Mattes' fiot eternal and uncaused\ 399

and thence infers, that matter could not atall have been created, ihuffling in an uni-versality into his conclusion from wry li-mited premisies (y.)

observation of the several species in natural productions,so many arguments against a superintendence , and by astrange piece of logic ascribes all to a negative efficient. Ifany modern Sceptic should not have had leisure to considerthe reasons upon which he rejects the Deity and his super-mtendence in nature; these are the great principles, and ba-sis of his belief, as fair as I am able to represent them;and lest I may have made a mistake inadvertently, I haveCited the Original. I shall only mention another argumentsor the eternity of matter, which is, " That, if it had not*' been eternal, all things would long ago have fallen intonothing, and sprung up again out as nothing”Preeterea , nisi materies aterna fuiffetAntehac, ad nihilum penitus res quœque rediffent ,

De nihiloque renata forent, quœcunque videmus ,

At quoniam supra docui nil posse creariDe nihilo, &c.

(>) Answers to metaphysical questions must beunen-,staining to the greatest part of Readers, and perhaps, Car ce intelligible to any hut those who could start the dis-*' Cu lties: however, I shall venture to add one note more0f sob kind here, as in a place that will give the objecti-0tl contained in the following Question, the greatest ad-v antag e . I had no design to enter into these nice difqui-Js l ons, at least in this place; but as a remarkable diffieul-y hath been occasioned by what I have advanced against

eternal