Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A60477
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Christian religion's appeal from the groundless prejudices of the sceptick to the bar of common reason by John Smith.
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Smith, John, fl. 1675-1711.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing S4109; ESTC R26922
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707,151
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538
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〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polyb. apud Suidam and in Sacred Writ among the most Capital Heathenish Abominations Briefly God permitted the infernal Powers to run the whole length of their Chain in this Contest But yet they cannot reach to the lowest Form of a real Miracle in these real Transmutations For 1. They only prepared the Matter but did not introduce the substantial Form that being the natural result from the last preparation of the Matter so that Nature did the same office here that the God of Nature performeth in introducing the rational Soul after the Body is organized and ultimately prepar'd for its reception whereupon St. Austin de Trinitate lib. 3. cap. 8. piously and wittily saith as we neither call Parents the Formers of Men nor Husbandmen the formers of Fruit though the Divine Power makes use of the one to prepare the matter for the reception of the Reasonable Soul and of the other for the accelerating the disposition of Plants not only to bear Fruit but Fruit of such a colour taste smell c. so we must not think that Angels whether good or bad are introducers of the substantial Form but that they by reason of their subtilty knowing where the Seeds of things lay which we cannot discern and secretly sowing them through congruously mixed Elements do only administer occasions of the Birth of things and of hastening their growth 2. What the Gods did whom the Magicians invocated they took time to do It is like that they singled out a time most convenient for such like operations in respect of the Planetary hour and Positions of the Heavenly Bodies Macrobius Sat. lib. 1. cap. 17. observes that the victory which the Romans obtain'd over the Carthaginians when they implored the aid of Apollo that is the Sun upon the motion of the Prophet Martius who promised them victory if they would observe the Oracle which he delivered to them was in such a Juncture as the Sun was then in the vertical point directly over Rome and therefore strongliest abilitated to heat their blood and put courage into them who were born under that Planet Aaron's God in an instant both alter'd the Matter and chang'd the Form of his Rod into a Serpent but the Egyptians used Inchantments in order to the Transmutation of their Rods and that 's enough to evince it not to have been instantaneous Had nature indeed been left to her own Genius she would have taken far more leasurely steps than those Daemons did that Handmaid of God keeps that state in her ordinary pace as a club-footed Vulcan may out goe her she perhaps may spend a thousand years in making such Transmutations in Mettals as a Chymist will perform in a week and yet not come near the celerity of these winged spirits in their Operations there being a far greater disparity betwixt them and the most dexterous Operator in the whole Colledge of the Virtuosi than there is betwixt these and the most dulpated-club-fisted Mechanick Briefly the change of the Egyptians Rods was indeed subitaneous Nature was there put out of her pace but not out of her way The workers of that Wonder gain'd time enough to perform that feat in while the Magicians were at their Inchantments and doubtless one Reason of the institution of such Diabolical Ceremonies is the advantage of gaining time time enough for such agil Creatures to procure all those alterations in which in a natural way of causation were pre-requisite towards the ultimate Change But the instantaneous change of Aaron's Rod put Nature beside her course for seeing no Body can move but in time as well as place Natura non agit per saltum it implies a Contradiction that the Rod should pass into a Serpent by any other kind of Corruption than that of Annihilation or the Serpent be produc'd out of it by any other kind of act than that of Creation 3. VVhereas some scruple whether that saying Aaron ' s Rod devoured the Rods of the Sorcerers imply not the returning of their Serpents into Rods St. Austin by removing that Scruple clears our way to the observing another material difference betwixt these wonders This saith he is spoken initialiter finaliter in respect to what they had been and to what one of them that is Aaron's Serpent would return to be but whether the Egyptian Serpents became Rods again I will nor dispute However 't is most probable they did not it being the common Opinion that Aarons Rod when turn'd into a Serpent did devour their Serpents and prevented their becoming Rods again Alensis sum 2. quest 43. which Opinion seems to be well grounded upon that word in Moses Text swallowed up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absorpsit which though applied to men it sometimes hath a metaphorical sence yet in the History of Animals doth so naturally signifie the swallowing in at the mouth down the throat into the stomach so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by Scapula deglutiatio Cibi potionis ab ore in ventriculum descensus as the Greeks derive from hence not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Dioscorides but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in common use signifies the Gula or Throat or as we say in the North the Swallow herein purely Grecizing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the under Jaws at which the Swallow begins and the Orifice of the Stomach where it terminates In a word ransack this Term from the beginning through the middle to the end and you will find it speak such a swallowing as an inorganized Body is uncapable of and to imply in this Text that it was not Aarons Rod simply but turn'd into a Serpent that did devour the Magicians sometimes Rods but now Serpents as if they had been but so many Pills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prepared for this Dragons swallow by which it not only appears that as all Gods things have and therefore whatever hath a transcendent excellency is stiled Gods as Gods Hill Gods Host c. this Serpent had the priority of theirs and kept the Pit after them but that their Rods were devour'd as well as Serpents and never became Rods again The old Serpent may croud Serpents into the World but he can't lay them he could pester Egypt with bloody VVaters but leaves the cure of them to him that 's higher than himself He could make Nilus be delivered of Frogs before the time came of her ordinary travel and in all likelihood plague Goshen with that crawling Vermine for I cannot find any room for them elsewhere in all the Land of Aegypt since Aaron's Frogs had already fill'd all the VVaters and Houses of the Egyptians But his Ministers cannot with all their Inchantments free so much as Pharaohs house of those unwelcome guests who is forc'd to be beholding to Moses Prayers for their riddance out of his Bedchamber A clear evidence that the Devil cannot rectifie those Irregularities which he is sometimes permitted to introduce into
