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where uncultivated nature has been left to itself, without the help of letters and discipline, and the improvements of arts and sciences. But there are others to be found, who have enjoyed these in a very great measure, who yet, for want of a due application of their thoughts this way, want the idea and knowledge of God. It will, I doubt not, be a surprise to others, as it was to me, to find the Siamites of this number; but for this, let them consult the king of France's late envoy thither,* who gives no better account of the Chinese themselves. And if we will not believe La Loubere, the missionaries of China, even the Jesuits themselves, the great encomiasts of the Chinese, do all to a man agree, and will convince us, that the sect of the Literati, or "Learned," keeping to the old religion of China, and the ruling party there, are all of them atheists. (Vid. Navarette, in the Collection of Voyages, vol. i.; and Historia Cultus Sinensium.) And, perhaps, if we should with attention mind the lives and discourses of people not so far off, we should have too much reason to fear that many, in more civilized countries, have no very strong and clear impressions of a Deity upon their minds; and that the complaints of atheism, made from the pulpit, are not without reason. And though only some profligate wretches own it too barefacedly now; yet, perhaps, we should hear more than we do of it from others, did not the fear of the magistrate's sword, or their neighbours' censure, tie up people's tongues; which, were the apprehensions of punishment or shame taken away, would as openly proclaim their atheism as their lives do.‡

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9. But had all mankind everywhere a notion of a God, (whereof yet history tells us the contrary,) it would not from thence follow that the idea of him was innate. For though no nation were to be found without a name and some few dark notions of him, yet that would not prove them to be natural impressions on the mind, no more than the names of "fire," or the " sun," "heat," or number," do prove the ideas they stand for to be innate, because the names of those things, and the ideas of them, are so universally received and known amongst mankind. Nor, on the contrary, is the want of such a name, or the absence of such a notion out of men's minds, any argument against the being of a God, any more than it would be a proof that there was no loadstone in the world, because a great part of mankind had neither a notion of any such thing, nor a name for it; or be any show of argument to prove, that there are no distinct and various species of angels, or intelligent beings above us, because we have no ideas of such distinct species, or names for them. For men, being furnished with words by the common language of their own countries, can scarce avoid having some kind of ideas of those things whose names those they converse with have occasion frequently to mention to them: and if it carry with it the notion of excellency, greatness, or something extraordinary; if apprehension and concernment accompany it; if

* LA LOUBERE, Du Royaume de Siam, tom. i. cap. ix. sect. xv. &c.; cap. xx. sect. xxii. &c.; cap. xxii. sect. vi. † Ibid., tom. i. cap. xx. sect. iv. &c.; cap. xxiii,

See the Note at the end of this chapter, p. 51.-Edit.

the fear of absolute and irresistible power set it on upon the mind; the idea is likely to sink the deeper and spread the farther; especially if it be such an idea as is agreeable to the common light of reason, and naturally deducible from every part of our knowledge, as that of a God is. For the visible marks of extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the works of the creation, that a rational creature, who will but seriously reflect on them, cannot miss the discovery of a Deity; and the influence that the discovery of such a Being must necessarily have on the minds of all that have but once heard of it is so great, and carries such a weight of thought and communication with it, that it seems stranger to me that a whole nation of men should be any where found so brutish as to want the notion of a God, than that they should be without any notion of numbers, or fire.

10. The name of God being once mentioned in any part of the world, to express a superior, powerful, wise, invisible Being, the suitableness of such a notion to the principles of common reason, and the interest men will always have to mention it often, must necessarily spread it far and wide, and continue it down to all generations; though yet the general reception of this name, and some imperfect and unsteady notions conveyed thereby to the unthinking part of mankind, prove not the idea to be innate; but only that they who made the discovery had made a right use of their reason, thought maturely of the causes of things, and traced them to their original; from whom other less considering people having once received so important a notion, it could not easily be lost again.

