ex rebus sublimibus neque item quod ex ipsa morte ne quando nimirum ad nos pertine at aliquid ac nosse praeterea possemus qui Germani fines dolorum atque cupiditatum sint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil Physiologiâ indigeremus Thus far the testimony of Epicurus of whose mind though I am not at all as to what he would intimate That Physiology is either proper to free the Mind from the Belief of a Provident Deity and the Souls Immortality or fit for no other considerable purposes yet this use we may well make of these Declarations that in Epicurus's opinion a Moral Advantage that relates to the Government of the Affections may deserve the pains of making Inquiries into Nature And since it hence appears that a meer Philosopher who admitted no Providence may think it worth his pains to search into the abstrusest parts of Physicks and the difficultest Phaenomena of Nature onely to ease himself of one troublesome Affection Fear it need not be thought Unphilosophical to prosecute a Study that will not onely Restrain One undue Passion but Advance All Vertues and free us from all Servile Fears of the Deity and tend to give us a strong and well-grounded Hope in Him and make us look upon Gods greatest Power not with Terrour but with Joy There is yet another Advantage belonging to the study of Divine Truths which is too great to be here pretermitted For whereas there is scarce any thing more incident to us whilst we inhabit our Batté Chómer Cottages of Clay and dwell in this vale of tears than Afflictions it ought not a little to endear to us the newly mention'd Study that it may be easily made to afford us very powerful Consolations in that otherwise uneasie state I know it may be said that the Speculations about which the Naturalist is busied are as well pleasing Diversions as noble Imployments of the Mind And I deny not that they are often so when the Mind is not hinder'd from applying it self attentively to them so that Afflictions slight and short may well be weather'd out by these Philosophical Avocations but the Greater and Sharper sort of Afflictions and the approaches of Death require more powerful Remedies than these Diversions can afford us For in such cases the Mind is wont to be too much discompos'd to apply the attention requisite to the finding a pleasure in Physical Speculations and in Sicknesses the Soul is oftentimes as indispos'd to relish the Pleasures of meerly Humane Studies as the languishing Body is to relish those Meats which at other times were delightful And there are but few that can take any great pleasure to study the World when they apprehend themselves to be upon the point of being driven out of it and in danger of losing all their share in the Objects of their Contemplation It will not much qualifie our Sense of the burning heat of a Feaver or the painful gripes of the Cholick to know That the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right ones or that Heat is not a real Quality as the Schools would have it but a Modification of the Motion of the Insensible parts of Matter and Pain not a Distinct Inherent Quality in the things that produce it but an Affection of the Sentiment The Naturalists Speculations afford him no Consolations that are extraordinary in or peculiar to the state of Affliction and the Avocations they present him with do rather Amuse the mind from an Attention to lesser Evils than bring it any Advantages to Remove or Compensate them and so work rather in the nature of Opiates than of true Cordials But now if such a Person as Dr. N. falls into Adversity the case is much otherwise for we must consider that when the study of Divine things is such as it ought to be though That in it self or in the Nature of the Imployment be an act or exercise of Reason yet being apply'd to out of Obedience and Gratitude and Love to God it is upon the account of its Motives and its Aim an act of Religion and as it proceeds from Obedience and Thankfulness and Love to God so it is most acceptable to him and upon the account of his own Appointment as well as Goodness is a most proper and effectual means of obtaining his Favour and then I presume it will easily be granted that he who is so happy as to enjoy That can scarce be made miserable by Affliction For not now to enter upon the Common-place of the Benefits of Afflictions to them that love God and to them that are lov'd by him it may suffice that he who as the Scripture speaks knows our frame and has promised those that are his that they shall not be Over-burden'd is dispos'd and wont to give his afflicted Servants both extraordinary Comforts in Afflictions and Comforts appropriated to that state For though Natural Philosophy be like its brightest Object the Stars which however the Astronomer can with pleasure Contemplate them are unable being meer Natural Agents to afford him a kinder Influence than usual in case he be cast upon his Bed of Languishing or into Prison yet the Almighty and Compassionate Maker of the Stars being not onely a Voluntary but the most Free Agent can suit and proportion his Reliefs to our Necessities and alleviate our heaviest Afflictions by such supporting Consolations that not onely they can never surmount our Patience but are oftentimes unable so much as to hinder our Joy and when Death that King of Terrours presents it self whereas the meer Naturalist sadly expects to be depriv'd of the pleasure of his knowledge by losing those Senses and that World which are the Instruments and the Objects of it and perhaps discovering beyond the Grave nothing but either a state of Eternal Destruction or of Eternal Misery fears either to be Confin'd for ever to the Sepulchre or expos'd to Torments that will make even such a Condition desirable the pious Student of Divine Truths is not onely freed from the wracking Apprehensions of having his Soul reduc'd to a state of Annihilation or cast into Hell but enjoys a comfortable expectation of finding far greater Satisfaction than ever in the Study he now rejoyces to have pursu'd since the change that is so justly formidable to others will but bring him much nearer to the Divine Oâ—jects of his devout Curiosity and strangely Elevate and Inlarge his Faculties to apprehend them And this leads me to the mention of the last Advantage belonging to the study I would perswade you to and indeed the highest Advantage that can recommend Any Study or invite Men to any Undertaking for this is no less than the Everlasting fruition of the Divine Objects of our Studies hereafter and the comfortable Expectation of it here For the employing of ones time and parts to admire the Nature and Providence of God and contemplate the Divine Mysteries of Religion as it is one of the
of that obliging Monarch which were not onely in themselves worthy of any mans Curiosity but about which the Prince had solemnly declar'd he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive And sure 't is very disingenious to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him and by which he design'd to bring us to that study we neglect for it which is not onely not to use him as a Benefactor but as if he meant to punish him if I may so speak for having oblieged us since we so abuse some of his Favours as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest And this Ingratitude is the more culpable because the Laws of Ingenuity and of Justice it self charge us to Glorifie the Maker of all things visible not onely upon our own account but upon that of all his other works For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul not onely he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World and thereby is oblieged to do so both for himself and for the rest of the Creation but 't is for Mans advantage that God has left no other visible Beings in the World by which he can be studied and celebrated For Reason is such a Ray of Divinity that if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shar'd or abridg'd So that he to whom it was equally easie to make Creatures Superior to Man as the Scripture tells us of Legions and Myriads of Angels as to make them Inferiour to him dealt so obligingly with Mankind as rather to Trust if I may so speak our Ingenuity whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with than Lessen our Empire over them or our Prerogatives above them But I fear that notwithstanding all the Excellency of reveal'd Truths and consequently of that onely Authentic Repository of them the Scripture you as well as I have met with some for I hope there are not many Virtuosi that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it by alledging that to them who are Lay-men not Ecclesiasticks there is requir'd to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points which are so plainly summ'd up in the Apostles Creed and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture that one needs not much search or study it to find them there In answer to this Allegation I readily grant that through the great goodness of God who is willing to have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth that is necessary to be so there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith some of which have I fear less promoted Knowledge than impair'd Charity But then it may be also consider'd 1. That 't is not so easie for a Rational Man that will trouble himself to enquire no farther than the Apostles Creed to satisfie himself upon good grounds that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contain'd in it 2. That the Creed proposes onely the Credenda not the Agenda of Religion whereas the Scriptures were designed not onely to teach us what Truths we are to believe but by what Rules we are to live the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation as the belief of its Mysteries 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary there are several that are highly useful to make us more clearly understand and more rationally and firmly believe and more steadily practise the points that are necessary 4. And since whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to be rendred in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us by which whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant or the Doctrine of Christ is not here material thereby teaching us that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation And indeed 't is far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths than to despise or neglect it And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons is to be suppos'd meant in pity to our Frailties not to encourage our Laziness nor is it necessary that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them But whether or no by this design'd neglect of Theology the persons I deal with do sufficiently consult their own safety I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians and yet willingly to come short of very many of them in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity which he often invites us if not expresly commands to search after is a course that will not relish of over-much gratitude Is it a piece of That and of Ingenuity to receive ones Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God without being sollicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atome and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God who formed all things to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Insects than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God and in a word to be more concern'd to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World than the Divine and Incorporeal Authour of the whole And then is it not think you a great piece of respect that these men pay to those Truths which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles sometimes Angels and sometimes his onely Son himself to reveal that such Truths are so little valued by them that rather than take the pains to study them they will implicitly and at adventures believe what that Society of Christians they chance to be born and bred in have truly or falsly delivered concerning them And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion that those who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks perhaps about a meer Point the Centre of Gravity or in Geometry about the Properties of some nameless curve Line or some such other things which to ignore is usually not a blemish and about which to be mistaken is more usually without danger should yet take up the Articles of Faith concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence upon the Authority of Men Fallible as themselves when satisfaction may be had
without them from the Infallible Word of God In this very unlike those Bereans whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Again if a man should refuse to learn to read any more than just as much as may serve his turn by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy to save him from hanging would these men think so small a measure of Literature as he had acquir'd on such an account could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-necessary-Divine Truths during ones life because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doom'd to Hell for Ignorance after his death will not by what in a Learned man must be so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better intitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian The antient Prophets though honour'd by God with direct Illuminations were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations which yet they did not know And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature that the Angels themselves desire to look into them And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them and a Happiness to employ our selves about it It was the earnest Prayer of a great King and no less a Prophet that his eyes might be opened to behold not the obvious and necessary Truths but the wondrous things of Gods Law He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse that reads and observes the things contain'd in that dark and obscure part of Scripture And 't is not onely those Truths that make Articles of the Creed but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema He that hath ears to hear let him hear on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus The third Section I Come now to our third and last Inducement to the study of Divine things which consists in and comprises the Advantages of that study which do as much surpass those of all other Contemplations as Divine things transcend all other Objects And indeed the utility of this study is so pregnant a Motive and contains in it so many Invitations that your Friend must have as little sense of Interest as of Gratitude if he can neglect such powerful and such ingaging Invitations For in the first place Theological studies ought to be highly endeared to us by the Delightfulness of considering such noble and worthy Objects as are therein propos'd The famous Answer given by an excellent Philosopher who being ask'd what he was born for repli'd To contemplate the Sun may justly recommend their choice who spend their time in contemplating the Maker of the Sun to whom that glorious Planet it self is but a shadow And perhaps that Philosopher failed more in the Instance than in the Notion For his Answer implies That Man's End and Happiness consists in the exercise of his noblest Faculties on the noblest Objects And surely the seat of Formal Happiness being the Soul and that Happiness consequently consisting in the Operations of her Faculties as the Supreme Faculty of the Mind is the Understanding so the highest Pleasures may be expected from the due Exercise of it upon the sublimest and worthiest Objects And therefore I wonder not that though some of the School-men would assign the Will a larger share in Mans Felicity than they will allow the Intellect yet the generality of them are quite of another mind and ascribe the Preheminence in point of Felicity to the Superiour Faculty of the Soul But whether or no this Opinion be true in all Cases it may at least be admitted in ours For the chief Objects of a Christian Philosophers Contemplation being as well the Infinite Goodness as the other boundless Perfections of God they are naturally fitted to excite in his mind an ardent love of that adorable Being and those other joyous Affections and