THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY, COMPARED WITH NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, (as both are Objects of Men's Study.)  
Discoursed of In a LETTER to a Friend.  
By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society.  
To which are annexed Some Occasional Thoughts about the EXCELLENCY and GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS.  
By the same Author.  Felicitatem Philosophi quaerunt; Theologi inveniunt; soli Religiosi possi●ent. 
LONDON, Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman, at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange. 1674.   

The PUBLISHER's Advertisement to the Reader.  
WHen I shall have told the Reader, that the following Discourse was written in the year 1665, while the Author, to avoid the great Plague that then raged in London, was reduced with many others to go into the Country, and frequently to pass from place to place, unaccompanied with most of his Books; it will not, I presume, be thought strange, that in the mention of some things taken from other Writers, as his memory suggested them, he did not annex in the Margin the precise places that are referred to. And, upon the same score, it ought not to seem strange, that he has not mentioned some late Discoveries and Books that might have been pertinently taken notice of, and would well have accommodated some parts of his Discourse; since things that may thus seem to have been omitted, are of too recent a Date to have been known to him when He writ. But if it be demanded, why then a Discourse finished so long ago, did not come abroad much sooner? I must acquaint the Reader, That 'twas chiefly his real Concern for the welfare of the Study he seems to depreciate, that kept these Papers so long by him. For he resisted for several years the desires of Persons that have much power with him, and suppressed the following Discourse, whilst he feared it might be misapplyed by some Enemies to Experimental Philosophy, that then made a noise against it, without suffering these Papers to come abroad, till the Addresses and Encomiums of many eminent Foreign Virtuosos, and their desire to be admitted into the Royal Society, had sufficiently manifested, how little its Reputation was prejudiced, or like to be endangered, by the attempts of some envious or misinformed Persons. And to this Reason must be added the Author's backwardness to venture abroad a Discourse of an unusual Nature, on which account, among others, he declined to have his Name prefixed to it; though, now the Book is Printed, he finds cause to fear, that 'twill not be long concealed; since he meets with some Marginal References to other Tracts of His, which (these Papers having long lain by him) he forgot to have been set down for private use, and which should not have been exposed to public view.   

ERRATA.  
IN the Author's Preface, p. 13. l. 7, 8. for somewhat, r. much. In the Introduction, p. 2. l. 18. point thus, else; our. In the Book, p. 51. l. 17. for Corpuscularium, r. Corpuscularian. p, 75. l. 2. for he, r. we. p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy. p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of. ibid. l. 19 r. else do but. p. 171. l. ult. for of. r. or. p. 172. l. 28. for indeed, r. 'twill perhaps he said that. p. 201. l. 12. point thus; Predecessors, did unanimously teach.   

The Author's PREFACE.  
I Am not so little acquainted with the Temper of this Age, and of the Persons that are likeliest to be Perusers of the following Tract, as not to foresee it to be probable enough, that Some will ask, For what Reason a Discourse of this Nature was written at all; and that Others will be displeased that it has been written by Me.  
Those that would know, by what Inducements my Pen was engaged on this Subject, may be in great part informed by the Epistle itself, in divers places whereof, as especially about the Beginning, and at the Close, the Motives that invited me to put Pen to Paper are sufficiently expressed. And though several of those Things are peculiarly applied, and (if I may so speak) appropriated to the Person the Letter is addressed to; yet that Undervaluation, I would dissuade Him from, of the Study of Things Sacred, is not His fault alone, but is grown so rise among many (otherwise Ingenious) Persons, especially Studiers of Physics, that I wish the ensuing Discourse were much less seasonable than I fear it is.  
But I doubt, that some Readers, who would not think a Discourse of this Nature Needless or Useless, may yet not be pleased at its being written by One, whom they imagine the Acceptance his Endeavours have met with, aught to oblige to spend his whole Time in Cultivating that Natural Philosophy, which in this Letter he would persuade to quit the Precedency, they think it may well challenge, before all other sorts of Learning.  
I am not unsensible of the favourable Reception that the Philosophical Papers I have hitherto ventured Abroad, have had the Happiness to receive from the Curious: But I hope, they will not be displeased, if I represent, that I am no Lecturer or Professor of Physics, nor have ever engaged myself by any Promise made to the Public, to confine myself, never to write of any other Subject; nor is it Reasonable, that what I did or may write, to gratify other men's Curiosity, should deprive me of mine own Liberty, and Confine me to One Subject; especially since there are divers Persons, for whom I have a great Esteem and Kindness, who think they have as much Right to solicit me for Composures of the Nature of this, that They will now have to go abroad, as the Virtuosos have to exact of me Physiological Pieces. And though I be not ignorant, that (in particular) the following Discourse, which seems to depreciate the Study of Nature, may at first sight appear somewhat improper for a Person, that has purposely written to show the Excellence and Usefulness of it; yet I confess, that, upon a more Attentive Consideration of the Matter, I cannot Reject, no, nor Resist, Their Reasons, who are of a quite differing Judgement.  
And 1. My Condition, and my being a Secular Person (as they speak) are looked upon as Circumstances that may advantage an Author that is to write upon such a Subject as I have handled. I need not tell you, that as to Religious Books in general, it has been observed, that those penned by Laymen, and especially Gentlemen, have (caeteris paribus) been better entertained, and more effectual than those of ecclesiastics: And indeed 'tis no great wonder, that Exhortations to Piety, and Dissuasions from Vice, and from the Lusts and Vanities of the World, should be the more prevalent for being pressed by Those, who have, and yet decline, the Opportunities to enjoy plentifully Themselves the pleasures They dissuade Others from. And (to come yet closer to our present purpose) though I will not venture to say with an excellent Divine, That what ever comes out of the Pulpit, does with many pass but for the foolishness of Preaching; yet it cannot well be denied, but that if all other Circumstances be equal, He is the fittest to commend Divinity, whose Profession It is not; and That it will somewhat add to the Reputation of almost any Study, and consequently to that of things Divine, That 'tis praised and preferred by Those, whose Condition and Course of Life exempting them from being of any particular Calling in the Commonwealth of Learning, frees Them from the usual Temptations to Partiality to this or that sort of Study, which Others may be engaged to magnify, because 'tis their Trade or their Interest, or because 'tis Expected from them; whereas these Gentlemen are obliged to commend it, only because they really Love and Value it.  
But there is another thing that seems to make it yet more fit, that a Treatise on such a Subject should be Penned by the Author of This: For professed Divines are supposed to be busied about Studies, that even by their being of an Higher, are confessed to be of Another, Nature, than those that treat of things Corporeal. And since it may be observed, that there is scarce any sort of Learned men, that is more apt to undervalue those that are versed only in other parts of Knowledge, than many of our Modern Naturalists, (who are conscious of the Excellency of the Science they Cultivate,) 'tis much to be feared, that what would be said of the Preeminences of Divinity above Physiology by Preachers (in whom the Study of the Latter is thought either but a Preparatory thing, or an Excursion) would be looked upon as the Decision of an Incompetent, as well as Interressed, Judge; and their undervaluations of the Advantages of the study of the Creatures, would be (as their depreciating the Enjoyment of the Creatures too often is,) thought, to proceed but from their not having had sufficient opportunities to relish the pleasures of them. But these Prejudices will not lie against a Person, who has made the Indagation of Nature somewhat more than a Parergon, and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested, how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords, has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it, and the Honour to have them Publicly, and but too Complementally, taken notice of by the Virtuosos. And it may be not Impertinent to add, that those who make Natural Philosophy their Mistress, will probably be the less offended to find her in this Tract represented, if not as an Handmaid to Divinity, yet as a Lady of a lower Rank; because the Inferiority of the Study of Nature is maintained by a Person, who, even whilst he asserts it, continueth (if not a Passionate) an Assiduous Courter of Nature: So that, as far as his Example can reach, it may show, that as on the one side a man need not be acquainted with, or unfit to relish, the Lessons taught us in the Book of the Creatures, to think them less Excellent than those, that may be learned in the Book of the Scriptures; so on the other side, the Preference of this last Book is very consistent with an high Esteem and an Assiduous Study of the first.  
And if any should here object, that there are some Passages, (which I hope are but very few) that seem a little too unfavourable to the Study of Natural things; I might allege for my excuse the great difficulty that there must be in comparing two sorts of Studies, both of which a man much esteems, so to behave one's self, as to split a hair between them, and never offend either of them: But I will rather represent, that in such kind of Discourses as the ensuing, it may justly be hoped, that equitable Readers will consider, not only what is said, but on what occasion, and with what design 'tis delivered. Now 'tis plain by the Series of the following Discourse, that the Physeophilus, whom it most relates to, was by me looked upon as a Person, both very partial to the study of Nature, and somewhat prejudiced against that of the Scripture; so that I was not always to treat with him, as with an indifferent man, but, according to the Advice, given in such cases by the Wise, I was (to use Aristotle's expression) to bend the crooked stick the contrary way, in order to the bringing it to be strait, and to depreciate the study of Nature somewhat beneath its true value, to reduce a great Over valuer to a just Estimate of it. And to gain the more upon Him, I allowed myself now and then to make use of the contempt he had of the Peripatetic and Vulgar Philosophy, and in some passages to speak of them more slightingly, than my usual Temper permits, and than I would be forward to do on another occasion; that, by such a Complaisance for his Opininions, I might have Rises to Argue with him from them.  
But to return to the Motives that were alleged to induce me to the Publication of these Papers, though I have not named them all, yet all of them together would scarce have proved effectual, if they had not been made more prevalent by the just Indignation I conceived, to see even Inquisitive Men depreciate that kind of Knowledge, which does the most Elevate, as well as the most Bless, Mankind, and look upon the Noblest and Wisest Employments of the Understanding, as Signs of weakness in it.  
'Tis not that I expect, that whatever can be said, and much less what I have had occasion to say Here, will make Proselytes of those that are resolved against the being made so, and had rather deny themselves the Excellentest kinds of Knowledge, than allow that there can be any more Excellent, than what they think themselves Masters of: But I despair not, that what is here represented, may serve to fortify in a high Esteem of Divine Truths those that have already a just Veneration for them, and preserve Others from being seduced by Injurious, though sometimes Witty, Insinuations, to undervalue that kind of Knowledge, that is as well the most Excellent in itself, as the most Conducive to Man's Happiness. And for this Reason I am the less displeased to see, that the following Letter is swelled to a Bulk far greater than its being but a Letter promises, and then I first intended. For I confess, that when the Occasion happened that made me put Pen to Paper, as I chanced to be in a very unsettled Condition (which I fear has had too much influence on what I have written,) so I did not design the insisting near so long upon my Subject as I have done; but new things springing up (if I may so speak) under my Pen, I was content to allow them room in my Paper, because writing as well for my own satisfaction, as for that of my Friend, I thought it would not be useless to lay before my own Eyes, as well as His, those Considerations that seemed proper to justify to Myself as well as to Him, the Preference I gave Divine Truths (before Physiological ones) and to confirm myself in the Esteem I had for them. And though I freely confess, that the following Discourse doth not consist of nothing but Ratiocinations, and consequently is not altogether of an Uniform Contexture; yet that will, I hope, be thought no more than was fit in a Discourse, designed not only to Convince, but to Persuade: Which if it prove so happy as to do, as I hope the Peruser will have no cause to regret the trouble of Reading it, so I shall not repent that of Writing it.   

THE INTRODUCTION.  
SIR,  
I Hoped you had known me better, than to doubt in good earnest, how I relished the Discourse your Learned Friend entertained us with yesternight. And I am the more troubled at your Question, because your way of enquiring, how much your Friends Discourse obtained of my Approbation, gives me cause to fear, that you vouchsafe it more of yours than I could wish it. But before I can safely offer you my sense of the Discourses, about which you desire to know it, I must put you in mind, that they were not all upon one Subject, nor of the same Nature: And I am enough his Servant to acknowledge, without the least reluctancy, that he is wont to show a great deal of wit, when he speaks like a Naturalist, only of things purely Physical; and when he is in the right, seldom wrongs a good cause by his way of managing it. But as for those passages, wherein he gave himself the liberty of disparaging the learned Dr. N. only because that Doctor cultivates Theological as well as Physical Studies and does both oftentimes read Books of Devotion▪ and sometimes write them; I am not so much a Courtier, as to pretend that I liked them. 'Tis true, he did not deny the Doctor to be a learned and a witty Man, as indeed the wise providence of God has so ordered it, That to stop the bold mouths of some, who would be easily tempted to imagine, and more easily to give out, that none are Philosophers, but such as, like themselves, desire to be nothing else. Our Nation is happy in several men, who are as eminent for Humane, as studious of Divine Learning; and as great a veneration as they pay to Moses and St. Paul, are as well versed in the Doctrine of Aristotle, and of Euclid; nay, of Epicurus and Des Cartes too, as those that care not to study any thing else. But though for this reason Mr. N. had not the confidence to despise the Doctor, and some of his Resemblers, whom he took occasion to mention; yet he too plainly disclosed himself to be one of those, who though they will not deny, but that some, who own a value for Theology, are men of parts; yet they talk, as if such persons were so, in spite of their being Religiously given; That being, in their opinion, such a blemish, that a man must have very great Abilities otherwise, to make amends for the disadvantage of valuing Sacred Studies, and surmount the disparagement it procures him. Wherefore since this disdainful humour begins to spread much more than I could wish it did among differing sorts of men, among whom I should be glad not to find any Naturalists; and since the Question you asked me, and the esteem you have for your Friend, makes me fear you may look on it with very favourable eyes: I shall not decline the Opportunity you put into my hands of giving you, together with a profession of my dislike of this practice, some of my Reasons for that dislike; and the rather, because I may do it without too much exceeding the limits of an Epistle, or those which the haste, wherewith I must write this, does prescribe to me. For your Friend does not oppose, but only undervalue Theology; and professing to believe the Scriptures (which I so far credit, as to think he believes himself when he says so) we agree upon the principles: So that I am not to dispute with him as against an Atheist, that denies the Author of Nature, but only against a Naturalist, that over-values the study of it. And the Truths of Theology are things, which I need not bring Arguments for, but am allowed to draw Arguments from them.  
But though, as I just now intimated, I design brevity; yet for fear the fruitfulness and importance of my Subject should suggest things enough to me to make some little method, requisite to keep them from appearing confused; I shall divide the following Epistle into two distinct parts. In the former of which I shall offer you the chief positive Considerations, by which I would represent to you the study of Divinity, as preferable to that of Physics: And in the second part I shall consider the Allegations, that I foresee your Friend may interpose: in favour of Natural Philosophy. From which distribution you will easily gather, that the Motives on the one hand, and the Objections on the other will challenge to themselves distinct Sections in the respective parts whereto they belong. So that of the Order of the particulars you will meet with, I shall not need to trouble you with any further Account.   

THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY: OR, The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity, above that of Natural Philosophy. THE FIRST PART.  
TO address myself then, without any farther Circumstance or Preamble, to the things themselves, that I mainly intent in this Discourse, I consider in the General, That as there are scarce any Motives accounted fitter to engage a Rational man in a study, than That the Subject is Noble, That 'tis his Duty to apply himself to it, and That his Proficiency in it will bring him great Advantages; So there is not any of these three Inducements, that does not concur in a very plentiful measure to recommend to us the Study of Theological Truths.  

