sad Accounts so notoriously known the Theist is more modest then to Insert his Recriminations And thus in Brief are here presented by way of Preface such Sentiments of the Theist as preparatively Conduce to the facilitating of the Readers Apprehension of the ensuing Work Which is chiefly design'd against the absur'd Impieties of Atheisme with a due Reflection on such that disregard in Soul the Miracles of the Almighty as so many Innumerable Blessings throughout the Vniverse convey'd for the benefit of Mankind To Conclude the Reader is desir'd to take Notice that there is nothing Intended in this Treatise whereby to Lessen in any kind the Excellencies of Christian Religion but rather an Acknowledgment of its Divine Perfections as may be evidently perceiv'd in the Close of the ensuing Book A DISCOVERY Of the most Refin'd NOTIONS and PRINCIPLES Of the THEIST As they Essentially Relate to that PERSWASION THE Religion of the Theist as the Word may be deriv'd from Greek Consists in the sole belief of one God with all other Attributes of miraculous Being Providence and Conduct that can be assign'd to Omnipotency In which general Article of Divine Belief the Theist fully concenters with the most Universal Religions of the World But in the motives to Divine Worship he considerably differs from many of them which may be thus explain'd The Theist derives his Adoration of a Deity from the Being and miraculous Order of the Universe in the Existency of the World above and below with whatsoever is contain'd therein which summ'd compleats the Proposition of God demonstrated by the wonders of his Works which he believes ought undeniably to oblige thē Holy reverence of the Soul as the most visible convictions of his Creed Or no other then so many Divine Proposals in the miraculous operations and consistency of the World sensibly apprehended by the admirable conduct of the Almighty If he beholds the miraculous Revolution above together with the rising and setting of the Sun to day he thinks it no less stupendious if he perceives his Glorious Ascent to morrow And thus he fits his belief to the Volume of Divine Faith comprehended in the Worlds universal Continuance and Being as so many Evidences of the Deity convey'd by Incomprehensible Causes and Effects In which submission of the Soul he cannot but seperate his Holy contemplation and reverence from other Credentials of Worship that are written or disperss'd by the Hand of Man as he that has an open assurance need not unclose a Book to search for more because a writing however credibly asserting the Truth of Miracles past which celebrate particular Worships cannot as he Judgeth be so present with his Understanding or his Immediate Conviction as what is perpetual to his Apprehension in the miraculous Constitution Preservation and Providential management of the Universal World with the innumerable Objects of Admiration contain'd in it that does as it were disclose to the Eye the bosome of Omnipotence in which the devout preception of Man may discern dateless Miracles no less Antient in Being then the total World because always evident in it Whereas contrarily in the Judgment of the Theist other Religious Perswasions want not only the like continual manifest Convictions but according to the known Date of their Records must acknowledge that there was for ought they can demonstratively alledge to the contrary innumerable Years that preceeded the Revelations they assert From whence may be concluded that there was unaccountable Revolutions of Time when they neither had Being or Belief And therefore no Objection against the Theist if he rejects Tenents that include a Modern Date or not so Infinitely uncomputable by Time as his own It being impossible to evidence any Conviction of the Soul more Antient than the World and the Miracles it contains Not but the Divine Power could have ordain'd if suitable to his Decree one or more subsequent Worlds as amply wonderful as this we behold there being no limitation to the Omnipotent if pleas'd to bestow any miraculous Method in order to our Sense and Conviction But then this must have been perpetually evident from the time it had Beginning as clearly as is discernable any other Object of Divine Admiration and Reverence within the compass of the Universe On which considerations the Theist conceives himself obliged to disent from divers miraculous Tenents deliver'd by the Pens of men because not genuinely discernable in the vast Volume of the World without any intermission of Wonders and Providence consonant to their Divine conveyance It being a Solescisme in his opinion that men should recede from the day light of Faith to search for Invisible Conviction And consequently Inferrs that since there are no apparent Miracles but what are contain'd in the Universe of Heaven and Earth he ought to prove from thence the devotion of his Faith On which account he amply receives the assurance of Divine demonstration by the Eye of his Intellect Leaving other Creeds to argue from transcriptions of spiritual Revelations their Systems of belief or from whence they severally Inferr as they rationally gather that the Holy Precepts of one or other are to be embrac'd by them Whereas the greatest part of religious Perswasion are rather the Effects