virtuous Dispositions that have made some men think Happiness chiefly seated in the Will But having intimated thus much by the way I pass on to add That the contentment afforded by the assiduous discovery of God and Divine Mysteries has so much of affinity with the Pleasures that shall make up mens Blessedness in Heaven it self that they seem rather to differ in Degree than in Kind For the happy state even of Angels is by our Saviour represented by this Imployment that they continually see the face of his Father who is in Heaven And the same infallible Teacher intending elsewhere to express the Celestial Joys that are reserv'd for those who for Their sake deny'd themselves sensual Pleasures imploys the Vision of God as an Emphatical Periphrase of Felicity Blessed said he are the pure in heart for they shall see God And as Aristotle teaches that the Soul doth after a sort become that which it Speculates St. Paul and St. John assure us that God is a transforming Object and that in Heaven we shall be like him for or because we shall see him as he is And though I readily admit that this Beatisick Vision of God wherein the Understanding is the proper Instrument includes divers other things which will concur to the compleat Felicity of the future Life yet I think we may be allowed to argue that that ravishing Contemplation of Divine Objects will make no small part of that happy Estate which in these Texts take its Denomination from it I have above intimated that the Scripture attributes to the Angels themselves Transports of Wonder and Joy upon the Contemplation of God and the Exercises they consider of his Wisdom Justice or some other of his Attributes But least in referring you to the Angels you should say that I do in this Discourse lay aside the Person of a Naturalist in favour of Divines I will refer you to Des Cartes himself whom I am sure your Friend will allow to have been a rigid Philosopher if ever there were any Thus then speaks he in that Treatise where he thinks he imploys a more than Mathematical Rigor and where he was obliged to utter those I had almost said Passionate words I am going to cite from him onely by the Impressions made on him by the transcendent Excellency of the Obâ—â—… he Contemplated Sed priusquam says he hoc diligentius examinem simulque in alias veritates quae inde colligi possunt inquiram placet hic aliquandiu in ipsius Dei contemplatione immorari ejus attributa
well be deni'd but that if all other Circumstances be equal He is the fittest to commend Divinity whose Profession It is not and That it will somewhat add to the Reputation of almost any Study and consequently to that of things Divine That 't is prais'd and preferr'd by Those whose Condition and Course of Life exempting them from being of any particular Calling in the Common-wealth of Learning frees Them from the usual Temptations to Partiality to this or that sort of Study which Others may be engag'd to magnifie because 't is their Trade or their Interest or because 't is Expected from them whereas these Gentlemen are oblig'd to commend it onely because they really Love and Value it But there is another thing that seems to make it yet more fit that a Treatise on such a Subject should be Penn'd by the Authour of This For profess'd Divines are suppos'd to be busied about Studies that even by their being of an Higher are confess'd to be of Another Nature than those that treat of things Corporeal And since it may be observ'd that there is scarce any sort of Learned men that is more apt to undervalue those that are vers'd onely in other parts of Knowledge than many of our Modern Naturalists who are conscious of the Excellency of the Science they Cultivate 't is much to be fear'd that what would be said of the Preeminences of Divinity above Physiology by Preachers in whom the Study of the Latter is thought either but a Preparatory thing or an Excursion would be look'd upon as the Decision of an Incompetent as well as Interressed Judge and their undervaluations of the Advantages of the study of the Creatures would be as their depreciating the Enjoyment of the Creatures too often is thought to proceed but from their not having had sufficient opportunities to relish the pleasures of them But these Prejudices will not lie against a Person who has made the Indagation of Nature somewhat more than a Parergon and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it and the Honour to have them Publickly and but too Complementally taken notice of by the Virtuosi And it may be not Impertinent to add that those who make Natural Philosophy their Mistris will probably be the less offended to find her in this Tract represented if not as an Handmaid to Divinity yet as a Lady of a lower Rank because the Inferiority of the Study of Nature is maintain'd by a Person who even whilst he asserts it continues if not a Passionate an Assiduous Courter of Nature So that as far as his Example can reach it may show that as on the one side a man need not be acquainted with or unfit to relish the Lessons taught us in the Book of the Creatures to think them less Excellent than those that may be learned in the Book of the Scriptures so on the other side the Preference of this last Book is very consistent with an high Esteem and an Assiduous Study of the first And if any should here object that there are some Passages which I hope are but very few that seem a little too unfavourable to the Study of Natural things I might alledge for my excuse the great difficulty that there must be in comparing two sorts of Studies both of which a man much esteems so to behave ones self as to split a hair between them and never offend either of them But I will rather represent that in such kind of Discourses as the ensuing it may justly be hop'd that equitable Readers will consider not onely what is said but on what occasion and with what design 't is delivered Now 't is plain by the Series of the following Discourse that the Physeophilus whom it most relates to was by me look'd upon as a Person both very partial to the study of Nature and somewhat prejudic'd against that of the Scripture so that I was not always to treat with him as with an indifferent man but according to the Advice given in such cases by the Wise I was to use Aristotle's expression to bend the crooked stick the contrary way in order to the bringing it to be straight and to depreciate the study of Nature somewhat beneath its true value to reduce a great Over valuer to a just Estimate of it And to gain the more upon Him I allow'd my self now and then to make use of the contempt he had of the Peripatetick and Vulgar Philosophy and in some passages to speak of them more slightingly than my usual Temper permits and than I would be forward to do on another occasion that by such a Complaisance for his Opininions I might have Rises to Argue with him from them But to return to the Motives that were alledg'd to induce me to the Publication of these Papers though I have not nam'd them all yet all of them together would scarce have prov'd effectual if they had not been made more prevalent by the just Indignation I conceived to see even Inquisitive Men depreciate that kind of Knowledge which does the most Elevate as well as the most Bless Mankind and look upon the Noblest and Wisest Employments of the Understanding as Signs of weakness in it 'T is not that I expect that whatever can be said and much less what I have had occasion to say Here will make Proselytes of those that are resolved against the being made so and had rather deny themselves the Excellentest kinds of Knowledge than allow that there can be any more Excellent than what they think themselves Masters of But I despair not that what is here represented may serve to fortifie in a high Esteem of Divine Truths those that have already a just Veneration for them and preserve Others from being seduc'd by Injurious though sometimes Witty Insinuations to undervalue that kind of Knowledge that is as well the most Excellent in it self as the most Conducive to Man's Happiness And for this Reason I am the less displeas'd to see that the following Letter is swell'd to a Bulk far greater than its being but a Letter promises and then I first intended For I confess that when the Occasion hapned that made me put Pen to Paper as I chanc'd to be in a very unsetled Condition which I fear has had too much influence on what I have written so I did not design the insisting near so long upon my Subject as I have done but new things springing up if I may so speak under my Pen I was content to allow them room in my Paper because writing as well for my own satisfaction as for that of my Friend I thought it would not be useless to lay before my own Eyes as well as His those Considerations that seem'd proper to justifie to My self as well as to Him the Preference I gave Divine Truths before Physiological ones and to confirm
