puts upon us the remotest error from truth. For atheism is the greatest falsity, and to affirm there is no God, the highest lie in nature. And therefore strictly taken, some men will say his labour is in vain; for many there are, who cannot conceive there was ever any absolute atheist, or such as could determine there was no God, without all check from himself, or contradiction from his other opinions. And therefore those few so called by elder times, might be the best of Pagans; suffering that name rather in relation to the gods of the Gentiles, than the true Creator of all. A conceit that cannot befall his greatest enemy, or him that would induce the same in us; who hath a sensible apprehension hereof, for he believeth with trembling. To speak yet more strictly and comformably unto some opinions, no creature can wish thus much; nor can the will which hath a power to run into velleities, and wishes of impossibilities, have any utinam of this. For to desire there were no God, were plainly to unwish their own being, which must needs be annihilated in the subtraction of that essence which substantially supporteth them, and restrains them from regression into nothing. And if, as some contend, no creature can desire his own annihilation, that nothing is not appetible, and not to be at all, is worse than to be in the miserablest condition of something; the devil himself could not embrace that motion, nor would the enemy of God be freed by such a redemption.

9

But coldly thriving in this design, as being repulsed by the principles of humanity, and the dictates of that production which cannot deny its original, he fetcheth a wider circle : and when he cannot make men conceive there is no God at all, he endeavours to make them believe there is not one, but many : wherein he hath been so successful with common heads, that he hath led their belief through all the works of nature.

Now in this latter attempt, the subtilty of his circumvention hath indirectly obtained the former. For although to opinion there be many gods may seem an excess in religion, and such as cannot at all consist with atheism, yet doth it deductively and upon inference include the same; for unity is the inseparable and essential attribute of deity, and if there be more than one God, it is no atheism to say there is no God at all. 9 velleities.] Velleity is the school term used to signify the lowest degree of desire.

And herein though Socrates only suffered, yet were Plato and Aristotle guilty of the same truth; who demonstratively understanding the simplicity of perfection, and the indivisible condition of the first causator, it was not in the power of earth, or areopagy* of hell to work them from it. For, holding an apodictical+ knowledge and assured science of its verity, to persuade their apprehensions unto a plurality of gods in the world, were to make Euclid believe there were more than one centre in a circle, or one right angle in a triangle: which were indeed a fruitless attempt, and inferreth absurdities beyond the evasion of hell. For though mechanic and vulgar heads ascend not unto such comprehensions, who live not commonly unto half the advantage of their principles, yet did they not escape the eye of wiser Minervas, and such as made good the genealogy of Jupiter's brains; who, although they had divers styles for God, yet under many appellations acknowledged one divinity; rather conceiving thereby, the evidence or acts of his power in several ways and places, than a multiplication of essence, or real distraction of unity in any one.

Again, to render our errors more monstrous, (and what unto miracle sets forth the patience of God,) he hath endeavoured to make the world believe, that he was God himself; and failing of his first attempt to be but like the highest in heaven, he hath obtained with men to be the same on earth. And hath accordingly assumed the annexes of divinity, and the prerogatives of the Creator, drawing into practice the operation of miracles, and the prescience of things to come. Thus hath be in a specious way wrought cures upon the sick, played over the wondrous acts of prophets, and counterfeited many miracles of Christ and his apostles. Thus hath he openly contended with God, and to this effect his insolency was not ashamed to play a solemn prize with Moses; wherein, although his performance were very specious, and beyond the common apprehension of any power below a deity, yet was it not such as could make good his omnipotency. For he was wholly confounded in the conversion of dust into lice. An act philosophy can scarce deny to be above the power of nature, nor upon a requisite predisposition beyond the efficacy of the sun. Wherein * Areopagus, the severe court of Athens. + Demonstrative.

notwithstanding, the head of the old serpent was confessedly too weak for Moses's hand, and the arm of his magicians too short for the finger of God.1

