the depth of _polemical_ divinity, and in his inferences from thence,
the sweetness of _practical_; some things which may exercise the
profoundest scholar, and others which may instruct and edify the
weakest Christian. Nothing is more nervous than his reasonings, and
nothing more affecting than his applications. Though he make great use
of schoolmen, yet they are certainly more beholden to him than he to
them; he adopts their notions, but he refines them too, and improves
them and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were
expressed, and dresseth them up in his own language (so far as the
nature of the matter will permit, and more clear terms are to be
found), and so makes them intelligible to vulgar capacities, which,
in their original rudeness, were obscure and strange even to learned
heads.
In a word, he handles the great truths of the gospel with that
perspicuity, gravity, and majesty, which best becomes the oracles of
God; and we have reason to believe, that no judicious and unbiassed
reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical
treatise the world ever saw in English upon this subject. What Dr.
Jackson did, to whom our author gave all due respect, was more brief
and in another way. Dr. Preston did worthily upon the Attributes in
his day; but his discourses likewise, are more succinct, when this
author’s are more full and large. But whatever were the mind of God in
it, it was not his will that either of these two should live to finish
what he had begun, both being taken away when preaching upon this
subject. Happy souls! whose last breath was spent in so noble a work,
praising God while they had any being (Psal. cxlvi. 2).
His method is much the same in most of these discourses, both in the
doctrinal and practical part, which will make the whole more plain
and facile to ordinary readers. He rarely makes objections, and yet
frequently answers them, by implying them in those propositions he
lays down for the clearing up the truths he asserts. His dexterity
is admirable in the applicatory {a22} work, where he not only brings
down the highest doctrines to the lowest capacities, but collects
great variety of proper, pertinent, useful, and yet, many times,
unthought‑of inferences, and that from those truths, which however
they afford much matter for inquisition and speculation, yet might
seem, unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians, to
have a more remote influence upon practice. He is not like some school
writers, who attenuate and rarefy the matter they discourse of to a
degree bordering upon annihilation, at least, beat it so thin, that a
puff of breath may blow it away; spin their thread so fine, that the
cloth, when made up, proves useless, solidity dwindles into niceties,
and what we thought we had got by their assertions, we lose by their
distinctions. But if our author have some subtilties and superfine
notions in his argumentations, yet he condenseth them again, and
consolidates them into substantial and profitable corollaries in his
applications; and in them his main business is, as to discipline a
profane world for its neglect of God, and contempt of him in his most
adorable and shining perfections, so likewise to show how the Divine
Attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves, but a
grand foundation for all true divine worship, and should be the great
motives to provoke men to the exercise of faith, and love, and fear,
and humility, and all that holy obedience they are called to by the
gospel; and this, without peradventure, is the great end of all those
rich discoveries God hath in his word made of himself to us. And,
reader, if these elaborate discourses of this holy man, through the
Lord’s blessing, become a means of promoting holiness in thee, and
stir thee up to love and live to the God of his praise (Ps. cix. 1),
we are well assured that his end in preaching them is answered, and
so is ours in publishing them.
Thine in the Lord,
EDW. VEEL.
RI. ADAMS.
{a23} DISCOURSE I.
ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
PSALM xiv. 1.――The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.
They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good.
THIS psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by nature
of every son of Adam, since the withering of that common root. Some
restrain it to the Gentiles, as a wilderness full of briers and
thorns, as not concerning the Jews, the garden of God, planted by his
grace, and watered by the dew of heaven. But the apostle, the best
interpreter, rectifies this in extending it by name to Jews, as well
as Gentiles, (Rom. iii. 9). “We have before proved both Jews and
Gentiles, that they are all under sin;” and (ver. 10‒12) cites part
of this psalm and other passages of scripture for the further evidence
of it, concluding by Jews and Gentiles, every person in the world
naturally in this state of corruption.
