THE WISDOM OF GOD Manifested in the WORKS OF THE Creation Being the Substance of some common Places delivered in the Chappel of Trinity-College in Cambridge By John Ray M. A. sometimes Fellow of that and now of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1691. TO THE Much Honoured and truly Religious LADY THE Lady LETICE WENDY OF Wendy in Cambridgeshire MADAM TWO or three Reasons induce me to present this Discourse to your Ladyship and to make choice of you for its Patroness First because I owe it to the Liberality of your Honoured Brother that I have this leisure to write any Thing Secondly Because also your many and signal Favors seeing I am not in a Capacity to requite them seem to exact from me at least a publick Acknowledgment which such a Dedication gives me an Opportunity to make Thirdly Because of such kind of Writings I know not where to chuse a more able Judge or more candid Reader I am sensible that you do so much abhor any thing that looks like Flattery that out of an excess of Modesty you cannot patiently bear the hearing of your own just Commendations and therefore should I enlarge upon that Subject I know I should have but little Thanks for my Pains Indeed you have much better Motives to do well than the Praise of Men the Favor of God Peace of Conscience the Hope and Expectation of a future Reward of Eternal Happiness and therefore I had rather write of you to others to provoke them to imitate so excellent an Example than to your Self to encourage you in your Christian Course and to fortifie you in your Athletick Conflicts with the greatest of Temporal Evils bodily Pain and Anguish though I do not know why you should reject any consideration that may conduce to support you under so heavy Pressures and of so long continuance of which to ingenuous Natures true Honor that is the concurrent Testimony and Approbation of good Men is not the meanest No less Man than S. Augustine was doubtful whether the extremity of bodily Pain were not the greatest Evil that Humane Nature was capable of suffering Nay saith he I was sometimes compelled to consent to Cornelius Celsus that it was so neither did his Reason seem to me absurd we being compounded of two Parts Soul and Body of which the first is the better the latter the worser the greatest Good must be the best thing belonging to the better Part that is Wisdom and the greatest Evil the worst thing incident to the worser Part the Body that is Pain Now though I know not whether this Reason be firm and conclusive yet I am of accord with him that of all the Evils we are sensible of in this World it is the Sorest the most resolute Patience being baffled and prostrated by a fierce and lasting Paroxysm of the Gout or Stone or Colick and compelled to yield to its furious Insults and confess itself vanquished the Soul being unable to divert or to do any thing else but pore upon the Pain And therefore those Stoical vaunts of their Wise Mans being happy in Perillus his Bull I utterly reject and explode as vain Rhodomontades and Chimerical Figments for that there never was such a wise Man among them nor indeed could be Yet do I not say that the Patience of a good Man can be so far conquered by the sharpest and severest Torments as to be compelled to deny or blaspheme God or his Religion yea or so much as to complain of his Injustice though perchance he may be brought with Job to curse his Day yet not to curse his God as his Wife tempted him to do Now that the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most just Judg and Rewarder would be pleas'd so to qualifie and mitigate your Sufferings as not to exceed the measure of your Strength and Patience or else arm you with such an high Degree of Christian Fortitude as to be able to grapple with the most extreme and when you have finished your Course in this World grant you a placid and easie Passage out of it and dignifie you as one of his Victors with a Crown of Eternal Glory and Felicity is the Prayer of Madam Your Ladyships most devoted in all Service John Ray. THE PREFACE IN all Ages wherein Learning hath Flourished complaint hath been made of the Itch of Writing and the multitude of worthless Books wherewith importunate Scriblers have pestered the World Scribimus indocti doctique And tenet insanabile multos Scribendi Cacoethes I am sensible that this Tractate may likely incur the Censure of a superfluous Piece and my self the blame of giving the Reader unnecessary Trouble there having been so much so well written of this Subject by the most Learned Men of our time Dr. More Dr. Cudworth Dr. Stillingfleet now Bishop of Worcester Dr. Párker late of Oxon and to name no more the Honourable Robert Boyl Esquire so that it will need some Apology First therefore in excuse of it I plead That there are in it some Considerations new and untoucht by others wherein if I be mistaken I alledge Secondly That the manner of Delivery and Expression may be more suitable to some Mens Apprehension and facile to their Understandings If that will not hold I pretend Thirdly That all the particulars contained in this Book cannot be found in any one Piece known to me but lye scattered and dispersed in many and so this may serve to relieve those Fastidious Readers that are not willing to take the pains to search them out and possibly there may be some whose Ability whatever their Industry might be will not serve them to purchase nor their opportunity to borrow those Books who yet may spare Money enough to buy so inconsiderable a Trifle If none