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
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
Siculus Thucidides Herodotus and others do give us some true and some fabulous Derivations of the Names of Places or Countries from the Men that seemed to be the Heads or Roots of those Denominations yet though they should be all admitted to have truly given those Denominations to those Countries it doth by no means follow that they were the Parents of the Inhabitants thereof but they were such as either by War or Power or Election of the People presided in those places and gave them thereupon their denomination Thus they tell us That Helen gave the denomination to that part of Greece which was called Helenica and those Grecians were called Helenistae Pelasgus was he that gave the denomination to the Pelasgi another part of Greece Latinus to Latium and the Latins Danaus to another Cept of the Grecians Tenes the Son of Cygnus to Tenedos Cretas to Creta and the Cretians Italus as some say to Italia and the Italians Romulus to Rome and the Romans And infinite more such Allusions of Denominations of Countries and People from the Name of him that presided either in the Army or Colony or Countrey unto which such Denominations were after given And yet Latinus nor Pelasgus nor Cretas nor Helen were any more the Natural Parents of all those persons that were called Pelasgi or Cretenses or Helenistae or Latini than Romulus was the Natural Parent of all those people that were the first Inhabitants of Rome or of those that were after Incorporated and Infranchised into that Name City or Government Indeed these were such persons as perchance were the Captains of those Armies or Colonies that were commanded by them or were such as were the Heads or Founders of the Monarchies or Kingdoms that they thus founded or such as did sustinere nomen personam totius communitatis and thereby had the Power and Priviledge to give a Denomination to those Countries or People they governed calling them after their own Names But they were not the Natural Roots or common Natural Parents of all them that bore their Denomination though it may be very likely they had some Children of their own which might participate in that common Denomination This therefore singly considered namely the Denomination of People from some one Person is not sufficient to assure us that all those Persons that bore that Denomination were derived by Natural Propagation from him whose Name they so bear but though it may be true that such a Denomination may be communicated to such only as descended by Natural Propagation from him as I shall hereafter instance yet it may be otherwise Therefore I have no reason to conclude That wheresoever I find a Society of Men bearing the Denomination of one Man that that Man was the Natural Parent of those that bear that Denomination unless I have some better Evidence than Allusion of Names since it is apparent in these Histories that it is otherwise Upon this Reason it seems plain that it will not be possible from any Prophane History to find the Original Parents of any one Kingdom much less of Mankind It is very evident indeed that by help of a continuation of Prophane Histories or other common Monuments well kept together the Genealogies and Ramifications of some single Families even to a vast and numerous extension may be preserved But that will not do the business that I intend For it is rare and beyond Example in any Author that I know that the entire and complete Pedigree of the whole Descendents of any particular Family is deduced down through the space of a thousand Years last past whereas such Instances as must serve my turn must be such as are at least five thousand Years old or otherwise I shall fail in the application of this Topick now in hand to the Matter in question It remains therefore that for Instances of such Antiquity useful to my purpose I must resort to the ancientest History namely the History of Moses which as it is a History of the ancientest Times and Occurrences in the World so it is a History that was written at the greatest distance from this Time and nearest to the Times and Things whereof he writes no History in the World being so ancient as this by near eight hundred Years for so long lived Moses the Author of this Book before Homer the first Prophane Historian that is extant And if any Man shall object against the competency of this Instance 1. Because the same Moses whom I use in this Topick is the person that asserts the thing de quo ambigitur namely the first Production of Mankind and therefore that he is incompetent in this Case 2. Because all that urge the Testimony of Moses urge him as infallible divinely inspired and so whatsoever he saith must not be contradicted and upon such a Supposition there were a compendious way of evincing the Question in hand of the Inception of Mankind by telling us that Moses who wrote by an infallible Spirit and Inspiration tells us that Mankind was Created by GOD about 6669 Years since according to the Seventy and so there needs no farther Reason nor can