Dignity of its Hypostatick Vnion but by reason of its most faithful adherence to the Divine Word and Wisdom in a Pre-existent State beyond all others Souls which he endeavours thus to prove from the Scripture Quòd dilectionis Perfectio affectus sinceritas ei inseparabilem cum Deo fecerit Vnitatem ità ut non fortuita fuerit aut cum Personae acceptione Animae ejus assumptio sed Virtutum suarum sibi merito delata audi ad eum Prophetam dicentem Dilexisti Justitiam odisti iniquitatem proptereà unxit te Deus Deus tuus oleo laetitiae prae participibus tuis Dilectionis ergo merito ungitur Oleo laetitiae Anima Christi id est cum Verbo Dei Vnum efficitur Vngè namque oleo laetitiae non aliud intelligitur quam Spiritu Sancto repleri Prae Participibus autem dixit quia nâ—n Gratia Spiritus sicut Prophetis ei data est sed ipsius Verbi Dei in ea Substantialis inerat Plenitudo That the Perfection of Love and Sincerity of Divine Affection procured to this Soul its Inseparable Vnion with the Godhead so that the Assumption of it was neither Fortuitous nor Partial or with Prosopolepsie the Acception of Persons but bestowed upon it justly for the Merit of its Vertues hear saith he the Prophet thus declaring to him Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore hath God even thy God anointed thee with the oil of Gladness above thy Fellows The Soul of Christ therefore was anointed with the oil of Gladness or made one with the Word of God for the Merits of Love and faithful adherence to God and no otherwise For to be anointed with the oil of Gladness here properly signifies nothing else but to be replenish'd with the Holy Ghost But when it is said that he was thus anointed above his Fellows this intimateth that he had not the Holy Ghost bestowed upon him only as the Prophets and other Holy men had but that the Substantial Fulness of the Word of God dwelt in him But this Reason of Origen's seems to be very weak because if there be a Rank of Souls below Humane specifically differing from the same as Origen himself must needs confess he not allowing the Souls of Brutes to have been Humane Souls Lapsed as some Pythagoreans and Platonists conceited but renouncing and disclaiming that Opinion as monstrously Absurd and Irrational there can be no reason given why there might not be as well other Ranks and Orders of Souls Superiour to those of Men without the Injustice of Prosopolepsie as besides Simplicius Plotinus and the Generality of other Platonists conceived But least of all can we assent to Origen when from this Principle that Souls as such are Essentially endowed with Liberum Arbitrium or Free Will and therefore never in their own Nature Impeccable he infers those Endless Circuits of Souls Vpwards and Downwards and so makes them to be never at rest denying them any Fixed State of Holiness and Happiness by Divine Grace such as wherein they might be free from the Fear and Danger of ever losing the same Of whom St. Austin therefore thus Illum propter alia nonnulla maximè propter alternantes sine cessatione beatitudines miserias statutis seculorum intervallis ab istis ad illas atque ab illis ad istas Itus ac Reditus Interminabiles non immeritò reprobavit Ecclesia quia hoc quod Misericors videbatur amisit faciendo sanctis Veras Miserias quibus poenas luerent Falsas Beatitudines in quibus verum ac securum hoc est sine Timore certum sempiterni boni gaudium non haberent The Church hath deservedly rejected Origen both for certain other opinions of his and especially for those his Alternate Beatitudes and Miseries without end and for his infinite Circuits Ascents and Descents of Souls from one to the other in restless Vicissitudes and after Periods of Time Forasmuch as hereby he hath quite lost that very Title of Pitiful or Merciful which otherwise he seemed to have deserved by making so many True Miseries for the best of Saints in which they should successively undergo Punishment and Smart and none but False Happinesses for them such as wherein they could never have any True or Secure joy free from the Fear of losing that Good which they possess For this Origenical Hypothesis seems directly contrary to the whole Tenour of the Gospel promising Eternal and Everlasting Life to those who believe in Christ and Perseveringly obey him 1 Joh. 2. This is the Promise that he hath Promised us even Eternal Life and Titus 1.2 In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot Lye hath promised And God so loved the World that he gave his only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life and lest all this should be taken for a Periodical Eternity only John 3.26 He that believeth in me shall never die And possibly this might be the Meaning of St. Paul 2 Tim. 1.10 when he affirmeth of our Saviour Christ That he hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light thorough the Gospel not because he was the First who had discovered and published to the World the Souls Immortality which was believed before not only by all the Pharisaick Jews but also by the Generality of Pagans too but because these for the most part held their Endless Circuits and Transmigrations of Souls therefore was he the First who brought Everlasting Life to Light and gave the World assurance in the Faith of the Gospel of a Fixed and Permanent State of Happiness and a never fading Crown of Glory to be obteined Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out Apoc. 3.12 Now the Reason why we mention'd Origen here was because he was a Person not only thoroughly skilled in all the Platonick Learning but also one who was sufficiently addicted to those Dogmata he being commonly conceived to have had too great a kindness for them and therefore had there been any Solidity of Reason for either those Particular Henades or Noes of theirs Created Beings above the Rank of Souls and consequently according to the Platonick Hypothesis Superiour to the Vniversal Psyche also which was the Third Hypostasis in their Trinity and seems to answer to the Holy Ghost in the Christian Origen was as likely to have been favourable thereunto as any other But it is indeed manifestly repugnant to Reason that there should be any such Particular that is Created Henades and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essential Goodnesses Superiour to the Platonick First Mind or any such Noes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essential Wisdoms Superiour to their Vniversal Psyche it being all one as if in the Christian Trinity besides the First Person or the Father one should suppose a Multitude of Particular Paternities Superiour to the Second and also besides that Second
Justice for them or to make us Guilty and Blame-worthy for what we doe Amiss and to Deserve Punishment accordingly Which Three Fundamentals of Religion are Intimated by the Authour to the Hebrews in these Words He that Cometh to God must Believe that He Is and That He is a Rewarder of those who seek him out For to Seek out God here is nothing else but to Seek a Participation of his Image or the Recovery of that Nature and Life of his which we have been Alienated from And these Three Things namely That all things do not Float without a Head and Governour but there is an Omnipotent Understanding Being Presiding over all That this God hath an Essentiall Goodness and Justice and That the Differences of Good and Evil Morall Honest and Dishonest are not by meer Will and Law onely but by Nature and consequently That the Deity cannot Act Influence and Necessitate men to such things as are in their Own Nature Evil and Lastly That Necessity is not Intrinsecall to the Nature of every thing But that men have such a Liberty or Power over their own Actions as may render them Accountable for the same and Blame-worthy when they doe Amiss and consequently That there is a Justice Distributive of Rewards and Punishments running through the World I say These Three which are the most Important Things that the Mind of man can employ it self upon taken all together make up the Wholeness and Entireness of that which is here called by us The True Intellectual System of the Universe in such a Sense as Atheism may be called a False System thereof The Word Intellectual being added to distinguish it from the other Vulgarly so called Systems of the World that is the Visible and Corporeal World the Ptolemaick Tychonick and Copernican the Two Former of which are now commonly accounted False the Latter True And thus our Prospect being now Enlarged into a Threefold Fatalism or Spurious and False Hypothesis of the Intellectual System making all things Necessary upon several Grounds We accordingly Designed the Confutation of them all in Three Several Books The First Against Atheism which is the Democritick Fate wherein all the Reason and Philosophy thereof is Refelled and the Existence of a God Demonstrated and so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Material Necessity of all things Overthrown The Second For such a God as is not meer Arbitrary Will Omnipotent Decreeing Doing and Necessitating all Actions Evil as well as Good but Essentially Moral Good and Just and For a Natural Discrimen Honestorum Turpium whereby