Chap. 11. ANTIEiNT METAPHYISICS. 371 



What appears to have led the DcxStor into this error, was his 

 fcruple to allow any thing to be of eternal and neceflary exiftencc, 

 as Space undoubtedly is, which was not entirely dependent upon 

 Deity, and part of his Nature. But, if the Do61:or had underftood 

 that Space was nothing abfolutely in itfelf, but only relative to Body, 

 and, therefore, that it had no a(3:ual exiftence, but exifted only ^oteti" 

 tially^ or in poffibitity^ till Body was created, he would eafily have got 

 over that fcruple, and have feen, that this poffibility of Space exiiVmg, 

 was no more part of the Divine Nature than any other poffibility, 

 and, indeed, than the whole vifible creation ; for, if the world was 

 not eternal, it exifted once only in the idea of the Divine Mind, that 

 is, in poffibility. And the foundation of the error, both of the Doctor 

 and Mr Leibnitz, upon this fubjed:, appears to me to be this, 

 that they have not known or attended to that diftindion which 

 runs thro 'the whole antient philofophy, betwixt what aBually exifts, 

 and what exifls only potentially. Every thing exifted in this latter 

 way, in the Divine Mind, before creation or production j and it might 

 as well be pretended, that every animal and vegetable made part of 

 the Divine Nature, as that Space does. 



It muft, however, be confefled, that Dodor Clarke has come nearer 

 the truth than Mr Leibnitz, and has avoided all the abfurdities that 

 Mr Leibnitz has fallen into, in confequence of his notion of Space. 

 The Dodor alfo was in the right in denying that Space was nothing 

 more than the relation of one thing to another, arifmg from their ft- 

 tuation or order among themfelves ; but he ftiould, at the fame time, 

 have obferved, that Space was relative to Body in general, and that, 

 without Body, it had no adual exiftence, but was like all other things, 

 which exift only in idea or poffibility. 



And thus much of Space and Place, which are undoubtedly uni- 

 verfals, making part of the fyftem of this univerfe \ for, though they 



A a a 2 be 



