parts of their Priests as if they meant to adore the Genitals of their Ghostly Fathers Now whether these Reports be true or false I will not take upon me absolutely to determine But their Nocturnal Ceremonies and conceal'd Devotions seem to be sufficient Arguments to perswade the truth of them and they who tell us that they worship a Man who was crucified for his Villanies and that the Wood of a Cross constitutes a great part of their Devotion do worthily attribute to them Altars suitable to their Crimes by making them to adore what they deserve Moreover the Ceremony they observe upon admitting any to their Religion is no less horrible than notorious A Child cover'd all over with Paste to conceal the Murther he is designed for is set before the new Proselyte who by their command strikes his knife many times into it until the blood run down apace from all parts which by them is as greedily suckt up and this common Crime is made the Pledge and Surety for their Silence and Secrecy These are their Sacrifices which are worse than all Sacriledges As to their Feasts they are but too well known concerning which our Cirthensian Orator tells us in his Speech that on a certain day solemnly appointed for that purpose they assemble themselves all together both Men Women Children Brothers Sisters and in a word people of all Ages Conditions and Sexes and after they have eaten and drunk to excess and that the heat of the Wine and Meats begins to kindle their blood and provoke their lust they cast a morsel to a Dog who is ty'd to a Candlestick so far out of his reach that in striving to leap at it he overthrows the Candlestick and puts out the Light So that having thus rid themselves of the only Witness of their infamous actions and taking boldness from shameless Darkness they confusedly mix themselves together as it happens and therefore though it may chance so that they are not all Incestuous in deed yet they are all of 'em so in will and design since the Sin acted by any one of them is not only consented to but wish'd by the whole Company Several other things of this nature there are which I purposely omit I having already produc'd but too many instances of their Errors And indeed were there nothing else against them but that of their endeavouring to conceal so much their Mysteries in obscurity it would be an evident proof of the truth of all we say or at least of the greatest part thereof For why do they so industriously strive to hide that which they worship Men are not afraid to publish their honest actions but such as are unjust they seek to cover with silence and privacy Why have they neither Altars nor Temples nor any Images at least which are known Why don't they speak but in private holes and corners whither they repair by stealth if this their conceal'd Religion be not infamous and criminal But pray from whence who and where is this one only solitary and forsaken God of theirs whom not one free Nation no Kingdoms do worship no not the Romans themselves who have worshipp'd all the Gods of the whole Universe Among all the people in the World there is but that one miserable Nation of the Jews who have served one God alone and yet they did it too in a publick manner with Temples Altars Rites and Sacrifices and notwithstanding the power of this God is so inconsiderable that both himself and his People are now Captives to the Romans But what strange and wonderful things don't they invent They assert That to this God whom they neither see nor can demonstrate men's Lives and Actions are particularly known That he hears their words searcheth their most secret thoughts and is present every where thereby making him troublesome restless and curious even to impudence for he hath a hand in or at least a knowledge of every thing He is present every where and leaves nothing unpried into But how can this be How can he possibly have an eye to every thing in particular who has business in all places at once Or how can he be sufficient for all whilst he applies himself to every particular Nor do they content themselves with all this but they threaten all the World and the Stars themselves with an universal Conflagration as if any thing could alter that Eternal Order which Nature her self has establish'd the Elements break their Alliance or the Divine Harmony of the Spheres be dissolv'd for to destroy this wonderful Fabrick which contains and surrounds us To these they add several other Old Wives Fables They tell us That after Death their ashes and dust shall rise again and by I don't know what strange kind of perswasion they stedfastly believe those Errors they have invented and fancy themselves already risen and born again Which is a double madness and folly to believe that the Heavens and Stars which we leave as we found them shall perish and that Men whom we see hourly dye and have an End as they have had a Beginning shall for ever abide And as if Dead Bodies being kept from the flames should not by length and process of time be turn'd into dust and ashes they will not burn their Dead and blame us because we burn ours Do you think that it matters any thing whether they be consum'd in the Earth or in the Sea or devour'd by Fire or wild Beasts For if Dead Bodies have any sense any manner of Burial must needs be a torment to them but if they have none that way whereby they are soonest consum'd is the best Nevertheless being prepossest with this ridiculous opinion they promise themselves as the Godly Party an everlasting happiness after this Life and threaten others as being the Rebel