PREFACE. vii 



of the feveral Motions in the Univerfe, by which only parti- 

 cular phsenomena can be folved. Further ; it is the Study of 

 the Metaphyfician to difcover, as far as pofTible, the final 

 Caufes of Things, and to fliew, from what we know of Na- 

 ture, that there muft be a Syftem in the Univerfe worthy of its 

 great Author. This, with the explication of fome univerfals 

 of high abftracTiion, fuch as Motion, Time, and Place, is all 

 that can be expected of the Metaphyfician, till he comes to 

 treat of what is higheft in his Science, and in all human 

 knowledge, I mean Gud. Thefe are all the SubjecTts of Me- 

 taphyfics ; and a candid Judge will confider whether I have 

 properly treated them fo far as I have gone. 



I am very fenfible that thofe among us who imagine 

 themfelves Philofophers, becaufe they have ftudied Geome- 

 try, Mechanics, and Natural Hiftor}', will be very angry 

 with me for recommending, as the only Philofophy, what 

 they neither do nor can underftand, not being fcholars. But 

 though I would not willingly give offence to thefe Gentle- 

 men, I cannot perfuade myfelf that our ancellors, who I 

 believe were at leaft as wife men as we, were fo much mif- 

 taken, as they feem to think, when they founded at fo great 

 an expence Schools, Colleges, and Univerfities, and obliged 

 our youth to fpend fo many of the moil precious years of 

 their life in learning the language of the ancients, in order 

 to be qualified to learn their arts and fciences, and particu- 

 larly their Philofophy, the profeflion of which is the mofl 

 honourable in all fuch feminaries ; and with good reafon, 

 as Philofophy not only explains the Caufes of natural things, 



but 



