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
at all Incorruptible but the Substance of Matter it self All Systems and Compages of it all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Concretions and Coagmentations of Matter divided by Motion together with the Qualities resulting from them are Corruptible and Destroyable Quae est Coagmentatio rerum non dissolubilis Death destroys not the Substance of any Matter For as no Matter came from Nothing but was Self-eternal so none of it can ever vanish into Nothing but it dissolves all the Aggregations of it Non sic interimit Mors res ut Materiaï Corpora conficiat sed coetum dissupat ollis Life is no Substantial thing nor any Primitive or Simple Nature it is only an Accident or Quality arising from the Aggregation and Contexture of Atoms or Corpuscula which when the Compages of them is disunited and dissolved though all the Substance still remain scattered and dispersed yet the Life utterly perishes and vanisheth into Nothing No Life is Immortal there is no Immortal Soul nor Immortal Animal or Deity Though this whole Mundane System were it self an Animal yet being but an Aggregation of Matter it would be both Corruptible and Mortal Wherefore since no living Being can possibly have any security of its future Permanency there is none that can be perfectly Happy And it was rightly determined by our Fellow-Atheists the Hedonicks and Cyrenaicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect Happiness is a mere Notion a Romantick Fiction a thing which can have no Existence any where This is recorded to have been one of Democritus his chief Arguments against a Deity because there can be no Living Being Immortal and consequently none perfectly Happy Cum Democritus quia nihil semper suo statu maneat neget esse quicquam sempiternum nonne Deum ità tollit omnino ut nullam Opinionem ejus reliquam faciat XIII A Ninth pretended Demonstration of the Democritick Atheists is as followeth By God is understood a First Cause or Mover which being not before acted upon by any thing else but acting Originally from it self was the Beginning of all things Now it is an indubitable Axiom and generally received amongst Philosophers that Nothing can move it self but Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur Whatsoever is moved is moved by something else nothing can act otherwise than it is made to act by something without it acting upon it The necessary Consequence whereof is this That there can be no such thing as any First Mover or First Cause that is no God This Argument is thus urged by a Modern Writer agreeably to the Sence of the Ancient Democriticks Ex eo quòd nihil potest movere seipsum non inferetur id quod inferri solet nempe Aeternum Immobile sed contrà Aeternum Motum siquidem ut verum est nihil moveri à seipso ita etiam verum est nihil moveri nisi à Moto From hence that Nothing can move it self it cannot be rightly inferred as commonly it is that there is an Eternal Immoveable Mover that is a God but only an Eternal Moved Mover or that one thing was moved by another from Eternity without any first Mover Because as it is true that nothing can be Moved but from it self so it is likewise true that nothing can be moved but from that which was it self also moved by something else before and so the progress upwards must needs be infinite without any Beginning or first Mover The plain Drift and Scope of this Ratiocination is no other then this to shew that the Argument commonly taken from Motion to prove a God that is a First Mover or Cause is not only Ineffectual and Inconclusive but also that on the contrary it may be demonstrated from that very Topick of Motion that there can be no Absolutely First Mover No First in the order of Causes that is no God XIV Tenthly because the Theists conceive that though no Body can move it self yet a perfect Cogitative and Thinking Being might be the Beginning of all and the first Cause of Motion the Atheists will endeavour to evince the contrary in this manner No man can conceive how any Cogitation which was not before should rise up at any time but that there was some cause for it without the Thinker For else there can be no reason given why this Thought rather than that and at this time rather than another should start up Wherefore this is universally true of all Motion and Action whatsoever as it was rightly urged by the Stoicks that there can be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Motion without a Cause i. e. no Motion which has not some Cause without the Subject of it Or as the same thing is expressed by a modern Writer Nothing taketh Beginning from it self but from the Action of some other Immediate Agent without it Wherefore no Thinking Being could be a First Cause any more than an Automaton or Machin could To this it is further argued that these two Notions the one of a Knowing Vnderstanding Being the other of a Perfectly Happy Being are Contradictious because all Knowledge Essentially implies Dependence upon something else as its Cause Scientia Intellectus signum est Potentiae ab alio Dependentis id quod non est Beatissimum They conclude that Cogitation and all Action whatsoever is really nothing else but Local Motion which is Essentially Heterokinesie that which can never rise of it self but is caused by some other Agent without its Subject XV. In the Eleventh place the Democritick Atheists reason thus If the World were made by any Antecedent Mind or Understanding that is by a Deity then there must needs be an Idaea Platform and Exemplar of the whole World before it was made and consequently Actual Knowledge both in order of Time and Nature before Things But all Knowledge is the Information of the things themselves known all Conception of the Mind is a Passion from the things Conceived and their Activity upon it and is therefore Juniour to them Wherefore the World and Things were before Knowledge and the Conception of any Mind and no Knowledge Mind or Deity before the World as its Cause This Argument is thus proposed by the Atheistick Poet Exemplum porro gignundis rebus ipsa Notities hominum Divis unde insita primùm Quid vellent facere ut seirent animoque viderent Quove modo est unquam Vis cognita Principiorum Quidnam inter sese permutato Ordine possent Si non ipsa dedit specimen Natura creandi How could the supposed Deity have a Pattern or Platform in his Mind to frame the World by and whence should he receive it How could he have any Knowledge of Men before they were made as also what himself should will to do when there was nothing How could he understand the Force and Possibility of the Principles what they would produce when variously combined together before Nature and Things themselves by Creating had given a Specimen XVI
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
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
