otherwise can show no reason why Bodies may not also penetrate one another as some Corporealists think they do From whence it is inferred that Body or Matter is the only Substance of all things And whatsoever else is in the World that is all the Differences of Bodies are nothing but several Accidents and Modifications of this Extended Substance Body or Matter Which Accidents though they may be sometimes call'd by the names of Real Qualities and Forms and though there be different apprehensions concerning them amongst Philosophers yet generally they agree in this that there are these two Properties belonging to them First that none of them can subsist alone by themselves without Extended Substance or Matter as the Basis and Support of them And Secondly that they may be all destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance Now as Blackness and Whiteness Heat and Cold so likewise Life Sense and Understanding are such Accidents Modifications or Qualities of Body that can neither exist by themselves and may be destroyed without the Destruction of any Substance or Matter For if the Parts of the Body of any Living Animal be disunited and separated from one another or the Organical Disposition of the Matter alter'd those Accidents Forms or Qualities of Life and Understanding will presently vanish away to Nothings all the Substance of the Matter still remaining one where or other in the Universe entire and Nothing of it lost Wherefore the Substance of Matter and Body as distinguished from the Accidents is the only thing in the world that is Uncorruptible and Undestroyable And of this it is to be understood that Nothing can be made out of Nothing and Destroyed to Nothing i. e. that every entire thing that is Made or Generated must be made of some preexistent Matter which Matter was from Eternity Self-existent and Unmade and is also undestroyable and can never be reduc'd to Nothing It is not to be understood of the Accidents themselves that are all Makeable and Destroyable Generable and Corruptible Whatsoever is in the World is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter so and so Modified or Qualified all which Modifications and Qualifications of Matter are in their own nature Destroyable and the Matter it self as the Basis of them not necessarily determin'd to this or that Accident is the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Necessarily
Existent The Conclusion therefore is that no Animal no Living Understanding Body can be Absolutely and Essentially Incorruptible this being an Incommunicable Property of the Matter and therefore there can can be no Corporeal Deity the Original of all things Essentially Undestroyable Though the Stoicks imagined the whole Corporeal Universe to be an Animal or Deity yet this Corporeal God of theirs was only by Accident Incorruptible and Immortal because they supposed that there was no other Matter which existing without this World and making Inrodes upon it could disunite the Parts of it or disorder its Compages Which if there were the Life and Understanding of this Stoical God or great Mundane Animal as well as that of other Animals in like Cases must needs vanish into nothing Thus from the Principles of Corporealism it self it plainly follows that there can be no Corporeal Deity because the Deity is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing that was never made and is Essentially Undestroyable which are the Privileges and Properties of nothing but Senseless Matter X. In the next place the Atheists undertake more effectually to confute that Corporeal God of the Stoicks and others from the Principles of the Atomical Philosophy in this manner All Corporeal Theists who assert that an Understanding Nature or Mind residing in the Matter of the whole Universe was the first Original of the Mundane System and did Intellectually frame it betray no small Ignorance of Philosophy and the Nature of Body in supposing Real Qualities besides Magnitude Figure Site and Motion as Simple and Primitive things to belong to it and that there was such a Quality or Faculty of Understanding in the Matter of the whole Universe coeternal with the same that was an Original thing Uncompounded and Underived from any thing else Now to suppose such Original Qualities and Powers which are Really Distinct from the Substance of Extended Matter and its Modifications of Divisibility Figure Site and Motion is Really to suppose so many Distinct Substances which therefore must needs be Incorporeal So that these Philosophers fall unawares into that very thing which they are so abhorrent from For this Quality or Faculty of Understanding in the Matter of the Universe Original and underiv'd from any other thing can be indeed nothing else but an Incorporeal Substance Epicurus suggested a Caution against this Vulgar Mistake concerning Qualities to this purpose Non sic cogitandae sunt Qualitates quasi sint quaedam per se existentes Naturae seu Substantiae siquidem id mente assequi non licet sed solummodo ut varii modi sese habendi Corporis considerandae sunt Body as such hath nothing else belonging to the Nature of it but what is included in the Idaea of Extended Substance Divisibility Figure Site Motion or Rest and the Results from the various Compositions of them causing different Phancies Wherefore as vulgar Philosophers make their first Matter which they cannot well tell what they mean by it because it receives all Qualities to be it self devoid of all Quality So we conclude that Atoms which are really the first Principles of all things have none of those Qualities in them which belong to compounded Bodies they are not absolutely of themselves Black or White Hot or Cold Moist or dry Bitter or Sweet all these things arising up afterwards from the various Aggregations and Contextures of them together with different Motions Which Lucretius confirms by this reason agreeable to the Tenour of the Atomical Philosophy That if there were any such Real Qualities in the first Principles then in the various Corruptions of Nature things would at last be all reduc'd to Nothing Immutabile enim quiddam superare necesse est Nè res ad Nihilum redigantur funditùs omnes Proinde Colore cave contingas semina rerum Nè tibi res redeant ad Nilum funditùs omnes Wherefore he concludes that it must not be thought that White things are made out of White Principles nor Black things out of Black Principles Nè ex Albis Alba rearis Principiis esse Aut ea quae nigrant nigro de semine nata Neve alium quemvis quaesunt induta colorem Proptereà gerere hunc credas quòd materiaï Corpora consimuli sint ejus tincta colore Nullus enim Color est omnino materiaï Corporibus neque par rebus neque denique dispar Adding that the same is to be resolved likewise concerning all other Sensible Qualities as well as Colours Sed nè fortè putes solospoliata colore Corpora prima manere etiam secreta Teporis Sunt ac Frigoris omnino CalidÃque Vaporis Et sonitu sterila Succo jejuna feruntur Nec jaciunt ullum proprio de corpore Odorem Lastly he tells us in like manner that the same is to be understood also concerning Life Sense and Understanding that there are no such simple Qualities or Natures in the first Principles out of which Animals are compounded but that these are in themselves altogether devoid of Life Sense and Understanding Nunc ea quae Sentire videmus cunque necesse ' st Ex Insensilibus tamen omnia confiteare Principiis constare neque id manifesta refutant Sed magìs ipsa manu ducunt credere cogunt Ex insensilibus quod dico Animalia gigni Quippe videre licet vivos existere vermes Stercore de tetro putrorem cum sibi nacta ' st Intempestivis ex imbribus humida tellus All Sensitive and Rational Animals are made of Irrational and Senseless Principles which is proved by Experience in that we see Worms are made out of putrified Dung moistned with immoderate Showers Some indeed who are no greater Friends to a Deity than our selves will needs have that Sense and Understanding that is in Animals and Men to be derived from an Antecedent Life and Understanding in the Matter But this cannot be because if Matter as such had Life and Understanding in it then every Atom of Matter must needs be a Distinct Percipient Animal and Intelligent Person by it self and it would be impossible for any such Men and Animals as now are to be compounded out of them because every Man would be Variorum Animalculorum Acervus a Heap of Innumerable Animals and Percipients Wherefore as all the other Qualities of Bodies so likewise Life Sense and Understanding arise from the different Contextures of Atoms devoid of all those Qualities or from the Composition of those simple Elements of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions in the same manner as from a few Letters variously compounded all that Infinite Variety of Syllables and Words is made Quin etiam refert nostris in versibus ipsis Cum quibus quali Positurâ contineantur Namque eadem Coelum Mare Terras Flumina Solem Significant eadem fruges arbusta animantes Sic ipsis in rebus item jam materiaï Intervalla viae connexus pondera plagae Concursus motus ordo Positura Figurae Cùm permutantur mutari res quoque
debent From the Fortuitous Concretions of Senseless Vnknowing Atoms did rise up afterwards in certain parts of the World called Animals Soul and Mind Sense and Vnderstanding Counsel and Wisdom But to think that there was any Animalish Nature before all these Animals or that there was an antecedent Mind and Understanding Counsel and Wisdom by which all Animals themselves together with the whole World were made and contrived is either to run round in a Senseless Circle making Animals and Animality to be before one another infinitely or else to suppose an impossible Beginning of an Original Understanding Quality in the Matter Atoms in their first Coalitions together when the World was a making were not then directed by any previous Counsel or preventive Understanding which were things as yet Unborn and Unmade Nam certè neque consilio Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locârunt Nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profectó Mind and Understanding Counsel and Wisdom did not lay the Foundations of the Universe they are no Archical things that is they have not the Nature of a Principle in them they are not Simple Original Primitive and Primordial but as all other Qualities of Bodies Secundary Compounded and Derivative and therefore they could not be Architectonical of the World Mind and Vnderstanding is no God but the Creature of Matter and Motion The sence of this whole Argument is briefly this The first Principle of all things in the whole Universe is Matter or Atoms devoid of all Qualities and consequently of all Life Sense and Understanding and therefore the Original of things is no Understanding Nature or Deity XI Seventhly The Democritick Atheists argue further after this manner They who assert a Deity suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole World to be Animated that is to have a Living Rational and Understanding Nature presiding over it Now it is already evident from some of the premised Arguments that the World cannot be Animated in the sence of Platonists that is with an Incorporeal Soul which is in order of Nature before Body it being proved already that there can be no Substance Incorporeal as likewise that it cannot be Animated neither in the Stoical sence so as to have an Original Quality of Understanding or Mind in the Matter But yet nevertheless some may possibly imagine that as in our selves and other Animals though compounded of Sensless Atoms there is a Soul and Mind resulting from the Contexture of them which being once made domineers over the Body governing and ordering it at pleasure so there may be likewise such a Living Soul and Mind not only in the Stars which many have supposed to be lesser Deities and in the Sun which has been reputed a principal Deity but also in the whole Mundane System made up of Earth Seas Air Ether Sun Moon and Starrs all together one General Soul and Mind which though resulting at first from the Fortuitous Motion of Matter yet being once produced may rule govern and sway the Whole Understandingly and in a more perfect manner than our Souls do our Bodies and so long as it continues exercise a Principality and Dominion over it Which although it will not amount to the full Notion of a God according to the strict sence of Theists yet it will approach very near unto it and indanger the bringing in of all the same Inconveniences along with it Wherefore they will now prove that there is no such Soul or Mind as this resulting from the Contexture of Atoms that presides over the Corporeal Universe that so there may not be so much as the Shadow of a Deity left It was observed before that Life Sense Reason and Understanding are but Qualities of Concreted Bodies like those other Qualities of Heat and Cold c. arising from certain particular Textures of Atoms Now as those first Principles of Bodies namely single Atoms have none of those Qualities in them so neither hath the whole Universe any that it can be denominated from but only the Parts of it The whole World is neither Black nor White Hot nor Cold Pellucid nor Opake it containing all those Qualities in its several Parts In like manner the whole has no Life Sense nor Understanding in it but only the parts of it which are called Animals That is Life and Sense are qualities that arise only from such a Texture of Atoms as produceth soft Flesh Blood and Brains in Bodies organized with Head Heart Bowels Nerves Muscles Veins Arteries and the like Sensus jungitur omnis Visceribus Nervis Venis quaecunque videmus Mollia mortali consistere Corpore creta And Reason and Understanding properly so called are peculiar Appendices to humane Shape Ratio nusquam esse potest nisi in hominis figura From whence it is concluded that there is no Life Soul nor Understanding acting the whole World because the World hath no Blood nor Brains nor any Animalish or Humane Form Qui Mundum ipsum Animantem sapientemque esse dixerunt nullo modo viderunt Animi Naturam in quam Figuram cadere posset Therefore the Epicurean Poet concludes upon this Ground that there is no Divine Sense in the whole World Dispositum videtur ubi esse crescere possit Seorsim Anima atque Animus tanto magis inficiandum Totum posse extra Corpus Formámque Animalem Putribus in glebis terrarum aut Solis in Igni Aut in Aqua durare aut altis Aetheris oris Haud igitur constant Divino praedita Sensu Quandoquidem nequeunt vitaliter esse Animata Now if there be no Life nor Understanding above us nor round about us nor any where else in the World but only in our selves and Fellow-Animals and we be the highest of all Beings if neither the whole Corporeal System be Animated nor those greater parts of it Sun Moon nor Stars then there can be no danger of any Deity XII Eighthly the Democritick Atheists dispute further against a Deity in this manner The Deity is generally supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perfectly Happy Animal Incorruptible and Immortal Now there is no Living Being Incorruptible and Immortal and therefore none perfectly Happy neither For according to that Democritick Hypothesis of Atoms in Vacuity the only Incorruptible things will be These three First of all Vacuum or Empty Space which must needs be such because it cannot suffer from any thing since it is plagarum expers Et manet intactum nec ab ictu fungitur hilum Secondly the Single Atoms because by reason of their Parvitude and Solidity they are Indivisible And lastly the Summa Summarum of all things that is the Comprehension of all Atoms dispersed every where throughout Infinite Space Quia nulla loci stat copia certum Quò quasi res possint discedere dissolüique But according to that other Hypothesis of some modern Atomists which also was entertained of old by Empedocles that supposes a Plenity there is nothing
Generable and Corruptible 10. That the Doctrine of these Materialists will be more fully understood from the Exceptions which Aristotle maâ—es against them His first Exception That they assigned no Cause of Motion but introduced it into the World unaccomptibly 11. Aristotle's second Exception That these Materialists did assign no Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Well and Fit and give no accompt of the Orderly Regularity of things That Anaxagoras was the first Ionick Philosopher who made Mind and Good a Principle of the Vniverse 12. Concluded That Aristotle's Materialists were downright Atheists not merely because they held all Substance to be Body since Heraclitus and Zeno did the like and yet are not therefore accompted Atheists they supposing their Fiery Matter to be Originally Intellectual and the whole World to be an Animal but because these made Stupid Matter devoid of all Vnderstanding and Life to be the only Principle 13. As also because they supposed every thing besides the Substance of Matter Life and Vnderstanding and all Particular Beings to be Generable and Corruptible and consequently that there could be no other God then such as was Native and Mortal That those ancient Theologers who were Theogonists and Generated all the Gods out of Night and Chaos were only Verbal Theists but Real Atheists Sensless Matter being to them the highest Numen 14. The great difference observed betwixt Aristotle's Atheistical Materialists and the Italick Philosophers the former determining all things besides the Substance of Matter to be Made or Generated the latter that no Real Entity was either Generated or Corrupted thereupon both destroying Qualities and Forms of Body and asserting the Ingenerability and Incorporeity of Souls 15. How Aristotle's Atheistick Materialists endeavoured to baffle and elude that Axiom of the Italick Philosophers That Nothing can come from Nothing nor go to Nothing And that Anaxagoras was the first amongst the Ionicks who yielded so far to that Principle as from thence to assert Incorporeal Substance and the Pre-existence of Qualities and Forms in Similar Atoms forasmuch as he conceived them to be things really distinct from the Substance of Matter 16. The Error of some Writers who because Aristotle affirms that the Ancient Philosophers did generally conclude the World to have been Made from thence infer that they were all Theists and that Aristotle contradicts himself in representing many of them as Atheists That the Ancient Atheists did generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assert the World to have been Made or have had a Beginning as also some Theists did maintain its Eternity but in a way of Dependency upon the Deity That we ought here to distinguish betwixt the System of the World and the Substance of the Matter all Atheists asserting the Matter to have been not only Eternal but also such Independently upon any other Being 17. That Plato and others concluded this Materialism or Hylopathian Atheism to have been at least as old as Homer who made the Ocean or fluid Matter the Father of all the Gods And that this was indeed the Ancientest of all Atheisms which verbally acknowledging Gods yet derived the Original of them all from Night and Chaos The description of this Atheistick Hypothesis in Aristophanes That Night and Chaos first laid an Egg out of which sprung forth Love which afterwards mingling with Chaos begat Heaven and Earth Animals and all the Gods 18. That notwithstanding this in Aristotle's judgment Parmenides Hesiod with 〈◊〉 others who made Love in like manner Senior to all the Gods were to be exempted out of the number of Atheists they understanding this Love to be an Active Principle or Cause of Motion in the Vniverse which therefore could be no Egg of the Night nor Off-spring of Chaos but something in Order of Nature before Matter Simmias Rhodius his Wings a Poem in honour of this Heavenly Love This not that Love which was the Off-spring of Penia and Porus in Plato In what rectified sence it may pass for true Theology that Love is the Supreme Deity and Original of all things 19. That though Democritus and Leucippus be elsewhere taxed by Aristotle for this very thing that they assigned only a Material Cause of the Vniverse yet they were not the Persons intended by him in the fore-cited Accusation but certain Ancienter Philosophers who also were not Atomists but Hylopathians 20. That Aristotle's Atheistick Materialists were all the first Ionick Philosophers before Anaxagoras Thales being the Head of them But that Thales is acquitted from this Imputation of Atheism by several good Authors with an Accompt how he came to be thus differently represented and therefore that his next Successour Anaximander is rather to be accounted the Prince of this Atheistick Philosophy 21. A Passage out of Aristotle objected which at first sight seems to make Anaximander a Divine Philosopher and therefore hath led both Modern and Ancient Writers into that mistake That this Place well considered proves the contrary That Anaximander was the Chief of the old Atheistick Philosophers 22. That it is no wonder if Anaximander called Sensless Matter the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God since to all Atheists that must needs be the the highest Numen Also how this is said to be Immortal and to Govern all with the concurrent Judgment of the Greek Scholiasts upon this Place 23. A further Accompt of the Anaximandrian Philosophy manifesting it to have been purely Atheistical 24. What ill Judges the Vulgar have been of Theists and Atheists as also that learned men have commonly supposed fewer Atheists than indeed there were Anaximander and Democritus Atheists both alike though Philosophising different ways That some Passages in Plato respect the Anaximandrian Form of Atheism rather than the Democritical 25. Why Democritus and Leucippus new modell'd Atheism into the Atomick Form 26. That besides the Three Forms of Atheism already mentioned we sometimes meet with a Fourth which supposes the Vniverse though not to be an Animal yet a kind of Plant or Vegetable having one Plastick Nature in it devoid of Vnderstanding and Sense which disposes and orders the Whole 27. That this Form of Atheism which makes one Plastick Life to preside over the Whole is different from the Hylozoick in that it takes away all Fortuitousness and subjects all to the Fate of one Plastick Methodical Nature 28. Though it be possible that some in all ages might have entertained this Atheistical Conceipt That things are dispensed by one Regular and Methodical but Vnknowing Sensless Nature yet it seems to have been chiefly asserted by certain Spurious Heracliticks and Stoicks And therefore this Form of Atheism which supposes one Cosmoplastick Nature may be called Pseudo-zenonian 29. That besides the Philosophick Atheists there have been always Enthusiastick and Fanatical Atheists though in some sence all Atheists may be said also to be both Enthusiasts and Fanaticks they being led by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Irrational Impetus 30. That there cannot easily be any other Form of
to be perswaded first that the Sensitive Soul in men as well as Brutes is merely Corporeal and then that there is a Material Plastick Life in the Seeds of all Plants and Animals whereby they do Artificially form themselves and from thence afterward to descend also further to Hylozoism that all matter as such hath a kind of Natural though not Animal Life in it in consideration whereof we ought not to Censure every Hylozoist professing to hold a Deity and a Rational Soul Immortal for a mere Disguised Atheist or Counterfeit Histrionical Theist III. But though every Hylozoist be not therefore necessarily an Atheist yet whosoever is an Hylozoist and Corporealist both together he that both holds the Life of Matter in the Sence before declared and also that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body and Matter cannot be excused from the Imputation of Atheism for Two Reasons First because though he derive the Original of all Things not from what is perfectly Dead and Stupid as the Atomick Atheist doth but from that which hath a kind of Life or Perception in it nay an Infallible Omniscience of whatsoever it self can Do or Suffer or of all its own Capabilities and Congruities which seems to bear some Semblance of a Deity yet all this being only in the way of Natural and not Animal Perception is indeed nothing but a Dull and Drowsie Plastick and Spermatick Life devoid of all Consciousness and Self-enjoyment The Hylozoists Nature is a piece of very Mysterious Non-sence a thing perfectly Wise without any Knowledge or Consciousness of it self Whereas a Deity according to the true Notion of it is such a Perfect Understanding Being as with full Consciousness and Self-enjoyment is completely Happy Secondly because the Hylozoick Corporealist supposing all Matter as such to have Life in it must needs make Infinite of those Lives forasmuch as every Atom of Matter has a Life of its own Coordinate and Independent on one another and consequently as many Independent first Principles no one Common Life or Mind ruling over the Whole Whereas to assert a God is to derive all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from some one Principle or to suppose one Perfect Living and Understanding Being to be the Original of all things and the Architect of the whole Universe Thus we see that the Hylozoick Corporealist is really an Atheist though carrying more the Semblance and Disguise of a Theist than other Atheists in that he attributes a kind of Life to Matter For indeed every Atheist must of necessity cast some of the Incommunicable Properties of the Deity more or less upon that which is not God namely Matter and they who do not attribute Life to it yet must needs bestow upon it Necessary Self-existence and make it the First Principle of all things which are the Peculiarities of the Deity The Numen which the Hylozoick Corporealist pays all his Devotions to is a certain blind Shee-god or Goddess called Nature or the Life of Matter which is a very great Mystery a thing that is Perfectly Wise and Infallibly Omniscient without any Knowledge or Consciousness at all Something like to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that vulgar Enigm or Riddle of Boys concerning an Eunuch striking a Bat A Man and not a Man Seeing and not Seeing did Strike and not Strike with a Stone and not a Stone a Bird and not a Bird c. The Difference being only this that this was a thing Intelligible but humoursomly expressed whereas the other seems to be perfect Non-sence being nothing but a misunderstanding of the Plastick Power as shall be showed afterwards IV. Now the First and Chief Assertour of this Hylozoick Atheism was as we conceive Strato Lampsacenus commonly called also Physicus that had been once an Auditor of Theophrastus and a famous Peripatetick but afterwards degenerated from a Genuine Peripatetick into a new-formed kind of Atheist For Velleius an Epicurean Atheist in Cicero reckoning up all the several sorts of Theists which had been in former times gives such a Character of this Strato as whereby he makes him to be a strange kind of Atheistical Theist or Divine Atheist if we may use such a contradictious Expression his words are these Nec audiendus Strato qui Physicus appellatur qui omnem Vim Divinam in Natura sitam esse censet quae Causas gignendi augendi minuendÃve habeat sed careat omni sensu Neither is Strato commonly called the Naturalist or Physiologist to be heard who places all Divinity in Nature as having within it self the Causes of all Generations Corruptions and Augmentations but without any manner of Sense Strato's Deity therefore was a certain Living and Active but Sensless Nature He did not fetch the Original of all things as the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists from a mere Fortuitous Motion of Atoms by means whereof he bore some slight Semblance of a Theist but yet he was a down-right Atheist for all that his God being no other than such a Life of Nature in Matter as was both devoid of Sense and Consciousness and also multiplied together with the several parts of it He is also in like manner described by Seneca in St. Augustine as a kind of Mongrel thing betwixt an Atheist and a Theist Ego feram aut Platonem aut Peripateticum Stratonem quorum alter Deum sine Corpore fecit alter sine Animo Shall I endure either Plato or the Peripatetick Strato whereof the one made God to be without a Body the other without a Mind In which words Seneca taxes these two Philosophers as guilty of two contrary Extremes Plato because he made God to be a pure Mind or a perfectly Incorporeal Being and Strato because he made him to be a Body without a Mind he acknowledging no other Deity than a certain Stupid and Plastick Life in all the several parts of Matter without Sense Wherefore this seems to be the only reason why Strato was thus sometimes reckoned amongst the Theists though he were indeed an Atheist because he dissented from that only form of Atheism then so vulgarly received the Democritick and Epicurean attributing a kind of Life to Nature and Matter V. And that Strato was thus an Atheist but of a different kind from Democritus may further appear from this Passage of Cicero's Strato Lampsacenus negat operâ Deorum se uti ad fabricandum Mundum quaecunque sint docet omnia esse Effecta Natura nec ut ille qui asperis laevibus hamatis uncinatÃsque Corporibus Concreta haec esse dicat interjecto Inani Somnia censet haec esse Democriti non docentis sed optantis Strato denies that he makes any use of a God for the fabricating of the World or the salving the Phaenomena thereof teaching all things to have been made by Nature but yet not in such a manner as he who affirmed them to be all Concreted out of certain
rough and smooth hookey and crooked Atoms he judging these things to be nothing but the mere Dreams and Dotages of Democritus not teaching but wishing Here we see that Strato denied the World to be made by a Deity or perfect Understanding Nature as well as Democritus and yet that he dissented from Democritus notwithstanding holding another kind of Nature as the Original of things than he did who gave no account of any Active Principle and Cause of Motion nor of the Regularity that is in Things Democritus his Nature was nothing but the Fortuitous Motion of Matter but Strato's Nature was an Inward Plastick Life in the several Parts of Matter whereby they could Artificially frame themselves to the best advantage according to their several Capabilities without any Conscious or Reflexive Knowledg Quicquid aut sit aut fiat says the same Authour Naturalibus fieri aut factum esse docet ponderibus motibus Strato teaches whatsoever is or is made to be made by certain inward Natural Forces and Activities VI. Furthermore it is to be observed that though Strato thus attributed a certain kind of Life to Matter yet he did by no means allow of any one Common Life whether Sentient and Rational or Plastick and Spermatick only as Ruling over the whole mass of Matter and Corporeal Universe which is a thing in part affirmed by Plutarch and may in part be gathered from these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strato affirmeth that the World is no Animal or God but that what is Natural in every thing follows something Fortuitous antecedent Chance first beginning and Nature acting consequently thereupon The full sence whereof seems to be this that though Strato did not derive the Original of all Mundane things from mere Fortuitous Mechanism as Democritus before him had done but supposed a Life and Natural Perception in the Matter that was directive of it yet not acknowledging any one Common Life whether Animal or Plastick as governing and swaying the whole but only supposing the several Parts of Matter to have so many several Plastick Lives of their own he must needs attribute something to Fortune and make the Mundane System to depend upon a certain Mixture of Chance and Plastick or Orderly Nature both together and consequently must be an Hylozoist Thus we see that these are two Schemes of Atheism very different from one another that which fetches the Original of all things from the mere Fortuitous and Unguided Motion of Matter without any Vital or Directive Principle and that which derives it from a certain Mixture of Chance and the Life of Matter both together it supposing a Plastick Life not in the whole Universe as one thing but in all the several Parts of Matter by themselves the first of which is the Atomick and Democritick Atheism the second the Hylozoick and Stratonick VII It may perhaps be suspected by some that the famous Hippocrates who lived long before Strato was an Assertour of the Hylozoick Atheism because of such Passages in him as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature is Vnlearned or Vntaught but it learneth from it self what things it ought to do And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature findeth out ways to it self not by Ratiocination But there is nothing more affirmed here concerning Nature by Hippocrates than what might be affirmed likewise of the Aristotelick and Platonick Nature which is supposed to act for Ends though without Consultation and Ratiocination And I must confess it seems to me no way mis-becoming of a Theist to acknowledge such a Nature or Principle in the Universe as may act according to Rule and Method for the Sake of Ends and in order to the Best though it self do not understand the reason of what it doth this being still supposed to act dependently upon a higher Intellectual Principle and to have been first set a work and employed by it it being otherwise Non-sence But to assert any such Plastick Nature as is Independent upon any higher Intellectual Principle and so it self the first and highest Principle of Activity in the Universe this indeed must needs be either that Hylozoick Atheism already spoken of or else another different Form of Atheism which shall afterwards be described But though Hippocrates were a Corporealist yet we conceive he ought not to lie under the suspicion of either of those two Atheisms forasmuch as himself plainly asserts a higher Intellectual Principle than such a Plastick Nature in the Universe namely an Heraclitick Corporeal God or Vnderstanding Fire Immortal pervading the whole World in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seems to me that that which is called Heat or Fire is Immortal and Omniscient and that it sees hears and knows all things not only such as are present but also future Wherefore we conclude that Hippocrates was neither an Hylozoick nor Democritick Atheist but an Heraclitick Corporeal Theist VIII Possibly it may be thought also that Plato in his Sophist intends this Hylozoick Atheism where he declares it as the Opinion of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature generates all Things from a certain Spontaneous Principle without any Reason and Vnderstanding But here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be as well rendred Fortuitous as Spontaneous however there is no necessity that this should be understood of an Artificial or Methodical Unknowing Nature It is true indeed that Plato himself seems to acknowledge a certain Plastick or Methodical Nature in the Universe Subordinate to the Deity or that perfect Mind which is the supreme Governour of all things as may be gathered from these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature does rationally or orderly together with Reason and Mind govern the whole Vniverse Where he supposes a certain Regular Nature to be a Partial and Subordinate Cause of things under the Divine Intellect And it is very probable that Aristotle derived that whole Doctrine of his concerning a Regular and Artificial Nature which acts for Ends from the Platonick School But as for any such Form of Atheism as should suppose a Plastick or Regular but Sensless Nature either in the whole World or the several parts of Matter by themselves to be the highest Principle of all things we do not conceive that there is any Intimation of it to be found any where in Plato For in his De Legibus where he professedly disputes against Atheism he states the Doctrine of it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature and Chance produced all the first greatest and most excellent things but that the smaller things were produced by Humane Art The plain meaning whereof is this that the First Original of things and the frame of the whole Universe proceeded from a mere Fortuitous Nature or the Motion of Matter unguided by any Art or Method And thus it is further explained in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c.
