Reason and religion in some useful reflections on the most eminent hypotheses concerning the first principles, and nature of things : with advice suitable to the subject, and seasonable for these times. Locke, John, 1632-1704. 1694 Approx. 156 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 74 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A48887 Wing L2750 ESTC R19663 12172657 ocm 12172657 55466 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A48887) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55466) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 111:9) Reason and religion in some useful reflections on the most eminent hypotheses concerning the first principles, and nature of things : with advice suitable to the subject, and seasonable for these times. Locke, John, 1632-1704. [7], 135, [1] p. Printed for W. Rogers ..., London : 1694. Ascribed to John Locke. Cf. Arber's Term cat. II, p. 621; Wing. "Imprimatur Mar. 9, 1693/4, Ra. Barker"--p. [1] at beginning. Advertisement: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Reason -- Early works to 1800. Religion -- Early works to 1800. 2002-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-09 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2002-09 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion IMPRIMATUR , Mar. 9. 1693 / 4. Ra. Barker . Reason and Religion : IN SOME Useful Reflections On the Most Eminent HYPOTHESES CONCERNING The First PRINCIPLES , and NATURE of THINGS . WITH ADVICE suitable to the Subject , and Seasonable for these Times . LONDON : Printed for W. Rogers , at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street . 1694. THE PREFACE . 'T IS bad , when Discourses to prove the Fundamentals of Religion are very seasonable , worse when they are necessary , but worst of all , when no Demonstrations or Endeavours can affect Men with a Sense of Piety . Which of these Characters our Age deserves , is left to the Iudgment of the most Experienced : In the mean time , our continuing Essays to assign the Reasons of our Faith , ought to be thankfully acknowledg'd by all , as an Argument of our Hope and Charity . The Design of the following Papers , is , after our Regards to the Preservation of Truth , to set upon the Irreligious in their own Fortresses , and turn to a good Vse those Philosophical Reasons or Conjectures , which they have perverted : to what degrees of Humility this Method may reduce them , can only be foreseen by the Searcher of Hearts ; the Good it hath done already , may be a propitious Omen to our future Expectations : and this we may reasonably suppose , that if it makes not every attentive Reader , how prejudic'd soever , more distrustful of his wicked Principles , it must make him more desperate and self-condemn'd . Let no wicked Men pretend any Arguments hereafter used , are above their Reach and Capacity : The Method is neither confused , nor the Expression ambiguous ; and their taking no care to understand them , must be look'd upon as a Token of great folly : for such it must be , to entertain Prejudices against God , without knowing the utmost that can be said for our Respects to him ; or referr'd to Diabolical Instinct , drawing them off from THE TRUE ORACLES OF REASON , to listen to Impostures . Such Bruitish Infidels deserve not the Treatments of Humanity : When the Head infects the Heart , the Disease will bear Argumentative Prescriptions ; but when the Corruptions of the Heart infect the Head , some sharper course must be taken with them . May GOD of his Mercy so guide us all to , and in our Endeavours after a true Reformation , that undissembled Holiness may adorn his Church , and the Blessings of his Love be a lasting Protection to it . Reason and Religion . ALL our Discourses of GOD , and Enquiries about his Holy Nature , ought to be attended with Caution and Respect , least we derogate from the Excellencies of the best Being , have our Minds overcast with the most dangerous Errors , and wander out of the way of our principal Interest . We are placed , by the Divine Ordination , in a part of the World , wherein we have a moderate competency of Light and Knowledge : and our distance from the Fountain of Glory is not so great , but the Irradiations we have from it may enliven our Hopes , and guide our Endeavours in aiming and aspiring to it . If we are faithful unto our own Faculties , and employ our Time and our Judgment in gathering into the Mind the scattered Rays and Principles of Heavenly Light , their united power will frame us into a Divine Temper , and sublimate our Nature for nearer Accesses unto God : but if we bend intirely unto the Earth , and suck our Notions and Nourishment from the same place , our Minds must labour under the Dominion of corrupt and cloudy Principles , which will carry us further from God , and make even this Earth too happy an Habitation for us . The first and principal of all Sacred Truths , to be considered , is , the Existence of God : and tho' no Principles or Hypothesis lead altogether to the denial of God ; yet we have reason to fear , that the strange and irreligious Practises of Men do spring from some naughty and irreligious Perswasions ; and that their Thoughts of God ( if they have any ) have but little root . It may not be amiss therefore , to be helpful to any Men who will give themselves the liberty of thinking , that they may make the best even of bad Principles , and be able from any Hypothesis to infer the Necessity of the Divine Nature . There are Three Opinions which may occur to us in the Contemplations of Nature : Either , First , That this World was framed and fashioned into this admirable State , by an Eternal Mind and Wisdom . Or , Secondly , That it had a Beginning from the fortuitous Motions and Combinations of blind and ungnided Matter . Or , Thirdly , That it hath been from Eternity , in the same State that we have at present . Some Reflections on the two last , which are the usual Retirements of Infidelity , may not improperly follow a general Confirmation of the Truth in the first Hypothesis . In the building up , and forming of a Religious Life , t is fit we should lay a good Foundation ; arguing first from the Principles of Truth , and then from the Principles of Men. 1. Our first Essay shall be therefore to prove the Existence of an Eternal Mind and Wisdom : by whose Power the Universe was produced , and on whose Guidance its Order doth depend . And this may be perform'd , by demonstrating the Existance of some Eternal Being , and by discovering the Properties thereof . 1. That something is Eternal , is as certain , as that any thing exists at present : and none can doubt of it , but on the same ground that he shall doubt , whether in every Triangle , if one Angle be right , the other two shall be acute : i. e. for want of a little thinking , and rightly attending to the force and signification of Terms : For , either every thing is Eternal , or something , or nothing . If you modestly allow something to be Eternal , you are certainly in the right . If you say every thing is Eternal , you decline something from it : but if you say nothing is Eternal , you get into the Angle of Error , at farthest distance from the right , and wound your Reason with the most pungent Absurdity . Whatsoever is not Eternal , must have a beginning : whatsoever hath a beginning , must have it either from itself , from something else , or nothing . That any thing should give beginning to itself , is very absurd : for that which gives beginning being a precedent Cause , a thing must be , and not be , at the same time ; must be before it had a beginning , must be the Cause and the Effect , must give beginning to that which had a beginning before , &c. That a thing may have its beginning from something else , is true ; but then that which gives a beginning , must either have its own beginning from itself , ( if it have any ) and then the former Absurdities will recur : or from something else , and that from another , and so in infinitum , that is , from Eternity . And to say , that any thing can have its beginning from nothing , is either to reconcile Contradictions , to make something and nothing , cause and no cause , positive and negative the same ; or to speak a great Truth , for that which hath its beginning from nothing , hath no beginning , and must be Eternal . Now before we ascend to the Properties of an Eternal Being , we may do well to stop a-while in the Contemplation of Eternity itself : for our intent being declared , of evincing the Existence of an Incomprehensible Being , we must not lose our advantage of any Truth in itself most certain , yet to us incomprehensible . Those therefore who imagine they sufficiently disprove Religion , by reducing its Maintainers to a Mystery , will see little reason for their Triumph , when they find in any case , that nothing is more certain than that which is most mysterious . Take the Instance before us : We cannot be more ascertain'd of our own Existance , than of something 's existing from Eternity : but when we apply our finite Thoughts , to an infinite Duration , how do we lose our selves in this vast Ocean ? How do our proud Pretences unto Comprehension fail . Had Methusalem , instead of 900 , lived 900000 Years , and spent his Time in no other Employment but the Multiplication of Numbers , which in the short running of a Pen , 79543285012759021899723109235 72813709280639275458367689542 83159473890928446732197836290 75389259306518973259076825 , &c. amount to an unconceivable Sum , and an astonishing Duration , especially if you measure by the Great Year , he had been no nearer expressing the proper extent of Eternity , than if he had said nothing . And what a strange , prodigious , wonderful , suprarational , mysterious , incredible , incomprehensible Thing is this ! How does this baffle the vain Essays of Men , to measure Eternity by mutable Motion and Succession ! How may this convince us , that the readiest way of fixing in the Mind an undeceiving Idea of Eternity , is not by running over Millions and Millions of Ages , but to abide at the first Point , the most comprehensive Power and Point of Unity ; and restraining the Mind from irregular rambling , to keep it stable and permanent , as Eternity itself is , in an indivisible Duration . If you say this likewise is very mysterious , ( as the Truth and Certainty of it we reserve to be debated in another Paragraph , so ) we reply , That either you must allow something mysterious , or deny the Existance of all Things , and Truth of all Propositions . The Universal Creed of Mankind establishes and imposes Truths incomprehensible . We have no need then ( as you see ) to be ashamed of laying the Foundations of Piety , in a Doctrine mysterious and incomprehensible : something or other must be so , because Eternal , and what that is will best be discover'd , when II. The Properties and necessary Attributes of the Eternal Being come to be examin'd , and they will be evinced to be especially Four , Cogitation , Immensity , Immutability and Perfection . 1. That Cogitation with the Fruits of it , Knowledge , Wisdom , Justice , and Goodness , must have existed somewhere or other from Eternity , will appear from the Difference between external and internal Qualities . External Qualities , as whiteness , smoothness , ponderosity , and the like may result from the agreeableness and actings of one sensible thing upon another : and a wise Being knowing what will arise from the various Modifications of Matter , may produce some external Qualities , Appearances , or Colours , which never were in the World before : Now that which may be produced a new , and is not a derivation from another of the same kind , need not be Eternal . But mental and internal Qualities are of another kind ; when they are produced , they are produced by something like themselves : thought cannot be produced , as whiteness and the like are , by the mixtures , motions , and contemperings of meer Matter ; but thro' the several Gradations of Time , and Series of Productions , you may trace the same Quality both in the Effect and Cause , till at last you must acknowledge it Eternal . To render this Argumentation more perspicuous and firm , revolve in your Mind how unlikely it is , that Thought should not be Eternal : how impossible it is , if not Eternal , that it should ever be at all : and that there is not one Instance assignable in Nature , of the Production of Thought , but from a Thinking Principle . That Thought , the most excellent Quality in the Universe , should be but of yesterday's starting up : that all the World should lie for Eternal Ages in confused Horrour and Darkness , under the Dominion of hideous Disorder , in an apprehension so unlikely and dismal , that nothing but the Shades of the most wretched Ignorance and Prejudice against God can support its Credibility . But if the natural Traduction of the most Glorious Light from Eternal Obscurity , of the most exquisite Knowledge from Eternal stupidity and dulness , with the commensurateness of the vilest State , to the most excellent Duration , be not Absurdities sufficient to startle our Pretenders unto Sense : if they think it enough for them to ground their Arguments , with the Value and Weal of their Souls , on bare Possibilities , and expect Impossibilities , or Arguments ab impossibili , that it should be otherwise from us , we will indulge their Humour : and when they can once prove it possible for Thought to be otherwise than Self origenated , we will venture to be sceptical as well as they . In the mean time we observe in all Emanations , Issues , and Effects a congruity in Kind and Temper to the Spring , Causality , and Parentage from whence they come . The whole World is a circulation of like from like . The Vegetable Nature propagates itself by Vegetative Seeds and Principles . The Sensitive Life is form'd , animated , and organized by homogeneous Powers : the business of equivocal Generations being now justly exploded . And must not those Men deserve very meanly of Humane Nature , who would derive our original from any thing below ourselves , as tho' Thought need not come from a Thinking , nor Rational Faculties from a Rational Source , but might easily be attracted from the solar impregnation of a little Slime and Dung , which is not able to produce a Worm or an Insect ? We might resent the Reproach they bring upon our Nature , by making themselves worse than Beasts : but because they knew themselves best , and may be bold in Self-censures , they must not use the same freedom with all Mankind . It remains then , that Thought is a Derivation either to Man from Man , or from a superiour Mind , and is therefore eternal . There is no Remedy then against the Belief of an Eternal Mind . The difficulty which some Mens Hearts may suggest , is , where , to what Object , or Being , or rank of Beings to apply and fix this unavoidable Belief . We might proceed to the other Properties of an Eternal Being , for the determination of this , were it not fit to pursue this Property of Cogitation , as far as it will lead us to the knowledge of God. 1. Some may vainly seek for this Eternal Cogitation in the Successions of Humane Nature ; and indeed , if all Mankind were acted by the same Soul , and all the various appearances and workings among us were no other than the various operations of this universal Soul , according to the different Capacities and Aptitude of Matter it co-operates with , it would be something to that purpose , tho' not to theirs . But to believe , as we must , that Men have so many individual distinct Souls , and yet to expect an Eternity of Thought among them , must be grounded on these two Suppositions : That it is possible the Successions of Men should be eternal . And , That they actually are so . Which in the sequel of this Discourse will appear incredible . 2. If Eternity of Thought must necessarily be acknowledged in some Being or Beings , Mankind , in the lowest supposition , cannot have the only Title and Claim unto it . To monopolize Cogitation and Reason to our selves is the greatest arrogance in Nature . 'T is certain , that not only the Earth , but all included in the circumference of its motion about the Sun , bear no sensible proportion to the rest of the World : And shall we vain Wretches , who creep upon this point , called in our high Conceits the Terrestrial Globe , fancy that all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are lodged among us ? Why might not the poor Inhabitants of a Mole-hill enter their Pretensions to universal Thoughtfulness , and defie all Policy , all Care or Providence besides their own ? And yet hundreds of them are blown away by the Breath of our Mouths , put by all their plodding and politicks , and perish in the surprizing desolation of their Country , if we turn but our Foot against them . And does not a Mole-hill bear as considerable a proportion to the Earth , as the Earth to the Universe ? And must not we be esteemed as inconsiderable , when compared with the larger Capacities and Extent of Thought in superiour Beings , as inferiour Beings are when compared to us ? The most irreligious Hypothesis must admit and confirm this . And those Persons certainly have little concern for their Souls , who will venture their Happiness on this Presumption , That there are no cogitative intelligent Beings in the Universe besides Mankind . 