of these Excuses suffice to acquit me of blame and remove all prejudice I have two further Reasons to offer which I think will reach home and justify this Undertaking First That all Men who presume to Write at least whose Writings the Printers will venture to publish are of some Note in the World and where they do or have Lived and Conversed have some Sphere of Friends and Acquaintants that Know and Esteem them who it's likely will buy any Book they shall Write for the Authors sake who otherwise would have read none of that Subject though ten times better and so the Book however inferiour to what have been already Published may happen to do much good Secondly By Vertue of my Function I suspect my self to be obliged to Write something in Divinity having Written so much on other Subjects For being not permitted to serve the Church with my Tongue in Preaching I know not but it may be my Duty to serve it with my Hand by Writing And I have made choice of this Subject as thinking my self best qualified to Treat of it If what I have now Written
declivity every way easily descending down to the common Receptacle the Sea And these Lakes of Water being far distant one from another there could be no Commerce between far remote Countries but by Land 4. A Spherical Figure is most commodious for dinetical motion or revolution upon its own Axis For in that neither oan the Medium at all resist the motion of the Body because it stands not in its way no part coming into any space but what the precedent left neither doth one part of the Superficies move faster than another whereas were it Angular the parts about the Angles would find strong resistance from the Air and those parts also about the Angles would move much faster than those about the middle of the Plains being remoter from the center than they It remains therefore that this Figure is the most commodious for Motion Here I cannot but take notice of the folly and stupidity of the Epicureans who fancied the Earth to be flat and contiguous to the Heavens on all sides and that it descended a great way with long Roots and that the Sun was new made every Morning and not much bigger than it seems to the Eye and of a flat Figure and many other such gross Absurdities as Children among us would be ashamed of Secondly I come now to speak of the Motion of the Earth That the Earth speaking according to Philosophical accurateness doth move both upon its own Poles and in the Ecliptick is now the received Opinion of the most learned and skilful Mathematicians To prove the diurnal Motion of it upon its Poles I need produce no other Arguments than First The vast disproportion in respect of Magnitude that is between the Earth and the Heavens and the great unlikelyhood that such an infinite number of vast Bodies should move about so inconsiderable a spot as the Earth which in comparison with them by the concurrent suffrages of Mathematicians of both perswasions is a mere point that is next to nothing Secondly The immense and incredible Celerity of the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies in the ancient Hypothesis of its Annual Motion in the Ecliptick the Stations and Retrogradations of the superior Planets are a convincing Argument there being a clear and facile Account thereof to be given from the mere Motion of the Earth in the Ecliptick whereas in the Old Hypothesis no account can be given thereof but by the unreasonable Fiction of Epicycles and contrary Motions add hereto the great unlikelyhood of such an enormous Epicycle as Venus must describe about the Sun not under the Sun as the old Astronomers fancied So that whosoever doth clearly understand both Hypotheses cannot I perswade my self adhere to the Old and reject the New without doing some violence to his Faculties Against this Opinion lie two Objections First That it is contrary to Sense and the common Opinion and Belief of Mankind Secondly That it seemeth contrary to some Expressions in Scripture To the first I answer that our Senses are sometimes mistaken and what appears to them is not always in reality so as it appears For Example The Sun or Moon appear no bigger at most than a Cart-wheel and of a flat figure The Earth seems to be plain the Heavens to cover it like a Canopy and to be contiguous to it round about A Fire-brand nimbly moved round appears like a circle of Fire and to give a parallel Instance a Boat lying still at Anchor in a River to him that sails or rows by it seems to move apace and when the Clouds pass nimbly under the Moon the Moon it self seems to move the contrary way And there have been whole Books written in Confutation of vulgar Errours Secondly As to the Scripture when speaking of these things it accommodates it self to the common and received Opinions and employs the usual Phrases and Forms of Speech as all Wise Men also do though in strictness they be of a different or contrary Opinion without intention of delivering any thing Doctrinally concerning these Points or confuting the contrary And yet by those that maintain the Opinion of the Earths motion there might a convenient Interpretation be given of such places as seem to contradict it Howbeit because some pious Persons may be offended at such an Opinion as savouring of Novelty thinking it inconsistent with Divine Revelation I shall not positively assert it only propose it as an Hypothesis not altogether improbable Supposing then that the Earth doth move both upon its own Poles and in the Ecliptick about the Sun I shall shew how admirably