THE FIRST SECTION.  
ANd first, The Excellency and Sublimity of the Object we are invited to contemplate, is such, that none that does truly acknowledge a Deity can deny, but that there is no Speculation, whose Object is comparable in point of Nobleness, to the Nature and Attributes of God. The Souls of inquisitive men are commonly so curious, to learn the Nature and Condition of Spirits, as that the over-greedy desire to discover so much as That there are other Spiritual Substances besides the Souls of Men, has prevailed with too many to try forbidden ways of attaining satisfaction; and many have chosen rather to venture the putting themselves within the power of Daemons, than remain ignorant whether or no there are any such Being's: As I have learned by the private acknowledgements made me of such unhappy (though not unsuccessful) Attempts, by divers learned men (both of other Professions, and that of Physic,) who themselves made them in differing places, and were persons neither Timorous nor Superstitious: (But this only upon the By.) And certainly that man must have as Wrong as Mean a Notion of the Deity, and must but very little consider the Nature and Attributes of that infinitely perfect Being, and as little the Nature and infirmities of Man, who can imagine the Divine Perfections to be Subjects, whose investigation a man may (inculpably) despise, or be so much as fully sufficient for. Not only the Scripture tells us, 
Ps. 145.  That his Greatness is incomprehensible, 
Ps. 147.5. Ps. 113.6.  and his wisdom is inscrutable; That he humbles himself to look into (or upon) the Heavens and the Earth; and, That not only this or that man, 
Isa. 40.15.  but all the Nations of the World are, in comparison of him, but like the small Drop of a Bucket, or the smaller Dust of a Balance: But even the Heathen Philosopher, who wrote that eloquent Book De Mundo, ascribed to Aristotle in his riper years, speaks of the Power, and Wisdom, and Amiableness of God, in terms little less lofty, though necessarily inferior to so infinitely Sublime a Subject; which they that think they can, especially without Revelation, sufficiently understand, do very little understand themselves.  
But perhaps your Friend will object, That to the knowledge of God there needs no other than Natural Theology; and I readily confess, being warranted by an Apostle, that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Rom. i. 19.  was not unknown to the Heathen Philosophers; and that so much knowledge of God is attainable by the light of Nature, duly employed, as to encourage men to exercise themselves more than most of them do in that noblest of Studies, and render their being no Proficients in it, injurious to themselves as well as to their Maker. But notwithstanding this, as God knows Himself infinitely better than purblind Man knows Him, so the Informations He is pleased to vouchsafe us, touching His own Nature and Attributes, are exceedingly preferable to any account, that we can give ourselves of Him, without Him. And methinks, the differing Prospects we may have of Heaven, may not ill adumbrate to us the differing Discoveries that may be made of the Attributes of its Maker. For as, though a man may with his naked eye see Heaven to be a very glorious Object, ennobled with radiant Stars of several sorts; yet when his eye is assisted with a good Telescope, he can not only discover a number of Stars (Fixed and Wand'ring) which his naked eye would never have shown him; but those Planets which he could see before, will appear to him much bigger, and more distinct: So, although bare Reason well improved will suffice to make a man behold many glorious Attributes in the Deity; yet the same Reason, when assisted by Revelation, may enable a man to discover far more Excellencies in God, and perceive them, he contemplated before, far greater and more distinctly. And to show how much a dim Eye, illuminated by the Scriptures, is able to discover of the Divine Perfections, and how unobvious they are to the most piercing Philosophical Eyes, that enjoy but the dim light of Nature; we need but consider, how much more suitable Conceptions and Expressions concerning God are to be met with in the Writings of those Fishermen and others, that penned the New Testament, and those illiterate Christians that received it, than amongst the most Civilised Nations of the World (such as anciently the Greeks and Romans, and now the Chinese and East-Indians) and among the eminentest of the Wisemen and Philosophers themselves, (as Aristotle, Homer, Hesiod, Epicurus, and others.)  
Besides that the Book of Scripture discloses to us much more of the Attributes of God, than the Book of Nature; there is another Object of our Study, for which we must be entirely beholding to Theology: For though we may know something of the Nature of God by the Light of Reason, yet we must owe the knowledge of His Will, or Positive Laws, to His own Revelation. And we may guess, how curious great Princes and wise Men have been to inform themselves of the Constitutions established by wise and eminent Legislators; partly by the frequent Travels of the Ancient Sages and Philosophers into Foreign Countries, to observe their Laws and Government, as well as bring home their Learning; and partly by those Royal and Sumptuous Expenses, at which that Great and Learned Monarch Ptolomeus Philadelphus stuck not to procure an Authentic Copy of the Law of Moses, whom he considered but as an eminent Legislator. But certainly That, and other Laws recorded in the Bible, cannot but appear more noble and worthy Objects of Curiosity to us Christians, who know them to proceed from an Omniscient Deity, who being the Author of Mankind, as well as of the rest of the Universe, cannot but have a far perfecter knowledge of the Nature of Man, than any other of the Lawgivers, or all of them put together can be conceived to have had.  
But there is a farther Discovery of Divine Matters, wherewith we are also gratified by Theology: For besides what the Scripture teaches us of the Nature and the Will of God, it contains divers Historical Accounts (if I may so call them) of His Thoughts and Actions. The Great Alexander thought himself nobly employed, when he read of the Grecian Actions in Homer's Verses; and, To know the Sentiments of great and wise Persons, upon particular occasions, is a curiosity so laudable, and so worthy of▪ an Inquisitive Soul, that the Southern Queen has been more praised than admired, for coming from the remoter parts of the Earth, to hear the Wisdom of Solomon. Now the Scripture does in many places give our Curiosity a nobler Employment, and thereby a higher Satisfaction, than the King of Macedon, or the Queen of Sheba could enjoy; for in many places it does, with great clearness and ingenuity, give us accounts of what God Himself hath declared of His own Thoughts, of divers particular Persons and Things, and relates, what He that knows and commands all things, was pleased to say & do upon particular Occasions. Of this sort of Passages are the things recorded to have been said by God to Noah, 
Genes. vi.  about the sinful World's ruin, and that Just Man's preservation; 
Numb. xxvij. 7.  and to Moses in the case of the Daughters of Zelophehad. And of this sort are the Conferences, mentioned to have passed betwixt God and Abimelech, 
Genes. xx.  concerning Abraham's Wife; betwixt God and Abraham touching the destruction of Sodom; 
Genes. xviij. 1 Kings iij. Jonah iv.  betwixt God and Solomon, about that King's happy choice; betwixt God and Jonah, about the Fate of the greatest City of the World: And above all these, those two strange and matchless Passages, the one in the first Book of Kings, 
1 Kings▪ xxij. from ver. 19 to ver. 24.  touching the seducing Spirit that undertook to seduce Ahab's Prophets; and the other, that yet more wonderful Relation of what passed betwixt God and Satan, 
Job i. 6, 7, etc. Job ij. 3.  wherein the Deity vouchsafes not only to Praise, but (if I may so speak with reverence) to Glory in a Mortal. And the being admitted to the knowledge of these Transactions of another World (if I may so call them) wherein God has been pleased to disclose himself so very much, is an advantage afforded us by the Scripture, of so noble a Nature, and so unattainable by the utmost improvement we ourselves can make of our own Reason, that, did the Scripture contain nothing else that were very Considerable, yet that Book would highly deserve our Curiosity and Gratitude.  
And on this occasion, I must by no means leave unobserved another Advantage that we have from some Discourses made us in the Bible; since it too highly concerns us, not to be a very Great one; and it is, That the Scripture declares to us the Judgement, that God is pleased to make of some particular Men, upon the Estimate of their Life and Deportment. For though Reason alone, and the Grounds of Religion in general, may satisfy us in some measure, that God is Good and Merciful, and therefore 'tis likely he may Pardon the sins and frailties of Men, and accept of their Imperfect Services; yet, besides that we do not know, whether He will Pardon, unless we have His Promise of it; besides this (I say) though by virtue of general Revelation, such as is pretended to in divers Religions, we may be assured, that God will accept, forgive, and reward those that sincerely obey him, 
See Heb. v. 9. Psal. ciij 17, 18.  and perform the Conditions of the Covenant, whether it be Express, or Implicit, that he vouchsafes to make with them; yet since 'tis He that is the Judge of the Performance of the Conditions, and of the sincerity of the Person; and since He is Omniscient, and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Acts i. 21.  and so may know more Ill of us, than even we know of ourselves; a concerned Conscience may rationally doubt, 
1 Joh. iij. 20.  whether in God's Estimate any particular man was so sincere as to be accepted. But when He Himself is pleased to give Eulogiums (if I may with due respect so style them) to David, Job, Noah, Daniel, etc. whilst they were alive, and to others after they were dead, (and consequently having finished their Course, were passed into an Irreversible state) we may learn with Comfort, both that the Performance of such an Obedience as God will accept, is a thing really Practicable by Men; and that even great sins and misdemeanours are not (if seasonably repent of) certain evidences, that a man shall never be Happy in the future Life. And it seems to be for such an use of consolation to Frail men (but not at all to encourage Licentious ones) that the Lapses of holy Persons are so frequently recorded in the Scriptures. And bating those Divine Writings, I know no Books in the world, nor all of them put together, that can give a considering Christian, who has due apprehensions of the Inexpressible Happiness or Misery of an Immortal state in Heaven or in Hell, so great and well grounded a Consolation, as may be derived from three or four lines in St. John's Apocalypse, 
Revel. seven. 9.  where he says, That he saw in Heaven a great multitude, not to be numbered, of all Nations, and Tribes, and People, and Tongues, standing before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white Robes, with Palms (the Ensigns of Victory) in their hands; and the Praises of God and of the Lamb in their mouths. For from thence we may learn, that Heaven is not reserved only for Prophets, and Apostles, and Martyrs, and such extraordinary Persons, whose Sanctity the Church admires, but that through God's goodness, multitudes of his more Imperfect Servants have access thither.  
Though the Infinite Perfections and Prerogatives of the Deity be such, that Theology itself can no more than Philosophy afford us another Object for our Studies, any thing near so Sublime and Excellent, as what it discloses to us of God; yet Divinity favours us with some other Discoveries, namely, about Angels, the Universe, and our own Souls, which though they must needs be inferior to the knowledge of God Himself, are, for the nobleness of their Objects, or for their Importance, highly preferable to any that Natural Philosophy has been able to afford its Votaries.  
But before I proceed to name any more particulars, disclosed to us by Revelation, 'twill be requisite, for the prevention or removal of a Prejudice, to mind you, that we should not make our Estimates of the worth of the things we owe to Revelation, by the Impressions they are wont now to make upon Us Christians, who learned divers of them in our Catechisms, and perhaps have several times met with most of the Rest in Sermons, or Theological Books. For 'tis not to be admired, that we should not be strongly affected at the mention of those Truths, which (how valuable soever in themselves) were for the most part taught us when we were either Children, or too Youthful to discern and prise their Excellency and Importance. So that though afterwards they were presented to our riper understanding, yet their being by that time become familiar, and our not remembering that we ignored them, kept them from making any vigorous Impressions on Us. Whereas if the same things had been (with Circumstances evincing their Truth) discovered to some Heathen Philosopher, or other virtuous and inquisitive Man, who valued important Truths, and had nothing but his own Reason to attain them with, he would questionless have received them with wonder and joy. Which to induce us to suppose we have sundry Instances, both in the Records of the Primitive Times, and in the recent Relations of the Conversion of men to Christianity among the People of China, Japan, and other Literate Nations. For though bare Reason cannot discover these Truths, yet when Revelation has once sufficiently proposed them to Her, she can readily embrace, and highly value divers of them; which being here intimated once for all, I now advance to name some of the Revelations themselves.  
And first, as for Angels, I will not now question, whether bare Reason can arrive at so much as to assure us, That there are such Being's in Rerum Naturâ. For though Reason may assure, that their Existence is not Impossible, and perhaps too not improbable; yet I doubt, whether 'twere to mere Ratiocination, or clear Experience, or any thing else but Revelation, conveyed to them by imperfect Tradition, that those Heathen Philosophers, who believed that there were separate Spirits other than Humane, owed that persuasion. And particularly as to Good Angels, I doubt, whether those Ancient Sages had any cogent Reasons, or any convincing Historical Proofs, or, in short, any one unquestionable Evidence of any kind, to satisfy a wary person so much as of the being (much less to give a farther account) of those Excellent Spirits. 
Matth. xxuj. 53. Dan. seven. 10. Joh. i. 3. Heb. i. 7. Luke xx. 35, 36. Col. i. 16. Matth. xxiv. 36. Mark xiij. 32. Matth. xviij. 10. Isa. vi. 2, 3 Matth. vi. 10. 2 Sam. xiv. 20. Mark xiij. 32. 2 King. nineteen. 35. 1 Thess. iv. 16. Judas ix. Dan. x. 13, 21. Col. i. 16. Revel. xij. 7. Acts xij. 7, 8, 9, 10. Dan. x. 13. Acts xij. 11. 2 Kings vi. 17. Luke xxiv. 4.  Whereas Theology is enabled by the Scripture to inform us, that not only there are such Spirits, but a vast multitude of them; That they were made by God and Christ, and are Immortal, and propagate not their Species; and that these Spirits have their chief Residence in Heaven, and enjoy the Vision of God, whom they constantly praise, and punctually obey, without having sinned against him; That also these Good Angels are very Intelligent Being's, and of so great power, that One of them was able in a night to destroy a vast Army; That they have Degrees among themselves, are Enemies to the Devils, and fight against them; That they can assume Bodies shaped like ours, and yet disappear in a trice; That they are sometimes employed about Humane affairs, and that not only for the welfare of Empires and Kingdoms, but to protect and rescue single Good men. And though they are wont to appear in a dazzling Splendour, and an astonishing Majesty, yet they are All of them ministering Spirits, employed for the good of the designed Heirs of Salvation. 
Judg. xiij. 6. Heb. i. 14. Revel. nineteen. 10. Revel. xxij. 9.  And they do not only refuse men's Adoration, and admonish them to pay it unto God; but, as they are in a sense made by Jesus Christ, who was true Man as well as God; so they do not only worship him, 
Matth. xxviij. 6. Revel. nineteen. 10.  and call him simply, as his own Followers were were wont to do, The Lord, but style themselves Fellow servants to his Disciples.  
And as for the other Angels, though the Gentiles, as well Philosophers as others, were commonly so far mistaken about them, as to adore them for true Gods, 
Joh. i. 3 Coloss. i. 16. Matth. viij. 7. Luke iv. 33. Joh. viij, 34. 1 Pet. v. 8. 2 Cor. xj. 3. Revel. xij. 9. Revel. xij. 7. Matth. xxv. 41. 1 Joh. iij. 8.  and yet many of them to doubt whether they were immortal; the Scripture informs us, that they are not Self-originated, but created Being's; That however a great part of Mankind worships them, they are wicked and impure Spirits, Enemies to Mankind, and Seducers of our first Parents to their Ruin; That though they beget and promote confusion among men, yet they have some Order among themselves, as having one Chief, or Leader; That they are evil Spirits, not by Nature, but Apostasy; That their power is very limited, 
Judas 6. Mark v. 9, 10, 13.  insomuch that a Legion of them cannot invade so contemptible a thing as a Herd of Swine, without particular leave from God; 
Jam. iv. 7. 1 Pet. v. 9.  That not only Good Angels, but Good Men, may, by resisting them, put them to flight, and the sincere Christians that worsted them here, will be among those that shall judge them hereafter; 
1 Cor. vi. 3. Matth. xxv. 41. Jam. ij. 19.  That their being immortal, will make their misery so too; That they do themselves believe and tremble at those Truths, they would persuade men to reject; and That they are so far from being able to confer that Happiness, which their Worshippers expect from them, that themselves are wretched creatures, 
2 Pet. ij. 4. Judas 6, 13. Matth. xxv. 41.  reserved in chains of darkness to the judgement of the great Day; at which they shall be doomed to suffer everlasting torments, in the company of those wicked men that they shall have prevailed on.  
We may farther consider, That as to things Corporeal themselves, which the Naturalist challenges as his peculiar Theme, we may name particulars, and those of the most comprehensive nature, and greatest Importance, whose knowledge the Naturalist must owe to Theology. Of which Truths I shall content myself to give a few instances in the World itself, or the universal Aggregate of things Corporeal; that being looked upon as the noblest and chiefest Object, that the Physics afford us to contemplate.  
And first, Those that admit the Truths revealed by Theology, do generally allow, that God is not only the Author, but Creator of the World. I am not ignorant of what Anaxagoras taught, of what he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— (and Tully mentions) in the production of the World; and that what many other Grecians afterwards taught of the World's Eternity, is peculiarly due to Aristotle, who does little less than brag, that all the Philosophers that preceded him were of another mind. Nor will I here examine (which I elsewhere do) whether, and how far by Arguments merely Physical, the Creation of the World may be evinced. But whether or no mere Natural Reason can reach so sublime a Truth; yet it seems not that it did actually, where it was not excited by Revelation-Discovery. For though many of the ancient Philosophers believed the World to have had a Beginning, yet they all took it for granted, that Matter had none; nor does any of them, that I know of, seem to have so much as imagined, that any Substance could be produced out of Nothing. Those that ascribe much more to God than Aristotle, make Him to have given Form only, not Matter, to the World, and to have but contrived the pre-existent Matter into this orderly Systeme we call the Universe.  
Next, whereas very many of the Philosophers that succeeded Aristotle, suppose the World to have been Aeternal; and those that believed it to have been produced, had not the confidence to pretend to the knowing how old it was; unless it were some extravagant ambitious People, such as those fabulous Chaldaeans, whose fond account reached up to 40000 or 50000 years: Theology teaches us, that the World is very far from being so old by 30 or 40 thousand years as they, and by very many Ages, as divers others have presumed; and does, from the Scripture, give us such an account of the age of the World, that it has set us certain Limits, within which so long a Duration may be bounded, without mistaking in our Reckoning. Whereas Philosophy leaves us to the vastness of Indeterminate Duration, without any certain Limits at all.  
The Time likewise, and the Order, and divers other Circumstances of the Manner, wherein the Fabric of the World was completed, we owe to Revelation; bare Reason being evidently unable to inform us of Particulars that preceded the Origine of the first Man; and though I do not think Religion so much concerned, as many do, in their Opinion and Practice, that would deduce particular Theorems of Natural Philosophy from this or that Expression of a Book, that seems rather designed to instruct us about Spiritual than Corporeal things. I see no just reason to embrace their Opinion, that would so turn the two first Chapters of Genesis into an Allegory, as to overthrow the Literal and Historical sense of them. And though I take the Scripture to be mainly designed to teach us nobler and better Truths, than those of Philosophy; yet I am not forward to condemn those, who think the beginning of Genesis contains divers particulars, in reference to the Origine of things, which though not unwarily, or alone to be urged in Physics, may yet afford very considerable Hints to an attentive and inquisitive Peruser.  
And as for the Duration of the World, which was by the old Philosophers held to be Interminable, and of which the Stoics Opinion, that the World shall be destroyed by fire (which they held from the Jews) was Physically precarious; Theology teaches us expressly from Divine Revelation, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Jam. iij. 6.  that the present course of Nature shall not last always, but that one Day this world (or at least this Vortex of ours) shall either be Abolished by Annihilation, or (which seems far more probable) be Innovated, and, as it were, Transfigured, 
2 Pet. iij. ●, 10, 13.  and that by the Intervention of that Fire, which shall dissolve and destroy the present frame of Nature: So that either way, the present state of things (as well Natural as Political) shall have an end.  
And as Theology affords us these Informations about the Creatures in general; so touching the chiefest and noblest of the visible ones, Men, Revelation discovers very plainly divers very important things, where Reason must needs be in the dark.  
And first, touching the Body of Man; The Epicureans attributed its Original, as that of all things else, to the Casual Concourse of Atoms; and the Stoics absurdly and injuriously enough (but much more pardonably than their follower herein, Mr. Hobbs) would have Men to spring up like Mushrooms out of the ground; and whereas other Philosophers maintain conceits about it, too wild to be here recited; the Book of Genesis assures us, 
Gen. ij. 7.  that the Body of Man was first formed by God in a peculiar manner, of a Terrestrial Matter; and 'tis there described, as having been perfected before the Soul was united to it. And as Theology thus teaches us, how the Body of Man had its first beginning; so it likewise assures us, what shall become of the Body after death, 
Acts xxiv. 15.  though bare Natural Reason will scarce be pretended to reach to so abstruse and difficult an Article as that of a Resurrection; which, when proposed by St. Paul, 
Acts xvij. 20, 32.  produced among the Athenian Philosophers nothing else but wonder or laughter.  
Not to mention, that Theology teaches us divers other things about the Origine and Condition of men's Bodies; 
Gen. ij. Acts xvij. 26.  as, That all Mankind is the Offspring of One Man and one Woman; That the first Woman was not made of the same Matter, nor after the same Manner as the first Man, but was afterwards taken from his side; That both Adam and Eve were not, 
Gen. ij. 21, 22.  as many Epicureans and other Philosophers fancied that the first men were, first Infants; whence they did, as we do, grow by degrees to be mature and complete Humane Persons, but were made so all at once; 
Acts xxv. 15. Luke xx. 35, 36.  and, That hereafter, as all men's Bodies shall rise again, so they shall all (or at least all those of the just) be kept from ever dying a second time.  
And as for the Humane Soul, though I willingly grant, that much may be deduced from the Light of Reason only, touching its Existence, Properties, and Duration; yet Divine Revelation teaches it us with more clearness, and with greater Authority; as, sure, he that made our Souls, and upholds them, can best know what they are, and how long he will have them last. And as the Scripture expressly teaches us, that the Rational Soul is distinct from the Body, 
Matth. x. 28.  as not being to be destroyed by those very Enemies that kill the Body; so about the Origine of this Immortal Soul (about which Philosophers can give us but wide and precarious conjectures) Theology assures us, that the Soul of man had not such an Origination, as those of other Animals, 
Gen. ij 7. Zek. xij. 1.  but was Gods own immediate Workmanship, and was united to the Body already formed: And yet not so united, 
Luke xx. 35, 36. Matt. xxv. 46.  but that upon their Divorce, she will survive, and pass into a state, in which Death shall have no power over her.  
I expect you will here object, that for the knowledge of the Perpetual Duration of separate Souls, we need not be beholding to the Scripture, since the Immortality of the Soul may be sufficiently proved by the sole Light of Nature, and particularly has been demonstrated by your great Des Cartes. But you must give me leave to tell you, that, besides that a matter of that weight and concernment cannot be too well proved, and consequently aught to procure a welcome for all good Mediums of Probation; besides this, I say, I doubt many Cartesians do, as well as others, mistake, both the difficulty under consideration, and the scope of Des Cartes' Discourse. For I grant, that by Natural Philosophy alone, the Immortality of the Soul may be proved against its usual Enemies, Atheists and Epicureans. For the ground, upon which these men think it mortal, being, That 'tis not a true substance, but only a modification of Body, which consequently must perish, when the frame or structure of the Body, whereto it belongs, is dissolved: Their ground being this, I say, if we can prove by some Intellectual Operations of the Rational Soul, which Matter, however modified, cannot reach, That it is a Substance distinct from the Humane Body, there is no reason, why the Dissolution of the Latter should infer the Destruction of the Former, which is a simple Substance, and as real a Substance as Matter itself, which yet the Adversaries affirm to be Indestructible. But though by the Mental Operations of the Rational Soul, and perhaps by other Mediums it may, against the Epicureans, and other mere Naturalists, who will not allow God to have any thing to do in the case, be proved to be Immortal in the sense newly proposed; yet the same Proofs will not evince, that absolutely it shall never cease to be▪ if we dispute with Philosophers, who admit, as the Cartesians and many others do, that God is the sole Creator and Preserver of all things. For how are we sure but that God may have so ordained, That, though the Soul of Man, by the continuance of his ordinary and upholding Concourse, may survive the Body, yet, as 'tis generally believed, not to be created till it be just to be infused into the Body; so it shall be annihilated when it parts with the Body, God withdrawing at death that supporting influence, which alone kept it from relapsing to its first Nothing. Whence it may appear, that notwithstanding the Physical proofs of the Spirituality and separableness of the Humane Soul, we are yet much beholding to Divine Revelation for assuring us, that its Duration shall be endless. And now to make good what I was intimating above, concerning the Cartesians, and the scope of Des Cartes' Demonstration, I shall appeal to no other than his own Expressions to evince, that he considered this matter for the main as we have done, and pretended to demonstrate, that the Soul is a Distinct Substance from the Body; but not that absolutely speaking it is Immortal. Cur (answers that excellent Author) de immortalitate Animae nihil scripserim, 
D●s Cartes Responsione ad Objectiones secundas, pag. m. 95.  jam dixi in Synopsi mearum Meditationum. Quod ejus ab omni corpore distinctionem satis probaverim, supra ostendi. Quod vero additis, Ex distinctione Animae á corpore non sequi ejus Immortalitatem, quia nihilominus dici potest, illam à Deo talis naturae factam esse, ut ejus Duratio simul cum Duratione vitae corporeae finiatur, fateor á me refelli non posse. Neque enim tantum mihi assumo ut quicquam de iis quae à libera Dei voluntate dependent, humanae rationis vi determinare aggrediar. Docet Naturalis cognitio, etc. Sed si de absoluta Dei potestate quaeratur, an fort decreverit, ut humanae animae iisdem Temporibus esse desinant, quibus Corpora quae illis adjunxit; solius Dei est, respondere. And if he would not assume to demonstrate by Natural Reason, so much as the Existence of the Soul after death, unless upon a supposition; we may well presume, that he would less take upon him to determine, what shall be the condition of that Soul after it leaves the Body. And that you may not doubt of this, I will give you for it his own confession, as he freely writ it in a private Letter to that Admirable Lady, the Princess Elizabeth, first Daughter to Frederick King of Bohemia, who seems to have desired his Opinion on that important Question, about which he sends her this Answer, Pour ce qui, etc. i. e. As to the State of the Soul after this Life, my knowledge of it is far inferior to that of Monsieur (he means Sir Kenelm) Digby. For, setting aside that which Religion teaches us of it, I confess, that by mee● Natural Reason we may indeed make many conjectures to our own advantage, and have fair Hopes, but not any Assurance: And accordingly in the next clause he gives the imprudence, of quitting what is certain for an uncertainty, as the cause why, according to Natural Reason, we are never to seek Death.  
Nor do I wonder he should be of that mind. For all that mere Reason can demonstrate, may be reduced to these two things; One, that the Rational Soul, being an Incorporeal Substance, there is no necessity that it should perish with the Body; so that, if God have not otherwise appointed, the Soul may survive the Body, and last for ever: The other, that the Nature of the Soul, according to Des Cartes, consisting in its being a Substance that thinks, we may conclude, that, though it be by death separate from the Body, it will nevertheless retain the power of thinking. But now, whether either of these two things, or both, be sufficient to endear the state of separation after death, to a considering man, I think may be justly questioned. For, Immortality or Perseverance in Duration, simply considered, is rather a thing presupposed to, or a requisite of, Felicity, than a part of it; and being in itself an adiaphorous thing, assumes the nature of the state or condition to which 'tis joined, and does not make that state happy or miserable, but makes the possessors of it more happy or more miserable than otherwise they would be. And though some Schoolmen, upon Airy Metaphysical Notions, would have men think it is more eligible to be wretched, than not to be at all; yet we may oppose to their speculative subtleties the sentiments of Mankind, and the far more considerable Testimony of the Saviour of Mankind▪ who speaking of the Disciple that betrayed him, says, 
Mark xiv. 21.  That it had been good for that man if he had never been born. And Eternity is generally conceived to aggravate no less the miseries of Hell, than it heightens the joys of Heaven. And here we may consider, first, That mere Reason cannot so much as assure us absolutely, that the Soul shall survive the Body: For the Truth of which we have not only Cartesius' Confession, lately recited, but a probable Argument, drawn from the nature of the thing, since, as the Body and Soul were brought together, not by any mere Physical Agents, and since their Association and Union whilst they continued together, was made upon Conditions that depended solely upon God's free and arbitrary Institution; so, for aught Reason can secure us of, one of the Conditions of that Association may be, That the Body and Soul should not survive each other. Secondly, supposing that the Soul be permitted to outlive the Body, mere Reason cannot inform us what will become of her in her separate state, whether she will be vitally united to any other kind of Body or Vehicle; and if to some, of what kind that will be, and upon what terms the Union will be made. For possibly she may be united to an unorganized, or very imperfectly organised, Body, wherein she cannot exercise the same Functions she did in her Humane Body. As we see, that even in this Life the Souls of Natural Fools are united to Bodies, wherein they cannot discourse, or at lest cannot Philosophise. And 'tis plain, that some Souls are introduced into Bodies, which, by reason of Paralytical and other Diseases, they are unable to move, though that does not always hinder them from being obnoxious to feel pain. So that, for aught we naturally know, a Humane Soul, separated from the Body, may be united to such a portion of Matter, that she may neither have the power to move it, nor the advantage of receiving any agreeable Informations by its interventions, having upon the account of that Union no other sense than that of pain. But let us now consider what will follow, if I should grant that the Soul will not be made miserable, by being thus wretchedly matched. Suppose we then, that she be left free to enjoy what belongs to her own nature: That being only the Power of always thinking, it may well be doubted, whether th'exercise of that Power will suffice to make her happy. You will perchance easily believe, that I love as well as another to entertain myself with my own thoughts, and to enjoy them undisturbed by visits, and other avocations; I would, only accompanied by a Servant and a Book, go to dine at an Inn upon a Road, to enjoy my thoughts the more freely for that day. But yet, I think, the most contemplative men would, at least in time, grow weary of thinking, if they received no supply of Objects from without, by Reading, Seeing, or Conversing; and if they also wanted the opportunity of executing their thoughts, by moving the Members of their Bodies, or of imparting them, either by Discoursing, or Writing of Books, or by making of Experiments. On this occasion I remember, that I knew a Gentleman, who was, in Spain, for a State-crime, which yet he thought an Heroic action, kept close prisoner for a year in a place, where though he had allowed him a Diet not unfit for a Person of Note, as he was; yet he was not permitted the benefit of any Light, either of the Day or Candles, and was not accosted by any humane creature, save at certain times by the Jailor, that brought him meat and drink, but was strictly forbidden to converse with him. Now though this Gentleman by his discourse appeared to be a man of a lively humour, yet being asked by me, how he could do to pass the time in that sad solitude, he confessed to me, that, though he had the liberty of walking too and fro in his Prison, and though by often recalling into his mind all the adventures and other passages of his former life, and by several ways combining and diversifying his Thoughts, he endeavoured to give his mind as much variety of employment as he was able; yet that would not serve his turn, but he was often reduced, by drinking large draughts of Wine, and then casting himself upon his bed, to endeavour to drown that Melancholy, which the want of new objects cast him into. And I can easily admit, he found a great deal of difference between the sense he had of thinking when he was at liberty, and that which he had when he was confined to that employment, whose delightfulness, like fire, cannot last long, when it is, as his was, denied both fuel and vent. And, in a word, though I most readily grant, that Thinking interwoven with Conversation and Action, may be a very pleasant way of passing ones Time, yet Man being by nature a sociable creature, I fear, that alone would be a dry and wearisome Employment to spend Eternity in.  
Before I proceed to the next Section, I must not omit to take notice, That though the brevity I proposed to myself, keeps me from discoursing of any Theological Subjects, save what I have touched upon about the Divine Attributes, and the things I have mentioned about the Universe in general, and the Humane Soul; yet there are divers other things, knowable by the help of Revelation, and not without it, that are of so noble and sublime a Nature, that the greatest Wits may find their best Abilities both fully exercised, and highly gratified by making Inquiries into them. I shall not name for proof of this the Adorable Mystery of the Trinity, wherein 'tis acknowledged, that the most soaring Speculators are wont to be posed, or to lose themselves: But I shall rather mention the Redemption of Mankind, and the Decrees of God concerning Men. For though these seem to be less out of the Ken of our Natural Faculties; yet 'tis into some things that belong to the former of them, that the Scripture tells us, The Angels desire to pry; 
1 Pet. i. 12.  and 'twas the consideration of the latter of them, that made one that had been caught up into the Mansion of the Angels, 
Rom. xj. 33.  amazedly cry out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  
Not are these the only things that the Scripture itself terms Mysteries, though, for brevity's sake, instead of specifying any of them, I shall content myself to represent to you in general; that, since God's wisdom is boundless, it may, sure, have more ways than one to display itself. And though the material World be full of the Productions of his Wisdom; yet that hinders not but that the Scripture may be ennobled with many excellent Impresses, and, as it were, Signatures of the same Attribute. For, as I was beginning to say, it cannot but be highly injurious to the Deity, in whom all other True Perfections, as well as Omniscience, are both united and transcendent, to think, that he can contrive no ways to disclose his Perfections, besides the ordering of Matter and Motion, and cannot otherwise deserve to be the Object of men's studies, and their Admiration, than in the capacity of a Creator.  
And I think, I might safely add, that besides these Grand and Mysterious Points I came from mentioning, there are many other noble and important things, wherein unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark; which though not so clearly revealed in the Scripture, are yet in an inviting measure discovered there, and consequently deserve the indagation of a Curious and Philosophical Soul. Shall we not think it worth enquiring, whether the Satisfaction of Christ was necessary to appease the Justice of God, and purchase Redemption for Mankind? Or whether God, as Absolute and Supreme Governor of the World, might have freely remitted the Penalties of sin? Shall we not think it worth the enquiring, upon what Account, and upon what Terms, the Justification of Men ●●wards God is transacted, especially considering how much it imports us to know, and how perplexedly a Doctrine, not in itself abstruse, is wont to be delivered? Shall not we inquire, whether or no the Souls of Men, before they were united to their Bodies, pre-existed in a happier state, as many of the Ancient and Modern Jews and Platonists, and (besides Origen) some Learned Men of our times do believe▪ And shall not we be curious to know, whether, when the Soul leaves the Body, it do immediately pass to Heaven or Hell (as 'tis commonly believed,) or for want of Organs be laid, as it were, asleep in an insensible and unactive state, till it recover the Body at the Resurrection? (as many Socinians and others maintain:) Or whether it be conveyed into secret Recesses, where, though it be in a good or bad condition, according to what it did in the Body, 'tis yet reprieved from the flames of Hell, and restrained from the Beatific Vision till the Day of Judgement? (which seems to have been the opinion of many, if not most of the Primitive Fathers and Christians.) Shall not we be curious to know, whether at that great Decretory Day, this vast Fabric of the World, which all confess must have its frame quite shattered, shall be suffered to relapse into its first Nothing, (as several Divines assert;) or shall be, after its Dissolution, renewed to a better state, and, as it were, Transfigured? And shall not we inquire, whether or no in that future state of things, which shall never have an end, 
Gen. ij. 21, 22, 23.  we shall know one another? (as Adam, when he awaked out of his profound sleep, knew Eve whom he never saw before;) and whether those Personal Friendships and Affections, we had for one another here, and the pathetic Consideration of the Relations (as of Father and Son, Husband and Wife, Chaste Mistress and Virtuous Lover, Prince and Subject,) on which many of them were grounded, shall continue? Or whether all those things, as antiquated and slight, shall be obliterated, and, as it were, swallowed up? (as the former Relation of a Cousin a great way off, is scarce at all considered, when the Persons come so to change their state, as to be united by the strict Bonds of Marriage.)  
But 'twere tedious to propose all the other Points, whereof the Divine takes cognizance, that highly merit an inquisitive man's curiosity; and about which, all the Writings of the old Greek and other Heathen Philosophers put together, will give us far less information, than the single Volume of Canonical Scripture. I foresee indeed, that it may nevertheless be objected, that in some of these Inquiries, Revelation incumbers Reason, by delivering things, which Reason is obliged to make its Hypothesis consistent with. But, besides that this cannot be so much as pretended of all; if you consider how much unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark about these matters, wherein she has not been able to frame so much as probable determinations, especially in comparison of those probabilities that Reason can deduce from what it finds one way or other delivered in the Scripture: If you consider this, I say, you will, I presume, allow me to say, That the revealed Truths, which Reason is obliged to comply with, if they be burdens to it, are but such Burdens as Feathers are to a Hawk, which instead of hindering his flight by their weight, enable him to soar toward Heaven, and take a larger prospect of things, than, if he had not feathers, he could possibly do.  
And on this occasion, Sir, the greater Reverence I owe to the Scripture itself, than to its Expositors, prevails upon me to tell you freely, that you will not do right, either to Theology, or (the greatest Repository of its Truths) the Bible; if you imagine that there are no considerable Additions to be made to the Theological Discoveries we have already, nor no clearer Expositions of many Texts of Scripture, or better Reflections on that matchless Book, than are to be met with in the generality of Commentators, or of Preachers, without excepting the Ancient Fathers themselves. For, there being in my opinion two things requisite, to qualify a Commentator to do right to his Theme, a competency of Critical Knowledge, and a Concern for the Honour and Interest of Christianity in general, assisted by a good Judgement to discern and select those things that may most conduce to it; I doubt, there are not many Expositors, as they are called, of the Scripture, that are not deficient in the former or the latter of these particulars, and I wish there be not too many that are defective in both.  
That the knowledge of at least Greek and Hebrew is requisite to him, that takes upon him to expound Writings penned Originally in those Languages, if the nature of the thing did not manifest it, you might easily be persuaded to believe, by considering with what gross mistakes the Ignorance of Languages has oftentimes blemished not only the Interpretations of the Schoolmen and others, but even those of the Venerable Fathers of the Church. For though generally they were worthy men, and highly to be regarded, as the grand Witnesses of the Doctrines and Government of the ancient Churches; most of them very pious, many of them very eloquent, and some of them (especially the two Critics, Origen and Jerom) very Learned; yet so few of the Greek Fathers were skilled in Hebrew, and so few of the Latin Fathers either in Hebrew or Greek, that many of their Homilies, and even Comments, leave hard Texts as obscure as they found them; and, sometimes misled by bad Translations, they give them senses exceeding wide of the True: So that many times in their Writings they appear to be far better Divines then Commentators, and in an excellent Discourse upon a Text, you shall find but a very poor Exposition of it. Many of their Eloquent and devout Sermons being much better Encomiasts of the Divine Mysteries they treat of, than Unvailers. And though some Modern Translations deserve the Praise of being very useful, and less unaccurate than those which the Latin Fathers used; yet when I read the Scriptures (especially some Books of the Old Testament) in their Originals, I confess I cannot but sometimes wonder, what came into the mind of some, even of our Modern Translators, that they should so much Mistake, and sometimes Injure certain Texts as they do; and I am prone to think, that there is scarce a Chapter in the Bible (especially that part of it which is written in Hebrew) that may not be better Translated, and Consequently more to the Credit of the Book itself.  
This Credit it misses of, not only by men's want of sufficient Skill in Critical Learning, but (to come to the second Member of our late Division) for want of their having Judgement enough to observe, and Concern enough to propose those things in the Scripture, and in Theology, that tend to the Reputation of either. For I fear there are too many, both Commentators and other Divines, that (though otherwise perhaps pious men) having espoused a Church or Party, and an Aversion from all Dissenters, are solicitous when they peruse the Scripture, to take notice chiefly, if not only (I mean in points Speculative) of those things, that may either suggest Arguments against their Adversaries, or Answers to their Objections. But I meet with much fewer than I could wish, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Joh. v. 39.  who make it their Business to search the Scriptures for those things (such as unheeded Prophecies, overlooked Mysteries, and strange Harmonies) which being clearly and judiciously proposed, may make that Book appear worthy of the high extraction it challenges (and consequently of the veneration of Considering men) and who are solicitous to Discern and Make out, in the way of Governing and of Saving Men, revealed by God, so excellent an Oeconomy, and such deep Contrivances, and wise Dispensations, as may bring credit to Religion, not so much as 'tis Roman, or Protestant, or Socinian, but as 'tis Christian. But (as I intimated before) these good affections for the repute of Religion in general, are to be assisted by a deep Judgement. For men that want either That, or a good Stock of Critical Learning, may easily oversee the best Observations (which usually are not Obvious) or propose as Mysteries, things that are either not Grounded, or not Weighty enough; and so (notwithstanding their good meaning) may bring a Disparagement upon what they desire to Recommend. And I am willing to grant, that 'tis rather for want of good Skill and good Judgement, than good Will, that there are so few that have been careful to do right to the Reputation of the Scripture, as well as to its Sense. And indeed when I consider, how much more to the Advantage of those Sacred Writings, and of Christian Theology in general, divers Texts have been explained and discoursed of by the Excellent Grotius, by Episcopius, Masius, Mr. Mede, and Sir Francis Bacon, and some other Late great Wits (to name now no Living ones) in their several kinds; than the same places have been handled by vulgar Expositors, and other Divines: And when I remember too, that none of these newly named Worthies was at once a great Philosopher, and a great Critic; (the three first being not so well versed in Philosophical Learning, and the last being unacquainted with the Eastern Tongues:) I cannot but hope, that when it shall please God to stir up persons of a Philosophical Genius, well furnished with Critical Learning, and the Principles of true Philosophy, and shall give them a hearty Concern for the Advancement of his Truths; these men, by exercising upon Theological matters, that Inquisitiveness and Sagacity that has made in our Age such a happy Progress in Philosophical ones, will make Explications and Discoveries, that will justify more than I have said in praise of the study of our Religion and the Divine Books that contain the Articles of it. For these want not Excellencies, but only skilful Unvailers. And if I do not tell you, that you should no more measure the Wisdom of God couched in the Bible, by the Glosses or Systems of common Expositors and Preachers, than Estimate the Wisdom he has expressed in the contrivance of the World by Magirus' or Eustachius' Physics; yet I shall not scruple to say, That you should as little think, that there are no more Mysteries in the Books of Scripture, besides those that the School-Divines and Vulgar Commentators have taken notice of, and unfolded; as that there are no other Mysteries in the Book of Nature, than those which the same Schoolmen (who have taken upon them to interpret Aristotle and Nature too) have observed and explained. All the fine things, that Poets, Orators, and even Lovers have Hyperbolically said in praise of the Beauty of Eyes, will nothing near so much recommend them to a Philosopher's esteem, as the sight of one Eye skilfully dissected, or the unadorned Account given of its Structure, and the admirable uses of its several parts, in Scheiner's Oculus, and Descartes's Excellent Dioptrics. And though I do not think myself bound to acquiesce in, and admire every thing that is proposed as Mysterious and Rare by many Interpreters and Preachers; yet I think, I may safely compare several things in the Books we call the Scripture, to several others in that of Nature, in (at least) one regard. For, though I do not believe all the Wonders, that Pliny, Aelian, Porta, and other Writers of that stamp, relate of the Generation of Animals; yet by perusing such faithful and accurate accounts, as sometimes Galen, De usu Partium, sometimes Vesalius, sometimes our Harvey (de Ovo) and our later Anatomists, and sometimes other true Naturalists, give of the Generation of Animals, and of the admirable Structure of their Bodies, especially those of Men, and such other parts of Zoology, as Pliny, and the other Writers I named with him, could make nothing considerable of; by perusing these (I say) I receive more pleasure and satisfaction, and am induced more to admire the works of Nature, than by all their Romantic and Superficial Narratives. And thus (to apply this to our present Subject) a close and critical account of the more veiled and pregnant parts of Scripture, and Theological Matters, with such Reflections on them, as their Nature and Collation would suggest to a Philosophical, as well as Critical, Speculator, would far better please a Rational Considerer, and give him a higher, as well as a better grounded, Veneration for the things explained, than a great many of those slighter or ill-founded Remarks, wherewith the Expositions and Discourses of Superficial Writers, though never so florid or witty, gain the applause of the less discerning sort of men.  
And here, on this occasion, I shall venture to add, that I despair not, but that a further use may be made of the Scripture, than either our Divines or Philosophers seem to have thought on. Some few Theologues indeed have got the name of Supralapsarians, for venturing to look back beyond the Fall of Adam for God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation. But, besides that their boldness has been disliked by the generality of Divines, as well as other Christians, the Object of their Speculation is much too narrow to be any thing near and adequate to such an Hypothesis as I mean. For methinks, that the Encyclopedia's and Pansophia's, that even men of an elevated Genius have aimed at, are not diffused enough to comprehend all that the Reason of a Man, improved by Philosophy, and elevated by the Revelations already extant in the Scripture, may, by the help of free Ratiocination, and the hints contained in those pregnant. Writings (with those assistances of God's Spirit, which he is still ready to vouchsafe to them that duly seek them,) attain unto in this life. The Gospel comprises indeed, and unfolds the whole Mystery of Man's Redemption, 
Acts xx. 27.  as far forth as 'tis necessary to be known for our Salvation: And the Corpusculariùm or Mechanical Philosophy, strives to deduce all the Phoenomena of Nature from Adiaphorous Matter, and Local Motion. But neither the Fundamental Doctrine of Christianity, nor that of the Powers and Effects of Matter and Motion, seems to be more than an Epicycle (if I may so call it) of the Great and Universal System of God's Contrivances, and makes but a part of the more general Theory of things, knowable by the Light of Nature, improved by the Information of the Scriptures: So that both these Doctrines, though very general, in respect of the subordinate parts of Theology and Philosophy, seem to be but members of the Universal Hypothesis, whose Objects, I conceive, to be the Nature, Counsels, and Works of God, as far as they are discoverable by us (for I say not to us) in this Life.  
For those, to whom God has vouchsafed the privilege of mature Reason, seem not to enlarge their thoughts enough, if they think, that the Omniscient and Almighty God has bounded the Operations of his Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, to the Exercise that may be given them for some Ages, by the Production and Government of Matter and Motion, and of the Inhabitants of the Terrestrial Globe, which we know to be but a Physical Point in comparison of that Portion of Universal Matter, which we have already discovered.  
For I account, that there are four grand Communities of Creatures, whereof things merely Corporeal make but one; the other three, differing from these, are distinct also from one another. Of the first sort are the Race of Mankind, where Intellectual Being's are vitally associated with Gross and Organical Bodies. The second are Daemons, or evil Angels; and the third, good Angels; (whether in each of those two kinds of Spirits, the Rational Being's be perfectly free from all union with Matter, though never so fine and subtle; or whether they be united to Vehicles, not Gross, but Spirituous, and ordinarily invisible to Us.)  
Nor may we think, because Angels and Devils are two names quickly uttered, and those Spirits are seldom or never seen by us, there are therefore but few of them, and the Speculation of them is not considerable. For, as their Excellency is great, (as we shall by and by show) so for their number, they are represented in Scripture as an Heavenly Host, standing on the right and left hand of the Throne of God. 
Matth. xxuj. 53.  And of the good Angels, our Saviour Speaks of having more than twelve Legions of them at his command. Nay, the Prophet Daniel saith, that to the Ancient of days, 
Dan. seven. 10.  no less than millions ministered unto him, and hundreds of millions stood before him. And of the evil Angels the Gospel informs us, that enough to call them a Legion (which you know is usually reckoned, 
Mark v. 9. Luke viij. 30.  at a moderate rate▪ to consist of betwixt six and seven thousand) possessed one single man. For my part, when I consider, that matter, how vastly extended, and how curiously shaped soever, is but a brute thing, that is only capable of Local motion and its effects and consequents on other Bodies, or the Brain of man, without being capable of any True, or at least any Intellectual, Perception, or true Love or Hatred; and when I consider the Rational Soul as an immaterial and immortal Being, that bears the Image of its Divine Maker, being endowed with a capacious Intellect, and a Will that no Creature can force: I am by these Considerations disposed to think the Soul of Man a nobler and more valuable Being, than the whole Corporeal World; which though I readily acknowledge it to be admirably contrived, and worthy of the Almighty and Omniscient Author, yet it consists but of an Aggregate of Portions of brute Matter, variously shaped and connected by Local Motion (as Dow, and Rolls, and Loves, and Cakes, and Vermicelli, Wafers, and Piecrust, are all of them diversified Meal;) but without any knowledge either of their own Nature, or of that of their Author, or of that of their Fellow-creatures. And as the Rational Soul is somewhat more noble and wonderful, than any thing merely Corporeal, how vast soever it can be, and is of a more excellent Nature, than the curiousest piece of Mechanism in the world, the Humane Body; so to inquire what shall become of it, and what Fates it is like to undergo hereafter, does better deserve a man's Curiosity, than to know what shall befall the Corporeal Universe, and might justly have been to Nabuchadnezzar a more desirable part of knowledge, than that he was so troubled for want of, 
Dan. ij. 31, 32, etc.  when it was adumbrated to him in the mysterious Dream, that contained the Characters and Fates of the four Great Monarchies of the World. And as man is entrusted with a Will of his own, whereas all material things move only as they are moved, and have no self-determining power, on whose account they can resist the Will of God; and as also of Angels, at least some Orders of them, are of a higher Quality (if I may so speak) than Humane Souls; so 'tis very probable, that in the Government of Angels, whether good or bad, that are Intellectual Voluntary Agents, there is required and employed far greater displays of God's Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, than in the guidance of Adiaphorous Matter; and the method of God's Conduct in the Government of these, is a far nobler Object for men's Contemplation, than the Laws, according to which the parts of Matter hit against, and justle, one another, and the effects or results of such Motions.  
And accordingly we find in Scripture, that, whereas about the production of the material World, and the setting of the frame of Nature, God employed only a few commanding Words, which speedily had their full effects; to govern the Race of Mankind, even in order to their own Happiness, he employed not only Laws and Commands, but Revelations, Miracles, Promises, Threats, Exhortations, Mercies, Judgements, and divers other Methods and Means; and yet oftentimes, when he might well say, 
Isa. v. 4.  as he did once by his Prophet, What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done it? he had just cause to expostulate as he did in the same place, Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? and to complain of men, as by that very Prophet he did even of Israel, 
Isa. lxv. 2.  I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people. But not to wander too far in this digression; what we have said of Men, may render it probable, that the grand Attributes of God are more signally exercised, and made more conspicuous in the making and governing of each of the three Intellectual Communities, than in the framing and upholding the Community of mere bodily things. And since all Immaterial Substances are for that reason naturally Immortal, and the Universal Matter is believed so too, possibly those Revolutions, that will happen after the Day of Judgement, wherein though probably not the Matter, yet that state and constitution of it, on whose account it is This World, will be destroyed, and make way for quite new Frames and Sets of things corporeal, and the Being's that compose each of these Intellectual Communities, will, in those numberless Ages they shall last, travel through I know not how many successive changes and adventures; perhaps, I say, these things will no less display, and bring glory, to the Divine Attributes, than the Contrivance of the world, and the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation, though these be (and that worthily) the Objects of the Naturalists and the Divines Contemplation. And there are some passages in the Prophetical part of the Scripture, and especially in the Book of the Apocalypse, which, as they seem to intimate, that as God will perform great and noble things, which Mechanical Philosophy never reached to, and which the generality of Divines seem not to have thought of; so divers of those great things may be, in some measure, discovered by an attentive Searcher into the Scriptures, and that so much to the advantage of the devout Indagator, that St. John, near the beginning of his Revelations, pronounces them happy, that read the matters contained in this Prophecy, and 
* Rev. i. 3. To render the Original word (observe, or) watch, rather than keep, seems more congruous to the sense of the Text, and is a Criticism suggested to me by an eminent Mathematician as well as Divine, who took notice, that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by the Greeks as a term of Art, to express the Astronomical Observation of Eclipses, Planetary Conjunctions, Oppositions, and other Celestial Phaenomena.  observe the things written therein. Which implies, that by heedful comparing together the Indications couched in those Prophetic Writings, with Events and Occurrences in the Affairs of the World, and the Church, we may discover much of the admirable Oeconomy of Providence in the Governing of both: And I am prone to think, the early discoveries of such great and important things, to be in Gods account no mean vouchsafements, not only because of the title of Happy is here given to him that attains them, but because the two persons, to whom the great discoveries of this kind were made, I mean, the Prophet Daniel and St. John, the first is by the Angel said to be, on that account, a person highly favoured; and the other is in the Gospel represented as our Saviour's beloved Disciple. And you will the more easily think the foreknowledge of the Divine Dispensations gatherable from Scripture to be highly valuable, if you consider, that, according to St. Paul, those very Angels that are called Principalities and Powers in heavenly places, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ephis. iij. 10▪  learned by the Church some abstruse points of the manifold wisdom of God. But I must no longer indulge Speculations, that would carry my Curiosity beyond the bounds of time itself, and therefore beyond those that aught to be placed to this occasional excursion.  
And yet, as on the one side, I shall not allow myself the presumption of framing conjectures about those remote Dispensations, which will not, most of them, have a beginning before this world shall have an end; so on the other side I would not discourage you, or any pious Inquirer, from endeavouring to advance in the knowledge of those Attributes of God, that may successfully be studied, without prying into the Secrets of the future.  
And here, Sir, let me freely confess to you, that I am apt to think, that, if men were not wanting to God's glory, and their own satisfaction, there would be far more Discoveries made, than are yet attained to, of the Divine Attributes. When we consider the most simple or uncompounded Essence of God, we may easily be persuaded, that what belongs to Any of His Attributes (some of which thinking men generally admire) must be an Object of Enquiry exceeding Noble, and worthy of our knowledge. And yet the abstruseness of this knowledge is not in All particulars so invincible, but that I strongly hope, a Philosophical Eye, illustrated by the Revelations extant in the Scripture, may pierce a great deal farther than has yet been done, into those mysterious Subjects, which are too often (perhaps out of a mistaken Reverence) so poorly handled by Divines and Schoolmen, that not only what they have taught, is not worthy of God (for that's a necessary, and therefore excusable, deficiency) but too frequently it is not worthy of Men, I mean, of Rational Creatures, that take upon them to treat of such high Points, and instruct others about them. And I question not but your Friend will the less scruple at this, if he call to mind those new and handsome Notions about some of the Attributes of God, that his Master Cartesius, though but moderately versed in the Scriptures, has presented us with. Nor do I doubt but that a much greater progress might be made in the Discovery of Subjects, where, though we can never know all, we may still know farther, if Speculative Genius's would propose to themselves particular Doubts and Inquiries about particular Attributes, and frame and examine Hypotheses, establish Theorems, draw Corollaries; and (in short) apply to this study the same sagacity, affiduity, and attention of mind, which they often employ about Inquiries of a very much inferior nature; insomuch as Des-Cartes (how profound a Geometrician soever he were) confesses in one of his Epistles, that he employed no less than six weeks to find the solution of a Problem or question of Pappus. And Pythagoras was so addicted to, and concerned for Geometrical Speculations, that when he had found that famous Proposition, which makes the 47 th'. in Euclid's I. Book, he is recorded to have offered a Hecatomb, to express his joy and gratitude for the Discovery: which yet was but of one Property of one sort of Right-lined Triangles. And certainly if Christian Philosophers did rightly estimate, how noble and fertile Subjects the Divine Attributes are, they would find in them wherewithal to Exercise their best parts, as well as to Recompense the Employment of them. But because what I would dissuade, does not perhaps proceed only from Laziness, but from a Mistake; as if there were little to be known of so Incomprehensible an Object as God, save that in General all his Attributes are like himself, Infinite, and consequently not to be fully Known by Humane Understandings, because They are Finite; I shall add, that though it be true, that by Reason of God's Infinity, we cannot Comprehend him, that is, have a full and adequate knowledge of him; yet we may not only know very many things concerning him, but, which is more, may make an Endless Progress in that Knowledge. As, no doubt, Pythagoras (newly mentioned) knew very well what a Triangle was, and was acquainted with divers of its Properties and Affections before he discovered that famous One. And though since him, Euclid, Archimedes, and other Geometricians have demonstrated, I know not how many other Affections of the same Figure, yet they have not to this day Exhausted the Subject: And possibly, I, (who pretend not to be a Mathematician) may now and then in managing certain Aequations I had occasion for, have lighted upon some Theorems about Triangles, that occurred not to any of them. The Divine Attributes are such fruitful Themes, and so worthy of our Admiration, that the whole Fabric of the Universe, and all the Phenomena exhibited in it, are but Imperfect Expressions of God's Wisdom, and some few of his other Attributes. And I do not much marvel, that the Angels themselves are represented in Scripture as employed in Adoring God, 
Isa. vi. 2, 3. Luke ij. 13, 14. Revel. v. 11, 12.  and Admiring his Perfections. For even they being but Finite, can frame but inadequate Conceptions of Him; and consequently must Endeavour by many of them to make amends for the Incompleatness of every one of them; which yet they can never but Imperfectly do. And yet Gods Infinity can but very improperly be made a Discouragement of our Inquiries into his Nature and Attributes. For (not now to examine whether Infinity, though expressed by a Negative word, be not a Positive thing in God) we may, notwithstanding his Infinity, discover as much of him as our Nature is capable of knowing: And what harm is it to him that is drinking in a River, that he cannot drink up all the water, if he have liberty fully to quench his thirst, and take in as much Liquor as his stomach can contain. Infinity therefore should not hinder us from a Generous Ambition to learn as much as we can of an Object, whose being Infinite does but make our knowledge of it the more noble and desirable, which indeed it is in such a degree, that we need not wonder that the Angels are represented as never weary of their Employment of contemplating and praising God. For, as I lately intimated, that they can have but inadequate Ideas of those boundless Perfections, and by no number of those Ideas can arrive to make amends for the Incompleatness of them; so it need not seem strange that in fresh Discoveries of new Parts (if I may so call them) of the same Object, it being such a one, they should find nobler and happier Entertainments than any where else variety could afford them.   

