pud

I

was very different from the Greek: as we may conclude from Ephorus and Strabo that cites him, who Ephorus amake almost all the Nations of Asia Minor to be Bar-Strab. barians; and from Stephanus Byzantius, who ac- Steph.voce quaints us, that agna, a Juniper-tree, was called Agßn. Sta Bea in the Speech of the Lycaonians, ev Turgóvæv pary. But notwithstanding we can by no means allow that the great Apoftle of the Gentiles fhould be ignorant of that Language; he that fo folemnly affirms of himself, I thank my God, I speak 1 Cor. 14. with Tongues more than you all. And yet at the first 18. Effufion of this heavenly Gift, the dwellers in Cappa. Acts 2.docia, in Pontus and Afia, Phrygia and Pamphylia (fome of them near Neighbours to the Lycaonians) heard the Apostles Speak in their feveral Tongues the wonderfull Works of God. And again, How could they have preached the Gospel to the Lyftrians, if they did not ver. 7. use the common Language of the Country? And to what purpose did they cry out and speak to them, if the Hearers could not apprehend? or how could they by those Sayings reftrain the people from fa- ver. 15. crificing; if what they said was not intelligible? But it will be asked, why then were the Apostles fo flow and backward in reclaiming them? and what can be anfwer'd to the Query of St. Chryfoftom? When I confider the circumftances and nature of this affair, I am persuaded they did not hear that discourse

Ver. 15.

Og

νον, ἐπὶ

λίπινόν

πινόν.

6, 15.

πλησίον

τις

difcourfe of the people. For I can hardly conceive, that Men under such apprehenfions as the Lyftrians then were, in the dread Presence and under the very Nod of the almighty Jupiter, not an Idol of Wood or Stone, but the real and very God (as the Athenians made their Complement to Demetrius AS Poliorcetes) fhould exclaim in his fight and hearing : ddthis, Ifay, seems not probable nor natural; nor is thenæus, it affirm'd in the Text: but they might buzz and Ons Whisper it one to another, and tacitly withdrawing είπεσκεν ί- from the presence of the Apostles, they then lift up ἄλλον. their voices and noise it about the City. So that Paul and Barnabas are but just then inform'd of their idolatrous defign, when they rent their Cloaths, and run in among them, and expoftulate with them; Ver. 15. Sirs, why do ye these things? we also are men of like paffions with you (ὁμοιοπαθεῖς ὑμῶν, Mortal men like your fumus fimi- felves, as it is judiciously render'd in the ancient bomines. Latin Verfion, otherwise the Antithefis is not so plain: So El For the Heathen Theology made even the Gods die,a com- themselves fubject to human paffions and appetites, preffion in to Anger, Sorrow, Luft, Hunger, Wounds, Lameness, c. and exempted them from nothing but Death and Old Age) and preach unto you, that ye asavaros fhould turn from thefe vanities (i. e. Idols) unto the anex- Living God, which made Heaven and Earth and the Sea, πάντα. and allthings that are therein: who in times past suffer

Mortales

les vobis

nád, If I

mon Ex

Gr. Wri

ters.

Αἴ γ ̓ ἐγων as Eilw

Ο ήματα

Hom.

ed

14.5.

Gal. 2. 14.

-ed all Nations to walk in their own ways: Пáva TÙ‡vn, not all Nations, but all the Heathen (the word Heathen comes from vn) all the Gentiles, diftinguished see Acts 4. from the Jews, as the fame words are tranflated 26. 17. Rom. 15. 11. and 2 Tim. 4. 17. and ought to have been fo, Rom. 1. 5. and 16. 26. but much more in our Text, which according to the present Verfion seems to carry a very obfcure, if not erroneous meaning; but by a true interpretation is very easie and intelligible; That hitherto God had fuffer'd all the Gentiles to walk in their own ways; and excepting the Jews only, whom he chofe for his own people and prescribed them a Law, he permitted the reft of Mankind to walk by the mere light of Nature without the affiftance of Revelation: but that now in the fulness of time he had even to the Gentiles alfo fent falvation and opened the door of faith, and granted repentance unto life. So that these words of our Apostle are exactly co-incident with that fo much controverted paffage in his discourse to the Athenians: And the (paft) times of this ignorance (of 30. the Gentile World) Godwinked at (or overlook'd:) edir. but now commandeth all men every where to repent. And nevertheless even in that gloomy ftate of Heathenifm, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good ajadové gv, always doing good from Heaven, which seems to be the genuine punctuation, and

C

is

Acts 17.

כד עבד הוא להון טבתא

• 10

So that they read aja. egre, very ♪ Horat. Nec fiquid miri faciat natura, Deos

id Triftes ex alto cæli demittere

tecto.

is authorized by the Syriack. Interpreters) and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seafons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Even the Gentiles might feel after him and find him; feeing that the admirable frame of Hea ven and Earth and Sea, and the munificent provision of food and fuftenance for his Creatures did competently fet forth his Eternal Power and Godhead; fo that (ftupid Idolaters and) prophane Atheists were then and always without excufe: which is the fcope of these Discourses.

Our Adverfaries have used the fame methods to elude the present Argument from the Frame of the World, as they have done to evade the former from the Origin of Mankind. Some have maintain'd, That this World hath thus exifted from all Eternity in its present form and condition: but 04 thers do as ftifly affirm, That the Forms of particular Worlds are generable and corruptible; so that our present System cannot have fuftain'd an infinite. Duration already gone and expired: but however that Body in general, the common Basis and Matter of all Worlds and Beings, is self-existent and eternal; which being naturally divided into innumerable little particles or atoms, eternally endued with an ingenit and infeparable power of Motion, by

their

their omnifarious concurfions and combinations and coalitions, there emergeth fucceffively (or at once, if Matter be infinite) an infinite number of Worlds; and among the reft arose this visible complex Syftem of Heaven and Earth: and thus far they do agree, but then they differ about the cause and mode of the production of Worlds, fome afcribing it to Fortune, and others to Mechanism or Nature. Indeed as for the Aftrological Atheists, they will give us no trouble in the prefent difpute; because they cannot from a peculiar Hypothesis here, as they have done before about the Origination of Animals. For though fome of them are so vain and senceless, as to pretend to a Thema Mundi, a calculated Scheme of the Nativity of our World: yet it exceeds even their abfurdity to fuppofe the Zodiack and Planets to be efficient of, and antecedent to themselves; or to exert any influences, before they were in Being. So that to refute all poffible Explications that the Atheifts have or can propose, I fhall proceed in this following method.

I. First, I will prove it impoffible that the primary Parts of our World, the Sun and the Planets with their regular Motions and Revolutions, fhould have fubfifted eternally in the present or a like Frame and Condition.