and accurate, to proceed from the like cause, though invisible to us, and performing its workmanship by a secret hand? I am sure, the most diligent contemplators of nature, and those of the most incredulous temper, and freest from any prejudice favourable to religion, have not been able to deny, that abundance of counsel and wisdom discovers itself in the 2 Phys. c. 3. works of nature: Aristotle (whom no man surely takes for superstitious or partial to the interests of religion) hath a whole chapter in his Physics to prove that nature works with design and for an end: De Part.A- and otherwhere he affirms, ἡ φύσις ἕνεκα τῶν πάντα ποιεῖ, Nature doeth all things for some end: yea further,

nim. ii.

Μᾶλλον δ ̓ ἐστὶ τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα, καὶ τὸ καλὸν ἐν τοῖς τῆς φύσεως Η φύσις οὐ. ἔργοις, ἢ ἐν τοῖς τῆς τέχνης: Tending to an end, and diy days, endeavouring what is best, is more observable in Toi. De the works of nature, than in those of art. This he

οὐδὲ μάτην

Cœlo,ii. 11.

Οὐδὲν τῶν

καλῶν εἰκῆ

Oudi Ty speaketh in his books De Partibus Animalium, the xas is consideration of which extorteth this confession from γίνεται,

δημιουργού

Placitis P.

i. 6. Cujus (na

tiam nulla

mo opifex

λ him: and if nature works so much for an end, there Tx must be an understanding that intends it, and orders ns. Plut.de fit means for attaining it. Galen is observed in some places of his writings to speak somewhat irrelitura) soler- giously, yet in his books De Usu Partium he canars, nulla not forbear admiring the wisdom that shines forth in manus, ne- the structure of our bodies, breaking forth sometimes consequi into hymns of praise and thankfulness to him that tando, Cic. made it. The like expressions hath Cardan, such 83. another not over-devout philosopher; and even our own countryman Mr. Hobbs, how little a friend he otherwise seems to religion, and how ready soever to deride those that by reason endeavour to prove there is a God, yet being overcome by the evidence of the thing, hath somewhere let fall these words; Itaque,

possit imi

de N.D. p.

De Homi

ne, cap. 1.

saith he, ad sensus procedo: satis habens si hujusmodi res attigero tantum, plenius autem tractandas aliis reliquero, qui si machinas omnes tum generationis tum nutritionis satis perspexerint, nec tamen eas a mente aliqua conditas, ordinatasque ad sua quasque officia viderint, ipsi profecto sine mente esse censendi sunt.

Neither doth the force of this argument subsist here, but, as we intimated, the correspondence and relation of outward things to our needs, appetites, and capacities, doth mightily confirm it: if we had organs of nutrition, and nothing to feed them; senses, and nothing to prove or please them; hands and feet, without means or cause to use them, we might have some reason to think these things made causelessly and vainly: but it is, we see, altogether otherwise; all things are accommodated for us, so that we could not wish or conceive better. Which to them, who will not perversely dote, cannot but argue, not a wisdom only, but an exceeding benignity, careful and tender of our good.

Thus much the most common and obvious effects of nature here below, within us and about us, do signify to us: thus, as St. Paul preached, God hath six àμágτvnot left himself unattested, doing good, sending us. from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling our Act. iv. 17.

f Quis hunc hominem dixerit, qui cum tam certos cœli motus, tam ratos astrorum ordines, tamque inter se connexa et apta viderit, neget in his ullam inesse rationem, eaque casu fieri dicat, quæ quanto consilio gerantur, nullo consilio assequi possumus ? Cic. ii. De Nat. D. p. 90. Who will call him a man, &c. & pứois ἀεὶ ποιεῖ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων τὸ βέλτιστον· Αεί τε γὰρ ἥλιος, καὶ σελήνη, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἀστέρων τὴν ὑπόγειον φορὰν ἐνεχθέντα, ὅμοια μὲν ἀνατέλλει τοῖς χρώμασιν, ἴσα δὲ τοῖς μεγέθεσι, καὶ κατὰ τόπους καὶ κατὰ χρόνους τοὺς aurous. Plut. de Plac. Phil. i. 6.

