A discourse concerning the Messias, in three chapters the first concerning the preparatories to his appearance in the types and prophesies of the Old Testament : the second demonstrating that it was typically and prophetically necessary that he should be born of a virgin : the third, that he is God as well as man : to which is prefixed a large preface ... : and an appendix is subjoyned concerning the divine extension ... / by John Turner ...

SECTION V. Other Arguments to prove DES CAR∣TEZ an Atheist. (Book 5)

AND now, that I may dispatch what remains further to be spoken up∣on this Argument, I will do these three things.

First, I will go on to give some other proofs, that Des Cartez, who denied this immaterial Extension, did it indeed, with a design to banish all immaterial substance out of the world, notwithstanding, that as well he as Mr. Hobbs, and the Old Epi∣curcans are wont to impose upon their Rea∣ders, by using the Name of God, that the Laws might not reach them for denying his Existence.

Secondly, I will propose some further considerations, for the proof of this great

and fundamental Doctrine of Religion, that God is a Being infinitely extended.

Thirdly, I will shew the advantage of this way of procedure for the proof of the Existence of God, and for the demon∣strating, as far as human apprehension can reach, what thoughts we are to entertain concerning his nature.

I begin with the first, that is, to give some other Proofs, that Des Cartez, who denied the Extension of the Divine Sub∣stance, did it with a design to banish all Immaterial Beings out of the world.

And the first thing which I shall instance in, shall be his banishing of final Causes out of his Philosophy, that is, the Scripture does expresly assure us, that the

Heavens are the works of Gods hands, and that the Moon and the Stars are of his ordaining;

the Psalmist cries out, being ravished with the contemplation of that infinite beauty, harmony, and contrivance, which appears in all parts of the sensible Creation, how wonderful are thy works O Lord, in wisdom hast thou made them all, and the Holy Job tells us in most emphatical terms, That he looketh to the ends of the Earth, and looketh under the whole Heaven, that he made the weight for the Wind;, and weighed the Wa∣ters

by measure, that he made a decree for the Rain, and away for the Lightning of the Thun∣der, that he did see it and declared it, he se∣parated it, yea, and searched it out, and then it follows, and unto Man he said, behold the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to depart from evil that is Ʋnderstanding, which is as much as to say, that the consideration of the wisdom and contrivance of God in the Crea∣tion of the World, this is the great Root and Basis of all Religion, this is that which alone is able to create in us such an awful and Majestic notion of his wisdom, good∣ness, immensity and power, as may the most effectually provoke, the most win∣ningly entice, and the most powerfully per∣swade us to fear, to love and to obey him, to observe his Commandments and to keep his Laws, and to depart from all ways, which he by the voice of Nature or of Reve∣lation, hath declared to be foolish and un∣reasonable, and displeasing to him.

And in the 38th. and 39th. Chapters of that excellent Book, it is very remarkable to this purpose, to observe the questions which God propounds to Job, in all of which it is implied, that he himself and none but he, not any power or wisdom in∣feriour to his own, not any blind chance of

the Epicureans, nor any Mechanical Powers of matter with Des Cartez was the cause of that wonderful usefulness and beauty, which appears in the whole Creation and in all its parts, and in the advantage and use and service which they do mutually af∣ford and lend to one another. Then the Lord answered Job out of the Whirlwind, and said, who is this that darkneth Council by words, without knowledge? that is, as it appears by what follows, who is this that ascribes to chance or fortune the effects of the most unsearchable wisdom and profound design; and therefore it follows, that Job in his afflicti∣ons might not distrust the providence of God, and think that all things were go∣verned by an ungovernable necessity, and an inconsiderate fate, Gird up now thy Loyns like a Man, for I will demand of thee and an∣swer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth? declare if thou hast understanding, who has laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretch∣ed the line upon it? Whereupon are the Foun∣dations thereof fastned, or who laid the Cor∣ner stone thereof? And much more to the same purpose, in this and the following, and in several other Chapters, wherein the Providence of God, in the Creation of the

