To this Rule belongs that of Dividing the Subject of our Meditations into as many Parts, as we can, and as shall be requisite to Understand it perfectly. This is indeed most necessary in difficult Questions, which will scarce be unravell’d but in this manner by Pieces: Ever taking care to make Exact Reviews, and to Sum up our Evidence justly e’re we pass Sentence and fix our Judgment.
Rule V. To which purpose we must Always keep our Subject Directly in our Eye, and Closely pursue it thro all our Progress; there being no better Sign of a good Understanding than Thinking Closely and Pertinently, and Reasoning dependently, so as to make the former part of our Discourse a support to the Latter, and This an Illustration of That, carrying Light and Evidence in ev’ry step we take. The neglect of this Rule is the Cause why our Discoveries of Truth are seldom Exact, that so much is often said to so little purpose; and many Intelligent and Industrious Readers when they have Read over a Book are very little wiser than when they began it. And that the two last Rules may be the better observ’d, ’twill be fit very often to look over our Process so far as we have gone, that so by rendring our Subject Familiar, we may the sooner arrive to an Exact Knowlege of it.
Rule VI. All which being done we are in a fair way towards keeping the last Rule, which is, To judge no further than we Perceive, and not to take any thing for Truth which we do not evidently Know to be so. Indeed in some Cases we are forc’d to content our selves with Probability, but ’twere well if we did so only where ’tis plainly Necessary. That is, when the Subject of our Meditation is such as we cannot possibly have a Certain Knowlege of, because we are not furnish’d with Proofs which have a Constant and Immutable Connexion with the Ideas we apply them to, or because we can’t perceive it, which is our Case in such Exigencies as oblige us to Act presently, on a cursory view of the Arguments propos’d to us, when we want time to trace them to the bottom, and to make use of such means as wou’d discover Truth.
I cannot think we are often driven to such straits in any considerable Affair, tho I believe that very many Subjects may be propos’d to us, concerning which we cannot readily pass our Judgment, either because we never consider’d them before, or because we are wanting in some Means that lead to the Knowlege, of ’em. In which Case Reason wills that we suspend our Judgment till we can be better Inform’d; nor wou’d it have us remit our Search after Certainty, even in those very Cases in which we may sometimes be forc’d to Act only on Probable Grounds. For Reason can’t rest satisfy’d with Probabilities where Evidence is possible, our Passions and Interest may, but That does not incline us to leave off Enquiring lest we happen to meet somewhat contrary to our Desires. No, Reason requires us to continue our Enquiries with all the Industry we can, till they’ve put us in Possession of Truth, and when we have found, enjoyns us to follow her, how opposite soever she may cause our Latter Actions to be to our Former. But by this we may learn (and so we may by every thing that such weak and fallible Creatures as we are, perform) to think Candidly of those whose Opinions and Actions differ from our own. Because we do not know the necessity of their Affairs, nor in what ill Circumstances they are plac’d in respect of Truth.
And now to Apply what has been said; The State of the Question being Distinctly known, and certain Ideas fixt to the Terms we make use of, we shall find sometimes that the Difference which was suppos’d to be between the Things themselves, is only in words, in the divers ways we make use of to express the same Idea.
For if upon looking into our selves we discern, that these different Terms have but one and the same Idea, when we have corrected our Expressions the Controversie is at an End, and we need enquire no further. Thus, If we are ask’d Whether GOD is Infinitely Perfect? There needs no Intermediate Idea to compare the Idea of GOD with that of Infinite Perfection, since we may discern them on the very first view to be one and the same Idea differently express’d, which to go about to explain or prove were only to cumber with needless words, and to make what is Clear, Obscure. For we Injure a Cause instead of Defending it, by attempting an Explanation or Proof of things so Clear, that as they do not need, so perhaps they are not Capable of any.
