26o A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



Lafily^ Upon the fuppofition that mind moves the celeftlal bodies, 

 as it does every thing elfe, I fay it is impoffible they can be moved in 



the 



fenfc of Mofe?, and difFering in this point fiom the Jews themfelves, as appears from 

 what Philo Judaeus has written in his treatife, ^sj* tdj oiffini^nx^ ra« tcoT^ov. This new 

 do6lrine began to be received, as I imagine, about the time that the notion was in- 

 troduced into the Chriftian Church, but without any warrant from Scripture, 

 of the fouls of men being created later than their bodies, and infufed into them : But 

 this was a notion that would not go down, even with all the Chriftians. And one of 

 them, Synefius, a writer of the fourth century, could not be perfuaded, by the offer 

 of a billioprick, that his foul was the younger brother to his body ; fee Cudworth's 

 Intelle(SluaI Syllem, pages 38. and 39,; where he has given us the.words 'of Syne- 

 fius, which are, xfCtXa t>;j ■^v^yi* oux tx,%iU7U TTOTi era>f^xTii Cc-re^tyiVij vt^i^nv, And, if he 

 believed that fouls were from all eternity, it is not likely that he believed the univerfe 

 to be only five or fix thoufand years old. Philoponus, the commentator upon Arif- 

 totle, who was a Chriftian, has thought himfelf bound, it would feem, by the religion 

 which he profcfled, to write in defence of the temporary produ6lion of ihe world, a- 

 gainft Proclus, who maintained the opinion of the antient philofophers, that it was 

 eternal. In this treatife, Avhich is preferved to us, Philoponus endeavours to prove 

 it to b; impoffible, by the nature of things, that the world, being made by God, 

 fiiould be coeval with its Maker. But it is evident that he proceeded upon the vulgar 

 and grofs notion, of the world being made by God, in the fame manner as a piece of 

 wo'k is by a human artifl. In that cafe, no doubt, the caufe producing mufl be prior 

 in time to the produft^on ; but he ought to have learned, from the authors that he had 

 iludied and commented upon, that the produ<Slions of men, and, in general, all pro* 

 duclions here on earth, are very improperly compared to the produ£lions of God, 

 which are all emanations of his Nature, as necefiary as his Nature itfelf. Cudworth, 

 who is a moft candid reafoner, and fair inquirer, upon every fubjedl that he has 

 treated, frankly acknowledges, that ' he is prone to believe, that, could the world 

 * have been from eternity, it ftiould certainly have been fo.' IntelieiStual Syflem, 

 page 887. By which he means, that there (hould have been from all eternity this ma- 

 nileftation of the goodnefs, wifdom, and power of God, if it had not been abfolutely 

 impcflible, by the nature of things. But, Where is the impofiibility that a thing fliould 

 have betn from all eternity, that is admitted to have exifled for 6000 yearj, and may 

 exift we do not know how many thoufand years longer ? What is, by nature, impof- 

 fible, implies a contradiction ; and what implies a contradiction, cannot exifl for a mo- 

 ment. But, upen this fubje«£l, I will fay a great deal more in the fecond part of my 

 work, where 1 will fiiow, that, though thofe pious antient philofophers aflerted the 

 world to be eternal, they did not, therefore, believe, that the matter of which it was 

 ■made is independent of God j but they held, that the mattery as well as the form of 



the 



