A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
8. From what has been already laid down, and from what follows, it is apparent, “That the Heathens knew not the true God,” which is their distinguishing Character, differencing them from the true People of God. The not knowing God, is distinguishable into several Sorts and Kinds; that which is Unprophetick, that which is Unphilosophick, and that which is Irreligious. That which is Unprophetick, relates only to Matters of Intercourse between God and his Prophets, and his Method of manifesting himself to them, 1 Sam. 3.7. “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the Word of the Lord yet reveal’d unto him.” That which is Unphilosophick, relates only to Philosophick Disquisition and Comprehension, Job 36. 26. “God is great and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.” That which is Irreligious, is the Opposite to such knowing God, which belongeth to Religionists as such, and constitutes the true Theists of Religion. 2 Thess. 1. 7, 8. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels, in flaming Fire, taking Vengeance on them that know not God.” A truly religious knowing God, a knowing him so as to be truly religious towards him, is the Essence and Summary of true Religion, the Whole of Piety. Therefore some judicious Interpreters expound the Knowledge of God by Piety, or Godliness, others by the Fear of God, which comes to the same Thing. Hos. 4. 1. “There is no Truth, nor Mercy, nor Knowledge of God in the Land.” Jer. 9.6. “They refuse to know me, saith the Lord.” Jer. 22. 16. “Was this to know me? saith the Lord.” In this Sense the Knowledge of God is preferr’d before Burnt Offerings. Hos. 6. 6. and this Knowledge of God will make holy and happy Times, Isa. 11. 9. “They shall not hurt, nor destroy in all my holy Mountain; for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord.” When God foretelleth by the Prophet, Jer. 24. 7. “I will give them a Heart to know me, that I am the Lord”; the Meaning is, they shall be true Pietists towards him; and by another Prophet, Hos. 2. 20. “Thou shalt know the Lord”; it is to signify, that he, on his part, would enter into a League of Amity with them, and make himself known to them at a more than ordinary Rate; and they, on their Part, shall be true Pietists. But the Sons of Eli were monstrous Impietists, and their being such was a “not knowing the Lord.” 1 Sam. 2. 22. They knew not the Lord, as David chargeth his Son Solomon, “Know the Lord God of thy Father, and serve him with a perfect Heart,” 1 Chron. 28. 9.
Sometimes the knowing God must be explain’d by Wisdom in Divine Matters. Thus it is to be understood, Col. 1. 10. “Increasing in the Knowledge of God.” And God foretelleth by the Prophet, that the meanest Christian shall be Wise in Divine Matters. Jer. 31. 34. “They shall teach no more every Man his Neighbour, and every Man his Brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” i.e. They shall all comprehend what ought to be known of God, in conjunction with Piety.
Sometimes the Phrase of knowing God must be explain’d by what we commonly call Acquaintance, in which Sense also the Wicked are called Aliens. 1 John 4. 7, 8. “Every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is Love.” 1. John 2. 4. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his Commandments, is a Liar,” and 3. 6. “Whosoever Sinneth,” (habitually,) “hath not seen him, neither knoweth him.” In the same Sense of knowing, the Prophet saith of crooked Paths, (Isa. 59. 8.) “Whosoever goeth therein shall not know Peace,” (so as to have any Dealings therewith;) “the Way of Peace have they not known”; (Rom. 3. 17.) The Apostle saith of Christ, (2 Cor. 5. 21.) “He knew no Sin,” so as to have any intercourse with it; and our Saviour will say to some, as being none of his Acquaintance, “I never knew you.” Matth. 7. 23.
Sometimes the Phrase of knowing God is best explain’d by that due Discernment and Understanding of God, which constitutes Men of the Divine Family, Subjects of his Kingdom, he being to them a God, they being to him a chosen People, which is the true Light, Wisdom and Knowledge of Believers. 1 John 5. 20. “The Son of God is come, and hath given us an Understanding that we may know him that is True,” and 2. 12. “I write unto you, Little Children, because ye have known the Father,” and John 16. 3. “These Things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” The World is in such an Atheistical Ignorance of God. “O righteous Father, the World hath not known thee.” John 17. 25. In the same Sense the Psalmist saith (9. 10.) “They that know thy Name, will put their trust in Thee.” When our Saviour saith, John 17. 3. “This is Life Eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,” the Meaning is, that to know God, as one of his Pietists, as wise in Divine Matters, as of his Acquaintance, as Children of his Family, and Subjects of his Kingdom, is Life eternal to a Man.
But sometimes the Phrase of knowing God must be explain’d by Understanding of God and his Matters, (speaking of God in such Sense as we speak of Kings and Governments,) as our Saviour saith, Matth. 11.27. “No Man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any Man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” As to that great and saving Revelation of himself, the Christian Religion, God did not make himself known to any mere Man, “The only-begotten Son, which is in the Bosom of the Father,” (highly beloved by him, and most intimate with him,) he only hath declar’d him.
And sometimes Mens knowing God must be explain’d, of his being barely notic’d to them, which is consistent with the greatest Atheism of Religion and Condition, as when the Apostle saith of the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 28. “They knew God, but did not like to retain God in their Knowledge,” or to make an acknowledgment of Him, which is a religious knowing God. But thus the Gentiles knew him not; for, as the acknowledg’d Deity of Religion and People, “There is no God in all the Earth, but in Israel.” 2 Kin. 5. 15.
How far the Gentiles did know God.
The Gentiles, therefore, in a certain Sense knew God, but so as not to know him in the more usual, or religious, Sense. Rom. 1. 19, 20. “That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for, God hath shewn it unto them; for the invisible Things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the Things that are made, even his Eternal Power and Godhead.” And, accordingly, it is generally acknowledg’d, “That God is knowable by Natural Light, and is actually known by all Nations.” But this must be understood with due Distinctions and Limitations, touching the Bounds and Measures of the Gentiles knowledge of God, such as these following.
1. The Heathen World knew God, as understood without specifick and individual Determination. They were not so ignorant, but that they acknowledg’d one Cause, or Principle, whence all Things have their Origin. This is so conspicuous in Nature, that natural Light cannot miss of him; nor is this his Existence matter of Faith, so much as of common Reason, and Proof by Argument. “The Pulchritude of the World, and the Order of the Coelestial Bodies, forceth an acknowledgment, that there is a certain excellent and eternal Nature, which is to be honour’d and ador’d by Mankind.”250 The Pagan Theologers, in Terms, agree with the Christian, that the visible World proclaimeth the invisible God, and speaketh audibly, with a Voice that is gone out through all the Earth, that God made me. One that was no under-graduate in Atheism, yet in a lucid interval, saith; “If any Man shall view throughly all the Organs, both of Generation and Nutrition, and doth not perceive them to have been made and order’d to their respective Offices by some Mind, he is to be reputed himself void of Mind.”251 To suppose, therefore, that the Existence of God is not discoverable by mere Reason, or natural Light, is a great Extravagance in Socinus, and some others.
2. GOD, as of the true Specifick and individual Determination, (being plainly notic’d unto them in the Nature of the Thing,) was in Nature fairly notic’d to the Heathen World. For, as in the Old-Testament, a Messiah is notic’d and reveal’d to the Jews,