PART xni.

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perfectly happy. But the firfl: would not allow him to be Happy ; for he is not Happy who wants any thing to make up his Felicity ^ the la¬ ter is abfurd, for ’twere a vain adion for him who wants nothing,to trouble himfelf with ma¬ king any thing.
To what end then,{hould God defire to adorn the World with fair Figures and Luminaries, as one chat drefleth and fets out a Temple? If, to the end that he might better his Habitation, it feems then, that for an infinite time before, he lived indarknefs as in a dungeon. Again, can we think, that afterwards he was delighted with the variety, wherewith we fee the Heaven and the Earth adorned ? What delight can^that be to God, which, were it fuch, tie could not fo long have wanted it ?
But fome will fay. That thefe were ordained by God for the fake of Men. Do they mean of the Wife? Then this great Fabrick of things was made for a very few perfons. Or, of the Foolilh ? There was no reafon, he Ihould do iuch a Favour to the Wicked. Again, What hath he got by doing fo, fince all Fools are even in that regard moft miferable •, for what more mifera- ble than Folly ? Befides, there being many in¬ conveniences in Life, which the Wife fweeten by compenfation of the conveniences ; Fools can neither prevent the future, nor fuftain the pie- fent.
Or, Did he make the World, and, in the World, Men, that he might be worlhipped by Men ? But what doth the worlhip of Men advan¬ tage God, who is happy, and needeth nothing ? Or, if he refoedt Man fo much, as that he made , the World for his fake, that he would inftrudf him in Wifdom, that he would make him Lord over all living Creature, chat he would love him as his Son j Why did he make him Mortal and Frail.? Why did he fubjedl him, whom He loveth, to all evils ? Seeing rather a Man ought to be Happy, as conjoyned with, and next unto God, and Immortal, as he himfelf is, whom he is made to worftiip, aud contemplate.
For thefe reafons ought we to fay, that the World rather was made by Nature ; or, as one of the Natural Philofophers faid, by Chance.
ByNature,foir fuch is the nature of the Atoms, running through the immenfity of the Univerfe, that in great abundance running againlt one an¬ other, they can lay hold of, entangle, and en¬ gage one another ; and varioufly commixing themfelves, Firft roll up a great kind of Chaos, in manner of a great Vortex, ( clue or bottom,) and then after many Convolutions, Evolutions, and making feveral Efforts, and as it were At¬ tempts, trying all kinds of Motions and Con- junftions, they came at lafl: into that Form, which this World bears.
By Chance, for the Atoms concur, cohere,and are co-apted, not by any defign, but as Chance ted them. Wherefore, as I faid. Chance is not fuch a Ciufe, as dir€ftly,and of itfelf, tends to single the Atoms, and difpofe them to fuch-^ Effedl • but the very Atoms themfelves are cal¬ led Chance, inafiriuch as meeting one another, without any premeditation, they faften on one another, and make up fuch a Compound, as thanceth thence to refult.
C H A P. IV. ^
Of the Generation of the World,
Blit to difeufs this Matter more narrowly, and to come to another Head ; the World leemetb to have been elaborated and molded into this round Figure, by a certain kind of Reafon, without Billows, Anvile, or other la- ftruments.
Firlt, whereas the Atoms, by an inconfiderace and cafual Motion, were continually andfwift- ly carried on, w hen they began to run in mul¬ titudes into this immenfe place, in which the World now is • and to faften upon one another, they prefently became heaped into one rude and indigefted Mafs, in which great things were mingled with fmall, round with corner’d, fmooth with hooked, others with others.
Then in this confufed Croud, thofe, which were the greateft and moft heavy, began by de¬ grees to fettle- down • and fuch as were thin, round, fmall, fiippery,thefe, in the concurrence of the others,began to be extruded, and carried up¬ wards 5 as in troubled water, until it refts and groweth clear, the Earthy parts fettle down¬ wards, the Watry are as it were thiuft upwards ; ’ but after the impulfive force, which drove them upward, grew languid ; nor was there any other ftroke, which might tofs them that way, the Atoms themfelves, endeavouring to go down again, met with obftacles from others ; where¬ upon they flew about with greater aftivity to the utmoft bounds ; as alfo did others, which were reverberated by them, and reprelTed by others that clofely followed them, whence was made a mutual Implication, which did generate Heaven.
But thofe Atoms, which were of the fame na¬ ture, ( there being, as we faid, many kinds of them,) and carried round about in heaps,whil’ft: they were thruft upwards, made the Sun, and Moon,and other Stars. Thefe were chiefly cal¬ led Signifying Atoms; thofe which they left, as not able to rife fo Wgh, produced the Air,
At length, of thole which fetled dov^ the Earth was generated ; and ieeing there yet re¬ mained much Matter in Earth, and thatconden- fed by the beatings of the Winds and Gales from the Stars,that Figuration of it which conlifted of leaft Particles, was fqueezed forth and produced maifture. This being fluid,, either run down into hollow places, fit to. receive and contain it, or,ftanding ftill,made hollow Receptacles for it¬ felf, And after this manper, were the Princi¬ pal parts of the World generated.
To fay fomthing of the lefs Principal, the Particles as it were of the former part ; there feems in that firft Gommiftion, to hbve been made the divers Seeds of generable and corrup¬ tible things, of which, impounds of divers Natures were firft framed, and afterwards, in a great degree propagated.
Stones, Metals, and all other Minerals were therefore generated within the body of the earth at the fame time it was formed, becaufe that Mafs was heterogeneous, or confiftiiig pf Atoms and Seeds of different Natures and in that the
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