a distinct People there being no Instance like this in any Story as if they were intended for a standing Memorial and Example to the world of the Divine Power and Vengeance To me it seemeth among Rational Arguments one of the plainest not only for the Proof of a Deity and a Just Providence in pursuing that Nation with such Exemplary Vengeance but likewise for the Authority of Scripture and the Truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. VI. HItherto I have shewed the Existence of a Supreme Being that is Eternal Independent Self-existing the Author of our common Nature Omnipotent Omniscient all which Characters are included in the general Notion of a Deity or a Being that is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect I proceed next to some other Considerations which argue a Being that is infinite in Wisdom Goodness Benignity as well as Power In order thereunto let us now begin to take a view of that which was proposed as the Fourth great Head of this Discourse I mean the Admirable Frame and State of the Universe For whoever will seriously reflect upon those various appearances which are in this visible world must be the most sensless and stupid thing in it if after all the bright manifestations of a Deity that are every where discoverable he can at last permit himself to say in his heart There is no God God hath not left himself without witness saith St. Paul Acts 14. 17. No that which may be known of God is manifest to us for God hath shewed it unto us For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1. 19. 20. Here then we meet with Eight Observable which are very fit in their turns to fall under our contemplation 1. The excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested 2. The great Beauty that appears throughout the world 3. The wonderful Usefulness that is in all the branches of the Creation 4. The curious and exquisite Structure of them for the Uses and Ends to which they serve 5. The constant Regularity of them in their respective Operations 6. The ample Provision that is made for the good of Creatures especially Mankind 7. The Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in the Operations of things Irrational 8. The Divine Frame of our own Rational Nature O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth and heavens are full of thy riches the various testimonies of thy greatness and inexhaustible benignity 1. First We may observe the excellent Order into which the several parts of the Universe are digested This Order is seen 1. In the commodious Situation and Position to which they are determined 2. In the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other 3. In the Permanency of them in that State and condition wherein they have been placed 1. As there are several Ranks and Classes of Creatures so is every Rank determined to its due and proper place That part of the world we stand in immediate need of is the Earth and that is placed in the middle of the world that it may receive influence from all the ambient parts of the Universe to help its Fertility and the distance of it from the Coelestial Bodies is so commodious that its Productions are not apt to be destroyed by excesses of Heat or Cold which otherwise would unavoidably follow were the distance nearer or more remote It is the proper place for man in this life For 't is the Theatre we are to Act on and the Magazine that yields us the Stores we live by and therefore 't is near at hand hard by all our Necessities and richly furnish'd with Plants Fruits Meats Entertainments of all sorts so that 't is but going out of doors and industrious People may gather their Provision and whatever they can modestly desire either to supply their Wants or to afford them Pleasures And lest we should drop down suddenly for want of Breath with our Meats between our Teeth the Air which serves for Digestion and Respiration is I cannot so well say in our Neighbourhood as in our Nostrils An Atmosphere so appositely plac'd and so adapted to the gross contexture of our outward Senses that it is infinitely more proper for sensitive Creatures than the Fine Unmixt Aether that is at such a distance from us Those fluid Bodies the Waters are in their proper place too treasured up in concave Receptacles and Chanels and there ready at hand to quench the Thirst of every Animal and if Men will be wanton to serve their Sensualities also without endangering their safety by inordinate sweeping Inundations The Heavens are to give light and warmth to all Sublunary Creatures and therefore the provident Hand which formed them hath set them very remote that those great and glorious Luminaries may cast their Influences over all the World and withal secure all things living from those Scorchings and Deaths to which their Vicinity would otherwise have unavoidably exposed them In short all things are situate where they should be nor could the wisest Counsel have placed them better supposing the wisest Being to have had the disposal and ordering of them 2. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the near Relation of them to each other and Dependance on each other Where I shall speak only of that general and common Reference which the several kinds of Creatures thus situated and disposed do bear to one another As for the usefulness of particular Branches of the Creation it will fall under our eye in its due place At present I am to take notice of that Relation and Connection that Respect and Cognation which is between the Species and Sorts of things which make up this great Frame and System of Nature For in the great Volume of the Creation there is a noble Design carried on this Creature having a respect to that and that hanging upon the other like Premises and Consequents in a well-compos'd Book so that if one part be taken away not only the Beauty but the Purpose of the whole is lost Were all Sensitive Creatures destroyed what would the Light of the Sun be to a blind World Were the Earth annihilated what would the sweet Influences of the Pleiades signify Or were but the Fowls the Cattel the Fruits of the Earth removed what would become of Man that pretends to be the little Lord of all and yet is fain to be a Dependant upon these poor Creatures to afford him Provision daily and to furnish out his Table Some conceive that the only great Design of Nature is to support Man which though I think is too great a Vanity to imagine yet supposing it were so how many Creatures are there to be served before it can come to his turn I will hear the heavens saith the Divine Being and the heavens shall hear the earth
