that which we most converse with and with whose Consent and Agreement in any matters we are best acquainted is that of Men and therefore if among Men we can discover such an Universal Agreement concerning the Goodness of these Rules as will warrant us to conclude all other Rational Beings to be consenting with them this will be a sufficient Demonstration of the Truth of the Proposition These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make out 1. That the Reason of Men is Vniversally consenting in this matter viz. That there is an immutable Goodness in these Rules of Morality 2. That this Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other reasonable Beings are consenting with them First THEREFORE there is nothing more evident than that Men are Universally agreed in this matter that to Worship God to Honour their Parents and Superiours to be temperate in their Passions and Appetites and just and charitable towards one another are things in their own nature immutably good that this is not an Opinion peculiar to such an Age or to such a Nation or to such a Sect of Religion but the Vniversal Judgment of all Mankind of whatsoever Age Nation or Religion For 't is upon this judgment that all that Conscience is founded which approves of or condemns mens actions which Conscience is nothing else but a Sense or Feeling of Moral Good and Evil and is every whit as natural to Mens minds as the Sense of pleasant or painful touches to their Bodies Since therefore general Effects must spring from general Causes it necessarily follows that the Pain and Pleasure which Mens minds generally feel upon the Commission of bad and good Actions must be resolved into some general Cause and what else can that be but the general Consent of their Reason concerning the immutable Evil of the one and Good of the other I know 't is pretended by some of our Modern Navigators that there are a sort of People in the World who have not the least sense of Good and Evil and do own neither God nor Religion nor Morality But considering the short Converse and imperfect Intercourse which these our new Discoverers have had with those Barbarous Countries it is fairly supposeable that the Inhabitants may have Notions both Religious and Moral of which Strangers who understand not their Language and Customs and Manners can make little or no Discovery But suppose that what they report were true yet by their own confession these wretched Barbarians are in all other things so extreamly Brutish that they discover no other token of their Humanity but their Shape For they live altogether regardless of themselves of the Conveniences of their Lives and of the Dignity of their Natures without making any Reflections on their own minds or any Observations from their own experience Since therefore all Knowledge is acquired by Attention it is not at all impossible for Creatures so utterly supine and negligent to be ignorant of the most common Notions But for any man to question the truth of this general Rule because there are a few Exceptions from it is every whit as absurd as if he should question whether Men are generally two-legg'd Animals because there have been some Monsters with three And what if among men there are some Monsters in respect of their Minds as well as others in respect of their Bodies This is no more a prejudice to the standing Laws of Humane Nature than Prodigies are to the Regularity of the constant course of Vniversal Nature Specimen naturae cujuslibet saith Tully à natura optima sumendum est i. e. The true sample of every Nature is to be taken from the best Natures of the kind Since therefore the men of all Nations and Ages and Religions who have in any measure attended to the Nature of things and made but any tolerable use of their Reasons are and always have been universally agreed that there is an immutable Good in Vertue and Evil in Vice it is no Argument at all that this is not the general Sense of Mankind supposing it true which is very questionable that there are some few such inhumane Barbarians in the World as make no distinction at all between ' em But then Secondly THIS Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other Reasonable Beings are consenting with them For it shews that God himself is of this mind and if He be we may be sure that all other Reasonable Beings are For if we believe that God made us we must believe that he made us for some End and if he made us for any End he must esteem those Actions good which promote it and those evil which obstruct and hinder it And what other End can an infinitely happy and blessed Being have in making other Beings but only to do 'em good and according to their several Capacities to make them partakers of his own Happiness And if this be the end for which God made us to be sure those Actions must be good in his esteem that are beneficial and those evil that are hurtful and mischievous to our Nature And therefore since he hath implanted in us not only a natural Desire of Happiness but also a rational Faculty to discern what Actions make for our Happiness and what not we may be sure that whatsoever this Faculty doth Vniversally determine to be good or evil for us is good or evil in the Judgment of God 'T is true when the Reason that is in one man judges contrary to the Reason that is in another there must be a Disagreement on one side or the other from the Reason and Judgment of God but when all mens Reason is agreed that this is good and that evil it is plain that this is is the Judgment of the Rational Faculty which naturally makes such a Distinction of things For there is no man that uses his Reason can possibly think that Truth and Falshood Justice and Injustice Mercy and Cruelty are equally good in themselves his Rational Faculty being so framed as that at the first glance and reflection it naturally distinguishes 'em into Good and Evil. When therefore God hath created us with such a Faculty as naturally makes such a Judgment of Good and Evil that Judgment must be Gods as well as the Faculty which made it That therefore which is the unanimous Judgment of all Men must be the Natural Language of the Rational Faculty and that which is the natural Language of the Rational Faculty must be the Language of the God of Nature For he who created me with such a Faculty as naturally judges this Good and that Evil must either have the same Judgment himself or create in me a Contradiction to his own Judgment and that Judgment which he hath created in me he must be supposed to create in all other Beings that are capable of Judging otherwise he would be the author
