Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 327 



Supreme or Subordinate, it will be impofTible to convince the A- 

 theifts that it might have not fo gone on forever j nor will he be e- 

 verperfuaded to make the diftindion the Newtonians make, betwixt 

 the beginning and the continuation of Motion, that is, betwixt the 

 firft remove of the Body from the place that it occupied when the 

 Motion began, and its after removes from the feveral places which 

 it fucceffively occupies in the courfe of the Motion. Even the 

 Theifts of old, fuch as Ariftotle, who maintained the eternity of 

 the Material World, would tell us that this dodtrinc of the con- 

 tinuance of Motion made Deity quite ufclefs in the bufinefs of 

 Nature ; and that we might as well remove the Gods out of the 

 world altogether, and place them in certain intermundane Spa- 

 ces, as Epicurus did, who, therefore, according to a very juft ob- 

 fervation of Cicero, took away the Gods in faft and reality, and 

 only left them in words. And, indeed, I cannot help faying that,„ 

 to deny the Providence of God over all his works, and his adual 

 prefence by Himfelf, or by Subordinate Minds, in all the operations 

 of Nature, and, particularly, in the Motions of the Celeftial Bodies, 

 which we fo much admire, and which declare, more than any thing 

 elfe, the glory of the Lord, is to take away the better part of Reli- 

 gion, and that which muft have the greateft influence upon the 

 minds of men *. 



But this Mechanical Philofophy cannot, I think, be confined to 

 the Celeftial Regions, but it muft come down to Earth, and go 

 through all Nature ; for, if the great Motions of the Univerfe are 

 Mechanical, what fhall we fay of the lefFer Motions here on Earth, 



fuch 



* Sec what I ha»e further faid upon this fubjeft, Vol. I. page 498. It was in 

 this fcnfe of Religion and Providence, that Cicero fays, and, I think, moft tru- 

 ly, that his countrymen excelled all the nations then known. After enumerating 

 other things, in which other nations excelled them, he adds, * Sed Pietate et Reli- 

 * gione, atque hac una Sapientia, quod Deorum immortalium numine omnia P^egi 

 ' Gubernariquc perfpeximus, omnes gentes nationefquc fuperavimus.' Orattj di- 

 jlrufpicum Refponfis. 



