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NECESSITY OF A FIRST CAUSE.

tributes of Divinity while a God is denied―omnipresence and omniscience."

Atheism in its tendency is utterly subversive of morals, and consequently of happiness. They therefore, who teach atheistical doctrines, or who endeavor to make men doubtful in regard to this great and glorious truth, THE being of God, do everything in their power to overturn government, to unhinge society, to eradicate virtue, to destroy happiness.

When we profess to demonstrate the existence of God, we speak of a being, underived, independent, immutable, and possessed of every possible perfection. If one or more perfections were wanting, we might conceive another being who possessed them all, and that other would be God.

16. The FIRST ARGUMENT we shall adduce in proof of the divine existence, consists of an inference from the present existence of ourselves, and of the other parts of the universe, and may thus be stated: "Since something exists now, something must have existed from eternity."

We are assured of our own existence by consciousness, and of the existence of other beings by the evidence of our senses, to which we give implicit credit by the law of our nature, without paying the least regard to the attempts of skeptical philosophers to invalidate their testimony.

Hence we infer that something must always have existed for if ever there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time when something began to be; and that something must have come into being without a cause; since, by the supposition, there was nothing before it. But that a thing should begin to exist, and yet proceed from no cause, is both absurd and inconceivable; all men, by the law of their nature, being necessarily determined to believe that whatever begins to exist proceeds from some cause. Beings could not make themselves, for this would suppose them to have existed before they existed; and they could not have sprung up by chance, for chance signifies no cause of any kind, and is merely a word expressing our ignorance of the cause. Therefore some being must have existed from eternity.

This being must have been either dependent on something else, or not dependent on anything else. Now an eternal succession of dependent beings, or a being which

THE UNIVERSE NOT ETERNAL.

9

is dependent and yet exists from eternity, is impossible. For if every part of such a succession be dependent, then the whole must be so; and, if the whole be dependent, there must be something on which it depends; and that something must be prior in time to that which depends on it, which is impossible if that which is dependent be from eternity. It follows that there must be an eternal and independent being on whom all other beings depend.

17. The atheist, being compelled to concede that something has existed from eternity, tells us that that something is the universe itself; that Nature is underived and self-existent. He has no objection to an eternal being, if that being is not understood to be endowed with intelligence and power, and above all, to be possessed of such moral perfections as justice and purity, the thought of which would lay a restraint upon his conduct, and create the disquieting apprehension of a future reckoning.

18. With respect to the hypothesis that the universe is an eternal existence ;-the human race is an important part of the universe, which, according to this hypothesis, has always existed by an eternal succession. Of the individuals who compose this succession, not one is selfexistent, but each is derived from his immediate predecessors. Here then is a series or succession, every part of which had a beginning; and we ask, how could a succession be eternal, although all its parts had a beginning? How could all the parts have a beginning, and yet the whole be without beginning? It involves an express contradiction.

The same reasoning may be applied to the other parts of the universe. The various races of animals and vegetables; the diurnal motion of the earth; the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; and in a word, all things, the duration of which is measured by hours and days and years, must have had a beginning.

19. When atheists affirm that the universe proceeds from chance, they must mean, either that the universe has no cause at all, or that its cause did not act intelligently or with design, in the production of it. That the universe proceeds from no cause, we have seen to be absurd, and therefore we shall overturn all the atheistical notions concerning chance, if we can show, what indeed is easily shown, and what no considerate person can be ignorant

10

ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN.

of, that the cause of the universe is intelligent and wise, and in creating it must have acted with intelligence and wisdom.

20. The SECONd argument for the existence of Deity, is founded on the proofs of design in the universe, according to the obvious dictate of reason, that where design appears there must be a designer; where there is a plan there must be a mind in which it was conceived. The adaptation of means to an end presupposes a being who had the end in view, and perceived the fitness of the means. The universe is full of designs. They are visible in its general frame, and in its particular parts.

21. The refuge of the atheist, when pressed with this argument, is to say, that the wisdom is in nature: but he speaks unintelligibly, and we are sure does not understand himself. Wisdom is an attribute of mind, and must reside in a being distinct from the universe, as the maker of a machine is distinct from the machine itself. That being is God," wonderful in counsel, excellent in working."

