Eagle and the other furniture of Land and Air and Seas in the 4 last Chapters of that Book in all these are the marks of his Glory and his Greatness and they are no less so of his Wisdom and his Goodness For in wisdom he hath made them all Psal. civ and the Earth is full of his goodness Psal. cxix 54. SECT II. AND again II. when devout and holy men would quicken their own souls and those of others to praise him they use the same method and send abroad their thoughts among the Creatures to gather instances of acknowledgment Thus Elihu in Job magnifieth his Power by the lightning and Thunder by the Snow and Rain by the whirlwinds of the North and Cold of the South and calls upon his afflicted friend to remember to magnifie his Works that men behold and again bids him stand still and consider the wondrous Works of God Job xxxvi and xxxvii Chapters And the Psalmist upon the same account urgeth his soul to bless his Maker for his Majesty and Honour disclosed in the natural wonders of the heavens and earth the winds and waters the springs and grass the Trees and Hills Psalm civ throughout and he gives particular thanks again cxxxvi Psalm for the discoveries of the Divine wisdom and mercy in the same instances of his providence and power which he further celebrates by calling upon the noblest of inanimates to praise him Psal. cxlviii Praise him Sun and Moon praise him ô ye Stars and Light which creatures of his though they are not able to sing Hallelujahs and so vocally to rehearse his praise yet they afford glorious matter for grateful and triumphant songs and by their beauty and their order excite those that study and observe them to adore and glorifie their Maker And therefore the Prophet runs on further into an aggregation of more particulars of Fire and Hail Storms and Vapours Mountains and Cedars Beasts and Fouls and creeping things all which in the same Divinâ—… Canticle are summon'd to praise him that is we are required to use them as the matter and occasions of holy Eucharist and thanksgiving To these I adde III. That God was pleased to sanctifie a solemn day for the celebration of his Works He appointed a Sabbath for rest and contemplation to himself and for praise and acknowledgment to us and his making Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is is intimated in the Commandment as the reason of the consecration of that Day which was observed upon that account among the Jews and the devout Christians of eldest times kept the same in memory of Gods Creation after the institution of the other Sabbath This I take to be enough for the first Proposition viz. That God is to be praised for his Works I descend to the second which is SECT III. II. THat his Works are to be studied by those that would praise him for them We are commanded to sing praises with understanding Psal. xl 7. and the offering he requires is that of a reasonable service His Works receive but little glory from the rude wonder of the ignorant and there is no wise man that values the applauses of a blind admiration No one can give God the Glory of his Providences that lets them pass by him unobserv'd nor can he render due acknowledgments to his word that doth not search the Scriptures 'T is alike impossible to praise the Almighty as we ought for his Works while we carelesly regard them We are commanded to search for wisdom as for hidden Treasure It lies not exposed in the common ways and the chief wonders of divine art and goodness are not on the surface of things layed open to every careless eye The Tribute of praise that we owe our Maker is not a formal slight confession that his works are wonderful and glorious but such an acknowledgment as proceeds from deep observation and acquaintance with them And though our profoundest study and inquâ—…ies cannot unriddle all the mysteries of Nature yet do they still discover new motives to devout admiration and new objects for our loudest praises Thus briefly of the second Proposition also viz. That Gods Works are to be studied by those that would praise him for them From these I now advance to the Third which will require more thoughts and it is SECT IV. III. THat the study of nature and Gods works is very serviceable to Religion We commonly believe that the glory of God is the end of this we say 't is his and we know 't is ours and the divine glory is writ upon his Creatures the more we study them the better we understand those characters the better we read his Glory and the more fit are we to celebrate and proclaim it Thus the knowledge of God's Works promotes the end of Religion And it disposeth us to it by keeping the soul under a continual sense of God He that converseth with his works finds in all things the clear stamps of infinite benignity and wisdom he perceives the divine art in all the turnings and varieties of nature and divine goodness in that He observes God in the colour of every flower in every fiâ—…re of a plant in every limb of an insect in every drop of dew He meets him in all things and sees all things are his and hath an advantage hereby to be instructed how to use them as our Makers not ours with reverence and thanksgiving with an eye to his glory and an aim at his enjoyment This is the genuine tendency of the knowledge of nature if it be abused to different and contrary purposes Natural wisdom is not in fault but he that turns this excellent instrument of Religion upon it self