11. This is all could be inferred from the notion of a God, were it to be found universally 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 imagine, is extended no farther than that; which, if it be sufficient to prove the idea of God innate, will as well prove the idea of fire innate; since, I think, it may truly be said, that there is not a person in the world who has a notion of a God, who has not also the idea of fire. I doubt not but if a colony of young children should be placed in an island where no fire was, they would certainly neither have any notion of such a thing nor name for it, how generally soever it were received and known in all the world besides; and, perhaps, too, their apprehensions would be as far removed from any name or notion of a God, till some one amongst them had employed his thoughts, to inquire into the constitution and causes of things, which would easily lead him to the notion of a God; which having once taught to others, reason and the natural propensity of their own thoughts would afterwards propagate and continue amongst them.

12. "Suitable to God's goodness, that all men should have an idea of him, therefore naturally imprinted by him," answered.—Indeed it is urged, that it is suitable to the goodness of God to imprint upon the minds of men characters and notions of himself, and not to leave them in the dark and doubt in so grand a concernment; and also

by that means to secure to himself the homage and veneration due from so intelligent a creature as man; and therefore he has done it. This argument, if it be of any force, will prove much more than those who use it in this case expect from it. For if we may conclude, that God hath done for men all that men shall judge is best for them, because it is suitable to his goodness so to do, it will prove not only that God has imprinted on the minds of men an idea of himself, but that he hath plainly stamped there, in fair characters, all that men ought to know or believe of him, all that they ought to do in obedience to his will; and that he hath given them a will and affections conformable to it. This, no doubt, every one will think it better for men, than that they should, in the dark, grope after knowledge, as, St. Paul tells us, all nations did after God; (Acts xvii. 27;) than that their wills should clash with their understandings, and their appetites cross their duty. The Romanists say, it is best for men, and so suitable to the goodness of God, that there should be an infallible judge of controversies on earth; and therefore there is one. And I, by the same reason, say, it is better for men that every man himself should be infallible. I leave them to consider, whether by the force of this argument they shall think that every man is so. I think it a very good argument, to say, "The infinitely wise God hath made it so, and therefore it is best." But it seems to me a little too much confidence of our own wisdom to say, "I think it best, and therefore God hath made it so;" and in the matter in hand, it will be in vain to argue from such a topic that God hath done so, when certain experience shows us that he hath not. But the goodness of God hath not been wanting to men without such original impressions of knowledge, or ideas stamped on the mind; since he hath furnished man with those faculties which will serve for the sufficient discovery of all things requisite to the end of such a being; and I doubt not but to show that a man, by the right use of his natural abilities, may, without any innate principles, attain the knowledge of a God, and other things that concern him. God, having endued man with those faculties of knowing which he hath, was no more obliged by his goodness to implant those innate notions in his mind, than that, having given him reason, hands, and materials, he should build him bridges or houses; which some 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 ideas of God, and principles of morality; or, at least, have but very ill ones: the reason in both cases being, that they never employed their parts, faculties, and powers industriously that way, but contented themselves with the opinions, fashions, and things of their country as they found them, without looking any farther. Had you or I been born at the Bay of Soldania, possibly our thoughts and notions had not exceeded those brutish ones of the Hottentots that inhabit there; and had the Virginia king Apochancana been educated in England, he had, perhaps, been as knowing a divine, and as good a mathematician, as any in it: the difference between him and a more improved Englishman lying barely in this, that the

exercise of his faculties was bounded within the ways, modes, and notions of his own country, and never directed to any other or farther inquiries; and if he had not any idea of a God, it was only because he pursued not those thoughts that would have led him to it.

13. Ideas of God various in different men.-I grant, that if there were any ideas to be found imprinted on the minds of men, we have reason to expect it should be the notion of his Maker, as a mark God set on his own workmanship, to mind man of his dependence and duty; and that herein should appear the first instances of human knowledge. But how late is it before any such notion is discoverable in children! and when we find it there, how much more does it resemble the opinion and notion of the teacher, than represent the true God! He that shall observe in children the progress whereby their minds attain the knowledge they have, will think that the objects they do first and most familiarly converse with, are those that make the first impressions on their understandings; nor will he find the least footsteps of any other. It is easy to take notice, how their thoughts enlarge themselves only as they come to be acquainted with a greater variety of sensible objects, to retain the ideas of them in their memories, and to get the skill to compound and enlarge them, and several ways put them together. How by these means they come to frame in their minds an idea men have of a Deity, I shall hereafter show.

