Part 13
Eeason 4, and last. •* As it is a folly to deny that which all nations in the world have consented to, which the frame of the world evidenceth, which man in his body, soul, operations of conscience, witnesseth to, so it is a folly to deny the being of God, which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world.
1. In extraordinary judgments. When a just revenge follows abominable crimes, especially when the judgment is suited to the sin, by a strange con catenation and succession of providences, methodised to bring such a par* ticular punishment ; when the sin of a nation or person is made legible in the inflicted judgment, which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing. The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such judgments, to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the world : Ps. ix. 16, ' The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes, the wicked is snared in the work
of his own hand.' And jealousy is the name of God : Exod. xxxiv. 14, ' Whose name is Jealous.' He is distinguished from false gods by the judg ments which he sends, as men are by their names.
Extraordinary prodigies in many nations have been the heralds of extra ordinary judgments, and presages of the particular judgments which afterwards they have felt, of which the Roman histories and others are full. That there are such things is undeniable, and that the events have been answerable to the threatening, unless we will throw away all human testi monies, and count all the histories of the world forgeries. Such things are evidences of some invisible power which orders those affairs. And if there be invisible powers, there is also an efficacious cause which moves them ; a government certainly there is among them as well as in the world, and then we must come to some supreme governor which presides over them.
Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages, the Scripture gives many instances. I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa, which Josephus* mentions. He receives the flattering applause of the people, and thought himself a god ; but by the sudden stroke upon him was forced by his torture to confess another, Acts xii. 21-23. I am God, saith he, in your account, but a higher calls me away ; the will of the heavenly Deity is to be endured. The angel of the Lord smote him. The judgment here was suited to the sin ; he that would be a god is eaten up of
worms, the vilest creatures. TuHy Hostilius, a Roman king, who counted it the most unroyal thing to be religious, or own any other God but his sword, was consumed himself and his whole house by lightning from heaven.
Many things are unaccountable unless we have recourse to God. The
* Lib. 19, Antiq.
172 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
strange revelations of murderers, that have most secretly committed their crimes ; the making good some dreadful imprecations, which some wretches have used to confirm a lie, and immediately have been struck with that judgment they wished ; the raising often unexpected persons to be instru
ments of vengeance on a sinful and perfidious nation ; the overturning the deepest and surest counsels of men, when they have had a successful pro
gress, and came to the very point of execution ; the whole design of men's preservation hath been beaten in pieces by some unforeseen circumstances, so that judgments have broken in upon them without control, and all their
subtilties been outwitted ; the strange crossing of some in their estates, though the most wise, industrious, and frugal persons, and that by strange and unexpected ways ; and it is observable how often everything contributes to carry on a judgment intended, as if they rationally designed it. All those loudly proclaim a God in the world ; if there were no God, there would be no sin ; if no sin, there would be no punishment.
2. In miracles. The course of nature is uniform, and when it is put out of its course it must be by some superior power invisible to the world, and by whatsoever invisible instruments they are wrought, the efficacy of them
must depend upon some first cause above nature. Ps. Ixxii. 18, ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things,' by himself and his sole power.
That which cannot be the result of a natural cause, must be the result of something supernatural ; what is beyond the reach of nature is the effect of a power superior to nature. For it is quite against the order of nature, and is the elevation of something to such a pitch, which all nature could not advance it to. Nature cannot go beyond its own limits; if it be determined by another, as hath been formerly proved, it cannot lift itself above itself without that power that so determined it. Natural agents act necessarily. The sun doth necessarily shine, fire doth necessarily burn. That cannot be the result of nature which is above the ability of nature. That cannot be the work of nature which is against the order of nature. Nature cannot do anything against itself, or invert its own course.
We must own that such things have been, or we must accuse all the records of former ages to be a pack of lies, which whosoever doth destroys the greatest and best part of human knowledge. The miracles mentioned in the Scripture, wrought by our Saviour, are acknowledged by the heathen, by the Jews at this day, though his greatest enemies. There is no dispute whether such things were wrought, the dead raised, the blind restored to sight. The heathens have acknowledged the miraculous eclipse of the sun at the passion of Christ, quite against the rule of nature, the moon being then in opposition to the sun ; the propagation of Christianity contrary to the methods whereby other religions have been propagated, that in a few years the nations of the world should be sprinkled with this doctrine, and give in a greater catalogue of martyrs courting the devouring flames than all the religions of the world.
To this might be added the strange hand that was over the Jews, the only people in the world professing the true God, that should so often be befriended
by their conquerors, so as to rebuild their temple, though they were looked upon as a people apt to rebel. Dion and Seneca observe, that wherever they were transplanted they prospered and gave laws to the victors ; so that this proves also the authority of the Scripture, the truth of Christian reli gion, as well as the being of a God, and a superior power over the world.
To this might be added the bridling the tumultuous passions of men for the preservation of human societies, which else would run the world into
PS. XIV. l.j THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 178
unconceivable confusions : Ps. Ixv. 7, * Which stilleth the noise of the sea,
and the tumults of the people ; ' as also the miraculous deliverance of a person or nation, when upon the very brink of ruin ; the sudden answer of prayer when God hath been sought to, and the turning away a judgment, which in reason could not be expected to be averted, and the raising a sunk
people from a ruin which seemed inevitable, by unexpected ways.
3. Accomplishments of prophecies. Those things which are purely con tingent, and cannot be known by natural signs and in their causes, as eclipses and changes in nations, which may be discerned by an observation of the signs of the times, such things that fall not within this compass, if they be foretold and come to pass, are solely from some higher hand, and above the cause of nature. This in Scripture is asserted to be a notice of
the true God : Isa. xli. 23, ' Shew the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are God ; ' and Isa. xlvi. 10, « I am God, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure.' And prophecy was consented to by all the philosophers to be from divine illumination. That power which discovers things future, which all the foresight of men cannot ken and conjecture, is above nature. And to foretell them so certainly as if they did already exist, or had existed long ago, must be the result of a mind infinitely intelligent ; because it is the highest way of knowing, and a higher cannot be imagined ; and he that knows things future in such a manner must needs know things present and past. Cyrus was prophesied of by Isaiah, chap. xliv. 28 and xlv., long before he was born ; his victories, spoils, all that should happen in Babylon, his bounty to the Jews, came to pass, according to that prophecy ; and the sight of that prophecy which the Jews shewed him, as other historians report, was that which moved him to be favourable to the Jews.
