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. MEDITAT. V. _~Of the Essence~ of Things ~Material~. And herein Again of ~God~. And that he does ~Exist~._