fhew them the Colour and Complexion of a Soul. They should difpute, as a bold Brother of theirs did; That he was fure there was no God, because (fays he) if there was one, he would have ftruck me to Hell with Thunder and Lightning, that have so reviled and blafphemed him. This would be an Objection indeed. Alas, all that we could answer, is in the next words to the Text, That God. hath appointed a day in which he will judge all the world in Righteousness, and that the Goodness and Forbearance, and Long-fuffering of God, which are some of his Attributes, and Essential Perfections of his Being, ought not to be abused and perverted into arguments against his Being. But if this will not do, we muft yield our felves overcome: for we neither can, nor desire to command fire to come down from Heaven and confume them; and give them such experimental Conviction of the Existence of God. So that they ought to take these Methods, if they would fuccessfully attack Religion. But if they will still be medling with Atoms, be hammering and fqueezing Understanding out of them; I would advise them to make use of their own Understandings for the Inftance. Nothing, in my opinion could run us down, more effectually than that. For we readily allow, that if any Understanding can poffibly be produced by fuch clashing of fenfeless Atoms;

K

'tis

'tis that of an Atheist, that hath the fairest Pretenfions and the best Title to it. We know, it is the Fool, that hath faid in his heart, there is no God. And 'tis no less a Truth than a Paradox, That there are no greater Fools than Atheistical Wits; and none fo credulous as Infidels. No Article of Religion, though as demonftrable as the Nature of the thing can admit, hath credibility enough for them. And yet these fame cautious and quick fighted Gentlemen can wink and swallow down this fottish Opinion about Percipient Atoms, which exceeds in Incredibility all the Fictions of fop's Fables. For is it not every whit as likely or more, that Cocks and Bulls might difcourfe, and Hinds and Panthers hold Conferences about Religion, as that Atoms can do fo? that Atoms can invent Arts and Sciences, can inftitute So ciety and Government, can make Leagues and Con federacies, can devife Methods of Peace and Stratagems of War? And moreover, the Modesty of Mythology deserves to be commended, the Scenes there are laid at a distance; 'Tis once upon a time, in the Days of Yore, and in the Land of Utopia, there was a Dialogue between an Oak and a Cedar : whereas the Atheift is fo impudently filly, as to bring the Farce of his Atoms upon the Theatre of the prefent Age; to make dull senseless Matter tranfact all publick and private Affairs, by Sea and by

Land,

16.

Land, in Houses of Parliament, and Closets of Princes. Can any Credulity be comparable to this? If a Man fhould affirm, that an Ape cafually meeting with Pen, Ink, and Paper, and falling to scribble, did happen to write exactly the Leviathan of Thomas Hobbs: Would an Atheist believe fuch a ftory? and yet he can easily digeft as incredible as that; that the innumerable Members of a Humane Body, which in the style of the Scripture are all written in the Book of God, and may admit of almost Pfal. 139. infinite Variations and Tranfpofitions above the xxiv Letters of the Alphaber, were at first fortuitoufly fcribled, and by meer accident compacted into this beautifull, and noble and most wonderfully usefull Frame, which we now fee it carry. But this will be the Argument of my next Discourse, which is the second Propofition drawn from the Text, That the Admirable Structure of Humane Bodies, whereby they are fitted to live and move, and be vitally informed by the Soul, is unquestionably the Workmanship of a moft wife and powerfull and beneficent Maker: To which Almighty Creator, together with the Son and the Holy Ghoft, be all Honour and Glory and Majefty and Power bath now and from henceforth evermore. Amen.

A

CONFUTATION

OF

ATHEISM

FROM THE

Structure and Origin of Humane Bodies.

PART I

The Third SERMON preached May 2. 1692.

Acts XVII. 27.

That they should feek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him; though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we Live, and Move, and have our Being.

I

Have faid enough in my laft, to fhew the fitnefs and pertinency of the Apoftle's Difcourfe to the perfons he address'd to: whereby it fufficiently appears that he was no Babler, as fome of the Athenian Rabble reproached him; not

Virgil.

a oπεguoλój, a busie prating Fellow; as in another language they say Sermones ferere, and Rumores serere in a like mode of Expreffion; that he did not zivius. talk at random, but was throughly acquainted with the feveral humours and opinions of his Auditors. And as Mofes was learned in all the Wisdom of the Æ gyptians, so it is manifest from this Chapter alone, if nothing else had been now extant, that St. Paul was a great Mafter in all the Learning of the Greeks. One thing further I fhall observe from the words of the Text, before I enter upon the Subject which I proposed; that it requires fome Industry and Confideration to find out the Being of God; we must feek the Lord, and feel after him, before we can find him by the Light of Nature. The fearch indeed is not very tedious nor difficult; He is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our Being. The Confideration of our Mind and Understanding, which is an incorporeal Substance independent from Matter; and the contemplation of our own Bodies, which have all the ftamps and characters of excellent Contrivance; these alone, though we look upon nothing abroad, do very easily and proxi mately guide us to the wife Author of all things. But however, as we fee in our Text, fome Thoughts and Meditation are neceffary to it; and a man may poffibly be so stupid, or wilfully ignorant or per

verfe