and Professions that in fact they are a reproach to them especially since they have been done in prejudice to that Grave and Holy Religion which the Lord Jesus confirmed and were so manifestly intended for the promoting and encouragement of Superstition Vice and downright Idolatry I have now ended this Point concerning Miracles having discoursed the more largely upon it that at the same time I might demonstrate the Existence of God and likewise serve the interest of Christianity the truth whereof undeniably appears from this single argument That Jesus Christ confirmed all his Laws and Doctrines by True Miracles For this being once granted it must necessarily follow not only that there is a God but moreover that Jesus Christ came from God and that the Testimony which his Works gave of him was Divine and Infallible and consequently That we are bound at our utmost peril to Believe and Obey him Which Consideration being of such vast moment I thought my self obliged to bestow the more time and pains in clearing matter of Fact CHAP. V. THE next extraordinary Occurrence I mentioned as a demonstration of God's Existence is Prophecy that is the Foretelling of some Future Events which depended on such secret and remote Causes as none but an Omniscient Being could possibly discern afar off That you may understand this matter distinctly and clearly 1. I do not here by Events mean such things as have come to pass by the necessary and natural Operation of second Causes For where a thing depends upon necessary Causalities any man that can discover the order and series and application of the Causes may easily foresee and predict the consequent as a skilful Astronomer can foretel Eclipses of the Moon and Sun For those glorious Creatures are under a constant Law and their motions are Regular so that a man who knows their Courses and by the Uniformity of them perceives when an Opake Body will fall between one of those Luminaries and our Eyes can discover long before-hand when the Light will be intercepted and fail in our Hemisphere But by future Events are understood contingencies or those issues the Causes whereof are not yet in being or at least are so occult remote and uncertain that they are not discernible by any limited Understanding in regard that they depend upon the casual concurrence of Second Causes or upon the Arbitrarious Power of Mens Wills or upon the uaccountable hits of Fortune or upon such strange results as look like so many secret over ruling determinations of Destiny As What Great Men will arise Two or Three Ages hence if the world shall continue so long What Revolutions there will be then in States and Empires What the Conditions of the Church will be What Wars will happen What will become of our Posterity and of the Fortunes we transmit to them In short How the world will go These things and the like are altogether Accidental and therefore must needs be Uncertain nor can they come within the reach of finite Beings any more than the close of the world or the Day of Judgment can be known or predicted by us 2. Secondly By Foretelling future Events is meant true and infallible Prediction in contradistinction to Conjecture or probable Fore-knowledge There is in all Intellectual Beings a Presaging Power and the Perception before-hand must be according to the condition and quality of the Cause from which that Perception springs and is gathered If the Cause be Necessary and Natural the Foreknowledge is Certain but if it be only Casual and Fortuitous it can amount to no more but a probable Opinion No Creature how Intelligent soever it be can of it self infallibly foresee what Chances and Accidents will fall out hereafter by reason that the immediate Causes are suppos'd as yet not to be Existent or at least to be a great way off in the dark Therefore when a contingent Event is clearly Foreseen and infallibly Predicted at a distance so that after a long tract of time the thing how Casual soever it was exactly answers the Prediction we must conclude That the Being which Foresaw and Foretold it is of a more Perfect Understanding than any Creature can pretend to If then it be made appear That many contingent things have long before they happened been certainly Foreknown truly Predicted and at last in Fact have come to pass accordingly this must be a Demonstration of the Existence of a most Perfect Being that is a Deity For all Human Presaging of accidental Events at a great distance from us is at best but Guessing which commonly ends in vast mistakes so short-sighted are our Understandings and our capacities so very narrow And as for those Intellectual Creatures which Inhabit the other world and traverse up and down in this though by reason of the innate Quickness and Sagacity of their Faculties the long Experience they have had of Human Affairs the great Insight they have thereby into all things here below the Agility of their Nature which enables them to be privy every where to Mens Counsels and Actions and the continual Observations they cannot but make from the Disappointments or Successes of Mens Designs though I say by means of these singular advantages they are qualified to give beyond expression far better Judgment of future Events especially near at hand than the Wisest and most Reaching Men on Earth yet is their Knowledge limited notwithstanding So that without the Assistance of Divine Revelation their Foresight of Contingencies especially of such as are remote and do depend upon a series of distant Causes can be but only Conjectural Hence it was that those ancient Southsayers and Augurs among the Heathens who used the help of Demons in their manifold Superstitious ways of Prognosticating were often mistaken even in very probable cases and when Events were hard by And 't is commonly observed of those old Oracles who were so much consulted