Watches for Animals and could not imagine how men could hold correspondence at a distance by a little piece of Paper What man is there among the Vulgar that can conceive how the dimensions and distances of the Sun and Stars can be taken and how the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and of the Satellites of Jupiter can be calculated And is not the knowledge of the wisest man upon earth infinitely more surpass'd by the Divine Wisdom than his Knowledge can excel that of the greatest Idiot III. Those who disbelieve and reject the Mysteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible I. He that will not believe the Being of an Eternal God must believe Matter to be eternal for it is certain something must be eternal because nothing could produce nothing and unless there always had been something there never could have been any thing But this Eternal Matter must either have been once without Motion or always with it if it were once without Motion then Matter must move itself that is Motion must be produced without any thing to produce it If it were always in Motion then there must have been an eternal Succession since Motion cannot be all at once for the very nature of Motion supposes Progression and no Body can move in this space and the next at the same instant for then it must be in two places at once But all Succession of Duration is gradual and the Degrees of it are capable of being numbred and to suppose an Eternal Succession is to suppose an Infinite Number that is a Number to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be substracted or a Number which is no Number Motion therefore could not be Eternal and consequently the World could not exist from Eternity But since there must be something Eternal there must be something the duration whereof is indivisible or which has all its existence together so as to have existed now no longer than it had done before the Beginning of the World For this is the notion of Eternity that it has neither Beginning nor End and therefore things eternal never had a less or shorter duration than they now have and can never have a longer after millions of Ages than they had the first year or day from whence we may be supposed to begin the computation of those Ages For a longer or shorter Duration must suppose a Beginning from whence the computation is made and therefore that which is eternal and had no Beginning can have neither a longer nor a shorter Duration but always the same and by consequence Time can bear no proportion to Eternity because that which had a Beginning can bear no proportion to that which had none Yet Eternity must coexist with Time in all the differences and successions of it and must be present with every part of it that is the Eternal Being exists the space suppose of a thousand years and a Temporal or Created Being exists at the same time as long and the Temporal Being becomes a thousand years older than it was but the Eternal no older than it was before because tho it coexist with Time yet it has no respect to the division of it into Past Present and Future There is no Mystery in Religion more difficult and perplexing than this and yet this is no more than what every one tho he be a Deist or an Atheist must acknowledge to believe if he will but consider it 2. Whoever believes that there is a God and yet believes no Revelation or that the Scriptures are not by Revelation from him must believe a God and yet deny the Divine Attributes he must believe that there is a God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Alex. contr Julian lib. 8. who is not essentially just and good and holy which is in effect to believe no God at all as I have proved at large in the former Book Much more might be said upon so copious a subject but this is enough to make us more humble and modest in judging of the Divine Mysteries For shall poor Mortals who know so little and that little so imperfectly presume to censure the Holy Scriptures because they contain things which they cannot understand Shall he that cannot fully explain the Nature of the vilest Infect reject what God hath delivered concerning himself because he doth not comprehend it The thoughts of mortal men are miserable and our devices are but uncertain For the corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out Wisd 13 14 15 16. But * Ld Bacon ' s Advancement of Learning B. 3. c. 2. out of the contemplation of Nature and out of the Principles of humane Reason to discourse or earnestly to urge a point touching the mysteries or Faith and again to be curiously speculative into those secrets to ventilate them and to be inquisitive into the manner of the mystery is in my judgment not safe Da fidei quae fidei sunt For the Heathens themselves conclude as much in the excellent and divine Fable of the Golden Chain that Men and Gods were not able to draw Jupiter down to the Earth but contrarywise Jupiter was able to draw them up to Heaven Wherefore he laboureth in vain who shall attempt to draw down Heavenly mysteries to our Reason it rather becomes us to raise and advance our Reason to the adored Throne of Divine Truth CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALl the Motion of Material things is derived from God and the best account which those who have the most studied the nature of Motion have been able to give of it is only this that it is an effect of the Divine Power manifesting itself according to certain Laws or Rules which God has been pleased to prescribe for the communication of Motion from one Body to another And it is at least as conceivable by us that God doth act upon the Immaterial as that he acts upon the material part of the World and highly reasonable to suppose that he concerns himself with our Souls much more than with our Bodies There is no doubt to be made but that separate and unbodied spirits have ways of of conversing or communicating their thoughts to one another indeed all the communication and discourse that is among men in this world is properly between their Souls which use their Bodies as instruments for the conveyance of their Thoughts and Notions from one to anoand as their Bodies are more or less fit and serviceable to this end so their discourse is more or less easily convey'd and therefore Souls when they are at Liberty from these Bodies must have a Power to communicate their
