Prince and the shoars were heard by Mariners far off at sea to echo their groans into this dismal note Great Pan is dead as Plutarch hath reported in his defect of Oracles A third about the time of Constantine so affectionately magnified by Eusebius in his sad complaint that his lips were sealed up his Prognosticks suppressed and his sophistry fooled by the Righteous upon earth as the same Eusebius hath related in Vita Constantini And again in his excuse to the Emperour Iulian who being superstitiously curious to foreknow the success of his great expedition into Persia and therefore addressing himself with exceeding solemnity to the temple of Apollo Daphnes to anticipate the knowledg of his fortune could notwithstanding worm out of him no other satisfaction but this that he should first remove the bodies about him before he could have the liberty to return him an answer as Theodoret hath registred who also tells us that not long after that Temple was consumed by lightning But I must heer arrest my Reader with a civil and short Advertisement that by the Cessation of Oracles I may not intend a total and absolute expulsion of that grand Impostor from all his Fanes Tripods and other shops wherein he professed his delusions at once as if the Incarnation of Truth had strook him dumb at one blow but an extermination of him from his metropolitan Temple at Delphos and an Intercision Diminution or sensible Decay of his Amphibologies Predictions and other Collusions in all other places For otherwise I should not only steal a contradiction upon my self that unsatisfactory response which he stammerd out to Iulian being full 363 years after the nativity of him that crush't the Serpents head but also incur the just censure either of being ignorant of or undecently neglecting those solid reasons which Plutarch Suetonius and our modern learned Wits Montacutius and D â— Browne have adduced to attest the continuation of his ceremonious Legerdemain and solemn cheats practised upon gross and credulous Pagans in the point of Vaticination much beyond the rising setting and resurrection of the Sun of righteousness who came down to dispell those foggs of Hell and irradiate the poor benighted world with Light supernatural And the Last is sworn to by all For 1 the Christian hath it Article 10. That there was a prodigious Eclips of the Sun at the passion of our Saviour ratified to him both by sacred and profane Auctority 2 the Jews that deny Christ to have bin the true Messias do yet acknowledg the prodigious Eclipse of the Sun that renowned his passion and 3 the Turks who allow him to have bin no more then a geat and holy Prophet as their Alcoran frequently intimateth are yet so zealous of the honour of their antient records that they would confute him with a scimiter who should dare to indubitate the preterition of so remarkable a wonder which certified the half of the earth of its verity by the sensible perswasion of a panick terror insomuch that many of the Jews who beheld it were so shatterd with fear that their hearts were rent aswell as the vail of the Temple and themselves ready to sneak into the graves of those Saints that were newly risen to evidence his conquest over death and give humanity a prelibation or tast of the benefit of his sufferings Nor was this as other Eclipses only Partial and Vertical to Hierusalem but the darkness was visible to the whole Hemisphear els how could the Aegyptian Astronomer take notice of it and being amazed at the unnatural Apparition cry out Aut Deus Naturae patitur aut machina mundi dissolvitur as the reverend Father his namesake Dionysius hath remembred in his Epistle to Polycarpus and Apollophanes els how could the antient Greeks in their Annals have filed up a monstrous Defection of the great Luminary in the 4 th year of 202. Olympiad as Phlegon Trallianus notethâ— Now the 4 th year of the 202. Olympiad jumps even with the 19 th of Tiberius and the 33. of the Nativity which was the 4745. of the Julian period and therefore that exact synchronisme makes that monstrous Eclipse observed by the more mathematical eyes of the Greeks to be the same which happened at the death of the Lord of life That the Catholique Deluge was purely Supernatural and the destruction of all Living Creatures upon the sublunary Gloâ—e Article 11. A Demonstration of the impossibility of the Catholique Deluges proceeding from Causes Natural those few that were shifted aboard the Ark only preserved by an Abyss of Waters immediately caused by the revenging Will of that same Fruitfull Spirit that formerly brooding upon the same abyss of waters had hatchtt hem into being though of some difficulty to him that shall wave all testimonies deduceable from the sacred relation adscribed to Moses can yet be no impossibility to prove from Considerations meerly Physical For First the vast Quantity of Waters requisite to overflow the whole earth and prevail upon the high hills nay exceed the heads of the most lofty mountains by 15 cubits for mountains there were before the floud els how could the waters by degrees encreasing ascend and cover them and therefore those wanton Wits which affirm the Antediluvian earth to have had her face a meer Plane or level without those protuberancies and rugosities undertake not only a Paradox but a manifest Absurdity point blanck repugnant aswell to the Text as to the natural Necessity of those Inaequalities could not be powred out from the Receptaries or storehouses of the Ocean the Earth having as great if not a greater share in the Terraqueous Globe as the Waters and the perpendicular Altitude of the mountains by more then two parts of three at least transcending the profundity of the deepest Chanel of the Sea that ever the sounding line of any Mariner did profound except of that Barathrum or Vorago Aquarum in mari dulci between Roest and Leoffelt described by Olaus Magnus which yet is but a kind of Sluice or sink and therefore of no considerable latitude For that the Eminency of the highest Hills hath scarcely the same proportion to the Semidiametre of the Earth that there is betwixt 1. 