MATHE HALE Miles Capitalis Iustic de Banco Regis Ano 1677 For W. Shrowsbery at The Sign of The Bible In Duck Lane F. H. van Hâ—ue Sculp THE Primitive Origination OF MANKIND CONSIDERED AND EXAMINED According to The Light of Nature WRITTEN By the Honourable Sir MATTHEW HALE KNIGHT Late CHIEF JUSTICE of His MAJESTIES Court of KING'S BENCH LONDON Printed by WILLIAM GODBID for WILLIAM SHROWSBERY at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-Lane MDCLXXVII TO THE READER THE subject Matter of this Book is a free Disquisition according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason touching the Primitive Origination of Mankind consisting principally of these Parts and Assertions I. That according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason the Mundus aspectabilis was not Eternal but had a Beginning II. That if there could be any imaginable doubt thereof yet by the necessary Evidence of Natural Light it doth appear that Mankind had a beginning and that the successive Generations of Men were in their Original Ex non genitis III. That this Truth is evident by Reason and Arguments demonstrative or at least little less than apodeictical IV. That there are Moral Evidences of the truth of this Assertion which are herein particularly expended and examined and how far forth they are concludent and how far not which I have impartially delivered V. That those great Philosophers that asserted this Origination of Mankind Ex non genitis both ancient and modern that rendred it by Hypotheses different from that of Moses were mistaken Wherein the several Hypotheses of Aristotle Plato Empedocles Epicurus Avicen Cardanus Cisalpinus Beregardus and others are examined and the absurdity and impossibility thereof detected VI. That the Mosaical System as well of the Creation of Man as of the World in general abstractively considered without relation to the Divine Inspiration of the Writer is highly consonant to Reason and upon a bare rational account highly preferrible before the Sentiments of those Philosphers that either thought Mankind Eternal or substituted Hypotheses of his first Production different from the Mosaical VII I have concluded the whole with certain Corollaries and Deductions necessarily flowing from the things thus asserted as well touching the Existence the Wisdom Power Providence of Almighty God as touching both the Duty and Happiness of Mankind Though this may seem a laborious Work to little purpose since the generality of Christians among whom I write do generally believe this Truth of the Origination of the World and Mankind as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures and thus to write in proof of a Truth generally received doth rather create Doubts in Mens Minds of what they already believe than any way advantage or confirm their belief I Answer 1. That for my part I think Atheism so unreasonable a thing so abhorrent to the Light of Nature and Sentiments of Conscience that I cannot think there is so much speculative Atheism abroad in the World as many good Men fear and suspect But if there be but one quarter of that Atheism in the World I do not know any better Cure of it or Preservative against it next to the Grace of God than the due Consideration of the Origination of Mankind 2. Again though the Creation of Man be generally acknowledged by Jews and Christians yet we must likewise consider that many take it up only as a part of their Education and not upon any serious deep Conviction of the truth of it and had such Men but an Education in such a Place or Country where it is not believed or where it is doubted they would be at least sceptical and doubtful in the belief of it 3. The best of Men and soundest believers of Divine Revelations may be better confirmed by the accession and suffrage even of Natural Evidences of the Verities they already believe but howsoever it better enables them to convince such Gainsayers as will be governed in their Judgments by no other Light than the Light of Nature and Reason and many such there may be met withal in the World And upon that account my whole Discourse is bottomed upon Natural and Moral Evidences suited to these Mens Principles or Motives by which they are guided and governed yea when I make use of the Sacred and Infallible Scriptures I do use them abstractively from their Divine and Infallible Authority and only as Moral Evidences of the Truth I assert for any Man may easily foresee that an Atheistical Spirit that denies or questions the truth of the Fact therein delivered will not be convinced by the Infallibility of that Scripture which delivers that for a Truth which he denies or questions This whole Book as thou now seest it was written by me some Years since and hath lain ever since in my Chest and surely therein should have lain still but only for Three Reasons 1. Because that some Writings of mine have without my privity come abroad in Print which I never intended and this might have had the same fate if not in my Life time yet after my Death 2. Because possibly there hath some more care been used by me in the Digesting and Writing hereof than of some others that have gone abroad in publick 3. That although I could never be brought to value the Writings of mine that are published as worthy of the publick view yet I find them well accepted by many which encouraged me to let this Book come abroad under my own Name wherein I used more care than in those lesser Tractates although I have not yet confidence enough to say that this may deserve any great acceptation though there be many things in it which may not please yet I do think there be many things useful and such as will not displease Judicious Readers If there be any Faults or Mistakes in Quotations in Syntax in Translations in Transcriptions or if there by any Errours as possibly there may be in my Deductives Inferences or Applications or if the Language be in some places either improper or obscure or if the Expressions or Words which we sometimes use be not so full so significant or proper or delivered from Amphibologies yet I must desire the Reader to take this Apology for it 1. It was written at leisure and broken times and with great intervals and many times hastily as my busie and important Employment of another nature known to the World would give me leave which must needs make such Breaks and Chasms and Incoherences that possibly a continued uninterrupted series of writing would have prevented and carried on the Discourse with a more equal Thred 2. A long indisposition of Health hath much hindred and interrupted me in a strict revising and amending of what possibly might have been requisite to be done 3. A Man whose scope and intent and drift is at some one thing and hath his Eye and Design fixed upon it many times is not so solicitous nor so curious nor so exact in the choice of
