as he is Obnoxious to him but as he is a Rational Creature and that the thing that is not a duty in its own nature may become an indispensible one barely by its being commanded And indeed if our first Parent in the state of Innocency and Happiness wherein he tasted of Gods Bounty without as yet standing in need of his Mercy was most strictly obliged out of meer Obedience to conform to a Law the matter of which was indifferent in it self sure we in our laps'd condition must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God whereby we are enjoyned to study his Truths and perform that which has so much of intrinsick Goodness in it that it would be a duty though it were not commanded and has such Recompences proposed to it that it is not more a Duty then it will be an Advantage But it is not onely Obedience and Interest that should engage us to the study of Divine things but Gratitude and that exacted by so many important Motives that he who said Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris could not think Ingratitude so much worse than ordinary Vices as a contempt of the Duty I am pressing would be worse than an ordinary Ingratitude It were not difficult on this occasion to manifest that we are extremely great Debtors unto God both as he is the Authour and the Preserver of our very Beings and as he immediately or mediately fills up the measure of those continual Benefits with all the Prerogatives and other Favours we do receive from him as Men and the higher Blessings which if we are not wanting to our selves we may receive from him as Christians But to shew in how many Particulars and to how high a Degree God is our Benefactor were to lanch out into too Immense a Subject which 't were the less proper for me to do because I have in other Papers discours'd of those matters already I will therefore single out a Motive of Gratitude which will be peculiarly pertinent to our present purpose For whereas your Friend does so highly value himself upon the Study of Natural Philosophy and despises not onely Divines but States-men and even the Learned'st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge because they are not vers'd in Physicks he ows to God that very Skill among many other Vouchsafements For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule who have no understanding and endow'd him with that noble power of Reason by the exercise of which he attains to whatever knowledge he has of Natural things above the Beasts that perish For that may justly be applied to our other Acquisitions which Moses by Gods appointment told the Israelites concerning the Acquists of Riches where he bids the people beware That when their Herds and their Flocks and other Treasures were multipli'd their heart be not lifted up and prompt them to say My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth But subjoyns that excellent Person as well as Matchless Law-giver Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth But to make Men Rational Creatures is not all God has done towards the making them Philosophers For to the knowledge of particular things Objects are as well requisite as Faculties and if we admit the probable Opinion of Divines who teach us that the Angels were created before the Material World as being meant by those Sons of God and Morning Stars that with glad Songs and Acclamations celebrated the Foundations of the Earth we must allow that there were many creatures endowed with at least as much Reason as your Friend who yet were unacquainted with the Mysteries of Nature since She her self had not yet receiv'd a Being Wherefore God having as well made the World as given Man the Faculties whereby he is enabled to contemplate it Naturalists are as much obliged to God for their Knowledge as we are for our Intelligence to those that write us Secrets in Cyphers and teach us the skill of decyphering things so written or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Peny and present us to boot a Microscope to enable us to read it And as the Naturalist hath peculiar Inducements to Gratitude for the Endowment of Knowledge so Ingenuity lays this peculiar Obligation on him to express his Gratitude in the way I have been recommending That 't is one of the acceptablest ways it can be express'd in especially since by this way Philosophers may not onely exercise their own gratitude towards God but procure him that of others How pleasing mens hearty Praises are to God may appear among other things by what is said and done by that Royal Poet whom God was pleased to declare a man after his own heart for he introduces God pronouncing Whoso offereth Praise glorifieth me where the word our Interpreters render offereth in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice with which agrees that else-where those that pay God their Praises are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips And that excellent Person to whom God vouchsafed so particular a Testimony was so assiduous in this Exercise that the Book which we following the Greek call Psalms is in the Original from the things it most abounds with called Sepher Tehillim i. e. The Book of Praises And to let you see that many of his Praises were such as the Naturalist may best give he exclaims in one place How manifold are thy works O Lord how wisely hast thou made them as Junius and Tremellius