more are the thoughts of the unsearchable God higher than our thoughts The more sober and weighty part of the Schoolmen do conclude this Question in the negative and assert That Almighty God by one eternal act knew all things from all Eternity and by the like eternal act willed from all Eternity what he any way willed and though the termination of that Will respected Objects that neither were nor could be eternal yet his Knowledge and Will was eternally the same as ever and he begins not to know any thing which he did not eternally know nor to will any thing which he did not eternally will though the execution of that Will respects things to be done in time and futurity And certainly as this is the most probable Opinion so it takes away the pretence of the Objection the immanent Acts and Operations of the glorious God being eternal and without change It is true some late Schoolmen and after them Clara in his 4 th Problem seems to assert that Divina voluntas potest velle aliquid novum sine mutatione sui But suppose that this Supposition were admissible yet this would not any way be inconsistent with the Eternity of the Divine Nature and Essence 1. This is no Physical change in Almighty God but a voluntary and free operation of his Will which possibly was so at first willed by him to be changed according as he saw cause in his infinite Wisdom 2. That this which is here called a change of his Will is not in truth a change of his Will but a change in the Object which only seems to make a diversification of the Will but indeed is the same Will diversified only in the habitude to the Object The Will of God is like a straight unalterable Rule or Line but the various comportments of the Creature either thwarting this Rule or holding conformity to it occasions several habitudes of this Rule unto it We need no better explication hereof than that of the Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 33. from the twelfth to the twentieth Verse 4. A change of Actions and Operations in relation to some external Object or terminated therein and such a change as this is consistent with an Eternal Being though the change happen in any given portion of Time Thus the Almighty and Eternal God created the World by his Power and Will in the beginning of Time and orders governs and disposeth of the things by his Providence in all the Periods of Time and yet without any Physical or real change in himself And thus he began to be a Creator when before he was not a Creator and began to be a Governour of the World after it was made and exerciseth divers external acts of his Providence daily which before he did not For those various acts of his are terminated in such Objects as neither were nor could be eternal namely the World and the Government thereof And although he thereby gain a change of relation or relative denomination yet it is no real or Physical change in himself For all relations arise from the supposition of existence of both the terms of relation as between the Creator and the thing created and the Governour and thing governed and therefore although one of the terms of that relation namely the Eternal God had an eternal existence in his own absolute nature yet the World that was the other term of relation had no eternal existence but was created in the beginning of Time and the relation of a Creator or Governour must necessarily therefore arise in Time and not from Eternity because one of the terms of the relation namely the World had not any existence before Time began But in the eternal Generation of the Son and Procession of the Holy Spirit the termini relationis were all eternal and consequently the relation of Paternity and Filiation between the First and Second Person and the relation between the Sacred Persons of the Trinity and the denomination thereof must needs be eternal because the terms of relation between whom that relation ariseth were eternal But it is not so between the Eternal God and a temporary World for the relation could not arise till the World had an existence and a change or acquest of a new relation is not at all any real change in God but is an accident resulting from the existence of both the termini and can be no ancienter than the coexistence even of the latest and newest of those terms which if began in time must necessarily produce a new relation yet without any real change in the pre-existing and eternal God And thus I have done with those Physical and Metaphysical Evidences of the Inception of the World and of Mankind and against the Eternity of both And although I shall descend in the ensuing Section to Moral Evidences of probability strongly perswading the same Truth yet I lay the principal weight and stress of this Argument upon what is said in the preceding Chapters of this First Section which though perchance they may have something of obscurity as being bottomed upon and fetched from the true nature of the things themselves and therefore not so obvious and plain to all Capacities yet they have a concludency in them not inferior or at least little inferior to Demonstrations SECT