1000 hath bin frequently demonstrated by many of our best Geographers and though we descend to Eratosthenes his commensuration who hath affirmed that by instruments Dioptrick and an exact measure of the distances of Places he hath certainly found the Altitude of the highest mountains not to exceed ten stadia we shall not however be provided of water enough in the bowells of the Sea to advance our inundation the depth of the profoundest ocean seldom amounting to a 100 Fathom as Scaliger 38 Exercit. contra Cardanum hath upon justifiable grounds declared Nor can this immane Collection of Waters be derived as some have inconsiderately opinioned from the Whole lower Region of the Aer condensed into clouds and those comprest into waters For to take no strict notice
though he escape all these yet doth the Palsic hand of Time soon shake down his ounce of sand and then turn him over to be devoured by oblivion 8. Tum porro puer ut saevis projectus ab undis Navita nudus humi jacet infans indigus omni Vitai auxilio cum primum in luminis oras Nixibus ex aâ—vo matris natura profudit Vagituque locum lugubri complet ut aequum ' st Quoi tantum in vita restet transire malorum c. That Nature seems more a step-mother to man then any other Animal having cast him into the world naked â—eeble unarmed unprovided for in all but want and by his early tears portending that deluge of calamities which in case he be so miserable to survive his birth must drown all the comforts of his life and wash him into earth again after a short slight of time in brief she exposeth him as a bastard to be taken up and nursed by the charity of that giddy headed gossip Fortune who hath no sooner smiled him into strength enough to suffer but she contracts her browes disinherits and abandons the desolate wretch to all the hardship and afflictions that the witty malice of Fate to whom our tortures are pleasures and the hoarse groans of the rack sound perfect melody can either invent or inflict And thus have we heard in Summary the plea of those three eminent Levellers who endevoured to supplant man of his birth-right to take away the prerogative of his nature and reduce him to no greater a share in the favour of his Maker then the meanest of his fellow Animals It comes now to our turn to examine whether their Arguments are strong enough to carry the Cause The Refutation That God in his atcheivem of the Universe had a principal regard to Man above all other the works of his hands and Article 2. The total redâ—rgution thereof by a com nonstâ—aÌ„ce that tâ—e benefit and felicity of man was Gods secondary end and the impossibility of satisfaction to the first end by any creâ—ture but man concluded from his considered him tanquam sinem interjectum as the Mediate or Secondary End his own Glory being the Immediate or Primary or more plainly the end of that end is clearly deduceable even from this that man only among that infinite variety of natures listed in the inventory of the Creation is constituted in a capacity to satisfie that first end his intellectuals or cogitative essence being by a genial verticity or spontaneous propension qualified to admire in admiration to speculate in speculation to acknowledge in acknowledgement to laud the Goodness Wisdome and Power of the Worlds Creator while the ignoble Faculties of all other Animals are terminated in the inferior offices of sense nor ever attain above the inconsiderate operations of their brutal appetites And this one reason if duely perpended will be found of weight enough to counterpoize all those empty frothy sophisms 1. Rationality alleaged to the contrary nor can any aequitable consideration if I rightly understand its value allow it to be much less then Apodictical I say if duely perpended for we are not rashly to understand this peculiar Adaequation or Praeeminence of man to consist in the bare Vprightness of his Figure which accommodates him Coelum intueri erectos ad sidera tollere vultus For according to the vulgar acceptation of Erectness and as it is considered to be a position opposite to Proneness or the horizontal situation of the Spina dorsi or rack bones in Animals progredient with their bellies toward the earth man hath no reason to boast a singularity therein Since many other Animals as the Penguin a kind of water fowle frequent upon the straights of Magellan the devout insect of Province or Prega Dio the praying Grashopper so called because for the most part found in an upright posture answerable to that of man when his hands are elevated at his devotions the Bitour which my self hath sometimes observed standing upright as an arrow falne perpendicular and his eyes so advanced as to shoot their visual beams point blank at the zenith or vertical point of heaven all Plane Fishes that have the apophyses or processes of their spine carried laterally or made like the teeth of a Comb as the Thornback Plaice Flounder Soles c. and their eyes placed in the upper side of their head and so pointing directly upward and diverse others attaining an erectness beyond his and by reason of the sublimimity of their faces taking a far larger prospect of the firmament For man cannot look so high as the Aâ—quinoctial circle unless he either recline the spondils of his neck and loyns or place himself in a supine position And therefore Lactantius though he conceived his argument impregnable when he said Lib. 7. cap. 5. Quod planius argumentum proferri potest mundum hominis hominem suâ caussa Deum fecisse quam quod ex omnibus Animantibus solus it a formatus est ut oculi ejus ad coelum directi facies ad Deum spectans vultus cum suo parente communis sit to him that shall literally interpret the same cannot appear to have stopt the mouth of contradiction unless perhaps we shall afford him so much favour as to restrain