render it and the Hebrew will bear and else-where The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work c. Again in another place I will praise thee because I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well And not content with many of the like Expressions he does several times in a devout Transport and Poetical strain invite the Heavens and the Stars and the Earth and the Seas and all the other Inanimate Creatures to joyn with him in the celebration of their common Maker Which though it seem to be meerly a Poetical Scheme yet in some sort it might become a Naturalist who by making out the Power Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator and by reflecting thence on those Particulars wherein those Attributes shine may by such a devout Consideration of the Creatures make them in a sense joyn with him in glorifying their Author In any other case I dare say your Friend is not so ill natur'd but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude if some great and excellent Prince having freely and transcendently obliged him he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars relating to the Person and Affairs
contain nothing else that were very Considerable yet that Book would highly deserve our Curiosity and Gratitude And on this occasion I must by no means leave unobserv'd another Advantage that we have from some Discourses made us in the Bible since it too highly concerns us not to be a very Great one and it is That the Scripture declares to us the Judgment that God is pleas'd to make of some particular Men upon the Estimate of their Life and Deportment For though Reason alone and the Grounds of Religion in general may satisfie us in some measure that God is Good and Merciful and therefore 't is likely he may Pardon the sins and frailties of Men and accept of their Imperfect Services yet besides that we do not know whether He will Pardon unless we have His Promise of it besides this I say though by vertue of general Revelation such as is pretended to in divers Religions we may be assured that God will accept forgive and reward those that sincerely obey him and perform the Conditions of the Covenant whether it be Express or Implicite that he vouchsafes to make with them yet since 't is He that is the Judge of the Performance of the Conditions and of the sincerity of the Person and since He is Omniscient and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may know more Ill of us than even we know of our selves a concerned Conscience may rationally doubt whether in Gods Estimate any particular man was so sincere as to be accepted But when He Himself is pleas'd to give Elogiums if I may with due respect so style them to David Job Noah Daniel c. whilst they were alive and to others after they were dead and consequently having finished their Course were pass'd into an Irreversible state we may learn with Comfort both that the Performance of such an Obedience as God will accept is a thing really Practicable by Men and that even great sins and misdemeanors are not if seasonably repented of certain evidences that a man shall never be Happy in the future Life And it seems to be for such an use of consolation to Frail men but not at all to encourage Licentious ones that the Lapses of holy Persons are so frequently recorded in the Scriptures And bating those Divine Writings I know no Books in the world nor all of them put together that can give a considering Christian who has due apprehensions of the Inexpressible Happiness or Misery of an Immortal state in Heaven or in Hell so great and well grounded a Consolation as may be deriv'd from three or four lines in St. John's Apocalypse where he says That he saw in Heaven a great multitude not to be numbred of all Nations and Tribes and People and Tongues standing before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed in white Robes with Palms the Ensigns of Victory in their hands and the Praises of God and of the Lamb in their mouthes For from thence we may learn that Heaven is not reserv'd onely for Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs and such extraordinary Persons whose Sanctity the Church admires but that through Gods goodness multitudes of his more Imperfect Servants have access thither Though the Infinite Perfections and Prerogatives of the Deity be such that Theology it self can no more than Philosophy afford us another Object for our Studies any thing near so Sublime and Excellent as what it discloses to us of God yet Divinity favours us with some other Discoveries namely about Angels the Universe and our own Souls which though they must needs be inferiour to the knowledge of God Himself are for the nobleness of their Objects or for their Importance highly preferable to any that Natural Philosophy has been able to afford its Votaries But before I proceed to name any more particulars disclos'd to us by Revelation 't will be requisite for the prevention or removal of a Prejudice to mind you that we should not make our Estimates of the worth of the things we owe to Revelation by the Impressions they are wont now to make upon Us Christians who learned divers of them in our Catechisms and perhaps have several times met with most of the Rest in Sermons or Theological Books For 't is not to be admir'd that we should not be strongly affected at the mention of those Truths