against them That they can assume Bodies shap'd like ours and yet disappear in a trice That they are sometimes employ'd about Humane affairs and that not onely for the welfare of Empires and Kingdomes but to protect and rescue single Good men And though they are wont to appear in a dazling Splendor and an astonishing Majesty yet they are All of them ministring Spirits employ'd for the good of the designed Heirs of Salvation And they do not onely refuse mens Adoration and admonish them to pay it unto God but as they are in a sense made by Jesus Christ who was true Man as well as God so they do not onely worship him and call him simply as his own Followers were were wont to do The Lord but stile themselves Fellow servants to his Disciples And as for the other Angels though the Gentiles as well Philosophers as others were commonly so far mistaken about them as to adore them for true Gods and yet many of them to doubt whether they were immortal the Scripture informs us that they are not Self-originated but created Beings That however a great part of Mankind worships them they are wicked and impure Spirits Enemies to Mankind and Seducers of our first Parents to their Ruine That though they beget and promote confusion among men yet they have some Order among themselves as having one Chief or Leader That they are evil Spirits not by Nature but Apostacy That their power is very limited insomuch that a Legion of them cannot invade so contemptible a thing as a Herd of Swine without particular leave from God That not onely Good Angels but Good Men may by resisting them put them to flight and the sincere Christians that worsted them here will be among those that shall judge them hereafter That their being immortal will make their misery so too That they do themselves believe and tremble at those Truths they would perswade men to reject and That they are so far from being able to confer that Happiness which their Worshippers expect from them that themselves are wretched creatures reserv'd in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great Day at which they shall be doom'd to suffer everlasting torments in the company of those wicked men that they shall have prevail'd on We may farther consider That as to things Corporeal themselves which the Naturalist challenges as his peculiar Theme we may name particulars and those of the most comprehensive nature and greatest Importance whose knowledge the Naturalist must owe to Theology Of which Truths I shall content my self to give a few instances in the World it self or the universal Aggregate of things Corporeal that being look'd upon as the noblest and chiefest Object that the Physicks afford us to contemplate And first Those that admit the Truths reveal'd by Theology do generally allow that God is not onely the Author but Creator of the World I am not ignorant of what Anaxagoras taught of what he call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tully mentions in the production of the World and that what many other Grecians afterwards taught of the Worlds Aeternity is peculiarly due to Aristotle who does little less then brag that all the Philosophers that preceded him were of another mind Nor will I here examine which I else-where do whether and how far by Arguments meerly Physical the Creation of the World may be evinc'd But whether or no meer Natural Reason can reach so sublime a Truth yet it seems not that it did actually where it was not excited by Revelation-Discovery For though many of the antient Philosophers believ'd the World to have had a Beginning yet they all took it for granted that Matter had none nor does any of them that I know of seem to have so much as imagin'd that any Substance could be produced out of Nothing Those that ascribe much more to God than Aristotle make Him to have given Form onely not Matter to the World and to have but contriv'd the pre-existent Matter into this orderly Systeme we call the Universe Next whereas very many of the Philosophers that succeeded Aristotle suppose the World to have been Aeternal and those that believ'd it to have been produc'd had not the confidence to pretend to the knowing how old it was unless it were some extravagant ambitious People such as those fabulous Chaldaeans whose fond account reach'd up to 40000 or 50000 years Theology teaches us that the World is very far from being so old by 30 or 40 thousand years as they and by very many Ages as divers others have presum'd and does from the Scripture give us such an account of the age of the World that it has set us certain Limits within which so long a Duration may be bounded without mistaking in our Reckoning Whereas Philosophy leaves us to the vastness of Indeterminate Duration without any certain Limits at all The Time likewise and the Order and divers other Circumstances of the Manner wherein the Fabrick of the World was compleated we owe to Revelation bare Reason being evidently unable to inform us of Particulars that preceded the Origine of the first Man and though I do not think Religion so much concern'd as many do in their Opinion and Practise that would deduce particular Theorems of Natural Philosophy from this or that Expression of a Book that seems rather design'd to instruct us about Spiritual than Corporeal things I see no just reason to embrace their Opinion that would so turn the two first Chapters of Genesis into an Allegory as to overthrow the Literal and Historical sense of them And though I take the Scripture to be mainly design'd to teach us nobler and better Truths than those of Philosophy yet I am not forward to condemn those who think the beginning of Genesis contains divers particulars in reference to the Origine of things which though not unwarily or alone to be urg'd in Physicks may yet afford very considerable Hints to an attentive and inquisitive Peruser And as for the Duration of the World which was by the old Philosophers held to be Interminable and of which the Stoicks Opinion that the World shall be destroyed by fire which they held from the Jews was Physically precarious Theology teaches us expresly from Divine Revelation that the present course of Nature shall not last always but that one Day this world or at least this Vortex of ours shall either be Abolished by Annihilation or which seems far more probable be Innovated and as it were Transfigur'd and that by the Intervention of that Fire which shall dissolve and destroy the present frame of Nature So that either way the present state of things as well Naturall as Political shall have an end And as Theology affords us these Informations about the Creatures in general so touching the chiefest and noblest of the visible ones Men Revelation discovers very plainly divers very important things where Reason must needs be in the
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
