19. Objection: "Creation out of nothing." But you will say, Is it
not impossible to admit of the making anything out of nothing, since
we cannot possibly conceive it? I answer, No. Because it is not
reasonable to deny the power of an infinite being, because we cannot
comprehend its operations. We do not deny other effects upon this
ground, because we cannot possibly conceive the manner of their
production. We cannot conceive how anything but impulse of body can
move body; and yet that is not a reason sufficient to make us deny
it possible, against the constant experience we have of it in
ourselves, in all our voluntary motions; which are produced in us only
by the free action or thought of our own minds, and are not, nor can
be, the effects of the impulse or determination of the motion of blind
matter in or upon our own bodies; for then it could not be in our
power or choice to alter it. For example: my right hand writes, whilst
my left hand is still: What causes rest in one, and motion in the
other? Nothing but my will,- a thought of my mind; my thought only
changing, the right hand rests, and the left hand moves. This is
matter of fact, which cannot be denied: explain this and make it
intelligible, and then the next step will be to understand creation.
For the giving a new determination to the motion of the animal spirits
(which some make use of to explain voluntary motion) clears not the
difficulty one jot.
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