14. Can it be thought, that the ideas men have of God are the characters and marks of himself, engraven in their minds by his own finger; when we see, that in the same country, under one and the same name, men have far different, nay, often contrary and inconsistent, ideas and conceptions of him? Their agreeing in a name or sound will scarce prove an innate notion of him.

15. What true or tolerable notion of a Deity could they have who acknowledged and worshipped 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 eternity were excluded. To which if we add their gross conceptions of corporeity, expressed in their images and representations of their deities, the amours, marriages, copulations, lusts, quarrels, and other mean qualities attributed by them to their gods, we shall have little reason to think that the heathen world, i. e. the greatest part of mankind, had such ideas of God in their minds, as he himself, out of care that they should not be mistaken about him, was author of And this universality of consent, so much argued, if it prove any native impressions, it will be only this: That God imprinted on the minds of all men, speaking the same language, a name for himself, but not any idea; since those people who agreed in the name, had, at the same time, far different apprehensions about the thing signified. If they say, that the variety of deities worshipped by the heathen world were but figurative ways of expressing the several attributes of that incomprehensible Being, or several parts of his providence; I answer, What they might be in their original, I will not here inquire; but that they were so in the thoughts of the

vulgar, I think nobody will affirm; and he that will consult the Voyage of the Bishop of Beryte, cap. xiii. (not to mention other testimonies,) will find, that the theology of the Siamites professedly owns a plurality of gods; or, as the Abbe de Choisy more judiciously remarks, in his Journal du Voyage de Siam, 14, it consists properly in acknowledging no God at all.

15. If it be said, that wise men of all nations came to have true conceptions of the unity and infinity of the Deity, I grant it. But then this,

First, Excludes universality of consent in any thing but the name; for those wise men being very few, perhaps one of a thousand, this universality is very narrow.

Secondly, It seems to me plainly to prove, that the truest and best notions men had of God were not imprinted, but acquired by thought and meditation, and a right use of their faculties; since the wise and considerate men of the world, by a right and careful employment of their thoughts and reason, attained true notions in this as well as other things; whilst the lazy and inconsiderate part of men, making the far greater number, took up their notions, by chance, from common tradition and vulgar conceptions, without much beating their heads about them. And if it be a reason to think the notion of God innate because all wise men had it, virtue, too, must be thought innate; for that also wise men have always had. 16. This was evidently the case of all Gentilism: nor hath, even amongst Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, who acknowledge but one God, this doctrine, and the care taken in those nations to teach men to have true notions of a God, prevailed so far as to make men to have the same and true ideas of him. How many, even amongst us, will be found, upon inquiry, to fancy him in the shape of a man, sitting in heaven; and to have many other absurd and unfit conceptions of him! Christians, as well as Turks, have had whole sects owning and contending earnestly for it, that the Deity was corporeal, and of human shape; and though we find few amongst us who profess themselves anthropomorphites, (though some I have met with that own it,) yet, I believe, he that will make it his business may find, amongst the ignorant and uninstructed Christians, many of that opinion. Talk but with countrypeople almost of any age, or young people almost of any condition, and you shall find, that though the name of God be frequently in their mouths, yet the notions they apply this name to are so odd, low, and pitiful, that nobody can imagine they were taught by a rational man, much less that they were characters writ by the finger of God himself. Nor do I see how it derogates more from the goodness of God, that he has given us minds unfurnished with these ideas of himself, than that he hath sent us into the world with bodies unclothed, and that there is no art or skill born with us. For being fitted with faculties to attain these, it is want of industry and consideration in us, and not of bounty in him, if we have them not. It is as certain that there is a God, as

*This is the reading of the fourth folio. The sixth and subsequent editions in 8vo insert is after care.-EDIT.

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