little Souls So that this acquaintance with the great God will greaten the Soul towards God but will diminish and lessen it towards a mans self and the World in our estimation thereof 2. We ought from hence also be led to a dependance upon him for he that made Heaven and Earth must needs be sufficient to help us in all cases whatsoever The Heathens are said to trust in a God that could not save Isa 45. 20. And the Reason is given because their gods did not make Heaven and Earth as we read vers 18. He that brought all things out of the Abyss of non-entity into Being can raise us out of the lowest depth of affliction and misery He that said Let there be Light and made the Darkness vanish before it is able to bring us out of the greatest darkness of trouble He that made the Waters retreat from covering the Earth can discharge us of the Waters of Sorrow and Affliction wherewith we sometimes seem to be covered or overwhelmed The Church of Israel comforts her self in such a prospect of God Psal 124. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth That is to say Our help is in one that is All-sufficient and upon whom we may safely depend One great cause of the Saints distrustful heart-fainting fears is the not considering this Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not Isa 40. 28. Why then doth Jacob faint in his distress And when we are afraid of Man it is because we forget the Lord our Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth Isa 51. 13. Did we well remember this it would strengthen our Faith and vanquish our Fears and make us able under the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and Deaths to commit our Souls to him as a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. For as in the Works of Creation we behold him a powerful Creator so in Christ Jesus and the Covenant made with us in him we may behold him also a faithful Creator and so be encouraged to depend upon him and commit our selves to him 3. Hereupon we ought to have an holy awe and fear of him As the considering God the Creatour of the World should dispel distrustful fear so it ought to beget an awful fear of him All appearances of God are tremendous to the Creature As when he appeared in Transient Visions to the Prophets it struck them with dread as we read of Daniel Chap. 10. And those Beams of Glory that shone forth in Christ's Transfiguration made the Disciples fear Matth. 17. 6. So verily his appearances in in the Works of Creation are wonderful and dreadful Aquin. 1. 2. q. 41. Art 4. Here we may first wonder and then fear as the Schoolmen have made Admiration one of the kinds of Fear Greatness and Majesty are apt to strike this Heart with Fear and both these are visibly written upon God's Creation What cannot he do either for a Man or against him that is the Maker of the World what is exceeding high hath a dread in it As in Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels it 's said Chap. 1. 18. As for their Rings they were so high that they were dreadful In the Creation of the World we behold the sublimity of God's Majesty and his Wisdom and Greatness in a Stupendious Elevation As Bildad tells Job Job 25. 2. speaking of God Dominion and Fear are with him These are joyned together as Cause and Effect And he shews Job this Dominion of God in the Works of his Creation He maketh peace in his high places All the Creatures of the upper World quietly subject to the Creator's Law And vers 3. Is there any number of his Armies c. which are the Hosts in Heaven and Earth as the Creatures are called Gen. 2. 1. Here is God's Dominion which should strike us with an holy awe of him The Heathen beholding these glorious Works of the Creation had thereby a fear of a Deity imprest upon their hearts which was the occasion of that Atheistical Speech of the Poet Primus in Orbe Deos fecit timor Fear â—irst made gods upon the Earth Yet this is a Truth the Works of God's Creation should strike our Hearts with a reverend Fear of the Creatour which the Psalmist exhorts men to Let all the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Oh how should the whole World stand in awe of such a Being Our very praises are to be mixt with fear He is therefore said to be fearful in praises Exod. 15. 11. For those Excellencies of his Works for which we praise him have such Impressions of his Glory and Power upon them that may make men fear while they are praising of them But because I would still make my Discourse to serve the Design of true Christianity I therefore add That this Fear ought not to be afrighting or meerly astonishing to enslave the Soul or drive Man into fond superstition as it did the Heathen but such as may suit a state of Sonship and may be proper to him that is not only our Creator but our Redeemer and Father in Christ Jesus And by that Principle of Grace we have received of him as our Redeemer to fear him as our Creatour Upon this account also we owe him Praise and Admiration 1. Praise It is the ultimate end of these Works of Creation that the Creator may be praised in them and it is the ultimate end of Man to give Glory and Praise to him After God had made and finished the rest of his Works he lastly made Man that he might have a Creature to contemplate the Works of his hands and praise him in them all and by him reduce all his Works back again to himself And without question Adam as soon as he had a Being and was placed in the Theatre of this World he saw the Creator in his Works and found in himself a Principle that naturally led him to adore and magnifie him And as this Principle is renewed in any Man and the Image of God restored to him so is he disposed to the performance of it How often do we find David's heart in a rapture of praise upon the contemplation of God's Workmanship in the Worlds Creation as we may find in Psal 8. 