those different Commodities 'T IS true it hath been an usual Complaint in all Times and Ages that it fares best with the worst and worst with the best and through the commonness of it it is now grown into a Maxim But it is to be considered that Men always pity the miserable and envy the prosperous and that these Passions do naturally bribe their Judgments to think worse of the one and better of the other than either deserve for those whom we pity we are inclined to love and those whom we love we are inclined to think well of as on the contrary those whom we envy we are inclined to hate and those whom we hate we are inclined to think ill of and then because God doth not reward and punish Men according to the Sentence that our blind Pity or Envy passes on them we are ready to quarrel with his Providence And besides there are a world of close Hypocrites that under a mighty shew and Ostentation of Piety do secretly indulge themselves in sundry wastful and ruinous Vices which many times reduce them to Poverty and Misery and these we commonly rank among the good it fares ill with as on the contrary there are abundance of good Men that in the Course of a reserved modest and unaffected Piety whieh makes but very little shew in the Eye of the World are blest and prospered and these we as commonly rank among the bad that fare well Since therefore we are such incompetent Judges of good and bad Men we should be very careful how we object against the Providence of God such Maxims as are only founded on our own fallacious Observations But could we strip our selves of Pity and Envy and penetrate into the insides of Men I doubt not but we should soon be satisfied that good Men have much the Advantage of bad even as to the Happiness and Prosperity of this World for though perhaps there are many more bad Men prospered than good because there are far more bad than good Men in the World yet in Proportion to their Numbers I doubt the prosperous good would far exceed the prosperous bad though there should be but thirty of the one to forty of the other and supposing that in Proportion there were more bad Men than good advanced to worldly Greatness which yet is very doubtful considering how prone we are to judge ill of great Men and to reckon more of them into the Number of the bad than we ought through Envy and Misunderstanding the Reasons of their Actions yet it is to be considered that the true state of worldly Happiness and Prosperity consists not in a great but in a moderate Fortune and that the good things of this World are no where so freely and entirely enjoyed as in the middle Region between Poverty and Riches for as Poverty is attended with Famine and Cold and Anguish so Greatness is attended with Hurry and Tumult impaled with Cares and imprisoned with Pomp and tedious Ceremony so that the truly unfortunate are the Necessitous and the Great while the middle State without partaking of the evils of either includes all that is truly desirable in both Extremes all that Poverty wants and all that Greatness enjoys and in this happy state I dare boldly affirm there are proportionably far more good Men than bad For it is a very rare thing for a good Man that is honest and industrious and depends upon God for a Blessing to be reduced to extreme Necessity so very rare that David in all his life time could not produce one Instance of it Psal. 37.25 for miserable Poverty is usually the Consequence either of Idleness or Luxury or Faction or Knavery all which are inconsistent with true Goodness and a good Man in any Condition on this side pinching Necessity is ordinarily even in this Life far more happy than the most gay and prosperous Sinner whose outward Glory and Greatness is usually nothing but the gaudy Cover of a Tragical Inside of a Mind that is tortured with Pride and Envy with boundless Hopes insatiable Desires and horrible Reflections that dash and embitter all his Enjoyments while the good Man under his mean and simple Outside carries a great and happy Soul a contented Mind a chearful Heart and a calm Conscience which mightily sweeten all his Enjoyments and make his homely Morsel outrelish the most studied Luxuries Let us therefore but judg impartially of Men and but truly state what is the most happy Condition of humane Life and proportion the number of the good to the bad and ballance the Insides of the one with the Outsides of the other and I doubt not but we shall be easily convinced that even in this Life the good ordinarily fare much better than the bad for in true Computation Necessity and Greatness are the only unfortunate States of humane Life and in these there are far more bad Men than good but between these two all Conditions are in a manner indifferent as to the Happiness of Men and in this happy Mean there are far more good Men than bad and then the Minds of good Men having infinitely the advantage of the Minds of bad as to the rendering their outward Condition happy it is impossible but that ordinarily and generally they must be the more happy and prosperous Secondly So far as this Maxim that all things happen alike to all is true it is no Argument at all against a Providence and that upon these following Accounts 1. Because many of the Goods and Evils of this World happen to us not as Rewards and Punishments but in the necessary Course of secondary Causes 2. Because the Goods and Evils of this World are in themselves so mean and inconsiderable that it would be beneath the Wisdom of Providence to be very exact and curious in the Distribution of ' em 3. Because this Life is properly the state of our Trial and Probation and not of our Reward and Punishment 4. Because the Goods and Evils that befall us here are not so truly to be estimated by themselves as by their Effects and Consequents 5. This promiscuous Distribution of things so far as it is is very requisite to assure us of a Judgment to come 6. Because the exact Adjustment of things is reserved for a future Judgment I. THE hapning of all things alike to all is no Argument against Providence because many of the Goods and Evils of this World happen to us not as Rewards and Punishments but in the necessary Course of second Causes For in this Life good and bad Men are so mingled together rhat in Cases of common Calamity what happens to the one must happen to the other without a miraculous interposal of Providence Thus while God leaves second Causes to their natural Course how is it possible that War or Plague or Famine should distinguish between the good and bad that are incorporated together in the same Societies and so long as free Agents are left to
flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Psalm 92.7 If then in the Consequents of things good Men are blessed in their Afflictions and bad Men plagued in their Prosperities as it is apparent they generally are these unequal Distributions are so far from being an Argument against Providence that they are a glorious Instance of it For wherein could the divine Providence better express its Justice and Wisdom together than by benefiting the good and punishing the bad by such cross and improbable Methods V. THAT all things here do happen alike to all is no Argument against Providence because it is very requisite it should often do so to assure us of a Judgment to come For were the Affairs of this World managed with that exact Equality as that the good did never suffer nor the bad escape unpunished we should be deprived of one of the best moral Arguments of a future Judgment For as on the one hand should Providence never reward the good nor punish the bad in this Life but confound them together without any Distinction it might tempt us to despair of any just Retributions from it in the Life to come so on the other hand were the Goods and Evils of this Life weighed out to Men in exact Proportions to their Merit and Demerit without any Inequality we might be tempted to think that there is no need of and consequently no ground to expect any Judgment to come For what occasion would there be for any future Judgment if all things were already exactly balanced and adjusted and therefore as to confirm us in the Belief of the Justice of Providence it was requisite the same plain Instances should be given of its Distinguishing the good from the bad by present Rewards and Punishments so to confirm us in the Expectation of a Judgment to come it was no less requisite that there should be some In equality in the present Management and Distribution