〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep the Sabbath and the Lords Day as Holy-days that being dedicated to the remembrance of the Creation and this to that of the Redemption To which we shall adde this second Passage of the same Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let Servants work for five days but on the Sabbath and the Lords-day let them attend in the Church the Doctrine of Godliness To which purpose I remember the most Learned Grotius observes That the converted Emperor Constantine forbad the compelling Christians to appear before Tribunals on either of those Days as being their Festivals Nay and if Modern Travellers do not mis-inform me I finde that divers of the Eastern Churches particularly the Abyssine Christians to this day do as well sanctifie the sabbath-Sabbath-day in commemoration of Gods having created the World as the Lords-day to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ. And as for the Jews sense of the Fourth Commandment some of the Learnedst of their Criticks are pleas'd to distinguish betwixt the Words Zachôr and Smôr Remember and Keep imploy'd in the Command of solemnizing the Sabbath For the remembring of it they hold to be an act of Religion performable by all Man-kinde that are capable of it and acquainted with its having been commanded though the keeping of it Holy they suppose onely enjoyn'd to the Israelites On which occasion I remember I was one Sabbath-day entertain'd at his own Lodgings by a Learned Jew who taught me the Holy Language with Meat then newly dress'd to remove my wonder at which he told me That it was dress'd by Christians who being Gentiles were not oblig'd to the strict and legal observation of the Sabbath But whatever be to be thought of this Jewish Notion yet questionless if the Fourth Commandment do not at least divers other Passages of Scripture do much discountenance their severity who would fright Men from the indagation of Nature And he that shall duly consider divers Texts obvious enough in the Book of Job and the Psalms besides other parts of the Bible will not readily conclude that Natural Philosophy and Divinity are at such variance as the Divines we deal with would perswade us St Paul seems to inform us that the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and God-head So that they that were mention'd before are without excuse And though I ignore not that not onely several of the Socinians following their Master Socinus but some few Orthodox Writers are pleas'd to give a very differing Interpretation of that Text and make the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie those things of God that have been Invisible ever since the Creation of the World and referring the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to things not made as we Translate it but done as the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles yet I see no necessity why the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be taken in a sense exclusive of the Creation and not at least admitted to take in all the Ways and Methods imployed by God to manifest the invisible things there intimated unto Man And certainly however St Paul may be suppos'd to appear but darkly yet Job was clearly of a differing Opinion from theirs who teach That the study of Nature leads to Atheism For ask now the Beasts says he and they will teach thee and the Fowls of the Air and they shall tell thee or speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this And consonantly hereunto which 'twere not amiss for our Adversaries to take notice of we may observe That almost all the Writers of Natural Theology and the most also of those that have labored to demonstrate the Truth of Christian Religion divers of whom have been as well Profound Divines as otherwise Eminent Scholars have undertaken to evince by the consideration of the Universe both that there is a God and that he is the Author of it Which I the rather mention Pyrophilus because I would not be mistaken as if I disputed against Divines in general or were guilty of the least Irreverence towards a Faculty in whose Study I have thought my self oblig'd as a Christian to spend much of my time and especially I would not appear dis-respectful to Divines in England where they have already been but too much vilified though questionless for their Sins against God yet I fear not without the Sin of their Oppressors In the next place I consider That since Physiology is said to tempt to Atheism but by enabling Men to give an account of all the Phaenomena of Nature by the knowledge of Second Causes without taking in the First it will not be so easie a matter as many presume for the contemplation of Nature to turn a considering Man Atheist For we are yet for ought I can finde far enough from being able to explicate all the Phaenomena of Nature by any Principles whatsoever And even of the Atomical Philosophers whose Sect seems to have the most ingeniously attempted it some of the eminentest have themselves freely acknowledged to me their being unable to do it convincingly to others or so much as satisfactorily to themselves And indeed not onely the Generation of Animals is a Mystery which all that Naturalists have said to explain it hath been far enough from depriving of that Name but