Pray consider, said P/HILO\, whom you are at present
inveighing against. You are honouring with the appellation of
Atheist all the sound, orthodox divines, almost, who have treated
of this subject; and you will at last be, yourself, found,
according to your reckoning, the only sound Theist in the world.
But if idolaters be Atheists, as, I think, may justly be
asserted, and Christian Theologians the same, what becomes of the
argument, so much celebrated, derived from the universal consent
of mankind?
But because I know you are not much swayed by names and
authorities, I shall endeavour to show you, a little more
distinctly, the inconveniences of that Anthropomorphism, which
you have embraced; and shall prove, that there is no ground to
suppose a plan of the world to be formed in the Divine mind,
consisting of distinct ideas, differently arranged, in the same
manner as an architect forms in his head the plan of a house
which he intends to execute.
It is not easy, I own, to see what is gained by this
supposition, whether we judge of the matter by Reason or by
Experience. We are still obliged to mount higher, in order to
find the cause of this cause, which you had assigned as
satisfactory and conclusive.
If Reason (I mean abstract reason, derived from inquiries a
priori) be not alike mute with regard to all questions concerning
cause and effect, this sentence at least it will venture to
pronounce, That a mental world, or universe of ideas, requires a
cause as much, as does a material world, or universe of objects;
and, if similar in its arrangement, must require a similar cause.
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