GOD 
most recesses of things, and that he is 
equally active and present every where. 
The simplicity of the laws that prevail in 
the world, the excellent disposition of 
things in order to obtain the best ends, and 
the beauty which adorns the works of 
nature, far superior to any thing in art, sug- 
gest his consummate wisdom. The useful- 
ness of the whole scheme, so well contrived 
for the intelligent beings that enjoy it, with 
the internal disposition and moral structure 
of those beings themselves, show his un- 
bounded goodness. These are the argu- 
ments which are sufficiently open to the 
views and capacities of the unlearned ; 
while, at the same time, they acquire new 
strength and lustre from the discoveries of 
the learned. 
The Deity’s acting and interposing in the 
universe show that he governs as well as 
formed it ; and the depth of his counsels, 
even in conducting the material universe, 
of which a great part surpasses our know- 
ledge, keep up an inward veneration and 
awe of this great being, and dispose us to 
receive what may be otherwise revealed to 
us concerning him. It has been justly ob- 
served that some of the laws of nature now 
known to us must have escaped us if we 
had wanted the sense of seeing. It may 
be in his power to bestow upon us other 
senses, of which we have at present no 
idea ; without which it may be impossible 
for us to know all his works, or to have 
more adequate ideas of himself. In our 
present state we know enough to be satis- 
fied of our dependency upon him, and of 
the duty we owe to him, the Lord and 
Disposer of all things. He is not the object 
of sense ; his essence, and indeed that of all 
other substances, is beyond the reach of all 
our discoveries : but his attributes clearly 
appear in his admirable works. We know 
that the highest conceptions we are able 
, to form of them are still beneath his real 
perfections ; but his power and dominion 
over us, and our duty towards him, are 
manifest. 
“Though God has given us no innate ideas 
of himself,” says Mr. Locke, “ yet having 
furnished us with those faculties our minds 
are endowed with, he hath not left himself 
without a witness; since we have sense, 
perception, and reason, and cannot want a 
clear proof of him, as long as we carry our- 
selves about us. To show, therefore, that 
we are capable of knowing, that is, being 
certain that there is a God, and how we 
may come by this certainty, I think we 
need go no further than ourselves, and that 
undoubted knowledge we have of our own 
existence. I think it is beyond question 
that man has a clear perception of his own 
being ; he knows certainly that he exists, 
and that he is something: In the next 
place, man knows, by an intuitive certainty, 
that bare nothing can no more produce any 
real being than it can be equal to two 
right angles. If, therefore, we know there 
is some real being, it is an evident demon- 
stration, that from eternity there has been 
something : since what was not from eter- 
nity had a beginning, and what had a be- 
ginning must be produced by something 
else. Next it is evident that what has its 
being from another, must also have all that 
which is in and belongs to its being from 
another too : all the powers it has must be 
owing to, and received from, the same 
source. This eternal source then of all be- 
ings, must be also the source and original of 
all power ; and so this eternal being must 
be also the most powerful. 
“ Again, man finds in himself perception 
and knowledge : we are certain then that 
there is not only some being, but some know- 
ing intelligent being, in the world. There 
was a time then when there was no know- 
ing being, or else there has been a knowing 
being from eternity. If it be said, there 
was a time when that eternal being had no 
knowledge ; I reply, that then it is impossi- 
ble there should have ever been any know- 
ledge; it being as impossible that things 
wholly void of knowledge, and operating 
blindly, and without any perception, should 
produce a knowing being, as it is impossi- 
ble that a triangle should make itself three 
angles bigger than two right ones. Thus, 
from the consideration of ourselves, and 
what we infallibly find in our own constitu- 
tions, our reason leads us to the knowledge 
of this certain and evident truth, that there 
is an eternal, most powerful, and knowing 
Being, which whether any one will call 
God, it matters not. The thing is evident ; 
and from this idea, duly considered, will 
easily be deduced all those other attributes 
we ought to ascribe to this eternal Being. 
“ From what has been said, it is plain to 
me, that we have a more certain know- 
ledge of the existence of a God than of any 
thing our senses have not immediately dis- 
covered to us. Nay, I presume I may say, 
that we more certainly know that there is a 
God, than that there is any thing else with- 
out us. When I say we know, I mean 
there is such a knowledge within our reach 
