The Major Works (English Library) (21 page)

Nor is only a resolved prostration unto Antiquity a powerfull enemy unto knowledge, but any confident adherence unto Authority, or resignation of our judgements upon the testimony of Age or Author whatsoever.

For first, To speak generally an argument from Authority to wiser examinations, is but a weaker kinde of proof, it being but a topicall probation, and as we term it, an artificiall argument, depending upon a naked asseveration: wherein neither declaring the causes, affections or adjuncts of what we beleeve, it carrieth not with it the reasonable inducements of knowledge; and therefore
Contra negantem principia, Ipse dixit
, or
Oportet discentem credere
,
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although postulates very accommodable unto Junior indoctrinations; yet are their authorities but temporary, and not to be imbraced beyond the minority of our intellectuals. For our advanced beliefs are not to be built upon dictates, but having received the probable inducements of truth, we become emancipated from testimoniall ingagements, and are to erect upon the surer base of reason.

Secondly, Unto reasonable perpensions
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it hath no place in some Sciences, small in others, and suffereth many restrictions, even where it is most admitted. It is of no validity in the Mathematicks, especially the mother part thereof Arithmetick and Geometry. For these Sciences concluding from dignities and principles known by themselves, receive not satisfaction from probable reasons, much lesse from bare and peremptory asseverations… In naturall Philosophy more generally pursued amongst us, it carrieth but slender consideration; for that also proceeding from setled principles, therein is expected a satisfaction from scientificall progressions, and such as beget a sure or rationall belief. For if Authority might have made out the assertions of Philosophy, we might have held, that snow
was black, that the sea was but the sweat of the earth, and many of the like absurdities…
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In Morality, Rhetorick, Law and History, there is I confesse a frequent and allowable use of testimony; and yet herein I perceive, it is not unlimitable, but admitteth many restrictions. Thus in law both Civill and Divine, that is only esteemed a legall testimony, which receives comprobation from the mouths of at least two witnesses; and that not only for prevention of calumny, but assurance against mistake; whereas notwithstanding the solid reason of one man, is as sufficient as the clamor of a whole Nation; and with imprejudicate apprehensions begets as firm a belief as the authority or aggregated testimony of many hundreds. For reason being the very root of our natures, and the principles there of common unto all; what is against the laws of true reason, or the unerring understanding of any one, if rightly apprehended, must be disclaimed by all Nations, and rejected even by mankinde….

But beside the infirmities of humane nature, the seed of error within our selves, and the severall waies of delusion from each other, there is an invisible Agent, and secret promoter without us, whose activity is undiscerned, and plaies in the dark upon us; and that is the first contriver of Error, and professed opposer of Truth, the devil. For though permitted unto his proper principles, Adam perhaps would have sinned without the suggestion of Satan, and from the transgressive infirmities of himself might have erred alone, as well as the Angels before
him. And although also there were no devil at all, yet is there now in our natures a confessed sufficiency unto corruption; and the frailty of our own Oeconomie,
⁶⁵
were able to betray us out of truth; yet wants there not another Agent, who taking advantage hereof, proceedeth to obscure the diviner part, and efface all tract of its traduction: To attempt a particular of all his wiles, is too bold an Arithmetick for man: what most considerably concerneth his popular and practised waies of delusion, he first deceiveth mankinde in five main points concerning God and himself.

And first his endeavours have ever been, and they cease not yet to instill a belief in the minde of man, There is no God at all. And this he specially labours to establish in a direct and literall apprehension; that is, that there is no such reality existent, that the necessity of his entity dependeth upon ours, and is but a Politicall Chymera; That the naturall truth of God is an artificiall erection of man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the creature. Where he succeeds not thus high, he labours to introduce a secondary and deductive Atheisme; that although, men concede there is a God, yet should they deny his providence; and therefore assertions have flown about, that he intendeth only the care of the species or common natures, but letteth loose the guard of individuals, and single existencies therein: That he looks not below the Moon, but hath designed the regiment of sublunary affairs unto inferiour deputations. To promote which apprehensions or empuzzell their due conceptions, he casteth in the notions of fate, destiny, fortune, chance and necessity; tearms commonly misconceived by vulgar heads, and their propriety sometime perverted by the wisest. Whereby extinguishing in mindes the compensation of vertue and vice, the hope and fear of heaven or hell; they comply in their actions unto the drift of his delusions, and live like creatures below the capacity of either….

Again, To render our errours more monstrous (and what unto miracle sets forth the patience of God,) he hath endeavoured to make the world beleeve, 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 he in a specious way wrought cures upon the sick: plaied 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 solemne prize with Moses;
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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.
⁶⁷
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 notwithstanding the head of the old Serpent was confessedly too weak for Moses hand, and the arm of his Magicians too short for the finger of God.

