_Of Truth and Falshood._
Of late it has been so common with me to withdraw _my Mind_ from my
_sences_, and I have so throughly consider’d how few things there are
appertaining to _Bodies_ that are _truly_ perceived, and that there are
more Things touching _Mans mind_, and yet more concerning _God_, which
are _well known_; that now without any difficulty _I_ can turn my
Thoughts from things _sensible_, to those which are only _Intelligible_,
and _Abstracted_ from _Matter_. And truely _I_ have a much more _distinct
Idea_ of a _Mans mind_ (as it is a _Thinking Thing_, having no _Corporeal
Dimensions_ of _Length_, _Breadth_, and _Thickness_, nor having any other
_Corporeal Quality_) then the _Idea_ of any _Corporeal Thing_ can be. And
when I reflect upon my self, and consider how that I _doubt_, that is,
am an _imperfect dependent Being_, I from hence Collect such a _clear_
and _distinct Idea_ of an _Independent perfect Being_, which is _God_,
and from hence only that _I have such an Idea_, that is, because _I_ that
have this _Idea_ do _my self Exist_; I do so _clearly_ conclude that
_God also Exists_, and that on him my _Being depends_ each Minute; That
I am Confident nothing can be known more _Evidently_ and _Certainly_ by
_Humane Understanding_.
And now _I_ seem to perceive a _Method_ by which, (from this
Contemplation of the _true God_, in whom the Treasures of _Knowledge_ and
_Wisdome_ are Hidden) _I_ may attain the _Knowledge_ of other Things.
And first, _I_ know ’tis impossible that this _God_ should _deceive_
me; For in all _cheating_ and _deceipt_ there is something of
_imperfection_; and tho to be _able_ to _deceive_ may seem to be an
Argument of _ingenuity_ and _power_, yet without doubt to _have_ the
_Will_ of _deceiving_ is a sign of _Malice_ and _Weakness_, and therefore
is not _Incident_ to _God_.
I have also found in my self a _Judicative faculty_, which certainly (as
all other things I possess) I have received from _God_; and seeing he
will not _deceive_ me, he has surely given me such a _Judgement_, that
I can _never Err_, whilst I make a _Right Use_ of it. Of which truth I
can make no doubt, unless it seems, that From hence it will follow, That
therefore _I can never Err_; for if whatever I have, I have from _God_,
and if he gave me no _Faculty_ of _Erring_, I may seem not to be _able to
Err_. And truly so it is whilst I think upon _God_, and wholly convert
my self to the _consideration_ of him, I find no occasion of _Error_ or
_Deceit_; but yet when I return to the _Contemplation_ of _my self_, I
find my self liable to _Innumerable Errors_. Enquiring into the _cause_
of which, I find in my self an _Idea_, not only a _real_ and _positive
one_ of a _God_, that is, of a _Being infinitely perfect_, but also
(as I may so speak) a _Negative Idea_ of _Nothing_; that is to say, I
am so constituted between God and Nothing or between a perfect _Being_
and _No-being_, that as I am _Created_ by the _Highest Being_, I have
nothing in Me by which I may be _deceived_ or drawn into _Error_; but as
I pertake in a manner of _Nothing_, or of a _No-Being_, that is, as I my
self am _not_ the _Highest Being_, and as I _want_ many _perfections_,
’tis no Wonder that I should be _Deceived_.
By which I understand that _Error_ * (as it is _Error_) is not any _real
Being_ dependant on _God_, but it is only a _Defect_; And that therefore
to make me _Err_ there is not requisite a _faculty_ of _Erring_ given
me by _God_, but only it so happens that I _Err_ meerly because the
_Judicative faculty_, which he has given me, is not _Infinite_.
But yet this Account is not fully _satisfactory_; for _Error_ is not
only a meer _Negation_, but ’tis a _Privation_, or a _want_ of a certain
_Knowledge_, which _ought_ (as it were) to be in me. And when I consider
the _Nature_ of _God_, it seems impossible that he should give me any
_faculty_ which is not _perfect_ in its _kind_, or which should _want_
any of its _due perfections_; for if by how much the more _skilful_ the
_Workman_ is, by so much the _Perfecter Works_ proceed from him. What can
be made by the _Great Maker_ of all things which is not _fully perfect_?
