Book II. Weights and Motions conftructs the feveral Parts of the World, difcharging human Nature from the Awe of Divine Judgments, afferting, Quod beatum, æternumque fit, id nec babere negotii quicquam, nec exhibere alteri . That what is Bleffed and Eternal, has neither any Business itself, nor gives any to another. Nature wills, that, in like Things, there fhould be a like Relation: The infinite Number of Mortals, therefore, concludes a like Number of Immortals; the infinite Things that kill and deftroy, prefuppofe as many that preferve and profit. As the Souls of the Gods, without Tongue, Eyes, or Ears, do, every one of them, feel, amongst themselves, what the other feel, and judge our Thoughts; fo the Souls of Men, when at Liberty, and loofed from the Body, either by Sleep, or some Extafy, divine, foretel, and fee Things, which, whilst joined to the Body, they could not fee. Men, fays St. Paul, profeffing them to be Wife, they became Fools, and changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man &. Do but take Notice of the juggling in the ancient Deifications. After the great and ftately Pomp of the Funeral", fo foon as the Fire began to mount to the Top of the Pyramid, and to catch hold of the Bier whereon the Body lay, they, at the fame Time, let fly an Eagle, which, mounting upward, fignified, that the Soul afcended into Paradife. We have a thousand Medals, and particularly of that virtuous Fauftina, where this Eagle is represented carrying these deified Souls, with their Heels upwards, towards Heaven. 'Tis Pity that we fhould fool ourselves with our own Monkey Tricks and Inventions,

Quod finxere timent '.

i. e.

They are afraid of their own Inventions.

Like Children, who are frightened with the fame Face of their Play-fellow, that they themselves have smeared and fmutted. Quafi quicquam infelicius fit bomine, cui fua fig

f Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. c. 17. dian. lib. iv. i Lucan. lib. i. v. 486.

Rom. i. 22, 23.

b Hero

menta

menta dominantur. As if any Thing could be more unhappy than Man, who is infulted by his own Fictions: 'Tis very far from honouring him who made us, to honour him that we have made. Auguftus had more Temples than Jupiter, ferved with as much Religion, and Faith in Miracles. The Thafians, in Return of the Benefits they had received from Agefilaus, coming to bring him Word, that they had canonifed him: Has your Nation *, faid he to them, that Power to make Gods of whom they pleafe? Pray, first, deify fome one amongst yourselves, ‹ and, when I shall see what Advantage he has by it, I will "thank you for your Offer.' Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a Flea, and yet Gods by Dozens. Hear what Trismegiftus fays, in Praife of our Sufficiency: Of • all the wonderful Things, it furmounts all Wonder, that Man could find out the Divine Nature, and make it.' And take here the Arguments of the School of Philosophy itself.

6

Noffe cui Divos, et cæli numina, foli,
Aut foli nefcire datum '.

i. e.

To whom to know the Deities of Heav'n,

Or know he knows them not, alone 'tis giv'n.

;

If there is a God, he is a living Creature; if he be a living Creature, he has Sense; and, if he has Senfe, he is fubject to Corruption: If he be without a Body, he is without a Soul, and confequently without Action and, if he has a Body, it is perishable.' Is not here a Triumph? We are incapable of having made the World, there muft then be fome more excellent Nature, that has put a Hand to the Work. It were a foolish Arrogance to esteem ourselves the moft perfect Thing of this Univerfe. There must then be fomething that is better, and this is God ". When you see a stately and ftupendious Edifice, tho' you do not know who is the Owner of it,

* Plutarch, in the Notable Sayings of the Lacedæmonians.

↓ Lucan. lib. i. v. 452, Sc.

n Idem, lib. ii. c. 6.

VOL. II.

Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. v. 13, 14.

Palace.

you would yet conclude, it was not built for Rats and Weafels. And this Divine Structure, that Heaven God's we behold of the Celestial Palace, have we not Reason to believe, that it is the Refidence of fome Proprietor, who is much greater than we? Is not the Highest always the moft worthy? And we are the Lowermoft. Nothing without a Soul, and without Reafon, can produce a living Creature capable of Reafon P. The World produces us, the World then has Soul and Reason. Every Part of us is lefs than we. We are Part of the World, the World therefore is endued with Wisdom and Reason, and that more abundantly than we'. 'Tis a fine Thing to have a great Government. The Go

The Govern ment of the World.

vernment of the World then appertains to fome happy Nature. The Stars do us no harm, they are then bountiful. We have Need of Nourishment, fo have the Gods alfo, and feed upon the Vapours of the Earth. Worldly Goods are not Goods to God, therefore they are not Goods to us; offending, and being offended, are equally Teftimonies of Imbecillity: 'Tis therefore Folly to fear God. God is good by his Nature, Man by his Industry, which is more. The Divine and Human Wisdom have no other Distinction, but that the firft is eternal. But Duration is no Acceffion to Wifdom, therefore we are Companions. We have Life, Reason, and Liberty; we efteem Bounty, Charity, and Justice; these Qualities are in him. In Conclufion, the Building and Destroying, and the Conditions of the Divinity, are forged by Man, according as they relate to himself. What a Pattern, and what a Model! Let us ftretch, let us raise and fwell human Qualities as much as we please: Puff up thyself, vain Man, yet more and more, and more.