3. And if Men cannot be so silly as to imagine , when they contemplate the glorious Habitations above us , that there is not some Being or Beings endowed with more excellent degrees of Thought and Wisdom than themselves are ; the force of the same Reason which extorts this Confession from them will lead them unto God. For let a Man seriously consider with himself in this manner ; There certainly is some more wise and excellent Being than my Senses can discover , or than sensual Men are aware of ; and the Ground of his so believing will be plainly this . He finds himself in a pitiful and mean condition , compared with the glorious appearances of the Universe . He perceives he is not the cause of all the wonderful Works , nor the Contriver of all the regular Motions , nor the Continuer of all the harmonious and beautiful Operations which the visible Creation presents us with . And were a Man supposed to have the Wisdom of an Angel , the same Considerations will naturally recur to him . An Angel hath neither Thought nor Wisdom proportionable to the Magnitude and Glories of the World , capable of framing the order of its Parts , and fit for managing the Affairs of the Whole ; and must therefore in humility look out , as we do , for a Being superiour and more skilful than himself : and whatsoever that Being is , which could frame , manage , and order this vast Fabrick of the World , in it our Expectations of the most comprehensive Thought and Wisdom must terminate at last , and this is GOD. This Proof of an Eternal Intelligence having a largeness of Thought , and by consequence all other Excellencies , infinitely surpassing ours , might suffice any reasonable Enquirer into our Belief of God : but because it may be expected from us to consider the above-mentioned Attributes or Properties of an Eternal Being , we shall from them bring some concurring Evidence and Strength unto our holy Cause . II. Immensity is the next Attribute of an Eternal Being . For , since 't is acknowledged on all sides , that there is something immense or without Bounds , it is impossible that that should grow immense by time , which was not so from Eternity . Nay , the same Reasons which prove an immense Being now , are of an eternal Validity . As , whatsoever is bounded is bounded by something else ; and whatsoever that is which bounds the Extremities , or fixes the Limits , of all things bounded , must of itself have no Bounds at all . Thus that which proves an immense Being at present proves the same from Eternity . And here we might digress in the contemplation of another mysterious Truth , did not the usefulness of this Truth call more immediately for our Regards and Improvement . Our chief difficulty to be resolved here , is , what is this Immense Being : and there are no other conceivable Opinions for it , than that it must be either such a gross Substance as we call Matter , or such a fine and pure Substance as we call Spirit , or an empty Space : either Matter , Spirit , or Space , or altogether must be Immense . 1. That an empty space should be Immense , can by no means be allowed : tho' the Atomical Hypothesis would suppose it . Space and Time are but Modes of Existence ; the one commensurate to the Motion of Substances , the other to their Magnitude . Our best Divines and Philosophers agree in this , That where there is no Body , there is no Space . At least this is evident , that an empty Space is but another Name for nothing . And when you say an emty Space is Immense , you say , nothing is Immense : which is an absurd predicating something of nothing , or a contradiction to the precedent proof . 2. That Matter , or this material World , should be immense , is extraordinary astonishing , if not impossible . An indefinite extension we can admit : For which of us shall nominate the Bounds of the Divine Operations ? But an infinite Extension , the divisibility of a material Being will exclude : For whatsoever is divisible into parts , is bounded in all its parts ; and whatever is bounded in all its parts , must needs be bounded in the whole , or have ends without end : which looks very like a Contradiction . Besides , If a Line be drawn from this Point ☉ ascending , and may in the progress of material parts be continued in infinitum , and the same Line drawn descending through the Centre of the Earth to our Antipodes , or ( if you will ) in infinitum ; on the other side , from hence will follow : 1. That the ascending Line shall have as many parts as the ascending and descending put together . 2. That of two Lines , one shall have 10000 parts more than another , and yet they shall be both equal ; equal both as to the length and number of parts . 3. That if you add 10000 parts to your ascending Line , it hath never the more ; and if you substract 10000 it hath never less . 4. That if you substract any conceivable number from the ascending Line , it shall have as many parts , not only as it had , but as the substraction , and ascending , and descending put together , and even as the Superficies and solid Content . And what is this , but to make the part as big as the whole , the Line equal to the Superficies , to confound our clearest Notions of Distance and Magnitude ; and an hundred such Absurdities may be recounted , which if you are disposed to Scepticism , may make you very doubtful how you attribute Immensity unto Matter . 3. And if we must attribute Immensity to some Substance , but not to such a gross one as is divisible into parts , then we must attribute it to some Substance of a purer kind : that hath no parts , and is absolutely indivisible . Having removed the two former Opinions , we thereby establish the third . The Substance to which we attribute Immensity , we commonly call Spirit : but because words are assum'd by the Consent and Approbation of Men , we will have no quarrel about that : being willing to allow you , and every Son of Adam , the Authority and Privilege , of calling Things by what Names you please : but when we appropriate the word Spirit to the signification of the Divine Nature , we mean no other than an immense Substance , distinct from this visible , divisible , and material World. If you say , you can have no conception of this immense Spirit , and can much easier conceive this World to be immense , 't is answer'd , 1. That with the same facility that you conceive the Earth to be circumscribed , you may conceive the Limits of the Universe . The small Globe on which we live , giving us the Idea of one prodigiously greater . 2. That , whatever you may say or fancy , you cannot conceive material Immensity at all : for you cannot conceive any material Magnitude to which something may not be added ; and that Magnitude to which Thought can always add something , must necessarily be conceived with its Bounds and Limits . 3. If this World be immense , not only we , but the wisest and most excellent Beings in the Universe , ( except an immense Spirit , which we are contending for ) cannot possibly conceive what it is , or tell what to make of it . For a finite Spirit , tho' coeternal with the World , might spend Millions and Millions of Ages , in travelling through the infinite Apartments and Habitations therein , and come never the nearer his Journey's-end ; nor be able to inform himself what manner of Thing the World , in all its parts , is . Nay , two finite Spirits might travel Millions of Ages with exceeding velocity each toward other , and that in the same right Line , and never meet . Why will you say then , 't is so easie to conceive this World immense , when on the supposal of its Immensity , none , but an infinite Spirit , either by his own peregrination , or experience , or information from others , can possibly know or conceive what it is . 4. The conception of an Infinite or Immense Spirit , is not clogg'd with any of these Difficulties : for , conceiving this World , as having its Fences and Bounds put to it , by an Almighty Power , and shaped into the most perfect , that is a Sphaerical Figure ; whatsoever we conceive beyond that , that is , beyond all Bounds , must needs be Immense . And there our Minds must presently fix , without any rambling or indefinite Excursions : the Majesty of God swallowing up all our Thoughts at once , and allowing us no material flees , no divisible progressions to go on further by . God give a Blessing to these Thoughts ; which proving an eternal and immense Substance , and excluding this visible and material World from any Claim thereto , leads us to the acknowledgment of his spiritually immense and undivided Essence . III. Immutability is another Attribute of an Eternal Being , which we shall endeavour in this Paragraph to explain and prove . By Immutability we mean , not only exemption from change in Mind , Manners , and Conduct , as we have it in ordinary Affairs , but such a stable , unaltering continuance as is not liable to the Causes or Symptoms of Change ; that is , Motion or Succession . Many are the Disputes hereupon ; Whether Eternity be a thing fixt and immutable , or transient and successive . The Prejudices of this irreligious Age , affect the Minds even of the Religious , and make them shy of asserting that with any confidence , which others have the Impudence to laugh at . Who is there that is not almost willing to confess * Boethius's Definition of Eternity , a pious Whim , a well-meaning Extravagance ; and yield Eternity to be a duration of infinite Successions . In opposition to which we need not be afraid to state these Assertions . All Successions are finite . Nothing which hath any Changes , Motions , or Successions , can be eternal . Eternity must be something stable , simple , indivisible and immutable . And here we might be contented to shew you , that this Immutability of the Eternal Being , and therefore of Eternity itself , will follow from the former Paragraph : for , a spiritually , immense , or indivisible Being , must have an indivisible Duration . Where there is no succession of Parts , for the measuring of Magnitude , there can be no Variations or Motions to measure Duration by ; but because it is best , when each particular Paragraph hath strength of itself , without needing to have recourse to what went before , especially in Arguments of this moment , therefore consider further . 1. That no Numbers , Successions , or Periods of Time can be an adequate measure of Eternity , or bring us any thing nearer to a notion of it . Which certainly those People do not rightly weigh , who wonder that we have not a larger date of time from the Sacred Writings than 5000 or 6000 years . They think surely the World is of a much older standing than so , though they will not be positive for its Eternity . But when they revolve in their Minds , that the further they go on in the numeration of Years or Ages , they come never the nearer to Eternity ; that a Minute bears as considerable a proportion to Eternity as Ten thousand millions of Ages ; their Wonder will be over , and they will perceive it is the same thing , whether they consider the World as many millions of Years old , or in the very moment of its Creation . That Duration then , which cannot be made either longer or shorter , by any additions or substractions , which cannot be measured by any periodical Revolutions , can have no Parts . Like is measured by like : Our partible Times and Seasons are measured by partible and successive Motions : and our Thoughts applying the one to the other , can add or substract as we see good . Add 366 diurnal courses of the Sun to a Thousand Years , and it makes the whole duration a Year longer . But the Eternal Being is the same yesterday , and to day , and for ever : not older to day than a Thousand years ago ; nor will be older a Thousand years hence : for that which by descending grows older and older , by ascending will prove younger and younger . But no duration can be older or longer than Eternity : nor younger , or of a fresher date , if it be eternal . Which shews , That Eternity is another kind of a Duration from our Times , and the Eternal being different from every thing that is changeable and various ; and having no parts or periods applicable to it , give us leave to say , possesses the same never-ending Life with equal perfection and stability , thro' all Ages . 2. Many are the Absurdities which follow from the supposal of infinite Successions ; for the right apprehending which take these two Admonitions along with you . First , That of Successions or Numbers infinite , one is not greater or less than another : For wherein soever one Number or Succession is greater or exceeded by another , therein you suppose one of them to be finite . Secondly , That what is positively true in one Age , the circumstances continuing always alike , must be true to Eternity . Their Use follows . Have there then , say you , been infinite Successions , and the Generations of Men and Beasts , the Viciffitudes of Night and Day , of Summer and Winter , Times and Seasons , from Eternity ; then eying the first Admonition , from hence will follow , that there have been as many Heads as Hands , as many Hands as Fingers , as many Fingers as Joynts , as many Men as Men and Beasts put together , as many Beasts as Beasts and Men put together , as many Birds as Feathers , as many Birds as Men , Beasts , Birds , Hairs , Feathers put together ; as many Ages as Years , as many Years as Months , Weeks , Days , Hours , Minutes , &c. If you are disposed to draw back , and care not to let down these monstrous Consequences , you must likewise relinquish the Principle , from whence they so evidently flow : For if there have not been as many Heads as Hairs , &c. then the Generations of Men must be finite ; and reckonink Men by the Poll , as much as the number of Men is surpassed by Hands , Hairs , &c. so much at least they fall short of Infinity : But if you have Courage to defend these Consequences , and will run all hazards on this supposition , that there have been as many Heads as Hands or Hairs ; then we must direct the second Admonition against you thus . If in this Age , or the compass of a Thousand Years , there are more Hairs than Heads , more Years than Minutes , &c. then ascend or descend as far as you can , or as far as it is possible there should be these Successions , and their number must be constantly unequal . And since your Infinity equals all things , in these successive Generations or Seasons there can be no progression to it . We might produce you great store of like Absurdities , if your Stomach would bearthem . But those abovementioned will try the Strength of your digestive faculty , and it may be hoped the operation they will have may prove rather medicinal than noxious , and carry off with themselves this Fancy of Infinite Successions , with other gross Humours , which while they lurk in the Mind , distemper its Constitution . 3. The force of the former Arguments , for the immutability of the Eternal Being , will more clearly appear , by a good refutation of the chief Objection to it . It must be expected , that Irreligious Men will have something to say , though it be little to the purpose . And that they may not complain of wanting a fair hearing , the utmost that the Wit of Man can invent , shall now be considered . They may say , There have been Infinite Successions past , as well as there will be in the times and duration to come : and as we believe the Sun , and Moon , and Men may endure for ever , so whatever we may object against their existing from Eternity , will be as strong against our Belief of their existing to Eternity . Many Answers , were we pinched with this Objection , might be made to it ; but how formidable soever it may look , there are especially two , which may be freely given by us , and may be satisfactory to you . I. Men , it is true , and other things may endure for ever , but not in the way of Succession and Generation . As we believe a first Man , so we believe a last ; and , when the times appointed by the Almighty shall be fulfilled , a stop shall be put unto the Generations of Men. There shall be no further progress in the propagation of their kind . We wait for the accomplishment of God's Elect : and the Promise of such a state , when it shall be no longer with Men as it is here on Earth : when there shall be no marrying nor giving in Marriage , the destinctions of Youth and Old-age , of Great and Small , of Generation and Corruption , being done away . The like may be said of the Sun and Moon : For tho' they be faithful Witnesses in Heaven , and serve for the distinctions of Times and Seasons , Days and Years , yet we also wait for their dissolution ; the final conflagration will put a period to their Motions , close up their Successions , level all their Changes , and the Revolutions of their time will be swallowed up in Eternity : and the same that we say of the Periods allotted to the Sun , may be applied to the rest of the Stars , either alternately , or altogether , as it shall please God to order it . So far we labour under no great Difficulties : what we have objected to your Infinite Successions doth not affect us . For , as we believe a beginning of the Generations of Men , of Night and Day , of Summer and Winter , so we believe an end of them . But we may Answer , II. There is a great difference between Eternity and Perpetuity : or between that Duration which is comprehensive of all Time , and that which is only comprehensive of the Time to come . That Duration which hath no beginning must be Infinite : but that Duration which hath a beginning must be Finite , take what measure you will of it . There can be no Infinite Number , and therefore no Successions , which we contend for , and which we measure by Number , can be Infinite , tho' they endure for ever . Eternity à parte post ( as they call it ) hath for ever an End , because it hath a Beginning : but absolute Eternity having no Beginning , hath no End. It will be very convenient to make this as plain as may be ; because it may seem strange , and is really , if true , of considerable importance . Begin any Succession with the number One , and go on adding ( as it may be ) as fast as the Succession happens : and because numbers may be continually added , if the Succession shall last for ever , it shall for ever be Finite . Your Succession having a Beginning , you can for ever measure it by a Number : and coming back when you will , you can for ever come to an End. Suppose this the first year of the Sun 's enlightning the Earth : and this annual course was to remain for ever : and the Reader of this Book appointed , by the King of Heaven , as an Everlasting Register of Times and Seasons : he may easily be sensible that he hath no very difficult Employment ; one day at most in Ten thousand Years would be sufficient for it . His Marks and Numbers may be as comprehensive as he pleases : he can always add his Numbers as the Ages go of , and for ever prove them Finite , ( as every Number in Reason must be , and ) even visibly , by having recourse unto his first point . You therefore do greatly err , if you fancy as much may be said for clearing Absurdities from Successions eternally past , as from Successions in the after-Eternity . Because tho' you think Ascending and Descending from a Point given may be the same , yet it is not . Ascending from a Point given in Successions which have no beginning , you come to no end in the Ascent , and have only a supposed one to ascend from , ( Eternity being still Current ) and therefore have no end at all : But in descending in the after-Eternity you have a real Beginning to descend from , and come back to ; and therefore where-ever you stop , you have two Ends , and your Succession is for ever numerable and finite . More may be said for clearing this Objection , but this doubtless is sufficient : for if Successions of Night and Day , or even of Thought , the utmost that can be made of it shall last for ever , they shall be for ever finite , as we say , because these Successions shall for ever have a beginning , and may be numbred : they