another Ground of the Necessity of all Humane Actions will be Removed And the Third and Last Against Necessity Intrinsecall and Essentiall to all Action and for such a Liberty or Sui-Potestas in Rational Creatures as may render them Accountable capable of Rewards and Punishments and so Objects of Distributive or Retributive Justice by which the now onely remaining Ground of the Fatal Necessity of all Actions and Events will be Taken away And all these Three under that One General Title of The True Intellectual System of the Universe Each Book having besides it s own Particular Title as Against Atheism For Natural Justice and Morality Founded in the Deity For Liberty from Necessity and a Distributive Justice of Rewards and Punishments in the World And this we conceive may fully satisfy concerning our General Title all those who are not extremely Criticall or Captious at least as many of them as have ever heard of the Astronomical Systems of the World so that they will not think us hereby Obliged to Treat of the Hierarchy of Angels and of all the Several Species of Animals Vegetables and Minerals c. that is to write De Omni Ente of whatsoever is Contained within The Complexion of the Universe Though the Whole Scale of Entity is here also taken notice of and the General Ranks of Substantiall Beings below the Deity or Trinity of Divine Hypostases Consider'd which yet according to our Philosophy are but Two Souls of several Degrees Angels themselves being included within that Number and Body or Matter as also the Immortality of those Souls Proved Which notwithstanding is Suggested by us onely to Satisfy some mens Curiosity Nevertheless we confess that this General Title might well have been here spared by us and this Volume have been Presented to the Reader 's View not as a Part or Piece but a Whole Compleat and Entire thing by it self had it not been for Two Reasons First Our beginning with those Three Fatalisms or False Hypotheses of the Intellectual System and Promising a Confutation of them all then when we thought to have brought them within the Compass of One Volume and Secondly Every other Page's throughout this whole Volume accordingly bearing the Inscription of Book the First upon the Head thereof This is therefore that which in the First place we here Apologize for our Publishing One Part or Book alone by it self We being surprized in the Length thereof Whereas we had otherwise Intended Two more along with it Notwithstanding which there is no Reason why this Volume should therefore be thought Imperfect and Incomplete because it hath not All the Three Things at first Designed by us it containing All that belongeth to its own Particular Title and Subject and being in that respect no Piece but a Whole This indeed must needs beget an Expectation of the Two following Treatises especially in such as shall have receiv'd any Satisfaction from this First concerning those Two other Fatalisms or False Hypotheses mentioned to make up our Whole Intellectual System Compleat The One to Prove That God is not meer Arbitrary Will Omnipotent without any Essential Goodness and Justice Decreeing and Doing all things in the World as well Evil as Good and thereby making them alike Necessary to us from whence it would follow that all Good and Evil Moral are meer Thetical Positive and Arbitrary things that is not Nature but Will Which is the Defence of Natural Eternal and Immutable Justice or Morality The Other That Necessity is not Intrinsecal to the Nature of Every thing God and all Creatures or Essentiall to all Action but That there is Something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or That we have some Liberty or Power over our own Actions Which is the Defence of a Distributive or Retributive Justice dispensing Rewards and Punishments throughout the whole VVorld VVherefore we think fit here to advertize the Reader concerning these That though they were and still are really intended by us yet the Compleat Finishing and Publication of them will notwithstanding depend upon many Contingencies not onely of our Life and Health the Latter of which as well as the Former is to us very Vncertain but also of our Leisure or Vacancy from other Necessary Employments In the next place VVe must Apologize also for the Fourth Chapter inasmuch as thâ—ugh in regard of its Length it might rather be called a Book then a Chapter
parts we neither call Philology nor yet Philosophy our Mistress but serve our selves of Either as Occasion requireth As for the Last Chapter Though it Promise onely a Confutation of all the Atheistick Grounds yet do we therein also Demonstrate the Absolute Impossibility of all Atheism and the Actual Existence of a God We say Demonstrate not A Priori which is Impossible and Contradictious but by Necessary Inference from Principles altogether Vndeniable For we can by no means grant to the Atheists That there is no more then a Probable Persuasion or Opinion to be had of the Existence of a God without any Certain Knowledge or Science Nevertheless it will not follow from hence That whosoever shall Read these Demonstratâ—ons of ours and Vnderstand all the words of them must therefore of Necessity be presently Convinced whether he will or no and put out of all manner of Doubt or Hesitancy concerning the Existence of a God For we Believe That to be True which some have Affirmed That were there any Interest of Life any Concernment of Appetite and Passion against the Truth of Geometricall Theorems themselves as of a Triangle's Having Three Angles Equall to Two Right whereby mens Judgements might be Clouded and Bribed Notwithstanding all the Demonstrations of them many would remain at least Sceptical about them Wherefore meer Speculation and Dry Mathematical Reason in Minds Vnpurified and having a Contrary Interest of Carnality and a heavy Load of Infidelity and Distrust sinking them down cannot alone beget an Unshaken Confidence and Assurance of so High a Truth as this The Existence of One Perfect Understanding Being the Original of all things As it is certain also on the contrary That Minds Cleansed and Purged from Vice may without Syllogisticall Reasonings and Mathematical Demonstrations have an Vndoubted Assurance of the Existence of a God according to that of the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purity Possesses men with an Assurance of the Best things whether this Assurance be called a Vaticination or Divine Sagacity as it is by Plato and Aristotle or Faith as in the Scripture For the Scripture-Faith is not a meer Believing of Historicall Things and upon Inartificiall Arguments or Testimonies onely but a Certain Higher and Diviner Power in the Soul that peculiarly Correspondeth with the Deity Notwithstanding which Knowledge or Science added to this Faith according to the Scripture Advice will make it more Firm and Stedfast and the better able to resist those Assaults of Sophisticall Reasonings that shall be made against it In this Fifth Chapter as sometimes elsewhere we thought Our selves concerned in Defence of the Divine Wisdome Goodness and Perfection against Atheists to maintain with all the Ancient Philosophick Theists the Perfection of the Creation also or that the Whole System of things taken all together could not have been Better Made and Ordered then it is And indeed This Divine Goodness and Perfection as Displaying and Manifesting it self in the Works of Nature and Providence is supposed in Scripture to be the very Foundation of our Christian Faith when that is Defined to be the Substance and Evidence Rerum Sperandarum that is of Whatsoever is by a Good man to be hoped for Notwithstanding which it was far from our Intention therefore to Conclude That Nothing neither in Nature nor Providence could be Otherwise then it is or That there is Nothing left to the Free Will and Choice of the Deity And though we do in the Third Section insist largely upon that Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala That Souls are always United to some Body or other as also That all Rationall and Intellectuall Creatures consist of Soul and Body and suggest several things from Reason and Christian Antiquity in favour of them both yet would we not be Vnderstood to Dogmatize in either of them but to Submit all to better Judgments Again we shall here Advertise the Reader though we have Caution'd concerning it in the Book it self That in our Defence of Incorporeal Substance against the Atheists However we thought our selves concerned to say the utmost that possibly we could in way of Vindication of the Ancients who generally maintained it to be Unextended which to some seems an Absolute Impossibility yet we would not be supposed Ourselves Dogmatically to Assert any more in this Point then what all Incorporealists agree in That there is a Substance Specifically distinct from Body namely such as Consisteth Not of Parts Separable from one another and which can Penetrate Body and Lastly is Self-Active and hath an Internal Energy distinct from that of Locall Motion And thus much is undeniably Evinced by the Arguments before proposed But whether this Substance be altogether Unextended or Extended otherwise