Impression Thirdly To shew the mistake of those who think that setting aside the Revelation of the word of God those persons viz. The Atheists are not void of Reason and speak not without some warrant For it is here shewed that they oppose Reason and bely it in divers manners Finally This is to beat down in some manner the vain-glory and the profane mockings of those persons who laugh at the simplicity as they think of the World which is of so light a belief as they call it as to give credit to those Writings which are called the Bible without any more warrant of their Belief then the common Report or an hear-say or else the Testimony of some men that take upon them the Authority to give to these Sacred Writings the Credit which it hath amongst us and yet cannot in any other ways shew upon what their Testimony is grounded and thereby do weaken the Faith of those who are taught to attribute more then meer Reason to the Testimony of these Books and Sacred Writers For here it is shewed against the Atheists that they make themselves absurd and ridiculous in doubting without any appearance of Reason of the Authority of these Sacred Books It is now three years ago since this Treatise was dictated to some young Divines in this place without any other Design then their own satisfaction and this was also done at their Request and to be to them as a Basis and Foundation of their Faith and Religion For it is that by which we must begin That there is a God which many do not know but because they have heard other say so without having pondered and examined upon what ground this Common belief is seated But since that time after this small piece had been viewed and approved by able Masters to whose Judgement I as it is my duty do submit I by their perswasions have thought that this being made publick cannot do any harm to any and may profit some And this the rather that I might evidence that we ought to serve God to the utmost of our abilities in maintaining his cause against his most furious Adversaries and that those of our Coat and Profession are not such as some would willingly make the world believe them to be viz. Enemies of God and of his Truth since we do as much as in us lies establish the grounds of it clean contrary to those of their Profession who feigning to lay this Foundation firm do in effect overthrow it setting it upon rotten Pillars and by a secret intelligence with those enemies against which they seem to fight do betray abandon that Truth whereof they would have men believe them to be the Assertours If by the reading of this small Treatise which cannot much divert the Readers from their other employments any find themselves edified and strengthened in the faith and belief of this so important Article which is the Ground of Religion I shall have attained my end and will believe that my Meditation on this point hath not been vain And to God who directs by his Wisdom the thoughts of men to his own Glory and for his own Work be ascribed all Honour Praise and Glory for ever Amen ATHEISME CONVICTED AND PROFANENESSE CONFUTED By the Light of Right Reason and by the Testimony of GOD and MEN. CHAP. I. The reach of Atheisme its first spring divers Branches of this Notorious Infidelity IT is a strange and wonderfull thing that seeing the Knowledge of divine and Celestial matters is far greater and clearer in most of men that are upon the face of the Earth then ever it was we see nevertheless more Atheists and profane persons then ever were even among the Heathen which do appeare by the stupendous wickednesse and abominable Corruption of good manners which is at this day so common among Christians being most true which the Apostle saith That many do acknowledge God with their Lips but by their works do deny him The spring of this Evill is the unlimited Love of the Wealth Pleasures Commodities honours dignities of this present World For men being hurried by their Passions towards these things and neverthelesse having a naturall Resentment of a Deity and some Knowledge of the Difference between Good and Evill Vice and Vertue and of the Punishments and Rewards which they do justly deserve which is to them as most bitter Gall and Wormwood and doth deprive them of the pleasure and content which they do take in glutting themselves with these false and deceiving Goods do endeavour to quench in themselves this strong perswasion they have of a Deity or at the least do frame false Opinions of him and of his Nature that they may go on with more loosenesse lesse Remorse and more pleasure in the Execution of their evill desires and to fortifie themselves in this Opinion they do seek and gather all the Reasons and Arguments which the subtillnesse of their Wits and Parts can furnish them withall Now there are two sorts of Atheists the first are formally and openly so The second are close and reserved Again of these first there are two kinds The first of which acknowledge and professe that there is no God and even do upon all occasions endeavour to make others beleeve the same the other sort is of those which perswade themselves that there is no God and notwithstanding dare not vent that Opinion openly either for fear of the Justice of men which doth most justly chastice and punish this horrible Impiety or for shame of the World which doth abhor and detest such Monsters as these Now they whose profaneness is not so open do indeed acknowledge a Deity but they have erroneous Opinions of it which cannot consist with the Reality of its Nature The God of such persons is nothing else but an Idoll a False God and only a Phantasme of the Deity now he that hath but this is not far from Atheisme Of all these Opinions some are more gross and less agreeing with the Nature of the Deity the other are more subtill and harder to be apprehended which nevertheless do oppugne its Nature and cannot really agree with the true Deity Of the former is the Tenet of Epicurus who did acknowledge a Deity but such a one as had nothing to do with the World and had neither made it nor did governe it and was without any care what was done in it Next to this was the Opinion of the Peripateticks who did hold that there was a first matter but to whom they did attribute only the moving of the Primum mobile and a generall and undeterminated Action without any Cognizance or Government of particular things who was neither the efficient cause of this world which they did assert had beene from all Eternity without any Beginning The same also was the Opinion of the Heathen who did believe a Plurality of Gods either Independent one upon another or generated and procreated the one by the other to which also