But that better use may be made of it and by some is will appear by considering particularly how acquaintance with nature assists RELIGION against its greatest Enemies which are Atheism Sadducism Superstition Enthusiasm and the Humour of disputing CHAP. II. Philosophy serves Religion against Atheism by shewing the wonderful Art and Contrivance that is in the contexture of the effects of Nature 'T is to be suspected that he is an Atheist that saith Philosophy tends to Atheism No Philosophy doth so much assist Religion against Atheism as the experimental and mechanick SECT I. FOr the First Atheism I reckon thus the deeper insight any man hath into the affairs of nature the more he discovers of the accurateness and Art that is in the contexture of things For the works of God are not like the compositions of fancy or the Tricks of Juglers that will not bear the light of a strict scrutiny but their exactness is honour'd by severity of inspection and he admires most that knows most since the insides and remotest recesses of things have the clearest strokes of inimitable wisdom on them and the artifice is more in the wheel-work then in the case For if we look upon any of the works of Nature through a magnifying glass that makes deep
discoveries we find still more beauty and more uniformity of contrivance whereas if we survey the most curious piece of humane ingenuity by that glass it will discover to us numerous flaws deformities and imperfections in our most elegant mechanicks Hence I gather That the study of God's works shewing us more of the riches of nature opens there by a fairer prospect of those treasures of wisdom that are lodged within it and so furnisheth us with deeper sences and more arguments and clearer convictions of the existence of an infinitely intelligent being that contrived it in so harmonious and astonishing an order So that if any are so brutish as not to acknowledge him upon the view of the meer external frame of the Universe they must yet fall down before the evidence when Philosophy hath opened the cabinet and led them into the Jewel-house and shewn them the splendid and artful variety that is there Thus though the obvious Firmament and the motions of the Sun and Stars the ordinary vicissitudes of seasons and productions of things the visible beauty of the great world and the appearing variety and fitness of those parts that make up the little one our selves could scarce secure Galen â—…rom the danger of being an Aâ—…st Yet when he pryed further by â—…mical enquiries and saâ—… the wonderful diversity apâ—…ness and order of the minutest strings pipes and passages that are in the inward fabrick He could not abâ—…ain from the devoutness of an anthem of acknowledgment And that the real knowledge of nature leads us by the hand to the consâ—… of its Author is taught us by the Holy Pen-man who saith that the visillâ—… things of the Creation declare him The plebeian and obvious world no doubt doth but the Philosophical much more So that whosoever saith that inquiry into nature and Gods works leads to any degree of Atheism gives great ground of suspicion that himself is an Atheist or that he is that other thing that the Royal Psalmist calls him that saith in his heart there is no God For either he acknowledgeth the art and exactness of the works of nature or he doth not if not he disparageth the divine Architect and disables the chief argument of his existence If he doth and yet assirms that the knowledge of it leads to Atheism he saith he knows not what and in â—…ct this That the sight of the order and method of a regular and beautiful contrivance tends to perswade that chance and fortune was the Author SECT II. BUt I remember I have discours'd of this elsewhere and what I have said for Philosophy in general from it's tendency to devout acknowledgments is not so true of any as of the experimental and mechanick For the Physiology of the modern peripatetick schools creates notions and turns nature into words of second intention but discovers little of its real beauty and harmonious contrivance so that God hath no Glory from it nor men any argument of his wisdom or existence And for the Metaphysical proofs they are for the most part deep and nice subject to evasions and turns of wit and not so generally perswasive as those drawn from the plain and sensible Topicks which the experimental Philosophy inlargeth and illustrates This then gives the grand and most convictive assurance of the being of God and acquaintance with this kind of learning furnishetâ—… us with the best weapons todefend it For the modern Atheists are pretenders to the mechanick principles and their pretensions cannot be shamed or defeated by any so well as by those who throughly understand them These indeed perceive sometimes that there is only nature in some things that are taken to be supernatural and miraculous and the shallow naturalist sees no further and therefore rests in nature But the deep Philosopher shews the vanity and unreasonableness of taking up so short and discovers infinite wisdom at the end of the chain of causes I say if we know no further then occult Qualities Elements Heavenly Influences and Forms we shall never be able to disprove a Mechanick Atheist but the more we understand of the Laws of matter and motion the more shall we discern the necessity of a wise mind to order the blind and insensible matter and to direct the