in an Extraordinary way for thus every act of it is a Miracle thus it works without means contrary to means and above all means This is altogether Independent and Unlimited and therefore it is Infinite and can do every thing which doth not imply a Contradiction or imperfection for these are the result of Weakness not of Power nay therefore it is Omnipotency because it cannot if I may use the word cannot do these things which argue Impotency But 2. That which I design in this Consectary is the ordinary or actual power of God and that as it doth sometimes manifest it self in the accomplishment of very great Actions by weak and low Meâ—ns As in the combate between young David and that mighty man of war Gâ—liah to see the unarmed David in his blooming day over-come and throw-down at his feet that moving Rock the mighty Champion of the Philistines hedged round about with brass or steel This is the reason why five may chase an hundred and the â—â—tter number put a thousand unto flight why the weak things of the world confound them that are mighty and things which are not bring to nought things that are 3. It is the same mighty Hand of God by which this lower and soâ—â—d Globe is so firmly fixed in the middâ—e of the moving yeilding air Is it not a very unlikely thing that such a vast heavy body as the Earth is round by nature and so fitted for motion should keep its Center so many thousands of years without tumbling out of its place Terra pilae similis nulâ—o fulciminie nixa Aâ—re sublimitam grave pendent onus The World hath no other prop but the invisible hand of Heaven Job 26.7 38.6 4. But to keep close to the thing in hand this Almighty Power doth step over all the Improbabilities that stand in the way of it when it doth uphold the human body without the external Use of Creature-help What a wonderful thing is it to see a poor tattering Clay-house keep its foundation and remain not beaten down when strong and violent Storms drive against it to see poor worm-eaten Clay-Walls stand out against the stern Encounters of the strongest Winds without any visible supports nay to see these abide unbattered down when they have no foundation but the Dust not the firm Earth nor the Rock but the loose and moving Dust which every little Puff of Air blows away before it Job 4.19 This must of necessity be ascrib'd to the curious and adored Art of the Great Master-Builder of the World 5. There lay many Improbabilities in the way of Martha Taylor 's Life whole Troops of Distempers for several of the beginning Months did almost constantly scale the Walls of the Souls crazy Habitation and then she did altogether abstain from Meat Drink or Cordials so that all that were round about her expected her dying every day How can we then but say That underneath were everlasting Arms 6. What a strange thing it is that the Body should live only upon Nature's cost and charges and have no provision to subsist upon but what it makes within its own Doors How unlikely is it that a little Flegm Rheum moist Humours and such like things should be the real supply of Life as far as it is upheld by second causes for the Bodies of the most healthful and strong Men which are best able to make a sufficient use of Meat and Drink are not preserved alive only by these second causes for it is in God we live move and have our beings and by him all things consist and he upholds all things by the word of his power 7. As Infinite Wisdom is the Eye so this truly admirable Power of God is the Hand of that most vigilant Providence which conducts us safe through a thousand Dangers and Miseries which we are continually subject to between our Cradle and our Graves Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 What a wonderful story is that of Paul concerning himself 2 Cor. 11 I was in prisons more frequent in stripes above measure in deaths oft once I was stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In perils of robbers in perils by my own Country mâ—n in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Waters in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and zakedness And yet Paul lived through all these Who but an Atheist would not stand here and admire and adore the wonderful Power and Providence of God! Scultetus speaking concerning himself saith Totum vitae meae curriculum plenum est mirandarum divinarum liberationum ex magnis 〈◊〉 periculis calamitatibus nullum elementum est à quonon infestatus sum Praesat ad curric vitae 8. This Power of God is the Hindg upon which the whole course of Nature turneth nay it is the Hand that moves it It 's the saying of one very pertinent in this case That it is not with the work of God as with the Artificers Clock which put into a Frame and hang'd with weights will go