2. The effects in the admirable frame and nature, and motions of the Creation, declare that the Creator is infinitely wise. The smallest insect is so curiously made, and so admirably fitted and instructed to its proper end and uses; The smallest Plants in wonderful variety of shapes and colours, and smells and qualities, uses and operations, and beautiful flowers, so marvellously constituted and animated, by an unseen form, and propagated by unsearchable seminal virtue; The smallest Birds and Beasts and creeping things so adorned in their kinds, and so admirably furnished for their proper ends, especially the propagation of their species, in love, and sagacity, and diligence to their young, by instinct equalling in those particulars the reasonable creature; The admirable composure of all the parts of the body of Man, and of the vilest Beast and Vermin; The quality and operation of all the Organs, humours and spirits: The operations of the Mind of man; and the constitution of Societies, and over-ruling all the matters of the World; with innumerable instances in the creature; do all concur to proclaim that man as mad as madness can possibly make him (in that particular) who thinketh that any lower cause than incomprehensible wisdom did principally produce all this; And that by any brutish or natural motion, or confluence of Atoms, or any other matter, it could be thus ordered, continued and maintained, without the infinite wisdom and power of a first ⟨p. 23⟩Cause, superior to mere natural matter and motion. What then should we say, if we had a sight into the inwards of all the Earth, of the nature and cause of Minerals, and of the forms of all things; If we saw the reason of the motions of the Seas, and all other appearances of Nature which are now beyond our reach: Yea,1 if we had a sight of all the Orbs, both fixed Stars and Planets, and of their matter, and form, and order, and relation to each other, and their communications and influences on each other, and the cause of all their wondrous motions: If we saw not only the nature of the Elements, especially the active Element, Fire; but also the constitution, magnitude, and use, of all those thousand Suns, and lesser Worlds, which constitute the universal World: And, if they be inhabited, if we knew the Inhabitants of each:
2. The effects in the admirable frame and nature, and motions of the Creation, declare that the Creator is infinitely wise. The smallest insect is so curiously made, and so admirably fitted and instructed to its proper end and uses; The smallest Plants in wonderfull variety of shapes and colours, and smells and qualities, uses and operations, and beautifull flowers, so marvellously constituted and animated, by an unseen form, and propagated by unsearchable seminal vertue; The smallest Birds and Beasts and creeping things so adorned in their kinds, and so admirably furnished for their proper ends, especially the propagation of their species, in love, and sagacity, and diligence to their young, by instinct equaling in those particulars the reasonable creature; The admirable composure of all the parts of the body of Man, and of the vilest Beast and Vermine; The quality and operation of all the Organs, humours and spirits: The operations of the Minde of man; and the constitution of Societies, and over-ruling all the matters of the World; with innumerable instances in the creature; do all concurr to proclaim that man as mad as madness can possibly make him (in that particular) who thinketh that any lower cause than incomprehensible wisdom did principally produce all this; And that by any bruitish or natural motion, or confluence of Atomes, or any other matter, it could be thus ordered, continued and maintained, without the infinite wisdome and power of a first ⟨p. 23⟩Cause, superiour to meer natural matter and motion. What then should we say, if we had a sight into the inwards of all the Earth, of the nature and cause of Minerals, and of the forms of all things; If we saw the reason of the motions of the Seas, and all other appearances of Nature which are now beyond our reach: Yea,1 if we had a sight of all the Orbs, both fixed Starrs and Planets, and of their matter, and form, and order, and relation to each other, and their communications and influences on each other, and the cause of all their wonderous motions: If we saw not only the nature of the Elements, especially the active Element, Fire; but also the constitution, magnitude, and use, of all those thousand Suns, and lesser Worlds, which constitute the universal World: And, if they be inhabited, if we knew the Inhabitants of each:
- 1Nee enim ignorare potest Deus qua mente quisque sit. Cicer. de Div. At ignoratio rerum aliena est naturae Deorum; & sustinendi muneris propter imbecillitatem difficultas, minime cadit in majestatem Deorum: ex quo efficitur id quod volumus, Deorum providentia mundum administrari. Cicero ibid.