of Custome and Education then visible Conviction of any faculty of the Humane Soul Insomuch that the Theist affirms that a Man born blind may be as Intelligibly perswaded of the Doctrine of Theisme together with the devotion annexed to it as if he had a plenary sight and prospect of all the Wonders within the Compass of the Universe It not being to be doubted that such a person tho without Eyes to discern might by his Reason or Sense of Feeling not only conclude that he lives but that he is also sustain'd by a providential Goodness and Power as certainly as he feels within or without out him the Effects of Heat or Cold as also nourish'd by Food neither of which could be produc'd or caus'd by himself And therefore must concede that he Subsists by the dispensation of an Existence more excellent then his own and consequently oblig'd to give thanks devoutly on his knees for the Blessings he receives tho without Eyes to behold the particulars of Heaven and Earth from whence they proceed On the contrary should this unseeing Man be requir'd to adhere to any religious Proposal that presented no other contexture to his Sense then a story told of suppernatural Deeds and Revelation which concenter'd with no Rational Proprietic of his Being and Nature He would doubtless Annex his belief to the Doctrine of Theisme with whatsoever by undeniable consequence from it might compleat his Devotion These discussions as being but previously Inserted in order to farther expand the Fonds on which the Theist erects his Tenents It will be necessary to consider these three Particulars The First As to the Being of the Vniverse The Second Tending to the Cause and Manner of its Productiony as also its wonderful Conduct Order
observ'd to augment by growth like them he must for the same Reason answer as ignorantly as he did to any of the precedent Questions To conclude had it pleas'd Omnipotency to have bestow'd rational Understanding to every Species of Being and Life in the Regions of Air and Earth together with whatsoever has a liquid Existence in the Streams and Oceans of the Universe The Fish Beast and Plant would no less admire the diversities of their Nature's Proprieties and Shapes then those of Man and Woman or how all of them Subsist and Encrease in their several kinds Neither could Mankind less stupendiously wonder how any of those were produc'd then by what means the first Man and Woman had a primitive Life In which consideration the humane Intellect is no less pos'd by the Miracle of its own Composure and Being then it is by contemplating how the vast Sructure of the World with its summ of Wonders was compleated as 't is now beheld Which prefectly demonstrates that there is neither magis or minus in the miraculous Act whereby was produc'd the total Universe or any Individial thing that is contain'd by its Icommensurable Compass From whence the Theist concludes that Omnipotency may be Emphatically defin'd by the Miracles of its Works since by no other Definition or Sylogisme which the Schools provide it can be so visibly apprehended And it were vain to Imagine that the Divine Power too Infinite to be comprehended by any System of words should be by that Method no less convictive to the Eye of Thought then it is by ocular demonstration of Things manifestly Admirable Wherefore Mankind ought to acknowledge with the highest Reverence of the Soul that the Essence of Omnipotency Imcomprehensible by accents of Speech may be equivalently explain'd in the superlative Wonders of the World and the Works it contains Which in summ is the Doctrine of the Theist as it relates to a Divine Power and Being But as to the Sphere or Residence of the Almighty which by the Tenents of some is Imagin'd to be above the Supreamest of the Celestial Orbs the Theist does not undertake to define which were no less absur'd then to attribute to an Infinite a circurnscrib'd Being The Geometrician certainly proves that nothing can be said to have place other then what is contain'd by proportional Lines within the Compass of some Figure Whereby he demonstrates that whatsoever is alledg'd to proportion must consequently be allow'd Parts as in the Dimention of Alineal superficies in any kind or solids as the Cube Globe Cone Parabola or the like The most excellent of which cannot comprehend the Figure of Deity which if without Body there is no possibility of its resemblance to any Corporeal Thing or Measure Wherefore the denomination of Heaven tho Immensly suppos'd beyond the highest of Stars that shine to wonder above us is too narrow a Station for the Prefence-Chamber of the Deity Because the nominating of Place does imply the circumscription of material Parts and no Man can be so Ignorant as to suppose that there is any such thing as a bodily Infinite or that any local quantity may be Incomensurably acknowledg'd Notwithstanding it must be granted that the opinion of Holy Persons tho not strictly to be prov'd in appropriating to the sublimest height the mansion of Omnipotency is allowable because devout contemplation the farther it ascends upward has a more remote or ineffable Excellency as being exalted above Things of more familiar observance tho not less Admirable as has been precedently observ'd then consists in the speculation of any