though the Artificer be off from it but though God set all the Creatures in frame yet the motion of every wheel depends on God There is not a drop of rain falls till God utter his voice and cause the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Jer. 10.13 The groaning Creation which travels in birth to be delivered of sin Rom. 8.22 hid been long since up in Armes against the great Rebel Man who was the cause of all its Miseries had not the interposition of an Infinite Arm caused it lie down with quietness The angry and churlish Ocean had many an Age ago broke over its weak and sandy Bounds and had for certain entomb'd the Earth and all Inhabitants within its own bosom had not the Omnipotent confin'd it to the Womb of his Decree wrapt it up within the swadling-bands of darkness and still'd â— by rocking it in the Cradle of his Providence as you may see Job 38.8 9 10 11. SECT III. Infinite Wisdom now and then chuseth forth some of the meanest things to do its mighty Works upon 1. I Have read of very many who have been brought under a total Abstinence and continually lived for many Moneths or Years together without either Meat or Drink and all of these have been of ordinary if not poor and low Original Some of the most curious Artists of them who have been most profoundly learned who have shone in their differing Spheres as Starrs of the first Magnitude have taken their rise from the lowest ground and have been only of vulgar Extraction This Wisdom at the Creation of the World made choice of the meanest Dust as a convenient Material out of which to make the most ennobled sublunary Creature So that the most Rational and
in several credited Authors concerning Lamps now and then found in Italy and other places in ancient Vaults or Urns which have lasted for many years that I say not Ages without extinction till put forth by the purer and stronger Air. I know one great cause of the duration of these Lights is from the firm make and lasting constitution of the Burning Materials It is a thing also commonly known that a few small pieces of Flaming-wood buried under their own Ashes will continue fired for a great number of hours and yet not much consume away Some say there is sound Outlandish-wood that will thus endure for many Months Now 4. Thus it is in these great Abstinents that Natural heat seems as it were to be raked up under Embers that it might spend it self and its proper Pabulum or food with the greater Paâ—cimony Nature doth greatly lavish or thrust forth its own supports by Excrements as by Stool Urin Sweat Salivation and the like but in these admirable Fasters all these Passages are for the most part closely stopped up And then the Native Fervour as was said is brought to such a small Degree that it may not over-fast consume its Aliment Thus many whose years are greatly numerous can live upon a very small because they have but little Heat slender Evacuation and â—old and dense Bodies and so consequently spend the Radical Humours very sparingly 5. When the Cause ceaseth then the Effects must needs fall Now in these Abstenious Ones its usually so that the deâ—â—re and necessity of Meat and Drink is taken away as the Stomack especially at the beginning is distemper'd stupâ—fi'd and altogether mastered and overcome by the abundant Influx of Pituitous Crude and Naughty Humours so that 〈◊〉 can neither retain what it had nor give entertainment to any fresh Sustenence and all the Excrementitious Passages being stopped up the Body cannot that way Eâ— it or Evaporate any of its inbred Supplâ—es And it hath been the rational Conjecture of Delrius quoted by Gast Schottus That the ' foresaid Flegmatick abounding Humours which first took away the Stomack are afterward made a good use of by the Naturaâ—-heat in order to the underpropping Life The Stomack upon a small recruit may be enabled to turn these to a sort of Chyle and then the Liver falls to work and draws them into it self and presently transformeth them into Blood which it sendeth by the Vena Porta into the Body and all its Members The knowing Ciâ—â—sius speaking as I think concerning the Chyle saâ—th Attract us ab hâ—â—â—tâ— qui vâ—ntriculi fuit excrementum 〈…〉 limentum Abst Cons p. 89. For any thing â— know the worst of humours may be turned by Natures skill and aid to outrimeâ—t not noxious but useful 'T is a known Report that the grand Alithâ—idates did gradatâ—m obtain such an Art in eating Poison that his Body became invincible to its greatest power as was afterward experienc'd when he should that way have lost his life Of which Martial the neat Epigrâ—mmatist gives you an account in one of his Disticks thus Profecit poto Mithridates saepe veneno Toxica ne possent saeva nocere sibi This humour which at first might be