greater than another and that the part is equal to the whole For let him six where he please in the Course of Generations I demand whether in the great Grand-father's time the Succession of Generations was Finite or Infinite If Finite then it had a beginning and so the World not Eternal If Infinite then I ask Whether there were not a longer Succession of Generations in the time of his great Grand-children and so there must be a number greater than that which was Infinite for the former Succession was Infinite and this hath more Generations in it than that had but if it be said That they were equal because both Insinite Then the Succession of Generations to the Grandfather being but a part of that which extends to his Grand-children and Posterity the part is equal to the whole This surely is enough to shew That according to common Reason the World once was not but that it must have had a beginning and consequently that there was a first Cause of it nay that the Existence of an higher Being was necessary to make it because whatever once was not could not be self-originated all that now Moves or Lives in the World could not produce or make it self but was brought into being by a most perfect Nature that was before it and superior to it that is by a Deity and by nothing less than a Deity for these five Reasons 1. First It was impossible for all Beings to be made for that would suppose that once there was nothing at all and then 't is confest on all hands that nothing could have been produced Therefore as it was necessary for the first Cause to be independent on any other for else it could not have been the first so it was necessary for that Cause to be unproduced by reason of the absolute Perfection and intrinsick plenitude of its own Essence so that it needed no hand from without to give it any thing 2. Secondly The first Cause having its being by necessity of Nature it was impossible for it to have any beginning For had it had a beginning like other things it must have taken it from some other Principle because whatever once wanted Origination could not give it to it self and consequently the Existence of the first Cause must have been contingent and precarious which would have destroyed the great Prerogative of its independence 3. Thirdly Considering that the several parts of the World were to take their Original out of a State of Non-existence it was impossible for the first Cause to have a Power limited and restrained by any thing without it For as nothing could hinder it from being by reason of its own necessary Existence so nothing could hinder it from acting by reason of its absolute Independence and consequently the First Cause had necessarily a Power of creating things out of nothing because if any preexistent Matter had been requisite for it to work on it must have depended upon Matter and been beholding to Matter for permitting it to act 4. Fourthly The Power of creating things being so necessarily great it was impossible for the First Cause to be made up of Matter For all Matter as such is an unactive stupid dead thing utterly uncapable of producing either it self or any other Being much less could it act with that wonderful Faecundity Counsel Wisdom and Benignity of Mind which the whole frame of Nature argues to be in the First Cause as shall be show'd in its due place 5. Fifthly It was impossible also for the First Cause of all things to be locally extended or to be circumscribed limited determined and confined to Place as Matter or Body is For being to raise up a vast Universe it was necessary for that most powerful Nature to be undividedly present to every part of the world which it acted upon and for the Management and Conservation of the Universe to contain it all within the Immensity of its own Essence Which Essence was necessarily boundless and unlimited because it was not possible to be produced by any other Being that could restrain define or bound its Immensity For as an excellent Writer Dr. Scot ' s Christian Life part 2. vol. 1. p. 193. well observes and argues that which limits Beings is only the Will or Power of their Causes which either would not or could not bestow any further Being or Perfection upon them and therefore only such things as have a Cause are limited because they being produced out of nothing are only so far and no farther brought into Being as their Cause was willing or able to bring them That therefore which exists of its self without any Cause of its Being must also exist of it self without any Limits of its Being by reason that it was neither limited by it self nor by any other Cause and that which hath nothing to limit it must necessarily be immense and boundless God therefore being this self-existent Being must necessarily be of an unlimited Essence an Essence which no possible Space can either circumscribe or define but must necessarily be diffused all through circumfused all about and present with all things The Existence then of such a perfect transcendent Being as hath been described was absolutely necessary in order to the production and formation of the world And hence we rationally assirm That before ever the Earth and the Heavens were made there was an Intellectual Nature that was to be the Cause of the whole World and that this Nature or First Being was and is Self-originated Eternal Omnipotent Incorporeal and Infinite In using which expressions we speak like men as we are able according to our Capacities and as the narrowness of our Faculties compared with the transcendency of the Object will allow us Our meaning more at large is this Considering that all the parts of the world were made by an Essicient Cause and that nothing could bring it self out of Non-existence into Being by reason that nothing could be before it self we must necessarily acknowledge That there is a First Cause of all things and that this First Cause was not made or produc'd by any other Which First Cause being altogether Independent existed by the absolute Necessity of its Nature by its own Perfection Permanency and Fulness and consequently was Eternal or of Infinite Duration because being unproduced it could not but be without any beginning And this Self-Existence includes Self-Activity suitable to the Perfections of an Eternal Nature that is a Power of producing and effecting whatever is possible in the Nature of the thing and doth not imply a Contradiction For all Impotence or Inability to operate is utterly inconsistent with the Perfections of a First Cause from which is derived all the Power that is in Second Causes Whence it follows That the First Cause could not be Matter a thing which of it self cannot live or move but a Spirit void of all Corporeal Substance an Eternal Mind able perfectly to exert and display its Power
it self At present I shall conclude with a devout Hymn out of the Writings of the Holy Psalmist who considering the transcendent Greatness of God's Majesty the Glory of his Nature the Variety of his Works and his stupendious Wisdom Power and Goodness throughout all summon'd the whole World to join with him in the Adoration of their great and only Creator O praise the Lord of heaven praise him in the height ... Praise him all ye angels of his praise him all his host Praise him sun and moon praise him all ye stars and light Praise him all ye heavens and ye water that are above the heavens Let them praise the name of the Lord for he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created He hath made them fast for ever and ever he hath given them a law which shall not be broken Praise the Lord upon earth ye dragons and all deeps Fire and hail snow and vapours wind and storm fulfilling his word Mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars Beasts and all cattel worms and feathered fowls Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the world Young men and maidens old men and children praise the name of the Lord for his name only is excellent and his praise above heaven and earth Psalm 148. O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his in all places of his dominion Praise thou the Lord O my soul Psalm 103. 22. 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a distinct People there being no Instance like this in any Story as if they were intended for a standing Memorial and Example to the world of the Divine Power and Vengeance To me it seemeth among Rational Arguments one of the plainest not only for the Proof of a Deity and a Just Providence in pursuing that Nation with such Exemplary Vengeance but likewise for the Authority of Scripture and the Truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. VI. HItherto I have shewed the Existence of a Supreme Being that is Eternal Independent Self-existing the Author of our common Nature Omnipotent Omniscient all which Characters are included in the general Notion of a Deity or a Being that is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect I proceed next to some other Considerations which argue a Being that is infinite in Wisdom Goodness Benignity as well as Power In order thereunto let us now begin to take a view of that which was proposed as the Fourth great Head of this Discourse I mean the Admirable Frame and State of the Universe For whoever will seriously reflect upon those various appearances which are in this visible world must be the most sensless and stupid thing in it if after all the bright manifestations of a Deity that are every where discoverable he can at last permit himself to say in his heart There is no God God hath not left himself without witness saith St. Paul Acts 14. 17. No that which may be known of God is manifest to us for God hath shewed it unto us For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1. 19. 20. Here then we meet with Eight Observable which are very fit in their turns to fall under our contemplation 1. The excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested 2. The great Beauty that appears throughout the world 3. The wonderful Usefulness that is in all the branches of the Creation 4. The curious and exquisite Structure of them for the Uses and Ends to which they serve 5. The constant Regularity of them in their respective Operations 6. The ample Provision that is made for the good of Creatures especially Mankind 7. The Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in the Operations of things Irrational 8. The Divine Frame of our own Rational Nature O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth and heavens are full of thy riches the various testimonies of thy greatness and inexhaustible benignity 1. First We may observe the excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested This Order is seen 1. In the commodious Situation and Position to which they are determined 2. In the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other 3. In the Permanency of them in that State and condition wherein they have been placed 1. As there are several Ranks and Classes of Creatures so is every Rank determined to its due and proper place That part of the world we stand in immediate need of is the Earth and that is placed in the middle of the world that it may receive influence from all the ambient parts of the Universe to help its Fertility and the distance of it from the Coelestial Bodies is so commodious that its Productions are not apt to be destroyed by excesses of Heat or Cold which otherwise would unavoidably follow were the distance nearer or more remote It is the proper place for man in this life For 't is the Theatre we are to Act on and the Magazine that yields us the Stores we live by and therefore 't is near at hand hard by all our Necessities and richly furnish'd with Plants Fruits Meats Entertainments of all sorts so that 't is but going out of doors and industrious People may gather their Provision and whatever they can modestly desire either to supply their Wants or to afford them Pleasures And lest we should drop down suddenly for want of Breath with our Meats between our Teeth the Air which serves for Digestion and Respiration is I cannot so well say in our Neighbourhood as in our Nostrils An Atmosphere so appositely plac'd and so adapted to the gross contexture of our outward Senses that it is infinitely more proper for sensitive Creatures than the Fine Unmixt Aether that is at such a distance from us Those fluid Bodies the Waters are in their proper place too treasured up in concave Receptacles and Chanels and there ready at hand to quench the Thirst of every Animal and if Men will be wanton to serve their Sensualities also without endangering their safety by inordinate sweeping Inundations The Heavens are to give light and warmth to all Sublunary Creatures and therefore the provident Hand which formed them hath set them very remote that those great and glorious Luminaries may cast their Influences over all the World and withal secure all things living from those Scorchings and Deaths to which their Vicinity would otherwise have unavoidably exposed them In short all things are situate where they should be nor could the wisest Counsel have placed them better supposing the wisest Being to have had the disposal and ordering of them 2. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other Where I shall speak only of that general and common Reference which the several kinds of Creatures thus situated and disposed do bear to one another As for the usefulness of particular Branches of the Creation it will fall under our eye in its due place At present I am to take notice of that Relation and Connection that Respect and Cognation which is between the Species and Sorts of things which make up this great Frame and System of Nature For in the great Volume of the Creation there is a noble Design carried on this Creature having a respect to that and that hanging upon the other like Premises and Consequents in a well-compos'd Book so that if one part be taken away not only the Beauty but the Purpose of the whole is lost Were all Sensitive Creatures destroyed what would the Light of the Sun be to a blind World Were the Earth annihilated what would the sweet Influences of the Pleiades signify Or were but the Fowls the Cattel the Fruits of the Earth removed what would become of Man that pretends to be the little Lord of all and yet is fain to be a Dependant upon these poor Creatures to afford him Provision daily and to furnish out his Table Some conceive that the only great Design of Nature is to support Man which though I think is too great a Vanity to imagine yet supposing it were so how many Creatures are there to be served before it can come to his turn I will hear the heavens saith the Divine Being and the heavens shall hear the earth