and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel Hos 2. 21 22. Where we have a Summary Description of the great Order of Nature as things are cast into a State of Relation and Correspondence set forth as if they cried to each other and heard each other to denote their mutual Subserviency and Dependance Thus the Stars by their attractive Beams prepare and enrich the Clouds the Clouds drop down fatness that fatness moistens the Surface and supplies the Bowels of the Earth that Moisture increaseth and invigorates those active Particles within which are the Principles of Vegetation those Principles carry the spiritous vital Juice to every Tree and Plant that Juice passing through many Nervous Ducts and Conveyances produce Germination those Germations cover Mountain and Valley with a fresh Verdure and by these various means the Earth receives yearly a kind of new Life every Species upon it is propagated every living Individual is sed and cherish'd and Man and Beast are abundantly provided for a-new after all the vast Consumptions and Expences of Nature the year before There is a Series and Connexion of Causes which act upon each other the superior Cause still having a respect to the Powers of that which is the next in Subordination and all shew the wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of the Supreme Cause in thus suiting and adapting the Operations of his Creatures according to the necessities of the several Branches of his Creation And as there is this extrinsecal Reference born by one Creature to another so is there in every one of them an intrinsick Faculty and Disposition which bears respect to the Operations and Productions of those external Causes In all Animals there are eager Appetites as Hunger and Thirst which stimulate and excite them every day to Eat and Drink of Natures Bounty In all Vegetables there are spreading Roots fibrous Receptacles with open greedy capacious Orifices to entertain digest and send up that animating Sap which is ministred by the restless Principles of Vegetation In the Bowels of the Earth are hid the multifarious Seeds of Life prepared for a new assistance of Salts Nitre and the like Supplies to quicken actuate and render them Prolisick Those quickning Recruits wait for Distillations from above to convey them down into their Apartments and those Distillations are various according to the Quality and Temper of the Seasons and as the Sun and Stars act by their Influences in the Air where the great Treasures are annually made ready by various Motions and Secretions and then shed plenteously abroad in variety of Forms and Modifications as Hail Snow Rains or Dews Thus each Cause bears a Correspondence and Relation to the Faculties and Dispositions of that which is Subordinate and those Faculties bear a Reciprocal Correspondence to the Power and Agency of the next Superior One. There is such an orderly Connection such a close harmonious Confederacy between the several Parts of the World as they are placed and situate that as they all severally depend upon each other for their respective Operations so all jointly conspire to the Preservation and Maintenance of the whole which evidently shews That it could not be blind Fate or Fortune that linked together the Parts of the Universe into such an admirable League such an amicable State of Subserviency and Assistance but a most Wise and Beneficent Agent that from the beginning consulted and provided for the Good of all his Creatures and accordingly sitted their Powers to that great end For those Irrational Beings the glittering Lamps of Heaven the Air and Earth Vegetables and Creatures that are meerly sensitive cannot be suppos'd to understand the Ends and Scope the Reasons and Purposes of their Operations They are not the effects of any Deliberaration or choice of their own but the consequents of Necessity and therefore must be brought about by the directing Hand and Will of a God of Incomprehensive Power of Wisdom that they might bear witness of his Being and Providence and excite all Mankind to praise and glorigy the adorable Perfections of his Nature 3. The excellent Order of Creatures is seen in the Permanency of them in that State and Condition in which they have been placed This Permanency consisteth in two things 1. First In the entire continuance of their Natures The constituent principal Substances of the Universe are still the same they ever were since their first Formation in Number Measure and Weight Nothing of their Beauty is saded by Age nothing of Matter worn away by Motion no Parts lost quite by Accident nor any one Species annihilated by outward Violence or inward Insirmity and Decay Though Individuals upon the Terraqueous Globe dye daily or are cut off lest the Earth we inhabit and live upon and have our Food by should be over-stock'd yet all sorts and kinds of Beings remain from the glorious Furniture of the Firmament to the meanest Species of Flies and Worms All Vegetables propagate as in the beginning the diversity of Sexes Male and Female in all Animals continues on Men and Beasts increase and multiply and perform all their Natural Offices ever since the primordial Benediction But lest these things should be look'd upon as Productions of Course springing meerly from the Principles and Energy of Plastick Nature what think we of the Permanent Concinnity and State of the Air whose Salubrious Blasts Transparency proper Motions and all other uses it was intended for do still hold on notwithstanding all Nusances and Infections all Vicislitudes and Alterations and all those Disturbances Conflicts and Wars from contrary jarring Qualities which have been in it since its first Expansion What can we think of the Caelestial Host that for these Six thousand Years have been every minute casting and dispersing their enlivening Beams over the whole World What can we think of the Sun in particular that during such a long Tract and Succession of Ages has been every moment at so vast an Expence of Light and Heat its Body still continuing unimpaired and its Powers neither wasted nor disabled How could all this Conservation be without the help of an Almighty provident Hand that does by a sort of new Creation sustain and supply daily the several Branches of the Universe and did at first from them all so perfect in their Kinds and in order to their particular Ends and for the general Good of the whole that there is no mending the Creation no altering the Figure Posture Number or Frame of the Integral Parts of it no adding any new Species or destroying any old ones without disorder and detriment to the great Compages Secondly The permanent state of things is discernable as by the continuance of their Natures so by the constant tenor of their Operations and Motions witness for all those bright radiant Bodies over our heads whose circular Travels are so exactly periodical and their Influences so constant that they plainly shew there is a God above
said to be proportionable and the now received Opinion is that how numberless soever they be they are the principal ones especially so many lesser Suns or Sun-like Bodies But waving all pretences to exactness it must be granted on all hands that they are of vast Magnitudes how small soever they seem to us by reason of their great height and distance from us Which thing being duly considered What but an Omnipotent and most Intelligent Being can be thought to have formed such Worlds as it were of immense glorious Creatures wherewith the Firmament is adorned Can it be reasonble to conceive that such a vast orderly Host was raised by the Chance-Motion of senseless Atoms Or that Chance which never yet built a Cottage or drew a Picture or paved an House could first make and then furnish the Heavens after that magnificent and wonderful Cic de Nat. Dcor lib. 2. Manner Cicero considering those glittering Bodies in the Sky their Multitudes Greatness Motion Order and Commodious Situations so that instead of annoying the Earth they are serviceable and beneficial to all things in it could not but admire how it should enter into any Man's Heart to think that such a goodly beautiful Structure was framed by the fortuitous Concourse of blind and undesigning Particles of Matter that could never build a City or a Temple or a Portico After that rate says he they may as well believe that by throwing multitudes of Letters upon the ground Ennius his Annals may be made by chance so as to become a fair legible and intelligible Book whereas no one Verse was ever so composed And is not such a little thing more easy to be formed by chance than the large Volume of the World And hence that excellent Author proceeds to a Discourse of Aristotle's to