we see that to explicate all the various Phaenomena that belong to that single inâ—nimate and seemingly homogeneous Body Mercury so as not to make any Hypothesis assum'd to make out one of its Properties or Effects incongruous to any other Hypothesis requisite to the explanation of any of the rest hath been hitherto found so difficult that if our Posterity be not much happier Unriddlers then our Fore-Fathers or we have been it is like to prove a Task capable of defeating the Industry and Attempts I say not of more then one Philosopher but of more then one Age even our Chymical Tortures hitherto having from that deluding Proteus forc'd no Confessions that bring us not more Wonder then Satisfaction and do not Beget almost as many Scruples as they Resolve ESSAY IV. Containing a requisite Digression concerning those that would exclude the Deity from intermedling with Matter I Ignore not that not onely Leucippus Epicurus and other Atomists of old but of late some Persons for the most part Adorers of Aristotle's Writings have pretended to be able to explicate the first Beginning of Things and the World 's Phaenomena without taking in or acknowledging any Divine Author of it And therefore though we may elsewhere by the assistance of that Author have an opportunity to give You an Account of our unsatisfiedness with the Attempts made by some bold Wits in favor of such Pretensions Yet since the
very earnestly Labour to Disswade you from it For I that had much rather have Men not Philosophers then not Christans should be better content to see you ignore the Mysteries of Nature then deny the Author of it But though the Zeale of their Intentions keep Me from harbouring any unfavourable Opinion of the Persons of these Men yet the Prejudice that might redound from their Doctrine if generally received both to the Glory of God from the Creatures and to the Empire of Man over them forbids Me to leave their Opinion unanswer'd though I am Sorry that the Necessity of Vindicating the Study I recommend to You from so Heinous a Crime as they have accus'd it of will compel me to Theologize in a Philosophical Discours Which that I may do with as much Brevity as the Weight and Exigency of my Subject will permit I shall Content my selfe onely in the Explication of my own Thoughts to hint to you the grounds of Answering what is alledg'd against them And First Pyrophilus I must premise That though it may be a Presumption in Man who to use a Scripture Expression Is but of Yesterday and knows Nothing because his Dayes upon the Earth are but as a shadow precisely and peremptorily to define all the Ends and Aimes of the Omniscient God in His Great Work of the Creation Yet perhaps it will be no great venture to suppose that at least in the Creating of the Sublunary World and the more Conspicuous Stars two of God's Principal Ends were the Manifestation of His own Glory and the Good of Men. For the First of these The Lord hath made all things for himselfe saies the Preacher For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things saies the Apostle And Thou hast Created all things and for Thy Pleasure they are and were Created say the Twenty foure Prostrate Elders Representatives perhaps of the whole Church of both Testaments propagated by the Twelve Patriarchs and the like number of Apostles to their Creatour which Truth were it requisite might be further confirmed by several other Texts which to decline needlesse prolixity I here forbear to insist on Consonantly to this we hear the Psalmist Proclaiming that The Heavens Declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-Works To which purpose we may also observe that though Man were not Created till the close of the Sixt Day the Resident's Arrival being Obligingly Suspended till the Palace was made ready to entertain Him yet that none of God's works might want Intelligent Spectators and Admirers the Angels were Created the First Day as Divines generally infer from the Words of God in Job Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth and a little after When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Where by the Morning Stars and Sons of God are suppos'd to be meant the newly Created Angels one of whose earliest exercises was it seems to applaud the Creation and take thence occasion to sing Hymnes to the Almighty Author of it I should not Pyrophilus adde any thing further on this subject but that having since the writing of these thoughts met with a Discourse of Seneca's very consonant to some of them I suppose it may tend to your delight as well as to their advantage if I present you some of the Truths you have seen in my courser Languag drest up in his finer and happier Expressions Curiosum nobis saith he natura ingenium dedit artis sibi pulchritudinÃsque conscia spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit perditura fructum sui si tam magna tam clara tam subtiliter ducta tam nitida non uno genere formosa solitudini ostenderet Ut scias illam spectari voluisse non tantum aspici vide quem locum nobis dedit nec erexit tantummodo hominem sed etiam ad contemplationem Viae facturum ut ab ortu sidera in occasum labentia prosequi posset vultum suum circumferre cum toto Sublime illi fecit caput collo flexibili imposuit Deinde sena per diem sena per noctem signa