unsatisfied touching the Goodness of Providence by reason of the sad Scene of things in the World 470. XXVII An Hypothesis that will secure the Goodness of Providence were the Scene of things on this Earth ten times worse then it is 473. XXVIII Bathynous his Dream of the two Keys of Providence containing the above-mentioned Hypothesis 480. XXIX His being so rudely and forcibly awaked out of so Divine a Dream how consistent with the Accuracy of Providence 492. XXX That that Divine Personage that appeared to Bathynous was rather a Favourer of Pythagorism then Cartesianism 496. XXXI The Application of the Hypothesis in the Golden-Key-Paper for the clearing all Difficulties touching the Moral Evils in the World 502. XXXII Severall Objections against Providence fetch'd from Defects answered partly out of the Golden partly out of the Silver-Key-Paper 514. XXXIII Difficulties touching the Extent of the Universe 520. XXXIV Difficulties touching the Habitableness or Unhabitableness of the Planets 523. XXXV That though the World was created but about six thousand years ago yet for ought we know it was created as soon as it could be 536. XXXVI Hylobares his excess of Ioy and high Satisfaction touching Providence from the Discourse of Philotheus 549. XXXVII The Philosopher's Devotion 552. XXXVIII The Hazard and Success of the foregoing Discourse 556. XXXIX The Preference of Intellectual Joy before that which is Sensual 557. XL. That there is an ever-anticipative Eternity and inexterminable Amplitude that are proper to the Deity onely 559. Errata Pag-75 lin 2. reade Ac Aq. p. 151. l. 24. r. Res cogitantes p. 213. l. 16. r. as in p. 278. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 339. l. 13. r. neighbour Pâ—ilotheâ—s p. 340. l. 4. r. Philoth p. 345. l. ulâ— r. bear p. 441. l. 14. for have r. hear p. 457. l. 20. r. Hathney and the Brasilian The proper Characters of the Persons in the ensuing Dialogues with some Allusion to their Names Philotheus A zealous and sincere Lover of God and Christ and of the whole Creation Bathynous The Deeply-thoughtfull or profoundly-thinking man Sophron The Sober and wary man Philopolis The pious and loyall Politician Euistor A man of Criticism Philologie and History Hylobares A young witty and well-moralized Materialist Cuphophron A zealous but Airie-minded Platonist and Cartesian or Mechanist The general Character All free spirits mutually permitting one another the liberty of Philosophizing without any breach of Friendship DIVINE DIALOGVES CONTAINING Several Disquisitions and Instructions touching the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE IN THE WORLD THE FIRST DIALOGUE Philotheus Bathynous Sophron Philopolis Euistor Hylobares Cuphophron Cuph. THrice welcome O Philotheus who have brought along with you two such desireable Associates as Bathynous and Sophron Will you please to make a step up into the Garden Philoth. With all our hearts There â—s nothing more pleasant these Summer Evenings then the cool open Air. And I 'll assure you it is very fresh here and the Prospect very delightsome Cuph. Methinks I envy Greatness for nothing so much as their magnificent Houses and their large Gardens and Walks their Quarters contrived into elegant Knots adorned with the most beautifull Flowers their Fountains Cascades and Statues that I might be in a more splendid capacity of entertaining my Friends This would be to me no small prelibation of the Joys of Paradise here upon Earth Philoth. For my part Cuphophron I think he need envy no body who has his Heart full fraught with the Love of God and his Mind established in a firm belief of that unspeakable Happiness that the vertuous and pious Soul enjoys in the other State amongst the spirits of just men made perfect The firm belief of this in an innocent Soul is so high a prelibation of those eternal Joys that it equalizes such an one's Happiness if he have but the ordinary Conveniences of life to that of the greatest Potentates Their difference in external Fortune is as little considerable as a Semidiameter of the Earth in two measures of the highest Heaven the one taken from the Surface of the Earth the other from its Centre The disproportion you know is just nothing Cuph. It is so Philoth. And for gratifying your Friends They that are in a capacity of being truly such are as fully well satisfy'd with your ordinary Entertainment as if you were Master of the Fortunes of Princes Besides that it would be hazardous to your self to live in that affected Splendour you speak of as it is not altogether safe to affect it For both the desire and enjoyment of external Pomp does naturally blinde the eyes of the Mind and attempts the stifling of her higher and more heavenly Operations engages the Thoughts here below and hinders those Meditations that carry the Soul to an anticipatory view of those eternal Glories above Cuph. What you say Philotheus may be and may not be These things are as they are used But I must confess I think worldly Fortunes are most frequently abused and that there is a danger in them which makes me the more contented with the state I am in Philoth. And so you well may be Cuphophron for though you will not admit you live splendidly yet it cannot be deny'd but that you live neatly and elegantly For such are the Beds and Alleys of this little spot of Ground and such also that Arbour if the Inside be as neat as the Outside Cuph. That you may quickly see Philotheus Philoth. All very handsome Table Cushions Seats and all Cuph. Here I love to entertain my Friends with a frugâ—l Collation a cup of Wine a dish of Fruit and a Manchet The rest they make up with free Discourses in Philosophy And this will prove your greatest Entertainment now Philotheus if Philopolis Euistor and Hylobares were come Sophr. No Entertainment better any-where then a frugal Table and free and ingenuous Discourse But I pray you Cuphophron who is that Hylobares Is it he who is so much famed for holding That there is nothing but Body or Matter in the world That there is nothing Iust or Vnjust in its own nature That all Pleasures are alike honest though it be never so unaccountable a satisfaction of either a man's Cruelty or his Lust Cuph. O no it is not he For I verily believe I know who you mean though it never was yet my fortune to be in his company and I least of all desire it now For he is a person very inconversable and as they say an imperious Dictatour of the Principles of Vice and impatient of all dispute and contradiction But this Hylobares is quite of another Genius and extraction one that is as great a Moralist on this side rigour and severity of life as he is a Materialist and of a kind and friendly nature Bath That is not incredible For I see no reason why a Soul that is infortunately immersed into this material or corporeall Dispensation may not in the main be as
That may very well be But then they had not that true and precise Notion of a subtile Body that most Philosophers have in this Age but it is likely they understood no more thereby then that it was a subtile extended Substance which for my part I conceive in the general may be true But to say it is properly a subtile Body is to acknowledge it a Congeries of very little Atomes â—oying and playing one by another which is too mean a conception of the Majesty of God Besides that it is unconceivable how these loose Atoms which are so independent of one another should joyn together to make up the Godhead or how they do conspire to keep together that there is not a dissolution of the Divinity Or thus If this multitude of Divine Atoms be God be they interspersed amongst all the matter of the World or do they keep together If they be dispersed God is less one then any thing else in the World and is rather an infinite number of Deities then one God or any God and this infinite number in an incapacity of conferring notes to contrive so wise a frame of the Universe as we see But if there be one Congeries of Divine Atomes that keep together in which of those infinite numbers of Vortices is it seated or amongst which or how can it order the matter of those Vortices from which it is so far distant or how again do these Atomes though not interspersed communicate Notions one with another for one Design Do they talk or discourse with one another or what do they doe And then again Hyl. Nay forbear Bathynous to go any farther for you have put me quite out of conceit with a Material Deity already the more my grief and pain For to make a Material Deity I must confess seems extremely ridiculous and to make a Spiritual one impossible So that I am in greater streights then ever I was Philoth. Why Hylobares what conceit have you of a Spirit that you should think it a thing impossible Hyl. Is it not infinitely incredible Philotheus if not impossible that some thousands of Spirits may dance or march on a Needle 's point at once Cuph. I and that booted and spurred too Hyl. And that in one instant of time they can fly from one Pole of the world to the other Philoth. These things I must confess seem very incredible Hyl. And that the Spirit of man which we usually call his Soul is wholly without flitting in his Toe and wholly in his Head at once If the whole Soul be in the Toe there is nothing left to be in the Head Therefore the Notion of a Spirit is perfectly impossible or else all things are alike true for nothing seems more impossible then this Philoth. But whose description of a Spirit is this Hylobares Hyl. It is Philotheus the description of the venerable Schools Philoth. But did I not preadvertise you that no humane Authority has any right of being believed when they propound Contradictions Wherefore their rash description of a Spirit ought to be no prejudice to the truth of its Existence And though the true Notion of a Spirit were incomprehensible yet that would be no solid Argument against the Reality of it as you may observe in the nature of eternall Succession which we cannot deny to be though we be not able to comprehend it Hyl. That is very true indeed and very well worth the noting But how shall we be so well assured of the Existence of a Spirit while the comprehension of its Nature is taken for desperate Philoth. That there is some Intellectual Principle in the World you were abundantly convinced from the works of Nature as much as that Archimedes his Treatise De Sphaera Cylindro was from a Rational Agent and even now it seemed ridiculous to you beyond all measure that a Congeries of Atomes should be Divine and Intellectual Wherefore there is something that is not Matter that is Intellectual which must be a substance Immaterial or Incorporeal that is in a word a Spirit Hyl. I am I must confess very strongly urged to believe there is a Spirit as well as an eternall Duration though I can comprehend neither Philoth. And that you may be farther corroborateâ— in your belief consider the manifold Stories of Apparitions and how many Spectres have been seen or felt to wrastle pull or tug with a man which if they were a mere Congeries of Atomes were impossible How could an arm of mere Air or Aether pull at another man's hand or arm but it would easily part in the pulling Admit it might use the motion of Pulsion yet it could never that of Attraction Hyl. This indeed were a palpable demonstration that there must be some other substance in these Spectres of Air or Aether if the Histories were true Euist. We reade such things happening even in all Ages and places of the world and there are modern and fresh examples every day so that no man need doubt of the truth Hyl. These Experiments indeed strike very strongly on the Imagination and Senses but there is a subtile Reason that presently unlooses all again And now methinks I could wish the nature of a Spirit were more unknown to me then it is that I might believe its Existence without meddling at all with its Essence But I cannot but know thus much of it whether I will or no that it is either extended or not extended I mean it has either some Amplitude of Essence or else none at all If it has no Amplitude or Extension the ridiculous Hypothesis of the Schools will get up again and millions of Spirits for ought I know may dance on a Needle 's point or rather they having no Amplitude would be nothing If they have any Amplitude or Extension they will not be Spirits but mere Body or Matter For as that admired Wit Des-Cartes solidly concludes Extension is the very essence of Matter This is one of the greatest Arguments that fatally bear me off from a chearfull closing with the belief of Spirits properly so called Philoth. It is much Hylobares that you should give such an adamantine Assent to so weak and precarious an Assertion as this of Des-Cartes For though it be wittily supposed by him for a ground of more certain and Mathematicall after-Deductions in his Philosophy yet it is not at all proved that Matter and Extension are reciprocally the same as well every extended thing Matter as all Matter extended This is but an upstart conceit of this present Age. The ancient Atomical Philosophers were as much for a Vacuum as for Atomes And certainly the world has hitherto been very idle that have made so many Disputes and try'd so many Experiments whether there be any Vacuum or no if it be so demonstratively concludible as Des-Cartes would bear us in hand that it implies a Contradiction there should be any The ground of the Demonstration lies so shallow