Alexander's sight of Daniel's prophecy concerning his victories moved him to spare Jerusalem. And are not the four monarchies plainly deci phered in that book, before the fourth rose up in the world ? That power which foretells things beyond the reach of the wit of man, and orders all
causes to bring about those predictions, must be an infinite power, the same that made the world, sustains it and governs all things in it according to his pleasure, and to bring about his own ends ; and this being is God.
Use 1. If atheism be a folly, it is then pernicious to the world, and to the atheist himself. Wisdom is the band of human societies, the glory of man.
Folly is the disturber of families, cities, nations, the disgrace of human nature.
1. It is pernicious to the world. (1.) It would root out the foundations of government. It demolisheth all order in nations. The being of a God is the guard of the world. The sense of a God is the foundation of civil order ; without this there is no tie upon the consciences of men. What force would there be in oaths for the decisions of controversies, what right could there be in appeals made to one that had no being ? A city of atheists would be a heap of confusion ; there
could be no ground of any commerce when all the sacred bands of it in the consciences of men were snapped asunder, which are torn to pieces and utterly destroyed by denying the existence of God. What magistrate could
be secure in his standing, what private person could be secure in his right?* Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all public good ? If the
atheist's sentiment, that there were no God, were a truth, and the contrary, that there were a God, were a falsity, it would then follow that falsity made men
* Lessius de Provid., p, 665.
174 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
good and serviceable to one another ; that error were the foundation of all the beauty, and order, and outward felicity of the world, the fountain of all good to man. If there were no God, to believe there is one would be an error, and to believe there is none would be the greatest wisdom, because it would be
the'greatest truth. And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God upon the apprehension of his existence, Ps. cxi. 10, so it would be the greatest error to fear him, if there were none. It would unquestionably follow, that error is the support of the world, the spring of all human advantages, and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation, which is the most absurd thing to imagine. It is a thing impos sible to be tolerated by any prince, without laying an axe to the root of the government.
(2.) It would introduce all evil into the world. If you take away God, you take away conscience, and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil. And how could any laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed ? All good laws are founded upon the dictates of con science and reason, upon common sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God ; so that if the foundation be demolished, the whole superstructure must tumble down. A man might be a thief, a mur derer, an adulterer, and could not in a strict sense be an offender. The worst of actions could not be evil if a man were a god to himself, a law to himself. Nothing but evil deserves a censure, and nothing would be evil if there were no God, the rector of the world, against whom evil is properly committed. No man can make that morally evil that is not so in itself. As where there is a faint sense of God, the heart is more strongly inclined to wickedness, so where there is no sense of God, the bars are removed, the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind. Religion pinions men from abominable practices, and restrains them from
being slaves to their own passions ; an atheist's arms would be loose to do anything.* Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be acted, if the natural fear of a deity were extinguished. The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the existence of God, is his government of the world. If there be no God, then the natural consequence is that there is no supreme government of the world. Such a notion would cashier all sentiments of good, and be like a Trojan horse, whence all impurity, tyranny, and all sorts of mischiefs would break out upon mankind. Cor
ruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fool's persua sion that there is no God. The perverting of the ways of men, oppression, and extortion, owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God : Jer. iii. 21, « They have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God ;' Ezek. xxii. 12, * Thou hast greedily gained by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord.' The whole earth would be filled with violence, all flesh would corrupt their way as it was before the deluge, when probably atheism did abound more than idolatry ; and if not a disowning the being, yet denying the providence of God by the posterity of Cain, those of the family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord, Gen. vi. 11, 12 compared with Gen. iv. 26.
The greatest sense of a deity in any hath been attended with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others, and a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity, f If there were no God, blasphemy would be praiseworthy; as the reproach of idols is praiseworthy, because we tes tify that there is no divinity in them. What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being ? Sin would be only a false opinion of a
* Lessius de Provid., p. 664. t Lessius de Provid., p. 665.
PS. XIY. 1.] THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 175
violated law and an offended deity. If such apprehensions prevail, what a wide door is opened to the worst of villanies ? If there be no God, no respect is due to him ; all the religion in the world is a trifle and error, and thus the pillars of all human society, and that which hath made common wealths to flourish, are blown away.
Secondly, 2, It is pernicious to the atheist himself. If he fear no future punishment, he can never expect any future reward; all his hopes must be confined to a swinish and despicable manner of life, without any imaginations of so much as a dram of reserved happiness. He is in a worse condition than the silliest animal, which hath something to please it in its life; whereas an atheist can have nothing here to give him a full content, no more than any other man in the world, and can have less satisfaction here after. He deposeth the noble end of his own being, which was to serve a God and have a satisfaction in him, to seek a God and be rewarded by him ; and he that departs from this end, recedes from his own nature. All the content any creature finds is in performing its end, moving according to its natural instinct; as it is a joy to the sun to run its race, Ps. xix. 5, in the same manner it is a satisfaction to every other creature, and its delight, to observe the law of its creation. What content can any man have that runs from his end, opposeth his own nature, denies a God by whom and for whom he was created, whose image he bears, which is the glory of his nature, and sinks into the very dregs of brutishness ? How elegantly is it
described by Bildad : Job xviii. 7, 8, &c., to the end, ' His own counsel shall cast him down, terrors shall make him afraid on every side ; destruc tion shall be ready at his side, the first-born of death shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be rooted out, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors : brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were
affrighted. And this is the place of him that knows not God.' If there be a future reckoning (as his own conscience cannot but sometimes inform him of), his condition is desperate, and his misery dreadful and unavoidable. It is not righteous a hell should entertain any else if it refuse him.
