318 LOGIC: OR, THE RIGhT Ost OF REASON. Essence therefore is but the very nature of any being Wlìe titer it be actually existing or no. A rose in Winter has an essence, in summer it has existence also. Note, There is but one being Which includes existence in the very essence of it, and that is God; who therefore actually exists by natural and eternal necessity : but the actual existence of every creature is very distinct from its essence, for it may be, or may not be, as God pleases. Again, Every being is considered either as subsisting in and by itself, and then it is called a substance; or it subsists in and by another, and then it is called a mode or manner of being. Though few writers allow mode to be called a being in the same perfect sense as a substance is; and some modes have evidently more of real entity or being than others, as will appear when we come to treat of them. These things will furnish us with matter for larger discourse in the following sections. SECT. II. Of Substances and their various Rinds. A Substance is a being which can subsist by itself without dependence upon any other created being. The notion of sub- sisting by itself gives occasion to logicians to call it a substance. So a horse, a house, wood, stone, water, fire, a spirit, a body, an angel, are palled substances, because they depend on nothing but God for their existence. h has been usual also in the description of substance to add, it is that which is the subject of modes or accidents; a body is the substance or subject, its shape is the mode. But lest we be led into mistakes, let us here take notice, that when a substance is said to subsist Without dependence upon er:other created being, all that we mean is, that it cannot be an- nihilated, or utterly destroyed and reduced to nothing, by any power inferior to that of our Creator; though its present parti- cular form, nature and properties may be altered and destroyed by many inferior causes; a horse may die and turn to dust; wood may be turned into fire, smoke, and ashes ; a house into rubbish, and water into ice or vapour ; but the substance or mat- ter of which they are made still remains,- though the forms and shapes of it are altered. A body may cease to be a house, or a horse, but it is a body stilt ; and in this sense it depends only upon God for its existence. Among substances some are thinking or conscious beings, or have a power of thought, such as the mind of man, God, angels. Some are extended and solid, or impenetrable ; that is, they have dimensions of length, breadth and depth, and have also a power of resistance, or exclude every thing of the same kind from being in the same place. This is the proper character Of matter or body. As for the idea of space, whether it be void or full, that is,
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