1. Psal 33. 6 7. Psal 104. 24. And when he calls upon irrational Creatures to praise their Creator as in Psal 148. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him all ye Stars of Light Praise him ye Heavens of Heavens and ye Waters that are above the Heavens And thence he comes down to this lower World vers 7. Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Dragons and all Deeps c. All this is but to quicken up his own heart to that Duty which was
Though the Orator define Liberty to be this Libertas est facultas vivendi ut velis Cicero Liberty is a power of living as a Man will Yet to be obedient to a corrupt Will is Bondage not Liberty True Liberty is not as one well speaks Sibi servire sed sibi imperare Not to serve a Mans self â—otherby Atheomasâ—ix p. 118. but to rule over himself So that in this they miss their end 2. They design to deliver themselves from fear But they are not able to accomplish this end neither For though in their Cups and Caresses they can discharge their fear Non quenquam vidi qui magis ea quae timenda non esse dixit magis timeret mortem dico Deos. yet let them fall under some sharp affliction or draw near the King of Terrours and their fears of God and Judgment will be ready to return upon 〈…〉 As Tully observed of Epicurus though he disputed against the Being of God and that Death ought not to be feared yet saith he I never observed any Man to fear more those very things which he said ought not to be feared namely Death and the Godds Now the Causes that Men are led into Atheism by are such as these 1. Is the Course and Efficacy of second Causes They observe how all things come to pass by some visible Causes which are either Natural or Voluntary In Natural Causes if the Cause be sufficient the Effect follows if not the Effect miscarries So that it is not a God say they that governs the Events of Nature but the Natural Cause doth all So in Voluntary Causes that depend upon the will of Man If it be a good thing that is designed and endeavoured yet it falls short if the Cause be not sufficient if it be a bad thing it comes to pass if there be sufficient means prepared for it But let me answer as I go along 1. Is it an Argument against the Being of God because there are second Causes Because inferiour Ministers are made use of in the Affairs of Government doth this prove thar there is no Supreme Governour May there not be second Causes and yet the concurrence of a first Cause also that doth steer and influence them in their Operations 2. And it is not alwayes that these second Causes how sufficient soever they may seem that they produce their end Sometimes Nature miscarries in her Productions and none can give a reason for it And so in Voluntary Causes The Race is not always to the swift nor the Battel to the strong nor Riches to Men of understanding as Solomon observes Though for the most part the second Cause doth accomplish the Effect according to to the Law and Ordinance God hath setled in the World yet sometimes it miscarries and fails that Men might not place their confidence there 3. Where the Effect miscarries through the Deficiency of second Causes those Deficiences are ordered and regulated by God as well as the Efficacy of Causes When God intends an Effect he will Order and Influence the second Cause so as to produce it where he intends otherwise he will so suspend or divert it that the Effect shall not succeed And under this Head I may take notice that the long cessation of Miracles may be some occasion of Atheism For Miracles are wrought above or against the course of second Causes and when Men see them they are then even forced to say as Pharaoh's Magicians Hic Digitus Dei Here is the Finger of God But when men for a long time together have observed that Nature keeps its course and things come to pass by the use of means they grow into an Opinion that all things are by Nature and that there is no Providence and so no God Object But why doth not God then in every Age work Miracles to convince the World of his Being Answ Because the ordinary course of Nature is sufficient to it if men did not shut up their eyes and refuse to see And God thinks it not meet to put Nature out of its ordinary course that he setled at the beginning unless on some extraordinary occasions and for some extraordinary end But is it not as wonderful in it self to see the Sun move in a constant Line from one end of the year to the other as to see it stand still And to see a watery Sap rising out of the Earth to be turned into Wine as to see Water in a Vessel turn'd into Wine as it was in the Miracle of Christ wrought at Cana John 2. 