The psalmist first declares the corruption of the faculties of
the soul, _The fool hath said in his heart_; secondly, the streams
issuing from thence, _they are corrupt_, &c.: the first in atheistical
principles, the other in unworthy practice; and lays all the evil,
tyranny, lust, and persecutions by men, (as if the world were only
for their sake) upon the neglects of God, and the atheism cherished
in their hearts.
_The fool_, a term in scripture signifying a wicked man, used also
by the heathen philosophers to signify a vicious person, נבל as coming
from נבל signifies the extinction of life in men, animals, and plants;
so the word נבל is taken, a plant that hath lost all that juice
that made it lovely and useful.[6] So a fool is one that hath lost
his wisdom, and right notion of God and divine things which were
communicated to man by creation; one dead in sin, yet one not so
much void of rational faculties as of grace in those faculties, not
one that wants reason, but abuses his reason. In Scripture the word
signifies foolish.[7]
_Said in his heart_; that is, he thinks, or he doubts, or he wishes.
The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God, though
not to men. It is used in the like case of the atheistical person,
(Ps. x. 11, 13), “He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten; he
hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.” He doth not form
a syllogism, as Calvin speaks, that there is no God: he dares not
{a24} openly publish it, though he dares secretly think it. He cannot
raze out the thoughts of a Deity, though he endeavors to blot those
characters of God in his soul. He hath some doubts whether there be a
God or no: he wishes there were not any, and sometimes hopes there is
none at all. He could not so ascertain himself by convincing arguments
to produce to the world, but he tampered with his own heart to bring
it to that persuasion, and smothered in himself those notices of a
Deity; which is so plain against the light of nature, that such a man
may well be called a fool for it.
_There is no God_[8] לית שולטנא _non potestas Domini_, Chaldæ. It is not
Jehovah, which name signifies the essence of God, as the prime and
supreme being; but Eloahia, which name signifies the providence of
God, God as a rector and judge. Not that he denies the existence
of a Supreme Being, that created the world, but his regarding the
creatures, his government of the world, and consequently his reward
of the righteous or punishments of the wicked.
There is a threefold denial of God,[9] 1. _Quoad existentiam_; this
is absolute atheism. 2. _Quoad Providentiam_, or his inspection into,
or care of the things of the world, bounding him in the heavens.
3. _Quoad naturam_, in regard of one or other of the perfections due
to his nature.
Of the denial of the providence of God most understand this, not
excluding the absolute atheist, as Diagoras is reported to be, nor
the skeptical atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whether there were a
God.[10] Those that deny the providence of God, do in effect deny the
being of God; for they strip him of that wisdom, goodness, tenderness,
mercy, justice, righteousness, which are the glory of the Deity. And
that principle, of a greedy desire to be uncontrolled in their lusts,
which induceth men to a denial of Providence, that thereby they might
stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful
pleasures, may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being
as a God. That at one blow, their fears may be dashed all in pieces
and dissolved by the removal of the foundation: as men who desire
liberty to commit works of darkness, would not have the lights in
the house dimmed, but extinguished. What men say against Providence,
because they would have no check in their lusts, they may say in their
hearts against the existence of God upon the same account; little
difference between the dissenting from the one and disowning the other.
_They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none
that doeth good._ He speaks of the atheist in the singular, “the fool;”
of the corruption issuing in the life in the plural; intimating that
though some few may choke in their hearts the sentiments of God and
his providence, and positively deny them, yet there is something of
a secret atheism in all, which is the fountain of the evil practices
in their lives, not an utter disowning of the being of a God, but a
denial or doubting of some of the rights of his nature. When men deny
the God of purity, they must needs be polluted in soul and body, and
grow brutish in their actions. When the sense of religion is {a25}
shaken off, all kinds of wickedness is eagerly rushed into, whereby
they become as loathsome to God as putrefied carcases are to men.[11]
Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle, but
the whole scene of a man’s life is corrupted and becomes execrable.
