Burnet, Thomas (c.1635-1715)

Third Remarks upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding

London

Printed for M. Wotton

1699

"Their Consciences bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing them or excusing them"

I told you in my former Remarks, That I thought it was Necessary as a Ground for Morality, to allow a natural distinction betwixt Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, turpe & honestum, Vertue and Vice. And this distinction, I thought, was manifested and supported by Natural Conscience : whether amongst those that have or have not External Laws. This, I think, is taught to us plainly by the Apostle of the Gentiles, when he says, Those that were without a Law were a Law unto themselves, doing by nature the things contained in the Law, which shows the Law written in their hearts; Their Consciences bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing them or excusing them. The Gentile philosophers and Poets have said the same things concerning natural Conscience, as you cannot but know; And that you must go against the best Authors, Divine or Humane, if you deny to Man natural Conscience, as an original Principle, antecedently to any other Collections or Recollections.
(p. 4)

Government::Court::Witness

Reading Burnet's three Remarks

See Third Remarks Upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in a Letter Address'd to the Author. (London: Printed for M. Wotton, 1699). <Link to EEBO-TCP>

Reading Burnet, Thomas; Locke, John, and Porter, Noah. Remarks Upon an Essay Concerning Humane Understanding: Five Tracts. (Garland Publishing, Inc. New York and London, 1984).

Lockean Philosophy; Innate Ideas

03/15/2005