For I cannot Doubt but _God_ may _Create_ me so that I may _never_ be
_deceived_, neither can I doubt but that he _Wills_ whatever is _Best_;
Is it therefore _better_ for me to be _deceived_, or not to be _deceived?_
These things when I Consider more heedfully, it comes into my Mind,
First, that ’tis no cause of Admiration that _God_ should do Things
whereof I can give no account, nor must I therefore doubt his _Being_,
because there are many things done by him, and I not comprehend _Why_
or _How_ they are done; for seeing I now know that my _Nature_ is very
_Weak_ and _Finite_, and that the _Nature_ of _God_ is _Immense_,
_Incomprehensible_, _Infinite_; from hence I must fully, understand, that
he can do numberless things, the _Causes_ whereof lie _hidden_ to Me.
Upon which account only I esteem all those Causes which are Drawn from
the End (viz. _Final Causes_) as of no use in _Natural Philosophy_, for I
cannot without Rashness Think my self _able_ to Discover _Gods_ Designes.
I perceive this also, that whenever we endeavour to know whether the
_Works_ of _God_ are _perfect_, we must not Respect any _one kind_ of
Creature _singly_, but the _Whole Universe_ of _Beings_; for perhaps what
(if considered _alone_) may Deservedly seem _Imperfect_, yet (as it is a
_part_ of the _World_) is most _perfect_; and tho since I have _doubted_
of all things, I have discover’d nothing _certainly_ to _Exist_, but _my
self_, and _God_, yet since I have Consider’d the _Omnipotency_ of _God_,
I cannot deny, but that many other things _are made_ (or at least, _may
be made_) by him, so that I my self _may be_ a _part_ of this _Universe_.
Furthermore, coming nigher to my self, and enquiring what these _Errors_
of mine, are (which are the Only Arguments of my _Imperfection_) * I
find them to _depend_ on _two concurring Causes_, on my _faculty_ of
_Knowing_, and on my _faculty_ of _Choosing_ or _Freedome_ of my _Will_,
that is to say, from my _Understanding_, and my _Will together_. For
by my _Understanding alone_ I only perceive _Ideas_, whereon I make
_Judgments_, wherein (_precisely_ so taken) there can be no _Error,
properly_ so called; for tho perhaps there may be numberless things,
whose _Ideas_ I have _not_ in Me, yet I am not _properly_ to be said
_Deprived_ of them, but only _negatively wanting_ them; and I cannot
prove that _God ought_ to have given me a _greater faculty_ of _Knowing_.
And tho I understand him to be a _skilful Workman_, yet I cannot Think,
that he _ought_ to have put all those _perfections_ in _each_ Work of his
_singly_, with which he might have _endowed some_ of them.
Neither can I complain that _God_ has not given me a _Will_, or _Freedom_
of _Choise_, _large_ and _perfect_ enough; for I have experienced that
’tis _Circumscribed_ by _no Bounds_.
And ’tis worth our taking notice, that I have no other thing in me so
_perfect_ and so _Great_, but I Understand that there may be _Perfecter_
and _Greater_, for if (for Example) I consider the _Faculty_ of
_Understanding_, I presently perceive that in me ’tis very _small_ and
_Finite_, and also at the same time I form to my self an _Idea_ of an
other _Understanding_ not only _much Greater_, but the _Greatest_ and
_Infinite_, which I perceive to belong to _God_. In the same manner if I
enquire into _memory_ or _imagination_ or any other faculties, I find
them in my self _Weak_ and _Circumscribed_, but in _God_ I Understand
them to be _Infinite_, there is therefore only my _Will_ or _Freedome_
of _Choice_, which I find to be _so Great_, that I cannot frame to my
self an _Idea_ of _One Greater_, so that ’tis by this _chiefly_ by which
I Understand my self to Bear the _likeness_ and _Image_ of _God_. For
tho the _Will_ in _God_ be without comparison _Greater_ then Mine, both
as to the _Knowledge_ and _Power_ which are _Joyn’d_ therewith, which
make it more _strong_ and _Effective_, and also as to the _Object_
thereof, for _God_ can apply himself to _more_ things then I can. Yet
being taken _Formally_ and _Precisely Gods Will_ seems _no greater_ then
Mine. For the _Freedome_ of _Will_ consists only in this, that we can
_Do_, or _not Do_ such a Thing (that is, _affirm_ or _deny_, _prosecute_
or _avoid_) or rather in this Only, that we are _so carried_ to a Thing
which is _proposed_ by Our _Intellect_ to _Affirm_ or _Deny_, _Prosecute_
or _Shun_, that we are _sensible_, that we are _not Determin’d_ to the
_Choice_ or _Aversion_ thereof, by any _outward Force_.