Rout with torments that shall have no end I have many things to say here to prove them worse than others but I will not take pains to make it out since I think it sufficiently done already But were it granted that they are as righteous as others is it not as a certain truth believ'd by most That Destiny is the cause both of the good and evil that we see in the World Which is your judgment also For as some impute all humane Actions to Fate and Fortune so do you to God Which is in effect to say that you have not voluntarily embraced this Sect but God has Elected you thereunto So that thereby you make your God an unjust Judge who does not punish the sinful but the unfortunate Pray tell me shall you rise again without or with a Body and shall that Body be the same you have now or another If you say without a Body For my part I don't believe there is either Life Soul or Sense without a Body And how with a Body It cannot be your own for that is already wasted Shall it be another Then it will be a new body and not the old one repair'd
the Jews that they worshipped One Only GOD with Temples Altars and a vast Number of Ceremonies but in this you mistake through ignorance if either not remembring or not knowing the History of former times you take notice only of some latter Events For whilst they ador'd our GOD holily religiously and innocently I say Our GOD for the same is the GOD of the whole World whilst they obey'd his Just Commands and wholesome Laws they became of a small Number a mighty Nation of poor they were made rich and from a state of Slavery arriv'd to a most puissant Monarchy A few of them and unarm'd put to flight great Armies and overthrew them the Elements at God's command fighting for them Look into their own Writings or if it like you better into those of the Romans read what Josephus and Antonius Julianus not to mention those Historians that were before them write of that People and you 'l find that their Sins drew down Calamities upon them and whatever Evils befell them were long before prophesied would overtake 'em in case they should still continue in their Rebellion So that indeed they forsook GOD before they were forsaken of Him and were not as you impiously say taken Captives with their GOD but given up by Him as deserters of his Discipline and Law AS to what concerns the general Conflagration of the Universe it is a vulgar Error to think it a thing difficult or impossible that the World should all on the sudden be set on fire and consum'd by that means There is no man doubts but that which has a Beginning must have an End and that that which is made must finally perish That the Heavens themselves and all things therein contain'd as they had a Beginning must likewise have an End and that ceasing to be nourish'd by the exhalations of fresh and salt-waters they will be inflam'd for so the Stoicks stedfastly believe that all the moisture of Nature being spent the whole World will presently take fire And the Epicureans are likewise of the same Opinion as touching the ruin of the Universe and the Conflagration of the Elements As for Plato he saith That some parts of the World are at times drown'd with floods and inundations others consum'd by fire and though he said that it was made so at the first as that it might continue for ever yet he adds that GOD Who is the Maker of it may destroy it when He pleases Which is not at all to be wonder'd at that a Workman can and may take to pieces his own Work So that herein you see the Philosophers do fully agree with us not that we do follow their steps but they have taken some shadow of this Truth out of the predictions of our Prophets and have fourbish'd and dress'd it up after their own way Thus also the most renown'd amongst them first Pythagoras and especially Plato have deliver'd down to us though very much corrupted and maimed the Doctrine of another Life after this for they assert That the Souls of Men after the dissolution of their bodies do perpetually remain and are continually passing into new Bodies and perverting the Truth still more they add That the Souls of Men do return into the bodies of Beasts and Birds an Opinion which does more beseem a Mountebank or Juggler than a grave Philosopher But it is enough for us that your Wisemen themselves do in some sort agree with us And who is so much a fool as to deny that He who at first made Man can as easily restore and renew him For as he is nothing after Death so neither was he any thing before Life And therefore why should we think it strange that he who at the beginning was made of nothing should of nothing as to us be repair'd and recover'd to a new Life especially since it is much more difficult to create a thing which never was than to restore that to its former Being which has already been Or do you believe that every thing which disappears to our dull sight does perish in the sight of GOD Whether the Body moulder into dust or be dissolv'd into water or be reduc'd to ashes or be attenuated into Steam and Air it is only withdrawn out of our sight but to GOD it is preserv'd in the several Elements into which it is chang'd Neither do we fear as you fancy that any manner of prejudice comes to our Bodies by Burial only we observe the Custom of interring Dead Bodies as the best Do but look about you and you 'l see how to our comfort whole Nature is a lively Pourtraicture and Representation of our Resurrection The Sun rises and sets and so do the Stars Flowers dye and spring up again Trees renew their green Vesture every year and Seeds unless they