they believe innate may be easily observed, in the variety of opposite
principles held and contended for by al sorts and degrees of men. And
he that shall deny this to be the method wherein most men proceed to the
assurance they have of the truth and evidence of their principles, will
perhaps find it a hard matter any other way to account for the contrary
tenets, which are firmly believed, confidently asserted, and which great
numbers are ready at any time to seal with their blood. And, indeed, if
it be the privilege of innate principles to be received upon their own
authority, without examination, I know not what may not be believed, or
how any one's principles can be questioned. If they may and ought to be
examined and tried, I desire to know how first and innate principles
can be tried; or at least it is reasonable to demand the MARKS and
CHARACTERS whereby the genuine innate principles may be distinguished
from others: that so, amidst the great variety of pretenders, I may be
kept from mistakes in so material a point as this. When this is done, I
shall be ready to embrace such welcome and useful propositions; and til
then I may with modesty doubt; since I fear universal consent, which is
the only one produced, wil scarcely prove a sufficient mark to direct
my choice, and assure me of any innate principles.
From what has been said, I think it past doubt, that there are no
practical principles wherein all men agree; and therefore none innate.
CHAPTER III.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING INNATE PRINCIPLES, BOTH SPECULATIVE
AND
PRACTICAL.
1. Principles not innate, unless their Ideas be innate
Had those who would persuade us that there are innate principles not
taken them together in gross, but considered separately the parts out of
which those propositions are made, they would not, perhaps, have been so
forward to believe they were innate. Since, if the IDEAS which made up
those truths were not, it was impossible that the PROPOSITIONS made up
of them should be innate, or our knowledge of them be born with us. For,
if the ideas be not innate, there was a time when the mind was without
those principles; and then they wil not be innate, but be derived from
some other original. For, where the ideas themselves are not, there can
be no knowledge, no assent, no mental or verbal propositions about them.
2. Ideas, especialy those belonging to Principles, not born with
children
If we will attentively consider new-born children, we shall have little
reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.
For, bating perhaps some faint ideas of hunger, and thirst, and warmth,
and some pains, which they may have felt in the womb, there is not the
least appearance of any settled ideas at all in them; especially of
IDEAS ANSWERING THE TERMS WHICH MAKE UP THOSE UNIVERSAL PROPOSITIONS
THAT ARE ESTEEMED INNATE PRINCIPLES. One may perceive how, by degrees,
afterwards, ideas come into their minds; and that they get no more, nor
other, than what experience, and the observation of things that come in
their way, furnish them with; which might be enough to satisfy us that
they are not original characters stamped on the mind.
3. Impossibility and Identity not innate ideas
"It is impossible for the same thing to be, and not to be," is certainly (if there be any such) an innate PRINCIPLE. But can any one think, or
will any one say, that "impossibility" and "identity" are two innate IDEAS? Are they such as al mankind have, and bring into the world with
them? And are they those which are the first in children, and antecedent
to all acquired ones? If they are innate, they must needs be so. Hath a
child an idea of impossibility and identity, before it has of white or
black, sweet or bitter? And is it from the knowledge of this principle
that it concludes, that wormwood rubbed on the nipple hath not the same
taste that it used to receive from thence? Is it the actual knowledge of
IMPOSSIBILE EST IDEM ESSE, ET NON ESSE, that makes a child distinguish
between its mother and a stranger; or that makes it fond of the one and
flee the other? Or does the mind regulate itself and its assent by
ideas that it never yet had? Or the understanding draw conclusions
from principles which it never yet knew or understood? The names
IMPOSSIBILITY and IDENTITY stand for two ideas, so far from being
innate, or born with us, that I think it requires great care and
attention to form them right in our understandings. They are so far from
being brought into the world with us, so remote from the thoughts of
infancy and childhood, that I believe, upon examination it wil be found
that many grown men want them.
4. Identity, an Idea not innate.
If IDENTITY (to instance that alone) be a native impression, and
consequently so clear and obvious to us that we must needs know it even
from our cradles, I would gladly be resolved by any one of seven, or
seventy years old, whether a man, being a creature consisting of soul
and body, be the same man when his body is changed? Whether Euphorbus
and Pythagoras, having had the same soul, were the same men, though they
lived several ages asunder? Nay, whether the cock too, which had the
same soul, were not the same, with both of them? Whereby, perhaps, it
will appear that our idea of SAMENESS is not so settled and clear as to
deserve to be thought innate in us. For if those innate ideas are not
clear and distinct, so as to be universally known and naturally agreed
on, they cannot be subjects of universal and undoubted truths, but will
be the unavoidable occasion of perpetual uncertainty. For, I suppose
every one's idea of identity wil not be the same that Pythagoras and
thousands of his followers have. And which then shall be true? Which
innate? Or are there two different ideas of identity, both innate?
