their Affairs to think of a God but in others of a higher Rank and Quality for by Ignorance I mean a wilful and sottish stifling of natural Notions and Impressions And this sometimes prevails in Men of great Parts and Knowledge Think it not strange that I reckon such Persons in the number of the Ignorant for to speak impartially they are so and this was the Sense of the wisest Pagans long since For to have no Knowledge and to stifle it is the same thing which is the Case of these Men they make it their business to choak the innate Principles of their Minds and to disregard those Notices which their Natures suggest to them Thus these Persons are stubbornly and obstinately Ignorant Whatever their Pretences and Boastings be their Atheism proceeds from want of Learning and Wit For 't is not the part of a Learned and Ingenious Man to destroy the Notions of Mankind and pull down what hath been built by the universal Suffrage of the World and in its place to erect a Conceit of his own Some may take such for Brainish and Scholar-like sort of Men but then these are so without Thinking for it is the want of this that makes them what they are Or to say the best of this kind of Men and Atheist is but a half-witted Person He hath perhaps made some Attempts in Science but to little purpose He hath attain'd to some slight and trivial Notions but hath not penetrated into the heart of Things and thence it comes to pass that he is full of Doubts and Cavils which he is able to raise but he hath not Skill and Ability enough to answer them Wherefore it was excellently said of my Lord Bacon A little Philosophy inclines mens minds to Atheism but depth in Philosophy brings mens minds about to Religion and a Deity Thus though this mis-shapen Monster would be thought to be the genuine issue of True Wisdom and Sound Knowledge yet it is really the daughter of an Affected Ignorance Wherefore to secure your selves against Atheism be careful that you blind not your minds willingly receive the rays of light into your souls cherish all sound notions and conceptions and by all proper methods bring your selves to a right understanding and steady embracing of all the Fundamental Principles of your Religion II. There is great Disingenuity and unhandsome Dealing in the case else we should not have so much Atheism Here I will prove that they do not act fairly but that they are Ungenteel which perhaps will affect these Persons more than any thing that I can say What they are willing and forward to grant in other matters and on other occasions they refuse to grant here yea they utterly deny it though there be the same reason for one as the other This plainly appears by their Objections As first they tell us they have no Sensible Notices of a God and therefore they can't admit of it for all the knowledge say they which we have of things is deriv'd to us from Sense But here we see that these Men are Partial and Disingenuous for they will not deny that there are many things which they judge not of by Sense they grant that the swiftness of Motion oftentimes out-runs the nimblest Sense and the Observation of the quickest eye yet they do not deny the Motion it self The Element of Air in which the daily converse is not seen nor is it heard or felt unless when 't is extraordinarily moved and disturbed which is but seldom nor will they say they taste it and 't is as certain that they cannot smell it for this is only the Vehicle of Smells but is not it self the object of that sense and yet these nice Gentlemen do not deny the Existence of the Air. They can by none of their Senses discern the Motion of the Sun Moon and Stars or as perhaps they think it most proper to say the Earth and yet there is not a man of them that denies that they move It can't be determin'd by Sense whether the Sun be bigger than it appears to be and therefore Epicurus who was a great Man for Sense held it was of no greater dimension than it seems to the Eye to be yea of no greater heat in it self than it seems to the Feeling to be here on Earth And the Atheistical Poet who borrow'd his Notions from him was of the same mind Nec nimio solis major rota nec minor ardor Esse potest nostris quà m sensibus esse videtur Lucret. lib. 5. This is certain that the things that are least discernible act most The Animal Spirits which do all the great things in our bodies are themselves Imperceptible They are the Insensible and Invisible Parts as Spirits Wind Subtile matter Exhalations which being agitated do the chiefest Exploits in Nature There are Fine Particles and Atoms diffused through all bodies whatsoever and these are the cause of Sense and Motion in Animals by help of these Minerals Plants and all Vegetables are brought to perfection These Invisible Agents effect strange things and act most wonderfully in the World The Nutritious Iuyce in the Nerves if we may credit the famous Glisson is of mighty use and influence yet as he confesses himself there are no Cavities to be seen to convey it and none of this Succus is ever discern'd in the dissecting of Animals Notwithstanding this some Physicians of the most piercing Judgment have granted whatever they do now the real being of it And in other Instances it might be shewed that Sense is not always made a Judge even in sensible Objects but we gather