there is Nulla Naturalis Charitas No Natural Charity but that Omnis Benevolentia oritur ex Imbecillitate Metu All Benevolence ariseth onely from Imbecillity and Fear that is from being either obnoxious to anothers Power or standing in need of his Help So that all that is now called Love and Friendship amongst Men is according to these really nothing but either a crouching under Anothers Power whom they cannot Resist or else Mercatura quaedam Vtilitatum a certain kind of Merchandizing for Vtilities And thus does Cotta in Cicero declare their sence Ne Homines quidem censetis nisi Imbecilli essent futuros Beneficos aut Benignos You conceive that no man would be any way Beneficent or Benevolent to another were it not for his Imbecillity or Indigence But as for God Almighty these Atheists conclude That upon the supposition of his Existence there could not be so much as this Spurious Love or Benevolence in him neither towards any thing because by reason of his Absolute and Irresistible Power He would neither stand in Need of Any thing and be devoid of all Fear Thus the forementioned Cotta Quid est Praestantius Bonitate Beneficentiâ Quâ cum carere Deum vultis neminem Deo nec Deum nec Hominem Carum neminem ab eo amari vultis Ita fit ut non modo Homines à Diis sed ipsi Dii inter se ab aliis alii negligantur What is there more excellent than Goodness and Beneficence which when you will needs have God to be utterly devoid of you suppose that neither any God nor Man is Dear to the Supreme God or beloved of him From whence it will follow that not only men are neglected by the Gods but also the Gods amongst themselves are neglected by one another Accordingly a late Pretender to Politicks who in this manner discards all Natural Justice and Charity determines concerning God Regnandi Puniendi eos qui Leges suas violant Jus Deo esse à Solâ Potentiâ Irresistibli That he has no other Right of Reigning over men and of Punishing those who transgress his Laws but only from his Irresistible Power Which indeed is all one as to say That God has no Right at all of Ruling over mankind and imposing Commands upon them but what he doth in this kind he doth it only by Force and Power Right and Might or Power being very different things from one another and there being no Jus or Right without Natural Justice so that the word Right is here only Abused And Consentaneously hereunto the same Writer further adds Si Jus Regnandi habeat Deus ab Omnipotentia sua manifestum est Obligationem ad praestandum ipsi Obedientiam incumbere Hominibus propter Imbicillitatem That if God's Right of Commanding be derived only from his Omnipotence then is it manifest that mens Obligation to obey him lies upon them only from their Imbecillity Or as it is further explained by him Homines ideò Deo subjectos esse quia Omnipotentes non sunt aut quia ad Resistendum satis Virium non habent That men are therefore only Subject to God because they are not Omnipotent or have not sufficient Power to Resist him Thus do we see plainly how the Atheists by reason of their Vice and and Ill Nature which makes them deny all Natural Justice and Honesty all Natural Charity and Benevolence transform the Deity into a monstrous shape such an Omnipotent Being as if he were could have nothing neither of Justice in him nor of Benâ—volence towards his Creatures and whose only Right and Authority of Commanding them would be his Irresistible Power whom his Creatures could not place any Hope Trust and Confidence in nor have any other Obligation to obey than that of Fear and Necessity proceeding from their Imbecillity or Inability to resist him And such a Deity as this is indeed a Mormo or Bug-bear a most Formidable and Affrightful thing But all this is nothing but the Atheists False Imagination True Religion representing a most comfortable Prospect of things from the Deity whereas on the contrary the Atheistick Scene of things is Dismal Hopeless and Forlorn That there should be no other Good than what depends upon things wholly out of our own power the momentany gratification of our Insatiate Appetites and the perpetual pouring in to a Dolium Pertusum a Perforated and Leaking Vessel That our selves should be but a Congeries of Atoms upon the dissolution of whose Compages our Life should vanish into nothing and all our Hope perish That there should be no Providence over us nor any Kind and Good-natured Being above to take care of us there being nothing without us but Dead and Sensless Matter True indeed there could be no spiteful Designs in Sensless Atoms or a Dark Inconscious Nature Upon which account Plutarch would grant that even this Atheistick Hypothesis it self as bad as it is were notwithstanding to be preferred before that of an Omnipotent Spiteful and Malicious Being if there can be any such Hypothesis as this a Monarchy of the Manichean Evil Principle reigning all alone over the whole world without any Corrival and having an undisturbed Empire Nevertheless it is certain also that there could be no Faith nor Hope neither in these Sensless Atoms both Necessarily and Fortuitously moved no more than there could be Faith and Hope in a Whirlwind or in a Tempestous Sea whose merciless waves are Inexorable and deaf to all Cries and Supplications For which reason Epicurus himself confessed that it was better to give credit to the Fable of the Gods as he calls it than to serve the Atheistick Fate or that Material Necessity of all things introduced by those Atheistick Physiologers Leucippus and Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because there is Hopes that the Gods may be prevailed with by worship and prayer but the other Necessity is altogether deaf and Inexorable And though Epicurus thought to mend the matter and make the Atheistick Hypothesis more tolerable by introducing into it contrary to the Tenour of those Priciples Liberty of Will in Men yet this being not a Power over things Without us but our selves only could alter the case very little Epicurus himself was in a Panick Fear lest the frame of Heaven should sometime upon a sudden crack and tumble about his Ears and this Fortuitous Compilement of Atoms be dissolved into a Chaos Tria talia Texta Vna Dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles Machina mundi And what Comfort could his Liberty of Will then afford Him who placed all his happiness in Security from External Evils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plutarch The Atheistick Design in shaking off the Belief of a God was to be without Fear but by means hereof they framed such a System of things to themselves as under which they could not have the least Hope Faith or Confidence Thus running from Fear did
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
