interspersed in it and that fruitful Water which remained conjoined with it 4. That this Production was not by any formed antecedent Seed dispersed in it but immediately the Vegetable Individuals were antecedent to any Semina that might be productive of it and according to the true Method of Existence of Things in their first Origination the Herb and Tree were the Cause the Original of the Seed the Seed was not the Original of the Herb or Tree though in the secondary production by generation the Semen precedes the thing generated according to the Order settled after the first production of things which doth reasonably solve the Dispute of Plutarch Whether the Hen were before the Egg or the Egg before the Hen And as the Supposition that the first Principle in the Origination either of Vegetables or Sensitives to be ex praeexistente semine seems incongruous and unreasonable I mean as to perfect Vegetables or Animals so it is idle and needless For certainly the same Infinite Power that could form a Semen univocum to be the immediate Principle of an Animal or Vegetable in the primordial Origination of them could with equal facility form perfect Individuals of the several Species and endue them with a prolifick power of propagation of their kinds by seminal Principles decised from them and no lesser Power and Wisdom was required to mold up a specifical operative Semen than to frame the Individual or Species to be produced by it 5. The Supreme Power of the Great Efficient of Vegetables as well as Animals was seen in this in that it determined their Species which Matter alone nor any Universal Cause purely natural could never have done in respect of their universal common indeterminate Nature which could never fix nor settle in any determinate specifick production Therefore in that the Individuals of Vegetables Fish Fruits and Birds as well as Men were made after their kinds it ascertains us that this Origination of things was by a Wise Free Intelligent Being full of Power and Wisdom acting secundum intentionem electionem voluntatem 6. By virtue of this Divine Intention Ordination and Command these three things were settled touching Vegetable Natures which is also true concerning Animals as to the two latter of them at least 1. The Earth was endued with prolifick vital Energy whereby it was enabled with the vigorous assistance of the Fiery Nature included in it and accompanying it to put out many spontaneous productions of some ordinary Vegetables and probably of some Insects and to exhibit a succus nutritionis to support all kind of Vegetables and many Animals in their vital existence 2. The Individuals of Vegetables of all sorts as also of Animals Fishes Fowls Insects and Man were in a moment of time produced in their full and perfect complement laden with their Fruit and Seed without ruining the natural gradual process of Maturation which was to ensue in the course of future Generations and this could not be done either by force of any natural fecundity that was then in the Earth or the bare strength of the formed natural accommodation of Light or Heat for though it be true that the natural fecundity and heat of some Climates and also artificial fecundations of Matter may conduce much to the acceleration of Maturity yet it is hot imaginable that these could be ripened into the full growth and burden of Fruit in the period of a Day but by virtue of a supernatural Efficient and Power namely the Energy of the Divine Command Germinet terra c. 3. The third admirable Demonstration of the Immediateness of the Divine Power Wisdom and Ordination is this That Vegetables as also Animals and Mankind were endued with a Power Faculty and a certain Law fixed and radicated in them to transmit their specifical Nature to succeeding Individuals by propagation and seminal traduction whereby their Species might be preserved and this was done by force of the Divine Institution and Benediction the Vegetables were produced with their various Semina in them ready formed for their several specifical productions in their full and perfect stature quasi per saltum and endued with a prolifick power of multiplication of their kind by virtue of that Soveraign Institution and Commission Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth Gen. 1.22 28. 2. I come now to the Fourth Days Work Verse 14 15 16 And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser to rule the Night and he made the Stars also It is true what I before observed that first Matter of all things corporeal was made and this only was properly Creation or making out of nothing and all corporeal things that were made within the compass of the Six Days was Creation only per analogiam for it was only separation and distribution of that Matter which before existed in the Materia Chaotica or else an elevation or rectification of some parts of that Matter or a composition out of it or of some parts of it it was effectio or creatio secunda not creatio prima and though the Word Create be applied to some things that were thus effected as Vers 21. yet it is not purely creatio prima or ex nihilo but creatio secunda ex praeexistente materia Now What was the Matter of these Heavenly Bodies the Sun the Moon the Stars for in this Fourth Day all the Matter of the Chaos was before distributed into these four Simpler Natures Light or Fire Air or Aether Water and Earth The first Matter of these Heavenly Luminaries therefore was the common Chaotica materia but the Materia proxima out of which they seem to be constituted were principally those two great Natures which were separated from the Chaos the first day viz. The Fiery Nature imbodied in a suitable Vehicle and the second day the Aether or Aery part these two great Integrals of the first Universe were far greater than all the rest of the Chaotick Matter and therefore might very well subminister the principal and predominant Matter for those great and vast Luminaries the fixed Stars the most whereof are far greater than the Globe of Earth and Water But to the Constitution of the Planetary Bodies which seem to be more gross than the Stars there was a greater proportion of more gross and feculent Matter added to the Fiery and Aerial Particles in their coagulation though in some of them more in some less according to the various degrees of subtilty and grosness of their constitution And these goodly Bodies being formed and molded it should seem that that great and mighty flaming Light which was made or produced the first day and for the two ensuing days had rolled about the rest of the Chaotick Mass was by the Glorious God distributed into those several Heavenly Vessels of the Sun and Stars who succeeded unto and as it were inherited that primitive Light now divided among them according to their several measures
