beginning of the work But what sort of a light was it A light without any source without any original from whence it might be derived Yet light to argue Philosophically always flows from some Center wherein is the Heart and Principle of its Motion Nevertheless in this Account of the Creation Light is produced before any distinction of the Heavens into Orbs or Vortex's Besides according to the literal reading God seems to have rested from his work in the Night time as Men are used to do but I do not see how another Haemisphere either Celestial or Terrestrial could be perfected if there was any intermission of the work and God acted only where there was light But the Vulgar never regard these little Niceties nor do they dream of Antipodes or another Hemisphere conceiving the World to be like a Tent whose covering is Heaven and foundation the surface of the Earth Next comes the third Days Task wherein the Original of the Ocean is described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purely according to the Capacity of the Vulgar in these words Let the Waters be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear Now the dry Land he called Earth and the gathering together of the Waters he called Seas this gathering together of the Waters to uncover the Face of the Earth which lay hid under the Abyss could not be effected any more than two ways viz. either by an accumulation of the Waters in certain places so as that others might remain empty or else by hollowing the Earth which was under the Abyss in certain places so as that the Waters might subside there But that accumulation could not make the Channel of the Ocean wherefore all the Interpreters say it was made by a hollowing of the Earth and that the Waters being drawn down and aggregated there the Earth was deprived of them in other places They also tell you that the Mountains were made of this work viz. with the Earth which was dug out of this Channel of the Sea and heaped up in diven places Now what can be plainer than this Original of the Ocean and Mountains provided you do not too much play the Critic and forbear too nice a scrutiny These things therefore must have pleased and satisfied the People who do not trouble themselves about niceties But if any one has a Mind to make a more exact Enquiry into these Things he may if he plases consult what is written on this Subject in Theor. l. 1. c. 8 9. and last in which last Chapter by various Reasons and manifest Tokens it is demonstrated that neither the Channel of the Ocean nor the first inhabitable dry Land could proceed from this Original But it would not be worth my while to repeat the same here or to add any more upon this Subject So much for the first three Days of Moses's Creation in which if our Author had passed by the first and second Days Task viz. that glimmering Light and those Waters above the Firmament and had put his ninth verse immediately after his second his World or inhabitable Orb had been never the more deficient But because he had resolved at least as I suppose to hold and consecrate the seventh Day for a Sabbath it was necessary for him to spin out his Creation to six Days That with the remembrance of the Worlds being finished and after the Example of God's resting from all manner of Work the seventh Day might be for ever solemnly observed But the Tasks of each of these days are extreamly unequal the first days work would have been finished in the twinkling of an Eye and so in my Opinion the second Whereas the third days Task would have been a vast and tedious piece of Business First to cut out so large a Channel as is that of the Sea then to draw off all the Waters that covered the Surface of the Earth or rather to force them down into that Channel I say force since they would not fall down towards the Sea of their own accord there being as yet no Channels to convey the Rivers nor Descents of the Earth to câ—rry them down in those places where the new Mountains or heaps of Earth newly dug up were fixed the Waters would be thrown off and the same proportion of them fall down into the Pit of the Sea But in all other places if no violence were used to them they would remain unmoveable upon the Face of the Earth However although you suppose them to have run down with the same rapidity as Rivers do Yet from some of the most Inland Places 't would be several Days Journey to the Sea The fourth days Task seems no less laborious viz. the Sun Moon and Stars Good God how many and vast Bodies did that one day produce and perfect Even in the making each of the Planets there ought to be six Days imploy'd as well as about this of ours they being of the same Form and as we have Reason to believe their Ornaments and Equipage not very unlike Besides according to the order of Things in the Creation they being terrestrial Bodies ought all to have been thrown into the third days work especially the Moon which could scarce be torn from its