see daily the Motion of Bodies and the Production of Living Creatures especially of Mankind First For the Motion of Bodies The principal Parts of the World are never idle In the Earth there are active Principles of Life and Vegetation which prepare the vital Juice that is in all Plants and Trees In Animals there is Concoction Digestion and a Motion or Fluor of the Chyle which serves for Nutrition In the Sea there is a Flux and Reflux and a Current in Rivers and Springs In the Air there are Vicissitudes and Turnings as Exhalations and Vapours steam out of the Earth and return to it again modified into various Forms And the constant circular Courses of those glorious Bodies in the Firmament shew likewise that in this visisible World there is no Rest Now all these Motions of material Substances must depend upon Causes for Matter alone is a liveless unactive stupid Thing which can no more move it self than Mountains and Rocks can walk and whatever those Causes be whether proximate or remote they must depend for their Operations upon the Energy of one supreme Cause that impower'd Nature and set the whole Frame of it on work and gave it as we may say the first Stroke for otherwise Motion which once was not in being would have been the Cause of it self which is utterly impossible The like may be said of the Production of Living Creatures and particularly of Mankind Once we were not therefore you and I and all of us had a beginning as we shall have an end and though we should run up our Generations so far as to date our Breed from an hundred thousand Years ago yet must we of necessity derive it at last from some Ancestors who were not begotten of others as we have been but were made after a different manner by an Omnipotent Cause which could give them a beginning for otherwise we must either run up on to Eternity or suppose our first Parents to have made themselves which is repugnant to the universal Truth I demonstrated before and would imply that those our first Parents had a Being and no Being at the same instant This Argument so strongly proves the necessary Existence of a first Cause or a Deity to form the whole Frame of Nature and to set it in order that some unreasonable Men find themselves constrained to tell us that the World ever was as it is now the same from all Eternity without any Rise Novity or Beginning and so without any dependence on a first Cause or need of it They were as good say plainly That they are resolved never to be convinced but will rid themselves of all belief of a Deity at any rate though they destroy the Principles of Common Reason and run into the most fulsome Absurdities and Contradictions For how can it consist with reason to take a boundless Progress from one Effect to another still onward up to Retroinfinity without stopping at any beginning This conceit being admitted these monstrous Absurdities must follow 1. First It implies the local Motion of Bodies to have produced it self without the efficiency of a first Mover which is impossible because Motion is neither essential to Matter for then no body could ever rest nor is it incident to Matter as such but by its being touched by some moving Principle that is distinct from it It is a Passion imprest upon Matter by an Agent by virtue whereof it changeth place and distance and therefore it presupposeth Action from something else otherwise it must be its own Creature and Maker too the Effect and Cause of it self at the same time and out of nothing which is a Contradicton So that though you go through the vastest Series of moving Bodies from the things below to the Heavens above you must come at last to a first Mover of all things or conclude against all Sense and Reason that there are innumerable Effects without any Original Essiciency Suppose when the World was made it had presently had some great Jog given it 't were hard to conceive that the Motion of its several Parts should not have spent it self in a little time without a conserving Power pervading through all But it confounds Humane Understanding to think how there could be Motion all along from all past Eternity and without any beginning no superior Power moving or acting upon Bodies because it is impossible for Matter to be self-active though you should suppose it to have been Eternal It could no more move than it could make it self for upon that principle Men must return to that great Absurdity and Contradiction touching a thing being its own Cause that is touching its being and not being at the same time 2. Secondly To suppose the whole World to have been Eternal would render the Generation of Mankind altogether impossible For every ones Formation and Birth is absolved in the space of so many Months and so it must of necessity include not only a Period but a Beginning too both which are inconsistent with the Notion of Eternity for if Humane Race was always begotten carry it as high as you please you must come to a moment when Generation did begin 3. If it be said Thirdly That Men were not from all Eternity generated as they are now but that some were created or made from everlasting and thence others were produced in the ordinary common way this contradicteth it self for it necessarily infers a Creator or Maker and by consequence it implies a first Man and a first Cause and a time when our first Ancestors began whereas there is neither first nor last in Successions which are Eternal so that were our Ancestors Eternal it must be said plainly we had no first Parents at all 4. And then Fourthly What can be more absurd than to conceive that every particular Man should have as we see every Man hath a Father and a Mother and yet that all Mankind should have none 5. Fifthly Or if every Man's Parents were infinite then it must be said That there are as many Infinites as there are and have been particular Men in the World which is such another great Absurdity as the former 6. Sixthly To conclude this Argumentation To affirm the World to have been Eternal is to destroy the Notion of Infinity and to entangle ones self in the greatest Nonsense For to give you the Words of a most Learned and Judicious Writer If the World be Eternal Bishop Stillingsleet ' s Orig. Sac. p. 376. there must have been past an infinite Succession of Ages an insinite number of Successions are already past and if past then at an end and so we find an Infinite which hath an end which is a consequence becoming one who avoids the belief of a Deity because Infinity is an unconceivable thing Besides if the number of Generations hath been Insinite these two consequences will unavoidably follow which the Reason of any one but an Atheist would startle at That one Infinite may be
A DISCOURSE Concerning the EXISTENCE OF GOD. BY EDWARD PELLING D. D. Rector of Petworth in Sussex and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street MDCXCVI THE CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1 CHAP. 1. Concerning the Notion of God in general viz. A Being that is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect What such Perfection meaneth A more particular Notion of God drawn out by Necessary Consequences That he is a Being Independent Eternal Spiritual Intelligent Omnipotent perfectly Good and Righteous This Idea of God is Intelligible and Rational 7 CHAP. II. The Existence of this most Perfect Being proved by Four great Arguments First The Necessity of a First Independent Cause The Origine of all Motion and Life The World not Eternal but made by a Deity 37 CHAP. III. Secondly The general Consent of Mankind even the Ancient Heathens and Modern Idolaters touching One Supreme Numon The Singularity of a few Atheists of old not to be valued This Consent proceeded not from meer Tradition nor Fear nor State-Polity nor Common Compact but from a Principle in Humane Nature derived from the Great Author of it No Argument of the truth of Idolatry 54 CHAP. IV. Thirdly Extraordinary Occurrences As first Miracles Three sorts of True Miracles These Arguments of a God True Miracles have been realy done The Credibility of those done by Moses and Jesus Christ Of Strange Works done by Idolaters A distinction between Miracles in Appearance and Miracles Divine 107 CHAP. V. Then Predictions of future contingent Events Such Predictions there have been some relating to the Ancient Empires others to Jesus Christ others to some memorable Events after Christ's Ascension 161 CHAP. VI. A Fourth Argument of the Existence of God is taken from the Admirable State of the Universe And First Of the Excellent Order into which the several parts of the world are digested Their Commodious Situation Their mutual Relation And the Permanency of them in their Natures and Operations All this could not come to pass by Chance but is a Proof of the Existence of a God The Senseless Conceits of Scepticks with a Confutation of them 191 CHAP. VII A Second thing observable in the State of the Universe is the Beauty of its Parts their Multitudes Splendor Variety together with the Comeliness of their Frame The Pretences of Scepticks answer'd concerning the Operations of Plastick Nature 257 CHAP. VIII The Third is The Usefulness of the several Parts of this Visible Word First as to their Ends and Tendencies The Usefulness of the Heavenly Bodies in their Nature and Motions Of the Air of the Seas and their Saltness of Springs and Mountains and of all the Furniture of the Earth The useful Structure of things in order to their Ends particularly of Trees and Animals of Natrition and Sensation in Animals and of the Fabrication of their Parts in order thereunto The Evasion of Scepticks concerning the Uses of things answered 285 CHAP. IX The Fourth is The resemblance of Knowledge and Wisdom which appears even in Irrational Creatures The constant Regularity of them in the manner of their Operations and the seeming Sagacity of them as to their Ends. This a clear Argument of a Deity because of themselves they design no End nor do they understand the Reason or Tendency of Means nor do they deliberate about the choice of Means This too is a demonstration of the Existence of God The Shifts of Atheists as to this consider'd also 352 CHAP. X. The Fifth is The Ample Provision which is made for the good of all Needy Creatures For their Formation and Production and for their Preservation afterwards from outward Assaults and untimely Deaths Proper Food provided in all Climates and suitable to all Conditions and Tempers Proper Remedies for all Endemial Diseases 385 CHAP. XI The Sixth is The Admirable Frame of Human Nature The Excellence of the Rational Soul in its Nature and Faculties which is proved at large to be a manifestation of the Existence of a God The Evasions of Scepticks consider'd The Conclusion 419 A DISCOURSE Concerning the Existence of GOD. THE Nature of Mankind consider'd as Rational Beings is made up of such Faculties that they are not only capable of Religion that is sitted and qualified to believe that there is a Being vastly Superior to them and to know and worship that High Being in some agreeable sort and measure but they are moreover generally inclin'd to Religion prone to it and pleas'd with it as a thing which is suitable and correspondent to their Faculties so that in all Ages and in all Nations people have profest some kind of Religion or other Nay even Barbarous People rather than they would be wanting in Religious Performances have abounded in great variety of Supersitions and before they would be Atheists have been downright Idolaters adoring a plurality of Gods rather than they would own no Deity at all which shews that Religion is in some sense natural to the Soul of man and that the Corruption which is in mens Practises proceeds from a defect of Light in their Understandings from those many Ignorances and Errors wherewith they are possest Were it not for this True Religion would be the great Profession of the whole World There are especially Three Great Errors which have strangely misguided and corrupted the minds of some men and consequently have taken off that power and influence which otherwise Religion would have had over them even from natural Conscience And these relate either to the Being of God or to his Nature or to his Government of the World and Judiciary power over it 1. First Some reject all belief of God's Being or at least question very much the truth of such a Belief and so of course conceive Religion to be not of Divine but Humane Institution a piece of State-Policy devised and set up by cunning men for the better keeping of Human Societies in order and peace To such men Religion must needs seem an indifferent matter not worth their time or pains to concern themselves much about nor to care whether this or that mode of Religion be professed because they look upon all Religion as an Artifice an Invention that is alterable at pleasure as the Reasons of State and Civil Policy require 2. Secondly Some acknowledge the Being of God together with the inward Necessity Reasonableness and Excellency of Religion in general but yet are much mistaken as to the particular manner of their Religion and in their way of worshipping God because they are greatly mistaken in their notions of his Nature For they apprehend him to be not such as he really is but such a one as they would have him be either a very tame and gentle Being that is easily pleas'd with formal Professions of Respect or a very Partial Being that is kind only to one Sect of People or an Arbitrary Austere and Rigid Being that seeketh to hurt and delighteth in
Excellence without the least mixture of Defect or Imperfection Such Defects and Imperfections there are in all Creatures In all Bodies there is Substance but such as is wrapt up in Matter which is a great imperfection in comparison of Spirituality In all Vegetables there is Life but such as is subject to decay which in them is imperfection In all Animals there is Sense or Perception but such as is attended with Fear Grief Anger and other disquieting Passions which are so many Imperfections in their Nature In Men there is Reason but such as is blemisht with Ignorance and Errors and the knowledge they have is acquired by the great labours of the Mind by Contemplation and Study by close arguing from one thing to another and by a long train of thoughts which follow each other successively and are gradually spun out of the Soul by the painful operations of the Rational Faculties all which shews the Defects and Imperfections that are in Humane Nature also And as for those Blessed Spirits above which we call Angels though there be in them a perfection of Understanding without dulness pain or laborious activity and though there be too rectitude in their Wills regularity in their Affections and all moral Perfections which make them happy yet is their Knowledge limited and for their whole Being they depend upon the Will and Pleasure of a Superior Power that at first created and still preserves them which argues imperfection in them likewise although they be the noblest part of the Universe Go through every Classis and sort of Individuals in the World and you will find in all of them some Deficiencies which are annext to their Principal and Best Part so that though they be all perfect in their kind and sit for the Ends for which they were formed yet they fall vastly short of Eminent and Absolute Perfection For such Perfection is to have all kinds of Excellence and all degrees of Excellence clear and free from all manner of Defect indigence or Incapacity Now the Notion of God includes this Absolute Perfection For that word GOD speaks a Being that is most Excellent So that supposing a Deity to be and to be the Cause of all Inferior things which the Notion of God implies too you must necessarily conceive of him as the Being in whom all those Perfections are united as in a Center which are divided every-where in the World and that they are all in Him in a most eminent and excellent Degree For no Being can give those Perfections which some way or other it hath not either formally or actually or virtually and eminently in it self because then it would communicate more than it hath that is more than what is in its power to impart which to suppose would be a contradiction All Causes that work by a necessity of Nature though they operate to the utmost power and extent of their Faculties yet 't is as impossible for them to yield what they have not as it is for Water to bring forth a Rational Soul or for Fire to produce an Angel out of a few Sticks And though Voluntary Agents work as they please and may give their Effects much less than themselves have yet 't is as impossible for the Freest and Powerful Agent to give more as it is for an Artificer to form a World out of nothing The thing it self cannot admit of such Omnipotence And so we may be sure that neither could God bestow Perfections which he himself was not possest of and therefore those Excellencies which we find in Nature and which are the Perfections of Nature must be concluded to come from the Author of Nature and consequently to be in him as in their true Original for otherwise there would be more Excellencies in the Effects than there are in the Cause which is as absurd to suppose as it is to imagine that there is more Water in a Rivulet than in the Ocean Again As all Perfection must be conceiv'd to be in that Supreme most Excellent and most Glorious Nature which we call GOD so it must be there too Absolutely or without the least mixture of Defect All defect must be in the Creature and that not so much by immediate Causality from God as by the necessary Condition of its own Nature because it is a thing made and of Temporary production and therefore of a Finite Nature and of Limited Faculties that is it must be essentially imperfect especially in comparison of its Creator it being utterly impossible for a Narrow Scanty New-form'd thing to be commensurate in all its Perfections to the Maker who is supposed to be Independent Infinite and All-sufficient in himself The Nature of the thing made cannot allow this and by consequence it is naturally and necessarily defective Upon which account though we must conclude that God is a Perfect Being because all Perfections in other things are derived from Him yet we may not conceive that he hath any mixture of Desiciency because the things he hath made are all of them defective in some respect or other For those Defects are so natural that the things themselves could not possibly have been made otherwise or without them Therefore as we must affirm That the Perfections which are in the World are limited and partial blended and alloy'd with something that is a blemish to them so we must conceive that those Originals of them which are in God are Boundless and Full Eminent and Absolute For to think otherwise is to degrade the Author of all Perfections and in truth to make the Notion of a Deity inconsistent with it self I have been the more desirous to clear this matter That the general Notion of God doth and must signify a Being which is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect because it is a very Rational Principle which may be fairly understood and must needs be assented to by all that will but hearken to Right Reason And because it is a very useful Principle also that will soon inable us to draw out of it by direct consequence a more 2. Particular Description of the Deity which is the Second thing I am to come to that I may shew what kind of Being we are to apprehend God to be before I go about to prove that this suppos'd most Perfect Being doth really and actually Exist For from this great and General Notion of God this Particular Account will follow 1. First We must conceive of God that he is an Independent Being not beholding to any Antecedent Distinct and Foreign Cause for the production of his Nature For could we without a contradiction suppose a Cause Antecedent to that which is thought to be the Chief and First Cause of all things such a Supposition would argue Imperfection in the Deity Because it would make him a Precarious Being depending upon the Activity and Pleasure of Another Superior to him in greatness of Power and before him in Time and in Existence of Nature 2. God having all Perfection