it represents as Over or as Above all his Works and that his purer eyes Punish as well as See the Murder and Adultery of the heart when those Intentional sins are hinder'd from advancing into Actual ones we can scarce doubt but He whose Justice punishes sinful Aims will allow his Infinite Goodness to recompense pious Attempts And therefore our Saviour pronounces them blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness assuring Them that they shall be satisfi'd and thereby sufficiently intimating to us That an earnest Desire after a Spiritual Grace and such is the knowledge of Divine things may entitle a man to the complete Possession of it if not in This life yet in the Next where we shall not any more walk by Faith but by Sight and obtain as well a Knowledge as other Endowments befitting that Glorious state wherein the Purchaser of it for Us assures us that we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal or like to the Angels The Considerations Sir I have hitherto laid before you to recommend the Study of Divine Truths have I hope perswaded you That 't is on many accounts both noble and eligible in it self and therefore I shall here conclude the First Part of this Discourse And in regard that the Undervaluation Physiophilus expresses for that excellent Imployment seems to flow chiefly at least from his fondness and partiality for Natural Philosophy it will next concern us to compare the study of Theology with that of Physicks and show that the Advantages which your Friend alledges in favour of the Latter are partly much lessen'd by disadvantageous Circumstances and partly much out-weigh'd by the Transcendent Excellencies of Theological Contemplations The study whereof will thereby appear to be not onely Eligible in it self but Preferrible to its Rival And I must give you warning to expect to find the Second Part which the making this Comparison challenges to it self a good deal more Prolix than the First not onely because it often requires more trouble and more words to detect and disprove an Errour than to make out a Truth but also because that divers things tending to the Credit of Divinity and which consequently might have been brought into the First Part of this Discourse were thought more fit to be interwoven with other things in the Answers made to the Objections examin'd in the Second THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY OR The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity above that of Natural Philosophy THE SECOND PART I Shall without Preamble begin this Discourse by considering the Delightfulness of Physicks as the main thing that inveigles your Friend and divers other Virtuosi from relishing as they ought and otherwise would the pleasantness of Theological Discoveries And to deal ingenuously with you I shall not scruple to acknowledge that though the Address I have made to Nature has lasted several years and has been toilsome enough and not unexpensive yet I have been pleas'd enough with the favours such as they are that she has from time to time accorded me not to complain of having been unpleasantly imploy'd But though I readily allow the attainments of Naturalists to be able to give Philosophical Souls sincerer Pleasures than those that the more undiscerning part of Mankind is so fond of yet I must not therefore allow them to surpass or even equal the Contentment that may accrue to a Soul qualified by Religion to relish the best things most from some kind of Theological Contemplations This I presume will sufficiently appear if I shew you that the Study of Physiology is not unattended with considerable Inconveniencies and that the pleasantness of it may be by a Person studious of Divinity enjoy'd with endearing Circumstances But before I name any of the particular Reasons that I am to represent I fear it may be requisite to interpose a few words to obviate a mistake which if not prevented may have an ill aspect not onely upon the first Section but upon a great part of the following Discourse For I know that it may be said that whereas I alledge divers things to lessen the lately mentioned delightfulness of the study of Physic and to depreciate some other advantages by which the following Sections would recommend it some of the same things may be objected against the delightfulness of the study of Divinity But this Objection will not I presume much move you if you consider the argument and scope of the two parts of this Letter For in the former I have shewn by positive Proofs that the study of Theology is attended with divers advantages which belong to it either onely as some of them do or principally as others And now in the second part I come to consider whether what is alledged in behalf of the study of Philosophy deserve to counter-ballance those Prerogatives or Advantages and therefore it neither need be nor is my design to compare for instance the delightfulness of the two studies Philosophy and Physicks but by shewing the Inconveniences that allay the latter to weaken the Argument that is drawn from that delightfulness to conclude it preferrable to the study of Theology So that my work in this and the following Sections is not so much to institute Comparisons as to obviate or answer Allegations For since I have in the past Discourse grounded the Excellency of the study of Divinity chiefly upon those great advantages that are peculiar to it my Reasonings would not be frustrated though it should appear that in point of Delightfulness Certainty c. that Study should in many cases be liable to the same Objections with the Study of Nature since 't is not mainly for these Qualities but as I was saying for other and peculiar Excellencies that I recommended Divinity And therefore supposing the Delightfulness c. of that and of Physicks to be allayed by the same or equal Inconveniences or Imperfections that Supposition would not hinder the Scales to be swayed in favour of Divinity upon the score of those Advantages that are unquestion'd and peculiarly belong to it I know not whether I need add that notwithstanding this you are not to expect that I should give Philosophy the wounds of an Enemy For my design being not to discourage you nor any Ingenious man from courting Her at all nor from courting Her much but from courting her too much and despising Divinity for her I employ against her not a Sword to wound her but a Ballance to shew that her Excellencies though solid and weighty are less so than the preponderating ones of Theology And this temper and purpose of mine renders my Task difficult enough to have perhaps some right to your pardon as well as some need of it if I do not every where steer so exactly as equally to avoid injuring the Cause I am to plead for and disparaging a Study which I would so little depreciate that I allow it a great part of my Inclinations and not a little share of my Time And
more dimm and imperfect knowledge of God and the Mysteries of Religion may be more desirable and upon that account more delightful than a clearer knowledge of those Inferior Truths that Physicks are wont to teach I must now mention one particular more which may well be added to those that peculiarly indear Physicks to the Divine that is studious of them For as he contemplates the works of Nature not barely for themselves but to be the better qualified and excited to admire and praise the Author of Nature so his Contemplations are delightful to him not barely as they afford a pleasing Exercise to his Reason but as they procure him a more welcome approbation from his Conscience these distinct satisfactions being not at all inconsistent And questionless though Esau did at length miss of his aim yet while he was hunting Venison for the good old Patriark that desired it of him besides the pleasure he was us'd to take in pursuing the Deer he chas'd he took a great one in considering that now he hunted to please his Father and in order to obtain of him an inestimable Blessing So when David imployd his skilful Hand and Voice in praising God with Vocal and Instrumental Musick he receiv'd in one Act a double satisfaction by exercising his Skill and his Devotion and was no less pleas'd with those melodious sounds as they were Hymns than as they were Songs And this Example prompts me to add that as the devout Student of Nature we were speaking of does Intentionally refer the knowledge he seeks of the Creatures to the glory of the Creator so in his Discoveries that which most contents him is that the Wonders he observes in Nature heighten that Admiration he would fain raise to a less disproportion to the Wisdom of God and furnish him with a nobler Holocaust for those Sacrifices of Praise he is justly ambitious to offer up to the Deity And as there is no doubt to be made but that when David invented as the Scripture intimates that he did new Instruments of Musick there was nothing in that Invention that pleas'd him so much as that they could assist