vn 



" can be the cftccfc of notliing elfe, than the wifdom and rKillofa 

 " powerful ever-living ■-\gent, who, being in ali places, is mo e able, 

 " by his will, to move the bodies within his boundlefs uniform 

 " *Senforium, and thereby to form and reform the parts of the Un.i- 

 " verfe, than we are, by our will, to move tlie parts of our own 

 " bodies. " 



I hope I may be permitted to add to tlie opinions of thefe great 

 men, an obfervation, which, 1 think, mufl have occurred to them, 

 thougli they have not particularly mentioned it, except Sir Ifaac 

 Newton, in the laft lines of the pad'age I have quoted from him- The 

 laws of motion which, according to iMr. Byyle, were eflabliflied at 

 the Beginning, and afterwards, continued, by wliat he calls, " the 

 " ordinary concourfe of the Creator, " and which principles are ftiied 

 by Sir Ifaac Newton, " the laws of Nature," cannot have any force 

 without the fame exertion of power to fupport them, by which they 

 were at firfl created. Nor can the incorporeal mind or fpirit. menti- 

 oned by Dr. Mead, preferve its activity without the continued influ- 

 ence of the Supreme Mind. For, the cafe is not analogous to what 

 may be fuppofed of a workman, conftru6ting a machine, which fliall 

 for a length of time continue in motion, without his intervention ; 

 nor to that of a mafter, giving directions to his fervants to perform, 

 what they afterwards accompli Hi of themfelves. For, in the cne 

 inftance, the machine, if its firfl mover be a weight, is kept gcing 

 by the law of gravity, and, if a fpring, by the power of elafticity, 

 both which are entirely independent of the workman ; and, in the 

 other inllance, the fervant executes his mafter's commands by vir- 

 tue of the powers of felf volition and action he podefles, independent 

 of that mafter, though, for the time, he willingly applies thofe powers 

 to the accomplhbment of the talk aftigned to him. But, v>e cannot 



* Senforium, menus tlie fcnt of confcioufnefs or perception, in animated Beings ; and, vvhsn 

 applied to the Deity, his Omniprefence makes it to be every part of Space. 



