those that never saw him in the one, have discover'd
Him in the other. This was the Scripture and
Theology of the Heathens: the natural motion of the
Sun made them more admire Him than its supernatural
station did the Children of Israel; the ordinary effects
of Nature wrought more admiration in them than in
the other all His Miracles. Surely the Heathens
knew better how to joyn and read these mystical
Letters than we Christians, who cast a more careless
Eye on these common Hieroglyphicks, and disdain to
suck Divinity from the flowers of Nature. Nor do I

so forget GOD as to adore the name of Nature; which
I define not, with the Schools, to be the principle of
motion and rest, but that streight and regular line,
that settled and constant course the Wisdom of GOD
hath ordained the actions of His creatures, according
to their several kinds. To make a revolution every
day is the Nature of the Sun, because of that
necessary course which God hath ordained it, from
which it cannot swerve but by a faculty from that
voice which first did give it motion.
Now this course
of Nature GOD seldome alters or perverts, but, like an
excellent Artist, hath so contrived His work, that with
the self same instrument, without a new creation, He
may effect His obscurest designs. Thus He sweetneth
the Water with a Wood, preserveth the Creatures in
the Ark, which the blast of His mouth might have as
easily created; for GOD is like a skilful Geometrician,
who, when more easily and with one stroak of his
Compass he might describe or divide a right line, had
yet rather do this in a circle or longer way, according
to the constituted and fore-laid principles of his Art.
Yet this rule of His He doth sometimes pervert, to
acquaint the World with His Prerogative, lest the
arrogancy of our reason should question His power,
and conclude He could not. And thus I call the
effects of Nature the works of GOD, Whose hand and
instrument she only is; and therefore to ascribe His
actions unto her, is to devolve the honour of the
principal agent upon the instrument; which if with

reason we may do, then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writings. I hold there is a general beauty in the works of GOD, and therefore no deformity in any kind or species of creature whatsoever. I' cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad, a Bear, or an Elephant ugly; they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express the actions of their inward forms, and having past that general Visitation of GOD, Who saw that all that He had made was good, that is, conformable to His Will, which abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and beauty. There is no deformity but in Monstrosity; wherein, notwithstanding, there is a kind of Beauty; Nature so ingeniously contriving the irregular parts, as they become sometimes more remarkable than the principal Fabrick. To speak yet more narrowly, there was never any thing ugly or mis-shapen, but the Chaos; wherein, notwithstanding, (to speak strictly,) there was no deformity, because no form; nor was it yet impregnant by the voice of GOD. Now Nature is not at variance with Art, nor Art with Nature, they being both servants of His Providence. Art is the

તુ અને તેમને માન

perfection of Nature. Were the World now as it was the sixth day, there were yet a Chaos. Nature hath made one World, and Art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for Nature is the Art of GOD.

This is the ordinary and open way of His Providence, which Art and Industry have in a good part discovered; whose effects we may foretel without an Oracle to foreshew these, is not Prophesie, but Prognostication. There is another way, full of Meanders and Labyrinths, whereof the Devil and Spirits have no exact Ephemerides; and that is a more particular and obscure method of His Providence, directing the operations of individuals and single Essences: this we call Fortune, that serpentine and crooked line, whereby He draws those actions His Wisdom intends, in a more unknown and secret way. This cryptick and involved method of His Providence have I ever

prede

admired; nor can I relate the History of my life, the
occurrences of my days, the escapes of dangers, and
hits of chance, with a Bezo las Manos to Fortune, or a
bare Gramercy to my good Stars. Abraham might have
thought the Ram in the thicket came thither by acci-
dent; humane reason would have said that meer chance
conveyed Moses in the Ark to the sight of Pharaoh's
Daughter: what a Labyrinth is there in the story of
Joseph, able to convert a Stoick! Surely there are in
every man's Life certain rubs, doublings, and wrenches,
which pass a while under the effects of chance, but at
the last, well examined, prove the meer hand of God.
'Twas not dumb chance, that, to discover the Fougade
or Powder-plot, contrived a miscarriage in the Letter.
I like the Victory of '88 the better for that one occur-
rence, which our enemies imputed to our dishonour
and the partiality of Fortune, to wit, the tempests and
contrariety of Winds. King Philip did not detract
from the Nation, when he said, he sent his Armado to
fight with men, and not to combate with the Winds. Where
there is a manifest disproportion between the powers
and forces of two several agents, upon a Maxime of
reason we may promise the victory to the Superiour;
but when unexpected accidents slip in, and unthought
of occurrences intervene, these must proceed from a
power that owes no obedience to those Axioms; where,
as in the writing upon the wall, we may behold the
hand, but see not the spring that moves it.
The suc-
cess of that petty Province of Holland (of which the
Grand Seignour proudly said, if they should trouble him
as they did the Spaniard, he would send his men with shovels
and pick-axes, and throw it into the Sea,) I cannot alto-
gether ascribe to the ingenuity and industry of the
people, but the mercy of GoD, that hath disposed them
to such a thriving Genius; and to the will of His
Providence, that disposeth her favour to each Country
in their pre-ordinate season. All cannot be happy at
once; for, because the glory of one State depends upon
the ruine of another, there is a revolution and vicissitude
of their greatness, and must obey the swing of that

