go ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



He may difcover, by telefcopes, more ftars than have yet been difcover- 

 ed; and, by microfcopes and alembecks, he may improve his know- 

 ledge of the minute parts of nature : — But, without antient philofo- 

 phy, I fay, it is impoflible that he can be a good Theologift, that is, 

 can excel in the noblefl: branch of philofophy, Theology. 



The whole fyftem of the univerfe, confifting of fo many fyftems, 

 creatures of our limited capacities cannot difcover or comprehend ; 

 but many of the fyftems, of which it is compofed, we have dif- 

 covered ; and we know not only that tlie univerfe is a more perfedl 

 lyftem, by being thus divided into fyflems, than it would otherwife 

 be, but that it is the only way in which it could in any degree be 

 comprehended by our limited intelligences; for it is only by its be- 

 ing fo divided that we could have had any comprehenfion of it. 



From this divifion of things we difcover a moft important truth 

 concerning the fyftem of the univerfe, and which I think fliows it 

 to be a perfedl fyftem, more than any thing that I have hitherto 

 mentioned. And it is this, that every thing in it contains or is con- 

 tained in fome other thing; and that the fiime thing fome times both 

 contains the other thing and is contained in it : But not in the (amc 

 fenfe; for one of the things contains the other virtually or potentially, 

 but is contained in that other thing a£lually. Thus, every genus, as I 

 have faid, virtually contains all the Ipcciefes under it, and every one of 

 thefe fpeciefes does a^ually contain the genus, otherwife it could not 

 be of that genus; for the fpecies is compofed of the genus, and of 

 Avhat Porphyry calls the fpecific difference, that is what dlftinguifhes 

 it from the genus. Again, every fpecies virtually contains the indi- 

 viduals under it; and every individual aElnally contains the fpec es, 

 otherwife it would not be of that fpecies*. Now, everything in the 

 univerfe is either genus, fpecies, or individual: For that is a divifion 



of 



• See what I have faid of the difference betwixt contahilng virtually and aHualty, p. 

 iz. of this volume. 



