It remains now, Pyroph: that we at length return into the way from whence the foregoing Digression has, I fear, too long diverted us, and that to prosecute and finish our Discourse, we take it up where we left it and were tempted to digress, namely, at the end of the III Essay; betwixt which, and the beginning of this V, all that has been interpos’d may be look’d upon but as a long Parenthesis.
In the third place then I consider, That whether or no it be true which our Antagonists suggest, that there are some things in Nature which tempt Philosophers more then they doe the Vulgar, to doubt or deny a God; yet certainly there are divers things in Nature that do much conduce to the evincing of a Deity, which Naturalists either alone discern, or at least discern them better then other Men: For besides the abstruse Properties of particular Bodies, not discover’d by any but those that make particular Enquiries into those Bodies, there are many things in Nature, which to a superficial Observer seem to have no relation to one another; whereas to a knowing Naturalist, that is able to discern their secret Correspondencies and Alliances, these things which seem to be altogether Irrelative each to other, appear so Proportionate and so Harmonious both betwixt themselves, and in reference to the Universe they are parts of, that they represent to him a very differing and incomparably better Prospect then to another Man: As he that looks upon a Picture made up of scatter’d and deform’d pieces, beholding them united into one Face, by a Cylindrical Looking-glass aptly plac’d, discerns the skill of the Artist that drew it, better then he that looks onely on the single parts of that Picture, or upon the whole Picture, without the uniting Cylinder. Which brings into my minde, That whereas in the Sacred Story of the Creation, when mention is made of Gods having consider’d the Works of each of the first six Days, at the end of it, it is said of the Work of every Day, That God saw that it was good (except of the second Day, because the separation of the Waters was but imperfectly made on that day, and compleated in the next, on which it is therefore twice said, That God saw that it was good) whereas, I say, when God look’d upon his Works in particular, it is onely said, That he saw that they were good; when He is introduc’d at the close of the Creation, as looking upon, and surveying his Creatures in their Harmony, and entire System, it is emphatically said, That he saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. And if Aristotle be indeed the Author of the Book De Mundo ad Alexandrum, which passes for his, and is said to have been Written by him towards the end of his Life, it would not be unworthy our Observation to take notice, how he that in his other Writings is wont to talk of Gods Interest in the Creatures darkly, and hesitantly enough, is wrought upon by the Contemplation of the Universe, as it is an orderly Aggregate or System of the Works of Nature, to make Expressions of the Divine Architect, which are not unworthy of Aristotle, though being meerly humane they cannot be worthy of God. Amongst many I shall single out some; and I hope, Pyrophilus, you will excuse me, if in this Essay, and some of the precedent ones, I do contrary to my custom, employ pretty store of Passages taken out of other Authors. For first, the nature of my Design makes it requisite for me to shew what Opinion the Heathen Philosophers had of the Study of Physiology, and what Power their Contemplation of Nature had to engage them to Acts of Religion. And next, since divers of the same Passages wherein they had set down their Opinions, contain’d also the Grounds and Reasons of them, whereby they have anticipated much of what we should say upon the same subjects, I was unwilling to deprive you of their pertinent Ratiocinations, or rob them of the Glory of what they had well Written. And this necessary Apology premis’d, let us proceed to consider his Passages; and first,1 Restat (says he) ut summatim de Causae disseramus, quae cunctarum ipsa rerum vim habet tutricem & continentem, quemadmodum caetera perstrinximus: Flagitii enim instar esset, cum de mundo dicere instituerim, tractatu si minus exquisito fortasse, at certe qui sat esse possit ad formulam doctrinae crassiorem, intactam praecipuam mundi partem principemque praeterire. And a little after, Etenim (says he) cunctarum quae rerum natura complectitur, cum servator est Deus, (Ibidem) tum vero quaecunque in hoc mundo quoquomodo perficiuntur eorum omnium idem est Genitor: Non sic tamen ipse ut opificis in morem, animalisque lassitudinem sentientis labore affici possit, ut qui ea facultate utatur, quae nulli cedat difficultati, cujus ipse vi facultatis omnia in potestate continet, nec minus etiam quae longius ab ipso videntur esse summota: To which purpose he elsewhere says, Augustius decentiusque existimandum est,2 Deum summo in loco it a esse collocatum: Numinis ut tamen ejus vis per universum mundum pertingens, tum Solem, Lunamque moveat, tum Coelum omne circumagat, simulque causam praebeat eorum quae in Terra sunt salutis atque incolumitatis: And in the same Book he adds,3 Ut vero sunmatim loquamur quod in navi Gubernator est, quod in Curru agitator, quod in Choro praecentor, quod denique lex in Civitate, & dux in exerctiu, hoc Deus est in mundo. Nisi si hactenus interest, quod labor, & motus multiplex illos exercet, & curae angunt variae, cum huic illaborata succedunt omnia, omnis molestiae expertia. And certainly he that is a stranger to Anatomy, shall never be able to discern in the circulation of the blood, the motion of the Chyle, and the contrivance of all the parts of a humane Body, those Proofs, as well as Effects, of an Omniscient δημιουργός, or Artist, which a curious Anatomist will discover in that elaborate and matchless Engine: as I remember, I had occasion not long since to take notice of in the shape of that strange Muscle (the obturator internus) which some call from its Figure Marsupialis, serving to the motion of the Thigh. For this Muscle seems so made, as if Nature had design’d in it, to manifest, That she is skill’d in the Mechanicks, not onely as a Mathematician that understands the powers of Distance, Weight, Proportion, Motion and Figure; but as an Artificer, or Handy-crafts man, who knows by dextrous Contrivances to furnish the more endanger’d parts of his Work, with what is more useful to make it lasting: There being (to omit other Observables, belonging to that Muscle) a deep notch made in the Coxendix, to shorten the way betwixt the two extremities of the Muscle, and make it bear upon the Bone with a blunter Angle. And because the Tendon is long, lest, notwithstanding the former provision, it should be apt to fret out upon the edge of the Bone, Nature has provided for it a Musculous piece of Flesh, wherein it is as it were sheath’d, that so it might not immediately bear, and grate upon the Bone; just as our Artificers use to sow Cases of Leather upon those parts of silken Strings, which being to grate upon harder Bodies, were otherwise endangered to be fretted out by Attrition.