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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45638	The atheistical objections against the being of a God and his attributes fairly considered and fully refuted in eight sermons, preach'd in the cathedral-church of St. Paul, London, 1698 : being the seventh year of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by John Harris ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing H845; ESTC R15119	126,348	235

Principle as Fear no doubt they may do so for Interest and Advantage for that is certainly as good a ground as Cowardliness and Baseness and then what becomes of this boasted Honour that is so much talk'd of this greatness of Mind that will keep a Man from doing an ill thing In reality 't will at last amount to no more than this that he will forbear doing an Ill Thing when he thinks it will prove ill to him he will be Just Honest and Sincere when he don't dare be otherwise for fear of the Law Shame and Ignominy For all Men of Atheistical Principles would be Knaves and Villains if they durst if they could do it safely and securely such a Man 't is like shall return you a Bag of Money or a rich Jewel you happen to depose in his Hands but why is it 't is because he dares not keep it and deny it 't is great odds but he is discovered and exposed by this means and besides 't is Unfashionable and Ungenteel to be a Cheat in such Cases But to impoverish a Family by Extravagance and Debauchery to defraud Creditors of their just Debts or Servants of their Wages to Cheat at Play to violate one's Neighbour's Bed to gratifie one's own Lust are things which though to the full as Wicked and Unreasonable in themselves are yet swallowed down as allowable enough because common and usual and which are not the more is the pity attended with that Scandal and Infamy that other Vices are Thus 't is very plain that this pretended Principle of Honour in an Atheist or a Wicked Man and this Obedience and Deference that he pretends to pay to the Laws of his Country is a most Partial and Changeable thing and vastly different from that true Honour and Bravery that is founded on the Eternal Basis of Conscience and Religion 't is an Airy Name that serves only to amuse unthinking and short-sighted Persons into a Belief that he hath some kind of Principles that he will stick to that so he may be thought fit to be trusted dealt and conversed withall in the World And thus I think it is very clear and apparent that Wickedness naturally leads to Infidelity and Atheism and Infidelity and Atheism to the Support and Maintenance of That And that it is the Wicked that will not seek after God and whose thoughts are that there is no God Which was my First Particular I come next to Consider II. That Peculiar Kind of Wickedness which the Psalmist here takes notice of as the chief Ground from whence Infidelity and Atheism proceed And that is Pride The Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God neither is God in all his Thoughts And I question not but this Vice of Pride is generally the Concomitant of Infidelity and the chief Ground from whence the Spirit of Speculative Atheism proceeds When Men of proud and haughty Spirits lead ill Lives as they very often do they always endeavour to justifie themselves in their Proceeding be it never so Irregular and Absurd and never so contrary to the considerate Sentiments of all the rest of the World A Proud Man hates to acknowledge himself in an Errour and to own that he hath committed a Fault He would have the World believe that there is a kind of Indefectibility in his Understanding and Judgment which secures him from being deceived and mistaken like other Mortals Whatever Actions therefore such a Person commits he would fain have appear reasonable and justifiable But he sees plainly that he cannot make Wickedness and Immorality do so as long as Religion stands its Ground in the World The Sacred Scriptures are so plain and express against such a course of Life that there is no avoiding being convicted and condemned while their Authority remains good 'T is impossible any way to reconcile a vicious Life to the Doctrine there delivered And therefore he sees plainly That one that Professes to believe the great Truths of Religion and the Divine Authority of those Sacred Books and yet by his Practices gives the Lye to his Profession and while he acknowledges Jesus Christ in his Words doth in his Works deny him he sees I say that such an one stands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-condemned and can never acquit himself either to his own Conscience or to the Reason of Mankind Now this is perfectly disagreeable to the Genious and Humour of a Proud Man he cannot bear to be thought in any respect Incoherent or Inconsistent with himself And therefore having vainly tried to justifie himself in his Wickedness by alledging the Examples of some good Men in Sacred Scripture that have been guilty of great Sins but whose Repentance he can by no means digest And having also fruitlessly endeavoured to rely on the perverted Sense of some particular