No man is exempted from some spice of atheism by the depravation of
his nature, which the psalmist intimates, “there is none that doeth
good:” though there are indelible convictions of the being of a God,
that they cannot absolutely deny it; yet there are some atheistical
bubblings in the hearts of men, which evidence themselves in their
actions. As the apostle, (Tit. i. 16), “They profess that they know
God, but in works they deny him.” Evil works are a dust stirred up by
an atheistical breath. He that habituates himself in some sordid lust,
can scarcely be said seriously and firmly to believe that there is
a God in being; and the apostle doth not say that they know God, but
they profess to know him: true knowledge and profession of knowledge
are distinct. It intimates also to us, the unreasonableness of atheism
in the consequence, when men shut their eyes against the beams of so
clear a sun, God revengeth himself upon them for their impiety, by
leaving them to their own wills, lets them fall into the deepest sink
and dregs of iniquity; and since they doubt of him in their hearts,
suffers them above others to deny him in their works, this the apostle
discourseth at large.[12] The text then is a description of man’s
corruption.
1. Of his mind. _The fool hath said in his heart._ No better title
than that of a fool is afforded to the atheist.
2. Of the other faculties, 1. In sins of commission, expressed by
the loathsomeness (_corrupt_, _abominable_), 2. In sins of omission
(_there is none that doeth good_) he lays down the corruption of the
mind as the cause, the corruption of the other faculties as the effect.
I. It is a great folly to deny or doubt of the existence or being of
God: or, an atheist is a great fool.
II. Practical atheism is natural to man in his corrupt state. It
is against nature as constituted by God, but natural, as nature is
depraved by man: the absolute disowning of the being of a God is not
natural to men, but the contrary is natural; but an inconsideration of
God, or misrepresentation of his nature, is natural to man as corrupt.
III. A secret atheism, or a partial atheism, is the spring of all the
wicked practices in the world: the disorders of the life spring from
the ill dispositions of the heart.
For the first, every atheist is a grand fool. If he were not a
fool, he would not imagine a thing so contrary to the stream of the
universal reason of the world, contrary to the rational dictates of
his own soul, and contrary to the testimony of every creature, and
link in the chain of creation: if he were not a fool, he would not
strip himself of humanity, and degrade himself lower than the most
despicable brute. It is a folly; for though God be so inaccessible
that we cannot know him perfectly, yet he is so much in the light,
that {a26} we cannot be totally ignorant of him; as he cannot be
comprehended in his essence, he cannot be unknown in his existence; it
is as easy by reason to understand that he is, as it is difficult to
know what he is. The demonstrations reason furnisheth us with for the
existence of God, will be evidences of the atheist’s folly. One would
think there were little need of spending time in evidencing this truth,
since in the principle of it, it seems to be so universally owned, and
at the first proposal and demand, gains the assent of most men.
But, 1. Doth not the growth of atheism among us render this necessary?
may it not justly be suspected, that the swarms of atheists are more
numerous in our times, than history records to have been in any age,
when men will not only say it in their hearts, but publish it with
their lips, and boast that they have shaken off those shackles which
bind other men’s consciences? Doth not the barefaced debauchery of
men evidence such a settled sentiment, or at least a careless belief
of the truth, which lies at the root, and sprouts up in such venomous
branches in the world? Can men’s hearts be free from that principle
wherewith their practices are so openly depraved? It is true, the
light of nature shines too vigorously for the power of man totally
to put it out; yet loathsome actions impair and weaken the actual
thoughts and considerations of a Deity, and are like mists that
darken the light of the sun, though they cannot extinguish it:
their consciences, as a candlestick, must hold it, though their
unrighteousness obscure it, (Rom. i. 18). “Who hold the truth in
unrighteousness.” The engraved characters of the law of nature remain,
though they daub them with their muddy lusts to make them illegible:
so that since the inconsideration of a Deity is the cause of all
the wickedness and extravagances of men; and as Austin saith, the
proposition is always true, the fool hath said in his heart, &c. and
more evidently true in this age than any, it will not be unnecessary
to discourse of the demonstrations of this first principle. The
apostles spent little time in urging this truth; it was taken for
granted all over the world, and they were generally devout in the
worship of those idols they thought to be gods: that age run from
one God to many, and our age is running from one God to none at all.
