SECT. XXVI. Convictions from Several Texts of Scripture.

Now he that can ftill deny a God, let him fit down, and seriously reflect on this great Truth, and then let him judge how vaft that Power must be, who, to demonftrate beyond denial his infinite Existence to the confufion of those that blafpheme his Holy Name, brings about fuch great Events, by fuch fmall Atoms: and who has not only created fuch an extended quantity of Water as that is, which can contain all the Water of this Globe, but who has likewife feparated and divided it into fuch fmall Particles; and how far that Wisdom and Direction can go, which extends itfelf to every one of thefe numberlefs little Parts, and makes them all continually fubfervient to fuch important uses as these are. And if he says he can't difcover a God in all this, let him fhow us the Creatures, or, to fpeak in his own Language, the Natural Caufes, to which fo much Power and Direction over thefe and thousand other fmall Particles befides, may juftly be afcribed. If he deduces all this from meer Chance, how then can he derive fo fteady an Order and Regularity, which has prevailed fo many Ages among fuch numberlefs Millions, from Chance, whofe very Effence confifts in operating without Order? If he fays, it is owing to unalterable and neceffary Laws of Nature; who has then given Forms and Bodies to all thefe different beings that know nothing of their own Exiftence? And who has bound them to obey certain Laws? If therefore a Wisdom is to be seen in all this, yet is it not to be found in a Matter that is ignorant of every thing: And where must a reasonable Man look for a Caufe of all, and fuch a Caufe as can

quiet his own Mind, if he does not acknowledge a God therein ?

Are

In cafe now this Proof, which is only deduced from the Particles of Water, feems to be of any Weight to an Unbeliever, (who nevertheless acknowledges a God,) the Wisdom of the Divine Word, and the Truth which fhines out of it, will not seem obfcure to him, forafmuch as they demonftrate a God from the Rains and Floods of Waters, and that the true God is thereby diftinguifh'd from the Idols. See Jer. xiv. 22. there any among the Vanities of the Gentiles that can caufe Rain? Or can the Heavens give Showers? Art not thou he, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee, for thou haft made all these things. We likewife fee that his Saints deduce a particular Argument from thence to praise God. Pf. clxvij. v. 7, 8, 9. Sing unto the Lord a thanksgiving ; fing praife upon the Harp unto our God: Who covereth the Heaven with Clouds, who prepareth Rain for the Earth, who maketh Grafs to grow upon the Mountains. He giveth to the Beafts his Food, and to the young Ravens, which cry. We likewife find the Almighty himfelf enumerating this among his Glorious Wonders, Job. xxxviij. 25, 26, &c. Who hath divided a Water-courfe for the over-flowing of Waters? Or a way for the Lightning of Thunder, to cause it to rain on the Earth, where no Man is; on the Wilderness wherein there is no Man? To fatisfy the defolate and waft Ground, and to caufe the bud of the tender Herb to Spring forth? And he asks further in the 28th verfe, hath the Rain a Father? Or who hath begotten the drops of the Dew? By which he fhows that the Rain has no Father or Mother, that is to say, no other Origin but from him.

'Tis true, that the Greatnefs of God is mostly proved here by the benefit which the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof do reap from Water itself; VOL. III. Hhh 2

but

but that the fame Spirit which dictated thofe Expreffions, proves the fame from the Smallness, and confequently the Number of the Watry Particles, may be inferr'd from the before-quoted Texts of Fob xxxvj. v. 26, 27 and 28, in the XIXth Contempl. where after having faid, Behold God is great, and we know him not, neither can the Number of his Years be fearched out. He presently after fubjoins the Reason, in v. 27. For he maketh Small the Drops of Water; they pour down Rain according to the Vapour thereof, And preffing further to fhow that Rain confifts of the great Number of these Watry Atoms, he fays in the 28th verfe: Which the Clouds do drop, and diftil upon Man abundantly. From which Text it therefore plainly appears, that not only the Smallness, but the Numbers of Watry Particles are meant.