the instituted nature of Corporeal Beings he did observe the same method or order still in the Generation of things Wherein we may observe that the greater and more comprehensive Rudiments and Stamina are laid and in some good measure formed before the lesser and derivative parts are formed and compleated as we shall have occasion to observe when we come to consider the processus generationis of Man and Brutes And now to come to those greater Productions which are principally these the Light the Aether the Air the Water the Earth First therefore touching the Light Vers 3. And God said let there be light and there was light and God divided the light from the darkness and the light he called day and the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day Herein it might be fit to examin 1. What this Light was 2. How it was produced 3. How it was disposed or ordered 4. In what order and character of time it was so produced and ordered Touching these briefly and first touching the nature of this Light We may observe in Fire two great operations or effects first Heat secondly Light It should seem that active Element as it is commonly called or rather that powerful vigorous Entity or Vis ignea lucida calefactiva was produced by the Incubation of the Spirit of God upon the face of the Abyss and diffused through the confused Particles of the Materia Chaotica and that it was the great Instrument which that Spirit did both communicate and use for the preparation digestion and agitation of that Matter but this fiery nature being mingled and dispersed through the Matter though it had one of its useful effects namely Heat yet it neither had nor could have Light at least till it were in some measure disintangled and severed from the Moles of gross Matter with which it was confounded and mingled and till the lucid and flammeous particles or rather Vis ignea lucida were lodged in a fit Vehicle for its emission So that in the work of this day Light was not created but only a considerable part thereof separated from the grosser Matter and disposed into an apt Vehicle to contain it 2. And this answers partly the second Inquiry namely How it was produced not as it seems by Creation but the powerful Fiat of Almighty God called the Light out of Darkness that is separated and severed the most lucid fiery nature and invested them with fit Vehicles desumed out of the Materia Chaotica whereby great part of that flammeous and lucid fiery nature which was created by the Incubation of the Spirit of God was in a great measure discharged from the bond and incumbrance of the grosser Matter and rendred useful for the beauty and service of the Universe but yet so that there remained still in the parts of the Moles a sufficient stock of connatural Fire and fiery Particles for the heating agitating and digesting of their several parts for their several uses and ends As to the Third it should seem that 1. This luminous nature was lodged in a suitable Vehicle to derive its Light and Influence to the exteriour Superficies of this Moles Chaotica 2. That it was put into a circular Motion whereby in the space of a Natural Day it visited the whole Expansum by successive rotation so that as by its presence in any part of the Chaotical Horizon it made Day so by its absence there-from it caused Night as the Sun doth at this day And this diurnal Rotation of this luminous Body was really such because there could not be otherwise that which the Text supposeth viz. separation of the Light from the Darkness and thereby the distribution of Day and Night so it was convenient for the better digestion and preparation of the remaining indigested parts of Nature For doubtless that Light was of a very great and penetrating Influence being as it were the Flos and Elixir of that most active and powerful Element 4. The Time and Order wherein this production of Light was is said to be the first Day what portion of duration the disorderly Chaos had before this first production is utterly uncertain because not revealed possibly it might be a very long time but the perfecting of the World in its formal order and constitutum seems to be in the compass of six Natural Days and the first Days Work is this of Light And although we must finally resolve the ordering and methodizing of all things to the Divinum beneplacitum whose Wisdom and Ways are unsearchable and past finding out farther than he is pleased to reveal them yet it should seem to be very consonant to the reason of things that this eduction and circulation of the Light should begin and be continued at least for the first three Days of the World without parcelling or distributing into those Luminaries of the Sun and Stars For doubtless the collection of this lucid fiery active nature into so great a Body as probably it was had even naturally a most forcible energy influence and penetration into the subjected Chaos and strangely prepared it for its ensuing offices and uses Although we must ever with all humility acknowledge that the Great and Omnipotent God needed not the subsidiary Instrumentalities of Nature to compleat his Work but could do all things immediately as he did most evidently in many of the productions of Nature yet if he were pleased to use this order in things we have reason to believe that though he needed it not yet when we see it done it was certainly so done with most exquisite Wisdom and Reason He could in the first moment have produced the whole World compleat in all particulars but he chose not so to do but did things in a successive order of six Days and in such a Method as was most agreeable to his good pleasure and infinite Wisdom What became of this Fiery Luminous Nature and Body we shall see in the fourth Days Work 2. The Second great Integral seems to be that great and vast Body consisting of the Air and Aether called the Firmament Vers 6. And God said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water and God made the firmament and divided the waters which are above the firmament from the waters that are under the firmament and it was so and God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day This word that is translated in our English Firmament is rendred by Linguists understanding the propriety of the word to be Expansum or Expansio and much controversie hath been what is meant by the Waters above the Heavens some supposing a real existence of Waters above the Starry Heavens to cool the heat contracted by them or their rapid motion others conjecturing it to be the Clouds which are above the middle region of the Air both improbable enough the former a meer imagination the latter little more for at
World especially in the Work of the third day was the dividing of the Earth and Waters Vers 9. And God said Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas The Divine Historian herein brings us to the Formation of this lower Globe of Water and Earth and the distinction thereof This portion of the lower World seems to be the whole residue of the visible Chaotical Mass which by the former Rectification was reduced to a small portion like the Caput mortuum after Distillation for out of it had been before drawn those two mighty and large portions of Matter namely the Fiery and Flammeous and Lucid Nature imbodied in a Vehicle sufficient to contain and receive it in the Work of the first day and secondly the Expansum the vast Body of the Air and Aether in the Work of the second Day So that this Elementary portion of Earth and Water seems to be as it were the sediment and relique of the Massa Chaotica And those other two vast Extractions being drawn from it it seems this lower Region of Nature consisting of an aggregation of Water and Earth by the Divine Disposition of things either immediately or partly by the instrumentality either of the ambient Fire or by the implanted tendency of the grosser Particles to one common Center of this residue of a Chaotick Mass the gross Terrestrial parts subsided into the middle of the Water and though it was in bulk far greater than the Water yet it had there two concomitants with it 1. The Water by reason of its fluidity and penetration mingled it self as far as it could at least with the superficies of the Terrestrial Sediment to some considerable depth into it so far as it could pierce until it were excluded by the denser coagulation of the Earth 