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A53952 A discourse concerning the existence of God by Edward Pelling ... Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. 1696 (1696) Wing P1078; ESTC R21624 169,467 442

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they should not hearken to such a false Prophet but put him to Death though his Sign or Wonder came to pass Hence 't is easie to conclude That there are Miracles in appearance which are not true ones For God cannot act contrary to himself by working one Miracle to Establish his True Worship and another to Destroy it and therefore those Men are insinitely mistaken who pretend That if Miracles argue the Existence of a Deity they argue the truth of Idolatry also for it cannot be proved that any one Divine Miracle was ever yet done to confirm and give credit to Idolatry and therefore I deny that any Idolaters can with Truth or Reason pretend it Now here Two things may be demanded which I shall consider a little because they are pertinent to the point in hand and may be very useful if rightly understood 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done 2. And Secondly How we may be able to know and distinguish such Appearances from works which were strictly and properly Miraculous 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done This is no very difficult Proposal either to those Pagans who own the Existence of Demons or to us Christians who read of Angels Good and Bad all under the Government of a Supreme Glorious Being the Father of Spirits But to the Scepticks of our Age it will seem odd to speak of these things because they acknowledge not the Existence of any thing that is not Material and obvious to Sense and therefore explode the Belief of all Spiritual Beings both God and Angels These Men I must at present leave to be contradicted in this Point by all Mankind considering that it is a Subject too far out of my way and of so copious a nature as to admit of a large Discourse by it self for the clearing of it I take it for granted that there is another world besides this and that that other world is Inhabited by Invisible Beings which by God's Permission Interess themselves in the Affairs of this Which being suppos'd How can it seem to any Reasonable Men impossible for such Spirits what by the subtlety and active Faculties of their Nature and what by their great Knowledge of things in Nature and Art and what by their own long Experience in the world to do when God is not pleased to interpose or check them many things which may seem Miraculous to us though they be wrought by their own Natural Ordinary and Limited Power It is not hard for those Beings to shew Signs and Wonders by God's Permission though without the help of his immediate Hand They can by their Natural Agility and Power carry a Body from place to place as the Devil did our Saviour's own Body with God's leave They can modulate the Air so as to form a Voice in an Image as the Angel made Balaam's Ass to speak They can by the Natural Vigour of their Faculties as easily divide a stone as a man can cut off the Branch of a Tree By impressing a new Vigour upon the Animal Spirits they can help the defect of Sight when God pleaseth in one that is casualy blind though they cannot by any Natural Means help him to Eyes who was born without them By the use of many Natural Causes they may do Prodigies as the Magicians did by their help in Egypt In which instance two things are observable 1. That the Power of those Spirits was restrained For though they did some things extraordinary very like unto the Miracles which Moses had done with his Rod yet when the Miracle of Lice came the Magicians could not do it and therefore they confess That that was the finger of God Exod. 8. 18 19. 2. That though they brought some Plagues upon Egypt they could not remove any for which reason the King sought unto Moses all along a plain Sign that they were evil Angels with whom the Magicians were then in Confederacy Hence it appears That very wonderful Signs have been shew'd which look'd like true Miracles and were in imitation of true Miracles when they were not Works of an Almighty Hand but the ordinary Effects of that natural sinite Power that is in Daemons and Devils To which also we may rationally impute those Operations for which those Magicians presently after Christ and others after them were so famous among the Heathens and more especially those by which Apollonius Tyanaeus got himself such a Name in the World if the stories told of him be true which yet is very questionable nor doth Philostratus himself who relates them report them all as things certain though he wrote with a great deal of Partiality The like is to be said of those pretended Miracles we have been told so much of for several Ages past by Men of the Romish Communion Supposing some of those things were true I mean really done for he must have a most miraculous Faith that can believe all or but one half of them it will by no means follow that they were Miracles in a proper sense or Effects purely Supernatural above the power of all Second Causes For though no Natural Cause in this visible World could do them yet may they be very well imputed to the ordinary Power of created Beings that are invisible and so they are to be ranked among the workings of Satan whose coming is wont to be with Power and Signs and Lying Wonders which God hath many times permitted partly to prove and exercise the Faith of sincere Professors of Religion and partly to punish those who receive not the love of the T●uth that they might be saved for which cause God doth send them strong delusions so that they believe a Lye 2 Thess 2 All this makes it evident that such prete●ded Miacles cannot possibly argue the Truth of Idolatry though actually done by Idolaters because they are suffer'd to be done in way of Judgment upon perverse and obstinate people However this advantage is hereby gained That those Miracles in appearance such as they are do argue the Existence of a God For if there are any invisible Beings permitted to shew Signs and Wonders vigorous in their Actings and limited in their Power it will follow that there is a Sovereign Being presiding over them that doth govern and command them suffer or controul chain or let them loose of his own pleasure and as the Reasons of Providence require it But it will be said That this distinction between Miracles in Reality and Miracles in Appearance is vain and to no purpose for who can see the difference of the one from the other by the nature of the things themselves because on each hand the works may be the same And it is not enough to say This was done by the Great Power of God and that by the Natural Power of Infernal Spirits when this doth not appear from the quality
