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I

To the READER.

Shall not, at this time, trouble my Reader with any Præfatory Difcourfe, having, in my former Books, fo fully expatiated upon the Usefulness of Mathematical Enquiries: But fince the End of true Philofophy is, from the various Phenomena of Nature, to deduce the Existence and Attributes of the Great Author of Nature, I will here give you the ConcluJion of Sir ISAAC NEWTON's Principia, not doubting but it will give my Readers the fame Pleasure and Satisfaction it has often afforded me.

THE fix primary Planets (Jays that Great Man) are

revolv'd about the Sun, in circles concentric with the Sun, and with motions directed towards the fame parts, and almost in the fame plane. Ten Moons are revolv'd about the Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, in circles concentric with them, with the fame direction of motion, and nearly in the planes of the orbits of thofe Planets. But it is not to be conceived that mere mechanical Caufes could give birth to fo many regular motions: fince the Comets range over all parts of the heavens, in very eccentric orbits. For by that kind of motion they pafs cafily through the orbs of the Planets, and with great rapidity; and in their aphelions, where they move the floweft, and are detain'd the longest, they recede to the greatest distances from each other, and thence fuffer the least disturbance from their mutual attractions. This most beautiful Syftem of the Sun, Planets and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. And if the fixed Stars are the centers of other A 2

like

like fyftems, thefe being form'd by the like wife counfel, must be all fubject to the dominion of One; efpecialJy, fince the light of the fixed Stars is of the fame nature with the light of the Sun, and from every fyftem light paffes into all the other fyftems. And left the fyftems of the fixed Stars fhould, by their gravity, fall on each other mutually, he hath placed thofe Syftems at immenfe diftances one from another.

In

This Being governs all things, not as the foul of the world, but as Lord over all And on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God παντοκράτωρ, or Univerfal Ruler. For God is a relative word, and has a refpect to fervants; and deity is the dominion of God, not over his own body, as thofe imagine who tancy God to be the foul of the world, but over fervants. The fupreme God is a being eternal, infinite, abfolutely perfect but ; a being, however perfect, without dominion, cannot be faid to be Lord God; for we fay, my God, your God, the God of Ifrael, the God of Gods, and Lord of Lords; but we do not fay, my Eternal, the Eternal of Ifrael, the Eternal of Gods; we do not fay, my finite, or my Perfect: Thefe are titles which have no refpect to fervants. The word God ufually fignifies Lord; bur every lord is not a God. It is the dominion of a fpiritual being which conftitutes a God; a true, fupreme or imaginary dominion makes a true, fupreme or imaginary God. And from his true dominion it follows, that the true God is a Living, Intelligent and Powerful Being; and from his other perfections, that he is Supreme or moft Perfect. He is Eternal and Infinire, Omnipotent and Omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from Eternity to Eternity; his prefence from Infinity to Infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. He is not Eternity or Infinity, but Eternal and Infinite; he is not Duration or Space, but he endures and

a

a Dr. Pocock derives the Latine word Deus from the Arabic_du, (in the oblique cafe di,) which fignifies Lord. And in this fenfe Princes are called Gods, Pfal. Ixxxii. ver. 6. and John x. ver. 35. And Mofes is called a God to his brother Aaron, and a God to Pha rach (Exod. iv. ver. 16, and vii. ver. 8.) And in the fame lente the fouls of dead Princes were formerly, by the Heathens, called gods, but falfely, because of their want of dominion.

is

-is prefent. He endures for ever, and is every where prefent; and by existing always and every where, he conftitutes Duration and Space. Since every particle of Space is always, and every indivifible moment of Duration is every where, certainly the Lord and Maker of all things cannot be never and no where. Every foul that has perception is, though in different times and in different organs of fenfe and motion, ftill the fame indivitible person. There are given fucceffive parts in duration, co-existent parts in fpace, but neither the one nor the other in the perfon of a man, or his thinking principle; and much lefs can they be found in the thinking fubitance of God. Every man, fo far as he is a thing that has perception, is one and the fame man during his whole life, in all and each of his organs of fenfe. God is the fame Gòd, always and every where. He is omniprefent, not virtually only, but alfo fubftantially; for virtue cannot fubfift without fubftance. In him are all things contained and moved; yet neither affects the other: God fuffers nothing from the motion of bodies; bodies find no resistance from the omniprefence of God. 'Tis allowed by all that the fupreme God exifts neceffarily; and by the fame neceffity he exifts always and every where. Whence alfo he is all fimilar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all power to perceive, to understand, and to act; but in a manner not at all human, in a manner not at all corporeal, in a manner utterly unknown to us.. As a blind man has no idea of colours, fo have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wife God perceives and understands all things. He is utterly void of all body and bodily figure, and can therefore neither be feen, nor heard, nor touched; nor ought he to be worshipped under the Representa

b

b This was the opinion of the Ancients. So Pythagoras in Cicer. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. Thales, Anaxagoras, Virgil, Georg, lib. iv. ver. 220. and Eneid. lib. vi. ver. 721. Philo Allegor. at the beginning of lib. 1. Aratus in his Phænom. at the beginning. So alfo the facred Writers, as St. Paul, Acts xvii. ver. 27, 28. St. John's Gofp. chap. xiv. ver. 2. Mofes in Deut. iv. ver. 39. and x. ver. 14. David, Pfal. cxxxix. ver. 7, 8, 9. Solomon, 1 Kings viii. ver. 27. Job xxii. ver. 12, 13, 14. Jeremiah xxiii, ver. 23, 24. The Idolaters u ofed the Sun, Moon and Stars, the Souls of Men, and other pits of the world, to be parts of the fupreme God, and therefore to be worshipped; but erroneously.

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tion of any corporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the real fubftance of any thing is, we know not. In bodies we fee only their figures and colours, we hear only the founds, we touch only their outward furfaces, we fmell only the smells, and tafte the Savours; but their inward fubftances are not to be known, either by our fenfes, or by any reflex act of our minds much less then have we any idea of the fubitance of God. We know him only by his moft wife and excellent contrivance of things, and final caufes; we admire him for his perfections; but we reverence and adore him on account of his dominion, For we adore him as his fervants; and a God without dominion, providence, and final caufes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature. Blind metaphyfical neceffity, which is certainly the fame always and every where, could produce no Variety of things. All that diverfity of natural things which we find, fuited to different times and places, could arife from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being neceffarily exifting. But by way of allegory, God is faid to fee, to speak, to laugh, to love, to hate, to defire, to give, to receive, to rejoice, to be angry, to fight, to frame, to work, to build. For all our notions of God are taken from the ways of mankind, by a certain fimilitude which, though not perfect, has fome likeness however. And thus much concerning God; to difcourfe of whom from the appearances of things, does certainly belong to Natural Philofophy.

Mifcellanea

Mifcellanea Curiofa, &c.

The Rectification of a Portion of the Curve of the Common Parabola by the Arithmetick of Infinites. By Mr. R. D.

In order to which 'twill be neceffary to premife the following LE MMA S.

LEM MA I.

IF any Series of Fractions whofe common Numerator is

C, and their Denominators increafe in Arithmetick Progreffion from A, be infinitely continued; let B = the Number of Terms, then will

C

A+B

the laft Term, and C multiply'd into the Hyperbolick Logarithm of A+B will be equal to the Sum of all the Terms in the Series.

A

Inftances in Fractions whose Denominators increase in Arithmetick Progression.

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10+6

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