3io A DISCOURSE

Book IV. Life, which they who do his Commandments have Right to, Apoc. xxii.2, 14, 20. Na) vet), hms, ’AjlwV

iy. Thus my Reader fees, and I acknowledge, how easy it is to belost in the Woods, and that I have hardly power to take off mywhilst I am on this delightful Subjeft-. For what more august, morecharming and useful, than the culture and preservation of such goodlyPlantations,

a That Jhade to our Grand-children give ?

and afford so sweet, and so agreeable refreshment to our IndustriousWood-man ,

b When he his wearied Limbs has laidTinder a florid Platans Shade.

or some other goodly spreading Trees, such as we told you stopt theLegions of a proud Conqueror, and that the wile Socrates lware by,that Fajstenus Crisp us did sacrifice to, and the honours of his Gods -ao. But whilst we condemn this Excess in them, Christians and t sUCPhilosophers may be instructed to make use of these Enjoyments to bet'ter purposes, by contemplating the Miracles of their Frodutfion aI hStructure : And what Mortal is there so perfect an Atomist, who v*}undertake to detect the thousandth part, or point of so exile aas that insensible Rudiment, or rather halituous spirit, which bd n £ Sforth the lofty Fir-tree, and the spreading Oak ? That Trees of 0enormous an height and magnitude, as we find some Elms,and Cypresses ; some hard as Iron, and solid as Marble ( for such jj 1Indies furnish many ) should be swadsd and involv’d within so st 11 * 1dimension ( if a To int may be said to have any ) without the least l u> ftion, confusion or disorder of Parts, and in lo weak and feeble a .stance ; being at first but a kind of tender mucilage, or rather rot ^ness, which so easily dissolves and corrupts Substances so much h asde ^when they are buried in the moist Womb of the Earth j whilst this, reUder and flexible as it is, shall be able in time to displace and rent in f u J?whole Rocks of Stones, and sometimes to cleave them beyondof Iron Wedges, so as even to remove Mountains ? For thus noare observed able to suppress the victorious Falm : And thus our w(like Man whole inverted Symbol he is) being sown in corrupt* 0 Jrises in glory, by little and little ascending into an hard erect ^comely dimensions, into a solid Tower, as it were; and that whichlately a single Ant would easily have born to his little Cavern, noVpable of resisting the Fury, and braving the Rage of the most inl P^L?ous Storms, Magni mehercle artificis, claustjse totum in tarn eX l hfy'P 5J* (to use Seneca's Expression ) & horror est constderanti. hafl

For is it not plainly astonishing, how these minute Atoms , rather ^

visible Eggs, should contain the Fœtus exquisitely formed, evcn / t \\lyet wrap’d in their Secondines, like Infants in the Animal ^ r ° ir y 3 ftesgrowing too big for the dark Confinements, they break forth, uud ^

. a while more distinctly display every Limb and Member cornp teperfect, with all their Apparel, tire and trim of beautiful and fl° uing Vegetables, endow’d with all the Qualities of the Species-

.Seris factura nepotibus urabram.

fc Cum post labores sub Platan© cubatVirenti; umbrae..

Ciavv. £

2l. ^

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