40 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



exiftence, for otherwife there muft have been a time when nothing 

 exifted. Now, that cannot be ; for if fo, nothing could ever have 

 exifted, becaufe, ex nihilo nihil ft ; fo that if the firft caufe had 

 not exifted from all eternity, there never could have been any thing 

 produced. 



This firll caufe mufl be alfo unchangeable; for whatever undergoes 

 a change of any kind, does fo far forth ceafe to exift, and confe- 

 quently is neither felf-exiftent, neceflarily exiftent, nor eternal. The 

 confequence of which is, that the material world cannot be the felf- 

 exiftent being which is the caufe of all being ; for it is in conftant 

 change and fucceffion of one thing to another. It is, therefore, not 

 felf-exiftent, and confequently cannot be the caufe of its own exift- 

 ence. There is therefore an abfolute ncceffity, that there fhould be 

 fome other caufe of the production of this world : And it is evident, 

 that this caufe muft be mind, which I have already fhown to be the 

 author of all the motions in nature, and the efficient caufe of thefe mo- 

 tions. Now, as I have proved that body cannot move itfelf, much lefs 

 can it have produced all thofe minds which move bodies in this ma- 

 terial world. That mind fhould produce mind is moft natural; and, 

 indeed, we cannot conceive that it fhould be produced in any other 

 way; for it is impoffible to conceive that body fliould produce mind, 

 as impoffible as to conceive that mind fhould produce body, as I 

 have fhown in the preceding volume*. There muft, therefore, be a 

 material caufe for this world, as well as an efficient: So that we 

 have in the produdion of it all the four caufes which produce 

 every thing in the univerfe ; viz. Mind, the firft or efficient caufe ; 

 which out of Matter, the fecond caufe, has formed this material world, 

 that is, has given it its Form, which is the third caufej and as this 

 mind has done that for fome end or purpofe, we have alfo the Final 



Caufe. 



• Chap. 12. of Book 3. 



