therefore succeed in their several Seasons The Industry of Man hath not been able to discover whether the Leaves Flowers and Fruits of Plants be Parts of the Plants on which they grow or whether they be different Plants having their own Seeds which can only pass by the peculiar Passages of the several Plants and grow from their own Seeds seeing after they are compleat they fall off without Violence and it is hard to apprehend how the grosser Passages of the principal Plants can by straining the Aliment through them figure it in so admirable a Variety whence such rare Colours and Proportions do arise however it be there must be the Contrivance of so much Wisdom as hath given and shall give all the Generations of Mankind a pleasant Exercise to discover more and more yet leaving ever more undiscovered This might and ought to check the Pride of Man in his Knowledg and make him admire and adore the Wisdom of God in this so low a Step of his Works of Nature 6. It is said Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. as if it were a Command to the stupid and unsensible Earth to work all these wonderful Things far exceeding its own Perfection tho all the Efficacy of the Sun of the Stars and of Fire were adjoined which has puzled the most piercing Witts how these things could come to pass and many have been forced to attribute all to the omnipotent Power of God alone wherein they derogate highly from the Wisdom of his Contrivance and are contrary to Revelation Why should he say to the Earth Bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees if nothing of the Earth had a casuality in them How could it be said that on the seventh Day God ended that which he had made and he rested from all his Works if there be no Efficacy in Creatures but only that he creates not new Matter It might as well be said the first Minute when he created the Chaos that he had rested from all his Works as that he rested on the seventh Day if that were the meaning But I am perswaded that on this third Day God created the Seeds of all Plants with all their Parts and Passages and disseminated them near the Surface of the whole Earth as they might be most useful for his Ends and that they do alwise necessarily grow when and where their proper Aliment entereth in their Passages and proceedeth by them 7. The wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of God appears not only in the Pleasure but in the Profit of all these Plants as the several Kinds of them are the Food of the different Species of Animals for which the several Animals have their Instincts by which they have Pleasure in them Appetite to them and Aversion to others and yet more as they are the Physick of Animals by their several Parts solid or fluid chiefly by their Juices and Spirits The Brutes have their Instincts to know their Physick which are not given to Man that he might not be idle but improve Sense Reason and Experience to know what parts or preparations of Plants served to prevent or cure all the Diseases that his Irregularity hath brought upon himself or even upon the Beasts which Virtues were discovered to Adam whereby he was enabled to give Names to Beasts fitted to express their peculiar and prime Perfections which hath been communicated by Tradition and increased by Experience without such Tradition there can hardly be any rational Account given of the Medicinal Skill which hath been so much propagated in the World tho the Causes thereof be very little known so that they could not be known by general Principles and none were ever so industrious as by hap-hazard to apply to every Disease all things applicable to find out what would work which might not warrantably be practised upon Man lest thereby more might be killed than cured Botanists have ranked Plants as they are congenerous by their agreeing in Shape Colour Taste and Smell and of late they have observed Marks in them as different Signatures more exactly to show their physical Operations all which comes far short of the Virtues of Plants which are already discovered much more of all the Virtues which are in them Upon the fourth Day of the Creation God created the Sun the Moon and the Stars the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night for Signs and Seasons and for Days and Years which do not only give light through the whole visible World but do also much enlighten the Minds of rational Creatures with the Knowledg of the Wisdom and Glory of the great Creator 1. In the Sun which is nothing else but a vast Globe of Fire which was first dispersed in the one Hemisphere of Heaven whereby Light and Darkness Day and Night were divided by equal Durations for the first three Days the Sun having been created but the fourth Day yet it was an Act of Creation by the sole Power of God and not a Production by a natural Cause there was also then formed a Globe of AEther rolling continually about the Sun to keep it perpetually in a globular Figure shunning that irregular Shape which necessarily follows the interfering of the Particles of Fire Recent Observations of Astronomers have demonstrated that the Sun is rolled about its own Center in the same time that the Moon is moved about the Earth which they observe from the Motion of some more regular Spots in the Sun The Sun is the far most glorious Creature in this visible World as the Agitation of Fire gives Light by the continual Vibration of its Parts so this glorious Globe of Fire which no natural Cause can ever dissipate suppress or extinguish by the interfering of its Particles outward