Chap. 9. PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOVERIES. 387

12. We observed above, that as the Deity is the first andsupreme cause os all things, so it is most unaccountable to ex-clude him out of nature, and represent him as an intelligentiaextramundana. On the contrary, it is most natural to supposehim to be the chief mover throughout the whole universe, andthat all other causes are dependent upon him ; and conformableto this is the result of all our enquiries into nature ; where weare always meeting with powers that surpass mere mechanism,or the effects of matter and motion. The laws of nature areconstant and regular, and, for ought we know, all of themmay be resolved into one general and extensive power ; butthis power itself derives its properties and efficacy, not frommechanism, but, in. a great measure, from the immediate in-fluences of the first mover. It appears, however, not to havebeen his intention, that the present state of things shouldcontinue for ever without alteration; not only from what passesin the moral world, but from the phænomena of the materialworld likewise ; as it is evident that it could not have con-tinued in its present state from eternity.

13. The power of gravity, by which the celestial bodies per-severe in their revolutions, penetrates to the centres of the funand planets without any diminution of virtue, and is extendedto immense distances, decreasing in a regular course. Its actionis proportional to the quantity of solid matter in bodies, and notto their surfaces, as is usual in mechanical causes : this power,therefore, seems to surpass mere mechanism. But, whateverwe lay of this power, it could not possibly have produced, atthe beginning, the regular situation of the orbs and the presentdisposition of things. Gravity could not have determined theplanets to move from west to east in orbits nearly circular, al-most in the fame plane ; nor could this power have projected

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