PROPOSITION I. 117 me with clearness of thought, with force of argument, and happiness of expression to explain and prove them, so faras to enlighten the understanding, and satisfy the conscience of hum- ble and sincere christians in this great and :glorious doctrine of the Trinity ; that they may pay their distinct honours to the sacred Three, in this world of-darkness and imperfection, and walk on rejoicing in their way to the world of perfect lifeand happiness. Amen. PROPOSITION I.There is a God. It must be known by the lightof nature, that there is a God, before we can reasonably have any thing to do with scrip- ture, or believe his word. Now the shortest and plainest way to come at the knowledge of God by the light of nature, is by considering the whole frame of this visible world, and the variousparts of it. Hereby we shall not only.find that there isa God, but we shall learn in a great measure what is his nature also. A man cannot open his eyes but he sees many objects round about him which did not make themselves : The birds, the beasts, and the fishes, the herbs, and the trees, the fire, and the water, all seem to confess that they were not their own creators, for they cannot preserve themselves. Nor did we give being to ourselves or to them, because we can neither preserve ourselves nor them in being. Besides there is an infinite variety of instances in the con- stant regular motions of the planets, the influences of the sunand moon, in the wondrous composition of plants and animals, and in their several properties and operations, as weltas in the very structure of our own bodies, and the faculties of our minds ; which sufficiently discover there must be some superior and divine power and wisdom, which both, contrived and created their na- tures and ours, and gave beingboth to them andus. Thus it appears that the first notion we have of God, by the light of nature is, the Creator of all-things. Thence it fot- lows, that he Must be before all those things which he, has made; therefore he must be the first of beings. - And it is plain, that he could have nobeginning, and that there was no time when God was not; for then he could ne- ver have begun to be ; since there was nothing that could create him, nor can there be any reason why he should of him - self start out of nothing into being at any moment, if lie had not been before: So that since we have proved that there is a God, we may be sure that he ever was, or that he was from all eternity. Now the same argument which proves that he bad no be- ginning, will infer also, that he can have no end : Foras nothing could give him being, nothing can take it way. He depende n 3
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