3. Who can reasonably doubt of the kind Providence of Heaven , that has in the least tasted that God is Good ? This is the first , the clearest Notion we have of him , the brightest and loveliest emanation of him , who is Loveliness it self . He is so good , that a Man may as soon number the Stars of Heaven , the drops of Rain , or the days of Eternity , as fathom the depth of this immense , this unbounded Ocean . The Philosophers think no words high enough to express it . Plato stiles him {αβγδ} , The Idea or very Essence of Goodness , and makes him under this Name the first Hypostasis in his celebrated Triad . Jamblichus to the same purpose calls him , {αβγδ} ; and Hierocles , {αβγδ} . Seneca assures us , that Goodness is not only the principal Attribute of the Deity , but also the very Foundation as I may so say , whereon all the others are built : Primus est Deorum cultus , says he , Deos credere ; deinde reddere illis Majestatem suam , reddere Bonitatem , sine quâ nulla Majestas . The Doctors in the Talmud speak much after the same rate ; and if they say true , St. Austin ( as the learned Chaplain observes ) Gregory's Posthuma . needed not to have answered him so roughly , who ask'd him what God employ'd himself about before the World was made ? He was not making Hell for such bold Inquisitors , but creating repentance , say they , or contriving all the ways how he might be merciful enough to the Man he is so mindful of , and to the Son of Man he so much regardeth . Nay , that this in very deed is his Favourite , his darling Excellence , in which his Soul takes most delight and complacency ; The Holy Scriptures too do abundantly testifie : God is , say they , what ? Wisdom ? or Justice ? or Power ? or Majesty ? No , God is love . He is indeed a great and terrible God ; infinite , as I have shewn , in Power , infinite in Wisdom , infinite in Justice : But they seem , as it were , to overlook all these Perfections , whilst they tell us in the abstract , that he is Love . This is his name , and this his memorial throughout all Generations ; His I say , truly , properly , incommunicably His , as appears from our Saviour's answer to the Man , who ( looking upon him only as a mere Man ) called him good Master ; Why callest thou me good ? says he , there is none good but one , that is God . Now then , if God be thus essentially good , who can imagine , but that he will take care of his Creatures ? Goodness , you know , is of its own nature communicative ; and like Fire , it naturally endeavours to dilate it self , by turning all it lays hold upon into its own nature . Does the Sun then rejoyce to run his course , and to communicate his Light to this lower World ? Doth the fond Mother take pleasure in cherishing her helpless Babe , and , though not without pains and trouble , preserve it continually in her arms from all such things as may hurt it ; and can we suppose , that God , who , ( as you have seen ) is the Fountain , Perfection , and very Essence of Goodness , should expose his helpless Creatures to stand upon their own legs , and to provide for themselves ? No , Thousand Thousands , says the Prophet Daniel , 7.10 . minister unto him , and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stand before him , all ready to receive his great commands , and with swiftest wing to execute his good pleasure among the Children of Men . 't is their highest repast indeed to lay themselves down at the Spring-head of Bliss , and incessantly to drink out of the pure River of Life , which proceedeth out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb ; yet in obedience to their great Lord they joyfully come down from their celestial Mansions , singing and praising that infinite Goodness , which so wonderfully provides for the preservation of all his Creatures ; so that , if the Lord would be pleas'd to open our eyes , as he did the young Man 's at the Prayer of Elisha , we should behold a bright and glittering Host of auxiliary Spirits , not only watching over whole Kingdoms and Communities of Men , but likewise continually incamping round about every single , individual godly Man , and with the greatest care and concern delivering him night and day from the mischievous attempts of the Powers of darkness .

Thus I have done with the first thing I proposed , having abundantly shewn , that all these Attributes , Omnipotence , Omniscience , Omnipresence , Infinite Wisdom , Justice , and Goodness , do inseparably belong to the Divine Nature , and consequently that God is both able , and also willing to preside over us . I now proceed to consirm and establish the same Truth by some few Arguments , which ( as I said before ) do not suppose , but necessarily and unavoidably conclude too for his Being .

