only comes weak and helpless into the world; whereas 'tis apparent that, excepting fish and insects (and not all of them neither), there are very few or no creatures that can provide for themselves at first without the assistance of parents. So that, unless they suppose mother earth to be a great animal, and to have nurtured up her young offspring with a conscious tenderness and providential care, there is no possible help for it but they must have been doubly starved both with hunger and cold. (6.) But, sixthly, we will be yet more civil to this Atheist, and forgive him this difficulty also. Let us suppose the first animals maintained themselves with food, though we cannot tell how. But then, what security hath he made for the preservation of human race from the jaws of ravenous beasts? The divine writers* have acquainted us, that God at the beginning gave mankind dominion (an impressed awe and authority) over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. But in the Atheist's hypothesis there are no imaginable means of defence; for 'tis manifest, that so many beasts of prey, lions, tigers, wolves, and the like, being of the same age with man, and arriving at the top of their strength in one year or two, must needs have worried and devoured those forlorn brats of our Atheist's, even before they were weaned from the foramina terræ, or at least in a short time after; since all the carnivorous animals should have multiplied exceedingly, by several generations, before those children that escaped at first could come to the age of puberty. So that men would always lessen, and their enemies always increase. But some of them will here pretend, that Epicurus was out in this matter; and that they were not born mere infants out of those wombs of the earth, but men at their full growth, and in the prime of their strength. But, I pray, what should Lucret. lib. v. [809.-D.] [* writers; 1st ed. "writings."-D.] hinder those grown lusty infants from breaking sooner those membranes that involved them; as the shell of the egg broken by the bird, and the amnion* by the fœtus? Were the membranes so thick and tough, that the fœtus must stay there till he had teeth to eat through them, as young maggots do through a gall? But let us answer these fools according to their folly. Let us grant, that they were born with beards, and in the full time of manhood. They are not yet in at better condition; here are still many enemies against few, many species against one; and those enemies speedily multiplying in the second and third and much lower generations; whereas the sons of the first men must have a tedious time of childhood and adolescence, before they can either themselves assist their parents, or encourage them with new hopes of posterity. And we must consider withal, that (in the notion of Atheism) those savages were not then what civilised mankind is now, but mutum et turpe pecus, without language, without mutual society, without arms of offence, without houses or fortifications, an obvious and exposed prey to the ravage of devouring beasts; a most sorry and miserable plantation towards the peopling of a world. And now that I have followed the Atheists through so many dark mazes of error and extravagance, having, to my knowledge, omitted nothing on their side that looks like a difficulty, nor proposed any thing in reply but what I myself really believe to be a just and solid answer; I shall here close up the apostle's argument of the existence of God from the consideration of human nature. And I appeal to all sober and impartial judges of what hath been delivered, whether those noble faculties of our souls may be only a mere sound and echo from the clashing of senseless atoms, or rather indubitably must proceed from a spiritual substance of a heavenly and divine extraction? whether these admirable fabrics of our bodies shall be ascribed to the fatal mo [* amnion; 1st ed. " amnios."-D.] [ta; 1st ed. " any."-D.] tions or fortuitous shufflings of blind matter; or rather, beyond controversy, to the wisdom and contrivance of the almighty Author of all things, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working ?s To whom, &c. * Isaiah, xxviii. 29. A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM FROM THE ORIGIN AND FRAME OF THE WORLD. PART I. SERMON VI. Preached October the 3d, 1692. Acts, xiv. 15, &c. That ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. ALL the arguments that can be brought, or can be demanded, for the existence of God, may, perhaps not absurdly, be reduced to three general heads; the first of which will include all the proofs from the vital and intelligent portions of the universe, the organical bodies of the various animals, and the immaterial souls of men. Which living and understanding substances, as they make incomparably the most considerable and noble part of the naturally known and visible creation, so they do the most clearly and cogently demonstrate to philosophical inquirers the necessary self-existence, and omnipotent power, and unsearchable wisdom, and boundless beneficence of their Maker. This first topic, therefore, was very fitly and divinely made use of by our apostle in his conference with philosophers and that inquisitive people of Athens; the latter spending their time in nothing else, but either to tell or hear some new thing;a and the other in nothing butt to call in question the most evident truths that were delivered and received of old. And these arguments we have hitherto pursued in their utmost latitude and extent. So that now we shall proceed to the second head, or the proofs of a Deity from the inanimate part of the world; since‡ even natural reason, as well as§ holy Scripture, assures us, that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy-work; that he made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding; that he commanded, and they were created; he hath also established them for ever and ever; he covereth the heavens with clouds, he prepareth rain for the earth, he crowneth the year with his goodness.f с These reasons for God's existence, from the frame and system of the world, as they are equally true with the former, so they have always been more popular and plausible to the illiterate part of mankind; insomuch as the Epicureans, and some others, have observed, that men's con Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. [cap. 38. ed. Dav.-D.] Quis hunc hominem dixerit, qui cum tam certos cœli motus, tam ratos astrorum ordines, &c. Plutarch. de Plac. Phil. i. 6. [Mor. t. iv. p. 361. ed. Wyttenb.-D.] coû yàp evvoιav čoxov ἀπὸ τῶν φαινομένων ἀστέρων, ὁρῶντες τούτους μεγάλης συμφωνίας ὄντας αἰτίους, καὶ τεταγμένας ἡμέραν τε καὶ νύκτα, χειμῶνά τε καὶ θέρος, ἀνατολάς τε καὶ δυσμάς. |