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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	work_n	writer_n	80	3	7.8452	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37987	A demonstration of the existence and providence of God, from the contemplation of the visible structure of the greater and the lesser world in two parts, the first shewing the excellent contrivance of the heavens, earth, sea, &c., the second the wonderful formation of the body of man / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing E201; ESTC R13760	204,339	448

unhappy King he was dethron'd by his own Son and died of Grief and Melancholy But though he thus impiously blasphemed the Creation yet he was not so sottish as to deny a God the Artificer of all these Works that we behold Which yet our Atomical and Chance-Philosophers will not be induced to assert or believe CHAP. IV. The Things which are remarkable in the Space between the Heavens and the Earth administer clear Proofs of a Deity as the Air the Winds the Clouds where the late Archaeologist is rebuked the wonderful Ballancing of these latter Their gentle falling down in Rain by degrees the Vsefulness of these Showers The Rain-bow Thunder and Lightning Snow Hail Frost and Ice NOW let us go down from these Lofty Battlements of Heaven to behold the things that are between this and the Earth Let us descend from the Etherial to the Aerial Region where still we shall find every thing declaring a Divine and Omnipotent Creator The Air the Clouds the Winds and all the Meteors preach a Deity The Air is the necessary but noble Instrument of Man's Subsistence in the World We breathe by it and so it is the most necessary of all the Elements because without Respiration there is no Life The Greek word which signifies to breathe hath but two Letters and those are the first and last of the Greek Alphabet The Air or Breath by which we breath is our Alpha and Omega we began our Life with it and we end it without it For this is that whereby the Fuel of Life is at first kindled and afterward maintained This also was made to transmit to us the Light Heat and Influences of the Sun and Stars and is the Medium and Conveyer of Colours to the Eye and of Sounds to the Ear and is the Vehicle of all wholesom Smells of all fragrant and delightful Odours for the Refreshment of our Spirits This is of perpetuall use to all Creatures whether Vegetative or Animal And if we would be Curious we might observe here the Elastick Power or Spring of this Element the native Self-Expansion of this vast Body whereby it flies out and seeks to be at Liberty upon the removal of all Circumambient Obstacles Which a Noble Philosopher of our Age hath improved to very good purpose and therein discover'd the Wonders of the Creation The Winds are the Stream and Current of this Element and are caused by the Condensation and Rarefaction of it which are procured by a lesser or greater degree of the Sun's Heat But sometimes this Boisterous Meteor is bred by Vapours and Exhalations rising out of the Earth or Waters and then generally it is most vehement and loud it is most swift and rapid on which latter account we have mention of the Wings of the Wind Psal. 18.10 But both the gentle Gales and stormy Blasts are useful at their several Seasons viz. to fan clear and purge the Air and to prevent the stagnating of it to dispel unwholesom and noxious Vapours especially at Sea and in very wet Soils to dry up excessive Moisture after great Rains to qualify the scorching Heat of the Summer to cool those Regions which are most liable to the Sun 's perpendicular Rays and accordingly it is well known that there are Briezes i. e. fresh Eastern Winds which constantly blow about Noon in the hottest Countries even under the Equator and mitigate the excessive Heat They are welcome and refreshing to Trees and Plants and Fruit both as they bring Rain to water them and fair Weather to ripen them They are serviceable at Sea for Ships yea of such necessity that Navigation could not be performed without them And they are useful for several considerable Purposes at Land for the Needs of Man's Life The Winds therefore may be reckon'd as no contemptible Instances of God's Care and Providence toward Mankind Whence these are attributed to Him alone by the Inspired Prophet He bringeth forth the Wind out of his Treasures the Treasures of Sea and Land that afford a plentiful stock of Exhalations which being either rarified by Heat or condens'd by Cold stir and move in that manner which we either feel or hear He makes the Weight for the Winds as it is elegantly said of him Iob 28.25 There is such a certain Order and Appointment concerning every one of them whether they be the Cardinal Ones from the Four Quarters of the World or those that are Intermediate and Collateral that they may be said to be weighed and poized They are always in such a Posture as he pleaseth and their Place and Motion together with the Effects of them are exactly determined Let us behold the Clouds the visible and constant Witnesses of an Almighty Power and Wisdom They