be any farther Controversie touching it To this I shall say these things That although it is certain that Moses was Inspired by an Infallible Spirit in what he wrote and that he doth in plain terms tell us that Man was at first Created by Almighty God and therefore to me or any else that is satisfied of the Infallible Authority of the Holy Scripture this is sufficient to satisfie that the truth is as Moses hath informed us and there needs no other Argument to support my Faith of the truth hereof yet because I am writing of those Natural and Moral Evidences of this Truth that may be of strength enough to evince the truth of this Assertion upon the apparent Moral Evidences of the credibility of the Writings of Moses I shall here urge the Authority of Moses for the Proof of the Matters of Fact in question as I would urge Herodotus or Livy to prove a Matter of Fact alleged by them and at this time and in this Dispute shall only use his Testimony as a Moral Evidence of the Truth he asserts as an Evidence of Credibility And as I shall not exact a Subscription to the Truths he delivers upon the account of his Infallibility so it is not reason to deny that Credibility of what he relates which would be allowed to a Prophane Author especially when it carries with it singly without the contribution of the Supposition of a Divine Authority as great an evidence of truth as any History in World besides And as to that which is said That the Supposition of the truth of what Moses asserts is to suppose the thing controverted because Moses asserts the Creation of Mankind I say 1. That I shall not at all instance in that Assertion as to determin the Question but only so far forth as it is a Moral Evidence of the
truth of it namely That this was a thing believed near 4000 Years since by Wise Men such as Moses was and by them that were much nearer to the time wherein the Origination of Mankind and those other Matters of Fact that are contributory to the Proof thereof was transacted and therefore in common Reason must needs have a clearer Tradition and Evidence of the truth in this matter than the Ages so many thousand Years after but this I shall reserve to its proper place 2. In this place I shall not at all insist upon the Tradition of Moses touching the Creation of Man but only upon those Historical Narratives delivered by Moses relating to such Matters of Fact that were nearer his time and such as he might very reasonably know and deliver as an Historiographer namely the Propagation of Mankind after the Flood and the Reduction of most of the considerable Nations of the World to their several Roots or Parents by Natural Propagation and the credibility of his Relation touching it Though even the credibility of this Relation of his gives a great Evidence and Attestation even upon a Moral account to what he writes touching the Creation of Man and those parts of the History antecedent to the Flood The Sum therefore of the Mosaical History that I shall in this place make use of is this 1. That a Universal Flood was brought upon the Earth in the Year 1656 after the supposed Creation of Man according to the Jewish Account although the Septuagint allows a longer Period between the Creation and the Flood 2. That by that Universal Flood all Mankind were destroyed except eight persons namely Noah his Wife his three Sons Shem Japhet and Ham and their Wives 3. That all the Race of Mankind after this Flood were derived by natural generation from these three Sons of Noah and their Wives 4. That the particular Descendents from these three Sons of Noah are truly described and set forth in the 9 th 10 th and 11 th Chapters of Genesis by their several Names and drawn down from that Root to the filling and peopling of the whole Earth Gen. 32. These are the Families of the Sons of Noah after their Generations in their Nations and by these were the Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood 5. That after the Flood in the time of Phaleg the Languages of the World especially of the families of Cham and Japhet were confounded and the Nations proceeding from these Families dispersed 6. That the Family of the Israelites was deduced through these ensuing Patriarchs viz. Sem. Arphaxad born two years after the Flood Anno mundi 1658. Salah Heber Peleg Reu. Serug Nahor Terah Abram Isaac Jacob marries Rachel and Leah Anno mundi 2192. Levi and the Twelve Patriarchs Kohath Amram Moses born in the Year of the World 2373. So that from the Flood to the Birth of Moses the Descendents from Jacob grew into a great Nation for in the 80 th Year of Moses Life the Males of the Children of Israel that were above 20 Years old were above 600000 besides the Levites and besides Women and Children that were under 20 Years old Numb 2.32 and this great Increase of this People happened within the compass of about 260 Years And thus according to the Jewish Account in the Holy Text the Period between the Flood and the Exitus of the People out of Egypt was about 800 Years But indeed the Account of the Septuagint partly by the Intersection of Cainan in the Genealogy