As likewife in the Prophecy of Nahum i. 3. The Lord hath his Way in the Whirlwind, and in the Storm, and the Clouds are the Duft of his Feet. By which laft Words is plainly shown, that the Clouds are compos'd of exceeding small and numerous Particles, compared therefore to Duft, and that the Holy Ghoft does justly fetch a Proof of the Greatness of God from thence.

SECT. XXVII Convictions from the Smallness of the Particles of Air.

Now tho' the innumerable Multitude of the Particles of Water only might feem fufficient to convince the most harden'd Atheist of the Dire&tion of God in thofe great Events, which tend as well to the Advantage as Punishment of Mankind; yet if that can't fatisfie him, let him confider the Air in the true State thereof: And if he has any Knowledge of Nature, he will admit it as an indifputable Truth, that the Substance of

the

the Air is a Collection of innumerable Diversities of small Parts, which acting upon each other, do oftentimes exert fuch a Power as furpaffes even all Belief. Let him only read concerning this Matter, the Hiftories that give us an account of the dreadful Force of Storms and Tempefts, of Thunder and Lightning: Now 'tis plain, that all these terrible Effects are brought to pafs by Particles, which are fo fmall, and fo light, as to be able to float in the Air; and that Lightning particularly finds no Pores of the very hardest Bodies fo close and narrow, but what it can penetrate.

We have mention'd fomething of the Air above in Sect. XIII. but which falls far fhort of expreffing upon those Principles the Smallness and Number of its Parts; and if in one Pulfe or Second of a Minute there do proceed fo many thousand Millions of Particles of Fire and Light from the fmall Flame of a Candle, how vaft muft the Number be of those that proceed from greater Lightnings, and how small each fingle Particle thereof?

Let then this unhappy Reafoner represent to himself the Air compofed of fuch numberless Millions of Particles, and reflect upon the Force which they produce, when they operate in Storms and Tempefts, fo as to threaten the World with a univerfal Desolation; and then let him tell us whether he thinks it poffible, that all these Aerial Armies are moved by Chance, and that they have not yet destroy'd all that is upon Earth; and confequently whether he does not think it abfolutely neceffary to own a Divine Direction and Government over all these things, and by which he and all that belongs to him, have been hitherto preferved, and the whole Earth render'd habitable: It is impoffible but any Man who has long and feriously meditated upon thefe Things, and the Hhh 3 Number

Number and Strength of the Particles of Air, and of the Power that is requifite to keep them all in order, and to do good to the World after fo many ways, by the things which might otherwife be very deftructive Inftruments, it is impoffible, I fay, but he must consent to the truth of what we have here advanced.

SECT. XXVIII. Convictions from the Smallness of the Particles of Fire.

AND for greater Conviction, let him farther add Fire or Light to Water and Air, and he will find not only that the Parts thereof are unconceivably Small and Numerous, but also that the Powers of it are moft Terrible. Not to fpeak again of Lightning, which is an amazing Instance thereof, he who has ever read in History, how by the Violence and Number of these small FireParticles, Subterraneous Caverns have burst open, and caus'd Earthquakes; whole Rivers have flowed with burning Matters; Cities and every thing in them, have been deftroyed; Rocks and Mountains split afunder, and fometimes vaft Pieces of them, which did not feem capable of being moved by any human Strength, toffed up into the Air to an incredible heighth; muft he not acknowledge that all these ftupendous Effects have been brought to pass by the most minute Particles of Fire, and fuch as could hardly be conceived for their Smallnefs? That he may fatisfie himself thereof without much trouble, let him only look back to Sect. XVI. and confider what has been there faid about it, namely, that from fo fmall a Flame as that of a Candle, there proceeds in the Second of a Minute, a Number of 41,866 with 39 Cyphers following, of Particles of Fire and Light.

Let