226 The soul a simple substance ,

all things; otherwise it would not be contin -gent , but necessary. If the existence of abeing this minute inferred its existence thenext, it would be a physical contradictionthat any thing that had ever once existed,should ever cease to exist ; and contingentexistence would be the cause of necefl'ary ex-istence ; which is absurd. And secondly, thisbrings us, by another kind of reasoning, towhat was asserted N° 2. and which is thechief answer to this objection, that the non-tendency of beings to change their state, ortheir tendency to persevere in their being andexistence, hath no other cause but the metUof God; and that tendency is but this con-tinued act of his will exerted, and takingeffect. It would be absurd then to say, be-cause the tendency of beings to remain intheir state of existence, supposes the constantconcurrence of the will and power of God;therefore such a tendency supersedes the willand power of God in their actual preserva-tion: and yet the objection comes just t0this. We saw in the last section, whenspeaking of the cohesion of matter, that itis a continual power impressed, which con-stitutes the solidity of it, And generally*

since