putrid doth in a little time become so tenacious and compact that it 's made very durable to the gentle heat which lives upon it This the applauded Sennertus thinks very probable in his first and second thoughts upon the thing in hand as may be seen both in his Institutions and Practick Physick And when it is once reduced to this solidity and the Volatile Spirits or Vapoâ—rs confined to a fixation and made to tarry and to do their office then it is that these Meatless Câ—eatures have their Lamps pretty well supply'd with Oyl then they do with a greater composure subsist under their total Abstinence without destruction though not without decay 6. Usually the Bodies of these Foodlesse ones are inwardly in a dissolving melting case which dissolution or consumption may produce adapted nourishment for Natural heat to live upon The obstruction of all external vents together with the coldness of their out-sides and the many humours that do naturally attend their very Sex they being usually Women doth befriend the indwelling Fire with proper Materials for it to live upon I think it is indubitable that some such like heat by a like supply of humid Matter is the cause why Herbs and Plants live and thrive As our Reason lifts us up above all other Animals so our Sensation gives us what they have and Vegetation or the way of the nourishing the humane frame communicated to us all the advantages which Plants enjoy to these our Earthy Bodies do carry a great and real correspondence in the manner and matter of their growth maintainance and preservation Doctor Harvet who was learned Jouberts Antagonist about the possibility in point of Nature being reduced to a strait concerning the Lucomori forementioned whose brumal Fasting he supposed was unquestionable he granted They did live but it was onely a Life of Vegetation Cites ubi sup 151. 7. The most excellent Zaculus Lucitanus hath affirm'd that though there may be many causes why these are sustain'd alive yet the in-being or in-undation of flegmatick humour was the main cause His own words are Etsi non negem a multis causis citra cibum diutissime homines posse vitam transigere tamen frequention magis communis est causa quae ex aâ—undantia humoris piluitosi elicitur De Med. Prinâ— Hâ—st p. 914. The Foetus in the Mothers Womb doth live and thrive after a very strange mâ—nner without either eating or drinking and for any thing I know without emitting any Excrements at all They live upon a Sanguinal Humour transmitted to them though the Umbellick Veins 8. The continual inlet of the humid Air into the Bodies of these by the Mouth and Nostrils conveyed by certain secret Conduit-pipes into the Heart and other parts of the Microcosme may afford some supplement to the Animal Spirits and remaining Humours The constant now undeny'd Motion of the Blood and Heart doth very much contribute to the being and life the act and exercise of this innate Heat and so doth conduce exceedingly to fermentation and this ferment helps in the continuation of life 9. Thus I have given you a compendious Account of an appearing Possibility in Nature it self Theâ—e things its true are but barren fare for strong activâ— and full Bodies to live upon but you know these which have been the subject of our Discourse are of weak languish'd and macerated out-sides poor meager almost-dying Carkasses for if them who are of robust chearful and active Bodies could thus live I should no more question that Miracles were now in being then I do that they were so in the Prophets and Apostles days SECT IV. HEre I shall close up this part of the Discourse by giving you some Arguments to prove the vast improbability of a Cheat in our Martha's case
receive their food at the Hand of God the beauty and lustre of the painted Lillies is from a Divine Art the poor silly Sparrow stands or falls according to the order of the increated Essence our ordinary Meat and Drink are from God whose glorious Arithmetick hath taken observation and an exact account of every hair long or short which grows upon the Believers Head Mat. 6.24 to 33. and 10.29 30. Though many of these meaner things may seem never so fortuâ—tous or contingent yet the disposal of them is from the Lord Prov. 16.33 God is every where present and all things are done by the influence of his Power so that the most minute things are by his steerage nothing runs at randome nor is the product of chance The Poet and many others thought that Providence was only engaged in the Magnalia of the world Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovis But we know that the meaâ—est creatures in all their actions drive on the ends of an Infinite Majesty who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working 8. The sound Believer by intuition