this purpose Suppose some persons should have dwelt all their days under ground in stately Domicils adorned with Imagery and Pictures and furnish'd with all necessaries to make their lives happy and there should have heard some rumour of a Numen and Power Divine And suppose that after a while by the sudden opening of some Caverns of the Earth those Persons should step out into these Parts of the World and behold the Earth Sun and Heavens and observe the greatness of the Clouds the violence of the Winds the bigness beauty and influence of the Sun and that the Day dependeth upon his Presence And suppose when Night comes they should behold the Face of the Heavens so adorned the various aspects of the Moon the order and motion of the Stars their rising and setting and their stated and perpetual Courses when they saw all these things they could not but believe that there is a God and that these are the Works of God By these wise Meditations of intelligent Pagans we see that there are in the World and especially in the Heavens such Evidences of a Deity as shine bright upon the Mind so that plain honest Nature bears Witness to the Truth of that Psal 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work 2. If now in the next place we lower our Contemplations by taking our Eyes off from the Magnificence by God's Throne to behold a little what may be seen about his Footstool with what Pleasure and Ravishings may we find astonishing Objects for Number and Varieties In both respects they are next to Infinite Which shews that nothing but an Understanding infinitely perfect a Will infinitely essicacions and a Power infinitely extensive could give them a Being or preserve them in it because more must be suppos'd to be in the Agent especially in a voluntary and Divine Agent than is in its Effects First then as to the Number of them The most assuming Seepticks will not have the Considence to deny but that it is impossible for all Mankind to give a distinct Account of Individuals for who can be answerable for the Catalogue of Men only Indeed great pains have been taken by some critical Naturalists and particularly by that learned Author of our own before-mention'd to discover the Tale of Species or the several sorts and kinds of things with Life And because Books are not ready at every one's Hand let me give you the Summ in short which seemeth to be this The Species of Beasts certainly known and discover'd about 150. The Species of Birds about 500. The Species of Fishes above 3000. The Species of Insects 20000. And the Species of Plants above that Number But how well soever these worthy Observers and Secretaries of Nature have deserv'd of the World for their Curious and elaborate Enquiries still they speak but like Men whose Knowledge is and unavoidably must be of a short reach in comparison for what Men can be accountable for all the known Parts of the World and especially for those Parts which are as yet undiscover'd However the Estimate is the more laudable because it is modest there being Secondly great Variety as well as Numbers of things on Earth that are included and comprehended under one and the same Species which still shews the Beauty of the Creation the more As the Lilies for Example which though they are not allow'd a Specisick difference to make them every one a distinct sort or kind of Flower yet a Numerical difference must be allow'd them by reason of their plain difference as to Growth Colour Shape and Smell I use this Instance the rather because the Lord Jesus himself was pleas'd to send us to the Lilies of the field for our Instruction Math. 5. But the Observation extends to many other Productions wherein we find great diversity in one respect or other though they be of the same Kind And this variety of things which still operates conformably to their own Powers and Faculties carries with it a plain Stamp of an Hand acting with secundity of Power directed and govern'd by abundant Wisdom For though an Infinite Power may form things without Number or End yet the Beauty of that Power is best seen by the diversity of its Strokes which make up one comely and fair Composure as variety of agreeable Features and Lineaments make up a beautiful Face Such is the admirable Decorum that is in this spacious Universe in that it is not stock'd with numerous Generations of one Kind only which yet a boundless and uncontroulable Power cou'd have made but is checquer'd as was more agreeable to Wisdom with a Multiplicity of Species that the fecundity of the Power might be more wonderfully display'd the Glory of the Divine Goodness might be more visibly extended round about the World and that all Rational Creatures might be more easily and throughly taught to admire and adore that Munificent Being which from time to time maintaineth so many abundant sorts of Creatures at the constant charge of his Providence We see how one Creature is ministerial and serviceable to another as Grass is for the Cattel Fruits for Beasts Fowls and
greater than another and that the part is equal to the whole For let him six where he please in the Course of Generations I demand whether in the great Grand-father's time the Succession of Generations was Finite or Infinite If Finite then it had a beginning and so the World not Eternal If Infinite then I ask Whether there were not a longer Succession of Generations in the time of his great Grand-children and so there must be a number greater than that which was Infinite for the former Succession was Infinite and this hath more Generations in it than that had but if it be said That they were equal because both Insinite Then the Succession of Generations to the Grandfather being but a part of that which extends to his Grand-children and Posterity the part is equal to the whole This surely is enough to shew That according to common Reason the World once was not but that it must have had a beginning and consequently that there was a first Cause of it nay that the Existence of an higher Being was necessary to make it because whatever once was not could not be self-originated all that now Moves or Lives in the World could not produce or make it self but was brought into being by a most perfect Nature that was before it and superior to it that is by a Deity and by nothing less than a Deity for these five Reasons 1. First It was impossible for all Beings to be made for that would suppose that once there was nothing at all and then 't is confest on all hands that nothing could have been produced Therefore as it was necessary for the first Cause to be independent on any other for else it could not have been the first so it was necessary for that Cause to be unproduced by reason of the absolute Perfection and intrinsick plenitude of its own Essence so that it needed no hand from without to give it any thing 2. Secondly The first Cause having its being by necessity of Nature it was impossible for it to have any beginning For had it had a beginning like other things it must have taken it from some other Principle because whatever once wanted Origination could not give it to it self and consequently the Existence of the first Cause must have been contingent and precarious which would have destroyed the great Prerogative of its independence 3. Thirdly Considering that the several parts of the World were to take their Original out of a State of Non-existence it was impossible for the first Cause to have a Power limited and restrained by any thing without it For as nothing could hinder it from being by reason of its own necessary Existence so nothing could hinder it from acting by reason of its absolute Independence and consequently