are moist Vapours drawn up and thickned into Water in the middle Region of the Air therefore they are call'd the Waters above the Firmament Gen. 1.7 i. e. above the great Expansum of the Lower Region of the Air for there is another Firmament mentioned Gen. 1.17 the Firmament of the Heaven or Aether where God placed the Stars So that if we distinguish between the Aerial and Aethereal Firmament which we ought to do we shall reconcile the Controversy which hath been among Writers concerning the Rakiang the Expansum mentioned by Moses which divided the Waters that are under it i. e. the Sea from the Waters that are above it i. e. the Clouds The not observing of this hath occasioned that vile Notion which we find vented by the Archaeologist who tells us That Moses makes Waters above the Heavens or Firmament to comply with the vulgar Conceit of the People that God Almighty hath a Store-house of Rain there and so sends it down thence to them on the Earth I am heartily sorry to see such ill Words fall from the Pen of a Christian Writer They not only import that Moses willingly and designedly fosters the People in their erroneous and false Apprehensions concerning God's Works but they make a Mock of a plain Truth viz. that the Heavens or Clouds are the Receptacles or Store-houses of Rain and were appointed by the All-wise God to be so The Heaven is expresly call'd God's good Treasure or rather Treasury whence he gives Rain Deut. 28.12 And we read of the Treasures of Snow and Hail Job 38.22 We should rather translate it Treasuries as the same Hebrew word is render'd in Psal. 135.7 where also it is apply'd to a Meteor as it is here And what are these Treasuries and Store-houses of Rain Snow and Hail but the Clouds from whence these Meteors descend And these Clouds as any impartial and considerate Man must needs grant are the Waters that are above the Firmament or Aerial Heaven So little reason had the foresaid Writer to look upon these as the mere Imagination of the Vulgar and to think that the Inspired Pen-man makes mention of them in mere Compliance with the conceited People Whereas it is rational to believe that

the other Places before-mention'd where there are long and cold Winters there is reason to believe that they are most sutable to the Constitutions and Tempers of the Persons who inhabit them The great Disposer of all things placed such Inhabitants there as were fit for that Region and no other For they could not dwell in these Countries where we inhabit as we could not dwell there So that the placing of those People in that dark cold and frozen part of the World is so far from being a Detraction to Divine Providence that it is a singular Proof of it and shews the Wisdom of the World's Maker in a sutable choosing of Places for Persons according to their particular Temperament and Exigencies And both with relation to these and the Polar Regions we may truly say that the excessive Coldness of these Parts is useful and serviceable for the good of others that are near to the Sun and have need sometimes of cooling From these remote Treasuries the Winds are fetch'd for the rebuking of the scorching Heats of Summer of which we can give no Natural and Philosophical Account unless we derive them from these great Store-Houses This acquaints us with the true cause of that excessive Sharpness and Rigour of the Air which we feel sometimes and that of a sudden This solves the unexpected change of Weather yea sometimes the sudden and unlook'd for checking of Pestilential Diseases and Infections which is known to happen Inconsiderate Minds are apt to think that the Regions that are seated under the Poles are altogether useless and thence perhaps may be tempted to question the Divine Conduct But if we will consider those Places we shall find that they are as Necessary as any parts of the World It is true they are for the most part Unhabitable but their being so makes others Habitable for these are the common Receptacles of Cold whence it is dispersed by Divine Providence to those Parts where it is wanting at any time that is when the Sun's Fierceness calls for a Check And several other ways those Polar Receptacles and Nurseries of Cold are serviceable yea necessary for the welfare of the World Lastly The wise framing and ordering of the Sun's Motion and Progress of which I have spoken before necessarily infer this Difference of Places on the Earth as to Heat and Cold. Unless we will remove this Luminary from its Ecliptick and thereby disorder the whole Course of the World and destroy the various Succession of Times and Seasons which upholds Mankind as well as all other Creatures whatsoever we must be forced to confess that the several Zones and Climates tho differing so much in Heat and Cold are useful in the Creation and that the Position of the Globe of the Earth is most wisely and discreetly ordered The late Theorist boldly contradicts this and tells us that the Situation of the Earth is not the same now that it was before the Deluge It did not stand Oblique to the Sun as it doth at present whereby we have a great