not appear any wisdom in all this 2. He that saith this saith it in his heart He is not so ignorant of GOD as one who never heard of any such thing If any one be so ignorant 't is certain he 's a fool and greatly to be pitied for his folly But in what part of the World he should be found I know not He that saith in his heart there is no GOD talks of him within himself and therfore hath heard of him Yet some who have heard of GOD are wholly careless and regardless of him and very indifferent whether he be or no their hearts are at rest within them and seem unconcern'd about this matter This is great folly and 't is well if there be not many such Fools of whom it may be said GOD is not in all their thoughts Psal. 10. 4. Some there may be also who wish with all their hearts and could heartily desire that there were no GOD that so without all fear of him they might live as they list All these are Fools but he that saith in his heart there is no GOD seems to outgo all these He is come to a conclusion about it and makes himself confident of it 'T is true indeed he seems not yet so fool-hardy as openly to say it with his Tongue Tho' some Men are grown so impudent as to boast of their folly and to call it Wit to talk prophanely and some parts of the World are so over-run with bruitishness as to suffer this Yet most men if they be not more modest are however more cunning than to speak out all that they think Tho' therefore they think there is no GOD yet are they sensible how much it concerns them that others should not be taught to think so too or so much as know that they think so If they should bring others to think as they do they might soon be made to pay dearly for teaching them this lesson for then would all those others take to themselves the same liberty of doing what they list as they desire to have and the World would become a very unsafe place for them to live in He therefore that saith there is no GOD is content to say it in his heart only and can be very well content too that all but himself should think otherwise for his own safety yea lest all they who think there is a GOD should begin to stand upon their guard against him as an Enemy to Mankind as they have good reason to account him Tho' he be so foolish as to say in his heart there is no GOD yet is he so cunning as to say with his mouth among others I believe in GOD. 3. He that saith in his heart there is no God is the fool No wise Man ever said it The fear of the LORD that is wisdom Job 28. 28. The knowledg of the HOLY is understanding Prov. 9. 10. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledg Prov. 1. 7. and of wisdom And a good understanding have they that keep his commandments Ps. 111. 10. But fools despise wisdom and instruction Prov. 1. 7. And the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness Prov. 1â— 23. But what fool is he that saith this In the language of the Holy Ghost the fool is he that goes on in a course of sinning Of him and his Fellows David gives us this account in those two Psalms the 14th and 51st They are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good The LORD looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek GOD They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one The fool then is the habitual sinner who being deeply in love with his sin cannot indure to think of parting with it If there be a GOD he knows he must very dearly pay for sinning against him and therefore so long as he believes there is a GOD he cannot enjoy his sins in quietness He has therefore no way left him but one to sin without a continual disturbance of mind from the checks of his own Conscience and that is As much as he can to banish the belief and even all thoughts of GOD far from him This then for the love of his sins he is resolved upon and tho' it be very hard for him who hath his eye-sight to open his eyes and not see the Light yet he makes a shift so long to wink against the light till at last he quite loseth his sight So long he strives aagainst the belief of a GOD that at length no Arguments can persuade him to believe Resisting the Truth GOD justly punisheth him with his own desire and hides the Truth from him for ever Because they received not the love of the truth c. GOD saith St. Paul shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye That they might be damn'd who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. As they did not like to retain GOD in their knowledg GOD gives them over to a reprobate mind Rom. 1. 28. And 't is most just with GOD thus to deal with such obstinate Fools I mean to hide himself for ever from them who have a long time done all that ever they could not to see him Hence the Sinner grows more and more a Fool and at last arrives at the Fool 's confidence to believe whatever he has a mind to He saith in his heart there is no GOD And he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool Prov. 28. 26. Now having seen these Three things What is said How 't is said and Who hath said it We are to consider how well he deserves the name of Fool for saying it That is for persuading himself to believe or for making himself confident That there is no GOD. And this his Folly will undeniably appear very great to every one that takes notice but of Three things which are all very visible 1. He is Confident where he cannot have any even the least ground of Assurance 2. He is Confident where his Confidence can do no good but will do much hurt 3. He is Confident where all the reason in the world is against his Confidence If then there be such a thing in the world as a fool he that saith in his heart or is confident that there is no GOD must needs be a Fool. For 1. He that is confident there is no GOD is confident where he cannot have any the least ground of assurance that is he is confident of that which he cannot pretend to know And is not he a fool that pleaseth himself with such a groundless confidence as this and ventures his soul on that whereof he cannot say that he is in any measure sure No man was ever yet so vain as to undertake to prove that there is no GOD. Some have been
