142 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



T 



CHAPTER II 



Natural Theology with its Appendix, the Knowledge of Angela and Spirits 



HITS having first seated the common parent of the 

 sciences, as Berecynthia rejoicing over her celestial 

 offspring 



&quot;Omnes coelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes,&quot; * 



we return to our division of philosophy into divine, nat 

 ural, and human; for natural theology may be justly called 

 divine philosophy. Divine philosophy is a science, or rather 

 the rudiments of a science, derivable from God by the light 

 of nature, and the contemplation of his creatures; so that 

 with regard to its object, it is truly divine; but with re 

 gard to its acquirement, natural. The bounds of this 

 knowledge extend to the confutation of atheism, and the 

 ascertaining the laws of nature, but not to the establishing 

 of religion. And, therefore, God never wrought a miracle 

 to convert an atheist, because the light of nature is suffi 

 cient to demonstrate a deity; but miracles were designed 

 for the conversion of the idolatrous and superstitious, who 

 acknowledged a God, but erred in the worship of him the 

 light of nature being unable to declare the will of God, or 

 assign the just form of worshipping him. For as the power 

 and skill of a workman are seen in his works, but not his 

 person, so the works of God express the wisdom and om 

 nipotence of the Creator, without the least representation 

 of his image. And in this particular, the opinion of the 

 heathens differed from the sacred verity, as supposing 

 the world to be the image of God, and man a little im 

 age of the world. The Scripture never gives the world 

 that honor, but calls it the work of his hands; making 

 only man the image of God. a And, therefore, the being 



1 ^Eneid, vi. m. 8 Ps. viii. 3, cii. 25, et al. 



