the Just to live by this Faith as for a Square to have four equal sides both Texts of Scripture and the Nature of the thing require it The true and primitive Character of a Just Man is to be Conscientious to follow the Dictates of his Mind and to order his Life and Actions according to what he knows and believes to be right A Just Man must be Upright and there is no Uprightness if the outward and inward-man do not keep touches if there be no Correspondence betwixt them if the Mouth contradict the Heart and the Life and Actions be disagreeable to the inward Light and Sentiments This Faith is as the Eye by which we see and know how to order our Steps it is as the Light to shew the Way in which we should walk and not to follow it or to go contrary to it is great Perverseness and the Character of a Wicked Man As the Spirit is the Principle of Life and Life of Motion so this Faith is the first Principle of a good Life and Men are to be reckoned good or bad as they walk according to it He is a bad Man who contradicts it and he is no good Man whose Actions do not flow from it The Motions of a Puppet or Engine may be both Regular and Useful but they cannot be reckoned Natural because they proceed not from a Principle of Life but from Artificial Springs So tho' one's Actions be never so plausible fair or useful to others yet they are not good nor is he who doth them Just if they proceed from any other principle than this Faith that is an inward Perswasion of their being just and good lawful and reasonable for whatsoever is not of Faith saith the Apostle is sin Rom. 14. 23. Hence it is that we see some in Scripture branded with the Character of ill Men and others denied the Approbation of being good whose Actions were outwardly good and commendable because they did what they did for other Reasons and upon another account than the intrinsick goodness of those things or their own Perswasion of it 4. All the Actions of every one are to be Approved or Condemned with a regard to this Faith and by vertue of it things in themselves good and lawful become evil and what is evil loseth a part of its malignity Thus the Eating of Flesh which in it self is a lawful and innocent Action is a damnable Sin to him who has the least doubt whether it be lawful and what is clean turns unclean to him who thinks it so as is excellently discoursed in that fore-cited Chapter So on the other hand we find God himself excusing Abimelech for taking Sarah into his House because he did it in the integrity of his heart that is he was ignorant of her being another Man's Wife And St. Paul's Perfection of the Saints was the more pardonable because he verily thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus I was before saith he a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief that is without Faith or the perswasion of the evil of it 1 Tim. 1. 13. But then it is to be remembred That this Faith which hath such Influence upon our Actions and which is so Essential to a Just Man is not Fancy or Imagination nor a light or hasty Perswasion Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind saith the Apostle ver 5. and therefore our Faith and Perswasion ought to be well-grounded the effect of serious Enquiry and Deliberation that it may give true and certain Direction otherwise it may be still said that we are regardless of Right and Wrong Truth or Falshood Good and Evil which is inconsistent with the Character of a perfectly Just Man A wise Architect doth not work at random but by Plumb and Rule but then he is first careful that his Plumb and Rule be right and exact for without this he cannot sincerely intend to have his work perfect So a Just man carefully studieth both a Conformity betwixt his Actions and his inward Sentiments and betwixt these and truth and the stable Rule of Right and wrong Good and Evil. To act contrary to inward Conviction is to offend wilfully and the height of Wickedness but it is the next degree to it to be careless whether we offend or not whether we do Good or Evil which we are guilty of when we are not at any pains to adjust our Perswasion to Truth to know the right or to inform our selves of what is good lawful and fit to be done The same reason which makes it Just and our Duty to act according to our Knowledge and inward Perswasion or to do the Good we know obligeth us to search out the real Good that is that there may be no Errour in our Perswasion nor Crookedness in our Practice and then only our Thoughts can justifie our Actions when by Diligence and due Care we have endeavoured to make our Thoughts just and true conform to the Nature of things for without this we cannot be fully perswaded in our Minds as the Apostle enjoineth the assurance of Faith is wanting which is necessary to dispel all doubts and to establish our goings Happy is he saith St. Paul that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth Rom. 14. 