Meadow-pastures Cuph. Away Hylobares you are a very Wag. I perceive you will break your brown study at any time to reach me a rap upon the thumbs Euist. Gentlemen I know not whether you be in earnest or in jest touching these Aereall Genii in remote Solitudes But this I can assure you that besides the usual and frequent fame of the dancing of Fairies in Woods and desolate places Olaus and other Historians make frequent mention of these things and that there are Daemones Metallici that haunt the very inside of Mountains and are seen to work there when men dig in the Mines What merriment they also make on the outside of vast and remote Hills that one Story of Mount Athos may give us an Instance of as the matter is described in Solinus The impression of the passage sticks still fresh in my memory even to the very words Silet per diem universus nec sine horrore secretus est lucet nocturnis ignibus choris Aegipanum undique personatur audiuntur caâ—tus tibiarum tinnitus cymbalorum per oram maritimam But of a more dreadfull hue is that Desart described by Paulus Venetus near the City Lop as I take it in the Dominions of the great Cham. This Wilderness saith he is very mountainous and barren and therefore not fit so much as to harbour a wilde Beast but both by day and especially by night there are heard and seen severall Illusions and Impostures of wicked Spirits For which cause Travellers must have a great care to keep together For if by lagging behinde a man chance to lose the sight of his company amongst the Rocks and Mountains he will be called out of his way by these busie Deceivers who saluting him by his own name and feigning the voice of some of his Fellow-travellers that are gone before will lead him aside to his utter destruction There is heard also in this Solitude sometimes the sound of Drums and Musicall Instruments which is like to those noises in the night on Mount Athos described by Solinus Wherefore such things as these so frequently occurring in History make Bathynous his Conceit to look not at all extravagantly on it Sophr. Our Saviour's mentioning Spirits that haunt dry places gives some countenance also to this Conceit of Bathynous Euist. And so does the very Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Notation is from the field But all these must be lapsed Spirits therefore Bath I as sure as men themselves are lapsed then which nothing is more Euistor Euist. And so lapsed Spirits and lapsed men divide the Earth amongst them And why not the Sea too Bathynous Bath You mean the Air over the surface of the Sea For the Sea is sufficiently well peopled with Fishes Euist. 'T is true Sophr. If this were not as Poeticall as Lucretius his Poetry it self his Arguments against Providence were very weak indeed But this is to bring in again the Nereîdes and Oreades of the Pagans Euist. And if so why not also the Hamadryades and other Spirits of the Woods that the vast Woods Lucretius complains of may not be left to wilde Beasts onely no more then the Sea to the Fishes Sophr. In my apprehension Lucretius seems mightily at a loss for Arguments against Providence while he is forced thus to fetch them from the Woods Cuph. Because you think Sophron that no Arguments can be brought from thence but wooden ones Sophr. Indeed Cuphophron I was not so witty But because the plentifull provision of Wood and Timber is such a substantial pledge of Divine Providence the greatest Conveniences of life depending thereupon Euist. That is so plain a case that it is not to be insisted upon And yet it is not altogether so devoid of difficulty in that the great Woods are such Coverts for wilde Beasts to garrison in Bath But you do not consider what a fine harbour they are also for the harmless Birds But this is the Ignorance and rude Immorality of Lucretius that out of a streight-lac'd Self-love he phansies all the World so made for Man that nothing else should have any share therein whenas all Vnregenerate persons are as arrant brute Animals as these very Animals they thus vilifie and contemn Sophr. I thank you for that Bathynous for from hence methinks an Answer is easily framed against his Objection from Man's being liable to be infested by horrible and hurtfull Beasts For considering the general Mass of Mankinde was grown such an Herd of wicked Animals that is Beasts what repugnancy to Providence is it that one Beast invades another for their private advantage But yet Providence sent in such secret supplies to these Beasts in humane shape that seemed otherwise worse appointed for fight then their savage enemies armed with cruel Teeth and Stings and Horns and Hoofs and Claws which she did partly by endowing them with such Agility of body and Nimbleness in swarming of trees as Apes and Monkeys have now but chiefly by giving them so great a share of Wit and Craft and combining Policy that Lucretius has no reason to complain against Nature for producing these Objects that do but exercise mens Policy and Courage and have given them an opportunity of so successfull a Victory as we see they have obtained in a manner throughout the whole World at this very day And lastly for that lamentable Story of the circumstances of the entrance of Infants into this life it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is mere poeticall Smoke or Fume that vanishes in the very uttering of it and is so far from being a just Subject of Lucretius his complaining Rhetorick against Providence that it is a pregnant Instance of the exactness and goodness of Providence in Nature For there being so much wit and care and contrivance in Mankinde both Male and Female the weakness and destituteness of the Infant is a gratefull Object to entertain both the skill and compassion of that tenderer Sex both Mother Midwife Nurse or what other Assistents Though perhaps there has come in a greater debility in Nature by our own defaults But how-ever that Body that was to be an Habitacle for so sensible a Spirit as the humane Soul ought to be more tender and delicate then that of brute Beasts according to that Physiognomonicall Aphorism of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is the crying of the Infant so much a presage of the future Evils of life as a begging of aid against the present from them about him by this natural Rhetorick which Providence has so seasonably furnished him with And for Lambs and Calves and Cubs of Foxes they are not so properly said to need no Rattles as not to be capable of them they having not so excellent a spirit in them as to be taken up with the admiration of any thing For the Child's amusement at the Rattle is but the effect of that Passion which is the Mother of Reason and all Philosophy And for that last
of both Soul and Body And one Glass will serve me for that end at this time Euist. Your Definition is very safe and usefull I think O Sophron. Sophr. And therefore my singular respects to you Euistor in this single Glass of Wine Cuph. See the virtue of good Canarie the mere steam of whose volatil Atoms has so raised Sophron's phancie that it has made him seem for to offer to quibble before the Glass has touched his lips Sophr. It is marvellous good Wine indeed I warrant you Euistor this will rub up your memory to the purpose if the recalling how many Cups grave Cato would take off at a time may warrant our drinking at any time more then is needfull or convenient I pray you tast it Euist. I thank you Sophron I should willingly pledge you though it were in worse liquour They have all of them had each man his Glass but Hylobares but have excogitated such pretty pretences to accost them they drank to that I finde I need to have my wit rubb'd up as well as my memory to hold on this ingenious humour Cuph. Do not you observe Euistor how studiously Hylobares has play'd the Piper all this time Take your Cue from thence Euist. Hylobares not to interrupt you my humble Service to you in a Glass of Canarie to wet your whistle Hyl. I thank you kindly Euistor but I profess I was scarce aware what I did or whether I whistled or no. Philop. Methinks those Airs and that Instrument Hylobares seem too light for the serious Discourse we have had so many hours together Hyl. But I 'll assure you Philopolis my thoughts were never more serious then while I was piping these easie Airs on my Flagellet For they are so familiar to me that I had no need to attend them and my minde indeed was wholly taken up with Objects sutable to our late Theme And even then when I was playing these light Tunes was I recovering into my memory as well as I could some part of a Philosophick Song that once I had by rote both words and tune and all which has no small affinity with the Matters of this day's Discourse Philop. It is much Hylobares you should be able to attend to such contrary things so light and so serious at one and the same time Hyl. That 's no more Philopolis then Euistor did in his Story of the Angel and the Eremite For I look upon the twisting of a man's Mustachio's to be as slight and triviall a thing as the playing on the Flagellet And yet I believe he was at it at least twenty times with his fore-finger and his thumb in his rehearsing that excellent Parable though his Minde I saw was so taken up with the weightiness of the sense that his aspect seemed as devout as that of the Eremite who was the chief Subject of the Story Euist. I pray you Hylobares take this Glass of Wine for a reward of your abusing your Friend so handsomely to excuse your self and see if it be so good for the rubbing up the memory as Sophron avouches it For then I hope we shall hear you sing as attentively as you have regardlesly whistled all this time Hyl. The Wine is very good Euistor if it be as good for the Memory But I believe I had already recalled more of those Verses to minde then what is convenient to repeat at this time Philop. I prithee Hylobares repeat but them you have recalled to memory it will be both a farther ratification of this unthought-of Experiment and a sutable Close of the whole day's Discourse Hyl. Your desire is to me a command Philopolis and therefore for your sake I will hazard the credit of my Voice and Memory at once Where 's now the Objects of thy Fears Needless Sighs and fruitless Tears They be all gone like idle Dream Suggested from the Body's steam O Cave of Horrour black as pitch Dark Den of Spectres that bewitch The weakned Phancy sore affright With the grim shades of grisly Night What 's Plague and Prison loss of Friends War Dearth and Death that all things ends Mere Buglears for the childish minde Pure Panick Terrours of the blinde Collect thy Soul into one Sphear Of Light and 'bove the Earth it bear Those wilde scattered Thoughts that erst Lay loosely in the World disperst Call in thy Spirit thus knit in one Fair lucid Orb those Fears be gone Like vain Impostures of the Night That fly before the Morning bright Then with pure eyes thou shalt behold How the First Goodness doth infold All things in loving tender Arms That deemed Mischiefs are no Harms But sovereign Salves and skilfull Cures Of greater Woes the World endures That Man 's stout Soul may win a state Far rais'd above the reach of Fate Power Wisedome Goodness sure did frame This Universe and still guide the same But thoughts from Passions sprung deceive Vain mortals No man can contrive A better course then what 's been run Since the first Circuit of the Sun He that beholds all from an high Knows better what to doe then I. I 'm not mine own should I repine If he dispose of what 's not mine Purge but thy Soul of blinde Self-will Thou straight shalt see God does no ill The World he fills with the bright Rays Of his free Goodness He displays Himself throughout Like common Air That Spirit of Life through all doth fare Suck'd in by them as vital breath Who willingly embrace not Death But those that with that living Law Be unacquainted Cares do gnaw Mistrusts of Providence do vex Their Souls and puzzled mindes perplex These Rhythms were in my minde Philopolis when the Flagellet was at my mouth Philop. They have an excellent sense in them and very pertinent to this day's Disquisitions I pray you whose Lines are they Hylobares Hyl. They are the Lines of a certain Philosophicall Poet who writes almost as hobblingly as Lucretius himself but I have met with Strains here and there in him that have infinitely pleased me and these in some humours amongst the rest But I was never so sensible of the weightiness of their meaning as since this day's discourse with Philotheus Philop. Well Hylobares if you ruminate on no worse things then these while you play on your Flagellet it will be an unpardonable fault in me ever hereafter to disparage your Musick Euist. I think we must hire Hylobares to pipe us to our Lodgings else we shall not finde the way out of Cuphophron's Bower this Night as bright as it is Hyl. That I could doe willingly Euistor without hire it is so pleasing a divertisement to me to play on my Pipe in the silent Moon-light Philop. Well we must abruptly take leave of you Cuphophron and bid you Good night Hylobares is got out of the Arbour already and we must all dance after his Pipe Cuph. That would be a juvenile act for your Age Philopolis Philop. I mean we must