then Body we shall leave every man to make his own Judgment concerning it Furthermore We think fit here to Suggest That whereas throughout this Chapter and Whole Book we constantly Oppose the Generation of Souls that is the Production of Life Cogitation and Understanding out of Dead and Sensless Matter and assert all Souls to be as Substantiall as Matter it self This is not done by us out of any fond Addictedness to Pythagorick Whimseys nor indeed out of a meer Partiall Regard to that Cause of Theism neither which we were engaged in though we had great reason to be tender of that too but because we were enforced thereunto by Dry Mathematicall Reason it being as certain to us as any thing in all Geometry That Cogitation and Understanding can never possibly Result out of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Locall Motions which is all that ourselves can allow to Body however Compounded together Nor indeed in that other way of Qualities is it better Conceiveable how they should emerge out of Hot and Cold Moist and Dry Thick and Thin according to the Anaximandrian Atheism And they who can persuade themselves of the Contrary may Believe That any thing may be Caused by any thing upon which Supposition we confess it Impossible to us to prove the Existence of a God from the Phaenomena In the Close of this Fifth Chapter Because the Atheists do in the Last place Pretend Theism and Religion to be Inconsistent with Civil Sovereignty we were necessitated briefly to Unravel and Confute all the Atheistick Ethicks and Politicks Though this more properly belong to our Second Book Intended Where we make it plainly to appear That the Atheists Artificiall and Factitious Justice is Nothing but Will and Words and That they give to Civil Sovereigns no Right nor Authority at all but onely Belluine Liberty and Brutish Force But on the contrary as we Assert Justice and Obligation not Made by Law and Commands but in Nature and Prove This together with Conscience and Religion to be the onâ—ly Basis of Civil Authority so do we also maintain all the Rights of Civil Sovereigns giving both to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's And now having made all our Apologies and Reflexions we have
Generation but only such as is out of Nothing nor Corruption but such as is into Nothing Which as we have already intimated is to be understood differently in respect to Inanimate and Animate things for in things Inanimate there is Nothing Produced or Destroyed because the Forms and Qualities of them are no Entities really distinct from the Substance but only diverse Mixtures and Modifications But in Animate things where the Souls are real Entities really distinct from the Substance of the Body there is Nothing Produced nor Destroyed neither because those Souls do both exist before their Generations and after their Corruptions which business as to Men and Souls is again more fully expressed thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Good and Ill did First us Here attend And not from Time Before the Soul Descend That here alone we live and when Hence we depart we forthwith then Turn to our old Non-entity again Certes ought not to be believ'd by Wise and Learned Men. Wherefore according to Empedocles this is to be accounted one of the Vulgar Errors That Men then only have a being and are capable of Good and Evil when they live here that which is called Life But that both before they are Born and after they are Dead they are perfectly Nothing And besides Empedocles the same is represented by the Greek Tragedian also as the Sence of the ancient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nothing Dies or utterly perisheth but things being variously Concreted and Secreted Transposed and Modified change their Form and Shape only and are put into a New Dress Agreeably whereunto Plato also tells us that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Tradition or Doctrine before his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That as well the Living were made out of the Dead as the Dead out of the Living and that this was the constant Circle of Nature Moreover the same Philosopher acquaints us that some of those Ancients were not without suspicion that what is now called Death was to Men more properly a Nativity or Birth into Life and what is called Generation into Life was comparatively rather to be accounted a sinking into Death the Former being the Soul's Ascent out of these Gross Terrestrial Bodies to a Body more Thin and Subtil and the Latter its Descent from a purer Body to that which is more Crass and Terrestrial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knows whether that which is called Living be not indeed rather Dying and that which is called Dying Living Moreover that this was the Doctrine of Pythagoras himself that no Real Entity perishes in Corruptions nor is produced in Generations but only new Modifications and Transpositions made is fully expressed by the Latin Poet both as to Inanimate and to Animate Things Of the first thus Nec perit in tanto quicquam mihi credite mundo Sed variat faciemque novat Nascique vocatur Incipere esse aliud quà m quod fuit antè Morique Desinere illud idem Cum sint Huc forsitan Illa Haec Translata Illuc Summâ tamen omnia constant Of the Second that the Souls of Animals are Immortal did preexist and do transmigrate from the same Ground after this manner Omnia mutantur Nihil interit Errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quoslibet occupat artus Spiritus éque Feris Humana in Corpora transit Inque Feras Noster nec tempore deperit ullo Vtque novis facilis signatur Cera figuris Nec manet ut fuerat nec formas servat easdem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est Animam sic semper eandem Esse sed in varias doceo migrare Figuras Wherefore though it be a thing which hath not been commonly taken Notice of of late yet we conceive it to be unquestionably true that all those ancient Philosophers who insisted so much upon this Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no Real Entity is either Generated or Corrupted did therein at once drive at these two things First the establishing of the Immortality of all Souls their Prae and Post-existence forasmuch as being Entities Really distinct from the Body they could neither be Generated nor Corrupted and Secondly the making of Corporeal Forms and Qualities to be no Real Entities distinct from the Body and the Mechanism thereof because they are things Generated and Corrupted and have no Prae and Post-existence Anaxagoras in this Latter being the only Dissenter who supposing those Forms and Qualities to be real Entities likewise distinct from the Substance of Body therefore attributed Perpetuity of Being to them also Prae and Post-existence in Similar Atoms as well as to the Souls of Animals And now we have made it sufficiently evident that the Doctrine of the Incorporeity and Immortality of Souls we might add also of their Preexistence and Transmigration had the same Original and stood upon the same Basis with the Atomical Pysiology and therefore it ought not at all to be wondered at what we affirmed before that the same Philosophers and Pythagoreans asserted both those Doctrines and that the Ancient Atomists were both Theists and Incorporealists XXXIV But now to declare our Sence freely concerning this Philosophy of the Ancients which seems to be so prodigiously paradoxical in respect of that Pre-existence and Transmigration of Souls We conceive indeed that this Ratiocination of theirs from that Principle That Nothing Naturally or of it self comes from Nothing nor goes to Nothing was not only firmly conclusive against Substantial Forms and Qualities of Bodies really distinct from their Substance but also for Substantial Incorporeal Souls and their Ingenerability out of the Matter and particularly for the future Immortality or Post-existence of all Humane Souls For since it is plain that they are not a mere Modification of Body or Matter but an Entity and Substance really distinct from it we have no more reason to think that they can ever of themselves vanish into Nothing than that the substance of the Corporeal World or any part thereof can do so For that in the Consumption of Bodies by Fire or Age or the like there is the destruction of any real Substance into Nothing is now generally exploded as an Idiotical conceit and certainly it cannot be a jot less Idiotical to suppose that the Rational Soul in Death is utterly extinguished Moreover we add also that this Ratiocination of the Ancients would be altogether as firm and irrefragable likewise for the Pre-existence and Transmigration of Souls as it is for their Post-existence and future Immortality did we not as indeed we do suppose Souls to be Created by God immediately and infused in Generations For they being unquestionably a distinct Substance from the Body and no Substance according to the ordinary Course of Nature coming out of Nothing they must of Necessity either Preexist in the Universe before Generations and
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
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.