of things and that the Goods and Evils of this World should not be administred with that exact Regularity as to prevent the necessity of a day of Judgment but that there should be undecided Cases enough remaining for a future Tribunal to adjust and determine So that as in the present management of things there is Equality enough to induce us to believe a just Providence so there is also Inequality enough to induce us to expect a future Judgment God having wisely provided in his present Administration of things to give us Instances enough of his just Procedure towards the good and bad and yet to leave us Instances enough of unrewarded Virtue and prosperous Wickedness to assure us that he intends an after Reckoning For how can we reflect upon these repeated Examples of just Reward and Punishment which in every Age almost God sets before us and not believe that he governs the World And how can we reflect upon those manifold Evils which some good Men suffer and Goods which some bad Men enjoy without believing that he hath appointed a Day wherein he will adjust these Inequalities and vindicate the Cause of oppressed Virtue and crush triumphant Wickedness into everlasting Confusion VI. And lastly That all things here do happen alike to all is no Argument against Providence because the exact Adjustment of things is reserved for a future Judgment I confess were God to make no other Distribution to the just and unjust but what is made in this Life the Inequality of it would be a strong Objection against his Providence but then considering that all this cloudy Scene of things will shortly close up in a righteous Judgment wherein for the Evils which the good have suffered they shall be awarded an eternal Happiness and for the Goods which the bad have enjoyed they shall be doomed to everlasting Wretchedness this is sufficient to vindicate the Justice of Providence were these present Inequalities a thousand times greater than they are For suppose that after a short Melancholy Dream good Men were to live happily and after as short a pleasant one bad Men were to live wretchedly but for a thousand years in this World we might as well object against Providence this unequal Distribution of the melancholy Dream to the good and the pleasant one to the bad notwithstanding the succeeding thousand years of their Happiness and Misery as we do the sufferings of the Righteous and Prosperities of the Wicked which bear far less Proportion to that Eternity of Happiness and Misery that is to succeed them than the Sorrow or Pleasure of a Moments Dream doth to a thousand years real Calamity or Blessedness FOR the Providence of God from the first to the last is all but one continued Plot like that of a well-contrived Comedy which at first is very obscure and intricate so that by what is past or present there is no guessing at the Conclusion for all through the intermediate Acts Virtue and Honour fight their way through Difficulties and Disappointments and sometimes the Hero acts a sad and sometimes the Villain a prosperous Part at which the unskilful Spectator grieves and is ready to damn the Poet for distributing such unequal Fates but then in the fifth and last Act all the cross Accidents clear up and issue in a fair Conclusion and in the close of all the Hero is crowned and the Villain hissed off the Stage Let us therefore have but the patience to stay 'till Providence hath finished its whole Plot and closed up all its mighty Scenes in the general Judgment of the World and then we shall see all these Inequalities set right and the Fates of good and bad Men determined by a most just Award But for us to quarrel at Providence now who are yet got no farther it may be than to the middle of the great Drama and to find fault with its Procedure for crossing the good and prospering the bad is rudely to overturn the Stage before the Entrance into the fifth Act and to hiss off the Almighty Poet for not compleating his Design before he is arrived to the Conclusion And thus I have endeavoured to answer more at large this Objection against Providence because it hath been more insisted on than any other and hath more generally stumbled Mens Belief of divine Providence V. And lastly It is farther objected that the Being of a just and good Providence is not to be reconciled with that wretched State and Condition to which we behold the greatest part of Mankind abandoned For if there were a good Providence that over-ruled the Affairs of this World how is it imaginable that ever so great a part of Mankind as the Infidel World includes should be left so utterly destitute as they are of the Knowledg of God and of the Means of attaining their everlasting Happiness To which I shall briefly answer these three things I. THAT the Infidel World is not perhaps left so utterly destitute as we are apt to imagine for they have the Law of Nature to
proposed by God to perswade us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2. Cor. 7.1 So also the Doctrine of our future Punishment is levell'd against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men Rom. 1.18 And as for those Doctrines which concern the Transactions of our Saviour they are all proposed to us as Arguments to perswade us to Piety and Vertue For 't was for this cause that Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 't was for this purpose that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live to Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 't was for this end that he rose from the dead that thereby he might prevail with us to walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 and 't is for this end that he intercedes for us at the right hand of God that thereby he might encourage us to come to God by him Heb. 7.2 and in a word for this cause he hath told us he will come to Judgment to reward every man according to his works that thereby he might stir us up to Sobriety and Vigilance and to all holy conversation and Godliness Mat. 24.42 compared with 2 Pet. 3. verse 11. Thus you see all the Doctrines of Religion are only so many Topics of divine Perswasion whereby God addresses himself to our Hope and Fear and every other Affection in us that is capable of Perswasion to excite us to comply with the eternal Obligations of Morality and there is no one Article in all our Religion that is matter of mere Speculation or that entertains our Minds with dry and empty Notions that have no Influence on our Wills and Affections For since the Design of Religion in General is to bind and fasten our Souls to God we may be sure that there is no Part of it but what doth in some measure contribute hereunto Since therefore 't is moral Goodness that God chiefly recommends to us by the Perswasions of Religion we may be sure that what his Arguments do chiefly perswade us to that his Commands do chiefly oblige us to II. FROM Scripture it is also evident that the main Drift and Scope of all the positive Duties of Religion is to improve and perfect men in moral Goodness We find the Jewish Religion exceedingly abounded with positive Precepts for such were all those sacred Rites and Solemnities of which the Bark and Outside of that Religion consisted of all which 't is true what the Psalmist saith of Sacrifices in particular thou desirest not Sacrifices thou delightest not in burnt Offerings Psal. 51.16 that is thou takest no delight in them upon the score of any internal Goodness that is in them but desirest them merely as they are instituted means and Instruments of Moral Goodness For so