Similitude.

Oppofition.

particularly refpects the Effence or Modes of Beings; though that which refpects the Qualities, is properly call'd Likeness or Similitude; or when it relates to the Shape or Figure, it is call'd SimiSimilarity. larity; if to the Quantity, it is call'd Equality. Equality. On the contrary, a Difagreement in Substance or Diversity. Effence is call'd Diverfity; in Quality 'tis Dif Diffimilitude. fimilitude; in Quantity 'tis call'd Difference. Difference. The pointing out the Difference between two Diftinction. Things, is call'd Diftinction. Disparity is a DifDifparity. ference of Species under the fame Genus; as Yellow, Green, &c. Man, Brute, &c. are faid to be Difparates. Oppofition is a perfect or total Dif agreement of Genus and Species both; as Sound and Silence, Light and Darkness, Day and Night, Contrariety. &c. are call'd Oppofites. Contrariety is the Relation of the Extremes with refpect to a Mean, toward which they approach in Quality as in Distance, and wherein they ultimately unite; as Heat and Cold, Virtue and Vice, Summer and Winter, Morning and Night, are call'd ContraContradiction. rieties. Contradiction confifts in fuch a Repugnancy of the Nature of Ideas, as entirely deftroys all Poffibility of Union or Confiftency between them; as Power and Impotency, fomething and nothing, feeing and not feeing, &c. are faid to be Contradictories, and can't exift together. As for the common Divifion of Identity or Sameness into Generical, Special, Numerical or Individual, Material and Formal, the Words themselves fufficiently indicate what is meant thereby.

Of Corrupti bility and Incorruptibility.

Corruptibility is fuch an Affection of Being, as renders it capable of fuch a Diffolution of the Parts, by fome Caufe or Agency foreign to its Nature, which deftroys the proper Nature, State, and Texture thereof, and caufes it to ceafe to be formally the fame Being as it was before. Thus the Bodies of Men, being dead, fuffer Corruption

by

by being converted into Duft; thus Wood by Fire is turn'd into Afbes, Iron into Ruf, and Copper to Verdigreafe by the Principle of Corruption. This is an Attribute of all Corporeal Subftances; but fpiritual Beings may, for ought we know, admit of no fuch Change or Diffolution of Parts, but always continue as well formally as materially the fame; and may be therefore faid to be incorruptible; at leaft, we must allow this Attribute of Incorruptibility to God, who poffeffes all Perfections.

No

Dependency of Existence is that Affection, Of Dependency whereby no Being can of itfelf have a Power to and Indepenbe, to endure, or to act, but must receive the dency. fame from fome other thing, as its Caufe productive of it. Thus all things depend primarily on God, and fecondarily on one another. Animal can produce itself, but depends on its Parent, as the pre-exiftent efficient Caufe. The Doctrine of Equivocal Generation, or Spontaneous Equivocal Ge, Production of Things, i. e. fortuitously, and neration exwithout a Caufe in its own Kind, is utterly false, plsded. an idle Conceit of ignorant Philofophers, and the bold Affertion of an impious Atheist. Confequently, Independency, or Being without any preexiftent Caufe, can belong only to a necessary and felf-exifting Being, i. e. to God.

tion.

Simplicity and Compofition are the next Affe- Of Simplicity Etions of Being. Simplicity is defined to be the and Composi indivifible Unity of Being, or where all the Ideas of its Nature are of one and the fame effential Nature and Kind; as the Particles of IVater, Fire, Air, &c. purely fuch; and thefe conflitute a moft pure and fimple Body, which we usually call an Element. On the contrary, Compofition is that Affection of Being, by which it confifts of various Ideas of divers Natures; and is faid to be Effential or Accidental. Effential Compofition is

R

that

Of Communi

cability, and

that whereby feveral Beings are compounded into one Effence: As Salt-water, a Loaf of Bread, &c. Accidental Compofition is that where fome Accident is an Ingredient in the Idea; as the Idea of the fhining Sun, a juft Man, &c. The Question is whether there be any abfolute Simplicity in Corporeal Beings, unless in their primary conftituent Particles; but of these Affections I have already taken notice in Logic.

Communicability is that Affection, whereby Beings are capable of participating of each other's Incommunica- common Nature; as Heat is communicable to bility. Metals, and other Bodies; thus one Man communicates Knowledge to another; and the Eyes have a Communication of Animal Spirits from the Brain. Plants and Animals all communicate of one common Nature in each. There are many dry fcholaftic Distinctions and Divisions under this Head, to be met with in Authors, which thofe who think it worth while may perufe. I fhall only juft obferve here, that Incommunicability can be attributed to fcarcely any Thing but the Infinity of God's Perfections, and to mere Non-entity; for that which a Perfon has not, he can't communicate to another.

