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CHAP. LIII.
Of Metaphysicks.
BUT let us go a little farther, and make it appear, that these Philosophers are not only at a loss about those things that seem to have a Being in Na∣ture, but that they are also at great variance among themselves concerning such as have no Principle or Foundation at all; it being altogether uncertain whe∣ther they be or no; and which they believe to subsist without Body or Matter, and which they call Separa∣ted forms; which because they are not in Nature, but thought to be above Nature, therefore they are call'd Metaphysicks, and said to be beyond Nature: from thence sprang those Infinite, every way contra∣dictory, and not less impious and unlearned Opinions concerning the Gods For Diagoras, Milesius, and Theodorus Cyrenaicus, altogether deny that there was any God. Epicurus held that there was a God, but that he took no care of things below. Protagoras said,
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that whether they were or no, they had little or no Power. Anaximander thought that there were Gods Native of Countries, some in the East, and some in the West, at great distances one from another. Xenocra∣tes held, that there were Eight Gods. Antisthenes, that there were many popular Gods, but one Supream, the Creator of the rest. Others have precipitated them∣selves into such a profundity of Madness, as to make with their own hands the Gods which they intended to Worship▪ such was the Image of Bell among the Assyrians: which made and carved Gods, Hermes Trismegistus does notwithstanding very much applaud, in his Aesculapius. But Thales Milesius discoursing of the Divine Essence, asserted the Understanding to be God, who Form'd all things out of Water. Clean∣thes and Anaximenes held the Air to be God. Chry∣sippus Deified the Natural Ability endu'd with Reason, or Divine Necess••y. Zeno ascribes Divinity to the Divine Law of Nature. Anaxagoras, to the Infinite Intellect moveable of it self. Pythagoras would have a certain Soul diffus'd, and passing through the Nature of all things, from whom all things receive Life, to be God. Alcmaeon of Crotona Deified the Sun, Moon, and other Stars. Zenophanes would have God to be All whatever had a Being. Parmenides makes a cer∣tain Circumscrib'd Orb of Light, which he calls a Crown, to be God. Aristotle, as if a certain Know∣ledge of God could be collected from the Motion of the Heavens, hath invented Fictitious Gods of the Nature of them; and sometimes will have the Mind to be Divine; and sometimes he calls the World i• self God: sometimes he makes another God far more Supream and Superintendent over it; whom Theophra∣stus imitates with the same inconstancy. I omit what Strato, Perseus, Aristo the Disciple of Zeno, Plato, Xe∣nophon, Speusippus, Democritus, Heraclitus, Diogenes the
Page 144
Babylonian, Hermes Trismegistus, Cicero, Sene•a, Pliny, and many others have delivered, whose Opinions not∣withstanding are far different from the former, not yet recited. I might here run through all their De∣bates, and Monstrosities of words, concerning Idea's, Incorporeals, Atomes, Hyle, Matter, Form, Vacuum, Infinity, Eternity, Fate, introduction of Forms, Mat∣ter of the Heavens; whether the Stars▪ consist of the Elements, or of the Fifth Essence, which Aristotle inven∣ted; with many other such kind of Trifles, that have afforded Men great cause of Dispute and Contention. But I suppose I have made it sufficiently apparent, how far Philosophers are from agreeing about the Truth it self; to whom, the nearer a man adheres, the more remote he is from any certainty, and the farther he wanders from right Religion. Hence it is, That we find John the Twenty second, Pope, in a very great Error, who was of Opinion, That the Souls of the Blessed should not see the Face of God before the day of Judgment. We know also that Julian the Apo∣state did Abjure Christ, for no other Cause, than that because being much addicted to Philosophy, he began to scorn and contemn the Humility of the Christian Faith. For the same cause Celius, Porphyrius, Lucian, Pelagius, Arrius, Manichaeus, Averroes, have with so much madness bark'd against Christ and his Church. Hence that common Proverb among the Vulgar, That the greatest Philosophers are the greated Hereticks. St. Je∣rom therefore calls them the Patriarchs of Heresie, the First-born of Aegypt; seeing that all Heresie what∣soever hath had its first rise out of the Fountain of Phi∣losophy. By this Philosophy is all Divinity almost Adulterated, so that instead of Evangelical Doctors and Teachers, false Prophets and Heretical Philoso∣phers have appear'd in the World, who have adven∣tur'd to Equalize the Divine Oracles with Humane In∣ventions;
