Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body — Descartes — John Shaqi
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes · en
And truly ’tis not to be Admired that _God_ in Creating me should
_Imprint_ this _Idea_ in me, that it may there remain as a _stamp
impressed_ by the _Workman God_ on _me_ his _Work_, neither is it
requisite that this _stamp_ should be a Thing _different_ from the _Work_
it self, but ’tis very Credible (from hence only that _God Created_ me)
that I am made as it were according to his _likeness_ and _Image_, and
that the same _likeness_, in which the _Idea_ of God is contain’d, is
_perceived_ by Me with the _same faculty_, with which I _perceive my
Self_; That is to say, whilst _I reflect_ upon my self, _I_ do not only
_perceive_ that I am an _Imperfect_ thing, having my _dependance_ upon
some other thing, and that I am a Thing that Desires _more_ and _better_
things _Indefinitely_; But also at the same time I understand, that _He_
on whom I _depend_ contains in him all those _wish’d for things_ (not
only _Indefinitely_ and _Potentially_, but) _Really_, _Indefinitely_;
and that therefore he is _God_. The whole stress of which * Argument
lies thus, because I know it Impossible for Me to Be of the same Nature
I am, _Viz._ Having the _Idea_ of a _God_ in me, unless really there
were a _God_, a _God_ (I say) that very _same God_, whose _Idea I_ have
in my _Mind_ (that is, Having all those _perfections_, which I cannot
_comprehend_, but can as it were _think upon them_) and who is not
_subject_ to any _Defects_.
By which ’tis evident that _God_ is no _Deceiver_; for ’tis manifest by
the _Light_ of _Nature_, that all _fraud_ and _deceit_ depends on some
_defect_. But before I prosecute this any farther, or pry into other
_Truthes_ which may be deduced from this, I am willing here to stop, and
dwell upon the Contemplation of this _God_, to Consider with my self
His _Divine Attributes_, to behold, admire, and adore the Loveliness of
this _Immense light_, as much as possibly I am able to accomplish with my
_dark_ Understanding. For as by _Faith_ we _believe_ that the greatest
_happiness_ of the _next Life_ consists alone in the _Contemplation_ of
the _Divine Majesty_, so we _find_ by _Experience_ that now we receive
from thence the greatest _pleasure_, whereof we are capable in _this
Life_; Tho it be much more _Imperfect_ then that in the _Next_.
MEDITAT. IV.
_Of Truth and Falshood._