300 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



lefs Intelligence than the Divine. Nor ought we to be furprifed that 

 a Being not intelligent fhould a£t intelligently : For it often hap- 

 pens, even among us who have Intelligence, that we a£t by an In- 

 telligence fuperior to our own, doing what we are direded to do by 

 men wifer than we, without knowing for what purpofe we adl. 

 And this I fay is the cafe of every well governed fociety, where by 

 far the greater part of the fubjefts a£t by rules, of which they do not 

 underftand the reafon *. 



Tlius, the diftindion betwixt Man and Nature, as well as betwixt 

 Man and Brute, is manifeft ; as alfo the diftindion betwixt God and 

 Nature. As to the diftindion betwixt God and Man, it does not 

 belong to the fubjed now in hand to enter minutely into it. It is 

 fufficient for my prefent purpofe, to obferve, that man, in this lower 

 world, is in a kind of middle ftate betwixt God and Nature, fupe- 

 rior to Nature, in fo far as he has Intelligence in himfelf, and in that 

 refped participates of the Divine Nature ; but it is an Intelligence 

 inferior, in infinite degrees, to the Divine f. 



But, as Intelledl is latent for a confiderable time in the indivi- 

 duals among us, and muft have been latent for a very long time, 

 perhaps for ages, among Savages, it is not to be fuppofed that Na- 

 ture, in that natural and primitive ftate, would leave us unprovided 

 with what fhe has fo bountifully beftowed upon other Animals. 

 "What particular Inftind: Man then had is difficult to fay ; but this we 

 may be aflured of, that he had all that was necefTary for his being 

 and well being : But not fo much would be neceflary to him, as to 



other 



• See what I have faid further upon thisfubjed, vol. i. p. 216. 



f See vol. i. book 2. chap 17. where I have defined Nature (p. 218.), and (hown 

 the difference betwixt God, and Nature, and Man ; and I have alfo faid a good deal 

 upon this fubjed of Inftind, to which I beg leave to refer the Reader, as alfo to 

 what I have faid in page 4<5. of this volume. 



