Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

No instance can be given of any one people in the World that disclaimed it. It hath been owned by the Wise and ignorant, by the learned and stupid, by those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of Nature, as well as by those whose Candles were snuffed by a more polite Education, and that without any solemn debate and contention: Though some Philosophers have been known to change their opinions in the concerns of Nature, yet none can be proved to have absolutely changed their opinion concerning the Being of a God: One died for asserting one God, none in the former Ages upon record hath died for asserting no God. Go to the utmost bounds of America, you may find people without some broken pieces of the Law of nature, but not without this signature and stamp upon them, though they wanted commerce with other Nation; except as Savage as themselves, in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the Socket, who are but one remove from Brutes, who clothe not their bodies, cover not their shame, yet were they as soon known to own a God, as they were known to be a people: they were possessed with the Notion of a Supreme Being, the Author of the World, had an object of Religious adoration, put up Prayers to the Deity they owned for the good things they wanted, and the diverting the evils they feared: no people so untamed where absolute perfect Atheism hath gained a footing.

No instance can be given of any one people in the World that disclaimed it. It hath been owned by the Wise and ignorant, by the learned and stupid, by those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of Nature, as well as by those whose Candles were snuft by a more polite Education, and that without any solemne debate and contention: Though some Philosophers have been known to change their opinions in the concerns of Nature, yet none can be proved to have absolutely changed their opinion concerning the Being of a God: One died for asserting one God, none in the former Ages upon record hath died for asserting no God. Go to the utmost bounds of America, you may find people without some broken peices of the Law of nature, but not without this signature and stamp upon them, though they wanted commerce with other Nation; except as Savage as themselves, in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the Socket, who are but one remove from Brutes, who cloath not their bodies, cover not their shame, yet were they as soon known to own a God, as they were known to be a people: they were possessed with the Notion of a Supream Being, the Author of the World, had an object of Religious adoration, put up Prayers to the Deity they owned for the good things they wanted, and the diverting the evils they feared: no people so untamed where absolute perfect Atheism hath gained a footing.