加爾文基督教要義(7)卷一第三章 認識上帝是人心的稟賦

第三章 認識上帝是人心的稟賦
　　人心甚至由於自然的本能，也有些對神的感覺，我們認為這一點是無可爭辯的。上帝使人人都多少知道他的存在（參羅1： 20），又不時暗中叫人想起他，為的是要使人無可推諉。人既然都知道有上帝，而且知道上帝是他們的創造者，他們必按自己的口供，定自己不敬拜他，不獻身為他服役之罪。我們若要尋找毫不知道有神的人，恐怕只有在最愚蠢，最不開化的部落中才找得著。然而，正如著名的西色柔所說，沒有一個國家或民族，野蠻到不相信有一位神。即使在某方面與禽獸相去不遠的人，總也保留著多少宗教意識；人心是充分地被這種與他們固有天性相交織著的普通原理所支配著的。自有世界以來，既沒有一家一國是完全沒有宗教的，這就是默認，每人心上總刻有多少對神的意識。偶像崇拜本身便足以證明這看法。因為我們知道，人是多麼不願意貶抑自己以高抬其他受造之物的。人以敬拜一塊木頭或石頭，總覺比沒有上帝好些，正足以證明人心對神有深刻的印象，要消減這種印象，比完全改變人的本性還要困難呢。人丟棄本性上的驕傲，自甘卑下到拜神的地步，這真是本性改變了。
　　二、所以，最荒謬的說法，就是以宗教為自己不信上帝存在，卻要別人敬拜上帝的少數聰明人所造作的計謀，藉以籠絡頭腦簡單的群眾的政治工具。我承認，有智謀的人會替宗教平空增添了不少東西，使庸俗人畏懼，以懾服統制他們的心思。可是，人若不是先有那產生偏向宗教之心的對上帝存在的堅強信念，他們的計謀便無從完成。而這些假宗教之名欺騙無知之人的，他們自己竟然毫不認識上帝，真是叫人難以相信。因為古今有許多人雖然否認上帝的存在，然而他們儘管不願意，還是不斷得著自己不願相信之事的證據。我們從未見過像加力古拉（Cabgula）那樣膽大妄為，肆無忌憚，藐視神明的人，但從來也沒有像他那樣畏懼神震怒的人，可見他還是不得不恐懼那他所藐視的神。在性格與他類似的人身上，你隨時可以看到同樣的情形。因為，凡是最膽大妄為，藐視上帝的，即是最恐懼的人，甚至樹葉墮地的聲音，也會叫他們驚恐失色。這種恐怖從何而來呢？豈不是因為他們的良心越想逃避神，他們所受神打擊的報應也越甚嗎？他們盡量想躲避主，想從心坎上塗抹主的印象，但這一切努力，都是無效果的。這印象即或一時似乎消失，但立刻又來勢更烈地回復過來，以致他們縱然一時倖免良心上的痛苦，也等於醉酒和瘋狂的人，終夜不住受惡夢驚擾，在睡中也得不著安息。所以說，有一位上帝的這觀念，永不會在人心裡消失，這在惡人身上正可以表明出來。
　　三、在通達人看來，神的觀念在人心中塗抹不了，乃是很明顯的事實。人人在天性中都有神存在的信念，根深蒂固有如人體之一部，我們從惡人的拚命想免除對上帝的恐懼而終歸無效一事，可以找到許多證據。雖然狄亞哥羅（Diagoras）之流的人，嘲笑各時代都相信的宗教，雖然丟尼修（Dionysius ）嘲笑天的審判，這都不過是強為歡笑而已，因為他們受有罪的良心所苦，更甚於受熱鐵的燒灼。我不同意西色柔所說的，錯誤日久則消滅，而宗教則逐日改善，有增無已。因為不久我們就要提及，世界正在極力排除一切對上帝的認識，又用盡方法破壞對他的敬拜。我僅說，惡人因為想用愚昧來助長輕視上帝之心，因而感受困擾，他們所切心要消滅的神的觀念，不但加強，而且不時表露出來。所以我們可以說，這個教理不是在學校里學來，乃是各人有生以來自己學會的，也是許多人雖想竭力消滅它，而本性卻不讓任何人忘掉的教理。那麼，人若是為認識上帝而生，而對上帝的認識若不達到這目的就是不可靠而無用的，這樣，人所想所行若不是朝著這方向走，就是與他們被造的定律相反，這是顯而易見的，關於這一點，異教的哲學家們並非不知道。柏拉圖的意思是：靈魂的至善在於與上帝相類似，而靈魂對他既有了清楚的認識，就完全改變，成為他的樣子。這也是格里盧（Gryllus）在蒲魯他克（Plutarch）的著作中的非常正確的推理，就是說，人而無宗教，不僅與禽獸無殊，而且在許多方面招惹罪惡，始終在紛擾不安的生活中度日，以致比禽獸更為可憐。因此，惟有敬拜上帝可以使人超乎禽獸，又使人有永生的指望。

[本話題由 追求永生 於 2010-01-24 10:19:38 編輯]

Chapter 3.

3. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD HAS BEEN NATURALLY IMPLANTED IN THE HUMAN MIND.
Sections

The knowledge of God being manifested to all makes the reprobate without excuse. Universal belief and acknowledgement of the existence of God.
Objection - that religion and the belief of a Deity are the inventions of crafty politicians. Refutation of the objection. This universal belief confirmed by the examples of wicked men and Atheists.
Confirmed also by the vain endeavours of the wicked to banish all fear of God from their minds. Conclusion, that the knowledge of God is naturally implanted in the human mind.
1.The character of this natural endowment

That there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service. Certainly, if there is any quarter where it may be supposed that God is unknown, the most likely for such an instance to exist is among the dullest tribes farthest removed from civilisation. But, as a heathen tells us, there is no nation so barbarous, no race so brutish, as not to be imbued with the conviction that there is a God. Even those who, in other respects, seem to differ least from the lower animals, constantly retain some sense of religion; so thoroughly has this common conviction possessed the mind, so firmly is it stamped on the breasts of all men. Since, then, there never has been, from the very first, any quarter of the globe, any city, any household even, without religion, this amounts to a tacit confession, that a sense of Deity is inscribed on every heart.