and modell of all vertues and which hath made man to his image and likeness endowing him with reason by which he might follow and imitate them Add to this that if this necessity alone had compelled men to that they had themselves by a common consent and advice framed these Lawes and had constituted Magistrates to keep them only reserving the full Power and Authority to change them add to them or to take and diminish from them and so to privilegiate whom they pleased and to exclude them at their will as it is done in Common-Weales where the people is Governor as in Democracies But albeit there was heretofore and are yet some such like Common-Wealths yet there hath alwayes been and are now many more bodies and Commonalties that are Governed Monarchically the Lawes of which have not been erected by little and little according to the severall accasions by the votes and suffrages of the people as at Rome or Athens but by some wise Law-giver which being compiled have ever since been embraced for their apparent Justice and equity And the most ancient Law-giver of all those of whom mention is made in Histories Moses raised manifestly by God to give Lawes unto his People and after him there have been in many corners of the World many wise Legislators that have given Lawes to the bodies and Comonalties of which they were members which shewes that necessity alone hath not brought men to the making of Lawes and setting of Magistrates over them but that a wise and Supreme Providence hath intervened and stirred and directed the Law-givers to this settlement and hath used the consideration of the necessity there is of Lawes to make people to submit to them And which hath every where in every State raised some one or other more noble then the rest for the singular virtues which was knowne he was endowed withall to undertake the Government the Custody and Preservation of Lawes and even whose will in the Beginning was a Rule and a Law and this was that men might enjoy in him an Image of that supreame wisdome and Power which guides and overswaieth all this VVorld This Providence which manifesteth it selfe so in the curbing of evill and disorder by the meanes of Lawes and Magistrates both supreame and inferiour which he hath setled for the Preservation of humane Society is also plainly perceived if we consider the secret motions of it by which men are contained within the limits of their duty appeares yet more in this that many particular persons being overcome by their evill passions and neglecting the feare and reverence they owe to the Lawes do openly transgresse against it and People themselves many time rise against their Supreme Magistrate to dispossesse them of their Authority For since the feare of the Lawes and Magistrates alone is not capable to restraine mens Corruptions and their pronenesse to evill as it appeares by so many sad examples and events we must needs say and confesse that there is some Power stronger that all that and which is farr above all these Powers which doth secretly bridle and restraine these passions within us as also our vehement inclinations to evill otherwise without this curb we should run on our courses with a strange impetuosity and turn all things up-side-down and wholly disannull the society of men For why should not all commit the same extravagancies and enormities that some are guilty of unlesse there were some secret thing that restrains them within themselves and why should not all commonalties together mutiny against their Magistrates and Governors as some do save only for this bridle that holds them in Now if all did so it is evident that no Society could in any wise subsist we must then acknowledge from this that there is a Providence which curbs this violent affection which man hath towards evill and hinders him to execute all that he would do that so the Society and communication which is between men may be preserved and that the Deity may be Glorified in the acknowledgement they are bound to pay him for it If Providence doth evidence it self in the restraint of evill that it may not grow to the infinite it appeares no less in that it doth direct and converts it to good and in extracting order out of confusion and light from darknesse The order of humane actions appeares in their justice and equity the disorder in injustice Now it is evident how great a disorder there is in all the actions and deportments of men witnesse the injustice and palpable wickedness which is seen among them but nevertheless in this horrible confusion and disorder one may perceive a wonderfull order which appeares in the events of Justice Goodnesse and Truth which proceed from this confusion For example who doth not see from the injustice of Joseph's brethren selling him to those that went to Egypt a wonderfull effect of goodness in the preservation of all Jacob's family during the famine And in the expedition of Nebuchodonosor against the Jewes and Jerusalem which proceeded from the unbounded ambition of this man an example of Gods Justice in chastising of this People and finally from the injustice and wickedness of the Jewes and the Priests against our Lord issue forth a wonderfull effect of goodness which is the Salvation of mankinde It would be too long to mark and quote all the like examples in which the justice and vengeance of God against the sins of men or his goodness and bounty towards the other doth manifest it selfe by the Ministery of wicked men against their intentions and designes who do think nothing less then this which is an evident testimony that there is a wise and Powerfull Providence which farr surpasses all the Counsell of men and which bowes and inclines their hearts to what it pleaseth and doth wisely guide their thoughts and their hands to execute though unwittingly his good wise just and boly will For to attribute unto chance and hazard all those events in which appeares such a wisdom Justice truth and goodness would be the same as if one should father upon a blinde man a piece where all the glorious wonderfullest and fairest draughts whether of Limning or writing should appeare and one must be more blinde then fortune it self to beleive or think so This Providence appeares no less in the casuall effects and events which every day happen in the World in which appeare also the effects of Justice goodness and truth which could not be without the direction of a Providence which guideth all these events and makes them turn alwayes to the end it hath propounded it self and those that take occasion to deny the Providence because there are confusions and disorders among men and to think that all is done by chance and do not perceive amidst these confusions the order that may be seen in them are just like little children who not understanding the play at Chess and seeing two excellent gamesters play would judge to see
