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
who hath given them a Law which cannot be broken By the various Aspects and Motions of the Moon the melancholy Solitudes of the Night are abated the growth of Vegetables is assisted the increase of Anirnals is promoted Dews fall to help and cherish the seminal Powers of the Earth and besides many other advantages the stowings and ebbings of the Sea are regulated and thereby the Waters are kept from putrefaction and the innumerable multitude of Fishes are preserved And how comes it to pass but by the Decree of a Wise and Beneficent Being over all that these Influences are so constant and these Motions are so stated and certain that the Monthly Aspects and Annual Revolutions and Courses of the Moon are still the very same and all this through a thin fluid Vehicle in which it swims The other Planets how differently soever they move yet amidst that Variety their Rowlings about have all along to this day so punctually answer'd their determinate Periods that they carry with them manifest Marks of an Unerring Hand that doth direct and govern them and keeps the parts of them from those Dissipations which otherwise the Rapidity of their Motion would expose them to in their sine unresisting Aether All other Stars the Sun excepted are said to be fixt not that they do not move at all but because their daily Motion is still directly forward in the same Circle without any particular Retrograde creepings and without those Aberrations and Deflexions sometimes Northward and sometimes Southward which the seven wandering Stars observe Now if according to the old Opinion these great Bodies be suppos'd to be fastned like so many Nails in Pellucid but Solid Spheres it is a stupendious thing to consider how such vast cumbersom Machines should be able to turn about so exactly and in such a constant even course Night and Day without an Almighty Power that did first set them on Motion and doth still superintend and steer them But if they be suppos'd to rowl in a free open Aether it is impossible to conceive how so many Pendulous Bodies of such unmeasurable magnitude so briskly moving in their respective Spaces without the least rub to stop or hinder them should not clash or cross or interfere with one another but still keep at the same distances for ought we know to an hair's breadth and perform all their Courses with equability and constancy to an exact point all this is beyond the reach of Human Reason to conceive unless it be granted that there is a Supreme Over-ruling Being who did at first set them into a determinate order and hath ever since preserv'd them in that order maintaining governing regulating and directing their motions by his own Infinite Power and most Watchful Providence But to speak more particularly of that Glorious Luminary which every day rejoiceth as a Giant to run its course to visit the whole world and to invigorate and cherish all things here below with lively Emanations What can we think of his Diurnal Motion whereby that Immense Creature daily takes his Round and absolves his Course within the space of 24 hours and this not only with far greater celerity than that of the swiftest Arrow from the strongest Bow and moreover with such exact order and constancy that for these Six thousand years his daily Revolution has been neither quicker nor slower by one minute twice only excepted when at the Special Command of his Maker he was arrested in his Race and was made one day to stand still and another day to go backward Ten Degrees Besides this Diurnal Race from East to West which causes the vicissitude of Day and Night what think we of the Sun 's Annual Progress towards the Northern and then off again towards the Southern Tropick in an Oblique Circle they call the Zodiack under Twelve Signs or Constellations each whereof consisting of Thirty Degrees he passeth through in Thirty Days finishing his yearly Course in 360 Days or thereabouts rising as he goes every new day in a new Line parallel to the Equinoxial and so increasing or lessening the Hours of the Day and bringing on the several Seasons of the Year which are ordained for wise and good Ends And hence come the Vicissitudes of Summer and Winter of Spring and Fall of the Laborious Seed-time and the Joyful Weeks of Harvest All which that great Divider of Days and Months and Years hath all along perform'd by such an uniform steady and constant tenor in its motions that this present Day nay this present Minute exactly answers to that which was full a Thousand Years ago when the Sun moved in the same Sign in the same Degree nay in the same Point wherein it moveth now All this while I have spoken according to Old Ptolemy's Hypothesis That the Heavens move because the Scripture speaks after that manner as being most suitable to our ordinary Apprehensions But whether in fact the stars move or the Earth only or the Earth and Stars too is the same thing to my present purpose and I leave it to our Modern Inquisitive Philosophers to dispute that matter out and to end it when they can For where ever those Motions be our Observations will return to this point and must rest here That these Motions are exact punctual and precise which yet were impossible without the Decrees and Contrivance of a Supreme Intelligent Being or a God that superintends orders and takes care of this great Frame and Wonderful Machine of the Universe Now to all this the Scepticks of our Age are ready to tell us from two or three old Blundering Pagan Philosophers That this Excellent Order of things came to pass not by the Counsel Skill and Power of a Deity but by meer chance For that I may in a few words open to you the Mystery of Insidelity their grand Creed is this That from all Eternity there was nothing but Matter and Motion in an Immense Space wherein numberless multitudes of small Particles of Matter called Atoms were for a vast long time dancing and sporting playing and toying justling and tumbling freaking and clashing together and using all endeavours and tricks how to clutch and combine into Aggregate Bodies and into different Modifications Shapes and Forms And that after many Rencounters and Trials though without any Design Forecast or Understanding of their own they hapned to fall into all the things which make up the world Some fell into a Sun others made up the Moon others formed themselves into great numbers of Twinkling Stars a frolicksome sort of Atoms danced together into that which we call the Free Open Air the more Dull and Lumpish kinds made up an Earth and thence sprung up in time many other Contextures which made up Plants and Trees and abundance ran into Animals Beasts and Men the very Souls of men being as they say nothing but delicate Modifications of the sinest and most active Atoms that Matter could afford where when they are by any untoward
