16. Thirdly, because a system of incogitative matter cannot be cogitative.
III. If then neither one peculiar atom
alone can be this eternal thinking being; nor all matter, as matter, i.e., every particle of matter, can be it; it only
remains, that it is some certain system of matter, duly put together, that is this thinking eternal Being. This is that
which, I imagine, is that notion which men are aptest to have of God; who would have him a material being, as
most readily suggested to them by the ordinary conceit they have of themselves and other men, which they take to
be material thinking beings. But this imagination, however more natural, is no less absurd than the other: for to
suppose the eternal thinking Being to be nothing else but a composition of particles of matter, each whereof is
incogitative, is to ascribe all the wisdom and knowledge of that eternal Being only to the juxta-position of parts;
than which nothing can be more absurd. For unthinking particles of matter, however put together, can have
nothing thereby added to them, but a new relation of position, which it is impossible should give thought and
knowledge to them.
