The wisdom and goodness of God in the formation of man : Being an anniversary sermon preached before the Royal College of Physicians, London, in the Church of St. Mary Le-Bow, on September 21st, 1751. According to the institution of Dr. Croun, and his widow the Lady Sadlier / By Stephen Hales.

  • Stephen Hales
Date:
1751
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wisdom and goodness of God in the formation of man : Being an anniversary sermon preached before the Royal College of Physicians, London, in the Church of St. Mary Le-Bow, on September 21st, 1751. According to the institution of Dr. Croun, and his widow the Lady Sadlier / By Stephen Hales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/30 (page 4)
    [ + ] We need but refieft upon the firft Origin of Man, to be fully convinced of this Truth. For both Scripture and Reafon afiure us, that Man was at firft created, by the immediate EfFeft of the Divine Power and Wifdom. What fome Heathens have faid to the contrary, is moft foolifh and extravagant. Good Reafon wills, that we have Recourfe to fome firft Caufe, fome firft Principle, a firft Man from whom are defcended all Men that ever were, or are at prefent in the World. And if the Account which the Hiftory of Mofes gives us, of the Creation of the firft Man, be true, as there is not the leaft Reafon to doubt but it is; if it be true that God formed his Body of the Duft of the Earth, and breathed into him the Breath of Life, it hence neceflarily follows, that Man is formed by the alone powerful Hand of God ? and that we are all his Work and his Creatures. For tho’ God do not in the fame manner form human Bodies, as he did that of Adam, but by Generation ; he is not- withftanding, equally their Creator and Father : Natural Means do not exclude the Divine Providence *, and fluggifh Matter has no more Difpofition in itfelf to become a human Body, than it had at the beginning of the World* neither would it ever receive that wonderful Form, if God did not cooperate by his peculiar Providence. We may know the Divine Author by the Excel¬ lence of the Work ; when we carefully confider the Nature of Man, we cannot but be convinced, he muft be the Product of an infinitely wife and intelligent Being. It far exceeds our Capacities, in the leaft Degree to penetrate, into the manner of the Generation of Animals and Vegetables; Matter cannot work up itfelf with fiich variety of Art, and fuch Regularity, as is obfervable in all kinds of Animals, The pro¬ ducing living Creatures, fucceffively, as the former dye, the railing the Individuals in all Tribes of Animals, to fupply the Place of the Former, feems to be a renewing Creation ; all Animals that are produced, begin then to exift; they did not exift before, they have each a diftinft Exiftence of their own. In the Scale of created Beings, the uniting of fluggifh Matter to a living Spirit, is the afcending tranfition. But in doing this, mere Matter and mechanical Principles, cannot indue the Em- brio with a living Spirit; Matter cannot perform the Union, nor