Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A33547
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An enquiry into the nature, necessity, and evidence of Christian faith. Part I. Of faith in general, and of the belief of a deity by J.C.
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Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing C4810; ESTC R24209
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50,203
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73
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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