22. by which he gives us to understand that our Heart must approve our Actions our Minds must Judge that the ways we take are right otherwise we stand Self-condemned Now the Judgment is not Just which is not certain which is rashly or hastily pronounced before a strict Examination or a due Attention to all the Proofs and Evidences which can be brought for clearing the Cause There is still place for Doubting when necessary Caution and the proper Means have not been used for right and sufficient Information And as Doubting defileth the Man and polluteth all his Actions so it is uneasie to the Mind As Darkness in which when one walketh it maketh him Apprehensive full of Fears and Jealousies going forwards and backwards to the right and left without any steady course because he has no certainty of his way What is translated a Double-minded Man ought to be a Doubtful Man one that has not the assurance of Faith and such an one saith St. Iames is unstable in all his ways he wavereth like a wave of the Sea which is driven with the wind and tossed Jam. 1. 6 8. Fleeting and Inconstancy change of Opinions and Practices regarding Events and outward Advantages is at least a sure sign and evidence that the Person has not attained to a true Faith or full Perswasion of his Duty of what is good lawful or necessary for Faith gives a chearful confidence it makes one constant and to be always the same because Truth and the Nature of things change not To conclude this Matter By Faith here we are to understand a true Knowledge of the Nature of
things a clear Conviction of Truth and a hearty full Perswasion of Good and Evil Lawful and Unlawful which every one should endeavour after as much as possible And also every one ought to live answerably to the measure which he hath attained of it Who doth thus so far he is to be reckoned Good and Just for he hath no Perverseness in his temper no crooked Byass in his Constitution but sheweth an Integrity of Mind without guile or hypocrisie and a regular Will which offers no Prejudice but which renders to every person and thing what is due 6. Righteousness begins here A tendency towards this Faith is the first Symptom and Appearance as well as Motion of a Just and Good Life which like the Natural upon its first Production may be weak and languid but which like it too groweth if it be not stifled and as it groweth so it acquireth strength and vigour until it arrive at Perfection The first moments of the Morning are hardly distinguished from black Night but it creepeth on insensibly until the whole Hemisphere be enlightened So the Paths of the just saith Solomon are as the shining light which shineth more and more until the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. ESSAY III. Of Faith as opposed to Atheism and how a belief of the Existence of God is necessary to Determine the certain Rule of Moral Actions 1. TO go on with Faith which in the Second place is opposed to Atheism and so it is a firm Belief of the existence of a Deity a certain full and clear Perswasion that God is and a sense of those Attributes which are necessarily included in the true Idea of God He saith the Apostle who cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Heb. 4. 6. 2. The Faith spoken of in the former Essay obligeth to enquire after this and this we are now upon enforceth the reasonableness and necessity of that such is the relation betwixt them and so mutually do they support one another Not to Criticize Grammatically upon the words Lawful and Vnlawful which suppose a Superiour even Good and Evil depend much if not altogether upon the Knowledge of God and are to be measured by a Relation to him the Nature of these will be found to vary very much according as the Existence or Non-existence of a Deity is established If Man have no Superiour none to reward or punish his Actions then I suppose the Government of himself is Arbitrary as the chusing Employments is now thought to be his chief business is to please himself and consequently Good and Evil are only to be considered with relation to one's self and his present Interest which shall make as many different notions of Good and Evil as there are different Humours Inclinations and Interests among Men. Good and Evil shall in that case have no certain Standard by which to be measured but shall be of as mutable a Nature as Honesty and Dishonesty in a divided Common-wealth where the same thing is both Honesty and Knavery in the Judgment of the different Parties and where the same Person shall be both reputed a Hero and a Villain Then no act can leave a guilt and better or worse well or ill done is to be measured by the Event and Success And tho' Moral Laws can be shewed to have a Foundation in Nature yet the transgression of them for a particular Pleasure or Conveniency will be thought no more culpable than to level a Mountain to cut the course of a River to force Water to ascend and such like which seem to be equal Violences to Nature so that he who has a Liberty to do the one may also do the other But the case is quite altered if there be a God for then we are no more at our own disposal than Servants He who made us has an absolute dominion over us and all our care ought to be to please him His Will is a Law and the perpetual Standard of Good and Evil. 3. However it is certain that according to Scripture none are reckoned Just or Righteous but such as act with a continued regard to God which sometimes is expressed by the fear of God sometimes by walking with him or before him and having the heart perfect or upright with God When Hezekiah pleaded his Integrity it was in these words Remember