125 Are GODS eternal, and above the Rage, And powerful Envy of devouring Age: NOTES. And Parts of the Univerfe; which,, Body or with Pliny, who afthey were perfuaded, could not ferts the Sun to be the Soul of befuftain'd, but by a Soul in- this World: Hunc mundi totitrinfecally informing, ordering, us effe animam, ac plane mendifpofing, and connecting them. tem, hunc principale Naturæ reThis Soul Plato indeed did not gimen, ac Numen credere decet, believe to be God himself, but fays he, lib. 2. cap. 6. But the the Work of the Supream God: Stoicks went yet farther, and but Pythagoras and Thales, as held, That every one of the Cewe learn from Minutius Felix, leftial Bodies, that have Motion, afferted it to be God himself is to be efteem'd in the Number To this Opinion the Hermetick of the Gods: and this Opinion Philofophers feem likewife to they grounded on the Conftancy fubfcribe, and explain it in this they had obferv'd in the Revolumanner: They tell us, that the tions of the Heavens, and in the Divine Spirit, which produc'd Courfes of the Stars; whence the World out of the firft Wa- they concluded their Motion to ter, being infus'd, as by a conti- be voluntary, and, confequentnual Infpiration, into all the ly, that they are Gods. Thus Works of Nature, and largely the Stoick Lucilius in Cicero, diffus'd thro' them, by a certain fays, Hanc igitur in ftellis confecret and continual Act, mo- ftantiam, hanc tantam in tam ving the Whole, and every indi-variis cafibus, in æternitate convidual Part of it, according to venientiam temporum, non pofits Kind, is the Soul of the fum intelligere, fine mente, ratiWorld. Plato, and the old A-one, confilio: Quæ cum in fycademicks, as we find their Opi- deribus effe videamus, non poffunion deliver'd by Cicero, in A-mus ea ipfa in Deorum numero cad. Quæft. lib. 1. fay thus of non ponere: De Natur. Deor. it; The feveral Parts of the lib. 3. And a little higher he World, and all Things contain'd fays, Reftat ut motus Aftrorum in them, are kept together by a fit voluntarius: quæ qui videat, fenfitive Nature; which is en- non indocte folum, verum etiam dow'd likewife with perfect Rea-impie faciet, fi Deos effe neget. fon: It is also fempiternal; because theré is nothing more Atrong, by the Power or Force of which it can be diffolv'd. And this Nature is the Power, which is call'd the Soul of the World Plutarch, de Placitis Philofoph. lib. 4. cap. 1. teaches, That Heraclitus affirm'd the Soul of the World to be an Exhalation of the humid Parts of it. Varro, on the contrary, would have it to be Fire, but means, perhaps, the fame Thing with Chalcidius in the Timæus, where he calls Vefta, the Soul of the univerfal : But Lactantius retorts their very Argument upon thefe Philofophers, and fays, That the conftant and fix'd Revolutions and Courses of the celeftial Bodies, are an evident Argument that they are not Gods: For, if they were, they would not be deter min'd to, nor prescrib'd any certain Motions ; but, like Animals upon Earth, whofe Will is free, would move whereever they lift. Quid, quod argumentum illud, quo colligunt univerfa cœleftia Deos effe, in contrarium valet ? Nam fi Deos effe idcirco opinanLil tur, And therefore they, whofe impious Reafons try, (Sky. (More bold than those fond Fools that ftorm'd the To prove the WORLD is MORTAL, and may die; NOTES. That tur, quia certos & rationabiles who by their Arguments endea curfus habent, errant: ex hoc e-vour to prove the World to be nim apparet Deos non effe, quod mortal, equally deferve to be exorbitare illis, à præftitutis iti-punish'd for their Impiety, as neribus non licet. Cæterum fi were the impious Giants of old, Dii effent, huc atque illuc paffim who, in their Way, did likewise fine ullâ neceffitate ferrentur, fi- all they could to deftroy Heaven, cut animantes in terrâ; quorum and durft to wage War with the quia liberæ funt voluntates, huc Gods. Whoever defires to be atque illuc vagantur, ut libuit; fully inftructed concerning Gi& quò quemque mens duxerit, ants, may confult the learned eò fertur. De Orig. Error. cap. 5. Caffarion, who has treated of Now the Reafon, why Lucreti- them at large: I will only add, us lafhes the Authours of thefe That the antient Heathens drew Opinions, and treats them with the Occafion of this,and of many fo much Scorn and Indignation, of their other Fables, from the is, because their Belief of the Mofaical