he hath been seen and heard both so as any one can conceive that he could be seen and heard that is in visible and audible significations and tokens of his Divine Presence Thus did GOD call upon and talk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden both before and after they had sinned Gen. II. 15 c. III. 9 c. Thus he appeared and spake unto Abraham as Gen. XV. 1 c. XVII 1 c. XVIII 1 23 c. Thus did he appear and speak unto Moses in a Flame of Fire in a Bush Exod. III. 2. And so he did to the Israelites from the Mount in fire and smoke the noise of a trumpet with thundrings and lightnings Exod. XIX 18 19 20. I need not say how often and how many ways GOD hath so manifested himself speaking unto men But it may be the Atheist will say If he himself could see or hear GOD speaking he would believe it to be His Word which he heard And truly if he be of this mind that he will believe nothing but what he himself sees and hears he is too great a fool to be reasoned into any thing and therefore not to be discours'd with at all It has been already shew'd what reason we have to believe that these men speak Truth who tell us all this of GOD. And if he will not believe upon the best evidence that can be given of a thing tho it was he cannot believe at all However suppose he should himself see or hear what Abraham and Moses heard and saw Or suppose he should see the Church fill'd as the Tabernacle and Temple of old with a Cloud or Smoke or hear a Voice from the Altar as that from between the Cherubims over the Mercy-Seat or suppose he should hear and see such a Voice and Glory as those at the Baptism of CHRIST Luke III. 22. Or at the Conversion of St. Paul Acts IX 3 4. Or at the Transfiguration of our Blessed Saviour on the Mount Matt. 17. 5. Or suppose he should hear GOD calling upon him as he did upon Samuel by his name 1 Sam. 3 4. Would he not as that Child did before Eli better instructed him think it the voice of some other or account of it but as a Dream or a Fancy If he say again He would be satisfied thus and otherwise he cannot then I answer That it is not in the power of man to say any thing that may satisfie him and it is much to be fear'd that GOD will not give him any other satisfaction For is it reasonable to expect that GOD should merely to humour every obstinate Fool shew himself every day or as often as a wicked man pleaseth and just in such a manner as he would have him and for no other cause but because he is sullen and unreasonable and will not believe any thing that GOD hath formerly said or done to satisfie him Why should GOD have such hard measure from him above all others Will he not believe he hath his Father's Will and Testament unless his Father himself whenever he requires it come from the dead to tell him so And why must GOD who hath given him his Will in writing sufficiently attested appear as he pleaseth to confirm it anew unto him 2. Much of the Word of GOD has been given unto us by way of Prophecy foretelling things to come which are within the compass of His Knowledge only And the Prophecies in the Scripture have been notoriously and undeniably fulfilled I mean so many of them as were to be fulfilled before the days wherein we now live and if these have been so fulfilled we can have no cause to doubt but all the rest will be so too when the time shall come Now things to come are acknowledg'd not to be within the compass of man's knowledge especially such as depend not necessarily on Natural Causes or are not wont to follow one another in the ordinary course and order of Nature We are all of us very sure That we know not what shall be on the morrow James IV. 14. We cannot tell what a day no not what the next hour or minute may bring forth Prov. XXVII 1. Nay we know not certainly whether or no there shall be another day or who shall live to see it or in what condition it will find us We are not only ignorant of such future things as are of least concernment to us which we have little desire to know or see no reason to enquire after but of the things which we most long to know and would account it a very great satisfaction to be assured of We know not whether we shall be at ease or in pain sick or in health alive or dead the very next day or hour We know not whether we shall be rich or poor or have any meat to eat or be able to eat it if we have it so uncertain are all future things to us Yet we are sure there have been Prophecies of things to come and very true ones too Men have foretold things many hundreds of years before-hand which came to pass in all Circumstances of Time Place and Manner as they had been foretold Some indeed have been bold enough to foretel things by human Art and Skill but have only befool'd thereby both themselves and all that trusted to them If any of them have sometimes guess'd right 't was either First By Chance as he that guesseth a Thousand times has ill luck if he guess not right once or twice tho he knows no more when he doth so than when he guesseth wrong Or he saves his credit by Craft and Cunning as most of the old Oracles and our Astrologers who utter their Predictions in ambiguous Expressions which are capable of a double Sense and Construction If things happen as you understood their words they have got Credit without any reason for it and if things fall out otherwise than you understood them they can tell you You were mistaken in their meaning and they meant as it hath hapned 'T is true also That when men will not hearken to the Truth of GOD he may give them up to Delusion and may suffer a Deceiver to hit on a Truth to make way for the belief of a Lye as a very just Punishment of an unreasonable Infidelity But they only whose Knowledg of Things Future they themselves confess'd to be of GOD and not acquired by Human Art and whose design it was to draw men off from Idolatry and every evil thing to the Worship and Service of the True and Living God have constantly and without failing foretold things truly and the Event hath always verified their Predictions And who but GOD alone who governs and disposeth of all things according to his own Eternal Decree and Council could make them so knowing In the Holy Scriptures we have many such Prophecies As concerning the Carrying of the Iews Captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar their Restoration to their own
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
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
