of things every Spécies of Animals might spring mechanically out of the Soil without an Intelligent Creator. And indeed there is no one thing in the World, which hath given fo much Countenance and Shadow of Poffibility to the Notion of Atheism, as this unfortunate mistake about the æquivocal generation of Infects: And as the oldest Remains of Atheistical Writings are charged full with that Comparison; so it is the main refuge of thofe, that in this and the laft Age have had the Folly and Impudence to appear in fo wretched a Cause.

Now to this laft Subterfuge of the Mechanical Atheists we can occurr feveral ways. And at present we affirm, First, ex abundanti, That though we should allow them the spontaneous production of some minute Animals, yet a like primitive Origination of Mankind could not thence be concluded. Because they firft tacitly fuppofe, that there is an univerfal decay of Moisture and Fertility in the Earth. And they cannot avoid the neceffity of fo doing: For if the Soil be as fruitfull now, as it was in the beginning; why would it not produce Men, and the nobler kinds of Beafts in our days too, if ever it did fo? So that if that fuppofition be evinced to be erroneous and groundless, all the Arguments that they build upon it, will be

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fubverted at once. Now what more easily refuted, than that old vulgar Affertion of an univerfal Drought and Exficcation of the Earth? As if the Sun could evaporate the leaft drop of its Moisture, so that it should never defcend a gain, but be attracted and elevated quite out of the Atmosphere? 'Tis now a matter agreed and allowed by all competent Judges, that every Particle of Matter is endowed with a Principle of Gravity, whereby it would defcend to the Centre, if it were not repelled upwards by heavier bodies. So that the fmallest Corpufcle of Vapour, if we suppose it to be exhaled to the top of the Atmosphere, thence it must comé down again, or at least must there remain incumbent upon others: for there's either nothing or nothing heavier about it to protrude it any higher, neither can it spontaneously mount any more against the tendency of its nature. left fome ignorant Atheist should fufpect, that peradventure there may be no fuch Top of the Atmosphere; but that it may be continued on to the Son or to the indefinite Space: he must vouchsafe to be inftructed, That the whole weight of any Column of the Atmosphere, and likewife the Specifick gravity of its Bafis are certainly known by many Experiments: and that by this computation (even making allow

And

ance

ance for its gradually larger Expansion, the higher we go,) the very top of any Pillar of Air is not One hundred Miles distant from the Surface of the Earth. So that hence it is manifeft, that the whole Terraqueous Globe with its Atmosphere cannot naturally have lost the leaft particle of Moisture, fince the foundation of the World. But ftill they may infift, That although the whole Globe cannot be deprived of any of its Moisture, yet the habitable Earth may have been perpetually the drier, seeing it is affiduously drained and exhausted by the Seas. But to this we reply, That the very contrary is demonftrable; That the longer the World fhall continue, the Moifter will be the whole Aggregate of the Land. For (to take no notice of the supply of its Moisture by Rains and Snow and Dews and Condensation of Vapours, and perhaps by fubterraneous paffages) the tops of Mountains and Hills will be continually washed down by the Rains, and the Chanels of Rivers corroded by the Streams; and the Mud that is thereby conveyed into the Sea will raise its bottom the higher; and confequently the Declivity of Rivers will be fo much the lefs; and therefore the Continents will be the lefs drain'd, and will gradually increase in Humidity from the first period of their Dura

tion to their final Confummation of all things: if a Divine Power do not interpofe and change the settled course and order of Nature.

But let us allow their supposition, That the Total of the dry Land may have been robbed of fome of its Moisture which it had at its first Constitution: yet ftill there are fome parts of the Earth fufficiently foak'd and water'd, to produce, if ever, thofe Senfitive and Locomotive and Intelligent Plants. For do not the Nile, and the Niger, and the Ganges, and the Menam, make yearly Inundations in our days, as they have formerly done? And are not the Countries fo overflown ftill fituate between the Tropicks under the direct and most vigorous Rays of the Sun, the very place where thefe Mechanical Atheists lay the Scene of that great Tranfaction? So that if Mankind had ever sprung naturally out of the Soil, the Experiment would fucceed now every year in Æthiopia and Siam; where are all the requifite qualifications, that ever have been, for fuch a producti

on.

And again, if there hath been fuch a gradual diminution of the Generative Faculty of the Earth, that it hath dwindled from nobler Animals to puny Mice and Infects; why was there not the like decay in the production of D

Vege

Vegetables? We fhould have loft by this time the whole Species of Oaks and Cedars and the other tall and lofty Sons of the Forest, and have found nothing but dwarfish Shrubs and creeping Mofs and despicable Mushroms. Or if they deny the present spontaneous production of larger Plants, and confine the Earth to as Pigmie Births in the Vegetable Kingdom, as they do in the other: yet furely in fuch a fupposed univerfal decay of Nature, even Mankind it felf that is now nourished (though not produced) by the Earth, must have degenerated in Stature and Strength in every Generation. And yet we have certain demonstration from Egyptian Mummies, and Roman Urns and Rings and Measures and Edifices and many other Antiquities, that Human Stature has not diminished for above Two Thousand years. Now

i

the Decay hath not been conftant and gradual, there hath been no Decay at all; or at least no natural one, nor what may be accounted for by this Mechanial Atheift. I conclude therefore, That although we should allow the spontaneous production of Infects; yet no Argument can be deduced from thence for a like Origination of Mankind.