4. Nil ideo

quoniam

natum eft

in corpore,

Lucret. lib. pretence of the Atheists, That things were first made fortuitoufly, and afterwards their Usefulness was observ'd or discover'd, can have no place here; ut usi Polfe unless Nails were either abfolutely requifite to the quod na Exiftence of Mankind, or were found only in some procreat - Individuals or fome Nations of men; and so might

mus: fed

tam eft, id

Jum.

น.

be ascribed to neceffity upon one account, or to Fortune upon the other. But from the Atheist's fuppofition, That among the infinite Diversity of the first terreftrial Productions, there were Animals of all imaginable fhapes and ftructures of Body, all of which survived and multiplied, that by reafon of their Make and Fabrick could poffibly do fo; it neceffarily follows, that we should now have fome Nations without Nails upon their Fingers; others with one Eye only, as the Poets defcribe the Cyclopes in Sicily, and the Arimafpi in Scythia; others. with one Ear, or one Noftril, or indeed without any Organ of Smelling, because that Sense is not neceffary to Man's fubfiftence; others deftitute of the ufe of Language, fince Mutes alfo may live: one People would have the Feet of Goats, as the feigned Satyrs and Panifci; another would refemble the Head of Jupiter Ammon, or the horned Plinius&Statues of Bacchus: the Sciapodes, and Enotocata and

Strabo.

other monftrous Nations would no longer be Fables, but real instances in Nature: and, in a word,

all

all the ridiculous and extravagant fhapes that can be imagin'd, all the fancies and whimfies of Poets and Painters and Egyptian Idolaters, if so be they are confiftent with Life and Propagation, would be now actually in Being, if our Atheist's Notion were true: which therefore may deservedly pass for a mere Dream and an Error: till they please to make new Discoveries in Terra Incognita, and bring along with them fome Savages of all these fabulous and monftrous Configurations.

3) But thirdly, that we may proceed yet further with the Atheift, and convince him, that not only his Principle is abfurd, but his Confequences alfo as abfurdly deduced from it: we will allow him an uncertain extravagant Chance against the natural Laws of Motion: though not forgetting that that notion hath been refuted before, and therefore this Conceffion is wholly ex abundanti. I say then, that though there were really such a thing as this Chance or Fortune; yet nevertheless it would be extremely abfurd to afcribe the Formation of Humane Bodies to a Caft of this Chance. For let us confider the very Bodies themselves. Here are confeffedly all the marks and characters of Design in their structure, that can be required, though one fuppofe a Divine Author had made them: here is nothing in the Work it felf, unworthy of so great

a.

a Mafter: here are no internal arguments from the Subject against the truth of that Supposition. Have we then any capacity to judge and distinguish, what is the effect of Chance, and what is made by Art and Wisdom When a Medal is dug out of the ground, with fome Roman Emperor's Image upon it, and an Infcription that agrees to his Titles and Hiftory, and an Impress upon the Reverse relating to fome memorable occurrence in his Life; can we be sure, that this Medal was really coined by an Artificer, or is but a Product of the Soil from whence it was taken, that might casually or naturally receive that texture and figure: as many kinds of Foffils are very odly and elegantly shaped according to the modification of their conftituent Salts, or the cavities they were formed in? Is it a matter of doubt and controverfie, whether the Pillar of Trajan or Antoninus, the Ruins of Perfepolis, or the late Temple of Minerva were the Designs and Works of Architecture; or perhaps might originally exist fo, or be raised up in an Earthquake by fubterraneous Vapour? Do not we all think our felves infallibly certain, that this or that very commodious House must needs have been built by Humane Art; though perhaps a natural Cave in a Rock may have fomething not much unlike to Parlors or Chambers? And yet he must be a mere

Idiot, that cannot difcern more Strokes and Characters of Workmanship in the Structure of an Animal (in an Humane Body especially) than in the most elegant Medal or Edifice in the World. They will believe the first Parents of Mankind to have been fortuitoufly formed without Wisdom or Art: and that for this forry reason, Because it is not fimply impossible, but that they may have been formed fo. And who can demonftrate (if Chance be once admitted of) but that poffibly all the Infcriptions and other remains of Antiquity may be mere Lufus Nature, and not Works of Humane Artifice? If this be good reasoning, let us no longer make any pretenees to Judgment or a faculty of difcerning between things Probable and Improbable: for, except flat contradictions, we may upon equal reafons believe all things or nothing at all. And do the Atheists thus argue in common matters of Life? Would they have Mankind lie idle, and lay afide all care of Provisions by Agriculture or Commerce; because poffibly the Diffolution of the World may happen the next mo- fa ment? Had Dinocrates really carved Mount Athos, into a Statute of Alexan- cernes. der the Great, and had the memory of the fact been obliterated by fome accident; who could afterwards have proved it impoffible, but that it might

X

Lucret. 5. Ditis dabit ip

fidem res Forfitan, & graviconquafari in parvo tempore

ter terrarum motibus orbis Omnia

cafually

cafually have been formed fo? For every Mountain must have some determinate figure, and why then not a Humane one, as poffibly as another? And yet I fuppofe none could have feriously believ'd fo, upon this bare account of Poffibility. 'Tis an opinion, that generally obtains among Philosophers, That there is but one Common Matter, which is diverfified by Accidents, and the fame numerical quantity of it by variations, of Texture may con ftitute fucceffively all kinds of Bodies in the World.. So that 'tis not abfolutely impoffible; but that, if you take any other Matter of equal weight and sub. ftance with the Body of a Man, you may blend it fo long, till it be fhuffled into Humane shape and an Organical structure. But who is he fo abandon'd to fottifh credulity, as to think, upon that Principle, That a clod of Earth in a Sack may ever by eternal fhaking receive the Fabrick of Man's Bo dy? And yet this is very near akin, nay it is exactly parallel to the reasoning of Atheists about fortuitous Production. If mere Poffibility be a good Paleph. foundation for Belief; even Lucian's True Hiftory swy De In- may be true upon that account, and Palaphatuss Tales may be credible in spite of the Title.

Περί Απί

credibili

bus.

It hath been excellently well urged in this cafe both by Ancients and Moderns, that to attribute fuch admirable Structures to blind Fortune or

Chance,