be in no Time, and no Place. He is Omniprefent, not by his Power only, but in his very Subftance: For Power cannot fubfift without a Substance. In him all Things are † contained and move, but without any mutual affecting of each other. For God is not at all affected with the Motions of Bodies, neither do they find any Resistance from the Omniprefence of God. "Tis agreed on all Hands, that the Supreme God neceffarily exifts; and by the fame Neceffity he exists always and every where: Whence:

This was the Opinion of the Ancients; Aratus.] Let us begin with Jove: Let us Men never leave off difcourfing of him: For every Concourfe of People, every Affembly of Mankind, the Seas alfo, and the Heavens are all full of Jove.. We all enjoy the Blessings of Jove: For we are alfo his OffSpring. Phænom. at the Beginning. Paul.] That they bould feek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him; though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live, and move, and have our Being; as certain also of your own Poets have faid; For we are alfo his Off-Spring, A&s xvii. 27, 28. Mofes.] Know therefore this Day, and confider it in thine Heart, That the Lord he is God, in Heaven above, and in the Earth beneath; there is none else, Deut.iv. 39. Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lord's thy God; the Earth also, with all that therein is, x.14. David.] Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither ball I flee from thy Prefence? If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art there. If I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art there. Pfal. cxxxix. 7, 8. Solomon.] Will God indeed dwell on the Earth? Behold the Heaven, and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this Houfe that I have builded? 1 King viii. 27. Job.] Is not God in the Height of Heaven ? And behold the Height of the Stars how high they are! xxii. 12. Jeremiah the Prophet. ] Am I a God at Hand faith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in fecret Places, that I shall not fee him, faith the Lord? Do not I fill Heaven and Earth, faith the Lord? xxiii.23,24.

alfo

alfo it follows, that he is all fimilar, all Eye, all Ear, all Brain, all Arm, all Senfation, all Understanding, all active Power, but not in a human manner, not in a corporeal manner; but in a manner wholly unknown to us. As a blind Man has no Idea of Colours, fo we have no Notion of the Ways by which the most Wife God perceives and understands all Things. He is entirely without Body, or bodily Figure, and therefore can neither be feen, nor heard, nor touch'd, neither ought he to be worshipp'd under the Reprefentation of any corporeal Thing. We have Ideas of his Attributes, but we do not at all know what the Subftance of any thing is. All that we fee of Bodies, is their Figures and Colours; we hear only their Sounds, we touch only their outward Surfaces, we fmell their Scents, and taste their Savours. We know not their inward Subftances by any Senfe, or any reflex Act; and much lefs have we any Idea of the Subftance of God.

We know him only by his Properties and Attributes, and by his most wife and exquifite Structure of Things, and by final Caufes: And we reverence and worship him upon account of his Dominion. For God, without Dominion, Providence, and final Causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature. And thus much concerning God; to difcourfe of whom, from the Appearances of Nature, does certainly belong to Experimental Philofophy.

PART

PART IX.

1444

:

A Recapitulation of the Whole With a ferious Addrefs to all, especially to the Scepticks and Unbelievers of our Age.

ND now, Reader, whofoever thou art, efpecially if thou beeft a Sceptick, or Unbeliever, either as to Natural or Revealed Religion, I

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beg of thee seriously to look back upon what has been hitherto Difcourfed on the Behalf of them both; even from the certain Principles of Aftronomy, or the true System of the World; and from thofe numerous Teftimonies of Sacred and Prophane Antiquity, which fhew.us the natural Confequences of fuch wonderful Phænomena. I fay, look back feriously upon this: View of the Universe. before us, and its Confequences. For if ever there be Occafion for Serioufnefs, it is here, where our All is at Stake; where our future, our final Weal, or Woe, Happiness or Mifery, R

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are the Things under Examination. For accordingly, as we fhall determine our felves in this grand Enquiry, concerning the Being and Providence of God, the Immortality of our Souls, and the Truth of Divine Revelation, as to the lafting Rewards and Punishments of another World; fo fhall we be oblig❜d to behave our felves in our Conduct; upon which our Eternal State is to be awarded us at the great Day. For we cannot but be fenfible that no Mistake of our own can alter the Nature of Things; and that they are not the most zealous Wishes, and Inclinations; the most pungent Jefts and Banter; the most Prophane and Impious Blafphemy against God, his Attributes, or Providence, that can in the leaft alter the Syftem of the Universe, or banish the Supreme Creator and Governor, with his Providence and Laws, out of it. Let us confider, then, that all the other Hypothefes relating to the Conftitution of the World, invented by either Democritus, Epicurus, Ariftotle, Ptolemy, Tycho, Cartes, Mr. Hobbs, or Spinoza, do now plainly appear, from certain Evidence, to be not only falfe, but abfurd; contrary both to common Senfe, and to the known Laws and Obfervations of found Philofophy; and that he who will now be an Atheift, must be an abfolute Ignoramus in Natural Knowledge; must neither understand the Principles either of Phyficks or Aftronomy. Let us confider farther, that as to Deifm, or the Denial of the Scriptures, and of Divine Revelation, it is really Ill Mens laft Refuge, and taken up of late, not by honeft Enquirers impartially fearching after Truth, and difcovering upon Evidence, that

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all Revealed Religion is falfe; but that it is chiefly fallen into of late by fome Irreligious Perfons, in the Diftrefs of their Affairs, and upon that furprizing and overbearing Light, which Sir Ifaac Newton's wonderful Difcoveries have afforded; whereby they have perceiv'd that Natural Religion, with its Foundations, were now become too certain to bear any farther Oppofition. That this is true, I appeal to a certain Club of Perfons, not over religioufly difpos'd, who being foberly asked, after Dr. Bentley's remarkable Sermons at Mr. Boyle's Lectures, built upon Sir Ifaac Newton's Discoveries, and levell'd against the prevailing Atheism of the Age, What they had to fay in their own Vindication against the Evidence produc'd by Dr. Bentley? The Anfwer was, That truly they did not well know what to say against it, upon the Head of Atheism: But what, fay they, is this, to the Fable of Jefus Chrift? And in Confirmation of this Account, it may, I believe, be juftly obferv'd, that the present grofs Deifme, or the Oppofition that has of late fo evidently and barefacedly appear'd against Divine Revelation, and the Holy Scriptures, has taken its Date in fome Meafure from that Time. And as to the main Obfervation which I am now upon, I mean that this modern Infidelity is not properly owing to any new Difcovery of the want of real Evidence for Reveal'd Religion, or of the Falfity of any of the known Foundations of it; but to the like Neceffity of Affairs, and the Impoffibility of fupporting the former, and worfer Notions, I think is plain from these Two farther Confiderations: First, That the most truly Learned, the deepest Enquirers, and moft

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