Substance and fondly dreaming that the Vulgar Notion of a God is Nothing but such an Inadequate Conception of the Matter of the whole Vniverse Mistaken for an Entire Substance by it self the Cause of all things And thus far the Digression Page 172 XXXVIII That though the Confutation of the Atheistick Grounds according to the Laws of Method ought to have been reserved for the last part of this Discourse yet we having reason to violate those Laws crave the Reader 's Pardon for this Preposterousness A considerable Observation of Plato's That it is not onely Gross Sensuality which inclines men to Atheize but also an Affectation of seeming Wiser than the Generality of mankind As likewise that the Atheists making such Pretence to Wit it is a seasonable and proper Vndertaking to Evince that they Fumble in all their Ratiocinations And we hope to make it appear that the Atheists are no Conjurers and that all Forms of Atheism are Nonsense and Impossibility Page 174 CHAP. IV. The Idea of God declared in way of Answer to the First Atheistick Argument and the Grand Objection against the Naturality of this Idea as Essentially including Vnity or Oneliness in it from the Pagan Polytheism removed Proved That the Intelligent Pagans Generally acknowledged One Supreme Deity A fuller Explication of whose Polytheism and Idolatry intended in order to the better giving an Accompt of Christianity I. THE either Stupid Insensibility or Gross Impudence of Atheists in denying the Word God to have any Signification or that there is any other Idea answering to it besides the meer Phantasm of the Sound The Disease called by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Petrification or Dead Insensibility of the Mind Page 192 II. That the Atheists themselves must needs have an Idea of God in their Minds or otherwise when they deny his Existence they should deny the Existence of Nothing That they have also the same Idea of him in Generall with the Theists the One Denying the very same thing which the Others Affirm Page 194 III. A Lemma or Preparatory Proposition to the Idea of God That though some things be Made or Generated yet it is not possible that all things should be Made but something must of necessity Exist of it Self from Eternity Unmade and be the Cause of those other things that are Made ibid. IV. The Two most Opposite Opinions concerning what was Self-Existent from Eternity or Unmade and the Cause of all other things Made One That it was Nothing but Sensless Matter the Most Imperfect of all things The Other That it was Something Most Perfect and therefore Consciously Intellectual The Asserters of this Latter opinion Theists in a Strict and Proper Sense of the Former Atheists So that the Idea of God in Generall is A Perfect Consciously Understanding Being or Mind Self-Existent from Eternity and the Cause of all other things Page 194 195. V. Observable That the Atheists who deny a God according to the True Idea of him do Notwithstanding often Abuse the Word calling Sensless Matter by that name they meaning Nothing else thereby but onely a First Principle or Self-Existent Unmade thing according to which Notion of the word God there can be no such thing at all as an Atheist no man being able to persuade himself That all things sprung from Nothing Page 195 VI. In order to a more Punctual Declaration of this Divine Idea the Opinion of those taken notice of who suppose Two Self-Existent Unmade Principles God and Matter according to which God not the Principle of all things nor the Sole Principle but onely the Chief Page 196 197. VII These Materiarians Imperfect and Mistaken Theists Not Atheists because they suppose the World Made and Governed by an Animalish Sentient and Understanding Nature whereas no Atheists acknowledge Conscious Animality to be a First Principle but conclude it to be all Generable and Corruptible Nor yet Genuine Theists because they acknowledge not Omnipotence in the full Extent thereof A Latitude therefore in Theism and none to be condemned for Absolute Atheists but such as deny an Eternal Unmade Mind the Framer and Governour of the whole World Page 198 199. VIII An Absolutely Perfect Being the most Compendious Idea of God Which Includeth in it not onely Necessary Existence and Conscious Intellectuality but also Omni-Causality Omnipotence or Infinite Power Wherefore God the Sole Principle of all things and Cause of Matter The True Notion of Infinite Power And that Pagans commonly acknowledged Omnipotence or Infinite Power to be included in the Idea of God Page 200 201. IX That Absolute Perfection implies yet something more than Knowledge and Power A Vaticination in mens Minds of a Higher Good than either That according to Aristotle God is better than Knowledge and hath Morality in his Nature wherein also his Chief Happiness consisteth This borrowed from Plato to whom the Highest Perfection and Supreme Deity is Goodness it self Substantiall above Knowledge and Intellect Agreeably with which the Scripture makes God and the Supreme Good Love This not to be understood of a Soft Fond and Partiall Love God being rightly called also an Impartial Law and the Measure of all things Atheists also suppose Goodness to be included in the Idea of that God whose Existence they deny This Idea here more largely declared Page 202 203 c. X. That this forementioned Idea of God Essentially Includeth Unity Oneliness or Solitariety in it since there cannot possibly be more than One Absolutely Supreme One Cause of All things One Omnipotent and One Infinitely Perfect Epicurus and his Followers professedly denyed a God according to this Notion of him Page 207 XI The Grand Objection against the Idea of God as thus Essentially Including Oneliness and Singularity in it from the Polytheism of all Nations formerly the Jews excepted and of all the Wisest men and Philosophers From whence it is Inferred that this Idea of God is not Natural but Artificial and owes its Original to Laws and Arbitrary Institutions onely An Enquiry therefore here to be made concerning the True Sense of the Pagan Polytheism the Objectors securely taking it for granted that the Pagan Polytheists universally asserted Many Unmade Self-Existent Intellectual Beings and Independent Deities as so many Partial Causes of the World Page 208 209. XII The Irrationality of which Opinion and its manifest Repugnancy to the Phaenomena render it less probable to have been the Belief of all the Pagan Polytheists Page 210 XIII That the Pagan Deities were not all of them Vniversally look'd upon as so many Unmade Self-Existent Beings Vnquestionably Evident from hence Because they Generally held a Theogonia or Generation of Gods This Point of the Pagan Theology insisted upon by Herodotus the most ancient Prosaïck Greek Writer In whom the meaning of that Question Whether the Gods were Generated or Existed all from Eternity seems to have been the same with this of Plato's Whether the World were Made or Unmade Page 211 Certain also that amongst
Original Knowledge a Mind before the World and all Sensibles not Ectypall but Archetypall and the Framer of all Wherefore not Atheism but Theism Demonstrable from Knowledge and Understanding Page 733 734 This further Confirmed from hence Because there are Eternal Verities such as were never Made nor had any Beginning That the Diagonal of a Square Incommensurable to the Sides an Eternal Truth to Aristotle Justin Martyr's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal Moralls Geometrical Truths not Made by any man's Thinking but before all Men as also before the World and Matter it self Page 734 Now if there be Eternal Verities the Simple Reasons and Intelligible Essences of Things must needs be Eternal likewise These called by Plato Things that Always Are but were never Made Ingenerable and Incorruptible However Aristotle quarrels with Plato's Idea's yet does he also agree with him in this That the Forms or Species of things were Eternal and Never Made and that there is No Generation of them and that there are other things besides Sensibles the Immutable Objects of Science Certain That there could be no Immutable Science were there no other Objects of the Mind but Sensibles The Objects of Geometrical Science no Material Triangles Squares c. These by Aristotle said to be No where The Intelligible Natures of things to Philo the most Necessary Essences Page 735 736 Now if there be Eternal Truths and Intelligibles whose Existence also is Necessary since these can be no where but in a Mind there must be an Eternal Necessarily Existing Mind Comprehending all these Idea's and Truths at once or Being them Which no other then the Mind of a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and all Possibilities of things the Extent of its own Power Page 736 737 Wherefore there can be but One onely Original Mind which all other Minds Partake of Hence Idea's or Notions exactly alike in several men and Truths Indivisibly the Same Because their Minds all Stamped with the same Original Seal Themistius That One man could not Teach Another were there not the same Notion both in the Learner and Teacher Nor could men confer together as they doe were there not One Mind that All Partaked of That Anti-Monarchical Opinion of Many Understanding Beings Eternal and Independent Confuted And now have we not onely asserted the Idea of God and Confuted all the Atheistick Pretences against it but also from this Idea Demonstrated his Existence Page 737 738 SECT II. A Confutation of the Second Atheistick Argument Against Omnipotence and Divine Creation That Nothing can by any Power whatsoever be Made out of Nothing In Answer to which Three things to be Insisted on First That De Nihilo Nihil Nothing out of Nothing is in some Sense an Axiome of Vnquestionable Truth but then makes Nothing against Theism or Divine Creation Secondly That Nothing out of Nothing in the Sense of the Atheistick Objectors viz. That Nothing which once was Not could by any Power whatsoever be brought into Being is Absolutely False and that if it were True it would make no more against Theism then it doth against Atheism Lastly That from this very Axiome Nothing from Nothing in the True Sense thereof the Absolute Impossibility of Atheism is Demonstrable Page 738 De Nihilo Nihil Nothing from Nothing in some Sense is a Common Notion of Vnquestionable Truth For First Certain That Nothing which once was Not could ever Of it Self come into Being or That Nothing can take beginning of Existence from It self or That Nothing can be Made or Produced without an Efficient Cause From whence Demonstrated That there was never Nothing or That every thing was not Made but Something did Exist of It Self from Eternity Unmade or Underived from any thing else Page 738 739 Again Certain also That Nothing could be Efficiently Produced by what hath not at least Equal Perfection and a Sufficient Active or Productive Power That of an Effect which Transcends the Perfection of its supposed Cause must Come from Nothing or be Made without a Cause Nor can any thing be Produced by another though having Equal Perfection unless it have also a Sufficient Active or Productive Power Hence Certain That were there once no Motion at all in the world and no other Substance besides Body which had no Self-Moving Power there could never Possibly be any Motion or Mutation to all Eternity for want of a Sufficient Cause or Productive Power No Imperfect Being hath a Productive Power of any New Substance which was not before but onely of New Accidents and Modifications that is No Creâ—ture can Create Which Two forementioned Senses respect the Efficient Cause Page 739 Thirdly Nothing can be Materially Produced out of Nothing Prae-Existing or Inexisting And therefore in all Natural Generations where the Supernaturall Power of the Deity interposes not No New Reall Entity or Substance Produced which was not Before but onely New Modifications of what Substantially Prae-Existed Page 739 740 Nothing out of Nothing so much Insisted on by the old Physiologers before Aristotle in this Sense commonly misunderstood by Modern Writers as if they designed thereby to take away all Divine Creation out of Nothing Prae-Existing Granted This to have been the Sense of the Stoicks and of Plutarch He affirming the World to have been no otherwise Made by God then a House is by a Carpenter or a Garment by a Tailour Plutarch and the Stoicks therefore Imperfect Theists but nevertheless Zealous Religionists But the Ancient Italick Philosophers here Acted onely as Physiologers and not as Theologers or Metaphysicians they not directing themselves against a Divine Creation out of Nothing Prae-Existing but onely contending That neither in Naturall Generations any new Reall Entity was Created nor in Corruptions Annihilated but onely the Modifications of what before Existed Changed or That No New Reall Entity could be Made out of Matter Page 740 741 That this was the True meaning of those Ancient Physiologers Evident from the Use which they made of this Principle Nothing out of Nothing Which Twofold First Vpon this Foundation they Endeavoured to establish a Peculiar Kind of Physiology and some Atomology or other either Similar or Dissimilar Homoeomery or Anomoeomery Anaxagoras from hence concluded because Nothing could be Made out of Nothing Prae-Existing and Inexisting that therefore there were in every Body Similar Atoms of all Kinds out of which by Concretions and Secretions all Naturall Generations Made so that Bone was Made out of Bony Atoms Prae-Existing and Inexisting Flesh out of Fleshy and the like This the Anaxagorean Homoeomery or Similar Atomology built upon this Princile Nothing out of Nothing Page 741 742 But the Ancient Italicks both before and after Anaxagoras whom Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus here followed with greater Sagacity concluded from the same Principle Nothing out of Nothing That those Qualities and Forms of Bodies Naturally Generated and Corrupted were therefore no Reall Entities distinct from the Substance of Matter but onely Different
to us Page 884 But for the easing the Minds of weak Mortals already Suggested That there is no Necessity God should Himself Immediately do all things he having Ministers Vnder him Executioners of his Providence as an Artificial Plastick Nature for this reason partly before insisted on Instincts also in Animals a Part of that Divine Fate which is the Servant of Providence Above which other Knowing and Understanding Ministers of the Deity appointed to Preside over Humane Affairs But all over-look'd by the watchfull Eye of God Almighty who may Himself Extraordinarily Interpose Page 884 885 Wherefore no need to Confine Providence to a Few Greater things onely to free the Deity from Distraction Small things upon which Greater often depend not Neglected by it Nevertheless the Chief Employment of Divine Providence in the Oeconomy of Souls by Plato Reduced to this Compendium The Translating of them into Better or Worser States according to their Demeanours Thus may the slow wits of Mortals more easily conceive Providence not to be Laborious and Distractious to the Deity Page 885 But that all Benevolence arises from Imbecillity and that what is Perfectly Happy would be troubled with no Business but enjoy its own Ease Idols of the Atheists Den. These other The Narrow Contractedness of their Minds by Vice and Immorality Page 885 886 The Atheistick Queries next to be Answered The First Querie If there were a God who was Perfectly Happy in himself Why would he go about to make a World Answ. The Reason of God's making the World was from his Over-flowing and Communicative Goodness That there might be other Beings Happy besides Himself This consistent with God's making the World for his own Glory The reason why Plotinus would explode that True that God did not make the World meerly to Ostentate his Skill and Power but to Display his Goodness which is Chiefly his Glory The Atheists further Demand What hurt would it have been for us never to have been Made Answ. No other then this That we could never have Enjoyed Good nor been Capable of Happiness If no hurt not to have been Made then none to be Annihilated the Distance being as great from Nothing to Something as from Something to Nothing Page 886 The Second Atheistick Querie If God's Goodness were the Cause of his making the World Why then was it not made Sooner This Question capable of a Double Sense First Why was not the World from Eternity The Reply This not from any Defect in the Divine Goodness but because there is an Impossibility of the Thing it self the Necessity and Incapacity of such an Imperfect Being Hindering it Our selves Proue to Think That Could the World have been from Eternity it should have been so Thus Philoponus in his Confutation of Proclus his Arguments for the World's Eternity And now no place left for those Atheistick Cavils against the Novity of the Creation as if God must therefore have Slept from Eternity or had Contracted a Satiety of his former Solitude Another Sense of the Question Why though the World could not be from Eternity yet was it not made Sooner Answ. The World could not Possibly have so been made in Time as that it should not have been once but a Day Old and also once no more then five or six Thousand years Old Page 886 887 The Third Atheistick Querie How could God move the Matter of the whole World especially if Incorporeal Answ. That