22. If we lighted upon a book containing a well-digested narrative of facts, or a train of accurate reasoning, we should never think of calling it a work of chance, but would immediately pronounce it the production of a cultivated mind. If we saw in a wilderness a building wellproportioned, commodiously arranged, and furnished with taste, we should conclude without hesitation, and without the slightest suspicion of mistake, that human intellect and human labor had been employed in planning and erecting it.

In cases of this kind an atheist would reason precisely as other men do. Why then does he not draw the same inference from the proofs of design which are discovered in the works of creation? While the premises are the same, why is the conclusion different? Upon what pretext of reason does he deny that a work, in all the parts of which wisdom appears, is the production of an intelligent author, and attribute the universe to chance, to nature, to necessity, to anything, although it should be a word without meaning, rather than to God?

23. It is impossible to survey the objects around us with any degree of attention, and not perceive marks of design, ends aimed at, and means employed to accomplish those ends.

INSTANCES OF DESIGN.

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We need to go no further in quest of evidence than our own frame, which appears the more admirable the more carefully it is examined, and the more intimately it is known.

No person who considers the use of the eye, and is acquainted with its internal structure, so skillfully adapted to the transmission and refraction of the rays of light, can any more doubt that it was intended for the purpose of vision, than he can doubt, when he understands the construction of the telescope, that it was intended to enable us to see objects at a distance.

No man doubts, when he examines the external form and internal configuration of the ear, that it is an instrument expressly provided for the conveyance of sound; or that the lungs were made for respiration; the stomach for the reception and concoction of our food; and the wonderful system of vessels, known by the names of arteries and veins, for carrying the blood from the heart to every part of the body, and then returning it to its source.

No man can doubt that the design of glands is to secrete; of nerves, to propagate feeling and motion; of the teeth, so differently formed, to cut and masticate; of legs, to support the body, and move it from place to place; of arms and hands divided into fingers, to perform the various operations which are necessary to our subsistence and comfort.

24. The bodies of the inferior animals, in their general structure, bear a striking analogy to our own. When a difference is found, the proofs of wisdom multiply upon us, for it manifestly proceeds from an intention to accommodate the animal, or to adapt it to its peculiar circumstances. It is comprehensive wisdom; wisdom which can command not only one system of means, but a variety of expedients, to meet the diversity of cases which were necessary to the replenishing of the different parts of nature with inhabitants.

25. If one animal lives upon herbs, another upon seeds, and a third upon the flesh of other animals, we find that while they are in common furnished with a stomach, this member is differently constructed in each, so as to receive and digest its peculiar food.

We observe again, that whether animals move upon the surface of the earth, or fly in the air, or swim in the

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APPARENT IRREGULARITIES.

waters, their external form and internal organization are admirably accommodated to their mode of life, and to the place of their habitation.

26. Variety amid uniformity is an evidence upon which we may confidently depend, that what appears to be design is not the effect of chance, or of a blind necessity which would always produce the same results, but of an intelligent mind, fertile in contrivances, and in every instance choosing the best.

Apparent Irregularities and Defects in Creation explained.

27. The wonderful contrivance which appears in the arrangement of the solar system, or even in the human body, abundantly proves the Creator to be infinitely wise. That he has not thought fit to make all things equally beautiful and excellent, can never be an imputation upon his wisdom and goodness: for how absurd would it be to say that he would have displayed more wisdom, if he had endowed all things with life, perception, and reason! Stones and plants, air and water, are most useful things, and would have been much less useful if they had been percipient beings; as the inferior animals would have been both less useful and less happy, if they had been rational. Their existence, therefore, and their natures, are proofs of the divine goodness and wisdom, instead of being arguments against it.

28. In the course of providence a vast number of events and objects may be employed to accomplish one great end; and it is impossible for us to pronounce reasonably of any one event, or object, that it is useless, or improper, unless we know its tendency and connection with other things, both past and future; which, in cases innumerable, we cannot do. That, therefore, may be a most wise and beneficent dispensation, which to a captious mind and fallible judgment may appear the contrary.

Even in this world Providence often brings good out of evil, and every man of observation must have perceived that certain events of his life, which when they happened seemed to be great misfortunes, have been found to be great blessings in the end.

[Dr. John Dick's Lectures, vol. i. pp. 160-176; Beattie's Elements ; Stewart's Works, vol. v.]