Profectò non Deum, quem cogitare non poffunt, fed femet ipfos pro illo cogitantes; non illum, fed feipfos, non illi, fed fibi comparant ". Certainly they do not imagine God, of • whom they can have no Idea, but, imagining themselves in his stead, they do not compare him, but themselves, not to him, but to themfelves.' In natural Things the Effects do but half relate to their Causes: How is this? His Condition is above the Order of Nature, too fublime, too remote, and too mighty to permit himself to be bound and fettered by our Conclufions. 'Tis not thro' ourselves that we arrive at that Place; our Ways lie too low: We are no nearer Heaven on the Top of Mount Senis, than in the Bottom of the Sea; take the Distance with your Aftrolabe: They debafe God even to the carnal Knowledge of Women, even to how many Times, and how many Generations. Paulina, the Wife of Saturninus, a Matron of great Reputation at Rome, thinking fhe lay with the God Serapis, found herself in the Arms of an Amorofo of hers, through the Pandarifm of the Priests of his Temple. Varro, the moft fubtle and most learned of all the Latin Authors, in his Book of Theology, writes, That the Sexton of Hercules's Temple, throwing Dice, with one Hand, for himself, and with the other for Hercules, played, with him, for a Supper and a Whore: If he won, at the Expence of the Offerings; if he lost, at his own: The Sexton loft, and paid the Supper and the • Whore: Her Name was Laurentina, who faw, by Night, this God in her Arms; by whom she was told, moreover, that the first Man fhe met, the next Day, should give her a glorious Reward: This was Tarunicus, a rich young Man, who took her home to his House, and in Time, left her his Heiress. She, on the other Hand, thinking to do a Thing that would be pleafing to this God, left the People of Rome her Heirs, and therefore T 2 • had

u St. Austin de Civit. Dei, lib. xii. c. 15.

Or Anubis, according to Jofephus's Jewish Antiquities, lib. xviii. c. 4. where this Story is related at Length.

* St. Auftin de Civit. Dei, lib. vi. c. 7.

y Or Tarutius, according to St. Auflin: But, according to Plutarch, who relates the fame Story in the Life of Romulus, the first Man who met Larentia (as he calls her) was one Tarrutius, a very old Man, c. 3. of Amyor's Tranflation.

Book II. had Divine Honours attributed to her.' As if it had not been fufficient that Plato was originally defcended from the Gods, both by the Father and Mother, and that he had Neptune for the common Father of his Race 2. 'Twas certainly believed at Athens, that Arifto, having a mind to enjoy the fair Peri&tione, could not, and was • warned by the God Apollo, in a Dream, to leave her unpolluted and untouched till fhe was brought to Bed ".' These were the Father and Mother of Plato. How many ridiculous Stories are there of like Cuckoldings of poor Mortals by the Gods? And of Husbands injuriously dif graced in favour of their Children? In the Mahometan Religion there are enow Merlins found by the Belief of the People, that is to fay, Children without Fathers, spiritual, divinely conceived in the Wombs of Virgins; and they carry Names that fignify fo much in their Language. We are to observe, that, to every Thing, Nothing that both Man and nothing is more dear and eftimable than its Beaft is fonder Being, (the Lion, the Eagle, and the Dolof than its Spe- phin, prize nothing above their own Kind) and that each affimilates the Qualities of all other Things to its own proper Qualities, which we may, indeed, extend or contract, but that's all; for, beyond that Relation and Principle, our Imagination cannot go, can guess at nothing elfe, nor poffibly go out thence, or stretch beyond it. From hence fpring these ancient Conclufions: Of all Figures, the most beautiful is that of Man; therefore God must be of that Form: No one can be happy without Virtue, nor can Virtue be without Reason, and Reafon cannot inhabit any where but in a human Shape; God is therefore cloathed in the human Figure . Ita eft informatum, anticipatumque mentibus noftris, ut homini, quum de Deo cogitet, forma occurrat humana. It is fo imprinted in our Minds, and the Fancy is fo prepoffeffed with it, that when a Man thinks of God, a human Figure ever prefents itfelf to the Ima⚫gination.

cies.

6.

2

Diogenes Laertius in the Life of Plato, fect. 2. lib. iii.

'Tis affirmed, for certain, that Apollo appeared, in a Vision by Night, to Arifton, and forbad him to touch his Wife for ten Months. Plutarch in

is Table-Talk, lib. viii. Qu. 1.

Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. c. 18.

Idem, ibid. c. 27.