original motions without the conduct of which the universe could have been nothing but a mighty Chaos and misâ—…n mass of everlasting confusions and disorders This of the FIRST viz. That the knowledge of nature serves Religion against Atheism and that it doth also CHAP. III. Philosophy Helps Religion against Sadducism in both its branches viz. As it denies the existence of spirits and immortality of humane souls None so well able to disprove the Sadduce as those that understand the Philosophy of Matter and motion The Hypothesis of substantial Forms prejudicial to the Doctrine of the Immortality of the soul. SECT I. II. AGainst Sadducism 'T is well known that the Sadduces denyed the existence of Spirits and Immortality of souls And the Heresie is sadly receiv'd in our days What a Spirit is and whether there be Spirits or not are questions that appertain to the disquisition of Philosophy The Holy Scripture that condescends to the plain capacities of men useth the word spirit commonly for the more subtile and invisible bodies and 't wil be difficult from thence to fetch a demonstrative proof of Spirits in the strict notion That there are Angels and Souls which are purer then these gross bodies may no doubt be concluded from thence But whether these are only a finer sort of matter or a different kind of beings cannot I think be determin'd by any thing deliver'd in the divine Oracles The Inquiry therefore belongs to Philosophy which from divers operations in our own Souls concludes That there is a sort of beings which are not matter or body viz. being self-motive penetrable and indivisible Attributes directly contrary to those of matter which is impenetrable divisible and void of self-motion By these properties respectively the distinct nature of spirit and body is known and by the same that there are spirits in the strictest sâ—…nce as well as corporal beings Now by stating the nature and proving the existence of spirits a very considerable service is done to Religion For hereby our notion of the adorable Deity is freed from all material grosness in which way those must conceive him that acknowledge nothing but body in the world which certainly is a very great dis-interest to his Glory and suggests very unbecoming thoughts of him And by the due stating of the Notion of a spirit that silly conceit of the Souls Traduction is overâ—…hrown which either ariseth from direct Sadducism or a defect in Philosophy Hereby our Immortality is undermined and dangerously exposed But due Philosophical disquisition will set us â—…ight in the Theory For the former of the mention'd errours the Anthropomorphite doctrines that make God himself a corporeal substance they cannot be disproved but by the use of the
which are the sum of the Law and the Prophets But duty cannot be performed without knowledge and some Principles there must be that must direct these Practices And those that discover and direct men in those actions of duâ—…y are called Principles of Religion These are of two sorts viz. Some are 1. Fundamental and Essential others 2. 〈◊〉 and assisting Fundamental 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metaphor taken from the foundâ—… of a building upon which the Fabrick stands and without which it must sink to the ground So that Fundamental Principles are such as are supposed to the duties of Religion one or more and such as are absolutely necessary to the performance of them respectively Of this sort I mention four viz. I. That there is a God of infinite perfâ—…ction Thâ—… bâ—…lief of this iâ—… 〈◊〉 necâ—…ssary to all the parâ—…s oâ—… Râ—…ligion II. That we are sinners and exposed to his displeasure This is necessary to confession of sins and repentance parts of Worship III. That God is our Maker and the Author of all our blessings This is necessary to the Duties of Prayer Praise and Adoration IV. That there is Moral Good and Evil. Without this there can be no Charity Humility Justice Purity or the rest These Propositions I say are Fundamentals of Religion for it supposeth and stands upon them There are others which are not so absolutely necessary as these but yet very incouraging and helpful I reckon Four here also Viz. 1. THAT God will pardon us if we repent 2. THAT he will assist us if we endeavour 3. THAT he will accept of Services that are imperfect if they are sincere 4. THAT he will reward or punish in another world according â—…o what we have done in this This I count to be the sum of Religion general and Christianity takes in all those Duties and all the Principles advancing the Duties to nobler measures and incouraging them by new motives and assistances and superadding two other instances Baptism and the Lords Supper And for the Principles it confirms those of natural Religion and explains them further and discovers some few new ones And all these both of the former and the latter sort are contained in the Creed Here are all the Fundamentals of Religion and the main assisting Principles also And I call nothing else Religion but plain Duties and these acknowledged Principles And though our Church require our assent to more Propositions yet those are only Articles of Communion not Doctrines absolutely necessary to Salvation And if we go beyond the Creed for the Essentials of Faith who can tell where you shall stop The sum is Religion primarily is Duty And duty is All that which God hath coâ—…ded to be done by his Word