inforced And if notwithstanding they would be so regardless of God as to take no notice of his Judgments and Mercies so rude to his Authority as not to mind either his Law within or his Law without them upon what reasonable Pretence can they excuse themselves But then as for us Christians we have not only all those natural Discoveries of our Duty which the Heathen had and all those Supernatural ones which the Jews had but a great deal more For in our Revelation the Laws and Motives of Vertue are set before us in a much clearer Light and are neither wrapt up in Mystical Senses nor overcast with typical Representations but laid before us in the most plain and easie Propositions For that which was the Mystical Sense of the Jewish Law is the literal Sense of the Christian in which all those Precepts and Promises and Threats which were delivered to the Jews in dark Riddles obscure and typical Adumbrations are brought forth to us from behind the Curtain and proposed in plain and popular Articles So that if we still continue in our sinful Courses we are of all men the most inexcusable The Heathen may plead against the Jews that their Law of Nature was not so clear in its Precepts nor yet so cogent in its Motives as the Law of Moses the Jews may plead against us Christians that their Law of Moses was neither so express in its Precepts nor yet so intelligible in its best and most powerful Motives as our Gospel but as for us Christians we have nothing to plead but by our own Obstinacy against the clearest Discoveries of our Duty do stand condemned to everlasting Silence So that when it shall appear at the dread Tribunal of God that we have persisted in our wickedness notwithstanding all these Advantages we must expect to be reproached by all the Reasonable World to be exploded and hiss'd at not only by Saints and Angels but by the Jews and the Gentiles and the Devils themselves who will all conspire with our own Consciences to second our woful Doom with the Loud Acclamation of Just and Righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways Wherefore as we would not perish for ever without Pity and Excuse let us make hast to forsake all ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World SECT III. That those Actions which carry with them this perpetual Obligation are the main and principal Parts of Religion THE truth of which is most evident from the abovenamed Text Mic. 6.8 and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Which Interrogation tho it implies not an absolute Negation viz. that the Lord required nothing else of them for under the Law he required Sacrifices and sundry other positive Duties as under the Gospel he requires Sacraments and Reading and Hearing his holy Word c. which are positive Duties as well as those legal Institutions of Moses yet it plainly implies a comparative Negation viz. that the Lord requires nothing else so principally and affectionately so for the sake of the things themselves and upon the account of their own inherent Beauty and Goodness as he doth these Moral Duties here specified He did indeed require the Jews to offer Sacrifice to him and to perform those other Ceremonial Rites specified in the Law of Moses and for them wilfully to have neglected those Duties would have been such an avowed Defiance to his Authority as would have rendred them justly obnoxious to all the Judgments threatned in their Law but yet he did much more earnestly require them to be just and merciful and humble and manifested himself to be far better pleased with one Act of Moral Goodness than with a thousand Sacrifices And thus he requires of us Christians that we should communicate with him and with one another in our Evangelical Sacraments and dutifully conform to all those sacred Institutions and Solemnities of Religion which are contained in the Gospel and if we wilfully neglect them we justly incur all that everlasting Vengeance which is there denounced but yet our sincere compliance with the immutable Obligations of Piety and Vertue is a thousandfold more acceptable to God than our strictest Observation of these his positive Institutions So that the Question in the Text what doth the Lord require of thee plainly implies this Proposition that tho God doth exact of us certain Duties which are not moral i. e. have no intrinsick necessity in them yet it is the Moral Duties such as Justice and Mercy and Humility which he principally requires at our hand Thus concerning Sacrifice God plainly tells us I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. I will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice Hos. 6.6 And the Wise man assures us that to do Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice Prov. 21.3 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself pronounceth even before that Ceremonial Worship was Abolished that to love the Lord with all our heart with all our understanding with all our Soul and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as our selves is more than all burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices Mark 12.33 But for the clearer Demonstration of this great and necessary Truth I shall endeavour First to prove the Truth of it by some Scripture Arguments Secondly to assign the Reasons of it As for the Proof of it the following Particulars will be abundantly sufficient First THAT the Scripture plainly declares that the great Design of all the Doctrinals of Religion hath always been to