3. Or to see Bread brought of the Earth as to have it rained down from Heaven as it was upon Israel in the Wilderness 2. Another cause is Guilt in the Conscience Though it is not an immediate yet it is a remote cause of Atheism For Guilt working in the Conscience is an immediate proof of a Deity and Judgment to come but it proves a remote cause of Atheism For it makes men wish there was no God and so are thereby the more disposed to believe there is none For the old Proverb is Quod valdè volumus facilè credimus What a Man earnestly desires might not be he is inclinable to believe it not to be And hereupon are ready to extinguish those innate Notions of a Deity that are within themselves or such as may be gathered from without and to comply with any suggestions to that end that may be administred either by Satan their own corrupt Hearts or prophane Men. Guilt begets Fear Fear begets Torment this Torment doth disquiet Mens Peace and much allayes the pleasure of Sin That they may therefore provide a Remedy for themselves they are willing enough to believe there is no God As Moralists tells us of an Ignorance that is Ignorantia pravae Dispositionis of a wicked Disposition Such is that when men seek to darken that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which they may be Nature know of God that they may sin with the greater freedom and peace But this is just as if a Man to prevent a Danger should hood-wink himself that he might not see it It 's true if there was no Remedy provided Man of God against this Guilt and fear arising out of it this might seem to be a rational course but seeing there is a Remedy provided it is Man's Wisdom to seek after it whereby to have his fear and his Danger also removed together 3. A third Cause is The strange administration of things in the World Men cannot see Justice Goodness or Wisdom manifested therein But it often falls out to the Wicked according to the Work of the Righteous and to the Righteous according to the Work of the Wicked as Solomon speaks Hence Men conclude there is no Government of the World and if so then no God Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet Cato parvo Pompeius nullo Quis putet esse Deos As those said that were of Pompey's Faction in Rome Base Licinus
Triâ—megist If Idolaters be charged with brutishness that worshipped false gods Jer. 10. 14 18. how much more the Atheist that denies a God And if the Apostle saith of them that their foolish heart was darkened when they debased him in their vain Rites and Modes of Worship Rom. 1. 18. how much more are such dark'ned with folly that deny his Being Though Hell be the Seat of perfect Wickedness yet this Speculative Atheism is not to be found there The Devils themselves believe and tremble And what a monstrous thing then is it that it should be found upon Earth And especially in that part of the Earth where Men have not only the Book of Nature but the written Word of the God of Nature as a Comment upon the works of it for men to think it an height of Wit to be able to dispute against a Deity and a piece of Gallantry to live above the fear of it Men that are rational enough in other things yet in this their Reasons are strangely blinded which shews the strange degeneracy of their Souls in things that concern another World while they are ripe and pregnant enough in things that concern this World For did Men exert their Reason in those things as they can and do in these it would conclude nothing more strongly than that God is It is the proper Office of Reason to argue from the Effect to the Cause why should it not then argue when it beholds the wonderful Works of this Creation these must needs proceed from some Infinite Cause and thereby be led up to the Being of God As when a man seeth a Tree that is extended into Boughs and Branches his thoughts are naturally led to some Root out of which it springs and so when he seeeth a River his thoughts will lead him to some Spring out of which it ariseth why then should we not when we see this visible World have our thoughts as it were naturally led up to a first Being God hath sufficiently by his Works of Creation evidenced to Mankind his Being that they might seek after him And therefore there will be no room left for any such plea in the day of Judgment for any people whatsoever in any part of the world If we had known there had been a God we would have sought him served and worshipped him Doth Man plead I never saw his Being Will we believe nothing but what our eyes see We never saw those Souls that dwell within us shall we therefore not believe we have Souls do not their operations sufficiently evidence their Being in us Nay we do not see the Air in which we breath and yet no Man denies but there is Air. And doth not the Text tell us of the invisible things of God and therefore not to be seen Or will Man plead he was not present when God made this World how