Anaxagoras makes Good a Principle as that which moves For though Mind move Matter yet it moves it for the sake of something and being it self as it were first moved by Good So that Good is also a Principle And we note this the rather to show how well these three Philosophers Aristotle Plato and Anaxagoras agreed all together in this excellent Truth That Mind and Good are the First Principle of all things in the Universe XII And now we think it is sufficiently evident that these old Materialists in Aristotle whoever they were were downright Atheists not so much because they made all Substance to be Body or Matter for Heraclitus first and after him Zeno did the like deriving the Original of all things from Fire as well as Anaximenes did from Air and Thales is supposed by Aristotle to have done from Water and that with some little more seeming plausibility since Fire being a more Subtle and Moveable Body than any other was therefore thought by some of those Ancients to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Incorporeal of all Bodies as Earth was for that cause rejected by all those Corporeal Philosophers from being a Principle by reason of the grossness of its parts But Heraclitus and Zeno notwithstanding this are not accounted Atheists because they supposed their Fiery Matter to have not only Life but also a perfect Vnderstanding Originally belonging to it as also the whole World to be an Animal Whereas those Materialists of Aristotle made Sensless and Stupid Matter devoid of all Vnderstanding and Life to be the first Principle and Root of all things For when they supposed Life and Vnderstanding as well as all other Differences of Things to be nothing but mere Passions and Accidents of Matter Generable out of it and Corruptible again into it and indeed to be produced but in a Secundary way from the Fortuitous Commixture of those first Elementary Qualities Heat and Cold Moist and Dry Thick and Thin they plainly implied the substance of Matter in it self to be devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding Now if this be not Atheism to derive the Original of all things even of Life and Mind it self from Dead and Stupid Matter Fortuitously Moved then there can be no such thing at all XIII Moreover Aristotle's Materialists concluded every thing besides the Substance of Matter which is in it self indifferent to al things and consequently all particular and determinate Beings to be Generable and Corruptible Which is a thing that Plato takes notice of as an Atheistick Principle expressing it in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Nothing ever is but every thing is Made and Generated Forasmuch as it plainly follows from hence that not only all Animals and the Souls of men but also if there were any Gods which some of those Materialists would not stick at least verbally to acknowledge meaning thereby certain Understanding Beings superiour to men these likewise must needs have been all Generated and consequently be Corruptible Now to say that there is no other God than such as was Made and Generated and which may be again Unmade Corrupted and Die or that there was once no God at all till he was made out of the Matter and that there may be none again this is all one as to deny the thing it self For a Native and Mortal God is a pure Contradiction Therefore whereas Aristotle in his Metaphysicks tells us of certain Theologers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as did Generate all things even the Gods themselves out of Night and Chaos we must needs pronounce of such Theologers as these who were Theogonists and Generated all the Gods without exception out of Sensless and Stupid Matter that they were but a kind of Atheistical Theologers or Theological Atheists For though they did admit of certain Beings to which they attributed the Name of Gods yet according to the true Notion of God they really acknowledged none at all i. e. no Understanding Nature as the Original of things but Night and Chaos Sensless and Stupid Matter Fortuitously Moved was to them the highest of all Numens So that this Theology of theirs was a thing wholly founded in Atheistical Non-sence XIV And now we think it seasonable here to observe how vast a difference there was betwixt these old Materialists in Aristotle and those other Philosophers mentioned before in the first Chapter who determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no Real Entity at all was Generated or Corrupted for this reason because Nothing could be made out of Nothing These were chiefly the Philosophers of the Italick or Pythagorick Succession and their design in it was not as Aristotle was pleased somewhere to affirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contradict common sence and experience in denying all Natural Generations and Alterations but only to interpret Nature rightly in them and that in way of opposition to those Atheistick Materialists after this manner That in all the Mutations of Nature Generations and Alterations there was neither any new Substance Made which was not before nor any Entity really distinct from the Preexisting Substances but only that Substance which was before diversly Modified and so Nothing Produced in Generations but new Modifications Mixtures and Separations of preexistent Substances Now this Doctrine of theirs drove at these Two things First the taking away of such Qualities and Forms of Body as were vulgarly conceived to be things really distinct from the Substance of extended Bulk and all its Modifications of more or less Magnitude Figure Site Motion or Rest. Because if there were any such things as these produced in the Natural Generations and Alterations of Bodies there would then be some Real Entity Made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Nothing Inexistent or Preexistent Wherefore they concluded that these supposed Forms and Qualities of Bodies were really nothing else but only the different Modifications of Pre-existent Matter in respect of Magnitude Figure Site and Motion or Rest or different Concretions and Secretions which are no Entities really distinct from the Substance but only cause different Phasmata Phancies and Apparitions in us The Second thing which this Doctrine aimed at was the establishing the Incorporiety and Ingenerability of all Souls For since Life Cogitation Sense and Understanding could not be resolved into those Modifications of Matter Magnitude Figure Site and Motion or into Mechanism and Phancie but must needs be Entities really distinct from Extended Bulk or Dead and Stupid Matter they concluded that therefore Souls could not be Generated out of Matter because this would be the Production of some Real Entity out of Nothing Inexisting or Preexisting but that they must needs be another kind of Substance Incorporeal which could no more be Generated or Corrupted than the Substance of Matter it self and therefore must either Preexist in Nature before Generations or else be divinely Created and Infused in them It hath been already proved in the First
distinct Plastick Life of its own which are the Stratonick Atheists Wherefore there does not seem to be any room now left for any other Form of Atheism besides these Four to thrust in And we think fit here again to inculcate what hath been already intimated That one Grand Difference amongst these several Forms of Atheism is this That some of them attributing no Life at all to Matter as such nor indeed acknowledging any Plastick Life of Nature distinct from the Animal and supposing every thing whatsoever is in the world besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bare Substance of Matter considered as devoid of all Qualities that is mere extended Bulk to be Generated and Corrupted consequently resolve that all manner of Life whatsoever is Generable and Corruptible or educible out of Nothing and reducible to Nothing again and these are the Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheisms But the other which are the Stoical and Stratonical do on the contrary suppose some Life to be Fundamental and Original Essential and Substantial Ingenerable and Incorruptible as being a First Principle of things Nevertheless this not to be any Animal Conscious and Self-perceptive Life but a Plastick Life of Nature only all Atheists still agreeing in those Two forementioned Things First that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body Secondly that all Animal Life Sense and Self-perception Conscious Vnderstanding and Personality are Generated and Corrupted successively Educed out of Nothing and Reduced into Nothing again XXXII Indeed we are not ignorant that some who seem to be Well-wishers to Atheism have talk'd sometimes of Sensitive and Rational Matter as having a mind to suppose Three several sorts of Matter in the Universe Specifically different from one another that were Originally such and Self-existent from Eternity namely Sensless Sensitive and Rational As if the Mundane System might be conceived to arise from a certain Jumble of these Three several sorts of Matter as it were scuffling together in the Dark without a God and so producing Brute Animals and Men. But as this is a mere Precarious Hypothesis there being no imaginable accompt to be given how there should come to be such an Essential Difference betwixt Matters or why this Piece of Matter should be Sensitive and that Rational when another is altogether Sensless so the Suggestors of it are but mere Novices in Atheism and a kind of Bungling Well-wishers to it First because according to this Hypothesis no Life would be Produced or Destroyed in the successive Generations and Corruptions of Animals but only Concreted and Secreted in them and consequently all humane Personalities must be Eternal and Incorruptible Which is all one as to assert the Prae and Post-existence of all Souls from Eternity to Eternity a thing that all Genuine and Thorow-pac'd Atheists are in a manner as abhorrent from as they are from the Deity it self And Secondly because there can be no imaginable Reason given by them Why there might not be as well a certain Divine Matter perfectly Intellectual and Self-existent from Eternity as a Sensitive and Rational Matter And therefore such an Hypothesis as this can never serve the turn of Atheists But all those that are Masters of the Craft of Atheism and thorowly Catechized or Initiated in the Dark Mysteries thereof as hath been already inculcated do perfectly agree in this That all Animal Sentient and Conscious Life all Souls and Minds and consequently all humane Personalities are Generated out of Matter and Corrupted again into it or rather Educed out of Nothing and Reduced into Nothing again We understand also that there are certain Canting Astrological Atheists who would deduce all things from the Occult Qualities and Influences of the Stars according to their different Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects in a certain blind and unaccomptable manner But these being Persons devoid of all manner of Sense who neither so much as pretend to give an Accompt of these Stars whether they be Animals or not as also whence they derive their Original which if they did undertake to do Atheistically they must needs resolve themselves at length into one or other of those Hypotheses already proposed therefore as we conceive they deserve not the least Consideration But we think fit here to observe that such Devotoes to the heavenly Bodies as look upon all the other Stars as petty Deities but the Sun as the Supreme Deity and Monarch of the Universe in the mean time conceiving it also to be Perfectly Intellectual which is in a manner the same with the Cleanthean Hypothesis are not so much to be accompted Atheists as Spurious Paganical and Idolatrous Theists And upon all these Considerations we conclude again that there is no other Philosophick Form of Atheism that can easily be devised besides these Four mentioned the Anaximandrian the Democritical the Stoical and the Stratonical XXXIII Amongst which Forms of Atheism there is yet another Difference to be observed and accordingly another Distribution to be made of them It being first premised that all these forementioned Sorts of Atheists if they will speak consistently and agreeably to their own Principles must needs suppose all things to be one way or other Necessary For though Epicurus introduced Contingent Liberty yet it is well known that he therein plainly contradicted his own Principles And this indeed was the First and Principal thing intended by us in this whole Undertaking to confute that False Hypothesis of the Mundane System which makes all Actions and Events Necessary upon Atheistick Grounds but especially in the Mechanick way Wherefore in the next place we must observe that though the Principles of all Atheists introduce Necessity yet the Necessity of these Atheists is not one and the same but of two different kinds some of them supposing a Necessity of Dead and Stupid Matter which is that which is commonly meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Material Necessity and is also called by Aristotle an Absolute Necessity of things Others the Necessity of a Plastick Life which the same Aristotle calls an Hypothetical Necessity For the Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheists do both of them assert a Material and Absolute Necessity of all things one in the way of Qualities and the other of Motion and Mechanism But the Stoical and Stratonical Atheists assert a Plastical and Hypothetical Necessity of things only Now one grand Difference betwixt these two Sorts of Atheisms and their Necessities lies in this That the Former though they make all things Necessary yet they suppose them also to be Fortuitous there being no Inconsistency between these Two And the Sence of both the Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheisms seems to be thus described by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things were mingled together by Necessity according to Fortune For that Nature from whence these Atheists derived all things is at once both Necessary and Fortuitous But the Plastick Atheisms suppose such a Necessary Nature for the First Principle of things as is
have any Whiteness or Blackness at all in it And therefore that the Stoical Atheists as well as the Stoical Theists do both alike deny Incorporeal Substance but in words only whilst they really admit the thing it self because One and the same Life ruling over all the distant parts of the Corporeal Universe must needs be an Incorporeal Substance it being all in the Whole and all acting upon every part and yet none of it in any part by it self for then it would be many and not one From all which it may be concluded That Atheism is a certain strange kind of Monster with Four Heads that are all of them perpetually biting tearing and devouring one another Now though these several Forms of Atheism do mutually destroy each other and none of them be really Considerable or Formidable in it self as to any strength of Reason which it hath yet as they are compared together among themselves so some of them may be more considerable than the rest For first as the Qualities and Forms of the Anaximandrian Atheist supposed to be really distinct from the Substances are things unintelligible in themselves so he cannot with any colour or pretence of Reason maintain the Natural Production of them out of Nothing and the Reduction of them again into Nothing and yet withstand a Divine Creation and Annihilation as an Impossibility Moreover the Anaximandrian Atheism is as it were swallowed up into the Democritick and further improved in it this latter carrying on the same Design with more seeming Artifice greater Plausibility of Wit and a more pompous Show of Something where indeed there is Nothing Upon which accompt it hath for many Ages past beaten the Anaximandrian Atheism in a manner quite off the Stage and reigned there alone So that the Democritick or Atomick Atheism seems to be much more considerable of the Two than the Anaximandrian or Hylopathian Again as for the two other Forms of Atheism if there were any Life at all in Matter as the First and Immediate Recipient of it then in reason this must needs be supposed to be after the same manner in it that all other Corporeal Qualities are in Bodies so as to be Divisible together with it and some of it be in every part of the Matter which is according to the Hypothesis of the Hylozoists Whereas on the contrary the Stoical Atheists supposing one Life only in the whole Mass of Matter after such a manner as that none of the parts of it by themselves should have any Life of their own do thereby no less than the Stoical Theists make this Life of theirs to be no Corporeal Quality or Form but an Incorporeal Substance which is to contradict their own Hypothesis From whence we may conclude that the Cosmo-plastick or Stoical Atheism is of the two less considerable than the Hylozoick or Stratonical Wherefore amongst these Four Forms of Atheism that have been propounded these Two the Atomick or Democritical and the Hylozoick or Stratonical are the Chief The former of which namely the Democritick Atheism admitting a true Notion of Body that according to the Doctrine of the first and most Ancient Atomists it is nothing but Resisting Bulk devoid of all manner of Life yet because it takes for granted that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body does therefore conclude that all Life and Vnderstanding in Animals and Men is Generated out of Dead and Stupid Matter though not as Qualities and Forms which is the Anaximandrian way but as resulting from the Contextures of Atoms or some peculiar Composition of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions and consequently that they are themselves really nothing else but Local Motion and Mechanism Which is a thing that sometime since was very Pertinently and Judiciously both observed and perstringed by the Learned Author of the Exercitatio Epistolica now a Reverend Bishop But the latter namely the Hylozoick though truly acknowledging on the contrary that Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding are Entities really distinct from Local Motion and Mechanism and that therefore they cannot be Generated out of Dead and Stupid Matter but must needs be somewhere in the World Originally Essentially and Fundamentally yet because they take it also for granted that there is no other Substance besides Matter do thereupon adulterate the Notion of Matter or Body blending and confounding it with Life as making them but two Inadequate Conceptions of Substance and concluding that all Matter and Substance as such hath Life and Perception or Vnderstanding Natural and Inconscious Essentially belonging to it and that Sense and Conscious Reason or Vnderstanding in Animals arises only from the Accidental Modification of this Fundamental Life of Matter by Organization We conclude therefore that if these Two Atheistick Hypotheses which are found to be the most Considerable be once Confuted the Reality of all Atheism will be ipso facto Confuted There being indeed nothing more requisite to a thorough Confutation of Atheism than the proving of these Two things First that Life and Vnderstanding are not Essential to Matter as such and Secondly that they can never possibly rise out of any Mixture or Modification of Dead and Stupid Matter whatsoever The reason of which Assertion is because all Atheists as was before observed are mere Corporealists of which there can be but these Two Sorts Either such as make Life to be Essential to Matter and therefore to be Ingenerable and Incorruptible or else such as suppose Life and Every thing besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bare Substance of Matter or Extended Bulk to be merely Accidental Generable or Corruptible as rising out of some Mixture or Modification of it And as the Proving of those Two Things will overthrow all Atheism so it will likewise lay a clear Foundation for the demonstrating of a Deity distinct from the Corporeal World XXXV Now that Life and Perception or Vnderstanding should be Essential to Matter as such or that all Sensless Matter should be Perfectly and Infallibly wise though without Consciousness as to all its own Congruities and Capabilities which is the Doctrine of the Hylozoists This I say is an Hypothesis so Prodigiously Paradoxical and so Outragiously Wild as that very few men ever could have Atheistick Faith enough to swallow it down and digest it Wherefore this Hylozoick Atheism hath been very obscure ever since its first Emersion and hath found so few Fautors and Abettors that it hath look'd like a forlorn and deserted thing Neither indeed are there any Publick Monuments at all extant in which it is avowedly Maintained Stated and Reduced into any System Insomuch that we should not have taken any notice of it at this time as a Particular Form of Atheism nor have Conjured it up out of its Grave had we not Understood that Strato's Ghost had begun to walk of late and that among some Well-wishers to Atheism despairing in a manner of the Atomick Form this Hylozoick Hypothesis began already to
it self devoid of Knowledge and Vnderstanding we shall therefore endeavour to perswade the Possibility and facilitate the Belief of it by some other Instances and first by that of Habits particularly those Musical ones of Singing Playing upon Instruments and Dancing Which Habits direct every Motion of the Hand Voice and Body and prompt them readily without any Deliberation or Studied Consideration what the next following Note or Motion should be If you jogg a sleeping Musician and sing but the first Words of a Song to him which he had either himself composed or learnt before he will presently take it from you and that perhaps before he is thoroughly awake going on with it and singing out the remainder of the whole Song to the End Thus the Fingers of an exercised Lutonist and the Legs and whole Body of a skilful Dancer are directed to move Regularly and Orderly in a long Train and Series of Motions by those Artificial Habits in them which do not themselves at all comprehend those Laws and Rules of Musick or Harmony by which they are governed So that the same thing may be said of these Habits which was said before of Nature That they do not Know but only Do. And thus we see there is no Reason why this Plastick Nature which is supposed to move Body Regularly and Artificially should be thought to be an Absolute Impossibility since Habits do in like manner Gradually Evolve themselves in a long Train or Series of Regular and Artificial Motions readily prompting the doing of them without comprehending that Art and Reason by which they are directed The forementioned Philosopher illustrates the Seminary Reason and Plastick Nature of the Universe by this very Instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Energy of Nature is Artificial as when a Dancer moves for a Dancer resembles this Artificial Life of Nature forasmuch as Art it self moves him and so moves him as being such a Life in him And agreeably to this Conceit the Ancient Mythologists represented the Nature of the Universe by Pan Playing upon a Pipe or Harp and being in love with the Nymph Eccho as if Nature did by a kind of Silent Melody make all the Parts of the Universe every where Daunce in measure Proportion it self being as it were in the mean time delighted and ravished with the Re-ecchoing of its own Harmony Habits are said to be an Adventitious and Acquired Nature and Nature was before defined by the Stoicks to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Habit so that there seems to be no other Difference between these two than this that whereas the One is Acquired by Teaching Industry and Exercise the other as was expressed by Hippocrates is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnlearned and Vntaught and may in some sence also be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-taught though she be indeed always Inwardly Prompted Secretly Whispered into and Inspired by the Divine Art and Wisdom 14. Moreover that something may Act Artificially and for Ends without Comprehending the Reason of what it doth may be further evinced from those Natural Instincts that are in Animals which without Knowledge direct them to Act Regularly in Order both to their own Good and the Good of the Vniverse As for Example the Bees in Mellification and in framing their Combs and Hexagonial Cells the Spiders in spinning their Webs the Birds in building their Nests and many other Animals in such like Actions of theirs which would seem to argue a great Sagacity in them whereas notwithstanding as Aristotle observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do these things neither by Art nor by Counsel nor by any Deliberation of their own and therefore are not Masters of that Wisdom according to which they Act but only Passive to the Instincts and Impresses thereof upon them And indeed to affirm that Brute Animals do all these things by a Knowledge of their own and which themselves are Masters of and that without Deliberation and Consultation were to make them to be endued with a most Perfect Intellect far transcending that of Humane Reason whereas it is plain enough that Brutes are not above Consultation but Below it and that these Instincts of Nature in them are Nothing but a kind of Fate upon them 15. There is in the next place another Imperfection to be observed in the Plastick Nature that as it doth not comprehend the Reason of its own Action so neither is it Clearly and Expresly Conscious of what it doth in which Respect it doth not only fall short of Humane Art but even of that very Manner of Acting which is in Brutes themselves who though they do not Understand the Reason of those Actions that their Natural Instincts lead them to yet they are generally conceived to be Conscious of them and to do them by Phancy whereas the Plastick Nature in the Formation of Plants and Animals seems to have no Animal Fancie no Express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense or Consciousness of what it doth Thus the often Commended Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature hath not so much as any Fancie in it As Intellection and Knowledge is a thing Superiour to Fancie so Fancie is Superiour to the Impress of Nature for Nature hath no Apprehension nor Conscious Perception of any thing In a Word Nature is a thing that hath no such Self-perception or Self-injoyment in it as Animals have 16. Now we are well aware that this is a Thing which the Narrow Principles of some late Philosophers will not admit of that there should be any Action distinct from Local Motion besides Expresly Conscious Cogitation For they making the first General Heads of all Entity to be Extension and Cogitation or Extended Being and Cogitative and then supposing that the Essence of Cogitation consists in Express Consciousness must needs by this means exclude such a Plastick Life of Nature as we speak of that is supposed to act without Animal Fancie or Express Consciousness Wherefore we conceive that the first Heads of Being ought rather to be expressed thus Resisting or Antitypous Extension and Life i.e. Internal Energy and Self-activity and then again that Life or Internal Self-activity is to be subdivided into such as either acts with express Consciousness and Synaesthesis or such as is without it the Latter of which is this Plastick Life of Nature So that there may be an Action distinct from Local Motion or a Vital Energy which is not accompanied with that Fancie or Consciousness that is in the Energies of the Animal Life that is there may be a simple Internal Energy or Vital Autokinesie which is without that Duplication that is included in the Nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense and Consciousness which makes a Being to be Present with it self Attentive to its own Actions or Animadversive of them to perceive it self to Do or Suffer and to have a Fruition or Enjoyment of it self And indeed it must be granted that what moves Matter or
God but an Energetick and Effectual Principle and the Plastick Nature the true and proper Fate of Matter or the Corporeal World What Magick is and that Nature which acts Fatally acts also Magically and Sympathetically 19. That the Plastick Nature though it be the Divine Art and Fate yet for all that it it neither God nor Goddess but a Low and Imperfect Creature it acting Artificially and Rationally no otherwise than compounded Forms of Letters when printing Coherent Philosophick Sence nor for Ends than a Saw or Hatchet in the hands of a skilful Mechanick The Plastick and Vegetative Life of Nature the Lowest of all Lives and Inferiour to the Sensitive A Higher Providence than that of the Plastick Nature governing the Corporeal World it self 20. Notwithstanding which forasmuch as the Plastick Nature is a Life it must needs be Incorporeal One and the same thing having in it an entire Model and Platform and acting upon several distant parts of Matter at once coherently cannot be Corporeal and though Aristotle no where declare whether his Nature be Corporeal or Incorporeal which he neither doth clearly concerning the Rational Soul and his Followers conclude it to be Corporeal yet according to the very Principles of that Philosophy it must needs be otherwise 21. The Plastick Nature being Incorporeal must either be a Lower Power lodged in Souls that are also Conscious Sensitive or Rational or else a distinct Substantial Life by it self and Inferiour Kind of Soul How the Platonists complicate both these together with Aristotle's agreeable Determination that Nature is either Part of a Soul or not without Soul 22. The Plastick Nature as to Animals according to Aristotle a Part or Lower Power of their Respective Souls That the Phaenomena prove a Plastick Nature or Archeus in Animals to make which a distinct thing from the Soul is to multiply Entities without necessity The Soul endued with a Plastick Power the chief Formatrix of its own Body the Contribution of certain other Causes not excluded 23. That besides that Plastick Principle in Particular Animals forming them as so many Little Worlds there is a General Plastick Nature in the whole Corporeal Vniverse which likewise according to Aristotle is either a Part and Lower Power of a Conscious Mundane Soul or else something depending on it 24. That no less according to Aristotle than Plato and Socrates our selves partake of Life from the Life of the Vniverse as well as we do of Heat and Cold from the Heat and Cold of the Vniverse from whence it appears that Aristotle also held the worlds Animation with further Vndeniable Proof thereof An Answer to Two the most considerable places of that Philosopher that seem to imply the contrary That Aristotles First Immoveable Mover was no Soul but a Perfect Intellect Abstract from Matter but that he supposed this to move only as a Final Cause or as being Loved and besides it a Mundane Soul and Plastick Nature to move the Heavens Efficiently Neither Aristotle's Nature nor his Mundane Soul the Supreme Deity However though there be no such Mundane Soul as both Plato and Aristotle conceived yet notwithstanding there may be a Plastick Nature depending upon a Higher Intellectual Principle 25. No Impossibility of some other Particular Plastick Principles and though it be not reasonable to think that every Plant Herb and Pile of Grass hath a Plastick or Vegetative Soul of its own nor that the Earth is an Animal yet that there may possibly be One Plastick Inconscious Nature in the whole Terraqueous Globe by which Vegetables may be severally organized and framed and all things performed which transcend the Power of Fortuitous Mechanism 26. Our Second Vndertaking which was to shew how grosly those Atheists who acknowledge this Plastick Nature Misunderstand it and Abuse the Notion to make a Counterfeit God-almighty or Numen of it to the exclusion of the True Deity First in their supposing that to be the First and Highest Principle of the Vniverse which is the Last and lowest of all Lives a thing as Essentially Derivative from and Dependent upon a Higher Intellectual Principle as the Eccho on the Original Voice 27. Secondly in their making Sense and Reason in Animals to Emerge out of a Sensless Life of Nature by the mere Modification and Organization of Matter That no Duplication of Corporeal Organs can ever make One Single Inconscious Life to advance into Redoubled Consciousness and Self-enjoyment 28. Thirdly in attributing Perfect Knowledge and Vnderstanding to this Life of Nature which yet themselves suppose to be devoid of all Animal Sense and Consciousness 29. Lastly in making the Plastick Life of Nature to be merely Corporeal the Hylozoists contending that it is but an Inadequate Conception of Body as the only Substance and fondly dreaming that the Vulgar Notion of God is nothing but such an Inadequate Conception of the Matter of the Whole Vniverse mistaken for a Complete and Entire Substance by it self the Cause of all things CHAP. IV. The Idea of God declared in way of Answer to the First Atheistick Argument The Grand Prejudice against the Naturality of this Idea as Essentially including Unity or Onelyness in it from the Pagan Polytheism removed Proved that the Intelligent Pagans generally acknowledged One Supreme Deity What their Polytheism and Idolatry was with some Accompt of Christianity 1. The either Stupid Insensibility or Gross Impudence of Atheists in denying the word GOD to have any Signification or that there is any other Idea answering to it besides the mere Phantasm of the Sound The Disease called by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Petrification or Dead Insensibility of the Mind 2. That the Atheists themselves must needs have an Idea of God in their minds or otherwise when they deny his Existence they should deny the Existence of Nothing And that they have also the same Idea of him with Theists they denying the very same thing which the others affirm 3. A Lemma or Preparatory Proposition to the Idea of God That though some things be Made or Generated yet it is not possible that all things should be Made but something must of Necessity Exist of it self from Eternity Vnmade and be the Cause of those other things that are Made 4. The Two most Opposite Opinions concerning that which was Self-existent from Eternity or Vnmade and the Cause of all other things Made One That it was nothing but Sensless Matter the most Imperfect of all things The Other That it was something Most Perfect and therefore Consciously Intellectual The Asserters of this latter Opinion Theists in a strict and proper sence of the former Atheists So that the Idea of God in general is a Perfect Consciously Vnderstanding Being or Mind Self-existent from Eternity and the Cause of all other things 5. Observed That the Atheists who deny a God according to the true Idea of him do often Abuse the word calling Sensless Matter by that Name and meaning nothing else thereby but a
Nihil est enim quod non Alicubi esse cogatur The Stoicks divided Nature into Two Things as the First Principles One whereof is the Efficient or Artificer the Other that which offers it self to him for things to be made out of it In the Efficienti Principle they took notice of Active Force in the Patient of Matter but so as that in each of these were both together forasmuch as neither the Matter could cohere together unless it were contained by some Active Force nor the Active Force subsist of it self without Matter because that is Nothing which is not somewhere But besides these Stoicks there were other Philosophers who admitting of Incorporeal Substance did suppose Two First Principles as Substances really distinct from one another that were Coexistent from Eternity an Incorporeal Deity and Matter as for Example Anaxagoras Archelaus Atticus and many more insomuch that Pythagoras himself was reckoned amongst those by Numenius and Plato by Plutarch and Laertius And we find it commonly taken for granted that Aristotle also was of this Perswasion though it cannot be certainly concluded from thence as some seem to suppose because he asserted the Eternity of the World Plotinus Porphyrius Jamblichus Proclus and Simplicius doing the like and yet notwithstanding maintaining that God was the Sole Principle of all things and that Matter also was derived from him Neither will that Passage of Aristotle's in his Metaphysicks necessarily evince the Contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God seems to be a Cause to all things and a certain Principle because this might be understood only of the Forms of things But it is plain that Plutarch was a Maintainer of this Doctrine from his Discourse upon the Platonick Psychogonia besides other Places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is therefore better for us to follow Plato than Heraclitus and loudly to declare that the World was made by God For as the world is the Best of all Works so is God the Best of all Causes Nevertheless the Substance or Matter out of which the World was made was not it self made but always ready at hand and subject to the Artificer to be ordered and disposed by him For the making of the World was not the Production of it out of Nothing but out of an antecedent Bad and Disorderly State like the Making of an House Garment or Statue It is also well known that Hermogenes and other ancient Pretenders to Christianity did in like manner assert the Self-existence and Improduction of the Matter for which Cause they were commonly called Materiarii or the Materiarian Hereticks they pretending by this means to give an account as the Stoicks had done before them of the Original of Evils and to free God from the Imputation of them Their Ratiocination to which purpose is thus set down by Tertullian God made all things either out of Himself or out of Nothing or out of Matter He could not make all things out of Himself because himself being always Vnmade he should then really have been the Maker of Nothing And he did not make all out of Nothing because being Essentially good he would have made Nihil non optimum every thing in the Best manner and so there could have been no Evil in the World But since there are Evils and these could not procede from the Will of God they must needs arise from the Fault of something and therefore of the Matter out of which things were made Lastly it is sufficiently known likewise that some Modern Sects of the Christian Profession at this day do also assert the Vncreatedness of the Matter But these suppose in like manner as the Stoicks did Body to be the Onely Substance VII Now of all these whosoever they were who thus maintained Two Self-existent Principles God and the Matter we may pronounce Universally that they were neither Better nor Worse than a kind of Imperfect Theists They had a certain Notion or Idea of God such as it was which seems to be the very same with that expressed in Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Animal the Best Eternal and represented also by Epicurus in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Animal that hath all Happiness with Incorruptibility Wherein it was acknowledged by them that besides Sensless Matter there was also an Animalish and Conscious or Perceptive Nature Self-existent from Eternity in opposition to Atheists who made Matter either devoid of all manner of Life or at least of such as is Animalish and Conscious to be the Sole Principle of All things For it hath been often observed that some Atheists attributed a kind of Plastick Life or Nature to that Matter which they made to be the Only Principle of the Universe And these Two sorts of Atheisms were long since taken notice of by Seneca in these words Vniversum in quo nos quoque sumus expers esse Consilii aut ferri Temeritate quadam aut Naturâ Nesciente quid faciat The Atheists make the Vniverse whereof our selves are part to be devoid of Counsel and therefore either to be carried on Temerariously and Fortuitously or else by such a Nature as which though it be Orderly Regular and Methodical yet is notwithstanding Nescient of what it doth But no Atheist ever acknowledged Conscious Animality to be a First Principle in the Universe nor that the Whole was governed by any Animalish Sentient and Vnderstanding Nature presiding over it as the Head of it but as it was before declared they Concluded all Animals and Animality all Conscious Sentient and Self-perceptive Life to be Generated and Corrupted or Educed out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again Wherefore they who on the Contrary asserted Animality and Conscious Life to be a First Principle or Vnmade thing in the Universe are to be accounted Theists Thus Balbus in Cicero declares that to be a Theist is to assert Ab Animantibus Principiis Mundum esse Generatum That the World was Generated or Produced at first from Animant Principles and that it is also still governed by such a Nature Res omnes subjectas esse Naturae Sentienti That all things are subject to a Sentient and Conscious Nature steering and guiding of them But to distinguish this Divine Animal from all others these Desiners added that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Best and most Happy Animal and accordingly this Difference is added to that Generical Nature of Animality by Balbus the Stoick to make up the Idea or Definition of God complete Talem esse Deum certâ Notione animi praesentimus Primùm ut sit Animans Deinde ut in omni Natura nihil Illo sit Praestantius We presage concerning God by a certain Notion of our Mind First that he is an Animans or Consciously Living Being and then Secondly that he is such an Animans as that there is nothing in the Whole Vniverse or Nature of things more Excellent than Him Wherefore these
