A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland

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СКАЧАТЬ the System-Jove is also Politically the Regent of the World, the Universe being suppos’d one Imperial Polity, one common City of Gods and Men; for such a governing Power the Pagan Philosophers disputed with great Reason and Strength of Argument. “Without Political Government, neither any House, nor City, nor Nation, nor Mankind in general, can subsist, nor the whole Nature of Things, nor the World itself.” ¹³² “Seeing a City, or a House, cannot continue for the least time without a Governour and Curator, how is it possible, that so great and illustrious a Structure as the World, should be so orderly administred fortuitously and by chance?”¹³³ “The Knowledge and Contemplation of Things Coelestial, the beholding how great Moderation and Order there is among the Gods, begetteth Modesty; and the beholding the Works and Facts of the Gods, causeth a Greatness of Mind; and Justice also, when you understand the Supreme Rector and Lord, what his Will and Counsell is,” (in the Constitution, Government, and Administration of this Universe of Things,) “Reason suited to his Nature, being call’d by Philosophers the true and Supreme Law.”¹³⁴ As politically-Imperial, the supreme Rector appointeth to the subordinate Deities their Lots and Prefectures, and their Function and Employment is to execute his Appointments. “For the Sun, as also the other Gods, was made for some Work, or Function.”¹³⁵

      But, in order to form a just Notion of the Pagan Polytheism, it is requisite to distinguish the various Acceptations of Saturn, Jupiter, and other Deities, in the Gentile Theology. Sometimes they are taken COSMICALLY; as when Jupiter is said to be the whole World, or the Soul of it, and Saturn is confounded with Uranus, or Heaven. Sometimes they are taken ASTRALLY; as when by Jupiter is meant the Sun, or the Planet so called: So the highest of the Planets is a Saturn. Sometimes they are taken PHYSICALLY; as when by Saturn is meant Time, and by Jupiter some Elementary Nature. So Empedocles calleth the igneous Nature, or Aether, Jupiter; the Air, Juno; the Earth, Pluto; the Water, Nestis.¹³⁶ Sometimes the Names of the Pagan Deities signify HISTORICALLY, or of the Hero-Kind, in which Notion there are many Joves, and not a few Saturns.

      The Mundane-System Jove is Order, Law, Providence, Fate, and Fortune, amongst the Heathens.

      7. Jove, the Rector of the Universe, is Order, Law, Fate, Fortune, Providence. “Either this Universe is a mere Hotch-Potch and casual Implication of Things, which may be dis-joyn’d and dissipated; or there is in it Union, Order, and a Providence.”¹³⁷ But it could not be κόσμος, a regular and comely Piece, without Order; and this Order, and the Law that is visible in the Universe infer a Providence, “whereby the World, and all the Parts of it, were at first constituted, and are at all Times administred.¹³⁸ The equable Motion and Circumvolution of the Heaven, the Sun, Moon, and all the Stars, their Distinction, Variety, and Pulchritude, Order; the Sight of these Things sufficiently sheweth, that they are not by Chance,”¹³⁹ but “by an eternal Law, or Prescript, a Law of the World,”¹⁴⁰ which the Stoicks call Fate.

      Sed nihil in totâ magis est mirabile mole,

      Quam Ratio, & certis quod Legibus omnia parent.