him to praise God the more melodiously go the pious Student of Nature finds nothing more welcome in the Discoveries he makes of her Wonders than the Rises and Helps they may afford him the more worthily to celebrate and glorifie the Divine Attributes adumbrated in the Creatures And as a Huntsman or a Fowler if he meets with some strange Bird or Beast or other Natural Rarity thinks himself much the more fortunate if it happen to be near the Court where he may have the King to present it to than if he were to keep it but for himself or some of his Companions So our Devout Naturalist has his Discoveries of Natures Wonders indear'd to him by having the Deity to present them to in the Veneration they excite in the Finder and which they inable him to ingage others to joyn in The fourth Section BUt I confess Sir I much fear that That which makes your Friend have such detracting thoughts of Theology is a certain secret Pride grounded upon a Conceit that the Attainments of Natural Philosophers are of so noble a kind and argue so transcendant an Excellency of Parts in the Attainer that he may justly undervalue all other Learning without excepting Theology it self You will not I suppose expect that a person who has written so much in the praise of Physiques and laboured so much for a little skill in it should now here endeavour to depretiate that so useful part of Philosophy But I do not conceive that it will be at all injurious to it to prefer the knowledge of Supernatural to that of meer Natural things and to think that the Truths which God indiscriminately exposes to the whole Race of Mankind and to the bad as well as to the good are inferiour to those Mysterious ones whose Disclosure he reckons among his peculiar Favours and whose Contemplation employs the Curiosity and in some points exacts the wonder of the very Angels That I may therefore repress a little the overweening Opinion your Friend has of his Physical Attainments give me leave to represent a few particulars conducive to that purpose And first as for the Nobleness of the Truths taught by Theology and Physicks those of the former sort have manifestly the Advantage being not onely conversant about far nobler Objects but discovering things that Humane Reason of it self can by no means reach unto as has been sufficiently declared in the foregoing part of this Letter Next we may consider that whatever may be said to excuse Pride if there were any in Moscus the Phoenician who is affirmed to have first Invented the Atomical Hypothesis and in Democritus and Leucippus for Epicurus scarce deserves to be named with them that highly Advanc'd that Philosophy and in Monsieur Des-Cartes who either Improv'd or at least much Innovated the Corpusculaâ—ian Hypothesis Whatever I say may be alledged on the behalf of these Mens pride I see no great Reason why it should be allowed in such as your Friend who though Ingenious Men are neither Inventors nor eminent Promoters of the Philosophy they would be admir'd for but content themselves to Learn what others have Taught or at least to make some little further Application of the Principles that others have Established and the Discoveries they have made And whereas your Friend is not a little proud of being able to confute several Errours of Aristotle and the Antients it were not amiss if he consider'd that many of the chief Truths that overthrow those Errours were the Productions of Time and Chance and not of his daring Ratiocinations For there needs no great Wit to disprove those that maintain the Uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone or deny the Antipodes since Navigators have found many Parts of the former well Peopl'd and Sailing round the Earth have found men living in Countreys Diametrically opposite to Ours Nor will it warrant a man's Pride that he believes not the Moon to be the onely Planet that shines with a borrowed Light or the Galaxy to be a Meteor since that now the Telescope shows us that Venus has her Full and Wain like the Moon and that the Milky way is made up of a vast multitude of little Stars inconspicuous to the naked Eye And indeed of those other Discoveries that overthrow the Astronomy of the Antients and much of their Philosophy about the Celestial Bodies few or none have any cause to boast but the excellent Galileus who pretends to have been the Inventor of the Telescope For that Instrument once discover'd to be able to reject the Septenary number of the Planets by the Detection of the four Satellites of Jupiter or talk of the Mountains and Valleys in the Moon requires not much more excellency in your Friend than it would to descry in a Ship where the naked Eye could discern but the Body of the
seems to be but as it were the Crust or Scurf But what the Internal part of this Globe is made up of is no less disputable than of what Substance the remotest Stars we can descry consist For even among the modern Philosophers some think the internal Portion of the Earth to be pure and Elementary Earth which say they must be found there or no where Others imagine it to be Fiery and the Receptacle either of Natural or Hellish Flames Others will have the Body of the Terrestrial Globe to be a great and solid Magnet And the Cartesians on the other side though they all admit store of Subterraneal Loadstones teach that the same Globe was once a Fix'd Star and that though it have since degenerated into a Planet yet the Internal part of it is still of the same Nature that it was before the change it has received proceeding onely from having had its outward parts quite cover'd over with thick spots like those to be often observ'd about the Sun by whose Condensation the firm Earth we inhabit was form'd And the mischief is that each of these jarring Opinions is almost as difficult to be demonstratively prov'd False as True For whereas to the Centre of the Earth there is according to the modestest account of our late Cosmographers above three thousand and five hundred miles my Inquiries among Navigators and Miners have not yet satisfi'd me that mens Curiosity has actually reached above one mile or two at most downwards and that not in above three or four places either into the Earth or into the Sea So that as yet our Experience has scarce grated any thing deep upon the Husk if I may so speak without at all reaching the Kernel of the Terraqueous Globe And alas what is this Globe of ours of which it self we know so little in comparison of those vast and Luminous Globes that we call the Fix'd Stars of which we know much less For though former Astronomers have been pleased to give us with a seeming accurateness their Distances and Bignesses as if they had had certain ways of measuring them yet Later and Better Mathematicians will I know allow me to doubt of what Those have deliver'd For since 't is confess'd that we can observe no Parallax in the Fix'd Stars nor perhaps in the highest Planets men must be yet to seek for a Method to measure the distance of those Bodies And not onely the Copernicans make it to be I know not how many hundred thousands of miles greater than the Ptolomeans and very much greater than even Tycho but Ricciolus himself though a great Anti-Copernican makes the distance of the Fix'd Stars vastly greater than not onely Tycho but if I mis-remember not than some of the Copernicans themselves Nor do I wonder at these so great Discrepances though some amount perhaps to some millions of miles when I consider that Astronomers do not measure the distance of the Fix'd Stars by their Instruments but accommodate it to their particular Hypotheses And by this uncertainty of the remoteness of the Fix'd Stars you will easily gather that we are not very sure of their Bulk no not so much as in reference to one another since it remains doubtful whether the differing Sizes they appear to us to be of proceed from a real Inequality of Bulk or onely from an Inequality of Distance or partly from one of those causes and partly from the other But 't is not my design to take notice of those Things which the famous Disputes among the Modern Astronomers manifest to be dubious For I consider that there are divers things relating to the Stars which are so remote from our knowledge that the Causes