3. We see, when God opens our eyes, that we were before ἄθεοι ἐν κόσμῳ· _without_ God, or rather _Atheists in the world_. We had by nature no knowledge of God, no acquaintance with him. It is true, as soon as we came to the use of reason, we learned _the invisible things of_ God, _even his eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made_. From things that are seen, we infered the existence of an eternal, powerful Being, that is not seen. But still, although we acknowledged his being, we had no acquaintance with him. As we know there is an Emperor of _China_, whom yet we do not know; so we knew, there was a King of all the earth; yet we know him not. Indeed we could not; by any of our natural faculties. By none of these could we attain the knowledge of God. We could no more perceive him by our natural understanding, than we could see him with our eyes. For _no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal him. And no one knoweth the Son but the Father, and he to whom the Father revealeth him._
4. *We read of an antient king, who being desirous to know, what was the _natural language_ of men, in order to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the following experiment. He ordered two infants as soon as they were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them, where they were brought up without any instruction at all, and without ever hearing an human voice. And what was the event? Why, that when they were at length brought out of their confinement, they spake no language at all; they uttered only inarticulate sounds, like those of other animals. Were two infants in like manner to be brought up from the womb, without being instructed in any religion, there is little room to doubt, but (unless the grace of God interposed) the event would be just the same. They would have no religion at all: they would have no more knowledge of God, than the beasts of the field, than _the wild ass’s colt_. Such is _Natural religion_! Abstracted from traditional, and from the influences of God’s Spirit.
5. And having no knowledge, we can have no love of God: we cannot love him we know not. Most men _talk_ indeed of loving God, and perhaps imagine they do. At least, few will acknowledge they do not love him: but the fact is too plain to be denied. No man loves God by nature, any more than he does a stone, or the earth he treads upon. What we love, we delight in: but no man has naturally any delight in God. In our natural state, we cannot conceive, how any one should delight in him. We take no pleasure in him at all: he is utterly tasteless to us. To love God! It is far above, out of our sight. We cannot, naturally, attain unto it.
6. *We have by nature not only no love, but no fear of God. It is allowed indeed, that most men have, sooner or later, a kind of senseless, irrational fear, properly called _superstition_, though the blundering _Epicureans_ gave it the name of _religion_. Yet even this is not natural, but acquired; chiefly by conversation or from example. By nature, God _is not in all our thoughts_: we leave him to manage his own affairs, to sit quietly, as we imagine, in heaven, and leave us on earth to manage ours. So that we have no more of the fear of God before our eyes, than of the love of God in our hearts.
7. Thus are all men _Atheists in the world_. But Atheism itself does not screen us from _idolatry_. In his natural state, every man born into the world is a rank idolater. Perhaps indeed we may not be such in the vulgar sense of the word. We do not, like the idolatrous Heathens, worship molten or graven images. We do not bow down to the stock of a tree, to the work of our own hands. We do not pray to the angels or saints in heaven, any more than to the saints that are upon the earth. But what then? We _have set up_ our _idols in_ our _hearts_: and to these we bow down and worship them: we worship ourselves, when we pay that honour to ourselves which is due to God only. Therefore all _pride_ is idolatry: it is ascribing to ourselves what is due to God alone. And altho’ pride was not made for man, yet where is the man that is born without it? But hereby we rob God of his unalienable right, and idolatrously usurp his glory.