Life is the Soul Concord contains Houses and Cities the cause of which Concord is Law and Harmony contains the whole World the cause of which Mundane Harmony is God And to the same purpose Aristaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Artificer is to Art so is God to the Harmony of the world There is also this passage in the same Stobaeus cited out of an anonymous Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the Principle and the First thing and the World though it be not the Supreme God yet is it Divine Timaeus Locrus a Pythagorean Senior to Plato in his Book concerning Nature or the Soul of the World upon which Plato's Timaeus was but a kind of Commentary plainly acknowledgeth both One Supreme God the Maker and Governour of the whole World and also Many other Gods his Creatures and subordinate Ministers in the close thereof writing thus concerning the punishment of wickedmen after this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things hath Nemesis decreed to be executed in the second Circuit by the Ministry of Vindictive Terrestrial Demons that are Overseers of humane affairs to which Demons that Supreme God the Ruler over all hath committed the Government and Administration of the World Which world is compleated and made up of Gods Men and other Animals all Created according to the best Pattern of the Eternal and Vnmade Idea In which words of Timaeus there are these Three several Points of the Pagan Theology contained First that there is One Supreme God Eternal and Unmade the Creator and Governour of the whole World and who made it according to the Best Pattern or Exemplar of his own Idea's and Eternal Wisdom Secondly that this World Created by God is compounded and made up of other Inferiour Gods Men and Brute Animals Thirdly that the Supreme God hath committed the Administration of our Humane Affairs to Demons and Inferiour Gods who are constant inspectors over us some of which he also makes use of for the punishment of wicked men after this life Moreover in this Book of Timaeus Locrus the Supreme God is often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in way of eminency sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Very Good sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Principle of the Best things sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Maker of the Better Evil being supposed not to proceed from him sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Best and most Powerful Cause sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince and Parent of all things Which God according to him is not the Soul of the World neither but the Creator thereof he having made the World an Animal and a Secondary Generated God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God willing to make the world the Best that it was capable of made it a Generated God such as should never be destroyed by any other Cause but only by that God himself who framed it if he should ever will to dissolve it But since it is not the part of that which is good to destroy the Best of Works the World will doubtless ever remain Incorruptible and Happy the best of all Generated things made by the Best Cause looking not at Patterns Artificially framed without him but the Idea and Intelligible Essence as the Paradigms which whatsoever is made conformable to must needs be the Best and such as shall never need to be mended Moreover he plainly declares that this Generated God of his the World was produced in Time so as to have a Beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the Heaven was made existed the Idea Matter and God the Opifex of the Best Wherefore whatever Ocellus and Philolaus might do yet this Timaeus held not the Worlds Eternity wherein he followed not only Pythagoras himself as we have already shewed but also the generality of the first Pythagoreans of whom Aristotle pronounces without exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they Generated the World Timaeus indeed in this Book seems to assert the Pre-eternity of the Matter as if it were a Self-existent Principle together with God and yet Clemens Alexandrinus cites a passage out of him looking another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Would you hear of one only Principle of all things amongst the Greeks Timaeus Locrus in his Book of Nature will bear me witness thereof he there in express words writing thus There is One Principle of All Things Vnmade for if it were made it would not be a Principle but that would be the Principle from whence it was made Thus we see that Timaeus Locrus asserted One Eternal and Vnmade God the maker of the whole World and besides this another Generated God the World it self Animated with its several Parts the difference betwixt both which Gods is thus declared by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Eternal God who is the Prince Original and Parent of all these things is seen only by the Mind but the other Generated God is visible to our eyes viz. this world and those parts of it which are Heavenly that is the Stars as so many particular Gods contained in it But here it is to be observed that that Eternal God is not only so called by Timaeus as being without beginning but also as having a distinct kind of duration from that of Time which is properly called Aeon or Eternity he therein following Parmenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Time is but an Image of that Vnmade Duration which we call Eternity wherefore as this sensible World was made according to that Eternal Exemplar or Pattern of the Intelligible World so was Time made together with the World as an Imitation of Eternity It hath been already observed that Onatus another Pythagorean took notice of an Opinion of some in his time that there was One only God who comprehended the whole World and no other Gods besides or at least none such as was to be religiously worshipped himself in the mean time asserting That there was both One God and Many Gods or besides One Supreme and Vniversal Numen Many other Inferiour and Particular Deities to whom also men ought to pay Religious Worship Now his further account of both these Assertions is contained in these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who maintain that there is only One God and not Many Gods are very much mistaken as not considering aright what the Dignity and Majesty of the Divine Transcendency chiefly consisteth in namely in Ruling and Governing those which are like to it that is Gods and in excelling or surmounting Others and being Superiour to them But all those other Gods which we contend for are to that First and Intelligible God but as the Dancers to the Coryphaeus or Choragus as the Inferior Common Soldiers to the Captain or General to whom it properly belongeth to follow and comply with their Leader and Commander The work indeed
That Perfect Happiness is a Speculative or Contemplative Energy maybe made manifest from hence because we account the Gods most of all Happy Now what Moral Actions can we attribute to them Whether those of Justice amongst one another as if it were not ridiculous to suppose the Gods to make Contracts and Bargains among themselves and the like Or else those of Fortitude and Magnanimity As if the Gods had their Fears Dangers and Difficulties to encounter withal Or those of Liberality as if the Gods had some such thing as Money too and there were among them Indigent to receive Alms. Or Lastly shall we attribute to them the Actions of Temperance but would not this be a Reproachful Commendation of the Gods to say that they conquer and master their vitious Lusts and appetites Thus running through all the Actions of Moral Virtue we find them to be small and mean and unworthy of the Gods And yet we all believe the Gods to live and consequently to Act unless we should suppose them perpetually to sleep as Endymion did Wherefore if all Moral Actions and therefore much more Mechanical Operations be taken away from that which Lives and Vnderstands what is there left to it besides Contemplation To which he there adds a further Argument also of the same thing Because other Animals who are depriv'd of Contemplation partake not of Happiness For to the Gods all their Life is Happy to men so far forth as it appoacheth to Contemplation but brute Animals that do not at all contemplate partake not at all of Happiness Where Aristotle plainly acknowledges a Plurality of Gods and that there is a certain Higher Rank of Beings above Men. And by the way we may here observe how from those words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men suppose the Gods to live and from what follows in him that Opinion of some late Writers may be confuted that the Pagans generally worshipped the Inanimate Parts of the World as true and proper Gods Aristotle here telling us that they Universally agreed in this that the Gods were Animals Living and Understanding Beings and such as are therefore capable of Contemplation Moreover Aristotle in his Politicks writing of the means to conserve a Tyranny as he calls it sets down this for one amongst the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a Prince or Monarch to seem to be always more than ordinarily sedulous about the Worship of the Gods because men are less afraid of suffering any Injustice from such Kings or Princes as they think to be Religiously disposed and devouâ—ly affected towards the Gods Neither will they be so apt to make conspiracies against such they supposing that the Gods will be their Abettors and Assistants Where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be taken in a good sence and in way of Commendation for a Religious Person though we must confess that Aristotle himself does not here write so much like a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Meer Politician Likewise in his First Book De Coelo he writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All men have an Opinion or Perswasion That there are Gods And they who think so as well Bvrbarians as Greeks attribute the Highest place to that which is Divine as supposing the Immortal Heavens to be most accommodate to Immortal Gods Wherefore if there be any Divinity as unquestionably there is the Body of the Heavens must be acknowledged to be of a different kind from that of the Elements And in the following Book he tells us again That it is most agreeable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that Vaticination which all men have in their minds concerning the Gods to suppose the Heaven to be a Quintessence distinct from the Elements and therefore Incorruptible Where Aristotle affirmeth that men have generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vaticination in their Minds concerning Gods to wit that Themselves are not the Highest Beings but that there is a Rank of Intellectual Beings superiour to men the chief of which is the Supreme Deity concerning whom there is indeed the Greatest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vaticination of all We acknowledge it to be very true that Aristotle does not so much insist upon Demons as Plato and the generality of Pagans in that Age did and probably he had not so great a Belief of their Existence though he doth make mention of them also as when in his Metaphysicks speaking of Bodies compounded of the Elements he instanceth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animals and Demons and elsewhere he insinuates them to have Airy Bodies in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some perhaps would demand a Reason why the Soul that is in the Air is better and more immortal than that in Animals However whether Aristotle believed these Lower Demon-Gods or no it is certain that he acknowledged a Higher kind of Gods namely the Intelligences of all the Several Spheres if not also the Souls of them and the Stars which Spheres being according to the Astronomy then received Forty Seven in number he must needs acknowledge at least so many Gods Besides which Aristotle seems also to suppose another sort of Incorporeal Gods without the Heavens where according to him there is neither Body nor Place nor Vacuum nor Time in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who exist there are such as are neither apt to be in a Place nor to wax old with Time nor is there any change at all in those things above the Highest Sphere but they being impassible and unalterable lead the best and most self-sufficient Life throughout all Eternity But this Passage is not without suspicion of being Supposititious Notwithstanding all which that Aristotle did assert One Supreme and Vniversal Numen is a thing also unquestionable For though it be granted that he useth the Singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many times Indefinitly for a God in General or any Divine Being and that such places as these have been oftentimes mistaken by Christian Writers as if Aristotle had meant the Supreme God in them yet it is nevertheless certain that he often useth those words also Emphatically for One only Supreme God As in that of his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God seemeth to be a Cause and certain Principle to all things And also in his De Anima where he speaks of the Soul of the Heavens and its Circular Motion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is that a good Cause of the Circular Motion of the Heavens which they that is the Platonists call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is Better that it should be so than otherwise as if God therefore ought to have made the Soul of the World such as to move the Heaven circularly because it was better for it to move so than otherwise but this being a Speculation that properly belongs to some other Science we
of One God Fictitiously Personated and Deified as the Pagans in Eusebius apologize for themselves that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deifie nothing but the Invisible Powers of that God which is over all Nevertheless because those Several Powers of the Supreme God were not supposed to be all executed immediately by himself but by certain other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subservient Ministers under him appointed to preside over the Several Things of Nature Parts of the World and Affairs of Mankind commonly called Demons therefore were those Gods sometimes taken also for such Subservient Spirits or Demons collectively as perhaps in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When will Zephyrus or the West-wind blow When it seemeth good to himself or to Aeolus for God hath not made thee Steward of the Winds but Aeolus But for the fuller clearing of the whole Pagan Theology and especially this one Point thereof that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in great part nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Polytheism or Multiplicity of Gods nothing but the Polyonymy of One God or his being called by Many Personal Proper Names Two Things are here requisite to be further taken notice of First that according to the Pagan Theology God was conceived to be Diffused throughout the whole World to Permeate and Pervade all things to Exist in all things and Intimately to Act all things Thus we observed before out of Horus Apollo that the Egyptian Theologers conceived of God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit pervading the whole World as likewise they concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Nothing at all Consisted without God Which same Theology was Universally entertained also amongst the Greeks For Thus Diogenes the Cynick in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are full of him And Aristotle or the Writer De Plantis makes God not only to comprehend the whole world but also to be an Inward Principle of Life in Animals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is the Principle in the Life or Soul of Animals certainly no other than that Noble Animal or Living Being that encompasses and surrounds the whole Heaven the Sun the Stars and the Planets Sextus Empiricus thus represents the sence of Pythagoras Empedocles and all the Italick Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we men have not only a conjunction amongst our selves with one another but also with the Gods above us and with Brute Animals below us because there is One Spirit which like a Soul pervades the whole World and unites all the parts thereof together Clemens Alexandrinus writeth thus of the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They affirm that God doth Pervade all the Matter of the Vniverse and even the most vile parts thereof which that Father seems to dislike as also did Tertullian when he represented their Doctrine thus Stotci volunt Deum sic per Materiam decucurrisse quomodo Mel per Favos the Stoicks will have God so to run through the Matter as the Honey doth the Combs Strabo testifies of the ancient Indian Brachmans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in many things they Philosophized after the Greekish manner as when they affirm that the World had a beginning and that it would be Corrupted and that the Maker and Governour thereof Pervades the whole of it The Latins also fully agreed with the Greeks in this For though Seneca somewhere propounds this Question Vtrum Extrinsecus operi suo Circumfusus sit Deus an toti inditus Whether God be only extrinsically circumfused about his work the World or inwardly insinuating do Pervade it all yet himself elsewhere answers it when he calls God Divinum Spiritum per omnia maxima ac minima aequali intentione diffusum A Divine Spirit Diffused through all things whether Smallest or Greatest with equal intention God in Quintilians Theology is Spiritus omnibus partibus Immistus and Ille fusus per omnes rerum Naturae partes Spiritus a Spirit which insinuates it self into and is Mingled with all the parts of the world And that Spirit which is diffused through all the parts of Nature Apuleius likewise affirmeth Deum omnia permeare That God doth permeate all things and that Nulla res est tam praestantibus viribus quae viduata Dei auxilio sui natura contenta sit There is nothing so excellent or powerful as that it could be content with its own Nature alone void of the Divine Aid or Influence and again Dei Praesentiam non jam cogitatio sola sed Oculi aures sensibilis Substantia comprehendit That God is not only present to our Cogitation but also to our very eyes and ears in all these sensible things Servius agreeably with this doctrine of the Ancient Pagans determineth that Nulla Pars Elementi sine Deo est That there is no part of the Elements devoid of God And that the Poets fully closed with the same Theology is evident from those known passages of theirs Jovis omnia plena and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. All the things of Nature and Parts of the world are full of God as also from this of Virgil Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum Lastly we shall observe that both Plato and Anaxagoras who neither of them Confounded God with the World but kept them both distinct and affirmed God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmingled with any thing nevertheless concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did order and govern all things passing through and pervading all things which is the very same with that Doctrine of Christian Theologers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God permeates and passes through all things Vnmixedly Which Plato also there in his Cratylus plainly making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Name for God etymologizeth it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. passing thorough all things and thereupon gives us the best account of Heraclitus his Theosophy that is any where extant if not rather a Fragment of Heraclitus his own in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who affirm the Vniverse to be in constant motion suppose a great part thereof to do nothing else but move and change but that there is something which Passes through and Pervades this whole Vniverse by which all those things that are made are made and that this is both the Most Swift and Most subtil thing for it could not otherwise pass through all things were it not so Subtil that nothing could keep it out or hinder it and it must be most swift that it may use all things as if they stood still that so nothing might scape it Since therefore this doth preside over and Order all things Permeating and Passing through them it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Letter Cappa being only taken in for the more handsom pronunciation Here we have therefore Heraclitus
is their Personating and Deifying also the Parts of the World and Things of Nature themselves and so making them so many Gods and Goddesses too Their meaning therein being declared to be really no other than this That God who doth not only Pervade all things but also was the Cause of All things and therefore himself is in a manner All things ought to be worshipped in all the Things of Nature and Parts of the World as also that the Force of every thing was Divine and that in all things that were Beneficial to mankind The Divine Goodness ought to be acknowledged We shall now observe how both those forementioned Principles of Gods Pervading all things and his Being All things which were the Chief Grounds of the Seeming Polytheism of the Pagans were improved and carried on further by those amongst them who had no Higher Notion of the Supreme Deity than as the Soul of the World Which Opinion that it found entertainment amongst so many of them probably might be from hence because it was so obvious for those of them that were Religious to conceive that as themselves consisted of Body and Soul so the Body of the Whole World was not without its Soul neither and that their Humane Souls were as well derived from the Life and Soul of the World as the Earth and Water in their Bodies was from the Earth and Water of the World Now whereas the more refined Pagans as was before observed supposed God to Pervade and Pass thorough All things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmixedly these concluded God to be according to that Definition of him in Quintilian taken in a rigid sence Spiritum omnibus Partibus Immistum a Spirit Immingled with all the Parts of the World or else in Manilius his Language Infusumque Deum Caelo Terrisque Fretoque Infused into the Heaven Earth and Seas Sacroque meatu Conspirare Deum and intimately to conspire with his own Work the World as being almost one with it Upon which account he was commonly called Nature also that being thus defined by some of the Stoicks Deus Mundo permistus God Mingled throughout with the World and Divina Ratio toti Mundo insita The Divine Reason inserted into the whole World Which Nature notwithstanding in way of distinction from the Particular Natures of things was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Communis Natura the Common Nature And it was plainly declared by them not to be a Sensless Nature according to that of Balbus in Cicero Natura est quae continet Mundum omnem eumque tuetur atque ea quidem non sine Sensu atque Ratione It is Nature by which the whole World is conteined and upheld but this such a Nature as is not without Sense and Reason As it is elsewhere said to be Perfect and Eternal Reason the Divine Mind and Wisdom conteining also under it all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spermatick Principles by which the things of Nature commonly so called are effected Wherefore we see that such Naturalists as these may well be allowed to be Theists Moses himself in Strabo being accounted one of them whereas those that acknowledge no Higher Principle of the World than a Sensless Nature whether Fortuitous or Orderly and Methodical cannot be accounted any other than Absolute Atheists Moreover this Soul of the World was by such of these Pagans as admitted no Incorporeal Substance it self concluded to be a Body too but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Most Subtil and Most Swift Body as was before observed out of Plato though endued with Perfect Mind and Vnderstanding as well as with Spermatick Reasons which insinuating it self into all other Bodies did Permeate and Pervade the whole Universe and frame all things inwardly Mingling it self with all Heraclitus and Hippasus thinking this to be Fire and Diogenes Apolloniates Air whom Simplicius who had read some of his then extant Works vindicates from that Imputation of Atheism which Hippo and Anaximander lye under Again whereas the more Sublimated Pagans affirmed the Supreme God to be All so as that he was nevertheless something Above All too he being Above the Soul of the World and probably Aeschylus in that forecited passage of his is to be understood after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter is the Ether Jupiter is the Earth Jupiter is the Heaven Jupiter is All things and yet something Higher than all or Above all those Pagans who acknowledged no Higher Numen than the Soul of the World made God to be All Things in a grosser sence they supposing the whole Corporeal World Animated to be also the Supreme Deity For though God to them were Principally and Originally that Eternal Vnmade Soul and Mind which diffuseth it self thorough all things yet did they conceive that as the Humane Soul and Body both together make up one whole Rational Animal or Man so this Mundane Soul and its Body the World did in lke manner both together make up One Entire Divine Animal or God It is true indeed that as the Humane Soul doth Principally act in some one Part of the Body which therefore hath been called the Hegemonicon and Principale some taking this to be the Brain others the Heart but Strato in Tertullian ridiculously the Place betwixt the Eye-browes so the Stoicks did suppose the Great Soul or Mind of the World to act Principally in some one Part thereof which what it was notwithstanding they did not all agree upon as the Hegemonicon or Principale and this was sometimes called by them Emphatically God But nevertheless they all acknowledged this Mundane Soul as the Souls of other Animals to Pervade Animate or Enliven and Actuate more or less its whole Body The World This is plainly declared by Laertius in the Life of Zeno. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks affirm that the World is governed by Mind and Providence this Mind passing through all the Parts of it as the Soul doth in us Which yet doth not act in all parts alike but in some more in some less it passing through some parts only as a Habit as through the bones and Nerves but through others as Mind or Vnderstanding as through that which is called the Hegemonicon or Principale So the whole World being a Living and Rational Animal hath its Hegemonicon or Principal Part too which according to Antipater is the Aether to Possidonius the Air to Cleanthes the Sun c. And they say also that this First God is as it were sensibly Diffused through all Animals and Plants but through the Earth it self only as a Habit. Wherefore the whole World being thus Acted and Animated by one Divine Soul is it self according to these Stoicks also The Supreme God Thus Didymus in Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks call the whole World God and Origen against Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greeks universally affirm the World to be a God but the Stoicks the First and Chief God· And
singillatim minutatimque colerentur stultè dicitur Nulla quippe earum praetermitteretur cum ipse Vnus qui haberet Omnia coleretur All these things which we have now said and many more which we have not said for we did not think fit to mention all All these Gods and Goddesses let them be One and the same Jupiter whether they will have them to be his PARTS or his POWERS and VERTVES according to the sence of those who think God to be the Soul or Mind of the Whole World which is the opinion of many and great Doctors This I say if it be so which what it is we will not now examine What would these Pagans lose if in a more prudent compendium they should worship One only God For what of him could be despised when his whole self was worshipped But if they fear left his PARTS pretermitted or neglected should be angry or take offence then is it not as they pretend the Life of One Great Animal which at once conteins all the Gods as his VERTVES or MEMBERS or PARTS but every Part hath its own Life by it self separate from the rest since One of them may be angry when another is pleased and the contrary But if it should be said that all together that is the whole Jupiter might be offended if his Parts were not worshipped all of them Severally and Singly this would be foolishly said because none of the Parts can be pretermitted when He that hath All is Worshipped Thus do the Pagans in Athanasius also declare that they did not worship the several Parts of the World as Really so many True and Proper Gods but only as the Parts or Members of their One Supreme God that Great Mundane Animal or Whole Animated World taken all together as one thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Pagans themselves will acknowledge that the Divided Parts of the World taken severally are but indigent and imperfect things nevertheless do they contend that as they are by them joyned all together into One Great Body enlivened by one Soul so is the whole of them truly and properly God And now we think it is sufficiently evident that though these Pagans Verbally Personated and Deified not only the several Powers and Vertues of the One Supreme God or Mundane Soul diffused thoroughout the whole World but also the several Parts of the World it self and the Natures of Things yet their meaning herein was not to make these in themselves really so many several True and Proper Gods much less Independent Ones but to worship One Supreme God which to them was the whole Animated World in those his several Parts and Members as it were by Piece-meal or under so many Inadequate Conceptions The Pagans therefore were plainly Divided in their Natural Theology as to their opinions concerning the Supreme God some of them conceiving him to be nothing Higher than a Mundane Soul Whereas others of them to use Origen's Language did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transcend all the sensible Nature and thinking God not at all to be seated there look'd for him above all Corporeal things Now the Former of these Pagans worshipped the whole Corporeal World as the Body of God but the Latter of them though they had Higher thoughts of God than as a Mundane Soul yet supposing Him to have been the Cause of all things and so at first to have Conteined all things within himself as likewise that the World after it was made was not Cut off from him nor subsisted alone by it self as a Dead Thing but was Closely united to him and Livingly dependent on him these I say though they did not take the World to be God or the Body of God yet did they also look upon it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that which was Divine and Sacred and supposed that God was to be worshipped in All or that the whole World was to be worshipped as his Image or Temple Thus Plutarch though much disliking the Deifying of Inanimate Things doth himself nevertheless approve of worshipping God in the whole Corporeal World he affirming it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most Holy and most God-becoming Temple And the ancient Persians or Magi who by no means would allow of worshipping God in any Artificial Temples made with mens hands did notwithstanding thus worship God Sub Dio and upon the Tops of Mountains in the whole Corporeal World as his Natural Temple as Cicero testifieth Nec sequor Magos Persarum quibus auctoribus Xerxes inflammasse Templa Graeciae dicitur quod Parietibus includerent Deos quibus omnia deberent esse patentia ac libera quorumque hic Mundus Omnis Templum esset Domicilium Neither do I adhere to the Persian Magi by whose suggestion and perswasion Xerxes is said to have burnt all the Temples of the Greeks because they enclosed and shut up their Gods within walls to whom all things ought to be open and free and whose Temple and Habitation this whole World is And therefore when Diogenes Laertius writeth thus of these Magi that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make Fire and Earth and Water to be Gods but condemn all Statues and Images we conceive the meaning hereof to be no other than this that as they worshipped God in no Temple save only that of the whole World so neither did they allow any other Statues of Images of him than the Things of Nature and Parts of the World such as Fire and Earth and Water called therefore by them in this sence and no other Gods For thus are they clearly represented by Clemens Alexandrinus and that according to the express Testimony of Dino 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dinon affirmeth that the Persian Magi sacrificed under the open Heavens they accounting Fire and Water to be the only Statues and Images of the Gods For I would not here conceal their ignorance neither who thinking to avoid One Errour fall into another whilest they allow not Wood and Stones to be the Images of the Gods as the Greeks do nor Ichneumones and Ibides as the Egyptians but only Fire and Water as Philosophers Which difference betwixt the Pagan Theologers that some of them look'd upon the whole World as God or as the Body of God others only as the Image or the Temple of God is thus taken notice of by Macrobius upon Scipio's Dream where the World was called a Temple Benè autem Vniversus Mundus Dei Templum vocatur propter illos qui aestimant nihil esse aliud Deum nisi Coelum ipsum Caelestia ista quae cernimus Ideò ut Summi Omnipotentiam Dei ostenderet posse vix intelligi nunquam posse videri quicquid humano subjicitur aspectui Templum ejus vocavit ut qui haec veneratur ut Templa cultum tamen maximum debeat Conditori sciatque quisquis in usum Templi hujus inducitur ritu sibi vivendum Sacerdotis The whole World is well calledhere the Temple of God
it though seemingly repugnant and clashing with one another yet in their opinion fairly Reconciled and Salved by this Trinity of Divine Hypostases Subordinate Lastly they pretend also that according to this Hypothesis of theirs there may be some Reasonable Satisfaction given to the Mind of Man both why there are so many Divine Hypostases and why there could be no more whereas according to other ways it would seem to have been a meer Arbitrary Business and that there might have been either but One Solitary Divine Hypostasis or but a Duality of them or else they might have been beyond a Trinity Numberless The Second Thing which we shall observe concerning the most Genuine Platonical and Parmenidian Trinity is this That though these Philosophers sometimes called their Three Divine Hypostases not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three Natures and Three Principles and Three Causes and Three Opificers but also Three Gods and a First and Second and Third God yet did they often for all that suppose all these Three to be Really One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Divinity or Numen It hath been already proved from Origen and others that the Platonists most commonly called the Animated World the Second God though some of them as for example Numenius styled it the Third God Now those of them who called the World the Second God attributed indeed not more but less Divinity to it than those who would have it to be the Third God Because these Latter supposed that Soul of the World to be the Third Hypostasis of their Trinity but the other taking all these Three Divine Hypostases together for One Supreme and First God called the World the Second God they supposing the Soul thereof to be another Soul Inferiour to that First Psyche which was properly their Third Hypostasis Wherefore this was really all one as if they should have called the Animated World the Fourth God only by that other way of reckoning when they called it a Second God they intimated that though those Three Divine Hypostases were frequently called Three Gods yet were they notwithstanding Really all but One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinity or Numen or as Plotinus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divinity which is in the whole World Thus when God is so often spoken of in Plato Singularly the word is not always to be understood of the First Hypostasis only or the Tagathon but many times plainly of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First and Second and Third all together or that whole Divinity which consisteth or is made up of these Three Hypostases And this will further appear from hence because when the whole World is said in Plato to be the Image of the Eternal Gods as also by Plotinus of the First Second and Third by whom it is always produced anew as the Image in a Glass is this is not to be understood as if the World being Tripartite each Third part thereof was severally produced or Created by one of those Three nor yet can it be conceived how there could be Three Really distinct Creations of One and the same thing Wherefore the World having but one Creation and being Created by those Three Divine Hypostases it follows that they are all Three Really but One Creator and One God Thus when both in Plato and Plotinus the Lives and Souls of all Animals as Stars Demons and Men are attributed to the Third Hypostasis the First and great Psyche as their Fountain and Cause after a Special Manner accordingly as in our Creed the Holy Ghost is styled the Lord and Giver of Life this is not so to be understood as if therefore the First and Second Hypastases were to be excluded from having any Causality therein For the First is styled by Plato also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cause of all Good things and therefore doubtless chiefly of Souls and the Second is called by him and others too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cause and Artificer of the whole World We conclude therefore that Souls being Created by the Joynt Concurrence and Influence of these Three Hypostases Subordinate they are all Really but One and the same God And thus it is expresly affirmed by Porphyrius in St. Cyril 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Essence of the Divinity proceeds or propagates it self by way of descent downwards unto Three Hypostases or Subsistences The Highest God is the Tagathon or Supreme Good the Second next after him is the Demiurgus so called the Architect or Artificer of the World and the Soul of the World that is the Third for the Divinity extendeth so far as to this Soul Here we plainly see that though Porphyrius calls the Three Divine Hypostases Three Gods yet does he at the very same time declare that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essence of the Godhead and the Divinity extends it self to all these Three Hypostases including the Third and last also which they call the Mundane Soul within the compass of it And therefore that even according to the Porphyrian Theology it self which could not be suspected to affect any compliance with Christianity the Three Hypostases in the Platonick Trinity are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-Essential both as being each of them God and as being all One God St Cyril himself also acknowledging as much where he writeth thus of the Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That supposing Three Hypostases which have the Nature of Principles in the Vniverse they extend the Essence of God to all these three Hypostases Indeed many conceive that the Platonists making the Three Hypostases of Their Trinity to be thus Gradually Subordinate one to another could not for that very Reason acknowledge them to be One Divinity but the Platonists themselves do upon this very account and no other declare all these Three to be One Divinity because they have an Essential Dependence and Gradual Subordination in them the Second being but the Image of the First and the Third the Image both of the First and Second Whereas were these Three supposed to be Perfectly Co-Equal and to have no Essential Dependence one upon another they could not by these Platonists be concluded to be any other than Three Coordinate Gods having only a Generical or Specifical Identity and so no more One than Three men are One man a thing which the Platonick Theology is utterly abhorrent from as that which is inconsistent with the Perfect Monarchy of the Universe and highly Derogatory from the honour of the Supreme God First Cause For example should Three Suns appear in the Heaven all at once with Co-equal Splendor and not only so but also be concluded that though at First derived or Lighted and Kindled from one yet they were now all alike Absolute and Independent these Three could not so well be thought to be one Sun as Three that should
the Gods are not by Nature but by Art and Laws onely and that from thence it comes to pass that they are different to different Nations and Countreys accordingly as the several humours of their Law-makers did chance to determine And before Plato Critias one of the Thirty Tyrants of Athens plainly declared Religion at first to have been a Political Intrigue in those Verses of his recorded by Sextus the Philosopher beginning to this purpose That there was a time at first when mens life was Disorderly and Brutish and the Will of the Stronger was the only Law After which they consented and agreed together to make Civil Laws that so the disorderly might be punished Notwithstanding which it was still found that men were only hindred from open but not from secret Injustices Whereupon some Sagacious and Witty person was the Author of a further Invention to deterr men as well from secret as from open Injuries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Namely by introducing or feigning a God Immortal and Incorruptible who hears and sees and takes notice of all things Critias then concluding his Poem in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in this manner do I conceive some One at first to have perswaded mortals to believe that there is a kind of Gods Thus have we fully declared the sence of the Atheists in their Account of the Phenomenon of Religion and the Belief of a God namely that they derive it principally from these Three Springs or Originals First from mens own Fear and Solicitude concerning Future Events or their Good and Evil Fortune Secondly from their Ignorance of the Causes both of those Events and the Phaenomena of Nature together with their Curiosity And Lastly from the Fiction of Civil Soveraigns Law-makers and Politicians The Weakness and Foolery of all which we shall now briefly manifest First therefore it is certain that such an Excess of Fear as makes any one constantly and obstinately to believe the Existence of That which there is no manner of ground neither from Sense not Reason for tending also to the great Disquiet of mens own Lives and the Terrour of their Minds cannot be accounted other than a kind of Crazedness or Distraction Wherefore the Atheists themselves acknowledging the Generality of mankind to be possessed with such a Belief of a Deity when they resolve this into such an Excess of Fear it is all one as if they should affirm the Generality of mankind to be Frighted out of their Wits or Crazed and Distemper'd in their Brains none but a few Atheists who being undaunted and undismaied have escaped this Panick Terrour remaining Sober and in their Right Senses But whereas the Atheists thus impute to the Generality of mankind not only Light-Minded Credulity and Phantastry but also such an Excess of Fear as differs nothing at all from Crazedness and Distraction or Madness We affirm on the contrary that their supposed Courage Stayedness and Sobriety is really nothing else but the Dull and Sottish Stupidity of their minds Dead and Heavy Incredulity and Earthly Diffidence or Distrust by reason whereof they will believe nothing but what they can Feel or See Theists indeed have a Religious Fear of God which is Consequent from him or their Belief of him of which more afterwards but the Deity it self or the Belief thereof was not Created by any Antecedent Fear that is by Fear concerning Mens Good and Evil Fortune it being certain that none are less Solicitous concerning such Events that they who are most truly Religious The Reason whereof is because these place their Chief Good in nothing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aliene or in Anothers Power and Exposed to the strokes of Fortune but in that which is most truly their Own namely the Right use of their own Will As the Atheists on the contrary must needs for this very reason be liable to great Fears and Solicitudes concerning Outward Events because they place their Good and Evil in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passion of Pleasure and Pain or at least denying Natural Honesty they acknowledge no other Good but what belongs to the Animal Life only and so is under the Empire of Fortune And that the Atheists are indeed generally Timorous and Fearful Suspicious and Distrustful things seems to appear plainly from their building all their Politicks Civil Societies and Justice improperly so called upon that only Foundation of Feâ—r and Distrust But the Grand Errour of the Atheists here is this that they suppose the Deity according to the sence of the Generality of mankind to be nothing but a Mormo Bug-bear or Terriculum an Affrightful Hurtful and most Vndesirable thing Whereas men every where invoke the Deity in their Straits and Difficulties for aid and assistance looking upon it as Exorable and Plaeable and by their Trust and Confidence in it acknowledge its Goodness and Benignity Synesius affirms that though men were otherwise much divided in their opinions yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They all every where both Wise and Vnwise agree in this that God is to be praised as one who is Good and Benign If amongst the Pagans there were any who understood that Proverbial Speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sence as if God Almighty were of an Envious and Spiteful Nature these were certainly but a few Ill-natur'd men who therefore drew a Picture of the Deity according to their own Likeness For the Proverb in that sence was disclaimed and cried down by all the wiser Pagans as Aristotle who affirmed the Poets to have lyed in this as well as they did in many other things and Plutarch who taxeth Herodotus for insinuating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deity universally that is All the Gods to be of an Envious and Vexatious or Spiteful disposition whereas Himself appropriated this only to that Evil Demon or Principle asserted by him as appeareth from the Life of P. Aemilius written by him where he affirmeth not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deity Vniversally was of an Envious Nature but That there is a Certain Deity or Daemon whose proper task it is to bring down all great and over-swelling humane Prosperity and so to temper every mans Life that none may be happy in this world sincerely and unmixedly without a check of Adversity which is as if a Christian should ascribe it to the Devil And Plato plainly declares the reason of God's making the World at first to have been no other than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was Good and there is no manner of Envy in that which is Good From whence he also concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God therefore willed all things should be made the most like himself that is after the best manner But the true meaning of that Ill-languaged Proverb seems at first to have been