the Deity by Theists is generally supposed to be a Living Being Perfectly Happy and Immortal or Incorruptible there can be no such Living Being Immortal and Consequently none Perfectly Happy Because all Living Beings whatsoever are Concretions of Atoms which as they were at first Generated so are they again liable to Death and Curruption Life being no Simple Primitive Nature nor Substantial thing but a meer Accidental Modification of Compounded Bodies only which upon the Disunion of their Parts or the Disordering of their Contexture vanisheth again into Nothing And there being no Life Immortal Happiness must needs be a meer Insignificant Word and but a Romantick Fiction Where first This is well that the Atheists will confess that according to their Principles there can be no such thing at all as Happiness because no Security of Future Permanency all Life perpetually coming Out of Nothing and whirling back into Nothing again But this Atheistick Argument is likewise Founded upon the Former Errour That Body is the Only Substance the First Principles whereof are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding whereas it is certain that Life cannot possibly result from any Composition of Dead and Lifeless things and therefore must needs be a Simple and Primitive Nature It is true indeed that the Participated Life in the Bodies of Animals which yet is but improperly called Life it being Nothing but their being Actuated by a Living Soul is a meer Accidental thing Generable and Corruptible since that Body which is now Vitally united to a Living Soul may be Disunited again from it and thereby become a Dead and Lifeless Carcase but the Primary or Original Life it self is Substantial nor can there be any Dead Carcase of a Humane Soul That which hath Life Essentially belonging to the Substance of it must needs be Naturally Immortal because no Substance can of it self Perish or Vanish into Nothing Besides which there must be also some not only Substantial but also Eternal Vnmade Life whose Existence is Necessary and which is Absolutely Vnannihilable by any thing else which therefore must needs have Perfect Security of its own future Happiness And this is an Incorporeal Deity And this is a Brief Confutation of the Eight Atheistick Argument BUt the Democritick Atheist proceeds endeavouring further to Disprove a God from the Phaenomena of Motion and Cogitation in the Three following Argumentations First therefore whereas Theists commonly bring an Argument from Motion to Prove a God or First Vnmoved Mover the Atheists contend on the contrary that from the very Nature of Motion the Impossibility of any such First Vnmoved Mover is clearly Demonstrable For it being an Axiom of undoubted Truth concerning Motion That Whatsoever is Moved is Moved by some other thing Or That Nothing can Move it self it follows from thence Unavoydably That there is no Aeternum Immobile No Eternal Vnmoved Mover but on the contrary that there was Aeternum Motum an Eternal Moved Or That One thing was Moved by Another from Eternity Infinitely Without any First Mover or Cause Because as Nothing could move it self So could nothing ever Move Another but what was it self before Moved by Something else To which we Reply That this Axiom Whatsoever is Moved is Moved by Another and not by It self was by Aristotle and those other Philosophers who made so much use thereof restrained to the Local Motion of Bodies only That no Body Locally Moved was ever Moved Originally from it self but from something else Now it will not at all follow from hence That therefore Nihil Movetur nisi à Moto That No Body was ever Moved but by some othâ—r Body that was also before Moved by Something else or That of necessity One Body was moved by another Body and that by another and so backwards Infinitely without any First Vnmoved or Self-Moving and Self-Active Mover as the Democritick Atheist fondly Conceits For the Motion of Bodies might proceed as Unquestionably it did from something else which is not Body and was not Before Moved Moreover the Democritick Atheist here also without any Ground imagines That were there but One Push once given to the world and no more this Motion would from thence forward always continue in it one Body still moving another to all Eternity For though this be indeed a Part of the Cartesian Hypothesis that according to the Laws of Nature A Body Moving will as well continue in Motion as a Body Resting in Rest until that Motion be Communicated and Transferred to some other Body yet is the Case different here Where it is supposed not only one Push to have been given to the world at first but also the same Quantity of Motion or Agitation to be constantly Conserved and Maintained But to let this pass because it is something a Subtle Point and not so rightly Understood by many of the Cartesians themselves We say that it is a thing Utterly Impossible That One Body should be Moved by Another Infinitely without any first Cause or Mover which was Self Active and that not from the Authority of Aristotle only Pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That in the Causes of Motion there could not Possibly be an Infinite Progress but from the Reason there subjoyned by Aristotle Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were no First Vnmoved Mover there could be no Cause of Motion at all For were all the Motion that is in the World a Passion from something else and yet no First Vnmoved Active Mover then must it be a Passion from no Agent or without an Action and Consequently proceed from Nothing and either Cause it self or be Made without a Cause Now the Ground of the Atheists Errour here is only from hence because He taketh it for granted That there is no other Substance besides Body nor any other Action but Local Motion from whence it comes to pass that to Him this Proposition No Body can Move it self is one and the same with this Nothing can Act from It self or be Self-Active And thus is the Atheistick Pretended Demonstration against a God or First Cause from Motion abundantly Confuted we having made it Manifest that there is no Consequence at all in this Argument That because No Body can Move it Self therefore there can be no First Vnmoved Mover as also having discovered the Ground of the Atheists Errour here their taking it for granted that there is Nothing but Body and lastly having plainly showed that it implies a Contradiction there should be Action and Motion in the World and yet Nothing Self-Moving or Self-Active So that it is Demonstratively certain from Motion that there is a First Cause or Vnmoved Mover We shall now further add That from the Principle acknowledged by the Democritick Atheists themselves That No Body can move it self it follows also undeniably that there is some Other Substance besides Body something Incorporeal which is Self-Moving and Self-Active and was the First Vnmoved Mover of the Heavens or World For