its Situation and Motion are contrived for the conveniency of Man and other Animals which I cannot do more fully and clearly than Dr. More hath already done in his Antidote against Atheism whose Words therefore I shall borrow First Speaking of the Parallelism of the Axis of the Earth he saith I demand whether it be better to have the Axis of the Earth steady and perpetually parallel to it self or to have it carelesly tumble this way and that way as it happens or at least very variously and intricately And you cannot but answer me it is better to have it steady and parallel For in this lies the necessary Foundation of the Art of Navigation and Dialling For that steady Stream of Particles which is supposed to keep the Axis of the Earth parallel to its self affords the Mariner both his Cynosura and his Compass The Load-stone and the Load-star depend both upon this The Load-stone as I could demonstrate were it not too great a digression and the Load-star because that which keeps the Axis parallel to its self makes each of the Poles constantly respect such a point in the Heavens as for Example the North-pole to point almost directly to that which we call the Pole-star And besides Dialling could not be at all without this steadiness of the Axis But both these Arts are pleasant and one especially of mighty Importance to Mankind For thus there is an orderly measuring of our time for Affairs at home and an opportunity of Traffick abroad with the most remote Nations of the World and so there is a mutual Supply of the several Commodities of all Countries besides the enlarging our Understandings by so ample Experience we get both of men and things Wherefore if we were rationally to consult whether the Axis of the Earth were better be held steady and parallel to it self or left at random we would conclude it ought to be steady and so we find it de Facto though the Earth move floating in the liquid Heavens So that appealing to our own Faculties we are to affirm that the constant Direction of the Axis of the Earth was Established by a principle of Wisdom and Counsel Again there being several postures of this steady Direction of the Axis of the Earth viz. Either perpendicular to a Plain going through the Center of the Sun or coincident or inclining I demand which of all these Reason and Knowledge
no use of respiration by the Lungs the Blood doth not all I may say not the greatest part of it flow through them but there are two Passages or Channels contrived one called the foramen ovale by which part of the Blood brought by the vena cava passeth immediately into the left Ventricle of the Heart without entring the right at all the other is a large arterial Channel passing from the pulmonary Artery immediately into the Aorta or great Artery which likewise derives part of the Blood thither without running at all into the Lungs These two are closed up soon after the Child is born when it breaths no more as I may so say by the Placenta uterina but respiration by the Lungs is needful for it It is here to be noted that though the Lungs be formed so soon as the other Parts yet during the abode of the foetus in the Womb they lie by as useless In like manner I have observed that in ruminating Creatures the three formost Stomachs not only during the continuance of the Young in the Womb but so long as it is fed with Milk are unemployed and useless the Milk passing immediately into the fourth Another Observation I shall add concerning Generation which is of some moment because it takes away some concessions of Naturalists that give countenance to the Atheists fictitious and ridiculous Account of the first production of Mankind and other Animals viz. that all sorts of Insects yea and some Quadrupeds too as Frogs and Mice are produced Spontaneously My Observation and Affirmation is that there is no such thing in Nature as Aequivocal or Spontaneous Generation but that all Animals as well small as great not excluding the vilest and most contemptible Insect are generated by Animal Parents of the same Species with themselves that noble Italian Vertuoso Francesco Redi having experimented that no putrified Flesh which one would think were the most likely of any thing will of itself if all Insects be carefully kept from it produce any The same Experiment I remember Doctor Wilkins late Bishop of Chester told me had been made by some of the Royal Society No instance against this Opinion doth so much puzzle me as Worms bred in the Intestines of Man and other Animals But seeing the round Worms do manifestly generate and probably the other kinds too it 's likely they come originally from Seed which how it was brought into the Guts may afterwards possibly be discovered Moreover I am inclinable to believe that all Plants too that themselves produce Seed which are all but some very imperfect ones which scarce deserve the name of Plants come of Seeds themselves For that great Naturalist Malpighius to make experiment whether Earth would of its self put forth Plants took some purposely digged out of a deep Place and put it into a Glass Vessel the top whereof he covered with Silk many times doubled and strained over it which would admit the Water and Air to pass through but exclude the least Seed that might be wafted by the Wind the event was that no Plant at all sprang up in it nor need we wonder how in a Ditch Bank or Grass-Plat newly dig'd or in the Fenbanks in the Isle of Ely Mustard should abundantly spring up where in the Memory of Man none had been known to grow for