notwithstanding the darkness which furrounds them. Sophocles may be imagined to have had these truths in his eye, when fpeaking of the divine edicts, and the immutable decrees of heaven, he puts this fine fentiment in the mouth of Antigone,

Ου γαρ τι νυν γε καχθες, αλλ' αει ποτε

Ζη ταύτα, κοὐδεις οιδεν εξ ότου Φανη.

And yet we have wits and philofophers of great name and recent date, who feem defirous of reviving the old atomical phyfiology, which, as Dr. Cudworth expreffes it, "makes all things to be "materially and mechanically neceffary without a "God." These gentlemen are at least far from pronouncing matter incapable of the privilege of thought. One in direct terms calls thought the agitation of the brain. Unhappily Mr. Locke fo far fubfcribes to this principle, as to declare his opinion, that "we have not fufficient knowledge to "determine, by the light of reafon, that God "could not grant the gift of thought and fenfation "to a being which we call material." Mr. Voltaire eagerly catched at this notion of the "fole reason"able metaphyfician," as he calls him.

22,

MORE'S Antid. against Atheism. p. 10. CUDWORTH's Intell. Syft. ch.3. p. 176. PLATO de Leg. 1. 10. CLARKE'S Dem. of the Being, &c. of God, p. 23, &c. SOPHOс. Antig. A&t. 3. v. 462. Memoirs of VOLTAIRE, p. 61. See JOHNSON's note at cap. 4. of PUFFENDORF's de officio bom. et civ. See M. ANTONI. lib. 2-15.

* Hume's Dialogues, p. 60.

Page 19.

Page 19. (e) hundred myfteries as one.] I fhall beg leave to confront the pride of infidels with the joint authorities of Mr. Boyle, and Lord Bacon; the former of whom in his treatife, entitled Motives to the Love of God, thus expreffes himself. "If I be not very much miftaken, they are fo, "who prefume to give us fatisfactory definitions of "God's nature, which we may perhaps more fafely "define by the impoffibility of its being accurately "defined. Nor will an affiduity and conftancy of our speculations herein relieve us: for too fixed

86

a contemplation of God's effence does but the "more confound us." And then he refers us to the well-known ftory of Simonides. Agreably to these fentiments, the great Lord Bacon fays, "If any "man fhall think by view and enquiry into these "fenfible and material things, to attain that light

whereby he may reveal unto himself the nature "and will of God, then is he fpoiled through vain philofophy. And hence, continues he, it hath "proceeded, that fome of the chofen rank of the more learned have fallen into herefy, whilft

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they have fought to fly up to the secrets of the "Deity, by the waxen wings of the fenfes." And "again. "The prerogative of God comprehends "the whole man, and is extended as well to "the reason, as to the will of man; i. e. that "man renounce himself wholly, and draw near "unto God; wherefore as we are to obey his law,

"though

"though we find a reluctation in our will, fo

we are to believe his word, though we find a re"luctation in our reafon; for if we believe only "that which is agreeable to our reafon, we give "affent to the matter, not to the author, &c. By "how much therefore any divine mystery is more "difcordant and incredible, by fo much the more "honour is given to God in believing, &c. &c." How do these fentiments differ from those of the philofophic Chriftians" of this enlightened age ! Motives, &c. p. 63, 64. Bacon on the Advancement of Learning, tranflated by Watts, B. 1. p. 8. 9. p. 468.

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· Page 21. (f) ventilation of thefe fubjects.] It is ridiculous, it is ufelefs, it is endless to start metaphyfical questions, which instead of clearing matters, ferve only to confound them. It has been afked, whether the Deity be naturally or morally good; or whether he is "neceffarily good and

juft in the fame sense as he is eternal and omnif"cient?" All speculations on fuch points as these are covered by the general idea of abfolute inherent perfection. Perhaps Seneca may be allowed to discharge this difficulty not unhappily, when, fpeaking of the Deity, he fays, Ipfe eft neceffitas fua. The ingenious editor of Puffendorf's treatife De officio bominis et civis fpeaks much the fame language in the following note: Deus intelligitur ad fuarum perfectionum normam actiones componere. Ipfe

fibi lex eft. Ens natura perfectissimum cum Deus fit, ideo quodcunque agit vel eligit, non poteft non esse optimum. Itaque nugas agunt, vel quiddam pejus, qui Deum, ens primum et fummum, virtutis et obligationis capacem effe docent. * But these last words feem rather obfcure.

To avoid making God the author of evil, the doctrine of Zoroaftres was, that "God originally "and directly created only light, or good; and that

darkness, or evil, followed it by confequence, "as the fhadow doth the perfon; that light, or "good, hath only a real production from God, "and the other afterward resulted from it, as the "defect thereof." An ingenious writer gives us the fentiments of Plato on this perplexing fubject, in the following translation. "He is not, as many fay, the cause of

"God is good.

every thing. "The good things we enjoy are to be folely ascribed " to him ; but we are to fearch for another caufe "than God for our evils. Or, if we will fay

they come from God,+ fome fuch reafon as this is to be affigned. We may fay, God does always "what is juft and good, and the perfons punished "receive benefit by it; but the poet must not say "the sufferers are miferable, and God inflicts that

* See Johnson's Note at Sect. 4. Book 1.

+ Plato quotes here the famous paffage in Homer, where mention is made of Jupiter's two Veffels, the one containing good, and the other evil, &c. See Plato de Repub. b. 2. and Pope's Note at v. 527. of 24th. Book of the Iliad.

"mifery

"misery on them; if indeed he fay, the wicked, "as miferable, ftand in need of punishment, and "when punished by God, receive benefit from it, "this may be permitted; but we are ftrenuously "to oppose any man, who fays God is the author "of evil to a good man. Such language is at

no rate to be tolerated in a ftate." The judicious reader will see how little a way this theory goes towards clearing the difficulty; but he will, I prefume, acknowlege it goes far enough to convince us, that Plato had," to speak modeftly, as precife "ideas of the Divine nature as any modern philo. fopher," according to the translator's expreffion. But in his Timæus, this famous philofopher imputes the origin of evil to the "neceffity of imperfect "beings," as Dr. Cudworth expreffes it. "Wherefore, fays he, though, according to Plato, God be

properly and directly the cause of nothing else but

good, yet the neceffity of thefe lower imperfect things "does unavoidably give birth and being to evils." This is conformable enough to modern notions. Ariftotle feems to have thought the Deity to have been the cause or principle of all things without exception; tho' in the following fentence he expreffes himself in terms general, modeft, and unperemptory ;-θεος δόκει το αιτιον πασιν είναι και αρχη τις.

It is further obfervable, that not only many heathens, and among others, Platonists, but, what is more extraordinary, Chriftians alfo have afferted