proportionate to their being nature and capacity 2. And as thus the contemplation of the Efficient and his Beneficence to other created Beings induceth us to conclude an end of fruition designed to Man so the contemplation of the Work it self concludes the same Man hath in the peculiarity of his nature these two great Powers and receptive Faculties whereby he is rendred amply capable of a great enjoyment namely his Understanding whose proper Object is Truth and the noblest Truth that is and its proper action is directed to that Object namely Intellection and Will whose proper Object is Good and the greater and more sovereign the Good is the more suitable it is to this power and the proper act of this power is to reach after and desire and embrace and delight in its Object and the filling of these two receptive powers with the chiefest intellectual Truth and with the chiefest and intellectual Good is that which perfects advanceth and enableth these Faculties or Powers And this doth lead us to a just discovery of what that end of fruition is for which Man was designed by his beneficent Creator namely such as is suitable answerable and proportionate to those Powers or Faculties in Man whereby he excells all inferior Animals his Understanding and his Will and herein consists his happiness his end of fruition or enjoyment 1. As to his Understanding the great and general fruition of Good therein is Knowledge Now I shall distinguish these Objects of Knowledge or Scibilia into two kinds 1. The Scibilia subordinata which being united to the intellective Power by that act or habit which we call Knowledge do advance and perfect this Power or Faculty in a subordinate way measure or degree such is the knowledge of Natural Causes and Effects of Arts Liberal or Manual of Rules of justum and decorum of Moral Truths and the like this gives a subordinate perfection and fruition to this Power varied and diversified according to the worth of the Objects and the perfection or clearness of their perception 2. The Scibile supremum which is the ever-glorious God his Perfection Attributes Wisdom Power Goodness his Will and Commands so far forth as that infinitely perfect Being is cognoscible by our finite Understanding This is the supreme Truth the highest fruition of the intellective Power and the greatest perfection of an intellective Nature as such 2. Again as to the power of the Will it hath likewise Objects of Good answerable to the former distribution 1. The subordinate Good of Moral Virtues Honesty Sobriety Justice Temperance and all the train of Moral Virtues these being united to the Will in their acts and constant habits the Will enjoys a great Moral Good tranquillity of Mind complacency and delight 2. The Sovereign Good which is the glorious God reached after by the Will as the chiefest Good and enjoyed in the manifestations of his Love Favour Presence Influence and Beneficence this fills the vastest motions of the Will fills it with Peace Contentation and Glory and keeps it nevertheless in a perpetual motion by returns of Gratitude humble Love Obedience and all imaginable extension of it self for the Service Honour and Glory of that God that hath thus bountifully given to the Soul a power in some measure receptive of his Infinite Self and fitted that power with a proportionate Good even the Goodness and Bounty of the ever-glorious God And now because Man hath a double state namely a state in this Life in conjunction of the Soul with the Body naturally dissolvible and a state of Immortality after this Life either in the Soul alone or in the Soul in conjunction with an immortal Body as shall be shewn in its due time therefore proportionable to this double state is that fruition which Almighty God designed for his End 1. In this Life the proportionable fruition of Man is that which is compatible to the state he hath here namely the knowledge of God and his Works in a measure suitable to the intellectual Capacity in this Life the sense of the Divine Love Favour Goodness and Protection the sense of his own Duty to God to Man to himself with a cheerful endeavour to observe it And from these arise dominion over his Passions and inferior Faculties and the due placing ordering and moderation of them a resignation of his Will to the Divine Will and a dependance upon his Goodness Power and All-sufficiency and from all these arise peace of Conscience contentation and tranquillity of Mind in which even the wisest of Heathens placed the greatest Happiness acquirable in this Life 2. After this Life an immutable state of everlasting Rest and Happiness in the Beatifical Vision of God and fruition of so much of his Goodness and Beneficence as a glorified Soul is capable of for it is reasonable that the end of fruition of an Immortal Nature should be an everlasting Good commensurate in its intention and duration to such an Immortal Nature And now if any Man shall enquire if this be the End of Almighty God in the Creation of Man How comes it to pass that all Men attain not this End or how comes it to pass that Almighty God comes to be frustrated of the End which he thus designed as well in relation to his own Glory as the Good of Mankind I Answer first in general That this Enquiry belongs to another way of Examination namely herein we must have the assistance of Divine Revelation both to answer this Enquiry and to guide us in it which in this place is not designed to be prosecuted 2. Yet more particularly thus much I shall say 1. That the wise God hath as it were twisted his own Honour and Glory with Man's Felicity and Happiness if Man decline to honour glorifie love and obey his Maker and casts off the primary and chief End of his Being it is just