Stratonick or Hylozoick Atheism because Sense and Conscious Vnderstanding could no more result either from those Qualities of Heat and Cold Moist and Dry contempered together or from the meer Organization of Inanimate and Sensless Matter than it could from the Concursus Motus Ordo Positura Figurae of Atoms devoid of all manner of Qualities Had there been once nothing but Sensless Matter Fortuitously Moved there could never have emerged into Being any Soul or Mind Sense and Vnderstanding because no Effect can possibly transcend the Perfection of its Cause Wherefore Atheists supposing Themselves and all Souls and Minds to have sprung from Stupid and Sensless Matter and all that Wisdom which is any where in the World both Political and Philosophical to be the Result of meer Fortune and Chance must needs be concluded to be Grosly Ignorant of Causes which had they not been they could never have been Atheists So that Ignorance of Causes is the Seed not of Theism but of Atheism true Philosophy and the Knowledge of the Cause of our Selves leading necessarily to a Deity Again Atheists are Ignorant of the Cause of Motion in Bodies also by which notwithstanding they suppose all things to be done that is they are never able to Salve this Phaenomenon so long as they are Atheists and acknowledge no other Substance besides Matter or Body For First it is undeniably certain that Motion is not Essential to all Body as such because then no Particles of Matter could ever Rest and consequently there could have been no Generation nor no such Mundane System produced as this is which requires a certain Proportionate Commixture of Motion and Rest no Sun nor Moon nor Earth nor Bodies of Animals since there could be no Coherent Consistency of any thing when all things flutter'd and were in continual Separation and Divulsion from one another Again it is certain likewise that Matter or Body as such hath no Power of Moving it self Freely or Spontaneously neither by Will or Appetite both because the same Inconvenience would from hence ensue likewise and because the Phaenomena or Appearances do plainly evince the contrary And as for that Prodigiously Absurd Paradox of some few Hylozoick Atheists that all Matter as such and therefore every Smallest Particle thereof hath not only Life Essentially belonging to it but also Perfect Wisdom and Knowledge together with Appetite and Self-moving Power though without Animal Sense or Consciousness this I say will be elsewhere in due place further confuted But the Generality of the ancient Atheists that is the Anaximandrians and Democriticks attributed no manner of Life to Matter as such and therefore could ascribe no Voluntary or Spontaneous Motion to the same but Fortuitous only according to that of the Epicurean Poet already cited Nam certè neque Consilio Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locarunt Nec quos quaeque darent Motus pepigere profectó Wherefore these Democriticks as Aristotle somewhere intimates were able to assign no other Cause of Motion than only this That One Body moved another from Eternity Infinitely so that there was no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no First Vnmoved Mover ever to be found because there is no Beginning nor First in Eternity From whence probably that Doctrine of some Atheistick Stoicks in Alex. Aphrodisius was derived That there is no First in the rank and order of Causes In the footsteps of which Philosophers a Modern Writer seemeth to have trodden when declaring himself after this manner Si quis ab Effectu quocunque ad Causam ejus Immediatam atque inde and Remotiorem ac sic perpetuò ratiocinatione ascenderit non tamen in aeternum procedere poterit sed defatigatus aliquando deficiet If any one will from whatsoever Effect ascend upward to its Immediate Cause and from thence to a Remoter and so onwards perpetually in his Ratiocination yet shall he never be able to hold on thorough all Eternity but at length being quite tyred out with his Journey be forced to desist or give over Which seems to be all one as if he should have said One thing Moved or Caused another Infinitely from Eternity in which there being no Beginning there is consequently no First Mover or Cause to be reach'd unto But this Infinite Progress of these Democriticks in the Order of Causes and their shifting off the Cause of Motion from one thing to another without end or beginning was rightly understood by Aristotle to be indeed the Assigning of No Cause of Motion at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They acknowledging saith he no First Mover according to Nature must needs make an idle Progress Infinitely that is in the Language of this Philosopher assign no Cause at all of Motion Epicurus therefore to mend the matter though according to the Principles of the Atomick Physiology he discarded all other Qualities yet did he notwithstanding admit this One Quality of Gravity or Ponderosity in Atoms pressing them continually downwards in Infinite Space In which as nothing could be more Absurd nor Vnphilosophical than to make Vpwards and Downwards in Infinite Space or a Gravity tending to no Centre nor Place of Rest so did he not assign any Cause of Motion neither but only in effect affirm the Atoms therefore to tend Downwards because they did so a Quality of Gravity signifying only an Endeavour to tend Downwards but Why or Wherefore no body knows And it is all one as if Epicurus should have said that Atoms moved Downwards by an Occult Quality he either betaking himself to this as an Asylum a Sanctuary or Refuge for his Ignorance or else indeed more absurdly making his very Ignorance it self disguized under that name of a Quality to be the Cause of Motion Thus the Atheists universally either assigned no Cause at all for Motion as the Anaximandrians and Democriticks or else no True one as the Hylozoists when to avoid Incorporeal Substance they would venture to attribute Perfect Vnderstanding Appetite or Will and Self-moving Power to all Sensless Matter whatsoever But since it appears plainly that Matter or Body cannot Move it self either the Motion of all Bodies must have no manner of Cause or else must there of necessity be some other Substance besides Body such as is Self-active and Hylarchical or hath a Natural Power of Ruling over Matter Upon which latter account Plato rightly determin'd that Cogitation which is Self-activity or Autochinesie was in order of Nature before the Local Motion of Body which is Heterochinesie Though Motion considered Passively in Bodies or taken for their Translation or Change of Distance and Place be indeed a Corporeal thing or a Mode of those Bodies themselves moving yet as it is considered Actively for the Vis Movens that Active Force which causes this Translation or Change of Place so is it an Incorporeal thing the Energy of a Self-Active Substance upon that sluggish Matter or Body which cannot at all move it self Wherefore in the Bodies of
no Determinate Thing or else nothing but meer Bulk or Resisting and Divisible Magnitude to come out of Nothing and to go to Nothing Thus does Aristotle in a place before cited declare the Atheistick Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are Certain men who affirm that Nothing is Vnmade but All things Generated or Made Whose Sense is afterwards more distinctly thus proposed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all other things are Generated and Flow and none of them firmly Is they being perpetually Educed out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing but that there is only One thing which remaineth namely that out of which all the other are Made by the Transformation thereof Which One thing to wit Matter as the same Aristotle further adds they affirmed to be the Only Substance and from Eternity Vnmade but all other things whatsoever being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passions Affections and Dispositions thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be Generated and Corrupted Infinitely that is to be Produced out of Nothing or Non-Existence and Reduced again to Nothing without end And doubtless this is the True meaning of that Passage in Plato's Tenth De Legibus not understood by the Latine Interpreters where being to represent the Atheistick Hypothesis of the System of the Vniverse he discovereth their Grand Arcanum and that which they accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisest and most mysterious of all Doctrines after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that All things are Made and Have been Made and will be Made some by Nature and some by Art and some by Fortune or Chance For unquestionably here Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that All things are Generated or Made c. is the very same with Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that there is Nothing Vnmade but that All things are Made or Generated And perhaps this of Aristotles was taken out of that of Plato's Which yet nevertheless is so to be understood as it is afterwards explained by Aristotle All things whatsoever the bare Substance of Matter only excepted Wherefore it is certain that either there is no Real Entity in the Whole World besides the Bare Substance of Matter that is besides Divisible and Separable Extension or Resisting Magnitude and Consequently that Life and Cogitation Sense and Consciousness Reason and Vnderstanding all our own Minds and Personalities are no Real Entities or else that there are according to the Atheistick Hypothesis Real Entities Produced out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again Whereas Theiâ—tâ— suppose all the Greatest Perfections in the Universe as Life and Vnderstanding to have been Eternal and Vnmade in a Perfect Being the Deity and neither brought out of Nothing or Non Existence nor Reducâ—ble to Nothing only Imperfect Beings to have been Made out of Noâ—hing or Produced out of Non Existence by this one Perfect Being or Deity the Atheists on the contrary supposing the Lowest and most Imperfâ—ct of all Beings Matter Bulk or Divisible and Resisting Extension to be the Only Self-Existent and Vnmade Thing conclude all the Greatest Perfections in the Universe Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding to be Made out of Nothing or Non-Existence as also to be reduced to Nothing again Indeed the Hylozoick Atheists being Sensible somewhat of this Inconvenience of making all Life and Vnderstanding Out of Nothing and that there must of Necessity be some Fundamental Life and Perception which is not Accidental but Substantial and which was never Generated and cannot be Corrupted hâ—ve therefore attributed a kind of Life and Perception to all Matter as such Notwiâ—hstanding which even these also for as much as they deny to Mâ—tter Animal Sense and Consciousness suppose all Animal Life or Sense and Conscious Vnderstanding to be Generated and Corrupted â—roduced out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again Neither can Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding be reckonâ—d amongst the Mâ—des of Mâ—tter that is of Mâ—gnitude or Divisible and Antâ—typous Extension since they may be Conceived without the same whereas Modes cannot be conceived without their Substance Standing Sitting and Walking cannot be Conceived without a Body and that fiâ—ly Organizâ—d too and therefore are they Nothing but different Modes of such a Body When that Humane Body which before did Stand doth afterwards Sit or Walk no man can think that there is the Miraâ—ulous Production of any New Real Entity out of Nothing nor when the same Matter which was Square or Cubical is made Spherical or Cylindrical Bâ—t when there is Life and Vnderstâ—nding which was not before then is there unquestionably a new Real Entity Produced But the Dâ—mocritick and Epicurean Atheists themselves according to the Tenor of the Atomick Physiology acknowledge no other Modes of Matter or Body but only more or less Magnitude of Parts Figure Site Motion or Rest. And upon this very account do they explode Qualities considered as Entities really distinct from these Modes because in the Generation and Alteration of them there would be Real Entities mâ—de Out of Nothing or without a Cause whereupon they Resolve these Qualities into Mechanism and Fancy But Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding are things which have more Real Entity in them and can no way be Salved by Mechanism and Phancy wherefore undoubtedly they are no Modes of Matter or Body but Attributes of another kind of Substance Incorporeal All Cogitative Beings especially Humane Souls and Personalities are unquestionably Substantial Things and yet do the Atheists bring these and consequently Themselves out of Nothing or Non-Existence and Reduce them to Nothing again The Conclusion is that these very Atheists who contend against Theists that Nothing can be Made out of Nothing do themselves bring All things out of Nothing or Non Existence and perpetually Reduce them to Nothing again according to whose Principles as once there was no Life nor Vnderstanding at all in the Universe so may there be none again They who deny a God because there can be no Creative Power belonging to Any Thing do themselves notwithstanding attribute to Matter though a meer Passive Sluggish and Vnactive thing a Creative Power of Things Substantial as Humane Souls and Persona-ities out of Nothing And thus is that Formidable Argument of the Atheists that there can be no God because Nothing can be made out of Nothing not only proved to be False but also Retorted upon these Atheists themselves they bringing all things besides Sensless and Vnqualified Matter out of Nothing We have now declared First in what sense this Proposition is unquestionably True that Nothing can be Made out of Nothing or Come from Nothing viz. Causally That Nothing which before was Not could afterward be Made without a Cause and a Sufficient Cause Or more Particularly these Three ways First that Nothing which before was Not could afterward be brought into Being by It self or without an Efficient Cause Secondly that Nothing which once was Not could be Made or Produced
that whereas the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists admit of no other Efficient Causality in Nature then only Local Motion and allow to Matter or Body their only Substance no Self-Moving Power they hereby make all the Motion that is in the whole world to be without a Cause and from Nothing Action without any Subject or Agent and the Efficiency of all things without an Efficient In the next place should we be so liberal as to grant to the Atomick Atheists Motion without a Cause or permit Strato and the Hylozoick Atheists to attribute to Matter a Self-Moving Power yet do we affirm that this Matter and Motion both together could not Possibly Produce any new Real Entity which was not before Matter as such Efficiently Causing Nothing and Motion only changing the Modifications of Matter as Figure Place Site and Disposition of Parts Wherefore if Matter as such have no Animal Sense and Conscious Vnderstanding Essentially belonging to it which no Atheists as yet have had the Impudence to assert then can no Motion or Modification of Matter no Contexture of Atoms Possibly beget Sense and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind because this would be to bring Something out of Nothing in the Impossible Sense or to suppose Something to be Made by It self without a Cause Which may Serve also for a Confutation of those Imperfect and Spurious Theists who will not allow to God Almighty whether supposed by them to be Corporeal or Incorporeal a Power of Making any thing but only out of Pre-Existent Matter by the new Modifying thereof as a Carpenter makes a House out of Pre-Existing Timber and Stone and a Taylor a Garment out of Pre-Existing Cloth For since Animal Life and Vnderstanding are not by them supposed to belong at all to Matter as such and since they cannot result from any Modifications or Contextures thereof it would plainly follow from hence that God could not Possibly make Animals or Produce Sense and Vnderstanding Souls and Minds which nevertheless these Theists suppose him to have done and therefore ought in reason to acknowledge him not only to be the Maker of New Modifications of Matter and one who Built the world only as a Carpenter doth a House but also of Real Entities distinct from the same And this was the very Doctrine as we have already declared of the most Ancient Atomick Physiologers not That every thing whatsoever might be Made out of Pre-Existing Matter but on the contrary that in all Natural Generations there is no Real Entity Produced out of the Matter which was not before in it but only New Modifications and Consequently that Souls and Minds being not meer Modifications of Matter in respect of Magnitude Figure Site and Motion could never be Produced out of it because they must then of necessity Come from Nothing that is be Made either by Themselves without a Cause or without a Sufficient Cause It hath also been before noted out of Aristotle how the Old Atheistick Materialists being assaulted by those Italick Philosophers after that manner that Nothing which was not before in Matter besides its Modifications could Possibly be Produced out of it because Nothing can Come out of Nothing and consequently that in all Natural Generations and Corruptions there is no Real Entity Made or Destroyed endeavoured without denying the words of that Proposition to Evade after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That there is indeed Nothing Generated or Corrupted in some Sense for as much as the same Substance of Matter always remains it being never Made nor Destroyed For as men do not say that Socrates is Made when he is Made Musical or Handsome nor Destroyed when he looseth these Dispositions because the subject Socrates was before and still remaineth so neither is any Substantial thing or Real Entity in the world Made or Destroyed in this sense because Matter which is the Substance of all perpetually remains and all other things whatsoever are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passions and Affections and Dispositions thereof as Musicalness and Unmusicalness in respect of Socrates Which is all one as if they should say that all things whatsoever besides Matter being but Accidents thereof are Generated out of it and Corruptible into it without the Production of any Real Entity out of Nothing or the Reduction of any into Nothing so long as the Substance of Matter which is the only Real Entity remains always the same Wherefore though Life Sense and Vnderstanding all Souls and Minds be Generated out of Matter yet does it not follow from thence that therefore there is any Real Entity Made or Produced because these are Nothing but Accidents and Modifications of Matter This was the Subterfuge of the Old Hylopathian Atheists Now it is true indeed that whatsoever is in the Universe is either Substance or Accidents and that the Accidents of any Substance may be Generated and Corrupted without the Producing of any Real Entity out of Nothing and Reducing of any into Nothing for as much as the Substance still remains entirely the same But the Atheists taking it for granted that there is no other Substance besides Body or Matter do therefore falsly suppose that which is really Incorporeal Substance or else the Attributes Properties and Modes thereof to be the meer Accidents of Matter and Consequently conclude these to be Generable out of it without the Production of any Real Entity out of Nothing We say therefore that it does not at all follow because the same Numerical Matter as for example a Piece of Wax may be Successively made Spherical Cubical Cylindrical Pyramidal or of any other Figure and the same man may Successively Stand Sit Kneel and Walk both without the Production of Anything out of Nothing or because a heap of Stones Bricks Morter and Timber lying altogether disorderly and confusedly may be made into a Stately Palace and that without the Miraculous Creation of any Real Entity out of Nothing that therefore the same may be affirmed likewise of every thing else besides the bare Substance of Matter as namely Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind that though there be No such thing in Matter it self yet the Production of them out of Matter would be no Production of Something out of Nothing One Ground of which mistake hath been from mens not rightly considering what the Accidents of a Substance are and that they are indeed Nothing but the Modes thereof Now a Mode is such a thing as cannot Possibly be conceived without that whereof it is a Mode as Standing Sitting Kneeling and Walking cannot be conceived without a Body Organized and therefore are but Modes thereof but Life and Cogitation may be clearly apprehended without Body or any thing of Extension nor indeed can a Thought Be conceived to be of such a Length Breadth and Thickness or to be Hewed and Sliced out into many Pieces all which laid together as so many Small Chips thereof would make up again the entireness of that whole
of that Earthy Body into its Elements Certainly it can be no other than this Pneumatical or Spirituous Body which we now speak of For in this are Seated as their Subject the Irascible and Concupiscible Passions and they are inseparable from the same nor could they be in the Soul disunited from all Body And that Soul which is freed from these would be forthwith freed from Generation nor would it be concerned in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons but be carried up aloft to the higher Celestial Regions c. After which he endeavours further to confirm this Opinion from the Vulgar Phaenomena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Furthermore that there is such a Pneumatical Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body which accompanieth Souls Vnpurged after Death is evident also from the Phaenomena themselves For what account can otherwise be given of those Spectres or Phantasms which appear Shadow-like about Graves or Sepulchres since the Soul it self is neither of any Figure nor yet at all Visible Wherefore these Ancients say that Impure Souls after their departure out of this Body wander here up and down for a certain space in their Spirituous Vaporous and Airy Body appearing about Sepulchres and haunting their former Habitations For which cause there is great reason that we should take care of Living Well as also of abstaining from a Fouler and Grosser diet these Ancients telling us likewise that this Spirituous Body of ours being fouled and incrassated by Evil Diet is apt to render the Soul in this Life also more Obnoxious to the Disturbances of Passions And here Philoponus goes on to gratifie us with a further Account of some other of the Opinions of these Ancients concerning this Spirituous or Airy Body accompanying the Soul after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They further add that there is Something of the Plantal and Plastick Life also Exercised by the Soul in those Spirituous or Airy Bodies after Death they being Nourished too though not after the same manner as these Gross Earthy Bodies of ours are here but by Vapours and that not by Parts or Organs but throughout the Whole of them as Sponges they imbibing every where those Vapours For which cause they who are wise will in this Life also take care of using a Thinner and Dryer Diet that so that Spirituous Body which we have also at this present time within our Grosser Body may not be Clogged and Incrassed but Attenuated Over and above which those Ancients made use of Catharms or Purgations to the same end and purpose also For as this Earthy Body is washed by Water so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours some of these Vapours being Nutritive others Purgative Moreover these Ancients further declared concerning this Spirituous Body that it was not Organized but did the Whole of it in every Part throughout exercise all Functions of Sense the Soul Hearing and Seeing and Perceiving all Sensibles by it every where For which Cause Aristotle himself affirmeth in his Metaphysicks That there is properly but One Sense and but One Sensory He by this One Sensory meaning the Spirit or Subtle Airy Body in which the Sensitive Power doth all of it through the Whole immediately apprehend all Variety of Sensibles And if it be demanded How it comes then to pass that this Spirit appears Organized in Sepulchres and most commonly of Humane Form but sometimes in the Form of some other Animals to this those Ancients Replied That their appearing so frequently in Humane Form proceedeth from their being Incrassated with Evil Diet and then as it were stamped upon with the Form of this Exteriour Ambient Body in which they are as Crystal is Formed and Coloured like to those things which it is fastned in or Reflects the Image of them And that their having sometimes other different Forms proceedeth from the Phantastick Power of the Soul it self which can at pleasure transform this Spirituous Body into any shape For being Airy when it is Condensed and Fixed it becometh Visible and again Invisible and Vanishing out of Sight when it is Expanded and Rarefied Now from these Passages cited out of Philoponus it further appeareth that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality did not suppose Humane Souls after Death to be quite strip'd Stark Naked from all Body but that the Generality of Souls had then a certain Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body accompanying them though in different Degrees of Purity or Impurity Respectively to themselves As also that they conceived this Spirituous Body or at least something of it to hang about the Soul also here in this Life before Death as its Interiour Indument or Vestment which also then sticks to it when that other Gross Earthly Part of the Body is by Death put off as an Outer Garment And some have been inclinable to think by reason of certain Historick Phaenomena these Two to be things so distinct that it is not Impossible for this Spirituous Body together with the Soul to be Locally separated from the other Grosser Body for some time before Death and without it And indeed thus much canâ—ot be denied that our Soul Acteth not Immediatly only upon Bones Flesh and Brains and other such like Gross Parts of this Body but first and chiefly upon the Animal Spirits as the Immediate Instruments of Sense and Phancy and that by whose Vigour and Activity the other Heavy and Unwieldy Bulk of the Body is so nimbly Moved And therefore we know no reason but we may assent here to that of Porphyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Blood is the Food and Nourishment of the Spirit that is that Subtle Body called the Animal Spirits and that this Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul or the more Immediate Seat of Life Nevertheless the same Philoponus there addeth that according to these Ancients besides the Terrestial Body and this Spirituous and Airy Body too there is yet a Third kind of Body of a Higher Rank then either of the Former peculiarly belonging to such Souls after Death as are Purged and Cleansed from Corporeal Affections Lusts and Passions called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Luciform and Celestial and Ethereal Body The Soul saith he continueth either in the Terrestrial or the Aereal Body so long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vntil that having Purged it self it be carried aloft and freed from Generation And then doth it put off both the Irascible and Concupisciple Passions at once together with this Second Vehicle or Body which we call Spirituous Wherefore these Ancients say that there is another Heavenly Body always conjoyned with the Soul and Eternal which they call Luciform and Star-like For it being a Mundane thing must of necessity have some Part of the World as a Province allotted to it which it may administer And since it is always Moveable and ought always to Act it must have a
Body Eternally conjoyned with it which it may always Enliven And for these Causes do they affirm the Soul always to have a Luciform Body Which Lucid and Etherial Body of the Soul is a thing often mentioned by other Writers also as Proclus in his Commentary upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Humane Soul hath also saith he such an Ethereal Vehicle belonging to it as Plato himself intimâ—tâ—s when he affirmeth the Demiurgus at first to have placed it in a Chariot For of necâ—ssity every Soul before this Mortal Body must have an Eternal and easily Moveable Body it being Essential to it to move And elsewhere the same Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we remain above we have no need of these Divided Organs which now we have descending into Generation but the Vniform Lucid or Splendid Vehicle is sufficient this having all Senses Vnited together in it Which Doctrine of the Vnorganized Luciform and Spirituous Vehicles seems to have been derived from Plato he in his Epinomis writing thus concerning a Good and Wise man after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom whether I be in Jest or Earnest I constantly affirm that when dying he shall yield to Fate he shall no longer have this Variety of Senses which now we have but One Vniform Body and live a happy Life Moreover Hiâ—rocles much insisteth upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Luciform and Ethereal Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which also saith he the Oracles call the Thin and Subtle Vehicle or Chariot of the Soul he meaning doubtless by these Oracles the Magical or Chaldaick Oracles before mentioned And amongst those now Extant under that Title there seems to be a clear acknowledgment of these Two Vehicula of the Soul or Interiour Induments thereof the Spirituous and the Luciform Body the latter of which is there Enigmatically called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Plain Superficies in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take care not to Defile or Contaminate the Spirit nor to make the Plain Superficies Deep For thus Psellus glosseth upon that Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaick Philosophers bestow upon the Soul Two Interiour Tunicles or Vestments the one of which they called Pneumatical or the Spirituous Body which is weaved out as it were to it and compounded of the Gross Sensible Body it being the more Thin and Subtle part thereof the other the Luciform Vestment of the Soul Pure and Pellucide and this is that which is here called the Plain Superficies Which saith Pletho is not so to be understood as if it had not Three Dimensions for as much as it is a Body also but only to denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof Wherefore when the aforesaid Hierocles also calls this Luciform and Etherial Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Vehicle of the Rational Soul he takes not the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Sense wherein it is used by Philoponus and Others as if he intended to confound this Etherial Body with that other Spirituous or Airy Body and to make but one of them but rather styles it Spiritual in a higher Sense and which cometh near to that of the Scripture as being a Body more Suitable and Cognate with that Highest and Divinest Part of the Soul Mind or Reason then the other Terrestial Body is which upon that account is called also by the same Hierocles as well as it is by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Animal or Natural Body So that this Spiritual Body of Hierocles is not the Airy but the Etherial Body and the same with Synesius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Divine Body And that this Distinction of two Interior Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides that Outer Vestment of the Terrestial Body styled in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crustaceous or Ostrâ—aceous Body is not a meer Figment of the latter Platonists since Christianity but a Tradition derived down from Antiquity appeareth plainly from Virgil in his Sixth Aenead where though not commonly understood he writeth first of the Spirituous or Airy Body in which Unpurged Souls receive Punishment after Death thus Quin Supremo cum Lumine Vita reliquit Non tamen omne Malum miseris nec funditus omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad Ventos aliis sub gurgite Vasto Infectum eluitur Scelus aut exuritur Igni And then again of the other Pure Ethereal and Fiery Body in this manner Donec Longa dies perfecto temporis Orbe Concretam exemit labem Purumque reliquit Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Now as it was before observed that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality supposing it to have besides this Terrestial Body another Spirituous or Airy Body conceived this not only to accompany the Soul after Death but also to hang about it here in this Life as its Interiour Vest or Tunicle they probably meaning hereby the same with that which is commonly called the Animal Spirits diffused from the Brain by the Nerves throughout this whole Body in like manner is it certain that Many of them supposing the Soul besides those Two forementioned to have yet a Third Luciform or Etherial Body conceived this in like manner to adhere to it even in this Mortal Life too as its Inmost Clothing or Tunicle yet so as that they acknowledged the Force thereof to be very much weakned and abâ—ted and its Splendour altogether obscured by the Heavy Weight and Gross Steams or Vapours of the Terrestial Body Thus Suidas â—poâ— the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us out of Isidore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to some Philosophers the Soul hath a certain Luciform Vehicle called also Star or Sun-like and Eternal which Luciform Body is now shut up within this Terrestrial Body as a Light in a dark Lanthorn it being supposed by some of them to be included within the Head c. With which agreeth Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Splendid or Luciform Body lieth in this Mortal Body of ours continually Inspiring it with Life and containing the Harmony thereof The ground of which opinion was because these Philosophers generally conceived the Humane Soul to have Pre-Existed before it came into this Earthly Body and that either from Eternity or else from the First beginning of the World's Creation and being never without a Body and then in a Perfect State to have had a Lucid and Etherial Body either Co-Eternal or Co-Eve with it though in order of Nature Junior to it as its Chariot or Vehicle which being Incorruptible did always inseparably adhere to the Soul in its After Lapses and Descents into an Aerial first and then a Terrestrial Body this being as it were the Vinculum of Union betwixt the Soul
Account which the Scripture it self giveth us of the Resurrection and First in General when S. Paul Answering that Querie of the Philosophick Infidel How are the dead raised or with what Body do they come Replieth in this manner Thou Fool that is thou who thinkest to puzzle or baffle the Christian Article of the Resurrection which thou understandest not That which thou sowest is not Quickened to the Production of any thing except it first die to what it was And thou sowest not that Body that shall be but bare Grain as of Wheat or of Barley or the like but God in the ordinary course of Nature giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him that is a Stalk and an Eare having many Grains with Husks in it and therefore neither in Quantity nor Quality the same with that which was Sowed under Ground Nor does he give to all Seeds one and the same kind of Body neither but to every seed it s own correspondent Body as to Wheat one kind of Eare and to Barley another As if he should have said Know that this Present Body of ours is to be look'd upon but as a kind of Seed of the Resurrection-Body which therefore is accordingly in some sense the Same and in some sense not the Same with it Besides which General Account the Particular Oppositions which the Scripture makes betwixt the Present and Future Body seem very agreeable to those of the Philosophick Cabala For First the Present Body is said to be Sowed in Corruption but the Future Raised in Incorruption For the Children of the Resurrection cannot die any more And then Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Wherefore the Christian Resurrection-Body as well as that of the Philosophick Cabala is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too 2 Cor. 5.1 an Immortal and Eternal Body Again the Body Sowed is said to be a Dishonourable Ignominious and Inglorious Body and therefore called also by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Body of our Humility or Humiliation A Body agreeable to this Lapsed State of the Soul But the Body which shall be Raised shall be a Glorious Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conformable to that Glorious Body of Christ. Who when he was but Externally Transfigured his Face did shine as the Sun and his Raiment was white as the Light The Glory of a Body consisteth only in the Comliness of its Proportion and the Spendor thereof Thus is there one Glory of the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars that is a different Splendor of them Wherefore the Future Body of the Righteous according to the Scripture also as well as the Philosophick Cabala will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Glorious Splendid Luciform and Star-like Body Wisd. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous in the time of their Visitation shall shine forth Daniel 12. the 2. and 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And Matthew the 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father And therefore probably this Future Glorious Resurrection Body is that Inheritance of the Saints in Light which the Scripture speaks of Col. 1. the 12. Moreover there is another difference betwixt this Present and that Future Body of the Righteous wherein S. Paul and Hierocles do well agree the First being called by both of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Animal Body The Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Spiritual Body Which latter expression in Scripture does not only denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof but also as this Present Body is called an Animal Body because it is suitable and agreeable to that Animal Life which men have Common with Brutes so is that Future called Spiritual as bearing a fit proportion and correspondency to Souls renewed in the Spirit of their Mind or in whom the Divine Spirit Dwelleth and Acteth exercising its Dominion There is an Animal Body and there is a Spiritual Body And the First Adam was made a Living Soul the Last Adam a Quickning Spirit And thus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who have not the Spirit And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Animal Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Which Spirit is also said in Scripture to be the Earnest of that our Future Inheritance Ephesians the 1. the 14. and the Earnest of this Spiritual and Heavenly Body 2 Corinth the 5. the 5. It is also said to be that by which Efficiently these Mortal Bodies shall be Quickened Romans the 8. the 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also Quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Neither doth Hierocles fall much short of this Scripture Notion of a Spiritual Body when he describes it to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is Agreeable to the Intellectual Perfection of the Soul This Spiritual Body is that which the Ancient Hebrews called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eagles Wings We reading thus in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin c. 11. fol. 92. col 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If you Ask what shall become of the Righteous when God shall renew the world the Answer is God shall make them wings like Eagles whereby they shall fly upon the Face of the Waters Again as this Present Body is called in Scripture an Earthly Body so is the Future Body of the Righteous styled by S. Paul as well as the Pythagoreans a Heavenly Body and they who shall then be possessors thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heavenly men 1 Cor. 15. As is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly Besides which as Philosophers supposed both Demons or Angels and Men to have one and the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a like Lucid Heavenly and Etherial Body so from that of our Saviour when he affirmeth that they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the Resurrection from the dead will neither Marry nor be given in Marriage nor can die any more for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels from hence I say we may venture to call this Resurrection-Body of the Just also an Angelical or Isangelical Body and the rather because the Ancient Hebrews as we learn from Nachmonides in Shaar Haggemul styled it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angelical Clothing of the Soul and Tertullian himself Angelificatam Carnem Angelified Flesh. But Lastly S. Paul is not only Positive in his Doctrine here but also Negative Now this I say brethren that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit
