Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHA P. III.

THAT GOD'S

WORKS ARE MANIFEST TO ALL:

WHENCE THE UNREASONABLENESS OF INFI-
DELITY.

THE concluding words of the preceding chapter fuggeft a third inference, that the works of God are so visible to all the world, and with. al fuch manifeft indications of the being and attributes of the infinite Creator, that they plainly argue the vileness and perverseness of the atheist, and leave him inexcufable. For it is a fign a man is a wilful, perverfe atheift, that will impute fo glorious a work, as the creation is, to any thing, yea, a mere nothing, as chance is, rather than to God".

[ocr errors]

It

Galen having taken notice of the neat diftribution of the nerves to the muscles, and other parts of the face, cries out. Hæc enim K 4 ⚫ fortunæ

[ocr errors]

It is a fign the man is wilfully blind, that he is under the power of the devil, under the government of prejudice, luft, and paffion, not right reason, that will not difcern what every one can fee, what every man may behold afar off, even the existence and attributes of the Creator from his works. For, as there is no fpeech 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 thefe his work, inferred the exiftence of a Deity, and paid their homages to fome deity, although they have been under great mistakes in their notions and conclufions about him. But however, this fhews how naturally and univerfally all mankind agree, in deducing their belief of a God from the contemplation of his work, or, as

even

[ocr errors]

fortunæ funt opera! Cæterum tum omnibus [partibus] immitti, tantofque effe fingulos (nervos) magnitudine quanta particulæ erat neceffe; haud fcio an hominum fit fobriorum ad fortunam opificem id revocare. Alioqui quid tandem erit, quod cum providentia et arte efficitur? Omnino enim hoc ei contrarium effe debet, quod cafu ac fortuito fit.' And afterwards, Hæc quidem atque ejufmodi artis fcil, ac fapientiæ opera effe dicemus, fi modo fortunæ tribuenda funt quæ funt contraria; fietque jam quod in proverbiis -Fluvii furfum fluent; fi opera quæ nullum habent ornamentum, neque rationem, neque modum artis effe; contraria vero • fortunæ duxerimus, &c. Galen. ubi fupra, 1. 11. c. 7.

even as Epicurus himself, in Tully" faith, from a notion that nature itfelf hath imprinted upon the minds of men. For, faith he, what nation is there, or what kind of men, that without any teaching or inftructions, have not a kind of anticipation, or pre-conceived notion of a • Deity?'

[ocr errors]

AN atheist therefore, if ever there was any fuch, may juftly be esteemed a monster among rational beings; a thing hard to be met with in the whole tribe of mankind; an oppofer of all the world w; a rebel against his human nature and reafon, as well as against his God.

BUT above all, monftrous is this, or would be, in such as have heard of God, who have had the benefit of the clear gofpel-revelation. And ftill

more

Primum effe Deos, quod in omnium animis,' &c. And a little after, Cum enim non inftituto aliquo, aut more, aut lege fit "opinio conftituta, maneatque ad unum omnium firma confenfio, • intelligi neceffe eft, effe Deos, quoniam infitas eorum, vel potius ⚫ innatas cognitiones, habemus. De quo autem omnium natura ⚫ confentit, id verum effe neceffe eft. Effe igitur Deos confitendum 'eft.' Cicer. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. c. 16, 17.

The atheift in denying a God, doth, as Plutarch faith, endea vour Immobilia movere, et bellum inferre non tantum longo tempori, fed et multis hominibus, gentibus, et familiis, quas religiofus deorum cultus, quafi divino furore correptas, tenuit.' Plutar. de Ifide.

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 fuch an one, if it be poffible for fuch to be, to deny the existence, or any of the attributes of God, would be a great argument of the infinite inconvenience of those fins of intemperance, luft, and riot, that hath made the man abandon his reafon, his fenfes, yea, I had almost said his very human nature, to engage him thus to deny the being of a God.

So alfo it is much the fame monftrous infidelity at least betrays the fame atheistical mind, to deny God's providence, care, and government of the world, or, which is a fpawn of the fame Epicurean principles, to deny final caufes, in God's works of creation; or with the profane, in Pfal. Ixxiii. 11. to fay, How doth God now? and is there

6

[ocr errors]

knowledge in the moft High?' For, as the.

* Galen having fubftantially refuted the Epicurean principles of Afclepiades, by fhewing his ignorance in anatomy and philofophy, and by demonstrating all the causes to be evidently in the works of nature, viz. final, efficient, inftrumental, material, and formal causes, concludes thus against his fortuitous atoms, Ex quibus in'telligi poteft conditorem noftrum in formandis particulis unum hunc fequi fcopum, nempe ut quod melius eft eligat.' Galen. de ufu Part. I. 6. c. 13.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

witty and eloquent Salvian faith y, They that • affirm nothing is seen by God, will, in all probability, take away the fubftance, as well as fight of God.-But what fo great madness, faith he, as that when a man doth not deny God to be the Creator of all things, he fhall deny him to be the governor of them? Or when he confeffeth him to be the maker, he fhould fay, God neglecteth what he hath fo • made?

[ocr errors]

• De Gubern. Dei. 1. 4. p. 124. meo libro, alfol. 7. c. 14.

CHAP.

« AnteriorContinuar »