Center the Earth and transferred into another Glass But Moses follows the Philosophy of the Vulgar and joyns the Moon with the Sun as though they were of like Nature and Magnitude Lastly the fifth and sixth Days Tasks consisted of great variety In these two days were built the Bodies of all the Birds all the Fishes and all the Beasts both great and small that were produced out of the Earth and Waters Now adays the Bodies of Animals arrive more slowly at perfection nor do I wonder at it since they are so artificially composed But seeing the Bodies of Animals even to the smallest are of so exquisite a Form and Composition I shall never be induced to believe that the Earth the common Mother of all things was from the beginning of the World as ruinous an ill shapen Mass as now it is But this by the by St. Austin would have all those Things that are said to be the work of six Days to have been created in one Moment although Moses divided them into Classes and different Times that he might the better help the imagination of the People to comprehend the first Originals of Things God Almighty did in my Opinion create out of nothing in one moment and by one individual act all Substance whether intellectual or corporeal Nor did St. Austin in that come wide of the mark But here is not in the reality of the thing spoken of Substance in general but only of the terrestrial World and not of its Creation but its Formation As for the Creation of all Things out of nothing or out of no pre-existent Matter 't is what cannot be doubted as also that they were not from Eternity for we cannot form to our selves any Idea of a thing
of a God be Innate or no but I 'm sure that it is very soon imprinted in the minds of Men and I must beg Mr. Lockâ—s â—s pardon if I very much question those Authorities he quotes from the Travels of some men who affirm some Nations to have no notions of Deity since the same has been said of the Inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope which the last account of that place proves to be false And if there be a God the necessary Qualities that must be granted him will not permit a man that â—easons right of things to question his Care and Providence over humane Affairs Tho' I confess it a superficial way of Dispute the Epicureans may seem to have some Reason to conclude that the Deity has no care of mankind because the confusion in humane affairs and the general triumphs of Wrong over Right the preposterous endeavours of men in the persuit of Happiness which consisting in mutual offices yet they doing one another what mischief they can by the means destroy the end and bring all things into such a confusion would perswade it and almost make one think if what the Pythagoreans and Chaldeans held of Souls were true viz. That they were created in Heaven and thence transmitted to the Bodies for punishment that we are Devils our Malice to each other our abounding Villanies gave some occasion for such thoughts This consideration gave that Beauty to the beginning of Claudians in Rufinum which a certain Critick admired so much that he said he that had amind to be a Poet should settle that perfectly in his memory viz. Saepe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem Curarent superi terras an ullus inesset Rector an incerto fluerent Mortalia Casu c. The form and beauty of the Universe would not let the considering Heathens doubt but there was a God but the confusion of humane affairs made others think they were left to Chance Tho' if they had throughly considred the mater they must have thought first that since all the rest of the Inanimate and meerly Corporeal Substances not dignified with undershanding by the exact and regular Order they observe discover some divine Disposer and Providence that certainly man evidently more excellent and not be wholly destitute of all regard of Providence or indeed be thought to have less than the more ignoble Beings Next that if they confessed a God they must not deprive him of his necessary perfections and certainly a Providence over his Works is one Having said all this I may venture to tell you that the very foundation of your Arguments will not hold since you pretend to demonstrats it in your Analytick Method from the existence of Man you begin thus 1. Humane Kind that now inhabits the Earth did not always exist as all Histories make appear asserting Man had a beginning This they not only plainly testifie but imply the same thing by the series of those things which they deliver for there is no History that pretends to give an account of the transactions of above six Thousand years or thereabouts This being the first step of your Progression and which being removed all the rest falls to the Ground give me leave to tell you that all things that are not self-evident should be prov'd or not pass upon us in Philosophy but this you have laid for your foundation is so far from being self-evident that it is