Lord how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Upon this account Enoch Noah Abraham Lot Ioseph Ioshua Iob and all the other Worthies in Scripture are put into the Catalogue of the Just. And granting that there is a God it will necessarily follow that he only is a Just Man who sets God before him who makes him the end and measure of his Actions and the very design of whose Life is to please God Nor can there be a more proper Character of an Unjust Man than that by which the Wicked and Ungodly are described in Scripture Viz. They have not the fear of God before their Eyes God is not in all their thoughts they are without God that is they have no consideration of him nor regard unto him He is not Just who doth not render to every Man what is due If one keep squares with others never so well if he deal never so fairly with them yet if he at the same time be untowardly or undutiful to his Parents he cannot properly be called Just. So let one possess all that is called Vertue towards Men yet if God have not due Acknowledgment from him that Man is neither Just nor Righteous Nay as he is not a good and faithful Servant who does not sincerely intend his Master's Honour and Interest in all he doth so according to the Scripture none can claim the titles of Just or Righteous or have them bestowed upon them who do not all for God's sake whose chief Motive to do Good and forbear Evil is because the one is acceptable to God and the other offensive to him 4. Wherefore those Divines are much to be censured who recommend Morality and a good Life chiefly by other Topicks than these for they are either ignorant of the Principles and Philosophy of the Scripture or they discard the same to establish a better and more plausible Scheme of things They who profess to believe the Divine Authority of the Scripture ought also to think that they are incapable to correct its Principles or to establish what is more Just or Wise and that they cannot better shew their Learning and Judgment than by making it appear that they fully understand the Scope and Doctrine of the Scripture But whatever Opinion they have of the Scripture seeing their Profession obligeth them to teach it they ought to do it candidly that is without mixing their own Fansies and Opinions If one was appointed to read a Lecture of either Aristotelian or Cartesian Philosophy he could not be
Plants or Vegetables be considered for they are composed of different Parts wisely fitted for Nourishment Growth and Preservation The Root fixeth it in the Earth sucks in Nourishment and is as the Stomach in Animals to digest and prepare it Then there are various Fibres as Veins to receive the Sap and thro' which it circulates There are also some Vessels to take in Air for Respiration to facilitate the Circulation of the Sap. The outer and inner Bark of Trees preserve them from the Injury of the external Air The Leaves are not only for Beauty but to defend the Fruit and to shade the Tree it self from excessive Heat and to gather the Dew which returning with the inward Sap helps to nourish the Fruit and Branches Every Vegetable has its peculiar Contrivance suited to its Nature and Use which abundantly demonstrates that they are all the Effects of infinite Power and Wisdom But there are some more remarkable Instances which like strange Prodigies seem to be planted with a Design to force our Admiration and Acknowledgment Take this short Account of them which Mr. Ray hath given in his ingenious and pious Treatise of the Wisdom of God in the Creation First The Coco or Coker-nut-Tree that supplies the Indians with almost whatever they stand in need of as Bread Water Wine Vinegar Brandy Milk Oyl Honey Sugar Needles Thread Linen Cloths Cups Spoons Besoms Baskets Paper Masts for Ships Sails Cordage Nails Coverings for their Houses c. which may be seen at large in the many Printed Relations of Voyages and Travels to the East-Indies but most faithfully in the Hortus Malabaricus Published by that immortal Patron of natural Learning Henry Van Rheed van Drankenstein who has had great Commands and employs in the Dutch Colonies Secondly The Aloe Muricata or Aculeata which yields the Americans every thing their Necessities require as Fences Houses Darts Weapons and other Arms Shooes Linen and Cloths Needles and Thread Wine and Honey besides many Utensils for all which Hernacles Garcilasso de la Vega and Margrave may be consulted Thirdly The Bandura Cingalensium called by some Priapus Vegetabilis at the end of whose Leaves hang long Sacks or Bags containing pure limpid Water of great Use to the Natives when they want Rain for Eight or Ten Months together Fourthly The Cinnamon-Tree of Cylon in whose Parts there is a wonderful Diversity Out of the Root they get a sort of Camphire and its Oil out of the Bark of the Trunk the true Oil of Cinnamon from the Leaves an Oil like that of Cloves out of the Fruit a Juniper Oil with a Mixture of those of Cinnamon and Cloves Besides they boil the Berries into a sort of Wax out of which they make Candles Plaisters Unguents Here we may take Notice of the Candle-Trees of the West-Indies out of whose Fruit boiled to a thick fat Consistence are made very good Candles many of which have been lately distributed by that most ingenious