Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

ing Dialogues Ludovicus Vives, and with how great Eloquence your Mornaus, have illustrated this Matter. For which Reason it might seem more useful, to translate some of them into our own Language, than to undertake any Thing new upon this Subject. But though I know not what Judgment others will pass upon me, yet I have very good Reason to hope that you, who are so fair and candid a Judge, will easily acquit me, if I should say, that after having read not only the fore-mentioned Writings, but also those that have been written by the Jews in Behalf of the ancient Jewish Dispensation, and those of Christians for Christianity, I choose to make use of my own Judgment, such as it is; and to give my Mind that Liberty, which at present is denied my Body: For I am persuaded that Truth is no other Way to be defended but by Truth, and that such as the Mind is fully satisfied with; it being in vain to attempt to persuade others to that which you yourself are not convinced of: Wherefore I selected, both from the Ancients and Moderns, what appeared to me most conclusive; leaving such Arguments as seemed of small Weight, and rejecting such Books as I knew to be spurious, or had Reason to suspect to be só. Those which I approved of, I explained, and put in a regular Method, and in as popular a Manner as I could, and likewise turned them into Verse, that they might the easier be remembered. For ny Design was to undertake something which might be useful to my Countrymen, especially Seamen; that they might have an Opportunity to employ that Time which in long Voyages lies upon their Hands, and is usually thrown away: Wherefore I began with an Encomium upon our Nation, which so far excels others in the Skill of Navigation; that by this Means I might excite them

to

to make use of this Art, as a peculiar Favour of Heaven; not only to their own Profit, but also to the propagating the Christian Religion: For they can never want Matter, but in their long Voyages will every where meet either with Pagans, as in China or Guinea; or Mahometans, as in the Turkish and Persian Empires, and in the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco; and also with Jews, who are the professed Enemies of Christianity, and are dispersed over the greatest Part of the World: And there are never wanting profane Persons, who, upon Occasion, are ready to scatter their Poison amongst the Weak and Simple, which Fear had forced them to conceal: Against all which Evils, my Desire was, to have my Countrymen well fortified; that they, who have the best Parts, might employ them in confuting Errors; and that the other would take Heed of being seduced by them.

SECT. II.

That there is a God.

Fing

AND that we may show that Religion is not a vain and empty Thing; it shall be the Business of this first Book to lay the Foundation thereof in the Existence of the Deity: Which I prove in the following Manner-That there are some Things must have which had a Beginning, is confessed on all Sides, and obvious to Sense: But these Things couldbeen, created not be the Cause of their own Existence; because from a that which has no Being, cannot act; for then it would have been before it was, which is impossible; whence it follows, that it derived its Being from

a fiich

cause, who чайт

a

4 from

we

something else: That is true, not only of those being the Things which are now before our Eyes, or whichcal we have formerly seen; but also of those Things

[blocks in formation]

god

out of which these have arisen, and so on (a) till we arrive at some Cause, which never had any Beginning, but exists (as we say) necessarily, and not by Accident: Now this Being, whatsoever it be (of whom we shall speak more fully by and by) to consent of is what we mean by the Deity or God. Another ill mations

Groves the being

[ocr errors]

Argument for the Proof of a Deity may be drawn from the plain Consent of all Nations, who have any Remains of Reason, any Sense of Good Manners, and are not wholly degenerated into Brutishness. For human Inventions, which depend upon the arbitrary Will of Men, are not always the same every where, but are often changed; whereas there is no Place where this Notion is not to be found; nor has the Course of Time been able to alter it (which is observed by (b) Aristotle himself, a Man not very credulous in these Matters;) wherefore we must assign it a Cause as extensive as all Mankind; and that can be no other than a Declaration from God himself, or a Tradition derived down from the first Parents of Mankind: If the former be granted, there needs no further Proof; if the latter, it is hard to give a good Reason why our first Parents would deli

(a) Till we arrive at some cause, &c.] Because as their Manner of speaking is, there can be no such Thing as going on for ever; for of those Things which had a Beginning, either there is some first Cause, or there is none. If it be denied that there is any first Cause; then those Things which had a Beginning, were without a Cause; and consequently existed or came of nothing of themselves, which is ab

surd. Le Clerc.