this Notion of their legal Worship Abraham to whom Circumcision was appointed saw the day of Christ he sore saw his Descent from himself which was thereby prefigured and was glad Joh. viii 56. And Moses by whom the Ceremonial Service was ordained had so clear a Prospect of the Messias and his Kingdom that he esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Aegypt Hebr. xi 26. Those places of Scripture which the Apostles apply to Christ out of the Old Testament were at that time by the Jews themselves to whom they Cite them understood of the Messias they always supposed that whatever was great and Excellent among them was but a faint and imperfect Resemblance of that Glory and Excellency which was to be in its full Perfection and Accomplishment under the Messias 4. During this Ceremonial Dispensation there was a sufficient Revelation of the internal and spiritual Part of Religion In the Books of Moses the Love of God with all the Heart and the Love of their Neighbour as of Themselves is expresly commanded the Children of Israel Lev. xix 18. Deut. vi 5. The High Priest's Office was to bless the People Numb vi 23. and the Office of the Priests and Levites besides the Ceremonial Service was to stand every Morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at Even 1 Chron. xxiii 30. 2 Chron. xxxi 2. and (x) Vid. Qutr de Sacrific lib. 1. c. 15. S. 9. no Sacrifice was ever offered without Prayers The immortality of the Soul is implied in that Expression which is often used in the Books of Moses that Men when they died were gathered to their People which must be understood of their Souls their Bodies being buried at different places and in divers Countries not where their Ancestors had been buried And tho' this and such like Phrases may sometimes signify no more than their leaving the World as others had done before them as most Words and Expressions are often used improperly and may in some places be applied to ill Men yet there could never have been any Reason or Foundation for such a Phrase but from a Supposition of the Soul's Immortality Balaam wish'd to die the Death of the Righteous and that his last End might be like that of the Righteous Numb xxiii 10. For what Reason but that he might not be miserable but happy after Death A future State was always believ'd by the Jews as revealed to them in the Old Testament and whatever Texts there may be which seem to imply the contrary they are either spoken only by way of Objection as in the Book of Ecclesiastes or else they have no Relation to the State after this Life either to affirm or deny it but are to be understood to proceed from that Desire which pious Men had to honour and glorify God in their several Generations by restoring his Worship where it had been neglected or in propagating his Religion where it had not been yet known Thus that good King Hezekiah says to God in his Thanksgiving The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day The Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth Isa xxxviii 18 19. This is spoken with the same Zeal and Spirit by which he was acted in his Reformation And when David said In Death there is no Remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee Thanks Psal vi 5. He cannot be supposed to have any Doubtfulness concerning a future State for in other Psalms he plainly asserts it Psal xvi 11. xvii 15. But his Meaning is explain'd Psal xxx 9. where he says What profit is there in my Blood when I go down into the Pit Shall the Dust praise thee Shall it declare thy Truth In our other Translation it is Shall the Dust give Thanks to thee To give Thanks then to God is in grateful Acknowledgment for his Mercies to praise and magnify his Name and manifest his Truth among Men which is not to be done in the Grave God's Dispensations to the People of Israel being with this Design Pious Men desir'd that their Lives might be prolong'd for this purpose that they might declare his Truth and Vindicate and promote his Honour in this World before they were call'd to the next where there can be no Opportunity for this Service to God and Benefit to Mankind Enoch was taken up alive into Heaven to be an Example of that Happiness which God has prepar'd for those who walk with him and pleaseth him Gen. v. 24. And our Saviour Mark xii 26. proves the Resurrection of the Dead from Exod. iii. 6. Those for whom God has that peculiar Favour as to stile Himself their God and to declare this to be His Name or Title for ever and this to be His Memorial unto all Generations Vers 15. we may be assured are not so dead as utterly to have perish'd and if their Souls have surviv'd their Bodies their Bodies likewise must be raised again forasmuch as the Soul of Abraham without his Body is not Abraham but only one part of him and his Soul could not be stil'd Abraham but with respect not only to its past but to its future Union with his Body For tho' a part be often put for the whole yet it always supposes either the present or future Existence of the Whole but is never put for the whole when it remains alone and the rest is utterly and finally extinct Abraham consists of Soul and Body and therefore God being the God of Abraham is God both of the Soul and Body of Abraham which is an Argument that the Soul of Abraham now lives and that his Body shall live again for All live to God And he would not have given himself a solemn Title and Denomination from a Man who had no longer any Being nor from that Part of him which had utterly perish'd I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Abraham had his Name in Token that he should be a Father of many Nations Gen. xvii 5. and Isaac and Jacob were Heirs of the same Promise and therefore the God of Abraham is the God of that Father of Nations and has a particular Regard to the Bodies from which those Nations were descended as well as to the Souls of Abraham and his Posterity I am the God of Abraham not I was but I am which supposes Abraham yet to be I am the same God still to him that I was during his Life upon earth he is still the Object of the Divine Care and Goodness and therefore shall be rewarded both in Body and Soul God is not ashamed to be call'd their God for he hath prepared for them a City Heb. xi 16. that is an Habitation in Heaven The Children of Israel before the giving of the Law were
