from another That every Thing moving hath not Motion essential to it is proved by the Cessation of Motion in some Things or their Continuance in or Tendency unto Rest. And that a Body once quiescent would continue so for ever if it was not moved by something else is agreeable both to Aristotle's Principles and Cartes his first Law of Nature and indeed unto Common Sense And if every Thing moving is moved by something else 't is necessary to stop somewhere and without going on in infinitum to terminate in a first Mover And since the first Mover must be immovable and therefore indivisible impassible and without Parts it must likewise be immaterial and having an infinite Power of moving every thing else 't is what we believe of God Nothing can pretend to answer this Argument but the Invention of a perpetual Lamp or Motion but all our Brains may be crack'd and we may hope by the Grace of God to have the Truth of it confirm'd to our Comfort before that Time comes This upon Review will be found a very weighty Argument very rationally making all the Motions in the Universe proceed from terminate in and directed by one Common Principle which like the Soul in the Body the Spring and End of all Humane Motions is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the general Superviser and Governour of all Things 2. The Existence of God is proved by the Series and Gradation of Causes in this manner Every Thing which we see hath its Beginning and Production must have its Beginning and Production from something else Nothing can give Beginning to it self Which is true not only of those Things which we see produced but of every Thing else from whence they have their Production until we come unto some Cause which is not produced An infinite Series of Causes is not to be admitted unless you are resolved to be Contradiction-proof for then of two Infinites one Rank may have infinitely more in number than the other There may be every Day an Addition to what was infinite before c. 'T is certain That Link which hath an End must have a Beginning That Train or Succession which hath a Last must have a First And by these Steps we ascend to the Supream Independent Cause from whence all subordinate Causes do proceed and that is God 3. The Existence of God is proved by the admirable Order and Beauty of the World its visible Glories declaring his invisible Power and Godhead Eternal Order can never be maintain'd upon the Principles of Chance but supposes an Eternal Orderer by whose interposing Power and Wisdom the Jarrings and Discords in Nature are over-ruled every Part fixed in its proper Place and guided most conducively to the Good and Harmony of the whole Take off your Eyes a little from this Earth of ours and direct your Contemplations towards Heaven Look up to the Sun the Moon and the rest of the Heavenly Hosts Conjecture at their Magnitude observe their Motion thankfully reflect on their benign Influences Consider how glorious Objects they all seem what blessed Mansions some of them may prove to be Have these existed say you Millions of Ages longer than most of us imagine The more wonderful you make their Frame and Architecture the greater Convictions if possible you give of an incomprehensibly wise and powerful Governour the stronger Assurances against the Fear of a blind and fortuitous Causality Chance possibly may hit upon something excellent but it doth not last long Co-ordinate and independent Powers may associate for mutual Benefit and Defence but it is much if they hold together to Eternity 'T is only one predominant and supreamly excelling Principle which can preserve a just Temperament an eternal Tenour and Comeliness a regular Union and Correspondence in all the Parts of the Universe and this is GOD. Shall we now proceed to the other Arguments for God's Existence from the general Notion of God in the Mind and the common Consent of Men to it from the Fabrick of the Body and the Nature and Operations of the Soul from the several Ranks of Beings which may lead to one most excellent and perfect Rather peruse the learned Discourses already extant on those several Heads apply them to and see their Consistence with this Hypothesis and by them with the Intimations already given you will soon perceive that Men of Irreligious and Ungodly Principles only cheat themselves when they think to hide themselves from God under this Subterfuge of the World's Eternity 6. One Remark more before the Conclusion of this Part may be recommended to you That even upon this Hypothesis the Generations of Men in all Probability must have a Beginning And for this we will not repeat the Impossibility of infinite Successions but re-mind you of Matters of Fact There are two Ways this Hypothesis standing good whereby the Inhabitants of the Earth may be all destroyed Either by a general Destruction of our Vortex whereof the Sun is the Center or by some particular Predominancy of Fire or Water I. A general Destruction of this Vortex may happen either by an Extinction of the Sun or by an unequal Dispersion