all things being derived from the Deity and Essentially depending on him they must needs be Commandable by him and Obsequious to him And since no Body can Move it self that which first Moved the Matter must be Incorporeal and not move it by Machines and Engines but by Cogitation or Will onely That Conceit That an Incorporeal Deity could not Move Matter because it would Run through it Absurd This moving not Mechanically but Vitally That Cogitative Beings have a Naturall Power of Moving Matter Evident from our own Souls Moving our Bodies not by Machines or Engines but meerly by Thought More easy for the Deity to move the Whole World by Will and Cogitation then for us our Bodies Page 887 888 The Last Head of Atheistick Argumentation From Interest First That it is the Interest of Particular Persons there should be no being Infinitely Powerfull who hath no Law but his own Will The First Reply Wishing is no Proving Nor will any man's Thinking make Things otherwise then they are Page 888 But Secondly This Wish of Atheists Founded upon a Mistaken Notion of God Almighty That he is nothing but Arbitrary Will Omnipotent God's Will not meer Will but Law and Equity Ought it self Willing Nor does Justice in God clash with Goodness but is a Branch or Particular Modification thereof The Interest of none There should be no God unless perhaps of such as are Irreclaimably Wicked and wilfully abandon their own True Good Page 888 889 To be Without God to be Without Hope No Faith nor Hope in Senseless Matter According to the Atheistick Hypothesis no Possibility of Happiness nor Security of Good Page 889 God such a Being as If he were not Nothing more to be Wished for To Believe a God to Believe the Existence of all Good and Perfection and that things are all Made and Governed as they Should be Peccability from the Necessity of Imperfect Free-Willed Beings Infinite Hopes from a Being Infinitely Good and Powerfull Democritus and Epicurus however cried up so much of late but Infatuated Sophists or Witty Fools and Debauchers of Mankind Page 889 890 The Last Atheistick Argumentation That Theism or Religion is Inconsistent with the Interest of Civil Sovereigns Their First Pretence for this That the Civil Sovereign Reigns onely in Fear and therefore there must be no Power nor Fear Greater then that of the Leviathan Page 890 In Answer to this The Atheistick Ethicks and Politicks to be Vnravelled Their Foundation laid in the Villanizing of Humane Nature That there is no Natural Justice Equity nor Charity No Publick nor Common Nature in Men but all Private and Selfish That every Man by Nature hath a Right to every thing even to other Mens Bodies and Lives That an Appetite to Kill and Torment by Nature gives a Right That Nature hath brought men into the World without any Fetters or Shackles of Duty and Obligation the Hinderances of Liberty Lastly That Nature absolutely Dissociates and Segregates Men from one another by reason of the Inconsistency of Appetites and Private Good Every Man by Nature in a State of War against every Man Page 890 891 But in the next place They adde That though this State of Nature which is Belluine Liberty and Lawless Freedom to every thing be in it self the Best yet by Accident and by reason of mens Imbecillity does it prove the Worst Wherefore when Men had been weary of Hewing and Slashing they then bethought themselves at length of Helping Nature by Art By Submitting to a Lesser Evil for the Avoiding
First Principle or Self-existent Vnmade thing That according to this Notion of the word God there can be no such thing as an Atheist no man beâ—ng able to perswade himself that all things sprung from Nothing 6. In order to the more punctual Declaration of the Divine Idea the Opinion of those taken notice of who suppose Two Self-existent Vnmade Principles God and Matter and so God not to be the Sole but only the Chief Principle 7. That these are but Imperfect and Mistaken Theists Their Idea of God declared with its Defectivenâ—ss A Latitude in Theism None to be condemned for Absolute Atheists but â—uch as deny an Eternal Vnmade Mind ruling over the matter 8. The most Compendious Idea of God An Absolutely Perfect Being â—hat this includes not only Conscious Intellectuality and Necessary Existence but also Omni-causality Omnipotence and Infinite Power and therâ—fore God the sole Principle of all and Cause of Matter The true Notion of Infinite Power Pagans acknowledged the Divine Omnipotence And that the Atheists supposed Infinite Power to be included in the Idea of God proved from Lucretius 9. That absolute Perfection implies something more than Power and Knowledge A Vaticination in mens minds of a Higher Good than either That God is Better than Knowledge according to Aristotle and that there is Morality in the Nature of God wherein his chief Happiness consisâ—eth This borrowed from Plato who makes the Highest Perfection and Supreme Deity to be Goodness it self above Knowledge and Intellect God and the Supreme Good according to the Scripture Love God no soft or fond Love but an Impartial Law and the Measure of all things That the Atheists supposed Goodness also to be included in the Idea of God The Idea of God more Explicate and Vnfolded A Being absolutely Perfect Infinitely Good Wise and Powerful Necessarily Existent and not only the Framer of the World but also the Cause of all things 10. That this Idea of God Essentially includes Unity or Onelyness in it since there can be but One Supreme One Cause of all things One Omnipotent and One Infinitely Perfect This Vnity or Onelyness of the Deity supposed also by Epicurus and Lucretius who professedly denyed a God according to this Idea 11. The Grand Prejudice against the Naturality of this Idea of God as it Essentially includes Vnity and Solitariety from the Polytheism of all Nations formerly besides the Jewes and of all the wisest men and Philosophers from whence it is inferred that this Idea of God is but Artificial and owes its Original to Laws and Institution An Enquiry to be made concerning the true sence of the Pagan Polytheism That the Objectors take it for granted that the Pagan Polytheists universally asserted Many Self-existent Intellectual Beings and Independent Deities as so many Partial Causes of the World 12. First the Irrationality of this Opinion and its manifest Repugnancy to the Phaenomena which render it less probable to have been the Belief of all the Pagan Polytheists 13. Secondly That no such thing at all appears as that ever any Intelligent Pagans asserted a Multitude of Eternal Vnmade Independent Deities The Hesiodian Gods The Valentinian Aeons The nearest Approach made thereunto by the Manichean Good and Evil Gods This Doctrine not generally asserted by the Greek Philosophers as Plutarch affirmeth Questioned whether the Persian Evil Daemon or Arimanius were a Self-existent Principle Essentially Evil. Aristotle's Confutation and Explosion of Many Principles or Independent Deities Faustus the Manichean his Conceit that the Jews and Christians Paganized in the Opinion of Monarchy with St. Austin's Judgment concerning the Pagans thereupon 14. Concluded that the Pagan Polytheism must be understood according to another Equivocation in the word Gods as used for Created Intellectual Beings superiour to Men that ought to be Religiously Worshipped That the Pagans held both Many Gods and One God as Onatus the Pythagorean declares himself in different Sences Many Inferiour Deities Suberdinate to One Supreme 15. Further Evidence of this that the Intelligent Pagan Polytheists held only a Plurality of Inferiour Deities Subordinate to one Supreme First because after the Emersion of Christianity and its contest with Paganism when occasion was offered not only no Pagan asserted a Multiplicity of Independent Deities but also all Vniversally disclaim'd it and professed to acknowledge One Supreme God 16. That this was no Refinement or Interpolation of Paganism as might possibly be suspected but that the Doctrine of the most Ancient Pagan Theologers and greatest Promoters of Polytheism was agreeable hereunto which will be proved not from suspected Writings as of Trismegist and the Sibyls but such as are Indubitate First That Zoroaster the chief Promoter of Polytheism in the Eastern Parts acknowledged one Supreme Deity the Maker of the World proved from Eubulus in Porphyry besides his own words cited by Eusebius 17. That Orpheus commonly called by the Greeks The Theologer and the Father of the Grecanick Polytheism clearly asserted one Supreme Deity proved by his own words out of Pagan Records 18. That the Aegyptians themselves the most Polytheistical of all Nations had an acknowledgement amongst them of one Supreme Deity 19. That the Poets who were the greatest Depravers of the Pagan Theology and by their Fables of the Gods made it look more Aristocratically did themselves notwithstanding acknowledge a Monarchy one Prince and Father of Gods That famous Passage of Sophocles not to be suspected though not found in any of these Tragedies now extant 20. That all the Pagan Philosophers who were Theists universally asserted a Mundane Monarchy Pythagoras as much a Polytheist as any and yet his First Principle of Things as well as Numbers a Monad or Unity Anaxagoras his One Mind ordering all things for Good Xenophanes his One and All and his One God the Greatest among the Gods 21. Parmenides his Supreme God One Immoveable Empedocles his both Many Gods Junior to Friendship and Contention and his One God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senior to them Zeno Eleates his Demonstration of One God in Aristotle 22. Philolaus his Prince and Governour of all God always One Euclides Megarensis his God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One the Very Good Timaeus Locrus his Mind and Good above the Soul of the World Antisthenes his One Natural God Onatus his Corypheus 23. Generally believed and true that Socrates acknowledged One Supreme God but that he disclaimed all the Inferiour Gods of the Pagans a Vulgar Error Plato also a Polytheist and that Passage which some lay so great stress upon That he was serious when he began his Epistles with God but when with Gods jocular Spurious and Counterfeit and yet he was notwithstanding an undoubted Monotheist also in another sence an Asserter of One God over all of a Maker of the World of a First God of a Greatest of the Gods The First Hypostasis of the Platonick Trinity properly the King of all things for whose sake are all things Tâ—e Father of the Cause and
Materiarian Theists acknowledged God to be a Perfectly-understanding Being and Such as had also Power over the Whole Matter of the Universe which was utterly unable to move it self or to produce any thing without him And all of them except the Anaxagoreans concluded that He was the Creator of all the Forms of Inanimate Bodies and of the Souls of Animals However it was Universally agreed upon amongst them that he was at least The Orderer and Disposer of all and that therefore he might upon that account well be called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Maker or Framer of the World Notwithstanding which so long as they Maintained Matter to exist Independently upon God and sometimes also to be Refractory and Contumacious to him and by that means to be the Cause of Evli contrary to the Divine Will it is plain that they could not acknowledge the Divine Omnipotence according to the Full and Proper sence of it Which may also further appear from these Queries of Seneca concerning God Quantum Deus possit Materiam ipse sibi Formet an Datâ utatur Deus quicquid Vult efficiat An in multis rebus illuni Tractanda destituant à Magno Artifice Pravè formentur multa non quia cessat Ars sed quia id in quo exercetur saepe Inobsequens Arti est How far Gods Power does extend Whether he make his own Matter or only use that which is offered him Whether he can do whatsoever he will Or the Materials in many things Frustrate and Disappoint him and by that means things come to be Ill-framed by this great Artificer not because his Art fails him but because that which it is exercised upon proves Stubborn and Contumacious Wherefore I think we may well conclude that those Materiarian Theists had not a Right and Genuine Idea of God Nevertheless it does not therefore follow that they must needs be concluded Absolute Atheists for there may be a Latitude allowed in Theism and though in a strict and proper sence they be only Theists who acknowledge One God perfectly Omnipotent the Sole Original of of all things and as well the Cause of Matter as of any thing else yet it seems reasonable that such Consideration should be had of the Infirmity of Humane Understandings as to extend the Word further that it may comprehend within it those also who assert One Intellectual Principle Self-existent from Eternity the Framer and Governor of the whole World though not the Creator of the Matter and that none should be condemned for Absolute Atheists merely because they hold Eternal Vncreated Matter unless they also deny an Eternal Vnmade Mind ruling over the Matter and so make Sensless Matter the Sole Original of all things And this is certainly most agreeable to common apprehensions for Democritus and Epicurus would never have been condemned for Atheists merely for asserting Eternal Self-existent Atoms no more than Anaxagoras and Archelaus were who maintained the same thing had they not also denied that other Principle of theirs a Perfect Mind and concluded that the World was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without the ordering and disposal of any Vnderstanding Being that had all Happiness with Incorruptibility VIII The True and Proper Idea of God in its Most Contracted Form is this A Being Absolutely Perfect For this is that alone to which Necessary Existence is Essential and of which it is Demonstrable Now as Absolute Perfection includes in it all that belongs to the Deity so does it not only comprehend besides Necessary Existence Perfect Knowledge or Understanding but also Omni-causality and Omnipotence in the full extent of it otherwise called Infinite Power God is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Animans quo nihil in omni Natura praestantius as the Materiarian Theists describ'd him The Best Living Being nor as Zeno Eleates called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Most Powerful of all things but he is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absolutely Omnipotent and Infinitely Powerful and therefore neither Matter nor any thing else can exist of it self Independently upon God but he is the Sole Principle and Source from which all things are derived But because this Infinite Power is a thing which the Atheists quarrel much withal as if it were altogether Vnintelligible and therefore Impossible we shall here briefly declare the Sence of it and render it as we think easily Intelligible or Conceivable in these Two following steps First that by Infinite Power is meant nothing else but Perfect Power or else as Simplicius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Whole and Entire Power such as hath no Allay and Mixture of Impotency nor any Defect of Power mingled with it And then again that this Perfect Power which is also the same with Infinite is really nothing else but a Power of Producing and Doing all whatsoever is Conceivable and which does not imply a Contradiction for Conception is the Only Measure of Power and its Extent as shall be shewed more fully in due place Now here we think fit to observe that the Pagan Theists did themselves also vulgarly acknowledge Omnipotence as an Attribute of the Deity which might be proved from sundry Passages of their Writings Homer Od. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus aliud post aliud Jupiter Bonúmque Malúmque dat Potest enim Omnia And again Od. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus autem hoc dabit illud omittet Quodcunque ei libitum fuerit Potest enim Omnia To this Purpose also before Homer Linus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after him Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are possible for God to do and nothing transcends his Power Thus also amongst the Latin Poets Virgil Aen. the First Sed Pater Omnipotens Speluncis abdidit Atris Again Aen. the Second At Pater Anchises oculos ad sydera laetus Extulit Coelo palmas cum Voce tetendit Jupiter Omnipotens precibus si flecteris ullis And Aen. the Fourth Talibus orantem dictis arásque tenentem Audiit Omnipotens Ovid in like manner Metamorph. 1. Tum Pater Omnipotens misso persregit Olympum Fulmine excussit subjectum Pelion Ossae And to cite no more Agatho an ancient Greek Poet is commended by Aristotle for affirming nothing to be exempted from the Power of God but only this that he cannot make That not to have been which hath been that is do what implies a Contradiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc namque duntaxat negatum etiam Deo est Quae facta sunt Infecta posse reddere Lastly that the Atheists themselves under Paganism look'd upon Omnitence and Infinite Power as an Essential Attribute of the Deity appears plainly from Lucretius when he tells us that Epicurus in order to the Taking away of Religion set himself