II. CAP. I. The Proofs of Fact that seem with the greatest Moral evidence to evince the Inception of Mankind And first touching the Antiquity or Novity of History I Have now done with those Evidences that in my Understanding seem quasi ab intrinseco to evince the Inception of Mankind from that intrinsecal incompossibility and inconsistency that the Supposition of the eternal existence thereof bears with his Nature I now descend to the examination of those Evidences of Fact which do or may seem to contribute to the proof of what is designed namely Novitatem generis humani And although that Evidences of Fact of things remote from our Sense cannot be said infallible and demonstrative because the nature of such matters of fact simply as they are matters of fact is not capable as such of Demonstration yet they may be Evidences of high credibility and such as no reasonable Man can with any just reason deny his assent unto them That which hath been hath as certainly and infallibly yea and as necessarily been as that which is Omne quod est dum est necessariò est omne quod fuit cum jam preteriit necessariò fuit quando fuit in praeteritis non est contingentia Only that which is and is obvious to Sense hath this advantage of evidence which that which hath been wants namely the immediate evidence of Sense wherein though it is not universally impossible but that Sense may be deceived yet because it is the best evidence that we have of matters of fact we give credit to it as a sensible evidence and we have reason so to do But of things transacted before our time and out of the
the evidence of the same thing their very multiplicity and consent makes the evidence the stronger as the concurrent testimonies of many Witnesses or many Circumstances even by their multiplicity and concurrence make an evidence more concludent Now these Evidences of Fact I shall cast into these ranks 1. We have no authentical History of former Ages extant but what hath been written within the compass of four thousand years 2. The subject matter of those Histories give us no account of the Original of great Monarchies Kingdoms or Commonwealths but what appear thereby to have begun within the compass of about five thousand years 3. The original Invention and Inventors of most considerable Arts had their Origination as far as we can find by Monuments of ancient times within the compass of about six thousand years 4. The Original of the Apotheoses of most of the Heathen fictitious Deities appears by the ancient Monuments of former times to have had their beginning within the compass of five thousand years 5. The most authentick Histories and Monuments of Antiquity give us an account of the first Fathers or Capita familiarum and of the Plantation of the known Parts Continents and Islands of the World within the compass of five thousand years 6. The Inhabitants of the World do daily increase and their increment surmounts daily their decrease which could not be unless the World of Mankind had their original within some proportionate time and could not consist with such a vast excess of duration which some would assign much less with an eternal duration or such as never had a beginning 7. There hath in all Ages and among all People been a constant tradition retained and believed touching the Origination of Mankind ex non genitis vel per generationem propagatis These are the Heads of those Evidences of Fact which I shall use in this Argument touching the Origination of Mankind whereunto possibly other occasional Topicks of the like nature may be added And touching these Evidences of Fact this I shall subjoyn 1. That I do not lay the weight of this Argument upon those Evidences of Fact because they have or may have their several allays and fallibilities which I shall impartially subjoyn to every particular Topick But I lay the weight of the Argument upon what hath been before said which to me seems to be little less than demonstrative drawn from the intrinsick nature of the thing and from that absurdity which would arise upon the Supposition of the Eternity of Mankind and the incompossibility of an eternal duration à parte ante to successive Natures 2. That although singly and apart these Evidences of Fact are not so conclusive but have their allays and exceptions yet they have these advantages that advance their evidence as very credible 1. In that the Supposition which they are produced to prove is not impossible to be true 2. That there is nothing of probability of Reason or Instance that can be produced against the truth of that Supposition which is contended to be proved by them 3. They have so much the more weight and evidence in that they do suffragate and bear witness to the truth of that Supposition namely the Inception of Mankind which holds so great a congruity with the intrinsick reason and nature of the thing the contrary whereof namely the Eternity of Mankind is apparently contradictory to a strict and true reason 3. That although these Evidences of Fact taken singly and apart possibly may not be so weighty yet the very concurrence and coincidence