Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A39251
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The folly of atheism demonstrated to the capacity of the most unlearned reader by Clement Elis ...
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Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing E555; ESTC R17534
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80,333
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176
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could not so easily as they desired get quit of that GOD whom they used so confidently to defie Indeed there are too many who take a too effectual course to prevent this trouble they are very careful to keep their heads day and night so full of the world and of their Lusts and Vanities that the thoughts of GOD can find no room And thus they constantly busie their minds till sleep arrests them But take any thinking man that concerns himself at all about GOD and a future State who is willing sometimes to think what he is whence he came and whither he shall go when he dies and he shall never be able to satisfie himself so fully that there is no GOD but he will find himself sometimes afraid that there is and more especially when he thinks himself near dying or in any great danger The Bloody Emperor that would own no GOD but himself would when it Thundred run under his bed to hide himself And one that denied a GOD all his life long grew very sad upon his death-bed and being ask'd by them who heard his sighs If he believed there is a GOD and if it was that which made him sigh No saith he I do not believe it only I am thinking in what a sad condition I shall presently be if there be one as I know not but there is And possibly we may have heard of one too well known of many of whom 't is said that notwithstanding his many boasts and great confidence he durst never be alone in the dark or go to sleep without a candle lighted up by him Lay this together and then say if he be not a Fool who contrary to the general Sense and Reason of Mankind will needs be confident that there is no GOD Is not he a Fool who dares conclude That except himself and it may be two or three more just like himself whom the world of all others could best spare and whom it could heartily wish to be rid of all men in the world have been either Knaves in making or Fools in believing a Lye 2. But this Argument from the general sense of Mankind is yet capable of a farther improvement For it is to be consider'd How and upon what account the whole World should in this one point come to be of the same belief It is not an ordinary thing to find great multitudes of people all of One mind about matters of great and near concernment if they be not very obvious and plain either to Sense or Reason Men stand divided into contrary Opinions about many things and especially about matters of Religion and the several ways of Religious Worship and are as contrary to one another as Light and Darkness even in their choice of the gods whom they worship How is it then that they all so unanimously consent in this First Principle of Religion That there is a GOD to be worshipped This is not a thing obvious to Sense It is not strange that all should agree That there is a Sun in the Heavens giving light to the world because they see it But they see not GOD. How then are they all agreed in this too That there is a GOD unless this be as obvious to Reason as the other is to Sense And if it be so he that denies it must be a Fool for denying what is obvious to the Reason of Mankind I can think of no more but two ways whereby men should be brought universally to consent in a thing of so weighty concernment which is not obvious to their senses Either First The Being of a GOD is a thing so imprinted in Nature that the Reason of man cannot be awake and consider things but it must needs perceive it Or Secondly Men have been taught it at first and have successively taught it to one another from the beginning And take which we will of these and it will be found a most reasonable thing to believe it First If this be a Truth imprinted in Nature so that it cannot be worn out by time and become invisible but so soon as men arrive at the use of Reason and make use of it as they ought they cannot but see it Then whosoever saith That there is no GOD must needs be a Fool. For he must needs be a Fool who persuades or endeavours to persuade himself a thing is not which it is Natural to him to discern and which he can no sooner open and use as he ought the Eye of his Soul to look after but he must needs see it If then it be Natural to men by the use of Reason to discern the Being of a GOD and if this be the reason why men generally notwithstanding all their other disagreements are agreed in this Belief then is it both Reasonable and Natural for men to believe it and if any one believes it not it is because he is not a Perfect Man but is defective in some Faculty essential to Mankind It must be either because he wants the use of Reason or because he will not use it and whichsoever it be no man can deny him to be a Fool For what is it else to be a Fool but either to want the common use of Reason or to make no good use of it Secondly If men have been at first taught this and so have taught it one another successively throughout all generations to this day and thus it hath been universally received as a Truth by Instruction and uninterrupted Tradition throughout all Ages and Parts of the World This must also be accounted a very good reason to believe it true and that it could come originally from no other but GOD himself Yet here the Atheist will needs imagine that he has gain'd a considerable advantage Some cunning men saith he for ends of their own which they would serve by it set abroach this Opinion and most men seeing how useful it proved for the preservation of Order and good Government easily entertained it and Rulers finding the advantage of it to themselves have done all they could to countenance it and have punished all that question'd it And thus tho but a Politick Invention at first it hath prevail'd at length as a certain Truth Now if we had no other Reasons but mere Tradition for the Belief of a GOD I confess what is here said might seem more plausible and yet when well consider'd not very credible However it is no more but one of the Fools May-be's on which he is content to venture his Soul and all his Happiness and I think him no less a Fool for that He imagines it may be thus but dare he say He knows it is thus indeed No but he is so afraid of all thoughts of a GOD that he is willing to have any thing thought true rather than that it should be thought that there is a GOD to whom he must give an account of himself It is certain that the world generally has believed there is a