all Matter as such but without Animal Consciousness as an Essential part thereof or Inadequate Conception of it From which Fundamental Life of Nature in Matter Modified by Organization they phancy the Lives of all Animals and Men to have proceeded So that though the Modificated Lives of Animals and Men as such according to them be Accidental things Generated and Corrupted produced out of Nothing and reduced to Nothing again yet this Fundamental Life of Matter which is the Basis upon which they stand being Substantial is also Eternal and Incorruptible These Hylozoists therefore to avoid a Deity Suppose every Atom of Sensless Matter to have been from all Eternity Infallibly Omniscient that is to know all things without either Errour or Ignorance and to have a Knowledge before Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles quite contrary to the Doctrine of the Atomick Atheists who make all Knowledge Sense or the Product thereof though without any Animal Consciousness and Self Perception But as nothing can be more Prodigiously Absurd than thus to attribute Infallible Omniscience to every Atom of Matter so is it also directly Contradictious to suppose Perfect Knowledge Wisdom or Vnderstanding without any Consciousness or Self Perception Consciousness being Essential to Cogitation as also that the Substantial and Fundamental Life in men and other Animals should never Perish and yet Notwithstanding their Souls and Personalities in Death utterly vanish into Nothing Moreover this Hypothesis can never possibly Salve the Phaenomenon of Men and Animals neither not only because no Organization or Modification of Matter whatsoever could ever produce Consciousness and Self Perception in what was before Inconscious but also because every Smallest Atom thereof being supposed to be a Percipient by it self and to have a Perfect Life and Vnderstanding of its own there must be in every one Man and Animal not one but a Heap or Commonwealth of innumerable Percipients Lastly whereas these Hylozoick Atheists make every Atom of Matter Omniscient but nothing at all Omnipotent or assert Perfect Knowledge without any Perfect Power a Knowledge without Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles we demand of them where the Intelligibles or Objects of this Knowledge are and whence the Ideas thereof are derived for since they proceed not in a way of Passion from Sensibles Existing without nor could result from those Atoms neither as Comprehending themselves they must needs Come from Nothing and many of them at least be the Conceptions of Nothing There cannot possibly be any other Original by the wit of man devised of Knowledge and Vnderstanding than from an Absolutely Perfect and Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Infinite Power or all Possibilities of things that is all Intelligibles But there can be but One such Omnipotent Being and therefore no more than One Original and Eternal Vnmade Mind from whence all the other Minds are Derived Wherefore this Hylozoick Atheism is nothing but the Breaking and Crumbling of the Simple Deity One Perfect Understanding Being into Matter and all the several Atoms of it And now have we made it manifest that these Atheists are so far from being able to disprove a God from this Topick of Cogitation Knowledge or Vnderstanding that they cannot possibly Salve the Phaenomenon thereof without a God it indeed affording Invincible Arguments of his Existence For First If no Life or Cogitation Soul or Mind can possibly Spring out of Matter or Body devoid of Life and Vnderstanding and which is nothing but a Thing Extended into Length Breadth and Thickness then is it so far from being True that all Life and Vnderstanding is Junior to Sensless Matter and the Off-spring thereof that of necessity either all Lives and Souls were Self-Existent from Eternity or else there must be One Perfect Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all other Imperfect ones were derived there must be an Eternal Knowledge before Sense and Sensibles which is that that hath printed the Stamps and Signatures of it self upon the Matter of the whole world Indeed nothing can be more certain than this that all Knowledge and Vnderstanding in Our selves is not a meer Passion from Singular Sensibles or Bodies Existing without us as the forementioned Atheists also conclude from whence they would again Infer that Knowledge as such is in its own Nature Junior to Sensibles and the meer Creature of them and Consequently no Creator There being nothing which comes to us from the Objects of Sense without but Only Local Motion and Pressure and there being other Objects of the Mind besides Singular Sensibles not only all Vniversals but also such Intelligibles as never were nor can be in Sense Now if our Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding be not a Passion from things Existing without us then can it have no other Original than in way of Participation from a Perfect Mind the Mind of an Infinitely Fecund and Powerful Being comprehending It self and in It self all things all the Possibilities of things before they were Made their Respects and the Verities belonging to them So that a Perfect Omnipotent Being together with the Possibilities of things contained in it is the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible or Object of Mind and Vnderstanding by which all other Singulars are Understood And were there no such Perfect Infinitely Fecund and Powerful Being there could have been no Mind or Understanding at all As also were there no Perfect Mind viz. That of an Omnipotent Being Comprehending It self and all Possibilities of things vertually contained in it all the Knowledge and Intelligible Ideas of our Imperfect Minds must needs have Sprung from Nothing And thus is the Existence of a God again Demonstrated from that Phaenomenon of Knowledge or Vnderstanding HAving quite Routed and Vanquished the Atheists Main Body we shall now blow away the Remainder of their weaker and scattered Forces viz. Their Objections against Providence their Queries and their Arguments from Interest with a Breath or two Their First Objection is against Providence as to the Fabrick of the World from the Faultiness of the Mundane System Intellectually considered and in Order to Ends Quia tantâ stat Praedita Culpâ That Because it is so Ill-Made therefore it could not be made by a God Where the Atheist takes it for granted that whosoever asserts a God or a Perfect Mind to be the Original of all things does therefore ipso facto suppose All things to be Well Made and as they Should be And this doubtless was the Sense of all the Ancient Theologers however some Modern Theists deviate there from these Concluding the Perfection of the Deity not at all to consist in Goodness but in Power and Arbitrary Will only As if to have a Will determined by a Rule or Reason of Good were the Virtue of Weak Impotent and Obnoxious Beings only or of such as have a Superior over them to give Law to them that is of Creatures but the Prerogative of a Being Irresistibly Powerful