of so many Evidences that contribute to the Proof of the thing designed carries with it a great weight even as to the point of Fact it is not probable that that Supposition should be false which hath so many concurrent Testimonies bearing witness to it And therefore although I shall impartially subjoyn those Allays and Abatements which may be brought against the several Instances whereby if single they might seem of less weight and moment yet I do not thereby take off that Evidence which in consort and conjunction they give to the truth of the Supposition intended to be proved by them 4. That it cannot be expected in an Argument of this nature which is touching a matter of Fact that Evidences of Fact can be no more than topical and probable and therefore though there may be Allays and Abatements that may take away a necessary or infallible concludency in these Evidences of Fact yet it is sufficient that they be probable and inductive of Credibility though not of Science or Infallibility Aristotle as I remember in the beginning of his Politicks tells us that all Truths have not the same kind of Evidence neither indeed can have and therefore it is unreasonable to expect such an Evidence as the thing cannot possibly bear though it be a real Truth 5. That among these Evidences of Fact though all contribute to the Proof of the Supposition yet the three last seem to be of that nature that they are of greatest weight and less subject to exception 6. That in as much as in this Argument I design only the use of Reason and Reasonable Evidence and endeavour to make my Supposition evident to Reasonable Men as such I do not therefore make use of the divine and irrefragable Authority of the Holy Scriptures For they that subscribe to the Infallibility and Divine Authority of them need none of this Method of Ratiocination that I use to prove this Supposition of the Origination of Mankind which is so plainly and distinctly delivered in the Holy Scriptures and therefore where I have recourse to the Holy Scriptures I use it but as a Moral Evidence a History highly credible and I demand of my Reader◠this equal Justice That he would at least give it that credit that the Antiquity Congruity and Moral Evidence of it deserves which certainly would be much more than what the most do ordinarily allow to the History of Thucydides Herodotus Livy Tacitus Manethon Xenophon Ctesias or Berosus 7. Though in this large Discourse I may seem to lose time by proving of that which is not questioned by sober Men that in a laborious Discourse of this nature I do rather raise a Question that would be at quiet if let alone at least I lose time and magno conatu nihil efficiam yet I hope in the Conclusion it will be of use to confirm our Faith to magnifie the value of the Holy Scriptures and to give some stop to those Atheistical and Epicurean Opinions that begin more than formerly to obtain in the World CAP. II. Concerning the first Evidence the Antiquity of History and the Chronological account of Times BUT before I begin I shall prefix a short Chronological Scheme of Times to which I shall have occasion oftentimes to refer wherein I shall not be over-sollicitous for great curiosity or exactness For although there is scarce any one Chronological Writer that differs not from another in
incendium Hercules Amphitryonis filius Expeditio Argonautarum Bellum Trojanum Reditus Heraclidarum Ionica migratio and many other fine Stories that have furnished some of the Poetical Historians of after Ages But however Censorinus makes his Computation Inachus who was the first King of the Argives though he were about 375 years after the beginning of the Assyrian Monarchy and contemporary with Isaac yet he began his Reign about 100 years before the Ogygian Flood which hapned in the latter end of Phoroneus the Son of Inachus and second King of the Argives So that Inachus was about 100 years before the Ogygian Flood and about 1070 or 1080 years before the first Olympiad upon this account This then being as it seems the state of these Periods there seem two Nations of the Grecians that pretend to greatest Antiquity namely the Argivi and the Attici The former had their beginning with Inachus whether before or after the Ogygian Flood it will not be much of moment but at least within 1070 years before the first Olympiad which is the highest time that the Grecians pretend unto Touching the Attici the Grecian Memorials give us no higher Account than of Ogyges in whose time it is supposed the Ogygian Flood hapned in that part of Greece called Attica and takes its name from him namely Diluvium Ogygium Out of this Kingdom arose the Dynasty of the Athenians about 200 years after the Ogygian Flood wherein Cecrops was the first Governour contemporary with Moses he first set up the Worship of Jupiter as some report And so we have the Original of the Government of the Argives in Inachus of the Athenians in Cecrops It is true the Egyptian Priest under the name of Timaeus in Plato tells us a large Story of the Island of Atlantis far bigger than Asia and that although now that goodly