than any Time or the World can afford; and referring every thing to the glory of God, as to the Greatest and Nobleft End of all his Thoughts and Actions. We pass by all the Perfections of Man, the proof of which de pends upon fuch Foundations as are contested by the Incredulous, and argue here only from the confideration of his Imperfections which are granted by all the World, and especially by those we difpute against

We should now establish the Truth of the Existence of God, by thofe proofs which Religion furnishes us with; but thefe being scattered through all this Difcourfe, and the Order we have prescribed our felves, obliging us not to fpeak of Religion, 'till we have proved, there is a God; nothing hinders but we may pafs on to the confideration of the Objections usually made against this Grand Principle.

That

CHAP

CHAP. XIV.

Where we enter upon an Examination of the principal Difficulties brought by the Atheists, to oppose the Truth of the Existence of

God.

1.THE

HE First which is taken from our not seeing God, is doubtless one of the weakeit Objections that can be made. For if our Soul it felf cannot fall under the cognizance of our Senfes, how fhould the Nature of God, become visible to us?

II. They fay 'tis impoffible to comprehend what this Supream Being is: That whatever Idea we frame to our felves of it, we are still obliged to correct it: That there as many Ideas applied to this Name of God, as there are different turns of Imagination.

To which we answer, by distinguishing Two forts of Ideas that may be formed of God, one that comes from the Imagination, and another that proceeds from the light of the Understand ing. Now God not being a Senfible Object, neither the Senfes nor the Imagination, (which has no other ground to work upon, but the information of the Senfes,) are capable of reprefenting him to us: But the Understanding "having a power of railing it felf from Known Objects, to Objects that are Unknown by its Reafoning Faculty, nothing hinders, but that it may furnish us with a True, though Imperfect Idea of the Deity. Let the Idea which our Imagination

H 2

nation forms of God, (which reprefents him as fome Material Being,) be falfe if you will, the Idea we have of him from Reafon, which reprefents him to us as a Wife and Supreamly Perfect Being, may be Imperfect, but can never be False, fince there must neceffarily be fome Intelligence which governs the Universe. We may also affirm that this Idea is very near the fame in all Men, and never alters; whereas there is nothing conftant and uniform in all the Ideas our Imagination frames of God:

III. In the mean time, our Incredulous Adverfaries cease not to use their utmost Endeavours to destroy this Idea our Reason gives us of God. They say, that it must be either Natural or Acquired, naturally imprinted in our Soul, or received from without; but that it appears not to them, that either of these can be afferted. For, fay they, were it naturally imprinted in our Soul, it must have been as ancient as we our felves; it must have prevented all our Reasonings upon this Subject, and have been the First of all our Ideas, fince we know not any other that is natural to us; and confequently God muft have been fooner known to us, than all other Objects ; it must have preceeded Education, the Age we begin to reafon in, and even all our other Knowledge, which is the fruit of Labour and Experience. They pretend to fhew in the Second Place, that it is not acquired; becaufe if it were, it must have been acquired either by Experience or Ratiocination; thefe being the only Two ways of getting what Knowledge we want. But it does not appear, that Experience or

Ratiocination can furnish us with the Idea of a God, who is above being comprehended by either.

This would be a confiderable difficulty, did we pretend to comprehend the Nature of God, or to be able to represent to our felves exact ly what the Deity is. But fince we don't pretend to that, and the only Question now is, whether there be a God, and not what this God is, that Argument concludes no better than this; There is no Idea among all those which have entred into my Soul by way of the Senfes, or thofe that proceed from Experience, that reprefents the Island of Japan to me, just such as it is in it felf, and as truly as if I had seen it; therefore there is no fuch and in the World.

Those who pretend that the Idea of God is naturally imprinted in the Minds of all Men, will alledge for themselves, that that being a Spiritual Idea, it lies hid and buried as it were in the Soul, till the Mind has liberty to exert its pureft Acts: And as we cannot say a Man is wholly deftitute of Reafon, because he does not always make use of it; we should in like manner argue ill to conclude, that we have no Idea of God naturally imprinted in our Minds, because this Idea does not always difcover it felf. To this, they will further add, that the Idea of God, is alike and uniform in all the Men of the World, fo far as it is Spiritual and Natural, but that it varies in the Additions which the Senses and Imaginations have made to it.

Those who believe the Idea of God acquired, do for all that, think it natural too, becaufe they fuppofe that the Soul of Man is fo naturally proportioned to the First Truth, that it cannot call it in Doubt, and that 'tis natural for a Man who reflects and reafons upon all he fees, to have the Idea of a Wife and intelligent Being. For though the Idea I have of Wif dom, is taken originally from the acts of my Soul, yet by Reafoning, I purify, I extend, and I correct it in fuch a manner, that it a grees to God, and cannot agree to any other Being.

Further we may obferve, there is fuch a Subordination among Beings capable of Knowledge, that the most Noble are never throughly known by thofe of an inferior Order. Chil dren cannot fully difcern the Prudence of Perfons advanced in Years. An American comprehends not the fublime Speculations of a Philofopher. And if Beasts were endowed with Reafon, as fome pretend they are, they would be far from comprehending the Designs and Perfections of Men, the Works of Society, the Depths of Policy, and the Myftery of Arts and Sciences. Nothing is an Object of Admiration, but what we do not throughly know. We are obliged to admire the Wifdom of God, and confequently we do not comprehend it.

IV. But it is not only pretended, that the Nature of God is Incomprehenfible, which we wil lingly grant; 'tis further objected, that the Idea of this Supream Being includes a Thoufand Contradictions in it, and that confequently it 0verthrows it felf. This is what Vanninus, a noted Atheist, who was burnt at Thoulouse, feems