therefore much more than an Infinity of Atoms or Particles of Matter And though this Numerical Infinity of theirs were also Vnconceivable and Impossible yet does it sufficiently appear from hence that these Ancient Philosophick Atheists were so far from being abhorrent from Infinity as a Thing Impossible and a Non-Entity that they were on the contrary very fond thereof and therefore never went about to disprove a Deity after this manner Because there can be Nothing Infinite But in the next place we shall make it manifest that these Modern Atheists do no less contradict plain Reason and their very Selves also than they do their Predecessors in that Impiety when they thus go about to disprove the Existence of a God Because there can be Nothing Infinite neither in Duration nor in Power nor in any other regard For First though it should be doubted whether there be a God or no yet must it needs be acknowledged to be as Indubitable as any thing in all Geometry that there was something or other Infinite in Duration or Eternal without Beginning because if there had been once Nothing at all there could never have been Any thing that Common Notion or Principle of Reason having here an Irresistible Force That Nothing could ever come from Nothing Now if there were never Nothing but always Something then must there of necessity be something Infinite in Duration and Eternal without Beginning Wherefore it cannot be accounted less than Extreme Sottishness and Stupidity of Mind in these Modern Atheists thus to impugn a Deity from the Impossibility of Infinite Duration without beginning But in the next place we must confess it seems to us hardly conceivable that any Atheist whatsoever could possibly be so prodigiously Sottish or so monstrously infatuated as really to think that once there was Nothing at all but that afterwards Sensless Matter happened no body knows how to come into Being from whence all other things were derived According to which Hypothesis it would follow also that Matter might as well some time or other happen again to cease to be and so all things vanish into Nothing To conclude therefore these Atheists must of necessity be Guilty of One or Other of these Two Things either of Extreme Sottishness and Stupidity in acknowledging neither God nor Matter nor Any Thing to have Existed Infinitely from Eternity without Beginning or else if they do acknowledge the Pre-Eternity of Matter or its Infinite Past-duration without Beginning then of the most Notorious Impudence in making that an Argument against the Existence of a God which themselves acknowledge to Matter Nevertheless we shall here readily comply with these Modern Atheists thus far as to grant them these Two following Things First that we can have no Proper and Genuine Phantasm of any Infinite whatsoever because we never had Corporeal Sense of any neither of Infinite Number nor of Infinite Magnitude and therefore much less of Infinite Time or Duration and of Infinite Power these two Latter things Time and Power themselves not falling under Corporeal Sense Secondly That as we have no Phantasm of any Infinite so neither is Infinity Fully Comprehensible by our humane Understandings that are but Finite But since it is certain even to Mathematical Evidence That there was Something Infinite in Duration or without Beginning insomuch that no Intelligent Atheist upon Mature Consideration will ever venture to contradict it we shall from hence extort from thâ—se Atheists an acknowledgment of the Falsness of these Two Theorems of theirs That whatsoever we have no Phantasm or Sensible Idea of as also whatsoever is not Fully Comprehensible by us is therefore a pure Non-Entity or Nothing and enforce them to confess That there is something Really Existing in Nature which we have neither any Phantasm of nor yet can Fully Comprehend with our Imperfect Understandings Nay we will yet go further in compliance with them and acknowledge likewise That as for those Infinities of Number of Corporeal Magnitude and of Time or Successive Duration we have not only no Phantasm nor Full Intellectual Comprehension of them but also no manner of Intelligible Idea Notion or Conception For though it be true that Number be somewhere said by Aristotle to be Infinite yet was his meaning there only in such a negative Sence as this that we can never possibly come to an End thereof by Addition but may in our minds still add Number to Number Infinitely which is all one as if he should indeed have affirmed that there can be no Number Actually and Positively Infinite according to Aristotle's own Definition of Infinite elsewhere given namely That to which nothing can be added no Number being ever so Great but that One or More may still be added to it And as there can be no Infinite Number so neither can there be any Infinity of Corporeal Magnitude not only because if there were the parts thereof must needs be Infinite in Number but also because as no Number can be so great but that More maâ— be added to it so neither can any Body or Magnitude be ever so Vast but that more Body or Magnitude may be supposed still further and further this Addition of Finites never making up Infinite Indeed Infinite Space beyond the Finite World is a thing which hath been much talked of and it is by some supposed to be Infinite Body but by others to be an Incorporeal Infinite through whose Actual Distance notwithstanding Mensurable by Poles and Miles this Finite World might rowl and tumble Infinitely But as we conceive all that can be demonstrated here is no more than this That how vast soever the Finite World should be yet is there a Possibility of more and more Magnitude and Body still to be added to it further and further by Divine Power Infinitely or that the World could never be made so Great no not by God himself as that his own Omnipotence could not make it yet Greater Which Potential Infinity or Indefinite Encreasableness of Corporeal Magnitude seems to have been mistaken for an Actual Infinity of Space Whereas for this very Reason because more could be added to the Magnitude of the Corporeal World Infinitely or without End therefore is it Impossible that it should ever be Positively and Actually Infinite That is such as to which nothing more can Possibly be added Wherefore we conclude concerning Corporeal Magnitude as we did before of Number that there can be no Absolute and Actual Infinity thereof and that how much Vaster soever the World may be than according to the Supposition of Vulgar Astronomers who make the Starry Sphere the Vtmost Wall thereof yet is it not Absolutely Infinite such as Really hath No Bounds or Limits at all nor to which Nothing more could by Divine Power be added Lastly we affirm likewise concerning Time or Successive Duration that there can be no Infinity of that neither no Temporal Eternity without Beginning and that not only because there would then be an
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
Soul to excite such Notions as it had before within it self whether Innate or Adventitious which those words by the Compact and Agreement of men were made to be Signs of or else to reflect also further upon those Ideas of their own Consider them more Distinctly and Compare them with one another And though all Learning be not the Remembrance of what the Soul once before actually understood in a Pre-existent State as Plato somewhere would have it according to that of Boetius Quod si Platonis Musa personat Verum Quod quisque Discit Immenior Recordatur Yet is all Humane Teaching but Maieutical or Obstetricious and not the filling of the Soul as a Vessel meerly by Pouring into it from Without but the Kindling of it from Within or helping it so to excite and awaken compare and compound its own Notions as whereby to arrive at the Knowledge of that which it was before Ignorant of as the thing was better expressed by the forementioned Philosophick Poet in these words Haeret profecto Semen introrsum Veri Quod excitatur Ventilante Doctrina Wherefore the meer Telling of men There is a God could not infuse any Idea of him into their Minds nor yet the further giving this Definition of him that he is a Being Absolutely Perfect Eternal and Self-Existent make them understand any thing of his Nature were they not able to Excite Notions or Ideas from within themselves correspondent to those several words However the Difficulty still remains How those Civil Soveraigns and Law-makers or how Critias his very first Inventor of that Cheat of a God could Form that Idea within themselves since upon supposition of his Non-Existence it is the Idea of Nothing or of a Non-Entity And this was Judiciously Hinted also by the same Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Atheists affirming that certain Law-makers first put this Notion of a God into the minds of men do not consider that they still remain intangled in the Difficulty if any one further demand of them how those Law-makers themselves could first form that Idea From whence it is afterward concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That therefore the Notion of a God sprung not from the Arbitrarious Fiction of Law-makers and Politicians But some Atheists will yet further Reply That â—here is a Feigning Power in the Humane Soul whereby it can Frame Ideas or Conceptions of such things as actually never were nor will be as of a Centaur or of a Golden Mountain and that by such a Feigning Power as this the Idea of God though there be no such thing Existing might be Framed And here we deny not but that the Humane Soul hath a Power of Compounding Ideas and Things together which Exist Severally and Apart in Nature but never were nor will be in that Conjunction and this indeed is all the Feigning Power that it hath For the Mind cannot make any New Cogitation which was not before but only Compound that which Is. As the Painter cannot Feign Colours but must use such as exist in Nature only he can Variously Compound them together and by his Pencil draw the Figures and Lineaments of such things as no where are as he can add to the Head and Face of a Man the Neck Shoulders and Body of a Horse In like manner that more Subtle Painter or Limner the Mind and Imagination of man can frame Compounded Ideas of things which no where Exist but yet His Simple Colours nothwithstanding must be Real He cannot Feign any Cogitation which was not in Nature nor make a Positive Conception of that which is Absolutely Nothing which were no less than to make Nothing to be Something or Create Something out of Nothing And though the whole of these Fictitious Ideas as of a Golden Mountain does not any where actually Exist yet for as much as it doth not Absolutely Imply a Contradiction for it so to do therefore hath it also a Possible Entity too and otherwise it could not be Conceivable As a Triangular Square for example being a Contradictious Thing hath not so much as a Possible Entity and therefore is not Conceivable as such though both a Triangle and a Square severally be Conceivable it being meer None-Sence Nothing and no Idea at all Nay we Conceive that a Theist may presume with Reverence to say that God Almighty himself though he can Create More or Fewer Really Existent things as he pleaseth and could make a whole world out of Nothing yet can he not make more Cogitation or Conception then Is or was before contained in his own Infinite Mind and Eternal Wisdom nor have a Positive Idea of any thing which hath neither Actual nor Possible Entity But the Idea of God is not a Compilement or Aggregation of things which Exist Scatteredly and Apart in the World for then would it be a meer Arbitrarious thing and it might be what every one pleased one Adding more things together and another Fewer but each of them writing the Name or Title of God as bungling Painters did under these there several Figments Whereas we have already proved that the Idea of God is One most Simple Idea of an Absolutely Perfect Being though having several Partial and Inadequate Conceptions so that nothing can be Added to it nor Detracted from it there being nothing included therein but what is Demonstrable of a Perfect Being and therefore nothing at all Arbitrarious Moreover many of those Partial Conceptions contained in the entire Idea of God are no where else to be found in the whole world Existing Singly and Apart and therefore if there be no God they must needs be Absolute Non-Entities as Immutability Necessary Existence Infinity and Perfection c. so that the Painter that makes this Idea must here Feign Colours themselves or Create New Cogitation and Conception out of Nothing upon the Atheistick Supposicion Lastly If there be no God now Existing it is Impossible that ever there should be any and so the Whole Idea of God would be the Idea of that which hath no Possible Entity neither whereas those other Fictitious Ideas made by the Mind of man though they be of such things as have no Actual Existence yet have they all a Possible Entity as was said before But that we may Conceal nothing of the Atheists Strength we must here acknowledge that some of them have yet pretended further that besides this Power of Compounding things together the human Soul hath also another Ampliating or Increasing and Improving Power by both which together though there be no God Existing nor yet Possible the Idea of him may be Fictitiously made those Partial Ideas which are no where else to be found arising as they say from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Transition and Gradual Procession from men in way of Amplification Augmentation and Improvement Thus do we read in Sextus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ideas of the Eternity Incorruptibility and Perfect Happiness
said They have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him and whosoever will not hearken to the words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Which is all one as if he should have said I will no more speak to them with Thunder and Lightning nor reveal my will with a Terrible Voyce out of Flaming Fire but the next great Manifestation of my self or further Revelation of my Will shall be by a Prophet from amongst their own Brethren I putting my words into his mouth and speaking to them by him Whose words they shall be as much obliged to hearken to as if I had spoken them as before from the top of the Fiery Mount And that they may have no Colour for their Disbelieving this great Prophet especially or their disobeying of him I plainly declare that whosoever cometh in my Name and does True and Real Miracles shall be acknowledged undoubtedly for a True Prophet sent by me and accordingly Believed and Obeyed and none rejected under the Notion of False Prophets but only such as either do not Real Miracles or else if they do come in the name of Other Gods or Exhort to Idolatry Nevertheless our Saviour Christ wrought other Miracles also of a higher Nature by the Immediate Power of God Almighty himself as for example when before himself he raised Lazarus who had been dead four days to life since it cannot be conceived to be in the Power of Created Spirits whether Bad or Good when ever they please to bring back the Souls of men deceased to their Bodies again or change the Laws of Nature and Fate However it must not be thought that God will ever set this Seal of his to a Lye or that which is plainly contrary to the Light and Law of Nature The conclusion is that though all Miracles promiscuously do not immediatly prove the Existence of a God nor Confirm a Prophet or whatsoever Doctrine yet do they all of them evince that there is a Rank of Invisible Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men which the Atheists commonly deny And we read of some such Miracles also as could not be wrought but by a Power Perfectly Super Natural or by God Almighty himself But to deny and disbelieve all Miracles is either to deny all Certainty of Sense which would be indeed to make Sensation it self Miraculous or else monstrously and unreasonably to derogate from Humane Testimonies and History The Jews would never have so stifly and pertinaciously adhered to the Ceremonial Law of Moses had they not all along believed it to have been unquestionably confirmed by Miracles and that the Gentiles should at first have entertained the Faith of Christ without Miracles would it self have been The Greatest of Miracles The Last Extraordinary Phaenomenon proposed was that of Divination Oracles Prophecies or Predictions of Future Events otherwise Unforeknowable to men which either Evince a God or at least that there are Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men For if there be Presention or Foreknowledge of such Future Events as are to Humane Understanding alone altogether Unforeknowable then is it certain that there is some more Perfect Vnderstanding or Knowledge in the World than that of men And thus is that Maxim of the Ancient Pagan Theists in the Genuine and proper sense thereof unquestionably true Si Divinatio est Dii sunt If there be Divination or Presention of Future Events Vndiscoverable by men then are there Gods which in their Language was no more than to say Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men Wherefore we must here distinguish of Oracles and Predictions after the same manner as we did before of Mirâ—â—les that they may be of Two Kinds First such as might proceed only from the Natural Presaging Power of Created Spirits Superiour to men whether called Angels or Demons For these being supposed to have not only clearer understandings