Texts of Scripture which he knows are sufficiently refuted by the Analogy of the whole he finds at last that 't is the best way to deny the Divine Authority of the Bible and the Truth of all Revelation and so boldly shake off at once all Obligation to the Rules of Piety and Virtue and since Religion can't be wrested so as to give an allowance to his way of living he will take it quite away Banish that and God Almighty out of the World and set up Iniquity by a Law And nothing can be more pleasing and agreeable to the Arrogance of such Men than this way of Proceeding It gratifies an insolent and haughty Spirit prodigiously to do things out of the common Road to pretend to be Adept in a Philosophy that is as much above the rest of Mankind's Notions as 't is Contradictory to it to assume to himself a Power of seeing much farther into things than other Folk and to penetrate into the deepest recesses of Nature He would pass for one of Nature's Cabinet Councellors a Bosome Favourite that knows all the secret Springs of Action and the first remote Causes of all Things He pleases himself mightily to have discovered with what Ridiculous Bugbears the Generality of Mankind are awed and frighted he can now look down with a Scornful Pity on the poor groveling Vulgar the Unthinking Mobb below that are poorly enslaved and terrified by the Fear of a God and of Ills to come they know not when nor where He despises such dull Biggots as will be imposed upon by Priests and that will superstitiously abstain from the Enjoyment of present Pleasure on account of such idle Tales as the Comminations of Religion And as he despises those that are not Wicked so he upbraids those that are so with inconsistency with their Principles and Profession and for doing the same things that he doth when they have nothing to bear them out And thus he doubly gratifies his Pride by justifying himself and condemning and triumphing over others Nay the very Mistakes and Errours of such a Man we are told appear laudable and great to him and he

all This the Greek and the Barbarian both say the Islander and the Inhabitant of the Continent the Wise and the Unwise alike Aristotle saith That all Men have a Pre-notion concerning the Gods even both Greeks and Barbarians And in another place he hath a very remarkable passage to this sence That there is a very Ancient Tradition which our Fore-fathers have handed down to Posterity in a Mythological Dress That there are Gods and that the Divine Nature sustains or encompasseth all things But this Tradition he saith had in process of time some Figments connected with it as that the Gods had Humane Shapes or those of other Creatures c. which if we separate from it we may suppose it at first divinely spoken and delivered That the Gods were the First Beings Many more Testimonies might be produced to prove this Point that it was the concurrent Opinion of all the Ancient Heathen Writers that there was a common Notion or Belief of a Deity in the Minds of Men But these I think are sufficient And now what can the Atheist say to such a Proof as this What greater Evidence can be desired of the Truth of any thing than that it hath been believed by all Men in all Ages and Places of the World 'T is a very good way of Arguing from Authority that Aristotle uses in his Topicks That saith he which seems true to some Wise Men ought to appear a little probable what most Wise Men believe is yet further probable and what most Men both Wise and Unwise do agree in is much more probable yet But what is received as Truth by the general consent of all Mankind in all Ages of the World hath certainly the highest degree of Evidence of this Kind that is possible And what hath such a Testimony 't is intolerable Arrogance and Folly for any Men to deny and to set up their single Judgments and Opinion contrary to the common Suffrage of all Mankind But they are so puff't up with Pride and Vanity that they do not see the Weakness and Precariousness of what they advance nor how inconsistent it is with their other Tenets If it have but the appearance of contradicting the received Notion that we have of a God and if it do but seem never so little to Undermine Religion they will set it up at a venture as a Demonstration and stick to it let it be never so inconsistent with what at other times they deliver Thus sometimes they will assert that there is no Universal Idea or Notion of a God At other times they will grant there is such an One but that it was Coined and Invented by some Cunning Politician a long while ago before any Books or Histories were written and by him communicated by Tradition to Posterity But here they do not consider that this will necessarily derive all Mankind from one common Parent which is a thing they will at another time by no means admit of lest it should seem to countenance the Story of Adam or Noah which is said to be nothing but an old Jewish Tradition And that 't is impossible to account for the Peopling of America and All Islands remote from the Continent without supposing their Inhabitants to be Aborigines and to spring out of the Earth