Chap. II. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 9 



all-powerful. This Being is the only Mind in the Univerfe; and, as 

 he does not confider mere Matter, inanimatcd, to be a SubRance, 

 (in which, I think, he is in the right), this Being is therefore l!ic 

 only Subftance ; the confequence of which is, that every thing in 

 the Univerfe is animated by him, and he is the immediate anther of 

 all Motion, Life, and Thought ; fo that thofe Minds which ap-^eir 

 to us to be diftindl and feparate Minds, and to have powers and ener- 

 gies belonging to themfelves, arc nothing eife but the Divine 

 Mind operating in different portions of Matter ; and fuch, he 

 fays, among others, the Human Mind is. In this way he pre- 

 tends to explain the definition of God which is given us in 

 Scripture, by which he is faid to be, be that is, or exijis ; by 

 which words is commonly underftood to be denoted, a Being 

 that is felf-exifi:ent,and from which all other Beings derive their ex- 

 iftence *; whereas, according to Spinoza's philofophy, they denote a 

 Being w^ho alone exifts, and who is the only Subftance in the Uni- 

 verfe: For Spinofa endeavours to reconcile his fyftem with the Scrip- 

 ture ; and, as we are told by the editor of his works in the preface, 

 he pretended to be a zealous Chriftian, and that all his philofophy 

 was no more than a commentary on the Gofpelt^ And in this, too, 

 he agrees with Dr Prieftley, who boafts that, by proving us to be 

 mere Machines, and that we have no Souls to be faved, he has im- 

 proved Chriftianity very much, and cleared it of errors that difgra- 

 ced it. And againft Spinoza have been urged all the objections that 

 are made to the philofophy of Dr Prieftley ; for it has been faid that 

 Spinoza's dodrine puts an end to free will and liberty of a£tion, and, 

 by confequence, to all merit and demerit, making every thing we 

 Vol. III. B do 



* See this fully explained, Vol. ii. of the Origin of Language, p. 84. 



t This account of Spinoza's philofophy is taken from the Appendix to the firfl 

 volume of the Chevalier Ramfay's Philofophical Principles of Natural and Revealed 

 Religion. In this Appendix, the author has given us the very words of Spinoza. 

 See alfo what he has faid, p. 258. 259. of the fame Volume. 