then adde that which follows in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philoth. That 's a very high expression Euistor for them but not unapplicable to the best sort of Christians For our oâ—n Religion testifies that God is Love and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law Hyl. It is a chearfull consideration that there is the emergency of so much Good in a people that seemed in so squalid and forlorn a condition and so utterly hopeless Philoth. But imagine Hylobares a Nation or Country in as squalid and forlorn a condition as you will this may also in the Ninth place ease your phancy That though the Succession of such a Nation continue for many Ages yet the particular Souls that make up this Succession in such a disadvantageous abode their Stay is but short but their subsistence everlasting after this life So that their stay here is nothing in comparison of their duration hereafter Hyl. This indeed were something Philotheus if their quitting of this Life were a release from all that evil that hangs about them here Philoth. Who knows Hylobares but the present Disadvantages to them that are sincere may prove Advantages to them in the other state and by how much more forcibly they seemed to be born down to Evil here that by the special Providence of God at the releasment of the Soul from the Body there is the more strong and peremptory Resiliency from this sordid Region of Misery and Sin Hyl. If that be your Argument is not devoid of force nor do I know how to confute it For I know you will say that what-ever Good does accrue to such sincere Souls it is in virtue of the miraculous Revelation of Iesus Christ to them Philoth. You conjecture right Hyl. But what shall we think of those Barbarians in whom there never was any thing of the Divine Life nor any moral possibility of acquiring it Philoth. If this were which is hard to admit I must confess I could not think so hardly of God as to imagine that they must answer for that Depositum that never was put into their hands And therefore it were the safest to conceive which you may note in the Tenth place nor can we define any thing more determinately therein That they will be committed to such a state after this Life as is most sutable and proportionable to such a Creature To which you may adde in the last place That on the Stage of this Earth a throughly-castigated Body though it be the fittest habitacle for the Divine Light and Heavenly Life to abide in yet it is more inept for the enjoyment of that more full and sensible Sweetness of the Animal or Bestial and that so Reflexive and Animadversive a Spirit as the Soul of Man given up wholly to the pleasures of the Animal Life reaps an higher measure of delight therefrom and that with more punctual and pompous Circumstances then any Beast whatsoever Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things c. Cuph. I partly understand you Philotheus and cannot but applaud the felicity of your Invention that has hit upon so many and so pertinent Considerations to bear up the minde of Hylobares from sinking into any Distrust of the Goodness of Providence But methinks I could adde one Consideration more to make the number even and such as will meet with the most passionate expression in Hylobares his Complaint as if God should rather dissolve the World in an high indignation against the Miscarriages of it then suffer it to go on in such a wilde course as it seems to have done in the Manners and Religions of the most barbarous Pagans My Meditation I must confess is something Metaphysicall but I hope it is not above the capacity of Hylobares to understand it Philoth. That he will best know when you have delivered your self of it Cuphophron Cuph. The summe of it is to this purpose and I wish my self better success then formerly for I have been very unlucky in my delivering my self hitherto That the universal Object of Man's Understanding Religion and Veneration is much-what according to that Inscription in the Temple of Isis or Minerva in Sais an ancient City of Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am whatsoever was is or is to come and no mortal hitherto has ever uncovered my Veil This I conceive is the hidden Essence of the eternal God who is all and from whom all things are in such sort as that they may in some sense be said still to be him Hyl. This is Hypermetaphysicall O Cuphophron very highly turgent and mysterious What do you mean That God is so the Essence and Substance of all things that they are but as dependent Accidents of him If there were nothing but Matter in the World this Riddle would be easily intelligible in this sense and all Phaenomena what-ever would be but the Modifications of this one Substance But for my own part I was abundantly convinced by the first day's discourse That there is an Immoveable Substance distinct from that of the Moveable Matter which distinction is so palpable that nothing can be said to be God in any good sense but God himself at least no Material thing can Cuph. You have almost struck quite out of my thoughts what I was a-going to say next Hylobares Philop. Cuphophron seems to be full of something I pray you give him leave to vent himself Cuph. I have recovered it Now I say whatsoever is represented to the Soul is not God himself but some exteriour manifestation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whatsoever is more eminent and extraordinary Nature from religious Complexions has easily extorted veneration thereto it being as it were a more sensible appearance or visible stirring of that great Godhead that inhabits this august Temple of the World Wherefore God and his holy Temple filling all places the passionate Motions of all Creatures are a kinde of Divine Worship they every-where seeking and crouching to him to enjoy some Benediction of him or else singing his Praises in triumphant Accents and in transporting expressions of their present Enjoyments some even wasting themselves in the complacency they take though in but smaller matters which he bestows on them or rather permits them to take them though he could wish they would make choice of better But these though small in themselves seem great to them that are pleased with them these lesser communications of the embodied Excellencies of the Deity so filling their pusillanimous spirits with Joy and Rapture that they even willingly forfeit all the rest and turn as it were Martyrs and Self-sacrificers to but so faint a Shadow or scant Resemblance of the first uncreated Perfection whose beautifull Nature is solidly born witness unto by so ready and constant a Profession though many times with sad After-inconveniences and by so religious an adhesion to so slender and evanid Emanations thereof Which Mistakes therefore should in all
a Treasure it self However I set me to work as before and reducing the Letters to such an order that a Line of them did plainly contain this Motto I pulled at both ends of the Golden Key as I did in the Silver one and in a Golden Tube continued to the Handle of the Key there was a Scroll of such Paper if I may so call it as in the other exceeding white and pure and though very thin yet not at all transparent The Writing was also terminated with even Margins on all sides as before onely it was more glorious being adorn'd richly with Flower-work of Gold Vermilion and blew And I observed that twelve Sentences filled the whole Area written with Letters of Gold The first was The Measure of Providence is the Divine Goodness which has no bounds but it self which is infinite 2. The Thread of Time and the Expansion of the Vniverse the same Hand drew out the one and spred out the other 3. Darkness and the Abysse were before the Light and the Suns or Stars before any Opakeness or Shadow 4. All Intellectual Spirits that ever were are or ever shall be sprung up with the Light and rejoyced together before God in the morning of the Creation 5. In infinite Myriads of free Agents which were the Framers of their own Fortunes it had been a wonder if they had all of them taken the same Path and therefore Sin at the long run shook hands with Opacity 6. As much as the Light exceeds the Shadows so much do the Regions of Happiness those of Sin and Misery These six Philopolis I distinctly remember but had cursorily and glancingly cast mine eye on all twelve But afterwards fixing my mind orderly upon them to commit them all perfectly to my memory for I did not expect that I might carry the Keys away with me home by that time I had got through the sixth Aphorism there had come up two Asses behinde me out of the Wood one on the one side of the Tree and the other on the other that set abraying so rudely and so loudly that they did not onely awake but almost affright me into a discovery that I had all this while been but in a Dream For that aged grave Personage the Silver and Golden Keys and glorious Parchment were all suddenly vanished and I found my self sitting alone at the bottome of the same Oak where I fell asleep betwixt two rudely-braying Asses Euist. These are the usual Exploits Bathynous of this kind of Animal Just thus was the Nymph ` Lotis lying fast asleep on the Grass in a Moon-shine-night awakened by the loud Braying of Silenus his Ass. Asses are as it were the Trumpeters of the Forest Bathynous that awake careless men out of deep Sleeps Hyl. If your Memory did not far surpass your Phancy Euistor you would not be so good an Historian as you are Surely the Braying of an Ass is more like to the blowing of a Neatherd's or Swineherd's Horn then to the sound of a Trumpet Besides the Braying of Silenus his Ass was the saving of the Nymph's Virginity But this O Euistor O Bathynous was there ever a more unfortunate Mis-hap then this This Story has quite undone me It has wounded my belief of Providence more then any thing I have yet taken notice of That God should ever permit two such dull Animals to disturb so Divine a Vision as it seems to me and that so mysterious so heavenly and intellectual a Pleasure and so certain a Communication of such important Truths should be thus blown aside by the rude breath of an Ass. To what a glorious comprehension of things would this Scene have proceeded What accurate Information touching the Fabrick of the World what punctually-satisfactory Solutions of every Puzzle touching Divine Providence might you after have received in your intended Conference with this venerable Personage if these impertinent Animals by their unseasonable loud Braying had not called your Ecstaticall Minde into the Body again which is as unfit for Divine Communication as themselves Bath Do not take on so heavily O Hylobares nor be so rash a Censurer of Providence no not so much as in this Paradoxicall passage thereof For how do you know but all that which you phansie behinde had been too much to receive at once Old Vessells fill'd with new Wine will burst And too large a Dosis of Knowledge may so elate the Spirits that it may hazard the Brain that it may destroy Life and chase away Sobriety and Humility out of the Soul Sophr. This is very judiciously advertised of Bathynous is it not Hylobares Hyl. I cannot disown Truth whensoever I meet with it Bath But besides though you should judge so extraordinary-charitably of me at that age Hylobares as that I might have received all that behind which you surmize was lost by that Accident without any hazard to the Morality of my Mind yet I can tell you of a truth that I take that Accident that seems so Paradoxicall to you to be a particular Favour and Kindness done to me by Providence and that it fell out no otherwise then could I have foreseen how things would be I my self should even then have desired it that is to say I found my self more gratify'd afterwards things happening as they did then if that Divine Dream if we may call it so had gone on uninterruptedly to its full Period For it would but have put me into the possession of all that Truth at once which in virtue of this piece of the Dream I got afterwards with an often-repeated and prolonged Pleasure and more agreeable to humane Nature Hyl. I profess Bathynous this is not nothing that you say Nay indeed so much as I must acknowledge my exception against Providence in this Passage very much weakned But what use could you make of the Silver Key when that Divine Personage explained nothing of it to you Bath It was as it were a pointing of one to those Authours that conform the Frame of the World to that Scheme as Nicolaus Copernicus and those that follow that Systeme But it is no-where drawn nearer to the Elegancy of the Silver-Key-Paper then in Des-Cartes his third part of his Principles Cuph. That 's notable indeed Bathynous This is a kinde of Divine Testimonie to the truth of all Des-Cartes's Principles Bath No by no means Cuphophron For in the Golden-Key-Paper in that cursory Glance I gave upon all the Sentences or Aphorisms therein contained amongst the rest I espy'd one of which part was writ in greater Letters which was to this sense That the Primordials of the World are not Mechanicall but Spermaticall or Vital which is diametrically and fundamentally opposite to Des-Cartes's Philosophy Cuph. There is great Uncertainty in Dreams Bath But I must confess I think the thing true of it self And if I had had full Conference with that Divine Sage I believe I should have found his Philosophy more Pythagoricall or Platonicall
Water Earth Plants Animals and the Bodies of Men in such order and organization as they are found Which Principle in his Philosophy certainly must prove a very inept Interpreter of Rom. 1. 19 20. where the eternall Power and Godhead is said clearly to be seen by the things that are made insomuch that the Gentiles became thereby unexcusable But if the Cartesian Philosophy be true it was their ignorance they could not excuse themselves For they might have said That all these things might come to pass by Matter and mere Mechanicall Motion and that Matter excludes Motion in its own Idea no morè then it includes Rest so that it might have Motion of it self as well as its Existence according to the former Implication See also how fit a Gloss this Principle will afford upon Acts 14. 17. and how well that Text agrees with the first Section of the first Chapter of Des-Cartes his Meteors A third peculiar property of his Philosophy is A seeming Modesty in declining all search into the Final causes of the Phaenomena of the World as if forsooth that were too great a presumption of humane wit to pry into the Ends of God's Creation whenas indeed his Philosophy is of that nature that it prevents all such Researches things coming to pass according to it as if God were not at all the Creatour and Contriver of the World but that mere Matter Mechanically swung about by such a measure of Motion fell necessarily without any more to doe into this Frame of things we see and could have been no otherwise then they are and that therefore all the particular Vsefulnesses of the Creation are not the Results of Wisedome or Counsel but the blinde issues of mere Material and Mechanicall Necessity And things being so it is indeed very consistent to cast the consideration of the Final Cause out of the Mechanicall Philosophy But in the mean time how fit an Interpreter of Scripture this Philosophy will be in such places as that of the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all I understand not For according to this Philosophy he has made noâ—e of them so Let the zealous Cartesian reade the whole 144 Psalm and tune it in this point if he can to his Master's Philosophy Let him see also what sense he can make of the first to the Corinthians Ch. I. v. 21. Fourthly The Apparitions of Horsemen and Armies encountring one another in the Air 2 Macch. 5. let him consider how illustrable that passage is from the last Section of the 7. Chapter of Des-Cartes his Meteors and from the conclusion of that whole Treatise Fifthly That of the Prophet The Oxe knows his owner and the Ass his Master's Crib as also that of Solomon The righteous man regardeth the life of his Beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel what an excellent Gloss that Conceit of Des-Cartes his of Brutes being senseless Machina's will produce upon these Texts any one may easily foresee And lastly Gal. 5. 