pire of the will over
our mind more intelligible. The effect is there distinguishable
and separable from the cause, and coued not be foreseen without the
experience of their constant conjunction. We have command over our mind
to a certain degree, but beyond that, lose all empire over it: And it is
evidently impossible to fix any precise bounds to our authority, where
we consult not experience. In short, the actions of the mind are, in
this respect, the same with those of matter. We perceive only their
constant conjunction; nor can we ever reason beyond it. No internal
impression has an apparent energy, more than external objects have.
Since, therefore, matter is confessed by philosophers to operate by
an unknown force, we should in vain hope to attain an idea of force by
consulting our own minds. [Footnote 8.]

[Footnote 8. The same imperfection attends our ideas of the
Deity; but this can have no effect either on religion or
morals. The order of the universe proves an omnipotent mind;
that is, a mind whose wili is CONSTANTLY ATTENDED with the
obedience of every creature and being. Nothing more is
requisite to give a foundation to all the articles of
religion, nor is It necessary we shoud form a distinct idea
of the force and energy of the supreme Being.]

It has been established as a certain principle, that general or abstract
ideas are nothing but individual ones taken in a certain light, and
that, in reflecting on any object, it is as impossible to exclude from
our thought all particular degrees of quantity and quality as from the
real nature of things. If we be possest, therefore, of any idea of power
in general, we must also be able to conceive some particular species
of it; and as power cannot subsist alone, but is always regarded as an
attribute of some being or existence, we must be able to place this
power in some particular being, and conceive that being as endowed with
a real force and energy, by which such a particular effect necessarily
results from its operation. We must distinctly and particularly conceive
the connexion betwixt the cause and effect, and be able to pronounce,
from a simple view of the one, that it must be followed or preceded by
the other. This is the true manner of conceiving a particular power in
a particular body: and a general idea being impossible without an
individual; where the latter is impossible, it is certain the former
can never exist