Power The Invisible things of God may be understood by the things that are made and his Eternal Power and Godhead discovered by this means as hath been excellently demonstrated by the learned Dr. Cudworth Dr. Bentley Mr. Ray and many others And these kind of Gentlemen have betrayed their shallow and superficial Knowledge of things by nothing more than by pretending to give an Account of the Original of the World the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies of Gravity and several other Phaenomena of Nature without having recourse to a Deity as I shall hereafter more particularly observe But I now hasten to Refute that which they make their Great and most Common Objection against the Being of a God And to shew 2. That the Notion of a God did not nor could not arise from Cunning and Contrivance and that it was not invented by any Crafty and Politick Person Though that it did do so is the constant Assertion of these Gentlemen and they do it with as much assurance as if it were a Self-evident Proposition In all Companies they will nauseously tire you with this Battology over and over again That All Religion is a Cheat and the greatest Cheat of all is Religion But this themselves have happily discovered and therefore they Scorn to be imposed upon by Priest-craft they will neither be ridden by Priests nor lead by them they can go without Leading-strings and won't be put to the Temporal Charge of a Spiritual Guide and they have quitted the Thoughts of going to Heaven by the same means as they go to the Play-house i. e. by giving Money to the Door-keepers As the Translator of Philostratus insolently expresses it Now after all this bold and repeated Exclamation against Priest-Craft and Holy Shams c. Would not one think that they had some demonstrative Ground to prove that the Notion of God and Religion is all a Cheat and Imposture Would not one suppose that they could name the very Person that first Invented this Fourbe tell us when and where he lived and plainly prove by what means he came to impose so grosly on Mankind and how they came to be such Fools as to take it and dully to submit to it ever since Nothing sure that is less than a direct Demonstration ought to protect a Man under so rude a Liberty as these Gentlemen take of ridiculing all the Sacred Laws of God and Men. But have they any such Proof ready or have they ever yet produced it No nor is it possible they ever should as appears plainly from the Ancient Histories of all Nations in the World In no one of these do we ever find the least mention made of any one that Invented the Notion of a God 'T was a Thing taken for Granted by all the Ancient Law-givers that there was a God This they never went about to prove nor had they any need so to do or to feign it for they found it universally and naturally stamp'd upon the Minds of Mankind This Moses himself doth not so much as attempt to teach the Jews as knowing very well that it was what they had a general Notion and Idea of before And Homer speaks every where of the Gods as of Beings universally known and believed and never goes about to prove their Existence The same thing appears in Hesiod and in the Fragments that we have of all the Ancient Greek Poets And though it be not true in Fact yet 't is a good Argument ad Hominem against the Atheists that Lucretius pretends to tell you when Atheism began and who was the first Bold Man that disputed and denied the Being of a God This he saith was Epicurus But he cannot deny but that in so doing Epicurus contradicted the common Sentiments of all Mankind and broke through those Fears and Obligations that the generality of Men were under to a Divine Power But to Refute a little more Methodically this trite Objection I say that the Notion of a God could not derive its Original from the cunning Invention of any Politick Person for these Reasons 1. Because the pretended Inventor himself could never possibly have come by such a Notion had there been no such Being as a God Sextus Empiricus observes very well That though 't is pretended that Law-givers and Politicians invented the Notion of a God yet the Asserters of it are not aware of an Absurdity that arises thence for if it should be asked how they themselves came by such a Notion they must be at a loss they will not say they had it from others nor can they account how they came by it and therefore it must have been from the beginning and so all Men must have a Notion of God though not all after the same way And indeed 't is not possible to imagine that such a Notion could ever have come into any one's Head had there been no such Being as a Deity Were he an absolute Non-entity and really Nothing at all 't is unconceivable how any one could ever attain an Idea of God or have coined any word that should so have expressed that Idea as to render it intelligible to any one else The Mind of Man cannot invent or make any new simple Idea or Cogitation it cannot possibly make a Positive Conception