(b) Aristotle himself, &c.] Metaphys. Book XI. Ch. 5. where, after relating the Fables of the Gods, he has these words: "Which, if any one rightly distinguishes, he will keep

66

wholly to this as the principal Thing; that to believe the "Gods to be the first Beings, is a divine Truth: And that "though Arts and Sciences have probably been often lost, and "revived; yet this opinion hath been preserved as a Relick to "this very Time." Le Clerc.

ver to Posterity a Falsity in a Matter of so great Moment: Moreover, if we look into those Parts of the World, which have been a long Time known, or into those lately discovered; if they have not lost the common Principles of HumanNature (as was said before) this Truth immediately appears; as well amongst the more dull Nations, as amongst those who are quicker, and have where is lear better Understanding; and, surely, these lattering was ass cannot all be deceived, nor the former be sup

posed to have found out something to impose upon dea of a pers

each other with: Nor would it be of any Forcete natural against this, if it should be urged, that there have being been a few Persons in many Ages who did not

believe a God, or at least made such a Profession in culcated For considering how few they were, and that as soon as their Arguments were known, their Opinion was immediately exploded; it is evident, it did not proceed from the right Use of that Reason which is common to all Men; but either from an Affectation of Novelty, like the Heathen Philosopher who contended that Snow was black; or from a corrupted Mind, which, like a vitiated Palate, does not relish Things as they are: Especially since History and other Writings inform us that the more virtuous any one is, the more carefully is this Notion of the Deity preserved by him: And it is further evident, that they who dissent from this anciently-established Opinion, do it out of an ill Principle, and are such Persons, whose Interest it is that there should be no God, that is, no Judge of human Actions; beCause whatever Hypotheses they have advanced of their own, whether an Infinite Succession of Causes, without any Beginning; or a fortuitous Concourse of Atoms, or any other, (a) it is attended

(a) It is attended with as great, &c.] Grotius might have said, and that not rashly, that there are much greater Difficulties

tended with as great, if not greater Difficulties,

bjections by and not at all more credible than what is already

Some

are

[ocr errors]

received; as is evident to any one that considers it ever so little. For that which some object, that

made- becauthey don't believe a God, because they don't see se we cannot him; if they can see any Thing, they may see how Iter the divine much it is beneath a Man who has a Soul which he cannot see, to argue in this Manner. Nor, if Spirit ba we cannot fully comprehend the Nature of God, we have a ought we therefore to deny that there is any such Being; for the Beasts don't know what Sort of Soul, conce Creatures Men are, and much less do they underSee ih hostand how Men, by their Reason, institute and govern Kingdoms, measure the Course of the Stars, and sail across the Seas: These Things exceed their reach: And hence Man, because he is placed by the Dignity of his Nature above the Beasts, and that not by himself, ought to infer, that He, who gave him this superiority above the Beasts, is as far advanced beyond Him, as He is beyond the Beasts; and that therefore there is a Nature, which, as it is more excellent, so it exceeds his Comprehension.

SECT. III.

That there is but one God.

HAVING proved the Existence of the Deity, we come next to his Attributes; the first whereof is, That there can be no more Gods than One.

culties in the opinions of those who would have the World to be eternal, or always to have been; such as, that it must have come out of nothing of itself, or that it arose from the fortuitous Concourse of Atoms; Opinions full of manifest Contradictions, as many since Grotius's Time have exactly demonstrated; amongst whom is the eminent and learned Dr. Ralph Cudworth, who wrote the English Treatise Of the Intellectual System of the Universe: There are also other very excellent English Divines and Natural Philosophers. Le Clerc.

Which

« ForrigeFortsæt »