A KEY TO MEDICINE, original: "Physic"

...of proportional size original: "proportionable bulk" than it did before this division. The smallest particles of matter collide with, repel, and resist one another just as larger ones do, and that is all they are capable of doing. Therefore, if we assume that nothing is eternal, then matter could never have begun to exist. If we assume that raw matter without motion is eternal, then motion could never have begun. If we assume only matter and motion are eternal, then thought could never have begun. It is impossible to imagine that matter—whether moving or still—could originally possess sense, perception, and knowledge within itself. This is evident because if it did, then sense, perception, and knowledge would have to be an eternal property inseparable from every single particle of matter.

Therefore, since whatever is the first eternal being must necessarily be a thinking being original: "cogitative", and since the source of all things must contain within itself—and actually possess—at least all the perfections that can ever exist afterward, it necessarily follows that the first eternal being cannot be mere matter. If it is clear that something must necessarily have existed from eternity, it is equally clear that that something must be a conscious, thinking being. It is just as impossible for unthinking original: "incogitative" matter to produce a thinking being as it is for nothingness—the total absence of all being—to produce actual matter.

This discovery of the necessary existence of an eternal mind leads us directly to the knowledge of God. From this, it follows that all other conscious beings who have a beginning must depend on Him; they have no power or knowledge except what He gives them. Therefore, if He created those beings, He also created the less magnificent parts of this universe, including all inanimate bodies. Through this, His all-knowing nature original: "omniscience", power, and divine guidance original: "providence" are established, and all His other attributes follow logically from that.

In this way, the presence of the Deity is visible in all His works. There is not the smallest part of the vast space our eyes see or our imaginations conceive that is not filled with His presence. The worlds that revolve with such order, beauty, and harmony through the immensity of space—the sun, moon, stars, and planets—are upheld by His favor original: "the light of his countenance". Without it, they would fall from their orbits and, plunged into a vast abyss, would return to their original state of chaos.

We owe all the blessings of this life to the mercy of God as a reward for good and virtuous actions. To His anger, we rightly attribute all violent natural disasters original: "concussions of the elements", famine, plague, and pestilence, and so on, brought upon a wicked and abandoned people—much like the storm of fire and brimstone sent upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The vengeance of God cannot be more powerfully described than by King David in his Psalms; these should serve as a timely warning to atheists, unbelievers, and to those wicked, idolatrous, and corrupt countries whose detestable crimes have so often brought about these terrible punishments original: "scourges". The shaking of the earth; the trembling of the