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PART I.

SECT. XV.

Nature doeth nothing in vain.

XXX. 28.

RELIGIO MEDICI.

Had Aristotle been as curious in the enquiry of
this cause as he was of the other, he had not
left behind him an imperfect piece of Philo-
sophy, but an absolute tract of Divinity.

Natura nihil agit frustra, is the only indis-
puted Axiome in Philosophy. There are no Gro-
tesques in Nature; not anything framed to fill
up empty Cantons, and unnecessary spaces. In
the most imperfect Creatures, and such as were
not preserved in the Ark, but, having their Seeds
and Principles in the womb of Nature, are every
where, where the power of the Sun is, in these
is the Wisdom of His hand discovered. Out of

Prov. vi. 6, this rank Solomon chose the object of his admiration. Indeed what Reason may not go to School to the wisdom of Bees, Ants, and Spiders? what wise hand teacheth them to do what Reason cannot teach us? Ruder heads stand amazed at those prodigious pieces of Nature, Whales, Elephants, Dromidaries and Camels; these, I confess, are the Colossus and majestick pieces of her hand: but in these narrow Engines there is more curious Mathematicks; and the civility of these little Citizens more neatly sets forth the Wisdom of their Maker. Who admires not Regio-Montanus his Fly beyond his Eagle, or wonders not more at the operation of two Souls in those little Bodies, than but one in the Trunk of a Cedar? I could never content my contemplation with those general pieces of wonder, the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, the increase of Nile, the conversion of the Needle to the North; and have

RELIGIO MEDICI.

27

obvious and neglected pieces of Nature, which PART I.
without further travel I can do in the Cosmo-
graphy of my self. We carry with us the wonders
we seek without us: there is all Africa and her
prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventu-man rep.

pt.

rous piece of Nature, which he that studies wiselyptential Know, learns in a compendium what others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume.

Nature a

13.

Thus there are two Books from whence I col- SECT. XVI, lect my Divinity; besides that written one of GOD, Bible open another of His servant Nature, that universal and to all. publick Manuscript, that lies expans'd unto the Eyes of all those that never saw Him in the one, have discoverd 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 Josh. x. 12, 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

17

PART I. 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 Ex. xv. 25. 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

RELIGIO MEDICI.

Visitation of GOD, Who saw that all that He had PART I. made was good, that is, conformable to His Will, Gen. i. 31. 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 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.

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This is the ordinary and open way of His SECT. XVII. 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 Providence often falsely another way, full of Meanders and Labyrinths, called Forwhereof the Devil and Spirits have no exact tune. 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 See below, line, whereby He draws those actions His Wisdom P. 175.

PART I.

No danger in attempting to trace the hand of

GOD in His

works.

Nature. There is no danger to profound these
mysteries, no sanctum sanctorum in Philosophy.
The World was made to be inhabited by Beasts,
but studied and contemplated by Man: 'tis the
Debt of our Reason we owe unto GOD, and the
homage we pay for not being Beasts. Without
this, the World is still as though it had not been,
or as it was before the sixth day, when as yet there
was not a Creature that could conceive or say
there was a World. The Wisdom of GOD receives
small honour from those vulgar Heads that rudely
stare about, and with a gross rusticity admire
His works those highly magnifie Him, whose
judicious inquiry into His Acts, and deliberate
research into His Creatures, return the duty of a
devout and learned admiration. Therefore,

Search while thou wilt, and let thy Reason go,
To ransome Truth, even to th' Abyss below:
Rally the scattered Causes; and that line,
Which Nature twists, be able to untwine.

It is thy Makers will, for unto none

But unto Reason can He e're be known.

The Devils do know Thee, but those damned Meteors
Build not Thy Glory, but confound Thy Creatures.

Teach my indeavours so Thy works to read,

That learning them in Thee, I may proceed.

Give Thou my reason that instructive flight,

Whose weary wings may on Thy hands still light.
Teach me to soar aloft, yet ever so,

When neer the Sun, to stoop again below.

Thus shall my humble Feathers safely hover,

And, though near Earth, more than the Heavens discover.
And then at last, when homeward I shall drive,

Rich with the Spoils of Nature, to my Hive,

There will I sit like that industrious Flie,
Buzzing Thy praises, which shall never die,
Till Death abrupts them, and succeeding Glory