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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 29, page id 778263916:0045
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No innate Principles.
OFamonsst the Ancients, and lest branded uxon the Records oF FTistory.
hath noc Navigation discorered, in thele latrer Ages, Wholo Nations, at thC
Bay oE Soldania (a) in Brasil, (B) and the Caribee TMatidS, C. a OnO (L WHO (a) Rhoe apud
Thevenot, P 2.
there vas to be tound no Notion ol a CTOu. Nicolaus del Techoin literis, ex (B) 50. de LE
Paraquaria de Caairuarum conversione haec habet. Reperi eam gentem nul-ry, C. 16.
habet, nulla Tdola. Relatio triplex de rebus Indicis Caargnarum 3. An
perhaps, if re ould, ith attention, mind the Lires, and Discourses ot
Deople not (0 tar oE, we hould have t00 much Realon to Fear, that anY
in more civilized Countries, have no very srons, and clear Imprestions ot
a Deity upon cheir Mincs; and chac the Complaines oE Atheisin, made
From ehe Pulpies, are not wichout ReasOn. And chough only lome pro-
Digate WVretches oon it t00 barotacedY nOm; Vet pertraps, we Mould
hear, more than e do, oP it Trom others, did noc the scar olcheMasistrate s
Srord, or their Neishbours Censure, tie up Peoples Tonsues; Wrhieh,
ivere che Apprehensions of Punistiment, or Shame taken arar, Would as
openly proclaim their Atheism, as their Lives do.
5. 9. But had alt Mankind, every Where, a Norion of a God, (rhereoF
Vet History rells us the COntrarY) it Would not from thence Follow, thac
the Idea ot him ras innate. For, though no Nation Were to be sound
Writhout a Name, and lome ser darke Notions oF him; vet thar nould
not prove them to be natural impressions on theMind, no more thanche
Names oF Fire, or the Sun, Fleat, or Numiber, do prove the sdeas thcy
StandPor, to be innate, because the Names oP those chinss, and the Ideas
OErhem, are (0 universally receired, and bnown amonsst Manbind. NOr,
on the contrary, is the vant of such a Name, or the absence oF such a
Norion out of MensMinds, any Aroument against che Beins ot a God,
any more, than it vouldbe a Proot, that there Was no Load.Rone in the
WVorid, because a sreat part of Mankind, had neither a Notion oF any
such thinz, nor a Name for it; or be any sew OF Argument, 1o
prove, that there are no dictinet, and various species ot Angels, or intelli-
sent Beinss aboreus, becaule e have no Ideas oF such distinet species.
For Men, beins Curnisted with Nords, by thecommon Lansuase of their
omnCouneries, can scarce avoid havins some Vind ot Ldeas oF thole
chings, Wrhole Names, those ther converte with, have occasion trequentiy
tomention tothem: and is it carry ith it the Norion oF Fxcellener.
Creatnels, or Tomethins extraordinarr; il Apprehention and Concerr-
ment accompany it; il the Fcar of absolute and irrelictible Pover Pet it on
uxon theMind, the idea is likely to sink dceper, and spread rhe Far.
ther; especially il ic be such an Ldea as is agrecable to the commor lighe
otReaton, and naturalsy deducible trom everr pare ot our Rnowledoc, 25
thac ot 2 Cod is. For the visible mariis of extraordinars Wisdom and
Pover, appear so plainly in all thie WVortes oF the Creation, thar a rarional
Creature, ulio will bur serioulls reslect on chem, cannor miss che disco-
veri ot a Deity: And cheincuence, that the discorerr ot such à Beino
must necelsarily have on the Minds oF alI, that have bur once Bearet oF ir
is (0 sreat, andt carries fucta à reighe of lhoushe and Commmunication. Nirk
iE, FhaF iC sCemS Stranger to me, thar a elole Nation oF Nen MouId bC
any Where sound so brurist, as to rane che Norion of a God; Ellan chat
Fhey Mould Be withour any Notion oF NumBerS, Or Fire.
. 5. 10. The Name oF Ciod Deins once mentiotied in any parE OF the
WVorid, to exprels a luxerior, vovertul, Wise, invisible Beins, the suita-
bleness ot Tuch a Notion to che Principles olcommon Reaton, and the In-
rerest men nill alma stare tomention it osten, must necessarilis sprcac