and contemplation sees God in all things he 's the only man who does practically and to his comfort understand that old Verse Praesentem monstrat quaelibet verba Deum Something of God is writ on every grass Which careless walkers tread down as they pass He 's ready to give God the Title to every thing exceptâ—ng Sin for he knows that he who is the summum Bonum cannot be guilâ—y of that which is the summum malum He permits orders and determines the action as it is an action but he cannot possibly have any thing to do with the evil of sin or the depravity of the Action Now there is few that act lâ—ke the Believer to see the Hand of Providence in its common and smaller productions Though I am sure some among the Heathen Moralists did collect excellent Divinity from this ordinary Manuscript This was their Scripture their Theology The ordinary effects of Nature wrought more Admiration in them then the most of Christ's Miracles did among the Jews Many of them knew better how to conjoyn the Mystical Letters of the Creation then the heedlesse Professors of this Age who trample under foot the most obvious and most significant Hieroglyphicks without drawing one conclusion from them for Soul-advantage or the honour of God But 9. There are the more special and signal actings of this Providence when it does display it self in some or other singular things and this has the greatest observation bestow'd upon it The most illustrious Lamp of Heaven is as really in being when it is obscured by the darkest Cloud as it when it sendeth forth its radiant and cleaâ—est Beams yet only then the beholders eye gives it the most enlarg'd observance So it is in the matter of Actual Providence when it improves the meanest helps to great advantage when it makes second causes in their lowest Ebbe bear up and carry forward very weighty actions when it doth in a more hidden method draw streight Lines by crooked Rules and in a Cryptick way give sufficient support to humane Bodies under great distempers by very small suppâ—ies then its most taken notice of Hitherto we may refer the most if not all the seeming Miracles of these lattes Ages of the World Which have been â—ctions not done altogether beyond the power of Nature or in a total contradiction to natural causes but Nature mightily improved supported or success't by the holy skill and Art of sacred Providence and so they may deservedly be called wonders though they have not been advanced so high as to be undoubted Miracles Thus we are come to Martha Taylors case which was beyond controversie a more then ordinary discovery of the Care and Providence of God whence you may read the ground of my first thoughts That the Care and Providence of God hath not done with the world All that have seen her or heard her story have presently set the Crown upon the Head of Providence 10. I shall here close up this with a word of Apology for the length of this Consectary and an engagement to greater brevity in those that follow Some father every thing upon Providence others nothing or the next to nothing Some are ready to refuge themselves in it as if it were a proper Asylum for their Enormities others steal all away from it and offer it up at the Shrine of Fate the starry Influence or any thing before they will come to the Door of God As there is no need for us to look over or deny second causes especially in natural actions for this would be presumption and a tempting of God So there is no need of tying God to give always attendance to second causes in the ordinary method degree or way of managing them He is a most free wise and powerful Agent whatsoever he useth as was said before is not upon the account of his own weakness but upon the acount of his own will which is sacred and not to be disputed That I might something open these things was the aim of the antecedaneous Particulars as also to lay a fair foundation for several of the following ones and in the last place that I might demonstrate I had no design to derogate the glory of Heaven or to eclipse the Beauty of Providence for I am one that dare not disown my God and bow the Head to the Name of Nature which I had so often occasion to use in the first and second Parts I dare not put Nature up into the Throne with God as the smooth Poet seems to do speaking concerning the rude and formeless Chaos where the seeds of things seemed to the eye of sense to be jumbled up together in an undigested Lump or Embrio where he saith Metamorph. lib. 1. fab 1. Hanc Deus Melior litem Natura diremit For I know nature to be Gods servant and that it carries on his designs and is actuated by his Providence this is it which directeth the operations of all individuals and single Essences There are many Relations in Sacred History not