who hath given them a Law which cannot be broken By the various Aspects and Motions of the Moon the melancholy Solitudes of the Night are abated the growth of Vegetables is assisted the increase of Anirnals is promoted Dews fall to help and cherish the seminal Powers of the Earth and besides many other advantages the stowings and ebbings of the Sea are regulated and thereby the Waters are kept from putrefaction and the innumerable multitude of Fishes are preserved And how comes it to pass but by the Decree of a Wise and Beneficent Being over all that these Influences are so constant and these Motions are so stated and certain that the Monthly Aspects and Annual Revolutions and Courses of the Moon are still the very same and all this through a thin fluid Vehicle in which it swims The other Planets how differently soever they move yet amidst that Variety their Rowlings about have all along to this day so punctually answer'd their determinate Periods that they carry with them manifest Marks of an Unerring Hand that doth direct and govern them and keeps the parts of them from those Dissipations which otherwise the Rapidity of their Motion would expose them to in their sine unresisting Aether All other Stars the Sun excepted are said to be fixt not that they do not move at all but because their daily Motion is still directly forward in the same Circle without any particular Retrograde creepings and without those Aberrations and Deflexions sometimes Northward and sometimes Southward which the seven wandering Stars observe Now if according to the old Opinion these great Bodies be suppos'd to be fastned like so many Nails in Pellucid but Solid Spheres it is a stupendious thing to consider how such vast cumbersom Machines should be able to turn about so exactly and in such a constant even course Night and Day without an Almighty Power that did first set them on Motion and doth still superintend and steer them But if they be suppos'd to rowl in a free open Aether it is impossible to conceive how so many Pendulous Bodies of such unmeasurable magnitude so briskly moving in their respective Spaces without the least rub to stop or hinder them should not clash or cross or interfere with one another but still keep at the same distances for ought we know to an hair's breadth and perform all their Courses with equability and constancy to an exact point all this is beyond the reach of Human Reason to conceive unless it be granted that there is a Supreme Over-ruling Being who did at first set them into a determinate order and hath ever since preserv'd them in that order maintaining governing regulating and directing their motions by his own Infinite Power and most Watchful Providence But to speak more particularly of that Glorious Luminary which every day rejoiceth as a Giant to run its course to visit the whole world and to invigorate and cherish all things here below with lively Emanations What can we think of his Diurnal Motion whereby that Immense Creature daily takes his Round and absolves his Course within the space of 24 hours and this not only with far greater celerity than that of the swiftest Arrow from the strongest Bow and moreover with such exact order and constancy that for these Six thousand years his daily Revolution has been neither quicker nor slower by one minute twice only excepted when at the Special Command of his Maker he was arrested in his Race and was made one day to stand still and another day to go backward Ten Degrees Besides this Diurnal Race from East to West which causes the vicissitude of Day and Night what think we of the Sun 's Annual Progress towards the Northern and then off again towards the Southern Tropick in an Oblique Circle they call the Zodiack under Twelve Signs or Constellations each whereof consisting of Thirty Degrees he passeth through in Thirty Days finishing his yearly Course in 360 Days or thereabouts rising as he goes every new day in a new Line parallel to the Equinoxial and so increasing or lessening the Hours of the Day and bringing on the several Seasons of the Year which are ordained for wise and good Ends And hence come the Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter of Spring and Fall of the Laborious Seed-time and the Joyful Weeks of Harvest All which that great Divider of Days and Months and Years hath all along perform'd by such an uniform steady and constant tenor in its motions that this present Day nay this present Minute exactly answers to that which was full a Thousand Years ago when the Sun moved in the same Sign in the same Degree nay in the same Point wherein it moveth now All this while I have spoken according to Old Ptolemy's Hypothesis That the Heavens move because the Scripture speaks after that manner as being most suitable to our ordinary Apprehensions But whether in fact the stars move or the Earth only or the Earth and Stars too is the same thing to my present purpose and I leave it to our Modern Inquisitive Philosophers to dispute that matter out and to end it when they can For where ever those Motions be our Observations will return to this point and must rest here That these Motions are exact punctual and precise which yet were impossible without the Decrees and Contrivance of a Supreme Intelligent Being or a God that superintends orders and takes care of this great Frame and Wonderful Machine of the Universe Now to all this the Scepticks of our Age are ready to tell us from two or three old Blundering Pagan Philosophers That this Excellent Order of things came to pass not by the Counsel Skill and Power of a Deity but by meer chance For that I may in a few words open to you the Mystery of Insidelity their grand Creed is this That from all Eternity there was nothing but Matter and Motion in an Immense Space wherein numberless multitudes of small Particles of Matter called Atoms were for a vast long time dancing and sporting playing and toying justling and tumbling freaking and clashing together and using all endeavours and tricks how to clutch and combine into Aggregate Bodies and into different Modifications Shapes and Forms And that after many Rencounters and Trials though without any Design Forecast or Understanding of their own they hapned to fall into all the things which make up the world Some fell into a Sun others made up the Moon others formed themselves into great numbers of Twinkling Stars a frolicksome sort of Atoms danced together into that which we call the Free Open Air the more Dull and Lumpish kinds made up an Earth and thence sprung up in time many other Contextures which made up Plants and Trees and abundance ran into Animals Beasts and Men the very Souls of men being as they say nothing but delicate Modifications of the sinest and most active Atoms that Matter could afford where when they are by any untoward
Accident or Insirmity dasht and dissolved then they bring Death which in their Opinion is only the unclutching of Matter void of a spiritual intellectual distinct Substance that is said to return to a God to give an Account of its Actions at a Judgment-day Notions which these great Wits of the world as they take themselves to be believe to be nothing but the Inventions of Priests and Politicians to keep Mankind in slavery and to fright people out of their Senses Thus instead of believing in a God they believe in Matter and Motion in Space and Atoms in Chance and Fortune For according to them as things fall apieces by chance so it was by meer chance that they fell at first together not by the Hand and Directions of a Wise Omnipotent Agent that gave them their being by Lucky Hits by Casual Concurrences but by the succesful motions of Blind Senseless Atoms accidentally and fortuitously jumping together into great variety of Combinations and Figures and so continuing till Fortune that joined them makes them fly asunder again and till by some new Comical Motions they sorm themselves into new Shapes Now though the exposing of these Conceits be Consutation enough yet I would gravely ask these Wise Sages How it can consist with common Reason to imagine that the Fortuitous Motion of Stupid Unthinking Matter could compose all things into such excellent order as the most Intelligent Prudent Mind could not have made more apt and proper How could Blind and consequently Erroneous Chance without any deliberation pitch upon such Places to dispose every thing into as our common Senses shew to be most sit and commodious We see the Earth is Situate in the Center of the Universe to receive kindly and seasonable Influences Heat and Cold Drought and Moisture from all the Ambient Parts of this visible World The Firmament is expanded at such a convenient distance as that it can communicate its sweet Influences without exposing us and the things round about us to those Extremities of Heat or Cold whereby a greater Propinquity or Longinquity would cause Living Creatures to languish and dye Those Lucid Globes which enamel the Firmament are so appositely fix'd up and down every-where from Pole to Pole that the remotest Regions participate of their Virtues and Powers The Sun is determined to such a Fitting Course and to such Convenient Limits that by its Alternate Accesses and Recesses those Comforting Rays are dispersed over all the Earth which at proper Seasons produce Grass for the Cattle Bread to strengthen man's heart and Oil to make him a chearful Countenance and generous Wines to refresh and exhilerate his Spirits Under the Opposite Poles there are the great Treasures of Snow which yield to the Hotter Climates plenty of Rain and Refreshing Gales of Wind. Not to speak of the Commodious Position of the several Parts in Men Beasts and Plants which could not be alter'd I do not say without apparent Deformity but without insupportable Inconvenience and Prejudice to the whole Frame This is enough to shew that the several Branches of the Universe are so agreeably dispos'd and placed that without betraying our Reason and the use of our Faculties we cannot impute those Positions to the casual motion of blind senseless undeliberating Atoms but must look upon them as the Results of Design and Choice and as Arguments of an Intellectual Provident Being over all who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will or according to the Best and Wisest Reasons Ephes 1. 11. Again Let me ask our pretending Philosophers How can it consist with common Reason to conceive That those Congruities and Relations which these several parts of the world bare to each other those Aptitudes and Concinnities which are between the Disposition of some things and the Faculties of others so that this thing is for the use of that and that thing reciprocally fitted for this how I say can these mutual Correspondences be rationally ascribed to nothing but mere Fortune and Chance Is not the Eye fitted for the seeing of Light and Light fitted for the use of the Eye Are not all the Senses adapted to their proper Objects and those Objects adapted to gratify the Senses Is not the Air a proper vehicle for Volatile Creatures and the Frame of those Creatures suited to the Contexture of the Air Are not the Waters agreeable to Fish and the Nature of Fish so adapted to the Waters that they cannot subsist in a thinner Element In short Are not the parts of Nature's great Fabrick so congruously fitted to each other like so many Springs and Wheels in the most curious piece of Art that there is no taking away a part without disordering and disjoynting the whole And how can all this be thought to proceed from Chance any more than the Frame of a Watch or a Clock These things shew that they were intended for Ends and where Ends are to be served there must be Knowledge Counsel and Forecast how to make choice of proper Means and how to fit those Means together for due application And when we see the Parts of the whole World so admirably fitted suited and adapted to each other in such exquisite Order What extreme sottishness is it not to attribute those Congruities to stupid blundering Fortune which are so many Sculptures of a Divine Hand so many plain Evidences of the Wisest Mind and the Highest Reason Once more let me ask How it can consist with Reason to believe that this vast Compages could hold and continue in the same excellent Order for so many Thousand years together if it fell into it at the first by mere Accident Or how it could come to pass that the Parts of it have not been as yet Disunited and Scatter'd by Motion if nothing but Fortuitous Motion joined them All Motion serveth especially if it be violent and swift either to Wear away Matter by degrees or to Dissolve and Dissipate the Particles on a sudden and to make all about it fly as we see clearly by the rapid Revolutions of every Wheel about its Axis Supposing then one or other of these Three things which are the principal accounts either that the Earth alone whirls about upon an Axis of its own or that the Heavens turn round upon the great Axis of the Universe the Earth lying quiet and the Sun moving both forward and retrograde perpetually or thirdly That the motion is divided the Earth doing the Diurnal part and the Sun absolving that part which is Annual which of these Opinions soever men are pleased to follow they must grant on all hands that the motions are performed with the greatest velocity and quickness And how then can so many Combinations of Atoms be rationally supposed able to have still held it out against the utmost Rapidity and that all along during the Succession of so many Years and Ages so that in all this time neither the Parts of any one moving Body have been impaired nor