extreamly controvertible For tho' our Chronology in less than six thousand years come up to the Creation that of Eusebius being the longest and the only that exceeds that sum Yet this takes not in all Nations and if it did the Argument is weak since 't is possible there may have been Histories of them that reached farther tho' now lost Or perhaps they kept no Records for the uncertainty of the Greek Chronology before the Olympiads shews us they came but late to a regular observation of time And the Roman Histories can give us no assurance or certainty when or by whom Rome was built Livy tells us of Romulus and Remus Salust says the Trojans built it and concludes it uncertain I know as to the time they are more positiveâ— reckoning ab urbe condita tho' I can't think there can be an absolute certainty of their computation since that was begun some years at least after its Foundation Besides to draw an Argument from this that because we have no History that exceeds six thousand years therefore the World was not before is all one as if I should say that because the Goths Vandals and other barbarous Nations were not known till the time of the Roman Empeperors therefore they were not in being before But since our Correspondence with China we have found they have Records Histories of four or six thousand years date before our Creation of the World and who knows but some other Nations may be found out hereafter that may go farther and so on Nay the Chinese themselves in a traditional account tell us That the Posterity of Panzon and Panzona inhabited the Earth 90000 years The Bramins of Guzarat said the year 1639 that there had past 326669 Ages each Age consisting of a number of years and if I mistake not Centurys Nay the Egyptians in the time of their King Amasis Contemporary with Cyrus had the Records and Story of 13000 years and a succession of 330 Kings which shews they were not Lunary years But you may say after all these accounts they settle some beginning of it true they pretend to have Records of no more but it follows not from thence that there had been no other Ages before whose Records if they kept any were lost or of no use and a good reason for the loss of the Records of Countrys is the several Revolutions they have been subject to The Inhabitants of the Earth changing their places from one part of it to another as if there were a necessary Circulation in that as in the Blood of Man and the Waters of Rivers c. Next the Earth and Sea in process of time some very able Philosophers hold have changed places and in the destruction of Conntries by these several ways their Records may very well be supposed to be lost Besides the Languages and Characters altering they would be of no use to Posterity so if spared in the havock of Time permitted to perish afterward As in the Kingdom of Trigremaen in Aethiopia superior in Africa where in the City of Caxumo the Auxâ—me of Ptolomy there are now Obelisks full of engraved Characters which none of the Africans can read as there are also on the Coasts of Safola Mr. L. Clerk has split upon the same Rock with you I would therefore desire you to consider this Point a little more seriously and build your Demonstration of a thing of this Consequence on a firmer Basis else instead of promoting the Cause you espouse you only give advantages to those who would be thought at
be said to have been formed out of that borrowed matter whatever it was than out of Adams Rib. I know very well that the Rabbinical Doctors solve this business quite another way for they say the first man had two Bodies the one male and the other female whose sides stuck together or as some will have it their Backs that God cut them asunder and having thus Cloven Eve from Adam gave her to him for a Wife Plato has in his Symposium something very like this Story concerning his first man Androgynus who was afterwards divided into two parts Male and Female Lastly others conjecture which is not improbable that Moses gave out this original of Woman to the end he might breed a mutual Love between the two Sexes as parts of one and the same whole and that by this means he might more effectually recommend to his people his own institution of Marriage which does unite them a second time as if it had been imprinted in nature it self But leaving this Subject I will hasten to something else Now the second Article treats of Gods Garden in Eden water'd with four Rivers arising from the same Spring Which Coelestial Garden mentionâ—d by Moses some will have to be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiters Garden in Plato and that in both places the History or Allegory is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the secret meanings of Moses as Eusebius saith and I am so much the more wiâ—ling to embrace these secret meanings in Relation to the Garden of Eden because there is no place in the whole World wherewith all the distinguishing Marks and