THE Atheistical Objections AGAINST THE BEING of a GOD And His ATTRIBUTES Fairly Considered and Fully Refuted IN Eight Sermons Preach'd in the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul London 1698. Being the Seventh Year of the LECTURE Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq By JOHN HARRIS M. A. and Fellow of the ROYAL-SOCIETY LONDON Printed by J. L. for Richard Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber Immorality and Pride The Great Causes of ATHEISM A SERMON Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul January the 3 d. 1697 8. BEING The First of the LECTURE for that Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By JOHN HARRIS M. A. and Fellow of the ROYAL-SOCIETY LONDON Printed by J. L. for Richard Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Sir HENRY ASHURST Baronet Sir JOHN ROTHERAM Serjeant at Law JOHN EVELYN Senior Esquire Trustees appointed by the Will of the Honorable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire Most Reverend and Honoured AS I had the Honour to Preach this Sermon by your Kind and Generous Appointment so I now Publish it in Obedience to your Commands and humbly offer it as also my ensuing Discourses to your Candid Patronage and Acceptance I have in pursuance of Your Grace's direction studied to be as Plain and Intelligible as possibly I could and shall by the Divine Assistance prosecute my whole Design after the same manner which Method of Treating this Subject appears very Suitable to the Pious and Excellent Design of Our Noble and Honourable Founder I humbly desire your Prayers to Almighty God that He will vouchsafe to render my weak Endeavours effectual to shew the Groundlessness and Inconclusiveness of those Objections which Atheistical Men usually bring against the great and Important Truths of Religion which is the End they are sincerely directed to by Most Reverend and Honoured Your most obliged humble Servant J. HARRIS PSALM X. 4 The Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God Neither is God in all his Thoughts IN this Psalm is Contained a very lively Description of the Insolence of Atheistical and Wicked Men when once they grow Powerful and Numerous for then as we read at the Third Verse they will proceed so far as openly to boast of and glory in their Impiety They will boldly defie and contemn the great God of Heaven and Earth v. 13. They will deny his Providence v. 11 and despise his Vengeance And as we are told in these words of my Text They will grow so Proud and high as to scorn to pay him any Honour or Worship to Pray to him or Call upon him but will endeavour to banish the very Thoughts of his Being out of their Minds The Wicked through the Pride of his c. In which words we have an Account more particularly by what Methods and Steps Men advance to such an Exorbitant height of Wickedness as to set up for Atheism and to deny the Existence of a God for there are in them these Three Particulars which I shall consider in their Order I. Here is the general Character or Qualifications of the Person the Psalmist speaks of which is That he is a Wicked Man The Wicked through the Pride c. II. The particular kind of Wickedness or the Origin from whence the Spirit of Atheism and Irreligion doth chiefly proceed And That is Pride The Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance c. And III. Here is the great Charge that is brought against this Wicked and Proud Man viz. Wilful Atheism and Infidelity He will not seek after God Neither is God in all his Thoughts Or as it is in the Margin of our Bibles with good Warrant from the Hebr. All his Thoughts are there is no God In discoursing on the two First of these Heads I shall endeavour to shew that Immorality and Pride are the great Causes of the Growth of Atheism amongst us And on the Third I shall consider the Objections that Atheistical Men usually bring against the being of a Deity and shew how very weak and invalid they are And first I think it very Necessary to say something of the Causes of Infidelity and Atheism and to shew how it comes to pass that Men can possibly arrive to so great a height of Impiety This my Text naturally leads me to before I can come to the great Subject I design to Discourse upon and I hope it may be of very good use to discover the Grounds of this heinous Sin and the Methods and Steps by which Men advance to it that so those who are not yet hardened in it nor quite given up to a Reprobate Mind may by the Blessing of God take heed and avoid being engaged in such Courses as do naturally lead into it I. Therefore let us consider the general Character or Qualifications of the Person here spoken of in my Text And that is that he is a Wicked Man The wicked through the Pride c. And this is every where the Language of the Sacred Scripture when it speaks of Atheistical Men. David tells us Psal. 14.1 and 51.1 that 't is the Fool i. e. the Wicked Man for so the word Nabal often signifies and is so here to be understood 'T is he that hath said in his heart there is no God 'T is such an one as is a Fool by his own fault one stupified and dull'd by Vice and Lust as he sufficiently explains it afterwards one that is corrupt and become filthy and that hath done abominable works So the Apostle St. Paul supposes that those Men will have in them an evil heart of unbelief who do depart from the living God and live without him in the world And indeed it is very Natural to conclude That those which are once debauched in their Practices may easily grow so in their Principles For when once 't is a Man's Interest that there should be no God he will readily enough disbelieve his Existence We always give our assent very precipitantly to what we wish for and would have to be true A Man oppressed with a Load of Guilt and conscious to himself that he is daily obnoxious to the Divine Vengeance will be often very uneasie restless and dissatisfied with himself and his Mind must be filled with Dismal and Ill-boding Thoughts He is unwilling to leave his Sins and to forego the present Advantage of Sensual Pleasure and yet he cannot but be fearful too of the Punishments of a Future State and vehemently disturbed now and then about the account that he must one day give of his Actions Now 't is very Natural for a Man under such Circumstances to catch at any thing that doth but seem to offer him a little Ease and Quiet and that can help him to shake off his melancholy Apprehension of impending Punishment and Misery Some therefore bear down all Thought and Consideration of their
For a Deity without the Attributes of Understanding and Wisdom without Ends or Design none of which Mr. Hobbs asserts expresly can be in God is a Ridiculous stupid Being an Idol that every rational Agent must needs despise and which can never be the Object of any one's Adoration Love or Obedience To assert therefore that the Attributes of God are not discoverable by Reason nor agreeable to Philosophical Truth but may be declared to be any thing which the Soveraign Power pleases to make them this is designedly to expose the Belief and Notion of a Deity and to render it so Precarious that it can be the Object of no Rational Man's Faith And this last named Writer Treats the Deity after the same manner in most other Places of his Works He saith we must not say of Him that he is Finite that he hath figure Parts or Totality that he is here or there that he moveth or resteth or that we can conceive or know any thing of him for all this is to dishonour him And yet to say that he is an Immaterial Substance that he is an Infinite and Eternal Spirit is he saith Nonsense and what destroys and contradicts it self However he is willing to allow the word Immaterial or Spirit to be used towards God as a Mark of Honour and Respect That is we may attribute to God what we know to be Nonsense and Contradiction and this is the Way to Honour him and to speak of him any other way is to Dishonour Him Who doth not perceive that it was plainly the Design of this Writer to treat of the Deity after such a manner as should deprive Him of all Knowledge and Care of Humane Affairs and consequently effectually Banish out of Mens Minds a just Veneration for Him and Adoration of Him Such Men are the most Dangerous and Mischievous of all others Profess'd Atheists can do no great Harm for all Persons are aware of them and will justly abhor the Writings and Conversation of Men that say boldly there is no God But there are but few such they have found a way to pass undiscovered under a fairer Dress and a softer Name They pretend to be true Deists and sincere Cultivators of Natural Religion and to have a most Profound Respect for the Supream and Almighty Being But when this Profound Respect comes to be throughly examined and duly understood it will appear to be the most abominable Abuse that can be and a most wicked and Blasphemous Idea of the Deity For they make him either nothing but the Soul of the World Universal Matter or Natura Naturata a God that is an absolutely necessary Agent without any Rectitude in his Will without any