the being and operation of them from Reason and Discourse This the persons whom we are now dealing with do not deny but even practise it themselves and are willing to allow of it Why therefore are they so void of Ingenuity and fair-dealing as not to admit of the same in the case that is before us Why do they most irrationally deny a God because they do not apprehend him by Bodily sense whenas they judge not of some other things by Sense nay though they be proper objects of it This is a plain proof of these mens wilful Prejudice and Partiality especially if I add that God is infinitely farther removed from our most exalted Apprehensions than the Sun of which we spoke before is from this Earth This Glorious Sun dwelleth in that light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath see or can see Secondly they tell us that there are Great Difficulties in conceiving a God and they are loth to swallow these down and more especially the notion of a Spirit i. e. a Being that is void of Matter and Body is too hard to be conceiv'd by them and therefore seeing we hold God to be a Spirit they can form no conception of him I will reply to both the parts of this Objection distinctly and first as to the General Cavil That this notion is
Property and is the very Life and Soul of the explicatory part of the Doctrine of the Deity is peremptorily pronounced by them to be a Contradiction It is well known Socinus and Crellius and others of this Party deny God's Immensity i. e. his being present every where as to his Essence and Nature All of them agree that he hath not a Knowledge and Foresight of every thing that happens in the World for future Contingencies are hid from him Particularly Socinus largely argues against this Praescience and tells us that he is to be laugh'd at that asserts the contrary Nay it is farther observable that this great Patriarch of the present Cause disowns the Immaterial or Spiritual Nature of God as may be undeniably gather'd from his Exposition of Iohn 4. 24. and other Passages in his Writings And he is followed by Crellius as is manifest from that Account which this latter gives of a Spirit when he speaks of the Nature of God He doth not make it to be any thing above a refined body a substance void of all gross matter such as the Air or Aether is So that when these men call God a Spirit their meaning is that he is a Fine and Tenuious sort of Matter not that he is wholly Incorporeal and altogether free from Matter This is the same with Mr. Hobbs's Corporeal God Thus four of the Chief Attributes of the Deity viz. Self-Existence Omnipresence Omniscience and Spirituality are either in whole or in part rejected Whereupon I ask this Question Whether these things do not discover a Tendency to say no more in the Anti-Trinitarians to that which I am charging them with For to assert a God and yet to deny some of his Choicest Properties whereby we know him to be God is in effect the same with denying a Deity If they distinguish between the English and Foreign Socinians as I perceive they do and tell us that the former do not assert the things before mention'd I answer the very English Prints avouch the first of those Particulars and as for the rest they being the Doctrine of the Chief Patrons of the Socinian Cause yea and of the Most of them the English Unitarians are involved in them because those Foreigners are the greatest and most substantial part of that Body of men call'd Socinians Thus the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion drawn up by some English Socinians of late is thought by them to touch all the Trinitarians else it could not be stiled the Trinitarian Scheme though every individual Trinitarian doth not hold all those things mentioned there Let them apply this and they will have nothing to object And further I would argue from their own avowed Principle which is that they are to admit of nothing but what is exactly adjusted to Nature's and Reason's Light nothing but what is entirely clear and evident for though it is true some Socinian Writers of late have laid aside this Notion and truly we may observe that they are shifting every day their Arguments and so we know not where to have them yet he that is acquainted with the Writings that make up the main Body of Socinianism knows full well that this is a Principle constantly asserted and maintain'd by the generality of them and upon all occasions insisted upon This hath been the Stanch Notion of the Great Dons of the Party and of the famous Socinus himself And Slicktingius though he seems indeed sometimes to be otherwise perswaded yet comes to this at last that the Trinity is a Doctrine that can't be borne because it can't be understood And why do Crellius and others argue from Reason and Logical Arguments against the Trinity if they do not refuse the Doctrine upon the account of Reason And it is certain they would not do this if they were not perswaded that these things in Religion must be adjusted to Natural Reason and that they are displeased with the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation c. because these are not exactly squared to their Natural Notions You see then what is the sentiment of the Greatest Rabbies of this way and therefore we must make our estimate of the Socinian or Antitrinitarian