dye and putrifie in the Earth do not return to a new life And why may not our Bodies like Trees in Winter hide and preserve their life and vigour under a seeming withering and deadness Indeed you cannot expect to see this in the depth of Winter but must stay till that great Spring comes which shall make our Bodies to flourish and live again Nor am I ignorant that there are very many who being sensible of their own demerits do rather wish than believe that they shall not be after Death chusing of the two rather utterly to be extinguish'd than to be restor'd to life again only to be punish'd which Errour encreases daily by reason of the extreme licentiousness of the Age and the long forbearance of GOD whose Judgments the slower they are by so much the more justly and heavily are they laid on at last And yet Men are told both by the Writings of Wisemen and Poets that there is a Stygian Lake and an ever-burning River prepar'd for the Eternal punishment of the Wicked according to the Oracles of true Prophets as well as the discoveries of the Daemons themselves Hence it is the Poets make Jupiter to swear by the burning Rivers and dark Deep for as he foresees the torments design'd both for himself and his worshippers so does he fear and tremble at them as being without measure and without end For in wonderful wise this Fire does both consume our Bodies and repair them devour and nourish them at once like the flashes of Lightning which blast and kill the body without consuming it or those Vulcano's of Aetna and Vesuvius and others that burn continually without wasting or going out Thus this infernal penal Fire is strangely fed without diminution of its Fewel and preys for ever upon the Bodies of the Damn'd without wasting them Now that GOD doth deservedly punish them that know him not impious and wicked men none but prophane Wretches can deny since it is scarce a less heinous Crime not to know the Father and Lord of all things than to provoke and affront Him And although the Ignorance of GOD is enough to make Men lyable to punishment as the true
Fables Xenophon the Disciple of Socrates holds That the shape of the true GOD cannot be seen and consequently is not to be searcht after Aristo of the Isle of Chios says That he is altogether incomprehensible Both which Philosophers had doubtless a right sense of the Divine Majesty in that they despair'd of ever fully understanding Him As for Plato he does more openly and clearly speak of GOD and does less mistake both as to the Name and the Thing it self and his Discourses might have been accounted altogether Heavenly but that they are here and there blemish'd and tainted with his Politicks In his Timaeus he calls GOD by his Own Name and declares Him to be the Father of this Universe the Creator of the Soul and the Architect of Heaven and Earth who by reason of his superlative and incomprehensible Power and Majesty is hard to be found and when found cannot possibly be express'd and declar'd Which are in a manner the very same things which we say for we also know GOD and own Him to be the Parent of the World but unless we be demanded we do not speak publickly of Him THUS I have rehears'd the Opinions of almost all the Philosophers whose glory it is that they have all pointed at One and the same GOD though under various Names insomuch as it would make a Man think either that our Christians now are Philosophers or that the ancient Philosophers were Christians Now if it be granted that Providence rules the World and is govern'd by the Will and Counsel of the One only GOD then ought not we to suffer our selves to be impos'd upon with the silly Fables of Antiquity which are both repugnant to Reason and condemn'd by the Philosophers of ancient Times Our Fathers indeed were so credulous as to believe things altogether monstrous and inconsistant as a Scylla with several Bodies a Chimaera with many shapes an Hydra that receiv'd a new life from his happy Wounds and Centaures which were Horse and Man united and growing together In short they very readily believ'd whatever any one was pleas'd to feign or fancy as Men's being metamorphos'd into Birds Beasts into Men and again Men into Flowers and Trees with so many other fabulous things which had they ever been would happen still but because they cannot be are hereby sufficiently demonstrated never to have been Their Opinions concerning the Gods were likewise full of inconsiderate credulity and ignorant simplicity for by giving Religious Worship to their Kings and desiring by Pictures and Statues to preseve their memory after their Death they at last made a Religious Ceremony of that which at first was only intended to comfort themselves for the loss of them For before the World was open'd by Commerce and Trade and that Nations had mixt their Customs and Ceremonies together every one of them ador'd their first Founder or Famous Leader or some Queen Chast and valiant above her Sex or an Inventor of some useful and necessary Art or Calling as considering that the Memory of such Renowned Persons well-deserved to be preserv'd by them since by this means they at once gave a reward to the Virtue of the Deceased and an example to Posterity Read the Writings of Wise-men and particularly of the Stoicks and you will acknowledge with me that Men have been worship'd as Gods either for their good Deeds or their Dignity Euhemerus gives us an exact account of their Birth Countries and Names as also the several Places where they were buryed particularly he instanceth in Jupiter call'd Dictaeus from the