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Show No innate Principles. Book I. rels and other mean ~ali ties, attributed by them to their gods; we lhal't have littlereafon to think, that the heathen World, i. e. the greatelt · part of Mankind, had fuch Idea's of God in their Minds, as he himlelf,oYt of care, that they flwuld not be miltaken about ~1m, was .Author of. ~nd this univerfality of confent, fo much argued, tf It prove any nat1ve tm· preilions, 'twill be only this: That God imprinted on the Minds of all Men, fpeaking the fame Language , a NUtnc for Htmfelf, but !JOt any Idea : Smce thofc People, who agreed m the Name, had at the fame time, far different apprehenlions about the thing lignified. If they fay, That the variety of Deities worfl1ipped by the heathen World, wen· but figurative ways of expreiling the fevcral Attributes of that imcomprehenftble Being, or feveral parts of his Providence: I anfwer, What they might be in their original, I will not here enquire; but that they were fo in the · Thoughts of the Vulgar, I think no body will affirm: And he that will confult the Voyage of the Bilhop of Beryte,c. q. (not to mention other Td1imonies)will find,that the Theology of the Siamites,profeifedly owns plurality of Gods: Or, as the Abbi de Cboify more judicioufly remarks, in his Journal du Voiage de Syam, :;;, it conlilts properly in ~cknowledging no God at all. §.15. If it be faid, That IVifo Men of all Nations came tobave true r!onceptions, of the Unity and Infinity of t/g D<ity, I grant it. But then this, 1 Firfi, Excludes univer{ality of Confent in any thing , but the name. for thofe wife Men being very few, perhaps one of a thoufand, this uni· verfality is very narrow. , Secon~Iy, It feems to me plain!~ to ~rove, That th~ truefi and belt Notions Men had of God, were not tmpnnted, but acqmrcd by thought and meditation, and a rigluufe of their Faculties: iincc the wife and coniiderate Men of the World, by a right and careful employment of their Thoughts, and Reafon, attained true Notions in this, as well as other things; whilfi the lazy and inconlideratc part of Men, making the far greater number, took up t!leir Notions, by chance, _from c?mmon Tradition, and vulgar ConceptiOns, wtthout much bcatmg thetr heads about them. And if it be a reafonto think the notion of God innate, becaufe all wife Men had it, Vertue mufi be thought innate ; for that alfo wife Men have always had. §.16. This was evidently the cafe of all Gentilifm: Nor hath even amongO: Jews, Chrif/ians, and Mabom!tans, who acknowledge but One God, this Dodrine, and the care is taken in thofe Nations , to teach Men to have true notions of • G 0 D, prevailed fo far, as to make Men to have the fame, and true Id<a's of Him. How many, even amonglt us, will be found upon enquiry, .to fanlie him in the lhape of a Man, fitting in Heaven ; and to have many other abfurd and unfit conceptions of him ! Chrifiians, as well as Turks, have had whole Sects owning, and contending earnefily for it, That the ·Deity. \Vas corporeal, and of hu· mane lbape: And though we find few now amongfi us , who profe(s themfelves Anthropomorphites, (though fome I have met with that own it) yet, I believe, he that will make it his bufinefs, may find amonglt the ignorant, and unin!lructed Chriltians, many of that Opinion. Talk but with Country-people, almofi bf any Age; or young people almofl: any where, and you !hall find, that though the Name of GOD be frequent· ly in their mouths ; yet the notions they apply this Name to, are fo odd, ·low, and pitiful, that no body can imagine they were taught by a ratio. nal Man; much Iefs, that they were the Characters writ by the finger of Chap. IV. No innate Principles. of God Himfelf. Nor do I fee how it derogates more from the Good~ nefs of God, that he has given us MinJs unfurniflJCd with thefe Idea's of Himfelf, than that he hath fent us into the World, with Bodies untloathed ; and that there is no Art or Skill born with us. For being fitted with Faculties to attain thefe, it is want of Indufiry, and Cbnlidera~ tion in us, and not of Bounty in Him, if we have them ·not. 'Tis as ~ertairi, _chat there is a God, as that the oppolite Angles, made by the tnterfechon of two firatt Lmes, are equal. There was never any rational Creature, ihat fer himfelflincerely to examine the truth of thefe Propolitions, that could fail to alfent to tliem: . Though ye~ it be pafl: doubt, that there are many Men, who havmg not apphed thetr Thoughts that \Vay, are tgnorant both of the one and tlie other. If any one think fit to call this (which is the utmofi of its extent) univerfal Coilferit fuch an one I eaftly alimv: But fuch ari univerfal Confent as this, prov~s not the Idea of God, no more than 1t does the Idea of fuch Angles,innau. §.17. Suice then though the knowledge of a GOD, be the ri10fi natural difcovory of humane Re-1fon, yet the Idea of !Jim, is not iitnale as I think,is evident from what has beer! faid; I imagine thete will be'fca;ce any other Idea found, that can pretend to it : Iince if God had Jelt any natural imprellions on the Underfianding of Men, it is rnofi reafonable to expeCl: it lhould have been forne Characters of Himfelf, as far as our weak Capncities were capnble to receive fo iilcoinprehenlible and infinite an Object. But our Minds being, at firfi, void of that Idea, which we are molt concerned to have, it iJ aj/rongprefomption againjl all other;,.:. nate CharaEleri. I mufiown, as far as I cah obferve, lean find none and would be glad to be informed by any othet. ' §.18. Iconfefs,thereisanothcridea, whichwou·Id be of general ufe for Mankind to have, as it is of general talk as if they had it; and that is the Idea of Subjlance, which we neither have, norcah have, by Sen/ati· on or &fleE/ion. If Nature took care to provtde us any Idea's, we miglit well exped: it lhould be fuch, as by our own Faculties we cannot procure tO our (elves: But we fee on the contrary,that fince by thofeways,whereby orher Meas are brought into our Minds, this is not, We have no fuch clear Idea at all~ and therefore fignifie nothing by the word Su6f/<nce, but only an uncertam fuppolit10n of we know not what; i.e. of fomcthing whereof we have no Id<a, which we take to be the fobj/ratum, orfupporr, of thofe Idea's we do know. §. 19. Whatever then we talk of innate, either fPictilativ<, or praElical, 1'ri11ciples, it may, with as much probability, be fai~, That a Man hath a 100 /, fierling in his pocket, and yet deny that he hath there either Penny, Shilling, Crown, or any other Coiri, out of \Vhich the Sum is to be made up; as to think, that certain Propolitioils are innate, when the Idea's about which theyare,can by no means bcfuppofed to be fo. The general reception and aifent that is given, doth not at all prove, that the Idea's exprelfed in them, are innau: For in many cafes, however the Idea's came there, thealfentto Words expreiling the agreement, or difagreement, of fuch Idea's, will necelfarily follow. Every one that hath a true Idea of God, and Worjhip, will alfent to this Propolition, That God is to be worlhipped, when exprelfed in a Language he-underfiands: And every rational Man, that hath not thought o~ it to day, may be ready to aifent to this Propolition to morrow; and yet millions of Men tl!ay be well fuppofed to want one, or both, of thofe Id,a's to day: For if we will allow Savages, and mofl: Country-people, to have Idea's of God and Worjhip (which converliltion wit!! them, will not make one fonvard to F believe) |