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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People from whom alone those advantages were to be expected if any advantage at all had been sought for Nay when he let those advantages go which he had already in his hands Whereas Men in Power endeavour to keep their Authority up and to transmit it to their Posterity Moses was content to let all that Power dye with him wherewith he was vested when he govern'd the whole Jewish Nation He appointed Joshua to succeed him in his Civil Authority The great Dignity and Advantages of the Priesthood he disposed of to his Brother Aaron and his Sons As for his own Children he left them in Subjection to the Priests to officiate under them in the ordinary and mean Ministrations of the Tabernacle not alloting them one foot of Land amongst all their Kindred All which shews that from the beginning to the end Moses designed nothing but the Honour of God and the Common good of his People And that no Honour or Interest of his own could possibly sway or tempt him to violate his Integrity And what could the four Evangelists propose to themselves that should move them to deceive the world and make their Relations incredible or suspected Honours they could not aim at unless men think it an Honour to be Dishonest Nor could Interest tempt them to impose fictions on mens Belief when they were sure beforehand to receive nothing in this world but Hardship Persecutions and Death for their Reward Very poor encouragements for men to invent and spread abroad idle Stories Or if it be said that 't was for the Credit and Propagation of their Religion they must be thought the oddest men in Nature that would coin Fictions for the sake of a Religion they believed to be false and yet they could not have believed otherwise of it if they had not known it to have been confirmed by Miracles for they were the only things that could give Evidence of its Truth beyond all Contradiction 3. This I have said to shew that however some Irreligious Men have the confidence to despise the Scripture-account of Divine Miracles to common human Reason it appears sufficiently credible from the certain Knowledge and manifest Probity of the Writers and consequently that we have as fair Evidence of the Reality of Miracles in that respect as can be had of any other matter of Fact that has been done in former Ages To which let us add in the next place this third ground of Credibility viz. that others who had reason to know and were able to know the truth of the matter were sufficiently satisfied of the certainty of it Here again we must return to Moses and First it is observable that the account he gives of Miracles done by him has continually past through a long succession of Ages uncontradicted which is an Argument that the Inquisitive and Knowing men in most Nations were well satisfied of the Reality of the matter For as the Mosaick Writings contain the most Ancient Records that are extant in the world so they seem to have been perused by the most Ancient Philosophers and Historians because the things related in them were spoken of and own'd generally by the whole Heathen world though sometimes not without a mixture of Poetical Fables as the Creation of the Universe the Sanctity of the Sabbaths the Story of the Deluge and of the Ark the Right of circumcision and the like as the Learned Grotius hath particularly shew'd in his First Book of the Truth of Christianity It is very probable that the general belief of these things sprang from the general persuasion which prevailed in the world of those Signs and Wonders that Moses had shew'd that made him so great a Person in the Esteem of Mankind There were thousands ready to have disproved the Relation if the Works had not been done nor is it in the least likely that of so many Neighbouring Nations round about the Jews which mortally hated the Jews and their Religion none would have discovered the Imposture had they not been satisfied that what Moses had written was true The Honour of having such great things done for them in the eyes of the world would have been thought too much for a despised hated People to have gone away with 2. But Secondly instead of Contradicting Moses's History the most Ancient Writers among the Egyptians and Greeks did own his Greatness Insomuch that the old Egyptians would have appropriated him to themselves pretending that he was of Egyptian Parentage and a Priest of Heliopolis by name Ozarsiph changing his name afterwards to Moses Some indeed of the other Heathens as Apuleius and Numenius the Pythagorean reckon him among the old Magicians and in particular among Jannes and Jambres the famous Magicians of Pharaoh but all lookt upon him as a very wonderful Person by reason of the Plagues he brought upon Egypt 3. And then Thirdly as for the Jews nothing can be more clear than that their whole Nation have all along acknowledg'd the truth of the Miracles done by Moses For their whole Constitution was founded upon the Credit of his Divine Authority and that depended upon the Credit of his Miracles And had any of them been unsatisfied in that point those Rebels who rose up against Moses and Aaron alledging that they took too much upon them would have alledged that they pretended too much also a great deal more than what was true Nor could those People who time after time Revolted from Moses's Law have had such another Plea for their Apostacies as this would have been that the Authority of the Law giver was not confirmed by Miracles as 't was believed I have said thus much of Moses to confront some in our days who have taken the confidence to deride the Writings which go under Moses's Name and the Miracles said to have been wrought by him that thereby they may with the greater boldness deny the Existence of God though if Men will take the evidence given of any matters of Fact done at a great distance of time from them it is impossible to find better evidence of any matters than there is of these of the certainty whereof those who had Reason to know and were able to know were fully satisfied I go on now in the next place from the same Consideration to prove the Reality of those Miracles which the Evangelists ascribe to Jesus Christ And who could think themselves more concern'd to enquire into the truth of them than those great Men who made it their business to oppose his Religion And yet that many notable Miracles had been done by him and by his Apostles after him was manifest to all that dwelt at Jerusalem and they could not deny it All that they had to say for their Infidelity was that Christ did those wonderful Works by the help of the Devil but matter of Fact they own'd Hence it was that soon after the Lord went out of the World divers pretended to a power of Miracles such as Simon Magus
