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CHA P. IV.

In which we shall examine the Arguments that prove the Existence of God.

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E have thought this Preliminary Dif course by fo much the more ufeful, as the Illufions we have reason to fear in treating of Matters of Religion are entertained unawares, when we don't fufpect them, and infenfibly leading us into incredulity, form as it were a double Bulwark in our Understanding, against which the Solidity and force of Arguments are generally ineffectual.

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But having laid down the principal Caufes of our Errors, 'tis a Matter ftill of much greater importance, to mention alfo those of Truth, of which there are Four different Kinds: Nature, which is the United Body of all visible Creatures: Society, which is a Multitude of Men united under the form of Government: The Heart of Man, which is a little World, containing as many Wonders in it as the greater: And lastly, Religion, which convinces us better than any other Object, of the Existence of God, as it will appear by the fequel of this Work.

To convince us of the being of a Spream Wif dom, we need but open our Eyes, and look over the Wonders of Nature: For although the con fideration of the Heavens and the Stars, and of their Beauty and their Light, their Vaftness and Proportions, their perpetual Motion, and thofe wonderful Revolutions which render them fo juft and constant in their different Variations, fhould

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end, which furely is not very difficult to find out: For certainly we must be void of all Reafon, if we doubt whether our Eyes were made to fee, our Ears to hear, our Nose to smell, our Voice to make our felves understood by one another, our Feet to walk, the Soles of our Feet flat, to enable us to keep upright; our Heart to make or receive the Blood, our Veins to contain it, our Spirits to put it in motion, our Arteries to beat and drive the Blood to the Veins, our Nerves to receive the Spirits; and when we fee that our Eyes are not placed in our Feet, from whence they could not perceive any Objects, that our Mouth hath a Communication with our Stomach, without which, we should be utterly de prived of Nourishment, how can we believe that all this was fo framed, without any manner of Design?

And this Wisdom is every where perceived all over the Universe, whether we examine any fingle Body, or contemplate the whole Mass of all Corporeal Beings: For do but confider Light, the noblest and most beautiful of all the parts of the Universe, and we fhall find 'tis not without some reason that it is united into certain Globes which continually diffuse it, without ever be ing exhausted; that these Globes are placed at fo just and proportionate a distance from the Earth, and that they always feem in a perpetual agitation, which whether it be a real or maginary motion, never meets with the least Obftacle or impediment to ftop it.

But defcend yet lower, and confider the feve ral uses of the Air; it brings even to us, the light and the influences of the Stars; it bears up thofe Clouds which caufe the Fruitfulness of

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the Earth, and the abundance of om Farvels: it conveyeth Sounds to our Ears, and Loweri to our Eyes; it caufes our helpitation, and the Motion of our Lungs, the force and aguation of Flame, the Vegetation of Plants, and the Lift of Animals.

Confider farther how this Air and this Liger unite with the Organs of Humane Buay; it without the Eye of Man, Lign is but Lareng, and without Light, the Eye of Mar. is be: Bunanefs: Obferve thofe admirabie Dependences whic are the Caufes that the Heavens rowl or feen 10 rowl in the vast wide space of the Workc, procuring the welfare of an Arom, who as hidden as he feems to be in the corner of a Glove, which is it felf but a Point in comparifon of other parts of the Univerit, enjoys all thefe wonderful Works, whofe greatnefs is fo difproportioned to his own and poffeffes whatever the Heaven: and the Stars feem to have of moft worth and value.

Who has taught the Air, the Winds, the kain and other Meteors to contribute to the fruitfulnefs of the Earth? Why doth the Sun in order to it, impart his Heat and Light, the Stars their Influences, the Sea its Clouds, the Air its Lew and Coolness, and each Seafon the Temperature of its different Qualities? What makes the dry and barren Earth, the Mother of fo many Vegetables, ío wonderful in their Vertues and Froductions; and of fo many excellent Trees and exquifite Fruits? Why muft thofe Fruits needs be of a Temper proper to be changed into the fubftance of Animals, and to preferve their Lives? How comes it to pafs that thofe Animals are informed by Hunger and Thirft, when 'tis time to

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take fuch Food as is appointed for their Sufte, nance? And how is it on the contrary, that they are taught by the repugnance of their Appetites, and fullness of Stomach, when they have taken what is fufficient for the good of their Nature, and this by a Law which cannot be violated but by fuch Diseases as diforder the Natural Oeconomie of their Primitive Temper?

To what purpose were all the Fruits of the Earth, if there were not Animals to be nourish'd by them? And what would those Animals do, without the Fruits of the Earth? How fhould the different fpecies of Animals be preserved without that paffionate Inclination the Male has for the Female? And what would that Inclination figni fie, if it did not ferve for the propagation of Animals? Why does Nature in Places where no Corn grows, produce Cocoes to fupply the want thereof, thofe wonderful Trees whofe Pith is Bread, whofe Juice is Wine, and the Down where with their Leaves are covered, Cotton to cloath Men withal? Why in the Ifle of Fiero, where there is neither Spring nor River for the Inha bitants to drink of, is there a Tree perpetually covered with a Cloud, which makes Water diftil from its Branches? Nature forming a miracu lous Spring in the Air, to fupply the defects of the Earth; fo that all the Beafts and Inhabitants of that land, have abundantly enough from thence wherewith to quench their Thirft.

In fpight of all our Endeavours to the contrary, we cannot but freely acknowledge, that the parts of Nature are not thus link'd together without fome Defign. The Earth would not be fituated as it is, nor the Sun alternately enlighten the Two Hemifpheres with fo much regularity;

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