heigher objects of thought that impresseth on the Understanding Reverential acknowledgment of a Supream Power that by its munificence supports the Fabrick of the Universe and all it contains Wherefore in Reverence to discernless or unknown Being a place unknown as the most suitable Epithite may be term'd the select Seat of the Almighty The Nature of Men having more dread however unperceptible of what they conceive they ought stupendiously to believe then if it were present to their Understandings Insomuch that could the humane Eye surpass its usual prospect of the Sun and Stars and next make a visible discovery of a Heaven far more Glorious then any of the shining Sphere already discern'd the wonderful Objects might in short time be as regardlesly perceiv'd as any of the sublime Illuminations observ'd before So heedless is Man of things that require his perfect Admiration But as to the denomination of Heaven as a sublime some where rather then place of the Bless'd as the Schools define with the beautifical Vision of the Almighty as also the perpetual Felicity of pious Immortality 'T is a passible Opinion in the Judgment of the Theist and may not be Incongruously deriv'd from experimental Observation as by the Eye the Imagination ascends by comparing the different Magnitudes Heights and Splendors of the Moon Sun Planets and Stars by which gradual Contemplation or as it were step by step is apprehended a more Divine and sublime Being of the Deity The great Philosopher Aristotle was not dissentaneous to this Notion when he defin'd the Celestial appearances so term'd here instead of Bodies for Reasons that will soon follow by the Name of a fifth Essence as an extraordinary refin'dness Incident to their Being and Natures Invariable in their Grandure and Figures without the least signification or tendency to Elementary Composition or Change as so many particular Emblems of Eternity by whose admir'd Illuminations the humane Soul might be guided to the transcendent acknowledgment of a more Illustrious and Divine Existence But enough has been said relating to the first Branch of this Treatise and the Being of a God The Second Particular tending to the Cause and Manner of the Worlds production As also its wonderful Conduct Order and Preservation with some Opinions of the Learned therein IT has been evidently explain'd by the precedent Discussions that the Universe withall its surrounds is display'd as ocularly miraculous And therefore incumbent on humane Sense to be a diligent Admirer of all its Objects The neglect of which cannot be enough Reprov'd since it proceeds from sloathful Imprudence or Inadvertency of Men in being not more propensly diligent in devoting the Duty of their admiratirations as fully as the Wonders of Providence are obvious to their sight Insomuch that a tale told of any extraordinary Fact if but suppos'd miraculous shall more assure their Imaginations then what may be Admirably beheld in the open Face of the Universe every minute of Life Or that familiar Convictions because familiar should be less regarded then stupendious Relations without ocular or sensible Assurance Whereas the wonderful continuance of Objects and such are those which are perspicuously numerous and within the Compass of the World ought to Induce our most constant and solemn Admiration as so many testimonials of an Omnipotent Author Not that the Theist would occasion by Assertions of this Nature such perplexities in the Soul
as are observ'd in Men that would undertake to discover Causes and Effects far obscur'd by the Vail of Providence or by what methods of Omnipotency the Universe had Original Beginning The most general belief of Men however differing in other Tenents either as they are Jews Christians or Mahomitans Is that the total World together with all it circumscribs above and below was by the Will and Dictate of the Almighty created from nothing And that Incorporeal Substances defined by the Schools Angels and Spirits had a concometant production within the compass of six Days as the Scripture affirms with Elementary Bodies of innumerable Kinds according to the diversities of their Scituations Shapes and manner of Subsistence But here it must be understood that it cannot be properly Imagin'd how an Infinite Being and Operator should be said to effect in any degrees of Time whatsoever was produc'd by Omnipotent Power because every Act that may be computed or number'd in Time howsoever swift its Accelaration presupposeth Motion and Comensurable Parts which were too heavily attributed to the Method and Deeds of the Almighty Wherefore the expressions may rather pass for a manner of speaking whereby Holy Writ would more familiarly captivate humane Understanding which cannot apprehend or think of any Object or Existency in any consideration that is not more or less within the Verge of Time as it is judg'd by the Understanding So that where the Text enumerat's Days in which the Universe was compleated 't is not meant as if God had set a task upon himself to be finish'd in any Journals of time because the Effect of his Eternal Determination could have no temporary Epithite and therefore the words of the Writer whereby to deliver for the benefit of humane Capacity the Infinite Decree and Operations of the