Salusbury, Thomas, Mathematical collections and translations (Tome I), 1667

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            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb xlink:href="040/01/353.jpg" pagenum="333"/>
              that vaſt magnitude of the Univerſe, which thou afterwards
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              eſt to be too immenſe? </s>
              <s>If thou comprehendeſt it; wilt thou
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              hold that thy apprehenſion extendeth it ſelf farther than the
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              vine Power? </s>
              <s>wilt thou ſay, that thou canſt imagine greater
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              things than thoſe which God can bring to paſſe? </s>
              <s>But if thou
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              apprehendeſt it not, why wilt thou paſſe thy verdict upon things
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              beyond thy comprehenſion?</s>
            </p>
            <p type="margin">
              <s>
                <margin.target id="marg618"/>
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Immenſe
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              nitudes and
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              bers are
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              henſible by our
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              derſtanding.
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>SIMP. </s>
              <s>All this is very well, nor can it be denied, but that
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              Heaven may in greatneſſe ſurpaſſe our imagination, as alſo that
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              God might have created it thouſands of times vaſter than now it
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              is; but we ought not to grant any thing to have been made in
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              vain, and to be idle in the Univerſe. </s>
              <s>Now, in that we ſee this
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              mirable order of the Planets, diſpoſed about the Earth in
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              ces proportionate for producing their effects for our advantage,
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              to what purpoſe is it to interpoſe afterwards between the ſublime
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              Orb of
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              Saturn
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              and the ſtarry Sphere, a vaſt vacancy, without any
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              ſtar that is ſuperfluous, and to no purpoſe? </s>
              <s>To what end? </s>
              <s>For
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              whoſe profit and advantage?</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>Methinks we arrogate too much to our ſelves,
                <emph type="italics"/>
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              cius,
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              whilſt we will have it, that the onely care of us, is the
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              æquate work, and bound, beyond which the Divine Wiſdome
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              and Power doth, or diſpoſeth of nothing. </s>
              <s>But I will not
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              ſent, that we ſhould ſo much ſhorten its hand, but deſire that we
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              may content our ſelves with an aſſurance that God and Nature
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg619"/>
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              are ſo imployed in the governing of humane affairs, that they
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              could not more apply themſelves thereto, although they had no
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              other care than onely that of mankind; and this, I think, I am
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              able to make out by a moſt pertinent and moſt noble example,
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              taken from the operation of the Suns light, which whileſt it
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg620"/>
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              tracteth theſe vapours, or ſcorcheth that plant, it attracteth, it
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              ſcorcheth them, as if it had no more to do; yea, in ripening that
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              bunch of grapes, nay that one ſingle grape, it doth apply it ſelf
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              ſo, that it could not be more intenſe if the ſum of all its buſineſs
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              had been the only maturation of that grape. </s>
              <s>Now if this grape
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              receiveth all that it is poſſible for it to receive from the Sun, not
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              ſuffering the leaſt injury by the Suns production of a thouſand
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              other effects at the ſame time; it would be either envy or folly
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              to blame that grape, if it ſhould think or wiſh that the Sun would
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              onely appropriate its rayes to its advantage. </s>
              <s>I am confident that
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              nothing is omitted by the Divine Providence, of what concernes
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              the government of humane affairs; but that there may not be
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              other things in the Univerſe, that depend upon the ſame infinite
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              Wiſdome, I cannot, of my ſelf, by what my reaſon holds forth
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              to me, bring my ſelf to believe. </s>
              <s>However, if it were not ſo,
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              yet ſhould I not forbear to believe the reaſons laid before me by </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
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