Mountain Dictae in Candia where he was nurs'd and Apollo nam'd Delphicus from the City Delphos in Phocis a Province of Greece and Isis who had the Sirname of Pharia from the Island Pharos in Egypt and Ceres who was styl'd Eleusina from the City Eleusis in Achaia where she was more particularly worship'd Prodicus tells us that they were reckon'd among the Gods who by rambling through the World were the first Inventors of Husbandry and by this means became useful to Mankind And Perseus discourseth much at the same rate adding that it was from this ground that the Names of the Inventors were bestow'd upon the things invented by them as appears by that Comical Expression Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus is a cold Which in other terms is no more than this That without good Meat and Drink Lust languisheth Alexander the Great in a famous Treatise which he writes to his Mother tells her That the dread of his Power had so far wrought upon a Priest as to make him discover to him this great Secret and Mystery that the Gods were but Men. In which Discourse he makes Vulcan the first of all the Gods and after him the Race of Jupiter Consider the Story of Isis and the scatter'd members and empty Tomb of thy Serapis or Osiris and lastly their Religious Rites and Mysteries and you 'l find them made up of the dismal Events Deaths Funerals Mourning and Wailings of these caitive Gods Isis in company of the Dog's-Head-Idol and her bald Priests mourns for laments and seeks her lost Son and her miserable Worshippers beat their breasts to express and imitate the sorrow of this unhappy Mother and soon after you see Isis by and by overjoy'd for having found her Little-One her Priests are merry and the Dog's snout triumphs for the feat he has done in finding him Thus they fail not punctually every year to lose what they have found and then to find again what they have lost Now I pray you what can be more ridiculous than to bewail that which we worship or to worship that which we bewail And yet such fopperies as these which formerly were the Religion of the Egyptians are now forsooth become the Devotions of the Romans Ceres with lighted torches in her hands and Serpents twisting about them seeks her Daughter Proserpina full of languishing care and trouble who having stray'd too far was stoln away and ravish'd by Pluto This is the sum and substance of the Eleusinian Mysteries And the Rites used in the Worship of Jupiter are no less ridiculous He is suckled by a She goat for want of a better Nurse and the poor Infant is stoln away from his Father for fear he should devour him the Corybantes in the mean while soundly plying their Cymbals to drown the cryes of the Bantling from coming to the ears of his more than inhumane Father I am asham'd to relate the Account they give of Cybele how she gelded Atys and made him an Eunuch-God because she could not tempt him to commit Adultery with her who was old and ugly having been the Mother of so many Gods And therefore answerably to this Story her Priests voluntarily geld themselves to the end they might be capable of that Dignity I leave you to judge whether these be not real miseries rather than Religious Mysteries Come we now to speak of the goodly form meen and accoutrements of your Gods than
are of a Middle substance between Mortal and Immortal that is between a Body and Spirit being made of a mixture of Terrestrial grosness and Celestial purity By which means they have an easie access to us to stir up our desires and by conveighing themselves into our hearts to affect our Senses raise our Passions and kindle in our Souls the flames of Lust These Daemons then who are mix'd and impure Spirits as we have plainly demonstrated by the Authority of Wisemen Philosophers and Plato himself lurk privately in those Statues and Images which are consecrated unto them and by their Enthusiasms get so great an Authority over the minds of men as of present Deities and this by inspiring their Prophets dwelling in their Temples by animating and acting the Entrails of Beasts by directing the flying of Birds determining of Lots and uttering Oracles which are generally obscure and mixt with abundance of lyes for they both deceive others and are deceiv'd themselves who as they do not know the Truth fully so they oft conceal and will not confess that which they do know because it tends to their own shame and confusion Thus they make it their business to depress and sink us downwards from Heaven to Earth and to estrange us from GOD by immersing us into Matter They trouble and disquiet our life molest us with Dreams and this by the advantage they have as Spirits to convey themselves into our Bodies where they counterfeit Diseases terrifie our Minds distort our Members thereby to oblige us to adore them and that after they are glutted with the reaking steam of Altars and the blood of slain Beasts by undoing their own Charms the honour of Healing might be attributed to them They are these very Spirits which act those raging mad folks whom you see running along the streets and who are every whit as much Prophets as those who give answers in your Temples for they both foame rage and are whirl'd about alike Indeed they are Daemons which possess the one as well as the other with this only difference that the object of their madness does vary From the same also proceed all those delusions you even now rehears'd as that of Jupiter's commanding in a Dream that his Games should be restor'd the appearance of Castor and Pollux on Horseback and that of a Ship being