of its Rays and Heat 1. If at any time there happen an Extinction of the Sun all the Inhabitants in this Vortex not removed by a supernatural Power must needs perish as under the Poles for want of Light and Heat The several Instances of a gathering Scum over or near the Sun's Body which to us have weaken'd or drowned the Sun's Light and reduced it almost to a total Obscuration may be foreboding Symptoms and Comminations of such a Judgment For a whole Year together after the Assassination of Iulius Caesar there was a prodigious Failure of the Sun 's Light at other Times for several Months and in the Reign of Tiberius the most wonderful of all tho' it was but for several Hours as it were to blacken those Moments in the Records of Time wherein the Lord of Glory suffer'd If you think these Frowns of offended Nature signifie nothing that these Threatnings of the great and only Potentate to hide the most sensible and necessary Symbols of his Presence have no Terror in them or to speak in the Language of our Naturalists that these scummy Spots can never encrease into so great a quantity as wholly to crust over the Body of the Sun and extinguish the Light and Heat of it let the disappearing of several Fix'd Stars Bodies which might rival the Sun in Glory and Greatness be a warning to you and fear lest by the Encrease of Sin and Wickedness within our Sphere the whole Mass to which we belong be made one cursed and confused Heap tumbled out of its Place and become a Word of Reproach and a Gazing-stock to the whole Universe as Comets are 2. If there be at any time a breaking and unequal Dispersion of the Suns Heat the irregular flying abroad of its fiery
from an hard'ned Malignity against God but either from Doubtfulness or Consciousness of their own Demerits and it is no wonder if they strive by any Artifice to exclude that Providence from whence they expect no Good Like the Iniquiry of Men to their Brethren first to offend and injure them then to weaken their Authority and Credit and if they do not or cannot destroy them yet to wish them dead But since the Existence of God and his Providence maintains its Credit and lives in the Belief of the Wise and Holy since all you can say to the Prejudice of Religion profits you nothing but even your own Principles must either endear or enslave you to it since to repeat it once more the Epicurean Hypothesis whatever it pretends at the first Interview will unavoidably keep you to Religion you had as good leave it and be Religious upon the most excellent Principles And is it not much more becoming the Dignity of Man to pay his Obedience to an eternal King whose Wisdom and Power is infinite than to harbour in his Mind low Thoughts of the Deity which he must serve and be govern'd by Chance only at the Second-Hand Does it not make Religion and the Offices thereof look more venerable and the Thoughts of the Divine Majesty more awful in the Soul when the Bent of our Devotion terminates in the prime Cause and contemplates Perfections not to be transcended There the Soul with Comfort and Credit can acquiesce and fix its Adorations when it can go no further All that hath been spoken was intended not to improve but gradually to wean you from the Epicurean Hypothesis It s Heart and Spirit may be because the Design of it is well-nigh broken And tho' it may not be convenient to rip open its Bowels and expose its Loathsomness for fear of Defilement yet one Consideration more may be suggested namely What the Heavenly Intelligences according to this Atomical and Fortuitous Origination of Things must think of themselves 'T is hard for Brutes to be made mere Machines and Plants the Composition of Chance Man looks a little higher and will stoutly argue and dispute against it And if the Heavenly Intelligences can be conscious of so mean an Original they must needs be ashamed to own it To this shall be only added That tho' it be impossible this absurd Hypothesis should be true yet even from it so clear an Account may be deduced both of Divine Providence and Dispensations of Angelical Beings and their Ministrations of the Fall of the Devil of his Deceiving Man and of the Extent of his Power and Principality that those Persons cannot but be condemn'd out of their own Mouth who dare to be Irreligious on this Foundation II. Let us proceed to the second Retirement of Infidelity That the World has always been as it is from Eternity subsisting in the same Frame and Order which we have at present And what principally offers it self to our Consideration on this Subject shall be introduced with 1. An Explication of the Hypothesis it self For if we take it in the gross nothing is more evidently true than it is evidently false How can we say the World has been from Eternity as it is at present when every Age every Year nay every Day presents to our View such wonderful Mutations What Revolutions in Humane Affairs what Changes in Government Religion Laws and Manners what Improvements in Liberal and Mechanical Arts and Sciences do the Histories of all Nations exhibit