Henry More

“ From whence it may seem not improbable, that those Bodies that smell sweet themselves, where the Minde does not stink with Pride and Hypocrisie, have some natural advantage for the gaining their society. But if there be any peculiar complexion or natural condition required, it will prove less hopeful for every one to obtain their acquaintance. Yet Regeneration come to its due pitch, though it cannot be without much pain and anguish, may well rectifie all uncleanness of nature, so that no singularly-good and sincere man can reasonably despair of their familiarity. ”

“ But who but a fool will say that the Matter is wise, and yet notwithstanding out of the putrefied parts even of the Earth it self, as also out of the drops of dew, rotten pieces of wood, and such like geer, the bodies of Animals do arise so artificially and exquisitely well framed, that the reason of Man cannot contemplate them but with the greatest pleasure and admiration? ”

“ But to be fully and absolutely Perfect is to be at least as Perfect as the apprehension of a man can conceive without a contradiction: for what is inconceivable or contradictious, is nothing at all to us, who are not now to wag one Atome beyond our Faculties; but what I have propounded is so far from being beyond our Faculties, that I dare appeal to any Atheist, that hath yet any command of Sense and reason lest in him, if it be not very easy and intelligible at the first sight, and that if there be a God, he is to be deemed of us such as this Idea or Notion sets forth. ”

“ And verily I think I have ransacked all the corners of every kinde of Philosophy that can pretend to bear any stroke in this Controversie with that diligence, that I may safely pronounce, that it is mere brutish Ignorance or Impudence, no Skill in Nature or the Knowledge of things, that can encourage any man to profess Atheism, or to embrace it at the proposal of those that make profession of it. ”

“ And thus a grain of Mustard-seed would be as well infinitely extended as the whole Matter of the Universe, and a thousandth part of that grain as well as the grain it self. Which things are more unconceivable then any thing in the Notion of a Spirit. Therefore we are not scornfully and contemptuously to reject any Notion, for seeming at first to be clouded and obscured with some difficulties and intricacies of conception; sith that of whose being we seem most assured, is the most intangled and perplex'd in the conceiving, of any thing that can be propounded to the apprehension of a Man. ”

“ But Man, who knows the worth of the Grape, knows to preserve it a long season (for it is both eaten and drunk some years after the vintage) as he does also gather the rest of the Fruits of the Earth, and layes up both for himself and his Cattel. Wherefore it is plainly discoverable, that Man's coming into the world is not a thing, of Chance or Necessity, but a Design, as the bringing of worthy Guests to a well-furnish'd Table. ”

“ But if any one will condole the loss of so convincing an Argument for a Providence that fits one thing to another, I must take the freedom to tell him, that unless he be a greater admirer of Novelty then a searcher into the indissoluble consequences of things, I shall supply his Meditations with what of this nature is as strongly conclusive, and re-mind him that it will be his own reproach if he cannot spy as clear an inference from an ordinary Truth, as from either an Uncertainty or a Fiction. ”

“ Or, to speak more plainly, absolutely necessary Existence and ' Self-existence is one and the same Notion: But Self-existence is the most high and perfect mode of Existence that is conceivable, and therefore proper to what is most absolutely Perfect. Wherefore to transplant Self-existence to so pitiful an Idea as the Idea of a Being absolutely Miserable, is as absonous and prodigious as to clap the head of a Lion to the body of a Snail. ”

“ If they mean by Immortal, unperishable, as Matter is, why should they not be so as well as Matter it self, this active substance of the Soul, though but of a Brute, being a more noble Essence, and partaking more of its Makers perfection, then the dull and dissipable Matter? ”

“ The conservation whereof is help'd, as I conceive, by the anointing of the Body before the Ecstasie, which ointment filling the pores, keeps out the cold, and keeps in the heat and spirits, that the frame and temper of the Body may continue in fit case to entertain the Soul again at her return. So the vital steams of the carcase being not yet spent, the pristine operations of Life are presently again kindled; as a Candle new blown out, and as yet reeking, suddenly catches fire from the flame of another, though at some distance, the light gliding down along the smoke. ”

“ The idea of a Being absolutely Miserable is the Idea of a Being that sustains the fullest and compleatest torments that are conceiveable; and this must be in a knowing, passive, and reflexive Subject. Now, I say, this torture arising partly from the sense of present smart, and partly out of reflexion of what it has suffered, and a full belief that it shall suffer thus eternally; this miserable Being, though but a Creature, is as perfectly tormented as it could possibly be if it necessarily existed of it self. ”

“ But to expect and wish that there were nothing but such dull tame things in the world that will neither bite nor scratch, is as groundless and childish as to wish there were no Choler in the body, nor Fire in the universal compass of Nature. ”

“ I say, whether we consider these inward pangs of the Soul, or the external outrages caused by Religion (and Religious pretence will animate men to the committing such violences as bare Reason and the single Passions of the Mind unback'd with the fury of Superstition will never venture upon) it is manifest that if there were no God, no Spirit, no Life to come, it were far better that there were no such Religions propensions in Mankind as we see universally there are. ”

“ But by the favour of so Critical a Philosopher, we may very well suspect that neither Dog nor Ass, that makes toward any Object, goes directly in a straight line to it because he considers that a crooked one is further about, but because the visual line guides him straight to the Object he looks at, in which he goes as naturally, without any reflexion upon Mathematical notions, as a stone cast out of a sling of it self endeavours to steer its course with a Motion rectilinear; which having not so much as Sense, we can in no wise suspect to be capable of the rudest Notion in Geometry. ”