greater than another and that the part is equal to the whole For let him six where he please in the Course of Generations I demand whether in the great Grand-father's time the Succession of Generations was Finite or Infinite If Finite then it had a beginning and so the World not Eternal If Infinite then I ask Whether there were not a longer Succession of Generations in the time of his great Grand-children and so there must be a number greater than that which was Infinite for the former Succession was Infinite and this hath more Generations in it than that had but if it be said That they were equal because both Insinite Then the Succession of Generations to the Grandfather being but a part of that which extends to his Grand-children and Posterity the part is equal to the whole This surely is enough to shew That according to common Reason the World once was not but that it must have had a beginning and consequently that there was a first Cause of it nay that the Existence of an higher Being was necessary to make it because whatever once was not could not be self-originated all that now Moves or Lives in the World could not produce or make it self but was brought into being by a most perfect Nature that was before it and superior to it that is by a Deity and by nothing less than a Deity for these five Reasons 1. First It was impossible for all Beings to be made for that would suppose that once there was nothing at all and then 't is confest on all hands that nothing could have been produced Therefore as it was necessary for the first Cause to be independent on any other for else it could not have been the first so it was necessary for that Cause to be unproduced by reason of the absolute Perfection and intrinsick plenitude of its own Essence so that it needed no hand from without to give it any thing 2. Secondly The first Cause having its being by necessity of Nature it was impossible for it to have any beginning For had it had a beginning like other things it must have taken it from some other Principle because whatever once wanted Origination could not give it to it self and consequently the Existence of the first Cause must have been contingent and precarious which would have destroyed the great Prerogative of its independence 3. Thirdly Considering that the several parts of the World were to take their Original out of a State of Non-existence it was impossible for the first Cause to have a Power limited and restrained by any thing without it For as nothing could hinder it from being by reason of its own necessary Existence so nothing could hinder it from acting by reason of its absolute Independence and consequently the First Cause had necessarily a Power of creating things out of nothing because if any preexistent Matter had been requisite for it to work on it must have depended upon Matter and been beholding to Matter for permitting it to act 4. Fourthly The Power of creating things being so necessarily great it was impossible for the First Cause to be made up of Matter For all Matter as such is an unactive stupid dead thing utterly uncapable of producing either it self or any other Being much less could it act with that wonderful Faecundity Counsel Wisdom and Benignity of Mind which the whole frame of Nature argues to be in the First Cause as shall be show'd in its due place 5. Fifthly It was impossible also for the First Cause of all things to be locally extended or to be circumscribed limited determined and confined to Place as Matter or Body is For being to raise up a vast Universe it was necessary for that most powerful Nature to be undividedly present to every part of the world which it acted upon and for the Management and Conservation of the Universe to contain it all within the Immensity of its own Essence Which Essence was necessarily boundless and unlimited because it was not possible to be produced by any other Being that could restrain define or bound its Immensity For as an excellent Writer Dr. Scot ' s Christian Life part 2. vol. 1. p. 193. well observes and argues that which limits Beings is only the Will or Power of their Causes which either would not or could not bestow any further Being or Perfection upon them and therefore only such things as have a Cause are limited because they being produced out of nothing are only so far and no farther brought into Being as their Cause was willing or able to bring them That therefore which exists of its self without any Cause of its Being must also exist of it self without any Limits of its Being by reason that it was neither limited by it self nor by any other Cause and that which hath nothing to limit it must necessarily be immense and boundless God therefore being this self-existent Being must necessarily be of an unlimited Essence an Essence which no possible Space can either circumscribe or define but must necessarily be diffused all through circumfused all about and present with all things The Existence then of such a perfect transcendent Being as hath been described was absolutely necessary in order to the production and formation of the world And hence we rationally assirm That before ever the Earth and the Heavens were made there was an Intellectual Nature that was to be the Cause of the whole World and that this Nature or First Being was and is Self-originated Eternal Omnipotent Incorporeal and Infinite In using which expressions we speak like men as we are able according to our Capacities and as the narrowness of our Faculties compared with the transcendency of the Object will allow us Our meaning more at large is this Considering that all the parts of the world were made by an Essicient Cause and that nothing could bring it self out of Non-existence into Being by reason that nothing could be before it self we must necessarily acknowledge That there is a First Cause of all things and that this First Cause was not made or produc'd by any other Which First Cause being altogether Independent existed by the absolute Necessity of its Nature by its own Perfection Permanency and Fulness and consequently was Eternal or of Infinite Duration because being unproduced it could not but be without any beginning And this Self-Existence includes Self-Activity suitable to the Perfections of an Eternal Nature that is a Power of producing and effecting whatever is possible in the Nature of the thing and doth not imply a Contradiction For all Impotence or Inability to operate is utterly inconsistent with the Perfections of a First Cause from which is derived all the Power that is in Second Causes Whence it follows That the First Cause could not be Matter a thing which of it self cannot live or move but a Spirit void of all Corporeal Substance an Eternal Mind able perfectly to exert and display its Power
and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Hos 2. 21 22. Where we have a Summary Description of the great Order of Nature as things are cast into a State of Relation and Correspondence set forth as if they cried to each other and heard each other to denote their mutual Subserviency and Dependance Thus the Stars by their attractive Beams prepare and enrich the Clouds the Clouds drop down fatness that fatness moistens the Surface and supplies the Bowels of the Earth that Moisture increaseth and invigorates those active Particles within which are the Principles of Vegetation those Principles carry the spiritous vital Juice to every Tree and Plant that Juice passing through many Nervous Ducts and Conveyances produce Germination those Germations cover Mountain and Valley with a fresh Verdure and by these various means the Earth receives yearly a kind of new Life every Species upon it is propagated every living Individual is sed and cherish'd and Man and Beast are abundantly provided for a-new after all the vast Consumptions and Expences of Nature the year before There is a Series and Connexion of Causes which act upon each other the superior Cause still having a respect to the Powers of that which is the next in Subordination and all shew the wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of the Supreme Cause in thus suiting and adapting the Operations of his Creatures according to the necessities of the several Branches of his Creation And as there is this extrinsecal Reference born by one Creature to another so is there in every one of them an intrinsick Faculty and Disposition which bears respect to the Operations and Productions of those external Causes In all Animals there are eager Appetites as Hunger and Thirst which stimulate and excite them every day to Eat and Drink of Natures Bounty In all Vegetables there are spreading Roots fibrous Receptacles with open greedy capacious Orifices to entertain digest and send up that animating Sap which is ministred by the restless Principles of Vegetation In the Bowels of the Earth are hid the multifarious Seeds of Life prepared for a new assistance of Salts Nitre and the like Supplies to quicken actuate and render them Prolisick Those quickning Recruits wait for Distillations from above to convey them down into their Apartments and those Distillations are various according to the Quality and Temper of the Seasons and as the Sun and Stars act by their Influences in the Air where the great Treasures are annually made ready by various Motions and Secretions and then shed plenteously abroad in variety of Forms and Modifications as Hail Snow Rains or Dews Thus each Cause bears a Correspondence and Relation to the Faculties and Dispositions of that which is Subordinate and those Faculties bear a Reciprocal Correspondence to the Power and Agency of the next Superior One. There is such an orderly Connection such a close harmonious Confederacy between the several Parts of the World as they are placed and situate that as they all severally depend upon each other for their respective Operations so all jointly conspire to the Preservation and Maintenance of the whole which evidently shews That it could not be blind Fate or Fortune that linked together the Parts of the Universe into such an admirable League such an amicable State of Subserviency and Assistance but a most Wise and Beneficent Agent that from the beginning consulted and provided for the Good of all his Creatures and accordingly sitted their Powers to that great end For those Irrational Beings the glittering Lamps of Heaven the Air and Earth Vegetables and Creatures that are meerly sensitive cannot be suppos'd to understand the Ends and Scope the Reasons and Purposes of their Operations They are not the effects of any Deliberaration or choice of their own but the consequents of Necessity and therefore must be brought about by the directing Hand and Will of a God of Incomprehensive Power of Wisdom that they might bear witness of his Being and Providence and excite all Mankind to praise and glorigy the adorable Perfections of his Nature 3. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the Permanency of them in that State and Condition in which they have been placed This Permanency consisteth in two things 1. First In the entire continuance of their Natures The constituent principal Substances of the Universe are still the same they ever were since their first Formation in Number Measure and Weight Nothing of their Beauty is saded by Age nothing of Matter worn away by Motion no Parts lost quite by Accident nor any one Species annihilated by outward Violence or inward Insirmity and Decay Though Individuals upon the Terraqueous Globe dye daily or are cut off lest the Earth we inhabit and live upon and have our Food by should be over-stock'd yet all sorts and kinds of Beings remain from the glorious Furniture of the Firmament to the meanest Species of Flies and Worms All Vegetables propagate as in the beginning the diversity of Sexes Male and Female in all Animals continues on Men and Beasts increase and multiply and perform all their Natural Offices ever since the primordial Benediction But lest these things should be look'd upon as Productions of Course springing meerly from the Principles and Energy of Plastick Nature what think we of the Permanent Concinnity and State of the Air whose Salubrious Blasts Transparency proper Motions and all other uses it was intended for do still hold on notwithstanding all Nusances and Infections all Vicislitudes and Alterations and all those Disturbances Conflicts and Wars from contrary jarring Qualities which have been in it since its first Expansion What can we think of the Caelestial Host that for these Six thousand Years have been every minute casting and dispersing their enlivening Beams over the whole World What can we think of the Sun in particular that during such a long Tract and Succession of Ages has been every moment at so vast an Expence of Light and Heat its Body still continuing unimpaired and its Powers neither wasted nor disabled How could all this Conservation be without the help of an Almighty provident Hand that does by a sort of new Creation sustain and supply daily the several Branches of the Universe and did at first from them all so perfect in their Kinds and in order to their particular Ends and for the general Good of the whole that there is no mending the Creation no altering the Figure Posture Number or Frame of the Integral Parts of it no adding any new Species or destroying any old ones without disorder and detriment to the great Compages Secondly The permanent state of things is discernable as by the continuance of their Natures so by the constant tenor of their Operations and Motions witness for all those bright radiant Bodies over our heads whose circular Travels are so exactly periodical and their Influences so constant that they plainly shew there is a God above
in himself we must conceive of him to be of an Endless Life For all decay of Life proceeds from a defect infirmity or limitation in the Essence of the Thing so that without the help of a stronger Hand it cannot for ever hold up and last And since Life is one of those Perfections which we poor sinful men enjoy it necessarily follows that as it must be in our Maker so it must be in him in a most eminent and absolute degree that is utterly void of all possibility of ever ending 3. We must from the Absolute Perfection of God conceive him to be a Fountain of Life without any Beginning likewise For whatever had a beginning must be concluded in that respect defective because it once wanted not only those Perfections which Beings enjoy but even Being it self And besides that which began may end as we see all the successive Productions of Nature do Therefore since the Notion of God signifies Perfection of all Kinds and in all degrees Reason will tell you that God must have such Perfection of Essence as to be of a boundless Life or be everlaststing from everlasting 4. The Notion of God's absolute Perfection necessitates us to conclude that he is a most perfect Substance or a Being that subsisteth of himself by the absolute fulness of his own Nature Indeed we cannot form an adequate and positive Notion of the Divine Substance as neither can we of the Substance of our own Souls though they are the noblest Beings of this lower World For our outward Senses which are the great Instruments of Knowledge are perpetually used to corporeal and gross Ideas and God being a spirit John 4. 24. cannot be the Object of any such sensation But yet we may rationally render him an Object of our Minds such an Object as our Minds are capable of viewing by abstracting Matter and Corporeity from our Apprehensions of him This Reason inforces us to do because materiality is a defect in the thing that is made up of it for as it limits and consines the thing to one particular place at once which is most unsuitable to the conception of a Being that is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24 so it makes the thing divisible and consequently subject to Dissolution which is utterly incompatible with the Perfection of God's Life Therefore Reason compels us to do away these Imperfections from our Notions of God and to conceive of him as a Spiritual Substance which I shall shew hereafter in its proper place is far from being an irrational Notion however some are pleas'd to reject and deride it 5. Since the Notion of God implies the excellence of Perfection we must conceive of him that he is too a discerning and understanding Substance For Perception being the excellence of all Animals whereby they are much more perfect than senseless Matter or inanimate Stocks and Stones this excellence must needs after the most perfect and sublime manner be in that most exalted Nature from which all Perfection is suppos'd to have been derived The Psalmist appeals to the common Reason of Mankind where he argueth Psalm 94. 