thing can be drawn into Existence out of it but by a superiour uncontroulable Power over it For should we suppose it to produce any thing of it self we should suppose it to produce that which it hath not power to bring forth and to give it a Being which it hath not at all it self that is to bring it out of an Incapacity or out of Nothing Which no Humane Reason can think how a thing can do by any Casuality of its own because there is a defect of such Casuality If then there be something more and higher in a Rational Soul than what is in Matter it must be inconsistent with Reason to imagine that Matter caused it for then it would necessarily follow that it caused it without a Power or by its Incapacity Inability and Defect that is out of Nothing When we observe this admirable frame of Nature the Universe can we think that its Order was effectively caused by Confusion It s Harmony by Discord It s Beauty by Disproportions the Usefulness of its parts by Errour It s wise and regular Fabrication by Nonsense This were to make one Contrary the cause of another and with parity of Reason it might be said that Water produceth Fire and Darkness made the Sun and that Death is the efficient Cause of Life Sense and Motion In like manner when we consider the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Soul and compare the whole frame of it with the Substance and Properties of dull lifeless and incogitative Matter can we think that Corporiety was the cause of a thing that is immaterial that Divisibility was the cause of a Being immortal that Reason was the work of Stupidity that Atoms taught us to Philosophize that Wisdom sprang from the motion of little Bodies void of all Art Skill and Knowledge and that the Powers we find within us to act with Freedom and Choice to direct our Actions by the Logick of Truth and by the Laws of Vertue to desire and intend our Good in all things to pursue it with Eagerness Understanding and Delight and to rejoyce in the Fruition of it can we think I say that all these things came from the Chance-Operations of Matter which hath nothing of Sense or Thought in it It may as well be said that the tumbling of Stones and Timber together will produce Sensation Intellection Reasoning Memory Prudence Conscience together with those Passions and Affections which we feel within us In short It may be as well said that a Rational Soul can be educed and drawn out of an Heap of Rubbish As an Effect cannot naturally proceed from a contrary Cause so neither can an Effect transcend the Perfection and Vertue of its natural Cause It may fall short of it or it may come up to a degree of equality with it but it can no more go beyond or above it than Waters can naturally run higher than the Fountain-Head stands So that were there nothing in the World besides dead and senseless Matter modified into various Forms at a venture by undesigning and unintending Motion it were impossible for a Rational Soul to spring out of it for the Effect would be much nobler than the Cause and consequently would emerge out of nothing For I ask Were the Perfections of a Rational Soul in Matter before the Soul was made or were they not If you suppose they were then this ridiculous Conceit will follow that Atoms have in them Knowledge Wisdom Morality Liberty of Will and such other Perfections which belong unto the Soul If they were not antecedently there then this ridiculous Conceit will follow That Perfections were caused by Incapacity or that Matter gave a perfect Being an Existence which it self had not to give Which would be a plain Contradiction and would moreover ascribe a creative Power to Matter though it be a thing altogether Passive when the Men I now dispute against will not allow a Deity it self that Power because they think it an impossibility Dr. Cudworth Int. Syst p. 862 Hence a Learned Author concludes positively that neither can Matter which is a mee● Passive thing efficiently produce a Soul nor a Soul Matter no finite imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of nothing much less can such a Substance as hath a lower degree of Entity and Perfection in it create that which hath an higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in way of Ascent from lower to higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from higher to lower Now to produce any one higher Rank of Being from the lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from downwards to upwards and by the same reason that one higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally produced from a lower may all the rest be produced also The Consequence of all this is That Matter being so utterly uncapable of making an immaterial immortal intelligent Soul there must be a most perfect Mind that gave it its Faculties and its Nature Either it must be supposed to have no Cause at all which would be most absurd to imagine or it must have a competent Cause or a higher and most perfect Being to derive its Existence from A spiritual Substance cannot come but from a Spirit nor can any thing be the cause of Mind but Mind or of Understanding but Understanding or of Reason but Reason nor of Self-activity and Liberty but that which is a self-active voluntary and free Agent Since the rational Soul is so excellent a Creature there must be a most excellent Being that created it a Being that contains all manner of Perfection a Being of unlimited Power that could make it of Nothing by the force and fecundity of his own Divine Will and a Being of the most exalted and glorious Nature that could give Existence to such an admirable Being as every humane Soul is void of Matter and Corruption uncapable Naturally of dying in every respect like unto a Deity Spiritual Intelligent Active Wise Powerful Benign Kind and Good But those unreasonable Men who deny the Existence of God finding themselves prest with the invincible force of this Argument would shift it off by pretending that what we suppose touching the spiritual Nature and Faculties of Mens Souls is not to be granted They say that there is nothing real in the World but Matter and Motion That our very Souls themselves are Matter consisting of a smoother and siner sort of Atoms or indiscernible Motes by the various Motions and Modifications whereof the Soul Thinks Understands Exerts the Will and Acteth They will have mind to be nothing but the local Motion of some more active Particles of Matter They will have Knowledge to be nothing but a Passion caused by the intromitting of Images into the Brain from sensible Objects without They will
Excellence without the least mixture of Defect or Imperfection Such Defects and Imperfections there are in all Creatures In all Bodies there is Substance but such as is wrapt up in Matter which is a great imperfection in comparison of Spirituality In all Vegetables there is Life but such as is subject to decay which in them is imperfection In all Animals there is Sense or Perception but such as is attended with Fear Grief Anger and other disquieting Passions which are so many Imperfections in their Nature In Men there is Reason but such as is blemisht with Ignorance and Errors and the knowledge they have is acquired by the great labours of the Mind by Contemplation and Study by close arguing from one thing to another and by a long train of thoughts which follow each other successively and are gradually spun out of the Soul by the painful operations of the Rational Faculties all which shews the Defects and Imperfections that are in Humane Nature also And as for those Blessed Spirits above which we call Angels though there be in them a perfection of Understanding without dulness pain or laborious activity and though there be too rectitude in their Wills regularity in their Affections and all moral Perfections which make them happy yet is their Knowledge limited and for their whole Being they depend upon the Will and Pleasure of a Superior Power that at first created and still preserves them which argues imperfection in them likewise although they be the noblest part of the Universe Go through every Classis and sort of Individuals in the World and you will find in all of them some Deficiencies which are annext to