2. The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. The whole
building totters if the foundation be out of course: if we have not
deliberate and right notions of it, we shall perform no worship,
no service, yield no affection to him. If there be not a God, it is
impossible there can be one, for eternity is essential to the notion
of a God; so all religion would be vain, and unreasonable to pay
homage to that which is not in being, nor can ever be. We must first
believe that he is, and that he is what he declares himself to be,
before we can seek him, adore him, and devote our affections to
him.[13] We cannot pay God a due and regular homage, unless we
understand him in his perfections, what he is; and we can pay him
no homage at all, unless we believe that he is.
3. It is fit we should know why we believe, that our belief of a
God may appear to be upon undeniable evidence, and that we may give
a better reason for his existence, than that we have heard our {a27}
parents and teachers tell us so, and our acquaintance think so. It
is as much as to say there is no God, when we know not why we believe
there is, and would not consider the arguments for his existence.
4. It is necessary to depress that secret atheism which is in the
heart of every man by nature. Though every visible object which offers
itself to our sense, presents a deity to our minds, and exhorts us to
subscribe to the truth of it; yet there is a root of atheism springing
up sometimes in wavering thoughts and foolish imaginations, inordinate
actions, and secret wishes. Certain it is, that every man that doth
not love God, denies God; now can he that disaffects him, and hath
a slavish fear of him, wish his existence, and say to his own heart
with any cheerfulness, there is a God, and make it his chief care to
persuade himself of it? he would persuade himself there is no God,
and stifle the seeds of it in his reason and conscience, that he might
have the greatest liberty to entertain the allurements of the flesh.
It is necessary to excite men to daily and actual considerations of
God and his nature, which would be a bar to much of that wickedness
which overflows in the lives of men.
5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually believe and love
him;[14] for those who have had a converse with God, and felt his
powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts, to take a prospect
of those satisfactory accounts which reason gives of that God they
adore and love; to see every creature justify them in their owning
of him, and affections to him: indeed the evidences of a God striking
upon the conscience of those who resolve to cleave to sin as their
chiefest darling, will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures.
I shall further premise this, That the folly of atheism is evidenced
by the light of reason. Men that will not listen to Scripture, as
having no counterpart of it in their souls, cannot easily deny natural
reason, which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this
truth. There is a natural as well as a revealed knowledge, and the
book of the creatures is legible in declaring the being of a God, as
well as the Scriptures are in declaring the nature of a God; there are
outward objects in the world, and common principles in the conscience,
whence it may be inferred.
For, 1. God in regard of his existence is not only the discovery of
faith, but of reason. God hath revealed not only his being, but some
sparks of his eternal power and godhead in his works, as well as in
his word. (Rom. i. 19, 20), “God hath showed it unto them,”――how?[15]
in his works; by the things that are made, it is a discovery to our
reason, as shining in the creatures; and an object of our faith as
breaking out upon us in the Scriptures: it is an article of our faith,
and an article of our reason. Faith supposeth natural knowledge,
as grace supposeth nature. Faith indeed is properly of things above
reason, purely depending upon revelation. What can be demonstrated
by natural light, is not so properly the object of faith; though in
regard of the addition of a certainty by revelation it is so. The
belief that God is, which the apostle speaks of,[16] is not so much
of the bare existence of God, as what God is in relation to them that
{a28} seek him, viz. a rewarder. The apostle speaks of the faith of
Abel, the faith of Enoch, such a faith that pleases God: but the faith
of Abel testified in his sacrifice, and the faith of Enoch testified
in his walking with God, was not simply a faith of the existence of
God. Cain in the time of Abel, other men in the world in the time
of Enoch, believed this as well as they: but it was a faith joined
with the worship of God, and desires to please him in the way of his
own appointment; so that they believed that God was such as he had