do testifie that all those places do swarm with them and that there is scarce one which hath not his Daemon and Familiar spirit That Aignan of the people called Toupinambous and the Demons which preside over other Barbaro us people and which do torment and perplex them most greivously is a sufficient argument that they be none but evill spirits And it is to be noted that where there is none or very small knowledge of the true God there it is where the Devils have more power over men and where they do also most commonly appear as having in those places a greater Liberty from God who gives them power to Tyrannize and domineer over those who know not their Creatour and Benefactour The Religion of those of China and of most part of the Indians is nought else but an open profession that they make of adoring the Devil whom they reverence and honour that he may do them no harm thinking that the Deity hath no need of such services and that being perfectly good it will never do them any hurt and will without all these services do them good whensoever they need it The multitude of Gods which anciently the Greek and Roman Heathens did adore and that distinction which they made of them in deos majorum minorum gentium of Gods Demi-gods Heroes of divers sorts Satyres Fauns Pans Aegypans Nymphs of all sorts Joves Vejoves all this in effect was nothing but a distinction of Daemons which did veile themselves under these names and so caused themselves to be adored by men And their books are full of these Daemons and all or the most part of their superstitions were brought up by the commands of these false Gods which did speak and had society with these superstitious persons and which were adored by them as if indeed they had been Gods Their Oracles also so famous among them and so much taken notice of in divers places are so many Testimonies of this truth that there are Daemons and immaterial spirits these Oracles being nothing else then the utterings of these evill spirits by which they did maintain the Heathens in their superstitions and Idolatries All these things do plainly shew that there are ' Daemons and consequently a Deity which is above them as heretofore it hath been demonstrated CHAP. XI Wherein are answered all the Objections that are brought against the foregoing Argument MAN who is ingenious enough in his own destruction doth here endeavour to deceive himselfe and to enervate the strength of the forementioned argument There are some that think that all things that are reported of Witches and Magicians and of all their wonderfull and prodigious Effects are old wives Fables and meer inventions and the ground of their opinion is because say they notwithstanding that they have desired looked after such things and having for these ends made their addresses to those that were reputed famous and notable Magicians and Witches and having desired and solicited them with promises of great Rewards to shew them something extraordinary and strange they could never obtain it of them notwithstanding all their intreaties but these men do not consider that if what they say is true it is a plot of Sathan who to confirm them in their erroneous Opinion and by these means to make them surer to himself hath declined to satisfie their curiosity on purpose being rather willing to have such perfect Atheists then to deterr them and make them quit their Errours by affrighting and amazing them with those things that they had seen Others say that there are many fabulous things reported of such persons and of their Effects and of the Apparitions of Spirits and from this they take an occasion not to believe any thing that is said of them as if they were all forgeries But although there be many things falsly reported of them and that many do delight in inventing such things we may not therefore conclude that all things that are said of them are false and that there are no such persons nor Daemons Nay we may conclude to the contrary that such stories could not be raised if there was no ground for them For who would believe any such things if there had never been any apparitions of Spirits nor any strange Effects caused by Witches For falshood is in some manner a consequent of Truth and can finde no admittance in mens beliefs but under some colour of Truth Vnless there were a Physical Virtue in Plants Stones Metals and Natural bodies to produce severall wonderfull effects there could not be so many Fables of their Powers as we read in Solinus Pliny and such Writers One must indeed with judgement and discretion discern in such things that which is fabulous and untrue from those that are averr'd and attested by Experience and irrefragable Witnesses of which we have an infinite number but one may not therefore presently condemn all things that are said and writ by credible persons without making any difference between that which is false and that which is true Especially when such men have no by-end in relating these things For if it were so we might not upon the same account believe that there ever were such men as Regnault and Roland because there have been many Romances and Tales made of them Those who are the Wizards Patrons think to excuse them First By saying that all things which are told of their Sabbaths or Conventicles and of all those things that are done there is nought but a meer imagination and a troubled brain and no real truth which they maintain to have been verified in that there have been some who believing and maintaining that they have been so transported and reporting what they had seen and done have for all that been found lying in their Beds at that very time or lying as if they had been dead altogether insensible and in an Extasie Whence they conclude that all those transports are meerly imaginary Secondly As to those harms they think to do as for example to raise storms and to send the Vermin into fields and houses to cause a Rot to fall upon the cattell and to inflict grievous diseases upon those men that they bewitch their Abettors think to excuse them in saying that the Devill fore-seeing these things to come perswades these execrable people that they are the cause of all these things and that they do all by their Sorceries and charms although there is no power or virtue in the charms themselves But first by saying thus they grant that which we would have viz. that there are Daemons whence we infer that there is also a God to restrain them and they must of necessity grant it For how can those people without the help of the Devill foresee those storms and tempests those Vermin and those Mortalities to come And if they did prophesie those things by natural causes why should they endeavour to make them come to pass by their Sorceries why should they fancy to