their Principal and Best Part so that though they be all perfect in their kind and sit for the Ends for which they were formed yet they fall vastly short of Eminent and Absolute Perfection For such Perfection is to have all kinds of Excellence and all degrees of Excellence clear and free from all manner of Defect indigence or Incapacity Now the Notion of God includes this Absolute Perfection For that word GOD speaks a Being that is most Excellent So that supposing a Deity to be and to be the Cause of all Inferior things which the Notion of God implies too you must necessarily conceive of him as the Being in whom all those Perfections are united as in a Center which are divided every-where in the World and that they are all in Him in a most eminent and excellent Degree For no Being can give those Perfections which some way or other it hath not either formally or actually or virtually and eminently in it self because then it would communicate more than it hath that is more than what is in its power to impart which to suppose would be a contradiction All Causes that work by a necessity of Nature though they operate to the utmost power and extent of their Faculties yet 't is as impossible for them to yield what they have not as it is for Water to bring forth a Rational Soul or for Fire to produce an Angel out of a few Sticks And though Voluntary Agents work as they please and may give their Effects much less than themselves have yet 't is as impossible for the Freest and Powerful Agent to give more as it is for an Artificer to form a World out of nothing The thing it self cannot admit of such Omnipotence And so we may be sure that neither could God bestow Perfections which he himself was not possest of and therefore those Excellencies which we find in Nature and which are the Perfections of Nature must be concluded to come from the Author of Nature and consequently to be in him as in their true Original for otherwise there would be more Excellencies in the Effects than there are in the Cause which is as absurd to suppose as it is to imagine that there is more Water in a Rivulet than in the Ocean Again As all Perfection must be conceiv'd to be in that Supreme most Excellent and most Glorious Nature which we call GOD so it must be there too Absolutely or without the least mixture of Defect All defect must be in the Creature and that not so much by immediate Causality from God as by the necessary Condition of its own Nature because it is a thing made and of Temporary production and therefore of a Finite Nature and of Limited Faculties that is it must be essentially imperfect especially in comparison of its Creator it being utterly impossible for a Narrow Scanty New-form'd thing to be commensurate in all its Perfections to the Maker who is supposed to be Independent Infinite and All-sufficient in himself The Nature of the thing made cannot allow this and by consequence it is naturally and necessarily defective Upon which account though we must conclude that God is a Perfect Being because all Perfections in other things are derived from Him yet we may not conceive that he hath any mixture of Desiciency because the things he hath made are all of them defective in some respect or other For those Defects are so natural that the things themselves could not possibly have been made otherwise or without them Therefore as we must affirm That the Perfections which are in the World are limited and partial blended and alloy'd with something that is a blemish to them so we must conceive that those Originals of them which are in God are Boundless and Full Eminent and Absolute For to think otherwise is to degrade the Author of all Perfections and in truth to make the Notion of a Deity inconsistent with it self I have been the more desirous to clear this matter That the general Notion of God doth and must signify a Being which is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect because it is a very Rational Principle which may be fairly understood and must needs be assented to by all that will but hearken to Right Reason And because it is a very useful Principle also that will soon inable us to draw out of it by direct consequence a more 2. Particular Description of the Deity which is the Second thing I am to come to that I may shew what kind of Being we are to apprehend God to be before I go about to prove that this suppos'd most Perfect Being doth really and actually Exist For from this great and General Notion of God this Particular Account will follow 1. First We must conceive of God that he is an Independent Being not beholding to any Antecedent Distinct and Foreign Cause for the production of his Nature For could we without a contradiction suppose a Cause Antecedent to that which is thought to be the Chief and First Cause of all things such a Supposition would argue Imperfection in the Deity Because it would make him a Precarious Being depending upon the Activity and Pleasure of Another Superior to him in greatness of Power and before him in Time and in Existence of Nature 2. God having all Perfection
innumerable Essences in Nature which cannot be the Objects of Sense though the outward Forms and Ideas of them are The inward Nature of them is discoverable only by the Sagacity and Activity of the Mind observing their Effects and Operations then arguing from one thing to another and so judging of the Reality and Nature of the Cause by its Consequents Hereby the Understanding penetrates into the inside of things which Sense and Fancy can never do and it finds out not what a thing seems to be but what it is which is many times a quite different thing from the Fantastry and Appearance of it nor can ever be the direct and immediate Object of Sense To instance in one particular We cannot but perceive in some measure what an admirable Being the Soul of Man is if we will attentively consider its Powers and Operations And yet we cannot have any Perception of it by external Sensation because we cannot hear or see it or handle it with our Hands or make any discoveries of it by any other Sense no more than we can Smell or Taste a shadow Therefore there can be no sensible Images of it to make impressions upon the Organs of Sensation no external Essluvia's of it no foreign Idea's no Representations from without to affect the imagination No there must be the use of pure Cogitation and Reason to find out what the Soul is and to make that intelligible to us which acteth in us and this will do it when all our Senses can't We perceive that there is something in us which thinketh for every Man is conscious of his own Thoughts therefore the Soul is a Being We perceive that it works continually in us therefore it is a real Thing for it is a certain Principle of Reason That what is not cannot possibly work We perceive that there is in the Soul Life and Vigour Power and Activity Apprehension Knowledge and Memory a saculty of comparing things with things and of reasoning and judging upon such comparison a Power too of determining what to do of chusing and refusing of desiring that which it loves and of reaching out after that which it desires therefore it is a real existing Being Thus far we can easily go in our Notion of the Soul without any help of Sensation from abroad And hence we proceed to perceive That this Soul of ours is an incorporeal Being For its Operations are incongruous to stupid Matter too quick and noble for Matter though you suppose it to be in Motion Clay cannot Cogitate nor can any