to us Or if you can see no Argument in this against the fixed Consistence of this Earthly Frame take notice of the Conflicts and Jarrs among the Elements themselves and their interchangeable replevying from each other the Fire making its hostile Eruptions upon the Earth as often as it can gather sufficient Forces and either finds or makes a Vent the Air cherishing noxious and pestilential Vapours which destroy all before them blast the Fruits of the Earth and turns the Breath of Life into the Minister of Death The Earth and the Water have their Quarrels about Dominion and enlarge their Bounds by mutual Depredations Sometimes the Earth is too hard for the Waters lifts up its Head above and places a Garrison in the midst of the swelling Floods Rhodes and Delos with many lesser Monuments mention'd by Pliny shew that the Earth can be sometimes brisk and throwing off her natural dulness recover some Ground from her neighbouring Foe And again the Waters have been too many for the Earth scorning to have their Forces disjoyn'd by the weak Fences of Nature making their Way if not between England and France yet between Italy and Sicily Cyprus and Syria c. taking no less than three famous Cities in Peloponnesus and over-running in a Night and a Day the great Island Atlantis if you will believe Plato Nor have their swallowing some certain Cities or Countries bounded their Ambition which in the Times of Noah Ogypes and Deucalion almost obtain'd by prodigious Inundations and threatned to establish an Universal Empire 'T is true we have now a tolerably quiet Temperament of Things but these wonderful Effects of contending Elements minister sufficient ground of suspecting that it hath not been always upon the Earth as it is at present which is supposed and confessed by the principal Patrons of this Hypothesis of which we shall make our Advantage afterwards But Master Aristotle perchance will obviate our Design by one of his Distinctions telling us that these formidable Changes happen only in the Elementary or Sublunary World but the Celestial Bodies made up of his Fifth or Finest Element are liable to no Changes or Corruptions but conserve an immutable and even Tenour through all the Successions of Eternity Had he himself been made up of this fine incorruptible Element his own Experience and Modesty might have convinced him by this time of his great Mistake The Moon and other Planetary Bodies are found to be near of the same Nature and Constitution with the Earth Many Fix'd Stars innumerated by the Ancients are now unknown and many appear a new which former Ages give no Account of and that notable Star in Cassiopeia bigger and brighter than the rest of the Fix'd Stars first observed November 1572 and disappearing March 1574 had a very fatal Influence upon and portended the Overthrow of this Hypothesis Nay those Blazing Stars which in all Ages shake their ominous Rods over admiring Mortals forewarn us by a right Calculation of their Altitude not to depend on it The Philosopher indeed agreeably to his Principles could not allow the Blazing Stars a place so high as the Orb of the Moon the Senselessness of which Fancy contrary to many other Reasons is evidently demonstrated from the Insensibility of their Paralax How much they are higher than the Moon we cannot certainly tell but in all Probability they must needs be advanced above the Sphere
the Ages most doubted of Mankind might receive the best Information when Tradition which in this Case is a better Rule than Reason grew weaker and weaker by passing through so many Hands then that became a Controversie which before was none and some who envied the Reputation would not yield unto the Authority of former Ages Matter of Fact is not to be known by Reason but by Testimony And since for much above 3000 Years after the Beginning which we contend for we have a Cloud of Witnesses in distinct Ages and Countries which appear for us and not one against us This shews That the nearer to that Beginning the clearer was the Certainty the stronger the Belief of it And this Weight of Universal Consent ought much to over-ballance any Arguments whatsoever which some later Pretenders to Reason in their private Contemplations and Retirements shall suggest 4. Our next Essay shall be to make the best of this Hypothesis And tho' the Reasons for it be weak and the Tradition against it strong yet you must know its chief Defenders were not such an Ungodly Generation as would now pervert and abuse it You therefore whom the Supposal of this World's Eternity makes unmindful of God look unto the Rock from whence it was hewn and hear what the first of your Race profess concerning the Divine Nature Life keeps our Earthly Tabernacles from falling in pieces and the Cause of this is the Soul And Harmony conserves the World and the Cause of this is God The Sphere of the Moon is the Isthmus or Partition between a changeable Life and Immortality The Regions above being the Possession of God and Divine Natures and those below of mutable Nature and Contention God