several Prophecies we have recorded in the Books of Moses and ascribed to others and the last comaining so many remarkable things is from the mouth of an Enemy Moses himself foretold That the Children of Israel should after Forty Years come into the Land of Promise That they should prove Victorious over the Canaanites and That their Country should by the Divine Care and Protection be preserved in safety whilst they went up to worship at Jerusalem thrice every Year Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God the God of Israel For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders netther shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Exod. xxxiv 23 24. Here is the Promise of a constant Miracle to be fulfilled to the Israelites thrice every Year as long as their Government stood all their Males were to go up to Jerusalem at three set and known times every year and yet their Enemies round about them whom they had so many ways provoked were by the Almighty Power of God restrained from taking any advantage of this opportunity which was frequently and notoriously given them of Invading their Countrey The very Nature and Constitution of the Jewish worship made it impossible for their Government to subsist in the observation of their Religion without a Miracle wrought three times in a Year for their preservation And the fulfilling of this Promise which God had made to them by Moses and the preserving of them in the performance of that Worship which he had appointed them was a continual Confirmation of his Law and a repeated Assurance that it was from God By the Law of Moses likewise every Seventh Year they were Permitted neither to sow their Land nor to prune their Vineyards nor to gather any Corn or Fruits that grew of their own accord which was a Law that must have brought them under great extremities and the observation of it had been impracticable if the extraordinary and miraculous Blessing of God had not supplied this constant want of the seventh year's Product with as constant an Overplus in the preceeding years For as God by Moses foretold That on the Sixth Day there should fall Manna enough to supply them on the Sabbath-day so they had a Promise of Three Years Fruits precisely every Sixth Year to supply that want which the Sabbatical Year must otherwise have reduced them to And if ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store Lev. xxv 20 21 22. Which is another clear Instance that the People of Israel could never have subsisted in the observation of their Law but by the constant and miraculous accomplishment of the Prophecies which contained the Promises made to them for their Preservation In blessing the Twelve Tribes of Israel he foretold the peculiar state and condition of every distinct Tribe Deut. xxxiii He foretold to them all in general That they should have miraculous success against the Canaanites That they should possess themselves of their Land That they should set Kings over them That they should have a peculiar Place of Worship whither they should all resort and that they should have the Divine Oracles and a succession of Prophets for their direction in all Matters of great importance and difficulty And Joshua appeals to the Experience of the children of Israel whether all had not been fulfilled which was promised as far as his time And be hold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof Josh xxiii 14. The extent of the Dominions of the children of Israel after they came to be setled in the Land of Canaan is foretold Exod. xxiii 31. and fulfilled 2 Sam. viii 3. Ezra iv 20. And Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple declared in the audience of all the People That there had not failed one word of all God's good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 King viii 56. Moses also foretold that besides a constant succession of Prophets for many Ages there should arise a Prophet of extraordinary Power and Authority and whosoever would not hear that Prophet should be destroyed Deut. xviii 18. This Prophet was the great expectation of the Jews at the time of out Saviour's coming Joh. 1.21 vi 14. vii 40. and the Apostles prove our Saviour to be him Act. iii. 22. vii 37. Lastly Moses foretold the Disobedience and the Revolt of the children of Israel the Judgments that should befall them for their Iniquities and their Deliverance upon their Repentance he foretold so many Years before they had any King That they and their King whom they would set over them should be carried into Captivity and that at the same time when they were taken Captive by the Assyrians who are described in the very same words that the other Prophets use concerning them the remainder should be carried into Aegypt Deut. xxviii 36 49 50 68. and we see it came accordingly to pass Jer. xliii And the Siege of Samaria by the Assyrians and of Jerusalem both by them and the Romans is particularly described to the very circumstance of their eating the flesh of their sons and of their daughters Deut. xxviii 53. which is a thing that has scarce ever happen'd in any other Siege but those of Samaria and of Jerusalem Lam. ii 20. iv 10.2 King vi 29. This monstrous and dreadful thing was twice known in Jerusalem first when it was besieged by Nehuchadnezzar and again when it was destroyed by the Romans under Titus And such a circumstance could not be foretold so long before but by a Divine Prescience and that so strange and unnatural a thing should befall the Children of Israel three several times according to the express words of a Prophecy could have nothing of Chance in it Thus we see that besides the Prophecies concerning the other Nations of the Earth every State and Condition of the People of Israel from their first Original to the Destruction of Jerusalem was the Perpetual Fulfilling of express Prophecies contained in the Books of Moses CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses IF it be once proved That Moses did what is related of him in the Pentateuch it will unavoidably follow That he did it by a Divine Power and that he was God's Servant and Minister and that