many of the Rites of the Mosaic Law were instituted in opposition to the Magical Vnclean and Idolatrous Rites of the Eastern Heathen As particularly that Prohibition of sowing their Fields with mingled Seed Lev. 19.19 in Opposition to that Magical Rite which the Heathens used as a Charm for Fructification So also that Command of sprinkling the Blood of their Sacrifices upon the Ground like Water and covering it with Dust in Opposition to that Idolatrous Rite of gathering the Blood into a Trench or Vessel and then sitting round it in a Circle whilst they imagined their gods to be licking it up And to name no more of this kind the Prohibition of seething a Kid in his Mothers Milk Exod. 23.19 was in Opposition to a Custom of the Ancient Heathen who at the Ingathering of their Fruits were wont to take a Kid and seeth it in the milk of its Dam and then in a Magical Procession to sprinkle all their Trees and Fields and Gardens with it thereby to render them more fruitful the following Year Besides all which you may find a World of other Instances in Maimonides More-Nevoch lib. 3. who tells us that the Knowledg of the Opinions and Customs of these Eastern Heathens was porta magna ad reddendas praeceptorum causas the great Rationale of the Mosaic Precepts and that multarum legum rationes causae mihi innotuerint ex cognitione fidei rituum Cultus Zabiorum i. e. that by being acquainted with the opinions and customs of those Eastern Heathens he understood the grounds and reasons of many of the Laws of Moses More-Nevoch lib. 3. cap. 29. So that tho these Precepts were not Moral yet were they set up as so many Fences by God to keep his People from stragling into those Heathen Immoralities AGAIN there are other Rites of their Religion which were instituted to shadow out the Holy Mysteries of the Gospel the great Design of which Mysteries was to invite and perswade men to comply with the eternal Laws of Morality Thus their Laws of Sacrifice were instituted to represent to them the great Transactions of their future Messias his Incarnation and immaculate Life his Death and Resurrection Ascension and Intercession at the right hand of God So also their Festival Laws and particularly their Laws of Jubilee were made to shadow out the Doctrines of our Redemption and eternal Life and their powring out Water in their Sacrifices and their Ritual Purgations from uncleanness were intended for obscure Intimations of the Effusion of the holy Spirit and the Doctrine of Remission of Sins all which Doctrines carry with them the most pregnant Invitations to Piety and Vertue Lastly THERE are other Rites of that Law which were appointed to instruct them in Moral Duties For God finding them not only a perverse but a dull and sottish People as those generally are that have been born and bred in Slavery apprehended that the most effectual way to instruct them would be by Signs and material Representations even as Parents do their Children by Pictures And accordingly in Isaiah 28.10 he tells us that he gave them line upon line and precept upon precept here a little and there a little with a stammering tongue i. e. he look'd upon them as Children and so condescended to their Weakness and spake to them in their own Dialect And this way of instructing them by outward and visible Signs being much in use in the Eastern Countries and more especially in Egypt whose manners they were infinitely fond of was of all others the most probable and taking And accordingly a great part of the Jewish Rites consisted of Hieroglyphics or visible Signs by which their minds were instructed in the Precepts of Morality Thus by Circumcision God signified to them the necessity of mortifying their unchast Desires by their Legal Washings he intimated to them their Obligation to cleanse themselves from all Impurities of Flesh and Spirit yea this as St. Barnabas in his Epistle tells us was the Intent of all that Difference of Meats in the Jewish Law which pronounced Swines flesh unclean to instruct them
he hath not only revealed them together but also incorporated them into one Religion as it is now framed and constituted by this happy Conjunction of natural with revealed may be thus defined It is the Obligation of Rational Creatures to render such acts of Worship to God through Jesus Christ as he himself hath instituted and as are in their own Natures sutable to his Excellencies and their dependence upon him Where by acts of Worship I do not mean such only as are immediately directed to and terminated upon God as all those are which are contained in the first Table of the Decalogue but all those acts in general which God hath commanded which being performed upon a Religious account that is out of Homage and Obedience to Gods Will and Authority are as truly and properly acts of Worship to him as Prayer or Praise or Adjuration AND now having given this short account of the nature of Religion it will from hence be easie to collect what Principles are necessary to the founding and securing its Obligations for First GOD being the great Object of all Religion it must be absolutely necessary in order to our being truly Religious that we believe that God is Secondly RELIGION being an Obligation of us to God that this Obligation may take effect upon us it is necessary we should believe that he concerns himself about us and consequently that he Governs the World by his Providence Thirdly RELIGION obliging us to render all due acts of Worship to him to inforce this Obligation upon us it is necessary we should believe that he will certainly reward us if we render those acts to him and as certainly punish us if we do not Fourthly THESE acts of Worship which Religion obliges us to being such as are suitable to the Excellency of Gods Nature to enable us to fulfil this Obligation it is necessary we should have right Apprehensions of the Nature of God Fifthly RELIGION obliging us to render all these Acts of Worship to God in and through Jesus Christ to our performing this it is necessary we should believe in his Mediation THESE are the great Principles in which all the Obligations of Religion are founded and therefore in order to the through fixing those Obligations upon mens Minds it will be necessary before we proceed to the particular Duties which Religion obliges us to to discourse of these Principles distinctly CHAP. III. Of the necessity of believing that God is in order to Mens being truly Religious HE that cometh unto God saith the Apostle must believe that God is Heb. 11.6 where by coming to God is meant worshiping him that is expressing our Veneration of and Affection to him by outward and visible Signs and Actions and unless our outward Actions in Religion proceed from an inward Veneration of and Affection to him they are not Worship but Mockery but how is it possible a man should inwardly venerate God when he believes there is no such Being in the World For how real soever any thing may be in it self if we believe it is not it is to us as if it were not and therefore tho God doth so necessarily exist as that he cannot but be the very Notion of him implying an infinite Distance from not being yet while we believe he is not our Thoughts can be no more concern'd about him than about purchasing an Inheritance in Vtopia So that this Proposition that God is is the prime Fundamental of all Religion and if this be removed Religion must sink and all its Sacred Obligations fly in sunder But this is so self-evident that it would be very impertinent to insist upon the Proof of it All that I shall