Philadelphia 1726-1757
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Franklin, Benjamin
extent: 875935
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Eris Etext Project
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: 30
subject: man
subject: time
subject: people
subject: will
subject: hold
subject: pow
subject: above
subject: franklin
subject: benjamin
subject: philadelphia
subject: american
subject: literature
type: text
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sort title: Philadelphia 1726-1757
full text: PHILADELPHIA 1726-1757 by Benjamin Franklin _Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion_ IN TWO PARTS. Here will I hold ------ If there is a Pow'r above us (And that there is, all Nature cries aloud, Thro' all her Works), He must delight in Virtue And that which he delights in must be Happy. Cato. PART I. Philada. Nov. 20 1728. First Principles I believe there is one Supreme most perfect Being, Author and Father of the Gods themselves. For I believe that Man is not the most perfect Being but One, rather that as there are many Degrees of Beings his Inferiors, so there are many Degrees of Beings superior to him. Also, when I stretch my Imagination thro' and beyond our System of Planets, beyond the visible fix'd Stars themselves, into that Space that is every Way infinite, and conceive it fill'd with Suns like ours, each with a Chorus of Worlds for ever moving round him, then this little Ball on which we move, seems, even in my narrow Imagination, to be almost Nothing, and my self less than nothing, and of no sort of Consequence. When I think thus, I imagine it great Vanity in me to suppose, that the _Supremely Perfect_, does in the least regard such an inconsiderable Nothing as Man. More especially, since it is impossible for me to have any positive clear Idea of that which is infinite and incomprehensible, I cannot conceive otherwise, than that He, _the Infinite Father_, expects or requires no Worship or Praise from us, but that he is even INFINITELY ABOVE IT. But since there is in all Men something like a natural Principle which enclines them to DEVOTION or the Worship of some unseen Power; And since Men are endued with Reason superior to all other Animals that we are in our World acquainted with; Therefore I think it seems required of me, and my Duty, as a Man, to pay Divine Regards to SOMETHING. I CONCEIVE then, that the INFINITE has created many Beings or Gods, vastly superior to Man, who can better conceive his Perfections than we, and return him a more rational an…