APPENDIX. 341 



prcmc Mind : And the inoft excellent ideas, that is th.e moH; general 

 ideas, we muft fuppofe proceeding firfl: from that mind, and thcfc 

 producing the lefs general, till at lafl: they deioend to particular 

 ideas, forming and animating only particular objects. 



Without fuch a fubordination of caufes in the univerfe, we muft 

 fuppofe that the whole univerfe proceeded immediately and diredly 

 from the firft caufe, who could not properly in that cafe be called the 

 caufc of caufes^ as Plato calls him, nor would there be that order and 

 regularity in the univerfe, which muft be in the production of Su- 

 preme Intelligence, but every thing might be faid to have been the 

 produ6tion, as I have obferved, of the Supreme Being by one fiat. 

 But that fuch is not the cafe, is evident from the firft produtftion of 

 the Supreme Caufe, I mean the Trinity, which proceeds in regular 

 order ; — firft the Son from the Supreme God or Father, and then from 

 the Son the Holy Spirit ; that Is, in fubordination, the Son to the 

 Father from whom he is produced, and the Holy Spirit to the Son 

 which produces him. Now I fay, that this orderly production muft 

 go on through the whole univerfe ; and that, as the iSon and Holv 

 Spirit proceed regularly and with due fubordination from the Firft 

 Caufe, and are the firft fubordinate caufes, the Son to the Father 

 or Supreme God, and the third perfon to the feeond perfon of the 

 Trinity and proceeding from him, — if all the things in the univerfe 

 were not to proceed from caufes fubordinate to the Son and Holv 

 Spirit, then there would be an end of that fubordination which 

 we fee in the caufes of things, and confequently in the order and 

 fyftem of the univerfe: And therefore I think that the progreflion, 

 which I have fhown, of all the tilings in the univerfe in fubordina- 

 tion to the feeond and third perfons of the 1 rinity, is, I may fivv, de- 

 monftration, to thofe vho believe that a Firft Caufe exifls, and that 

 from that caufe proceed two other caufes, intelligence and the prin- 

 ciple 