The second Section.  
HAving thus taken notice of some Particulars of those many which may be employed to show, how Noble the Objects are, that Theology proposes to be contemplated; I now proceed to some Considerations that may make us sensible how great an Obligation there lies on us, to addict ourselves to the study of them.  
Yet of the Particulars whereon this Obligation may be grounded, I shall now name but two, they being indeed comprehensive ones, Obedience, and Gratitude.  
And first let me represent, that it needs not, I suppose, be solicitously proved, That 'tis the Will and Command of God, that men should learn those Truths that he has been pleased to teach, whether concerning his Nature or Attributes, or the way wherein he will be Served and Worshipped by Man. For if we had not Injunctions of Scripture to that purpose, yet your Friend is too Rational a Man to believe, that God would so solemnly cause his Truths to be published to Mankind, both by Preaching and Writing, without Intention to Oblige, those (at least) that have the capacity and opportunity to inquire into some of them; and if it appear to be His will, that a person so qualified, should search after the most important Truths that he hath revealed, it cannot but be their duty to do so. For though the nature of the thing itself did not lay any Obligation on us, yet the Authority of Him that Commands it, would: since being the Supreme and Absolute Lord of all His Creatures, he has as well a full right to make what Laws he thinks fit, and enjoin what service he thinks fit, as a power to punish those that either violate the one, or deny the other; and accordingly 'tis very observable, that before Adam fell, and had forfeited his happy state by his own transgression, he not only had a Law Imposed upon him, but such a Law, 
Gen. ij. 16, 17.  as, being about a matter itself Indifferent (for so it was to eat or not to eat of the Tree of Life as well as of any other,) derived its whole power of obliging from the mere will and pleasure of the Lawgiver. Whence we may learn, that Man is subject to the Laws of God, not as he is Obnoxious to him, but as he is a Rational Creature, and that the thing that is not a duty in its own nature, may become an indispensible one barely by its being commanded. And indeed, if our first Parent in the state of Innocency and Happiness, wherein he tasted of God's Bounty, without, as yet, standing in need of his Mercy, was most strictly obliged out of mere Obedience to conform to a Law, the matter of which was indifferent in itself; sure we, in our lapsed condition, must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God, whereby we are enjoined to study his Truths, and perform that which has so much of intrinsic Goodness in it, that it would be a duty, though it were not commanded; and has such Recompenses proposed to it, that it is not more a Duty, than it will be an Advantage.  
But it is not only Obedience and Interest that should engage us to the study of Divine things, but Gratitude, and that exacted by so many important Motives, that he who said, Ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris, could not think Ingratitude so much worse than ordinary Vices, as a contempt of the Duty I am pressing, would be worse than an ordinary Ingratitude.  
It were not difficult on this occasion to manifest, that we are extremely great Debtors unto God, both as he is the Author and the Preserver of our very Being's; and as he (immediately or mediately) fills up the measure of those continual Benefits with all the Prerogatives and other Favours we do receive from him as Men; and the higher Blessings, which (if we are not wanting to ourselves) we may receive from him as Christians.  
But to show, in how many Particulars, and to how high a Degree, God is our Benefactor, were to launch out into too Immense a Subject; which 'twere the less proper for me to do, because I have in other Papers discoursed of those matters already. 
Seraph. Love.  I will therefore single out a Motive of Gratitude, which will be peculiarly pertinent to our present purpose. For whereas your Friend does so highly value himself upon the Study of Natural Philosophy, and despises not only Divines, but Statesmen, and even the Learned'st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge, because they are not versed in Physics; he owes to God that very Skill, among many other Vouchsafements. For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule, 
Psal. xxxij. 9.  who have no understanding, and endowed him with that noble power of Reason, by the exercise of which he attains to whatever knowledge he has of Natural things above the Beasts that perish. For, that may justly be applied to our other Acquisitions, which Moses, by God's appointment, told the Israelites concerning the Acquists of Riches; where he bids the people beware, That when their Herds, and their Flocks, and other Treasures were multiplied, their heart be not lifted up, 
Deut. viij. 10, 11, 12,  and prompt them to say, My power, and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But, (subjoins that excellent Person, 
13, 14,  as well as Matchless Lawgiver) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. 
18,  But to make Men Rational Creatures, is not all God has done towards the making them Philosophers. For, to the knowledge of particular things, Objects are as well requisite as Faculties; and if we admit the probable Opinion of Divines, who teach us, that the Angels were created before the Material World, as being meant by those Sons of God, 
Job xxxviij. 5, 6, 7.  and Morning Stars, that with glad Songs and Acclamations celebrated the Foundations of the Earth; we must allow, that there were many creatures endowed with at least as much Reason as your Friend, who yet were unacquainted with the Mysteries of Nature, since She herself had not yet received a Being. Wherefore God having as well made the World, as given Man the Faculties whereby he is enabled to contemplate it; Naturalists are as much obliged to God for their Knowledge, as we are for our Intelligence to those that write us Secrets in Ciphers, and teach us the skill of deciphering things so written; or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Penny, and present us to boot a Microscope to enable us to read it. And as the Naturalist hath peculiar Inducements to Gratitude for the Endowment of Knowledge; so Ingenuity lays this peculiar Obligation on him to express his Gratitude in the way I have been recommending, That 'tis one of the acceptablest ways it can be expressed in; especially since by this way, Philosophers may not only exercise their own gratitude towards God, but procure him that of others. How pleasing men's hearty Praises are to God, may appear among other things, by what is said and done by that Royal Poet, whom God was pleased to declare a man after his own heart; for he introduces God pronouncing, 
Psa. L.23.  Whoso offereth Praise, glorifieth me; where the word our Interpreters render offereth, in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice; with which agrees, that elsewhere those that pay God their Praises, are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips. 
Hos. xiv. 2.  And that excellent Person, to whom God vouchsafed so particular a Testimony, was so assiduous in this Exercise, that the Book which we, following the Greek, call Psalms, is, in the Original, from the things it most abounds with, called Sepher Tehillim, i. e. The Book of Praises. And to let you see, that many of his Praises were such, as the Naturalist may best give, he exclaims in one place, 
Psal. civ. 24.  How manifold are thy works, O Lord? how wisely hast thou made them, (as Junius and Tremellius render it, and the Hebrew will bear) and elsewhere, 
Psal. nineteen. 1.  The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament showeth his handiwork, etc. Again, in another place, 
Psal. cxxxix. 14.  I will praise thee, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. And not content with many of the like Expressions, he does several times in a devout Transport, and Poetical strain, invite the Heavens, and the Stars, and the Earth, and the Seas, and all the other Inanimate Creatures, to join with him in the celebration of their common Maker. Which though it seem to be merely a Poetical Scheme, yet in some sort it might become a Naturalist, who by making out the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator, and by reflecting thence on those Particulars wherein those Attributes shine, may, by such a devout Consideration of the Creatures, make them, in a sense, join with him in glorifying their Author.  
In any other case, I dare say, your Friend is not so ill natured, but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude, if some great and excellent Prince, having freely and transcendently obliged him, he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is; and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars, relating to the Person and Affairs of that obliging Monarch, which were not only in themselves worthy of any man's Curiosity, but about which the Prince had solemnly declared he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive. And sure 'tis very disingenuous, to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him, and by which he designed to bring us to that study we neglect for it: which is not only not to use him as a Benefactor, but as if he meant to punish him (if I may so speak) for having obliged us, since we so abuse some of his Favours, as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest. And this Ingratitude is the more culpable, because the Laws of Ingenuity, and of Justice itself, charge us to Glorify the Maker of all things visible, not only upon our own account, but upon that of all his other works. For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul, not only he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World, and thereby is obliged to do so, both for himself, and for the rest of the Creation; but 'tis for Man's advantage, that God has left no other visible Being's in the World, by which he can be studied and celebrated. For, Reason is such a Ray of Divinity, that, if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man, the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shared, or abridged. So that he, to whom it was equally easy to make Creatures Superior to Man (as the Scripture tells us of Legions, and Myriad of Angels) as to make them Inferior to him, dealt so obligingly with Mankind, as rather to Trust (if I may so speak) our Ingenuity, whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with, than Lessen our Empire over them, or our Prerogatives above them.  
But I fear, that, notwithstanding all the Excellency of revealed Truths, and consequently of that only Authentic Repository of them, the Scripture, you, as well as I, have met with some (for I hope there are not many) Virtuosos, that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it, by alleging, that to them who are Laymen, not ecclesiastics, there is required to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points, which are so plainly summed up in the Apostles Creed, and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture, that one needs not much search or study it to find them there.  
In answer to this Allegation, I readily grant, 
1 Tim. ij. 4.  that through the great goodness of God, who is willing to have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth, that is necessary to be so, there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed, than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith, some of which have, I fear, less promoted Knowledge than impaired Charity. But than it may be also considered, 1. That 'tis not so easy for a Rational Man, that will trouble himself to inquire no farther than the Apostles Creed, to satisfy himself upon good grounds, that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contained in it. 2. That the Creed proposes only the Credenda, 
Joh. xiij. 7. Heb. v. 9.  not the Agenda of Religion; whereas the Scriptures were designed, not only to teach us what Truths we are to believe, but by what Rules we are to live; the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation, as the belief of its Mysteries. 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary, there are several that are highly useful, to make us more clearly understand, and more rationally and firmly believe, and more steadily practise, the points that are necessary. 4. And since, whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Joh. v. 39. Search, or, You search the Scriptures. Coloss. iij. 16.  be to be rendered in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode; St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us, (by which, whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant, or the Doctrine of Christ, is not here material;) thereby teaching us, that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty, though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation. And indeed 'tis far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths, than to despise or neglect it. And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons, is to be supposed meant in pity to our Frailties, not to encourage our Laziness; nor is it necessary, that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them, should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them.  
But whether or no by this designed neglect of Theology the persons, I deal with, do sufficiently consult their own safety, I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity. For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians, and yet willingly to come short of very many of them, in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity, which he often invites us, if not expressly commands, to search after, is a course that will not relish of overmuch gratitude. Is it a piece of That, and of Ingenuity, to receive one's Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God, without being solicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them? To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atom, and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God, who form all things; 
Prov. xxuj. 10.  to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Infects, than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God; and, in a word, to be more concerned to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World, than the Divine and Incorporeal Author of the whole?  
And then, is it not, think you, a great piece of respect, that these men pay to those Truths, which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles, sometimes Angels, and sometimes his only Son himself to reveal, that such Truths are so little valued by them, that rather than take the pains to study them, they will implicitly, and at adventures believe, what that Society of Christians, they chance to be born and bred in, have (truly or falsely) delivered concerning them? And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion, that those, who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks, perhaps about a mere Point, the Centre of Gravity, or in Geometry, about the Properties of some nameless curve Line, or some such other things, (which to ignore, is usually not a blemish, and about which, to be mistaken, is more usually without danger,) should yet take up the Articles of Faith, concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence, upon the Authority of Men, Fallible as themselves, when satisfaction may be had without them from the Infallible Word of God? In this very unlike those Bereans, 
Acts xvij. 11.  whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble, that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them, they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.  
Again, if a man should refuse to learn to read any more, than just as much as may serve his turn, by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy, to save him from hanging, would these men think so small a measure of Literature, as he had acquired on such an account, could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning; and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-Divine Truths, during ones life, because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doomed to Hell for Ignorance after his death, will not by (what in a Learned man must be) so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better entitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths, that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian.  
The ancient Prophets, though honoured by God with direct Illuminations, 
1 Pe●. i. 10, 11.  were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations, which yet they did not know. And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature, that the Angels themselves desire to look into them. 
1 Pet. i. ●2.  And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known, it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them, and a Happiness to employ ourselves about it. It was the earnest Prayer of a great King, 
Psal. cxix. 18.  and no less a Prophet, that his eyes might be opened to behold (not the obvious and necessary Truths, but) the wondrous things of Gods Law. He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse, 
Revel. i.  that reads and observes the things contained in that dark and obscure part of Scripture. And 'tis not only those Truths that make Articles of the Creed, but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel, that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase, 
Matth. xj. 15. Mark iv. ●, 23. Luke viij. 8.  Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est, ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus   