observ'd manifest Testimonies of the Divine presence in the constitution of Monarchies because it was impossible they could be erected or continued by Humane strength and were to that end appointed by God that they might be keepers of humane Society the Umpirers of Difference among the Nations of the World the preservers of the Laws Judgments and Peace c. The truth is it is a Miracle of it self that wheresoevet the Order of ruling and obeying hath once been received it remains for ever that some or other form of Government should be embraced all the World over That some Forms should last so many Ages in some certain Countries as the Regal among the Assyrians Aegyptians Francks c. This would not be if God had not a peculiar care of them and gave manifest tokens of that his care by his wonderful erecting of them by mean persons in respect of such undertakings such as Cyrus Alexander Julius Caesar made famous by nothing but Gods signal owning of them in his giving them success beyond their own expectation and the natural accomplishments of Unity Power and Policy and by his furbishing and setting a new gloss upon the splendour of his own Creature when at any time through length of time it was grown obsolete and in some places fixing a standing badge of an honourable discrimination of them from others upon the persons of the chief Governours as that wonderful gift of healing otherwise incurable Maladies by a touch intail'd upon our Kings Instances of that other way of Gods setting occasional Remarks upon his own great Ordinance when it grows into contempt occur every where in History God choosing rather to work Miracles and permit the Devil for the present to carry away the honour of them than to let the Grandeur fall of that Order which he had set in the World He the God of Order as St. Paul calls him that supreme God who rules the World to whom there is nothing upon earth more acceptable than Councils and Societies of men rightly associate Cicero som. Scipion. whose Providence is as much seen in the erecting of Empires as in framing the World Itaque praesens disputatio Romae magnam suspiciendamque conciliabit dignitatem si de ea id quod de terra mari caelo siderihus solet fieri disquirimus fortunam ne an providentiam authorem habeat Plut. de for Ro. God erected the Roman Empire saith Plutarch de for Rom. Ut omnibus hominibus conâ—ceret vestam re vera sacram beneficam ac stabile retinaculum elementum sempiternum quod rebus fluctuantibus atque sublabentibus anchora esset ut cum Democrito loquar Alexander's Empire being faln into pieces the fragments of it like the first Qualities in the Chaos never ceas'd clashing and putting the World into combustions and continual changings while each of his Successors sought to be that which not any one of them was Lord Paramount like the Cyclops in Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A confused rout where none minded nothing that no body said till the Majesty of Empire becken'd to them to keep silence till Rome having attain'd to a Consistency and constringing in it self as well the neighbouring as foraign and transmarine Kingdoms the great affairs of the World obtain'd a firm basis whereon to lean and rest and were laid to sleep in the bosom of that Empire For the erecting of the Roman Empire Polib l. 1. It was a wonder to see how Fortune made all the Affairs of the whole World lead one way and incline to that one point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrews had a Proverb Nisi potestas publica esset alter alterum virum deglutiret Chrysâ—stom de statuis 6. If it were not for Governours we should lead a more wild life than wild Beasts not only biting but devouring one another Livii l. 26. Respublica incolumis privatas res salvas facile praestat publica prodeundo tua nequicquam serves It is not at all strange then that that God whose Philanthropie is so apparent should for the maintenance of this common good do such strange things as made the Gentiles conclude the persons of Princes to be Sacred regium nomen gentes quae sub regibus sunt pro deo colunt Q. Curtius Artabanus Persa apud Plutar. in Themistocl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among our many and good Laws this is the best That we reverence and honour the King as the Image of God who preserves all things in safety Though Gods using a standing Miracle to convince us hereof who have the Example of the blessed Jesus and the Injunctions of his holy Apostles to revere our Supream Governours seems to be an upbraiding us with that Proverb The King of England is King of Devils and speaks them to be right Devils incarnate to have their Intellects blinded with malice who when the divine Clemency doth thus superâ—rogate in affording us means of knowledge yet cannot will not see the Majesty of the Lord visibly sitting upon his own Ordinance Yet how the Rabble of Gentiles who had not Reason enough to see every mans private weal was imbark'd in the publick nor Religion enough to teach them that the powers that are are ordain'd of God those waves of the Sea should be kept in order and within their own bounds is hardly conceivable If he that rules the raging of the Sea and the madness of the people had not set them bounds beyond which they must not pass had not rayled in the Mount the Majesty of Supream Authority so as to make it unapproachable by the Thunder and Lightning the stupendious manifestations of Divine Power exerted for the common behoof of Mankind to beget and uphold in the vulgar an awe and reverence of that Order under which they were Marshal'd And therefore whatever miraculous events of that tendency fell out in the Age of Paganism were not the operations of Pagan Gods among whom there was not one but he was a profest enemy to Mankind but of Israels God the Creator and Conserver of the Universe and upon that account are to be taken into the Christians bill of miracles CHAP. XI The Deficiency of false the Characters of true Miracles § 1. Heathen Wonders unprofitable § 2. Of an impious Tendency § 3. Not above the power of Nature § 4. Moses and the Magicians Rods into Serpents § 5. The Suns standingstill and going back The Persian Triplesia § 6. Darkness at our Saviours Passion § 7. Christs Resurrection the Broad-seal set to the Gospel § 1. ANd for the rest of the reputed Miracles that come not within the compass of these Rules that will not come over to us as 1. being such as the Pagan Gods Genius was against 2. Or such as the God of Israel rewarded the Morality of Heathens with 3. Or such as he foretold he would do in Heathen Nations for the Discipline of his own people 4. Or such as he wrought for the punishment of those