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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 315, page id 778263916:0331
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Chap. X. Lnomledge of the Existence o)
it wre ill suppole nothins srst, or eternal, Matter ean never begil
toDe: IF re suppose bare Marter, without Mocion, eternal, Motion cam
never begin to bc: IF e suppole orly Macter and Motion tirst, or eternal,
Thouoht can never begin to be. Whatsoever theretore is erernal, must
be a cogiratire Being, a Spirit: Wharsoever is Airst oF aIL Thinos, must ne-
cellarily contain in ic, and acrually have, at leact, all the Perfections that
can ever alter exist: nor can it ever sive to another any pertection chat
it hathnoc, cither actually in it selF, or at least in a hioher derree.
G. FF. Is cherelore it be cvident, thac somethine neceslarily must exist
from Eternity, tis also as evident, thac that somethine must nececlarily he
acoxirative Being: For it is as impossible, eliat incositative Matter Mould
produce a cogitatire Beins, as chat nothins, or the nesarion ol all Beins.
Mould produce a politire Being, or Matter.
5. X2. Thouph eliis discovery of the necessary Existence of an eternat
Mind, do sufficieney lead us into the Rnomledse oF aGOD; sinco it
Will hence Pollo, that all other bnowins Beings that have 2 besinnins.
must depend on him, and have no other ways os Rnowledse, or extene
oF Porver, than erhrat he sires them: and theretore it he made thole, he
made also the lels- excellent pieces ofthis Oniverse, all inanimate Beines,
Wherebr his Omniscience, Pover, and Providence, will be cctablisted,
and all his orher Attribures necessarily follon: vet to clear up this a little
Farther, re will sec what Doubes can be railed against it.
5. 23. First, Perhaps it Will Desaic, thac though it DC as clear as de-
monstration can makre it, that chere must be an eternal Beine, and chat
Beino must also beknowinz: Tet is does not follor, buc that chintrine
Beine may also be material. Let it be (0; it equally siil Follos, that
chere is a GOD. For ilthere be an Fternal, Omniscient, Omnipotent
Beins, it is certain, that there is a GOD, Whecher vou imagine thac
Beins to be material, orno. But herein, I suppose, lies the danger and de
ceit ofthat Suppolition: There beine no var to avoid the demonstra
tion, char thereis an eternal tnomine Being, Men, devored to Matier
rould willinslr have ic granted, that ehis lnowins Beins is material; and
then letring Aide out of their Minds, or the Discourse, the demonstration
Wrhereby an eternal lnowins Beins ras proved necessarils to exist, vould
argueall to De Matter, and (0 deny a GOD, that is, an eternal cogitative
Beins: Wherehy cher are (0 tar trom establithins, chat cher destrortheir
own Hypothelis. For it chere can be, in their Opinion, eternal Matter,
Wwithout an eternal cogiratire Being, cher manitestly separate Matter and
Thinkins, and suppole no necellarr connexion of the one with the ocher,
and so eltablimr che necessitr ot an eternal Spirit, buc not ot Matter;
Tinco it has beon proved alreadr, thac an eternal cogitative Being, is
unavoidably to bc granted. Non it Thinkins and Matter may De sepa-
rated, the eternal Fxistence of Marter, will not follon fromthe eternal Fxi-
stence ofa cocitarive Beine, and thes suppose it ro no purpole.
9. F4. But no let us sec hor thez can latistie chemselres, or others,
that this eternal thintins Beins is material.
First, Pould askthem, Whether they imagine, that aIl Matter, every
particle of Macrer, thintes: This, Isuppole, thcy will Scarce PaY; SIncC
thien chere would be as mans eternal thintrins Beinss, a5 there are Par.
ticles ofptatter, and (0 an intiniey oF G0d5. And ver il ther will noc
allorr Mlatter as Matter; thac is, every Parricle ot Matter to be a5 Wel
cogitatire, as extended, thes will have as hrard a task to matie out tO
their own Reasons, cogitatire Being out of incogitative Particles, a5 an
extended Beins, out ot unextended Parts, il l may (0 speals. 1