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
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
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
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
Gristles are not made every where round and entire Circles but where the Gullet touches the Wind-pipe there to fill up the Circles is only a soft Membrane which may easily give way to the dilatation of the Gullet And to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this End and Use so soon as the Wind-pipe enters the Lungs its Cartilages are no longer deficient but perfect Circles or Rings because there is no necessity for them to be otherwise there at a distance from the Meat but more convenient they should be in their Divarications entire The Scope and Meaning of these things is in short to shew that though that energetick and forming Power or Principle which we call Nature doth act without any Counsel Design Advice or Deliberation of its own yet in its Operations it worketh so Methodically and Artificially in order to good Ends and Purposes that in its ordinary Proceedings nothing can be found which is useless and superfluous nothing which is not necessary proper or convenient nothing but what there is some reason for nothing but what great Wisdom would direct and by consequence that there is a most Wise Directing Being over it who does preserve assist and govern it in its orderly but blind Operations For what Man in his Senses can conceive that an intelligent and directing Cause hath no Hand at all in Works wherein we see such excellent Ends so exactly answered and such suitable Means so cleverly used and every thing so wisely and admirably well done How is it possible for any considering Man to imagine That the Instruments of Breathing should be so curiously formed by meer Accident That the casual impulse of the Air should break upon the Nostrils and bore the Passages and Meanders of Sensation That Chance and nothing but foolish Chance should prepare a Mouth and furnish a Mouth with all things necessary and apt That nothing but unadvised Fortune or unadvised Nature which alone is as uncertain of its Hits as Fortune is should so orderly and exquisitely provide a Stomach for the Reception of Food Materials to concoct it a Labyrinth of Conveyances to carry it off a politick Duct of many Vessels to refine it a Machine of Curiosities to distribute and disperse it into all Parts But here I stop For I have spoken of these things already and though the Chyle takes a Round and the Blood a Circulation yet this Discourse must admit of none and therefore thus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the great usefulness of all things and especially of those things which tend to the preservation of Man and Beast CHAP. IX THE great Utilities of the things in Nature having been thus largely and particularlarly considered together with their apt and excellent Frame in order to their uses one would now think that no more should be necessary to shew the Existence of a most Wise and Good God However it will not I hope be unprofitable for the Confirmation of your Faith in that absolutely perfect Being if I proceed though but in a summary way to the utmost extent of this Subject at least as far as to those Bounds which were propos'd at my first Entrance upon it The more we look into the Works of God the more apt we shall be to admire adore and love him whence it was that the devout Psalmist made it his business to think of all his Works to meditate and muse upon them to declare and set them forth to talk familiarly of them and to invite all People to behold and consider them And he lookt upon it as a great Cause of the Wickedness of those ungodly and deceitful Men he spake of Psalm 28. That they regard not in their minds the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands Let us therefore go on to the next thing which falls under our Meditations and that is touching those Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom which appear in the Operations even of irrational Creatures that they may answer their uses and bring their ends about For if it be considered that such Beings are utterly void of all Understanding which is properly called Rational and yet act so Methodically and Artificially as if they had Reason Judgment and Discretion of their own it must follow that they are guided and governed by a Superiour Being which is intellectual and whose Reason is the Law they act by Here then we are to observe these two following things which shew the Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in Creatures Irrational 1. Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations And 2. Their seeming Sagacity as to the ends of them 1. First Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations There are no Creatures Devils and Men excepted but what act uniformly and steadily by a certain Rule according to their Natures whether they be Inanimate or Vegetative or Beings indued with Sense we see they observe their Laws as well those general Laws which are for the Order and Preservation of the whole Universe as those special Laws which are peculiar and proper to their several Kinds To this purpose I have already taken notice of the constant regular Motion of the Celestial Bodies and therefore shall not need to have any farther Recourse to them though it be an astonishing thing to consider that such vast multitudes of immense Bodies all void both of Intellectual and Sensitive Faculties and several of them moving in a manner different from the rest should for so long a Tract of Time observe their Lines so uniformly and exactly that for these Six Thousand Years there hath not been the least variation of their Courses Of this no other rational Account can be given but that there is a superintending Being above under whose commanding Power they always have been and to whose Will they yield entire and absolute Obedience Since they know not their Law themselves it must follow that there is a God who knows it for them and keeps them to it Of those Inanimate or Live-less things which are in the Earth I shall instance only in the regular inclination or tendency of the Loadstone the greatest Wonder which the Earth affords And not to enumerate all those strange Faculties and Powers which some curious Naturalists have discovered in it especially in these last Ages that which is most pertinent to my present purpose is that is constantly affects the same Position towards the Poles of the Earth which was Natural to it before it was taken out of the Bowels of its Mother Rock So that where ever it be carried it will if it hath its liberty to move still direct its Points towards the North and South as it lay Originally and as the Earth it self lyes If you hang it in the Air by a String or set it in some floating inclosure on the surface of Water it will never be at rest but stir and quaver on till its Points answer to the North and South as if it