it thrusts upon and darts out the Rays of the AEther by streight Lines so far as ever these can reach till the Rays be stopped reverberated and reflected back into it self again by the Earth the Moon or other dark Planets which have no Light of their own but do reflect the Sun-Beams a great Part whereof fall upon the Earth and illuminate it The Sun illuminates more than one Hemisphere of the Earth because it is a far greater Body than the Earth The Sun hath its Motion about the Earth in a Year from West to East under twelve Constellations commonly known which are called the twelve Signs of the Zodiack still moving obliquely whereby it crosseth the diurnal Motion from South-West to North-East in one half of its Course and from North-East to South-West in the other whereby the whole Earth hath equal length of Light and Darkness every Year when the Days are reckoned together those Parts of the Earth that are equally distant from the North and South Poles have their Days and Nights always equal and those Parts of the Earth that are near both Poles have but one Day and one Night in the Year each being an half Year in length The remanent Parts have their
Principle to Mankind to prefer the common Interest of the whole to that of any part On the fifth Day God perfected the Creation of inanimate Creatures by an orderly Procedure according to the degrees of their Perfections 1. The Chaos which before it had Figure or Motion was the most imperfect Substance 2. Adding Perfections to that part of the Chaos he made Fire to give Light and Heat by its Motion 3. Giving an uniform circular Motion to those Particles of the Chaos that made up the Spheres of AEther by whose Revolution the Vicissitudes of Day and Night began 4. Adding Cohesion of Parts of the Chaos about the Earth whence arose the Figures of the Particles of Water which at first covered the whole Face of the Earth being then exactly round 5. Separating the Earth and the Water by making the Mountains and Vallies the Earth having been also made of the Chaos by Cohesion of its Parts whereby a far more variable Figure of its Particles arose in which were comprehended Metals Minerals Stones saline and sulphurous Bodies the Seeds of Plants and the Terrestrial Fire 6. The Plants are formed whether they sprung of these Seeds by the immediate creative Power of God or whether beside the Seeds the Plants were formed fit to receive them it is uncertain it might appear rather that they sprung of the Seeds because it is said Let the Earth bring forth c. yet that may be understood of the subsequent Growth of Plants And last the Stars were created being the most perfect and glorious of all inanimate Creatures Then followed the Creation of living Creatures in the same order proceeding from the least perfect Kinds to the more perfect until the last Termination in the Creation of Man The other living Creatures are stated in three Orders the Fish in the Waters the Fowl to fly in the Air and the Beasts on the Earth all which have their variable Motions which some imagine to be without Perception or Sense and that they be only passive in their Motions from the Impression of outward Objects for which I see no solid Reason for they having Senses so like unto Men if all their Motions were by Impressions on their Senses it could not be doubted but such Motions would be also in Men seeing their Senses are operative without their Will or any intrinsick active Power which is contrary to the common Sense and Experience of all Mankind However it be there is great Evidence of the wonderful Contrivance of the Wisdom of God in brute Creatures especially in the peculiar Instincts of the several Species which do all act necessarily upon their proper Objects without Hesitation or Deliberation They have their Pleasures and Griefs their Appetites and Aversions in which they cannot divert from one Object to another nor can they compare Objects Means or Ends and yet by the wonderful Wisdom of God they do most things necessary for their Preservation their Promotion and Propagation by meer Instincts more exactly than Men can in the same things that are common to both Besides the wonderful and various Structure of their Bodies there are Depths concerning them that the most knowing Men have never been able to reach as what their Souls are how they are produced how their Bodies are framed by Generation wherein certainly there is a difference from the Generation of Men. God doth not command the Earth to bring forth Man as he doth to bring forth the brute Creatures therefore it seems their Seeds were created in the Beginning as well as the Seeds of the Plants Some late Experiments by Microscopes have shown an infinite number of Animalcula in the Sperme of the Brutes but their Souls are not endued with that Perfection to have any Perception but by the Impression of Objects so their Bodies being marred their Souls can never more have any Animal Operation as the separate Souls of Men have The first and lowest Degree of Animals is of Fish which live in the Water whereof there are innumerable kinds and degrees of Perfection from the Oister that hath no other Motion but the opening its Shell to receive its Aliment to the Whale This also is strange in Fishes that Concourse of the Seeds of Male and Female do but in few of them appear nor have they that Pairing which the Fowls and other Brutes have when left to their natural Course nor any Knowledg of or Affection to their Birth The more perfect Fish are furnished with Instruments for their Progress especially