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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69557	A confutation of atheism from the origin and frame of the world. Part II a sermon preached at St. Martin's in the Fields, November the 7th, 1692 : being the seventh of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... / by Richard Bentley ...	Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1917; ESTC R15263	17,373	40

impress'd on them this Gravitating Energy toward all other Matter and a transverse Impulse of a just quantity in each projecting them directly in Tangents to those Orbs. The Compound Motion which arises from this Gravitation and Projection together describes the present Revolutions of the Primary Planets about the Sun and of the Secondary about Those the Gravity prohibiting that they cannot recede from the Centers of their Motions and the transverse Impulse with-holding that they cannot approach to them Now although Gravity could be innate which we have proved that it cannot be yet certainly this projected this transverse and violent Motion can only be ascribed to the Right hand of the most high God Creator of Heaven and Earth But finally though we grant that these Circular Revolutions could be naturally attained or if they will that this very individual World in its present posture and motion was actually formed out of Chaos by Mechanical Causes yet it requires a Divine Power and Providence to have conserved it so long in the present state and condition We have shewed that there is a Transverse Impulse impress'd upon the Planets which retains them in their several Orbs that they be not drawn down by their gravitating Powers toward the Sun or other central Bodies Gravity we understand to be a constant Energy or Faculty which God hath infused into Matter perpetually acting by certain Measures and naturally inviolable Laws I say a Faculty and Power for we cannot conceive that the Act of Gravitation of this present Moment can propagate it self or produce that of the next But 't is otherwise as to the Transverse Motion which by reason of the Inactivity of Matter and its inability to change its present State either of Moving or Resting would from one single Impulse continue for ever equal and uniform unless changed by the resistence of occurring Bodies or by a Gravitating Power so that the Planets since they move Horizontally whereby Gravity doth not affect their swiftness and through the liquid and unresisting Spaces of the Heavens where either no Bodies at all or inconsiderable ones do occur may preserve the same Velocity which the first Impulse imprest upon them not only for five or six thousand years but many Millions of Millions It appears then that if there was but One Vast Sun in the Universe and all the rest were Planets revolving around him in Concentric Orbs at convenient Distances such a System as that would very long endure could it but naturally have a Principle of Mutual Attraction and be once actually put into Circular Motions But the Frame of the present World hath a quite different structure here 's an innumerable multitude of Fixt Starrs or Suns all of which are demonstrated and supposed also by our Adversaries to have Mutual Attraction or if they have not even Not to have it is an equal Proof of a Divine Being that hath so arbitrarily indued Matter with a Power of Gravity not essential to it and hath confined its action to the Matter of its own Solar System I say all the Fixt Starrs have a principle of mutual Gravitation and yet they are neither revolved about a common Center nor have any Transverse Impulse nor any thing else to restrain them from approaching toward each other as their Gravitating Powers incite them Now what Natural Cause can overcome Nature it self What is it that holds and keeps them in fixed Stations and Intervals against an incessant and inherent Tendency to desert them Nothing could hinder but that the Outward Starrs with their Systems of Planets must necessarily have descended toward the middlemost System of the Universe whither all would be the most strongly attracted from all parts of a Finite Space It is evident therefore that the present Frame of Sun and Fixt Starrs could not possibly subsist without the Providence of that almighty Deity who spake the word and they were made who commanded and they were created who hath made them Fast for ever and ever and hath given them a Law which shall not be broken 2. And secondly in the Supposition of an infinite Chaos 't is hard indeed to determin what would follow in this imaginary Case from an innate Principle of Gravity But to hasten to a conclusion we will grant for the present that the diffused Matter might convene into an infinite Number of great Masses at great distances from one another like the Starrs and Planets of this visible part of the World But then it is impossible that the Planets should naturally attain these circular Revolutions either by intrinsec Gravitation or the impulse of ambient Bodies It is plain here is no difference as to this whether