Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

fitio, Deus eft,

quantum in fe

dicatum eft i

nim eft fuum

Although therefore that God is, be of itself an immediate, certain neceffa- *Hæc propomust it be* evidenced and made apparent unto us by its conry truth, yet nexion unto other truths; fo that the Being of the Creator may appear unto us eft,per fe nota by his Creatures, and the dependency of inferior Entities may lead us to a clear eft, quia præacknowledgement of the fupreme and independent Being. The Wisdom of dem cum fubthe Jews thought this method proper, a for by the greatness and beauty of jecto, Deus ethe creatures, proportionably the maker of them is Jeen: and not only they, effe. Sed quia but S. Paul hath taught us, that the invisible things of God, from the nos non fciCreation of the World, are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead. For if † Phidias quid eft, non t eft nobis per could fo contrive a piece of his own work, as in it to preferve the memory fe nota, fed of himself, never to be obliterated without the deftruction of the work, indiget demonftrari per well may we read the great Artificer of the World in the Works of his own ea quæ funt hands, and by the existence of any thing demonstrate the first Cause of all things, magis nota quoad nos, & minùs nota quoad naturam, fcilicet per effectus. Aquin. 1. p. q. 2. art. 2. a Wifd. of Sol. 13.15. Rom.1.20. This place must be vindicated from the falfe glofs of Socinus, who contends that it cannot be proved from the Creature that there is a God, and therefore to this place of S. Paul answers thus: Sciendum eft verba à creatione mundi debere conjungi cum verbo Invifibilia - Ait igitur eo in loco Apoftolus, aternam divinitatem Dei, i. id quod nos Deus perpetuo facere vult, (Divinitas enim hoc fenfu alibi quoque apud ipfum enunciatur, ut Col. 2.9.) aternamque potentiam, i. promiffiones quæ numquam intercident, (quo fenfu paulò fuperiùs dixerat Evangelium effe potentiam Dei) hæc, inquam, quæ nunquam poftquam mundus creatus eft ab hominibus vifa fuerant, i. non fuerant eis cognita, per opera, hoc eft per mirabiles ipfius Dei & divinorum hominum, præfertim v. Chrifti & Apoftolorum ejus, operationes, confpecta fuiffe. In which explication there is nothing which is not forced and distorted: for though his firft obfervation feem plausible, yet there is no validity in it. He bringeth only for proof, Mat. 13.35. xexguμμúa dirò xalaboλns nooμs, which proves not at all that & lioews has the fame fenfe: and it is more probable that it hath not, because that is usually expressed by aw' ágxñç xliœews, Mar. 10. 6. and 13, 19. 2 Pet. 3. 4. never by d xlioews. Befides, the nexgva in S. Matthew bears not that Analogy with dogala which Socinus pretends, fignifying not things unseen or unknown till then, but only obfcure fayings or parables; for which purpose those words were produced out of the Pfalms by the Evangelift, to prove that the Meffias was to speak in Parables, in the Original LXX. wegańμala úw' áęxñs, i. wife, ancient fayings, which were not unseen and unknown, for it immediately followeth, which we have heard and known, and our Fathers have told us, Pfal.78.3. And though he would make out this Interpretation, by accufing other Interpreters of unfaithfulness, Plerique interpretes ex præpofitione à, ex fecerunt, contra ipforum Græcorum Codicum fidem, qui non ix xlioews fed anxiosas habent: yet there is no ground for fuch a calumny, because may be, and is often, rendred è or ex as well as ix, as Matt. 3.4. no resxãv naμídy, è pilis camelinis, 7.4. X & iplarus 68, ex oculo tuo, 16. navtäv, ex fpinis; and even in the fenfe which Socinus contends for Mat. 17. 18. ens cuéivns, V. T. ex illâ horâ, as Tully, ex eo die, and Virgil, Ex illo Corydon, Corydon eft tempore nobis, and, Tempore jam ex illo cafus mihi cognitus urbis Trojanæ. So the Greek pigs the Latins render ex parte, &is, ex æquo: of which examples are innumerable. There is no unfaithfulness then imputable to the Interpreters: nor can such pitiful Criticisms give any advantage to the first part of Socinus's Expofition. Howfoever the Catholick Interpretation depends not on those words xlicews, but on the confideration of the perfons, that is the Gentiles, and the other words, nonmari vos pa, which he farther perverts, rendring them the miraculous Operations of Chrift and his Apostles, or, as one of our learned men, their doings, mistaking zoinua, which is from the passive weroinua, for woinois, from the active Toinca for woinua is properly the thing made or created, not the operation or doing of it; as xlios is fometimes taken for the Creature, fometimes for the Creation, but alioua is the Creature only. As therefore we read, 1 Tim. 4. 4. πᾶν κλίσμα Θεό καλόν. So Eph. 2. 10. αὐτῷ γάρ ἔσταρ ποίημα. In this fenfe fpake Thales properly, Πρεσβύτατον όντων Oròs, ágfúvalov gS`· xáλλisov xócμỡ, woinua 8, Laert. The other Interpretations which he was forced to, are yet more extravagant as when he renders the eternal Godhead, that which God would always have us do, or his everlafting will, and proves that rendition by another place of S. Paul, Col. 2.9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, that is, fays he, all the will of God (whereas it is most certain, that where the Godhead is, efpecially where the fulness, even all the fulness of the Godhead is, there must be all the Attributes as well as the Will of God:) and when he interprets the eternal Power to be the promifes which fhall never fail; and thinks he has fufficiently prov'd it, because the fame Apostle calls the Gospel the power of God. For by this way of Interpretation no fentence of Scripture can have any certain fenfe. In the field of Pallas. Arift. de mundo.