Of Creation.

Creation is that Affection of Being, by which it receives its firft Mode of Existence, or acquires that Effence and Form which conftitute its Nature. Thus the World and all Things are faid to be created by God originally: The Earth was created of a Chacs, or Mass of confufed Matter; Man was created out of the Duft of the Earth; Fi and Fowl out of the Water. This is a Power peculiar to God, fince no Being can produce itself, but by the ordinary Method Generation. of Generation; which is only a natural Means for continuing, propagating, and multiplying Beings, already form'd and created, and which have a

real

real and formal Exiftence (tho' invifibly fmall)
in the Seed of both Plants and Animals, as late
Discoveries have fufficiently made manifeft.
Quere, (1.) Whether the proper Senfe of the Queries.
Word Creation, is the making Something out of
mere Nothing? (2.) Whether that does not im-
ply a most notorious Contradiction? (3.) Whe-
ther there is the leaft Shadow of fuch a Notion
in the Mofaic Account of the Creation, Gen. i.?
(4.) Whether Annihilation, or the reducing of
a Substance to mere Nothing, be not equally ab-
furd, and plainly contrary to Mathematical De-
monstration? (5.) Whether Matter, in its own
Nature, be not neceffarily eternal and uncreate?

Finite and Infinite are thofe Ideas which re- Of Finite and late to the Limits and Bounds of Existence; and Infinite. thofe Beings whofe Nature, Parts, Quantity, Qualities, Powers, Operations, and Durations, are limited, or circumfcribed within certain Bounds and Terms, are call'd finite Beings: But those are infinite, which are unlimited, or have no Bounds. All Subftances, and most of their Qualities, are finite; fome can't be properly call'd finite or infinite; as Colour, Truth, Falfhood, &c. Some Things are infinite with respect to their Duration, and therefore are call'd Eviternal, E- Eviternity, ternal, or Sempiternal, as they are without Be- Eternity, Sempiternity, ginning, without End, or without both; as is the Deity, whofe Existence is abfolutely Simultaneous with regard to the Parts of Time. Some Things are infinite in Quantity, and then are faid to be Immenfe; as the Mundane Space: Yet Immensity this may be justly queftion'd, for as Space is mere Nibility, and the Limit of Existence; fo Exijlence may be faid to be the Limit of Nibility. Among the abftracted Speculations of Mathematicians, we find various Kinds and De- Mathematical grees of Infinity, both with regard to Number Infinites.

R 2

and

Indefinite.

Of the Prin

and Magnitude. The Arithmetic of Infinites is known to every Tyro; the Analogy or Habitude of Infinites, from fmall to great, is known and determined as intelligibly by them, as the Ratio or Proportion of any finite Quantities is by People in common. There is no Medium between Finite and Infinite; for what we call Indefinite, is only that of which we know not the Limits containing it.

THE Principles of Things are those primary ciples of Things and original Springs and Sources from whence they receive their Existence; as Grapes, Apples, and Pears are the Principles of Wine, Cyder, and Perry. Thus Minerals, Metals, and Herbs are the Principles of Salts, Oils, and many other Chymical and Galenical Medicines. Thus alfo the Maxims, Axioms, and Rules of Arts and Sciences, are the Principles of Knowledge and Wisdom; and Virtue, Intereft, &c. are faid to be the Principles of many human Actions. I can't think the Parts or Ingredients in the Compofition of Bodies, are with any Propriety call'd Principles; they are the Effentials of ExOf Caufes and iftence, and not the Sources thereof. A Caufe is Effects. any Power or Influence productive of Existence; and an Effect is the Product, or Existence refulting from the Energy of the Caufe. From hence, 'tis plain, no Being but God can exift Primary Cau- without a Caufe: He is the primary Cause of all fes. formal Existence at leaft; and all other Caufes act in Confequence of the divine Energy operating in the fettled Laws and Course of Nature, and are therefore call'd fecondary Caufes. Again, Caufes are univerfal, as the Sun, Earth, and Rain, of Plants, Herbs, and Flowers; or particular, as the Seeds of particular Plants. Caufes are call'd Univocal, when they produce Effects of their own Nature, as when a Lion produces a young

Secondary.
Univerfal.

Particular.
Univocal.