Having thus taken notice of some Particulars of those many which may be employ’d to shew, 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 our selves 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 enquire 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 reveal’d, it cannot but be their duty to do so. For though the nature of the thing it self 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 enjoyn 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 onely had a Law Impos’d upon him, but such a Law,1 as, being about a matter it self 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 meer will and pleasure of the Law-giver. 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 Gods Bounty, without, as yet, standing in need of his Mercy, was most strictly obliged out of meer Obedience to conform to a Law, the matter of which was indifferent in it self; sure we, in our laps’d condition, must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God, whereby we are enjoyned to study his Truths, and perform that which has so much of intrinsick Goodness in it, that it would be a duty, though it were not commanded; and has such Recompences proposed to it, that it is not more a Duty, then it will be an Advantage.
But it is not onely 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 Authour and the Preserver of our very Beings; 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 our selves) we may receive from him as Christians.
But to shew, in how many Particulars, and to how high a Degree, God is our Benefactor, were to lanch out into too Immense a Subject; which ‘twere the less proper for me to do, because I have in other Papers discours’d of those matters already.2 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 onely Divines, but States-men, and even the Learned’st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge, because they are not vers’d in Physicks; he ows to God that very Skill, among many other Vouchsafements. For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule,3 who have no understanding, and endow’d 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 Gods 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 multipli’d, their heart be not lifted up,4 and prompt them to say, My power, and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But, (subjoyns that excellent Person,5 as well as Matchless Law-giver) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.6 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,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 her self had not yet receiv’d 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 Cyphers, and teach us the skill of decyphering things so written; or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Peny, 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 express’d in; especially since by this way, Philosophers may not onely exercise their own gratitude towards God, but procure him that of others. How pleasing mens 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,8 Whoso offereth Praise, glorifieth me; where the word our Interpreters render offereth, in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice; with which agrees, that else-where those that pay God their Praises, are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips.9 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,10 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 else-where,11 The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work, &c. Again, in another place,12 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 joyn with him in the celebration of their common Maker. Which though it seem to be meerly 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, joyn with him in glorifying their Author.