Island be lost and swallowed up in the Sea yet the Athenians were a kind of Colony transplanted from that Island into Greece about 7000 years before Solon's time But this is one of those Poetical Fictions wherewith Plato plays mingling more serious things with it in the following part of his Discourse and the Story hath no footsteps of any evidence for it unless we shall suppose that Atlantis to be an Island that was before the Universal Deluge and destroyed by it 4. Concerning the Seres or Chineses a People whose Customs and Histories were strangers to Europe till of late times wherein some Travellers have lately given us some account of those great Periods both of their Histories and Government Vossius in that little Book de Aetate Mundi tells us by relation from others That by their Histories and Monuments their Empire hath lasted 4505 years in the year of Christ 1658 which reacheth some Ages beyond the Flood according to the Hebrew Account but according to the Septuagint the beginning thereof falls in the time of Phaleg 531 years after the Flood which he brings as an Argument for the Authority of the Septuagint But the truth is we are still strangers to the true state of Chronology of the Seres or Chineses what we have touching it is by broken relation of some few Travellers and what they had possibly may be gathered up from the vulgar Traditions of that People upon which little of sound conclusion can be made touching their Antiquity But be it true or not which we have from these Relations yet their longest Period gives them a Beginning and reacheth not so high as the pretended Epoch of the Babylonians or Egyptians much less is there any thing in them that gives any colour of Evidence of an Eternal Duration And thus I have gone through the Examination of those Kingdoms and Monarchies which pretend to greatest Antiquity the Babylonian or Assyrian the Egyptian the Grecian and the Seres or Chineses upon all which we may observe 1. That though many of them pretend to a very great Antiquity yet there are none that give us any sufficient Evidence of an Eternal Duration for what are those Periods of the Egyptians or Babylonians to Eternity Nay many of these Nations that pretend to the longest continuance as the Egyptians and Grecians yet disclaim an Eternal Succession pretend themselves to be Aborigines and to be the first People but yet not to be Eternal Indeed their vast continuance if admitted would seem to contradict the Authenticalness and Authority of the Mosaical History which contains a Relation of the Beginnings of Mankind within the compass of about 5660 Years according to the Hebrew Account and about 7240 Years according to the Septuagint but doth not so much as suppose an Eternity thereof 2. That notwithstanding these great pretensions of Antiquity yet upon a true examination their great pretended Antiquity is fabulous and the Origination of their Monarchies began some Ages after the general Deluge and so the truth of the Holy History concerning the Inception of Mankind and the Inception of all the Monarchies in the World after the Deluge that happened under Noah 1656 Years after the Creation of Mankind is not at all weakened by those Fabulous Antiquities of the Babylonians Egyptians or Grecians 3. That this Inception of the Notable Empires and Kingdoms of the World even of those that pretend greatest Antiquity and the termination of the uttermost Extent of the Histories of the Babylonians Egyptians and Grecians within the compass of the Extent of their pretended Monarchies is an Evidence against the Eternity of Mankind for had Mankind been Eternal they had infinite Ages since arrived to all the perfection of Political Government and to all those Means and Arts for the preserving the Memorials of things past as they have now attained unto there would have been no tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or obscurum among the Grecians but there would have been as fair Monuments and Historical Narratives of things past before the Olympiads or the Ogygian Flood which was not universal as after I shall conclude therefore with Lucretius lib. 5. Preterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrai Coeli semperque aeterna fuerunt Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poetae Qui tot facta virum toties cecidere neque usquam Aeternis famae monumentis insita florent Verùm ut opinor habet novitatem summa recensque Natura est mundi neque pridem exordia cepit Quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur Nunc etiam augescunt c. But yet this Consideration touching the Antiquity of Monarchies their Inception and the Narratives and Historical Monuments of things happening within the Periods of their Commencement and Continuances are not of that weight that we can lay the stress of this Hypothesis of the Inception of Mankind upon And therefore this Consideration must be taken with its allay I shall therefore fully set down those Instances that do give this Consideration its due abatement 1. It is no Consequence That
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