[ocr errors]

We find by the experience of our felves, that fome things in this World have a beginning, before which they were not; the account of the years of our Age fufficiently infer our Nativities, and they our Conceptions, before which we had no Being. Now if there be any thing which had a beginning, there must neceffarily be fomething which had no beginning, because nothing can be a beginning to itself. Whatsoever is, muft of neceffity either have been made, or not made; and fomething there must needs be which was never made, because all things cannot be made. For whatsoever is made, is made by another, neither can any thing produce it felf; otherwise it would follow, that the fame thing is and is not at the fame inftant in the fame refpect it is, because a producer; it is not, because to be produced : it is therefore in being, and is not in being; which is a manifeft contradi

D 2

ction.

A

is

χή τις, καὶ ἐκ

areng Tà aiτια τ' όντων, ὅτ' εἰς εὔθυσ

[ocr errors]

ction. If then all things which are made were made by fome other, that other which produced them either was it felf produced, or was not: and if not, then have we already an independent Being; if it were, we must at last come to fomething which was never made, or elfe admit either a circle of productions, in which the effect fhall make its own caufe, or an* infinite fucceffion in caufalities, by which nothing will be made: both which are equally impoffible. Something then we must confefs was never made, fomething which never had beginning. And although these effects or dependent a Beings fingly confidered by themselves, do not infer one fupreme Cause and id, d. Maker of them all, yet the admirable order and † connexion of things fhew Arift. Metaph. 1.2.6.2. and as much; and this one fupreme Caufe is God. For all things which we fee g or know have their Exiftence for fome end, which no man who confidereth μηδέν ἐςὶ τὸ the uses and utilities of every Species can deny. Now whatsoever is and hath its being for fome end, of that the end for which it is, muft be thought the Cause; and a final Caufe is no otherwife the caufe of any thing than † Hóber dλov as it moves the efficient Caufe to work: from whence we cannot but collect a prime efficient Cause of all things, indued with infinite Wisdom, who having a full comprehenfion of the ends of all, defigned, produced, and Ms. Juftin. difpofed all things to thofe ends.

c.

again,

πρῶτον, ὅλως

αἴτιον ἐσι.

[ocr errors]

δεν

εἰ ὅλως ἐπὶ θε

és; Ex laus

ὡς τε καὶ δια

Quast. & resp.

ad Gracos.

† Εν ὅσοις τέ

[ocr errors]

στω πέφυκε

[ocr errors]

་་

πέφυκεν

TÓTH VEND.

1.2. c.8.

