am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty be greater than it is,
because it is dishonour to be less certain, nor will I by shame be kept
from confessing those infirmities which those have as much as I, who
hypocritically reproach with them. _My certainty that I am a man is
before my certainty that there is a God._'

So candid was Richard Baxter, and so candid are _not_ the most part of
our priests, who would fain have us think they have no more, and we
ought to have no more, doubt about God's existence than our own.
Nevertheless, they write abundance of books to convince us 'God is,'
though they never penned a line in order to convince us, we actually
are, and that to disbelieve we are is a 'deadly sin.'

Could God be known, could his existence be made 'palpable to feeling as
to sight,' as unquestionably is the existence of matter, there would be
no need of 'Demonstrations of the existence of God,' no need of
arguments _a priori_ or _a posteriori_ to establish that existence.
Saint John was right; 'No man hath seen God at any time,' to which 'open
confession' he might truly have added, 'none ever will,' for the unreal
is always unseeable. Yet have 'mystery men' with shameless and most
insolent pertinacity asserted the existence of God while denying the
existence of matter.

Define your terms, said Locke. Atheists do so, and where necessary
insist upon others following the philosophic example. On this account
they are 'ugly customers' to Priests, who, with exceptions, much dislike
being called upon to explain their idealess language. Ask one to define
the word God and you stagger him. If he do not fly into a passion deem
yourself fortunate, but as to an intelligible definition, look for
nothing of the sort. He can't furnish such definition however disposed