do therefore in pursuance of this Argument shall be to endeavour to establish the Belief of this fundamental Truth upon which all Religion depends and that First by inquiring into and removing the Causes of mens Infidelity in this matter Secondly by representing the Folly and Vnreasonableness of it For as for the Proofs and Evidences of Gods Being I shall reserve them till I come to discourse of his Providence where I think there is enough said to satisfie any Man that is not desperately hardned against all Conviction SECT I. Of the Causes of Atheism shewing the great Absurdity and Unreasonableness of them CONSIDERING how loudly the Voice of Nature the Consent of Nations and the beautiful Structure and Contrivance of things do proclaim the Being of God one would think it impossible there should be any such Monster as an Atheist among reasonable Beings and indeed it hath been warmly disputed among the Learned whether there be any such or no A Question which these later Ages have determined in the Affirmative by an Induction of too many woful Instances But doubtless had men impartially attended to the Dictates of Reason and not delivered themselves up to the Infatuations of their Lusts and the inveterate Prejudice of a corrupt Imagination it would have been impossible for so many gross Absurdities as Atheism implies to have entred into their minds but when once mens Wills and Affections have espoused a Proposition they will make one shift or other be it never so absurd to impose it on their Vnderstandings and considering how many Causes there are leading men to Atheism who are predisposed thereunto I cannot think an Atheist to be so great a Wonder For so long as mens Vnderstandings are led by their Wills and their Wills are byassed with inclinations to Impiety they can hardly forbear wishing there were no God and then from wishing there were none to believing there is none will be a very short and easie Transition Since therefore their Atheism proceeds not so much from the Defect of their Reason as from the fault of their Wills perhaps the most effectual way to cure it is rather to detect and remove those faulty Causes in their Wills than to attempt upon their Reason with the Proofs and Demonstrations of a Deity And accordingly you see that when God had once erected this goodly Theatre of Beings and imprinted on it so many glorious Characters of his own Power and Wisdom and Goodness tho from time to time he hath wrought innumerable Miracles to reduce men from Superstition Idolatry and Wickedness yet he never wrought one to reduce them from Atheism And indeed to what purpose should he it being highly improbable that they who will not be convinc'd of the Being of God by this standing Miracle the World in which there are so many ample Demonstrations of his Being should be convinc'd of it by any other Miracles for other Miracles are only the Disorders and Interruptions of Nature and certainly the regular Course and standing Order of Nature is a much more glorious Evidence of Gods Wisdom and Power than the most miraculous Interruptions and Disorders of it And therefore if men will be Atheists notwithstanding God hath imprinted so many Proofs of his Being on this visible Creation 't is plain it is
and to absent ones self ordinarily from the Publick Assemblies was hardly consistent with the Reputation of being a Christian. By which means their natural Sense and Dread of the divine Powers being continually awakened and revived they were not only secured by it from all Atheistical Impressions but also animated and excited to a pious and sober Conversation But the spirit of Schism prevailing against the Power and Discipline of the Church till it had uttterly disabled it from restraining the Wantonness of that crooked and perverse Generation some incorporated themselves into separate Communions and others under Pretence of so doing withdrew from the Publick Assemblies to the common Resorts of Idleness Drunkenness and Debauchery and whilst the Masters took the Liberty of Conscience to go to Conventicles the Servants pretending to be of a different Perswasion assumed the Liberty of Will to go to Taverns and Ale-houses insomuch that it grew a common Observation that there have been more young People debauched on the Lords Day than all the Week after whilst under pretence of joyning with a different Communion they have taken occasion to withdraw themselves from the Inspection of their Parents and Masters And till once our Schisms and Divisions are cured it will be impossible to prevent this ill Practice unless we will be so unjust as to deny that Liberty of Conscience to our Servants which with so much Clamour and Confidence we demand of our Governors And thus by degrees Profaneness hath insinuated it self under the Covert of Schism and Liberty of Conscience became a common Sanctuary for the licentious Neglect and Contempt of Gods Worship till at last it grew so common and fashionable that it almost ceast to be scandalous Yea so far at length hath this impious Humour prevailed that to go to Church and be devout is among too many Men grown a Note of Disgrace and the Character of a Priest-ridden fool and a Man is hardly lookt upon as fit for genteel Conversation that knows any other use of a Holy-day but only to be at leisure to lie abed or to Game or Drink and Debauch by which Neglect and Contempt of the Worship of God that natural Sense of him which should have been quickned and cherished by it hath been gradually worn out of Mens Minds the Consequence of which is all that Atheism and Infidelity that overspreads this present Age. For when once Men have renounced the Worship of God and in Consequence are abandoned of their natural Sense of his Majesty they are upon the brink of Atheism into which their own vile Lusts whose Interest it is that there should be no God will easily precipitate them But alas how ridiculous as well as impious is it for Men to take occasion from their own Neglect of Gods Worship to renounce the Belief of his Being what is this but to tail one folly to another and to second Extravagance with Madness It would make one amazed to think that ever reasonable Beings should be so besotted as to live in a World over which an Almighty Being presides who sees all their Actions and in whose Hands all events are which concen them and even the everlasting Fate of their Souls and yet take no more notice of him pay no more Respect or Veneration to him than if he were the merest trifle or most insignificant Cypher in the whole Creation But sure when Men have been guilty of such a black and horrid Impiety one would think their wisest Course for the time to come should be to repent of it and to endeavour to compensate for their past Profaneness by the strictness and Sincerity of their future Devotion but for Men to proceed from neglecting Gods Worship to denying his Being is to do worse because they have done ill and thereby to inflame the Provocation as if they were resolved to render their Condition desperate because they have been so fool-hardy as to render it dangerous AND thus I have given a short Account of the common Causes of Atheism which you see are all derived from Mens Wills and not from their Reason For this I do most firmly believe that the Arguments of Gods Existence are so plain and convincing that no Man ever was or can be an Atheist without some inexcusable fault in his Will SECT II. Of the inexcusable Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism THE next thing I proposed was to endeavour to