the erectnes of man to that precise definition of our Master Galen De usu part lib. 1. which allowes those Animals only to have an erect figure whose spines and thigh bones are situate in right lines For in this strict signification no Animal for ought Zoographers or those that write the Natural Histories of living Creatures have discovered or our selves observed can exactly fulfill that figure but man all others having their thighs pitched at angles either right or obtuse or acute to their spines And for this respect was it that having premised that Man only was constituted in a capacity to satisfie that prime end of the Creation the glory of God I thought necessary to subjoyn his intellectual or Cogitative soul being naturally disposed to admire c. thereby importing that the basis of my Argument was fixt upon the very root of his Essence or better Nature as Plato calls it whose propriety is sursum aspicere to look up to his original and speculate the excellencies of his Maker And thus understood I prefer Plato's etymologie of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and am perswaded that the primitive Grecian so denominated man quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contemplantem quae videt nor can I conceive that Anaxagoras spake other then tropologically when being askt cur natus esset he smartly and pathetically returned ut videret coelum terras by that figurative expression intending that man was made not to gape about or gaze upon the external beauties of heaven and earth with the dull eye of his body but to have his thoughts sublime and with the acies of his mind to speculate the Wisdome c. of him that made them
end for the most part best and many times only known to himself Nor is it an illegal process of our reason but the best logick as to supernaturals to conclude not only the excellencies but even the necessary being of some things meerly from hence that we cannot fully comprehend them since their very being above our capacity is argument both clear and strong enough that they are not only so as but more perfect and far greater then we understand them to be as he that sees but a small part of the sea with a Telescope at distance may safely conclude that t is exceeding large because the circumferrence thereof is by infinite degrees of magnitude wider then to be drawn into the aperture of his slender tube Sure I am at least that the Antisyllogisme or Counter-argument the understanding of man cannot discover its abstruse and mysterious plots resolve its multiplex aenigma's nor analyze its method or series of Causes subordinate and so by a retrograde chase hunt out its first and chief intention Ergo there can be no Providence is intolerable and deserves a greater dose of Ellebor then that absurdity of the blinde man who concluded there was not nor could be any such thing as light or Colours only because he could not see them When therefore we shall have run our eager contemplations to a stand in the wilderness of Providence and lost our busie thoughts in the maze of Gods secret decrees all the satisfaction our bold curiosity can return home with will be only this that all occurrences in the World are predetermined have their Causes Times and Ends punctually set down in the Ephemerides of Fate and though in the incompetent judgment of man some of them may seem the Peradventures or temerarious Hits of Chance yet are they the mature Designations of the supreme Wisdome though in the ears of man they may sound discords to the musick of particular Natures yet will they at last be found well composed Aers necessary both to sweeten and fill up the common Harmony of the Universe To instance are there not many Monsters Heteroclites Equivocal and irregular births on the earth many prodigious and new-faced Meteors in the upper and uncertain Anomalies or unseasonable Tempests in the lower division of the Aer many new Phaenomena among the fixed various encounters diviâ—ions and conspiracies among the erratick stars c. and yet doe not all these as Chrotchets and Quavers in a grave and solemn lesson on a Lute conduce to the advancement of the General Melody Doth not irregularity render order the more conspicuous and amiable and Deformity like the Negro drawn at Cleopatra's elbow serve as a foile to set off Beauty Are not the Moles on the cheeks of Nature as those on Venus skin placed there to illustrate or whiten the snow and sweeten the feature of her face Is it not exceeding gracefull in a Comoedian to temper and endear the sage and weighty scenes of Princes and Melancholy States-men with the light interludes of Pantalons Clowns and Anticks Doth not the Painter then shew the most of skill when he refracts the glaring luster of his lighter Colours with a veil of Sables and makes the beauty of his peice more visible by clouding it with a becoming shadom And without doubt every man will readily conjoyne his vote to ours that he is best able to adorn and imbellish a piece of Art who first contrived and wrought it and therefore the Perfection and Condecoration of a work doth properly and solely bolong to his hand that brought it to that height as to want only ornament nor is it his part to prescribe what 's necessary to the conciliation of gracefulness and decorament to an engine who is ignorant of the modell and holds not a perfect Idea of the Artifice thereof Now the importance of all these similes being put together who can be so ignorant in the Alphabet or rudiments of ratiocination as not at first sight to spell them into this short lesson consisting only of two orthodox Positions First that those subitaneous Accidents which the ignorance or carelesness of the vulgar doth usually refer to the blind sortilegies of Chance are truely the meer hand of God and the prudent designes of that Catholick Providence which hath numbred the sands on the Sea shoar and weighed the dust of the earth in a balance which feeds the young Ravens