said to be proportionable and the now received Opinion is that how numberless soever they be they are the principal ones especially so many lesser Suns or Sun-like Bodies But waving all pretences to exactness it must be granted on all hands that they are of vast Magnitudes how small soever they seem to us by reason of their great height and distance from us Which thing being duly considered What but an Omnipotent and most Intelligent Being can be thought to have formed such Worlds as it were of immense glorious Creatures wherewith the Firmament is adorned Can it be reasonble to conceive that such a vast orderly Host was raised by the Chance-Motion of senseless Atoms Or that Chance which never yet built a Cottage or drew a Picture or paved an House could first make and then furnish the Heavens after that magnificent and wonderful Cic de Nat. Dcor lib. 2. Manner Cicero considering those glittering Bodies in the Sky their Multitudes Greatness Motion Order and Commodious Situations so that instead of annoying the Earth they are serviceable and beneficial to all things in it could not but admire how it should enter into any Man's Heart to think that such a goodly beautiful Structure was framed by the fortuitous Concourse of blind and undesigning Particles of Matter that could never build a City or a Temple or a Portico After that rate says he they may as well believe that by throwing multitudes of Letters upon the ground Ennius his Annals may be made by chance so as to become a fair legible and intelligible Book whereas no one Verse was ever so composed And is not such a little thing more easy to be formed by chance than the large Volume of the World And hence that excellent Author proceeds to a Discourse of Aristotle's to this purpose Suppose some persons should have dwelt all their days under ground in stately Domicils adorned with Imagery and Pictures and furnish'd with all necessaries to make their lives happy and there should have heard some rumour of a Numen and Power Divine And suppose that after a while by the sudden opening of some Caverns of the Earth those Persons should step out into these Parts of the World and behold the Earth Sun and Heavens and observe the greatness of the Clouds the violence of the Winds the bigness beauty and influence of the Sun and that the Day dependeth upon his Presence And suppose when Night comes they should behold the Face of the Heavens so adorned the various aspects of the Moon the order and motion of the Stars their rising and setting and their stated and perpetual Courses when they saw all these things they could not but believe that there is a God and that these are the Works of God By these wise Meditations of intelligent Pagans we see that there are in the World and especially in the Heavens such Evidences of a Deity as shine bright upon the Mind so that plain honest Nature bears Witness to the Truth of that Psal 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work 2. If now in the next place we lower our Contemplations by taking our Eyes off from the Magnificence by God's Throne to behold a little what may be seen about his Footstool with what Pleasure and Ravishings may we find astonishing Objects for Number and Varieties In both respects they are next to Infinite Which shews that nothing but an Understanding infinitely perfect a Will infinitely essicacions and a Power infinitely extensive could give them a Being or preserve them in it because more must be suppos'd to be in the Agent especially in a voluntary and Divine Agent than is in its Effects First then as to the Number of them The most assuming Seepticks will not have the Considence to deny but that it is impossible for all Mankind to give a distinct Account of Individuals for who can be answerable for the Catalogue of Men only Indeed great pains have been taken by some critical Naturalists and particularly by that learned Author of our own before-mention'd to discover the Tale of Species or the several sorts and kinds of things with Life And because Books are not ready at every one's Hand let me give you the Summ in short which seemeth to be this The Species of Beasts certainly known and discover'd about 150. The Species of Birds about 500. The Species of Fishes above 3000. The Species of Insects 20000. And the Species of Plants above that Number But how well soever these worthy Observers and Secretaries of Nature have deserv'd of the World for their Curious and elaborate Enquiries still they speak but like Men whose Knowledge is and unavoidably must be of a short reach in comparison for what Men can be accountable for all the known Parts of the World and especially for those Parts which are as yet undiscover'd However the Estimate is the more laudable because it is modest there being Secondly great Variety as well as Numbers of things on Earth that are included and comprehended under one and the same Species which still shews the Beauty of the Creation the more As the Lilies for Example which though they are not allow'd a Specisick difference to make them every one a distinct sort or kind of Flower yet a Numerical difference must be allow'd them by reason of their plain difference as to Growth Colour Shape and Smell I use this Instance the rather because the Lord Jesus himself was pleas'd to send us to the Lilies of the field for our Instruction Math. 5. But the Observation extends to many other Productions wherein we find great diversity in one respect or other though they be of the same Kind And this variety of things which still operates conformably to their own Powers and Faculties carries with it a plain Stamp of an Hand acting with secundity of Power directed and govern'd by abundant Wisdom For though an Infinite Power may form things without Number or End yet the Beauty of that Power is best seen by the diversity of its Strokes which make up one comely and fair Composure as variety of agreeable Features and Lineaments make up a beautiful Face Such is the admirable Decorum that is in this spacious Universe in that it is not stock'd with numerous Generations of one Kind only which yet a boundless and uncontroulable Power cou'd have made but is checquer'd as was more agreeable to Wisdom with a Multiplicity of Species that the fecundity of the Power might be more wonderfully display'd the Glory of the Divine Goodness might be more visibly extended round about the World and that all Rational Creatures might be more easily and throughly taught to admire and adore that Munificent Being which from time to time maintaineth so many abundant sorts of Creatures at the constant charge of his Providence We see how one Creature is ministerial and serviceable to another as Grass is for the Cattel Fruits for Beasts Fowls and
Insects and Animals themselves for the use of Men and every Man shou'd be for the service of God Now by this admirable State of things that provident care seems to have been taken from the beginning which the Son of God took at the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes that nothing shou'd be lost John 6. 17. Nothing is quite lost upon the Earth but what one Creature leaves another takes what this kind refuseth another sort gathers so that at the end of the Year Men and Animals constantly make even with the World and spend the Liberality of Nature all waiting on the Providence of a Superiour Being to give them their Meat again in due Season Things indued with Life being thus various and that variety being thus useful as well as entertaining what can a Man's next Thought be but that there is a Glorious God who made his Creatures in Number Measure and Weight not only to display the Exuberance and Transcendency of his Power but also to exemplifie the insinity of his Skill Wisdom and Munisicence And yet I have taken no notice of the variety of things inanimate here below or of their various Dispositions Qualities and Modifications which yet are astonishing Arguments of a Divine Mind that so appositely form'd such a vast multiplicity of Beings according to such innumerable and such beauteous Idea's The diversity of Elements with their various Mixtures and Temperaments in this lower World The attracting penetrating refrigerating Motions of the Air and the various Appearances in it of Rain Hail Snow Thunder Lightnings Clouds Winds Rainbows Comets and other liquid Meteors the variety of Waters as Springs Rivers Lakes Seas Baths their various Colours Smells and Tastes together with their various Courses and Reciprocations the uninvestigable variety within the Earth Quarries Minerals Metals Loadstones Subterraneous Fire Caverns Treasures of Salts Nitres Bitumens Sulphurs precious Stones and Gemms of great variety In short whatever is for the Advantage or Comfort or Pleasure or Ornament of our Lives we fetch out of the Earth in great abundance All these multifarious Creatures speak the Forecast and Providence of a most wise and liberal Being that of his Goodness was pleas'd thus to sill the whole Universe with his Riches This Pulchritude of the World arising from the variety of its Furniture was to Cicero a convincing Argument of the Existence of a God the Perennity of so many Fountains the Delicacy of Streams the Garniture of Banks by the sides of Rivers the vastness of Caves the asperity of Rocks the height of many hanging Mountains the immensity of Champion Countries the hidden Veins of Silver and Gold the infinite store of Marbles the goodliness of Seas the multitude and varieties of Islands the Amenity of Shores and the innumerable diversity of Things by and on the Sea-shores And to say after all that this admirable and delightful Variety happen'd by the casual Motion of blind irrational and unguided Atoms is far more absurd than to say that Cicero's Orations were compos'd by the casual droppings of Ink without the help of any Hands or Brains though they contain such variety of Matter such copiousness of Style such elegancy of Phrase such abundance of Sense Argument and Wit that the whole Air of them shews them to have been contrived and penned by a Man of excellent Art and the acutest Understanding 3. If we cast our Eyes on further yet we may see the beauty of the Creation as by the variety so by the Symmetry and comliness of those things which every where fall under our Contemplation With what admirable Contrivance are the innumerable Tribes of Fishes made to live in a little World by themselves to feed and propagate to swim and play to poize and steer their Bodies in their fluid Element How exquisite is the formation of all the Sensitive Creatures upon the Earth from the Lion and Leopard from the Elephant and Camel to the Ox and Ass What affecting variety of Art is there in the formation of Man O Lord saith David I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works in me and that my soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect and in thy Book were all my members written which day by day were fashioned when as yet there were none of them Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot altain unto it Psalm 139. But though the Mystery of God's Workmanship within us be not discoverable by every Eye yet the external Beauty of this House of Clay affecteth all Men especially when Innocence and Goodness are the Inhabitants a goodly Structure of Nerves Veins Arteries Tendons Muscles Vitals Bones Ligaments all cover'd over with a beauteous Skin adorn'd with Features and Lineaments with Shapes and Colours to which the most sullen Stoicks nay the greatest and proudest Heroes have humbly offer'd up themselves not Votaries only but sometimes Sacrifices also What do I speak of the graceful Form of Humane Bodies View the most contemptible Creatures upon Earth and you will find the excellent Curiosity of their Contrivance for the Ends and uses they are design'd unto from the Velvet Mole even to those creeping Animals which strike us with Horrour at the sight of them the Snake the Adder the Evet the Lizzard and the very Toad who have such a Symmetry of Parts such speckled Contextures such beauteous Colours as shew that they stole not into the World without the Will of that provident Being who thought fit to adorn the Universe with great variety But of those ordinary Creatures we familiarly behold there are especially three sorts which for the exquisiteness of their Frame or for the delicacy of their Complexion or for both are no little Ornament to the Creation First Insects which though they are lookt upon as the Refuse parts of the World yet do bear the Signatures of a most accurate Hand and bring to my Mind St. Paul's Observation of the Fabrick and Garniture of our Bodies 1 Cor. 12. The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you nor again the head to the foot I have no need of you Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary And those members of the body which we think to be less honourable upon these we bestow the more abundant honour and our uncomly parts have more abundant comliness The meaning is that where Natural Beauty is wanting Artisicial Beauty by handsome Clothes doth make amends In like manner those ignoble Creatures I now speak of how low soever the Divine Hand hath placed them in Rank and Order their want of Honour in respect of their Station is supply'd and made up by the Beauties bestow'd upon them in respect of their Contexture Witness the Gildings of the Wasp the Hornet the Bee and many such-like
is in its Nature of a comforting cherishing and quickning Faculty so are its Courses such as render its Powers every where effectually useful Had it been fixt over any one determinate Part of the Earth in a State unmoveable it would have been not only useless but pernicious unto all things for as the Parts of the World out of the reach of its Beams would have been in an eternal State of Darkness and Death so the very Regions under the Sun must have been parched up and consequently desolate and uninhabitable by means of those continual Fires which would have turned all into a kind of Conflagration Therefore 't is as necessary for the good of the Creation that the Sun should move as that it should give light and warmth and that Motion being two-fold Diurnal finish'd in 24 Hours and Annual performed in 12 Months all things living receive such vast Utilities by both as argue the Existence of a most wise and provident Being whose Goodness is over all his Works By the Diurnal Motion of the Sun there are constant stated returns of Light and Darkness and by those Vicissitudes as all Animals have their Time divided between Labour and Rest which is as necessary for them as Labour and as their Food which is acquired by Labour and repairs those Expences of Nature which Labour brings so are those Productions which serve for Food prepared and ascertained by these daily Revolutions In the Day time the Beams of the Sun serve to heat the Ground to actuate the principles of vegetation to promote the ascent of vital Juices to concoct and ripen Fruits and to impregnate the Atmosphere with Fumes and Vapours And in the Night those Vapours descend upon the Ground again in Dews Showers or Rains according to the Necessities of the Climate by which means there is a due Temperament of Warmth and Moisture that makes all Vegetables Fruitful and preserves Animals in a state of Health and Vigour witness those Regions under the Line where the Sun shines the hotest though the Ancients believed they were all roasted into utter Barreness yet by Discoveries which have been made since it appears that the heats and droughts of the Day are so allay'd by the constant Breezes and Rains of the Night that they are the most fertil parts of the World By the Annual Course of the Sun which carries it about from North to South and so round again it disperseth its vivisick Rays over all restores yearly all the Powers of Nature makes all People amends for its late distance from them and takes its Circuit so that one Sun serves all Climates and answers the Necessities of all the World 'T is true some places are much more remote from the Sun than others are as those extreme parts of the Earth call'd The Northern and Southern Poles But then it is to be consider'd that the Fruits and Animals of those Countreys are such as do not require so great degrees of external Heat And besides there are other Stars which cast in those parts a more proper kindly and if I may so speak connatural Influence especially the Moon of which Luminary it is observable that it is the Sun's Deputy to supply its Room in its absence and as the Moon moves further towards the North and South than the Sun ever does so is it fullest of Light and consequently of enliveing Influences when the Sun is at the greatest distance from it towards the one part or the other so that there is the most benefit by the Moon in those Regions and at those Seasons of the Year when and where the Sun is most wanting All which shews that there is a most wise and beneficent Being over all who formed the Substances of those glorious Luminaries and directed all their Course as he foresaw would be best for the World because it is impossible to conceive rationally how Creatures utterly void of Reason and Sense as the Sun and Moon are cou'd without the directions of Divine Reason and without the appointment of a Divine Will pitch upon such regular and proper Motions that if they had had the highest Reason of their own they could not have determined upon better Courses for the service and good of the Universe To descend now a little lower every one perceives how useful that thin Medium is between Heaven and Earth which we call the Air how it transmits the Light of Heaven to us how it delights our Ears with many Natural and Artificial Undulations how it helps us with Breath how it supplies us with the seasonable Advantages of Heat and Cold of Drought and Moisture what a Vehicle it is for vast variety of useful Creatures and how it openeth its Treasures to make the whole Earth communicate of its Plenty And what but a Divine Mind and an Omnipotent Hand could have made this Medium of such a necessary and fit Contexture as to answer all these Purposes Could Fortune and Atoms contrive to breathe into the Nostrils of every Animal such a common breath of Life Could they make it fluid to assist the flight of every Fowl and to suit with every Vibration of its Wings Could they store it with Insects for every Bat and Swallow to live on Could they give it an agreeable thickness to refract the Light and by those Refractions to bring all Forms Shapes and Colours to the Eye in their proper Idea's Could they provide Winds to keep it from Stagnation and Frosts and Snows Lightnings and Thunders to carry off those Impurities which would prove very prejudicial to our Lives Could they impregnate it with Nitrous Particles to make the Blood in an Animals Lungs the more Spirituous Could they direct it to warm and irrigate the whole Earth like the Mist which Moses says went up from the earth in the beginning and watered the whole face of the ground Gen. 6. 