confirm and establish this great Principle of Religion viz. the Belief of a God by representing the great folly and unreasonableness of Atheism In discoursing which I shall meddle no more than needs must with the Proofs and Arguments of a Deity because as I have shewed before 't is not for want of Arguments that Men turn Atheists but for want of Consideration and an honest Will and that the Byass that carries them towards Infidelity is not in their Vnderstandings but in their Wills and Affections that 't is only their Partiality to their Lusts that inclines them to Atheism and that the Reason why they are so ready to believe that there is no God is because they wish in their Hearts that there were none To establish the Belief of a God therefore I shall endeavour to represent the folly and unreasonableness of Mens being partial on the side of Atheism supposing it were disputable whether there be a God or no and this will evidently appear in the following Particulars 1. The Atheist concludes against the Dignity of Humane Nature and renders it not only mean but ridiculous 2. He concludes against the very Being and Well-being of Humane Society 3. He concludes against that which is the main Support and Comfort of Humane Life 4. He concludes for that side of the Question which is infinitely the most unsafe and hazardous 5. He concludes for the unsafest side of the Question upon the highest uncertainties 6. He plainly contradicts himself in his Conclusion I. THE Atheist concludes against the Dignity of Humane Nature and thereby renders it not only mean but ridiculous For the chief Worth and Dignity of Humane Nature consists in its Relation to God without whom its noblest and most excellent Faculties are in a great measure useless and insignificant for if there be no God the objects of our Five Senses are the sole Entertainment of our Understanding and Will and we have no other use of these mighty Faculties which if there were any such thing as an infinite Truth and Goodness are naturally capable of enjoying them but only to consult and choose the Gratifications of our Sense and the Pleasures of this perishing Body For excepting God there is no such thing in Nature as a spiritual enjoyment no Good to be found but what is prepared to entertain the boundless Liquorishness of our carnal Appetites and had we none but such as these to consult for our Reason which is the Crown and Glory of our Natures would have nothing else to do but to Cater for our Flesh and we should
grounds or reasons of it how much more may an allwise and Almighty mind And therefore since de facto we behold a world of curious art among brute animals that far exceeds all the little feats we can teach them why may we not as reasonably believe that any one of these dancing animals learnt all his artificial motions the reasons of which he understands not without any arts-master to teach him as that Ants and Bees acquir'd all the art and Providence they practice without either discovering the reasons of it by any understanding of their own or being ever instructed in it by any other provident mind for art and providence cannot be supposed without reason and therefore since the reason of their art is not in themselves it must necessarily be in some mind without them that hath the conduct and direction of all their motions III. ANOTHER sensible evidence of a divine Providence is the mutual agreement and correspondency of things that have no understanding of themselves or of one another For if we look abroad into the World we cannot but observe an admirable harmony among things which yet have no kind of knowledg of one another and therefore cannot be supposed to have framed and adapted themselves to one another nor yet to be so fram'd and adapted but by the Art and contrivance of some very wise and intelligent Mind For how can any cause fit any two things to one another without having some Idea in his mind of the natures of them both If therefore in the nature of things we can discover a world of mutual suitabilities of this to that and of one thing to another it will be a sufficient argument that they all procced from some wise Cause that had an universal Idea of their natures in his mind and saw how such a thing would suit such a thing before ever he actually adapted them one to another NOW not to insist any further upon the admirable fitness of the Sun and Earth the Water and Earth the Air and Heaven and Earth one to another which I have largely discoursed already how exactly is every animal fitted for its element and every element for its animals Thus the Birds for instance are fitted with wings to fly aloft in the air and the air is fitted to bear them up and to yield to the vibration of their wings the Fishes are fitted to swim in the water having finns which serve instead of oars to cut through and divide the streams and the waters are fitted for the fish to swim in being a soft and fluid substance that is easily cut and divided and as for the earth and those earthy animals that inhabit it there is an admirable congruity between them for they being all fram'd to walk or creep must have an hard and solid matter to move on and the earth being an hard and solid matter requires such animals as can walk or creep on it and as every element is fitted for the motion of its animals and every animal to move in its element so every element hath a food that is proper to the appetites of its animals and every animal an appetite that is proper to the food of its element So that as every animal is fitted within with all those faculties and organs that are requisite to its procuring and enjoying what is good for it and its shunning and repelling what is hurtful so it is also furnish'd without with all that is necessary or convenient for its support and satisfaction Thus every faculty within hath an object without prepar'd for it that is exactly correspondent therewith without which as hath been excellently observ'd the faculty would become vain and useless yea and sometimes harmful and destructive as reciprocally the object would import little or nothing if such a faculty were not provided for and suited to it For thus the Eye would be perfectly useless if it were not for the light and the light would be much less considerable if it were not for the Eye for if all light were extinguish'd all those curious colours into which the light is refracted would be utterly insignificant and if all those colours were extinguished the Eye would be utterly depriv'd of one of its most pleasant entertainments And what use would there be of all that infinite variety of melodious sounds fragrant odours and delicious savours which this frame of nature affords were there no hearing smelling or tasting faculties and what would these faculties signifie were there no such sounds or odours or savours So that these objects and faculties are all as perfectly fitted one to another as it was possible for art to fit them nothing could be better sitted for seeing than the eye nothing better fram'd to render things visible than the light and light can be refracted into no colour so grateful unto the eye as green which is the great colour of Nature and the same may be said of the ear and sounds the smell and odours the tast and savours and if the eye were made to see and the ear to hear as there is no doubt but they were being so exquisitely fram'd for that purpose to be sure light was made for seeing and sounds for hearing and so for all the rest and how is it possible that so many things should be