      The Course and Frame of this vast Bulk display

      A Reason and fix’d Laws, which all obey. Manil. L. 1. Astron.¹⁴¹

      But, as the governing Mind, or Reason, which constituted and administreth the corporeal World, is Law to it: So all Things that befal Mankind are of his Pre-Ordination and Appointment, as the Stoicks suppose; and, therefore, they derive all Things from a Law of Fate. “All Things proceed by a fix’d sempiternal Law; Fatality leadeth us; by a long Series and Concatenation of Causes all Things necessarily emerge; your joyous and mournful Occurrences were appointed long ago.”¹⁴² A wise Man will understand, “That whatever happens is a Law of” (universal) Nature. “It was ordinated to him, and he to it.¹⁴³ Whatever happens to thee, it is that which from Eternity was predestinated unto thee; thy subsistence and such an Accident are, by an implex’d Series of natural Causes from Eternity, fatally connected, or spun together.”¹⁴⁴ Fatality, by this Hypothesis, is screw’d up to a high pitch of Extravagance; especially, as this their Dogma, That all Things come to pass fatally, is understood by the antient Stoicks, for they subvert, as appeareth, all contingency and human Liberty of Agency, and, consequently, all Humanity and Divinity.¹⁴⁵ In the Constitution of the World, they suppos’d Jupiter hamper’d by material Necessity, (that, because of the in obsequiousness of the Matter, some Men are unavoidably made of an evil Disposition, and good Men are obnoxious to external Evils;) and not being able to do what he would, he is willing to do what he can.¹⁴⁶ In his Administration of the World and Sovereign Disposal of Things, he can alter nothing of his own Fatal Decrees;¹⁴⁷ Scripsit fata, sed sequitur, having once written the Fates, he always obeys them; (some suppose, that the three Fates wrote his Decrees;) and, consequently, the supreme Deity, with respect to his Administration of Things, is nothing but INTELLIGENT FATE in himself, and to the World; (as Plastick Natures are nothing else but blind UNINTELLIGENT FATE in themselves, and to the World;) and unchangeable and inexorable Fate is the supreme Deity.

      Μόνη γὰρ ῤν θεοῖσιν οὐ δεαϖόζεταμ.

       For Fate alone among the Gods is not subject

      But, altho’ their rigid Genius hath introduc’d much of extravagant Fatality, yet some of the antient Stoicks attempted to mollify the rigor of Fate, to accommodate it to human Liberty.¹⁴⁸ They refuse not the Name of Fortune; for they advise Men to commit Externals τω δαιμονίῳ, τῇτύχῃ, To the Divinity, to Fortune,¹⁴⁹ understanding there by the Disposal of Things by Providence. Notwithstanding their rigid Genius, they are no Friends to that rigid Doctrine of absolute Reprobation; “for God” (as they suppose) “hath made all Men to Felicity and good Estate of Mind, and hath given them what is requisite thereunto.¹⁵⁰ If the Gods have consulted concerning me, and those Things that ought to happen to me, they have well consulted; for a God devoid of Counsel is scarce conceivable: But to do me a Mischief, what should impel them? For what Emolument would accrue from thence, either to them, or to the Publick, which they chiefly take care of?”¹⁵¹ Inexorable Fate, according to their generally receiv’d Maxims, is their sovereign Deity, yet some of them are prone to think, that there is a placable and flexible Providence;¹⁵² and others of them tell us, that they had better Notices of the supreme Jupiter. “They call Jupiter placid, being such to them who change from Injustice; for he is not irreconcileable to them, Whence their Altars to Jupiter placid to suppliants.”¹⁵³ They allow not God, or Man, to be properly angry with Criminals; yet suppose, that the Rector of the Universe is just and good Government to the Whole. “That he hath made the Parts for the Use of the Whole,¹⁵⁴ and ordereth all Things, as is most conducive to the Good of the Whole.¹⁵⁵ Good Men are his Witnesses, that he existeth; and governeth the Universe of Things well, and neglecteth not human Affairs, and that nothing Evil shall happen to a good Man, either alive, or dead.”¹⁵⁶ He disposeth all to a good Use, as is most necessary for the Good of the World. “For he, the Governour of the Universe, will not fail to put thee to a good Use.¹⁵⁷ Neither willingly, nor unwillingly, doth he commit any Error.¹⁵⁸ His Government is Paternal, as a Father taking care of all, that his Citizens may be happy like himself.¹⁵⁹ Making a distribution of Things as it is fit and just”;¹⁶⁰ (whence they style him νομος, from νέμα, to distribute;) the better Men have the better Part,¹⁶¹ and the Good are not afflicted without great Reason, and for wise and good Ends.¹⁶²

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