SERM. so that who denies assent thereto, is beyond mea VIII. sure paradoxical, and belongs to a sect very thin and weak; is in opinion what a monster is in nature, a thing extraordinary and uncouth; as a lion without courage, an ox without horns, a bird without wings, (as the philosopher speaks;) a thing which seldom haps to be, and that never without some great error or defect d. But if, as surely he will, our haughty adversary shall refuse the verdict of this grand jury, we may assert its authority, not only as competent in itself, but as more considerable in respect to the causes whence it proceeded, or from the manner by which this general consent can be conceived to have been produced and propagated among men. That men should thus conspire in opinion must needs proceed either, 1. from hence, that such an opinion was by way of natural light or instinct (as the first most evident principles of science are conceived to be, or as the most effectual propensions toward good are) implanted in man's nature; thus Cicero and other philosophers suppose it to have come: in him it is thus said, and argued: Since not by any institution, or custom, or law, this opinion is established, and among all, without exception, a firm consent doth abide, it is necessary there should be Gods; we having implanted, or rather inbred, notions concerning them; but about whatever men naturally 4 Εἰ δὲ ἐξεγένοντο ἐν τῷ ξύμπαντι αἰῶνι δύο που καὶ τρεῖς ἄθεον καὶ ταπεινὸν καὶ ἀσθενὲς γένος· ὡς ἄθιμος λέων, ὡς βοῦς ἄκερος, ὡς ὄρνις ἄπτερος. Id. 16. Καί τις οὐκ ἂν ἐπήνεσε τὴν τῶν βαρβάρων σοφίαν, είγε μηδεὶς αὐτῶν εἰς ἀθεότητα ἐξέπεσε, μηδὲ ἀμφιβάλλουσι περὶ θεῶν, ἄρα γε εἰσὶν, ἢ οὐκ εἰσὶν, καὶ ἄρα γε ἡμῶν φροντίζουσι, ἢ οὐ, &c. Ælian. Var. ii. 31. do agree, that must needs be true: we must there- SERM. fore confess there are Gods. Thus doth he draw VIII. this opinion from original light of nature. Or, 2. it may come from a common inclination in man's soul naturally disposing every man to entertain this opinion, whenever it is propounded, as there is in our eyes a natural readiness to perceive the light, whenever it shines before us; thus others explain the rise thereof, as Julian particularly: We all, saith he, without being taught, (without any painful or long instruction,) are persuaded, that a Divinity exists; and to regard it, and to have, we may suppose, a speedy tendency (or recourse) thereto; being in such manner disposed thereto in our souls, as things endued with the faculty of seeing are to the light the same similitude is, as I remember, used by Plato to the same purpose. Or, 3. it may come hence, that some very prevalent reason (obvious to all men, even to the most rude and barbarous, and flowing from common principles or notions of truth) did beget this agreement in them: thus Plutarch de- Plut. de rives it from men's common observation of the stars' constant order and motion; so St. Paul also seems Rom. i. 19, to imply the knowledge of God manifest to all men from the creation of the world, and the works of God visible therein; and here (in this 19th Psalm) e Cum enim non instituto aliquo, aut more, aut lege sit opinio constituta, maneatque ad unuin omnium firma consensio, intelligi necesse est esse Deos, quoniam insitas eorum, vel potius innatas cognitiones habemus; de quo autem omnium natura consentit, id verum esse necesse est. Esse igitur Deos confitendum est. De Nat. Deor. i. pag. 22. vid. ii. de Nat. Deor. 53, 57, &c. f · Πάντες ἀδιδάκτως εἶναι θεῖόν τι πεπείσμεθα, καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο ἀφορᾶν, ἐπ ̓ αὐτό τε, οἶμαι, σπεύδειν· οὕτω διατιθέμενοι τὰς ψυχὰς πρὸς αὐτὸ, ὥσπερ οἶμαι πρὸς τὸ φῶς τὰ βλέποντα. Jul. ad Heraclitum. Plac. i. 6. 20. VIII. SERM. the prophet may seem to intend the same, although it be not certain he does; for that general acknowledgment and glorifying of God as maker of the heavens, which he avouches, may be understood as well the consequence as the cause of this religious opinion. Or, 4. it might from some common fountain of instruction (from one ancient master, or one primitive tradition) be conveyed, as from one common head or source, into many particular conduits. Thus the author of the book de Mundo (dedicated to Alexander) seems to deduce it: It is an ancient saying, says he, and running in the race of all men, that from God all things, and by God all things were constituted, and do consists. The like Metaph. Aristotle himself implies in a notable place, which we shall afterward have occasion to produce. xii. 8. No other way beside one of these can we (following experience or reason) imagine, by which any opinion or practice should prevail generally among men, who otherwise are so apt to differ and dissent in judgment about things. And be it any one or more of these ways that this opinion became so universally instilled into men's minds, our argument will thereby gain weight and force: if we assign or acknowledge any of the two first ways, we do in effect yield the question; and grant it unreasonable to deny our conclusion: if nature forcibly drives men, or strongly draws men into this persuasion, (nature, which always we find in her notions and in her instincts very sincere and faithful, not only to ourselves, but to all other creatures,) how vain an extravagancy will it then be to oppose it? also, if we 8 Αρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος, καὶ πάτριός ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ τὰ πάντα, καὶ διὰ Θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν. Cap. 6. VIII. grant that plain reason, apparent to the generality SERM. of men, hath moved them to consent herein, do we not therefore, by dissenting from it, renounce common sense, and confess ourselves unreasonable? but if we say, that it did arise in the last manner, from a common instruction or primitive tradition, (as indeed, to my seeming, from that chiefly, assisted by good reason, it most probably did arise,) we shall thereby be driven to inquire, who that common master, or the author of such tradition was; of any such we find no name recorded, (as we do of them, who have by plausible reasons or artifices drawn whole nations and sects of people to a belief of their doctrine;) we find no time when, no place where, no manner how it began to grow or spread, as in other cases hath been wont to appear; what then can we otherwise reasonably deem, than that the first deliverers and teachers thereof were none other, than the first parents of mankind itself, who, as they could not be ignorant of their own original, so could not but take care by ordinary education to convey the knowledge thereof to their children; whence it must needs insensibly spread itself over all posterities of men, being sucked in with their milk, being taught them together with their first rudiments of speech? Thus doth that consideration lead us to another, very advantageous to our purpose; that mankind hath proceeded from one common stock of one man or a few men gathered together; which doth upon a double score confirm our assertion: first, as proving the generations of men had a beginning; secondly, as affording us their most weighty authority for the doctrine we assert. For, 1. supposing mankind had a beginning upon this earth, whence Anim. iii. cap. ult. Stoici pu nes in om neratos tan vii. 4. iii. 3. SERM. could it proceed but from such a Being as we assert? VIII. who but such an one (so wise, powerful, and good) could or would form these bodies of ours so full of wonderful artifice? who should infuse those divine endowments (not only of life and sense, but) of unDe Gener. derstanding and reason? Aristotle, discoursing about the generation of animals, says, If man (or any tant homi- other perfect animal) were ynyens, he must be nenibus terris cessarily produced, either as out of a worm, or as et agris ge- from an egg; but is it not ridiculous to suppose quam fun him to arise in either of those manners? did we, did gos. Lact. ever any one in any age observe any such producPhys. Stoic. tion of a man? yet, why if once it could be, should it not happen sometime, yea often again, in some part of the earth, in so many thousand years? what peculiar lucky temper of slime can we imagine to have been then, which not at sometime afterward, not somewhere, should appear again? Experience sufficiently declares, that more is required to so noble a production, that men no otherwise come into the world, than either from another man, (fitted in a manner curious above our conception with many organs most exquisitely suited to that purpose,) or immediately from a cause incomprehensibly great and wise. And could we without fondness conceive man's body possibly might arise (like mice, as Diodorus Siculus tells us, out of the mud of Nilus) from earth and water fermented together, and organized by the sun's heat; yet (as more largely we have discoursed at another time) we cannot however well suppose his soul, that principle of operations so excellent, (so much different from, so far elevated above all material motions,) to spring up from dirty stuff, however baked or boiled by heat. I ask also, (sup |