the First Cause had necessarily a Power of creating things out of nothing because if any preexistent Matter had been requisite for it to work on it must have depended upon Matter and been beholding to Matter for permitting it to act 4. Fourthly The Power of creating things being so necessarily great it was impossible for the First Cause to be made up of Matter For all Matter as such is an unactive stupid dead thing utterly uncapable of producing either it self or any other Being much less could it act with that wonderful Faecundity Counsel Wisdom and Benignity of Mind which the whole frame of Nature argues to be in the First Cause as shall be show'd in its due place 5. Fifthly It was impossible also for the First Cause of all things to be locally extended or to be circumscribed limited determined and confined to Place as Matter or Body is For being to raise up a vast Universe it was necessary for that most powerful Nature to be undividedly present to every part of the world which it acted upon and for the Management and Conservation of the Universe to contain it all within the Immensity of its own Essence Which Essence was necessarily boundless and unlimited because it was not possible to be produced by any other Being that could restrain define or bound its Immensity For as an excellent Writer Dr. Scot ' s Christian Life part 2. vol. 1. p. 193. well observes and argues that which limits Beings is only the Will or Power of their Causes which either would not or could not bestow any further Being or Perfection upon them and therefore only such things as have a Cause are limited because they being produced out of nothing are only so far and no farther brought into Being as their Cause was willing or able to bring them That therefore which exists of its self without any Cause of its Being must also exist of it self without any Limits of its Being by reason that it was neither limited by it self nor by any other Cause and that which hath nothing to limit it must necessarily be immense and boundless God therefore being this self-existent Being must necessarily be of an unlimited Essence an Essence which no possible Space can either circumscribe or define but must necessarily be diffused all through circumfused all about and present with all things The Existence then of such a perfect transcendent Being as hath been described was absolutely necessary in order to the production and formation of the world And hence we rationally assirm That before ever the Earth and the Heavens were made there was an Intellectual Nature that was to be the Cause of the whole World and that this Nature or First Being was and is Self-originated Eternal Omnipotent Incorporeal and Infinite In using which expressions we speak like men as we are able according to our Capacities and as the narrowness of our Faculties compared with the transcendency of the Object will allow us Our meaning more at large is this Considering that all the parts of the world were made by an Essicient Cause and that nothing could bring it self out of Non-existence into Being by reason that nothing could be before it self we must necessarily acknowledge That there is a First Cause of all things and that this First Cause was not made or produc'd by any other Which First Cause being altogether Independent existed by the absolute Necessity of its Nature by its own Perfection Permanency and Fulness and consequently was Eternal or of Infinite Duration because being unproduced it could not but be without any beginning And this Self-Existence includes Self-Activity suitable to the Perfections of an Eternal Nature that is a Power of producing and effecting whatever is possible in the Nature of the thing and doth not imply a Contradiction For all Impotence or Inability to operate is utterly inconsistent with the Perfections of a First Cause from which is derived all the Power that is in Second Causes Whence it follows That the First Cause could not be Matter a thing which of it self cannot live or move but a Spirit void of all Corporeal Substance an Eternal Mind able perfectly to exert and display its Power
may with infinite Satifaction find how exactly these Predictions were fulfilled 1. By Cyrus's getting the Power out of the hands of the Babylonians then by Alexander's getting it out of the hands of the Persians and then by the Romans wresting it out of the hands of Alexander's Successors and yet between the delivering and the fulfilling of Daniel's Prophecy there passed a Flux of about Five hundred years which doth manifestly argue the Existence of God who alone could at such a distance of time so infallibly and particularly foresee and predict Events that were in themselves so contingent and uncertan That it looks like an History rather than a Prediction To which purpose St. Jerome tells us of that great Blasphemer of Christ and his Religion Porphyry that reading the Proem in Dan. Book of Daniel and finding how exactly consonant the Events were to the Prophecy he could not but acknowledge the truth of the account but to evade the force of those Arguments which the Christians drew thence he betook himself to this senseless and absurd Pretence that the Book was not a Prediction written by Daniel but rather a Narrative of things that were done long after Daniel's time and written by some body else in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes 2. There is another sort of Predictions which relate peculiarly to Jesus Christ whom Daniel called before-hand Messiah the Prince Dan. 9. 25. Whereupon a very Mr. Mead B. 3. p. 861. Learned Writer observes That there is no other place of Scripture whence the Church of Israel did or could ascribe the Name of Christ and Messiah unto him they looked for but only this of Daniel For there is no other Prophecy in all the Old Testament besides this where that Name is directly given him but only by way of Type which makes it unquestionable that the Jews understood this Prophecy of that Great and Eminent Person whose coming into the World together with all the remarkable Circumstances which attended his Life and Death were long before so particularly foretold by several Prophets that those Predictions are not capable of being fairly applied to any other Person what arts soever some Jews and other misguided Men have used to wrest them another way That he was to be of the Seed of a Woman or that he was to appear in the Nature not of Angels but Men. That of all Mankind he was to spring from the Loins of Abraham That of Abraham's Posterity he was to descend only from Isaac That of all Isaac's Generation he was to be of the Tribe of Judah That of all that Tribe he was to be of the House and Lineage of David That a Virgin of David's Lineage was to conceive and bear him That Bethlehem was to be the place of his Nativity That he was to be a Prophet like unto Moses yet much above him That he was to do Miracles That he was to Preach good Tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted That he was to be a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief That he was to be despised and rejected of Men. That one of his own Familiars who should eat of his Bread would lift up his Heel against him That he should be sold for thirty pieces of Silver That he should be led to the Slaughter like a Lamb. That he should be numbred with the Transgressors That his Garments should be divided and Lots cast upon his Vesture That Vinegar should be given him to drink That in the midst of his Sufferings he should be scoffed at and reviled That he should make Intercession for Trangressors That for the Sins of People he should be smitten That he should make his