CALIENTA

Of all the institutions and customs received among men, we meet with nothing more solemn and general than that of religion, and sacred rites performed to the honour of some deity; which is a very strong argument, that that persuasion, in preference to any other, is written, nay, rather engraven, in strong and indelible characters upon the mind of man. This is, as it were, the name of the great Creator stamped upon the noblest of all his visible works, that thus man may acknowledge himself to be his, and concluding from the inscription he finds impressed upon his mind, that what belongs to God ought in strict justice to be restored to him, be wholly reunited to his first principle, that immense ocean of goodness, whence he took his rise. The distemper that has invaded mankind is indeed grievous and epidemical: it consists in a mean and degenerate love to the body and corporeal things, and, in consequence of this, a stupid and brutish forgetfulness of God, though he can never be entirely blotted out of the mind. This forgetfulness, a few, and but very few, alarmed and awakened by the divine rod, early shake off. And even in the most stupid, and such as are buried in the deepest sleep, the original impression sometimes discovers itself when they are under the pressure of some grievous calamity, or on the approach of danger, and especially upon a near prospect of death. Then the thoughts of God, that had lain hid and been long suppressed, forced out by the weight of pain and the impressions of fear, come to be remembered; and the whole soul being, as it were, roused out of its long and deep sleep, men begin to look about them, inquire what the matter is, and seriously reflect whence they came and whither they are going. Then the truth comes naturally from their hearts. The stormy sea alarmed even profane sailors so much, that they awoke the sleeping prophet; Arise, say they, thou sleeper, and call upon thy God.

But however weak or imperfect this original or innate knowledge of God may be, it discovers itself every where, so far, at least, that you can meet with no man or society of men, that, by some form of worship or ceremonies, do not acknowledge a Deity, and, according to their capacity and the custom of their country, pay him homage. It is true, some late travellers have reported that in that

part of the new world called Brazil there are some tribes of the natives, among whom you can discover no symptoms that they have the least sense of a Deity; but, besides that the truth of this report is very far from being well ascertained, and that the observation might have been too precipitately made by new comers who had not made sufficient inquiry; even supposing it to be true, it is not of such consequence, when opposed to all the rest of the world, and the universal agreement of all nations and ages upon this subject, that the least regard should be paid to it; nor must we imagine that it at all lessens the weight of this great argument, which has been generally and most justly urged, both by ancients and moderns, to establish the first and common foundation of religion.

Now whoever accurately considers this universal sense of religion, of which we have been speaking, will find that it comprehends in it these particulars; 1, that there is a God; 2, that he is to be worshiped; 3, which is a consequence of the former, that he regards the affairs of men ; 4, that he has given them a law, enforced by rewards and punishments; and that the distribution of these is, in a very great measure, reserved to a life different from that we live in this earth, is the firm belief, if not of all, at least, of the generality of mankind. And though our present purpose does not require that we should confirm the truth of all these points with those strong arguments that might be urged in their favour, but rather that we should take them for granted, as being sufficiently established by the common consent of mankind, we shall, however, subjoin a few thoughts on each of them separately, with as great brevity and perspicuity as we can.

1. That there is a God. And here I cannot help fearing, that when we endeavour to confirm this leading truth, with regard to the first and uncreated Being, by a long and laboured series of arguments, we may seem, instead of a service, to do a kind of injury to God and man both; for why should we use the pitiful light of a candle to discover the sun, and eagerly go about to prove the being of him who gave being to every thing else; who alone exists necessarily, nay, we may boldly say, who alone exists, seeing all other things were by him extracted out of nothing, and, when compared with him, are nothing, and even less

than nothing, and vanity. And would not any man think himself insulted, should it be suspected, that he doubted of the being of him, without whom he could neither doubt, nor think, nor be at all? This persuasion, without doubt, is innate, and strongly impressed upon the mind of man, if any thing at all can be said to be so. Nor does Jamblicus scruple to say, that "to know God is our very being;" and in another place, that "it is the very being of the soul to know God, on whom it depends.' Nor would he think amiss, who in this should espouse the opinion of Plato: for to know this is nothing more than to call to remembrance what was formerly impressed upon the mind; and when one forgets it-which, alas! is too much the case of us all-he has as many remembrancers, so to speak, within him, as he has members, and as many without him, as the individuals of the vast variety of creatures to be seen around him. Let, therefore, the indolent soul, that has almost forgotten God, be roused up, and every now and then say to itself, "Behold this beautiful starry heaven," &c.

