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HOWEVER extensive this Word Nature may be, and whatever secundary Definitions it may admit of; it is (in effect) nothing else than the Denouncer of the Divine Will and Pleasure, the Efficient Cause of natural Works, and the Conservant of real Existences: Or, the Order and Series of Sacred Works, obeying the Divine Will, Power, and Commands. At least I think all other Definitions of this Word, taken in whatsoever Sense, may be reduced to These following; viz.

NATURE is the implanted and innate Quality of Things.

NATURE is the Faculty and Propensity of every Mind.

NATURE is the Mixture and Temperature of the four Elements.

NATURE is the Philosopher’s Axiom of Motion and Rest.

NATURE is that which giveth Form, by a specifick Difference, to every thing.

WHICH Power (in either Definition) can only be ascribed to that Great God, whose infinite Existence I’ve been hinting upon: Who is the Author of Nature and Framer of the Universe; who by his own Breath and Word, without any material Help, and at his own Will and Pleasure, created all Things. In whom all Things live, move, and have their Being. By whom a vivacious Faculty is infused through all Things; so as that (by and through Him) all Things subsist of their own peculiar Natures and natural Qualities; and by these implanted Qualities increase, maintain, and defend themselves: And that so, that in such an immense University, and such a vast Variety of Things, nothing is indeed idle, useless, or unprofitable. Nothing is made rashly, fortuitously, or in vain; but every Thing appears appointed to some certain Use and Purpose, and determined to some settled Course and Sphere of Action: Every Being answering the End of its Design, and the Design of its Creation.