things which belong to Bodies be Vnextended then must the Substances of Souls and Minds themselves be Vnextended also Thus Plotinus of Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind is not Distant from it self and indeed were it so it could not be One thing as it is but Many every Conceivable Part of Distant and Extended Substance being a Substance by it self And the same is to be said of the Humane Soul though it Act upon Distant Parts of that Body which it is united to that it self notwithstanding is not Scattered out into Distance nor Dispersed into Multiplicity nor Infinitely Divisible because then it would not be One Single Substance or Monade but a Heap of Substances Soul is no more Divisible than Life of which the forementioned Philosopher thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will you divide a Life into two then the whole of it being but a Life the half thereof cannot be a Life Lastly if Soul and Mind and the things belonging to them as Life and Cogitation Vnderstanding and Wisdom c. be Out-spread into Distance having one Part without another then can there be no Good Reason given why they should not be as well Really and Physically as Intellectually Divisible and One Part of them Separable from another since as Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In all Magnitude or Extension This is One thing and That Another At least no Theist ought to deny but that the Divine Power could Cleave or Divide a Thought together with the Soul wherein it is into Many Pieces and remove them to the Greatest Distances from one another for as much as this implies no manner of Contradiction and whatsoever is Conceivable by us may be done by Infinite Power in which case neither of them alone would be Soul or Mind Life or Thought but all put together make up one entire Mind Soul Life and Thought Wherefore the Sense of the Ancient Incorporealists seems to have been as follows That there are in Nature Two Kinds of Substances specifically Differing from one another The First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bulks or Tumours a meer Passive Thing The Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-Active Powers or Vertues or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Energetick Nature The Former of these is nothing else but Magnitude or Extension not as an Abstract Notion of the Mind but as a Thing Really Existing without it For when it is called Res Extensa the meaning is not as if the Res were One thing and the Extension thereof Another but that it is Extension or Distance Really Existing or the Thing thereof without the Mind and not the Notion Now this in the Nature of it is Nothing but Aliud Extra Aliud One thing without Another and therefore perfect Alterity Disunity and Divisibility So that no Extensum whatsoever of any Sensible Bigness is Truly and Really One Substance but a Multitude or Heap of Substances as Many as there are Parts into which it is Divisible Moreover one Part of this Magnitude always Standing Without another it is an Essential Property thereof to be Antitypous or Impenetrable that is to Justle or Shoulder out all other Extended Substance from Penetrating into it and Co-Existing with it so as to Possess and take up the same Room or Space One yard of Distance or of Length Breadth and Thickness cannot possibly be added to another without making the Whole Extension Double to what it was before since one of them must of necessity stand without the other One Magnitude cannot Imbibe or Swallow up another nor can there be any Penetration of Dimensions Moreover Magnitude or Extension as such is meer Outside or Outwardness it hath nothing Within no Self Active Power or Vertue all its Activity being either Keeping out or Hindering any other Extended Thing from Penetrating into it which yet it doth meerly by its being Extended and therefore not so much by any Physical Efficiency as a Logical Necessity or else Local Motion to which it is also but Passive no Body or Extension as such being able to Move it self or Act upon it self Wherefore were there no other Substance in the World besides this Magnitude or Extension there could be no Motion or Action at all in it no Life Cogitation Consciousness No Intellection Appetite or Volition which things do yet make up the Greatest part of the Universe but all would be a dead Heap or Lump nor could any one Substance Penetrate another and Co-Exist in the same Place with it From whence it follows of necessity that besides this Outside Bulky Extension and Tumourous Magnitude there must be another kind of Entity whose Essential Attribute or Character is Life Self-Activity or Cogitation Which first that it is not a meer Mode or Accident of Magnitude and Extension is plain from hence because Cogitation may be as well Conceived without Extension as Extension without Cogitation whereas no Mode of any thing can be Conceived without that whereof it is a Mode And since there is unquestionably much more of Entity in Life and Cogitation than there is in meer Extension or Magnitude which is the Lowest of all Being and next to Nothing it must needs be Imputed to the meer Delusion and Imposture of Imagination that men are so prone to think this Extension or Magnitude to be the only Substance and all other things besides the meer Accidents thereof Generable out of it and Corruptible again into it For though that Secondary and Participated Life as it is called in the Bodies of Animals be indeed a meer Accident and such as may be Present or Absent without the Destruction of its Subject yet can there be no Reason given why the Primary and Original Life it self should not be as well a Substantial Thing as meer Extension and Magnitude Again that Extension and Life or Cogitation are not Two Inadequate Conceptions neither of one and the self same Substance considered brokenly and by piecemeal as if either all Extension had Life and Cogitation Essentially belonging to it as the Hylozoists conclude or at least all Life and Cogitation had Extension and consequently all Souls and Minds and even the Deity it self were either Extended Life and Cogitation or Living and Thinking Extension there being nothing in Nature Unextended but Extension the only Entity so that whatsoever is devoid thereof is ipso facto Absolutely Nothing This I say will also appear from hence because as hath been already declared we cannot Conceive a Life or Mind or Thought nor any thing at all belonging to a Cogitative Being as such as Wisdom Folly Vertue Vice c. to be Extended into Length Breadth and Thickness and to be Mensurable by Inches Feet and Yards From whence it may be concluded that Extension and Life or Cogitation are no Inadequate Conceptions of One and the self same thing since they cannot be Complicated together into one but that they are distinct Substances from each other Lives and Minds are such Tight and Compact Things in themselves and
that there could not possibly be any such Men and Animals as now are Compounded out of them but every Man and Animal would be a Heap of Innumerable Percipients and have Innumerable Perceptions and Intellections whereas it is plain that there is but one Life and Vnderstanding one Soul or Mind one Perceiver or Thinker in every one And to say that these innumerable Particles of Matter Do all Confederate together that is to make every Man and Animal to be a Multitude or Common-wealth of Percipients and Persons as it were clubbing together is a thing so Absurd and Ridiculous that one would wonder the Hylozoists should not rather chuse to recant that their Fundamental Errour of the Life of Matter than endeavour to seek Shelter and Sanctuary for the same under such a Pretence For though Voluntary Agents and Persons may Many of them resign up their wills to One and by that means have all but as it were One Artificial Will yet can they not possibly resign up their Sense and Vnderstanding too so as to have all but one Artificial Life Sense and Understanding much less could this be done by Senseless Atoms or Particles of Matter supposed to be devoid of all Consciousness or Animality Besides which there have been other Arguments already suggested which do sufficiently Evince that Sense and Vnderstanding cannot possibly belong to Matter any way either Originally or Secondarily to which more may be added else where And now from these Two things That Life and Vnderstanding do not Essentially belong to Matter as such and that they cannot be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter it is Demonstratively Certain that there must be some other Substance besides Body or Matter However the Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheists taking it for granted that the First Principles of Body are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding must either acknowledge a Necessity of some other Substance besides Body or else deny the Truth of that Axiom so much made use of by thâ—mselves That Nothing can come out of Nothing And this was our Second Vndertaking to shew that from the very Principles of the Atheistick Corporealism represented in the Fifth and Sixth Heads Incorporeal Substance is against those Atheists themselves Demonstrable Our Third and Last was this That there being undeniably Substance Incorporeal the Two next following Atheistick Argumentations built upon the contrary Supposition are therefore altogether Insignificant also and do no Execution at all The first of which being the Seventh Impugning only such a Soul of the World as is Generated out of Matter is not properly Directed against Theism neither but only such a Form of Atheism sometime before mentioned as indeed cometh nearest to Theism Which though concluding all things to have sprung Originally from Sensless Matter Night and Chaos yet supposes things from thence to have ascended Gradually to higher and higher perfection First Inanimate Bodies as the Elements then Birds and other Brute Animals according to the forementioned Aristophanick Tradition with which agreeth this of Lucretius Principio Genus Alituum variaeque Volucres Afterward Men and in the last place Gods and that not only the Animated Stars but Jupiter or a Soul of the world Generated also out of Night and Chaos as well as all other things We grant indeed that the True and Real Theists amongst the Ancient Pagans also held the World's Animation and whosoever denied the same were therefore accompted Absolute Atheists But the World's Animation in a larger Sense signifies no more than this That all things are not Dead about us but that there is a Living Sentient and Vnderstanding Nature Eternal that first Framed the World and still Presideth over it and it is certain that in this Sense all Theists whatsoever must hold the World's Animation But the Generality of Pagan Theists held the World's Animation also in a stricter Sense as if the World were Truly and Properly an Animal and therefore a God Compleated and made up of Soul and Body together as other Animals are Which Soul of this great World-Animal was to some of them the Highest or Supreme Deity but to others only a Secondary God they supposing an Abstract Mind Superiour to it But God's being the Soul of the World in this Latter Paganick Sense and the World 's being an Animal or a God are things Absolutely disclaimed and renounced by us However this Seventh Atheistick Argument is not directed against the Soul of the world in the Sense of the Paganick Theists neither this being as they think already Confuted but in the Sense of the Atheistick Theogonists not an Eternal Vnmade Soul or Mind but a Native and Generated One only such as resulted from the Disposition of Matter and Contexture of Atoms the Offspring of Night and Chaos the Atheists here pretending after their Confutation of the True and Genuine Theism to take away all Shadows thereof also and so to free Men from all manner of Fear of being obnoxious to any Understanding Being Superiour to themselves Wherefore we might here omit the Confutation of this Argument without any detriment at all to the Cause of Theism Nevertheless because this in General is an Atheistick Assertion That there is no Life and Vnderstanding presiding over the Whole World we shall briefly examine the Supposed Grounds thereof which alone will be a sufficient Confutation of it The First of them therefore is this that there is no other Substance in the world besides Body The Second That the Principles of Bodies are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding and the Last That Life and Vnderstanding are but Accidents of Bodies resulting from such a Composition or Contexture of Atoms as produceth soft Flesh Blood and Brains in Bodies Organized and of Humane Form From all which the Conclusion is that there can be no Life and Vnderstanding in the Whole because it is not of Humane Form and Organized and hath no Blood and Brains But neither is Body the only Substance Nor are Life and Vnderstanding Accidents resulting from any Modification of Dead and Lifeless Matter Nor is Blood or Brains that which Vnderstandeth in us but an Incorporeal Soul or Mind Vitally united to a Terrestrial Organized Body which will then understand with far greater advantage when it comes to be Clothed with a Pure Spiritual and Heavenly One But there is in the Universe also a higher kind of Intellectual Animals which though consisting of Soul and Body likewise yet have neither Flesh nor Blood nor Brains nor Parts so Organized as ours are And the most Perfect Mind and Intellect of all is not the Soul of any Body but Complete in it self without such Vital Vnion and Sympathy with Matter We conclude therefore that this Passage of a Modern Writer We Worms cannot conceive how God can Vnderstand without Brains is Vox Pecudis the Language and Philosophy rather of Worms or Brute Animals then of Men. The next which is the Eighth Atheistick Argumentation is briefly this that whereas
the Deity by Theists is generally supposed to be a Living Being Perfectly Happy and Immortal or Incorruptible there can be no such Living Being Immortal and Consequently none Perfectly Happy Because all Living Beings whatsoever are Concretions of Atoms which as they were at first Generated so are they again liable to Death and Curruption Life being no Simple Primitive Nature nor Substantial thing but a meer Accidental Modification of Compounded Bodies only which upon the Disunion of their Parts or the Disordering of their Contexture vanisheth again into Nothing And there being no Life Immortal Happiness must needs be a meer Insignificant Word and but a Romantick Fiction Where first This is well that the Atheists will confess that according to their Principles there can be no such thing at all as Happiness because no Security of Future Permanency all Life perpetually coming Out of Nothing and whirling back into Nothing again But this Atheistick Argument is likewise Founded upon the Former Errour That Body is the Only Substance the First Principles whereof are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding whereas it is certain that Life cannot possibly result from any Composition of Dead and Lifeless things and therefore must needs be a Simple and Primitive Nature It is true indeed that the Participated Life in the Bodies of Animals which yet is but improperly called Life it being Nothing but their being Actuated by a Living Soul is a meer Accidental thing Generable and Corruptible since that Body which is now Vitally united to a Living Soul may be Disunited again from it and thereby become a Dead and Lifeless Carcase but the Primary or Original Life it self is Substantial nor can there be any Dead Carcase of a Humane Soul That which hath Life Essentially belonging to the Substance of it must needs be Naturally Immortal because no Substance can of it self Perish or Vanish into Nothing Besides which there must be also some not only Substantial but also Eternal Vnmade Life whose Existence is Necessary and which is Absolutely Vnannihilable by any thing else which therefore must needs have Perfect Security of its own future Happiness And this is an Incorporeal Deity And this is a Brief Confutation of the Eight Atheistick Argument BUt the Democritick Atheist proceeds endeavouring further to Disprove a God from the Phaenomena of Motion and Cogitation in the Three following Argumentations First therefore whereas Theists commonly bring an Argument from Motion to Prove a God or First Vnmoved Mover the Atheists contend on the contrary that from the very Nature of Motion the Impossibility of any such First Vnmoved Mover is clearly Demonstrable For it being an Axiom of undoubted Truth concerning Motion That Whatsoever is Moved is Moved by some other thing Or That Nothing can Move it self it follows from thence Unavoydably That there is no Aeternum Immobile No Eternal Vnmoved Mover but on the contrary that there was Aeternum Motum an Eternal Moved Or That One thing was Moved by Another from Eternity Infinitely Without any First Mover or Cause Because as Nothing could move it self So could nothing ever Move Another but what was it self before Moved by Something else To which we Reply That this Axiom Whatsoever is Moved is Moved by Another and not by It self was by Aristotle and those other Philosophers who made so much use thereof restrained to the Local Motion of Bodies only That no Body Locally Moved was ever Moved Originally from it self but from something else Now it will not at all follow from hence That therefore Nihil Movetur nisi à Moto That No Body was ever Moved but by some othâ—r Body that was also before Moved by Something else or That of necessity One Body was moved by another Body and that by another and so backwards Infinitely without any First Vnmoved or Self-Moving and Self-Active Mover as the Democritick Atheist fondly Conceits For the Motion of Bodies might proceed as Unquestionably it did from something else which is not Body and was not Before Moved Moreover the Democritick Atheist here also without any Ground imagines That were there but One Push once given to the world and no more this Motion would from thence forward always continue in it one Body still moving another to all Eternity For though this be indeed a Part of the Cartesian Hypothesis that according to the Laws of Nature A Body Moving will as well continue in Motion as a Body Resting in Rest until that Motion be Communicated and Transferred to some other Body yet is the Case different here Where it is supposed not only one Push to have been given to the world at first but also the same Quantity of Motion or Agitation to be constantly Conserved and Maintained But to let this pass because it is something a Subtle Point and not so rightly Understood by many of the Cartesians themselves We say that it is a thing Utterly Impossible That One Body should be Moved by Another Infinitely without any first Cause or Mover which was Self Active and that not from the Authority of Aristotle only Pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That in the Causes of Motion there could not Possibly be an Infinite Progress but from the Reason there subjoyned by Aristotle Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were no First Vnmoved Mover there could be no Cause of Motion at all For were all the Motion that is in the World a Passion from something else and yet no First Vnmoved Active Mover then must it be a Passion from no Agent or without an Action and Consequently proceed from Nothing and either Cause it self or be Made without a Cause Now the Ground of the Atheists Errour here is only from hence because He taketh it for granted That there is no other Substance besides Body nor any other Action but Local Motion from whence it comes to pass that to Him this Proposition No Body can Move it self is one and the same with this Nothing can Act from It self or be Self-Active And thus is the Atheistick Pretended Demonstration against a God or First Cause from Motion abundantly Confuted we having made it Manifest that there is no Consequence at all in this Argument That because No Body can Move it Self therefore there can be no First Vnmoved Mover as also having discovered the Ground of the Atheists Errour here their taking it for granted that there is Nothing but Body and lastly having plainly showed that it implies a Contradiction there should be Action and Motion in the World and yet Nothing Self-Moving or Self-Active So that it is Demonstratively certain from Motion that there is a First Cause or Vnmoved Mover We shall now further add That from the Principle acknowledged by the Democritick Atheists themselves That No Body can move it self it follows also undeniably that there is some Other Substance besides Body something Incorporeal which is Self-Moving and Self-Active and was the First Vnmoved Mover of the Heavens or World For
could not have thought it possible that ever any man should have given entertainment to such a Conceit but that this was rather a meer Slander raised upon Atheists were it not certain from the Records of Antiquity That whereas the old Religious Atomists did upon Good Reason reduce all Corporeal Action as Generation Augmentation and alteration to Local Motion or Translation from place to place there being no other Motion besides this Conceivable in Bodies the ancient Atheizers of that Philosophy Leucippus and Democritus not contented herewith did Really carry the business still on further so as to make Cogitation it self also Nothing but Local Motion As it is also certain that a Modern Atheistick Pretender to Wit hath publickly owned this same Conclusion That Mind is Nothing else but Local Motion in the Organick parts of Mans Body These men have been sometimes indeed a little Troubled with the Phancy Apparition or Seeming of Cogitation that is The Consciousness of it as knowing not well what to make thereof but then they put it off again and satisfie themselves worshipfully with this that Phancy is but Phancy but the Reality of Cogitation nothing but Local Motion as if there were not as much Reality in Phancy and Consciousness as there is in Local Motion That which inclined these men so much to this Opinion was only because they were Sensible and Aware of this that if there were any other Action besides Local Motion admitted there must needs be some other Substance acknowledged besides Body Cartesius indeed undertook to defend Brute Animals to be Nothing else but Machines but then he supposed that there was Nothing at all of Cogitation in them and Consequently nothing of true Animality or Life no more than is in Artificial Automaton as a Wooden Eagle or the like Nevertheless this was justly thought to be Paradox enough But that Cogitation it self should be Local Motion and Men nothing but Machines this is such a Paradox as none but either a Stupid and Besotted or else an Enthusiastick Bigotical or Fanatick Atheist could possibly give entertainment to Nor are such men as these fit to be Disputed with any more than a Machine is But whereas the Atheistick Objecter adds also over and above in the last place that no Vnderstanding Being can be Perfectly Happy neither and therefore not a God because Essentially Dependent upon something else without it This is all one as if he should say That there is no such thing as Happiness at all in Nature Because it is certain that without Consciousness or Vnderstanding nothing can be Happy since it could not have any Fruition of it self and if no Vnderstanding Being can be Happy neither then must the Conclusion needs be that of the Cyrenaicks that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happiness is a meer Chimera a Phantastick Notion or Fiction of Mens Minds a thing which hath no Existence in Nature These are the men who afterwards Argue from Interesse also against a God and Religion Notwithstanding that they confess their own Principles to be so far from promising Happiness to any as that they absolutely Cut off all Hopes thereof It may be further observed also in the last place that there is another of the Atheists Dark Mysteries here likewise couched That there is no Scale or Ladder of Entity and Perfection in Nature one above another the whole Universe from top to bottom being Nothing but One and the same Sensless Matter diversly Modified As also that Vnderstanding as such rather speaks Imperfection it being but a meer Whisling Evanid and Phantastick thing so that the most absolutely Perfect of all things in the Universe is Grave Solid and Substantial Sensless Matter of which more afterwards And thus is the Tenth Atheistick Argumentation also Confuted But the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists will make yet a further Assault from the Nature of Knowledge Vnderstanding after this manner If the World were Made by a God or an Antecedent Mind and Understanding having in it self an Exemplar or Platform thereof before it was made then must there be Actual Knowledge both in order of Nature and Time before Things whereas Things which are the Objects of Knowledge and Vnderstanding are unquestionably in order of Nature before Knowledge this being but the Signature of them and a Passion from them Now the only Things are Singular Sensibles or Bodies From whence it follows that Mind is the Youngest and most Creaturely Thing in the world or that the World was before Knowledge and the Conception of any Mind and no Knowledge or Mind before the world as its Cause Which is the Eleventh Atheistick Argumentation But we have Prevented our selves here in the Answer to this Argument which would make all Knowledge Mind and Vnderstanding Junior to the World and the very Creature of Sensibles having already Fully Confuted it and clearly Proved That Singular Bodies are not the only Things and Objects of the Mind but that it containeth its Immediate Intelligibles within it self which Intelligibles also are Eternal and That Mind is no Phantastick Image of Sensibles nor the Stamp and Signature of them but Archetypal to them the First Mind being That of a Perfect Being comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Omnipotence or the Possibilities of all things So that Knowledg is Older than all Sensible things Mind Senior to the World and the Architect thereof Wherefore we shall refer the Reader for an Answer to this Argument to Page 729. and so onwards where the Existence of a God that is a Mind before the World is Demonstrated also from this very Topick viz. the Nature of Knowledge and Vnderstanding We shall in this place only add that as the Atheists can no way Salve the Phaenomenon of Motion so can they much less that of Cogitation or Life and Vnderstanding To make which yet the more Evident we shall briefly represent a Syllabus or Catalogue of the many Atheistick Hallucinations or Delirations concerning it As First That Sensless Matter being the only Substance and all things else but Accidental Modifications thereof Life and Mind is all a meer Accidental Thing Generable and Corruptible Producible out of Nothing and Reducible to Nothing again and that there is no Substantial Life or Mind any where In Opposition to which we have before proved That there must of necessity be some Substantial Life and that Humane Souls being Lives Substantial and not meer Accidental Modifications of Matter they are consequently in their own Nature Immortal since No Substance of it self ever vanisheth into Nothing Again the Democriticks and other Atheists conclude that Life and Mind are no Simple and Primitive Natures but Secondary and Compounded things they resulting from certain Concretions and Contextures of Matter and either the Commixtures and Contemporations of Qualities or else the Combinations of those Simple Elements of Magnitude Figure Site and Motion and so being Made up of that which hath Nothing of Life or Mind in it For as Flesh is
Soul and Mind to have sprung up afterwards out of them Nay they do not only Seem to suppose this but also in Express Words declare the same And thus by Jupiter have we discovered the very Fountain of that Atheistick Madness of the Ancient Physiologers to wit their making Inanimate Bodies Senior to Soul and Mind And accordingly that Philosopher addresses himself to the Confutation of Atheism no otherwise than thus by proving Soul not to be Junior to Sensless Body or Inanimate Matter and Generated out of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is the First Cause of the Generation and Corruption of all Things the Atheistick Doctrine supposes not to have been First Made but what is indeed the Last thing to be the First And hence is it that they erre concerning the Essence of the Gods For they are ignorant what kind of thing Soul is and what power it hath as also especially concerning its Generation and Production That it was First of all made before Body it being that which Governs the Motions Changes and Transformations thereof But if Soul be First in Order of Nature before Body then must those things which are Cognate to Soul be also before the Things which appertain to Body and so Mind and Vnderstanding Art and Law be before Hard and Soft Heavy and Light and that which these Atheists call Nature the Motion of Inanimate Bodies Junior to Art and Mind it being Governed by the same Now that Soul is in order of Nature before Body this Philosopher demonstrates only from the Topick or Head of Motion because it is Impossible that one Body should Move another Infinitely without any First Cause or Mover but there must of Necessity be something Self-Moving and Self-Active or which had a power of Changing it Self that was the first Cause of all Local Motion in Bodies And this being the very Notion of Soul that it is such a thing as can Move or Change it self in which also the Essence of Life consisteth He thus inferreth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is therefore sufficiently demonstrated from hence that Soul is the Oldest of all things in the Corporeal World it being the Principle of all the Motion and Generation in it And his Conclusion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath been therefore rightly affirmed by us that Soul is Older than Body and was Made Before it and Body Younger and Junior to Soul Soul being that which Ruleth and Body that which is Ruled From whence it follows that the Things of Soul also are Older than the things of Body and therefore Cogitation Intellection Volition and Appetite in order of Nature before Length Breadth and Profundity Now it is Evident that Plato in all this Understood not only the Mundane Soul or his Third Divine Hypostasis the Original of that Motion that is in the Heavens and the whole Corporeal Universe but also all other Particular Lives and Souls whatsoever or that whole Rank of Beings called Soul he supposing it all to have been at first made before the Corporeal System or at least to have been in order of Nature Senior to it as Superiour and more excellent that which Ruleth being Superiour to that which is Ruled and no Soul or Life whatsoever to be Generated out of Sensless Matter Wherefore we must needs here condemn that Doctrine of some Professed Theists and Christians of Latter Times who Generate all Souls not only the Sensitive in Brutes but also the Rational in Men out of Matter For as much as hereby not only that Argument for the Existence of a God from Souls is quite taken away and nothing could hinder but that Sensless Matter might be the Original of all things if Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind sprung out of it but also the Atheist will have an advantage to prove the Impossibility of a God from hence Because if Life and Vnderstanding in their own Nature be Factitious and Generable out of Matter then are they no Substantial Things but Accidental only from whence it will plainly follow that no Mind could possibly be a God or First Cause of all things it being not so much as able to Subsist by it Self Moreover if Mind as such be Generable and Educible out of Nothing then must it needs be in its own Nature Corruptible also and Reducible to Nothing again whereas the Deity is both an Vnmade and Incorruptible Being So that there could not possibly be according to this Hypothesis any other God than such a Jupiter or Soul of the World as the Atheistick Theogonists acknowledged that Sprung out of Night Chaos and Non-Entity and may be again Swallowed up into that Dark Abyss Sensless Matter therefore being the only Vnmade and Incorruptible thing and the Fountain of all things Even of Life and Vnderstanding it must needs be acknowledged to be the Only Real Numen Neither will the Case be much different as to some others who though indeed they do not professedly Generate the Rational but only the Sensitive Soul both in Men and Brutes yet do nevertheless maintain the Humane Soul it self to be but a meer Blank or White Sheet of Paper that hath nothing at all in it but what was Scribled upon it by the Objects of Sense and Knowledge or Understanding to be nothing but the Result of Sense and so a Passion from Sensible Bodies existing without the Knower For hereby as they plainly make Knowledge and Vnderstanding to be in its own Nature Junior to Sense and the very Creature of Sensibles so do they also imply the Rational Soul and Mind it self to be as well Generated as the Sensitive wherein it is Vertually Contained or to be nothing but a Higher Modification of Matter agreeably to that Leviathan Doctrine That men differ no otherwise from Brute Animals then only in their Organization and the Use of Speech or Words In very truth Whoever maintaineh that any Life or Soul any Cogitation or Consciousness Self-Perception and Self-Activity can spring out of Dead Sensless and Unactive Matter the same can never possibly have any Rational Assurance but that his own Soul had also a like Original and Consequently is Mortal and Corruptible For if any Life and Cogitation can be thus Generated then is there no Reason but that all Lives may be so they being but Higher Degrees in the same Kind and neither Life nor any thing else can be in its own Nature Indifferent to be either Substance or Accident and sometimes one sometimes the other but either all Life Cogitation and Consciousness is Accidental Generable and Corruptible or else none at all That which hath inclined so many to think the Sensitive Life at least to be nothing but a Quality or Accident of Matter Generable out of it and Corruptible into it is that strange Protean Transformation of Matter into so many seemingly Unaccountable Forms and Shapes together with the Scholastick Opinion threupon of Real Qualities that is Entities distinct from the Substance of
Body and its Modifications but yet Generable out of it and Corruptible into it They concluding that as Light and Colours Heat and Cold c. according to those Phancies which we have of them are Real Qualities of Matter distinct from its Substance and Modifications so may Life Sense and Cogitation be in like manner Qualities of Matter also Generable and Corruptible But these Real Qualities of Body in the Sense declared are things that were long since justly exploded by the Ancient Atomists and expunged out of the Catalogue of Entities of whom Laertius hath Recorded that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite cashier and banish Qualities out of their Philosophy they resolving all Corporeal Phaenomena and therefore those of Heat and Cold Light and Colours Fire and Flame c. intelligibly into nothing but the Different Modifications of Extended Substance viz. More or Less Magnitude of Parts Figure Site Motion or Rest or the Combinations of them and those different Phancies Caused in us by them Indeed there is no other Entity but Substance and its Modifications Wherefore the Democriticks and Epicureans did most shamefully contradict themselves when pretending to reject and explode all those Entities of Real Qualities themselves nevertheless made Life and Vnderstanding such Real Qualities of Matter Generable out of it and Corruptible again into it There is nothing in Body or Matter but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion or Rest now it is Mathematically Certain that these however Combin'd together can never possibly Compound or Make up Life or Cogitation which therefore cannot be an Accident of Matter but must of necessity be a Substantial thing We speak not here of that Life improperly so called which is in Vulgar Speech attributed to the Bodies of Men and Animals for it is plainly Aâ—cidental to a Body to be Vitally Vnited to a Soul or not Therefore is this Life of the Compound Corruptible and Destroyable without the Destruction of any Real Entity there being nothing Destroyed nor Lost to the Universe in the Deaths of Men and Animals as such but only a Disunion or Separation made of those Two Substances Soul and Body one from another But we speak here of the Original Life of the Soul it self that this is Substantial neither Generable nor Corruptible but only Creatable and Annihilable by the Deity And it is strange that any men should perswade themselves that that which Rules and Commands in the Bodies of Animals moving them up and down and hath Sense or Perception in it should not be as Substantial as that Stupid and Sensless Matter that is Ruled by it Neither can Matter which is also but a meer Passive thing Efficiently produce Soul any more than Soul Matter no Finite Imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of Nothing Much less can such a Substance as hath a Lower Degree of Entity and Perfection in it Create that which hath a Higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Entities and Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in Way of Ascent from Lower to Higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from Higher to Lower Now to produce any One Higher Rank of Being from the Lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from Downwards to Vpwards and therefore is it Atheistical and by the Same reason that One Higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally Produced from a Lower may all the rest be so produced also Wherefore we have great reason to stand upon our Guard here and to defend this Post against the Atheists That no Life or Cogitation can either Materially or Efficiently result from Dead and Sensless Body or that Souls being all Substantial and Immaterial things can neither be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same but only Created or Annihilated by the Deity The Grand Objection against this Substantiality of Souls Sensitive as well as Rational is from that Consequence which will be from thence inferred of their Permanent Subsistence after Death their Perpetuity or Immortality This seeming very absurd that the Souls of Brutes also should be Immortal or subsist after the Deaths of the Respective Animals But especially to Two Sorts of Men First such as scarcely in good earnest believe their own Soul's Immortality and Secondly such Religionists as conclude that if Irrational or Sensitive Souls subsist after Death then must they needs go presently either into Heaven or Hell And R. Cartesius was so sensible of the Offensiveness of this Opinion that though he were fully convinced of the necessity of this Disjunction that either Brutes have nothing of Sense or Cogitation at all or else they must have some other Substance in them besides Matter he chose rather to make them meer Sensless Machins then to allow them Substantial Souls Wherein avoiding a Lesser Absurdity or Paradox he plainly plunged himself into a Greater scarcely any thing being more generally received than the Sense of Brutes Though in truth all those who deny the Substantiality of Sensitive Souls and will have Brutes to have nothing but Matter in them ought consequently according to Reason to do as Cartesius did deprive them of all Sense But on the contrary if it be evident from the Phaenomena that Brutes are not meer Sensless Machins or Automata and only like Clocks or Watches then ought not Popular Opinion and Vulgar Prejudice so far to prevail with us as to hinder our Assent to that which sound Reason and Philosophy clearly dictates that therefore they must have something more than Matter in them Neither ought we when we clearly conceive any thing to be true as this That Life and Cogitation cannot possibly rise out of Dead and Sensless Matter to abandon it or deny our Assent thereunto because we find it attended with some Difficulty not easily Extricable by us or cannot free all the Consequences thereof from some Inconvenience or Absurdity such as seems to be in the Permanent Subsistence of Brutish Souls For the giving an Account of which notwithstanding Plato and the Ancient Pythagoreans proposed this following Hypothesis That Souls as well Sensitive as Rational being all Substantial but not Self-Existent because there is but one Fountain and Principle of all things were therefore Produced or Caused by the Deity But this not in the Generations of the respective Animals it being indecorous that this Divine Miraculous Creative Power should constantly lacquey by and attend upon Natural Generations as also incongruous that Souls should be so much Juniors to Every Atom of Dust that is in the whole World but either all of them from Eternity according to those who Denied the Novity of the World or rather according to others who asserted the Cosmogonia in the first beginning of the World's Creation Wherefore it being also Natural to Souls as such to Actuate and Enliven some Body or to be as it