1. Then , that there is some Great , Invisible Being , who by his infinite Wisdom and Almighty Power presides over , and governs all things both in Heaven and Earth , will abundantly appear to any Man , who shall stand still a while , and contemplate the wide Theatre of the World , and impartially survey the several parts of the Creation . The Greatness and Beauty of the Creatures will render the Creator proportionably visible , and the operations of subordinate Agents lead us to a clear acknowledgment of the first supreme Mover . Ask the Heavens , and they will witness ; the Celestial Bodies , and they will declare his Wisdom . How comes the Sun to move by an oblique Circle , when his Journey would be more easie and compendious through the Aequator , if an overruling Providence has not so wisely ordered his motion , that he may in their due seasons dispense his benign and comfortable influence to all parts of the World , and yet not inflame the Earth by his too near approaches ? Who commandeth the Morning , and causeth the Day-spring to know his place ? Who hath so regularly distinguish'd the Vicissitudes of Light and Darkness , and so orderly constituted the different seasons of the Year ? Who hath appointed the Moon for certain seasons , and brings her out with her glorious train to illuminate the Earth , least primitive Darkness entirely blot out the Light , and so regaining its lost Empire , sit brooding with all its attendant horrors upon the face of the whole Earth ? Who hath given the Pole-star for a Guide to the Mariner , and so excellently qualifi'd the different and unequal motions of the Stars and Planets , that though they never go together , yet they never interrupt or hinder one another in their courses , but constantly move each in its order and season ? Can any thing less , than an Almighty Arm , bind the sweet influences of Pleiades , or loose the bands of Orion ? Or any thing less , than infinite Wisdom , bring forth Mazaroth in his season , and guide Arcturus with his Sons ? Epicurus his God indeed , as Dissert . 29. Maximus Tyrius well observes , was rather like a Sardanapalus , than a Deity ; so delicate , tender , soft , and effeminate , that the least thought of business would disturb his brain , and marr all his Felicity ; {αβγδ} , says he , {αβγδ} . The Immortal Being neither hath any business himself , nor creates any to others . And thus having discarded his God both from creating and minding the World , from Leucippus and Democritus ( as they from the Phoenician Mochus ) he fondly conceited , that all this Beauty and Regularity in the motions of the Heavenly Bodies , and their immediate subserviency to the use of Mankind , could , without the contrivance of any Superiour , Immaterial Agent , be the natural result of homogeneous matter fortuitously jumbled together . But how unworthy these sentiments are of the refin'd Spirit of a Philosopher , is sufficiently evident from the common Principles of natural Reason it self . For every part of this beauteous frame , bears the fairest and largest characters of the greatest Wisdom and Goodness as can be imagin'd , so that the Atheist himself does not think much to grant , that he cannot see , how things could have been better ordered , though God himself should indeed have contriv'd them . But could chance be the cause of this fair , this excellent effect , wherein we can discover no blot nor mistake , but all the various parts are so excellently adapted to their particular uses , and yet with so much order and regularity rendered subservient to one another , that the whole is nothing else , but a perfect pattern of beauty and proportion ? Suppose the Brute matter being set in motion by the Eternal Mind , ( as our Neotericks would have it ) should at length , after infinite circumgyrations , applications , attritions , adhesions , and complications of it self in an immense space , amount to some more rude and imperfect delineations of nature ; yet is it possible we should imagine , that the particles of it could ever fall into that exact form , order , motion , and service-ableness to the World , which the Heavenly Bodies are in , unless manag'd and dispos'd by Divine Wisdom and Counsel ? As well may we conclude , that the Mausoleum , the Pyramids of Egypt , or any other stately structure we ever heard of in the World , were never contriv'd and erected by the mechanical wit of Man , but that the Iron , Stones , Timber , and all the other materials , playing and toying up and down without any care or thought , did upon a time very fortunately meet together , and after several trials and encounters on all sides , at last so happily hit upon one anothers humours and dispositions , that of their own accord , without the counsel or contrivance of any Intelligent Being , they ( combin'd together , and settled themselves in those Beautiful and Magnificent Structures so famous throughout the World . I am sure the greatest Speculatists of all Ages , whose enlarged Souls lov'd frequently to ascend into these outer Courts of Heaven , were always of this mind , amongst whom the judicious Roman Orator in particular was so deeply affected with the sense of these things , that he thought 't was impossible for a Man seriously to contemplate the elegance and accurate order of them , and not plainly discern in them the Providence of God . Quid potest esse tàm apertum , De Nat. Deor . Lib . 2. says he , támque perspicuum , cùm coelum suspeximus , caelestiaque contemplati sumus , quàm esse aliquod numen proestantissimoe mentis , quo hoec regantur ? And again as emphatically in the close of his second Book de Divinatione : Esse praestantem aliquam , Aeternámque Naturam , & eam suspiciendam admirandámque hominum generi , pulchritudo mundi , ordóque rerum Caelestium cogit confiteri : That there is some most Excellent and Eternal Nature , which ought to be honoured and admired by Mankind , the Beauty of the World , and the order of the Heavenly Lights compell us to confess : Nay that great stickler for Epicurus , Lib . 15. Lucretius himself , was so stagger'd at the contemplation of all this order and regularity in the motions of the Heavenly Bodies , that he was forc'd to lay aside the peremptory , dogmatical humour of his monopolizing sect , and to resolve all his search and enquiry into these matters into a puny , precarious may be , which too , and that very often scarce stands within the comprehensive bounds of possibility . And you know 't was the same consideration , that induc'd not only the ignorant and vulgar , who generally judge of things by their senses , but also the most learn'd , ingenious , and contemplative Philosophers , the Zabii amongst the Chaldaeans , the Hierogrammatists amongst the Egyptians , the Magi amongst the Persians , the Gymnosophists amongst the Indians , the Pythagoreans and Platonists amongst the Greeks , to worship them for Gods .