of that which is really nothing at all Which way soever we come by our Idea's we cannot have one of what is absolutely a Non-entity for what is absolutely Nothing can neither come into us by our Senses nor be innate in our Minds And therefore if there were no God we could never have had any Idea of Him nor could any one ever possibly invent or frame such a Notion in his Mind I know the compounding ampliating and feigning Power of the Mind will here be alledged and it will be said that we may by that means frame Notions of things which perhaps did never nor ever will Exist Thus we may gain the Notion of a Flying Horse of a Creature half a Man and half a Horse a Man of a Thousand Foot high c. and therefore say they why might not the Mind of Man by this compounding and ampliating Power feign as well the Notion of a Deity To which I answer That this Power in our Minds doth not nor cannot extend so far All that we can do by it is to connect together two or more possible and consistent Idea's or to Ampliate or Enlarge any one or more of them in point of Time Extent c. Thus as was before said by connecting the Idea's of Wings and a Horse or of a Horse and a Man we may feign a Pegasus or a Centaure and I can imagine either of these Creatures or any other to live Five Thousand times as long or to be Fifty thousand times as big as is usual But all this is still short of what 't is brought for and will give no account at all of the Invention of the Idea of a God
towards producing of Cogitation Wisdom and Vnderstanding or to the production of Life Self Activity or Spontaneous Power And yet These are the most Great and Noble Things in the World these are the highest Perfections of the Divine Nature and in these we place the Essence of the Deity Now here Matter and Motion is more than ever at a loss and I think it demonstratively certain that it cannot account for these things Aristotle did very truly find fault with the Corporealists of his Time that they did not as ours cannot now assign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Cause of well and fit any Origin of or Reason for that Wisdom and Regularity that harmonious Relation and Aptitude of one part of the Creation to another which is so very conspicuous in all things supposing that there is nothing in Nature but Matter and Motion And it is most certainly true that the Idea which we have of Body doth not necessarily include Cogitation in it nor our Notion of Cogitation include Body but they are two as distinct Idea's as any we have So far are they from being the same thing that we cannot possibly conceive Cogitation with Extension No Man ever conceived a Thought to be so many Inches or Yards long to be deep thick or broad to be divisible into two or more Parts or to have any Kind of Figure or determinate Position or Extension whereas if whatsoever be unextended or not Body be absolutely Nothing as these Gentlemen assert Cogitation Wisdom Understanding and Spontaneous Power must be nothing or else they must be figurate Bodies than which nothing can be more absurd And if we farther examine our own Mind and consult our own Reason we shall find that we cannot possibly conceive how thinking Wisdom Consciousness and Spontaneous Power can possibly be the result of Bare Motion of the Parts of Matter Was there ever any one that seriously believed a Particle of Matter was any Wiser or had any more Understanding for being moved than it was before when it lay still for let it be never so briskly agitated is it not still Body there is no other Idea ariseth from hence but only that it changeth its place and is united successively to several parts of space that it will move such other Particles of Matter as 't is capable of and be retarded in its Motion by hitting or striking against them these and such like are all the Ideas that we can have of a Body in Motion but what is this to Thought and Consciousness Did ever any one but a stupid Corporealist imagine that a Particle of Matter by being moved was made Intelligent and that its travelling from place to place made it understand all things in its way and did any one ever think that the Knowledge of such a rambling Atom encreased in Proportion to the velocity of its Motion Yes doubtless and thus a Bullet discharged from the Mouth of a Cannon ought to be look'd upon as one of the most Ingenious Beings in Nature And hence it will follow that the more hast any one makes to tumble over Books or to ramble over Countries and the more precipitantly he makes a judgment of Notions or Opinions the Better Account he can give of Authors and Places and the more solid and substantial will be his Learning This indeed is the best Account that can be given of the fineness and quickness of Thought that some Men so much pretend to for this way they may come by a vast share of Penetration and be volatilized far above the dull studious and considerate Vulgar and the Event shews that they frequently make use of the