John xv. 22, 24.

very

agreeably to prophecies foregoing,) his pretences cannot
reasonably be deemed falfe; it is juft that we affent to his
words: But we plainly fee and experience Jefus to be fo
qualified, (fo to live, to fpeak, to do:) Therefore it is just
and reasonable we believe him. This kind of difcourfe
did de facto, and of right it ought to produce faith in
thofe, who came under the influence of it: the being con-
vinced by it was the virtue of faith, fhewing the ingenuity
and discretion of those fo wrought upon; and the not
being convinced fo, was the fault for which unbelievers
were liable to just condemnation; If I had not come and
Spake to them, they had not had fin: and, If I had not
done the works among them, which never any other man
did, they had not had fin: that is, if my doctrine had not
been very good, and difcourfe
my
reasonable; if my
works had not discovered abundance of divine grace and
power attending them; had not both my words and
works been very open and manifeft to them; they had
been excufable, as having no reafons cogent enough to
perfuade them; but now they deferve to be condemned
for their unreasonable and perverse incredulity. And give
me leave, by the way, to obferve, that by the like fyllo-
gism it is, that faith may (and perhaps in duty fhould) be
produced even in us now: the major propofition is alto-
gether the fame: A perfon fo qualified is credible; (this
is a propofition of perpetual truth, evident to common
fenfe, fuch as by all men of reafon and ingenuity fhould
be admitted otherwife no meffage from heaven or tefti-
mony upon earth could be received.) The minor, Jefus
was a perfon fo qualified, was indeed evident to the fenfes
of those with whom he converfed, (to fuch as were not
blinded with evil prejudice, and wilfully disposed to
mistake;) and will now appear as true to those, who shall
with due care confider the reasons by which it may be
perfuaded that it is attefted by fo many, and in all re-
fpects fo credible hiftories, yet extant and legible by us;
confirmed by fo clear, fo general, so constant a tradition;
maintained by fo wonderful circumstances of Providence ;

:

in a word, that it is evidenced by so many and fo illuftrious proofs, that no matter of fact had ever the like, none ever could have greater, to affure it.

Upon these and such like premises I embrace the more plain and fimple notion of the word belief; meaning, when I fay I believe, that I am in my mind fully convinced and perfuaded of the truth of the propofitions hereafter expreffed, (or implied;) not excluding any objects there contained under any formality, (either of being apparent to fenfe, or demonftrable by reafon, or credible by any fort of teftimony,) nor abftracting from any kind of reafons perfuafive of their truth. I believe there is a God, the Creator of the world; that he is infallibly wife, and perfectly veracious; that he hath revealed his mind and will to mankind; as well for that good reafon dictates these things unto me, as that the beft authorities avow them. I believe that Jefus is the Chrift, and our Lord, and the Son of God, because the holy Scriptures do plainly so teach, and apostolical tradition thereto confents and in like manner of the rest.

[I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Paker of

Heaven and Earth.]

Deorum

Sen. Ep. 95.

Ibid.

WHAT the phrafe I believe in doth most properly here Primus eft import, I did endeavour (the laft time) fomewhat to ex-cultus Deos plain: I would have deduced fome corollaries, and added credere. fome confiderations preventive of mistake, and farther ex-Deum colit plicative of that matter, if my intention hereafter to en- qui novit. deavour greater brevity did permit: but for that cause I proceed to the objects of our belief: whereof in the first place, as is meet, and in the front, God is placed; the belief of whofe exiftence is the foundation of all religion,"Eopa fáthe fupport of all virtue, the principal article in all thes κοινὴ πρὸς creeds of all the world. He that comes to God (who- sav. ever applies himself to any religious performance) must

Plut.

first of all be perfuaded, that God is; as the object of his devotion, and the rewarder of his obedience. For the explication of which, we will confider, 1. What it is that we are to believe; 2. Why and upon what grounds we fhould believe it.

For the first: That in the world there are beings imperceptible to our fenfes, much fuperior to us in knowledge and power, that can perform works above, and contrary to, the course of nature, and concerning themfelves fometime to do so for the interests of mankind; for thefe qualifications and performances deferving extraordinary respect from us, hath been a conftant opinion in all places and times: to which fort of beings fome one general name hath been in all languages affigned, answering Φαμὶν δὲ τὸν to that of God among us. Of fuch beings, that there is die one, fupreme and most excellent, incomparably furpaffing in all thofe attributes of wifdom and power and goodArift. Metaph. xii. 7. nefs; from whom the reft, and all things befide, have deDeus fun- rived their beings, do depend upon, are sustained and governed by; the author, I fay, of all being, and dispenser of all good; to whom confequently fupreme love, revevi, et potef- rence, and obedience is due; hath been alfo the general Tertull, ad- fenfe of the moft ancient, moft wife, and moft noble naverf. Marc. tions among men; to whom therefore in a peculiar and