move and perswade men to the practice of Moral Goodness Secondly THAT the main Drift and Scope of all the positive Duties of Religion hath been always to improve and perfect men in Moral Goodness Thirdly THAT God expresses in Scripture a great Contempt of all the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from Moral Goodness Fourthly THAT where ever we find the Whole of Religion summ'd up in a few Particulars they are always such as are Instances of Moral Goodness Fifthly THAT wherever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described in Scripture their Character always consists of some Instances or other of Moral Goodness Sixthly THAT the Scripture plainly declares that at the great Account between God and our Souls the main Inquisition will be concerning our Moral Good or Evil. I. THE Scripture expresly declares that the great Design of the Doctrins of Religion is to move and perswade men to Moral Goodness For so the Apostle speaking of the Grace of God i. e. the Gospel assures us that its great Design is to teach men to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present World Tit. 2.12 And if we consider the Doctrines in Particular we shall find that they all conspire in this great Design For so the Doctrine of eternal life is
not to live like Hogs that wallow in the Mire while they are full and whine and clamor when they are empty which forbid them to feed on Eagles and other Birds of Prey to instruct them to live by honest Industry and not by Rapine which prohibits Fish without Scales that generally live in the Mud to teach the evil of Sensuality and earthly-mindedness c. From all which it is evident that Moral Goodness was the constant Mark at which all the positive Precepts of their Law were levelled AND then as for the Christian Religion all the positive Precepts it contains are directed to the same End It requires us to believe in Jesus Christ and in his Mediation to draw near unto God the Design of which Faith it expresly tells us is to Sanctifie our natures Acts 26.18 and to purifie our hearts Acts 15.9 It enjoyns us to be Baptized into the name of Jesus and for what purpose but to oblige us thereby to die to sin and to walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 It requires us to commemorate our Saviour's Passion in a Sacramental Communion of his Body and Blood and to what End but only to excite us to Love and Thankfulness to God and Charity towards one another 1 Cor. 5.7 8. In a word it requires us to live in Vnity with the Church and not to separate our selves from her sacred Assemblies and for what other reason but that we might become an holy Temple and an habitation of God by being compacted together into an uniform and regular Society Eph. 2.21 22. Since therefore all the Precepts both of the Old and New Testament which are purely positive do bear a Respect to Moral Goodness and were imposed by God in subserviency thereunto it is evident that that is the principal Mark which he designs and aims at III. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of our Duty is the great Contempt which God expresses of the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from moral Goodness For thus concerning the Positives of the Jewish Religion we are told that the Sacrifice of the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. Prov. 15.8 And concerning the Whole of their positive Religion the Prophet thus pronounces in the Name of God to what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-Offerings of Rams and of the fat of fed Beasts i. e so full as that I loath them and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required these things at your hands to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations Incense is Abomination to me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assâ—emblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even the Solemn meetings Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes yea when ye make many Prayers I will not hear And what I beseech you is the reason that God should thus dislike his own Institutions why he plainly tells you your hands are full of blood your Cruelty and Oppression doth prophane your Worship and turn it all into Impiety Isai. 1.11 to the 16th For so Isai. 66.3 he plainly tells them he that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol and why so why they have chosen their own ways i. e. of Impiety and Wickedness and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations Nor doth God express a less Contempt of the Positives of Christianity when separated from Moral Goodness For thus St. James tells us even of our Faith or Belief in Jesus that without Works it is dead that is a sensless squalid thing that hath neither Life nor Beauty in it James 2.17 And S. Peter compares Baptism to the washing of a Swine when it is separated from Purity of Life and Manners 2 Pet. 2.22 And our receiving the Lords Supper without Charity and Devotion is by St. Paul stiled coming together to Condemnation 1 Cor. 11.34 All which is a plain Demonstration that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God insists on since 't was this that sanctified the Sacrifices of the Jews and crowned all their Ceremonial Observances with the divine Acceptation and without this all their other Services were noisom and offensive to him and it is this that perfumes our Faith and our Sacraments our Prayers and Religious Assemblies and renders them a grateful and sweet smelling savor in the Nostrils of God and without this they are all a hateful stench and Annoyance to him Doubtless therefore the principal Matter of Duty which God requires of us is that which he esteems the Grace and Fragrancy of all our other Duties IV. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God requires of us is that where ever we find the Whole of Religion summed up in a few Particulars they are always such as are Parts and Instances of moral Goodness Thus in the above cited Mic. 6. what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Thus also the Prophet Isaiah giving an account to his People what they were to do in order to their Reconciliation with God thus directs them wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judg the Fatherless plead for the Widow come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Isai 1.16.17 18. So also our blessed Saviour sums up the Whole Duty of Man into two Particulars and what are they why thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great Commandment And the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self on these two Commandments hang the Law and the Prophets Mat. 22.37 38 39 40. Thus St. James True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the Word James 1.27 And elsewhere the Apostle sums up the whole Law into one leading Head of Morality and that is Love for love saith he is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 So this Observation generally holds true that in all those Summaries of Duty mentioned in the holy Scripture only such Duties are taken Notice of as are Parts and Instances of Morality Which is a plain Demonstration that 't is this which God principally requires since 't is this which he most takes notice
Happiness of his Creatures should above all things exact of us the Duties of Morality He knows that our supreme Beatitude is founded in our Piety and Vertue and that out of our free and constant sprightly and vivacious Exercise of these arises all our Heaven both here and hereafter and knowing this that tender Love which he bears us that mighty Concern which he hath for our Welfare makes him thus urgent and importunate with us For he regards our Duty no farther than it tends to our Good and values each Act of our Obedience by what it contributes to our Happiness and 't is therefore that he prefers moral Duties above positive because they are more essential to our eternal Welfare IV. and Lastly GOD principally requires of us moral Goodness because when all positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Exercise of our Natures For Moral Good is from everlasting to everlasting its Birth was elder than the World and its Life and Duration runs parallel with Eternity before ever the Mountains were brought forth 't was founded in the Nature of God and as an inseparable Beam of his all-comprehending Reason it shines from one end of the World to the other For as soon as ever there was a rational Creature in being the obligations of Morality laid hold on him before ever any positive Duty was imposed and as long as ever there remains a rational Creature the Obligations of Morality will abide on him when all positive Duty is expired For moral Obligations are not founded like positive ones upon mutable Circumstances but upon firm and everlasting Reasons upon Reasons that to all Eternity will carry with them the same force and necessity For as long as we are the Creatures of an infinitely perfect Creator 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to love and adore him as long as we are reasonable Creatures 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to submit our Will and Affections to our Reason and as long as we are related to other reasonable Creatures 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to be kind and just and peaceable in all our Intercourses with them So that these are such Duties as no Will can dispense with no Reasons abrogate no Circumstances disanul or make void but as long as God is what he is and we are what we are they must and will oblige us So that what the Psalmist saith of God may be truly applied to moral Goodness the Heavens shall perish but thou shalt remain they all shall wax old as doth a garment and be folded up and Changed but thou art the same yesterday to day and for ever and thy years shall have no end But as long since the positive Parts of the Jewish Religion were cancell'd and repealed the Vail of the Temple rent in twain the Temple it self buried in Ruins and all its Altars thrown down and their Sacrifices abolished whilst the moral Parts of that Religion still stand firm as the everlasting Mountains about Jerusalem so the time will come whem the positive Parts of Christianity it self must cease when Faith must be swallowed up in Visâ—on and Sacraments be made void by Perfection and all the stated times and outward Solemnities of our Worship expire into an everlasting Sabbath but then when all this Scene of things is quite vanished away Piety and Virtue will still keep the Stage and be the everlasting Exercise of our glorified Natures For as I shewed before all positive Duty is instituted in subserviency to moral and like a Scaffold to a House is only erected for the Convenience of Building up this everlasting Structure of Morality and when this is once finished must be all taken down again as an unnecessary Incumbrance that now only hides and obscures the Beauty of that Heavenly