Experiment But again As we cannot possibly conceive that the Motion of one Particle of Matter alone can give it Knowledge and Understanding so neither can we suppose that a Body composed of many of them can acquire any such thing barely on the Account of the Motion or Agitation of its Parts for Motion only will do no more to the whole than it did to each one singly and 't is not conceivable that Three or Three Millions of Bullets will be any wiser for being discharged together than if they were all shot singly in pursuit of Understanding Nor can any happy Combination or Constitution of Parts avail any thing in this Case any more than Motion nor can that be effectual to super-induce Wisdom and Understanding into Matter The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be no more a God than Jupiter's Log was among the Frogs nor than the most dense and gross body in Nature For after all the various Positions Configurations and Combinations of Matter is it not Matter still will rarefying or subtilizing of Matter change its Nature and Essential Properties A Rare Body is nothing but a contexture of fine and subtile Particles which being separated farther asunder than is usual are also perhaps more briskly agitated and moved And pray what is here new what will this do towards Divinity will bare Figure and Position of Parts change the Nature of those Parts and give them Cogitation and Knowledge when they had no such thing singly and before will adding subtracting multiplying or dividing of Numbers make them any thing else more Noble than what they were before will not the Summs Remainders Products or Quotients be still Figures and Numbers like the first Digits out of which these do by Combination or various Positions arise and is it not just so with Matter will a Particle of it be made any more Wise and Intelligent for being render'd smaller than it was before and hath a little Particle more Sense than a larger will Three or Four or Four Millions of these be more ingenious than a Body or Lump that is as big as them all and will moving a few Atoms a good distance from each other Separate them into Knowledge and Disjoin them into an Understanding Power which none of them had before If Men can swallow such things as these and think at this Extravagant and Unaccountable Rate I fear all good Arguments and sound Reason will be lost upon them and they ought to be neglected as downright Stupid or Distracted And yet these and such like Absurdities must be the Natural Consequences of supposing Matter and Motion alone capable of thinking that Matter can be rarified into a Deity and that Divine and Almighty Wisdom Knowledge Goodness and Power are the result of Body luckily disposed and moved which yet was the Opinion of Hobbs and is still of many of his Admirers and Followers For notwithstanding those Excellent Demonstrations that many Learned Men amongst us have established that Matter and Motion cannot possibly produce Cogitation Consciousness Understanding and Liberty of Will There is lately an Ignorant Corporealist who asserts That the Inflamed and glowing Particles of the Blood called Spirits tho' they are not in themselves Sentient and Intelligent are yet the active Principle of Life and Motion of Sense and Understanding in
we can never imagine that Gold can be ever brought to think reason or move it self spontaneously any more than we can conceive a Soul or Mind to be yellow heavy or ductile That is we have quite different Idea's of each of them and which nothing but wilful or long habituated Ignorance can ever make us confound together And thus it appears to me that we may have as clear an Idea of Incorporeal Substance as we have of Body and that the former is no more unconceivable than the latter And therefore 't is as absurd to argue against the Existence of a Spirit only from our not having any clear Idea of the Substance of a Spirit as it would be to say there is no such thing as Body because we don't know exactly what the Substance of Body is which I dare say no Man can affirm that he doth 'T is very possible that Men may be so blinded and prejudiced by false Principles so stupified by Ignorance Idleness or Vice and so engaged and enslaved to a peculiar sett of Notions which advance and support that way of acting and proceeding which they take delight in that a great many things may appear Unconceivable and Impossible to them which shall be far from being so to others whose Minds are free and more enured to thinking Should you tell a Man who is a Stranger to Geometry and Astronomy of the many admirable and surprizing Truths that can certainly be demonstrated from the Principles of those Noble Sciences he would boldly pronounce them Impossible and all your Discourse and Proof should you attempt any such thing would to such a Person be Nonsense and your words meer empty and insignificant Sounds And there are many Persons in the World on whom the clearest and strongest Method of Reasoning that