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
universal Belief and without the help of Reason Whatever External Professions and Compliances it may bring a few timorous Persons to it cannot alone work upon the Understanding and Conscience to receive an Opinion which is not in it self evident or probable rather Men are apt to hate an Opinion that is brought with the terrible Pomp of Sword and Fire witness all the unsuccessful Attempts of Princes who instead of propagating their Religion have still done it hurt by Sanguinary Methods The difficulties here would have been far greater nay insuperable to force all the People in the World into the belief of a thing so contrary to the Inclinations and Ease of their own Minds to make them believe that there is an Almighty Being over them that observes all their evil Actions and will most certainly punish them and so to bring them under a necessity of possessing themselves Day and Night with tormenting Anxieties this is so inconsistent with those desires which every one naturally hath of enjoying all possible Satisfaction and Comfort in his own breast that it would have been impossible for all the World to have been forced into an universal Belief of it had there not been an universal Principle in Nature to oblige them to it Fear is a disquieting Passion which every Man would clear his mind of as soon as he can Some who have been bred up in the fear of God have endeavoured to force themselves out of it even against their Consciences and Reason and how all Mankind could be forced into it without their Consciences and Reason is altogether unconceiveable It is therefore pretended in the next place That this was done by the subtle and fraudulent Arts of Politicians and that People believed because they were told by their Governors that there was a Deity But to tell is one thing and to perswade another People are not wont much less are all People in the World dispos'd to have so very kind an Opinion of their Superiors as to believe them upon their bare words especially in a case which touches them so nearly and wherein all the Pleasure of their Lives and the Peace of their Minds are so deeply concern'd For Men have ever found that Sense Wisdom and Honesty do not always go along with Power Great Men may be as weak and shallow in their Intellectuals as others as soon mistaken in their Measures as easily disappointed of their Ends nay more apt to be put upon than to impose And though some may be very skilful in their Conduct yet may they be designing and the more politick any Governors are thought the more ready are People to be very jealous of their Intentions and how it could happen all at once that all Statesmen should be so politick as to contrive and all Mankind should be so credulous as to consent to a Fiction of so great a Nature and Consequence is a question which may well ask any Man of Reason how this can agree with it But besides suppose such a lucky hit did once no Man knows when fall out how is it imaginable That a politick Artisice could have past every where all along from Age to Age without being discovered by the greatest part of Mankind There are very few probable Truths but some time or other have met with Contradiction and when an Imposture comes to be notorious it is for ever basfled and if the belief of a Deity had been such how can we think that a Design formed to terrify and rack the World should not have been found out and spoiled many Ages ago especially when inquisitive Philosophers travelled up and down into so many parts to discover what was true and what was false and to communicate their thoughts where ever they went Still they returned home confirmed in their belief of a God as the Rational Sense of all Men and though in after-times some few Opiniators pretended to be singular yet were they hooted at scorn'd and hated and the ancient universal Belief went on still which makes it evident that it was of strength enough to support it self and the more narrowly it was lookt into the greater Substance was found within it and the greater Solidity at the bottom of it being highly consonant to every Man's Reason and founded in our Common Nature 4. It is pretended lastly That tho universal Belief of a God might have been introduced by common Compact or mutual Agreemeent among Mankind which is as sensless and filly an Imagination as any other for how was it possible for such an Agreement to have been begun managed carried on and ratified with the express consent of all People in the World Surely they that think so must imagine that the World lies within a very narrow compass and that intelligence in those Days was very quick and that the minds of all Men were wonderfully credulous 'T is a great rarity to find in any one little Country or Town an entire agreement in matters of Opinion though they carry with them sufficient reasons of credibility and was it ever possible for so many Nations in the World of such different Languages so vastly distant from one another of such several Inclinations Customs and Interests so divided by Seas and without any Mutual Commerce or Correspondence is it likely I say That they could all deliberately agree in one and the same Notion of their own making by Pact Covenant and Stipulation And that too to abridge themselves of the Pleasures of Life to bring themselves into Slavery under fears of their own creating to crucify their Hearts with mortifying Expectations to render themselves came and managable by their Governors to propagate a Fiction and thereby to make their Posterity for ever melancholy and miserable if there were no God But this pretence is so very Absurd and Phantastical that to confute it any further would be time lost and therefore the premises being rightly considered must necessarily infer that the Belief of a Deity is a Principle rooted in Humane Nature Notwithstanding all the various Modes of Religion which are in the World all Nations Consent in this Principle perhaps it is the only Principle wherein all are agreed Which shews That it is the necessary and immediate Result of Common Reason It springs out of our Natural Faculties as soon as we use them We bring the Seminals of Religion into the World with us and the universal Belief of a Deity is a strong argument of God's Existence because it could come from no other hand but his that gave us our Faculties and framed our Nature so that by the exercise of our Faculties we may presently discover the Hand that made us and gave us our Being and hath set a mark of himself upon the minds of all Men whereby his Being may be discerned and known though all the Glories of his Nature cannot be fully comprehended If at last it be said That this Argument touching universal Consent is not strong enough to prove the
