Having thus, Pyrophilus, endeavored to evince, that the Opinion that would deter Men from the scrutiny of Nature, is not a little prejudicial to Mans Interests, and does very much lessen the Advantages he may derive from the Creatures, both in relation to his accommodation in this Life, and his Felicity in the next: Let us proceed to consider, whether the Doctrine we oppose do not likewise tend, in its own nature (though not in the Intentions of its Patrons) to defeat God of much of that Glory which Man both ought and might ascribe to him, both for himself and the rest of the Creatures. How unlikely is it that we should be able to offer to God that Glory, Praise, and Admiration, he both expects and merits from such a contemplation of the Creatures, as though it be requisite to the true knowledge of their Nature and Properties, is yet suppos’d either pernicious, or at least dangerous, You, Pyrophilus, or any other impartial Person may easily determine.
For the Works of God are not like the Tricks of Juglers, or the Pageants that entertain Princes, where concealment is requisite to wonder; but the knowledge of the Works of God proportions our admiration of them, they participating and disclosing so much of the inexhausted Perfections of their Author, that the further we contemplate them, the more Foot-steps and Impressions we discover of the Perfections of their Creator; and our utmost Science can but give us a juster veneration of his Omniscience. And as when some Country Fellow looks upon a curious Watch, though he may be hugely taken with the rich Enamel of the Case, and perhaps with some pretty Landskip that adorns the Dial-plate; yet will not his Ignorance permit him so advantageous a Notion of the exquisite Makers skill, as that little Engine will form in some curious Artist, who besides that obvious Workmanship that first entertains the Eye, considers the exactness, and knows the use of every Wheel, takes notice of their proportion, contrivance, and adaptation altogether, and of the hidden Springs that move them all: So in the World, though every Peruser may read the existence of a Deity, and be in his degree affected with what he sees, yet is he utterly unable to descry there those subtler Characters and Flourishes of Omniscience, which true Philosophers are sharp-sighted enough to discern. The existence of God is indeed so legibly written on the Creatures, that (as the Scripture speaks in another sense) He may run that reads it; (Habb. 2.2) that is, even a perfunctory Beholder, that makes it not his business, may perceive it. But that this God has manifested in these Creatures a Power, a Wisdom, and a Goodness worthy of himself, needs an attentive and diligent Surveyor to discover. How different notions of Gods Wisdom do the Eggs of Hens produce in the ordinary Eaters of them, and in curious Naturalists, who carefully watch and diligently observe from time to time the admirable progress of Nature in the Formation of a Chick, from the first change appearing in the Cicatricula (or little whitish speck discernable in the Coat of the Eggs Yolk) to the breaking of the Egg-shell by the perfectly hatched Bird, and on Natures exquisite method in the order and fashioning of the parts, make such Philosophical reflections as you may meet with (not to mention what Aristotle and Fabricius ab Aquapendente, have observed on that subject) in the Ingenious Treatise of Generation, which our accurate and justly Famous Anatomist, Dr Highmore, has been pleased to Dedicate to me; and in the excellent Exercitations, De Ovo, of that great Promoter of Anatomical Knowledge, Dr Harvey. And whereas it may be alledg’d, That the Attributes of God, which are not taught us, but after much speculation of the World, are things of which no Man but an Atheist doubts; to this it may be reply’d, That besides that, it ill becomes the sense we ought to have of our weakness to despise any helps vouchsaf’d us of God to assist us to know or serve him; besides this, I say, God loving, as he deserves, to be honor’d in all our Faculties, and consequently to be glorifi’d and acknowledg’d by the acts of Reason, as well as by those of Faith, there must be sure found a great disparity betwixt that general, confus’d, and lazy Idea we commonly have of his Power and Wisdom, and the distinct, rational, and affecting notions of those Attributes which are form’d by an attentive inspection of those Creatures in which they are most legible, and which were made chiefly for that very end. The Queen of Sheba had heard in her own Country a very advantageous Fame of the Wisdom of Solomon; but when the curiosity of a personal Visit made her an Eye-witness of those particular both exquisite Structures, and almost Divinely prudent Conducts and Contrivances wherein that Wisdom did inimitably display it self, she then brake forth into Pathetick and Venerating Exclamations, that acknowledg’d how much juster and improved a Character (of his Wisdom) her Eyes had now given her, then formerly her Ears had done.