LECTURE VI. CREED. Article I.-I believe in God the Father, &c. THE HE foundation of all religion is faith in God: the perfuafion, that there doth, ever did, and ever will exist, one Being of unbounded Power and Knowledge, perfect Juftice, Truth and Goodness, the Creator and Preferver, the Sovereign Lord and Ruler of all Things. With this article therefore our Creed begins. And as all the reft are built upon it, fo the truth and certainty of it is plain to every man, when duly propofed to his confideration, how unlikely foever fome men would have been to discover it of themselves. We know beyond poffibility of doubt, that we now are; and yet the oldest of us, but a few years ago, was not. How then came we to be? Whence had we our beginning? From our parents, perhaps we may think. But did our parents know, or do we know in the leaft, how to form fuch a mind as that of man, with all its faculties; or fuch a body as that of man, with all its parts and members; or even the very fmalleft of them? No more than a tree knows how to make the feed that grows into a like tree: no more, than any common inftrument knows how to do the work, which is done by its means. Our parents were only inftruments in the hands of fome higher power: and, to speak properly, That it is which made and not ve ourselves or one another. And the fame us, * is the cafe of every animal and every plant upon the face of the earth. But could our parents be the cause of our being; yet still the firft human pair must have had some different cause of theirs. Will it then be faid, that there was no firft? But we cannot conceive this to be poffible. And it certainly is not true. For we have undoubted accounts in ancient hiftories, of the time when men were but few in the world, and inhabited but *Pfalm.... -a fmall a small part of it; and therefore were near their beginning: accounts of the times, when almost all arts and sciences were invented, which mankind would not have been long in being, much less from eternity, without finding out. And upon the whole, there is strong evidence, that the present frame of things is not more than about fix thousand years old: and that none of us, here prefent, is 150 generations diftant from our first parent. If it be faid, that univerfal deluges may perhaps have deftroyed almost all the race of men, and so made that seem a new beginning, which was not: we answer, that one fuch deluge we own; but that no such can poffibly happen according to the common course of nature, as learned perfons have abundantly shown. And confequently, this proves a higher power, instead of destroying the proof of it. But without having recourse to hiftory, it is evident from the very form and appearance of this earth, that it cannot have been from eternity. If it had, to mention nothing else, the hills must all have been washed down by fhowers, innumerable ages ago, to a level with the plains*. And indeed they, who have thought of thefe matters, well know and confefs, that the prefent conftitution of the heavens and earth both must have a beginning, and muft of itself come to an end. To fay therefore, that things are by nature what they are, is to fay a plain falfehood, if we mean, that they are so by any neceffity in their own natures. For then they must always have been fuch as we see them; and not the leaft part of any thing could poffibly have been at all different from what it is: which is the wildeft imagination in the world. The only nature therefore, which we and the whole univerfe have, was freely given us by a fuperior Being. And the regularity, in which things go on, is no more a proof, that they were of themselves from everlasting, or fhall continue as they are to everlasting, than the regular motion of a clock is a proof, *This argument is produced from Theophrafius, in Philo gì 'gas xioμx, page 510; and two answers to it attempted, p. 513: That mountains may lofe parts, and gain them again, as trees do their leaves; or are fupported by the internal fire, which threw them up. The first is an abfurd affertion: the latter a groundless and falfe one. that no artist made it, or keeps it in order, or-fhall take it pieces. On the contrary, the more complete this regularity is, and the longer it lafts, the more fully it shows the power of its author, and not only that, but his understanding and wisdom also. Indeed what hath no understanding, hath, in ftrictness of fpeech, no power; cannot act, but only be acted upon as all mere matter is; which never moves, but as it is moved. But were this doubtful: look around you, and see what marks of understanding and wifdom appear. Turn your eyes upon yourselves: How fearfully and wonderfully are we made! Of what an incredible number and variety of parts, (a vastly greater than perhaps any of us fufpect,) are our bodies compofed! How were these formed and put together at first? What hath caused, and what hath limited their growth fince? How hath proper and fuitable nourishment been diftributed to them all? How hath the perpetual motion of our blood, and of our breath, fleeping and waking, both of them fo neceffary to life, been carried on? How is it, that we move every joint belonging to us, inftantly, and with fuch exactness, without knowing even which way we go about it? Our speech, our hearing, our fight, every one of our fenfes, what amazing contrivance is there in them; and the more amazing, the more strictly we examine them! In the works of men, it is often mere ignorance that occafions our admiration: but in these, the minuter our inspection and the deeper our fearch is, the greater abundance we always find of accurate adjustments and unimaginable precautions. But then, befides ourfelves, the earth is replenished with numberlefs other animals. Thofe, of which we commonly take notice, are an extremely fmall part of the whole. Different countries produce very different forts. How many,ftill more different, the great waters conceal from us, we cannot even guefs. Multitudes remain, fo little as almost to escape our fight, with the best affistance that we are able to give it; and probably multitudes more, which efcape it intirely. But all that we can obferve, we find, down to the very leaft, contrived with the fame inconceivable art, ftrangely, diversified, yet uniform at the fame time, and perfectly fitted by moft furprifing *Pfal. cxxxix. 