repeats again, pag. 124, 125. of the fame Trea tife.

This Hypothefis, I fay, I cannot fully acquiesce in, because an intelligent Being feems to. me requifite to execute the Laws of Motion: For firft, Motion being a fluent Thing, and one Part of its Duration being abfolutely independent upon another, it doth not follow that because any thing moves this Moment, it must neceffarily continue to do fo the next; unless it were actually poffefs'd of its future Motion, which is a Contradiction; but it stands in as much Need of an Efficient to preserve and continue its Motion as it did at firft to produce it. Secondly, Let Matter be divided into the fubtilest Parts imaginable, and these be mov'd as fwiftly as you will, it is but a fenfeless and ftupid Being still, and makes no nearer Approach to Senfe, Perception or vital Energy, than it had before; and do but only stop the internal Motion of its Parts, and reduce them to Reft, the finest and most fubtile Body that is, may become as gross, and heavy, and stiff, as Steel or Stone. And as for any external Laws or eftablifh'd Rules of Motion, the ftupid Matter is not capable of obferving or taking any Notice of them, but would be as fullen as the Mountain was that Mahomet commanded to come down to him; neither can thofe Laws execute themselves. Therefore there muft, befides Matter and Law, be fome Efficient, and that either a Quality or Power inherent in the Matter itself, which is hard to conceive, or fome E

external

external intelligent Agent, either God himself immediately, or fome Plaftick Nature.

CC

CC

Happening lately to read The Chriftian Virtuofo, written by the fame Author of the Enquiry into the vulgar Notions of Nature, (the illuftrious Mr. Boyle) I find therein these Words: СС Nor will the Force of all that has been faid "for God's fpecial Providence be eluded, by faying with fome Deifts, That after the first "Formation of the Universe, all Things were "brought to pass by the fettled Laws of Nature. "For though this be confidently, and not without Colour, pretended, yet I confess it doth CC not fatisfie me: For I look upon a Law as a Moral, not Physical Cause, as being indeed "but a notional Thing, according to which an "intelligent and free Agent is bound to regulate "its Actions. But inanimate Bodies are utterly uncapable of understanding what it is, or what it enjoins, or when they act conformably or "unconformably to it: Therefore the Actions "of inanimate Bodies, which cannot incite or "moderate their own Actions, are produced by "real Power, not by Laws.

All this being confonant to what I have here written, against what I took to be this Honourable Perfon's Hypothefis, I muft needs, to do hin Right, acknowledge myself mistaken; perceiving now, that his Opinion was, that God Almighty did not only establish Laws and Rules of local Motion among the Parts of the univerfal Matter, but did, and does alfo himself, execute them, or move the Parts of Matter, according

to

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 Reafons alledg'd by Dr. Cudworth, in his System, pag. 149. which are, First, Because the former, according to vulgarApprehension, 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 Respect of God, that he should αὐτουργεῖν 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 inferiour or fubordinate Minifter. These two Reasons are plausible, 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, Thofe auapтúpara, as Ariftotle calls them, thofe Errors and Bungles which are committed when the Matter is inept or contumacious, as in Monsters, &c. which argue the Agent not to be irresistible; and that Nature is such a Thing as is not altogether uncapable, as well asHumane Art, of being fometimes fruftrated and disappointed by the Indifpofition of the Matter: Whereas an Omnipotent Agent would always do its Work infallibly and irrefiftibly, no Ineptitude or Stubbornness of the Matter being ever E 2 able

able to hinder fuch an one, or make him bungle or fumble in any thing. So far the Doctor. For my Part, I fhould make no Scruple to attribute the Formation of Plants, their Growth and Nutrition, to the vegetative 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 vegetative Soul, if that were the Architect, would be divifible, and consequently no fpiritual or intelligent Being; which the Plaftick Principle must be, as we have fhewn: For that muft 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 inferiour Plaftick Nature; as in his Works of Providence he doth of Angels. For the Defcription whereof I refer the Reader to his Syftem.

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 some intelligent Being. In the Generation or first Formation of, fuppofe, the Humane Body out of

(tho'

(tho' not an Homogeneous Liquor, yet) a fluid Subftance, 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, fhould, by Vertue thereof, not only feparate the Heterogeneous Parts, but affemble the Homogeneous into Maffes or Systems, and that not each Kind into one Mass, 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 themselves into fuch a Figure; as for Example, the Bones, being about 300, are form'd of various Sizes and Shapes, so situate and connected, as to be fubfervient to many hundred Intentions and Ufes, and many of them confpire to one and the fame 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, Į fay, I cannot by any Means conceive. I might instance 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 Açcount can be given of the Valves, of the Veins and Arteries of the Heart, and of the Veins