may be perpetual , but not properly eternal . Or , we may justly question , whether any Successions shall last for ever or no : and if there be occasion we can positively deny it . Could any other Objection to the Immutability of the Eternal Being , be imagined worth answering , it should have its place here . But , the main Fortress being broken , other little Refuges of Infidelity will fall of course . And if , as it hath been proved , the common Successions and Changes of the World cannot have been from Eternity , then that which is eternal must be a Being , as Eternity itself is , without parts , division , or mutability . Would you be help'd to some notion of this , shut your Eyes to , and draw off your Mind from all corporeal Changes and Successions , and think of an eternally-current Unity , and you are not very far from it . III. Perfection is the last Attribute of an Eternal Being , which we are to speak of . And , as on the one side he looks with very little Judgment on this visible World , who passing thro' the several ranks and gradations of Beings in it , is not enclin'd to the belief of one most perfect ; so on the other , the most perfect Duration must have a compleatness of all Excellencies ; and it is not to be imagined , that an Eternal Being should acquire Perfections in Time which it had not from Eternity . Better and better includes worse and worse , and these Differences succeeding in an Eternal Being , suppose a liableness to all possible Alterations : which is the linking of things incompatible , Perfection and Imperfection , Eternity and Alteration together . To fix this Attribute of Perfection in the general Compages of the Universe , is very absurd ; as if that could be truly perfect , taken altogether , which hath many Imperfections in its several parts : as sin and wickedness , deviation from what is right and good , grievous corruptions and continual changes : and if these visible Imperfections put together , can never be constitutive of Perfection , then we must lodge Perfection in some invisible Being , supreamly excellent , having no Corruptions , no Changes ; that is , no Imperfections in his Nature . Besides , Perfection is properly a Collection and Summing-up of the other above-mention'd Attributes ; and resulting from their several particular Powers or Branches , is best proved by them . If there be an eternally cogitative Being , he must be eternally wise ; and Wisdom being the Spring and General Root of other blessed Qualities , he must be likewise just and good . If there be an Immense Being , he must be Omnipotent : If a Being Immutable , he must possess perfect Simplicity , Purity and Holiness ; that is , The Eternal Being must have a perfect Union of all Blessed Qualities in his Nature ; of Wisdom , Justice , Goodness , Power , and Holiness , and this is GOD. Our Argumentation hath hitherto proceeded on the irrefragable Principles of Truth . Some Men may cavil at the whole , but can find no flaw in its connection , no weakness in the parts ; and it carries this advantage along with it , that if it be false , nothing can be proved true ; and if it be true , all contrary Opinions or Pretences must be necessarily false : whereby it may seem superfluous to consider any other Hypothesis , being assur'd of the Truth of this ; as it would indeed , were it not for the Anticipations crept into Mens Minds , from which they are not so effectually driven by any sudden violence , unless supernatural , as gradually wean'd from . And what follows , is an Indulgence of their Humour ; not constrain'd by any necessity , but conceded for the present hardness of their Hearts . It may please God to open their Eyes for discerning his heavenly Truth , when they are a little suffer'd to go on in their own ways : like the Prodigal Son , they may deem it most expedient to return to their Father's House , when after various Perplexities they find their own extravagant Inventions conspiring to bring them to it . 'T is a present Unhappiness to be involved in Error ; but 't is no great matter where we begin to get out of it , or what Dangers and By-ways we travel thro' , if we recover the right at last , and come in Season and Safety unto our Journeys-end . II. Having in the former part clear'd the first Hypothesis , and set the Principles of Truth in a competent Light , we shall now undertake to render the Patrons of Infidelity self-condemn'd , and destroy their Presumption , even by their own Principles . I. Let us begin with that fancy unaccountably invented for freeing Mankind from the Fear of God , by supposing this World derived its Original from the fortuitous Motions of eternal and unguided Matter . By what fortuitous Rovings of the Mind , the Defenders of this Opinion first hit upon it , is almost as unconceivable as the Opinion itself ; and it s ever entring into the Heart of Man , is the best Argument that can be made for it . Nothing may seem advanced above the Power of Chance ; and one would imagine , innumerable Thoughts might have an eternal Rendezvous in the Soul , and never combine or jump into such a Principle . To instance in the Absurdities following from it , would be labour in vain : And if any in this Age are so void of Reason as to be taken with that which hath not so much as the Appearance of it , there is no direct way of arguing with such People : And it shews the deplorable Depravation of some Mens Natures , who rather than believe in God , will believe any thing . Should any have this Fancy running in their head , That all the Churches in the Nation grew out of the Earth , like Mushromes in one night ; or that * all the Ships in an Harbour did arise from the Froth and Ebullitions of the Sea , it would not be agreeable to the Profession of a Philosopher to undertake their Cure. We may pity or smile at the Foolishness of the Fancy , but cannot help it . But as Persons not endowed with the firmest Judgment are best dealt with by complying with their Humour , by supposing as they do , That a blind impotent Wretch , for instance , is the most powerful Prince living , thereby to draw them off from an extravagant and harmful pursuance of their Fancies ; so if any ones Reason have come by such an unhappy chance , that nothing can make him believe otherwise than that blind Matter and Motion are the only powerful forming Principles of Things , the only Kindness he is capable of ; that he may not pursue this Persuasion to his utter Perdition , is , for a while to suppose as he does , and to try if by any other means he may be kept within some Bounds of Respect unto a superiour Being . And , 1. When they think of this Opinion , they may do well to think of the Authors of it ; who , as far as we can learn , unanimously professed their Belief of a Divine Nature . What Moschus the Tyrian , who is supposed to live before the Trojan War , * and to maintain the Atomical Hypothesis , thought of God , we have no Account of . Strabo does but just mention him ; and that with great Uncertainty . Nor have we any Probabilities to persuade us , either from the Time or Place in which he lived , that his Head was repleat with such a Scheme of Opinions as the following Dealers in Atoms had ; at least , we cannot think him worse than † Empedocles , * Democritus , and † Epicurur , who are all of them very free in their Discourses of a Divine Nature . Lucretius ‖ might speak for them all , did not Epicurus himself give us this Profession of his Faith in God : That God is a Blessed and Immortal Being ; * and that he is not impious who denies the Gods of the Multitude , but he who applies the Notions of the Multitude unto God. Many indeed who have jump'd in with the Hypothesis of Epicurus , have led Lives unworthy of his Patern , † and spoke more slightingly of Matters which we ought to revere , than he did . But , must it not be very incongruous to follow such Leaders in their Dance in the Dark , through the Eternal Windings and Revolutions of Matter and Motion , and yet leave them when they come out of this Maze , and speak something like themselves of an Immortal Being . 2. Nor do the Words only , but the very Principles of these Men , who have spoke so much of Atoms , Matter , and Motion , lead unto the Belief of God. 'T is true , it hath been objected to them , that they do , after some sort , deny * the Existence of God , that is , by Consequence ; or , that they owned and professed it only as they joyn'd in Religious Rites , † for fear of the Multitude . But you will not think the Objection sufficient to prove them such great Hypocrites , when you consider their Zeal to prove the Existence of some ‖ certain Principle , which is able to break the Fetters and Power of Fate ; and that Epicurus * himself says , 'T is much better to believe all the Fabulous Relations of the Heathen Deities , than to suppose our selves under the Servitude and Dominion of natural Fatality . 'T is , indeed , a Difficulty in that Hypothesis not easily to be digested , That such rational Creatures as we take our selves to be , should be under the Tyranny of circumambient Matter : That we who sometimes have proud Thoughts of our selves , and look with Disdain on Things below us , should be little better than Logs of Wood floating on impelling Waters , and hurried down the Stream of Eternity by Causes which have neither Sense nor Reason in them . Some may please themselves with Talk at this rate : Supposing God to be nothing , Man little different from the Brutes , and Brutes little better than so many senseless Machines , that is , so many Tools made up of Matter , put together by chance , and guided by necessary Impulses , they know not how . And then , for so might even a generous Epicurean say , before I would have such a Cheat put upon me by Universal Nature , before I would be affronted with the seeming Concessions of Choice and Reason , and Dominion over my self , without the real Possession , Were I to chuse what Flesh I would wear , I had rather be a Monkey or a Bear , Or any Thing but that proud Animal Which boasts it self in being Rational . It would not vex one half so much to be an inanimate Lump , kick'd up and down the Streets by a Being better than ones self , as to lye at the Mercy of a pitiful and ignoble Crowd , not only to be trampled upon and toss'd here and there , but be forced to Speak , Debate , Think , and Believe , as every Upstart in Nature , every Turn of blind and tumultuous Matter shall make its Insults upon us . The Soul of Epicurus abhorred so mean a Thought , and would admit of any Absurdity , rather than not introduce a self-commanding Principle , which might break the Chain of Fate , and maintain the Freedom and Dignity of an Intelligent Being , against the Necessitation of outward Causes . Be it so then , most excellent Epicurus , we will not take the Advantage of this Concession to justle thee and thy Atoms against each other , by shewing how impossible it is that a voluntary rational Agent should be produced by the Motions of irrational unintelligent Matter , or that the Pretence of a declining Atom will not † defend us from the Danger of fatal Necessity . Let us follow the Supposition as far as it will lead us . 'T is necessary , it seems , that there should be a Principle of Free-Will , which checks and over-rules the otherwise fatal Progression of outward Causes . Is it so only here upon the Earth , or also in those ‖ innumerable Worlds and Habitations which we will grant are not believed in vain . If so , as certainly there is as much Reason for the one as the other , then here is a Ground for believing innumerable intelligent Beings , which all over the Universe are the Lords paramount , and endowed with a Divine Prerogative of controuling the blind Efforts , and guiding the irregular Tendency of irrational Agents . What these Intelligences should be , and why they may not have Power and Wisdom as far different from us as the glorious Apartments of Heaven differ from this Earth of ours ; or why they may not concern themselves about us , by their Perfections supplying what is defective in us , and helping entirely to redeem us from the Dominion of Necessity , or , why this Principle may not carry us to an universal Intelligence , whose supream Will and Power may break and over-rule the universal Power of Fate , is not so easily answered . Which may induce us to believe , that what * Epicurus spoke and writ of Sanctity and Piety to the Gods , and of an excelling and transcendent Nature , was not merely Verbal , but an agreeable Consequence of his other Opinions : and that the Saying of † Cotta might be true enough , That he never saw any one more afraid than he was of what he said there was no Reason to fear , that is , Death and the Gods. But to leave Epicurus , who might now and then have his melancholick Fits , and talk a little too highly and incoherently of God and Man. 3. Let us advance one Step nearer unto his Disciples ; who make as bold with his Hypothesis , to take in or leave out according as the Fit works with them , as ‖ he did with his Master Democritus . You shall not be tied to any One's Opinion of God , nor be bound to maintain Free Will in Man , nor to answer a great many troublesome Questions , How senseless disorderly Matter could possibly jump into Thought and Order . Apply your Mind to the Motions and supposed Results of Matter , and follow the Guidance of it , through its visible Train and Consequences , how fatal soever the Event may prove . Mind only what you say , and compare it with what you see , and with Faithfulness expect the Issue . I. Something , which you cannot believe is any other than Matter in Motion , hath produced such intelligent thinking Beings as we call Men. Let us come from whence you will , here we are ; governing , using , and recreating ourselves with inferiour Creatures ; debating the Nature of Truth and Falshood , Good and Evil , and managing our Affairs with much Wisdom and Precaution . II. We lift up our Eyes to Heaven , and there we observe the Sun and the Stars , Bodies of a wonderful Magnitude , moving in an indeterminable Space , in an invariable Order , and at a vast Distance from us . Hath our Atoms provided so rarely for us , as to frame such a glorious Canopy ‖ merely for our Benefit , for such mortal Machines , such Tools of Necessity to look upon ? Is all Nonsense , and nothing but vain glistering beyond this Earth of ours ? Or , if we might have a compleat View of the Glories represented to us in so narrow a compass , * might we not expect to meet with our Match , and find Beings which have Sense , and Thought , and Reason as well as we ? III. And if it be a Piece of Folly and Presumption in Man to think himself the only Wise , it is not much less , to think himself the Wisest Being in the Universe . The Barbarous Americans , before their Commerce and Acquaintance with the European World , might with much greater Reason suppose themselves the most Polite and Knowing , the most Skilful in all Arts and Sciences of any People upon Earth , because they had Knowledge and Skill bearing some Proportion to an Earthly State ; but the Wisest of us all are much short of what may be expected and supposed in Heaven . Could you have so mean an Opinion of Nature as to stint the Powers thereof to the Production of Beings no better than our selves ; Could you be so weak as to fancy the Intelligences in all , even infinitely distant Apartments , are of the same Kind and Capacities , equally unhappy , equally perplexed about the Origin , and Ministration , and End of Things , and as ignorant of Us as we are of Them ; That Nature should not make one Being that could give a more certain Account of its Operations than we can , and enquire why any one should believe otherwise , it may be answered , from the different Contextures and Varieties of Matter . If , indeed , all the Habitations in the Universe were of the same kind , it makes the Argument more probable , That all the Inhabitants might be of the same kind too . But if there be great Variety in the Coalition and Segregations of Matter ; if the more fine , active , and tenuious , be separated from the more gross , heavy , and unactive ; if some Parts of the Universe have sensibly and certainly more Heat and Vigour than others ; Why should we not believe as much Variety in the ruling Inhabitants that are placed therein ? It will not be needful at this time to give a Scheme of the World , or to reflect on the Foolishness of Epicurus , who thought the Sun not above two Foot broad , or about the Bigness of a pretty large Wheel , which needs only being laugh'd at . The innumerable Worlds supposed by him will serve our Turn as well . We have here Heat and Cold , Light and Darkness , and a Constitution tolerably suited for bearing these Changes : But when we see one Star differing from another Star in Glory , we must suppose a more glorious and beatifying Concourse ( of Atoms if you please ) in some Parts than in others ; where , a Light too splendid for mortal Eye to approach , and a Heat too vigorous for Flesh and Blood to endure , adorns and refines both the Place and the Products of it . The Blackness and Tawniness caused by too near Approaches to the Sun , is little other than the Scum of a filthy and over-heated Nature . But those Beings whose Inheritance is in superabounding Light , must have Natures pure and defecate , clarified from the Dregs and Corruptions of an Earthly State , not so properly * corpus , as quasi corpus , a Body , ( if † we must call it a Body ) ‖ tenuious and spiritual , differing in proportion , as much from us , as Heaven from Earth . Thus you are led at least unto the Heathen Deities , unto an innumerable Company of Heavenly Intelligences , or ( if we may begin to speak in the Language of Christianity ) to the Acknowledgment of Angels and Archangels . IV. Nor is it reasonable for us to stop here , but on the same Foundation we may raise our Belief of a Supream Intelligence ; in whom the several Powers and Perfections in Nature do most eminently concenter . Those Principles from whence we infer the Existence of Beings in all Ranks of Perfection higher and more excellent than our selves , may , without much begging of the Question , be supposed to prove the Existence of one Most High. And if our Materialists shall require for this , some evident Symptoms and Indications in Nature ; and shall profess their Belief of Superiour Intelligences , from the Appearance of more blessed and glorious Habitations , but not of a Supream Intelligence , because the Existence of a most Blessed Place , which may be the Throne , Palace , or Residence of the Supream Being is not so visible unto them ; it may be answered , 1. That they beg the Question as much as we . They suppose there is no Supream Intelligence , we suppose there is ; and so far we are equal , nay considering the Ranks of Beings , have the Advantage in Their own Hypothesis . 