242 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



tain purpofe, Is eflentlal to body, it will, I think, be difficult to flop 

 there ; and I do not at all wonder, that thefe gentlemen have proceed- 

 ed, and made not only the vegetable, but the animal and Intelledual 

 natures, the produdion of mere matter and motion, as well as the reft 

 of the univerfe ; whereas, if I have fucceeded in proving, that there Is 

 a principle of movement in all bodies, unorganized as well as organi- 

 zed, diftind from body itfelf, and of a nature and eflence quite differ- 

 ent ; that this principle rifes ftill higher and higher, till it comes to in- 

 telledt, which not only ads for certain ends and purpofes, but plans 

 and contrives thofe ends and purpofes, and is confcious of its own o- 

 pcratlons, I think I have ftruck at the very root of Atheifm ; for, if It 

 be once admitted, that there is, in our little bodies, an immaterial 

 principle which propofes ends, devifes means to bring about thofc 

 ends, which, in (hort, governs the adions of men, and direds the bu- 

 finefs of a great part of this lower world, the tranfition is eafy and na« 

 tural to minds ftill fuperior to ours, and with much greater powers and 

 faculties, till at laft we come to the Supreme Mind, by which the 

 whole univerfe is guided and diredcd, and under which, what is called 

 Nature^ is no more than an inferior minifter or operator. 



It may be objeded, that, allowing body cannot move itfelf, and, 

 that all motion In the univerfe proceeds from the Deity, Why may 

 we not fuppofe, that God has beftowed upon different kinds of bodies 

 the power of moving in different diredions, in order to carry on the 

 bufinefs of nature ? But, It will be faid, there is no neceffity to fup- 

 pofe that there is a mind in all bodies, and to confound the diflindion 

 betwixt bodies animate and inanimate. 



To 



another, and aQing by itfelf, without any reference to any thing elfe, fo that t^ere 

 could be no general fyftem of things in the univerfe. In fhort, this fyftem of Atheifm 

 is nothing elfe but the Nature of Ariftotle, and the Plaflic Nature ^ or Spermatic Prin- 

 ciple^ of Cudworth, but without fubordination to Deity. And this is a fylteni whick 

 fome late French writers have adopted. 



