Plafure, and Diverfion to him. For fo far it is from being a Toil, that the greatest Labours (f), Cares, yea, and Dangers too, become pleasant to him who is purfuing his Genius; and whofe Ardour of Inclination eggs him forward, and buoys him up under all Oppofition, and carrieth him through every Obftacle, to the End of his Defigns and Defires.

II. The next is, The inventive Power of the Soul (g). Under which I might speak of many Things; but I fhall take Notice only of two, because they manifeft the particular Concern and Agency of the infinitely wife Creator. The

1. Is, That Man's Invention fhould reach to fuch a great Variety of Matters; that it fhould hit upon every Thing, that may be of any Ufe, either to himself, or to human Society; or that may any Ways promote, (what in him lies,) the Benefit of this lower Part of the Creation.

For the Illuftration of this, I might take a View of all the Arts and Sciences, the Trades, yea, the very Tools they perform their Labours, and Contrivances with, as numerous as their Occafions and Contrivances are various. Indeed, What is there that falleth under the Reach of Man's Senfes, that

(f) Although Solomon declares, Ecclef. xii. 12. That much Study is a Weariness to the Flesh; yet we fee with what Pleafure and Affiduity many apply themselves to it. Thus Cicero tells of Cato, whom he cafually found in Lucullus's Library, M. Catonem vidi in Bibliothecâ fedentem, multis circumfufum Stoicorum libris. Erat enim, ut fcis, in eo inexhaufta aviditas legendi, nec fatiari poterat: quippe ne reprehenfionem quidem vulgi inanem reformidans, in ipfa curia foleret legere fape, dum fenatus cogereturut Heluo librorum videbatur. Cicer. de finib. L. 3. c. 2.

(g) Mentem hominis, quamvis eam non videas, ut Deum non vides, tamen ut Deum agnofcis ex operibus ejus, fic ex memoria rerum, & Inventioné, & celeritate motus, omnique pulchritudine virtutis vim divinam mentis agnofcito. Cicer. Tufc. Quæft. L. I. C. 29.

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265 he doth not employ to fome Ufe and Purpose, for the World's Good? The celeftial Bodies, the Sun, the Moon, with the other Planets, and the fix'd Stars, he employs to the noble Ufes of Aftronomy, Navigation and Geography. And, What a noble Acumen, what a vaft Reach muft the Soul be endow'd with, to invent thofe curious Sciences of Geometry and Arithmetick, both Specious, and in Numbers; and thofe nice and various Inftruments, made ufe of by the Geometrician, Aftronomer, Geographer and Sailor? And laftly, What a wonderful Sagacity is fhewn in the Business of Optics, and particularly in the late Invention of the Telescope; wherewith new Wonders are difcover'd among God's Works, in the Heavens, as there are here on Earth, with the Microscope, and other Glaffes.

And as for this lower World, What Material is there to be found, what kind of Earth, or Stone, or Metal; what Animal, Tree, or Plant, yea, even the very Shrubs of the Field; in a Word, what of all the excellent Variety, the Creator has furnifh'd the World with, for all its Ufes and Occafions, in all Ages; what, I fay, that Man's Contrivance doth not extend unto, and make fome Way or other other advantagious to himself, and useful for Building, Cloathing, Food, Phyfick, or for Tools or Utenfils, or for even only Pleasure and Diverfion?

But now confidering the great Power and Extent of human Invention.

2. There is another Thing, that doth farther demonftrate the Super-intendence of the great Creator, and Confervator of the World; and that is, That Things of great, and abfolutely neceffary Ufe, have foon, and eafily occurr'd to the Invention of Man; but Things of little Ufe, or very dangerous Ufe, are rarely and flowly difcover'd, or till utterly undifcover'd. We have as early as the Mofaick Hiftory, an Account of the Inventions of the more

ufeful

ufeful Crafts and Occupations: Thus Gen. iii. 23. Adam was fent forth from the Garden of Eden, by God himself, to till the Ground. And in the next Chapter, his two Sons Cain and Abel; the one was of the fame Occupation, a Tiller of the Ground, the other a Keeper of Sheep (b). And the Pofterity of thefe, are in the latter End of Gen. iv. recorded, Jabal to have been the Father of fuch as dwell in Tents (i); i. e. He was the Inventor of Tents, and pitching those moveable Houses in the Fields, for looking after, and depafturing their Cattel in the Defarts, and uncultivated World. Tubal-Cain was an Inftructer of every Artificer in Brafs and Iron (k), or the First that found out the Art of melting, and malleating (1) Metals, and making them useful for Tools, and other neceffary Implements. And his Sifter Naamah, whose Name is only mention'd, is by fome thought to have been the Inventor of Spinning and Cloathing. Yea, the very Art of Mufick is thus early afcribed to Jubal (m); fo indulgent was the Creator, to find a Means to divert Melancholy, to cheer the Spirits, and to entertain and please Mankind. But for Things of no Ufe, or but little Ufe, or of pernicious Confequence; either they have been much later thought of, and with great Difficulty, and perhaps Danger too, brought to pass; or else they still are, and perhaps will always remain, Exercises of the Wit and Invention of Men.