and necessary that he be deprived of the End of his own Fruition and Happiness which is the Reward of his Duty 2. The Liberty of the Will was the great Prerogative of the Humane Nature and Almighty God having furnished that Nature with all conducibles to enable him to obey and to continue him in that Obedience Man by the abuse of his own liberty deprived himself of his own felicity When we speak therefore of the End of Man we speak of it as God made him not as Man made or rather unmade himself But of this End of the means of his Restitution by Christ and the admirable System and Connexion of the Divine Providence in relation to Man in his Redemption belongs to another Discourse We are in this preceding Discourse but in the outward Court of the Temple where the Gentiles came or might come by natural Light or Ratiocination Therefore to conclude all Almighty God out of his abundant Wisdom Goodness and Beneficence as he hath made Mankind so he hath fitted him for a double End namely to glorifie his Maker and everlastingly to enjoy him and in order hereunto hath given him a double station and in each of these a differing kind of fruition of his Maker viz. a station in this lower World and a station in the glorious Heavens His station in this lower World is during the time of his mortal Life here below and in this station the glorious God hath furnished Mankind with all conveniencics and accommodations suitable to it as the comfortable Accommodations of his sensible Life the Comforts of humane Society the Use and Dominion of his Creatures the admirable Faculties of his Mind the Books and Instructions of his Word and Will the goodly Works of Creation and Providence the Tenders and Ayders of his Grace and Guidance the Effluxes and Manifestations of his Favours and Love the Anticipations and Hopes of Eternal Happiness these and many more such as these the Bountiful God affords to Mankind even in this state of Mortality which may and do render it in a great measure very comfortable But withall he lets us know and we must know That these are but as so many Bounties to render our passage through this Life the more easie and convenient to our selves and the more serviceable to our great Lord and Master This is not to be the place of our rest or final happiness but a place of exercise and probation a place of preparation for our future and more durable state we are here as it were but put to School to learn our Duty and our Lessons we are but as young Plants planted in a Nursery till we come to a convenient size and fitness to be removed and then we are to be transplanted into another and a richer Soil In this World we are as it were Seeds ripening upon the Trees or Stalks till they are fully digested and ripe and then as the Seeds drop into the Ground and become the Seminary of a new Plantation so by Death we drop into Eternity and become the Children the Embryones of the Resurrection and then we come into that second and blessed station the Country of our Rest and Happiness our Home and the End of our Being where we shall ever behold the Glory of the Glorious God and glorifie him for ever where we shall have the perpetual sensible vigorous satisfactory Manifestation and Influences of his Love to all Eternity and enjoy that Blessedness which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive And this is the great End of the Glorious God in making this great goodly Creature called Man whose Body is but the Husk the Shell of that vital immortal Beam of Light Life and Immortality that Seminal Principle of Eternal Life the Soul irradiated and influenced by the Sacred Spirit of Life and Love and if God lend me Life and Strength shall in my next be handled FINIS A
and the Humane Nature Almighty God is the highest and most excellent and soveraign Object of the Intellectual Faculty It is true he falls not under the last qualification Though he is but one and one most simple uncompounded Being yet his Nature and Perfections his Power Wisdom Goodness and all other Excellencies are infinite and incomprehensible by any intellectual Nature but himself and therefore he is an Object infinitely too large for the comprehension of any created Understanding He is a Light too bright for our Intellective eye to see but by reflexion or through the Vail of his Word or Works The more we know of him and the more we draw near unto him by serious and humble contemplation the more we discover an endless and unsearchable Ocean and Perfection in him so that we must not cannot expect to find out the Almighty to perfection his ways are unsearchable and past finding out and much more his Essence and Perfections so that though he be the most natural and the most desirable Object of created Understandings he is an Object infinitely too large for it But although in respect of the measure of his Perfection he be an Object unproportionate to a created Understanding a Light too bright and an Ocean too large and too deep for it yet there is so much of his knowledge attainable by us as is sufficient for use nature and everlasting happiness and the knowlede of Almighty God so far as it is attainable by our narrow created Understanding highly advanceth the humane Understanding upon all accounts and infinitely excels the knowledge of any other Object in the world upon these ensuing accounts among many others First It is a knowledge of such an Object that hath the greatest and most convincing certainty in the world a certainty that he is and in a good measure a certainty what he is for though it be impossible for any or all the created Beings in the world to attain a distinct perfect and full Idaea of the Divine excellencies in their full adequate distinct perfections yet that Image that he hath given of himself in the admirable Frame of so much of the world which we know doth with all imaginable certainty evince That he is that he is but one one most intelligent wise powerful free good simple eternal infinite and most perfect Being the Fountain of Being and the first Cause of all things though we cannot attain the full comprehension of that perfection And truly it is no small evidence of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness That that great and important Truth of the being and perfection of Almighty God the