42 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



It may be objedcd that this dodrlne of the eternity of the world 

 is contrary to our Scripture, which tells us that the world was creat- 

 ed at a certain time, and in a certain number of days, namely in fix 

 days ; and that God refted the fevcnth day, which, on that ac- 

 count, was to be kept holy. But this account of the creation, 

 Mofes has adapted to the capacity of the people for whom he wrote, 

 I mean the Jews ; who never could have conceived an eternal pro- 

 du(!lion, or that any produdlion or any effeft could be coeval with 

 its caufe : And he makes God reft upon the feventh day, in order 

 to eftablifb, among his countrymen, the religious obfervance of that 

 day; and, accordingly, it is well known to have had that effedl:. Nor 

 is it in this paflage only, but in many others, that the language of the 

 Old Teftament is adapted to the capacities of the vulgar; as where 

 it is laid that God was angry, and that he repented of what he had 

 done : And it was ncceflary that it fhould be fo, as the vulgar can 

 conceive nothing but what has fome relation to the affairs of men 

 in " this life. Even a future life of rewards and punifliments is not 

 mentioned by Mofes; as the Jews appear to have had no idea of a 

 life after death, till our Saviour came among them and brought life 

 and immortality to light. All the rewards, therefore, promifed, and 

 all the punifhments threatened in the Old Teftament, arc only tem- 

 poral, and to happen in this life* 



Thus, I think, I have proved, that the material world, and even 

 the whole univerfe, is an eternal production of an eternal caufe, in 

 the fame manner as the Second Perfon of the Trinity is; of which I 

 am now to treat. 



CHAP, 