Of this we might give divers Inftances: In Methematicks, about fquaring the Circle (n); in Mechanicks

(b) Gen. iv. 2.

(i) v. 20.

(k) . 22.

(1) Lovagnar, the LXX call him, i. e. A Worker with an Hammer.

(m) . 21.

(a) Although the Quadrature of the Circle, hath in former Ages exercis'd fome of the greateft mathematical Wits; yet nothing

chanicks (0), about the Art of Flying; and in Navigation, about finding the Longitude. These Things, although fome of them in Appearance innocent, yea, perhaps very useful, yet remain for the moft Part fecret; not becaufe the Discovery of

nothing has been done in that Way fo confiderable, as in, and fince the Middle of the laft Century; when in the Year 1657, thofe very ingenious and great Men, Mr William Neile, and my Lord Brounker, and Sir Chriftopher Wren afterwards, in the fame Year, geometrically demonftrated the Equality of fome Curves to a trait Line. Soon after which, others at Home, and Abroad, did the like in other Curves. And not long afterwards, this was brought under an analytical Calculus: The firft Specimen whereof, that was ever publish'd, Mr. Mercator gave in 1688, in a Demonftration of my Lord Brounker's Quadrature of the Hyperbola, by Dr. Wallis's Reduction of a Fraction, into an infinite Series by Divifion. But the penetrating Genius of Sir Ifaac Newton, had difcover'd a Way of attaining the Quantity of all quadrible Curves analytically, by his Method of Fluxions, fome Time before the Year 1668, as I find very propable from an hiftorical Account, in a long Letter of Mr. Collins, written in his own Hand, and fent to Richard Townley, Efq; of Lancashire, whose Papers are in my Hands. In that Letter, Mr. Collins faith, That in September 1668, Mr. Mercator publish'd his Logarithmotechnia, one of which he foon fent to Dr. Barrow, who thereupon fent him up fome Papers of Mr. Newton's, [now Sir Ifaac;] by which, and former Communications made thereof by the Author, to the Doctor; it appears that the faid Method was invented fome Years before, by the faid Mr. Newton, and generally apply'd. And then he goes on to give fome Account of the Method; what it performs in the Circle, oc. what Mr. Gregory had done in that kind, who intended to publish fomewhat in Latin about it, but would not anticipate Mr. Newton, the first Inventor thereof; with much more of this Nature. The Defign, I find, of that indefatigable Promoter of Mathematicks, Mr. Collins, was to acquaint Mr. Townley, in his Letter, with what had been done; and to get the Affiftance of that ingenious Gentleman, towards the compleating a Body of Algebra.

(0) I do not mention here the perpetual Motion, which hath exercis'd the mechanical Wits for many Ages; because it is a Thing impoffible, if not a Contradiction: As the beforecommended Dr. Clarke afferts in Rohaul. Phyf. p. 133.

moft

moft of them is more impoffible, or difficult than of many other Things, which have met with a Discovery; nor is it for want of Man's Diligence therein, or his careful Purfuit and Enquiry after them, (for perhaps, nothing already discover'd hath been more eagerly fought after;) but with much better Reason, (I am fure with greater Humility and Modefty,) we may conclude it is, because the infinitely wife Creator, and Ruler of the World, hath been pleas'd to lock up thefe Things from Man's Understanding and Invention, for fome Reafons best known to himself, or because they might be of ill Confequence, and dangerous amongst Men. As in all Probability the Art of Flying would particularly be: An Art which in fome Cafes might be of good Ufe, as to the Geographer and Philofopher; but in other Refpects, might prove of dangerous and fatal Confequence: As for Inftance, By putting it in Man's Power to difcover the Secrets of Nations and Families, more than is confistent with the Peace of the World, for Man to know; by giving ill Men greater Opportunities to do Mifchief, which it would not lie in the Power of others to prevent; and, as one (p) observes, by making Men lefs fociable: "For upon every true or "falfe Ground of Fear, or Difcontent, and other "Occafions, he would have been fluttering away "to fome other Place; and Mankind, inftead of "cohabiting in Cities, would, like the Eagle, have "built their Nefts upon Rocks".

That this is the true Reafon of these Matters, is manifeft enough from holy Scripture, and Reafon (q) alfo gives its Suffrage thereto. The Scripture exprefly tell us, That every good Gift, and every

Grew's Cofmol. Sacr. l. 1. 5. §. 25.

(9) Nemo igitur vir magnus fine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c. 66.

perfec