Revelation to Moses there was a Divine Manifestation thereof to the first created Man in that fulness of his first illuminated and perfect state of created Nature and from him that Tradition was derived and preserved in that Line of the Patriarchs in which the most important Divine Truths were conserved and traduced from Adam to Moses That which may illustrate my meaning in this preference of the revealed Light of the Holy Scriptures touching this matter above the Essays of a Philosophical Imagination may be this Suppose that Greece being unacquainted with the curiosity of Mechanical Engins though known in some remote Region of the World an excellent Artist had secretly brought and deposited in some Field or Forest some excellent Watch or Clock which had been so formed that the original of its Motion were hidden and involved in some close contrived piece of Mechanism that this Watch was so framed that the Motion thereof might have lasted a Year or some such time as might give a reasonable Period for Philosophical Conjectures concerning it and that in the plain Table there had not been only the description and indication of Hours but the configurations and indications of the various Phases of the Moon the Motion and Place of the Sun in the Ecliptick and divers other curious indications of Celestial Motions and that the Scholars of the several Schools of Epicurus of Aristotle of Plato and the rest of those Philosophical Sects had casually in their walk found this admirable Automaton what kind of work would there have been made by every Sect in giving an account of this Phaenomenon We should have had the Epicurean Sect have told the by-standers according to their pre-conceived Hypothesis that this was nothing else but an accidental concretion of Atoms that haply faln together had made up the Index the Wheels the Ballance and that being haply faln into this posture they were put into Motion Then the Cartesian falls in with him as to the main of their Supposition but tells him that he doth not sufficiently explicate how this Engin is put into Motion and therefore to furnish this Motion there is a certain Materia subtilis that pervades this Engin and the moveable parts consisting of certain globular Atoms apt for Motion they are thereby and by the mobility of the globular Atoms put into Motion A third finding fault with the two former because these Motions are so regular and do express the various Phaenomena of the distribution of Time and of the Heavenly Motions therefore it seems to him that this Engin and Motion also so analogical to the Motions of the Heavens was wrought by some admirable Conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies which formed this Instrument and its Motions in such an admirable correspondency to its own existence A fourth disliking the Suppositions of the three former tells the rest that he hath a more plain and evident Solution of the Phaenomenon namely the Universal Soul of the World or Spirit of Nature that formed so many sorts of Insects with so many Organs Faculties and such congruity of their whole Composition and such curious and various Motions as we may observe in them hath formed and set into Motion this admirable Automaton and regulated and ordered it with all these congruities we see in it Then steps in an Aristotelian and being dissatisfied with all the former Solutions tells them Gentlemen you are all mistaken your Solutions are inexplicable and unsatisfactory you have taken up certain precarious Hypotheses and being pre-possessed with these Creatures of your own Fancies and in love with them right or wrong you form all your Conceptions of things according to those fancied and pre-conceived Imaginations The short of the business is this Machina is eternal and so are all the Motions of it and in as much as a Circular Motion hath no beginning or end this Motion that you see both in the Wheels and Index and the successive indications of the Celestial Motions is eternal and without beginning And this is a ready and expedite way of solving the Phaenomenon without so much ado as you have made about it And while all the Masters were thus controversing the Solution of the Phaenomenon in the hearing of the Artist that made it and when they had all spent their philosophizing upon it the Artist that made this Engin and all this while listened to their admirable Fancies tells them Gentlemen you have discovered very much excellency of Invention touching this piece of Work that is before you but you are all miserably mistaken for it was I that made this Watch and brought it hither and I will shew you how I made it first I wrought the Spring and the Fusee and the Wheels and the Ballance and the Case and Table I fitted them one to another and placed these several Axes that are to direct the Motions of the Index to discover the Hour of the Day of the Figure that discovers the Phasis of the Moon and the other various Motions that you see and then I put it together and wound up the Spring which hath given all these Motions that to see in this curious piece of Work and that you