ever was will make no manner of impression at all because their Minds are not at all enured to a close way of Arguing and Thinking And truly the Atheistical Writers do discover so poor a Knowledge in Philosophy and so very little acquaintance with true Reasoning and Science that 't is no wonder at all that they should not be able to conceive and comprehend a great many things which others are very well satisfied with I know very well saith the Ingenious Person before cited that People whose Thoughts are immersed in Matter and who have so subjected their Minds to their Senses that they seldom reflect on any thing beyond them are apt to say they cannot comprehend a thinking thing which perhaps is true c. And therefore such a Philosopher as Mr. Hobbs that defines Knowledge to be Sense and saith that the Mind of Man is nothing but Motion in the Organical Parts of his Body may easily be infatuated so far as to assert that there is no other Substance but Body and that a Spirit or Incorporeal Being is a Nonsensical Contradictory and Impossible Notion While Others who can raise their Minds a little higher and who can penetrate farther into things will be fully satisfied that such Philosophy is Nonsense and Impossibility As indeed some Persons in all Ages of the World of which we have any Account have ever been For 2. Which is another very good Ground from whence to refute this absurd Opinion that there is no such thing as an Incorporeal Being I say there have been always many Persons in the World that have firmly believed and embraced the Doctrine of Immaterial Substances and who have also asserted the Deity to be of that Nature And this will Undeniably refute the two great Points of Mr. Hobbs his Opinion For if it be proved plainly that there hath been all along a received Belief and Opinion that there are Immaterial Substances and that God himself is such an One it is then most clear and certain that the Notion is neither inconceivable contradictory nor nonsense and also that it did not take its Rise and Original only from the Abuse of the Philosophy of Aristotle Not the former for what is in its own Nature unconceivable nonsensical and absurd could never sure gain an Admittance into the Belief of so many great Men as we shall see presently this Opinion did Not the latter for what was commonly received in the World before the time of Aristotle could never be derived only from his and the Schoolmen's Philosophy as Mr. Hobbs is pleased to say this Belief of Immaterial Substances was And that there was always in the World a Notion and Belief of another more noble Substance than Body and that the Deity was of an Incorporeal or Spiritual Nature we have the united Suffrages of all the Ancient Writers that are preserved down to our time Cicero tells us That the Heathen Philosophers generally defined God to be Mens pura sincera soluta libera ab omni concretione mortali and speaking of Thales Milesius in particular he saith of him Aquam dixit esse Initium Rerum Deum autem cum Mentem quae ex aquâ cuncta fingeret Now this Mind they all distinguished plainly from Matter and looked upon it as a much more Noble Principle than 't was possible to conceive Matter to be Lactantius acquaints of Pythagoras Quòd unum deum confitetur dicens Incorporalem esse mentem quae per omnem Naturam diffusa intenta vitalem sensum cunctis Animalibus tribuat And Plutarch gives us much the same Account of him in his Books De Placitis Philosophorum viz. That he made two Principles one Active which was Mind or God The other Passive or the Matter of the World And those Verses of Empedocles are very remarkable wherein speaking of the Deity he asserts Him not to be of Humane shape And also that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That he is no way perceivable by any of our Senses which is as much as to say he is Incorporeal And in the next Lines he doth expresly tell us what he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sacred and ineffable Mind which by swift Thoughts moves and actuates the whole World Anaxagoras also asserted That an ordering and regulating Mind was the first Principle of all things and this Mind he made as Aristotle saith of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The only pure simple and unmixt thing in the World thereby plainly distinguishing it from Matter the Parts of which he who was as Sextus Empericus calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew very well to be promiscuously blended and mixed togethere very where Sextus also tells us That That Mind which Anaxagoras asserted to be God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Active Principle in opposition to Matter which is a Passive one and this is agreeable to what the Poets say of Spiritus intus alit mens agitat molem c. We are told likewise by Sextus That Xenophanes held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is but One God and he Incorporeal And
