GOD. 
which we cannot miss, if we will bnt apply 
our minds to that as we do to several other 
. inquiries. 
“ It being then unavoidable for all rational 
creatures to conclude that something has 
existed from eternity, let us next see what 
kind of a thing that must be. There are 
but two sorts of beings in the world that 
man knows or conceives ; such as are purely 
material, without sense or perception ; and 
sensible perceiving beings, such as we find 
ourselves to be. These two sorts we shall 
call cogitative and iucogitative beings ; 
which, to our present purpose, are better 
than material and immaterial. 
“If then there must be something eternal, 
it is very obvious to reason that it must ne- 
cessarily be a cogitative being; because it 
is as impossible to conceive that bare inco- 
gitative matter should ever produce a think- 
ing intelligent being, as that nothing of itself 
should produce matter. Let us suppose any 
parcel of matter eternal, we shall find it in 
itself unable to produce any thing. Let us 
suppose its parts firmly at rest together ; if 
there were no other being in the world, 
must it not eternally remain so, a dead un- 
active lump ? is it possible to conceive that 
it can add motion to itself, or produce any 
thing ? Matter then, by its own strength, 
cannot produce in itself so much as motion. 
The motion it has must also be from eter- 
nity, or else added to matter by some other 
being more powerful than matter. But let 
us suppose motion eternal too ; but yet 
matter, incogitative matter, and motion 
could never produce thought. Knowledge 
will still be as far beyond the power of no- 
thing to produce. Divide matter into as 
minute parts as you will, vary its figure and 
motion as much as you phase, it will 
operate no otherwise upon other bodies, of 
proportionable bulk, than it did before this 
division. The minutest particles of matter 
repel and resist one another just as the 
greater do, and that is all they can do ; so 
that if we suppose nothing eternal, matter 
can never begin to be ; if we suppose bare 
matter without motion eternal, motion can 
never begin to be ; if we suppose only mat- 
ter and motion eternal, thought can never 
begin to be ; for it is impossible to con- 
ceive that matter, either with or without 
motion, could have, originally in and from 
itself, sense, perception, and knowledge, as 
is evident from hence, that then sense, per- 
ception, and knowledge, must be a pro- 
perty eternally inseparable from matter, 
and every particle of it. Since, therefore, 
I 
whatsoever is the first eternal being, must 
necessarily be cogitative; and whatsoever 
is first of all things must necessarily con- 
tain in it, and actually have, at least, all the 
perfections that can ever after exist ; it 
necessarily follows that the first eternal 
being cannot be matter. If, therefore, it 
be evident that something must necessarily 
exist from eternity, it is also as evident that 
that something must be a cogitative being. 
For it is as impossible that incogitative 
matter should produce a cogitative being, 
as that nothing, or the negation of all 
being, should produce a positive being or 
matter. 
“ This discovery of the necessary existence 
of an eternal mind sufficiently leads us to 
the knowledge of God ; for it will hence 
follow that all other knowing beings that 
have a beginning must depend on him, and 
have no other ways of knowledge, or extent 
of power, than what he gives them ; and, 
therefore, if lie made those, he made also 
the less excellent pieces of this universe, all 
inanimate bodies, whereby bis omniscience, 
power, and providence, will be established ; 
and from thence all his other attributes 
necessarily follow.’’ 
With respect to Christians, it need only 
be just mentioned, that they were very 
early divided in opinion as to the nature 
and essence of the Supreme Being ; a great 
part worshipping three persons in the unity 
of the godhead, whilst others absolutely 
rejected a trinity of persons, and asserted 
the unity of the divine nature, both as to 
person and substance. 
V> ith respect to the theology of the Pa- 
gans, it is thought by most learned men 
that they acknowledged but one God ; and 
that the many different divinities worship- 
ed by them were but attributes and actions 
of one and the same God. This may pro- 
bably be true of the wiser Heathens ; and, 
iudeed, there are many strong and beautiful 
passages in Pagan authors, to prove that 
these acknowledged hut one God. Thus 
Pythagoras taught the unity of God, and 
defined him to be a mind penetrating and 
diffusing itself through all the parts of the 
universe, from which all animals receive 
life ; and Plato called God the being which 
is ; and whenever he mentions the Deity it 
is always in the singular number. 
GOGGLES, in surgery, instruments used 
for the cure of squinting, or that distortion 
of the eyes which occasions this disorder. 
They are short conical tubes, composed of 
ivory stained black, with a thin plate of the 
