VI 



PREFACE. 



and that the bufmefs of Nature, as well as the affairs of 

 men, is under the immediate diretftion and infpc6tion of 

 the Supreme Being; in fliort, that there is a prelent Deity 

 every where in Heaven and in earth, is a religious Philofo- 

 phy, and a foundation upon which the eftabliflied religion of 

 a country may fecurely ftand. On the other hand, a Philo- 

 fophy which teaches that all the Motions in the Univcrfc, if 

 they be not begun, are carried on by matter and mechanilm, 

 and that our affairs are governed by the fame laws of ma- 

 terial neceffity which govern the natural world, mud be ac- 

 knowledged to refemble at Icaft that Philofophy which 

 placed the Gods in extramundane fpaces, taking no concern 

 in the bufmefs of Nature, and 



SejunHi a rebus nojlris femotiqne longe. 



Such a Philofophy makes prayers and fupplications vain, 

 and indeed puts an end to all Religion, by taking away that 

 fear of God, and that fenfe of a prefent Deity, which I hold 

 to be effential to Religion. But it is a Philofophy befitting a 

 Philofopher who, in his laft words and dying fpeech, has let 

 the people of Britain into his grand fccret, that the lefs Reli- 

 gion there is in a nation, the more flourilhing that nation is *. 



It is objecT:ed, I know, to this Philofophy of mine, that it 

 does not explain or account for any of the phaenomena of 

 Nature. To this 1 anfwer, that the bufmefs of the Science I 

 profefs to teach, is to explain the general Principles and 

 Caufes of Things, and particularly to give an Account of the 

 Origin and Continuation of Motion, not to afcertain the Laws 



* See page 301. 



of 



