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Show No innate Prin'cipler. Book I. it far and wide; and continue it down to all Generations : though vet the gen<ral r<c<ption of t!JiJ Name, and fome imp<r('rfl and unjleady NotiOHs, conwyed thereby to th~ unthinking p:irt of Mankind, prove not tl·e Idea to 6e innate; but only that they, who made the D1fcovery, had made a right ufe of their Reafon, thought maturely of the Caufes of tlung<, and traced them to their Original; from whom other le($ confideriilg People, having once received fo important a Notion, it could not eafily be loll again. ~. u. This is allcou!d be inferr'd from the Notibn of a God, were it to be found univerfally in all the Tribes of Mankind, and generally acknowledged, by Men grown to maturity in all. Countries. For the generality of the acknowlEdging of a God, as I 1magme, IS extended no farther than that 1 which if it be fuflicient to prove the Idea of God, innau, will as well prove the Idea of Fire, innate; Iince, I think, if may truly be 11iid, That there is not a Perfon in the World, who has a Notion of a God, who has not alfo the Idea of Fire. 1 doubt not, but if a Colony of young Children lhould be placed in an Ifland, where no Fire was, they would certainly neither have any Notion of {uch a thing, nor Name for it, how generally foever it were received, and known in all the World befides; and, perhaps too, their Apprehenfions, would be as far temoved from any Name, or Notion of a God, till fome one amongfi them had imployed his Thoughts, to enquire into the Confiitution and Caufes of things, which would eafily lead him to the Notion of a God; which having 01ice mught to others, Reafon, and the natural Propenfity of the1r own· Thoughts, would afterwards propagate, and continue among!l them. §. n. Indeed it is urged, That it is JuitaUe to t'E,,goodnefi of GoJ, tl imprint upo• the Mi•ds of Men, Charaflers a•d Notion! of himfolj; and not leave them in the dark, and doubt,in fo grand a Concernment; and alfo by that means, to fecure to himfclf the Homage and Veneration, due from fo intelligent a Creature as Man; and therefore he has done it. This Argument, if it be of any Force, will prove much more than thofe, who ufe it,in this cafe, expeCl: from it. For if we may conclude, that God hath done for Men, all that Men lhall judge is befl: tor them, be· caufe it is fuitable to his goodnefs fo to do, it w1ll prove, not only, that God has imprinted on the minds of Men an Idea of himfelf; but that he hath plainly llaf!!ped there, in fair Characters,all that men ought to know, or beheve of lum , all that they ought to do in obedience to his Will ; and that he hath given them a Will and AffeCl:ion conformable to it. This, nodoubt,every one will think it better for men, than that they lhould, in the dark, grope after Knowledge, as St. Paul tells us all Nations did after God, Alis XVI1.17. than that their Wills lhould clalh with their Underllandings, and their Appetites crofstheir Dnty. The Romaniffs fay, 'Tis bc;fl: fo~ men,and fo,fuitable to the goodnefs of God, that there lhould be an mfalhble Judge of Controverfies on Earth ; and therefore there is o~e: and I, by ~e lame Reafon, fay, 'Tis better for men, that every man htmfelf lhould be mfallible. Ileave them to confider, whether by the force of th1s Argument they lhall think that every man is fo.I think it a very good Arg~ment, to fa~, the infinit,ely wife God hath made it fo: And there: fore It ts bell.But .'t foems to me a little too much Confidence of our own Wi}· dom, to fay, I tln~k r: ~eft, and therefore God hath. made it fo ; and in the matter m Hand, tt wtll be in vain to argue from fuch a Topick that God hath done fo, when certain Experience !hews us, that he hath' not. But the Goodnefs of God hath not been wanting to men without fuch Origi· nal Impre!lions of Knowledge, or Idea's llamped on the mind : Iince he bath Chap. IV. No innate Principles. hath furnifhed Man with thofe Faculties, which will ferve for the fulTicient difcovery of all things requifite to the end of fuch a Being; and I doubt not but to lhew, that a Man by the. right ufeofhis natural Abilities, may, without any mnate Pnnctples, attam the knowledge of a God, and other things that concern him. God having endued Man with thofe Faculties of knowing whiclt he hath, was no more obliged by bis Goodnefs , to implant thofe innate Notions in his Mind,tha~ that having given him Rea fort, Hands, and Matenals, he fhould bu1ld h1m Bndges, or Houfes ; which fome people.in the World,however of good parts,do either totally want, or are but ill provided of,as well as others are wholly without Jdea'soJGod,and Principles of Morality; or at leafi have but very ill ones. The reafon in both cafes being, That they never employ'd their Parts, faculties, and Powers, indullrioufly that way, but contented themfelve with the Opinions, Fafhions, and Things of their Country, as they found them, with· out looking any farther. Had you or I been born at the Bay of So/dania, po!Tibly our Thoughts, and Notions, had not exceeded thofe bruitifh ones of the Hotentots that inhabit there: And had the f/erginia King Apo· chaucana been educated in England, l1e had, perhaps, been as knowing a Divine, ~nd as good a Mathematician, as any in it. The difference between him, and a more improved Englifo-man,lying barely in this, That the exercife of his faculties, was bounded within the Ways, Modes, and Notions of his own Country, and never diretl:ed to any other, or farther Enquiries: And if he had not any Idea of a God, it was only becaufe he purfued not thofe Thoughts that would have led him to it. 9. 1 ,3· I grant, That if' there were any Idea's to be found imprint<d on theMlllds of Men, we have reafon to exped,it fhould be the notion of his Maker as a mark G 0 D fet on his own Workmanlhip, to mind Man of his dependence and Duty; and that herein fl10uld appear the firfi infiances of humane Knowledge. Buthowlateisit before any fuch notion is difcoverable in Children ~ And when we find it there, How much more dces it refemble the Opinion, and Notion, of the Teacher, than reprefent the True God ? He that fl1all obferve in Children, the progrefs whereby their Minds attain the knowledge they have, wilt think, that the Objects they do firfi, and mofi familiarly converfe with, ore thofe that make the firfi imprclTions on their Underfiandings: Nor will he find 'the leal! footfl:eps of any other. It is eafie to take notice, how their Thoughts enlarge themfclves, only as they come to be acquainted with a greater variety of fenfible ObjeCl:s, to retain the Idea's of them in their memories; and to get the skill to compound and enlarge them, and feveral ways put them together. How by thefe means, they come to frame in their minds an Idea of a Deity, I fl1all hereafter lhew. §. '+ Can it be thought, that the Ideis Men have of God, are the Characters, and Marks of Himfelf, engraven in their Minds by his own finger, when we fee, that in the fame Country, under one and the fame Name Men have far different, na-y,often CDiftrary and incoHfiffent Idea's, and c~ru::eptions of him ? Their agreeing in a name, or found, will fcarce prove an innate notion of Him. 9.1 ~·What true or tolerable notion of a Deiry,could they have, who acknowledged, and worthipped hundreds? Every Deity that they owned above one, was an infallible evidence of their ignorance of Him, and a proof that they had no true notion of God, where Unity, Infinity, and Eternitv, were always excluded. To wh1ch tf we add thelf grofs Conception's of Corporiety , expreffed iri their Images, and Reprefenrati· ons of their Deities ; the Amours, Marriages, C-opulations, Lufis, Q.!!ar· rels, |