59 



active principle through matter, which penetrated all, 

 and put all in motion, and which was the soul of the 

 world, or the force impressed by God on nature. 



6. And it is this which Mr. Needham calls the 'ac- 

 tive principles through the universe, which of them, 

 selves produce motion,' or the perceptive vitality in 

 every particle ; that motive, or repulsive activity, 

 \vhichPiato alsojoined to matter as an active principle, 

 which held all from the b ginning, in an irregular and 

 undetermined movement ; and which, from the founda- 

 tion of the world, was regulated by God, and directed 

 according to his eternal laws ; and that great philoso- 

 pher positively says, that God has not created matter 

 inert and inactive ; but hath only prevented it from 

 being blindly agitated. 



7. Mr. Needham indeed says, that every natural 

 combination can, at last, resolve itself into its nati^ral 

 principles, endowed with resistance and motion ; and 

 that a number of simple and indivisible principles 

 Dii^ht concur to give us an idea of extended combina- 

 tions of them, divisible, and substantial: yet Plato 

 long before had clearly distinguished, with the philo- 

 sophers of his own times, the matter of which bodies 

 are composed, from the bodies themselves. He re* 

 marked an essential difference between that matter, 

 \vhich enters into the composition of all bodies, and 

 thebodies themselves. And Stobasus, explaining Plato's 

 sentiments, agrees that matter is corporeal,, but at 

 the same time warns us not to confound it with the bo- 

 dies themselves ; because, says he, it is destitute of 

 the essential qualities of body ; such as figure, weight, 

 lightness, &c. although it contains in it an aptitude to 

 motion, divisibility, and the reception of different 

 forms : and another great Grecian philosopher hath 

 also said, almost in the same terms with Mr. Need- 

 ham, that the ideas of force, impenetrability, and 

 weight^ concur to give us an idea of bodies, 



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