he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of Silver to the Chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself Matt. xxvii 3 4. How could the Chief Priests themselves have contrived a better way to vindicate our Saviour's Innocence if they had never so much endeavour'd it than for one of his own Disciples after he had betrayed him instead of witnessing against him which it was natural to suppose he would have done to be so far from that as to come before them all and fling down the Money in the Temple which they had given him as the hire of his Treachery and declare publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood and then to give a further proof of all this out of meer anguish and horror of Mind to go immediately from them and hang himself If our Saviour had done any thing whereby he could deserve to be put to Death Judas must needs have known it and when he had once betray'd him it cannot be supposed he would forbear to discover any thing he knew of him But when on the contrary he was so far from accusing him that as soon as he saw him condemned at the Accusation of other false Witnesses he could not bear the Agonies of his own mind but went and made away with himself this is as evident a proof of Christ's Innocence as any of the other Apostles themselves could ever give and Judas is so far an Apostle still as to proclaim his Master's Innocence in the face of the Sanedrim and then to Seal that Testimony with his Blood It has been thought by some that Judas as wicked as he was had never any design to cause his Master to be put to Death or to be any way instrumental towards it but he supposed that Christ would be secure enough against the Chief Priests in his own Innocence and Holiness or that they would not dare to hurt him for fear of the People which had been a restraint upon them in their former attempts or that he could easily make his escape from them as he had formerly done and therefore his Covetousness tempted him to believe that though he should betray his Master yet he would come to no harm by it However it is certain that Judas himself cleared our Saviour's snnocence by betraying him more than any other man could have done who had not been his Dlsciple and his making that confession and then his dying upon that account and in that manner may afford us that evidence which we must have wanted to certify us in the Truth of the Christian Religion if Christ had not been betray'd or had been betrayed by any but one of his own Disciples When he was condemned and crucify'd one of the Thieves who was crucified with him made an open Profession of him when there could be no Temptation of flattery nor leisure or patience for a man in that condition to speak in that manner but by the special Providence and Grace of God and to give an early instance of the great efficacy of his Cross and of the Mercy which it reacheth forth to all repenting Sinners our Saviour assures him that that very day he should be with him in Paradise A strange discourse upon the Cross To speak of Kingdoms and promise Paradise under so much infamy and torment That one should have the Faith to ask and the other the Power to promise so great things in that condition Who could have had the courage to promise so much upon the Cross but he who was able to perform it And as no ill could ever be proved against him but all circumstances concurred to confirm his Innocence as Herod dismissed him and Pilate often declared him to have committed nothing worthy of Death so the Devils themselves during his Life here upon Earth confessed him to be the Son of God and after his Death (b) Porphyr apud Euscb Demonstr Evang. lib. 3. c. 6. by their Oracles acknowledged him to have been an holy person whose Soul was translated into Heaven And this person thus Innocent and Holy both in his Life and Doctrine was prophesied of many Ages before his Birth and all the Prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly and in a wonderful manner fulfilled in him These Prophecies concern either his Birth or his Life or his Death or his Resurrection and Ascension 1. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour For his Birth was prophesied of in all the circumstances of the Time and the Place of it and the Person of whom he was born 1. As for the Time by Jacob's Prophecy Gen. xlix 10. The Messias was to come about the time of the Dissolution of the Jewish Government The Scepter was not to depart from Judah that is the Power and Authority of the Jewish Government was not to cease until Shilo came which the ancient (c) See Bp. Pearson on the Creed Jewish Interpreters expounded of the coming of their Messias To (d) Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 21. which purpose it is held by the Jews that the great Sanhedrim sat in the Tribe of Judah tho' but part of the Court in which they sat was of that Tribe and the rest in the Tribe of Benjamin And the Jews among all their objections never objected against the time in which our Saviour came into the World but many of them have confessed that the Messias was born at that time but say that because of their sins he has (e) Munster de Messiâ concealed himself ever since And the latter Jews have by a great many stories endeavoured to make it believed that there is a Kingdom still of their Nation in some unknown part of the world tho' if this were true it could prove nothing to their purpose the prophecy being concerning their Power and Authority in the promised Land It is certain that soon after our Saviour's coming Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed and upon severe Penalties forbidden to come to their desolate and ruined City or so much as to look upon Zion the City of their Solemnities unless it were once every year to lament their calamity and they have ever since been a wandring and despicable People And several times when they have at tempted to re-build their Temple they have not been suffered to do it particularly when they had the favour and encouragement of Julian the Apostate who out of malice to the Christian Name and Doctrine was forward to promote the work they were hindred by an Earthquake and a miraculous eruption of Fire bursting out from under the foundation which burnt down what they had erected and destroyed those that were employed in it and this we have attested not only from Christian writers
