iv PREFACE. 



has alfo fupported very well my opinion, that there is in every part 

 of nature an adive prinriple operating for a certain end, but with- 

 out confcioufnefs or knowledge ot that end. This is his plajllc nature^ 

 as he calls it ; and it was hearing of it that firft gave me the curiofity 

 of looking into his book. 



There is another modern author by whom I have likewife been af- 

 filed, Mr Baxter, the author of the treatife upon the Immortality of 

 the Human Soul. This author is learned in the modern philofophy ; 

 nor is he unlearned in the antient. Though I do not agree with him 

 in every particular, as 1 do with Cudworth, I think his work has a 

 great deal of merit, and is a fyftem of pure Theifm, proceeding upon 

 that grand principle above mentioned, that body cannot move it- 

 felf. 



As far as Mr Harris has gone in this metaphyfical philofophy, there 

 was nothing further to be done : And, accordingly, I have referred 

 to him for the particular explanation of the feveral categories or 

 predicaments, and have only made feme general obfcrvations upon 

 them. 



Thefe are the authors by whom I have been affiiled in this work. 

 As to the authors who have written in fupport of Atheifm and irrell- 

 gion, 1 have taken very little notice of any of them, except one, who 

 lay fo much in my way, that I could not have pafled him by, with^ 

 out afFedation — I mean Mr David Hume> the author of the Eflays, 

 Moral, Political, and Philofophical. I have, however, fuch an aver- 

 'fion to controverfial writing, that, I believe, 1 fliould not have 

 made any particular anfwer, even to him, but have allowed his im- 

 piety to be buried with him, if he hlmfelf had been contented with 

 that, and had not, even after death, endeavoured to continue ftill 

 his vain triumph over religion, having left, by way of legacy to 

 the public, certain works, to be publilhed by his executors, more 