Characters of this Garden may agree for not to speak of that continual serenity of the Air and spontaneous fertility of the place even the very Rivers themselves afford a most perplexing and as yet undecided Controversie both to Divines and Geographers as well Ancient as Modern Those Rivers are by Moses call'd Pishon Gishon Hiddekel and Perath which the Ancient Authors interpret by Ganges Nile Tigris and Euphrates Nor do I truly think without some reason for Moses seems to have proposed nothing more to himself than the bringing four of the most celebrated and most fertile Rivers of the whole Earth to the watring of his Garden Ay but say you these four Rivers do not spring from the same source or come from the same place 't is true nor any other four Rivers that are named by the Interpreters Wherefore this Objection 〈◊〉 every where hold good as well against â—â—e Ancient as Modern Writers But altho you should reduce these Rivers only to two as some do to Tigris and Euphrates yet neither have these two Rivers the same Fountain-head but this is really and truly an Evasion rather than an Explanation to reduce contrary to the History of Moses a greater number of Rivers to a smaller only that they may the more conveniently be derived from the same Spring for these are the words of Moses but there Comes a River out of Eden to water the Garden and from thence it divides it self into four Branches The Name of the first is Pishon c. Gen. 2.10 Whereby it is apparent that either in the entrance or Exit of the Garden there were four Rivers and that those four Rivers did proceed from one and the same Fountain-head in Eden Now pray tell me in what part of the Earth is this Country of Eden where four Rivers arise from one and the same Spring But do not go about to say that only two came from that Fountain of Eden and that the other two arose from the Tigris and Euphrates where they split near the Sea and make as it were a Bifrontic Figure Since this does by no means answer the words of Moses Besides he mentions in the first place Pishon and Gishon and afterwards Tigris and Euphrates as lesser Rivers whereas you on the contrary will have those to be derived from these last 〈◊〉 Rivers of an inferior order which is a manifest distorting the Historical Account But to end all these Difficulties or Controversies concerning the Originals and Channels of the Rivers that water'd Paradice you will perhaps at last say that the Springs as well as the courses of Rivers have been changed by the Universal Deluge And that we cannnot therefore be now certain where it was they formerly broke out of the Earth and what Countries they passed through For my part I am much of your opinion provided you confess there happened in the Deluge such a fraction and disruption of the Earth as we suppose there did for from only an Inundation or Superabundancy of Waters such a change could never possibly happen Besides according to what Geography or Hydrography will you have Moses to describe these Rivers Antidiluvian or Postdiluvian If the latter there has happened no considerable alteration of the Earth since the time of Moses or the Flood if the former you then render Moses's description of the Earth altogether superfluous and unuseful to find out the scituation of Paradice Lastly 't is hard to conceive that any Rivers whether these or others can have subsisted ever since the very first beginning of the World whether you have regard to their Waters or to their Channels The Channels of Rivers used to be made by little and little as well as by a daily attrition for if they had been made as Ditches and Furrows are by Earth dug out and heaped up on each side or at least on one side there would certainly have been every where seen great Banks and Heaps of Earth But we plainly perceive that this is only fortuitous forasmuch as they often run through Plains and the River-banks are no more than level with the adjacent Fields besides whence couâ—â—d there be had water at the first foundation of the World to fill these Channels If you say that on the third day when the great Bed of the Ocean was made the smaller Channels of the Rivers were also and as the greatest part of the Waters of the Abyss fell into the Gulf of the Seas so the remaining part descended into these other Channels and therewith formed the Primitive Rivers admitting this yet the Waters would be not only as Salt as those of the Sea but there would be no continual Springs to nourish these Rivers insomuch that when the first stream of Water had flow'd off there being no fresh Supplys of Water to succeed it these Rivers would have immediately been dried up I say because there were no perpetual Springs for whether Springs proceed from Rain or from the Sea they could neither way have rose in so short a time not from Rain for it had not as yet Rained neither was it possible that in the small space of one day the Waters of the Abyss should run down from the most Inland places to the Sea and afterwards returning through ways that were never yet opened by them should strain themselves through the Bowels
