account as they think of Religion against the care I take to decline the frequent use of that Word Nature in the Vulgar Notion of it Reserving to another and fitter place some other things that may relate to the Theological scruples if any occur to me that our Free Inquiry may occasion The Philosophical Reason that inclines me to forbear as much as conveniently I can the frequent use of the Word Nature and the Forms of Speech that are deriv'd from it is That 't is a Term of great Ambiguity On which score I have observ'd that being frequently and unwarily imploy'd it has occasion'd much darkness and confusion in many Mens Writings and Discourses And I little doubt but that others would make the like Observations if early Prejudices and universal Custom did not keep them from taking notice of it Nor do I think my self oblig'd by the just Veneration I owe and pay Religion to make use of a Term so inconvenient to Philosophy For I do not find that for many Ages the Israelites that then were the only People and Church of God made use of the Word Nature in the Vulgar Notion of it Moses in the whole History of the Creation where it had been so proper to bring in this first of second Causes has not a word of Nature And whereas Philosophers presume that she by her Plastick Power and Skill forms Plants and Animals out of the Universal Matter the Divine Historian ascribes the Formation of them to Gods immediate Fiat Gen. i. 11. And God said let the Earth bring forth Grass and the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit tree yielding Fruit after his kind c. And again Vers. 24 God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after its kind c. Vers. 25 And God without any mention of Nature made the Beast of the Earth after his kind And I do not remember that in the Old Testament I have met with any one Hebrew word that properly signifies Nature in the sense we take it in And it seems that our English Translators of the Bible were not more fortunate in that than I for having purposely consulted a late Concordance I found not that Word Nature in any Text of the Old Testament So likewise though Iob David and Solomon and other Israelitish Writers do on divers occasions many times mention the Corporeal Works of God yet they do not take notice of Nature which our Philosophers would have his great Vicegerent in what relates to them To which perhaps it may not be impertinent to add that though the late famous Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel has purposely written a Book of numerous Problems touching the Creation yet I do not remember that he imploys the Word Nature in the receiv'd Notion of it to give an account of any of Gods Mundane Creatures And when St. Paul himself who was no stranger to the Heathen Learning writing to the Corinthians who were Greeks speaks of the Production of Corn out of Seed sown he does not attribute the produc'd Body to Nature but when he had spoken of a grain of Wheat or some other seed put into the ground he adds that God gives it such a Body as he pleaseth and to every seed it s own Body i. e. the Body belonging to its kind And a greater than St. Paul speaking of the gaudiness of the Lillies or as some will have it Tulips uses this Expression If God so cloath the grass of the Field c. Matt. vi 28 29 30. The Celebrations that David Iob and other Holy Hebrews mention'd in the Old Testament make an occasion of the admirable Works they contemplated in the Universe are address'd directly to God himself without taking notice of Nature Of this I could multiply Instances but shall here for brevity's sake be contented to name a few taken from the Book of Psalms alone In the hundredth of those Hymns the Penman of it makes this That God has made us the ground of an Exhortation To enter into his Gates with Thanksgiving and into his Courts with Praise Psal. lxxix 34. And in another Let the Heaven and Earth praise God that is give Men ground and occasion to Praise Him congruously to what David elsewhere says to the Great Creator of the Universe All thy work 's shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Psal. cxlv 10. And in another of the Sacred Hymns the same Royal Poet says to his Maker Thou hast cover'd me in my Mothers womb I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psal. cxxxix 13 14. I have sometimes doubted whether one may not on this occasion add that if Men will need takes in a Being subordinate to God for the management of the World it seems more consonant to the Holy Scripture to depute Angels to that charge than Nature For I consider that as to the Coelestial Part of the Universe in comparison of which the Sublunary is not perhaps the ten-thousandth part both the Heathen Aristotelian's and the School Philosophers among the Christians teach the Coelestial Orbs to be moved or guided by Intelligences or Angels And as to the lower or sublunary World besides that the Holy Writings teach us that Angels have been often imploy'd by God for the Government of Kingdoms as is evident out of the Book of Daniel and the Welfare and Punishment of particular Persons one of those Glorious Spirits is in the Apocalypse expresly styl'd the Angel of the Waters Which Title divers Learned Interpreters think to be given him because of his Charge or Office to oversee and preserve