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
all the Duties of it must be morally that is eternally good and reasonable because those Doctrines are the eternal Reasons upon which they are founded and by which they oblige So that whatsoever is a Duty of natural Religion must oblige for ever because it obliges by an eternal Reason and so can never be dispensed with or abrogated 'till the Natures of things are cancell'd and reversed and eternal Truths are converted into Lies IN short therefore natural Religion hath only natural Reason for its rule and measure which from the Nature of God and things deduces all those eternal Reasons by which it distinguishes our Actions into honest and dishonest decorous and filthy good and evil necessary and sinful For it doth not make them good or evil by judging them so but if it judgeth truly it judges of them as it finds them and unless it finds them good or evil in themselves upon some eternal Reason for or against them its judgment is false and erroneous So that the objective goodness or evil that is in the actions themselves is the measure of our Natural Reason but our natural Reason judging truly concerning them is the measure of our choice or refusal of them for be our action never so good or evil in it self unless we have some eternal reason for or against it we cannot judge it so and unless we judge it so we cannot reasonable choose or refuse it but as soon as ever we have judged and pronounced it good or evil upon an eternal reason we stand obliged by that Judgment to do or forbear it So that right Reason pronouncing such actions good and such evil is the Law of Nature and those eternal Reasons upon which it so pronounces them are the Creed of Nature both which together make natural Religion And by this Religion was the World Governed at least the greatest part of it for some thousands of Years till by long and sad Experience it was found too weak to correct the errors of mens Minds and restrain the wild extravagancies of their Wills and Affections and then God out of his great pity to lost and degenerate Mankind vouchsafed to us the glorious Light of revealed Religion which in the largest acceptation of it includes all natural Religion as well the credenda as agenda the Doctrines as the Duties of it both which are contained in that Revelation of his Will which God hath made to the World to which it hath superadded sundry Doctrines and Duties of supernatural Religion BUT strictly speaking revealed Religion as it is distinguished from natural consists of such Doctrines and Duties as are knowable and discoverable only by Revelation as are not to be deduced and inferred by reasoning and Discourse from any necessary or natural Principles but wholly depend upon the counsel and good Will of God And where things depend intirely upon Gods Will and their Being or not Being lies wholly in his free disposal it is impossible that our natural Reason should ever arrive at the knowledge of them without some Revelation of his Will concerning them For in such matters as these where the Will of God is absolutely free Reason without Revelation hath neither necessary nor probable Causes and Principles to argue from and therefore can make neither certain Conclusions nor so much as probable guesses concerning them but must necessarily remain altogether in the dark till such time as God hath revealed to it which way his Will is determined and of such matters as these consists all revealed Religion strictly so called For tho God hath made sundry Revelations of his Will yet the subject matter of them was for the Main always the same viz. the Doctrine of the Mediation of Jesus Christ and the Duties that are subsequent thereunto which from that Promise which God made to Adam upon his Fall the seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head to the last promulgation of the Gospel hath been the great Theme of all divine Revelation For what else was that Revelation which God made to Abraham in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed but only the dawning of the Gospel which is nothing but glad tidings of the Mediator What was the Law of Moses but only the same Gospel shining through a Cloud of Types and symbolical Representations and what are all the succeeding Prophesies of the Old Testament but only the same Gospel still shining clearer and clearer till at last it broke forth in its Meridian brightness And were this a proper place I think I could easily demonstrate that from Adam to Moses from Moses to the Prophets from the Prophets to Jesus Christ the main Scope and Design of all Divine Revelation hath been the gradual Discovery of this great Mystery of the Mediation So that revealed Religion was for the matter of it always the same tho it was not always revealed with the same Perspicuity but clear'd up by degrees from an obscure Twilight to a perfect Day Wherefore Christianity which in strictness is nothing but the Doctrine of the Mediation together with its appendant Duties ought not to be lookt on as a new Religion of 1600. years Date for in reality 't is as ancient as the Fall and was then Preached to Adam in that dark and Mysterious Promise after which it was a little more clearly repeated tho very obscurely still in God's Covenant with Abraham and again after that it was much more amply revealed in the Types and Figures of the Law of Moses which yet like painted Glass in a Window did under their Pompous Shew still darken and obscure the holy Mysteries within them which were nothing but the Doctrines and Laws of the Christian Religion So that Judaism was only Christianity vail'd and Christianity is only Judaism revealed THUS The Religion of the Mediator you see was the principal Subject of all divine Revelation and this without Revelation natural Reason could never have discovered because the whole of it depended upon the free will of God For whether he would admit of any Mediator or no whether he would admit his own Son to be our Mediator or no whether he would deposit such inestimable Blessings for us or no in the hands of our Mediator was intirely left to his free Determination and there was no necessary cause either within or without him no nor any probable one neither that humane Reason could ever have discovered that could incline or determine him one way or t'other So that till such time as he revealed his Will to us we were left utterly in the dark as to this matter and had no manner of Principles to argue from or so much as to guess by This therefore is strictly the revealed Religion as it stands in opposition to the natural But since together with revealed Religion God hath put forth a second Edition of natural which was almost lost and grown out of Print through the wretched Negligence and Stupidity of Mankind and since