9 10. He that planted the ear shall not he bear he that formed the eye shall not be see And so He that teacheth men knowledge shall not he know Though Perception is not wrought in God by Impressions that affect material Organs nor is attended with plain and disturbance as in Creatures who are necessarily imperfect yet the Reason of the thing shews that he is a Sentient Percipient Being an intelligent Nature or Mind that acteth in a way which is suitable to the condition of a most glorious Being 6. And hence it follows That we must conceive of God that he is a most perfect Mind or a Being that knows all things and is conscious of all things that are possible to be known and that not by such discourse or succession of Thoughts and Reasonings as imperfect Beings are sain to use but by intuitive Acts and by a direct immediate view Though knowledge be a great Perfection in Men and Angels yet to know things gradually and by piece-meals and with a limited apprehension is in the Creature a plain defect and therefore it must be abstracted or remov'd from our Conceptions of God 7. Again there is in us all a vigorous principle of Activity whereby we are able to do those things which our Desires and Wills incline us to perform in our Sphere and as far as this principle of Activity carries us This also is a Perfection but yet such as is intermingled with defects because the Execution of our Power is laborious nay finite innumerable things being utterly impossible for the most mighty Men upon the Earth to compass though their Wits and Industry should be never so great and though all their force were united Upon this account Reason will tell you that God being a Nature absolutely Perfect all manner of Impotence is to be shut out of our Notions of him because all Impotence is a defect and therefore inconsistent with and repugnant unto the Excellencies of the Deity and consequently we must conceive him to be fully able to produce and do by the Act of his own free Will whatever doth not imply a contradiction or whatever is conceivable and possible in it self and can stand well with the other Perfections of his Nature 8. Further yet The Notion of God signifying a Nature that is eminently and absolutely Perfect we must conceive him to be a good Being likewise nay the best of all Beings By Goodness here is meant that excellent and most amiable Disposition of Mind which still prompts one to be Communicative Kind Gracious Compassionate and Benificent 'T is the best Virtue that which we may call the Perfection of all Pefections that which commands Honour and Love from all that which is the Beauty the Excellency the Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it necessarily and eminently belongs to the best Being that Divine and most Glorious Nature which all People have ever adored for its transcendent Goodness Love is of God saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 7. He is the overflowing Spring and Fountain of all that Benignity which runs through the World therefore St. John spoke like a great Philosopher as well as a Divine in saying ver 8. God is love that is a Blessed Nature made up of Goodness the Mirror and Perfection of it for there must be in this case much more in the Cause than there can be in the Effects which are of a finite narrow and slender Capacity as the faculties of all created Beings are whence it appears that the glorious Deity cannot be a selfish envious malevolent spiteful or cruel Being because these and the like Dispositions of Mind are wretched Defects or Vices rather which belong to the Devils in Hell and to Devils Incarnate nor though he be Omnipotent and perfectly Powerful can he act like an Arbitrary Tyrannical Being void of Compassion and
questionable whether there be any such thing as a World because we cannot measure all the dimensions of the Universe with our Span. Besides we may know as much as is necessary and sit for us to understand now For as we are not yet able to see God as he is so neither would such a full Vision be needful and proper for us were it possible to be had here A great deal ought to be reserved for a more perfect and exalted State under the notion of a Reward It is enough to see so much of this Life as will raise our longings after a better and will help us to do those Duties of Religion which are now required in order to a perfect state and so much we do know though our knowledge of God be comparatively very dim and short We have such Notions as serve to sound and encourage the practise of Godliness and good Morality and that is all we are to mind in this World We very well apprehend That God is an Omniscient Just Powerful Good and Gracious Being and these Notions are enough to encourage Men to all manner of Piety and Virtue Therefore since the knowledge of these things is the way to Eternal Life and sufficient to answer the ends and purposes of Religion it is most unreasonable to object against the Idea of God and to quarrel with it as a thing unconceivable because the infinite Vastness of all his glorious Perfections is not to be comprehended by us fully especially in this our present imperfect state To conclude this Consideration Whatever some pretend against the Idea of God I am apt to think that they who strive and study to reject it have a great deal of it in their own Minds stirring and terrifying them with fearful Suggestions For did they not conceive that God is privy to their Vices that he is able to punish them and in Justice may it is hardly imaginable why they should offer such violence to their own Reason as to force it to argue against those Notions that by degrees they may obliterate them and argue them utterly away and so disbelieve the Existence of an Omniscient Powerful and Just Being that seems to them a most frightful Object The Idea of God lies very quiet in a good Conscience nay to a Man of an honest Heart and of a pious Life it is the most comfortable Enjoyment because it fills his mind with such thoughts as these That there is a glorious Being who ruleth over all who observes all our Actions who takes care of such as live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this World who orders the Affairs of this Life for their good who will guide them here by his Counsel and afterwards will receive them into Glory All which and the like Notions are such a comfortable Idea of God as no Good man would be without for all the World Therefore when Men are tempted to deny God's Existence the Temptation must proceed either from a very wrong Opinion of God as if he were a Cruel Mischievous Spiteful False and Ill-natur'd Being or which is more likely from a very evil Conscience which makes God appear to an ill Man a formidable Being by reason of his Omniscience Righteousness and Power 'T is probable that the truest Cause of Atheism is Vice there being on all hands such variety of powerful Arguments to prove a Deity as one would think impossible for any but Men of the most corrupt Minds to resist the force of them CHAP. II. 2. HAVING thus prepared my way towards the proof of a Deity by shewing That by the Deity is meant a Transcendent Being that eminently enjoyeth all the Essential Intellectual and Moral Perfections which can possibly belong to a Nature which is most excellent and absolutely free from the least defect And by shewing too how intelligible rational and certain this Notion of God's Nature is I must come now in the next place to make it appear That there really is such a Divine Nature or that this most perfect Being doth actually exist Now this naturally follows from the common standing Notion of a Deity which implies all possible Perfection For Existence is the ground of all Perfection the very first thing in the order of our Conceptions because that cannot be said to be perfect which is not or which wants a Being much less can we suppose a Nature to be absolutely perfect that is to be perfectly Wise Good and Righteous unless we suppose the Existence of such a Nature But lest an Insidel should say We make Suppositions of our own by devising what Notions we please of a God and then use those Suppositions for Arguments to prove there is a God Therefore in the prosecution of this Point I shall shew That there is in the World a most perfect Nature which we call God actually existing by considering these four things which shall be the general Heads of this Subject 1. First The Necessity of the thing it self 2. Secondly The universal Consent of Mankind 3. Thirdly Those extraordinary Occurrences which must argue the Being of a Deity 4. And Fourthly The admirable State of the World 1. First then If we go through the whole Series and Order of Nature from Effects to Causes and from one Cause onward to another we must of necessity come at last to one first Cause to a Being that doth necessarily exist of it self and consequently is a distinct independent and most perfect Being Here we must take notice of an universal Trth which will very much help to guide our Reason viz. That whatever once had not any real Being could not be the cause of it self for upon that impossible Supposition it would have existed and yet not existed at the same time It would not have existed because it is supposed to have wanted a Cause for its Production and it would have existed because it is supposed to have exercised causality which two things being contradictory to each other it must be granted that whatever once came out of a State of Non-existence was brought out of it by another distinct Agent which existed antecedently and had actual Power over it Hence it follows That all the Effects which are now in Nature and once were not do owe their Origination to Causes which were before them for those things which had no being could not in a state of nothingness Act much less could they act upon themselves and how many soever the Foreign Causes of them were they all lead us up to a Permanent first Cause which depended on no other nor stood in need of another for its being Now we see that there are innumerable things in the World which once were not and the immediate Causes of these were themselves the Effects of other Agents and they again of others and so on till we gradually ascend to one Chief Cause which was the Original of them all To omit all other things at present I instance in these two sorts of Effects we
as it becometh an Intellectual Wise and Voluntary Agent And lastly This Incorporeity renders the First Cause uncapable of beind divisible or determinable to Place after the manner of Bodies which consist of Magnitude and Dimensions And therefore how incomprehensible soever the Notion of Infinity may seem to us whose outward Senses are used only to things corporeal Reason will oblige us to think that every Being must be extended or unextended limited or unlimited circumscrib'd or diffused according as its Essence and Nature is and that the first Cause being incorporeal and having once an Immense World to make and ever since an Immense World to act upon and in cannot be confined to place but must be every where and undividedly in a manner agreeable to the Plenitude of its Nature Now this Account of the necessary Existence and Condition of a first Cause is so far a plain description of the Deity or of God And it is for the greatest reasons that we maintain that in order to the Production and Framing of this huge Universe the Existence of God was necessary that is the Existence of an Independent Self-existent Eternal All-powerful Immaterial and Infinite Being These are not bare Epithets of Honour bestowed as some strange Men conceive upon an imaginary something which the fancies and fears of People have without reason represented to their Minds but real solid severe and demonstrable Truths so that admiting the common and most rational Principle touching the necessity of a First Cause those glorious Perfections I have now mentioned must necessarily belong to it and because those Perfections are essential and peculiar to that Glorious Being we call God therefore God and God alone must be acknowledged the First Cause of all things and by natural consequence the Existence of God must necessarily be believed CHAP. III. HAVING proved the Truth and Reality of God's being from the necessary Existence of a first Independent Cause I proceed now to the second General Head of this Discourse touching the Consent of all Mankind for if it can be made appear That the belief of a Deity hath been universally received in the World 't is reasonable to conclude that that belief resulted from a common Principle of Nature which could not deceive the Minds of all Mankind Here then these two things are to be shew'd 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God 2. Secondly That this universal Agreement is a very strong Argument of God's Existence 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God That noble Orator and Philosopher Cicero doth in several places acknowledge That all manner of People were naturally posfest with some Anticipations or Preconceptions De Nit-Deor lib. 1. Tuse Qu. lib. 1. de Leg. lib. 1. of a Deity so that no Nation was ever so wild and undisciplin'd but that they had a fear of God and owned his Being however they were mistaken as to the quality of his Nature To the same purpose Seneca tells That the belief Ep. 117. of a God is planted in every ones mind And Maximus Tyrius is positive Diss 1. That how great soever the Contentions of Men were about other Points they all agreed in this that there is one Supreme God over all Nay Epicurus Cic. de Nat. deor lib. 1. himself of whom this Character is given that in words he owned the Existence of God but in fact denied it was contented the belief of it should pass abroad because it was a kind of innate Principle not only among Philosophers but among the Unlearned too who all had some Pri-notion of a Deity So true is this That not only the real Existence but even the Singularity and Unity of a Supreme God hath been generally believed by Heathens themselves especially by the wiser fort of them which I think very material for me to take notice of here for the further Illustration and Confirmation of the Matter in hand Indeed the Heathens have been wont to worship a Plurality of Deities But withal it is very observable that they look'd upon those many Deities as a fort of middle Beings between Mon and the Supreme Deity and accordingly in their Devotions they addressed themselves to them as Agents and Officers under the Great God as his Ministers of State and as Mediators between them and the most high Sovereign Numen because they thought it irreligious Confidence to apply themselves to him immediately and directly such a venerable and august Opinion they had of the God over all Though in the Poetical Fabulous Ages of the World ignorant People were taught to worship a multitude of gods as the Souls of dead Men whom they believed to be Deified the Sun Moon and Stars which were suppos'd to be animated with Deities besides a great number of Daemons or incorporeal Substances or Spirits which they thought were generated and had the Administration and Government of the World committed to them yet they owned One Sovereign Numen One Incomprehensible Self-existent Being the Prince and Father of all Nay the more intelligent sort of Pagans anciently thought that the Plurality of Deities which the Vulgar worshipped were only so many several Names of one and the same Supreme God according to the several Manifestations of his Power In the Heavens saith St. Austin they called De Civit. 1. 4. c. 11. him Jupiter in the Air Juno in the Sea Neptune in the Earth Pluto and very many more Appellations there were which though the sottish Rabble believed to have been proper Names for distinct Deities yet the Philosophers thought they did all belong to one Supreme Numen variously acting and displaying his Virtue And with this agrees that of De Benef. l. 4. c. 7. Seneca What else is Nature saith he but God or Divine Wisdom and Power displaying it self in the whole world and in all the parts of it You may when you please give several Titles to the Author of all things And you may call him Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Tonans and Stator not from stopping the Roman Army in their flight but because all things do stand or consist by him You may well apply to him what Names you will that signify his Heavenly Power and Efficacy There may be as many Appellations as there are Gifts or Effects of God Besides Jupiter Tonans and Stator we call him Liber Pater Hercules and Mercurius Liber Pater because he hath produced all things Hercules because his Power is invincible and Mercury by reason of his Wisdom Turn you which way you please God meets you for nothing is without him He filleth all his Works so that his various Names were according to the various Manifestations of him Should you receive a kindness from Seneca and say you owed it to Annaeus or Lucius you would not change the Person but his Name for what Name soever you call him by you mean still the same man And so you may