Use 2. How lamentable is it that in our times this folly of atheism should be so rife ! that there should be found such monsters in human nature, in the midst of the improvements of reason and shinings of the gospel, who not only make the Scripture the matter of their jeers, but scoff at the judg ments and providences of God in the world, and envy their Creator a being, without whose goodness they had had none themselves ; who contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their sentiment, when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves ! Whence should [come] that damnation they so rashly wish be poured forth upon them, if there were not a reveng ing God ? Formerly atheism was as rare as prodigious, scarce two or three known in an age. And those that are reported to be so in former ages, are rather thought to be counted so for mocking at the senseless deities the common people adored, and laying open their impurities. A mere natural strength would easily discover that those they adored for gods could not deserve that title, since their original was known, their uncleanness mani fest and acknowledged by their worshippers. And probably it was so, since the Christians were termed a&o/, as Justin informs us, because they acknow ledged not their vain idols.
I question whether there ever was or can be in the world an uninterrupted and internal denial of the being of God, or that men (unless we can suppose conscience utterly dead) can arrive to such a degree of impiety. For before
176 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIY. 1.
they can stifle such sentiments in them (whatsoever they may assert), they must be utter strangers to the common conceptions of reason, and despoil themselves of their own humanity. He that dares to deny a God with his lips, yet sets up something or other as a god in his heart. Is it not lament able that this sacred truth, consented to by all nations, which is the band of civil societies, the source of all order in the world, should be denied with a bare face and disputed against in companies, and the glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind chance? Are not such worse than heathens ? They worshipped many gods, these none ; they preserved a notion of God in the world under a disguise of images, these would banish him both from earth and heaven, and demolish the statues of him in their own consciences ; they degraded him, these would destroy him; they coupled creatures with him — Rom. i. 25, 'Who wor shipped the creature with the Creator,' as it may most properly be rendered. And these would make him worse than a creature, a mere nothing. Earth is hereby become worse than hell. Atheism is a persuasion, which finds no footing anywhere else. Hell, that receives such persons, in this point reforms them ; they can never deny or doubt of his being while they feel his strokes. The devil, that rejoices at their wickedness, knows them to be
in an error; for he 'believes, and trembles' at the belief, James ii. 19. This is a forerunner of judgment; boldness in sin is a presage of ven geance, especially when the honour of God is more particularly concerned therein. It tends to the overturning human society, taking off the bridle from the wicked inclinations of men. And God appears not in such visible judgments against sin immediately committed against himself, as in the
case of those sins that are destructive to human society. Besides, God as governor of the world will uphold that, without which all his ordinances in the world would be useless. Atheism is point blank against all the glory of
God in creation, and against all the glory of God in redemption, and pronounceth at one breath both the Creator and all acts of religion and divine institutions useless and insignificant.
Since most have had, one time or other, some risings of doubt, whether there be a God, though few do in expressions deny his being, it may not be unnecessary to propose some things for the further impressing this truth, and .guarding themselves against such temptations.
1. It is utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God. He can choose no medium, but will fall in as a proof for his existence, and a mani festation of his excellency rather than against it. The pretences of the atheist are so ridiculous, that they are not worth the mentioning.
They never saw God, and therefore know not how to believe such a being ; they cannot comprehend him. He would not be God if he could fall within the narrow model of an human understanding ; he would not be infinite if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated by our sight. How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily eye, or grasped by a weak mind ! If God were visible or comprehensible, he would be limited. Shall it be a sufficient demonstration from a blind man that there is no fire in the room, because he sees it not, though he feel the warmth of it ? The know ledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause. Who ever saw his own life ? Is it sufficient to deny a man lives, because he beholds not his life, and only knows it by his motion ? He never saw his own soul, but knows he hath one by his thinking power. The air renders itself sensible to men in its operations, yet was never seen by the eye.
If God should render himself visible, they might question as well as now
PS. XIV. 1.] THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 177
whether that which was so visible were God or some delusion. If he should appear glorious, we can as little behold him in his majestic glory as an owl can behold the sun in its brightness; we should still but see him in his effects, as we do the sun by his beams. If he should shew a new miracle, we should still see him but by his works; so we see him in his creatures, every one of which would be as great a miracle as any can be wrought to one that had the first prospect of them. To require to see God, is to
require that which is impossible: 1 "Him. vL 16, 'He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.' It is visible tlwt he is, for ' he covers himself with light as with a garment,' Ps. civ.. 2 ; it is invisible what he is, for ' he makes darkness his secret place,' Ps. xviii. 11. Nothing more clear to the eye* than light, and nothing more difficult to the understanding than the nature of it ; as light is the first object obvious to the eye, so is God the first object obvious to the understanding. The arguments from nature do with greater strength evince his existence, than any pretences can manifest there is no God. No man can assure himself by any good reason there is none ; for as for the
'likeness of events to him that is righteous and him that is wicked, to him
that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not,' Eccles* ix 2, it is an argu ment for a reserve of judgment in another state, which every man's con science dictates to him, when the justice of God shall be glorified in another world as much as his patience is in this.
2. Whosoever doubts of it makes himself a mark, against which all the creatures fight.
All the stars fought against Sisera for Israel ; all the stars in heaven, and the dust on earth, fight for God against the atheist. He hath as many argu ments against him as there are creatures in the whole compass of heaven and earth. He is most unreasonable that denies or doubts of that whose image and shadow he sees round about him ; he may sooner deny the sun that warms him, the moon that in the night walks in her brightness, deny the fruits he enjoys from earth, yea, and deny that he doth exist. He must tear his own conscience, fly from his own thoughts, be changed into the nature of a stone, which hath neither reason nor sense, before he can dis engage himself from those arguments which evince the being of a God. He that would make the natural religion professed in the world a mere romance, must give the lie to the common sense of mankind ; he must be at an irre concilable enmity with his own reason, resolve to hear nothing that it speaks, if he will not hear what it speaks in this case with a greater evidence than it can ascertain anything else*. God hath so settled himself in the reason of man, that he must vilify the noblest faculty God hath given him, and put off nature itself, before he can blot out the notion of a God.