2. The Water did encompass the whole Terrestrial Globe to some proportionable depth or thickness though not equal to the quantity of the Earth So that as the circular Scales of a Pearl incompass one another so did the several extâ—racted great Integrals cover one another The first extracted Nature was the Light the Fiery or Luminous Body which must needs be uppermost because first drawn off from the Chaotick Mass The second the Aether and Air drawn off encompassing the remaining part of the Chaotick Mass The third the Watry Consistence left in a circular subsistence by the subsiding of the Ball of Earth into the common Center of the Universe And by this means the Earth was not at all conspicuous but involved in an involucrum of Water so that it must necessarily be 1. That hereby the whole Superficies of the Earth was covered with Water 2. That the upper part of it must needs be a moist muddy substance fluid and lubricous like Slime or Mud. The appearance therefore of the dry Land was by the excavation of certain Sinus and Tracts of the Earth and exaggerating or lifting up other parts of the Terrestrial Matter and by this means the Water subsided into those Caverns and Valleys prepared for its reception Whether this excavation of the Terrestrial Body or elevation of other parts thereof whereby the Water subsided were immediately by the immediate Power of God or whether he did it by the instrumentality of the Water working room for it self in the more soft and penetrable part of the Earth and exaggerating and raising Islands and Continents in other parts by such exaggeration as we see is done at this day by the Ocean producing Islands and enlarging Continents Or whether by the instrumentality of the Fire either subterraneous or ambient raising up the Earth or what other immediate way it was done most certainly it was done by the Will Direction and Regiment of the Divine Wisdom and Power so that it is truly said Job 38.10 He brake up for it its decreed place Prov. 8.28 He gave the sea its decree that the waters should not pass his commandment Hitherto the Divine History hath given us an account 1. Of the Materia prima of all Corporeal Beings the Massa Chaotica 2. The Materia proxima or secunda of all other Corporeal Beings being the simple Elements and the next Matter of all Mixtions or Composition 3. The Natura ignea calefactive lucid and penetrating the Elementary Matter 4. The Natura aetherea and aerea the Expansum 5. The Natura aquea or the Water 6. The Natura terrestris or the Earth And then he proceeds to those mixed or compounded Natures drawn out of those or some of those simpler Existences the Furniture of the Earth and Heaven I shall therefore now proceed to his Description of the Production of Mixt Natures and Vegetables in part of the third day Celestial Bodies in the fourth day Fish and Fowls in the fifth day Brutes and Man in the sixth day 1. Therefore touching the production of Vegetables Vers 11. And God said Let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so Here we have the beginning of the Vegetable Nature and mark what I say concerning this will be applicable with some variation to the Brutes and Fish We have three sorts of Vegetables here described 1. Some that seem to be of the lowest rank and such as we do find oftentimes sponte orta the Grass 2. Those Herbs that are of a more perfect nature which as they bear Seed so they do not usually arise but by it 3. Trees bearing Fruit and Seed being the nobler sort of Trees but this includes all kind of Vegetables as well Trees that bear not Fruit or Seed as those which do In the production of these Vegetables these things are observable 1. The Supreme Efficient the Word of Command of the Divine Will was that which was the Supreme productive Efficient 2. The subordinate Instrument germinet terra wherein we have these two great Truths delivered 1. That the Earth yielded the Matter of Vegetables 2. That the Earth was now impregnated to be an active Instrument to this production and concurred therein at least instrumentally with the Supreme Efficient and that Activity that was in the Earth did not arise meerly from the Matter for that in the beginning was purely passive but 1. by the Fecundating Principle the Spirit of God moving upon the Face of the Chaotick Matter 2. by the powerful Energy of the Fiery and Luminous Principle that partly resided in the Earth partly incompassed it 3. but principally by the Efficacy of the Word of the Divine Command which was no other but the determination of His Efficacious Will 3. But though the more solid Matter of these Vegetable Productions was the Earth yet it was the Earth conjoined with that vigorous Fire which was mingled with that active Air or Aether that was
and uses For although the Almighty Wisdom and Power could have made all this Fabrick of the World in its full complement and perfection in one moment and although he produced and perfected Vegetables Brutes and Man in one moment without the gradual procedures through those several stations and degrees which Nature now observeth and so he could have done in the production of all other the Integrals of the Universe yet he seems in some parts of this Processus formativus of the Universe to use sometimes such Methods Means and Instruments and such Times Periods and Orders as might seem to bear in some measure a congruity to a Natural Procedure thus he used that Motion or Agitation of the Spirit for the ripening and influencing of the vast Mass he first begins with the production of those more simple constituent Particles of Matter which might yield Matter suited and prepared to Mixt Natures And it is not unreasonable for us to think that this great flaming Light in the first three days of the Creation was used as a most suitable Instrument for the Rarefaction Digestion Separation and Distribution of the remaining part of the Chaotical Matter in those greater Agitations that it had in the production of the Aether the separation of the Water and the arefaction of the Earth which Processes required a more severe and violent active Instrument than was necessary or indeed suitable to those smaller Mutations which were after made and probably if that piercing and great Lucid Nature had continued its Revolutions about the World it would have been too strong and violent either to the production or conservation of those Animals and Mankind that were now to be produced And so the diffused Light that circulated about the Universe is now this fourth day distributed into these several Heavenly Bodies 1. Because now its use in that former state and method of its existence ceased 2. It was now for the use of the Universe to have it distributed and ordered into those several Vessels the Sun and Stars that might with a gentler and better regulated Heat and Motion influence the World 3. It was now more for the Beauty Order and Ornament of the Universe for the Glory and Honour of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness to distribute this Light into several Vessels and according to various measures and proportions and accommodated with several Motions than to keep it in one vast and terrible Body circulating the Universe which unrefracted might have been too penetrating and violent to the other parts of Nature And this seems to be the Method of the Origination of the Heavenly Bodies For though the firt Verse tells us that In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth we have no reason to suppose that the Etherial Bodies and the Heavenly Luminaries were completed in the moment of Time