moving Wheel reason nor can the most spirituous Parts of the Blood philosophize nor can the finest Motes that dance in the Sun consult or deliberate nor can that glorious and enlivening Creature the Sun it self entertain those Meditations which bubble and spring out of ones mind nor can all the material parts of the World put together form those Contrivances Desires and Affections which are the Operations of every Humane Soul and to suppose as some Pretenders to Sense and Wit do that all these Actions proceed from little restless Atoms capering about in the Head and falling accidentally into various Forms and Contextures doth argue rather that the Brains of such Men are insested with Flies and Nits than that they understand any thing of right Reason and Philosophy I have said this to shew That there are many things which are not Objects of Sense and yet are intelligible Objects of the Mind and therefore that 't is false reasoning to conclude That there is no intelligible Notion or Idea of God because the Divine Nature we call by that Name is suppos'd to be an Immaterial Being and as such is not to be represented to our Senses A pretence which though used to invalidate the belief of a Deity might with parity of reason be made use of to disprove the Existence of all the Beings in the World whose true Essences and Natures are not discovered by corporeal sensible Idea's especially the Soul of Man which is no object of external Sensation and yet by its Operations and Essects appears to all understanding Men to be a real cogitative intellectual and active Being distinct from Matter though it be immured in Matter and then why may we not conceive and understand that supereminent Nature which is suppos'd to create every Humane Soul to be a perfectly wise righteous and good Being realy existing though we do not see him with the Eye Especially since we may see him in some measure at second hand in his glorious Works For he hath not left himself without witness in that he doth good and gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14. 17. So that the invisible things of him from the creation are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. 2. Another very false Principle those odd Men go upon is this That supposing God to be as we believe a transcendent infinite Being and supposing our own intellectual Faculties to be as we find them of a finite narrow Capacity it is impossible for us to comprehend God in our minds and therefore we must be uncertain whether the Notions we have of him be true or false right or wrong This is in effect to say That because we have not all knowledge therefore we can have none according to which rate of reasoning they may affirm also that we see nothing of the Sun because we cannot view every single Ray so as to comprehend its full Lustre and that because we understand not all the Mysteries in Nature therefore we are quite ignorant or at least have reason to doubt whether those Ideas and Notions we have do not utterly deceive us whereas in these cases the imperfection of our Knowledge proceeds not from any Dubitableness or Delusion in the Nature of the Objects but from the Weakness and Incapacity of our own Faculties Supposing the Existence of a Deity that is a Being transcendently Perfect how is it imaginable that we poor Creatures could possibly have full and adequate Conceptions of him unless we could reconcile Contradictions by making Narrowness to answer Transcendency or a Finite Thing to be proportionable and commensurate to an Infinite Being And yet it would not by any means follow hence that we have no knowledge of God or that God is an unintelligible Being because we cannot comprehend all the Glory of his Nature to the full We know in part as we can and according to our measure because in this weak mortal state the dulness and incapacity of our Minds will not allow us to know perfectly and to argue hence that the Deity is an unconceivable and so at least a dubitable Being when our own Conceptions of him our intellectual Powers are naturally and necessarily narrow is as if we should conclude that we have no knowledge at all of any thing in the World nay that it is very
questionable whether there be any such thing as a World because we cannot measure all the dimensions of the Universe with our Span. Besides we may know as much as is necessary and sit for us to understand now For as we are not yet able to see God as he is so neither would such a full Vision be needful and proper for us were it possible to be had here A great deal ought to be reserved for a more perfect and exalted State under the notion of a Reward It is enough to see so much of this Life as will raise our longings after a better and will help us to do those Duties of Religion which are now required in order to a perfect state and so much we do know though our knowledge of God be comparatively very dim and short We have such Notions as serve to sound and encourage the practise of Godliness and good Morality and that is all we are to mind in this World We very well apprehend That God is an Omniscient Just Powerful Good and Gracious Being and these Notions are enough to encourage Men to all manner of Piety and Virtue Therefore since the knowledge of these things is the way to Eternal Life and sufficient to answer the ends and purposes of Religion it is most unreasonable to object against the Idea of God and to quarrel with it as a thing unconceivable because the infinite Vastness of all his glorious Perfections is not to be comprehended by us fully especially in this our present imperfect state To conclude this Consideration Whatever some pretend against the Idea of God I am apt to think that they who strive and study to reject it have a great deal of it in their own Minds stirring and terrifying them with fearful Suggestions For did they not conceive that God is privy to their Vices that he is able to punish them and in Justice may it is hardly imaginable why they should offer such violence to their own Reason as to force it to argue against those Notions that by degrees they may obliterate them and argue them utterly away and so disbelieve the Existence of an Omniscient Powerful and Just Being that seems to them a most frightful Object The Idea of God lies very quiet in a good Conscience nay to a Man of an honest Heart and of a pious Life it is the most comfortable Enjoyment because it fills his mind with such thoughts as these That there is a glorious Being who ruleth over all who observes all our Actions who takes care of such as live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this World who orders the Affairs of this Life for their good who will guide them here by his Counsel and afterwards will receive them into Glory All which and the like Notions are such a comfortable Idea of God as no Good man would be without for all the World Therefore when Men are tempted to deny God's Existence the Temptation must proceed either from a very wrong Opinion of God as if he were a Cruel Mischievous Spiteful False and Ill-natur'd Being or which is more likely from a very evil Conscience which makes God appear to an ill Man a formidable Being by reason of his Omniscience Righteousness and Power 'T is probable that the truest Cause of Atheism is Vice there being on all hands such variety of powerful Arguments to prove a Deity as one would think impossible for any but Men of the most corrupt Minds to resist the force of them CHAP. II. 2. HAVING thus prepared my way