2. Is it reasonable to imagine that stupid Matter and the undirected Motion of diminutive Particles could contrive or do all these wise and good things without the guidance of a super-intending Power that gave every thing a Law This were to make senseless Matter and Motion capable and conscious of such Philosophy as the wisest Philosophers have stood astonisht at in all Ages To go on They that go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters these men saith the Psalmist see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep Psalm 107. 23 24. How wantonly soever some conceited Men talk of Atoms falling by Chance into Pebbles and Sands it seems prodigiously strange they should believe the whole Ocean also to have been made by an accidental Composition of them An Element of such vast extent and depths and so aptly contriv'd for great ends and uses that one would think whoever has but heard of a God would presently conclude it to have been form'd by Divine Art and Counsel For what could it be but Wisdom that made it a sluid liquid
in himself we must conceive of him to be of an Endless Life For all decay of Life proceeds from a defect infirmity or limitation in the Essence of the Thing so that without the help of a stronger Hand it cannot for ever hold up and last And since Life is one of those Perfections which we poor sinful men enjoy it necessarily follows that as it must be in our Maker so it must be in him in a most eminent and absolute degree that is utterly void of all possibility of ever ending 3. We must from the Absolute Perfection of God conceive him to be a Fountain of Life without any Beginning likewise For whatever had a beginning must be concluded in that respect defective because it once wanted not only those Perfections which Beings enjoy but even Being it self And besides that which began may end as we see all the successive Productions of Nature do Therefore since the Notion of God signifies Perfection of all Kinds and in all degrees Reason will tell you that God must have such Perfection of Essence as to be of a boundless Life or be everlaststing from everlasting 4. The Notion of God's absolute Perfection necessitates us to conclude that he is a most perfect Substance or a Being that subsisteth of himself by the absolute fulness of his own Nature Indeed we cannot form an adequate and positive Notion of the Divine Substance as neither can we of the Substance of our own Souls though they are the noblest Beings of this lower World For our outward Senses which are the great Instruments of Knowledge are perpetually used to corporeal and gross Ideas and God being a spirit John 4. 24. cannot be the Object of any such sensation But yet we may rationally render him an Object of our Minds such an Object as our Minds are capable of viewing by abstracting Matter and Corporeity from our Apprehensions of him This Reason inforces us to do because materiality is a defect in the thing that is made up of it for as it limits and consines the thing to one particular place at once which is most unsuitable to the conception of a Being that is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24 so it makes the thing divisible and consequently subject to Dissolution which is utterly incompatible with the Perfection of God's Life Therefore Reason compels us to do away these Imperfections from our Notions of God and to conceive of him as a Spiritual Substance which I shall shew hereafter in its proper place is far from being an irrational Notion however some are pleas'd to reject and deride it 5. Since the Notion of God implies the excellence of Perfection we must conceive of him that he is too a discerning and understanding Substance For Perception being the excellence of all Animals whereby they are much more perfect than senseless Matter or inanimate Stocks and Stones this excellence must needs after the most perfect and sublime manner be in that most exalted Nature from which all Perfection is suppos'd to have been derived The Psalmist appeals to the common Reason of Mankind where he argueth Psalm 94. 9 10. He that planted the ear shall not he bear he that formed the eye shall not be see And so He that teacheth men knowledge shall not he know Though Perception is not wrought in God by Impressions that affect material Organs nor is attended with plain and disturbance as in Creatures who are necessarily imperfect yet the Reason of the thing shews that he is a Sentient Percipient Being an intelligent Nature or Mind that acteth in a way which is suitable to the condition of a most glorious Being 6. And hence it follows That we must conceive of God that he is a most perfect Mind or a Being that knows all things and is conscious of all things that are possible to be known and that not by such discourse or succession of Thoughts and Reasonings as imperfect Beings are sain to use but by intuitive Acts and by a direct immediate view Though knowledge be a great Perfection in Men and Angels yet to know things gradually and by piece-meals and with a limited apprehension is in the Creature a plain defect and therefore it must be abstracted or remov'd from our Conceptions of God 7. Again there is in us all a vigorous principle of Activity whereby we are able to do those things which our Desires and Wills incline us to perform in our Sphere and as far as this principle of Activity carries us This also is a Perfection but yet such as is intermingled with defects because the Execution of our Power is laborious nay finite innumerable things being utterly impossible for the most mighty Men upon the Earth to compass though their Wits and Industry should be never so great and though all their force were united Upon this account Reason will tell you that God being a Nature absolutely Perfect all manner of Impotence is to be shut out of our Notions of him because all Impotence is a defect and therefore inconsistent with and repugnant unto the Excellencies of the Deity and consequently we must conceive him to be fully able to produce and do by the Act of his own free Will whatever doth not imply a contradiction or whatever is conceivable and possible in it self and can stand well with the other Perfections of his Nature 8. Further yet The Notion of God signifying a Nature that is eminently and absolutely Perfect we must conceive him to be a good Being likewise nay the best of all Beings By Goodness here is meant that excellent and most amiable Disposition of Mind which still prompts one to be Communicative Kind Gracious Compassionate and Benificent 'T is the best Virtue that which we may call the Perfection of all Pefections that which commands Honour and Love from all that which is the Beauty the Excellency the Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it necessarily and eminently belongs to the best Being that Divine and most Glorious Nature which all People have ever adored for its transcendent Goodness Love is of God saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 7. He is the overflowing Spring and Fountain of all that Benignity which runs through the World therefore St. John spoke like a great Philosopher as well as a Divine in saying ver 8. God is love that is a Blessed Nature made up of Goodness the Mirror and Perfection of it for there must be in this case much more in the Cause than there can be in the Effects which are of a finite narrow and slender Capacity as the faculties of all created Beings are whence it appears that the glorious Deity cannot be a selfish envious malevolent spiteful or cruel Being because these and the like Dispositions of Mind are wretched Defects or Vices rather which belong to the Devils in Hell and to Devils Incarnate nor though he be Omnipotent and perfectly Powerful can he act like an Arbitrary Tyrannical Being void of Compassion and
see daily the Motion of Bodies and the Production of Living Creatures especially of Mankind First For the Motion of Bodies The principal Parts of the World are never idle In the Earth there are active Principles of Life and Vegetation which prepare the vital Juice that is in all Plants and Trees In Animals there is Concoction Digestion and a Motion or Fluor of the Chyle which serves for Nutrition In the Sea there is a Flux and Reflux and a Current in Rivers and Springs In the Air there are Vicissitudes and Turnings as Exhalations and Vapours steam out of the Earth and return to it again modified into various Forms And the constant circular Courses of those glorious Bodies in the Firmament shew likewise that in this visisible World there is no Rest Now all these Motions of material Substances must depend upon Causes for Matter alone is a liveless unactive stupid Thing which can no more move it self than Mountains and Rocks can walk and whatever those Causes be whether proximate or remote they must depend for their Operations upon the Energy of one supreme Cause that impower'd Nature and set the whole Frame of it on work and gave it as we may say the first Stroke for otherwise Motion which once was not in being would have been the Cause of it self which is utterly impossible The like may be said of the Production of Living Creatures and particularly of Mankind Once we were not therefore you and I and all of us had a beginning as we shall have an end and though we should run up our Generations so far as to date our Breed from an hundred thousand Years ago yet must we of necessity derive it at last from some Ancestors who were not begotten of others as we have been but were made after a different manner by an Omnipotent Cause which could give them a beginning for otherwise we must either run up on to Eternity or suppose our first Parents to have made themselves which is repugnant to the universal Truth I demonstrated before and would imply that those our first Parents had a Being and no Being at the same instant This Argument so strongly proves the necessary Existence of a first Cause or a Deity to form the whole Frame of Nature and to set it in order that some unreasonable Men find themselves constrained to tell us that the World ever was as it is now the same from all Eternity without any Rise Novity or Beginning and so without any dependence on a first Cause or need of it They were as good say plainly That they are resolved never to be convinced but will rid themselves of all belief of a Deity at any rate though they destroy the Principles of Common Reason and run into the most fulsome Absurdities and Contradictions For how can it consist with reason to take a boundless Progress from one Effect to another still onward up to Retroinfinity without stopping at any beginning This conceit being admitted these monstrous Absurdities must follow 1. First It implies the local Motion of Bodies to have produced it self without the efficiency of a first Mover which is impossible because Motion is neither essential to Matter for then no body could ever rest nor is it incident to Matter as such but by its being touched by some moving Principle that is distinct from it It is a Passion imprest upon Matter by an Agent by virtue whereof it changeth place and distance and therefore it presupposeth Action from something else otherwise it must be its own Creature and Maker too the Effect and Cause of it self at the same time and out of nothing which is a Contradicton So that though you go through the vastest Series of moving Bodies from the things below to the Heavens above you must come at last to a first Mover of all things or conclude against all Sense and Reason that there are innumerable Effects without any Original Essiciency Suppose when the World was made it had presently had some great Jog given it 't were hard to conceive that the Motion of its several Parts should not have spent it self in a little time without a conserving Power pervading through all But it confounds Humane Understanding to think how there could be Motion all along from all past Eternity and without any beginning no superior Power moving or acting upon Bodies because it is impossible for Matter to be self-active though you should suppose it to have been Eternal It could no more move than it could make it self for upon that principle Men must return to that great Absurdity and Contradiction touching a thing being its own Cause that is touching its being and not being at the same time 2. Secondly To suppose the whole World to have been Eternal would render the Generation of Mankind altogether impossible For every ones Formation and Birth is absolved in the space of so many Months and so it must of necessity include not only a Period but a Beginning too both which are inconsistent with the Notion of Eternity for if Humane Race was always begotten carry it as high as you please you must come to a moment when Generation did begin 3. If it be said Thirdly That Men were not from all Eternity generated as they are now but that some were created or made from everlasting and thence others were produced in the ordinary common way this contradicteth it self for it necessarily infers a Creator or Maker and by consequence it implies a first Man and a first Cause and a time when our first Ancestors began whereas there is neither first nor last in Successions which are Eternal so that were our Ancestors Eternal it must be said plainly we had no first Parents at all 4. And then Fourthly What can be more absurd than to conceive that every particular Man should have as we see every Man hath a Father and a Mother and yet that all Mankind should have none 5. Fifthly Or if every Man's Parents were infinite then it must be said That there are as many Infinites as there are and have been particular Men in the World which is such another great Absurdity as the former 6. Sixthly To conclude this Argumentation To affirm the World to have been Eternal is to destroy the Notion of Infinity and to entangle ones self in the greatest Nonsense For to give you the Words of a most Learned and Judicious Writer If the World be Eternal Bishop Stillingsleet ' s Orig. Sac. p. 376. there must have been past an infinite Succession of Ages an insinite number of Successions are already past and if past then at an end and so we find an Infinite which hath an end which is a consequence becoming one who avoids the belief of a Deity because Infinity is an unconceivable thing Besides if the number of Generations hath been Insinite these two consequences will unavoidably follow which the Reason of any one but an Atheist would startle at That one Infinite may be