by the name of America or that the Torrid and Frigid Zones could be habitable No mystery in Religion can seem more incredible to any man than these things did appear even to Wise and Learned men and if they had not been found to be by Navigation they might have seem'd incredible still for ought we can tell tho now we wonder at the ignorance of former times that they should make any doubt of them and admire how they came to lye so long unknown for these things seem obvious when they are once discovered and it would be a disparagement to us if we could not make as great discoveries at home as those do who travel to the Indies And if we will but consider a little with our selves we shall find that we may be at least as much mistaken in our Philosophy about the things of another World as our Ancestors were for so many ages concerning so much of this and shall conceive it very possible that there may be a Heaven and a Hell tho we never spoke with any body that had been in either of those places and that there may be a Trinity and a Resurrection tho we were able to give no account of them For Nature it self exceeds our comprehension and therefore the Divine Essence and the Almighty Power of God must needs much more exceed it The motion of the Heavens and of the Winds and Seas the light of the Sun and Moon and Stars the conception and birth of all Creatures nay the growth of Corn and of the very Grass of the Field and all the most obvious and inconsiderable productions of Nature have so many wonderful difficulties in the explication of them that if we were not mightily inclined to flatter our selves I am afraid we should sooner turn Scepticks than be able to imagin that we can give any tolerable account of them For when all is done we know just enough of them to acknowledge and admire the infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God and to be led to a stedfast belief and assurance of what he has revealed of himself and of the World to come that the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World may be clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 How little is it that we know of this Earth where we live and which we dote so much upon For by the least calculation it is above three thousand and five hundred miles to the Center but the Art and Curiosity of Man has never reached according to Mr. Boyle's account after all his enquiries among Navigators and Miners (a) Excellency of Theology Sect. 4. above one mile or two at most downward and that not in above three or four places either into the Earth or into the Sea yet all Astronomers agree as he afterwards observes that the Earth is but a Physical point in comparison of the Starry Heaven Of how little extent then says he must our knowledge be which leaves us ignorant of so many things touching the vast bodies that are above us and penetrates so little a way even into the Earth that is beneath us that it seems confined to but a small share of the superficial part of a Physical Point And to shame the pride and vanity of Mankind the chiefest discoveries in Philosophy as he likewise observes have been the productions of Time and Chance not of any Wisdom or Sagacity Which is a remarkable acknowledgment in a person who has oblig'd the world with so many wonderful Improvements in experimental Philosophy The Circulation of the Blood has been but lately found out and was looked upon as absurd at its first discovery tho now what man can doubt of it And some of the most common effects of Nature might seem as strange as any if the frequency of them did not prevent our wonder Maimon More Nevoch pt 2. c. 18. If as Maimonides puts a case we suppose a man of never so good natural parts so brought up as to be ignorant of the manner how the several species of Animals are preserved and propagated in the world how many scruples might he raise to himself concerning their Conception and Formation Might he not object that it is impossible that the Infant should ever live and be nourished and grow in the Womb and would he not offer abundance of Demonstrations to prove that the Natural Birth of Mankind and of all other Creatures is utterly impossible Our Saviour in his discourse with Nicodemus answers his Doubts concerning the New Birth by putting him in mind that he was as little able to give an account of the Wind and that he could not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth implying that there is much less reason to doubt of things of a Spiritual nature because we are able to give no sufficient explication of them when we are thus at a loss about the most common and obvious things in the world Joh. 3.8 And S. Paul confutes all objections against the Resurrection by a like Argument alledging that as it would be intolerably absurd to deny or doubt of the growth of Corn because it cannot perfectly be explained so it is much more absurd to deny or doubt of the Resurrection for no better reason since supernatural things must be more obscure and harder to be understood by us than natural 1 Cor. 15.36 Indeed Infidelity could never be more inexcusable than in the present Age when so many discoveries have been made in Natural Philosophy which would have been thought as incredible to former Ages as any thing perhaps that can be imagined which is not a downright contradiction That Gravitating or Attractive Force by which all Bodies act one upon another at never so great a distance even through a Vacuum of prodigious extent lately demonstrated by Mr Newton the Earth together with the Planets and the Sun and Stars being placed at such distances and dispos'd of insuch order and in such a manner as to maintain a perpetual ballance and poise throughout the Universe is such a discovery as nothing less than a Demonstration could have gained it any Belief And this System of Nature being so lately discovered and so wonderful that no account can be given of it by any Hypothesis in Philosophy but it must be resolved into the sole Power and good Pleasure of Almighty God may be a caution against all Attempts of estimating the Divine Works and Dispensations by the Measures of Humane Reason The vastness of the World's extent is found to be so prodigious that it would exceed the Belief not only of the Vulgar but of the greatest Philosophers if undoubted experiments did not assure us of the Truth of it We are assured by men of the best art and skill in those things * See Mr Boyle of the high vencration Mans Intellect owes to God that every Fixt Star of the first magnitude is above an hundred
