in his nature, infinite in his essence and perfections, independent
in his operations, who hath given being to the whole frame of sensible
and intelligible creatures, and governs them according to their
several natures, by an unconceivable wisdom; who fills the heavens
with the glory of his majesty, and the earth with the influences of
his goodness.
It is a folly inexcusable to renounce, in this case, all appeal to
universal consent, and the joint assurances of the creatures.
_Reason I._ ’Tis a folly to deny or doubt of that which hath been the
acknowledged sentiment of all nations, in all places and ages. There
is no nation but hath owned some kind of religion, and, therefore,
no nation but hath consented in the notion of a Supreme Creator and
Governor.
1. This hath been universal. 2. It hath been constant and
uninterrupted. 3. Natural and innate.
{a30} First, It hath been universally assented to by the judgments and
practices of all nations in the world.
1. No nation hath been exempt from it. All histories of former and
latter ages have not produced any one nation but fell under the force
of this truth. Though they have differed in their religions, they have
agreed in this truth; here both heathen, Turk, Jew, and Christian,
centre without any contention. No quarrel was ever commenced upon this
score; though about other opinions wars have been sharp, and enmities
irreconcilable. The notion of the existence of a Deity was the same
in all, Indians as well as Britons, Americans as well as Jews. It hath
not been an opinion peculiar to this or that people, to this or that
sect of philosophers; but hath been as universal as the reason whereby
men are differenced from other creatures, so that some have rather
defined man by _animal religiosum_, than _animal rationale_. ’Tis so
twisted with reason that a man cannot be accounted rational, unless
he own an object of religion; therefore he that understands not this,
renounceth his humanity when he renounceth a Divinity. No instance
can be given of any one people in the world that disclaimed it. It
hath been owned by the wise and ignorant, by the learned and stupid,
by those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of nature, as
well as those whose candles were snuffed by a more polite education,
and that without any solemn debate and contention. Though some
philosophers have been known to change their opinions in the concerns
of nature, yet none can be proved to have absolutely changed their
opinion concerning the being of a God. One died for asserting one God;
none, in the former ages upon record, hath died for asserting no God.
Go to the utmost bounds of America, you may find people without some
broken pieces of the law of nature, but not without this signature
and stamp upon them, though they wanted commerce with other nations,
except as savage as themselves, in whom the light of nature was as
it were sunk into the socket, who are but one remove from brutes,
who clothe not their bodies, cover not their shame, yet were they as
soon known to own a God, as they were known to be a people. They were
possessed with the notion of a Supreme Being, the author of the world;
had an object of religious adoration; put up prayers to the deity they
owned for the good things they wanted, and the diverting the evils
they feared. No people so untamed where absolute perfect atheism
had gained a footing. No one nation of the world known in the time
of the Romans that were without their ceremonies, whereby they
signified their devotion to a deity. They had their places of worship,
where they made their vows, presented their prayers, offered their
sacrifices, and implored the assistance of what they thought to be a
god; and in their distresses run immediately, without any deliberation,
to their gods: so that the notion of a deity was as inward and settled
in them as their own souls, and, indeed, runs in the blood of mankind.
The distempers of the understanding cannot utterly deface it; you
shall scarce find the most distracted bedlam, in his raving fits,
to deny a God, though he may blaspheme, and fancy himself one.
2. Nor doth the idolatry and multiplicity of gods in the world {a31}
weaken, but confirm this universal consent. Whatsoever unworthy
conceits men have had of God in all nations, or whatsoever degrading
representations they have made of him, yet they all concur in
this, that there is a Supreme Power to be adored. Though one people
worshipped the sun, others the fire,――and the Egyptians, gods out of
their rivers, gardens, and fields; yet the notion of a Deity existent,
who created and governed the world, and conferred daily benefits upon
them, was maintained by all, though applied to the stars, and in part
to those sordid creatures. All the Dagons of the world establish this
truth, and fall down before it. Had not the nations owned the being of
a God, they had never offered incense to an idol: had there not been
a deep impression of the existence of a Deity, they had never exalted
creatures below themselves to the honor of altars: men could not so
easily have been deceived by forged deities, if they had not had a
notion of a real one. Their fondness to set up others in the place of
God, evidenced a natural knowledge that there was One who had a right
to be worshipped. If there were not this sentiment of a Deity, no
man would ever have made an image of a piece of wood, worshipped it,
prayed to it, and said, “Deliver me, for thou art my God.”[20] They
applied a general notion to a particular image. The difference is in
the manner, and immediate object of worship, not in the formal ground
of worship. The worship sprung from a true principle, though it was
not applied to a right object: while they were rational creatures,
they could not deface the notion; yet while they were corrupt
creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object
from a true principle. A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well
as one of the clearest sight; but because of his blindness he may miss
the way and stumble into a ditch. No man would be imposed upon to take
a Bristol stone instead of a diamond, if he did not know that there
were such things as diamonds in the world: nor any man spread forth
his hands to an idol, if he were altogether without the sense of a
Deity. Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to, yet in both,
the natural sentiment of a God is evidenced; all their mistakes were
grafts inserted in this stock, since they would multiply gods rather
than deny a Deity.