Hiftory, which they Soul of the World, preffes hárd wretchedly profan'd and dehis impious Hypothefis, concer- prav'd by their childish Fictions: ning the Divine Providence: And that too the rather, if it be For, release but the Soul from true what Bouldue, a French that Union, which thefe Philofo- Capuchin, in a Treatife printed phers have thus foolishly affign'd, not long ago, and intituled, De and then to hold a Soul of the Ecclefiâ ante legem, tells us, in World, and an all-ruling Provi-lib. 1. cap. 9. That the Names, dence will be all one and the Raphaim, Emim, Zuzin, and fame Thing. others, as he fays, commonly in 128. Fond Fools] The Giants, Scripture taken for Giants,ought who fought against the Gods at not to be expounded in that Phlegra, and attempted to fcale Senfe. Then he affirms, that Heaven, by heaping one on ano-the Title of Giant was antiently ther the Hills of that Countrey, a Name of Honour, by which and of Theffalia. Virgil,Georg 3. they diftinguish'd fuch Perfons, v. 281. See likewife the Note on as in thofe Days were Reftorers Book I. v. 243. To which I add, of Piety; and that the Affemthat Phlegra was fo call'd blies of Giants, were Colledges eye, to burn, perhaps,be-of Inftructions in that Age of caufe of the Giants being de-the World. Thus he endeavours ftroy'd there chiefly by Light- to prove, that Nimrod was, in ning: or, as others, from Baths that Senfe, a Giant, a Man inof hot Water that arife therea- ftructed by God himself: and bouts. Euftathius fays, it was this he would make good out of likewife call'd Pallene; and that Methodius. But thefe Affertithe Wickedness of the Inhabi-ons of his, and the curious tants gave Occafion to the Fable Proofs he alledges from their of the Giants Fight. Now what Hebrew Titles, are new and daLucretius here fays, is this: Left ring Flights of Fanfy. you should think, that all thofe, 130. That 130 That Orbs can fall, the Sun forfake his Light, That neither feels; dull Things, and fenfeless all. NOTES. For 130. That Orbs, &c.] That Divinity of the Immortal Gods, the Heavens are immutable and that, on the contrary, it will eincorruptible, nay, even imma- vince their Dignity, and the Exterial, and confequently no ways cellence of their Nature; because obnoxious to the Catastrophe it will help us to diftinguish bewhich Lucretius here afferts, has tween what is endow'd with a always been the vulgar Opinion, Divine Body, and what is not: as well as the Belief, of Ariftotle, For what can be more difrefpectXenophanes, Averroes, Cicero, ful and injurious to the Gods, and indeed of moft of the Philo- than to declare aloud, that the fophers: And tho' Experience Heavens, the Earth, the Sea, it felf of the vifible Mutations, the Sun, the Moon, and the that fometimes happen in them, Stars, are endow'd with their for Example, the new Star, that Immortality, Eternity, and Diappear'd in Caffiopeia, in 1573. vine Understanding,as they moft and vanish'd the Year following, manifeftly do, who hold them are abundantly sufficient to con- to be immortal? Efpecially, vince them, by natural Reafon, fince they are incapable even of of the Erroneoufnefs of that O- being animated with the Breath pinion; yet fome Men are fo gi- of Life: For a Soul can no more ven up, even to the most repro-be in them, than a Tree in the brate Senfe of Ariftotle, that not Air, a Cloud in the Sea, or a the Divine Authority itself can Fish upon dry Ground: And draw them from it: as in this as every Thing has a proper Point particularly, Suarez, and Place affign'd it, to be produc'd many others, are fo far from be- and live in; So neither can the lieving the Heavens to be cor-Soul be produc'd, or exift withruptible and mutable, that they will allow them to be chang'd only accidentally, as they call it, and not fubftantially, at the laft Day: Upon which Maldon. on St. Matthew, fays very well, That he had rather believe Chrift, who affirms it, than riftotle, who denies it. out a Body. This Opinion is both impious and repugnant to true Reafon; but fince we have already fully anfwer'd, in the third Book, all the Epicurean Objections against the Immortality of the Soul, we will not A-trouble our Reader with the Repetition of them. Befides, the Drift of Lucretius is, to prove, that Heaven, Earth, Sea, &c. are mortal, and confequently will be diffolv'd, and perish. 