than men and a greater insight into Nature but also be reason of their Agility and Invisibility opportunity of knowing things remotely distant and of being privy to mens Secret Machinations and Consultations it is easily conceivable that many Future Events nigh at hand which cannot be foreknown by men may be probably at least foreseen by them and that without any Miraculous Divine Revelation their Causes being already in Being As men learned in Astronomy can foretel Eclipses of the Sun and Moon which to the Vulgar are altogether Unforeknowable And as Princes or States-men that are furnished with great Intelligence Foreign and Domestick can presage more of War and Peace either at home or abroad and of the Events of Kingdoms than Ignorant Plebeians And such were those Predictions which Democritus though otherwise much addicted to Atheism allowed of Cicero Writing thus of him Plurimis Locis gravis auct or Democritus Praesensionem rerum futurarum comprobat Democritus a grave Writer doth in many places approve of the Presention of Future Events The reason whereof was because he supposed certain Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men called by him Idols which having a larger Comprehension of things and other advantages of Knowledge could therefore foretel many Future Events that men were ignorant of And though perhaps it may be thought that Democritus would not have entertained this Opinion of the Foreknowledge of Humane Events had he not asserted the Necessity of all humane Actions and Volitions but held Liberty of Will as Epicurus afterwards did as if this were Inconsistent with all manner of Presage and Probable or Conjectural Foreknowledge yet is it certain that there is not so much Contingency in all Humane Actions by reason of this Liberty of Will as heretofore was by Epicurus and still is by many supposed it being plain that men act according to an Appearance of Good and that in many cases and circumstances it may be Foreknown without any Divine Revelation what such or such persons would do As for example that a voluptuous Person having a strong Temptation to satisfie his Sensual Appetite and that without incurring any inconvenience of shame or punishment would readily close with the same Besides which such Invisible Spirits as Angels or Demons may sometimes Predict also what themselves Cause and Effect Secondly there is another Sort of Predictions of Future Events which cannot be imputed to the Natural Presaging Faculty of any such Created Spirits but only to the Supernatural Prescience of God Almighty or a Being Infinitely Perfect As when Events remotely distant in time and of which there are yet no immediate Causes actually in Being which also depend upon many circumstances and a long Series of things any one of which being otherwise would alter the case as likewise upon much Uncertainty of Humane Volitions which are not always necessarily linked and concatenated with what goes before but often loose and free
and upon that Contingency that arises from the Indifferency or Equality of Eligibility in Objects Lastly such things as do not at all depend upon External Circumstances neither nor are caused by things Natural Anteceding but by some Supernatural Power I say when such Future Events as these are foretold and accordingly come to pass this can be ascribed to no other but such a Being as Comprehends Sways and Governs all and is by a peculiar Priviledge or Prerogative of its own Nature Omniscient Epicurus though really he therefore rejected Divination and Prediction of Future Events because he denied Providence yet did he pretend this further reason also against it because it was a thing Absolutely Inconsistent with Liberty of Will and Destructive of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divination is a thing which hath no Existence nor possibility in nature and if there were such a thing it would take away all Liberty of Will and leave nothing in mens own Power Thus also Carneades in Cicero maintained Ne Apollinem quidem futura posse dicere nisi ea quorum Causas Natura ita contineret ut ea fieri necesse esset That Apollo himself was not able to foretel any future Events other than such as had Necessary Causes in Nature antecedent And some Christian Theists of latter times have in like manner denied to God Almighty all Foreknowledge of Humane Actions upon the same pretence as being both Inconsistent with mens Liberty of Will and Destructive thereof For say they If mens Actions be Free then are they Vnforeknowable they having no Necessary Causes and again if there be any Foreknowledge of them then can they not be Free they being ipso facto Necessitated thereby But as it is certain that Prescience does not destroy the Liberty of mans Will or impose any Necessity upon it mens Actions being not therefore Future because they are Foreknown but therefore Foreknown because Future and were a thing never so Contingent yet upon supposition that it will be Done it must needs have been Future from all Eternity So is it extreme Arrogance for men because themselves can Naturally Foreknow nothing but by some Causes Antecedent as an Eclipse of the Sun or Moon therefore to presume to measure the knowledge of God Almighty according to the same Scantling and to deny him the Prescience of Humane Actions not considering that as his Nature is Incomprehensible so his Knowledge may well be looked upon by us as such too that which is Past our finding out and Too Wonderful for us However it must be acknowledged for an Undoubted Truth that no Created Being can Naturally and Of it self Foreknow any Future Events otherwise than in and by their Causes Anteceding If therefore we shall find that there have been Predictions of such Future Events as had no Necessary Antecedent Causes as we cannot but grant such Things therefore to be Foreknowable So must we needs from thence infer the Existence of a God that is a Being Supernatural Infinitely Perfect and Omniscient since such Predictions as these could have proceeded from no other Cause That there is Foreknowledge of Future Events to men Naturally Unforeknowable hath been all along the Perswasion of the Generality of Mankind Thus Cicero Vetus opinio est jam usque ab Heroicis ducta temporibus eaque Populi Romani omnium Gentium firmata consensu Versari quandam inter homines Divinationem quam Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant id est Praesensionem Scientiam rerum Futurarum This is an Old opinion derived down all along from the Heroick times or the Mythical Age and not only entertained amongst the Romans but also confirmed by the consent of all Nations that there is such a thing as Divination and Presension or Foreknowledge of Future Events And the same Writer elsewhere in the Person of Balbus Quamvis nihil tam irridet Epicurus quà m Praedictionem rerum Futurarum mihi videtur tamen vel maximè confirmare Deorum Providentia consuli rebus humanis Est enim profecto Divinatio quae multis locis rebus temporibus apparet cùm in privatis tùm maximè in publicis Multa cernunt Aruspices multa Augures provident multa Oraculis providentur multa Vaticinationibus multa Somniis multa portentis Although Epicurus deride nothing more then the Prediction of Fature things yet does this seem to me to be a great confirmation of the Providence of the Gods over humane affairs Because there is certainly Divination it appearing in many Places Things and Times and that not only Private but especially Publick Soothsayers foresee many things the Augurs many many things are declared by Oracles many by Prophecies many by Dreams and many by Portents And indeed that there were even amongst the Pagans Predictions of Future Events not discoverable by any Humane Sagacity which accordingly came to pass and therefore argue a Knowledge superiour to that of men or that there are certain Invisible understanding Beings or Spirits seems to be undenyable from History And that the Augurs themselves were sometimes not Unassisted by these Officious Genii is plain from that of Attius Navius before mentioned as the circumstances thereof are related by Historians that Tarquinius Priscus having a mind to try what there was in this skill of Augury Dixit ei se cogitare quiddam id possétne fieri consuluit Ille augurio acto posse respondet Tarquinius autem dixit se cogitasse cotem novaculâ posse praecidi tum Attium jussisse experiri ita Cotem in Comitium illatam inspectante Rege Populo novaculâ esse discissam Told Navius that he Thought of something and he would would know of him Whether it could be done or no. Navius having performed his Augurating Ceremonies replied that the thing might be done Whereupon Priscus declared what his Thought was namely that a Whetstone might be cut in two with a Razor Navius willed them to make trial wherefore a Whetstone being brought immediatly into the Court it was in the sight of the King and all the People divided with a Razor But the Predictions amongst those Pagans were for the most part only of the Former Kind such as proceeded meerly from the Natural Presaging Faculty of these Demons this appearing from hence because their Oracles were often expressed Ambiguously so as that they might be taken either way those Demons themselves it seems being then not confident of the Event as also because they were sometimes plainly mistaken in the Events And from hence it was that they seldom Ventured to foretel any Events remotely distant but only what were nigh at hand and shortly to come to pass and therefore might be Probably Conjectured of from things then in being Notwithstanding which we acknowledge that there are some Few Instances of Predictions amongst the Pagans of the other Kind Such as that intimated by Cicero in his Book of Divination where he declareth the Doctrine of Diodorus concerning Necessity
Being therefore it is but because we have such an Idea of it as includeth Necessary Existence in it which the Idea of Nothing else besides doth therefore may it be here further Objected in this manner That though it be very true that a Perfect Being doth include Necessary Existence in it because that cannot be every way Perfect whose Existence is not Necessary but Contingent yet will it not follow from hence that therefore there is such a Perfect Being Actually Existing but all that can be deduced from it will be no more than this That whatsoever hath no Necessary and Eternal Existence is no Absolutely Perfect Being and again That If there be any Absolutely Perfect Being then was its Existence always Necessary and will be always such that is it did both Exist Of it self from all Eternity without Beginning and must needs Exist to Eternity Incorruptibly it being never able to cease to be It seems indeed no more to follow That because a Perfect Being includes necessary Existence in its Idea therefore there is such a Perfect Being Actually Existing than because a Perfect Being includes Necessary Omniscience and Omnipotence in it that therefore there is such a Perfect Omniscient and Omnipotent Being all that follows in both cases being only this that If there be any Being Absolutely Perfect then it is both Omniscient and Omipotent and it did Exist of It Self necessarily and can never Cease to be Wherefore here lies a Fallacy in this Argumentation when from the Necessity of Existence affirmed only Hypothetically or upon a Supposition of a Perfect Being the Conclusion is made concerning it Absolutely As some would prove the Necessity of all humane Events as for example of Adam's Sinning in this manner that it always was True before that either Adam would eat the forbidden fruit or not eat it and If he would eat it he would Certainly eat it and not Contingently and again If he would not eat it then would he Certainly and Necessarily not Eat it wherefore whether he will eat it or not eat it he will do either Necessarily and not Contingently Where it is plain that an Absolute Necessity is wrongly inferred in the Conclusion from an Hypothetical one in the Premisses In like manner when upon supposition of an Absolutely Perfect Being it is affirmed of it that its Existence must not be Contingent but Necessary and from thence the Conclusion is made Absolutely that there Is such a Perfect Being this seems to be the very same Fallacy From the Idea of a Perfect Being including Necessary Existence in it it follows undeniably that If there be any Thing Absolutely Perfect it Must Exist Necessarily and not Contingently but it doth not follow that there Must of Necessiâ—y Be such a Perfect Being Existing these two Propositions carrying a very different sense from one another And the Latter of them that there must of Necessity be a God or Perfect Being Existing seems to be a thing altogether Indemonstrable it implying that the Existence of God or a Perfect Being may be proved A Priori or from some Antecedent Necessary Cause which was before declared to be a thing Contradictious and Impossible And now in Justice are we obliged to plead the best we can also on the Defensive side Thus therefore the Idea of God or an Absolutely Perfect Being including in it not an Impossible nor a Contingent but a Necessary Schesis or Relation to Existence it follows from thence Absolutely and without any Ifs and And 's that he doth Exist For as of things Contradictious having therefore in the Idea of them an Impossible Schesis to Existence we can confidently conclude that they never were nor will be And as of other things not Contradictious or Impossible but Imperfect only which therefore have a Contingent Schesis to Existence we can Pronounce also that Possibly they Might be or might not be in like manner a Perfect Being including in the Idea of it a Necessary Schesis to Existence or an Impossible one to Non-Existence or containing Existence in its very Essence we may by Parity of reason conclude concerning it that it is neither Impossible to Be nor yet Contingent to Be or not to Be but that it Certainly Is and Cannot but Be or that it is Impossible it should Not Be. And indeed when we say of Imperfect Beings Implying no Contradiction in them that they may Possibly either Be or not Be we herein tacitly suppose the Existence of a Perfect Being because nothing which is Not could be Possible to be were there not something actually in Being that hath sufficient Power to Cause or Produce it True indeed we have the Ideas of many things in our minds that never were nor will be but these are only such as include no Necessary but Contingent Existence in their Nature and it does not therefore follow that a Perfect Being which includes Necessity of Existence in its Idea may notwithstanding Not Be. Wherefore this Necessity of Existence or Impossibility of Non-Existence contained in the Idea of a Perfect Being must not be taken Hypothetically only or Consequentially after this manner that If there be any Thing Absolutely Perfect then its Existence both was and will be Necessary but Absolutely that though Contradictious things cannot Possibly Be and things Imperfect may Possibly either Be or Not Be yet a Perfect Being cannot But Be or it is Impossible that it should Not Be. For otherwise were the force of the Argumentation meerly Hypothetical in this manner If there be a Perfect Being then its Existence both was and will be Necessary this would plainly imply that a Perfect Being notwithstanding that Necessity of Existence included in its Nature might either Be or Not Be or were Contingent to Existence which is a manifest Contradiction that the same thing should Exist both Contingently and Necessarily And this Hypothetical Absurdity will more plainly appear if the Argument be expressed in other words as that Necessity of Existence and Impossibility of Non-Existence and Actual Existence belong to the very Essence of a Perfect Being since it would be then ridiculous to go about to evade in this manner That If there be a Perfect Being then it Is and cannot But Be. Which Identical Proposition is true of every thing else but Absurd Wherefore there is something more to be Inferred from the Necessity of Existence included in the Idea of A Perfect Being than so which can be nothing else but this that it Absolutely and Actually Is. Moreover no Theists can be able to prove that God or a Perfect Being supposed by them to Exist might not Happen by Chance only to Be if from the Necessity of Existence included in the Idea of God it cannot be inferred that he could not But Be. Notwithstanding which here is no endeavour as is pretended to prove the Existence of a God or Perfect Being A Priori neither or from any Necessary Cause Antecedent but only from that Necessity which is