the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ought it self Decreeing Willing and Acting Neither does God Punish any out of a delight in Punishment or in the Evil and Suffering of the Persons Punished but to those who are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether Incurable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Punishment is Physick in order to their recovery and amendment so that the Sourse and Fountain thereof is Goodness to the Persons themselves Punished But to such as are Incurable the Punishment inflicted on them is Intended for the Good of the Whole So that this Attribute of Justice in God doth not at all Clash with the Attribute of Goodness it being but a Branch thereof or particular Modification of the same Goodness and Justice in God are alwayes Complicated together neither his Goodness being Fondness nor his Justice Cruelty but he being both Good in Punishing and Just in Rewarding and Dispensing Benefits Wherefore it can be the Interest of none that there should be no God nor Immortality unless perhaps of such Desperately and Incurably Wicked persons who abandoning their true Interest of being Good have thereupon no other Interest now left them than Not to be or become Nothing To be without a God is to be without Hope in the World for Atheists can have neither Faith nor Hope in Sensless Matter and the Fortuitous Motions thereof And though an understanding Being have never so much Enjoyment of it self for the present yet could it not possibly be Happy without Immortality and Security of the Future Continuance thereof But the Atheists conclude that there is Nothing Immortal and that all Life Perishes and Vanishes into Nothing and consequently also that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happiness is a thing that hath no Existence in Nature a meer Figment and Chimaera or Idle Wish and vain Dream of Mortals Wherefore it cannot be the Interest of Mankind that this Hypothesis should be True which thus plainly cuts off all Hope from men and leaves them in an utter Impossibility of being ever Happy God is such a Being as if he could be supposed not to be there is nothing which any who are not desperately engaged in Wickedness no not Atheists themselves could possibly more Wish for or Desire To Believe a God is to Believe the Existence of all Possible Good and Perfection in the Universe It is to Believe That things are as they Should be and That the World is so well Framed and Governed as that the Whole System thereof could not Possibly have been Better For Peccability arises from the Necessity of Imperfect Freewilled Beings left to themselves and therefore could not by Omnipotence it self have been excluded and though Sin Actual might perhaps have been kept out by Force and Violence yet all things Computed it was doubtless most for the Good of the Whole that it should not be thus Forcibly Hindered There is Nothing which cannot be Hoped for by a Good man from the Deity Whatsoever Happiness his Being is Capable of and such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can now enter into the Heart of man to Conceive Infinite Hopes lie before us from the Existence of a Being Infinitely Good and Powerful and our Own Souls Immortality and nothing can Hinder or Obstruct these Hopes but our own Wickedness of Life To Believe a God and Do well are Two the most Hopeful Cheerful and Comfortable things that possibly can be And to this purpose is that of Linus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore as for Democritus and Epicurus whose Encomiums the Atheists here so loudly sing forth we say That however they have made so great a noise in the World and have been so much cried up of late yet were they really no better than a Couple of Infatuated Sophists or Witty Fools and Debauchers of Mankind And now come we to the Last Atheistick Argumentation wherein they endeavour to recommend their Doctrine to Civil Sovereigns and to perswade them that Theism or Religion is absolutely Inconsistent with their Interest Their Reasons for which are these Three following First Because the Civil Sovereign Reigns only in Fear and therefore if there be any Power and Fear greater than the Power and Fear of the Leviathan Civil Authority can signifie little Secondly Because Sovereignty is in its own nature absolutely Indivisible and must be either Infinite or None at all so that Divine Laws Natural and Revealed Superiour to it circumscribing it would consequently Destroy it Wherefore Religion and Theism must of necessity be Displaced and Removed out of the way to make room for the Leviathan to Roll and Tumble in Thirdly and Lastly Private Judgment of Good and Evil Just and Vnjust is also Contradictious to the very Being of a Body Politick which is One Artificial Man made up of many Natural men United under One Head having one Common Reason Judgment and Will ruling over the whole But Conscience which Religion introduceth is Private Judgment of Good and Evil Just and Vnjust and therefore altogether Inconsistent with true Politicks that can admit of no Private Consciences but only One Publick Conscience of the Law In way of Answer to the First of which we must here briefly Vnravel the Atheistick Ethicks and Politicks The Foundation whereof is first laid in the Villanizing of Humane Nature as that which has not so much as any the least Seeds either of Politicalness or Ethicalness at all in it nothing of Equity and Philanthropy there being no other Charity or Bâ—nevolence any where according to them save what resulteth from Fear Imbecillity and Indigency nothing of Publick and Common Concern but all Private and Selfish Appetite and Vtility or the Desires of Sensual Pleasure and Honour Dominion and Precellency before others being the only Measures of Good in Nature So that there can be nothing Naturally Just or Vnjust nothing in it self Sinful or Vnlawful but every man by Nature hath Jus ad omnia a Right to Every thing whatsoever his Appetite inclineth him unto or himself judgeth Profitable even to other mens Bodies and Lives Si occidere Cupis Jus babes If thou Desirest to Kill thou hast then Naturally a Right thereunto that is a Liberty to Kill without any Sin or Injustice For Jus and Lex or Justitia Right and Law or Justice in the Language of these Atheistick Politicians are directly contrary to one another their Right being a Belluine Liberty not Made or Left by Justice but such as is Founded in a Supposition of its Absolute Non-Existence Should therefore a Son not only murder his own Parents who had tenderly brought him up but also Exquisitely torture them taking pleasure in beholding their rusul Looks and hearing their lamentable Shreiks and Outcries there would be Nothing of Sin or Injustice at all in this nor in any thing else because Justice is no Nature but a meer Facticious and Artificial thing Made only by Men and Civil Laws And according to these mens
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
