tions, — live so]>orly and rifjliteously, — ob- serves tlie p-oldcn maxim, doin<T to otliers as he would liavc them to do to liim — then conscienee aj)j)roves, and saitli, " Well done !" Conscience, like a bee, gives honey. — 2. Natural conscience in the wicked doth accuse. Wlien men go against the light of conscience, then tliey feel the worm of con- science. l']heu, quis inliis Scorpio! Sen. Conscience, being sinned against, spits fire in men's faces, fills them with shame and horror ; when the sinner sees an handwrit- ing on the wall of conscience, his counte- nance is changed. Many have hanged themselves to quiet their conscience. Ti- berius the emperor, a bloody man, felt the lashes of his conscience ; he was so haunted with that fury, that he told the senate, he suffered deatli daily. And what is it should put a man's conscience into such an .agony, but the impression of a Deity, and tlie thought of coming before God's tribunal ? Those who are above all human laws, yet are subject to the checks of their own con- science. And it is observable, the nearer the wicked approach to death, the more thev are terrified, and conscience gives a louder alarm to them : and whence is this, but from the apprehension of judgment ap- proaching ? The soul, being sensible of its immortal nature, trembles at him, who never ceaseth to live, and therefore will ne- ver cease to punish.
4. That there is a God, appears by the consent of nations, by the universal vote and suffrage of all. Nulla gens tarn harhara cui non insideat Iicec persuasio, Deitm esse, — " No nation so barbarous," saith Tully, " as not to believe there is a God." Though the heathen did mistake in their devotion, and did not worship the true God, yet they worship])ed a God. They set up an altar, * To the unknown God,' Acts xvii. 22. Tliey knew a God should be worshipped, though they knew not the God whom they worshipped. Some did worship Jupiter, some Neptune, some Mars ; rather than not to worship something, they would worship any thing.
5. That there is a God, appears by his prediction of future things. He who can foretel things which shall surely come to pass, is the true God. God foretold, that
a Anrgin should conceive ; he prefixetl the time when the Messias should be cut off, Dan. ix. 26. ; he foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and who should be their deliverer, Isa. xlv. 1. This is such a strong argument to prove a Deity, as God himself useth it to prove he is the true God, and that all the gods of the heathens were fictions and nullities, Isa. xli. 29. 7'csti- momurn divinitatis est Veritas divinatiunis, Tertul. To foretel things contingent, and which depend upon no natural causes, is proper to a Deity.
6. That there is a God, appears by God's unlimited power and sovereignty. He who can work, and none hinder him, is the true God; but God can do so, Isa. xliii. 13., " I will work, and who shall let it." No- thing can hinder action but some superior power ; but there is no power above God, — all power that is, is by him, — therefore all power is under him ; he hath a ' migh- ty arm,' Ps. Ixxxix. 13. He sees the de- signs men drive on against him, and plucks off their chariot-wheels ; he maketl! the di- viners mad ; Isa. xliv. 25. ; he cutteth off the spirit of princes ; he bridleth the sea, gives check to the leviathan, binds the devil in chains; he acts according to his pleasure : he doth what he will : " I will work, and who shall let it ?"
7. There are devils, therefore there is a God. Atheists cannot deny but there are devils, and then they must gi'ant there is a God. We read of diverse possessed of the devil. The devils are called in scripture, * Hairy Ones,' because they often appeared in the form of goats or satyrs. Gcrson, in his book De prohatione sp'irituum, tells us how Satan on a time appeared to an holy man in a most glorious manner, ' professing himself to be Christ : the old man answer- ed, " I desire not to see my Saviour here in this desert, it shall suffice me to sec him in heaven." Now, if there be a devil, then there is a God. Socrates, an heathen, when he was accused at his death, confessed, that, as he thought there was a inalus genius, an evil spiiit, so he thought there was a good.
Use 1. Seeing there is a God, this re- proves such atheistical fools as deny it. Epicurus denied there was a proA-idence,
THAT THERE IS A GOD
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