BOOK XI.
Practical Inferences from the foregoing Survey.
Having in the preceding Books carried my Survey as far as I care at present to engage my self, all that remaineth, is to draw some Inferences from the foregoing Scene of the great Creator’s Works, and so conclude this Part of my intended Work.
CHAP. I.
That God’s Works are Great and Excellent.
The first Inference I shall make, shall be by way of Confirmation of the Text, That the Works of the Lord are great[a]. And this is necessary to be observed, not against the Atheist only, but all other careless, incurious Observers of God’s Works. Many of our useful Labours, and some of our best modern Books shall be condemned with only this Note of Reproach, That they are about trivial Matters[], when in Truth they are ingenious and noble Discoveries of the Works of GOD. And how often will many own the World in general to be a Manifestation of the Infinite Creator, but look upon the several Parts thereof as only Toys and Trifles, scarce deserving their Regard? But in the foregoing (I may call it) transient View I have given of this lower, and most slighted Part of the Creation, I have, I hope, abundantly made out, that all the Works of the Lord, from the most regarded, admired, and praised, to the meanest and most slighted, are great and glorious Works, incomparably contrived, and as admirably made, fitted up, and placed in the World. So far then are any of the Works of the LORD, (even those esteemed the meanest) from deserving to be disregarded, or contemned by us[c], that on the contrary they deserve (as shall be shewn in the next Chapter) to be sought out, enquired after, and curiously and diligently pryed into by us; as I have shewed the Word in the Text implies.