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fee, which we fay are the production of divine power, required a caufe, the divine being himself muft have required a greater caufe. But this train of reafoning would lead us into a manifeft abfurdity, in inquiring for a higher and a higher caufe ad infinitum. It may, perhaps, be true, though we cannot diftinctly fee it to be fo, that as all finite things require a cause, infinites admit of none. It is evident, that nothing can begin to be without a caufe; but it by no means follows from thence, that that must have had a cause which had no beginning. But whatever there may be in this conjecture, we are constrained, in pursuing the train of causes and effects, to stop at last at something uncaused.

That any being fhould be felf created is evidently abfurd, because that would fuppofe that he had a being before he had, or that he existed, and did not exist at the fame time. For want of clearer knowledge of this fubject, we are obliged

to

to content ourfelves with terms that convey only negative ideas, and to say that God is a being uncreated, or uncaufed; and this is all that we mean when we fometimes fay that he is felf exiftent.

It has been faid by fome, that if we fuppose an infinite fucceffion of finite beings, there will be no neceffity to admit any thing to have been uncaused. The race of men, for instance, may have been from eternity, no individual of the species being much fuperior to the rest. But this supposition only involves the question in more obfcurity, and does not approach, in the leaft, to the folution of any diffi.. culty. For if we carry this imaginary fucceffion ever fo far back in our ideas, we are in juft the fame fituation as when we fet out; for we are ftill confidering a fpecies of beings who cannot fo much as comprehend even their own make and conftitution; and we are, therefore, ftill in want of fome being who was capable of thoroughly knowing, and of forming A 5 them,

them, and alfo of adapting the various parts of their bodies, and the faculties of their minds, to the sphere of life in which they act. In fact, an infinite fucceffion of finite beings as much requires a caufe, as a fingle finite being; and we have as little fatisfaction in confidering one of them as uncaused, as we have in confidering the other.

It was faid, by the Epicureans of old, that all things were formed by the fortuitous concourfe of atoms, that, originally, there were particles of all kinds floating at random in infinite fpace; and that, fince certain combinations of particles conftitute all bodies, and fince, in infinite time, these particles must have been combined in all poffible ways, the present system at length arofe, without any designing caufe. But, ftill, it may be asked, how could these atoms move without, a mover; and what could have arisen from their combinations, but mere heaps of matter, of different forms and fizes.

They

They could, of themselves, have had no power of acting upon one another, as bodies now have, by fuch properties as magnetism, electricity, gravitation, &c. unless these powers had been communicated to them by some superior being.

It is no wonder, that we feel, and must acknowledge the imperfection of our faculties, when they are employed upon fuch a fubject as this. We are involved in inextricable difficulties in confidering the origin, as we may fay, of the works of God. It is impoffible that we should conceive how creation fhould have been coeval with its maker; and yet, if we admit that there ever was a time when nothing existed, befides the divine being himself, we must suppose a whole eternity to have preceded any act of creation; an eternity in which the divine being was poffeffed of the power and disposition to create, and to make happy, without once exerting them; or that a reason for creating must have occurred to him after the lapse A 6

of

of a whole eternity, which had not occurred before; and these seem to be greater difficulties than the other. Upon the whole, it seems to be the most agreeable to reason, though it be altogether incomprehenfible by our reafon, that there never was a time when this great uncaused being did not exert his perfections, in giving life and happiness to his offspring. We fhall, alfo, find no greater difficulty in admitting, that the creation, as it had no beginning, fo neither has it any bounds; bat that infinite space is replenished with worlds, in which the power, wifdom, and goodness of God always have been, and always will be displayed.

There feems to be no difficulty in these amazing fuppofitions, except what arifes from the imperfection of our faculties; and if we reject thefe, we must of neceffity adopt other fuppofitions, ftill more improbable, and involve ourselves in much greater difficulties. It is, indeed, impoffible for us to conceive, in an adequate

manner,

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