when they cry and while the old ones wander for meat which thundereth marvellously with his voyce and doth great things that we cannot comprehend for he saith to the snow Be thou on the earth likewise to the smal rain and to the great rain of his strength by whose breath frost is given and the breadth of the waters is straightned which turneth the bright clouds round about by his Counsels that they may doe what ever he commandeth them upon the earth who made the ordinances of heaven and hath set the dominions thereof in the earth who can binde the sweet insluences of the Pleiades and lose the bands of Orion can bring forth Mazaroth in his season and guide Arcturus with his sons c. Secondly that those Monstrosities or extraordinary and prodigious effects which the nescience of the multitude cals Irregularities Perversions and Deformities of Nature to wiser considerations prove themselves to be no wanton excursions or randome shots of her hand made without aim at any final cause but praeordained and collineated by that sure one of Divine Providence point blanck at some certain end private or publick The former being known only to himself à priori and frequently mistaken by man a posteriori the later indeed we have a liberty to conjecture to be either that he leaves the straight and chalks out this serpentine and crooked line to satisfie the World of his Prerogative that himself is the Agent and Nature but his Instrument and therefore to be turned wrenched altered and perverted at his pleasure or else that his wisdome thinks those spots requisite to enhance the beauty of the whole those private fewds and petty discords betwixt Individuals necessary not only to endear but conserve the peace of the whole Both which durable Truths are with so much piety as judgement contracted by that Emperor of the Stoicks as well as of the Romans Marcus Aurelius Antoninus of whom the smooth Herodian initio historiae gives this glorious Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solus imperatorum sapientiae studium non verbis aut decretorum scientia sed gravitate morum vitaeque continentia usurpavit into one short meditation in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae ad Deos ut auctores referuntur ea Providentiae plena esse nemo dubitat Quae Fortunae vulgò adscribuntur ne illa quidem extra Naturae leges fatalemque illum contextum complexúmque rerum quae à providentia administrantur Inde omnia sluunt adde quod necessarium est quicquid est toti universo
perfections must of necessity possess all those perfections modo eminentiori in a transcendent manner Wherefore the excellencies of his own nature did before he was pleased to create others so amply suffice to the Accompletion of his beatitude that they now at this day wholly suffice to the same nor is he capable of having his Felicity encreased by the contributions of any thing without himself And since all things created are nought but certain Emissions or as it were deradiations which he pleased to diffuse from himself t is perspicuous that before that Diffusion he comprehended all natures in his own as in their Fountain and therefore could not have his being meliorated by their production as also that he may at pleasure adnihilate all again with no more detriment to his glory then the Sun can want those beams which yesterday it emitted upon my hand SECT II. Neque Hominum gratiâ THis second Position he likewise insinuates by the fame imposture of ensnaring the minde in a complex series of Quaestions Article 1. Their second Argument that God had no especial regard to the benefit of Man and the after this manner If all things were constituted by God for the sake of Man onely as you affirme then either for the peculiar interest of Wise men or Fools if for the sole behoof of Wise men then a far less provision might have served the turn for no age could ever glory in the production of many such at once and if all that ever were or shall be met together into one colonie a very smal Island might be both large and rich enough to accommodate them with necessaries and so the greatest part of the creation must be confest supersluous as to the principal destination thereof But if for Fools only then you entangle your selves in a two fold Incongruity First you entrench upon the Justice of the Creator since thereby you implicitely confess that he was partial in conferring so great a benefit upon those who must so ill deserve as not to know rightly how to use it Secondly you insringe his Providence by making him not to have had a foresight of the unfruitfulness of his chief design which must miscarry and be quite lost in a contrary event Fools being without any dispute most miserable in that they are Fools for what can be reputed a more absolute misery then Fatuity And if for the conjunctive interest or promiscuous concernment of both then do you offer violence to the goodness of the Archietect in regard that during life there unavoidably occur so many bitter discommodities that wise men cannot sweeten them with the compensation of Commodities and Fools neither avoid them as they approach nor endure them when they come c. Nor was Velleius singular in this error for Lactantius Lib. 7. cap. 5. hath accused Epicurus also of words to the same effect which according to the record of his indictment run thus Quid enim Deo cultus hominis confert beato nulla re indigenti vel si tantum honoris homini habuit ut ipsius causâ mundum fabricaret ut instrueret cum sapientia ut dominum viventium faceret eúmque diligeret tanquam filium cur mortalem fragilemque constituit cur omnibus malis quem diligebat objecit Cum oprteret beatum esse hominem tanquam conjunctum proximum Deo perpetuum sicut est ipse ad quâ—m colendum contemplandum figuratus est What advantage can the barren veneration of man yeeld to God who is perfectly happy and knows no indigency or if he deigned to bestow so high honour upon man as to create the whole world for