Doctrine from these and not from one or two Modern Writers This I think will be granted by all men of reason But what if it doth appear that even the very English and Modern Socinians though they seem to wave this Principle do yet retain it and govern themselves by it Else why do they complain that they have no conception of the Trinity as the Trinitarians represent it to them they cannot form an idea of it it is a notion that excites no idea's in their minds it is against Reason and Natural Light We are advised by the Modern Pen-men to consult our Reason about the thing in question and if we do so we shall find an absolute impossibility in the Trinitarian Doctrine our Reason will assure us that an Almighty Father and an Almighty Son are most certainly two Gods and that two Creators can be no other than two Gods Therefore we may and we must infer that the explication of the first Verses of St. John 's Gospel which advance such a Doctrine is certainly false Again the English Socinians tell us that the Doctrine of the Trinity clashing altogether with our natural idea's can be no matter of Revelation and therefore ought not to be believ'd And hear their Final and Resolute Determination which fully speaks their absolute adherence to this Principle We abide by this Argument here we fix our foot never to be removed that the inconsistence of the Trinity as well as the Incarnation with Reason and Natural Knowledge being undeniably evident therefore this Doctrine can have no real foundation in Divine Revelation that is to say in Holy Scripture And we find that our English Unitarians argue from Reason in this Point and they declare that they cannot believe it because Reason doth not teach it Thus we find that the bottom of all is the Trinity and such like Doctrines are above their Reason and Natural Idea's and therefore they are no matter of their Faith This is it which the Reverend Person before named charges these men with in a great part of his Sermon and certainly he would not have done it if there were no such persons in being It is too plain that there are such and I think I have proved it from their own mouths The sum of their Opinion and resolution if this that there is nothing difficult and abstruse in Religion and that they will not believe any thing in Christianity but what they can make out by Reason otherwise it must be discarded presently Now to apply this Principle of the Antitrinitarians we are assured that we cannot by searching find out God Job 11. 7. his Infinite Nature and Immense Essence are not commensurate to our Conceptions are not adjusted to our Idea's but are far
SOME THOUGHTS Concerning the Several Causes and Occasions OF ATHEISM Especially in the Present Age. With some Brief Reflections on SOCINIANISM And on a Late BOOK Entituled The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures BY IOHN EDWARDS B. D. and sometime Fellow of S. Iohn's College in Cambridge LONDON Printed for I. Robinson at the Golden Lyon and I. Wyat at the Role in S. Paul's Churchyard MDCXCV TO THE Most Reverend Father in GOD His GRACE THOMAS By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England c. MY LORD YOUR Grace being not only by Your Place and Station but by Your own Choice and voluntary Act the Grand Patron of our Religion it cannot be improper to present You with these brief Papers which though in themselves very mean and inconsiderable and unworthy of Your Grace's View are a Vindication of that Holy Cause against the repeated Cavils and bold Insults of Atheistical Spirits who as Your Grace with a very deep Resentment and Regret observes are of late grown very numerous How vigorously Your Lordship hath attacked this sort of Men is well known to the World and that hitherto they have not been able to bring about their impious Designs is in great part owing to Your Lordship's successful Attempts I presume from the Encouragement which so Illustrious an Example hath given me to engage in the same Cause that is to lay open the Folly and Absurdity of their Pretences and withall to discover some of those Heads and Springs whence the Atheistick Apprehensions of these present Times arise and whereby they are fed and nourished Which I hope will be of good use to those who desire to be caution'd against the Venom of this Raging Evil and will in some measure operate even on those who are infected and corrupted with it already I am sensible how Precious Your Grace's Minutes are in this time of extraordinary Business and Emergency and therefore I will not be injurious to the Publick by any farther Applications to Your Grace Only I superadd my hearty Prayers for Your Health and long Life wherein the Common Welfare and Happiness both of Church and State are so much involved And so I subscribe my self Your Grace's Most Dutiful Son and Devoted Servant Iohn Edwards THE PREFACE I Designing by the Divine Help and Conduct to defend the Existence and Providence of God by Arguments drawn both from the Greater and the Lesser World it is my Request to the Reader that he would accept of this Brief Essay in the mean time which I conceive will be a suitable Introduction and Preparative to that other Vndertaking For as in that intended Discourse I shall carefully trace and discover the Footsteps of the Divinity every where so