Grave with the Rich. That not one of his Bones should be broken And that his Soul should not be left in Hell nor his Body suffer'd to see Corruption These things were foretold of Jesus Christ and taking them altogether in a sum it is impossible for an Insidel with any colour of Reason to apply them to any other but Jesus Christ only But one of the most remarkable things is That the time of Christ's appearing in the World was so plainly foretold by some of the Prophets that the Learned Jews found by their Calculations that about the time when Jesus Christ was born the promised Messiah was to come And hence it was that at that Juncture they were all full of Expectations of him Nor is it at all questionable but the time so agreeing with the Predictions they would joyfully and unanimously have received Jesus Christ as the Messiah had not his coming been in that mean and obscure Condition which was so great a surprize to those People who expected the Messiah would have been like a David or Solomon to have gone in and out before them with all possible Pomp Splendor and Magnificence The Prophet Haggai mentioned the time of his Appearance more largely Hag. 2. 7 9. The Substance of which Prediction was That the desire of all Nations that is the Messiah or Shiloh should come while the Temple which was then a building continued and was standing and that the Glory of that latter House should be greater than the Glory of the former which had been at so vast an Expence erected and finished by King Solomon Now this was fulfilled meerly by Christ's constant presence at that Temple some years before the Destruction of it by the Romans For in respect of the Structure and external Glory of it it fell so very short of the first that when the ancient Men who had seen the first House saw the Foundations of the second They wept with a loud voice as Ezra tells us Ezra 3. 12. And besides the Jewish Rabbins confess that five things were wanting to this Temple which the former was honoured with as so many Signs of the peculiar Presence of God's Majesty at it 1. The Urim and Thummim or those Stones upon the Breast-plate of the High Priest whereby God was wont to reveal his mind 2. The Ark of the Covenant from which the King and the High Priest did sometimes receive answers from God by a clear and audible Voice 3. The Fire that was wont to fall from Heaven to devour the Sacrifice upon the Altar 4. The Shekinah or Divine Power that was signified sometimes by the Pillar of a Cloud and by the Holy Oyl wherewith the King and High Priest were wont to be anointed And 5. the Spirit of Prophecy These glorious things being wanting at the second Temple whence could that great Glory predicted by Haggai proceed but from the Presence of Jesus Christ One that was the Brightness of his Father's Glory and the Glory of his People Israel One that was the true Urim and Thummim that revealed his Father's Will plainly to the World One that was the typified Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatory by his own Blood One that Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire the true Fire from Heaven where of the other was
Accident or Insirmity dasht and dissolved then they bring Death which in their Opinion is only the unclutching of Matter void of a spiritual intellectual distinct Substance that is said to return to a God to give an Account of its Actions at a Judgment-day Notions which these great Wits of the world as they take themselves to be believe to be nothing but the Inventions of Priests and Politicians to keep Mankind in slavery and to fright people out of their Senses Thus instead of believing in a God they believe in Matter and Motion in Space and Atoms in Chance and Fortune For according to them as things fall apieces by chance so it was by meer chance that they fell at first together not by the Hand and Directions of a Wise Omnipotent Agent that gave them their being by Lucky Hits by Casual Concurrences but by the succesful motions of Blind Senseless Atoms accidentally and fortuitously jumping together into great variety of Combinations and Figures and so continuing till Fortune that joined them makes them fly asunder again and till by some new Comical Motions they sorm themselves into new Shapes Now though the exposing of these Conceits be Consutation enough yet I would gravely ask these Wise Sages How it can consist with common Reason to imagine that the Fortuitous Motion of Stupid Unthinking Matter could compose all things into such excellent order as the most Intelligent Prudent Mind could not have made more apt and proper How could Blind and consequently Erroneous Chance without any deliberation pitch upon such Places to dispose every thing into as our common Senses shew to be most sit and commodious We see the Earth is Situate in the Center of the Universe to receive kindly and seasonable Influences Heat and Cold Drought and Moisture from all the Ambient Parts of this visible World The Firmament is expanded at such a convenient distance as that it can communicate its sweet Influences without exposing us and the things round about us to those Extremities of Heat or Cold whereby a greater Propinquity or Longinquity would cause Living Creatures to languish and dye Those Lucid Globes which enamel the Firmament are so appositely fix'd up and down every-where from Pole to Pole that the remotest Regions participate of their Virtues and Powers The Sun is determined to such a Fitting Course and to such Convenient Limits that by its Alternate Accesses and Recesses those Comforting Rays are dispersed over all the Earth which at proper Seasons produce Grass for the Cattle Bread to strengthen man's heart and Oil to make him a chearful Countenance and generous Wines to refresh and exhilerate his Spirits Under the Opposite Poles there are the great Treasures of Snow which yield to the Hotter Climates plenty of Rain and Refreshing Gales of Wind. Not to speak of the Commodious Position of the several Parts in Men Beasts and Plants which could not be alter'd I do not say without apparent Deformity but without insupportable Inconvenience and Prejudice to the whole Frame This is enough to shew that the several Branches of the Universe are so agreeably dispos'd and placed that without betraying our Reason and the use of our Faculties we cannot impute those Positions to the casual motion of blind senseless undeliberating Atoms but must look upon them as the Results of Design and Choice and as Arguments of an Intellectual Provident Being over all who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will or according to the Best and Wisest Reasons Ephes 1. 