372 Matter not eternal and uncaufi^*

XV. It was a hankering after the eten 1 ^atoms of Democritus and Epicurus , and t^ at

so I presume we must conceive, if infinite power W 35ways acting in producing the least assignable atom °* ^ ^ter: and in this argument, whatever agrees to any th eassignable particle, agrees to the whole mass, whi cfl ^tainly is riot infinite. I mean, it must be said that eparticle os matter must have been a-producing in 3 " .

or from eternity; for if it was temporary, the prod u ,

of a finite mass could be but temporary.. And eventhe whole mass were infinite, yet unless every the ft 11atom of it was a-creating through eternity, any jj j, e

tion of that mass, car wtÆ, for instance, would stbut temporary, as consisting of parts that did not taan infinite time in the making. And the reasons *ffame with respect to the fun, moon , And the 111

tants of any other system, if such there are, rri>§^with reason conclude, that their system also W3S te g .xary: and so of others. Nor doth the difficulty erK ^effor as any assignable part consists of numberless 0 .parts, by the fame kind of reasoning, we must at Jbe forced to say, that any infinitely little part tx/at t ^

of Omnipotence through eternity for there tvist a

"same arguing about the least finite part as aboutest. Besides, it is to be observed, that to suppost 3 j

eternally pre-existing, as is here done, is no reason ^fer that a subject may be eternal in the productsbefore it be made to exist. Not to mention that ^ ,•pose a passive subject eternally pre-existing ,S e ^ U tad £