Difference of Seasons as Spring Summer c. but it had a right or parallel Situation insomuch that there was a Continual Equinox And yet this Person who is so curious about the Idea of his First Earth hath given it us with a very great Blemish yea much worse Fault than any that he pretends to find in this present Earth for they are his express Words The Paradisiacal Earth had a Torrid Zone which was Vninhabitable All this great Portion of Earth was burnt up and wither'd and had no Grass Tree or Plant upon it and so no Creature could find any Sustenance there This is his fine Paradisiacal Earth as he calls it And yet it is worth our observing that he saith in another Place in express Terms All the Earth is green and a Perpetual Spring is over it all meaning his Paradisiacal Earth When he hath thus confuted himself there is no need of any Body else to do it But we may grant him his Theory that there was a Primitive Earth of a different Form from the present It is partly true that the Earth is not what it was for there are the Marks of Sin and of the Fall even on the Earth and we read of a Curse denounced against it Gen. 3.17 though he is pleas'd to turn that Chapter into mere Allegory and thereby to null the main Points of our Religion and afterwards by the violent Irruptions of the Flood it is most probable that the Earth underwent some Alteration But what is this to the changing the very Situation and Posture of the Earth How is it proved hence that the First Earth had another Situation to the Sun and had a perpetual Equinox and Spring These things are asserted by him but no where proved Wherefore I look upon it as a precarious and groundless Opinion The Variety of Seasons before the Flood may be gather'd from Gen. 8.22 I will not again curse the Ground nor smite any more every living thing as I have done While the Earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease As much as to say Though during the time of the Deluge these Alterations of the Seasons were interrupted and the Sun's Heat and Light were as if they were not because they could have no Effect upon the Earth as long as it lay under Water yet now having restored things to their pristine Course and Order I assure you they shall continue so to the end of the World Thus it is included in these Words that there were the same Vicissitudes of the Year before the Flood that there are now And this appears to be a Truth from what I have already shew'd viz. that the present Position and Situation of the Earth are very convenient useful and in some Respects necessary for there is a necessity of a Vicissitude of Seasons and a Variety or Exchange of Heat and Cold because the Fruitfulness of the Earth depends upon these and Heat and Cold generated in the Air are the two Hands of Nature as my Lord Bacon rightly saith by which she doth all her Work It is unreasonable to conceive an Equality of these and consequently an Equal and Unvariable Temperature of the Year before the Deluge Which is thus lately represented by an Admirable Pen A Man can hardly at first imagine what a Train of ill Consequences would follow from such a Condition and Posture of things of which it would not be the least that such a Mediocrity of Heat would deprive the World of the most beautiful and the most useful Parts of all the whole Creation and would be so far from exalting the Earth to a more happy and Paradisiacal State that it would turn it to a general Desolation and a mere barren Wilderness to say no worse Such an Heat would be too little for some sorts of Vegetables and too great for others The

foedera mundi Praescriptosque mari fines annique meatus Et lucis noctisque vices tunc omnia rebar Consilio firmata Dei. When I had search'd into the World's Great Frame And Nature's Leagues and Combinations seen How the Vast Ocean 's bounded how the Year Runs its perpetual Course how Night and Day Succeed each other then I rightly judg'd That these and Nature's universal Laws Were fix'd by Counsel and a Cause Divine Thus you see what Reason Scripture and the Sentiments of the Wise agree in viz. that what we behold in the World is a Proof of a Deity and Providence Let us now seriously attend to all these and thence gather what is our Proper Duty and Concern on this Occasion 1. Let us Acknowledg this Great Truth that the World is the Product of a Divine Mind and that all the Ranks of the Visible Creation owe their Being to this Plutarch saith rightly that Men had first of all the Notion of a God from the Beauty of the things that are seen in the World But the Pagans went too far here and their Contemplations of the World ended at last in their owning it to be a God It is meet saith Pliny we should believe the World to be an Eternal and Immense Numen that had no Beginning and shall have no End This strange Creed of theirs was the Foundation of Idolatry i. e. of worshipping the Creatures It gives an account of the Egyptians and others paying Reverence to mean and sordid Animals Vilia cur magnos aequent animalia Divos The Stoicks indeed held the World was God but they were too wise to understand