Gross God was pleased therefore to display his Glory before the Angels and by several steps and degrees to excite their Praise and Love and Adoration which moved them to Songs and Shouts of Joy and by this means his Glory and their own Happiness was advanced much beyond what it would have been if all things had been created and disposed into their Rank and Order at one Moment They look'd into the first Principles and Seeds of Things and every day presented them with a glorious Spectacle of New Wonders the first Seven Days of the World they kept a continual Triumph or Jubile and thus their Voices were tuned and raised as I may say to those Praises which were to be their Employment and their Happiness to all Eternity the more they saw the more they knew and the more they knew of the Works of God the more they for ever loved and adored Him This affords us a Reason why so much more time was spent in the forming of the Earth and the Creatures belonging to it than in the formation of the Heavenly Bodies Because the Heavens are of a Uniform and Similar Nature and a vast Vacuum is now supposed to be in them and therefore the Nature of them might without any successive Production be displayed at once to the Angels but the Earth being of a Compound Nature and containing Creatures of very different kinds it required more time to give a distinct perception of the several Parts and Species of it And the Planets being of the like Nature with the Earth since the Earth the Seat of Man's Habitation was framed by such leisurely degrees as might give a suitable Idea of it the other Planets might be framed at once there being nothing more in them than what was observeable in the Formation of the Earth or they might be framed together with the Earth by the same Measures and Degrees But according to the Mechanical way the Angels would have only the Prospect of a vast Chaos rolling and working for many thousands of years perhaps before any thing considerable could have been framed out of it And those tedious delays must yet according to this Notion have been carried on by such certain Methods that there could have been little wonderful in it to an Angel when the Mechanical Philosophers themselves think they can point out the several Steps and Motions by which all was done The making of Man was the last and finishing Work of the Creation when the World was prepared for the Reception of him and he was made with much solemnity Let us make Man in our Image after our Likeness Gen. i. 26. and the Man and the Woman were made apart For Adam was Created with all the Perfections suitable for him both as a Man and as the first Man out of whom Eve was to be formed As Man he was to have all the Parts and Faculties which Men have now but in greater Perfection as the first Man he was besides to have a Rib or (c) Dicunt etiam Vnam ex eostis ejus idem esse quod unam ex partibus ejus vel unam partem ejus quam explicationem confirmant ex eo quod in Targum vocabulum Tzelah costa redditur per Setar ut Tzelah costa Tabernaculi redditur in Targum per Setar latus Tabernaculi ita hic dicunt Mitzalotar idem esse quod Missitrohi Maimon More Nevoch Part 2. c. 30. Part out of which the Woman was to be made Which being the Principal and as it were the seminal Matter no mention is made of any other but as Animals and Plants are properly said to come from the Seed tho' they are not made of that only so Eve was properly made of Adam's Rib tho' other Matter besides might go to her Composition This way of Formation was to betoken that Love and Duty which ought to be between Husband and Wife And as the Creation and Happiness of Man provoked the Envy of Evil Angels so no doubt it occasioned the Joy and Praise of the Good ones 2. By this successive and Gradual Production and Disposition of things in six days at the Creation the Glory of God is likewise more manifested to Men than it would have been if all had been done at once or by slow and tedious Methods This gives us a more clear and distinct comprehensive Notion of the Works of God than we could otherwise have had It is acknowledged that Moses has given such an Account of the Creation as is more intelligible and better adapted to the Capacities of the generality of Men than that which any one would now obtrude upon us as a true Account of it But whatever Reasons can be assigned why the Creation should be described as it is in the Book of Genesis the same Reasons will prove that it was fitting it should be so performed If it be more suitable to the Capacities and Apprehensions of Men that the Creation of the World should be delivered to us as finished in six days rather than in a less or a longer time it was fit that it should have been really finished in this space of time and should be indeed so performed as might make the History the more useful to us For in respect of God it was alike to Create all things in an instant or to do it successively in a shorter or a longer time and in respect of Mankind no reason can be assigned why the History of the Creation should be delivered so as to represent it to Men as performed in this manner but the same Reason will hold why it should have been in the same manner performed God Blessed the Seventh day and Sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God Created and Made Gen. ii 3. and so Exod. xx 10 11. the Observation of the Sabbath or of one day in Seven to the Honour of God is established upon the Worlds being Created in six days and therefore if it be reasonable to keep one day in Seven Holy in Remembrance of the Creation it must be reasonable that the Creation of the World should have been performed in six days since the Obligation to observe a Seventh day in remembrance of the Creation implies that God rested on the Seventh day after he had Created the World in Six or in the same space of time which is contained in six days God saw it fitting that a day should be set apart to Commemorate the Creation and to Praise him for all his wonderful Works and that this day should return at such a distance of time and he observed such Order in the Creation that every day between these Periods of time might bring some particular work of it to Remembrance and every Seventh day might conclude in the Commemoration of the whole Creation Our Saviour answers the Pharisees when they proposed the Question to him about Divorces by putting them in Mind of the Order which God used in the Creation Have
