^3o ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



cordingly, he has faid that the planets will revolve perpetually in 

 their orbits *. But this is certainly not the cale ; for there is light 

 there, which is undoubtedly a Body, however fubtile, and, there- 

 fore, muH; refirt more or lefs, and confequently retard the Motion, 

 and, at laft, make it ceafe altogether. 



But, sJ/y, This is not all ; for Sir Ifaac's Machine, by his own 

 confeflion, has the other defeat of the machinery being fo ill con- 

 trived, that it diforders and deranges itfelf ; for he has told us, that 

 the planets difturb one another's motions, and the comets the mo- 

 tions of them all ; and, therefore, he has been obliged to admit, that 

 his fyftem will require the mending hand of the Creator. This is a 

 conceflion which the foreign philofophers have laid hold of, parti- 

 cularly Mr Leibnitz, (as appears from the letters of correfpondence 

 that paffed betwixt him and Dr Clarke), to which no good anfwer 

 has been given, or can be given, upon the fuppofition that the folar 

 fyftem is a machine. But, if it be true, as I fuppofe, that the Pla- 

 nets are all moved by the immediate agency of Mind, we ought not 

 to fay that there is any difturbance or diforder in their Motions ; 

 but that fuch irregularities, as we perceive in thefe motions, are all in 

 confequence of general laws, and for fome good purpofe, though we 

 cannot tell what it is. And the fame is to be faid of the changes we 

 obferve in the heavens, which, though they may portend fome alte- 

 ration of the prefent fyftem, or may be fuppofed to prepare the way 

 for a new heaven and a new earth, are not to be accounted defeds or 

 irregularities, but parts of the grand plan of the univerfe, formed by 

 Infinite Wifdom, and which, I am perfuaded, has its periods and re- 

 volutions, as \ve fee every thing on earth has, though it is likely by 

 much flower degrees : For every thing in the material world exifts 

 by change and fuccefTion ; nor is there any thing fixed and immove- 

 able, except the Eternal One. 



Thus, 



• See the paffage quoted. Vol. I. p. 533. 