17. where that Enmity and conflict betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit is mentioned and is indeed as serious and solemn an Argument as any occurrs in all Theologie what light the Cartesian Philosophy will contribute for the more 〈…〉 this so important Mystery may easily be conjectured from the 47th Article of his Treatise of the Passions where the Combate betwixt the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit as they are termed in Scripture and Divinity is at last resolved into the ridiculous Noddings and Ioggings of a small glandulous Button in the midst of the Brain encountred by the animal Spirits rudely flurting against it This little sprunt Champion called the Conarion or Nux pinea within which the Soul is entirely cooped up acts the part of the Spirit as the animal Spirits of the Flesh. And thus by the Soul thus ingarrison'd in this Pine-kernell and bearing herself against the Arietations or Iurrings of the Spirits in the Ventricles of the Brain must that solemn Combat be performed which the holy Apostle calls the War betwixt the Law of our Members and the Law of our Minde Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amiâ—i Would not so trivial and Iudicrous an account of Temptation and Sin occasion Bodâ—nus his â—â—lack-smith to raise as derisorious a Proverb touching actual Sin as he did touching original and make them say What adoe is there about the wagging of a Nut as well as he did about the eating of the Apple Besides if this Conflict be not a Combat betwixt two contrarie Lives seated in the Soul her self but this that opposes the Soul be merely the Spirits in such an Organized body as Cartesius expresly affirms the Souls of the wicked and of the godly in the other state are equally freed from the importunities of Sin These few Tasts may suffice to satisfie us how savoury an Interpreter the Cartesian Philosophy would prove of Holy Scripture and Theologicall Mysteries So that Religion can suffer nothing by the lessening of the Repute of Cartesianism the Notions that are peculiar thereto having so little tendency to that service Indeed if Cartesius had as well demonstrated as affirmed that Matter cannot think he had directly deserved well of Religion it self But how-ever Providence has so ordered things that in an oblique way his Philosophy becomes serviceable to Religion whether he intended it or no or rather that of it that was most against his intention namely the Flaws and Defects so plainly discoverable in it For the unsuccessfulness of his Wit and Industry in the Mechanicall Philosophy has abundantly assured the sagacious that the Phaenomena of the Vniverse must be entitled to an higher and more Divine Principle then mere Matter and Mechanicall Motion Which is the main reason that his greatest Encomiast does so affectionately recommend the reading of the Cartesian Philosophy as you may see in the Preface to his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul These things I think duly considered will easily clear the Authour of these Dialogues from all imputation of Imprudence in opposing the renowned Philosopher in such things as it is of so great concern thus freely to oppose him especially he going very little farther then his highest Encomiasts have led the way before him Nor can I bethink me of any else that may have any colourable Pretense of a just Complaint against him unless the Platonists who haply may judge it an unfit thing that so Divine a Philosophy should be so much slurred by introducing Cuphophron a Platonist uttering such tipsie and temulent Raptures and Rhetoricall Apologies as he does in the Second and Third Dialogues for the extenuating the hideousness of Sin besides the ill Tendency of such loose and lusorious Oratorie And yet the judicious I believe will finde those passages as pertinent and usefull as those that bear the face of more Severity and Reservedness and will easily remember that
solid a Moralist as a Mathematician For the chief Points of Morality are no less demonstrable then Mathematicks nor is the Subtilty greater in Moral Theorems then in Mathematicall Sophr. In my mind it is a sign of a great deal of natural Integrity and inbred Nobleness of spirit that maugre the heaviness of his Complexion that thus strongly bears him down from apprehending so concerning Metaphysicall Truths yet he retains so vivid râ—sentments of the more solid Morality Philoth. That will redound to his greater Joy and Happiness whenever it shall please God to recover his Soul into a clearer knowledge of himself For even Moral Honesty it self is part of the Law of God and an adumbration of the Divine life So that when Regeneration has more throughly illuminated his Understanding I doubt not but that he will fall into that pious admiration and speech of the ancient Patriarch Verily God was in this place and I knew not of it Wherefore those that are the true lovers of God must be friendly and lovingly disposed towards all his Appearances and bid a kinde welcome to the first dawnings of that Diviner Light Cuph. But besides the goodness of his Disposition he has a very smart Wit and is a very shrewd Disputant in those Points himself seems most puzzled in and is therein very dexterous in puzzling others if they be not through-paced Speculatours in those great Theories Sophr. If he have so much Wit added to his Sincerity his case is the more hopefull Cuph. What he has of either you will now suddenly have the opportunity to experience your selves for I see Philopolis and the rest coming up into the Garden I will meet them and bring them to you Gentlemen you are all three welcome at once but most of all Philopolis as being the greatest Stranger Philop. I pray you Cuphophron is Philotheus and the rest of his Company come Cuph. That you shall straightways see when you come to the Arbour Philop. Gentlemen we are very well met I am afraid we have made you stay for us Philoth. It was more fitting that we should stay for Philopolis then he for us But we have been here but a little while Cuph. A very little while indeed but now our Company is doubled so little will be twice as little again I am very much transported to see my little Arbour scored with such choice Guests But that mine own Worthlesness spoils the conceit I could think our Company parallel to the Seven wise men of Greece Hyl. I warrant the Septenary will be henceforth much more sacred to Cuphophron for this day's Meeting Cuph. The Senary at least Hyl. You are so transported with the pleasure of the presence of your Friends O Cuphophron that you forget to tell them how welcome they are Cuph. That is soon recounted I sent into my Arbour just before Philotheus came this dish of Fruit and this Wine the best I hope in all Athens and I begin to Philopolis and bid you now all welcome at once Hyl. You was very early in your provision Cuphophron Cuph. I did early provide for our privacy that there might be no need of any body 's coming here but our selves Hyl. A large Entertainment Cuph. I keep touch both with my promise to Philopolis and with my own usual Frugality in these kind of Collations And yet Hylobares you have no cause to complain you have to gratifie all your five Senses Here is another Glass tast this Wine Hyl. It is very good Cuphophron and has an excellent flavour Cuph. There 's to gratifie your Tast then Hylobares besides the delicacy of these ripe Fruit which recreate also the Nostrils with their Aromatick sent as also does the sweet smell of the Eglantines and Hony-suckles that cover my Arbour Hyl. But what is there to gratifie the Touch Cuphophron Cuph. Is there any thing more delicious to the Touch then the soft cool Evening-Air that fans it self through the leaves of the Arbour and cools our bloud which youth and the season of the year have overmuch heated Hyl. Nothing that I know of nor any thing more pleasant to the Sight then the Faces of so many ingenuous Friends met together whose Candour and Faithfulness is conspicuous in their very Eyes and Countenances Cuph. Shame take you Hylobares you have prevented me It is the very Conceit and due Complement I was ready to utter and bestow upon this excellent Company Hyl. It seems good wits jump and mine the nimbler of the two But what have you to gratifie the Ear Cuphophron Cuph. Do you not hear the pleasant Notes of the Birds both in the Garden and on the Bowre And if you think meanly of this Musick I Pray you give us a cast of your skill and play us a Lesson on your Flagellet Hyl. Upon condition you will dance to it Sophr. I dare say Philopolis thinks us Athenians very merry Souls Philop. Mirth and Chearfulness O Sophron are but the due reward of Innocency of life which if anywhere I believe is to be found in your manner of living who do not quit the World out of any Hypocrisie Sullenness or Superstition but out of a sincere love of true Knowledge and Vertue But as for the pretty warbling of the Birds or that greater skill of Hylobares on the Flagellet I must take the liberty to profess that it is not that kind of Musick that will gain my Attention at this time when I see so many able and knowing persons met together but the pursuance of some instructive Argument freely and indifferently managed for the finding out of the Truth Nothing so musicall to my ears as this Cuph. Nor I dare say to any of this Company Philopolis Philop. But I am the more eager because I would not lose so excellent an opportunity of improving my Knowledg For I never met with the like advantage before nor am likely again to meet with it unless I meet with the same Company Cuph. We are much obliged to you for your good opinion of us Philopolis But you full little think that you must be the Beginner of the Discourse your self Philop. Why so Cuphophron Cuph. For it is an ancient and unalterable Custome of this place that in our Philosophical Meetings he that is the greatest Stranger must propound the Argument Whether this Custome was begun by our Ancestors out of an ambition of shewing their extemporary ability of speaking upon any Subject or whether out of mere civility to the Stranger I know not Philop. I believe it was the latter I am so sensible of the advantage thereof and do not onely embrace but if need were should claim the privilege now I know it but shall use it with that modesty as to excuse the choice of my Argument if it shall appear rather a Point of Religion then Philosophy For Religion is the Interest of all but Philosophy of those onely that are at leisure and vacant from the affairs of the world
according to the universal Opinion of all sober men that his Nature is such that he can be no-where without which far-fetch'd Subterfuge they could never have born two faces under one hood and play'd the Atheist and Deist at once professing God was no-where and yet that he was Cuph. Is this your Sagacity or deep Melancholy Bathynous that makes you surmize such Plots against the Deity For I have no more Plot against God then against my own Soul which I hold to be a Spirit And I hold God to be no-where not as he is God but as he is an Intellectual Spirit for I hold of all Spirits that they are now-where Hyl. It seems then Cuphophron that the Plot aims farther then we thought on not onely to exclude God but all the Orders of Spirits that are out of the world Cuph. I know not what you call excluding out of the world Hylobares I am sure I do not mean any excluding out of Being Hyl. That is mercifully meant O Cuphophron but we cannot conceive they are if they may not be upon any other terms then you conceit them And it is a wonder to me that you do not easily discern your own Soul to be some-where if you can distinctly discern her to be at all Cuph. I do most intimately and distinctly perceive my own Soul or Minde to be and that I am it and yet without being any-where at all Hyl. But cannot you also think of two things at once O Cuphophron Cuph. Every man can doe that that can compare two things or two Idea's one with the other For if he do not think of them at once how can he compare them Hyl. Let not go therefore this perception you have of your self but raise up also the Idea or Remembrance of the indefinitely-extended Matter of the Universe which is discontinued no-where but reaches from your self to infinite spaces round about you or is continued from infinite spaces round about till it reach your thinking Selfship Can you be surrounded by all this and yet be no-where Or can you compare your distinct Selfship with this immense compass and yet not conceive your self surrounded Cuph. I compare what is no-where with that which is every-where and finde them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hyl. You suppose your Minde or Soul no-where first or rather say so though you cannot conceive it and then you cry out that the Universe and she are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which errour if you were unprejudiced this Consideration would convince you of especially back'd with what palpably falls under sense Cuph. What 's that Hylobares Hyl. The Soul 's being touch'd and transfix'd as it were from real Objects ab extra round about from above and beneath and from every side Which would be notoriously perceptible to you if you could pearch your self as a Bird on the top of some high Steeple Cuph. It is more safe to suppose the Experiment then to try it But what then Hylobares Hyl. There being from above and beneath and from every side round from those externall Objects suppose of Sight Motion transmitted to the perceptive Soul her self through the Air and Organs of her Body and she palpably perceiving her self thus affected from things round about her it is manifest from thence that she is in the midst of them according as she plainly feels her self to be and that consequently she is some-where Cuph. That which is no-where cannot be in the midst of any things It is onely the Body that is in the midst of those Objects which obtrudes this mistake upon the Soul whiles she thinks herself to be in the midst of them whenas indeed she is not Hyl. But the Body with all its Organs and those