of Man-Sacrifices against a modern Diatribist 67. That what Faith soever Plato might have in the Delphick Apollo he was no other than an Evil Daemon or Devil An Answer to the Pagans Argument from Divine Providence 68. That the Pagans Religion unsound in its Foundation was Infinitely more Corrupted and Depraved by means of these Four Things First the Superstition of the Ignorant Vulgar 69. Secondly the Licentious Figments of Poets and Fable-Mongers frequently condemned by Plato and other Wiser Pagans 70. Thirdly the Craft of Priests and Politicians 71. Lastly the Imposture of evil Daemons or Devils That by means of these Four Things the Pagan Religion became a most foul and unclean thing And as some were captivated by it under a most grievous Yoke of Superstition so others strongly inclined to Atheism 72. Plato not insensible that the Pagan Religion stood in need of Reformation nevertheless supposing many of those Religious Rites to have been introduced by Visions Dreams and Oracles he concluded that no wise Legislator would of his own head venture to make an Alteration Implying that this was a thing not to be effected otherwise than by Divine Revelation and Miracles The generally received Opinion of the Pagans that no man ought to trouble himself about Religion but content himself to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Law of that Country which he lived in 73. Wherefore God Almighty in great compassion to Mankind designed himself to reform the Religion of the Pagan World by introducing another Religion of his own framing in stead of it after he had first made a Praeludium thereunto in one Nation of the Israelites where he expresly prohibited by a Voice out of the Fire in his First Commandment the Pagan Polytheism or the worshipping of other Inferior Deities besides himself and in the Second their Idolatry or the Worshipping of the Supreme God in Images Statues or Symbols Besides which he restrain'd the use of Sacrifices As also successively gave Predictions of a Messiah to come such as together with Miracles might reasonably conciliate Faith to him when he came 74. That afterwards in due time God sent the promised Messiah who was the Eternal Word Hypostatically united with a Pure Humane Soul and Body and so a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God-man Designing him for a Living Temple and Visible Statue or Image in which the Deity should be represented and Worshipped as also after his Death and Resurrection when he was to be invested with all Power and Authority for a Prince and King a Mediatour and Intercessour betwixt God and Men. 75. That this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God-man was so far from intending to require Men-sacrifices of his Worshippers as the Pagan Demons did that he devoted himself to be a Catharma Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and thereby also abolished all Sacrifices or Oblations by Fire whatsoever according to the Divine Prediction 76. That the Christian Trinity though a Mystery is more agreeable to Reason than the Platonick and that there is no absurdity at all in supposing the Pure Soul and Body of the Messiah to be made a Living Temple or Shechinah Image or Statue of the Deity That this Religion of One God and One Mediatour or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man preached to the Pagan World and confirm'd by Miracles did effectually destroy all the Pagan Inferiour Deities Middle Gods and Mediatours Demons and Heroes together with their Statues and Images 77. That it is no way incongruous to suppose that the Divine Majesty in prescribing a Form of Religion to the World should graciously condescend to comply with Humane Infirmity in order to the removing of Two such Grand Evils as Polytheism and Idolatry and the bringing of men to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth 78. That Demons and Angels Heroes and Saints are but different Names for the same things which are made Gods by being worshipped And that the introducing of Angel and Saint-worship together with Image-Worship into Christianity seems to be a defeating of one grand design of God Almighty in it and the Paganizing of that which was intended for the Vnpaganizing of the World 79. Another Key for Christianity in the Scripture not disagreeing with the former That since the way of Wisdom and Knowledge proved Ineffectual as to the Generality of Mankind men might by the contrivance of the Gospel be brought to God and a holy Life without profound Knowledge in the way of Believing 80. That according to the Scripture there is a Higher more Precious and Diviner Light than that of Theory and Speculation 81. That in Christianity all the Great Goodly and most Glorious things of this World are slurried and disgraced comparatively with the Life of Christ. 82. And that there are all possible Engines in it to bring men up to God and engage them in a holy Life 83. Two Errors here to be taken notice of The First of those who make Christianity nothing but an Antinomian Plot against Real Righteousness and as it were a secret Confederacy with the Devil The Second of those who turn that into Matter of mere Notion and Opinion Dispute and Controversie which was designed by God only as a Contrivance Machin or Engine to bring men Effectually to a Holy and Godly Life 84. That Christianity may be yet further illustrated from the consideration of the Adversary or Satanical Power which is in the World This no Mâ—nichean Substantial Evil Principle but a Polity of Lapsed Angels with which the Souls of Wicked men are also Incorporated and may therefore be called The Kingdom of Darkness 85. The History of the Fallen Angels in Scripture briefly explained 86. The concurrent Agreement of the Pagans concerning Evil Demons or Devils and their Activity in the World 87. That there is a perpetual War betwixt Two Polities or Kingdoms in the World the one of Light the other of Darkness and that our Saviour Christ or the Messiah is appointed the Head or Chieftain over the Heavenly Militia or the Forces of the Kingdom of Light 88. That there will be at length a Palpable and Signal Overthrow of the Satanical Power and whole Kingdom of Darkness by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God appearing in an extraordinary and miraculous manner and that this great affair is to be managed by our Saviour Christ as God's Vicegerent and a Visible Judge both of Quick and Dead 89. That our Saviour Christ designed not to set up himself Factiously against God Almighty nor to be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superiour to God but that when he hath done his Work and put down all Adversary Power himself will then be subject to God even the Father that so God may be all in all 90. Lastly having spoken of Three Forms of Religious the Jewish Christian and the Pagan and there remaining only a Fourth the Mahometan in which the Divine Monarchy is zealously asserted we may now Conclude that the Idea of
have any Vnderstanding or Sense in him that Christ was not therefore believed to be a God by us Christians merely because of his Miracles but because we saw all those things done by and accomplish'd in him which were long before predicted to us by the Prophets He did miracles and we should therefore have suspected him for a Magician as you now call him and as the Jews then supposed him to be had not all the Prophets with one voice foretold that he should do such things We believe him therefore to be God no more from his Miracles than from that very Cross of his which you so much quarrel with because that was likewise foretold So that our Belief of Christ's Divinity is not founded upon his own Testimony for who can be believed concerning himself but upon the Testimony of the Prophets who sang long before of all those things which he both did and suffered Which is such a peculiar advantage and privilege of his as that neither Apollonius nor Apuleius nor any other Magician could ever share therein Now as for the Life and Morals of this Apollonius Tyanaeus as it was a thing absolutely necessary for the carrying on of such a Diabolical Design that the Person made use of for an Instrument should have some colourable and plausible pretence to Vertue so did Apollonius accordingly take upon him the profession of a Pythagorean and indeed act that part externally so well that even Sidonius Apollinaris though a Christian was so dazled with the glittering show and lustre of his counterfeit Vertues as if he had been inchanted by this Magician so long after his death Nevertheless whosoever is not very dim-sighted in such matters as these or partially affected may easily perceive that this Apollonius was so far from having any thing of that Divine Spirit which manifested it self in our Saviour Christ transcending all the Philosophers that ever were that he fell far short of the better moralized Pagans as for example Socrates there being a plain appearance of much Pride and Vain-glory besides other Foolery discoverable both in his Words and Actions And this Eusebius undertakes to evince from Philostratus his own History though containing many Falshoods in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Apollonius was so far from deserving to be compared with our Saviour Christ that he was not fit to be ranked amongst the moderately and indifferently Honest men Wherefore as to his reputed Miracles if credit be to be given to those Relations and such things were really done by him it must for this reason also be concluded that they were done no otherwise than by Magick and Necromancy and that this Apollonius was but an Archimago or grand Magician Neither ought this to be suspected for a mere slander cast upon him by partially affected Christians only since during his Life-time he was generally reputed even amongst the Pagans themselves for no other than a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infamous Inchanter and accused of that very Crime before Domitian the Emperour as he was also represented such by one of the Pagan Writers of his Life Moeragenes senior to Philostratus as we learn from Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As concerning the Infamous and Diabolical Magick he that would know whether or no a Philosopher be temptable by it or illaqueable into it let him read the Writings of Moeragenes concerning the memorable things of Apollonius Tyanaeus the Magician and Philosopher in which he that was no Christian but a Pagan Philosopher himself affirmeth some not ignoble Philosophers to have been taken with Apollonius his Magick including as I suppose in that number Euphrates and a certain Epicurean And no doubt but this was the reason why Philâ—stratus derogates so much from the authority of this Moeragenes affirming him to have been ignorant of many things concerning Apollonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Because Moeragenes had thus represented Apollonius in his true colours as a Magician whereas Philostratus his whole business and design was on the contrary to vindicate him