like Mushrooms And then to account for the General Notion that they cannot deny these Aborigines have of a God as before they made One Wise Man Invent it now they will suppose it to be done by a Hundred such Cunning Politicians who though in different Places and Ages of the World yet did all light by chance on the very same Notion of a God and Abuse and Cheat Mankind just after the same manner and though this be the most extravagant and ridiculous Assertion that ever can possibly come into the Mind of Man as well as contradictory to the former yet 't is all one for that this or any thing else shall be supposed rather than they will yield to the Conviction of Truth and allow the Notion of a Deity to have a real Foundation But 't is no wonder to find Men that wilfully shut their Eyes against the clearest Light to go forward and backward and often times run against each other in the dark Mazes of Error those must needs be at a Loss who neglect His Guidance who is the Way the Truth and the Light and that Spirit which would lead them into all Truth and those no doubt may easily miss of the true Knowledge of God who are resolved they will not seek after Him and all whose Thoughts are that there is no God FINIS Books printed for Rich. Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard IMmorality and Pride the Great Causes of Atheism A Sermon Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul January the 3 d. 1697 8. Being the First of the Lecture for that Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq In Quarto The Atheist's Objection That we can have no Idea of God Refuted A Sermon Preach'd at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul February the 7 th 1697 8. Being the Second of the Lecture for that Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq In Quarto Remarks on some late Papers relating to the Universal Deluge and to the Natural History of the Earth In Octavo All three by J. Harris M. A. and Fellow of the Royal-Society Dr. Woodward's Natural History of the Earth in Octavo Dr. Abbadie's Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Objections of all Modern Opposers in Two Volumes In Octavo The Atheist's Objections Against the IMMATERIAL NATURE of GOD AND INCORPOREAL SUBSTANCES Refuted In Two SERMONS Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul April 4 th and May 2 d. 1698. BEING THE Fourth and Fifth of the LECTURE for that Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By JOHN HARRIS M. A. and Fellow of the ROYAL-SOCIETY LONDON Printed by J. L. for Richard Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. JOHN iv 24 God is a Spirit THE Occasion of these words was this Our Blessed Lord in his way into Galilee passed through Sychar a City of Samaria near to which was the famous Well of the Patriarch Jacob. To this Well our Saviour went to refresh himself on his Journey and as he always made it his business to be doing Good took occasion from a Woman's coming to draw Water to discourse with her about the Business of his Mission By way of Introduction to which He first gives her some Proofs of his being endowed with a Super-natural Knowledge From whence she justly concluding Him to be a Prophet or a Person enrich'd with Divine and Extraordinary Gifts and Qualifications she ask'd Him concerning one great Point that had been long in dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews i. e. about the true Place for Religious Worship The Jews rightly asserted Jerusalem to be the Place where Men ought to Worship The Samaritans contended that

Point Mr. Hobbs that lofty Pretender to Philosophy declares that to say there is any Immaterial Substance is not so much an Error as it is Nonsense 't is using an Insignificant word whereby we conceive nothing but the Sound And in his Kingdom of Darkness where he undertakes to correct the University Learning he is very Angry with Aristotle's Metaphysicks because it brought in as he saith tho' falsly as I shall prove hereafter the Doctrine or Notion of Separated Essences and also of Immateriality and Incorporeity for what is not Corporeal he saith is Nothing and consequently no where And this he undertakes to prove from a Passage which he seems to have borrowed from Ocellus Lucanus tho' without naming him and which tho' it be a poor Sophism and much worse than those he is condemning yet he boldly lays it down as a Demonstration The Universe saith he is Corporeal that is to say Body and hath the Dimensions of Magnitude namely length breadth and depth also every Part of Body is Body and consequently every Part of the Universe is Body and that which is not Body is no Part of the Universe And because the Universe is all that which is no Part of the Universe is Nothing and consequently no where In another place he saith That no Man can conceive any thing but he must conceive it in some place of some Determinate Magnitude and as that which may be divided into Parts And again p. 17. and 207. he tells us That an Incorporeal Substance is a Contradictory and Inconsistent Name 't is all one as if a Man should say an Incorporeal Body which