Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfy it? If so, the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other: Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires, they are filled with good, Psal. 104.28. And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment? Nothing in man is in vain: He hath objects for his affections, as well as affections for objects. Every Member of his body hath its end, and doth attain it. Every affection of his Soul hath an object, and that in this World, and shall there be none for his desire, which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him? This boundless desire had not its original from man himself: Nothing would render it self restless; something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good, and made him restless in every thing else. And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite, there is something infinite for it to rest in: Since nothing in the world, though a man had the whole, can give it a satisfaction, there is something above the world only capable to do it, otherwise the Soul would be always without it, and be more in vain than any other Creature.

Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it? If so, the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other: Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires, they are filled with good, Psal. 104.28. And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment? Nothing in man is in vain: He hath objects for his affections, as well as affections for objects. Every Member of his body hath its end, and doth attain it. Every affection of his Soul hath an object, and that in this World, and shall there be none for his desire, which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him? This boundless desire had not its original from man himself: Nothing would render it self restless; something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good, and made him restless in every thing else. And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite, there is something infinite for it to rest in: Since nothing in the world, though a man had the whole, can give it a satisfaction, there is something above the world only capable to do it, otherwise the Soul would be always without it, and be more in vain than any other Creature.