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. FINIS BOOKS Published by the Reverend Dr. Pelling and are to be Sold by William Rogers A Practical Discourse concerning Holiness Wherein is shewed the Nature the Possibility the Degrees and Necessity of Holiness together with the means of Acquiring and Perfecting it 8vo Price 2 s. 6 d. A Discourse of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Wherein the Benefits thereof are set forth and the Distinction between Christ's Natural and Spiritual Body Discussed with Practical Conclusions drawn from the whole Discourse 8vo Part 1. Price 2 s. 6 d. A Practical Discourse upon the Blessed Sacrament Shewing the Duties of the Communicant before at and after the Eucharist 8vo Part 2. Price 2 s. 6 d. A Practical Discourse upon Charity in its several Branches and of the Reasonableness and useful Nature of this great Christian Virtue 8o Price 2 s. A Practical Discourse upon Humility Wherein is shewn the Nature Reasonableness and Usefulness thereof together with the ways of Expressing and Increasing it 8vo Price 2 s. A Practical Discourse concerning God's Love to Mankind Written for the Satisfaction of some scrupulous Persons 8vo Price 2 s. A Practical Discourse concerning the Redeeming of Time 8â—o Price 1 s. 6 d. A Practical Discourse upon Prayer 8o Price 1 s. in 12â— Price 6 d. A Sermon preached before the King at St. James's Octob. 13th 1695. BOOKS Printed for and are to be Sold by W. Rogers A Rchbishop Tillotson's Works being all that were Published by his Grace himself and now Collected into one Volume Fol. Price 20 s. Bishop Wilkins Fifteen Sermons 8vo Bishop of Worcester's Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented c. 4to Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared in Two Parts 4 to Bishop of Norwich's Two Sermons of the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence before the Queen at Whitehall 4 to Sermon preach'd at St. Andrews-Holborn on Gal. 6. 7. Of Religious Melancholy A Sermon preach'd before the Queen at Whitehall 4 to Of the Immortality of the Soul preach'd before the King and Queen at Whitehall on Palm-Sunday 4 to Thansgiving-Sermon before the King at St. James's Apr. 16. 96. Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery 2 d. Edit 4 to Answer to the amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer 4 to Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick Communion c. 4 to Preservative against Popery in 2 Parts with the Vindication 4 to Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First part 4 to Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity 3 d. Edit 4 to Apology for writing against the Socinians 4 to Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers stated c. 4 to Vindication of the Case of Allegiance c. 4 to Sermon at the Funeral of the Reverend Dr. Calamy 4 to Sermon before the Lord Mayer November 4. 1â—â—â— 4 to Fast-Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall June 17. 4 to Sermon before the House of Commons Jan. 30. 1692. 4 to Sermon preach'd before the Queen Feb. 1â— 1692. 4 to The Charity of lending without Usury in a Scrmon before the Lord Mayor on Easter-Tuesday 1692. 4 to Sermon at the Temple-Church May â—9 16â—â—â— 4 to Sermon preach'd before the Queen June 26. 1648. 4 to Sermon preach'd at the Funeral of the Reverend Dr. Meggor late Dean of Winchester Decemb. 10. 1692. 4 to A Sermon at the Temple-Church December 30. 1694. upon the sad Occasion of the Death of our gracious Queen 4 to Practical Discourse concerning Death In Octavo Ninth Edition Price 3 s. In Twelves Price 2 s. Practical Discourse concerning Judgment Third Edit 8 vo A Discourse concerning the Divine Providence 2 d. Edit 4 to Dr. Claget's View of the whole Controversie between the Representer and the Answerer 4 to Authority of Councils and the Rule of Faith c. 4 to Answer to the Eighth Chapter of the Representer's 2 d Part in the first Dialogue between him and his Lay-Friend 4 to State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began 4 to School of the Eucharist Translated and Published with an excellent Preface by Dr. Claget in Quarto Price 1 s. In Octavo Price 6 d. Sermons in Two Volumes 8 vo Dr. Wake 's Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry 4 to Sermons and Discourses on several Occasions 8 vo Sermon preach'd before the Queen April 2 1690. 4 to Sermon before the Lord-Mayor in Easter-Week 1690. 4 to Sermon before the King and Queen May 4 1690. 4 to Mr. Brograve's Sermon before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court May 12 1689. 4 to Mr. Jessery's Sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Norwich on Numb 23. 10. The Peaceable Christian A Sermon 4 to Mr. Clack's Sermon at Bow-Church July 5. 1691 at the Consec ration of his Grace John Lord Arch-Bishop of York c. 4 to Mr. Hutchinson's Sermon at the Visitation at Beccles May 27 1692. Mr. Griffith's Sermon at St. Laurence Church in Reading October 3 1692. Mr. Blackhall's Sermon at Brentwood in Essex October 7 1693 at the Visitation of Henry Lord Bishop of London 4 to Mr. Prowae's Confirmation Sermon preached at Bridgewater July 16. 1693. 4 to Mr. Gee's Letter to the Superiours whether Bishops or Priests which approve or license Popish Books in England 4 to The History of the Persecutions of the Protestants in the Principality of Orange by the French King 4 to Mr. Tayl â—â—