whatever may be conjectured touching the Coelum Empyraeum for it is evident that Light the first-born of the Universe was not made till the first day the Expansum or Aether till the second day nor the Heavenly Host the Planetary and Fixed Stars till the fourth day I shall not here contend much touching the System of the Universe whether the Earth be the Center thereof or the Sun whether it consist of so many several Systems or Vortices whether every Fixed Star hath its Vortex and the Sun the Center of the Planetary Vortex only thus much I shall say 1. That this Diving Hypothesis delivered to us by the hand of Moses seems wholly to contradict the Supposition of Solid Orbs and strongly concludes that the Heavenly Bodies are moved in liquido Aethere 2. It seems rather to countenance that System of the Universe that supposeth the Earth to be the common Center thereof than 〈◊〉 the imaginary Hypothesis of Copernicus Galileus Kepler or Des Cartes 3. That it utterly contradicts the Hypothesis of Aristotle and Ocellus and the Pythagoreans touching the Eternity of the World or of the Heavens and likewise the Fiction of Democritus and Epicurus of the casual Coalition of the Universe by the motion or interfering of Atoms 3. I come to consider of the Fifth Days Work touching the production of Fish and Fowls Vers 20. And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven and God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after its kind and God saw that it was good The great Engin of the Heavenly Bodies being now constituted in that excellent state and order for the use and conservation of animal Life God Almighty proceedeth in a most exquisite order for the production of Animals and because the Waters were in themselves a more ductile and possibly a more fertil Body than the Earth and also because caeteris paribus the Fowls and Fishes are not of an equal perfection in their natures to the Brutes or Terrestrial Animals for these have certainly a more digested constitution greater variety and curiosity in their bodily texture and a higher Spirit and Soul of nobler Instincts and more capable of Discipline than the Fowl or Fishes Therefore as the production of Vegetables anteceded the production of Animals so the production of Animals aquatil and volatil preceded the production of terrestrial Animals What may else be said in relation to this Days Work I shall deliver in the Consideration of the next first Part of the sixth Days Work Therefore 4. The first Part of the sixth Days Work comprized the production of Terrestrial Animals Vers 24. And God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and cattel and every creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind and it was so The Reasons why Terrestrial Animals had their production after the Fowls and Fishes have been partly before intimated and shall be here somewhat farther considered And they are these 1. Although Almighty God be not bound or straitned in his Operation to the sequaciousness of the Matter yet it is not improper for us to suppose that he may pursue the Laws of his own making where it consists with his design and intention The production of Vegetables by the Earth was indeed earlier but then the energy of his Instrument the Light perchance was stronger than after the distribution thereof into the Receptacles of the Heavenly Luminaries 2. Ad plurimum the nature of Terrestrial Animals was a more refined nature than that of Fowls and Fishes and therefore as the Matter might reasonably expect a longer mora for its Concoction so the Method of Creation caeteris paribus proceeded from the less elaborate Integrals of Mixt Bodies to the more elaborate concluding with Man And this preference of the Brutes above Fowls and Fishes appears 1. In the manner of their natural procreation the Brutes being ad plurimum vivipara the
at least highly prepared for the spontaneous production of Insects and Vegetables of some kinds and the benevolent Heat of the Sun hath a great influence thereupon to be the Instrument of Almighty God in these Productions but it is his Sovereign Institution that committed to the Sun the Earth and the Waters and their Particles to produce some insect Animals and therefore they produce them as Worms Flies Frogs but he hath not concredited or committed to them that primitive Productive Power of perfect Animals nay not of some noble Vegetables fine praeexistente semine univoco Thus we have considered the History of the Worlds production and the reasonableness thereof Now to the production of Terrestrial Animals for of the Creation of Man I shall speak in the next Chapter It is true that there are two sorts of natural Integrals whose History is here omitted and yet that omission not without great reason because it seems their production was in a manner accidental and spontaneous depending upon the various mixture of Materials formerly created namely Meteors and Minerals the former consummated in the Aery Region by the apposition and mixture of divers Excretions and Exhalations of the other parts of Nature for we neither find nor have any cause to look for Clouds Comets or Meteors in the compass of the first six Days The latter seem to be Concretions and Digestions in the Bowels of the Earth either altogether or for the most part begun and perfected after the Six Days Work by the energy of the external and Celestial and internal and connatural Fire and Heat Some Jews and Cabalists there have been that have supposed those six Days to be of different length and extent from these Natural we are acquainted with and that those six Days especially the three first and three last thereof differed exceedingly one from another and that as the three last were of a far greater length and extension than our ordinary day or night so the three former were exceedingly larger than the three latter of the six and the computation of the whole by Six Days was only by a kind of Analogical Expression to give Mankind a distinction of the Order of Production and they suppose 1. That the Divine Author by this distribution of Days did not intend any determinate portion of Time much less days or times conformable to the length of our days but certain Mysterious Numbers of Times and therefore Philo Judaeus in his first Book Allegoriarum Legis tells us Rusticanae simplicitatis est putare sex diebus aut aliquo certo tempore mundum conditum complevit sexto die opera intelligere non debes de diebus aliquot sed de senario perfecto numero and then takes a great deal of pains in illustrating the Mystery of that Number 2. Because they would willingly introduce a kind of natural production of things according to a natural method and gradual and successive procedure without the Supposition of an immediate concurrence or interposition of a Supernatural Influx or Causation and therefore because the separation of Light the first Days Work naturally required a great time as also the rarefaction and separation of the Expansum the separation of the Bodies of Earth and Water and likewise the maturation and production of Vegetables out of it might require a longer time than some of the subsequent days Works therefore the three first days were much longer than those that follow And again since each of these great Works attributed to the three latter days were great Works required great digestion and separation and maturation of the Matter for the Heavenly Bodies as also for the maturation of living Animals and their production that even those days might be conceived of a dimension or computation much larger than our