Principle and Object of the greatest importance in the world to the good of Mankind and for the advance and perfecting of humane Nature should be written in such plain clear and evident Characters in the Works of Nature and evinced by Evidences rising from thence as are obvious to any person that hath but the common use of Reason and the honesty to use and exercise it sincerely Secondly It is the most noble and excellent Object in the world and that may and doth most enoble and advance the intellective Faculty he is the Fountain of all Being and of all Perfection Those Excellencies that are in the noblest created Natures in the world are but shadows of that perfection that is in him Though a created Understanding can never take in the fulness of the Divine Excellencies yet so much as it can or doth receive thereof is of greater extent use and value and doth more advance and enrich the Faculty than any other Object in the world though that other Object were fully and adequately known Thirdly Although the Understanding can never search out the Almighty to perfection by reason of the infinite excess of this Object beyond the capacity of a created Faculty yet there is that congruity between this Faculty and this Object that connatural ordination as it were of Intellective Faculty to this Object as if it were if not only yet principally lodged in the humane Nature for the sake of this Object so that though there is no commensurableness between this Object and a created Understanding yet there is a congruity and connaturality between them And hence it is that so much as we do or can know of God is delightful and grateful to the Understanding And though this abyss of excellency be infinite yet it doth not confound nor disorder nor overwhelm the Understanding in its modest and due searches into it And besides although the perfection of his Essence and many of his Attributes as Infinitude Immensity Indivisibility c. do dazle our Understandings yet some of his Attributes and the Manifestations thereof are not only highly delectable to the Intellective Faculty but are sutable and easily conceptible by us because apparent in his Works as his Goodness Beneficence Wisdom Power c. if we attend to it And certainly it was the great Goodness and Condescention of the Glorious God unto his Creature Man that when he knew all his own Excellencies were too great and too bright for us to see he hath Been pleased to discover so much of himself as was fit and necessary for us to know by means that our Faculties might use without dissipation distraction or too great astonishment namely first By his Works reflecting his Greatness and Goodness Secondly By his Word by Divine Revelation discovering his Goodness Mercy Power and Truth Thirdly By his Son through the Vail of our Flesh by all which that Brightness and Splendor of the Divine Excellence that by an immediate intuition or exhibition would-have overwhelmed our Intellective Faculty as it stands united to our Bodies is presented to us more proportionately to our Capacities and Faculties by a kind of refraction and a more easie and familiar manifestation Fourthly It is the most useful Object of our Knowledge that can be and in comparison of this all other Knowledge is vain light and impertinent and indeed all other knowledge is valuable upon this single account by how much it gives us a manifestation of the Divine Excellencies and leads and conducts to the knowledge of Almighty God and his Attributes If I consider my self in this Life there is not a moment which I live or wherein I have any contentation or comfort or convenience but all this I have from his Influence and Bounty and certainly it concerns me highly to know my Benefactor from whom I receive my Good that I may depend upon him be thankful unto him probitiate him and make my applications to him for what I want Again the wisest men that have searched after happiness in this Life though they have missed of the place where it is to be found have with great reason placed the best happiness that can be found on this side Death either in Virtue and the exercise thereof or in Tranquillity of mind or in both for they are rarely asunder Now I may be an excellent Mathematician a
while rests unmoveable and keeps the same unaltered site or position in it self So it is in the coexistence of successive Beings with the indivisible fixed permanent state of the glorious God But in all this there is nothing that answers or weakens the Reason before given against the Eternity of successive Generations or Individuals which is not upon this account that that which is eternal cannot be extended to a greater extent at the hithermost and concluding extreme as I may call it for at the hither end it is quasi quid finitum but that those Beings that must by their successive existence excrescere in multitudinem sive numerum cannot be eternal upon a certain intrinsick incongruity between Multitude and Number of the one part and Infinite of the other part But in the eternal duration of the glorious God there is neither Multitude nor so much as Succession And this is my second Answer 3. My third Answer is this That although it may be and certainly is consistent with an eternal duration that it may be shorter or it may be longer upon the hither end thereof namely that extreme wherein it is finite as is before shewn yet it is impossible to be consistent with the very notion of an eternal duration to be longer or shorter à parte ante in the extreme or remote part thereof as I may call it for upon that Supposition it should be utrinque clausa terminated in the moment wherein I write and terminated or limited by an antecedent being or duration of something else With Reverence be it spoken If any thing in the compass of Nature might bear an eternal Creation yet if that Creation were but a moment after the Divine Existence that created Being could not be eternal because it had a pre-existence of the Divine Being before it Nay though I use the expression of an antecedent moment to render my conception yet that very imaginable moment must be an infinite duration antecedent to that created Being and it could not possibly be otherwise for if it were possible to be otherwise it would consequently deny the Eternity of God himself for