towards the proof of a Deity by shewing That by the Deity is meant a Transcendent Being that eminently enjoyeth all the Essential Intellectual and Moral Perfections which can possibly belong to a Nature which is most excellent and absolutely free from the least defect And by shewing too how intelligible rational and certain this Notion of God's Nature is I must come now in the next place to make it appear That there really is such a Divine Nature or that this most perfect Being doth actually exist Now this naturally follows from the common standing Notion of a Deity which implies all possible Perfection For Existence is the ground of all Perfection the very first thing in the order of our Conceptions because that cannot be said to be perfect which is not or which wants a Being much less can we suppose a Nature to be absolutely perfect that is to be perfectly Wise Good and Righteous unless we suppose the Existence of such a Nature But lest an Insidel should say We make Suppositions of our own by devising what Notions we please of a God and then use those Suppositions for Arguments to prove there is a God Therefore in the prosecution of this Point I shall shew That there is in the World a most perfect Nature which we call God actually existing by considering these four things which shall be the general Heads of this Subject 1. First The Necessity of the thing it self 2. Secondly The universal Consent of Mankind 3. Thirdly Those extraordinary Occurrences which must argue the Being of a Deity 4. And Fourthly The admirable State of the World 1. First then If we go through the whole Series and Order of Nature from Effects to Causes and from one Cause onward to another we must of necessity come at last to one first Cause to a Being that doth necessarily exist of it self and consequently is a distinct independent and most perfect Being Here we must take notice of an universal Trth which will very much help to guide our Reason viz. That whatever once had not any real Being could not be the cause of it self for upon that impossible Supposition it would have existed and yet not existed at the same time It would not have existed because it is supposed to have wanted a Cause for its Production and it would have existed because it is supposed to have exercised causality which two things being contradictory to each other it must be granted that whatever once came out of a State of Non-existence was brought out of it by another distinct Agent which existed antecedently and had actual Power over it Hence it follows That all the Effects which are now in Nature and once were not do owe their Origination to Causes which were before them for those things which had no being could not in a state of nothingness Act much less could they act upon themselves and how many soever the Foreign Causes of them were they all lead us up to a Permanent first Cause which depended on no other nor stood in need of another for its being Now we see that there are innumerable things in the World which once were not and the immediate Causes of these were themselves the Effects of other Agents and they again of others and so on till we gradually ascend to one Chief Cause which was the Original of them all To omit all other things at present I instance in these two sorts of Effects we
see daily the Motion of Bodies and the Production of Living Creatures especially of Mankind First For the Motion of Bodies The principal Parts of the World are never idle In the Earth there are active Principles of Life and Vegetation which prepare the vital Juice that is in all Plants and Trees In Animals there is Concoction Digestion and a Motion or Fluor of the Chyle which serves for Nutrition In the Sea there is a Flux and Reflux and a Current in Rivers and Springs In the Air there are Vicissitudes and Turnings as Exhalations and Vapours steam out of the Earth and return to it again modified into various Forms And the constant circular Courses of those glorious Bodies in the Firmament shew likewise that in this visisible World there is no Rest Now all these Motions of material Substances must depend upon Causes for Matter alone is a liveless unactive stupid Thing which can no more move it self than Mountains and Rocks can walk and whatever those Causes be whether proximate or remote they must depend for their Operations upon the Energy of one supreme Cause that impower'd Nature and set the whole Frame of it on work and gave it as we may say the first Stroke for otherwise Motion which once was not in being would have been the Cause of it self which is utterly impossible The like may be said of the Production of Living Creatures and particularly of Mankind Once we were not therefore you and I and all of us had a beginning as we shall have an end and though we should run up our Generations so far as to date our Breed from an hundred thousand Years ago yet must we of necessity derive it at last from some Ancestors who were not begotten of others as we have been but were made after a different manner by an Omnipotent Cause which could give them a beginning for otherwise we must either run up on to Eternity or suppose our first Parents to have made themselves which is repugnant to the universal Truth I demonstrated before and would imply that those our first Parents had a Being and no Being at the same instant This Argument so strongly proves the necessary Existence of a first Cause or a Deity to form the whole Frame of Nature and to set it in order that some unreasonable Men find themselves constrained to tell us that the World ever was as it is now the same from all Eternity without any Rise Novity or Beginning and so without any dependence on a first Cause or need of it They were as good say plainly That they are resolved never to be convinced but will rid themselves of all belief of a Deity at any rate though they destroy the Principles of Common Reason and run into the most fulsome Absurdities and Contradictions For how can it consist with reason to take a boundless Progress from one Effect to another still onward up to Retroinfinity without stopping at any beginning This conceit being admitted these monstrous Absurdities must follow 1. First It implies the local Motion of Bodies to have produced it self without the efficiency of a first Mover which is impossible because Motion is neither essential to Matter for then no body could ever rest nor is it incident to Matter as such but by its being touched by some moving Principle that is distinct from it It is a Passion imprest upon Matter by an Agent by virtue whereof it changeth place and distance and therefore it presupposeth Action from something else otherwise it must be its own Creature and Maker too the Effect and Cause of it self at the same time and out of nothing which is a Contradicton So that though you go through the vastest Series of moving Bodies from the things below to the Heavens above you must come at last to a first Mover of all things or conclude against all Sense and Reason that there are innumerable Effects without any Original Essiciency Suppose when the World was made it had presently had some great Jog given it 't were hard to conceive that the Motion of its several Parts should not have spent it self in a little time without a conserving Power pervading through all But it confounds Humane Understanding to think how there could be Motion all along from all past Eternity and without any beginning no superior Power moving or acting upon Bodies because it is