which how valuable soever in themselves were for the most part taught us when we were either Children or too Youthful to discern and prize their Excellency and Importance So that though afterwards they were presented to our riper understanding yet their being by that time become familiar and our not remembring that we ignor'd them kept them from making any vigorous Impressions on Us. Whereas if the same things had been with Circumstances evincing their Truth discover'd to some Heathen Philosopher or other vertuous and inquisitive Man who valu'd important Truths and had nothing but his own Reason to attain them with he would questionless have receiv'd them with wonder and joy Which to induce us to suppose we have sundry Instances both in the Records of the Primitive Times and in the recent Relations of the Conversion of men to Christianity among the People of China Japan and other Literate Nations For though bare Reason cannot discover these Truths yet when Revelation has once sufficiently propos'd them to Her she can readily embrace and highly value divers of them which being here intimated once for all I now advance to name some of the Revelations themselves And first as for Angels I will not now question whether bare Reason can arrive at so much as to assure us That there are such Beings in Rerum Naturâ For though Reason may assure that their Existence is not Impossible and perhaps too not improbable yet I doubt whether 't were to meer Ratiocination or clear Experience or any thing else but Revelation convey'd to them by imperfect Tradition that those Heathen Philosophers who believ'd that there were separate Spirits other than Humane ow'd that perswasion And particularly as to Good Angels I doubt whether those Antient Sages had any cogent Reasons or any convincing Historical Proofs or in short any one unquestionable Evidence of any kind to satisfie a wary person so much as of the being much less to give a farther account of those Excellent Spirits Whereas Theology is enabled by the Scripture to inform us that not onely there are such Spirits but a vast multitude of them That they were made by God and Christ and are Immortal and propagate not their Species and that these Spirits have their chief Residence in Heaven and enjoy the Vision of God whom they constantly praise and punctually obey without having sinn'd against him That also these Good Angels are very Intelligent Beings and of so great power that One of them was able in a night to destroy a vast Army That they have Degrees among themselves are Enemies to the Devils and fight
chief of those Homages and Services whereby we Venerate and Obey God so it is one of those to which he hath been pleased to apportion no less a Recompence than that which can have no greater the Enjoyment of Himself The Saints and Angels in Heaven have divers of them been employ'd to convey the Truths of Theology and are sollicitous to look into those Sacred Mysteries and God hath been pleased to appoint that those men who study the same Lessons that they do here shall study them in their company hereafter And doubtless though Heaven abound with unexpressible Joys yet it will be none of the least that shall make up the Happiness even of that Place that the Knowledge of Divine things that was here so zealously Pursu'd shall there be compleatly Attain'd For those things that do here most excite our Desires and quicken the Curiosity and Industry of our Searches will not onely there Continue but be Improv'd to a far greater measure of Attractiveness and Influence For all those Interests and Passions and Lusts that here below either hinder us from clearly Discerning or keep us from sufficiently Valuing or divert us from attentively enough Considering the Beauty and Harmony of Divine Truths will there be either abolish'd or transfigur'd And as the Object will be Unveil'd so our Eye will be Enlighten'd that is as God will there disclose those worthy Objects of the Angels Curiosity so he will Inlarge our Faculties to enable us to gaze without being dazl'd upon those sublime and radiant Truths whose Harmony as well as Splendor we shall be then qualifi'd to Discover and consequently with Transports to Admire And this Enlargement and Elevation of our Faculties will proportionably to its own measure Increase our Satisfaction at the Discoveries it will enable us to make For Theology is like a Heaven which wants not more Stars than appear in it but we want Eyes quick-sighted and piercing enough to reach them And as the Milky Way and other Whiter parts of the Firmament have been full of Immortal Lights from the beginning and our new Telescopes have not plac'd but found them there so when our Saviour after his glorious Resurrection instructed his Apostles to teach the Gospel 't is not said that he alter'd any thing in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets but onely open'd and enlarg'd their Intellects that they might understand the Scriptures And the Royal Prophet makes it his Prayer That God would be pleased to open his eyes that he might see wonderful things out of the Law being as was above intimated so well satisfi'd that the Word of God wanted not Admirable things that he is onely sollicitous for the Improvement of his own Eyes that they might be qualifi'd to discern them I had almost forgotten one particular about the Advantages of