Chapter 84

CHAP. III.ThatGod’s Works are manifest to all: Whence the Unreasonableness of Infidelity.

ThatGod’s Works are manifest to all: Whence the Unreasonableness of Infidelity.

The concluding Words of the preceding Chapter suggests a third Inference, that the Works of GOD are so visible to all the World, and withal such manifest Indications of the Being, and Attributes of the infinite Creator, that they plainly argue the Vileness and Perversness of the Atheist, and leave him inexcusable. For it is a sign a Man is a wilful, perverse Atheist, that will impute so glorious a Work, as the Creation is, to any Thing, yea, a mereNothing(as Chance is) rather than toGOD[a]. ’Tis a sign the Man is wilfully blind,that he is under the Power of the Devil, under the Government of Prejudice, Lust, and Passion, not right Reason, that will not discern whatevery one can see, what every Man may behold afar off, even the Existence and Attributes of theCREATORfrom his Works. For asthere is no Speech or Language where their Voice is not heard, their Line is gone out through all the Earth, and their Words to the End of the World: So all, even the barbarous Nations, that never heard of GOD, have from these his Works inferred the Existence of a Deity, and paid their Homages to some Deity, although they have been under great Mistakes in their Notions and Conclusions about him. But however, this shews how naturally and universally all Mankind agree, in deducing their Belief of a God from the Contemplation of his Works, or as evenEpicurushimself, inTully[b]saith, froma Notion that Nature it self hath imprinted upon the Minds of Men. For, saith he,what Nation is there, or what kind of Men, that without any Teaching or Instructions, have not a kind of Anticipation, or preconceived Notion of a Deity?

An Atheist therefore (if ever there was any such) may justly be esteemed a Monster among rational Beings; a Thing hard to be met with inthe whole Tribe of Mankind; an Opposer of all the World[c]; a Rebel against human Nature and Reason, as well as against hisGOD.

But above all, monstrous is this, or would be, in such as have heard ofGOD, who have had the Benefit of the clear Gospel-Revelation. And still more monstrous this would be, in one born and baptized in the Christian Church, that hath studied Nature, and pried farther than others into God’s Works. For such an one (if it be possible for such to be) to deny the Existence, or any of the Attributes ofGOD, would be a great Argument of the infinite Inconvenience of those Sins of Intemperance, Lust, and Riot, that have made the Man abandon his Reason, his Senses, yea, I had almost said his very human Nature[d], to engage him thus to deny the Being ofGOD.

So also it is much the same monstrous Infidelity, at least betrays the same atheistical Mind, to denyGOD’s Providence, Care and Government of the World, or (which is a Spawn of the sameEpicurean Principles) to denyFinal Causes[e]in God’s Works of Creation; or with the Profane inPsal.lxxiii. 11. to say,How doth God know?And is there Knowledge in the most High?For as the witty and eloquentSalviansaith[f],They that affirm nothing is seen byGOD, will,in all Probability, take away the Substance, as well as Sight of God.——But what so great Madness, saith he,as that when a Man doth not denyGODto be the Creator of all Things, he should deny him to be the Governour of them? Or when he confesseth him to be the Maker, he should say,GODneglecteth what he hath so made?