How should such a general submission be entered into by all the
world, so as to adore things of a base alloy,[21] if the force of
religion were not such, that in any fashion a man would seek the
satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship? This
great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument, for it
evidenceth it not to be a cheat, combination or conspiracy to deceive,
or a mutual intelligence, but every one finds it in his climate, yea
in himself. People would never have given the title of a God to men or
brutes had there not been a pre‑existing and unquestioned persuasion,
that there was such a being;――how else should the notion of a God
come into their minds?――the notion that there is a God must be more
ancient.[22]
3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the world, this of the {a32}
existence of God was never the subject of contention. All other things
have been questioned. What jarrings were there among philosophers
about natural things! into how many parties were they split! with what
animosities did they maintain their several judgments! but we hear of
no solemn controversies about the existence of a Supreme Being: this
never met with any considerable contradiction: no nation, that hath
put other things to question, would ever suffer this to be disparaged,
so much as by a public doubt. We find among the heathen contentions
about the nature of God and the number of gods, some asserted an
innumerable multitude of gods, some affirmed him to be subject to
birth and death, some affirmed the entire world was God; others
fancied him to be a circle of a bright fire; others that he was a
spirit diffused through the whole world:[23] yet they unanimously
concurred in this, as the judgment of universal reason, that there was
such a sovereign Being: and those that were skeptical in everything
else, and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was
nothing certain, professed a certainty in this. The question was not
whether there was a First Cause, but what it was. It is much the same
thing, as the disputes about the nature and matter of the heavens,
the sun and planets, though there be great diversity of judgments, yet
all agree that there are heavens, sun, planets; so all the contentions
among men about the nature of God, weaken not, but rather confirm,
that there is a God, since there was never a public formal debate
about his existence.[24] Those that have been ready to pull out
one another’s eyes for their dissent from their judgments, sharply
censured one another’s sentiments, envied the births of one another’s
wits, always shook hands with an unanimous consent in this; never
censured one another for being of this persuasion, never called it
into question; as what was never controverted among men professing
Christianity, but acknowledged by all, though contending about other
things, has reason to be judged a certain truth belonging to the
christian religion; so what was never subjected to any controversy,
but acknowledged by the whole world, hath reason to be embraced as
a truth without any doubt.
4. This universal consent is not prejudiced by some few dissenters.
History doth not reckon twenty professed atheists in all ages in
the compass of the whole world: and we have not the name of any one
absolute atheist upon record in Scripture; yet it is questioned,
whether any of them, noted in history with that infamous name, were
downright deniers of the existence of God, but rather because they
disparaged the deities commonly worshipped by the nations where they
lived, as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities,
vulgarly attributed to their gods, as lust and luxury, wantonness and
quarrels, were unworthy of the nature of a god.[25] But suppose they
were really what they are termed to be, what are they to the multitude
of men that have sprung out of the loins of Adam? not so much as
one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned into that form
by any fires in your chimneys. And many more were not sufficient to
weigh down the contrary consent of the whole world, and bear {a33}
down an universal impression. Should the laws of a country, agreed
universally to by the whole body of the people, be accounted vain,
because an hundred men of those millions disapprove of them, when
not their reason, but their folly and base interest, persuades them
to dislike them and dispute against them? What if some men be blind,
shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men? shall
we say that the notion of the existence of God is not natural to men,
because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion? shall a
man in a dungeon, that never saw the sun, deny that there is a sun,
because one or two blind men tell him there is none, when thousands
assure him there is.[26] Why should then the exceptions of a few, not
one to millions, discredit that which is voted certainly true by the
joint consent of the world? Add this, too, that if those that are
reported to be atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside
from the common persuasion of the whole world, it is a wonder it met
not with entertainment by great numbers of those, who, by reason of
their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets, might reasonably be
thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God. It is strange
if there were any reason on their side, that in so long a space of
time as hath run out from the creation of the world, there could not
be engaged a considerable number to frame a society for the profession
of it. It hath died with the person that started it, and vanished as
soon as it appeared.
