those of an inch or foot diameter; and you may as rationally expect to
produce sense, thought, and knowledge, by putting together, in a certain
figure and motion, gross particles of matter, as by those that are the
very minutest that do anywhere exist. They knock, impel, and resist one
another, just as the greater do; and that is all they can do. So that,
if we will suppose NOTHING first or eternal, matter can never begin to
be: if we suppose bare matter without motion, eternal, motion can never
begin to be: if we suppose only matter and motion first, or eternal,
thought can never begin to be. [For it is impossible to conceive that
matter, either with or without motion, could have, originally, in and
from itself, sense, perception, and knowledge; as is evident from hence,
that then sense, perception, and knowledge, must be a property eternally
inseparable from matter and every particle of it. Not to add, that,
though our general or specific conception of matter makes us speak of it
as one thing, yet really all matter is not one individual thing, neither
is there any such thing existing as ONE material being, or ONE single
body that we know or can conceive. And therefore, if matter were
the eternal first cogitative being, there would not be one eternal,
infinite, cogitative being, but an infinite number of eternal, finite,
cogitative beings, independent one of another, of limited force, and
distinct thoughts, which could never produce that order, harmony, and
beauty which are to be found in nature. Since, therefore, whatsoever is
the first eternal being must necessarily be cogitative; and] whatsoever
is first of all things must necessarily contain in it, and actually
have, at least, all the perfections that can ever after exist; nor can
it ever give to another any perfection that it hath not either actually
in itself, or, at least, in a higher degree; [it necessarily follows,
that the first eternal being cannot be matter.]