produxit nullam non partem sui explicuit ut per haec quae obtulerat ejus oculis cupiditatem faceret etiam caeterorum nec enim omnia nec tanta visimus quanta sunt sed acies nostra aperit sibi investigando viam fundamenta veri jacit ut inquisitio transeat ex apertis in obscura aliquid ipso Mundo inveniat Antiquius And least you might be offended at his mentioning of Nature and silence of God give me leave to informe you that about the close of the Chapter immediately preceding that whence the Passage you come from Reading is transcrib'd having spoken of the Enquiries of Philosophers into the Nature of the Universe he adds Haec qui contemplatur quid Deo praestat ne tanta ejus Opera sine teste sint And to proceed to that which we have formerly assign'd for the Second End of the Creation That much of this Visible World was made for the use of Mâ—n may appear not only from the time of his Creation already taken notice of and by the Commission given to the first Progenitors of Mankind to replenish the Earth and subdue it and to have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fouls of the Air and over all the Earth and over every living thing that creepeth or moveth on the Earth But also by God's making those noble and vast Luminaries and other Bodies that adorn'd the Skie to give light upon the Earth though inferiour to them in Dimensions and to divide between the Day and between the Night and to be for Signes and for Seasons and for Daies and for Years To this agrees that Passage in the Prophet Thus saith the Lord that Created the Heavens God himselfe that form'd the Earth and made it He hath estabâ—ished it He Created it not in Vaine He formed it to be Inhabited c. And the Inspired Poet speaks of Man's Dignity in very comprehensive Termes For thou saies he to his Maker hast made him little lower then the Angels and hast Crowned him with Glory and Honour Thou madest him to have Dominion over the Works of thy Hands thou hast put all things under his Feet The same truth may be confirm'd by divers other Texts which it might here prove tedious to insist on And therefore I shall rather observe that consonantly thereunto God was pleased to consider man so much more then the Creatures made for him that he made the Sun it selfe at one time to stand still and at another time to goe back and divers times made the parts of the Universe forget their Nature or Act contrary to it And ha's in summe vouchsafed to alter by Miracles the Course of Nature for the instruction or reliefe of Man As when the Fire suspended
for they swim freely up and down the Liquor and often hover about the top of it with a wrigling motion like that of Eels to which likewise their long and slender shape resembles them And though these swimming Creatures be not all exactly of a size yet some of them seem'd slenderer then any sort of living ones that hath hitherto been taken notice of by the unassisted Eye And I remember that having look'd in a good Microscope upon one of them and a Cheese-mite much about the same time the Fish appear'd so slender that we judg'd it not much thicker then one of the Legs of the Mite So that considering what a vast deal of matter the great Creator can manage and fashion into a Whale and in how little room he can contrive all the parts requisite to constitute a Fish we may justly say to him in the Psalmists Language There is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works The last of the three Properties of God which we mentioned him to have manifested in the Creation is his Goodnesse Of which all his Creatures do in their due measure partake partly by their having a Being vouchsafed them and partly by their being preserved in it as long as their subordination to higher purposes and to more powerful creatures do permit by that supporting Influence of God which keeps them from relapsing into their first Nothing according to that memorable Passage where Nehemiah having mentioned God as the Creatour of the Heavens the Earth the Seas and all the Creatures belonging to them He calls Him the Preserver or as the Original has it The enlivener of them all And as for Animals who are more capable of enjoying though not most of them of discerning His bounty His Goodnesse to them is more conspicuous For besides that in Scripture he is called The Preserver both of Man and Beast and accordingly is said to give food even to the young Ravens that cry and to have after the Flood remembred not only Noah but every living thing that was with him in the Ark His Goodnesse to them is apparent by the plentiful and easily attainable provision he makes according to the exigence of their several Natures For that innumerable swarm of various Birds Beasts Fishes Reptiles and other Animals that People the Terrestrial Globe and the contiguous parts of the World and by his endowing each of them with all the Qualifications requisite to the perpetuation of their Species and the preservation of their Lives as far forth as is consistent with his Ends in their Creation But most resplendent does the Goodnesse of God appear towards his Favourite Creature Man whom having vouchsaf'd to ennoble with his own Image he makes most of the Creatures of the world visible to us pay homage to him and in some manner or degree do him service God's liberality