the Waters And I remember that in the same Book there is mention made of an Angel that had Power Authority or Iurisdiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Fire And though the Excellent Grotius gives another conjecture of the Title given the Angel of the Waters yet in his Notes upon the next Verse save one he teaches That there was an Angel appointed to preserve the Souls that were kept under the Altar there-mention'd And if we take the Angel of the Waters to be the Guardian or Conserver of them perhaps as the Romans in whose Empire St. Iohn wrote had special Officers to look to their Aqueducts and other Waters it may not be amiss to observe upon the by that he is introduc'd Praising his and his fellow-Spirits Great Creator Which is an Act of Religion that for ought I know none of the Naturists whether Pagan or even Christians ever mention'd their Nature to have perform'd I know it may on this occasion be alledg'd that subordinata non pugnant and Nature being God's Vicegerent her Works are indeed his But that he has such a Vicegerent it is one of the main businesses of this Discourse to call in Question and till the Affirmative be solidly prov'd nay and tho' it were so I hope I shall be excus'd if with
Universe of which they are Parts or to the more particular Designs of the Creator it seems manifest that many sorts of Creatures might have been more perfect than they are since they want many compleating things that others are indow'd with as an Oyster that can neither hear nor see nor walk nor swim nor fly c. is not so perfect a Creature as an Eagle or an Elephant that have both those Senses that the Oyster wants and a far more active Faculty of changing places And of this inequality of perfection in Creatures of differing kinds the Examples are too obvious to need to be enumerated But if the Question be better propos'd and it be inquir'd not whether God could have made more perfect Creatures than many of those he has made for that 't is plain He could do because He has done it but Whether the Creatures were not so curiously and skilfully made that 't was scarce possibly they could have been better made with due regard to all the wise Ends He may be suppos'd to have had in making them it will be hard to prove a Negative Answer This I shall indeavour to illustrate by a Supposition If one should come into the well-furnish'd Shop of an excellent Watch-maker and should there see a plain Watch design'd barely to shew the Hour of the Day another that strikes the Hours a third that is also furnish'd with an Alarm a fourth that besides these shews the Month Current and the Day of it and lastly a fifth that over and above all these shews the Motions of the Sun Moon and Planets the Tydes and other Things which may be seen in some Curious Watches In this Case I say the Spectator supposing him judicious would indeed think one of these Watches far more Excellent and Compleat than another but yet he would conclude each of them to be perfect in its own own kind and the Plain Watch to answer the Artificer's Idea and Design in making it as well as the more Compounded and Elaborate one did The same thing may in some Circumstances be further Illustrated by considering the Copy of some excellent Writing-Master for though there we may find some Leaves written in an Italian Hand others in a Secretary and in others Hands of other Denominations though one of these Patterns may be much Fairer and more Curious than another if they be compar'd together yet if we consider their equal Conformity to the respective Idea's of the Author and the suitableness to the Design he had of making each Copy not as Curious Sightly and Flourishing as he could but as Conformable to the true Idea of the sort of Hand he meant to exhibit and the Design he had to shew the Variety Number and Justness of his Skill by that of the Patterns he made Compleat in the respective Kinds we shall not think that any of them could have been better'd by him And if he should have made a Text-Hand as fair as a Roman-Hand by giving it more Beauty and Ornament he would not have made it better in its Kind but spoil'd it and by a Flourish of his Skill might have given a Proof of his want of Judgment But to return thither whence I began to make this Excursion perhaps Eleutherius you will object against the Examples I have produc'd before it that the Exceptions I have taken at some of the Proceedings of Nature may be as well urg'd against Providence and exclude the One as well as the Other from the Government of the World But to this I Answer that this Objection is Foreign to the Question which is about Mens Notion of Nature not God's Providence which if it were here my Task to Assert I should establish It upon Its proper and solid Grounds such as the Infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature which both engage and enable Him to Administer His Dominion over all things His being the Author and Supporter of the World The exquisite Contrivance of the Bodies of Animals which could not proceed but from a stupendious Wisdom The supernatural Revelations and Discoveries He has made of Himself and of His particular care of His Creatures by Prophecies Apparitions true Miracles and other ways that transcend the Power or overthrow or at least over-rule the Physical