Knowledge Wisdom Goodness Justice Mercy or Providence over his Works But let such Persons take what Names they please upon themselves a little consideration will soon discover what they are in reality and I hope give Men a just abhorrence of such Notions tho' never so speciously put forth But let us now proceed to examine what Ground there is from the Nature of the Thing for Men to advance such wicked Opinions and to shew the weakness and precariousness of them And here it must be premised and taken for granted that there is a God This is what the Persons I am now concerned with pretend to own and to acknowledge Which being supposed It appears very plain that we may have if we will and some Persons as I have shew'd have always had a very clear Notion or Idea of the Attributes and Perfections of such a Being as also that they are fixed and immutable Properties in the Divine Nature For by professing to believe a God they must mean if they mean any thing The first Cause and Author of all Things and the Governour and Disposer of them A Divine Being containing in himself all possible Perfections without being subject to any manner of Defect This I have already hinted at in another place and shall now more largely prove So far is it from being true that we cannot reason of the Nature of God from his Attributes nor Discourse of those Attributes from our Reason That this seems to be the only proper Way of enquiring into the wonderful Depth of the Divine Perfections I mean the only Way we have without Revelation for I am not now considering what God hath farther discovered of Himself to us by his Word For tho' the Deity doth abound with Infinite Excellencies and Perfections yet by the Light of Nature we can discover those only of which he hath given us some Impression on our own Natures and these are the Scales and Proportions by which our Reason must measure the Divine Attributes and Perfections For in order to gain good and true Notions of these we ought to take our Rise from those Perfections and Excellencies which we find in the Creatures and especially in our selves There can be but two Ways of coming to the Knowledge of any thing by its Cause and by its Effects 'T is impossible for us to make use of the former of these in Reference to the Deity For He being himself without Cause and the First Cause and Original of all Things cannot be known to us this Way But by the second Way he very properly may be the Object of our Knowledge and we ought to apply our selves to this Method in order to understand the Attributes of God For whatever Excellency or Perfection we can any way discover in the Effects of God in the World i. e. in the Works of the whole Creation the same we cannot but suppose must be in Him in the highest and most noble Proportion and Degree since they are all owing to and derived from Him And if we take a serious and considerate View of the Excellencies and Perfections that are to be found in the Creatures or the Works of God in the World we shall find that they may be reducible to these Four general Heads Being or Substance Life Sensibility and Reason All which we find to be in our selves and therefore they are at hand and ready to assist our Meditations and these will if duly considered lead us into a good Way of discovering the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature And I doubt not but a great Reason why Men have had and advanced wrong Notions of God hath been because they have had such of themselves and of those Perfections that are in our own Natures Men that do not understand that the true Perfection of Humane Nature consists in Moral Goodness or in an Universal agreeableness of our Will to the Eternal Laws of Right Reason cannot conceive aright of the Attributes and Perfections of God For they will be for making him like themselves guided by vehement Self-love and inordinate Will or whatever predominant Passions possess them 'T were easie to Trace this in the Epicurean Notion of a God dissolved in Ease and Sloth and who neglects the Government of the
most Material and Essential Points and indeed hath left us no possible way of knowing the Truth of any thing whatsoever For If when as I have shewn above God hath not only fixed in our Natures a Desire of Happiness but also disposed them so that every Power Faculty and Capacity of them convinces us that the Exercise of Moral Virtue is the Way and indeed the only Way to make us entirely happy If I say after all this there be no such things as Moral Virtue and Goodness but that all Things and Actions both in us and the Deity are purely and in their own Natures Indifferent 't is plain Reason is the most ridiculous thing in the World a Guide that serves to no manner of Purpose but to bewilder us in the Infinite Mazes of Errour and to expose us to Roam and Float about in the boundless Ocean of Scepticism where we can never find our Way certainly to any Place nor direct our Course to the Discovery of any Truth whatsoever But this not being to be supposed of the Deity who contains in himself all Possible Excellence and Perfection it must needs be that our Reason will direct us to conclude the Deity also guided and directed in all his Proceedings by the Eternal Rules of Right Reason and Truth and consequently that He will and doth always exercise loving Kindness Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth as the Prophet here speaks And indeed the Hobbian Notion of a Deity guided only by Arbitrary Will Omnipotent without any regard to Reason Goodness Justice and Wisdom is so far from attributing any Perfection to God or as they pretend being the Liberty and Sovereignty of the Deity that it really introduces the greatest Weakness and Folly and the most Brutish Madness that can be for what else can be supposed to be the Result of Irresistible and Extravagant Will pursuing the most fortuitous Caprichio's of Humour without any Wisdom Ends or Designs to Regulate its Motions by And of this the Ancient Heathens were so sensible that they always connected Goodness with the Idea that they had of an Omnipotent Mind's being Supream Lord over all things in the Universe for Mind not guided and directed by Goodness was according to them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mere Folly and Madness and consequently no true Deity There is a Remarkable Passage of Celsus's to this purpose which though introduced upon another Design yet very clearly shews the Idea that the Heathens had of the Goodness and Wisdom of the Deity God saith he can't do evil things nor will any thing contrary to Nature or Reason for God is not the President or Governour of Irregular or Inordinate Desires nor of erroneous Disorder and Confusion but of a Nature truly Just and Righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. contr Cels. lib. 5. p. 240. Cantabr Excellently to the same Purpose is that Saying of Plotinus The Deity doth always act according to his Nature or Essence and that Nature or Essence discovereth Goodness and Justice in all its Operations for indeed if these things should not be there i. e. in God where can they else be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 265. Ficin And 't is plain that the Heathens had a true Notion that the Deity must be a Good Just and Righteous Being because several of the old Atheists as Protagoras c. argued against the Existence of a Deity from the Worlds being so ill Made and Ordered as it is and from there being so much Evil and Misery among Mankind as they pretended to find in the World but now there had been no manner of force in this Argument and it had been ridiculous to bring it if both the Atheistical Proposers of it and their Antagonists had not had a clear Notion that Goodness Justice and Righteousness are naturally included in the Idea of a God Accordingly Vaninus tells us That Protagoras used to say Si Deus non est unde igitur Bona si autem est unde Mala Amph. Aetern Provid p. 90. And the same thing Tully tells us also Lib. De Nat. Deorum that Diagoras used to object against a Deity All which sufficiently proves that they were all Agreed that there was some common Standard of Good and Evil and that the Notion of a Deity had always these Attributes of Goodness and Justice connected with it And if this be so as undoubtedly it is we shall gain one more good Argument for this Natural and Eternal Distinction between Good and Evil and a yet much Nobler Foundation for Morality For we cannot but think that a God who hath Perfect Goodness Justice and Mercy Essential to his Nature and who hath Created several Orders of Being in the World to make them Happy and in order to display his own Glory by his Just Kind and Gracious Dealing with them we cannot but think I say that God will give to those of his Creatures whom he hath endowed with Reason and a Power of Liberty and Choice such a Method of knowing his Will the Way that leads to their own Happiness as that they shall never be Mistaken about it but by their own gross Fault and Neglect And also that he will make the difference between Good and Evil and