11. Again Let me ask our pretending Philosophers How can it consist with common Reason to conceive That those Congruities and Relations which these several parts of the world bare to each other those Aptitudes and Concinnities which are between the Disposition of some things and the Faculties of others so that this thing is for the use of that and that thing reciprocally fitted for this how I say can these mutual Correspondences be rationally ascribed to nothing but mere Fortune and Chance Is not the Eye fitted for the seeing of Light and Light fitted for the use of the Eye Are not all the Senses adapted to their proper Objects and those Objects adapted to gratify the Senses Is not the Air a proper vehicle for Volatile Creatures and the Frame of those Creatures suited to the Contexture of the Air Are not the Waters agreeable to Fish and the Nature of Fish so adapted to the Waters that they cannot subsist in a thinner Element In short Are not the parts of Nature's great Fabrick so congruously fitted to each other like so many Springs and Wheels in the most curious piece of Art that there is no taking away a part without disordering and disjoynting the whole And how can all this be thought to proceed from Chance any more than the Frame of a Watch or a Clock These things shew that they were intended for Ends and where Ends are to be served there must be Knowledge Counsel and Forecast how to make choice of proper Means and how to fit those Means together for due application And when we see the Parts of the whole World so admirably fitted suited and adapted to each other in such exquisite Order What extreme sottishness is it not to attribute those Congruities to stupid blundering Fortune which are so many Sculptures of a Divine Hand so many plain Evidences of the Wisest Mind and the Highest Reason Once more let me ask How it can consist with Reason to believe that this vast Compages could hold and continue in the same excellent Order for so many Thousand years together if it fell into it at the first by mere Accident Or how it could come to pass that the Parts of it have not been as yet Disunited and Scatter'd by Motion if nothing but Fortuitous Motion joined them All Motion serveth especially if it be violent and swift either to Wear away Matter by degrees or to Dissolve and Dissipate the Particles on a sudden and to make all about it fly as we see clearly by the rapid Revolutions of every Wheel about its Axis Supposing then one or other of these Three things which are the principal accounts either that the Earth alone whirls about upon an Axis of its own or that the Heavens turn round upon the great Axis of the Universe the Earth lying quiet and the Sun moving both forward and retrograde perpetually or thirdly That the motion is divided the Earth doing the Diurnal part and the Sun absolving that part which is Annual which of these Opinions soever men are pleased to follow they must grant on all hands that the motions are performed with the greatest velocity and quickness And how then can so many Combinations of Atoms be rationally supposed able to have still held it out against the utmost Rapidity and that all along during the Succession of so many Years and Ages so that in all this time neither the Parts of any one moving Body have been impaired nor
is in its Nature of a comforting cherishing and quickning Faculty so are its Courses such as render its Powers every where effectually useful Had it been fixt over any one determinate Part of the Earth in a State unmoveable it would have been not only useless but pernicious unto all things for as the Parts of the World out of the reach of its Beams would have been in an eternal State of Darkness and Death so the very Regions under the Sun must have been parched up and consequently desolate and uninhabitable by means of those continual Fires which would have turned all into a kind of Conflagration Therefore 't is as necessary for the good of the Creation that the Sun should move as that it should give light and warmth and that Motion being two-fold Diurnal finish'd in 24 Hours and Annual performed in 12 Months all things living receive such vast Utilities by both as argue the Existence of a most wise and provident Being whose Goodness is over all his Works By the Diurnal Motion of the Sun there are constant stated returns of Light and Darkness and by those Vicissitudes as all Animals have their Time divided between Labour and Rest which is as necessary for them as Labour and as their Food which is acquired by Labour and repairs those Expences of Nature which Labour brings so are those Productions which serve for Food prepared and ascertained by these daily Revolutions In the Day time the Beams of the Sun serve to heat the Ground to actuate the principles of vegetation to promote the ascent of vital Juices to concoct and ripen Fruits and to impregnate the Atmosphere with Fumes and Vapours And in the Night those Vapours descend upon the Ground again in Dews Showers or Rains according to the Necessities of the Climate by which means there is a due Temperament of Warmth and Moisture that makes all Vegetables Fruitful and preserves Animals in a state of Health and Vigour witness those Regions under the Line where the Sun shines the hotest though the Ancients believed they were all roasted into utter Barreness yet by Discoveries which have been made since it appears that the heats and droughts of the Day are so allay'd by the constant Breezes and Rains of the Night that they are the most fertil parts of the World By the Annual Course of the Sun which carries it about from North to South and so round again it disperseth its vivisick Rays over all restores yearly all the Powers of Nature makes all People amends for its late distance from them and takes its Circuit so that one Sun serves all Climates and answers the Necessities of all the World 'T is true some places are much more remote from the Sun than others are as those extreme parts of the Earth call'd The Northern and Southern Poles But then it is to be consider'd that the Fruits and Animals of those Countreys are such as do not require so great degrees of external Heat And besides there are other Stars which cast in those parts a more proper kindly and if I may so speak connatural Influence especially the Moon of which Luminary it is observable that it is the Sun's Deputy to supply its Room in its absence and as the Moon moves further towards the North and South than the Sun ever does so is it fullest of Light and consequently of enliveing Influences when the Sun is at the greatest distance from it towards the one part or the other so that there is the most benefit by the Moon in those Regions and at those Seasons of the Year when and where the Sun is most wanting All which shews that there is a most wise and beneficent Being over all who formed the Substances of those glorious Luminaries and directed all their Course as he foresaw would be best for the World because it is impossible to conceive rationally how Creatures utterly void of Reason and Sense as the Sun and Moon are cou'd without the directions of Divine Reason and without the appointment of a Divine Will pitch upon such regular and proper Motions that if they had had the highest Reason of their own they could not have determined upon better Courses for the service and good of the Universe To descend now a little lower every one perceives how useful that thin Medium is between Heaven and Earth which we call the Air how it transmits the Light of Heaven to us how it delights our Ears with many Natural and Artificial Undulations how it helps us with Breath how it supplies us with the seasonable Advantages of Heat and Cold of Drought and Moisture what a Vehicle it is for vast variety of useful Creatures and how it openeth its Treasures to make the whole Earth communicate of its Plenty And what but a Divine Mind and an Omnipotent Hand could have made this Medium of such a necessary and fit Contexture as to answer all these Purposes Could Fortune and Atoms contrive to breathe into the Nostrils of every Animal such a common breath of Life Could they make it fluid to assist the flight of every Fowl and to suit with every Vibration of its Wings Could they store it with Insects for every Bat and Swallow to live on Could they give it an agreeable thickness to refract the Light and by those Refractions to bring all Forms Shapes and Colours to the Eye in their proper Idea's Could they provide Winds to keep it from Stagnation and Frosts and Snows Lightnings and Thunders to carry off those Impurities which would prove very prejudicial to our Lives Could they impregnate it with Nitrous Particles to make the Blood in an Animals Lungs the more Spirituous Could they direct it to warm and irrigate the whole Earth like the Mist which Moses says went up from the earth in the beginning and watered the whole face of the ground Gen. 6. 