the World be Infinite or Finite so that the same Arguments that we have used before may be equally urged in this Supposition And though we should concede that these Revolutions might be acquired and that all were settled and constituted in the present State and Posture of Things yet we say the continuance of this Frame and Order for so long a duration as the known ages of the World must necessarily infer the Existence of God For though the Universe was Infinite the Fixt Starrs could not be fixed but would naturally convene together and confound System with System for all mutually attracting every one would move whither it was most powerfully drawn This they may say is indubitable in the case of a Finite World where some Systems must needs be Outmost and therefore be drawn toward the Middle but when Infinite Systems succeed one another through an Infinite Space and none is either inward or outward may not all the Systems be situated in an accurate Poise and because equally attracted on all sides remain fixed and unmoved But to this we reply That unless the very mathematical Center of Gravity of every System be placed and fixed in the very mathematical Center of the Attractive Power of all the rest they cannot be evenly attracted on all sides but must preponderate some way or other Now he that considers what a mathematical Center is and that Quantity is infinitly divisible will never be persuaded that such an Universal Equilibrium arising from the coincidence of Infinite Centers can naturally be acquired or maintain'd If they say that upon the Supposition of Infinite Matter every System would be infinitly and therefore equally attracted on all sides and consequently would rest in an exact Equilibrium be the Center of its Gravity in what Position soever This will overthrow their very Hypothesis at this rate in an infinite Chaos nothing at all could be formed no Particles could convene by mutual Attraction for every one there must have Infinite Matter around it and therefore must rest for ever being evenly balanced between Infinite Attractions Even the Planets upon this principle must gravitate no more toward the Sun than any other way so that they would not revolve in curve Lines but fly away in direct Tangents till they struck against other Planets or Starrs in some remote regions of the Infinite Space An equal Attraction on all sides of all Matter is just equal to no Attraction at all and by this means all the Motion in the Universe must proceed from external Impulse alone which we have proved before to be an incompetent Cause for the Formation of a World And now O thou almighty and eternal Creator having consider'd the Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Starrs which thou hast ordained with all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High FINIS Serm. V. p. 6 7. Serm. V. p. 12 13. Mr. Boyle's Physicom Exp. of Air. Hydrostat Paradoxes Lucret. lib. 1. Newton Philos Natur. Princ. Math. lib. 3. prop. 6. Mr. Boyle of Air and Porosity of Bodies Mr. Boyle ibid. Newton Philos Nat. Principia Math. p. 503. * Diod. Sicul. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoll. Rhodius lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Lucret. Nec regione loci certa nec tempore certo Serm. V. p. 32. Newton ibidem p. 480. Vide Serm. VI. Serm. VIII Newton Philosophiae Naturalis Princ. Math. lib. III. Psal 148. Psal 8.

A Confutation of Atheism FROM THE Origin and Frame of the WORLD PART II. A SERMON Preached at St. Martin's in the Fields NOVEMBER the 7 th 1692. Being the Seventh of the Lecture Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By RICHARD BENTLEY M. A. Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester LONDON Printed for H. Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard 1693. Imprimatur Ra. Barker R mo in Christo Patriac D no D no Johanni Archiep. Cantuar à Sacris Domest LAMBHITH Novemb. 10. 1692. Acts XIV 15 c. That ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein Who in times past suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did Good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling our hearts with Food and Gladness WHen we first enter'd upon this Topic the demonstration of God's Existence from the Origin and Frame of the World we offer'd to prove four Propositions 1. That this present System of Heaven and Earth cannot possibly have subsisted from all Eternity 2. That Matter consider'd generally and abstractly from any particular Form and Concretion cannot possibly have been eternal Or if Matter could be so yet Motion cannot have coexisted with it eternally as an inherent property and essential attribute of Matter These two we have already established in the preceding Discourse we shall now shew in the third place 3. That though we should allow the Atheists that Matter and Motion may have been from everlasting yet if as they now suppose there were once no Sun nor Starrs nor Earth nor Planets but the Particles that now constitute them were diffused in the mundane Space in manner of a Chaos without any