14. prifing instincts for their several ways of living, fo entirely different each from the other. What wisdom and power muft it be then, which hath peopled the world in this manner, and made fuch provifion for the fupport of all its inhabitants: chiefly by the means of innumerable kinds of herbs and vegetables, just as wonderful in their make, as the animals themfelves: that hath intermixed the dry land fo fitly with fprings, and rivers, and lakes, and the ocean, to supply every thing with neceflary moisture, and make the communication of the most diftant parts easy that hath furrounded the earth with air for us to breathe in, to convey our voices to each other, and to fupport clouds for rain that hath caused this air to be moved by winds, which preserve it healthful: and bring those, who go down to the fea in fhips, unto the haven where they would be*: that hath placed the fun at fo exact a distance from us, that we are neither burnt up by heat, nor frozen by cold; and hath kept bodies of fuch incredible bulk, as the heavenly ones, rolling on for thousands of years together, with fo orderly and exact a motion, that the returns of day and night, and of the various annual feafons, are precifely foreknown; and perfectly fuitable for labour and reft, and bringing the fruits of the earth to maturity: whereas were almost any one of these things confiderably altered, we must all of neceffity perish. But then, how small a part of the universe our habitation may be; and how many, perhaps greater, wonders the reft may contain; we cannot fo much as conjecture. The millions of miles, that are between us and the neareft of the celeftial globes, would be aftonishing, if mentioned to you. Yet their distance is as nothing, if compared with the furtheft, which we fee and very poffibly the furtheft, which we fee, may be as nothing to many others: every one of which, we have no reason to doubt, is as full of regularity, and beauty, and ufe, as our own abode. And from what origin can the whole of this proceed, but that which the Pfalmift rapturously expreffes: O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wifdom haft thou made them all +. : To speak of chance, as the cause of them, is abfurd beyond meafure. Chance is merely a word, to exprefs our own ighorance: it is nothing, and can do nothing. Suppose one of us Pfal. cvii. 23, 30. + Pfal. civ. 24. us were asked, how this building, in which we are affembled, or the smallest part of the dress which we wear, came to be what it is; and should answer that no perfon made it, but it jumped together and held together by chance; would not this be grofs folly? And how fhockingly foolish muft it be then, to give the same account of the existence of a whole world, fo admirably contrived, adjusted and conducted throughout! As evidently therefore as any common piece of work proves a workman to have compofed it, fo evidently, and very much more, the immenfe fabric of the universe proves a Being of unfpeakable power and fkill to be the Creator of it. And accordingly, the belief of a wife and mighty Author of all hath been received in every age and nation which clearly fhows it to be founded in truth, and written in the hearts of men. They corrupted it gradually indeed: firft by unworthy representations of the true God, then by adding the worship of falfe gods, which at length excluded him. But undeniably the primitive notion was that of an invifible mind, the Maker and Ruler of this visible frame: which being plainly under one uniform direction, shows itself to have one only Sovereign director and governor. This doctrine God himself must have taught our first parents in the beginning; he hath confirmed it fince by miracles from time to time: and perpetuated the evidence of it in his holy word. : That he is not perceived by any of our fenfes, is no objection at all againft his Being. For our minds alfo are imperceptible by sense. But as they, notwithstanding, shew their existence by moving and difpofing of our bodies according to their pleasure; fo doth God fhow his, by moving and difpofing of all things as he wills. And the fame argument proves his prefence with all things. For wherever he acts, there he certainly is and therefore he is every where. Our presence is limited, and extends a very little way: but what is there to limit him? Our being is derived from his command; and therefore depends on it ftill: but he is underived; and therefore independent abfolutely. Our powers are only what he hath thought fit to give us but his power is infinite: for cvery thing depending on him, nothing can refift him, Our knowledge is every way imperfect: but he who made all things, muft in the completeft manner know all things, even the most hidden thoughts of the heart. We are often unjust and |