5. What makes the same man?
Nor let any one think that the questions I have here proposed about the
identity of man are bare empty speculations; which, if they were, would
be enough to show, that there was in the understandings of men no innate
idea of identity. He that shall with a little attention reflect on the
resurrection, and consider that divine justice wil bring to judgment,
at the last day, the very same persons, to be happy or miserable in the
other, who did wel or il in this life, will find it perhaps not easy
to resolve with himself, what makes the same man, or wherein identity
consists; and wil not be forward to think he, and every one, even
children themselves, have naturally a clear idea of it.
6. Whole and Part not innate ideas.
Let us examine that principle of mathematics, viz. THAT THE WHOLE
IS BIGGER THAN A PART. This, I take it, is reckoned amongst innate
principles. I am sure it has as good a title as any to be thought so;
which yet nobody can think it to be, when he considers the ideas it
comprehends in it, WHOLE and PART, are perfectly relative; but the
positive ideas to which they properly and immediately belong are
extension and number, of which alone whole and part are relations. So
that if whole and part are innate ideas, extension and number must be so
too; it being impossible to have an idea of a relation, without having
any at all of the thing to which it belongs, and in which it is founded.
Now, whether the minds of men have naturally imprinted on them the ideas
of extension and number, I leave to be considered by those who are the
patrons of innate principles.
7. Idea of Worship not innate.
That GOD IS TO BE WORSHIPPED, is, without doubt, as great a truth as
any that can enter into the mind of man, and deserves the first place
amongst all practical principles. But yet it can by no means be thought
innate, unless the ideas of GOD and WORSHIP are innate. That the idea
the term worship stands for is not in the understanding of children, and
a character stamped on the mind in its first original, I think wil be
easily granted, by any one that considers how few there be amongst grown
men who have a clear and distinct notion of it. And, I suppose, there
cannot be anything more ridiculous than to say, that children have this
practical principle innate, "That God is to be worshipped," and yet that they know not what that worship of God is, which is their duty. But to
pass by this.
8. Idea of God not innate.
If any idea can be imagined innate, the idea of GOD may, of all others,
for many reasons, be thought so; since it is hard to conceive how there
should be innate moral principles, without an innate idea of a Deity.
Without a notion of a law-maker, it is impossible to have a notion of a
law, and an obligation to observe it. Besides the atheists taken notice
of amongst the ancients, and left branded upon the records of history,
hath not navigation discovered, in these later ages, whole nations,
at the bay of Soldania, in Brazil, and in the Caribbee islands, &c.,
amongst whom there was to be found no notion of a God, no religion?
Nicholaus del Techo, in Literis ex Paraquaria, de Caiguarum Conversione,
has these words: Reperi eam gentem nullum nomen habere quod Deum, et
hominis animam significet; nulla sacra habet, nulla idola.
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 neighbour's 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.
9. The name of God not universal or obscure in meaning.
But had al 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 they carry with it the notion of excellency, greatness,
or something extraordinary; if apprehension and concernment accompany
it; if the fear of absolute and irresistible power set it on upon the
mind,--the idea is likely to sink the deeper, and spread the further;
especial y 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 wil 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 al 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 anywhere found so brutish as to want the notion of a
God, than that they should be without any notion of numbers, or fire.
10. Ideas of God and idea of Fire.
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. Idea of God not innate.
This is all could be inferred from the notion of a God, were it to
be found universally in al the tribes of mankind, and generally
acknowledged, by men grown to maturity in al countries. For the
generality of the acknowledging of a God, as I imagine, is extended no
further 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
be truly 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 intel igent a creature as man; and therefore he has done it.
This argument, if it be of any force, wil 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 al that men shall judge is best for them, because it
is suitable to his goodness so to do, it wil 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; al that they ought to do in obedience to his wil ; 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 xvi . 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 wil 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 wil serve for the sufficient discovery of al 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 a knowledge of a God, and other things that
concern him. God having endued man with those faculties of knowledge
which he hath, was no more obliged by his goodness to plant 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
il provided of, as wel 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 further. 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 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 further 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 wil 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 skil 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. Contrary and inconsistent ideas of God under the same name.
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. Gross ideas of God.
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 wil be only this:--that God imprinted on the minds of
al 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 the original I wil not here inquire; but that
they were so in the thoughts of the vulgar I think nobody wil affirm.
And he that wil consult the voyage of the Bishop of Beryte, c. 13,
(not to mention other testimonies,) wil 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, 107/177, it
consists properly in acknowledging no God at all. 16. Idea of God not
innate although wise men of al nations come to have it.
If it be said, that wise men of al 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 anything 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 have 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 wel as other
things; whilst the lazy and inconsiderate part of men, making far the
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.
17. Odd, low, and pitiful ideas of God common among men.
This was evidently the case of al Gentilism. Nor hath even amongst
Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, who acknowledged 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
the 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 now amongst us who profess themselves Anthropomorphites,
(though some I have met with that own it,) yet I believe he that wil
make it his business may find amongst the ignorant and uninstructed
Christians many of that opinion. Talk but with country people, 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