APPENDIX CONCERNING THE FATE OF THE ANTIENTS*. F that, ATE (fays Apuleius), according to Plato, is "Per quod, inevitabiles cogitationes Dei atque incepta complentur; whereby the purposes and defigns of God are accomplished. Hence the Platonics confidered providence, under a threefold diftinction: 1. The Providentia prima, or that which gave birth to all effects; and is defined, by them, to be TH TENTE DE PONIS, the intention, or will of the fupreme God. 2. The Providentia fecunda, or actual agency of the fecondary or inferior beings, who were fuppofed to pervade the heavens, and, from thence, by their influence, to regulate and difpose of all fublunary things; and, especially, to prevent the extinction of any one fpecies below. 3. The Providentia tertia, fuppofed to be exerted by the Genii; whofe office it was, to exercise a particular care over mankind: to guard our perfons, and direct our actions. But the Stoical view of providence, or fate, was abundantly more fimple, and required no fuch nicety of diftinction. Thefe philofophers did, at once, derive all the chain of caufes and effects, from their true and undoubted fource, the will of the one living and true God. Hence, with these fages, the words Deity, Fate, Providence, were frequently * Vide Lipfii Phyfiolog. Stoic. Lib. 1. Differt. xii. VOL. V. (26.) X reciprocated, reciprocated, as terms fynonymous. Thus Seneca, fpeaking of God; "Will you call him Fate? You will call him rightly: for all things are fufpended on him. Himfelf is caufa caufarum, the cause of all caufes befide." The laws of the universe are from God; whence the fame philofopher, elsewhere, obferves, " Omnia certá & in æternùm dictâ lege decurrere; all things go on, according to a certain rule or decree, ordained for ever;" meaning the law of fate. So Cicero: "All things come to pafs, according to the fovereignty of the eternal law." And Pindar, probably, had an eye to this, where he fays, Nou πανίων βασιλεα, Οίκτων τε και αθαναίων, ειναι That the law ruleth all, whether gods or mortals. Manlius moft certainly had : Sed nihil in totá magis eft mirabile mole, Where, by ratio, is evidently meant, the decreeing mind of God and, by leges, is meant Fate, or that series of caufes and effects, which is the offspring of his decree. Homer cannot begin his Iliad, .without afferting this grand truth-Alexelo Ban. The counfel or decree of Jupiter was fulfilled. The divine poet fets out on this exalted principle: he puts it in the front of the nobleft poem in the world, as a teftimony both of his wisdom and his faith. It was as if he had faid, "I fhall fing of numberlefs events, equally grand, entertaining, and important: but I cannot begin to unfold them, without laying down this, as a firft fundamental axiom, That, though brought to pafs by the inftrumental agency of men, they were the fruit of God's determining will, and of his all-directing providence." Neither are thofe minuter events, which, feemingly, are the refult of chance, excluded from this law. Even thefe do not happen, but come to país, in a regular order of fucceffion, and at their due period of time. Caufa pendet ex causá: privata ac publica longus ordo rerum trabit," fays Seneca; "Caufe proceeds from caufe: the long train of things draws with it all events, both public and private." Excel lent is that of Sophocles; (Aj. Flagell). "I am firmly of opinion, that all these things, and what` ever elfe befal us, are in confequence of the divine purpose: whofo thinks otherwife, is at liberty to follow his own judgment; but this will ever be mine:" The Longus ordo rerum, mentioned by Seneca, is what he elsewhere ftiles, Caufarum implexa feries, or a perpetual implication of caufes. This, according to Laertius, was called by the Stoics, aina v odwr gun, an involved, or concatenate caufality of whatever has any existence: for, eigu is a chain, or implicate connection. Agreeably to this idea, Chryfippus gives the following definition of fate: "Fate is that natural, established order and conftitution of all things, from everlasting, whereby they mutually follow upon each other, in confequence of an immu table and perpetual complication." Let us examine this celebrated definition of fate. 1. He calls it a natural vas: meaning by nature, the great natura prima, or God: for