Days and possibly than our Months or Years or Ages But these seem to be vain Conjectures introduced meerly to exclude an intermixture of a supernatural concurrence in the speedy production and formation of things and not warranted by the Holy History but contradicting it For we have no reason to imagin that the sixth day was of any other dimension than the seventh day wherein God Almighty rested nor the fifth any longer than the sixth neither was it at all necessary the days should be protracted to that length of time for two Reasons 1. Because if we should be so vain as to suppose a long process somewhat sutable to what we now see in Nature for the separation disposition and production of the Six Days Work yet certainly there was a time intervening between the first Creation of the Materia Chaotica and the very inception of its complement into that Order that the Six Days Work exhibit to us and although that time is not determinately set down yet we may justly think it a long time And again in that long interval there was a powerful Agent subacting disposing and influencing the Massa Chaotica expressed by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the Waters whereby if it were necessary to have such a preparatory process towards the formation of the World antecedent to such formation it was not wanting here and every Particle might thereby be so ripened and prepared that they might successively give their apparences in those portions of time wherein they are ranged by the Sacred History 2. Although in the Creation of the World and the Integrals thereof Almighty God seemed something to conform to the reasonable Order of Causes sutable or congruous to Effects and did not put forth such an immediate Activity in the Production of things as he did in their first Creation this being done in an instant that successively gradually and yet per moram Yet he was not bound to observe all the Ceremonies and Formalities of Natural Effects neither did he but by his own immediate Power gave a greater expedition to the first production of things than that which he instituted for the standing fixed and ordinary Method of future production and maturation of things to be generated after their first Origination And as it was impossible without the apposition of a Supernatural Being and Causation that the Matter of things should be created out of nothing or being so created could without the Operation of a Supernatural Intelligent Being raise it self up to the admirable Fabrick wherein it was finally perfected so it is not reasonable to deny to such a Supreme Supernatural and Infinite Power an effectual maturation and compleating of things in those portions and orders of times that best pleased him and which his Wisdom judged most agreeable to his Works and Ends. We find every Command of the Divine Will in the Creation of things answered by an immediate obsequium in the created Matter If He say Let there be Light Let the Waters be gathered into one place Let the Earth bring forth c. the obsequious Matter presently answered the Command with a Fuit ita It was so Not as if there were any
The admirable accommodation of Faculties with subministring Faculties and Organs subservient appropriate and convenient for their exercise For Instance Local Motion is necessary to Mankind and accordingly he is furnished with Animal Spirit Nerves Muscles Tendons and Limbs admirably contrived and destined and fitted to Local Motion The Intellective Faculty is furnished with the organical Fabrick of the Brain and the subordinate Power of Sense Phantasie and Memory to assist it in its exercise while it is in the Body Facultati generativae prolisicae subministrans facultas seminificationis ac organa eidem deservientia appetitus naturalis voluptas quaedam alliciens organa generationi dicata distinctio sexuum sine qua juxta legem in natura post primam humanae naturae formationem insitam hujusmodi speciei propagatio fieri nequivit The Digestive Faculty furnishing the Blood the Blood increasing the Body and supplying the Treasuries of the Spirits the Spirits again supplying and maintaining the Offices of the Faculties So that not only the Blood but the whole Corporeal and Animal Nature is in continued motion and mutual subserviency I might be endless in this Contemplation but because it is evident to any Man that considers and I design a larger discussion of this Business when I come to consider the Parts and Faculties of the Humane Nature I shall not give farther Instances therein And the Use that I make of it is this That although it might be supposed possible that either Chance or Nature might in some simple narrow things produce very curious Appearances as the Configurations of Asterites of Crystals of Salts in their several shapes yet when in such a complicated Nature as Man is consisting of so many various Parts various in their position nature and use there shall be found such an exact adaptation of every thing one to another as to serve the whole and every part this in the primordial Constitution and Formation must needs be the Work of a most wise intelligent powerful Being that operates secundùm intentionem appropriationem intelligentiam 2. Let us come then to those Appendices and relative Respects of other things to the Humane Nature we shall easily find in it this Consideration also the Footsteps and Evidences of an Intelligent Nature in the Constitution of him by that admirable accommodation of things without him of different nature from him to his use and convenience In the Operations or Works of Intelligent Agents we may easily see that according to the degree or perfection of such Intelligence there is variety in their Work or Production An Intelligent Agent that is but of a narrow Intelligence as his Prospect is commonly short and weak so his Work seldom attains more than a narrow and single End But if the Agent be of a large and comprehensive Intelligence and Wisdom his ends are great and most times various and complicated and the same Operation or Work may have divers many 〈◊〉 Ends and Uses Almighty God therefore being of infinite Wisdom and Power foresees and effects great and various Ends in one and the same Work or Operation Take for Instance that goodly Creature the Sun What a complication of excellent Ends and Uses there are in that glorious Body It is the Fountain communicating Light to the Earth the Air and all the Planetary Bodies it is that which derives Heat and is the great Instrument of deriving Fruitfulness and Fertility to the inferior World it distinguisheth Times and Seasons by its Motion it raiseth and digesteth and distributeth the Watry Meteors for the benefit of this inferior World and infinite more advantages of this kind And therefore it is the narrowness of our Understanding that when we see one excellent End or Usefulness in any thing to conclude that God Almighty intended no other And therefore it is too hasty and vain a Conclusion to think that the glorious Bodies of the Celestial Host were made meerly for the service of Man and it is also folly and presumption to conclude that even the things of this inferior World though principally designed for the use of Man were meerly and only destined for the service of Man Almighty God hath the Glory of his own Greatness and the Communication of his own Goodness as the great End of all his Works Yea and we have reason to think that even in these inferior Beings of this lower World which are delivered over to the use and service of Men God Almighty had other Ends that possibly we know not nay possibly in