of framing Ideas and Conceptions not only of what Actually Is but also of things which never were nor perhaps will be they being only Possible to be But when from our Conceptions we conclude of some things that though they are Not yet they are Possible to be since nothing that Is not can be Possible to be unless there be something Actually in Being which hath sufficient Power to produce it we do Implicitely suppose the Existence of a God or Omnipotent Being thereby which can make whatsoever is Conceivable though it yet be not to Exist and therefore Material Triangles Circles Spheres Cubes Mathematically Exact The Result of what we have hitherto said is this that Since Singular Bodies are not the only Objects of our Mind and Cogitation it having also Vniversal and Abstract Ideas of the Intelligible Natures or Essences of things some of which are such whose Singulars do not at all fall under Sense others though they belong to Bodies yet Sense can never reach to them nor were they ever in Matter moreover since our Mind can conceive of things which no where Actually Exist but are only Possible and can have such a Demonstrative Science of Vniversal Truths as Sense can never ascend to That therefore Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding it self is not the meer Image and Creature of Singular Bodies only and so Derivative or Ectypal from them and in order of Nature Junior to them but that as it were hovering aloft over all the Corporeal Vniverse it is a thing Independent upon Singular Bodies or Proleptical to them and in Order of Nature Before them But what Account can we then Possibly give of Knowledge and Vnderstanding their Nature and Original Since there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Intelligible in order of Nature before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intellection Certainly no other than this that the First Original Knowledge is that of a Perfect Being Infinitely Good and Powerful Comprehending it self and the utmost Extent of its own Fecundity and Power that is the Possibilities of all things their Ideas with their several Relations to one another all Necessary and Immutable Truths Here therefore is there a Knowledge before the world and all Sensible things that was Archetypal and Paradigmatical to the same Of which one Perfect Mind and Knowledge all other Imperfect Minds being Derived from it have a certain Participation whereby they are enabled to Frame Intelligible Ideas not only of Whatsoever doth actually Exist but also of such thing as never Were nor Will be but are Only Possible or Objects of Divine Power Wherefore since it is certain that even Humane Knowledge and Vnderstanding it self is not a meer Passion from Sensible Things and Singular Bodies Existing without which is the only Foundation of that fore-mentioned Atheistick Argument that Things Made Knowledge and not Knowledge Things and consequently it must needs have some other Original moreover since Knowledge and Vnderstanding apprehend things Proleptically to their Existence Mind being able to frame Conceptions of all Possible Entities and Modifications and therefore in their Nature do plainly Suppose the Actual Existence of a Perfect Being which is Infinitely Fecund and Powerful and could produce all things Possible or Conceivable the First Original Knowledge or Mind from whence all other Knowledges and Minds are derived being that of an Absolutely Perfect and Omnipotent Being Comprehending It Self and the Extent of its own Power or of its Communicability that is the Ideas of all Possibilities of things that may be Produced by it together with their Relations to one another and their Necessary Immutable Truths accordingly as Wisdom and Understanding are described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Breath or Vapour of the Power of God and an Efflux or Emanation from the Glory of the Almighty a clear Mirrour or Looking Glass of his Active Energy or Vertue and the Image of his Goodness I say the Result of all is this that the Nature of Knowledge and Vnderstanding is so far from being a Ground of disproving a Deity as the Atheists ignorantly pretend that it affordeth a Firm Demonstration to us on the contrary of the Existence of a God a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending It self and the Extent of its own Power or all Possibilities of Things a Mind Before the world and Senior to All Things no Ectypal but Archetypal thing which comprehended in it as a kind of Intellectual World the Paradigm or Platform according to which this Sensible World was made And this may be Further confirmed from what is generally acknowledged and indeed cannot reasonably be denied by any viz. That there are Eternal Verities such as were never Made and had no Beginning nor can ever be Destroyed or Cease to be as for Example such Common Notions as these That Equals added to Equals make Equals That the Cause is in order of Nature before the Effect c. together with all Geometrical Theorems as Aristotle himself declareth he writing in his Ethicks after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concerning Eternal and Immutable Things no man does consult as for Example concerning the Diameter or Diagonial of a Square whether it should be Incommensurable to the Sides or no. Where he plainly affirmeth this Geometrical Theorem that the Diameter or Diagonial of a Square is Incommensurable to the Sides to be an Eternal Truth Neither are there such Eternal Truths as these only in Mathematicks and concerning Quantity but also in Ethicks concerning Morality there being here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr calls them Things Eternally Just which were not Made such at some certain times by Law and Arbitrary Command but being such in their own Nature Immutably were from Everlasting to Everlasting and as it is said of that Eternal Word which comprehends all Truth the Same Yesterday to Day and For ever For of these is that famous Passage of Sophocles in his Antigona 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are not things of to Day or Yesterday but they ever Live and no man knows their Date or from whence they came No man can declare the time when all Common Notions and Geometrical Truths were first Made and Generated out of Nothing or brought out of antecedent Non-Existence into Being Certain it is that such Truths as these that the Diameter and Sides of a Square are Incommensurable or that the Power of the Hypotenuse in a Rectangular Triangle is Equal to the Powers of both the Sides were not made by any Man 's Thinking or by those first Geometricians who Discovered or Demonstrated the same they Discovering and Demonstrating only that which Was. Wherefore these Truths were before there was any man to Think of them and they would continue still to be though all the men in the World should be Annihilated Nay though there were no Material Squares and Triangles any where in the whole world neither no nor any Matter at all for they were ever
without beginning before the world and would of necessity be ever after it should it cease to be Now if there be Eternal Truths which were never Made and could not But Be then must the Rationes Rerum the Simple Reasons of things also Or their Intelligible Natures and Essences out of which those Truths are compounded be of Neccesity Eternal likewise For how can this be an Eternal Truth that the Diameter of a Square is Incommensurable with the Sides if the Rationes the Reasons of a Square Diameter and Sides or their Intelligible Essences were not themselves Eternal These are therefore called by Plato a man of much Meditation and no Contemptible Philosopher not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things which are always the same and Vnchangeable but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things which were never Made but always Are and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things that were neither Made nor can be Destroyed sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things Ingenerable and Incorruptible Of which Cicero thus Haec Plato negat Gigni sed Semper Esse Ratione Intelligentiâ Contineri These things Plato affirmeth to have been never Made but always to Be and to be contained in Reason and Vnderstanding And though perhaps it may seem strange even Aristotle himself also notwithstanding his so often clashing with Plato's Ideas here Really agreeth in the main that the Forms and Species or the Universal Intelligible Essences of Things which are the proper and immediate Objects of Science were Eternal and never Made Thus in his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man makes the Form or Species of a thing nor was it ever Generated and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Generation of the Essence of a Sphere and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Forms or Species of things are without any Generation or Corruption And he sometimes calleth these Objects of Science 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Immutable Essence or Nature Lastly where he writeth against the Heracliticks and those other Scepticks who denied all Certainty of Science he first discovers the Ground of their Errour herein to have been this that they supposed Singular Bodies or Sensibles existing Without to be the Only Things or Objects of the Mind or Knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Original of these mens mistake was this because Truth is to be look'd for in Things and they conceiv'd the only things to be Sensibles in which it is certain there is much of the Indeterminate Nature Wherefore they perceiving all the Nature of Sensibles to be Moveable or in perpetual Flux and Mutation since nothing can possibly be verified or constantly affirmed concerning that which is not the same but Changeable concluded that there could be no Truth at all nor Certainty of Science those Things which are the only Objects of it never continuing the same And then he subjoyns in way of Opposition to this Sceptical Doctrine of theirs and the forementioned Ground thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We would have these men therefore to know that there is another kind â—f Essence of Things besides that of Sensibles to which belongeth neither Motion nor Corruption nor any Generation at all By which Essences of things that have no Generation nor Corruption he could understand nothing else but those Intelligible Natures Species and Ideas which are the Standing and Immutable Objects of Science And certain it is that there could be no constant and Immutable Science at all were there no other Objects of the Mind but Singulars and Sensibles because these are all Mutable Wherefore the Proper and Immediate Objects of the Geometrical Science are no Singular and Material Triangles Squares Spheres and Cubes c. not only because none of these are found Mathematically Exact and because Geometricians in all the Several distant ages and places of the world could not have the same Singular Bodies before them but also because they do none of them continue Immutably the Same all Corporeal things being more or less in perpetual Motion and Mutation Whereas that of which any Geometrical Theorem is Verified and Demonstrated must be Immutably and Vnalterably the Same The Triangles and Circles Spheres and Cubes of Euclid Archimedes Pappus Appollonius and all other Ancient and Modern Geometricians in all the distant places and Times of the World were both Indivisibly One and the Same and also perfectly Immutable and Incorruptible the Science of Geometry being such For which Cause it is affirmed also of these Mathematical Things by the forementioned Aristotle that they are No Where as in a Place as all Singular Bodies are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is absurd to make Mathematical Things to be in a Place as Solid Bodies are for Place belongeth only to Singulars which are therefore separable from one another by Place but Mathematical things are not Any where Because they being Universal and Abstract are only in Minds nevertheless for the same Reason are they also Every Where they being in every Mind that apprehends them Lastly these Intelligible Essences and Ideas of Things are called also by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Most Necessary Essences as being not only Eternal but having likewise Necessary Existence belonging to them for though there be no Absolute Necessity that there should be Matter or Body yet is there an Absolute Necessity that there should be Truth If therefore there be Eternal Intelligibles or Ideas and Eternal Truths and Necessary Existence do belong to them then must there be an Eternal Mind Necessarily Existing since these Truths and Intelligible Essences of Things cannot possibly be any where but in a Mind For by the Essences of things when they are said to be Eternal must not be meant their very Substances as if every thing were in it self Eternal and Uncreated or that God in Creation did only as a Modern Writer abusively Expresseth it Sartoris instar vestire Essentias rerum novâ Existentiâ Cloth the antecedent Essences of things with a new Garment of Existence but only their Esse Cognitum their Possible and Intelligible Natures as they were Objects of Infinite Power and Vnderstanding before they were Made There must be a Mind Senior to the world and all Sensible Things and such as at once Comprehends in it the Ideas of all Intelligibles their Necessary Scheses and Relations to one another and all their Immutable Truths a Mind which doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle writeth of it sometimes Vnderstand and sometimes not Vnderstand as if it were sometimes Awake and sometimes Asleep or like an Eye sometimes Open and sometimes Shut but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a Mind as is Essentially Act and Energy and hath no Defect in it And this as we have already declared can be no other than the Mind of an Omnipotent and Infinitely Pepfect Being Comprehending It Self and the Extent of its own Power or how far it self
is Communicable that is all the Possibilities of things that may be made by it and their respective Truths Mind and Knowledge in the very Nature of it supposing the Actual Existence of an Omnipotent or Infinitely Powerful Being as its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intelligible It being nothing but the Comprehension of the Extent of Infinite or Divine Power and the Measure of the same And from hence it is Evident also that there can be but One only Original Mind or no more than One Vnderstanding Being Self Existent all other Minds whatsoever Partaking of one Original Mind and being as it were Stamped with the Impression or Signature of one and the same Seal From whence it cometh to pass that all Minds in the several Places and Ages of the World have Ideas or Notions of Things Exactly Alike and Truths Indivisibly the Same Truths are not multiplied by the Diversity of Minds that apprehend them because they are all but Ectypal Participations of one and the same Original or Archetypal Mind and Truth As the same Face may be Reflected in several Glasses and the Image of the same Sun may be in a thousand Eyes at once beholding it and One and the same Voyce may be in a thousand Eares listning to it so when Innumerable Created Minds have the same Ideas of Things and Understand the Same Truths it is but One and the same Eternal Light that is Reflected in them all that Light which enlighteneth Every man that cometh into the World or the same Voyce of that One Everlasting Word that is never Silent Reechoed by them Thus was it concluded by Themistius that one man by Teaching could not Possibly beget in the Mind of another the very same Notions Conceptions and Knowledges which himself had in his own Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Were not the Minds both of the Teacher and of the Learner as it were Printed and Stamped alike As also that men could not Possibly so confer together as they do presently apprehending one anothers meaning and raising up the very Same senses in their Minds and that meerly by Occasion of Words and Sounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Were there not some One Mind which all men did Partake of As for that Anti-Monarchical Opinion of Many Vnderstanding Beings or Minds Self Originated and Independent none of which therefore could be Omnipotent it is neither Conceivable how such should all agree in the same Truths there being no Common Measure of Truth betwixt them no more than any Common Rule of their Wills nor indeed how they should have any Knowledge or Vnderstanding at all properly so called that being the Comprehension of the Possibilities of things or of the Extent of Infinite Power whereas according to this Hypothesis there is no Infinite Power at all the Power of each of those Many supposed Principles or Deities being Limited and Finite and therefore indeed not Creative of any thing neither since that which could Create one thing could Create all and consequently would have all depending upon it We conclude therefore That from the Nature of Mind and Knowledge it is Demonstrable That there can be but One Original and Self-Existent Mind or Vnderstanding Being from which all other Minds were derived And now have we more Copiously than we designed Confuted the First Atheistick Argument we having not only asserted the Idea of God and fully Answered and refelled all the Atheistick Pretences against the same but also from this very Idea of God or a Perfect Being Demonstrated his Existence We shall dispatch the following Atheistick Objections with more brevity WE come in the next place to the Achilles of the Atheists their Invincible Argument against a Divine Creation and Omnipotence because Nothing could come from Nothing It being concluded from hence that whatsoever Substantially or Really Is was from all Eternity Of It Self Unmade or Vncreated by any Deity Or else thus By God is alwayes Understood a Creator of some Real Entity or other out of Nothing but it is an Vndoubted Principle of Reason and Philosophy an Undenyable Common Notion That