CHAP. I. That according to the Doctrine of the Epicureans there can be no assurance of the Existence of a Deity .

ALthough the name of Epicurus was detestable to Antiquity , in regard that placing the supreme attainment of human felicity in Delight , he seemed to deprave and adulterate whatsoever is sublime and Generous in Philosophy ; and moreover , though succeeding Ages ▪ have had it in as much or g●●●ter abhorrence , 〈◊〉 reason Time confirmed them in this opinion , that 〈◊〉 End he aim●d at , was to ex●●●●uish by his Maximes all the seeds of Honor , P●●●y , and Vertue ; yet it is not my design , in terming those Epicureans , against whom this Dissertation is enterprized , to fasten that appellation upon them , as a piece of infa●y , but onely ●o ●●note and specificate them by the Conformity ●●y have with that Person in his most capital Opinions . My purpose is not to represent them in any other odious dress then that of the enormous and ill-beseeming appearance of their Perswasions in matter of Religion ; and the sequel of this discourse shall manifestly enough discover , whether or no it hath been with Reason and Justice , that this Sect hath in all times been regarded with a sort of execration , not by popular judgement only , but also amongst the other Philosophers . Now whereas there is no Nation so projectedly Savage , as to be aliens to the belief of existence of some Deity , which mankind ought to adore ; no people , who do not essay by some kind of performances to express the sentiments of Devotion and Honor they bear towards him ; it is difficult to imagine there should be any persons found of minds so immensely distant from the common conceptions of reason , as to be able resolvedly to deny it . And the reason of the difficulty is this . That Notices which are so Universal , having a necessary foundation and firm root in Nature , it must needs be that such as stifle the same in themselves , have in the first place violated and defaced That . Hence it is that I would not formally accuse them who maintain that the Deity does not intermeddle in the affairs of this lower World , and conceive we ought to venerate the same only upon the account of its excellence , although there is not to be attended from it either Punishment for Wickedness or Compensation for Virtue ; to have absolutely banisht the knowledge of it from amongst them , and to make profession of believing there is a God onely to escape the infamous title of Atheist . Cicero indeed reproaches Epicurus with this artifice , and raises the suspicion upon his Followers ; which nevertheless shall not ingage me to believe that the corruption of our Age could possibly afford birth to such monsters . But howsoever that particular be , certain it is beyond contradiction , that the Opinions of this Philosopher lead directly to Impiety ; and that if they who have embraced them believe the existence of God , t is Nature which prevails in them , and which is never conquerable by all the attempts and outrages they imploy to conquer and suppress her .

Three things alone inform us there is a God ; his Word , the World , and Man ; and they teach us in truth , so evidently , and represent him so livety , that such eyes must be lostly obtenebrated , which do not perceive him therein . In his Word we meet with wonderful Revelations , and Predictions ratified by Events after divers Ages , and with such Histories as no man knew , or could know ; which notwithstanding , after they came to be discovered , the World it self hath consented to , the mind of man acquiesces in them , and the shadows which have remained of them in the Fables of the Pagans do serve for even indubitable evidence and testimony unto them . On the other side it contains a doctrine of that excellency , that no men of howsoever transcendent accomplishments , could ever have invented the same ; which is so conformable to our Reason , that although it be admirably sublime , there is nothing in it which subverts or incounters the soberness of our judgements ; in a word , all the parts of it have such excellent proportion amongst themselves , that so many different spirits which have left it us in writing in several Ages , could not have carried on so unitedly and with such uniformity a design of like grandeur , without a guidance other then humane . Above all , there is remarkable in it a marveilous efficacy to comfort a man in his misery , after it hath first given him to understand it , and unvailed his mind from the ignorance of himself and his own calamity ; which without doubt are effects , whereof our conscience instructs us we ●annot be the cause . Lastly , this Divinity , wh●● men have sought after , as it were , groping●y in all Ages , is manifested to us therein with such clearness , that after so long experience which we have made of our natural blindness , it can be nothing but enormous stupidity not to see that God reveals himself therein , and that no other could have spoken so suitably of his nature and of his perfections . In the mean while the Epicureans do not receive this Revelation as proceeded from God , nor attribute so much to it by far as to the Writings of Plato , Cicero , and Aristotle . If they may be believed , all the Prophets were men of alienated understandings , and the Apostles vagabond circulators , who went about abusing the greatest part of the World . So that it is not from these men that they have learnt this truth , That there is a God ; for if they gave credit to them in this particular , and avouched to hold it from them , why should they disbelieve them in the rest ? Or how is it credible that so great & frontless Imposters as they imagine the Prophets and Apostles were , should be the first discoverers of so excellent a truth ? Or if they did not first discover it so as to merit the title of its Inventors , and that notwithstanding we hold it from them , whence can it be conjectured they should have drawn it ? It remains of necessity , that if they had it not from Divine Revelation , they attained it by study and contemplation , either of the World or of themselves .