2. That the Unity of the God-head , tho' a certain Truth , is not absolutely necessary to the Enforcement of Religion ; for the most ignorant Heathen , whose Faith and Reason could not carry them beyond a Multitude of Gods , were nevertheless very Devout and Religious in their Way : So that whether there be one God or more , you cannot but be under a Divine Influence to a Religious Life . 3. That our Belief of a Supream Being need not depend on the supereminency of any particular Place . The Glory of the Highest may manifest itself all over the Universe , in measures suitable to the Dignity of Place and Persons : And tho one Place may not in itself be really more glorious than all the rest , yet it may be rendred relatively so , by the Glory of his Presence . 4. They who deny the supereminency of any particular Place , speak contrary to the common Appearances of Matter . Of all Things within the compass of our View and Vortex , the Sun makes the most astonishing and brightest Show : And if any Religious Person will say , that the Supream Being hath set his Tabernacle in the Sun , the modern Epicureans , even on their own Principles , can only oppose a pretty confident Assertion by a more confident Denial . And if any shall bring the fix'd Stars in as Competitors in Splendour , each as the Center of a particular Vortex , and say , any of them may put in for the Center of the Universe as well as the Sun , they prove nothing for themselves ; for as of the Planetary , so likewise of the Fix'd , one Star may differ from another Star in Glory : And if the Sun be not the most Glorious , we only introduce some other in the room ; for there is no imaginable Reason to believe them exactly all alike . Or if any shall think , that tho' the Sun makes so fine a show , the inward Glory thereof is not so considerable : Which they would gather from the gross and fiery Eruptions from the Body of the Sun , discover'd by our late famous Glasses , that may arise from the Deceivableness of the Sight ; as the unsteadiness or halfshutting of the Eye , or the interposing of any small Bodies , makes us think we see Streams of Fire from a distant Light , when there are none . Or Secondly , the Collection of such strong and powerful Rays as proceed from the Body of the Sun , may so affect the Nerves with an extraordinary Vigour , that we cannot rightly judge of it , but think we see nothing but Fire . Or , a Refraction from the Atmosphere of the Sun , replenished with vivid and peircing Rays , may cause such a Confusion in our Judgment , tho' within there may be a blessed Habitation of serene and pure Light. 5. Let the Sun and Fix'd Stars be what their Cause hath made them . 'T is more than sufficient for us , That some Place in the Universe may be more eminently glorious than all the rest , tho' we cannot point out what or where it is . 'T is not probable , that we can see the Thousandth part of the Stars ; which may be concealed from us not only by their Smallness , but their Distance . The Universe is another kind of a Thing than we are capable of conceiving ; and its invisible Glories may as far exceed every Thing visible , as the Sun and Fix'd Stars do exceed the grosser Bodies which move about them . And as every Sphere or Vortex retains its most lively and illuminating Particles at the Center , while the more scummy , feculent , and heavy , boil off to the Circumference ; so the whole Universe may be consider'd as one vast Vortex , having in or near its Center a Coacervation of all blessed Ingredients , for making a Light most pure , a Hear most benign , and a Life most happy . In a careful Observation of the Heavens , we may perceive the Glimmerings and Coruscation of an extraordinary Glory , which hitherto none hath been able to give any tolerable Account of . But what hath been said , agrees with the Opinion of our Divines concerning the Coelum Empyraeum , a Seat and Residence of Divine Glory , the most refulgent . And have not we now humour'd our Materialists , in proving from their own Principles , the Existence of a Superiour or Supream Intelligence . V. We may advance , now , one Step farther , and break the very Heart of the Epicurean Hypothesis . Their last Refuge for Irreligion is , to suppose that no Superiour Being meddles or concerns himself in Humane Affairs . And if the Divine Beings ( think they ) do not concern themselves at all about us , why should we concern our selves at all about them . But before you make such an irregular Inference , you can never be too careful to secure the Premises . For , ‖ if you propagate and entertain so mean an Opinion of God , and prove mistaken , you may forfeit his Love , and find it too hard a task to oppose his Displeasure , when too late to atone it . In the Name of God then , let us seriously debate this Point , and enquire into the Reasons either of Denying or Asserting a Divine Providence : which will terminate in these three Considerations ; of the Power , of the Authority , of the Will of God. If there be no Heavenly Being which both may , can , and will intrest himself in Earthly Matters , then our Discourses of Providence are vain and superstitious : But if something Divine hath a Power , Right , and Mind to Oversee and Govern us , our Obligations unto Providence are in Force still . 1. And what imaginable Reasons can we have to suppose , that the Divine Power and Cognizance extend not to us . Can the wing'd Inhabitants of this lower Orb mount out of our Sight , and approach the very Confines of invisible Regions , and not exalt our Faith to the Acknowledgment of an Entercourse between Earth and Heaven ? Can short-sighted Mortals , with some small Assistance unto their Visive Faculty , perceive the Inequalities of Hills and Valleys , Earth and Water in the Body of the Moon , the Spots in the Sun , and in the Body of Iupiter , the different Phases of Mercury and Venus , and even of Saturn so distant from us , with the small Satellities unto the greater Planets ; and shall not an Heavenly Eye , with transcending Clearness and Accuracy , penetrate into the Phoenomena of our Imperfect State ? Can the Skill of a Physiognomist give notable Conjectures of the inward Temper by the outward Lineaments and Features ; Can the Astronomer tell you the Conjunctions and Oppositions , the Motions , Magnitude , and Distance of the Heavenly Bodies ; Can an Experienc'd Physician see through the Colour , Qualities , and Agitations of the Body , into its latent Distempers ; and the Sagacity of a Chinoese , measure out the Life of Man by the Beating of his Pulse ? And shall we not allow the Divine Wisdom a more profound and perfect Intuition into the secret Windings and Intricacies , the various Combination , Tendency , Influence , and Events of Sublunary Transactions ? We cannot prescribe the Bounds even of Earthly Improvements : Every Age crowns the Diligence and Meditations of Men with new Encreases of Knowledge : And since we cannot determine the utmost Exaltation of Humane Nature , or what Sacred Commerce with the Spiritual World we may attain unto ; Why should we rashly limit the Faculties of better Things , or fancy that any Darkness or Distance , which are but relative and comparative , should cover us from the View of a Superintending Deity . We may positively assure ourselves , that the lowest in the Angelical Rank is furnish'd with Abilities to pry into our Affairs , and to govern and manage , as he himself pleases , the Persons of all Mankind . 2. Our next Enquiry is , concerning the Authority and Rightful Foundation of Divine Government . The Holy and Blessed Beings above will not meddle with that which they have nothing to do with : But if we will take Mr. Hobbes for our Spiritual Guide , we shall soon remove all Scrupulosity in this Case . Power confers Right ; and he justly possesses a Domination over others who is most strong . 'T is true , if a Power be irresistible , we have no Reason to quarrel with it , whether we have a Right or no : And the Accumulation of Abilities necessary to command , seems an Indication in Nature where Obedience should be paid . This Mr. Hobbes makes the Ground * even of Divine Government ; and the † Followers of Mr. Calvin speak conformably to it : But because it may look something strange to fix no better Ground for obeying God , than for obeying a Tyrant or a Thief that proves too hard for us , you shall not be urged with any ones Authority in this Point neither . Others fix the Basis of God's Government in the Act of Creation , and limit the Exercise of his Power to the Measure of his Benefits . Of which Number are the first Refiners ‖ of Platonism , and the * Armenians . And because it may be supposed you will catch at this Opinion , we will try the Force of it , and see how well it will serve for your purpose . And , If Benificence be the Basis of Government , are you sure that God hath no Right to interpose in our Affairs ? Is it likely ( upon your own Principles , which need not always be particularly mention'd ) that the Divine Nature is not more ancient than the Humane ? That its antecedent Excellencies should have no Hand in our Formation ? Or may not the Superiour Beings , if they are disposed to meddle in our Affairs , by their watching over us for Good , merit our Obedience and Subjection ? Are not several Inferiour Creatures fed by our Kindness , and preserved by our Providence , tho we did not create and form them ? And do not the Blessings descending from the Administrations of Earthly Government render a Legislative rightful and reasonable , tho' they have no Creative Power ? The aforesaid Authors have pursued a good Notion a little too far ; the † one of them saying , that if Matter be coeternal with God , his endeavouring to make a Change therein , by drawing it into Form and Order , must be injurious : the other , That ‖ could we suppose ourselves not to have received the Benefit of Creation from God , but come into the World without any Obligation to his Power and Goodness in forming us , we might admire the transcendent Excellencies of his Nature , but could not justly be subjected unto his Government and Disposal . The Weakness of which Assertions will appear by the two following Arguments . First , That it is very fit , in the Order of Nature , that the Inferiour should be subservient unto the Superiour : For what other Reason can You assign for the Dominion of Man over inferiour Creatures : They are coeval with us ; and 't is certain , we could have no hand in the Formation of them . But as that natural Dependance and Relation between Superiour and Inferiour justifies ( not our Tyranny and Cruelty , there can never be any Reason in Nature for that , but ) our taming and subduing them to necessary Uses , our bridling and governing them as is expedient ; much stronger is the Argument when applied to the Difference between God and Man. Secondly , All Beings have a general Right and Charter to do good , and to be the Ministers of Eternal Rectitude , in promoting Order , and preventing Disorder in the Universe . It is lawful for us to cultivate the Earth , and draw out of the Heart and Bowels of it , Fruits and Minerals , for Ornament , Nourishment , and Preservation ; to extirpate noxious Weeds , and promote the Encrease of useful Plants , beautiful Flowers and Objects of Delight : May we without the Imputation of injurious Medling , cherish mild , quiet , and profitable Tempers , and deliver the weak and inoffensive from the wild and untameable Birds and Beasts and Men of Prey which are too strong for them ? May we unblameably rescue the Good from the Jaws of the Wicked , and celebrate the Atchievments of those ancient or modern Worthies who have made it their Business to * redeem Mankind from Oppression and to quell Monsters ? May Earthly Magistrates draw Malefactors before the Judgment-Seat , and consign them to Punishment , protect the Innocent , and reward the Well-deserving according to their Discretion ? And can Men have the Impudence to question God's Right to do Good , to bring Order out of Disorder , to take care of and reward the Meek and Holy , to restrain and punish the Subdolous or violent Workers of Iniquity ? What is this , but to exalt Mankind to the Dignity of Gods , and to depress the Divine Prerogative below the Privileges of Men. 3. And if God both can and may , the Consequence is very natural , that he will and does interpose in the Management of Humane Affairs . Right and Power , in the Hands of a good Being will not lye dormant ; but exert their Force to the beneficial Employments for which they are adapted . Epicurus indeed * introduces the Gods so much taken up with their own Felicity , That they will not trouble themselves ( for , in his Opinion , there must be a great Trouble ) in minding any Thing else . And † his Wise Men were to have their Lives form'd according to this Pattern of their Gods ; enjoying their Ease and Privacy , and having nothing at all to do in Civil Administrations ; in pursuance of his Principles , no doubt , That Chance might bear an Universal Sway , without the interposing of any Wise Mind to order it , either in Heaven or Earth . Not to reflect on Epicurus , by shewing the Need his Deities had to look to themselves , and the quiet Governing of the World ; Must not doing Good be highly agreeable and pleasing unto a Good God ? Must not the Delight and Complacency in beholding the due Procedure and Harmony of Things , preponderate the Trouble ( if there should be some ) in effecting it ? Does a Vertuous Prince confine himself to the Pleasures of his Palace , or regret at his Hours of Watchfulness , Care , and Pains-taking , which secures the Prosperity of his People ? Does not even Curiosity sweeten our tedious Inquisitions into Truth and Falshood , Right and Wrong , and Sympathy with the Vertuous in Distress , constrain us to take their part ? And can we imagine the Deity should indulge an everlasting Slothfulness , when there is so much Good to be done , so much Evil to be redressed , so many deserving Objects of his Compassion and Care , which call for his Assistance ? Either we must condemn as Foolish the Vigilance of good Governours , laugh at the compassionate Essays of the Pious , and confound our Notions of Generosity , Benignity , and Things praise-worthy ; or we can never persuade our selves , That God is an idle Spectator , and bears the Sword of Power and Authority in vain . The last Pretext , of Trouble in the Conduct of Providence , hardly deserves an Answer . Can a single Man of Diligence and Sagacity , with comfort supervise so many Affairs , and an Earthly Potentate boast with how little Trouble the World was govern'd , and cannot God , whose Knowledge and Power inconceivably surpasses ours , who hath Millions of Heavenly Agents and Nuncio's to attend his Pleasure , and execute his Commands , dispatch the Affairs of his Government without any Confusion or Perplexity ? Or , if you fear that seeing and being conversant among the Evils and Miseries of Mankind should really grieve and afflict a Mind of so great Benignity , allowing the Divine Nature the commendable Wisdom of a Stoick , that Difficulty you will easily surmount and cure . 4. What remains then , but that the Reasons of Irreligion falling , the Hypothesis invented for its Support should fall too . Mens naughty Opinions proceed not from an hard'ned Malignity against God , but either from Doubtfulness , or Consciousness of their own Demerits ; and it is no wonder , if they strive by any Artifice to exclude that Providence from whence they expect no Good : Like the Iniquiry of Men to their Brethren ; first to offend and injure them , then to weaken their Authority and Credit ; and if they do not , or cannot destroy them , yet to wish them dead . But since the Existence of God and his Providence maintains its Credit , and lives in the Belief of the Wise and Holy ; since all you can say to the Prejudice of Religion profits you nothing , but even your own Principles must either endear or enslave you to it ; since , to repeat it once more , the Epicurean Hypothesis , whatever it pretends at the first Interview , will unavoidably keep you to Religion , you had as good leave it , and be Religious upon the most excellent Principles . And is it not much more becoming the Dignity of Man to pay his Obedience to an eternal King , whose Wisdom and Power is infinite , than to harbour in his Mind low Thoughts of the Deity which he must serve , and be govern'd by Chance only at the Second-Hand ? Does it not make Religion , and the Offices thereof , look more venerable , and the Thoughts of the Divine Majesty more awful in the Soul , when the Bent of our Devotion terminates in the prime Cause , and contemplates Perfections not to be transcended ? There the Soul , with Comfort and Credit , can acquiesce , and fix its Adorations when it can go no further . All that hath been spoken , was intended not to improve , but gradually to wean you from the Epicurean Hypothesis . It s Heart and Spirit may be , because the Design of it is , well-nigh broken : And tho' it may not be convenient to rip open its Bowels , and expose its Loathsomness , for fear of Defilement , yet one Consideration more may be suggested ; namely , What the Heavenly Intelligences , according to this Atomical and Fortuitous Origination of Things , must think of themselves . 