none because they so ardently wish that it were so and that this their so vehement desire makes them to receive the most weak Reasons for good and solid demonstrations As to Authority one sometimes may believe a thing upon the meer Respect that he hath to the persons that say it and that either because such persons are sufficient and able and that he believes them to be so or because of that eminent power and Authority in which they are which hath only place in those things which one cares not much whether they be true or not and where he sees no Reasons to the contrary It cannot be said that men have been induced to believe a Deity and Providence by the bare Authority and Respect that some persons had which had no ground or Reason for what they said For who is he that hathso universally been known to be of such Sufficiency Knowledge and Ability as to perswade men only by the bare Respect they had of him to believe a thing so great and that doth so much concern them For besides that Aristotle or Plato who is acknowledged to have been the greatest and learnedst Philosopher that ever was is not so much as known by name to the thousandst part of the World it is certain that none that believes there is a Deity will confess that he believes it because such a one said it but only because he hath an inward perswasion of this Truth by some Reasons which he knowes and understands well himselfe although very often times he cannot express them And as for Eminency and Dignity there was never yet any that hath ruled over all the World and who might have had the power to command or perswade men to believe a Deity Besides that the Belief which proceeds this way ought to be of things which we care not much whether they be true or not which cannot be said of the Deity and Providence there being nothing more important or that doth more highly concern men But perhaps it may be objected That this opinion hath spread it self by Tradition from Fathers to Children c. and so is come to us Now it 's very true that the first man Adam hath taught this truth to his Children and they to theirs c. and by these means this Truth hath been believ'd over all the World But first although he hath so taught his posterity we may not therefore conclude that all have believed him for there have alwaies been wicked ones that have not cared for their Fathers admonitions and those also have not taken pains to make their Children to believe it so that this pretended Tradition hath been in many places interrupted and neglected So that we must confess that this universal belief of a Deity hath another cause then Tradition or meer Institution Add to it that this thing is of too much concernment to be believed upon the bare word of our Fathers which indeed may give an occasion to seek after this truth and incline our minds to believe it but cannot be the only true ground of so firmly-inherent a belief Secondly As to those against whom we dispute which hold the Eternity of the world how can they keeping still to this proposition viz That the world is Eternal Object That this opinion hath its Rise from meer Tradition For I will ask them Whether they think that this Opinion is Eternal as well as the world or whether it hath had some beginning again If this opinion is Eternal I will ask Whether it was generally received among all men or received of some only If they say That it hath alwaies been Universal it follows that it is natural and therefore a true opinion and theirs consequently false If this Opinion hath not been Universal but yet was from all Eternity received among some it follows that it is at least as true an opinion as theirs is since it hath had followers and hath been received from all Eternity as well as theirs But these two Opinions being contrary one to another they cannot both be equally true nor consequently equally Eternal and so necessarily the one is true and the other false the one Prior the other Posterior truth being alwaies before falshood which is a disguising of Truth and an aberration from it Here then will they say that their Opinion is the first and Eternal the other having followed long time after If this is true then it follows that all men Universally in an infinite number of Ages have constantly held this opinion That there is no God how then is it come into the minds of men to hold the contrary to that which they had alwaies held and believed And how could any one imagine that he could perswade this to any one Yea how is it possible that men should now hold a contrary opinion but that they have acknowledged by strong Reasons that the other opinion was false So then we cannot conclude neither according to their Hypothesis nor accoding to ours that this universal belief of the Deity is a meer Tradition and proceeds from Institution but it must necessarily be concluded that it proceeds from that men have unanswerable Arguments for it upon which both it and its evidence is grounded But the Atheists would willingly reply that those arguments are but captious and weak have no solidity in them But there is no reason to think so For how is it possible that a meer Phantasm or shadow without any real solidity should have deceived all the men in the whole world and that so constantly since so many ages that there hath been none found among so many men that hath demonstrated as yet the pretended vanity and weakness of these Arguments Is it possible that none hath been found among so many wonderfully-learned men of which History makes mention that hath evidenced the pretended falshood of this opinion and demonstrated how weak and vain those Arguments are on which this our opinion is grounded and by these meanes free the World from the checks and terrours which the conscience of their crimes causes in them when they consider and perceive that there is a Divine Providence This doubtless would have found place enough in the belief of men But it may be it will be said that Epicurus and his followers and some others afore him have done this teaching Atheism and the Reasons that may perswade to it Now those Persons have indeed had wit enough and very good Reasons to jear at all the vain superstitions foolish and extravagant opinions of the Religion of the Heathen at the impertinent and fabulous Stories that they made of their Gods of the multitude of them and at the false imagination they had of the state of the dead in Hell or in the Elysian fields But it will not be found nor confessed that they have strong and solid Reasons to prove that there is no Providence And those prophane ones of our dayes who think they have refined Atheism