2. Is it reasonable to imagine that stupid Matter and the undirected Motion of diminutive Particles could contrive or do all these wise and good things without the guidance of a super-intending Power that gave every thing a Law This were to make senseless Matter and Motion capable and conscious of such Philosophy as the wisest Philosophers have stood astonisht at in all Ages To go on They that go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters these men saith the Psalmist see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep Psalm 107. 23 24. How wantonly soever some conceited Men talk of Atoms falling by Chance into Pebbles and Sands it seems prodigiously strange they should believe the whole Ocean also to have been made by an accidental Composition of them An Element of such vast extent and depths and so aptly contriv'd for great ends and uses that one would think whoever has but heard of a God would presently conclude it to have been form'd by Divine Art and Counsel For what could it be but Wisdom that made it a sluid liquid
have Memory to be nothing but the decaying remainder of Motion like the sound about a Bell when it has done ringing And every act and determination of the Will they would have to be Clinamen Principiorum or a declination of Atoms from a kind of perpendicular Line in which they suppose them to have hung before So that according to these Men every Operation of the Soul lieth in Atoms and is derived from Atoms which Whimsies deserve Laughter rather than any grave or sober Confutation For is it possible for Men of true solid Reason to believe that Atoms can be a bubling Fountain of Thoughts That they can study contemplate perceive argue form Opinions resolve Doubts discover Truth find out the different Natures of Good and Evil direct our Actions tell us what we must Do and what we must Avoid promise Rewards or threaten us with Punishment Nay inflict Punishment presently and plague wicked People with the intolerable Smart that attends an evil Conscience They may as well say that Atoms can write Books that the whole material World is an Academy of all manner of Learning and that the Motes which we see dancing in the Sun-beams are so many Historians Orators Philosophers and Divines The truth is 'T is not Reason that is the Ground-work of those wild Conceits but a sad Necessity they bring upon themselves of running to the most monstrous Absurdities to avoid all Thoughts of a God whose Existence they have disowned For it there be such a thing as a rational Soul distinct from Matter and Body it must inevitably follow that there is also a Deity who gave it its Being because nothing but a Deity could give it Therefore they who have the Front to deny the Being of a Deity are forced to deny the immateriality of the Soul of course And yet that the Soul is immaterial its excellent Powers Faculties and Operations will convince any one that will but lay his Hand upon his Heart and give himself leave to think soberly For if the Soul be Matter How came Men to dispute about its Immateriality How had the Mind any Notion of it How did the Mind get it at first since it is infinitely too high for Matter Nay since the Notion of Incorporiety is so contrary and repugnant to the Nature and Notion of Matter If the Soul be Matter How comes it to judge of material Representations and to discover those Impostures and Cheats which Matter many times puts upon the Imagination As for instance The Sun is found to be vastly bigger than the whole Earth though it appears to the Eye and Fansie to be but a Foot wide There are a thousand other Errors wherewith our Senses and Imaginations are apt to be deluded And how could the Mind look through all those Errors into the Truth and Reality of things if it were not a nobler Being than Matter that measures sensible Objects by intelligible Ideas of its own which are the proper Criterions of Truth If the Soul were Matter How could it be capable of Reflecting within it self Or how could it Recollect so many things done long ago in the Days of ones Minority and Recover so many fugitive Ideas as we find it doth Command and this by a native Power of its own purely by the strength of thinking Matter cannot act upon Matter but by some impulse from without it much less can it act upon it self as the Soul does by a peculiar Faculty it has of casting about and of rouling Thoughts within the Minds and therefore it must be a noble Being distinct from Matter that hath a Principle of Activity and an Empire within it self If it were Matter How could it command the Body in every Instance and make it obey at Pleasure Nay how could it command it self to think on this Subject or that as it listeth To go on a Meditating or give it over To resolve upon that Action or another without controul How could it forsee deliberate or advise How could it entertain any inward Pleasures and Joys impressions which Matter can no more receive than Rocks can dance How could it contemplate so excellent a Being as a Deity Or discourse of Eternity and another World Or possess wicked Wretches with such Fears as they can never quite rid their Mind of Or fill good Men with comfortable Hopes of a Reward The natures of Good and Evil and the Ideas of Divine Justice and Benignity are too Sublime to fall under Sense nor can they be incident to Matter and he must have the most ridiculous Conceptions in the World of his own Frame who thinks that the Operations and Perfections of his Soul are no higher or better than what Clay or Pebbles or Chips would be capable of were their Particles but otherwise modified Hence we infer That the rational Soul is of far higher Extraction than what Stone or Timber can pretend to That it is infinitely of a more noble Nature than Atoms of Dust And that its Operations and Perfections are vastly different from the Properties of Matter how fine soever you suppose it to be And therefore it will follow either that these Operatiosn and Perfections sprang from Nothing or that there is a Being of the most eminent and absolute Perfections from whom they are derived which indeed is the only true and satisfactory Account that can be given of the Nature and Faculties of a rational Soul I have hitherto argued from Reason only because they who deny the Existence of a Deity are constrained by necessary Consequence to deny Divine Revelation too and the Authority of the Holy Scriptures However we may ex abundanti observe what Moses tells us Gen. 1. 27. God created man in his own image in the image of God created be him And what St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. 7. That a man is the image and glory of God Which places of Scripture though they are to be understood partly of that Dominion Authority and Power which God hath given Man as his Vicegerent and Representative over all things here below yet do they I conceive speak also and perhaps chiefly of that Similitude and Resemblance which the Soul of every one of us does in its Frame bear of the Divine Nature and Perfections which will a little further shew its Excellence and consequently the Existence of a super-eminent Being whose Stamp and Impress it carries as far as the Capacities of a Creature can admit it We find how volatile and nimble our Thoughts are how soon they reach the very ends of the Earth how quickly they compass Sea and Land with what Facility they mount to Heaven how speedily they take a view of the whole Frame of Nature as it were at once and with what Celerity the Mind does gather and comprehend within it self so many different Ideas And what is this but an imperfect Representation of the Omnipresence of that God Who is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24. Nay Whom the heaven and