Nothing can be made out of Nothing and therefore there can be no such Creative Power as this And here we shall perform these Three Things First we shall show That in some Senses this is indeed an Vnquestionable Truth and Common Notion That Nothing can come from Nothing and what those Senses are Secondly We shall make it evident that in the Sense of this Atheistick Objection it is Absolutely False That Nothing can come from Nothing or be made out of Nothing and that a Divine Creation and Omnipotence can be no way Impugned from the forementioned Principle rightly Understood Thirdly and Lastly We shall prove That as from this Principle or Common Notion Nothing out of Nothing there can be no Execution at all done against Theism or a Divine Creation so from the very Same rightly Understood the Impossibility of all Atheism may be Demonstratively Proved it bringing Something out of Nothing in an Impossible Sense as also the Existence of a God Evinced We grant therefore in the First place that this is in some Sense an Vndoubted Principle of Reason or an Vndeniable Common Notion that Nothing can come from Nothing For First it is Unquestionably True That Nothing which once was not could ever Of It self come into Being or That Nothing could bring it Self out of Non-Existence into Being That Nothing can take Beginning of Existence from it Self or That Nothing can be Made or Produced without an Efficient Cause And from hence as hath been already Intimated is it Demonstratively Certain that every thing was not Made but that there is something Necessarily Self Existent and which could not But Be. For had every thing been Made then must something of Necessity have been Made out of Nothing by It Self which is Impossible Again As Nothing which was Not could ever Of It self come into Being or be Made without an Efficient Cause so is it certain likewise that Nothing can be Efficiently Caused or Produced by that which hath not in it at least Equal if not Greater Perfection as also Sufficient Power to Produce the same We say Nothing which was not could ever be brought into Being by that which hath not Formally Equal Perfection in it because Nothing can Give what it hath not and therefore so much of the Perfection or Entity of the Effect as is greater than that of the supposed Cause so much thereof must needs come from Nothing or be made without a Cause Moreover whatsoever hath Equal Perfection to another thing could not therefore Cause or Produce that other thing because it might either have no Active Power at all as Matter hath not it being meerly Passive or else no Sufficient Active and Productive Power As for Example though it be not Impossible That Motion which once was not should be Produced yet is it Impossible that it should be ever Produced without a Sufficient Cause Wherefore
if there were once no Motion at all in the whole world nor no Life or Self Active Power in any thing but all were Dead then is it certain that there could never possibly arise any Motion or Mutation in it to all Eternity There being no Sufficient Cause to Produce the Same since nothing can produce Motion but that which hath Life or Self Activity in it and if Motion or any thing else should begin to be without a Sufficient Cause then must it needs be Caused by It Self or Of It Self come into Being which is a thing Impossible Now no Imperfect Being whatsoever hath a Sufficient Emanative Power to Create any other Substance or Produce it out of Nothing the utmost that can be done by Imperfect Beings is only to Produce new Accidents and Modifications as Humane Souls can Produce new Cogitations in themselves and new Local Motion in Bodies No Imperfect Being is Substantially Emanative or can Produce another Substance out of Non-Existence Therefore for any Substance to be brought into Being by an Imperfect Substance which hath not Sufficient Emanative or Creative Power is a thing plainly Impossible it being all one as to say That a Substance might Of It self come out of Nothing into Being And thus is it granted that no Substance could be Created or brought out of Non-Existence into Being but by the sole Efficiency of an Absolutely Perfect Being which hath both Greater Perfection it Eminently Containing all things in it and also a Sufficient Emanative or Creative Power And now have we given an Account of Two Senses wherein it is Impossible For Any thing to come from Nothing One For a thing which was not to bring it Self into Being or to be Made without an Efficient Cause Another For a thing to be Efficiently Caused by that which hath not at least Equal Perfection in it or a Sufficient Emanative or Productive Power Both which Senses of this Axiom respect the Efficient Cause and thus was it frequently understood by divers of the Ancients and particularly by Cicero We shall now propound a Third Sense wherein this Axiom is also Verified That Nothing can be Made out of Nothing respecting chiefly the Material Cause For since no Imperfect Natural Being hath any Creative Power or can Efficiently produce any New Substance or Real Entity which was not before into Being but only act upon Pre-existing Matter by Motion and Modifie the same and since Matter as such being meerly Passive cannot Cause any thing that was not before or will not result from the Composition or Modification of it it follows undeniably that in all Natural Generations and Productions out of Preexistent Matter without a Divine Creation there can never be any New Substance or Real Entity brought out of Non-Existence into Being And this was that very thing and no other which the Ancient Physiologers meant when as Aristotle tells us they so much insisted upon this Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was Impossible that any Real Entity should be Naturally Made or Generated out of Nothing Or as it is also otherwise expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no Real Entity was either Generated or Corrupted That is That in Natural Generations Corruptions and Alterations where God is supposed not Miraculously to interpose there is no Creation of any New Substance or Real Entity out of Nothing nor Annihilation or Destruction of any into Nothing We are not ignorant that the Generality of Modern Writers have interpreted this Doctrine of the Old Physiologers in Aristotle into quite different Sense as designing therein to take away all Divine Creation out of Nothing or Non Existence they making all things to have sprung out of Matter existing Of it self from Eternity either Without a God or else rather because Parmenides and Empedocles and other Asserters of this Doctrine were undoubted Theists With Him So that God could not Create any New Entity out of Nothing but only make things out of Preexisting Vnmade Matter as a Carpenter doth a House or a Weaver a Piece of Cloth And thus is it Commonly taken for granted that no Pagan Philosopher ever went so far as to acknowledge a Divine Creation of any thing out of Nothing in the Sense of Christian Theologers And here we grant indeed that besides the Stoicks there have been some other Philosophick Theists amongst the Pagans of this Perswasion That Nothing was nor could be made by God otherwise then out of Something Prae-Existing as Plutarchus Chaeronensis for one who in a place already Cited positively affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That though the world were indeed made by God yet the Substance or Matter out of which it was Made wus not Made And then he subjoyns this very Reason for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because there can be no Making of any thing out of Nothing but only out of Something Prae Existing not rightly Ordered or Sufficiently disposed as in a House Garment or Statue From which conceit of Plutarch's though he were otherwise Ingenious it may well be supposed that the Dull Boeotick Air had too much Effect upon him However neither Plutarch nor the Stoicks as we conceive are for this to be accounted Absolute and Downright Atheists but only Imperfect Mungrel and Spurious Theists And therefore were Atheists never so much able to prove that there could be no Creation out of Nothing Prae-Existing which they cannot at all do yet would not this overthrow Theism in general there being a Latitude therein Nevertheless it will undeniably appear from what shall follow that those Ancient Italicks and Pythagoricks were so far from intending here any such thing to deduce all things out of Matter either Without or With a God as that they plainly designed the very Contrary namely to prove that no New Real Entity could be Made out of Matter and particularly that Souls could not be Generated out of the same which therefore of necessity must according to them have another Divine Original and be Made by God not out of Matter but out of Nothing Prae-Existing since it could not be supposed by any that all Souls Existed Of Themselves from Eternity Vnmade And indeed all those Pagan Philosophers who asserted the Incorporiety of Souls must of necessity in like manner suppose them not to have been Made out of Prae-Existing Matter but by God out of Nothing Plutarch being only here to be excepted by reason of a certain odd Hypothesis which he had that was peculiarly his own of a Third Principle besides God and Matter a Disorderly Soul or Evil Demon Self-Existent who therefore seems to have supposed all Particular Humane Souls to have been made neither out of Nothing nor yet out of Matter or Body Prae-Existing but out of a certain strange Commixture of the Substance of that Evil Soul and God blended together upon which account does he affirm Souls to be not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much the work
no Determinate Thing or else nothing but meer Bulk or Resisting and Divisible Magnitude to come out of Nothing and to go to Nothing Thus does Aristotle in a place before cited declare the Atheistick Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are Certain men who affirm that Nothing is Vnmade but All things Generated or Made Whose Sense is afterwards more distinctly thus proposed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all other things are Generated and Flow and none of them firmly Is they being perpetually Educed out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing but that there is only One thing which remaineth namely that out of which all the other are Made by the Transformation thereof Which One thing to wit Matter as the same Aristotle further adds they affirmed to be the Only Substance and from Eternity Vnmade but all other things whatsoever being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passions Affections and Dispositions thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be Generated and Corrupted Infinitely that is to be Produced out of Nothing or Non-Existence and Reduced again to Nothing without end And doubtless this is the True meaning of that Passage in Plato's Tenth De Legibus not understood by the Latine Interpreters where being to represent the Atheistick Hypothesis of the System of the Vniverse he discovereth their Grand Arcanum and that which they accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisest and most mysterious of all Doctrines after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that All things are Made and Have been Made and will be Made some by Nature and some by Art and some by Fortune or Chance For unquestionably here Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that All things are Generated or Made c. is the very same with Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain men affirm that there is Nothing Vnmade but that All things are Made or Generated And perhaps this of Aristotles was taken out of that of Plato's Which yet nevertheless is so to be understood as it is afterwards explained by Aristotle All things whatsoever the bare Substance of Matter only excepted Wherefore it is certain that either there is no Real Entity in the Whole World besides the Bare Substance of Matter that is besides Divisible and Separable Extension or Resisting Magnitude and Consequently that Life and Cogitation Sense and Consciousness Reason and Vnderstanding all our own Minds and Personalities are no Real Entities or else that there are according to the Atheistick Hypothesis Real Entities Produced out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again Whereas Theiâ—tâ— suppose all the Greatest Perfections in the Universe as Life and Vnderstanding to have been Eternal and Vnmade in a Perfect Being the Deity and neither brought out of Nothing or Non Existence nor Reducâ—ble to Nothing only Imperfect Beings to have been Made out of Noâ—hing or Produced out of Non Existence by this one Perfect Being or Deity the Atheists on the contrary supposing the Lowest and most Imperfâ—ct of all Beings Matter Bulk or Divisible and Resisting Extension to be the Only Self-Existent and Vnmade Thing conclude all the Greatest Perfections in the Universe Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding to be Made out of Nothing or Non-Existence as also to be reduced to Nothing again Indeed the Hylozoick Atheists being Sensible somewhat of this Inconvenience of making all Life and Vnderstanding Out of Nothing and that there must of Necessity be some Fundamental Life and Perception which is not Accidental but Substantial and which was never Generated and cannot be Corrupted hâ—ve therefore attributed a kind of Life and Perception to all Matter as such Notwiâ—hstanding which even these also for as much as they deny to Mâ—tter Animal Sense and Consciousness suppose all Animal Life or Sense and Conscious Vnderstanding to be Generated and Corrupted â—roduced out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again Neither can Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding be reckonâ—d amongst the Mâ—des of Mâ—tter that is of Mâ—gnitude or Divisible and Antâ—typous Extension since they may be Conceived without the same whereas Modes cannot be conceived without their Substance Standing Sitting and Walking cannot be Conceived without a Body and that fiâ—ly Organizâ—d too and therefore are they Nothing but different Modes of such a Body When that Humane Body which before did Stand doth afterwards Sit or Walk no man can think that there is the Miraâ—ulous Production of any New Real Entity out of Nothing nor when the same Matter which was Square or Cubical is made Spherical or Cylindrical Bâ—t when there is Life and Vnderstâ—nding which was not before then is there unquestionably a new Real Entity Produced But the Dâ—mocritick and Epicurean Atheists themselves according to the Tenor of the Atomick Physiology acknowledge no other Modes of Matter or Body but only more or less Magnitude of Parts Figure Site Motion or Rest. And upon this very account do they explode Qualities considered as Entities really distinct from these Modes because in the Generation and Alteration of them there would be Real Entities mâ—de Out of Nothing or without a Cause whereupon they Resolve these Qualities into Mechanism and Fancy But Life Cogitation and Vnderstanding are things which have more Real Entity in them and can no way be Salved by Mechanism and Phancy wherefore undoubtedly they are no Modes of Matter or Body but Attributes of another kind of Substance Incorporeal All Cogitative Beings especially Humane Souls and Personalities are unquestionably Substantial Things and yet do the Atheists bring these and consequently Themselves out of Nothing or Non-Existence and Reduce them to Nothing again The Conclusion is that these very Atheists who contend against Theists that Nothing can be Made out of Nothing do themselves bring All things out of Nothing or Non Existence and perpetually Reduce them to Nothing again according to whose Principles as once there was no Life nor Vnderstanding at all in the Universe so may there be none again They who deny a God because there can be no Creative Power belonging to Any Thing do themselves notwithstanding attribute to Matter though a meer Passive Sluggish and Vnactive thing a Creative Power of Things Substantial as Humane Souls and Persona-ities out of Nothing And thus is that Formidable Argument of the Atheists that there can be no God because Nothing can be made out of Nothing not only proved to be False but also Retorted upon these Atheists themselves they bringing all things besides Sensless and Vnqualified Matter out of Nothing We have now declared First in what sense this Proposition is unquestionably True that Nothing can be Made out of Nothing or Come from Nothing viz. Causally That Nothing which before was Not could afterward be Made without a Cause and a Sufficient Cause Or more Particularly these Three ways First that Nothing which before was Not could afterward be brought into Being by It self or without an Efficient Cause Secondly that Nothing which once was Not could be Made or Produced
