Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_000.lzh/D_005.TXT

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CHAP. I.                                              OF THE BEING- OF GOD.

causes m subordination to one another, cannot be traced
up ad infinitum {28}; but must be reduced to some first
cause, where the inquiry must rest; and that first cause
is God. Now here is an ample field to survey; which
furnishes out a variety of objects, and all proofs of Deity.
There is nothing in the whole creation the mind can
contemplate, the eye look upon, or the hand lay hold on,
but what proclaims the Being of God. When we look
up to the heavens {29} above us; the surrounding atmos-
phere; the air in which we breathe, which compresses
our earth, and keeps it together; the fluid ether, and
spreading sky, bespangled with stars of light, and adorned
with the two great luminaries, the sun and moon, espe-
cially the former, that inexhaustible fountain of light and
heat; and under whose benign influences, so many things
are brought forth on earth; whose circuit is from one
end of the heaven to the Other; and there is nothing hid
from the heat thereof: when we consider its form, mag-
nitude, and virtue; its proper distance from us, being not
so near us as to scorch us; nor so remote as to be of no
use to us; the motion given it at first, in which it has
proceeded without stopping, but once as is supposed,
in the days of Joshua; a motion it has had now almost
six thousand years; the course it has steered, and steers,
so that all parts of the earth, at one season or another,
receive benefit by it; and the way it has been guided in,
without varying or erring from it all tl,is while. Who-
ever reflects on these things, must acknowledge it to be
the work of an all-wise and almighty agent, we call God;
and that it must be upheld, guided, and directed by his
hand alone. When we take a view of the earth, of the
whole terraqtteous globe, hanging on nothing, like a ball
in the air, poized with its own weight; the different parts
of it, and all disposed for the use of man; stored with
immense riches in the bowels of it, and stocked with
inhabitants upon it; the various sorts of animals, of
different forms and shapes, made, some for strength,
some for swiftness, some for bearing burdens, and others
for drawing carriages, some for food and others for
clothing: the vast variety of the feathered tribes that cut
the air; and the innumerable kinds of fishes that swim
the ocean. The consideration of all this will oblige us
to say, Lord, thou nrt God, which hast made the heaven,
earth, and sea; and all that in them is, Acts iv. 25. In
short, there is not a shell in the ocean, nor a sand on the
shore, .nor a spire of grass in the field, nor any flower of
different hue and smell in the garden, but what declare
the Being of God: but especial1y our own composition
is deserving of our notice; the fabric of the body, and
the faculties of our souls. The body, its form and
shape; whilst other animals look downwards to the
earth, os homini sublime dedit Dens, as the poet says {30},
man has a lofty countenance given him, to behold the
heavens, to lift up his face to the stars; and for what. is
this erect posture given him, but to adore his Creator ?
And it is remarkable that there is a natural instinct in
men to lift up their hands and eyes to heaven, when

28 \~amfoterwv de adunaton eiv apeiron ienai\~, Aristot. Metaphysic. L 2.

29 Quis est tam vetors, qui ant cure suspexerit in coelum,. deos. esse
non sentiat, Cicero. Orat. 30. De Harusp. resp. So Plato de Legibus,
I, 12. p. 999. Zaleucus apud Diodor. Sicul. 1. 12. p. 84. Ed. Rho-
dcman.
30 Ovid. Metamorph. 1, 1. fab. 2. v. 84, 85. Vid. Ciceronem de

either they have received any unexpected mercy, by way
of thankfulness for it; or are in any great distress, as
supplicating deliverance from it; which supposes a divine
Being, to whom they owe the one, and from whom they
expect the other. The Several parts and members of the
body are so framed and disposed, as to be subservient to
one another; so that the eye cannot say to the hand, I
have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have
no need of you. The same may be observed of the
other members. The inward parts, which are weak and
tender, and on which life much depends, were they ex-
posed, would be liable to much danger and hurt; but
these are clothed with skin and flesh, and fenced with
bones and sinews; and every bone, and every nerve, and
every muscle, are put in their proper places. All the
organs of the senses, of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting,
and feeling, are most wonderfully fitted for the purposes
for which they are made. Galen, an ancient noted phy-
sician, being atheistically inclined, was convinced of his
impiety by barely considering the admirable structure of
the eye; its various humours, tunics, and provision for
its defence and safety. The various operations performed
in our bodies, many of which are done without our
knowledge or will, are enough to raise the highest admi-
ration in us: as the circulation of the blood through all
parts of the body, in a very small space of time; the
respiration of the lungs; the digestion of the food; .the
chylification of it; the mixing of the chyle with the
blood; the nourishment thereby communicated; and
which is sensibly perceived in the several parts of the
body, and even in the more remote; which having been
weakened and enfeebled by hunger, thirst, and labour,
are in an instant revived and strengthened; and the ac-
cretion and growth of parts by all this. To which may
be added other things worthy of notice; the faculty of
speech, peculiar to man, and the organs of it; the
features of their faces; and the shape of their bodies,
which all differ from one another; the constant supply
of animal spirits; the continuance of the vital heat,
which outlasts fire itself; the slender threads and small
fibres spread throughout the body, which hold and per-
form their office seventy or eighty years running: all
which, when considered, will oblige us to say, with the
inspired Psalmist, I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
marvelIons are thy works; and that my soul knoweth
right well: and will lead us to ascribe this curious piece
of workmanship to no other than to the divine Being,
the God of all flesh living {31}.
But the soul of man, the more noble part of him.,
more fully discovers the original author of him {32}; being
possessed of such powers and faculties that none but
God could give: it is endowed with an understanda'ng,
capable of receiving and framing ideas of all things
knowable, in matters natural, civil, and religious; and
with reason, to put these together, and compare them
w:tth each other, and discourse concerning them; infer
one thing from another, and draw. conclusions from them.:

Natura Deorum, I. 2. Hence the Greeks call man \~anyrwpov\~, from his
looking upwards, Lactaut. de Orig. err. !. 2. c. 1.
~ See an excellent treatise of Dr. Nieu~entyt, called,The Religibus
Philosopher; in which the Being and Perfectio:~s of' God are demo,t-
strated from the works oLcreatio% in a very great variety of instances.
aa So Plato proves the Being of God' from the soul of' man~ de Lcgi-
bus, ,p. 998.