by the Idolatrous Pagans upon any emergencies which seemed difficult that though those officious deluding Spirits were wont till Christ's time to give People Answers out of Holes and Caves yet to save Apollo's Credit they were wont to wrap up those Responses in equivocating and doubtful Terms that were capable of various Constructions as the thing consulted about succeeded or fail'd Indeed Good Angels have not deceived Men and therefore their foresight must be acknowledged to have been better grounded and of a further and clearer reach But yet by reason of those finite and comparatively scanty measures of Knowledge which are connatural to all Created Beings though Exalted and Glorious to make all their Predictions certain and infallible they have always by the necessity of their Nature stood in need of special Revelation and Commission from a Superior Being whose Prescience touches all intermediate and proximate Causes and all contingent probable possible Events though never so far removed from created Understandings Therefore if in this case matter of fact be true that any Creatures Men or Angels have
of its Operations or intend and design the Ends or consult and deliberate concerning the manner of bringing those Ends about For these are Mental Acts proper to Creatures Rational endn'd with Rational Faculties and Powers 3. And therefore Thirdly instead of destroying the Notion of a Deity the Plastick Nature in Animals and Plants doth infer the existence of an intelligent directing Agent under which and in subserviency to which it acteth so methodically like a Labourer that does the drudgery to act under the Conduct of a wise Master-Workman And this is the Notion of that excellent Author spoken of that though Plastick Nature doth act artificially for the sake of Ends yet it self doth neither intend those Ends nor understand the reason of that it doth Nature is not Master of that consummate Art and Wisdom according to which it acts but only a Servant and a drudging Executioner of the Dictates of it It acteth not by Choice or Knowledge Though it be a thing which worketh regularly and uniformly for Ends and which may be also called the Divine Art and Fate of the Corporeal World yet for all that it is a low and imperfect Creature foras much as it is not Master of that Reason and Wisdom according to which it acts nor does it properly intend those Ends which it acts for nor indeed is it expresly conscious of what it doth it not knowing but only doing according to Commands and Laws imprest upon it Neither of which things ought to seem strange or incredible since Nature may as well act regularly and artificially without any Knowledge and Consciousness of its own as Forms of Letters compounded together may print coherent Philosophick Sense though they understand nothing at all and it may also act for the sake of those Ends that are not intended by it self but an higher Being as well as the Saw or Hatchet in the Hand of the Architect doth This shews that whatever the Powers of Nature be they are all in Obedience and Subserviency to a supreme wise Being that was the Author of Nature and hath all along since preserved its Faculties and is still the principal superintending Cause of all that Decence and Beauty which giveth such a dazling Lustre to the whole Creation and is from Year to Year from Age to Age maintained in a constant uniform and undistrubed State To say that all the comely Parts of the World were such from Eternity is very absurd To suppose they made themselves such out of nothing is nonsense To conceive they were fortuitously formed such by the accidental Jumblings and Sportings and Coalition of undesigning Matter is equally as unreasonable And to fancy they constitute such by the like accidental cohesion of those blind Particles of Matter is a conceit as wild and extravagant as the rest Can Chance form a Flower especially such variety of Flowers the contexture whereof no Art can express Can Chance propagate so many beautiful Species of them in such a steady constant regular Manner Can Chance do this that never did any thing that was orderly uniform and uninterruptedly Graceful since the World stood Could Chance make so many Minute Seeds so Mysteriously with such Germens Fibres and Ramifications that by the help of a Microscope you would believe you saw the Plant in an Epitome Can Chance then teach the Seed to sprout so Methodically First to cast out a complication of Roots downward to establish its hopeful Off-spring in the Ground and to receive for it a constant supplement of Vitality and then to shoot upwards into a proportionable Body with variety of Vessels to entertain its Nutriment Can Chance then direct the Plant to cloath it self with proper Integuments To extend it self into divers Branches and Divarications To cover its Head with Leaves To adorn those Leaves with Flowers To which Solomon's Glory was not comparable And to digest and disperse the vital Juice into great variety of odoriferous Shapes Streaks and Colours such as are inimitable by human Art And when these curious Works are done Doth Chance instruct the florid Creature to reflect upon its mean and poor Beginnings and as a grateful return to form more Seeds of the same Species for another new Generation Do all these orderly and artificial Operations look as if they proceeded from the fortuitous Motions of irrational rude and stupid Atoms Are they not rather clear Arguments of the wonderful Skill and Wisdom of an intelligent Being that sustains the Faculties and guides the Operations of plastick Nature by a perpetual Law That is by an energetick effective Principle given it by its Maker whereby Nature works uniformly and steadily in subserviency to the Will and Intention of the great Creator and Preserver of all things This is the only intelligible and rational Account