and if matter thinks, it may direct it felf to a certain end; and if it directs it felf to a defigned end, it has no need of any other principle to direct it thither; and the Existence of God will not be at all neceffary in this regard.

And if Man directs himself to his propofed end, though he be fuppofed nothing else but matter, why should not the Heavens, the Elements, and other parts of the Universe, as well direct themselves to their general end, though in them, as well as in Men, we should acknowledge nothing but matter and motion?

CHAP. VII.

That there are in the World certain Marks and Signs of Novelty, which lead us to the Truth of the Existence of God.

Slace

Ince the Univerfe is neceffarily the workmanship of some Wisdom that made it in time, we need not be surprised to find fome marks of Novelty in the Globe we inhabit.

It is certain that the Earth receives fome Al. terations by the courfe of Time; the Rains which fall upon the tops of Mountains and Hills, walh down the Earth, and fenfibly bring them lower. The Rivers running a long while the fame way, and from time to time, overflowing their Banks, make their Channels either deeper or wider. And thofe of the greater fort carrying a vast quantity of Gravel along with them into the Sea, advance its Shores, or form little Islands in

it,

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tit, like thofe at the Mouth of Nile, whofe num1ber from time to time has increased, according to the observation of the Learned.

1

Now though all these Alterations be very inconsiderable, and as it were infenfible; yet it is evident, that an infinite extent of time would render them very fenfible and apparent. There must needs have been formed before this time, an infinite number of thofe little Islands which are made out of the Gravel of the Rivers, or rather that the Sea would have been quite filled up, and the highest Hills brought down to a level, with the other parts of the Earth before this time; fince Eternity contains an infinity of Ages to produce that Effect we speak of.

The novelty of the Earth which this confideration gives us fufficient affurance of, agrees well enough with that of the Universe in general, which Reason has already help'd us to conceive. But we need not have recourfe either to the one or the other, to prove the Existence of God. 'Tis fufficient for that purpose, to fhew that Mankind is not without a firft Head and a Beginning. For if we cannot conceive, that the great World was produced without a God for its Author, 'tis full as much against Reason to imagin, that the little World, which is no lefs an Epitome of Wonders than the greater, was formed by any other cause but by the power of a Supream Being; fo that this truth is no less confpicuous in Society than in Nature, which is the Second principle we were to establish.

CHA P.

CHAP. VIII,

Containing fome Arguments for the Existence of God, taken from the confideration of Society. The first Argument drawn from the Succeffion of Generations.

TH

is

deci "Here is nothing easier than to demonstrate thefe Two Truths which feem to us five on this Subject; the one, that there was a firft Man, who was himself without a Father, and was the Father of all Men yet living: The other, that fuppofing there was a firft Man, he muft neceffarily be the Workmanship of the wif dom and power of a God.

'Tis plain that Mankind has a first Head, beyond which we cannot run our Thoughts back, whether we confider the Succeffion of Generations, and that either afcending from our Selves to our Ancestors, and the Ancestors of our Ancestors, or beginning at top, and fo defcending from the Father to the Children, confidering the Root first, and then the Branches; or whether we confider those Marks of Novelty which at first fight appear in Society, and perfwade us not only that Mankind has an Original, but also that its rife is not fo ancient as Incredulity commonly fancies. If we look back to our Ancestors, we must find out a first principle to bound the Enquiries of our Mind, or elfe we fhall lofe our felves in the infinity of that grada.

tion,

>

For

!

For it will be to no purpoíe for the Incredulous to alledge for the defenie of an eternal Succeffion of Generations, that this infinite gradation which fo much puzzles us, and which the Philofophers call a Progreffion to infinity, and judge to be wholly contrary to righ Reajon, Teems to be common to both Opinions: Because if the Atheist be forced to acknowledge that he draws his Original from his Father, and he again from some other, without any end of that gradation; he that owns the Exiflence of God, is obliged likewife to believe that God exifted a Thousand Ages before the Creation of the World, and a Million before thofe Thoufand; and fo on to infinity. 1 But though the difficulty fhould be granted equal on both fides, we might reasonably reproach the Atheists for following an Opinion which includes all the difficulties of ours, without the fame light or evidence. In effect, if there be any thing incomprehenfible in the Supream Being, which our Imagination does reject, 'tis his Infinity and his Eternity. If therefore you attribute this Eternity and Infinity to the Succeffion of Generations, you fall into all the difficulties which make you reject our Opinion, with the difadvantage of not being able to answer them with the fame ease and folidity as we do.

None ought to wonder if we own an Eternal Duration in God. Eternity fuits very well with an Infinite Being, which effemially includes all kinds of Perfections, and which exists neceffarily and of it felf. And to conceive a God which had a beginning, would be to conceive a God who is no God. But it is not fo with the Succeffion of Generations, which being nothing else but Actions or Motions, have a natural relation to the prin

ciple

ciple which produces them, and to that which terminates them.

Befides, there is a great deal of difference be tween an infinite progreffion which exifts only in the weak Imagination of Men, and an infinite progreffion which we acknowledge in the thing it Telf. That we allow in God, is, according to our Opinion, of the first fort, fince in God there is neither before, nor after, nor any Succeffion of duration; that he has produced Times and Ages, and yet is not to be measured by Times and Ages himself; that properly and strictly speaking, duration does not belong to him, because it cannot be affirmed, but of fuch things only that had a beginning, and which continue in their state. But Duration in God, is the fame as being, and being is duration, though through the weaknefs of our Conceptions, we are obliged to confi der him under all the differences of Time; whereas that Progression which we acknowledge in the Succeffion of Generations, is according to the Incredulous themselves, an infinite progreffion fuppofed in the thing it felf, and not meerly the effect of Imagination,

And now if we begin at the Stock, and pass to the Branches, we fhall foon be made fenfible of the fame Truth. In effect, 'tis obfervable, that when we run up the Succeffion of Generations to the first original, we go from multitude to unity. Let us confider this Truth in the People of the Jews, whom we may suppose to be the Pofterity of Abraham, without advancing any thing that is doubtful or contefted. If we trace the Suc ceffion of Generations upwards to that firft Head, from that incredible Multitude of Jews whom we find at this Day in the World, we shall come to