8. No question but those that have been so bold as to deny that there was a God have sometimes been much afraid they have been in an error, and have at least suspected there wasa God, when some sudden prodigy hath presented itself to them and roused their fears. And whatsoever senti ments they might have in their blinding prosperity, they have had other kind
of motions in them in their stormy afflictions, and, like Jonah's mariners, have been ready to cry to him for help, whom they disdained to own so much as in being while they swam in their pleasures. The thoughts of a deity cannot be so extinguished but they will revive and rash upon a man, at least under some sharp affliction. Amazing judgments will make them question their own apprehensions. God sends some messengers to keep alive the apprehension of him as a judge, while men resolve not to own or reverence him as a governor. A man cannot but keep a scent of what was born with
VOL. I. M
ITS CEAENOCK'S WOEKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
him ; as a vessel that hath been seasoned first with a strong juice will pre serve the scent of it, whatsoever liquors are afterwards put into it.
4. What is it for which such men rack their wits, to form notions that there is no God ? Is it not that they would indulge some vicious habit, which hath gained the possession of their soul, which they know cannot be favoured by that holy God, whose notion they would raze out? Ps, xciv. 6, 7.
Is it not for some brutish affection, as degenerative of human nature, as derogatory to the glory of God ; a lust as unmanly as sinful ?
The terrors of God are the effects of guilt ; and therefore men would wear out the apprehensions of a deity, that they might be brutish without control. They would fain believe there were no God, that they might not be men, but beasts. How great a folly is it to take so much pains in vain for a slavery and torment ! to cast off that which they call a yoke for that which really is
one ! There is more pains and toughness of soul requisite to shake off the apprehensions of God than to believe that he is, and cleave constantly to him. What a madness is it in any to take so much pains to be less than a man, by razing out the apprehensions of God, when with less pains he may be more than an earthly man, by cherishing the notions of God, and walk ing answerably thereunto.
5. How unreasonable is it for any man to hazard himself at this rate in the denial of a God ! The atheist saith he knows not that there is a God ; but may he not reasonably think there may be one for aught he knows ? And if there be, what a desperate confusion will he be in, when all his bravadoes shall prove false ! What can they gain by such an opinion ? A freedom, say they, from the burdensome yoke of conscience, a liberty to do what they list, that doth not subject them to divine laws. It is a hard matter to persuade any that they can gain this. They can gain but a sor did pleasure, unworthy the nature of man. But it were well that such would argue thus : — If there be a God, and I fear and obey him, I gain a happy eternity ; but if there be no God, I lose nothing but my sordid lusts by firmly believing there is one. If I be deceived at last, and find a God, can I think to be rewarded by him for disowning him ? Do not I run a desperate hazard to lose his favour, his kingdom, and endless felicity, for an endless torment ? By confessing a God, I venture no loss ; but by denying him, I run the most desperate hazard if there be one.
He is not a reasonable creature that will not put himself upon such a rea sonable arguing.
What a doleful meeting will there be between the God who is denied and
the atheist that denies him, who shall meet with reproaches on God's part, and terrors of his own ! All that he gains is a liberty to defile himself here, and a certainty to be despised hereafter, if he be in an error, as undoubtedly he is.
6. Can any such person say he hath done all that he can to inform him self of the being of God, or of other things which he denies ? Or rather, they would fain imagine there is none, that they may sleep securely in their lusts, and be free (if they could) from the thunderclaps of conscience ? Can such say they have used their utmost endeavours to instruct themselves in this, and can meet with no satisfaction ? Were it an abstruse truth, it might not be wondered at ; but not to meet with satisfaction in this which every thing minds us of and helpeth, is the fruit of an extreme negligence, stupidity, and a willingness to be jans,ati3fied, and a judicial process of God against them. It is strange any man should be so dark in that upon which depends the conduct of his life, and the expectation of happiness hereafter.
I do not know what some of you may think, but I believe these things
PS. XIV. 1.] THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 179
are not useless to be proposed for ourselves to answer temptations. We know not what wicked temptation in a debauched and sceptic age, meeting with a corrupt heart, may prompt men to, and though there may not be any atheist here present, yet I know there is more than one who have accidentally met with such who openly denied a deity. And if the like occasion happen, these considerations may not be unuseful to apply to their consciences. But I must confess, that since those that live in this sentiment do not judge themselves worthy of their own care, they are not worthy of the care of others ; and a man must have all the charity of the Christian religion, which they despise, not to contemn them, and leave them to their own folly. As we are to pity madmen, who sink under an unavoidable distemper, we are as much to abominate them who will fully hug this prodigious frenzy.
Use 3. If it be the atheist's folly to deny or doubt of the being of God, it is our wisdom to be firmly settled in this truth, that God is. We should never be without our arms in an age wherein atheism appears barefaced without a disguise.
You may meet with suggestions to it ; though the devil formerly never attempted to demolish this notion in the world, but was willing to keep it up, so the worship due to God might run in his own channel ; and was necessitated to preserve it, without which he could not have erected that idolatry which was his great design in opposition to God ; yet since the foundations of that are torn up, and never like to be rebuilt, he may endea vour, as his last refuge, to banish the notion of God out of the world, that he may reign as absolutely without it, as he did before by the mistakes about the divine nature. But we must not lay all upon Satan ; the corruption of our own hearts ministers matter to such sparks. It is not said, Satan hath
suggested to the fool, but ' The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' But let them come from what principle soever, silence them quickly, give them their dismiss, oppose the whole scheme of nature to fight against them, as the stars did against Sisera. Stir up sentiments of conscience to oppose sentiments of corruption. Resolve sooner to believe that yourselves are not than that God is not. And if you suppose they at any time come from Satan, object to him that you know he believes the contrary to what he suggests. Settle this principle firmly in you, let us behold him that is invisible, as Moses did, Heb. xi. 27. Let us have the sentiments following upon the notion of a God, to be restrained by a fear of him, excited by a love to him, not to violate his laws and offend his goodness. He is not a God careless of our actions, negligent to inflict punishment and bestow
rewards : ' He forgets not the labour of our love,' Heb. vi. 10, nor the in tegrity of our ways. He were not a God if he were not a governor ; and punishments and rewards are as essential to government as a foundation to a building. His being and his government in rewarding, Heb. xi. 6, which
implies punishment (for the neglects of him are linked together), are not* to be separated in our thoughts of him.