carried beyond the bounds of Providence in the use of means that are so full of Labyrinths and various turnings that they were able to convert a Stoick If you would have an instance you may read over the stories of Joseph and Moses where you may find many doublings and redoublings vast thwartings and improbabilities which were not the effects of Chance neither were they loose and stragling as they seem'd to be but all of them had a real tendency to their own and Israel's advancement Let this suffice to demonstrate the exercise of the Care and Providence of God which will be further opened by what ensues CONSECT II. That humane unlikelihoods or supposed Improbabilities in the course of Nature cannot hedge up the way against Omnipotency 1. I Shall not speak to this glorious Attribute of God as it is considered Absolutely and
live without food for some years more he sends again two other deep-sighted Physicians to try her the second time which they did by the utmost scrutiny in April 1588. One of the first of these Doctors of Physick viz. Henricus Smelius in the tenth Book of his Miscellanies gives you this Relation with some other strange passages concerning her I might also have told you of that other Maid of Spire in Germany whose memory Joubert hath made illustrious and Langius mentions in his Epistles to have lived four years without meat try'd by Fardinand the Emperour and other Magistrates in that Country But the last I shall name is that famous known story of Apolloniae Scheieriana or Chrier as I think Quereâ—tanus calls her Who was born in the Town of Gats within the jurisdictions of the celebrated City Berne in Switzerland She first lost the Appetite to Meats then to Drinks and shortly after fell under an abhorrence of all Nutritives Her fame flying abroad in the Senate of Berne presently gives forth a strict Order which brought her and her mother into an Hospital within their City where she was committed to the through search and observation of many watchful Eyes who all after a competent time of trial give in their Testimony to the Senate that she did beyond dispute live without any Aliment at all And thus from the year 1600. for several years on forward she continued this hâ—r marvelous fast all which time the whole Abdomen or the Belly from the Ribs to the Pudendum Muliebre was fallen down and hard which was frequently view'd by her multitudinous Visitors But you may find her whole History writ by the care and industry of the Learned Paulus Lentulus who was then Professor of Physick at Berne with a Collection of several other Remarkables of the like Nature as also the united Testimonies and Eulogies of several of them who were his Eminent Noble Contemporaries I suppose these things makes a total Abstinence appear something more probable and real then many have been free to conjecture I confesse many things of this nature may have been fabulous in all likelihood As the Aâ—â—om a People in India who are without Mouths and live onely by Odors and Aire the Luc mâ—riâ—â—s who Inhabit the Northern Mountains in the most Remote Parts of Muscovy neer to the Fâ—â—â—â—n Sâ—a where the stern Boreas â—â—eps his Blustring Court and hath his Imperial Throne Seated There this People towards the close of Nâ—vember every year are glad to betake themselves to Dens and Caves where they lye Froâ—en up till the grateful influence of the Vernal Sun awake them out of this cold Sleep of these see Citâ—sâ—us in his Abstin Confol â—â—57 103. c. and Guvaâ—ninus in Moscoviae Desâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Luâ—â—mor We have also great variety of stories of Eremitical Men Superstitious Zealots and Popish Votaries who are reported to have banished themselves from humane Society into some or other solitary Places or Deâ—arts and there to have lived without Meat or Drink for many Months or Years as is to be found in Sennertus the above-nam'd Citesius and Gasp Schottus in his Physica Curiofa p. 408. c. Further we read of seven Ephesian Boys who under the persecution of Decius being terrified by his cruelty upon the Professors of the Gospel did fly away into a Cave not far from the City Ephesus where they were walled up and are reported to have slept for the long Night of three hundred years space till the more pleasant days of Theodosius the Emperour in whose time their Prison-doors were pulled down and they were awaked out of their miraculous sleep This you may find in the applauded Nicâ—phorus in his Ecclesiastical History lib. 14. cap. 45. Now let any one judge how probable these are though I know several of them are credited by some sober prudent Men. Yet we have but small ground to believe the prodigious Stories of the more remote and darker Ages and Places of the world