Principle of Gravitation or by impulse of ambient Bodies It is plain here is no difference as to this whether the World be Infinite or Finite so that the same Arguments that we have used before may be equally urged in this Supposition And though we should concede that these Revolutions might be acquired and that all were settled and constituted in the present State and Posture of Things yet we say the continuance of this Frame and Order for so long a duration as the known Ages of the World must necessarily infer the Existence of God For though the Universe was infinite the now Fixt Stars could not be fixed but would naturally convene together and confound System with System because all mutually attracting every one would move whither it was most powerfully drawn This they may say is indubitable in the case of a Finite World where some Systems must needs be Outmost and therefore be drawn toward the Middle but when Infinite Systems succeed one another through an Infinite Space and none is either inward or outward may not all the Systems be situated in an accurate Poise and because equally attracted on all sides remain fixed and unmoved But to this we reply That unless the very mathematical Center of Gravity of every System be placed and fixed in the very mathematical Center of the Attractive Power of all the rest they cannot be evenly attracted on all sides but must preponderate some way or other Now he that considers what a mathematical Center is and that Quantity is infinitely divisible will never be persuaded that such an Universal Equilibrium arising from the coincidence of Infinite Centers can naturally be acquired or maintained If they say that upon the Supposition of Infinite Matter every System would be infinitely and therefore equally attracted on all sides and consequently would rest in an exact Equilibrium be the Center of its Gravity in what Position soever this will overthrow their very Hypothesis For at this rate in an infinite Chaos nothing at all could be formed no Particles could convene by mutual Attraction because every one there must have Infinite Matter around it and therefore must rest for ever being evenly balanced between Infinite Attractions Even the Planets upon this principle must gravitate no more toward the Sun than any other way so that they would not revolve in curve Lines but fly away in direct Tangents till they struck against other Planets or Stars in some remote regions of the Infinite Space An equal Attraction on all sides of all Matter is just equal to no Attraction at all and by this means all the Motion in the Universe must proceed from external Impulse alone which we have proved before to be an incompetent Cause for the Formation of a World And now O thou almighty and eternal Creator having considered the Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained with all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM FROM THE Origin and Frame of the World The Third and Last PART The Eighth SERMON preached December 5. 1692. Acts XIV 15 c. That ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein Who in times past suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling our hearts with Food and Gladness HAving abundantly proved in our Last Exercise That the Frame of the present World could neither be made nor preserved without the Power of God we shall now consider the structure and motions of our own System if any characters of Divine Wisdom and Goodness may be discoverable by us And even at the first and general View it very evidently appears to us which is our FOURTH and Last Proposition That the Order and Beauty of the Systematical Parts of the World the Discernible Ends and Final Causes of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Meliority above what was necessary to be do evince by a reflex Argument that it could not be produced by Mechanism or Chance but by an Intelligent and Benign Agent that by his excellent Wisdom made the Heavens But before we engage in this Disquisition we must offer one necessary Caution that we need not nor do not confine and determin the purposes of God in creating all Mundane Bodies merely to Humane Ends and Uses Not that we believe it laborious and painfull to Omnipotence to create a World out of Nothing or more laborious to create a great World than a small one so as we might think it disagreeable to the Majesty and Tranquillity of the Divine Nature to take so much pains for our sakes Nor do we count it any absurdity that such a vast and immense Universe should be made for the sole use of such mean and unworthy Creatures as the Children of Men. For if we consider the Dignity of an Intelligent Being and put that in the scales against brute inanimate Matter we may affirm without over-valuing Humane Nature that the Soul of one vertuous and religious Man is of greater worth and excellency than the Sun and his Planets and all the Stars in the World If therefore it could appear that all the Mundane Bodies are some way conducible to the service of Man if all were as beneficial to us as the Polar Stars were formerly for Navigation as the Moon is for the flowing and ebbing of Tides by which an inestimable advantage accrues to the World for her officious Courtesie in long Winter Nights especiaally to the