1. Without this truth fixed in us, we can never give him the worship due to his name. When the knowledge of any thing is fluctuating and uncertain, our actions about it are careless. We regard not that which we think doth not much concern us. If we do not firmly believe there is a God, we shall pay him no steady worship ; and if we believe not the excellency of his nature, we shall offer him but a slight service ; Mai. i. 13, 14. The Jewsf call the knowledge of the being of God, the foundation and pillar of wisdom. The
* Qu. c His being and government in rewarding, which implies punishment for the neglect of him, are linked together, and are not,' &c. ? — ED. t Maimon. Funda. Legis, cap. i.
180 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
whole frame of religion is dissolved without this apprehension, and totters if this apprehension be wavering. Keligion in the heart is as water in a weather glass, which rises or falls according to the strength or weakness of this belief. How can any man worship that which he believes not to be, or doubts of ? Could any man omit the paying an homage to one whom he did believe to be an omnipotent, wise being, possessing (infinitely above our conceptions) the perfections of all creatures ? He must either think there is no such being, or that he is an easy, drowsy, inobservant God, and not such a one
as our natural notions of him, if listened to, as well as the Scripture, repre sent him to be.
2. Without being rooted in this, we cannot order our lives. All our base ness, stupidity, dulness, wanderings, vanity, spring from a wavering and unsettledness in this principle. This gives ground to brutish pleasures, not only to solicit but conquer us. Abraham expected violence in any place where God was not owned : Gen. xx. 11, ' Surely the fear of God is not in
this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake.' The natural knowledge of God firmly impressed, would choke that which would stifle our reason and deface our souls. The belief that God is, and what he is, would have a mighty influence to persuade us to a real religion, and serious considera tion, and casting about how to be like to him and united with him.
3. Without it we cannot have any comfort of our lives. Who would will ingly live in a stormy world, void of a God ? If we waver in this principle, to whom should we make our complaints in our afflictions ? Where should we meet with supports ? How could we satisfy ourselves with the hopes of a future happiness ? There is a sweetness in the meditation of his existence, and that he is a creator, Ps. civ. 24. Thoughts of other things have a bitterness mixed with them : houses, lands, children now are, shortly they will not be ; but God is, that made the world ; his faithfulness as he is a creator, is a ground to deposit our souls and concerns in our innocent sufferings, 1 Peter iv. 19. So far as we are weak in the acknowledg ment of God, we deprive ourselves of our content in the view of his infinite perfections.
4. Without the rooting of this principle, we cannot have a firm belief of Scripture. The Scripture will be a slight thing to one that hath weak senti ments of God. The belief of a God must necessarily precede the belief of any revelation ; the latter cannot take place without the former as the foundation. We must firmly believe the being of a God, wherein our happiness doth con sist, before we can believe any means which conduct us to him. Moses begins with the author of creation, before he treats of the promise of redemp tion. Paul preached God as a creator to a university, before he preached Christ as mediator, Acts xvii. 24. What influence can the testimony of God have in his revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth of his being ? All would be in vain that is so often repeated, Thus saith the Lord, if we do not believe there is a Lord that speaks it. There could be no awe from his sovereignty in his commands, nor any comfortable taste of his goodness in his promises. The more we are strengthened in this prin ciple, the more credit we shall be able to give to divine revelation, to rest in his promise, and to reverence his precept ; the authority of all depends upon the being of the revealer.
To this purpose, since we have handled -this discourse by natural argu ments,
1. Study God in the creatures as well as in the Scriptures. The primary use of the creatures, is to acknowledge God in them ; they were made to be witnesses of himself and his goodness, and heralds of his glory, which
PS. XIV. 1.] THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 181
glory of God as creator ' shall endure for ever,' Ps. civ. 81. Thaif whole psalm is a lecture of creation and providence. The world is a sacred temple, man is introduced to contemplate it, and behold with praise the glory of God in the pieces of his art. As grace doth not destroy nature, so the book of redemption blots not out that of creation. Had he not shewn himself in his creatures, he could never have shewn himself in his Christ. The order of things required it. God must be read wherever he is legible ; the crea tures are one book, wherein he hath writ a part of the ' excellency of his name,' Ps. viii. 9, as many artists do in their works and watches. God's glory, like the filings of gold, is too precious to be lost wherever it drops ; nothing so vile and base in the world, but carries in it an instruction for man, and drives in further the notion of a God. As he said of his cottage, enter here, sunt hie etiam Dii, God disdains not this place, so the least creature speaks to man, every shrub in the field, every fly in the air, every limb in a body : Consider me, God disdains not to appear in me ; he hath dis covered in me his being and a part of his skill, as well as in the highest. The creatures manifest the being of God and part of his perfections. We have indeed a more excellent way, a revelation setting him forth in a more excellent manner, a firmer object of dependence, a brighter object of love, raising our hearts from self-confidence to a confidence in him. Though the appearance of God in the one be clearer than in the other, yet neither is to be neglected. The Scripture directs us to nature to view God ; it had been in vain else for the apostle to make use of natural arguments. Nature is not contrary to Scripture, nor Scripture to nature, unless we should think God contrary to himself, who is the author of both.