his use to endue him with wisdome to inagurate him Lord royall of all living creatures and love him with as much affection and indulgence as a Son why did he yet make him mortal and so fatally subject to fragility why expose him whom he adopted to a filial love to the invasion of all kinds of evill when on the contrary in all reason man also ought to have been both compleatly happy as being allied to God by a very neer assinity and immortal as God himself to the worship and contemplation of whom he was configurated Lucretius also would not be exempted from acting a part in this tragical scene but scorning to come behind the most adventurous Fortification thereof by 8 reasons Bravo that had bid defiance to Divinity or be out-done by any in the feaâ—s of Atheisme he not only sucks all the venome in the former Arguments but adds much of his own also and distills it together through his quill into 8 reasons 1. That God reaps no benefit by the fealty and doxologies of man Quid enim immortalibus at que beatis gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti ut nostra quidquam causa gerere aggrederentur 2. That in case man had never had existence it could not have been unpleasant not to have been at all Qui nunqam blandum vitae gustavit amorem nec fuit in numero quid obest non esse beatum What never knew existence can nere know the want of bliss Nothing can feel no woe 3. That the greatest moity of the Earth is wholly barren and unprofitable to man Principio quantum Coeli tegit impetus ingens Inde avidam partem montes sylvaeque ferarum Possedère tonent rupes vastaeque paludes Et mare quod late terrarum distinet oras Inde duas porro prope partes fervidus ardor Assiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert c. 4. That even from those narrow cantons of the earth which are inhabited men reap no other harvest but what themselves have sown with uncessant toyle nor doe they find any ground fruitfull but what they have manured with their own industry and enriched with the salt dew of their own laborious brows Quod superest arvi tamen id natura sua vi Sentibus obducat ni vis humana resistat c. 5. That even those fruits of the earth which they have so dearly earned with the profusion of so many showers of sweat frequently miscarry and become abortive the hopes of the husband-man being often frustrated by the unexpected intervention of cross seasons Ustilagos or Blites Mildewes Sulphureous Metâ—ors late Frosts high Winds c. 6. That if neither the world nor men had ever been existent their Ideas had never falne under the conception of the divine intellect 7 That poor weak and fragil man is obnoxious to destruction by a thousand divers contingencies the ravenous appetite of wild Beasts the deleterious punctures of Serpents the conflagration of Lightning the contusion of Thunderbolts the eruption of Earth-quakes the arsenical eructations of Minerals the epidemick contagion of Pesâ—ilential Diseases kindled either by Anomalous seasons Tempests or malignant impressions in the aâ—r the invasion of intestine infirmities upon the civil war often breaking out between the Heterogeneities of his bloud or a mutiny of his Elements and
not consent to his own Adnihilation though he might evade his torments by the bargain with advantage preferring the miserable condition of something to the horrid opacity of nothing Third that God made such abundant provision conductive to the utility of men that both from the Amplitude and Variety of 3. his work they might collect matter sufficient to incite them to the constant contemplation of his Wisdome and gratefull acknowledgement of his Munificence as also that having observed what of the Creatures were less commodious they might be directed in their election of the more commodious and beneficial as well for their Conservation as Delight Fourth that the labours of Agriculture are superfluous and voluntarily undergon by man more for the maintainance of his 4. delicacy and inordinate luxury then the provision of Necessaries to his livelyhood Since the same liberal earth which is Mother Nurse and Purveyer to all other Animals cannot be thought inhospitable to man only nor so cruelly penurious as to exclude her best guest from participating the inexhaustible bouÌ„ty of her table And though we grant some moderate labour necessary in order to the comfortable sustentation of our prodigal bodies always upon the expence yet have we good cause to esteem that more a blessing then a curse since the sweat of industry is sweet Not only because the active genius of man is constellated for business and therefore never more opprest then with the burthen of idleness but also because the sprightly hopes of a wealthy harvest sweeten and compensate the labour of semination Nor is the contentment which growes from ingenious Husbandry much below any other solace of the mind in this life if we may credit the experience of many Princes who having surfetted on the distractions of royalty have voluntarily quitted the magnified pleasures of the Court magnified only by such ambitious Novices who never discovered the gall that lyes at the bottom of those guilded sweets and with inestimable advantage exchanged the tumult of their palaces for the privacy of Granges have found it a greater delight to â—ultivate the obedient and gratefull earth then rule that giddy beast the multitude a happier entertainment of the mind and more wholsome exercise of the body to hold the easie plough then sway an unweildy Scepter and revell in the infatuating pomp of greatness Fifth that those preposterous seasons Blights Mildews Combustions c. putrefactive accidents that make the preguant earth 5. suffer abortion and so nip the forward hopes of the laborious swain doe neither intervene so frequently nor invade so generally as to introduce an universal famine or so cut off all provision as not to leave a sufficient stock of Aliment for the sustentation of mankind Sixth that