that can be given of the Beauty of the Creation CHAP. VIII THE next thing to be consider'd as a plain Argument of the Existence of a God is the usefulness of the particular Branches of the Universe and the aptitude of them to answer their respective Uses which I once intended to have made two distinct Heads but upon second Thoughts conceive it better to cast them together into one And if it is made appear that the World is so artfully framed that the parts of it tend and are adapted to such beneficial Purposes as they would and should have been made for supposing Divine Wisdom and Goodness to have had the framing of them What can any reasonable Man conclude but that they were intended and sitted for those excellent Purposes by the contrivance of a directing beneficent Being over all and not jumbled together by the meer lucky compositions of unthinking undeliberating Atoms This then must be our present business to look into distinctions and because the Subject is Copious and Important as well as entertaining it will be necessary for us to cast our Eyes again over this goodly Fabrick and observe the admirable usefulness as we have hitherto discover'd the Order and Beauty of its Structure 1. To begin then with the heavenly Bodies whose principal End as I conceive is by their Lustre and Magnificence to set forth in some measure the infinite Greatness and Splendor of the Divine Majesty being themselves so many faint Rays or rather as in this case if I may without absurdity speak so many Shadows of his Glory As they relate to this inferior World they are the great means of Vitality without which it were impossible for any living Creatures to be maintain'd in their Being nor would the whole Terraqueous Globe be any thing but dead Rock and Ice For the prevention of which Havock they are in their Natures so many inexhaustible Fountains of Fire that give Light to all sensible Creatures warmth and vegetation to all Animal substances This is to be said more especially of that great Luminary the Sun which Heathens have been wont to worship for the universal Good it doth by its enlivening Beams For as it
in himself we must conceive of him to be of an Endless Life For all decay of Life proceeds from a defect infirmity or limitation in the Essence of the Thing so that without the help of a stronger Hand it cannot for ever hold up and last And since Life is one of those Perfections which we poor sinful men enjoy it necessarily follows that as it must be in our Maker so it must be in him in a most eminent and absolute degree that is utterly void of all possibility of ever ending 3. We must from the Absolute Perfection of God conceive him to be a Fountain of Life without any Beginning likewise For whatever had a beginning must be concluded in that respect defective because it once wanted not only those Perfections which Beings enjoy but even Being it self And besides that which began may end as we see all the successive Productions of Nature do Therefore since the Notion of God signifies Perfection of all Kinds and in all degrees Reason will tell you that God must have such Perfection of Essence as to be of a boundless Life or be everlaststing from everlasting 4. The Notion of God's absolute Perfection necessitates us to conclude that he is a most perfect Substance or a Being that subsisteth of himself by the absolute fulness of his own Nature Indeed we cannot form an adequate and positive Notion of the Divine Substance as neither can we of the Substance of our own Souls though they are the noblest Beings of this lower World For our outward Senses which are the great Instruments of Knowledge are perpetually used to corporeal and gross Ideas and God being a spirit John 4. 24. cannot be the Object of any such sensation But yet we may rationally render him an Object of our Minds such an Object as our Minds are capable of viewing by abstracting Matter and Corporeity from our Apprehensions of him This Reason inforces us to do because materiality is a defect in the thing that is made up of it for as it limits and consines the thing to one particular place at once which is most unsuitable to the conception of a Being that is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24 so it makes the thing divisible and consequently subject to Dissolution which is utterly incompatible with the Perfection of God's Life Therefore Reason compels us to do away these Imperfections from our Notions of God and to conceive of him as a Spiritual Substance which I shall shew hereafter in its proper place is far from being an irrational Notion however some are pleas'd to reject and deride it 5. Since the Notion of God implies the excellence of Perfection we must conceive of him that he is too a discerning and understanding Substance For Perception being the excellence of all Animals whereby they are much more perfect than senseless Matter or inanimate Stocks and Stones this excellence must needs after the most perfect and sublime manner be in that most exalted Nature from which all Perfection is suppos'd to have been derived The Psalmist appeals to the common Reason of Mankind where he argueth Psalm 94. 