Again, as all things have their existence, fo have they alfo their operations for fome end; and whatsoever worketh fo, muft needs be directed to it. riis, Although then thofe creatures which are indued with reafon can thereτότε ἕνεκα by apprehend the goodness of the end for which they work, and make 947 choice of fuch means as are proportionable and proper for the obtaining of ρότερον καὶ τὸ ©É૪૬ ૨૪v it, and fo by their own counsel direct themselves unto it: yet can we not srl, conceive that other natural Agents, whofe operations flow from a bare Inκαὶ ὡς πέφυκεν, ftinct, can be directed in their actions by any counfel of their own. The - stone doth not deliberate whether it fhall defcend, nor doth the wheat δίζη, έτω take counsel whether it fhall grow or no. Even men in natural actions πράττει ἕκα w2967767, ufe no act of deliberation : we do not advise how our heart fhall beat, 3 Evex T8, though without that pulfe we cannot live; when we have provided nutriExement for our ftomach, we take no counsel how it fhall be digefted there, Arift. Phyf. or how the chyle is diftributed to every part for the reparation of the whole; the Mother which conceives takes no care how that Conceptus fhall be framed, how all the parts fhall be diftinguished, and by what means or ways the Child fhall grow within her womb: and yet all thefe operations are directed to their proper ends, and that with a greater Reason, and therefore by a greater Wisdom, than what proceeds from any thing of human unnoita, ve derstanding. What then can be more clear, than that thofe natural Agents xas, which work conftantly for thofe ends which they themselves cannot perTo-ceive, must be directed by fome high and over-ruling Wifdom? and who i can be their director in all their operations tending to thofe ends, but he To which gave them their beings for thofe ends? and who is that, but the great Artificer who works in all of them? For Art is fo far the imitation of Nature, - that if it were not in the Artificer, but* in the thing it self which by Art is γική, ομοίως framed, the works of Art and Nature would be the fame. Were that which ἐν τῇ φύση ἐaid. Arift. ib. frames a Watch within it, and all thofe curious wheels wrought without the Η Καθόλες όπες hand of man, it would feem to grow into that form; nor would there be any diftinction between the making of that Watch, and the growing of a gual Plant. Now what the Artificer is to works of Art, who orders and difpofes them to other ends than by nature they were made, that is the Maker of d all things to all natural Agents, directing all their operations to ends which they cannot apprehend; and thus appears the Maker to be the Ruler of the World, the Steerer of this great Ship, the Law of this univerfal Commonwealth, the General of all the hofts of Heaven and Earth. By these ways, as

"ATOTOY TO

ἐὰν μὴ ἴδωσι

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

by the* teftimony of the Creature, we come to find an eternal and inde- * Habet Dopendent Being, upon which all things elfe depend, and by which all things monium toelfe are governed; and this we have before fuppofed to be the first notion tum hoc quod of God.

minus tefti

fumus, & in quo fumus.

Tertul.

Aexaî

τις λόγο πάτριος ἐτι

är vegsc

Θεῖ τὰ πάντ

Ta, x 2d 018

[ocr errors]

LEV. Arift. de
Mundo.

Neither is this any private collection or particular ratiocination, but the publick and univerfal reafon of the world. † No Age so distant, no Country fo remote, no People fo barbarous, but gives a fufficient teftimony of this truth. When the Roman Eagle flew over moft parts of the habitable world, they met with Atheism no-where, but rather by their miscellany Deities at Rome, which grew together with their victories, they fhewed no Nation was without its God. And fince the later Art of Navigation improved hath difcovered another part of the world, with which no former commerce hath been known, although the Cuftoms of the people be much different, and their manner of Religion hold fmall correfpondency with any in these parts of the world profeffed, yet in this all agree, that fome religious obfervances they retain, and a Divinity they acknowledge. Or if any Nation be difcovered which maketh no profeffion of piety, and exercifeth no religious obfervances, it followeth not from thence that they acknowledge no God: for they may only deny his Providence, as the Epicureans did; or if any go farther, their numbers are fo few, that they must be inconfiderable in refpect of mankind. And therefore fo much of the Creed hath been the general Confeffion of * all Nations, I believe in God. Which were it not a moft* Nulla gens certain truth grounded upon principles obvious unto all, what reafon could ufquam eft abe given of fo univerfal a confent; or how can it be imagined, that all men ges moréfque fhould † confpire to deceive themselves and their posterity?

deò contra le

projecta, ut

Deos credat.

furorem om

furda numina

Nor is the reafon only general, and the confent unto it univerfal, but God non aliquos hath ftill preferved and quickened the worship due unto his Name, by the Sen. patefaction of himself. Things which are to come are fo beyond our know- Nec in hunc ledge, that the wifest man can but conjecture: and being we are affured of nes mortales the contingency of future things, and our ignorance of the concurrence of confenfiffent feveral free caules to the production of an effect, we may be fure that certain alloquendi and infallible predictions are clear divine patefactions. For none but he & inefficaces who made all things, and gave them power to work, none but he who ru- Deos. Sen. leth all things, and ordereth and directeth all their operations to their ends, none but he upon whose will the actions of all things depend, can poffibly be imagined to foresee the effects depending merely on thofe caufes. And therefore by what means we may be affured of a Prophecy, by the fame we may be fecured of a Divinity. Except then all the Annals of the world were forgeries, and all remarks of History defigned to put a cheat upon pofterity, we can have no pretence to fufpect God's exiftence, having fo ample teftimonies of his influence.