in which both Truth and Knowledge lay long bury'd under a palpable Cimmerian Darkness But we have no ground to disbelieve those Things which are within the Memory of those latter Days and the Relations of inquisitive knowing Men and the sharp Trials of impartial eminent Magistrates SECT III. HEre I shall shew you the Possibility of it in point of Nature according to the judgement of Citesius as above Joubert Sennertus and Fortunâ—us Licetus with some others who have writ on this Subâ—ect whom I mention here once for all that I may not interrupt you with too frequent Citations which I know to be a great trouble and little satisfaction to the ordinary Reader 1. I know very well that History is copiously stor'd with the true Reports of several dull and solitary Melancholicks of many in the more warme parts of the world which was frequent and of some in the colder Climates not at all troubled with crasie Heads who have fasted for seventeen and â—o on to twenty days without destruction of my extraordinary decay to their weak and brittle our-sides This hath been an inducement to stir up the former wits of the world to search for the distaining cause but the far lâ—rger more astonishing Abstinence of some in these latter days hath awak'd the coetaneous profound Head-pieces of Neighbour Nations to make a much more deep and double inquiry into the way of Natures Support From these I shall give the following concise Account to evince a Possibility The most learned pristine and modern Physician and Philosophers do say That the great instrument of Life in all Animate beings is indwelling Natural heat which its possible hath its seat in the Bloud Now as the Fire feeds upon the combustible matter which is adjoyned to it or as you see the lighted Match in the Lamp or the burning Wick in the Candle live upon the annexed Oyle or Tallow so doth this Innate-heat within the Body live upon a solid a moist and a spiritual substance which the later and more experienced Physicians do comprise under the Humiditâ—â— radical prâ—â—â—geâ—â—um This one would think should presently be spent and consumed away without new and fresh supplies from Meat and Drink So then the wonder is how this Fire should live without its ordinary and obvious Fewel For where Natural heat is more abundant as it is in Children and Young Men there is the greatest desire need and use Meat and Drink 3. But this you must know that in these foodlesse Creâ—tures this Natural-heat is reduced to a very slender proportion and so can live upon very smaâ—l supplies 〈◊〉 â—s I have seen a Candle confined to a spare and thrifty way of burning by the density or humility or other deficiency of the ambient Air continue for some hours together sending forth flame and light without any visible or considerable waste of the Wax or Tallow Which hath often made me think there might be some truth in those mâ—ny Stories which I have read
God is display'd in the external Works oâ— the matchlesse Wisdome and â—ower of the eâ—â—â— blessed Jehovah in the creating ordeâ—â—ng proâ—ision and underpropping of the World and all its Inhabitants This sits at the Stern of all sublunary affairs and sometimes without asking leave of either Wâ—â—â—l or Tyde nay sometimes in spite of all their opposition it can and doth conduct it's own Barge or Vessel whatever to the designed Port. This is Immediate Providence when the Omnipotent without Creature-Ministration doth guide and uphold the Universe and every thing in it which shews that his using secondary means is not from any want of power but the result of his own will and well-ordering Wisdome This is not a common but an extraordinary administration of Providence which thus swims against the Stream and runs up the steepest Hill without any fainting at all which thus works against or besides the course or usual order of nature or common actings This employs it self onely in miraculous Productions So that I question not but that the first making of the World was a very stupendious Miracle to raise so vast a Being out of a former Non-entity to such an huge Lump of substantial matter fit to make all other terrene Essences out of it But I must not bestow time on this because I do not look upon Martha Taylor 's Case as a Miracle 3. Then there is the ordinary and usual Providence â—f God which hath the Regiment Disposal and sustentation of the World in its own hands and this is it of which I shall speak with brevity This this is the main Spring which moves the whole Wheels of the Creation This is the weight which makes the Clock of all created concerns strike at a lower or higher rate 4. Consider the reallity here of its being or exercise Many have denyed it and more there are which take little notice of it but refer all