but also from thence to Demonstrate the Impossibility of his Existence Though Modern Writers not so much aware hereof yet is the Controversy betwixt Theists and Atheists thus Stated by Plato Whether Soul and Mind Juniors to Sensless Matter and the Offspring thereof or else Substantiall Things and in Order of Nature Before it Accordingly Plato confuteth Atheism no otherwise then by proving Soul not to be Junior to Inanimate Matter and Generated out of the same Evident That Plato by Soul here understood not onely the Mundane Soul but also that Whole Rank of Beings called Soul and That no Life was Generated out of Matter Page 859 860 Those professed Christians who Generate Rationall Souls out of Sensless Matter plain Betrayers of the Cause of Theism Page 860 861 Nor is the Case much different as to others who though they professedly Generate onely Sensitive Souls yet making the Rationall but meer Blanks which have Nothing in them but what was Scribbled upon them by Sense and so Knowledge in its own Nature Junior to Sense and Sensibles Highly Gratify the Atheists hereby Page 861 If any Life and Cogitation may be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter then can no good Reason be given why All should not be Life not partly Accidental partly Substantiall but either All Conscious Life Accidental Generable and Corruptible or else None at all ibid. The Doctrine of Reall Qualities Generable and Corruptible favourable to Atheism also And though the Atheistick Atomists Explode all the other Qualities Because Nothing can come from Nothing yet contradicting themselves again do they make Life and Understanding Reall Qualities Generated out of Matter or Caused by Nothing Page 861 862 There being a Seale or Ladder of Entities in Nature to Produce a Higher Rank of Beings out of a Lower as Life and Cogitation out of Matter and Magnitude is to Invert the Order of this Scale from Downwards to Upwards and so to lay a Foundation for Atheism Wherefore great Reason to maintain this Post against the Atheists That no Souls can be Generated out of Matter Page 862 863 The Grand Objection against the Substantiality of Sensitive Souls from that Consequence of their Permanent Subsistence after Death Cartesius so Sensible thereof that he would rather make Brutes to be Sensless Machines then allow them Substantiall Souls which he granted they must have if Thinking Beings What clearly Demonstrable by Reason not to be abandoned because attended with some Difficulties or seemingly Offensive Consequences Page 863 The Pythagorick Hypothesis That Souls all Created by God not in the Generation of Animals but in the Cosmogonia These therefore first Clothed with Thin and Subtile Bodies Aeriall or Aetheriall Ochemata wherein they Subsist both before their Ingress into Terrestriall Bodies and after their Egress out of them Thus Boëtius and Proclus Ammonius his Irrationall Demons Mortall Brutish Souls in Aeriall Bodies Since the First Creation no New Substantiall thing Made or Destroyed and therefore no Life This looked upon by Macrobius as a Great Truth Page 863 865 That the Pythagoreans would Endeavour to gain some Countenance for this Hypothesis from the Scripture Page 865 867 But if these Aeriall Vehicles of Brutish Souls be exploded for a Whimsey and none but Terrestriall Bodies allowed to them though after Death they will not Vanish into Nothing yet must they needs remain in a State of Insensibility and Inactivity till re-united to other Terrestriall Bodies Wherefore these in one Sense Mortall though in another Immortall Silk-worms dying and reviving in the Form of Butterflies made an Emblem of the Resurrection by Christian Theologers Page 867 868 But no Absolute Necessity That the Souls of Brutes though Substantiall should have a Permanent Subsistence after Death either in a State of Activity or Inactivity Because whatsoever Created by God may Possibly by him be Annihilated The Substantiality onely of the Rationall Soul Demonstrable by Reason or that it will not of it Self vanish into Nothing but not that it is Absolutely Impossible for it to be Annihilated The assurance of this Depending upon a Faith in the Divine Goodness Porphyrius his Assertion That Brutish Souls are Resolved into the Life of the Universe The whole Answer to this Objection against the Substantiality of Brutish Souls That they may notwithstanding Possibly be Annihilated in the Deaths of Animals as well as they were Created in their Generations but if they do Subsist without Aeriall Vehicles they must remain in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Page 868 869 That this the Doctrine of the Ancient Pagan Theologers That no Life or Soul Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter but all Produced by the Deity as well as Matter Proved out of Virgil though sundry other Testimonies also might be added thereunto Page 869 870 The Hylozoick Atheists themselves so Sensible hereof That there must be some Substantiall and Unmade Life from whence the Lives and Minds of all Animals are Derived That they attribute the same to Matter and conclude That though the Modificated Lives of Animals and Men be Accidentall Generated and Corrupted yet the Fundamental Life of them is Substantiall and Incorruptible These also asserted a Knowledge before Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles Page 870 871 This Hylozoick Atheism again Confuted Absurd to suppose Knowledge and Understanding without Consciousness as also That the Substantiall and Fundamentall Life of Men and other Animals should never Perish and yet their Souls and Personalities Vanish into Nothing That no Organization can produce Consciousness These Atheists not able possibly to give an Account whence the Intelligible Objects and Idea's of this their Knowledge of Matter should spring This Hylozoick Atheism Nothing but the Crumbling of the Deity into Matter Page 871 Concluded That the Phaenomenon of Mind and Understanding can no way possibly be Salved by Atheists without a God but affordeth a Solid Demonstration of his Existence Page 871 872 SECT V. THERE now Remaining onely the Atheistick Objections against Providence their Queries and Arguments from Interests Their First Objection From the Frame of the World as Faulty Or Because Things are Ill Made that therefore not made by a God This directed against the Sense of the Ancient Theologers That God being a Perfect Mind therefore made the World after the Best manner Some Modern Theologers Deviating from this as if the Perfection of the Deity consisted not at all in Goodness but in Power and Arbitrary Will onely The Controversy betwixt these and Atheists but Whether Matter Fortuitously Moved or a Fortuitous Will Omnipotent be the Originall of all things No Ground of Faith in a meer Arbitrarious Deity To have a Will Vndetermined to Good no Liberty nor Soveraignty but Impotency God to Celsus the Head or President of the Righteous Nature This not onely the Sense of Origen but of the Ancient Christians in Generall Plotinus The Will of God Essentially That which Ought to be God an Impartiall Balance Weighing out Heaven and Earth The