Theological Studies that is too considerable to be left unmention'd For as great as I have represented the Benefits accruing from the Knowledge of Divine Truths yet to endear them to us it may be safely added that to procure us these Benefits the actual Attainment of that Knowledge is not always absolutely Necessary but a hearty Endeavour after it may suffice to entitle Us to them The patient Chymist that consumes himself and his Estate in seeking after the Philosophers Stone if he miss of his Idoliz'd Elixir had as good nay better have never sought it and remains as poor in Effect as he was rich in Expectation The Husbandman that employs his Seed and Time to obtain from the Ground a plentiful Harvest if after all an unkind Season happen must see his toil made fruitless longique perit labor irritus Anni Too many Patients that have punctually done and suffer'd for Recovery all that Physicians could prescribe meet at last with Death in stead of Health You know what entertainment has been given by skilful Geometricians to the laborious endeavours even of such famous Writers as Scaliger Longomontanus and other Tetragonists and that their Successor Mr. Hobbs after all the ways he has taken and those he has propos'd to Square the Circle and Double the Cube by missing of his end has after his various attempts come off not onely with Disappointment but with Disgrace And to give an Instance even in things Celestial how much pains has been taken to find out Longitudes and make Astrological Precictions with some certainty which for want of coming up to what they aimed at have been useless if not prejudicial to the Attempters But God to speak with St. Paul on another occasion that made the world and all things therein and is Lord of heaven and earth seeks not our Services as though He needed any thing seeing he giveth Life and Breath and all things His Self-sufficiency and Bounty are such that He seeks in our Obedience the Occasions of rewarding it and prescribes us Services because the Practise of them is not onely sutable to our Rational Nature but such as will prevail with his Justice to let His Goodness make our Persons happy Agreeably to this Doctrine we find in the Scripture that Abraham is said to have been justified by faith when he offered his son Isaac upon the Altar though he did not Actually sacrifice him because he endeavour'd to do so although God graciously accepting the Will for the Deed accepted also of the bloud of a Ram instead of Isaac's And thus we know that 't was not David but Solomon that built the Temple of Hierusalem and yet God says to the former of those Kings as we are told by the latter For asmuch as it was in thine heart to build an House for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart notwithstanding thou shalt not build the House c. And if we look to the other Circumstances of this Story as they are delivered in the Second Book of Samuel we shall find that upon David's declaration of a design to build God an house God himself vouchsafes to honour him as he once did Moses with the peculiar Title of His Servant and commands the Prophet to say to him Also the Lord tells thee that He will make Thee an House To which is added one of the graciousest Messages that God ever sent to any particular man By which we may learn that God approves and accepts even those Endeavours of his Servants if they be real and sincere that never come to be actually accomplished Good Designs and Endeavours are our part but the events of those as of all other things are in the All-disposing hand of God who if we be not wanting to what lies in us will not suffer us to be Losers by the defeating Dispositions of his Providence but crown our endeavours either with Success or with some other Recompence that will keep us from being Losers by missing of that And indeed if we consider the great Elogies that the Scripture as well frequently as justly gives God's Goodness which
and to whom he is related He that reads an excellent Book or sees some rare Engine will be otherwise affected with the sight or the perusal if he knows it to have been made by a Friend or a Parent than if he considers it but as made by a stranger whom he has no particular reason to be concern'd for And if Rehoboam did not as well degenerate from the sentiments of Mankind as from his Family he could not but look upon that Magnificent Temple of Solomon with another Eye than did the throngs of Strangers that came onely to gaze at it as an admirable piece of Architecture whilst he consider'd that 't was his Father that built it And if as we see the same Heroick Actions which we read in History of some great Monarch that strangers barely and unconcernedly admire the Natives of his Countrey do not onely venerate but affectionately interest themselves therein because they are his Countrey-men and their Ancestors were his Subjects How much may we suppose the same Actions would affect them if they had the honour to be that Prince's Children We may well therefore presume that 't is not without a singular satisfaction that the Contemplator we are speaking of does in all the Wonders of Nature discover how wise and potent and bountiful that Author of Nature is in whom he has a great Interest and that so great an one as both to be admitted into the number of his Friends and adopted into the number of his Sons and is