'T is hard for Brutes to be made mere Machines , and Plants the Composition of Chance . Man looks a little higher , and will stoutly argue and dispute against it . And if the Heavenly Intelligences can be conscious of so mean an Original , they must needs be ashamed to own it . To this shall be only added , That tho' it be impossible this absurd Hypothesis should be true , yet even from it so clear an Account may be deduced both of Divine Providence and Dispensations , of Angelical Beings and their Ministrations , of the Fall of the Devil , of his Deceiving Man , and of the Extent of his Power and Principality , that those Persons cannot but be * condemn'd out of their own Mouth , who dare to be Irreligious on this Foundation . II. Let us proceed to the second Retirement of Infidelity ; That the World has always been as it is ; from Eternity subsisting in the same Frame and Order which we have at present . And what principally offers it self to our Consideration on this Subject , shall be introduced with 1. An Explication of the Hypothesis it self : For if we take it in the gross , nothing is more evidently true , than it is evidently false . How can we say the World has been from Eternity as it is at present ; when every Age , every Year , nay every Day , presents to our View such wonderful Mutations . What Revolutions in Humane Affairs , what Changes in Government , Religion , Laws , and Manners , what Improvements in Liberal and Mechanical Arts and Sciences , do the Histories of all Nations exhibit to us ? Or if you can see no Argument in this , against the fixed Consistence of this Earthly Frame , take notice of the Conflicts and Jarrs among the Elements themselves , and their interchangeable replevying from each other ; the Fire making its hostile Eruptions upon the Earth , as often as it can gather sufficient Forces , and either finds or makes a Vent ; the Air cherishing noxious and pestilential Vapours , which destroy all before them , blast the Fruits of the Earth , and turns the Breath of Life into the Minister of Death . The Earth and the Water have their ‖ Quarrels about Dominion , and enlarge their Bounds by mutual Depredations . Sometimes the Earth is too hard for the Waters , lifts up its Head above , and places a Garrison in the midst of the swelling Floods . * Rhodes and † Delos , with many lesser Monuments mention'd by ‖ Pliny , shew that the Earth can be sometimes brisk , and throwing off her natural dulness , recover some Ground from her neighbouring Foe . And again , the Waters have been too many for the Earth , scorning to have their Forces disjoyn'd by the weak Fences of Nature , making their Way ( if not * between England and France , yet ) between † Italy and Sicily , Cyprus and Syria , &c. taking no less than three ‖ famous Cities in Peloponnesus , and over-running , in a Night and a Day , the great Island Atlantis , if you will believe ‖‖ Plato . Nor have their swallowing some certain Cities or Countries bounded their Ambition , which in the Times of Noah , Ogypes , and Deucalion , almost obtain'd by prodigious Inundations , and threatned to establish an Universal Empire . 'T is true , we have now a tolerably quiet Temperament of Things ; but these wonderful Effects of contending Elements minister sufficient ground of suspecting , that it hath not been always upon the Earth as it is at present ; which is supposed and confessed * by the principal Patrons of this Hypothesis : of which we shall make our Advantage afterwards . But Master Aristotle perchance will obviate our Design by one of his Distinctions , telling us , that these formidable Changes happen only in the † Elementary or Sublunary World , but ‖ the Celestial Bodies , made up of his Fifth or Finest Element , are liable to no Changes or Corruptions , but conserve an immutable and even Tenour through all the Successions of Eternity . Had he himself been made up of this fine incorruptible Element , his own Experience and Modesty might have convinced him by this time of his great Mistake . The Moon and other Planetary Bodies are found to be near of the same Nature and Constitution with the Earth . * Many Fix'd Stars innumerated by the Ancients are now unknown ; and many appear a new which former Ages give no Account of ; and that notable Star in Cassiopeia , bigger and brighter than the rest of the Fix'd Stars , first observed November 1572 , and disappearing March 1574 , had a very fatal Influence upon , and portended the Overthrow of this Hypothesis . Nay , those Blazing Stars , which in all Ages shake their ominous Rods over admiring Mortals , forewarn us by a right Calculation of their Altitude , not to depend on it . The Philosopher indeed , agreeably to his Principles , † could not allow the Blazing Stars a place so high as the Orb of the Moon ; the Senselessness of which Fancy , contrary to many other Reasons , is evidently demonstrated from the Insensibility of their Paralax . How much they are higher than the Moon , we cannot certainly tell ; but , in all Probability , they must needs be advanced above the Sphere of Saturn . Hence follows , that when any one says , the World has been from Eternity as it is at present their Words must be a little qualified , and mean no more , than that the Substance or general Compages of the World may have been Eternal ; though the several Parts of it , both in Heaven and Earth , or all alternately , have undergone very considerable Changes and Alterations . 2. Let us next enquire into the Reasons which might tempt Men to this Opinion of the World's Eternity : And they seem to be two . First , because they could perceive no Changes , no Symptoms of the Generation or Corruption of the World : And Secondly , because they could give no reasonable Account of the World's Origin and Production . † The first we find in Ocellus Lucanus , and Aristotle ; and all their winding and circular Disputes for the Impossibility of its Generation from the Impossibility of its Corruption , & vice versa , terminate in this : Like the Argument against the Dissolution of the World , mention'd by the Scoffers in ‖ St. Peter . For since the Fathers fell asleep , all Things continue as they were from the Beginning of the Creation . And to this we may return the same Answer , That they who can see no Indications of a changeable Nature , must needs be willingly ignorant ; and for clearing their Eye sight , may be referr'd unto the preceding Paragraph . And if seeing or not seeing can be an Argument on either side , it can be only against them . For we do see , and are positively assured , of very great Changes in the World ; and if it had a Beginning newly form'd , Mankind might have sensible Convictions of it : But if the World be Eternal , it requires a very large Faith to look back into its Certainty , and no Mortal could ever have a sensible or ocular Demonstration of it . The Second Reason we take from the conceited Humour of Aristotle ; * who being too much given to contemn and deride others , † and servilely following his own Reason to the assigning a Cause for the smallest Matters , * laugh'd at all Accounts of the World 's Original , and judged the Defenders of it little better than mad . This hasty Shooting of his Bolt , proceeded from the Excess of his Pride , or the Defectiveness of his own Reason . He could have no satisfying Notion , when , or by what means , or in what manner the World was made . And how should any thing be done without Aristotle's knowing it . We will not enquire into his profound Skill in the whole Circle of Physicks , his rare Definitions of Substance , Form , Time , Motion , &c. his accurate Discovery of Meteors ( except Comets , which you heard something of lately ) and the familiar Acquaintance he had with the substantial Forms and occult Qualities of Nature . We will only ask his Disciples , What they can think of the Generation of Man ? Can you tell how such Rational Beings as we are , attain our Maturity and Perfection ? What are the constituent Principles of our Nature ? How the Body is form'd and organized ? At what time the Soul is united to it ? or how an Immaterial can operate on a Material Being , and receive Impressions from it ? Or ( for perchance you may be disposed to smile at the former Questions ) How meer Matter , and the rude Elements of Life , can expand themselves to the Production and Exercise of those Noble Functions , of Sensation , Cogitation , Memory , &c. Consider a while of it , and by that time you can return a satisfying Answer to these Questions , we may give you as satisfying an Account of the Formation of the World. But if this little World be a Province too difficult for your Undertaking , What Humility do our Contemplations of the Universe require ? And how absurd must it be to assert the Eternity of the World upon those Principles , which either prove that there are no Men in the World , or that they are all Eternal . For instance , If it be impossible there should be any Communion between a Material and an Immaterial Being , or that mere Matter should think Reason , and remember , &c. as the Difficulties are inexplicable on each side , then there are no Men in the World ; and how big soever we may look , we are no better than those Apparitions and Shades of the Night , which poor ignorant People are so commonly frighted with . Or , if you are not pleased with that , since we could have our Beginning neither from Matter nor Spirit , for chuse which you will 't is an easie matter to puzzle you , then we must have been and shall be for ever just as we are at present , and all the Histories and Evidences of Life and Death are to be rejected as fabulous Fears , Fancies , and Traditions . This is exactly your way of dealing with us . You ask us two or three puzzling Questions about the Origin and Formation of the World ; and because we do not explain it entirely to your Satisfaction , therefore it must be Eternal . 3. Our third Reflection shall fall on the Novelty of this Opinion , and its arrogant breaking in upon the Prescriptions of Antiquity . When Time had worn off the Reverence , with the uniform Attestations of Tradition , the World 's Original began to be debated by the weak Reason of Man. And the wrangling Philosophers raising up Difficulties which they could not lay again , like so many Evil Spirits let loose upon the Earth , they tempted Men from the Acknowledgment of their Primitive Cause ; and deceived them with the Insinuations of becoming wise , nay , wiser than their Forefathers . Aristotle , all over his Physical Discourses , musters up the Opinion of preceding Philosophers ; gives no Intimations of any that believed as he did ; but disputes against Melissus , Parmenides , Heraclitus , Empedocles , Leucippus , Democritus , Anaxagoras , Timaeus , Plato , &c. pleasing himself , no doubt , in the Singularity of his Notion , and sufficiently confuting the World's Genesis , by finding some Flaw in the Solutions of it , or shewing their Repugnancy to each other . A little Tract of Ocellus , indeed , deprives Aristotle of the Glory which the † first Inventer of so fine an Hypothesis might expect : some Copies of which Tract ‖ came , probably , to his hands ; tho' as it happen'd , all did not . If this Ocellus be the same whom Diogenes Laertius * mentions , ( as we will not suborn the appearing Advantages both in Ocellus and Diogenes to witness against it ) the Opinion of the World's Eternity bears something a more ancient Date than the Time of Aristotle . But , alas , What is this to the whole Stream of unsuspected Antiquity ? Consult the Archaeologies of all Ages ; and if you find the most ancient Monuments of Reason and Intelligence taking the Tradition of the World 's Original for granted , where can you expect to find more competent Judges ? All those in Caldaea , Assyria , Persia , Phaenicia , Egypt , Greece , Italy , Palestine , &c. who lived nearest the Beginning which Moses speaks of , do likewise speak of it as a Matter never controverted : But when those Reverend Worthies were gone off the Stage , from whose Repute for Learning and laborious Inquiries , and Capacity for knowing most of the Ages most doubted of , Mankind might receive the best Information ; when Tradition , which in this Case is a better Rule than Reason , grew weaker and weaker by passing through so many Hands , then that became a Controversie which before was none , and some , who envied the Reputation , would not yield unto the Authority of former Ages . Matter of Fact is not to be known by Reason , but by Testimony : And since for much above 3000 Years after the Beginning which we contend for , we have a Cloud of Witnesses , in distinct Ages and Countries , which appear for us , and not one against us : This shews , That the nearer to that Beginning , the clearer was the Certainty , the stronger the Belief of it : And this Weight of Universal Consent ought much to over-ballance any Arguments whatsoever , which some later Pretenders to Reason , in their private Contemplations and Retirements shall suggest . 4. Our next Essay shall be , to make the best of this Hypothesis : And tho' the Reasons for it be weak , and the Tradition against it strong , yet you must know , its chief Defenders were not such an Ungodly Generation as would now pervert and abuse it . You , therefore , whom the Supposal of this World's Eternity makes unmindful of God , look unto the Rock from whence it was hewn , and hear what the first of your Race profess concerning the Divine Nature . Life keeps our Earthly Tabernacles from falling in pieces , and the Cause of this is the Soul : And Harmony conserves the World , and the Cause of this is God. The Sphere of the Moon is the Isthmus or Partition between a changeable Life and Immortality . The Regions above being the Possession of God and Divine Natures , and those below of [ mutable ] Nature and Contention . God gives to Men Generative Faculties , Organs , and Appetites ; not for Pleasure , but the Preservation of their kind . And a little after , They who altogether abstain from the Procreation of Children , are injurious to the most honorable Bonds of Union : but from irregular and reproachful Mixtures proceed a Generation of Wretches , vile and abominable both to God and Man , to Families and Cities . God and Nature do nothing in vain . All Men have a Notion or Conception of God , and allot unto the Divine Nature the highest Place , whether they be Greeks or Barbarians , or whoever think of God : For it is manifest , an Everlasting Being ought to be fitted with an Everlasting Habitation . We may very well think , that by one first [ Mover ] these several [ heavenly Bodies , or their Motions ] do subsist : For you may observe in all other kinds of Life or Principles , the Supereminence is in a first over all the rest . God gives Compleatness to the whole , and makes every particular Production perfect . We ought to think of God , as a Being most powerful for Strength , most perfect in Beauty , in Life immortal , in Excellencies transcendent . And what the Master is in a Ship , the Driver in a Chariot , the Leader in a Dance , the Law in a City , the General in an Army , that is God in the World. Except , in as much as they , in their respective Places , direct with Wearisomness , Toil and Care ; but he without Pain , without Labour , exempted from all Bodily Weaknesses whatsoever . For being fix'd on an immovable Throne , he moves all Things , and turns them about , according to his Pleasure . It would be endless to transcribe Religious Expressions from the Followers of Aristotle . Let is suffice to tell you , That the latter * Platonists embraced this Opinion of the World's Eternity ; and made a great deal to do to reconcile † Plato first to Aristotle , then to himself . So that you will make this Hypothesis fight against God , you must sight against the Pillars and main Upholders of it ; whose devout Elevations of Soul expressed in their several Ages , a Reverence for the Deity , and would have abhorr'd , as a degenerous Brood , the Blasphemers of it . 5. All the Religious Principles , by natural Light form'd in the Mind , concerning God , are indifferently well consistent with the World's Eternity : Which you cannot but be satisfied in , considering , 1. Many Christian Philosophers , believing the Beginning spoken of by Moses , think it not impossible ( if God had so pleased ) for the World to have been made before , even from Eternity . They dare not limit the Power of God , as not in Efficacy , so not to Time : And if any one will say , an Eternal Cause may have an Eternal Effect , they will not be positive in denying it . In which Number you shall not be referred to some ancient Hereticks , or to our late foolish Pre-Adamites , but to the Debates among our ‖ most eminent School-men and Metaphysicians . II. The later Platonists and Aristotelians argued for the World's Eternity , chiefly from the Consideration of God's Eternal Goodness : Which Argument of theirs is most clearly expressed by Sallustius , and in the fewest Words . 'T is * necessary ( says he ) the World existing through the Goodness of God , that as God is always Good , the World should always Exist . They † recognize God as the Cause , the Fountain , the Parent of the Universe , and affirm it the Effect , Off-spring , and Emanation from him . Only they suppose a Being Eternally Good must be Eternally Communicative : Which Reason , by the way , if it have any Force in it , makes not so much for the Eternal Generation of the World , as of the WORD and Son of God. III. It does no way derogate from the spiritual Nature or Providence of God ; but supposes an Eternal Conservation and Direction of all Things under the Government of an Eternal Spirit . ‖ Aristotle , the most suspected Person , acknowledges this . And if Immaterial and Incorporeal Being or Substance , be Iargon , Tobu and Bobu , 't is none of our Framing or Invention . The Fear indeed of some Religious , and the Hopes of some Irreligious Men , may deserve our Notice : As if that which supposes God to act by a Necessity of Nature , must render instituted Religion absurd , and to no purpose , and vacate the Expectations of Reward or Dreads of Punishment . This formidable Difficulty will soon vanish , when it appears how preposterously it is made to work . For if God acts by a Necessity of Nature , that is , * his own Nature , this ought to be matter of Joy and Comfort to the Good , and Terror to the Wicked . For it can signifie no more , than that God is necessarily Holy , Wise , Good , and Just , and cannot act otherwise than according to the Eternal Rules and Dictates of Holiness , Wisdom , Goodness , and Justice . What Good may not the Righteous expect from this ? What Reason have not the Wicked , instead of triumphing , to tremble at it ? And with Respect to God , * it infringes not his Liberty , it illustrates his Perfection . IV. Nor are the general Arguments for God's Existence endanger'd by this Hypothesis ; as you may see by the Enumeration of some Particulars . 1. We argue for God's Existence , from the Necessity of acknowledging a first Principle of Motion . Thus , Every Thing moving hath Motion either essential to it , or by Communication from another : That every Thing moving hath not Motion essential to it , is proved by the Cessation of Motion in some Things , or their Continuance in or Tendency unto Rest. And that a Body once quiescent would continue so for ever , if it was not moved by something else , is agreeable both to † Aristotle's Principles , and ‖ Cartes his first Law of Nature ; and indeed unto Common Sense . And if every Thing moving is moved by something else , 't is necessary to stop somewhere , and , without * going on in infinitum , to terminate in a first Mover . And since the first Mover must be † immovable , and therefore ‖ indivisible , impassible and without Parts , it must likewise be immaterial ; and having an infinite Power of moving every thing else , 't is what we believe of God. Nothing can pretend to answer this Argument , but the Invention of a perpetual Lamp or Motion ; but all our Brains may be crack'd , and we may hope , by the Grace of God , to have the Truth of it confirm'd to our Comfort , before that Time comes . This , upon Review , will be found a very weighty Argument ; very rationally making all the Motions in the Universe proceed from , terminate in , and directed by one Common Principle ; which ( like the Soul in the Body , the Spring and End of all Humane Motions ) is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the general Superviser and Governour of all Things . 