C io87 ) 
to have a being, fpr if they had a real being, new entities 
would arife daily from nothing by ordinary generations, 
which would be abfurd to think. Tiierefore they wifely 
inculcated the above- mentioned Maxime^ Nothing k gene- 
rated of nothings viz. by the power of Nature 5 for they 
underftood it of natural produd:ions, and brought it in, to 
take away qoalities and fubftantial forms. Rut Philofo- 
phers of after ages wr^fted the force of that Maxime to fet 
up an eternity of Matter, conceiving it abfolutely and al- 
ways necelFary that whatfoever ariles be generated from 
another thing, either be<!aufe they thought that nothing 
but what is material and corporeal ever exifted, which be« 
caufe it could not make it lelf, they believ'd to be eter- 
nal : or if they denyed not an Immaterial power, or a 
God, yet they confider'd not his omnipotency, as able to 
creaXe matter of nothing : or if they tiiought it could be 
created by God, why do they think it was not created, 
but exited before the World was made 5 fince Matter ex- 
ifting, nothing was wanting but motioii for the fo^;mati- 
on of the Heav ns and Earth- 
Speaking concerning the motion of Matter, he fays, 
God gave it that motion, and at the motion of the Mat- 
ter, which he excited, he creaced that power which we 
call Nature, this being nothing bat the motioo of Matter, 
made according to the Laws, which the prime Author of 
Nature eflabliibt in the beginning. 
He treats i;e:n of the primigenia! Fire and Light, or of 
the firft H>:aveii. anci (hews alter what order it was m ide, 
upon a motion of the Particles 5 and fays, k i)leas*d God 
among thole'works whicii he nat U'ld^?' the Laws of Na* 
ture, from the beginning, to infciture fufiie great Iviinu les 
here and there, above the power of Nature, more fig'-:al* 
ly to iie was Lord of the frame of the world, and 
that Euc "^}] viae Mind is al -v^ays to gi /e rule to Nature : 
and ftiev/s by many Saggeftioas and Chymical Experi- 
ments, that it s no abfurdiry in R; afon to admit the Su- 
H h h a h h h per- 