desire nothing more than to hear him prove what he says yea they would reward him at any rate for his pains It 's a very easie thing to persuade men unto what they love and a weak argument is strong enough to make men believe what they would fain believe Why then is the wicked man's good friend the Atheist so sparing of his Reasons when he may so fairly hope to convince men by them The truth is by all this it plainly appears both that they are very strong Reasons that prevail with men against their own corrupt inclinations to believe a GOD and that the Atheist has no Reason at all on his side seeing he is not able to convince men who fain would have it so That there is no GOD. Fourthly What end had this Imaginary man which the Atheist talks of in putting this Opinion of a GOD into mens heads It was saith he to make men more tame and to bring them under Government and Laws And 't is very true that men may easily be made sensible that without Government and Laws we should all be like so many wild beasts of prey tearing and devouring one another and that nothing can make men more governable than the belief of a GOD. But after all this what does that which the Atheist saith amount to This we will readily grant him 1. That considering the general wickedness of mankind Government and severe Laws are very necessary things 2. That the belief of a GOD is that which above all other things will soonest bring men to submit to Government 3. That if the belief of a GOD were an invention of man it were a very proper invention for the making men more governable But now the thing which we would hear proved is That the belief of a GOD is but an invention of man for that end Government indeed will never be upheld in the world without this belief and therefore this belief is necessary to uphold Government But will it now follow from hence That this belief is only a device of man to uphold Government No certainly but this follows which the Atheist has no mind to hear of That he who thinks there is no GOD is an Enemy to Government and ought not to have the Protection of Government nor to enjoy the Privileges of a Subject but ought to be banish'd from all Societies of men as the greatest enemy to them in the world And now seeing it is granted by the Atheist That this belief is so necessary for the maintaining of Civil Government in the world I will be bold hence to infer a Conclusion quite contrary to his viz. That it is the more likely for that to be true and to come from GOD and not to be an invention of man And the reasonableness of this Inference will thus appear 1. Government and Laws are on purpose to tie men up to live by Rule to restrain them within the bounds of Iustice and Sobriety to keep them from taking the liberty they would otherwise take and from having their own wills in every thing that they may have a longing mind unto Now that which could persuade men to be thus tied up and restrain'd must needs appear to them very reasonable in it self otherwise they would never be brought to thrust their Necks into a Yoke for the sake of something which they saw not before-hand good reason to believe If the Atheist say That though they saw no reason before-hand to believe that there is a GOD yet the benefit of good Government and the desire of safety which they could not have without Government was enough to make them content whether they believed it or no that it should pass for a truth In saying this he confutes himself for if the desire of safety not to be had without Government was it that persuaded them to admit this opinion of a GOD true or false and merely for the sake of Government because without it they could not be safe Then did their own safety sufficiently convince them of the necessity of Government and was enough to persuade them to admit of it without the belief of a GOD. And so the Atheist's Politician was only a Politick Would-be and would seem wise in inventing a thing there was no need of for 't is plain that the belief of a GOD was not necessary in order to Government if the desire of safety was enough to persuade men to it But this very pretence of the Atheist That the Opinion of a GOD was set on foot to uphold Government is a confession that all other motives to subjection without this belief are insufficient and seeing this belief is the principal motive to admit of Government men must needs before-hand see good reason for it for otherwise it could be no motive at all 2. If the belief of a GOD be the principal thing that holds men in subjection to Civil Government and within the bounds of Iustice and Sobriety then if it be not a true belief it must be granted That a Lie is the very foundation of all Vertue and Goodness Peace and Order Iustice and Honesty Fidelity and Safety among men and it is for the great good of the whole World and so the duty of all men to believe a Lie And that there is nothing so wicked because nothing can be so dangerous mischievous and pernicious to Mankind as to believe the Truth It is a truth saith the Atheist that there is no GOD. Then is truth and the belief of it the fountain of all evil and mischief disorder and confusion 'T is a Lie saith he again to say there is a GOD. Then a Lie and the belief of it is the fountain of all Goodness and Vertue and of all the happiness too in the World Can any one but a Fool believe this And yet he must believe it that believes the Atheist saying That the belief of a GOD is only an invention of man to keep the World in good order This is enough to be said of our Second Argument to demonstrate the Atheist's folly taken from the general Consent of Mankind And surely he can hardly be thought a Wise-man himself who ventures to call that man wise whom the whole World as we have seen calls a Fool. III. I come to the Third Argument grounded on the Works of GOD And this I may call the Testimony of the whole Creation of all things animate and inanimate If there are such Works as are the visible Effects of an Eternal Being of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness there must needs be a GOD and he must be a Fool that saith there is none And here again we have a far more likely cause of the Universal Consent of Mankind in this belief than that which the Atheist imagined as possible only By the Effect the Cause is known If we see things made we know they had a Maker Men generally have seen such things in the World as they could not conceive to be the
