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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30929 Natural theology, or, The knowledge of God from the works of creation accommodated and improved, to the service of Christianity / by Matthew Barker ... Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698. 1674 (1674) Wing B777; ESTC R20207 99,798 210

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learned Knight in his Book against Atheism Sir Char. Wolsely There were some other Philosophers that said All things did arise out of Number as the Pythagoreans But it is supposed they meant all things did arise out of Unity that is from one first Being from that Unity which is Unitatis omnis effectrix as one speaks that hath produced all creatures in the several Unities of their individual Beings Others of them thought that all things did at first spring out of Contraries It 's true All compound Bodies are made up of contrary Elements Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia siccis Ovid. Met. l. 1. p. 2. And the opposition of two Contraries in Nature may produce some third thing different from them both But these Contraries must have an existence in their distinct natures before any compound can result from them And so though they be the material or formal cause of any effects in Nature yet they themselves could not have existence without some efficient cause and this doth necessarily lead us up to God who is the first Cause Or could we conjecture with Pliny for it was but his conjecture that the World itself is an Eternal Deity Plin. Nat. Phil. Lib. 1. c. 7. For so he speaks God whosoever he be if happily there be any other but the very world he is all Sight all Hearing all Life all Soul all of Himself But he speaks more positively concerning the Sun Verily saith he it is the Life and Soul of the World the principal Governour of Nature Lib. 1. cap. 6. and no less than a God or Divine Power considering his work and operation Or can we say with Aristotle That the World is eternal which Opinion he grounded upon this Principle Ex nihilo nil fit Out of nothing nothing is made Which is true if we speak of nothing as it imports matter out of which things are made But if we mean by nothing only the term from whence Creation began so it is not true For all things did so arise from nothing as their term It is also true in Philosophy that nothing can bring forth nothing in a natural course but it is not so in Divinity that treats of God and his Infiniteness For He can produce being out of non-being as He hath done in the Worlds Creation And as we read in Genesis 1. 1. But it is as well against Reason as against Scripture to assert the World to be Eternal For as there could be no Progress in Number if there was no unit out of which all Number springs For Number is greater or lesser as it is nearer to or farther off from Unity So there could be no computation of time if there was not some first moment For Time is nothing else but a succession or flux of moments as one gives this description of it it is Nunc fluens So that all time must be computed according to its nearness to or remoteness from the beginning of time If there was no beginning of time there could be no Prius posterius We could not reckon Ancient and Modern And there could properly be no such thing as Antiquity For this present moment would be as antient with respect to Eternity as a thousand years ago And therefore seeing there is prius posterius sooner and later in time there must of necessity be some beginning of time And if there be a beginning of Time there must be a beginning of the World For Time and the World were alwaies together Arg. 2. We see in Nature every thing is serving a rational End As the Sun enlightens the World which else would be but one great Dungeon and unfit for habitation The Clouds and Rain serve an end which is to cool and mo●sten the Earth which else would be dry and barren The Winds do serve an end which is to purge and purifie the Air that for want of motion it might not corrupt and putrifie And the Earth is endued with a Seminal vertue to bring forth Herbs and Fruits of several kind for the use of Man and Beast And as all things in Nature serve an End so they are wonderfully fitted to their several Ends. Now whence is this but from some wise Agent that fitted things thus to their end As Philosophers tell us of four sorts of Causes in Nature the Efficient Formal Material and Final and the one hath dependance upon the other If there was no efficient there could be no matter if no matter no form if no form no end for the form is given with respect to the end But where we see matter and that matter invested with form and that form serving an end we may then conclude this could not be without an efficient As when we see a Clock or Watch and see how every Wheel yea every Pin therein doth serve an end and these fitted to that end we conclude this was not by chance but by the workmanship of some skilful Artist Or had we seen Archimedes his Sphere artificially framed to represent the several Motions of the Heavenly Orbes we should conclude this was not thus framed of it self So when we see all things in Nature in motion and every wheel of Nature moving to a rational end we may conclude this was done by some Infinite Intelligence Which the Heathen Philosophers did acknowledg when they called God or the Maker of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Reason as we read in Plato Anaxagoras so freq●ently called God Mens that in derision they gave him the name of Mens And as Virgil as I remember speaks Totáque infusa per artus Mens agitet molem c. A Mind this Heap doth actuate And through its joints doth penetrate By which we may perceive that they apprehended the World had a Maker and that He that made all things was an Intelligent Being Lactantius quoting the several descriptions the Heathen Philosophers made of God Lib. 1. cap. 5. among the rest quotes Chrysippus describing him to be Naturalem vim divinâ Ratione praeditam A natural Power endued with Divine Reason For they evidently saw a Divine Wisdom join'd with Power in all the works of Creation Argum. 3. We see in the Creation the excellent proportion and usefulness of one part to another for the preservation of the whole and the suitableness of the whole to Man that is made the Lord of it The Life of Man or Beast cannot be preserved without Food Food they cannot have unless the Earth bring it forth bring it forth it cannot unless it be watered with Showers from Heaven Showers there cannot be without Clouds Clouds cannot be without Vapours Vapours there cannot be unless they are exhaled by the Sun from the Waters and for this end the Sun-beams do not only bring down Light and Heat to the Earth but attract Vapours from it towards Heaven and all for the service of the Earth Wherein we see the Heavens hearing the Earth and the Earth hearing the Corn Wine and Oyl and