were Clothed therewith these as soon as Created were immediatly Invested with certain Thin and Subtle Bodies or put into Light Ethereal or Aereal Chariots and Vehicles wherein they subsist both before their Entrance into other Gross Terrestrial Bodies and after their Egress out of them So that the Souls not only of men but also of other Animals have sometimes a Thicker and sometimes a Thinner Indument or Clothing And thus do we understand Boetius not only of the Rational but also of the other Inferior Sensitive Souls in these Verses of his Tu Causis Animas paribus Vitasque Minores Provehis Levibus sublimes Curribus aptans In Coelum Terramque seris Where his Light Chariots which all Lives or Souls at their very First Creation by God are placed in and in which being wasted they are both together as as it were Sowed into the Gross Terrestrial Matter are Thin Aereal and Ethereal Bodies But this is plainly declared by Proclus upon the Timaeus after he had spoken of the Souls of Demons and Men in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And every Soul must of necessity have before these Mortal Bodies certain Eternal and easily moveable Bodies it being Essential to them to move There is indeed mention made by the same Proclus and others of an Opinion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irrational or Brutish Demons or Demoniack Aereal Brutes of which he sometime speaks doubtfully as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any Irrational Demons as the Theurgists affirm But the Dispute Doubt or Controversie here only was Whether there were any such Irrational Demons Immortal or no. For thus we learn from these Words of Ammonius upon the Porphyrian Isagoge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some affirm that there is a certain kind of Irrational Demons Immortal but others that all these Irrational or Brutish Demons are Mortal Where by Irrational Demons Immortal seem to be understood such as never Descend into Terrestrial Bodies and these are there disclaimed by Ammonius but the Mortal Ones such as act also upon Gross Terrestrial Bodies obnoxious to Death and Corruption As if Ammonius should have said There are no other Brutish or Irrational Demons than only the Souls of such Brute Animals as are here amongst us sometimes acting only Aereal Bodies Thus according to the ancient Pythagorick Hypothesis There is neither any New Substantial thing now Made which was not before nor yet any Real Entity Destroyed into Nothing not only no Matter but also no Soul nor Life God after the First Creation neither making any New Substance nor yet Annihilating any thing made He then Creating nothing that was not fit to be Conserved in Being and which could not be well Used and Placed in the Universe and afterward never Repenting him of what he had before done And Natural Generations and Corruptions being nothing but Accidental Mutations Concretions and Secretions or Anagrammatical Transpositions of Prae and Post-Existing things the same Souls and Lives being sometimes United to one Body and sometimes to another Sometimes in Thicker and sometimes in Thinner Clothing and sometimes in the Visible sometimes in the Invisible they having Aereal as well as Terrestrial Vehicles and never any Soul quite naked of all Body And thus does Proclus complain of some as Spurious Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who Destroying the Thinner Vehicles of Souls were therefore necessitated sometimes to leave them in a State of Separation from all Body or without any Corporeal Indument Which Cabbala probably derived from the Egyptians by Pythagoras was before fully represented by us out of Ovid though that Transmigration of Humane Souls there into Ferine Bodies hath not been by all acknowledged as a Genuine Part thereof And the same was likewise insisted upon by Virgil. Georg. L. 4. as also owned and confirmed by Macrobius for a Great Truth Constat secundum verae rationis Assertionem quam nec Cicero nescit nec Virgilius ignorat dicendo Nec Morti esse Locum Constat inquam Nihil intra Vivum Mundum perire sed eorum quae interire videntur solam mutari Speciem It is manifest according to Reason and True Philosophy which neither Cicero nor Virgil were unacquainted with the Latter of these affirming That there is no place at all left for Death I say it is manifest that none of those things that to us seem to die do absolutely perish within the Living World but only their Forms changed Now how extravagant soever this Hypothesis seem to be yet is there no Question but that a Pythagorean would endeavour to find some Countenance and Shelter for it in the Scripture especially that place which hath so puzled and non-plus'd Interpreters Rom. 8.19 For the Earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God For the Creature was made subject unto Vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God For we know that the whole Creation Groaneth and Travelleth in pain together until now And not only they but our selves also which have the First Fruits of the Spirit Groan within Our selves Waiting for the Adoption even the Redemption of our Bodies Where it is first of all evident 〈◊〉 that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Creature or Creation Spoken of is not the very same the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Children or Sons of God but something distinct from them Wherefore in the next place the Pythagorean will add that it must of necessity be understood either of the Inanimate Creature only or of the Lower Animal Creation or else of both these together Now though it be readily acknowledged that there is a Prosopopoeia here yet cannot all those Expressions for all that without difficulty and violence be understood of the Inanimate Creation only or Sensless Matter Viz. That this hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Earnest Expectation of some future Good to it self That it is now made Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Vanity Frustration and Disappointment of Desire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Corruption and Death And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Willingly but Reluctantly And yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too In Hope notwithstanding of some further Good to follow afterward and that it doth in the mean time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Groan and Travel in Pain together till it be at length delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God Moreover in the Generations and Corruptions of Senseless Bodies as of Minerals and Vegetables or when for example Oyl is turned into Flame Flame into Smoke Water into Vapour Vapour into Snow or Hail Grass into Milk Milk into Blood and Bones and the like there is I say in all this no Hurt done to
appears that there is no Reason at all for that Fear and Suspition of some That if the Souls of Brutes be Substantial and continue in Being after Death they must therefore needs go either to Heaven or Hell But as for that Supposed Possibility of their awakening again afterwards in some other Terrestial Bodies this seemeth to be no more than what is found by dayly Experience in the Course of Nature when the Silk-worm and other Worms dying are transformed into Butterflies For there is little Reason to doubt but that the same Soul which before Acted the Body of the Silk-worm doth afterward Act that of the Butterfly upon which account it is that this hath been made by Christian Theologers an Emblem of the Resurrection Hitherto have we declared Two several Opinions concerning the Substantial Souls of Brutes supposed therefore to have a Permanent Subsistence after Death one of Plato's and the Pythagorean's that when they are devested of these Gross Terrestrial Bodies they Live and have a Sense of themselves in Thin Aerial ones The other of such as Exploding these Aerial Vehicles of Brutes and allowing them none but Terrestrial Bodies affirm the Substances of them Surviving Death to continue in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Sleep Silence or Stupor But now to say the Truth there is no Absolute Necessity that these Souls of Brutes because Substantial should therefore have a Permanent Subsistence after Death to all Eternity Because though it be True that no Substance once Created by God will of it self ever vanish into nothing yet is it true also that whatsoever was Created by God out of Nothing may possibly by him be Annihilated and Reduced to nothing again Wherefore when it is said that the Immortality of the Humane Soul is Demonstrable by Natural Reason the meaning hereof is no more than this that its Substantiality is so Demonstrable from whence it follows that it will Naturally no more perish or vanish into Nothing than the Substance of Matter it self and not that it is Impossible either for it or Matter by Divine Power to be Annihilated Wherefore the assurance that we have of our own Souls Immortality must depend upon something else besides their Substantiality namely a Faith also in the Divine Goodness that he will conserve in Being or not Annihilate all such Substances Created by him whose Permanent Subsistence is neither Inconsistent with his own Attributes nor the Good of the Vniverse as this of Rational Souls unquestionably is not they having both Morality and Liberty of Will and thereby being capable of Rewards and Punishments and Consequently Fit Objects for the Divine Justice to display it self upon But for ought we can be certain the case may be otherwise as to the Souls of Brute Animals devoid both of Morality and Liberty of Will and therefore Uncapable of Reward and Punishment That though they will not Naturally of themselves vanish into Nothing yet having been Created by God in the Generations of the Respective Animals and had some enjoyment of themselves for a time they may by him again be as well Annihilated in their Deaths and Corruptions and if this be Absolutely the Best then doubtless is it so And to this seemeth agreeable the Opinion of Porphyrius amongst the Philosophers when he affirmed every Irrational Power or Soul to be resolved into the Life of the Whole that is Retracted and Resumed into the Deity and so Annihilated as to its Creaturely Nature Though possibly there may be another Interpretation of that Philosophers meaning here Viz. That all the Sensitive Souls of Brutes are Really but one and the same Mundane Soul as it were Out-flowing and variously Displaying it self and Acting upon all the several parts of Matter that are capable to receive it but at their Deaths retiring again back into it self But we have Sufficiently retunded the Force of that Objection against the Ingenerability of all Souls and the Substantiality of those of Brutes also from their consequent Permanence after Death we having shewed That notwithstanding this their Substantiality there is no Absolute Necessity of their Perpetuity after Death and Permanency to all Eternity or else that if they do continue to Subsist God Annihilating no Substance unless they have Aerial Vehicles to Act they must remain in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Silence or Sleep Now therefore if no Souls no Life nor Cogitation could possibly be ever Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter they being not meer Accidents but Substantial things which must in this case have come from Nothing then either all Souls Existed of themselves from Eternity or else there must of Necessity be some Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all the other Lives and Minds were derived And that this was the Doctrine of the Ancient Theists That no Soul or Mind no Life or Vnderstanding was ever Generated out of Matter but all Produced by the Deity the Sole Fountain of Life and Understanding might be here proved were it needful at large by sundry Testimonies but it may sufficiently appear from those Verses of Virgil First in his Sixth Aenead where after he had spoken of God as a Spirit and Mind diffused thorough out the whole world he addeth Inde hominum pecudumque genus Vitaeque Volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore Pontus That from thence are the Lives of all Men and Beasts Birds flying in the Air and Monsters swimming in the Sea And again in his Georgicks where after these words Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum That God passeth through all Tracts of Earths Seas and Heavens He subjoyneth Hinc Pecudes Armenta Viros genus omne Ferarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere Vitas Scilicet huc Reddi deinde Resoluta Referri Omnia nec Morti esse locum And from Hence not only Men but also all manner of Brute Animals and Beasts when produced into this world do every one derive their Lives or Souls as also at their Deaths they render the same back again to him in whose hand or custody they remain undestroyed so that there is no place any where in the world left for Death This was therefore undoubtedly the Genuine Doctrine of the Ancient Theists however some of late have Deviated and Swerved from it That no Life was Generated out of Matter but all Created by the Deity or Derived from it the Sole Fountain of Lives and Souls And it is a Truth so evident That Life being Substantial and not a meer Accidental thing Generated and Corrupted there must therefore of Necessity be Some Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all other Lives and Minds are derived That the Hylozoick Atheists themselves in this far wiser than the Atomicks were fully convinced thereof Nevertheless being strongly possessed with that Atheistick Prejudice that there is no other Substance besides Body they Attribute this first Original Vnmade Life and Understanding to
the Regurgitation of the Faeces upward towards the Ventricle The First Atheistick Instance of the Faultiness of things in the Frame of Nature is from the Constitution of the Heavens and the Disposition of the Aequator and Ecliptick intersecting each other in an Angle of Three and Twenty Degrees and upwards whereby as they pretend the Terrestrial Globe is rendred much more Uninhabitable than otherwise it might be But this is built upon a False Supposition of the Ancients that the Torrid Zone or all between the Tropicks was utterly Uninhabitable by reason of the Extremity of Heat And it is certain that there is nothing which doth more demonstrate a Providence than this very thing it being the most Convenient Site or Disposition that could be devised as will appear if the Inconveniences of other Dispositions be considered especially these Three First If the Axes of those Circles should be Parallel and their Plains Coincident Secondly If they should Intersect each other in Right Angles and Thirdly which is a Middle betwixt both If they should cut one another in an Angle of Forty Five Degrees For it is evident that each of these Dispositions would be attended with far greater Inconveniences to the Terrestrial Inhabitants in respect of the Length of Days and Nights Heat and Cold. And that these two Circles should continue thus to keep the same Angular Intersection when Physical and Mechanick Causes would bring them still nearer together this is a farther Eviction of a Providence also In the next place the Atheist supposes that according to the general Perswasion of Theists the world and all things therein were Created only for the Sake of Man he thinking to make some advantage for his Cause from hence But this seemeth at first to have been an Opinion only of some strait-laced Stoicks though afterward indeed recommended to others also by their own Self-love their Over Weaning and Puffy Conceit of themselves And so Fleas and Lice had they Understanding might conclude the Bodies of other greater Animals and Men also to have been made only for them But the Whole was not properly made for any Part but the Parts for the Whole and the Whole for the Maker thereof And yet may the things of this Lower World be well said to have been Mâ—de Principally though not Only for Man For we ought not to Monopolize the Divine Goodness to our selves there being other Animals Superiour to us that are not altogether Unconcerned neither in this Visible Creation and it being reasonable to think that Even the Lower Animals likewise and whatsoever hath Conscious Life was made partly also to Enjoy it self But Atheists can be no Fit Judges of Worlds being made Well or Ill either in general or respectively to Mankind they having no Standing Measure for Well and Ill without a God and Morality nor any True Knowledge of themselves and what their own Good or Evil Consisteth in That was at first but a Froward Speech of some sullen discontented Persons when things falling not out agreeably to their own Private Selfish and Partial Appetites they would Revenge themselves by Railing upon Nature that is Providence and calling her a Stepmother only to Mankind whilst she was a Fond Partial and Indulgent Mother to other Animals and though this be Elegantly set off by Lucretius yet is there nothing but Poetick Flourish in it all without any Philosophick Truth The Advantages of Mankind being so notoriously conspicuous above those of Brutes But as for Evils in general from whence the Atheist would conclude the God of the Theist to be either Impotent or Envious it hath been already declared that the True Original of them is from the Necessity of Imperfect Beings and the Incompossibility of things but that the Divine Art and Skill most of all appeareth in Bonifying these Evils and making them like Discords in Musick to contribute to the Harmony of the Whole and the Good of Particular Persons Moreover a great part of those Evils which men are afflicted with is not from the Reality of Things but only from their own Phancy and Opinions according to that of the Moralist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not Things themselves that disturb men but only their Own Opinions concerning things and therefore it being much in our own Power to be freed from these Providence is not to be Blamed upon the account of them Pain is many times nearly linked with Pleasure according to that Socratick Fable That when God could not reconcile their Contrary Natures as he would he Tyed them Head and Tayl together And good men know that Pain is not the Evil of the Man but only of the Part so affected as Socrates also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It goes no further than the Leg where it is But this is many times very Serviceable to free us from the Greater Evils of the Mind upon which all our Happiness dependeth To the Atheists who acknowledge no Malum Culpae No Evil of Fault Turpitude or Dishonesty Death is the Greatest and most Tragical of all Evils But though this according to their forlorn Hypothesis be nothing less than an Absolute Extinction of Life yet according to the Doctrine of the Genuine Theists which makes all Souls Substantial no Life of it self without Divine Annihilation will ever quite Vanish into Nothing any more than the Substance of Matter doth And the Ancient Pythagoreans and Platonists have been here so Kind even to the Souls of Brutes also as that they might not be left in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility after Death as to bestow upon them certain Subtle Bodies which they may then continue to Act in Nor can we think otherwise but that Aristotle from this Fountain derived that Doctrine of his in his Second Book De Gen. An. c. 3. where after he had declared the Sensitive Soul to be Inseparable from Body he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls therefore seem to have another Body and Diviner than that of the Elements and as themselves differ in Dignity and Nobility so do these Bodies of theirs differ from one another And afterwards calling this Subtle Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit he affirmeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Only as Galen and S. Austin and others have conceived Aristotle deviated here from the Pythagoreans in this that he supposed the Sensitive Soul it self to be really nothing else but this Very Subtle and Star-like Body and not a distinct Substance from it using it only as a Vehicle Nevertheless he there plainly affirmeth the Mind or Rational Soul to be really distinct from the Body and to come into it From Without Pre-Existing and consequently should acknowledge also its After-Immortality But whatsoever Aristotles Judgment were which is not very Material it is Certain that Dying to the Rational or Humane Soul is nothing but a withdrawing into the Tyring-house and putting off the Clothing of this Terrestrial Body
of a Dramatick Poem as when wicked and injurious Persons are brought upon the Stage for a while Swaggering and Triumphing impatiently cry out against the Dramatist and presently condemn the Plot whereas if they would but expect the winding up of things and stay till the last Close they should then see them come off with shame and sufficient punishment The Evolution of the World as Plotinus calls it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Truer Poem and we men Histrionical Acters upon the Stage who notwithstanding insert something of our Own into the Poem too but God Almighty is that Skilful Dramatist who always connecteth that of ours which went before with what of his follows after into good Coherent Sense and will at last make it appear that a Thred of exact Justice did run through all and that Rewards and Punishments are measured out in Geometrical Proportion Lastly it is in it self Fit that there should be some where a Doubtful and Cloudy State of things for the better Exercise of Vertue and Faith For as there could have been no Hercules had there not been Monsters to subdue so were there no such Difficulties to encounter with no Puzles and Entanglements of things no Temptations and Tryals to assault us Vertue would grow Languid and that Excellent Grace of Faith want due Occasions and Objects to exercise it self upon Here have we therefore such a State of things and this World is as it were a Stage erected for the more Difficult part of Vertue to Act upon and where we are to Live by Faith and not by Sight That Faith which is the Substance of Things to be Hoped for and the Evidence of things not Seen a Belief in the Goodness Power and Wisdom of God when all things are Dark and Clowdy round about us The Just shall live by his Faith We have now sufficiently Confuted the Second Atheistick Objection also against Providence as to the Conduct and Oeconomy of Humane Affairs Nevertheless this is a large Field and much more might be said in Defense of Providence both as to these and other Instances had we room here to Expatiate in Wherefore for a Supplement of what remains we shall refer the Reader to the Writings of others who have professedly undertaken Apology's for Providence both as to the Fabrick and Oeconomy of the World but especially the Learned and Ingenious Author of the Divine Dialogues Only we shall here add Some few Considerations not so much for the Confutation of Atheists as for the better Satisfaction of such Religionists who too easily Concluding That all Things might have been much Better than they are are thereupon apt to call in Question the Divine Attribute of Goodness in its full Extent which yet is the only Foundation of our Christian Faith First therefore we say that in Judging of the Works of God we ought not to consider the Parts of the World alone by themselves and then because we could Phancy much Finer things thereupon blame the Maker of the Whole As if one should attend only to this Earth which is but the Lowest and most Dreggy Part of the Universe or blame Plants because they have not Sense Brutes because they have not Reason Men because they are not Demons or Angels and Angels because they are not Gods or want Divine Perfection Upon which Account God should either have made nothing at all since there can be nothing besides himself Absolutely Perfect or else nothing but the Higher Rank of Angelical Beings free from Mortality and all those other Evils that attend mankind or such Fine things as Epicurus his Gods were feigned to be living in certain delicious Regions where there was neither Blustring Winds nor any Lowring Clouds nor Nipping Frosts nor Scorching Heat nor Night nor Shadow but the Calm and Unclouded Aether always Smiling with gentle Serenity Whereas were there but one kind of thing the Best thus made there could have been no Musick nor Harmony at all in the World for want of Variety But We ought in the first place to consider the Whole Whether that be not the Best that Could be Maâ—â— having all that belongeth to it and then the Parts in reference to the Whole whether they be not in their several Degrees and Ranks Congruous and Agreeable thereunto But this is a thing which hath been so well insisted upon by Plotinus that we cannot speak better to it than in his Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God made the Whole most Beautiful Entire Compleat and Sufficient all agreeing friendly with it self and its parts both the Nobler and the meaner of them being alike Congruous thereunto Whosoever therefore from the Parts thereof will blame the whole is an Absurd and Vnjust Censurer For we ought to Consider the Parts not alone by themselves but in reference to the whole whether they be Harmonious and Agreeable to the same Otherwise we shall not blame the Vniverse but some of its Parts only taken by themselves as if one should blame the Hair or Toes of a man taking no notice at all of his Divine Visage and Countenance or omitting all other Animals one should attend only to the most contemptible of them or lastly overlooking all other men consider only the most Deformed Thersites But that which God made was the Whole as one thing which he that attends to may hear it speaking to him after this manner God Almighty hath made me and from thence came I Perfect and Compleat and standing in need of nothing because in me are contained all things Plants and Animals and Good Souls and Men happy with Virtue and innumerable Demons and many Gods Nor is the Earth alone in me adorned with all manner of Plants and Variety of Animals or does the Power of Soul extend at most no further than to the Seas as if the whole Air and Aether and Heaven in the mean time were quite devoid of Soul and altogether unadorned with Living Inhabitants Moreover all things in me desire Good and every thing reaches to it according to its Power and Nature For the whole World depends upon that First and Highest Good the Gods themselves who reign in my several parts and all Animals and Plants and whatsoever seems to be Inanimate in me For Some things in me partake only of Being some of Life also some of Sense some of Reason and some of Intellect above Reason But no man ought to require Equal things from Vnequal nor that the Finger should see but the Eye it being enough for the Finger to be a Finger and to perform its own Office And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As an Artificer would not make all things in an Animal to be Eyes so neither has the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spermatick Reason of the World made all things Gods but some Gods and some Demons and some Men and some Lower Animals Not out of Envy but to display its own Variety and Fecundity But we are like Vnskilful
Spectators of a Picture who condemn the Limner because he hath not put bright Colours every where whereas he had suited his Colours to every part respectively giving to each such as belonged to it Or else are we like those who would blame a Comedy or Tragedy because they were not all Kings or Heroes that acted in it but some Servants and Rustick Clowns introduced also talking after their Rude fashion Whereas the Dramatick Poem would neither be Compleat nor Elegant and Delightful were all those Worser Parts taken out of it Again We cannot certainly conclude that the Works of God and his Creation do not transcend those narrow Limits which Vulgar Opinion and Imagination sets them that commonly terminates the Universe but a little above the Clouds or at most supposes the Fixed Stars being all fastned in One Solid Sphere to be the Utmost Wall or Arched Roof and Rowling Circumference thereof Much less ought we upon such Groundless Suppositions to infer That the World might therefore have been made much Better than it is because it might have been much more Roomy and Capacious We explode the Atheistick Infinity of Distant Worlds nor can we admit that Cartesian seemingly more Modest Indefinite Extension of one Corporeal Universe which yet really according to that Philosophers meaning hath Nullos Fines no Bounds nor Limits at all For We perswade our selves that the Corporeal World is as Uncapable of a Positive Infinity of Magnitude as it is of Time there being no Magnitude so Great but that more still might be Added to it Nevertheless as we cannot possibly Imagine the Sun to be a Quarter or an Hundredth Part so big as we know it to be so much more may the whole Corporeal Vniverse far transcend those narrow Bounds which our Imagination would circumscribe it in The New Celestial Phaenomena and the late Improvements of Astronomy and Philosophy made thereupon render it so probable that even this Dull Earth of ours is a Planet and the Sun a Fixed Star in the Centre of that Vortex wherein it moves that many have shrewdly suspected that there are other Habitable Globes besides this Earth of ours which may be Sayled round about in a year or two as also more Suns with their respective Planets than One. However the Distance of all the Fixed Stars from us being so Vast that the Diameter of the Great Orb makes no discernible Parallax in the Site of them from whence it is also probable that the other Fixed Stars are likewise vastly distant from one another This I say widens the Corporeal Vniverse to us and makes those Flammantia Moenia Mundi as Lucretius calls them Those Flaming Walls of the World to fly away before us Now it is not reasonable to think that all this Immense Vastness should lie Waste Desert and Vninhabited and have nothing in it that could Praise the Creator thereof save only this One Small Spot of Earth In my Father's House saith our Saviour are Many Mansions And Baruch Chap. 3. appointed by our Church to be read publickly O Israel how great is the House of God and how large is the place of his Possession Great and hath no End High and Vnmeasurable Which yet we understand not of an Absolute Infinity but only such an Immense Vastness as far transcends Vulgar Opinion and Imagination We shall add but one thing more That to make a right Judgment of the Ways of Providence and the Justice thereof as to the Oeconomy of mankind we must look both Forwards and Backwards or besides the Present not only upon the Future but also the Past Time Which Rule is likewise thus set down by Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is that Doctrine of the Ancients to be neglected that to give an Account of Providence we ought to look back upon former Periods as well as forward to What is Future Indeed he and those other Philosophers who were Religious understood this so as to conclude a Pre-Existent State of all Particular Souls wherein they were at first Created by God Pure but by the Abuse of their own Liberty Degenerated to be a Necessary Hypothesis for the Salving that Phaenomenon of the Depraved State of Mankind in general here in this Life And not only so but they endeavoured in like manner to give an account also of those Different Conditions of Particular Persons as to Morality from their Infancy and their other different Fates here deriving them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their several Demeanors heretofore in a Pre-Existent State And there have not wanted Christian Doctors who have complied with these Philosophers in both But our Common Christianity only agrees thus far as to suppose a Kind of Imputative Pre-Exstence in Adam in whom all were created Pure and so consequently involved in his after miscarriage to salve the Pravity of Humane Nature upon which account we are all said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nature Children of Wrath. But as for the different Conditions of Persons and their several Fates more disadvantageous to some than others this indeed the Generality of Christian Doctors have been content to resolve only into an Occult but Just Providence And thus does Origen himself sometimes modestly pass it over As in his Third Book against Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It happeneth to many so to have been brought up from their very Childhood as that by one means or other they could have no opportunity at all of thinking of the Better things c. And it is very probable that there are Causes of these things in the Reasons of Providence though they do not easily fall under Humane Notice But there is yet a Third Atheistick Objection against Providence behind That is is impossible any One Being should Animadvert and Order all things in the Distant places of the world at once and were this possible yet would such Infinite Negotiosity be very Vneasie and Distractious to it and altogether Inconsistent with Happinâ—ss Nor wâ—â—ld a Being Irresistibly Powerful concern it self in the Good or Welfare of any thing else it standing in Need of nothing and all Benevoleâ—ce and Good will arising from Indigency and Imbecillity Wherefore such a Being would wholy be taken up in the Enjoyment of it self and its own Happiness utterly Regardless of all other things To which the Reply is First That though our selves and all Created Beings have but a Finite Animadversion and Narrow Sphere of Activity yet does it not therefore follow that the Case must be the same with the Deity supposed to be a Being Infinitely Perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath no manner of Defect either of Knowledge or Power in it But this is a meer Idolum Specus an Idol of the Cave or Den Men Measuring the Deity by their own Scantling and Narrowness And indeed were there Nothing at all but what we our selves could fully Comprehend there could be no God Were the Sun an Animal and had Life
declared Page 110 IX That it is hardly Imaginable There should have been no Philosophick Atheists in the world before Democritus and Leucippus Plato observing also that there have been some or other in all ages sick of the Atheistick Disease And Aristotle affirming many of the first Philosophers to have assigned onely a Material Cause of the mundane System without either Intending or Efficient Cause They supposing Matter to be the onely Substance and all other things nothing but the Passions and Accidents thereof Generable and Corruptible Page 111 X. The Doctrine of which Materialists may be more fully understood from those Exceptions which Aristotle makes against them His First Exception That they assigned no Cause of Motion but introduced it into the world Vnaccomptably Page 112 XI Aristotle's Second Exception That these Materialists assigned no Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Well and Fit that is gave no Accompt of the Orderly Regularity of things Anaxagoras said to be the First Ionick Philosopher who made Mind and Good a Principle of the Vniverse ibid. XII Concluded from hence That these Materialists in Aristotle were downright Atheists not merely because they held all Substance to be Body forasmuch as Heraclitus and Zeno did the like and yet are not therefore numbered amongst the Atheists these supposing the whole World to be an Animal and their Fiery Matter Originally Intellectual but because they made Stupid Matter devoid of all Understanding and Life to be the onely Principle Page 113 XIII And supposed every thing besides the bare Substance of Matter to be Generable and Corruptible and consequently That there could be no other God than such as was Native and Mortal That those Ancient Theologers and Theogonists who Generated all the Gods out of Night and Chaos without exception were onely Verbal Theists but Real Atheists Senseless Matter being to them the Highest Numen ibid. XIV The Difference observed betwixt Aristotle's Atheistical Materialists and the Italick Philosophers the former determining all things besides the bare Substance of Matter to be Made or Generated but the latter that no Real Entity was either Generated or Corrupted they thereupon both destroying the Qualities and Forms of Bodies and asserting the Ingenerability and Incorporeity of Souls Page 114 XV. How Aristotle's Atheistick Materialists endeavoured to baffle and elude that Axiome of the Italick Philosophers That Nothing can come from Nothing nor goe to Nothing And that Anaxagoras was the First amongst the Ionicks who yielded so far to that Principle as from thence to assert Incorporeal Substance and the Pre-existence of Qualities and Forms he conceiving them to be things Really distinct from the Substance of Matter Page 116 XVI The Errour of some Writers who from Aristotle's affirming That the Ancient Philosophers did generally conclude the World to have been Made from thence infer them to have been all Theists and that Aristotle contradicts himself in representing many of them as Atheists That the Ancient Atheists did generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assert the World to have been Made or have had a Beginning as on the other hand some Theists did maintain its Ante-Eternity but in a way of Dependency upon the Deity That we ought therefore here to distinguish betwixt the System of the World and the bare Substance of the Matter All Atheists contending the Matter to have been not onely Eternal but also such Independently upon any other Being Page 117 XVII Some of the Ancients concluded this Materialism or Hylopathian Atheism to have been at least as old as Homer who made the Ocean or Fluid Matter the Father of all the gods and that this was indeed the Ancientest of all Atheisms which verbally acknowledging gods yet derives the Original of them all from Night and Chaos A Description of this Atheistick Hypothesis in Aristophanes That Night and Chaos first laid an Egg out of which sprung forth Love which afterwards mingling again with Chaos begat Heaven and Earth Animals and all the Gods Page 120 XVIII That notwithstanding this in Aristotle's Judgment not onely Parmenides but also Hesiod and other Ancients who made Love Senior to the Gods were to be exempted out of the number of Atheists they understanding by this Love an Active Principle or Cause of Motion in the Vniverse which therefore could not result from an Egg of the Night nor be the Offspring of Chaos but must be something in order of Nature Before Matter Simmias Rhodius his Wings a Poem in Honour of this Divine or Heavenly Love This not that Love neither which was the Offspring of Penia and Porus in Plato In what Rectified and Refined Sense it may pass for True Theology That Love is the Supreme Deity and Original of all things Page 121 XIX That however Democritus and Leucippus be elsewhere taxed by Aristotle for this very thing the assigning onely a Material Cause of the Vniverse yet were they not the Persons intended by him in the forementioned Accusation but certain Ancienter Philosophers who also were not Atomists but Asserters of Qualities or Hylopathians Page 123 XX. That Aristotle's Atheistick Materialists were indeed all the First Ionick Philosophers before Anaxagoras Thales being the Head of them But that Thales being acquitted from this Imputation of Atheism by several Good Authours his next Successour Anaximander is rather to be accounted the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prince of this Atheistick Philosophy ibid. XXI A Passage out of Aristotle Objected which at first sight seems to make Anaximander a Divine Philosopher and therefore hath led both Modern and Ancient Writers into that Mistake But that this well considered proves the Contrary That Anaximander was the Chief of the old Atheistick Philosophers Page 124 XXII That it is no wonder if Anaximander called Senseless Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Divinity since to all Atheists that must needs be the Highest Numen And how this may be said to be Immortal and to Govern all with the concurrent Judgment of the Greek Scholiasts upon this Place Page 126 XXIII A further account of the Anaximandrian Philosophy from whence it appeareth to have been Purely Atheistical Page 127 XXIV That as the vulgar have always been ill Judges of Theists and Atheists so have learned men commonly supposed fewer Atheists than indeed there were Anaximander and Democritus Atheists both alike though Philosophizing different ways and that some Passages in Plato respect the Anaximandrian Form of Atheism rather than the Democritical Page 129 XXV The reason why Democritus and Leucippus New-modell'd Atheism into this Atomick Form Page 131 XXVI That besides the Three Forms of Atheism already mentioned we sometimes meet with a Fourth which supposes the Vniverse to be though not an Animal yet a kind of Plant or Vegetable having one Regular Plastick Nature in it but devoid of Understanding and Sense which disposes and orders the whole Page 131 XXVII That this Form of Atheism which makes One senseless Plastick and Plantal Nature to preside over the whole is