1 to play a solemn prize with Moses, &c.] The following curious parallel to this passage, is contained in a fragment of a discourse on Acts vii. 22, which forms part of the "Remains" of the unfortunate H. Kirke White. The writer is inquiring into the nature of the "wisdom of the Egyptians," mentioned in his text; and after some remarks on the scientific knowledge of that people, he proceeds thus: "The great objects of attention were the occult sciences. It was the magicians who swayed the people with a power almost imperial. It was the magicians who spread their fame over all the civilized world, and attached a reverential awe to the name of an Egyptian. The mysteries of these arts the magi preserved with the most scrupulous care, they were imparted to none but their immediate descendants, they were not entrusted to writing, but were locked up in the breasts of their jealous possessors. There is reason to believe, that a portion of judicial astrology was mixed with their magic, but they seem to have relied more on the incantation of spirits for the accomplishment of their purposes. Who does not read the accounts contained in the book of Exodus, of the wonders they performed in emulation of Moses, with surprise and astonishment? This prompt re-duplication of the miracles wrought by the power of God, is such, as we cannot readily conceive to have been effected by art, or simulated by deception, and there remains no other possible mode of accounting for their power, than by presuming that they did really maintain that intercourse with fallen spirits to which they pretend. I am aware that sneers of vain philosophy will be directed against such a supposition, but the course of all history, sacred and profane, countenances the idea; and after the body of evidence afforded by the ancient writers on this point, to express unqualified and unhesitating disbelief, can only argue an utter ignorance of the grounds on which we can alone judge in this mysterious subject. Let any one, however, read with attention the history of the ancient world, and he will see strong reason for believing that a very great part of mankind was given up to the government of unclean spirits. He will find that their gods were rather devils, worse than the very worst of their followers; that their religious institutions were a compound of imposture, avarice, and the most abominable wickedness; yet he will find their oracles often true in their predictions, and maintaining for a long series of years the reputation of being inspired. It was thus in Egypt at the time of the Exodus; the spirits of darkness held uncontrolled dominion over the people through the medium of the magicians, and had arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as almost to fly in the face of Almighty God himself, and measure their powers with his. But we see in the Scripture how they were defeated. They could not follow the arm of the Lord in his wonders. They could not even save their unhappy votaries from his plagues, for "the magicians could not stand before Moses, because of the boils, for the boil was with the magicians." That they knew the evil character of the spirits they served,

Thus hath he also made men believe that he can raise the dead, that he hath the key of life and death, and a prerogative above that principle which makes no regression from privations. The stoics, that opinioned the souls of wise men dwelt about the moon, and those of fools wandered about the earth, advantaged the conceit of this effect; wherein the Epicureans, who held that death was nothing, nor nothing after death, must contradict their principles to be deceived. Nor could the Pythagorean or such as maintained the transmigration of souls give easy admittance hereto; for, holding that separated souls successively supplied other bodies, they could hardly allow the raising of souls from other worlds, which at the same time, they conceived conjoined unto bodies. in this. More inconsistent with these opinions is the error of Christians, who holding the dead do rest in the Lord, do yet believe they are the lure of the devil; that he who is in bonds himself commandeth the fetters of the dead, and dwelling in the bottomless lake, the blessed from Abraham's bosom; that can believe the real resurrection of Samuel; or that there is any thing but delusion in the practice of* necromancy and popular raising of ghosts.

He hath moreover endeavoured the opinion of deity, by the delusion of dreams, and the discovery of things to come in sleep, above the prescience of our waked senses. In this expectation he persuaded the credulity of elder times to take up their lodging before his temple, in skins of their own sacrifices, till his reservedness had contrived answers, whose

* Divination by the dead.

and were aware of their subordination to the true Jehovah, is manifest from the confession extorted by the wonders wrought by Moses, when, unable to equal him in his miracles, they exclaimed to Pharoah, “This is the finger of God." Remains of Henry Kirke White, vol. iii. p. 183— 185. Edit. 1822.-Br.

2 that principle which makes no regression from privations.] That law or principle, by which life once lost is irrecoverable. "The artist, who shall first recall to life a human being in a case of natural death, by the same resuscitative process which is applied to cases of violent death, becomes the founder of a new era, and of a new name in the annals of humanity, of medicine, and of science." Whiter on the Disorder of Death, pref. p. ix.

3 advantaged the conceit of this effect.] Meaning that this opinion of the stoics somewhat facilitated the opinion that Satan can raise the dead, &c.

accomplishments were in his power, or not beyond his presagement. Which way although it had pleased Almighty God sometimes to reveal himself, yet was the proceeding very different. For the revelations of heaven are conveyed by new impressions, and the immediate illumination of the soul; whereas the deceiving spirit, by concitation of humours, produceth his conceited phantasm, or by compounding the species already residing, doth make up words which mentally speak his intentions.

But above all other he most advanced his deity in the solemn practice of oracles, wherein in several parts of the world he publicly professed his divinity; but how short they flew of that spirit whose omniscience they would resemble, their weakness sufficiently declared. What juggling there was therein, the orator* plainly confessed, who being good at the same game himself, could say that Pythia Philippised. Who can but laugh at the carriage of Ammon unto Alexander, who addressing unto him as a God, was made to believe he was a God himself? How openly did he betray his indivinity unto Croesus, who being ruined by his amphibology, and expostulating with him for so ungrateful a deceit, received no higher answer than the excuse of his impotency upon the contradiction of fate, and the settled law of powers beyond his power to control! What more than sublunary directions, or such as might proceed from the oracle of human reason, was in his advice unto the Spartans in the time of a great plague; when for the cessation thereof, he wished them to have recourse unto a fawn, that is, in open terms, unto one Nebrus,† a good physician of those days? From no diviner a spirit came his reply unto Caracalla, who requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink; which was but a dietetical caution, and such as without a journey unto Esculapius, culinary prescription and kitchen aphorisms might have afforded at home. Nor surely if any truth there were therein, of more than natural activity was his counsel unto Democritus, when for the falling sickness he commended the maggot in a goat's head. For many things secret are true; sympathies and antipathies are safely authentic unto us, who ignorant of their causes may yet

* Demosthenes. VOL. I.

G

Nebros, in Greek, a fawn.