between Virtue and Vice so plain and conspicuous that no one can miss of the Knowledge of his Duty but by a wilful Violation of those Powers and Faculties God hath graciously implanted in his Nature And all this we see God hath Actually done and indeed much more having over and above connected very great Rewards with the Practice of Virtue and Morality And hath either naturally planted in the Minds of Men a Notion of some future State or else hath given our Nature such a Power as that we may attain to such a Notion for we find a very plain Belief and Expectation of such a State among many of the Ancient and Modern Heathens And over and above all this he hath also given us a clear Revelation of his Will in the Holy Scripture that sure Word of Prophecy and Instruction whereby we may if we will gain a yet plainer Knowledge of our Duty be more perfectly Instructed in the Method of Eternal Salvation and find also much higher Encouragements and much greater Helps and Assistances than we had before in the State of Nature And all this is vouchsafed us to enforce the more effectually the Practice of Moral Virtue and to enable us more perfectly to perform those Things which the Universal Reason of Mankind approves as Good Lovely and Advantageous to Human Nature FINIS Books Printed for Richard Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard REmarks upon some late Papers relating to the Universal Deluge and to the Natural History of the Earth In Octavo And Immorality and Pride the great Causes of Atheism The Atheist's Objection that we can have no Idea of God Refuted The Notion of a
can please himself at last with saying That he hath not Erred like a Fool but Secundum Verbum Vid. Oracles of Reason p. 92. When Men have a while enured themselves to talk at this rate and to blow themselves up with such lofty Conceits and Fancies they grow by degrees more and more opinionated and do dote more and more on their own dear Notions and finding by this means quiet and ease in the Practice of their Sins they at last degenerate so far as firmly to believe the Truth of what they perhaps at first advanced and talk'd only from a Spirit of Contradiction and become so stupid and blind as like great Liars to believe their own Figments and Inventions To such any Extravagant and Inconsistent Hypothesis so it do but clash with Sacred Scripture shall be no less than a real Demonstration a Bold and daring Falsity shall pass for undoubted Truth and a Prophane Jest or a Scurrilous Reflection on the Character or Person of one in Holy Orders shall be a sufficient Refutation of the plainest Demonstration he can bring against their Principles and Practices For it is most certain that though a Proud Man always think himself in the right and arrogate to himself an Exemption from the common Frailties and Errours of Mankind yet there is no body so frequently deceived and mistaken as he for he doth so over-estimate all his Faculties and Endowments and is so much enamoured of and Trusts so much to his own Quickness and Penetration that he usually Imagines his Great Genius able to Master any thing without the servile fatigue of Pains and Study and therefore he will never give himself Time seriously to examine into things he scorns and hates the Drudgery of deeply revolving and comparing the Idaeas of things in his Mind but rashly proceeds to Judgment and Determination on a very Transient and Superficial View And there will he stick be the Resolution he is come to never so absurd and Unaccountable for he is as much above confessing an Errour in Judgment as he is of Repenting of a Fault in Practice And indeed as the absurd and ridiculous Paradoxes which Atheistical Writers maintain shew their shallow insight into things and their Precipitancy in forming a Determination about them so the Pride and Haughtiness with which they deliver them abundantly demonstrates the True Spirit of such Authors and the Real Ground both of their Embracing and Maintaining their Opinions Plato describes the Atheists of his Age to be a Proud Insolent and Haughty sort of Men the Ground of whose Opinion was he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in reality a very mischievous Ignorance though to the conceited Venders and Embracers of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It appeared to be the greatest Wisdom and the Wisest of all Opinions Lactantius tells us in his Discourse De Ira Dei p. 729. Oxon. that the true Reason why Diagoras Melius and Theodorus two of the Ancient Atheists denied a Deity was That they might gain the Glory of being the Authors of some new Opinion contradictory to the common Notions of Mankind And of the former of these Diagoras Sextus Empiricus acquaints us That because a certain perjured Person who had wrong'd him lived unpunished by the Gods he was so enraged at it that he undertook to maintain there were no Gods at all Lib. Adr. Mathem Edit Genev. 1621. The like Pride and Arrogance Lactantius tells us he found in the two great Writers that appeared against Christianity in his time in Bithynia The former of these who 't is probable was the famous Porphyry called himself Antistes Philosophiae the Chief or Prince of Philosophers and saith Lactantius Nescio utrum Superbius an Importunius pretended to correct the blind Errors of Mankind and to guide Men into the True Way He could not bear that Unskilful and Innocent Persons should be enslaved by the Cheats of and become a Prey to Crafty and Designing Men. Lib. de Justit p. 420 421. Oxon. With the like Assurance do the Modern Writers of this kind express themselves And though they have in reality very little or nothing New but only the Arguments of the Ancients a little varied and embelished as I shall have occasion to observe hereafter more at large yet they all set up for new Lights and mighty Discoverers of the Secrets of Nature and Philosophy and all of them assume the Glory of first leading Men into the way of Truth and delivering them out of the dark mazes of Vulgar Errors This was the pretence of Vanini who was burnt for Atheism at Tholouse A. D. 1619. whose Mind he says grew more and more strong healthful and robust as he exercised it in searching out the Secrets of that Supreme Philosophy which is wholly unknown to the common and ordinary Rank of Philosophers And this he saith will soon be discovered by the perusal of his Physico-Magicum which was now to see the Light Vid. Vanini Amphitheatr in Epist. Dedicat. After the same manner do Machiavel Spinoza Hobbs Blount and all the late Atheistical Writers deliver themselves Instances of which I think I need not stay to give since 't is conspicuous through the whole course of their Writings and no doubt taken notice of by every Reader only of the first of these viz. Machiavel I cannot but take notice that Vanini himself saith that 't was his Pride and Covetousness that made him deny the Truth of the Miracles recorded in Sacred Scripture Amphitheatr p. 51. Edit Lugduni 1615. And as the Writings so the Discourses of these Gentlemen do equally discover this Pride and Vanity for they do usually deliver themselves with such a scornful and contemptuous Air when they either endeavour to establish their own or to overthrow their Adversaries Arguments as sufficiently shews the Propriety and Truth of the Psalmist's Observation here that 't is through the pride of his countenance that the wicked will not seek after God The LXXII indeed render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through the abundance of his wrath and therein they are followed by the vulgar Latin As if the Wicked were angry against God and enraged at his Presidency over Humane Affairs as if they fretted under and quarelled at the Severity of his Laws and Government and scorned to apply themselves to him by Prayer and to submit to him by Obedience But though this may be a good sence of the words and though I doubt not a stubborn Frowardness and Perverseness of our Wills against the Will of God may be a frequent cause and ground of Infidelity yet our English Translation appears to me to be much better warranted from the Hebrew for there it is properly through the Elevation of his Nose or Face Which truly is very emphatical and expresses such a proud and scornful gesture of Face as is the natural Indication of the Internal Haughtiness of a Man's Mind or as the Targum on this place render it of the arrogance of his
