A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM

FROM THE

STRUCTURE AND ORIGIN OF HUMAN BODIES.

PART I.

SERMON III.

Preached May the 2d, 1692.

ACTS xvii. 27, 28.

That they should feek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him; though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being.

I HAVE faid enough in my last to shew the fitness and pertinency of the Apostle's discourse to the perfons he addreffed to; whereby it fufficiently appears that he was no babbler, as fome of the Athenian rabble reproached him; not a σπερμoλoyos, a bufy prating fellow; as in another language they fay, a fermones ferere and rumorés ferere, in a like mode of expreffion;

Plautus, Virgil. Livius.

that

that he did not talk at random, but was throughly acquainted with the feveral humours and opinions of his auditors. And, as Mofes was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, fo it is manifeft from this chapter alone, if nothing else had been now extant, that St. Paul was a great master in all the learning of the Greeks. One thing further I fhall obferve from the words of the text, before I enter upon the subject which I propofed; that it requires fome industry and confideration to find out the being of God; we muft feek the Lord, and feel after him, before we can find him by the light of nature. The search indeed is not very tedious nor difficult; he is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being. The confideration of our mind and understanding, which is an incorporeal substance independent from matter; and the contemplation of our own bodies, which have all the ftamps and characters of excellent contrivance; thefe alone, though we look upon nothing abroad, do very easily and proximately guide us to the wife Author of all things. But however, as we see in our text, fome thoughts and meditation are neceffary to it; and a man may poffibly be so stupid, or wilfully ignorant or perverse, as not to have God in all his thoughts, or to fay in his heart, There is none.

And

And this being obferved, we have an effectual answer to that cavil of the Atheists, who make it an objection against the being of God, that they do not discover him without any application, in spite of their corrupt wills and debauched understandings. If, say they, fuch a God, as we are told of, had created and formed us, furely he would have left upon our minds a native and indelible inscription of himself, whereby we must needs have felt him, even without feeking, and believed in him. whether we would or no. So that thefe Atheists, being conscious to themselves that they are void of fuch belief, which, they say, if God was, would actually and neceffarily be in them, do bring their own wicked doubting and denying of God as evidence against his existence; and make their very infidelity an argument for itself. To which we reply, that God hath endowed mankind with powers and abilities, which we call natural light, and reason, and common fenfe; by the due ufe of which we cannot mifs of the discovery of his being; and this is fufficient. But, as to that original notion and propofition, GOD IS, which the Atheist pretends should have been actually imprinted on us, antecedently to all use of our faculties; we may affirm, that the absence of such a notion doth not give the leaft prefumption against the truth of religion; because, though

God

God be fuppofed to be, yet that notion diftinct from our faculties would not be requifite; nor is it afferted by religion. First, it would not be requifite; because, without any fuch primitive impreffion, we can easily attain to the knowledge of the Deity by the fole use of our natural reafon. And again, fuch an impreffion would have rendered the belief of a God irrefiftible and neceffary, and thereby have bereaved it of all that is good and acceptable in it. For as the taking away the freedom of human will, and making us mere machines under fatal ties and impulfes, would destroy the very nature of moral virtue; fo likewise, as to faith, there would be nothing worthy of praise and recompense in it, if there were left no poffibility of doubting and denying. And Secondly, fuch a radical truth, GoD Is, fpringing up together with the effence of the foul, and previous to all other thoughts, is not afferted by religion. No fuch thing, that I know of, is affirmed or fuggested by the Scriptures. There are feveral topics there used against the atheism and idolatry of the Heathens; fuch as the visible marks of divine wisdom and goodness in the works of the creation, the vital union of fouls with matter, and the admirable structure of animate bodies, and the like: but, if our Apostle had afferted fuch an anticipating principle engraven upon

our

our fouls before all exercise of reason, what did he talk of Seeking the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him? fince, if the knowledge of him was in that manner innate and perpetual, there would be no occafion of feeking, nor any hap or hazard in the finding. Such an inscription would be felfevident without reasoning or study, and could not fail conftantly to exert its energy in their minds. What did he talk of the unknown God, and ignorantly worshipping? when, if fuch an original fignature were always inherent in their hearts, God could not be unknown to, or ignorantly worshipped by any. That primary propofition would have been clear, and distinct, and efficacious, and univerfal in the minds of men. St. Paul therefore, it appears, had no apprehension of such a first notion, nor made use of it for an argument; which (fince whofoever hath it, muft needs know that he hath it) if it be not believed before by the adverfary, is false; and, if it be believed, is fuperfluous; and is of fo frail and brittle a texture, that, whereas other arguments are not answered by bare denying without contrary proof, the mere doubting and disbelieving of this must be granted to be ipfo facto the breaking and confuting of it. Thus much therefore we have proved against the Atheists; that such an original irresistible notion is nei

ther