But let us descend a while from these bright Mansions of day , and we shall find , that even this lower World does not lie in so much darkness and obscurity , but that here also we see such palpable evidences of his Being and Providence , that though Abraham be ignorant of us , and Israel acknowledge us not ; yet surely He is , as Plato speaks , {αβγδ} , as well as {αβγδ} the Father and Governour of all things , as well as the Maker of them ; Our Deliverer , our Guardian , our Preserver , and that in Him we live , and move , and have our very Beings . Who can walk through the liquid and spacious Plains of the Air , seriously considering the admirable temperature of that Element , and not trace the Footsteps of Providence in each Particle of it ? What , but an All-wise Agent , who takes care for the welfare of his Creatures , could so admirably adapt and accommodate it to the great ends of the Creation , making it the treasury of vital breath , without which we should immediately relapse into our original dust ? Who bringeth the Winds out of his Treasures , to dissipate noisome and contagious Vapours , lest stagnating in the Air they should by their corrupt tabifick matter occasion many diseases in Animals , and also by their cool refreshing breezes , to temper and allay the scorching Beams of the Meridian Sun in such Regions , which otherwise through the extremity of heat would faint and languish near the Aequator ? Who by the same officious Ministers bringeth the Cloud over the Earth , to cause it to rain on the dry and parched ground ? Or who with moderate and gentle show'rs impregnates the Womb of the Earth , and causeth the bud of the tender Herb to spring forth ? Again , who hath laid up the Waters , as it were in a Treasure-house , not suffering their wet , liquid Particles to be mingled with the dry ones of the Earth , lest the whole should become one uninhabitable Quagmire ? What but an Universal Principle of Wisdom and Counsel , has rendred this vast and wide Ocean , contrary to the nature of many other Waters , of so thick a consistency , that 't is admirably fitted and dispos'd for the mutual commerce of one Nation with another ? Or what , but such a Being causeth it constantly to observe its ebbs and flows , its Spring and Nepe-tides , and yet still to retain its saltness so convenient for the maintenance of its Inhabitants ? What , but Omnipotence , could fetter and shackle this murmuring , restless , unruly Element ; shut its fury in with Bars and Doors , and curb the insolence of its proud swelling waves only with reins of sand ? Who , but He , silenceth the raging tempest , commands the fighting Winds to leave off their contentions , and snatcheth the Mariner , when at his wits end , from the devouring jaws of the Deep ; after all gently wafting him to the Haven , where he would be ? If those Men , who confin'd the Providence of God to the narrower limits of the Heavenly Spheres , had ever gone down to the Sea in Ships , and occupy'd their business in those great Waters , I doubt they would soon have been of another mind , and have confess'd , that his Wonders were to be seen too in the Deep .