II. The Particular Kind of Wickedness or Origin from whence the Spirit of Atheism and Irreligion doth chiefly proceed and that is Pride The Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance c. III. The great Charge which the Psalmist brings against the Person here spoken of in my Text viz. Wilful Atheism and Infidelity He will not seek after God neither is God in all his Thoughts The Two first of these I have already dispatch'd and therefore shall now proceed to discourse on my Third Head viz. The great Charge here brought against this Wicked Person That he will not seek after God neither is God in all his Thoughts or as it is in the Margin with good grounds as I have before observed from the Hebrew All his Thoughts are There is no God Which appears to me to imply a wilful and malicious slighting and contemning of God and his Laws and an endeavour to banish the very Thoughts of his Existence out of their Minds And under this Head I shall make it my business to enumerate all the pretended Arguments and Objections which I have met with and are of any weight against the Being of a God in general and then endeavour to shew how Weak and Inconclusive they are and how miserable a Support they will prove for Atheism and Infidelity But first it will be necessary briefly to clear up one Point and to obviate one Objection that may be made against this very Attempt of mine of Refuting and Answering the Atheists Arguments and Objections It will I doubt not be said That there is not now nor ever perhaps was in the World any such Person as a Speculative Atheist or one that believes there is no God It is said with great assurance by some That the Ancient Atheists were only such as declared against the Plurality of Gods and the Idolatry and Superstition of the Heathen Worship And we are told by one very lately That he hath travelled many Countries and could never meet with any Atheists which are few if any and all the Noise and Clamour saith he is against Castles in the Air. To which I Answer That nothing can be more plain and clear than that both Ancient and Modern Writers do give us an account of such Persons as were known and reputed Atheists by those that were Contemporary with them and did well understand their Principles and Tenets I need not insist on Proofs from any of the Ancient Christian Writers for 't is sufficient that Plato Diogenes Laertius Plutarch Cicero and many others do acquaint us that such kind of Men there have been in the World Tho' I shall particularly produce the Testimony of two Authors one ancient and the other 't is probable now living to prove this Point and these are Sextus Empiricus and he that wrote the Thoughts on the Comet that appeared in the Year 1680. Sextus is express That Diagoras Melius Prodicus Chius Euemerus Critias Atheniensis Theodorus and many others were absolute Atheists and denied that there were any Gods at all And the French Gentleman saith the same of most of those mentioned by Sextus and other Ancient Writers and to the number adds some others of a Modern date And Mr. Blount saith that the Epicureans constantly affirmed there were no Gods Now the Evidence of these Authors will I hope be allowed because they seem Well-wishers to the Cause of Infidelity themselves To these I might add were it necessary That Vaninus himself tells us frequently of Atheists that he met with and no one will doubt but that he knew where to find one at any time and he calls Machiavel expressly Atheorum facilè Princeps But indeed this Assertion of these Gentlemen That there is no such thing as an Atheist in the World is like most other things that they advance Uncertain and Precarious and often contradicted by what at other times they deliver for though they are sometimes and in some Companies for Reasons that are very obvious unwilling to take the Title of Atheist on themselves or their Party yet they are often ready enough to bestow it on others and when it is subservient to their purpose will insinuate That the greatest Lights and Teachers of the Church believe as little of Religion as themselves But I say also 2. That 't is one thing to disbelieve the Existence of a God and another to declare so to the World And it doth not at all follow that a Man is not an Atheist because he doth not openly profess himself to be so at all times and in all Companies There are no Writers so insincere as these kind of Gentlemen they are very cautious and tender how they expose themselves to the just Punishment of the Law Vaninus himself though he did at last suffer Death madly for his Infidelity as one saith of him that died as madly himself yet is he very cautious and careful in his Writings how he renders himself obnoxious to the Censure of the Inquisition and he declares That he will submit all things to the Judgment of the Roman Church So a Gentleman of our own Nation though he endeavours as effectually as 't is possible under-hand to ridicule and undermine Religion yet he would sain appear to the World to be a good Christian and one that hath a mighty Veneration for God and his Laws but in the mean time 't is very easie to discover his true Principles and Design for he declares That he thinks it much safer to believe as the Church believes and to pin his Faith always on my Lord of Canterbury ' s Sleeve as he saith he will do and subscribe to any ridiculous Legend rather than incurr the Censure of the Popish Clergy as he basely calls the Ministers of this most Excellent Protestant Church for the same laudable Reasons also he forbears communicating what he doth or ought to think Truth to Mankind as he tells us in many places Now if this be the case with these Men of Honour that they dare not speak their Minds nor discover their true Sentiments plainly to the World we must by no means conclude over-hastily of their Orthodoxy by what they say in Discourse at some times or publish in Print at others but in short if they set up such a Notion of a God as is essentially inconsistent with the Idea that all Mankind have of such a Being if they make him either a Necessary Agent or a Blind Idle and Unactive One if they divest him of his Providence or cramp him in his Attributes as those that call themselves Deists generally do in a word if they make him such an Impotent and Careless Being as either cannot or will not govern the World give Laws to his People vindicate his own Honour and punish and reward Men according to their Actions 'T is plain I say that though in words they may profess to believe and honour a God yet in reality they deny him and
have no manner of Notion of his true Nature and Perfections But 't is not the Name only nor the empty Sound of the word Deity but the Thing that is wanting in the World 't is the true Knowledge and Belief of this only that can clear a Man from the imputation of Atheism If he be not right in this Point i. e. if he have not such a belief of God as implies in it a knowledge of the Perfections of his Nature he may call himself by as fine and fashionable Names as he pleases and pretend to Deism and Natural Religion but in reality he is an Atheist and so ought to be esteemed by all Mankind for as one saith that knew very well what an Atheist was Such are Atheists as deny God's Providence or who restrain it in some particulars and exclude it in reference to others as well as those who directly deny the Existence of a Deity And Vaninus calls Tully Atheist on this very account and in another place he saith That to deny a Providence is the same thing as to deny a God This therefore being returned in Answer to the Objection That there is no such thing as an Atheist Let us now go about to examine and consider the Arguments and Objections that are usually brought by Atheistical Men against the Being of a God And these one would think should be exceeding weighty ones and no less than direct Demonstrations for if they are not such strenuous Proofs as are impossible to be refuted I 'm sure the Atheist ought to pass for the most senseless and stupid of all Mankind He slights and despises that inestimable Offer of being Happy for ever he runs the risque of being eternally Miserable he bids open defiance to the Laws of God and Man and he opposes his own Opinion and Judgment to the sober and considerate Sentiments of the judicious part of Mankind in all Ages of the World Now surely in such a case he ought to be very sure that he cannot be mistaken and to be as demonstratively certain as of the truth of any Theorem in Euclid that there is no God no Moral Good nor Evil no Revealed Religion nor any Future State of Rewards and Punishments But can any Man have the face to pretend to this Will not the common sense of all Mankind pronounce this impossible and that a Demonstration of the Non-Existence of these things is not to be obtained Can any one be directly assured that there is not so much as a Possibility that these things should be true And if so then 't is plain that for any thing he can directly prove to the contrary the Atheist may be in the wrong and consequently be Eternally damned and miserable Now would any one that can think at all run this Dreadful Hazard much less sure one that pretends to be a Man of Penetration and Judgment and to Philosophize above the Vulgar And yet this every Atheist doth and that too on no other Grounds but the Strength of some trifling Objections against and seeming Absurdities in the Notion of a God and Religion which the Extravagant Wit of wicked Men hath invented and coined to stop the Mouths of those that reprove them to stifle and bear down the Stings of Conscience and to gain some pretence to Reason and Principles in their Impious Proceedings But surely these Persons must know well enough that 't is a very easie thing