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
good men I am tempted to think there are no gods Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet at Cato parvo Pompeius nullo quis putet esse Deos The wicked Licinus lies in a Marble Tomb but Cato in a small one and Pompey in none who would think there were gods So also there are others who beholding themselves in the flattering Mirror of their own self-conceit are so taken with the Reflections of their own Merit and Excellency as that they cannot see how 't is possible but that if there be a God he must love and reward them and therefore if instead of so doing God either deprives them of those worldly Goods which they doat on or frustrates them of those carnal Hopes for whose Accomplishment they have earnestly supplicated they presently begin to murmur against him and thence proceed to arraign the Justice of his Providence and thence to deny both that and his Being For thus it comes to pass saith Simplicius that such who have no grounded Belief of a Deity when they observe the Miseries of good Men and the Prosperities of bad are without any Regard to the common Notions of a God ready to cry out with with him in the Tragedian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I dare affirm there are no Gods because the wicked prosper that hurt me Thus from their fond Affection to these worldly Goods men frequently take occasion to quarrel with Gods Providence for not appropriating them to be the Rewards of Virtue and being once engaged in a Quarrel against his Providence their next attempt is to dispute him out of his Being But what an unreasonable way of concluding is this I value this to be best and that to be worst and therefore God ought to be of my Opinion and to proceed accordingly in his Providence over the World for there is nothing can be better or worse within the Prospect of an infinite Wisdom than what I apprehend to be best and worst for Mankind and therefore if he will do good to the Good it must be in the Method that I shall prescribe him that is to say he must crown them with Rose-buds and cloath them in Purple and feed them with the fat of the Land and if he punish the Wicked he must give me leave to give aim to his Arrows and to direct him how and what and when and where to shoot and so long I am contented to allow him a Being in the World but if he will presume to cross my Opinion of things and steer his Actions by the unerring Compass of his own infinite Wisdom if he will rather choose to do good to the Good by chastening than by prospering them and to avenge himself upon the Wicked by fattening them with Prosperity for Slaughter I shall look upon it as such an Affront to my judgment as will admit of no meaner Expiation than the stripping him out of his Providence and Being And what can be more ridiculous than for men to deny the Being of God because his Providence sometimes crosses their foolish Opinion of things and doth not Govern it self by the crooked Rules which they are pleased to prescribe it IV. ANOTHER great cause of Atheism is vain Affectation of Singularity in Opinion a Vice that hath been always incident to men of Speculation who valuing themselves upon the stock of their Knowledg and deep Insight into the Nature of things have always affected to start new Notions and advance contrary Hypotheses to the received Opinions of Mankind that so they may be vogued for men of singular Knowledg and seem to have taller Understandings than the rest of their Brethren And this I doubt not hath been one great cause of speculative Atheism for there is no Principle in Nature which hath been more universally received among Men than the Belief of a Deity which doubtless is the main Reason why men who affect Singularity have been so prone to quarrel at it It doth not comport with their Design of being thought wiser than the rest of the World to submit their Understandings to common Notions and universal Doctrins because should they think as other Men do they might probably be thought no wiser Perhaps had the Belief of a Deity been lately started and only received by some singular Sect of Vertuosoes these men might have beeen as forward to entertain it as they are now to reject it but because it is an Old-fashion Doctrine in which all Ages and Nations have concurred they think it would be a discredit to their Understanding to wear it and therefore they set their Wits at work to invent Atheistical Hypotheses to solve the Phaenomena of Nature without a Deity And he that doth but impartially consider the haughty Genius of those Philosophers that laid the Foundations of Speculative Atheism may easily perceive that the great Motive of their Infidelity was nothing but a proud Affectation of thinking counter to Mankind And indeed could I but embrace the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls I should be tempted to believe by the likeness of their Humors that it was one and the same Soul that pass'd through Democritus into Protagoras through Protagoras into Epicurus and