Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Thirdly, III. Proposition, no Creature could make the world. No Creature can create another. If it creates of nothing, tis then Omnipotent and so not a Creature. If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it, then the inquiry will be, who was the cause of the matter? and so we must arrive to some uncreated being, the cause of all. Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to. what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world? If therefore an invisible Creature made the world, the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being? for he could not make himself. If any Creature did Create the World, he must do it by the strength and virtue of another, which first gave him being; and this is God. For whatsoever hath its Existence and virtue of acting from another, is not God. If it hath its virtue from another tis then a second cause, and so supposeth a first cause. It must have some cause of it self, or be Eternally Existent. If Eternally Existent, tis not a second cause, but God; if not Eternally Existent, we must come to something at length which was the cause of it, or else be bewildered without being able to give an account of any thing. We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being, that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabric wherein we and all Creatures dwell. The Scripture proclaims this aloud,^* I am the Lord and there is none else: I Form the light and I Create darkness. Man the Noblest Creature cannot of himself make a man, the chiefest part of the World. If our Parents only without a Superior power made our Bodies or Souls, they would know the frame of them; as he that makes a Lock knows the Wards of it; he that makes any curious piece of Arras, knows how he sets the various colours together, and how many threads went to each division in the Web; he that makes a Watch, having the Idea of the whole work in his mind, knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions. But both Parents and Children are equally ignorant of the nature of their Souls and Bodies, and of the reason of their motions. God only that had the Supreme hand in forming us, in whose Book all our members are written, ²which in continuance were fashioned, knows what we all are ignorant of.

Thirdly, III. Proposition, no Creature could make the world. No Creature can create another. If it creates of nothing, tis then Omnipotent and so not a Creature. If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it, then the inquiry will be, who was the cause of the matter? and so we must arrive to some uncreated being, the cause of all. Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to. what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world? If therefore an invisible Creature made the world, the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being? for he could not make himself. If any Creature did Create the World, he must do it by the strength and vertue of another, which first gave him being; and this is God. For whatsoever hath its Existence and vertue of acting from another, is not God. If it hath its vertue from another tis then a second cause, and so supposeth a first cause. It must have some cause of it self, or be Eternally Existent. If Eternally Existent, tis not a second cause, but God; if not Eternally Existent, we must come to somthing at length which was the cause of it, or else be bewildred without being able to give an account of any thing. We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being, that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabrick wherein we and all Creatures dwell. The Scripture proclaims this aloud,