As to the World , it is easie that it could not be made by it self , and consequently must have an Author . The construction of so vast a fabrick speaks the power of its Architect ; and its ●dmirable motions , which have remained so re●●lar and constant after so many Ages , offer to our wonder his incomprehensible Wisdom . In the Harmony of such variety of things , and contrary qualities , linked one with another , and in the convenient disposure of all the creatures to a subserviency in mutual offices , without which the World could not subsist , his Goodness is presented visible , as it were to our eye , and palpable by our hand . In the shaping of every thing and the apt Symmetry of its parts , appears an Art not only inimitable by us , but even such as we are not capable perfectly to comprehend . The conservation of the Universe , and administration of all it containes , clearly evidences a Providence conducting natural causes to their effects , and animating them with powers to produce them , which disposes of all evenements of things agreeably to his will , wisely ordering the most casual and contingent . And although there are not wanting some to complain of his regiment , and to reproach to him oftentimes the prosperity of the Bad , and calamitous estate of the Good ; yet it does visibly enough defend and recompence Virtue , and on the contrary avenges Wickedness frequently , sometimes even to the displaying of dreadful judgements upon eminent impieties . Insomuch that there is not a Star in the Heavens , nor a Flower upon the Earth , whether considered in the gross or in parcel ; but declares aloud that there is a God , Crea●●● , Cons●rvator , and Governor of all things . Nevertheless the Epicureans do not acknowledge that the World ever had a Beginning ▪ or if it had according to their opinion , yet they will not confess that it was framed otherwise then by the fortuitous concourse of infinite pete●t Atomes ; And for what concerns the regiment and conservation of it , they will not have the Deity imployed in the Government of Nature and things here below ; and do not behold , as they profess , in all the Universe any footstep of his Providence . For t is their general Apophthegm , that God hath no affairs of his own , and takes no part in those of another , least he should interrupt his repose and the serene tranquillity of his eternal beatitude . So that if we believe them , all things come to pass in the World by a fatal necessity , or as it pleases Fortune , who being blind and wonderfully temerarious , hath neither counsel nor aim in her actions . There remains the consideration of Man .

In our selves we may in the first place observe the structure of our Bodies , which are composed after so fair a Symmetrie , that the most excellent entendments are ravished and confounded in the speculation ; and even the illterate and they which regard it more superficially , cannot but express their astonishment at the same . In effect , were there in them onely the Masterpiece of our Eyes , and that Activity of our Hands which renders us so expedite to all sorts of services , there would be enough to raise amazement in us , and direct us to the knowledge of that infinite Wisdom whereunto we ow our Originals . Moreover , besides this Life which is the Energy of our Soul , and that imperceptible dispensation of spirits , which she manages with so much diligence for the motions of our Members , and the functions of our Senses ; The light of our Intellect , its agitations so vivid , regular conduct , and great capacity to comprehend all things , The faculty which inables us to reason concerning the Deity and dispute of it one against another , sufficiently evidences that there is some Principle of Understanding without us , from which this ray we posses is derived into our Nature . For it must needs be that we have drawn it from without us ; since by it we so far surpass our selves that our Fathers confes themselves unable to have communicated it to their chr●●ten ; as also , for their own particular , that they did not receive it from their fathers or Ancesters . More signally , the Fear which men naturally have , when they apprehend the Deity will revenge their misdoings ; and the Hope to find support from it , with which they comfort themselves as often as straits and necessity afflicts them ; two Passions which are almost the sole motives that ordinarily induce men to Religion ; these discover indubitably that there is some Power , which makes it self universally perceptible to all , aswell in punishments as in benefits and recompences . For how could it come to pass that all men should so conspire with an equal consentment in the knowledge of one and the same object , so remote as they are one from another , and separated by so many Mountains and Seas , but especially so divided and different in every thing else , in all manners , sentiments , rules of Life , garbes and customes ; u●●ess Nature the common ●other had imbued them with the same instinct ? Whence it comes to pass that as they vary even to admiration in the establishment of their Policies , either the diversity of the Climats of their habitation and the difference of their Temper and affairs obliging them thereunto , or being carried by the levity of their minds ; and nevertheless all accord in this , That some form of Policy is necessary , since the society of men could not otherwise subsist : So we may remark an incredible variety in the Mysteries and Religious Ceremonies of divers Nations , accordingly as they have received them from the tradition of their Ancestors , or respectively followed the guidance of their own humors and imaginations in the invention and continuance of the same ; but yet they are unanimous in this , That there ought necessarily to be some form of Religion , because the piety of man towards God could not otherwise subsist . Now as it is the evidence of the thing it self which obliges the Reason of men to judge that they ought to maintain some Societies amongst themselves ; so that whoever acknowledges not the same , but denies to follow these natural inclinations , seems to have put off humanity ; in like manner it is the evidence of the thing which constrains them to acknowledge it requisite to have some sort of Piety towards God ; insomuch that he that rejects these suggestions of Reason , does no less then renounce the nature of man . But according to the Doctrine of Epicurus , we do not hold our Being from God , and have nothing either to hope or sear from his Providence . On the contrary , if their suffrage be creditable , that Philosopher , in having delivered men from the frights which conscience gives them in reflecting on impious actions , deserves incomparable glory , and such as might in some sort equal him and his disciples to God . The life of mortals ( saith La●retius , Lib. 1. ) lying before as it were oppressed and groaning under Religion , which appeared from the Heavens against it with a dreadful aspect , Epicurus was the first amongst men who dar'd to advance against it and encounter it .