themselves and their effects by Sea into India And that having sworn Allegiance to the Indian Kings they each of them freely exercised their own Religion and ancient way of living The same Author relates some opinions Generally received by these Persians transplanted into India concerning the Original Age and End of the World But they are so stuffed with Fables that they hardly seem worth while to repeat This must be observed in General of the Modern Pagans that there are its true now remaining amongst them some Footsteps of the most ancient Tenents which come to them by Tradition from their Ancestours but quite overwhelmed with Trash and Filthiness being for the most part clogg'd with fabulous Additions even to the degree of being nauseous insomuch that when you come to manly Arguments they are of no manner of Validity I cannot but pitty the Eastern World that the place which was the first Habitation of wise men and one day a most flourishing Emporium for Learning should for some ages past have been changed into a wretched Barbarity Tantaene Animis coelestibus irae I pray God grant that we may not undergo the same Vicissitude and that in his Anger he may not withdraw that Light we now enjoy in the West but that it may be more and more diffused on all sides till the Knowledge of God shall have filled the Earth as the Waters fill the Sea To the most Ingenuous and Learned Dr. Sydnham at his House near the Pestle and Mortar in the Pall Mall SIR THE last time I had the happiness of your Company it was your Request that I would help you to a sight of the Deists Arguments which I told you I had sometimes by me but then had lent them out they are now return'd me again and according to my promise I have herewith sent them to you Whereby you 'l only find that human Reason like a Pitcher with two Ears may be taken on either side However undoubtedly in our Travails to the other World the common Road is the safest and tho Deism is a good manuring of a mans Conscience yet certainly if sowed with Christianity it will produce the most profitable Crop Pardon the hast of SIR Your most obliged Friend and Faithful Servant C. BLOVNT Rolleston May 14 th 1686. A Summary Account OF THE DEISTS RELIGION CHAP. I. The Deists Opinion of God WHatsover is Adorable Amiable and Imitable by Mankind is in one Supream infinite and perfect Being Satis est nobis Deus imus CHAP. II. Concerning the manner of Worshipping God FIrst Negatively it is not to be by an Image for the first Being is no sâ—nsible but inâ—eâ—ligible Pinge sonum puts 〈◊〉 upon an impossibility no more can an infinite mind be represented in matter Secondly Nor by Sacrifice for sponsio non valet ut alter pro altero puniatur However no such sponsio can be made with a bruit Creature nor if God loves himself as he is the highest Good can any External Rite or Worship re-instate the Creature after sin in his favour but only repentance and obedience for the future ending in an Assimulation to himself as he is the highest Good and this is the first error in all Particular Religions that external things or bare opinions of the mind can after sin propitiate God hereby particular Legislators have endeared themselves and flattered their Proselytes into good opinions of them and mankind willingly submitted to the cheat Enim facilius est superstitiosè quam justè vivere Thirdly Not by a Mediator for first it is unnecessary Miserecordia Dei being sufficiens justitiae suae 2 ly God must appoint this Mediator and so was really reconâ—iled to the World before And 3 ly a Mediâ—tor derogates from the infinite mercy of God equally as an Image doth from his Spiritualitie and Infinitie Secondly Positively by an inviolable adherence in our lives to all the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an imitation of God in all his imitable Perfections especially his goodness and believing magnificiently of it CHAP. III. Of Punishments after this Life A Man that is endued with the same Vertues we have before mentioned need not fear to trust his Soul with God after death For first no Creature could be made with a malevolent intent the first Good who is also the first Principle of all Beings hath but one affection or Property and that is Love which was long before there was any such thing as Sin 2 dly At death he goes to God one and the same being who in his own nature for the sins of the Penitent hath as well an inclination to Pity as Justice and there is nothing dreadful in the whole Nature of God but his Justice no Attribute else being terrible 3 ly Infinite Power is ever safe and need not revenge for self-preservation 4 ly However Veri simile est similem Deo a Deo non negligi CHAP. IV. The Probability of such a Deists Salvation before the credulous and ill living Papists 1. TO be sure he is no