the Effection of the least minute Animal Almighty God intended a Communication of so much of his Goodness and Beneficence to it as might give it a kind of complacency and fruition suitable to the capacity of its Existence though subordinate to other Ends. And yet not only in these inferior Existences of this lower World but even in the Fabrick Order and Oeconomy of the superior World there is to be found an admirable accommodation of them one to another and to this Steward and Tenant of Almighty God of this inferior World called Man 1. If we look upon the Celestial World we have an admirable accommodation thereof to the convenience of Mankind it presents to his View and thereby to his Understanding the most noble Spectacle of the Celestial Bodies their Order Beauty Constancy Motion Light conducting to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God it gives him an account of the progress and parts and succession of Time these are advantages that no Irrational Nature can make use of But the Influence of the Heavens are a common Benefit to Man and all Sublunary Natures but yet the inferior World seems in a great measure directed for the benefit of Mankind some in common to him and the Brutes as the Air for Respiration the Fire for Warmth the Water for Drink the Earth for Fruit and Habitation But in this lower World there seems many things directed to the special use of Mankind for besides Domestick Animals especially allowed for his Food there are some that serve for his Employment Motion Exercise and Food as the Tillage and Planting of the Earth for his Food some for his Medicine as Herbs and Gums and Minerals some for his Clothing as the Furrs Wool and Skins of Beasts some for his Habitation as the Timber and Stone some for his Fewel as Wood Coals and Turf some for his Defence and Manufacture as Iron and Steel some for Commerce as the Metals of Silver Gold Copper the very Situation of the Seas the Magnes some for his Ornament as Silk and Jewels some for his Journey and Labour as Horses Oxen Camels some for his Necessity some for his Delight Infinite more Instances may be given whereby it will evidently appear that this lower World is accommodated to the use and convenience of Mankind in a special and remarkable manner whereby it may be evident to any considerate Man that the Formation of the World and
Fish playing and Birds of several kinds some flying some swimming some perching yea various Flies and Worms and Insects and all contribute to the beauty and ornament and variety of the entire piece though each hath a particular beauty of its own So in this great and glorious Frame of the Universe not only the Celestial Bodies but all the Animals and Vegetables even to the least Fly or Worm or Flower or Herb contribute to the beauty glory ornament and variety of the whole and make up one common demonstration of the admirable Wisdom of that great God that made it valde bonum And certainly under this Consideration it is apparently evident that Man contributes no small portion of beauty and ornament to this goodly Frame of the Universe For if we should suppose that all the Integrals of the inferior World were as now they are only destitute of the Creature called Man it would soon appear that it wanted much of that beauty and comeliness and perfection which it now hath by the accession of this excellent Integral of the Universe which though it hath its residence in the lower region thereof yet in the common compute and estimate of the whole it contributes to its beauty and integrity The second Accommodation of every thing is to some other part or parts of the Universe and this though it may be single or a respect only between some one single part and some other single part of Nature yet for the most part we shall find every thing in Nature hath an accommodation unto very many other things the Wisdom of Almighty God being multifaria sapientia hath admirably evidenced it self in giving almost every thing in its nature a complexed and complicated accommodation to various other things of differing kinds and natures This is more eminently conspicuous in the Heavenly Bodies for Instance the Sun is accommodated to the use and convenience of the Planetary Bodies and of this inferior World and of every part thereof by his Position by his Light by his Heat by his Motion it procures Generation for the replenishing of the Earth raiseth Clouds and Vapours to irrigate and water it it occasioneth Winds to move and communicate those Irrigations it gives variety of Seasons measures of Times and infinite more accommodations to other things If we come lower to the Elementary World the Air is accommodated as a fit medium for the derivation of Light and Influence from the Celestial Bodies it is the vehicle of the Meteors the means of Respiration the food and life of the vital and animal Spirits and many the like accommodations If we consider of Animals we shall find admirable accommodations in them one to another and especially to Man the Horse high-spirited yet very docible fitted for swiftness carriage and agility by the make of his Body his Neck his Mouth his Back his Hoof the Ox patient painful strong fitted for draught the Camel fitted for strength and a natural Saddle for Burthen the Cow for yielding Milk the Sheep for Cloathing the Beasts and Birds of greatest use being most commonly made tame and affecting a spontaneous subjection to Man among the Vegetables some are for Food some for Medicines some for Smell some for Tast nay that seemingly most abject part of Nature the Insects even the worst as well as the best of them have their accommodation to other things some for Food to the more perfect Animals as Flies Worms c. some for Medicines both for Men and Animals nay the very venemous Insects are accommodated to the salubrity of the Earth and Waters collecting the unwholsom Juyce of either into their own consistency and many that are poisonous and hurtful yet carry with them Antidotes and Remedies as Vipers Scorpions and divers others Although in the lower World there are various accommodations of things one to another yet the chief and ultimate accommodation of things seems principally to terminate in Man The Grass of the Field is accommodate to the use of Animals for their food and so are the Insects for the food of Fish and Fowl but these in their last particular accommodation are for the food or other use of Man On the other side Man is accommodate to the convenience and use of the Vegetables and Animals but not in a way of Subservience or Service but in a way of Regiment Order Empire and Protection which he is enabled to exercise over the Creatures of greater strength and bodily force by the advantage of his Faculties wherein he exceeds them Thus he is accommodate to the Vegetable Nature by Planting and Husbandry to the Animal Nature by subduing the unruly and hurtful by the disciplining and managing the docible by protecting the domestick by providing for their wants The accommodation of Brutes to Men is an accommodation of an Inferior to a Superior the accommodation of Man to Brutes is an accommodation of a Superior to an Inferior an accommodation of Regiment and Protection The third sort of Accommodation is of every thing unto it self either in relation to its proper Species by propagation of its kind or in relation to its individual nature which is that which I principally mean to speak of We may observe at least in every Animal 1. An accommodation of Faculties suitable to his nature use and convenience which are principally these Cogitation Sensation