shall he then know that he made it If we see an House erected according to the Rules of Art shall we not believe it is the work of some skilful Artificer though we did not stand by and see him build it But of these profest Atheists we have not many instances we read in Ancient Writers of such as Protagoras Diagoras Theodorus c. who denyed or disputed all Deity whom I find quoted and confuted by learned Bradwardine as they were before condemned by the Athenians Brad. lib. 1. Coral 1. pars secund and indeed such were exploded by the Heathen And those that were so yet were not constantly so as to maintain this Opinion to the end In mens serious and retired thoughts especially if they be under some smart affliction the Belief and Sence of a Deity returns upon them Nullus eorum in hac Opinione quod Dii non sunt ab adolescentiâ ad senectutem perseveravit Plato 1. 10. de legibus As a motion that is against Nature will some time or other recur And therefore the Philosopher said that no Man persevered in this Opinion from Youth to Old Age. Nature cannot utterly forget her first and fundamental Lesson that God is and that first Verity that is so deeply rooted in Nature that it cannot be totally blotted out Licet enim noster animus multis inquinamentis abducatur à suo naturali proposito frequens tamen illud recurrit ut exprimat innatos veritatis igniculos Pamel Adnot in Tertul. C. 17. Apo. As that Renowned Carver did grave his own Image into the Buckler of Pallas with such singular Art and Cunning that it could not be removed without defacing the whole Work For the Soul being from Divine Inspiration God hath put the Character of himself upon it which cannot be utterly defaced while its Being continues And therefore the Opinion that denies a Deity is rather a Frolick a Fancy a Dream than a grounded Opinion And when the Soul of Man is itself and converseth with it self and beholdeth the Legible Characters of God's Being written upon this whole Creation such Opinion vanisheth away But yet we find many have this sence of a Deity very weak and the Notion of it very dark in their Souls and many staggerings in their minds about it And not only amongst Heathens but even amongst themselves where the Gospel is profest and preached Yea we find in many that live under the Gospel less sence of a Deity upon their hearts than amongst the most barbarous Nations of the World But of all others these are the most monstrous who study to make themselves Atheists who set their wits on work to frame Arguments against a Deity And they do it to deliver themselves from Service and from Fear 1. From Service that they might be free from the Yoke of serving God for if they own a Deity their Reason tells them they ought to give him Worship and Service and this they account a Yoke and Burthen As those said in Malachi 1. ver 13. Behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it They think they cannot be perfect free men till they have freed themselves from all Belief and Sence of a Deity Aug. de verâ Relig C. 36. To. 1. As Austin to this purpose Quidam propterea putant nihil colendum esse ne serviant Some think no Deity is to be worshipped that they might not serve And Lucretius boasts of Epicurus that he was the first that delivered the World from the burden of Religion Humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione Primum Graius homo mortales tollere contra Est oculos ausus c. But are not these Men much mistaken when they have cast off the Service of God Deo parere libertas est Sen. de vita beata which is the true Liberty of Man are they not given up to the Service of base Lusts which is true Bondage And made Drudges to the God of this World who will not be the servants of the true God
hath no need of them neither with respect to any Homage and Service to be performed to the Angels for it owes no such thing to them and therefore it must be with respect to some other end And he that denyes the Being of God cannot imagine to what end the Soul should continue for ever But because there is a God who is an Eternal Being therefore are there Creatures made by him that are of an Eternal duration that in them he might have glory for ever Now that the Soul is Immortal appears Because in the Creation of the World there is distinction made in the Creatures Those that were to have Corruptible Natures were formed out of Corruptible Matter but those that were to abide for ever were by Immediate Creation as Angels as also the Souls of Men of which it is said God breathed into Man the breath of Life and he became a living Soul Which the Prophet Malachy refers to in chap. 2. 