ligent being, as that nothing should of itself produce

matter:

Therefore there has been an eternal wisdom.—If therefore it be evident that something necessarily must exist from eternity, it is also as evident that that something must necessarily be a cogitative being. For it is as impossible that incogitative matter should produce a cogitative Being, as that nothing, or the negation of all being, should produce a positive being or matter.

Though this discovery of the necessary existence of an eternal mind does sufficiently lead us into the knowledge of GOD, since it will hence follow that all other knowing beings that have a beginning must depend on Him, and have no other ways of knowledge, or extent of power, than what He gives them; and therefore, if He made those, He made also the less excellent pieces of this universe-all inanimate beings-whereby his Omniscience, Power, and Providence will be established, and all His other Attributes necessarily follow: yet to clear up this a little farther, we will see what doubts can be raised against it.

Whether material or not.-First, Perhaps it will be said, that though it be as clear as demonstration can make it, that there must be an Eternal Being, and that Being must also be knowing, yet it does not follow but [that] that thinking Being may also be material. Let it be so; it still equally follows that there is a GOD. For if there be an Eternal, Omniscient, Omnipotent Being, it is certain that there is a GOD, whether you imagine that being to be material or not. But herein, I suppose, lie the danger and deceit of that supposition: there being

no way to avoid the demonstration, that there is an Eternal Knowing Being, men devoted to matter would willingly have it granted that this knowing Being is material; and then letting slide out of their minds, or the discourse, the demonstration whereby an eternal knowing Being was proved necessarily to exist, would argue all to be matter, and so deny a God--that is, an Eternal Cogitative Being. Whereby they are so far from establishing, that they destroy, their own hypothesis: for if there can be, in their opinion, eternal 'matter' without any eternal cogitative being, they manifestly separate matter' and 'thinking,' and suppose no necessary connexion of the one with the other, and so establish the necessity of an Eternal Spirit, but not of matter ; since it has been proved already, that an eternal cogitative being is unavoidably to be granted.

*

Not material: Because every particle of matter is not cogitative.--But now let us see how they can satisfy themselves or others, that this Eternal Thinking Being is material.

First, I would ask them, whether they imagine that all matter'--every particle of matter--thinks? This, I suppose, they will scarcely say, since then there would be as many eternal thinking beings as there are particles of matter, and so an infinity of gods. And yet, if they will not allow matter, as 'matter'—that is, every particle of matter--to be as well cogitative as extended, they will have as hard a task to make out to their own reasons acogitative being' out of incogitative particles, as an 'extended being' out of unextended parts.

*For let us see how' another reading is, let us suppose.'-ED.

One particle alone of matter cannot be cogitative.-Secondly, If all 'matter' does not think, I next ask, whether it be only one atom that does so? This has as many absurdities as the other.

A system of incogitative matter cannot be cogitative.— Thirdly, If, then, neither one peculiar atom alone can be this Eternal Thinking Being, nor all matter, as 'matter,' i. e. every particle of matter, can be it, it only remains that it is some certain system of matter duly put together that is this Thinking Eternal Being. This is that which I imagine is that notion which men are aptest to have of GOD, who would have him a material Being, as most readily suggested to them by the ordinary conceit they have of themselves and other men, which they take to be material thinking beings.' But this imagination, however more natural, is no less absurd than the other: for, to suppose the Eternal Thinking Being to be nothing else but a 'composition of particles of matter,' each whereof is incogitative, is to ascribe all the wisdom and knowledge of that eternal Being only to the juxta-position of parts; than which nothing can be more absurd.

6

Whether in motion, or at rest.—But farther: this corporeal system either has all its parts at rest, or it is a certain motion of the parts wherein its thinking consists. If it be perfectly at rest, it is but one lump, and so can have no privileges above one atom.

If it be the motion of its parts on which its thinking depends, all the thoughts there must be unavoidably accidental and limited, since all the particles that by motion cause thought, being each of them in itself with

out any thought, cannot regulate its own motions, much less be regulated by the thought of the whole, since that thought is not the cause of motion (for then it must be antecedent to it, and so without it) but the consequence of it, whereby freedom, power, choice, and all rational and wise thinking or acting, will be quite

taken away.

Matter not co-eternal with an eternal Mind.-Others would have matter to be eternal, notwithstanding that they allow an Eternal, Cogitative, Immaterial Being. This, though it take not away the being of a GOD, yet, since it denies one, and the first, great piece of his workmanship-the Creation-let us consider it a little. Matter must be allowed eternal: why? Because you cannot conceive how it can be made out of nothing: why do you not also think yourself eternal? You will answer, perhaps, 'Because about twenty or forty years since you began to be.' But if I ask you what that 'you' is, which began then to be, you can scarcely tell The matter whereof you are made began not then to be; for if it did, then it is not eternal; but it began to be put together in such a fashion and frame as makes up your body; but yet that frame of particles is not 'you' it makes not that thinking thing 'you' are (for I have now to do with one who allows an eternal, immaterial, thinking being, but would have unthinking matter eternal too); therefore when did that thinking thing begin to be? If it did never begin to be, then have you always been a thinking thing from eternity: the absurdity whereof I need not confute till I meet with one who is so void of understanding as to own it.

me.

But you will say, 'Is it not impossible to admit of the making anything out of nothing, since we cannot possibly conceive it? I answer, No: Because it is not reasonable to deny the power of an Infinite Being because we cannot comprehend its operations. We do not deny other effects upon this ground, because we cannot possibly conceive the manner of their production. In the mean time, it is an overvaluing ourselves, to reduce all to the narrow measure of our capacities, and to conclude all things impossible to be done whose manner of doing exceeds our comprehension. This is to make our comprehension infinite, or GOD finite, when what He can do is limited to what we can conceive of it. If you do not understand the operations of your own finite mind that thinking thing within you-do not deem it strange that you cannot comprehend the operations of that Eternal, Infinite Mind who made and governs all things, and whom "The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain."

CHAPTER XI.

OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXISTENCE OF OTHER

THINGS.

It is to be had only by sensation.-The Knowledge of our own 'being' we have by intuition. The existence of a GOD Reason clearly makes known to us, as has been shown.

The Knowledge of the existence of any other thing