Building that was raised on it and shall abide without it for ever to entertain our Faculties through all the future Ages of our Being and to be the everlasting Mansion of our Natures Wherefore since positive Duties must all cease and expire and only moral Goodness is to be our Business for ever 't is no wonder that God who is so good a Master takes so much Care in ths short Apprentiship of our Life to train us up in that which is to be our Trade for ever He knows it is upon Piety and Vertue that we must live to Eternity and maintain our selves in all our Glory and Happiness and that if when we come into the invisible World we have not this blessed Trade to subsist by we are undone for ever and therefore out of a tender Regard to our Welfare he makes it his principal Care to train us up in this everlasting Business of our Natures WHAT then remains but that above all things we take care to apply our selves to the Practice of moral Goodness to contemplate and love and adore and imitate God to depend upon him and resign up our selves to his Disposal and Government to be sober and temperate in our Affections and Appetites and just and Charitable and modest and peaceable towards one another These are the great things which God requires at our hands and without these all our Religion is a fulsome Cheat. 'T is true the positive Parts of Religion are our Duty as well as these and God by his Sovereign Authority exacts them at our hands and unless when Jesus Christ hath been sufficiently proposed to us we do sincerely believe in him unless we strike Covenant with him by Baptism and frequently renew that Covenant in the Lords Supper unless we diligently attend on the Publick Assemblies of his Worship and use an honest Care to avoid Schism and to persist in Vnity with his true Catholick Church there is no Pretence of Morality will bear us out when we appear before his dread Tribunal But then we are to consider that the proper Use of all these positive Duties is to improve and perfect us in moral Goodness and unless we use them to this Effect we shall render them altogether void and insignificant Wherefore as we would not lose all the Fruits of our positive Duties let us take care to extend them to their utmost Design to improve our Sacrifice to Obedience our Sacraments to Gratitude and Love our Hearing to Practice our Praying to Devotion and our Fasting to Humility and Repentance For if we rest in these Duties and go no farther thinking by such short Payments to Compound with God for all those Debts we owe to the eternal Laws of Morality we miserably cheat and befool our own Souls which notwithstanding all this Exactness about the Positives of Religion are by their own immoral Affections still enslaved to the Devil to whom it is much one what our outward Form of Religion is whether it be Christian or Heathen or Mahometan provided it doth not operate on our minds or give any Check to the Current of our depraved Natures
that hath any Reverence for the Humane Nature within him would ever suffer himself to be bribed for an Opinion that doth not only undervalue but deride and Ridicule it Should you hear your self branded with a contemptible Character or ranked among Apes or any such ridiculous Animals you would doubtless be so far from courting the Author of it that you would resent it as a great Affront and think your selves obliged in honour to return the Provocation and yet for the sake of a few base Lusts which are the Shame and Scandal of your Natures you espouse the Cause of Atheism tho it derides and affronts you to your Face and stains the Glory of your Natures with the most contemptible and ridiculous Character in the World II. THE Atheist concludes against the very Being and Well-being of Humane Society For the Soul that penetrates through all Humane Society and compacts and unites it in a regular Body is Religion or the Sense and Acknowledgment of a Divine Power without which all the Parts of the Corporation of Mankind like the Members of a dead Body must necessarily disband and flye abroad into Atoms For a form'd Society which is an united Multitude consists in the Harmony and Consent of its Members mutually united by Laws and Agreements and disposed into a Regular Subordination to one another neither of which can any Humane Society long continue without the Belief and Acknowledgment of a God FOR without this in the first place 't is impossible that the Parts of any Society should continue united by Laws and Agreements For 't is from the Belief of a God that all the Obligations of Conscience are derived so that take that away and these must dissolve and when the Obligations of Conscience are dissolved there is nothing but Mens temporal Interests can oblige them to conform to those Laws and mutual Agreements by which they are united to one another And if it be their Interest only that obliges them to be just and faithful to their mutual Agreements they will be equally obliged to be unjust and unfaithful when ever it is their Interest to be so So that this Principle which only obliges them to be honest while it is for their Advantage will as effectually oblige them to be Knaves when ever the Case is altered and things being reduced to this Issue there remains no Foundation of Trust and mutual Confidence among Men. For what can any Mans Promise signifie if he be under no Obligation but Interest To be sure if it be for his Interest he will do what he says without any Promise but if it be