Page:The true intellectual system of the universe - the first part; wherein, all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted; and its impossibility demonstrated (IA trueintellectual1678cudw).pdf/34

 6 the Name of God be used in compliance with Vulgar Speech and Opinion, yet indeed it signifies nothing, but Material Necessity; and the blind Motion of Matter is really the Highest Numen in the World. And here that of Balbus the Stoick in Cicero is opportune: Non est Natura Dei Praepotens & Excellens, siquidem ea subjecta est ei vel Necessitati vel Naturae quâ Coelum, Maria, Terraeque reguntur. Nihil autem est praestantius Deo. Nulli igitur est Naturae obediens aut subjectus Deus. God would not be the most Powerful and Excellent Being, if he were subject to that either Necessity or Nature, by which the Heavens, Seas and Earth are governed. But the Notion of a God implies the most Excellent Being. Therefore God is not Obedient or Subject to any Nature.

IV. And now we think fit here to suggest, that however we shall oppose those three Fatalisms before mentioned, as so many false Hypotheses of the Mundane System and Oeconomy, and endeavour to exclude that severe Tyranness (as Epicurus calls it) of Universal Necessity reigning over all, and to leave some Scope for Contingent Liberty to move up and down in, without which neither Rational Creatures can be blame worthy for any thing they do, nor God have any Object to display his Justice upon, nor indeed be justified in his Providence; Yet, as we vindicate to God the glory of all Good, so we do not quite banish the Notion of Fate neither, nor take away all Necessity; which is a thing the Clazomenian Philosopher of old was taxed for; Affirming 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉· That Nothing at all was done by Fate, but that it was altogether a vain Name. And the Sadduceans among the Jews have been noted for the same: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉· They take away all Fate, and will not allow it to be any thing at all, nor to have any Power over Humane Things, but put all things entirely into the hands of Mens own Free-Will. And some of our own, seem to have approached too near to this Extreme, attributing, perhaps, more to the Power of Free-Will, than either Religion or Nature will admit. But the Hypothesis that we shall recommend, as most agreeable to Truth, of a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Placable Providence, of a Deity Essentially Good, presiding over all, will avoid all Extremes, asserting to God the Glory of Good, and freeing him from the Blame of Evil; and leaving a certain proportionate Contemperation and Commixture of Contingency and Necessity both together in the World: As Nature requires a mixture of Motion and Rest, without either of which there could be no Generation. Which Temper was observed by several of the Ancients; as the Pharisaick Sect amongst the Jews who determined 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, That some things and not all were the Effects of Fate, but some things were left in Mens own Power and Liberty. And also by Plato amongst the Philosophers, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Plato inserts something of Fate into Humane Lives and Actions, and he joyns with it Liberty of Will also. He doth indeed suppose Humane Souls to have within themselves the Causes of their own Changes to a Better or Worser State, & every where declares God