Man and Beast and do act the Understanding or Brain to apprehend judge and remember Now by this 't is plain that he supposes Cogitation Understanding Consciousness and Liberty and all the Faculties of the Soul of Man to be nothing but the result of some peculiar Motions in a Fitly organized Body The Animal Spirits he thinks are like the Elastick Particles in the Spring of a Watch tho' they cannot tell what a Clock it is themselves yet they can by means of the Spring which they actuate do that and many other things that the Movement shall be fitted for Or to make use of a Comparison of his own The Animal Spirits may do as the Wind doth in the Chest of an Organ tho' it can make no Musick of it self yet by being communicated so as to inspire the several Pipes it may actuate them into a very fine Harmony It is not my Business nor Design to discourse here of the Soul of Man but yet I would fain beg these Corporealists clearly to explain how Self-Consciousness Reflection and Liberty of Action can possibly be accounted for by this Hypothesis For this necessarily makes Men meer Machines at long run An Engine is never the more free and conscious to its self of its own Operations for being fine and curiously contrived And the wonderful Clock at Strasburgh knows no more what it doth nor is it any more the Spontaneous Cause of its so many and curious Motions than the Ancient Clepsydra or a modern Hour-glass knoweth what it is about when it rudely measureth the Duration of any Part of Time For whatever is performed by meer Matter and Motion must needs be necessary in every step and degree of its course be the way of acting in the Engine never so curious and never so remote from the cognisance of our Senses They know well enough as I shall shew below that there is no possible room for freedom of Action Consciousness of any Operation nor for a Cogitative and Reasoning Power according to this way of explicating the Operations of the Humane Soul For in the Animal Spirits they grant there is no such thing they are only a fiery and briskly agitated Fluid which serves to actuate any Part of the Rational Machine pro re natâ And these several Parts or Organs of the Machine can no more produce any such thing without the Animal Spirits than the Hand or Dial-Plate of a Watch can or any other Part of a curious Instrument If therefore you enquire of them wherein they place this Cogitation Self-Consciousness and Liberty they will tell you 't is in the Man 't is in the whole 't is neither his Soul alone nor his Body alone 't is no Spiritual Substance distinct from Matter but 't is the whole Man that thinks reasons and acts freely by the form of the whole But this is very unaccountable and is what neither they nor any one else I believe can ever apprehend or conceive that Liberty should be the result of Necessarily moved Matter that Cogitation should arise from Senseless and Unthinking Atoms and that Knowledge and Consciousness of its own Operations should come into any Engine by its being finely and curiously contrived and be nothing but the necessary result of bare local Motion and rightly Organized Matter These Absurdities some other Corporealists clearly perceiving and being fully convinced that 't is impossible to account for Cogitation Consciousness and the like from bare Matter and Motion and to educe the Perfections of the Deity out of the Power of Matter only These I say had recourse to another way of maintaining their beloved Assertion that there is no other Substance but Body They assert that Cogitation is Essential to Matter or as Spinoza words it All Substance is essentially Cogitative and Extended so that as there is no Substance but what is Material so there is none but what is Cogitative too Indeed as I shewed you before he asserts that there is but One only Substance which is God or in other words Universal Matter and Cogitation and Extension he saith are the two Infinite Attributes or else the Affections of the Attributes of the Deity And this with a great deal of Assurance as the way of these Writers is he pretends to demonstrate Mathematically by a Pompous tho' a very Obscure Apparatus of Definitions Axioms Postulates and Propositions But it is not calling a thing a Demonstration that will make it to be so nor concluding with Quod erat Demonstrandum that will make every body acquiesce in a Proposition when it is either perfectly unintelligible or false And yet such are those that Spinoza brings to prove and support this strange Opinion The Monstrous Absurdities of which I shall now consider And First 'T is plain That if Cogitation be as Essential to Matter as Extension Then all and every Particle of it must needs be a Thinking Substance or Body by it self Distinct from all Other Particles of Matter in the World There is no one doubts but 't is so in reference to the proper and allowed Affections of Body Impenetrability and Extension Every least Particle or Atom of Matter hath these Properties as compleat within it self as they are