not what Promise can oblige him You will say it is his Interest to keep his Word because otherwise he will forfeit his Reputation for the future But pray what Reputation can a Man have to forfeit that owns no other Law or Obligation but his Interest or who will ever presume upon that Mans Word and Engagement whose avowed Principle it is to be honest no longer than he can gain by it Thus Atheism you see resolves all our Obligations into our worldly Interest which is so fickle and mutable a Principle so dependent upon Chance and the Inconstancies of Fortune that there is no hold to be taken of those that are governed by it For that which is their Interest to Day may be their Disadvantage to Morrow and if it should so happen they must steer a contrary Course or else act contrary to their leading Principle So that for Men to trust each other upon this fickle Principle is all one as to relie upon the Constancy of a Weather-cock which every contrary Wind turns to a contrary Position And things being once reduced to this Issue that Men can place no Trust or Confidence in one another their Society will soon become their greatest Plague and Vexation For every Man will be forced to stand upon his Guard against every Man and keep himself reserved and retired within himself till at last out of mutual Distrust and Jealousie of one another they are forced to withdraw their Society and to live apart in separate Dens for fear of being intrapt and devoured by each other AND as Atheism cuts in sunder those Ligaments of mutual Trust and Agreement by which the Parts of Humane Society are united so it also dissolves that Regular Subordination that is between them Plutarch observes in his Treatise against Colot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It seems to me more possible for a City to stand without Ground than for a Commonwealth to subsist and continue without the Belief of a God which is 〈◊〉 only firm Foundation whereupâ—◠〈…〉 and Society depends For if there be no God what should oblige any to own any Superiour or pay any Submission And if his Interest be his only Obligation to his Superiours when ever he can mend his Fortune by Rebelling against them that very same Interest which at present restrains him from it will with equal force invite him to it nor will it signifie any thing that we are obliged to the contrary by Oaths of Fidelity and Allegiance for if it be our Interest to be faithful to the Government our own Prudence and Discretion will oblige us to it without such Oaths as well as with them but if it be not our Interest and this be the only Principle that obliges us no Oath or Engagement can hold us So that in this State of things all the Security that Governors can have of their Subjects is that they will not Rebel when they are not able but as soon as they think it safe to be sure they will think it lawful which being once admitted will undermine the very Foundations of Government and utterly dissolve that regular Subordination by which Humane Society is supported Whereas admitting that the Laws of our Prince are bound upon us by the Authority of a Sovereign Lord who can render us eternally happy or miserable we are obliged to obey him by all that we can hope or fear and have all the Engagements to Loyalty that the Reflections on a happy or miserable Eternity can lay upon us What a prodigious piece of Folly is it therefore for Men to embrace Atheism as their Interest which doth thus directly tend to deprive us of all the Comforts of Society by involving us in eternal Confusions and Disorders For if once we take away mutual Trust and Government from the World both which have a necessary Dependence on the Belief of a God we break all the Harmony of Humane Society and convert it into a Commonwealth of Canibals And what Man in his Wits would ever be found of an Opinion that proclaims open War with Mankind and is pregnant with Consequents so fatal and destructive to the World Can we think it more advantageous to us that Atheism should be true than that Humane Society should be upheld and perpetuated or are the Pleasures we reap from the Lusts which incline us to Atheism comparably
a divine Art how much more of every Animal whose Parts for infinite Variety delicate Smalness exquisite Shape Position and Temper do as far excell the other as the Offices for which they are designed For tho the plastick Soul that forms the Animal hath not the least Ray of Art or Reason of its own yet in the Formation of it it proceeds with as much curious and incomparable Art as if it were endowed with the most perfect Reason For first it Spins out the thicker Parts of the seminal Matter into little Threds or Fibres part of which it hollows into Pipes and part into Spunges some whereof are more thin and some more solid all which with wondrous Art it cuts and prunes in divers places fitting their Ends to one another and in divers Manners knitting them together into a well-proportioned Structure of Bones and Members then of the thinner Parts of the seminal Matter it forms the Intrails viz. the Liver and Heart and Brains drawing out from each certain Fibres to be framed into Veins and Arteries and Nerves for which End it bores and hollows them through extends and stretches them out at length and divides them into innumerable Branches which it spreads through all the Intrails and thereby maintains a mutual Communication between them and derives the Nourishment and animal and vital Spirits through all