l6 A VIS INERTIAE

degree of motion ; since the one cannot bechanged without the other. 'These are dis-couraging assertions of matter , to those meni who would make a supreme Being of it i

XII. Further, which isworth our attention,the resistance of the fame quantity of matter,or body A; if once we fix upon a certainstate, either of rest or motion, as a terminus dquo ; may be indefinitely great, or is as end-lesty increasible, as the degree of celerity is,with which it may recede from that terminus .For the resistance is always equal to the forcenecessary to be impressed ; and the force mustbe proportionally encreafed with the degreeof celerity. Tossie moved with a thousand,

or a million of times the celerity C, a thou-sand or a million of times the first force isnecessary to be impressed; and therefore itwill make so many times the first resistance.And it is the fame contradiction to assign thegreatest resistance it can make, as to assignthe greatest celerity it can be moved with ;or really to assign the greatest number. Thusthe resistance of the same body, or quantityof matter, considered in this view, may beincreased in infinitum . The truth in this, paragraph