of them are not so much as disputed of or inquired into such as may be among others Why the number of the Stars is neither greater nor lesser than it is Why so many of those Celestial Lights are so plac'd as not to be visible to our naked eyes nor even when they are help'd by ordinary Telescopes which extraordinary good ones have assured me of Why among the familiarly visible Stars there are so many in some parts of the Sky and so few in others Why their Sizes are so differing and yet not more differing Why they are not more orderly plac'd so as to make up Constellations of regular or handsome Figures of which the Triangle is perhaps the single Example but seem to be scatter'd in the Skie as it were by Chance and have as confus'd Configurations as the Drops that fall upon ones Hat in a shower of Rain To which divers other Questions might be added as about the Stars so about the Interstellar part of Heaven which several of the Modern Epicureans would have to be empty save where the beams of Light and perhaps some other Celestial Effluvia pass through it and the Cartesians on the contrary think to be full of an Aethereal matter which some that are otherwise favourers of their Philosophy confess they are reduc'd to take up but as an Hypothesis So that our knowledge is much short of what many think not onely if it be consider'd Intensively but Extensively as a Schoolman would express it For there being so great a disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth that some Moderns think the Earth to be little better than a Point in comparison even of the Orb of the Sun and the Cartesians with other Copernicans think the great Orb it self which is equal to what the Ptolomeans call'd the Sun's Orb to be but a Point in respect of the Firmament and all our Astronomers agree that at least the Earth is but a Physical Point in comparison of the Starry Heaven Of how little extent must our knowledge be which leaves us ignorant of so many things touching the vast Bodies that are above us and penetrates so little a way even into the Earth that is beneath us that it seems confin'd to but a small share of the superficial part of a Physical Point Of which consideration the natural result will be that though what we call our Knowledge may be allowed to pass for a high Gratification to our minds it ought not to puff them up and what we know of the System and the Nature of things Corporeal is not so perfect and satisfactory as to justifie our despising the Discoveries of Spiritual things One of the former parts of this Letter may furnish me with one thing more to evince the Excellencies and Prerogatives of the knowledge of the Mysteries of Religion and that One thing is such that I hope I shall need to add nothing More because it is not possible to add any thing Higher and that is That the Preeminence above other Knowledge adjudg'd to that of Divine Truths by a Judge above all Exception and above all Comparison namely by God himself This having been but lately shown I shall not now repeat it but rather apply what hath been there evinc'd by representing that if He
who determines in favour of Divine Truths were such an one as was less acquainted than our over-weening Naturalists with the secrets of their Idoliz'd Physicks or if he were though an Intelligent yet like an Angel a Bare Contemplator of what we call the Works of Nature without having any Interest in their Productions your Friends not acquiescing in his estimate of things might have though not a fair Excuse yet a stronger Temptation But when he by whose direction we prefer the higher Truths revealed in the Scripture before those which Reason alone teaches us concerning those comparatively mean Subjects things Corporeal is the same God that not onely understands the whole Universe and all its parts far more perfectly than a Watch-maker can understand one of his own Watches in which he can give an account onely of the Contrivance and not of the Cause of the Spring nor the Nature of the Gold Steel and other Bodies his Watch consists of but did make both this great Automaton the World and Man in it We have no colour to imagine that he should either be ignorant of or injuriously disparage his own Workmanship or impose upon his Favourite-Creature Man in directing him what sort of Knowledge he ought most to covet and prize So that since 't is He who fram'd the World and all those things in it we most admire that would have us prefer the knowledge he has vouchsafed us in his Word before that which he has allow'd us of his Works sure 't is very unreasonable and unkind to make the Excellencies of the Workmanship a disparagement to the Author and the Effects of his Wisdom a Motive against acquiescing in the Decisions of his Judgment as if because he is to be admir'd for his Visible Productions he were not to be believ'd when he tells us that there are Discoveries that contain Truths more valuable than those which relate but to the Objects that he has expos'd to all men's Eyes The fifth Section I Doubt I should be guilty of a most important Omission if I should here forget to consider One thing which I fear has a main stroak in the Partiality your Friend expresseth in his preference of Physicks to Theology and that is That he supposes he shall by the Former acquire a Fame both more Certain and more Durable than can be hop'd for from the Latter And I acknowledge not onely with readiness but with somewhat of Gratulation of the felicity of this Age That there is scarce any sort of Knowledge more in request than that which Natural Philosophy pretends to teach and that among the awaken'd and inquisitive part of Mankind as much Reputation and Esteem may be gain'd by an insight into the Secrets of Nature as by being intrusted with those of Princes or dignifi'd with the splendid'st marks of their favour But though I readily confess thus much and though perhaps I may be thought to have had I know not by what fate as great a share of that perfum'd Smoak Applause as at least some of those which among the Writers that are now alive your Friend seems most to Envy for it yet I shall not scruple to tell you partly from observation of what has happen'd to others and partly too upon some little Experience of my own that neither is it so easie as your Friend seems to believe it to get by the study of Nature a sure and lasting Reputation neither ought the Expectation of it in reason make men undervalue the study of Divinity Nor would it here avail to object by way of prevention that the Difficulties and Impediments of acquiring and securing Reputation lie as well in the way of Divines as Philosophers since this Objection has been already consider'd at the beginning of this Second Part of our present Tract Besides that the progress of our Discourse will shew that the Naturalist aspiring to fame is liable to some Inconveniences which are either not at all or not near equally incident to the Divine Wherefore without staying to take any further notice of this preventive Allegation I shall proceed to make good the first part of the Assertion that preceded it which that I may the more fully do give me leave after having premised That a man must either be a Writer or forbear to Print what he knows to propose to you the following Considerations And first if your Physeophilus should think to secure a great Reputation by forbearing to couch any of his Thoughts or Experiments in Writing he may thereby find himself not a little mistaken For if once he have gain'd a repute upon what account soever of knowing some things that may be useful to others or of which studious men are wont to be very desirous he will not avoid the Visits and Questions of the Curious Or if he should affect a Solitude and be content to hide himself that he may hide the things he knows yet he will not escape the sollicitations that will be made him by Letters And if these ways of tempting him to disclose himself prevail not at all with him to do so he will provoke the Persons that have employ'd them who finding themselves disoblieg'd by being defeated of their Desires if not also their Expectations will for the most part endeavour to revenge themselves on him by giving him the Character of an uncourteous and