Merchant Mr. Charles Dubois Fifthly The Fountain or Dropping-Trees in the Isles of Teno St. Thomas and in Guinea which serve the Inhabitants instead of Rain and fresh Springs Sixthly and Lastly we will only mention the Names of some other Vegetables which with Eighteen or Twenty Thousand more of that Kind do manifest to Mankind the Illustrious Bounty and Providence of the Almighty and Omniscient Creator towards his undeserving Creatures as the Cotton-Trees the Manyoc or Cassava the Potatoe the Jesuits Bark-Tree the Poppy the Rheubarb the Scammony the Jalap the Coloquintida the China Sarfa the Serpentaria Virginia or Snakeweed the Nisi or Genseg the numerous Balsam and Gum-Trees many of which are of late much illustrated by the great Industry and Skill of that most discerning Botanist Doctor 〈◊〉 Plukened Of what great Use all these and innumerable other Plants are to Mankind in the several Parts of Life few or none can be ignorant Besides the known Uses in curing Diseases in feeding and cloathing the poor in building and dying in all Mechanicks there may be as many more not yet discovered and which may be reserved on purpose to exercise the Faculties bestowed on Man to find out what is necessary 10. But if we make one Step higher to view the Animal Life we shall see Wisdom and Power still more wonderfully displayed and diversified What a prodigious Bulk of Life and Animal Motion is the Whale What a huge Animal Machine is that Leviathan By whose Neezings a Light doth shine and whose Eyes are like the Eye-lids of the Morning Out of whose Nostrils goeth Smoak as out of a Seething-pot or Cauldron He maketh the Deep to boil like a Pot the Sea like a Pot of Ointment He maketh a Path to shine after him so that one would think the Deep to be hoary And is not the Epitome of the Animal Life as astonishing which we have in the Mite and other almost imperceptible Creatures Which tho' they be but as Motes in the Sun nay according to the Observation of some there are some Animals less than a Grain of Sand by several Millions yet they have Life and Motion and consequently are inwardly composed of Heart Lungs Veins Arteries and Fibres which proves the wonderful Divisibility of Matter and the Art of Almighty Power which can produce the same Motions and Sense in an Atome which we see in the hugest Animals Again we see here all imaginable Qualities distributed into various Sizes Shapes and Figures and also all or most of them united together into one Some are designed to fly in the Air and for that end are furnished with Feathers Wings and very strong Muscles by which means they are capable to continue and support themselves a long time in the Air without wearying And because their Feathers may be spoiled by Rain and Dew and so rendered useless therefore each Fowl has Two Pots of Oil that is Two Glandules upon its Rump which always produce an Vnctuous Substance for anointing the Feathers that they may not be wet or receive any Prejudice from Rain or the Moisture of the Air. Others are framed to swim in the Waters and therefore have a peculiar Structure of their Lungs and inward Parts which makes them require less Air than Terrestrial Animals And tho' the Animals proper to one Element cannot live in another for Fishes brought to the open Air pant and die Land-Fowl and the Generality of Terrestrial Creatures when they fall into the Water cannot subsist long without Drowning Yet to shew that nothing is impossible to Almighty Wisdom there be some Fishes framed to fly above Water and a great many Fowl to swim and dive under it So there are Terrestrial Quadrupedes which without Feathers fly in the Air as Bats and some Indian Squirrils and there be others whose Food being Fish and Water-Insects they range continually in the Waters as the Beaver the Otter the Phoca or Sea-Calf the Water-Rat and Frog all which have their Toes interwoven with a thin
and not also conclude the Valves of the Heart Veins and Arteries such another Contrivance Is there more Art in the various ways of joining the different pieces of any Frame or Machine than there is in the different joinings of the Bones of the Body which makes them move differently and very usefully As for Example The upper part of the Bone of the Arm is convex and that Bone of the Shoulder which receives it is concave by which Means we can trun our Arm round whereas at the Elbow there is another Kind of Articulation which only suffers that part of the Arm to turn upwards towards the Shoulder And because neither of these joinings were proper for the divers Motions of the Hand and Fore-Arm therefore its Bones are joined so as to make it capable of turning round and of moving backwards and forwards up and down and almost every way The Teeth are the only Bones of the Body except those of the Ear which are not covered with a most sensible Membrane And if they had been covered with it we had been liable to continual Pain Now this Difference between the Teeth and the rest of the Bones could not be Chance but a wise Contrivance I might also make out this further by considering the different Contrivance betwixt the Teeth of Men and other Animals and those of other Animals according to their different Natures and by many other Instances But what hath been said is sufficient to