call the Deity too Nature Fate and Fortune but all these are the Names of one and the same God diversly using and shewing his Power Hence it appears That in times of the greatest Ignorance Heathens themselves did not only profess the belief of a Deity but did own also the Existence of One Sovereign Being over all Though they talkt of Gods many and of Goddesses many and a multitude of Deities was believ'd and worshipp'd by the Common People yet the Wise men among them lookt upon this great appearance and shew of distinct Deities to have been different Names of One Supreme God various Representations Characters and Titles of One Eternal and Incomprehensible Nature pervading through the whole world and variously acting exhibiting and manifesting its Divine Power in it every where In the Primitive Ages of Christianity the Controversy between the Christians and Pagans was not about the Being of One Supreme God for all on each hand were agreed as to that but about the Divinity of Jesus Christ and about many Inferior Powers which the Heathens worshipp'd besides the great Creator himself God blessed for evermore 'T is plain from Acts 17. 23 24. that in St. Paul's time the Athenians not only own'd the Existence but adored the Majesty of the True God For saith the Apostle whom ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you and that was no other but the God who made the world and all things in it called by the Athenians the unknown God because his Nature cannot be comprehended or seen by men In the following times of Christiany the great Doctors of the Church who defended our Religion against Heathenism do tell us over and over That the Pagans acknowledged a Supreme God as well as Christians The Dispute between them was concerning Fictitious Deities suppos'd to be subordinate to the Supreme For the Pagans Faith was that many Gods were derived from One that to those Inferiour Spirits the care and government of the Universe was committed and that Divine Honours ought to be given them as the Officers of God and as Mediators between God and Men. Nevertheless among their many Deities and over all their many Deities they acknowledg'd One Supreme They called him the First the Greatest the Unmade the Supercoelestial God the Chief the King of all They believed that all things were from him that he was the Maker especially of Immortal Beings that he is Incomprehensible Good the common Father of all wanting nothing and without all manner of Envy that he is a Self-existent Principle the Fountain of all Good the Conserver of all things living the Lord of the Universe the Universal Reason and Mind the Uniform Cause of all things the Original of all Pulchritude and Perfection of all Unity and Power the Great and Magnificent Father of Nature whose Virtues are diffused throughout the whole World Julian that great Zealot for Cyril l. 2. Heathenism confest that there is a natural knowledge of God in mens minds from whence that common Inclination towards a Deity springs and that Persuasion among all men that He who is the King over all hath his Throne in Heaven Accordingly Julian and the rest of the Learned Heathens honoured the God of Heaven with the greatest veneration that was possible for men of their Principles Though they gave their other Deities divine honours yet it was an inferior sort of worship and that they paid too for the Supreme God's sake and in honour to him believing that the Great God was pleas'd with it because it was given upon his account to other things as the Ministers Images and Representatives of the Invisible Orig. cont Celsus p. 421 419. Deity If saith Celsus that Bigotted Defender of Paganism a man be required to praise the Sun or Minerva he may sing Hymns chearfully for by singing Hymns to these he will the better worship the Great God because that Divine Worship is the most perfect which passes through all However saith he God is by no means at any time to be forsaken or left out neither by day nor by night neither in private nor in publick neither in any of our Thoughts nor in any of our Actions but in every thing our minds should be still directed towards God and intent upon him And again all Torments are rather to be endured and any Deaths are rather to be undergone than we should either speak an irreligious thing of God or admit into our minds an irreligious Thought of him Before I pass from this Consideration touching the Pagans Belief of the Existence of God in the Primitive Times of Christianity as in the Ages before I cannot but observe by way of digression that notwithstanding this their hearty Belief and Religious Worship of One Supreme Deity the True God that made all things these Pagans were Idolaters and were still counted by the Christian Church guilty of Idolatry Not because they worshipped Creatures laying the Creator aside for 't is plain that they owned and adored the same Great God that we Christians worship but because they served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul speaks Rom. 1. 25. that is besides the Creator They gave Divine Honours to him and to other Beings too they worshipt them as well as the Great God they made them Partners and Sharers with the Great God in their Religious Services and though this worshipping of other Beings was for the Great God's sake though it was a lower kind of Worship and though all the Services of the Heathens especially the wiser sort of them were directed to the Great God did refer to the Great God and did terminate in him yet were they downright Idolaters And as this shews the true Notion and Nature of Idolatry that it is the Religious Worshipping of any thing besides God So it shews how impossible it is for those Christians who adore Saints and Angels as well as the True God and the True Messiah to clear themselves of the Charge of Idolatry notwithstanding all their nice distinctions of Dulia Latria Relative Worship and the like All this the Heathens might have said for their Excuse They gave the Supreme God the highest Honours and in Honour to him they worshipp'd inferior Deities as the Romanists do Saints and Angels in which respect their practice is a plain but shameful Counter-part of old Heathenism so that were there no such thing in the Church of Rome as Image-worship I cannot see but this Creature-worship would be enough to make them guilty of Idolatry Either this practice is Idolatrous or that of the Heathens was not such which yet they of the Church of Rome dare not affirm But to return to the Matter in hand If from those elder times of Heathenism we come down now to modern Ages though we search into the darkest and remotest Corners of the World we cannot find any one Nation or People so barbarous so sunk into a State of Ignorance and Stupidity as not to have
most Curious Enquiries in so many Philosophical and Learned Ages This shews that the Tradition is grounded upon Principles of Nature that therefore it is common with our Nature and must be as constant and common as Humane Nature continues 2. To which I add Secondly That though Truth went along with the Tradition yet of it self alone and without the Dictates of Nature it could not have been universally received in all Places and Ages For every one is not ready to embrace Truth it self though it be never so probable and when it is received in process of time it doth often drop nor is it easy to conceive how this Truth could have gone so current as it hath gone in all parts and from hand to hand without any considerable opposition unless it had had the help of strong Reason to support it and to carry it on still No doubt but Adam taught his Children in that long tract of time the Nine hundred and thirty years of his life many Truths both Philosophical and Divine which yet are now quite lost especially to those people who have not the use of those Books which are open before us Nay though we are able by the help of Discourse to gather divers things out of Moses's Writings which the old Pagans had no knowledge at all of yet are there several matters which we our selves are to seek for because they are not evident from clear cogent Principles of Nature But this great Truth concerning the Existence of God hath been propagated all along together with Mankind and as people have every where multiplied successively from Generation to Generation Nay the higher we go to those Elder times after the Creation the less of Infidelity we find Though there were then very few Books in the World yet God was believed on and even by those who in their lives dishonoured him For in those days Nature spake with simplicity and much plainer and better than in after-times when men of wanton Wits and of base Minds used Arts and so corrupted and debauch'd their Natural Reason This shews that the Belief of God's Existence is grounded upon something in Humane Nature which hath still preserv'd it in the world notwithstanding the miscarriage of many other Traditions which our old Ancestors transmitted to their Posterity and left with them This hath escaped undestroy'd uncontradicted but by a very few Partial Conceited and Designing Men of which no other cause can be rationally assigned but that it is most consonant to the frame of our Nature a Natural Principle an Idea of God which he himself hath as it were imprinted and stamp'd upon every ones minds so that it cannot be worn out by Time it self which weareth out other Notions that are not fixt and rivetted as this is into the common Reason of Mankind and therefore it is not to be imputed to mere Tradition 2. Nor Secondly Can it be imputed to Fear which is the next Pretence For those who would destroy the Belief of a God would fain persuade the world that it is only a thing of Phancy a fictitious frightful Idea put into peoples heads by Designing Men or formed in their Brains by the power of their own Imagination and that their minds being once scared were easily bent to conceive that there is a Terrible Being over them which those bold hardy Wretches imagine to be nothing but a Bugbear without any real Existence and accordingly they bottom Religion upon groundless Fears believing Hell and Damnation and a Deity to be Figments things invented and talked of to terrify the World and so the Atheistical Author of the Leviathan represents them comparing them as he has the confidence to express it to an empty Hat upon a crooked Stick to fright Birds from the Corn. I should beg every good Christian's pardon for but mentioning such Impiety did not the Looseness of the Age we live in constrain us to take notice of the strange Notions that are got abroad The meaning whereof in short is That if people were not frighted out of their Wits they would hardly believe the Existence of a Deity for they ground that Belief upon Fear and make Popular Fear to be the cause of it And hence it is they think that this Belief hath generally prevailed in the World not from any Natural Principle in the Understanding but from a slavish foolish Passion of heart and because men have been every where taught to be fearful and timorous or have made themselves so Now to every Considerate Rational Man it is plain that Fear cannot be the cause of that Belief but is the consequence and effect of it That is Men do not believe a God because they are afraid but are therefore afraid because they believe there is one a Just and Powerful Being over all And therefore their Fears proceed from an Universal Common and Natural Principle in every ones mind touching God's Existence for otherwise it were impossible for mens Fears to be so great so universal so fixt in Humane Nature as never to be eradicated First It can never stand with common Reason to conceive how Fear should create Tormenting Apprehensions of a Being whom all Mankind have ever adored for his great Goodness and whom Heathen Philosophers themselves have discover'd by the Light of Nature to be for his Divine Perfections the most Lovely and Desirable Being in the whole world What Reverence soever the sense of his Greatness may call for disquieting Terrors of a Being so infinitely Perfect cannot spring but from an Evil Conscience And then I appeal to all Men of Sense whether that Conscience ought to be heard against God whose Interest it is to have none This is certain That there can be no fear where there is not supposed an Object to be afraid of That Object must be acknowledged not only to be but to be Angry and Threatning otherwise our Faculties would be both vain and delusory constrained to fear where no grounds of fear are which is to reproach Nature it self that is so adored by some Insidels and to impeach it for a Common Cheat. Secondly Though we should think some particular Persons imposed upon by their Fears yet how could all Men in the World fall under the same Imposture at once How could they be seiz'd with one Agony universally but from an Epidemical Principle in Humane Nature Or how could they all jump together in one Principle without the Hand of a God who made them all and intended by this means to hold them all fast to himself Thirdly If we should be so unreasonable as to suppose Mankind to have been frighted all at the same instant no body knows by whom or when or how and by that fright to have been possest with the thoughts of a Deity can we suppose too that they had no time in so many Ages to recover themselves out of that panick Distemper Fear is a cruciating and tormenting Passion which every Man is desirous to rid himself
of as soon as he can and would all Mankind be plagued with it perpetually and without grounds If it be said That some Philosophers have found out the unreasonableness of it and for that reason have discarded the Notion of a Deity which was the effect of it how came it to pass that those Philosophers themselves could not void their own minds of that Fear notwithstanding It was observed before out of Cicero That Epicurus as great an Atheist as he was could not rid himself of the fear of God and Death and if the hearts of his Followers were throughly searched it will be found that none are more fearful than they which is a plain sign that there are Briars and Thorns in their Consciences that can never be pluck'd up by the Roots that there is a Testimony of God within them and that how slightly and contumeliously soever they may talk of a God in their sits there is an abiding Conviction upon their minds that there is a God that judgeth the Earth and will one day render to every Man according to his works There is an end of fear when once it is discovered to be groundless and if Democritus and the rest of them did verily believe there was no God what made them still afraid This fear could not raise the Notion of a Deity in them because they disputed against the Notion No it was the Notion of God which their Consciences could not part with whatever they said it was this that kept them in fear For Nature will not lye however Mens Tongues may and the terrible Apprehensions which those very Men laboured under are a plain argument that the belief of God's Existence is inseparable from all mens Reason a Principle never to be pulled or torn out of Humane Nature because radicated in it by the Maker of Mankind 3. It is suggested also That the universal belief of a Deity was introduced by the contrivance of Politick Princes who took advantage by the panick fears of People to confirm their apprehensions and to fill their minds with Notions of a God that thereby they might the better keep their Subjects in Peace and Obedience to their Commands and in continual Awe of an Invisible Omnipotent Being that would punish both in this World and in another all Sedition Contumacy and Disorders though never so secretly acted and so they resolve all Religion into State Policy as if it were nothing but an Imposture and Artificial Engine of Civil Government formed by the Wit and Cunning of designing Legislators One of the thirty Tyrants at Athens Critias by Name is thought to have been one of the first that suggested this and fancied the belief of a Deity to be an Invention and Trick of State and from him that fancy is come down to us and hath possest the Brains of some in this Age who are much of the Principles and Temper of Critias I call it a fancy because it is an unreasonable imagination upon these four Accounts 1. First It is not conceivable how any Pagan though never so great a Statesman or Philosopher could at first without any Preconception or Disposition towards a Deity devise and create in his mind a bright Idea of so glorious a Being and of those Divine Properties which essentially belong to a Nature that is acknowledged to be eminently and absolutely Perfect If it be said This Idea was first formed by the strength of Humane Reason the Point is gained that the Notion of a Deity is grounded in the intellectual part of Humane Nature a rational natural Principle and for that cause the belief of a God has been universally profest all over the World If it was not the work of Reason but a kind of Phantasm that fell by meer chance into the man's Imagination a casual and contingent Idea that one would think might as well have dropt into the phancy of a Common Animal without the use of Reason How is it conceivable that such a glorious Idea as the Idea of God is could be first framed in any mans Imagination by chance The Idea of a Being of all the most glittering Perfections The Idea of a most Wife Righteous and Gracious Being The Idea of an Omnipotent Benign Cause of all things In short The Idea of a Being that is the most glorious beautiful and charming Object for the Rational Faculty to be fixt on and to contemplate and for one's heart to desire How could such an Idea fall into any one's fancy by meer chance and without the Operation of Reason 2. Or Secondly How can such an imaginary Figment of the Brain be reasonably thought to have possest the minds of all the Politicans in the World at once and that by chance too How could they all entertain the same Notions of God at the same time if they were fictitious things or if there were not great Reasons for them in Nature How could Men of so many different Languages and in so many distant Places and Countries conspire all at once to devise a Notion for which there was no Reason Ground or Truth 3. Or Thirdly If all Princes could have joyn'd together to couzen the World how is it conceiveable that they would or could have put a cheat upon themselves and have deceived their own minds For Princes and Statesmen lie under the apprehensions of God as well as other Men and the most hardy crafty Politician is some time or other afraid of him as Caligula was when he heard it thunder God hath been the Hope of good Princes and the Terror of bad Ones and what ground could they themselves have for their expectation of Rewards or Punishments if the belief of a Deity had been an Invention of their own and if their secret design hereby was to keep not themselves but their People in Awe 4. But though all this were supposed possible yet how can it be imagined that the most subtle Statesman could deceive the minds of all other Men in the World for such a long Tract and Succession of Ages with a groundless and unreasonable Opinion There are but two ways of propagating a Fiction viz. Violence and Fraud and neither of these can with any colour of sense be pretended in this Case First For Violence no History can shew that ever it was used to make People believe the Being of a Deity Whatever force has been used was intended to establish some particular Form of Religion and Manner of Worship which Men in Power thought most agreeable and in their severe proceedings they intended not to create in People's minds the Faith of God's Existence but did suppose that and took it for granted and took advantage by it to carry on their great End which was to bring People to a particular Mode of Religion that they themselves were best pleas'd with Besides Violence if it had been used in this Case could not have done their work because the Minds of Men are never to be forced especially into an