9 10. He that planted the ear shall not he bear he that formed the eye shall not be see And so He that teacheth men knowledge shall not he know Though Perception is not wrought in God by Impressions that affect material Organs nor is attended with plain and disturbance as in Creatures who are necessarily imperfect yet the Reason of the thing shews that he is a Sentient Percipient Being an intelligent Nature or Mind that acteth in a way which is suitable to the condition of a most glorious Being 6. And hence it follows That we must conceive of God that he is a most perfect Mind or a Being that knows all things and is conscious of all things that are possible to be known and that not by such discourse or succession of Thoughts and Reasonings as imperfect Beings are sain to use but by intuitive Acts and by a direct immediate view Though knowledge be a great Perfection in Men and Angels yet to know things gradually and by piece-meals and with a limited apprehension is in the Creature a plain defect and therefore it must be abstracted or remov'd from our Conceptions of God 7. Again there is in us all a vigorous principle of Activity whereby we are able to do those things which our Desires and Wills incline us to perform in our Sphere and as far as this principle of Activity carries us This also is a Perfection but yet such as is intermingled with defects because the Execution of our Power is laborious nay finite innumerable things being utterly impossible for the most mighty Men upon the Earth to compass though their Wits and Industry should be never so great and though all their force were united Upon this account Reason will tell you that God being a Nature absolutely Perfect all manner of Impotence is to be shut out of our Notions of him because all Impotence is a defect and therefore inconsistent with and repugnant unto the Excellencies of the Deity and consequently we must conceive him to be fully able to produce and do by the Act of his own free Will whatever doth not imply a contradiction or whatever is conceivable and possible in it self and can stand well with the other Perfections of his Nature 8. Further yet The Notion of God signifying a Nature that is eminently and absolutely Perfect we must conceive him to be a good Being likewise nay the best of all Beings By Goodness here is meant that excellent and most amiable Disposition of Mind which still prompts one to be Communicative Kind Gracious Compassionate and Benificent 'T is the best Virtue that which we may call the Perfection of all Pefections that which commands Honour and Love from all that which is the Beauty the Excellency the Glory of Humane Nature and therefore it necessarily and eminently belongs to the best Being that Divine and most Glorious Nature which all People have ever adored for its transcendent Goodness Love is of God saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 7. He is the overflowing Spring and Fountain of all that Benignity which runs through the World therefore St. John spoke like a great Philosopher as well as a Divine in saying ver 8. God is love that is a Blessed Nature made up of Goodness the Mirror and Perfection of it for there must be in this case much more in the Cause than there can be in the Effects which are of a finite narrow and slender Capacity as the faculties of all created Beings are whence it appears that the glorious Deity cannot be a selfish envious malevolent spiteful or cruel Being because these and the like Dispositions of Mind are wretched Defects or Vices rather which belong to the Devils in Hell and to Devils Incarnate nor though he be Omnipotent and perfectly Powerful can he act like an Arbitrary Tyrannical Being void of Compassion and
innumerable Essences in Nature which cannot be the Objects of Sense though the outward Forms and Ideas of them are The inward Nature of them is discoverable only by the Sagacity and Activity of the Mind observing their Effects and Operations then arguing from one thing to another and so judging of the Reality and Nature of the Cause by its Consequents Hereby the Understanding penetrates into the inside of things which Sense and Fancy can never do and it finds out not what a thing seems to be but what it is which is many times a quite different thing from the Fantastry and Appearance of it nor can ever be the direct and immediate Object of Sense To instance in one particular We cannot but perceive in some measure what an admirable Being the Soul of Man is if we will attentively consider its Powers and Operations And yet we cannot have any Perception of it by external Sensation because we cannot hear or see it or handle it with our Hands or make any discoveries of it by any other Sense no more than we can Smell or Taste a shadow Therefore there can be no sensible Images of it to make impressions upon the Organs of Sensation no external Essluvia's of it no foreign Idea's no Representations from without to affect the imagination No there must be the use of pure Cogitation and Reason to find out what the Soul is and to make that intelligible to us which acteth in us and this will do it when all our Senses can't We perceive that there is something in us which thinketh for every Man is conscious of his own Thoughts therefore the Soul is a Being We perceive that it works continually in us therefore it is a real Thing for it is a certain Principle of Reason That what is not cannot possibly work We perceive that there is in the Soul Life and Vigour Power and Activity Apprehension Knowledge and Memory a saculty of comparing things with things and of reasoning and judging upon such comparison a Power too of determining what to do of chusing and refusing of desiring that which it loves and of reaching out after that which it desires therefore it is a real existing Being Thus far we can easily go in our Notion of the Soul without any help of Sensation from abroad And hence we proceed to perceive That this Soul of ours is an incorporeal Being For its Operations are incongruous to stupid Matter too quick and noble for Matter though you suppose it to be in Motion Clay cannot Cogitate nor can any moving Wheel reason nor can the most spirituous Parts of the Blood philosophize nor can the finest Motes that dance in the Sun consult or deliberate nor can that glorious and enlivening Creature the Sun it self entertain those Meditations which bubble and spring out of ones mind nor can all the material parts of the World put together form those Contrivances Desires and Affections which are