of fuch a name, or the absence of fuch 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 load-ftone in the world, becaufe a great part of mankind had neither a notion of any fuch thing, nor a name for it; or be any fhow of argument to prove, that there are no diftinct and various fpecies of angels, or intelligent beings above us, because we have no ideas of fuch diftinct fpecies, or names for them: for men being furnished with words, by the common language of their own countries, can fcarce avoid having fome kind of profeffed atheifts; for whatfoever is innate, muft be univerfal in the ftricteft fenfe. One exception is a fufficient proof againft it. So that all that I faid, and which was quite to another purpose, did not at all tend, nor can be made ufe of, to invalidate the argument for a Deity, grounded on fuch an univerfal confent, as your lordship, and all that build on it, must own; which is only a very difproportioned majority; fuch an univerfal confent my argument there neither affirms nor requires to be lefs than you will be pleafed to allow it. Your lordship therefore might, without any prejudice to thofe declarations of good will and favour you have for the author of the "Effay of Human Understanding," have fpared the mentioning his quoting authors that are in print, for matters of fact to quite another purpose, "as going about to invalidate the argument for a Deity, from the univerfal confent of mankind" fince he leaves that univerfal confent as entire and as large as you yourfelf do, or can own, or fuppofe it. But here I have no reafon to be forry that your lordship has given me this occafion for the vindication of this paffage of my book; if there fhould be any one befides your lordship, who fhould fo far miftake it, as to think it in the leaft invalidates the argument for a God, from the univerfal confent of mankind. : But becaufe you question the credibility of thofe authors I have quoted, which you fay were very ill chofen; I will crave leave to fay, that he whom I relied on for his teftimony concerning the Hottentots of Soldania, was no lefs a man than an ambassador from the king of England to the Great Mogul of whofe relation, monfieur Thevenot, no ill judge in the cafe, had fo great an esteem, that he was at the pains to tranflate into French, and publifh it in his (which is counted no injudicious) collection of travels. But to intercede with your lordship, for a little more favourable allowance of credit to fir Thomas Roe's relation; Coore, an inhabitant of the country, who could fpeak English, affured Mr. Terry, that they of Soldania had no God. But if he too have the ill luck to find no credit with you, I hope you will be a little more favourable to a divine of the church of England, now living, and admit of his teftimony in confirmation of fir Thomas Roe's. This worthy gentleman, in the relation of his voyage to Surat, printed but two years fince, fpeaking of • Terry's Voyage, p. 17, 23. the kind of ideas of those things, whofe names, those they converse with, have occafion frequently to mention to them. And if they carry with it the notion of excellency, greatness, or something extraordinary; if apprehenfion and concernment accompany it; if the fear of abfolute and irrefiftible power fet it on upon the mind, the idea is likely to fink the deeper, and fpread the farther; efpecially if it be fuch an idea as is agreeable to the common light of reafon, and naturally deduci ble from every part of our knowledge, as that of a God is. For the visible marks of extraordinary wifdom and power appear fo plainly in all the works of the creation, that a rational creature, who will but feriously reflect on them, cannot mifs the discovery of a deity. the fame people, has these words: "They are funk even below idolatry, are deftitute of both priest and temple, and faving a little fhow of rejoicing, which is made at the full and new moon, have loft all kind of religious devotion. Nature has fo richly provided for their convenience in this life, that they have drowned all fenfe of the God of it, and are grown quite careless of the next." But to provide against the cleareft evidence of atheism in these people, you fay, that the account given of them, makes them not fit to be a ftandard for the fenfe of mankind." This, I think, may pals for nothing, till fomebody be found, that makes them to be a ftandard for the fenfe of mankind. All the ufe I made of them was to fhow, that there were men in the world that had no innate idea of a God. But to keep fomething like an argument going (for what will not that do?) you go near denying thofe Cafers to be men. What else do these wons fignity?" a people fo frangely bereft of common fenfe, that they can hardly be reckoned among mankind, as appears by the best accounts of the Cafers of Soldania, &c." I hope, if any of them were called Peter, James, or John, it would be paft fcruple that they were men: however, Courwee, Wewena, and Cowfheda, and thofe others who had names, that had no places in your nomenclator, would hardly pafs mufter with your lordship. My lord, I fhould not mention this, but that what you yourself fay here, may be a motive to you to confider, that what you have laid fuch a ftrefs on concerning the general nature of man, as a real being, and