Excellence without the least mixture of Defect or Imperfection Such Defects and Imperfections there are in all Creatures In all Bodies there is Substance but such as is wrapt up in Matter which is a great imperfection in comparison of Spirituality In all Vegetables there is Life but such as is subject to decay which in them is imperfection In all Animals there is Sense or Perception but such as is attended with Fear Grief Anger and other disquieting Passions which are so many Imperfections in their Nature In Men there is Reason but such as is blemisht with Ignorance and Errors and the knowledge they have is acquired by the great labours of the Mind by Contemplation and Study by close arguing from one thing to another and by a long train of thoughts which follow each other successively and are gradually spun out of the Soul by the painful operations of the Rational Faculties all which shews the Defects and Imperfections that are in Humane Nature also And as for those Blessed Spirits above which we call Angels though there be in them a perfection of Understanding without dulness pain or laborious activity and though there be too rectitude in their Wills regularity in their Affections and all moral Perfections which make them happy yet is their Knowledge limited and for their whole Being they depend upon the Will and Pleasure of a Superior Power that at first created and still preserves them which argues imperfection in them likewise although they be the noblest part of the Universe Go through every Classis and sort of Individuals in the World and you will find in all of them some Deficiencies which are annext to their Principal and Best Part so that though they be all perfect in their kind and sit for the Ends for which they were formed yet they fall vastly short of Eminent and Absolute Perfection For such Perfection is to have all kinds of Excellence and all degrees of Excellence clear and free from all manner of Defect indigence or Incapacity Now the Notion of God includes this Absolute Perfection For that word GOD speaks a Being that is most Excellent So that supposing a Deity to be and to be the Cause of all Inferior things which the Notion of God implies too you must necessarily conceive of him as the Being in whom all those Perfections are united as in a Center which are divided every-where in the World and that they are all in Him in a most eminent and excellent Degree For no Being can give those Perfections which some way or other it hath not either formally or actually or virtually and eminently in it self because then it would communicate more than it hath that is more than what is in its power to impart which to suppose would be a contradiction All Causes that work by a necessity of Nature though they operate to the utmost power and extent of their Faculties yet 't is as impossible for them to yield what they have not as it is for Water to bring forth a Rational Soul or for Fire to produce an Angel out of a few Sticks And though Voluntary Agents work as they please and may give their Effects much less than themselves have yet 't is as impossible for the Freest and Powerful Agent to give more as it is for an Artificer to form a World out of nothing The thing it self cannot admit of such Omnipotence And so we may be sure that neither could God bestow Perfections which he himself was not possest of and therefore those Excellencies which we find in Nature and which are the Perfections of Nature must be concluded to come from the Author of Nature and consequently to be in him as in their true Original for otherwise there would be more Excellencies in the Effects than there are in the Cause which is as absurd to suppose as it is to imagine that there is more Water in a Rivulet than in the Ocean Again As all Perfection must be conceiv'd to be in that Supreme most Excellent and most Glorious Nature which we call GOD so it must be there too Absolutely or without the least mixture of Defect All defect must be in the Creature and that not so much by immediate Causality from God as by the necessary Condition of its own Nature because it is a thing made and of Temporary production and therefore of a Finite Nature and of Limited Faculties that is it must be essentially imperfect especially in comparison of its Creator it being utterly impossible for a Narrow Scanty New-form'd thing to be commensurate in all its Perfections to the Maker who is supposed to be Independent Infinite and All-sufficient in himself The Nature of the thing made cannot allow this and by consequence it is naturally and necessarily defective Upon which account though we must conclude that God is a Perfect Being because all Perfections in other things are derived from Him yet we may not conceive that he hath any mixture of Desiciency because the things he hath made are all of them defective in some respect or other For those Defects are so natural that the things themselves could not possibly have been made otherwise or without them Therefore as we must affirm That the Perfections which are in the World are limited and partial blended and alloy'd with something that is a blemish to them so we must conceive that those Originals of them which are in God are Boundless and Full Eminent and Absolute For to think otherwise is to degrade the Author of all Perfections and in truth to make the Notion of a Deity inconsistent with it self I have been the more desirous to clear this matter That the general Notion of God doth and must signify a Being which is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect because it is a very Rational Principle which may be fairly understood and must needs be assented to by all that will but hearken to Right Reason And because it is a very useful Principle also that will soon inable us to draw out of it by direct consequence a more 2. Particular Description of the Deity which is the Second thing I am to come to that I may shew what kind of Being we are to apprehend God to be before I go about to prove that this suppos'd most Perfect Being doth really and actually Exist For from this great and General Notion of God this Particular Account will follow 1. First We must conceive of God that he is an Independent Being not beholding to any Antecedent Distinct and Foreign Cause for the production of his Nature For could we without a contradiction suppose a Cause Antecedent to that which is thought to be the Chief and First Cause of all things such a Supposition would argue Imperfection in the Deity Because it would make him a Precarious Being depending upon the Activity and Pleasure of Another Superior to him in greatness of Power and before him in Time and in Existence of Nature 2. God having all Perfection