it self nor yet from any thing else Lastly there is Nothing which includes Necâ—ssity of Existence in its very Nature and Essence but only an Absolutely Perfect Being The Result of all which is that God or a Perfect Being doth certainly Exist and that there is Nothing else which Existed Of it self from Eternity Necessarily and Independâ—ntly but all other things whatsoever derived their Being from him or were Caused by him Matter or Body it self not excepted That which hath Staggered some Theists here and made them so inclinable and prone to believe that Matter also Existed from Eternity Vnmade is partly as hath been already intimated an Idiotical Conceit that because Nothing can be Artificially made by men otherwise than out of Pre-Existing Matter as Houses and Garments Puddings and Pyes therefore there could be no other making of any thing by any Power whatsoever though even men themselves can produce Something out of no Pre-Existent Matter as Cogitations and Local Motion And the same partly proceedeth also from certain False Opinions entertained concerning Matter For first some Theists have supposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Incorporeal First Matter out of which Incorporeal Matter Together with an Incorporeal Form Joyned to it they conceived the Essence of Body to have been Compounded and Made up And no wonder if these same Fanciful Philosophers have further added also hereunto that from this Incorporeal Matter by an Incorporeal Form were begotten likewise Incorporeal Qualities of Body Now it is not Conceivable what else should be meant by this Incorporeal Hyle or Matter but only a Metaphysical Notion of the Potentiality or Possibility of things respectively to the Deity which because it is indeed Eternal and as much Vnmade as God himself is it being Nothing but the Divine Power considered Passively or the Reverse of it therefore in all probability were these Philosophers so prone to think the Physical Matter of this Corporeal Vniverse to have been Eternal and Vnmade Neither was this Incorporeal Hyle or Matter a Novel Opinion entertained only by Some Junior Platonists but older than Aristotle himself as appeareth plainly from these following words of his in his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some speak of the Principle as Matter whâ—ther they suppose this Matter to be Body or to be Incorporeal But this Incorporeal Matter in Physiology can be accounted no better than a kind of Metaphysical Non-Sense Again others seem to have been the more prone to think Matter or Body to have been Self Existent and Vnmade because they both conceived it to be Really the same thing with Space and also took it for granted that Space was Infinite and Eternal and Consequently Necessarily Existent In answer whereunto we reply First That though Space and Distance should be granted to be Positively Infinite or to have no Bounds nor Limits at all as also to have been Eternal yet according to the Opinion of some would it not follow from thence that Matter was Infinite Eternal and Necessarily Existent not as if Space or Distance could Exist alone by it Self an Accident without a Substance it being plainly Impossible that Nothing should have any Accidents Modifications and Attributes or be Mensurable by Yards and Poles but because this Space is by them supposed not to be the Extension of Body but the Infinite and Vnbounded Extension of the Deity But in the next place If Space be concluded to be certainly Nothing else but the Extension and Distance of Body or Matter considered in General without respect to this or that particular Body and Abstractly in order to the Conception of Motion and the Mensuration of things For Space thus consider'd is Necessarily Immoveable as to the Parts thereof respectively as the Two Extreams of a Yard Distance can never possibly come nearer to One another then do we say that there appeareth no sufficient Ground for this Positive Infinity of Space we being certain of no more than this that be the World or any Figurate Body never so Great it is not Impossible but that it might be still Greater and Greater without end Which Indefinite Encreasablenass of Body and Space seems to be mistaken for a Positive Infinity thereof Whereas for this very Reason because it can never be so Great but that more Magnitude may still be added to it therefore can it never be Positively Infinite Nor is there perhaps so great an Absurdity in this That Another World could not Possibly be made a Mile Distant from this for as much as there being Nothing between them they must needs Touch or That this Finite World could have no Mountains and Valleys in the Exteriour Surface of it since it might be either Spherical Cubical or Cylindrical or of any other Regular Figure whatsoever the Maker pleased to form it in To conclude therefore by Space without the Finite World is to be Understood Nothing but the Possibility of Body Further and Further without End yet so as never to reach to Infinity and such a Space as this was there also before this World was Created a Possibility of so much Body to be Produced But Space and Actual Distance as really Mensurable by Yards and Poles though it may be Greater and Greater without end yet can it not be Positively Infinite so as that there could be no more added to it and therefore there can be no Argument from hence to prove the Necessary Existence of Matter Moreover the Existence of a Deity might be further Demonstrated from this Common Notion That Nothing can come from Nothing Causally because if there were no God as we could not have had any Idea of him or a Perfect Being since it must have Come from Nothing and have been the Idea or Conception of Nothing So neither could there have been indeed any Knowledge or Vnderstanding at all For Singular Bodies Existing without us cannot enter into us and put Understanding in us nor is there any thing but Local Motions propagated from them to our Organs of Sense The Mind must have its Immediate Intelligibles within it self for otherwise it could not possibly Understand any thing which Intelligibles and their Relations to one another or Verities are as was said before Eternal Moreover the Mind can frame Ideas or Conceptions not only of things Actually Existing but also of all Possibilities which plainly Implies and supposes the Actual Existence of a Being Infinitely Powerful that could Produce them So that the proper Object of Mind and Vnderstanding is a Perfect Being and all the Extent of its Power which Perfect Being Comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Power or the Possibities of all things is the First Original Mind of which all other Minds partake Wherefore were there no Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending it self and its own Power or all the Possibilities of things the Intelligible Objects of the Mind and Ideas must have come from Nothing However it hath been already proved from this Principle Nothing from Nothing that the Powers
not Made out of Fleshy Particles nor Bone out of Bony as Anaxagoras of old dreamed so may Life as they conceive be as well Made out of Lifeless Principles and Mind out of that which hath no Mind or Vnderstanding at all in it just as Syllables Pronounceable do result from Combinations of Letters some of which are Mutes and cannot by themselves be Pronounced at all others but Semi-Vocal And from hence do these Atheists Infer that there could be no Eternal Vnmade Life or Mind nor any that is Immortal or Incorruptible since upon the Dissolution of that Compages or Contexture of Matter from whence they Result they must needs Vanish into Nothing Wherefore according to them there hath probably sometime heretofore been no Life nor Vnderstanding at all in the Universe and there may Possibly be None again From whence the Conclusion is That Mind and Vnderstanding is no God or Principle in the Vniverse it being Essentially Factitious Native and Corruptible or as they express it in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mortal from Mortal things as also That the Souls of men cannot subsist Separately after Death and walk up and down in Airy Bodies no more than the Form of a House or Tree after the Dissolution thereof can subsist by it self Separately or appear in some other Body But all this Foolery of Atheists hath been already Confuted we having before shewed that Life and Vnderstanding are Active Powers Vigours and Perfections that could never possibly result from meer Passive Bulk or Dead and Sensless Matter however Modified and Compounded because Nothing can come Effectively from Nothing Neither is there any Consequence at all in this that because Flesh is not made out of Fleshy Principles nor Bone out of Bony Red out of Red things nor Green out of Green therefore Life and Vnderstanding may as well be Compounded out of things Dead and Sensless because these are no Syllables or Complexions as the others are nor can either the Qualities of Heat and Cold Moist and Dry or else Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions however Combined together as Letters Spell them out and make them up but they are Simple and Primitive things And accordingly it hath been proved that there must of necessity be some Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind For though there be no necessity that there should be any Eternal Vnmade Red or Green because Red and Green may be Made out of things not Red nor Green they and all other Corporeal Qualities so called being but several Contextures of Matter or Combinations of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions causing those several Phancies in us and though there be no necessity that there should be Eternal Motion because if there were once no Motion at all in Matter but all Bodies Rested yet might Motion have been Produced by a Self Moving or Self Active Principle And Lastly though there be no necessity that there should be Eternal Vnmade Matter or Body neither because had there been once no Body at all yet might it be Made or Produced by a Perfect Omnipotent Incorporeal Being nevertheless is there an Absolute Necessity that there should be Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind because were there once no Life nor Mind at all these could never have been produced out of Matter altogether Lifeless and Mindless And though the Form of a House cannot possibly Exist Separately from the Matter and Substance thereof it being a Meer Accidental Thing resulting from such a Compages of Stone Timber and Morter yet are Humane Souls and Minds no such Accidental Forms of Compounded Matter but Active Substantial things that may therefore subsist Separately from these Bodies and Enliven other Bodies of a different Contexture And however some that are no Atheists be over prone to conceive Life Sense Cogitation and Consciousness in Brutes to be Generated out of Dead Sensless and Vnthinking Matter they being disposed thereunto by certain Mistaken Principles and ill Methods of Philosophy nevertheless is this unquestionably in it self a Seed of Atheism because if any Life Cogitation and Consciousness may be Produced out of Dead and Sensless Matter then can no Philosophy hinder but that all might have been so But the Democritick Atheists will yet venture further to deny that there is any thing in Nature Self-Moving or Self-Active but that whatsoever Moveth and Acteth was before Moved by something else and Made to Act thereby and again that from some other thing and So backward Infinitely from whence it would follow that there is no First in the Order of Causes but an Endless Retro-Infinity But as this is all one as to Affirm that there is no such thing at all as Life in the World but that the Universe is a Compages of Dead and Stupid Matter so has this Infinity in the Order of Causes been already exploded for an Absolute Impossibility Nevertheless the Atheists will here advance yet an Higber Paradox That all Action whatsoever and therefore Cogitation Phancy and Consciousness it self is Really Nothing else but Local Motion and Consequently not only Brute-Animals but also Men themselves meer Machins Which is an equal either Sottishness or Impudence as to assert a Triangle to be a Square or a Sphere a Cube Number to be Figure or any thing else to be any thing and it is Really all one as to affirm that there is indeed no such thing in our selves as Cogitation there being no other Action in Nature but Local Motion and Mechanism Furthermore the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists Universally agree in this that not only Sensations but also all the Cogitations of the Mind are the meer Passions of the Thinker and the Actions of Bodies Existing without upon him though they do not all declare themselves after the same manner herein For First the Democriticks conclude that Sense is Caused by certain Grosser Corporeal Effluvia streaming from the Surfaces of Bodies Continually and entering through the Nerves But that all other Cogitations of the Mind and mens either sleeping or waking Imaginations proceed from another sort of Simulachra Idols and Images of a more Fine and Subtle Contexture coming into the Brain not through those open Tubes or Channels of the Nerves but immediately through all the smaller Pores of the Body so that as we never have sense of Any thing but by means of those Grosser Corporeal Images obtruding themselves upon the Nerves so have we not the least Cogitation at any Time in our Mind neither which was not Caused by those Finer Corporeal Images and Exuvious Membranes or Effluvia rushing upon the Brain or Contexture of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leucippus and Democritus determined that as well Noesis as Aisthesis Mental Cogitation as External Sensation was Caused by certain Corporeal Idols coming from Bodies without since neither Sensation nor Cogitation could otherwise possibly be produced And thus does Laertius also represent the sense of these Atheistick Philosophers that the Effluvia from Bodies called Idols were the only Causes
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
Modifications thereof Causing Different Phancies in us and this an Anomoeomery or Dissimilar Atomology the Atoms thereof being Devoid of Qualities Those Simple Elements or Letters in Nature's Alphabet out of which variously Combined these Philosophers Spelled out or Compounded all the Syllables and Words or Complexions of Corporeall Things Nothing but Figure Site Motion Rest and Magnitude of Parts Were Qualities and Forms Reall Entities distinct from these and not Prae-Existing as Anaxagoras dreamed they must then have come from Nothing in Naturall Generations which Impossible Page 742 743 Another Improvement of this Principle Nothing out of Nothing made by the Italick Philosophers That the Souls of Animals especially Humane since they could not Possibly result from the meer Modifications of Matter Figure Site Motion c. were not Produced in Generations nor Annihilated in Deaths and Corruptions but being Substantiall things did Prae and Post Exist This set down as the Controversy betwixt Atheists and Theists in Lucretius Whether Souls were Generated or Insinuated into Bodies Generations and Corruptions of Animals to these Pythagoreans but Anagrammatical Transpositions That those Philosophers who asserted the Prae-Existence and Ingenerability of Souls did not therefore Suppose them to have been Self-Existent and Uncreated but derived them all from the Deity Thus Proclus though maintaining the Eternity of Souls with the World The Ingenerability of Souls in Plato's Timaeus no more then this that they were not Generated out of Matter and for this Cause also were they called Principles in the same Sense as Matter was so accounted Souls therefore to Plato Created by God though not In the Generation of Animals but Before Page 743 745 Saint Austine himself Sometime Staggering and Sceptical in the Point of Prae-Existence That we have a Philosophick Certainty of no more then this That Souls were Created by God out of Nothing Prae-Existing some time or other either In Generations or Before them That unless Brutes be meer Machines the Reason the same also concerning Brutish Souls That these not Generated out of Matter but Created sometime or other by the Deity as well as the Matter of their Bodies was Page 745 That all these Three Forementioned Particulars wherein it is True that Nothing can Possibly come from Nothing are reducible to this One Generall Proposition That Nothing can be Caused by Nothing which will no way clash with the Divine Omnipotence or Creative Power as shall be shewed afterwards but Confirm the same But those same words Nothing out of Nothing may carry another Sense when that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of Nothing is not taken Causally but onely to signify the Terminus A Quo the Term From which or an Antecedent Non-Existence and then the meaning thereof will be That Nothing which before was Not could afterwards by any Power whatsoever be brought into Being And this the Sense of the Democritick and Epicurean Objectors viz. That no Reall Entity can be Made or Brought out of Non-Existence into Being and therefore the Creative Power of Theists an Impossibility ibid. Our Second Undertaking in way of Answer hereunto To shew That Nothing out of Nothing in this Sense is False as also That were it True yet it would make no more against Theism then it doth against Atheism and therefore ought not to be used by Atheists as an Argument against a God If this Vniversally True That Nothing at all which once was Not could ever be bâ—ought into Being then could there be no Making nor Causing at all no Motion nor Action Mutation or Generation But our selves have a Power of Producing New Cogitation in our Minds and New Motion in our Bodies Wherefore Atheists forced to restrain this Proposition to Substantialls onely And here some Deceived with the