to the height will be found as short in their Arguments if they are examined by the rules of right Reason and it will be found that the Reason why they are estecmed and counted excellent Wits is not so much because of the strength of their Arguments as because nothing is either too hot or too cold for them and that there is no absurdity though it be never so great which they do not easily swallow like to the strong stomachs of Ostriches which do digest any thing that is given them And here we should enter upon the examination of their pretended Reasons and compare theirs and ours which we have brought against them that there might be a Judgement given which are the most solid and firm but this would engage us to another Treatise whereupon we have not now a design to enter but will examine some of them towards the end of this book That which hath been said hitherto against them being well weighed and considered will be found so agreeable to right Reason that if their opinion is true they must dispute otherwise then by Reason and must be farr above it and so consequently must be much more then men But albeit their Reasons were of equal weight with ours which is not so yet have we much advantage on our side 1. Because besides these Reasons we have this universal consent which they have not 2. Because though there were no God yet there is no danger and little or no loss to believe and serve one but if there is one the Atheists for not believing and serving him are in great danger to have Hell for their portion One thing may be objected against this Universal Consent of all Nations viz. That there are errours and false opinions which yet nevertheless have been believed and received by most or all the Nations of the Earth as for example Idolatry Multiplicity of the Gods of the Heathen and in the most civiliz'd Nations and People as among the Graecians and Romans Whoredom and the sin against Nature have scarce been accounted vices there have been whole Nations and People where Robbery and Theft especially if it was committed upon those of another Nation was not looked upon as crime or sin But The answer to this is not difficult For First these errours though very general have not been so constant and universal as the belief of a Deity For Christianism hath abolished the Paganism in a very considerable part of the World and was once more universal then it is now And the Mahometan Jenish and Christian Religions all of which hold there is one only God compared with the rest of the World which yet remains plunged in Heathenish Idolatry do almost or it may be altogether comprehend the half of those men which are upon the face of the Earth Now the opinion of one only God so as the Christians Mahometans and Jews do hold it is farr more contrary to Atheism then the Pagan Idolatry How is it then if Atheistical opinions be true that the opinion of the Jews Christians and Mahometans hath so much prevailed over that of the Heathen which comes much nearer to Atheism Especially since the Christian Religion which hath preceded that of the Mahometans was propagated only by the patience and sufferings of the Professours of it which every where have been exposed and abandoned to the rage fury and persecution of the Heathen The Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition is an opinion much more suitable to our carnal sense and which corrupted man doth love and cherish much more then the apprehension which the Christians and Mahometans have of one God Therefore as we have noted heretofore its no wonder that this errour had spread it self very much since we perswade our selves very willingly and easily of those things which we earnestly desire and wish for But this same flesh is wholly repugnant to the belief of a Deity that judgeth and Governeth the World and renders to every man according to what he had done How comes it then to pass that the opinion which we have of one only God hath prevailed against the Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition and doth yet maintain it self against so many Atheists as are at this day since that we arm and defend our selves as much as we can against those things which we fear and dread Thirdly The Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition is an alteration and corruption of the opinion of a Deity and doth necessarily presuppose it as its ground and basis And this alteration as I said just now is wonderfully more accommodated to our fleshly and sensual corruptions then the belief of an only God It is therefore no wonder if the opinion of a Deity being so universally received and so deeply rooted in the heart of man the Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition which pleaseth the flesh hath spread it self also so much as it hath But the opinion of a Deity is not a corruption or alteration of Atheism It is quite contrary And this belief of a Deity doth not please the flesh as Atheism doth Therefore the belief of a Deity could not have so universally won the spirits of men but by its own proper strength and virtue which consisteth in Truth which is stronger then all things And it 's much to be wondered at and the Atheists wiâ—l never give a pertinent Reason of it why if Atheism be true it hath not been so universally received as its contrary but contrariwise and almost every where even among the Heathen it hath been abhorred and detested of all As to those other enormities of Whoredom Thefts and the sin against Nature and the like besides that the most honest persons in every Nation have acknowledged in these actions a great deal of filthiness and injustice when they have spoken of them in good earnest though the corrupted and base pleasures of the flesh and the depraved sense of their lusts had so blinded their understanding that they let themselves loose to all these vices without any great remorse it is not of these errours as of the belief of a Deity for these vices please and intice sensuality and therefore men are easily perswaded to them but the belief of a Deity is wholy repugnant to sensuality which would perswade it self the contrary if it could and neverthelesse this opinion hath forced mens understandings to assent to it which could not be done but by the meer strength of truth it self From what hath been said before it is plain and evident that this so universal and constant consent of all men who hold and believe even in spight of themselves that there is a God and a Providence is an indubitable Argument of this truth and an evidence of the deprivation of man by which he is fallen from his first Nature and Principles by which he was joyned and united to God unto whom he was conformable in Truth Justice and Holiness as one created to his own Image and from which he is now