Idolater the Iew and the Mahometan accuse the Christian of Idolatry the Reform'd Churches the Roman the Socinian the other Reformed Churchâ—â— the Deists the Socinian for his Deus factus but none can accuse the Deist of Idolatry for he only acknowledges one Supream Everlasting God and thinks magnificently of him 2 dly The Morality in Religion is above the mystery in it for 1. The Universal sense of Mankind in the Friendships men make sheweth this for who does not value good Nature Sincerity and Fidelity in a Friend before subtilty of understanding Religio quaedam cum Deo Amicitia An unity of nature and will with God that is the Root of the Dearest Friendships Then 2 ly it is an everlasting rule that runs through all Beings Simile a simili amatur God cannot love what is unlike him Now 3 ly here lies our trial here is the scene of our obedience and here are our conflicts with our Passions if this be true then the credulous Christian that believes Orthodoxly but lives ill is not safe 3 dly If the Deists errs he errs not like a fool but secundum verbum after enquiry and if he be sincere in his Principles he can when dying appeal to God te bone Deus quaesivi per omnia Notae Aliquot 1. The Grand Arcanum of Religion among the Pythagoreans was that the object of Divine Worship is one and invisible Plutarch cites this in the Life of Numa as the Dogma of Pythagoras and accordingly his Followers used no Images in their Worships 2 dly The Heathens notwithstanding their particular and Topical Deities acknowledged one Supream God not Iupiter of Creet but the Father of Gods and Men only they said this Supream God being of so high a nature and there being other intermediate Beings betwixt God and Mankind they were to address themselves to them as Mediators to carry up their Prayers and bring down his Blessings so as the opinion of
done is none of these Indeterminate is that which is in our power and to which part soever it inclines will be true or false Pythagoras of Fate and Fortune says All the parts of the World above the Moon are governed according to Providence and from Order the Decree of God which they follow but those beneath the Moon by four Causes by God by Fate by our Election by Fortune For instance to go abroad into a Ship or not is in our Power Storms and Tempest to arise out of a Calm is by Fortune for the Ship being under water to be preserved is by the Providence of God Of Fate there are many Manners and Differences it differs from Fortune as having a Determination Order and Consequence but Fortune is spontaneous and casual as to proceed from a Boy to a Youth and orderly to pass through other degrees of Age happens by one manner of Fate There is also Fate of all Things in general and in particular the cause of this Administration As for Zeno and some other Philosophers I will in my next send you their Opinions till then I rest Yours to Command AN. ROGERS TO THE Right Honourable THE MOST INGENIOUS STREPHON Ludgate-Hill Feb. 7 th 1679 80. Concerning the Immortality of the Soul My LORD I Had the Honour Yesterday to receive from the Hands of an Humble Servant of your Lordship's your most incomparable Version of that Passage of Seneca's where he begins with Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil c. and must confess with your Lordship's Pardon that I cannot but esteem the Translation to be in some measure a confutation of the Original since what less than a divine and immortal Mind could have produced what you have there written Indeed the Hand that wrote it may become Lumber but sure the Spirit that dictated it can never be so No my Lord your mighty Genius is a most sufficient Argument of its own Immortality and more prevalent with me than all the Harangues of the Parsons or Sophistry of the Schoolmen No subject whatever has more entangled and ruffled the Thoughts of the wisest Men than this concerning our Future State it has been controverted in all Ages by Men of the greatest Learning and Parts We must also confess that your Author Seneca has not wanted Advocates for the Assertion of his Opinion nay even such who would pretend to Justifie it out of the very Scriptures themselves Ex. gr as when Solomon says Eccles. 7.12 Then shall the Dust return to Dust as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it And Eccles. 3.20 21. when he declares All go to the same place all are of dust and all turn to dust again Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Again Eccles. 3.19 when he tells us That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them both As the one dieth so doth the other yea they have all one Breath so that a Man hath no preeminence above a Beast Likewise to such who are desirous to know what their Friends are in the other World or to speak more properly their dead Friends know Solomon answers their inconsiderate Vtinam Eccles. 