it might come of Seed which had lain there more than a Mans Age. Some of the Ancients mentioning some Seeds that retain their fecundity Forty Years As for the Mustard that sprung up in the Isle of Ely though there never had been any in that Country yet might it have been brought down in the Channels by the Floods and so being thrown up the Banks together with the Earth might germinate and grow there From this Discourse concerning the Body of Man I shall make Three Practical Inferences First Let us give thanks to Almighty God for the Perfection and Integrity of our Bodies It would not be amiss to put it into the Eucharistical parr of our daily Devotions We praise thee O God for the due Number Shape and Use of our Limbs and Senses and in general of all the Parts of our Bodies we bless thee for the sound and healthful Constitution of them It is thou that hast made us and not we our selves in thy Book were all our Members written The Mother that bears the Child in her Womb is not conscious to any thing that is done there she understands no more how the Infant is formed than itself doth But if God hath bestowed upon us any peculiar Gift or Endowment wherein we excel others as Strength or Beauty or Activity we ought to give him special thanks for it but not to think the better of our selves therefore or despise them that want it Now because these Bodily Perfections being common Blessings we are apt not at all to consider them or not to set a just value on them and because the worth of things is best discerned by their want it would be useful sometimes to imagine or suppose our selves by some accident to be depriv'd of one of our Limbs or Senses as a Hand or a Foot or an Eye for then we cannot but be sensible that we should be in worse condition than now we are and that we should soon find a difference between two Hands and one Hand two Eyes and one Eye and that two excel one as much in worth as they do in number and yet if we could spare the use of the lost part the deformity and unsightlyness of such a defect in the Body would alone be very grievous to us Again which is less suppose we only that our Bodies want of their just magnitude or that they or any of our Members are crooked or distorted or disproportionate to the rest either in excess or defect nay which is least of all that the due motion of any one part be perverted as but of the Eyes in squinting the Eye-lids in twinkling the Tongue in stammering these things are such Blemishes and Offences to us by making us Gazing-stocks to others and Objects of their Scorn and Derision that we could be content to part with a good part of our Estates to repair such defects or heal such Infirmities These things considered and duly weighed would surely be a great and effectual motive to excite in us Gratitude for this Integrity of our Bodies and to esteem it no small blessing I say a blessing and favor of God to us for some there be that want it and why might not we have been of that number God was no way obliged to bestow it upon us And as we are to give thanks for the Integrity of our Body so are we likewise for the Health of it and the sound Temper and Constitution of all its Parts and Humors Health being the principal blessing of this Life without which we cannot enjoy or take comfort in any thing besides Neither are we to give thanks alone
would he in all likelyhood have made had he seen these incredible small living Creatures How would he have admired the immense subtilty as he phrases it of their Parts for to use Mr. Hook's Words in his Microscopium p. 103. If these Creatures be so exceeding small what must we think of their Muscles and other Parts Certain it is that the Mechanism by which Nature performs the Muscular Motion is exceedingly small and curious and to the performance of every Muscular Motion in greater Animals at least there are not fewer distinct parts concerned than many Millions of Millions and these visible through a Microscope Let us then consider the Works of God and observe the Operations of his Hands Let us take notice of and admire his infinite Wisdom and Goodness in the Formation of them No Creature in this Sublunary World is capable of so doing beside Man and yet we are deficient herein We content our selves with the knowledge of the Tongues and a little skill in Philology or History perhaps and Antiquity and neglect that which to me seems more material I mean Natural History and the Works of the Creation I do not discommend or derogate from those other Studies I should betray mine own Ignorance and Weakness should I do so I only wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this I wish that this might be brought in Fashion among us I wish men would be so equal and civil as not to disparage deride and vilifie those Studies which themselves skill not of or are not conversant in no Knowledge can be more pleasant than this none that doth so satisfie and feed the Soul in comparison whereto that of Words and Phrases seems to me insipid and jejune That Learning saith a wise and observant Prelate which consists only in the form and pedagogy of Arts or the critical notions upon Words and Phrases hath in it this intrinsical Imperfection that it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledg of Things being in it self but a kind of Pedantry apt to infect a man with such odd Humors of Pride and Affectation and Curiosity as will render him unfit for any great Employment Words being but the Images of Matter to be wholly given up to the Study of