more Northern Nations who in a continual Night it may be of a whole month are so pretty well accommodated by the Light of the Moon reflected from frozen Snow that they do not much envy their Antipodes a month's presence of the Sun if all the Heavenly Bodies were thus serviceable to us we should not be backward to assign their usefulness to Mankind as the sole end of their Creation But we dare not undertake to shew what advantage is brought to Us by those innumerable Stars in the Galaxy and other parts of the Firmament not discernible by naked eyes and yet each many thousand times bigger than the whole body of the Earth If you say they beget in us a great Idea and Veneration of the mighty Author and Governour of such stupendous Bodies and excite and elevate our minds to his adoration and praise you say very truly and well But would it not raise in us a higher apprehension of the infinite Majesty and boundless Beneficence of God to suppose that those remote and vast Bodies were formed not merely upon Our account to be peept at through an Optick
who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein Who in times past suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling our hearts with Food and Gladness ALL the Arguments that can be brought or can be demanded for the Existence of God may perhaps not absurdly be reduced to three General Heads The First of which will include all the Proofs from the Vital and Intelligent portions of the Universe the Organical Bodies of the various Animals and the Immaterial Souls of Men. Which Living and Understanding Substances as they make incomparably the most considerable and noble Part of the naturally known and visible Creation so they do the most clearly and cogently demonstrate to Philosophical Enquirers the necessary Self-existence and omnipotent Power and unsearchable Wisdom and boundless Beneficence of their Maker This first Topick therefore was very fitly and divinely made use of by our Apostle in his Conference with Philosophers and that inquisitive People of Athens the latter spending their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some New thing and the other in nothing but to call in question the most evident Truths that were deliver'd and receiv'd of Old And these Arguments we have hitherto pursued in their utmost latitude and extent So that now we shall proceed to the Second Head or the Proofs of a Deity from the Inanimate part of the World since even Natural Reason as well as Holy Scripture assures us That the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work That he made the Earth by his power He hath established the World by his wisdom and hath stretched out the Heaven by his understanding That He commanded and they were created he hath also established them for ever and ever He covereth the Heavens with Clouds He prepareth Rain for the Earth He crowneth the Year with his Goodness These Reasons for God's Existence from the Frame and System of the World as they are equally true with the Former so they have always been more popular and plausible to the illiterate part of Mankind insomuch as the Epicureans and some others have observed that mens contemplating the most ample Arch of the Firmament the innumerable multitude of the Stars the regular Rising and Setting of the Sun the periodical and constant Vicissitudes of Day and Night and Seasons of the Year and the other Affections of Meteors and Heavenly Bodies was the principal and almost only ground and occasion that the Notion of a God came first into the World making no mention of the former Proof from the Frame of Humane Nature That in God we Live and Move and have our Being Which Argument being so natural and internal to Mankind doth nevertheless I know not how seem more remote and obscure to the Generality of Men who are readier to fetch a Reason from the immense distance of the starry Heavens and the outmost Walls of the World than seek one at home within themselves in their own Faculties and Constitutions So that hence we may perceive how prudently that was waved and the Second here insisted on by St. Paul to the rude and simple Semi-barbarians of Lycaonia He left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling our Hearts with Food and Gladness Which words we shall now interpret in a large and free Acceptation so that this Second Theme may comprehend all the Brute Inanimate Matter of the Universe as the Former comprized all visible Creatures in the World that have Understanding or Sense or Vegetable Life These two Arguments are the Voices of Nature the unanimous Suffrages of all real Beings and Substances created that are naturally knowable without Revelation And if Lastly in the Third place we can evince the Divine Existence from the Adjuncts and Circumstances of Humane Life if we find in all Ages in all civiliz'd Nations an Universal Belief and Worship of a Divinity if we find many unquestionable Records of Super-natural and Miraculous Effects if we find many faithfull Relations of Prophecies punctually accomplished of Prophecies so well attested above the suspicion of Falshood so remote and particular and unlikely to come to pass beyond the possibility of good Guessing or the mere Foresight of Humane Wisdom if we find a most warrantable tradition