Chap. XII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. -09 



from our bodies that their bodies come, and from our minds their 

 minds ; and if (o, as the Deity is certainly not embodied, but a pure 

 immaterial fubftance, I think it is a contradidion in terms to fup- 

 pofe that matter fhould proceed from him. It may be faid, tliat 

 though he do not contain matter in himfelf, he may create it. But 

 this is an abufe of the word creation^ as if it denoted the making a 

 thing out of nothing, which is by the nature of things impoilible; 

 for nothing is more certain than that ex nihilo nihil fit. There muft, 

 therefore, have been fome material being from all eternity, otherwife 

 nothing material could ever have exifted; and out of that being 

 every material fubftance muft have come: So that what is called 

 Creation is truly a proceffion from this material being ; and, indeed, 

 every thing that is produced in this univerfe is a proceffion from the 

 caufe which produces it, as we have fcen from the example of the 

 more general idea producing the lefs general, where there is nothing 

 like creation out of nothing, but a proceffion from the caufe produc-^ 

 tive of what was contained in it. 



If this reafoning be juft, then matter muft neceffarily be felf-ex- 

 iftent: And this leads to the other queftlon, Wiiether it be not impi- 

 ous to fuppofe that there is any thing felf-exiftent except Deity ? 

 Now, I fay that there are things which, by natural neceffiy, are felf- 

 cxiftent as well as matter. Space, for example, is not a mere 

 nonentity, as fome would reprcfent ; for, befidi.^s the capacity of 

 containing body, it has dimenfions, and is extended in every direc- 

 tion*: Then there is the truth of axioms or felf-evident propofitions 

 which are true of themfelves, and cannot be faid to derive their 

 truth from Deity, who could not have made them to be falfe. But 

 we need not go farther than the Supreme Being himfelf, who exifts 

 by natural neceffity: And by the fame neceffity of nature, I fay, mat- 

 ter exifts: So that by the fame neceffity there is an efficient and a 

 Vol. V. D d materLiI 



f See Vol. I. of this work, p. 364. and 36£. 