from that Imputation the Truth whereof of notwithstanding may be sufficiently evinced even from those very things that are recorded by Philostratus himself And here by the way we shall observe that it is reported by good Historians that Miracles were also done by Vespasian at Alexandria Per eos menses they are the words of Tacitus multa miracula evenâ—re quîs coelestis favor quaedam in Vespasianum inclinatio numinum ostenderetur Ex plebe Alexandrinâ quidam oculorum tabe notus genua ejus advolvitur remedium caecitatis exposcens gemitu monitu Serapidis Dei quem dedita superstitionibus gens ante alios colit precabatúrque Principem ut genas oculorum orbes dignaretur respergere oris excrâ—mento Alius manu aeger eodem Deo auctore ut pede ac vestigio Caesaris calcaretur orabat At that time many Miracles happen'd at Alexandria by which was manifâ—sted the Heavenly Favour and Inclination of the Divine Powers towards Vespasian A Plebeian Alexandrian that had been known to be blind casts himself at the feet of Vespasian begging with tears from him a remedy for his sight and that according to the suggestion of the God Serapis that he would deign but to spit upon his Eyes and Face Another having a Lame hand directed by the same Oracle beseeches him but to tread upon it with his foot And after some debate concerning this business both these things being done by Vespasian statim conversa ad usum manus caeco reluxit dies the Lame hand presently was restored to its former usefulness and the Blind man recovered his sight Both which things saith the Historian some who were Eye-witnesses do to this very day testifie when it can be no advantage to any one to lye concerning it And that there seems to be some reason to suspect that our Archimago Apollonius Tyanaeus might have some Finger in this business also because he was not only familiarly and intimately acquainted with Vespasian but also at that very time as Philostratus informeth us present with him at Alexandria where he also did many Miracles himself However we may here take notice of another Stratagem and Policy of the Devil in this both to obscure the Miracles of our Saviour Christ and to weaken mens Faith in the Messiah and baffle the Notion of it that whereas a Fame of Prophecies had gone abroad every where that a King was to come out of Judea and rule over the whole World by which was understood no other than the Messiah by reason of these Miracles done by Vespasian this Oracle or Prediction might the rather seem to have its accomplishment in him who was first proclaimed Emperour in Judea and to whom Josephus himself basely and flatteringly had applied it And since this business was started and suggested by the God Serapis that is by the Devil of whose Counsel probably Apollonius also was this makes it still more strongly
mentem qua sapimus qu a providemus qua haec ipsa agimus dicimus videre aut planè qualis ubi sit sentire possumus There is there is certainly such a divine Force in the world neither is it reasonable to think that in these gross and frail Bodies of ours there should be something which hath Life Sense and Vnderstanding and yet no such thing in the whole Vniverse unless men will therefore conclude that there is none because they see it not as if we could see our own mind whereby we order and dispose all things and whereby we reason and speak thus and perceive what kind of thing it is and where it is lodged Where as there is a strong asseveration of the Existence of a God so is his Singularity plainly implied in that he supposes him to be One Mind or Soul acting and governing the whole World as our Mind doth our Body Again in his Tusculan Questions Nec verò Deus ipse alio modo intelligi potest nisi Mens Soluta quaedam Libera segregata ab omni Concretione mortali omnia sentiens movens Neither can God himself be understood by us otherwise than as a certain Loose and Free Mind segregated from all mortal Concretion which both perceives and moves all things So again in the same Book Haec igitur alia innumerabilia cum cernimus possumusne dubitare quin his praesit aliquis vel Effector si haec nata sunt ut Platoni videtur vel si semper fuerint ut Aristoteli placet Moderator tanti operis muneris When we behold these and other wonderful works of Nature can we at all doubt but that there presideth over them either One Maker of all if they had a beginning as Plato conceiveth or else if they always were as Aristotle supposeth One Moderator and Governour And in the Third De Legibus Sine Imperio nec Domus ulla nec Civitas nec Gens nec Hominum universum Genus stare nec rerum Natura omnis nec ipse Mundus potest Nam hic Deo paret huic obediunt Maria Terraeque hominum vita jussis supremae legis obtemperat Without Government neither any House nor City nor Nation nor Mankind in general nor the whole Nature of things nor the World it self could subsist For This also obeyeth God and the Seas and Earth are subject to him and the Life of man is disposed of by the Commands of the Supreme Law Elsewhere he speaks of Dominans ille nobis Deus qui nos vetat hinc injussu suo demigrare That God who rules over all Mankind and forbids them to depart hence without his lieve Of Deus cujus numini parent omnia That God whose Divine Power all things obey We read also in Cicero of Summus or Supremus Deus the Supreme God to whom the First making of Man is properly imputed by him of Summi Rectoris Domini Numen The Divine Power of the Supreme Lord and Governour of Deus praepotens and Rerum omnium praepotens Jupiter The most Powerful God and Jupiter who hath power over all things of Princeps ille Deus qui omnem hunc mundum regit sicut Animus humanus id corpus cui praepositus est That Chief or Principal God who governs the whole world in the same manner as a Humane Soul governeth that Body which it is set over Wherefore as for those Passages before objected where the Government of the World as to the concernments of Mankind at least is ascribed by Cicero to Gods Plurally this was done by him and other Pagans upon no other account but only this because the Supreme God was not supposed by them to do all things himself immediatly in the Government of the World but to assign certain Provinces to other Inferiour Gods as Ministers under him which therefore sharing in the Oeconomy of the World were look'd upon as Co-governours thereof with him Thus when Balbus in Cicero to excuse some seeming defects of Providence in the Prosperities of wicked and the Adversities of good men pretended Non animadvertere omnia Deos nè Reges quidem That the Gods did not attend to all things as neither do Kings Cotta amongst other things replied thus Fac Divinam Mentem esse distentam Coelum versantem terram tuentem maria moderantem cur tam multos Deos nihil agere cessare patitur Cur non rebus humanis aliquos otiosos Deos praefecit qui à te Balbe Innumerabilis explicati sunt Should it be granted that the Divine Mind or Supreme Deity were distracted with turning round the Heavens observing the Earth and Governing the Seas yet why does he let so many other Gods to do nothing at all Or why does he not appoint some of those Idle Gods over Humane affairs which according to Balbus and the Stoicks are innumerable Again when the Immortal Gods are said by Cicero to have Provided for the convenience of Mankind in their First Constitution this doubtless is to be understood according to the Platonick Hypothesis that the Gods and Demons being first made by the Supreme God were set a work and employed by him afterward in the making of man and other mortal Animals And lastly as to that which hath the greatest difficulty of all in it when the whole World is said by Cicero to have been made by the Providence of the Gods this must needs be understood also of those Eternal Gods of Plato's according to whose Likeness or Image the World and Man are said to have been made that is of the Trinity of Divine Hypostases called by Amelius Plato's Three Minds and Three Kings and by others of the Platonists the First and Second and Third God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The First and Second Cause c. And it may be here observed what we learn from S. Cyril that some Pagans endeavoured to justifie this Language and Doctrine of theirs even from the Mosaick Writings themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they suspecting that the God of the Vniverse being about to make man did there bespeak the other Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were Secondary and Inferiour to him after this manner Let Vs make man according to Our own Image and likeness Which S. Cyril and other Christian Writers understand of the Trinity Now those Eternal Gods of Plato according to whose Image the World and Man is said by him to have been made and which though one of them were properly called the Demiurgus yet had all an Influence and Causality upon the making of it were as hath been already observed not so many Independent and Self-originated Deities but all derived from One First Principle And therefore Cicero following Plato in this is not to be suspected upon that account to have been an Asserter of Many Independent Gods or Partial Creators of the
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
Animals the True and Proper Cause of Motion or the Determination thereof at least is not the Matter it self Organized but the Soul either as Cogitative or Plastickly-Self Active Vitally united thereunto and Naturally Ruling over it But in the whole World it is either God himsel◠Originally impressing a certain Quantity of Motion upon the Matter of the Universe and constantly conserving the same according to that of the Sripture In him we Live Move which seems to have been the Sence also of that Noble Agrigentine Poet and Philosopher when he described God to be only A Pure or Holy Mind that with swift thoughts agitates the whole World or else it is Instrumentally an Inferiour Created Spirit Soul or Life of Nature that is a Subordinate Hylarchical Principle which hath a Power of Moving Matter Regularly according to the Direction of a Superiour Perfect Mind And thus do we see again that Ignorance of Causes is the Seed of Atheism and not of Theism no Atheists being able to assign a true Cause of Motion the Knowledge whereof plainly leadeth to a God Furthermore those Atheists who acknowledge no other Principle of things but Sensless Matter Fortuitously moved must needs be Ignorant also of the Cause of that Grand Phaenomenon called by Aristotle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Well and Fit in Nature that is of the most Artificial Frame of the whole Mundane System in General and of the Bodies of Animals in Particular together with the Conspiring Harmony of all For they who boasted themselves able to give Natural Causes of all things whatsoever without a God can give no other Cause at all of this Phaenomenon but only that the World Happened by Chance to be thus made as it is Now they who make Fortune and Chance to be the only Cause of this so Admirable Phaenomenon the most Regular