the Body and having thus spun the several Parts out of the seminal Matter and curiously woven them together it concocts the remainder of the Matter which is still supplied with new Nourishment into the Substance of those several Parts and this in such precise and regular Proportions as to form every one of them tho infinitely various from one another into its own proper Figure and Measure and Proportion so that within seven days after the Conception the whole Body is entirely framed and distinguished into all its proper Parts and Members which though they are so vastly great in their Number so strangely different in their Size and Figure so infinitely various in their Motions and Tendencies do all contribute one way or other to the Beauty and Benefit of the Whole some to propagate the Kind others to preserve the Individual others to distinguish what is necessary convenient and pleasant from what is dangerous offensive or destructive to its Nature some to pursue what is good others to shun what is evil others to enjoy those goods and others to defend it against those evils that threaten or invade it so that of all these infinitely numerous and diverse Parts not one can be wanting or defective without some considerable Damage to the Whole How then is it conceivable that such an infinite number of different Animals which are all so perfect in their Kind so amazingly curious in their Composition as that we with all our Reason can discern nothing in them that is either superfluous or defective nothing in their Figure that is irregular nothing in their Position that is misplaced nothing in their Motion that is exorbitant should all of them be framed by their several Plastick Souls which are utterly blind and irrational without the Conduct and Direction of an all-wise and all-powerful Providence Should you behold a confused Heap of Earth and Stone and Iron and Timber without any visible Artificer near it fall a pollishing its own Parts fitting them to one another and disposing them into Order according to the Rules of Architecture and at length frame them all together into the Form of a most beautiful Palace would you not conclude that some skilfull Mind were invisibly present there and did work upon this senseless Heap and dispose its Parts into this comely Order And yet in the Composure of any one Animal there is infinitely more Art than in the most beautiful structure in the World How then can we imagine that the blind artless Matter of which it is composed could ever have framed it self into this admirable Form and Contexture had not some great Mind been invisibly present at the Composition of it or at least imprinted on its artless Mattter some powerful Signature of its own wise Art to direct and order and contrive it I might from hence have proceeded to the formation of Man the Masterpiece of all this lower Creation in whose Frame and structure there are such Miracles of Art as do outreach both the Imitation and Wonder of the most raised and comprehensive Minds For who can sufficiently admire the skilful Contexture of his Corporeal Parts which though almost infinite in Number and Variety do not only compose a Body of a most amiable Symmetry and Proportion but are also as exactly framed and tempered and adapted to perform the Offices of Life and Motion and Sense and Reason as Art or Wit can fancy or imagine them But then how much more admirable is the Soul which inhabits and animates this Body for of whatsoever Substance this thing we call our Soul is it is evidently framed for great and noble Operations to disclose the Mysteries of Nature and to dive into its deep Philosophy to penetrate into the Causes of things and with its nimble and sagacious Thoughts to survey this ample Theatre of Beings to recollect things past and to foretel things to come to invent the most useful Arts and comprehensive Sciences to dictate good Laws and project wise Policies for the Government of Humane Societies and in a word to understand the right Reasons of things and to regulate its Will and Affections by them And is it possible we should imagine a Being thus exquisitely framed to be the Product of a blind and artless Matter to be nothing but a lucky Jumble of senseless and irrational Atoms For suppose it were nothing but elaborated Matter yet certainly it requires infinite Art and Skill to contrive and fashion it into all those curious Springs and Wheels and Mechanick Knacks that are necessary to render it not only a living and feeling but also a wise and rational Matter For how is it conceivable that a little Drop of Water without the Assistance of any Mind or Providence should form it self not only into all the Parts and Lineaments of a Humane Body but also into a Humane Mind a Mind of vast Desires and infinite Capacities of Knowledg that can form Ideas within it self of every thing that is round about it and from them can frame innumerable Propositions and deduce them into Arts and Sciences and in a word that can move it self and the Body it lives in by its own internal Springs and form it self into so many various and contrary Affections by the mysterious Force and Energy of its own Reason and Discourse If you beheld a dead Pencil move without any visible Hand and dip it self into various Colours and draw but an exact Picture of a Man you would doubtless conclude either that some invisible Limbner had infused into it the Art of Limbning or did immediately manage and direct it But should you find this