Quare Religio p●dibus subjecta vicissim Obteri●●●●os ena●●●t victoria coelo .

Whereas therefore all these things have not been effectual to perswade them that God created the world , and that he preserves and rules it ; whence have they taken those reasons which have any appearance of sufficiency to prove to them that there is such a Being ? It were a strange thing , that they should not see a whit amongst so many marveils which are resplendent on all sides , and have ravished all Nations , however naturally enemies of the Deity , with beholding them , and enforced them to submit themselves to do homage to him ●●d render him some kind of veneration ; ●●d y●● be so quick-sighted in other reasons which no other persons besides themselves could ever comprehend .

It is true , Epic●●us sometimes affirmed that this truth , There is a God ; Also , It is meet that all men honor him ▪ was of the number of those which are called Common Conceptions , or Proleptical Opinions , because without instruction of others , ev●● one is teacher of the same to himself . And peradventure these men will also aver that they have drawn the knowledge thereof from this fountain . But this will in no wise warrant them ; For whence come those Common notions , and from what source have we anticipated them ? Indeed we do not deny but there are certain Verities which are so evident that the Faculty whose office it is to contemplate them and discern the true from the false , cannot mistake in the judgement it makes of them ; and we know also that the humane Intellect has a natural disposition to such acting ; whence it proceeds that all Nations have consented thereunto , and always passed a uniform judgement of them . Upon this consideration , they have been termed Common Conceptions by the Ancient Philosophers , because they were not peculiar to the Athenians or Spartans , Peripateticks or Stoicks ; but were received by all that have the use of Reason . Such is for example , this Proposition , The whole is greater then its part : But others of deeper intelligence have believed that we do not bring them with us every man out of his mothers womb , but that they are produced from objects which have offered to us occasions of reasoning and collecting those general Maximes from several particular experiences . So that the first person that divided a thing into two parts , repeating the bipartition over and over , and always observing that the parts of it were less then the whole in its intireness ; and then coming from these particular observations to consider the nature of the thing in it self , the discursive Faculty sum'd up that universal Theoreme . The original knowledge of which is consequently deduced from the presence of objects , which furnished the matter to the ratiocination , from whence such conclusions do emerge . Now the Epirureans cannot aver that they attained the knowledge of the Deity by this means ; since they maintain that nothing hath presented them with any shadow or footstep to raise their discourse to the Nature of God . For if the knowledge of him be deducible from the contemplation of sensible things , it must be in the way of mounting to knowledge of the cause by the mean of its effects : but according to the Epicureans , there is no such relation of affinity between God and the objects of our senses . How then ? Would they assert a like correspondence between the understanding of man and this proposition , There is a God , to cause us acquiesce in it forth with without further ratiocination , as there is between the Eye and Corporeal Light , to acknowledge it assoon as it is seen ? I conceive this is not their opinion , or at least it ought not . For Light carries it's credential in it's natural splendor , as all other sensible qualities of bodies have something in them to make themselves perceived , and which Characterises them ; so that to know them there is no need of 〈◊〉 thing more then to apply them 〈◊〉 to the Organ of sense ; Whereas this proposition of the existence of the Deity do's not demonstrate it self , nor immediately prove its verity to the Understanding . Reasons must be fetcht from elsewhere to demonstrate it , & other principles imploy'd , which are naturally more known to us , and have greater proportion with our Faculties . Wherefore , he that receives not any of those proofs which are brought from with 〈◊〉 to support it , can be no more assured of it ; then he that is not yet come forth of his Mothers Womb can be certain of the truth o● this Enunciation , There is light in the Sun , were he capable of understanding the words in which it is conceived .