θεὸν εἶναι

ἄριστον.

mum mag

num, et forma et

ratione, et

tate, &c.

i. 3.

eminent manner the title of God (and those which anfwer thereto) is appropriated: fo that when the word is abfolutely put, without any adjunct of limitation or diminu tion, he only is meant and understood: to which fometimes, for fuller declaration, are added the epithets of Optimus, Maximus, Summus, Æternus, Omnipotens, Dominus, and the like; the Beft, the Greatest, the Most High, the Eternal, the Almighty, the Sovereign God. Thus, according to the common sense of mankind, is the word God understood; the notion thereof including efpecially thefe attributes and perfections of nature; fupreme and incomprehenfible wisdom, power, goodness, being the fountain and author, the upholder and governor of all things: and what is contracted with, or is confequent upon thefe; namely, the most excellent man

ner of being and of activity, eternity and immortality, independency and immutability, immenfity and omniprefence, fpirituality and indivifibility, inceffant energy of the moft excellent life, intuitive understanding, abfolute freedom of will, perfect holiness and purity, juftice, fincerity, veracity; as also complete happiness, (self-enjoyment and felf-sufficiency;) glorious Majesty, sovereign right of dominion; to which highest veneration and entire obedience is due. In fhort, whatever our mind can conceive of good, excellent, and honourable, that in the moft tranfcendent degree is, by the confent of mankind, comprehended in the notion of God, absolutely taken, or in the last sense forementioned.

Neither doth divine revelation commend any other notion thereof to us; but explains, amplifies, and confirms this; expreffing more clearly and diftinctly these attributes and perfections; with the manner of their being exerted, especially to our benefit; and determining our duty in relation to them.

Now that really fuch a being doth exift (that this main principle of religion is not a mere poftulatum, or precarious fuppofition, which we must be beholden to any reafonable man for to grant us) I fhall endeavour to prove briefly by three or four arguments, which are indeed of all most obvious and suitable to every capacity, (for they be not grounded upon metaphyfical fubtlety, nor need any depth of fpeculation to apprehend them; common fense and experience will fuffice to discover their force,) and yet of all that have been produced, they seem to me moft forcible. The firft is drawn from natural effects obfervable by every man; a fecond, from the common opinions and practices of mankind from all antiquity; a third, from particular discoveries of fuch a divine power attested by history; a fourth, from every man's particular experience concerning a divine Providence. And,

1. I say, that natural effects do declare fuch a being, incomprehenfibly wife, powerful and good, from whence this vifible world did proceed, and by which it fubfifts and is conferved. That it is true, which the prophet Jeremiah

faith, That he hath made the earth by his power, hath eftablished the world by his wifdom, and firetched out the heavens by his difcretion, Jer. x. 12. It may be affumed for a principle, which common experience fuggefts to us, that matter of itfelf doth not run into any order, &c. if not now, then not yesterday, nor from eternity: it must therefore by fome counfel be digefted. There is not indeed any kind of natural effect, which either fingly taken, or as it stands related to the public, may not reasonably be fuppofed to contain fome argument of this truth: we do not indeed difcern the ufe and tendency of each particular effect; but of many, they are fo plain and palpable, that we have reason to fuppofe them of the reft: even as of a perfon, whom we do plainly perceive frequently to act very wifely, at other times, when we cannot difcern the drift of his proceeding, we cannot but fuppofe that he hath fome latent reafon, fome reach of policy, that we are not aware of: or as in an engine, confifting of many parts curiously compacted together, whereof we do perceive the general ufe, and apprehend how fome parts conduce thereto, we have reafon, although we either do not fee them all, or cannot comprehend the immediate ferviceableness of each, to think they all are fome way or other subfervient to the artift's defigns. Such an agent is God, fuch an engine is this vifible world: we can often discover evident marks of God's wifdom; fome general uses of the world are very difcernible, and how that many parts thereof do contribute to them, we may easily observe: and feeing the whole is compacted in a decent and constant order, we have reafon to deem the like of the reft. Our incapacity to discover all doth not argue defect, but excefs of the maker's wifdom; not too little in itself, but too great perfection in the work, in respect of our capacity. The most to us obfervable piece of the universe is the earth, upon which we dwell; which that it was defigned for the accommodation of living creatures, that are upon it, and principally of man, we cannot be ignorant or doubtful, if we be not fo negligent or stupid, as to let pass unobferved those innumerable figns and arguments that