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"the place of Spirits, as fpace is the place "of Bodies. He tells us alfo, that fince God "has the Ideas of all beings in himself, the "Soul must needs fee what there is in God "which represents created beings; for Bo "dies are not visible of themselves, they not "being able to act upon our mind, nor re"present themselves to it; therefore they being unintelligible in their own Natures, "there is no poffibility of feeing them, except in that being, which contains them af"ter an intelligible manner*. Bodies therefore and their properties are feen in God, fo that a man who reads this Book does not really fee the Book it felf, but only the Idea of it, which is in God. Is not a man now much the wiser for this unintelligible jargon? I would fain know what the Author meant by his feeing every thing in God by its Idea, for I muft confess that the oftner I read his long Illuftration on this point, I understand it the less; and I know as little how I have my Ideas, as I did before. If he had told me that the Soul faw its Ideas under the Concave of the Moon's Orb, where they fay Plato placed them, I could have had some fort of confufed notion of that manner of feeing, but this manner of feeing Ideas, is far beyond my imagination. I am fure that I can neither

* See the Preface and Page 125. firft part, and Page 147. part fecond. Oxford Edition.

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fee the Idea of it in God, or any where else; The truth is, I have not fo couragiously refifted my fenfes; as that Philofopher advises, as to be able to penetrate fuch a folid piece of nonfenfe.

The fame Philofopher affirms that Bodies of their own nature are neither heard, feen, fmelt, nor tafted, and when for example we tafte any thing, the Body tafted cannot produce any favour in us, but God Almighty takes that occafion to ftir up that fenfation in us, to which the body does not really concur. Nay according to him it is impoffible for any man to move his own Arm, but when he is willing to move it, God takes it and moves it up and down, as the man, whofe Arm it is, wills. If a Rebellious Son or Subject murther his Father or his Prince by stabbing him, the Man himself does not thrust the Poiniard into his Father's or Prince's Breaft, but God Almighty does it, without any other concurrence of the Man but his will. These indeed are strange and unaccountable fancies, But he proceeds ftill further, and affirms that no fecond caufes act, fo that no Body tho' moved with never fo great a velocity against another can be able to drive that other before it, or move it in the leaft, but God takes that occafion to put it in motion. At this rate one need not fear his headpiece tho' a Bomb were falling upon it with all the force that Powder can give it, for it could

nor

not fo much as break his Skull, or finge his hair, if God did not take that occafion to do it. The most natural agents with him are not fo much as inftruments, but only occafions of what is produced by them, fo that a man might freely pass thorough the fire, or jump down a precipice without any harm, if God Almighty did not take that occafion to burn him, or dafh out his brains.

Το prove that our moderns are as wild, extravagant, and prefumptuous as any of the Ancients either Poets, or Philofophers, I may instance in Dr. Conner, whofe imagination has taken a flight beyond the fpheres of fenfe and reafon. Other Philofophers were only ambitious to explicate nature, and the common effects of it, but no lefs a fubject can fatisfy him, than the Omnipotent Author of nature, and his extraordinary and miraculous acts, which he pretends to explain, for he thinks he underftands them as well as he does the common Phænomena of Nature. This I believe will be granted him without much difficulty, for there is very good reafon, to believe, that the works of Nature, are as much hid from him, as the myfteries of it, which he treats of, are from others. And tho' he talks that he has well confidered the Laws of motion, and the force of Nature, yet it is plain that he knows not how to determine what pro portion of motion there is in two bodies whofe bulks and velocities are given. One can nei

ther

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ther be the wifer or better for what he has written, except to be convinced of the reafonableness and excellency of modefty and humility, feeing his attempts are as unfuccefsful, as they are fhamefully impudent. And yet his Book muft have the Sacred name of Evangelium prefixt to it, for which the Divines fhould feverely Chastise him, to whom I leave him.

But M. Des Cartes the great Master and deliverer of the Philofophers from the tyranny of Ariftotle, isto be blamed for all this, for he has encouraged fo very much this prefumptuous pride in the Philofophers, that they think they understand all the works of Nature, and are able to give a good account of them, whereas neither he, nor any of his followers, have given us a right explication of any one thing. So ridiculous are the things he has delivered in his principles of Philofophy, that it is a wonder how they should be believed by any, but it is still a greater wonder how they came to be fo much applauded and received among the Learned, as they were. I will here fet down fome of the strange Schemes and unaccountable fancies of this Philofopher. He affures that there is always the fame quantity of motion in the World, fo that if all the Men and Animals in the World were moving, which moft part of them can do when they please, yet ftill there would be no more motion in the World than there is in

the

the night time when they are at reft, and what motion they had when they were moving, must be communicated to the Ether when they are at reft. Another opinion of his about motion, as ftrange as the former, is this, if there be two contiguous Bodies, A and B; and if B, were carried towards C, by the

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very fame Action A is transferred from B; fo that there is an equal quantity of motion, and action, in both, tho' to all men's fenfes, the body A feems not to be moved at all. Another law of motion, as contrary to fenfe as any of the former, is; that if there be two bodies, one of which is bigger, tho' by a very little than the other, the leffer, tho' moved with never fo great a velocity against the former, which is at reft, can never put it in motion. Notwithstanding these and many other of his abfurd notions, he had a ftrong party of the Philofophers on his fide, and great was the outcry against Ariftotle, for his tyrannical ufurpation of the liberty and property of the Philofophers to think and fay what they had a mind; tho' what they faid was much more abfurd than Ariftotle's exéxea, or the School

men's

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