made so exactly harmonious and agreeable with one another without the powerful art and direction of some very skilful mind that knew before-hand that this thing would perfectly fit that and consequently had a perfect Idea of them both When therefore we behold such exact correspondencies between the motive faculties of Animals and the elements they move in between the fruits and products of those Elements and the faculties of tast digestion and nutrition in those animals that inhabit them and in a word between all sensible objects without and sensitive objects within how is it possible we should be so senseless as not to trace out an all-directing wisdom by footsteps that are so exprest and remarkable For suppose you heard a musical Instrument move its own strings into an exquisite harmony and run long divisions of curious and well-proportion'd notes without the impulse of any visible Artist would you not conclude either that some invisible hand did immediately touch and play upon its strings or that they were mov'd by some internal spring and contrivance of a musical mind how then can we attend to the admirable harmonies of Nature to the natural references and due proportions and exact correspondencies of all its innumerable parts to one another without believing that there is some great harmonical mind which tun'd it at first and still plays upon it by the immediate touch and impulse of its own invisible hand AND as all things are thus fitted and adapted together so are they also most regularly subordinated to one another according to their rank and worth the sensless elements with all their fruit and product being subject to the use of animals to
its own motion and then move again or divert from its course and then return again if it were not under the command of some will without it that guides and disposeth it according to its own Council But besides these Scripture Miracles there are sundry miraculous Instances of the rewarding good Men and punishing bad publickly recorded in the Histories of all Ages some of vindicating the Innocence others of restoring the lives others of relieving the necessities of good Men some of detecting the Crimes of bad Men others of striking them dead in their impious facts others of punishing them in kind and others of inflicting on them those very Plagues which they have imprecated on themselves to give credit to a falshood of some or other of which there is scarce any Age of the World which hath not been furnished with sundry notorious instances so that unless we will give the Lye to all humane testimony and condemn the Records of all Ages for publick Cheats and Impostures we cannot deny but that there have been sundry Miracles in the World and if of all these Miracles that have been so strongly attested there be but any one true and real that one is a sufficient argument of an over-ruling Providence For if ever any thing hath been effected that is either above the Power or contrary to the established Course of natural Causes it must be brought to pass by the Power of God and if God doth sometimes visibly exert his own immediate efficacy on this World that is a plain evidence that he always governs it for whenever he thus exerts it it is for some reason to be sure and for what other reason should he thus strip his Arm and visibly exert his Power upon or before us but either to awaken our attention or to confirm our faith or alarm our fear or encourage our hope and if ever he had any such design upon us it must be in order to his governing us for to what other purpose can an Almighty Being be supposed to address himself to our Hope and Fear and Faith and Attention but to subdue and reduce us under his Rule and Government VI. And lastly Another visible evidence of a divine Providence is Predictions of future aad remote contingencies That there have been such things hath been universally acknowledged by Heathens as well as Jews and Christians As for the Heathen Tully gives numerous instances of it in his two Books of Divination In the first of which he sets down this as the great Principle of Prediction Esse Deos eorum providentiâ mundum administrari eosdemque consulere rebus humanis nec solum universis verum etiam singulis i. e. That there are Gods and that by their Providence the World is governed that they take care of humane Affairs and this not only in general but in particular And of these Predictions he tells us there was one Chrysippus who wrote a large Book in which he gives innumerable instances of them all confirmed by very good Authority Besides which there were their Oracles and their Sybilline Writings among which if there had not been a great many true Predictions it is not to be imagined that ever the wiser and more inquisitive part of Men should be so far imposed on as they were to pay such a mighty respect and veneration to them and that not only for a little while but for several Ages together But as for their Oracles there are sundry of them recorded in ancient Historians together with their punctual accomplishments and Tully in particular tells us of one of Apollo his Oracles which foretold a thousand years before that Sypselus the Tyrant should reign at Corinth And Varro makes mention of one Vectius Valens an Augur in the time of Romulus who when Rome was building foretold by the flying of twelve Vultures that the City should continue a thousand two hundred years which accordingly hapned But as for the reality of Predictions we need seek no farther than the Holy Scriptures in which you have sundry Prophesies of things which hapned a long time after as particularly of the deliverance of the Jews from those two Captivities the one in Aegypt the other in Babylon the former of which was foretold four hundred years and the latter above seventy years before it came to pass and yet both of them accomplished punctually to a day as you may see in Gen. 15.13 compared with Exod. 12.41 and Jer. 25.12 compared with 2 Chron. 36.21 22. which latter Prophesie is not only recorded in Scripture but mentioned by Eupolemus an heathen Historian cited by Eusebius Prepar pag. 454. Thus also you have Esay his Prophesie of Cyrus whose name and atchievements he most exactly foretells long before he was born Esay 44.45 And then for Daniel's Prophesies of the grand Revolutions of the Empires of the World they do so punctually describe what hapned long after that Porphyry himself though a mortal Enemy to Christianity is forced to confess the exact agreement of his Prophesies with the succeeding Events vid. St. Chrysost. cont Jud. Tom. 6. p. 326. and hath no other way to evade the force of them but by affirming without any colour of Reason or Authority that they were written afterwards in or near the time of Antiochus Epiphanes though it is evident that the LXX Interpreters who translated the Old Testament a hundred years before translated this Prophesie of Daniel with it And Josephus expresly tells us that Jaddus the High Priest shewed this very Prophesie to Alexander the Great who lived long before Antiochus Joseph Antiqu l. 11. But to name no more there are the Prophesies of the Messias of the place and most particular circumstances of his Nativity and Ministry and Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension all which were so punctually accomplished in our Blessed Saviour that did not the Jews in whose hands they have been always preserved own and acknowledge them one would be apt to suspect that they were forged on purpose by some Christian to countenance our Saviours pretence of being the true Messias AND if there be any such thing as Prophesie if but any one of all these Instances be real and that none of them should would be very strange this one will be a sufficient evidence of a Divine Providence for to foresee things at a distance and before their Causes are in being so as to describe before hand the precise Time and Place and Manner of their existence or to foresee things casual and contingent that wholly depend upon the free choice and determination of voluntary Agents requires a mind of infinite comprehension that sees through all the whole Series of Causes and hath a perfect prospect not only of those things that actually exist but also of all that are future and possible For how is it possible to foresee a remote futurity in all its particular Circumstances whose immediate Cause is either unborn or free and undetermined without having a