different from the Hylozoick in that it takes away all Fortuitousness Subjecting all things Vniversally to the Fate of this One Methodical Unknowing Nature Page 132 XXVIII Possible that some in all ages might have entertained this Atheistical Conceit That all things are dispensed by One Regular and Methodical Senseless Nature nevertheless it seemeth to have been chiefly asserted by certain Spurious Heracliticks and Stoicks Vpon which account this Cosmo-plastick Atheism may be called Pseudo-zenonian Page 133 XXIX That besides the Philosophick Atheists there have been always in the World Enthusiastick and Fanatick Atheists though indeed all Atheists may in some sense be said to be both Enthusiasts and Fanaticks as being meerly led by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Irrational Impetus Page 134 XXX That there cannot easily be any other Form of Atheism besides these Four already mentioned because all Atheists are Corporealists and yet not all Corporealists Atheists but onely such of them as make the First Principle not to be Intellectual ibid. XXXI A Distribution of Atheisms Producing the forementioned Quaternio and shewing the Difference that is betwixt them Page 136 XXXII That they are but meer Bunglers at Atheism who talk of Sensitive and Rational Matter Specifically Differing And that the Canting Astrological Atheists are not at all considerable because not Vnderstanding themselves Page 137 XXXIII Another Distribution of Atheisms That they either derive the Original of all things from a meerly Fortuitous Principle and the Unguided Motion of Matter or else from a Plastick Regular and Methodical but Senseless Nature What Atheists denied the Eternity of the World and what asserted it Page 138 XXXIV That of these Four Forms of Atheism the Atomick or Democritical and the Hylozoick or Stratonical are the Principal which Two being once confuted all Atheism will be confuted Page 142 XXXV These Two Forms of Atheism being contrary to each other that we ought in all Reason to insist rather upon the Atomick nevertheless we shall elsewhere confute the Hylozoick also and further prove against all Corporealists that no Cogitation nor Life can belong to Matter Page 145 XXXVI That in the mean time we shall not neglect the other Forms of Atheism but Confute them all together as they agree in one Principle As also by way of Digression here insist largely upon the Plastick Life of Nature in order to a fuller Confutation as well of the Hylozoick as the Cosmo-plastick Atheism Page 146 1. That these Two Forms of Atheism are not therefore Condemned by us meerly because they suppose a Life of Nature distinct from the Animal Life however this be a thing altogether Exploded by some professed Theists therein symbolizing too much with the Democritick Atheists ibid. 2. That if no Plastick Artificial Nature be admitted then one of these two things must be concluded That either all things come to pass by Fortuitous Mechanism or Material Necessity the Motion of Matter Vnguided or else that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe all things Himself Immediately and Miraculously framing the Body of every Gnat and Fly as it were with his own hands forasmuch as Divine Laws and Commands cannot execute themselves nor be alone the proper Efficient Causes of things in Nature Page 147 3. To suppose the Former of these that all things come to pass Fortuitously by the Unguided Motion of Matter and without the Direction of any Mind a thing altogether as Irrational as Impious there being many Phaenomena both Above the Mechanick Powers and Contrary to the Laws thereof That the Mechanick Theists make God but an Idle Spectatour of the Fortuitous Motions of Matter and render his Wisedom altogether useless and insignificant Aristotle's Judicious Censure of this Fortuitous Mechanism and his Derision of that Conceit that Material and Mechanical Reasons are the onely Philosophical Page 148 4. That it seems neither Decorous in respect of God nor Congruous to Reason that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe all things Himself Immediately and Miraculously without the Subserviency of any Natural Causes This further Confuted from the Slow and Gradual Process of things in Nature as also from those Errours and Bungles that are Committed when the Matter proves Inept and Contumacious which argue the Agent not to be Irresistible Page 149 5. Reasonably inferred from hence That there is an Artificial or Plastick Nature in the Vniverse as a Subordinate Instrument of Divine Providence in the Orderly Disposal of Matter but not without a Higher Providence also presiding over it forasmuch as this Plastick Nature cannot Act Electively or with Discretion Those Laws of Nature concerning Motion which the Mechanick Theists themselves suppose Really Nothing else but a Plastick Nature or Spermatick Reasons Page 150 6. The Argeeableness of this Doctrine with the Sentiments of the best Philosophers of all Ages Anaxagoras though a professed Theist severely Censured both by Plato and Aristotle as an encourager of Atheism meerly because he used Material and Mechanical Causes more than Mental and Final Physiologers and Astronomers for the same Reason also vulgarly suspected of Atheism in Plato's time Page 151 7. The Plastick Artificial Nature no Occult Quality but the onely Intelligible Cause of that which is the Grandest of all Phaenomena the Orderly Regularity and Harmony of Things which the Mechanick Theists however pretending to Salve all Phaenomena give no accompt of A God or Infinite Mind asserted by these in vain and to no purpose Pag. 154 8. Two things here to be Performed To give an accompt of the Plastick Artificial Nature and then To show how the Notion thereof is Mistaken and Abused by Atheists The First General Accompt of this Nature according to Aristotle That it is to be conceived as Art it self acting Inwardly and Immediately upon the Matter as if Harmony Living in the Musical Instruments should move the Strings thereof without any External Impulse Page 155 9. Two Preeminences of Nature above Humane Art First That whereas Humane Art acts upon the Matter without Cumbersomely or Moliminously and in a way of Tumult or Hurlyburly Nature acting upon the same from Within more Commandingly doth its work Easily Cleverly and Silently Humane Art acteth on Matter Mechanically but Nature Vitally and Magically Page 155 10. The Second Preeminence of Nature That whereas Human Artists are often to seek and at a loss Anxiously Consult and Deliberate and upon Second thoughts Mend their former work Nature is never to seek or Vnresolved what to doe nor doth she ever Repent of what she hath done and thereupon correct her Formâ—r Course Human Artists themselves Consult not as Artists but always for want of Art and therefore Nature though never Consulting nor Deliberating may notwithstanding act Artificially and for Ends. Concluded that what is by us called Nature is Really the Divine Art Page 156 11. Nevertheless That Nature is not the Divine Art Pure and Abstract but Concreted and Embodied in Matter the Divine Art not Archetypal but Ectypal Nature differs from
the Divine Art or Wisedom as the Manuary Opificer from the Architect Page 155 12. Two Imperfections of Nature in respect whereof it falls short of Humane Art First That though it act for Ends Artificially yet it self neither Intends those Ends nor Understands the Reason of what it doeth for which cause it cannot act Electively The Difference betwixt Spermatick Reasons and Knowledge That Nature doth but Ape or Mimick the Divine Art or Wisedom being it self not Master of that Reason according to which it acts but onely a Servant to it and Drudging Executioner thereof Page 156 13. Proved that there may be such a thing as acteth Artificially though it self do not comprehend that Art and Reason by which its Motions are Governed First from Musical Habits the Dancer resembles the Artificial Life of Nature Page 157 14. The same further Evinced from the Instincts of Brute Animals Directing them to act Rationally and Artificially in order to their own Good and the Good of the Vniverse without any Reason of their own These Instincts in Brutes but Passive Impresses of the Divine Wisedom and a kind of Fate upon them Page 158 15. The Second Imperfection of Nature that it Acteth without Animal Phancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense or Consciousness and hath no express Self-Perception and Self-Enjoyment ibid. 16. Whether this Energy of the Plastick Nature be to be called Cogitation or no Nothing but a Logomachy or Contention about Words Granted that what moves Matter Vitally must needs do it by some Energy of its own distinct from Local Motion but that there may be a Simple Vital Energy without that Duplicity which is in Synaesthesis or clear and express Consciousness Nevertheless that the Energy of Nature may be called a certain Drousie Unawakened or Astonished Cogitation Page 159 17. Severall Instances which render it probable that there may be a Vital Energy without Synaesthesis clear and express Con-sense or Consciousness Page 160 18. Wherefore the Plastick Nature acting neither Knowingly nor Phantastically must needs act Fatally Magically and Sympathetically The Divine Laws and Fate as to Matter not meer Cogitation in the Mind of God but an Energetick and Effectual Principle in it And this Plastick Nature the True and Proper Fate of Matter or of the Corporeal World What Magick is and that Nature which acteth Fatally acteth also Magically and Sympathetically P. 161 19. That Nature though it be the Divine Art or Fate yet for all that is neither a God nor Goddess but a Low and Imperfect Creature it acting Artificially and Rationally no otherwise than Compounded Forms of Letters when Printing Coherent Philosophick Sense nor for Ends than a Saw or Hatchet in the hands of a skillfull Mechanick The Plastick and Vegetative Life of Nature the Lowest of all Lives and Inferiour to the Sensitive A Higher Providence than that of the Plastick Nature governing the Corporeal World it self ibid. 20. Notwithstanding which forasmuch as the Plastick Nature is a Life it must needs be Incorporeal One and the self same thing having in it an entire Model and Platform of the Whole and acting upon several Distant parts of Matter cannot be a Body And though Aristotle himself do no where declare this Nature to be either Corporeal or Incorporeal which he neither clearly doth concerning the Rational Soul and his Followers commonly take it to be Corporeal yet according to the Genuine Principles of that Philosophy must it needs be otherwise Page 165 21. The Plastick Nature being Incorporeal must either be a Lower Power lodged in Souls which are also Conscious Sensitive or Rational or else a distinct Substantial Life by it Self and Inferiour Soul That the Platonists affirm Both with Aristotle's agreeable Determination That Nature is either Part of a Soul or not without Soul ibid. 22. The Plastick Nature as to the Bodies of Animals a Part or Lower Power of their respective Souls That the Phaenomena prove a Plastick Nature or Archeus in Animals to make which a distinct thing from the Soul would be to Multiply Entities without Necessity The Soul endued with a Plastick Nature the Chief Formatrix of its own Body the contribution of other Causes not excluded Page 166 23. That besides the Plastick in Particular Animals Forming them as so many Little Worlds there is a General Plastick or Artificial Nature in the Whole Corporeal Vniverse which likewise according to Aristotle is either a Part and Lower Power of a Conscious Mundane Soul or else something depending thereon Page 167 24. That no less according to Aristotle than Plato and Socrates Our selves partake of Life from the Life of the Universe as well as we do of Heat and Cold from the Heat and Cold of the Vniverse From whence it appears that Aristotle also held the World's Animation which is further Vndeniably proved An Answer to Two the most considerable Places in that Philosopher objected to the contrary That Aristotle's First Immoveable Mover was no Soul but a Perfect Intellect abstract from Matter which he supposed to move onely as a Final Cause or as Being Loved and besides this a Mundane Soul and Plastick Nature to move the Heavens Efficiently Neither Aristotle's Nature nor Mundane Soul the Supreme Deity However though there be no such Mundane Soul as both Plato and Aristotle conceived yet may there be notwithstanding a Plastick or Artificial Nature depending upon a Higher Intellectual Principle Page 168 25. No Impossibility of other Particular Plasticks and though it be not reasonable to think every Plant Herb and Pile of Grass to have a Plastick or Vegetative Soul of its own nor the Earth to be an Animal yet may there possibly be one Plastick Artificial Nature presiding over the Whole Terraqueous Globe by which Vegetables may be severally organized and framed and all things performed which transcend the Power of Fortuitous Mechanism Page 171 26. Our Second Undertaking which was to Show How grosly those Atheists who acknowledge this Artificial Plastick Nature without Animality Misunderstand it and Abuse the Notion to make a Counterfeit God Almighty or Numen of it to the exclusion of the True Deity First In their Supposing That to be the First and Highest Principle of the Vniverse which is the Last and Lowest of all Lives a thing as Essentially Derivative from and Dependent upon a Higher Intellectual Principle as the Echo on the Original Voice Secondly In their making Sense and Reason in Animals to emerge out of a Sensless Life of Nature by the meer Modification and Organization of Matter That no Duplication of Corporeal Organs can ever make One Single Inconscious Life to advance into Redoubled Consciousness and Self-Enjoyment Thirdly In attributing some of them Perfect Knowledge and Understanding to this Life of Nature which yet themselves suppose to be devoid of all Animal Sense and Consciousness Lastly In making this Plastick Life of Nature to be meerly Corporeal The Hylozoïsts contending That it is but an Inadequate Conception of Body as the onely
Aeolus in Arrianus seems to be taken for the Demons appointed by God Almighty to preside over the Winds Page 524 525 Lactantius his Reason why the Consentes and Select Gods vulgarly worshipped by the Romans could not be Single Demons or Angels Page 525 And from Aristotle's Observation against Zeno That according to Law or Civil Theology One God was chief for one thing and another for another Concluded that these Political Gods were not properly the Subservient Ministers of the Supreme and therefore could be nothing but several Names and Notions of One Natural God according to his Various Powers and Effects Page 525 526 And thus does Vossius himself afterwards confess That according to the Natural Theology all the Pagan Gods were but Several Denominations of one God Where notwithstanding this Learned and Industrious Philologer seems to take the Natural and Philosophick Theology for the Physiological he making the God thereof the Nature of things Whereas the Natural Theology was the True and Real and Philosophical opposed both to the Fictions of the Poets and the Institutes of Law-makers and Politicians As Varro affirmeth that in Cities those things were Worshipped and believed according to False Opinions which had no Nature nor Real Subsistence neither in the World nor without it The God of the Pagans not the Nature of things which could be the Numen of none but of Atheists but an Understanding Being the Great Mind or Soul of the whole World pervading all things Thus unquestionably true that the Many Poetical and Political Gods were but several Names or Notions of One Natural Real and True God Besides which there were other Inferiour Ministers of this Supreme God acknowledged to be the Instruments of his Providence and Religiously worshipped also A brief but full accompt of the Pagans Natural Theology set down by Prudentius Page 526 527 And when the more high-flown Pagans referred these Poetical and Political Gods to the Divine Idea's or Patterns of things in the Archetypal World which besides the Platonists the Egyptians in Celsus are said to have done making the Brute Animals worshipped by them but Symbols of the Eternal Idea's They hereby made these Gods to be but so many Partiall Considerations of One God neither as being All things or Containing in himself the Causes of all things as Julian himself declareth in his Sixth Oration Page 527 528 An Anacephalaeosis That much of the Pagan Polytheism was but the Polyonymy of One God he being worshipped under several Names First according to several General Notions of him as of Janus Genius Saturn Minerva Urania or the Heavenly Venus or Love and others before declared So also of Summanus according to S. Austin and Themis afterwards to be mentioned Page 528 529 And Secondly according to other more Particular Notions of him in their Special Gods as Acting in some Parts of the world onely or exercising some Particular Powers Page 529 530 And Lastly as Pervading All things and Being All things or the Cause of All things he was thereupon called by the Name of Every thing or Every thing by his Name The Pagans in S. Austin That their Ancestors were not so sottish as not to understand that those Things of Nature were but Divine Gifts and not Themselves Gods And the Pagans in Eusebius That the Invisible God the Cause of All things ought to be worshipped in his Visible Effects wherein he hath displayed himself Page 530 Though the Two former Kinds of these Gods onely called by Athanasius Poetical and Fictitious he opposing them to those of the Third sort that were Natural and Real things yet may these also be well called Poetical Fictitious and Phantastical Gods too because though themselves were Real things Existing in Nature yet was their Personation and Deification meer Fiction Fancy and Poetry And accordingly were they before called by Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer Figments of the Greeks Page 530 531 XXXIV Of those Pagans who supposed the Supreme God to be the Whole Animated World Hitherto shewed that even the most Refined of the Pagans agreed in these Two things First in Breaking and Crumbling the One Simple Deity and multiplying it into Many Gods or Parcelling it out into several Particular Notions according to its several Powers and Virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to these Pagans the same thing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then in Theologizing the whole World Personating and Deifying the Natures of Things Accidents and Inanimate Bodies They supposing God to Pervade all things and Himself to be in a manner All things Therefore every thing to the Religious Sacred and Divine and God to be Worshipped in All. Page 531 532 We shall now add that both those forementioned Principles of God's Pervading all things and his Being all things were carried on farther by those Pagan Theologers who had no higher Notion of the Supreme Deity then as the Soul of the World For First Whereas the more Refined Pagans supposed God to Pervade all things Unmixedly These Mingled and Confounded him with the whole World Some of them supposing him also to be a Subtile Body Page 532 533 Again Whereas the other more Sublimated Pagans affirmed God so to be All as nevertheless to be something also Above all These concluded him to be nothing Higher then the Animated World Page 533 And though they supposed that as well in this Mundane Animal as in other Animals there was something Principal and Hegemonical whether the Sun or Aether or Fire which therefore was Emphatically called God yet did they conceive the whole Matter thereof to be Animated and so to be All God Not barely as Matter but by reason of the Soul thereof Page 534 535 Now if the Whole World Animated be the Supreme God then must all the Parts and Members of the World be the Parts and Members of One God but not themselves therefore properly so Many Gods This affirmed by Origen as the True Sense of these Pagans against that unwary Assertion of Celsus That If the Whole were God then must the several Parts thereof needs be Gods Page 535 Wherefore though these Pagans Deified the Parts of the World and Natures of Things as well as the Powers of the Mundane Soul yet did not the Intelligent amongst them Worship them severally as so many True and Proper Gods but onely as the Parts and Members of one Great Animal or God or rather Worship the great Mundane Soul the Life of the whole World in them all This proved from S. Austin Page 536 537 The same plainly declared also by the Pagans in Athanasius That not the Divided Parts of the World were by them accounted so many several Gods but the Whole made up of them All One God which yet might be worshipped in its several Parts Page 537 The Pagans being thus divided as to their Opinions concerning the Natural and True Theology some of them Worshipped the World as the Body of God but others only as his Image or
Plutarch in Herodotus as spoken Universally Plutarch himself restraining the Sense thereof to his Evill Principle Plato's ascribing the World to the Divine Goodness who therefore made all things most like Himself The true meaning of this Proverb That the Deity affecteth to Humble and Abase the Pride of men Lucretius his Hidden Force that hath as it were a Spite to all Overswelling Greatnesses could be no other then the Deity Those amongst Christians who make the worst Representation of God yet Phansy him Kind and Gracious to Themselves Page 659 660 True that Religion often expressed by the Fear of God Fear Prima Mensura Deitatis the First Impression that Religion makes upon men in this Lapsed State But this not a Fear of God as Mischievous and Hurtfull nor yet as a meer Arbitrary Being but as Just and an Impartiall Punisher of Wickedness Lucretius his acknowledging mens Fear of God to be conjoyned with a Conscience of Duty A Naturall Discrimination of Good and Evill with a Sense of an Impartiall Justice presiding over the World and both Rewarding and Punishing The Fear of God as either a Hurtfull or Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Being which must needs be joyned with something of Hatred not Religion but Superstition Fear Faith and Love Three Steps and Degrees of Religion to the Son of Sirach Faith better Defined in Scripture then by any Scholasticks God such a Being as if he were not Nothing more to be Wished for Page 660 661 The Reason why Atheists thus mistake the Notion of God as a Thing onely to be Feared and consequently Hated from their own Ill Nature and Vice The latter disposing them so much to think that there is no Difference of Good and Evill by Nature but onely by Law which Law Contrary to Nature as Restraint to Liberty Hence their denying all Naturall Charity and Acknowledging no Benevolence or Good Will but what arises from Imbecillity Indigency and Fear Their Friendship at best no other then Mercatura Utilitatum Wherefore if there were an Omnipotent Deity this according to the Atheistick Hypothesis could not have so much as that Spurious Love or Benevolence to any thing because standing in Need of Nothing and Devoid of Fear Thus Cotta in Cicero All this asserted also by a late Pretender to Politicks He adding thereunto that God hath no other Right of Commanding then his Irresistible Power nor men any Obligation to obey him but onely from their Imbecillity and Fear or because they cannot Resist him Thus do Atheists Transform the Deity into a Monstrous Shape an Omnipotent Being that hath neither Benevolence nor Justice in him This indeed a Mormo or Bugbear Page 661 662 But as this a false Representation of Theism so the Atheistick Scene of things most Uncomfortable Hopeless and Dismall upon severall Accounts True that no Spightfull Designs in Sensless Atoms in which Regard Plutarch Preferred even this Atheistick Hypothesis before that of an Omnipotent Mischievous Being However no Faith nor Hope neither in Sensless Atoms Epicurus his Confession that it was better to believe the Fable of the Gods then that Materiall Necessity of all things asserted by the other Atheistick Physiologers before himself But he not at all mending the Matter by his supposed Free Will The Panick Fear of the Epicureans of the Frame of Heaven's Cracking and this Compilement of Atoms being dissolved into a Chaos Atheists running from Fear plunge themselves into Fear Atheism rather then Theism from the Imposture of Fear Distrust and Disbelief of Good But Vice afterwards prevailing in them makes them Desire there should be No God Page 663 664 Thus the Atheists who derive the Origin of Religion from Fear First put an Affrightfull Vizard upon the Deity and then conclude it to be but a Mormo or Bugbear the Creature of Fear and Phancy More likely of the Two that the Opinion of a God sprung from Hope of Good then Fear of Evill but neither of these True it owing its Being to the Imposture of no Passion but supported by the Strongest and clearest Reason Nevertheless a Naturall Prolepsis or Anticipation of a God also in mens Minds Preventing Reason This called by Plato and Aristotle a Vaticination Page 664 665 The Second Atheistick Pretence to salve the Phaenomenon of Religion from the Ignorance of Causes and mens innate â—uriosity Vpon which Account the Deity said by them to be nothing but an Asylum of Ignorance or the Sanctuary of Fools next to be Confuted Page 665 That the Atheists both Modern and Ancient here commonly Complicate these Two together Fear and Ignorance of Causes making Theism the Spawn of both as the Fear of Children in the Dark raises Bugbears and Spectres Epicurus his Reason why he took such great pains in the Study of Physiology that by finding out the Naturall Causes of things he might free men from the Terrour of a God that would otherwise Assault their Minds ibid. The Atheists thus Dabbling in Physiology and finding out Materiall Causes for some of those Phaenomena which the unskilfull Vulgar salve onely from a Deity therefore Confident that Religion had no other Originall then this Ignorance of Causes as also that Nature or Matter does all things alone without a God But we shall make it manifest That Philosophy and the True Knowledge of Causes Lead to a Deity and that Atheism from Ignorance of Causes and want of Philosophy Page 665 666 For First No Atheist who derives all from Senslesse Matter can possibly assign any Cause of Himself his own Soul or Mind it being Impossible that Life and Sense should be Naturally produced from what Dead and Sensless or from Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions An Atheistick Objection nothing to the purpose That Laughing and Crying things are made out of Not-Laughing and Crying Principles because these result from the Mechanism of the Body The Hylozoists never able neither to produce Animal Sense and Consciousness out of what Sensless and Inconscious The Atheists supposing their own Life and Understanding and all the Wisedom that is in the World to have sprung meerly from Sensless Matter and Fortuitous Motion Grossely Ignorant of Causes The Philosophy of Our Selves and True Knowledge of the Cause of our own Soul and Mind brings to God Page 666 667 Again Atheists Ignorant of the Cause of Motion by which they suppose all things done this Phaenomenon being no way Salvable according to their Principles First undeniably certain That Motion not Essential to all Body or Matter as such because then there could have been no Mundane System no Sun Moon Earth c. All things being continually Torn in Pieces and Nothing Cohering Certain also That Dead and Sensless Matter such as that of Anaximander Democâ—itus and Epicurus cannot Move it self Spontaneously by Will or Appetite The Hylozoists further considered elsewhere Democritus could assign no other Cause of Motion then this That one Body moved another from Eternity Infinitely without any First Cause or Mover Thus also a Modern Writer To
but also from thence to Demonstrate the Impossibility of his Existence Though Modern Writers not so much aware hereof yet is the Controversy betwixt Theists and Atheists thus Stated by Plato Whether Soul and Mind Juniors to Sensless Matter and the Offspring thereof or else Substantiall Things and in Order of Nature Before it Accordingly Plato confuteth Atheism no otherwise then by proving Soul not to be Junior to Inanimate Matter and Generated out of the same Evident That Plato by Soul here understood not onely the Mundane Soul but also that Whole Rank of Beings called Soul and That no Life was Generated out of Matter Page 859 860 Those professed Christians who Generate Rationall Souls out of Sensless Matter plain Betrayers of the Cause of Theism Page 860 861 Nor is the Case much different as to others who though they professedly Generate onely Sensitive Souls yet making the Rationall but meer Blanks which have Nothing in them but what was Scribbled upon them by Sense and so Knowledge in its own Nature Junior to Sense and Sensibles Highly Gratify the Atheists hereby Page 861 If any Life and Cogitation may be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter then can no good Reason be given why All should not be Life not partly Accidental partly Substantiall but either All Conscious Life Accidental Generable and Corruptible or else None at all ibid. The Doctrine of Reall Qualities Generable and Corruptible favourable to Atheism also And though the Atheistick Atomists Explode all the other Qualities Because Nothing can come from Nothing yet contradicting themselves again do they make Life and Understanding Reall Qualities Generated out of Matter or Caused by Nothing Page 861 862 There being a Seale or Ladder of Entities in Nature to Produce a Higher Rank of Beings out of a Lower as Life and Cogitation out of Matter and Magnitude is to Invert the Order of this Scale from Downwards to Upwards and so to lay a Foundation for Atheism Wherefore great Reason to maintain this Post against the Atheists That no Souls can be Generated out of Matter Page 862 863 The Grand Objection against the Substantiality of Sensitive Souls from that Consequence of their Permanent Subsistence after Death Cartesius so Sensible thereof that he would rather make Brutes to be Sensless Machines then allow them Substantiall Souls which he granted they must have if Thinking Beings What clearly Demonstrable by Reason not to be abandoned because attended with some Difficulties or seemingly Offensive Consequences Page 863 The Pythagorick Hypothesis That Souls all Created by God not in the Generation of Animals but in the Cosmogonia These therefore first Clothed with Thin and Subtile Bodies Aeriall or Aetheriall Ochemata wherein they Subsist both before their Ingress into Terrestriall Bodies and after their Egress out of them Thus Boëtius and Proclus Ammonius his Irrationall Demons Mortall Brutish Souls in Aeriall Bodies Since the First Creation no New Substantiall thing Made or Destroyed and therefore no Life This looked upon by Macrobius as a Great Truth Page 863 865 That the Pythagoreans would Endeavour to gain some Countenance for this Hypothesis from the Scripture Page 865 867 But if these Aeriall Vehicles of Brutish Souls be exploded for a Whimsey and none but Terrestriall Bodies allowed to them though after Death they will not Vanish into Nothing yet must they needs remain in a State of Insensibility and Inactivity till re-united to other Terrestriall Bodies Wherefore these in one Sense Mortall though in another Immortall Silk-worms dying and reviving in the Form of Butterflies made an Emblem of the Resurrection by Christian Theologers Page 867 868 But no Absolute Necessity That the Souls of Brutes though Substantiall should have a Permanent Subsistence after Death either in a State of Activity or Inactivity Because whatsoever Created by God may Possibly by him be Annihilated The Substantiality onely of the Rationall Soul Demonstrable by Reason or that it will not of it Self vanish into Nothing but not that it is Absolutely Impossible for it to be Annihilated The assurance of this Depending upon a Faith in the Divine Goodness Porphyrius his Assertion That Brutish Souls are Resolved into the Life of the Universe The whole Answer to this Objection against the Substantiality of Brutish Souls That they may notwithstanding Possibly be Annihilated in the Deaths of Animals as well as they were Created in their Generations but if they do Subsist without Aeriall Vehicles they must remain in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Page 868 869 That this the Doctrine of the Ancient Pagan Theologers That no Life or Soul Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter but all Produced by the Deity as well as Matter Proved out of Virgil though sundry other Testimonies also might be added thereunto Page 869 870 The Hylozoick Atheists themselves so Sensible hereof That there must be some Substantiall and Unmade Life from whence the Lives and Minds of all Animals are Derived That they attribute the same to Matter and conclude That though the Modificated Lives of Animals and Men be Accidentall Generated and Corrupted yet the Fundamental Life of them is Substantiall and Incorruptible These also asserted a Knowledge before Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles Page 870 871 This Hylozoick Atheism again Confuted Absurd to suppose Knowledge and Understanding without Consciousness as also That the Substantiall and Fundamentall Life of Men and other Animals should never Perish and yet their Souls and Personalities Vanish into Nothing That no Organization can produce Consciousness These Atheists not able possibly to give an Account whence the Intelligible Objects and Idea's of this their Knowledge of Matter should spring This Hylozoick Atheism Nothing but the Crumbling of the Deity into Matter Page 871 Concluded That the Phaenomenon of Mind and Understanding can no way possibly be Salved by Atheists without a God but affordeth a Solid Demonstration of his Existence Page 871 872 SECT V. THERE now Remaining onely the Atheistick Objections against Providence their Queries and Arguments from Interests Their First Objection From the Frame of the World as Faulty Or Because Things are Ill Made that therefore not made by a God This directed against the Sense of the Ancient Theologers That God being a Perfect Mind therefore made the World after the Best manner Some Modern Theologers Deviating from this as if the Perfection of the Deity consisted not at all in Goodness but in Power and Arbitrary Will onely The Controversy betwixt these and Atheists but Whether Matter Fortuitously Moved or a Fortuitous Will Omnipotent be the Originall of all things No Ground of Faith in a meer Arbitrarious Deity To have a Will Vndetermined to Good no Liberty nor Soveraignty but Impotency God to Celsus the Head or President of the Righteous Nature This not onely the Sense of Origen but of the Ancient Christians in Generall Plotinus The Will of God Essentially That which Ought to be God an Impartiall Balance Weighing out Heaven and Earth The
abhorrent soever they may otherwise seem to be from Enthusiasm and Revelations are notwithstanding really no better than a kind of Bewitched Enthusiasts and Blind Spiritati that are wholly ridden and acted by a dark narrow and captivated Principle of Life and to use their own Language In-blown by it and by it bereft even in Speculative things of all Free Reason and Understanding Nay they are Fanaticks too however that word seem to have a more peculiar respect to something of a Deity All Atheists being that Blind Goddess Natures Fanaticks XXX We have described four several Forms of Atheism First the Hylopathian or Anaximandrian that derives all things from Dead and Stupid Matter in the way of Qualities and Forms Generable and Corruptible Secondly the Atomical or Democritical which doth the same thing in the way of Atoms and Figures Thirdly the Cosmoplastick or Stoical Atheism which supposes one Plastick and Methodical but Sensless Nature to preside over the whole Corporeal Universe And lastly the Hylozoick or Stratonical that attributes to all Matter as such a certain Living and Energetick Nature but devoid of all Animality Sense and Consciousness And as we do not meet with any other Forms or Schemes of Atheism besides these Four so we conceive that there cannot easily be any other excogitated or devised and that upon these two following Considerations First because all Atheists are mere Corporealists that is acknowledge no other Substance besides Body or Matter For as there was never any yet known who asserting Incorporeal Substance did deny a Deity so neither can there be any reason why he that admits the former should exclude the later Again the same Dull and Earthly Disbelief or confounded Sottishness of Mind which makes men deny a God must needs incline them to deny all Incorporeal Substance also Wherefore as the Physicians speak of a certain Disease or Madness called Hydrophobia the Symptome of those that have been bitten by a mad Dog which makes them have a monstrous Antipathy to Water so all Atheists are possessed with a certain kind of Madness that may be called Pneumatophobia that makes them have an irrational but desperate Abhorrence from Spirits or Incorporeal Substances they being acted also at the same time with an Hylomania whereby they Madly dote upon Matter and Devoutly worship it as the only Numen The Second Consideration is this because as there are no Atheists but such as are mere Corporealists so all Corporealists are not to be accompted Atheists neither Those of them who notwithstanding they make all things to be Matter yet suppose an Intellectual Nature in that Matter to preside over the Corporeal Universe being in Reason and Charity to be exempted out of that number And there have been always some who though so strongly captivated under the power of gross Imagination as that an Incorporeal God seemed to them to be nothing but a God of Words as some of them call it a mere Empty Sound or Contradictious Expression Something and Nothing put together yet notwithstanding they have been possessed with a firm belief and perswasion of a Deity or that the System of the Universe depends upon one Perfect Understanding Being as the Head of it and thereupon have concluded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain kind of Body or Matter is God The grossest and most sottish of all which Corporeal Theists seem to be those who contend that God is only one particular Piece of Organized Matter of Humane Form and Bigness which endued with Perfect Reason and Understanding exerciseth an Universal Dominion over all the rest Which Hypothesis however it hath been entertained by some of the Christian Profession both in former and later times yet it hath seemed very ridiculous even to many of those Heathen Philosophers themselves who were mere Corporealists such as the Stoicks who exploded it with a kind of Indignation contending earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God though Corporeal yet must not be conceived to be of any Humane Shape And Xenophanes an Ancient Philosophick Poet expresseth the Childishness of this Conceit after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Oxen Lions Horses and Asses had all of them a Sense of a Deity and were able to Limn and Paint there is no question to be made but that each of these several Animals would paint God according to their respective Form Likeness and contend that he was of that shape no other But that other Corporeal Theism seems to be of the two rather more Generous and Gentile which supposes the whole World to be one Animal and God to be a certain Subtle and Etherial but Intellectual Matter pervading it as a Soul which was the Doctrine of others before the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippasus of Metapontus and Heraclitus the Ephesian supposed the Fiery and Etherial Matter of the World to be God However neither these Heracliticks and Stoicks nor yet the other Anthropomorphites are by us condemned for downright Atheists but rather look'd upon as a sort of Ignorant Childish and Vnskilful Theists Wherefore we see that Atheists are now reduced into a narrow Compass since none are concluded to be Atheists but such as are mere Corporealists and all Corporealists must not be condemned for Atheists neither but only those of them who assert that there is no Conscious Intellectual Nature presiding over the whole Universe For this is that which the Adepti in Atheism of what Form soever all agree in That the first Principle of the Universe is no Animalish Sentient and Conscious Nature but that all Animality Sense and Consciousness is a Secondary Derivative and Accidental thing Generable and Corruptible arising out of particular Concretions of Matter organized and dissolved together with them XXXI Now if the First Principle and Original of all things in the Universe be thus supposed to be Body or Matter devoid of all Animality Sense and Consciousness then it must of necessity be either perfectly Dead and Stupid and without all manner of Life or else endued with such a kind of Life only as is by some called Plastick Spermatical and Vegetative by others the Life of Nature or Natural Perception And those Atheists who derive all things from Dead and Stupid Matter must also needs do this either in the way of Qualities and Forms and these are the Anaximandrian Atheists or else in the way of Atoms and Figures which are the Democritical But those who make Matter endued with a Plastick Life to be the first Original of all things must needs suppose either One such Plastick and Spermatick Life only in the whole Mass of Matter or Corporeal Universe which are the Stoical Atheists or else all Matter as such to have Life and an Energetick Nature belonging to it though without any Animal Sense or Self-perception and consequently all the Particular Parts of Matter and every Totum by Continuity to have a
of a Wooden Hand For thus these Physiologers declare the Generations and Causes of Figures only or the Matter out of which things are made as Air and Earth Whereas no Artificer would think it sufficient to render such a Cause of any Artificial Fabrick because the Instrument happened to fall so upon the Timber that therefore it was Hollow here and Plane there but rather because himself made such strokes and for such Ends c. Now in the close of all this Philosopher at length declares That there is another Principle of Corporeal things besides the Material and such as is not only the Cause of Motion but also acts Artificially in order to Ends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is such a thing as that which we call Nature that is not the Fortuitous Motion of Sensless Matter but a Plastick Regular and Artificial Nature such as acts for Ends and Good declaring in the same place what this Nature is namely that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul or Part of Soul or not without Soul and from thence inferring that it properly belongs to a Physiologer to treat concerning the Soul also But he concludes afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the whole Soul is not Nature whence it remains that according to Aristotle's sence Nature is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either part of a Soul or not without Soul that is either a lower Part or Faculty of some Conscious Soul or else an Inferiour kind of Life by it self which is not without Soul but Suborditate to it and dependent on it 22. As for the Bodies of Animals Aristotle first resolves in General that Nature in them is either the whole Soul or else some part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature as the Moving Principle or as that which acts Artificially for Ends so far as concerns the Bodies of Animals is either the whole Soul or else some Part of it But afterward he determines more particularly that the Plastick Nature is not the whole Soul in Animals but only some part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Nature in Animals properly so called is some Lower Power or Faculty lodged in their respective Souls whether Sensitive or Rational And that there is Plastick Nature in the Souls of Animals the same Aristotle elsewhere affirms and proves after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that which in the Bodies of Animals holds together such things as of their own Nature would otherwise move contrary ways and flie asunder as Fire and Earth which would be distracted and dissipated the one tending upwards the other downwards were there not something to hinder them now if there be any such thing this must be the Soul which is also the Cause of Nourishment and Augmentation Where the Philosopher adds that though some were of Opinion that Fire was that which was the Cause of Nourishment and Augmentation in Animals yet this was indeed but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only the Concause or Instrument and not simply the Cause but rather the Soul And to the same purpose he philosophizeth elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is Concoction by which Nourishment is made in Animals done without the Soul nor without Heat for all things are done by Fire And certainly it seems very agreeable to the Phaenomena to acknowledge something in the Bodies of Animals Superiour to Mechanism as that may well be thought to be which keeps the more fluid parts of them constantly in the same Form and Figure so as not to be enormously altered in their Growth by disproportionate nourishment that which restores Flesh that was lost consolidates dissolved Continuities Incorporates the newly received Nourishment and joyns it Continuously with the preexistent parts of Flesh and Bone which regenerates and repairs Veins consumed or cut off which causes Dentition in so regular a manner and that not only in Infants but also Adult persons that which casts off Excrements and dischargeth Superfluities which makes things seem ungrateful to an Interiour Sense that were notwithstanding pleasing to the Taste That Nature of Hippocrates that is the Curatrix of Diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Archeus of the Chymists or Paracelsians to which all Medicaments are but Subservient as being able to effect nothing of themselves without it I say there seems to be such a Principle as this in the Bodies of Animals which is not Mechanical but Vital and therefore since Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity we may with Aristotle conclude it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain part of the Soul of those Animals or a Lower Inconscious Power lodged in them 23. Besides this Plastick Nature which is in Animals forming their several Bodies Artificially as so many Microcosms or Little Worlds there must be also a general Plastick Nature in the Macrocosm the whole Corporeal Universe that which makes all things thus to conspire every where and agree together into one Harmony Concerning which Plastick Nature of the Universe the Author de Mundo writes after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Power passing thorough all things ordered and formed the whole World Again he calls the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit and a Living and Generative Nature and plainly declares it to be a thing distinct from the Deity but Subordinate to it and dependent on it But Aristotle himself in that genuine Work of his before mentioned speaks clearly and positively concerning this Plastick Nature of the Universe as well as that of Animals in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seemeth that as there is Art in Artificial things so in the things of Nature there is another such like Principle or Cause which we our selves partake of in the same manner as we do of Heat and Cold from the Vniverse Wherefore it is more probable that the whole World was at fiâ—st made by such a Cause as this if at least it were made and that it is still conserved by the same than that Mortal Animals should be so For there is much more of Order and determinate Regularity in the Heavenly Bodies than in our selves but more of Fortuitousness and inconstant Regularity among these Mortal things Notwithstanding which some there are who though they cannot but acknowledge that the Bodies of Animals were all framed by an Artificial Nature yet they will needs contend that the System of the Heavens sprung merely from Fortune and Chance although there be not the least appearance of Fortuitousness or Temerity in it And then he sums up all into this Conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it is manifest that there is some such thing as that which we call Nature that is that there is not only an Artificial Methodical and Plastick Nature in Animals by which their respective Bodies are Framed and Conserved but also that there is such a General Plastick Nature likewise in the Vniverse by which the Heavens