Laws of Motion in Matter By these I say and the like proper Means I would evince Divine Providence But being not now oblig'd to make an Attempt which deserves to be made very solemnly and not in such haste as I now write in I shall at present only observe to you that the Case is very differing between Providence and Nature and therefore there is no necessity that the Objections I have made against the Later should hold against the Former As to give you a few Instances of the Disparity in the first place it appears not nor is it likely that 't is the Design of Providence to hinder those Anomalies and Defects I have been mentioning Whereas 't is said to be the Duty and Design of Nature and Her only Task to keep the Universe in Order and procure in all the Bodies that compose it that things be carried on in the best and most regular way that may be for their Advantage Secondly Nature is confess'd to be a Thing inferior to God and so but a subordinate Agent and therefore cannot without disparagement to Her Power or Wisdom or Vigilancy suffer divers things to be done which may without Degradation to God be permitted by Him who is not only a self-existent and Independent Being but the Supream and Absolute Lord and if I may so speak the Proprietor of the whole Creation Whence both Melchizedec and Abram style Him Gen. xiv 19 23. not only the most High God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Koneh Possessing or as our Version has it Possessor of Heaven and Earth And Who when He made the World and established the Laws of Motion gave them to Matter not to Himself And so being obliged to none either as His Superior or Benefactor He was not bound to Make or Administer Corporeal Things after the best manner that He could for the good of the things themselves Among which those that are capable of Gratitude ought to Praise and Thank Him for having vouchsafed them so much as they have and have no Right to except against His having granted them no more And as being thus oblig'd to none of his Works He has a Sovereign Right to dispose of them so He has other Attributes which He may justly Exercise and both intend And expect to be Glorified for besides his Goodness to Inferior Creatures and His Wisdom may be better set off to Men and perhaps to Angels or Intelligences by the great Variety of His Contrivances in His Works than by making them all of the excellentest Kind As Shadows in Pictures and Discords in Musick skilfully Plac'd and Order'd do much recommend the Painter and the Musician Perhaps it may be added That the permitting the
some Definition or Description of Nature as Mine I hope you will be pleas'd to remember that the Design of this Paper was to examine the Vulgar Notion of Nature not propose a new one of my own And indeed the Ambiguity of the Word is so great and 't is even by Learned Men usually employ'd to signifie such different things that without enumerating distinguishing its various Acceptions 't were very unsafe to give a Definition of it if not impossible to deliver one that would not be liable to Censure I shall not therefore presume to Define a thing of which there is yet no settled and stated Notion agreed on among Men. And yet that I may as far as I dare comply with your couriosity I shall tell you that if I were to propose a Notion as less unfit than any I have met with to pass for the principal Notion of Nature with regard to which many Axioms and Expressions relating to that Word may be not inconveniently understood I should distinguish between the universal and the particular Nature of Things And of universal Nature the Notion I would offer should be some such as this That Nature is the Aggregate of the Bodies that make up the World framed as it is considered as a Principle by virtue whereof they Act and Suffer according to the Laws of Motion prescrib'd by the Author of Things Which Desrciption may be thus Paphras'd That Nature in general is The Result of the Vniversal Matter or Corporeal Substance of the Vniverse considered as it is contrived into the present Structure and Constitution of the World whereby all the Bodies that compose it are inabled to act upon and fitted to suffer from one another according to the setled Laws of Motion I expect that this Description will appear Prolix and require to be heedfully perus'd But the Intricateness and Importance of the Subject hindred me from making it shorter and made me chuse rather to presume upon your Attention that not endeavour to express my self intelligibly and warily about a Subject of such moment And this will make way for the other Subordinate Notion that is to attend the former Description Since the particular Nature of an Individual Body consists in the general Nature apply'd to a distinct portion of the Vniverse Or rather supposing it to be plac'd as it is in a World fram'd by God like Ours it consists in a Convention of the Mechanical affections such as Bigness Figure Order Scituation Contexture and Local Motion of its parts whether sensible or insensible convenient and sufficient to constitute in or to entitle to its particular Species or Denominations the particular Body they make up as the Concourse of all these is considered as the Principle of Motion Rest and Changes in that Body If you will have me give to these two Notions more