impossible for Matter to be self-active though you should suppose it to have been Eternal It could no more move than it could make it self for upon that principle Men must return to that great Absurdity and Contradiction touching a thing being its own Cause that is touching its being and not being at the same time 2. Secondly To suppose the whole World to have been Eternal would render the Generation of Mankind altogether impossible For every ones Formation and Birth is absolved in the space of so many Months and so it must of necessity include not only a Period but a Beginning too both which are inconsistent with the Notion of Eternity for if Humane Race was always begotten carry it as high as you please you must come to a moment when Generation did begin 3. If it be said Thirdly That Men were not from all Eternity generated as they are now but that some were created or made from everlasting and thence others were produced in the ordinary common way this contradicteth it self for it necessarily infers a Creator or Maker and by consequence it implies a first Man and a first Cause and a time when our first Ancestors began whereas there is neither first nor last in Successions which are Eternal so that were our Ancestors Eternal it must be said plainly we had no first Parents at all 4. And then Fourthly What can be more absurd than to conceive that every particular Man should have as we see every Man hath a Father and a Mother and yet that all Mankind should have none 5. Fifthly Or if every Man's Parents were infinite then it must be said That there are as many Infinites as there are and have been particular Men in the World which is such another great Absurdity as the former 6. Sixthly To conclude this Argumentation To affirm the World to have been Eternal is to destroy the Notion of Infinity and to entangle ones self in the greatest Nonsense For to give you the Words of a most Learned and Judicious Writer If the World be Eternal Bishop Stillingsleet ' s Orig. Sac. p. 376. there must have been past an infinite Succession of Ages an insinite number of Successions are already past and if past then at an end and so we find an Infinite which hath an end which is a consequence becoming one who avoids the belief of a Deity because Infinity is an unconceivable thing Besides if the number of Generations hath been Insinite these two consequences will unavoidably follow which the Reason of any one but an Atheist would startle at That one Infinite may be
Truth of God's Existence because then it would prove too the truth of Idolatry forasmuch as all Nations were once Idolaters and consented in the worship of a great many Deities To this two things may be easily returned First That there was no such universal Consent as to that no not among the Pagans themselves For though they worshipped a plurality of Objects and the vulgar People paid their Devotions to them as to so many real and distinct Deities yet as I shew'd before they own'd One Supreme God and look'd upon the rest as Inferior Beings Deities that had been generated or made by the great Cause of all things and them they adored for his sake and upon his account as Deputies and Administrators under him and as Mediators for Men to him so that they referred their Worship to him by them and did terminate all of it in him And yet the wiser sort of Men among them did not esteem that multitude of Deities as so many real Persons Substances and Beings distinct from the Supreme but rather as so many several Virtues and Powers of One Sovereign Numen personated fictitiously according to the See Dr. Cudworth's Intel. System l. 1. c. 4. p. 502. various Works and Manifestations of that One God that did Pervade all things did Exist in all things did Act in all things and was conceived by them to be in a manner all things and consequently was as they thought most honoured and best serv'd by the Religious Honours which were given him by and through his Works every where as he manifested every where his Virtue and display'd his Power So that the great Error among the old Heathens seems not to have been about the Existence of One God as to which they were well agreed but about the way and manner of Worshipping him as to that they were divided in their Opinions some believing the Supreme God to be worshipped joyntly with other Deities and the rest conceiving him to be worshipped alone under several Names Titles and Appellations Now though the Being of God was a thing so evident obvious and bright that it flash'd in all their faces yet in their Notions of God's Worship a thing which required greater use of Reason and Philosophy they were puzled and distracted and therefore universal Consent cannot be pleaded to prove the truth of their Religion and the real Existence of all their Deities because they were not generally agreed as to that as they were in this Common Principle That there is One God over all things 2. Secondly How gross soever the Conceits of the Heathens were the whole account of the matter shews That they were inclined and willing to Worship the True God if they could but have certainly known where or how to have found him In places of the thickest Darkness and in times of the greatest Ignorance there was in all Men a Propensity to some Religion or other so that rather than People would have no God at all they would adore many which still serves to confirm the Point in hand That the belief of a Deity is radicated in Humane Nature how hard soever some few odd Men have labour'd and strain'd to tear it out Seeing a belief so universal cannot be founded on meer Tradition or Fear or Policy or any advised Agreement and Institution amongst Mankind if we will enquire soberly into the Reasons of it no other rational Account can be given but that the Faculties of our Nature are so framed by the Excellent Wisdom and Power of God that upon the due exercise of our Understanding and Reason an Idea of God ariseth in every one's mind which is therefore rightly called a Natural Idea because it may be formed by the use of our Natural Faculties without the assistance of special Revelation and because our Nature is so ordered by the Father of Spirits Divines rightly say That the Idea of God is imprinted on all Mens minds by the Finger of God and is a mark of himself and of his own setting to let us know that we are all his and to draw from us all possible returns of Praises and Reverence of Admiration and Love of Imitation and Obedience and Universal Submission to his Divine Will and Pleasure CHAP. IV. HAVING fully consider'd this Argument of God's Existence taken from the Universal Consent of Mankind and the Common Principle which is in Humane Nature I proceed now to that which was proposed as the Third Head viz. The Consideration of some Extraordinary Occurrences in the World which further argue the Being of a God And here many things might be taken notice of were I minded to let this Discourse swell into a great bulk as The Strange Discoveries which have been made of many the most Secret Villanies the Wonderful Events whereby the Designs of Wicked Men have been prevented and over-rul'd the Various Providences whereby Opprest Innocence hath been vindicated and deliver'd the Several Revelations of the Divine Will which have been given since the beginning of the Creation the constant supporting of Government and Order in the World the remarkable Translation of Empires for Peoples Provocations the Astonishing Examples which have been made of many Bold