15. And did he not make One yet had he the Residue of the Spirit which shews the Divine Original of the Soul proceeding immediately from the Divine Spirit Was the Soul of Man Mortal and Corruptible God could and would have educed it out of those Sensitive Spirits that were Concreated with the Chaos as he did the Souls of Beasts Fishes and the Fowls of the Air but because he did immediately breathe it into Man it shews that it is of a different Nature from them and doth not as they do return to Corruption But to Demonstrate this from Reason as well as from Scripture which it may be supposed an Atheist will deny 1. It is Irrational to conceive that there should never be a respect given to Virtue more than Vice to Righteousness than Unrighteousness Seeing it is written in every Mans Nature that the one is better then the other Now in this Life we see it not there is one event to the Righteous and the Wicked And even in the Deaths of Men it is not visible neither For how dieth the wise Man as the Fool as Solomon speaks And therefore it must be after Death was the Soul Mortal wickedness would escape the hands of Justice and Holiness would never meet with the rewards of Grace Seeing God made the World he also necessarily must Govern it if he Govern it it is in Wisdom and Righteousness If so there must be different rewards to the Evil and the Good And therefore the Souls of Men necessarily must survive to receive those rewards 2. God hath made but two sorts of Intelligent Creatures in the Universe Angels and Men And these are more immediately made for the Glory of their Creator who as he is the King Eternal and Immortal so the Glory that is suitable to him must be Eternal and Immortal which he cannot have but from Immortal Creatures that live for ever whether it be the Glory of Mercy or of Justice And as he hath the Glory of both in the Angels some always beholding the Face of God and the others that fell cast down to Hell and delivered into chains of Darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4. So will he have the same of Men the one in those that are saved and in them that perish the other And this could not be did not the Souls of Men abide for ever 3. Whence is it that the Souls of Men have respect to a future state which no other Creatures have Some have respect to it with fear and terrour some with hope and joyfulness And however some Men that are wholly immerst in a Life of Sensuality concern themselves little about it yet when they come to leave this World they cannot but have some thoughts concerning it and then though it may be too late will be making some provision for it And if we look to the Heathen Nations that had only the Light of Nature to see by we shall find they had all some rude Notions of a future State Hence were their Notions of Olympus Elysium or a state of Happiness of their Pluto Proserpina Rhadamanthus Cerberus Styx and their Dirae or Canes Stygiae which shew'd the Notions they had in their Souls of a State of Misery after Death And the Poets fictions of Tantalus Sisiphus Ixion and others that were suffering Torments of several kinds in Hell which shews they had some apprehensions of the Souls survival after it leaves the Body And as Tertullian argues against the Heathen Imo cur in totum times mortem si nihil est tibi timendum post mortem nec experiendum post mortem c. Tertul. Test animae p. 88. If there was no survival of the Soul what need Men to fear Death You may say because it cuts Men off from the Commodities and Comforts of Life But it delivers Men from all the Sorrows and Troubles of Life which usually exceed the other And therefore for it self it ought not to be feared And when Men fear it it is an Argument of some state of Misery after it Object But these were but some confused Notions and uncertain Conjectures and so prove nothing Answ Since the Fall of Man all those innate Notions of Knowledge and Principles of Righteousness that were Concreated with the Soul are disordered and darkned and amongst the rest that Knowledge the Soul had of it self and its own Immortality But those that yet remain though Confused and Imperfect do shew the prints and foot-steps of what it once more perfectly was possessed of As the Ruins of some Ancient stately Edifice do darkly shew that there hath been formerly such a stately structure in Being When meer Nature did lead the Heathen to such though very rude Conceptions of the future State of the Soul it hath a strong Argument in it for such a State And those Natural Principles and Characters in the Soul that the Gospel doth Confirm and clear up to us to be sure were Originally placed there by God himself As it s of the Immortality is one which we find the Gospel doth give abundant Light and Testimony to And so it may be an Argument to us that have the Gospel though not to the Heathen that had it not Object But these apprehensions that the Heathen had of the future State of the Soul were at first devised for Political ends to keep people the better under Government Answ 1. Those Heathen that lived under no Government had such apprehensions And 2. Such Political devices would have had but little Influence to such an end was there not a Natural though but a confused Notion of such a state radically in the Hearts of Men For no Man came from the dead so as to tell the World of the state of separate Souls and therefore for Men to have generally some respect to a future state it shews there is a Natural and Connate notice thereof in the Souls of Men. Neither is it an Argument to be slighted whereby some have proved the Souls Immortality from Mens Natural desire to