lttl2 LOGIC : OR, THE RIGHT USE OP REASON. some substance, which, for that reason, is called its subject. A mode must depend on that substance for its very existence and heing; and that not as a being depends on its cause, (for so sub- stances themselves depend on God their Creator ;) but the very being of a mode depends on some substance for its subject, in which it is, or to which it belongs ; so motion, shape, quan- tity, weight, are modes of body;, knowledge, wit, folly, love, doubting, judging, ere modes of the mind ; for the one can- not subsist without body, and the other cannot subsist without mind. l'Iodes have their several divisions, as well as substances. L Modes are either essential or accidental. An essential mode or attribute, is that which belongs to the very nature or essence of the subject wherein it is; and the sub. ject can never have the same nature without it; such is round- ness in a bowl, hardness in a stone, softness in water, vital motion in an animal, solidity in matter, thinking in a spirit; for though that piece of wood which is now a bowl may be made square, yet if the roundness be taken away, it is no longer a bowl ; so that very flesh and bones; which is now an animal, may be without life or inward motion ; but if all motion be entirely gone, it is no longer an animal, but a carcass ; so if a body of matter be di- vested of solidity, it is a mere void space or nothing ; and if Spirit be entirely without thinking, T have no idea of any thing that is left in it; therefore so far as I am able to judge, conscious- ness must be its essential attribute ;° thus all the perfections of God are called his attributes, for he cannot be without them. An essential mode is either primary or secondary. A primary essential mode is the first, or chief thing that con- stitutes any being in its particular essence or nature, and makes it to be that which it is, and distinguishes it from all other beings : this is called the difference in the definition of things, of which hereafter; so roundness is the primary essential mede, or the difference of a bowl ; the meeting of two lines is the primary essential mode, or the difference of an angle ; the . perpendicula- rity of these lines to each other is the difference, or a right angle ; solid entension is the primary attribute, or difference of matter; cónscioùsness, or at feast'a power of thinking, is the difference or primary attribute of a spirit,} ánd'to fear and love God is the primary attribute of a'pious man. A sécó'ndary essentidl rnödé is any other attribute of a thing, # Note, When I call solid extension an essential mode or attribute of mat - tèr, and á power of thinking an essential mode or attribute of a spirit, I do it in compt:anee with common forms of speech; but perhaps in reality these are the very essences of substances themselves, and the most substantial ideas that we can f ame óf body and spirit, and have no need of any (we know not what) sub - sttatum or unintelligible substance to support them in their existence or being. ¢ See ate note in the foregoing sod this page.
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