τον ἑαυτὸν ἀ

esse tam a

pertum, tamque

perspicuum, cum

cœlum sus

cœlestiaque

ti sumus,

quod esse

numen

simæ men

regantur?

hearts with food and gladness: nor do the heavens less declare the glory of God, and the firmament his Quid potest handy-work: he that shall consider with what regularity and what constancy those vast bodies perform their rapid motions; what pleasure, comfort, and advantage their goodly light doth yield us; how peximus, necessary and profitable to us the vicissitudes of time contempla- and recourses of seasons are, which they make; how quam ali- their influences conduce to the general welfare and preservation of things even here below, cannot but præstantis- wonder, and wondering adore that beneficent wistis, quo hæc dom and power, that hath disposed and still preserves them in such order. Could they without a wise hand, by a casual running together of atoms, or whatever senseless matter, be so ordered, as for six thousand years together to persist in the same places, and retain the same periods of time, in their motion, without any sensible alteration? He that can think it, may think any thing, and it were in vain to endeavour to confute him: how much more reasonable is that heathen philosopher, who thus speaks; Esse præstantem aliquam, æternamque naturam et eam suspiciendam, adorandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi, ordoque rerum cœlestium cogit confiteri.

Cic. ii. de

N.D. p. 53.

g An cum machinatione quadam moveri aliquid videmus, ut sphæram, ut foras, ut alia permulta, non dubitamus quin illa opera sint rationis; cum autem impetum cœli admirabili cum celeritate moveri, vertique videamus, constantissime conficientem vicissitudines anniversarias cum summa salute, et conservatione rerum omnium, dubitamus quin ea non solum ratione fiant, sed etiam excellenti quadam divinaque ratione? Cic. ii. de N. D. 90. b Cic. ii. de Divin.

Quod si omnes mundi partes ita constitutæ sunt, ut neque ad

tull. adv.

te flexeris,

Every Quocunque plant, ibi illum vi

debisoccur

&c. Senec.

But this argument is infinite and inexhaustible; as full and pregnant as is the world of creatures ; each of which is a wonder, and proclaims the incomprehensible wisdom, power, and goodness of its Maker to us: we cannot without stopping our eyes Vid. Terexclude that light of divine glory, which fills and Marc. i. 13. illustrates the world; without stopping our ears we cannot but hear that universal shout (that real harmony of the spheres) which all creatures in heaven and earth consent in utterance to his praise. star in heaven, every beast upon earth, every every mineral, yea every stone; some in a language rentem tibi, very loud and express proclaim, others in a more Benef.iv.8. still and low (yet to an attentive ear sufficiently au- Psal. xix. dible and significant) strain do speak those most glorious properties of God; There is no speech or language, where their voice is not heard; their accent is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world, as the Psalmist sings. The To YuwOTO) TOD OEOũ, as St. Paul speaks, the Rom. i. 19. cognoscibility of God, is manifest in and by them : and the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and divinity, are perceived by observing the makes or constitutions of the creatures in the world; as St. Paul's words may be rendered, with which I conclude this argument.

2dly, That there is a God, is proved by the general consent of mankind concerning it; by that testimonium, as Lactantius speaks, populorum atque Lact. i. 2.

usum meliores potuerint esse, neque ad speciem pulchriores, &c. De N. D.

ii. p. 85.

Kandy Tolkinμa TEKTOVOS σopo. Eurip. de Mundo, apud Plut. de Plac. i. 6.

gentium in una hac re non dissidentium; that unanimous testimony of all people and nations not disagreeing in this only point. If the authority of some particular men, agreeing in vote, of one city, of one nation, doth pass for an argument, and shews the thing probable, how can we decline or contemn the common suffrage of mankind? He had need have a very clear and strong reason for it, who will dare to dissent from all the world. Hear Seneca thus disEpist. 117. coursing; Multum dare solemus præsumptioni omnium hominum; apud nos veritatis argumentum est, aliquid omnibus videri; tanquam Deos esse sic colligimus, quod omnibus de Diis opinio insita est; nec ulla gens usquam est adeo extra leges moresque projecta, ut non aliquos Deos credat: Vid. Gr. de Cum de animarum æternitate disserimus, non leve V. R. p. 37. De Jure B. momentum apud nos habet consensus hominum, aut ac P. ii. 20. timentium inferos, aut colentium. That is, we are

45.

De Nat. D.

ii. p. 57.

vid. p. 53.

De N. D. i.

wont to attribute much to what all men presume;

it is an argument with us of truth, that any thing seems true to all: as that there be Gods, we hence collect, that all men have implanted in them an opinion concerning the Gods; neither is there any nation so destitute of laws and manners, that it doth not believe there be some Gods.

In like manner Cicero; Itaque inter omnes omnium gentium sententia constat : omnibus enim innatum est, et in animo quasi insculptum, esse Deos; quales sint varium est, esse nemo negat: It is therefore an opinion manifest among all men of all nations, and, as it were, engraven in their minds, that there be Gods: how qualified they are, there is a difference; that they are, none denies.

Even Nelleius, the Epicurean, in his disputation