in the whole Bulk of the Universe or in any larger Body whatsoever These are also individually distinct in each Particle so that its Properties though of the same kind are not the very same with those of other Parts of Matter Now if to each such Particle of Matter Cogitation be also added then every Atom in the Universe will be a Thinking Intelligent and Reasoning Being distinct from all the rest and have its own proper and peculiar Faculties and Operations 't will be a different Person from all Others and every Individual Particle of Matter will be so from it and from every one else in the World Every Atom also will be equal to any of the rest in respect of this Cogitative Power will have it in the very same Proportion and not be wiser or more foolish duller or more ingenious than its neighbours And if this be so as it must necessarily be if all Matter be Essentially Cogitative then there must either be no God at all or else every Particle of Matter must be a distinct God by it self and so the most ridiculous Polytheism that ever was imagin'd must be introduced and allowed of For if there be any such things as Perfect Knowledge Power Wisdom and Goodness every one of these Particles must have it For 't is impossible Infinite or Perfect Power Wisdom Knowledge and Goodness can be produced out of finite the lesser can never produce the greater nor any thing make or give that which it hath not within it self And therefore it plainly follows that either there is no Deity at all or else that every Particle of Matter must be a God by it self according to this Hypothesis For finite or imperfect Cogitation can no more be the Cause of Infinite than
For a Deity without the Attributes of Understanding and Wisdom without Ends or Design none of which Mr. Hobbs asserts expresly can be in God is a Ridiculous stupid Being an Idol that every rational Agent must needs despise and which can never be the Object of any one's Adoration Love or Obedience To assert therefore that the Attributes of God are not discoverable by Reason nor agreeable to Philosophical Truth but may be declared to be any thing which the Soveraign Power pleases to make them this is designedly to expose the Belief and Notion of a Deity and to render it so Precarious that it can be the Object of no Rational Man's Faith And this last named Writer Treats the Deity after the same manner in most other Places of his Works He saith we must not say of Him that he is Finite that he hath figure Parts or Totality that he is here or there that he moveth or resteth or that we can conceive or know any thing of him for all this is to dishonour him And yet to say that he is an Immaterial Substance that he is an Infinite and Eternal Spirit is he saith Nonsense and what destroys and contradicts it self However he is willing to allow the word Immaterial or Spirit to be used towards God as a Mark of Honour and Respect That is we may attribute to God what we know to be Nonsense and Contradiction and this is the Way to Honour him and to speak of him any other way is to Dishonour Him Who doth not perceive that it was plainly the Design of this Writer to treat of the Deity after such a manner as should deprive Him of all Knowledge and Care of Humane Affairs and consequently effectually Banish out of Mens Minds a just Veneration for Him and Adoration of Him Such Men are the most Dangerous and Mischievous of all others Profess'd Atheists can do no great Harm for all Persons are aware of them and will justly abhor the Writings and Conversation of Men that say boldly there is no God But there are but few such they have found a way to pass undiscovered under a fairer Dress and a softer Name They pretend to be true Deists and sincere Cultivators of Natural Religion and to have a most Profound Respect for the Supream and Almighty Being But when this Profound Respect comes to be throughly examined and duly understood it will appear to be the most abominable Abuse that can be and a most wicked and Blasphemous Idea of the Deity For they make him either nothing but the Soul of the World Universal Matter or Natura Naturata a God that is an absolutely necessary Agent without any Rectitude in his Will without any Knowledge Wisdom Goodness Justice Mercy or Providence over his Works But let such Persons take what Names they please upon themselves a little consideration will soon discover what they are in reality and I hope give Men a just abhorrence of such Notions tho' never so speciously put forth But let us now proceed to examine what Ground there is from the Nature of the Thing for Men to advance such wicked Opinions and to shew the weakness and precariousness of them And here it must be premised and taken for granted that there is a God This is what the Persons I am now concerned with pretend to own and to acknowledge Which being supposed It appears very plain that we may have if we will and some Persons as I have shew'd have always had a very clear Notion or Idea of the