and partly by adding 100 Years to that Technogonia of the Patriarchs before Abraham have made the Period larger by 884 Years So that according to that Account the Exitus ex Egypto was at least 1684 Years after the Flood Now this History of Moses of the peopling of the World by the Posterity of Noah doth these two things 1. It gives us an Account of the Original of all the Nations in the World not from bare allusion of Names nor from bare Coalitions into Civil Societies in which they were formed as Romulus was the Founder of the Populus Romanus and Pelasgus of the Pelasgi but it gives us the Account of their Origination by Propagation from the Natural Roots and Parents of them 2. Although notwithstanding this Instance it may be possible that though the Natural Derivation of all Mankind was from Noah and his three Sons yet the Progenitors or Ancestors of Noah might have no Original but might be Eternal according to the Hypothesis of Aristotle yet when I find the same Author that gives me an Account of the Derivation of all the World from Noah and his three Sons and that with most clear evidence and credibility it gives me a very great Moral Evidence of the truth of his Relation touching the first Origination of Man by Creation For doubtless both were derived to him by a constant Tradition from those from whom he was descended and it is not reasonable to suspect the truth of the one since we have a strong Moral Evidence for the truth of the other namely the General Flood and the preservation of Noah and his Family and the derivation of all Mankind from him and his Sons He that hath sufficient reason to believe the History touching the latter will have little reason to doubt the truth of the Relation touching the Origination of Mankind which as in it self it seems reasonable and no other possible Supposition to compass it but by a Supernatural Production so it hath a most excellent congruity with the subsequents of the Holy History touching the Descendents from the first Man the Flood and the Re-peopling of the World from Noah Now the Moral Evidences of the credibility and truth of this History are these 1. Moses that wrote it had the best opportunity that could be to give a true Narrative of this Fact touching the Flood and the Productions of Mankind by Generation from the Children of Noah For 1. It is evident by the Writings of this Man that lie was a very Learned knowing Man inquisitive after all sort of Learning a Man in great Power and Esteem in the Court of Egypt and after that a great Governour of a very great People which he governed with admirable Wisdom and by this means had opportunity to furnish himself with all Monuments and Evidences of Antiquity that might be conducible to the Discovery of former things and his Learning Judgment and Ability to make an excellent use of these helps was also remarkable Again 2. He lived not far remote from the transaction of these things that he wrote in comparison of the Writers or Historians of after Ages He dyed above 500 Years before Homer lived which yet is the ancientest Historian that Greece affords and he lived within the Period of 800 Years after the Flood and the division of the World among the Posterity of Noah Livy and other Historians give us an account of the Affairs of Rome for above 600 Years
Doctrine of Moses but with the exactest Measure and Rule of Reason and the Light of Nature it self and as it is utterly impossible that Mankind should be without a beginning so it is utterly inconceptible that he should have any other Original but this But although this general Supposition be thus consonant to Truth and the Light of Reason yet since the Manner of this Origination of Mankind by the Power of God depends meerly upon His own Beneplacitum which might put forth and exert this Act of His Power Wisdom and Goodness in the production of Mankind according to His good Pleasure and the Arbitrium of His own Will And since Mankind having their Existence after this production could never by his own Sense perceive or understand perfectly the Manner of his own production and consequently the particular Method or Manner thereof could neither be attained by Humane Experience nor Ratiocination we must necessarily either be utterly ignorant of the Manner and Order of the Divine Procedure in the Origination of Mankind or we must know it only by Divine or at at least Angelical Revelation and not otherwise So that though the general Thesis of the Origination of Mankind by Almighty God be a Conclusion deducible by Reason partly by the remotion of all other means as incompatible and insufficient for such a production and partly by the observation of the Events and Effects in Nature yet that this production of Mankind was in this or that particular manner is a Truth distinctly cognoscible only by Revelation And hence it came to pass that those great Searchers into Truth among the Heathens being either not acquainted with the History of Moses or not acquainted with the Divine Authority by which it was written either delivered their Thesis generally that Almighty God produced