wheel, not moved by Intelligences, but by the hand of GOD, whereby all Estates arise to their Zenith and Vertical points according to their predestinated periods. For the lives, not only of men, but of Commonwealths, and the whole World, run not upon an Helix that still enlargeth, but on a Circle, where, arriving to their Meridian, they decline in obscurity, and fall under the Horizon again.

These must not therefore be named the effects of Fortune, but in a relative way, and as we term the works of Nature. It was the ignorance of man's reason that begat this very name, and by a careless term miscalled the Providence of GOD; for there is no liberty for causes to operate in a loose and stragling way; nor any effect whatsoever, but hath its warrant from some universal or superiour Cause. 'Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at Tables; for even in sortilegies and matters of greatest uncertainty, there is a setled and pre-ordered course of effects. It is we that are blind, not Fortune: because our Eye is too dim to discover the mystery of her effects, we foolishly paint her blind, and hoodwink the Providence of the Almighty. I cannot justifie that contemptible Proverb, That fools only are Fortunate, or that insolent Paradox, That a wise man is out of the reach of Fortune; much less those opprobrious epithets of Poets, Whore, Bawd, and Strumpet. 'Tis, I confess, the common fate of men of singular gifts of mind to be destitute of those of Fortune, which doth not any way deject the Spirit of wiser judgements, who thoroughly understand the justice of this proceeding; and being inriched with higher donatives, cast a more careless eye on these vulgar parts of felicity. It is a most unjust ambition to desire to engross the mercies of the Almighty, not to be content with the goods of mind, without a possession of those of body or Fortune; and it is an error worse than heresie, to adore these complemental and circumstantial pieces of felicity, and undervalue those perfections and essential points of happiness wherein we resemble our Maker. To wiser desires it is satisfaction

enough to deserve, though not to enjoy, the favours of Fortune: let Providence provide for Fools. 'Tis not partiality, but equity in GOD, Who deals with us but. as our natural Parents: those that are able of Body and Mind He leaves to their deserts; to those of weaker merits He imparts a larger portion, and pieces out the defect of one by the excess of the other. Thus have we no just quarrel with Nature for leaving us naked; or to envy the Horns, Hoofs, Skins, and Furs of other Creatures, being provided with Reason, that can supply them all. We need not labour with so many Arguments to confute Judicial Astrology; for, if there be a truth therein, it doth not injure Divinity. If to be born under Mercury disposeth us to be witty, under Jupiter to be wealthy; I do not owe a Knee unto these, but unto that merciful Hand that hath ordered my indifferent and uncertain nativity unto such benevolous Aspects. Those that hold that all things are governed by Fortune, had not erred, had they not persisted there. The Romans, that erected a Temple to Fortune, acknowledged therein, though in a blinder way, somewhat of Divinity; for, in a wise supputation, all things begin and end in the Almighty. There is a nearer way to Heaven than Homer's Chain; an easie Logic may conjoyn Heaven and Earth in one Argument, and with less than a Sorites resolve all things into GOD. For though we christen effects by their most sensible and nearest Causes, yet is GOD the true and infallible Cause of all; whose concourse, though it be general, yet doth it subdivide itself into the particular Actions of every thing, and is that Spirit, by which each singular Essence not only subsists, but performs its operation.

The bad construction and perverse comment on these pair of second Causes, or visible hands of GOD, have perverted the Devotion of many unto Atheism; who, forgetting the honest Advisoes of Faith, have listened unto the conspiracy of Passion and Reason. I have therefore always endeavoured to compose those Feuds and angry Dissentions between Affection, Faith,