Chap.XVllI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 235 



The laft modern authority I (hall alledge, is that of the greateft 

 metaphyfician, in my opinion, that ever was in England, to whom 

 the caufe of religion and morals is very much indebted ; I mean Dr 

 Clarke. He, in his difcourfes upon the evidence of natural and reveal- 

 ed religion, has told us, that, to maintain that God originally created 

 a certain quantity of matter and motion, and left them to frame a 

 world at adventures, without any determined or particular view, de- 

 fign, or diredion, cannot be defended confidently, otherwife than by 

 having recourfe to downright Atheifm. Then he goes on to fay, 



* That, feeing matter is utterly incapable of obeying any laws, the 

 ' very original laws of motion themfelves cannot continue to take 



* place but hy foine thing Juperior to matter continually exerting on it a 



* certain force or power, according to fuch certain and determinate 

 ' laws.' And a little after he adds, * That mofi: univerfal principle 

 « of gravitation itfelf, the fpring of almofl all the great and regular 



* inanimate motions in the world, anfwering (as I hinted in my for- 



* mer difcourfe,) not at all to the furface of bodies, (by which alone 

 ' they can ad one upon another), but entirely to their /olid contents, 



* cannot poffibly be the rcfult of any motion originally impreffed on 



* matter, but muft of neeeffity be caufed by fomething which pene- 



G g 2 « trates 



* nor could It move It by local motion, as any body moves another, or as engines and 



* machines move, by trufion or pulfion, they being before moved, but mufl: do it by a- 



* nother kind of adion, fuch as is not local motion, nor heterckingjie, but dutokinefie, 



* that is, by cogitation- Wherefore that conceit of the Atheifts, that an incorporeal 



* Deity could not poflibly move the matter of the -worldy becaufe it would run thro' 



* it, and could not fallen or lay hold thereupon, is abfurd, becaufe this moves matter 



* not mechanically, but vitally, and by cogitation only. And, that a cogitative bein^, 



* as fuch, hath a natural imperium over matter, and power of moving it, without any 



* engines or machines. Is unqueftionably certain, even from our own fouls, which 



* move our bodies, and command them every way, merely by will and thought. And 

 « a perfea mzWprefiding over the matter of the whole world could much more irre- 



* fiftibly, and with infinitely more eafe, move the whole corporeal univerfe, merely by 



* will and cogitation, than we can our bodies/ 