World, and in the government of it, is with great strength and eloquence vindicated and asserted, as indeed the whole Book of Job, is little else but a discourse upon Pro∣vidence, and the best that ever was writ∣ten upon that Subject; so also the Prophet speaks as it were, in imitation of Jobs Ca∣techistical way, Who hath measured the Wa∣ters in the hollow of his hand, and meeted out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure, and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a ba∣lance? Then which expressions it is impos∣sible to frame any more significant, to de∣clare the power and wisdom of God, and to let us see that this world was not the ef∣fect of chance, but of the most wise and wonderful design and knowledge; so like∣wise the Apostle to the Romans tells us, tho' I know that place be otherwise interpret∣ed by the Socinian Doctors, who have a great deal to answer for, upon ac∣count of perverse and distorted Interpre∣tations, where he impleads and impeaches the Heathen World, as guilty of inexcusa∣ble Idolatry, because, that vvhen they knevv God, they glorified him not as God, neither vvere thankful, but became vain in their Ima∣ginations, and their foolish heart vvas dar∣kened,

and if you ask him how they knevv God? he answers, it vvas by the vvorks of the Creation, in which, as in a Glass, his Divinity and his attributes are clearly re∣presented, Rom. 1. v. 19, 20. That vvhich may be seen of God is manifest in them, for God hath shevved it unto them, for the invisi∣ble things of him, from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Povv∣er and Godhead, so that they are vvithout ex∣cuse.

Neither does the Scripture assert the Providence of God only as to the whole creation taken together, or as to the great∣er and more considerable parts of it; but that it extends to every individual Crea∣ture, and to the most minute, inconsidera∣ble, disregarded things that are to be met with in it. Are not two Sparrows, saith our Saviour, sold for a Farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground, without your Father? But, as for us, he tells us, that the very Hairs of our Head are all numbred; and in another place, he advises his Dis∣ciples in these words: Take ye no thought for to morrow what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink, nor yet for your Body what ye shall put on; behold the Fowls of the Air, for

they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into Barns, yet your Heavenly Father feed∣eth them; are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his Stature? And why take ye thought for Rayment? consider the Lillies of the Field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his Glory, was not arrayed like one of these; wherefore if God so cloth the Grass, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the Oven; shall he not much more cloth you, O ye of little Faith: This is likewise the language of the Book of Job; he provideth for the Raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God; and of the Psalmist, in the 104th Psalm: He sen∣deth the Springs into the Valleys, which run among the Hills, they give drink to every Beast of the Field, the Wild Asses quench their thirst, by them shall the Fowls of the Heaven have their Habitation, which sing a∣mong the Branches; he watereth the Hills from his Channels, the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works; he causeth the grass to grow for the Cattle, and Herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth Food out of the Earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and Oyl to make his face to

shine, and bread which strengtheneth mans heart; and in another place, speaking of the Organization and contexture of his own Body, and of all the Parts and Members and Vessels of which it consists, which may be understood in proportion of the Bodies of all other Animals likewise, he says, thou hast covered me in my Mothers Womb, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderful∣ly made; marvellous are thy Works, and that my Soul knoweth right well, my Substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes did see my Sub∣stance yet being imperfect, and in thy Book were all my Members written, which in con∣tinuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them: How precious are thy Thoughts unto me, O God? how great is the summe of them? So that this is plainly and constantly the language of the Scrip∣tures, as well as it is of nature and of rea∣son; that all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made, that God alone is worthy to re∣ceive Glory and Honour and Power, for that he hath created all things, and for his pleasure they are and were created; that he who is the Eternal Source of Wisdom, Power

and Goodness, hath created all things for himself, that is, to be testimonies to the world of his Attributes, and his perfections, of his unspeakable Mercy, his unsearcha∣ble Knowledge, and his unlimited power, and that all things were made chiefly for these two ends: First, to be a standing Testimony of his existence and his nature, and secondly, to contribute to the happiness of his Creatures, and to the mutual subsistence of each other.

But now the Epicureans they tell us, that all things came by chance, that the Ear was not made for hearing, nor the Eye for seeing, nor the Nostrils for smelling, but that all this seeming contrivance and ap∣pearing VVisdom is owing to nothing else, but to the lucky concourse of Atomes happi∣ly disposed after such a manner as is requi∣site for that purpose; and therefore by consequence that it was but an idle taunt which the Psalmist bestows upon the Idols of the Heathen, Psal. 115.