To conclude this, is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt
of the being of a God, to dissent from all mankind, and stand in
contradiction to human nature? What is the general dictate of nature
is a certain truth. It is impossible that nature can naturally and
universally lie. And therefore those that ascribe all to nature, and
set it in the place of God, contradict themselves, if they give not
credit to it in that which it universally affirms. A general consent
of all nations is to be esteemed as a law of nature.[27] Nature cannot
plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity, for then the
laws of nature would be destructive to the reason and minds of men.
How is it possible, that a falsity should be a persuasion spread
through all nations, engraven upon the minds of all men, men of the
most towering, and men of the most creeping understanding; that they
should consent to it in all places, and in those places where the
nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known
world? a consent not settled by any law of man to constrain people to
a belief of it: and indeed it is impossible that any law of man can
constrain the belief of the mind. Would not he deservedly be accounted
a fool, that should deny that to be gold which hath been tried and
examined by a great number of knowing goldsmiths, and hath passed the
test of all their touch‑stones? What excess of folly would it be for
him to deny it to be true gold, if it had been tried by all that had
skill in that metal in all nations in the world!
Secondly, It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent. It hath
been as ancient as the first age of the world; no man is able to
mention any time, from the beginning of the world, wherein this notion
hath not been universally owned; it is as old as mankind, {a34} and
hath run along with the course of the sun, nor can the date be fixed
lower than that.
1. In all the changes of the world, this hath been maintained. In
the overturnings of the government of states, the alteration of modes
of worship, this hath stood unshaken. The reasons upon which it was
founded were, in all revolutions of time, accounted satisfactory and
convincing, nor could absolute atheism in the changes of any laws
ever gain the favor of any one body of people to be established by
a law. When the honor of the heathen idols was laid in the dust, this
suffered no impair. The being of one God was more vigorously owned
when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of gods was manifest; and
grew taller by the detection of counterfeits. When other parts of the
law of nature have been violated by some nations, this hath maintained
its standing. The long series of ages hath been so far from blotting
it out, that it hath more strongly confirmed it, and maketh further
progress in the confirmation of it. Time, which hath eaten out the
strength of other things, and blasted mere inventions, hath not been
able to consume this. The discovery of all other impostures, never
made this by any society of men to be suspected as one. It will not be
easy to name any imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world
without being discovered, and whipped out by some nation or other.
Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without
public control and question. And since the world hath detected many
errors of the former age, and learning been increased, this hath been
so far from being dimmed, that it hath shone out clearer with the
increase of natural knowledge, and received fresh and more vigorous
confirmations.
2. The fears and anxieties in the consciences of men have given men
sufficient occasion to root it out, had it been possible for them to
do it. If the notion of the existence of God had been possible to have
been dashed out of the minds of men, they would have done it rather
than have suffered so many troubles in their souls upon the commission
of sin; since there did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt
ages to have attempted it and prospered in it, had it been possible.
How comes it therefore to pass, that such a multitude of profligate
persons that have been in the world since the fall of man, should not
have rooted out this principle, and dispossessed the minds of men of
that which gave birth to their tormenting fears? How is it possible
that all should agree together in a thing which created fear, and an
obligation against the interest of the flesh, if it had been free for
men to discharge themselves of it? No man, as far as corrupt nature
bears sway in him, is willing to live controlled.
The first man would rather be a god himself than under one:[28] why
should men continue this notion in them, which shackled them in their
vile inclinations, if it had been in their power utterly to deface
it? If it were an imposture, how comes it to pass, that all the wicked
ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat, which
kept them in continual alarms? Men wanted not will to shake off such
apprehensions; as Adam, so all his posterity are desirous to hide
themselves from God upon the commission of sin,[29] and by the {a35}
same reason they would hide God from their souls. What is the reason
they could never attain their will and their wish by all their
endeavors? Could they possibly have satisfied themselves that there
were no God, they had discarded their fears, the disturbers of the
repose of their lives, and been unbridled in their pleasures. The
wickedness of the world would never have preserved that which was a
perpetual molestation to it, had it been possible to be razed out.
But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own consciences
could never bring their hearts to a settled dissent from this truth,
it evidenceth, that as it took its birth at the beginning of the
world, it cannot expire, no not in the ashes of it, nor in anything
but the reduction of the soul to that nothing from whence it sprung.
This conception is so perpetual, that the nature of the soul must be
dissolved before it be rooted out, nor can it be extinct while the
soul endures.
