Augustine, speaking of atheists, saith. That albeit there be some who think, or would persuade themselves, that there is no God ; yet the most vile and desperate wretch that ever lived would not say, there was no God. Seneca hath a remarkable speech, Meniiuntur qui dicwit se non sentire Deum esse : nam etsi tihi affirmant interdiH, nociu tamen duhitant, They lie, saith he, who say they perceive not there is a God ; for although they affirm it to thee in the daytime, yet by night they doubt of it. Further, saith the same author, I have heard of some that have denied that there was a God ; yet never knew the man but, when he was sick, he would seek unto God for help ; therefoie they do but lie that say there is no God ; they sin against the light of their own consciences ; they who most studiously go about to deny God, yet cannot do it, but some check of conscience Avill fly in their faces. Tully would say that there was never any nation under heaven so barbarous as to deny that there was a God. I have seen a city without walls, but never any city but acknowledged a God. Quic- quid vides, et quicquid non vides, Dcus est, Whatsoever thou seest,and whatsoever thou seest not, is God ; that is, all things visible and in- visible do express unto thee a deity, and lead thee as by the hand to contemplate heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things. God is known by his eflccis, though not by his essence. The creation of the world is a
' The (stoutest atheists tliat ever lived cannot resolutely and constantly believe there is no God ; hence heathens have condemned some to death that denied there was a God.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 63
glass, wherein, saitli Paul, we may behold his eternal power and God- head, Eom. i., which that divine poet hath well observed,
' The world's a school, where in a general story God always reads dumb lectures of his glory.' — [Du Bartas.]
Austin [Soliloquiis] having gone round all the creatures, and seeing in them the characters of the Godhead imprinted, and seriously in- quiring of them for God, not one or two, but all made him this answer, with an audible voice, No?i sum ego, sed per ipsimi sum ego quern quce?-is in me, I am not he, but by him I am whom thou seekest in me, ' I have heard,' saith my author,^ ' of some learned atheists met together to discourse of the power of nature, to prove there was no God : a poor shepherd present asked how the rain came then? they bid him look upon a still, and he might know that vapours were draAvn up by the sun and let fall again, as moisture in a still ; he replied, I never yet could see a still work unless some man put fire to it.' This so wrought on one in the company, that he gave glory to God, and forsook his companions. I think Zeno hit the mark when he said, To hear and see an atheist die, will more demonstrate that there is a God, than all the learned can do by all their arguments. That epitaph which was written upon Sennacherib's tomb, [Herodotus,] may well be written upon every atheist. He that looks upon us, let him believe there is a God, and learn to fear him. In all the ages of the world, God has given a most severe testimony against atheists. That Assyrian that bragged at a feast that he did never offer sacrifice to a god, was eaten up of lice. And Lucian, a great atheist, going to supper abroad, left his hounds fast when he went, and as he returned home, having railed against God and his word, his dogs fell mad, met him, and tore him in pieces. I have read of some heathens who, being at sea in -a very dangerous storm, where they were like to be cast away, they began every one apart to examine themselves what should be the reason of so dreadful a storm, and after that they had all cast up their accounts by querying with themselves, What have I done, said one, and What have I done, said another, that has occasioned this storm ? At last it issued thus, they remembered that they had Diagoras the atheist on board ; and rather than they would all perish for that atheist's sake, they took him by the heels and hurled him over- board, and then the storm ceased, and the sea was quiet. It will be hard to name an atheist either in the Holy Scripture, or in ecclesiastical histories, or in heathen writings, which came not to some fearful end ; and therefore no wonder if Austin would not be an atheist for half an hour for the gain of a million of worlds, because he knew not but God might in that time make an end of him. I have been the longer upon this head, because atheist and atheism did never so abound in this land as it hath done these last years, and that you may the clearer see who they are that have brought that sad judgment of fire upon that once glorious city of London. Ah London, London ! it was the gross atheism and the practical atheist that was within and without thy walls, that has turned thee into a ruinous heap.
Mark, I readily grant that there is the seeds, relics, stirring, and moving of atheism in the best and holiest of the sons of men ; but then
' Mr Francis Taylor on Prov. vi. 7. [On the first nine chapters. 1657, 4to. — G.]
G i London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
(1.) They disallow of it, and discountenance it; (2.) It is lamented and bewailed by them ; (3.) They oppose it, and conflict with it ; (4.) They use all holy and conscientious means and endeavours to be rid of it; (5.) By degrees they get ground against it, and therefore God never did, nor never will, turn cities or kingdoms into flames for those seeds and remains of atheism that are to be found in the best of saints.
It is that atheism that is rampant, that reigns in the hearts and lives of sinners, as a prince reigns upon his throne, that brings desolat- ing and destroying judgments upon the most flourishing kingdoms and the most glorious cities that are in the world. But,