Nay, even idolatry is ample evidence of this fact. For we know how reluctant man is to lower himself, in order to set other creatures above him. Therefore, when he chooses to worship wood and stone rather than be thought to have no God, it is evident how very strong this impression of a Deity must be; since it is more difficult to obliterate it from the mind of man, than to break down the feelings of his nature, - these certainly being broken down, when, in opposition to his natural haughtiness, he spontaneously humbles himself before the meanest object as an act of reverence to God.

2.Religion is no arbitrary invention

It is most absurd, therefore, to maintain, as some do, that religion was devised by the cunning and craft of a few individuals, as a means of keeping the body of the people in due subjection, while there was nothing which those very individuals, while teaching others to worship God, less believed than the existence of a God. I readily acknowledge, that designing men have introduced a vast number of fictions into religion, with the view of inspiring the populace with reverence or striking them with terror, and thereby rendering them more obsequious; but they never could have succeeded in this, had the minds of men not been previously imbued will that uniform belief in God, from which, as from its seed, the religious propensity springs. And it is altogether incredible that those who, in the matter of religion, cunningly imposed on their ruder neighbours, were altogether devoid of a knowledge of God. For though in old times there were some, and in the present day not a few are found, who deny the being of a God, yet, whether they will or not, they occasionally feel the truth which they are desirous not to know. We do not read of any man who broke out into more unbridled and audacious contempt of the Deity than C. Caligula, and yet none showed greater dread when any indication of divine wrath was manifested. Thus, however unwilling, he shook with terror before the God whom he professedly studied to condemn. You may every day see the same thing happening to his modern imitators. The most audacious despiser of God is most easily disturbed, trembling at the sound of a falling leaf. How so, unless in vindication of the divine majesty, which smites their consciences the more strongly the more they endeavour to flee from it. They all, indeed, look out for hiding-places where they may conceal themselves from the presence of the Lord, and again efface it from their mind; but after all their efforts they remain caught within the net. Though the conviction may occasionally seem to vanish for a moment, it immediately returns, and rushes in with new impetuosity, so that any interval of relief from the gnawing of conscience is not unlike the slumber of the intoxicated or the insane, who have no quiet rest in sleep, but are continually haunted with dire horrific dreams. Even the wicked themselves, therefore, are an example of the fact that some idea of God always exists in every human mind.

3.Actual goodness is impossible

All men of sound judgement will therefore hold, that a sense of Deity is indelibly engraven on the human heart. And that this belief is naturally engendered in all, and thoroughly fixed as it were in our very bones, is strikingly attested by the contumacy of the wicked, who, though they struggle furiously, are unable to extricate themselves from the fear of God. Though Diagoras, and others of like stamps make themselves merry with whatever has been believed in all ages concerning religion, and Dionysus scoffs at the judgement of heaven, it is but a Sardonian grin; for the worm of conscience, keener than burning steel, is gnawing them within. I do not say with Cicero, that errors wear out by age, and that religion increases and grows better day by day. For the world (as will be shortly seen) labours as much as it can to shake off all knowledge of God, and corrupts his worship in innumerable ways. I only say, that, when the stupid hardness of heart, which the wicked eagerly court as a means of despising God, becomes enfeebled, the sense of Deity, which of all things they wished most to be extinguished, is still in vigour, and now and then breaks forth. Whence we infer, that this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget, though many, with all their might, strive to do so.

Moreover, if all are born and live for the express purpose of learning to know God, and if the knowledge of God, in so far as it fails to produce this effect, is fleeting and vain, it is clear that all those who do not direct the whole thoughts and actions of their lives to this end fail to fulfil the law of their being. This did not escape the observation even of philosophers. For it is the very thing which Plato meant (in Phoed. et Theact.) when he taught, as he often does, that the chief good of the soul consists in resemblance to God; i.e., when, by means of knowing him, she is wholly transformed into him. Thus Gryllus, also, in Plutarch, (lib. guod bruta anim. ratione utantur,) reasons most skilfully, when he affirms that, if once religion is banished from the lives of men, they not only in no respect excel, but are, in many respects, much more wretched than the brutes, since, being exposed to so many forms of evil, they continually drag on a troubled and restless existence: that the only thing, therefore, which makes them superior is the worship of God, through which alone they aspire to immortality.

最荒謬的說法，就是以宗教為自己不信上帝存在，卻要別人敬拜上帝的少數聰明人所造作的計謀，藉以籠絡頭腦簡單的群眾的政治工具。

凡是最膽大妄為，藐視上帝的，即是最恐懼的人，甚至樹葉墮地的聲音，也會叫他們驚恐失色。這種恐怖從何而來呢？豈不是因為他們的良心越想逃避神，他們所受神打擊的報應也越甚嗎？他們盡量想躲避主，想從心坎上塗抹主的印象，但這一切努力，都是無效果的。

有一位上帝的這觀念，永不會在人心裡消失，這在惡人身上正可以表明出來。

人而無宗教，不僅與禽獸無殊，而且在許多方面招惹罪惡，始終在紛擾不安的生活中度日，以致比禽獸更為可憐。因此，惟有敬拜上帝可以使人超乎禽獸，又使人有永生的指望。