through Epicurus into Mr. Hobbs And since they so exactly agreed in their Pride and haughty Ostentation of Knowledg it is justly supposable that this was the main cause of their Agreement in Atheism which being a Singular Doctrine and directly contradictory to the common Notions of Mankind was upon that account more adapted to the humor of these arrogant Philosophers And accordingly Plato describes the Atheists of his Age to be a conceited and scornful sort of People and declares the cause of their Atheism to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain pernicious sort of ignorance that put on a semblance of the greatest Wisdom and afterwards he calls Athetheism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which in the Eyes of some conceited people seemed to be the wisest of all Doctrines de Leg. Lib. 10. And because these Atheistical Philosophers who were some of them great Masters of Wit and Learning had the good luck to be remarqued and gazed on like so many Anticks for their Singularity they have always found Disciples and Followers among the people of little Sense and a great deal of Vanity who being ambitious of the Reputation of Wits and Philosophers but having neither Brains nor Industry enough to merit it are fain to shelter their Ignorance in Atheism and there to face it out with laughter and boldness and because by laughing at God and Religion they deride the common Faith of Mankind they fancy themselves singularly witty and expect that others should fancy them so too whereas in reality these little People are but meer Pretenders to speculative Atheism For before they can be more they must comprehend the whole System of the Atheistical Philosophy and be able to describe all those supposed Laws of Motion by which Matter without the Conduct of a Superior Wisdom
expressed to a silly or a wicked meaning and it shall be presently cried up for an excellent Jest and the Author of it dubb'd a Wit Laureat This therefore being so easie a way for dull people to advance themselves to the Reputation of Wits hath of late years especially been mightily frequented by the impotent Well-wishers to Wit and Ingenuity and because Religion hath been always esteemed the most serious thing in the World therefore they fix upon that as the common Theme of their Raillery considering that the more serious it is the more it will surprise men to hear it burlesqued and drolled on So that if they do but speak slightly and irreverently of God or never so clownishly ridicule a Mystery of Religion or cloath an obscene Thought in a Text of Scripture their Sauciness will supply the defect of their Wit and men will laugh not so much at the Picquancy of their Conceit as at the Boldness and Presumption of it and because their Discourse hath the luck to be laughed at they think themselves celebrated for the Oracles of Wit and are thereby emboldened to proceed in this their impious Buffoonery till at last they have drolled themselves into a Contempt of God and from thence into downright Atheism For tho a Jest be no Argument nor yet a loud laughter a Demonstration yet if you inspect the generality of our little Pretenders to Atheism you will find this is the main Foundation that their Irreligion depends on for their gift consists not in arguing and demonstrating but in such a Sett of fine Phrases and terse Oaths and all the Stock of Learning they pretend to is a few shavings of Wit gathered out of Plays and Romances and these they pin upon Religion as you have seen unhappy Boys do Rags at mens Backs to expose it to Scorn and Derision and having accustomed themselves to treat it with such rude and porterly Contempt and Disingenuity it grows by degrees cheap and vile in their Eyes and at last is rejected by them as a ridiculous Imposture and if now when they are urged with Evidences of Religion they have but Wit enough to answer Reason with Drollery and to retort a Jest to a Demonstration how gloriously do they imagine they have acquitted themselves and with what triumphant Shrugs do they celebrate their Victory over the little man in black NOW tho for men to deride what they do not understand savours neither of Learning nor good Manners and is equally unbecoming a Gentleman and a Scholar and tho for a man to venture to be damned for deriding of God and Religion is such a Triumph of Wit as argues the utter Defeâ—â—â— of his Reason yet so long as there are vain men enough to be tickled with this profane sort of Drollery to be sure there will never want Fools enough to venture on it For when a Fop will needs aspire to the Reputation of a Wit he hath no other way but to dress up Religion in a Fools-Coat and expose it for a Spectacle of Derision and then how dull soever the Conceit be the stupendous Presumption of it will suprise and amuse the Company and men will admire him just as they do Rope-dancers for daring to perform what a wise Man would tremble to attempt and being thus emboldened by the Admiration and Laughter of his Company which the vain Creature mistakes for a Proof and Evidence of his Wit he grows more pert and confident and so fools and fleers on till he hath toyed and laughed himself out of all sense of Religion BUT alass what a desperate piece of Folly is this for men thus to sport and dally with the Almighty whose Vengeance they can neither withstand nor indure to point and make Mouths at him to his Face and set him up as the Finger-butt of their Scorn and Derision For certainly if there be Sins that can raise a Cry loud enough to reach Heaven this as a great Author of our own hath expressed it will be so far from whispering there that 't will give an Alarm to the Vengeance of Heaven whose Inflictions like Stones tumbling from the tops of Towers will by so much the more fatally crush those they light on by how much the longer they are falling upon them And therefore for Men thus to dally with their own Fate to venture to be