may be sure I tell you true I will tell you the whole order and progress of my making disposing and ordering of this piece of Work the several materials of it the manner of the forming of every individual part of it and how long I was about it This plain and evident discovery renders all these excogitated Hypotheses of these Philosophical Enthusiasts vain and ridiculous without any great help of Rhetorical Flourishes or Logical Confutations And much of the same nature is that disparity of the Hypotheses of the Learned Philosophers in relation to the Origination of the World and Man after a great deal of dust raised and fanciful Explications and unintelligible Hypotheses The plain but Divine Narrative by the hand of Moses full of sence and congruity and clearness and reasonableness in it self doth at the same moment give us a true and clear discovery of this great Mystery and renders all the Essays of the generality of the Heathen Philosophers to be vain inevident and indeed inexplicable Theories the creatures of Phantasie and Imagination and nothing else 1. This therefore is the first Advantage of the Mosaical Hypothesis of the Origination of things above the Philosophical Theories touching the same the latter are inevident conjectural and indeed apparently false the former contains an Evidence of it self by its consonancy to the only manner that can be sufficient for such a Discovery and the plain evident and congruous relation of it 2. All the Philosophical Theories except that which carries the Origination of things up to Almighty God are full of infinite intanglements difficulties and inconsistencies that ever and anon break out and discover themselves whereby they are enforced by a continual substitution of new Suppositions to piece up and mend the breaches that arise upon such
fix bounds and banks and limits to our moveable unstable and unfixed Minds hath given us these Sacred Oracles both to enlighten and inform us and to fix and contain us within the bounds and limits of Truth and Sobriety 13. I have before touched something concerning a common Tradition that might obtain in the generality of Mankind concerning the Origination of the World and Man and here we may find a reasonable discovery of something touching the root of this Tradition namely the Holy Scriptures especially that of Genesis for we find very much among the ancient Heathen especially touching the Creation of the World the Observation of the Seventh Day the Flood Noah and his three Sons though by other Names and divers other things wherein though they mingle some of their own wild Notes yet they bear a great analogy to the Relations in the Scriptures and seem borrowed from them or from the Hebrews to whom that great Treasure of the Scriptures was committed And if a Man consider how many Opportunities there were for the communication of the Jewish Learning to the rest of Mankind even in the ancient times especially to the Egyptians with whom they long dwelt and with whom Solomon was joyned in affinity so the Babylonians and Chaldeans during their Captivity there to the Grecians by the intercourse they had with them after the breaking of the Persian Monarchy it will render it an easie Supposition that much of the Jewish Learning was derived to many of the learned Heathen though they oftentimes mingled with it some Conceptions of their own Plato and divers other Grecians borrowed much of their traditional knowledge from the Egyptians and they from the Hebrews Vide Selden de Jure Gentium c. lib. 1. cap. 2. 14. Since Man in his first Original is the Work of the most wise intelligent Being it is evident that Almighty God in this effection of Man did intend an end and scope of this Work an intelligent Agent acts ex intentione volitione and therefore proposeth in his Work an end or purpose in it and the designation of an end in working is the great perfection of an intelligent Agent Agents that are simply Natural or that are directed but by implanted Instincts act by a kind of necessity of Nature their activity and vigour putting it self forth not by choice or election but driven by the activity of their nature And although it is visible that all even the most necessary operations of unintelligent Causes in the World are directed unto certain excellent ends yet the election of and direction to these ends is not in those necessary and natural Causes themselves but is in that intelligent Efficient that intended and designed that end and endowed the natural Agent with those active Faculties or Powers which might be proper and serviceable to such ends and mancipated or bound to them certain Instincts and natural Motions subservient to those ends As in things that are artificial my Watch gives me an account of the Hour of the Day that is the end thereof but it is an end not designed or intended by the Watch but of the Artist that made it And although in sensible Creatures there seems to be an Image of Intelligence and they move more perfectly to their several ends of their several operations as in choice and eating of their food to preserve their