ill-natur'd person and will endeavour perhaps successfully enough to decry his parts by suggesting That his affected Concealments proceed but from a Conscientiousness that the things he is presum'd to possess are but such as if they should begin to be known would cease to be valu'd You will say perchance that so much reservedness is a fault Nor shall I dispute it with you whether it be or not but if he be open and communicative in Discourse to those Strangers that come to pump him such is the disingenious temper of too too many that he will be in great danger of having his Notions or Experiments arrogated by those to whom he imparts them or at least by others to whom those may though perchance designlessly happen to discourse of them And then if either Physeophylus or any of his Friends that know him to be Author of what is thus usurp'd should mention him as such the Usurpers and their Friends would presently become his Enemies and to secure their own Reputation will be sollicitous to lessen and blemish his And if you should now tell me that your Friend might here take a Middle way as that which in most cases is thought to be the best by discoursing at such a rate of his Discoveries as may somewhat gratifie those that have a Curiosity to learn them and yet not speak so clearly as divest himself of his Propriety in them I should reply That neither is this Expedient a sure one nor free from Inconveniences For most men are so self-opinionated that they will easily believe themselves Masters of things if they do but half understand them And
Temple and promote the Celebration of God's Praises with it And as Experience has manifested that the Heathen Philosophers that courted Moral Vertue for her self did not raise it to that pitch to which 't was advanc'd by the Heroick Practises of those true Christians that in the highest Exercise of Vertue had a Religious aim at the pleasing and injoying of God so I see not why Natural Knowledge must be more prosperously cultivated by those selfish Naturalists that aim but at the pleasing of themselves in the attainment of that Knowledge than those Religious Naturalists who are invited to Attention and Industry not onely by the pleasantness of the Knowledge it self but by a higher and more ingaging Consideration namely that by the Discoveries they make in the Book of Nature both themselves and others may be excited and qualifi'd the better to admire and praise the Authour whose Goodness does so well match the Wisdom they celebrate that he declares in his Word That those that honour him he will honour And as a man that is not in love with a fair Lady but has onely a respect for her may have as true and perfect though not as discomposing an Idea of her face as the most passionate Inamorato so I see not why a Religious and Inquisitive Contemplator of Nature may not be able to give a good account of her without preferring her so far to all other Objects of his study as to make her his Mistress and perhaps too his Idol II. And now I proceed to consider in the second place That matters of Divinity may as well as those of Philosophy afford a Reputation to Him that discovers or illustrates them For though the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion be as I have formerly declar'd little less Evident than Important yet there are many other points in Divinity and passages in the Scripture which for Reasons that I have elsewhere mention'd are exceeding hard to be clear'd and do not onely pose ordinary Readers and the common sort of Scholars but will sufficiently exercise the Abilities of a Great Wit and give him opportunity enough to manifest that He is One. For divers of the points I speak of are much benighted upon the score of the Sublimity of the Things they treat of such as are the Nature Attributes and Decrees of God which cannot be easie to the dimm understandings of Us that are but Men And many other particulars that are not Abstruse in their own Nature are yet made Obscure to us by our Ignorance or at least Imperfect Knowledge of the disus'd Languages wherein they are deliver'd and the great remoteness of the Ages when and the Countreys where the things recorded were done or said So that oftentimes a man may need and show as great Learning and Judgment to dispel the Darkness wherein Time has involv'd Things as that which Nature has cast on them And in effect we see that St. Augustine St. Hierom Origen and others of the Fathers have acquir'd no less a Reputation than Empedocles Anaxagoras or Zeno And Grotius Salmasius Mr. Mede Dr. Hamond and some other Critical Expounders of difficult Texts of Scripture have thereby got as much Credit as Fracastorius by his Book De Sympathia Antipathia Levinus Lemnius by his De Occultis rerum Miraculis or Cardanus and his Adversary Scaliger by what they writ De Subtilitate or even Fernelius himself by his Book De Abditis Rerum Causis And it will contribute to the Credit which Theological Discoveries and Illustrations may procure a Man that the Importance of the Subjects and the earnestness wherewith men are wont to busie themselves about them some upon the score of Piety and others upon that of Interest some to Learn Truths and others to Defend what they have long or publickly taught for Truth does make greater numbers of Men take notice of such Matters and concern themselves far more about them than about almost any other things and especially far more than about matters purely Philosophical which but few are wont to think themselves fit to judge of and concern'd to trouble themselves about And accordingly we see that the Writings of Socinus Calvin Bellarmine Padre Paulo Arminius c. are more famous and more studied than those of Telesius Campanella Severinus Danus Magnenus and divers other Innovators in Natural Philosophy And Erastus though a very Learned Physician is much less famous for all his Elaborate Disputations against Paracelsus than for the little Tract against particular Forms of Church-Government And I presume You have taken notice as well as I that there are scarce any Five new Controversies in all Physicks that are known to and hotly contended for by so many as are the Five Articles of the Remonstrants III. My second Consideration being thus dispatch'd it remains that I tell you in the Third place that Supposing but not Granting that to prosecute the Study of Divinity one must of necessity neglect the Acquist of Reputation yet this Inconvenience it self ought not to deter us from the Duty it would disswade For in all Deliberations wherein any thing is propos'd to be quitted or declin'd to obey or please God me thinks we may fitly apply that of the Prophet to the Jewish King who being perswaded to express his Concern for God's Glory to decline the Assistance of an Idolatrous Army of Israelites and objecting that by complying with the Advice given Him he should lose a Sum of Money amounting to no less than the Hire of a Potent Army receiv'd from the Prophet this brisk but rational Answer The Lord is able to give thee far more than this The Apostle Paul who had been traduc'd revil'd buffetted scourg'd imprison'd shipwrack'd and ston'd for his Zeal to propagate the Truths whose study I plead for after He had once had a Glimpse of that great Recompense of Reward that is reserved for us in Heaven scruples not to pronounce that he finds upon casting up the Account for He uses the Arithmetical term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be reveal'd in us And if all that the Persecuted Christians of his time could suffer were not suitable for so I remember the same Greek word to signifie elsewhere or proportionable to that Glory it will sure far out-weigh what we can now forego or decline for it The loss of an Advantage and much more the bare missing of it being usually but a Negative Affliction in comparison of the Actual sufferance of Evil. Christ did not onely tell his Disciples that He who should give the least of his Followers so much as a cup of cold water upon the score of their relation to Him should not be unrewarded but when the same persons asked Him what should be done to Them who had left All to follow Him He presently allots Them Thrones as much outvaluing that All they had lost