damn'd that they may be thought to be witty and expose themselves to endless wailing and Wo only to raise a present fit of Laughter is doubtless a far more desperate Attempt than 't would be to play at the mouths of Canons while they are spitting Fire or to lay hold on a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds BUT suppose there were neither Evil nor Danger in this impious Practice yet for men to conclude there is no God because they have the Confidence to scorn and despise him is altogether as ridiculous as their despising him is impious For there is nothing in Nature so real or serious but may be drolled and Rallied on if a man will set his Wits at work he may break Jests upon Pain and entertain his Company with Comical Representations of the Groans and Agonies of dying but it would be a Jest indeed should be droll himself into a Belief that there are no such things as Pain or Death but alas things are not to be altered by laughing at them and how merry soever we may make our selves with the Belief and Nation of a Deity we shall one day find in earnest that he is not to be jested out of his Being VI. ANOTHER cause of Atheism is taking up Religion or Opinions in Religion without Examination The generality of men do embrace their Religion as a part of their Fate as the Temper of their Clime or the Entail of their Ancestors and the reason why they are Christians is because Christianity had the luck to bespeak them first and by its timely Interposure to prepossess and forestall them So that in all probability had Mahometism plied them first they would have had as much Faith for the Alchoran as they have now for the Bible Now when Men thus take up their Religion they know not why their minds must needs be left naked and defenceless to all the Temptations of Atheism For when a Man can render no â—eason for his Religion his Faith hath nothing but blind Prejudice to support it and 't is with his Will that he believes and not with his Vnderstanding so that he may chuse whether he will believe or no because he hath no Evidence to determine his Vnderstanding And how unstable and insecure must his Faith needs be when it hath no other Foundation but a fickle and inconstant Will when it lies at the mercy of his Humour and Inclinations and it is in his power to determine his Assent to that side of the Question which is most for his Interest For now his Faith being determined by his Will and his Will
by his Interest whenever he thinks it his Interest that there should be no God to be sure he will be ready enough to believe that there is none and consequently as soon as he grows wicked enough to need Atheism for a Refuge from his Conscience he will betake himself thither in his own defence and endeavour by an obstinate Disbelief of Gods Being to shelter himself from the Dread of his Power Thus when mens belief is not grounded upon Reason and Evidence but stands tottering on the fickle Foundation of their Wills it is liable to be blown down by every Blast of Temptation And hence I doubt not in a great measure proceeds the Irreligion of the Age we live in for if you surveigh the present Sticklers for Atheism you will find they chiefly consist of the hair-brain'd and uncatechised Youths of the Town who never troubled themselves to understand the first Principles of Religion nor to consider the Dependence and Connexion of its Doctrines and know nothing at all either of the admirable Contexture of the Parts of it or of the Reason and Evidence of the Whole For alas their Study hath been employed another way viz. in courtly Forms of Speech and Punctilioes of Action in fashionable Garbs and Oaths and artificial Luxuries in conning of fine Jests and Modes of Address and retailing Fragments of Wit from Plays and Romances but as for the severer and more useful Studies they bequeath them to the dull men of Sense and Reason SUCH as these for the most part are the Sages that droll upon Religion and make jests upon the Scripture and what wonder is it that such as these turn Infidels who were never able to render any Reason of their Faith For how weak soever the Arguments of Infidelity are it is a hard case if it cannot baffle that Faith which hath no Reason on its side to guard and defend it especially when they are seconded with a mans Lusts and Inclinations as to be sure the Arguments of Infidelity will always be For when a man hath no Reason for his Faith but a great many Lusts against it the slenderest shews of Probability will suffice to make him an Infidel But what an horrible Neglect is it for Men that have Reason to distinguish between Truth and Falshood to take no care to enquire into the Truth and Evidence of their Religion in which their greatest Interest is involved but to wink hard and believe at a venture they know not why nor what what is this but to cast Lots for their Souls and throw Cross or Pile for their eternal Salvation They resolve they say to adhere to the Religion of their Ancestors but whether that be true or false they never inquire so that if it be true they may thank their Stars for it but if it be false they have the worse Luck Thus they wholly commit themselves to the Conduct of Chance to be conducted to Heaven or Hell as it happens and as if those distant Fates were indifferent to them they concern not themselves to inquire whether the way they are in be the Broad or the Narrow the Right or the Wrong but e'en leave the Event to determine it And can any thing in the World be more wild or extravagant than for men who are so solicitous about their smaller concerns who will not purchase an Acre of Land without examining the Deeds and Evidences by which the Right to it is Conveyed thus to take up their Religion upon Trust and stake their everlasting Fate upon such a desperate venture But then for men to take occasion to despise and reject Religion from their own sottish Neglect to inquire into the Truth of it