2. View God in your own experiences of him. There is a taste and sight of his goodness, though no sight of his essence, Ps. xxxiv. 88. By the taste of his goodness you may know the reality of the fountain, whence it springs and from whence it flows. This surpasseth the greatest capacity of a mere
natural ' understanding. Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Chris tianity is a mighty preservative against atheism. Many a man knows not how to prove honey to be sweet by his reason, but by his sense ; and if all the reason in the world be brought against it, he will not be reasoned out of what he tastes.
Have not many found the delightful illapses of God into their souls, often sprinkled with his inward blessings upon their seeking of him ; had secret warnings in their approaches to him ; and gentle rebuk§s in their consciences upon their swervings from him ? Have not many found sometimes an in visible hand raising them up when they were dejected, some unexpected providence stepping in for their relief, and easily perceived that it 'could not be a work of chance, nor many times the intention of the instruments he hath used in it ? You have often found that he is, by finding that he is a rewarder, and can set to your seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in his word : Isa. xliii. 12, ' I have declared, and have saved, there fore you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.' The secret touches of God upon the heart, and inward converses with him, are a greater evidence of the existence of a supreme and infinitely good being, than all nature.
Use 4. Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God ? It is a folly also not to worship God, when we acknowledge his existence. It is our wisdom then to worship him. As it is not indifferent whether we believe there is a God or no, so it is not indifferent whether we will give honour to that God or no. A worship is his right as he is the author of our being, and foun tain of our happiness. By this only we acknowledge his deity. Though we
182 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
profess his being, yet we deny that profession in neglects of worship. To
deny him a worship is as great a folly as to deny his being. He that renounceth all homage to his Creator, envies him the being which he can not deprive him of. The natural inclination to worship is as universal aa the notion of a God ; idolatry else had never gained footing in the world. The existence of God was never owned in any nation, but a worship of him was appointed ; and many people who have turned their backs upon some other parts of the law of nature, have paid a continual homage to some supe rior and invisible being. The Jews gave a reason why man was created in the evening of the Sabbath, because he should begin his being with the worship of his Maker. As soon as ever he found himself to be a creature,
his first solemn act should be a particular respect to his Creator. ' To feat God and keep his commandment, is the whole of man,' Eccles. xii. 13, or is
1 whole man ' (Hebrew) ; he is not a man but a beast, without observance of God. Religion is as requisite as reason to complete a man. He wera not reasonable if he were not religious ; because by neglecting religion, he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason. Either God framed the world with so much order, elegancy, and variety, to no purpose, or this was his end at least, that reasonable creatures should admire him in it, and honour him for it. The notion of God was not stamped upon men, the shadows of God did not appear in the creatures to be the subject of an idle contemplation, but the motive of a due homage to God. He created the world for his glory, a people for himself, that he might have the honour of his works ; that since we live and move in him and by him, we should live and move to him and for him. It was the condemnation of the heathen world, that when they knew there was a God, they did not give him the glory due to him, Rom. i. 21. He that denies his being is an atheist to his essence : he that denies his worship is an atheist to his honour.
5. If it be a folly to deny the being of God, it will be our wisdom then, since we acknowledge his being, often to think of him. Thoughts are the first issue of a creature as reasonable, Prov. iv. 23. He that hath given us the faculty whereby we are able to think, should be the principal object about which the power of it should be exercised. It is a justice to God the author of our understandings, a justice to the nature of our understandings, that the noblest faculty should be employed about the most excellent object. Our minds are a beam from God ; and therefore, as the beams of the sun, when they touch the earth, should reflect back upon God. As we seem to deny the being of God, not to think of him, we seem also to unsoul our souls, in misemploying the activity of them any other way : like flies, to be oftener on dunghills than flowers.
It is made the black mark of an ungodly man or an atheist, that ' God is not in all his thoughts,' Ps. x. 4. What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with reverence and delight ! A God for gotten is as good as no God to us.
PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. — Ps. XIV. 1.
Doct. 2. Practical atheism is natural to man in his depraved state, and very frequent in the hearts and lives of men.
« The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' He regards him as little as if he had no being. He said in his heart, not with his tongue, nor in his head ; he never firmly thought it, nor openly asserted it ; shame put a bar to the first, and natural reason to the second. Yet perhaps he had sometimes some doubts whether there were a God or no ; he wished there were not any, and sometimes hoped there were none at all. He could not raze out the notion of a deity in his mind, but he neglected the fixing the sense of God in his heart, and made it too much his business to deface and blot out those characters of God in his soul which had been left under the ruins of original nature.
Men may have atheistical hearts without atheistical heads. Their reasons may defend the notion of a deity, while their hearts are empty of affection
to the Deity ; Job's children may ' curse God in their hearts,' Job i. 5, though not with their lips.
' There is no God.' Most understand it of a denial of the providence of God, as I have said in opening the former doctrine.
He denies some essential attribute of God, or the exercise of that attribute in the world.*
He that denies any essential attribute may be said to deny the being of God. Whosoever denies angels or men to have reason and will, denies the human and angelical nature, because understanding and will are essential to both those natures ; there could neither be angel nor man without them. No nature can subsist without the perfections essential to that nature, nor
God be conceived of without his. The apostle tells us, Eph. ii. 12, that the Gentiles were * without God in the world.' So in some sense all unbelievers may be termed atheists ; for rejecting the mediator appointed by God, they reject that God who appointed him.
But this is beyond the intended scope, natural atheism being the only subject ; yet this is deducible from it, that the title of afoot doth not only belong to those who denied the existence of God, or to those who contemn all sense of a deity, and would root the conscience and reverence of God out of their souls, but it belongs also to these who give not that worship to God which is due to him ; who worship many gods, or who worship one
* So the Chaldee reads, KJtO^I^ TVh, non potestas, denying the authority of God in the world.
184 CHAENOCK'S WOKKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
God in a false and superstitious manner ; when they have not right concep tions of God, nor intend an adoration of him according to the excellency of his nature. All those that are unconcerned for any particular religion fall under this character ; though they own a God in general, yet are willing to acknowledge any god that shall be coined by the powers under whom they live. The Gentiles were without God in the world ; without the true notion
of God, not without a god of their own framing.
