368 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



with wonderful fagacity by Sir Ifaac Newton, but concerning the 

 Moving Power or Principle of their Motion, which I would again 

 defire the reader to obferve, is altogether different from the Laws of 

 iheir Motions, and belongs to Philofophy, not to Aftronomy. 



Whether the Motion of thcfe Bodies be from all eternity, or whe- 

 ther it has had a beginning, is a queftion that docs not belong to the 

 fubjecl we are now upon. I have faid fomething of it in the Firft 

 Volume, and fliall only add here, that the queftion ought to be di- 

 vided, and it fhould firft be confidered, whether thefe Bodies have 

 been always moved as they are now ; or, in other words, whether 

 the fame Syftem of the Heavens, and, in general, of the Material 

 World, has been from all eternity ? And, 2J0, Whether there ever 

 was a time when there was no Material World at all, nor any fuch 

 difplay of the Power, Wifdom, and Goodnefs of God ? As to the 

 firft of thefe qucftions, there are appearances, both in the Heavens 

 and Earth, which convince me, that the prefent fyftem of things 

 neither has been from all eternity, nor will continue to all eternity : 

 And I am much inclined, as I have elfewhere faid, to the antient o- 

 pinion, of a -nx^iyyiuTt;^ or renovation of things, that is to happen at 

 fome time or another ; and, perhaps, the Creation of Mofes is no- 

 thing elfe but a new Generation or Renovation of that kind. As to 

 the other queftion, Whether there was ever a time when nothing 

 exifted in the univerfe but the Deity Himfelf ? it is, perhaps, a que- 

 ' ftion more doubtful ; at leaft, it is a queftion about which the Ari- 

 ftotelians of later times have differed ; Philoponus maintaining the 

 one fide of the queftion, and Simphcius the other. 



But of this it is not neceflary, nor, indeed, proper, to fay 

 more at prefent. I therefore proceed to the fubjedl of this Chap- 

 ter, which is to inquire, How the Motion of the Planets began, 

 if it had a beginning, and By what Motive Power it is carried 



on. 