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
Gristles are not made every where round and entire Circles but where the Gullet touches the Wind-pipe there to fill up the Circles is only a soft Membrane which may easily give way to the dilatation of the Gullet And to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this End and Use so soon as the Wind-pipe enters the Lungs its Cartilages are no longer deficient but perfect Circles or Rings because there is no necessity for them to be otherwise there at a distance from the Meat but more convenient they should be in their Divarications entire The Scope and Meaning of these things is in short to shew that though that energetick and forming Power or Principle which we call Nature doth act without any Counsel Design Advice or Deliberation of its own yet in its Operations it worketh so Methodically and Artificially in order to good Ends and Purposes that in its ordinary Proceedings nothing can be found which is useless and superfluous nothing which is not necessary proper or convenient nothing but what there is some reason for nothing but what great Wisdom would direct and by consequence that there is a most Wise Directing Being over it who does preserve assist and govern it in its orderly but blind Operations For what Man in his Senses can conceive that an intelligent and directing Cause hath no Hand at all in Works wherein we see such excellent Ends so exactly answered and such suitable Means so cleverly used and every thing so wisely and admirably well done How is it possible for any considering Man to imagine That the Instruments of Breathing should be so curiously formed by meer Accident That the casual impulse of the Air should break upon the Nostrils and bore the Passages and Meanders of Sensation That Chance and nothing but foolish Chance should prepare a Mouth and furnish a Mouth with all things necessary and apt That nothing but unadvised Fortune or unadvised Nature which alone is as uncertain of its Hits as Fortune is should so orderly and exquisitely provide a Stomach for the Reception of Food Materials to concoct it a Labyrinth of Conveyances to carry it off a politick Duct of many Vessels to refine it a Machine of Curiosities to distribute and disperse it into all Parts But here I stop For I have spoken of these things already and though the Chyle takes a Round and the Blood a Circulation yet this Discourse must admit of none and therefore thus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the great usefulness of all things and especially of those things which tend to the preservation of Man and Beast CHAP. IX THE great Utilities of the things in Nature having been thus largely and particularlarly considered together with their apt and excellent Frame in order to their uses one would now think that no more should be necessary to shew the Existence of a most Wise and Good God However it will not I hope be unprofitable for the Confirmation of your Faith in that absolutely perfect Being if I proceed though but in a summary way to the utmost extent of this Subject at least as far as to those Bounds which were propos'd at my first Entrance upon it The more we look into the Works of God the more apt we shall be to admire adore and love him whence it was that the devout Psalmist made it his business to think of all his Works to meditate and muse upon them to declare and set them forth to talk familiarly of them and to invite all People to behold and consider them And he lookt upon it as a great Cause of the Wickedness of those ungodly and deceitful Men he spake of Psalm 28. That they regard not in their minds the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands Let us therefore go on to the next thing which falls under our Meditations and that is touching those Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom which appear in the Operations even of irrational Creatures that they may answer their uses and bring their ends about For if it be considered that such Beings are utterly void of all Understanding which is properly called Rational and yet act so Methodically and Artificially as if they had Reason Judgment and Discretion of their own it must follow that they are guided and governed by a Superiour Being which is intellectual and whose Reason is the Law they act by Here then we are to observe these two following things which shew the Resemblances of Knowledge and Wisdom in Creatures Irrational 1. Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations And 2. Their seeming Sagacity as to the ends of them 1. First Their constant Regularity as to the manner of their Operations There are no Creatures Devils and Men excepted but what act uniformly and steadily by a certain Rule according to their Natures whether they be Inanimate or Vegetative or Beings indued with Sense we see they observe their Laws as well those general Laws which are for the Order and Preservation of the whole Universe as those special Laws which are peculiar and proper to their several Kinds To this purpose I have already taken notice of the constant regular Motion of the Celestial Bodies and therefore shall not need to have any farther Recourse to them though it be an astonishing thing to consider that such vast multitudes of immense Bodies all void both of Intellectual and Sensitive Faculties and several of them moving in a manner different from the rest should for so long a Tract of Time observe their Lines so uniformly and exactly that for these Six Thousand Years there hath not been the least variation of their Courses Of this no other rational Account can be given but that there is a superintending Being above under whose commanding Power they always have been and to whose Will they yield entire and absolute Obedience Since they know not their Law themselves it must follow that there is a God who knows it for them and keeps them to it Of those Inanimate or Live-less things which are in the Earth I shall instance only in the regular inclination or tendency of the Loadstone the greatest Wonder which the Earth affords And not to enumerate all those strange Faculties and Powers which some curious Naturalists have discovered in it especially in these last Ages that which is most pertinent to my present purpose is that is constantly affects the same Position towards the Poles of the Earth which was Natural to it before it was taken out of the Bowels of its Mother Rock So that where ever it be carried it will if it hath its liberty to move still direct its Points towards the North and South as it lay Originally and as the Earth it self lyes If you hang it in the Air by a String or set it in some floating inclosure on the surface of Water it will never be at rest but stir and quaver on till its Points answer to the North and South as if it