This general or practical atheism is natural to men. 1. Not natural by created, but by corrupted, nature. It is against nature, as nature came out @f the hand of God ; but universally natural, as nature
hath been sophisticated and infected by the serpent's 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 naturd sed vitiis.*
2. It is universally natural : ' The wicked are estranged from the womb,' Ps. Iviii. 2, •« 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 crea tion 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 same species. It is 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 man's heart is distant from God ; when we attempt anything pleasing to God, it is like the climbing up a hill against nature ; when anything is displeasing to him, it is like a current running down the channel in its natural course ; when we attempt anything that is an acknowledgment 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,' Eccl. viii. 11 ; the heart in the singular number, as if there were but one common heart beat in all mankind, and bent, as with one pulse, with a joint consent and force to wickedness, without a sense of the autho rity of God in the earth ; as if one heart acted every man in the world.
The great apostle cites the text to verify the charge he brought against
all mankind, Eom. iii. 9-12. In his interpretation, the Jews, who owned one God, and were dignified with special privileges, as well as the Gentiles, that maintained many gods, are within the compass of this character. The
apostle leaves out the first part of the text, « The fool hath said in his heart,' but takes in the latter part, and the verses following. He charges all, because all, every man of them, was under sin : « There is none that seeks God .;' and, ver. 19, he adds, ' What the law saith, it speaks to those that are under the law,' that none should imagine he included only the Gentiles, and exempted the Jews from this description. The leprosy of atheism had infected the whole mass of human nature. No man among Jews or Gentiles did naturally seek God, and therefore all were void of any spark of the practical sense of the deity. The effects of this atheism are not in all ex ternally of an equal size ; yet, in the fundamentals and radicals of it, there
is not a hair's difference between the best and the worst men that ever tra versed the world. The distinction is laid either in the common grace, bounding and suppressing it ; or in special grace, killing and crucifying it.
* Augustin. de Civit. Dei.
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 185
It is in every one either triumphant or militant, reigning or deposed. No man is any more born with sensible acknowledgments of God than he is born with a clear knowledge of the nature of all the stars in the heavens or
plants upon the earth. ' None seeks after God.' None seeks God as his rule, as his end, as his happiness, which is a debt the creature naturally owes to God ; he desires no communion with God ; he places his happiness in anything inferior to God ; he prefers everything before him, glorifies everything above him ; he hath no delight to know him ; he regards not
those paths which lead to him ; he loves his own filth better than God's holiness ; his actions are tinctured and dyed with self, and are void of that respect which is due from him to God.
The noblest faculty of man, his understanding, wherein the remain ing lineaments of the image of God are visible, the highest operation of that faculty, which is wisdom, is in the judgment of the Spirit of God
' devilish,' whiles it is ' earthly and sensual,' James iii. 15. And the wis dom of the best man is no better by nature ; a legion of impure spirits possess it ; devilish as the devil, who though he believe there is a God, yet acts as if there were none, and wishes he had no superior to prescribe him a law, and inflict that punishment upon him which his crimes have merited. Hence the poison of man by nature is said to be like * the poison of a serpent,' alluding to that serpentine temptation which first infected man kind, and changed the nature of man into the likeness of that of the devil, Ps. Iviii. 4. So that notwithstanding the harmony of the world, that presents men not only with the notice of the being of a God, but darts into their minds some remarks of his power and eternity, yet the thoughts and reasonings of man are so corrupt, as may well be called diabolical, and as contrary to the perfection of God and the original law of their nature, as the actings of the devil are ; for since every natural man is a child of the devil, and is acted by the diabolical spirit, he must needs have that nature which his father hath, and the infusion of that venom which the spirit that acts him is possessed with, though the full discovery of it may be restrained by various circumstances, Eph. ii. 2. To conclude : though no man, or at least very few, arrive to a round and positive conclusion in their hearts that there is no God, yet there is no man that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God.
In general, before I come to a particular proof, take some propositions, Prop. 1. Actions are a greater discovery of a principle than words. The testimony of works is louder and clearer than that of words, and the frame
of men's hearts must be measured rather by what they do than by what they say. There may be a mighty distance between the tongue and the heart, but a course of actions is as little guilty of lying as interest is, according to our common saying. All outward impieties are the branches of an atheism at the root of our nature, as all pestilential sores are expressions of the con tagion in the blood. Sin is therefore frequently called ungodliness in our English dialect. Men's practices are the best indexes of their principles. The current of a man's life is the counterpart of the frame of his heart : who can deny an error in tne spring or wheels, when he perceives an error in the hand of the dial ? Who can deny atheism in the heart, when so much is visible in the life ? The taste of the water discovers what mineral it is strained through. A practical denial of God is worse than a verbal, because deeds have usually more of deliberation than words ; words may be the fruit of a passion, but a set of evil actions are the fruit and evidence of a predominant evil principle in the heart. All slighting words of a prince do not argue an habitual treason, but a succession of overt treasonable attempts signify a
186 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIY. 1.
settled treasonable disposition in the mind. Those, therefore, are more deservedly termed atheists, who acknowledge a God and walk as if there were none, than those (if there can be any such) that deny a God, and walk as if there were one.
A sense of God in the heart would burst out in the life. Where there is no
reverence of God in the life, it is easily concluded there is less in the heart.
