Matter not eternal and imcaused. 371

eternal, is the fame as to fay, a thing^hich had a beginning may want a com-ncement . It is of no consequence how far, ac k we carry this beginning in our knagina-tl0l h provided the conception os it adheres^eessarily to matter, as it hath been shewn*° do. The carrying a limit farther back will^ver make it no limit. Again, let this an-tlt hejis be taken notice of. It is the nature of? felf-existent cause never not to exist ; and itme nature of matter, an effect ex hypothesis^ begin to exist. What conclusion are we totk^ ^om this? Will it ever follow from itTherefore these two are co-eval, equal^ ^ eternity? Here is not only a priority^ Nature , but of existence^ or time; whicht^sire may be considered ( h .)

XV. It

It hath been urged here, cc That it is not yetSt sufficiently evident that a being acting from eter-«t May not always have acted in a particular man-u r * Cr ON a subject; and consequently, may not also haveSt Educed the subject of its action in all time, or fromBut to this I reply, that this itself is a very^ v Uninte! % ible notion, and what no body, I think,^ ^ a ve a clear conception of, that a particular act, suchj. e Deduction of any finite particle of matter mayV Cr P' m out into an eternal duration, as if infinite powere stiployed negatively, or in delaying tins. effect; forB b 2 so