3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture, that the
devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment. It seems to be
so perpetually fixed, that the devil did not think fit to tempt man to
the denial of the existence of a Deity, but persuaded him to believe
he might ascend to that dignity and become a god himself; Gen. iii. 1,
“Hath God said?” and he there owns him (ver. 5), “Ye shall become as
gods.” He owns God in the question he asks the woman, and persuades
our first parents to be gods themselves. And in all stories, both
ancient and modern, the devil was never able to tincture men’s minds
with a professed denial of the Deity, which would have opened a door
to a world of more wickedness than hath been acted, and took away
the bar to the breaking out of that evil, which is naturally in the
hearts of men, to the greater prejudice of human societies. He wanted
not malice to raze out all the notions of God, but power: he knew it
was impossible to effect it, and therefore in vain to attempt it. He
set up himself in several places of the ignorant world as a god, but
never was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God. The
impressions of a Deity were so strong as not to be struck out by the
malice and power of hell.
What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this truth,
which all the periods of time have not been able to wear out; which
all the wars and quarrels of men with their own consciences have not
been able to destroy; which ignorance and debauchery, its two greatest
enemies, cannot weaken; which all the falsehoods and errors which
have reigned in one or other part of the world, have not been able
to banish; which lives in the consents of men in spite of all their
wishes to the contrary, and hath grown stronger, and shone clearer,
by the improvements of natural reason!
Thirdly, Natural and innate; which pleads strongly for the perpetuity
of it. It is natural, though some think it not a principle writ in
the heart of man;[30] it is so natural that every man is born with
a restless instinct to be of some kind of religion or other, which
implies some object of religion. The impression of a Deity is as
common as reason, and of the same age with reason.[31] It is a
relic of knowledge after the fall of Adam, like fire under ashes,
which sparkles as soon {a36} as ever the heap of ashes is opened. A
notion sealed up in the soul of every man;[32] else how could those
people who were unknown to one another, separate by seas and mounts,
differing in various customs and manner of living, had no mutual
intelligence one with another, light upon this as a common sentiment,
if they had not been guided by one uniform reason in all their minds,
by one nature common to them all: though their climates be different,
their tempers and constitutions various, their imaginations in some
things as distant from one another as heaven is from earth, the
ceremonies of their religion not all of the same kind; yet wherever
you find human nature, you find this settled persuasion. So that the
notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man, and is
the first natural branch of common reason, or upon either the first
inspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution,
or upon the first sight of any external visible object. Nature within
man, and nature without man, agree upon the first meeting together to
form this sentiment, that there is a God. It is as natural as anything
we call a common principle. One thing which is called a common
principle and natural is, that the whole is greater than the parts. If
this be not born with us, yet the exercise of reason essential to man
settles it as a certain maxim; upon the dividing anything into several
parts, he finds every part less than when they were altogether. By
the same exercise of reason, we cannot cast our eyes upon anything in
the world, or exercise our understandings upon ourselves, but we must
presently imagine, there was some cause of those things, some cause
of myself and my own being; so that this truth is as natural to man
as anything he can call most natural or a common principle.
It must be confessed by all, that there is a law of nature writ upon
the hearts of men, which will direct them to commendable actions, if
they will attend to the writing in their own consciences. This law
cannot be considered without the notice of a Lawgiver. For it is but
a natural and obvious conclusion, that some superior hand engrafted
those principles in man, since he finds something in him twitching
him upon the pursuit of uncomely actions, though his heart be mightily
inclined to them; man knows he never planted this principle of
reluctancy in his own soul; he can never be the cause of that which
he cannot be friends with. If he were the cause of it, why doth he not
rid himself of it? No man would endure a thing that doth frequently
molest and disquiet him, if he could cashier it. It is therefore sown
in man by some hand more powerful than man, which riseth so high, and
is rooted so strong, that all the force that man can use cannot pull
it up. If therefore this principle be natural in man, and the law of
nature be natural, the notion of a Lawgiver must be as natural, as the
notion of a printer, or that there is a printer, is obvious upon the
sight of a stamp impressed. After this the multitude of effects in the
world step in to strengthen this beam of natural light, and the direct
conclusion from thence is, that that power which made those outward
objects, implanted this inward principle. This is sown in us, born
with us, and sprouts up with our growth, or as one saith; it is like
letters carved upon the bark of a {a37} young plant, which grows
up together with us, and the longer it grows the letters are more
legible.[33]
This is the ground of this universal consent, and why it may well be
termed natural. This will more evidently appear to be natural, because,
1. This consent could not be by mere tradition. 2. Nor by any mutual
intelligence of governors to keep people in awe, which are two things
the atheist pleads; the first hath no strong foundation, and that
other is as absurd and foolish as it is wicked and abominable. 3. Nor
was it fear first introduced it.