the divine Intellect was the universal exemplar 6. to it self framing the types or ideas both of the world and of man within it self and accordingly configurating them This may be evinced by an argument à minori since even our selves have a power to design and modell some artificial engine whose pattern or idea we never borrowed from any thing existent without the circle of our selves but coyned in the solitary recesses of our mind Seventh concerning mans being obnoxious to the injury of many Contingencies as the voracity of wild beasts the venome of 7. Serpents the conflagration of Lightning the contagion of the Pestilence the corruption of swarms of other diseases both epidemick and sporadick c. that all these are the regular effects of Gods Generall Providence and have their causes times and finalities preordained and inscribed in the diary of Fate to whose prescience nothing is contingent But of this more satisfactorily in our subsequent consideration of universal Providence whither in strictness of method it refers it self Eight that this complaint against the unkindness of Nature 8. for producing man tender naked unarmed c. is grosly unjust For the imbecillity of our Infancy is necessary to the perfection and maturity of those noble organs contrived for the administration of the mandates of that Empress the Cogitant Soul and is amply compensated either by the vigor and acuteness of the senses or by diuturnity of life It being observed by Naturalists that those Animals which live long have a long gestation in the womb a long infancy and attain but slowly to their maturity and standard of growth the four general motions of life Inception Augmentation State and Declination carrying set and proportional intervals each to other as that truly noble Philosopher Scaliger hath hinted in his correction of that fabulous tradition of the extreme loâ—gaevity of Deer in these words De ejus vitae longitudine fabulantur neque enim aut gestatio aut incrementum hinnulorum ejusmodi sunt ut praestent argumentum longaevi Animalis As for his being born naked t is no disfavour nor neglect in her for that cumbersom wardrobe of raggs which man hath gotten upon his back is become necessary only by the delicacy of his education and custome not so intended by nature in the primitive simplicity and eucrasie of his constitution when there needed nothing but the skin either to warme or adorn the body Lastly those Armes which Nature hath denied him either he wants not at all or his own ingenious hands can provide at pleasure CHAP. IV. The General Providence of God DEMONSTRATED Sâ—CT I. THe Synopsis of my method exhibited in the hem of the first Section of the first Chapter was designed Article 1. The Authors reasons for his present adherence to the common discrimination of Providence from Creation as a clue to conduct the thoughts of my Reader along the series of those Attributes of the supreme Ens which as being of most general concernment and such as may be clearly demonstrated by the Light of Nature even to those who either never heard of or except against the testimony of Holy Writ I have promised to illustrate by the conviction of Arguments deduced from that catholique Criterion Reason to whose Judicature all Nations and Ages have readily submitted their assent and therefore I am not necessitated here to insert any farther explanation of the connexion and dependence of this Theme upon the precedent but only in avoydance of misconception to advertise that when I say the Creation of the World ex nihilo and the constant Conservation of the same in its primitive order and harmonious Coefficiency of causes subordinate are the general operations of the Wisdome and Power of the First cause I doe not intend that those are Acts really distinct each from other for in the demonstration of the Existence of God t is plainly though succinctly evinced that the Conservation of the Vniverse is nothing but the Act of Creation prolonged or continued but only conform my theory to the customary notions and terms of the Schools and yeeld to the necessity of a division in the gross capacity of mans understanding in order to the more
of that large Tohu Vacuum Coacervatum or Nothing which must then have bin introduced from the surface of the Waters up to the midle region which Nature could never endure nor had God any necessity to enforce if Aer condensed into Water shrinks into a space or Continent 400. times less then what it possest before condensation for since Water weighs 400. times heavier then Aer as the subtile Galilaeo Dialog 1. del moviment pag. 81. examining the proportions of Gravity betwixt those two bodies demonstratively discovered it must necessarily carry the same proportion also to Space or Locality then assuredly when we shall have calculated the perpendicular height of the Atmosphear or lower region of the Aer and reduced it to the 400 th part we shall soon be satisfied that the Addition which the Aer Aquaefied could bring to the waters of the Sea effused upon the bosome of the earth cannot suffice to swell the Deluge so high as the semialtitude of many lofty mountains such as Slotus in Norway which Franc. Patricius out of Fr. Bacon and Scaliger hath accounted the highest on the earth Athos in Macedonia Tenariff Caucasus Atlas c. whose tops make large encroachments on the midle region and seem to invade the Firmament Again to charge this immense Accumulation of Waters upon 40. days rain though we should conced that rain to be neither Sea evaporated nor Aer condensed is not to undo but entangle the miracle For taking the Altitude of the mountains according to the calculation of the most moderate Geometry and then soberly perpending what aggravation to the Waters of the Sea now converted upon the earth the most violent natural rain of 40. days and nights could probably make which the most hyperbolical conceit cannot advance higher then 40. fathom we shall easily detect the