without any medicinal applications, reftoring limbs to perfons maimed, fight to the blind, and raifing the dead to life; (a thing which Pliny h deems impoffible to God himfelf:) these and fuch like things all men will confefs do furpass the power of any natural agent to effect, and are performable only by a caufe whose power exceeds our comprehenfion. Now that fuch effects have been performed, we cannot deny, without belying the most credible records of history that are extant; without accufing all ages, not only of extreme folly and weak credulity, but of notorious forgery and imposture; without derogating from the common credit of mankind, and rendering all teftimony, that can be yielded to matter of fact, ineffectual and infignificant; Vetus opinio eft (faith Tully concerning De Divin. prediction of future events) jam ufque ab heroicis ducta init. temporibus, eaque et populi Romani, et omnium gentium firmata confenfu, verfari quandam inter homines divina- De Nat. ii. tionem, quam Græci pavlny appellant, id eft præfentionem, P. 54. et fcientiam rerum futurarum. There is an ancient- opinion until now drawn even from the heroical times, (that is, from utmost antiquity,) that there is among men a certain divination, which the Greeks call prophecy, (or infpiration,) that is, a prefention and knowledge of future things; of which even the heathen story doth afford many inftances, but the holy Scriptures most evident and eminent ones fuch as that to Abraham concerning his chil- Gen. xv.13. dren's fojourning and being afflicted four hundred years in Egypt; of the prophet (fome hundred years before) 1 Kings xiii. concerning Jofias; of Ifaiah concerning Cyrus; of Jere-2 miah concerning the duration of the captivity; of Daniel and xlv. concerning the revolutions of empire in the world, wherein Ifaiah xliv. Jer. xxv.12. xxix. 10. Dan. viii. Ne Deum quidem poffe omnia: namque nec fibi poteft mortem 21. confcifcere quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitæ pœnis ; nec mortales æternitate donare, aut revocare defunctos. Lib. ii. c. 7. i That the prediction of future events did belong only to the fupreme God, even the heathens feemed to know and acknowledge. The wife poet, Æn. 3. Accipite ergo animis, atque hæc mea figite dicta, Quid Phoebo Pater omnipotens, mihi Phœbus Apollo Serv. Notandum Apollinem quæ dicit a Jove cognofcere. Heb. i. the achievements of Alexander and his fucceffors are fo expressly defcribed: and for miraculous works, although all nations have had fo many of them performed among them, as to beget a common opinion that God did frequently interpofe, fo as to alter the courfe of nature, yet the holy Scriptures do most fully testify concerning them in great number, performed for the confirmation of divine truth and discovery of God's will to men, for the relief and encouragement of good, the difcouragement and chaftisement of bad men; which are the proper causes in all reason why they should be performed: and why that teftimony should not be received, there can no good reafon be affigned; why it fhould, there is very great reason; upon which I did formerly touch, and cannot now stand to enlarge thereupon: and indeed God's patefaction of himself to mankind, (his fpeaking to the fathers in many ways, and laftly to all the world by his Son, fent on purpose from heaven to reveal his designs of mercy and favour to mankind,) accompanied with fo many prodigious miracles, and fo many glorious circumstances of providence, vifible to all the world, and fo accommodated, as in the first place to beget this belief in us, is an argument that cannot but in all honest and well-difpofed minds obtain effect. To this head belong thofe opinions and testimonies of mankind concerning apparitions, of which the ancient world (their poets and hiftorians) fpake so much, all which probably could not be devised without ground; Prefignifi- concerning the power of enchantment, to which fome invifible power muft cooperate; concerning conjuration, witchery, all intercourse and confederacy with bad spirits; which he that fuppofes to be all mere delufion must somewhat over-rudely and immodeftly fufpect the world of exceeding vanity and credulity, many worthy hiftorians of inconfiderateness, &c. most law-makers of great rashness Vid. Grot. and folly, moft judicatories of indiscretion or cruelty, and too great a number of witneffes of extreme malice or Tert. de An. madness; the truth and reality of which things being admitted, inferring the exiftence of invifible powers, (though inferior ones,) doth by consequence infer (at least cation by dreams. de Verit. i. 18. 46. confer much to) the belief of the divine existence, removing the chief obstacles of incredulity. But I cannot farther infift upon this point. Gener. Pf. xxviii. 5 4. The last argument I mentioned was divine Provi- Aristotle de dence which being of two forts, (general, in the government of mankind; particular, in God's dealing with each fingle perfon,) although to him that will carefully attend and reflect upon it, (that, to use the Pfalmift and the Prophet's language, will regard the work of the Lord, and Ifa. v. 12. confider the operation of his hands,) even the general providence doth afford no fmall evidences of his existence; (he that shall obferve the ftrange detections of mifchief, both that which is defigned, and that which hath been committed; the restraints, disappointments, and exemplary punishments of oppreffion and injuftice, and all wickedness, (when it grows outrageous and exorbitant;) the fupports, encouragements, and feasonable vindications (often by unexpected means) of innocence and goodness; the maintenance of fuch rules and orders in the world, that notwithstanding the