tow'd along by the girdle of a Roman Matron The most now adays and among them many of your own Party know very well that the Devils themselves do oft confess all these things when by the torture of our Words and the Fire of our Prayers they are driven out and dispossess'd Then it is that Saturn Serapis and Jupiter with all the Crew of Gods you worship being overcome with anguish do declare plainly what they are nor have they the power by lying to conceal their own shame as you may be sure they fain would though some of their deluded Adorers be present Sure you will credit the testimony of your own Gods when they witness the Truth against themselves and confess they are Devils For when those Wretches are conjur'd to come forth by the Name of the True and Only GOD they tremble and quake within the Bodies they have possess'd and either leap forth presently or vanish by degrees according as the Faith of the Patient and Grace of the Ghostly Physician are stronger or weaker So that they dread the nearness of those Christians whom at a distance by your means they trouble and disturb in their Assemblies and to that end insinuate themselves into the hearts of the simple and ignorant and there sow the seeds of hatred against our Religion For nothing is more natural than to hate those whom we dread and give all the trouble we can to those of whom we stand in awe So they prepossess and prejudice the hearts of men against us that they begin to hate us before they know us lest knowing us without this prejudice they might desire to imitate or at least not be able to condemn us Now how unjust it is to pass a Judgment upon things which one knows not as you do in condemning us you may take warning from us who do so heartily repent for having committed the same fault for we were once as you are and had the same Sentiments being involv'd in the same blindness and stupidity of Error when we believ'd that the Christans worship'd Monsters devour'd Children defil'd their Feasts with Incests without considering that though such things were commonly reported yet they never were prov'd and that none all this while has ever confess'd the least tittle of any one of these Crimes though besides the assurance of Pardon the â—eward of such a discovery might have been a great temptation thereunto â—ndeed to be a Christian is so far from â—mplying any thing that is evil or criminal that they who are convict neâ—â—her blush at it nor fear the punishment which attends it No you see them â—lory in it and troubled at nothing but â—hat they were so no sooner Neverâ—heless we our selves at the same time when we undertook the Defence of Parricides and persons guilty of Sacriledges and Incest would not so much as hear the Plea that Christians were ready to make for themselves whom we sometimes made endure a cruel corture not out of hatred but pity forsooth that by constraining them through the greatness of torments to renounce their Religion we might save their lives Oh! perverse Inquisition to make use of the Rack not to force the sufferer to declare the Truth but to deny it Now if it so happened that any one less constant being overcome with the pains of those tortures did renounce his Religion he was received into favour as if by such an abjuration he had made atonement for all the Crimes which are commonly charg'd upon them By which you may plainly see that we formerly were of the same mind and persuasion with you doing the very same things as you do now But indeed had you been govern'd by Reason and not by the instigation of Evil Spirits your business would have been to have urg'd the Christians not to renounce their Religion but to confess their Incests Whoredoms impious Ceremonies and their Sacrificing of Infants which are the fabulous Stories wherewith the same Daemons have fill'd the silly people's Minds to make them detest and abhor us But no wonder if all these horrid lyes and Fictions do vanish away before the appearance of Truth which those Monsters so much oppose making it their business to spread and foment false reports From these also that Fable had its rise That we worship an Asse's Head But I pray you who can be conceiv'd so much a fool to worship such a thing or rather who is so much a fool as to believe we do it except those who are guilty of as extravagant and impious Devotions themselves For indeed it is you make both Asses and Stables Holy by having consecrated your Goddess
Besides so many Ages are past and gone and yet who has ever been seen to rise and come to Life again though but for a small time as the Poets feign Protesilaus did that we might have some ground to believe this Paradox Indeed these Stories are but Chimaeras of a crack'd brain and the vain comforts which Poets have invented and pleasantly express'd for their own and others diversion And these old Fables new vamp'd your credulity entertains and applies them to your God Why don't you suffer the experience of things present to teach you at least how vain these your promises and hopes of the future are Poor wretches You might learn what will be your Fate after Death by the miseries of Life which you now endure The most and the best of you as you say your selves are ready to starve being in want of all things necessary for this mortal Life and under great troubles and miseries which God suffers and takes no notice of An evident proof that he either will not or can't afford you any relief and by consequence is either impotent or unjust Thou who flatterest thy self with an immortality after this Life art thou not