and Artificial Frame and Harmony of the Vniverse they either make the meer Absence and Want of a Cause to be a Cause Fortune and Chance being nothing else but the Absence or want of an Intending Cause Or else do they make their own Ignorance of a Cause and They know not How to be a Cause as the Author of the Leviathan interprets the meaning hereof Many times saith he men put for Cause of Natural Events their own Ignorance but disguised in other words as when they say that Fortune is the Cause of things Contingent that is of things whereof they know no Cause Or they affirm against all Reason one Contrary to be the Cause of another as Confusion to be the Cause of Order Pulchritude and Harmony Chance and Fortune to be the Cause of Art and Skill Folly and Nonsence the Cause of the most Wise and Regular Contrivance Or Lastly they deny it to have any Cause at all since they deny an Intending Cause and there cannot Possibly be any other Cause of Artificialness and Conspiring Harmony than Mind and Wisdom Councel and Contrivance But because the Atheists here make some Pretences for this their Ignorance we shall not conceal any of them but bring them all to light to the end that we may discover their Weakness and Foolery First therefore they Pretend that the World is not so Artificially and Well made but that it might have been made much Better and that there are many Faults and Flaws to be found therein from whence they would infer that it was not made by a God he being supposed by Theists to be no Bungler but a Perfect Mind or a Being Infinitely Good and Wise who therefore should have made all things for the Best But this being already set down by it self as a Twelfth Atheistick Objection against a Deity we must reserve the Confutation thereof for its proper place Only we shall observe thus much here by the way That those Theists of Later times who either because they Fancy a meer Arbitary Deity or because their Faith in the Divine Goodness is but weak or because they Judge of things according to their own Private Appetites and Selfish Passions and not with a Free Uncaptivated Vniversality of Mind and an Impartial Regard to the Good of the Whole or because they look only upon the Present Scene of things and take not in the Future into consideration nor have a Comprehensive View of the whole Plot of Divine Providence together or lastly because we Mortals do all stand upon too Low a Ground to take a commanding view and Prospect upon the whole Frame of things and our shallow Understandings are not able to fathom the Depths of the Divine Wisdom nor trace all the Methods and Designs of Providence grant That the World might have been made much Better than now it is which indeed is all one as to say that it is Not Well made these Neoterick Christians I say seem hereby to give a much greater advantage to the Atheists than the Pagan Theists themselves heretofore did who stood their Ground and generously maintained against them that Mind being the Maker of all things and not Fortune or Chance nor Arbitary Self-will and Irational Humour Omnipotent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is Absolutely the Best in every case so far as the Necessity of things would admit and in compliance with the Good of the Whole was the Measure and Rule both of Nature and Providence Again the Atomick Atheists further alledge that though there be many things in the world which serve well for Vses yet it does not at all follow that therefore they were made Intentionally and Designedly for those Vses because though things Happen by Chance to be so or so Made yet may they serve for something or other afterward and have their several Vses Consequent Wherefore all the things of Nature Happened say they by Chance to be so made as they are and their several Uses notwithstanding were Consequent or Following thereupon Thus the Epicurean Poet Nil ideo natum est in Corpore ut Vti Possemus sed quod Natum est id procreat Vsum. Nothing in mans Body was made out of design for any Vse but all the several Parts thereof happening to be so made as they are their Vses were Consequent thereupon In like manner the Old Atheistick Philosophers in Aristotle concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Former Teeth were made by Material or Mechanical Necessity Thin and Sharp by means whereof they became fit for Cutting but the Jaw-Teeth Thick and Broad whereby they became Vseful for the Grinding of Food But neither of them were Intended to be such for the sake of these Vses but Happened by Chance only And the like concerning all the other Parts of the Body which seem to be made for Ends. Accordingly the same Aristotle represents the sence of those ancient Atheists concerning the other Parts of the Universe or Things of Nature that they were all likewise made such by the Necessity of Material or Mechanical Motions Vndirected and yet had nevertheless their several
Cogitation or Consciousness much less a Power of Vnderstanding Eternal Verities that therefore these could not be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same Because Forms and Qualities are Continually Generated and Corrupted made out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again therefore are they no Entities Really distinct from Matter and its different Modifications but because Souls at least Humane are unquestionably Entities Really distinct from Matter and all its Modifications therefore can they not possibly be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same For if Humane Souls were Generated out of Matter then must some Real Entity be Materially produced out of Nothing there being Nothing of Life and Cogitation in Matter which is a Thing Absolutely Impossible Wherefore these Philosophers concluded concerning Souls that being not Generated out of Matter they were Insinuated or Introduced into Bodies in Generations And this was always a Great Controversie betwixt Theists and Atheists concerning the Humane Soul as Lucretius expresseth it Nata sit an contrà Nascentibus Insinuetur Whether it were Made or Generated out of Matter that is indeed out of Nothing or else were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From Without Insinuated into Bodies in Generations Which latter Opinion of theirs supposes Souls as well to have Existed Before the Generations of all Animals as to Exist After their Deaths and Corruptions there being properly Nothing of them Generated but only their Union with those particular Bodies So that the Generations and Corruptions or Deaths of Animals according to this Hypothesis are nothing but an Anagrammatical Transposition of Things in the Universe Prae and Post-Existent Souls being sometimes united to one Body and sometimes to another But it doth not therefore follow because these Ancient Philosophers held Souls to be thus Ingenerable and to have Pre-Existed before the Generation of Animals that therefore they supposed all Souls to have Existed Of Themselves from Eternity Vnmade this being a Thing which was never asserted any more by Theist than Atheist since even those Philosophick Theists who maintained Aeternitatem Animorum The Eternity of Humane Minds and Souls together with the Worlds did notwithstanding assert their Essential Dependence upon the Deity like that of the Lights upon the Sun as if they were a kind of Eternal Effulgency Emanation or Eradiation from an Eternal Sun Even Proclus himself that Great Champion for the Eternity of the World and Souls in this very Case when he writes against Plutarch's Self-Existent Evil Soul expresly declaring that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Self Existent Soul but every Soul whatsoever is the Work Effect and Production of God Wherefore when they affirmed Souls to be Ingenerable their meaning was no more than this that they were not meer Accidental Things as Forms and Qualities are nor any more Generated out of Matter than Matter it self is Generated out of Something else upon which account as Aristotle informs us Souls were called also by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principles as well as Matter they being both of them Substances in the Universe alike Original that is neither of them Made out of the other But they did not suppose them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenerate or Vnmade in the other Sense as if they had been Self-Originated and Independent as Plutarch's Second and Third Principles his Evil Soul and Matter were by him Imagined to be but so doubtless as that if the World had had any beginning they should then have been all Created together with it out of Nothing Prae-Existing But as for the perpetual Creation of new Souls in the Successive Generations of Animals this indeed is a thing which those Philosophers were extremely abhorrent from as thinking it Incongruous that Souls which are in Order of Nature Senior to Bodies should be in Order of Time Juniors to them as also not Reasonable that Divine Creation as it were Prostituted should without end perpetually attend and wait upon Natural Generations and be Intermingled with them But as for this Prae-Existence of Souls we have already declared our own sense concerning it in the First Chapter Though we cannot deny but that besides Origen several others of the Ancient Fathers before the Fifth Council seem either to have Espoused it or at least to have had a favour and kindness for it insomuch that St. Austine himself is sometimes Staggering in this Point and thinks it to be a Great Secret whether mens Souls Existed before their Generations or no and some where concludes it to be a matter of Indifferency wherein every one may have his Liberty of opining either way without offence Wherefore all that can be certainly affirmed in this Case is that Humane Souls could not possibly be Generated out of Matter but were some time or other Created by God Almighty out of Nothing Prae-Existing either In Generations or Before them Lastly as for Brute Animals we must confess that If they be not meer Machines or Automata as some seem inclinable to believe but Conscious and Thinking Beings then from the same Principle of Reason it will likewise follow that they cannot be Generated out of Matter neither and therefore must be Derived from the Fountain of all Life and Created out of Nothing by him who since he can as easily Annihilate as Create and does all for the Best no man need at all to trouble himself about their Permanency or Immortality And now have we given a Full and Particular Account of all the Several Senses wherein this Axiom must be acknowledged to be Undeniably True That Nothing can possibly be Made out of Nothing or Come from Nothing namely these Three First That Nothing which was Not could ever bring it self into Being or Efficiently Produce it self Or That Nothing can possibly be Made without an Efficient Cause Secondly that Nothing which was Not could be Produced or brought into Being by any other Efficient Cause then such as hath at least Equal Perfection in it and a Sufficient Active or Productive Power For if any thing were made by that which hath not Equal Perfection then must so much of the Effect as Transcendeth the Cause be indeed Made without a Cause since Nothing can Give what it hath not or be Caused by it self or by Nothing Again to suppose a thing to be Produced by that which hath no Sufficient Productive Power is Really to suppose it also to be Produced from It self without a Cause or From Nothing Where it is acknowledged by us That no Natural Imperfect Created Being can Create or Emanatively Produce a New Substance which was not Before and give it its Whole Being Hitherto is the Axiom Verified in Respect of the Efficient Cause But in the Third Place it is also True in respect of the Material likewise Not That Nothing could Possibly be ever Made by any Power whatsoever but only out of Pre-Existent Matter and Consequently that Matter it self could be never Made but was Self-Existent For the