to start Objections against the most plain and obvious Truths They know also that in other Cases themselves think it very unreasonable to disbelieve the truth of a Thing only because they can't readily answer all the Objections a witty Man may bring against it and because they cannot solve all the Phoenomena of it Now why should not they proceed so in Matters of Religion They know that all the great Truths of it have been demonstrated over and over by those Learned and Excellent Persons which have written in the Defence of it Nay they know too that most of their Objections have been already refuted and answered and that they adhere to a Cause that hath been frequently baffled They know the weight and importance of the Subject and that if Religion should at last prove to be true they must be for ever Miserable All this I say they very well know and therefore it looks strangely like an Infatuation upon them that they will run this Dreadful Hazard only on the Strength of a few Objections and a bare surmise only that there is no such thing as a God or Religion These Objections are their only Hold and Pretence that they can stick to and abide by and what and how Great they are I shall now proceed to Examine These I shall take in their Natural Order And 1. Consider such Objections as are brought against the Being of a God in General 2. Such as are alledged against his Attributes and Perfections 3. Such as are advanced against the Truth and Authority of revealed Religion The Groundlessness and Inconclusiveness of all which I shall endeavour as clearly as I can to Demonstrate And First I shall consider and refute the Objections and Arguments that are brought against the Being of God in General and these are as far as I can find all reducible to these two Heads It is said 1. That we can have no Idea of God 2. That the Notion of a Deity owes its Original either to the foolish Fears of some Men or the Crafty Designs of others I shall at this Time handle the former of these and Refute the Objections that are brought against the Existence of a Deity from our not being able as they say to have any Idea or Notion of him The Atheist alledges That whatsoever is Unconceiveable is really nothing at all that we can have no Idea or possible Notion of any thing that is not some how or other an Object of our Senses for all Knowledge is Sense and we can only judge of the Existence of things by its Evidence and Testimony Now God is by Divines said to be Incomprehensible Infinite and Invisible i. e. Something that 't is impossible to know any thing about that is every where and yet no where that sees every thing and yet no body can see him nor can we perceive any thing of him by any other of our Senses We cannot tell what to make of such an Account as this of a God we can have no â—â—â—tasm Idea or Conception of any such Thing and therefore we justly conclude There is no such Being in Nature And as for that precarious Notion of a God that is so much talk'd of in the World 't is nothing but a meer Phantome or Mormo devised and set up by Politick and Designing Men to keep the Rabble in awe and to scare such Fools as are afraid of their own Shadows The several Points of this Objection I shall singly consider and As to the First Part of it That what
thing We cannot indeed perfectly comprehend the Nature of God because we have shallow limited finite and imperfect Capacities and Faculties and the Deity contains in himself all possible Perfection Every one must grant that 't is impossible the lesser should contain and comprehend the greater especially too when the Extent and Fulness of one Infinitely exceeds the Capacity of the other From hence therefore to inferr that we can have no Idea nor Knowledge at all of God is very absurd and incongruous 'T is a strange Method of Arguing that I can know nothing at all of a thing because I can't know every particular that belongs to it and he would deservedly be esteemed a Madman that should deny that there is any such thing as the Sun because he cannot tell how many Miles he is in Diameter how far he is from us and which way he comes by a supply of Matter to continue his enlivening Fire and Heat When some great and advantageous Revolution is brought about in any Nation when the Publick Good is secured the Laws and Liberties preserved and Confusion Bloodshed and Misery of all Kinds prevented by the wise and deep Council and Conduct of Him or Those that are at the Helm of Affairs Would it not be gross Stupidity for a Man to assert That all this came about by Chance and that there was no Wisdom nor Conduct that so opportunely managed all things only because he cannot penetrate into all the secret Steps and Methods of it and see all the hidden Springs by which it was moved regularly on to its intended Perfection There are many things whose Existence 't would be ridiculous to doubt of whose Nature and Qualities we are very far from being able perfectly to Comprehend and Explain And amongst the rest there is nothing but our own Existence that we can be more assured of than that there is a God For as to all Objects of Sense we may as Monsieur Des Cartes shews have some reason to doubt of their actual Existence without us till we are first satisfied that our Senses do not deceive us Till we know this for any thing we can demonstratively prove to the contrary all sensible Objects may be meer Phantasms and Delusions and nothing but the internal Configurations of our own Brains and the result of Imagination and Fancy But when once we are assured that there is a God who is perfectly Knowing Wise and Good we shall discover that He can be no Deceiver we shall find that 't is not suitable to the Idea we have of Him that He should delude and cheat us with false Appearances and consequently we may well conclude that he hath appointed our Senses to be proper Judges of their own Objects and that those Things are actually existing without us whose Idea's we so plainly perceive in our selves and which we truly judge to be so And if we will impartially consult our own Thoughts and reason clearly from those Idea's that we have within us I think we may most demonstratively be assured of the Existence of a God and that He is such a most Perfect or Infinite Being as the Sacred Scriptures and Divines describe Him to be I will allow that the greatest Certainty that we can have of the Existence of any thing is of our own Being of which as I have already said no one can possibly doubt for whatsoever can Think reason doubt will and determine must needs be Something and have a true and real Being And because we find by this means that there is certainly something actually existing it will plainly follow that something or other must always have been so for if ever there was a time when there was Nothing there never could have been any thing at all for absolute Nothing could never have done or produced any thing Something therefore 't is plain must have been always or eternally existing and which never could have had any beginning For if it ever had any beginning tho' never so many Thousands of Millions of Ages ago it must have then began from meer Nothing which 't is impossible for any Man to conceive Now if we consider our selves or any things else that are round about us in the world we shall plainly find that neither we nor they can be this thing that always was existent and which we have discovered must have been without beginning for we know well enough that it was but a little while ago when we began to be and that 't is but a short space before we shall die and cease to be in this World any more Besides we find in our selves and discover in things without us such Defects Limitations and Imperfections as sufficiently must convince us that neither we nor they can be Independent Beings nor indeed the Cause of one another's Existence We must therefore in our Thoughts have recourse to some first Cause or Origin from whence all things do proceed And that there must be some first Cause or some Being which produced both our selves and the things that are round about us in the World we cannot but be assured of for we know nothing can cause or make it self to be and we see that we cannot make or produce each other and we perceive that none of our Forms or Modes of Existence are Indestructible and Eternal but that all things are continually slitting and changing some improving and increasing while others are decreasing and dying The common Matter indeed of all Bodies will remain and we do not find it to be perishable as their forms are But then this we may easily know cannot be the first Cause of all other Things since we have no Idea of its being an Active Intelligent Wise and Powerful Being as that must be but the Notion we have of it is that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purely Passive and obsequiously Capable of all variety of Forms and Motions as I shall hereafter more largely shew If we farther carefully consider of this Being that we have thus found must have eternally been or existed we shall find also that it must for ever continue to be for the time to come for we cannot imagine how a Being that hath Eternally existed for the time past should ever terminate or cease to be for the time to come since there is nothing in its self or in any thing without it that can possibly be the Cause of its Destruction Such a Being therefore will be properly Eternal and necessarily Self-existent without Beginning or End or any Possibility of Dying or Ceasing to be Such a Being also must on this Account be the Creator Author and Cause of all things because nothing can be the Cause of it self and therefore they must either be Eternal and Necessarily Self existent as we are assured they are not or else derived from and produced by this Eternal and Infinite Being And as the Beings themselves are derived from and produced by this Eternal and Self existent Being so
