380 Sir I S A. A C N £ W T O N’s Book IV,

betwixt right and wrong ; so k is manifest-, that there are none-in which the utmost caution and soberness of thought is morerequisite. Hence it is a very unpleasant prospect to observe withhow great freedom, or rather licentiousness, philosophers haveadvanced their rash and crude notions concerning his natureclnd essence, his liberty and other attributes. What freedomswere taken by Des Cartes in describing the formation of theuniverse without his interposition, and in pretending to de-duce from his attributes consequences that are now known to befalse, we explained in the first book, almost in his own words*A manner of proceeding so unjustifiable, in so serious and im-portant a subject, ought, one would think, to have disgusted■ the sober and wife part of mankind. Spinoza, while he carriedthe doctrine of absolute necessity to the most monstrous height,and surpassed all others in the weakness of his proofs as well asthe impiety of his doctrines, yet affects to speak, on several oc-• casions, in the highest terms of veneration for the Deity. Mr.Deibnitz and many of his diseiples have likewise maintained thefame doctrine of absolute necessity, extending it to the Deityhimself, of whom our ideas are so inadequate, and whom itso much concerns us not to misrepresent. But Sir IsaacNewton was eminently distinguished for his caution and circum-spection, in speaking or treating of this subject, in discourseas well as in his writings ; tho’ he has not escaped the re-proaches of his adversaries even in this respect. As the Deityis the supreme and first cause, from whom all other causes de-rive their whole force and energy, so he thought it most unac-countable to exclude Him only out of the universe. It ap-peared to him much more just and reasonable, to suppose that* the whole chain os causes, or the several series of them,should centre in him as their source and fountain ; and thewhole system appear depending upon him the only independentcause. i

6. The