thefe Views and Confiderations ufeful to our felves. Which I fhall do in the following Chapters. CHAP. I. The Existence of GOD collected by. the Heathens from the Works of the Heavens. T HE firft and most ready and natural Deduction we can make from fuch a glorious Scene of Workmanship, as is before represented, is to confider, Who the Great Workman was? That the Author of all this glorious Scene of Things was GOD, is fuch a Conclufion, that even the most ignorant, and barbarous part of Mankind have been able to make from the the manifeft Signals vifible therein; Signals fo plain and conclusive, that Tully's Stoick (a) cites it as Ariftotle's Opinion, That if there were fuch a Sort of People, that had always lived under the Earth, in good and fplendid Habitations, adorned with Imagery and Pictures, and furnished with all Things that thofe accounted happy abound with: And fuppofing that these People had never at any Time gone out upon the Earth, but only by Report had heard there was fuch a Thing as a Deity, and a Power of the Gods; and that at a certain Time afterwards, the Earth fhould open, and this People get out of their hidden Manfions into the Places we inhabit: When on the fudden they should see the Earth, the Seas, and the Heavens; perceive the Magnitude of the Clouds, and the Force of the Winds; behold the Sun, (a) De Nat. Deor. L. 2. c. 37. and and its Grandeur and Beauty; and know its Power in making the Day, by diffufing his Light throughout the whole Heavens; and when the Night had overfpread the Earth with Darkness, they should difcern the whole Heavens befpread and adorned with Stars, and fee the Variety of the Moon's Phafes in her Increase, and Decrease, together with the Rifings and Settings, and the ftated and immutable Courses of all these throughout all Eternity; this People, when they fhould fee all thefe Things, would infallibly imagine that there are Gods, and that thofe grand Works were the Works of the Gods. Thus have we the Opinion and Conclufion of two eminent Heathens together, Ariftotle, and Tully's Stoick. And if the Heavens fo plainly declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament fheweth his Handy work; if work (b); if those Characters, those Impreffes of the divine Hand, are fo legible, that their Line is gone out through all the Earth; and their Words to the End of the World, fo that there is no Language, Tongue, or Speech where their Voice is not heard; nay thefe Things are fuch, that even a fubterraneous People would, at first fight, conclude them to be GOD's Work; how daring and impudent, how unworthy of a rational Being is it, to deny these Works to GOD, and ascribe them to any Thing, yea a mere Nothing, as Chance is, rather than GOD? Tully's Stoick laft mentioned, denieth him to be a Man who fhould do this. His Words (c) are, Who would fay he is a Man, who when he should behold the Motions of the Heavens to be fo certain, and the Orders of the Stars so established, and (b) Pfal. xix. 1, &c. 2 all all Things fo well connected and adapted together, and deny that Reafon was here, and fay these Things were made by Chance, which are managed with fuch profound Counsel, that with all our Wit we are not able to fathom them? What! faith he, when we fee a Thing moved by fome certain Device, as a Sphere, the Hours, and many Things befides; we make no doubt but that these are the Works of Reafon. And So when we fee the noble Train of the Heavens, moved, and wheeled about, with an admirable Pace, and in the most conftant manner, making those anniverfary Changes, fo neceffary to the Good and Prefervation of all Things; do we doubt whether thefe Things are done by Reason, yea, by fome more excellent and divine Reafon? For, faith he, fetting afide the Subtilties of Difputation, we may actually behold with our Eyes, in fome Meafure, the Beauty of thofe |