out of Hermaick Writings then extant to this very purpose We shall only set down one of them here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World hath a Governour set over it that Word of the Lord of all which was the Maker of it this is the first Power after himself Vncreated Infinite looking out from him and ruling over all things that were made by him this is the Perfect and genuine Son of the first Omniperfect Being Nevertheless the Author of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Asclepian Dialogue in that forecited Passage of his by his Second God the Son of the First meant no such thing at all as the Christian Logos or Second Person of the Trinity but only the Visible World Which is so plain from the words themselves that it is a wonder how Lactantius and St. Austin could interpret them otherwise he making therein a Question whether this Second God were actively Sensible or no. But the same is farther manifrom other places of that Dialogue as this for example Aeternitatis Dominus Deus Primus est Secundus est Mundus The Lord of Eternity is the First God but the Second God is the World And again Summus qui dicitur Deus Rector Gubernatorque Sensibilis Dei ejus qui in se complectitur omnem locum omnemque rerum substantiam The Supreme God is the Governour of that Sensible God which contains in it all place and all the Substance of things And that this was indeed a part of the Hermaick or Egyptian Theology that the Visible World Animated was a Second God and the Son of the First God appears also from those Hermaick Books published by Ficinus and vulgarly called Poemander though that be only the First of them There hath been one Passage already cited out of the Eighth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World is a Second God After which followeth more to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First God is that Eternal Vnmade Maker of all things the Second is he that is made according to the Image of the First which is contained cherished or nourished and immortalized by him as by his own Parent by whom it is made an Immortal Animal So again in the Ninth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the Father of the World and the World is the Son of God And in the Twelfth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This whole World is a Great God and the Image of a Greater As for the other Hermetick or Trismegistick Books published partly by Ficinus and partly by Patricius we cannot confidently condemn any of them for Christian Cheats or Impostures save only the Poemander and the Sermon in the Mount concerning Regeneration the First and Thirteenth of Ficinus his Chapters or Books Neither of which Books are cited by any of the Ancient Fathers and therefore may be presumed not to have been extant in Jamblichus his time but more lately forged and that probably by one and the self same hand since the Writer of the Latter the Sermon in the Mount makes mention of the Former that is the Poemander in the close of it For that which Casaubon objects against the Fourth of Ficinus his Books or Chapters entituled the Crater seems not very considerable it being questionable whether by the Crater any such thing were there meant as the Christian Baptisterion Wherefore as for all the rest of those Hermaick Books especially such of them as being cited by ancient Fathers may be presumed to have been extant before Jamblichus his time we know no reason why we should not concurr with that learned Philosopher in his Judgment concerning them That though they often speak the Language of Philosophers and were not written by Hermes Trismegist himself yet they do really contain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermaical Opinions or the Egyptian Doctrine The Ninth of Ficinus his Books mentions the Asclepian Dialogue under the Greek Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretending to have been written by the same hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning of which place not understood by the Translator is this I lately published O Asclepius the Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Perfect Oration and now I judge it necessary in pursuit of the same to discours concerning Sense Which Book as well as the Perfect Oration is cited by Lactantius As is also the Tenth of Ficinus called the Clavis which does not only pretend to be of kin to the Ninth and consequently to the Asclepius likewise but also to contain in it an Epitome of that Hermaick Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Eusebius his Chronicon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My former Discourse was dedicated to thee O Asclepius but this to Tatius it being an Epitome of those Genica that were delivered to him Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thus again afterwards mentioned in the same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have you not heard in the Genica that all Souls are derived from one Soul of the Vniverse Neither of which two places were understood by Ficinus But doubtless this latter Hermaick Book had something foisted into it because there is a manifest contradiction found therein forasmuch as that Transmigration of Humane Souls into Brutes which in the former part thereof is asserted after the Egyptian way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the just punishment of the wicked is afterwards cried down and condemned in it as the greatest Error And the Eleventh and Twelfth following Books seem to us to be as Egyptian as any of the rest as also does that long Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Thirteenth in Patricius Nay it is observable that even those very Books themselves that are so justly suspected and condemned for Christian Forgeries have something of the Hermaical or Egyptian Philosophy here and there interspersed in them As for example when in the Poemander God is twice called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and Female together this seems to have been Egyptian and derived from thence by Orpheus according to that elegant Passage in the Asclepian Dialogue concerning God Hic ergo qui Solus est Omnia utriusque Sexûs foecunditate plenissimus semper Voluntatis suae pregnans parit semper quicquid voluerit procreare He therefore who alone is All Things and most full of the Fecundity of both Sexes being always pregnant of his own Will always produceth whatsoever he pleaseth Again when Death is thus described in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be nothing else but the Change of the Body and the Form or Lifes passing into the Invisible This agreeth with that in the Eleventh Book or Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Death is nothing but a Change it being only the dissolution of the Body and the Life or Soul's passing into the Invisible or Inconspicuous In which Book it is also affirmed of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That every day some part or other of it goes into the Invisible or