thing can be drawn into Existence out of it but by a superiour uncontroulable Power over it For should we suppose it to produce any thing of it self we should suppose it to produce that which it hath not power to bring forth and to give it a Being which it hath not at all it self that is to bring it out of an Incapacity or out of Nothing Which no Humane Reason can think how a thing can do by any Casuality of its own because there is a defect of such Casuality If then there be something more and higher in a Rational Soul than what is in Matter it must be inconsistent with Reason to imagine that Matter caused it for then it would necessarily follow that it caused it without a Power or by its Incapacity Inability and Defect that is out of Nothing When we observe this admirable frame of Nature the Universe can we think that its Order was effectively caused by Confusion It s Harmony by Discord It s Beauty by Disproportions the Usefulness of its parts by Errour It s wise and regular Fabrication by Nonsense This were to make one Contrary the cause of another and with parity of Reason it might be said that Water produceth Fire and Darkness made the Sun and that Death is the efficient Cause of Life Sense and Motion In like manner when we consider the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Soul and compare the whole frame of it with the Substance and Properties of dull lifeless and incogitative Matter can we think that Corporiety was the cause of a thing that is immaterial that Divisibility was the cause of a Being immortal that Reason was the work of Stupidity that Atoms taught us to Philosophize that Wisdom sprang from the motion of little Bodies void of all Art Skill and Knowledge and that the Powers we find within us to act with Freedom and Choice to direct our Actions by the Logick of Truth and by the Laws of Vertue to desire and intend our Good in all things to pursue it with Eagerness Understanding and Delight and to rejoyce in the Fruition of it can we think I say that all these things came from the Chance-Operations of Matter which hath nothing of Sense or Thought in it It may as well be said that the tumbling of Stones and Timber together will produce Sensation Intellection Reasoning Memory Prudence Conscience together with those Passions and Affections which we feel within us In short It may be as well said that a Rational Soul can be educed and drawn out of an Heap of Rubbish As an Effect cannot naturally proceed from a contrary Cause so neither can an Effect transcend the Perfection and Vertue of its natural Cause It may fall short of it or it may come up to a degree of equality with it but it can no more go beyond or above it than Waters can naturally run higher than the Fountain-Head stands So that were there nothing in the World besides dead and senseless Matter modified into various Forms at a venture by undesigning and unintending Motion it were impossible for a Rational Soul to spring out of it for the Effect would be much nobler than the Cause and consequently would emerge out of nothing For I ask Were the Perfections of a Rational Soul in Matter before the Soul was made or were they not If you suppose they were then this ridiculous Conceit will follow that Atoms have in them Knowledge Wisdom Morality Liberty of Will and such other Perfections which belong unto the Soul If they were not antecedently there then this ridiculous Conceit will follow That Perfections were caused by Incapacity or that Matter gave a perfect Being an Existence which it self had not to give Which would be a plain Contradiction and would moreover ascribe a creative Power to Matter though it be a thing altogether Passive when the Men I now dispute against will not allow a Deity it self that Power because they think it an impossibility Dr. Cudworth Int. Syst p. 862 Hence a Learned Author concludes positively that neither can Matter which is a meeâ— Passive thing efficiently produce a Soul nor a Soul Matter no finite imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of nothing much less can such a Substance as hath a lower degree of Entity and Perfection in it create that which hath an higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in way of Ascent from lower to higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from higher to lower Now to produce any one higher Rank of Being from the lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from downwards to upwards and by the same reason that one higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally produced from a lower may all the rest be produced also The Consequence of all this is That Matter being so utterly uncapable of making an immaterial immortal intelligent Soul there must be a most perfect Mind that gave it its Faculties and its Nature Either it must be supposed to have no Cause at all which would be most absurd to imagine or it must have a competent Cause or a higher and most perfect Being to derive its Existence from A spiritual Substance cannot come but from a Spirit nor can any thing be the cause of Mind but Mind or of Understanding but Understanding or of Reason but Reason nor of Self-activity and Liberty but that which is a self-active voluntary and free Agent Since the rational Soul is so excellent a Creature there must be a most excellent Being that created it a Being that contains all manner of Perfection a Being of unlimited Power that could make it of Nothing by the force and fecundity of his own Divine Will and a Being of the most exalted and glorious Nature that could give Existence to such an admirable Being as every humane Soul is void of Matter and Corruption uncapable Naturally of dying in every respect like unto a Deity Spiritual Intelligent Active Wise Powerful Benign Kind and Good But those unreasonable Men who deny the Existence of God finding themselves prest with the invincible force of this Argument would shift it off by pretending that what we suppose touching the spiritual Nature and Faculties of Mens Souls is not to be granted They say that there is nothing real in the World but Matter and Motion That our very Souls themselves are Matter consisting of a smoother and siner sort of Atoms or indiscernible Motes by the various Motions and Modifications whereof the Soul Thinks Understands Exerts the Will and Acteth They will have mind to be nothing but the local Motion of some more active Particles of Matter They will have Knowledge to be nothing but a Passion caused by the intromitting of Images into the Brain from sensible Objects without They will