here I make it my Business to shew how frequent an obvious the Occasions of Disbelieving it are By which means we shall effectually learn how to purge our Minds of those ill Qualities which naturally are subservient to Atheism we shall know how to remove those Stumbling-blocks to answer those Objections and to clear up those Mistakes which usually betray Men to this Infidelity And thus there will be a Way made for what I design Persons will be fitted to receive and retain the Impressions which those Topicks that I shall afterwards make choice of will enstamp upon their Minds And I hope the Age which hath lately been stigmatized with Marks of Atheism will for the future be renowned for these truly illustrious and glorious Characters I will only farther acquaint the Reader that some part of what I here offer viz. such Particulars as I thought were convenient for an usual and mix'd Auditory was deliver'd lately in one of the City-Pulpits and the other Heads with their Enlargement which are of somewhat a different strain and are chiefly adapted to the Curious and Inquisitive are an Addition since But as I have added several things so I have omitted some at the Desire of those who are concern'd in both This is all that I had to advertise the Reader of and so I bid him Farewel SOME THOUGHTS Concerning the Causes and Occasions OF ATHEISM THAT the World was not void of Atheists in King David's time may be gathered from his Words in Psalm xiv 1. The Fool hath said in his heart There is no God But it is exceedingly to be lamented that the number of them is much increased since yea that it is the Unhappiness of this Present Age to be pester'd with not a few of them Notwithstanding those cogent and incontestable Arguments for a Deity which are suggested from the Holy Scriptures and the Natural Reasonings of sober Minds there is still an Atheistical Spirit prevailing in the World There is a sort of Men if I may call them so whole bold Infidelity is so Irrational and Brutish that reckon the Notion of a God to be a Melancholick Conceit and the mere Effect of Credulity and Ignorance Yea there are some that pass for Wits who strive for the honour of being accounted the most Able Atheists of the Age. Wherefore instead of rehearsing or urging those Topicks which are wont to be produced for the Proof of the Divinity my Business at present shall be to enquire into the Causes of Atheism which now vaunts it self with an impudent Fore-head and begins to boast that it hath got Footing in a great part of the World I will search into the Occasions either real or pretended for I will mention both of this Reigning Mischief I will shew you on what Grounds the Impious do at this Day not only with the Psalmist's Atheistical Fool say in their Hearts but openly and avowedly proclaim to the World that there is no God that is no Supreme Over-ruling Being of Infinite Perfection no eternally Wise Intelligent and Omniscient Substance that at first gave Existence to all things and ever since upholds them and takes care of them I. I assign Ignorance to be one great Spring of this gross Unbelief As knowing as the World is at this day there are too many People of inferiour Rank whose Education hath been so unhappy that they have not been instructed in the Common Principles of Religion and they are more unhappy in that they will not allow themselves time and leisure to look into their own Minds and to rouze those inbred Notions which are implanted there by God and which would if they would give way lead them to him Wherefore it is the Concern of all Persons to know how to converse with Themselves and to rifle their own Breasts that they may find a Deity written there and besides they should be careful to acquire such a stock of Knowledge from without that they may understand their Religion and not be seduc'd by Atheistical Notions that fly up and down every where But this first Cause which I assign of Atheism is not only to be found in some meaner sort of People who have not time as they order
accompanied with Difficulties I answer there are great Difficulties in other matters which yet they leap over with ease and do not disbelieve the things themselves because of the Difficulties that attend them It is very hard to explain how a little Wheel of two inches diameter fixed on the same Axil with two greater Wheels of ten inches a-piece moving together the greater ones on the ground the lesser on a table should move over the very same space in equal time with equal rotation with the greater ones and yet the thing it self is not denied by any one And many other puzzling Problems might be mentioned where the Hardship doth not discourage them from embracing them But I will instance in one of their own Hypotheses viz. that of Atoms which they chuse to solve the Original of the World by that they may evade the insuperable Difficulties as they think them of the Acknowledgment of a God If they say that these Atoms had their Existence from Themselves then instead of denying one God they assert many for Self-existence is of the very nature and essence of a Deity wherefore if they were all from themselves they are all Gods If they say that other Matter or Atoms were the first Cause of these then they run to Infinity and no body is able to trace them If they say they