258 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



the planets have the fame kind of motion ; Why not aflignthe faine 

 caufe for it ? Why, rejcdingthis caufe, fhould wefuppofe a combined 

 motion, fuch as is not to be found any where in Nature befides, un- 

 lefs wiiere fome kind of violence is oifered to Nature, as in the cafe of 

 projedile motions here on earth ? 



But what I diflike moft in Sir Ifaac*s philofophy is, that it gives a 

 great deal too much countenance to the Atheiftical fyftem, though, I 

 am firmly perfuaded, that was not intended by Sir Ifaac : For, if the 

 celeftial machine has gone on for fix thoufand years, and may, by its 

 nature, go on to all eternity, the Atheill wnll afk. Why it may not 

 have gone on in the fame way from all eternity ? and Theifm will be 

 embarrafled with the difficulty of diftinguiQiing betwixt eternity a par- 

 te pofi^ and a parte ante, and of fhowing, that a thing may be eternal 

 ex parte pofl'i and not ex parte ante ; a diftindtion that is not made 

 by any antient philofopher *, and, I doubt, cannot be well fupported 

 upon any principles of philofophy. 



Neither does this philofophy of Sir Ifaac lay the foundation of 

 Theifm broad enough : For it necefiarily fuppofes, that the univerfe 

 had a be^-inning in time, becaufe the impulfe or impulfes, by which 

 the celeftial bodies were put in motion, muft, of neceffity, have been 

 friven at fome determined time. Now, this fyftem of Theifm ex- 

 cludes all the phllofophers of antiquity, without exception ; parti- 

 cularly Pythagoras, his fcholar Ocellus Lueanus, the moft antient 

 philofopher of whom we have any remains, whofe authenticity we are 

 fure of, Archytas the Tarcntine of the fame fchool t» likewife Plato, tho' 

 I know that is difputed, but without any good reafon, as I Ihall fhow 

 in the proper place, Ariftotle his fcholar moft certainly, and all the 



Pla- 



* Plato, in his argument in the Phaedo to prove the immortality of the foul, does 

 plainly make no fuch diftindion ; but, on the contrary, argues, as if the prae-exiftence 

 of the foul was neceflarily conncOed with its pofl-exiftence ; and proves the one by the 

 other. And, in the fame manner, Cicero aigues in his book of Difination. 



+ See Gales's preface to his edition of Ocellus Lucanus's work De Univer/o, pa. 

 i)liflKd among his Opufcula Alylhdogica. 