declared himself to be in his promise to Adam, such an one as would
be as good as his word, and bruise the serpent’s head. He that seeks
to God according to the mind of God, must believe that he is such a
God that will pardon sin, and justify a seeker of him; that he is a
God of that ability and will, to justify a sinner in that way he hath
appointed for the clearing the holiness of his nature, and vindicating
the honor of his law violated by man. No man can seek God or love
God, unless he believe him to be thus; and he cannot seek God without
a discovery of his own mind how he would be sought. For it is not a
seeking God in any way of man’s invention, that renders him capable
of this desired fruit of a reward. He that believes God as a rewarder,
must believe the promise of God concerning the Messiah. Men under the
conscience of sin, cannot tell without a divine discovery, whether God
will reward, or how he will reward the seekers of him; and therefore
cannot act towards him as an object of faith. Would any man seek God
merely because he is, or love him because he is, if he did not know
that he should be acceptable to him? The bare existence of a thing is
not the ground of affection to it, but those qualities of it and our
interest in it, which render it amiable and delightful. How can men,
whose consciences fly in their faces, seek God or love him, without
this knowledge that he is a rewarder? Nature doth not show any way to
a sinner, how to reconcile God’s provoked justice with his tenderness.
The faith the apostle speaks of here is a faith that eyes the reward
as an encouragement, and the will of God as the rule of its acting; he
doth not speak simply of the existence of God.
I have spoken the more of this place, because the Socinians[17] use
this to decry any natural knowledge of God, and that the existence of
God is only to be known by revelation, so that by that reason any one
that lived without the Scripture hath no ground to believe the being
of a God. The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all nations
in the world (Rom. i. 19); not only a faculty of knowing, if they
had arguments and demonstrations, as an ignorant man in any art hath
a faculty to know; but it ascribes an actual knowledge (ver. 10)
“manifest in them;” (ver. 21) “They knew God;” not they might know him;
they knew him when they did not care for knowing him. The notices of
God are as intelligible to us by reason, as any object in the world is
visible; he is written in every letter.
2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the
creatures for a discovery of God. The apostles drew arguments from
the topics of nature, when they discoursed with those that owned
the Scripture (Rom. i. 19), as well as when they treated with those
{a29} that were ignorant of it, as Acts xiv. 16, 17. And among the
philosophers of Athens (Acts xvii. 27, 29), such arguments the Holy
Ghost in the apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the
existence, unity, spirituality, and patience of God. Such arguments
had not been used by them and the prophets from the visible things in
the world to silence the Gentiles with whom they dealt, had not this
truth, and much more about God, been demonstrable by natural reason:
they knew well enough that probable arguments would not satisfy
piercing and inquisitive minds.[18]
In Paul’s account, the testimony of the creatures was without
contradiction. God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his
own example, and remits Job to the consideration of the creatures,
to spell out something of his divine perfections.[19] And this is
so convincing an argument of the existence of God, that God never
vouchsafed any miracle, or put forth any act of omnipotency, besides
what was evident in the creatures, for the satisfaction of the
curiosity of any atheist, or the evincing of his being, as he hath
done for the evidencing those truths which were not written in
the book of nature, or for the restoring a decayed worship, or the
protection or deliverance of his people. Those miracles in publishing
the gospel, indeed, did demonstrate the existence of some supreme
power; but they were not seals designedly affixed for that, but for
the confirmation of that truth, which was above the ken of purblind
reason, and purely the birth of divine revelation. Yet what proves the
truth of any spiritual doctrine, proves also in that act the existence
of the Divine Author of it. The revelation always implies a revealer,
and that which manifests it to be a revelation, manifests also the
supreme Revealer of it. By the same light the sun manifests other
things to us, it also manifests itself. But what miracles could
rationally be supposed to work upon an atheist, who is not drawn
to a sense of the truth proclaimed aloud by so many wonders of the
creation? Let us now proceed to the demonstration of the atheist’s
folly.