as it becometh an Intellectual Wise and Voluntary Agent And lastly This Incorporeity renders the First Cause uncapable of beind divisible or determinable to Place after the manner of Bodies which consist of Magnitude and Dimensions And therefore how incomprehensible soever the Notion of Infinity may seem to us whose outward Senses are used only to things corporeal Reason will oblige us to think that every Being must be extended or unextended limited or unlimited circumscrib'd or diffused according as its Essence and Nature is and that the first Cause being incorporeal and having once an Immense World to make and ever since an Immense World to act upon and in cannot be confined to place but must be every where and undividedly in a manner agreeable to the Plenitude of its Nature Now this Account of the necessary Existence and Condition of a first Cause is so far a plain description of the Deity or of God And it is for the greatest reasons that we maintain that in order to the Production and Framing of this huge Universe the Existence of God was necessary that is the Existence of an Independent Self-existent Eternal All-powerful Immaterial and Infinite Being These are not bare Epithets of Honour bestowed as some strange Men conceive upon an imaginary something which the fancies and fears of People have without reason represented to their Minds but real solid severe and demonstrable Truths so that admiting the common and most rational Principle touching the necessity of a First Cause those glorious Perfections I have now mentioned must necessarily belong to it and because those Perfections are essential and peculiar to that Glorious Being we call God therefore God and God alone must be acknowledged the First Cause of all things and by natural consequence the Existence of God must necessarily be believed CHAP. III. HAVING proved the Truth and Reality of God's being from the necessary Existence of a first Independent Cause I proceed now to the second General Head of this Discourse touching the Consent of all Mankind for if it can be made appear That the belief of a Deity hath been universally received in the World 't is reasonable to conclude that that belief resulted from a common Principle of Nature which could not deceive the Minds of all Mankind Here then these two things are to be shew'd 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God 2. Secondly That this universal Agreement is a very strong Argument of God's Existence 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God That noble Orator and Philosopher Cicero doth in several places acknowledge That all manner of People were naturally posfest with some Anticipations or Preconceptions De Nit-Deor lib. 1. Tuse Qu. lib. 1. de Leg. lib. 1. of a Deity so that no Nation was ever so wild and undisciplin'd but that they had a fear of God and owned his Being however they were mistaken as to the quality of his Nature To the same purpose Seneca tells That the belief Ep. 117. of a God is planted in every ones mind And Maximus Tyrius is positive Diss 1. That how great soever the Contentions of Men were about other Points they all agreed in this that there is one Supreme God over all Nay Epicurus Cic. de Nat. deor lib. 1. himself of whom this Character is given that in words he owned the Existence of God but in fact denied it was contented the belief of it should pass abroad because it was a kind of innate Principle not only among Philosophers but among the Unlearned too who all had some Pri-notion of a Deity So true is this That not only the real Existence but even the Singularity and Unity of a Supreme God hath been generally believed by Heathens themselves especially by the wiser fort of them which I think very material for me to take notice of here for the further Illustration and Confirmation of the Matter in hand Indeed the Heathens have been wont to worship a Plurality of Deities But withal it is very observable that they look'd upon those many Deities as a fort of middle Beings between Mon and the Supreme Deity and accordingly in their Devotions they addressed themselves to them as Agents and Officers under the Great God as his Ministers of State and as Mediators between them and the most high Sovereign Numen because they thought it irreligious Confidence to apply themselves to him immediately and directly such a venerable and august Opinion they had of the God over all Though in the Poetical Fabulous Ages of the World ignorant People were taught to worship a multitude of gods as the Souls of dead Men whom they believed to be Deified the Sun Moon and Stars which were suppos'd to be animated with Deities besides a great number of Daemons or incorporeal Substances or Spirits which they thought were generated and had the Administration and Government of the World committed to them yet they owned One Sovereign Numen One Incomprehensible Self-existent Being the Prince and Father of all Nay the more intelligent sort of Pagans anciently thought that the Plurality of Deities which the Vulgar worshipped were only so many several Names of one and the same Supreme God according to the several Manifestations of his Power In the Heavens saith St. Austin they called De Civit. 1. 4. c. 11. him Jupiter in the Air Juno in the Sea Neptune in the Earth Pluto and very many more Appellations there were which though the sottish Rabble believed to have been proper Names for distinct Deities yet the Philosophers thought they did all belong to one Supreme Numen variously acting and displaying his Virtue And with this agrees that of De Benef. l. 4. c. 7. Seneca What else is Nature saith he but God or Divine Wisdom and Power displaying it self in the whole world and in all the parts of it You may when you please give several Titles to the Author of all things And you may call him Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Tonans and Stator not from stopping the Roman Army in their flight but because all things do stand or consist by him You may well apply to him what Names you will that signify his Heavenly Power and Efficacy There may be as many Appellations as there are Gifts or Effects of God Besides Jupiter Tonans and Stator we call him Liber Pater Hercules and Mercurius Liber Pater because he hath produced all things Hercules because his Power is invincible and Mercury by reason of his Wisdom Turn you which way you please God meets you for nothing is without him He filleth all his Works so that his various Names were according to the various Manifestations of him Should you receive a kindness from Seneca and say you owed it to Annaeus or Lucius you would not change the Person but his Name for what Name soever you call him by you mean still the same man And so you may
believed the Existence of God even in their Idolatrous Gentile Condition The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard Their sound is gone out into all lands and their words unto the ends of the world Psalm 19. 1 3 4. Where David represents those glorious Creatures as proclaiming and all Nations as hearing them proclaim the Transcendent Wisdom Power Goodness and Majesty of their Maker and Conserver All People how ignorant soever they have been of other Languages have understood this However they have differed from one another in their Polity Laws Customs or Manner of Life have unanimously consented in this That there is a God And though many have lived as if they were without God in the World yet none have been without him in their Consciences Here falls in an Account which hath been given us by a most Inquisitive and Learned Writer of our Church and which both for the Usefulness and Curiosity of it well deserves to be taken notice of in this place That Great Man Bishop Stillingfleet's Defence of his Discourse concerning Idolatry undertaking to prove That men may be guilty of Idolatry though they believe and worship the True God shews particularly That the grossest Idolaters of later times both in the East and West Parts of the World have acknowledged one Sovereign Being over all those inferior Deities they worshipp'd that they gave him the highest Honours and that that they called him in their respective Languages by some peculiar Name which signified the greatest Excellency First he shews of the Idolaters of the East-Indies That they all believed there was but One God who made the World and reigns in Heaven and that they worshipp'd this One God as well as Christians and referred all the Honour to him which they gave to other things that some called the Supreme God Parabrama which in their Language signifies absolutely Perfect being the Fountain of all things existing from himself and free from all Composition that others call'd that Sovereign Being Achar that is Immutable others Tento believing him to be the Governor of the World others Sciaxeti or Scianti which signifies the Supreme Monarch and Tienciu which is as much as to say The Lord of Heaven Then the Learned Author gives this Account of the Idolatrous Tartars That they believed and worshipp'd One God owning him to be the Maker of all things visible and invisible and to be the Author of all worldly Good and Punishment Of the Inhavitants of Madagascar he shews That they believed One God who made Heaven and Earth and will one day punish the bad and reward the good Actions of men Of the People of Monomotapa That they acknowledge One God whom they call Mozimo and are said to worship nothing else besides him Of the Idolatrous Muscovites That they worshipp'd only the Creator of the Universe to whom they offer'd the first Fruits of all things even their Meat and Drink Of the Idolaters of Cranganor That they worshipp'd the God of Heaven calling him Tambram and believing him to have made the World Of the Northern Idolaters especially the Goths he shews That the most ancient of their gods was called by them Alfader that is the Father of all they believ'd that this God lives for ever that he governs all things that he made the Heavens and Earth and Air and all Things in them and which is the greatest of all that he made Man and gave him a Soul that should live for ever although the Body be destroyed and that those who are good shall be with him Touching the Idolaters in Asrick that Excellent Writer shews That they worshipped God under the Name of Guighimo that is The Lord of Heaven and that though the Negroes adored many gods yet they acknowledged One Supreme whom they called Ferisso and believed him to be the Author of the Good and Evil they received As for the account he gives out of Josephus Acosta and Garcilasso de la Vega touching the Idolaters in America before their Conversion to Christianity I have reserved it to the last because it seems so clear and full that it is the fittest Observation to conclude this Point The surn of it is That those Idolatrous Indians acknowledged a Supreme Lord and Author of all things whom they of Peru called Pachacamac that is the Soul of the World the true Sovereign Creator of the Sovereign Creator of the World and Usapu which is Admirable and such like and though they had a great Veneration for the Sun and Moon and other things yet they held and adored Pachamac as the chiefest of all and whenever they mentioned his Name did it with all the Reverence and Devotion imaginable in Honour to the unexpressible Majesty of God And hence was that Observation of the Spanish Jesuit Acosta That those who at that time did Preach the Gospel to the Indians found no great difficulty to perswade them that there is a High God and Lord over all and that this was the Christians God and the True God This saith he is a truth conformable to Reason That there is a Sovereign Lord and King of Heaven and him the Gentiles with all their Infidelities and Idolatries have not denied so that the Preachers of the Gospel had no great difficulty to plant and perswade this Truth of the Supreme God though the Nations to whom they preached were never so Barbarous and Brutish The hard thing was to root out of their minds this Perswasion That there is no other God nor any other Deity than one and that all other things of themselves have no Power Being nor working proper to themselves but what the Great and only Lord doth give and impart to them However People have been mistaken in their belief of a multiplicity of Deitics this hath been a common Notion in all barbarous Countries that there is One Supreme God infinitely Good I think no more need be said to shew the universal Perswasion of Mankind concerning God's Existence However before I proceed to Argue and Reason from it and to prove the Truth of God's Existence from this universal Perswasion it will be necessary to take notice of two Pretences which are commonly used to evade the force of this Argument 1. The first is That some whole Nations have been found which have been without all Sense of God as was reported particularly of some People in America after the discovery of them by Christians To this there are three things in answer First That the matter alledged is not evident or certain because the Men who first related it were Strangers to the Language and Customs of those People and therefore could not be competent Judges of their Principles Nay they were abhorred as Enemies and consequently were uncapable of understanding the Mysteries of those Peoples Religion a thing which Men are generally very shy of discovering especially to those who use them hardly