gives to Men Generative Faculties Organs and Appetites not for Pleasure but the Preservation of their kind And a little after They who altogether abstain from the Procreation of Children are injurious to the most honorable Bonds of Union but from irregular and reproachful Mixtures proceed a Generation of Wretches vile and abominable both to God and Man to Families and Cities God and Nature do nothing in vain All Men have a Notion or Conception of God and allot unto the Divine Nature the highest Place whether they be Greeks or Barbarians or whoever think of God For it is manifest an Everlasting Being ought to be fitted with an Everlasting Habitation We may very well think that by one first Mover these several heavenly Bodies or their Motions do subsist For you may observe in all other kinds of Life or Principles the Supereminence is in a first over all the rest God gives Compleatness to the whole and makes every particular Production perfect We ought to think of God as a Being most powerful for Strength most perfect in Beauty in Life immortal in Excellencies transcendent And what the Master is in a Ship the Driver in a Chariot the Leader in a Dance the Law in a City the General in an Army that is God in the World Except in as much as they in their respective Places direct with Wearisomness Toil and Care but he without Pain without Labour exempted from all Bodily Weaknesses whatsoever For being fix'd on an immovable Throne he moves all Things and turns them about according to his Pleasure It would be endless to transcribe Religious Expressions from the Followers of Aristotle Let is suffice to tell you That the latter Platonists embraced this Opinion of the World's Eternity and made a great deal to do to reconcile Plato first to Aristotle then to himself So that you will make this Hypothesis fight against God you must sight against the Pillars and main Upholders of it whose devout Elevations of Soul expressed in their several Ages a Reverence for the Deity and would have abhorr'd as a degenerous Brood the Blasphemers of it 5. All the Religious Principles by natural Light form'd in the Mind concerning God are indifferently well consistent with the World's Eternity Which you cannot but be satisfied in considering 1. Many Christian Philosophers believing the Beginning spoken of by Moses think it not impossible if God had so pleased for the World to have been made before even from Eternity They dare not limit the Power of God as not in Efficacy so not to Time And if any one will say an Eternal Cause may have an Eternal Effect they will not be positive in denying it In which Number you shall not be referred to some ancient Hereticks or to our late foolish Pre-Adamites but to the Debates among our most eminent School-men and Metaphysicians II. The later Platonists and Aristotelians argued for the World's Eternity chiefly from the Consideration of God's Eternal Goodness Which Argument of theirs is most clearly expressed by Sallustius and in the fewest Words 'T is necessary says he the World existing through the Goodness of God that as God is always Good the World should always Exist They recognize God as the Cause the Fountain the Parent of the Universe and affirm it the Effect Off-spring and Emanation from him Only they suppose a Being Eternally Good must be Eternally Communicative Which Reason by the way if it have any Force in it makes not so much for the Eternal Generation of the World as of the WORD and Son of God III. It does no way derogate from the spiritual Nature or Providence of God but supposes an Eternal Conservation and Direction of all Things under the Government of an Eternal Spirit Aristotle the most suspected Person acknowledges this And if Immaterial and Incorporeal Being or Substance be Iargon Tobu and Bobu 't is none of our Framing or Invention The Fear indeed of some Religious and the Hopes of some Irreligious Men may deserve our Notice As if that which supposes God to act by a Necessity of Nature must render instituted Religion absurd and to no purpose and vacate the Expectations of Reward or Dreads of Punishment This formidable Difficulty will soon vanish when it appears how preposterously it is made to work For if God acts by a Necessity of Nature that is his own Nature this ought to be matter of Joy and Comfort to the Good and Terror to the Wicked For it can signifie no more than that God is necessarily Holy Wise Good and Just and cannot act otherwise than according to the Eternal Rules and Dictates of Holiness Wisdom Goodness and Justice What Good may not the Righteous expect from this What Reason have not the Wicked instead of triumphing to tremble at it And with Respect to God it infringes not his Liberty it illustrates his Perfection IV. Nor are the general Arguments for God's Existence endanger'd by this Hypothesis as you may see by the Enumeration of some Particulars 1. We argue for God's Existence from the Necessity of acknowledging a first Principle of Motion Thus Every Thing moving hath Motion either essential to it or by Communication