into Hades that is does not utterly perish but only disappears to our sight it being either translated into some other Place or changed into another Form And accordingly it is said of Animals in the Twelfth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they are dissolved by Death not that they might be destroyed but made again anew As it is also there affirmed of the World that it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make all things out of it self and again unmake them into it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that dissolving all things it doth perpetually renew them For that nothing in the whole World utterly perisheth as it is often declared elsewhere in these Trismegistick Writings so particularly in this Twelfth Book of Ficinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World is unchangeable only the parts of it being alterable and this so as that none of these neither utterly perisheth or is absolutely destroyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For how can any part of that be Corrupted which is Incorruptible or any thing of God perish or go to nothing All which by Casaubon's lieve we take to have been originally Egyptian Doctrine and thence in part afterwards transplanted into Greece Moreover when in the Poemander God is styled more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Light and Life this seems to have been Egyptian also because it was Orphical In like manner the Appendix to the Sermon in the Mount called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Occult Cantion hath some strains of the Egyptian Theology in it which will be afterwards mentioned The result of our present Discourse is this that though some of the Trismegistick Books were either wholly counterfeited or else had certain supposititious Passages inserted into them by some Christian hand yet there being others of them originally Egyptian or which as to the substance of them do contain Hermaical or Egyptian Doctrines in all which One Supreme Deity is every where asserted we may well conclude from hence that the Egyptians had an acknowledgment amongst them of One Supreme Deity And herein several of the Ancient Fathers have gone before us as first of all Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammon in his Books calleth God Most Hidden and Hermes plainly declareth That it is hard to conceive God but impossible to express him Neither doth it follow that this latter Passage is counterfeit as Casaubon concludes because there is something like it in Plato's Timaeus there being doubtless a very great agreement betwixt Platonism and the Ancient Egyptian Doctrine Thus again St. Cyprian Hermes quoque Trismegistus Vnum Deum loquitur eumque ineffabilem inaestimabilem confitetur Hermes Trismegist also acknowledgeth One God confessing him to be ineffable and inestimable which Passage is also cited by St. Austin Lactantius likewise Thoth antiquissimus instructissimus omni genere Doctrinae adeò ut ei multarum rerum artium scientia Trismegisti cognomen imponeret Hic scripsit Libros quidem multos ad cognitionem Divinarum rerum pertinentes in quibus Majestatem Summi Singularis Dei asserit iisdemque nominibus appellat quibus nos Deum Patrem Ac nè quis nomen ejus requireret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse dixit Thoth that is Hermes the most ancient and most instructed in all kind of Learning for which he was called Trismegist wrote Books and those many belonging to the Knowledge of Divine things wherein he asserts the Majesty of One Supreme Deity calling him by the same names that we do God and Father but lest any one should require a Proper name of him affirming him to be Anonymous Lastly St. Cyril hath much more to the same purpose also And we must confess that we have the rather here insisted so much upon these Hermaick or Trismegistick Writings that in this particular we might vindicate these Ancient Fathers from the Imputation either of Fraud and Imposture or of Simplicity and Folly But that the Egyptians acknowledged besides their Many Gods One Supreme and All-comprehending Deity needs not be proved from these Trismegistick Writings concerning which we leave others to judge as they find Cause it otherwise appearing not only because Orpheus who was an undoubted Asserter of Monarchy or One First Principle of All things is generally affirmed to have derived his Doctrine from the Egyptians but also from plain and express Testimonies For besides Apollonius Tyanaeus his Affirmation concerning both Indians and Egyptians before cited Plutarch throughout his whole Book De Iside Osiride supposes the Egyptians thus to have asserted One Supreme Deity they commonly calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First God Thus in the beginning of that Book he tells us that the End of all the Religious Rites and Mysteries of that Egyptian Goddess Isis was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Knowledge of that First God who is the Lord of all things and only intelligible by the Mind whom this Goddess exhorteth men to seek in her Communion After which he declareth that this First God of the Egyptians was accounted by them an Obscure and Hidden Deity and accordingly he gives the reason why they made the Crocodile to be a Symbol of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they say the Crocodile is the only Animal which living in the water hath his Eyes covered by a thin transparent membrane falling down over them by reason whereof it sees and is not seen which is a thing that belongs to the First God To see all things himself being not seen Though Plutarch in that place gives also another reason why the Egyptians made the Crocodile a Symbol of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither were the Egyptians without a plausible reason for worshipping God Symbolically in the Crocodile that being said to be an Imitation of God in that it is the only Animal without a Tongue For the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reason standing not in need of Speech and going on through a silent path of Justice in the World does without noise righteously govern and dispense all humane affairs In like manner Horus-Apollo in his Hieroglyphicks tells us that the Egyptians acknowledging a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Omnipotent Being that was the Governour of the whole World did Symbolically represent him by a Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they picturing also a great House or Palace within its circumference because the World is the Royal palace of the Deity Which Writer also gives us another reason why the Serpent was made to be the Hieroglyphick of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Serpent feeding as it were upon its own Body doth aptly signifie that all things generated in the World by Divine Providence are again resolved into him And Philo Byblius from Sanchuniathon gives the same reason why the Serpent was Deified by Tant or the Egyptian Hermes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is immortal and resolved into it self