Books For all that can be thought necessary to qualify them for writing these Books is First Sufficient knowledg of the things whereof they wrote and Secondly Honesty to write no other things than what they certainly knew 1. We cannot in any reason suspect them to have wanted sufficient knowledg because they had all opportunities of well informing themselves They write either of the Life and Deeds of JESUS CHRIST whereof they were Eye-witnesses or of his Doctrine and Preaching which they were Ear-witnesses of Or else of the Deeds and Sufferings of themselves and their Fellows whereof they were either Actors and Sufferers or Spectators That which they had seen and heard declared they unto us and that in writing as St. Iohn saith 1. Ioh. I. 1 2 3. They have delivered these things to us which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and Ministers of the word And it seem'd good unto them having had perfect understanding of all things from the beginning to write unto others that they also might know the certainty of these things as we gather from St. Luke chap. I. v. 2 3 4. Now that there was such a Person as JESUS CHRIST that he was born in the Reign of Augustus Caesar and was Crucified in the Regn of Tiberius Caesar being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate and that he had such Disciples and Followers not only the Testimony of Christians but that of Iews and Heathens bitter Enemies to Christianity assures us And what should hinder these men to have sufficient knowledg of what they write 2. We have no less reason to believe they were honest men who had no design to deceive the World For First It is to be seen in their Writings by all who read them that they professed and taught Sincerity Truth Simplicity plain and upright Dealing condemning all Hypocrisie Lying and Guile as odious to GOD and damnable in men denouncing the heavy wrath and indignation of GOD against the Practicers of these Vices And as they taught so they lived and for this they durst appeal to all who knew them Ye are witnesses saith St. Paul and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you 1 Thess. II. 10. We have renounced saith he again the hidden things of dishonestry not walking in craftiness not handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every man's conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. IV. 2. Secondly For the truth of the chief matters of fact which they relate they were bold to appeal to the knowledg of great multitudes then living who might easily have disproved them had they told any falshood They told them of the wonderful Birth and Life of JESUS mentioning the very time of his Birth the place the manner his manifestation to the Shepherds to the Wise-men of the East his Persecution by Herod with all the remarkable Circumstances thereto belonging His Doctrine and Preaching his Miracles some whereof thousands at once tasted of his Death without Ierusalem notorious to all his Resurrection witnessed by his appearing to hundreds his visible Ascension into Heaven his sending the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost to the astonishment of many who heard the Apostles by him enabled to speak to every one in his own Language and many more things of this kind concerning some of which St. Paul was not afraid to tell Festus the Governour in the presence of King Agrippa The king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him for this thing was not done in a corner Acts XXVI 26. How easie now had it been for the Iews to have proved these men Lyars had they been so And would they not have done it if they could Thirdly They were men but of a very mean Education most of them and of no leâ—â—ning and cannot reasonably be thought able to contrive and invent what they write of their own heads and when they had done to defend it so bravely as they did for real truth It must needs be supposed they were instructed well in their business and had a Teacher wiser and more powerful too than themselves or indeed as it will appear than all the World besides And this was well known to be JESUS CHRIST the Eternal Wisdom of GOD and his Holy Spirit of Truth which He according to his Promise sent upon them Acts II. to guide them into all truth Joh. XVI 13. 'T was He alone who could as he had promised give them a mouth and wisdom which all their adversaries were not able to gainsay or resist Luke XXI 15. Indeed it appears whatever their Education had been they were when they preached to the World and wrote men of good sense and understanding who could teach a Religion which now for above Sixteen hundred years hath prevail'd over the most learned part of Mankind who could dispute with the Learned Grecians Acts IX 29. And though the Scribes and Pharisees the most Learned Iews Though they of the Synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians of Cicilia and Asia disputed with them Acts VI. 9. Tho the Philosophers of the Gentiles the Stoicks and Epicureans encounter'd them Acts XVII 18. yet were none of these able to resist the Wisdom and the Spirit whereby they spake Acts VI. 10. Fourthly Supposing them men of Wit enough for such a Contrivance yet can they not at the same time be thought such Fools too as to contrive such things without any rational motive or inducement to it surely they must have some great things to propound unto themselves as the end for which they did this They well foresaw that what they did would expose them to all the Evils of this World And therefore when they first undertook it they voluntarily left all they had in this World to follow CHRIST They were taught by him to deny themselves and to take up the cross Matth. XVI 24. And told that they must be sent as Sheep in the midst of Wolves be deliver'd up to Councils and scourg'd in the Synagogues and hated of all men for his name's sake Matth. X. 16 17 22. That in this world they should have tribulation John XVI 33. and be persecuted Joh. XV. 20. Put out of the Synagogues and killed Joh. XVI 2. All this they knew and expected They went forth to preach a Doctrine which by the Wise-men of the World would be accounted foolishness 1 Cor. I. 23. And look'd on themselves as men set forth of God as it were appointed to death and made a spectacle to the world 1 Cor. IV. 9. They hungred and thirsted were naked and had no certain dwelling-place Being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffer'd it being defamed they intreated they were made the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. IV. 11. 2 Cor. IV. 8. They constantly and stoutly indured all that befell them rejoycing