is such an height of Extravagance as no Bedlam can parallel it would be as reasonable for a man to put out his Eyes and then resolve not to believe there is a Sun in the Firmament because he doth not see it or to stop up his Ears and then peremptorily deny the Being of Sounds because he do's not hear 'em for for men thus to graft Infidelity upon Ignorance is only to heap one Extravagance on another if they understand not the Evidence of Religion the more Shame it is for them but methinks it might very well become them to be modest and teachable till they do and in the mean while to take care to inform themselves better but thus immediately to leap out of Ignorance into Atheism is first to play the Fool and then run stark mad upon it VII ANOTHER cause of Atheism is mens measuring the Truth or Falshood of Religion by the Practice of such as make the loudest Pretence to it When a man is unwilling to undergo the trouble of satisfying his own Reason of the Truth of his Religion his usual Method is to inquire what other men think of it who by the zealous Profession which they make may be supposed to understand it better than himself but because mens Thoughts are secret and invisible and do not always correspond with their Words and Professions therefore to satisfie himself what other men think of Religion he concludes the safest way is to judge by what they do and not by what they profess and so far indeed he is in the right For to be sure mens Actions are a much more certain Index of their Thoughts than their Words and therefore when he sees those who profess Religion act as if they did not believe it and observes how their Words do run atilt at their Practice and how broadly their Lives give the lie to their Professions he presently concludes that whatever they pretend they are Infidels in their Hearts and being once persuaded that those whom he thinks do best understand Religion do not believe it he thence immediately concludes that they find no reason to believe it and do only put on the Profession of it as an Angelical Vizor being minded to play the Devils in it with more Credit and Security And by this Popular way of reasoning they conclude Religion to be nothing but a Politick Device and Engine which wise men have contrived to beguile and manage the simple and that whatsoever is pretended for it it is a mere jugling-box which Knaves play tricks with to delude and cozen Fools And of this way of mens reasoning themselves into Atheism the Age we live in is full of wofull Instances for now adays to scorn and despise Religion is no longer the Prerogative of Wits and Vertuosoes but the Infection is spread and propagated into Shops and Stalls and the Rabble are become Professors of Atheism Now whence should this proceed alas it is not to be supposed that such persons as these should ever be able to Philosophise themselves into Infidelity and turn Atheists either upon Aristotle's or Epicurus's Hypotheses no no their Argument lies nearer home and more open to their Capacities they have seen a world of vile tricks played in our Religious Carnivals and Masquerades some making
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
a divine Art how much more of every Animal whose Parts for infinite Variety delicate Smalness exquisite Shape Position and Temper do as far excell the other as the Offices for which they are designed For tho the plastick Soul that forms the Animal hath not the least Ray of Art or Reason of its own yet in the Formation of it it proceeds with as much curious and incomparable Art as if it were endowed with the most perfect Reason For first it Spins out the thicker Parts of the seminal Matter into little Threds or Fibres part of which it hollows into Pipes and part into Spunges some whereof are more thin and some more solid all which with wondrous Art it cuts and prunes in divers places fitting their Ends to one another and in divers Manners knitting them together into a well-proportioned Structure of Bones and Members then of the thinner Parts of the seminal Matter it forms the Intrails viz. the Liver and Heart and Brains drawing out from each certain Fibres to be framed into Veins and Arteries and Nerves for which End it bores and hollows them through extends and stretches them out at length and divides them into innumerable Branches which it spreads through all the Intrails and thereby maintains a mutual Communication between them and derives the Nourishment and animal and vital Spirits through all the Body and having thus spun the several Parts out of the seminal Matter and curiously woven them together it concocts the remainder of the Matter which is still supplied with new Nourishment into the Substance of those several Parts and this in such precise and regular Proportions as to form every one of them tho infinitely various from one another into its own proper Figure and Measure and Proportion so that within seven days after the Conception the whole Body is entirely framed and distinguished into all its proper Parts and Members which though they are so vastly great in their Number so strangely different in their Size and Figure so infinitely various in their Motions and Tendencies do all contribute one way or other to the Beauty and Benefit of the Whole some to propagate the Kind others to preserve the Individual others to distinguish what is necessary convenient and pleasant from what is dangerous offensive or destructive to its Nature some to pursue what is good others to shun what is evil others to enjoy those goods and others to defend it against those evils that threaten or invade it so that of all these infinitely numerous and diverse Parts not one can be wanting or defective without some considerable Damage to the Whole How then is it conceivable that such an infinite number of different Animals which are all so perfect in their Kind so amazingly curious in their Composition as that we with all