Incorrigible Wretches and the like All which do in their kind shew that there is a Divine Disposer and Governor of the Universe an Observing and Righteous God that judgeth all the Earth But because these may chance to be looked upon rather as Popular Suggestions than Convincing Solid Arguments I shall for brevity sake wave them and insist only upon Two things which the most Judicious Men are commonly wont to urge and which indeed are past all contradiction if matter of Fact can be made appear And they are 1. First Such Miraculous Works as could never have been done but by an Almighty Power And 2. Secondly Such Predictions and Prophesies as could never have been delivered without the foreknowledge of an Omniscient Being 1. First For those Miraculous Works which could never have been done without an Almighty Power By Miracles I mean such as are True Miracles or such Effects as no Second Subordinate Cause can possibly work of it self no Finite Natural Agent can do by any Causality or Virtue of its own And of such Miracles there seem to be these Three sorts which most of all relate to the matter in hand 1. First Such as have been done without any Concurrence or Instrumentality of Second Causes nay such as could never have been done by any Limited Power As the giving sight to those who were born without Eyes the making the Sun to go back or to stand still the Raising of the Dead to life again and the multiplying a few Loaves and Fishes to satisfy Five thousand People 2. Such Effects as perhaps might have been done in time by the help of Natural means but yet never were nor could be wrought on a sudden by their use and application as the healing of the Leprosy in a moment the instantaneous removing
force of this Argument the Infidels of our Age have these Two things to say 1. First That no True Miracles or Supernatural Works have been ever wrought 2. And Secondly That the Wonders we read of are no more an Argument of the truth of God's Existence than they are of the truth of Idolatry because Idolaters themselves have pretended to Miracles These two Subterfuges and Shifts must be now considered in their order 1. First They will allow of no higher Miracles than what have been found here in Nature when some unusual things have hapned the natural cause whereof could not be well assigned As for Supernatural Effects they are Fables in the account of these men because they cannot admit of such Effects without admitting of a Supernatural Power to produce them that is the Existence of a Deity which of all things in the world they are most afraid to own Now for the clearing of this weighty matter I would first ask these great Pretenders to Reason this General Question Whether it be rational to deny matter of Fact which hath as good Evidence as can possibly be given of any matter of Fact which we have not seen with our own eyes If this be rational then there is an end of Faith amongst Mankind and we must believe nothing but what our own Senses bear witness to and so no Credit is to be given to any History or Relation in the world If it be not rational then have we as good grounds to believe the truth of Supernatural Effects or Miracles as can in reason be expected for the truth of any thing that is gone and past And this shall be my next business to shew That the Account we have of such and such Miracles done carries with it as strong Evidence at least as any matters of Fact we find in any History of former Ages so that with as much reason men may reject the belief of any nay of all Accounts as the belief of this I do not here in the least pretend to support the Credit of all those Appearances which have gone under the name of Miracles especially in latter Ages We read of multitudes which have been either downwright Forgeries and Fictions purposely invented to carry on Lucrative and Superstitious Designs or else have been no better than Illusions of mens Senses whereby the Credulity of weak people hath been impos'd upon and abus'd Nay many of them are of such a ridiculous Nature that some have been ashamed of the Stories though they have made Money by the Invention To talk of such Miracles is a great disadvantage and prejudice to Christ's Religion however it may serve mens private Interest The Miracles I urge as clear Demonstrations of the Existence of a God are those recorded in the Scriptures in the Old Testament by Moses chiefly and in the New by the Evangelists And how slight soever Scepticks make of them there is as great evidence of the truth of them as there can be of any matter of fact if we will be so just to those Writers as to allow them the Common Reputation of having been fair Historians though at present we set aside the consideration of their having been divinely Inspired Now the greatest evidence that can possibly be given of any thing that was formerly done depends upon these four Grounds 1. That the Person said to have done it did really exist or that there was indeed such a Person 2. That the Relators of the Action were sufficiently Credible 3. That others who had Reason to know and were able to know the truth of the matter were sufficiently satisfied of the certainty of it 4. That things of great and publick Concernment were the consequents of it Where there are all these grounds of evidence no reasonable Men can question any matter of fact though it was done at a great distance of time from them and from all these it appears that such true Miracles have been done as argue the Existence of an Omnipotent Agent 1. For first That there was in the World such a Man as Moses and such a Person as Jesus Christ is as evident even from Humane Testimony as that there were such Men as Alexander Caesar and Cato Josephus shews out of those Ancient Writers Manetho and Cont. Appion l. 1. Chaeremon what a great esteem the old Egyptians had of Moses and what an Admirable Divine Person he was in the Account of that Nation Clemens Alexandrinus tells us out of the Greek Writers what an Honour the old Philosophers Stromat l. 1. among them had for Moses's Memory and that they look'd upon him as the only wise Man in his time and gave him the Character of a Prince a Law-giver a General a Just and Holy Person beloved of God The same Author tells us That the Egyptian Mystae believed that Moses was taken up into Heaven and that Eupolenius gave him the Character of the first wise Man and that the Mystae relating the Story of his killing the Egyptian said That he did it by the word of his Mouth and that Artapanus own'd the Story of his Imprisonment adding some fabulous Stuff concerning his Deliverance Numenius the Pythagorean said ●irom 5. that Moses was a Divine and a Prophet and that his Writings are worthy of belief Id. 28. and that he was a most powerful Man with God by his Prayers Trogus Pompeius mentions Abraham Euseb de prepar l. 9. c. 8. Moses and Israel as Kings of the Jews He takes notice of the many Sons of Israel though he mistakes the number He speaks particularly and by Name of those two Sons of Israel Juda and Joseph and then he goes on relating the story of Moses and of his leading the Jews out of Egypt though he sophisticates the Story with a great deal of falshood as also Cornelius Tacitus Justin l. 36. Tac. l. 5. Hist. doth in his Account of Moses and his Conduct Both which Ancient Historians follow the Narration which was given of this matter by the Egyptians themselves who mortally hated the Jewish Nation and told a great many Lies touching the Reasons and Manner of their Departure from them as Josephus shews in his first Book against Appion Justin Martyr upbraiding the Greeks in his time for being Enemies to the Christian Religion proved to them out of their own Authors that Moses who laid the Foundations Exhortat ad Graec. of Christianity was acknowledg'd much more Ancient than any of their Poets ' Historians Philosophers or Legislators ' And out of that noble Historian Diodorus he told them That Moses was reckoned a God by reason of his Divine and Excellent Wisdom and for teaching People to use good Laws and to live according to them which Account Diodorus who had spent thirty Years in Travels said he had from the Priests in Egypt To these Observations divers more might be added out of Grotius and other Modern Writers were it needful But the Learned know That