Incorruption Which Place being undoubtedly not to be Allegorized it may be from thence inferred that the Happy Resurrection-Body shall not be this Foul and Gross Body of ours only Varnished and Guilded over on the outside of it it remaining still Nasty Sluttish and Ruinous within and having all the same Seeds of Corruption and Mortality in its Nature which it had before though by perpetual Miracle kept off it being as it were by Violence defended from being Seised upon and devoured by the Jaws of Death but that it shall be so Inwardly changed in its Nature as that the Possessers thereof Cannot die any more But all this which hath been said of the Resurrection-Body is not so to be understood as if it belonged Vniversally to all that shall be Raised up at the last day or made to appear upon the Earth as in their own Persons at that Great and General Assizes That they shall have all alike wicked as well as Good such Glorious Spiritual and Celestial Bodies but it is only a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection of Life which is Emphatically called also by our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection from the dead or to a Happy Immortality as they who shall be thought worthy thereof are likewise Styled by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Children of the Resurrection Of which Resurrection only it is that S. Paul treateth in that Fifteenth Chapter of his to the Corinthians And we say that this Christian Resurrection of Life is the Vesting and Setling of the Souls of Good men in their Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies The Complete Happiness of a man and all the Good that can be desired by him Was by the Heathen Poet thus Summed up Vt sit Mens Sana in Corpore Sano That there be a Sound Mind in a Sound Body and the Christian Happiness seems to be all comprized in these Two Things First in being Inwardly Regenerated and Renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Cleansed from all Pollution of Flesh and Spirit and made partakers of the Divine Life and Nature and then Secondly in being Outwardly Clothed with Glorious Spiritual Celestial and Incorruptible Bodies The Scripture plainly declareth that our Souls are not at Home here in this Terrestrial Body and These Earthly Mansions but that they are Strangers and Pilgrims there in it which the Patriarchs also confessing plainly declared that they Sought a Country not that which they came out from but a Heavenly one From which passages of Scripture some indeed would infer that Souls being at first Created by God Pure Pre-Existed before this their Terrene Nativity in Celestial Bodies but afterwards stragled and wandered down hither as Philo for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul saith he having left its Heavenly Mansion came down into this Earthly Body as a strange place But thus much is certain that Our Humane Souls were at first intended and designed by God Almighty the Maker of them for other Bodies and other Regions as their proper Home and Country and their Eternal Resting Place however to us that be not First which is Spiritual but that which is Natural and afterwards that which is Spiritual Now though some from that of St. Paul where he calls this Happy Resurrection-Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That house of ours that is from Heaven or which cometh out of Heaven would infer that therefore it will not be taken out of Graves and Charnel Houses they conceiving also that the Individuation and Sameness of mens Persons does not necessarily depend upon the Numerical Identity of all the Parts of Matter because we never continue thus the Same our Bodies always flowing like a River and passing away by Insensible Transpiration and it is certain that we have not all the same Numerical Matter and neither more nor less both in Infancy and in Old Age though we be for all that the self Same Persons yet nevertheless according to the best Philosophy which acknowledges no Essential or Specifical Difference of Matter the Foulest and Grossest Body that is meerly by Motion may not only be Chrystallized but also brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Ether And undoubtedly that Same Numerical Body of our Saviour Christ which lay in the Sepulchre was after his Resurrection thus Transformed into a Spiritual and Heavenly Body the Subtlety and Tenuity whereof appeared from his entring in when the doors were shut and his vanishing out of sight however its Glory were for the time suspended partly for the better convincing his Disciples of the Truth of his Resurrection and partly because they were not then able to bear the Splendor of it We conclude therefore that the Christian Mystery of the Resurrection of Life consisteth not in the Souls being reunited to these Vile Rags of Mortality these Gross Bodies of ours such as now they are but in having them Changed into the Likeness of Christ's Glorious Body and in this Mortal's putting on Immortality Hitherto have we seen the Agreement that is betwixt Christianity and the Old Philosophick Cabbala concerning the Soul in these Two Things First That the highest Happiness and Perfection of the Humane Soul consisteth not in a State of Pure Separation from all Body and Secondly that it does not consist neither in an Eternal Vnion with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these Unchanged the Soul being not at Home but a Stranger and Pilgrim in them and Oppressed with the Load of them but that at last the Souls of Good men shall arrive at Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies But now as to that Point Whether Humane Souls be always United to some Body or other and consequently when by Death they put off this Gross Terrestrial Body they are not thereby quite Devested and Strip'd Naked of all Body but have a Certain Subtle and Spirituous Body still adhering to them and accompanying them Or else Whether all Souls that have departed out of this Life from the very beginning of the World have ever since continued in a State of Separation from all Body and shall so continue forwards till the Day of Judgment or General Resurrection We must confess that this is a thing not so explicitely Determined or expresly Decided in Christianity either way Nevertheless it is First of all certain from Scripture That Souls Departed out of these Terrestial Bodies are therefore neither Dead nor Asleep till the Last Trump and General Resurrection but still Alive and Awake our Saviour Christ affirming That they all Live unto God the meaning whereof seems to be this that they who are said to be Dead are Dead only unto Men here upon Earth but neither Dead unto themselves nor yet unto God their Life being not Extinct but only Disappearing to us and withdrawn from our sight for as much as they are gone off this Stage which we still continue to act upon And thus is it said also of our Saviour Christ himself
It is true indeed that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thing Vnderstood is in order of Nature before the Intellection and Conception of it and from hence was it that the Pythagoreans and Platonists concluded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind or Intellect was not the very First and Highest Thing in the Scale of the Vniverse but that there was another Divine Hypostasis in order of Nature before it called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and The Good as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intelligible thereof But as those Three Archical Hypostases of the Platonists and Pythagoreans are all of them Really but One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divinity And the First of those Three Superiour to that which is properly called by them Mind or Intellect is not supposed therefore to be Ignorant of it self So is the First Mind or Vnderstanding no other than that of a Perfect Being Infinitely Good Fecund and Powerful and vertually Containing all things comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Goodness Fecundity Vertue and Power that is all Possibilities of things their Relations to one another and Verities a Mind before Sense and Sensible Things An Omnipotent Vnderstanding Being which is it self its own Intelligible is the First Original of all things Again that there must of necessity be some other Substance besides Body or Matter and which in the Scale of Nature is Superiour to it is evident from hence because otherwise there could be no Motion at all therein no Body being ever able to move it self There must be something Self-Active and Hylarchical something that can Act both from it self and upon Matter as having a Natural Imperium or Command over it Cogitation is in order of Nature before Local Motion Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind are no Syllables or Complexions of things Secundary and Derivative which might therefore be made out of things devoid of Life and Vnderstanding but Simple Primitive and Vncompounded Natures they are no Qualities or Accidental Modifications of Matter but Substantial Things For which Cause Souls or Minds can no more be Generated out of Matter than Matter it Self can be Generated out of Something else and therefore are they both alike in some sense Principles Naturally Ingenerable and Incorruptible though both Matter and all Imperfect Souls and Minds were at first Created by one Perfect Omnipotent Vnderstanding Being Moreover Nothing can be more Evident than this that Mind and Vnderstanding hath a Higher Degree of Entity or Perfection in it and is a Greater Reality in Nature than meer Sensless Matter or Bulkie Extension And Consequently the things which belong to Souls and Minds to Rational and Intellectual Beings as such must not have Less but More Reality in them than the things which belong to Inanimate Bodies Wherefore the Differences of Just and Vnjust Honest and Dishonest are greater Realities in Nature than the Differences of Hard and Soft Hot and Cold Moist and Dry. He that does not perceive any Higher Degree of Perfection in a Man than in an Oyster nay than in a Clod of Earth or Lump of Ice in a Piece of Past or