acted in creation without any reasonable motive. For certainly, if the universe was not worth governing, it was not worth creating. 3. They deny all his moral attributes, benevolence, justice, mercy, truth, holiness, for which of these is consistent with the creation of such a universe as this, and afterwards refusing to care for it, or exercise a providential government over it. To mortal Deism I object again, that it is contrary to the belief of all nations in all ages. It has been shown in a former lecture, that all nations of men in all ages, have believed in and acknowledged the grand and peculiar doctrines which mortal Deists deny, such as the immortality of the soul, the distinction between virtue and vice, the doctrine of a divine providence, and a future state of more perfect rewards and punishments. To their denial of the distinction between virtue and vice, I object, 1. That it is contrary to consciousness. We certainly know that there is such a distinction. It is the dictate of our own moral nature. It is forced upon us by testimony that we cannot resist. And they themselves often manifest a conviction of its truth in awarding praise and blame to those around them. 2. If there is, in fact, no such distinction, our nature is such as to render it impossible for us to believe that there is none. Our moral nature demands such a distinction. And with respect to ourselves we should be morally praise or blame worthy, were there no law except that which is founded in our own nature. But the fact that our nature is what it is, affords the most unanswerable evidence, that a broad and important distinction actually exists between virtue and vice. 3. As our nature demands such a distinction, and as we are capable of perceiving clearly that there is a moral quality in actions, such a distinction must in fact be recognized in the government of God, or God is unjust. To the doctrine of human annihilation, I object that this also is virtual Atheism, as it denies the essential attributes of God, for which of his attributes is consistent with the annihilation of beings capable of endless improvement, and who need an eternity to develope their faculties, and answer the highest ends of their being. To the doctrines of immortal Deists, I object, 1. They are inconsistent in holding the doctrines of natural, and rejecting those of revealed religion. For they inculcate precisely the same lessons, so far as natural religion goes, and revealed religion only supplies what is manifestly wanting in the truths of natural religion. 2. The immortal Deists are inconsistent in believing in the moral attributes of God. For a denial of several of these attributes is in fact involved, in rejecting a revelation. E. g. It involves the denial of his wisdom. Wisdom, I have said, is the choice of the best ends, and the best means for the accomplishment of these ends. Now that revelation as a matter of fact, is the necessary means of attaining the highest perfection of human nature, cannot, with any show of reason, be denied. With what consistency then do they hold to the wisdom of God, and deny that he has provided the necessary and indispensable means of effecting the holiness and happiness of his kingdom. 3. The immortal Deists, are inconsistent in maintaining the justice of God. It cannot, with any show of reason, be maintained that God deals with all men, in this state of existence, precisely according to their character. And without a divine revelation, how could it be positively shown that he would deal upon the principles of exact justice in a future life. 4. They are inconsistent in maintaining the mercy of God. To pardon sin, is the appropriate exercise of mercy. But without a divine revelation, how could it be known that God will pardon sin? How could it be ascertained that he could with any consistency, and safety, dispense with the execution of his law, in the pardon of sin? Some of the wisest men that have ever lived, who were ignorant of the Bible, have maintained that God could not forgive sin, and this conclusion seems to be the perfection of human reason, without a knowledge of the Atonement. 5. They are inconsistent in maintaining the infinite benevolence of God. Infinite benevolence would doubtless do all for man that the nature of the case admits. And the nature of the case certainly admits and demands a revelation. 6. They are inconsistent in holding the power, omniscience, and goodness of God, inasmuch as they deny and set aside the only explanation that reconciles the existence of these attributes in God, with the facts of the universe. 7. To the doctrine that nothing is to be received as an article of faith that is incomprehensible, I object; that this doctrine is destructive of their own system, and quite as inconsistent with it as with the system of christianity. It is also inconsistent with the belief of almost every thing else, as almost every thing, contains something in or about it that is incomprehensible. 8. If they reject revelation, they are bound to maintain the doctrine of universal damnation. (1.) Because all men deserve it. (2.) Without the Bible we cannot see how they can consistently be forgiven, should they repent. (3.) Without the motives presented in the Bible, it is a fact, that mankind never would repent. Without a knowledge of the Atonement, men know not that the goodness of God leadeth them to repentance; but after their hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgments of God. 9. Every evidence in favor of the Bible, as a revelation from God, is a difficulty of Deism, with which it must grapple, and to which it is bound to give some reasonable answer. 10. To admit Deism to be true, we must admit that all the evidence in favor of the divine authority of the Bible is false, and that too without a particle of opposing evidence. This is to set aside all evidence, and consequently all science, and all knowledge, and all belief on every subject. 11. To admit the falsity of all the evidence in favor of a divine revelation, is to swallow the grossest absurdity, and to attempt to sustain Deism by a miracle, more stupendous than all the miracles recorded in the Bible. For certainly, that all this evidence should be false, were the greatest wonder and the greatest miracle in the universe. 