Chap. XII. AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. 487 



It is from the nature of mind, fo different from body, joined with 

 the exiftence of the material world, which, I think, I have fufficiendy 

 proved, againft all the cavils of thofe who pretend to difbdieve it, 

 that we conclude there is a God, felf-originated, neceflnrily exiftent, 

 and the author of all other things exifting in the univerfe. This, I 

 truft, I fhall be able moft clearly to demonftrate in the proper place. 

 But, taking it at prefent for granted, I proceed to (how, that truth and 

 fcience are to be deduced from a much higher origin than the humaa 

 mind, even from God himfelf. And, in this way, I think I fhall 

 properly conclude what I have faid upon the excellence and ftability 

 of truth and fcience, to which oiherwife, it appears, that fomething- 

 would be wanting. 



For, if truth w^ere nowhere elfe to be found, but in a mind fuch as 

 ours, connedled lb intimately with body, and from thence liable to fo 

 many diforders and perturbations, and to oblivion among other things, 

 it might juftly be doubted, whether truth deferved the epithets that 

 are beftowed upon it, of eternal and im??mtatk, Befides, as there can 

 be no truth without generals, and as all we know of truth is from the 

 material world, where thofe generals or fpeciefes of things are immer- 

 fed in matter, and in continual motion and agitatioii with matter, the 

 curious and philofophic mind will naturally inquire whence thofe fpe- 

 ciefes or forms of things come, and whether they are not to be found 

 fomewhere in a more fixed and per )ianent Itate. And, if he be not 

 a follower of that tnacl philofophy, which believes that nothing exifts 

 in the univerfe befides matter, he will immediately perceive, that thofe 

 forms could not have originated from matter. Ihis will lead him to 

 feek for their origin ellewhere. And, as there is nothing in the uni- 

 verfe but matter and mind, they mufl: therefore proceed from mind, 

 and mind intelligent. Thus healcends from the material to the intel- 

 le<^ual world, which muft as certainly exiil as the material, ii it be 

 true that this univerfe is not the work of blind chance, or ot material 



neceffity,. 