the fubject of properties, amounts to nothing for the diftinguishing of fpecies; fince you yourself own that there may be individuals, wherein there is a common nature with a particular fubfiftence proper to each of them; whereby you are fo little able to know of which of the ranks or forts they are, into which you fay God has ordered beings, and which he hath diftinguished by effential properties, that you are in doubt whether shey ought to be reckoned among mankind or no. + Mr. Ovington, p. 489. And And the influence that the difcovery of fuch a being muft neceffarily have on the minds of all, that have but once heard of it, is fo great, and carries fuch a weight of thought and communication with it, that it feems stranger to me, that a whole nation of men fhould be any where found fo 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 exprefs a fuperior, powerful, wife, invifible being, the fuitablenefs of fuch a notion to the principles of common reafon, and the intereft men will always have to mention it often, muft neceffarily fpread it far and wide, and continue it down to all generations; though yet the general reception of this name, and fome imperfect and unfteady 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 reafon, thought maturely of the caufes of things, and traced them to their original; from whom other lefs confidering people having once received fo important a notion, it could not easily be loft again. §. 11. This is all could be inferred from the notion 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 imagine, is extended no farther than that; which if it be fufficient to prove the idea of God innate, will as well prove the idea of fire innate; fince, I think, it may be truly faid, that there is not a perfon in the world, who has a notion of a God, who has not alfo the idea of fire. I doubt not, but if a colony of young children fhould 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 foever it were received, and known in all the world befides: and perhaps too their apprehenfions would be as far removed from any name, or notion of a God, till fome one amongst them had employed his thoughts, to inquire into the conftitution and 1 and causes of things, which would eafily lead him to the notion of a God; which having once taught to others, reafon, and the natural propensity of their own thoughts, would afterwards propagate, and continue amongst them. §. 12. Indeed it is urged, that it is fuit- Suitable to able to the goodnefs 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 fo grand a concernment; and also by that means to fecure to himself the homage and veneration due from fo intelligent a creature as man; and therefore he has done it. God's goodnefs, that all men fhould have an idea of him,there fore naturally imprinted by him, anfwered. This argument, if it be of any force, will prové 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 fhall judge is beft for them, because it is fuitable to his goodness fo 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 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 fhould clafh with their understandings, and their appetites cross their duty. The Romanifts fay, it is beft for men, and fo fuitable to the goodness of God, that there should be an infallible judge of controver fies on earth; and therefore there is one. And I, by the fame reason, fay, it is better for men that every man himself should be infallible. I leave them to confider, whether by the force of this argument they fhall think that every man is fo. I think it a very good argument, to fay, the infinitely wife God hath made it fo: and therefore it is beft. But it feems to me a little too much confidence of our own wifdom to fay, "I think ir best, and therefore God hath made it fo;" and, in the the matter in hand, it will be in vain to argue from fuch a topick that God hath done fo, when certain experience shows us that he hath not. But the goodness of God hath not been wanting to men without fuch original impreffions of knowledge, or ideas ftamped on the mind: fince he hath furnished man with thofe faculties, which will ferve for the fufficient difcovery of all things requifite to the end of fuch a being. And I doubt not but to fhow that a man, by the right use of his natural abilities, may, without any innate principles, attain a 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 plant thofe innate notions in his mind, than that having given him reafon, hands, and materials, he fhould build him bridges, or houses; 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 ideas of God, and principles of morality; or at leaft have but very ill ones. The reason in both cafes being, that they never employed their parts, faculties, and powers induftriously that way, but contented themfelves 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, poffibly our thoughts and notions had not exceeded thofe brutifh ones of the hottentots that inhabit there: and had the Virginia king Apochancana been educated in England, he had been perhaps 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 purfued not those thoughts that would have led him to it. Ideas of God §. 13. I grant, that if there were any idea 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 |