concretion and coalition those dispersed Particles could never of themselves by any kind of Natural motion whether call'd Fortuitous or Mechanical have conven'd into this present or any other like Frame of Heaven and Earth I. And first as to that ordinary Cant of illiterate and puny Atheists the fortuitous or casual concourse of Atoms that compendious and easy Dispatch of the most important and difficult affair the Formation of a World besides that in our next undertaking it will be refuted all along I shall now briefly dispatch it from what hath been formerly said concerning the true notions of Fortune and Chance Whereby it is evident that in the Atheistical Hypothesis of the World's production Fortuitous and Mechanical must be the self-same thing Because Fortune is no real entity nor physical essence but a mere relative signification denoting only this That such a thing said to fall out by Fortune was really effected by material and necessary Causes but the Person with regard to whom it is called Fortuitous was ignorant of those Causes or their tendencies and did not design nor foresee such an effect This is the only allowable and genuine notion of the word Fortune But thus to affirm that the World was made fortuitously is as much as to say That before the World was made there was some Intelligent Agent or Spectator who designing to do something else or expecting that something else would be done with the Materials of the World there were some occult and unknown motions and tendencies in Matter which mechanically formed the World beside his design or expectation Now the Atheists we may presume will be loth to assert a fortuitous Formation in this proper sense and meaning whereby they will make Understanding to be older than Heaven and Earth Or if they should so assert it yet unless they will affirm that the Intelligent Agent did dispose and direct the inanimate Matter which is what we would bring them to they must still leave their Atoms to their mechanical Affections not able to make one step toward the production of a World beyond the necessary Laws of Motion It is plain then that Fortune as to the matter before us is but a synonymous word with Nature and Necessity It remains that we examin the adequate meaning of Chance which properly signifies That all events called Casual among inanimate Bodies are mechanically and naturally produced according to the determinate figures and textures and motions of those Bodies with this negation only That those inanimate Bodies are not conscious of their own operations nor contrive and cast about how to bring such events to pass So that thus to say that the World was made casually by the concourse of Atoms is no more than to affirm that the Atoms composed the World mechanically and fatally only they were not sensible of it nor studied and consider'd about so noble an undertaking For if Atoms formed the World according to the essential properties of Bulk Figure and Motion they formed it mechanically and if they formed it mechanically without perception and design they formed it casually So that this negation of Consciousness being all that the notion of Chance can add to that of Mechanism We that do not dispute this matter with the Atheists nor believe that Atoms ever acted by Counsel and Thought may have leave to consider the several names of Fortune and Chance and Nature and Mechanism as one and the same Hypothesis Wherefore once for all to overthrow all possible Explications which Atheists have or may assign for the formation of the World we will undertake to evince this following Proposition II. That the Atoms or Particles which now constitute Heaven and Earth being once separate and diffused in the Mundane Space like the supposed Chaos could never without a God by their Mechanical affections have convened into this present Frame of Things or any other like it Which that we may perform with the greater clearness and conviction it will be necessary in a discourse about the Formation of the World to give you a brief account of some of the most principal and systematical Phaenomena that occurr in the World now that it is formed 1. The most considerable Phaenomenon belonging to Terrestrial Bodies is the general action of Gravitation whereby All known Bodies in the vicinity of the Earth do tend and press toward its Center not only such as are sensibly and evidently Heavy but even those that are comparatively the Lighted and even in their proper place and natural Elements as they usually speak as Air gravitates even in Air and Water in Water This hath been demonstrated and experimentally proved beyond contradiction by several ingenious Persons of the present Age but by none so perspicuously and copiously and accurately as by the Honourable Founder of this Lecture in his incomparable Treatises of the Air and Hydrostaticks 2. Now this is the constant Property of Gravitation That the weight of all Bodies around the Earth is ever proportional to the Quantity of their Matter As for instance a Pound weight examin'd Hydrostatically of all kinds of Bodies