with Fins The next Degree in Perfection of Brutes are the Fowls who are adorned with their beautiful Feathers and instructed with their Wings by which they fly Their several Kinds have their distinct Voices by which they express their Affections the variety of which and of their Shapes and Colours and their Instincts by which they know their Food and Physick and what is hurtful to them and the melodious Songs of many of them do all manifest the wonderful Wisdom of their Creator The Water is impowered and commanded to bring forth both Fish and Fowl which doth import that their Seeds are lubrick and not firm as that of Plants and therefore are dispersed in that soluble Element On the sixth Day were created the Terrestrial Beasts for God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creatures after his kind which are three beside the various Species of every Kind to wit Cattel creeping Things on the Earth and the Beasts these seem to be the wild and ravenous Beasts that live not in Herds or Flocks which are the Cattel but both walk with Legs and so are different from the creeping Things as Worms and Serpents I shall not need to speak any thing of the Variety of these and of the Wisdom of God shining in them seeing they differ not much from what has been said of the Fish and the Fowls but that they come nearer to the Perfection of Man than they God hath given eminent Instances of his Wisdom in the Perfections of the Horse and the Leviathan whose Scales do clearly distinguish it from the Whale so that it is a Terrestrial Animal and in the Unicorn All the Creation tho it be very wonderful holds a small Proportion with the Wisdom of God in the creating and governing of Man which is incomprehensible Some part of it will appear in the Dominion of God which I shall leave to the next Meditation and only remark upon the whole Creation that wonderful Beauty of all its Parts their Correspondence and mutual Usefulness and the Termination of all their Perfections on Mankind MEDITAT XVIII Upon the Dominion of God and his Dispensations thereupon towards his Rational Creatures especially by the Covenant of Works and Covenant of Grace I Have as distinctly and orderly as I could cleared and quieted my Thoughts concerning the Divine Perfections Natural and Moral severally I come now to consider them jointly in the glorious and gracious Dominion of God over the World in
an Object as the Eye The Particles of Fire severally have so small Force that their rolling can easily be stopped by which Men can so easily be master of raising and quenching Fire In all which the wonderful Wisdom of the Divine Contrivance is resplendent The Work of the second Day of the Creation was the creating of that Power of Motion or Pression of the several Parts of the AEther whereby one Sphere of it moved about compleating its Motion in twenty four hours and thereby the Light that was created in the one Hemisphere of the AEther illuminating one side of the Earth was carried about and made Day and Night in the same way that the Sun now doth and so made Day and Night before the Sun was created That AEther is called in the English Translation the Firmament but by the Dutch and Latin Translation is more accurately called the Expansum or the Bulk having Parts stretched out and is called the Waters but more accurately the Fluid which comprehends both Water and AEther for the same Word was used before that the Spirit moved upon the Waters there being nothing then but the Chaos or pure AEther and thereafter it is called Heaven which is that part of Heaven in which the Sun and the Planets were after created for that Heaven is said to divide the Waters above from the Waters beneath that is the AEther in which the fixed Stars are above the Planetary AEther and the AEther in which the Terraqueous Globe is being the Waters under the Planetary Sphere In the third Day of the Creation that part of the Fluid which is now more strictly and properly called the Water and which surrounded the whole Face of the Earth was gathered together God having made the Surface of the Earth which at first was round unequal by Mountains Vallies and Plains and by that great and hollow Receptacle in which the Sea is contain'd and thereby the dry Land appeared and the Waters of the Sea could never return to cover the Face of it tho by the miraculous Deluge not only all the Clouds which are but rarified Water fell down in Showers upon the Earth but much more of the AEther was turned into Water the Clouds were but raised after the Separation of Sea and Land for it is said There went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole Face of the Ground the Return whereof could not have covered the Mountains After the Separtion in the same day the creating Will of God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees which did immediately take Effect and it was so In the Works of this Day the wonderful Wisdom of God doth gloriously appear 1. In the Structure of the Terraqueous Globe being of a round Globular Figure most capable of the Vicissitudes of Day and Night and of the several Seasons ballanced by its own Weight in the midst of the World and tho it be a very small part of the World yet the whole visible World hath its Perfections directed towards it not upon its own account but as it is the Habitation fitted and destinated for Mankind Its Figure makes it fit for Man's Habitation upon all the sides and parts of it being so contrived that near both the Poles there is nothing but the vast Ocean where if there had been dry