difficulty And secondly as Nature could not afford the Material Cause of this general Inundation the Waters so neither the Mighty Essicient or Impulsive that should with such prodigious impetuosity hoyse up so huge a mass of Sea contrary to the strong renitency or depressure of its Gravity drive it from its native easy Currents in the declining veins and cavities of the earth upon an absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Acclivity on the elevated surface thereof and make it fall in Cataracts up-hill For 1 though the Waters desire to stand above the mountains as the Divine Hebrew Poet hath pleased to phrase it Psalm 104. vers 9. yet they but desire it and by their own inherent and essential Tendency are renderd uncapable to satisfy that elemental ambition for water permitted to its own propensity or inclination immediaiely tendeth downward and therfore he that can conceive a river to desert its declive chanel and climb a precipice without the violence of a Miracle hath a strong Phansy but a weak judgement nor need any man despair to perswade his credulity that Helmonts ridiculous Romance of the Cause of Earthquaks viz. that an Angel or minister of Divine revenge descends into the Centrals of the Earth and there with a great Clapper or Sledge giving a mighty Thump against the feet of Rocks makes a hoarse or grave kind of Bom which enlarging its sound rends the foundations thereof and puts the percussed mass into a rigor or shaking fit of an Ague is a solid and philosophical Verity And thirdly as the Waters could not elevate themselves so neither could the Attractive Virtue of those Celestial Magnets the Sun Moon and Stars work them out of their depths by rarefying them into vapours which mounted up to the midle region of the Aer and there encountred by intense Cold should be reduced to clouds and those again dissolved in Cataracts For should we grant what the Arabian Astrologers returned in answer to the Aegyptian Caliph who had set them to unty this knot viz. that there was a great Conjunction of ♄ and ♃ not long before the floud and the malignant influence of that confederacy much aggravated by another fatal Convention of all the Planets in the watery signe of Pisces immediately preceding it as Sepher Juchasin fol. 148. hath delivered which the learned Mirandula hath sufficiently disproved and smiled at yet must the greatness of the Effect manifestly confute the possibility of that for a Cause First because Nature hath frequently shewed to the world the like Conjunctions but never the like event and again because those Luminaries are not commissioned with so unlimited a power and in their strongest conspiracies of insluence can at most but weakly incline or dispose not at all compell or necessitare nor are their destinations to ruine but conserve the world If therfore Nature uniting all her divisions of Waters below the Moon into one great heap or Abyss must yet fall very much short of that immane proportion requisite to furnish out the Deluge and though her stock had bin large enough yet could she not without apparent destruction of her self i. e. infringing those fundamental Constitutions or Elementary Laws whose constant Tenor only defines her to be Nature assist to their eruption out of their proper Receptaries and their preposterous Ascension up hill truely I am yet to learn what can be conceived to remain but this that those Decumani Fluctus those immens Cataracts had both their supply and motion immediatly from that high hand to which nothing that he wills can be difficult With this Problem I confess I have more then once impuzled my reason yet doth the difficulty sometimes enflame my Curiosity to enquire out the pervestigable part of the miracle viz. Whence Omnipotence summoned this mighty Syndrome or Conflux of Waters to appear at so short a warning upon the face of the Earth or in what part of the Universe they were quartered before and by what wayes and means they were drawn off again and voyded after the Floud That eminent Master of the Opticks and excellent Mathematician Christoph Scheinerus in Rosa Vrsina pag. 693. discoursing against those who have asserted the Incorruptibility of the Heavens quoad partes totum introduceth Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar a Jesuit in his Comment upon 27. vers of the 8. chap. of the Proverbs of Salomon delivering his opinion derived from others together with reasons to support it that there must be a Tehom Rabba or Abyss of Waters above the Firmament or betwixt the 8 th sphear and the Shecinah or dwelling place of God The Texts of Scripture upon which this opinion is supported are 1 the 7. vers of the 1. Chap. of Genes where the Author of that book describing the several piles or stories of this great building saith thus and God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the waters which were above the firmament c. 2 that of David Psalm 33. vers 7. he layd up the depth in storehouses 3 that of the Angel to Esdras 2. ch 4. vers 7. proposing questions to puzle weak but proud
comparatively hath under the disguise of a Article 1. The Antiquity and Genealogy of Fortune Reality so long and so universally possessed the heads not only of the Vulgar whose rank and muddy brains are ever more fertile in the production and more favourable to the conservation of Monsters then Nilus and all Affrica but even of some of those more cultivated Explorators of truth who well knew the absurdity of Multiplying Entities and pretended to examine every Idea occurring to the mind whether it had an exemplar or prototype in real Existence that so though they could not attain to a full cognition of the distinct Essences or simple Forms of Objects they might at list acquire an assurance of their Reality or Being in rerum natura this we say seems to us no contemptible Argument that the Venome of the Forbidden Fruit hath a stronger and more infatuating operation upon the posterity of Adam in