But because we have too many of that sort of fools that say in their heart, "There is no God;" and if we are not to answer a fool so as to be like unto him, yet we are, by all means, to answer him according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit; again, because a criminal forgetfuluess of this leading truth, is the sole source of all the wickedness in the world; and, finally, because it may not be quite unprofitable nor unpleasant, even to the best of men, sometimes to recollect their thoughts on this subject, but, on the contrary, a very pleasant exercise to every well disposed mind to reflect upon what a solid and unshaken foundation the whole fabric of religion is built, and to think and speak of the eternal Fountain of goodness and of all other beings, and consequently of his necessary existence; we reckon it will not be amiss to give a few thoughts upon it. Therefore, not to insist upon several arguments which are urged with great advantage on this subject, we shall produce only one or two, and shall reason thus

It is by all means necessary, that there should be some eternal Being, otherwise nothing could ever have been; since it must be a most shocking contradiction to say, that

any thing could have produced itself out of nothing. But if we say, that any thing existed from eternity, it is most agreeable to reason, that that should be an eternal mind, or thinking Being, that so the noblest property may be ascribed to the most exalted Being. Nay, that eternal Being must of absolute necessity excel in wisdom and power, and indeed in every other perfection, since it must itself be uncreated, and the cause and origin of all the creatures; otherwise some difficulty will remain concerning their production. And thus all the parts of the universe, taken singly, suggest arguments in favour of their Creator.

The beautiful order of the universe, and the mutual relation that subsists between all its parts, present us with another strong and convincing argument. This order is itself an effect, and indeed a wonderful one ; and it is also evidently distinct from the things themselves, taken singly; therefore it must proceed from some cause, and a cause endowed with superior wisdom; for it would be the greatest folly, as well as impudence, to say it could be owing to mere chance. Now it could not proceed from man, nor could it be owing to any concert or mutual agreement between the things themselves, separately considered, seeing the greatest part of them are evidently incapable of consultation and concert. It must, therefore, proceed from some one superior Being, and that being is GOD, "who commanded the stars to move by stated laws, the fruits of the earth to be produced at different seasons, the changeable moon to shine with borrowed light, and the

sun with his own."

He is the monarch of the universe, and the most absolute monarch in nature; for who else assigned to every rank of creatures its particular form and uses, so that the stars, subjected to no human authority or laws, should be placed on high, and serve to bring about to the earth and the inhabitants thereof, the regular returns of day and night, and distinguish the seasons of the year? Let us take, in particular, any one species of sublunary thingsfor instance, man, the noblest of all—and see how he came by the form wherewith he is invested, that frame or constitution of body, that vigour of mind, and that precise rank in the nature of things, which he now obtains, and no other.

He must certainly either have made choice of

these things for himself, or must have had them assigned him by another, whom we must consider as the principal actor, and sole architect of the whole fabric. That he made choice of them for himself, nobody will imagine; for either he made this choice before he had any existence of his own, or after he began to be: but it is not easy to say which of these suppositions is most absurd. It remains, therefore, that he must be indebted for all he enjoys to the mere good pleasure of his great and all-wise Creator, who framed his earthly body in such a wonderful and surprising manner, animated him with his own breath, and thus introduced him into this great palace of his which we now behold, where his manifold wisdom, most properly so called, displays itself so gloriously in the whole machine and in every one of its wonderfully variegated parts.

The first argument, taken from the very being of things, may be further illustrated by the same instance of man; for unless the first man was created, we must suppose an infinite series of generations from eternity, and so the human race must be supposed independent, and to owe its being to itself. But, by this hypothesis, mankind came into the world by generation; therefore every individual of the race owes its being to another; consequently the whole race is from itself, and at the same time from another; which is absurd: therefore the hypothesis implies a plain and evident contradiction. "O immense wisdom that produced the world! Let us for ever admire the riches and skill of thy right hand;" often viewing with attention thy wonders, and, while we view them, frequently crying out with the divine psalmist, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches! From everlasting to everlasting thou art God, and besides thee, there is no other. And with Hermes, "The Father of all, being himself understanding, life, and brightness, created man like himself, and cherished him as his own son. Thou Creator of universal nature, who hast extended the earth, who poisest the heavens, and commandest the waters to flow from all the parts of the sea, we praise thee, who art the one exalted God, for by thy will all things are perfected." The same author asserts, that "God was prior to human nature."