Matter not eternal and uncaused. 3 9 j*

tains, collect that it was impossible to be o-therwise, but by supposing that law never tohave had a beginning, nor to have been infti-tuted by an infinitely wife and powerful Being ,jbut the effect of surd necessity, predominatingtn all things, and over all things; itself no-ting, and belonging to nothing, as Lucreti~* J > the great Abettor of this principle, did,^ho notwithstanding his other principle ,Chance, is forced to have recourse to an unjup-Pfted necef/ity here? Besides, it is to be no--heed that this maxim is not demonstrativelye ertain even in the cafe of natural generationa nd corruption. The thing seems to be true^d reasonable; but the means of observingai l 'men before they come to the fubtilty o£* af ure’s work , and the first principles of bodythese operations: and after that, all the^Periments men can make, and all their ob-Rations, will never amount to demonstra-e certainty. What arguments could a manPpose to one who denied the maxim to hold, Ve n in generation and corruption ? None sure-^ W making him observe the instances ofn er£1 tton and corruption themselves; which^ c\vs the truth of what I here affirm. It ise » We fay God and nature do nothing in

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