perfect inspection not only into the natures and inclinations and tendencies of things but also into all their particular Conjunctions and Conspiracies and that Mind which sees into all these must needs be all-seeing and have nothing concealed from it that is either present or future or possible So that if there be any such thing as Prediction of remote and contingent futurities it must necessarily proceed from an all-seeing Mind and if there be an all-seeing Mind that oversees the whole World and accurately inspects all that is past or present or to come in it is it imaginable that such a Mind should sit looking on as an idle Spectator and act no part it self in such a vast and busie Scene of thihgs For that it thus exactly inspects and takes notice of the World is a plain Argument that it is greatly concerned for it and that it should be greatly concerned for it and yet do nothing about it nor exercise any Providence over it is altogether inconceivable And thus I have shewn with all the plainness I could what Evidences there are to create in us a belief of a Divine Providence which I persuade my self are such as duly considered cannot but prevail with Minds that are not steel'd against all convictions and utterly abandoned both of their Reason and Modesty SECT III. The Objections against Providence considered and answered I Now proceed to the third and last thing proposed to be treated of in this Chapter and that is to shew the Insufficiency and Vnreasonableness of the common Pretences to Infidelity in this matter and here not to insist upon all the little and shameful Cavils which have been made against Providence which are so very inconsiderable that 't would be too great a Credit to them to be seriously confuted I shall insist upon those only which are the common and do carry the fairest shew of Reason with them and they are these five 1. That the Exercise of a Providence doth not comport with the Majesty of God 2. That it doth not consist with the Ease and Happiness of God 3. That it is not reconcilable with the manifold Evils which we behold in the World 4. That if there were such a Providence it could not admit of the unequal Divisions of Goods and Evils which are made in this World 5. That it is not to be reconciled with the wretched State and Condition to which we behold the greatest part of Mankind abandoned I. IT is objected against the Being of Providence that it doth not comport with the Majesty of God to take notice of or concern himself about the little Affairs of this World Which is such an Objection as carries its own Answer with it for I would fain know which is most sutable to Majesty to sit still or to act to wrap up it self in everlasting Sloth and Idleness or to display it self in a vigorous Activity And if it be greater and more Majestick as doubtless it is for any Being to employ and exercise its Powers than to let them lie asleep and make no use of them I would fain know in what higher Sphere can God exercise his Powers than in governing the World For to govern well is the best and greatest thing that we can frame an Idea of 't is to do the greatest good to dispense the noblest Virtues and to shed forth the amplest Sphere of Benefits And therefore since the World is such a vast Dominion doubtless the most glorious Employment that the largest Mind can undertake is to rule and govern it and there is nothing can be greater and more Godlike than to sit at the Helm of this floating Universe and steer its Motions to their Ends with a steady and unerring Hand What therefore can God do more worthy of himself than to govern the World well and wisely Or wherein can he better display the Glory of his own Perfections than in keeping this mighty Engine in such an admirable Order so as that though its Parts are infinite in Number and Variety and in their several Lines of Motion do frequenly cross and intersect each other yet do they neither clash nor interfere disturb nor confound one another but in their different Functions mutually assist each other and all conspire in a common Good composing out of their infinite Discords a most elegant Harmony in which mighty Performance there is scope enough for an infinite Power to exert its utmost Activity for an infinite Wisdom to employ its utmost skill and for an infinite Goodness to put forth its utmost Beneficence So that to undertake this Province of governing the World is so far from being beneath the Majesty of God that it would be an unpardonable Arrogance for any but a God to undertake it and if Contrivance be the End of Wisdom Action of Power Beneficence of Goodness as doubtless they are where can the infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God find a more ample Sphere for Action Contrivance and Beneficence than in the Government of the World And if it be the proper Exercise of Majesty to govern what can better comport with the greatest Majesty than to display it self in the Government of the largest Dominion which is that of the World BUT then considering that God himself is the Father of all this great Family of Beings how can it be beneath his Majesty to take care of his own Off-spring Why should it be below him to provide for any thing which was not below him to create If there be any thing in this World so contemptible as not to deserve his Regard why did he create it If there be not why should he disdain to govern it And if every thing in this World hath some End for the sake of which God thought it worthy to be one of the Objects of his Creation why should he not as well think the constant Direction of it to that End to be an Object worthy of his Providence II. IT is further objected against the Being of Gods Providence that it is inconsistent with his Quiet and Happiness For to attend to such an infinite number of things as the Government of the World includes cannot but distract his Thoughts and thereby disturb him in the Injoyment of himself All which is a gross mistake arising from no other cause but our measuring God by our selves because we find our own Minds so narrow and our own Powers so limited as that we cannot without Distraction attend to many things at once therefore we conclude that this mighty Business of governing the World must needs be very uneasie to God Whereas if we considered God as a Being that is infinitely perfect whose Almighty Power implies an Ability to do whatsoever is possible and whose infinite Knowledge includes an universal Prospect of all things past present and to come this would easily convince us of the Vanity and Falshood of this Objection for it is by reason of Imperfection that Beings operate with Labour and