2. The Existence of God is proved by the Series and Gradation of Causes , in this manner . Every Thing which we see hath its Beginning and Production , must have its Beginning and Production from something else . Nothing can give Beginning to it self . Which is true , not only of those Things which we see produced , but of every Thing else from whence they have their Production , until we come unto some Cause which is not produced . * An infinite Series of Causes is not to be admitted , unless you are resolved to be Contradiction-proof ; for then , of two Infinites , one Rank may have infinitely more in number than the other : There may be every Day an Addition to what was infinite before , &c. 'T is certain , That Link which hath an End , must have a Beginning ; That Train or Succession which hath a Last must have a First : And by these Steps we ascend to the Supream Independent Cause from whence all subordinate Causes do proceed , and that is God. 3. The Existence of God is proved by the admirable Order and Beauty of the World ; its visible Glories declaring his invisible Power and Godhead . Eternal Order can never be maintain'd upon the Principles of Chance , but supposes an Eternal Orderer ; by whose interposing Power and Wisdom , the Jarrings and Discords in Nature are over-ruled , every Part fixed in its proper Place , and guided most conducively to the Good and Harmony of the whole . Take off your Eyes a little from this Earth of ours , and direct your Contemplations towards Heaven ; Look up to the Sun , the Moon , and the rest of the Heavenly Hosts ; Conjecture at their Magnitude , observe their Motion , thankfully reflect on their benign Influences ; Consider how glorious Objects they all seem , what blessed Mansions some of them may prove to be . Have these existed , say you , Millions of Ages longer than most of us imagine ? The more wonderful you make their Frame and Architecture , the greater Convictions ( if possible ) you give of an incomprehensibly wise and powerful Governour ; the stronger Assurances against the Fear of a blind and fortuitous Causality . Chance , possibly , may hit upon something excellent , but it doth not last long . Co-ordinate and independent Powers may associate for mutual Benefit and Defence , but it is much if they hold together to Eternity . 'T is only one predominant and supreamly excelling Principle , which can preserve a just Temperament , an eternal Tenour and Comeliness , a regular Union and Correspondence in all the Parts of the Universe , and this is GOD. Shall we now proceed to the other Arguments for God's Existence , from the general Notion of God in the Mind , and the common Consent of Men to it , from the Fabrick of the Body , and the Nature and Operations of the Soul , from the several Ranks of Beings , which may lead to one most excellent and perfect : Rather peruse the learned Discourses already extant on those several Heads ; apply them to , and see their Consistence with this Hypothesis , and by them , with the Intimations already given , you will soon perceive , that Men of Irreligious and Ungodly Principles only cheat themselves , when they think to hide themselves from God , under this Subterfuge of the World's Eternity . 6. One Remark more , before the Conclusion of this Part , may be recommended to you : That even upon this Hypothesis , the Generations of Men , in all Probability , must have a Beginning . And for this we will not repeat the Impossibility of infinite Successions , but re-mind you of Matters of Fact. There are two Ways ( this Hypothesis standing good ) whereby the Inhabitants of the Earth may be all destroyed : Either by a general Destruction of our Vortex , whereof the Sun is the Center ; or , by some particular Predominancy of Fire or Water . I. A general Destruction of this Vortex may happen either by an Extinction of the Sun , or by an unequal Dispersion of its Rays and Heat . 1. If at any time there happen an Extinction of the Sun , all the Inhabitants in this Vortex ( not removed by a supernatural Power ) must needs perish , as under the Poles , for want of Light and Heat . The several Instances of a gathering Scum , over or near the Sun's Body , which , to us , have weaken'd or drowned the Sun's Light , and reduced it almost to a total Obscuration , may be foreboding Symptoms , and Comminations of such a Judgment . For a whole Year together , after the Assassination of Iulius Caesar , there was a * prodigious Failure of the Sun 's Light ; at other Times for several Months ; and in the Reign † of Tiberius the most wonderful of all , tho' it was but for several Hours ; as it were to blacken those Moments in the Records of Time wherein the Lord of Glory suffer'd . If you think these Frowns of offended Nature signifie nothing ; that these Threatnings of the great and only Potentate , to hide the most sensible and necessary Symbols of his Presence , have no Terror in them ; or , to speak in the Language of our Naturalists , that these scummy Spots can never encrease into so great a quantity , as wholly to crust over the Body of the Sun , and extinguish the Light and Heat of it , let the disappearing of several Fix'd Stars , Bodies which might rival the Sun in Glory and Greatness , be a warning to you ; and fear lest by the Encrease of Sin and Wickedness within our Sphere , the whole Mass to which we belong , be made one cursed and confused Heap , tumbled out of its Place , and become a Word of Reproach and a Gazing-stock to the whole Universe , as ‖ Comets are . 2. If there be at any time a breaking and unequal Dispersion of the Suns Heat , the irregular flying abroad of its fiery Particles , will consume every thing within the compass of it , and * fulfil the Prediction of the Day of the Lord , when the Heavens bring on fire shall be dissolved , and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat . The Tradition of this World 's perishing by an Universal Conslagration , hath Testimonies to confirm it on all sides . S. Paul may be supposed to have had some Skill in the Wisdom of the Heathens ; but , that S. Iude , S. Iohn , S. Peter , or our Saviour Christ Iesus , had the Perusal of Plato , Cicero , Ovid , Berosus , Hermes Trismegistus , Democritus , Heraclitus , either of their Works , Fragments , or Quotations from them , we have no Reason to perswade us : And yet they all agree in this Point , as if they spake by one common Inspiration . To sum up Evidences , will be doing what hath been sufficiently done already ; but , for the more compendious finding them , consult the Commentators on 2 Pet. 3.7 . and particularly Gr●tius , and on 2 Thes. 2.3 . and particularly Zanchy : Or , if you are prejudiced against any Thing that may come near the Sacred Oracles , you may have Recourse to † Lipsius . You shall only have one Passage of ‖ Seneca , whereby to guess at the rest . Fate with prodigious Fires shall burn and consume all mortal Things ; and when the time shall come wherein the World drawing near to its Renovation shall expire , its several Parts shall dash one against another , Stars shall rush upon Stars , and whatsoever now gives its Light with Order and Beauty , shall with one general Conflagration be set on fire . II. There may be some particular Predominancy of Fire or Water , destructive to all Animals upon the Earth , tho' the rest of our Vortex receive no Damage . And in reporting the general Tradition of the Worlds perishing , you may observe some Diversity among the Ancients : And besides the more universal Dissolution which we learn from them , and which you may interpret of all within the Compass of one or more Spheres ; a particular Destruction , wherein only the Earth , with its Parts and Appurtenances , shall be concern'd , may be judged credible . Of this we may interpret that Passage of Plato , in his Book De Regno , When all Animals had fulfilled the Task and Generations appointed to them , God withdraws his conserving Power , and retires from the Helm of Government . The Consequent of which , for that Vicissitude , is the Ruin of all Earthly Creatures . And the particular Manner of it is explain'd by the successive Dominations of Fire and Water , as in the celebrated Exprobration of the Egyptian ‖ to Solon ; O Solon , Solon , you Grecians are always Children , nor have you Knowledge , of any ancient Date , among you . Which happens by many and various Destructions of Men , which have been , and will be , the greatest of which , by the Force of Fire and Inundations of Water , the lesser , by several other Chances and Calamities . As in the Circle of the Suns ordinary Course we have our Summer and Winter , so in the great Circle of Time , which they call the * great Year , an extraordinary Summer and Winter are supposed to take their Turn ; the one causing a general Conflagration , and the other a Deluge . 1. The Predominancy of Heat may proceed either from the altering of our Position with Respect to the Sun or some nearer Approximation to it , as some † suppose , or by the ‖ Eruption of the Central Fire , or by both together . The first may prepare the way for the latter , by drying the Superficies of the Earth , making great Chinks and Chasms in it , and opening a sufficient Passage for the subterraneous Fires , to break out with all their Forces , to the Calcination of the whole . All Histories give us prodigious Examples of excessively hot Seasons , wherein such a Judgment might even naturally have been feared . We know what bituminous , sulphureous , and combustible Matter the Bowels of the Earth are replenish'd with , and what dangerous Eruptions they have made from their several Magazines , particularly in Italy and Sicily , and lately to the Consumption of a Hundred Thousand Persons ; concerning which , we may use the Words of * Pliny , That they threaten Desolation to the whole Earth : † which he had better have believ'd than have gone to see . From which Eruptions of the Central Fire ‖ Cartes is not asham'd to solve the appearing of some Stars which never appear'd before . And if we can believe any Reality in his Supposition , by such a Conspiracy of external and internal Fires , the Vicissitudes appointed by the eternal Decrees of Heaven may be compleated . To this particular Exustion of the Earth , and the Powers thereof , many eminent Divines , both Ancient and Modern , think fit to restrain the general Expressions in Scripture , concerning the Last Day . ‖ ‖ Mr. M●de seems zealous for it , and in him you may find the best Collection of Authorities , to clear him from the perillous Crime of Novelty . But our Business , at present , is not to shew what may be expected from Revelation , but Reason . What is possible or probable being declared , we must leave to the Choice of the Divine Wisdom what Methods are most expedient for Correcting the Vices of Mankind . 2. The Predominancy of Water will require but a very brief Discussion ; both the Matter of Fact and Manner of an Universal Deluge , have of late been so learnedly managed , that you cannot need any References to Authority in this Case . You shall only be reminded of your Master Aristotle , ‖ who had not Assurance enough to confront Tradition in so plain a Matter ; but allowed , That as we have our successive Winters according to their Seasons , so in some fatal Times and Periods we might have a great Winter , and such Excess of Showers as might cause the Inundations reported by Antiquity . 'T is time now to shew , unto what all this tends ; and to satisfie you , That all this Pains is not taken without some Prospect of Advantage : Which is no less than this ; That according to the Principles of these very Men who Eternize the World , 't is highly probable , that Mankind have had a Beginning and a first of their Race upon the Earth . For , First , If in less than the Compass of Six Thousand Years , we have had one , two , or three prodigious Deluges , How many such Calamities must the Earth have groaned under , if it have Existed from Eternity ? For referring former Deluges to any Thing but an Eternal Cause , you suppose the Newness of the World , as though it wanted some accidental Shakings to bring it unto a perfect Settlement . And if in that great Deluge we have the most pregnant Proof of , only Eight Persons were saved alive , then in the innumerable Deluges which the Eternity of the Earth with its Inhabitants will suppose , sometimes 800 might be saved , sometimes 80 , sometimes 8 , and sometimes none at all . For , tho' the Eternal Causes may be regular in the general Production of a Deluge , they may not in Reason be thought so regular and uniform in every small Circumstance . And when the Condition of the Earth is brought to that deplorable State , that only Eightscore or Eight can escape , the saving of these few cannot be referred to the regular Operations of Nature , but either to Chance or Miracle . Miracle you will not chuse ; and if only by Chance they escape once , in the Eternal Rollings and Revolutions of second Causes , 't is more than probable , that one time or other they may chance to be all destroyed . Secondly , And because the Predominancy of Fire and Water , according to your way of reckoning , seem to be successive , and that another universal Deluge cannot naturally be expected till after a Conflagration , that may come in for a share in our present Meditations . If any such opake and heavy Bodies as the Earth is may be burnt up , we will not consider the means of their Renovation , but only the Possibility of such a Judgment 's Coming to our Turn . And the Eternity of the Earth being supposed , there may have been as many Conflagrations as Deluges ; and Fire being a much more Tyrannous Element than Water , if ever the Earth was burnt up by the Prevalency of Fire , ( which if we can believe it Eternal , we may as well believe has happen'd Millions of Times ) we cannot imagine any possible Way or Means ( except miraculously ) for one living Creature to escape . The short of what we may infer from these two Particulars is , That either Mankind have had only one Beginning , which we Christians do believe ; or , that they had an undeterminable Number of Beginnings , which you Heathens must believe : And then the Question between us will be only this , From whence ? by what Forming Power they had their Beginning ? And sure you will be ashamed to go back to Epicurus , and to the old ridiculous Fables of Mankind's creeping out of the Mudd and Slime of the Earth , enliven'd with the Suns Heat ; having nothing to form and organize them , but blind Matter and Motion . This is an Absurdity so great , that the Opinion of Infinite Successions was invented on purpose to prevent it ; your Patrons wisely resolving , that of two Evils or Absurdities , the least was to be chosen . Thus you are driven out of your Mudd and Matter to your Infinite Successions , and from Infinite Successions into the Mudd again ; not knowing where to fix , unless the next Consideration will relieve you . Thirdly , If there be such Mutations in the Heavenly Bodies , as the appearof Comets , the fresh appearing or disappearing of Fix'd Stars , are astonishing Indications and Signs of , why should not you think that the like Mutations have happen'd in our Sphere . In an Eternal Course of Ages , every thing that is possible may be expected . Suppose , according to your Laws of Nature , the Dissolution of one Sphere having a fix'd Star for the Centre , may happen in a Thousand Years , which is a very moderate Supposal , in the infinite Circle of Eternity , the same Fate might have taken its Round innumerable Times . All the Hosts of Heaven , in their several Turns , might be broken and disbanded , and recall'd to their former Posts and Stations . And not to say how often it might happen to our Vortex , we will take only once for granted : And the Sun , the Moon , and all the Stars about us , having been in one confused Heap , without Life or Order , you may as well believe the Beginning which Moses speaks of , as any other . And tho' honest * Maimonides was very zealous against the World's Eternity , and thought he could never muster up too many Arguments against it , as an Opinion which must inevitably over-turn the Religion of Moses , and expose his Miracles as Impostures ; yet there seems not to be one Sentence or Word in the first Chapter of Genesis , except the Critical Interpretation of the Word Bara , for Production out of Nothing , which a necessary Explication of this Hypothesis may not accord with . And all those eminent Doctors in the Church , * who have interpreted the six Days of Moses not strictly according to the Letter , or believed the Existence of Ages , Persons , or Places , long before the precise Account of Time given us by Moses ; as they leave the absolute Beginning of Things precarious and uncertain , so they render this Hypothesis ( how contrary to Reason soever it may be and is , yet ) not so positively damnable from Scripture . And now , O vain Men ! What Refuge will you flee unto ? There are no other possible Conceits for justifying your Infidelity . And since these will stand you in no stead at present , think within your selves , How much less serviceable they will be unto you at the Revelation of a more lightsome Day . Even in this mortal and obscure State , the Approaches of Death give the Irreligious other Eyes to see with . Danger dispels their Prejudices , and coming on the Brink of Eternity , they begin to think of God , of separate Spirits , and other Regions , when they cannot think of them with Comfort . Now they are apt to say , as the Cardinals to the Religious Hermit , What if there be no God , no Future State ? But Diseases giving them notice of their Dissolution , the Answer of the good Father will be running in their Minds , What if there be ? And is it not much the wisest and best Method , to live by those sacred Perswasions which probably you will dye in , especially when the great Patrons of Infidelity can say nothing against them . Nay , we have not so much as a Maybe left on our side , against the Verity of Religion : For , it cannot be that the World should either be Eternal or made by Chance . Or if one of those May-be's be granted , it cannot be that either Hypothesis should be exclusive of a Divine Nature or Providence . And if you are by these Considerations rendred ( as you cannot but be ) uneasie in Irreligion , and know not which way to turn , read over the former Part again with a pious Care and Attention , and it may prepare you for the following Advice ; which , as the precedent Discourse , is intended , not for the reproaching , but reforming of your Judgment ; not for the condemning of your Persons , but the Safety of your Souls ; not to abridge you of any present Felicity , but to excite you to the Attainment of that which is Eternal . III. So excellent a Subject ought not to be closed without some suitable Advice : And tho' the Knowledge of God , as it is the Foundation of all Religion , may have a general Reference to every Religious Duty ; yet it will be fit to chuse out such particular Instances of Address , as the prevailing Vices and Inadvertency of this Age seem most in need of . 