I know not but some of these Worthies may oppose , that we hold this verity from tradition of the Ancients , seeing they have left us very many others , of which we are not at all in doubt : For prudent persons have always ascrib'd much to the opinions of their Ancestors , especially if they were such as atchieved any thing towards the establishment and conservation of Common-wealths , or made provision for containing men in the respect due to Religion . The reason of which is a perswasion that they were more illuminated then their Posterity , either because the world was not so invaded with corrupt maners in their time , or for that they were not yet much removed from the Beginning of things . But in case this should be urged by them , yet it will be perpetually necessary that those Ancients received this truth from without themselves , since they could not have it from themselves any more then we . Shall it therefore be likewise from tradition of their predecessors ? If so , we shall run back to infinity ; and whereas all other traditions have necessarily had some beginning , this will be found to be eternal . Now this is a thing which ha's not so much as the appearance of reason , especially in the mouths of them who are oblig'd to confess that the World it self had a beginning , being fabricated by the casual coalition of Atoms . For if the World began to be , there is no ascending by divers generations of men to eternity ; but we must at length subsist in the first of all , who cannot have had this important truth from himself any more then we , but from the revelation of God , who must have discovered the same to him , to the end he might ascertain his Descendants thereof , and leave it to them in deposito to the end of the world . Now in what place was it that God made this revelation , if , as these people contend , there is not , nor ever was , either in man , the world , or any Oracle whatsoever , any trace or token of the existence of his Being and of his Divine Virtues ? And if God had so much care at the beginning to reveal this Truth to the first of men , to the end they might not lead a life altogether semblable to that of Brutes ; why do they deny his Providence , of which this is an effect supremely important ? Again , If God was pleased his Providence should appear in this occasion , why should he instantly after arrest the actions of it ; as if after having let scape either constrainedly or by inadvertency a beam of his Divinity he retir'd himself incontinently from before our eyes , and became envelopp'd in darkness eternally impenetrable ? Lastly , what will be the certainty or incertainty of this tradition , I will use no other proof to shew , then such as I shall draw from the confession of the Epicureans themselves . It is a tradition as ancient and as constant amongst men in general , That God takes care of the concernments of mankind , as is in the School of Epicurius the tradition That there is a God . Moreover , the world , and the occurrences that arrive in it every day , present the humane understanding with proofs incomparably more evident that there is a Providence which governs us , then this proposition , There is a God , furnishes us alone with assurances of its proper verity . For on what side soever it be regarded , wholly naked , as I have laid it open , it affords not any means to the mind to close with it for true , and settle it self upon it ; whereas on all hands we meet with the materials of our reasonings upon which we ground the belief of a Providence . Nevertheless Epicurus and his Disciples have dar'd to reject flatly the conduct of Providence , without weighing either the tradition of their predecessors , or the evidences which support the same with such apparent firmness . What will hinder all the remainder of men from being as inclinable to deny the existence of God , if we have no other assurance of it then so wild and vagous a tradition ?

Let us allow Epicurus a little more , and suppose the case that Nature alone hath imbued us with this truth from our birth , without any need of receiving the impression of it by the contemplation of objects we have before our eyes ; Yet it is incomprehensible how certain Idea's of truths , purely intellectual , could be ingraved ▪ & preserve their lineaments in the materialls of which we are framed ; besides that experience teaches all our fathers , that when they gave being to their children , it was at such time as they least of all thought of these Common Conceptions . But grant it possible ; yet what is it which they understand by Nature ? For if by that word they pretend to denote the concourse of those indivisible Particles , of which their fancy will have the the world compos'd ; or rather that Order which is between causes purely natural and their effects ( however other Philosophers describe it ) seeing this kind of nature hath not it self any apprehension of these verities , how hath it communicated that to man which it hath not , and whereof it is incapable to receive the least lineaments or seeds ? It must needs be therefore , that it was God who writ them in the Understanding of man , either in him that had them first , to transmit the same to his Descendants , which is absolutely unimaginable ; or in every individual person , from the instant of their conception , which would be highly necessary . Now if God hath had so great care of mankind as not to suffer one single person to come into the world , in whose breast he hath not first imprinted this divine Conception , how irrational is it to esteem him negligent both of us and of that which concerns us ? And seeing he hath taken this care of us at a time wherein we could not render him any honor ; why should we not hope to obtain new benefits from his hand by our gratitude and by our prayers ? I conclude therefore , that notwithstanding the pertinacious gainsaying of these people , and with whatever artifice they endeavor either to maintain or disguise their sentiments , they believe not at all the existence of a God ; or if they do believe it , they have such perswasion from arguments which induce to the acknowledgment of his Especial Providence .