prove That the Ends and Uses of natural things are real and not fansied by Men that the Universal Frame and the Nature of particular things do evidently and demonstrably prove a wise Contrivance and consequently that all things are the Effects of a wise and intelligent Agent And who would be further cleared and perswaded of this Matter let them read the Treatise which the Honoured and Worthy Master Boyle has written of Final Causes 5. But 2dly 't is objected That if it be reasonable to conclude the Existence of a Deity or some supreme and intelligent powerful Being from the seeming Order and Contrivance of some things it is as reasonable to conclude that there is no such being from the manifest Irregularity and Vselessness of other things for if there was a God or any Wise Almighty Being as is pretended all his Works would bear Prints of his Wisdom But we see many things which have no manner of Contrivance in them which are of no Vse but rather prejudicial and therefore we have Reason to believe that the rest happened by Chance and not by Design Thus say they the Spleen is the Occasion of much Pain and Trouble and is of it self of no Vse for several Animals have been known to live without it Mountains are irregular and ill contrived Heaps which spoil the Surface of the Earth and render it less beautiful and are very inconvenient for Travelling and Commerce If this Terraqueous Globe had been the Work of a wise Agent there would not have been more Water than dry Land which is the only proper Habitation for Man and Terrestrial Animals which are by much preferrable to Fishes Nor would there have been so much Ground laid wast which cannot be inhabited as the Desarts of Arabia the Lybian Sands and about the Two Poles c. 6. To all this I answer First That tho' it should be granted that there are many thing without Contrivance and which show no Design yet it would be unreasonable to deny the necessary Consequences of what doth manifestly show both a Contrivance and Design and therefore whether there be more or fewer Instances which do so it still follows that there is a Wise Intelligent Being capable to produce them 2 dly We cannot without Rashness conclude That a things is without Contrivance because we cannot find it out nor is intended for any use because we cannot perceive it Our Knowledge is very much limited and it is impossible for us to comprehend all that God doth and it is great Presumption to condemn what we do not understand No wise Man will slight the Works of any famous Mechanick or Artist tho' he doth not presently conceive what he intended by it for his known Art and Skill in other things makes it reasonable to believe that what is not yet declared or understood was nevertherless well designed and artificially contrived Even so seeing the general Frame of the World doth show so much Wisdom and that there appears so much Art and Contrivance in the Nature and Structure of particular Beings we ought from hence to conclude that all things are wisely and well contrived for excellent Ends and Purposes tho' we be ignorant of many of them 3 dly In passing a Censure and Judgment upon particular things we ought not to consider them separately only but also with a Respect to other things to which they have a Relation and with which they are conjoined Having premised these things in general I answer next to these particular Instances proposed First That tho' the Use of the Spleen is not yet well known nor can it be certainly determined nevertheless we have no Reason to think it useless seeing the Structure of it is as curious as that of the Liver Lungs and other Parts The Use and Function of several other Vessels were not known till of late and after Ages may discover the Use of this too which certainly was never placed in the Body without some special End or Use nor must it be reckoned altogether useless because some Animals have been found to live without it For so both Men and other Animals do live without some Parts which are of a known Use and of a special Contrivance besides tho' the Loss of the Spleen did not instantly put an end to Life it might have shortned it or rendred it painful and uneasie marring the Oeconomy of the Body 2. As to the Mountains they are very far from being useless for they serve to collect and condense the Vapours which feedeth Springs and Fountains They determine the Winds in some measure They nourish divers Plants which will not grow upon the Valleys They are proper for Metals and Minerals and are so far from spoiling the Beauty of the Earth that they make it much more pleasant by casting it into divers Shapes and Figures 3. There is as much dry Land as is necessarry either for Man or Terrestrial Animals nay as much as could contain many Millions more than there are so that there is no Reason to complain of being straitned by want of Room And it was necessary that there should be more Sea than dry Land partly for the Conveniency of Navigation and partly for furnishing sufficient Rain to water the Earth The Ground requires all the Rain which falleth which by Computation is reckoned in one Year to be Five times the Quantity of Water in the Sea If therefore there had been less Water either the Earth should have been without sufficient Rain or when it rained the