words when they are joined together do destroy one another and therefore Body and Substance are all one Elsewhere he tells us That the proper Signification of the word Spirit in common speech is either a subtile fluid and invisible Body or else a Ghost or other Idle Phantasm of our Imagination and a little after he asserts that to Men that understand the meaning of the words Substance and Incorporeal they imply a Contradiction and that to say an Angel or Spirit is an Incorporeal Substance is to say in effect there is no Angel nor Spirit And this Notion he defends in his Answer to Bishop Bramhall's Book written against his Leviathan and perseveres in asserting that God himself is a Most Pure simple and corporeal Spirit and he defines a Spirit in General to be a thin fluid transparent and invisible Body Thus also Spinoza in his Opera Posthuma p. 13. determines Extended Substance that is Body to be one of the Infinite Attributes of the Deity and this he undertakes to demonstrate from hence that there is not as he saith any Other Substance but God and who consequently is a Corporeal as well as a Cogitative Being Deus est res extensa This you perceive is the plain sense of these Writers That there is no other Substance but Body and consequently to talk of a Spirit or an Incorporeal Substance is to them perfect Nonsense and Contradiction But tho' this be their Opinion and Assertion yet they did not Invent it nor first find it out they are as far from being Originals in this as in other things for herein they do but Copy the Sentiments of the Ancient Atheists and tread exactly in their Steps That there was nothing but Body in the World was long ago the Assertion of such unthinking Men as our Modern Atheists are Plato tells us That there were some in his Time who asserted nothing to be Substance but what they could feel and which would resist their Touch and these Men affirmed Body and Substance to be the same thing and what they were not able to lay hold of and to grasp with their Hands they said was really nothing at all And if any one happened to talk with them about any thing that was not Body they would ridicule and despise him and not hear a word more that he should say Aristotle acquaints us That just such were the Atheistical Principles of his Contemporaries They affirm saith he Matter or Body to be the only Substance and that all other things are only Passions and Affections of it And in another place he saith that these Men asserted all things to be one That there is but one Nature only which is the Matter of all Things and this is Corporeal and hath magnitude And this was long before the Opinion also of Leucippus and Democritus Epicurus argues against Plato that there can be no Incorporeal Deity not only because no Man can frame a conception of an Incorporeal Substance but also because whatever is Incorporeal must needs want Sense and Prudence and Pleasure all which things are included in the Notion of God And therefore an Incorporeal Deity saith he is a Contradiction And his Followers as appears by Lucretius continued in the same Opinion that there is no other Substance in Nature but Body and they had no Notion of any Incorporeal thing but their Vacuum or Empty space which was really nothing at all Sextus Empiricus tells us that all the Epicureans and some of the Stoicks as Basileides in particular maintained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was nothing Incorporeal or Immaterial By these Testimonies we see plainly that the Modern Atheists transcribe the Ancient Opinions exactly and have been able to add very little to them And the Notion that Mr. Hobbs seems so fond of and which he would fain set up as his own Discovery That a Spirit is nothing but a Thin fluid and transparent Body seems to me to be plainly taken from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle tells us was the Definition that some then gave of a Spirit or the Soul of Man And thus having truly stated the Case and shewed you what the Sentiments of the Ancient and Modern Atheists were and are as to the Matter before us I shall now proceed to Examine by what Reasons and Arguments they endeavour to support their Assertion That there is no such thing as any Incorporeal Substance but that whatever really is is Body And here I find their main and chief Argument to be This that an Immaterial Substance is an Unconceivable Thing 'T is what no Man can possibly have any notion or conception of 't is a perfect contradiction in Terms and consequently Nonsense and Impossible This is every where almost the Language of Mr. Hobbs as I have before observed He also pretends to discover the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Cause of this Fiction about Immaterial Substances The Notion he tells us took its rise from the Abuse of abstracted Words and such-like Metaphysical and Scholastical Terms which some have fansied as real Entities separated and distinct from the Subject or Matter of which they are Attributes or Qualities only Thus for Instance because we can consider Thinking or a Reasoning Power alone by it self and distinct