Mental Discourse As for Example Though we discern not our own Souls nor can behold them with our Eyes yet in regard that we think and meditate and reason in our selves we strongly conclude that they are Beings actually existing because it is most certain that what is not cannot operate In like manner though the Being of God be quite out of the Ken of our corporeal Senses yet considering what bright manifestations there are in the World of wonderful Goodness Power and Wisdom we rightly infer That it was framed by a Supreme Being of the most adorable and excellent Perfections And so it is in innumerable other Instances though there are ten thousand things in Nature whose Contextures are not subject to the Cognizance of our Senses yet by arguing either à priori from the manifest Cause to the Effect or à posteriori from the manifest Effect to the Cause we proceed to satisfactory Inferences because if this thing be granted then according to the common Principles of Reason that thing will follow This is to Reason and Argue and to Discourse in our Minds and it is a Faculty whereof the Souls of Irrational Creatures are not capable because sine and close reasoning is vastly above bare and naked Sensation It requires strong Meditation great rowling of Thoughts and a firm linking of Notions to Notions in a Chain so that Rational Premises may fairly and regularly draw on Rational Conclusions All which Brute Creatures can no more do than they can study Philosophy or understand Books of Metaphysicks and Logick 4. Fourthly We feel in our selves a power of directing us in all our Moral Actions and of reflecting upon our Actions after they are done and this we call Conscience meaning the Judgment of a Man as it relates to the practice of Vertue and Honesty There are some Actions which are unchangeably good and others which are immutably Evil Their Natures are so utterly opposite that it is as impossible to make Vice Vertue or Vertue Vice as it is to reconcile Light and Darkness The Notions of such things every one does carry in himself nor is any Soul of Man so void and destitute of them but that the most unpolisht and barbarous People understand in some measure what is Right and Just Accordingly we find something within us which before an Action is done tells us secretly what is necessary sit and proper for us to do And when our unreasonable Inclinations and Passions carry us on to do that which is contrary to those good Dictates we find something within us that doth reprehend and blame and fly upon us and many times doth wound us so that we are very sore and our Minds are full of great Anguish and Torment To which purpose are those Words of St. Paul Rom. 2. 14 15. where speaking of the Gentiles he faith That though they had not the Law written in two Tables as the Jews had yet they did by nature the things contain'd in the law and having not the law were a law unto themselves Which shew'd the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts among themselves either accusing or else exausing one another Now this Faculty of governing and regulating all our Moral Actions and of passing Sentence upon them is an excellence of the Rational Soul which cannot be pretended to be in any Animals which are purely Sensitive how sagacious soever they appear because Actions natural are the highest they can go to As for the Rules of Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness they are wholly destitute of them as destitute as a Stone is of Sense or as a Plant is of Reason And hence it is that their Souls are mortal Whether they be altogether material or so necestarily depending upon Matter that they cannot subsist without a Body I will not now dispute No question but they perish with their Bodies For having no Law of Morality to act by they cannot be accountable either for Obedience or Transgression and so cannot be supposed to survive because they are uncapable either of Reward or Punishment in another World as being without all Power of Reflecting and consequently of having any Joys or Remorse of Mind in this To conclude this Consideration Besides a Principle of Life a Power of Sensation and a Faculty of retaining Idea's which spring from things without us we find in our selves such high and exquisite Powers that supposing a Being Angelical and next to a Deity was to have been form'd on purpose that it should be invested with Humane Flesh there to display the great Glories of its Nature we cannot conceive how a Being could have been made more like to an Angel than the Rational Soul is A Being that is able to search into the Secrets of Nature and into the invisible things of God to entertain it self with lofty Contemplations to discover recondite mysterious Truths to open the Treasures of Philosophy to fill the World with Histories of things past and to foresee things to come things which naturally must or probably may happen to know all that a Finite Creature is well capable of knowing to set out the just Boundaries between Good and Evil to inform the World how far they may honourably and safely go and what they are at their Peril to avoid to employ Mankind in the most curious Arts to furnish them with the most delightful and useful Sciences to give measures to all States and Princes to prescribe to all Societies the truest Methods for their Preservation and Welfare to shew them what noble Ends they are to pursue and what are the wisest and best means of bringing those Ends to pass to fit Men for the greatest and most generous Undertakings and to make them Men of Renown to inspire them with laudable Ambition and upon animating Hopes to found glorious Atchievements and to erect the Fortunes of Kingdoms to make us aspire towards the highest and most excellent Enjoyments In short to help us to do all the great things that can be done by mortal Creatures here and in the midst of our Labours under the Sun to shew us a Glimpse of another World and to sit us for a Blessed and Eternal State in it 2. These are the noble Powers of the Rational Soul and hence I argue in the Second place that this Excellence of it is a manifestation of the Existence of a God because these high Endowments and Faculties could not be derived from the casual Modifications of Dead and Senseless Matter but from the Agency of an intelligent Cause that is eminently and absolutely Perfect For it is a certain Principle of Reason That there cannot be more in the Effect than there is in the Cause If there could be more it would follow that Something can come of it self out of Nothing which is impossible Defect of Power in an Agent is a Non-Entity a want of Being a Privation an incapacity an utter Nothing Nor is it conceivable how any