An antidote against atheisme, or, An appeal to the natural faculties of the minde of man, whether there be not a God by Henry More ...

CHAP. II.

What is meant by demonstrating there is a God, and that the mind of man, unlesse he do violence to his facul••ies, will fully ••ssent or dissent from that which notwithstanding may have a bare possibility of being otherwise.

BUt when I speak of demonstrating there is a God, I would not be suspected of so much vanity and o∣stentation as to be thought I mean to bring no Arguments, but such as are so convictive, that a mans understanding shall be forced to confesse that is is impossible to be other∣wise then I have concluded. For for mine own part I am pro••e to believe, that there is nothing at all to be so demon∣strated. For it is possible that Mathematicall evidence it self, may be but a constant undiscoverable delusion, which our nature is necessarily and perpetually obnoxious unto, and that either fatally or fortuitously there has been in the world time out of mind such a Being as we call Man, whose essential property it is to be then most of all mistaken, when he conceives a thing most evidently true. And why

may not this be as well as any thing else, if you will have all things fatall or casuall without a God? For there can be no cu••be to this wild conceipt, but by the supposing that we our selves exist from some higher Principle that is absolutely good and wise, which is all one as to acknow∣ledge that there is a God.

Wherefore when I say that I will demonstrate that there is a God, •• do not promi••e that I will alwayes produce such arguments, that the Reader shall acknowledge so strong as he shall be forced to confesse that it is utterly unpossible that it should be otherwise. But they shall be such as shall deserve full assent and win full assent from any unprejudic'd mind.

For I conceive that we may give full assent to that which notwithstanding may possibly be otherwise: which I shall illustrate by severall examples. Suppose two men got to the top of mount Athos, and there viewing a stone in the form of an Altar with ashes on it, and the footsteps of men on those ashes, or some words if you will, as Optimo Ma∣ximo, or, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the like, written or scralled out upon the Ashes; and one of them should cry out, Assuredly here have been some men here that have done this: But the other more nice then wise should reply, Nay it may possibly by otherwise. For this stone may have naturally grown into this very shape, and the seeming ashes may be no ashes, that is no remainders of any fewell burnt there, but some unexplicable and imperceptible Motions of the Aire, or other particles of this fluid Matter that is active every where, have wrought some parts of the Matter into the form and nature of ashes, and have fridg'd and plaid about so, that they have also figured those intelligible Cha∣racters in the same. But would not any body deem it a piece of weaknesse no lesse then dotage for the other man one whit to recede from his former apprehension, but as fully as ever to agree with what he pronounced first, not∣withstanding

this bare possibility of being otherwise?

So of Anchors that have been digged up, either in plaine fields or mountainous places, as also the Roman Vrnes with ashes and inscriptions, as Severianus, Ful: Li∣nus and the like, or Roman Coynes, with the effigies and names of the Caesars on them; or that which is more ordinary, the Sculls of men in every Church-yard, with the right figure, and all those necessary perforations for the passing of the vessells, besides those conspicuous hol∣lowes for the Eyes and rowes of teeth, the Os Styloeides, Ethoeides, and what not? if a man will say of them, that the Motion of the particles of the Matter, or some hidden Spermatick power has gendred these both Anchors, Vrnes, Coynes, and Sculls in the ground, hee doth but pronounce that which humane reason must admitt as possible: Nor can any man ever so demonstrate that those Coynes, Anchors, and Vrnes, were once the Artifice of men, or that this or that Scull was once a part of a living man, that hee shall force an acknowledgment that it is impossible that it should be other∣wise. But yet I doe not think that any man, without doing manifest violence to his facultyes, can at all suspend his as∣sent, but freely and fully agree that this or that Scull was once part of a living man, and that these Anchors, Vrnes and Coynes, were certainly once made by humane artifice, notwithstanding the possibility of being otherwise.

And what I have said of Assent is also true in Dissent. For the mind of man not craz'd nor prejudic'd will fully and unreconcileably disagree, by it's own natural fagacity, where notwithstanding the thing that it doth thus resolvedly and undoubtingly reject, no wit of man can prove impossible to bee true. As if wee should make such a fiction as this, that Archimedes with the same individuall body that hee had when the Souldiers slew him, is now safely intent upon his Geometricall figures under ground, at the Center of the Earth, farre from the noise and din of this world that might

disturb his Meditations, or distract him in his curious deli∣neations he makes with his rod upon the dust; which no man living can prove impossible: Yet if any man does not as unreconcileably dissent from such a fable as this, as from any falshood imagineable, assuredly that man is next doore to madness or dotage, or does enormous violence to the free use of his Facultyes.

Wherefore it is manifest that there may bee a very firme and unwavering assent or dissent, when as yet the thing wee thus assent to may be possibly otherwise; or that which wee thus dissent ••rom, cannot bee proved impossible to be true.

Which point I have thus long and thus variously sported my self in, for making the better impression upon my Rea∣der, it being of no small use and consequence, as well for the advertising of him, that the Arguments which I shall produce, though I doe not bestowe that ostentative term of Demonstration upon them, yet they may bee as effectuall for winning a firme and unshaken assent, as if they were in the strictest Notion such; as also to reminde him that if they bee so strong and so pa••ly fitted and suteable with the facultyes of mans mind, that hee has nothing to reply, but only that for all this, it may possibly bee otherwise, that hee should give a free and full assent to the Conclusion. And if hee do not, that hee is to suspect himself rather of some distemper, prejudice, or weaknesse, then the Arguments of want of strength. But if the Atheist shall contrariwise per∣vert my candour and fair dealing, and phan••y that he has got some advantage from my free confession, that the argu∣ments that I shall use are not so convictive, but that they leave a possibility of the thing being otherwise, let him but compute his supposed gains by adding the limitation of this possibility (viz. that it is no more possible, then that the clearest Mathematicall evidence may be false (which is im∣possible if our facultyes be true) or in the second place, then

that the Roman Vrnes and Coins above mentioned may prove to be the works of Nature, not the Artifice of man, which our facultyes admit to be so little probable, that it is impossible for them not fully to assent to the contrary) and when he has cast up his account, it will be evident that it can be nothing but his grosse ignorance in this kind of Arithme∣tick that shall embolden him to write himself down gainer and not me.