more externall Media betwixt the Body and the Objects are but the Instruments whereby the Soul perceives those distant Objects round about Wherefore she herself must needs be where the lines of Motion through these continued Instruments of her Perception do concentre Nay indeed the transmission of any single Motion through Matter that affects the Soul is a palpable argument that she is some-where For how can that which is some-where as Matter and Motion are reach that which is no-where How can they come at it or it at them Not to adde that Des-Cartes himself expressly admits that those Objects the Soul sees and flies from or pursues are without her Wherefore many of these in a compass must needs surround her and therefore they being without her she must be within them and so of necessity be some-where Cuph. The Philosopher it may be there slips into the ordinary Conceit of the Vulgar Hyl. Again Cuphophron if the Souls of men be no-where they are as much in one man's Body as another's and one man's Soul may move another man's Body as well as his own and at what-ever distance that man is from them which seems impossible for any finite Spirit to doe nor are there any examples of their doing so Cuph. You give the reason your self Hylobares why they cannot act at any distance namely because their power is finite Hyl. And you Cuphophron acknowledge Souls to be nearer and farther off in that you acknowledge they cannot act at any distance But that which is nearer and farther off is some-where at least definitivé Cuph. And that one man's Soul does not move another man's Body is because it is vitally united onely to one Hyl. Is it then united to the inside of the Body Cuphophron or to the outside Cuph. That is a captious question For whether I say to the inside or to the outside you will infer the Soul to be some-where But that which is no-where cannot be united to either side Hyl. And therefore is not united at all Cuph. These things will not fall into every man's capacity Hyl. Again Cuphophron is the Soul united to the Body by its Essence or by some essential Attribute of the Soul Cuph. There is another Caption Hylobares For I foresee your Sophistry that if I say the Essence of the Soul is united with the Body then the Soul must be where the Body is But if I say by an essential Attribute the Soul must be where the essential Attribute is and consequently where the Body is so that it will come all to one Hyl. Or thus Cuphophron Does not the Soâ—l move the Body Cuph. What moves the Bodies of Brutes Hylobares Is not their Soul mere Mechanicall motion according to that admirable Philosopher Hyl. But I ask you does not the Rational Soul by the power of its Will move the Body Cuph. Else there were no exercise of Free-will in external Actions Hyl. Is then the power of moving the Body thus by her Will in the Soul or out of the Soul Cuph. In the Soul Hylobares Hyl. How then can this power be exerted on the Body to move it unless the Soul be essentially present to the Body to exert it upon it Cuph. By a certain
emanative Efficacy that comes from the Soul Hyl. And flows like a Streamer in the air betwixt the Soul and the Body Cuph. You run always into these extensional Phantasms Hylobares the busie importunities of which when I am rapt up into my Metaphysicall Sublimities I look as contemptuously down upon as upon the quick wrigglings up and down of Pismires and Earwigs upon the extended surface of the Earth Hyl. You have a very eleâ—ated Soul I must confess O Cuphophron But I pray you look down a little lower and closer on this emanative Energy of the Soul upon the Body and pursue it from the Body to the source of it the Soul where ends it Cuphophron Cuph. In the Soul Hylobares Hyl. But where is then the Soul Cuph. No-where Hyl. Why then it ends no-where and began from no-where Cuph. That must needs be because the Soul is no-where Hyl. But this is marvellously mysterious O Cuphophron that there should be a continued Emanation betwixt two things whereof one is some-where and yet the other no-where the intermediate Emanation also proceeding but to a finite distance Cuph. Metaphysicks were not Metaphysicks Hylobares if they were not mysterious Hyl. Had you not better admit of an Immaterial or Metaphysicall Extension with Philotheus and my self then to harbour such unconceivable Notions that lie so unevenly in every man's minde but your own Cuph. I am not alone of this minde Hylobares And as for Philotheus his opinion and yours since you have adopted it I have heard what has been said all this while and have thought of these things over and over again but your Reasons move me nothing at all Hyl. Tell me then I pray you Cuphophron what is it chiefly that moved you to be of the Opinion that you are That no Spirit can be any-where or that the Soul of man is no-where Cuph. O Hylobares there be convincing Reasons of this seeming Paradox if they meet with a minde capable of them but the chief are these two First In that the Minde of man thinks of such things as are no-where as of many Moral Logicall and Mathematicall Truths which being of the nature to be no-where the Minde that conceives them must be necessarily no-where also The second In that Cogitation as Cogitation is ipso facto exempted or prescinded from all Extension For though we doubt whether there be any Matter or any Extended thing in the world yet we are even then assured that we are Recogitantes Which shews that Cogitation has nothing at all to doe with Extension nor has any Applicability to it forasmuch as we perceive our selves to think when we have not the least thought of any thing extended Wherefore our Thoughts having no Relation or Applicability to Extension they have no Applicability to Place and consequently neither they nor our Mindes are any-where Hyl. I partly understand what you would be at Cuphophron but not so fully as to discover any strength at all in your Reasonings The weakness of the first Ground you may understand from hence That it will as well follow that the Soul or Minde of man is some-where because it thinks of things that are some-where as that it is no-where because it thinks of things that are no-where Besides that those things which you say are no-where are some-where I mean those Moral Logicall and Mathematicall Truths For they are in the Minde or Soul and the Soul I before demonstrated I think to any unprejudiced Auditour to be in the Body and the Body you cannot deny but to be some-where It is true some of those Truths it may be as they are Representations respect neither Time nor Place but as they are Operations or Modes of a Subject or Substance they cannot but be conceived to be in that Substance And forasmuch as there is no Substance but has at least an essential Amplitude they are in a Substance that is in some sort extended and so by virtue of their Subject must necessarily be conceived to be some-where For the Mode of a thing is inseparate from the Thing it self Cuph. But here you run away with that Hylobares which I will not allow you to assume viz. That there is a Substance of the Minde or Soul didistinct from Cogitation I say that Cogitation it self is the very Substance of the Soul and therefore the Soul is as much no-where as if it had no substance at all Hyl. But observe Cuphophron that in your saying that Cogitation it self is the very Substance of the Soul you affirm the Soul is a Substance And so my Argument returns again upon you though the saying the very Operation is the Substance is a manifest falshood For the Operations of the Soul are specifically distinct and such specifically distinct Operations succeeding one another must be according to your account so many specifical Substances succeeding one another So that your Soul would not be alwaies the same specifical Substance much less the same individual then which nothing can be more wilde and extravagant Again the Soul is accounted a permanent thing by all men but her Operations are in flux and succession How then can the Operations be the Soul her self or what will become of Memorie There is therefore O Cuphophron a substance of the Soul as distinct from its Operations or succeeding Cogitations as the Matter is from the Figures and Motions that succeed in it Cuph. I am not yet convinced of that Hyl. And now for your second Ground which would inferr from our being assured we think while we doubt whether there be any extended thing in the World or it may be think of no Extension that therefore our Minds have no relation or applicability to any Extension whatsoever The weakness of this Reasoning you may easily discover if you will but consider That Intension of Heat or Motion is considered without any relation to Extension and yet it is related to a Subject extended suppose to a burning-hot Iron And we think without at all thinking of Time or of the course of the Sun and yet our Thought is applicable to Time and by the motion of the Sun may definitively be said not to have commenced till such a minute of an hour and to have ceased by such a minute And there is the same reason of Place as of Time that is to say such a man's Thoughts may be said definitively to have been conceived in such a place as well as within such a time And to conclude it seems a mere Sophism to argue from the precision of our Thoughts that the Things themselves are really prescinded one from another and it is yet far worse to inferr they have not any relation or applicability one to another If they were so unrelated indeed in the full and adequate apprehension of them as well circumstantial as essential then I confess the Inference might be sound But when the Minde is so set on the Metaphysicall rack as to pull those things asunder that are
very birth And as for Mad-men it is notoriously known that the greatest cause is ordinarily Immorality Pride the want of Faith in God or inordinate love of some outward Object But no Madness but that which is purely a Disease is to be charged upon Providence for which there is the like Apologi◠as for other Diseases which if we should admit they did not always good to the afflicted yet it cannot be denied but that they do very naturally tend to the bettering of the Spectatours as this sad Object of Madness ought to doe to make men humble and modest and masters of their Passions and studious of purification of Soul and Body and close adherers to the Deity that so horrid a distemper may never be able to seize them to keep down the ferocity of Desire and to be wholly resigned to the Will of God in all things and not to seek a man's self no more then if he were not at all not to love the Praise of men nor the Pride of the world nor the Pleasures of life but to make it his entire pleasure to be of one Will with his Maker nor to covet any thing but the accomplishment of his will in all things Hyl. This Divine Madness you will say Philotheus will extinguish all natural Madness as the pure light of the Sun does any course terrestriall Fire Philoth. This Divine Sobriety Hylobares will keep our animal spirits safe and sober Bath I conceive Philotheus that Hylobares may not call that excellent state of the Soul a Divine Madness out of any reproach to it but for the significancy of the expression For Madness is nothing else but an Ecstaticalness of the Soul or an Emotion of the Minde so that a man is said not to be himself or to be beside himself The misery of which in natural Madness is that he being thus unhindged he roves and is flung off at randome whither it happens or lock'd into some extravagant phancy or humour that is to no purpose or else to ill purpose But Divine Madness is when a man by studiously and devotionally quitting himself and his own animal desires through an intire purification of his spirit being thus loosened from himself is laid fast hold on by the Spirit of God who guides this faithfull and well-fitted Instrument not according to the ignorant or vicious modes of the World but his motions keep time to that Musick which is truly holy Seraphicall and Divine I mean to the measures of sound Reason and pure Intellect Hyl. I meant no worse Bathynous then you intimate but you have apologized more floridly and Rhetorically for me then I could have done for my self And therefore this rub being removed I beseech you Philotheus proceed in your well-begun Apologie touching those Difficulties in Providence which I last propounded Philoth. I will adde therefore these two considerations First That this Life is short and that no more is required of these ill-appointed persons for Wisedom and Vertue then proportionally to the Talent committed to them So that their danger is diminished according to the lessening of the measure of their Capacities Secondly That it is our Phancie rather then our Reason that makes us imagine these Objects so much more sad and deplorable then what we see in the ordinary sort of men For as I was intimating before which of these two is the more deplorable state to be a Fool by Fate or upon choice And are not all things Toies and Fools-baubles and the pleasures of Children or Beasts excepting what is truly Moral and Intellectual And how few I pray you amongst many thousands do seriously spend their studies in any thing weightily Moral or Intellectual but fiddle away their time as idlely as those tha◠pill Straws or tie knots on Rushes in a fit of Deliration or Lunacy The Wits of this Age contend very much for this Paradox That there is no other Happiness then Content but it is the Happiness of natural Fools to finde their Content more easily and certainly then these very Wits And there is in this case much the same reason of Mad-men as of Fools And what is the gaudiness of Fools Coats but the gallantry of these Wits though not altogether so authentickly in fashion Besides this may excuse Providence something that the generality of men do usually flock after Fools and Mad-men and shew themselves delighted with the Object Bath They are pleased it may be to see some more mad and sottish then themselves and so congratulate to themselves the advantage and preeminency as they phansie of their own condition Hyl. It may be they approch to them as to alluring Looking-glasses wherein they may so lively discern their own Visages Philoth. You may have spoken more