Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. In their Production, 2. Harmony, 3. Preservation, 4. Answering their several ends.

First, 1. In their production. The declaration of the Existence of God was the chief end for which they were Created, that the Notion of a Supreme and Independent Eternal Being, might easier incur into the active understanding of man from the objects of sense dispersed in every corner of the World, that he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all, Isa. 40.12, 13, 18, 19. &c. Have you not understood from the foundation of the Earth, tis he that sits upon the Circle of the Heaven, &c. How could this great heap be brought into being, unless a God had framed it? Every plant, every Atom, as well as every Star, at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears, I have a Creator, I am witness to a Deity; who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner? Who beholds Garments, Ships or Houses, but understands there was a Weaver, a Carpenter, an Architect?^* Who can cast his eyes about the world, but must think of that power that formed it, and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath a perfect Residence in some Being? [those things that are good must flow from something perfectly good: that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind. Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot. There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection, which is in the Creature; and this is God. Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3.] All things that are, demonstrate something from whence they are. All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them. Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures. Any thing that is imperfect cannot exist of it self. We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection; a hand which distributes those several degrees of Being and Perfection to what we see; we see that which is imperfect, our minds conclude something perfect to exist before it; our eye sees the streams, but our understanding riseth to the head: as the eye sees the shadow, but the understanding informs us whither it he the shadow of a man, or of a beast.