the Operations of every Humane Soul and to suppose as some Pretenders to Sense and Wit do that all these Actions proceed from little restless Atoms capering about in the Head and falling accidentally into various Forms and Contextures doth argue rather that the Brains of such Men are insested with Flies and Nits than that they understand any thing of right Reason and Philosophy I have said this to shew That there are many things which are not Objects of Sense and yet are intelligible Objects of the Mind and therefore that 't is false reasoning to conclude That there is no intelligible Notion or Idea of God because the Divine Nature we call by that Name is suppos'd to be an Immaterial Being and as such is not to be represented to our Senses A pretence which though used to invalidate the belief of a Deity might with parity of reason be made use of to disprove the Existence of all the Beings in the World whose true Essences and Natures are not discovered by corporeal sensible Idea's especially the Soul of Man which is no object of external Sensation and yet by its Operations and Essects appears to all understanding Men to be a real cogitative intellectual and active Being distinct from Matter though it be immured in Matter and then why may we not conceive and understand that supereminent Nature which is suppos'd to create every Humane Soul to be a perfectly wise righteous and good Being realy existing though we do not see him with the Eye Especially since we may see him in some measure at second hand in his glorious Works For he hath not left himself without witness in that he doth good and gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14. 17. So that the invisible things of him from the creation are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. 2. Another very false Principle those odd Men go upon is this That supposing God to be as we believe a transcendent infinite Being and supposing our own intellectual Faculties to be as we find them of a finite narrow Capacity it is impossible for us to comprehend God in our minds and therefore we must be uncertain whether the Notions we have of him be true or false right or wrong This is in effect to say That because we have not all knowledge therefore we can have none according to which rate of reasoning they may affirm also that we see nothing of the Sun because we cannot view every single Ray so as to comprehend its full Lustre and that because we understand not all the Mysteries in Nature therefore we are quite ignorant or at least have reason to doubt whether those Ideas and Notions we have do not utterly deceive us whereas in these cases the imperfection of our Knowledge proceeds not from any Dubitableness or Delusion in the Nature of the Objects but from the Weakness and Incapacity of our own Faculties Supposing the Existence of a Deity that is a Being transcendently Perfect how is it imaginable that we poor Creatures could possibly have full and adequate Conceptions of him unless we could reconcile Contradictions by making Narrowness to answer Transcendency or a Finite Thing to be proportionable and commensurate to an Infinite Being And yet it would not by any means follow hence that we have no knowledge of God or that God is an unintelligible Being because we cannot comprehend all the Glory of his Nature to the full We know in part as we can and according to our measure because in this weak mortal state the dulness and incapacity of our Minds will not allow us to know perfectly and to argue hence that the Deity is an unconceivable and so at least a dubitable Being when our own Conceptions of him our intellectual Powers are naturally and necessarily narrow is as if we should conclude that we have no knowledge at all of any thing in the World nay that it is very
questionable whether there be any such thing as a World because we cannot measure all the dimensions of the Universe with our Span. Besides we may know as much as is necessary and sit for us to understand now For as we are not yet able to see God as he is so neither would such a full Vision be needful and proper for us were it possible to be had here A great deal ought to be reserved for a more perfect and exalted State under the notion of a Reward It is enough to see so much of this Life as will raise our longings after a better and will help us to do those Duties of Religion which are now required in order to a perfect state and so much we do know though our knowledge of God be comparatively very dim and short We have such Notions as serve to sound and encourage the practise of Godliness and good Morality and that is all we are to mind in this World We very well apprehend That God is an Omniscient Just Powerful Good and Gracious Being and these Notions are enough to encourage Men to all manner of Piety and Virtue Therefore since the knowledge of these things is the way to Eternal Life and sufficient to answer the ends and purposes of Religion it is most unreasonable to object against the Idea of God and to quarrel with it as a thing unconceivable because the infinite Vastness of all his glorious Perfections is not to be comprehended by us fully especially in this our present imperfect state To conclude this Consideration Whatever some pretend against the Idea of God I am apt to think that they who strive and study to reject it have a great deal of it in their own Minds stirring and terrifying them with fearful Suggestions For did they not conceive that God is privy to their Vices that he is able to punish them and in Justice may it is hardly imaginable why they should offer such violence to their own Reason as to force it to argue against those Notions that by degrees they may obliterate them and argue them utterly away and so disbelieve the Existence of an Omniscient Powerful and Just Being that seems to them a most