which really came to pass And this is evident because they do note all the crcumstances and particularities which are observed in true Histories and by which we are wont to discern Romances and Poetical Fictions from true Narrations They would have us to hold and believe those Narrations for very truths and things which have really and certainly happened To what end should this be if their Narrations are but Dreams Do those good VVriters that will instruct and profit use such means In no wise And although one would write some Moraliz'd Romance to instruct men yet would not he publish it for a true History Besides that we have noted before that these Sacred Histories have none of the stile and garb of Romances And as to the Doctrines Sayings and Sentences of which the Sacred Books are full will the Atheists say that they are Paradoxes wild and extravagant opinions If it is so I will ask them To what good end could such things have been forged and invented For we have shewed heretofore that they could not be invented to any ill intent or pernicious design If they are meer Inventions and that there is no reality in them to what good end can they have been invented Moreover these Sacred Authours do propose these Doctrines that men may stedfastly believe them and that they may be held for undoubted truths can there be any good or reasonable end in this if these things are in effect but Extravagancies VVill they say that these Persons being willing to win men to the exercise of Virtue Justice Temperance Fortitude Truth Faithfullness Friendship Charity Patience Honour Respect Obedience Observation of the Laws of Humane Society c. did think that the perswasion though a false one of a God Creatour and Governour of this Universe Judge Avenger and Remuneratour of the good and evill and that the examples though but fictitious and false of Vices and Virtues which are rewarded or punished by a Providence would be a Powerfull motive to induce men to attain this end And that this is it which hath made them to invent this opinion of a Providence with all the consequences of it and to compile all these Stories to Patronize Vices and Virtues Almost as Horace doth pretend in that Epistle which begins Trojani belli Scriptorem Maxime Lâ—lli that Homer in his Iliad and Odyssea doth tell us all these fine Tales and Stories to serve as Morall documents unto all men It is very true that the beliefe of a God such as he is represented to us in the Sacred Writings is the true and only meanes and the most strong and efficacious motive to induce men to true Virtue as it appears by the Examples of the Lives of the truely-faithfull under both the Testaments in comparison of which the most splendid Virtue of the Heathen is but dross and dung As an exact comparison of them would easily verifie And the first Christian Fathers that have writ against the vanity of the Heathen shewed this evidently as Tertullian Minutius Felix and others But it is also very true that if this perswasion of a Deity and Providence such as it is represented to us by the Christian Religion was false and imaginary it could not produce such an effect as to induce men to exercise the true Virtue And we may not Object that an opinion though false if it be believed for true and certain doth produce the same effect as if it were really true as many Examples do testifie For those false impressions which the mind receives do last but for a little while They deceive only for a small time It is as paint upon a face which for a time doth give some lustre but abideth not But this belief of a Deity and Providence is stable and as constant and unalterable as the Heavens And it is not a Fiction of the Holy Writers For those that never heard of them or saw their Writings have had and yet have this perswasion for we have shewed heretofore that all men in all ages were perswaded there was a Deity and a Providence There is also too manifest and palpable a difference between the Fables and Poetical Fictions of Homer and the Narrations of Holy Writ It was not Homer's intention if his design was such as Horace tells us it was viz. to instruct and please men by his Fables that we should take his Fables for Truths Nor hath he divulged these Fictions for true Histories but composed only a fine Moraliz'd Romance But as we have said the Sacred Writers do tell us their Histories as certain and indubitable things And as to the false Deities of Homer and to all those things he tells of them I think that there is none of the strong Wits at this day dares maintaine without blushing but that which the Christian Religion doth teach of a God Creatour Preserver Judge and Governour of all this Universe of his Cult and Service and of the meanes to attain to true happiness by Jesus Christ alone is farr more agreeable to the Deity if there is any and also more conformable to right Reason then all the fabulous Tales of the false Gods of Homer yea then what he hath best and more refined concerning the Deity So then it is unreasonable to say of the Sacred VVriters of the Old and New Testament that they have invented or got from some others that preceded them the things that they reach us in their VVritings All manner of reason is against this To these I will add some few remarks which may serve as a Modell for any one who will treat of this matter more at large as well it may be done CHAP. XIV Wherein there follow some more Proofs of the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures THose things which are contained in Scripture are two-fold viz. Doctrines and Histories Neither of these can proceed from man's or Devils inventions The Doctrines also are two fold 1. Dogmata so properly called because they are delivered as the objects of our faith and knowledge as that there is a God a Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour and Redeemer of the VVorld 2. Moral Doctrines which are conversant in the regulating of life and exercise of Virtue These Doctrines which respect Faith and Knowledge are so high so sublime so excellent so admirable so profound and abstruse especially those Mysteries of the Trinity Incarnation and Redemption that the Soul of man is not at all capable to comprehend them so as to have invented or divined such things and they are so contrary to the humour nature and Genius of the Devil that he could not nor would not have thought or invented any such things much less would he have taught them unto men And if these things are false good Angels would not have invented them such a Fiction being wholy repugnant to their integrity And as to the Moral Precepts they contain so exact perfect and incomparable a form of holiness to which all the Virtues of the
