326 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



motions of bodies ; for I think both the wifdom and the goodnefs 

 of God, governing and dlrc(Sting the minds of thofe animals, are 

 more manifefted than in the motions of bodies, however regular 

 and orderly they be ; as it is the operations of the minds of ani- 

 mals, which produce either their happinefs or mifery. Now, as 

 the fenfitive life is that which is of greatefl: confequence in the uni- 

 verfe, we muft fuppofe that a wife and good God, in forming the 

 fyftem of the univerfe, has had that principally in view. 



And here ends my fyftem of theology, in which I hope I have 

 proved to the fatisfadlion of the reader, that there is one Being, 

 which is all-wife, all-powerful, and all-good ; whofe nature con- 

 fifts of three fubftances, all making but one Being ; that, by the 

 necefEty of nature, there muft be in his Being a trinity in unity ; 

 and that this Being has produced and preferves every thing in the 

 univerfe. 



Whether I have fuccceded in this great work, does not belong to 

 me to judge; but this I can fay, with truth, that my intention at 

 leaft in the work, is good, which is to prefent to the reader and to 

 myfelf a fubje£t of the moft pleafant contemplation that the human 

 mind can enjoy ; that is, the contemplation of the wifdom, good- 

 nefs, and beauty which appear in the works of Creation. The 

 Deity, when he produced this world, and faw that it was good *» 

 or beatd'tfttl^ as it is tranflated in the feptuagint, was pleafed : And 

 no doubt his pleafure was infinitely greater than ours can be, as the 

 works, of which he faw the goodnefs and beauty, were his own 

 works. And in this we fliould endeavour to enjoy, as m.uch as we 

 €an, the pleafure arifing from the contemplation of our own works. 



In this volume the reader will obferve, that though it be of the 



theological 

 * Genefis, Ciiap. I, t. 