frightful Object The Idea of God lies very quiet in a good Conscience nay to a Man of an honest Heart and of a pious Life it is the most comfortable Enjoyment because it fills his mind with such thoughts as these That there is a glorious Being who ruleth over all who observes all our Actions who takes care of such as live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this World who orders the Affairs of this Life for their good who will guide them here by his Counsel and afterwards will receive them into Glory All which and the like Notions are such a comfortable Idea of God as no Good man would be without for all the World Therefore when Men are tempted to deny God's Existence the Temptation must proceed either from a very wrong Opinion of God as if he were a Cruel Mischievous Spiteful False and Ill-natur'd Being or which is more likely from a very evil Conscience which makes God appear to an ill Man a formidable Being by reason of his Omniscience Righteousness and Power 'T is probable that the truest Cause of Atheism is Vice there being on all hands such variety of powerful Arguments to prove a Deity as one would think impossible for any but Men of the most corrupt Minds to resist the force of them CHAP. II. 2. HAVING thus prepared my way towards the proof of a Deity by shewing That by the Deity is meant a Transcendent Being that eminently enjoyeth all the Essential Intellectual and Moral Perfections which can possibly belong to a Nature which is most excellent and absolutely free from the least defect And by shewing too how intelligible rational and certain this Notion of God's Nature is I must come now in the next place to make it appear That there really is such a Divine Nature or that this most perfect Being doth actually exist Now this naturally follows from the common standing Notion of a Deity which implies all possible Perfection For Existence is the ground of all Perfection the very first thing in the order of our Conceptions because that cannot be said to be perfect which is not or which wants a Being much less can we suppose a Nature to be absolutely perfect that is to be perfectly Wise Good and Righteous unless we suppose the Existence of such a Nature But lest an Insidel should say We make Suppositions of our own by devising what Notions we please of a God and then use those Suppositions for Arguments to prove there is a God Therefore in the prosecution of this Point I shall shew That there is in the World a most perfect Nature which we call God actually existing by considering these four things which shall be the general Heads of this Subject 1. First The Necessity of the thing it self 2. Secondly The universal Consent of Mankind 3. Thirdly Those extraordinary Occurrences which must argue the Being of a Deity 4. And Fourthly The admirable State of the World 1. First then If we go through the whole Series and Order of Nature from Effects to Causes and from one Cause onward to another we must of necessity come at last to one first Cause to a Being that doth necessarily exist of it self and consequently is a distinct independent and most perfect Being Here we must take notice of an universal Trth which will very much help to guide our Reason viz. That whatever once had not any real Being could not be the cause of it self for upon that impossible Supposition it would have existed and yet not existed at the same time It would not have existed because it is supposed to have wanted a Cause for its Production and it would have existed because it is supposed to have exercised causality which two things being contradictory to each other it must be granted that whatever once came out of a State of Non-existence was brought out of it by another distinct Agent which existed antecedently and had actual Power over it Hence it follows That all the Effects which are now in Nature and once were not do owe their Origination to Causes which were before them for those things which had no being could not in a state of nothingness Act much less could they act upon themselves and how many soever the Foreign Causes of them were they all lead us up to a Permanent first Cause which depended on no other nor stood in need of another for its being Now we see that there are innumerable things in the World which once were not and the immediate Causes of these were themselves the Effects of other Agents and they again of others and so on till we gradually ascend to one Chief Cause which was the Original of them all To omit all other things at present I instance in these two sorts of Effects we
absurd and monstrous but it has been disputed for at least may be disputed for by men of parts and doth it hence follow that the contrary Principles are not true One Philosoper maintain'd that there is no such thing as Motion another would have persuaded people that Snow is black and some stood in it that the same thing may be and may not be at the same time and in the same respect that is that both parts of a Contradiction can be true and shall such odd Whimseys prevail against the common Sense and Reason of Mankind Some never saw the light in all their lives and doth this argue that there is no real Sun or that That is no Sun which the whole World beholds Why a man of unprejudiced and impartial Reason may with his mind as easily see God in his Works as I can see the day with my eyes But should I so affect singularity as to shut my eyes and then pretend that all the World is a dismal dark confused Chaos could it be concluded hence that there is not one Star in the Firmament why 't is as senseless to conclude that there is no God and that Mankind have been all along mistaken in their belief of God because two or three Impious Philosophers have shut the eyes of their Understanding against him This indeed is an argument against themselves a proof of their own folly