our Reason can discern nothing in them that is either superfluous or defective nothing in their Figure that is irregular nothing in their Position that is misplaced nothing in their Motion that is exorbitant should all of them be framed by their several Plastick Souls which are utterly blind and irrational without the Conduct and Direction of an all-wise and all-powerful Providence Should you behold a confused Heap of Earth and Stone and Iron and Timber without any visible Artificer near it fall a pollishing its own Parts fitting them to one another and disposing them into Order according to the Rules of Architecture and at length frame them all together into the Form of a most beautiful Palace would you not conclude that some skilfull Mind were invisibly present there and did work upon this senseless Heap and dispose its Parts into this comely Order And yet in the Composure of any one Animal there is infinitely more Art than in the most beautiful structure in the World How then can we imagine that the blind artless Matter of which it is composed could ever have framed it self into this admirable Form and Contexture had not some great Mind been invisibly present at the Composition of it or at least imprinted on its artless Mattter some powerful Signature of its own wise Art to direct and order and contrive it I might from hence have proceeded to the formation of Man the Masterpiece of all this lower Creation in whose Frame and structure there are such Miracles of Art as do outreach both the Imitation and Wonder of the most raised and comprehensive Minds For who can sufficiently admire the skilful Contexture of his Corporeal Parts which though almost infinite in Number and Variety do not only compose a Body of a most amiable Symmetry and Proportion but are also as exactly framed and tempered and adapted to perform the Offices of Life and Motion and Sense and Reason as Art or Wit can fancy or imagine them But then how much more admirable is the Soul which inhabits and animates this Body for of whatsoever Substance this thing we call our Soul is it is evidently framed for great and noble Operations to disclose the Mysteries of Nature and to dive into its deep Philosophy to penetrate into the Causes of things and with its nimble and sagacious Thoughts to survey this ample Theatre of Beings to recollect things past and to foretel things to come to invent the most useful Arts and comprehensive Sciences to dictate good Laws and project wise Policies for the Government of Humane Societies and in a word to understand the right Reasons of things and to regulate its Will and Affections by them And is it possible we should imagine a Being thus exquisitely framed to be the Product of a blind and artless Matter to be nothing but a lucky Jumble of senseless and irrational Atoms For suppose it were nothing but elaborated Matter yet certainly it requires infinite Art and Skill to contrive and fashion it into all those curious Springs and Wheels and Mechanick Knacks that are necessary to render it not only a living and feeling but also a wise and rational Matter For how is it conceivable that a little Drop of Water without the Assistance of any Mind or Providence should form it self not only into all the Parts and Lineaments of a Humane Body but also into a Humane Mind a Mind of vast Desires and infinite Capacities of Knowledg that can form Ideas within it self of every thing that is round about it and from them can frame innumerable Propositions and deduce them into Arts and Sciences and in a word that can move it self and the Body it lives in by its own internal Springs and form it self into so many various and contrary Affections by the mysterious Force and Energy of its own Reason and Discourse If you beheld a dead Pencil move without any visible Hand and dip it self into various Colours and draw but an exact Picture of a Man you would doubtless conclude either that some invisible Limbner had infused into it the Art of Limbning or did immediately manage and direct it But should you find this
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
its Will Affections and Actions with those everlasting Laws of righteousness which right reason prescribes how many are there that look upon this as a very mean and carnal accomplishment and place all their perfection in things of a quite different nature viz. in the Ebbs and Flows of their sensitive passion and the extraordinary Fermentations of their bloud and spirits that is to say in unaccountable dejections and exaltations of mind in vehement impressions of fancy and Mechanical movements of affection in Raptures and Ecstacies and Hypocondriacal incomes and manifestations that have nothing of substantial Vertue or Piety in them nor commonly any other effect but to cause men to renounce that Righteousness which they never had and rely upon that which they have no Title to and to sooth and tickle their fancies and blow them up into glorious opinions of themselves and Triumphant assurances of their being the Darlings and Favourites of God whilst poor Moral men that make conscience of regulating their affections and actions by the eternal Laws of Righteousness are look'd upon by them with a scornful compassion and placed in the lowermost form of sinners at the greatest distance from the Kingdom of God Now when men take such false measures of their own perfection how is it possible they should conceive aright of the perfections of God which they have no other way to conceive of but only by arguing from their own Wherefore in order to the forming our Ideas of Gods perfections it is necessary we should first fix the true Notion of our own which is no hard matter for us to do For our Nature being reasonable to be sure its perfection must consist in willing affecting and acting reasonably or which is the same thing in Governing it self in all its relations and circumstances by those immutable Laws of