that at sundry times and in divers manners God spake unto Mankind by his Prophets and by his Son and his Apostles who have deliver'd to us in Sacred Writings a clearer Revelation of his Divine Nature and Will if I say this Third Topick from Humane Testimony be found agreeable to the standing Vote and Attestation of Nature What further proofs can be demanded or desired what fuller evidence can our Adversaries require since all the Classes of known Beings are summoned to appear Would they have us bring more Witnesses than the All of the World and will they not stand to the grand Verdict and Determination of the Universe They are incurable Infidels that persist to deny a Deity when all Creatures in the World as well spiritual as corporeal all from Humane Race to the lowest of Insects from the Cedar of Libanus to the Moss upon the Wall from the vast Globes of the Sun and Planets to the smallest Particles of Dust do declare their absolute dependance upon the first Author and Fountain of all Being and Motion and Life the only Eternal and Self-existent God with whom inhabit all Majesty and Wisdom and Goodness for ever and ever But before I enter upon this Argument from the Origin and Frame of the World it will not be amiss to premise some Particulars that may serve for an illustration of the Text and be a proper Introduction to the following Discourses As the Apostles Barnabas and Paul were preaching the Gospel at Lystra a City of Lycaonia in Asia the Less among the rest of their Auditors there was a lame Cripple from his Birth whom Paul commanded with a loud voice To stand upright on his feet and immediately by a miraculous Energy he leaped and walked Let us compare the present Circumstances with those of my former Text and observe the remarkable difference in the Apostle's procedings No question but there were several Cripples at Athens so very large and populous a City and if that could be dubious I might add that the very Climate disposed the Inhabitants to impotency in the Feet Atthide tentantur gressus oculique in Achaeis Finibus are the words of Lucretius which 't is probable he transcribed from Epicurus a Gargettian and Native of Athens and therefore an unquestionable Evidence in a matter of this nature Neither is it likely that all the Athenian Cripples should escape the sight of St. Paul since he disputed there in the Market daily with them
things without him nay all consciousness and sense of his own Person and Being If I say upon a certain belief of this indication the man should appear overjoyed at the News and be mightily transported with the discovery and expectation would not all that saw him be astonished at such behaviour Would they not be forward to conclude that the Distemper had seized him already and even then the miserable Creature was become a meer Fool and an Idiot Now the Carriage of our Atheists or Deists is infinitely more amazing than this no dotage so infatuate no phrensie so extravagant as theirs They have been educated in a Religion that instructed them in the knowledge of a Supreme Being a Spirit most excellently Glorious superlatively Powerfull and Wise and Good Creator of all things out of nothing That hath endued the Sons of Men his peculiar Favorites with a Rational Spirit and hath placed them as Spectators in this noble Theatre of the World to view and applaud these glorious Scenes of Earth and Heaven the workmanship of his hands That hath furnished them in general with a sufficient store of all things either necessary or convenient for life and particularly to such as fear and obey him hath promised a supply of all wants a deliverance and protection from all dangers That they that seek him shall want no manner of thing that is good Who besides his munificence to them in this life hath so loved the World That he sent his Onely-begotten Son the express Image of his Substance and Partaker of his eternal Nature and Glory to bring Life and Immortality to light and to tender them to Mankind upon fair and gracious Terms That if they submit to his easie yoke and light burthen and observe his Commandments which are not grievous he then gives them the promise of eternal Salvation he hath reserved for them in Heaven an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away he hath prepared for them an unspeakable unconceivable Perfection of Joy and Bliss things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man What a delightfull and ravishing Hypothesis of Religion is this And in this Religion they have had their Education Now let us suppose some great Professor in Atheism to suggest to some of these men That all this is meer dream and imposture that there is no such excellent Being as they suppose that created and preserves them that all about them is dark senseless Matter driven on by the blind impulses of Fatality and Fortune that Men first sprung up like Mushroms out of the mud and slime of the Earth and that all their Thoughts and the whole of what they call Soul are only various Action and Repercussion of small particles of Matter kept a while a moving by some Mechanism and Clock-work which finally must cease and perish by death If it be true then as we daily find it is that men listen with complacency to these horrid Suggestions if they let go their