these What is it but Pygmalions Phrenzy to fall in Love with a Picture or Image As for Oratory which is the best skill about Words that hath by some Wise men been esteemed but a voluptuary Art like to Cookery which spoils wholsome Meats and helps unwholsome by the variety of Sawces serving more to the Pleasure of Tast than the Health of the Body It may be for ought I know and as some Divines have thought part of our business and employment in Eternity to contemplate the Works of God and give him the Glory of his Wisdom Power and Goodness manifested in the Creation of them I am sure it is part of the business of a Sabbath-day and the Sabbath is a Type of that eternal Rest for the Sabbath seems to have been first instituted for a commemoration of the Works of the Creation from which God is said to have rested upon the Seventh Day Let it not suffice us to be Book-learned to read what others have written and to take upon trust more Falshood than Truth but let us our selves examine things as we have opportunity and converse with Nature as well as Books Let us endeavour to promote and increase this Knowledge and make new Discoveries not so much distrusting our own Parts or despairing of our own Abilities as to think that our Industry can add nothing to the Inventions of our Ancestors or correct any of their mistakes Let us not think that the bounds of Science are fixed like Hercules his Pillars and inscribed with a Ne plus ultra Let us not think we have done when we have learnt what they have delivered to us The Treasures of Nature are inexhaustible Here is Employment enough for the vastest Parts the most indefatigable Industries the fairest Opportunities the most prolix and undisturbed Vacancies Much might be done would we but endeavour and nothing is insuperable to pains and patience I know that a new Study at first seems very Vast Intricate and Difficult but after a little Resolution and Progress after a man becomes a little acquainted as I may so say with it his Understanding is wonderfully cleared up and enlarged the difficulties vanish and the thing grows easie and familiar And for our Encouragement in this Study observe what the Psalmist saith Psal. 111. 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Which though it be principally spoken of the Works of Providence yet may as well be verified of the Works of Creation I am sorry to see so little Account made of real Experimental Philosophy in this University and that those ingenious Sciences of the Mathematicks are so much neglected by us and therefore do earnestly exhort those that are young especially Gentlemen to set upon these Studies and take some pains in them They may possibly invent something of eminent Use and Advantage to the World and one such Discovery would abundantly compensate the Expence and Travel of one mans whole Life However it is enough to maintain and continue what is already invented neither do I see what more ingenious and manly Employment they can pursue tending more to the Satisfaction of their own Minds and the Illustration of the Glory of God For he is wonderful in all his Works But I would not have any man cross his natural Genius or Inclinations or undertake such methods of Study as his Parts are not fitted to or not serve those Ends to which his Friends upon mature Deliberation have designed him but those who do abound with leisure or who have a natural Propension and Genius inclining them thereto or those who by reason of the Strength and Greatness of their Parts are able to compass and comprehend the whole Latitude of Learning Neither yet need those who are designed to Divinity it self fear to look into these Studies or think they will engross their whole time and that no considerable Progress can be made therein unless men lay aside and neglect their ordinary Callings and necessary Employments No such matter Our Life is long enough and we might find time enough did we husband it well Vitam non accepimus brevem sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus as Seneca saith And did but young men fill up that time with these Studies which lies upon their hands which they are incumbred with and troubled how to pass away much might be done even so I do not see but the Study of true Physiology may be justly accounted a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Preparative to Divinity But to leave that It is a generally received Opinion that all this visible world was created for Man that Man is the end of
the Creation as if there were no other end of any Creature but some way or other to be serviceable to man This Opinion is as old as Tully for saith he in his Second Book De Nat. Deorum Principio ipse Mundus Deorum hominumque causâ factus est quaeque in eo sunt omnia ea parata ad fructum hominum inventa sunt But though this be vulgarly received yet Wise Men now adays think otherwise Dr. More affirms That Creatures are made to enjoy themselves as well as to serve us and that it 's a gross piece of Ignorance and Rusticity to think otherwise And in another place This comes only out of Pride and Ignorance or a haughty Presumption because we are encouraged to believe that in some sence all things are made for Man therefore to think that they are not at all made for themselves But he that pronounceth this is ignorant of the Nature of Man and the Knowledge of Things For if a good Man be merciful to his Beast then surely a good God is Bountiful and Benign and takes pleasure that all his Creatures enjoy themselves that have Life