Their Idols are Silver and Gold, the work of mens hands, they have mouths but they speak not, eyes have they but they see not; they have ears but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak

they through their Throat: For at this rate it could be no manner of disparagement to those Idols, if having such parts as ears and eyes and feet and hands and nose, they had not that use of them, which was meerly accidental; and for which they were ne∣ver designed and intended.

And as this alone is sufficient to prove the Epicureans of old to have been down∣right Atheists, that they denyed the Pro∣vidence of God, and left the VVorld to the management of chance and fortune; for we have no natural reason to perswade us that there is a God, but what is taken from the contrivance, order, beauty and use∣fulness of the whole Creation, and of the several Parts whereof it is composed; so the same heavy Impeachment lyes still more pressing and unanswerable against Des Cartez, who being born and bred up in a Country professing Christianity, and a Belief not only of the existence, but the Providence of God, did yet ascribe all things (that he might magnifie himself, as being able to contrive a World, as well as he that really did it) to the Mechanical Powers of matter, which as it hath no mo∣tion or activity of it's own, so it is impos∣sible it's motions should be regular, unless we

suppose them guided by some other Prin∣ciple, which is endued with wisdom and understanding.

And indeed what a monstrous piece of the most stupid sottishness and madness is it, instead of that fineness and subtlety to which these Philosophers pretend, to ascribe all this orderly and comely Frame of things, all whose Parts are so useful in themselves, so sitted to their Fellows, and so admirably devised for the support and preservation of the whole, the regular and steady motions of the greater Bodies, the accurate and subtle Frame and Contexture of the lesser, whether in Plants or living Creatures, together with their exact fitness to an infinite number of uses; so that all the wisdom and contrivance in the VVorld, could not have fitted them more exactly than they are, only to the blind Ʋncer∣tainty of chance or fortune with the Epicu∣reans, or to the Mechanical Powers of matter with Des Cartez? which matter being in it self stupid and insensible, cannot possibly obey those pretended Laws, which this Philosopher hath prescribed to it, any further than they are perpetually enforced by the presence of some principle, more noble and more active than it self, and

which if it do always concur to the pro∣ducing such effects, as are so exactly suited to such determinate Ends, what folly? what madness? what stupidity is it to af∣firm that those ends were not designed? or what better Argument can we expect for the existence of a God, by whom this Ʋ∣niverse was made and govern'd, than that which carried Galen, who was by no means a superstitious Man, and must be acknow∣ledged to have been a great Philosopher so far beyond himself, into an extasie of joy and admiration, and filled his mouth, not with poor, contemptible, mechanick Tales, but with a Magnificent Hymn, to his Creator?

How long would it be before Letters, accidentally, and at all adventures thrown and jumbled together, would light into a good Poem or an excellent Oration? be∣fore Stone and Timber would of them∣selves conspire into a Magnificent Palace or a stately building? and how much more unlikely is it, that chance should be able to compose the whole Mass of matter into so comely, so useful, and so regular a frame, that it should persist in it for so many ages, and that those animals which were themselves at first produced by acci∣dental

and fortuitous causes, should per∣severe to beget and continue one another, by causes that are constant, regular and certain; for so long a course and series of time, and yet this was no more, or at least no better, then what Des Cartez him∣self was necestitated to do, having under∣taken to make a world of his own, with∣out the assistance and concurrence of his Maker.

The next thing which I shall Instance in, as a plain indication, how inclinable this Author was to banish the Notion of a God out of the World, is his declining so indu∣striously and so professedly as he does, up∣on all occasions, to say any thing of infi∣nites, though indeed his whole Philosophy be nothing else but one continued harangue, concerning infinite Extention or matter, and what is this but loudly proclaiming to all the World, that for immaterial Substan∣ces, especially that which is pretended to be infinite, they are strange unintelligible things, and that the best way is not to trou∣ble our heads about them?

In the next place, his boggling at the seeming inconsistency betwixt the Divine

praescience and Human freedom, under the same pretence of not medling with infi∣nites, and yet granting the latter, and con∣fessing plainly, that it is this inconsistent ac∣cording to Human faculties with the for∣mer, what is but to say, if he were to speak openly the sence of his mind, that there is no such thing as any such praescience in God, which is as much as to say, if he would speak out, that there is no God at all.