The third Section.  
I Come now to our third and last Inducement to the study of Divine things, which consists in, and comprises the Advantages of that study, which do as much surpass those of all other Contemplations, as Divine things transcend all other Objects. And indeed, the utility of this study is so pregnant a Motive, and contains in it so many Invitations, that your Friend must have as little sense of Interest as of Gratitude, if he can neglect such powerful and such engaging Invitations.  
For, in the first place, Theological studies ought to be highly endeared to us by the Delightfulness of considering such noble and worthy Objects as are therein proposed.  
The famous Answer given by an excellent Philosopher, who being asked what he was born for, replied, To contemplate the Sun, may justly recommend their choice, who spend their time in contemplating the Maker of the Sun, to whom that glorious Planet itself is but a shadow. And perhaps that Philosopher failed more in the Instance than in the Notion: For his Answer implies, That Man's End and Happiness consists in the exercise of his noblest Faculties on the noblest Objects. And surely the seat of Formal Happiness being the Soul, and that Happiness consequently consisting in the Operations of her Faculties; as the Supreme Faculty of the Mind is the Understanding, so the highest Pleasures may be expected from the due Exercise of it upon the sublimest and worthiest Objects. And therefore I wonder not, that though some of the Schoolmen would assign the Will a larger share in Man's Felicity, than they will allow the Intellect; yet the generality of them are quite of another mind, and ascribe the Pre-eminence in point of Felicity to the Superior Faculty of the Soul. But, whether or no this Opinion be true in all Cases, it may at least be admitted in ours: For, the chief Objects of a Christian Philosophers Contemplation, being as well the Infinite Goodness, as the other boundless Perfections of God, they are naturally fitted to excite in his mind an ardent love of that adorable Being, and those other joyous Affections and virtuous Dispositions, that have made some men think Happiness chiefly seated in the Will. But having intimated thus much by the way, I pass on to add, That the contentment afforded by the assiduous discovery of God and Divine Mysteries, has so much of affinity with the Pleasures, that shall make up men's Blessedness in Heaven itself, that they seem rather to differ in Degree than in Kind. For, the happy state even of Angels is by our Saviour represented by this Employment, that they continually see the face of his Father who is in Heaven. And the same infallible Teacher, intending elsewhere to express the Celestial Joys that are reserved for those, who for Their sake denied themselves sensual Pleasures, employs the Vision of God as an Emphatical Periphrase of Felicity, Blessed, said he, are the pure in heart, 
Matth. v. 8.  for they shall see God. And as Aristotle teaches, that the Soul doth after a sort become that which it Speculates, St. Paul and St. John assure us, that God is a transforming Object, and that in Heaven we shall be like him, 
1 Joh. iij. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  for (or, because) we shall see him as he is. And though I readily admit, that this Beatisick Vision of God, wherein the Understanding is the proper Instrument, includes divers other things which will concur to the complete Felicity of the future Life; yet I think, we may be allowed to argue, that that ravishing Contemplation of Divine Objects, will make no small part of that happy Estate, which in these Texts take its Denomination from it.  
I have above intimated, that the Scripture attributes to the Angels themselves Transports of Wonder and Joy upon the Contemplation of God, and the Exercises they consider of his Wisdom, Justice, or some other of his Attributes. But least in referring you to the Angels, you should say, that I do in this Discourse lay aside the Person of a Naturalist, in favour of Divines; I will refer you to Des Cartes himself, whom I am sure your Friend will allow to have been a rigid Philosopher, if ever there were any. Thus then speaks he in that Treatise, where he thinks he employs a more than Mathematical Rigour; and where he was obliged to utter those (I had almost said Passionate) words, I am going to cite from him, only by the Impressions made on him by the transcendent Excellency of the Ob●●… he Contemplated; 
Medit. tertia sub finem.  Sed priusquam (says he) hoc diligentius examinem, simulque in alias veritates quae inde colligi possunt, inquiram, placet hic aliquandiu in ipsius Dei contemplatione immorari, ejus attributa apud me expendere, & immensi hujus Luminis pulchritudinem, quantum caligantis Ingenii mei acies ferre poterit, intueri, admirari, adorare. Ut enim in hac sola Divinae Majestatis Contemplatione summam alterius vitae felicitatem ex consistere fide credimus; ita etiam jam ex eadem, licet multo minus perfecta, maximam, cujus in hac vita capaces simus, voluptatem, percipi posse experimur.  
But as high a satisfaction as the study of Divine things affords by the Nobleness of its Object, the Contentment is not much Inferior that accrues from the same study upon the score of the Sense of a man's having in it performed his Duty. To make actions of this nature satisfactory to us, there is no need, that the things we are employed about, should in themselves be Excellent or Delightful; the inward gratulations of Conscience for having done our Duties is able to ●●…d the bitterest Pills, and, like the Wood that grew by the Waters of Marah, 
Exod. xv. 25.  to correct and sweeten that Liquor, which before was the most distasteful. Those ancient Pagan Heroes, whose Virtues may make us blush, being guided but by natural Reason, and innate Principles of Moral Virtues, could find the most difficult and most troublesome Duties, upon the bare account of their being Duties, not only Tolerable but Pleasant. And though to deny some Lusts be, in our Saviour's esteem, no less uneasy, then for a man to pluck out his right eye, 
Matth. v. 29, 30.  or cut off his right hand; yet even Ladies have with satisfaction chosen, not only to deny themselves the greatest Pleasures of the Senses, but to Sacrifice the Seat of them, the Body itself, to preserve the Satisfaction of being Chaste. Nor are they only the Dictates of Obedience that we comply with in this study, but those of Gratitude; and that is a Virtue that has so powerful an Ascendant upon Ingenuous Minds, that those, whose Principles and Aims were not elevated by Religion, have, in acknowledgement to their Parents and their Country, courted the greatest Hardships, and Hazards, and Sufferings, as if they were as great Delights and Advantages. And a grateful Person spends no part of his Life to his greater satisfaction, than that which he ventures or employs for those to whom he is obliged for it; and oftentimes finds a greater Contentment even in the difficultest Acknowledgements of a favour, than he did in Receiving of it.  
Another Advantage, and that no mean one, that may accrue from the Contemplation of Theological Truths, is, the Improvement of the Contemplator himself in point of Piety and Virtue. For, as the Gospel is styled, The mystery of godliness; 
1 Tim. iij. 16.  and St. Paul elsewhere calls what it teaches, The truth which is according to godliness, that is, 
Tit. i. 1.  a Doctrine framed and fitted to promote the Interest of Piety and Virtue in the World: so this Character and Encomium belongs (though perhaps not equally) to the more Retired Truths discovered by Speculation, as well as to those more Obvious ones, that are familiarly taught in Catechisms and Confessions of Faith. I would by no means lessen the Excellency and Prerogatives of Fundamentals; but, since the grand and noblest Engagements to Piety and Virtue, are a high Veneration for God and his Christ, and an ardent Love of them; I cannot but think, that those particular Inquiries, that tend to make greater Discoveries of the Attributes of God, of the Nature, and Offices, and Life of our Saviour, and of the Wisdom and Goodness they have displayed in the Contrivance and Effecting of Man's Redemption; do likewise tend to Increase our Admiration, and Inflame our Love, for the Possessors of such Divine Excellencies, and the Authors of such invaluable Benefits. And as the Brazen Serpent, 
Numb. xxj. 9.  that was but a Type of one of the Gospel Mysteries, brought Recovery to those that looked up to it; so the Mysteries themselves, being duly considered, have had a very Sanative Influence on many that contemplated Them. Nor is it likely, that he that discerns more of the depth of God's Wisdom and Goodness, should not, caeteris paribus, be more disposed than others to Admire him, to Love him, to Trust him, and so to resign up himself to be Governed by him: Which frame of mind both is itself a great Part of the Worship of God, and doth directly tend to the Production and Increase of those Virtues, without the practice of which, the Scripture plainly tells us, that we can neither Obey God, nor express our Love to him. And from this Bettering of the mind by the study of Theology, will flow (to add that upon the by) another Benefit, namely, that by giving us a higher value for God and his Truths, it will endear Heaven to us, and so not only assist us to come Thither, but heighten our Felicity There.  
I know it may be said, that the Melioration of the mind is but a Moral Advantage. But give me leave to Answer, that, besides that 'tis such a Moral Advantage as supposes an Intellectual Improvement whose fruit it is, a Moral Benefit may be great enough, even in the Judgement of a mere Philosopher, and an Epicurean, to deserve as much study as Natural Philosophy itself. And that you may not think that I speak this only, because I write in this Epistle as a Friend to Divines, I will tell you, that Epicurus himself, who has now adays so numerous a Sect of Naturalists to follow him, studied Physics, and writ so many Treatises about them for this End, that by knowing the Natural Causes of Thunder, Lightning, and other dreadful Phaenomena, the Mind might be freed from the disquieting Apprehensions Men commonly had, that such strange and formidable things proceeded from some incensed Deity, and so might trouble the Mind, as well as the Air. This account I have been giving of Epicurus his Design, is but what seems plainly enough intimated by his own words, preserved us by Laertius, near the end of his Physiological Epistle to Herodotus, where recommending to him the consideration of what he had delivered about Physical Principles in general, and Meteors in particular, he subjoins, Si enim ab istis non discesserimus, tum id unde oritur perturbatio, 
Diogenis Laertii libr. 10.  quodque metum ingerit, recta cum ratione edisseremus, nosque ab ipsis eximemus. And to this in the close of his Meteorological Epistle to Pythocles, his best Interpreter, Gassendus, makes him speak consonantly, in these words, Maxim veró deed teipsum speculationi Principiorum, ex quibus constant omnia, & Infinitatis Naturae, aliorumque his cohaerentium Insuper veró & Criteriorum, affectuumque animi, & scopum illius in quem ista edisserentes collineavimus, attend, Tranquillitatem intelligo statumque mentis imperturbatum. But this is not all the Testimony I can give you from Epicurus himself to the same purpose, for among his Ratae Sententiae, preserved us by Laertius, (himself reputed an Epicurean) I find one that goes further; Si nihil (says he) conturbaret nos quod suspicamur, veremu que ex rebus sublimibus, neque item quod ex ipsa morte, ne quando nimirum ad nos pertine at aliquid, ac nosse praeterea possemus, qui Germani fines dolorum atque cupiditatum sint (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) nihil Physiologiâ indigeremus. Thus far the testimony of Epicurus, of whose mind though I am not at all, as to what he would intimate, That Physiology is either proper to free the Mind from the Belief of a Provident Deity, and the Souls Immortality, or fit for no other considerable purposes; yet this use we may well make of these Declarations, that, in Epicurus' opinion, a Moral Advantage that relates to the Government of the Affections, may deserve the pains of making Inquiries into Nature. And since it hence appears, that a mere Philosopher, who admitted no Providence, may think it worth his pains, to search into the abstrusest parts of Physics, and the difficultest Phaenomena of Nature, only to ease himself of one troublesome Affection, Fear; it need not be thought Unphilosophical, to prosecute a Study, that will not only Restrain One undue Passion, but Advance All Virtues, and free us from all Servile Fears of the Deity; and tend to give us a strong and well-grounded Hope in Him; and make us look upon God's greatest Power, not with Terror, but with Joy.  
There is yet another Advantage belonging to the study of Divine Truths, which is too great to be here pretermitted. For whereas there is scarce any thing more incident to us whilst we inhabit our (Batté Chómer) Cottages of Clay, 
job iv. 19.  and dwell in this vale of tears, than Afflictions; it ought not a little to endear to us the newly mentioned Study, that it may be easily made to afford us very powerful Consolations in that otherwise uneasy state.  
I know it may be said, that the Speculations about which the Naturalist is busied, are as well pleasing Diversions, as noble Employments of the Mind. And I deny not that they are often so, when the Mind is not hindered from applying itself attentively to them; so that Afflictions slight and short may well be weathered out by these Philosophical Avocations; but the Greater and Sharper sort of Afflictions, and the approaches of Death, require more powerful Remedies, than these Diversions can afford us. For in such cases, the Mind is wont to be too much discomposed, to apply the attention requisite to the finding a pleasure in Physical Speculations; and in Sicknesses, the Soul is oftentimes as indisposed to relish the Pleasures of merely Humane Studies, as the languishing Body is to relish those Meats, which at other times were delightful: And there are but few that can take any great pleasure to study the World, when they apprehend themselves to be upon the point of being driven out of it, and in danger of losing all their share in the Objects of their Contemplation. It will not much qualify our Sense of the burning heat of a Fever, or the painful gripes of the Colic, to know, That the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right ones; or that Heat is not a real Quality (as the Schools would have it,) but a Modification of the Motion of the Insensible parts of Matter; and Pain not a Distinct, Inherent Quality in the things that produce it, but an Affection of the Sentiment. The Naturalists Speculations afford him no Consolations that are extraordinary in, or peculiar to, the state of Affliction; and the Avocations they present him with, do rather Amuse the mind from an Attention to lesser Evils, than bring it any Advantages to Remove or Compensate them▪ and so work rather in the nature of Opiates, than of true Cordials.  
But now, if such a Person as Dr. N. falls into Adversity, the case is much otherwise; for we must consider, that when the study of Divine things is such as it ought to be, though, That in itself, or in the Nature of the Employment, be an act or exercise of Reason; yet being applied to, out of Obedience, and Gratitude, and Love to God, it is upon the account of its Motives, and its Aim, an act of Religion; and as it proceeds from Obedience, and Thankfulness, and Love to God, so it is most acceptable to him; and upon the account of his own Appointment, as well as Goodness, is a most proper and effectual means of obtaining his Favour; and then I presume, it will easily be granted, that he who is so happy as to enjoy That, can scarce be made miserable by Affliction. For not now to enter upon the Common-place of the Benefits of Afflictions to them that love God, and to them that are loved by him, it may suffice, that he who (as the Scripture speaks) knows our frame, 
Psal. ciij 14.  and has promised those that are his, 
1 Cor. 10.13.  that they shall not be Overburdened, is disposed and wont to give his afflicted Servants, both extraordinary Comforts in Afflictions, and Comforts appropriated to that state. For though Natural Philosophy be like its brightest Object, the Stars, which, however the Astronomer can with pleasure Contemplate them, are unable, being mere Natural Agents, to afford him a kinder Influence than usual, in case he be cast upon his Bed of Languishing, or into Prison; yet the Almighty and Compassionate Maker of the Stars, being not only a Voluntary, but the most Free, Agent, can suit and proportion his Reliefs to our Necessities, and alleviate our heaviest Afflictions by such supporting Consolations, that not only they can never surmount our Patience, but are oftentimes unable so much as to hinder our Joy; and when Death, that King of Terrors, presents itself, 
Job xviij. 14.  whereas the mere Naturalist sadly expects to be deprived of the pleasure of his knowledge by losing those Senses and that World, which are the Instruments and the Objects of it; and perhaps (discovering beyond the Grave nothing but either a state of Eternal Destruction, or of Eternal Misery,) fears either to be Confined for ever to the Sepulchre, or exposed to Torments that will make even such a Condition desirable; the pious Student of Divine Truths, is not only freed from the wracking Apprehensions of having his Soul reduced to a state of Annihilation, or cast into Hell, but enjoys a comfortable expectation of finding far greater Satisfaction than ever in the Study he now rejoices to have pursued; since the change, that is so justly formidable to others, will but bring him much nearer to the Divine Objects of his devout Curiosity, and strangely Elevate and Enlarge his Faculties to apprehend them.  
And this leads me to the mention of the last Advantage belonging to the study I would persuade you to; and indeed, the highest Advantage that can recommend Any Study, or invite Men to any Undertaking; for this is no less than the Everlasting fruition of the Divine Objects of our Studies hereafter, and the comfortable Expectation of it here. For the employing of one's time and parts, to admire the Nature and Providence of God, and contemplate the Divine Mysteries of Religion, as it is one of the chief of those Homages and Services, whereby we Venerate and Obey God; so it is one of those, to which he hath been pleased to apportion no less a Recompense, 
Dan. ix. 21, 22. Luke i. 11, 26. Acts x. 4, 5, 6. 1 Pet. i. 12.  than (that which can have no greater) the Enjoyment of Himself. The Saints and Angels in Heaven have divers of them been employed to convey the Truths of Theology, and are solicitous to look into those Sacred Mysteries; and God hath been pleased to appoint, that those men who study the same Lessons that they do here, shall study them in their company hereafter. And doubtless, though Heaven abound with unexpressible Joys, yet it will be none of the least that shall make up the Happiness even of that Place, that the Knowledge of Divine things, that was here so zealously Pursued, shall there be completely Attained. For those things that do here most excite our Desires, and quicken the Curiosity and Industry of our Searches, will not only there Continue, but be Improved to a far greater measure of Attractiveness and Influence. For all those Interests, and Passions, and Lusts, that here below either hinder us from clearly Discerning, or keep us from sufficiently Valuing, or divert us from attentively enough Considering, the Beauty and Harmony of Divine Truths, will there be either abolished, or transfigured: And as the Object will be Unveiled; so our Eye will be Enlightened, that is, as God will there disclose those worthy Objects of the Angel's Curiosity, so he will Enlarge our Faculties, to enable us to gaze without being dazzled upon those sublime and radiant Truths, whose Harmony as well as Splendour we shall be then qualified to Discover, and consequently with Transports to Admire. And this Enlargement and Elevation of our Faculties, will, proportionably to its own measure, Increase our Satisfaction at the Discoveries it will enable us to make. For Theology is like a Heaven, which wants not more Stars than appear in it, but we want Eyes, quicksighted and piercing enough to reach them. And as the Milky Way, and other Whiter parts of the Firmament, have been full of Immortal Lights from the beginning, and our new Telescopes have not placed, but found them, there; so, when our Saviour, after his glorious Resurrection, instructed his Apostles to teach the Gospel, 'tis not said that he altered any thing in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets, but only opened and enlarged their Intellects, 
Luke xxiv. 45. Psal. cxix. 18.  that they might understand the Scriptures: And the Royal Prophet makes it his Prayer, That God would be pleased to open his eyes, that he might see wonderful things out of the Law; being (as was above intimated) so well satisfied, that the Word of God wanted not Admirable things, that he is only solicitous for the Improvement of his own Eyes, that they might be qualified to discern them.  
I had almost forgotten one particular, about the Advantages of Theological Studies, that is too considerable to be left unmentioned: For as great as I have represented the Benefits accrueing from the Knowledge of Divine Truths; yet to endear them to us, it may be safely added, that, to procure us these Benefits, the actual Attainment of that Knowledge is not always absolutely Necessary, but a hearty Endeavour after it may suffice to entitle Us to them. The patient Chemist, that consumes himself and his Estate in seeking after the Philosopher's Stone, if he miss of his Idolised Elixir, had as good, nay better, have never sought it, and remains as poor in Effect, as he was rich in Expectation. The Husbandman that employs his Seed and Time, to obtain from the Ground a plentiful Harvest, if, after all, an unkind Season happen, must see his toil made fruitless; — longique perit labor irritus Anni.  
Too many Patients, that have punctually done and suffered for Recovery all that Physicians could prescribe, meet at last with Death in stead of Health. You know what entertainment has been given by skilful Geometricians to the laborious endeavours, even of such famous Writers as Scaliger, Longomontanus, and other Tetragonists; and that their Successor Mr. Hobbs, after all the ways he has taken, and those he has proposed, to Square the Circle, and Double the Cube, by missing of his end, has, after his various attempts, come off, not only with Disappointment, but with Disgrace. And (to give an Instance even in things Celestial) how much pains has been taken to find out Longitudes, and make Astrological Precictions with some certainty, which for want of coming up to what they aimed at, have been useless, if not prejudicial to the Attempters.  
But God (to speak with St. Paul on another occasion) that made the world, 
Acts xvij. 24, 25.  and all things therein, and is Lord of heaven and earth, seeks not our Services, as though He needed any thing, seeing he giveth Life, and Breath, and all things: His Self-sufficiency and Bounty are such, that He seeks in our Obedience the Occasions of rewarding it, and prescribes us Services, because the Practice of them is not only suitable to our Rational Nature, but such as will prevail with his Justice, to let His Goodness make our Persons happy. Agreeably to this Doctrine we find in the Scripture, that Abraham is said to have been justified by faith, 
Jam. ij. 21.  when he offered his son Isaac upon the Altar, (though he did not Actually sacrifice him) because he endeavoured to do so; although, God graciously accepting the Will for the Deed, accepted also of the blood of a Ram instead of Isaac's. And thus we know, that 'twas not David, but Solomon that built the Temple of Jerusalem, and yet God says to the former of those Kings (as we are told by the latter) For as much as it was in thine heart to build an House for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart; 
2 Chron. vi. 8, 9  notwithstanding thou shalt not build the House, etc. And if we look to the other Circumstances of this Story, as they are delivered in the Second Book of Samuel, 
2 Sam. seven.  we shall find, that upon David's declaration of a design to build God an house, God himself vouchsafes to honour him, as he once did Moses, with the peculiar Title of His Servant; 
ver. 5.  and commands the Prophet to say to him, 
ver. 11.  Also the Lord tells thee, that He will make Thee an House: To which is added one of the graciousest Messages that God ever sent to any particular man. By which we may learn, that God approves and accepts even those Endeavours (of his Servants) if they be real and sincere, that never come to be actually accomplished: Good Designs and Endeavours are our part, but the events of those, as of all other things, are in the All-disposing hand of God, who, if we be not wanting to what lies in us, will not suffer us to be Losers by the defeating Dispositions of his Providence▪ but crown our endeavours either with Success, or with some other Recompense, that will keep us from being Losers by missing of that. And indeed, if we consider the great Eulogies that the Scripture, as well frequently as justly, gives God's Goodness (which it represents as Over, or as Above, 
Hab. i. 13.  all his Works) and that his purer eyes Punish, as well as See, the Murder and Adultery of the heart, when those Intentional sins are hindered from advancing into Actual ones; we can scarce doubt but He, whose Justice punishes sinful Aims, will allow his Infinite Goodness to recompense pious Attempts: And therefore our Saviour pronounces them blessed, 
Matth. v. 6.  that hunger and thirst after righteousness, assuring Them that they shall be satisfied, and thereby sufficiently intimating to us, That an earnest Desire after a Spiritual Grace (and such is the knowledge of Divine things) may entitle a man to the complete Possession of it, if not in This life, yet in the Next, 
2 Cor. v. 7.  where we shall not any more walk by Faith, but by Sight, and obtain as well a Knowledge as other Endowments, befitting that Glorious state, wherein the Purchaser of it for Us, 
Luke xx. 36.  assures us, that we shall be [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] equal, or like to the Angels.  
The Considerations, Sir, I have hitherto laid before you, to recommend the Study of Divine Truths, have, I hope, persuaded you, That 'tis on many accounts both noble and eligible in itself; and therefore I shall here conclude the First Part of this Discourse. And in regard that the Undervaluation Physiophilus expresses for that excellent Employment, seems to flow (chiefly at least) from his fondness and partiality for Natural Philosophy; it will next concern us to compare the study of Theology with that of Physics, and show, that the Advantages which your Friend alleges in favour of the Latter, are partly much lessened by disadvantageous Circumstances, and partly much outweighed by the Transcendent Excellencies of Theological Contemplations: The study whereof will thereby appear to be not only Eligible in itself, but Preferrible to its Rival. And I must give you warning to expect to find the Second Part, which the making this Comparison challenges to itself, a good deal more Prolix than the First; not only because it often requires more trouble, and more words to detect and disprove an Error, than to make out a Truth; but also because that divers things tending to the Credit of Divinity, and which consequently might have been brought into the First Part of this Discourse, were thought more fit to be interwoven with other things, in the Answers made to the Objections examined in the Second.    

THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY: OR, The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity, above that of Natural Philosophy. THE SECOND PART.  
I Shall, without Preamble, begin this Discourse, by considering the Delightfulness of Physics, as the main thing that inveigles your Friend, and divers other Virtuosos, from relishing, as they ought, and otherwise would, the pleasantness of Theological Discoveries. And to deal ingenuously with you, I shall not scruple to acknowledge, that though the Address I have made to Nature has lasted several years, and has been toilsome enough, and not unexpensive; yet I have been pleased enough with the favours, such as they are, that she has from time to time accorded me, not to complain of having been unpleasantly employed. But though I readily allow the attainments of Naturalists to be able to give Philosophical Souls sincerer Pleasures, than those that the more undiscerning part of Mankind is so fond of; yet I must not therefore allow them to surpass, or even equal, the Contentment, that may accrue to a Soul qualified by Religion, to relish the best things most from some kind of Theological Contemplations.  
This, I presume, will sufficiently appear, if I show you, that the Study of Physiology is not unattended with considerable Inconveniencies, and that the pleasantness of it may be, by a Person studious of Divinity, enjoyed with endearing Circumstances.  
But before I name any of the particular Reasons that I am to represent, I fear it may be requisite to interpose a few words, to obviate a mistake, which, if not prevented, may have an ill aspect, not only upon the first Section, but upon a great part of the following Discourse. For I know that it may be said, that whereas I allege divers things, to lessen the lately mentioned delightfulness of the study of Physic, and to depreciate some other advantages, by which the following Sections would recommend it, some of the same things may be objected against the delightfulness of the study of Divinity. But this Objection will not, I presume, much move you, if you consider the argument and scope of the two parts of this Letter. For in the former I have shown by positive Proofs, that the study of Theology is attended with divers advantages, which belong to it, either only as some of them do, or principally as others. And now in the second part I come to consider, whether what is alleged in behalf of the study of Philosophy, deserve to counterbalance those Prerogatives or Advantages; and therefore it neither need be, nor is my design, to compare, for instance, the delightfulness of the two studies, Philosophy and Physics, but by showing the Inconveniences that alloy the latter, to weaken the Argument that is drawn from that delightfulness, to conclude it preferable to the study of Theology. So that my work, in this and the following Sections, is, not so much to institute Comparisons, as to obviate or answer Allegations. For since I have in the past Discourse grounded the Excellency of the study of Divinity, chiefly upon those great advantages that are peculiar to it; my Reasonings would not be frustrated, though it should appear, that in point of Delightfulness, Certainty, etc. that Study should, in many cases, be liable to the same Objections with the Study of Nature, since 'tis not mainly for these Qualities, but, as I was saying, for other and peculiar Excellencies that I recommended Divinity, And therefore, supposing the Delightfulness, etc. of that and of Physics, to be allayed by the same, or equal Inconveniences or Imperfections; that Supposition would not hinder the Scales to be swayed in favour of Divinity, upon the score of those Advantages that are unquestioned, and peculiarly belong to it. I know not whether I need add, that, notwithstanding this, you are not to expect, that I should give Philosophy the wounds of an Enemy. For my design being not to discourage you, nor any Ingenious man, from courting Her at all, nor from courting Her much, but from courting her too much, and despising Divinity for her, I employ against her not a Sword to wound her, but a Balance, to show, that her Excellencies, though solid and weighty, are less so, than the preponderating ones of Theology. And this temper and purpose of mine renders my Task difficult enough to have, perhaps, some right to your pardon▪ as well as some need of it, if I do not every where steer so exactly, as equally to avoid injuring the Cause I am to plead for, and disparaging a Study, which I would so little depreciate, that I allow it a great part of my Inclinations, and not a little share of my Time. And having said this, to keep the Design of this Discourse from being misunderstood, I hope we may now proceed to the particulars, whose scope we have been declaring.  
Returning then to what I was about to say before this long, but needful, Advertisement interrupted me, I shall resume my Discourse of the Delightfulness of the Study of Physics, about which I was going in the first place to tell you, that I know you and your Friend will freely grant me, that the knowledge of the empty and barren Physiology, that is taught in the Schools, as it exacts not much pains to be acquired, so it affords but little satisfaction when attained. And as I know you will give me leave to say this; so, being warranted by no slight experience of my own, I shall take leave to say also, that the study of that Experimental Philosophy, which is that whereof your Friend is so much enamoured, is, if it be duly prosecuted, a very troublesome and laborious Employment. For, (to mention at present but This) that great variety of Objects the Naturalist is not only by His Curiosity, but by Their secret dependences upon one another, engaged to consider, and several ways to handle, will put him upon needing, and consequently upon applying himself to such a Variety of Mechanic People, (as Distillers, Drugster's, Smiths, Turner's, &c.) that a great part of his time, and perhaps all his Patience, shall be spent in waiting upon Tradesmen, and repairing the losses he sustains by Their disappointments, which is a Drudgery greater than any, who has not tried it, will imagine, and which yet being as inevitable as unwelcome, does very much counterbalance and allay the Delightfulness of the Study we are treating of. In which so great a part of a man's care and time must be laid out in providing the Apparatus'es' necessary for the trying of Experiments.  
But this is not all. For when you have brought an Experiment to an Issue, though the Event may often prove such as you will be pleased with; yet it will seldom prove such as you can acquiesce in. For it fares not with an Inquisitive mind in studying the Book of Nature, as in reading of Aesop's Fables, or some other collection of Apologues of differing sorts, and independent one upon another; where when you have read over as many at one time as you think fit, you may leave off when you please, and go away with the pleasure of understanding those you have perused, without being solicited by any troublesome Itch of Curiosity to look after the rest, as those which are needful to the better understanding of those you have already gone over, or that will be explicated by them, and scarce without them. But in the Book of Nature, as in a well contrived Romance, the parts have such a connection and relation to one another, and the things we would discover are so darkly or incompleatly knowable by those that precede them, that the mind is never satisfied till it comes to the end of the Book; till when all that is discovered in the progress, is unable to keep the mind from being molested with Impatience to find that yet concealed, which will not be known till one does at least make a further progress. And yet the full discovery of Nature's Mysteries, is so unlikely to fall to any man's share in this Life, that the case of the Pursuers of them is at best like theirs, that light upon some excellent Romance, of which they shall never see the latter parts. For indeed (to speak now without a Simile) there is such a Relation betwixt Natural Bodies, and they may in so many ways (and divers of them unobserved) work upon, or suffer from, one another, that he who makes a new Experiment, or discovers a new Phaenomenon, must not presently think, that he has discovered a new Truth, or detected an old Error. For, (at least if he be a considering man) he will oftentimes find reason to doubt, whether the Experiment or Observation have been so skilfully and warily made in all circumstances, as to afford him such an Account of the matter of fact, as a severe Naturalist would desire. And then, supposing the Historical part no way defective, there are far more Cases than are taken notice of, wherein so many differing Agents may produce the exhibited Phaenomenon, or have a great Influence upon the Experiment or Observation, that he must be less jealous than becomes a Philosopher, to whom Experiments do not oftentimes as well suggest new doubts, as present new Phaenomena.  
And even those Trials, that end in real Discoveries, do, by reason of the connection of Physical Truths, and the relations that Natural Bodies have to one another, give such hopes and such desires of improving the Acquists we have already made, to the explicating of other Difficulties, or the making of further Discoveries, that an Inquisitive Naturalist finds his work to increase daily upon his hands, and the event of his past Toils, whether it be good or bad, does but engage him into new ones, either to free himself from his scruples, or improve his successes. So that, though the pleasure of making Physical Discoveries, is, in itself considered, very great; yet this does not a little impair it, that the same attempts which afford that delight, do so frequently beget both anxious Doubts, and a disquieting Curiosity. So that, if knowledge be, as some Philosophers have styled it, the Aliment of the Rational Soul, I fear I may too truly say, that the Naturalist is usually fain to live upon Salads and Sauces, which though they yield some nourishment, excite more appetite than they satisfy, and give us indeed the pleasure of eating with a good stomach, but then reduce us to an unwelcome necessity of always rising hungry from the Table.  
Of divers things, that lessen the Delightfulness of Physiological Studies, I do so amply discourse in other Papers, that I might well remit you thither; but indeed it is not necessary that I should insist on this Argument any further. 'Tis true, that such a Reference might be very proper, if the Mysteries of Theology and Physic were like those of Theology and Necromancy, or some other part of unlawful Magic, whereof the former could not be well relished without an abhorrence of the latter. But as the two great Books, of Nature and of Scripture, have the same Author; so the study of the latter does not at all hinder an Inquisitive man's delight in the study of the former. The Doctor I am pleading for, may as much relish a Physical Discovery, as Physiophilus; nay, by being addicted to Theology and Religion, he is so far from being uncapable of the contentments accrueing from the study of Nature, that beside those things that recommend it to others, there are several things that peculiarly endear it to Him.  
For I. he has the contentment to look upon the wonders of Nature, not only as the Productions of an admirably wise Author of things, but of such an one as he entirely honours and loves, and to whom he is related. He that reads an excellent Book, or sees some rare Engine, will be otherwise affected with the sight or the perusal, if he knows it to have been made by a Friend, or a Parent, than if he considers it but as made by a stranger, whom he has no particular reason to be concerned for. And if Rehoboam did not as well degenerate from the sentiments of Mankind, as from his Family, he could not but look upon that Magnificent Temple of Solomon with another Eye, than did the throngs of Strangers that came only to gaze at it, as an admirable piece of Architecture, whilst he considered that 'twas his Father that built it. And if (as we see) the same Heroic Actions, which we read in History, of some great Monarch, that strangers barely and unconcernedly admire, the Natives of his Country do not only venerate, but affectionately interest themselves therein, because they are his Countrymen, and their Ancestors were his Subjects: How much may we suppose the same Actions would affect them, if they had the honour to be that Prince's Children? We may well therefore presume, that 'tis not without a singular satisfaction, that the Contemplator, we are speaking of, does in all the Wonders of Nature discover, how wise, and potent, and bountiful that Author of Nature is, in whom he has a great Interest, and that so great an one, as both to be admitted into the number of his Friends, and adopted into the number of his Sons, and is thereby in some measure concerned in all the Admirations and Praises, that are paid either by himself or others, to those Adorable Attributes that God has displayed in that great Masterpiece of Power and Wisdom, the World. And when he makes greater discoveries in these Expresses and Adumbrations of the Divine Perfections, the delightfulness of his Contemplation is proportionably increased upon such an Account, as that, which indears to the passionate Lover of some charming Beauty an Excellent, above an Ordinary, Picture of her; because that the same things that make him, as it does other Gazers, look upon it as a finer piece, make Him look upon it as the more like his Mistress, and thereby entertain him with the sublimer Ideas of the belov'd Original; to whose transcendent Excellencies he supposes that the Noblest Representations must be the most resembling.  
And there is a farther Reason, why our Contemplator should find a great deal of contentment in these Discoveries. For we have in our nature so much of Imperfection, and withal so much of Inclination to self-love, that we do too confidently proportion our Ideas of what God can do for us, to what we have already the knowledge or the possession of. And though, when we make it our business, we are able with much ado somewhat to enlarge our apprehensions, and raise our expectations beyond their wont pitch; yet still they will be but scantly promoted and heightened, if those things themselves be but mean and ordinary, which we think we have done enough if we make them surpass. A Country Villager, born and bred in a homely Cottage, cannot have any suitable apprehensions of the Pleasures and Magnificence of a great Monarches Court. And if he should be bid to screw up his Imagination to frame Ideas of them, they would be borrowed from the best Tiled House he had seen in the Market-towns where he had sold his Turnips or Corn, and the Wedding-feast of some neighbouring Farmer's Daughter. And though a Child in the Mother's womb had the perfect use of Reason, yet could it not in that dark Cell have any Ideas of the Sun or Moon, or Beauties or Banquets, or Algebra or Chemistry, and many other things, which his Elder Brothers, that breath fresh Air, and freely behold the Light, and are in a more mature Estate, are capable of knowing and enjoying. Now among Thinking men, whose thoughts run much upon that future state which they must shortly enter into, but shall never pass out of; there will frequently and naturally arise a distrust, which though seldom owned, proves oftentimes disquieting enough! For such men are apt to question, how the future condition which the Gospel promises, can afford them so much happiness as it pretends to; since they shall in Heaven but Contemplate the Works of God, and praise him, and converse with him, all which they think may, though not immediately, be done by men here below, without being happy: But he that by Telescopes and Microscopes, dexterous Dissections, and well employed Furnaces, etc. discovers, the wondrous power and skill of him that contrived so vast and immense a Mass of Matter, into so curious a piece of Workmanship as this World, will pleasingly be convinced of the boundless power and goodness of the great Architect. And when he sees how admirably every Animal is furnished with parts requisite to his respective nature; and that there is particular care taken, that the same Animal, as for example, Man, should have differing provisions made for him according to his differing states within the womb, and out of it, (a humane Egg, and an Embryo, being much otherwise nourished and fitted for action, than is a (complete) Man;) He, I say, who considers this, and observes the stupendious Providence, and excellent Contrivances, that the curious Pryers into Nature (and none but they) can discover, will be as well enabled as invited to reason thus within himself: That sure God, who has with such admirable Artifice framed Silkworms, Butterflies, and other meaner Infects, and with such wonderful providence taken care, that the nobler Animals should as little want any of all the things requisite to the completing of their respective Natures; and who, when he pleases, can furnish some things with Qualifications, quite differing from those which the knowledge of his other works could have made us imagine, (as is evident in the Loadstone and in Quicksilver among Minerals, and the Sensitive Plant among Vegetables, the Chameleon among Animals, etc.) This God, I say, must needs be fully able to furnish those he delights to honour▪ with Objects suitable to their improved. Faculties, and with all that is requisite to the Happiness he intends them in their glorified state; and is able to bring this to pass by such amazing contrivances, as perhaps will be quite differing from any, that the things we have yet seen suggest to us any Ideas of. And sure he, that has in so immense, so curious, and so magnificent a Fabric, made such provision for Men, who are either desperately wicked, or but very imperfectly good, and in a state where they are not to Enjoy happiness, but by Obedience and Sufferings to Fit themselves for it, may safely be trusted with finding them in Heaven Employments and Delights becoming the Felicity he designs them There; as we see that here below, he provides as well for the soaring Eagle, as for the creeping Caterpillar, (and is able to keep the Ocean as fully supplied with Rivers, as Lakes or Ponds are with Springs and Brooks.) And as a state of Celestial happiness is so great a Blessing, that those things that afford us either greater assurances, or greater foretastes of it, are of the number of the greatest Contentments and Advantages, that short of It we can enjoy; so 'tis hard for any Divine to receive so much of this kind of satisfaction, as he who by skilfully looking into the Wonders of Nature, has his apprehensions of God's power and manifold wisdom (as an Apostle calls it) elevated and enlarged. 
Ephes. iij. 10.  As when the Queen of Sheba had particularly surveyed the astonishing Prudence that Solomon displayed in the ordering of his Magnificent Court; she transportedly concluded those Servants of his to be happy enough to deserve a Monarch's Envy, that were allowed the Honour and Privilege of a constant and immediate Attendance on him.  

