Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/72

30 of a God, then if, because Democritus put out his Eyes, some are born blind, others drink out their Eyes and cannot see, that therefore you should conclude that there is neither Light nor Colours: for if there were then every one would see them; but Democritus and some others do not see them. But the reason is plain, there hath been force done to their Natural Faculties, and they have put Out their Sight.

Wherefore I conclude from natural Conscience in a man, that puts him upon Hope and Fear of Good and Evil from what he does or omits, though those actions and omissions doe nothing to the change of the course of Nature or the affairs of the world, that there is an Intelligent Principle over universall Nature that takes notice of the Actions of men, that is, that there is a God; for else this Natural Faculty would be false and vain.

5. Now for Adoration or Religious Worship, it is as universall as mankind, there being no Nation under the cope of Heaven that does not doe Divine worship to something or other, and in it to God, as they conceive; wherefore according to the ordinary natural light that is in all men, there is a God.

6. Nor can the force of this Argument be avoided, by saying it is but an universall Tradition that has been time out of minde spred among the Nations of the world; For if it were so (which yet cannot at all be proved) in that it is universally received, it is manifest that it is according to the light of Nature to acknowledge there is a God; for that which all men admit as true, though upon the proposall of another, is undoubtedly to be termed true according to the light of Nature. As many hundreds of Geometrical Demonstrations, that were first the inventions of some one man, have passed undeniable through all Ages and places for true according to the light of Nature, with them that were but Learners, not Inventors of them. And it is sufficient to make a thing true according to the light of Nature, that no man upon a perception of what is propounded and the reasons of it (if it be not clear at the first sight, and need reasons to back it) will ever stick to acknowledge it for a Truth. And therefore if there were any Nations that were destitute of the knowledge of a God, as they may be, it is likely, of the Rudiments of Geometry; so long as they will admit of the knowledge of one as well as of the other, upon due and fit proposal, the acknowledgement of God is as well to be said to be according to the light of Nature, as the knowledge of Geometry which they thus receive.

7. But if it be here objected, That a thing may be universally received of all Nations, and yet be so farre from being true according to the light of Nature,that it is not true at all, as for example, that the Sun moves about the Earth, and that the Earth stands still as the fixed Center of the world, which the best of Astronomers & the profoundest of Philosophers pronounce to be false; I answer, that in some sense it does stand still, if you understand by motion the translation of a Body out of the vicinity of other Bodies. But suppose it did not stand still, this comes not home to our Case; for this is but the just victory of Reason over the generall prejudice of Sense; and every one will acknowledge that Reason may correct