Neither is it Requisite to make one _Free_ that he should have an
_Inclination_ to _both_ sides. For on the contrary, by how much the more
_strongly_ I am inclined to _one_ side (whether it be that I _evidently
perceive_ therein Good or Evil, or Whether it be that _God has so
disposed_ my _Inward Thoughts_) By so much the _more Free_ am I in my
_Choice_.
Neither truly do _Gods Grace_ or _Natural Knowledge_ take away from
my _Liberty_, but rather _encrease_ and _strengthen_ it. For that
_indifference_ which I find in my self, when no Reason inclines me _more_
to _one side_, then to _the other_, is the _meanest_ sort of _Liberty_,
and is so far from being a sign of _perfection_, that it only argues a
_defect_ or _negation_ of _Knowledge_; for if I should always _Clearly
see_ what were _True_ and _Good_ I should never _deliberate_ in my
_Judgement_ or _Choice_, and Consequently, tho I were _perfectly Free_,
yet I should never be _Indifferent_.
From all which, I perceive that neither the _Power_ of _Willing
precisely_ so taken, which I have from _God_, is the _Cause_ of my
_Errors_, it being most _full_ and _perfect_ in its kind; Neither also
the _Power_ of _Understanding_, for whatever I _Understand_ (since ’tis
from God that I _Understand_ it) I _understand aright_, nor can I be
therein _Deceived_.
From _Whence_ therefore proceed all my _Errors_? To which, I answer,
that they proceed from _hence_ only, that seeing the _Will_ expatiates
it self _farther_ then the _Understanding_, I keep it not within the
_same bounds_ with my _Understanding_, but often extend it to those
things which I _Understand not_, to which things it being _Indifferent_,
it easily Declines from what is _True_ and _Good_; and consequently
I am _Deceived_ and _Commit sin_. * Thus, for example, when lately I
felt my self to enquire, Whether any thing doth _Exist_, and found
that from my setting _my self_ to Examine such a thing, it evidently
follows that I _my self Exist_, I could not but _Judge_, what I so
_clearly Understood_, to be _true_, not that I was _forced_ thereto by
any _outward impulse_, but because a _strong Propension_ in my _Will_
did follow this _Great Light_ in my _Understanding_, so that I believed
it so much the more _freely_ and _willingly_, by how much the less
_indifferent_ I was thereto. But now I understand, not only, that I
_Exist_ as I am a _Thing_ that _Thinks_, but I also meet with a certain
_Idea_ of a _Corporeal Nature_, and it so happens that I _doubt_,
whether that _Thinking Nature_ that is in me be _Different_ from that
_Corporeal Nature_, or Whether they are _both the same_: but in this
_I_ suppose that _I_ have found no Argument to _incline_ me _either
ways_, and therefore _I_ am _Indifferent_ to _affirm_ or _deny either_,
or to _Judge nothing_ of _either_; But this _indifferency_ extends it
self not only to those things of which I am _clearly ignorant_, but
generally to all those things which are _not_ so very _evidently known_
to me at the Time when my _Will Deliberates_ of them; for tho never so
probable _Guesses incline_ me to _one_ side, yet the Knowing that they
are only _Conjectures_, and not indubitable _reasons_, is enough to Draw
my _Assent_ to the _Contrary_ Part. Which Lately _I_ have sufficiently
experienced, when _I_ supposed all those things (which formerly _I_
assented to as most _True_) as very _False_, for this _Reason_ only that
_I_ found my self _able_ to doubt of them in some manner.
If I abstain from _passing_ my _Judgment_, when I do _not clearly_ and
_distinctly_ enough perceive what is _Truth_, ’tis evident that I do
_well_, and that I am _not deceived_: But if I _affirm_ or _deny_, then
’tis that I _abuse_ the _freedome_ of my _will_, and if I turn my self
to that part which is _false_, I am _deceived_; but if I _embrace_ the
_contrary_ Part, ’tis but _by chance_ that I light on the _Truth_, yet
I shall not therefore be Blameless, for ’tis Manifest by the _light_
of _Nature_ that the _Perception_ of the _Understanding ought_ to
preceed the _Determination_ of the _Will_. And ’tis in this _abuse_ of
_Free-Will_ that That _Privation_ consists, which Constitutes _Error_;
I say there is a _Privation_ in the _Action_ as it proceeds from Me,
but not in the _Faculty_ which I have received from _God_; nor in the
_Action_ as it _depends_ on _him_.