goodness which right reason prescribes and which are exemplified to us in the holy Scripture and when we have fixt in our minds this Notion of our own perfection it will naturally conduct our thoughts to God's and let us see that his perfection consists not in a lawless and boundless Will that decrees without foresight resolves without reason and Wills because it will and then executes its own blind and unaccountable purposes by dint of irresistible power without any regard to right or wrong For if we rightly understand our own perfection we cannot but discern that such a Will as this is one of the most monstrous deformities in nature because it is the most Diametrically opposite to the true Idea of our own Perfection which while we attentively fix our eyes on we cannot but infer from it that the true perfection of God consists in the unvariable determination of his Will by the all-comprehending reason of his Mind or in chusing and refusing decreeing and executing upon such reasons as best becomes a God to will and act on i. e. upon such as are infinitely wise and good and just and merciful For if to Will and Act upon such reasons as these be the perfection of our nature we cannot but conclude that it is the perfection of Gods too but if we are ignorant of our own perfection we must necessarily think of God at Rovers without any certain aim or rule to square and direct our apprehensions II. ANOTHER cause of our misapprehension of God is our framing our Notions of him according to the Model of our own particular humour and temper For self-love being the most vehement affection of Humane Nature and that upon which all it s other affections are founded there is no one Vice to which we are more universally obnoxious than that of excessive fondness and partiality to our selves which makes us too often dote upon the deformities and even Idolize the Vices of our own temper So that whether our nature be stern sour and imperious or fond easie and indulgent we are apt to admire it as a great perfection merely because it is Ours without measuring it by those eternal reasons which are the Rules of Good and Evil Perfection and Imperfection and then whatever we look upon as a perfection in our selves we naturally attribute to God who is the cause and fountain of all perfection And hence it comes to pass that mens minds have been always tinctured with such false and repugnant opinions of God because they frame their judgments of him not so much by their reason as by their temper and humour and so their different humours being not only unreasonable in themselves but repugnant and contrary to one another produce in them not only false and unreasonable but contrary and repugnant opinions of God Thus for instance the Epicureans who were a soft and voluptuous Sect intirely addicted to ease and pleasure fancied God to be such a one as themselves a Being that was wholly sequestred from action and confined to an Extra-mundane Paradise where he lived in perfect ease and was entertained with infinite Luxuries without ever concerning his thoughts with any thing abroad for this they thought was the top of all perfection and therefore thus they would have chosen to live had they been Gods themselves Thus the Stoicks who were a sort of very morose and inflexible people copied their Notions of God from their own complexion supposing him to be an inflexible Being that was utterly incapable of being moved and affected by the reasons of things but was wholly governed by a stern and inexorable Fate And accordingly the Scythians and Thracians the Gaules and Carthaginians who were a people of a bloudy and Barbarous nature Pictured their Gods from their own temper imagining them to be of a bloud-thirsty nature that delighted to feed their hungry Nostrils with the Nidorous reeks and steams of humane gore Whereas on the contrary the Platonists who were generally of a very soft and amorous nature took their measure of God thereby and so framed an Idea of him that was as soft and amorous as their own complexion composed altogether of loves and smiles and indearments without the least intermixture of vengeance and severity how just soever in it self or necessary to the well-government of the World Thus as the Ethiopians pictured their Gods black because they were black themselves so generally men have been always prone to represent God in the colour of their own complexions which is the cause that they many times represent him so utterly unlike to himself because out of an unreasonable partiality to themselves they first mistake the deformities of their own natures for perfections and then Deifie them them into Divine Attributes Thou thoughtest saith God that I was altogether such a one as thy self Psal. 50.21 that is thou didst frame thy conceptions of me according to the Pattern of thy own ill-nature and so thoughtest basely and unworthily of me And hence I doubt not spring most of those misapprehensions of God which have been received among Christians For how is it possible for any man that is not of