stupidity and wickedness But 't is no argument against all other men who have no mind to be so stupid and irreligious as they were 'T is far from being a proof that there is no Existing Deity as the generality of men have been in all times and places unanimously and throughly persuaded 2. Nay that I may proceed to the Second thing I proposed under this Head from Matter of Fact to Evidence of Reason this Universal Consent is a strong Argument of God's Existence For whence could this common belief proceed but from a common natural Principle wherewith the Souls of all men were endued by the Common Creator to bear witness of his Being as a Signature made by his own Finger I do not mean that the Notions we have of God are connatural to the Sou that is inbred innate and engraven as it were in our minds upon our Conception in the Womb so that every man in his Senses doth of himself by common instinct understand that there is a God Methinks we need not go so far It is enough that there is in us an inclination towards God a disposition and propension to Religion and an aptness to receive the knowledge of God upon Instruction Education and the use of common Reason This we may well call a Natural Principle and so the Notions we have of God are Natural Notions because they do naturally result from the free exercise of our Natural Faculties Now this plainly infers the Existence of God because none but God could put the Souls of all Mankind into this frame None but the Author of Nature could be the Author of those Principles in our Nature whereby every man is able to discover and find out God as all men have done and do who use their Reason All have consented in this that there is a Deity Of this One Universal Uniform Principle there must be One Universal Uniform Cause nor can any other Cause be reasonably assigned but that Soveraign Being who is the Cause of all things and who ordered our common Nature thus Had not God made our Faculties so that the belief of his Existence springs forth in every one's mind with his Reason and grows up with his Reason we might argue with Lucilius in Cicero De Nat. Deor. lib. 2. That it would have been impossible for that Belief to have continued every where constant or to have been confirmed by a long tract of time and to have become inveterate together with mens Ages For vain fictitious Opinions wear out by Diuturnity Time discovers and destroys the falshood of Imagination but confirms the solid dictates and determinations of Nature Which shews that this common lasting Notion of the Existence of God is natural and owes its original to a Power above whose workmanship we all are To defond themselves against the strength of this Argument those that say in their hearts there is no God pretend that this so universal a belief of the Existence of a Deity may be impured to one or other of these four Causes if not to all of them Tradition Fear State-policy and common Compact the vanity of which Pretence I am now to shew that I may not pass by any thing material which lies in my way upon this necessary useful and seasonable Subject â— As to the pretence of Tradition though we suppose it to have been one Cause of that Universal Consent I have spoken of yet these two things must be said First That Tradition argues the Truth of the Belief and therefore is alledg'd to no purpose Secondly That Tradition of it self alone and without the dictates of Nature could not have been a sufficient cause of this Universal Consent First Tradition argues the Truth of that Belief which hath prevailed amongst all Mankind By Tradition is meant if men will speak Sense and Reason an Opinion handed down from some First Authors Nor can any other Authors of this Tradition be assigned but those from whose Loins all Mankind descended for how was it possible for a common Principle to spring but from a common Root our First Parents Now this leads us back to the Times which Moses speaks of when the First Parents of Mankind were formed And the Faith of God's Existence being derived originally from them cannot but be unquestionably true because they could not but know their own beginning They could not but know that God had made them after a preternatural manner that God had formed them by his immediate Power and that they came out of the hands of God Nor is it conceivable that they should have taught their Children the knowledge of God had not they themselves been sure there was One That they should wilfully and designedly impose a Fiction upon all their Posterity and such a Fiction too as would keep their minds in continual bondage under the most frightful apprehensions this is an Imagination which confounds the Understanding of any reasonable man and is altogether unaccountable Besides Had not the Tradition been certain how could it have held so every where in the World and all along for several Thousand years to this day Fables are apt to be soon lost what Hand soever sends them abroad to pass about in the World The falshood of them is somewhere or other discover'd in time especially when Inquisitive and Wise men begin to search into them and to examine what substance there is in them and what credit they are of And how was it possible for this Tradition had it been fabulous to have gone through the world without interruption or stop notwithstanding all the