For though Socinus and his followers will not allow God to have any foreknow∣ledge of contingent actions, that is to say, of those actions which depend upon hu∣man freedom, because being contingent, and consequently uncertain, they tell us, there is no foundation for a certain and determinate knowledge, yet at the same time they grant, that he does certainly foreknow, whatever hath any certain and determinate causes, and is by that means an object of cognoscibility, by which, tho' they may be thought to derogate from the perfe∣ction of his Nature, yet his being in general they do expresly acknowledge; but Des Car∣tez will not concern himself, whether such actions can be foreknown or no, or whether

the Divine foreknowledge being supposed in that extent and latitude, with which it is usually maintained, would be any obstru∣ction to the liberty of inferiour Agents, but he slubbers over the business after his usual rate, saying, that the notion of a God includes in it infinite perfection and therefore if it be possible for him to foreknow contingent acti∣ons, he does foreknow them, that is, if it be possible there should be a God, there is one, and he desires to be excused from af∣firming or denying any thing any further, concerning God Almighty.

Neither is it sufficient to say in this case, that the Liberty of the VVill, which Des Cartes manifestly grants, does undeniably prove an immaterial substance, to which I do very frankly and heartily assent, but yet we know the Old Epicureans did acknow∣ledge it as well as Des Cartez, notwithstan∣ding that they referred it to a material cause, which however absurd and uncapa∣ble it was, of producing such an effect, yet why may not one Philosopher be absurd as well as another? As all that dote upon Me∣chanism and matter, must run into infinite absurdities, whether they will or no; and though we should suppose Des Cartes, not to have acquiesced in the solution of his

old Masters, who yet were Men, as consi∣derable for their parts and wit, as any in their times, nor indeed to have pitcht up∣on any particular way, whereby to explain so difficult an effect, yet we have no man∣ner of security from him, that it was not his opinion, that it might be owing to some particular disposition of the matter, though what that disposition was he would not take upon him to determine.

For though he distinguishes indeed very nicely betwixt cogitation and extention, yet it being true, that the several disposi∣tions or modifications of matter, are distinct from the matter it self, in the general con∣sidered, which is capable of being altered and diversifyed infinite ways, and this be∣ing joyned to another great truth, that no substance can be conceived but what is ex∣tended, I say, all this being true, what se∣curity can we have after all his Philosophi∣cal parting of things and things from one a∣nother, but he did really believe that cogi∣tation in general, and all the several sorts and species of it, were but so many seve∣ral modes and dispositions of the universal matter?

That prodigious Doctrine of his, where∣by he makes brute Beasts no better then meer senseless Engines, begetting one ano∣ther to the end of the Chapter, which it is very pleasant for Engines to do, notwith∣standing that they give so clear and so con∣vincing arguments, of sense, memory, ex∣perience, gratitude, love, hatred, fear, hope, cunning, consideration and projection, was an attempt so bold, that nothing but he, who had designed a secret war against all immaterial substance, durst ever have gone about it, and for the same reason, if he durst, he would have proceeded further, and would have made Men as very Images and Puppits as the Beasts that perish, but then he was fearful his Philosophy would have been exploded, and that instead of being courted and admired as he was, by all the Learned Men of Europe, he should have his Book condemned to see no other light, but what the Executioner kindled for its deserved ignominy and utter extirpation, while himself underwent the unfortunate end of his Brother in iniquity, that decla∣red and profest Atheist, Vaninus, a worse Philosopher, but a much better Man, be∣cause he dealt more frankly with the World.

Lastly, his no less ridiculous then impu∣dent sham of the reciprocal motion, and his attempt to explain the contradictious Do∣ctrine of Transubstantiation, are sufficient evi∣dences what esteem he had for Religion or any thing belonging to it, it being as much as to say, that he was loath to fall into the Circumstances of Galilaeo or Vaninus, and he was mightily desirous to have his Books read and his Philosophy entertained among Men, which it could not be if the Romish Inquisitours were displeased, or the Autho∣rity of their Church neglected, much less if he had as openly opposed Religion, as he did industriously betray and undermine it.