Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A29013
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Of the high veneration man's intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his wisedom and power by a Fellow of the Royal Society.
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Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.
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1685
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Wing B4009; ESTC R10996
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40,294
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119
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have bounds and so be truely boundless or which is the same thing in other terms infinite And if the World be bounded then those that believe a Deity to whose Nature it belongs to be of infinite Power must not deny that God is and still was able to make other Worlds than this of ours And the Epicureans who admitted no Omnipotent Maker of the World but substituted Chance and Atomes in his Stead taught that by reason the causes sufficient to make a World that is Atomes and Space were not wanting Chance has actually made many Worlds of which ours is but one and the Cartesians must according to their Doctrine of the Indefiniteness of Corporeal Substance admit that our visible World or if they please Vortex by which I mean the greatest extent our eyes can reach to is but a part and comparatively but a very small one too of the whole Vniverse which may extend beyond the utmost Stars we can see incomparably farther than those remotest visible bounds are distant from our Earth Now if we grant with some modern Philosophers that God has made other Worlds besides this of ours it will be highly probable that he has there display'd His manifold Wisedom in productions very differing from those wherein we here admire it And even without supposing any more than one Universe as all that portion of it that is visible to us makes but a part of that vastly extended aggregate of bodies So if we but suppose that some of the Celestial Globes whether visible to us or plac'd beyond the reach of our sight are peculiar Systemes the consideration will not be very different For since the fix'd Stars are many of them incomparably more remote than the Planets 't is not absurd to suppose that as the Sun who is the fix'd Star nearest to us has a whole Systeme of Planets that move about him so some of the other fix'd Stars may be each of them the Centre as it were of another Systeme of Celestial Globes since we see that some Planets themselves that are determined by Astronomers to be much inferiour in bigness to those fix'd Stars I was speaking of have other Globes that do as it were depend on them and move about them as not to mention the Earth that has the Moon for its Attendant nor Saturn that is not altogether unaccompanied 't is plain that Jupiter has no less than four Satellites that run their Courses about Him And 't is not to be pretermitted that none of these lesser and secondary Planets if I may so call them that moves about Saturn and Jupiter is visible to the naked eye and therefore they were all unknown to the Ancient Astronomers who liv'd before the invention of Telescopes Now in case there be other Mundane Systemes if I may so speak besides this visible one of ours I think it may be probably suppos'd that God may have given peculiar and admirable instances of His inexhausted Wisedom in the Contrivance and Government of Systemes that for ought we know may be fram'd and manag'd in a manner quite differing from what is observ'd in that part of the Universe that is known to us For besides that here on Earth the Loadstone is a Mineral so differing in divers affections not onely from all other Stones but from all other bodies that are not Magnetical that this Heteroclite Mineral scarce seems to be Originary of this World of ours but to have come into it by a remove from some other World or Systeme I remember that some of the Navigators that discovered America took notice that at their first coming into some parts of it though they found great store of Animals and Plants yet they met with few of the latter and scarce any of the former of the same Species with the living Creatures of Europe 19. Now in these other Worlds besides that we may suppose that the Original Fabrick or that Frame into which the Omniscient Architect at first contriv'd the parts of their matter was very differing from the structure of our Systeme besides this I say we may conceive that there may be a vast difference betwixt the subsequent Phoenomena and productions observable in one of those Systemes from what regularly happens in ours though we should suppose no more than that two or three Laws of Local Motion may be differing in those unknown Worlds from the Laws that obtain in ours For if we suppose for instance that every entire Body whether simple or compounded great or small retains always a motive Power as Philosophers commonly think that the Soul does when it has mov'd the Humane Body and as the Epicureans and many other Philosophers think all Atomes do after they have impell'd one aonther this power of exciting Motion in another Body without the Movents loosing its own will appear of such moment to those that duely consider that Local Motion is the first and chiefest of the second causes that produce the Phoenomena of Nature that they will easily grant that these Phoenomena must be strangely diversifyed by springing from principal causes so very differingly qualifyed Nor to add another way of varying Motion is it absurd to conceive that God may have created some parts of matter to be of themselves quiescent as the Cartesians and divers other Philosophers suppose all matter to be in its own Nature and determin'd to continue at rest till some outward Agent force it into Motion and yet that He may have endow'd other parts of the matter with a Power like that which the Atomists ascribe to their Principles of restlesly moving themselves without loosing that power by the motion they excite in quiescent bodies And the Laws of this propagation of Motion among bodies may be not the same with those that are established in our World so that but one half or some lesser part as a third of the Motion that is here communicated from a body of such a bulk and velocity to another it finds at rest or slowlier mov'd than it self shall there pass from a Movent to the body it impells though all circumstances except the Laws of Motion be suppos'd to be the same Nor is it so extravagant a thing as at first it may seem to entertain such suspicions as these For in the common Philosophy besides that the Notion and Theory of Local Motion are but very imperfectly propos'd there are Laws or Rules of it well not to say at all establish'd 20. And as for the Cartesian Laws of Motion though I know they are received by many learned Men yet I suspect that it is rather upon the Authority of so famous a Mathematician as Des-Cartes than any convictive evidence that accompanies the Rules themselves since to me for Reasons that belong not to this Discourse some of them appear not to be befriended either by clear experience or any Cogent Reason And for the Rule that is the most usefull namely that which asserts That there is always the same