Attributes and Perfections of such a Being as also that they are fixed and immutable Properties in the Divine Nature For by professing to believe a God they must mean if they mean any thing The first Cause and Author of all Things and the Governour and Disposer of them A Divine Being containing in himself all possible Perfections without being subject to any manner of Defect This I have already hinted at in another place and shall now more largely prove So far is it from being true that we cannot reason of the Nature of God from his Attributes nor Discourse of those Attributes from our Reason That this seems to be the only proper Way of enquiring into the wonderful Depth of the Divine Perfections I mean the only Way we have without Revelation for I am not now considering what God hath farther discovered of Himself to us by his Word For tho' the Deity doth abound with Infinite Excellencies and Perfections yet by the Light of Nature we can discover those only of which he hath given us some Impression on our own Natures and these are the Scales and Proportions by which our Reason must measure the Divine Attributes and Perfections For in order to gain good and true Notions of these we ought to take our Rise from those Perfections and Excellencies which we find in the Creatures and especially in our selves There can be but two Ways of coming to the Knowledge of any thing by its Cause and by its Effects 'T is impossible for us to make use of the former of these in Reference to the Deity For He being himself without Cause and the First Cause and Original of all Things cannot be known to us this Way But by the second Way he very properly may be the Object of our Knowledge and we ought to apply our selves to this Method in order to understand the Attributes of God For whatever Excellency or Perfection we can any way discover in the Effects of God in the World i. e. in the Works of the whole Creation the same we cannot but suppose must be in Him in the highest and most noble Proportion and Degree since they are all owing to and derived from Him And if we take a serious and considerate View of the Excellencies and Perfections that are to be found in the Creatures or the Works of God in the World we shall find that they may be reducible to these Four general Heads Being or Substance Life Sensibility and Reason All which we find to be in our selves and therefore they are at hand and ready to assist our Meditations and these will if duly considered lead us into a good Way of discovering the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature And I doubt not but a great Reason why Men have had and advanced wrong Notions of God hath been because they have had such of themselves and of those Perfections that are in our own Natures Men that do not understand that the true Perfection of Humane Nature consists in Moral Goodness or in an Universal agreeableness of our Will to the Eternal Laws of Right Reason cannot conceive aright of the Attributes and Perfections of God For they will be for making him like themselves guided by vehement Self-love and inordinate Will or whatever predominant Passions possess them 'T were easie to Trace this in the Epicurean Notion of a God dissolved in Ease and Sloth and who neglects the Government of the
himself with all his might to confute denying there was any such thing as Infinite Power at all that thereby says Lucretius lib. 1. he might take away Religion too And from hence also his Eternity might be naturally deduced For we cannot conceive this Life or Activity this Almighty Power that is in God can ever cease decay or determine any more than it can have had a beginning and consequently such a Being must necessarily Exist be Eternal or Endure and Live for Ever 3. If we proceed a little higher and consider Sensibility which is another great Perfection that we find in our selves and some other Creatures we must needs Attribute This also and that in the highest degree to the Divine Nature I take this now in the general for that Power or Faculty whereby any Being is capable of taking Pleasure or feeling Pain And such a Sensibility or something Analogous to it we cannot but think God must have in the most exquisite Perfection since our Own as well as that of all other Creatures must be derived from Him And tho' indeed we ought to think that the Infinite Perfection of his Nature secures him from all Possibility of feeling Pain since nothing can contradict his Will run counter to his Desires or frustrate his Expectations yet we have no reason to suppose the Deity insensible of Pleasure but may justly conclude from hence that he is always most perfectly happy For he contains in Himself all Possible Good and Infinite Excellencies and Perfection and of this He is most exquisitely sensible and consequently must eternally be Pleased and delighted with himself in the Enjoyment of his own Infinite Fulness And this Notion many of the Heathens had of God that he was a most Happy