Sam. L.kXXIII. in the Creatiori of the World. 627 had without Commerce ; befides that the great encouragement of Entercourfe among Nations, which is fo agreeable to Humane Nature, would have been ta- heti away : If every Country had been, as now it is detitute of many things other Countries have, and there had been no Sea to give an opportunity of Traffick ; the World had been very defehive as to the Ufe of Man. Now here appears the Wifdom of God, that the World, and all things in it, are contriv'd for the heft. Thus I have endeavour'd to do fomething toward the difplaying of God's Wif- dom in the workmanship of the World ; altho' I am very fenfible how much I have been mafter'd and'oppreffed by the greatnefs andweight of fo noble an Ar- gument. For who can declare the works of God I and who can thew forth all his praife TheUfe I fhall make of what has been Paid, (hall be in three Particulars. I. This confutes the Epicureans, who impute the World, and this orderly and beautiful Frame of Things to Chance. Thofe things which are the proper Ef- fe&s of Counfel, and bear the plain Impreffions of Wifdom upon them, ought not to be attributed to Chance. What almadnefs is it to grant all things to be as well made, as if the wifeftAgentuponCounfel andDefign had contriv'd them; and yet to afcribe them to Chance ! Now he that denies things to be fo wifely framed, mutt pick holes in the Creation, and thew fome fault and irregularity in the Frame of Things , which no Man ever yet pretended to do. Did ever any Anatomifi pretend to thew how the Body of Man might have been better con- triv'd, and fitter for the Ufes of a Reafonable Creature than it is ; or any Afire- Homer to reâifie the Courfe ofthe Sun. As for the Extravagant and Blafphemous Speech of Alphonfus, That if he hadflood at Gods Elbow when he made the World, be couldhave told him how to have made it better ; befides his Pride, it fhews no- thing but his Ignorance ; that he built his Agronomy upon a falle Hypothefis, as is generally believed now by the Learned in that Science ;'and no wonder he found fault with the World; when he miftook the Frame of it : But thefe who have been molt vers'd in Nature, and have moft pried into the fecrets of it, have molt admired the workmanfhip both of the great World, and the lefs. But if we muff fuppofe the World to be as well made as Wifdom could con- trive it, which is generally granted ; it is a monftrous folly to impute it toChánce. A Man might better fay, Archimedes did not make any of his Engines by Skill, but by Chance ; and might more eafily maintain, that Cardinal Richlieu did 'not manage Affairs by anyArts or Policies, but they fell out bymeer Chance. What, pitiful fhifts is Epicurusput to, when the beft Account he can give of the World, is this ; That Matter always was, and theparts of it in motion, andafter agreat ma- 717), Tryals, the parts of Matter at length hamper'd themfelves in this fortunate order wherein they now are ; that Men, at firfi, grew out of the Earth, were nourifh'dby the Navelfiring, and when they werefirong enough, broke loofeandweaned themfelves; that the No/lrils were made by the Waters making themfelves a pafJ'age out of the Bo- dy ; and the Stomach andBowels by theWaters forcing a paf/'age downward ; that the Members of the Body were not made for thofe Ufes for which theyferve, dot chanced to be fo, and the ufes afterwards found out. Is it worth the while to advance fuch fenfelefs Opinions as thefe, to deny the Wifdom of God ? Is it not much eafier, and more reafonable to fay, that the Wifdom of God made all thefe things, than, to trouble our felves to imagine how all things fhould happen thus conveniently by Chance ? Did you ever know any great work, in which there was variety of parts, and an orderly difpofition of them required, done by Chance, and with- out the direétion of Wifdom and Counfel ? How long time might aMan take to jumble a fet of Four and Twenty Letters together, before they would fall out to be an exaQ Poem ; yea, or make a Book of tolerable Senfe, tho' but in Profe ? How long might a Man fprinkle Oil and Colours upon Canvas, with a carelefs Hand, before this would produce the exaQ PiCure of a Man ? And is a Man eafier made by Chance, than his PiCure ? He that tells me that this great and curious frame of the World was made by Chance, I could much more believe him, if he fhould tell me that Henry the VII's Chapel in Weftminfter was not. Linz built
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