irregularity and violence of men's paffions, they commonly fhift to live tolerably in peace and fafety; the fo many poor, weak, and helpless people (among fo many crafty, malicious, and greedy ones) being competently provided for; the reparations of good manners and piety being decayed and overborne by power and ill custom; these, I say, and other such occurrences in the world, he that fhall confider wifely, may difcern the hand of a wife and good Providence watching over human affairs;) but yet seeing commonly the reasons of God's proceedings with men here are various, mysterious, and fecret; not to be distinctly apprehended by us, (who, for example, can certainly and easily distinguish between God's merci- Vid. Gr. de ful patience toward bad men, and his gracious recom- Ver. 63, &c. penfing the good; between his juft vengeance of one, and his paternal correction of the other; between his reclaiming one from vice, by either adverse or profperous accidents, and his exercifing the other's virtue by the like;) and because God's governance hath not its complete iffue here, (this being not the only nor the chief place of re This is a place, where God much ac their free dom, not but upon great rea. fon, and they have κρίσεως. Chryf. ward or punishment,) therefore we cannot now with fo clear evidence demonftrate the divine attributes from gepermits neral providence; but are here forced by perverse antagomen to act nifts to be fometime on the defenfive; being fufficiently able cording to in this point to defend ourselves, but not so able hence to convince fuch sturdy adverfaries: it is only the children of interpofing wifdom here, that will justify her; therefore I wave that plea: but for particular providence, I dare appeal to moft men, especially to those who have ever had any fear of here yvaa God or sense of goodness, if fometime or other in their lives they have not in their needs (especially upon their addreffes to God) found help and comfort conveyed unto them by an indifcernible hand; if they have not, fometimes in an unaccountable manner, escaped grievous dangers; if they have not experienced, in performance of their duty and devotion toward God, a comfort extraordinary; if they cannot apply that of the Pfalmift to fome Pfal. xxxiv. events of their life; This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and faved him out of all his troubles: The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them: O tafte and fee that the Lord is good! O tafie and fee: k if God's goodness may be felt and seen by us, then is our own experience an argument of his exiftence which indeed it is to all good men, (for whofe comfort and confirmation I mention it;) though it is not likely to have much influence upon those that have driven God's prefence out of their fouls; except they have fo much ingenuity as to believe others' teftimony, who affert this great truth to them from their own inward confcience and experience. 6, 7, 8. I have infifted too long upon this fubject, it being fo rich and copious, that I could not eafily get out of it; nor can I much repent thereof, it being of fo great confequence throughly to be perfuaded of this point: the k Indeed this opinion being not fixed steadily in men's persuasion, there can be no fteady bottom of virtuous practice: no, nor to a wife man any comfortable life: τί μοι ζῆν ἐν κόσμῳ κίνῳ θεῶν, ἢ προνοίας κένῳ, faith that noble Emperor nobly : τί καὶ ἐπιθύμω εἰκαίῳ συγκρίματι καὶ φύρμῳ τοιούτῳ ἐνδιατρίβειν to live in fuch a blind confufion, &c. ii. 2. vi. 10. deeper and more strongly this foundation is laid, the more stable will the fuperftructure of religious practice be thereupon; and I fear most of that coldnefs and imperfection which appears therein, doth arife chiefly from the weaknefs of our faith in this very article. I. I fhall only farther obferve one or two particulars : first, that the preceding arguments, as they do most immediately evince thofe three principal attributes of God, his incomprehenfible wifdom, power, and goodnefs; fo, in conjunction with (or confequence from) them, they do declare thofe his other attributes, (which are ingredients alfo of that notion, which in the beginning of this difcourse I described,) namely, the eternity and indefectibility of his existence; his immenfe omniprefence; his spirituality as alfo his juftice and veracity; his rightful fovereignty of dominion, and the like; (for I cannot profecute all the divine perfections, according to that multiplicity of diftinction which our conceit and expreffion doth make of them :) if God made all things, he could not receive being from another, (and he who made this world, what reafon can we have to fuppofe him from another?) nor can any thing receive being of itself; nor from mere nothing of itself spring up into being: therefore the Maker of the world is eternal: fomething must be eternal, otherwife nothing could be at all; other things fhew themfelves to have proceeded from the wisdom and goodness of one; that one therefore is eternal; and fo all nations confent; and fo revelation declares: that he is immortal and immutable, doth as plainly follow: for not depending for his being on any thing belonging to it, neither can he depend for his continuance or conservation: having superior power to all things, as having conferred to all whatever of power they have, nothing can make any prevalent impreffion upon him, so as to destroy or alter any thing in him: from his making, and from his upholding, and from his governing all things, it follows that he was and is every where: where his power is, there his hand must be : for nothing can act upon what is diftant; every action with effect requires a conjunction of the agent and pa |