CoO GOD 
GOCIA'NO, a town of the jfland of Sardinia; thirty 
miles eall of Algeri. 
GOCLE'NIUS (Conrad), a learned philologift, born 
in 1485, in a village of Wedphalia. He v/as long a pro- 
feflbr in the college of Biilleiden at Louvain, where he 
died in 1539. He was honoured with the intimate friend- 
fli’p of Erafiniis, from whonf there is extant a very con¬ 
fidential letter to him. liis principal works are, Notes 
on Cicero de Ofiiciis ; an edition of Lucian; and a 
rranliation into Latin of that writer’s Dialogue, entitled 
lUrmotimus. 
GOD, [from the Saxon Hob, which Lye interprets 
God, Deus. And the fame Saxon word, when ufed 
adjedfively, means GOOD, bonus, proeus.] The I'a- 
cred, awful, and revered, name of that Supreme Being 
and Source of all Exifrence, who in tlie language of 
our mod elegant, and, in this palfage, devout Poet, is 
addreffed as 
Father of All! in every age 
In every clime ador’d, 
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage, 
Jehovah ! J eve ! or Lord ! Pope s UniverfalPrayer. 
The Exiftence of God is demonftrated by a very fliort 
mode of proof. The Univerfe exifts, therefore God exifts. 
For as the Univerfe could not make itfelf, it muft have 
been made by fomething without itfelf, and antecedent 
to itlelf; and that is, God. Again; as the Univerfe 
cannot guide and prelerve itfelf, it mull be guided and 
]irelerved by foincthing didindf from itfelf; and that is, 
God. This truth is fo obvious, that independently of 
all Revelation, it was known, and maintained, by the 
wifell and bed: of the Heathens. 
God in liis Eflential Nature is Self-originate, Eternal, 
Spiritual. In his Moral Attributes, God is infinitely 
perfett; molt holy, molt juft, molt good. In wifdom, 
in knowledge, in power, He is univerfally Intelligent, 
infallibly Difcerning, irrefiftibly Mighty; to God there¬ 
fore, in the molt unbounded I'enfe of the words, (con- 
fiftent witli every idea which implies not contradidtion,) 
we aferibe Omnifcicnce and Omnipotence. 
By philofophers, who have reafoned deeply on the 
fubjedt, God is confidered as the firlt Caule, the lirft 
Being, who has exilted from the beginning, Iras created 
the world, or who fubfifts necelfarily, or of himlelf; 
and this knowledge of God, his nature, attributes, 
word, and works, with the relations betw'een him and 
his creatures, make the extenfive fubjedt of Theology, 
the fifter-fcience of Aftronomy. 
Sir Ifaac Newton confiders and defines God, not as is 
ufually done, from his perfection, his nature, exiltence, 
or the like; but from his dominion. Tlie word God, 
according to him, is a relative term, and has regard to 
fervants ; it is true it denotes a Being eternal, infinite, 
and abfoliitely perfedt; but a Being, however eternal, 
infinite, and abfoliitely perfedt, v/ithout dominion, would 
not be God. The fame author obl'erves, that the word 
God frequently lignifies Lord ; but every lord is not 
God ; it is the dominion of a fpiritual being or lord, that 
conftitutes God ; true dominion, true God ; lupreme, 
the fupreme ; feigned, the falfe god. From fuch true 
dominion it follows, that tlie true God is living, intel¬ 
ligent, and powerful; and, from his other perfections, 
(hat he is fuprenie, or liipremely perfedt: he is eternal, 
aridjnfinite; omnipotent and omniicient; that is, he en¬ 
dures from eternity to eternity, and is prelent from infi¬ 
nity to infinity. He governs all things that exilt, and 
knows all things that are to be known; he is not eter¬ 
nity nor infinity, but eternal and infinite ; he is not du¬ 
ration or fpace, but he endures, and is prefent; he en¬ 
dures always, and is prciein every where ; and by exift- 
ii.g always, and every vvhere, ne conflitutes the very 
thing, duration and fpace, eternity and infinity. He is 
oiimiprefent, not only virtually, bui alio fiibftantially; 
tor power without fubftance cannot, fiibfift. All things 
GOD 
are contained and move in him, but witliout any mutual 
pafiion ; he fuft'ers nothing from the motions of bodies ; 
nor do they undergo any refiftance from bis omnipre¬ 
fence. It is confelfed that God exifts necelfarily; and 
by the fame necelTity he exifts always, and every vrhere. 
