Senfe and Feeling of Pain and Misery as themfelves have; whereas no Man is troubled to fee a Plant torn, or cut, or ftampt, or mangled how you please ; you please; and at laft feemingly contrary to the Scripture too; for it is faid, Prov. xii. 10. A righteous Man regardeth the Life of his Beast, but the tender Mercies of the Wicked are cruel. The former Claufe is usually English'd, A good Man is merciful to his Beaft; which is the true Expofition of it; as appears by the oppofite Claufe, that the Wicked are cruel. What lefs then can be inferr'd from this Place, than that Cruelty may be exercis'd towards Beafts, which, were they mere Machines, it could not be? To which I do not fee what can be anfwer'd, but that the Scripture accommodates it felf to the common, tho' falfe, Opinion of Mankind, who take thefe Animals to be endued with Sense of Pain, and think that Cruelty may be exercis'd towards them; tho', in reality, there is no fuch thing: Befides, having the fame Members and Organs of Senfe as we have, it is very probable they have the fame Senfations and Perceptions with us. To this Des Cartes anfwers, or indeed faith, he hath nothing to anfwer; but that if they think as well as we, they have an immortal Soul as well as we: Which is not at all likely, because there is no Reason to believe it of fome Animals without believing it' of all; whereas there are many too imperfect to believe it of them, fuch as are Oysters, and Sponges, and the like. To which I anfwer, That there is no Neceffity they fhould be immortal,

be

because it is poffible they may be destroy'd, or annihilated. But I fhall not wade further into this Controverfy, because it is befide my Scopé, and there hath been as much written of it already, as I have to fay, by Dr. Moore, Dr. Cudworth, Des Cartes, Dr. Willis, and others, Pro and Con.

Of the vifible Works of God, and their Divifion.

I come now to take a View of the Works of the Creation, and to obferve fomething of the Wisdom of God difcernable in the Formation of them, in their Order and Harmony, and in their Ends and Ufes: And firft, I fhall run them over flightly, remarking chiefly what is obvious and expos'd to the Eyes and Notice of the more careless and incurious Obferver. Secondly, I fhall felect one or two particular Pieces, and take a more exact Survey of them; tho' even in these, more will efcape our Notice than can be discover'd by the moft diligent Scrutiny; for our Eyes and Senfes, however arm'd or affifted, are too grofs to difcern the Curiofity of the Workmanship of Nature, or those minute Parts by which it acts, and of which Bodies are compos'd; and our Understanding too dark and infirm to discover and comprehend all the Ends and Ufes to which the infinitely wife Creator did defign them.

But before I proceed, being put in Mind thereof by the mention of the Affiftance of our Eyes, I cannot omit one general Observation concerning the Curiofity of the Works of Na

ture

ture in Comparison of the Works of Art, which I fhall propofe in the late Bishop of Chester's Words, (Treatife of Natural Religion, Lib. 1. c. 6.) "The Obfervations which have been made in "these latter Times by the Help of the Micro

Scope, fince we had the Ufe and Improvement "of it, difcover a vaft Difference between Na"tural and Artificial Things. Whatever is Na"tural, beheld thro' that, appears exquifitely "form'd, and adorn'd with all imaginable Ele

gancy and Beauty. There are fuch inimita"ble Glidings in the smallest Seeds of Plants, "but especially in the Parts of Animals, in the "Head, or Eye, of a small Fly; fuch Accuracy, Order, and Symmetry in the Frame of "the utmost minute Creatures, a Louse, for Ex

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ample, or a Mite, as no Man were able to con"ceive without feeing of them. Whereas the "most curious Works of Art, the sharpeft and "fineft Needle, doth appear as a blunt rough "Bar of Iron, coming from the Furnace, or the "Forge: The most accurate Engravings, or Em"bofments, seem fuch rude, bungling, and de" form'd Work, as if they had been done with a "Mattock, or Trowel; fo vaft a Difference is "there betwixt the Skill of Nature, and the "Rudeness and Imperfection of Art. I might add, that the Works of Nature, the better Lights and Glaffes you ufe, the more clear "and exactly form'd they appear; whereas the "Effects of human Art, the more curiously they "are view'd and examin'd, the more of Defor"mity they discover.

This being premised, for our more clear and diftinct Proceeding in our curfory View of the Creation, I fhall rank the Parts of this material and visible World under feveral Heads. Bodies are either inanimate or animate. Inanimate Bodies are either cæleftial or terreftrial. Cæleftial, as the Sun, Moon, and Stars; Terreftrial, are either fimple, as the four Elements, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; or mixt, either imperfectly, as the Meteors, or more perfectly, as Stones, Metals, Minerals, and the like. Animate Bodies are either fuch as are endued with a Vegetative Soul, as Plants; or a Senfitive Soul, as the Bodies of Animals, Birds, Beafts, Fishes, and Infects; or a Rational Soul, as the Body of Man, and the Vehicles of Angels, if any fuch there be.

I make use of this Divifion to comply with the common and receiv'd Opinion, and for eafier Comprehenfion and Memory; tho' I do not think it agreeable to Philofophick Verity and Accuracy, but do rather incline to the Atomick Hypothefis: For thefe Bodies, we call Elements, ate only the Ingredients of mix'd Bodies; neither are they abfolutely fimple themselves, as they do exift in the World, the Sea Water containing a copious Salt manifeft to Sense; and both Sea and Fresh-water fufficing to nourish many Species of Fish, and confequently containing the various Parts of which their Bodies are compounded. And I believe there are many Species of Bodies which the Peripateticks call mix'd, which are as fimple as the Elements themfelves, as Metals, Salts, and fome Sorts of

Stones.

Stones. Ifhould therefore, with Dr. Grew, and others, rather attribute the various Species of inanimate Bodies to the divers Figures of the minute Particles of which they are made up: And the Reafon why there is a Set, and conftant Number, of them in the World, none destroy'd, nor any new ones produc'd, I take to be, because the Sum of the Figures of those minute Bodies into which Matter was at first divided, is determinate and fix'd. 2. Because those mimute Parts are indivifible, not abfolutely, but by any natural Force; fo that there neither is, nor can be, more or fewer of them: For were they divifible into fmall and diverfly-figur'd Parts by Fife, or any other natural Agent, the Species of Nature must be confounded, fome might be loft and destroy'd, but new ones would certainly be produc'd; "unlefs we could fuppofe these new diminutive Particles fhould again affemble and marshal themselves into Corpufcles of fuch Figures as they compounded before; which I fee no Poffibility for them to do, without fome Θεὸς ἀπὸ μηχνῆς το diret them: Not that I think thefe inanimate Bodies to confift wholly of one Sort of Atoms, but that their Bulk confifts mainly or chiefly of one Sort. But whereas it may be objected that Metals (which of all others feem to be moft fimple) may be tranfmuted one into another, and fo the Species doth not depend upon the being compounded of Atoms of one Figure; I anfwer, I am not fully fatisfied of the Matter of Fact: But if any fuch Tranfmutation be, poffibly all Metals may be of one Species,