But if it be made a Question Whether there is a GOD, or a Being Infinitely Perfect? We are then to Examin the Agreement between our Idea of GOD and that of Existence. Now this may be discern’d by Intuition, for upon a View of our Ideas we find that Existence is a Perfection, and the Foundation of all other Perfections, since that which has no Being cannot be suppos’d to have any Perfection. And tho the Idea of Existence is not Adequate to that of Perfection, yet the Idea of Perfection Includes that of Existence, and if That Idea were divided into parts, one part of it wou’d exactly agree with This. So that if we will allow that Any Being is Infinite in All Perfections, we cannot deny that that Being Exists; Existence it self being one Perfection, and such an one as all the rest are built upon.
If unreasonable Men will farther demand, Why is it necessary that All Perfection shou’d be Centred in One Being, is’t not enough that it be parcel’d out amongst many? And tho it be true that that Being who has all Perfection must needs Exist, yet where’s the Necessity of an All-Perfect Being? We must then look about for Proofs and Intermediate Ideas, and the Objection it self will furnish us with one. For those Many whose Particular Ideas it wou’d have joyn’d together to make a Compound one of All-Perfection, are no other than Creatures, as will appear if we consider our Idea of Particular Being and of Creature, which are so far from having any thing to distinguish ’em, that in all Points they resemble each other. Now this Idea naturally suggests to us that of Creation, or a Power of giving Being to that which before the exerting of that Power had none, which Idea if we use it as a Medium, will serve to discover to us the necessity of an All-Perfect Being.
For in the first place, what ever has any Perfection or Excellency (for that’s all we mean by Perfection here) must either have it of it self, or derive it from some other Being. Now Creatures cannot have their Perfections from themselves because they have not their Being, for to suppose that they Made themselves is an Absurdity too ridiculous to be seriously refuted, ’tis to suppose them to Be and not to Be at the same time, and that when they were Nothing, they were able to do the greatest Matter. Nor can they derive either Being or Perfection from any other Creature. For tho some Particular Beings may seem to be the Cause of the Perfections of others, as the Watch-maker may be said to be the Cause of the Regular Motions of the Watch, yet trace it a little farther, and you’l find this very Cause shall need another, and so without End, till you come to the Foundation-head, to that All-Perfect Being, who is the last resort of our Thoughts, and in whom they Naturally and Necessarily rest and terminate. If to this it be Objected that we as good as affirm that this All-Perfect Being is his own Maker, by saying he is Self-Existent, and so we fall into the same Absurdity which we imputed to that Opinion which supposes that Creatures were their own Maker. The reply is easie, That we do not say he Made himself, we only affirm that his Nature is such, that tho we can’t sufficiently Explain because we can’t comprehend it, yet thus much we can discern, that if he did not Exist of himself no other Being could ever have Existed. So that either All must be swallow’d up in an Infinite Nothing, if Nothing can properly have that Epithet, and we must suppose, that neither we our selves, nor any of those Creatures about us ever had, or ever can have a Being, which is too ridiculous to imagine, or else we must needs have recourse to a Self-Existing Being, who is the Maker and Lord of all things. And since Self Existence must of necessity be plac’d somewhere, is it not much more Natural and Reasonable to place it in Infinite Perfection, than amongst poor, frail Creatures, whose Origin we may trace, and whose End we see daily hastning?
To Sum up all: Since there are Innumerable Beings in the World, which have each of them their several Excellencies or Perfections; Since these can no more derive their Perfections than their Being from themselves or from any other Creature; Since a Self-Existing Being is the result of our Thoughts; the First and only True Cause, without whom it is impossible that any thing should ever have Existed; since Creatures with their Being receive all that depends on it from him their Maker; Since none can give what he has not, and therefore he who Communicates an innumerable variety of Perfections to his Creatures, even all that they enjoy, must needs contain in himself all those Beauties and Perfections he is pleas’d to Communicate to Inferior Beings; nothing can be more Plain and Evident than that there is a GOD, and that the Existence of an All-Perfect Being is Absolutely necessary.