Chap. IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. lyg 



That the metaphyfics, therefore, of Ariftotle is a moft ufeful work, 

 containing the principles of all fciences, cannot be denied. But there' 

 is one part of metaphyfics, and which is the higheft part of it, 

 being the fumiiiit of philofophy and of all human knowledge,' 

 of which he has faid very little; 1 mean Theology. This he has 

 only mentioned in the end of his Metaphyfics, where he has faid 

 enough to (how us that he was a genuine Theift. But he has given 

 us no fyftem of theology; fo that, in this refpcc^, his philofophy is 

 very deficient, and not to be compared to that of Plato *. But Pla- 

 to had the advantage of having travelled iaro Egypt, where he learn- 

 ed both the Doarine of the Trinity and his Syftem of Ideas; by which 

 when jomed together, (and J think they are infeparably conneded, al 

 I (hall fhow in the next volume of this.work,) he makes a wonder- 

 ful Cham of beings, proceeding from the JrJ God, as he calls him, 

 ^^Godt,, Father ^ as he is called in the language of the Chriftian 

 rheology, through all the feveral genufes and fpecieles of things 

 down to mdividuals f . °'' 



Befides the doftrlne of the Tnnity, and of Ideas, Plato likewife 

 brought from Egypt two ,r,oft important dodrines concerninK the 

 h.ftory and philofophy of man. The firft of thefe maintained ai 

 antecedent ftate of man, in which he was a more perfeft creature 

 and happ.er than in his prefent ftate; the fecond maintained a futur» 

 ftate of rewards and punilhments $. Thefe t^vo dodrines are of fuch 

 .mportance not only in the hiftory and philofophy of man, but in 

 rehgion, that if we were to luppofc that man had been always the 



fam 



e 



• See what I have faid of the Theology of Ariftotlc. and of its dcfefb, ■„ vol , of 

 Or,g,n of Language, book a. chap. 3. p. 384. and following. ^- °^ 



t See what I hsve faid of Plato's DnArlr,* «f *i -p • • 



nity, 



\ Ibid. p. 379. 



