Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

p. 1A DISCOURSE UPON THE Existence of God.

The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; they are corrupt, they have done abominable Works: there is none that doth 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 Bryars 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. 3.9. [We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.] And v. 10.11, 12. Cites part of his 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 Athestical principles, the other in unworthy practices; 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 signifie a vicious person, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 as coming from 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 signifies the extinction of life in Men, Animals and Plants, so the word 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 is taken [Isa. 40.7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the flower fadeth Isa. 28.1.] , a plant that hath lost all that juyce that made it lovely and useful. 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. [Mais 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 put together Deut. 32.6. Oh foolish people and unwise.]

p. 1* 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. Tis used in the like case of the Atheistical person, Psal. 10.11.13. 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 openly publish it, though he dares secretly think it. He can not rase out the thoughts of a Deity, though he endeavors to blot those Characters of God in his Soul. He hath some doubts whither 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 him self by convincing arguments to produce to the World, but he tampered with his own heart to bring it to that perswasion, 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.

p. 2There is no God [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 No God] ] 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 non potestas Domini, Chaldae. Tis not Jehovah, which name signifies the Essence of God, as the Prime and Supream being; But Eloahia, which name signifies the Providence of God, [Muis.] God as a Rector and Judge. Not that he denyes the Existence of a Supream 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.

[Cocceius.] There is a threefold denyal of God, 1. Quoad exisientiam; 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.

[Not owning him as the Egyptians called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] Of the denyal of the Providence of God most understand this [Eugubin in cloc.] not excluding the absolute Atheist, as Diagoras is reported to be, nor the Sceptical Atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whither there were a God. 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 uncontroul'd in their Lusts, which induceth men to a denyal 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.

p. 2That at one blow, their fears may be dasht all in peices 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 dimm'd, 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 doth 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 choak 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 denyal or doubting of some of the rights of his nature: [Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements, but practical is in all mens actions. The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind, but not the former. As the word translated corrupt signifies.] 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 shaken off, all kind of wickedness is eagerly rusht, into, whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrified carcases are to men: [Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements, but practical is in all mens actions. The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind, but not the former. As the word translated corrupt signifies.] Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle, but the whole scene of a mans life is corrupted and becomes execrable.