Thus hath he also made men beleeve 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 Stoicks that opinioned the souls of wise men, dwelt about the Moon, and those of fools wandred 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 Pythagorian or such as maintained the transmigration of souls give easie 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 doe rest in the Lord, doe yet beleeve they are at the lure of the devil; that he who is in bonds himself commandeth the fetters of the dead, and dwelling in the bottomlesse lake, the
blessed from Abrahams bosome, that can beleeve the reall resurrection of Samuel; or that there is any thing but delusion, in the practice of Necromancy
⁶⁸
and popular conception 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 perswaded the credulity of elder times to take up their lodging before his temple, in skinnes of their own sacrifices: till his reservednesse had contrived answers, whose accomplishments were in his power, or not beyond his presagement. Which way, although it hath pleased Almighty God, sometimes to reveale himself, yet was the proceeding very different. For the revelations of heaven are conveied by new impressions, and the immediate illumination of the soul; whereas the deceiving spirit, by concitation of humors, produceth his conceited phantasmes; or by compounding the species already residing, doth make up words which mentally speak his intentions.
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But above all other he most advanced his Deity in the solemn practice of Oracles, wherein in severall parts of the world, he publikely professed his divinity; but how short they flew of that spirit, whose omniscience they would resemble, their weaknesse sufficiently declared….
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Again, Such is the mystery of his delusion, that although he labour to make us beleeve that he is God, and supremest nature whatsoever, yet would he also perswade our beliefs, that he is lesse then Angels or men; and his condition not only subjected unto rationall powers, but the action of things which have no efficacy on our selves. Thus hath he inveigled no small part of the world into a credulity of artificiall Magick: That there is an Art, which without compact commandeth the powers of hell; whence some have delivered the polity of spirits, and left an account even to their Provinciall dominions; that they stand in awe of charmes, spells and conjurations, that he is afraid of
letters and characters, of notes and dashes, which set together doe signifie nothing; and not only in the dictionary of man, but the subtiler vocabulary of Satan.… Whereof having once begot in our mindes an assured dependence, he makes us rely on powers which he but precariously obeies; and to desert those true and only charmes which hell cannot withstand.

Lastly, To lead us farther into darknesse, and quite to lose us in this maze of error, he would make men beleeve there is no such creature as himself, and that he is not only subject unto inferiour creatures but in the rank of nothing. Insinuating into mens mindes there is no devill at all, and contriveth accordingly, many waies to conceale or indubitate his existency. Wherein beside that he anihilates the blessed Angels and spirits in the rank of his creation; he begets a security of himself and a carelesse eye unto the last remunerations. And therefore hereto he inveigleth, not only Sadduces and such as retain unto the Church of God, but is also content that Epicurus, Democritus or any heathen should hold the same. And to this effect he maketh men beleeve that apparitions, and such as confirm his existence are either deceptions of sight, or melancholy depravements of phancy: Thus when he had not only appeared but spake unto Brutus; Cassius the Epicurian was ready at hand to perswade him, it was but a mistake in his weary imagination, and that indeed there were no such realities in nature.
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Thus he endeavours to propagate the unbelief of witches,
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whose concession infers his coexistency; by this means also he advanceth the opinion of totall death, and staggereth the immortality of the soul: for, such as deny there are spirits subsistent without bodies, will with more difficulty affirm the separated existence of their own….

And thus how strangely he possesseth us with errors may clearly be observed; deluding us into contradictory and inconsistent falsities; whilest he would make us beleeve, That there is no God. That there are many. That he himself is God. That he is lesse then Angels or Men. That he is nothing at all….

Now although these waies of delusions, most Christians have escaped, yet are there many other whereunto we are daily betrayed; and these we meet with in obvious occurrents of the world, wherein he induceth us, to ascribe effects unto causes of no cognation; and distorting the order and theory of causes perpendicular to their effects, he draws them aside unto things whereto they runne parallel, and in their proper motions would never meet together.

Thus doth he sometime delude us in the conceits of Starres and Meteors, beside their allowable actions ascribing effects thereunto of independent causations. Thus hath he also made the ignorant sort beleeve that naturall effects immediately and commonly proceed from supernaturall powers; and these he usually derives from heaven, his own principality the air, and meteors therein; which being of themselves, the effects of naturall and created causes, and such as upon a due conjunction of actives and passives, without a miracle must arise unto what they appear; are alwaies looked on by ignorant spectators as supernaturall spectacles, and made the causes or signes of most succeeding contingencies. To behold a Rain-bow in the night, is no prodigy unto a Philosopher. Then eclipses of Sun or Moon, nothing is more naturall.…

He deludeth us also by Philters, Ligatures, Charmes, ungrounded Amulets, Characters, and many superstitious waies in the cure of common diseases; seconding herein the expectation of men with events of his own contriving. Which while some unwilling to fall directly upon Magick, impute unto the power of imagination, or the efficacy of hidden causes, he obtains a bloudy advantage; for thereby he begets not only a false opinion, but such as leadeth the open way of destruction. In maladies admitting naturall reliefs, making men rely on remedies, neither of reall operation in themselves, nor more then seeming efficacy in his concurrence. Which whensoever he pleaseth to withdraw, they stand naked unto the mischief of their diseases; and revenge the contempt of the medicines of the earth which God hath created for them. And therefore when
neither miracle is expected, nor connexion of cause unto effect from naturall grounds concluded; however it be sometime successefull, it cannot be safe to rely on such practises, and desert the known and authentick provisions of God. In which rank of remedies, if nothing in our knowledge or their proper power be able to relieve us, we must with patience submit unto that restraint, and expect the will of the Restrainer….

Again, Although his delusions run highest in points of practice, whose errors draw on offensive or penall enormities, yet doth he also deal in points of speculation, and things whose knowledge terminates in themselves; whose cognition although it seems indifferent, and therefore its aberration directly to condemn no man; yet doth he hereby preparatively dispose us unto errors, and deductively deject us into destructive concusions.

That the Sun, Moon and Stars are living creatures, endued with soul and life, seems an innocent error, and a harmlesse digression from truth; yet hereby he confirmed their idolatry, and made it more plausibly embraced. For wisely mistrusting that reasonable spirits would never firmly be lost in the adorement of things inanimate, and in the lowest form fo Nature; he begat an opinion that they were living creatures, and could not decay for ever.

That spirits are corporeall, seems at first view a conceit derogative unto himself, and such as he should rather labour to overthrow; yet hereby he establisheth the doctrine of Lustrations, Amulets and Charmes, as we have declared before.…