The second Section.  
I Doubt not but you have too good an Opinion of your Friend, not to think that you may allege in his favour, that the chief thing which makes him prefer Physiology to all other kind of knowledge, is, That it enables those who are Proficients in it to do a great deal of good, both by improving of Trades, and by promoting of Physic itself. And I am too mindful of what I writ to Pyrophilus, to deny, either that it can assist a man to advance Physic and Trades, or that, by so doing, he may highly advantage Mankind. And this, I, (who would not lessen your Friends Esteem for Physics, but only his Partiality) willingly acknowledge to be so allowable an Endearment of Experimental Philosophy, that I do not know any thing, that to men of a Humane, as well as Ingenious Disposition, aught more to recommend the study of Nature; except the opportunity it affords men to be Just and Grateful to the Author both of Nature and of Man. I do not then deny, that the true Naturalist may very much benefit Mankind; but I affirm, that, if men be not wanting to themselves, the Divine may benefit them much more. It were not perchance either unseasonable, or impertinent to tell you on this occasion, that he who effectually teaches men to subdue their Lusts and Passions, does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies, by exempting them from those Vices, whose no less usual than destructive Effects are Wars, and Duels, and Rapines, and Desolations, and the Pox, and Surfeits, and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness, Idleness and Lust; which are not Enemies to Man's Life and Health barely upon a Physical account, but upon a Moral one, as they provoke God to punish them with Temporal as well as Spiritual Judgements; such as Plagues, Wars, Famines, and other public Calamities, that sweep away a great part of Mankind; besides those personal afflictions of Bodily Sickness, and disquiets of Conscience, that do both Shorten men's Lives, and Embitter them. Whereas Piety having (as the Scripture assures us) Promises both of this Life, and of that which is to come, those Teachers that make men Virtuous and Religious, by making them Temperate, and Chaste, and Inoffensive, and Calm, and Contented, do not only procure them great and excellent Dispositions to those Blessings, both of the Right hand and of the Left, which God's Goodness makes him forward to bestow on those, who by Grace and Virtue are made fit to receive them; but do help them to those Qualifications, that by preserving the Mind in a calm and cheerful temper, as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer, do both Lengthen their Lives, and Sweeten them. These things, I say, 'twere not impertinent to insist on, but I will rather choose to represent to you, That the Benefits which men may receive from the Divine, surpass those which they receive from the Naturalist, both in the Nobleness of the Advantages, and in the Duration of them.  
Be it granted then, that the Naturalist may much improve both Physic and Trades; yet since these themselves were devised for the service of the Body, (the one to preserve or restore his Health, and the other to furnish it with Accommodations or Delights;) the boasted use of Natural Philosophy, by its advancing Trades and Physic, will still be to serve the Body; which is but the Lodging and Instrument of the Soul, and which, I presume, your Friend, and which I am sure yourself, will be far from thinking the noblest part of Man. I know it may be said, nor do I deny it, that divers Mechanical Arts are highly Beneficial, not only to the Inventors, but to those Places, and perhaps those States, where such Improvements are found out and cherished. But though I most willingly grant, that this Consideration ought to recommend Experimental Philosophy, as well to States as to private Persons; yet, besides that many of these Improvements do rather Transfer than Increase Mankind's goods, and prejudice one sort of Men as much as they Advantage another, (as in the case of the Eastern Spices, of whose Trade the Portugals and Dutch by their later Navigations, did, by appropriating it to themselves, deprive the Venetians) or else does but increase that, which, though very Beneficial to the Producers, is not really so to Mankind in general: Of which we have an Example in the Invention of Extracting Gold and Silver out of the Oar, with Mercury. For though it have vastly enriched the Spaniards in the West Indies, yet 'tis not of any solid advantage to the World; no more than the Discovery of the Peruvian and other American Mines; by which, (especially reckoning the multitudes of unhappy men that are made miserable, and destroyed in working them,) Mankind is not put into a better condition than it was before. And if the Philosopher's Stone itself, (supposing there be such a thing) were not an Incomparable Medicine, but were only capable of transmuting other Metals into Gold, I should perhaps doubt, whether the Discoverer of it would much advantage Mankind; there being already Gold and Silver enough to maintain Trade and Commerce among men; and for all other purposes, I know not, why a plenty of Iron, and Brass, and Quicksilver, which are far more useful Metals, should not be more desirable. But not to urge this; we may consider, that these Advancements of enriching Trades do still bring Advantages but to the outward man, and those many Arts and Inventions that aim at the heightening the pleasures of the Senses, 
See Examples of this in my Notes about Sensation and Sensible Qualities.  belong but to the Body; and even in point of gratifying That, are not so requisite and important, as many suppose: Education, Custom, etc. having a greater Interest than most imagine in the relish men have even of Sensitive pleasures. And as for Physic, not to mind you, that it has been Loudly (how Justly, I here examine not,) complained of, that the new Philosophy has made it far greater promises than have yet been performed; I shall only take notice, that since all that Physic is wont to pretend to, is, to preserve health, or restore it, there are multitudes in the world that have no need of the assistance the Naturalist would give the Physician; and a healthy man, as such, is already in a better condition, than the Philosopher can hope to place him in, and is no more advantaged by the Naturalist's contribution to Physic, than a sound man that sleeps in a whole skin, is by all the fine Tools of a Surgeons Case of Instruments, and the various Compositions of his Chest.  
And as the Benefits that may be derived from Theology, much surpass those that accrue from Physics, in the Nobleness of the Subject they relate to; so have they a great advantage in point of Duration. For all the service that Medicines, and Engines, and Improvements can do a man, as they relate but to this Life, so they determine with it. Physic indeed and Chemistry do, the one more faintly, and the other more boldly, pretend sometimes not only to the Cure of Diseases, but the Prolongation of Life: But since none will suspect, but that the Masters of those parts of knowledge would employ their utmost skill to protract their own Lives, those that remember, that Solomon and Helmont lived no longer, than millions that were strangers to Philosophy; and that even Paracelsus himself, for all his boasted Arcana, is by Helmont and other Chemists confessed to have died some years short of 50; we may very justly fear, that Nature will not be so kind to her greatest Votaries, as to give them much more time than other men, for the payment of the last Debt all men owe her. And if a few years' respite could by a scrupulous and troublesome use of Diet and Remedies be obtained; yet that, in comparison of the Eternity that is to follow, is not at all considerable. But, whereas within no great number of years, (a little sooner, or a little later) all the Remedies, and Reliefs, and Pleasures, and Accommodations, that Philosophical Improvements can afford a man, will not keep him from the Grave, (which within very few days will make the body of the greatest Virtuoso as hideous and as loathsome a Carcase as that of any ordinary man;) the Benefits that may accrue to us by Divinity, as they relate Chiefly, though not Only, to the other World; so they will follow us out of this, and prove then incomparably greater than ever, when they alone shall be capable of being enjoyed. So that Philosophy, in the capacity we here consider it, does but as it were provide us some little Conveniences for our passage (like some Accommodations for a cabin, which outlasts not the Voyage,) but Religion provides us a vast and durable Estate, or, as the Scripture styles it, an unshaken Kingdom, when we are arrived at our Journeys end. And therefore the Benefits accrueing from Religion, may well be concluded preferible to their Competitors, since they not only reach to the Mind of Man, but reach beyond the End of Time itself; whereas all the variety of Inventions that Philosophy so much boasts of, as whilst they were in season they were devised for the service of the Body, so they make us busy, and pride ourselves about things, that within a short time will not (so much as upon Its score) at all concern us.   

The third Section.  
I Expect you should here urge on your Friend's behalf, That the study of Physics has one Prerogative, (above that of Divinity,) which, as it is otherwise a great Excellency, so does much add to the Delightfulness of it. I mean, the Certainty, and Clearness, and the thence resulting Satisfactoriness of our Knowledge of Physical, in comparison of any we can have of Theological matters, whose being Dark and Uncertain, the Nature of the things themselves, and the numerous Controversies of differing Sects about them, sufficiently manifest.  
But upon this Subject, divers things are to be considered.  
For first, as to the Fundamental and Necessary Articles of Religion, I do not admit the Allegation, but take those Articles to be both Evident, and capable of a Moral Demonstration. And if there be any Articles of Religion, for which a Rational and Cogent Proof cannot be brought, I shall for that very reason conclude, that such Articles are not absolutely Necessary to be believed; since it seems no way reasonable to imagine, that God having been pleased to send not only his Prophets and his Apostles, but his only Son into the World, to promulgate to Mankind the Christian Religion, and both to cause it to be consigned to writing, that it may be known, and to alter the course of Nature by numerous Miracles, that it might be believed; it seems not reasonable, I say, to imagine, that he should not propose those Truths, which he in so wonderful and so solemn a manner recommended, with at least so much Clearness, as that studious and well-disposed Readers may certainly understand such as are necessary for them to believe.  
2. Though I will not here engage myself in a Disquisition of the several kinds, or, if you please, Degrees, of Demonstration, (which yet is a Subject that I judge far more considerable than cultivated,) yet I must tell you, that as a Moral certainty (such as we may attain about the Fundamentals of Religion) is enough in many cases for a wise man, and even a Philosop to acquiesce in; so that Physical Certainty, which is pretended for the Truths demonstrated by Naturalists, is, even where 'tis rightfully claimed, but an inferior kind or degree of certainty, as Moral certainty also is. For even Physical Demonstrations can beget but a Physical Certainty, (that is, a Certainty upon supposition that the Principles of Physic be true,) not a Metaphysical Certainty, (wherein 'tis absolutely impossible, that the thing believed should be other than true.) For instance, All the Physical Demonstrations of the Ancients about the causes of particular Phaenomena of Bodies, suppose, that ex nihilo nihil fit; and this may readily be admitted in a Physical sense, because according to the course of Nature, no Body can be produced out of Nothing, but speaking universally it may be false, as Christians generally, and even the Cartesian Naturalists, asserting the Creation of the World, must believe, that, de facto, it is. And so whereas Epicurus does, I remember, prove, that a Body once dead cannot be made alive again, by reason of the dissipation and dispersion of the Atoms, 'twas, when alive, composed of; though all men will allow this assertion to be Physically demonstrable, yet the contrary may be true, if God's Omnipotence intervenes, as all the Philosophers that acknowledge the Authority of the New Testament, where Lazarus and others are recorded to have been raised from the dead, must believe, that it actually did appear, and even all unprejudiced Reasoners must allow it to be Possible, there being no Contradiction implied in the Nature of the thing. But now to affirm, that such things as are indeed Contradictories cannot be both true, or, that factum infectum reddi non potest, are Metaphysical Truths, which cannot possibly be other than true, and consequently beget a Metaphysical and absolute Certainty. And your Master Cartesius was so sensible of a dependence of Physical Demonstrations upon Metaphysical Truths, that he would not allow any certainty not only to them, but even to Geometrical Demonstrations, till he had evinced, that there is a God, and that he cannot deceive men that make use of their Faculties aright.  
To which I may add, that even in many things that are looked upon as Physical Demonstrations, there is really but a Moral Certainty. For when, for instance, Des-Cartes and other Modern Philosophers, take upon them to demonstrate, That there are divers Comets that are not Meteors, because they have a Parallax lesser than that of the Moon, and are of such a bigness, and some of them move in such a Line, etc. 'tis plain, that divers of these Learned men had never the opportunity to observe a Comet in their Lives, but take these Circumstances upon the credit of those Astronomers that had such Opportunities. And though the Inferences, as such, may have a Demonstrable Certainty; yet the Premises they are drawn from having but an Historical one, the presumed Physico-Mathematical Demonstration can produce in a wary mind but a Moral Certainty, and not the greatest neither of that kind that is possible to be attained; as he will not scruple to acknowledge, that knows by experience, how much more difficult it is, than most men imagine, to make Observations about such nice Subjects, with the exactness that is requisite for the building of an undoubted Theory upon them. And there are I know not how many things in Physics, that men presume they believe upon Physical and Cogent Arguments, wherein they really have but a Moral assurance; which is a Truth heeded by so few, that I have been invited to take the more particular notice of them in other Papers, written purposely to show the doubtfulness and incompleatness of Natural Philosophy; of which Discourse, since you may command a sight, I shall not scruple to refer you thither for the Reasons of my affirming here, that the most even of the modern Virtuosos are wont to fancy more of Clearness and Certainty in their Physical Theories, than a Critical Examiner will find. Only that you may not look upon this as a put off, rather than a reference, I will here touch upon a couple of Subjects, which men are wont to believe to be, and which indeed ought to be, the most throughly understood; I mean the Nature of Body in general, and the Nature of Sensation.  
And for the first of these, since we can turn ourselves no way, but we are every where environed, and incessantly touched by Corporeal Substances, one would think that so familiar an Object, that does so assiduously, and so many ways affect our Senses, and for the knowledge of which we need not inquire into the distinct Nature of particular Bodies, nor the properties of any one of them, should be very perfectly known unto us. And yet the Notion of Body in general, or what it is that makes a thing to be a Corporeal Substance, and discriminates it from all other things, has been very hotly disputed of, even among the modern Philosophers, & adhuc sub judice lis est. And though your Favourite Des-Cartes, in making the nature of a Body to consist in Extension every way, has a notion of it, which 'tis more easy to find fault with, than to substitute a better; yet I fear, 'twill appear to be attended, not only with this Inconvenience, That God cannot, within the compass of this World, wherein if any Body vanish into Nothing, the place or space left behind it must have the three Dimensions, and so be a true Body, annihilate the least particle of Matter, at least without, at the same instant and place, creating as much, (which agrees very ill with that necessary and continual dependence, which he asserts Matter itself to have on God for its very Being;) but with such other inconveniences, that some Friends of yours, otherwise very inclinable to the Cartesian Philosophy, know not how to acquiesce in it: and yet I need not tell you, how Fundamental a Notion the deviser of it asserts it to be. Neither do I see, how this Notion of a Corporeal Substance will any more, than any of the formerly received Definitions of it, extricate us out of the Difficulties of that no less perplexed, than famous Controversy, the Compositione Continui. And though some ingenious men, who perhaps perceive better than others, how intricate it is, have of late endeavoured to show, that men need not be solicitous to determine this Controversy, it not being rightly proposed by the Schoolmen that have started it; and though I perhaps think, that Natural Philosophy may be daily advanced without the decision of it, because there is a multitude of considerable things to be discovered and performed in Nature, without so much as dreaming of this Controversy; yet still, as I would propose the Question, the Difficulties, till removed, will spread a thick night over the Notion of Body in general. For, either a Corporeal and extended Substance is (either really or mentally) divisible into parts endowed with Extension, and each of these parts is divisible also into other Corporeal parts, lesser and lesser, in infinitum; or else this subdivision must stop somewhere, (for there is no mean between the two members of the Distinction;) and in either case the Opinion pitched upon will be liable to those Inconveniences, not to say Absurdities, that are rationally urged against it by the maintainers of the Opposite; the Objections on both sides being so strong, that some of the more Candid, even of the Modern Metaphysicians, after having tired themselves and their Readers with arguing Pro and Con, have confessed the Objections on both sides to be insoluble.  
But though we do not clearly understand the Nature of Body in general; yet sure we cannot but be perfectly acquainted with what passes within ourselves in reference to the particular Bodies we daily See, and Hear, and Smell, and Taste, and Touch. But alas, though we know but little, save by the Informations of our senses; yet we know very little of the manner by which our Senses informs us. And to avoid prolixity, I will at present suppose with you, that the Ingenious Des Cartes and his followers have given the fairest account of Sensation, that is yet extant. Now according to him, a Man's Body being but a well organised Statue, that which is truly called Sensation is not performed by the Organ, but by the Mind, which perceives the motion produced in the Organ; (for which reason he will not allow Brutes to have Sense properly so called;) so that if you ask a Cartesian, how it comes to pass that the Soul of Man, which he justly asserts to be an immaterial Substance, comes to be wrought upon, and that in such various manners, by those external Bodies that are the objects of our Senses, he will tell you, that by their Impressions on the Sensories, they variously move the Fibres or Threads of the Nerves, wherewith those parts are endowed, and by which the Motion is propagated to that little Kernel in the Brain, called by many Writers the Conarion, where these differing motions being perceived by the there residing Soul, become Sensations, because of the intimate union, and, as it were, Permistion (as Cartesius himself expresses it) of the Soul with the Body.  
But now, Sir, give me leave to take notice, that this Union of an Incorporeal with a Corporeal Substance, (and that without a Medium) is a thing so unexampled in Nature, and so difficult to comprehend, that I somewhat question, whether the profound Secrets of Theology, not to say the adorable Mystery itself of the Incarnation, be more abstruse than this. For how can I conceive, that a Substance purely immaterial, should be united without a Physical Medium, (for in this case there can be none,) with the Body, which cannot possibly lay hold on It, and which It can pervade and fly away from at pleasure, as Des-Cartes must confess the Soul actually does in Death. And 'tis almost as difficult to conceive, how any part of the Body, without excepting the Animal Spirits, or the Conarion, (for these are as truly Corporeal as other parts of the Humane Statue,) can make Impressions upon a Substance perfectly Incorporeal, and which is not immediately affected by the motions of any other parts, besides the Genus Nervosum. Nor is it a small difficulty to a mere Naturalist (who, as such, does not in Physical matters take notice of Revelations about Angels,) to conceive how a finite Spirit can either move, or, which is much the same thing, regulate and determine the motion of a Body. But that which I would on this occasion invite you to consider, is, that supposing the Soul does in the Brain perceive the differing motions communicated to the outward Senses; yet this, however it may give some account of Sensation in general, will not at all show us a satisfactory Reason of particular and distinct Sensations. For if I demand, why, for Instance, when I look upon a Bell that is ringing, such a motion or impression in the Conarion produces in the mind that peculiar sort of perception, Seeing, and not Hearing; and another motion, though coming from the same Bell at the same time, produces that quite differing sort of perception that we call Sound, but not Vision; what can be answered, but that it was the good pleasure of the Author of Humane Nature to have it so? And if the question be asked about the differing Objects of any one particular Sense; as, Why the great plenty of unperturbed Light that is reflected from Snow, Milk, &c, does produce a Sensation of whiteness, rather than redness or yellowness? Or why the smell of Castor, or Assa foetida, produces in most persons that which they call a Stink, rather than a Perfume? (especially since we know some Hysterical Women, that think it not only a wholesome, but a pleasing smell.) And if also you further ask, why Melody and sweet things do generally delight us? and discords and bitter things do generally displease us? Nay, why a little more than enough of some Objects that produce pleasure, will produce pain? (as may be exemplified in a cold hand, as it happens to be held out at a just, or at too near a distance from the fire:) If, I say, these, and a thousand other questions of the like kind, be asked, the Answer will be but the general one, that is already given, that such is the nature of Man. For to say, that moderate Motions are agreeable to the nature of the Sensory they are excited in, but violent and disorderly ones, (as j●ring Sounds, and scorching Heat) do put it into too violent a motion for its Texture; will by no means satisfy. For, besides that this Answer gives no account of the variety of Sensations of the same kind, as of differing Colours, Tastes, etc. but reaches only to Pleasure and Pain; even as to these, it will reach but a very little way; unless the Givers of it can show, how an Immaterial Substance should be more harmed by the brisker motion of a Body, than by the more languid.  
And as you and your Friend think, you may justly smile at the Aristotelians, for imagining that they have given a tolerable account of the Qualities of Bodies, when they have told us, that they spring from certain substantial Forms, though when they are asked particular Questions about these Incomprehensible Forms, they do in effect but tell us in general, that they have such and such Faculties, or Effects, because Nature, or the Author of Nature, endowed them therewith; so I hope you will give me leave to think, that it may keep us from boasting of the Clearness and Certainty of our knowledge about the Operations of sensible Objects, whilst, as the Aristotelians cannot particularly show, how their Qualities are produced, so we cannot particularly explicate, how they are perceived; the principal thing that we can say, being, in substance, this, that our Sensations depend upon such an union or permistion of the Soul and Body, as we can give no Example of in all Nature, nor no more distinct account of, than that it pleased God so to couple them together. But I beg your pardon for having detained you so long upon one Subject, though perhaps it will not prove time misspent, if it have made you take notice, that in spite of the clearness and certainty, for which your Friend so much prefers Physics before Theology, we are Yet to seek, (I say Yet, because I know not what Time may Hereafter discover) both for the Definition of a Corporeal Substance, and a satisfactory account of the manner of Sensation: though without the true Notion of a Body we cannot understand that Object of Physics in general, and without knowing the Nature of Sensation, we cannot know That, from whence we derive almost all that we know of any Body in particular.  
If after all this your Friend shall say, That Descartes's account of Body, and other things in Physics, being the best that men can give, if they be not satisfactory, it must be imputed to Humane Nature not to the Cartesian Doctrine, I shall not stay to dispute how far the allegation is true; especially since, though it be admitted, it will not prejudice my Discourse. For, whatsoever the Cause of the imperfection of our Knowledge about Physical matters be, that there is an Imperfection in that Knowledge is manifest; and that ought to be enough to keep us from being puffed up by such an imperfect Knowledge, and from undervaluing upon its account the study of those mysteries of Divinity, which, by reason of the Nobleness and Remoteness of the Objects, may much better than the Nature of Corporeal things, (which we see, and feel, and continually converse with,) have their obscurity attributed to the weakness of our humane Understandings. And if it be a necessary Imperfection of Humane Nature, that, whilst we remain in this mortal condition, the Soul being confined to the dark prison of the Body, is capable (as even Aristotle somewhere confesses) but of a dim knowledge; so much the greater value we ought to have for Christian Religion, since by its means (and by no other without it) we may attain a condition, wherein, as our Nature will otherwise be highly blessed and advanced; so our Faculties will be Elevated and Enlarged, and probably made thereby capable of attaining degrees and kinds of knowledge, to which we are here but strangers. In favour of which I will not urge the received Opinion of Divines, that before the Fall (which yet is a less noble condition than is reserved for us in Heaven,) Adam's knowledge was such, that he was able at first sight of them to give each of the Beasts a name expressive of its Nature; because that in spite of some skill (which my Curiosity for Divinity, not Philosophy, gave me) in the holy Tongue, I could never find, that the Hebrew names of Animals, mentioned in the beginning of Genesis, argued a (much) clearer insight into their Natures, than did the names of the same or some other Animals in Greek, or other Languages; wherefore, (as I said) I will not urge Adam's knowledge in Paradise for that of the Saints in Heaven, though the notice he took of Eve at his first seeing of her, (if it were not conveyed to him by secret Revelation) may be far more probably urged, than his naming of the Beasts: But I will rather mind you, that the Proto-martyr's sight was strengthened so, 
Acts seven. 56.  as to see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and when the Prophet had prayed, 
2 Kings vi. 17.  that his Servant's Eyes might be opened, he immediately saw the Mountain, where they were, all covered with Chariots and Horsemen, which, though mentioned to be of Fire, were altogether invisible to him before. To which, as a higher Argument, I shall only add a couple of passages of Scripture, which seem to allow us even vast Expectations as to the knowledge our glorified Nature may be advanced to. The one is that which St. Paul says to the Corinthians, 
1 Cor. xiij. 12.  For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And the other, where Christ's Favourite-Disciple tells Believers, Beloved, 
1 Joh. iij. 2.  now we are the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.  
What has hitherto been discoursed, contains the first Consideration, that I told you might be proposed about the Certainty ascribed to the knowledge we are said to have of Natural things; but this is not all I have to represent to you on this Subject. For I consider further, that 'tis not only by the Certainty we have of them, that the knowledge of things is endeared to us, but also by the Worthiness of the Object, the Number of those that are unacquainted with it, the Remoteness of it from common Apprehensions, the Difficulty of acquiring it without peculiar Advantages, the Usefulness of it when attained, and other particulars, which 'tis not here necessary to enumerate. I presume, you doubt not but your Friend does very much prefer the knowledge he has of the Mysteries of Nature (at many of which we have as yet but Ingenious Conjectures) to the knowledge of one that understands the Elements of Arithmetic, though He be Demonstratively sure of the Truth of most of his Rules and Operations. And questionless Copernicus received a much higher satisfaction in his Notion about the Stability of the Sun, and the Motion of the Earth, though it were not so clear but that Tycho, Ricciolus, and other eminent Astronomers have rejected it, than in the knowledge of divers of the Theorems about the Sphere, that have been demonstrated by Euclid, Theodosius, and other Geometricians. Our discovering that some Comets are not, as the Schools would have them, Sublunary Meteors, but Celestial Bodies, and the Conjectural Theory, which is all that hitherto we have been able to attain of them, do much better please both your Friend, and you, and me, than the more certain knowledge we have of the time of the Rising and Setting of the Fixed Stars. And the Estimates we can make, by the help of Parallaxes, of the Heights of those Comets, and of some of the Planets, though they are uncertain enough, (as may appear by the vastly different distances that are assigned to those Bodies by eminent Astronomers;) yet these uncertain measures of such Elevated and Celestial Lights do far more please us, than that we can by the help of a Geometrical Quadrant, or some such Instrument, take with far greater Certainty the height of a Tower or a Steeple. And so a Mathematician, when he probably conjectures at the compass of the Terrestrial Globe, and divides, though but unaccurately, its Surface, first, into proportions of Sea and Land, and then into Regions of such Extents and Bounds, and, in a word, skilfully plays the Cosmographer; thinks himself much more nobly and pleasantly employed, than when, being reduced to play the Surveyor, he does with far more certainty measure how many Acres a Field contains, and set out with what Hedges and Ditches it is bounded. Now, that the knowledge of God, and of those Mysteries of Theology, that are ignored by far the greatest part of Mankind, has more sublime and excellent Objects, and is unattained to by much the greatest part even of Learned men, and nevertheless is of unvaluable Importance, and of no less Advantage towards the purifying and improving of us here, and the making us perfect and happy hereafter, the past Discourse has very much miscarried if it have not evinced. Wherefore, as to be admitted into the Privy-council of some Great Monarch, and thereby be enabled to give a probable guess at those thoughts and designs of his, that Govern Kingdoms, and make the Fates of Nations, is judged preferable to that clearer knowledge that a Notary can have of the dying thoughts and intentions of an ordinary Person whose Will he makes: And as the knowledge of a skilful Physician, whose Art is yet conjectural, is preferable to that of a Cutler that makes his Dissecting Knives, though this man can more certainly perform what he designs in his own profession, than the Physician can in his: And (in fine) as the skill of a Jeweller, that is conversant about Diamonds, Rubies, Saphires, and some other sorts of small Stones, which being for the most part brought us out of the Indies, we must take many things about them upon report, is, because of the Nobleness of the Object, preferred to that of a Mason that deals in whole Quarries of common Stones, and may be sure upon his own Experience of divers things concerning them, which as to Jewels we are allowed to know but upon Tradition: So a more dim and imperfect knowledge of God, and the Mysteries of Religion, may be more desirable, and upon that account more delightful, than a clearer knowledge of those Inferior Truths that Physics are wont to teach.  
I must now mention one particular more, which may well be added to those that peculiarly endear Physics to the Divine that is studious of them. For, as he contemplates the works of Nature not barely for themselves, but to be the better qualified and excited to admire and praise the Author of Nature; so his Contemplations are delightful to him, not barely as they afford a pleasing Exercise to his Reason, but as they procure him a more welcome approbation from his Conscience, these distinct satisfactions being not at all inconsistent. And questionless, though Esau did at length miss of his aim, yet, while he was hunting Venison for the good old Patriarch that desired it of him, besides the pleasure he was used to take in pursuing the Deer he chased, 
Gen. xxxvij.  he took a great one in considering, that now he hunted to please his Father, and in order to obtain of him an inestimable Blessing. So, when David employed his skilful Hand and Voice in praising God with Vocal and Instrumental Music, he received in one Act a double satisfaction, by exercising his Skill and his Devotion; and was no less pleased with those melodious sounds, as they were Hymns, than as they were Songs. And this Example prompts me to add, that as the devout Student of Nature we were speaking of, does Intentionally refer the knowledge he seeks of the Creatures to the glory of the Creator; so in his Discoveries, that which most contents him, is, that the Wonders he observes in Nature, heighten that Admiration he would fain raise to a less disproportion to the Wisdom of God; and furnish him with a nobler Holocaust for those Sacrifices of Praise he is justly ambitious to offer up to the Deity. And as there is no doubt to be made, but that, when David invented (as the Scripture intimates that he did) new Instruments of Music, 
Amos vi. 5.  there was nothing in that Invention that pleased him so much, as that they could assist him to praise God the more melodiously; go the pious Student of Nature finds nothing more welcome in the Discoveries he makes of her Wonders, than the Rises and Helps they may afford him, the more worthily to celebrate and glorify the Divine Attributes adumbrated in the Creatures. And as a Huntsman or a Fowler, if he meets with some strange Bird or Beast, or other Natural Rarity, thinks himself much the more fortunate if it happen to be near the Court, where he may have the King to present it to, than if he were to keep it but for himself or some of his Companions; So our Devout Naturalist has his Discoveries of Nature's Wonders endeared to him, by having the Deity to present them to, in the Veneration they excite in the Finder, and which they enable him to engage others to join in.   