Land it had been altogether uninhabitable 2. The Figure of the Earth in its Inequalities sheweth the Wisdom of God that thereby the Sea is hemmed in which is majestickly expressed by God in his humbling Job saying Who shut up the Sea with Doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the Womb and brake up for it is my decreed place and set Bars and Doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed By the Mountains also there are Vallies whence the Rain that falls on the Mountains runneth down into Vallies and makes them fruitful and in the Mountains there are Fountains perpetually flowing whence arise Rivulets and by their Concourse Rivers running down into the Sea and making a perpetual Circulation of Water from the Sea into these Fountains and from the Fountains back into the Sea so making perpetual Motion which God only hath immediately made By these Rivers there is not only Fruitfulness in the Vallies by the reciprocal Vapours arising from them and returning to them and the Lands about them by an unending Intercourse they are the Marches of Countries and give much retardment and stop to the Invasion of the Inhabitants on either side in time of War but in time of Peace make an easy Intercourse and Commerce among Men where they are navigable which in many is continued for many hundred Miles If the Earth had been exactly round the Surface of it had been much less and there could have been no Rivers because there could have been no Descent The Mountains also serve to give shelter against the Excess of the Sun and shelter against the Tempest of the Wind. 3. In the Mountains all sorts of Metals are found which were partly created and partly gathered so that they have a kind of Growth like Trees 4. The Mountains also are like Eliopils the Wind springing from their Caverns from some of them so constantly and strongly that from divers sides of the same Mountains there are Anniversary Winds keeping their fixed Periods whereby Men know to sail from one Country to another and to return by the vast Ocean but the nearer Distances where Men must pass in short time the Winds are variable that may serve them both to come and go and the wonderful Providence of God is seen in them that Men are furthered or stopped in their Designs according to his Purpose and may warrantably trust and pray to be served by these Winds without tempting God by desiring a Miracle Tho the Winds be the necessary Products of inscient Matter yet God foresaw both the Exigence Faith and Prayers of all his Creatures and made the course of Nature to answer them as well as sometimes on their Prayers he changes the course of Nature If God in his Wisdom had not provided both these fixed and variable Winds the Intercourse and Communion of Mankind had been very small expensive and troublesome it had been an unpleasant and dangerous undertaking of a Voyage of many Months if it had always been liable to contrary Winds and no less inconvenient in short Voyages if Men could not go and return for many Months together until the turning of these stated Winds and if there were no Winds there were little Benefit by Rivers and none at all by the vast Ocean It makes no Exception from the Wisdom of God that all the Earth is not equally fertile for if it were it would be little noticed or valued and beside God has ballanced well the Advantages of the fertile and barren warm and cold Regions In the cold Regions there is long Life much Health great
Days and Nights unequal except in the two Equinoctial Days and Nights all which is performed by two uniform circular Motions of the AEther the one by the Zodiack and the other by the Equator The Sun doth so far exceed in Light all the other Stars as to the illumination of the Earth that when it shines bright their shining tho it ceases not is yet unperceivable The Sun is not only the chief Luminary and Fountain of Light but likewise of Heat which increaseth and decreaseth not only every Day as the Sun comes nearer to or goes farthest from the Meridian or Southermost Places of the Earth but also as it proceedeth toward the North and the South and so the Heat is always equal about the middle of the Earth but elsewhere unequal whereby it makes the different Seasons of the Spring when all Plants do sprout and become green of the Summer when the Flowers appear and the Fruits begin of the Harvest when the Fruits come to Maturity and of Winter when the Fruits Leaves and Herbs fall whereby in the Wisdom and Prudence of God there is a Ballance of Enjoyment through the whole Earth the variety of the Seasons where the Days are unequal compensing the Pleasure where the Days are equal because what is ordinary and doth not change is little noticed We would be little sensible of the glorious Light of the Day if we had not the Vicissitude of the Darkness of the Night and albeit the Places near both Poles be far short of the Enjoyment of the rest yet most part there is Sea and not Land There is also great conveniency of the Night for Man in the State of Mortality whereby the Curtains of Heaven are drawn that he may sleep The Earth also doth require a perpetual Vicissitude of the rising and falling of the Vapours by which the Dews and Rains do water the Earth Another Sun opposite to this would have made a perpetual Day but with great Detriment to the Earth The Wisdom of God is also seen in the Instincts of the ravenous Creatures whereby they have no Inclination to go abroad in the Day-time but in the Night thereby Men and the tame and harmless Creatures are free of their