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to them: So that we are in the main agreed, differing chiefly about the Agent that executes thofe Laws, which he holds to be God himself immediately, we a Plaftick Nature; for the Reasons alledg'd by Dr. Cudworth, in his Syftem, pag. 149. which are, First, Because the former, according to vulgar Apprehenfion, would render the Divine Providence operofe, folicitous, and distractious; and thereby make the Belief of it entertain'd with greater Difficulty, and give Advantage to Atheists. Secondly, It is not fo decorous in Refpect of God, that he should αὐτουργῶν ἅπαντα, fet his own Hand, as it were, to every Work, and immediately do all the meaneft and trifling'ft Things himself drudgingly, without making Ufe of any inferior or fubordinate Minifter. These two Reafons are plaufible, but not cogent; the two following are of greater Force. Thirdly, The flow and gradual Process that is in the Generation of Things, which would seem to be a vain and idle Pomp, or trifling Formality, if the Agent were omnipotent. Fourthly, Those aμaρThμara, as Ariftotle calls. them, thofe Errors and Bungles which were committed when the Matter is inept, or contumacious, as in Monsters, &c. which argue the Agent not to be irresistible; and that Nature is fuch a Thing as is not altogether uncapable, as well as human Art, of being fometimes fruftrated and difappointed by the Indifpofition of the Matter: Whereas an omnipotent Agent would always do its Work infallibly and irrefiftibly, no Ineptitude, or Stubbornefs of the Matter being ever able

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able to hinder fuch an one, or make him bungle, or fumble in any thing. So far the Doctor. For my Part, I thould make no Scruple to attribute the Formation of Plants, their Growth and Nutrition, to the vegetable Soul in them; and likewife the Formation of Animals, to the Vegetative Power of their Souls; but that the Segments and Cuttings of fome Plants, nay, the very Chips and smallest Fragments of their Body, Branches, or Roots, will grow and become perfect Plants themselves, and fo the vegetable Soul, if that were the Architect, would be divifible, and confequently no fpiritual, or intelligent Being; which the Plaftick Principle must be, as we have fhewn: For that must prefide over the whole Oeconomy of the Plant, and be one fingle Agent, which takes Care of the Bulk and Figure of the Whole, and the Situation, Figure, Texture of all the Parts, Root, Stalk, Branches, Leaves, Flowers, Fruit, and all their Veffels and Juices. I therefore incline to Dr. Cudworth's Opinion, that God ufes for thefe Effects the fubordinate Ministry of fome inferior Plaftick Nature; as, in his Works of Providence, he doth of Angels. For the Defcription whereof I refer the Reader to his System.

Secondly, In particular I am difficult to believe, that the Bodies of Animals can be form'd by Matter divided and mov'd by what Laws you will, or can imagine, without the immediate Prefidency, Direction, and Regulation of fome intelligent Being. In the Generation, or firft Formation of, fuppofe, the human Body out of (tho'

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(tho' not an homogeneous Liquor, yet) a fluid Substance, the only material Agent, or Mover, is a moderate Heat. Now how this, by producing an inteftine Motion in the Particles of the Matter, which can be conceiv'd to differ in nothing else but Figure, Magnitude, and Gravity, should, by Vertue thereof, not only feparate the Heterogeneous Parts, but affemble the Homogeneous into Maffes, or Syftems, and that not each Kind into one Mafs, but into many and disjoin'd Ones, as it were fo many Troops; and that in each Troop the particular Particles fhould take their Places, and caft themfelves into fuch a Figure; as for Example, the Bones, being about 300, are form'd of various Sizes and Shapes, fo fituate and connected, as to be fubfervient to many hundred. Intentions and Uses, and many of them confpire to one and the same Action, and all this contrarily to the Laws of Specifick Gravity, in whatever Pofture the Body be form'd; for the Bones, whofe, component Parts are the heavier, will be above fome Parts of the Flesh which are the lighter; how much more then, feeing it is form'd with the Head, (which for its Bignefs is the heaviest of all the Parts) uppermoft. This, I fay, I cannot by any Means conceive. I might inftance in all the Homogeneous Parts of the Body, either Sites and Figures, and ask by what imaginable Laws of Motion their Bulk, Figure, Situation, and Connection can be made out? What Account can be given of the Valves, of the Veins and Arteries of the Heart, and of the Veins

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elsewhere, and of their Situation;, of the Figure and Confiftency of all the Humours and Membranes of the Eye, all confpiring and exactly fitted to the Ufe of Seeing? But I have touch'd upon that already, and fhall difcourfe it largely afterward. You will ask me, Who, or what, is the Operator in the Formation of the Bodies of Man, and other Animals? I anfwer, The fenfitive Soul it felf, if it be a spiritual and immaterial Subftance, as I am inclinable to believe; but if it be material, and confequently the whole Animal but a mere Machine, or Automaton, as I can hardly admit, then must we have recourse to a Plaftick Nature.

That the Soul of Brutes is material, and the whole Animal, Soul and Body, but a mere Machine, is the Opinion, publickly own'd and declar'd, of Des Cartes, Gaffendus, Dr. Willis, and others. The fame is alfo neceffarily confequent upon the Doctrine of the Peripateticks, viz. That the fenfitive Soul is educed out of the Power of the Matter; for nothing can be educed out of the Matter but what was there before; which must be either Matter, or fome Modification of it. And therefore they cannot grant it to be a fpiritual Subftance, unless they will affert it to be educed out of nothing. This Opinion, I fay, I can hardly digeft: I fhould rather think, Animals to be endu'd with a lower Degree of Reason, than that they are mere Machines. I could inftance in many Actions of Brutes, that are hardly to be accounted for without Reason and Argumentation; as that commonly

monly noted of Dogs, that running before their Mafters, they will stop at a Divarication of the Way, 'till they fee which Hand their Masters will take; and that when they have gotten a Prey, which they fear their Mafters will take from them, they will run away and hide it, and afterwards return to it. What Account can be given why a Dog, being to leap upon a Table which he fees to be too high for him to reach at once, if a Stool, or Chair, happens to ftand near it, doth first mount up that, and from thence the Table? If he was a Machine, or Piece of Clockwork, and this Motion caus'd by the striking of a Spring, there is no Reason imaginable why the Spring being fet on Work, fhould not carry the Machine in a right Line toward the Object that put it in Motion, as well when the Table is high as when it is low; whereas I have often obferv'd the first Leap the Creature hath taken up the Stool, not to be directly toward the Table, but in a Line oblique, and much declining from the Object that mov'd it, or that Part of the Table on which it stood.

Many the like Actions there are, which I fhall not spend Time to relate. Should this be true, that Beasts were Automata, or Machines, they could have no Sense, or Perception of Pleafure, or Pain, and confequently no Cruelty could be exercis'd towards them; which is contrary to the doleful Significations they make when beaten, or tormented, and contrary to the common Senfe of Mankind, all Men naturally pity-ing them, as apprehending them to have fuch a Senfe

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