OF THE High Veneration MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD Peculiarly for His Wisedom and Power By a Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed by M. F. for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford 1685. Advertisements THe abrupt beginning of the following Paper will not 't is hop'd be wonder'd at when 't is declar'd that the whole Excursion is to be look'd upon as a Fragment of a Discourse from which for certain Reasons it has been separated in its present Form In which it ought to pass but for a rough Draught the Nobleness Sublimity and Sacredness of the Subject not allowing the Authour to presume that the first thoughts he committed to Paper about it might be for good and all parted with by him till he shall have heedfully revis'd and corrected them and left in them as few faults as the disproportion of so vast and sublime a Subject to his slender abilities will permit The loose sheets this Paper consists of having been written at somewhat distant times and places and hastily tack'd together so that when the latter sheets were penning the former were often not at hand 't is hop'd that if some few things should chance to be either misplaced or repeated the fault will be thought venial and be more easily excused than it could in the Authour's Circumstances be avoided And lastly notice is to be given that those other long Passages that are included in Paratheses may with the Authour's consent or rather by his desire be skip'd over being but Conjectural thoughts written and inserted for the sake of a Virtuoso that is a great Friend to such kind of adventurous speculations OF THE High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to GOD. 1. UPON this Occasion I shall take leave to declare that 't is not without some Indignation as well as Wonder that I see many men and some of them Divines too who little considering what God is and what themselves are presume to talk of Him and his Attributes as freely and as unpremeditately as if they were talking of a Geometrical Figure or a Mechanical Engine So that even the less Presumptuous discourse as if the Nature and Perfections of that unparalleled Being were Objects that their Intellects can grasp and scruple not to dogmatize about those Abstruse Subjects as freely as about other things that are confessedly within the reach of humane Reason or perhaps are to be found among the more familiar Objects of Sense 2. The presumption and inconsiderateness of these men might be manifested by divers Considerations if I had Leasure to insist on them but at present I shall employ but these two 1. That 't is probable God may have divers Attributes and consequently Perfections that are as yet unknown to us and 2ly That of those Attributes that we have already some Knowledge of there are Effects and Properties whose Sublimity or Abstruseness surpassing our Comprehension makes the Divine Cause or Atuhour of them deserve our Highest Wonder and Veneration 3. To begin with the first of these whereas there are two chief ways to arrive at the Knowledge of God's Attributes The Contemplation of his Works and the study of his Word I think it may be doubted whether either or both of these will suffice to acquaint us with all his Perfections 4. For first though Philosophers have rationally deduc'd the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God from those Impresses of them that he hath stampt upon divers of his Visible Works yet since the Divine Attributes which the Creatures point at are those whereof themselves have some though but imperfect participation or resemblance And since the Foecundity if I may so speak of the Divine Nature is such that its Excellencies may be participated or represented in I know not how many ways how can we be sure that so perfect and exuberant a Being may not have Excellencies that it hath not expressed or adumbrated in the Visible World or any parts of it that are known to us 5. This will be the more easily granted if we consider that there are some of those Divine Attributes we do know which being Relative to the Creatures could scarce if at all be discovered by such imperfect Intellects as ours save by the consideration of some things actually done by God As supposing that just before the Foundations of the visible World were laid the Angels were not more knowing than men now are they could scarce think that there was in God a Power of Creating Matter which few if any at all of the Peripateticks Epicureans to omit others of the Ancient Philosophers seem ever to have dreamt of and of producing in it Local Motion especially considering the puzzleing difficulties that attend the Conception of the very Nature and Being of the one and of the other And much less as far as we can conjecture could the Angels spoken of have known how the rational Soul and Humane Body act upon one another Whence it seems probable that if God have made other Worlds or rather Vortices than that which we live in and are surrounded by as who can assure us that he hath not he may have displayed in some of the Creatures that compose them divers Attributes that we have not discover'd by the help of those Works of his that we are acquainted with But of this more hereafter 6. I readily grant that I may proceed now to the second Help to acquire the Knowledge of the Divine Attributes that the Revelations God hath vouchsafed us in the Holy Scripture which we owe to that Spirit which searcheth all things even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Depths of God have clearly taught us divers things concerning their adorable Authour which the mere Light of Nature either would not have shewn us at all or would have but very dimly discovered to us But the Scripture tells us indeed that the Promulgators of the Gospel declared to men the whole Counsel of God as far as was necessary for their Salvation but never says that they disclosed to them the whole Nature of God who is said to inhabite an unapproachable Light which humane Speculations cannot penetrate Upon which score perhaps it was that the Jews would have the proper Name of God to be Ineffable to signify that his Nature is Incomprehensible And though I will not adopt their Opinion yet I cannot but take notice that 't is at least no mere Talmudical Tradition since we find not that either our Saviour himself or his Apostles who are introduced so frequently making mention of God in the New Testament expressed in speaking either to him or of him the Nomen Tetragrammaton or four-letter'd name But not to insist on Conjectures the Scripture it self that brings so much Light to things Divine that the Gospel is called Light in the Abstract the Scripture I say informs us that in this Life we know but in part and see things but darkly as in a Glass and that we are so far from being able to find