and whole World are thus Artificially Ordered and Disposed 24. Now whereas Aristotle in the forecited Words tells us that we partake of Life and Understanding from that in the Universe after the same manner as we partake of Heat and Cold from that Heat and Cold that is in the Universe It is observable that this was a Notion borrowed from Socrates as we understand both from Xenophon and Plato that Philosopher having used it as an Argumentation to prove a Deity And the Sence of it is represented after this manner by the Latin Poet Principio Coelum ac Terram Campósque Liquentes Lucentémque Globum Lunae Titaniáque Astra Spiritus intus alit totósque Infusa per Artus Mens agitat Molem Magno se Corpore miscet Inde Hominum Pecudúmque Genus Vitaeque Volantûm From whence it may be collected that Aristotle did suppose this Plastick Nature of the Vniverse to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either Part of some Mundane Soul that was also Conscious and Intellectual as that Plastick Nature in Animals is or at least some Inferiour Principle depending on such a Soul And indeed whatever the Doctrine of the modern Peripateticks be we make no doubt at all but that Aristotle himself held the Worlds Animation or a Mundane Soul Forasmuch as he plainly declares himself concerning it elsewhere in his Book De Coelo after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we commonly think of the Heavens as nothing else but Bodies and Monads having only a certain Order but altogether inaâ—imate whâ—râ—as we ought on the contrary to conceive of them as partaking of Life and Action that is as being endued with a Rational or Intellectual Life For so Simplicius there rightly expounds the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But we ought to think of the Heavens as Animated with a Rational Soul and thereby partaking of Action and Rational Life For saith he though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be affirmed not only of Irrational Souls but also of Inanimate Bodies yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does only denominate Rational Beings But further to take away all manner of scruple or doubt concerning this business that Philosopher before in the same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Heaven is Animated and hath a Principle of Motion within it self Where by the Heaven as in many other places of Aristotle and Plato is to be understood the Whole World There is indeed One Passage in the same Book De Coelo which at first sight and slightly considered may seem to contradict this again and therefore probably is that which hath led many into a contrary Perswasion that Aristotle denied the Worlds Animation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is not reasonable neither to think that the Heavens continue to Eternity moved by a Soul necessitating or violently compelling them Nor indeed is it possible that the Life of such a Soul should be pleasurable or happy Forasmuch as the continual Violent Motion of a Body naturally inclining to move another way must needs be a very unquiet thing and void of all Mental Repose especially when there is no such Relaxation as the Souls of Mortal Animals have by sleep and therefore such a Soul of the World as this must of necessity be condemned to an Eternal Ixionian Fate But in these Words Aristotle does not deny the Heavens to be moved by a Soul of their own which is positively affirmed by him elsewhere but only by such a Soul as should Violently and Forcibly agitate or drive them round contrary to their own Natural Inclination whereby in the mean time they tended downwards of themselves towards the Centre And his sence concerning the Motion of the Heavens is truly represented by Simplicius in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World or Heaven being as well a natural as an Animalish Body is moved properly by Soul but yet by means of Nature also as an Instrument so that the Motion of it is not Violent But whereas Aristotle there insinuates as if Plato had held the Heavens to be moved by a Soul violently contrary to their Nature Simplicius though sufficiently addicted to Aristotle ingenuously acknowledges his Error herein and vindicating Plato from that Imputation shews how he likewise held a Plastick Nature as well as a Mundane Soul and that amongst his Ten Instances of Motion the Ninth is that of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which always moves another being it self changed by something else as the Tenth that of the Mundane Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which originally both moves it self and other things as if his Meaning in that place were That though Nature be a Life and Internal Energy yet it acts Subserviently to a Higher Soul as the First Original Mover But the Grand Objection against Aristotle's holding the Worlds Animation is still behind namely from that in his Metaphysicks where he determines the Highest Starry Heaven to be moved by an Immoveable Mover commonly supposed to be the Deity it self and no Soul of the World and all the other Spheres likewise to be moved by so many Separate Intelligencies and not by Souls To which we reply that indeed Aristotle's First Immoveable Mover is no Mundane Soul but an Abstract Intellect Separate from Matter and the very Deity it self whose manner of moving the Heavens is thus described by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It Moveth only as being Loved wherefore besides this Supreme Vnmoved Mover that Philosopher supposed another Inferiour Moved Mover also that is a Mundane Soul as the Proper and Immediate Efficient Cause of the Heavenly Motions of which he speaks after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which it self being moved objectively or by Appetite and Desire of the First Good moveth other things And thus that safe and sure-footed Interpreter Alex. Aphrodisius expounds his Masters Meaning That the Heaven being Animated and therefore indeed Moved by an Internal Principle of its own is notwithstanding Originally moved by a certain Immoveable and Separate Nature which is above Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both by its contemplating of it and having an Appetite and Desire of assimilating it self thereunto Aristotle seeming to have borrowed this Notion from Plato who makes the Constant Regular Circumgyration of the Heavens to be an Imitation of the Motion or Energy of Intellect So that Aristotle's First Mover is not properly the Efficient but only the Final and Objective Cause of the Heavenly Motions the Immediate Efficient Cause thereof being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul and Nature Neither may this be Confuted from those other Aristotelick Intelligences of the Lesser Orbs that Philosopher conceiving in like manner concerning them that they were also the Abstract Minds or Intellects of certain other inferiour Souls which moved their several Respective Bodies or Orbs Circularly and Uniformly in a kind of Imitation of them For this plainly appears from hence in that he
Wherefore the sence of Empedocles his words here was this that the whole created World together with all things belonging to it viz. Plants Beasts Men and Gods was made from Contention and Friendship Nevertheless since according to Empedocles Contention and Friendship did themselves depend also upon one Supreme Deity which he with Parmenides and Xenophanes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Very One the Writer De Mundo might well conclude that according to Empedocles all things whatsoever and not only men but Gods were derived from One Supreme Deity And that this was indeed Empedocles his sence appears plainly from Aristotle in his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Empedocles makes Contention to be a certain Principle of Corruption and Generation Nevertheless he seems to generate this Contention it self also from the Very One that is from the Supreme Deity For all things according to him are from this Contention God only excepted he writing after this manner From which that is Contention and Friendship all the things that have been are and shall be Plants Beasts Men and Gods derived their Original For Empedocles it seems supposed that were it not for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discord or Contention all things would be One So that according to him all things whatsoever proceded from Contention or Discord together with a mixture of Friendship save only the Supreme God who hath therefore no Contention at all in him because he is Essentially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnity it self and Friendship From whence Aristotle takes occasion to quarrel with Empedocles as if it would follow from his Principles that the Supreme and most Happy God was the Least wise of all as being not able to know any thing besides himself or in the World without him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This therefore happens to Empedocles that according to his Principles the most Happy God is the least Wise of all other things for he cannot know the Elements because he hath no Contention in him all Knowledge being by that which is like himself writing thus We know Earth by Earth Water by Water Air by Air and Fire by Fire Friendship by Friendship and Contention by Contention But to let this pass Empedocles here making the Gods themselves to be derived from Contention and Friendship the Supreme Deity or most Happy God only excepted who hath no Contention in him and from whom Contention and Friendship themselves were derived plainly acknowledged both One Unmade Deity the Original of all things under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very One and many other Inferiour Gods generated or produced by him they being Juniors to Contention or Discord as this was also Junior to Vnity the First and Supreme Deity Which Gods of Empedocles that were begotten from Contention as well as Men and other things were doubtless the Stars and Demons Moreover we may here observe that according to Empedocles his Doctrine the true Original of all the Evil both of Humane Souls and Demons which he supposed alike Lapsable was derived from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discord and Contention that is necessarily contained in the Nature of them together with the the Ill Use of their Liberty both in this Present and their Pre-existent State So that Empedocles here trode in the footsteps of Pythagoras whose Praises he thus loudly sang forth in his Poems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Horum de numero quidam praestantia norat Plurima Mentis Opes Amplas sub pectore servans Omnia Vestigans Sapientum Docta Reperta c. XXII Before we come to Socrates and Plato we shall here take notice of some other Pythagoreans and Eminent Philosophers who clearly asserted One Supreme and Vniversal Numen though doubtless acknowledging withal Other Inferiour Gods Philo in his Book De Mundi Opificio writing of the Hebdomad or Septenary Number and observing that according to the Pythagoreans it was called both a Motherless and Virgin Number because it was the only number within the Decad which was neither Generated nor did it self Generate tells us that therefore it was made by them a Symbol of the Supreme Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans likened this Number to the Prince and Governour of All Things or the Supreme Monarch of the Vniverse as thinking it to bear a resemblance of his Immutability which Phancy of theirs was before taken notice of by us However Philo hereupon occasionally cites this Remarkable Testimony of Philolaus the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God saith he is the Prince and Ruler over all alwayes One Stable Immovable Like to himself but Vnlike to every thing else To which may be added what in Stobaeus is further recorded out of the same Philolaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This World was from Eternity and will remain to Eternity One governed by One which is Cognate and the Best Where notwithstanding he seemeth with Ocellus to maintain the Worlds Pre-eternity And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore said Philolaus the World might well be called the Eternal Energy or Effect of God and of Successive Generation Jamblichus in his Protrepticks cites a Passage out of Archytas another Pythagorean to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever is able to reduce all kinds of things under One and the same Principle this man seems to me to have found out an excellent Specula or high Station from whence he may be able to take a Large View and Prospect of God and of all other things and he shall clearly perceive that God is the Beginning and End and Middle of All things that are performed according to Justice and Right Reason Upon which words of Archytas Jamblichus thus glosseth Archytas here declares the End of all Theological Speculation to be this not to rest in Many Principles but to reduce all things under One and the same Head Adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this knowledge of the first Vnity the Original of All things is the end of all Contemplation Moreover Stobaeus cites this out of Archytas his Book of Principles viz. That besides Matter and Form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There is another more necessary cause which Moving brings the Form to the Matter and that this is the First and most Powerful Cause which is fitly called God So that there are Three Principles God Matter and Form God the Artificer and Mover and Matter that which is moved and Form the Art introduced into the Matter In which same Stobean Excerption it also follows afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there must be something better than Mind and that this thing better than Mind is that which we properly call God Ocellus also in the same Stobaeus thus writeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life contains the bodies of Animals the Cause of which
it was perpetually to Personate Things and Natures But the Philosophick Theology properly so called which according to Varro was that de qua multos libros Philosophi reliquerunt as it admitted none but Animal Gods and such as really existed in Nature which therefore were called Natural namely one Supreme Universal Numen a Perfect Soul or Mind comprehending all and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other Inferiour Understanding Beings his Ministers Created by him such as Stars and Demons so were all those Personated Gods or Natures of Things Deified in the Arcane Theology interpreted agreeably thereunto St. Austin often takes notice of the Pagans thus Mingling and as it were Incorporating Physiology with their Theology he justly condemning the same As in his 49. Epistle Neque illinc excusant impii sua Sacrilega Sacra Simulachra quòd eleganter interpretantur quid quaeque significent Omnis quippe illa Interpretatio ad Creaturam refertur non ad Creatorem cui uni debetur Servitus Religionis illa quae uno nomine Latria Graecè appellatur Neither do the Pagans sufficiently excuse their Sacrilegious Rites and Images from hence because they elegantly and ingeniously interpret what each of those things signifieth For this Interpretation is referred to the Creature and not to the Creator to whom alone belongeth Religious Worship that which by the Greeks is called Latria And again in his Book De Civ D. L. 6. c. 8. Atenim habent ista Physiologicas quasdam sicut aiunt id est Naturalium Rationum Interpretationes Quasi verò nos in hac Disputatione Physiologiam quaeramus non Theologiam id est Rationem Naturae non Dei. Quamvis enim qui verus Deus est non Opinione sed Natura sit Deus non tamen omnis Natura Deus est But the Pagans pretend that these things have certain Physiological Interpretations or according to Natural Reasons as if in this Disputation we sought for Physiology and not Theology or the Reason of Nature and not of God For although the True God be not in Opinion only but in Nature God yet is not every Nature God But certainly the First and Chief Ground of this Practice of theirs thus to Theologize Physiology and Deifie in one sence or other all the Things of Nature was no other than what has been already intimated their supposing God to be not only Diffused thorough the whole World and In all things but also in a manner All things and that therefore he ought to be worshipped in All the Things of Nature and Parts of the World Wherefore these personated Gods of the Pagans or those Things of Nature Deified by them and called Gods and Goddesses were for all that by no means accounted by the Intelligent amongst them True and Proper Gods Thus Cotta in Cicero Cum Fruges Cererem Vinum Liberum dicimus genere nos quidem sermonis utimur usitato sed ecquem tam amentem esse putas qui illud quo vescatur Deum esse credat Though it be very common and familiar language amongst us to call Corn Ceres and Wine Bacchus yet who can think any one to be so mad as to take that to be really a God which he feeds upon The Pagans really accounted that only for a God by the worshipping and invoking whereof they might reasonably expect benefit to themselves and therefore nothing was Truely and Properly a God to them but what was both Substantial and also Animant and Intellectual For Plato writes that the Atheistick Wits of his time therefore concluded the Sun and Moon and Stars not to be Gods because they were nothing but Earth and Stones or a certain Fiery Matter devoid of all Understanding and Sense and for this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unable to take notice of any Humane Affairs And Aristotle affirmeth concerning the Gods in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all men conceived them to Live and consequently to Act since they cannot be supposed to sleep perpetually as Endymion did The Pagans Universally conceived the Gods to be Happy Animals and Aristotle there concludes the happiness of them all to consist in Contemplation Lucretius himself would not debar men of that Language then vulgarly received amongst the Pagans of calling the Sea Neptune Corn Ceres Wine Bacchus and the Earth the Mother of the Gods too provided that they did not think any of these for all that to be Truly and Really Gods Hîc siquis Mare Neptunum Cereremque vocare Constituit fruges Bacchi nomine abuti Mavolt quam Laticis proprium proferre vocamen Concedamus ut hic Terrarum dictitet Orbem Esse Deum Matrem dum non sit re tamen apse And the reason why the Earth was not really a Goddess is thus given by him Terra quidem vero caret omni tempore Sensu. Because it is constantly devoid of all manner of sense Thus Balbus in Cicero tells us that the first thing included in the notion or Idea of a God is this Vt sit Animans That it be Animant or endued with Life Sense and Vnderstanding And he conceiving the Stars to be undoubtedly such therefore concludes them to be Gods Quoniam tenuissimus est Aether semper agitatur viget necesse est quod Animal in eo gignatur idem quoque Sensu acerrimo esse Quare â—um in Aethere Astra gignantur consentaneum est in iis Sensum inesse Intelligentiam Ex quo efficitur in Deorum numero Astra esse ducenda Because the Aether is most subtil and in continual agitation that Animal which is begotten in it must needs be endued with the quickest and sharpest sense Wherefore since the Stars are begotten in the Aether it is reasonable to think them to have Sense and Vnderstanding from whence it follows that they ought to be reckoned in the number of Gods And Cotta in the Third Book affirms that all men were so far from thinking the Stars to be Gods that Multi ne Animantes quidem esse concedant many would not so much as admit them to be Animals plainly intimating that unless they were Animated they could not possibly by Gods Lastly Plutarch for this very reason absolutely condemns that whole practice of giving the names of Gods and Goddesses to Inanimate things as Absurd Impious and Atheistical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who give the names of Gods to Sensless and Inanimate Natures and Things and such as are destroyed by men in the use of them beget most wicked and Atheistical opinions in the minds of men since it cannot be conceived how these things should be Gods for nothing that is Inanimate is a God And now we have very good reason to conclude that the Distinction or Division of Pagan Gods used by some into Animal and Natural by Natural being meant Inanimate is utterly to be rejected if we speak of their True and Proper Gods since nothing was such to the
Pagans but what had Life Sense and Understanding Wherefore those Personated Gods that were nothing but the Natures of Things Deified as such were but Dii Commentitii Fictitii Counterfeit and Fictitious Gods or as Origen calls them in that place before cited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Figments of the Greeks and other Pagans that were but Things turned into Person and Deified Neither can there be any other sence made of these Personated and Deified Things of Nature than this that they were all of them really so many Several Names of One Supreme God or Partial Considerations of him according to the Several Manifestations of himself in his Works Thus according to the old Egyptian Theology before declared God is said to have both No Name and Every Name or as it is expressed in the Asclepian Dialogue Cum non possit Vno quamvis è Multis composito Nomine nuncupari potius Omni Nomine vocandus est siquidem sit Vnus Omnia ut necesse sit aut Omnia Ipsius Nomine aut Ipsum Omnium Nomine nuncupari Since he cannot be fully declared by any one Name though compounded of never so many therefore is he rather to be called by Every Name he being both One and All Things so that either Every Thing must be called by His Name or He by the Name of Every thing With which Egyptian Doctrine Seneca seemeth also fully to agree when he gives this Description of God Cui Nomen Omne convenit He to whom every Name belongeth and when he further declares thus concerning him Quaecunque voles illi Nomina aptabis and Tot Appellationes ejus possunt esse quot Munera You may give him whatsoever Names you please c. and There may be as many Names of him as there are Gifts and Effects of his and lastly when he makes God and Nature to be really One and the same Thing and Every thing we see to be God And the Writer De Mundo is likewise consonant hereunto when he affirmeth that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or may be denominated from Every Nature because he is the Cause of all things We say therefore that the Pagans in this their Theologizing of Physiology and Deifying the Things of Nature and Parts of the World did accordingly Call Every Thing by the Name of God or God by the Name of Every Thing Wherefore these Personated and Deified Things of Nature were not themselves Properly and Directly worshipped by the Intelligent Pagans who acknowledged no Inanimate thing for a God so as to terminate their worship ultimately in them but either Relatively only to the Supreme God or else at most in way of Complication with him whose Effects and Images they are so that they were not so much themselves worshipped as God was worshipped in them For these Pagans professed that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look upon the Heaven and World not slightly and superficially nor as meer Bruit Animals who take notice of nothing but those sensible Phantasms which from the objects obtrude themselves upon them or else as the same Julian in that Oration again more fully expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not view and contemplate the Heaven and World with the same eyes that Oxen and Horses do but so as from that which is Visible to their outward senses to discern and discover another Invisible Nature under it That is they professed to behold all things with Religious Eyes and to see God in Every Thing not only as Pervading all things and Diffused thorough all things but also as Being in a manner All things Wherefore they looked upon the whole World as a Sacred Thing and as having a kind of Divinity in it it being according to their Theology nothing but God himself Visibly Displayed And thus was God worshipped by the Pagans in the whole Corporeal World taken all at once together or in the Universe under the Name of Pan. As they also commonly conceived of Zeus and Jupiter after the same manner that is not Abstractly only as we now use to conceive of God but Concretely together with all that which Proceedeth and Emaneth from him that is the Whole World And as God was thus described in that old Egyptian Monument to be All that Was Is and Shall be so was it before observed out of Plutarch that the Egyptians took the First God and the Vniverse for One and the same Thing not only because they supposed the Supreme God Vertually to contain all things within himself but also because they were wont to conceive of him together with his Outflowing and all the extent of Fecundity the whole World displayed from him all at once as one entire thing Thus likewise do the Pagans in Plato confound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greatest God and The Whole World together as being but one and the same thing And this Notion was so Familiar with these Pagans that Strabo himself writing of Moses could not conceive of his God and of the God of the Jews any otherwise than thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely That which containeth us all and the Earth and the Sea which we call the Heaven and World and the Nature of the Whole By which notwithstanding Strabo did not mean the Heaven or World Inanimate and a Sensless Nature but an Understanding Being framing the whole World and containing the same which was conceived together with it of which therefore he tells us that according to Moses no wise man would go about to make any Image or Picture resembling any thing here amongst us From whence we conclude that when the same Strabo writing of the Persians affirmeth of them that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take the Heaven for Jupiter and also Herodotus before him that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Call the Whole Circle of the Heaven Jupiter that is the Supreme God the meaning of neither of them was that the Body of the Heaven Inanimate was to them the Highest God but that though he were an Understanding Nature yet framing the whole Heaven or World and containing the same he was at once conceived together with it Moreover God was worshipped also by the Pagans in the Several Parts of the wrorld under Several Names as for example in the Higher and Lower Aether under those Names of Minerva and Jupiter in the Air under the name of Juno in the Fire under the name of Vulcan in the Sea under the name of Neptune c. Neither can it be reasonably doubted but that when the Roman Sea-Captains Sacrificed to the Waves they intended therein to worship that God who acteth in the Waves and whose Wonders are in the Deep But besides this the Pagans seemed to apprehend a kind of necessity of worshipping God thus in his works and in the Visible things of this World because the generality of the Vulgar were then unable to frame any notion or conception at all
such as made the World to be the Third God Such a Trinity a Confounding of God and Creature together Page 551 552 And that this an Adulterated Notion of the Trinity evident from hence because no Reason why these Philosophers should stop here since the Sun Moon and Stars and their other Generated Gods differ not in Kind but onely in Degree from the World Page 552 Neither will this excuse them that they understood this chiefly of the Soul of the World Since if there were such a Mundane Soul as together with the VVorld made up One Animal this it self must needs be a Creature also ibid. This probably the Reason why Philo though acknowledging the Divine Word as a Second God and Second Cause yet no-where speaketh of a Third God lest he should thereby seem to Deify the whole Created World Though he call God also in some Sense the Soul of the World too whether meaning thereby his First or his Second God So that Philo seems to have acknowledged onely a Duality and not a Trinity of Divine Hypostases Page 552 553 Another Depravation of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theology of Divine Tradition or Cabbala of the Trinity That some of these Platonists and Pythagoreans concluding all those several Idea's of the Divine Intellect or Archetypall World to be so many distinct Substances Animals and Gods have thereby made their Second Hypostasis not One but a Heap of Innumerable Gods and Hypostases and consequently destroyed their Trinity Page 553 Though Philo again here Platonized so far as to suppose an Incorporeal Heaven and Earth and an Intelligible Sun Moon and Stars to have been made before the Corporeal and Sensible yet does he no-where declare them to be so many distinct Substances and Animals much less Gods but on the contrary censures that for Pagan Idolatry This Pretence of worshipping the Divine Idea's in all Sensible things that which gave Sanctuary and Protection to the Foulest and Sottishest of all the Pagan Idolatries The Egyptians worshipping Brute Animals thus and the Greeks the Parts of the World Inanimate and Natures of Things Page 554 A Third Depravation or Adulteration of the Divine Cabbala of the Trinity by Proclus and other latter Platonists asserting an innumerable Company of Henades Particular Unities Superiour to the First Nous or Intellect their Second Hypostasis as also innumerable Noes Substantiall Minds or Intellects Superiour to the First Psyche their Third Hypostasis Page 555 These Noes seem to be asserted by Plotinus also as likewise the Henades and Agathotetes were by Simplicius Page 555 556 A Swarm of Innumerable Pagan Gods from hence besides their Intelligible Gods or Idea's Particular Henades and Noes Unities and Intellects ibid. Now since these Particular Henades and Noes of theirs must needs be Creatures the Trinity of Proclus and such others nothing but a Scale or Ladder of Nature wherein God and the Creature are Confounded together the Juncture or Commissure betwixt them being no-where discernible as if they differ'd onely in Degrees A gross Mistake and Adulteration of the Ancient Cabbala of the Trinity Page 556 557 This that Platonick or rather Pseudo-Platonick Trinity by us opposed to the Christian viz. such a Trinity as confounds the Differences betwixt God and the Creature bringing the Deity by degrees down lower and lower and at length scattering it into all the Animated Parts of the World A Foundation for Infinite Polytheism Cosmolatry or World-Idolatry and Creature-Worship Hence the Platonists and Pythagoreans the Fittest men to be Champions for Paganism against Christianity Page 557 558 Concerning the Christian Trinity Three things to be Observed First that it is not a Trinity of meer Names and Words nor Logicall Notions or Inadequate Conceptions of God this Doctrine having been condemned by the Christian Church in Sabellius and others but a Trinity of Hypostases Subsistences or Persons Page 558 559 The Second thing Observable in the Christian Trinity That though the Second Hypostasis thereof were Begotten from the First and the Third Proceedeth both from the First and Second yet neither of them Creatures First because not made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or from an Antecedent Non-existence brought forth into Being but both of them Coeternall with the Father Secondly because all Necessarily existent and Un-Annihilable Thirdly because all of them Universall or Infinite and Creatours of all other Particular Beings Page 559 The Third Observable as to the Christian Trinity That the Three Hypostases thereof are all Truly and Really One God not onely by Reason of Agreement of Will but also of a Mutuall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Permeation of each other and Inexistence Though no Instance of the like Unity to be found elsewhere in Nature yet since two distinct Substances Corporeal and Incorporeal make one Man and Person in our Selves much more may Three Divine Hypostases be One God ibid. Though much of Mystery in the Christian Trinity yet nothing of plain Contradiction to Reason therein that is no Nonsense and Impossibility The Ill Design of those who represent the Christian Trinity as absolutely Contradictious to Reason that they may thereby debauch mens Vnderstandings and make them swallow down other things which unquestionably are such Page 560 The Christian Trinity much more agreeable to Reason then the Pseudo-Platonick in the Three Particulars before mentioned First its making their Third Hypostasis the Animated World or Mundane Soul Which not onely too great a Leap betwixt the Second and Third but also a gross Debasement of the Deity and Confounding it with the Creature a Foundation for World-Idolatry and worshipping Inanimate Things as Parts and Members of God ibid. God to Origen but Quasi Anima Mundi As it were the Soul of the World and not Truly and Properly such All the Perfection of this Notion to be attributed to God but not the Imperfection thereof Page 560 561 Certain that according to the more refined Platonists their Third Divine Hypostasis not a Mundane but Supra-mundane Soul and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Opificer of the whole World So to Amelius Porphyrius and Plotinus A Double Soul of the World to Plato likewise The Third Hypostasis to these no Creature but a Creatour Page 562 So in their Second Particular whereby the forementioned Pseudo-Platonick Trinity no Trinity its making all the Idea's and Archetypal Paradigms of things so many Hypostases Animals and Gods This a Monstrous Extravagancy Not to be doubted but that Plato well understood these Idea's to be Nothing but Noemata or Conceptions of the Divine Mind existing no-where apart by themselves however called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essences or Substances because not such Accidental and Evanid things as our Humane Thoughts are they being the Standing and Eternall Objects of all Science As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Animals to signify that they were not meer Dead Forms as Pictures upon Paper or Carved Statues And thus did not onely Amelius understand S. John
concerning the Logos Whatsoever was made was Life in him but also divers of the Ancient Fathers Greek and Latin This Deifying of Idea's but a Piece of Pagan Poetry Page 562 563 Lastly whereas Proclus and others intermingle many Particular Gods with those Three Universal Hypostases as Henades and Agathotetes Unities and Goodnesses Substantiall above the First Intellect and Noes Particular Minds or Intellects above the First Soul This Hypothesis of theirs altogether Irrationall and Absurd there being Nothing Essentially Goodness Wisedom and Sanctity but the Three Divine Hypostases all other Beings having onely a Participation thereof Thus Origen expresly who therefore acknowledgeth no higher Rank of Created Beings then such as the Platonists call Souls that are Self-moveable Vitally Unitable to Bodies and Peccable With whom agreeth S. Jerome and others of the Fathers That God is the onely Impeccable Being but all Understanding Creatures Free-willed and Lapsable Page 564 565 An Opinion of Simplicius that even in that Rank of Beings called Souls though not Essentially Immutable but Self-moveable some are of so high a Pitch as that they can never Degenerate nor Sink or Fall into Vicious Habits Insomuch that he makes a Question whether Proaeresis belong to them or no. Page 565 566 But whatever is to be thought of this Origen too far in the other Extream in denying any other Ranks of Souls above Humane and supposing all the Difference that is now betwixt the highest Angels and Men to have proceeded only from their Merits and different uses of their Free Will his Reason being this because God would be otherwise a Prosopoleptes or Accepter of Persons This also Extended by him to the Soul of our Saviour Christ as not Partially chosen to that Dignity but for its Faithfull adherence to the Divine Word in a Prae-existent State which he would prove from Scripture But if a Rank of Souls below Humane and Specifically differing from them as Origen himself confesses those of Brutes to be no reason why there might not also be other Ranks or Species Superiour to them Page 566 567 But least of all can we assent to Origen when from this Principle That all Souls are Essentially endued with Free Will and therefore in their Nature Peccable he infers those Endless Circuits of Souls Upwards and Downwards and consequently denies them any Fixed State of Holiness and Happiness by Divine Grace an Assertion contrary to the Tenour and Promises of the Gospell Thus perhaps that to be understood That Christ brought Life and Immortality to Light thorough the Gospell not as if he were the First who taught the Soul's Immortality a thing believed before by the Pharisaick Jews and Generality of Pagans but because these held their Endless Transmigrations and Circuits therefore was he the first who brought everlasting Life and Happiness to Light Page 567 568 That Origen a man well skilled in the Platonick Learning and so much addicted to the Dogmata thereof would never have gone so far into that other Extreme had there been any Solidity of Reason for either those Henades or Noes of the Latter Platonists This Opinion all one as if a Christian should suppose besides the First Person or Father a Multitude of Particular Paternities Superiour to the Second Person and also besides the One Son or Word a Multitude of Particular Sons or Words Superiour to the Third the Holy Ghost This plainly to make a Breach upon the Deity and to introduce a company of such Creaturely Gods as imply a Contradiction in their very Notion Page 568 Lastly this not the Catholick Doctrine of the Platonick School neither but a Private Opinion onely of some late Doctours No Footsteps of those Henades and Agathotetes to be found any-where in Plato nor yet in Plotinus This Language little Older then Proclus Nor does Plato speak of any Abstract or Separate Mind save onely One His Second things about the Second being Idea's as his Thirds about the Third Created Beings Plotinus also doubtfull and staggering about these Noes he seeming sometimes to make them but the Heads or Summities of Souls Wherefore this Pseudo-Platonick Trinity to be Exploded as Confounding the Differences betwixt God and the Creature Whereas the Christian Trinity Homogeneall all Deity or Creatour all other things being supposed to be the Creatures of those Three Hypostases and produced by their Joynt-Concurrence and Influence they being all Really but One God Page 568 570 Nevertheless these forementioned Depravations and Adulterations of that Divine Cabbala of the Trinity not to be charged upon Plato himself nor all the other Ancient Platonists and Pythagoreans some of which approached so near to the Christian Trinity as to make their Three Hypostases all truly Divine and Creatours other things being the Creatures of them ibid. First therefore Plato himself in his Timaeus carefully distinguisheth betwixt God and the Creature and determineth the bounds of each after this manner That the First is that which Always Is and was never Made the Second that which is Made and had a Beginning but truely Is not His meaning here perverted by Junior Platonists whom Boetius also followed Where Plato takes it for granted That whatsoever hath a Temporary and Successive Duration had a Beginning and whatsoever had no Beginning hath no Successive but Permanent Duration and so concludes That whatsoever is Eternall is God but whatsoever exists in Time and hath a Beginning Creature Page 570 572 Now to Plato more Eternall Gods then One Which not Idea's or Noemata but true Substantiall Things his First Second and Third in his Epistle to Dionysius or Trinity of Divine Hypostases the Makers or Creatours of the whole World Cicero's Gods by whose Providence the World and all its Parts were framed Page 572 573 The Second Hypostasis in Plato's Trinity to wit Mind or Intellect unquestionably Eternal and without Beginning The same affirmed by Plotinus also of the Third Hypostasis or Psyche called the Word of the Second as the Second the Word of the First Porphyrius his Testimony to this purpose in S. Cyril where also Mind or the Second Divine Hypostasis though said to have been Begotten from the First yet called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Its Own-Parent and its Own-Offspring and said to have sprung out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-begottenly Page 573 574. This Mysterious Riddle expounded out of Plotinus The plain meaning thereof no more then this That though this Second Hypostasis proceeded from the First yet was it not produced by it after a Creaturely manner nor Arbitrariously by Will and Choice but in way of Natural and Necessary Emanation Thus have some Christians ventured to call the Logos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Ex seipso Deum God from himself Page 574 575 Dionysius Petavius having declared the Doctrine of Arius that the Father was the onely Eternal God and the Son or Word a Creature made in Time and out of Nothing Concludes it undeniably manifest from hence