or our Reasons and we have the substance of these in the Commandments Religion also in a secondary sense consists in some Principles relating to the Worship of God and of his Son in the ways of devoâ—…t and virtuous living and these are comprised in that Summary of belief called the Apostles Creed This I take to be Religion and this Religion I shall prove to be reasonable But I cannot undertake for all the Opinions some men are pleased to call Orthodox nor for all those that by many private persons and some Churches are counted essential Articles of Faith and Salvation Thus I have stated what I mean by Religion THE OTHER thing to be determined and fixt is the proper Notion of Rea on For this you may please â—…o consider that Reason is sometimes taken for Reason in the Faculty which is the Understanding and at other times for Reason in the object which consists in those Principles and Conclusions by which the Understanding is informed This latter is meant in the dispute concerning the agreement or disagreement of Reason and Religion And Reason in this sense is the same with natural truth which I said is made up of Principles and Conclusions By the Principles of Reason we are not to understand the Grounds of any mans Philosophy nor the Critical Rules of Syllogism but those imbred fundamental notices that God hath implanted in our Souls such as arise not from external objects nor particular humours or imaginations but are immediately lodged in our minds independent upon other principles or deductions commanding a sudden assent and acknowledged by all sober mankind Of this sort are these That God is a Being of all perfection That nothing hath no Attributes That a thing cannot be and not be That the whole is greater than any of its parts And such like others which are unto Us what instincts are to other Creatures These I call the Principles of Reason The Conclusions are those other notices that are inferred rightly from these and by their help from the observations of sense And the remotest that can be conceived of all these if it be rightly inferred from the Principles of Reason or duely circumstantiated sense is as well to be reckoned a part and branch of Reason as the more immediate Conclusions that are Principles in respect of those distant truths And thus I have given an account also of the proper notion and nature of Reason I AM to shew next 2 That Religion is reasonable and this implies two things viz. That Reason is a friend to Religion and that Religion is so to Reason From these two results their correspondence and agreement I begin with the FIRST and here I might easily shew the great congruity that there is between that light and those Laws that God hath placed in our Souls and the duties of Religion that by the expressness of his written Word he requires from us and demonstrate that Reason teacheth All those excepting only the two Positives Baptism and the holy Eucharist But there is not so much need of turning my discourse that way and therefore I shall confine it to the Principles of Religion which are called Faith and prove that Reason mightily befriends these It doth this I. By proving some of those Principles II. By defending all For the clearing both these you may consider That the Principles of Religion are of two sorts Either 1. such as are presupposed to Faith or such as 2. are formal Articles of it Of the first sort are The Being of a God and the Authority of the Scripture And of the second such as are expresly declared by Divine Testimony As the Attributes of God the Incarnation of his Son and such like I. For the former â—…ey are proved by Reason and by Reason only The others we shall consider after I. That the Being of a God the foundation of all is proved by Reason the Apostle acknowledgeth when he saith That what was to be known of God was manifest and to the Heathen Rom. I. XIX and he adds vers XX. That the invisible things from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made And the Royal Psalmist speaks to the like purpose Psal. XIX The Heavens declare the
Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy works And again Psal. 14. 8. 3. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him ye Stars and Light which intimates that these Works of his afford matter to our reasons for religious acknowledgments And Reason proves the existence of God from the beauty and order and ends and usefulness of the Creatures for these are demonstrative Arguments of the being of a wise and omnipotent mind that hath framed all things so orderly and exactly and that mind is God This Article then Reason proves which was the first branch of the particular and I add that it is Reason only that can do it which was the other This you will see when you consider that there are but three things from whence the existence of any Being can be concluded viz. Sense Revelation or Reason For Sense it hath no more to do here but to present matter for our Reasons to work on and Revelation supposeth the Being of a God and cannot prove it for we can have no security that the Revelation is true till we are assured it is from God or from some Commissioned by him The knowledge of his Being therefore must precede our Faith in Revelation and so cannot be deduced from it Thus Reason befriends Religion by laying its corner stone And the next to this is the other Principle mentioned II. The Divine Authority of Scripture