1. The evident Connexion of Reason and Religion may direct us to a right Judgment of those Men who despise and undervalue Sacred Things : for hereby it appears , they despise and undervalue that which they do not understand . The Psalmist hath given us an excellent Character of such Men , The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt and have done abominable works , there is none that doeth good . The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of Men , to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God : Which is as much as to say , That it is the Ignorance and want of Understanding in Men , which makes them entertain any Scruples or Doubtfulness of Heart concerning God. The Acknowledgment of God is also affirm'd in Sacred Scripture , to be the Beginning of all Wisdom , and the Instructions of Religion the best way to perfect it . And he who consents not to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness , is expresly said to be a Fool and know nothing . 'T is therefore a great Error in some , who set up for Men of extraordinary Parts and Wisdom , to speak Evil of Religious Matters : That Singularity in Profaneness which they affect , and hope by its Eminency will recommend them as Persons of a deep Reach , is of all others the most disgraceful . 'T is an Argument , That really they do not see so far into the Intricacies of Truth as they would seem to do . Their Pretensions are , in the Apostle's Stile , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Oppositions of miscalled Science ; and they only declare , that there are a great many Things to be said for Religion which they are not aware of . Should any Man go about to lessen the Eloquence of Cicero , the Poetry of Virgil , the Morals of Seneca or Plutarch , he would only betray his own Unskilfulness ; and his Censures would only render himself contemptible . The same we may say of the Censurers of Religion . Let them please themselves with a Conceit of their own Wit : 't is a Piece not only of Charity , but Wisdom too , to impute their Profaneness to want of Judgment . Whatsoever they may fancy , they are no better than Vulgar Mortals guided by some Sensual or Popular Prejudices , and a superficial View of Things , through which they cannot see into the Excellencies of Religion . II. If Reason and Religion go hand in hand , then you may safely be advised not to condemn or ridicule Religion , till you have carefully examined the Grounds and Reasons on which it is built . Can any be a fairer , or more reasonable Request than this ? Religion is not a Matter of so mean Importance , as to justifie any trifling with it , or the Author of it . If any think to throw off the Fear of God with a scornful Jest , and look no further , it may ( for ought they know ) return again upon them with a serious Horror ; and then they will wish , that they had formerly thought more of it . But if they will resolve to consider before they condemn , and try before they defie it , they will then indeed act like Men , and will presently find enough , if not absolutely to cure , yet at least to make them modest in their Mistakes . 'T is an insufferable piece of Arrogance , for Men to talk against Religion , without enquiring into the Grounds on which its Reputation is supported . 'T is a malicious Ignorance which makes such Scoffers : and 't is enough to raise the Indignation of any serious Christian , to see his dearest Interest trampled under-foot by those who never had any of its Notions in their Head. And pray , Observe the Persons generally accustom'd to vilifie Sacred Things ; Are they Men to be depended on for their Seriousness ? Do they seem to be more fixed in their Thoughts ? more given to Contemplation than other Men ? Or seem they not rather , Men of great Levity , and little Consideration ? who mind only a few sensual and silly Satisfactions , and so entirely devoting their Thoughts that way , as though Reason was given them for no other end , but to make them Beasts with some better Grace and Solemnity . The Apostle takes notice of such Men in his Time , who cared not to retain God in their Knowledge ; and he describes them to be such as professed themselves to be wise , but were really foolish , Men of a vain Imagination , and darkned in their foolish Heart . And it cannot be expected otherwise in this our Age. If Men give themselves up to Lightness and Vanity , 't is no wonder if the substantial and serious Matters of our Belief do not relish well with them . If they are commonly engaged in the Noise and Jollities of a licentious Life , this presently dislodges all Fixedness of Thought as a dull melancholick Thing ; and for their Ease from that Grievance , instead of sober Reasoning , they employ their Mind in idle and empty Talk ; instead of a Soul , calm , sedate , and well-composed for looking into Truth , they are hurried away with every ridiculous Humour and Frolick ; and instead of the Effects of a solid Judgment , nothing but Froth and Formality comes from them . And yet these are the Men , who inspight of their own Genius and Good Manners , must set up for the only Men of Sense and Judgment . They think they can see further in the Hurries and Distractions of a vicious Mind , than another in the most defecate and sober Temper : They think they can enlarge their Knowledge further in an instant , with the help of a little merry Company and a Bottle of Wine , than others can in many Years of Thoughtfulness , and most careful Meditation . And tho' the few Brains and Notions of Truth they had , are scatter'd in an airy and frolicksome Conversation , yet they fancy themselves as well stocked with solid Arguments , as those who have made it their Business to collect the Evidences of Truth all their Lives . The Extravagances of such kind of Men , make them no very proper Managers of Humane Affairs . And why they should not forfeit their Reputation in the Concerns of a Divine Wisdom , which above all Things requires great Sobriety of Thought , can have a Reason given for it only by those who are willing , since it cannot be disputed , that the Cause of God should be laugh'd into Contempt . Be entreated therefore , whoever reads this Book , to lay your Hands upon your Heart , and if any find themselves conscious of an Inclination or Humour to villifie Sacred Things , first to consider what you speak ill of , then upon what Grounds you do it ; and by thus advising with your selves , or others whom you may think more exercised or fit to inform you in these Matters , you will find that Godliness is a Matter of great weight , and supported by many considerable Arguments which before you thought not of : And so , by the Blessing of God , instead of Despising and Scoffing , you may be induced to give GOD that Honour which is due unto him . III. If Religion and the Cause of God be so evidently accountable for , to the severest Reason , This may serve as a general Justification of all Zealous and Well-meaning Christians . God Almighty doth variously distribute his Talents among the Sons of Men. To some Men God is pleased to give a still and contemplative Temper ; and them he capacitates for to look into the hidden Things of his Law , and for returning a satisfactory Account thereof to the rest of the World. To some God is pleased to give a more warm and stirring Temper of Mind , a more vigorous and nimble Spirit ; and these may be zealous and active for God , tho' they do not always give the best Reason and Demonstration for it . But however , by these Diversities of Operation and Temper in the Creature , in carrying in the Cause of God , the one supplies the Defectiveness of the other . 'T is therefore no sufficient Occasion of insulting , in any Irreligious Person , if they find the Zeal of some plain and honest-hearted Christians to go beyond their Knowledge . Every one is not cut out for a Disputer , especially in such Matters which they could hardly ever have dream'd there should have been any Dispute about : And tho' God gives them inward Convictions of the Truth of those Heavenly Doctrines they are zealous for , yet they may not be prepared to encounter the Cavils and Objections which an Artist in Profaneness may raise up . God provides other Means and Instruments for that purpose ; and they must not measure their Conquest by the Insufficiency of less Contemplative Christians , but by the Advantage they can gain over those ( which will be but small ) who have made it their Business to dive into the bottom of their unreasonable Objections . 'T is customary with some Men , to furnish themselves with a few profane Cavils : And if they can but puzzle the Parson , or some honest-hearted Christian , * Illos exaequat victoria coele , they think the Day is their own , and that Religion will never be able to lift up its Head more : Nay , sometimes when a Minister discourses very affectionately concerning the Fear of God and our Duty to him , concerning the Providence of God , and our Acknowledgment of it in many eminent Occurrences of Humane Life ; concerning the Promises of Heaven , and the Terrors of Hell ; such Men , who take themselves to be Men of no ordinary Parts and Judgment , are ready to indulge Themselves and their Neighbour with a scornful Smile . As if a Minister of the Gospel must be always laying the Grounds of Divinity , without making any further Progress in opening to the People the whole Counsel of God : As though none of his Auditory were deserving of his Regards but a Company of Desperadoes , who , like that horrible Monster in the Poet , are by vertue of no Exhortations or Arguments to be reduced from Vice : As though he must be shy or stirring up to Duty , of setting Life and Death , Blessings and Cursings before his Charge , because a great many , who care neither for him nor his Discourses , are not pleased with them . Rather than Religion shall be thus reason'd out of Countenance , let them laugh on still . 'T is better they should despise and wander , than the Life of Piety in humbly disposed Christians should be check'd and perish . Let private Christians go on in their way , without being perplex'd at their Cavils ; let godly Preachers remind their Flock of the Judgments of God , without respecting their Faces , or fearing their Disdain ; and let all know , That as Religion in general , so its particular Doctrines are capable of very rational Proof , though on this or that Opportunity they have but little of it . It would be well , if any thing which is spoken on this Subject , may as effectually over-awe the Rudeness as it doth discover the Ignorance of Irreligious Men ; and make them more modest and suspicious of their own Judgment . 'T is better for them to live under a Sense of God and his Judgments here , than feel the Effects of their wicked Folly and Confidence hereafter ; and they have reason to be thankful for the Kindness of those who will tell them plainly and affectionately , of the Nature and Purposes of God , of his Promises and Threatnings ; since there are such Grounds for this Religious Zeal , as they , with all their Knowledge , are not able to oppose . IV. The Reasonableness of Religion justifies the Provision in all wise and well-order'd States , for the suppressing of Profaneness and supporting Piety . The Honour of Government can never be consistent with the Dishonour of God : And how tolerable soever Differences in Religion may be , the Defiance of all Religion is not to be endured . The most rigorous Inquisition , or Enforcements to Uniformity , are preferable to that Indulgence , which permits the most impudent Infidelity to thrive and spread under its Shelter . The Sword of Authority is put into the Hands of Magistrates , for the Restraint of Ungodliness , and was employed by a Prince after God's own Heart , for rooting out all wicked Doers from the City of the Lord. Severity against Blasphemous Wretches is no Breach of Moderation , but a piece of Justice to the Government , of Charity to the Governed , and the Sufferers themselves can complain of no hard Usage thereby . 1. If very severe Laws were made and executed against the Profaners of Religion , What Obligation , either of Interest , Conscience , Generosity , or Good Manners , are any under , to bring themselves in danger of the Penalty ? If they , like the Fool in the Psalmist , say in their Heart , That there is no God , it is their Interest to conceal their Folly , and to wish none may be of that Opinion besides themselves . For by this means they have a Tye over all others , which others have not over them ; and whether they are Masters or Servants , Parents or Children , Husbands or Wives , or in whatsoever worldly Commerce , Relations , or Business they are concern'd , the Belief of a superintending Deity will awe their Relatives to be faithful and affectionate , and discharge a good Conscience to them : A Privilege ! which it is very much for their Advantage to preserve . Nor can Conscience engage them to make Proselites , by openly professing their Infidelity . Both the Laws of God , and the Laws of Man , the proper Rules of Conscience , dispose them to be silent : And if Conscience especially , as they say , be no other than the Biass of Education , we may hope none have so naughty an Education , as to think it their Duty , to disturb the Religious Impressions of Education or Conscience in other People . The most plausible Pretext is , that of Generosity , Regard to Truth , and the Welfare of Mankind . It grieves them to see the World so basely enslaved to Religion , and Man's Life oppressed with Superstitious Fears or Fancies , drawing them off from the Comforts they might enjoy , or embittering their Enjoyment . But , alas ! Unless we are perswaded of a Supream Governour and a Future State , the Life of Man hardly deserves our Notice : We are here to Day , and gone to Morrow ; and it signifies little what different Perswasions Men are acted by , what different Scenes they have passed through , when Death in a very little time will bring them to be all alike . If Men are now and then melancholick , 't is no great matter ; Some critical Turn of Humours in the Body , some favourable Frown of Nature , will give them their Quietus , and they will sooner find a Cure by the loss of Life than Religion . Besides , most of the Melancholly which Religious Men are infested with , is originally owing to the Contagion of wicked Company : From thence terrifying Doubts and Occasions of Disorder are suggested ; from thence many unhappy Turns of Thought , which their holy Souls abhor , but cannot so easily get clear of again : So that instead of promoting the Ease and Welfare of Mankind , these wicked Renegadoes , in tempting Men from God , prove only the Instruments of their Torment . But , setting aside the Infirmities of Constitution , and some unfortunate Accidents , generally speaking , Religious Men have much the better of it , much the more comfortable and happy part even here on Earth : For which we may appeal to Experience , and thereby acquaint these men of Honour and Generosity , that whether the Votaries of Religion are in the right or no ; their condition is very comfortable , and it would be much more generous and good natured to let them go on in their own way . And if any thing of good Manners may be expected from these men , one would think they might make the Ostentations of their particular Improvements , give way to publick Constitution and Custom . If they are allowed to think themselves wiser then all the World , 't is not fit they should make a noise of it , and fly in the face of the most Reverenc'd Establishments , meerly for a vain-glorious humour . But if neither the Palaces of Princes , nor the Laws of a State , nor the Solemnities of a City , nor the Consent of all grave and serious Men , nor the Awe of a People fearing God , the great Supports to the Reputation of Religion , can move them to any modest regards unto it ; Can they wonder if their Impudence receives a check , and brings some Trouble upon itself , by its presumptuous troubling of Israel ? The rebating of their rudeness they must thank themselves for , and have no reason to complain , if their own perversness punish them . 2. The interposal of Authority for the Punishment of these Evil doers , is a great piece of Charity . The longer they are suffered to go on with Impurity , the more will they be hardned in their Wickedness , and the further will their Venome spread . If the execution of good Laws against them be for any time deferred , they will think that Governours are like themselves : that they secretly believe as they do , tho' they do not so openly aver it . Connivance at their practise will argue consent to their Principle ; and gives them more then a liberty , even the allowance of the State , to be as irreligious as they please . In the mean while the Souls of plain honest people are perplex'd , if not dangerously ensnared . The very Confidence of Infidels is enough to stagger their Faith ; for it will be presumed , they durst not with so high a hand fight against God , unless they had well considered their strength , and on what grounds they engaged . Every honest Christian has not a stock of Reason to answer their Cavils : and where their Insinuations against God , do not entirely bring over to the Devils side , yet have we instances of many , in whose sides their deadly arrows have for a long time stuck , and even brought down their heads in sorrow to the Grave . Oh ye Kings and Princes ! Let the sighing and sad Estate of many poor Souls engage your Commiseration . Ye would be esteem'd the Fathers of your Country , the Defenders of the Faith , and the Refuge of the Distressed : Let all the World then see , You have some regard to the Characters which you assume , and avenge the Heritage of God of those Adversaries to their Internal and Eternal Peace , which go up and down in all Companies seeking whom they may surprize , distract and devour . Countenance not their reserved Impieties with your Favour , nor let your Justice spare them when they are bold and bare-fac'd : 'T is better that Thousands such Wretches should be cut off , than that their Tongues should be suffer'd to go through the World , corrupting others , speaking wicked Blasphemies , and talking at so abominable a rate against the Most High. 3. As Charity to others , so a just Regard to your selves , and the Stability of the Government , may require this of you . Many excellent Arguments there are , shewing the Necessity of maintaining Religion for maintaining the State ; which the Adversaries of God are very sensible of , inveighing against Piety as the Invention of Politicians . This only at present all Kings and Princes ought to be put in mind of , That if they take no Care of Religion , in a little time , neither the Religious nor Irreligious will care much for them . 