Accident or Insirmity dasht and dissolved then they bring Death which in their Opinion is only the unclutching of Matter void of a spiritual intellectual distinct Substance that is said to return to a God to give an Account of its Actions at a Judgment-day Notions which these great Wits of the world as they take themselves to be believe to be nothing but the Inventions of Priests and Politicians to keep Mankind in slavery and to fright people out of their Senses Thus instead of believing in a God they believe in Matter and Motion in Space and Atoms in Chance and Fortune For according to them as things fall apieces by chance so it was by meer chance that they fell at first together not by the Hand and Directions of a Wise Omnipotent Agent that gave them their being by Lucky Hits by Casual Concurrences but by the succesful motions of Blind Senseless Atoms accidentally and fortuitously jumping together into great variety of Combinations and Figures and so continuing till Fortune that joined them makes them fly asunder again and till by some new Comical Motions they sorm themselves into new Shapes Now though the exposing of these Conceits be Consutation enough yet I would gravely ask these Wise Sages How it can consist with common Reason to imagine that the Fortuitous Motion of Stupid Unthinking Matter could compose all things into such excellent order as the most Intelligent Prudent Mind could not have made more apt and proper How could Blind and consequently Erroneous Chance without any deliberation pitch upon such Places to dispose every thing into as our common Senses shew to be most sit and commodious We see the Earth is Situate in the Center of the Universe to receive kindly and seasonable Influences Heat and Cold Drought and Moisture from all the Ambient Parts of this visible World The Firmament is expanded at such a convenient distance as that it can communicate its sweet Influences without exposing us and the things round about us to those Extremities of Heat or Cold whereby a greater Propinquity or Longinquity would cause Living Creatures to languish and dye Those Lucid Globes which enamel the Firmament are so appositely fix'd up and down every-where from Pole to Pole that the remotest Regions participate of their Virtues and Powers The Sun is determined to such a Fitting Course and to such Convenient Limits that by its Alternate Accesses and Recesses those Comforting Rays are dispersed over all the Earth which at proper Seasons produce Grass for the Cattle Bread to strengthen man's heart and Oil to make him a chearful Countenance and generous Wines to refresh and exhilerate his Spirits Under the Opposite Poles there are the great Treasures of Snow which yield to the Hotter Climates plenty of Rain and Refreshing Gales of Wind. Not to speak of the Commodious Position of the several Parts in Men Beasts and Plants which could not be alter'd I do not say without apparent Deformity but without insupportable Inconvenience and Prejudice to the whole Frame This is enough to shew that the several Branches of the Universe are so agreeably dispos'd and placed that without betraying our Reason and the use of our Faculties we cannot impute those Positions to the casual motion of blind senseless undeliberating Atoms but must look upon them as the Results of Design and Choice and as Arguments of an Intellectual Provident Being over all who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will or according to the Best and Wisest Reasons Ephes 1. 11. Again Let me ask our pretending Philosophers How can it consist with common Reason to conceive That those Congruities and Relations which these several parts of the world bare to each other those Aptitudes and Concinnities which are between the Disposition of some things and the Faculties of others so that this thing is for the use of that and that thing reciprocally fitted for this how I say can these mutual Correspondences be rationally ascribed to nothing but mere Fortune and Chance Is not the Eye fitted for the seeing of Light and Light fitted for the use of the Eye Are not all the Senses adapted to their proper Objects and those Objects adapted to gratify the Senses Is not the Air a proper vehicle for Volatile Creatures and the Frame of those Creatures suited to the Contexture of the Air Are not the Waters agreeable to Fish and the Nature of Fish so adapted to the Waters that they cannot subsist in a thinner Element In short Are not the parts of Nature's great Fabrick so congruously fitted to each other like so many Springs and Wheels in the most curious piece of Art that there is no taking away a part without disordering and disjoynting the whole And how can all this be thought to proceed from Chance any more than the Frame of a Watch or a Clock These things shew that they were intended for Ends and where Ends are to be served there must be Knowledge Counsel and Forecast how to make choice of proper Means and how to fit those Means together for due application And when we see the Parts of the whole World so admirably fitted suited and adapted to each other in such exquisite Order What extreme sottishness is it not to attribute those Congruities to stupid blundering Fortune which are so many Sculptures of a Divine Hand so many plain Evidences of the Wisest Mind and the Highest Reason Once more let me ask How it can consist with Reason to believe that this vast Compages could hold and continue in the same excellent Order for so many Thousand years together if it fell into it at the first by mere Accident Or how it could come to pass that the Parts of it have not been as yet Disunited and Scatter'd by Motion if nothing but Fortuitous Motion joined them All Motion serveth especially if it be violent and swift either to Wear away Matter by degrees or to Dissolve and Dissipate the Particles on a sudden and to make all about it fly as we see clearly by the rapid Revolutions of every Wheel about its Axis Supposing then one or other of these Three things which are the principal accounts either that the Earth alone whirls about upon an Axis of its own or that the Heavens turn round upon the great Axis of the Universe the Earth lying quiet and the Sun moving both forward and retrograde perpetually or thirdly That the motion is divided the Earth doing the Diurnal part and the Sun absolving that part which is Annual which of these Opinions soever men are pleased to follow they must grant on all hands that the motions are performed with the greatest velocity and quickness And how then can so many Combinations of Atoms be rationally supposed able to have still held it out against the utmost Rapidity and that all along during the Succession of so many Years and Ages so that in all this time neither the Parts of any one moving Body have been impaired nor
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