Trouble for which the Psalmist praiseth the Wisdom and Goodness of God Thou makest Darkness and it is Night wherein all the Beasts of the Forest do creep forth the Sun ariseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their Dens Man goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the evening O Lord how manifold are thy Works in Wisdom dom hast thou made them all The Glory of the Sun is also well expressed by the Psalmist which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber rejoiceth as a strong Man to run a Race his going out is from the End of the Heaven and his Circuit unto the Ends of it and there is nothing hid from the Heat thereof The Wisdom of God is also seen in the usefulness of the Moon which was appointed to rule over the Night and to give a faint Light for those that might have necessity to travel in the Night but God having ordained the Night for Man to rest in he has not given the Light of the Moon to be so constant as the Light of Sun and therefore it doth not derogate from his Wisdom and Goodness that he did not make more Moons by which there might always have been Light in the Night and besides the brightest Glory and Majesty of God is in this visible World the starry Heaven which in number and variety of the Stars exceed the comprehension of Men and Angels they are the Lamps and Flame-beaus making some resemblance of the Magnificence of the Palace of the King of Glory and yet they are no more than the Ornaments of his Outter-Court or the enamelling of the Pavement of his Inner-Court the third Heaven or the Heaven of Heavens When God doth most favourably condescend to Abraham he bids him look unto the starry Sky and asks if he could number them and doth the like with Job when he was first to humble him for his boldness and then to exalt him for his faithfulness The starry Heaven is never so glorious as when neither Sun nor Moon doth appear therefore it was fit that the Light of the Moon should have Intervals Little is known of the Influence of the Stars tho many Astrologers make unsolid and unwarrantable Conclusions on pretence of their Experience It is true God said to Job Knowest thou the Ordinance of Heaven canst thou set the Dominions thereof in the Earth canst thou bind the Influences of Pleiades or loose the Bonds of Orion Which imports a great Influence of the Stars upon the Earth but the Astrologers infer most from the Planets and their Aspects which are opake and unactive Bodies doubtless the Sun and Moon have great Influence on the Earth not only by their Light and Heat but that correspondence betwixt the Tides of the Sea and the Course of the Moon giveth strong ground to infer that the Moon hath much Influence thereon I cannot certainly know whether the sweet Influence of the Pleiades doth import any more than that when the Sun is under the Pleiades or seven Stars the Spring is in its Prime when all things revive and it is called the Time of Life or whether the Bonds of Orion being near to the North Pole implieth more than the Rigour of Cold and Frost when the Sun is nearest them and farthest Northward God in his Wisdom hath said little of the dark Planets Saturn Jupiter and Mars Venus and Mercury but hath left them to Man's Exercise and Industry who hath found by their Eclipses that they have no Light of their own but do only reflect the Light of the Sun as doth the Moon and tho of old they were thought to be wandring Stars yet now their regular and certain Courses are found and known and more little Planets moving about Saturn and Jupiter since the Invention of Telescopes whereby their Courses are also known and calculated and the Usefulness thereof for finding out the Longitude is known which is of so great Use for Navigation and it is very probable that more will yet be found The Comets or blazing Stars are yet looked upon as prodigious or irregular yet it is not without Hope that their regular Course may be also found The Eclipses of the Sun and Moon gave great Astonishment and Terror at first to all and still to the less knowing Nations but they give still Matter of Admiration and incite us to consider the wonderful Works of God Their Recourses are now certainly known and calculated for many Years to come for the Predictions of these that have past have always held since the Course of the Planets have been exactly known from whence the Eclipses do necessarily follow The Eclipses have also great Use for the Calculation of Time for in divers Nations and at divers
which all his Perfections are displayed and manifested It is Omniscience and infinite Wisdom in the Contrivance of the World and of all that was to occur in it unto Eternity His Omnipotence in bringing all his Purposes to pass His Goodness that all he did and was to do is very good and nothing he made is without some Perfection for it self and Usefulness for some other Creature and that even from the evil Actions of Men he taketh occasion to increase the Exercise of his Goodness Bounty and Mercy His Justice Truth and Faithfulness are exercised upon all his Rational Creatures who only are capable of them and his most eminent Goodness in that Resemblance he gave them of his own Perfections and in those Principles wherewith he hath endued them beside his Image congruous to their Natures but not perfectly correspondent to his own to whom none of his Creatures can be like but with infinite Unlikeness Yet with that real tho imperfect Likeness of him his Reasonable Creatures were originally formed whereby he made them all capable of Blessedness and by