truly in that Hylobares then you are aware of saving that generally men are more foolish and mad then these Looking-glasses can represent them Nihil tam absurdè dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo Philosophorum is a saying of Cicero And if the Philosophers themselves be such fools what are the Plebeians Could ever any thing more sottish or extravagant fall into the minde of either natural Fool or Mad-man then That the eternall God is of a corporeall nature and shape That the World and all the parts of it the organized Bodies of men and beasts not excepted are the result of a blinde Iumble of mere Matter and Motion without any other guide What more phrantick then the figment of Transubstantiation and of infallible Lust Ambition and Covetousness Or what more outrageous specimen of Madness then the killing and slaying for the Non-belief of such things A man is accounted a natural Fool for preferring his Bauble before a bag of Gold but is not he a thousand times more foolish that preferrs a bag of Gold a puff of Honour a fit of transient Pleasure before the everlasting Riches Glory and Joys of the Kingdome of Heaven No man wonders that a Mad-man unadvisedly kills another and if he did it advisedly and of set purpose yet it being causelessly and disadvantageously to himself he is reputed no less mad How notoriously mad then are those that to their own eternall damnation depopulate Countries sack Cities subvert Kingdoms and not onely martyr the bodies of the pious and righteous but murther the Souls of others whom by fraud or violence they pollute with Idolatrous and impious practices and all this for that gaudy Bauble of Ambition and a high Conceit of one Vniversal Spiritual Monarch that ought to wallow in Wealth and tumble in all the fleshly and sensual Delights of this present World Wherefore to speak my judgement freely Hylobares seeing that there would be such abundance of men mad and foolish and wicked according to the ordinary guize of the world it does not misbeseem the Goodness of Providence to anticipate this growing degeneracy in some few by making them Fools and Mad-men as it were by birth or fate that Folly and Madness being
pray you Hylobares make your address to Philotheus you know how successfull he has been hitherto Philoth. If that would quiet your minde Hylobares I could indulge to you so far as to give you leave to think that although Sin be in it self absolutely evil as being an Incongruity or Disproportionality onely betwixt Things not the things themselves for all things are good in their degree yet the Motions Ends or Objects of sinfull Actions are at least some lesser good which I charitably conceive may be all that Cuphophron aimed at in that Enthusiastick Hurricane he was carried away with and all that he will stand to upon more deliberate thoughts with himself Cuph. Yes I believe it will be thereabout to morrow morning after I have slept upon 't And I return you many thanks Philotheus for your candid Interpretation Philoth. But methinks the Question is in a manner as nice Why God should suffer any Creature to chuse the less good for the greater as permit him to sin For this seems not according to the exactness of a perfectly-benign Providence Hyl. You say right Philotheus and therefore if you could but clear that Point I believe it will go far for the clearing all Philoth. Why this Scruple Hylobares concerning the Souls of men is much-what the same if not something easier with that concerning the Bodies of both men and beasts For the Omnipotency of God could keep them from diseases and death it self if need were Why therefore are they subject to Diseases but that the Wisedome of God in the contrivance of their Bodies will act onely according to the capacity of corporeal matter and that he intends the World should be an Automaton a self-moving Machina or Engine that he will not perpetually tamper with by his absolute power but leave things to run on according to that course which he has put in Nature For it is also the perfection of his Work to be in some sort like its Artificer independent which is a greater Specimen of his Wisedome Hyl. But you should also shew that his Goodness was not excluded the Consultation O Philotheus Philoth. No more is it so far as there is a Capacity of its coming in for any thing that humane reason can assure it self to the contrary For let me first puzzle you Hylobares with that Position of the Stoicks That the minde of Man is as free as Iupiter himself as they rant it in their language and that he cannot compell our Will to any thing but what-ever we take to must be from our own free Principle nothing being able to deal with us without our selves As a man that is fallen into a deep Ditch if he will not so much as give his fellow his hand he cannot pull him out Nor may this seem more incongruous or inconsistent with the Omnipotency of God then that he cannot make a Square whose Diagonial is commensurate to the Side or a finite Body that has no figure at all For these are either the very Essence or the essâ—ntial Consequences of the things spoken of and it implies a contradiction they should exist without them So we will for dispute sake affirm that Liberty of Will is an essential Property of the Soul of Man and can no more be taken from her then the proper Affections of a Geometricall Figure from the Figure unless she once determine or intangle her self in Fate which she cannot doe but of her self or else fix herself above Fate and fully incorporate with the simple Good For to speak Pythagorically the Spirits of men and of all the fallen Angels are as an Isosceles betwixt the Isopleuron and Scalenum not so ordinate a Figure as the one nor so inordinate as the other so these Spiriâ—s of men and Angels are a middle betwixt the more pure and Intellectual Spirits uncapable of falling from and the Souls of Beasts uncapable of rising to the participation of Divine Happiness Wherefore if you take away this vertible Principle in Man you would make him therewithall of another Species either a perfect Beast or a pure Intellect Hyl. This Opinion of the Stoicks is worth our farther considering of But in the mean time why might not Man have been made a pure Intelligence at first Philoth. Why should he so Hyloares sith the Creation of this middle Order makes the numbers of the pure Intellectual Orders never the fewer Not to adde that your demand is as absurd as if you should ask why every Flie is not made a Swallow every Swallow an Eagle and every Eagle an Angel because an Angel is better then any of the other Creatures I named There is a gradual descension of the Divine Fecunditie in the Creation of the World Hyl. This is notable Philotheus and unexpected But were it not better that God Almighty should annihilate the Individuals of this middle vertible Order as you call it so soon as they lapse into Sin then let such an ugly Deformity emerge in the Creation Philoth. This is a weighty Question Hylobares but yet such as I hope we both may ease our selves of if we consider how unbecoming it would be to the Wisedome of God to be so over-shot in the Contrivance of the Creation as that he must be ever and anon enforced to annihilate some part of it as being at a loss what else to doe and if they should all lapse to annihilate them all Hyl. Why he might create new in a moment Philotheus Philoth. But how-ever these would be very violent and harsh though but short Chasma's in the standing Creation of God I appeal to your own sense Hylobares would that look handsomely Hyl. I know not what to think of it Besides if that were true that some Philosophers contend for That all the whole Creation as well particular Souls and Spirits as the Matter and Universal Spirit of the World be from God by necessary Emanation this middle vertible Order can never be turned out of Being But that the Stability of God's Nature and Actions should not be according to the most exquisite Wisedome and Goodness would be to me the greatest Paradox of all Philoth. Why who knows but that it is better for them to exist though in this Lapsed state and better also for the Universe that so they may be left to toy and revell in the slightest and obscurest shadows of the Divine fulness then to be suddenly annihilated upon their first Lapse or Transgression For to be taken up with a less good is better then to be exiled out of Being and to enjoy no good at all Hyl. That it is better for them is plain according to the opinion of all Metaphysicians but how is it better for the Universe Philotheus Philoth. How do you know but that it is as good for the Universe computing all respects if it be not better And that is sufficient For Man is betwixt the Intellectual Orders and the Beasts as a Zoophyton betwixt the Beasts 〈◊〉 the Plants I
follow his example and betake our selves homewards for it is now very late Was it a delusion of my sight or did there a Star shoot obliquely as I put my head out of the Arbour Bath If the Dog-star had been in view one would have thought him in danger from Hylobares his charming Whistle Euist. No Hags of Thessaly could ever whistle the celestial Dog out of the Sky Bathynous Cuph. How sublimely witty is Euistor with one single Glass Euist. Good night to you dear Cuphophron Cuph. Nay I will wait on you to your Lodgings Philop. By no means Cuphophron we will leave you here in your own house unless you will give us the trouble of coming back again with you Cuph. Good night to you then Gentlemen all at once Philop. Good night to Cuphophron The End of the Second Dialogue THE THIRD DIALOGUE Philotheus Bathynous Sophron Philopolis Euistor Hylobares Cuphophron Sophr. WHat tall Instrument is this O Cuphophron that you have got thus unexpectedly into your Arbour Cuph. The tallness discovers what it is a Theorboe I observing yesternight how musically given the Company was in stead of Hylobares his Whistle which is more usually play'd upon before Bears or dancing Dogs then before Philosophers or Persons of any quality have provided this more grave and gentile Instrument for them that have a mind to play and sing to it that so they may according to the manner of Pythagoras after our Philosophicall Dissertations with a solemn Fit of Musick dismiss our composed mindes to rest Sophr. You abound in all manner of Civilities Cuphophron But do not you play on this Instrument your self Cuph. No alas it is too tall for me my Fingers will not reach the Frets But sometimes with a careless stroak I brush the Gittar and please my self with that more easie Melody Hyl. And it would please any one living to see Cuphophron at that gracefull Exercise so as I have sometimes taken him He is so like the Sign at the other end of the Street Cuph. This Wag Hylobares I dare say means the Sign of the Ape and the Fiddle This is in revenge for the disparagement I did his beloved Syrinx the Arcadian Nymph Philop. I never heard that Hylobares had any Mistress before Hyl. This is nothing Philopolis but the exaltedness of Cuphophron's phancy and expression a Poeticall Periphrasis of my Flagellet which in disparagement before he called a Whistle Philop. But your imagination has been more then even with him if he interpret you aright Let me intreat you of all love Hylobares to suppress such light and ludicrous Phancies in so serious a Meeting Hyl. I shall endeavour to observe your commands for the future O Philopolis but I suspect there is some strange reek or efflux of Atomes or Particles Cuph. Of Particles by all means Hylobares for that term is more Cartesian Hyl. Which fume out of Cuphophron's body and infect the air with mirth though all be not alike subject to the Contagion But for my self I must profess that merely by being in Cuphophron's presence I find my self extremely prone to Mirth even to Ridiculousness Philop. As young men became disposed to Vertue and Wisedome merely by being in the company of Socrates though he said nothing unto them Cuph. And I must also profess that Hylobares is not much behinde-hand with me For I can never meet him but it makes me merry about the mouth and my heart is inwardly tickled with a secret joy Which for the credit of Des-Cartes's Philosophy I easily acknowledge may be from the mutuall recourse and mixture of our exhaled Atomes or rather Particles as Cartesius more judiciously calls them for these Particles are not indivisible Some also are ready to quarrel one another at the first meeting as well as Hylobares and I to be merry and you know some Chymicall Liquours though quiet and cool separate yet mingled together will be in such a ragefull Fermentation that the Glass will grow hot to the very touch of our Fingers Euist. This is learnedly descanted on by Cuphophron but by the favour of so great a Philosopher I should rather resolve the Probleme into some Reason analogous to that of those Seeds which Solinus says the Thracians at their Feasts cast into the fire the fume whereof so exhilarated their spirits that they were no less merry then if they had drank liberally of the strongest Wines Hyl. Pomponius Mela also relates the same of them But nothing methinks illustrates the nature of this Phaenomenon better then that Experiment of a certain Ptarmicon Seed or Powder I do not well remember which cast secretly into the fire will unexpectedly set the company asneezing Suoh I conceive to be the hidden Effluvia of Cuphophron's Complexion which thus suddenly excites these ridiculous Flashes of my ungovernable Phancy to the just scandal of the more grave and sober Which Extravagance I must confess is so much the more unpardonable to my self by how much my own minde has been since our last Meeting more heavy-laden with the most Tragicall Scenes that are exhibited on this terrestriall Globe which endeavour to bear against all those ponderous Reasons those dexterous Solutions and solid Instructions which Philotheus yesterday so skilfully produced in the behalf of Providence Philop. Why what remains of Difficulty Hylobares either touching the Natural or Moral Evils in the World Hyl. Touching the Natural Evils Philopolis I rest still pretty well satisfy'd and in that general way that Philotheus answered touching Moral Evils his Solutions seemed to my Reason firm enough but when in solitude I recounted with my self more particularly the enormous Deformities and Defects that every-where are conspicuous in the Nations of the Earth my Phancy was soon born down into a diffidence and suspicion that there is no such accurate Providence as Philotheus contends for which does superintend the affairs of Mankinde Bath That is to say Hylobares After that more then ordinary Chearfulness raised in your spirits by your re-acquaintance with those many and most noble Truths that Philotheus recovered into your mind by his wise discourse at which the Soul of man at her first meeting with them again is as much transported as when two ancient friends unexpectedly meet one another in a strange Countrey as Iamblichus somewhere has noted I say after this more then usual transport of Joy your spirits did afterward as much sink and flag and so Melancholy imposed upon your Phancy But there is no fear things having succeeded so well hitherto but Philotheus will revive you and dissipate these Clouds that seem so dark and dismall to your Melancholized Imagination Hyl. I believe you will more confidently conclude it Melancholy Bathynous when you have heard what an affrightfull puzzle one thing then seemed to me Bath I pray you Hylobares propound it to Philotheus Hyl. Well I shall Bathynous and it is briefly this How squalid and forlorn the World seemed to me by