to Nature These are very unworthy and base to him who gave them their first beings the poor Ethnick World had better thoughts concerning God and Providence Men that were meer Heathens could spell out Providence from the whispers of their own Conscience the admirable Order Tendency Disposal Constitution Mutation and foresaid preservation of all things and all their actions To this purpose Homer in his Poems written upon Vlysses brings in that wise and valiant Grecian Prince speaking concerning his many and long dangers upon the rugged churlish Ocean in this Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which doth in the very letter of it signifie But in those things I did acquiess or rest satisfied which God had appointed in his own mind And Plato as he is quoted by Aristotle in his Tract de Mundo cap. 7. saith to this effect That God doth hold or manage the beginning middle and end of all things And the learned Stagyrite himself declares his mind very fully de lib. c. 6. That as all things are from God so they do all subsist by God and that if Divine Aid be absent Nature is not at all sufficient to underprop it self Which he illustrates by these apt Allusions What the Master or Pilate is to the Ship what the Driver is to the Cart or Chariot and what the Captain is to the Souldiers c. that God is to the World They that are curious or troubled with that dangerous disease Atheisme may satisfie themselves if they will not put out the Eye of Nature by an inquiry into Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. Deorum and Seneca de Providentia ad Lucilium and Galen lib. 3. de usu partium corporis humani It 's sad to think that there should be so many men as there are in our seeing Times who do either with their Lips or Lives refer all things and their motions operations or miseries onely to blind Fortune or rather to a Stoical Fate or Destiny by which they bind over the â—reat Creator unto second Causes and thus they make Him if any thing Natures Servant It hath been I think a thousand times over asserted That there is a God and therefore Providence and it s almost as oft repeated That to deny actual Providence is to deny God himself And yet the foolish Epicurus granted that there was a Goâ— but denyed Providence which the learned Sophiâ—s of all Ages have detected as a base absurdity One who was otherways a friend to Epicurus saith that this was Epâ—curi gravissimus lapsâ—â— Caâ—send de vit c. Epicur 5. But I suppoâ—e I may let theâ—e men alone till the awakening Hand of God make them of another mind As it did once the bloudy Caligula and cruel Nâ—ro when the terrifying Thunder-clâ—ps of Heaven made them hide their lofty heads and to use my Authors words agnosoâ—re Dâ—um reâ— humanas curare they then were forced to sneak and acknowledge that God did exercise care and cognizance in reference to the things of the world Horace tells you by his own mouth that it was this angry voice of Heaven which made him own providence and throw away the vain and irreligious Notions of Epicurus Hor l. 1. Od. 34. Thus I have indeavoured to satiâ—fie the Men who may be of the Heathen-humour That infinite wisdome and power doth rule and uphold the world 6. This I know is more believed by the Conscientious Christian from the Testimony of one Line in Hâ—ly Writ then from a thousand in humane Authors but yet the great Apostle useth the very same means to prove the same thing in that fâ—ll place for the proof of Actual Providence Acts 17 speaking concerning the God that made the world him who is Lord and Soveraign of heaven and earth ver 24. He saith in the following verse He giveth to all life and breath and all things He determineth times and bounds and habitations And he is not far from every one of us For in him we live and move and have our beings as certain also of your own Poets have said c. Here and twice more in his Epistles Paul is pleased to make use of Heathen Poets as Aratus Menander and Epimenedes to carry on religious designs Scripture is very clear in the setting forth the Providence and Care of God and therefore he 's said To work all things Ephes 1.11 By him all things consist Col. 1.17 He upholdeth all things Heb. 1.3 And we are enjoyned to east all our care on him for he careth for us 1 Pet. 5 7. But I shall give you one incomparable place which may serve for all viz. Psal 104. the whole of it which you may read in your Bibles and there you cannot but see the powerful wise universal and constant actings of Providence 7. Providence is seen by the serious eye in its most common and lowest acts as the motion of the Clouds and Winds the running of the liquid wandring Streams the moving and livelihood of the wilder Animals as in that 104. Psalm Yea the very Birds of the Aire