that created Being being impossible to be eternal since it must ex suppositione have a pre-existing moment of the Divine Existence if that mora prae-existentiae divinae were not eternal but a moment or any limited duration less than eternal and infinite it would be but an addition of a limited time to a limited or non-eternal time and therefore cannot be eternal and here by the way the Eternal Incomprehensible Generation of the Son and Procession of the Holy Spirit are no way concerned in this Dispute which are not created Beings nor distinct from the Divine Essence or essentially distinct from one another but One Incomprehensible God Blessed for ever though under a personal distinction This therefore being the true state of the matter the Reason herein given doth not at all infirm the important Reason against the Eternity of Mankind because necessarily there would upon such a Supposition follow an Eternity that had a beginning an Eternity that was puisne to some other thing or some other Eternal And that although that duration which is infinite in one extreme namely à parte ante and finite at another extreme namely by the present time may have an increase accession or addition in that part in which it is finite yet it is impossible that it should have any thing before it in that extreme wherein it s Infinity and Eternity consisted This is the chief stress of the former Debate which is no way impugned by the Instance here given for the glorious God and his Eternal Existence is such that it hath not cannot have any thing antecedent to it neither is it measured by successive parts but is simply eternal infinite before all things without beginning of Being or Duration as well as without end and such a Duration as it is impossible to suppose any thing before it or any thing equally ancient to it but ever was and ever had Being or Existence that is eternally and immutably the same what once he was he ever was still is and ever shall be 5. A Fifth Objection is this That because we have formerly supposed that nothing can possibly be eternal and together with it have variety of Operations The glorious Eternal God hath variety of Operations in all the Works of Creation and Providence his emanant Actions and also in the Counsels and Determination of his Will his immanent Actions And therefore the Position seems to be derogatory to the Eternity of Almighty God I had not inserted this Objection but for the fuller vindication of the Truth and to shew that it no way in the least imaginable degree derogates from the Truths concerning God I therefore answer that when we are speaking of alterations or changes it may reasonably be supposed to be one of these kinds 1. An alteration that with it carries a change of the Nature or Essence of a thing and thus in a large sense generation or corruption or the essential change of any thing or Being into another thing thus corporeal Matter under any determinate form is changeable and such a mutability is impossible to be consistent with Eternity and it is thus impossible for the glorious God to be subject to any change for he necessarily and therefore eternally exists and must ever exist 2. An alteration of states or conditions of any Being which yet as to its essential condition persists as before thus Bodies are every moment changed sometimes in quality as from hot to cold sometimes in figure sometimes in dimensions as the motions of augmentation and diminution a Child grows unto the stature of a Youth and then of a Man and such Beings as these cannot sustain an eternal duration à parte ante and in this respect the ever-glorious God is perfectly unchangeable without so much as a shadow of change but eternally and immutably the same 3. A change of the internal and immanent acts of the Understanding and Will in a Being endued therewith as to know that which before it knew not to will purpose or determin what before it willed not or purposed not The Schoolmen are indeed many of them a Generation of Men that think they can give an estimate of the manner of the Divine Operations even those that are immanent when yet God knows 't is more possible for the Infant of a span long to discern and understand and define and determin the most sublime and abstruse Notions of the most Seraphical Doctor than for such a Doctor to give an estimate of the hidden Operations of the Divine Intellect and Will And therefore they are too bold to adventure upon such determinations touching these Operations of the glorious God and in the upshot arrive at nothing touching them but presumptuous uncertain and dangerous Speculations and it must needs be so for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so and much
of Mankind was by the same wise and provident Power and that as the Humane Nature is accommodated to it self so this World is accommodated to the exigence and convenience of the Humane Nature When I have considered the admirable Congruity of all the Parts of Christian Religion and how it corresponds and is adapted to the convenience and condition of the Humane Nature and how those antecedent Prophesies Promises and Directions of Religion in the Old Testament bear an admirable congruity to the Model of Religion in the New Testament notwithstanding the vast distances between the manifestations of them and how all the Scheme of Divine Dispensations from the beginning of the World bear an admirable accommodation each to other and to the Evangelical Doctrin it gives us a strong Moral Evidence that the same one God was the Author of this Religion that although there seem a diversity and variety in the Administrations yet when I look upon them together compare the congruity of what goes before to what follows it seems one most beautiful Piece fitted and accommodated in every part to the other and hereby I satisfie my self that it is the true Religion that it is all of one piece and one common Author of it namely the God of Truth And so when I consider the Humane Nature and the admirable accommodation that one part thereof hath to the other and also look upon the Mundus aspectabilis especially this lower World wherewith we are by reason of its vicinity best acquainted and observe how admirably the same is accommodated to the Animal Life of Man And although the Parts thereof