individual nature in generation to preserve their specifical nature yet the truth is those designations of the ends of these operations and the furnishing them with instincts in order thereunto is due still to that Intelligent Being namely the glorious God which hath by his Wisdom determined these sensible Creatures to these ends and by these means in the first institution of their natures 15. And upon the same reason it follows That since Almighty God is the Maker and Efficient of Man it is not only reasonable and just but natural and in a manner necessary that the designation of Man to his end should belong to him that was his Efficient And therefore although the supreme intelligent Being that Efficient of Mankind hath made Man an intelligent Being endued him with Will whereby he is in a manner Dominus suarum actionum and a kind of Image of his Maker yet he is not the Lord and disposer of his own end for though Man be made an intelligent and free Agent and therefore in those actions that move from himself he hath the priviledge of an intelligent Agent and propounds his end to himself in those actions yet he was not the Efficient of himself and therefore cannot proportion to himself the end of his Being but that belongs only to that intelligent Efficient that gave him his Being and therefore that Efficient can only be the Propounder of that end which is commensurate to his Being 16. Since Almighty God is not only an Intelligent Agent but the highest most wise powerful and perfect Cause and since it seems to be most suitable to such a wise Being to proportionate the ends of his Works in some measure suitable to the worth and value of the Work And since Man is the work and effection of God and noblest work of his that we see in this inferior World we have just reason to conclude That Almighty God made Man for some end and for some such end as may bear a proportion to the nature condition and quality of the Work it self There seem to be but two ways to know the end that an intelligent Agent propounds in any action or work 1. The first is plain explicit and clear viz. When that Agent reveals and discovers what is the end he intends in the work he doth and thus it hath pleased the glorious God to acquaint us in the Holy Scriptures that his intent in making Man was his own Glory and to make Man a Vessel of everlasting Happiness But because in this place we are only making natural deductions from the effection of Man by God I shall refer the consideration of the former to its proper place 2. Therefore the second is by collection of natural and reasonable Consequences from the nature of the Efficient and the worth value or condition of the Effect and this medium though it be not so clear particular and explicit as the former yet it doth give us some account touching the nature and kind of the end that is probably propounded by the Efficient but touching the same in the next Chapter CAP. VIII A farther Enquiry touching the End of the Formation of Man so far as the same may be collected by Natural Light and Ratiocination VVE may easily observe in general in the Works of Nature and in every particular thereof three kinds of admirable Accommodations The first is the Accommodation of every thing to the common beauty and integrity of the Universe As in a curious piece of Landskip there are orderly interspersed Clouds and Trees and Flowers and Rivers and Houses and Arches and Ships and
beautiful Piece of the Furniture of this lower World In these things therefore or by them we are not to seek that special End for which man was made because under these and the like Considerations he seems to have a common parity with other created Beings But our search must be 1. Whether there be not some peculiarities in the Humane Nature some Faculties and Powers something in his Constitution and some adaptations and appropriate accommodations therein peculiar to his nature and of a far more advanced use and perfection than those of the best of other inferior Animals For if we find such in Man we have just reason to believe that the most wise Efficient of the Humane Nature as he raised Man to a greater eminence not only of gradual but of specifical perfection above the common Animal Nature so he designed a more excellent and noble End for this more excellent and noble Work For thus it became the greatest Wisdom to design a more noble End to that which he constituted a more noble Being 2. We are also to search wherein this excellency and preference of the Humane Nature above the Animal consists For as the former Consideration gives us a general Conclusion That because the Humane Nature is more excellent than the common Animal Nature therefore the End or Design of the Constitution of the former is of a nobler kind than the Design of the Constitution of the latter So this particular Consideration of the excellencies of the Humane Nature above the Animal gives us some Estimate Crises or Indications what those Ends may be which the wise Creator intended in the making of Man namely such Ends as hold proportions to those eminencies and excellencies