be of such a Nature as not to be liable to Frost and Venus's and Mercuries of such as not to be easily evaporated by the Sun He says (xx) Lib. 2. That the Heat of the Sun is nine times greater in Mercury than with us in Venus it is twice as hot as with us the Light and Heat in Mars is twice and sometimes threefold less than ours If there were any Inhabitants in Jupiter they would have but the five and twentieth Part of the Light and Heat that we receive from the Sun and those in Saturn but the hundreth Part. Upon which account he is very hard put to it to furnish out Inhabitants for the rest of the Planets but as for the Moon and the Satellites's moving about Saturn and Jupiter he does as good as give up the Cause by reason that they are neither Seas nor Rivers nor Clouds nor Atmosphere or Vapours nor any kind of Water Besides that the time of Light and Darkness in the Moon being equal to fifteen of our Days if the Bodies of the Inhabitants were such as ours are he observes that those who had the Sun pretty high in their Horizon must be like to be burnt up in such long days and those that liv'd under the Poles of the Moon would be as much pinch'd with Cold as our Whale fishers are about Ice-Land and Nova Zembla in the Summer-time And the Summer and Winter in the Moons or Satellites of Saturn are fifteen Years long and therefore they may well be concluded to be unhabitable But because it may be alledg'd that the same thing was believed of the Frigid and Torrid Zones before Experience convinced Men of their Mistake and that however there may be other Planets or Earths yet undiscovered at convenient Distances from some of the fixt Stars I observe that tho it should be granted that some Planets be habitable it doth not therefore follow that they must be actually inhabited or that ever they have been For they might be design'd if Mankind had continued in Innocency as Places for Colonies to remove Men to as the World should have encreased either in Reward to those that had excell'd in Vertue and Piety to entertain them with the Prospect of New and Better Worlds and so by degrees to advance them in proportion to their Deserts to the Heigth of Bliss and Glory in Heaven Or as a necessary Reception for Men who would then have been immortal after the Earth had been full of Inhabitants And since the Fall and Mortality of Mankind they may be either for Mansions of the Righteous or Places of Punishment for the wicked after the Resurrection according as it shall please God at the End of this World to new modify and transform them And in the mean time being placed at their respective Distances they do by their several Motions contribute to keep the World at a Poise and the several Parts of it at an Aequilibrium in their Gravitation upon each other by Mr. Newton's Principles VII It has been suggested by (x) Campanella Bp. Wilkins c. Huygens c. Learned Men that the Planets may possibly be inhabited by Rational Creatures of a different Nature from Mankind their Souls may be of an inferior or superior Order to ours and their Bodies of a different Form and Composition and there may be different Laws of Union and Communication between the Operations of their Souls and the Motions of their Bodies For there is no necessity to believe that there can be no sort of Rational Animals but Mankind But I offer most of what I have said on this Subject only as Conjectures which have at least so much Probability in them as to silence the Objections brought against the Scriptures on these Accounts For unless a Man can prove these or the like Conjectures false which I am perswaded no man can ever do he must forbear urging Objections that will be insignificant if these Conjectures or such as these should be true It is hard to assign every particular End and Use of many other wonderful Things in Nature but lately discovered by Microscopes as of any thing observable in the Heavens either by the naked Eye or by Telescopes And when the Scriptures mention those Uses of the Heavenly Bodies which more immediately concern our Earth this doth not deny or exclude any other Uses for which they may be design'd CHAP. XI That there is nothing in the Scriptures which contradicts the late Discoveries in Natural Philosophy I. IT has been well observed by divers Writers upon this Subject that the Scriptures were written with no design of Teaching us Natural Philosophy but to instruct us in the Knowledge of God and of our selves to teach us our Duty and shew us the way to live and die well and therefore they might make use of Popular Expressions and Forms of Speech neither affirming nor denying the Philosophical Truth of them but intending them only in that Sense and Meaning which was their sole Design in using them All proverbial Sayings and Metaphorical Expressions by way of Illustration or Ornament must be taken from received Notions but they are not therefore asserted in the Philosophical Sense by him who useth them any more than the Historical Truth of Parables and Similitudes is supposed to be asserted And to have made use only of Philosophical Terms and Notions and have rectified the Vulgar Conceptions of Men concerning all the Phaenomena which upon occasion are made mention of in the Scriptures would have required a large System of Philosophy which had made the Scriptures a Book unfit for Vulgar Capacities and for the use of the greatest part of those for whom they are designed This Theory of Nature would besides have seemed as strange and incredible to most Men even as Miracles can do For there is hardly any thing that Men unacquainted with Philosophy are more startled at than Philosophical Discoveries How incredible doth the Motion of the Earth and the rest of the Sun seem to all Men but Philosophers Who are generally now agreed in it whilst the Rising and Setting of the Sun are Expressions now as much in use with such as hold the Earth's Motion as with others And indeed they must speak so if they will be understood and excepting this one Instance which is and ever will be in use according to the vulgar Conception in all Countries and Languages not withstanding any Philosophical Discoveries I know nothing in the Scriptures which is not consistent with the present Notions of Philosophy II. And yet that place of Scripture which is most objected on this Occasion is so exprest as that no Advantage can be taken aâ—einst it Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajalon Josh x. 12. Stand thou still or as we read in the Margin Be thou silent be still do not interrupt our Victories and take part with the Enemy by withdrawing thy Light and favouring his escape And again