Hence, alfo, be muft be perfedtly fimilar; all eye, all 
ear, all brain, all arm, all the power of perceiving, un- 
derftanding, and adling; but after a manner not at all 
corporeal, after a manner not like that of men, after a 
manner wholly to us unknown. He is deftitiite of all 
body, and all bodily ftuipe; and therefore cannot be feen, 
heard, or touched; nor ought to be worftiipped under 
the reprefentation of any thing corporeal. We have 
ideas of the attributes of God, but do not know the 
fubftance even of any thing ; we fee only the figures and 
colours of bodies, hear only founds, touch only the out. 
ward furfacps, fmell only odours, and tafte taftes; but 
do not, cannot, by any fenfe, or any reflex aff, know 
their inward fubflances; and much lefs can we have any 
notion of the fubftance of God We know him by his 
properties and attributes; by the moft wife and excel¬ 
lent ftrudlure of things, and by final caufes: but we 
adore and worfliip him only on account of his dominion; 
for God, fettrng afide dominicn, providence, and final 
caufe.c, is nothing elfc but fate and nature. 
The admirable, metaphyficiau anjl divine Dr. Clarke, 
lias demonftrated the being of a (jod, with that clear- 
nefs and force of realbning, for which he is fo eminently 
diftinguiftied, by a feiies of propofitions, mutually con- 
nedled and dependent, and forming a complete and un- 
anfwerable argument in proof of the attributes of the 
Deity. Something, he fays, lias exifted from all eter¬ 
nity; for, fince fomething now is, fomething alway.s 
was : otlierwife the things tliat now are muft have been 
produced out of notliing, abfoliitely and without caufe, 
which is a plain contradiftion in terms. There muft 
liave exifted from all eternity fome one unchangeable 
and independent Being; or cUe, there has-been an infi¬ 
nite fucceftion of changeable and dependent beings, pro¬ 
duced one from another in an endlefs progreftion, with¬ 
out any original caufe at all. For otlierwife this feries 
of beings can have no caufe of its exiftence, becaufe it 
includes all things that are or ever were in tiie univerfe ; 
nor is any one being in this infinite fucceftion felf-exift- 
ent or necelfary, and tlierefore it can have no reafon of 
its exiftence within itfelf; and it was equally poflible, 
that from eternity there llioiild never have exifted any 
thing at all, as that a fucceftion of fuch beings ftiould 
have exifted from eternity. Confequently their exiftence 
is determined by nothing; neither by any neceftity in 
their own nature, becaufe none of them are felf-e.xiftent; 
nor by any otlier being, becaufe no other is fuppofed to 
exift. Tlie unchangeable and independent Being, which 
has exifted trom eternity, without any external caufe of 
its exiftence, muft be lelf-exiftent; it muft exift by an 
abfoliite necelTity originally m tlie nature of the tiling 
itfelf, and antecedent in the natural order of our ideas 
to our fuppofition of its being. For whatever exifts, 
muft either come into being v/ithoiit a caufe; or it mult 
have been produced by fome external caufe; or it muft 
be lelf-exiftent: but the two former fiippofitions are 
contrary to tlie two fiift propofitions. From this lalt 
propolitioii it follows, diat the only true idea of a fel.L 
exiftent or necelfarily-exifting being, is the idea of a 
being, the fuppofition of wliofe non-exiftence is an ex'- 
pi efb contradiction ; and tliis idea is that of a moft fiin- 
ple being, abfoliitely erenial and infinite, original and 
independent. It follows allb, that nothing is lo certain 
as the exiftence of a fiipreme independent caufe; and 
likevvife, that the material world cannot poifibly be the 
firft and original being, uncreated, independent, and of 
itfelf eternal; becaufe it docs not exift by an abfoliite 
iieceflity in its own nature, fo as that it muft be an tx- 
prefs contradiction to fiippole it not to exift. With re-. 
Ipe6t both to its form and matter, the material world 
may 
