Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears. Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures, that are an imitation of Reason: To say the Bees, &c. are rational, is to equal them to man; nay make them his superiors, since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art: Tis their own Counsel whereby they act, or another's; If it be their own, they are reasonable Creatures; If by another's, tis not mere nature that is necessary; Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill: There would be no difference among them: If nature be restrained by another, it hath a superior; if not tis a free ⟨p. 29⟩agent: Tis an understanding being that directs them: And then it is something superior to all Creatures in the world, and by this therefore we may ascend to the acknowledgement of the necessity of a God.

So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears. Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures, that are an imitation of Reason: To say the Bees, &c. are rational, is to equal them to man; nay make them his superiors, since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art: Tis their own Counsel whereby they act, or anothers; If it be their own, they are reasonable Creatures; If by anothers, tis not meer nature that is necessary; Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill: There would be no difference among them: If nature be restrained by another, it hath a superior; if not tis a free ⟨p. 29⟩agent: Tis an understanding being that directs them: And then it is something superior to all Creatures in the world, and by this therefore we may ascend to the acknowledgment of the necessity of a God.

Fourthly, IV. Add to the production and order of the world and the Creatures acting for their end, the preservation of them. Nothing can depend upon it self in its preservation, no more than it could in its being. If the order of the world was not fixed by it self, the preservation of that order cannot be continued by it self.