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and if matter thinks, it may direct it felf to a certain end, and if it directs it felf to a defigned end, it has no need of any other principle to direct it thither; and the Existence of God will not be at all neceffary in this regard.

And if Man directs himself to his proposed end, though he be fuppofed nothing else but matter, why fhould not the Heavens, the Elements, and other parts of the Universe, as well direct themselves to their general end, though in them, as well as in Men, we fhould acknowledge nothing but matter and motion?

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CHAP. VII.

That there are in the World certain Marks and Signs of Novelty, which lead us to the Truth of the Existence of God.

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Ince the Univerfe is neceffarily the workmanship of fome Wisdom that made it in time, we need not be furprised to find fome marks velty in the Globe we inhabit.

It is certain that the Earth receives terations by the courfe of Time; the Rai fall upon the tops of Mountains and H down the Earth, and fenfibly bring the The Rivers running a long w and from time to time, over make their Channels either And thofe of the greater fo quantity of Gravel along wi Sea, advance its Shores, or for

it, like thofe at the Mouth of Nile, whofe number from time to time has increased, according to the observation of the Learned.

Now though all these Alterations be very inconfiderable, and as it were infenfible; yet it is evident, that an infinite extent of time would render them very fenfible and apparent. There must needs have been formed before this time, an infinite number of thofe little Iflands which are made out of the Gravel of the Rivers, or rather that the Sea would have been quite filled up, and the highest Hills brought down to a level, with the other parts of the Earth before this time; fince Eternity contains an infinity of Ages to produce that Effect we speak of.

The novelty of the Earth which this confideration gives us fufficient affurance of, agrees well enough with that of the Universe in general, which Reafon has already help'd us to conceive. But we need not have recourfe either to the one or the other, to prove the Existence of God. 'Tis fufficient for that purpose, to fhew that Mankind is not without a first Head and a Be

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Containing fome Arguments for the Existence of God, taken from the confideration of Society. The first Argument drawn from the Succeffion of Generations.

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Here is nothing easier than to demonstrate thefe Two Truths which feem to us decifive on this Subject; the one, that there was a firft Man, who was himself without a Father and was the Father of all Men yet living: The he other, that fuppofing there was a firft Man, heh must neceffarily be the Workmanship of the wif dom and power of a God.

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'Tis plain that Mankind has a first Head, beyond which we cannot run our Thoughts back, whether we confider the Succeffion of Generations, and that either afcending from our Selves to our Ancestors, and the Ancestors of our An cestors, or beginning at top, and f from the Father to the Children, con Root firft, and then the Branches; we confider thofe Marks of Novel first fight appear in Society, and per only that Mankind has an Original, its rife is not fo ancient monly fancies. If we l cestors, we must find out the Enquiries of our A lofe our felves in the i rion.

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For it will be to no purpose for the Incredulous to alledge for the defense of an eternal Succeffion of Generations, that this infinite gradation which fo much puzzles us, and which the Philofophers call a Progreffion to infinity, and judge to be wholly contrary to right Reafon, seems to be common to both Opinions : Because if the Atheist be forced to acknowledge that he draws his Original from his Father, and he again from fome other, without any end of that gradation; he that owns the Existence of God, is obliged likewife to believe that God exifted a Thousand Ages before the Creation of the World, and a Million before thofe Thoufand; and fo on to infinity. But though the difficulty fhould be granted equal on both fides, we might reasonably reMaproach the Atheists for following an Opinion the which includes all the difficulties of ours, without the fame light or evidence. In effect, if there be any thing incomprehenfible in the Supream Being, which our Imagination does reject, 'tis his Infinity and his Eternity. If therefore you attribute this Eternity and Infinity to the Succeffion of Our Generations, you fall into all the difficulties which

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Befides, there is a great deal of difference bet.. Brocher Ca tween an infinite progreffion which exifts only in two, to the weak Imagination of Men, and an infinite pro- ' the A greffion which we acknowledge in the thing it dow felf. That we allow in God, is, according to his b our Opinion, of the first fort, fince in God there we defend duration; that he has produced Times and Ages, arcs, from himself; that properly and ftrictly speaking, aber of Perfors and yet is not to be measured by Times and Ages from every

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duration does not belong to him, because it can not be affirmed, but of fuch things only that had a beginning, and which continue in their ftate. But Duration in God, is the fame as being, and being is duration, though through the weaknefs of our Conceptions, we are obliged to confider him under all the differences of Time; whereas that Progreffion which we acknowledge in the Succeffion of Generations, is according to the In credulous themselves, an infinite progreffion fuppofed in the thing it felf, and not meerly the ef fect of Imagination.

And now if we begin at the Stock, and pars to the Branches, we fhall foon be made fenfib) of the fame Truth. In effect, 'tis obfervable that when we run up the Succeffion of Generati to the firft original, we go from multit Let us confider this Truth in the Peor Jews, whom we may fuppofe to be th of Abraham, without advancing any is doubtful or contested. If we trac ceffion of Generations upwards to that from that incredible Multitude o

find at this Day in the World

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