Omnipotent as temporarily produc'd must be so intended because impossible to be apprehended in any other dialect and Man the Reader Another Opinion the Theist observes and much affected by modern Authors which is that there was a material World in Being before it had the Date of Creation from the Pen of Moses Affirming according to the noted Maxim that of nothing nothing could be made and this original Matter tho by them supposs'd Corporeal had no perfect composition till disposs'd by Providence into such bodily Proportions and Forms as are manifest in the supreamer and lower Regions of the Universe In this Chaos of Matter in consequence to their System of the Worlds Production must undeniably be granted a capacitative Being of Incorporeal Substances as well as those that appertain'd as they Affirm to the bulk of Matter and by the same process receiv'd a future perfection By which Conception of theirs they seem absurdly to complicate Eternity of Matter and Substances of all Kinds whether Corporeal of Spiritual untill all of them were subsequently compleated by Divine Ordination but this Imagination tends not only to Assert a double Eternity by allowing a perpetual Existency to Matter as well as to the Being of an Omnipotent Power but also by affirming that all thnigs were previously disposs'd from something either Corporeal or Spiritual that was Incedent to their precedent Capacities by which they annex a temporary Operation to the Works of the Almighty So that in effect they allow instead of Creation no other then a providential Alteration and Refinement of bodily Parts no less then Substances that were to be exalted to spiritual Perfection From which modalities or manner of precedent and future Subsistences they derive their Tenents relating to the Being of Angels Spirits of all degrees with every thing that has Being in the Visible and Invisible parts of the World And as their most Emphatical Argument in reverence to humane Original they plead the Text of Scripture where it is said That God form'd Man out of Clay as precedent Matter But this excludes not the Creation of that Clay so wonderfully Impress'd by the Almighty as to compleat the Figure of Humanity unless they annex perpetuity to Matter which were to double Eternity by assigning that Infinite Attribute no less to Matter then God An absurdity condemn'd by the Doctrine of the Theist as already Instanc'd who rather beholds the Universe as the Object of his Admiration then undertakes to assert by any Method that he can contemplate the Manner of its wonderful Existence as not possible in his Judgment to conceive how any thing had precedent Being that is not manifest in a present Cause Insomuch that he doubts not to affirm that had Man been capable of apprehending how the World with all the particulars it contains was produc'd there had not been wanted the Inscriptions of Providence on whatsoever has Being within its Circumference whereby Mankind might have legibly discern'd how its total and Parts had the compleat Structures and Subsistences that are visible to the Eye But since the whole with its wonderful Particulars are within the Complex of a mighty Round more amazingly vast then can be Intelligently penetrated by humane Sense or the height of its Diameter measur'd by any Scale of Thoughts that can Ascend to the utmost Point of its supream Cause By the munifence of the Omnipotent we are in some sort familiarly acquainted with miraculous Objects tho not with their miraculous Author And notwithstanding that spiritual Essences together with their admir'd Proprieties are not so readily defin'd or the manner of their Existence and Operations as Corporeal Beings however wonderful that actually Imploy the Sense as they sympathize in bodily Temperaments Parts or Proportions with those of Mankind Yet even of these we may have such real apprehensions as admirably Approximate the otherwise remote speculation or their Order Conduct and Nature Let the Example be taken from the Sun and Stars which the Theist rather denominates spiritual Appearances or equivalently such then any other definition given of them by the greatest Philosopher and he may be well allowed that liberty if he proves them equivalent in their refin'd Illuminations Beings and Motions to such stupendious Excellencies that can be no otherwise comprehended then as they are effecatiously spiritual The Grand Philosopher Aristotle as before quoted by the accuteness of his Intellect gives the Definition of quintessential Perfection to the Celestial Luminaries which signifies a Fifth different Essence from any thing that had any Ingredients of the Four Elements But had he as accurately consider'd their wonderful Motions and Celerity as they consummate their Revolutions he might have allow'd them the Epithites of spiritual Equivalents in every respect The best Account that the most celebrated Astronomers can give of the Suns diurnal Progress is that he exceeds fifteen Millions of English Miles in the four and twenty Hours and consequently that in one Minute of Time his expedition is somewhat more then eleven Thousand a Hundred and eleven Miles of the same Account Which incomprehensible swiftness seems liker to vanishing then apparent Motion It being Impossible for any thing that has