compendious Expessions now that by what hath been said I presume you apprehend my Meaning I shall express what I call'd General Nature by Cosmical Mechanism that is a Comprisal of all the Mechanical Affections Figure Size Motion c. that belong to the matter of the great System of the Universe And to denote the Nature of this or that Particular Body I shall style it the Private the Particular or if you please the Individual Mechanism of That Body or for Brevity's sake barely the Mechanism of it that is the Essential Modification if I may so speak by which I mean the Comprisal of all its Mechanical Affections conven'd in the Particular Body consider'd as 't is determinately plac'd in a World so constituted as Ours is 'T is like you will think it strange that in this Description I should make the present Fabrick of the Vniverse a Part as it were of the Notion I frame of Nature though the generality of Philosophers as well as other Men speak of Her as a plastick Principle of all the Mundane Bodies as if they were Her Effects and therefore they usually call them the Works of Nature and the Changes that are observ'd in them the Phaenomena of Nature But for my part I confess I see no need to acknowledg any Architectonick Being besides God Antecedent to the first Formation of the World The Peripateticks whose School either devis'd or mainly propagated the Received Notion of Nature conceiving not only Matter but the World to be Eternal might look upon it as the Province but could not as the Work of Nature which in their Hypothesis is its Guardian without having been its Architect The Epicureans themselves that would refer all things that are done in the World to Nature cannot according to their Principles make what they now call Nature to have been Antecedent to the first Formation of our present World For according to their Hypothesis whilst their numberless Atoms wildly rov'd in their infinite Vacuity they had nothing belonging to them but Bigness Figure and Motion And 't was by the Coalition or Convention of these Atoms that the World had its Beginning So that according to them it was not Nature but Chance that Fram'd the World though afterwards this Original Fabrick of things does by virtue of its Structure and the innate and unloseable motive power of Atoms continue things in the same state for the main this course though casually fallen into continued without Design is that which according to their Hypothesis ought to pass for Nature And as meer Reason doth not oblige me to acknowledge such a Nature as we call in Question Antecedent to the Origin of the World so neither do I find that any Revelation contain'd in the Holy Scriptures clearly teaches that there was then such a Being For in the History of the Creation 't is expresly said that In the beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth and in the whole Account that Moses gives of the progress of it there is not a word of the Agency of Nature and at the later end when God is introduc'd as making a re-view of all the Parts of the Universe 't is said that God saw every thing that he had made and 't is soon after added that He blessed and sanctified the Seventh Day because in it or rather just before it as I find the Hebrew Particle elsewhere us'd He had rested from all his Works which God created and made And tho' there be a passage in the Book of Iob that probably enough argues the Angels there call'd the Sons of God to have existed either at the beginning of the first Day 's Work or some time before it yet 't is not there so much as intimated that they were Co-operators with their Maker in the Framing of the World of which they are represented as Spectators and Applauders but not so much as Instruments But since Revelation as much as I always reverence it is I confess a Foreign Principle in this Philosophical Enquiry I shall wave it here and tell you That when I consult only the Light of Reason I am
such a Vacuum as to common Air I have try'd that a Load-stone will emit his Effluvia and move Iron or Steel plac'd in It. In short it is not Evident that here below Nature so much strains Herself to hinder or fill up a Vacuum as to manifest an Abhorrence of It. And without much peculiar Solicitude a Vacuum at least a Philosophical One is as much provided against as the Welfare of the Universe requires by Gravity and Confluxibility of the Liquors and other Bodies that are placed here below And as for those that tell us that Nature abhors and prevents a Vacuum as well in the Upper Part of the World as the Lower I think we need not trouble ourselves to answer the Allegation till they have prov'd It. Which I think will be very hard for Them to do not to mention that a Cartesian may tell Them that 't were as needless for Nature to oppose a Vacuum in Heaven as in Earth since the Production of It is every where alike Impossible VI. I come now to the celebrated Saying that Natura est Morborum Medicatrix taken from Hippocrat who expresses it in the plural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And because this Axiom is generally Receiv'd among Physicians and Philosophers and seems to be one of the principal Things that has made them introduce such a Being as they call Nature I think it may be Time well employ'd to consider somewhat attentively in what Sense and