thereby in some measure concern'd in all the Admirations and Praises that are paid either by himself or others to those Adorable Attributes that God has displayed in that great Master-piece of Power and Wisdom the World And when he makes greater discoveries in these Expresses and Adumbrations of the Divine Perfections the delightfulness of his Contemplation is proportionably increas'd upon such an Account as that which indears to the passionate Lover of some charming Beauty an Excellent above an Ordinary Picture of her because that the same things that make him as it does other Gazers look upon it as a finer piece make Him look upon it as the more like his Mistress and thereby entertain him with the sublimer Idea's of the belov'd Original to whose transcendent Excellencies he supposes that the Noblest Representations must be the most resembling And there is a farther Reason why our Contemplator should find a great deal of contentment in these Discoveries For we have in our nature so much of Imperfection and withall so much of Inclination to self-love that we do too confidently proportion our Idea's of what God can do for us to what we have already the knowledge or the possession of And though when we make it our business we are able with much ado somewhat to enlarge our apprehensions and raise our expectations beyond their wonted pitch yet still they will be but scantly promoted and heightned if those things themselves be but mean and ordinary which we think we have done enough if we make them surpass A Countrey Villager born and bred in a homely Cottage cannot have any suitable apprehensions of the Pleasures and Magnificence of a great Monarchs Court And if he should be bid to scrue up his Imagination to frame Idea's of them they would be borrow'd from the best Tiled House he had seen in the Market-towns where he had sold his Turnips or Corn and the Wedding-feast of some neighbouring Farmers Daughter And though a Child in the Mother's womb had the perfect use of Reason yet could it not in that dark Cell have any Idea's of the Sun or Moon or Beauties or Banquets or Algebra or Chymistry and many other things which his Elder Brothers that breath fresh Air and freely behold the Light and are in a more mature Estate are capable of knowing and enjoying Now among Thinking men whose thoughts run much upon that future state which they must shortly enter into but shall never pass out of there will frequently and naturally arise a distrust which though seldome own'd proves oftentimes disquieting enough For such men are apt to question how the future condition which the Gospel promises can afford them so much happiness as it pretends to since they shall in Heaven but Contemplate the Works of God and praise him and converse with him all which they think may though not immediately be done by men here below without being happy But he that by Telescopes and Microscopes dexterous Dissections and well imploy'd Furnaces c. discovers the wondrous power and skill of him that contriv'd so vast and immense a Mass of Matter into so curious a piece of Workmanship as this World will pleasingly be convinc'd of the boundless power and goodness of the great Architect And when he sees how admirably every Animal is furnish'd with parts requisite to his respective nature and that there is particular care taken that the same Animal as for example Man should have differing provisions made for him according to his differing states within the womb and out of it a humane Egg and an Embrio being much otherwise nourished and fitted for action than is a compleat Man He I say who considers this and observes the stupendious Providence and excellent Contrivances that the curious Priers into Nature and none but they can discover will be as well enabled as invited to reason thus within himself That sure God who has with such admirable Artifice fram'd Silk-worms Butterflies and other meaner Insects and with such wonderful providence taken care that the nobler Animals should as little want any of all the things requisite to the compleating of their respective Natures and who when he pleases can furnish some things with Qualifications quite differing from those which the knowledge of his other works could have made us imagine as is evident in the Load-stone and in Quick-silver among Minerals and the Sensitive Plant among Vegetables the Camelion among Animals c. This God I say must needs be fully able to furnish those he delights to honour with Objects suitable to their improv'd Faculties and with all that is requisite to the Happiness he intends them in their glorifi'd state and is able to bring this to pass by such amazing contrivances as perhaps will be quite differing from any that the things we have yet seen suggest to us any Idea's of And sure he that has in so immense so curious and so magnificent a Fabrick made such provision for Men who are either desperately wicked or but very imperfectly good and in a state where they are not to Enjoy happiness but by Obedience and Sufferings to Fit themselves for it may safely be trusted with finding them in Heaven Imployments and Delights becoming the Felicity he designs them There as we see that here below he provides as well for the soaring Eagle as for the creeping Caterpillar and is able to keep the Ocean as fully supply'd with Rivers as Lakes or Ponds are with Springs and