now in; that it fhall not be always taken up with thofe little Interefts and Advantages, which are all its Employs and Concerns now, without the power of procuring it any true Satisfaction.

'Tis a fault in a Covetous Man, to be always defiring new Additions of Wealth; but 'tis a perfection not to be contented with fo inconfiderable a Trifle as Riches. Worldly-minded Men are guilty of Ignorance and Blindness, and in that refpect they Sin; but properly speaking, they do not fin by being Covetous, and purfuing their Intereft. They are to blame only for blindly defiring what cannot fatisfie them but not for being infatiable after the poffeffion of what they ought not to be contented with.

We shall not here enquire what the Perfection of fuch a Being muft be, which by a fpecial Priviledge has the honour of reprefenting the Supream Being; which finds in it felf fome traces of that Knowledge and Wisdom 'tis obliged to afcribe originally to God, of a Being defigned to collect the Glory that streams from all Created Perfections, in order to reflect it back to their Great Maker. We fhall not reprefent this perfect Being, Man, in the glorious state of Vertue, regulating his Defires by Temperance, renouncing his Paffions, to practife the duties of Piety, devoting the prefent to his Duty, and gaining a fure Title to the future, by his good ufe of the prefent; facrificing his vitious Defires to God, renouncing himself for the fake of him who gave him all things, raising himself above the confidetion of Time and the World, by a fublime hope which carries him to far more folid Objects H

than

than any Time or the World can afford; and referring every thing to the glory of God, as to the Greatest and Nobleft End of all his Thoughts and Actions. We pass by all the Perfections of Man, the proof of which depends upon fuch Foundations as are contested by the Incredulous, and argue here only from the confideration of his Imperfections which are granted by all the World, and especially by those we difpute against.

We should now establish the Truth of the Existence of God, by thofe proofs which Religion furnishes us with; but these being scattered through all this Difcourfe, and the Order we have prescribed our felves, obliging us not to fpeak of Religion, 'till we have proved, That there is a God; nothing hinders but we may pafs on to the confideration of the Objections ufually made against this Grand Principle.

CHA P.

CHAP. XIV.

Where we enter upon an Examination of the principal Difficulties brought by the Atheists, to oppofe the Truth of the Existence of God.

1.

'T

HE Firft which is taken from our not feeing God, is doubtless one of the weakest Objections that can be made. For if our Soul it felf cannot fall under the cognizance of our Senfes, how fhould the Nature of God, become visible to us?

II. They fay 'tis impoffible to comprehend what this Supream Being is: That whatever Idea we frame to our felves of it, we are still obliged to correct it: That there as many Ideas applied to this Name of God, as there are different turns of Imagination.

To which we answer, by distinguishing Two forts of Ideas that may be formed of God, one that comes from the Imagination, and another that proceeds from the light of the Understand ing. Now God not being a Senfible Object, neither the Senfes nor the Imagination, (which has no other ground to work upon, but the information of the Senfes,) are capable of reprefenting him to us: But the Understanding ha ving a power of raifing it felf from Known Objects, to Objects that are Unknown by its Reafoning Faculty, nothing hinders, but that it may furnish us with a True, though Imperfect Idea of the Deity. Let the Idea which our ImagiH 2 nation

nation forms of God, (which represents him as fome Material Being,) be falfe if you will, the Idea we have of him from Reason, which reprefents him to us as a Wife and Supreamly Perfect Being, may be Imperfect, but can never be Falfe, fince there must neceffarily be fome Intelligence which governs the Universe. We may also affirm that this Idea is very near the fame in all Men, and never alters; whereas there is nothing constant and uniform in all the Ideas our Imagination frames of God:

III. In the mean time, our Incredulous Adverfaries cease not to use their utmost Endeavours to destroy this Idea our Reason gives us of God. They fay, that it must be either Natural or Acquired, naturally imprinted in our Soul, or received from without; but that it appears not to them, that either of these can be afferted. For, fay they, were it naturally imprinted in our Soul, it must have been as ancient as we our felves; it must have pre- . vented all our Reafonings upon this Subject and have been the First of all our Ideas, fince we know not any other that is natural to us; and confequently God muft have been fooner known to us, than all other Objects; it must have preceeded Education, the Age we begin to reafon in, and even all our other Knowledge, which is the fruit of Labour and Experience. They pretend to fhew in the Second Place, that it is not acquired; becaufe if it were, it must have been acquired either by Experience or Ratiocination; thefe being the only Two ways of getting what Knowledge we want. But it does not appear, that Experience or

Ratiocination can furnish us with the Idea of a God, who is above being comprehended by either.

This would be a confiderable difficulty, did we pretend to comprehend the Nature of God, or to be able to represent to our felves exactly what the Deity is. But fince we don't pretend to that, and the only Question now is whether there be a God, and not what this God is, that Argument concludes no better than this; There is no Idea among all those which have entred into my Soul by way of the Senfes, or those that proceed from Experience, that reprefents the Island of Japan to me, just fuch as it is in it felf, and as truly as if I had feen it; therefore there is no fuch land in the World.

Those who pretend that the Idea of God is naturally imprinted in the Minds of all Men, will alledge for themselves, that that being a Spiritual Idea, it lies hid and buried as it were in the Soul, till the Mind has liberty to exert its pureft Acts: And as we cannot fay a Man is wholly deftitute of Reafon, because he does not always make use of it; we fhould in like manner argue ill to conclude, that we have no Idea of God naturally imprinted in our Minds, because this Idea does not always discover it felf. To this, they will further add, that the Idea of God, is alike and uniform in all the Men of the World, fo far as it is Spiritual and Natural, but that it varies in the Additions which the Senfes and Imaginations have made

to it.