and Sense and are capable of Enjoyment For my part I cannot believe that all the things in the world were so made for Man that they have no other use For it is highly absurd and unreasonable to think that Bodies of such vast magnitude as the fixt Stars were only made to twinkle to us nay a multitude of them there are that do not so much as twinkle being either by reason of their Distance or of their Smalness altogether invisible to the naked Eye and only discoverable by a Telescope and it is likely perfecter Telescopes than we yet have may bring to light many more and who knows how many may lie out of the ken of the best Telescope that can possibly be made And I believe there are many Species in Nature which were never yet taken notice of by Man and consequently of no Use to him which yet we are not to think were Created in vain but it 's likely as the Doctor saith to partake of the overflowing Goodness of the Creator and enjoy their own beings But though in this sence it be not true that all things were made for Man yet thus far it is that all the Creatures in the world may be some way or other useful to us at least to exercise our Wits and Understandings in considering and contemplating of them and so afford us Subject of Admiring and Glorifying their and our Maker Seeing then we do believe and assert that all things were in some sence made for us we are thereby obliged to make use of them for those purposes for which they serve us else we frustrate this End of their Creation Now some of them serve only to exercise our Minds many others there be which might probably serve us to good purpose whose Uses are not discovered nor are they ever like to be without Pains and Industry True it is many of the greatest Inventions have been accidentally stumbled upon but not by men supine and careless but busie and inquisitive Some Reproach methinks it is to Learned Men that there should be so many Animals still in the World whose outward shape is not yet taken notice of or described much less their way of Generation Food Manners Uses observed If Man ought to reflect upon his Creator the Glory of all his Works then ought he to take notice of them all and not to think any thing unworthy of his Cognizance And truly the Wisdom Art and Power of Almighty God shines forth as visibly in the Structure of the Body of the minutest Insect as in that of a Horse or Elephant Therefore God is said to be maximus in minimis We men esteeming it a more difficult Matter and of greater Art and Curiosity to frame a small Watch than a large Clock And no man blames him who spent his whole time in the consideration of the Nature and Works of a Bee or thinks his subject was too narrow Let us not then esteem any thing contemptible or inconsiderable or below our notice taking for this is to derogate from the Wisdom and Art of the Creator and to confess our selves unworthy of those Endowments of Knowledge and Understanding which he hath bestowed on us Do we praise Daedalus and Architas and Hero and Callicrates and Albertus Magnus and many others which I might mention for their cunning in inventing and dexterity in framing and composing a few dead Engines or Movements and shall we not admire and magnifie the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Former of the World who hath made so many yea I may say innumerable rare Pieces and those too not dead ones such as cease presently to move so soon as the Spring is down but all living and themselves performing their own Motions and those so intricate and various and requiring such a multitude of Parts and subordinate Machins that it is incomprehensible what Art and Skill and Industry must be employed in the Framing of one of them But it may be objected That God Almighty was not so selfish and desirous of Glory as to make the World and all the Creatures therein only for his own Honour and to be Praised by Man To assert this were in Des Cartes his Opinion an absurd and Childish thing and a resembling of God to proud Man It is more worthy the Deity to attribute the Creation of the World to the exundation and overflowing of his Transcendent and Infinite Goodness which is of its own Nature and in the very notion of it most Free Diffusive and Communicative To this I shall answer in two Words First The Testimony of Scripture makes God in all his Actions to Intend and Design his own Glory mainly Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for himself How for Himself He had no Need of them he hath no Use of them No he made them for the manifestation of his Power Wisdom and Goodness and that he might receive from the Creatures that were able to take notice thereof his Tribute of Praise Psal. 50. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and in the next verse I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me And again in the last Verse Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me So Praise is called a Sacrifice and the Calves of the Lips Hosea 14. 2. Esay 42. 8. I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another Esay 48. 11. And I will not give my glory to another And to me it seems that where the Heavens and Earth and Sun and Moon and Stars and all other Creatures are called upon to Praise the Lord the meaning and intention is to invite and stir up Man to take notice of all those Creatures and to Admire and Praise the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God manifested in the Creation and Designations of them Secondly It is most reasonable that God Almighty