hope of Everlasting Life with willingness and joy if they entertain the thoughts of final Perdition with exultation and triumph ought they not to be esteem'd most notorious Fools even destitute of common sense and abandon'd to a callousness and numness of Soul What then is Heaven it self with its pleasures for evermore to be parted with so unconcernedly Is a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life to be surrendred with laughter is an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory too light in the balance against the hopeless death of the Atheist and utter extinction 'T was a noble saying of the Emperor Marcus That he would not endure to live one day in the World if he did not believe it to be under the government of Providence Let us but imagin that excellent Person confuted and satisfied by some Epicurean of his time that All was but Atoms and Vacuum and Necessity and Chance Would He have been so pleased and delighted with the conviction would he have so triumph'd in being overcome or rather as he hath told us would he not have gone down with sorrow and despair to the Grave Did I but once see an Atheist lament and bewail himself That upon a strict and impartial examination he had found to his cost that all was a mistake that the Prerogative of Humane Nature was vanished and gone those glorious hopes of Immortality and Bliss nothing but cheating Joys and pleasant Delusions that he had undone himself by losing the comfortable Error and would give all the World to have better arguments for Religion there would be great hopes of prevailing upon such an Atheist as this But alas there are none of them of this temper of mind there are none that understand and seek after God they have no knowledge nor any desire of it they thrust the Word of God from them and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life they willingly prefer Darkness before Light and obstinately choose to perish for ever in the Grave rather than be â—â—irs of Salvation in the Resurrection of the Just. These certainly are the Fools in the Text indocil intractable Fools whose stolidity can baffle all Arguments and be proof against Demonstration it self whose end as the words of St. Paul do truly describe them whose end and very Hope is destruction an eternal Deprivation of Being whose God is their belly the gratification of sensual Lusts whose Glory is in their shame in the debasing of Mankind to the condition of Beasts who mind earthly things who if like that great Apostle they were caught up to the third Heaven would as the Spyes did of Canaan bring down an evil report of those Regions of Bliss And I fear unless it please God by extraordinary methods to help their unbelief and enlighten the eyes of their understanding they will carry their Atheism with them to the Pit and the flames of Hell only must convince them of their Error This supine and inconsiderate behaviour of the Atheists is so extremely absurd that it would be deem'd incredible if it did not occurr to our daily Observation it proclaims aloud that they are not led astray by their Reasoning but led captive by their Lusts to the denial of God When the very pleasures of Paradise are contemn'd and trampled on like Pearls cast before Swine there 's small hope of reclaiming them by arguments of Reason But however as Solomon adviseth we will answer these Fools not according to their Folly lest we also be like unto them It is expedient that we put to silence the ignorance of these foolish men that Believers may be the more confirmed and more resolute in the Faith Did Religion bestow Heaven without any terms or conditions indifferently upon all if the Crown of Life was hereditary and free to Good and Bad and not settled by Covenant upon the Elect of God only such as live
trembling a religious and ingenuous fear that is temper'd with hope and with love and unspeakable joy But he knows that if he fears him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell he needs not fear that his own soul or body shall ever go thither I allow that some debauched and profligate Wretches or some designing perfidious Hypocrites that are religious in outward profession but corrupt and abominable in their works are most justly as well as usually liable to these horrours of mind 'T is not my business to defend or excuse such as these I must leave them as long as they keep their hardness and impenitent Hearts to those gnawing and excruciating Fears those whips of the Divine Nemesis that frequently scourge even Atheists themselves For the Atheists also can never wholly extinguish those horrible forebodings of Conscience They endeavour indeed to compose and charm their Fears but a thousand occasions daily awaken the sleeping Tormenters Any flight Consideration either of themselves or of any thing without whatsoever they think on or whatsoever they look on all administer some reasons for suspicion and diffidence lest possibly they may be in the wrong and then 't is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God There are they in great fear as 't is in the 5th verse of this Psalm under terrible presages of judgment and fiery indignation Neither can they say That these Terrors like Tales about Spectres may disturb some small Pretenders and puny Novices