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polluting the same with strange Opinions of Men, have Tranform'd true and simple Divinity (as Gerson saith) into swelling and Sophistical Loqua∣city, and Mathematical Figments. Which St. Paul the Apostle foreseeing, with many times•repeated ad∣monitions commands us to beware left any person should prevail over us, and seduce us through vain Philoso∣phy. St. Austin defends and fortifies his City of God against them. All other Divines and Holy Fathers have condemned it to be wholly extirpated out of the Church. Neither are there wanting Examples of the Heathen, by which we find that they have done the same. For the Athenians put Socrates to Death, that was the Father of the Philosophers. The Romans threw Philosophers out of their City. The Messanians and Lacedemonians never admitted them: and in the Raign of Domitian, they were not only Expell'd the City, but forbid through all Italy. There was also a Decree of Antiochus the King against those young Men that durst take upon them to study Philosophy; and more than that, against their very Parents that per∣mitted them. Neither have Philosophers been only con∣demn'd and expell'd by Kings and Emperors, but also exploded by most Learned Men in their several Wri∣tings Extant; of which Number is Phliasius Timon, who wrote a Treatise, Entitled Sylli, in derision of Philo∣sophers; and Aristoph•nes, who wrote a Play in Con∣tempt of them, which he call'd Nubes, or the Clouds: and Lastly, Dion Prusaeus, who made a most Eloquent Oration against them. Aristides also made a most Learn∣ed Oration in the behalf of Four Noble Athenians against Plato; and Hortensius, a most Noble and Elo∣quent Roman, hath with most strong and powerful Rea∣sons most sharply oppugned the same.
Of Metaphysicks.
BUT let us go a little farther, and make it appear, that these Philosophers are not only at a loss about those things that seem to have a Being in Na∣ture, but that they are also at great variance among themselves concerning such as have no Principle or Foundation at all; it being altogether uncertain whe∣ther they be or no; and which they believe to subsist without Body or Matter, and which they call Separa∣ted forms; which because they are not in Nature, but thought to be above Nature, therefore they are call'd Metaphysicks, and said to be beyond Nature: from thence sprang those Infinite, every way contra∣dictory, and not less impious and unlearned Opinions concerning the Gods For Diagoras, Milesius, and Theodorus Cyrenaicus, altogether deny that there was any God. Epicurus held that there was a God, but that he took no care of things below. Protagoras said,
Page 143
that whether they were or no, they had little or no Power. Anaximander thought that there were Gods Native of Countries, some in the East, and some in the West, at great distances one from another. Xenocra∣tes held, that there were Eight Gods. Antisthenes, that there were many popular Gods, but one Supream, the Creator of the rest. Others have precipitated them∣selves into such a profundity of Madness, as to make with their own hands the Gods which they intended to Worship▪ such was the Image of Bell among the Assyrians: which made and carved Gods, Hermes Trismegistus does notwithstanding very much applaud, in his Aesculapius. But Thales Milesius discoursing of the Divine Essence, asserted the Understanding to be God, who Form'd all things out of Water. Clean∣thes and Anaximenes held the Air to be God. Chry∣sippus Deified the Natural Ability endu'd with Reason, or Divine Necess••y. Zeno ascribes Divinity to the Divine Law of Nature. Anaxagoras, to the Infinite Intellect moveable of it self. Pythagoras would have a certain Soul diffus'd, and passing through the Nature of all things, from whom all things receive Life, to be God. Alcmaeon of Crotona Deified the