at once bestowing on him all those Creatures by endowing him with a Reason enabling him to make use of them so that even those Creatures which he is not able to subdue by his Power he is able to make serviceable to him by his Knowledg as those vast Globes of Light which are so farre above him that their Immensity and Brightnesse can scarce render them visible to him are by man's Mathematicks forced to give him an account of all their Motions and waiting upon his Dials keep time for him and even the defects of such works of Nature are by man's skill made serviceable to him as the Eclipses of the Moon serve Geographers notably in that difficult and useful worke of finding Longitudes The Stars serve for Candles to give man light and the Celestial Orbs are his Candlesticks He breaths the Aire the Fire waâ—mes him and serves him not only in his Kitchin but to master most other Bodies in his furnaces The Clouds water his Land the Earth supports him and his Buildings the Sea and winds convey him and his Floating-houses to the remotest parts of the World and enable him to possesse every where almost all that Nature or Art has provided for him any where The Earth produces him an innumerable multitude of Beasts to feed cloath and carrie him of Flowers and Jewels to delight and adorne him of Fruits to sustaine and refresh him of Stones and Timber to lodg him of Simples to cure him and in summe the whole sublunary World is but his Magazine And it seems the grand businesse of restlesse Nature so to constitute and manage his Productions as to furnish him with Necessaries Accommodations and Pleasures Of such a Number of Plants Animals Metals Minerals c. that people and enrich the Terrestriall Globe perhaps there is not any one of which Man might not make an excellent use had he but an insight into its Nature nor are the most abject and despicable therefore the least useful There is not any Stone no not the sparkling Diamond it self to whom Man is so much beholden as he is to the dark unpromising Load-stone without which the New-World probably had never been detected and many Regions of the Old World would have little or no commerce with each other Nor have the Lion the Eagle and the Whale joyned all together though reputed the Chief of Birds Beasts and Fishes been so serviceable to Mâ—n as that despicable Insect The Silk-worm And if we impartially consider the Lucriferousness if I may speak in my Lord of St Albans Stile of the properties of Things and their Medical Virtues we shall finde That we trample upon many things for which we should have cause to kneel and offer God Praises if we knew all their Qualities and Uses But of this subject we may elsewhere purposely treat To which I must onely adde Pyrophilus That you will injure Nature if you suppose either that all the Concretes endowed with excellent Properties have long since been notorious or that all the Medicinal Virtues of Simples commonly us'd are already known or that all those Concretes are destitute of considerable Properties to whom none have been yet ascrib'd by eminent Authors For almost every day either discloses new Creatures or makes new Discoveries of the usefulnesse of things almost each of which hath yet a kinde of Terra incognita or undetected part in it How many new Concretes rich in Medicinal vertues does the New World present the Inquisitive Physitians of the Old Notatu dignum says the Ingenious Piso in his newly publish'd Medicina Brasileensis lib. 1. quod eximiae tot arbores frutices innumerae herbae figura foliis fructibus a veteris orbis Vegetabilibus paucis exceptis dissimillimae appareant Idem de avibus animantibus piscibus deprehenditur ut insectis alatis atque alis destitutis quae ineffabili colorum pulchritudine portentosa multitudine generantur partim nota nobis partim incognita And of the known American Simples How many latent Virtues does experience from time to time discover And
the Foundation though all the Boyes be concern'd in the benefit yet because most of them are too young to be sensible of it or too unlearned to be able to make the retribution of a handsome acknowledgment either the Master or that other person of the Society who is most capable and the best spoakesman is by a kind of natural right engag'd to the duty of returning praise and thanks not for himself alone but in the name of all the rest So in the World where there are so many inanimate and irrational Creatures that neither understand how much they owe to their Creator by owing him even themselves nor are born to a condition inabling them to acknowledg it Man as born the Priest of Nature and as the most oblig'd and most capable member of it is bound to returne Thanks and Praises to his Maker not only for himselfe but for the whole Creation In which sense we may reconcile those two current Assertions That God made all things for His own Glory and that God made all things for Man and Man for himselfe Since whether or no Man be a Microcosme or Little World in Paracelsus's sense if not as a resembler yet as a representer of the Macrocosme or Great World he presents with his own adorations the Homages of all the Creatures to their Creator though they be ignorant of what is done as Infants under the Law were of the sacrifices offered on their account And in this Relation