of Success give them thanks making the Creatures of their own fancy Gods This is the Natural Seed of Religion which Men taking notice of have formed into Laws c. And he tells us in another place That Fear of Power invisible feigned by the Mind or imagined from Tales publickly allowed is Religion not allowed is Superstition So that according to Mr. Hobbs Religion and Superstition differ only in this that the latter is a Lye and a Cheat standing only on the Authority of Private Men whereas the former is supported by the Power of the Government In these Four Things saith he elsewhere consists the Natural Seed of Religion viz. Ignorance of Second Causes Opinion of Ghosts Devotion toward what Men Fear and taking things casual for Prognosticks These are the Accounts which our Modern Atheistical Writers give of the Origin of Religion and the Notion of a God among Men. And this they with great assurance put off as their own new Invention without being so just as to mention any of the Ancients from whom they have borrowed every Article of it That trite Passage every Body knows Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor and Lucretius mentions Fear and the Ignorance of Second Causes as that which gave the first rise to the Notion of a God For saith he When Men with fearful Minds behold the things in the Earth and Heavens they become abject and depressed under the fear of the Gods whose Empire Ignorance of Causes sets up in the World for when Men cannot see any natural Reason for any Effect they strait fansie 't is the Product of some Divine Power The very same thing he saith also in another place where he attributes likewise the Notion of Ghosts and consequently of the Gods interfering with the Affairs of the World to Mens not being able to distinguish Dreams from Real Appearances Tully tells us That there were some in his time and no doubt long before who attributed the Opinion and Belief of the Gods to have been feigned by Wise Men for the good of the Commonwealth And Plato acquaints us That the ancient Atheists did affirm that the Gods were not by Nature but by Art and Laws only and so were different in different places according as the different humour of the Law givers chanced to determine the Matter Sextus Empiricus saith That there were at first some Intelligent and Prudent Men who consider'd what would be beneficial to Humane Life and these first feigned the fabulous Notion of Gods and caused that Suspicion that there is in Mens Minds about them Afterwards he saith That heretofore Men lived wild and savage and preyed upon one another like wild Beasts till some Men being willing to prevent and repress Injuries and Rapine invented Laws to punish those that did amiss And then they feigned that there were Gods also who took cognizance of all Mens Actions whether good or bad that so no one might dare to commit any secret Wickedness when he was by this means persuaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Gods tho' unseen by Men did yet inspect into all Humane Actions and take notice who did well and who the contrary Sextus also attributes the Rise of Mens Belief of a God to their ignorance of Second Causes as I shewed you before that Lucretius doth for he makes Democritus speak thus When Men of old saw strange and frightful things in the Air or Heavens such as Thunder Lightning Thunderbolts Eclipses of the Sun and Moon c. not knowing the Natural Causes of them but being terrified by them they strait imagined the Gods to be the Authors of them This therefore being proved to be the true sence of the Ancient Atheistical Writers and from them copied by the Moderns viz. That Fear Ignorance and Cunning were the first Originals or Causes of the Notion and Belief of a God Let us now fairly examine the Case and see what ground there is for such an Assertion and whether this can account for that Universal Notion of a Divine and Omnipotent Being which we find every where in the World And 1. I say That the Notion of a GOD could not come from Fear for if it did either this Fear must be universally inherent in all Mankind or else peculiar only to some Dastardly and Low-spirited Mortals If the former be asserted 't is a very convincing Argument that there is a just ground for such a Fear and that it hath something that is Real for its Object that can thus affect all Men after the same manner And if it be so that all Men are naturally subject to this Fear of a Deity how could any one ever discover that there was no real ground for this in the nature of the thing how came he himself exempted from this poorness of Spirit And if he were not exempted from this terrible Passion how came he to discover that the Object of this Fear is all a Cheat and nothing but a meer Mormo and Bugbear 'T was very lucky for him that the rambling Atoms of his Constitution jumpt by chance into such a couragious and noble Frame and Temper But pray who was this mighty Man when and where did he live what Ancient History gives us any Account of this happy Person that laughed at that which all the World besides were afraid of Let the Atheists give us but any Relation of him that is Authentick and it shall be allowed as the greatest thing they have ever yet advanced But I suppose they will not say that this Fear is Universal but that it only possesseth mean and abject Spirits and never invades the Great and Brave Soul Let us see whether this will do them any service Now by Brave and Great Souls who do they mean Do they intend by them such as have Power Command and Empire over others Nothing is more certain than that Kings and Princes have been equally subject to these Fears of a God and of Divine Punishment with the meanest and most contemptible of their Subjects And this Lucretius himself owns as also that this Fear of a Deity is Universal and we have Examples of it in the Histories of all Ages and Parts of the World But they will say 't is like that by Brave and Great Souls they don't mean Kings and Princes but the Wise Knowing and Learned part of Mankind These were they that first discovered this Cheat and who finding its Advantage to Mankind have ever since continued it and carried it on for the Publick Good These Cunning Men finding the Vulgar generally subject to dismal Apprehensions and Fears of they knew not what kind of Invisible Powers took advantage from thence to tell them of a God and to form the product of their Fears into the Notion of a Deity Now to this I say That if these cunning Politicians found that there was a Fear Dread and Apprehension of some
Man and Beast and do act the Understanding or Brain to apprehend judge and remember Now by this 't is plain that he supposes Cogitation Understanding Consciousness and Liberty and all the Faculties of the Soul of Man to be nothing but the result of some peculiar Motions in a Fitly organized Body The Animal Spirits he thinks are like the Elastick Particles in the Spring of a Watch tho' they cannot tell what a Clock it is themselves yet they can by means of the Spring which they actuate do that and many other things that the Movement shall be fitted for Or to make use of a Comparison of his own The Animal Spirits may do as the Wind doth in the Chest of an Organ tho' it can make no Musick of it self yet by being communicated so as to inspire the several Pipes it may actuate them into a very fine Harmony It is not my Business nor Design to discourse here of the Soul of Man but yet I would fain beg these Corporealists clearly to explain how Self-Consciousness Reflection and Liberty of Action can possibly be accounted for by this Hypothesis For this necessarily makes Men meer Machines at long run An Engine is never the more free and conscious to its self of its own Operations for being fine and curiously contrived And the wonderful Clock at Strasburgh knows no more what it doth nor is it any more the Spontaneous Cause of its so many and curious Motions than the Ancient Clepsydra or a modern Hour-glass knoweth what it is about when it rudely measureth the Duration of any Part of Time For whatever is performed by meer Matter and Motion must needs be necessary in every step and degree of its course be the way of acting in the Engine never so curious and never so remote from the