are distinct various distant yet there are drawn from it Lines of Accommodations and Communication to the Use of the Humane Nature so exactly and appositly that I cannot choose but acknowledge one common Author both of the greater and lesser World and such an Author as made and disposed all things by the highest Wisdom and the wisest Choice If there had been divers Authors of the greater and lesser World there could never have been an accommodation of things so disparate one to another unless both had acted in subordination to one common third Being or by one common Counsel Again it was not possible that Casualty or Chance could have accommodated things of various kinds one to another If Chance could make a Beam of a House and could have made Tenents at either end yet it is not possible to conceive that Chance could cast it to be just of a fit length to answer the congruity of its contignation to another piece of Timber or fit the Mortises of other pieces of Timber to those Tenents or fit the particles and scantlets to answer just one another this must of necessity require a Workman that works by Understanding Choice and Appropriation because it requires accommodation of several things of several kinds to one End by several Means Thus therefore when I see the admirable accommodation of Humane Nature to its own existence and conveniences the admirable accommodation therein of things of different natures one to another as Organs to Faculties Sinews to Bones Nerves to Muscles Spirits to Nerves when I see the excellent accommodation of this lower World especially to the Humane Nature although they are in themselves several and heterogeneal I cannot without violence to my own Observation Experience and Reason I say I cannot but attribute the first Formation of Humane Nature yea and of all the Universe to one most Wise Intelligent Powerful Being who did all things according to the counsel of his Will after the most wise and excellent Idea of his unsearchable Understanding CAP. V. Concerning the Nature of that Intelligent Agent that first formed the Humane Nature and some Objections against the Inferences above made and their Answer HAving in the foregoing Chapter reduced the Origination of Mankind to an Intelligent Efficient effecting it per modum efficientis voluntarii per intentionem I shall in this place inquire what kind of Intelligent Efficient this was for among Intelligent Beings there is one Primum the Glorious God whose Understanding Power and Goodness is infinite there are also acknowledged by the Heathen Intelligentiae à primo those which Aristotle calls by the Name of Separate Intelligences Plato calls Dii ex Diis and we commonly call Angels very glorious and powerful Creatures which Plato takes into the Business of the Creation of Man as to the Corporeal Frame And it seems to be that the Effection of the Humane Nature in any part thereof is not attributable to the Angels neither as instrumental much less as principal Causes 1. As to the Soul of Man it seems beyond dispute for that was a created Substance and Creation of any new Substance being an infinite Motion is not within the power of any Finite Nature the Pretence therefore rests only as to the Corporeal or at least Animal Nature 2. Therefore I say that the Formation of the Bodily much less the Animal Nature of Man in order to the reception of the Soul was neither coordinately nor instrumentally the Work of Angels And the Reasons that seem sufficient to make out this Truth are these 1. It seems utterly above an Angelical Power to organize the Body of the Humane Nature for though it is true that in the established way of Generation the Parents who are inferior in nature to Angels do organize the Body at least mediante semine yet that is done in the virtue and strength of the Ordination and Institution of Almighty God So that as well Man as the Semen genitale are the Instruments deputed by Almighty God in virtue of his Supreme Power to propagate the Humane Nature And therefore since the first Formation of the Humane Nature was a new Formation not according to the Laws established after in Nature the first Production of Mankind was immediately by the Almighty Power and not by the Power of any subordinate Intelligence 2. Again it could not possibly be but that the Humane Nature must be completed in an instant For how is it conceptible that first there should be Corpus formatum with all the Organs Vessels Blood and Spirits disposed and ordered in their several Cells and Motions unless Man had been then at the same time animated as well as organized For the outward shape or stature of a Man is no more a fit Receptacle of an Animal much less of a Rational Life than a Statue of Wax or Stone The same Hand therefore that animated formed and fashioned also the same Humane Body in the same moment by virtue of the Volition Determination or Faciamus of the Divine Will 3. As we have no manner of evidence of the Angelical concurrence or instrumentality in the Formation of Man or of any of the lower Animals so there is no necessity at all of such a Supposition And we are not to multiply Causes without necessity for as the bare determination of the most powerful and efficacious
instituted and statuminated Nature is his Law and his Institution and the connexion of natural Effects to their natural Causes is his Institution his Law his Order And therefore we do neither deny a Law of Nature or a connexion between natural Causes and Effects but that which we justly blame in these Men that pretend themselves to be the great Priests of Nature and admirers and adorers of it is 1. That they do not sufficiently consider and observe that this which they and we call Nature and the Law of Nature and the Power of Nature is no other but the wise instituted Law of the most wise powerful and intelligent Being as really and truly as an Edict of Trajan or Justinian was a Law of Trajan or Justinian Sic parvis magna and 2. That they do not warily distinguish between that first Law in rebus constituendis and this second Law of Nature in rebus constitutis but inconsiderately misapply that Law and Rule and Method which is ordinary and regular constituted and fitted and accommodate to Nature already setled as if the same were and ought to be necessarily