Resemblance thereof to conceive Thoughts of his own Blessedness in being the only pure Spirit self-existent everlasting self-sufficient independent free unchangeable in all his Perfections Purposes and Performance of them fully delighting in himself and thereby infinitely blessed The Dominion of God comprehends his Dominion of Property and his Dominion of Soveraignty By the former he is Lord of all his Creatures by the latter he is Sovereign Ruler of all his Rational Creatures and so is King Law-giver and Ruler of the whole World There is a clear and known difference between Dominion of Things and a Dominion over Persons The Dominion of Things is a Right and Power to dispose of them at Pleasure without any Restraint This Right is founded in their Creation and Preservation for he that gave Being and that freely might give it with what Perfections he pleased and might at full Arbitrament annihilate or alter whatever he gave and in that Consideration even his Rational Creatures are part of his Property more at his disposal than the Clay is at the disposal of the Potter who can but mould and varnish his Clay and may mar it at his Pleasure but could neither give it its Being and Capacities nor can take them from it In this Relation there can be no Obligement or Debt from God to any Creature and it is by this Dominion that he hath stated all his Rational Creatures in their different Degrees not only of the Kinds but of the Individuals No other account ought to be inquired of the different degrees of Knowledg Wisdom Power Beauty Health Dexterity Length of Days Riches Pleasure or Honour tho these may be used as Means of Justice Truth Faithfulness and Mercy and as the Means of Government yet may they be absolutely without respect to these and it can hardly be discerned when they are otherwise and therefore in them all things befal alike to all and no Man can judg Love or Hatred of God from any thing that is so before him Some Men have thought they magnified God by magnifying this as the only Dominion of God and that there is no other distinct Dominion of Persons which would altogether make void the Justice Truth and Faithfulness of God which are no less essential to God and much more glorious than his Right of Disposal or Property A Proprietor in making use of his Goods doth not govern them no not in the ordering of his Beasts but where-ever Government is there must be Law Liberty Rewards and Punishments by the Government of Persons only can there be a Kingdom He that had the Property of a whole Country could be Lord of it tho there were not a Man on it but himself but he could not be King of it God takes to himself the Title of King in a more proper Sense and it is so acknowledged by all his holy Creatures He is called the King of the whole Earth of all the World The Lord has prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all He is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth they are but his Deputies and Vicegerents Yea the greatest of them are but as Grashopers in his Sight The Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness he sits on a Throne of Holiness he is a great King and he is King of Glory his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom of his Dominion there is no End Yea he is the only Potentate He doth what he will in Heaven and in Earth and who can say what dost thou David at the Dedication of the Temple saith to God Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty Thine is the Kingdom O God and thou art exalted as Head above all And Jeremiah saith Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain The Psalmist saith The Lord is a great King above all Gods The Sea is his and he made it The Sea is mentioned as his Property only because the vast Ocean is capable of no humane Dominion None can or ever did claim a local Soveraignty over the whole Sea nor a Property in it The Psalmist saith The Heavens are thine the Earth also is thine as for the World and Fulness thereof thou hast founded them For his Pleasure all things are and were created Is there any other Soveraign can pretend these Titles He rules in the Kingdom of Men and gives it to whomsoever he will even unto the vilest of Men who can neither pretend worth nor deserving If then Gods's Dominion over Persons be not arbitrary as over things what impudent Presumption must it be for Creatures tho they were Angels much more for Men of like Infirmities with others and of more impetuous Passions to give no other reason for their Commands than Such is our Pleasure There are three common innate Principles written in the Heart of Man the Love of God the Love of Mankind and Self-love which in their due Subordination and in their proper Limits are all Good as Christ hath said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Mind with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self These are the chief Means of the Divine Government by which Mankind might be happy in all Conditions Stations and Relations as Men as Married as Parents or Children as Masters and Servants as Soveraigns and Subjects as Fellow-Citizens as Neighbours and Friends who have all their special Principles and Rules by Reason and Revelation which when they forsake and follow the swing of their own Lusts and Passions God in his Justice might give them up to their own Counsels to follow their own Ways and oftentimes doth so as he declares by his Word as to their eternal Interest yet so great is his Goodness as he doth rarely utterly abandon them but as to their outward Condition