Pye-Crust hath not the Reason or Understanding of a Man in him There is unquestionably a Scale or Ladder of Nature and Degrees of Perfection and Entity one above another as of Life Sense and Cogitation above Dead Sensless and Vnthinking Matter of Reason and Vnderstanding above Sense c. And if the Sun be Nothing but a Mass of Fire or Inanimate Subtle Matter Agitated then hath the most Contemptible Animal that can see the Sun and hath Consciousness and Self enjoyment a Higher Degree of Entity and Perfection in it than that whole Fiery Globe as also than the Materials Stone Timber Brick and Morter of the most Stately Structure or City Notwithstanding which the Sun in other regards and as it s vastly Extended Light and Heat hath so great an Influence upon the Good of the whole World Plants and Animals may be said to be a far more Noble and Vseful thing in the Universe than any one Particular Animal whatsoever Wherefore there being plainly a Scale or Ladder of Entity the Order of Things was unquestionably in way of Descent from Higher Perfection Downward to Lower it being as Impossible for a Greater Perfection to be produced from a Lesser as for Something to be Caused by Nothing Neither are the Steps or Degrees of this Ladder either upward or downward Infinite but as the Foot Bottom or Lowest Round thereof is Stupid and Sensless Matter devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding so is the Head Top and Summity of it a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and all Possibilities of things A Perfect Understanding Being is the Beginning and Head of the Scale of Entity from whence things Gradually Descend downward lower and lower till they end in Sensless Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind is the Oldest of all things Senior to the Elements and the whole Corporeal World and likewise according to the same Ancient Theists it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nature Lord over all or hath a Natural Imperium and Dominion over all it being the most Hegemonical thing And thus was it also affirmed by Anaxagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mind is the Soveraign King of Heaven and Earth We have now made it evident that the Epicurean and Anaximandrian Atheists who derive the Original of all things from Sensless Matter devoid of all Manner of Life can no way Salve the Phaenomenon of Cogitation Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind no more than they can that of Local Motion And the Reason why we have insisted so much upon this Point is because these Atheists do not only pretend to Salve this Phaenomenon of Cogitation without a God and so to take away the Argument for a Deity from thence but also to Demonstrate the Impossibility of its Existence from the very Nature of Knowledge Mind and Vnderstanding For if Knowledge be in its own Nature Nothing but a Passion from Singular Bodies Existing without the Knower and if Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind be Junior to Body and Generated out of Sensless Matter then could no Mind or Vnderstanding Being Possibly be a God that is a First Principle and the Maker of all things And though Modern Writers take little or no Notice of this yet did Plato anciently make the very State of the Controversie betwixt Theists and Atheists principally to consist in this very thing viz. Whether Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind were Juniors to Body and Sprung out of Sensless Matter as Accidental Modifications thereof or else were Substantial things and in order of Nature Before it For after the Passages before Cited he thus concludeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These men seem to suppose Fire Water Air and Earth to be the very First things in the Vniverse and the Principles of all calling them only Nature but
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
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
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
Co-Extended with its Rayes and Light it would see and perceive every Atom of Matter that it s out stretched Beams reached to and touched Now all Created Beings are themselves in some sense but the Rayes of the Deity which therefore cannot but Feel and Sensibly Perceive all these its own Effluxes and Emanations Men themselves can order and manage Affairs in several distant Places at once without any Disturbance and we have innumerable Notions of things in our Mind that lie there easily together without Crowding one another or Causing any Distraction to us Nevertheless the Minds of weak Mortals may here be somewhat eased and helped by considering what hath been before suggested That there is no necessity God Almighty should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do all things himself Immediately and Drudgingly but he may have his Inferiour Ministers and Executioners under him to discharge him of that Supposed Encumberment As First of all an Artificial Plastick Nature which without Knowledge and Animal Consciousness disposes the Matter of the Universe according to the Platform or Idea of a Perfect Mind and forms the Bodies of all Animals And this was the Reason why we did before insist so much upon this Artificial Regular and Methodical Nature namely that Divine Providence might neither be excluded from having an Influence upon all things in this Lower World as resulting only from the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Matter unguided by any Mind nor yet the Deity be supposed to do every thing it self Immediatly and Miraculously without the Subservient Ministery of any Natural Causes which would seem to us Mortals to be not only a Violent but also an Operose Cumbersom and Moliminous Business And thus did Plato acknowledge that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain Causes of a Prudent that is Artificial and Orderly Nature which God makes use of as Subservient to himself in the Mundane Oeconomy Besides which those Instincts also impressed upon Animals and which they are Passive to directing them to Act for Ends either not understood or not attended to by them in order to their own Good and the Good of the Universe are another part of that Divine Fate which inserted into things themselves is the Servant and Executioner of Providence Above all which there are yet other Knowing and Vnderstanding Ministers of the Deity as its Eyes and Hands Demoniack or Angelick Beings appointed to preside over Mankind all Mundane Affairs and the Things of Nature they having their several distinct Offices and Provinces assigned them Of which also Plato thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are certain Rulers or Presidents appointed by that Supreme God who Governs the whole world over all the several things and Parts therein even to the smallest Distribution of them All which Inferiour Causes are constantly over looked and supervised by the Watchful Eye of God Almighty himself who may also sometimes Extraordinarily Interpose We need not therefore restrain and confine Divine Providence to a Few Greater things only as some do that we may thereby consult the ease of the Deity and its Freedom from Distraction but may and ought to Extend it to all things whatsoever Small as well as Great And indeed the Great things of the World cannot well be ordered neither without some regard to the Small and Little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Architects affirm that great stones cannot be well placed together in a Building without little Neither can Generals of Armies nor Governours of Families nor Masters of Ships nor Mechanick Artificers discharge their several Functions and do their Works respectively as they ought did they not mind the Small things also as well as the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the forementioned Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not therefore make God Almighty Inferiour to Mortal Opificers who by one and the same Art can order Small things as well as Great and so suppose him to be Supine and negligent Nevertheless the Chief Concernment and Employment of Divine Providence in the World is the Oeconomy of Souls or Government of Rational Beings which is by Plato contracted into this Compendium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There is no other work left for the Supreme Governour of all then only to Translate Better Souls into Better places and Conditions and Worser into Worser or as he after addeth to dispose of every one in the world in such a manner as might best render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue victorious and triumphant over Vice And thus may the slow and Imperfect wits of Mortals be satisfied that Providence to the Deity is no Moliminous Laborious and Distractious thing But that there is no higher Spring of Life in Rational Animals than Contracted Self Love and that all Good Will and Benevolence arises only from Indigency and Imbecillity and That no Being whatsoever is concerned in the welfare of any other thing but only what it self stands in Need of and Lastly therefore That what is Irresistibly Powerful and Needs nothing would have no manner of Benevolence nor concern it self in the Good and Welfare of any thing whatsoever This is but another Idol of the Atheists Den and only argues their Bad Nature Low-sunck Minds and Gross Immorality And the same is to be said also of that other Maxim of theirs That what is perfectly Happy would have nothing at all To Do but only enjoy its own Ease and Quiet whereas there is nothing more troublesome to our selves than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this having Nothing to Do and the Activity of the Deity or a Perfect Being is altogether as Easie to it as its Essence The Atheistick Queries come next to be Answered which being but Three are Naturally to be disposed in this order First If there were a God or Perfect Being who therefore was sufficiently Happy in the enjoyment of himself Why would he go about to make a World Secondly If he must needs make a World why did he not make it sooner this Late production thereof looking as if he had but newly awaked out out of a long sleep throughout Infinite Past Ages or else had in length of time contracted a Satiety of his Solitude Thirdly and Lastly What Tools or Instruments what Machines or Engines had be or How could he move the Matter of the whole world especially if Incorporeal because then he would run through all things and could not lay hold nor fasten upon any thing To the First therefore we say That the reason why God made the World was from his own Overflowing and Communicative Goodness that there might be other Beings also Happy besides him and enjoy themselves Nor does this at all clash with God's making of the world for his own Glory and Honour though Plotinus were so shy of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is ridiculous to say that God made the world that he might be Honoured this being to transfer the affections of humane Artificers and Statuaries upon him