Truth of God's Existence because then it would prove too the truth of Idolatry forasmuch as all Nations were once Idolaters and consented in the worship of a great many Deities To this two things may be easily returned First That there was no such universal Consent as to that no not among the Pagans themselves For though they worshipped a plurality of Objects and the vulgar People paid their Devotions to them as to so many real and distinct Deities yet as I shew'd before they own'd One Supreme God and look'd upon the rest as Inferior Beings Deities that had been generated or made by the great Cause of all things and them they adored for his sake and upon his account as Deputies and Administrators under him and as Mediators for Men to him so that they referred their Worship to him by them and did terminate all of it in him And yet the wiser sort of Men among them did not esteem that multitude of Deities as so many real Persons Substances and Beings distinct from the Supreme but rather as so many several Virtues and Powers of One Sovereign Numen personated fictitiously according to the See Dr. Cudworth's Intel. System l. 1. c. 4. p. 502. various Works and Manifestations of that One God that did Pervade all things did Exist in all things did Act in all things and was conceived by them to be in a manner all things and consequently was as they thought most honoured and best serv'd by the Religious Honours which were given him by and through his Works every where as he manifested every where his Virtue and display'd his Power So that the great Error among the old Heathens seems not to have been about the Existence of One God as to which they were well agreed but about the way and manner of Worshipping him as to that they were divided in their Opinions some believing the Supreme God to be worshipped joyntly with other Deities and the rest conceiving him to be worshipped alone under several Names Titles and Appellations Now though the Being of God was a thing so evident obvious and bright that it flash'd in all their faces yet in their Notions of God's Worship a thing which required greater use of Reason and Philosophy they were puzled and distracted and therefore universal Consent cannot be pleaded to prove the truth of their Religion and the real Existence of all their Deities because they were not generally agreed as to that as they were in this Common Principle That there is One God over all things 2. Secondly How gross soever the Conceits of the Heathens were the whole account of the matter shews That they were inclined and willing to Worship the True God if they could but have certainly known where or how to have found him In places of the thickest Darkness and in times of the greatest Ignorance there was in all Men a Propensity to some Religion or other so that rather than People would have no God at all they would adore many which still serves to confirm the Point in hand That the belief of a Deity is radicated in Humane Nature how hard soever some few odd Men have labour'd and strain'd to tear it out Seeing a belief so universal cannot be founded on meer Tradition or Fear or Policy or any advised Agreement and Institution amongst Mankind if we will enquire soberly into the Reasons of it no other rational Account can be given but that the Faculties of our Nature are so framed by the Excellent Wisdom and Power of God that upon the due exercise of our Understanding and Reason an Idea of God ariseth in every one's mind which is therefore rightly called a Natural Idea because it may be formed by the use of our Natural Faculties without the assistance of special Revelation and because our Nature is so ordered by the Father of Spirits Divines rightly say That the Idea of God is imprinted on all Mens minds by the Finger of God and is a mark of himself and of his own setting to let us know that we are all his and to draw from us all possible returns of Praises and Reverence of Admiration and Love of Imitation and Obedience and Universal Submission to his Divine Will and Pleasure CHAP. IV. HAVING fully consider'd this Argument of God's Existence taken from the Universal Consent of Mankind and the Common Principle which is in Humane Nature I proceed now to that which was proposed as the Third Head viz. The Consideration of some Extraordinary Occurrences in the World which further argue the Being of a God And here many things might be taken notice of were I minded to let this Discourse swell into a great bulk as The Strange Discoveries which have been made of many the most Secret Villanies the Wonderful Events whereby the Designs of Wicked Men have been prevented and over-rul'd the Various Providences whereby Opprest Innocence hath been vindicated and deliver'd the Several Revelations of the Divine Will which have been given since the beginning of the Creation the constant supporting of Government and Order in the World the remarkable Translation of Empires for Peoples Provocations the Astonishing Examples which have been made of many Bold Incorrigible Wretches and the like All which do in their kind shew that there is a Divine Disposer and Governor of the Universe an Observing and Righteous God that judgeth all the Earth But because these may chance to be looked upon rather as Popular Suggestions than Convincing Solid Arguments I shall for brevity sake wave them and insist only upon Two things which the most Judicious Men are commonly wont to urge and which indeed are past all contradiction if matter of Fact can be made appear And they are 1. First Such Miraculous Works as could never have been done but by an Almighty Power And 2. Secondly Such Predictions and Prophesies as could never have been delivered without the foreknowledge of an Omniscient Being 1. First For those Miraculous Works which could never have been done without an Almighty Power By Miracles I mean such as are True Miracles or such Effects as no Second Subordinate Cause can possibly work of it self no Finite Natural Agent can do by any Causality or Virtue of its own And of such Miracles there seem to be these Three sorts which most of all relate to the matter in hand 1. First Such as have been done without any Concurrence or Instrumentality of Second Causes nay such as could never have been done by any Limited Power As the giving sight to those who were born without Eyes the making the Sun to go back or to stand still the Raising of the Dead to life again and the multiplying a few Loaves and Fishes to satisfy Five thousand People 2. Such Effects as perhaps might have been done in time by the help of Natural means but yet never were nor could be wrought on a sudden by their use and application as the healing of the Leprosy in a moment the instantaneous removing
force of this Argument the Infidels of our Age have these Two things to say 1. First That no True Miracles or Supernatural Works have been ever wrought 2. And Secondly That the Wonders we read of are no more an Argument of the truth of God's Existence than they are of the truth of Idolatry because Idolaters themselves have pretended to Miracles These two Subterfuges and Shifts must be now considered in their order 1. First They will allow of no higher Miracles than what have been found here in Nature when some unusual things have hapned the natural cause whereof could not be well assigned As for Supernatural Effects they are Fables in the account of these men because they cannot admit of such Effects without admitting of a Supernatural Power to produce them that is the Existence of a Deity which of all things in the world they are most afraid to own Now for the clearing of this weighty matter I would first ask these great Pretenders to Reason this General Question Whether it be rational to deny matter of Fact which hath as good Evidence as can possibly be given of any matter of Fact which we have not seen with our own eyes If this be rational then there is an end of Faith amongst Mankind and we must believe nothing but what our own Senses bear witness to and so no Credit is to be given to any History or Relation in the world If it be not rational then have we as good grounds to believe the truth of Supernatural Effects or Miracles as can in reason be expected for the truth of any thing that is gone and past And this shall be my next business to shew That the Account we have of such and such Miracles done carries with it as strong Evidence at least as any matters of Fact we find in any History of former Ages so that with as much reason men may reject the belief of any nay of all Accounts as the belief of this I do not here in the least pretend to support the Credit of all those Appearances which have gone under the name of Miracles especially in latter Ages We read of multitudes which have been either downwright Forgeries and Fictions purposely invented to carry on Lucrative and Superstitious Designs or else have been no better than Illusions of mens Senses whereby the Credulity of weak people hath been impos'd upon and abus'd Nay many of them are of such a ridiculous Nature that some have been ashamed of the Stories though they have made Money by the Invention To talk of such Miracles is a great disadvantage and prejudice to Christ's Religion however it may serve mens private Interest The Miracles I urge as clear Demonstrations of the Existence of a God are those recorded in the Scriptures in the Old Testament by Moses chiefly and in the New by the Evangelists And how slight soever Scepticks make of them there is as great evidence of the truth of them as there can be of any matter of fact if we will be so just to those Writers as to allow them the Common Reputation of having been fair Historians though at present we set aside the consideration of their having been divinely Inspired Now the greatest evidence that can possibly be given of any thing that was formerly done depends upon these four Grounds 1. That the Person said to have done it did really exist or that there was indeed such a Person 2. That the Relators of the Action were sufficiently Credible 3. That others who had Reason to know and were able to know the truth of the matter were sufficiently satisfied of the certainty of it 4. That things of great and publick Concernment were the consequents of it Where there are all these grounds of evidence no reasonable Men can question any matter of fact though it was done at a great distance of time from them and from all these it appears that such true Miracles have been done as argue the Existence of an Omnipotent Agent 1. For first That there was in the World such a Man as Moses and such a Person as Jesus Christ is as evident even from Humane Testimony as that there were such Men as Alexander Caesar and Cato Josephus shews out of those Ancient Writers Manetho and Cont. Appion l. 1. Chaeremon what a great esteem the old Egyptians had of Moses and what an Admirable Divine Person he was in the Account of that Nation Clemens Alexandrinus tells us out of the Greek Writers what an Honour the old Philosophers Stromat l. 1. among them had for Moses's Memory and that they look'd upon him as the only wise Man in his time and gave him the Character of a Prince a Law-giver a General a Just and Holy Person beloved of God The same Author tells us That the Egyptian Mystae believed that Moses was taken up into Heaven and that Eupolenius gave him the Character of the first wise Man and that the Mystae relating the Story of his killing the Egyptian said That he did it by the word of his Mouth and that Artapanus own'd the Story of his Imprisonment adding some fabulous Stuff concerning his Deliverance Numenius the Pythagorean said â—irom 5. that Moses was a Divine and a Prophet and that his Writings are worthy of belief Id. 28. and that he was a most powerful Man with God by his Prayers Trogus Pompeius mentions Abraham Euseb de prepar l. 9. c. 8. Moses and Israel as Kings of the Jews He takes notice of the many Sons of Israel though he mistakes the number He speaks particularly and by Name of those two Sons of Israel Juda and Joseph and then he goes on relating the story of Moses and of his leading the Jews out of Egypt though he sophisticates the Story with a great deal of falshood as also Cornelius Tacitus Justin l. 36. Tac. l. 5. Hist. doth in his Account of Moses and his Conduct Both which Ancient Historians follow the Narration which was given of this matter by the Egyptians themselves who mortally hated the Jewish Nation and told a great many Lies touching the Reasons and Manner of their Departure from them as Josephus shews in his first Book against Appion Justin Martyr upbraiding the Greeks in his time for being Enemies to the Christian Religion proved to them out of their own Authors that Moses who laid the Foundations Exhortat ad Graec. of Christianity was acknowledg'd much more Ancient than any of their Poets ' Historians Philosophers or Legislators ' And out of that noble Historian Diodorus he told them That Moses was reckoned a God by reason of his Divine and Excellent Wisdom and for teaching People to use good Laws and to live according to them which Account Diodorus who had spent thirty Years in Travels said he had from the Priests in Egypt To these Observations divers more might be added out of Grotius and other Modern Writers were it needful But the Learned know That
they should not hearken to such a false Prophet but put him to Death though his Sign or Wonder came to pass Hence 't is easie to conclude That there are Miracles in appearance which are not true ones For God cannot act contrary to himself by working one Miracle to Establish his True Worship and another to Destroy it and therefore those Men are insinitely mistaken who pretend That if Miracles argue the Existence of a Deity they argue the truth of Idolatry also for it cannot be proved that any one Divine Miracle was ever yet done to confirm and give credit to Idolatry and therefore I deny that any Idolaters can with Truth or Reason pretend it Now here Two things may be demanded which I shall consider a little because they are pertinent to the point in hand and may be very useful if rightly understood 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done 2. And Secondly How we may be able to know and distinguish such Appearances from works which were strictly and properly Miraculous 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done This is no very difficult Proposal either to those Pagans who own the Existence of Demons or to us Christians who read of Angels Good and Bad all under the Government of a Supreme Glorious Being the Father of Spirits But to the Scepticks of our Age it will seem odd to speak of these things because they acknowledge not the Existence of any thing that is not Material and obvious to Sense and therefore explode the Belief of all Spiritual Beings both God and Angels These Men I must at present leave to be contradicted in this Point by all Mankind considering that it is a Subject too far out of my way and of so copious a nature as to admit of a large Discourse by it self for the clearing of it I take it for granted that there is another world besides this and that that other world is Inhabited by Invisible Beings which by God's Permission Interess themselves in the Affairs of this Which being suppos'd How can it seem to any Reasonable Men impossible for such Spirits what by the subtlety and active Faculties of their Nature and what by their great Knowledge of things in Nature and Art and what by their own long Experience in the world to do when God is not pleased to interpose or check them many things which may seem Miraculous to us though they be wrought by their own Natural Ordinary and Limited Power It is not hard for those Beings to shew Signs and Wonders by God's Permission though without the help of his immediate Hand They can by their Natural Agility and Power carry a Body from place to place as the Devil did our Saviour's own Body with God's leave They can modulate the Air so as to form a Voice in an Image as the Angel made Balaam's Ass to speak They can by the Natural Vigour of their Faculties as easily divide a stone as a man can cut off the Branch of a Tree By impressing a new Vigour upon the Animal Spirits they can help the defect of Sight when God pleaseth in one that is casualy blind though they cannot by any Natural Means help him to Eyes who was born without them By the use of many Natural Causes they may do Prodigies as the Magicians did by their help in Egypt In which instance two things are observable 1. That the Power of those Spirits was restrained For though they did some things extraordinary very like unto the Miracles which Moses had done with his Rod yet when the Miracle of Lice came the Magicians could not do it and therefore they confess That that was the finger of God Exod. 8. 18 19. 2. That though they brought some Plagues upon Egypt they could not remove any for which reason the King sought unto Moses all along a plain Sign that they were evil Angels with whom the Magicians were then in Confederacy Hence it appears That very wonderful Signs have been shew'd which look'd like true Miracles and were in imitation of true Miracles when they were not Works of an Almighty Hand but the ordinary Effects of that natural sinite Power that is in Daemons and Devils To which also we may rationally impute those Operations for which those Magicians presently after Christ and others after them were so famous among the Heathens and more especially those by which Apollonius Tyanaeus got himself such a Name in the World if the stories told of him be true which yet is very questionable nor doth Philostratus himself who relates them report them all as things certain though he wrote with a great deal of Partiality The like is to be said of those pretended Miracles we have been told so much of for several Ages past by Men of the Romish Communion Supposing some of those things were true I mean really done for he must have a most miraculous Faith that can believe all or but one half of them it will by no means follow that they were Miracles in a proper sense or Effects purely Supernatural above the power of all Second Causes For though no Natural Cause in this visible World could do them yet may they be very well imputed to the ordinary Power of created Beings that are invisible and so they are to be ranked among the workings of Satan whose coming is wont to be with Power and Signs and Lying Wonders which God hath many times permitted partly to prove and exercise the Faith of sincere Professors of Religion and partly to punish those who receive not the love of the Tâ—uth that they might be saved for which cause God doth send them strong delusions so that they believe a Lye 2 Thess 2 All this makes it evident that such preteâ—ded Miacles cannot possibly argue the Truth of Idolatry though actually done by Idolaters because they are suffer'd to be done in way of Judgment upon perverse and obstinate people However this advantage is hereby gained That those Miracles in appearance such as they are do argue the Existence of a God For if there are any invisible Beings permitted to shew Signs and Wonders vigorous in their Actings and limited in their Power it will follow that there is a Sovereign Being presiding over them that doth govern and command them suffer or controul chain or let them loose of his own pleasure and as the Reasons of Providence require it But it will be said That this distinction between Miracles in Reality and Miracles in Appearance is vain and to no purpose for who can see the difference of the one from the other by the nature of the things themselves because on each hand the works may be the same And it is not enough to say This was done by the Great Power of God and that by the Natural Power of Infernal Spirits when this doth not appear from the quality