which they say was discovered by Jesus Christ and stolen by him out of their Temple and partly to the Efficacy and Illusion of Daemons and Magical Arts of which they say they had knowledge which is the foolish and ridiculous Exception of these desperate persons which choose rather to speak all manner of Impertinencies then to confess the Truth The admirable Virtue and Efficacy of the Doctrine of the Gospel which by so weak Instruments as were the Apostles and their first Successours notwithstanding all the Contradiction Opposition and Persecution of the World hath been received in the World and hath abolished all the Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition which hath produced so wonderfull and exemplary Righteousness Uprightness Integrity and Holiness of Life in the Primitive Christians which hath ravished into Admiration their Persecutours themselves and which hath made men to resolve to lose voluntarily all that is sweet pleasing agreeable and most charming the flesh in this Life and to suffer all that which is most harsh and horrible for the hope of another Life after this This Power I say and this so wonderfull Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine in the Professours of it is a Proof and an invincible Argument of the Divinity of it and that it cannot be a Fiction or Invention of man's brain And so consequently that since this Doctrine is no where else Originally to be found then in the Writings of the Old and New Teftament it must needs be that these first Pen-men have received it from God who hath revealed it to men to teach and publish it to other men that it might induce them to that Holiness Uprightness and Integrity of Life to that Patience and Forbearance Humility and incomparable Goodness which it hath caused in those men who have received it and thereby bring them to the fruition of that Eternal Life and Felicity which it promiseth And if it hath not alwaies and at all times and most especially at this day produced these so admirable Effects in all those that make Profession of it it is not for any defect that is in the Doctrine but it is the fault of those that make Profession of it who have not that true Faith and Perswasion which they profess to have But nevertheless there will alwaies be found amongst true Christians more Holiness Justice Uprightness Righteousness and Integrity of Life more Humility Patience Courage Virtue and Constancy more true Piety and Charity then in any other Religion in the World and then can ever be found amongst those that teach and follow Atheism which we oppose whose Profession is quite contrary to this and hath no other end then to carry men to all kinds of Vice Filthiness Dissolution and Injustice These Proofs and Arguments of the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures might be enlarged and amplified many others might be here added great Volumes might be writ on this Subject and it may be that some after us will undertake this task But this sufficeth for our purpose and it is enough to shut the mouth of the Profane that is to reduce them to say nought but fooleries and impertinencies and to shew themselves altogether ridiculous and absurd in disputing against so many invincible Arguments of the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures Now as to those that call themselves the Church and who upon this account do pretend that we cannot nor ought not to give credit to the Scripture but because they give it this Testimony That it is Divine If they will be believed they must necessarily do two things First They must shew that all the fore-going Arguments are invalid and of no moment and are in no wise capable to perswade to any man the Divinity of the Scriptures yea they must even say That there is nothing at all in the Scriptures which is able to make us to discern the Divinity and Truth of them Secondly They must shew that as for their part they have in themselves Reasons Proofs and Arguments much stronger clearer and evident more demonstrative and uncontroulable to evince that they are more Divine and Infallible then the Scriptures and that therefore they ought rather to be believed in whatsoever they say then any thing that is taught in these Books as being in themselves incomparably more Infallible and Divine then this Volume of Holy Writ which is contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament Now I suppose that they would not undertake to demonstrate these two things and if they would come to the triall of it they should finde themselves very busie and their Proofs would be found invalid their Arguments and Reasonings very weak yea none at all For although they had confuted these Reasons which we have here mentioned where will they finde any stronger or more invincible to prove that they are more Divine then the Holy Scriptures For for them to force men to believe them upon their bare word without any reason shew'd why we should believe them that they are Infallible it is to deal too injustly and too unworthily to abuse the patience and credulity of men And to say as they do That we ought to believe them to be Infallible because our Lord hath said to St. Peter I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven grant even this which we deny them that the sense of these words was such as they would have it to be yet it is alwaies to acknowledge by this that we are perswaded of the Divinity of the Scriptures where these words are found before we can ever be certain of the Infallibility of those to whom they pretend these words are directed And therefore the belief which we have of the Divinity of the Scriptures is not grounded upon the Testimony of those to whom they would have us believe the Scripture renders in the fore-cited words so clear and solemn testimony of Infallibility It is therefore an ill-grounded and vain presumption in them to say That the Scripture can have no more credit with us then Aesop's Fables or Mahomet's Alcoran if it were not for the Testimony they give that it is Divine since that they themselves draw from it and from its Testimony as they do pretend all the Infallibility they so much boast of But let this be said onely by the by for the maintaining more strongly the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures against the Atheists which those men by such an Assertion do wholly subvert and thereby expose at unawares the Christian Religion to the profane mockings of the Atheists who will ask these Gentlemen with reason enough that they demonstrate to them by good and solid Reasons and concluding Arguments their pretended Infallibility which ought to oblige all the World to believe the Testimony they render to the Scripture That it is Divine and that therefore all that is therein contained and taught ought to be certainly believed as a most firm Truth And let
