Sect. XI. And the Affairs of this lower World.
And they are under a very great Mistake, who confine this Providence (b) to the Heavenly Bodies; As appears from the foregoing Reason, which holds as strong for all created Beings; and moreover from this Consideration, that there is an especial Regard had to (c) the Good of Man, in the
[print edition page 43]
Regulation of the Course of the Stars, as is confessed by the best Philosophers, and evident from Experience. And it is reasonable to conceive, that greater Care should be taken of that, for whose Sake the other was made, than of that which is only subservient to it.
Neither is Their Error less, (a) who allow the Universe to be governed by Him, but not the <19> particular Things in it. For if He were ignorant of any particular Thing (as some of them say,) He would not be thoroughly acquainted with himself. Neither will his Knowledge be Infinite (as we have before proved it to be) if it does not extend to Individuals. Now if God knows all Things, what should hinder his taking care of them; Especially since Individuals, as such, are appointed for some certain End, either Particular or General: And Things in General (which they themselves acknowledge to be preserved by God) cannot subsist but in their Individuals: So that if the Particulars be destroyed by Providence’s forsaking them, the Whole must be destroyed too.
Sect. XII. This is further proved by the Preservation of Empires.
The Preservation of Commonwealths hath been acknowledged, both by Philosophers and Historians, to be no mean Argument for the Divine Providence over Humane Affairs. First, in General; (b) because where
[print edition page 44]
ever good Order in Government and Obedience hath been once admitted, it has been always retained; and in particular, certain Forms of Government have continued for many Ages; as that of Kings among the Assyrians, Aegyptians and Franks; and that of Aristocracy among the Venetians. Now though Humane Wisdom may go a good way towards this; yet if it be duly considered, what a Multitude of wicked Men there are, how many external Evils, how liable Things are in their own Nature to change; we can hard-<20>ly imagine any Government should subsist so long without the peculiar Care of the Deity. And this is more visible where it has pleased God (a) to change the Government; For all Things (even those which do not depend upon Humane Prudence) succeed beyond their Wish (which they do not ordinarily in the variety of Humane Events) to those whom God has appointed Instruments for this Purpose, as it were destined by him; (suppose Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar the Dictator, (b) the Cingi amongst the Tartars, (c) Namcaa amongst the Chinese:) Which wonderful Agreeableness of Events, and all conspiring to a certain End, is a manifest Indication of a Provident Direction. For though a Man may now and then throw a particular Cast on a Die by Chance; yet if he should do it a hundred times together, every Body would conclude there was some Art in it.
But the most certain Proof of Divine Providence is from Miracles, and the Predictions we find in Histories: It is true indeed, that a great many of
[print edition page 45]
those Relations are fabulous; but there is no Reason to dis-believe those which are attested by credible Witnesses, to have been in their Time, Men whose Judgment and Integrity have never been called in question. For since God is All-<21>knowing and All-powerful, why should we think him not able to signify his Knowledge or his Resolution to Act, out of the ordinary Course of Nature, which is his Appointment, and subject to his Direction and Government? If any one should object against this, that inferior intelligent Agents may be the Cause of them, it is readily granted; and this tends to make us believe it the more easily of God: Beside, whatever of this Nature is done by such Beings, we conceive God does by them, or wisely permits them to do them; in the same manner as in well regulated Kingdoms, nothing is done otherwise than the Law directs, but by the Will of the Supreme Governor.
Now that some Miracles have really been seen, (though it should seem doubtful from the Credit of all other Histories) the Jewish Religion alone may easily convince us: which though it has been a long time destitute of Humane Assistance, nay exposed to Contempt and Mockery, yet it remains (a) to this very Day, in almost all parts of the World; <22> when
[print edition page 46]
(a) all other Religions (except the Christian, which is as it were the Perfection of the Jewish) have either disappeared as soon as they were forsaken by the Civil Power and Authority, (as all the Pagan Religions did;) or else they are yet maintained by the same Power as Mahometanism is: For if any one should ask, whence it is that the Jewish Religion hath taken so deep Root in the Minds of all the Hebrews, as never to be plucked out; there can be no other possible Cause assigned or imagined than this; That the present Jews received it from their Parents, and they from theirs, and so on, till you come to the Age in which Moses and Joshua lived; they received, I say, (b) by a certain and uninterrupted Tradition, the Miracles which were worked as in other Places, so more especially at their coming out of Aegypt, in their Journey, and at their Entrance into Canaan; of all which, their Ancestors themselves were Witnesses. Nor is it in the least credible, that a People of so obstinate a Disposition, could ever be persuaded any otherwise, to submit to a Law loaded with so many Rites and <23> Ceremonies; or that wise Men, amongst the many Distinctions of Religion which Humane Reason might invent, should chuse Circumcision; which could not be performed (c) without great Pain, and (d) was laughed at by all Strangers, and had nothing to recommend it but the Authority of God.
[print edition page 47]
Sect. XV. From the Truth and Antiquity of Moses.
This also gives the greatest Credit imaginable to the Writings of Moses, in which these Miracles are recorded to Posterity; not only because there was a settled Opinion and constant Tradition amongst the Jews, that this Moses was appointed by the express Command of God himself to be the Leader and Captain of this People; but also because (as is very evident) he did not make his own Glory and Advantage his principal Aim, because He himself relates those Errors of his own, which He could have concealed; and delivered the Regal and Sacerdotal Dignity to others, (permitting his own Posterity to be reduced only to common Levites.) All which plainly show, that he had no occasion to falsify in his History; as the Style of it further evinces, it being free from that Varnish and Colour, which uses to give Credit to Romances; and is very natural and easy, and agreeable to the Matter of which it treats. Moreover, another Argument for the undoubted Antiquity of Moses’s Writings, which no other Writings can pretend to, is this; That the Greeks (from whom all other Nations derived their Learning) own, that they (a) had their Letters from others; which
[print edition page 48]
Letters <24> of theirs, have the same Order, Name (a) and Shape, as the Syriack or Hebrew: And further