Sun, Moon, and other Stars. Zenophanes would have God to be All whatever had a Being. Parmenides makes a cer∣tain Circumscrib'd Orb of Light, which he calls a Crown, to be God. Aristotle, as if a certain Know∣ledge of God could be collected from the Motion of the Heavens, hath invented Fictitious Gods of the Nature of them; and sometimes will have the Mind to be Divine; and sometimes he calls the World i• self God: sometimes he makes another God far more Supream and Superintendent over it; whom Theophra∣stus imitates with the same inconstancy. I omit what Strato, Perseus, Aristo the Disciple of Zeno, Plato, Xe∣nophon, Speusippus, Democritus, Heraclitus, Diogenes the
Page 144
Babylonian, Hermes Trismegistus, Cicero, Sene•a, Pliny, and many others have delivered, whose Opinions not∣withstanding are far different from the former, not yet recited. I might here run through all their De∣bates, and Monstrosities of words, concerning Idea's, Incorporeals, Atomes, Hyle, Matter, Form, Vacuum, Infinity, Eternity, Fate, introduction of Forms, Mat∣ter of the Heavens; whether the Stars▪ consist of the Elements, or of the Fifth Essence, which Aristotle inven∣ted; with many other such kind of Trifles, that have afforded Men great cause of Dispute and Contention. But I suppose I have made it sufficiently apparent, how far Philosophers are from agreeing about the Truth it self; to whom, the nearer a man adheres, the more remote he is from any certainty, and the farther he wanders from right Religion. Hence it is, That we find John the Twenty second, Pope, in a very great Error, who was of Opinion, That the Souls of the Blessed should not see the Face of God before the day of Judgment. We know also that Julian the Apo∣state did Abjure Christ, for no other Cause, than that because being much addicted to Philosophy, he began to scorn and contemn the Humility of the Christian Faith. For the same cause Celius, Porphyrius, Lucian, Pelagius, Arrius, Manichaeus, Averroes, have with so much madness bark'd against Christ and his Church. Hence that common Proverb among the Vulgar, That the greatest Philosophers are the greated Hereticks. St. Je∣rom therefore calls them the Patriarchs of Heresie, the First-born of Aegypt; seeing that all Heresie what∣soever hath had its first rise out of the Fountain of Phi∣losophy. By this Philosophy is all Divinity almost Adulterated, so that instead of Evangelical Doctors and Teachers, false Prophets and Heretical Philoso∣phers have appear'd in the World, who have adven∣tur'd to Equalize the Divine Oracles with Humane In∣ventions;
Page 145
polluting the same with strange Opinions of Men, have Tranform'd true and simple Divinity (as Gerson saith) into swelling and Sophistical Loqua∣city, and Mathematical Figments. Which St. Paul the Apostle foreseeing, with many times•repeated ad∣monitions commands us to beware left any person should prevail over us, and seduce us through vain Philoso∣phy. St. Austin defends and fortifies his City of God against them. All other Divines and Holy Fathers have condemned it to be wholly extirpated out of the Church. Neither are there wanting Examples of the Heathen, by which we find that they have done the same. For the Athenians put Socrates to Death, that was the Father of the Philosophers. The Romans threw Philosophers out of their City. The Messanians and Lacedemonians never admitted them: and in the Raign of Domitian, they were not only Expell'd the City, but forbid through all Italy. There was also a Decree of Antiochus the King against those young Men that durst take upon them to study Philosophy; and more than that, against their very Parents that per∣mitted them. Neither have Philosophers been only con∣demn'd and expell'd by Kings and Emperors, but also exploded by most Learned Men in their several Wri∣tings Extant; of which Number is Phliasius Timon, who wrote a Treatise, Entitled Sylli, in derision of Philo∣sophers; and Aristoph•nes, who wrote a Play in Con∣tempt of them, which he call'd Nubes, or the Clouds: and Lastly, Dion Prusaeus, who made a most Eloquent Oration against them. Aristides also made a most Learn∣ed Oration in the behalf of Four Noble Athenians against Plato; and Hortensius, a most Noble and Elo∣quent Roman, hath with most strong and powerful Rea∣sons most sharply oppugned the same.