Chap. X. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 14^ 



DS and the better kind of them, except in degree ; for ^11 that we 

 can value ourfelves upon above them, according to this philofophy, is, 

 that we have clearer and more diftindl perceptions of fenfe ; that we 

 retain them longer, and compare them better together. 



2dly^ I apprehend this error goes very much farther; for, as thofc 

 philofophers deny the exiftence of ideas altogether in any mind, with- 

 out making a diftindion betwixt fuperior and inferior minds, the 

 confequence neceflarily is, that, even in the Supreme Mind, (if they 

 allow any fuch to exili), there is nothing but perceptions of fenje ; 

 from which two other confequences neceflarily refult ; Fir/l^ That there 

 IS an end of that intelledual world in the Mind of the Deity, which, 

 according to all philofophers, both antient and modern, who are not 

 atheifts, is the pattern and archetype of this material world. And, 

 2dly^ That this world could not have been the production of God, 

 even if we could fuppofe it formed without any plan or defign, but 

 muft have been prior to God, or, at lead, coeval with him, as it is 

 from it that he muft have had his perceptions of fenfe, as well as we 

 have. Now, I think it is better to do, as Mr Hobbes has done, to give 

 no underftanding at all to the Deity, than to give him an underftand- 

 ing fo entirely dependent on matter, and of a lower degree, than what 

 falls to the fliare of an ordinary man *. But Mr Hobbes, when he 

 reafons in this way~ concerning the underftanding of the Deity, plainly 

 means to deny his exiftence altogether : And the philofophers I fpeak 

 of muft have the fame meaning, if they know the confequences of 

 their own dodrine t. But, to return to tl:e human mind. 



It 



* Mr Hobbes's words are, * (liionlam fcientia rt intcIkcStus in nobis nihil aliuvl 

 funt, quam fufcitatus, a rebus externis organa prementibus, animi tumultus, non eft: 

 putandum aliquid tale accidere Deo. Signum enim efl potentiac ab alio dependen- 

 tis.* (De Cive cap. 15. feft 14.) 



t The firft; philofophcr, of modern times, who advanced this notion, of the non- 

 exlftence of ideas even in mind, was Dr Berkeley, who, I have the charityto think, 

 was no Atheift, and that, therefore, he did not (ee the confequence of his opinion : 1 

 cannot, however, help faying, that his philofophy, upon the whole, is the mofh ex- 

 traordinary that ever appeared in the world. If he had denied the exiftence of ideas 



only. 



