it.

An admirable Story out of Galen, about the taking a Kid out of the Womb of its Dam, and bringing it up by hand; and Remarks upon Page 349, 350. The natural Texture of Membranes fo made, as to be immenfely dilatable, of great Ufe and Neceffity in Geftation.

P. 353A notable Inftance of Providence in the Make of the Veins and Arteries near the Heart.

P. 354, 355

An Anfwer to an Objection against the Wisdom of God in making inferior Ranks of Creatures. P. 357The Atheists main Subterfuge and Pretence, to elude and evade all our Arguments and Inftances, to demonftrate the Neceffity of Providence, Defign and Wifdom, in the Formation of all the Parts of the World, viz. That Things made Ufes, and not Ufes Things, precluded and confuted.

P. 357, 358. Of the Ufe of thofe vaft Numbers of prodigiously Small Infects that are bred in the Waters. P. 363, 364. An Objection against the Wisdom of God in creating fuch a Multitude of ufelefs Infects, and fome alfo noxious and pernicious to Man, and other Animals, answer'd; and the various Uses of them declar'd. p. 368, 369, &c. Many practical Inferences and Obfervations, from 375 to the End of the Book.

THE

WISDOM of GOD

Manifested in the

WORKS

OF THE

CREATION.

PART. I.

PSAL. Civ. 24.

How manifold are thy Works, O Lord! In Wildom haft thou made them all.

I

N thefe Words are two Claufes; in the first whereof the Pfalmift admires the Multitude of God's Works, How manifold are thy Works, O Lord! In the fecond he celebrates his Wisdom in the Creation of them; In Wisdom haft thou made them all. C

Of

;

Of the firft of thefe I fhall fay little, only briefly run over the Works of this visible World, and give fome guefs at the Number of them whence it will appear, That upon this Account they will deferve Admiration, the Number of them being uninveftigable by us, and fo affording us a demonftrative Proof of the unlimited Extent of the Creator's Skill, and the Fœcundity of his Wisdom and Power. That the Number of corporeal Creatures is unmeasurably great, and known only to the Creator himfelf, may thus probably be collected: First of all, The Number of fixed Stars is on all Hands acknowledg'd to be next to infinite: Secondly, every fix'd Star, in the now-receiv'd Hypothefis, is a Sun, or Sun-like Body, and in like Manner incircled with a Chorus of Planets moving about it; for the Fix'd Stars are not all placed in one and the fame concave Spherical Superficies, and equidiftant from us, as they seem to be, but are variously and diforderly fituate, fome nearer, fome further off, just like Trees in a Wood or Foreft, as Gaffendus exemplifies them. And as in a Wood, tho' the Trees grow never fo irregularly, yet the Eye of the Spectator, wherever plac'd, or whitherfoever remov'd, defcribes ftill a Circle of Trees: So would it in like Manner whenever it were in the Foreft of Stars, defcribe a Spherical Superficies about it. Thirdly, Each of thefe Planets is in all likelihood furnished with as great Variety of corporeal Creatures, animate and inanimate, as the Earth is, and all as different

in Nature as they are in Place from the Terreftrial, and from each other. Whence it will follow, That these must be much more infinite than the Stars; I do not mean abfolutely according to Philofophick Exactnefs infinite, but only infinite or innumerable, as to us, or their Number prodigiously great.

That the fix'd Stars are innumerable, may thus be made out: Thofe vifible to the naked Eye are by the leaft Account acknowledg'd to be above a Thousand, excluding thofe towards the South Pole, which are not visible in our Horizon: Befides thefe, there have been incomparably, more, detected and brought to Light by the Telescopes; the Milky-way being found to be (as was formerly conjectur'd) nothing but great Companies or Swarms of Minute Stars fingly invifible, but by reafon of their Proximity mingling and confounding their Lights, and appearing like lucid Clouds. And it is likely that, had we more perfect Telescopes, many Thousands more might be difcovered; and yet, after all, an incredible Multitude remaim, by reafon of their immenfe Distance beyond all Ken, by the beft Telescopes that could poffibly be invented or polish'd by the Wit and Hand of an Angel: For if the World be (as Des Cartes would have it) indefinitely extended, that is, fo far as no human Intellect can fancy any Bound of it; then what we fee, or can come to fee, must be the leaft Part of what is undifcoverable by us, the whole Universe extending a thoufand times farther beyond the utmoft

C 2

utmost Stars we can poffibly defcry, than those be diftant from the Earth we live upon. This Hypothefis of the Fix'd Stars being fo many Suns, &c. feems more agreeable to the Divine Greatnefs and Magnificence. But that which induces me much to doubt of the Magnitude of the Universe, and immense Distance of the Fix'd Stars, is the ftupendous Phænomena of Comets, their fudden Acceffion, or Appearance in full Magnitude, the Length of their Tails, and Swiftnefs of their Motion, and gradual Diminution of Bulk and Motion, 'till at laft they disappear. That the Univerfe is indefinitely extended, des Cartes, upon a falfe Ground, (that the formal Ratio of a Body was nothing but Extenfion into Length, Breadth, and Profundity, or having partes extra partes, and that Body and Space were fynonymous Terms) afferted; it may as well be limited this Way, as in the old Hypothefis, which places the Fix'd Stars in the fame Spherical Superficies; according to which (old Hypothefis) they may also be demonftrated by the fame Mediums to be innumerable, only instead of their Distance fubftituting their Smalnefs for the Reafon of their Invifibility.

But leaving the Cæleftial Bodies, I come now to the Terrestrial; which are either inanimate, or animate. The inanimate are the Elements, Meteors, and Fofils of all Sorts, at the Number of which laft I cannot give any probable Guefs: But if the Rule, which fome confiderate Philofophers deliver, holds good, viz.