The fourth Section.  
BUt I confess (Sir) I much fear, that That which makes your Friend have such detracting thoughts of Theology, is a certain secret Pride, grounded upon a Conceit, that the Attainments of Natural Philosophers are of so noble a kind, and argue so transcendent an Excellency of Parts in the Attainer, that he may justly undervalue all other Learning, without excepting Theology itself.  
You will not, I suppose, expect, that a person, who has written so much in the praise of Physic's, and laboured so much for a little skill in it, should now here endeavour to depretiate that so useful part of Philosophy. But I do not conceive, that it will be at all injurious to it, to prefer the knowledge of Supernatural, to that of mere Natural things, and to think, that the Truths, which God indiscriminately exposes to the whole Race of Mankind, and to the bad as well as to the good, are inferior to those Mysterious ones, whose Disclosure he reckons among his peculiar Favours, and whose Contemplation employs the Curiosity, and, in some points, exacts the wonder of the very Angels. That I may therefore repress a little the overweening Opinion your Friend has of his Physical Attainments, give me leave to represent a few particulars conducive to that purpose.  
And first, as for the Nobleness of the Truths taught by Theology and Physics, those of the former sort have manifestly the Advantage, being not only conversant about far nobler Objects, but discovering things that Humane Reason of itself can by no means reach unto; as has been sufficiently declared in the foregoing part of this Letter.  
Next, we may consider, that, whatever may be said to excuse Pride (if there were any) in Moscus the Phoenician, who is affirmed to have first Invented the Atomical Hypothesis, and in Democritus and Leucippus, (for Epicurus scarce deserves to be named with them,) that highly Advanced that Philosophy; and in Monsieur Des-Cartes, who either Improved, or at least much Innovated the Corpuscularian Hypothesis: Whatever (I say) may be alleged on the behalf of these men's pride; I see no great Reason, why it should be allowed in such as your Friend; who, though Ingenious Men, are neither Inventors, nor eminent Promoters of the Philosophy they would be admired for, but content themselves to Learn what others have Taught, or at least to make some little further Application of the Principles that others have Established, and the Discoveries they have made. And whereas your Friend is not a little proud of being able to confute several Errors of Aristotle and the Ancients, it were not amiss if he considered, that many of the chief Truths that overthrew those Errors, were the Productions of Time and Chance, and not of his daring Ratiocinations: For, there needs no great Wit to disprove those that maintain the Uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone, or deny the Antipodes, since Navigators have found many Parts of the former well Peopled, and Sailing round the Earth, have found men living in Country's Diametrically opposite to Ours. Nor will it warrant a man's Pride, that he believes not the Moon to be the only Planet that shines with a borrowed Light, or the Galaxy to be a Meteor; since that now the Telescope shows us, that Venus has her Full and Wain like the Moon, and that the Milky way is made up of a vast multitude of little Stars, inconspicuous to the naked Eye. And indeed of those other Discoveries that overthrew the Astronomy of the Ancients, and much of their Philosophy about the Celestial Bodies, few or none have any cause to boast, but the excellent Galileus, who pretends to have been the Inventor of the Telescope: For that Instrument once discovered; to be able to reject the Septenary number of the Planets by the Detection of the four Satellites of Jupiter, or talk of the Mountains and Valleys in the Moon, requires not much more excellency in your Friend, than it would to descry in a Ship, where the naked Eye could discern but the Body of the Vessel, (to descry, I say) by the help of a Prospective Glass, the Masts, and Sails, and Deck, and perceive a Boat towed at her Stern: Though indeed Galileo himself had no great cause to boast of the Invention, though we are much obliged to him for the Improvement of the Telescope, since no less a Master of Dioptrics than Des-Cartes, does acknowledge with other Writers, that Perspective-Glasses were not first found out by Mathematicians or Philosophers, but casually by one Metius, a Dutch Spectacle-maker. On which occasion I shall mind you, that to hide Pride from Man, divers others of the chief Discoveries that have been made in Physics, have been the Productions, not of Philosophy, but Chance, by which Gunpowder, Glass, and, for aught we know, the Verticity of the Loadstone, (to which we owe both the Indies) came to be found in these later Ages; as (more recently) the Milky Vessels of the Mesentery, the new Receptacle of the Chyle, and that other sort of Vessels which most men call the Lymphducts, were lighted on but by Chance, according to the Ingenious Confession of the Discoverers themselves.  
We may farther consider, that those very things which are justly are alleged in the praise of the Corpuscularian Philosophy itself, aught to lessen the pride of those that but make use of it. For that Hypothesis, supposing the whole Universe (the Soul of Man excepted) to be but a great Automaton, or self-moving Engine, wherein all things are performed by the bare motion (or rest) the size, the shape, and the situation or texture of the parts of the Universal Matter it consists of; all the Phaenomena result from those few Principles, single or combined, (as the several Tunes or Chimes that are rung on five Bells,) and these fertile Principles being already established by the Inventors and Promoters of the Particularian Hypothesis; all that such Persons as your Friend, are wont farther to do, is but to investigate or guests, by what kind of Motions the three or four other Principles are varied. So that the World being but, as it were, a great piece of Clockwork, the Naturalist as such, is but a Mechanitian; however the parts of the Engine, he considers, be some of them much larger, and others much minuter, than those of Clocks or Watches. And for an ordinary Naturalist to despise those that study the Mysteries of Religion, as much inferior to Physical Truths, is no less unreasonable, than it were for a Watchmaker, because he understands his own Trade, to despise Privy-Counsellers, who are acquainted with the secrets of Monarches, and Mysteries of State; or than it were for a Ship-carpenter, because he understands more of the Fabric of the Vessel, to despise the Admiral, that is acquainted with the secret Designs of the Prince, and employed about his most important affairs.  
That great Restorer of Physics, the illustrious Verulam, who has traced out a most useful way to make Discoveries in the Intellectual Globe, as he calls it, confesses, that his work was (to speak in his own terms) partus temporis potius quám ingenii. And though I am not of his opinion, where he says in another place, that his way of Philosophising does exaequare ingenia; yet I am apt to think, that the fertile Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy being once settled, the Methods of enquiring and experimenting being found out, and the Physicomechanical Instruments of working on Natures and Arts Productions being happily invented, the making of several lesser improvements, especially by rectifying of some almost obvious or supine Errors▪ of the Schools, by the assistance of such facilitating helps, may fall to the lot of persons not endowed with any extraordinary Sagacity, or acuteness of parts. And though the Investigation and clear establishment of the true Principles of Philosophy, and the devising the Instruments of Knowledge, be things that may be allowed to be the proper work of sublimer Wits; yet, if a man be furnished with such assistances, 'tis not every Discourse that he makes, or thing which he does by the help of them, that is difficult enough to raise him to that illustrious rank. And indeed, divers of the vulgar Errors, as well as of Scholars as other men, being mainly grounded upon the mere, and often mistaken, Authority of Aristotle, and perhaps some frivolous Reasons of his Scholastic Interpreters of such precarious and ungrounded things, that to ruin them, does oftentimes require more of boldness than skill; it may perhaps be said of your Friend, in relation to his Philosophical Successes against such vulgar Errors, as I am speaking of, what a Roman said of Alexander's Triumph over the effeminate asiatics, Quod nihil aliud quám bene ausus sit Vana contemnere. And in some cases it happens, that, when once a grand Truth, or a happy way of Experimenting has been found, divers Phaenomena of Nature, that had been left unexplained, or were left mis-explained by the Schools, did, in my opinion, require a far less straining Exercise of the mind to unriddle and explain them, than must have been requisite to dispel the darkness that attended divers Theological Truths that are now cleared up, and perhaps than I have myself now and then employed in some of those Attempts, to illustrate Theological Matters, that you may have met in some Papers that I have presumed to write on such Subjects. And indeed the Improvements, that such Virtuosos as your Friend are wont to make of the fertile Theorems and Hints, that have been presented them by the Founders or prime Benefactors of true Natural Philosophy, are so poor and slender, and do so much oftener proceed from Industry and Chance, than they argue a transcendent sagacity, or a sublimity of Reason, that, though such persons may have cause enough to be Delighted with what they have done, yet they have none to be Proud of it; and their Performances may deserve our Thanks, and perhaps some of our Praise, but reach not so high as to merit our Admiration; which is to be reserved for Those, that have been either Framers, or Grand Promoters, of True and Comprehensive Hypotheses, or (else) the Authors of other noble and useful Discoveries, many ways applicable.  
It will not perhaps be improper to add on this occasion, that, as our knowledge is not very deep, not reaching with any certainty to the bottom of Things, nor penetrating to their intimate or innermost Natures; so its Extent is not very large, not being able to give us, with any Clearness and particularity, an account of the Celestial and deeply Subterraneal parts of the World, of which all the others make but a very small (not to say contemptible) portion.  
For, as to the very Globe that we inhabit, not to mention, how many Plants, Animals, and Minerals, we are as yet wholly ignorant of, and how many others we are but slenderly acquainted with; I consider, that the objects about which our Experiments and Inquiries are conversant, do all belong to the Superficial parts of the Terrestrial Globe, of which the Earth, known to us, seems to be but as it were the Crust or Scurf. But what the Internal part of this Globe is made up of, is no less disputable than of what Substance the remotest Stars we can descry, consist: For even among the modern Philosophers some think, the internal Portion of the Earth to be pure and Elementary Earth, which (say they) must be found there, or no where. Others imagine it to be Fiery, and the Receptacle either of Natural or Hellish Flames. Others will have the Body of the Terrestrial Globe to be a great and solid Magnet. And the Cartesians on the other side, (though they all admit store of Subterraneal Lodestones) teach, that the same Globe was once a Fixed Star, and that, though it have since degenerated into a Planet, yet the Internal part of it is still of the same Nature that it was before; the change it has received proceeding only from having had its outward parts quite covered over with thick spots (like those to be often observed about the Sun,) by whose Condensation the firm Earth we inhabit was formed. And the mischief is, that each of these jarring Opinions is almost as difficult to be demonstratively proved False as True. For, whereas to the Centre of the Earth there is, according to the modestest account of our late Cosmographers, above three thousand and five hundred miles; my Inquiries among Navigators and Miners have not yet satisfied me, that men's Curiosity has actually reached above one mile or two at most downwards, (and that not in above three or four places,) either into the Earth or into the Sea. So that as yet our Experience has scarce grated any thing deep upon the Husk, (if I may so speak) without at all reaching the Kernel of the Terraqueous Globe.  
And alas! what is this Globe of ours, of which itself we know so little, in comparison of those vast and Luminous Globes that we call the Fixed Stars, of which we know much less? For, though former Astronomers have been pleased to give us, with a seeming accurateness, their Distances and Bignesses, as if they had had certain ways of measuring them; yet Later and Better Mathematicians will (I know) allow me to doubt of what Those have delivered. For since 'tis confessed, that we can observe no Parallax in the Fixed Stars (nor perhaps in the highest Planets,) men must be yet to seek for a Method to measure the distance of those Bodies. And not only the Copernicans make it to be I know not how many hundred thousands of miles greater than the Ptolomeans, and very much greater than even Tycho; but Ricciolus himself, though a great Anti-Copernican, makes the distance of the Fixed Stars vastly greater, than not only Tycho, but (if I mis-remember not) than some of the Copernicans themselves. Nor do I wonder at these so great Discrepances, (though some amount perhaps to some millions of miles,) when I consider, that Astronomers do not measure the distance of the Fixed Stars by their Instruments, but accommodate it to their particular Hypotheses. And by this uncertainty of the remoteness of the Fixed Stars you will easily gather, that we are not very sure of their Bulk, no not so much as in reference to one another; since it remains doubtful, whether the differing Sizes, they appear to us to be of, proceed from a real Inequality of Bulk, or only from an Inequality of Distance, or partly from one of those causes, and partly from the other.  
But 'tis not my design to take notice of those Things, which the famous Disputes among the Modern Astronomers manifest to be dubious. For I consider, that there are divers things relating to the Stars, which are so remote from our knowledge, that the Causes of them are not so much as disputed of, or inquired into, such as may be among others, Why the number of the Stars is neither greater nor lesser than it is? Why so many of those Celestial Lights are so placed, as not to be visible to our naked eyes, nor even when they are helped by ordinary Telescopes? (which extraordinary good ones have assured me of.) Why among the familiarly visible Stars, there are so many in some parts of the Sky, and so few in others? Why their Sizes are so differing, and yet not more differing? Why they are not more orderly placed, so as to make up Constellations of regular or handsome Figures (of which the Triangle is, perhaps, the single Example) but seem to be scattered in the Sky as it were by Chance, and have as confused Configurations, as the Drops that fall upon one's Hat in a shower of Rain? To which divers other Questions might be added, as about the Stars, so about the Interstellar part of Heaven, which several of the Modern Epicureans would have to be empty, save where the beams of Light (and perhaps some other Celestial Effluvia) pass through it; and the Cartesians on the contrary think to be full of an Aethereal matter, which some, that are otherwise favourers of their Philosophy, confess they are reduced to take up but as an Hypothesis. So that our knowledge is much short of what many think, not only if it be considered Intensively, but Extensively, (as a Schoolman would express it.) For there being so great a disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth, that some Moderns think the Earth to be little better than a Point in comparison even of the Orb of the Sun; and the Cartesians, with other Copernicans, think the great Orb itself, (which is equal to what the Ptolomeans called the Sun's Orb) to be but a Point in respect of the Firmament; and all our Astronomers agree, that at least the Earth is but a Physical Point in comparison of the Starry Heaven: Of how little extent must our knowledge be, which leaves us ignorant of so many things, touching the vast Bodies that are above us, and penetrates so little a way even into the Earth that is beneath us, that it seems confined to but a small share of the superficial part of a Physical Point! Of which consideration the natural result will be, that, though what we call our Knowledge, may be allowed to pass for a high Gratification to our minds, it ought not to puff them up; and what we know of the System, and the Nature of things Corporeal▪ is not so perfect and satisfactory, as to justify our despising the Discoveries of Spiritual things.  
One of the former parts of this Letter may furnish me with one thing more, to evince the Excellencies and Prerogatives of the knowledge of the Mysteries of Religion; and that One thing is such, that I hope I shall need to add nothing More, because it is not possible to add any thing Higher; and that is, That the Preeminence above other Knowledge, adjudged to that of Divine Truths by a Judge above all Exception, and above all Comparison, namely, by God himself.  
This having been but lately shown, I shall not now repeat it, but rather apply what hath been there evinced, by representing, that if He, who determines in favour of Divine Truths, were such an one, as was less acquainted, than our overweening Naturalists with the secrets of their Idolised Physics; or if he were, though an Intelligent, yet (like an Angel) a Bare Contemplator of what we call the Works of Nature, without having any Interest in their Productions, your Friends not acquiescing in his estimate of things might have, though not a fair Excuse, yet a stronger Temptation.  
But when he, by whose direction we prefer the higher Truths revealed in the Scripture, before those which Reason alone teaches us concerning those comparatively mean Subjects, things Corporeal, is the same God that not only understands the whole Universe, and all its parts, far more perfectly, than a Watchmaker can understand one of his own Watches, (in which he can give an account only of the Contrivance, and not of the Cause of the Spring, nor the Nature of the Gold, Steel, and other Bodies his Watch consists of,) but did make both this great Automaton, the World, and Man in it: We have no colour to imagine, that he should either be ignorant of, or injuriously disparage, his own Workmanship, or impose upon his Favourite-Creature, Man, in directing him what sort of Knowledge he ought most to covet and prise. So that since 'tis He who framed the World, and all those things in it we most admire, that would have us prefer the knowledge he has vouchsafed us in his Word, before that which he has allowed us of his Works, sure 'tis very unreasonable and unkind to make the Excellencies of the Workmanship a disparagement to the Author, and the Effects of his Wisdom a Motive against acquiescing in the Decisions of his Judgement; as if, because he is to be admired for his Visible Productions, he were not to be believed, when he tells us, that there are Discoveries that contain Truths more valuable than those which relate but to the Objects, that he has exposed to all men's Eyes.   