sensible of thy condition Canst thou deny thy weakness when thou tremblest at dangers when thou burnest in a Feaver when thou art rack'd with pain Miserable delusion Not to own one's misery even when one feels it But to leave these common Matters behold there are executions punishments and torments that await you and crosses not to be ador'd by you but endur'd with fires and flames which you own your selves afraid of whilst you foretel and threaten them to others Where is that God that can raise the Dead but not relieve the Living Are not the Romans without the assistance of your God become the Masters of the World and of your selves too whilst you in the mean time refrain from lawful pleasures and entertain your sullen humour with troublesome fears and anxious thoughts You are never seen at any publick Spectacles and Triumphs nor do you ever frequent our solemn Feasts and Combats in honour of our Gods You abhor the Meats which Priests have touch'd and are afraid to taste the Wine that hath been presented on our Altars So that it seems you stand in some awe of those very Gods whom you deny You wear no Garlands on your Heads and reserve your Ointments and Perfumes for the Dead Nor do you so much as adorn the Graves of your deceased Friends with Chaplets You look pale and trembling and are indeed real Objects of pity but it must be of the pity of our Gods for yours take no notice of you Miserable Wretches who deprive your selves of the enjoyments of this Life and deceive your selves in the expectation of another Therefore if you have any wisdom or modesty left give over gazing upon the Stars and searching into the Destiny of the World And think it enough to look to your own feet especially for such rude and unlearned People as you are who hardly understand matters of a Civil concernment much less are able to discourse of Divine and Heavenly things But if you have such an itch of Philosophizing follow the Example of Socrates you who think so highly of your selves that was the Prince of Wisdom All know the answer he was wont to make to those that ask'd him any Questions about Matters of DIVINITY What 's above us said he does not concern us For which he merited the Praise of extraordinary Wisdom from the mouth of the Oracle it self and he himself was sensible that it was not for his knowing all things that Apollo had pronounced him the Wisest of all Greece but because he had learn't this one thing That he knew nothing This therefore is the greatest Wisdom of all for a Man to confess his own ignorance Upon this bottom were founded the Opinions of Arcesilas Carneades and several other Philosphers of the Ancient Academy who thought it safest not to determine any thing in Matters of any difficulty And indeed this modest and doubtful way of Philosophizing is the best seeing it is wariness in the Ignorant and wisdom in the Learned It was this which gain'd so much admiration and esteem to Simonides whose admirable slowness and caution deserves to be propos'd as an Example to be imitated by all Posterity For being ask'd of Hiero what his belief and opinion was concerning the Gods he at first demanded a day to consider of it The next day after being questioned about the same thing he desir'd two days more the third time he crav'd as many more and so from that time forth he still doubled the number At which the King standing amaz'd not being able to guess the reason of so many delays and pressing him to answer the Question without any further put-offs The more said he O King that I study and meditate of the Thing you enquir'd of me the more obscure it grows Thus methinks we ought to leave such things as are intricate and uncertain undetermin'd and not boldly give our Verdict in a Matter wherein the Wisest Men are at a great loss and use to suspend their Judgments nor be too forward to resolve and decide Controversies whilst the ablest and most Learned are yet in doubtful deliberation about them seeing this is the ready way either to destroy all manner of Religion or to introduce the most fulsome Superstition and intolerable Slavery WHEN Caecilius had thus made an end Well said he with a smiling countenance for the earnestness of his Discourse had appeas'd his Anger what to all this says our Octavius of the Race Plautus speaks of the chief of Bakers and the meanest of Philosophers Soft said I to him you had better spare your braggs and not begin your triumph till you have got the Victory nor please your self too much with the fine Speech you have made Remember that Truth and not Vain-glory is the Thing we contend for And indeed it is not your Discourse that gives me the greatest trouble though I must confess that I was extreamly taken with it because it was both very witty and graced with admirable variety but I am sorry to see that the probability of Things does change face according to the abilities and eloquence of those that discourse them and that the most evident truth often is obscur'd by the weakness of those who manage it Men are apt to be carry'd away with an Eloquent Speech and to assent to every thing that is plausibly said and to be diverted from the consideration of what 's treated of without discerning Truth from Falshood or considering that as a Paradox may sometimes be true so a likely thing often is false And therefore the easier they are to believe the assertions of others the oft'ner are they reprov'd and convinc'd by those who look nearer into the Matter So that being nettled at last to see themselves deceiv'd at every turn they cast the blame of their own