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we never knew done, and that we should think many things impoffible, of which we have the daily Experience, if we had never feen nor known them to be. For what we have the daily Experience of, we are apt. to think very easy, and fcarce fufpect that there can be any Difficulty in it, but frame to our felves fome kind of account of it, and please our felves perhaps with a Conceit that we perfectly understand it, and conclude, that fuch and fuch things must needs come to pass, from the Caufes which we affign. For when a thing is common and familiar to us, we either take no Pains at all to confider the Nature of it, or when we do observe and confider it, being afhamed to confefs our own Ignorance, we perfuade our felves, that there is no fuch great Difficulty in it, but fancy we understand the true Reason and Cause of it. And if it were not for the carelefnefs of fome in not minding the wonderful Effects of Nature, and the Pride of others in fancying that they are ignorant of nothing, which is the constant Object of their Senfes, I am perfuaded that there are feveral things in the World, which we daily fee and experience, that would feem as wonderful almost as the Refurrection it self, or any Mystery in Religion. The greatest Philofophers have been able to give but a very imperfect account of the most ordinary and obvious things in Nature, and if we had only a Relation of them without any Trial or Experience, we should be inclin'd to conclude them impoffible. The King of Siam, it is faid, would not believe the Dutch Ambaffador, but thought himself affronted, when he was told by him, that in Holland, Water would become so hard in cold Weather, that Men or Elephants might walk upon it, and the Relations of things in thofe Countries, would have feem'd

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Quis enim Æthiopas antequam cerneret, credidit? Aut quid non miraculo eft, cum primùm in notitiam venit? Quàm multa fieri non poffe, priufquam funt facta, judicantur? Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. vii. c. I.

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as ftrange to us, if the conftant Report of Men, who have been there, had not made them familiar to us. It was formerly disbeliev'd, nay abfolutely deny'd, as abfurd and impoffible, that there could be any fuch place, as that which is now known by the Name of America, or that the Torrid and Frigid Zones could be habitable: No Mystery in Religion can feem more incredible to any Man, than these things did appear even to Wife and Learned Men, and if they had not been found to be true by Navigation, they might have feem'd incredible ftill, for ought we can tell, though now we wonder at the Ignorance of former times, that they should make any doubt of them, and admire how they came to lie fo long unknown; for these things feem obvious, when they are once discover'd, and it would be a Difparagement to us, if we could not make as great Discoveries at home, as thofe do, who travel to the Indies. And if we will but confider a little with our felves, we fhall find that we may be at leaft as much mistaken in our Philofophy about the things of another World, as our Ancestors were, for fo many Ages, concerning fo much of this, and shall conceive it very poffible, that there may be a Heaven and a Hell, though we never fpoke with any body, that had been in either of thofe places; and that there may be a Trinity and a Refurrection, tho' we were able to give no account of them. For Nature it felf exceeds our Comprehension, and therefore the Divine Essence, and the Almighty Power of God must needs much more exceed it.

The Motion of the Heavens, and of the Winds and Seas, the Light of the Sun and Moon and Stars, the Conception and Birth of all Creatures, nay the Growth of Corn, and of the very Grafs of the Field, and all the most obvious and inconfiderable Productions of Nature, have fo many wonderful Difficulties in the Explication of them, that if we were not mightily inclin'd to flatter our felves, I am afraid we should

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fooner turn Scepticks, than be able to imagine, that we can give any tolerable account of them. For when all is done, we know juft enough of them to acknowledge and admire the infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God, and to be led to a stedfast Belief and Affurance of what he has reveal'd of himself, and of the World to come; that the invifible things of him from the creation of the world, may be clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, Rom. i. 25. How little is it, that we know of this Earth, where we live, and which we dote fo much upon? For by the leaft Calculation, it is above three thousand and five hundred Miles to the Center; but the Art and Curiosity of Man has never reach'd, according to Mr. Boyle's account, after all his Enquiries among Navigators and Miners, bove one mile or two at most downward (and that not in above three or four places) either into the Earth, or into the Sea: yet all Aftronomers agree, as he afterwards obferves, that the Earth is but a Phyfical Point, in comparifon of the Starry Heaven. Of how little Extent then fays he, muft our Knowledge be, which leaves us ignorant of fo many things touching the vaft Bodies, that are above us, and penetrates fo little a way even into the Earth, that is beneath us, that it seems confined to but a small share of the fuperficial part of a Phyfical Point. And to fhame the Pride and Vanity of Mankind, the chiefeft Difcoveries in Philofophy, as he likewise observes, have been the Productions of Time and Chance, not of any Wisdom or Sagacity. Which is a remarkable Acknowledgment in a Perfon, who has oblig'd the World with fo many wonderful Improvements in experimental Philofophy.

