Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

This general or practical Atheism is natural to men.

1. Not natural by Created, but by corrupted Nature: Tis against nature, as nature came out of the hand of God: But universally natural, as nature hath been sophisticated and infected by the Serpents breath. Inconsideration of God, or misrepresentations of his nature, are as agreeable to corrupt nature, as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to common reason. God is not denied naturâ, sed vitiis.^*

1. Not natural by Created, but by corrupted Nature: Tis against nature, as nature came out of the hand of God: But universaly natural, as nature hath been sophisticated and infected by the Serpents breath. Inconsideration of God, or misrepresentations of his nature, are as agreeable to corrupt nature, as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to common reason. God is not denied naturâ, sed vitiis.^*

1. *Augustin de Civit. Dei.

2. Tis universally natural: The wicked are estranged from the Womb, Psa. 58.3. They go astray as soon as they be born, their poison is like the poison of a Serpent. The wicked: And who by his birth hath a better title? They go astray from the dictates of God and the rule of their Creation as soon as ever they be born; Their poison is like the poison of a Serpent, which is radically the same in all of the sames species. Tis seminally and fundamentally in all men, though there may be a stronger restraint by a Divine hand upon some men, than upon others. This principle runs through the whole stream of Nature. The natural bent of every mans heart is distant from God: When we attempt any thing pleasing to God, tis like the climbing up a Hill, against nature; when any thing is displeasing to him, tis like a Current running down the Channel in its natural course: When we attempt any thing that is an acknowledgement of the Holiness of God, we are fain to rush with Arms in our hands through a multitude of natural passions, and fight the way through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite. How softly do we naturally sink down into that which sets us at a greater distance from God? There is no active, potent, efficacious sense of a God by nature. The heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,