What doth not influence a man when it hath the addition of the eyes and censures of outward spectators, and the care of a reputation (so much the god of the world), to strengthen it and restrain the action, must certainly have less power over the heart when it is single, without any other concurrence. The flames breaking out of a house discover the fire to be much stronger and fiercer within. The apostle judgeth those of the circumcision, who gave heed to
Jewish fables, to be deniers of God, though he doth not tax them with any
notorious profaneness : Tit. i. 16, * They profess that they know God, but-in works they deny him ;' he gives them epithets contrary to what they arrogated to themselves.* They boasted themselves to be holy, the apostle calls them
abominable. They bragged that they fulfilled the law, and observed the tra ditions of their fathers ; the apostle calls them disobedient, or unpersuadable. They boasted that they only had the rule of righteousness, and a sound judg ment concerning it ; the apostle said they had a reprobate sense, and unfit for any good work ; and judges against all their vain-glorious brags, that they had not a reverence of God in their hearts ; there was more of the denial of God in their works, than there was acknowledgment of God in their words. Those that have neither God in their thoughts, nor in their tongues, nor in their works, cannot properly be said to acknowledge him.
Where the honour of God is not practically owned in the lives of men, the being of God is not sensibly acknowledged in the hearts of men. The prin ciple must be of the same kind with the actions ; if the actions be atheistical, the principle of them can be no better.
Prop. 2. All sin is founded in a secret atheism. Atheism is the spirit of every sin ; all the flood of impieties in the world break in at the gate of a secret atheism ; and though several sins may disagree with one another, yet like Herod and Pilate against Christ, they join hand in hand against the inte rest of God. Though lusts and pleasures be divers, yet they are united in disobedience to him, Tit. iii. 3. All the wicked inclinations in the heart,
and struggling motions, secret repinings, selfapplauding confidences in our own wisdom,'v strength, &c., envy, ambition, revenge, are sparks from this latent fire ; the language of every one of these is, I would be a lord to my self, and would not have a God superior to me.
The variety of sins against the first and second table, the neglects of God, and violences against man, are derived from this in the text, first, ' The fool hath said in his heart,' and then follows a legion of devils. As all virtuous actions spring from an acknowledgment of God, so all vicious actions rise from a lurking denial of him. All licentiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God. Abraham judged himself not secure from murder, nor his wife from defilement in Gerar, if there were no fear of God there, Gen. xx. 11. He that makes no conscience of sin has no regard to the honour, and consequently none to the being, of God. ' By the fear of God men depart from evil,' Prov. xvi. 6. By the non-regarding of God men rush into evil. Pharaoh oppressed Israel because he knew not the Lord. If he did not deny the being of a deity, yet he had such an unworthy notion of God as was inconsistent with the nature of a deity ; he, a poor creature, thought himself a mate for the Creator. * Illyric.
PS. XIV. 1.] PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 187
In sins of omission we own not God, in neglecting to perform what he enjoins. In sins of commission we set up some lust in the place of God, and pay to that the homage which is due to our Maker. In both we dis own him ; in the one by not doing what he commands, in the other by doing what he forbids.
We deny his sovereignty when we violate his laws ;*we disgrace his holi ness when we cast our filth before his face ; we disparage his wisdom when we set up another rule as the guide of our actions than that law he hath fixed ; we slight his sufficiency when we prefer a satisfaction in sin before a happiness in him alone, and his goodness, when we judge it not strong enough to attract us to him. Every sin invades the rights of God, and strips him of one or other of his perfections. It is such a vilifying of God as if he were not God ; as if he were not the supreme creator and benefactor of the world ; as if we had not our being from him ; as if the air we breathed in, the food we lived by, were our own by right of supremacy, not of dona tion : for a subject to slight his sovereign is to slight his royalty ; or a ser vant a master, is to deny his superiority.
Prop. 3. Sin implies that God is unworthy of a being. Every sin is a kind of cursing God in the heart, Job i. 5 ; an aim at the destruction of the being of God, not actually, but virtually ; not in the intention of every sin ner, but in the nature of every sin. That affection which excites a man to break his law, would excite him to annihilate his being if it were in his power. A man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule, and his own glory as the end of his actions, against the will and glory of God ; and could a sinner attain his end, God would be destroyed : God cannot out-live his will and his glory ; God cannot have another rule but his own will, nor
another end but his own honour. Sin is called a ' turning the back' upon God, Jer. xxxii. 33 ; a * kicking against him,' Deut. xxxii. 15 ; as if he were a slighter person than the meanest beggar. What greater contempt can be shewed to the meanest, vilest person, than to turn the back, lift up the heel, and thrust away with indignation ? All which actions, though they signify that such a one hath a being, yet they testify also that he is unworthy of a being, that he is an unuseful being in the world, and that it were well the world were rid of him.
All sin against knowledge is called a reproach of God, Num. xv. 10, Ezek. xx. 27. .Reproach is a vilifying a man as unworthy to be admitted into company. We naturally judge God unfit to be conversed with. God is the term turned from by a sinner ; sin is the term turned to ; which implies a greater excellency in the nature of sin than in the nature of God. And as we naturally judge it more worthy to have a being in our affections, so consequently more worthy to have a being in the world, than that infinite nature from whom we derive our beings, and our all, and upon whom with a kind of disdain we turn our backs. Whosoever thinks the notion of a deity unfit to be cherished in his mind by warm meditation, implies that he cares not whether he hath a being in the world or no. Now though the light of a deity shines so clearly in man, and the stings of conscience are so smart, that he cannot absolutely deny the being of a God, yet most men endeavour to smother this knowledge, and make the notion of a God a sapless and
useless thing : Rom. i. 28, ' They like not to retain God in their knowledge.'
It is said Cain ' went out from the presence of the Lord,' Gen. iv. 16 ; that is, from the worship of God. Our refusing or abhorring the presence of a man implies a carelessness whether he continue in the world or no, it is a using him as if he had no being, or as if he were not concerned in it. Hence all men in Adam, under the emblem of the prodigal, are said to go
188 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
into a far country. Not in respect of place, because of God's omnipresence, but in respect of acknowledgment and affection ; they mind and love any thing but God. And the descriptions of the nations of the world, lying in
the ruins of Adam's fall, and the dregs of that revolt, is that they know not God ; they forget God, as if there were no such being above them ; and indeed, he that doth the works of the devil, owns the devil to be more worthy of observance, and consequently of a being, than God, whose nature he forgets, and whose presence he abhors.