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Show Our Ideas of Subjlances. Book II. in we afcribe Exi!\ence, Power, Wifdom, and all other Perfection, (which we can have any Ideas of) to that Sovereign Being, which we call God being all boundlefs and infinite, we frame the be!\ Idea of him our Mind; are capable of; all which is done, I fay, by enlarging thofe limple "''"s we have taken from the Operations of our own Minds, by. relkction ; 0; bv our Senfes, from exterior t!ting<, to that va!\nefs, to wluch Infinity can extend them. §.J)· For it is Infinity, which, joined to our Ideas of Exi!\ence, Power, Knowledge, &c. makes that complex Idea, whereby we repreleot to our felves the be!\ we can, thefupreme Being. For though in his o\\'n Effence, (which certainly we do not know, not knowing the real H(ence of a Pe· ble, or a Fly, or of our own felves,) God be fimple and uncompounded; yet, I think, I may fay we have no other Idea of him, but a complex one of Exi!\ence, Knowledge, Power, Happinels, &c. infinite, and eternal : which are all di!\inct Ideas, and fome of them being relative, are agaiR compounded of others ; all which being, as has been ihewn, originally got from Senfation and Rejleflion, go to make up the Idea or Notion we have of God. §. 36. This farther is to be obfcrved, that there is no Idea we attribute to God, bating Infinity, which is notalfo a part of our complex Idea of other Spidts. Becaufe being capable of no other fimple Ideas, belonging to any thmg but Body, but thofe wluch by rcflcchon we receive lrom the Operation of our own Minds, we can attribute to Spirits no other, but what we receive from thence: And all the difference we can put batween them in our Contemplation of Spirits, is only m the feveral Extents and Degrees of their Knowledge, Power, Duration, Happinefs, &c. For that in our Ideas, as well of Spirits, as of other things, w~ arc rej/rai•ed tot/;ofe we reuive from Senfat ion and Rejleflio11, is evident from hence that in our Ideas of Spirits, how much foevcr advanced in Perfection be: yond thofe of Bodies, even to that of Infinite, we cannot yet hav~ any Idea of the manner, wherein they difcovertheirThouglmone to another: Though we mull neceifanly conclude, that Spirits, which are Beings, that have perfeCl:er Knowledge, and greater Happincfs than we, mull needs have alfo a pe~feiler way of communicating their Tlwu~hts, than we ha~e,who are fam to make ufe of corporeal Signs,and particularly Sounds, wluch are therefore of mofl general ufe, as bcmg the belt, and quickefl we are capable of. But of unmediat<; Commuoicarion, having no Expenment 111 our fclves, and confequently, no Notion of it at all, \re have no Idea, ho.V.: Spmts, whtch u(e not Words, can with quickncfs, or much lefs,how Spmts that have no Bodies,can beMaflers of their own Thoughts, and communicate, or conceal them at Ple:~furc, though we cannot but neceffanly fuppofe they have fuch a Power. • §.J7· And thus we have ken, what ki11d of Ideas we /;ave of S•f.,J/anm of all kinds, wherein they confift, and how we come by them. from whence, I think, it is very evident Firff, That all our Ideas of the' fevcral forts of Sub!\ances, are nothing but Collecttons of fimple .Ideas, withaSuppolitionoffomething,towhich they belong, and to wluch they fubfi!\; though of this fuppolcd fome· tlung, we have no clear difiinct Idea at all. · Secondly, That all thecorpplex Ideas we have of Sub!\ances, arc made up of no other funple Ideas, but fuch, as we have received from Senfotion or Re./lefiJon . . So tha~ even 111 thofc, which we think, we are moll intimately acquomted wtth, and come neare!\ the Comprehenfion of, our moll <nlarged Concepnons,cannot reach beyond thofe ftmple IJeas. And evc.n Chap.XXlV. Co!leCiive ideas o/ Subflances. even in thofe, which feem moll remote from all we have to do with, and do inf111itely furpafs any thing, we can perceive in our felves by Ref!dlion or difcover by Senfation in other d1ings, we can attain to nothing, bu; thefe fimp!e Ideas, wluch we ongmally rccetved from Senjario11, or R<jlellio•, as is evident in the complex !dtas we have of Angels, and particu• IarlyofGod himfclf. rbirdly, That moll of the fimple /deas,that make up our complex Ideas· of Sub!\ances, when truly conftdered, are only Powers, however we are a};t to take them for pofltive Qga!itics; 7J, g. the grcate!\ part of the Ideas, that make our complex Idea ot Gold, arc Yellownefs, great Weight, DuCl: ility, Fuflbility, and Solubility, in Ar· !ltgia, fsr. all united together in an unknown Subjlratum ; all which Ideas, are nothing elfe, but lo many relations to other Sub!\ances; and are not really in .rhe Gold it felf, though they depend on thofe real, and pnmary Qgaltttes ofits internal conflttntion, whereby it has a fimefs, diflerent!y to operate, and be operated on by feveralotllCrSub(laoccs. C H A P. XXIV. Of Colldli1Je Ideas of Subftances, , ., §. 1. BEtides thefe complex Ideas of feveral tingle Sub!\ances, as of Man, Horfe, Gold, Violet, Apple, fsc. the Mind hath alfo complex coliefli-ue./de.s of Sub!\ances; which I fo call, becaufe fuch Utas ore made up of many particular Sub!\ances confidered together, as united into one Jdea, and which fo joined, are looked on as one; v.JI;. the Idea of fuch a coli eel: ion of Men as make an Army, though con filling of a great number of di!\inCl: Sub!\ances, is as much one Idea, as the Idea of a Man: And the great collective Idea of all Bodies whatfocver lignified by the na!IIe World, is as much one Mea, as the idea of any the lea!\ Particle of Matter in it ; it fullicing, to the unity of any ldta, that it be confidered as one Rcprefentation, or Picture, though made up of never fo many Particulars. ~. 2. Thefe collective Ideas of Sub!\ances , the Mind m•kes by its power of Compofition, and uniting fcverally either fimple or complex Ideas into one, as it does, by the f.1me Faculty,make the complex Ideas of particular Sub!\ances, con filling of an aggregotc of divers fimp!e Ideas, united in one Subllance : And as the Mind by putting together the repeated Ideas of Unity, makes the coll~ctive Mode, o~ complex Idea of any number, .as a Score, or a Grofs, fsc. So by putttng_ togetller feveral particular Subllances, it makes collechve Ideas of Sub!lances, as a Troop, an Army, a Swarm, a City, a fleet 1 each of _which, every one finds, that he reprefents to his own Mmd, by one Idea, 111 one vtew; and founder that Notion, confiders the Thmgs themfelves as perfeCl:ly one, as one Ship, or one Atom. Nor is it harder to conceive, how an Army of teo Thoufimd Men, lhould make one Idea, than how a Man lhould m,1kc one idea; it being· as eafle to the Mind, to unite in~o one, the Idea of a great number of Men, and confider tt as one; a.s tt ts to u~lte mto one particular, <Ill the dtltin1 Jrleas, th.1t make up the compofitwn of a Man, and confider them <~lto~crhcr as one 149 |