the old age of the world then it had in its youth and midle age and that the sun in the Microcosme hath sufferd a greater and more demonstrable decay of Splendor Clarity and Influence then Bodin method Histor cap. 8. out of Copernicus Reinaldus and Stadius hath affirmed that in the Macrocosme to have sustained and confessed by its neerer approach to the Earth and more Southerly inclination since the daies of Ptolomie For first though Simplicius 2. physic comment 39. hath a certain obscure tradition that Orpheus ingaged in the expedition of the Argonauts composed a votive Hymne to this Fairy Queen which was afterward inserted into the idolatrous Liturgie of the Delphian Apollo together with whom she was solemnly invocated yet hath Macrobius much the better Antiquary of the two faithfully observed 5. Saturn ib. that she was if not unborn yet unnamed in Homers time subjoyning as a reason thereof quod priscis illis temporibus omnia quae sierent referri ad Deos Authores solerent that more simple and intelligent Antiquity used to referre all events to the wise procuration of the Gods Which is evidence sufficient that Fortune could not mount up to an Apotheosis till the world grew into its Dotage and man sunk a whole sphear below that of his Ancestors simplicity and knowledge And 2 that whenever she was borne and whoever was her Father yet Ignorance was her Mother besides the convincing Authority of our own Reason we have that of the impartial Cicero in these words Stultitia Error Caecitas Ignoratio rerum atque causarum Fortunae nomen primò induxisse certum est And so much the more of weight may this Argument bear by how much the more manifest a Contradiction they incurr who have either defended or advanced her reputation for though no one among those many Writers who have professedly treated of her Nature and Power hath denyed her extraction from and necessary dependence upon that accursed Beldam Ignorance yet have most agreed that she is somthing more then Nomen inane a meer and empty Name or Chimaera and some allowed her the dignity of a considerable Influence upon the actions of Man nay others have gon so farr as to exalt her virtue to a competition with Providence Divine and consigned her a throne among the Coelestial Deities as is intimated in that verse of Juvenal Satyr 14. sed te Nos facimus Fortuna Deam coeloque locamus And this briefly concerning the Antiquity and Genealogie of this Nothing As for the full description of her Nature or more properly what Kind of Activity the chiefest Philosophers have allowed Article 2. Plato and Arist their Descriptions of fortune examined and illustrated and 3 Conclusions inferred thereupon her and to what order of Causes referred her this we cannot so satisfactorily present by any other way as by a short Commemoration and aequitable Collation of their several Desinitions of her Plutarch 1. placit 29. makes Plato to have defined her thus Fortuna est causa ex accidenti consequens inopinatò in iis quae consilio fiunt Fortune is a Cause by Accident and unexpectedly supervenient in those actions which are deliberately and upon consultation performed and Aristotle thus Fortuna est caussa per accidens in iis quae rei alicujus gratiâ appetitu movente fiunt eáque incerta instabilis Fortune is an Accidental yea and an uncertain and instable cause interesting it self in those actions which are done by an Agent upon the incitement of its Appetite in order to its consequution of an object Which words indeed seem to comprehend in Epitomy all that the Philosopher in 2. physic cap. 5. intended in his more prolix description of Fortune abating only this that he there confines her concernment only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rebus Contingentibus to Effects purely Contingent i. e. such as may or may not come to pass and are therefore of dubious or uncertain event To explain this they exemplify in him who digging in the earth with no other designe but to plant a tree found a great Treasure of which he never thought for say they the Invention of the Treasure is an effect by Accident i. e. evenient above the hopes and besides the intention of him that digged and so the Digger insomuch as he is Causa per se of the digging is also Causa per accidens of the invention of the Treasure Such an Accidental Cause therefore doe our Philosophers call Fortune and the Event it self viz. the invention of the treasure they call Rem fortuitam a Fortuitous Effect But whereas Arist hath frequently advertised that Fortune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Chance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are different each from other in this that Fortune is proper only to things done by Causes whose activity is Arbitrary and Chance common both to such and also Inanimate or meer Spontaneous Causes as when a stool falls and breaks a Glass consequently that all Fortune is Chance but not every Chance Fortune hence may we observe that he would have aswell Fortune as Chance to belong to the classis of Contingents and that all Contingents belong to the classis of Possibles More expressly that since among Possibles some are such as that their Event cannot be interdicted impeded or countermanded as this the sun cannot be hindred from rising again to morrow morn and others such whose event is not necessary as this t is not necessary though possible that it should raine to morrow a◠sun rising therfore is it manifest that a Possible of the first sort is the same with that which is called Necessarium absolutely Necessary or such whose Contrary is purely Impossible and of the second sort the same with that which is called Contingens meerly Contingent or of an uncertain event such whose Contrary is aequally possible Further in respect that the meer Contingency or Ambiguity of any Event must be founded on this that either some Liberty interveneth by reason whereof that which otherwise would come to pass doth not or that