it self At present I shall conclude with a devout Hymn out of the Writings of the Holy Psalmist who considering the transcendent Greatness of God's Majesty the Glory of his Nature the Variety of his Works and his stupendious Wisdom Power and Goodness throughout all summon'd the whole World to join with him in the Adoration of their great and only Creator O praise the Lord of heaven praise him in the height ... Praise him all ye angels of his praise him all his host Praise him sun and moon praise him all ye stars and light Praise him all ye heavens and ye water that are above the heavens Let them praise the name of the Lord for he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created He hath made them fast for ever and ever he hath given them a law which shall not be broken Praise the Lord upon earth ye dragons and all deeps Fire and hail snow and vapours wind and storm fulfilling his word Mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars Beasts and all cattel worms and feathered fowls Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the world Young men and maidens old men and children praise the name of the Lord for his name only is excellent and his praise above heaven and earth Psalm 148. O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his in all places of his dominion Praise thou the Lord O my soul Psalm 103. 22. 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but a typical Representation And one who received not the Spirit by measure but was anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his Fellows But the Prophet Daniel pointed out the time of his coming after a more close and precise manner Dan. 9. 24 25 26 27. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks after that the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the oblation and sacrifice to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate As to the exposition of this Prophecy all Writers are agreed that according to the language and custom of the Jews by a week is understood not seven days but seven years that is seventy times seven years or four hundred and ninety years in all And the plain sense of the Prediction may be comprised within these Observations as far as it concerns my present purpose 1. First That from the second building of the Temple and City of Jerusalem to the last destruction of both there was alotted the space of four hundred and ninety years to be computed from the time of the publication of an Edict by some Persian King for this second Building 2. That within the compass of those four hundred and ninety years Sin should be expiated true substantial Righteousness grounded upon eternal Reasons should be preached the old Prophecies should be fulfilled Messiah the Prince should be cut off and afterwards instated in his everlasting Kingdom The rest of the Prediction relates to the destruction of Jerusalem of which I shall take notice by and by Thus much of it is concerning the Advent Life Death and Unction of the Messiah Now to lay aside the various perplexing Accounts given by inquisitive men touching the exact Impletion of every part of this Prophecy these two things are very evident 1. First That the rebuilding and final devastation of the Holy Temple and City was according to the time alotted the seventy weeks of years For though the Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return into their Land out of their Captivity and to begin the restoration of the Temple yet the great Edict the successful Commandment for the restoring and building Jerusalem was given by that Persian King called Darius Nothus Ezra 6. And from the third year of his Reign when the work of the Temple by the incitement of Haggai and Zachary renewed the year before was now confirmed by a new Edict from the King to be finished unto the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus are exactly four hundred and ninety years that is seventy weeks of years fully complete as a Learned Mede B. 3. pag. 858 859. Writer hath computed the time to my hands 2. Secondly It is most evident that before the expiration of these four hundred and ninety years while the Temple and City of Jerusalem were yet standing Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh that he fulfilled all Righteousness in his own Person and taught all others to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world that he offer'd up himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the Sins of all men that to him all the Prophets did bear witness and in him their Prophecies did terminate and that upon his Resurrection and Ascension he was exalted unto the right hand of God and all Power was given him in Heaven and in Earth according to Daniel's Prediction And now to return to our Argument How was it possible for Daniel or for any other man to have foretold these Events so exactly and so long before without immediate Revelation from a Divine Omniscient Being who foresaw nay fore-appointed the whole series and course of these things from the beginning to the end And consequently How is it possible for any man of common reason or sense to question the Existence of such a Being for these things could not depend upon any natural Causes No the Advent Sufferings and Glorifying of the Messiah were purely the result of a Divine Decree and therefore could not have been predicted or foreseen but by that Divine Being who had decreed all and by whose determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge Jesus Christ was delivered to the Jews as St. Peter told them Acts 2. 23. 3. The like is to be said of those other Predictions which relate to some remarkable and memorable Events after Christ's departure out of the world and they were chiefly these three 1. The Destruction of Jerusalem 2. The Propagation of the Christian Faith And 3dly the dispersed and reproachful Condition of the Jews 1. As Daniel foretold the Desolations that would come upon Jerusalem so did the Messiah himself foretel that there should not be left one stone of the temple upon another which should not be thrown down Matth. 24. 2. And a little further he said When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in or about the holy place let them which be in Judea fly to the mountains ver 15 16. This by the way shews that the computation of Daniel's seventy weeks is to be carried on to the time of Jerusalem's destruction for there the four hundred and ninety years end and not before as we see by our Saviour's referring to that Prediction when he spake of that Desolation These Predictions were accomplish'd about forty years after the Messiah's Crucifixion and in that Juncture the several parts of those Predictions were answer'd to the full Then the Jews saw the abomination of Desolation which Daniel had spoken of meaning the Roman Heathen Armies with the Heathen Figures in their Military Banners expanded about the Holy City Then were the people of the Prince that is their Commander Titus come to destroy the City and the Sanctuary Then did Titus his Forces over-run the Land of Judoea like a Flood and make it desolate Then was the Temple laid waste and the Oblations and Sacrifices which were wont to be in it were made to cease And then was the Consummation which Daniel foretold or the End which was determined upon the Desolate namely the utter