and Professions that in fact they are a reproach to them especially since they have been done in prejudice to that Grave and Holy Religion which the Lord Jesus confirmed and were so manifestly intended for the promoting and encouragement of Superstition Vice and downright Idolatry I have now ended this Point concerning Miracles having discoursed the more largely upon it that at the same time I might demonstrate the Existence of God and likewise serve the interest of Christianity the truth whereof undeniably appears from this single argument That Jesus Christ confirmed all his Laws and Doctrines by True Miracles For this being once granted it must necessarily follow not only that there is a God but moreover that Jesus Christ came from God and that the Testimony which his Works gave of him was Divine and Infallible and consequently That we are bound at our utmost peril to Believe and Obey him Which Consideration being of such vast moment I thought my self obliged to bestow the more time and pains in clearing matter of Fact CHAP. V. THE next extraordinary Occurrence I mentioned as a demonstration of God's Existence is Prophecy that is the Foretelling of some Future Events which depended on such secret and remote Causes as none but an Omniscient Being could possibly discern afar off That you may understand this matter distinctly and clearly 1. I do not here by Events mean such things as have come to pass by the necessary and natural Operation of second Causes For where a thing depends upon necessary Causalities any man that can discover the order and series and application of the Causes may easily foresee and predict the consequent as a skilful Astronomer can foretel Eclipses of the Moon and Sun For those glorious Creatures are under a constant Law and their motions are Regular so that a man who knows their Courses and by the Uniformity of them perceives when an Opake Body will fall between one of those Luminaries and our Eyes can discover long before-hand when the Light will be intercepted and fail in our Hemisphere But by future Events are understood contingencies or those issues the Causes whereof are not yet in being or at least are so occult remote and uncertain that they are not discernible by any limited Understanding in regard that they depend upon the casual concurrence of Second Causes or upon the Arbitrarious Power of Mens Wills or upon the uaccountable hits of Fortune or upon such strange results as look like so many secret over ruling determinations of Destiny As What Great Men will arise Two or Three Ages hence if the world shall continue so long What Revolutions there will be then in States and Empires What the Conditions of the Church will be What Wars will happen What will become of our Posterity and of the Fortunes we transmit to them In short How the world will go These things and the like are altogether Accidental and therefore must needs be Uncertain nor can they come within the reach of finite Beings any more than the close of the world or the Day of Judgment can be known or predicted by us 2. Secondly By Foretelling future Events is meant true and infallible Prediction in contradistinction to Conjecture or probable Fore-knowledge There is in all Intellectual Beings a Presaging Power and the Perception before-hand must be according to the condition and quality of the Cause from which that Perception springs and is gathered If the Cause be Necessary and Natural the Foreknowledge is Certain but if it be only Casual and Fortuitous it can amount to no more but a probable Opinion No Creature how Intelligent soever it be can of it self infallibly foresee what Chances and Accidents will fall out hereafter by reason that the immediate Causes are suppos'd as yet not to be Existent or at least to be a great way off in the dark Therefore when a contingent Event is clearly Foreseen and infallibly Predicted at a distance so that after a long tract of time the thing how Casual soever it was exactly answers the Prediction we must conclude That the Being which Foresaw and Foretold it is of a more Perfect Understanding than any Creature can pretend to If then it be made appear That many contingent things have long before they happened been certainly Foreknown truly Predicted and at last in Fact have come to pass accordingly this must be a Demonstration of the Existence of a most Perfect Being that is a Deity For all Human Presaging of accidental Events at a great distance from us is at best but Guessing which commonly ends in vast mistakes so short-sighted are our Understandings and our capacities so very narrow And as for those Intellectual Creatures which Inhabit the other world and traverse up and down in this though by reason of the innate Quickness and Sagacity of their Faculties the long Experience they have had of Human Affairs the great Insight they have thereby into all things here below the Agility of their Nature which enables them to be privy every where to Mens Counsels and Actions and the continual Observations they cannot but make from the Disappointments or Successes of Mens Designs though I say by means of these singular advantages they are qualified to give beyond expression far better Judgment of future Events especially near at hand than the Wisest and most Reaching Men on Earth yet is their Knowledge limited notwithstanding So that without the Assistance of Divine Revelation their Foresight of Contingencies especially of such as are remote and do depend upon a series of distant Causes can be but only Conjectural Hence it was that those ancient Southsayers and Augurs among the Heathens who used the help of Demons in their manifold Superstitious ways of Prognosticating were often mistaken even in very probable cases and when Events were hard by And 't is commonly observed of those old Oracles who were so much consulted by the Idolatrous Pagans upon any emergencies which seemed difficult that though those officious deluding Spirits were wont till Christ's time to give People Answers out of Holes and Caves yet to save Apollo's Credit they were wont to wrap up those Responses in equivocating and doubtful Terms that were capable of various Constructions as the thing consulted about succeeded or fail'd Indeed Good Angels have not deceived Men and therefore their foresight must be acknowledged to have been better grounded and of a further and clearer reach But yet by reason of those finite and comparatively scanty measures of Knowledge which are connatural to all Created Beings though Exalted and Glorious to make all their Predictions certain and infallible they have always by the necessity of their Nature stood in need of special Revelation and Commission from a Superior Being whose Prescience touches all intermediate and proximate Causes and all contingent probable possible Events though never so far removed from created Understandings Therefore if in this case matter of fact be true that any Creatures Men or Angels have
of its Operations or intend and design the Ends or consult and deliberate concerning the manner of bringing those Ends about For these are Mental Acts proper to Creatures Rational endn'd with Rational Faculties and Powers 3. And therefore Thirdly instead of destroying the Notion of a Deity the Plastick Nature in Animals and Plants doth infer the existence of an intelligent directing Agent under which and in subserviency to which it acteth so methodically like a Labourer that does the drudgery to act under the Conduct of a wise Master-Workman And this is the Notion of that excellent Author spoken of that though Plastick Nature doth act artificially for the sake of Ends yet it self doth neither intend those Ends nor understand the reason of that it doth Nature is not Master of that consummate Art and Wisdom according to which it acts but only a Servant and a drudging Executioner of the Dictates of it It acteth not by Choice or Knowledge Though it be a thing which worketh regularly and uniformly for Ends and which may be also called the Divine Art and Fate of the Corporeal World yet for all that it is a low and imperfect Creature foras much as it is not Master of that Reason and Wisdom according to which it acts nor does it properly intend those Ends which it acts for nor indeed is it expresly conscious of what it doth it not knowing but only doing according to Commands and Laws imprest upon it Neither of which things ought to seem strange or incredible since Nature may as well act regularly and artificially without any Knowledge and Consciousness of its own as Forms of Letters compounded together may print coherent Philosophick Sense though they understand nothing at all and it may also act for the sake of those Ends that are not intended by it self but an higher Being as well as the Saw or Hatchet in the Hand of the Architect doth This shews that whatever the Powers of Nature be they are all in Obedience and Subserviency to a supreme wise Being that was the Author of Nature and hath all along since preserved its Faculties and is still the principal superintending Cause of all that Decence and Beauty which giveth such a dazling Lustre to the whole Creation and is from Year to Year from Age to Age maintained in a constant uniform and undistrubed State To say that all the comely Parts of the World were such from Eternity is very absurd To suppose they made themselves such out of nothing is nonsense To conceive they were fortuitously formed such by the accidental Jumblings and Sportings and Coalition of undesigning Matter is equally as unreasonable And to fancy they constitute such by the like accidental cohesion of those blind Particles of Matter is a conceit as wild and extravagant as the rest Can Chance form a Flower especially such variety of Flowers the contexture whereof no Art can express Can Chance propagate so many beautiful Species of them in such a steady constant regular Manner Can Chance do this that never did any thing that was orderly uniform and uninterruptedly Graceful since the World stood Could Chance make so many Minute Seeds so Mysteriously with such Germens Fibres and Ramifications that by the help of a Microscope you would believe you saw the Plant in an Epitome Can Chance then teach the Seed to sprout so Methodically First to cast out a complication of Roots downward to establish its hopeful Off-spring in the Ground and to receive for it a constant supplement of Vitality and then to shoot upwards into a proportionable Body with variety of Vessels to entertain its Nutriment Can Chance then direct the Plant to cloath it self with proper Integuments To extend it self into divers Branches and Divarications To cover its Head with Leaves To adorn those Leaves with Flowers To which Solomon's Glory was not comparable And to digest and disperse the vital Juice into great variety of odoriferous Shapes Streaks and Colours such as are inimitable by human Art And when these curious Works are done Doth Chance instruct the florid Creature to reflect upon its mean and poor Beginnings and as a grateful return to form more Seeds of the same Species for another new Generation Do all these orderly and artificial Operations look as if they proceeded from the fortuitous Motions of irrational rude and stupid Atoms Are they not rather clear Arguments of the wonderful Skill and Wisdom of an intelligent Being that sustains the Faculties and guides the Operations of plastick Nature by a perpetual Law That is by an energetick effective Principle given it by its Maker whereby Nature works uniformly and steadily in subserviency to the Will and Intention of the great Creator and Preserver of all things This is the only intelligible and rational Account that can be given of the Beauty of the Creation CHAP. VIII THE next thing to be consider'd as a plain Argument of the Existence of a God is the usefulness of the particular Branches of the Universe and the aptitude of them to answer their respective Uses which I once intended to have made two distinct Heads but upon second Thoughts conceive it better to cast them together into one And if it is made appear that the World is so artfully framed that the parts of it tend and are adapted to such beneficial Purposes as they would and should have been made for supposing Divine Wisdom and Goodness to have had the framing of them What can any reasonable Man conclude but that they were intended and sitted for those excellent Purposes by the contrivance of a directing beneficent Being over all and not jumbled together by the meer lucky compositions of unthinking undeliberating Atoms This then must be our present business to look into distinctions and because the Subject is Copious and Important as well as entertaining it will be necessary for us to cast our Eyes again over this goodly Fabrick and observe the admirable usefulness as we have hitherto discover'd the Order and Beauty of its Structure 1. To begin then with the heavenly Bodies whose principal End as I conceive is by their Lustre and Magnificence to set forth in some measure the infinite Greatness and Splendor of the Divine Majesty being themselves so many faint Rays or rather as in this case if I may without absurdity speak so many Shadows of his Glory As they relate to this inferior World they are the great means of Vitality without which it were impossible for any living Creatures to be maintain'd in their Being nor would the whole Terraqueous Globe be any thing but dead Rock and Ice For the prevention of which Havock they are in their Natures so many inexhaustible Fountains of Fire that give Light to all sensible Creatures warmth and vegetation to all Animal substances This is to be said more especially of that great Luminary the Sun which Heathens have been wont to worship for the universal Good it doth by its enlivening Beams For as it
intimately depending upon one another Good Lord what could have been more wisely more advantageously more artificially more divinely designed and ordered And to confirm this yet further it will not be amiss to consider transiently the wonderful Art of Nature in contriving the first principal Instruments of Nutrition and Sensation both All we see depends upon Nourishment and that is sought for by those Cravings in the Stomach which we call Hunger and Thirst Now here lyeth a Mystery how we come to be sensible of these great Wants below The immediate Causes of Appetite are allowed to be in the Stomach it self and suppose it to proceed from an Acid Humour there which agitates and frets the Fibres upon Emptiness yet the Enquiry is How the Head comes to be sensible of these Cravings Or How and by what means it is that the Fancy in the Brain is affected with these Cravings in the Stomach so that we feel and know the Necessities of Nature which must be answer'd or else the whole Fabrick will fall to the Ground Why the true Account is this That there are immediate Instruments between the Stomach and the Brain which convey to the Fancy the Sense of those Necessities which are below I mean little Nerves or porous Strings which by the help of Animal Spirits within them move the Fancy above as they themselves are moved by the Vellications or Twitchings of the Fibres beneath On these poor Instruments the whole Being and Welfare of every Sensitive Creature doth originally depend and so I would ask any Rational Creature Whether the Formation of those Instruments in every Animal could be the effect of blind Chance or is not rather an Argument of the most wonderful Reason and Wisdom that is a Deity directing and governing the Works of Nature after such a stupendious manner and to such providential Ends and Purposes for the preservation of every Animal's Nature 3. And this leads me to consider now the Third thing which tendeth thereunto and exposeth to our View the great Wisdom and Contrivances of a God namely the due perfection and Fitness which is in the Structure of a Sensitive Creature 's Body I mean still in order to its own Preservation or to the Support of the Individual And here it passeth my little Skill and perhaps the greatest Skill of all the most inquisitive Men upon Earth to give you a distinct particular View of every wise Work Therefore it will be enough for me to give you a rough Draught an imperfect Specimen and Idea And to speak first of the useful perfect and fit Fabrication of the Head that great Fort of Nature which is provided like a Citadel on high for the defence and safety of all the other Works There we find such Excellence in the Frame such Art in the Contrivance and such variety of Uses throughout the whole Building as plainly shews the Hand and Wisdom of a Divine Architect as an hairy Scalp to keep all the interiour Parts in due warmth a Skull to guard them from violence a tough Membrane over it to help the making of Reparation for acts of Battery another Membrane they call the Pia Mater within to Coat the Nerves to divide the Brain into Partitions and to keep the volatile Spirits at home to do their proper Offices