The fifth Section.  
I Doubt, I should be guilty of a most important Omission, if I should here forget to consider One thing, which I fear has a main stroke in the Partiality your Friend expresseth in his preference of Physics to Theology; and that is, That he supposes he shall by the Former acquire a Fame, both more Certain and more Durable, than can be hoped for from the Latter.  
And I acknowledge, not only with readiness, but with somewhat of Gratulation of the felicity of this Age, That there is scarce any sort of Knowledge more in request, than that which Natural Philosophy pretends to teach; and that among the awakened and inquisitive part of Mankind, as much Reputation and Esteem may be gained by an insight into the Secrets of Nature, as by being entrusted with those of Princes, or dignified with the splendid'st marks of their favour.  
But though I readily confess thus much, and though perhaps I may be thought to have had, I know not by what fate, as great a share of that perfumed Smoke, Applause, as (at least) some of those, which among the Writers that are now alive, your Friend seems most to Envy for it; yet I shall not scruple to tell you, partly from observation of what has happened to others, and partly too upon some little Experience of my own, that neither is it so easy as your Friend seems to believe it, to get by the study of Nature a sure and lasting Reputation, neither aught the Expectation of it, in reason, make men undervalue the study of Divinity. Nor would it here avail to object (by way of prevention) that the Difficulties and Impediments of acquiring and securing Reputation, lie as well in the way of Divines as Philosophers, since this Objection has been already considered at the beginning of this Second Part of our present Tract. Besides, that the progress of our Discourse will show, that the Naturalist, aspiring to fame, is liable to some Inconveniences, which are either not at all, or not near equally incident to the Divine. Wherefore without staying to take any further notice of this preventive Allegation, I shall proceed to make good the first part of the Assertion that preceded it; which that I may the more fully do, give me leave (after having premised, That a man must either be a Writer, or forbear to Print what he knows;) to propose to you the following Considerations.  
And first, if your Physeophilus should think to secure a great Reputation, by forbearing to couch any of his Thoughts or Experiments in Writing, he may thereby find himself not a little mistaken. For if once he have gained a repute (upon what account soever) of knowing some things that may be useful to others, or of which studious men are wont to be very desirous, he will not avoid the Visits and Questions of the Curious. Or, if he should affect a Solitude, and be content to hide himself, that he may hide the things he knows; yet he will not escape the solicitations that will be made him by Letters. And if these ways of tempting him to disclose himself, prevail not at all with him to do so, he will provoke the Persons that have employed them; who finding themselves disoblieged by being defeated of their Desires, if not also their Expectations, will for the most part endeavour to revenge themselves on him, by giving him the Character of an uncourteous and ill-natured person; and will endeavour, perhaps successfully enough, to decry his parts, by suggesting, That his affected Concealments proceed but from a Conscientiousness, that the things he is presumed to possess, are but such, as, if they should begin to be known, would cease to be valued.  
You will say (perchance,) that so much reservedness is a fault: Nor shall I dispute it with you, whether it be or not; but, if he be open and communicative in Discourse to those Strangers that come to pump him, such is the disingenuous temper of too too many, that he will be in great danger of having his Notions or Experiments arrogated by those to whom he imparts them, or at least by others, to whom those may (though perchance designlessly) happen to discourse of them. And then, if either Physeophylus, or any of his Friends that know him to be Author of what is thus usurped, should mention him as such, the Usurpers and their Friends would presently become his Enemies; and, to secure their own Reputation, will be solicitous to lessen and blemish his. And if you should now tell me, that your Friend might here take a Middle way, as that which in most cases is thought to be the best, by discoursing at such a rate of his Discoveries, as may somewhat gratify those that have a Curiosity to learn them, and yet not speak so clearly as divest himself of his Propriety in them; I should reply, That neither is this Expedient a sure one, nor free from Inconveniences. For most men are so self-opinionated, that they will easily believe themselves Masters of things, if they do but half understand them. And however, though the Persons to whom the Discourse was immediately made, should not have too great an Opinion of themselves, no more than too great a Sagacity; yet they may easily, by repeating what they heard and observed, give some more piercing Wit a hint sufficient to enable him to make out the whole Notion, or the Discovery, which he will then without scruple, and without almost any possibility of being disproven, assume for his own. But if it happen, (as it often will in Extemporaneous Discourse) that a Philosopher be not rightly understood; either because he has not the leisure, no more than a design, to explain himself fully, or because the Persons he converses with bring not a competent Capacity and Attention, he than runs a greater danger than before. For the vanity most men take in being known to have conversed with eminent Philosophers, makes them very forward to repeat what they heard such a famous Wit say; and oftentimes being secure of not being contradicted, ignorantly to misrecite it, or wittingly to wrest it in favour of the Opinion they would countenance by it. So that, whereas by the formerly mentioned franckness of Discourse he is only in danger to have the Truths he discovered arrogated by Others, this reservedness exposes him to have Opinions and Errors that he never dreamed of, fathered on Him. And when a man's Opinions or Discoveries come once to be publicly discoursed of, without being proposed by himself, or some Friend well instructed by him, he knows not, what Errors or Extravagancies may be imputed to him (and that without a Moral possibility left to most men to discern them, (by the mistake of the Weak, or the disingenuity of the Partial, or the Artifices of the Malicious. And even the greatness of a man's Reputation does sometimes give such countenance to vain Reports and Surmises, as by degrees to shake, if not ruin, it. As we see, that Friar Bacon, and Trithemius, and Paracelsus, who for their times were knowing as well as famous men, had such feats ascribed to them, as by appearing Fabulous to most of the Judicious, have tempted many to think, that all the great things that were said of them were so too.  
These are some of the Inconveniences that a Naturalist may be liable to, if he forbear the communicating of his Thoughts and Discoveries himself: But if Physeophilus should, to shun these, aspire to Fame by the usual way of writing Books, he may indeed avoid these, but perhaps not without running into other inconveniences and hazards, very little inferior to them.  
First then, we may consider, that whether a man writes in a Systematical way, as they have done who have published entire Bodies of Natural Philosophy, or Methodical Treatises of some considerable part of it, or whether he write in a more loose and unconfined way, of any particular Subject that belongs to Physics; whichsoever, I say, of these two ways of writing Books he shall make choice of, he will find it liable to Inconvenience enough.  
For if he write Systematically, first, he will be obliged (that he may leave nothing necessary undelivered) to say divers things that have been said (perhaps many times) by others already, which cannot but be unpleasant, not only to the Reader, but (if he be Ingenious) to the Writer. Next, there are so many things in Nature, whereof we know little or Nothing, and so many more of which we do not know Enough, that our Systematical Writer, though we should grant him to be very Learned, must needs, either leave divers things that belong to his Theme untreated of, or discourse of them slightly, and oftentimes (in likelihood) Erroneously. So that in this kind of Books there is always much said that the Reader did know, and commonly not a little that the Writer does not know. And to this I must add in the third place, that Natural Philosophy, being so vast and pregnant a Subject, that (especially in so Inquisitive an Age as this) almost every day discovers some new thing or other about it, 'tis scarce possible for a Method, that is adapted but to what is Already known, to continue Long the most proper; as the same Clothes will not long fit a Child, whose Age will make him quickly out-grow them. And therefore succeeding Writers will have a fair pretence to compile new Systems, that may be more adequate to Philosophy improved since the publication of the former. And though there were little of New to be added, and it were more easy to Alter than to Mend the Method of our supposed Author; yet Novelty itself is a thing so pleasing and inviting to the generality of men, that It often recommends things that have nothing else to recommend them; and we may apply to a great many other things, what I remember a famous Courtier of my acquaintance used to say of Mistresses, That Another was preferable to a Better, (the Better being but the same.)  
But now if, declining the Systematical way, one shall choose the other of writing loose Tracts and Discourses, he may indeed avoid some of the lately mentioned Inconveniences, but will scarce avoid the being plundered by Systematical Writers: For these will be apt to cull out those things that they like best, and insert them in their Methodical Books, (perhaps much curtaled, or otherwise injured in the repeating,) and will place them, not as their own Author did, where they may best confirm or adorn his Discourse, and be illustrated or upheld by it; but where it may best serve the turn of the Compiler: And these Methodical Books promise so much more Compendious a way than others to the Attainment of the Sciences they treat of, that though really for the most part they prove greater helps to the Memory, than the Understanding; yet most Readers, being, for want of Judgement or of Patience, of another mind, they are willing to take it for granted, that in former Writers, if there have been any thing considerable, it has been all carefully extracted, as well as orderly digested by the later Compilers: And though I take this to be a very Erroneous and Prejudicial Conceit, yet it obtains so much, that as Goldsmith's that only give shape and lustre to Gold are far more esteemed, and in a better Condition, than Miners, who find the Ore in the bowels of the Earth, and with great pains and industry dig it up, and refine it into Metal; so those that with great study and toil successfully penetrate into the hidden Recesses of Nature, and discover latent Truths, are usually less regarded or taken notice of by the Generality of Men, than those who by plausible Methods and a neat Style reduce the Truths, that others have found out, into Systems of a Taking Order and a Convenient Bulk.  
I consider in the second place, That as the Method of the Books one writes, so the Bulk of them may prove prejudicial to the Naturalist that aspires to Fame: For if he write large Books, 'tis odds but that he will write in them many things unaccurate, if not impertinent, or that he will be obliged to repeat many things that others have said before; and if he write but small Tracts, as is the custom of the Judiciousest Authors, who have no mind to publish but what is New and Considerable, as their Excellency will make them to be the sooner dispersed, so the smallness of the Bulk will endanger them to be quickly lost; as Experience shows us of divers Excellent little Tracts, which, though published not many years ago, are already out of Print, (as they speak) and not to be met with, save by chance, in Stationer's Shops. So that these Writings (which deserve a better fate) come, after a while, either to be lost, (which is the case of divers,) or to have their Memory preserved only in the larger Volume of some Compiler, whose Industry is only preferable to his Judgement; it being observable, that (by I know not what unlucky fate) very few (for I do not say, None) that addict themselves to make Collections out of others, have the Judgement to cull out the choicest things in them; and the small Tracts, we are speaking of, being preserved but in such a Quoter or Abridger, will run a very great danger of being conveyed to posterity but under such a Representation as it pleases the Compiler.  
And This (that I may proceed to my third Consideration) may make the Naturalists Fame very uncertain, not only because of the want of Judgement, that (as I newly said) is too often observable in Compilers, whereby they frequently leave far better things than they take, but for the want of skill to understand the Author they Cite and Epitomise, or Candour to do him right. For sometimes men's Physical Opinions, and several Passages of their Writings, are so misrepresented by Mistake or Design, especially if those that recite their Opinions be not Of them, that men are made to teach or deliver things quite differing from their Sense, and perhaps quite contrary to it; of which, I myself have had some unwelcome Experience, a Learned Writer pretending, I know not how often, that I asserted an Opinion, about which I did expressly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And another noted Writer having (not out of design, but unacquaintedness with Mechanics, and the Subject I writ of,) given me commendations for having, by a new Experiment, proved a thing, the quite contrary whereof I intended thereby to evince, and am not Alone mistaken, if I did not do it. Other Naturalists I have met with, whose Writings Compilers have traduced out of hatred to their Persons, or their Religion; as if Truth could in nothing be a Friend to one that is the Traducers' Enemy; or as if a man that falls into an Error in Religion, could not light upon a good Notion in Philosophy, in spite of all the Truths we owe to Aristotle, Epicurus, and the other Heathen Philosophers. Nay, some there are, that will set themselves to decry a man's Writings, not because they are directly His Enemies, but because He is esteemed by Theirs; as you may remember an Instance in a Servant of yours, who had divers things written against Him upon this very Account. Nor is it only by the Citations of professed Adversaries or Opponents, that a worthy Writer's Reputation may be prejudiced, since 'tis not unfrequently so by those, that mention him with an Encomium, and seem disposed to honour him. For I have observed it to be the Trick of certain Writers, to name an Author with much Compliment, only for some one or few of the least considerable things they borrow of Him; by which artifice they endeavour to conceal their being Plagiaries of more and better; which yet is more excusable than the Practice of some, who proceed to that pitch of disingenuity, that they will rail at an Author, to whom indeed they owe too much, that they may not be thought to be beholden to him.  
But (4.) I must add, that besides these dangers that a Naturalists Reputation with posterity may run through the Ignorance or Perverseness of men, it is liable to divers other hazards, from the very Nature both of Men, of Opinions, and of Things.  
For, as men's Genius's and Inclinations are naturally various in reference to Studies, one man passionately affecting one sort of them, and another being fond of quite differing ones; so those Inclinations are oftentimes variously and generally determined by external and accidental Causes. As when some great Monarch happens to be a great Patron, or a Despiser, and perhaps Adversary, of this or that kind of Learning: And when some one man has gained much applause for this or that kind of Study; Imitation, or Emulation oftentimes makes many others addict themselves to it. Thus though Rome under the Consuls was inconsiderable for Learning, yet the Reputation of Cicero, and Favour of Augustus, brought Learning into request there; where the small countenance it met with among most of the succeeding Emperors, kept it far inferior to what it had been among the Greeks about Alexander's Age. And the Age of the same Augustus was ennobled with store of Poets, not only by the countenance which He and Maecenas afforded them, but probably also by the Examples they gave to, and the Emulation they excited in, one another. And after the decay of the Roman Empire, in the Fourth Century, Natural Philosophy and the Mathematics being very little valued, and less understood, by reason that men's Studies were, by the Genius of those Ages applied to other Subjects, every hundred years scarce produced One Improver, (not to say one Eminent Cultivator) either of Mathematics or of Physics: By which you may see, how little Certainty there is, that, because a man is skilled in Natural Philosophy, and that Science is now in Request, his Reputation shall be as great as now, when perhaps the Science itself will be grown out of Repute.  
But besides the Contingencies that may happen to a Naturalist's Fame upon this Account, That the Science He cultivates, is, as well as others, subject to Wanes and Eclipses in the general esteem of men; there is another uncertainty arising from the Vicissitudes that are to be met with in the Estimates men make of differing Hypotheses, Sects, and ways of Philosophising about the same Science, and particularly about Natural Philosophy. For during those Learned Times, when Physics first and most flourished among the Grecians, Democritus, Leucippus, Epicurus, Anaxagoras, Plato, and almost all the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle, were Corpuscularians, endeavouring, though not all by the same way, to give an account of the Phaenomena of Nature, and even of Qualities themselves, by the Bigness, Shape, Motion, etc. of Corpuscles, or the minutest active parts of Matter: Whereas Aristotle, having attempted to deduce the Phaenomena from the four first Qualities, the four Elements, and some few other barren Hypotheses, ascribing what could not be explicated by them, (and consequently far the greatest part of Nature's Phaenomena) to Substantial Forms and Occult Qualities; (Principles that are readily named, but scarce so much as pretended to be understood,) and having upon these slight and narrow Principles reduced Physics into a kind of System, which the judicious Modesty of the Corpuscularians had made them backward to do; the Reputation that his great Pupil Alexander, as well as his Learning gave him; the Easiness of the way he proposed to the attainment of Natural Philosophy; the good luck his Writings had to survive those of Democritus, and almost all the rest of the Corpuscularians, when Charles the Great began to establish Learning in Europe: These, I say, and some other lucky Accidents that concurred, did for about seven or eight hundred years together, make the Corpuscularian Philosophy not only be Justled, but even Exploded out of the Schools by the Peripatetic; which in our Times is, by very many, upon the Revival of the Corpuscularian Philosophy, rejected, and, by more than a few, derided as precarious, unintelligible, and useless. And to give an instance in a particular thing, (which, though formerly named, deserves to be again mentioned to our present purpose,) Aristotle himself somewhere confesses, (not to say brags) that the Greek Philosophers, his Predecessors did, unanimously teach, that the World was (I say not Created, but) Made, and yet He, almost by his single Authority, and the subtle Arguments (as some have been pleased to think them,) that he employed, (though divers of them were borrowed of Ocellus Lucanus,) was able for many Ages to introduce into the Schools of Philosophers that Irreligious and Ill-grounded Opinion of the Eternity of the World, which afterwards the Christian Doctrine made men begin to question, and which now both that and Right Reason have persuaded most men to reject.  
And this invites me to consider farther, That the present success of the Opinions that your Physeophilus befriends, ought not to make him so sure as he thinks he is, that the same Opinions will be always in the same, or greater Vogue, and have the same Advantages, in point of General Esteem that they now have, over their Corrivals. For, Opinions seem to have their Fatal Seasons and Vicissitudes, as well as other things; as may appear, not only by the Examples of it newly given, but also by the Hypothesis of the Earth's Motion, which having been in great request before Pythagoras, (who yet is commonly thought the Inventor of it,) had its Reputation much increased by the suffrage of the famous Sect of the Pythagoreans, (whom Aristotle himself takes notice of as the Patrons of that Opinion;) and yet afterwards for near 2000 years it was laughed at, as not only false, but ridiculous. After all which time, this so long antiquated Opinion being revived by Copernicus, has in a little time made so great a progress among the modern Astronomers and Philosophers, that if it go on to prevail at the same rate, the Motion of the Earth will be acknowledged by all its Mathematical Inhabitants. But though it be often the Fate of an oppressed Truth, to have at length a Resurrection, yet 'tis not always its peculiar privilege; for, Obsolete Errors are sometimes revived, as well as discredited Truths: So that the general disrepute of an Opinion in one Age will not give us an absolute security, that 'twill not be in as general Request in another, in which it may perhaps not only Revive, but Reign.  
Nor is it only in the Credit of men's Opinions about Philosophical Matters, that we may observe an Inconstancy and Vicissitude, but in the very Way and Method of Philosophising; for Democritus, Plato, Pythagoras, and others, who were of the more sincere and ingenious Cultivators of Physics among the Greeks, exercised themselves chiefly either in making particular Experiments and Observations, as Democritus did in his manifold Dissections of Animals; or else applied the Mathematics to the Explicating of a particular Phaenomenon of Nature, as may appear (not to mention what Hero teaches in his Pneumaticks,) by the Accounts, Democritus, Plato, and others, give of Fire and other Elements, from the Figure and Motion of the Corpuscles they consist of. And although this way of Philosophising were so much in request before Aristotle, that (albeit he unluckily brought in another, yet) there are manifest and considerable footsteps of it to be met with in some of his Writings, (and particularly in his Books of Animals, and his Mechanical Questions;) yet the Scholastic followers of Aristotle did, for many Ages, neglect the way of Philosophising of the Ancients, and (to the great prejudice of Learning) introduced every where in stead of it a quite contrary way of Writing. For, not only they laid aside the Mathematics, (of which they were for the most part very ignorant,) but instead of giving us Intelligible and Explicite (if not Accurate) Accounts of particular Subjects, grounded upon a distinct and heedful Consideration of them, they contented themselves with hotly disputing, in general, certain unnecessary, or at least unimportant questions about the Objects of Physics, about Materia Prima, Substantial Forms, Privation, Place, Generation, Corruption, and other such general things, with which when they had quite tired themselves and their Readers, they usually remained utter strangers to the particular Productions of that Nature, about which they had so much wrangled, and were not able to give a man so much true and useful Information about Particular Bodies, as even the meanest Mechanics, such as Mine-diggers, Butchers, Smiths, and even Dary-maids, could do. Which made their Philosophy appear so Imperfect and Useless, not only to the Generality of Men, but to the more Elevated and Philosophical Wits, that our great Verulam attempted with much Skill and Industry, (and not without some Indignation) to restore the more modest and useful way practised by the Ancients, of Enquiring into particular Bodies, without hastening to make Systems, into the Request it formerly had; wherein the admirable Industry of two of our London Physicians, Gilbert and Harvey, has not a little assisted him. And I need not tell you, that since Him, Des-Cartes, Gassendus, and others, having taken in the Application of Geometrical Theorems, for the Explication of Physical Problems; He, and They, and Other Restorers of Natural Philosophy, have brought the Experimental and Mathematical way of Enquiring into Nature into at least as high and growing an Esteem, as ever it possessed when it was most in Vogue among the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle.  
To the Considerations I have hitherto deduced, which (perhaps) might alone suffice for my purpose, I shall yet subjoin one that I take to be of greater weight than any of them, for the manifesting how difficult it is to be sure, that the Physical Opinions, which at present procure a Champion or Promoter of them Veneration, shall be still in request. For besides that inconstant Fate of applauded Opinions, which may be imputed to the Inconstancy of Men, there is a greater danger that threatens the Aspirers Reputation from the very Nature of things: For the most general Principles of all, viz. the Figure, Bigness, Motion, and other Mechanical Affections of the small parts of Matter, being (as your Friend believes) sufficiently and clearly established already; he must expect to raise his Reputation from subordinate Hypotheses and Theories; and in these I shall not scruple to say, that 'tis extremely difficult, even for those that are more exercised than He, in framing Them and in making of Experiments to have so reaching and attentive a prospect of all things fit to be known, as not to be liable to have their Doctrine made doubtful, or disproven by something that He did not discover, or that Aftertimes may. This, I doubt not, but you would easily be prevailed with to allow, if I had leisure and conveniency to transmit to you my Sceptical Naturalist. And without having recourse to that Tract, it may possibly suffice, that we consider, that one of the Conditions of a good 
* See the Requisites of a good Hypothesis.  Hypothesis is, that It fairly comport not only with all other Truths, but with all other Phaenomena of Nature, as well as those 'tis framed to explicate. For this being granted, (which cannot be denied,) He that establishes a Theory, which he expects shall be acquiesced in by all succeeding Times, and make Him famous in them, must not only have a care, that none of the Phaenomena of Nature, that are already taken notice of, do contradict his Hypothesis at the present, but that no Phaenomena that may be hereafter discovered, shall do it for the future. And I very much question, whether Physiophilus do know, or, upon no greater a number and variety of Experiments than most men build upon, can know, how incomplete the History of Nature we yet have, is, and how difficult it is to build an Accurate Hypothesis upon an Incomplete History of the Phaenomena 'tis to be fitted to; especially considering that (as I was saying) many things may be discovered in Aftertimes by Industry or Chance, which are not now so much as dreamed of, and which may yet overthrow Doctrines speciously enough accommodated to the Observations that have been hitherto made.  
Those Ancient Philosophers, that thought the Torrid Zone to be uninhabitable, did not establish their Opinion upon wild Reasonings; and as it continued uncontrol'd for many Ages, so perhaps it would have always done, if the Discoveries made by Modern Navigations had not manifested it to be Erroneous. The Solidity of the Celestial Orbs was, for divers Centuries above 1000 years, the general opinion of Astronomers and Philosophers, and yet in the last Age and in Ours, the free Trajection, that has been observed in the Motion of some Comets from one of the supposed Orbs to another, and the Intricate Motions in the Planet Mars, (observed by Kepler and others, to be sometimes nearer, as well as sometimes remoter from the Earth than is the Sun;) these, I say, and other Phenomena undiscovered by the Ancients, have made even Tycho, as well as most of the recent Astronomers, exchange the too long received Opinion of solid Orbs for the more warrantable belief of a Fluid Aether. And though the Celestial part of the World, by reason of its remoteness from us, be the most unlikely of any other to afford us the means of overthrowing old Theories by new Discoveries; yet even in that we may take notice of divers Instances to our present purpose, though I shall here name but this One, viz. That, after the Ptolemaick Number and Order of the Planets had passed uncontradicted for very many Ages; and even the Tychonians and Copernicans, (however they did by their differing Hypotheses descent from the Ptolemaick System (as to the Order,) did (yet) acquiesce in it as to the number of the Planets; by the happy Discoveries, made by Galileo of the Satellites of Jupiter, and by the excellent Hugenius, of the New Planet about Saturn, (which I think I had the luck to be the first that observed and showed Disbelievers of it in England,) the Astronomers of all persuasions are brought to add to the old Septenary number of the Planets, and take in Five others that their Predecessors did not dream of. That the Chyle prepared in the Stomach passed through the Mesaraick Veins to the Liver, and so to the Heart, was for many Ages the unanimous Opinion, not only of Physicians, but Anatomists, whose numerous Diffections did not tempt them to question it; and yet, since the casual, though lucky, Discoveries made of the Milky Vessels in the Thorax by the dextrous Pecquet, those that have had with you and I the curiosity to make the requisite Experiments, are generally convinced, that (at least) a good part of the Chyle goes from the Stomach to the Heart, without passing through the Mesaraick Veins, or coming at all to the Liver.  
'Twere easy to multiply Instances of this kind, but I rather choose to add, that 'tis not only about the Qualities, and other Attributes of things, but about their Causes also, that New and oftentimes Accidental Discoveries may destroy the credit of Long and generally approved Opinions. That Quicklime exceedingly heats the Water that is poured on to quench it, on the account of Antiperistasis, has been very long and universally received by the School-Philosophers, where 'tis the grand and usual Argument, urged to Establish Antiperistasis; and yet I presume you have taken notice, 
See this Subject handled at large in an Appendix to the Author's Examen of Antiperistasis.  that this Proof is made wholly Ineffectual in the judgement of many of the Virtuosos, by some contrary Experiments of mine, and particularly that of exciting in Quicklime full as great an Effervescence by the Affusion of Hot water in stead of Cold▪ So it has been generally believed, that in the Congelation of Water, that Liquor is condensed into a narrower room; whereas our late Experiments 
* In the History of Cold.  have satisfied most of the curious, that Ice is Water expanded, or (if you please) that Ice takes up more room than the Water did, whilst it remained unfrozen. And whereas the Notion of Nature's abhorrence of a Vacuum, has not only ever since Aristotle's time made a great noise in the Schools, but seems to be Confirmable by a multitude of Phaenomena; the Experiments of Torricellius, and some of 
* Now published in the Book of New Physicomechanical Experiments.  Ours, evidencing, that the Air has a great Weight and a strong Spring, have, I think, persuaded almost all, that have impartially considered them, that, whether there be or be not such a thing as they call Fuga Vacui, yet Suction, and the Ascension of Water in Pumps, and those other Phaenomena that are generally ascribed to It, may be very well Explicated without it, and are indeed caused by the Weight of the Atmosphere, and the Elastical power of the Air.  
And this puts me in mind to take notice, that even practical Inventions, where one would think the Matter of Fact to be Evident, may by undreamed of Discoveries be brought to lose the general Reputation they had for compleatness in their kind. For to endear the Invention of Sucking Pumps and of Syphons, it has been generally presumed, that by means of either of these, Water and any other Liquor may, ob fugam vacui, be raised to what height one pleases; and accordingly ways have been proposed by famous Authors, to convey Water from one side of an high Mountain to the other: Whereas first the unexpected Disappointments that were met with by some Pump-makers, and afterwards Experiments purposely made, sufficiently evince, that neither a Pump nor a Syphon will raise Water to above 35 foot or thereabouts, nor Quicksilver to so many Inches.  
And as to the Invention of Weather-glasses, which has been so much and justly applauded and used, as it has been generally received for the truest Standard of the Heat and Cold of the Wether; so it seems to be liable to no suspicion of deceiving Us: For not only 'tis evident, that in Winter, when the Air is very Cold, the Water rises much higher than in Summer and other Seasons, when 'tis not so; but if you but apply your warm hand to the Bubble at the top, the Water will be visibly depressed by the rarified Air, which upon the removal of the Hand returning to its former Coldness, the Water will forthwith as manifestly ascend again. And yet by finding, 
See a Tract on this Subject, premised by the Author to his Book of Cold.  that, as the Atmosphaere has a considerable weight, so this weight is not always the same, but varies much, and that, as far as I can yet discover, uncertainly enough; I have had the luck to satisfy many of the Curious, that these Open Thermometers are not to be safely relied on, since in them the Liquor is made to rise and fall, not only, as men have hitherto supposed, by the Cold and Heat of the Ambient Air, but (as I have shown by divers new Experiments) according to the varying Gravity of the Atmosphaere; which Variation has not only a Sensible, but a very Considerable Influence upon the Weatherglass. To these Instances I shall annex only one more, from which we may learn, that notwithstanding a very heedful survey of all that at present a man can take notice of, or well suspect that he ought to take into his Consideration, the Case may be such, that having devised an Instrument, He may use it many years with good success; and yet, unless he were able to live very many more, he shall not be sure to outlive the danger of finding the same Instrument (though to sense as well conditioned as ever) fallacious: As he that first applied a Magnetic Needle to the finding of the Meridian Line, might very probably conclude, that his Needle pointing directly N. and S. or declining from it just two or three, or some other determinate number of Degrees, he had discovered a certain and ready way, without the help of Sun or Stars, or Astronomical Instruments, to describe a Meridian Line, and if he lived but an ordinary number of years after his Observation, he might probably have found his Instrument not deceitful; which yet it may now be, the Magnetic Needle not only declining in many places from the true points of N. and S. but (as later Discoveries inform us) varying in tract of time its Declination in the self same place.  
The Considerations hitherto proposed might easily enough be increased by more of the same tendency, especially if I thought fit to borrow from a Discourse (of mine) purposely written about the Partiality and Uncertainty of Fame; but in stead of adding to their Number, I should think myself obliged to excuse my having already mentioned so many, and insisted so much upon them, if I did not vehemently suspect, that in your Physiophilus, (as well as in many other modern Naturalists,) scarce any thing does more contribute to an Undervaluation of the study of Divinity, than that being eagerly ambitious of a Certain, as well as a Posthume Fame, he is confident that physiology will help to it; and therefore the design of his Discourse made me think it expedient to spend some time to manifest, That 'tis far less easy than he thinks, to be as sure that he shall have the praises of Future Ages, as that (though he have them) he shall not hear them.  
The past Considerations have, I presume, convinced you, that 'tis no such easy matter for a Naturalist to acquire a great reputation and be sure it will prove a lasting one. Wherefore, that I may also confirm the second Part of what formerly I proposed, I now proceed to show, that, though the case were otherwse, yet he would have no reason to slight the study of Divinity.  
1. For, in the first place, nothing hinders, but that a man who values and inquires into the Mysteries of Religion, may attain to an Eminent degree in the knowledge of those of Nature. For frequently men of great parts may successfully apply themselves to more than one Study; and few of them have their thoughts and hours so much ingross'd by that one Subject or Employment, but that, if they have great Inclinations as well as Fitness for the study of Nature, they will find time, not only to Cultivate it, but to Excel in it. You need not be told, That Copernicus, to whom our late Philosophers owe so much, was a Churchman; That his Champion Lansbergius was a Minister, and that Gassendus himself was a Doctor of Divinity. Among the Jesuits you know, that Clavius and divers others have as prosperously addicted themselves to Mathematics as Divinity. And as to Physics, not only Scheiner, Aquilonius, Kircher, Schottus, Zucchius, and others, have very laudably cultivated the Optical and some other Parts of Philosophy; but Ricciolus himself, the Learned Compiler of that Voluminous and Judicious Work of the Almagestum novum, wherein he has inserted divers accurate Observations of his own, is not only a Divine, but a Professor of Divinity. And without going out of our own Country, I could, if I durst for fear of offending the modesty of those I should name, or injuring the merit of those I should omit; I could (I say) if it were not for this, among our English ecclesiastics name you divers, who though they apply themselves so much to the study of the Scripture, as to be not only solid Divines, but Excellent Preachers, have yet been so happily conversant with Nature, that, if they had lived in the Learned times of the Greeks, they would have rivalled, if not eclipsed, some of them, Pythagoras and Euclid; others of them, Anaxagoras and Epicurus; and some of them, even Archimedes and Democritus themselves.  
And certainly, provided there be Curiosity and Industry enough employed in the study of Nature, it is not Necessary, that the knowledge of Nature should be the ultimate End of that Study; a Fondness of the Object being required only in order to the Engaging the mind to such a serious Application, as a higher aim May sufficiently invite us to; and Will rather promote than discourage. David became no less skilful in Music, 
Amos vi. 5.  than those that were addicted to it only to please themselves in it; though we may reasonably suppose, that so pious an Author of Psalms and Instruments aspired to an Excellency in that delightful Science, that he might Apply and Prefer it to the Service of the Temple, and promote the Celebration of God's Praises with it. And as Experience has manifested, that the Heathen Philosophers, that courted Moral Virtue for herself, did not raise it to that pitch, to which 'twas advanced by the Heroic Practices of those true Christians, that in the highest Exercise of Virtue had a Religious aim at the pleasing and enjoying of God; so I see not, why Natural Knowledge must be more prosperously cultivated by those selfish Naturalists, that aim but at the pleasing of themselves in the attainment of that Knowledge, than those Religious Naturalists, who are invited to Attention and Industry, not only by the pleasantness of the Knowledge itself, but by a higher and more engaging Consideration; namely, that by the Discoveries they make in the Book of Nature, both themselves and others may be excited and qualified the better to admire and praise the Author, whose Goodness does so well match the Wisdom they celebrate, that he declares in his Word, That those that honour him, he will honour. 
1 Sam. ij. 30.   
And as a man that is not in love with a fair Lady, but has only a respect for her, may have as true and perfect, though not as discomposing an Idea of her face, as the most passionate Inamorato; so I see not, why a Religious and Inquisitive Contemplator of Nature may not be able to give a good account of her, without preferring her so far to all other Objects of his study, as to make her his Mistress, and perhaps too his Idol.  
II. And now I proceed to consider in the second place, That matters of Divinity may, as well as those of Philosophy, afford a Reputation to Him that discovers, or illustrates them. For though the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion be, as I have formerly declared, little less Evident than Important; yet there are many other points in Divinity, and passages in the Scripture, which (for Reasons that I have elsewhere mentioned) are exceeding hard to be cleared, and do not only pose ordinary Readers, and the common sort of Scholars, but will sufficiently exercise the Abilities of a Great Wit, and give him opportunity enough to manifest that He is One. For divers of the points I speak of are much benighted upon the score of the Sublimity of the Things they treat of; such as are the Nature, Attributes, and Decrees of God, which cannot be easy to the dim understandings of Us that are but Men: And many other particulars that are not Abstruse in their own Nature, are yet made Obscure to us by our Ignorance, (or at least Imperfect Knowledge,) of the disused Languages wherein they are delivered, and the great remoteness of the Ages when, and the Countries where, the things recorded were done or said. So that oftentimes a man may need and show as great Learning and Judgement to dispel the Darkness, wherein Time has involved Things, as that which Nature has cast on them: And in effect we see, that St. Augustine, St. Hierom, Origen, and others of the Fathers, have acquired no less a Reputation, than Empedocles, Anaxagoras, or Zeno; And Grotius, Salmasius, Mr. Mede, Dr. Hamond, and some other Critical Expounders of difficult Texts of Scripture, have thereby got as much Credit, as Fracastorius by his Book De Sympathia & Antipathia; Levinus Lemnius by his De Occultis rerum Miraculis; or Cardanus (and his Adversary Scaliger) by what they writ De Subtilitate; or even Fernelius himself by his Book De Abditis Rerum Causis. And it will contribute to the Credit which Theological Discoveries and Illustrations may procure a Man, that the Importance of the Subjects, and the earnestness wherewith men are wont to busy themselves about them, some upon the score of Piety, and others upon that of Interest, some to Learn Truths, and others to Defend what they have long or publicly taught for Truth, does make greater numbers of Men take notice of such Matters, and concern themselves far more about them, than about almost any other things, and especially far more, than about matters purely Philosophical, which but few are wont to think themselves fit to judge of, and concerned to trouble themselves about. And accordingly we see, that the Writings of Socinus, Calvin, Bellarmine, Padre Paulo, Arminius, etc. are more famous, and more studied, than those of Telesius, Campanella, Severinus Danus, Magnenus, and divers other Innovators in Natural Philosophy. And Erastus, though a very Learned Physician, is much less famous for all his Elaborate Disputations against Paracelsus, than for the little Tract against particular Forms of Church-Government. And I presume You have taken notice, as well as I, that there are scarce any Five new Controversies in all Physics, that are known to, and hotly contended for by so many, as are the Five Articles of the Remonstrants.  
III. My second Consideration being thus dispatched, it remains, that I tell you in the Third place, that Supposing, but not Granting, that to prosecute the Study of Divinity, one must of necessity neglect the Acquist of Reputation; yet this Inconvenience itself ought not to deter us from the Duty it would dissuade. For in all Deliberations, wherein any thing is proposed to be quitted or declined, to obey or please God; me thinks, we may fitly apply that of the Prophet to the Jewish King, who being persuaded (to express his Concern for God's Glory) to decline the Assistance of an Idolatrous Army of Israelites, and objecting, that by complying with the Advice given Him, he should lose a Sum of Money, amounting to no less than the Hire of a Potent Army; received from the Prophet this brisk, but rational, Answer, The Lord is able to give thee far more than this. 
2. Chron. xxv. 9.  The Apostle Paul, who had been traduced, reviled, buffeted, scourged, imprisoned, shipwrecked, and stoned for his Zeal to propagate the Truths, whose study I plead for; after He had once had a Glimpse of that great Recompense of Reward that is reserved for us in Heaven, scruples not to pronounce, 
Rom. viij. 18.  that he finds upon casting up the Account (for He uses the Arithmetical term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be revealed in us. 
Luke twenty-three. 15.  And if all that the Persecuted Christians of his time could suffer were not suitable (for so I remember the same Greek word to signify elsewhere) or proportionable to that Glory; it will sure far outweigh what we can now forego or decline for it. The loss of an Advantage, and much more the bare missing of it, being usually but a Negative Affliction, in comparison of the Actual sufferance of Evil. Christ did not only tell his Disciples, that He who should give the least of his Followers so much as a cup of cold water upon the score of their relation to Him, should not be unrewarded; but when the same persons asked Him, what should be done to Them, who had left All to follow Him; He presently allots Them Thrones, as much outvaluing that All they had lost, as an ordinary Recompense may exceed a cup of cold water. And indeed God's Goodness is so Great, and his Treasures so Unexhausted, that as He is forward to recompense even the least Services that can be done Him, so He is able to give the Greatest a proportionable Reward. Solomon had an Opportunity, such as never any Mortal had, (that we know of,) either before or since, of satisfying his Desires, whether of Fame, or any other Thing that he could wish; 
● King's iij. 5.  Ask what I shall give thee, was the proffer made him by Him, that could give All things worth Receiving; and yet the Wisdom even of Solomon's choice, approved by God Himself, consisted in declining the most ambitioned things of this Life, for those things that might the better qualify him to serve and please God. And to give you an example in a Greater than Solomon, we may consider, 
Phil. ij. 6.  that He who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; and who by leaving Heaven, did, to dwell on earth, quit more than any Inhabitant of the Earth can to gain Heaven, and denied more to become Capable of being tempted, than he did when he was tempted with an offer of All the Kingdoms of the world, and the Glory of them: This Saviour, I say, is said in Scripture to have, 
Heb. xij. 2.  for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross, and despised the shame; as if Heaven had been a sufficient Recompense for even His Renouncing Honours, and Embracing Torments.  
He that declines the Acquist of the Applause of men for the Contemplation of the Truths of God, does but forbear to gather that whilst 'tis immature, which by waiting God's time he will more seasonably gather when 'tis full ripe, and wholesome, and sweet. That immarcescible Crown (as St. Peter calls it) which the Gospel promises to them, 
Rom. ij. 7.  who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour, will make a rich amends for the declining of a Fading Wreath here upon Earth, where Reputation is oftentimes as undeservedly acquired, as lost: Whereas in Heaven, the very having Celestial Honours argues a Title to them. And since 'tis our Saviour's Reasoning, That His Disciples ought to rejoice when their Reputation is pursued by Calumny, as well as their Lives by Persecution, 
Matth. v. 11, 12.  because their reward is great in Heaven, we may justly infer, That the Grounded Expectation of so illustrious a Condition may bring us more Content, even when 'tis not attended with a present Applause, than this Applause can give those who want that comfortable Expectation. So that, upon the whole matter, we have no reason to despond, or to complain of the Study of Theology, for but making Us decline an empty and transitory Fame for a solid and eternal Glory.    

The Conclusion.  
BY this time, Sir, I have said as much as I think fit (and therefore, I hope, more than upon your single account was necessary) to manifest, that Physeophilus had no just cause to undervalue the study of Divinity, nor our Friend the Doctor, for addicting himself to it. I hope you have not forgotten what I expressly enough declared at the beginning of this Letter, That both your Friend and you admitting the holy Scriptures, I knew myself thereby to be warranted to draw Proofs from their Authority. And if I need not remind you of this, perhaps I need not tell you by way of Apology, that I am not so unacquainted with the Laws of Discoursing, but that, if I had been to argue with Atheists or Sceptics, I should have forborn to make use of divers of the Arguments I have employed, as fetched from unconceded Topics, and substituted others for such as yet I think it very allowable for me to urge, when I deal with a Person, that, as your Friend does only undervalue the study of the Scriptures, not reject their Authority. And if the prolixity I have been guilty of already did forbid me to increase it by Apologies not absolutely necessary, I should perchance rather think myself obliged to excuse the plainness of the Style of this Discourse; which both upon the Subject's score, and yours, may seem to challenge a richer Dress. But the matter is very serious, and you are a Philosopher, and when the things we treat of are highly important, I think Truths clearly made out to be the most persuasive pieces of Oratory. And a Discourse of this Nature is more likely to prove Effectual on Intelligent Perusers, by having the Reasons it presents perspicuously proposed, and unprejudic'dly entertained, than by their being pathetically urged, or curiously adorned. And I have the rather forborn expressions that might seem more proper to move than to convince; because I foresee, I may very shortly have occasion to employ some of the former sort in another Letter to a Friend of yours and mine, who will, I doubt, make you a sharer in the trouble of reading it. But writing this for you and Physeophilus, I was far more solicitous to give the Arguments I employ a good temper, than a bright gloss. For even when we would excite Devotion, if it be in rational men, the most effectual pieces of Oratory are those, which like Burning-glasses inflame by nothing but numerous and united Beams of Light. If this Letter prove so happy as to give you any satisfaction, it will thereby bring me a great one. For prising you as I do, I cannot but wish to see you Esteem those things now, which I am confident we shall always have cause to esteem; and then most, when the Light of Glory shall have made us better Judges of the true worth of things. And it would extremely trouble me to see you a Disesteemer of those Divine things, which as long as a man undervalues, the Possession of Heaven itself would not make him happy. And therefore, if the Blessing of Him whose Glory is aimed at in it, make the Success of this Paper answerable to the Wishes, the Importance of the Subject, will make the Service done you by it suitable to the Desires of,  
SIR, Your most Faithful, most Affectionate, and most Humble Servant.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
IN the Introduction, p. 2 l. 18. point thus; else; our. p. 51. l. 17. r. Corpuscularian. p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy. p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of. ibid. l. 19 r. else do but. p. 201. l. 12. point thus, predecessors, did unanimously teach.   

ABOUT THE EXCELLENCY AND GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS, Some Considerations, Occasionally proposed to a Friend.  
By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society.  
LONDON, Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman, at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange. 1674.   

The Publisher's ADVERTISEMENT.  
THe following Paper having been but occasionally and hastily penned, long after what the Author had written (by way of Dialogue) about the Requisites of a good Hypothesis, it was intended, that if it came forth at all, it should do so as an Appendix to that Discourse; because though one part of it does little more than name some of the Heads treated of in the Dialogue, yet, according to the exigency of the Occasion, the other part contains several things, either pretermitted, or but more lightly touched on in the Discourse. But, although the Author's design were to reserve these thoughts, as a kind of Paralipomena to his Dialogue; yet, since he is not willing to let that, at least quickly, come abroad, and these are fallen into my hands; I will make bold, with his good leave, to annex them to the foregoing Treatise, not only to complete the Bulk of the Book, but because o● some affinity between them, since both aim at manifesting the Excellency of the Studies they would recommend. And perhaps 'twill not be unwelcome to some of the Curious to find, that our Noble Author in the same Book, wherein he prefers the Study of Divine things to that of Natural ones, does himself prefer the Mechanical Principles before all other Hypotheses about Natural things; they being in their own Nature so accommodate to make considering men understand, rather than dispute of, the Effects of Nature.   