it in the gross Sense their meaning was that a Divine Spirit or Mind pervades this World and actuates all its Parts and preserves it in Being and Operation This is the sense of Cato's Word in Lucan Iupiter est quodcunque vides Which is of the same Import with Iovis omnia plena all things are replenish'd with the Divine Influence every Creature owes its Subsistence as it doth its Being and Original to God Which is that very Truth I am now reminding you of and is every ways so reasonable and accountable You may see God in the things he hath made The Impress of Divinity is stamped on the Creatures as Princes put their Effigies on their Coins We find the Idea of God i. e. Infinite Goodness and Wisdom reflected from the visible Objects of Nature This I question not was the true Meaning and Intention of Plato when he held the World was a Living Creature and that every thing in it is Animated I deny not that his Followers if they may be call'd so took the World to be a real Animal but as for the Old Gentleman himself I am perswaded that by the Soul of the World he would have us understand the Order and Harmony of it as he plainly shews in his Timaeus Its Parts are as orderly and its Motions are as regular and proportionable as if it were inspired with Life yea as if it were some Intellectual Animal This exact Order and Regularity it received from that Eternal Mind who gave it its Existence God may truly be call'd the Soul of the World Him let us acknowledg to be the Author of this Beautiful Universe whilst some deluded Epicureans or Platonists date its Being and Form from Chance or Necessity let us with one of the Antientest Philosophers we read of confess that the Fabrick of the World is most Beautiful because 't is God's Voluntary Workmanship 2. Be invited hence to Study the Works of Nature to contemplate the Creatures to meditate on the Works of the Lord and the Operation of his Hands The great God is set before our Eyes in the World and may be seen and taken notice of in every Creature like the Picture or Statue of some Founder of a College set up in some eminent and noted Place for all the Society to behold it God hath copied forth himself in the Creation The Creatures are so many Glasses wherein the Divine Glory is reflected wherein the Image of God is represented Think it then a noble and divine Work to be employ'd in the Contemplation of these You that have time and leisure and helps proportionable set some time apart for this Study Take a Survey of this huge Pile of the World consider well the Various Parts of it scan its Excellent Structure View first the Lower Rooms of this Habitation this Spatious Earth which God hath given to the Sons of Men with all the Excellent Furniture belonging to it the different Sorts of Vegetables and Animals it is provided with Let your Thoughts descend into the Subterraneous Mines and Treasures of inestimable Value Go down into the Deep Seas and there be astonish'd with the multiplied Wonders of that Place Then return again and mount the Upper Stories of this Divine Habitation Entertain your selves with the Wonders of the Aerial and Ethereal Regions converse with those Immense Globes of Light and Fire which adorn that part of the Universe Exercise your Thoughts with these and the other Excellencies which this vast Fabrick of the World will exhibit to you which had its Name given it by the Greeks from its Ornate Figure and Comely Make. Pythagoras is said to be the first that gave that Denomination of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this Great Frame of Heaven and Earth as Laertius and Plutarch tell us and the latter of these adds that it was stiled so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Order which is in it And the Latins gave it the Title of Mundus upon the like account viz. from its Neatness Elegancy and Beauty This may allure us to the Study of Natural Philosophy and a Survey of the Structure of the World For here we shall certainly meet with perfect Order and Ornament even such as will conduct our Thoughts to the Divine Author of them If this be not the effect of our Studies and Enquiries they are all in vain for the knowing of the Works of Nature and being able to count them are not True Philosophy unless we gather a God from them Else Iohn Tradeskan would have been the best Philosopher in his time and any Man that can shew the Rarities at Gresham College would be as Good as Virtuoso as any of the Fellows of the Royal Society We must not think it enough to be acquainted with the Works of the Creation we must advance yet higher Our Skill in Natural History must lead us to Theology by studying the Composition and Oeconomy of the World which bears upon it all the Characters of Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness we ought to be acquainted with God himself to whom alone these Attributes originally belong And none ought to be discouraged here for All Persons of what Rank or Quality soever are in some measure concern'd in this Employment and may manage it with Success This should be an Universal Work nor indeed need