Phantasie or Imagination Appetite and power to Move it self though in various degrees of perfection 2. That all these Faculties are terminated in a sensitive Life or Life of Sense and go no farther 3. That all those Faculties are exactly fitted with Organs proportionate to their Faculties and the specifical perfection of them the Organs subservient to the Faculties of the meanest Insect are as exquisitly accommodated and fitted thereunto as the Organs of a Horse or an Elephant are accommodate to the specifical Faculties of that Animal 4. That the wise God hath proportioned Objects of the Appetites of every Animal exactly suitable to those Appetites and a connatural prosecution and dexterity in the assecution of them so that no natural Desire or Appetite is in vain or notional only but really fitted and accommodated with an Object proportionable to it 5. That every Animal hath its highest complacency and contentment in the attainment of the suitable Object of its Appetite and this is its commensurate Happiness the Fox or the Lion or the Otter hath no greater dexterity in the getting of his Prey nor greater contentation in his acquest than the Bee hath in getting Honey or the Spider in catching his Fly These things being thus premised we have therein generally included the natural Method whereby we may by the Light of Nature search out the true and special End for which we have reason to believe the great and wise Efficient made Man It is true that some things Man hath in common with the rest of created visible Beings as that he is a corporeal Being hath Life and Sensation and is a
instituted and statuminated Nature is his Law and his Institution and the connexion of natural Effects to their natural Causes is his Institution his Law his Order And therefore we do neither deny a Law of Nature or a connexion between natural Causes and Effects but that which we justly blame in these Men that pretend themselves to be the great Priests of Nature and admirers and adorers of it is 1. That they do not sufficiently consider and observe that this which they and we call Nature and the Law of Nature and the Power of Nature is no other but the wise instituted Law of the most wise powerful and intelligent Being as really and truly as an Edict of Trajan or Justinian was a Law of Trajan or Justinian Sic parvis magna and 2. That they do not warily distinguish between that first Law in rebus constituendis and this second Law of Nature in rebus constitutis but inconsiderately misapply that Law and Rule and Method which is ordinary and regular constituted and fitted and accommodate to Nature already setled as if the same were and ought to be necessarily the Rule and Law in the first formation and setling of things which is an Errour that proceeds from the over-much fixing of our Minds to that which in the present course of things is obvious to Sense and not adverting that the first Constitution and Order of things is not in Reason or Nature manageable by such a Law which is most excellently adequated and proportioned to things fully setled Therefore besides that Law which the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness hath fixed in Nature fully statuminated we must also suppose a Law and Order of the Divine Wisdom not rigorously bound either to second Causes or present stated Methods in the first production of things And this the due Consideration of the different nature of the state of things in fieri and in facto esse will easily perswade that the most wise God that hath established a fixed regular ordinary Law in things already setled which he rarely departs from yet used another kind of order namely the regiment of his own Will and Wisdom and if I may with humility speak it a dictatorian power more accommodate to the first production of things And thus much for the comparison between the Mosaical and Philosophical Theories touching things and the great advantage and preference of the former as most suitable to the true nature state and reason of things And now I draw towards a conclusion of this long Discourse and shall therefore in the last place give an account of those Consectaries Consequences and Corollaries which are evidently deducible from this Consideration of the Origination of Mankind by the immediate Efficiency of this Supreme Intelligent Being Almighty God and indeed principally for the sake of these Consequences and Corollaries hath all been written that precedes in this Book and it is the Scope End and Use of the whole Book which I shall absolve in the next Chapter CAP. VII A Collection of certain evident and profitable Consequences from this Consideration That the first Individuals of Humane Nature had their Original from a Great Powerful Wise Intelligent Being I Now come to that upon which I had my Eye from the first Line that was written touching this Subject namely the Consequences and Illations that arise from this great Truth contained in these Conclusions 1. That Mankind had an Original of his Being ex non genitis 2. That this Origination of Mankind was neither casual nor meerly natural 3. That the Efficient of Man's Origination was and is an Intelligent Efficient of an incomparable Wisdom and Power First therefore we have here a most evident sensible and clear conviction of a Deity and a confirmation of Natural Religion which consists principally in the acknowledging of Almighty God to be a most perfect Eternal Being of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power and a due habitude of Mind Life and Practice arising from that Principle It hath been commonly observed that the particular or instituted Religions since the Creation have had their Proofs by Miracles which were as it were the Credentials to subdue the Minds of Men to assent to it Thus the instituted Religion of the Jews given by the hand of Moses was confirmed by the great Miracles done by God by the hand of Moses in Egypt and in the Wilderness and the Christian Religion had its Confirmation by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles who did wonderful things beyond the reach and power of created Agents or Activities which were therefore Miracles such as were governing of the Winds and Seas healing of the Sick by a touch or word raising the Dead c. But it is farther said That Almighty God never used Miracles to evidence the truth of his own Existence Power Wisdom Goodness or for the establishing of Natural Religion or the confuting of Atheism But I take it that there are really as many Miracles for the evincing of the truth of Natural Religion viz. the Existing of Almighty God as there are Works in Nature For although it be a great truth that the Laws of Nature as the Positions of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies their Motion Light Influence Regularity Position propagation of Vegetables Animals Men and the whole Oeconomy of the Universe is by the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness setled in a regular course so that now we call things Natural and Works and Laws and Order of Nature and being so setled and fixed cease to be Miracles yet in their first Institution and Constitution they were all or many Miracles Works exceeding the activity of any created or natural power and accordingly ought to be valued and really are so and it is nothing else but their commonness and our inadvertence and gross negligence that hinders the actual estimate of them as great and wonderful Miracles As I have often said if at this moment all the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies should cease or there should be a general stop of the Propagation of Animals Vegetables or Men if Mens Reason should generally fail them and for the most part they should become like Brutes if the Light of the Sun were darkned or the great Luminous or Planetary Bodies should bulge and fall foul one upon the other or that disorder or confusion should generally fall upon the Works of Nature and break that excellent Order that now obtains among them we should be full of admiration of such a Change and account them Miraculous And the reason is because the sense of the Change is at present incumbent upon us and we cannot choose but take notice of them as strong unusual miraculous Prodigies When all this while Natures course holds regularly the Wonder and Miracle is ten times greater in the state of things as they now stand than it would be in such a discomposure of Nature The Motion and Light and Position and Order of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies is a greater
