shew him a new heaven and a new earth, springing out of nothing, he might say that innumerable parts of matter chanced just then to rally together, and to form themselves into this new world, and that God did not make it. Thus you see that we have all the rational assurance of a God that the thing is capable of, and that Atheism is absurd and unreasonable in requiring more.

§ IV.

The Atheist is unreasonable, because he pretends to know that which no man can know, and to be certain of that which nobody can be certain of; that is, That there is no God, and which is consequent upon this (as I shall shew afterwards), that it is not possible there should be one. And the Atheist must pretend to know this certainly. For it were the

greatest folly in the world for a man to deny and despise a God, if he be not certain that He is not. Now whoever pretends to be certain that there is no God, hath this great disadvantage, he pretends to be certain of a pure negative. But of negatives we have far the least certainty, and they are usually hardest, and many times impossible to be proved. Indeed, such negatives as only deny some particular mode or manner of a thing's existence, a man may have a certainty of them; because when we see things to be, we may see what they are, and in what manner they do or do not exist. For instance, we may be certain that man is not a creature that hath wings, because this only concerns the manner of his existence; and we seeing what he is, may certainly know that he is not so, or so. But pure negatives, that is, such as absolutely deny the existence of things, or the possibility of their

existence, can never be proved. For after all that can be said against a thing, this will still be true, that many things possibly are which we know not of, and that many more things may be than are; and if so, after all our arguments against a thing, it will be uncertain whether it be or not. And this is universally true, unless the thing denied to be, do plainly imply a contradiction; from which I have already shewn the notion of a God to be free. Now the Atheist pretends to be certain of a pure negative, that there is no such being as God, and that it is not possible there should be: But no man can reasonably pretend to know thus much, but he must pretend to know all things that are or can be, which if any man should be so vain as to pretend to, yet it is to be hoped that nobody would be so weak as to believe him,

§ V.

Speculative Atheism is unreasonable, because it contradicts itself. There is this great contradiction in the denial of a God. He that denies a God, says that that is impossible which yet he must grant to be possible. He says it is impossible that there should be such a Being as God, in saying that de facto there is no such being. For eternity being essential to the notion of a God, if there be not a God already, it is impossible now that there should be one; because such a being as is supposed to be essentially eternal and without beginning, cannot now begin to be. And yet he must grant it possible that there should be such a being, because it is possible there should be such a being as hath all possible perfection: and such a being as

this, is that which we call God, and is that very thing which the Atheist denies and others affirm to be. For he that denies a God, must deny such a being as all the world describe God to be; and this is the general notion which all men have of God—that he is a Being as perfect as is possible; that is, endued with all such perfections as do not imply a contradiction, which none of those perfections which we attribute to God do, as I have already proved.

SPECULATIVE ATHEISM, as it is unreasonable, so is it A MOST IMPRU

DENT AND UNCOMFORTABLE OPI

NION; and that upon these two accounts 1. Because it is against the present interest and happiness of man