50 MATERIAL BEGINNINGS. 



all eternity. This self-evident and generally recognized prop- 

 erty of matter is called its inertia. 



It is not denied that a chemical power a power of expan- 

 sion and condensation, or of altering the internal arrangements 

 of particles may be lodged in bodies of matter; but this 

 power is only the striving of particles for an equilibrium. But 

 unless there is a constantly active influence received from a 

 foreign source, the equilibrium must necessarily be finally at- 

 tained, and all action would then cease, never to be renewed 

 by any inherent force, simply because such force is exhausted. 



If we then consider the whole universal mass of physical 

 substance, as the mass of particles supposed to be subject to 

 this internal chemical action, that action, and its producing 

 force, could not be eternal and unoriginated, because in that 

 case it would manifestly, from eternity, have attained to an 

 internal equilibrium, and all action would have ceased. These 

 considerations show that even chemical action, and therefore 

 chemical force, must have had a beginning, and therefore a 

 cause, in some power or contriving agent beyond themselves, 

 and outside of the matter in which they inhere.* But as there 

 was no other realm of physical matter from which they could 

 be supplied, we are driven to the only other alternative of sup- 

 posing that they were supplied from a Spiritual Source from 

 the personal Realm of affection, intelligence, and volition, which 

 we have before proved to be unoriginated, and hence infinite. 



If this reasoning is correct, then the conclusion is obvious, 

 that all motion of whatever kind, as well as the physical sub- 

 stance acted upon by it, must have had in ultimate origin in 

 Spirit IN GOD ! 



* It may be added, that chemical forces, as inherent properties of original, amor- 

 phous, nebulous matter, must have been exceedingly weak, if in such matter such in- 

 herent forces could have existed at all, which is extremely doubtful. 