them that give them so much credit as to build their Faith upon their bare word acknowledge that this is no better then to bring themselves insensibly to direct Atheism CHAP. XV. Wherein is contained a Confutation of the Atheists Arguments WE must now examine the Reasons of these persons to see whether they can out-ballance those which we have alleadged against them And in this we are forced to be brief For seeing that we are not God be thanked bred in the Schole of such people and having no converse with them and they not putting to light their Arguments in their defence either for shame or for fear or cowardliness unworthy that greatness of Wit and Parts which they boast to have above all men whom they count in this point worse then children or rather because they are conscious of their own weakness I cannot divine their thoughts nor what these pretended strong Reasons should be upon which they ground themselves And I am forced to mention onely three which some may use in their own defence and which may come in many mens thoughts The First is taken from the Eternity of the World which they think must needs have existed from everlasting because there is not any thing that can be produced out of Nothing and cannot as they think return into Nothing according to the saying of some one of their Masters Ex nihilo nihil in nihilum nil posse redire The Second That there are so many Exorbitances in Nature as the Monsters so many Disorders in it so many things of no Use and against Reason either in the Constitutions of the Bodies of Plants and Animals or in the disposition of the World and of the Earth as great Rocks in a fair Meadow or in a fertile Field or the Rain falling unprofitably upon the Sea upon the Sands of Lybia and upon the Rocks and a thousand like things So that it seems that these things do not proceed from some wise Providence that hath so disposed of them but from the Fate and Hazard that hath ordered them so at an adventure There are so many Evils Disasters Mishaps which befall those that do less deserve it so much Good and Prosperity which happeneth to those that do better deserve all manner of supplices so much VVickedness which remains unpunished All which could not come to pass if the VVorld was guided by a Providence And Finally That there are in all the Religions of the World so many strange and absurd Opinions and practises so contrary to right Reason and to true VVisdom that we must acknowledge they are not grounded in the truth Of all which absurdities the Atheism as they say is free As to the First of these Arguments which is the chiefest they have If the Deity had a limited power strength and power as the strength and power of Nature is then they would have reason to say that there is not any thing which can be made of Nothing there being an infinite distance between meer Nothing and that which Is. And therefore Naturally Nothing can be produced out of Nothing and so it is that in all the productions of Nature there is alway some certain matter which is the Subject of it and from the power of which all those Forms which we see to succeed one to the other are educed But God being necessarily Infinite is it any waies against Reason yea is not it very agreeable to Reason that by his Virtue and Power which is Infinite and without any limits he should create out of Nothing Something that may replenish this Vacuum or Infinite distance which is between being Something and Nothing The Effect of a Finite Power ought to be Finite but that of an Infinite one may and ought to be Infinite also Now the Production of the World is extracted out of Nothing by the Infinite Power of God I say that it is an Infinite Effect not in respect of its Subject which is Finite there being no body which can be actually Infinite but in regard of its Production and the means of it as it is a product from a meer Nothing which hath no Intrinsecal Cause or Virtue there being none such in Nothing but by an Extrinsecal virtue which is unlimited and such necessarily is God For God being without any beginning or ending otherwise he could not be God it must of necessity follow that to subsist of himself from all Eternity to all Eternity by an infinite space of time so as we can comprehend Eternity he hath in himselfe a Virtue and Power altogether Infinite and unlimited by which Power he hath been able to Create and in effect hath Created out of Nothing this World which although it is very great and in a manner infinite in respect of us is nevertheless very small and less then a point in respect of God who in respect of the extent of Places and Spaces is also Infinite as he is in respect of Time and Duration Not that there can be attributed to God to speak properly any Time or Place for in Time and Place there is pars extra partem and prius posterius whereas in the Eternity of God there is no prius posterius Neither in his Immensity is there pars extra partem for he hath no Extension as Bodies have for there is no Quantity in God But because we are corporeal and do reason by the help of corporeal senses we do conceive the Eternity and Immensity of God under that which we call Time and Place as if Eternity was an Infinite Time and Immensity a Place and Space Infinite though Reason in effect doth judge that there cannot be any Place or Time actually Infinite God then being of necessity actually Infinite and his Power also Infinite and since the World cannot have existed from all Eternity as we have heretofore demonstrated it must needs follow That it hath been Created by him out of Nothing and there is no Reason to wonder at this since his Power is Infinite So we have laid their stout Achilles down There are some Christian Philosophers that dare not say That the World is from all Eternity because the Scripture doth expresly signifie to us its Beginning and Creation but they hold nevertheless that the World could have been created by God from all Eternity if it had pleased him so to do because an Effect may be of the same standing with its Cause as the Light is as ancient as the Sun and the print of ones foot on the sand may be as old as the foot which stamped it But the Arguments by which we have evidenced That the World is not Eternal do absolutely convince us of this Truth and consequently that it was not Created ab aterno And the Reason Why God cannot have created the World ab aeterno is not for any want of Power to do this but because such an Effect cannot be nor cannot have had anexistence without a Beginning And God being as