a Guide who confesseth himself to be blind 2. When he persuades us to believe there is no GOD it cannot but be very fit to ask again Is it safe so to do Or Is it unsafe to do otherwise He cannot assure us 't is safe to believe there is no GOD because he cannot make us know that there is none And he must needs confess 't is not unsafe to believe there is a GOD because it can do no hurt Is it reasonable then to leave the safe way we are already in that we may follow him into another wherein he cannot promise us any safety at all 3. If he would have us to believe there is no GOD 't is not unreasonable to ask him Why would he have us to believe it Or What good will it do either him or us If it will do neither any good Why should he persuade us or we be persuaded to an unprofitable thing There is danger in it and what reason is there to do what we know 't is dangerous to do till we see what good may come of it 4. If he say 't is fit to believe it merely because 't is a truth We must needs ask again How doth he know 't is a truth But yet 't is in vain to ask him this because 't is impossible for him to tell us how he knows it or to know it And therefore we have yet no reason to believe it is a truth because he only calls it so who doth not know that it is so But suppose it were I hope it may be fit to ask him again Is he in good earnest and would he indeed have us to belive it for a truth If he be not willing we should believe it why doth he tempt us to believe it If he would indeed have us believe it would he not also have us behave our selves as men of that belief If not to what purpose are we to believe it If he would have us behave our selves as men that believe not a GOD then may we do what we will and can we may rob his House take his Money defile his Wife and cut his Throat If he deny this let us ask him What is it that can make it unlawful for us to do any of these things What should restrain men from doing any thing they can for their own advantage This is all that the Atheist can gain by persuading men to be of his Opinion That he lays himself at every man's mercy to deal as he will with him and cannot say That man sins that knocks him on the head for his good advice 2. If there be a GOD every one that is VVise will not only think himself highly concern'd to believe it but so to live and behave himself in the world as may be most pleasing and acceptable to GOD. To what purpose can it be tobelieve that there is a GOD or what good can this belief do us if it do not engage us to live as men who are sensible that they have a GOD over them whom they are concern'd to please in all things Certainly if there be a GOD who made us and all things He must needs be concern'd with us and we with Him And as we can expect no good thing but from Him who is the Author and Disposer of all things so neither can we hope to receive any good thing from him if we do not our endeavour to please Him Why should we thinkHe will bless us according to our desire if we be not careful to serve and honour him according to his Will That therefore we may reap the good and benefit of this so necessary a Belief we are to consider well what it is that we believe and what duty that belief must needs bind upon us That which we believe is That there is a GOD and to be GOD is to be the first Cause and Author the Maker Preserver Lord and Governour of the whole World and all things therein the Fountain of all Power and Wisdom and Goodness and therefore the highest Power the greatest Wisdom and the chief Good Now if GOD be all this then it is very easy for every one to see certain duties lying upon us as we are the creatures of GOD which naturally arise from what we believe even from this one point That there is a GOD. 1. GOD being the first Cause Author and Maker of all things He is the very Fountain and Original of all Being and Life Power Wisdom and Goodness All these are in him originally as in the inexhaustible Spring and Fountain and there can be nothing at all of any of these things in the World but what is derived from him neither can any of these be any longer in the world than it pleaseth him All this must needs be very plain to every Understanding If then we will live as men who are sensible that there is a GOD by whom we live and without whom nothing can have either life or being We must needs First have the highest and most honourable Thoughts of GOD the greatest reverence and esteem for him that can possibly be in the heart of man We are not to conceive of him as of one whose excellencies and vertues tho' they exceed those of any other Being whatsoever are yet contain'd within such or such bounds or limits or are at such a degree and no higher but we are to think of him as of one who in the Perfectictions of the Divine Nature is infinitely above all the thoughts of Men and Angels of incomprehensible Glory and Majesty of boundless Power Wisdom and Goodness such as is to be always admired and adored but never to be fully seen or understood We are however to labour every day to know more and more of him that the more we know the more we may admire and love and rejoyce and even be ravish'd with those unconceivable excellencies which to discern more clearly will be our eternal happiness in Heaven Our hearts therefore should be always fill'd with and our mouths should sound forth the praises of GOD every one singing with the holy Psalmist Bless the LORD O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Psal. CIII 1. Bless the LORD O my soul. O LORD my GOD thou are very great thou art clothed with honour and majesty Psal. CIV 1. While I live will I praise the LORD I will sing praise unto my GOD while I have any being Psal. CXLVI 2. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD Psal. CL. 6. Be thou exalted O GOD above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth Psal. CVIII 5. Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Neh. IX 5. Secondly It must needs be our Duty to walk humbly before GOD and to abase our selves in his Presence whose eyes are continually open upon us We must always bear in mind that he is our GOD and Maker and we are at best but the work