wherein the Humane specifically exceeds the Animal Nature Plato though a great Assertor of the Creation of Man by the Wisdom and Power of Almighty God yet in his 7 th Book De Legibus seems to have too light an Expression concerning the End of the making of Man and of those many excellencies in the Humane Nature namely Hominem Dei ludo esse fictum atque id verè ipsius optimum esse It is below the Dignity of the Divine Wisdom to think that he made Men and endued them with those excellent Faculties only to behold them as a Play or a Scorn or as the inconsiderate part of Mankind please themselves with beholding of Interludes or Cock-fighting or Bear-baiting the Comical part of the Lives of Men are too full of Sin and Vanity and the Tragical part thereof too full of Sin and Misery to be a delightful Spectacle unto the pure and wise God who certainly propounded more serious Ends than such for so noble a Structure The Saying therefore of Plato must be understood only analogically and Epictetus may be his Scholiast who wisheth every Man to remember Te esse actorem talis fabulae qualis Magistro probata fuerit si brevis brevis si longa longa si mendicum agere te voluerit fac eam quoque personam ingeniosè repraesentes ita si claudum si principem si plebeium hoc enim tuum est datam personam benè effingere eam autem eligere alterius Teaching us by the similitude that every Man's Station is subject to the Divine Providence and every Man's Duty is to be contented with it But to return to the Consideration of the specifical Excellence of the Humane Nature above the Animal Nature and the deduction of those Ends which we may from thence reasonably conclude to be specifical to him and intended by his wise Creator 1. It is apparent that Man is the noblest of all the visible Creatures at least of this inferior World the Complement and chiefest Ornament thereof without which it would be destitute of the most glorious Integral thereof that all the visible Creatures of this inferior World as it were concenter in him and are directed to him or his use as their immediate End that he is an Abstract or Compendium of the greater World as might easily be evidenced by the induction of particulars that he hath complicated in him all the excellencies of the Elementary Vital and Animal Natures that he hath superadded thereunto a singular beauty and majesty and usefulness in the Structure of his Body the admirable Faculties of Intellect Reminiscence and Ratiocination the Faculty of Speech institution of Signs to express his inward Conceptions Principles and Habits Intellectual and Moral liberty and empire of Will whereby he may if he please govern his sensitive Appetite Passions and inferior Faculties So that he is nexus utriusque mundi the common Angle wherein the highest and noblest of Material and Corporeal Nature is joyned to the Spiritual and Intellectual By all which and many more Perfections he is the noblest Instance of the Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness in this inferior World The Universe indeed is the great and goodly Type and Image of the Excellency and Glory of its Creator but it is a vast and comprehensive Volume not comprehensible by any Understanding but his that made it But this lesser World Man is a more compendious Abridgment nearer unto us and more discoverable by us and though yet it hath exercised the investigation of most industrious Minds and Searches without a full and perfect discovery of the least part of all its Eminencies yet in respect of its vicinity and obviousness to Observation it yields a distinct and perceptible Evidence to us of the Wisdom of its Maker Thus the Humane Nature objectively and passively exhibits unto intelligent Beings a wonderful and admirable manifestation of the incomparable Wisdom Goodness Power and Excellency of him that first created it and this was one End of Almighty God in the Creation of Man And although it be true that such is the Self-sufficiency and Happiness of Almighty God that it is not capable of any accession by all the Instances of his Wisdom and Goodness in the Works he hath made nor by any Glory or Praise that from them can return unto him yet it is not an End unworthy of the most perfect Being to render his Magnificence and Goodness conspicuous and to receive that deserved Honour and Praise of his Works that is the just Tribute due unto him 2. The Divine Essential and Eternal Goodness is inseparable from him and this is the root of the Divine Beneficence which latter though in its effluxes and emanations it be under the regiment of his own most holy and wise Will yet it is diffusive and communicative That the World was at all made is the Effect of this Divine Beneficence which when it had nothing besides it self unto which it might communicate it self it made all things that according to their different natures and receptivities might participate of the Divine Beneficence To things vegetable he hath given the Faculty of Life Vegetation and Growth this is one participation of the Divine Goodness per modum else viventis and again he communicates