to say That the greatest part of the World have been all along so many stark Fools a Character which we think more peculiarly belongs to those who say in their hearts There is no God Considering what a difficult and hazardous Office the first Preachers of Christianity had to discharge How think ye was it possible for them to undertake it with such readiness to perform it with such vigour and to go through it with such constancy and chearfulness notwithstanding so much opposition had they not been abundantly convinced of the truth of their Religion by Miracles which they saw with their own eyes And considering what vast importance the Christian Religion is declared to be of and how directly opposite it is to the natural Inclinations of corrupt Mankind and how it was discountenanc'd and hated by Jews and Heathens in the beginning How can we think it possible for it to have been received so generally and unexpectedly in the World had not inquisitive Men who had the fairest advantages of knowing matters of Fact been fully satisfied That the mighty Miracles reported to have been done by Jesus were true Men cannot think these things possible but either they must believe that people in those days had lost all their Senses or make us now believe that they themselves have utterly lost their own The design of all this is to shew That there is as convincing and strong Evidence that True Divine Miracles have been wrought as can rationally be expected of any thing which hath been done in former times because no matter of Fact whatsoever can possibly be capable of stronger proof In cases of this nature the utmost that can be expected is Moral Certainty when the Evidence is so fair that no reasonable man can have just cause to doubt of the truth of the matter and that Evidence must be from Testimony because it is impossible for us to know any thing which is gone and past but by information from others and when that Information is so full that to unprejudiced Understandings the thing seems unquestionable it is as much as any reasonable man can desire Since therefore it appears by indubitable Testimony that those persons who are said to have done Miracles were once actually living in the World since it appears that the History of those Miracles is sufficiently credible and is confirmed by the collateral Testimony of those who were both capable of knowing and deeply concern'd to know the Truth of that Account And lastly since such publick Settlements and Constitutions followed upon the Credit of those Miracles as plainly argued a firm and general Belief or rather Knowledge of them and could never have been brought about without them Since I say all these grounds of Credibility do appear to give evidence to the truth of Miracles formerly done it seems unconceivable how stronger or clearer evidence can be given of any matter of Fact or of any History that is now in the World 2. Let us consider next the second Evasion That supposing some wonderful things to have been done in former Ages yet this is no more an Argument of the truth of a God's Existence than it is of the truth of Idolatry because Idolaters themselves have pretended to Miracles to vouch for their Religion And considering how inconsistent and impossible it would be for a Deity to act for and against it self too therefore Men of Atheistical minds conclude That those wonderful Works which have gone under the name of Divine Miracles have been really nothing but Art and Imposture Now for the solving of this seeming difficulty I shall consider two Things 1. First Matter of Fact 2. Secondly The Weakness of these Mens reasoning from it 1. First then that I may carry a fair and impartial Hand it is granted that many strange and extraordinary things are said to have been done by Men of a false Religion For Moses himself tells us what the Magicians did in Egypt beâ—ore his own face Jesus Christ told his Disciples that many false Teachers would come in a little time with Signs and Wonders to deceive if it had been possible the very Elect. To verify that Prediction divers Ecclesiastical Writers tell us of the Wonders done by Simon Magus and his Followers soon after the Lord ' s Ascension into Heaven Others tell us of the Blind and the Lame being cured by the Heathen Emperor Vespasian and of a Whetstone being divided into two by a Razor at the Command of Accius Navius and of several Prodigious things done by Apollmius Tyanaeus whom the Pagans matched with Jesus Christ for doing Miracles And every body knows what Accounts of Miracles have been given by the Church of Rome in deâ—ence of that part of their Religion wherein they have most scandalously departed from True Primitive Christianity Considering therefore what an heap of Stories there is whereof some are related by Sacred Writers and some others by Men of Probity and Temper though abundance of Fictions hath been vended among them it must be allowed that many Wonderful Works have been done by Idolaters But then Secondly This can be no Plea for the truth of Idolatry because how wonderful soever those Works have seemed they were not in themselves Divine Miracles We must distinguish between Miracles in Appearance and Miracles in Reality By Miracles in Appearance which should rather be called Wonders and Signs I understand not mere Impostures or Delusions of mens outwards Senses but such Real Effects as may seem to be done by the extraordinary and immediate Power of God when indeed they are not That such things are possible to be done is clear from Deut. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. where God himself gave the Jews this Caution If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereeof he spake to thee saving Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him and that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death We cannot conceive that when God hath any where established his true Worship he will lift up his own hand to draw People away from it to Idolatry and therefore when Signs or Wonders are shewed to that end we may be sure they are not Divine Miracles or Effects that are altogether Supernatural And yet 't is manifest that such things may be done as are counterfeitings of God's hand and seem to carry the signatures of his Power for otherwise there would have been no reason for that charge given to the Jews that