Neither have I any Reason to Complain that God has not given me a _larger
Intellective Faculty_, or more _Natural Light_, for ’tis a necessary
Incident to a _finite Understanding_ that it should not Understand _All_
things, and ’tis Incident to a _Created Understanding_ to be _Finite_:
and I have more Reason to thank him for what he has _bestowed_ upon me
(tho he _owed_ me nothing) then to think my self _Robbed_ by him of those
things which he _never gave me_.
Nor have I Reason to Complain that he has given me a _Will_ larger then
my _Understanding_: for seeing the _Will_ Consists in _one_ thing only,
and as it were in an _Indivisible_ (viz. to _Will_, or _not to Will_) it
seems contrary to its nature that it should be _less_ then ’tis; and
certainly by how much the _Greater_ it is, so much the more _Thankful_ I
ought to be to _him_; that Gave it me.
Neither can I Complain that God _concurrs_ with me in the Production of
those _Voluntary Actions_ or _Judgements_ in which I am _deceived_: for
those _Acts_ as they _depend_ on _God_ are altogether _True_ and _Good_;
and I am in some measure _more perfect_ in that I can _so Act_, then if
I could _not_: for that _Privation_, in which the _Ratio Formalis_ of
_Falshood_ and _Sin_ consists, wants not the _Concourse_ of _God_; For
it is _not A Thing_, and having respect to him as its _Cause_, ought
not to be called _Privation_, but _Negation_; for certainly ’tis no
_Imperfection_ in _God_, that he has given me a _freedome_ of _Assenting_
or _not Assenting_ to some things, the _clear_ and _distinct_ Knowledge
whereof he has not _Imparted_ to my _Understanding_; but certainly ’tis
an _Imperfection_ in me, that I _abuse_ this _liberty_, and _pass_ my
_Judgement_ on those things which I do _not Rightly_ Understand.
Yet I see that ’tis Possible with _God_ to effect that (tho I should
remain _Free_, and of a _Finite Knowledge_) I should _never Err_, that
is, if he had endowed my _Understanding_ with a _clear_ and _distinct_
Knowledge of all things whereof I should ever have an _Occasion_ of
_deliberating_; or if he had only so firmly fix’d in my Mind, that I
should never forget, this, _That I must never Judge of a thing which I
do not clearly and distinctly Understand_; Either of which things had
_God_ done, I easily perceive that _I_ (as consider’d in my self) should
be _more perfect_ then now I am, yet nevertheless I cannot deny but that
there _may be a greater perfection_ in the _whole Universe_ of Things,
for that some of its parts are Obnoxious to _Errors_, and some not, then
if they were all _alike_. And I have no Reason to Complain, that it has
pleased God, that I should _Act_ on the _Stage_ of this _World_ a _Part_
not the _chief_ and _most perfect_ of all; Or that I should not be able
to abstain from _Error_ in the _first way_ above specifi’d, which depends
upon the _Evident Knowledge_ of those things whereof _I deliberate_; Yet
that I may abstain from _Error_ by the _other means_ abovemention’d,
which depends only on this, _That I Judge not of any Thing, the truth
whereof is not Evident._ For tho I have experienced in my self this
_Infirmity_, that I cannot _always_ be intent upon _one_ and the _same_
Knowledge, yet _I_ may by a _continued_ and _often repeated_ Meditation
bring this to pass, that as often as _I_ have use of this Rule _I_ may
Remember it, by which means I may Get (as it were) an _habit_ of _not
erring_.
In which thing seeing, the _greatest_ and _chief perfection_ of
_Man_ consists, _I_ repute my self to have gain’d much by this days
_Meditation_, for that therein _I_ have discover’d the _Cause_ of
_Error_, _and Falshood_; which certainly can be no other then what _I_
have now Declared; for whenever in Passing my Judgement, _I_ bridle
my _Will_ so that it extend it self _only_ to those things which I
_clearly_ and _distinctly_ perceive, it is impossible that I can _Err_.
For doubtless All _clear_ and _distinct_ Perception is _something_, and
therefore cannot _proceed_ from _Nothing_, but must necessarily have
_God_ for its _Author_ (_God_, I say, Who is _infinitely Perfect_, and
who _cannot Deceive_) and therefore it Must be _True_.
Nor have I this Day learnt only what I must _beware off_ that I be not
_deceived_, but also what I must _Do_ to Discover _Truth_, for _That_ I
shall certainly find, if I fully Apply my self to those things _only_,
which I _perfectly_ understand; and if I distinguish between those and
what I apprehend but _confusedly_ and _obscurely_; Both which hereafter I
shall endeavour.