3 3 8 Matter not eternal and uncattj^’

equivalent expressions; as appears fromhas been said in this paragraph.

one; yet by the rules of argument, he who f u PP°^ ethe one to be true, .must at the fame time supp 0 ^ ^other to be false and impossible; which ssiews £ h® ^gument above to proceed rightly. The last part 0difficulty shall be considered hereafter.

The other difficulty is of much greater confch^ yI fay, That which forces us to own the existence 0thing necessary is, because it implies a contradict* 0 * 1 . ^suppose the contrary. On this it is observed, “ £

44 the Cartesian arguments from the idea of a God44 inconclusive, as they are generally now allowed -m“ it will be hard to fay that any Being is to us ne 05 ^" existent in this sense ; that when we infer f r0ffl jt“ existence of other things an eternal uncaused44 doth not come up to the sense here meant? dfc44 have we recourse to a train of reasoning, and ^“ rather see the contradiction immediately? ' fgrf44 mere speculation of ideas prove the existed 0 $44 thing ? The existence of such a Being“ axiom-, and need no proof, since its non-exist cslCe ^ esl1 s44 imply an absurdity; so that in this fense nothmg^.^,“ necessarily existing to us, not even the s u P renie44 because it is from his effects we discover his ex* ^'5

4 4 and not from any sufficient reason which dn c0

44 existence d priori. That we know that an jz44 uncaused Being exists, a proof of this, d poffi r ^ e {

44 allowed; but the sufficient reason? dpriori, -

' if S iv