vation of the entrails of cows, of the flying of vultures, and the pecking of chickens? Nay, the old augurs and soothsayers had better reason to profess the art of divining than the modern astrological Atheist; for they supposed there were some demons that directed the indications. So likewise the Chaldean and Egyptian astrologers were much more excusable than he. It was the religion of their countries to worship the stars, as we know from unquestionable authority. They believed them intelligent beings, and no other than very gods; and therefore had some reason to suspect that they might govern human affairs. The influence of the stars was in their apprehensions no less than divine power. But an Atheist, that believes the planets to be dark, solid, and senseless bodies, like the brute earth he treads on; and the fixed stars and the sun to be inanimate balls of fire; what reasons can he advance for the credit of such influences? he acknowledgeth nothing besides matter and motion; so that all that he can conceive to be transmitted hither from the stars must needs be performed either by mechanism or accident; either of which is wholly unaccountable, and the latter irreconcilable to any art or system of science. But, if both were allowed the Atheist, yet, as to any production of mankind, they will be again refuted in my following discourse. I can preserve a due esteem for some great men of the last age, before the mechanical philosophy was revived, though they were too much addicted to this nugatory art. When occult quality, and sympathy and antipathy, were admitted for satisfactory explications of things, even wise and virtuous men might swallow down any opinion that was countenanced by antiquity. But at this time of day, when all the general powers and capacities of matter are so clearly understood, he must be very ridiculous himself that doth not deride and explode the antiquated folly. But we may see the miserable • Maimonides, More Nevochim de Zabiis et Chaldæis. Plato in Cratylo. Diodorus, lib. i. cap. 2. Eusebius, Demonst. [Præpar.] Evangel. lib. i. c. 6. Φοίνικας τοιγαροῦν καὶ Αἰγυπτίους πρώτους ἁπάντων κατέχει λόγος ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἀστέρας Θεοὺς ἀποφῆναι. shifts that some men are put to, when that which was first founded upon, and afterwards supported by idolatry, is now become the tottering sanctuary of Atheism: if the stars be no deities, astrology is groundless; and if the stars be deities, why is the astrologer an Atheist? He may easily be no Christian; and 'tis difficult, indeed, to be both at once: because, as I have said before, idolatry is at the bottom; and by submitting human actions and inclinations to the influence of the stars, they destroy the very essence of moral virtue, and the efficacy of divine grace; and therefore astrology was justly condemned by the ancient fathers and Christian emperors.f An astrologer, I say, may very easily be no Christian; he may be an idolater or a pagan: but I could hardly think astrology to be compatible with rank atheism, if I could suppose any great gifts of nature to be in that person who is either an Atheist or an astrologer. But,* let him be what he will, he is not able to do much hurt by his reasons and example; for religion itself, according to his principles, is derived from the stars. And he owns, 'tis not any just exceptions he hath taken against it, but 'tis his destiny and fate: 'tis Saturn in the ninth house, and not judgment and deliberation, that made him an Atheist. Concil. Laod. can. 36. Conc. 6. in Trullo, can. 61. Cod. Just. lib. ix. tit. 18. Cod. Theodos. lib. ix. tit. 16. Baσiλik@v lib. lx. tit. 39. [ to be in that person who is either an Atheist or an astrologer. But; 1st ed. "to be where either do reside. But."-D.] A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM FROM THE STRUCTURE AND ORIGIN OF HUMAN BODIES. PART II. SERMON IV. Preached June the 6th, 1692. ACTS, xvii. 27. That they should seek 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. In the former part of this inquiry I have examined and refuted two atheistical notions opposed to the great* doctrine of the text, that we owe our living and being to the power of God: the one of the Aristotelian Atheists, who, to avoid the difficulties of the first production of mankind without the intervention of almighty wisdom and power, will have the race to have thus continued without beginning, by an eternal succession of infinite past generations; which assertion hath been detected to be mere nonsense, and contradictory to itself: the other of the astrological undertakers, that would raise men like vegetables out of some fat† and slimy soil, well digested by the kindly heat of the sun, and impregnated with the influence of the stars upon some remarkable and periodical conjunctions; which opinion hath been vamped up [* great; 1st ed. "grand."-D.] [t fat; so 1st ed. and other eds.; ed. of 1735. "flat."-D.] VOL. III. L of late by Cardan and Cesalpinus, and other newsmongers from the skies; a pretence as groundless and silly, as the dreaming oneirocritics of Artemidorus and Astrampsychus, or the modern chiromancy and divinations of gipsies. I proceed now to the two remaining paradoxes of such sects of Atheists, as, laying aside astrology and the unintelligible influence of heavenly bodies, except that which proceeds from their gravity, and heat, and light, do either produce mankind mechanically and necessarily from certain connexions of natural causes; or more dully and supinely, though altogether as reasonably, resolve the whole business into the unaccountable shuffles and tumults of matter, which they call chance and accident. But at present I shall only take an account of the supposed production of human bodies by mechanism and necessity. The mechanical or corpuscular philosophy, though peradventure the oldest as well as the best in the world, had lain buried for many ages in contempt and oblivion, till it was happily restored and cultivated anew by some excellent wits of the present age.† But it principally owes its reestablishment and lustre to Mr. Boyle, that honourable person of ever-blessed memory, who hath not only shewn its usefulness in physiology above the vulgar doctrines of real qualities and substantial forms, but likewise its great serviceableness to religion itself. And I think it hath been competently proved in a former discourse, how friendly it is to the immateriality of human souls, and consequently to the existence of a supreme spiritual Being. And I may have occasion hereafter to shew further, that all the powers of mechanism are entirely dependent on the Deity, and do afford a solid argument for the reality of his nature. So far am I from the apprehension of any great feats that this mechanical Atheist can do against religion. For, if we consider the phenomena of the material world with a due and serious attention, we [* except that which proceeds from; 1st ed. "more than by."-D.] [t age; not in 1st ed.-D.] [§ the; 1st ed. “ that.”—D.] shall plainly perceive, that its present frame and system, and all the established laws of nature, are constituted and preserved by gravitation alone. That is the powerful cement which holds together this magnificent structure of the world, which stretcheth the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing;a if we may transfer the words of Job from the first and real cause to the secondary agent. Without gravity,† the whole universe, if we suppose an undetermined power of motion infused into matter, would have been a confused chaos, without beauty or order, and never stable and permanent in any condition. Now it may be proved, in its due place, that this gravity, the great basis of all mechanism, is not itself mechanical, but the immediate fiat and finger of God, and the execution of the divine law; and that bodies have not the power of tending towards a centre, either from other bodies or from themselves: which at once, if it be proved, will undermine and ruin all the towers and batteries that the Atheists have raised against heaven. For, if no compound body in the visible world can subsist and continue without gravity, and if gravity do immediately flow from a divine power and energy, it will avail them nothing, though they should be able to explain all the particular effects, even the origination of animals, by mechanical principles. But, however, at present I will forbear to urge this against the Atheist. For, though I should allow him, that this catholic principle of gravitation is essential to matter without introducing a God; yet I will defy him to shew, how a human body could be at first produced naturally, according to the present system of things, and the mechanical affections of matter. And because this Atheist professeth to believe as much as we, that the first production of mankind was in a quite different manner from the present and ordinary method of nature, and yet affirms nevertheless that that was natural [* system, and all the; 1st ed. "constitution and the."-D.] a Job, xxvi. 7. [ if; not in 1st ed.-D.] |