may the Creatures answer the Solemn invitation made them in the whole 148 Psalm and numerous other Scriptures which they may do to borrow a barbarous but significant School-terme objectively though not formally I mean by proving occasions though not singers of his praises and being such objects as prompt and invite Man to pay God that praise upon their score which they cannot actually pay him themselves even God's mutest works being capable of being said to praise him in the same sense though in an incomparably transcendenter degree that Solomon saies of his virtuous Woman in the last Verse of the Proverbs Let her own VVorks praise her in the Gates that is give the considerers of them occasion to extol her and thus by man's referring the knowledg of the Creature to the Creator's Glory it becomes in some sense and congruously to its own Nature the praiser of its Maker as may seem intimated in this OEconomy of the Last part of one of the Psalmes Blesse the Lord all ye His Hosts the Ministers of His that do His pleasure Blesse the Lord all His VVorks in all places of His Dominion Blesse the Lord O my Soule Where by shutting up the rest of God's Creatures betwixt Angels and Man's Soule he seems to insinuate that the irrational Creatures blesse the Lord by the mouth of those that are Intelligent And truly Pyrophilus I fear it may relish a little of selfishnesse to make such a disparity betwixt Perfections all of them equal because all of them infinite as to let God's mercy because it most advantages us so to ingrosse our thoughts and wonder as to make us neglect the contemplation of those other Glorious Attributes his Power and his VVisdome which were those that exacted both Man and Angels adoration before sin gave occasion to the exercise of the first And I shall not scruple to confesse unto you that I dare not confine the Acts of Devotion to those which most men suppose to comprise the whole exercise of it not that I at all undervalue or would depreciate any even the meanest practises of Devotion which either Scripture or reason consonant to it recommends but that I esteem that God may be also acceptably and perhaps more nobly serv'd and glorifi'd by our entertaining of high rational and as much as our nature is capable of worthy notions attended with a profound and proportionable admiration of those divine Attributes and Prerogatives for whose manifesting he was pleas'd to construct this vast Fabrick To which purpose I consider that in the Life to come when we shall questionless glorifie God exactliest we shall have little either need or use of Faith Prayer Liberality Patience and resembling Graces but our Worship will chiefly consist in elevated Notions and a prostrate Veneration of Gods Omnipotence Wisdom Goodness and other Perfections and such a one as this is represented in the Apocalyps to be the present employment of the Blest Spirits in Heaven where the Elders that assist about the Throne of God are describ'd casting their Crowns before it and saying to him that sits on it Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created By this time Pyrophilus I hope you begin to think that the Doctrine that tends to deter Men from enquiring into Nature is as well derogatory from Gods Glory as prejudicial to Mans Interests And indeed I purpos'd to content my self with the having disperst throughout the past Discourse the grounds of answering their Objection against the study of Physiology who pretend it is apt to make Men Atheists But because I am much concern'd to have you satisfied of so important a Truth as that which we have hitherto been laboring to evince I must beg your leave Pyrophilus to adde ex abundanti as they speak to what has been already alledg'd some things that may more directly answer the Objection of our Adversaries and manifest how little their severity is befriended either by Scripture Reason or Experience And first it seems not at all probable That if the Omniscient Author of Nature knew that the study of his Works did really tend to make Men dis-believe his Being or Attributes he would have given Men so many Invitations and almost Necessities to study and contemplate the Nature of his Creatures Of these Invitations divers have been mention'd already and more might be added to them if we thought it requisite But what has been above alledg'd will make us forbear the annexing of any save that of the ancient Institution of the Sabbath which many eminent Divines do not groundlesly hold to have been ordain'd to commemorate the Creation and give Men the opportunity every Seventh Day to contemplate God in his Works as he himself was pleas'd to rest on the first Seventh Day and contemplate Himself in the works of the first six And though our Western Churches for certain Reasons not here to be inquir'd into have long since disus'd the Solemnizing of the Saturday and appointed the Sunday for the Celebration of both the Works of the Redemption and Creation of the World together yet 't is evident enough that the Primitive Christians did for the most part keep the Saturday as Holy-day as well as the Sunday For that ancient Book whoever be resolv'd to have written it which goes under the Name of Clement's Constitutions affords us among others these two memorable Passages to our purpose And first