a fierce and cruel nature himself to believe it consistent with the nature of God to snatch poor Infants from their Mothers Womb that never actually offended him and hurl them into the flames of Hell And considering the stern and inflexible temper of the famous Author of the Horrible Decree though otherwise a rare and admirable person there is too much reason to suspect that he transcribed his own nature into his Doctrine and modelled his Divinity by his Temper And so on the contrary who but a man of excessive fondness and partiality that loves beyond all reason and invincibly doats upon the deformities of his own darlings could ever imagine it consistent with the wisdom and holiness of God to chuse his favourites without reason and when he hath chosen them not only to overlook all their faults but to hide them from his own eyes with the Mantle of anothers Righteousness that so how ill soever they behave themselves he may never see cause to be displeased with them From these and other instances it is evident that one great cause of our misapprehensions of God is our measuring his nature by our own For first our partiality to our selves makes us magnifie our own faults into perfections and then whatsoever we reckon a perfection in our selves we naturally attribute to God and so many times it comes to pass that our Notions of God are nothing but the Images of our selves which Narcissus-like we fall in love with for no other reason but because they reflect our own sweet likeness As therefore we would not wrong God in our own thoughts we must take care not to attribute to him any thing of our own but what is a perfection in the judgment of the most impartial reason and because our self-love is apt to bribe our own reason into a favourable opinion of whatever is our own we ought to admit nothing of our own into our Notion of God but what is voted a perfection by the common reason of Mankind III. ANOTHER cause of our misapprehensions of God is our obstinate partiality to our own sinful lusts and affections For while men are vehemently addicted to any sinful courses the true Notion of God must needs sit very uneasily on their minds because it will be always quarrelling with them suggesting arguments against them and alarming them with dreadful thoughts and dire abodeings of a vengeance to come For there is no true conception of Gods nature but what is pregnant with some powerful argument against disobedience to his Will so that while we obstinately persist in disobedience to him our reason cannot truly conceive of him without waging War against our Lusts and while a man is thus at variance with himself and one end of his Soul is at War with the other so that he cannot gratifie his affection without affronting his reason nor comply with his reason without doing violence to his affection he can never be at ease within till either he hath forced his affection to submit to his reason or his reason to submit to his affection but while a mans reason hath the true Notion of God and his perfections before it 't will be impossible for him to reconcile it to his sinful affections against which whenever he coolly reflects it must necessarily dictate bitter Invectives and denounce horrible Sentences So that if he be obstinately resolved to side with his sinful affections he must either be content patiently to endure the clamour and fury of his own reason which is one of the most uneasie Penances in the World or endeavour to corrupt and sophisticate his Notions of God with such opinions as countenance his Lusts. And this considering the mighty influence which mens affections have on their reason is no hard matter to do for the least shew of probability backt with a strong affection for an opinion is of greater force with corrupt minds than the clearest demonstration against it So that if the Opinion be but serviceable to the interest of a mans lust that will engage his affection on its side and then the opinion having once retained those powerful Orators in its cause it is secure of a very favourable trial at the Tribunal of reason where in all probability only one side of the Question will be weighed and Judgment will be given upon hearing the Arguments for it without admitting any evidence against it THUS when men are hunted and pursued through their wicked courses by the true Notions of God it is expedient for them if they resolve to go on to take sanctuary in false ones where their Conscience and Will their reason and affections may dwell quietly together and they may be as wicked as they please without any disturbance And abundance of such false Notions there are prepared to their hands which mens wicked minds have invented in the defence of their lusts For thus some to ease their Consciences have persuaded themselves that God is so wholly taken up with his own happiness as that he is not at leisure to concern himself about humane actions and under this persuasion they sin on with full security that he will never punish them Others on the contrary to reconcile their lusts persuade themselves that God is wonderfully concerned about small things about trifling opinions and indifferent actions and the Rites and Modes and Appendages of his Worship and under this persuasion they hope to attone him for all the immoralities of their lives by the forms and outsides of Religion by uncommanded severities and affected singularities by contending for Opinions and stickling for Parties and being pragmatically zealous about the borders and fringes of Religion Others there are that to quiet their anxious minds persuade themselves that God in Christ at least is all Mercy and Goodness without the least allay of Righteous Severity or vindictive Justice and being thus persuaded they sin on securely and under the Wing of his Mercy affront his Authority without any disturbance Others again that to stifle the sense of their own guilt persuade themselves that God hath irrevocably determined the everlasting Fate of men without any respect to their doings and that those whom he will save he will save irresistibly without any concurrence of theirs whereas those whom he will not save he hath utterly abandoned to a dire necessity of perishing for ever from whence they conclude that if they are of the number of those that shall be saved it is needless for them to endeavour after it and if in the List of those that shall perish it is in vain for them to endeavour to prevent it and that therefore their wisest course is to sin on and expect the Event All which are only the Artifices of wickedness to reconcile mens Consciences to their Lusts and compromise the quarrel between God and their wicked lives that so they may sin on for the future without check or remorse WHEREFORE if we would form a right Notion of God in our minds