the Rule and Law in the first formation and setling of things which is an Errour that proceeds from the over-much fixing of our Minds to that which in the present course of things is obvious to Sense and not adverting that the first Constitution and Order of things is not in Reason or Nature manageable by such a Law which is most excellently adequated and proportioned to things fully setled Therefore besides that Law which the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness hath fixed in Nature fully statuminated we must also suppose a Law and Order of the Divine Wisdom not rigorously bound either to second Causes or present stated Methods in the first production of things And this the due Consideration of the different nature of the state of things in fieri and in facto esse will easily perswade that the most wise God that hath established a fixed regular ordinary Law in things already setled which he rarely departs from yet used another kind of order namely the regiment of his own Will and Wisdom and if I may with humility speak it a dictatorian power more accommodate to the first production of things And thus much for the comparison between the Mosaical and Philosophical Theories touching things and the great advantage and preference of the former as most suitable to the true nature state and reason of things And now I draw towards a conclusion of this long Discourse and shall therefore in the last place give an account of those Consectaries Consequences and Corollaries which are evidently deducible from this Consideration of the Origination of Mankind by the immediate Efficiency of this Supreme Intelligent Being Almighty God and indeed principally for the sake of these Consequences and Corollaries hath all been written that precedes in this Book and it is the Scope End and Use of the whole Book which I shall absolve in the next Chapter CAP. VII A Collection of certain evident and profitable Consequences from this Consideration That the first Individuals of Humane Nature had their Original from a Great Powerful Wise Intelligent Being I Now come to that upon which I had my Eye from the first Line that was written touching this Subject namely the Consequences and Illations that arise from this great Truth contained in these Conclusions 1. That Mankind had an Original of his Being ex non genitis 2. That this Origination of Mankind was neither casual nor meerly natural 3. That the Efficient of Man's Origination was and is an Intelligent Efficient of an incomparable Wisdom and Power First therefore we have here a most evident sensible and clear conviction of a Deity and a confirmation of Natural Religion which consists principally in the acknowledging of Almighty God to be a most perfect Eternal Being of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power and a due habitude of Mind Life and Practice arising from that Principle It hath been commonly observed that the particular or instituted Religions since the Creation have had their Proofs by Miracles which were as it were the Credentials to subdue the Minds of Men to assent to it Thus the instituted Religion of the Jews given by the hand of Moses was confirmed by the great Miracles done by God by the hand of Moses in Egypt and in the Wilderness and the Christian Religion had its Confirmation by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles who did wonderful things beyond the reach and power of created Agents or Activities which were therefore Miracles such as were governing of the Winds and Seas healing of the Sick by a touch or word raising the Dead c. But it is farther said That Almighty God never used Miracles to evidence the truth of his own Existence Power Wisdom Goodness or for the establishing of Natural Religion or the confuting of Atheism But I take it that there are really as many Miracles for the evincing of the truth of Natural Religion viz. the Existing of Almighty God as there are Works in Nature For although it be a great truth that the Laws of Nature as the Positions of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies their Motion Light Influence Regularity Position propagation of Vegetables Animals Men and the whole Oeconomy of the Universe is by the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness setled in a regular course so that now we call things Natural and Works and Laws and Order of Nature and being so setled and fixed cease to be Miracles yet in their first Institution and Constitution they were all or many Miracles Works exceeding the activity of any created or natural power and accordingly ought to be valued and really are so and it is nothing else but their commonness and our inadvertence and gross negligence that hinders the actual estimate of them as great and wonderful Miracles As I have often said if at this moment all the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies should cease or there should be a general stop of the Propagation of Animals Vegetables or Men if Mens Reason should generally fail them and for the most part they should become like Brutes if the Light of the Sun were darkned or the great Luminous or Planetary Bodies should bulge and fall foul one upon the other or that disorder or confusion should generally fall upon the Works of Nature and break that excellent Order that now obtains among them we should be full of admiration of such a Change and account them Miraculous And the reason is because the sense of the Change is at present incumbent upon us and we cannot choose but take notice of them as strong unusual miraculous Prodigies When all this while Natures course holds regularly the Wonder and Miracle is ten times greater in the state of things as they now stand than it would be in such a discomposure of Nature The Motion and Light and Position and Order of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies is a greater
