Matter not eternal and uncaused. 383

XVIII. On the other hand, to call thisne ceffity of creating matter, a moral necessity y

such,

^ange nothing in those decrees that were originally ejla-lt Jhed about every thing. What being was it then which^ftablifhed these unalterable decrees? That indeed is theecr et. It is an empty and unsupported necessity ; something^'ch is nothing which tyrannizes over all things. LetStl Admirer of fatal necessity solve this Riddle .f '^is argument will perhaps force him to fay, that thisa *al necessity is in the nature of the supreme Being him-without running higher for it: and I think, this isat modern Sceptics generally hint at now, andthough perhaps they do not speak out. But letexplain why there should be a necessity of imperfecta necessarily existing Being,' that is, in the per-‘est Being? To admit of a mixture of perfection and^section, and then to assign the limits of each, willt n ' Ql md all their philosophy. There is certainly a neccssi-sjPerfection in such a Being; and to fay there is Iike-^ 6 a necc sfity of imperfection in him, is to fay there area ^filute oppofte necessities in him, which would de-°y each other; and this would leave no necessity of^^ion in him at all. This looks like direct Atheism:the Certainl y the admitting a contrariety and opposition injf Ilj 1,ature of the supreme Being will always end in Athe-, t]a ’ I argued above with respect to existence, so Iar gue here. There is a necessity of some perfectionfi ty QU f btedI y; otherwise there would have been a neces-Universal and eternal imperfection ; and then no

perfection

3