how far this famous Sentence may or should not be admitted First then I conceive it may be taken in a Negative Sense so as to import that Diseases cannot be cur'd in such Persons in whom the Aggregate of the Vital Powers or Faculties of the Body is so far weaken'd or deprav'd as to be utterly unable to perform the Functions necessary to Life or at least to actuate and assist the Remedies employ'd by the Physitian to preserve or recover the Patient This I take to be the Meaning of such usual Phrases as that Physick comes too late and that Nature is quite spent And in this Sense I readily acknowledge the Axiom to be true For where the Engine has some necessary Parts whether Fluid or Solid so far deprav'd or weakn'd as to render it altogether unable to co-operate with the Medicine it cannot be rationally expected that the Administration of that Medicine should be effectual But in this I presume there is no Difficulty worthy to detain us I proceed therefore to the positive Sense whereof our Axiom is capable and wherein it is the most usually imploy'd For Men are wont to believe that there resides in the Body of a sick Person a certain Provident or Watchful Being that still industriously employs itself by its own Endeavours as well as by any occasional Assistence that may be afforded it by the Physitian to rectifie whatever is amiss and restore the distemper'd Body to its Pristine state of Health What I think of this Doctrine I shall leave you to gather from the following Discourse I conceive then in the first Place that the Wise and Beneficent Maker of the World and of Man intending that Men should for the most part live a considerable number of Years in a Condition to act their Parts on the Mundane Stage He was pleas'd to frame those Living Automata Human Bodies that with the ordinary succours of Reason making use of their exquisite Structure fitted for Durableness and of the friendly though undesign'd Assistence of the various Bodies among which they are plac'd they may in many Cases recover a State of Health if they chance to be put out of it by lesser Accidents than those that God in compliance with the great Ends of his General Providence did not think fit to secure them from or enable them to surmount Many things therefore that are commonly ascrib'd to Nature I think may be better ascrib'd to the Mechanisms of the Macrocosm and Microcosm I mean of the Universe and the Human Body And to illustrate a little my Meaning by a gross Example or two I desire you will consider with me a Sea-compass wherein the excited Magnetick Needle and the Box that holds It are duly pois'd by Means of a competent number of opposite Pivats For though if you give this Instrument a somewhat rude Shake you will make the Box totter and encline this way and that way and at the same time drive the Points of the Magnetick Needle many Degrees to the East or to the West yet the Construction of the Instrument and the Magnetism of one main Part of It are such that if the Force that first put it into a disorderly Motion cease from acting on It the Box will after some Reciprocations return to its Horizontal Situation and the Needle that was forc'd to deviate will after a few irregular Motions to this and to that side of the Magnetical Meridian settle itself again in a Position wherein the Flower-de-Luce stedfastly regards the North. And yet this recovery to its former State is effected in a factitious Body by the bare Mechanism of the Instrument itself and of the Earth and other Bodies within whose Sphere of Activity it is plac'd But because Many have not seen a Mariner's Compass I will add a less apposite but more obvious and familiar Example For if when an empty Ballance is duly counterpois'd you shall by your Breath or Hand depress one of the Scales and thereby for the time destroy the Aequilibrium yet when the Force is once remov'd the depress'd Ballance will presently ascend and the Opposite will descend and after a few Motions up and down they will both of them of their own accord settle again in an exact Aequilibrium without the help of any such Provident Internal Principle 〈◊〉 Nature The absence of whose Agency may be confirm'd by This that the depress'd Scale does not at first stop at the Horizontal Line beneath which it was first depress'd as it ought to do if it were rais'd by an Intelligent Being but rises far above It. If it be here objected that these Examples are drawn from Factitious not from merely Physical Bodies I shall return this brief Answer and desire that it be apply'd not only to the Two freshly mention'd Examples but to All of the like Kind that may be met with in this whole Treatise I say then in short that divers of the Instances we are speaking of are intended but for Illustrations and that Others may be useful Instances if they should be no more than Analogous Ones Since Examples drawn from Artificial Bodies and Things may have both the Advantage of being more clearly conceiv'd by ordinary Understandings and That of being less obnoxâ—â—s to be question'd in that Paâ—â—â—â—ar in which the Comparison or Correspondence consists And I the less scruple to employ such Examples because Aristotle himself and some of his more learned Followers make use of divers Comparisons drawn from the Figures and other Accidents of Artificial Things