cognisance of our Senses They know well enough as I shall shew below that there is no possible room for freedom of Action Consciousness of any Operation nor for a Cogitative and Reasoning Power according to this way of explicating the Operations of the Humane Soul For in the Animal Spirits they grant there is no such thing they are only a fiery and briskly agitated Fluid which serves to actuate any Part of the Rational Machine pro re natâ And these several Parts or Organs of the Machine can no more produce any such thing without the Animal Spirits than the Hand or Dial-Plate of a Watch can or any other Part of a curious Instrument If therefore you enquire of them wherein they place this Cogitation Self-Consciousness and Liberty they will tell you 't is in the Man 't is in the whole 't is neither his Soul alone nor his Body alone 't is no Spiritual Substance distinct from Matter but 't is the whole Man that thinks reasons and acts freely by the form of the whole But this is very unaccountable and is what neither they nor any one else I believe can ever apprehend or conceive that Liberty should be the result of Necessarily moved Matter that Cogitation should arise from Senseless and Unthinking Atoms and that Knowledge and Consciousness of its own Operations should come into any Engine by its being finely and curiously contrived and be nothing but the necessary result of bare local Motion and rightly Organized Matter These Absurdities some other Corporealists clearly perceiving and being fully convinced that 't is impossible to account for Cogitation Consciousness and the like from bare Matter and Motion and to educe the Perfections of the Deity out of the Power of Matter only These I say had recourse to another way of maintaining their beloved Assertion that there is no other Substance but Body They assert that Cogitation is Essential to Matter or as Spinoza words it All Substance is essentially Cogitative and Extended so that as there is no Substance but what is Material so there is none but what is Cogitative too Indeed as I shewed you before he asserts that there is but One only Substance which is God or in other words Universal Matter and Cogitation and Extension he saith are the two Infinite Attributes or else the Affections of the Attributes of the Deity And this with a great deal of Assurance as the way of these Writers is he pretends to demonstrate Mathematically by a Pompous tho' a very Obscure Apparatus of Definitions Axioms Postulates and Propositions But it is not calling a thing a Demonstration that will make it to be so nor concluding with Quod erat Demonstrandum that will make every body acquiesce in a Proposition when it is either perfectly unintelligible or false And yet such are those that Spinoza brings to prove and support this strange Opinion The Monstrous Absurdities of which I shall now consider And First 'T is plain That if Cogitation be as Essential to Matter as Extension Then all and every Particle of it must needs be a Thinking Substance or Body by it self Distinct from all Other Particles of Matter in the World There is no one doubts but 't is so in reference to the proper and allowed Affections of Body Impenetrability and Extension Every least Particle or Atom of Matter hath these Properties as compleat within it self as they are in the whole Bulk of the Universe or in any larger Body whatsoever These are also individually distinct in each Particle so that its Properties though of the same kind are not the very same with those of other Parts of Matter Now if to each such Particle of Matter Cogitation be also added then every Atom in the Universe will be a Thinking Intelligent and Reasoning Being distinct from all the rest and have its own proper and peculiar Faculties and Operations 't will be a different Person from all Others and every Individual Particle of Matter will be so from it and from every one else in the World Every Atom also will be equal to any of the rest in respect of this Cogitative Power will have it in the very same Proportion and not be wiser or more foolish duller or more ingenious than its neighbours And if this be so as it must necessarily be if all Matter be Essentially Cogitative then there must either be no God at all or else every Particle of Matter must be a distinct God by it self and so the most ridiculous Polytheism that ever was imagin'd must be introduced and allowed of For if there be any such things as Perfect Knowledge Power Wisdom and Goodness every one of these Particles must have it For 't is impossible Infinite or Perfect Power Wisdom Knowledge and Goodness can be produced out of finite the lesser can never produce the greater nor any thing make or give that which it hath not within it self And therefore it plainly follows that either there is no Deity at all or else that every Particle of Matter must be a God by it self according to this Hypothesis For finite or imperfect Cogitation can no more be the Cause of Infinite than
Science This is apparently seen in the Pretenders to Scepticism and Infidelity and in all the Atheistical Writers No Men express themselves with such an insupportable Insolence as these New Lights these Reformers of our Philosophy and our Politicks who yet after all are Proud knowing nothing as St. Paul speaks Rom. 1.21 But are vain in their imaginations their foolish heart is darkened and professing themselves to be wise they become fools And therefore it is that the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to them because the carnal mind savoureth not the things that are of God Tho' would Men but studiously apply themselves to consider of would they carefully and impartially examine into and would they but seriously make use of those Means that God hath graciously given Mankind in order to attain a sufficient Knowledge of his Nature and Perfections They would then find so much Beauty Wisdom Harmony and Excellency in this inexhaustible Fund of Knowledge as would sufficiently Reward their Pains and Endeavours And this we may glory in this Knowledge will be the most noble and honourable that our Capacities can attain unto and in comparison of which there is no other Qualification and Excellence in our Natures at all valuable For here we have an Object the greatest and most perfect that can be the more we know of which the more we shall exalt and perfect our selves Here are no empty Speculations no difficiles Nugae no false Lights nor Phantastical Appearances but 't is a real and substantial an useful and practical Knowledge a Knowledge that doth not only delight us for the present but which brings constant and lasting Satisfaction here and eternal Happiness hereafter Let him therefore that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth God that He is the Lord who exerciseth loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things do I delight saith the Lord. In which words there are these two Things chiefly considerable I. A Supposition that God is capable of being known to us by his Attributes II. An Account of some of those Attributes which he exerciseth in the Earth and in which he delights Under which Two Heads I shall in pursuance of my general Design endeavour to Answer those Objections that Atheistical Men have brought against the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature 1. Here is a Supposition that God is capable of being known to us by his Attributes He that glorieth let him glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth God that he is the Lord who exerciseth loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth 'T is plainly supposed here That this Knowledge which we are directed to acquire is a possible Knowledge God would not command us to understand him by his Attributes of Goodness Mercy and Justice which he continually exerciseth in the Earth if it were impossible for us to attain to it He would not delight to do such Works in the World if nothing of them could be known nor himself by them But the Psalmist tells us the Lord is known by his Works And that the Heavens declare his Glory and the Firmament sheweth his handy work And St. Paul is express That the Invisible Things of Him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead And indeed These Attributes of God are what is most and best known to us and from the certain Knowledge that we have of these we may be effectually assured of the Existence of some first Cause some Supream Being in whom all these Attributes and Perfections must inhere The Infinite Nature indeed of This Divine Being is Incomprehensible to our shallow and scanty Understandings and we cannot by searching find it out nor discover the Almighty unto Perfection But notwithstanding we have as certain a Knowledge and as clear Idea's of his Attributes as we have of any thing in the World And Grotius's Gloss on this place is very just and proper God doth not bid Men know him according to his Nature which exceeds Humane Capacity to do but according to those Attributes or Properties of his which relate to Mankind which the Hebrews call Middôth