FOOTNOTES:[a]Galenhaving taken notice of the neat Distribution of the Nerves to theMuscles, and other Parts of the Face, cries out,Hæc enim fortunæ sunt opera! Cæterùm tum omnibus[partibus]immitti, tantosque esse singulos [nervos] magnitudine, quanta particulæ erat necesse; haud scio an hominum sit sobriorum ad Fortunam opisicem id revocare. Alioqui quid tandem erit, quod cum Providentiâ & Arte efficitur? Omnino enim hoc ei contrarium esse debet, quod Casu ac Fortuitò fit. And afterwards,Hæc quidem atque ejusmodi Artis scil. ac Sapientiæ opera esse dicemus, si modò Fortunæ tribuenda sunt quæ sunt contraria; fietque jam quod in proverbiis——Fluvii sursum fluent; si opera quæ nullum habent neque ornamentum neque rationem, neque modum Artis esse; contraria verò Fortunæ duxerimus,&c.Galen. ubi supra. L. 11. c. 7.[b]Primùm esse Deos, quod in omnium animis,&c.And a little after,Cùm enim non instituto aliquo, aut more, aut lege sit opinio constituta, maneatque ad unum omnium firma consensio, intelligi necesse est, esse Deos, quoniam insitas eorum vel potiùs innatas cognitiones habemus. De quo autem omnium Natura consentit, id verum esse necesse est. Esse igitur Deos confitendum est.Cicer. de Nat. Deor. L. 1. c. 16. 17.[c]The Atheist in denying a God, doth, asPlutarchsaith, endeavour——immobilia movere, & bellum inferre non tantùm longo tempori, sed & multis hominibus, gentibus, & familiis, quas religiosus Deorum cultus, quasi divino furore correptas, tenuit.Plutar. de Iside.[d]See beforeNote (b).[e]Galenhaving substantially refuted theEpicureanPrinciples ofAsclepiades, by shewing his Ignorance in Anatomy and Philosophy, and by Demonstrating all theCausesto be evidently in the Works ofNature, viz.Final,Efficient,Instrumental,MaterialandFormal Causes, concludes thus against his fortuitous Atoms,ex quibus intelligi potest: Conditorem nostrum in formandis particulis unum hunc sequi scopum, nempe ut quod melius est eligat.Galen. de Us. Part. L. 6. c. 13.[f]De Gubern. Dei.L. 4. p. 124.meo Libro; also L. 7. c. 14.

[a]Galenhaving taken notice of the neat Distribution of the Nerves to theMuscles, and other Parts of the Face, cries out,Hæc enim fortunæ sunt opera! Cæterùm tum omnibus[partibus]immitti, tantosque esse singulos [nervos] magnitudine, quanta particulæ erat necesse; haud scio an hominum sit sobriorum ad Fortunam opisicem id revocare. Alioqui quid tandem erit, quod cum Providentiâ & Arte efficitur? Omnino enim hoc ei contrarium esse debet, quod Casu ac Fortuitò fit. And afterwards,Hæc quidem atque ejusmodi Artis scil. ac Sapientiæ opera esse dicemus, si modò Fortunæ tribuenda sunt quæ sunt contraria; fietque jam quod in proverbiis——Fluvii sursum fluent; si opera quæ nullum habent neque ornamentum neque rationem, neque modum Artis esse; contraria verò Fortunæ duxerimus,&c.Galen. ubi supra. L. 11. c. 7.

[b]Primùm esse Deos, quod in omnium animis,&c.And a little after,Cùm enim non instituto aliquo, aut more, aut lege sit opinio constituta, maneatque ad unum omnium firma consensio, intelligi necesse est, esse Deos, quoniam insitas eorum vel potiùs innatas cognitiones habemus. De quo autem omnium Natura consentit, id verum esse necesse est. Esse igitur Deos confitendum est.Cicer. de Nat. Deor. L. 1. c. 16. 17.

[c]The Atheist in denying a God, doth, asPlutarchsaith, endeavour——immobilia movere, & bellum inferre non tantùm longo tempori, sed & multis hominibus, gentibus, & familiis, quas religiosus Deorum cultus, quasi divino furore correptas, tenuit.Plutar. de Iside.

[d]See beforeNote (b).

[e]Galenhaving substantially refuted theEpicureanPrinciples ofAsclepiades, by shewing his Ignorance in Anatomy and Philosophy, and by Demonstrating all theCausesto be evidently in the Works ofNature, viz.Final,Efficient,Instrumental,MaterialandFormal Causes, concludes thus against his fortuitous Atoms,ex quibus intelligi potest: Conditorem nostrum in formandis particulis unum hunc sequi scopum, nempe ut quod melius est eligat.Galen. de Us. Part. L. 6. c. 13.

[f]De Gubern. Dei.L. 4. p. 124.meo Libro; also L. 7. c. 14.

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