9.5 with these words The Living know they shall die but the Dead know not any thing Moreover others for the purpose cite that Passage of Luke 20.38 where it is said He is not a God of the Dead but of the Living All which Texts through the Weakness of Understanding have by some Men been misapplied as concurrent with the Anima Mundi of Pythagoras which has been since in great measure revived by Averroes and Avicenna although in one point they differ'd among themselves For that Averroes believed after Death our Souls return'd and mix'd with the common Soul of the World whereas Avicenna thought it a distinctâ— portion of the Anima Mundi which after our Deaths remain'd entire and separate till it met with some other Body capable of Receiving it and then being cloathed therewith it operated ad modum Recipientis Monsieur Bernier likewise gives us agreeable to Averroes an account of much the same Opinion held at this time by some of the Indians of Indostan whose Faith he Illustrates after this Manner They believe says he the Soul in Man's Body to be like a Bottle fill'd with sea-Sea-water which being close stop'd and cast into the Sea tydes it up and down till by some Accident or other the unfaithful Cork or decrepit Bottle becomes disorder'd so as the Water Evacuates and Disgorges it self again into the common Ocean from whence it was at first taken Which agrees very well with what as Philostratus tells us lib. 8. chap. 13. Apollonius after his Death revealed to a Young Man concerning the Immortality of the Soul in these words as rendred from the Greek Est Anima immortalis incorrupta manebit Non tua res verum quae provides omnia Divae Quae velut acer equus corrupto corpore Vinclis Prosilit tenui miscetur flamine Caeli Cui grave servitium est atque intolerabile visum The Soul 's immortal and once being free Belongs to Providence and not to thee She like a Horse let loose doth take her flight Out of the Carcass and her self unite With the pure Body of the liquid Sky As weary of her former slavery But he among the Heathens who spake plainest and fullest of this matter was Pliny in his Natural History lib. 7 ch 4. where he writes to this purpose After the Interment of our Bodies there is great diversity of Opinions concerning the future state of our wandring Souls or Ghosts But the most general is this That in what condition they were before they were born men in the same they shall remain when dead forasmuch as neither Body nor Soul hath any more sense after our dying-day than they had before the day of our Nativity However such is the Folly and Vanity of men that it extendeth even to future Ages nay and in the very time of Death even flattereth it self with fine Imaginations and Dreams of I know not what after this Life For some crown the Soul with Immortality others pretend a Transfiguration thereof and others suppose that the Ghosts sequestred from the Body have sense Whereupon they render them honour and worship making a God of him that is not so much as a man As if the manner of mens Breathing differâ—d from that of other Living Creatures or as if there were not to be found in the World many more things that live much longer than man and yet no man judgeth in them the like immortality But shew me if you can what is the Substance and Body of the Soul as it were by it self what kind of matter is it apart from the Body where lieth the Cogitation that she hath how is her Seeing how is her Hearing perform'd what toucheth she Nay what one
of the Earth and ascend to the heads of their Rivers But of Rivers we have said enough let us now proceed to the rest We have in the third place a very strange account of a Serpent that talked with Eve and enticed her to mistrust God I must confess we have not yet known that this Beast could ever speak or utter any sort of voice besides hissing But what shall we think Eve knew of this business If she had taken it for a dumb Animal the very Speech of it would have so frightned her that she would not have durst to stay and enter into a Conference with it If on the other side the Serpent had from the beginning been capable of talking and haranguing and only lost his Speech for the crime of having by his seducements corrupted the Piety and Faith of Eve certainly Moses would have been far from passing over in silence this sort of Punishment and instead of that have mentioned so small a Penalty as that of licking the dust But besides all this pray will you have the particular Species of Serpents or all the Beasts of the Field that were then in Paradise to have been indued with the faculty of speaking like the Trees in Dodona's Grove If you say all pray what offence had the rest been guilty of that they also must loose the use of their Tongues if only the Species of Serpents enjoyed this priviledg how came it about that so vile an Animal and by nature the most averse and remote from Mankind should before all his other fellow Bruits deserve to be Master of so great a favour and benefit as that of Speech Lastly since all