Having rejected this Atheistick Hypothesis of Epicurus and Democritus, I should now proceed to give particular instances of the Art and Wisdom clearly appearing in the several Parts and Members of the Universe; from which we may justly infer this general conclusion of the Psalmist, In Wisdom hast thou made them all: But that there is a sort of professed Theists, I mean Mons. Des Cartes and his followers, who endeavour to disarm us of this decretory Weapon; to evacuate and exterminate this Argument which hath been so successful in all Ages to demonstrate the existence, and enforce the belief of a Deity; and to convince and silence all Atheistick Gainsayers. And this they doe,
First, By excluding and banishing all consideration of final Causes from Natural Philosophy; upon pretence, that they are all and every one in particular undiscoverable by us; and that it is rashness and arrogance in us to think we can find out God’s Ends and be partakers of his Counsels. Atque ob hanc unicam rationem totum illud causarum genus quod à fine peti solet, in rebus Physicis nullum usum habere existimo; non enim absque temeritate me puto investigare posse fines Dei. Medit. Metaph. And again in his Principles of Philosophy, Nullas unquam rationes circa res Naturales à fine quem Deus aut Natura in iis faciendis sibi proposuit admittimus, quia non tantum nobis debemus arrogare ut ejus Consiliorum participes esse possimus. And more expresly in his fourth Answer, viz. to Gassendus’s Objections; Nec fingi potest, aliquos Dei fines magis quàm alios in propatulo esse: omnes enim in imperscrutabili ejus Sapientiae abysso sunt eodem modo reconditi; that is, neither can or ought we to feign or imagine, that some of God’s Ends are more manifest than others; for all lie in like manner or equally hidden in the unsearchable abyss of his Wisdom.
This confident Assertion of Des Cartes is fully examined and reproved by that honourable and excellent Person Mr. Boyl, in his Disquisition about the final Causes of Natural Things, Sect. 1. from Pag. 10. to the end: And therefore I shall not need say much to it; only in brief this, that it seems to me false and of evil consequence, as being derogatory from the glory of God, and destructive of the acknowledgment and belief of a Deity:
For first, Seeing, for instance, That the Eye is employed by Man and all Animals for the use of Vision, which, as they are framed, is so necessary for them, that they could not live without it; and God Almighty knew that it would be so; and seeing it is so admirably fitted and adapted to this use, that all the Wit and Art of men and Angels could not have contrived it better, if so well; it must needs be highly absurd and unreasonable to affirm, either that it was not designed at all for this use, or that it is impossible for man to know whether it was or not.
Secondly, How can Man give thanks and praise to God for the use of his Limbs and Senses and those his good Creatures which serve for his sustenance; when he cannot be sure they were made in any respect for him; nay, when ‘tis as likely they were not, and that he doth but abuse them to serve ends for which they never intended.
Thirdly, This Opinion, as I hinted before, supersedes and cassates the best medium we have to demonstrate the Being of a Deity; leaving us no other demonstrative Proof but that taken from the innate Idea; which, if it be a Demonstration, is but an obscure one, not satisfying many of the learned themselves, and being too subtle and metaphysical ro be apprehended by vulgar Capacities, and consequently of no force to persuade and convince them.
Secondly, They endeavour to evacuate and disanul our great Argument, by pretending to solve all the Phaenomena of Nature, and to give an Account of the Production and Efformation of the Universe, and all the corporeal Beings therein, both celestial and terrestrial as well animate as inanimate, not excluding Animals themselves by a sleight Hypothesis of matter so and so divided and moved. The Hypothesis you have in Des Cartes’s Principles of Philosophy, Part. 2. all the matter of this visible World is by him supposed to have been at first divided by God into Parts nearly equal to each other, of a mean size, viz. about the bigness of those whereof the Heavenly Bodies are now compounded; all together having as much motion as is now found in the World; and these to have been equally moved severally every one by itself about its own Center, and among one another, so as to compose a fluid body; and also many of them jointly or in company, about several other points so far distant from one another, and in the same manner disposed as the Centres of the fixt Stars now are. So that God had no more to do than to create the matter, divide it into parts, and put it into motion according to some few Laws, and that would of itself produce the World and all Creatures therein.