of the Palsey and the like Difficult and Inveterate Distempers 3. Such Effects as have been done by the use of Means but yet such a sort of Means as were indispos'd for those Operations nay were utterly uncapable of themselves to produce those strange Effects As the Dividing of the Sea with a Rod the Separating of Waters by smiting them with a Mantle the Curing of a Leprosy by washing in a Common River the Sweetning of a Bitter Fountain with a Piece of Wood the giving Sight to the Blind by the application of Clay and Spittle the Restoring of the Deaf and Dumb by putting a Finger into the Ear the Healing of many Infirmities with a Touch with the Hem of a Garment with an Handkerchief with a Word with a Shadow of a Man passing by and the like All these Extraordinary Occurrences are above the Powers of all Art and Nature The first sort in respect of the Quality of them the rest in respect of the Manner of their Production No Creature can stop the Course of the Sun any more than he can pull all the Stars out of the Firmament No Creature can form an Eye or any Integral part of it any more than he can extinguish the Light of the Day No Creature can recover the Dead any more than he can mould an Humane Soul and Body out of the dust Nor can any Creature do one Wonder though it be only a Wonder in Nature or to outward appearance either without means or by means indisposed incompetent and insufficient any more than he can frame a World or govern the Universe by his Beck The Nature of these things and the Power that is requisite to bring them to pass sets them above all the reach of Natural Finite Limited Agents and therefore when they are done they are plain Demonstrations of a Superior Power Arguments of an Uncontroulable Hand Proofs of an Almighty Agent that is of the Existence of a God 1. For first None but an All powerful Being can alter the Establish'd Course and Order of things Every part of the World is under some peculiar Law which it regularly and constantly observes Though here and there Nature may commit some slight Error in its Specifick Operations yet the great Laws of the Universe stand and hold against all Natural Agents and every Creature yieldeth Obedience to them Therefore when the setled Course of the Creature is altered as it always is when a True Miracle is wrought it is an undeniable Argument of a Superior Hand which gave every thing its Law Never to be changed but by the same Power which fix'd it and against which no Law can possibly hold when that Sovereign Being hath a mind to dispose of a Creature into a different Course As for instance 'T is a Law which the Waters are under That they shall perpetually consist of fluid parts by means whereof they naturally run into and maintain an inviolable state of mixture and co-adunation 'T is a Law the Heavens are under That the Lamps thereof shall be Day and Night in motion 'T is a Law every Man is under That the Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto him that gave it According to these Laws doth the Course and Order of all these things hold never to be broken or changed by the natural force of any of their Fellow-Creatures Now when it so happens that either an Heavenly Body is arrested in its progress or that the Sea is thrown up and consolidated into standing heaps or that a man's Soul which had escaped out of its Prison is sent back again out of the other world and remanded into its Cold Earthly and Ruinated Lodgings it is impossible with Reason to ascribe this to any other Cause but the Omnipotence of a Transcendent Being who governs and disposeth all things in Heaven and Earth of his own good pleasure And it shews that the first sort of Miracles viz. such as have been done without the operation of any Second Causes nor could have been done by them are clear Attestations of the Existence of a Deity under whose Hand and Power all other Beings are 2. And then Secondly Touching the other sorts of Miracles such as have been wrought instantly and without means sufficient of themselves as the Curing of Diseases in a moment by a Word or a Touch they are the productions of things out of nothing which cannot be attributed to any thing less than a Deity For in these Cases there is an utter indisposition both in the Means and in the Object about which those Means are used and consequently such a Miracle is a kind of Creation which nothing but Omnipotence can produce There is little if any difference as to the Power between raising things out of no pre-existent Matter and forming things out of Matter that in it self is quite uncapable of that formation in each Case an Almighty Power is necessary and where that Power is it is the same thing to it in effect to bring Perfections out of utter Incapacities as to bring Habits out of Privations or Substance out of Non-entity Which is an evident Proof That granting those Miracles were really done which we find recorded of the Prophets in the Old Testament and especially of our Saviour and his Apostles in the New they must be acknowledg'd to have been wrought by a Divine Power or by the hand of an Omnipotent Being and consequently that such an Omnipotent Being doth Exist Hence it is that True Miracles are always destructive of Insidellty so that where-ever they have been shew'd all Teachable Men have been convinced of the particular Providence of an Almighty God over that People When Naaman the Syrian found himself healed of his Leprosy by washing in Jordan at the instance of Elisha it extorted that Confession from him Behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel 2 Kings 5. 15. When that Nobleman John 4. saw what a Miracle was wrought on his dying Son the Text saith That himself believed and his whole house V. 53. When Sergius Paulus saw what a Miracle was done for the punishment of Elymas the Sorceror he believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord Acts 13. 12. In which three Instances means were used such as they were In the first the application of Water in the two latter the speaking of a few words only and yet each Miracle was as convincing as if God had displayed his immediate hand because the means being of themselves insufficient for the production of such astonishing Events argued plainly that an Omnipotent Virtue went along with them which supplied their natural insufficiency and shewed that the Excellence of the Power was of God What I have said upon this Point doth suppose that these and the like Miraculous Works have been actually done and if so then the Inference will be necessary and unavoidable That there is a God But to evade the
but a typical Representation And one who received not the Spirit by measure but was anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his Fellows But the Prophet Daniel pointed out the time of his coming after a more close and precise manner Dan. 9. 24 25 26 27. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks after that the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the oblation and sacrifice to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate As to the exposition of this Prophecy all Writers are agreed that according to the language and custom of the Jews by a week is understood not seven days but seven years that is seventy times seven years or four hundred and ninety years in all And the plain sense of the Prediction may be comprised within these Observations as far as it concerns my present purpose 1. First That from the second building of the Temple and City of Jerusalem to the last destruction of both there was alotted the space of four hundred and ninety years to be computed from the time of the publication of an Edict by some Persian King for this second Building 2. That within the compass of those four hundred and ninety years Sin should be expiated true substantial Righteousness grounded upon eternal Reasons should be preached the old Prophecies should be fulfilled Messiah the Prince should be cut off and afterwards instated in his everlasting Kingdom The rest of the Prediction relates to the destruction of Jerusalem of which I shall take notice by and by Thus much of it is concerning the Advent Life Death and Unction of the Messiah Now to lay aside the various perplexing Accounts given by inquisitive men touching the exact Impletion of every part of this Prophecy these two things are very evident 1. First That the rebuilding and final devastation of the Holy Temple and City was according to the time alotted the seventy weeks of years For though the Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return into their Land out of their Captivity and to begin the restoration of the Temple yet the great Edict the successful Commandment for the restoring and building Jerusalem was given by that Persian King called Darius Nothus Ezra 6. And from the third year of his Reign when the work of the Temple by the incitement of Haggai and Zachary renewed the year before was now confirmed by a new Edict from the King to be finished unto the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus are exactly four hundred and ninety years that is seventy weeks of years fully complete as a Learned Mede B. 3. pag. 858 859. Writer hath computed the time to my hands 2. Secondly It is most evident that before the expiration of these four hundred and ninety years while the Temple and City of Jerusalem were yet standing Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh that he fulfilled all Righteousness in his own Person and taught all others to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world that he offer'd up himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the Sins of all men that to him all the Prophets did bear witness and in him their Prophecies did terminate and that upon his Resurrection and Ascension he was exalted unto the right hand of God and all Power was given him in Heaven and in Earth according to Daniel's Prediction And now to return to our Argument How was it possible for Daniel or for any other man to have foretold these Events so exactly and so long before without immediate Revelation from a Divine Omniscient Being who foresaw nay fore-appointed the whole series and course of these things from the beginning to the end And consequently How is it possible for any man of common reason or sense to question the Existence of such a Being for these things could not depend upon any natural Causes No the Advent Sufferings and Glorifying of the Messiah were purely the result of a Divine Decree and therefore could not have been predicted or foreseen but by that Divine Being who had decreed all and by whose determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge Jesus Christ was delivered to the Jews as St. Peter told them Acts 2. 23. 3. The like is to be said of those other Predictions which relate to some remarkable and memorable Events after Christ's departure out of the world and they were chiefly these three 1. The Destruction of Jerusalem 2. The Propagation of the Christian Faith And 3dly the dispersed and reproachful Condition of the Jews 1. As Daniel foretold the Desolations that would come upon Jerusalem so did the Messiah himself foretel that there should not be left one stone of the temple upon another which should not be thrown down Matth. 24. 2. And a little further he said When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in or about the holy place let them which be in Judea fly to the mountains ver 15 16. This by the way shews that the computation of Daniel's seventy weeks is to be carried on to the time of Jerusalem's destruction for there the four hundred and ninety years end and not before as we see by our Saviour's referring to that Prediction when he spake of that Desolation These Predictions were accomplish'd about forty years after the Messiah's Crucifixion and in that Juncture the several parts of those Predictions were answer'd to the full Then the Jews saw the abomination of Desolation which Daniel had spoken of meaning the Roman Heathen Armies with the Heathen Figures in their Military Banners expanded about the Holy City Then were the people of the Prince that is their Commander Titus come to destroy the City and the Sanctuary Then did Titus his Forces over-run the Land of Judoea like a Flood and make it desolate Then was the Temple laid waste and the Oblations and Sacrifices which were wont to be in it were made to cease And then was the Consummation which Daniel foretold or the End which was determined upon the Desolate namely the utter
and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Hos 2. 21 22. Where we have a Summary Description of the great Order of Nature as things are cast into a State of Relation and Correspondence set forth as if they cried to each other and heard each other to denote their mutual Subserviency and Dependance Thus the Stars by their attractive Beams prepare and enrich the Clouds the Clouds drop down fatness that fatness moistens the Surface and supplies the Bowels of the Earth that Moisture increaseth and invigorates those active Particles within which are the Principles of Vegetation those Principles carry the spiritous vital Juice to every Tree and Plant that Juice passing through many Nervous Ducts and Conveyances produce Germination those Germations cover Mountain and Valley with a fresh Verdure and by these various means the Earth receives yearly a kind of new Life every Species upon it is propagated every living Individual is sed and cherish'd and Man and Beast are abundantly provided for a-new after all the vast Consumptions and Expences of Nature the year before There is a Series and Connexion of Causes which act upon each other the superior Cause still having a respect to the Powers of that which is the next in Subordination and all shew the wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of the Supreme Cause in thus suiting and adapting the Operations of his Creatures according to the necessities of the several Branches of his Creation And as there is this extrinsecal Reference born by one Creature to another so is there in every one of them an intrinsick Faculty and Disposition which bears respect to the Operations and Productions of those external Causes In all Animals there are eager Appetites as Hunger and Thirst which stimulate and excite them every day to Eat and Drink of Natures Bounty In all Vegetables there are spreading Roots fibrous Receptacles with open greedy capacious Orifices to entertain digest and send up that animating Sap which is ministred by the restless Principles of Vegetation In the Bowels of the Earth are hid the multifarious Seeds of Life prepared for a new assistance of Salts Nitre and the like Supplies to quicken actuate and render them Prolisick Those quickning Recruits wait for Distillations from above to convey them down into their Apartments and those Distillations are various according to the Quality and Temper of the Seasons and as the Sun and Stars act by their Influences in the Air where the great Treasures are annually made ready by various Motions and Secretions and then shed plenteously abroad in variety of Forms and Modifications as Hail Snow Rains or Dews Thus each Cause bears a Correspondence and Relation to the Faculties and Dispositions of that which is Subordinate and those Faculties bear a Reciprocal Correspondence to the Power and Agency of the next Superior One. There is such an orderly Connection such a close harmonious Confederacy between the several Parts of the World as they are placed and situate that as they all severally depend upon each other for their respective Operations so all jointly conspire to the Preservation and Maintenance of the whole which evidently shews That it could not be blind Fate or Fortune that linked together the Parts of the Universe into such an admirable League such an amicable State of Subserviency and Assistance but a most Wise and Beneficent Agent that from the beginning consulted and provided for the Good of all his Creatures and accordingly sitted their Powers to that great end For those Irrational Beings the glittering Lamps of Heaven the Air and Earth Vegetables and Creatures that are meerly sensitive cannot be suppos'd to understand the Ends and Scope the Reasons and Purposes of their Operations They are not the effects of any Deliberaration or choice of their own but the consequents of Necessity and therefore must be brought about by the directing Hand and Will of a God of Incomprehensive Power of Wisdom that they might bear witness of his Being and Providence and excite all Mankind to praise and glorigy the adorable Perfections of his Nature 3. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the Permanency of them in that State and Condition in which they have been placed This Permanency consisteth in two things 1. First In the entire continuance of their Natures The constituent principal Substances of the Universe are still the same they ever were since their first Formation in Number Measure and Weight Nothing of their Beauty is saded by Age nothing of Matter worn away by Motion no Parts lost quite by Accident nor any one Species annihilated by outward Violence or inward Insirmity and Decay Though Individuals upon the Terraqueous Globe dye daily or are cut off lest the Earth we inhabit and live upon and have our Food by should be over-stock'd yet all sorts and kinds of Beings remain from the glorious Furniture of the Firmament to the meanest Species of Flies and Worms All Vegetables propagate as in the beginning the diversity of Sexes Male and Female in all Animals continues on Men and Beasts increase and multiply and perform all their Natural Offices ever since the primordial Benediction But lest these things should be look'd upon as Productions of Course springing meerly from the Principles and Energy of Plastick Nature what think we of the Permanent Concinnity and State of the Air whose Salubrious Blasts Transparency proper Motions and all other uses it was intended for do still hold on notwithstanding all Nusances and Infections all Vicislitudes and Alterations and all those Disturbances Conflicts and Wars from contrary jarring Qualities which have been in it since its first Expansion What can we think of the Caelestial Host that for these Six thousand Years have been every minute casting and dispersing their enlivening Beams over the whole World What can we think of the Sun in particular that during such a long Tract and Succession of Ages has been every moment at so vast an Expence of Light and Heat its Body still continuing unimpaired and its Powers neither wasted nor disabled How could all this Conservation be without the help of an Almighty provident Hand that does by a sort of new Creation sustain and supply daily the several Branches of the Universe and did at first from them all so perfect in their Kinds and in order to their particular Ends and for the general Good of the whole that there is no mending the Creation no altering the Figure Posture Number or Frame of the Integral Parts of it no adding any new Species or destroying any old ones without disorder and detriment to the great Compages Secondly The permanent state of things is discernable as by the continuance of their Natures so by the constant tenor of their Operations and Motions witness for all those bright radiant Bodies over our heads whose circular Travels are so exactly periodical and their Influences so constant that they plainly shew there is a God above
the motion of any one hath been disturbed out of its orderly Tenor especially since all is supposed by our Refined Wits to depend upon Chance which is far more likely to dissolve or disorder a Rapid Body than ever it was to form it for they themselves cannot tell the manner how this was done but 't is very easie for any man to conceive how that may be and if there be nothing but Luck in the case it must be a great wonder to any considering man that by some odd Luck or other the whole World hath not been dissolved long ago To draw this Consideration to a period Suppose these Scepticks should see what I have somewhere read of a Great Machine of Brass like that Sphere which Tully saith his Friend Posidonius made contriv'd according to Ptolemy's Hypothesis wherein there is a visible Description of the Heavens and Earth of the supposed Orbs and Spheres above of the Cycles and Epicycles with an ingenious but imperperfect Representation of the Centrical and Eccentrical Motions of the Heavenly Bodies and all this in a round Scheme of Materials orderly dispos'd in their proper places fitted together in apt Connexions and holding all together in a firm lasting and permanent Frame Would they themselves fancy this Machine to have been formed not by the Design Art or Hand of any Skilful Workman but only by Chance and by the Fortuitous Motion of Atoms But because such a Machine I speak of is not every where to be seen let them with an accurate Eye observe some Pieces of Art which have been the Curious though now Ordinary Improvement of this Age I mean the Pendulum Clocks wherein the Movements are so fine so adapted to each other so regular nay so steady and constant in their course that some without any help will go and keep their Order a full Month some a Year and some more and can it be rational to impute all this to Luck and Fortune and to the casual falling together of unguided Particles of Matter when Chance never produceth any thing that is orderly and uniform exact and steady stable fixt and constant Or thirdly Let them view a Common Globe and distinctly observe the Poles the Axis the Horizon the Meridian the Aequator the Ecliptick the Zodiack the Tropicks and all the Degrees whereby they may follow and trace with their Finger the determinate course of the Sun and then let them say whether that poor ordinary Frame can be thought the effect of Blind Fortune too Nay Lastly Let them survey their own Houses and examine the Solidity of the Foundations the Cementing of the Walls the Contignation of the Beams and Rafters and all the parts of the Buildings so duly and properly laid so regularly erected so strongly fastned so depending upon each other for support so fitted and compacted for use and all making up such Firm Durable and Permanent Structures as can bid desiance to Winds and Tempests and after all would it not be ridiculous Folly to conceive that those Edifices were not intended for use by any Architect's Forecast nor raised by any Architect's Contrivance nor finish'd by any Architect's Skill and Workmanship but that all hapned to be erected by the Fortuitous Concurrence of Unguided Instruments and by the accidental motion of Irrational Materials the Stones leaping by chance out of the Qarries the Timbers dancing away from their Roots the Mortar taking a frolick to be in too and Saws and Axes and Trowels and Hammers and Nails and Pins helping and moving too by Chance they know not how nor when Now if these be such Senseless Imaginations what gross Stupidity is it to think that this Goodly Magnificent Fabrick the Universe was made without the Counsel and Wisdom of a Divine Architect and merely by the chancemotions and friskings of small Particles of Matter that without the Power and Directions of an Infinite Mind were no more able to make a Star or a Man than the Motes of the Sun were to Re-build the Great City of London when it lay in Ashes I have instanced in these things of Art to shew the monstrous unreasonableness of those who will not allow so much of Skill and Contrivance to have been used in setting the World into this Commodious Apt and Permanent Order as is necessary for the perfecting of Humane Inventions tho indeed there was infinitely more of Wisdom necessary besides the Power requisite to raise the Materials of the World out of nothing For as a Learned Writer speaks may not the most Excellent Pieces of Humane Artifice the Fairest Structures the Finest Portraictures the most Ingenious and Useful Enquiries such as we are wont most to admire and commend with infinitely more ease happen to exist without any Industry or Contrivance spent upon them If we cannot allow those rude Imitations of Nature to spring up of themselves but as soon as we espy them are ready to acknowledge them Products of Excellent Art though we know not the Artist nor saw him work how much more reason is there that we should believe those Works of Nature so incomparably more Accurate to proceed also from Art although invisible to us that is Divine and performing its Workmanship by a Secret Hand This Argument for the Existence of a Deity was urged by that Wise Philosopher Cicero who observ'd That in the Nulla in Coelo nec fortuna nec temeritas necerratio nec vanitas inest contraque omnis ordo veritas ratio constantia Cic de Nat. Deor. lib. 2. Heavens there is nothing of Fortune Temerity or Error nothing which is vain or useless but that on the contrary there is all Order Truth Reason and Constancy And hence he shews That since things perfected by Nature are much better than Works performed by Art and yet Art it self doth nothing without Reason therefore we must believe that Nature is not void of Reason and Wisdom If then Si ergo meliora sunt ea quae naturâ quà m illa quae arte perfecta sunt nee ars efficit quidquam sine ratione ne natura quidem rationis expers est habenda Quî igitur convenit Signum aut tabulam pictam cùm aspexe ris scire adhibitam esse artem cumque procul cursum navigii videris non dubitare quin id ratione atque arte moveatur aut cùm Solarium vel descriptum aut ex aquâ contemplere intelligere declarari horas arte non casu mundum autem qui has ipsas artes earum artifices cuncta complectatur consilii rationis expertem putare Quòd si in Scythiam aut in Britanniam Shpaeram aliquis tulerit hanc quam nuper familiaris noster effecit Posidonius cujus singulae conversiones idem efficiunt in Sole in Luná in quinque stellis errantibus quod efficitur in Coelo singulis diebus noctibus quis in illâ Barbarie dubitet quin ea Sphaera sit perfecta ratione H◠autem dubitant de
Heap to serve for Navigation and Traffick into all parts of the World and for those innumerable Creeping things to move in which the Psalmist speaks of both small and great Beasts Psalm 104. 25 What could it be but Wisdom that proportioned out such determinate quantities of Water so great as to supply all the Necessities of Creatures not greater to drown them What could it be but Wisdom that gathered that lighter Element into Cavities which by the Laws of its own Nature overflows every dense and heavy Substance What could it be but Wisdom that barricado'd up the Sea every where with rising Shores Rocks and Hills which seem to tell the proudest Waves in God's own Language Hitherto shall ye come and no further What could it be but Wisdom that appointed those reciprocal Motions the Ebbings and Flowings of the Sea to preserve the Waters from those Corruptions and Stenches to which the great heat of the Sun would otherwise make them subject as we see in standing Ditches Pools and Lakes What could it be but Wisdom that seasoned the whole Ocean with Salt to keep even those Profundities from putrifying which are not so violently tossed to and fro as the Surface is by the influence of the Moon especially at the Change and Full What could it be but Wisdom that ordered the proportions of Saltness so that it is every where distributed according to the Necessities of the Place and Climate in more degrees towards the Sea's Bottom where there is less of Motion and in more scanty Measures towards the Poles where there is less of Heat What could it be but Wisdom that took care that notwithstanding these saliue Mixtures which are so necessary and useful there the Ocean should be both the Original and Receptacle of those fresh Waters which are as necessary and useful at Land What could it be but Wisdom that provided that some of the Salt Element should be freshened in the Air thence to fall down upon the Ground in gentle cherishing Showers and abundance more to be sweetned in the Veins of Hills which serve to percolate and strein the Waters in their way through variety of Sands and Earths towards innumeraâ—le Fountains and this with such accuracy that no Art of Man can so effectually take away all that Brackiâ—hness by any Filtres or Distillations And now we are come upon firm Land let us consider what could it be but Wisdom that prepar'd those secret Veins in the Earth through which the Waters of the Seas ascend to the Tops of Mountains thence fall down in crystal Streams to fertilize Valleys and to afford salutary Drinks for Men and Beasts and at last after all their uses and ends answer'd return to the Sea again in a regular course of Circulation like the Circulation of Blood in sensitive Creatures which supports Life and recruits all Vital and Animal Spirits Certainly that Man must have a Mind and Forehead as hard as a Rock of Adamant that can have the confidence to ascribe all this wise and wonderful Oeconomy which hath been all along to nothing but Fortune and Chance or to the accidental Motion of unthinking irrational and ungovern'd Matter And yet this one thing more is very Disput de Deo 2. Sect. 21. observable that throughout the whole Earth the mountainous parts of it are so situate and exalted that they seem to have been made on purpose and with an intention the more commodiously to relieve all the Regions round about them and the hotter and dryer those Regions are naturally the lostier are the Mountains and the greater plenty of Springs and Streams they have to cast forth though the Waters they yield creep up to the Tops of them against the tendency of their own Nature Thus says my Author is that hoâ— Quarter of the World America divided by a continued Ledge of Mountains which run out from South to North and yield on each side towards the East and West abundance of great Fountains and Rivers In like manner is Africa divided by Atlas and the Mountains of the Moon out of which on each side great Rivers spring And whereas at certain times of the Years the Winds in those parts throw great store of Moisiure from the Seas upon those Mountains hence in all lieklyhood it is that the Rivers overflow Africa at certain Seasons as Nilus does the Land of Aegypt After the same rate is Asia divided from the Pamphylian Coasts to the extreme parts of India by Taurus Imaus Caucasus and other Mountains which run out by divers Branches about into all parts whence innumerable famous Rivers run for a long Tract of Miles into Countries that need them In Europe there are the Pyrenean by Spain the Apennine in Italy and the Alps by France which extend their Arms through several Nations and cast out vast Streams of Water that run far and wide where they are most useful and necessary And to conclude the Observation if any Man says he will examine Islands and the lesser parts of the Earth he will find that the Land in every part is highest about the middle of the Country so that the neighbouring Plains and Valleys are liberally supplied by beneficial Currents And what more pregnant Instances can any considerate Man desire to convince him of the Existence of a most wise and provident God Whereas Chance doth evermore come short of Art as Art it self comes short of Nature these things in Nature are so far beyond all that it is impossible with any Colour of Reason to think they proceed from a Cause that never understood or intended to do good or to impute them to any thing but Divine Art Counsel and Contrivance I have taken notice of these things the rather because the Barrenness of Hills hath been objected against the Doctrine of a Providence which if the thing suppos'd were in Fact true would be a very poor Argument because the Utilities already mention'd abundantly compensate for the supposed Sterility But after all the Supposition it self cannot hold For the mountainous parts of the Earth are in divers accounts as necessary as the richest Soils and perhaps would be found as advantageous if Art and Industry were employed to make Experiments I do not speak only in reference to Culture but moreover in respect of those latent Treasures Quarries Minerals Metals Gemms and the like which have occasion'd that Notion among some Naturalists That the more ungrateful any Country is on the Surface the richer are its Bowels which is still an Argument of the Existence of a most wise Being that made Mankind not to stand still a staring about the World but some way or other to take Pains in it As for the other parts of the Earth the Utilities of them are so various and manifest that notwithstanding the most comfortable Notions we have of a better World few People are very willing to leave this We see how the Creatures about us serve to good ends and how serviceable they
