ground, in what are called, diffimilar leaves, it is pe culiar to the lobe of corn to die beneath the earth. St. Paul's argument is therefore founded upon the truth of nature: Thou fool, that which thou foweft is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou foweft, thou foweft not that body that shall be, but bare Grain, it may chance of wheat, or of fome other grain: But God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased bim, and to every feed its own body. Our Saviour also argued with the Pharifees and Sadducees from natural phænomena: They demanded a fign, to whom he replies: "When it is evening, ye fay, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red; and in the morning, it will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and louring. O ye hypocrites, ye can difcern the face of the fky, but can ye not difcern the signs of the times? He alfo uses arguments of the fame kind upon many occafions, fome of which have been mentioned in the beginning of this difcourfe.. b See Grews anatome of plants, and addrefs, &c. or part 1. of this book. By confidering what is there expreft concerning this paffage, along with what is delivered here, the reader has the full analogical fenfe. THE THE ANALOGY OF DIVINE WISDOM, BETWEEN Material LIGHT, and spiritual KNOWLEDGE. BETWEEN The general Law of Spiritual B EINGS, AND The general Law of Material THINGS. BETWEEN The Divine Influence upon Spirit by GRACE, AND THE Divine Influence upon Matter by ATTRACTION. BETWEEN The UNIVERSAL ETHER, AND THE INFINITE DIVINE SPIRIT. PART III. DUBLIN: Printed in the Year MDCCL. Non OT to enter too far into nature, for abftrufe and forced resemblances of things, let us only confider the clear obvious and natural Analogies, BETWEEN Material LIGHT, and spiritual KNOWLEDGE. BETWEEN The general Law of Spiritual BEINGS, AND The general Law of Material THINGS. BETWEEN The divine Influence upon Spirit by GRACE, AND THE Divine Influence upon Matter by ATTRACTION. BETWEEN The UNIVERSAL ETHER, AND THE INFINITE DIVINE L SPIRIT. IGHT is the firft of God's creatures in the material world. For darkness is not a being, but the absence of one; and the Heavens and the earth previous to light in the order of history being without form, were only the fubject matter fufceptive of forms, animate and inanimate, which are called the creatures of God. The divine historian declares light to be good, as foon as it was created; and although he diftinguisheth it from darkness, he doth not thereby make darkness a creature For it wants the divine FIAT; Let D 4 there there be Darkness; and the divine approbation; God faw that it was good.. But God created light, and divided it from darknefs, and made it a creature worthy of his approbation, and our admiration. What chaos was to an infinity of forms to be created, darknefs was to light; and fuch ignorance is to knowledge, in the state of man, which is usually called natural. Light alfo as it were by a fecond creation (or reformation) in the bodies of the fun and moon was conveyed more usefully to mankind: So there was a light of religion in the world, before it fhone more ufefully to mankind, in thofe great luminaries, Mofes and Jefus Chrift: And as the first material light was created by the Deity, fo was the first knowledge of religion revealed. The Analogy between the light of revelation, and that of the heavens, is in many refpects worth notice; and the fimilitude is fuch, that the language belonging to one, may with great propriety, be transferred to the other; and a comparison may be made, without a duplicity of expreffion. For it is equally true of them both: That light shines very unequally on the world, though it is always fhining fome where; Its day is equal to months in fome places, and only hours in others. It comes pure from Heaven, yet often meets with a foul atmosphere in its paffage, whereby it is clouded and bent in its courfe. It fhews many things different from what they are, yet never misleads any one of an honeft fagacity. It fhines indifferent ly upon all objects, is totally rejected by fome, tranfmitted by others, bent and diftorted by a third kind, and ufefully imbibed by a fourth. It hardly fhines at all in the night, very faintly in twi light, and gradually increases to a full brightness: All climates have not the fame degree of it; and With Solomon wisdom excelleth folly (that is vice as well as ignorance) as far as light excelleth darkness. Eccles. ii. 31. fometimes |