Equivocation in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of Nothing which may be taken either Causally or else to signify the Term From Which that is From an Antecedent Non-Existence they confounding both these together whereof the First onely True the Latter False Again Others Staggered with the Plausibility of this Proposition Partly because no Artificiall thing as a House or Garment can be made by Men but out of Prae-Existing Matter and Partly because Ancient Physiologers maintained the same also concerning Naturall Generations That no New Reall Entity or Substance could be therein Produced and Lastly because it is certain that no Imperfect Created Being can Create any New Substance They being therefore apt to measure all Power whatsoever by these Scantlings But as easy for a Perfect Being to Create a World Matter and all Out of Nothing in this Sense that is out of an Antecedent Non-Existence as for us to Create a Thought or to Move a Finger or for the Sun to send out Rays For an Imperfect Substance which once was Not to be brought into Being by God this not Impossible in any of the Forementioned Senses He having not onely Infinitely Greater Perfection but also Sufficient Productive or Emanative Power True That Infinite Power cannot doe things in their own Nature Impossible but Nothing thus Impossible but what Contradictious and though a Contradiction for any thing at the same time to Be and Not Be yet none at all for an Imperfect Being which is in its Nature Contingent to Existence after it had Not been to Be. Wherefore since the making of a Substance to Be which was not Before is no way Contradictious nor consequently in its own Nature Impossible it must needs be an Object of Perfect Power Page 746 748 Furthermore If no Reall Entity or Substance could possibly be brought out of Non-Existence into Being then must the Reason hereof be Because no Substance can Derive its Whole Being from another Substance But from hence it would follow That whatsoever is Substantiall did not onely Exist from Eternity but also Of It Self Independently upon any thing else Whereas First The Prae-Eternity of Temporary Beings not agreeable to Reason and then To suppose Imperfect Substances to have Existed Of Themselves and Necessarily is to suppose Something to come from Nothing in the Impossible Sense they having no Necessary Self-Existence in their Nature As they who affirm all Substance to be Body and no Body to be able to Move it Self though supposing Motion to have been from Eternity yet make this Motion to Come from Nothing or be Caused by Nothing What in its Nature Contingently Possible to Be or Not Be could not Exist Of It Self but must Derive its Being from Something else which Necessarily Existeth Plato's Distinction therefore betwixt Two kinds of Substances must needs be admitted That which always Is and was never Made and That which is Made or had a Beginning Page 748 749 Lastly If this True that No Substance Makeable or Producible it would not onely follow from thence as the Epicurean Atheist supposes that Matter but also that all Souls at least Humane did Exist Of Themselves from Eternity Independently upon any thing else it being Impossible that Mind or Soul should
Before in Sense The Humane Soul a Principle of Actions and therefore also of Cogitations This a Bubbling Fountain of Thoughts But that there is such a Perfect Mind as at once Comprehends all Truth and was Before Sensibles Page 845 846 This a Prodigious Paradox and Falsity of Atheists That Cogitation Local Motion and Thinking Beings Machines Here a Correction of what we wrote before P. 761 and a Change of our Opinion upon further Consideration That not onely a Modern Writer but also the Ancient Atheistick Atomists did conclude Cogitation to be Really nothing else but Local Motion Nevertheless these men troubled with the Phancy of Cogitation which because they cannot make Local Motion they would persuade us to be no Reality or Nothing Atheists aware That if there be any Action besides Locall Motion there must then be some other Substance acknowledged besides Body They who make Cogitation Local Motion and Men Machines no more to be disputed with then Sensless Machines Page 846 847 To Affirm That no Understanding Being can be Happy nor a God because Dependent upon Something without it all one as to Affirm That Sensless Matter is the Most Perfect of all things and That Knowledge as such speaking Imperfection is but a Whiffling and Phantastick thing But of this more afterwards Thus the Tenth Atheistick Argument Confuted Page 847 Another Atheistick Argument From the Nature of Knowledge and Understanding That the World could not be made by an Underding Being Because there was no Knowledge before Things which are the Objects of it and the onely Things are Sensibles which Knowledge a Passion from Therefore all Mind as such a Creature and none a Creatour ibid. This already fully Answered Page 729 and so forwards Where Proved That Singular Bodies are not the Onely Things and Objects of the Mind but that it containeth its Intelligibles within it Self And That Knowledge is Archetypall to the World and the Maker of All. So the Existence of a God Demonstrable from the Nature of Knowledge and Understanding Page 847 848 That the Atheists can no more Salve the Phaenomenon of Cogitation then that of Locall Motion Evident from their Many Hallucinations concerning it whereof a Catalogue subjoyned First That all Life and Understanding a meer Accidentall thing Generable and Corruptible and no Life nor Mind Substantiall or Essentiall This before Confuted Page 848 Again That Life and Mind no Simple and Primitive Natures but Compounded Syllables of things and therefore none Immortall nor Incorruptible Answer That Life and Understanding are Active Powers and could never result from meer Passive Bulk nor can any Composition of Dead and Sensless Matter possibly beget Life and Understanding Though no Necessity That there should be any Eternal Unmade Red or Green because these might be Made out of things not Red nor Green nor That there should be Eternal Motion because Motion might be produced from a Self-Active Principle nor That there should be any Eternall Unmade Matter because were there none it might notwithstanding be Created by a Perfect Incorporeal Being yet an Absolute Necessity of Eternal Unmade Life and Mind because had there been once none there could never have been any Page 848 849 Another Atheistick Hallucination That there is Nothing of Self-Activity in Cogitation nor any thing could Act otherwise then as it is Made to Act by Something else This to bring all Action from Nothing or to suppose it without a Cause Page 849 850 Another Madness of theirs already mentioned That Cogitation Locall Motion and Thinking Beings Machines This Equall Sottishness or Impudence as to affirm Number to be Figure c. Page 850 Another Paradox of the Epicurean and Democritick Atheists That Mentall Cogitation as well as Sensation the meer Passions of the Thinker and the Actions of Bodies Existing without him Some of them supposing Thoughts to be Caused by certain Finer Images then Sensations Others than they are the Remainders of the Motions of Sense formerly made Answer That Sensation it self is not a meer Corporeal Passion but the Perception of a Passion in a way of Phancy much less Mental Cogitations such and least of all Volitions Page 850 851 But Consentaneously hereunto these Atheists Determine all Knowledge and Understanding to be Really the same thing with Sense From whence follow Two Absurdities First That there can be no such thing as Errour because all Passion is True Passion and all Sense True Sense that is True Seeming and Appearance This Absurdity owned by Protagoras Epicurus Endeavoured to avoid this but in vain and contradictiously to his own Principles Page 851 852 A Second Absurdity consequent thereupon That there is no Absolute Truth nor Falsehood but all Knowledge Private and Relative and nothing but Opinion This freely owned likewise by Protagoras Sometimes also by Democritus Who therefore but a Blunderer neither in the Atomick Philosophy which plainly Supposes a Higher Faculty of Reason and Understanding that judges of Sense and discovers the Phantastry thereof it reaching to Absolute Truth Page 852 853 Another Atheistick Errour That Singular Bodies are the onely Objects of Mentall Conception as well as of Sensation This imputed by Aristotle to Democritus and Protagoras But sufficiently before Confuted Page 853 854 The better to maintain this Paradox Added by a Modern Atheistick Writer as his own Invention That Universals are Nothing else but Names by which Many Singular Bodies are called Axiomes or Propositions the Addition and Substraction of Names and Syllogistick Reasoning the reckoning the Consequences of them and that therefore besides the Passions of Sense we know Nothing at all of any thing but onely the Names by which it is Called Whence it would follow That Geometricall Truths not the same in Greek and in Latine c. Page 854 That the Atheists according to these premised Principles endeavour to Depreciate Knowledge and Understanding as that which speaks no Higher Perfection then is in Sensless Matter Thus the Atheists in Plato make it but a Ludicrous Umbratile and Evanid thing the meer Image of Bodies the onely Realities Their Design in this to take away the Scale or Ladder of Entities Page 855 856 All the Grounds of this again briefly Confuted and Particularly that Opinion so much favouring Atheism That there is Nothing in the Understanding which was not Before in Sense out of Boëtius Just and Unjust Greater Realities in Nature then Hard and Soft c. Vnquestionably a Scale or Ladder of Entities and therefore Certain that the Order of Things must be in way of Descent from Higher Perfection to Lower and not of Ascent from Lower to Higher The Steps of this Ladder not Infinite the Foot thereof Inanimate Matter the Head a Perfect Omnipotent Being Comprehending in It self all Possibilities of Things Mind by Nature Lord over all and Sovereign King of Heaven and Earth Page 856 859 The Reason why we so much Insist upon this Because Atheists Pretend not onely to Salve the Phaenomenon of Cogitation without a God
of Sense and Vnderstanding or the Entities of Soul and Mind could never have Resulted from any Modifications of Sensless Matter whatsoever Wherefore since it is Mathematically certain that our Humane Souls and Persons could not Possibly have been Generated out of Matter one of these Two things will undeniably follow That Either they must all have Existed Of Themselves from Eternity Vnmade or Else have been Created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of an Antecedent Non-Existence by a Perfect Vnderstanding Being Vnmade or atleast have Derived their whole Substance from it So that it is altogether as certain that there is a God as that our Humane Souls and Persons did not all Exist from Eternity Of Themselves And that there must be some Eternal Vnmade Mind hath been already Demonstrated also from the same Principle Nothing out of Nothing Thus have We abundantly Confuted the Second Atheistick Argumentation that there can be no Omnipotence nor Divine Creation because Nothing can be Made out of Nothing we having plainly shewed that this very Principle in the True Sense thereof affordeth a Demonstration for the Contrary THe Six following Atheistick Argumentations driving at these Two things First the Disproving of an Incorporeal and then of a Corporeal Deity From both which the Atheists conceive it must follow of necessity that there can be none at all we shall take them all together and in order to the Confutation of them perform these Three Things First we shall Answer the Atheistick Argumentations against an Incorporeal Deity contained in the Third and Fourth Heads Secondly we shall shew that from the very Principles of the Atheistick Corporealism as represented in the Fifth and Sixth Heads Incorporeal Substance is Demonstrable And Lastly That there being undeniably Incorporeal Substance the Two following Atheistick Argumentations also against a Corporeal Deity in the Seventh and Eighth Sections prove altogether Insignificant We begin with the First of these To shew the Invalidity of the Atheistick Argumentations against an Incorporeal Deity It hath been already observed That though all Corporealists be not therefore of necessity Atheists yet Atheists universally have been Corporealists this being always their First and Grand Postulatum That there is no other Substance besides Body Thus Plato long ago declared Concerning them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They contend strongly that that only really Is which is Tangible or Can Resist their Touch concluding Body and Substance to be one and the self-same thing And if any one should affirm that there is any thing Incorporeal they will presently cry him down and not hear a word more from him For there can be no doubt but that the Persons here intended by Plato were those very Atheists which himself spake of afterward in the same Dialogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether shall we assent to that Opinion nâ—w adays entertained by so many That Nature Generateth all things from a certain Fortuitous Cause without the direction of any Mind or Vnderstanding or rather that it produceth them according to Reason and Knowledge proceeding from God Indeed the Philosopher there tells us that some of these Atheistick Persons began then to be somewhat ashamed of making Prudence and Justice and other Moral Vertues Corporeal Things or Bodys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though they affirm concerning the Soul it self that this seems to them to be Corporeal yet concerning Prudence and those other Vertues mentioned some have now scarcely the Confidence to maintain these to be either Bodies or Nothing But this saith he was indeed no less than the quite Giving up of the Cause of Atheism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because if it be but once granted that there is never so little Incorporeal this will be sufficient to overthrow the Atheistiek Foundation Wherefore he concludes that such as these were but Mongrel and Imperfect Atheists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they who are thorough-paced and Genuine Atheists indeed will bogle at neither of those forementioned things but contend that whatsoever they cannot grasp with their hands is altogether Nothing That is that there is no other Substance nor Entity in the World but only Body that which is Tangible or Resists the Touch. Aristotle also representeth the Atheistick Hypothesis after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They affirm that Matter or Body is all the Substance that is and that all other things are but the Passions and Affections thereof And again in his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These men maintain All to be One and that there is but one Only Nature as the Matter of all things and this Corporeal or endued with Magnitude And now we see plainly that the ancient Atheists were of the very same mind with these in our Days that Body or that which is Tangible and Divisible is the Only Substantial Thing from whence it follows that an Incorporeal Substance would be the same with an Incorporeal Body i. e. an Impossibility and that there can be no Incorporeal Deity But in the Management of this Cause there hath been some Disagreement amongst the Atheists themselves For First the Democriticks and Epicureans though consenting with all the other Atheists in this That whatsoever was Vnextended and devoid of Magnitude was therefore Nothing so that there could neither be any Substance nor Accident or Mode of any Substance Vnextended did notwithstanding distinguish concerning a Double Nature First That which is so Extended as to be Impenetrable and Tangible or Resist the Touch which is Body And Secondly That which is Extended also but Penetrably and Intangibly which is Space or Vacuum a Nature according to them really distinct from Body and the only Incorporeal Thing that is Now since this Space which is the only Incorporeal can neither Do nor Suffer any thing but only give Place or Room to Bodies to Subsist in or Pass thorough therefore can there not be any Active Vnderstanding Incorporeal Deity This is the Argumentation of the Democritick Atheists To which we Reply That if Space be indeed a Nature distinct from Body and a Thing Really Incorporeal as they pretend then will it undeniably follow from this very Principle of theirs that there must be Incorporeal Substance and this Space being supposed by them also to be Infinite an Infinite Incorporeal Deity Because if Space be not the Extension of Body nor an Affection thereof then must it of necessity be either an Accident Existing alone by it self without a Substance which is Impossible or else the Extension or Affection of some other Incorporeal Substance that is Infinite But here will Gassendus step in to help out his good Friends the Democriticks and Epicureans at a dead Lift and undertake to maintain that though Space be indeed an Incorporeal Thing yet it would neither follow of necessity from thence that it is an Incorporeal Substance or Affection thereof nor yet that it is an Accident Existing alone by it self without a Substance because this Space is really neither Accident nor