but dare not approach the vere Adepti the Masters and Rabbies of Atheism For 't is well known both from ancient and modern Experience that the very boldest of them out of their Debauches and Company when they chance to be surprized with Solitude or Sickness are the most suspicious and timorous and despondent Wretches in the World and that the boasted Happy Atheist in the Indolence of body and an undisturbed Calm and Serenity of mind is altogether as rare a Creature as the Vir Sapiens was among the Stoicks whom they often met with in Idea and Description in Harangues and in Books but freely own'd that he never had or was like to exist actually in Nature And now as to the present advantages which we owe to Religion they are very conspicuous whether we consider Mankind 1. Separately or 2. under Society and Government 1. And first in a Single Capacity How is a good Christian animated and cheer'd by a stedfast belief of the Promises of the Gospel of an everlasting enjoyment of perfect Felicity such as after millions of millions of Ages is still youthfull and flourishing and inviting as at the first no wrinkles in the face no gray hairs on the head of Eternity no end no diminution no satiety of those delights What a warm and vigorous influence does a Religious Heart feel from a firm expectation of these Glories Certainly this Hope alone is of inestimable value 't is a kind of anticipation and pledge of those Joys and at least gives him one Heaven upon Earth though the other should prove a Delusion Now what are the mighty Promises of Atheism in competition with these let us know the glorious Recompences it proposes Utter Extinction and Cessation of Being to be reduced to the same condition as if we never had been born O dismal reward of Infidelity at which Nature does shrink and shiver with horror What some of the Learnedest Doctors among the Iews have esteem'd the most dreadfull of all Punishment and have assigned for the portion of the blackest Criminals of the Damn'd so interpreting Tophet Abaddon the Vale of Slaughter and the like for final Excision and Deprivation of Being this Atheism exhibits to us as an Equivalent to Heaven 'T is well known what hath been disputed among Schoolmen to this effect And 't is an observation of Plutarch that the Generality of Mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well Women as Men chose rather to endure all the Punishments of Hell as described by the Poets than part with the Hope of Immortality though immortal only in misery I easily grant that this would be a very hard Bargain and that Not to be at all is more eligible than to be miserable always our Saviour himself having determin'd the question Wo to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed good were it for that man if he had never been born But however thus much it evidently shews That this desire of Immortality is a natural Affection of the Soul 't is Self-preservation in the highest and truest meaning 't is interwoven in the very Frame and Constitution of Man How then can the Atheist reflect on his own Hypothesis without extreme sorrow and dejection of Spirit Will he say that when once he is dead this Desire will be nothing and that He that is not cannot lament his Annihilation So indeed it would be hereafter according to his Principles But nevertheless for the present while he continues in Life which we now speak of that dusky Scene of Horror that melancholy Prospect of final Perdition will frequently occur to his Fancy the sweetest Enjoyments of Life will often become flat and insipid will be damp'd and extinguish'd be bitter'd and poison'd by the malignant and venomous quality of this Opinion Is it not more comfortable to a man to think well of himself to have a high Value and Conceit of the Dignity of his Nature to believe a noble Origination of his Race the Off-spring and Image of the great King of Glory rather than that men first proceeded as Vermin are thought to do by the sole influence of the Sun out of Dirt and Putrefaction Is it not a firmer foundation for Contentment and Tranquillity to believe that All things were at first created and are since continually order'd and dispos'd for the best and that principally for the Benefit and Pleasure of Man than that the whole Universe is meer bungling and blundring no Art or Contrivance to be seen in 't nothing effected for any purpose and design but all ill-favouredly cobled and jumbled together by the unguided agitation and rude shuffles of Matter Can any man wish a better Support under affliction than the Friendship and Favour of Omnipotence of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness that is both able and willing and knows how to relieve him Such a man can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him he can patiently suffer all things with cheerfull submission and resignation to the Divine Will He has a secret Spring of spiritual Joy and the continual Feast of a good Conscience within that forbid him to be miserable But what a forlorn destitute Creature is the Atheist in Distress He hath no friend in Extremity but Poison or a Dagger or a Halter or a Precipice A violent Death is the last refuge of the Epicureans as well as the Stoicks This says Lucretius is the distinguishing Character of a