discoursing and arguing include the use of Reason by this very thing you make the Serpent a Rational Creature But I easily imagin those who are great sticklers for the Literal Interpretation will solve this difficulty another way For say they under the shape of this Serpent was hid the Devil or an Evil Spirit who using the Mouth and Organs of this Animal spoke to the Woman as it were with an human voice But what Testimony with Authority have they for this The most literal reading of Moses which they so closely adhere to does not express any thing of it for what else does he seem to say but that he attributes the seducing of Eve to the natural craftiness of the Serpent and nothing else For these are Moses's words Now the Serpent was more cunning than any Beast of the Field that the Lord God had made Afterwards continues he The Serpent said to the Woman yea hath God said But besides had Eve heard an Animal by nature dumb speak through the means of some Evil Spirit she would instantly with horror have fled from the Monster When on the contrary she very familiarly receved it they discoursed and argued very amicably together as tho nothing new or astonishing had happened again if you say that all this proceded from the ignorance and weakness of a Woman 't would on the other side have been but just that some good Angels should have succoured a poor Ignorant weak Woman those Just Guardians of human affairâ— would not have permitted so unequal a conflict for what if an Evil Spirit crafty and knowing in business had by his subtlety over-reached a poor silly Woman who had not as yet seen the Sun either rise or set who was but newly come of the Mould and wholly unexperienced in all things Certainly a Person who had so great a price set on her head as the Salvation of all Mankind might well have deserved a Guard of Angels Ay but perhaps you 'l say the Woman ought to have taken care not to violate a Law established upon pain of death The day you eat thereof you shall surely die both you and yours this was the Law Die what does that mean says the poor ignorant Virgin who as yet had not seen any thing dead no not so much as a flower nor had yet with her eyes or mind perceived the Image of death viz. Sleep or Night But what you add concerning his Posterity and their Punishment that is not at all expressed in the Law Now no Laws are ever to be distorted but especially not those that are poenal The punishment of the Serpent will also afford no inconsiderable question if the Devil transacted the whole thing under the form of a Serpent or if he compell'd the Serpent to do or suffer those things why did he pay for a crime committed by the Devil Moreover as to the manner and form of the punishment inflicted on the Serpent viz. that for the future he should go creeping on his Belly it is not easie to be explained what that means Hardly any one will say that the Serpent did before walk upright or after the manner of four-footed Beasts and if on the other side from the beginning he crept like our Modern Snakes it may seem ridiculous to impose on this Creature as a Punishment for one single Crime a thing which by nature he ever had before But let this suffice for the Woman and Serpent let us now go on to the Trees I here understand those two Trees which stood in the middle of the Garden viz. the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life was they 'l tell you so called for that it would give Men a very long life But by what follows in the same Relation we find that all our Forefathers before the Flood did without the help of this Tree attain to a very great Age. Besides if the Longaevity or Immortality of Men had depended only upon one Tree or its Fruit what if Adam had not sinned how could his Posterity when they were diffused over the face of the whole Earth have been able to come and gather Fruit out of this Garden or from this Tree Or how could the product of one Tree have been enough for all Mankind As to the other Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil it does not so plainly appear what was its vertue or from whence it received that name It seems by I know not what juice or other vertue to have instilled into them a new sence of shame and modesty or as it is expressed of Nakedness as though before the Fall they had been wholly void of bashfulness in Venereal Pleasures yet now adays in things of that kind even the most innocent have some sense of shame I know not what St. Austin means when he says that in the first state and innocence of Mankind Women would have conceived and brought forth without violating their Claustrum Virginale the feed being immitted and the Off-spring coming forth through the Pores as do Virgins Monthly Purgations and that the whole Act of Generation would have been performed without any sting or transport just as one hand rubs another If these things were taken-exactly according to the Rules of Nature and Philosophy they would