i9^« ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BooV TIL 



ed. Impaired, or divided: But the matter, wit-h which the emanation 

 from them is incorporated, muft necelTarily make a great difference 

 ol individuals ; in the Tame manner as the wax, upon which the fig- 

 nature of a leal is iinprefled, muft make a great difference of the dif- 

 ferent impreffions. 



By this generation of ideas, we can eafily folve the difficulty, which, 

 it appears from Hato, the philoi(>phers of hi- time had, How the many 

 in one lliould be joined together in the fame idea \ And Plato him- 

 feif Ipeaks of his ideas, as being moft myiterious things ; " which,'* 

 fays he, '' prelerving the unity and fimplicity of their natures, run 

 through and mix with various fubitances and forms, comprehend- 

 ing and binding together thmgs of natures feemingly moft diffe- 

 rent*," And, indeed, I ftiould think this an incomprehenfible myf. 

 tery, if I thought that it was the fame individual idea that went 

 through a higher genus, and all the inferior genufes and fpeciefes 

 and even individuals, but ftill continuing one and the fame idea. 

 But, if we fuppofe that ideas, being immaterial fubftanccs, produce 

 one another, the more excellent the lels excellent, in the fame man- 

 ner as the Perfons of the Trinity do, the difficulty is removed. 



And here we mav obferve, that the ideas of Plato, conne£Ved wirh 

 the do<fl:rine of the Trinity, prefcnt to us a mo'T: compleat fyftem of 

 the univerfe, wherein there is a chain of caufes and effeds of all things 

 cxifting, genufes, fpecies, and individuals, in which no linic is want- 

 ing, and where all things proceed from the Firft Caufe; which muft 

 contain them virtually^ in the fa ne manner as the genus contain*: the 

 fpecies, and all "ihe individuals proceeding from the Ipecies. And ^lom 

 thence we clearly i<-e the truth of what we are told in our ocripture, 

 that ait things are in God. and God in all things : For all things are 

 virtually in God, as they are produced from himj in the faaie manner 



as 



* See the Dialogue, entitled P/.n/etus. 