any

The works of nature appear by obfervation uniform, and there is a certian fphere of every body's power and activity. If then action be performed, which is not within the compafs of the power of any natural agent, if any thing be wrought by the intervention of a body which beareth no proportion to it, or hath no natural aptitude fo to work; it must be afcribed to a cause transcending all natural caufes, and difpofing all their operations. Thus every Miracle proves its author, and every act of Omnipotency is a fufficient demonstration of a Deity. And that man must be poffeffed with a strange opinion of the weakness of our Fathers, and the teftimony of all former Ages, who fhall deny that ever any Miracle was wrought. We have heard with Pfal. 44. 1. our ears, O God, our Fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days, in the times of old. Bleed be the Lord God, who only doth wondrous works.

Nor are we only informed by the neceffary dependency of all things on
God,

72.18.

Rom. 2. 15.

God, as effects upon their univerfal caufe, or his external patefections unto others, and the confentient acknowledgment of mankind; but every particular perfon hath a particular Remembrancer in himself, as a fufficient teftimony of his Creator, Lord, and Judge. We know there is a great force of Confcience in all men, by which their thoughts are ever accufing, or excufing them; they feel a comfort in thofe vertuous actions which they find themselves to have wrought according to their Rule, a fting and fecret remorse for all vicious acts and impious machinations. Nay thofe who ftrive most to deny a God, and to obliterate all fenfe of Divinity out of their own Souls, have not been least sensible of this Remembrancer in their Breasts. 'Tis true indeed, that a false opinion of God, and a fuperftitious perfuafion which hath nothing of the true God in it, may breed a remorfe of Confcience in those who think it true; and therefore fome may hence collect that the force of Confcience is only grounded upon an opinion of a Deity, and that opinion may be falfe. But if it be a truth, as the teftimonies of the wifest Writers of most different perfuafions, and experience of all forts of perfons of most various inclinations, do agree, that the remorfe of Confcience can never be obliterated, then it rather proveth than fuppofeth an opinion of a Divinity; and that man which moft peremptorily denieth God's existence is the greatest argument himself that there is a God. Let Caligula profefs himfelf an Atheist, and with that profeffion hide his head, or run under his bed, when the thunder ftrikes his ears, and lightning flashes in his eyes; those terrible works of nature put him in mind of the power, and his own guilt of the justice of God; whom while in his wilful opinion he weakly denieth, in his involuntary action he strongly afferteth. So that a Deity will either be granted or extorted, and where it is not acknowledged it will be manifefted. Only unhappy is that man who denies him to himself, and proves him to others; who will not* acknowledge his existence, of whose power we cannot be ignorant, a God is not far from every one of us. The proper difcourfe of S. Paul to the Philofophers of Athens was, that they might feel ignorare non after him and find him. Some Children have been fo ungracious as to refufe to give the honour due unto their Parent, but never any fo irrational Idol. Van. as to deny they had a Father. As for those who have difhonoured God, a Act. 17.27. it may stand most with their interest, and therefore they may wish there were none; but cannot confift with their reason to affert there is none, bAct. 17.28. when even the very Poets of the Heathen have taught us that we are his Off-Spring.

* Hæc eft fumma deli

cti, nolle agnofcere quem

pollis.

S. Cypr. de

It is neceffary thus to believe there is a God, Firft, because there can be no Divine Faith without this belief. For all Faith is therefore only Divine, because it relieth upon the authority of God giving teftimony to the object of it; but that which hath no being can have no authority, can give no teftimony. The ground of his authority is his Veracity, the foundations of his Veracity are his Omniscience and Sanctity, both which fuppofe his Effence and Existence, because what is not is neither knowing nor holy.

Secondly, it is neceffary to believe a Deity, that thereby we may acknowledge fuch a nature extant as is worthy of, and may juftly challenge from us, the highest worship and adoration. For it were vain to be religious and to exercife devotion, except there were a Being to which all fuch holy applications were moft juftly due. Adoration implies fubmiffion and dejection, fo that while we worship we caft down our felves: there must be therefore fome great eminence in the object worshipped, or else we should dishonour our own nature in the worship of it. But when a Being is prefented of that intrinfecal and neceffary perfection, that it depends on nothing, and all things elfe depend on that, and are wholly governed and difpofed by it, this worthily

calls

calls us to our knees, and fhews the humbleft of our devotions to be but just and loyal retributions.

