The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1 · Chapter 3
¶ The .iii. Chapter. That the knowledge of God is naturally planted in the myndes of men.
WE holde it oute of controuersie, that there is in the mynde of man, euen by naturall instinction, a certaine feling of the godhead. For to the end that no man should flee to the pretense of ignoraunce, God himselfe hath planted in all men a certaine vnderstanding of his diuine maiestie: the remembraunce wherof, with pouring in nowe and then as it were new droppes, he continually reneweth: yt when al, not one excepted, do know that there is a God, and that he is their maker, they may all bee condemned by their owne testimonie, for that they hauehave not bothe worshipped him, and dedicate their life to his will. But truely if the not knowyng of God be any where to be founde, it is likely that there can no where els be any example of it more than amonge the grossest sortes of peoples and furthest from ciuile order of humanitie,Cicero de nat. Deo… rum. But (as the heathen man saith) there is no nation so barbarous, no kind of people so sauage, in whom resteth not this persuasion that there is a God. And euen they that in other parts of their lyfe, seme very litle to differ from brute beastes, yet do continually kepe a certain sede of religion. So throughly hath thys common principle possessed all mennes mindes, and so fast it sticketh within all mens bowels. Sith then from the beginning of ye world there hath ben no cōtrey, no citie, yea no house that could be without religion, in this is emplied a certaine secrete confession that a feling of the godhead is written in the heartes of all men. Yea and ydolatrie it selfe is a substanciall profe of this persuasion. For we know how vnwillingly man abaseth himself to honour other creatures aboue hymselfe. Therfore when he had rather worshyp a blocke and a stone, than he would be thought to hauehave no god: it appeareth that imprynted persuasiō of God is of most great force, which is so impossible to be raced out of the minde of mā, that it is much more easie to hauehave the affection of nature broken: as in deede it is broken, when man from his own natural swellyng pride of his own wyl stoupeth down euen to the basest creatures, to honour God.
Wherfore it is most vaine which some doe saye, that religion was deuised by the sutteltie and craft of a few, by this policie to kepe the simple people in awe, whereas they themselues that procured other to worship God beleued nothing lesse than that there was any God at al. I graunt in dede yt suttle men hauehave inuented many thinges in religion, whereby to bring the people to a reuerence, and cast them in a feare, to make their mindes the more pliable to obedience: but this they coulde neuer hauehave brought to passe vnlesse the mindes of mē had been already before hand perswaded that there was a God, out of which persuasion as out of sede springeth that ready inclinacion to religion. Neither is it likely that euē they which suttelly deceiued the simple sort with color of religion, were themselues altogether without knowledge of God. For though in times past there hauehave been some, and at this day there arise vp many that deny that there is any God, yet whether they wil or no they oftentimes feele that which they are desierous not to know. We reade of none that euer did breake forth into more presūptuous and vnbridled despising of God, than Caius Caligula: yet none more miserably trembled when any token of Gods wrath appeared. And so against his wil he quaked for fere of him whom of wilful purpose he endeuored to despise. And ye same may a man commōly see to happen to such as he was. For the bolder despiser of god, that any man is, the more is he troubled at the very noise of ye falling of a leafe. And whense commeth that, but from the reuengement of Gods maiestie, which doeth so much the more vehemently strike their consciences as they more labor to fly away from it. They do in dede loke about for al the starting holes that maie be, to hide themselues from the presence of the Lord, but whether they wil or no, they are stil holdē faste tied. For howsoeuer sometime it semeth to vanish away for a momente, yet it ofte returneth againe, and with newe assaulte doeth runne vponupon them: so that the reste whiche they hauehave, if they hauehave any at all, from torment of conscience, is much like to the slepe of drunkardes or phrenetike men, which euen while they slepe do not quietely reste, because they are at eueryevery momente vexed with horrible and dredfull dreames. Therfore the very vngodly themselues serue for an example to proue yt there alway liueth in al mens mindes some knowledge of God.