for Sense Life and Motion There we find too innumerable Branches of Arteries to carry Blood all over for the Sustenance of every Part and for the extracting of Spirits as many Branches of Veins also to carry off the phlegmatick Matter left that it may be invigorated anew Glandules like so many Spunges to drink up superfluous Moistures and to cast them into their respective Sinks besides an intricate Series of Nerves which I spake of before divaricated round about and laid like Pipes in their proper Cavities to help Sensation from abroad Of these if we take some notice of one only it will enable us to conceive something the better of the artificial Contrivance of the rest I mean the Nerve Optick that serves to convey the Species of all visible Objects into the Brain It is inserted into the Bulb of the Eye a little side-ways or in an oblique Posture as most convenient for clear Vision Thence it spreads it self into Ramifications infinite partly into those various Branches which assist the six Muscles of the Eye that it may move six several ways to receive Impressions from all Objects and partly into a vast variety of Fibres which make various Coats all of them transparent and without any Tincture outwardly of their own to let in Light and Colours in their proper Idea's that Vision may be the more distinct and clear and that the Fancy may not be deceived The exteriour or horny Coat is made of a Convex Figure to admit Rays from all parts round about In the second or Uveous Coat is the Pupil commonly called the Sight of the Eye a round and narrow part provided for the gathering of the Rays into a Concourse and about this Pupil is the Iris made up of Ciliary Processes like a Circle of the finest Hairs by the Motion of which Fibres the Sight of the Eye is sometimes contracted and at other times dilated according as the splendid Object is near or remote or as the Splendor it self is greater or lesser Besides these is that they stile the Retiform Coat because it resembles the most curious Net-work next to the Visionary Nerve somewhat capacious to give room for the necessary Proportions of the Idea and of a dark Colour round about within to prevent the Reflexion of the Light And within these various Coats are various Humours which serve so artificially to refract all the incident Rays and to transmit the Species of every visible Object to the Fancy in a regular Form that in all Ages the Structure of this little Member the Eye hath been to the Admiration and Astonishment of the best Anatomists Now by this we may guess at the wonderful Structure of those other Instruments which serve for Sensation in the Head And if we descend lower What a World of Wonders do we meet with there Were I to instance only in the Contexture of the Hand 't were enough to shew the Existence of a God How useful is this outward Member to defend the Senses and to preserve the very Life of Man it being employ'd about all Works and exercising all Arts that serve for our Necessities and Convenience and even for our Humour and Curiosity Galen and others have particularly observed the artificial Fabrication of the Hand and the wonderful fitness of all Things in it for their several Uses the fit Proportion and Disposition of it to lay hold on any Objects whether great or small the sit Division and Number of the Fingers the sit Magnitude Quantity Variety and the Figure of the Bones the fit Numbers and Filletings of the Joynts the fitness of the Muscles Tendons and Nerves for the moving and turning of the
Gristles are not made every where round and entire Circles but where the Gullet touches the Wind-pipe there to fill up the Circles is only a soft Membrane which may easily give way to the dilatation of the Gullet And to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this End and Use so soon as the Wind-pipe enters the Lungs its Cartilages are no longer deficient but perfect Circles or Rings because there is no necessity for them to be otherwise there at a distance from the Meat but more convenient they should be in their Divarications entire The Scope and Meaning of these things is in short to shew that though that energetick and forming Power or Principle which we call Nature doth act without any Counsel Design Advice or Deliberation of its own yet in its Operations it worketh so Methodically and Artificially in order to good Ends and Purposes that in its ordinary Proceedings nothing can be found which is useless and superfluous nothing which is not necessary proper or convenient nothing but what there is some reason for nothing but what great Wisdom would direct and by consequence that there is a most Wise Directing Being over it who does preserve assist and govern it in its orderly but blind Operations For what Man in his Senses can conceive that an intelligent and directing Cause hath no Hand at all in Works wherein we see such excellent Ends so exactly answered and such suitable Means so cleverly used and every thing so wisely and admirably well done How is it possible for any considering Man to imagine That the Instruments of Breathing should be so curiously formed by meer Accident That the casual impulse of the Air should break upon the Nostrils and bore the Passages and Meanders of Sensation That Chance and nothing but foolish Chance should prepare a Mouth and furnish a Mouth with all things necessary and apt That nothing but unadvised Fortune or unadvised Nature which alone is as uncertain of its Hits as Fortune is should so orderly and exquisitely provide a Stomach for the Reception of Food Materials to concoct it a Labyrinth of Conveyances to carry it off a politick Duct of many Vessels to refine it a Machine of Curiosities to distribute and disperse it into all Parts But here I stop For I have spoken of these things already and though the Chyle takes a Round and the Blood a Circulation yet this Discourse must admit of none and therefore thus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the great usefulness of all things and especially of those things which tend to the preservation of Man and Beast CHAP. IX THE great Utilities of the things in Nature having been thus largely and particularlarly considered together with their apt and excellent Frame in order to their uses one would now think that no more should be necessary to shew the Existence of a most Wise and Good God However it will not I hope be unprofitable for the Confirmation of your Faith in that absolutely perfect Being if I proceed though but in a summary way to the utmost extent of this Subject at least as far as to those Bounds which were propos'd at my first Entrance upon it The more we look into the Works of God the more apt we shall be to admire adore and love him whence it was that the devout Psalmist made it his business to think of all his Works to meditate and muse upon them to declare and set them forth to talk familiarly of them and to invite all People to behold and consider them And he lookt upon it as a great Cause of the Wickedness of those ungodly and deceitful Men he spake of Psalm 28. That they regard not in their minds the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands Let us therefore go on to the next thing which falls under our Meditations and that is touching those Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom which appear in the Operations even of irrational Creatures that they may answer their uses and bring their ends about For if it be considered that such Beings are utterly void of all Understanding which is properly called Rational and yet act so Methodically and Artificially as if they had Reason Judgment and Discretion of their own it must follow that they are guided and governed by a Superiour Being which is intellectual and whose Reason is the Law they act by Here then we are to observe these two following things which shew the Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in Creatures Irrational 1. Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations And 2. Their seeming Sagacity as to the ends of them 1. First Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations There are no Creatures Devils and Men excepted but what act uniformly and steadily by a certain Rule according to their Natures whether they be Inanimate or Vegetative or Beings indued with Sense we see they observe their Laws as well those general Laws which are for the Order and Preservation of the whole Universe as those special Laws which are peculiar and proper to their several Kinds To this purpose I have already taken notice of the constant regular Motion of the Celestial Bodies and therefore shall not need to have any farther Recourse to them though it be an astonishing thing to consider that such vast multitudes of immense Bodies all void both of Intellectual and Sensitive Faculties and several of them moving in a manner different from the rest should for so long a Tract of Time observe their Lines so uniformly and exactly that for these Six Thousand Years there hath not been the least variation of their Courses Of this no other rational Account can be given but that there is a superintending Being above under whose commanding Power they always have been and to whose Will they yield entire and absolute Obedience Since they know not their Law themselves it must follow that there is a God who knows it for them and keeps them to it Of those Inanimate or Live-less things which are in the Earth I shall instance only in the regular inclination or tendency of the Loadstone the greatest Wonder which the Earth affords And not to enumerate all those strange Faculties and Powers which some curious Naturalists have discovered in it especially in these last Ages that which is most pertinent to my present purpose is that is constantly affects the same Position towards the Poles of the Earth which was Natural to it before it was taken out of the Bowels of its Mother Rock So that where ever it be carried it will if it hath its liberty to move still direct its Points towards the North and South as it lay Originally and as the Earth it self lyes If you hang it in the Air by a String or set it in some floating inclosure on the surface of Water it will never be at rest but stir and quaver on till its Points answer to the North and South as if it
were Conscious of a Right which Nature gave it to one particular determinate Situation Nor is this all for as if it communicated its seeming Consciousness every Needle of a Sea-Compass or of a moveable Sun-Dial that is touched by the Loadstone will affect the same Direction and restlesly incline to the same Points A wonderful Secret in Nature and unaccountable hitherto by meer Principles of Philosophy and yet that which has been vastly Beneficial to the Trading and Travelling part of Mankind since the Discovery of it in Fact And what can all the Scepticks in the World do here with their senseless Atoms When all is done This strange Mystery in Nature must be ascribed to the Power and Pleasure of a Divine Agent that hath given every thing a Law that is hath imprest upon all Matter a fatal Necessity of moving according to that energetick Principle wherewith he himself endued it The constant regularity of all things upon the surface of the Earth is obvious to every Man's eye We see that Plants germinate grow and seminate exactly according to their several Kinds and though the manner of their Operations and the quality of their Productions be as different as their Species yet in each Species every particular individual worketh such as the rest of the same sort do as if every distinct Species had set it self a distinct Rule and as if every individual had consented to one and the same common Polity In like manner every Species of Animals acteth still after the same rate though their particular and proper Rules be different yet one and the same Rule belongs to every Animal of the same Species which they constantly observe without any difference difformity or variation For as each sustains it self after the same manner and with the same sort of Food which belongs properly to the whole and is peculiar to the whole Species and Set so each propagates its Kind the same way preparing for Propagation by the same Methods breeding their Young at the same Seasons nourishing them with the same Matter training them up and providing for them by the same pretty Artisices which are used by all others of the same Rank and Order Go for instance but to the Fowls of the Air and you may observe how regularly and accurately each individual Bird operates according to those Laws which are common to that particular Species whereunto it belongs From the Raven to the Sparrow every peculiar Species hath its peculiar Rules for its increase and every one particular Bird yields the most exact Obedience to those Rules Not the least difference is to be found in the Bigness or Colour or Form of any one Egg nor any difference in the Building wherein it is laid But the same Proportions are in it all the same Situation the same Materials the same Shape the same Structure within the same Defensatives without the same Curiosity of Art over and in it all hardly a Stick or an Hair difference no discernible variation to be found as to Plaistering or Garniture or Moss or whatever else the Integument be As a great City or Society of Men is divided into several distinct Fraternities and each Fraternity is Governed as by general Laws for the Interest and Welfare of the whole Community so by particular Orders for the Prosperity and Good of the distinct Company in conformity whereunto every single Member acteth so is this lower World divided into many distinct Ranges of Creatures and each Range in Nature hath its Laws given it some which relate to the general Good of the whole Universe and others that relate to the particular Good of every distinct Classis And these Laws are exactly obeyed by every individual Creature so that were Man out of the way there would be no Being in this visible World but what would be Regular Orderly and Conformable to its Rules though Man be the only Creature that understands his Rules And can all this Regularity be with any pretence of Reason ascribed to an unintending Cause or to blind Chance that never did any one thing by Rule since the World stood and therefore can never be thought to act Uniformly in every Creature constantly and in all Instances No these Operations so exactly Congruous and Regular are a plain Argument of the Existence of a directing Deity and a real Explication of that Divine Benediction and Command which Moses says was given at the Creation That the earth should bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind that every winged fowl should multiply after its kind and that every living creature should be brought forth after his kind cattel and creeping things and beasts of the earth all after their kind and it was so Those Productions were regular then and so they are still and will continue so to the end of the World being no other but so many constant and visible Executions of an Original Law 2. Besides this great Regularity of things in the manner of their Operations we must consider next the seeming Sagacity of them as to the ends of their Operations which is another Expression of the resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in Creatures that are Irrational All Creatures work as if they understood the Reason of their methodical Proceedings nay as if they proposed Ends to themselves and intended by such and such Means to bring all their Projects and Purposes to pass chiefly to preserve their own Being and then to continue their Kind and to provide a Posterity to succeed them when either natural Death or Casualties shall take them off that no part of the Creation may be lost It is observable of all Vegetables in general that from the opening of the Spring they begin and carry on their methodical Works as if they knew beforehand all the business they are to do the next Summer and as if they intended to answer the Ends now mentioned First by taking care for their own Growth and then for Semination And it is observable in particular of divers Pulses and other Plants whose Natures are so weak and feeble that they cannot stand upright of themselves that as if they were sensible of their Infirmity they shoot forth into various Fibres Strings and twining Branches which bear no Fruit but are designed to take hold and clutch on some Poll or Wall or on some neighbouring Shrub for the support of the Vegetable and for its better Sustenance and Semination In all which Nature works with so much seeming Caution Prudence and Forecast that if it had Reason of its own it could not operate with greater Art And then for sensitive Creatures we see with Admiration what resemblances of Wisdom and Providence there are in their Actions Go to the ant thou sluggard saith Solomon consider her ways and be wise Which having no guide overseer or ruler provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest Prov. 6. 6 7 8. In the Common Edition
