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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	esq_n	honourable_a	thomas_n	11,004	5	9.8448	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45638	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 ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing H845; ESTC R15119	126,348	235

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

all This the Greek and the Barbarian both say the Islander and the Inhabitant of the Continent the Wise and the Unwise alike Aristotle saith That all Men have a Pre-notion concerning the Gods even both Greeks and Barbarians And in another place he hath a very remarkable passage to this sence That there is a very Ancient Tradition which our Fore-fathers have handed down to Posterity in a Mythological Dress That there are Gods and that the Divine Nature sustains or encompasseth all things But this Tradition he saith had in process of time some Figments connected with it as that the Gods had Humane Shapes or those of other Creatures c. which if we separate from it we may suppose it at first divinely spoken and delivered That the Gods were the First Beings Many more Testimonies might be produced to prove this Point that it was the concurrent Opinion of all the Ancient Heathen Writers that there was a common Notion or Belief of a Deity in the Minds of Men But these I think are sufficient And now what can the Atheist say to such a Proof as this What greater Evidence can be desired of the Truth of any thing than that it hath been believed by all Men in all Ages and Places of the World 'T is a very good way of Arguing from Authority that Aristotle uses in his Topicks That saith he which seems true to some Wise Men ought to appear a little probable what most Wise Men believe is yet further probable and what most Men both Wise and Unwise do agree in is much more probable yet But what is received as Truth by the general consent of all Mankind in all Ages of the World hath certainly the highest degree of Evidence of this Kind that is possible And what hath such a Testimony 't is intolerable Arrogance and Folly for any Men to deny and to set up their single Judgments and Opinion contrary to the common Suffrage of all Mankind But they are so puff't up with Pride and Vanity that they do not see the Weakness and Precariousness of what they advance nor how inconsistent it is with their other Tenets If it have but the appearance of contradicting the received Notion that we have of a God and if it do but seem never so little to Undermine Religion they will set it up at a venture as a Demonstration and stick to it let it be never so inconsistent with what at other times they deliver Thus sometimes they will assert that there is no Universal Idea or Notion of a God At other times they will grant there is such an One but that it was Coined and Invented by some Cunning Politician a long while ago before any Books or Histories were written and by him communicated by Tradition to Posterity But here they do not consider that this will necessarily derive all Mankind from one common Parent which is a thing they will at another time by no means admit of lest it should seem to countenance the Story of Adam or Noah which is said to be nothing but an old Jewish Tradition And that 't is impossible to account for the Peopling of America and All Islands remote from the Continent without supposing their Inhabitants to be Aborigines and to spring out of the Earth like Mushrooms And then to account for the General Notion that they cannot deny these Aborigines have of a God as before they made One Wise Man Invent it now they will suppose it to be done by a Hundred such Cunning Politicians who though in different Places and Ages of the World yet did all light by chance on the very same Notion of a God and Abuse and Cheat Mankind just after the same manner and though this be the most extravagant and ridiculous Assertion that ever can possibly come into the Mind of Man as well as contradictory to the former yet 't is all one for that this or any thing else shall be supposed rather than they will yield to the Conviction of Truth and allow the Notion of a Deity to have a real Foundation But 't is no wonder to find Men that wilfully shut their Eyes against the clearest Light to go forward and backward and often times run against each other in the dark Mazes of Error those must needs be at a Loss who neglect His Guidance who is the Way the Truth and the Light and that Spirit which would lead them into all Truth and those no doubt may easily miss of the true Knowledge of God who are resolved they will not seek after Him and all whose Thoughts are that there is no God FINIS Books printed for Rich. Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 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 In Quarto The Atheist's Objection That we can have no Idea of God Refuted A Sermon Preach'd at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul February the 7 th 1697 8. Being the Second of the Lecture for that Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq In Quarto Remarks on some late Papers relating to the Universal Deluge and to the Natural History of the Earth In Octavo All three by J. Harris M. A. and Fellow of the Royal-Society Dr. Woodward's Natural History of the Earth in Octavo Dr. Abbadie's Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Objections of all Modern Opposers in Two Volumes In Octavo The Atheist's Objections Against the IMMATERIAL NATURE of GOD AND INCORPOREAL SUBSTANCES Refuted In Two SERMONS Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul April 4 th and May 2 d. 1698. BEING THE Fourth and Fifth 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. JOHN iv 24 God is a Spirit THE Occasion of these words was this Our Blessed Lord in his way into Galilee passed through Sychar a City of Samaria near to which was the famous Well of the Patriarch Jacob. To this Well our Saviour went to refresh himself on his Journey and as he always made it his business to be doing Good took occasion from a Woman's coming to draw Water to discourse with her about the Business of his Mission By way of Introduction to which He first gives her some Proofs of his being endowed with a Super-natural Knowledge From whence she justly concluding Him to be a Prophet or a Person enrich'd with Divine and Extraordinary Gifts and Qualifications she ask'd Him concerning one great Point that had been long in dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews i. e. about the true Place for Religious Worship The Jews rightly asserted Jerusalem to be the Place where Men ought to Worship The Samaritans contended that