12. Therefore Deism requires ridiculous credulity, and almost infinitely more faith, to believe that the Bible is an imposture, in view of all the evidence that exists, than to believe it is what it professes to be. 13. Deism is indebted to Christianity for nearly all the truth that it contains. It is true, that the doctrines of natural religion might be discovered by unaided reason; but as a matter of fact, they never have been to any considerable extent. And none but those Deists who have had access to the Bible have ever given any thing like a consistent account of the doctrines of natural religion. 14. Deists are bound to account for the fact that the most enlightened and virtuous men have believed, that the Bible was a revelation from God. Sir Isaac Newton, than whom a greater philosopher never blessed the earth, was a firm believer in, and defender of the Bible, as a revelation from God. 15. Deists are bound to account for the fact that no one ever renounced the Christian religion upon a death bed, while nothing has been more common than for Deists to renounce their Deism in a dying hour. 16. The lives and deaths of Deists prove the inefficacy of their system to sustain them in virtue while alive, and in peace when they die. 17. Deism is, on many accounts, highly dishonorable to God. 18. It is also ruinous to man. 19. Its spirit condemns it. 20. Its tendencies, when well considered, are a complete refutation of it. 21. Upon the supposition that Christianity is not true, infidels are bound to account for the astonishing change in the conduct of the Apostles, after Christ's resurrection-how it came to pass, that instead of their former timidity, they were so fearless, so persevering, so willing to sacrifice every worldly interest, in defence of the truth that Christ had risen from the dead. If they were not honest and sincere, infidels are bound to show upon what principle of human nature such lives as they lived, and such deaths as they died, can be accounted for. With respect to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was a matter about which they could not be deceived. If they had stolen him from the sepulchre, as the Jews foolishly pretended, they knew it, and were certain that he had not risen from the dead. The certain knowledge that he had risen from the dead, would naturally result in that change which was witnessed in them. But upon no other conceivable supposition can their conduct be accounted for. 22. Again. Upon the supposition that Christianity is not true, Deists are bound to account for the fact, of the exact fulfillment of such great multitudes of prophecies, extending in an unbroken chain, from the present time back through hundreds and thousands of years. These prophecies have been so literally fulfilled, that some opposers of Christianity have insisted upon the great particularity with which they were fulfilled to the very letter, and have consequently inferred, that they were histories written after the occurrence of the facts which they describe, 23. Upon the supposition that Christianity is not true, Deists are bound to disprove or account for the miracles wrought in confirmation of the truth of the scriptures. That these were real and not pretended miracles, there can be no doubt. 24. If Christianity is not true, Deists are bound to account for the fact, that the Apostles so repeatedly appealed to the Jews themselves, and to all classes of persons, before whom and among whom those miracles were wrought, and referred to those miracles as facts, which were universally admitted, and could not be denied. They are bound also to show why it was, that neither the friends nor enemies of Christianity, during the first centuries, ever pretended to call in question the reality of those miracles. LECTURE IX. NATURAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. I am to show: FIRST. What is meant by a natural attribute. SECOND. What are some of the natural attributes of God, and prove that he possesses them. FIRST. What is meant by a natural attribute. A natural attribute is that which pertains to a thing by a natural necessity, or whatever is attributable to it, as essential to its existence and nature. The natural attributes of God are those qualities, capacities, elements, susceptibilities, and natural perfections that constitute whatever we know of his nature and essence. SECOND. Some of the natural attributes of God. I. Eternity. II. Omniscience. Having established the divine authority of the Bible, we are, from this point in our inquiries, at liberty to quote it freely as a matter of record, and as conclusive evidence of what it plainly and unequivocally asserts. The natural attributes of God may be discovered, and their existence proved by the light of nature. But the infinity of these attributes, at least some of them, can only be fully and unanswerably proven from the Bible. I. The Eternity of God. 1. I will show what is meant by the eternity of God, and also prove that eternity is an attribute of God. By the eternity of God is meant: (1.) That he is without beginning. (2.) That he will never cease to be. (3.) That he is eternal in such a sense as to grow no older. (4.) That eternity is to God what present time is to us. (1.) That he is without beginning, has been already established in the proof of his existence as a first cause of all things. (2.) That he can never cease to be is certain : a. Because he is self-existent. Self-existence is necessary existence. But necessary existence cannot cease to be. He cannot destroy himself. No created power can destroy him. He cannot fail or die with age, as he grows no older. If he did, there is no proof that a mere spirit can fail with age. As he exists independently of any cause, it is naturally impossible that he should cease to exist; for there can be no cause of his non-existence or ceasing to exist. His ceasing to exist, then, would be an event without a cause, which is absurd and naturally impossible. b. The Bible fully declares, that God is without beginning or end; i. e. that he is absolutely eternal. He is spoken of as the "eternal God." And the Bible fully and unequivocally, in many ways, declares his eternity.' (3.) He is eternal in such a sense as to grow no older. If he grows older, it is intuitively certain that he had a beginning : a/Because, if his age can be at all reduced, by subtracting years or ages, it can be exhausted. b. If he grows older, his age can be reduced as certainly as ours can. c. If any thing can be added to his age, then something can be |