IT is not because there have been none , or so few , who have busied their Brains and Pens about this Subject of Gods Existence , or that they had managed their Arguments so faintly , and unwieldily , as that they stood in need of my weak support , which made me first enter the Lists with the Atheist , and launch my small Boat into this vast and deep Ocean : But indeed the true reason of it , was , that having Meditated the ensuing Discourse , I found my self necessitated to lay such a Foundation for it , as might prop and sustain the Superstructure , to wit , The Existence of a Deity ; which unless proved , or believed , the whole Fabrick must of necessity fall , and be buried in its own Ruins .

It is well enough known how many whole Books ( not to say Volumes ) are dispersed up and down the World against Atheism ; besides as if these were not enough , and the Controversy should still remain undecided , almost every Sermon speaks the Minister afraid of it : And indeed in my judgment , it were well , if much of what hath heretofore been written of this nature , or spoken from the Pulpit , had proved Abortive or been stifled in the same Womb that first produced it . For in the Primitive times of Christianity , Antiqua Sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda , & vitanda praetepit : & tunc melioreserant viri . Postquam docti prodierunt , boni desunt . Simplex enim illa & aperta virtus in obscuram & solertem sciontiam versa est , docemurque disputare , non viavere . Senec. ad Lucilium . when the Precepts extended only to what was to be done , and what to be avoided , Men were more purely and simply Religious , and every where better Christians ; but after that learning and subtile enquiring into critical things , had gotten the upper hand of simple and bare-faced Vertue , we became indeed more cunning Disputants , but less pious Men. The Writings of Moses are by all acknowledged to be the most Ancient in the World , and though the very design of them were to prescribe Doctrines and Rules for Religion , yet there is nothing found in them by way of proof or perswasion , concerning the Existence of God ; but it is a thing taken for granted , as being universally acknowledged and believed ; yea even in the most blind and superstitious Age of Greece , when A theism was first heard of in the World , ( being introduced by the Obscene Poets , who debauched the minds of the People , to believe such monstrous things of their Gods ) the Authors of it became a derision to all intelligent Men , and were stigmatized with the blackest marks of Infamy ; nay they banished one of their Philosophers ( Diagoras ) because he began a Book with such words as these , As touching the Gods , whether there be any I know not , &c. But alass ! we live now in such a curious and inquisitive Age , when nothing but what is gross enough to be discovered by our Senses , and what looks as certain as Mathematical Demonstrations , will be received , and believed by us . We are grown as great Scepticks in Divinity , as we are in Philosophy , and I am verily perswaded that the great reason of it is owing to those many nice Controversies and Disputes , which have been raised about it . And I cannot be induced to believe otherwise , but that those very Arguments which have been made use of to confute one Atheist , have made twenty ; for the less curious and examining ( which certainly are far the greater number ) seeing learned persons start so many difficulties , and spend so much time and labour in the Argumentative part to convince , do from thence conclude that the thing is at least dubious ; and then being willing to have it so , that they may go on uncontroul'd in their Luxuries and Sensualities , without any further Scrutiny will easily incline to believe that it is as they wish . * * Quis volumus , facile credimus . But hath God left himself without Witness ? Doth not the whole Frame and Compages of the World , it 's Creation , and Conservation , sufficiently evidence his Existence ? And may I not say of this as Abraham of the Request of the Rich Man ? They have Moses and the Prophets , they have clear and ample Discoveries , both from within and without , and if they believe not them , neither will they believe though Men Write and Preach never so much of this Nature . I esteem it therefore much better to wave many of those needless Disquisitions and Discourses , which in ordinary Capacitres raise oftentimes more Doubts and Scruples , than they can resolve and satisfie . Examples are commonly more prevalent and perswasive than Disputes or Precepts ; and it were to be wished that we should rather refute the damnable opinion of an Atheist by a Holy and God-like life , than by bandying so many nice and obscure Questions , which create new Difficulties , and raise new Jealousies concerning that Holy Faith , which the pious simplicity of the Primitive Christians received only to practice . But lest the Arrow should revert upon my own Head , and some should too justly accuse me for that which I condemn in others , I shall not entertain my Reader with many Arguments on this Subject ( which hath already by better Heads been so largely and learnedly discussed ) nor yet pretend to the invention of many new , but only cull out a few which seem to me most cogent and convincing , and which have given me the greatest confirmation of my own Faithin the Existence of a Deity .

IT was not without great Reason advised by the Wisest of Kings , that when we had a mind to speak any thing before God , we should not be hasty to utter it ; and Aristotle teaches us , Nunquam nos-verecundiores esse debere , quam cum de diis agitur . That we never ought to be more modest , than when we have to do about God : and there is no doubt but that when we speak not only before God , but of him , we ought most seriously to weigh our thoughts and words , and with much caution produce them , lest we should any way derogate from the Purity and Excellencies of so transcendent Majesty . But when we have weighed and considered all that we can of him , our Apprehensions are very narrow and scant , and our Notions of him come infinitely short of his Divine Perfections : For as he is Invisible to the Eye , so he is Incomprehensible to the Mind . Whatsoever we conceive it is but in part : there is much more we cannot perceive nor comprehend . He is represented to us a Spiritual and Incorporal Essence , and till we come to be unbodied our selves , we cannot perfectly conceive what he is : so that we may conclude with Aristotle : Hoc tantum scio me nihil scire . This only we know , that we know nothing ; or with a Diviner Authori Elihu . Job . 37.23 . Touching the Almighty , we cannot find him out .