Evidence of the Divine Power that put them and keeps them in Motion than if they all rested And it is a greater Miracle that a Man was constituted upon the Earth that he hath a power given him to propagate his kind that he lives ordinarily such a portion of time in the World that he hath the use of Reason and Understanding I say there is more of Miracle in it than in the want of it Only there are these three things that abate the value of it among Men 1. The commonness of the benefit and wonder renders the Observation thereof little 2. Mankind is negligent in improving his Observation he never rubs the Corn out of the Ear and so by inadvertence supineness and negligence suffers things of this nature to slip away without notice 3. We rarely carry things to their Original but take them as we find them whereas if we did as by a Clew follow the Works of Nature to their Original we should find the Divine Omnipotence and infinite Wisdom at the upper end of the Chain and the Worms themselves no other than Miracles in their first constitution He that considers the admirableness of the Frame of Humane Nature especially of his intellectual power and that is but acquainted with himself will without arrogance or vain-glory conclude that Man is the most admirable Creature that this lower World affords a Creature to which all the visible Creatures of this lower World seem in a great measure to point at as their End And therefore if the first Individuals the common Parents of Mankind were at some one time constituted there was a very great deal of Power Wisdom and Intelligence employed to the making up of such a Piece as this If we see an excellent Picture to the Life or a Statue there will not need much Rhetorick or Logick to perswade or evince that surely it was not done without an excellent knowing and intelligent Artist And certainly that Efficient who ever he was that did at first compose and make up the admirable Structure of the Humane Body all the Organs Nerves Veins Arteries Viscera Bones and other Integrals thereof that endowed it with the Faculties of a vegetable and sensible Nature that gave him a reasonable intellectual self-moving Soul with all its subordinate Faculties that so strangely and stupendiously united two such different Essentials of a reciprocal and intellectual nature was some intelligent Being and such an intelligent Being that was not only of a far more admirable Wisdom and Power than Man now the best of the visible Creatures appears to be but of such an excess of Wisdom and Power as cannot be found in any known Being besides him that we call Almighty God And if any Man shall say as needs he must that surely it must be granted that he was of a Power and Wisdom far more excellent and perfect than that Work he thus made but how are we sure that he must be God May it not be some Being that admirably surpasseth the perfection of Humane Nature and yet may it not be something less than infinite somewhat inferior to God may it not be some Angel some separated Intelligence To this I say 1. That Man that can be forced by this Work to acknowledge an Intelligent Being transcendently beyond the Power and Wisdom of a Man a Power that he never saw but only collected from the eminence of an Effect which surpasseth the activity of any Being that he hath ever seen with his Eyes a Being that acts by choice election and intention I say that Man that can once admit an invisible Being of an efficiency equal to such a Work hath broken the strength of Atheism since whatsoever can be alledged to evince such an Existence as the Objection supposed doth may be alledged efficaciously to prove the Existence of a God since all that can be said for the Existence of the former that and much more may and must be said and granted for the Existence of the latter namely God 2. But again since the measure of any Man's conception touching the infinite sovereign excellence of an Efficient must needs be the excellence of the Work if therefore a Man doth not cannot know any more admirable created Existence than himself he cannot expect a greater Evidence of a more transcendent Power Wisdom or Goodness than he that was the Efficient of such a Being as himself is 'T is possible he may suppose some more excellent Inhabitants of the Heavenly Bodies than he himself is but this is more than he knows and 't is true the Sun and Stars are goodly beautiful Bodies but he doth not know that they are any more than fiery Balls that naturally give light and heat but as he hath no evidence so he hath no evident reason to satisfie that they are animate much less intellectual and consequently for any thing a Man knows he himself is incomparably a more excellent Being than they it is true they last longer and so doth a piece of Marble I speak not to disparage those beautiful Beings but to enforce the Argument ad hominem that to the first formation of a living Intelligent Nature there is as great a Power requisite and conspicuous as to the formation of the noblest Creature that we see or know And I should not question but that that Power and Wisdom which were equal to the first formation of the Reasonable Nature were equal to the formation and efficiency of the Sun or the brightest Star in Heaven Since therefore I can judge of the measure or excess of the Power and Wisdom of any Efficient by the nobleness and value of the Effect and I know not any sensible Being of greater worth value and wonder than Man I have reason to believe that he that first formed Man is a Being of the greatest and most transcendent Power Wisdom and Goodness that is imaginable and that Being which I have reason to believe to be of the greatest Power Wisdom and Goodness I have reason to believe to be Almighty God who is Optimus Maximus And if it be said that the conviction by this Argument is so much the more infirm because I see daily that Man begets a Man and so the efficiency no more proves the Existence of God than it proves the Father to be God that begets a Son of his own likeness and species I say the Instance is so far from weakning the Inference that it rather enforceth it For the first formed Parents of Mankind were also endued with this generative power by virtue of that first efficiency upon the first individual pair of Mankind so that the generative power in Man is but an effect of that redundance of Power that was in the first Efficient of the Humane Nature Indeed if any Man or all the Men in the World could constitute a Man in any other way than by natural propagation it were an Instance that would sufficiently confute the Inference But the generative power and