GOD. 



fteed of nice or subtle reasonings in this 

 matter; a manifest contrivance immedi- 

 ately suggests a contriver. It strikes us 

 like a sensation, and artful reasonings 

 against it may puzzle us, but without 

 shaking our belief. No person, for ex- 

 ample, that knows the principles of op- 

 tics and the structure of the eye, can be- 

 lieve that it was formed without skill in 

 that science, or that the ear was formed 

 without the knowledge of sounds, or that 

 the male and female, in animals, were 

 not formed for each other, and for con- 

 tinuing the species. All our accounts of 

 nature are full of instances of this kind. 

 The admirable and beautiful structure of 

 things for final causes exalt our idea of 

 the contriver: the unity of design shows 

 him to be one. The great motions in the 

 system, performed with the same facility 

 as the least, suggest his almighty power, 

 which gave motion to the earth and the 

 celestial bodies with equal ease as to the 

 minutest particles. The subtility of the 

 motions and actions in the internal parts 

 of bodies, shows that his influence pene- 

 trates the inmost recesses of things, 

 and that he is equally active and present 

 every where* The simplicity of the 

 laws that prevail in the world, the excel- 

 lent disposition of things in order to ob- 

 tain the best ends, and the beauty which 

 adorns the works of nature, far superior 

 to any thing in art, suggest his consum- 

 mate wisdom. The usefulness of the 

 whole scheme, so well contrived for the 

 intelligent beings that enjoy it, with the 

 internal disposition and moral structure 

 of those beings themselves, show his un- 

 bounded goodness. These are the argu- 

 ments which are sufficiently open to the 

 views and capacities of the unlearned ; 

 while, at the same time, they acquire 

 new strength and lustre from the disco- 

 veries of the learned. 



The Deity's acting and interposing in 

 the universe show that he governs, as 

 well as formed it ; and the depth of his 

 counsels, even in conducting the material 

 universe, of which a great part surpasses 

 our knowledge, keep up an inward vener- 

 ation and awe of this great being, and dis- 

 pose us to receive what may be otherwise 

 revealed to us concerning him. It has 

 been justly observed, that some of the 

 laws of nature, now known to us, must 

 have escaped us, if we had wanted the 

 sense of seeing. It may be in his power 

 to bestow upon us other senses, of which 

 we have at present no idea; without 

 which it may be impossible for us to know 

 nil his works, or to have more adequate 



VOT,. VT. 



ideas of himself, tn our present state wft 

 know enough to be satisfied of our de- 

 pendency upon him, and of the duty we 

 owe to him, the Lord and Disposer of all 

 things. He is not the object of sense ; 

 his essence, and, indeed, that of all other 

 substances, is beyond the reach of all our 

 discoveries ; but his attributes clearly ap- 

 pear in his admirable works. We know 

 that the highest conceptions we are able 

 to form of them are still beneath his real 

 perfections ; but his power and dominion 

 over us, and our duty towards him, are 

 manifest. 



*' Though God has given us no innate 

 ideas of himself," says Mr. Locke, " yet, 

 having furnished us with those faculties 

 our minds are endowed with, he hath not 

 left himself without a witness ; since we 

 have sense, perception, and reason, and 

 cannot want a clear proof of him as long 

 as we carry ourselves about us. To show, 

 therefore, that we are capable of know- 

 ing, that is, being certain, that there is a 

 God, and how we may come by this cer 

 tainty, I think we need go no farther than 

 ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge 

 we have of our own existence. I think 

 it is beyond question, that man has a clear 

 perception of his own being ; he knows 

 certainly that he exists, and that he is 

 something. In the next place 4 man 

 knows, by an intuitive certainty, that bare 

 nothing can no more produce any real be- 

 ing than it can be equal to two right an- 

 gles. If, therefore, we know there is 

 some real being, it is an evident demon- 

 stration, that from eternity there has been 

 something: since what was not from eter* 

 nity had a beginning, and what had a be- 

 ginning must be produced by something 

 else. Next, it is evident, that what has its 

 being from another, must also have all 

 that which is in and belongs to its being 

 from another too : all the powers it has 

 must be owing to and received from the 

 same source. This eternal source, then, 

 of all beings must be also the source and 

 original of all power ; and so this eternal 

 being must be also the most powerful. 



" Again, man finds in himself percep- 

 tion and knowledge : we are certain then 

 that there is not only some being, but 

 some knowing intelligent being, in the 

 world. There was a time, then, when 

 there was no knowing being, or else there 

 has been a knowing being from eternity. 

 If it be said, there was a time when that 

 eternal being had no knowledge ; I reply, 

 that then it is impossible there should 

 have ever been any knowledge ; it being 1 

 as impossible that things wholly void of 



E, 