But we need neither contemplate the simple and uniform lustre of the prime essential Glory , variously reflected in the dazling splendors and brightness of the Heavenly Bodies , nor yet search the bottom of the Deep , if happily we may find him there : For do not even the Wilderness and the solitary places rejoyce with joy and singing ; and the beauty and usefulness , the variety and convenience of the Hills and Dales , of the Mountains and Valleys , of the Groves and Forests declare the Glory of the Lord , and the Excellency of our God ? Who can silently consider , that the same cold insipid mass of Earth , which ( as Mr. Treat . Of the Wisdom of God in the Creation . Ray discourseth ) is grateful to no sense , and in all appearance destitute of any warmth or prolifick vertue , should produce Trees and Plants , Herbs and Flowers , so various in their shape and colour , so refreshing in their odours , so fragrant in their smell , so medicinal in their vertue , so beneficial in their uses , of so lovely and harmonious a beauty , and affecting all our senses with wonder and delight . That Springs and Fountains , Brooks and Rivers , Lakes and standing Pools of water should be scatter'd and dispers'd all the Earth over , which otherwise in some parts , as in Egypt and India , would be utterly destitute and void of Inhabitants . That springs should break forth on the sides of Mountains most remote from the Sea ; and hidden , undiscerned ways be made for Rivers , through Straits , and Rocks , and Subterraneous Vaults , as though nature had cut them on purpose to derive the Water , which else would overflow and drown whole Countries : That the Water thus passing through the veins of the Earth should be rendred fresh and potable , which yet we cannot effect by any percolations ; the saline particles passing even through a ten-fold filtre . That in some places there should spring forth metallick and mineral Waters , and hot Baths , and these so constant and permanent for many Ages , and so convenient for divers Medicinal intentions and uses ; the Causes of which things , or the means and methods , by which they are perform'd , have not been as yet certainly discover'd . Who , I say , can seriously consider all this , and not gratefully acknowledge , that they are the gracious and miraculous effects of infinite Counsel and Understanding ? Again , do not all the various kinds of Creatures , that move upon the face of the Earth , tell us that He is here , and direct us by their wonderful Operations to his Wisdom and Goodness ? How naturally doth every Animal seek the preservation of its Species , and choose as fit and proper means for the attainment of its end , as it could do , if it had a rational intelligent Soul ? How with no less various , than curious arts do the Birds interweave and plat their Nests to hatch their young ones in ? And the Ant , ( as all Naturalists agree ) and the Squirrel ( as is observ'd by the very Vulgar , who frequently pillage its hoards of nuts ) providently lay up their treasure against the time of extremity ? Nay , how do the first of these , though they bring but one morsel of meat at a time , and have not fewer perhaps than seven or eight young in the nest together , which at the return of their Dams do all at once with equal greediness hold up their heads , and gape for that morsel , as though they were really able judiciously to distinguish , and count their number , not omit or forget one of them , but feed them all ? With what resolution as well as tenderness do the Creatures cherish and foster their Young , the very weakest and most timorous of them , such as Hens and Geese , shewing in their defence so much bravery and courage , as even contrary to the motions of sense , and the instinct of self-preservation , to encounter all manner of dangers to preserve them from harm ? 't would be no less pleasant than profitable , to run through the several Classes of Animals , and observe what wonderful methods they all at other times use for their own preservation . The Cretian Goats , as De Nat. Deor . l. 2. Tully observes are no sooner wounded with poysoned darts , but , as though their own counsel and experience directed them , they incontinently fly to the Herb Dictamnus , whose wonderful vertue immediately works the arrows out of their Bodies , and heals up the wound ; and the Fish , call'd therefore Sepia , ( says the same Author ) assoon as pursu'd by the Fishermen , blackens the water with her Blood , and so makes her escape . The Lamb , as most Naturalists take it for granted , will immediately acknowledge the Wolf its Enemy , though it never saw one before ; and we daily see , that Poultrey , Partridges , and other Birds at the first sight know Birds of prey , and make sign of it by a peculiar note of their voice to their Young , who thereupon presently secure and hide themselves . Nay , natural Agents themselves act as constantly for wise and good ends , as these great Receptacles and Habitations of sense . They neglect their private Good and proper Ends , to maintain and promote the publick Good of the Universe . Thus the Waters ascend upwards , the Fire downward against Nature , to prevent any Chasm in the compages of the Universe ; and every natural Body will rend and burst in pieces , rather than the order of the World should be violated by a penetration of dimensions . But can all this be the production of blind chance or necessity , or rather the miraculous effects of infinite Goodness and Understanding ? Ob Finem agere , says the learned De veritat . Relig . Christ . l. 1. c . 7. Grotius , non est nisi intelligentis Naturae : To act for some end is the incommunicable property of an intelligent Being . Since then both natural and sensitive Agents act constantly for some end , and yet ( as appears from their always repeating the same things exactly in the same method , without ever trying any new experiments , and their ineptitude to other concerns of no greater moment ) cannot be directed in their operations by any counsel of their own ; ( This being a plain and evident token , that they cannot do otherwise , and consequently that they act , not from Reason , but purely from necessity ) since , I say , they act with greater Reason , than what they are capable of learning by imitation or instruction , we must of necessity conclude , that there is some invisible , high and over-ruling Wisdom , who by his impression directs them as naturally to their proper ends , as the impression of the Archers hand drives the arrow towards the mark ; so that , as the Cicero de Legib . lib . 2. Orator speaks , he can by no means deserve the name of a Man ( of a rational , thinking , intelligent Being ) who after a due consideration of all these things , can still profess his ignorance of that All-wise Being , who so excellently ordereth and disposeth them .