faculty being but a part of that admirable effect that was wrought in the formation of the Humane Nature it rather advanceth than any way depreciateth the Power and Wisdom of the first Efficient of Mankind that he was formed together with such a power of propagating his kind 2. From hence we learn not only that there is a God but in some measure we learn what he is As this Work the primitive Effection of the Humane Nature could never be effected but by an Intelligent Being so when we see such a Work as this we cannot choose but acknowledge that he is transcendently wise transcendently powerful transcendently good that such was his Power and Wisdom appears by his Work and that such was his Goodness appears in that freely without any motive or advantage to himself he formed this excellent creature Man it was but to communicate his abundant Goodness and to give Being to an Intelligent Nature that might be capable of the participation of his Goodness and Bounty commensurate to his nature We also learn that as he made an Intelligent Being so he is a Transcendent Intelligence He that made the Eye shall he not see It is very true the perception of Sense is the lowest kind of perception and the perception of rational and discursive Intellection is of a higher rank than the perception of Sense the Intuitive perception is nobler than that of Ratiocination but the perception if I may use that word in Almighty God is of a transcendent perfection above all these and includeth them all but not under those allayes that render other kind of perceptions less perfect He sees and hears and knows without an Eye without an Ear without an Object He that could create an Intellectual Being doth most perfectly understand and know for he could not be destitute of any perfection whereof an incorporeal Being could be capable and since he made a Being capable of Intelligence certainly he had a greater and more perfect Intelligence And here I cannot choose but re-mind some things again that I have formerly intimated viz. 1. That those that go about to attribute the Origination of Mankind to a bare Order or Law of Nature as the primitive Effector thereof speak that which is perfectly irrational and unintelligible for although a Law or Rule is the Method and Order by which an Intelligent Being may act yet a Law or Rule or Order is a dead unactive uneffective thing of it self without an Agent that useth it and exerciseth it as his Rule and Method of Action What would a Law signifie in a Kingdom or State unless there were some Person or Society of Men that did exercise and execute and judge and determin and act by it or according to it And therefore Aristotle in the Books de Mundo attributed to him though in the description of God as to the constancy of his working he stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex aequabiliter in nos fusa nec transpositionem nec correctionem ullam recipiens praestantior firmior omnibus quae in tabulis descriptae contineantur Yet he rests not in that description but tells us that he is a Being that acts by Empire and Command and Will Quod in navi guhernator in curru auriga in choro praecentor in civitate lex in exercitu imperator hoc idem in mundo Deus So that to the effecting of the Humane Nature a bare independent Law is incompetent but there must be an Intelligent Being whose Will that Rule and Law which we call Nature is 2. That although the Manner and Method that the Divine Power and Wisdom used in the first formation and effecting of the Humane Nature is not cognoscible by the Light of Nature without Divine Revelation because none but Almighty God was acquainted with or present at that Work and his Power and Wisdom might use various Orders or Methods in its first effection yet the Conclusion that this Work whatever particular Method it had for its effection was the Work of a most powerful intelligent wise Being acting by Intellection Will and Intention is a Truth apparently evident to the Light of Nature and Reason and as infallible a Demonstration of a Deity as if a Man could have been present and seen the Work done as I do most rationally conclude an excellent Watch or other Automaton was the work of an intelligent Artist though I do not know the particular manner how he made it unless I am particularly informed thereof by him 3. From hence we learn that the Divine Providence extends to this lower World and all the things therein and is not only confined to things above the Moon as Aristotle would have it He that condescended to the effection not only of Man but of all the Animals of this lower World certainly had a regard to them and would not leave them without the regiment of his Providence which were the Works of his own immediate Power and Will It is true the ordinary regiment of the Divine Providence in things natural is ordinarily managed by this regular and ordinary Law of Nature whereof we have spoken before But yet he deals not by the World as I deal by my Watch when I have wound it up I take no more care of it but it moves according to the regular composure of it but he communicates a general Influence to it whereby it is supported in its Being and Order and as he manifested a more special care in the fashioning of Man so he affords him a special Providence in his regiment 4. From hence we learn not only the Original of those admirable Faculties in Man especially of the light of his Understanding and the liberty of his Will whereby he resembles his Maker but also from whence he had that Intellectual Soul not out of the Matter whereof his Corporeal and Animal Nature was constituted but of a higher and nobler extraction namely by Creation he breathed into him the breath of Life 5. From hence we learn to be confirmed not only in the Notion of the Immortality of the Soul but in some measure the reason of it It was a created Spiritual Nature infused into him by the Almighty efficiency and infusion of God 6. From hence we learn that Mankind is of kin to both Worlds the Celestial and Elementary nexus utriusque mundi capable of a felicity beyond the extent of this inferior World 7. From hence we also learn from whence these common Notions especially of the Existence of a God and these anticipations of some Moral Principles of the Veneration of God Righteousness and Justice are evidently to be found in the generality of Mankind but where they are impaired by corrupt Customs or Education from whence those Operations of the natural Conscience are discernible in most Men antecedent to any Instruction or Education the original of those common Notions that more immediately concern the Intellective Faculty and Moral Inclinations that more immediately concern the