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The Circulation of the Blood has been but lately found out, and was look'd upon as abfurd at its first Discovery; though now, what Man can doubt of it?

d Excellency of Theology, S. 4.

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And fome of the most common effects of Nature might seem as strange as any, if the frequency of them did not prevent our wonder. If (as Maimonides puts a cafe) we fuppofe a Man of never fo good natural Parts, fo brought up as to be ignorant of the manner how the several Species of Animals are preferved and propagated in the World, how many Scruples might he raife to himself concerning their Conception and Formation? Might he not object, that it is impoffible, that the Infant should ever live, and be nourished, and grow in the Womb? And would he not offer abundance of Demonstrations to prove, that the Natural Birth of Mankind, and of all other Creatures, is utterly impoffible? Our Saviour in his difcourfe with Nicodemus, anfwers his Doubts concerning the New Birth, by putting him in mind, that he was as little able to give an account of the Wind, and that he could not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; implying, that there is much less reafon to doubt of things of a Spiritual Nature, because we are able to give no fufficient explication of them, when we are thus at a lofs about the most common and obvious things in the World, John iii. 8. And St. Paul confutes all Objections against the Refurrection by a like Argument alledging, that as it would be intolerably abfurd to deny or doubt of the growth of Corn, because it cannot perfectly be explained: fo it is much more abfurd, to deny or doubt of the Refurrection for no better reafon, fince fupernatural things must be more obfcure and harder to be understood by us than natural, Cor. XV. 36.

Indeed, Infidelity could never be more inexcufable than in the present Age, when fo many Discoveries have been made in Natural Philosophy, which would have been thought as incredible to former Ages, as any thing perhaps that can be imagined, which is not

• Maimon. More Nevoch. Part 2. c. 18.

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a downright Contradiction. That Gravitating or Attractive Force, by which all Bodies act one upon another, at never fo great a distance, even through a Vacuum of prodigious Extent, lately demonftrated by Mr. Newton; the Earth, together with the Planets, and the Sun and Stars being placed at fuch distances, and difpos'd of in fuch order, and in fuch a manner, as to maintain a perpetual balance and poife throughout the Universe, is fuch a Discovery, as nothing lefs than a Demonstration could have gained it any Belief. And this Syftem of Nature being fo lately discovered, and fo wonderful, that no account can be given of it by any Hypothefis in Philofophy, but it must be refolved into the fole Power and good Pleasure of Almighty God, may be a caution against all Attempts of estimating the Divine Works and Difpenfations by the Measures of Humane Reason. The vastness of the World's Extent is found to be fo prodigious, that it would exceed the Belief not only of the Vulgar, but of the greatest Philofophers, if undoubted Experiments did not affure us of the Truth of it. We are affured by Men of the best art and skill in those things, that every Fixt Star of the first magnitude, is above an hundred times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth, and yet they appear lefs thro' the Telescopes, than they do to the naked Eye, and look no bigger than meer Specks or Phyfical Points of Light; and the Sun, which is fome millions of Miles nearer to us than the Fixt Stars, is by Mathematicians generally believed to be above an hundred and threescore times bigger than the Earth; and by the exacteft Calculations, is estimated to be eight or ten thousand times as big as the whole Earth, and (as Mr. Boyle thinks) may perhaps be found to be yet much vafter by farther Obfervations. The Earth is computed

See Mr. Boyle, of the high Veneration Man's Intelle&t owes to God.
Huygen's Conjecture concerning the Planetary Worlds, lib. 2.

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