Mankind by His Power and Will not explicating the particular manner thereof or if they attempted a particular Explication of the manner they ran out into very uncertain various and contradictory Explications thereof which must necessarily be the consequence of such particular determinations where Man hath not sufficient light to guide and direct him Zeno Citicus the Founder and Prince of the Sect of the Stoicks a wise and a good Man contented himself with this general Assertion touching this matter as it is delivered us by Censorinus in Die natali cap. 4. Zenon Citicus Stoicae sectae conditor principium humano generi ex novo mundi constitutum putavit primosque homines ex solo adminiculo Divini ignis id est Dei providentia genitos Plato as far as we can collect his Opinion out of his Timeus attributes the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Causality of an Intelligent Nature But going further into particulars falls into conjectures attributing the Effection of the Soul unto the Great God but the Fabrication of the Body to the Dii ex Deo or Angels it seems according to the Tradition of the Egyptians And this hath been ordinarily the unhappiness of Mankind without the light and guidance of Divine Revelation that if they have at any time happened upon some sound and substantial Truth they commonly fix unto it Explications and Additions of their own which many times by their inevidence absurdity or incongruity draw in question the Truth it self to which they are appendicated Therefore to settle and fix and quiet the Minds of Men touching their own first Origination and the Origination of this World it hath pleased the Divine Wisdom and Goodness by the Hand of Moses to reveal unto Mankind not only that the World and Mankind had their Original and that they had their Original from Almighty God as its Efficient both of the Matter and Form thereof but also he hath therein declared the Series Order and Method of the production of all Things It is true the two former namely That the World had an Inception and had an Inception from God is a Truth that by the diligent Improvement of natural Light and Reason is attainable but the Manner and Order of this Effection is as before is said discoverable only by Divine Revelation But yet though the Manner thereof is not discernable barely by the light of Nature or Reason without the help of Divine Revelation yet that Method and Manner once revealed as it stands so revealed to us by Moses carries a very great congruity to Reason which though it cannot at first discover the Method or Order yet it cannot choose but suffragate to the reasonableness and convenience thereof being so discovered I shall therefore in what follows do these things 1. I shall give an Account of that Method of the Formation of all things and particularly of Mankind as it is rendred to us by Moses 2. I shall shew the reasonableness and congruity of the Scheme of Moses touching the Effection of Mankind both in the general and particular notion thereof and the prelation that it justly hath above all other the Hypotheses of other Men. 3. I shall deduce from the whole certain evident and necessary Conclusions against those that deny the Existence and Providence of Almighty God 4. I shall also deduce some Conclusions evincing the Reasonableness of an intended End for Mankind or the Design of Almighty God in his Creation and what may be reasonably concluded touching the same CAP. II. The Mosaical History touching the production of the World and of Mankind and the Congruity and Reasonableness of the Mosaical Hypothesis IN that short yet admirable History of the Creation delivered by Moses in the first Chapter of Genesis he gives us an exact Account of the Origination both of Mankind and of the whole World and therein and thereby he resolves all the Doubts and Difficulties which troubled the Heads of the wise and learned Heathen touching the same and resolves and extricates all those inconveniences and perplexities under which the various Hypotheses of the Heathen World infinitely laboured 1. He resolves us That the World in that Constitution as now it is was not Eternal no not that part to which the Ancients attributed Eternity most namely the Heavens whereby all the Foundations of Aristotle Ocellus Lucanus and others touching the same and all their subtilties and struglings to support that Eternity and to deliver themselves from those inconveniences that attended that Supposition are in a few words rendred vain and frivolous 2. He resolves us That as the World in its present form and structure was not eternal so neither was the matter thereof eternal which troubled Plato so much who though he supposed an inception of the formation of things into their present order yet could not digest an origination of Matter 3. He gives us an account That Time or successive Duration was not eternal but had a beginning and that Motion whose Measure Time was had a beginning before which it was not because no Mobile was more ancient than the beginning of Time 4. He gives us an account of a kind of production that