Being stiling Him frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. But the Highest Perfection which we can discover in our selves and in any created Beings whatever is Reason And this no doubt we ought also to attribute to God in the highest Degree and Perfection Now the Perfection of Reason seems to consist in these two Things 1. In Knowledge and Wisdom in the Understanding Faculty And 2. In Rectitude or Righteousness in the Will All which we cannot but suppose the Divine Nature to be perfectly endowed with And first as to Knowledge and Wisdom The former of which implies an Understanding of things as they are in themselves according to their true Natures and Properties And the latter a considering of them as to their Relations to and Dependances upon one another or in other words according as they are fit or qualified to be Ends or Means And these must certainly be in God for the same reason that we have found in Him the other Perfections above-mentioned To the Deity therefore from this Consideration we ought to Attribute Omniscience and Infinite or most perfect Wisdom for no doubt we ought to conclude That the Deity both knows every thing according to its Nature and also understands its Usefulness and Subservience to any End Design or Purpose whatsoever And therefore it was as stupidly or impiously said by Mr. Hobbs That there can be no such thing as Knowledge in God and that he can have no Ends. For I cannot imagine there can one so grossly Ignorant and Foolish be found among Mankind who doth really believe there can be an ignorant or a foolish God and who would not abhor such a Position as monstrously absurd and impossible A Man must be a long while conversant with Atheistical and Sceptical Philosophy before he can grow so dull as not to perceive the force and Power of the Psalmists Logick and reasoning in Psal. 94. v. 8 9 c. and he must be very Studiously brutish and Learnedly foolish before he can think that he that planted the Ear should not be able to hear himself and that he that formed the Eye should not see and that he that gave and taught all Knowledge to Men should have none himself The mighty Reason that Mr. Hobbs is pleased to give Why there can be no Understanding in God is because that Faculty being in us nothing but a Tumult of Mind raised by External Things that press the Organical Parts of our Bodies there can be no such thing in God And in other places he sagaciously determines that 't is impossible to hear without Ears to see without Eyes and to Understand without Brains none of which God hath and therefore must be Ignorant and Stupid But methinks 't is very hardly done of Him to determine the Deity to be Corporeal and yet to assign Him none of these Material Organs in order to make him an Intelligent Being Why should not the same Matter which is able to form the Mechanick Understanding of so great a Philosopher be capable of being modified as Intelligently in the Divine Nature Must the Deity have the worst and most stupid Body of All others Into what abominable Absurdities will such Principles as these lead a Man or rather into what abominable Impieties and Blasphemies will Vice and Pride hurry him He doth not only think wickedly that the Deity is such an one as himself but infinitely worse a Corporeal Being that hath less and fewer Perfections than a Corporeal Man But I must not dwell on shewing the Design of this Writer having sufficiently done it already I shall only now add that I think I have already proved that Matter alone cannot think know nor understand and therefore it is not Mens Brains but their Soul that hath this Intelligent Power and no doubt an Infinite and Immaterial Mind needs not any Material Organs to convey Knowledge to him in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge do Inhabit and from whom they are all derived and do proceed And there was Anciently amongst the Heathens a clear belief of the Infinite Knowledge and Wisdom of God Tully tells us that Thales used commonly to say Deos omnia cernere the Gods behold or know all things And Seneca saith Deo nihil Clausum est interest Animis nostris mediis cogitationibus intervenit And as to the Wisdom of God Tully deduces it after the same manner as we now have done by attributing the Excellencies of the Creature to the Deity in the Highest Perfection Sapiens est Homo saith he propterea Deus Man hath Wisdom and therefore God from whom the Wisdom in Man is derived must needs have it himself But again As we must attribute to God Infinite Knowledge and Wisdom so we must Rectitude of Will or Perfect Righteousness too And since the Rectitude of the Will consists in an exact Conformity of it and all its Affections to the Impartial Rule of Right Reason we cannot but suppose also that the Will of God is in a most exquisite Conformity to the Dictates of his Unerring Reason and that the Deity doth in every respect act exactly agreeable thereunto And by this means we shall find that God must be