Of the Excellency and Grounds Of the CORPUSCULAR Or MECHANICAL Philosophy.  
THe importance of the Question, you propose, would oblige me to refer you to the Dialogue about a good Hypothesis, and some other Papers of that kind, where you may find my thoughts about the advantages of the Mechanical Hypothesis somewhat amply set down, and discoursed of. But, since your desires confine me to deliver in few words, not what I believe resolvedly, but what I think may be probably said for the Preference or the Preeminence of the Corpuscular Philosophy above Aristotle's, or that of the Chemists, you must be content to receive from me, without any Preamble, or exact Method, or ample Discourses, or any other thing that may cost many words, a succinct mention of some of the chief Advantages of the Hypothesis we incline to. And I the rather comply, on this occasion, with your Curiosity, because I have often observed you to be alarmed and disquieted, when you hear of any Book that pretends to uphold, or repair the decaying Philosophy of the Schools, or some bold Chemist, that arrogates to those of his Sect the Title of Philosophers, and pretends to build wholly upon Experience, to which he would have all other Naturalists thought strangers. That therefore you may not be so tempted to despond, by the Confidence or Reputation of those Writers, that do some of them applaud, and others censure, what, I fear, they do not understand, (as when the Peripatetics cry up, Substantial Forms, and the Chemists, Mechanical Explications) of Nature's Phaenomena, I will propose some Considerations, that, I hope, will not only keep you kind to the Philosophy you have embraced, but perhaps, (by some Considerations which you have not yet met with,) make you think it probable, that the new Attempts you hear of from time to time, will not overthrow the Corpuscularian Philosophy, but either be foiled by it, or found reconcilable to it.  
But when I speak of the Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy, I am far from meaning with the Epicureans, that Atoms, meeting together by chance in an infinite Vacuum, are able of themselves to produce the World, and all its Phaenomena; nor with some Modern Philosophers, that, supposing God to have put into the whole Mass of Matter such an invariable quantity of Motion, he needed do no more to make the World, the material parts being able by their own unguided Motions, to cast themselves into such a System (as we call by that name); But I plead only for such a Philosophy, as reaches but to things purely Corporeal, and distinguishing between the first original of things, and the subsequent course of Nature, teaches, concerning the former, not only that God gave Motion to Matter, but that in the beginning He so guided the various Motions of the parts of it, as to contrive them into the World he designed they should compose, (furnished with the Seminal Principles and Structures or Models of Living Creatures,) and established those Rules of Motion, and that order amongst things Corporeal, which we are wont to call the Laws of Nature. And having told this as to the former, it may be allowed as to the latter to teach, That the Universe being once framed by God, and the Laws of Motion being settled and all upheld by His incessant concourse and general Providence; the Phaenomena of the World thus constituted, are Physically produced by the Mechanical affections of the parts of Matter, and what they operate upon one another according to Mechanical Laws. And now having shown what kind of Corpuscular Philosophy 'tis that I speak of I proceed to the particulars that I thought the most proper to recommend it.  
I. The first thing that I shall mention to this purpose, is the Intelligibleness or Clearness of Mechanical Principles and Explications. I need not tell you, that among the Peripatetics, the Disputes are many and intricate about Matter, Privation, Substantial Forms, and their Eduction, etc. And the Chemists are sufficiently puzzled, (as I have elsewhere shown,) to give such definitions and accounts of their Hypostatical Principles, as are reconcileable to one another, and even to some obvious Phaenomena. And much more dark and intricate are their Doctrines about the Archaeus, Astral Being's, Gas, Blass, and other odd Notions, which perhaps have in part occasioned the darkness and ambiguity of their expressions, that could not be very clear, when their Conceptions were far from being so. And if the Principles of the Aristotelians and Spagyrists are thus obscure, 'tis not to be expected, the Explications that are made by the help only of such Principles should be clear. And indeed many of them are either so general and slight, or otherwise so unsatisfactory, that granting their Principles, 'tis very hard to understand or admit their applications of them to particular Phaenomena. And even in some of the more ingenious and subtle of the Peripatetic Discourses upon their superficial and narrow Theories, me thinks, the Authors have better played the part of Painters than Philosophers, and have only had the skill, like Drawers of Landscapes, to make men fancy, they see Castles and Towns, and other Structures that appear solid and magnificent, and to reach to a large extent, when the whole Piece is superficial, and made up of Colours and Art, and comprised within a Frame perhaps scarce a yard long. But to come now to the Corpuscular Philosophy, men do so easily understand one another's meaning, when they talk of Local Motion, Rest, Bigness, Shape, Order, Situation, and Contexture of Material Substances; and these Principles do afford such clear accounts of those things, that are rightly deduced from them only, that even those Peripatetics or Chemists, that maintain other Principles, acquiesce in the Explications made by these, when they can be had, and seek not any further, though perhaps the effect be so admirable, as would make it pass for that of a hidden Form, or Occult Quality. Those very Aristotelians, that believe the Celestial Bodies to be moved by Intelligences, have no recourse to any peculiar agency of theirs to account for Eclipses. And we laugh at those East-Indians, that, to this day, go out in multitudes, with some Instruments that may relieve the distressed Luminary, whose loss of Light they fancy to proceed from some fainting fit, out of which it must be roused. For no Intelligent man, whether Chemist or Peripatetic, flies to his peculiar Principles, after he is informed, that the Moon is Eclipsed by the interposition of the Earth betwixt her and it, and the Sun by that of the Moon betwixt him and the Earth. And when we see the Image of a Man cast into the Air by a Concave Spherical Looking-glass, though most men are amazed at it, and some suspect it to be no less than an effect of Witchcraft, yet he that is skilled enough in Catoptrics, will, without consulting Aristotle, or Paracelsus, or flying to Hypostatical Principles and Substantial Forms, be satisfied, that the Phaenomenon is produced by the beams of Light reflected, and thereby made convergent according to Optical, and consequently Mathematical Laws.  
But I must not now repeat what I elsewhere say, to show, that the Corpuscular Principles have been declined by Philosophers of different Sects, not because they think not our Explications clear, if not much more so, than their own; but because they imagine, that the applications of them can be made but to few things, and consequently are insufficient.  
II. In the next place I observe, that there cannot be fewer Principles than the two grand ones of Mechanical Philosophy, Matter and Motion. For, Matter alone, unless it be moved, is altogether unactive; and whilst all the parts of a Body continue in one state without any Motion at all, that Body will not exercise any action, nor suffer any alteration itself, though it may perhaps modify the action of other Bodies that move against it.  
III. Nor can we conceive any Principles more primary, than Matter and Motion. For, either both of them were immediately created by God, or, (to add that for their sakes that would have Matter to be unproduced,) if Matter be eternal, Motion must either be produced by some Immaterial Supernatural Agent, or it must immediately flow by way of Emanation from the nature of the matter it appertains to.  
IU. Neither can there be any Physical Principles more simple than Matter and Motion; neither of them being resoluble into any things, whereof it may be truly, or so much as tolerably, said to be compounded.  
V. The next thing I shall name to recommend the Corpuscular Principle, is their great Comprehensiveness. I consider then, that the genuine and necessary effect of the sufficiently strong Motion of one part of Matter against another, is, either to drive it on in its entire bulk, or else to break or divide it into particles of determinate Motion, Figure, Size, Posture, Rest, Order, or Texture. The two first of these, for instance, are each of them capable of numerous varieties. For the Figure of a portion of Matter may either be one of the five Regular Figures treated of by Geometricians, or some determinate Species of solid Figures, as that of a Cone, Cylinder, etc. or Irregular, though not perhaps Anonymous, as the Grains of Sand, Hoops, Feathers, Branches, Forks, Files, etc. And as the Figure, so the Motion of one of these particles may be exceedingly diversified, not only by the determination to this or that part of the world, but by several other things, as particularly by the almost infinitely varying degrees of Celerity, by the manner of its progression with, or without, Rotation, and other modifying Circumstances; and more yet by the Line wherein it moves, as (besides Straight) Circular, Elliptical, Parabolical, Hyperbolical, Spiral, and I know not how many others. For, as later Geometricians have shown, that those crooked Lines may be compounded of several Motions, (that is, traced by a Body whose motion is mixed of, and results from, two or more simpler Motions,) so how many more curves may, or rather may not be made by new Compositions and Decompositions of Motion, is no easy task to determine.  
Now, since a single particle of Matter, by virtue of two only of the Mechanical affections, that belong to it, be diversifiable so many ways; how vast a number of variations may we suppose capable of being produced by the Compositions and Decompositions of Myriad of single invisible Corpuscles, that may be contained and contexed in one small Body, and each of them be imbued with more than two or three of the fertile Catholic Principles above mentioned? Especially since the aggregate of those Corpuscles may be farther diversified by the Texture resulting from their Convention into a Body, which, as so made up, has its own Bigness, and Shape, and Pores, (perhaps very many, and various) and has also many capacities of acting and suffering upon the score of the place it holds among other Bodies in a World constituted as ours is: So that, when I consider the almost innumerable diversifications, that Compositions and Decompositions may make of a small number, not perhaps exceeding twenty of distinct things, I am apt to look upon those, who think the Mechanical Principles may serve indeed to give an account of the Phaenomena of this or that particular part of Natural Philosophy, as Staticks, hydrostatics, the Theory of the Planetary Motions, etc. but can never be applied to all the Phaenomena of things Corporeal; I am apt, I say, to look upon those, otherwise Learned, men, as I would do upon him, that should affirm, that by putting together the Letters of the Alphabet, one may indeed make up all the words to be found in one Book, as in Euclid, or Virgil; or in one Language, as Latin, or English; but that they can by no means suffice to supply words to all the Books of a great Library, much less to all the Languages in the world.  
And whereas there is another sort of Philosophers, that, observing the great efficacy of the bigness, and shape, and situation, and motion, and connexion in Engines, are willing to allow, that those Mechanical Principles may have a great stroke in the Operations of Bodies of a sensible bulk, and manifest Mechanism, and therefore may be usefully employed in accounting for the effects and Phaenomena of such Bodies, who yet will not admit, that these Principles can be applied to the hidden Transactions that pass among the minute Particles of Bodies; and therefore think it necessary to refer these to what they call Nature, Substantial Forms, Real Qualities▪ and the like Un-mechanical Principles and Agents.  
But this is not necessary; for, both the Mechanical affections of Matter are to be found, and the Laws of Motion take place, not only in the great Masses, and the middlesized Lumps, but in the smallest Fragments of Matter; and a lesser portion of it, being as well a Body as a greater, must, as necessarily as it, have its determinate Bulk and Figure: And he that looks upon Sand in a good Microscope, will easily perceive, that each minute Grain of it has as well it's own size and shape, as a Rock or Mountain. And when we let fall a great stone and a pebble from the top of a high Building, we find not but that the latter as well as the former moves conformably to the Laws of acceleration in heavy Bodies descending. And the Rules of Motion are observed, not only in Canon Bullets, but in Small Shot; and the one strikes down a Bird according to the same Laws, that the other batters down a Wall. And though Nature (or rather its Divine Author) be wont to work with much finer materials, and employ more curious contrivances than Art, (whence the Structure even of the rarest Watch is incomparably inferior to that of a Humane Body;) yet an Artist himself, according to the quantity of the matter he employs, the exigency of the design he undertakes, and the bigness and shape of the Instruments he makes use of, is able to make pieces of work of the same nature or kind of extremely differing bulk, where yet the like, though not equal, Art and Contrivance, and oftentimes Motion too, may be observed: As a Smith, who with a Hammer, and other large Instruments, can, out of masses of Iron, forge great Bars or Wedges, and make those strong and heavy Chains that were employed to load Malefactors, and even to secure Streets and Gates, may, with lesser Instruments, make smaller Nails and Filings, almost as minute as Dust; and may yet, with finer Tools, make Links of a strange Slenderness and Lightness, insomuch that good Authors tell us of a Chain of divers Links that was fastened to a Flea, and could be moved by it; and, if I mis-remember not, I saw something like this, besides other Instances that I beheld with pleasure of the Littleness that Art can give to such pieces of Work, as are usually made of a considerable bigness. And therefore to say, that, though in Natural Bodies, whose bulk is manifest and their structure visible, the Mechanical Principles may be usefully admitted, that are not to be extended to such portions of Matter, whose parts and Texture are invisible; may perhaps look to some, as if a man should allow, that the Laws of Mechanism may take place in a Town-Clock; but cannot in a Pocket-Watch; or (to give you an instance, mixed of Natural and Artificial,) as if, because the Terraqueous Globe is a vast Magnetical Body of seven or eight thousand miles in Diameter, one should affirm, that Magnetical Laws are not to be expected to be of force in a spherical piece of Loadstone that is not perhaps an inch long: And yet Experience shows us, that notwithstanding the inestimable disproportion betwixt these two Globes, the Terrella, as well as the Earth, hath its Poles, Aequator, and Meridian's, and in divers other Magnetical Properties, emulates the Terrestrial Globe.  
They that, to solve the Phaenomena of Nature, have recourse to Agents which, though they involve no self-repugnancy in their very Notions, as many of the Judicious think Substantial Forms and Real Qualities to do; yet are such that we conceive not, how they operate to bring effects to pass: These, I say, when they tell us of such indeterminate Agents, as the Soul of the World, the Universal Spirit, the Plastic Power, and the like; though they may in certain cases tell us some things, yet they tell us nothing that will satisfy the Curiosity of an Inquisitive Person, who seeks not so much to know, what is the general Agent, that produces a Phenomenon, as, by what Means, and after what Manner, the Phenomenon is produced. The famous Senner●us, and some other Learned Physicians, tell us of Diseases which proceed from Incantation; but sure 'tis but a very slight account, that a sober Physician, that comes to visit a Patient reported to be bewitched, receives of the strange Symptoms he meets with, and would have an account of, if he be coldly answered, That 'tis a Witch or the Devil that produces them; and he will never sit down with so short an account, if he can by any means reduce those extravagant Symptoms to any more known and stated Diseases, as Epilepsies, Convulsions, Hysterical Fits, etc. and, if he can not, he will confess his knowledge of this Distemper to come far short of what might be expected and attained in other Diseases, wherein he thinks himself bound to search into the Nature of the Morbific Matter, and will not be satisfied till he can, probably at least, deduce from that, and the structure of an Humane Body, and other concurring Physical Causes, the Phaenomena of the Malady. And it would be but little satisfaction to one, that desires to understand the causes of what occurrs to observation in a Watch, and how it comes to point at, and strike, the hours, to be told, That 'twas such a Watchmaker that so contrived it: Or to him that would know the true cause of an Echo, to be answered, That 'tis a Man, a Vault, or a Wood that makes it.  
And now at length I come to consider that which I observe the most to alienate other Sects from the Mechanical Philosophy; namely, that they think it pretends to have Principles so Universal and so Mathematical, that no other Physical Hypothesis can comport with it, or be tolerated by it.  
But this I look upon as an easy indeed, but an important, mistake; because by this very thing, that the Mechanical Principles are so universal, and therefore applicable to so many things, they are rather fitted to include, than necessitated to exclude, any other Hypothesis that is founded in Nature, as far as it is so. And such Hypotheses, if prudently considered by a skilful and moderate person, who is rather disposed to unite Sects than multiply them, will be found, as far as they have Truth in them, to be either Legitimately, (though perhaps not immediately,) deducible from the Mechanical Principles, or fairly reconcilable to them. For, such Hypotheses will probably attempt to account for the Phaenomena of Nature, either by the help of a determinate number of material Ingredients, such as the Tria Prima of the Chemists, by participation whereof other Bodies obtain their Qualities; or else by introducing some general Agents, as the Platonic Soul of the World, or the Universal Spirit, asserted by some Spagyrists; or by both these ways together.  
Now to dispatch first those, that I named in the second place; I consider, that the chief thing, that Inquisitive Naturalists should look after in the explicating of difficult Phaenomena, is not so much what the Agent is or does, as, what changes are made in the Patient, to bring it to exhibit the Phaenomena that are proposed; and by what means, and after what manner, those changes are effected. So that the Mechanical Philosopher being satisfied, that one part of Matter can act upon another but by virtue of Local Motion, or the effects and consequences of Local Motion, he considers, that as, if the proposed Agent be not Intelligible and Physical, it can never Physically explain the Phaenomena; so, if it be Intelligible and Physical, 'twill be reducible to Matter, and some or other of those only Catholic affections of Matter, already often mentioned. And, the indefinite divisibility of Matter, the wonderful efficacy of Motion, and the almost infinite variety of Coalitions and Structures, that may be made of minute and insensible Corpuscles, being duly weighed, I see not why a Philosopher should think it impossible, to make out by their help the Mechanical possibility of any corporeal Agent, how subtle, or diffused, or active soever it be, that can be solidly proved to be really existent in Nature, by what name soever it be called or disguised. And though the Cartesians be Mechanical Philosophers, yet, according to them, their Materia Subtilis, which the very name declares to be a corporeal Substance, is, for aught I know, little (if it be at all) less diffused through the Universe, or less active in it than the Universal Spirit of some Spagyrists, not to say, the Anima Mundi of the Platonists. But this upon the by; after which I proceed, and shall venture to add, That whatever be the Physical Agent, whether it be inanimate or living, purely Corporeal, or united to an Intellectual Substance, the above mentioned changes, that are wrought in the Body that is made to exhibit the Phaenomena, may be effected by the same or the like means, or after the same or the like manner; as, for instance, if Corn be reduced to Meal, the Materials and shape of the Millstones, and their peculiar Motion and Adaptation, will be much of the same kind, and (though they should not, yet) to be sure the grains of Corn will suffer a various contrition and comminution in their passage to the form of Meal; whether the Corn be ground by a Water-mill, or a Windmill, or a Horse-mill, or a Hand-mill; that is, by a Mill whose Stones are turned by Inanimate, by Brute, or by Rational, Agents. And, if an Angel himself should work a real change in the nature of a Body, 'tis scarce conceivable to us Men, how he could do it without the assistance of Local Motion; since, if nothing were displaced or otherwise moved than before, (the like happening also to all external Bodies to which it related,) 'tis hardly conceivable, how it should be in itself other, than just what it was before.  
But to come now to the other sort of Hypotheses formerly mentioned; if the Chemists, or others that would deduce a complete Natural Philosophy from Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, or any other set number of Ingredients of things, would well consider what they undertake, they might easily discover, That the material parts of Bodies, as such, can reach but to a small part of the Phaenomena of Nature, whilst these Ingredients are considered but as Quiescent things, and therefore they would find themselves necessitated to suppose them to be active; and That things purely Corporeal cannot be but by means of Local Motion, and the effects that may result from that, accompanying variously shaped, sized, and aggregated parts of Matter: So that the Chemists and other Materialists, (if I may so call them,) must (as indeed they are wont to do) leave the greatest part of the Phaenomena of the Universe unexplicated by the help of the Ingredients, (be they fewer or more than three,) of Bodies, without taking in the Mechanical and more comprehensive affections of Matter, especially Local Motion. I willingly grant, that Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, or some Substances analogous to them, are to be obtained by the action of the Fire, from a very great many dissipable Bodies here below; nor would I deny, that, in explicating divers of the Phaenomena of such Bodies, it may be of use to a skilful Naturalist to know and consider, that this or that Ingredient, as Sulphur, for instance, does abound in the Body proposed, whence it may be probably argued, that the Qualities, that usually accompany that Principle when Predominant, may be also, upon its score, found in the Body that so plentifully partakes of it. But not to mention, what I have elsewhere shown, that there are many Phaenomena, to whose explication this knowledge will contribute very little or nothing at all; I shall only he●e observe, that, though Chemical Explications be sometimes the most obvious and ready, yet they are not the most fundamental and satisfactory: For, the Chemical Ingredient itself, whether Sulphur or any other, must owe its nature and other qualities to the union of insensible particles in a convenient Size, Shape, Motion or Rest, and Contexture; all which are but Mechanical Affections of convening Corpuscles. And this may be illustrated by what happens in Artificial Fireworks. For, though in most of those many differing sorts that are made either for the use of War, or for Recreation, Gunpowder be a main Ingredient, and divers of the Phaenomena may be derived from the greater or lesser measure, wherein the Compositions partake of it; yet, besides that there may be Fireworks made without Gunpowder, (as appears by those made of old by the Greeks and Romans,) Gunpowder itself owes its aptness to be fired and exploded to the Mechanical Contexture of more simple portions of Matter, Nitre, Charcoal, and Sulphur; and Sulphur itself, though it be by many Chemists mistaken for an Hypostatical Principle, owes its Inflammability to the convention of yet more simple and primary Corpuscles; since Chemists confess, that it has an inflammable Ingredient, and experience shows, that it very much abounds with an acid and uninflammable Salt, and is not quite devoide of Terrestreity. I know, it may be here alleged, that the productions of Chemical analysis are simple Bodies, and upon that account irresoluble. But, that divers Substances, which Chemists are pleased to call the Salts, or Sulphurs, or Mercuries of the Bodies that afforded them, are not simple and homogeneous, has elsewhere been sufficiently proved; nor is their not being easily dissipable or resoluble a clear proof of their not being made up of more primitive portions of matter. For, compounded and even decompounded Bodies, may be as difficultly resoluble, as most of those that Chemists obtain by what they call their Analysis by the Fire; witness common green Glass, which is far more durable and irresoluble than many of those that pass for Hypostatical Substances. And we see, that some Amels will be several times even vitrified in the Fire, without losing their Nature, or oftentimes so much as their colour; and yet Amel is manifestly not only a compounded, but a decompounded Body, consisting of Salt and Powder of Pebbles or Sand, and calcined Tinn, and, if the Amel be not white, usually of some ting Metal or Mineral. But how indestructible soever the Chemical Principles be supposed, divers of the Operations ascribed to them will never be well made out, without the help of Local Motion, (and that diversified too;) without which, we can little better give an account of the Phaenomena of many Bodies, by knowing what Ingredients compose them, than we can explain the Operations of a Watch, by knowing of how many and of what Metals the Balance, the Wheels, the Chain, and other parts, are made; or than we can derive the Operations of a Windmill from the bare knowledge, that 'tis made up of Wood, and Stone; and Canvas, and Iron. And here let me add, that 'twould not at all overthrow the Corpuscularian Hypothesis, though either by more exquisite Purifications, or by some other Operations than the usual Analysis of the Fire, it should be made appear, that the Material Principles or Elements of mixed Bodies should not be the Tria Prima of the vulgar Chemists, but either Substances of another nature, or else fewer, or more in number; as would be, if that were true, which some Spagyrists affirm, (but I could never find,) that from all sorts of mixed Bodies, five, and but five, differing similar Substances can be separated: Or, as if it were true, that the Helmontians had such a resolving Menstruum as the Alkahest of their Master, by which he affirms, that he could reduce Stones into Salt of the same weight with the Mineral, and bring both that Salt and all other kind of mixed and tangible Bodies into insipid Water. For, what ever be the numnumber or qualities of the Chemical Principles, if they be really existent in Nature, it may very possibly be shown, that they may be made up of insensible Corpuscles of determinate bulks and shapes; and by the various Coalitions and Contextures of such Corpuscles, not only three or five, but many more material Ingredients, may be composed or made to result: But, though the Alkahestical Reductions newly mentioned should be admitted, yet the Mechanical Principles might well be accommodated, even to them. For, the Solidity, Taste, etc. of Salt, may be fairly accounted for, by the Stifness, Sharpness, and other Mechanical Affections of the minute Particles, whereof Salts consist; and if, by a farther action of the Alkahest, the Salt or any other solid Body, be reduced into insipid Water, this also may be explicated by the same Principles, supposing a further Comminution of the parts, and such an attrition, as wears off the edges and points that enabled them to strike briskly the Organ of Taste: For, as to Fluidity and Firmness, those mainly depend upon two of our grand Principles, Motion and Rest. And I have elsewhere shown, by several proofs, that the Agitation or Rest, and the loser contact, or closer cohaesion, of the particles, is able to make the same portion of Matter, at one time a firm, and at another time, a fluid Body. So that, though the further Sagacity and Industry of Chemists (which I would by no means discourage) should be able to obtain from mixed Bodies homogeneous substances differing in number, or nature, or both, from their vulgar Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury; yet the Corpuscular Philosophy is so general and fertile, as to be fairly reconcilable to such a Discovery; and also so useful, that these new material Principles will, as well as the old Tria Prima, stand in need of the more Catholic Principles of the Corpuscularians, especially Local Motion. And indeed, what ever Elements or Ingredients men have (that I know of) pitched upon, yet if they take not in the Mechanical Affections of Matter, their Principles have been so deficient, that I have usually observed, that the Materialists, without at all excepting the Chemists, do not only, as I was saying, leave many things unexplained, to which their narrow Principles will not extend; but, even in the particulars they presume to give an account of, they either content themselves to assign such common and indefinite Causes, as are too general to signify much towards an inquisitive man's satisfaction; or if they venture to give particular Causes, they assign precarious or false ones, and liable to be easily disproved by Circumstances, or Instances, whereto their Doctrine will not agree, as I have often elsewhere had occasion to show. And yet the Chemists need not be frighted from acknowledging the Prerogative of the Mechanical Philosophy, since that may be reconcileable with the Truth of their own Principles, as far as these agree with the Phaenomena they are applied to. For these more confined Hypotheses may be subordinated to those more general and fertile Principles, and there can be no Ingredient assigned, that has a real existence in Nature, that may not be derived either immediately, or by a row of Decompositions, from the Universal Matter, modified by its Mechanical Affections▪ For, if with the same Bricks, diversely put together and ranged, several Walls, Houses, Furnaces, and other Structures, as Vaults, Bridges, Pyramids, etc. may be built, merely by a various contrivement of parts of the same kind; how much more may great variety of Ingredients be produced by, or, according to the institution of Nature, result from, the various coalitions and contextures of Corpuscles, that need not be supposed, like Bricks, all of the same, or near the same, size and shape, but may have amongst them, both of the one and the other, as great a variety as need be wished for, and indeed a greater than can easily be so much as imagined. And the primary and minute Concretions that belong to these Ingredients, may, without Opposition from the Mechanical Philosophy, be supposed to have their particles so minute and strongly coherent, that Nature of herself does scarce ever tear them asunder; as we see, that Mercury and Gold may be successively made to put on a multitude of disguises, and yet so retain their nature, as to be reducible to their pristine forms. And you know, I lately told you, that common Glass and good Amels, though both of them but factitious Bodies, and not only mixed, but decompounded Concretions, have yet their component parts so strictly united by the skill of illiterate Tradesmen, as to maintain their union in the vitrifying violence of the Fire. Nor do we find, that common Glass will be wrought upon by Aqua fortis, or Aqua Regis, though the former of them will dissolve Mercury, and the later Gold.  
From the foregoing Discourse it may (probably at least) result, That if, besides Rational Souls, there are any Immaterial Substances (such as the Heavenly Intelligences, and the Substantial Forms of the Aristotelians) that regularly are to be numbered among Natural Agents, their way of working being unknown to us, they can but help to constitute and effect things, but will very little help us to conceive how things are effected; so that, by what ever Principles Natural things be constituted, 'tis by the Mechanical Principles that their Phaenomena must be clearly explicated. As for instance, though we should grant the Aristotelians, that the Planets are made of a quintessential matter, and moved by Angels, or Immaterial Intelligences; yet, to explain the Stations, Progressions, and Retrogradations, and other Phaenomena of the Planets, we must have recourse either to Eccentricks, Epicycles, etc. or to motions made in Elliptical or other peculiar Lines; and, in a word, to Theories, wherein the Motion, and Figure, Situation, and other Mathematical or Mechanical Affections of Bodies are mainly employed. But if the Principles proposed be corporeal things, they will be then fairly Reducible, or Reconcilable, to the Mechanical Principles; these being so general and pregnant, that, among things corporeal, there is nothing real, (and I meddle not with Chimerical Being's, such as some of Paracelsus',) that may not be derived from, or be brought to, a subordination to such comprehensive Principles. And when the Chemists shall show, that mixed Bodies owe their qualities to the predominancy of this or that of their three grand Ingredients, the Corpuscularians will show, that the very Qualities of this or that Ingredient flow from its peculiar Texture, and the Mechanical affections of the Corpuscles 'tis made up of. And to affirm, that, because the Furnaces of Chemists afford a great number of uncommon Productions and Phaenomena, there are Bodies or Operations amongst things purely Corporeal, that cannot be derived from, or reconciled to, the comprehensive and pregnant Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy, is, as if, because there are a great number and variety of Anthems, Hymns, Pavins, Threnodies, Courants, Gavottes, Branles, Sarabands, Jigs, and other (grave and sprightly) Tunes to be met with in the Books and Practices of Musicians, one should maintain, that there are in them a great many Tunes, or at least Notes, that have no dependence on the Scale of Music; or, as if, because, besides Rhombusses, Rhomboids, Trapeziums, Squares, Pentagons, Chiliagons, Myriagons, and innumerable other Polygons, Regular and Irregular, one should presume to affirm, that there are among them some Rectilinear Figures, that are not reducible to Triangles, or have Affections that will overthrow what Euclid has taught of Triangles and Polygons.  
To what has been said, I shall add but one thing more; That, as, according to what I formerly intimated, Mechanical Principles and Explications are for their clearness preferred, even by Materialists themselves, to others in the cases where they can be had; so, the Sagacity and Industry of modern Naturalists and Mathematicians, having happily applied them to several of those difficult Phaenomena, (in hydrostatics, the practical part of Optics, Gunnery, etc.) that before were, or might be referred to 〈◊〉 Qualities, 'tis probable, that, when this Philosophy is deeplier searched into, and farther improved, it will be found applicable to the solution of more and more of the Phaenomena of Nature. And on this occasion let me observe, that 'tis not always necessary, though it be always desirable, that he that propounds an Hypothesis in Astronomy, Chemistry, Anatomy, or other part of Physics, be able, à priori, to prove his Hypothesis to be true, or demonstratively to show, that the other Hypotheses proposed about the same subject must be false. For as, if I mistake not, Plato said, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  That the World was God's Epistle written to Mankind, & might have added, consonantly to another saying of his, 'twas written in Mathematical Letters: So, in the Physical Explications of the Parts and System of the World, me thinks, there is somewhat like what happens, when men conjecturally frame several Keys to enable us to understand a Letter written in Ciphers. For, though one man by his sagacity have found out the right Key, it will be very difficult for him, either to prove otherwise than by trial, that this or that word is not such as 'tis guessed to be by others according to their Keys; or to evince, à priori, that theirs are to be rejected, and his to be preferred; yet, if due trial being made, the Key he proposes, shall be found so agreeable to the Characters of the Letter, as to enable one to understand them, and make a coherent sense of them, its suitableness to what it should decipher, is, without either confutations, or extraneous positive proofs, sufficient to make it be accepted as the right Key of that cipher. And so, in Physical Hypotheses, there are some, that, without noise, or falling foul upon others, peaceably obtain discerning men's approbation only by their fitness to solve the Phaenomena, for which they were devised, without crossing any known Observation or Law of Nature. And therefore, if the Mechanical Philosophy go on to explicate things Corporeal at the rate it has of late years proceeded at, 'tis scarce to be doubted, but that in time unprejudiced persons will think it sufficiently recommended by its consistency with itself, and its applicableness to so many Phenomena of Nature.   

A Recapitulation.  
PErceiving, upon a review, of the foregoing Paper, that the difficulty and importance of the Subject, has seduced me to spend many more words about it that I at first designed▪ 'twill not now be amiss to give you this short Summary of what came into my mind to recommend to you the Mechanical Phelosophy, and obviate your fears of seeing it supplanted; having first premised once for all, that presupposing the Creation and general Providence of God, I pretend to treat but of things Corporeal, and do abstract in this Paper from Immaterial Being's, (which otherwise I very willingly admit,) and all Agents and Operations Miraculous or Supernatural.  
I. Of the Principles of things Corporeal, none can be more few, without being insufficient, or more primary than Matter and Motion.  
II. The natural and genuine effect of variously determined Motion in portions of Matter, is, to divide it into parts of differing sizes, and shapes, and to put them into different Motions, and the Consequences, that flow from these, in a World framed as ours is, are, as to the separate fragments, posture, order, and situation, and, as to the Conventions of many of them, peculiar Compositions and Contextures.  
III. The parts of Matter endowed with these Catholic affections are by various associations reduced to Natural Bodies of several kinds, according to the plenty of the Matter, and the various Compositions and Decompositions of the Principles; which all suppose the common matter they diversify: And these several kinds of Bodies, by virtue of their Motion, Rest, and other Mechanical Affections, which fit them to act on, and suffer from, one another, become endowed with several kinds of Qualities, (whereof some are called Manifest, and some Occult,) and those that act upon the peculiarly framed Organs of Sense, whose Perceptions by the Animadversive faculty of the Soul are Sensations.  
IV. These Principles, Matter, Motion, (to which Rest is related) Bigness, Shape, Posture, Order, Texture, being so simple, clear, and comprehensive, are applicable to all the real Phaenomena of Nature, which seem not explicable by any other not consistent with ours. For, if recourse be had to an Immaterial Principle or Agent, it may be such an one, as is not intelligible; and however it will not enable us to explain the Phaenomena, because its way of working upon things Material would probably be more difficult to be Physically made out, than a Mechanical account of the Phaenomena. And, notwithstanding the Immateriality of a created Agent, we cannot conceive, how it should produce changes in a Body, without the help of Mechanical Principles, especially Local Motion; and accordingly we find not, that the Reasonable Soul in Man is able to produce what changes it pleases in the Body, but is confined to such, as it may produce by determining or guiding the Motions of the Spirits, and other parts of the Body, subservient to voluntary Motion.  
V. And if the Agents or active Principles resorted to, be not Immaterial, but of a Corporeal Nature, they must either in effect be the same with the Corporeal Principles abovenamed; or, because of the great Universality & Simplicity of ours, the new ones proposed must be less general than they, and consequently capable of being subordinated or reduced to ours, which by various Compositions may afford matter to several Hypotheses, and by several Coalitions afford minute Concretions exceedingly numerous and durable, and consequently fit to become the Elementary Ingredients of more compounded Bodies, being in most Trials Similar, and as it were the Radical parts, which may, after several manners, be diversified; as in Latin, the Themes are by Prepositions, Terminations, etc. and in Hebrew, the Roots by the Haeemantic Letters▪ So that the fear, that so much of a New Physical Hypothesis, as is true, will overthrow or make useless the Mechanical Principles, is, as if one should fear, that there will be a Language proposed, that is discordant from, or not reducible to, the Letters of the Alphabet.  
FINIS.