The end of worship amongst men is power. For where a man seeth another worshipped, he supposeth him powerful, and is the readier to obey him; which makes his power greater. But God has no ends: the worship we do Him proceeds from our duty, and is directed according to our capacity, by those rules of honour that reason dictateth to be done by the weak to the more potent men, in hope of benefit, for fear of damage, or in thankfulness for good already received from them.

That we may know what worship of God is taught us by the light of Nature, I will begin with His attributes. Where, first, it is manifest, we ought to attribute to Him “existence.” For no man can have the will to honour that which he thinks not to have any being.

Secondly, that those philosophers who said the world, or the soul of the world, was God, spake unworthily of Him; and denied His existence. For by God is understood the cause of the world; and to say the world is God is to say there is no cause of it, that is, no God.