1. The Irreligious are Men for this present World , prepared indifferently for every new Stamp and Impression : Put them in the way of their Interest , and they are in their own Element , let the Government be what it will. Every Prospect of Danger holds them in Suspence ; every Flood of Affairs which changes their Fortunes for the better , changes their Affection . To exclaim against Ingratitude and Baseness , are Words cast into the Air : From the Follies of Impiety springs the Wisdom of the World : Their Portion is in this Life , and they must make the best of it . Princes are exposed to Dangers from abroad , and had need have some Trusty Friends and Counsellors at home : And a greater Advantage cannot a bordering Enemy have against any Prince , than when his People are poison'd with Infidelity . They are liable then to all Bribes and Corruption ; and he that can give the best Pension , shall have the best Party . They become by degrees froward and high-gran'd ; and if they have not their Revenge and Ambition , their Covetousness or Lusts , gratified to the full ; if they are not humour'd in every thing , they begin to blow the Trumpet of Innovation , every Man to his Tents , leaving their Prince to shift for himself , while they think of new Measures . The Character of Princes is never Sacred to them , but when it comes ready coin'd into their Pockets : Nor whatever they may pretend , would they prize the Liberties or Properties of any People , if it were not to preserve their own . So that nothing can secure their Fidelity , when once they are fallen from their Allegiance unto God : If you flatter your self , that some Doctrines are so ridiculous and absurd , that nothing can dispose them to further their Establishment , yea , in their Opinion , as Priests of all Religions are alike , so is likewise the Profession : and if they see things brought to a pinch , the little Tyes of Honour or Friendship will no longer hold them . Or , perchance , the Fear of Servitude , or the Loss of their Estates , may keep them steady to their Duty and the Service of their Prince : And , questionless , this , if any thing , will make them hearty against a Foreign Power , and excite them to run very great Adventures , rather than be ruin'd and tormented before their time . But when the Calentures of a State come near unto a Crisis , they begin to cast in their Minds , which is the strongest Side , and think it no small Artifice to save themselves by the Sacrifice of their Country . All Estates and Polities are alike to the Irreligious : Humour and Interest wind them variously about , and Governours may portend how they shall be served , by the Respect which is paid to God and his Service among their People . 2. The Religious deserve especial Consideration in the State , as Persons whose Affection and Fealty may be depended on : They esteem Government as the Ordinance , and Governours as the Ministers , of God : Liberty is never more grateful to them , nor Life on Earth more expressive of the Heavenly , than under the Protection of Pious Kings . They look upon their Authority with an obsequious Love and Reverence , and prosecute their Commands with Heartiness and Integrity . They fear no Diminution of their own Happiness from the encreasing Successes of their Royal Power ; but believe the best of their Persons , hope the best from their Conduct , and endure all Things for their Sake . If the Number of such Persons at present be very few , the Religious Care of Governours , under the Divine Blessing , may add to them . But , when the Reins of Coercion are remitted unto blind Chance , and the Vermin of Corruption swarm abroad , and make no small Buz in the Sun-shine of Security , what a melancholick Scene of Thought does this open to all well-disposed and serious Minds . Scepticism , in former Times , has been adjudged to merit the Scrutiny and Severities of the State ; and all those flourishing Empires , the Records of whose Glory swell the Cheeks of Fame , have ever agrandiz'd themselves under the Banners of Piety : Vertue inspir'd their Soldiery with true Courage and Vigour , and Religion gave Reputation to their Arms. The World affords never an Instance of Triumphant Atheism : and if , through the Iniquity of the Times , and an extream Abhorrence of having Asses for Subjects , Irreligion be permitted to spread in the Camp and Council , in the City and Country , how great soever the Prince himself may be , the utmost such Toleration will prefer him to , is , in too large and literal a Sense , to be a King of Devils . Oh , the Reproach that such a Brood must bring upon a Church and Nation ! and the Grief it must produce in all the Fearers of God , to hear the Hopes , the Author , the Means of their Salvation , so frequently blasphem'd ! If it go on much further , being deliver'd over , for the Correction of our Sins , into the Hands of those Men whose Mercies are cruel , is the milder Judgment of the two . When a Nation is once sunk into the Dregs of Impiety , whatever Stirs or Commotions may fall out , whatever Changes in Government may succeed , there is some Hopes of its arising into a better State , no Fear of its growing worse . Calamity at least may reform their Manners , whom Prosperity had corrupted ; and they may be induced to acknowledge God in his Judgments , who disdain his Mercy . 'T is highly behooveful therefore , for Governours , in securing Themselves to secure a Reverence for Religion : Because , Irreligion will break the Bonds of Love , Honour , and Fidelity , whereby Subjects are tied to their Authority ; and a general Profaneness grieving the Hearts of the Religious , makes them indifferent unto the State that suffers it . V. Since our Belief of God is so rationally grounded , from thence we may learn , not only the Folly , Rashness and Rudeness , but also the Inexcusableness of those Men , who live without the Sense of God in the World. St. Paul affirms of the darkest Times of Heathenism , that God did not leave himself without Witness ; and that the Eternal Power and Godhead was manifested to them by the Things that were made ; and from thence concludes them to be without Excuse . How much more inexcusable must such Men be in this our Age of Light , wherein the Advantages of the Gospel doth not only appear by the new Revelations made unto us , but by improving our Rational Faculties , and enabling us to look more judiciously into the Frame and Laws of Nature , than they could before . If all the Light , which now shines among us , will not awaken the Drowsiness , remove the Wilfulness , work on the Infidelity of some Men ; if they will still please themselves with Fancy and Vanity , with Shadows and Delusions , and prefer their own Darkness before this Light , their Sin hath all the heightning Aggravations it is capable of . And what can they answer unto God , for such their unreasonable Opposition to his Laws ? for perverting the Excellencies of their own Mind , and abusing his Mercy , and turning the noblest Accomplishments of Humane Nature against the Author of them ? What can they say , when God sets these Misdemeanours before their Eyes ? when , to their own Shame and Confusion , they come to a Sense of their former Errors ? when their Reason and Consciences ( here drowned in Sottishness and Sensual Joys ) shall be awaken'd , and the Revelation of the Great Day , shall discover to them and to all the World , the Falsity and incorrigible Senselesness , the Incoherence and Weakness of those silly Arguments and Excuses wherein they prided themselves against God ? This Time will come we need not doubt , but safely believe , O Heavenly Father , when the Tongues of thy Holy Ones shall turn unto thy Praise , and the Mouth of all Wickedness shall be stop'd . Lastly , Since our Faith in God is not to be shaken by the strongest Reason , this may be a Matter of great Joy and Comfort unto all Faithful Christians , That God who made them and governs the World , will bear a continual Respect unto them ; will reward all their pious Cares and Fears ; will supply all their Weaknesses ; will help them through all Temptations ; will be with them in all their Conflicts and Strivings against Sin. They may boast themselves to be the only Wise-men ; to build upon the wisest Expectations and Principles ; to use the best means for their Everlasting Comfort , and for securing the Favour of their God , who is the best Friend . They may live in a joyful Perswasion of the Goodness of their God , and of his Intentions to make them happy ; and may think within themselves , How when the Wicked shall not be able to stand in Judgment , the Lord will own them for his People , and glorifie their Faith , and receive them to an Eternal Communion with Himself and his Son Jesus Christ , in whom they trusted . Be exhorted therefore and encouraged in the Apostle's Words , Heb. 10.35 . &c. Cast not away your confidence in God , which hath great recompense of Reward : For yet , a little while the Lord will come , and will not tarry : And if like Just Men ye live by Faith , and continue Faithful unto Death , the Lord will raise you up in Likeness to the Glory of his Son , and give you a Crown of Life . If you believe in God , and make towards Heaven , the Place of his Abode , with heavenly Hearts and Affections , you will find that you are not deceived in your Faith ; the God in whom you believe , being a Rewarder of all those who diligently seek him . To whom be Glory and Obedience for ever and ever . Amen . FINIS . BOOKS lately Printed for William Rogers . SErmons and Discourses , in 3 Volumes . Octav. The Rule of Faith ; Or , An Answer to the Treatise of Mr. I. Sergeant . Octav. Eleven Sermons , in Quart. Sermons concerning the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour , Octav. A Sermon Preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall , April 9th . 1693 , concerning the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ , on Heb. 9.26 . Quart. A Sermon concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature and Trinity , on 1 Tim. 2.5 . A Discourse against Transubstantiation . Price 3 d. A Perswasive to Frequent Communion . Stich'd Price 3 d. Bound Price 6 d. Six Sermons : 1. Stedfastness in Religion . 2. Family Religion . 3 , 4 , 5 , Education of Children . 6. The Advantages of an Early Piety , Octav. These all by his Grace John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury . A Practical Discourse concerning Death . Oct. A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment . Oct. A Discourse concerning the Divine Providence . Quart. These Three by Dr. Sherlock Dean of S. Pauls . Mr. Tyrril's brief Disquisition of the Law of Nature according to the Principles and Methods laid down in the Reverend Bishop Cumberland's Latin Treatise on that Subject . Octav. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A48887-e260 * Aeternitas est interminabilis vitae tota simul & perfecta possessio . De Consolat . l. 5. * As several believed Sir Francis Drake's Ships in 1588 did arise from Chips thrown into the Water . * Strabo Geogr. l. 16. † Plutarch de Plac. Phil. l. 1. c. 13. Hier. in Aur. Car. p. 253. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. The Testimony of Theophilus against Empedocles , we cannot allow , which you have ad Autolycum l. 3. for he says as bad of the Stoicks l. 2. and may be balanced , in behalf of Empedocles , by Athenagoras , Lactantius , and other Christians . * Diog. Laert. in vitâ Plut. de Pla. Phil. l. 1. c. 5. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. † Laert. in vitâ . ‖ Omnis enim per se divum natura necesse est immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur . l. 1. & alibi . * Laert. in vitâ . † Laert. in vitâ , & Seneca Osten . * Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. † Plutarch against the pleasant Life of Epicurus . ‖ Declinando faciunt primordia motus principium quoddam quod fati foedera rumpat . Lucret. l. 2. Cic. de Fato . * Diog. Laert. in Epicuro . Rochester's Satyr against Man. † Cicero de fato . ‖ Diog. Laert . in Vitâ Epicuri , & Lucret. l. 2. & alibi . * Diog. Laert. in vitâ . Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. † Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. ‖ Cic. de fn . l. 1. ‖ Lucret. l. 5. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. * Fate are necesse est esse alios alibi congressus materi ai qualis hic est . Lucr. l. 2. Cic. de fin . l. 1. Lucr. l. 5. Plut. d Plac. l. 2. c. 210. * Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. † Origen . cont . Celsum , ib. 4. ‖ Tinuis enim Natura Deum longéque remotā sensibus ab nostris . Lucret . lib. 5. ‖ Nec bene promeritis capitur nec tangitur ira , Lucret. l. 1. Natura videtur Libera continuo dominis privata superbis ipsa suâ per se sponte omnia Diis agere expers . Lucret. l. 2. * Leviathan , c. 31. & alibi . † Gomarus , Maccovius , Amyraldus , Camero , &c. ‖ Hierocles de Provid . & Fato . * Arminii Thes. privat . de Praedest . 27. Remonstrantes Explic. cap. 9. ad Roman . &c. especially Curcellaeus de dominio dei in Creaturas Innocentes . † Hierocles , ut supra . ‖ See Curcellaeus . * Causin of Constantine . * Lucretias . Plutarch , &c. † Plutarch . adversus Colotem , & de Repugnantiis Stoicorum , & Arrian , Epictetus l. 1. c. 23. & alibi . * Luke 19.22 . ‖ Aristot. Meteor . l. 1. c. 14. * Diodor. Sic. l. 5. c. 13. Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 87. † Pliny . Philo ibid. & Aristot. apud Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12. ‖ Nat. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 85 , 87 , 89. * Verstegan l. 1. c. 4. Cambden , &c. † Plin. l. 2. c. 88. Strabo l. 1. Diod. Sic. l. 4. c. 14. ‖ Aristot. de Mun. c. 4. Philo , Strabo , Pliny , &c. ‖‖ In Trinaeo , Critiâ , &c. See also the later Histories of Peru and Mexico . Lipsius Physiol . Stoic . p. 247. * Ocellus Lucanus de Universo cap. 3. Aristot . de Mundo passim . † Aristot. de coelo lib. 3. cap. 6. de mundo , & de Generat . & Corrupt . passim . Item , Ocellus Lucan c. 2. ‖ Aristot. de coelo lib. 1. cap. 10. lib. 2.3 . passim . Plut. de Pla. lib. 1. cap. 3. * Cartes . princip . Philosophiae , Part. 3. Sect. 104. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 2. c. 26. † Aristot. de Met. l. 1. c. 67. Plut. de Plac. Phil. 3. c. 1 , 2. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Ocell . cap. & Aristot. de coelo , l. c. 10. ‖ 2 Pet. 3.4 . ●t . Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Aelian . var. Hist. l. 3. c. 19. † Diog. Laert . in vitâ , & Aristot. Phys. l. 1. c. 1. * Cicer. in Lucullo . Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot . de Coelo . Physic. Audit . de Generat . & Corrup . passim . † Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ‖ Vide Nagarolae Annot . in Ocellum . * In vita Archytae . Ocellus Lucanus . in Stobaeo . Eclog . Phys. l. 1. c. 16. Ocellus de Universo , cap. 2. Idem , cap. 4 Aristotle de Coelo , l. 1. c. 4. Idem . l. 1. c. 3. De coelo , l. 2. c. 12. De Generat . & Corrup . l. 2. c. 10. De Mundo passim . Aut Aristoteles , aut Aristotelicus . * See Marcilius Ficinus , in Platonis Timaeum , c. 13. & Iohannes Grammaticus . † See Hierocles de Providencia , & Aenaeas Gazaeut . ‖ Aquinas , Suarez , Vasquez , Greg. Valentia , Baronias , &c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sallustius de Diis & Mundo , c. 7. † De Mundo sub nomine Aristotelle . Metaphys . Maj. cap. 2. Metaphys . sub nomine Theophrati , cap. 1. ‖ Diog. Laert . in Aristotele . Metaphys . maj . c. 7. * 〈…〉 * Nec ob hoc minus liber & poten● est . Sen. ibid. N. Q. pr. 1. † Phys. l. 8. c. 4. ‖ Princip . Philosoph . Part 2. Sect. 37. * Aristot. Phys. l. 8. c. 5. † Cap. 6. ‖ Ibid. c. 10. It. Plato de Leg. l. 10. & Iohannes Gram. in Aristot. de Animâ . Prooem . * Aristot. Metaphys . min. l. 1. c. 2. * Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 30. † Phlegon . in Euseb. Chron. sub Tiberio . Origen . Tract . on Matt. 35. Tertul. Apol. c. 21. ‖ See Car●●s his Account of Comets . Princip . Philosoph . Part 3. Sect. 115 , &c. * Pet. 3.10.12 . † Physiol . Stoic . l. 2. Dissert . 22. ‖ Consolat . ad Martiam , ad finem . ‖ Plato in Timaeo . See also Celsus apud Originem centra Celsum , l. 1. p. 16. Sen. Nat. Quaest. l. 3. c. 28. * See Alex. ab Alexandro , and Censorinus . † Moor's Mystery of Godliness . ‖ Cartes Princip . Phi. Part 3. Sect. 2. * Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 116. † 〈…〉 l. 6. Ep. ●● . ‖ Princip . Philosoph . Part 3. Sect. 104. ‖ ‖ 〈…〉 ‖ Aristot. M●●eorol . l. 1. c. 14. Diod. Sic. l. 1. Lucret l. 2.5 . * More Nevah . p. 2. c. 25. * Quum non tum primum , cum visibilem istum mundum fecit Deus coeperit operari : s●d sicut , post corruptionem hujus , erit alius mundus , & ita antequam hic esset , fuisse alios credimus . Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l. 3. c. 5. Sicut scriptum est in Iob , quando factae sunt stellae , laudaverunt eum omnes angeli ejus : quasi antiquitores non solum homine post creato , sed & omni creaturâ propter eum creat● . Origen . Tract . 9. in Matt. & alibi . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( i. e. The Earth Created for Man ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysos . Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , c. 7. To these may be added about a dozen of the Ancient Fathers , many of our School-Men , and Philo the Iew. See also Commentators on Iob 38.7 . Psal. 14. Ps. 111.10 . Ps. 119.98 . 1 Tim. 6.4 . 1 Tim. 6.20 . Rom. 1. 28. 22. 21. * Lucret. l. 1. Iuven. Sat. 4. Humana ante oculos foede cum vita faceret . In ●●rris oppressa gravi sub Religione , &c. Lucret. Acts 14.17 . Rom. 1.19 , 20. Heb. 11.6 .