Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

I Shall now come to the second head of Arguments for the existence of the Deity, drawn from the proofs of the Worlds beginning; from whence it follows that an Eternal intellectual Cause gave it being according to his pleasure. For it implies an exquisite contradiction that any thing should begin to exist by its own power. What ever is temporal, was made by a Superior Eternal Power, that drew it from pure nothing. And the other consequence is as strong, that the Cause is an intellectual Being that produced it according to his Will. For supposing a Cause to be entirely the same, and not to produce an effect ⟨p. 73⟩that afterwards it produces, without any preceding change, 'tis evident that it operates not by necessity of Nature, but voluntarily, and therefore with understanding: As a Man who speaks, that before was silent, according to the liberty of his will.

I Shall now come to the second head of Arguments for the existence of the Deity, drawn from the proofs of the Worlds beginning; from whence it follows that an Eternal intellectual Cause gave it being according to his pleasure. For it implys an exquisit contradiction that any thing should begin to exist by its own power. What ever is temporal, was made by a Superior Eternal Power, that drew it from pure nothing. And the other consequence is as strong, that the Cause is an intellectual Being that produc'd it according to his Will. For supposing a Cause to be intirely the same, and not to produce an effect ⟨p. 73⟩that afterwards it produces, without any preceding change, 'tis evident that it operates not by necessity of Nature, but voluntarily, and therefore with understanding: As a Man who speaks, that before was silent, according to the liberty of his will.

Now of the Worlds beginning there is a general tradition derived down through the uninterrupted course of so many Ages to us. 'Tis true, the Philosophers renewed the confusion of Tongues, that disunited the Builders of Babel, in their account of the Architecture of the World; Yet they generally agreed 'twas made by a most wise Agent. And this Doctrine is so agreeable to Reason, that you may as soon bridle the current of Nilus, and make it return to its Fountain, as suspend the persuasion