black Hair and black Eyes and Eye-brows a black Sett of Teeth would fit excellently well with these For my part I know not whether Jet or Ivory looks more pleasantly either methinks looks more handsomely then a row of Teeth as yellow as Box which is the more ordinary hue of our Europeans Euist. But the Laws of Miction amongst those of the West-Indies is a pitch of Slovenliness beyond all Cynicism the men and women not sticking to let fly their Urine even while they are conversing with you Cuph. That is very consequentially done Euistor to that simple Shamelesness of being stark naked For it is those Parts rather then any Loathsomeness in the liquour that proceeds from them which is both wholesome to be drunk in sundry cases and many times pleasant to the smell that require secrecy in that Evacuation Wherefore there seems more of Iudgement then Sottishness in this Custome unless in the other Exoneration they use the like Carelesness Euist. Cautious beyond all measure No Miser hides his Bags of muck with more care and secrecy then they endeavour to unload themselves of that Depositum of Nature They are very Essenes in this point of Cleanliness O Cuphophron Cuph. Why this makes amends for the former I thought they would easily smell out the difference Hyl. Methinks Euistor you ask a little out of order The present Theme is the Deckings of the barbarous Nations But you see Cuphophron is excellently well appointed for all Cuph. An universalized spirit a Soul throughly reconciled to the Oeconomie of the World will not be at a loss for an Apology for any Phaenomenon Euist. There are far harder then these to come O Cuphophron But I will onely give one step back touching Ornaments Is not that Bravery which Americus Vesputius records in his Voiage to the New-found-world very ghastly tragicall For he saies sundry of those Nations had quite spoiled their Visages by boring of many great Holes in their Cheeks in their Chaps in their Noses Lips and Ears and that he observed one man that had no leâ—s then seven Holes in his Face so big as would receive a Damask prune In these they put blew Stone Crystall Ivory or such like Ornaments Which I the easilier believe to be true having spoke with those my self that have seen Americans with pieces of carved Wood stuck in their Cheeks Sophr. Cuphophron scratches his head as if he were something at a loss In the mean time Euistor take this â—ill Cuphophron has excogitated something better That which is rare we know is with all Nations precious and what is precious they love to appropriate and transferr upon themselves as near as they can whence rich men eat many times not what is wholesomest but the hardest to be got So if there be any thing more costly then another they will hang it on their Bodies though they cannot put it into their Bellies such as their Ear-rings and Jewells But these Barbarians seem to exceed them in the curiositie of their application of these Preciosities they fully implanting them into their very Flesh as if they were part of their natural Body Hyl. Well Sophron but how rude and sottish are they in the mean time that they thus cruelly wound their poor Carcases to satisfie the folly of their Pride and Phancy Sophr. But the boring of the Face and the slashing of the Skin I believe will prove more tolerable then the cutting and piercing of the Heart with Care and Anxiety which the Pride of more civilized places causes in men of high Spirits and low Fortunes Besides Hylobares it may be our ignorance to think they undergoe so much Pain in the prosecution of these phantastick humours For these Holes and Slashes may be made in their Bodies when they are young like Incisions on the Bark of a tree or a young Pumpion that grow in bigness with the growth of these Plants And how safely and inoffensively such things may be practised on young Children the wringing off the Tails of Puppets and Circumcision of Infants used by so many Nations are sufficient examples Cuph. I thank you for this Sophron some such thing I was offering at but you have prevented me Proceed Euistor or Hylobares whether of you will Hyl. I prithee Euistor puzzle Cuphophron if you can touching the Political Government of the Barbarians Euist. Does not that seem marvellous brutish O Cuphophron that in some places they had no Government at all as in Cuba and New Spain whose Inhabitants went naked acknowledged no Lord but lived in common Liberty as Cosmographers witness Cuph. Is that so unreasonable or brutish O Euistor that those that are not burthened with the incumbrance of Riches should neglect the use of Laws the chiefest Controversies amongst men arising concerning Honours and Wealth those two great incitements to Injustice Wherefore those Barbarians seem so far from any Degeneracy in this that they rather resemble the Primevall Simplicity of the Golden Age where there was neither Judge nor Gaoler but common Liberty prevented all occasions of Injury Here Adultery was found impossible there being onely difference of Sexes no distinction of the married and unmarried state or appropriation of any single Female to one solitary Man Which some eminent Sages of Greece to omit the suffrage of some of the more spiritually-pretending Sectaries of this present Age have look'd upon as a special part of the most perfect platform of a Commonwealth their wisedom could excogitate Assuredly the power of Nature is so wire-drawn through so many ceremonious Circumstances of Parentage of Portion of Alliances and then so fettered and confined by the religious tie of Marriage whether the parties can well hit it or no that her vigour is very much broken the Generations of men weakned and their days shortened in most parts of the Civilized World whenas those Tenants in common you speak of seldome are sick and ordinarily live to an hundred and fifty years as I have read in Historians So that the confinements of the Law of Marriage seem instituted for the good of the Soul rather then the health and strength of the Body But outward Laws not reaching adulterous Affections the Hypocrisie of the Civilized Nations has made them too often forfeit the sincere good of both Grace and Nature at once Sophr. This is smartly but madly and surprizingly spoken Cuphophron and more like a Poet or Philosopher then like a Christian. Cuph. This is nothing against the Sanctity of the Laws of Christianity which undoubtedly are infinitely above not onely the Lawlesness but the best Laws of other Nations But forasmuch as I finde my self as it were Advocate-general of the Paynims I must plead their Cause and make their Case look as tolerable as I can Bath Which you do Cuphophron over-Lawyer-like supporting your Clients without any regard to the Truth while you impute the Health and Longaevity of these Barbarians to their promiscuous Venerie rather then to their ranging abroad
Captives to sacrifice to the Devil they telling them their Gods diâ—d for hunger and that they should remember them The Devil also himâ—â—lf is said to appear in Florida and to complain that he is thirsty â—hat humane bloud may be presently â—hed to quench his thirst The solemnity of sacrificing Capâ—ives to Vitziliputzly in Mexico within â—he Palisado of dead mens Sculls is most horrid and direfull where the â—igh Priest cut open their Breasts with a sharp Flint and pulled out â—heir reeking Hearts which he first â—hew'd to the Sun to whom he offeâ—ed it but then suddenly turning to â—he Idol cast it at his face and with 〈◊〉 kick of his foot tumbled the Body from the Tarrass he stood upon down the Stairs of the Temple which were all embrew'd and defiled with bloud These Sacrifices also they ate and clothed themselves with the Skins of the slain Cuph. Now certainly this Custome of the Americans is very horrible and abominable thus bloudily to sacrifice men to that Enemie of Mankind the Devil And therefore it were very happy if we had nothing in these Civilized parts of the World that bore the least shadow of similitude with it Euist. Why have we any thing Cuphophron Cuph. Why what is the greatesâ— horrour that surprises you in this Custome Euistor Euist. To say the truth Cuphophron I do not find my self so subtile anâ— distinct a Philosopher as explicitly tâ— tell you what but I think it is first That mankind should worship so ugly and execrable an object as the Devil and then in the second place Thaâ— they should sacrifice so worthy anâ— noble a thing as an humane Body which is in capacity of becoming the Temple of the Holy Ghost to so deâ—estable an Idol Cuph. You have I think answered very right and understandingly Euistâ—r if you rightly conceive what makes the Devil so detestable Euist. Surely his Pride Cruelty and Malignity of nature and in that all Love and Goodness is extinct in him which if he could recover he would presently become an Angel of Light â—ath Euistor has answered excellently well and like a Mysticall Theologer Euist. To tell you the truth I had it out of them Cuph. But if he has answered right Bathynous it is a sad consideration that we have in the Civilized parts of the World those that profess a more odious Religion then the Mexicans that sacrifice men to the Devil I mean the Superlapsarians For the Object of their Worship is a God-Idol of their own framing that acts merely according to Will and Power sequestred from all respect to either Iustice or Goodness as I noted before which is the genuine Idea of a Devil To which Idol they do not as the Mexicans sacrifice the mere Bodies of men but their very Souls also not kicking them down a Tarrass but arbitrariously tumbling them down into the pit of Hell there to be eternally and unexprâ—sâ—ibly tormented for no other reason but because this their dreadfull Idol will have it so Can any Religion be more horrid or blasphemous then this Hyl. I perceive you begin to be drawn dry O Cuphophron you are fain so to harp on the same string This is but your Typhon and Areimanius you mentioned before I expected some more proper and adequate Parallelisms to Euistor's fresh Instances especially to that of sacrificing to the Idol Vitziliputzly Cuph. Do you think then Hylobares that it is so hard a thing to find something in the Civilized World more peculiarly parallel to that dreadfull Ceremonie What think you of the Roman Pontif Euist. How madly does Cuphophron's phancy rove and yet how luckily had he hit if he had but made use of the usual name Papa For that is also the Title of the high Priest of Mexico who sacrifices men to Vitziliputzly as Iosephus Acosta tells us Cuph. I thank you for that hint Euistor It seems then there will be a consonancy betwixt the verbal Titles as well as an Analogie betwixt the things themselves Hyl. I would gladly hear that Analogie Cuphophron Not that I should take any such great pleasure in finding the Papacy so obnoxious but that it pleases me to observe the versatil sleights and unexpected turnings of your movable Phancy Cuph. Nor care I to tell you for either the one or the other Hylobares but that I may adorn the Province I have undertaken in the behalf of the poor Paynim The Analogie therefore briefly is this That as the high Priest of Mexico with his Officers pulled out the Heart of the Captives kicking down their Bodies for the Assistents to eat their Flesh and clothe themselves with their Skins so the Roman Pontif by his cruel Inquisitors discovering the true Religion of the faithfull Servants of Christ whom they hold in a forcible Captivity murthered them and gave their Estates for a spoil to his cruel Ministers and Assistents to feed and clothe them Does not this occurr often enough in History Euistor Euist. It cannot be deny'd many thousands have been thus butchered Hyl. But to whom were they sacrificed Cuphophron You have omitted a principal term that ought to have been in the Analogie Cuph. I would I knew what Vitziliputzly signified Euist. If that will do you any service I can tell you what it signifies expresly out of Iosephus Acosta viz. The left hand of a shining Feather Cuph. Very good very good have patience then a little Why may not then the Sun easily signifie the heavenly Glory or the Glory of God and this shining Feather the vain and foolish Pomp and Glory of the World or the Pride of Life Hyl. That is not much strained Câ—phophron but what then Cuph. Wherefore as the high Priest of Mexico pretends to sacrifice to the Sun shewing him the smoaking Heart of the Captive when he has pluck'd it out but presently turns about and does really and substantially cast the Heart of the sacrificed to the Idol Vitziliputzly So the Roman high Priest when he murthers holy and righteous men under pretence of Heresie for denyâ—ng such Falshoods and Blasphemies as are onely held up for the supporting the Interest of the Papal Sovereignty and Sublimity pretends these Murthers Sacrifices to the Glory of God and for the vindication of His Honour whenas they are really and truly bloudy Oblations and cruel Holocausts Offered up to that Idol of Abominations Pride of Spirit and vain Mundane Glory and Pomp and a remorseless Tyranny over the Souls and Bodies of men which is such a quintessential Lucifer that it is that whereby Lucifer himself becomes a Devil Hyl. All this from Vitziliputzly signifying the left hand of a shining Feather Ha ha he Wit and Phancy whether wilt thou goe How merrily-conceited is Cuphophron that can thus play with a Feather Sophr. I promise you Hylobares though the Phancy of Cuphophron may seem more then ordinarily â—udibund and lightsomely sportfull yet what he points at seems to be overlamentably true viz. That many thousands of innocent
