2 AN TIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



gy is the fummit of Metaphyfics, of all philofophy, and, indeed, 

 of all human knowledge : And 1 hope the reader will confider the 

 three immediate preceeding volumes, which contain the Hiftory of 

 Man, the noblcll work of God on this earth, as not an improper 

 introdu(£lion to the demonftration I am now to give of the being and 

 attributes of God ; for I hold the hiftory and philofophy of man to 

 be inieparably connedted with Theology. 



In this I fhall follow a method different from what has hitherto 

 been followed. Not that 1 mean to derogate from the weight of 

 the arguments ufed by other writers to prove the exiftence of" 

 Deity ; far lefs do I intend to refute them. But the principles of 

 my philofophy, that is of the antient philofophy, lead me to invefti- 

 gate the fubje£t in a different manner, and to ufe proofs of a diffe- 

 rent kind ; beginning with the being of a God, which, in the na- 

 tural order of things, ought to be confidered before his attributes. 



The arguments which Dr Clarke ufes, to prove the being of a 

 God, are chiefly of the metaphyfical kind. Whether they be all folid 

 and conclufive, or whether the Dodlor, not being learned in antient 

 philofophy, could be a good metaphyfician, I fhall not here inquire. 

 But I am of opinion, that neither the being of a God,nor his attributes, 

 can be otherwife proved than by his works : And this our Scripture 

 tells us ; for St. Paul, in the epiftle to the Romans *, fays, ' That the 



* invifible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clear- 



* ly feen- being underftood by the things that are made.' Nor, in- 

 deed, can we know the exiftence of any thing, not even our own 

 exiftence, otherwife than by our adions and operations, and by 

 ■what we do and what we fuffer ; for it is by refledion and the con- 

 fcioufnefs of the operations of our minds and bodies, that we know 

 our own exiftence, and that we have both mind and body. Des 



Cartes, 

 • Chap. 1. V. zoi 