134. For thefe, &c.] In thefe 24. V. he fays, That it is fo far from being true, That what he is about to teach of the future Diffolution of the World, will derogate from the Power and 136. Neither] None, not one of them; we generally fay, nei1112 ther For LIFE, and SENSE, the MIND, and Sout refuse ~:: Or Earth, or fcorching Flames. Fond Fanfies thefe! 140. As Heav'n, &c.] You will find this and the following II. V. B. III. v. 755. 2 S Their to pretend, that there is a Mind and a Soul in the Heavens, the Earth, the Sea, and other Bo dies, that have no Organs what ever. I 144. For grant, &c.] This 156. For they are, &c.] To and the four following Verfes are this Purpofe Velleius, in Cicero, rejected by Faber, who imagines, lib. 1. De Nat. Deor. fays: Qui they were by Miftake brought Mundum ipfum animantem fato this Place, together with the pientemque effe dixerunt, nullo five preceding Verfes, from the modo animi naturam intelligenthird Book, where we find them tes viderunt, in quam naturam all together; but his Suppofitioncadere poffit; They who faid, is without Reafon : For they that the World is an Animal, feem to be a Part of this Argu- and endow'd with Understandment, and as much to the Pur-ing, did not in the leaft know pofe as the other Verfes of it. the Nature of the Mind, nor inFor, fays the Poet, if even in our to what Nature it can be infus'd. Bodies, which are compos'd of 158. Nor muft, &c.] Since Veins, Nerves, Blood, &c. there the Gods are immortal, and ebe certain and appointed Places, ternal, they must of Neceffity where the Mind and the Soul are have Abodes that are fo too: born, and exift apart by them-Therefore all Men place the felves, it is in vain for any one Gods in the Heavens, which, for 445 160 Their Subftance is fo thin, fo much refin'da T Unknown to SENSE, nay, fcarce perceiv'd by MIND: Now fince their Substance can't be touch'd by Man, They can not touch thofe other Things that can ; For whatsoe'er is touch'd, that must be touch'd again. shrod There " NOTES. for fome other Manfions for the Gods, than those you have hitherto affign'd them. Nardius takes Occafion from this Argument to prove, that Lucretius contradicts his own Doctrine, and that even accor ding to his own Affertions there can be no Gods: He argues to this Purpose: If the Gods, fays he of Lucretius are no where, then Lucretius has no Gods: for they muft certainly be nothing at all, or they must be the Void: This is evident from, his own Principles. For Book I. v. 550.he says, Two Sorts of Beings Reafon's for that Reason, fay they, can never be destroy'd, To this the Poet answers in thefe 11. v. That this is only the Invention of Poets, or of the ignorant Vulgar For the Nature of the Gods is too fubtile to touch fuch thick Bodies as the Heavens; and therefore we must not believe them to be the Manfions of the Gods. Nay, fays he, no Part of the Univerfe is, or can be their Abodes: For whatever has an Abode, or is in any Place, both touches and is touch'd: For Place, and the Thing plac'd, as they call them, are Bodies; and Body can both touch and be touch'd: But the Gods neither touch nor are touch'd: They are not touch'd, because their Nature is fo fubtile, that it is wholly imperceptible to our Sen-Body and Void, which never fes: and therefore we ought to believe, that their Abodes are In any one effential Property : anfwerable to their Nature, and For Body, as 'tis Matter, far different from ours, that is, from Place from those that are commonly Distinct; and Void from Body, affign'd to the Gods: that is to as 'tis Space. fay, that they are of fo fubtile a Nature, as renders them wholly Therefore, whatever is, is either imperceptible likewife to our Place, or a Thing plac'd. Senfes. But all the Parts of the World are perceivable to our Senfes; therefore none of them can be the Abode of the Gods. And fince the Gods are not touch'd, it neceffarily follows that they do not touch : Tangere enim non quit, tangi non licet ipfum. And prov'd before, their Diff'rence vaftly wide: could agree is And to afford a Place, Thus if the Gods are not Bodies, they are empty Space, and altogether nothing, as was faid bequod fore. That they are not Bodies, Lucr. Lucretius himself can not deny: What can neither touch, nor be For nothing can touch, but touch'd, is not Body: The Gods what may be touch'd again. of Lucretius neither are touch'd, Therefore you must look out nor touch; therefore they are not |