i. e. I ever thought that Gods above there were, But do not think they care what Men do here. Truft now, Sirs, to your Philofophy, and brag that you have found out the very Thing you wanted, amidst this Rattle of fo many Philofophical Heads. The Perplexity of fo many worldly Forms have had this Effect upon me, that Manners and Opinions, differing from mine, do not fo muft difguft as inftruct me; and, upon a Comparifon, do not puff me up fo much as they humble me : And all other Choice than that, which comes expressly from the Hand of God, feems to me a Choice of small Prerogative. The Polities of the World are no less contrary upon this Subject than the Schools, whereby we may learn that Fortune itself is not more variable and inconftant than our Reason, nor more blind and inconfiderate. The Things, which are the most unknown, are the moft proper to be deified. Wherefore, to To make Gods make Gods of ourselves, as the Ancients did, of Men is the utmost Degree is the most ridiculous and childish Imaginaof Extravation poffible. I fhould fooner adhere to thofe gance. who worshipped the Serpent, the Dog, and the Ox; forafmuch as their Nature and Existence is lefs known to us, and that we have more Authority to imagine what we please of those Beasts, and to ascribe extraordinary Faculties to them. But to have made Gods of thofe of our own Condition, of whom we cannot but know the Imperfection, and to have attributed to them Defire, Anger, Revenge, Marriage, Generation, Kindred, Love, and Jealoufy, our Members and our Bones, our Fevers and our Pleasures, our Deaths and Burials, must needs proceed from a marvellous Intoxication of the human Understanding. Que procul ufque adeo divino ab numine distant, i. e. For these are so unlike the Gods; the Frame b Lucret. lib. v. 123, 124 • The I 1 6 The different Forms of these Gods are known, toge⚫ther with their Ages, Apparel, Ornaments, Genealogies, Marriages, Kindred; and they are exhibited, in all Refpects, according to the Similitude of human Weaknefs; for they are reprefented to us with disturbed Minds, and we read of the Concupifcence and Anger of the Gods. And 'tis equally abfurd to have ascribed Divinity, not only to Faith, Virtue, Honour, Concord, Liberty, Victory, Piety, but also to Voluptuousness, Fraud, Death, Envy, Old Age, Mifery, Fear, Fever, Ill Fortune, and other Injuries of our frail and tranfitory Life. Quid juvat hoc, templis noftros inducere mores? i. e. O abject Souls, ftuck ever deep in Clay ! interdicted, Precaution of The impudent the Egyptians about their Gods. The Egyptians, with an impudent Precaution, Cic. de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. c. 28. the the Hierarchy of their Gods, and make a great Buftle about diftinguishing their Alfiances, Offices, and Power; I cannot believe they fpeak as they think. When Plato defcribes Pluto's Verger to us, and the bodily Conveniencies or Pain that attend us, after the Ruin and Annihilation of our Bodies, and accommodates them to the Senfe we have of them in this Life. Whether the Philofophers were ferious in treating of the Hierarchy of their Gods, and of the Candi tion of Meu in another Life. Secreti celant calles, & myrtea circùm In Vales and myrtle Groves they penfive lie, Nor do their Cares forfake them, when they die. When Mahomet promises his Followers a Paradife hung with Tapestry, adorned with Gold and precious Stones, furnished with Wenches of excellent Beauty, rare Wines, and delicate Dishes; I plainly fee that they are in Jefl, when, to humour our Senfuality, they allure and attract us by Hopes and Opinions fuitable to our mortal Appetites : And yet fome, amongst us, are fallen into the like Error, promifing to themselves, after the Refurrection, à Terreftrial and Temporal Life, accompanied with all forts of worldly Conveniences and Pleafures. Can we believe, that Plato, he who had fuch heavenly Conceptions, and was fo well acquainted with the Divinity, as thence to acquire the Surname of the Divine Plato, ever thought that the poor Creature, Man, had any Thing in him applicable to that incomprehenfible Power? And that he believed, that the weak Holds we are able to take were capable, or the Force of our Underftanding fufficient to participate of Beatitude, or eternal Pains? We should then tell him, from human Reafon, if the Pleasures thou doft promife us, in the other Life, are of the fame kind that I have enjoyed here below, this has nothing in common with Infinity: Though all my five natural Senfes fhould be even ravished with Pleasure, and my Soul full of all the Contentment it could hope or defire, we know what d Æneid. lib. vi. v. 443. what all this amounts to, all this would be nothing: If there be any Thing of mine there, there is nothing Divine; if this be no more than what may belong to our prefent Condition, it cannot be of any Account: All Contentment of Mortals is mortal: Even the Knowledge of our Parents, Children, and Friends, if that can affect and delight us in the other World, if that ftill continue a Satisfaction to us there, we ftill remain in earthly and finite Conveniencies: We cannot, as we ought, conceive the Greatness of thefe high and divine Promises, if we could, in any fort conceive them: To have a worthy Imagination of them, we must imagine them unimaginable, inexplicable, and incomprehenfible, and abfolutely different from thofe of our wretched Experience. Eye bath not feen, faith St. Paul, nor Ear heard, neither have entered into the Heart of Man, the Things that God hath pared for them that love him. render us capable, our Being be reformed and changed (as thou fayeft, Plato, by thy Purifications) it ought to be fo extreme and total a Change, that, by Natural Philofophy, we shall be no more ourselves. And if, to pre What must be the Change of our Being, ta qualify as for Eternal Hap piness. Hector erat tunc cum bello certabat, at ille He Hector was, whilft he did fight, but, when It must be something else that must receive thefe Rewards. Quod mutatur, diffolvitur, interit ergo; Trajiciuntur enim partes atque ordine migrant ". i. l. Things, chang'd, diffolved are, and therefore die; For, in Pythagoras's Metempsychosis, and the Change of Habitation that he imagined Souls underwent, can we believe, e I Cor. ii. 9. f Ovid. Trift. lib. iii. El. 2. v. 27. lib, iii. v. 756. & Lucret, Book II. lieve, that the Lion, in whom the Soul of Cafar is inclofed, does efpouse Cæfar's Paffions, or that the Lion is he? For, if it was ftill Cafar, they would be in the right, who, controverting this Opinion with Plato, reproach him, that the Son might be seen to ride his Mother tranfformed into a Mule, and the like Abfurdities: And can we believe, that, in the Tranformations which are made of the Bodies of Animals into others of the fame kind, that the new Comers are no other than their Predeceffors? From the Ashes of a Phoenix ", they fay, a Worm is ingendered, and from that another Phoenix; who can imagine, that this fecond Phoenix is not other than the first ? We see our Silk-worms, as it were, die and wither; and from this withered Body a Butterfly is produced, and from that another Worm; how ridiculous would it be to imagine, that this were still the first? That which has once ceased to be, is no more. Nec fi materiam noftram collegerit ætas Poft obitum, rurfumque redegerit, ut fita nunc eft, i. e. Neither, tho' Time should gather and restore And Plato, when thou fayeft, in another Place, That it fhall be the fpiritual Part of Man, that will be concerned in the Fruition of the Rewards in another Life, thou telleft us a Thing, wherein there is as little Appearance of Truth. Scilicet avolfus radicibus, ut nequit ullam h Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. x. c. 2. ibid. v. 562, &c. 1 Lucret. lib. iii. v. 859, &c. i. e. * Id. |