There is no question but those that duly Worship and Honour God , duly agnise , and are acquainted with him : But if the Atheist ( to whom the greatest part of this Discourse is directed ) should interrogate , Where is your God ? Jovis omnia plena . And bid us Worship what we know ; we answer , God fills every place , John 4.22 . and we know what we Worship , and that is the true God , whose Nature and Infinity though we ( who are but finite Creatures cannot sufficiently comprehend ; yet he is more cognoscible to us by his Perfections and Attributes , than any other thing whatsoever .

Esse aliquos manes , & subterranea Regna .

That there are some tormenting Spirits and a Kingdom of darkness . The Prophet Isaiah excellently describes them , Isaiah 48.22 . The wicked is like the troubled Sea when it cannot r●st , whose Waters cast up mire and dirt . There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked . So that the Psalmist's Axiom is undeniable , Psalm . 58.11 . Doubtless there is a God that judgeth in the Earth .

But lest these stout Hectors should still maugre all the impressions of Nature , and convictions of Conscience ( which they endeavour ( as much as in them lies ) to stifle and silence ) continue to persist in those most Irrational and Atheistical Tenets , let them ( laying aside all prejudicate thoughts ) consider with me the subsequent Reasons , endeavouring to evince , That the Existence of a God , and a Providence in the World , is as cleerly demonstrable as any Truth whatsoever .

The greatest Physical certainty that it is possible for any Man to have , is from Mathematical Demonstrations , as , That every whole is greater than its part : that of a Triangle its three Angles are equal to two right Angles : that if you add equal to equals , the result will be equal , &c. These Axioms , I say , are as undeniable , and as certain as any we can speak of ; now that the Being of God is as certain as any , or all of these , will appear hence . As first of all , without this Concession of a Deity , all things that are the Objects of Sense , may quite delude , and impose upon our understandings , Cartes . Princ. lib. 1. yea we cannot be assured of Mathematical Demonstrations themselves , or any thing else that seems cleerest and truest to our judgments and apprehensions , and we may be still in a Dream , and not discover whether these things seemingly so demonstrable , are really true , or barely Phantasms , Chimaera's , and the results of our giddy Fancies ; for I must be first ascertain'd of the infallibillity of my Senses , before I conclude that things represented to me by them are true , and this it is impossible for me to be assured of , before I have the knowledg of a Divine Existence . But when I seriously consider , and am assured that there is a God , and that his chiefest Attribute is Truth , ( which hath a direct Repugnancy to Deception and Error ) and that He will not , cannot therefore impose upon , and delude my Senses : Hence is it , that I infer the reality of them , and thence conclude , that all things that are truly represented to my Senses , are indeed so as they are represented ; because God never obtrudes Falsities upon us , under the pretext of Truth : Neither doth it at all invalidate this Argument , to assert that we are often deceived , because that the Deception proceeds not from the Understanding , but from our Will , when we too rashly consent to things not clearly and distinctly understood . Therefore all Mathematical Truths are not to be suspected , and the Existence of the Divinity , no more , ( nay less ) to be doubted of than them .

Next of all , it is plain and obvious , even to the lowest Capacity , yea known by the dim light of Nature , that what at first had a beginning , did not derive its being from it self , but that there must be some super-intended Cause , on which ( in respect of their Substance ) all other things do depend , and which must have in it the Complement of all Perfections ; and that can be no less than a Ray of Divinity , or rather God himself .

How perfect is every part of the Creation ? ( Who can tell where any thing is superfluous , or any thing deficient ? ) And the more perfect cannot be produced from that which is less perfect , as by its efficient and total Cause . Therefore seeing such Beauties and Perfections as we discover in the World , and have Idea's of , we cannot find to be in our selves ; we may from thence rightly , and on good grounds , conclude to be in some thing distinct from us , and that is more perfect than our selves , namely , in God .

All the Pulchritude and Perfection of an Effect , ought to be contained in the Cause , ( for the Cause cannot give that to the Effect , which it self enjoyeth not ) wherefore all the Perfection of living Creatures ought to be comprehended in that Cause .

If any thing could pretend to be the Author of its own Original , it must certainly be Man ; Man which is the Epitome and Perfection of all Sublunary Beings ; but He , alas ! owes even his own being to another ; and for his first Production , stands in need of such a preparation of Matter , and concourse of Causes , that it is many times a greater Wonder that He is , than that He is not ; and being born , stands in need of so many Second Causes , Helps and Furtherances , that he may live , and at length dies and expires with so much facility , that he has very little cause to boast of his own Perfections . A man may sooner believe that there is no such Man as himself , than that there is no Author of his being , no God , for himself can cease to be , and once was not , and shall again be changed from what he is , and in very many Periods of his Life , knows not that he is , ( and so it is every Night with him when he sleeps ) but none of these can happen unto God , who is the same Yesterday , too Day , and for ever . When we see a Clock or some curious Piece of Art , we presently enquire after the Artificer , concluding it not to be its own Production : And although we Finite Creatures cannot well comprehend what those Infinite Perfections of God are , yet we can more plainly and clearly understand them , than any Corporeal things ; because they are better adapted to , and more fill our Cogitations , and are more simple , not obscured by any limitations at all .