were Conscious of a Right which Nature gave it to one particular determinate Situation Nor is this all for as if it communicated its seeming Consciousness every Needle of a Sea-Compass or of a moveable Sun-Dial that is touched by the Loadstone will affect the same Direction and restlesly incline to the same Points A wonderful Secret in Nature and unaccountable hitherto by meer Principles of Philosophy and yet that which has been vastly Beneficial to the Trading and Travelling part of Mankind since the Discovery of it in Fact And what can all the Scepticks in the World do here with their senseless Atoms When all is done This strange Mystery in Nature must be ascribed to the Power and Pleasure of a Divine Agent that hath given every thing a Law that is hath imprest upon all Matter a fatal Necessity of moving according to that energetick Principle wherewith he himself endued it The constant regularity of all things upon the surface of the Earth is obvious to every Man's eye We see that Plants germinate grow and seminate exactly according to their several Kinds and though the manner of their Operations and the quality of their Productions be as different as their Species yet in each Species every particular individual worketh such as the rest of the same sort do as if every distinct Species had set it self a distinct Rule and as if every individual had consented to one and the same common Polity In like manner every Species of Animals acteth still after the same rate though their particular and proper Rules be different yet one and the same Rule belongs to every Animal of the same Species which they constantly observe without any difference difformity or variation For as each sustains it self after the same manner and with the same sort of Food which belongs properly to the whole and is peculiar to the whole Species and Set so each propagates its Kind the same way preparing for Propagation by the same Methods breeding their Young at the same Seasons nourishing them with the same Matter training them up and providing for them by the same pretty Artisices which are used by all others of the same Rank and Order Go for instance but to the Fowls of the Air and you may observe how regularly and accurately each individual Bird operates according to those Laws which are common to that particular Species whereunto it belongs From the Raven to the Sparrow every peculiar Species hath its peculiar Rules for its increase and every one particular Bird yields the most exact Obedience to those Rules Not the least difference is to be found in the Bigness or Colour or Form of any one Egg nor any difference in the Building wherein it is laid But the same Proportions are in it all the same Situation the same Materials the same Shape the same Structure within the same Defensatives without the same Curiosity of Art over and in it all hardly a Stick or an Hair difference no discernible variation to be found as to Plaistering or Garniture or Moss or whatever else the Integument be As a great City or Society of Men is divided into several distinct Fraternities and each Fraternity is Governed as by general Laws for the Interest and Welfare of the whole Community so by particular Orders for the Prosperity and Good of the distinct Company in conformity whereunto every single Member acteth so is this lower World divided into many distinct Ranges of Creatures and each Range in Nature hath its Laws given it some which relate to the general Good of the whole Universe and others that relate to the particular Good of every distinct Classis And these Laws are exactly obeyed by every individual Creature so that were Man out of the way there would be no Being in this visible World but what would be Regular Orderly and Conformable to its Rules though Man be the only Creature that understands his Rules And can all this Regularity be with any pretence of Reason ascribed to an unintending Cause or to blind Chance that never did any one thing by Rule since the World stood and therefore can never be thought to act Uniformly in every Creature constantly and in all Instances No these Operations so exactly Congruous and Regular are a plain Argument of the Existence of a directing Deity and a real Explication of that Divine Benediction and Command which Moses says was given at the Creation That the earth should bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind that every winged fowl should multiply after its kind and that every living creature should be brought forth after his kind cattel and creeping things and beasts of the earth all after their kind and it was so Those Productions were regular then and so they are still and will continue so to the end of the World being no other but so many constant and visible Executions of an Original Law 2. Besides this great Regularity of things in the manner of their Operations we must consider next the seeming Sagacity of them as to the ends of their Operations which is another Expression of the resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in Creatures that are Irrational All Creatures work as if they understood the Reason of their methodical Proceedings nay as if they proposed Ends to themselves and intended by such and such Means to bring all their Projects and Purposes to pass chiefly to preserve their own Being and then to continue their Kind and to provide a Posterity to succeed them when either natural Death or Casualties shall take them off that no part of the Creation may be lost It is observable of all Vegetables in general that from the opening of the Spring they begin and carry on their methodical Works as if they knew beforehand all the business they are to do the next Summer and as if they intended to answer the Ends now mentioned First by taking care for their own Growth and then for Semination And it is observable in particular of divers Pulses and other Plants whose Natures are so weak and feeble that they cannot stand upright of themselves that as if they were sensible of their Infirmity they shoot forth into various Fibres Strings and twining Branches which bear no Fruit but are designed to take hold and clutch on some Poll or Wall or on some neighbouring Shrub for the support of the Vegetable and for its better Sustenance and Semination In all which Nature works with so much seeming Caution Prudence and Forecast that if it had Reason of its own it could not operate with greater Art And then for sensitive Creatures we see with Admiration what resemblances of Wisdom and Providence there are in their Actions Go to the ant thou sluggard saith Solomon consider her ways and be wise Which having no guide overseer or ruler provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest Prov. 6. 6 7 8. In the Common Edition
have Memory to be nothing but the decaying remainder of Motion like the sound about a Bell when it has done ringing And every act and determination of the Will they would have to be Clinamen Principiorum or a declination of Atoms from a kind of perpendicular Line in which they suppose them to have hung before So that according to these Men every Operation of the Soul lieth in Atoms and is derived from Atoms which Whimsies deserve Laughter rather than any grave or sober Confutation For is it possible for Men of true solid Reason to believe that Atoms can be a bubling Fountain of Thoughts That they can study contemplate perceive argue form Opinions resolve Doubts discover Truth find out the different Natures of Good and Evil direct our Actions tell us what we must Do and what we must Avoid promise Rewards or threaten us with Punishment Nay inflict Punishment presently and plague wicked People with the intolerable Smart that attends an evil Conscience They may as well say that Atoms can write Books that the whole material World is an Academy of all manner of Learning and that the Motes which we see dancing in the Sun-beams are so many Historians Orators Philosophers and Divines The truth is 'T is not Reason that is the Ground-work of those wild Conceits but a sad Necessity they bring upon themselves of running to the most monstrous Absurdities to avoid all Thoughts of a God whose Existence they have disowned For it there be such a thing as a rational Soul distinct from Matter and Body it must inevitably follow that there is also a Deity who gave it its Being because nothing but a Deity could give it Therefore they who have the Front to deny the Being of a Deity are forced to deny the immateriality of the Soul of course And yet that the Soul is immaterial its excellent Powers Faculties and Operations will convince any one that will but lay his Hand upon his Heart and give himself leave to think soberly For if the Soul be Matter How came Men to dispute about its Immateriality How had the Mind any Notion of it How did the Mind get it at first since it is infinitely too high for Matter Nay since the Notion of Incorporiety is so contrary and repugnant to the Nature and Notion of Matter If the Soul be Matter How comes it to judge of material Representations and to discover those Impostures and Cheats which Matter many times puts upon the Imagination As for instance The Sun is found to be vastly bigger than the whole Earth though it appears to the Eye and Fansie to be but a Foot wide There are a thousand other Errors wherewith our Senses and Imaginations are apt to be deluded And how could the Mind look through all those Errors into the Truth and Reality of things if it were not a nobler Being than Matter that measures sensible Objects by intelligible Ideas of its own which are the proper Criterions of Truth If the Soul were Matter How could it be capable of Reflecting within it self Or how could it Recollect so many things done long ago in the Days of ones Minority and Recover so many fugitive Ideas as we find it doth Command and this by a native Power of its own purely by the strength of thinking Matter cannot act upon Matter but by some impulse from without it much less can it act upon it self as the Soul does by a peculiar Faculty it has of casting about and of rouling Thoughts within the Minds and therefore it must be a noble Being distinct from Matter that hath a Principle of Activity and an Empire within it self If it were Matter How could it command the Body in every Instance and make it obey at Pleasure Nay how could it command it self to think on this Subject or that as it listeth To go on a Meditating or give it over To resolve upon that Action or another without controul How could it forsee deliberate or advise How could it entertain any inward Pleasures and Joys impressions which Matter can no more receive than Rocks can dance How could it contemplate so excellent a Being as a Deity Or discourse of Eternity and another World Or possess wicked Wretches with such Fears as they can never quite rid their Mind of Or fill good Men with comfortable Hopes of a Reward The natures of Good and Evil and the Ideas of Divine Justice and Benignity are too Sublime to fall under Sense nor can they be incident to Matter and he must have the most ridiculous Conceptions in the World of his own Frame who thinks that the Operations and Perfections of his Soul are no higher or better than what Clay or Pebbles or Chips would be capable of were their Particles but otherwise modified Hence we infer That the rational Soul is of far higher Extraction than what Stone or Timber can pretend to That it is infinitely of a more noble Nature than Atoms of Dust And that its Operations and Perfections are vastly different from the Properties of Matter how fine soever you suppose it to be And therefore it will follow either that these Operatiosn and Perfections sprang from Nothing or that there is a Being of the most eminent and absolute Perfections from whom they are derived which indeed is the only true and satisfactory Account that can be given of the Nature and Faculties of a rational Soul I have hitherto argued from Reason only because they who deny the Existence of a Deity are constrained by necessary Consequence to deny Divine Revelation too and the Authority of the Holy Scriptures However we may ex abundanti observe what Moses tells us Gen. 1. 27. God created man in his own image in the image of God created be him And what St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. 7. That a man is the image and glory of God Which places of Scripture though they are to be understood partly of that Dominion Authority and Power which God hath given Man as his Vicegerent and Representative over all things here below yet do they I conceive speak also and perhaps chiefly of that Similitude and Resemblance which the Soul of every one of us does in its Frame bear of the Divine Nature and Perfections which will a little further shew its Excellence and consequently the Existence of a super-eminent Being whose Stamp and Impress it carries as far as the Capacities of a Creature can admit it We find how volatile and nimble our Thoughts are how soon they reach the very ends of the Earth how quickly they compass Sea and Land with what Facility they mount to Heaven how speedily they take a view of the whole Frame of Nature as it were at once and with what Celerity the Mind does gather and comprehend within it self so many different Ideas And what is this but an imperfect Representation of the Omnipresence of that God Who is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24. Nay Whom the heaven and