Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/63

Rh Omniscient and Omnipotent, is the Root and Original of all things. For Omnipotency signifies a power that can effect any thing that implies no contradiction to be effected; and Creation implies no contradiction: therefore this perfect Being can create all things. But if it found the Matter or other Substances existing aforehand of themselves, this Omnipotency and power of Creation will be in vain, nay, indeed, a full Omnipotency will not be in this absolute Omnipotent; which the free and unprejudic'd Faculties of the Minde of man do not admit of, but look upon as a Contradiction. Therefore the natural notion of a Being absolutely Perfect, implies that the same Being is Lord and Maker of all things. And according to Natural Light, that which is thus, is to be adored and worshipped of all that has the knowledge of it, with all humility and thankfulness: and what is this but to be acknowledged to be God?

5. Wherefore I conceive I have sufficiently demonstrated that the Notion or Idea of God' is as Natural, necessary and essential to the Soul of Man, as any other Notion or Idea whatsoever, and is no more arbitrarious or fictitious then the Notion of a Cube or TetraedrumTetrahedron [sic], or any other of the Regular Bodies in Geometry: which are not devised at our own pleasure (for such Figments and Chimaras are infinite,) but for these it is demonstrable that there can be no more then Five of them; which shews that their Notion is necessary, not an arbitranous compilement of what we please.

And thus having fully made good the Notion of God, What he is, I proceed now to the next Point, which is to prove That he is.





1. That the very Idea of God implies his necessary Existence''. 2. That his Existence is not hypothetically necessary, but absolutely, with the occasion noted of that slippery Evasion.'' 3. That to acknowledge God a Being necessarily Existent according to the true Notion of him, and yet to say he may not Exist, is a plain contradiction. 4. That Necessity is a Logical term, and implies an indissoluble connexion betwixt Subject and Praedicate, whence again this Axiome is necessarily and eternally true, God doth exist. 5. A further Demonstration of his Existence from the incompetibility of Contingency or Impossibility to his Nature or Idea. 6. That necessary Self-existence belongs either to God, or to Matter, or to both. 7. The great Incongruities that follow the admission of the Self-existency of Matter. 8. An Answer to an Evasion. 9. That a number of Self essentiated Deities plainly takes away the Being of the true God. 10. The onely undeniable Demonstration of the Unity of the Godhead. 11. The absurdness in admitting actual Self-existence in the Matter, and denying it in God. 12. That this absurdity cannot be excused from the sensibleness of Matter, sith the Atheist himself is forced to admit such things as fall not under Sense. 13. That it is as foolish a Rh