i.e. those Measures or Dimensions of Him which are proportionable to our Understandings and Capacities And such his Attributes are for we see them visibly exerted in the Works of the Creation and we find them necessarily included in the Notion that we have of the Supream Being or the First Cause of all things as I have already shewed in another Discourse But this some are pleased to deny and say That nothing at all can be known of God but only that he is for his Nature is perfectly Incomprehensible that we do but dishonour God by pretending to Understand and to talk about his Attributes about which we can say nothing but only what serves to express our Astonishment Ignorance and Rusticity and therefore the Civil Magistrate ought to determine what Attributes shall be given to the Deity This seems to be the Sense of Vaninus and is plainly of Mr. Hobbs and was before them of Sextus Empiricus Which take in their own words Non Deum melius Intelligimus quam per ea quoe negamus nos Intelligere saith Vaninus Again Deum nuuis tam plenè indicatum intelligimus Vocibus quà m iis quoe Ignorantiam nostram proetendunt We can have saith Mr. Hobbs no Conception of the Deity and consequently all his Attributes signifie only our Inability and Defect of Power to conceive any thing concerning Him except only this that there is a God And in another place saith he God's Attributes cannot signifie what he is but ought to signifie our desire to honour him but they that venture to reason of his Nature from these Attributes of honour losing their Vnderstanding in the very first Attempt fall from one Inconvenience to another without End and Number and do only discover their Astonishment and Rusticity Again When Men saith he out of Principles of Natural Reason dispute about the Attributes of God they do but dishonour him for in the Attributes we give to God we are not to consider Philosophical Truth And therefore he concludes That those Attributes which the Soveraign Power shall ordain in the Worship of God as signs of Honour ought to be taken and used for such by Private Men in their Publick Worship In which he agrees as he useth to do exactly with Sextus Empiricus who tells us that the Sceptick is in the right for asserting Gods according to the Laws and Custom of his Country and in paying them that veneration and worship which on the same account becomes due to them will not venture to determine any thing Philosophically about them Now from these Passages I think it appears plain enough that tho' these Men did in words pretend to own and acknowledge a God yet in Fact they were Atheists and had no true Belief of any such Being
all things must be governed by absolute Fatality and be in every respect Physically necessary there can then be no such thing as Contingency or any Voluntary Actions and if we were sure of this 't is indeed the greatest Ignorance and Folly in the World to pretend to talk any thing about it But on the other hand if there be a Deity who is an Infinitely perfect Being distinct from Nature who Created all things by the Word of his Power and for whose sole Pleasure they are and were Created then none of those Consequences will follow but it will appear very reasonable to believe that God hath still a Care and Providence over that World which he made at first and that he delights to exercise loving Kindness Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth as the Prophet here speaks That he hath made some Creatures capable of Knowing and Vnderstanding this and who consequently have a free Power as in other things so of giving Praise and Glory to so Great and Wonderful a Being nay and of Glorying themselves in being capacitated to attain so Excellent a Knowledge And that Man hath such a Power or Freedom of Will in his Nature is what I shall now proceed in the last place plainly to prove 1. And the first Argument I shall make use of to demonstrate this shall be the Experience of all Mankind And this one would think should be of great Weight and turn the Scale against all the Atheistical Metaphysicks in the World and so no doubt it would were it not wicked Mens Interest to advance the contrary Notion Now that we have a free Power of deliberating in many Cases which way 't is best for us to proceed that we can act this way or that way according as we like best and that we can often forbear whether we will Act at all or not is a Truth so clear and manifest that we are I think almost as certain of it as we are of our own being and Existence and 't is an unimaginable thing how any Man can be perswaded that he hath no such Power Indeed one may by Sophistical words Metaphysical Terms and abstruse Unintelligible Banter be perhaps a little amused and confounded for the present But that any one should by such a Jargon be persuaded out of his Senses his Reason and his Experience and continue in that Opinion is what I do believe never yet befel any Rational and Thinking Man When Zeno brought his silly Sophisticals Argument to prove there was no such thing as Motion his Antagonist thought it to no purpose to return an Answer to what plainly was contradictory to the common Sense of Mankind and therefore convinc'd him only by getting up and Walking And the very same Return will baffle and expose all the Pretended Arguments for Necessity For 't is plain He had a Power first whether he would have walked or not he could have walked Five Turns or Fifty he could have gone across the Room or length-wise round it or from Angle to Angle And I dare say no Sophistry or Metaphysicks whatever would have convinced him that none of these were in his Power when he plainly found them all to be so any more than he was convinced a Body could not move out of its place when he had seen and tried a Thousand times that it would 'T is the same thing in reference to the Thoughts of our Minds as it is in the Motions of our Bodies We plainly find we have a Power in abundance of Cases to preferr one thought before another and to remove our Contemplation from one Notion or Idea to another We can in our Minds compare and revolve over the several Objects of our Choice and we can oftentimes choose whether we will do this or not and this Internal Freedom in Reference to our Thoughts and Idea's we do as plainly perceive and are as sure of as we are that we can voluntarily move our Body or any part of it from place to place And as I have plainly shewed you above our Adversaries do grant and allow this when it is for their Turn But they will say tho' we seem to be free and do think and perceive our selves to be so yet in reality we are not and it is only our Ignorance of Things and Causes which induces us to be of this mistaken Opinion and the Idea of Liberty which Men have is this that they know no Cause of their Actions for to say they depend on the Will is to talk about what they do not understand and to use words of which they have no Idea's at all To which I say that I cannot but be of the Opinion that it is a good Rational way enough of Proceeding to pronounce of things according as we do experience them to be and to declare them to be that which we have all the Reason in the World to think and believe that they really are And I think we may well enough own and be contented with the Charge of Ignorance here laid upon us For the Case is thus We think our selves free because we plainly find and experiment our selves to be so in a Thousand Instances and this also these Penetrating Gentlemen sometimes as I have shewed do kindly allow and we are indeed wholly Ignorant of any Causes that do absolutely determine us to Action or which do necessitate us in what we do previous to that free Power which we find in our selves so that plainly perceiving our selves to have this free Power and being Ignorant of any true Reason why we should believe we are mistaken in what we perceive and know we do indeed such is our Ignorance and Weakness embrace the Opinion that there is a Liberty of Action in Human Nature And this free Power or Liberty which we find in us we not being deep Metaphysicians call the Will by which we understand as I have shewed before not any Particular Act of Volition but the Power or Faculty of Willing And since we plainly perceive that in many cases we are not determined to Action by any thing without us but do choose or refuse act or not act according as we please and being withal grosly Ignorant of any Cause these Actions have but what we find and perceive them to have we call our free Will the Cause of these Actions and say they depend on it and yet after all do we not find out that we talk about what we do not understand and use words that we have no Idea of But our Adversaries it seems have a quite different rellish of things they soar in a higher and more subtle Region they will not condescend to speak common sense in this Matter Tho' they plainly understand as they tell us that they are really free as to many Actions and can deliberate whether they will do them or not purely because they have a free Power so to do tho' they are satisfied that they can act if they will