This neceffary truth hath been fo univerfally received, that we shall always find all nations of the World more prone unto Idolatry than to Atheism, and readier to multiply than deny the Deity. But our Faith teacheth us equally to deny them both, and each of them are renounced in these words, I believe in God. First, in God affirmatively, I believe he is, against Atheism. Secondly, in God exclufively, not in Gods, against Polytheifm and Idolatry. Altho' therefore the Existence and Unity of God be two diftinct truths, yet are they of so neceffary dependence and intimate coherence, that both may* Solum Debe expreffed by* one word, and included in one† Article.

um confirmas quem tantùm Deum nominas, Tertul. de Teftim. Anima, c. 2. When Leo, Bishop of Rome, in an Epiftle to Flavianus had written thefe words, Fidelium univerfitas profitetur credere fe in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, & in Jefum Chriftum Filium ejus; one of the Eutychians objected with this question, Cur non dixerit in unum Deum Patrem, & in unum Jefum, juxta Nicæni Decretum Concilii? To which Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, or rather of Tapfus, gives this answer, Sed Romæ & antequam Nicæna Synodus conveniret, à temporibus Apoftolorum ufque ad nunc, ità fidelibus Symbolum traditur, nec præjudicant verba ubi fenfus incolumis permanet: magis enim cum D. J. Chrifti fententia hæc fidei profeffio facit dicentis, creditis in eum & in me credite: nec dixit in unum Deum Patrem, & in unum meipfum. Quis enim nefciat unum effe Deum, & unum J. Chriftum Filium ejus? Vigil. l. 4. contra Eutych. † Rab. Chasdai in Or. Adonai. R. Jofeph. Albo in hikarim.

a

Ecclefiæ om

omnipotenti.

omnia pote

And that the Unity of the Godhead is concluded in this Article is apparent, not only because the Nicene Council fo expreffed it by way of expofition, but also because this Creed in the * Churches of the Eaft, before the Council of* Orientales Nice, had that addition in it, I believe in one God. We begin our Creed then nes ifta traas Plato did his chief and prime Epiftles, who gave this diftinction to his dunt, Credo in friends, that the Name of God was prefixed before those that were more fe- no Deo Patre rious and remarkable, but of Gods, in the plural, to fuch as were more vul- Ruff. in Symb. and trivial. Unto thee it was fhewed, faith Mofes to Ifrael, that thou Bene hæc gar mightest know that the Lord he is God, there is none elfe befide him. And runt ad folos as the Law, fo the Gospel teacheth us the fame, We know that an Idol is Hæreticos nothing in the World, and there is none other God but one. This Unity pertinere, of the Godhead will eafily appear as neceffary as the existence, fo that it runt Symbomust be as impoffible there fhould be more Gods than one, as that there lum, dum alfhould be none: which will clearly be demonftrated, firft, out of the nature duos Deos, of God, to which multiplication is repugnant; and, fecondly, from the Go- cum Deus uvernment as he is Lord, in which we must not admit Confufion. nus fit. Optat. 1. 1. Nos enim

quia falfave

ter dixerit

& fcimus, & legimus, & credimus, & tenemus, unum effe Deum, qui fecit cœlum pariter ac terram, quoniam nec alterum novimus nec nôffe, cum nullus fit, aliquando poterimus. Novatianus de Trinit. c. 30. And before all thefe Irenæus, citing under the title of Scripture, a paffage out of the Book of Hermas called Paftor. Bene ergo Scriptura dicit, primo omnium crede quoniam unus eft Deus, qui omnia conftituit & confummavit, & fecit ex eo quod non erat, ut effent omnia, omnium capax, & qui à nemine capiatur, l. 4. c. 37. † Eufeb. in prap. Evang. the paffage is yet extant in the Epifiles of Plato. Deut. 4. 35. b 1 Cor. 8.4.

a

For first, the nature of God confifts in this, that he is the prime and original caufe of all things, as an independent Being upon which all things elfe depend, and likewife the ultimate end or final caufe of all; but in this fenfe two prime causes are inimaginable, and for all things to depend of one, and to be more independent beings than one, is a clear contradiction. This primity God requires to be attributed to himfelf; Hearken unto me, O Jacob, Isa. 48. 12. and Ifrael my called, I am he, I am the first, I also am the laft. And from this primity he challengeth his Unity; Thus faith the Lord, the King of 44.6. Ifrael, and his redeemer the Lord of Hofts, I am the firft, and I am the laft, and befide me there is no God.

Again, if there were more Gods than one, then were not all perfections in one, neither formally, by reafon of their diftinction, nor eminently and virtually, for then one fhould have power to produce the other, and that nature which is producible is not divine. But all acknowledge God to be absolutely and infinitely perfect, in whom all perfections imaginable which

are

« PreviousContinue »