she does makes an Impression on her outward Sense and that conveys an Idea of it to the Phansie in her Brain But all this while the Bird doth not choose to act upon a premised Principle that she providentially designs this Nest for her Young nor does she thence infer that therefore she must build it in such a place with such Materials after such a manner in such a form and to such a degree of warmth as is most suitable to the temper of her Young for this would be Reasoning and Arguing or Deducing of one thing out of another which is a Thing or Art too high for any Brute Creature And yet all these things are done in every respect so suitably and with such artisice and exactness that the most contriving Man in the World with all his Reason and Skill cannot possibly do them so well Which shews that there is a Power and Reason superiour even to humane Wisdom that hath invigorated the Natures of Animals with an energetick Principle which we call Instinct whereby they form their Works with the greatest Contrivance though they know not the meaning of them 3. This is an Imperfection in their Nature notwithstanding all their curious Formations And yet Thirdly There is another respect wherein their Operations differ from the Actions of Rational Creatures namely that as they know not Ends nor the reason of any Means so they do not consult or dliberate about the use of Means All Artists among Men consider which is the sittest and best way to be taken and in their Undertakings they do still leave room for second Thoughts And hence it is that humane Arts admit of great Improvements because second Thoughts produce new Experiments and new Experiments produce fresh Variety and so by comparing one effect with another a Man sees where he alter'd the former Method for the better and how necessary and useful that Alteration was But in the Operations of Nature it is not thus for Nature hath never but one way and that way is not only ready at hand but so very sit and proper too that it is not capable of Amendments Hence it is that sensitive Creatures are never to seek what to do nor ever change their wonted course but proceed in a constant uniform Tenor using the very same means for the preservation of their own Beings and for the propagation of their several Kinds which were used by those that were before them Six thousand Years ago They do not consider whether things may not be done better now than they were in those days nor do they so much as look back upon the last preceding Generation but go on still in the same way by roat without forecast reflection or advice and yet we see their Works are so artificially done that if they had bad the longest Experience and the greatest Reason of their own they could not after all their Studies and Practice have pitch'd upon more succesful and exquisite Methods Let us now from these Premises consider with due freedom of Thoughts whether this be not a manifest Proof of the Existence of a Being which is infinitely Operative and Omniscient For from what other Cause could all this Art in Nature come Whence else could it receive its admirable Skill What but a Deity could direct and govern it What other Being could teach that rude and undiscerning Thing to exercise its Faculties after such a methodical and unreproveable manner Or what else could guide it in making such regular uniform and constant Strokes as if it were all perfect Wisdom when it hath not in it self the least Grain of clear and true Knowledge It is all Dr. Scott Christ Life Part 2. p. 214. meer natural Instinct and as an excellent Writer now with God speaks natural Instinct is nothing but the Impression of the Art and Reason of the Authour of Nature which Impression knoweth not what it doth nor upon what Reasons it proceeds but only answers to the Reason of God as the Signature doth to the Seal that imprest it and like an Eccho articulates and resounds his Voice without understanding what it meaneth And as the senseless Eccho when it reverberates Words that carry Sense and Reason in them supposeth the original Voice to proceed from some intelligent Mind so these irrational Instincts of Nature which express so much Art and Reason in their Operations do necessarily imply that there is some wise Mind or Providence to which they owe their Original If our modern Scepticks tell us That these natural Instincts come ex traduce and by descent from one Animal to another let us consider how they came there in every Species of Animals at the first for an infinity of Causes is impossible If they are so hardy as to tell us That they came Originally by the casual Motion of unthinking Matter let us consider again how it comes to pass that these natural Instincts hold on and continue in every Species and in every Individual throughout the World since Chance blind sporting and wild Chance is far more likely to spoil a fine Work than to make it Or if after all they affirm That the continuance of Instincts from Generation to Generation is perfectly casual that is without the Pleasure or Power of an understanding Being over all let us consider lastly that Chance and Wisdom are things as utterly distant from each other as Extreams and Contraries are Chance never did any thing Wisely nor by Rule nor after a uniform Rate nor in a constant uninterrupted Tenor. And yet all Animals operate Wisely as if they perfectly understood the Reasons and Necessities of their own Actions But that they have no Wisedom or Reason of their own is evident because Id. ibid. p. 218. whatsoever they do they necessarily do and cannot possibly do otherwise for they never vary in their Operations never try any new Experiments but always proceed in the same Road and repeat the same things in the same Method which is a plain sign that they cannot do otherwise and consequently that they act not from their own Choice or Reason but Necessity And therefore since they are made and impelled to act as they do and yet do act Rationally and Wisely that which compels them must be a rational Mind either acting upon them immediately or by a fix'd and permanent Impression of its Art and Reason upon their Nature and Motions The truth is those Images and Imitations of Wisdom which are in Creatures purely sensitive together with the regularity and constancy of their Operations are as plain an evidence as need be given of the Existence of a God because it is unconceiveable how the Animal Parts of the World should so orderly conform to the Rules of Reason as if they were endued with intelectual Faculties without any directions and influence from a Divine Mind presiding over all It is no rarity to see some of those Creatures especially such as have the quickest Sense gratisie the curiosity of
thing can be drawn into Existence out of it but by a superiour uncontroulable Power over it For should we suppose it to produce any thing of it self we should suppose it to produce that which it hath not power to bring forth and to give it a Being which it hath not at all it self that is to bring it out of an Incapacity or out of Nothing Which no Humane Reason can think how a thing can do by any Casuality of its own because there is a defect of such Casuality If then there be something more and higher in a Rational Soul than what is in Matter it must be inconsistent with Reason to imagine that Matter caused it for then it would necessarily follow that it caused it without a Power or by its Incapacity Inability and Defect that is out of Nothing When we observe this admirable frame of Nature the Universe can we think that its Order was effectively caused by Confusion It s Harmony by Discord It s Beauty by Disproportions the Usefulness of its parts by Errour It s wise and regular Fabrication by Nonsense This were to make one Contrary the cause of another and with parity of Reason it might be said that Water produceth Fire and Darkness made the Sun and that Death is the efficient Cause of Life Sense and Motion In like manner when we consider the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Soul and compare the whole frame of it with the Substance and Properties of dull lifeless and incogitative Matter can we think that Corporiety was the cause of a thing that is immaterial that Divisibility was the cause of a Being immortal that Reason was the work of Stupidity that Atoms taught us to Philosophize that Wisdom sprang from the motion of little Bodies void of all Art Skill and Knowledge and that the Powers we find within us to act with Freedom and Choice to direct our Actions by the Logick of Truth and by the Laws of Vertue to desire and intend our Good in all things to pursue it with Eagerness Understanding and Delight and to rejoyce in the Fruition of it can we think I say that all these things came from the Chance-Operations of Matter which hath nothing of Sense or Thought in it It may as well be said that the tumbling of Stones and Timber together will produce Sensation Intellection Reasoning Memory Prudence Conscience together with those Passions and Affections which we feel within us In short It may be as well said that a Rational Soul can be educed and drawn out of an Heap of Rubbish As an Effect cannot naturally proceed from a contrary Cause so neither can an Effect transcend the Perfection and Vertue of its natural Cause It may fall short of it or it may come up to a degree of equality with it but it can no more go beyond or above it than Waters can naturally run higher than the Fountain-Head stands So that were there nothing in the World besides dead and senseless Matter modified into various Forms at a venture by undesigning and unintending Motion it were impossible for a Rational Soul to spring out of it for the Effect would be much nobler than the Cause and consequently would emerge out of nothing For I ask Were the Perfections of a Rational Soul in Matter before the Soul was made or were they not If you suppose they were then this ridiculous Conceit will follow that Atoms have in them Knowledge Wisdom Morality Liberty of Will and such other Perfections which belong unto the Soul If they were not antecedently there then this ridiculous Conceit will follow That Perfections were caused by Incapacity or that Matter gave a perfect Being an Existence which it self had not to give Which would be a plain Contradiction and would moreover ascribe a creative Power to Matter though it be a thing altogether Passive when the Men I now dispute against will not allow a Deity it self that Power because they think it an impossibility Dr. Cudworth Int. Syst p. 862 Hence a Learned Author concludes positively that neither can Matter which is a meeâ— Passive thing efficiently produce a Soul nor a Soul Matter no finite imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of nothing much less can such a Substance as hath a lower degree of Entity and Perfection in it create that which hath an higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in way of Ascent from lower to higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from higher to lower Now to produce any one higher Rank of Being from the lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from downwards to upwards and by the same reason that one higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally produced from a lower may all the rest be produced also The Consequence of all this is That Matter being so utterly uncapable of making an immaterial immortal intelligent Soul there must be a most perfect Mind that gave it its Faculties and its Nature Either it must be supposed to have no Cause at all which would be most absurd to imagine or it must have a competent Cause or a higher and most perfect Being to derive its Existence from A spiritual Substance cannot come but from a Spirit nor can any thing be the cause of Mind but Mind or of Understanding but Understanding or of Reason but Reason nor of Self-activity and Liberty but that which is a self-active voluntary and free Agent Since the rational Soul is so excellent a Creature there must be a most excellent Being that created it a Being that contains all manner of Perfection a Being of unlimited Power that could make it of Nothing by the force and fecundity of his own Divine Will and a Being of the most exalted and glorious Nature that could give Existence to such an admirable Being as every humane Soul is void of Matter and Corruption uncapable Naturally of dying in every respect like unto a Deity Spiritual Intelligent Active Wise Powerful Benign Kind and Good But those unreasonable Men who deny the Existence of God finding themselves prest with the invincible force of this Argument would shift it off by pretending that what we suppose touching the spiritual Nature and Faculties of Mens Souls is not to be granted They say that there is nothing real in the World but Matter and Motion That our very Souls themselves are Matter consisting of a smoother and siner sort of Atoms or indiscernible Motes by the various Motions and Modifications whereof the Soul Thinks Understands Exerts the Will and Acteth They will have mind to be nothing but the local Motion of some more active Particles of Matter They will have Knowledge to be nothing but a Passion caused by the intromitting of Images into the Brain from sensible Objects without They will
heaven of heavens cannot contain 1 King 8. 27. We find also That notwithstanding this Divine Activity of the Mind and its Ubiquitary Rangings abroad we can command it home and make it retire into a delightful Solitude to view those entertaining Ideas within it self and we do often fix it so that outward Objects cannot draw it off from the inward Operations it is intent upon nor deprive it of the great Pleasures of Contemplation and of Enjoying its own private Thoughts And what is this but a faint Similitude of the All-sufficiency and Plenitude of a God who standeth not in need of any things without himself but is infinitely Blessed in the Contemplation of the Glories of his own Nature and in the eternal Fruition of his own unspeakable Perfections We find too That though we know but in part yet we can not only observe things present and before us but can moreover call back things past and gone and foresee Events that are Future or Possible and can represent them all to our Minds as if they were all now under our Eye And what is this but an umbratile shew of the Omniscience of a God whose Understanding is infinite Psal 47. 5. And before whom Hell and Destruction and all the Hearts of the Children of Men are Prov. 15. We find again That there is in the Mind of Man a wonderful Fecundity of Power to do almost any thing which is Necessary Good Honourable and Excellent To form Notions as it were out of Nothing and out of those Notions which comparatively seem next to Nothing to draw by the gradual Methods of Study and Consideration Systems of Philosophy Platforms of Politicks Schemes and Models of Arts Volumes of Divinity and whatever is useful or tendeth to improve the Knowledge and to answer the Wants of Mankind And what is this but a weak Resemblance of the Omnipotence of that God who by the infinite Fecundity of his Divine Power created all Things out of Nothing Who spake and they were done who commanded and they stood fast Ps 33. 9. We find moreover in the Mind of Man a constant Disposition to do every thing for the sake of some Good either real or at least apparent and accordingly to deliberate about the Choice of necessary and proper Means And what is this but a little Signature of God's Wisdom Who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will Ephes 1. 11. And maketh every thing to work together for the good of them that love him Rom. 8. 28. We find furthermore in the Mind of Man innate Principles of Righteousness and Benignity which no tract of Time no Humours or Arts of People can totally obliterate though the base Inclinations and selfish Practices of some have strangely defaced them for even Publicans and Sinners will do good to them at whose Hands they have received good And what is this but some Similitude of a God who is Righteous in all his Ways and whose Mercy is over all his Works though it cometh vastly short of that Pattern which the Son of God gave the World from his Father Who causeth his sun to shine upon the evil as well as upon the good and sends his rain upon the just and unjust also Matth. 5. 45. Some more Instances and Respects there are wherein the Soul of Man does in some though very scanty measure resemble a Being that is eminently and absolutely Perfect But these being added to the other Considerations touching the immateriality and immortality of its Nature and the excellence of its Faculties and Powers are enough to make it appear to all reasonable Men that there is verily a God above after whose Image and Likeness the rational Soul is created And this I have used as the last Argument to prove the Existence of a Deity because it cometh so home and close that no Man can renounce a God but by renouncing his own humane Nature and by making himself like unto the very Beasts that perish and are without understanding I have now I thank God gone through with what brevity I could all those things which I proposed at my first entrance upon this Subject to confirm you in the rational belief of the true and ever blessed God in an Age which so aboundeth with Infidelity Considering how Men on that side are wont to say that we can have no Idea of God because a Deity is supposed to be incorporeal not subject to Sense and so that a Deity is an unconceivable Nothing therefore I did think it necessary in the first place to shew what the Notion of God meaneth namely a Being of eminent and absolute Perfections Out of which general Description there follows by necessary Consequence a more particular account of those Perfections which relate either to the Nature of God as Independency Incorporeity Eternity c. or as to God's Actions as perfect Knowledge Wisdom Power Goodness and the like Then having shewed how Intelligible and Rational this Notion of God is though it be not any sensible Idea as those are which come from corporeal Objects without us I proceeded in the next place to prove there actually is such a perfect Being 1. From the order of Causes which obligeth us to acknowledge that there must be one first Cause Self-existent and Eternal or a Being not made by any other and the like 2. From the general consent of Mankind which cannot rationally be ascribed to any but that first Cause who is the common Author of humane Nature 3. From some extraordinary Occurrences which plainly shew that there is a supreme Being of the most perfect Knowledge and Power 4. From the Frame and State of the World which is so admirable for its Order for its Beauty for the usefulness of its Parts for the resemblances of Wisdom in Creatures which are Irrational and for the ample Provision that is made for the good of all Things that it would be the most senseless imagination to attribute this goodly Frame of Nature to Matter and Motion to blind Fortune and Chance or to any other Cause but that Allmighty All-wise and most benign Being whose Perfections are infinite And 5. To evince this further yet I have taken particular notice of the admirable Frame of the rational Soul which in its Nature Faculties and manner of Operating bears an evident Resemblance and Representation of a Deity This whole Speculation being thus ended I should now in the last place draw it down to our Practice and shew what we are to render unto God for all these bright Manifestations of his Divine Glory what just Acknowledgments they call for at our hands what Acts of Faith and Admiration of Humility and Holiness of Adoration and Praise of Love and Obedience and Imitation and the like Expressions of Religion are due from us But this Subject is so copious as well as of such great importance that it ought to be handled distinctly and with Care and therefore requires a Discourse by