To illuftrate the use of reafon, let us fuppofe an able judge coming to PHYSICS hear, and decide caufes, in a strange country: 'tis plain, that the general notions he brings with him, and the dictates of juftice and equity, can give him but a very fhort and imperfect knowledge of many things, that are requifite to frame a right judgment about the cafes which will first be brought before him; and, till he has heard the witneffes, he may be very apt to fall into prejudiced opinions of things: but, when an authentic and fufficient teftimony has clear'd matters to him, he then pronounces, according to the light of reafon he is mafter of; to which the witneffes did but give information; tho' that fubfequent information may have obliged him to lay afide fome prejudices he had entertain'd before he receiv'd it. And, what is faid of natural experience, with regard to the understanding, may, with due alteration, be apply'd to fupernatural revelation: for here, alfo, the understanding is to examine, whether the teftimony be indeed divine; and whether a divine teftimony ought to be believ'd, in what it clearly teaches. I do not, therefore, degrade reafon from the dignity that belongs to it, of perceiving, and judging; tho' it be obliged, by its own dictates, to take in all the affiftance it can from experience, whether na-tural, or fupernatural; and by the fuller accounts of things it receives from thofe informations, to rectify, if need be, its former lefs mature judgment. In fhort, thofe who cry up abftract reafon, as if it were felf-fufficient, exalt it in words; but we who addrefs reafon to phyfical and theological experience, and direct it how to confult both, and take its informations from thence, exalt it in effect: and reafon is much lefs ufefully ferv'd by the former fort of men, than by the latter; fince, whilft thofe do but flatter it, these take the right way to improve it. THE THE High Veneration Man's INTELLECT Owes to GOD. T IS with indignation and wonder, that I hear many men, and fome of them divines too, who, little confidering what God is, and what themselves are, talk of him and his attributes, as freely, and as unpremeditately, as they would of a geometrical figure, or a mechanical engine. And, even the lefs prefumptuous frequently difcourfe, as if the nature and perfections of that unparallel'd Being, were objects their intellects could grafp; and fcruple not to dogmatize about those abftrufe fubjects, as freely as about other things, that are confeffedly within the reach of human reafon. Yet God may have feveral attributes, and perfections, utterly unknown to us; and of thofe attributes whereof we have fome knowledge, there are effects and properties, whofe fublimity, or abftrufeness, furpaffing our comprehenfion, makes the divine caufe, or author of them, deferve our highest wonder and veneration. As there are two chief ways to arrive at the knowledge of God's attributes; the contemplation of his works, and the ftudy of his word; it may be doubted whether either, or both of thefe, will fuffice to acquaint us with all his perfections. For tho' philofophers have rationally deduced the power, wisdom, and goodnefs of God, from thofe marks of them which he hath ftampt upon many of his vifible works; yet, fince the divine attributes which the creatures point at, are thofe whereof themfelves have fome participation, or refemblance; and, fince the fertility of the divine nature is fuch, that its excellencies may be participated, or reprefented many ways; how can we PHYSICS. be fure, but fo perfect, and exuberant a Being, has excellencies not expreffed in the vifible world, or any of its known parts? Some of thofe divine attributes we know, being relative to the crea- God may have tures, could scarce be difcover'd by fuch imperfect intellects as ours, but and perfections from confidering fome things actually done by God. Thus, fuppofing, unknown to us. before the foundations of the vifible world were laid, the angels had no more knowledge than men; they could fcarce imagine in God a power of creating matter, and of producing local motion in it: much lefs could they have known how the rational foul, and human body act upon one another. Whence it seems probable, that if God hath made other fyftems than that wherein we live (and who can affure us, he hath not ?) he may have difplayed in fome of the creatures that compofe them, feveral attributes that we have not difcover'd by the help of those works of his wherewith we are acquainted. I readily grant, that the revelations God hath vouchfafed us, have clearly taught us feveral things concerning their adorable author, which the mere light of nature either would not have fhewn, or but very dimly difcover'd. Yet the fcripture itself informs us, that in this life" we know but in part, and fee things but darkly ;" and that we are so far from being able" to find out God to perfection," that even the ways of his providence are to us unfearchable. Hence God may have attributes unknown to us. But it may be alledged, that, befides the two ways mentioned of attaining the knowledge of God's attributes; there may be a third preferable to both the others, by confidering the idea of a Being fupremely, or infinitely perfect; in which idea, all poffible perfections may be faid to be contained; fo that no new one can be added to it. And, indeed, I readily grant, that this idea is the most genuine I am able to frame of the Deity; yet there may be feveral attributes, which, tho' in a general way contain'd in this idea, are not, in particular, difcovered to us thereby. 