“ Though I will not acknowledge that all those Stories are false that want these conditions, yet I dare affirm that it is mere humour and sullenness in a man to reject the truth of those that have them; for it is to believe nothing but what he seeth himself: From whence it will follow, that he is to read nothing of History, for there is neither pleasure nor any usefulness of it, if it deserve no belief. ”

“ And if a Dog bark at a ragged Beggar more then at a handsomly-clad Gentleman, it is to be inquired into, whether a Beggar's Curre will not bark more at a Gentleman then at a Beggar, the sense of Beauty neither pleasing nor provoking this Animal, but the unusualness of the Object stirring up his choler. ”

“ No Philosopher can answer more appositely then the holy Psalmist, From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Wherefore I say that those unavoidable imaginations of the necessity of an Infinite Space, as they call it, and Eternal duration are no proofs of a Self-existent Matter, but rather obscure sub-indications of the necessary Existence of God. ”

“ And yet it is a shrewd presumption that the Seat of Sense is confined to some small compass in the Vehicle of a Spirit, it being so in the Body of a Man. For if it were not, but that every part of the Vehicle had Sense in it self, the external Object would seem in God knows how many places at once, and the Images of things would be either utterly confounded, or the Atomes, when they pat themselves upon their march, would mistake their mark, and following directly their sense, would of necessity break one from another and destroy the whole. ”

“ But in this idea of a Being absolutely Mischievous there is nothing that of its own nature signifies mischief, but that wicked and malicious desire of doing mischief merely for mischiefs sake. Which is a degree of Imperfection sunk into the borders of Inconsistency and Contradiction. But yet to be able accurately to destroy all good whatsoever, implies again an Omnipotency in Power, and an Omnisciency. ”

“ But to argue therefore that there is no such thing as Religion, or a God, because they do so abominably abuse the acknowledgement of them to Political purposes, is as irrationally inferred as if we should contend that there is not naturally any Self-love, love of Wife and Children, desire of Liberty, Riches or Honour, but what Politicians and States-men have conveyed into the hearts of men: because by applying themselves skilfully to these affections, they carry and winde about the People as they please ”

“ I appeal therefore to any mans reason, whether it be not better that there should be a distinction of Land and Sea, then that all should be mire or water; and whether it be not better that the Timber-trees afford wood so light that it swim on the water, or the water be so heavy that it will bear up the wood, then the contrary. That therefore which might have been otherwise, and yet is settled according to our own hearts wish, who are knowing and rational Creatures, ought to be deemed by us as established by Counsel and Reason. ”

“ But this is not at all strange, if we consider that Death is properly a disjunction of the Soul from the Body by reason of the Body's unfitness any longer to entertain the Soul, which may be caused by extremity of Diseases, outward Violence or Age; and if the Devil could restore such Bodies as these to Life, it were a Miracle indeed. But this is not such a Miracle, nor is the Body properly dead, though the Soul be out of it. For the life of the Body is nothing else but that fitness to be actuated by the Soul. ”

“ But such a rabble of Self-essentiated and divided Deities does not onely hazzard the pulling the world in pieces, but plainly takes away the Existence of the true God. For if there be any Power or Perfection whatsoever which has its original from any other then God, it manifestly demonstrates that God is not God, that is, is not a Being absolutely and fully Perfect because we see some Power in the world that is not his, that is, that is not from him. ”

“ Hereupon he commends himself and his family to God by prayer. The smell nevertheless encreased, and became above all measure pestilently noisom, insomuch that he was forced to goe up to his chamber. He and his Wife had not been in bed a quarter of an hour, but they find the same stink in the bed-chamber, of which while they are complaining one to another, out steps the Spectre from the wall, and creeping to his bed-side breathes upon him an exceeding cold breath of so intolerable stinking and malignant a sent, as is beyond all imagination and expression. ”

“ That that which exists without the help of another is necessary and eternall? For Necessity and Eternity are no sensible Qualities, and therefore are not the Objects of any Sense; and I have already very plentifully proved, that there is other Knowledge and perception in the Soul besides that of Sense. Wherefore it is very unreasonable, whenas we have other Faculties of Knowledge besides the Senses, that we should consult with the Senses alone about matters of Knowledge, and exclude those Faculties that penetrate beyond Sense. ”

“ But if he will with us but admit of this one Postulate or Hypothesis, That our Faculties are true; though I have spoke modestly in the Discourse it self, yet I think I may here, without vanity or boasting, freely profess, that I have no less then demonstrated That there is a God: and by how much more any man shall seriously endeavour to resist the strength of my Arguments, that by so much the more strong he shall find them; (as he that presses his weak finger against a wall of Marble) and that they can appear slight to none but those that carelessly and slightly consider them. ”

“ But here you will reply, that our Senses are struck by so manifest impressions from the Matter, that though the nature of it be difficult to conceive, yet the Existence is palpable to us by what it acts upon us. ”

“ I demand concerning these Witches who confess their contract and frequent converse with the Devil, some with him in one shape, others in another, whether mere Melancholy and Imagination can put Powders, Rods, Oyntments, and such like things into their hands, and tell them the use of them; can impress Marks upon their bodies, so deep as to take away all sense in that place; can put Silver and Gold into their hands, which afterwards commonly proves but either Counters, Leaves, or Shells, or some such like useless matter. ”