by fome Stoics, God and nature are used promifcuously. But, because the Deity must be fuppofed both to decree and to act with wisdom, intelligence, and defign; fate is fometimes mentioned by them under the name of Ay, or reafon. Thus they define fate (Laert. in Zen.) to be that fupreme "reafon, whereby the world is governed and directed," or, more minutely, thus; that reason, whereby the things that have been, were; the things that now are, have a prefent exiftence; and the things that are to be, shall be. Reafon, you fee, or wisdom, in the Deity, is an antecedent caufe, from whence both providence and inferior nature are derived. It X 2 is is added, in Stobæus, that Chryfippus fometimes varies his terms; and, inftead of the word reason, fubftitutes the words truth, cause, nature, neceffity: intimating, that fate is the true, natural, neceffary cause of the things that are, and of the manner in which they are.-2. This fate is faid to be aïdiy, from everlasting. Nor improperly: fince the conftitution of things, was fettled and fixed in the divine mind (where they had a fort of ideal existence) previous to their actual creation: and, therefore confidered as certainly future, in his decree, may be faid to have been, in fome fense, co-eternal with himself.-3. The immutable and perpetual complication, mentioned in the definition, means no more, than that reciprocal involution of causes and effects from God downwards, by which things and events, pofitis omnibus ponendis, are neceffarily produced, according to the plan which infinite wifdom defigned from the beginning. God, the first cause, hath given being and activity to an immenfe number of fecondary, fubaltern caufes; which are fo infeparably linked and interwoven with their refpective effects (a connection truly admirable, and not to be comprehended by man in his present state), that thofe things which do, in reality, come to pafs neceffarily, and by inevitable destiny; feem, to the fuperficial obferver, to come to pafs in the common course of nature, or by virtue of human reafoning and freedom. This is that infcrutable method of divine wisdom, "A qua" (fays St. Austin) "eft omnis modus, omnis fpecies, omnis ordo, menfura, numerus, pondus; à quá funt femina formarum, forma feminum, metus feminum atque formarum."' Neceffity is the confequence of fate. So Trismegiflus: All things are brought about by nature and by fate neither is any place void of providence. Now, providence is the felf-perfect reafon of the fuper-celestial God: from which reafon of his, iffue two two native powers, neceffity and fate. Thus, in the judgment of the wifer heathens, effects were to be traced up to their producing caufes; thofe producing caufes were to be further traced up to the ftill higher causes, by which they were produced; and those higher causes, to God, the cause of them. Persons, things, circumftances, events, and confequences, are the effects of neceffity: neceffity is the daughter of fate fate is the offspring of God's infinite wifdom and fovereign will. Thus, all things are ultimately refolved into their great primary caufe; by whom the chain was originally let down from heaven, and on whom every link depends. It must be owned, that all the fatalifts of antiquity, (particularly among the Stoics) did not conftantly exprefs themfelves with due precifion. A Christian, who is favingly taught by the word and fpirit of God, must be pained and difgufted, not to fay, fhocked, when he reads fuch an affertion as this; Την πεπρωμένην μοιραν αδύνατον ετσι αποφεΓειν God himself cannot poffibly avoid his destiny (Herodot, 1.) or that of the poet Philemon: Δελοι βασιλέων εισιν, οι βασιλεις Θεων, και Θεω. Common men are fervants to kings; kings are fervants to the Gods; and God is a fervant to neceffity. So Seneca: "Eadem neceffitas & Deos alligat: irrevocabilis divina pariter atque humana curfus vebit. Ille ipfe, omnium conditor ac rector, fcripfit quidem fata, fed fequitur. Semper paret: Semel juffit." The felf-fame neceffity binds the Gods themfeives. All things, divine as well as human, are carried forward by one identical and overpowering rapidity. The fupreme Author and Governor of the univerfe hath, indeed, written and ordained the fates; but having. once ordained them, he ever after obeys them. He X 3 com |