SECT. II. That there is a God.

AND, that we may shew that religion is not a vain and empty thing, it shall be the business of this first book to lay the foundation thereof in the existence of the Deity; which I prove in the following manner: That there are some things which had a beginning, is confessed on all sides, and obvious to sense: but these things could not be the cause of their own existence; because that which has no being, cannot act; for then it would have been before it was, which is impossible: whence it follows, that it derived its being from something else: this is true, not only of those things which are now before our eyes, or which we have formerly seen, but also of those things out of which these have arisen, and so on, till we arrive at some cause, which never had any beginning, but exists, as we say, necessarily, and not by accident:²²   Because, as their manner of speaking is, there can be no such thing as going on for ever; for of those things which had a beginning, either there is some first cause, or there is none. If it be denied that there is any first cause; then, those things which had a beginning were without a cause; and consequently existed, er name out of nothing, of themselves; which is absurd. Le Clerc. Now this Being, whatsoever it be, (of whom we shall speak more fully by and by), is what we mean by the Deity, or God. Another argument for the proof of a Deity may be drawn from the plain consent of all nations, who have any remains of reason, any sense of good manners, and are not wholly degenerated into brutishness. For human inventions, which depend upon the arbitrary will of men, are not always the same every where, but are often changed; whereas there is no place where this notion is not to be found; nor has the course of time been able to alter it, (which is observed by Aristotle himself,³³   Metaphys. book xi. ch. 5. where, after relating the fables of the gods, he has these words: “Which, if any one rightly distinguishes, he will keep wholly to this as the principal thing; that to believe the gods to be the first beings, is a divine truth; and that though arts and sciences have probably been often lost, and revived, yet this opinion hath been preserved as a relic to this very time.” Le Clerc. 4a man not very credulous in these matters); wherefore we must assign it a cause as extensive as all mankind; and that can be no other than a declaration from God himself, or a tradition derived down from the first parents of mankind: if the former be granted, there needs no further proof; if the latter, it is hard to give a good reason why our first parents should deliver to posterity a falsity in a matter of so great moment. Moreover, if we look into those parts of the world which have been a long time known, or into those lately discovered; if they have not lost the common principles of human nature, as was said before, this truth immediately appears; as well amongst the more dull nations, as amongst those who are quicker, and have better understandings; and, surely, these latter cannot all be deceived, nor the former be supposed to have found out something to impose upon each other with: nor would it be of any force against this, if it should be urged, that there have been a few persons in many ages who did not believe a God, or at least made such a profession; for, considering bow few they were, and that, as soon as their arguments were known, their opinion was immediately exploded, it is evident, it did not proceed from the right use of that reason which is common to all men, but either from an affectation of novelty, like the heathen philosopher who contended that snow was black; or from a corrupted mind, which, like a vitiated palate, does not relish things as they are; especially since history and other writings inform us, that the more virtuous any one is, the more carefully is this notion of the Deity preserved by him: and it is further evident, that they, who dissent from this anciently-established opinion, do it out of an ill principle, and are such persons, whose interest it is that there should be no God, 5that is, no Judge of human actions; because whatever hypothesis they have advanced of their own, whether an infinite succession of causes, without any beginning, or a fortuitous concourse of atoms, or any other, it is attended with as great, if not greater difficulties, and not at all more credible than what is already received; as is evident to any one that considers it ever so little.⁴⁴   Grotius might have said, and that not rashly, that there are much greater difficulties in the opinions of those who would have the world to be eternal, or always to have been; such as, that it must have come out of nothing of itself, or that it arose from the fortuitous concourse of atoms; opinions full of manifest contradictions, as many since Grotius’s time have exactly demonstrated; amongst whom is the eminent and learned dr. Ralph Cudworth, who wrote the English treatise of the intellectual system of the universe. There are also other very excellent English divines mid natural philosophers. Le Clerc. For that which some object, that they do not believe a God, because they do not see him, if they can see any thing, they may see how much it is beneath a man, who has a soul which he cannot see, to argue in this manner. Nor, if we cannot fully comprehend the nature of God, ought we therefore to deny that there is any such Being; for the beasts do not know what sort of creatures men are, and much less do they understand how men, by their reason, institute and govern kingdoms, measure the course of the stars, and sail across the seas: these things exceed their reach: and hence man, because he is placed by the dignity of his nature above the beasts, and that not by himself, ought to infer, that He, who gave him this superiority above the beasts, is as far advanced beyond him as he is beyond the beasts; and that therefore there is a nature which, as it is more excellent, so it exceeds his comprehension.