are of Nothing then they had as good have begun with that and have confessed in plain terms that the World was made out of Nothing and then they come to us but they are resolved they will not do that Thus they are confounded as to the Rise and Origine of their Atoms Then as to their Motion whence had they that either of themselves or of an other They could not have it of Themselves for we see it is not of the nature of Matter to move it is in it self a dull and inert a lumpish and unactive thing If this Motion was impress'd on it by an Other then that was either some other Matter or Something else If they hold the former they run again in infinitum and he is a distracted man that will run after them If they maintain the latter they betray their Cause and acknowledge a Spirit for there is no real and substantial thing besides Matter and Spirit In brief whether the former or the latter Assertion be held by them they do in a manner own what they deny for we will not disagree about the Name if we can agree on the Thing it self That Being or Agent which gave the first Motion to things is God If after all they say that Matter had this Motion by Chance and so was neither from it self or any other they talk more absurdly and wildly than before for Chance is a Word made to signifie only the unexpected happening of a thing but doth not import that there was no Cause or Author at all of it But however if they will stand to this as generally they do that Matter at first had a strong power by Chance to jump into an Orderly System of Heavens Earth Sea c. then I ask them What is the reason that there hath been nothing of this nature since What reason can be given why all the Atoms and Effluviums in the several Ages and Successions of Time ever since this visible World had its being have not produced some excellent Frame either like this World or of an other nature What! is this Lucky Chance quite ceas'd Is this Fortunate Lottery at an end Is there no probability of a brave fortuitous hit once again Is there no such fine piece of work as that of Sun Moon and Stars to be expected once more No there is an utter despair of it for from Eternity according to them to this moment we have had no such good Luck and therefore what reason have we to expect any such afterwards yea indeed what ground have these Chance-Philosophers to think that there ever was any such thing What reason have they to declare it to be their firm perswasion that Matter was set into motion from Eternity and that by the frisking of its Particles it at last danced into a World yet this and all the rest they believe and vouch rather than they will hold that the beginning of things was from an Intelligent and Wise Being It appears hence that they will say any thing rather than acknowledge themselves to be in the wrong they make nothing of talking idly and impertinently of running into Banter and Nonsense as we have heard They can give credit to this extravagant Fancy that an everlasting Juncto of Atoms did without Counsel and Knowledge club together to make the World They can tamely submit to this unaccountable Maxim that these infinite Bodies after eternal Brushings Agitations Encounters Knocking 's Tiltings Justlings Jumblings fell by mere Chance into this excellent Frame that we now behold Thus the Atheist to avoid some seeming Difficulties runs into those which are really so yea into the greatest Absurdities imaginable If it be difficult to conceive the Self-existence and Eternity of one God surely it is insuperably so to conceive infinite Matter moving it self and giving Being to it self from all Eternity It is plain then that these men deal not fairly and uprightly but wilfully deceive themselves and others They cry up Reason and yet maintain things which are repugnant to ordinary Discourse and the Common Dictates of Reason and therefore are rather to be exploded than with much industry to be confuted They cannot only swallow down but digest Absurdities when they think fit and at other times they can fancy them where there are none nor any shadow of any Then as to that particular Difficulty viz. That the Notion of a Spirit is inconceivable and therefore they have no conception of a God I return this brief Answer That if this which they say be true if it be impossible to apprehend the Idea of a Spirit then there is no such thing and if so then Matter alone must do all things in the World but particularly it must have Understanding and Knowledge is must think and reason for whatever the precarious Hypothesis of Atoms suggests the Curious frame of this World could not be erected without Knowledge and Wisdom and it cannot be kept up and managed without these Now I appeal to any considerate man whether the flat denying of this and the asserting that the Dimensions of a Body are Intellectual that to be Long and to be Broad and to be Deep are Acts and Exertments of Reason or Will and in short that Extension is Thinking be not far greater Absurdities than any thing they imagine to be in the notion of a God It is a sign therefore that these men make Difficulties where there are none and do not take notice of them where they are I could here prove that our Faculties may form as clear explicit and distinct an Idea of a Spirit which they so much boggle and startle at