was the most calamitous Accident that could ever have befallen the Philosophicall Republick that 〈◊〉 two unlucky Asses so rudely broke off Bathynous his Conference with that venerable Sage who I surmize in that intended Discourse would have communicated the Reasons and Grounds of these Conclusions to Bathynous For true Reason is so palpable and connatural to a Man that when he findes it he feels himself fully satisfi'd and at ease Philoth. I commend your Caution Hylobares that you are so loth to build great Conclusions upon weak or uncertain Principles Wherefore let me offer to your consideration a Point of which I presume you will acknowledge your self more certain that is The Possibility of the Pre-existence of the Soul I demand of you if you be not very certain of that Hyl. Yes surely I am I see no repugnancy at all in it Philoth. Then you are not certain but that the Soul does pre-exist Hyl. I confess it Philoth. And uncertain that it does not Hyl. That cannot be denied it is the same I think I granted before Philoth. Therefore Hylobares you make your self obnoxious both to Providence and to my self To Providence in that you bring in uncertain Allegations and Accusations against her and so soil the beauty and perfection of her waies that are so justifiable where they are perfectly known by opposing Phancies and Conceits such as you your self acknowledge you are not certain of To me in that you covenanted with me at the first never to alledge uncertain Hypotheses against known Truth Hyl. This is true Philotheus you make me half ashamed of my Inconstancy But in the mean time I do not finde my self in that full ease I desire to be while as well the Pre-existence of the Soul as her Non-Preexistence is an uncertain Hypothesis Philoth. If you cannot finde Divine Providence perfect without it it is your own fault that as to your self to save you from sinking you do not make use of it as a true Hypothesis And forasmuch as you finde it so hard to discover Divine Providence to be perfect without it that is no small Argument that the Hypothesis is true Hyl. I must confess I think it is a safer Argument then Bathynous his single Dream Philoth. Nay it were in it self Hylobares a solid Argument supposing Providence cannot well otherwise be salved as it is for the Copernican Hypothesis that nothing else can give a tolerable account of the Motion of the Planets And I must tell you farther Hylobares that this Hypothesis of the Soul's Pre-existence is not the single Dream of Bathynous sleeping in the grass but was deemed a Vision of Truth to the most awakened Souls in the world Hyl. That 's very good news Philotheus for I do not at all affect Singularity nor love to finde my self alone Philoth. If the Dream of sleeping Bathynous be a mere Dream the most famously-wise in all Ages have dream'd waking For that the Souls of men do pre-exist before they come into the Body was the Dream of those three famous Philosophers Pythagoras Plato and Aristotle the Dream of the Aegyptian Gymnosophists of the Indian Brachmans and Persian Magi the Dream of Zoroafter Epicharmus and Empedocles the Dream of Cebes Euclide and Euripides the Dream of Plotinus Proclus and Iamblichus the Dream of Marcus Cicero of Virgil Psellus and Boethius the Dream of Hippocrates Galen and Fernelius and lastly the constant and avowed Dream of Philo Iudaeus and the rest of the most learned of the Iews Cuph. I pray you let me cast in one more example Philotheus Philoth. I pray you doe Cuphophron Cuph. The Dream of the Patriarch Iacob when he slept in Bethel and dream'd he saw Angels descending and ascending on a Ladder that reached from Earth to Heaven whereby was figured out the Descent of Humane Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Return from thence to the Aethereal Regions Hyl. O egregious Cuphophron how do I admire the unexpectedness of thy Invention This is your Dream of the mysterious Dream of the holy Patriarch Cuph. And who knows but a very lucky one Hyl. But I pray you tell me Philotheus did any of the old Fathers of the Church dream any such Dream as this Sophr. This is a very becoming and commendable temper in Hylobares that his younger years will enquire after the Judgement of the ancient Fathers in the Primitive Church touching so important a matter Cuph. Those Primitive Ages were the youngest Ages of the Church but the Ages of persons much the same now that were then Hyl. Notwithstanding this flurt of Cuphophron's wit I beseech you Philotheus satisfie me in the Question I propounded Philoth. This at least Hylobares is true That the Primitive Fathers in the most entire Ages of the Church dream'd not the least evil of this Dream of Pre-existence the Wisedome of Solomon which expresly asserts it being appointed by them to be read in their publick Assemblies Nay our Saviour himself when he had a most signal occasion to have undeceived the Iews in that Point if it had been false or dangerous in the Question touching the man that was born blind took not the least offence at the supposition Whence you will the less wonder that either St. Austin Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were â—avourably affected touching the Opinion or that Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Synesius Arnobius and Prudentius were express Assertors thereof Hyl. This truly Philotheus casts me into so great a security from any harm in the Hypothesis that if you hold on as you have begun the power of your speech will unavoidably charm me into the same Dream Philoth. You know the worst of it then Hylobares that your Minde will be at perfect rest touching the present Difficulty concerning Providence And if Testimonies thus please you be assured of this That there was never any Philosopher that held the Soul spiritual and immortal but he held also that it did pre-exist Hyl. That is very considerable Philoth. And do not you Hylobares hold the Soul of man to be an Incorporeal indiscerpible Substance a Spirit Hyl. I do and I thank you that I do so Philotheus Philoth. How then comes it to pass that you being of so Philosophicall a Genius should miss of the Pre-existence of the Soul For there being no other considerable Opinion in view but Creation Traduction and Pre-existence Creation of pure Souls and the Infusion of them into impure Bodies and in such horridly-impure Circumstances as sometimes happens is a repugnancy to the Purity of God who is supposed then to create them but Traduction a derogation and contradiction to the Spirituality and Indiscerpibility of the Soul it self Wherefore it necessarily remains that these two being such absurd Opinions the third must take place and that the Souls of men do pre-exist Hyl. O Philotheus that venerable Sage in Bathynous his Sleep could not have argued better then thus if they had come to conference I do not dream but I see with the eyes of
their outward ears For the Spirit of the Lord passes through the whole Universe and communicates this Mystery to all Souls where-ever they are that are fitted to receive it in a more hidden and miraculous way such as himself and at what time himself shall please to make use of This I think the most sober Solution of the present Difficulty upon supposition that there are any Men properly so called that inhabit those Planets or Earths you speak of Which whether there be or no is uncertain to us and therefore the Allegation of such Uncertainties against certain Testimonies for the exquisite Goodness of Divine Providence as I have often intimated ought to be esteemed of no value Hyl. I must confess it Philotheus and crave your pardon But I find my very Impertinencies in my conference with you successfull and edifying Let me propose to you but one Scruple more Philotheus and then I shall give you no farther trouble Sophr. I am glad we are at length so near getting out of the Briars Philoth. I pray you what is that Scruple Hylobares Hyl. It is again about the Pre-existence of the Soul Sophr. Nay if he go back Philotheus look to your self he will come on again with such a career and give you such a push as you never felt yet Philoth. That cannot be help'd Sophron I must bear the brunt of it as well as I can Speak out therefore Hylobares and tell your Scruple Hyl. My Scruple is onely this How it can consist with the infinite Goodness of God which you say is the Measure of his Providence since that Humane Souls can pre-exist and enjoy themselves before they come into these terrestriall Bodies that they were created no sooner then cum Mundo condito which is not six thousand years agoe whenas they might have enjoy'd themselves infinite millions of thousands of years before Philoth. If we rightly understand the nature of the Soul Hylobares this is no such hard Probleme For you must understand it may be an essential Property of the Soul either vitally to actuate some material Vehicle or other or else not to act at all Wherefore it had been a frustraneous thing to create Souls so infinite a space of time before the corporeall World was created that Hypothesis supposed Hyl. This may be true for ought I know Philotheus but admitting it so it casts me still into an equal perplexity touching the Divine Goodness in that she has not thought fit that the corporeall World should be created till within six thousand years agoe whereas it might have been created an infinite time before and ought so to have been that Humane Souls might so early come into play and live and act in their respective Vehicles Philoth. This is something indeed Hylobares Sophr. Did not I tell you so Philotheus Our Ship is sunk in the very Haven when we were ready to land Philop. Your heart is sunk O Sophron pluck up your spirits and be of good chear Is this the utmost of your Difficulty Hylobares Hyl. It is cure me but of this Anxiety Philotheus and I shall declare my self as sound as a fish and perfectly freed from all Scruples touching Divine Providence Philoth. But your self must assist me then in your own Cure Tell me therefore Hylobares why do you think that the World was not created till about six thousand years agoe Hyl. That 's plain from the Chronologie of Holy Scripture Philoth. But have you no other Argument for it Hylobares Hyl. None at all that I can tell of Philotheus Philoth. Why then Hylobares the case stands thus If you heartily adhere to the truth of the Scripture as you ought I will declare you as sound as a fish and this intricate discourse about Providence might have been the less needfull But if in a Philosophicall Wantonness you will not concern your self in the Letter of the Scripture touching Theorems of Philosophy you have already declared your self as sound as a Fish Hyl. You have caught me like a Fish in a Net Philotheus but I must freely confess I do not perceive my own Soundness yet unless I should be so unsound as to quit the Scriptures Philoth. That you will never do if you rightly understand them For they are most assuredly the Truth of God Hyl. But how does this Truth consort with his Goodness whenas it declares to us that the World has continued but about these six thousand years Philoth. This Earth and Heaven that the Conflagration is to pass upon assuredly commenced no longer ago Hylobares But I pray you how high would you have the Commencement of the World to begin and in what order that it may fill out the measure of that Idea of Goodness which you would have its Continuation stretch'd upon Hyl. I would have it begun no sooner then it was possible which is infinite Myriads of years sooner then it began Philoth. Well then Hylobares begin it as soon as you will in your Philosophicall way and in what order you will and see what will become of it You young men are marvellously wise Cuph. O that I had Hylobares his Province now what rare work could I make of it Hyl. I prithee Cuphophron take it I know thou wilt manage it nimbly and wittily Cuph. Cartesianly enough I warrant thee Hylobares you shall see else if I do not And I will smartly say at first That the World was to begin so soon as God was his Omnipotency being coeternall to himself and therefore what-ever he could produce in any moment he could produce as soon as he was which was from everlasting Wherefore the Matter might have been created from everlasting and having a due measure of Motion imparted to it might within a little time after have fallen into the contrivance of Vortices and Suns according to the description of the Cartesian Philosophy that is say I Mechanically with Des-Cartes but Bathynous Spermatically from an old Pythagorick Dream in a Wood. But it is not material now which way it was For whether way soever in process of time after these Suns had shone through the Universe with a â—ree Light some of them being inveloped with Spots grew perfectly opake and being suck'd in by their neighbour Vortices became Planets or Earths Euist. These are it may be those extinct Suns or cold Suns that Parmeâ—ides the Pythagorean taught adding also that men were generated out of the Sun meaning surely these extinct or cold ones that were turned into Earths or Planets Cuph. That 's a pretty Observation Euistor Hyl. I and an handsome confirmation also of Bathynous his Dream that the Rise of the World was not merely Mechanicall but Spermaticall or Vital this Parmenides being a Pythagorean But this is not the present business I pray you return to your Province Cuphophron and bring things to a conclusion Cuph. The conclusion is manifest of it self That if the World did not commence so early as I have described sith it was possible