'Tis true, that when, by whatever means, any divine perfection comes to our knowledge, we may well conclude, 'tis, in a fenfe, comprized in the comprehenfive notion we have of a Being abfolutely perfect; tho', 'tis poffible, that perfection would never have come to our knowledge by the bare contemplation of that general idea, but was fuggefted by particulars; whence fuch discoveries are not fo much derived from, as refer'd to the notion we are speaking of. These confiderations perfuade me, that God may have, not only various attributes, but various excellencies and perfections, unknown to us. And, farther, many of the attributes we know he hath, we have but an imperfect knowledge of, efpecially if compared with his; for he poffeffes them in a manner peculiar to himself, and far tranfcending that wherein men poffefs fome faint refemblances of them. The power and wisdom of God are difplay'd both in his corporeal, and his incorporeal creatures. VOL. II. Mm Among PHYSICS. Effects of the divine power. The vast magnitude of the world. Among the manifold effects of the divine power, I fhall mention only two; which, tho' often very manifeft, are not very attentively reflected on; the immenfe quantity of corporeal fubftance that the divine power provided for the framing of the univerfe; and the great force of the local motion imparted to it, and regulated in it. The vaftness of that huge mafs of matter, whereof the corporeal world whole material confifts, cannot but appear ftupendous to thofe who skilfully confider it. That part of the univerfe, which has been already difcover'd by human eyes, affifted with dioptrical glaffes, is almoft inconceivably vaft. The fix'd ftars of the firft magnitude, that to vulgar eyes look but like fhining fpangles, are by aftronomers affirm'd to exceed, each of them, above a hundred times the whole globe of the earth in magnitude: and as little as these stars feem to our naked eyes, they appear much lefs thro' our telefcopes; which taking off the falfe glittering that makes them look as they are painted, fhew them little other than phyfical points of light. And the fun, which is granted to be fome millions of miles nearer to us than the other fix'd ftars; tho' it feem at this lefs diftance not to be half a foot broad; is by the generality of mathematicians allow'd to be eight or ten thousand times as big as the terraqueous globe. And it plainly appears by the parallaxes and other proofs, that the globe of earth and water we inhabit, tho' it be divided into fo many great empires, and kingdoms, and feas; and tho', according to the received opinion, it be 5400 German leagues in circumference, and confequently its folid content 10,882,080,000 cubic miles; yet this globe is fo far from being, for its bulk, a confiderable part of the univerfe, that 'tis in comparison thereof but a physical point. Nay, thofe far greater globes, the fun and fix'd ftars, and all the folid maffes of the world, if reduced into one, would, perhaps, bear a lefs proportion to the fluid part of the universe, than a nut to the ocean. And as an excellent modern aftronomer obferves, all the stars, crowded into one body, would, at a fit diftance, appear no bigger than a star of the firft magnitude. After all, I have hitherto fpoke but of that part of the corporeal universe already feen by us: I must therefore add, that as vaft as this is, yet all that the eye, even when powerfully affifted by telescopes, hath discovered, is far from reprefenting the world of fo great an extent, as more perfect glaffes will do hereafter. And even then the vifible part of the world will be far from reaching to the bounds of the universe *. From occupy no part of the Infinitum of fpace, which neceffarily and evident"ly exifts; whence the whole would "be furrounded with an infinite Inane; "and the fuperficial ftars would gravi"tate towards thofe near the centre, "and with an accelerated motion run "into them, and in procefs of time u"nite into one. But if the whole be "infi་ From the vaft extent of the univerfe, I proceed to confider the ftupen- PHYSICS. dous quantity of motion, that the divine power has given the parts of it, and continually maintains in it. Of this we may make an eftimate, by quantity of mo The prodigious confidering with what velocity fome of the greater bodies are moved, and ion given there how large a part of the remaining bodies of the universe, is also endow'd tand therein. with motion. The leaft velocity I fhall mention, is that afforded by the Copernican hypothefis; according to which, the earth revolves from weft to eaft, about its own axis, in four and twenty hours; yet this terraqueous globe, which we think fo great, that we commonly call it the world, moves at fuch a rate, that, as the learned Gaffendus computes, a point fituated in the equator of it, moves about twelve hundred feet in a fecond minute: fo that a bullet fhot out of a canon, fcarce flies fo fwift. But this velocity is fcarce comparable to that of the fix'd stars; if we fuppofe them to move, in four and twenty hours, about the earth. For fuppofing the diftance affign'd by Tycho between us and the firmament to be feven thousand diameters of the earth; a fix'd ftar in the equator, moves, as Mullerius calculates, 3,153,333 miles in an hour, and confequently 5 2,555 in a minute, and 875 in a fecond; that is, three thousand times fafter than a canon-bullet shot into the air. 'Tis true, that according to the Prolemaic hypothefis, a fix'd ftar in the equator moves, at moft, but three femidiameters of the earth in a second; but, according to Ricciolus, this velocity is fifty times greater than in the Ptolemaic hypothefis; and threefcore and ten times greater than in the Tychonian. For, according to him, fuch a fix'd ftar as we fpeak of, moves 629,128 English miles in a fecond. But farther, that portion of the universe, which, tho' put into motion, is commonly fuppofed to be at reft, is fo great, that, perhaps, the quantity of motion diftributed among feemingly quiefcent bodies, may exceed the quantity of motion which the first mover has communicated to the fix'd ftars; tho' we fuppofe them whirl'd about the earth with that ftupendous swiftness, the "infinite, all the parts of it would be "nearly in aquilibrio; whence each fix'd "ftar, being attracted by contrary powers, "would keep its place, or move till from "fuch an equilibrium it comes to reft. ""Tis no more abfurd, that the fix'd stars "fhould exceed any given number, than "that duration fhould be eternal, because no number of days or years can com"plete it. "Tis faid, I know, that if the "number of the fix'd ftars were more "than finite, the whole furface of their apparent fphere would be luminous. "But if we fuppofe all the fix'd ftars to "be as far from one another, as the near"eft of them is from the fun; that is, if "we may fuppofe the fun to be one of "them; at a greater distance, their disks "and light will be diminish'd, and the ་ might contain, will be as the biquadrate "of their distances. If then, as it needs "muft, the distances be immensely great, "it will follow, that as the light of the "fix'd stars diminishes, the intervals be"tween them decrease in a lefs propor"tion; the one being as the distances, "the other as the fquares thereof, reci procally. And the more remote stars "are fo fmall, that they muft vanish, even "in the most exquifite telescopes; as a "fmall telescopic ftar is invifible to the "naked eye." Philof. Tranf. N° 364. p.22. te, and main |