could not deny the Evidence of the Fact supposing the thing possible but they would not own it possible that such a thing should be and upon that account rejected all the Evidence that could be produced as tending only to prove an Impossibility and so not to be regarded I shall therefore shew the possibility of the Resurrection of the Dead and that it is unreasonable to think it incredible that God should raise the Dead If it be incredible that God should Raise the Dead it must be upon one of these Two Accounts either because he cannot or because he will not do it For what God both can and will do is so far from being Incredible that it is a most undoubted Truth Therefore I shall First Prove that God is certainly able to Raise the Dead and Secondly That he certainly will do it 1. That God is certainly able to Raise the Dead is a thing credible in it self and therefore ought to be esteemed incredible by no sort of Men whatsoever tho' they have no Knowledge of any Revealed Religion if they have but right Apprehensions concerning God No Man can have a true Notion of God but he must know that God is a Being of Infinite Power and Wisdom that he made the World and all things therein that he preserves and sustains all Creatures and that all things are wholly at his Will and Disposal to do with them as he pleases that nothing can oppose or resist his Will or give him the least hindrance in any thing which he is pleased to undertake How then can it seem incredible that God should raise a Dead Man to Life again when he at first gave him his Life And is it not as easie to restore it to him as to give it him at first Might we not as well dispute that it is impossible for a Man to be Born as that it is impossible for him to be Raised from the Dead if our own experience did not convince us of that but not of this God who gave all that Power and Ability which Natural Causes have to produce their Effects may if he pleases produce the same Effects immediately by himself For it is not because he stands in need of any help from Natural Causes that he has appointed them but because it seemed best to his Infinite Wisdom to appoint this Course and Order in the World And it is evident even to Natural Reason that there must have been some who were immediately Created by God and were not born of others as Men are since that there must have been some First Parents some who had no Parents themselves but were of Gods immediate Creation that there must have been some who were the First of all Mankind and therefore could be born of no others Since then Man must of necessity have been first formed by God himself and not have come by a Natural Birth into the World it is evident that God might have made as many Men and Women after this manner as he had pleased and he who is the Author of our Nature may act without it and as much beyond and above any Natural Powers and Faculties in his Creatures as it seems best to him And it may as well be thought incredible that God should at first make Man as that he should be able to raise him up again after Death for Death is only the End of Nature's power of working not of the Power of God himself who as he originally made the Race of Mankind so he appointed the Nature of Things and gave it a stinted Power which it cannot exceed but his own Power is Infinite and no Bounds can be set to it When a Man is once Dead Nature has done with him and can never recover him to Life again for God ordained at first that according to the Course of Nature he should only be born and live here a while not that his Life should be restored again to him after Death But he is not so confined himself that he cannot give Life to the Dead but has reserved this as his own Prerogative and above any thing in Nature's Power God who formed Adam of the Dust of the ground might have formed all Mankind so if he had pleased and he can as easily raise all Mankind to Life again out of the Dust as he made the first Man out of it And the Atheist one would think has of all Men the least pretence to scruple the Resurrection of the Dead who must suppose that Mankind at first sprung out of the Earth as Plants do by a Spontaneous Production and for him to pretend that the Bodies of Men cannot be raised to Life again by an Almighty Power is as unreasonable as any thing in Atheism it self can be When at certain Seasons every Year we see things receive a New Life as it were according to the Course of Nature we may well conclude that if so strange an Alteration can proceed from Natural Causes then surely God is able to effect that which is much more wonderful and to raise even these Bodies of ours after they are dead and rotten in the Grave to Life again And since the Corn which is Sown in the Earth is not quickned except it die and will not revive and grow again and come to perfection unless it be first buried in the Ground and undergo great Alterations there it is a foolish thing as the Apostle argues to doubt of the Resurrection of the Dead because we cannot understand the way and manner of it Let Men Answer all the Difficulties in Nature and it will be time enough afterwards to dispute with them about a Resurrection but when we are at a loss about the most common and obvious things it must be great Presumption to deny the Resurrection because we cannot comprehend it when alas what is there besides that we are able to comprehend Will we presume to say that God can do nothing but what we understand how it may be done when every thing we see may inform us that his Wisdom is Infinite and his ways past finding out Indeed if we understood every thing else there might be some pretence to scruple the Resurrection because we do not understand how it shall be But when our Ignorance is so notorious in all other things it is the heighth of Folly and Perverseness to think our selves competent Judges of such a Mystery as this So far are we from being able to make any Estimate of God's Power and so far is the Resurrection from being Incredible because there may be Objections made about it which may seem unanswerable that if no other Answer could be given this would be sufficient that God can do more than we can have the least Thought or Conception of and that it is no Argument that he cannot do what we cannot conceive how it should be done so long as there is nothing contrary to the Divine Nature in it nor which implies a Contradiction the