This also is to be proved by Reason and only by It. The great Argument for the truth of Scripture is the Testimony of the Spirit in the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles Our Saviour himself useth this Argument to gain credit to his Doctrines Believe me for the works sake The works that I do bear testimony of me and if I had not done among them the works that no other man did they had had no sin Joh. XV. 24. And the Apostles continually urge that great Miracle the Resurrection of Christ from the dead for the conviction both of the Jews and Gentiles That he was the Son of God and his Doctrines true Now Miracles are an Argument to our Reasons and we reason from them thus Miracles are Gods Seal and they are wrought by his Power and He is true and good and would not lend these to Impostors to cheat and abuse mankind Therefore whoever works real Miracles for the confirmation of any Doctrine it is to be believed that He is taught of God and Commissioned to teach us And that Christ and his Apostles did those things which are recorded of them is matter of Testimony and Reason clears the validity of this by the aggregation of multitudes of Circumstances which shew that the first Relators could not be deceived themselves and would not deceive us nor indeed could in the main matters if they had designed it And the certainty of the conveyance of these things to us is evinced also by numerous convictive Reasons So that the matter of fact is secure and that such Doctrines were taught as are ascribed to those divine persons and those persons inspired that penned them are proved the same way And so it follows from the whole that the Gospel is the Word of God and the Old Testament is confirmed by that Thus Reason proves the Divine Authority of Scripture and those other Arguments that use to be produced for it from Its style and Its influence upon the Souls of men from the excellency of its design and the Providence of God in preserving it are of the same sort though not of the same strength Reason then proves the Scriptures and this only For that they are from God is not knâ—…wn immediately by sense and there is no distinct Revelation that is certain and infallible to assure us of it and so Reason only remains to deâ—…onstrate this other Fundamental Article These two great Truths The existence of God and Authority of Scripture are the first in our Religion and they are Conclusions of Reason and Foundations of Faith Thus briefly of those Principles of Religion that are Fundamentally such We have seen how Reason serves them by demonstrating their Truth and certainty I COME now to the SECOND sort of Principles viz. those that are formally so They are of two sorts mixt and pure The mixt are those that are discovered by Reason and declared by Revelation also and so are Principles both of Reason and Faith Of this kind are the Attributes of God Moral good and evil and the Immortality of humane Souls The Principles of pure Faith are such as are known only by Divine Testimony as the Miraculous Conception the Incarnation and the Trinity The first sort Reason proves as well as Scripture this I shew briefly in the alledged instances 1. That the Divine Attributes are revealed in the Holy Oracles 't is clear and they are deduced from Reason also For 't is a general Principle of all Mankind That God is a Being absolutely perfect And hence Reason concludes all the particular Attributes of his Being since Wisdom Goodness Power and the rest are perfections and imply nothing of imperfection or defect and therefore ought to be ascribed to the infinitely perfect Essence 2. That there is moral good and evil is discoverable by Reason as well as Scripture For these are Reasons Maxims That every thing is made for an end and every thing is directed to its end by certain Rules these Rules in Creatures of understanding and choice are Laws and the transgressing these is Vice and Sin 3. The Immortality of our Souls is plain in Scripture and Reason proves it by shewing the Spirituality of our natures and that it doth from the nature of Sense and our perception of spiritual Beings and Universals Of Logical Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions From our compounding Propositions and drawing Conclusions from them From the vastness and quickness of our Imaginations and Liberty of our Wills all which are beyond the powers of matter and therefore argue a Being that is spiritual and consequently immortal which inference the Philosophy of Spirits proves Also the Moral Arguments of Reason from the goodness of God and his Justice in distributing rewards and punishments the nature of virtue and tendencies of religious appetites conclude I think strongly That there is a life after this Thus in short of the Principles I called mixt which Reason demonstrates BUT for the others viz. II. Those of pure Revelation Reason cannot prove them immediately nor is it to be expected that it should For they are matters of Testimony and we are no more to look for immediate proof from Reason of those things than we are to expect that abstracted Reason should demonstrate That there is such a place as China or that there was such a man as Julius Caesar All that it can do here is to assert and make good the credibility and truth of the Testimonies that relate such matters and that it doth in the present case proving the Authority of Scripture and thereby in a