tion be from impulsion, as Newton himself, and some of the wisest of his followers have suspected; then the cause of motion will never resist the motion which it causes. The rule, which is true when applied to communicated motion, does not hold when applied to the motions of nature. For the motions of nature change from less to more; as when a spark turns to a conflagration: but communicated motion always changes from more to less: so that there is an essential difference between them, and we cannot argue from the one to the other. Mr. Cotes's demonstration, it is well known, is applicable only to communicated motion: I mean such only as is violent or artificial. There is no need of a vacuum in the heavens: it is more reasonable and more agreeable to nature that they should be filled with a circulating fluid, which does not hinder motion, but begins it and preserves it. They cannot allow inert matter to be capable (as mind is) of active qualities; but ascribe attraction, repulsion, &c. to subtle causes, not immaterial. There may be cases very intricate and difficult; but they take the rule from plain cases, and supposing nature to be uniform and consistent, they apply it to the rest. 8. In natural history, they maintain, against all the wild theories of Infidels, which come up, one after an, other other, like mushrooms, and soon turn rotten, that the present condition of the earth bears evident marks of an universal flood; and that extraneous fossils are to be accounted for from the same catastrophe. Many of them are therefore diligent collectors of fossil bodies, which are valuable to the curious in consideration of their origin. 9. What commonly passes under the name of learning, is a knowlege of Heathen books: but it should always be admitted with great precaution. For they think of all Heathens, that, from the time when they commenced Heathens, they never worshipped the true God, the Maker of heaven and earth; but, instead of him, the elements of the world, the powers of nature, and the lights of heaven: that the love of vice and vanity was the real cause of their ignorance: they did not know the true God, because they did not like to know him: and that the same passions will give us an inclination to the principles of Heathens, rather than to the principles of Christians; and that most of the ill principles of this age come out of the Heathen School. The favourers of Mr. Hutchinson's scheme are therefore reputed to be the enemies of learning. But they are not so. They are enemies only to the abuses of it, and to the corruptions derived from it. To all false learning, tion be from impulsion, as Newton himself, and some of the wisest of his followers have suspected; then the cause of motion will never resist the motion which it causes. The rule, which is true when applied to communicated motion, does not hold when applied to the motions of nature. For the motions of nature change from less to more; as when a spark turns to a conflagration: but communicated motion always changes from more to less: so that there is an essential difference between them, and we cannot argue from the one to the other. Mr. Cotes's demonstration, it is well known, is applicable only to communicated motion: I mean such only as is violent or artificial. There is no need of a vacuum in the heavens: it is more reasonable and more agreeable to nature that they should be filled with a circulating fluid, which does not hinder motion, but begins it and preserves it. They cannot allow inert matter to be capable (as mind is) of active qualities; but ascribe attraction, repulsion, &c. to subtle causes, not immaterial. There may be cases very intricate and difficult; but they take the rule from plain cases, and supposing nature to be uniform and consistent, they apply it to the rest. 8. In natural history, they maintain, against all the wild theories of Infidels, which come up, one after another other, like mushrooms, and soon turn rotten, that the present condition of the earth bears evident marks of an universal flood; and that extraneous fossils are to be accounted for from the same catastrophe. Many of them are therefore diligent collectors of fossil bodies, which are valuable to the curious in consideration of their origin. 9. What commonly passes under the name of learning, is a knowlege of Heathen books: but it should always be admitted with great precaution. For they think of all Heathens, that, from the time when they commenced Heathens, they never worshipped the true God, the Maker of heaven and earth; but, instead of him, the elements of the world, the powers of nature, and the lights of heaven: that the love of vice and vanity was the real cause of their ignorance: they did not know the true God, because they did not like to know him: and that the same passions will give us an inclination to the principles of Heathens, rather than to the principles of Christians; and that most of the ill principles of this age come out of the Heathen School. The favourers of Mr. Hutchinson's scheme are therefore reputed to be the enemies of learning. But they are not so. They are enemies only to the abuses of it, and to the corruptions derived from it. To all false learning, that is to human folly, affecting to be wisdom, they have indeed a mortal aversion in their hearts, and ean hardly be civil to it in their words; as knowing, that the more a man has of false wisdom, the less room there will be for the true. Metaphysics, which consist of words without ideas; illustrations of Christian subjects from Heathen parallels; theories founded only on imagination; speculations on the mind of man, which yield no solid matter to it, but lead it into dangerous opinions about itself: these and other things of the kind, with which modern learning abounds, they regard as they would the painting of a ghost, or the splitting of an atom *. 10. Of Jews they think, that they are the inveterate enemies of Christianity; never to be trusted as our associates either in Hebrew or Divinity. No Philo, no Josephus, no Talmudist, is to be depended upon; but suspected and sifted, as dangerous Apostates from true Judaism. It is plausibly argued, that Jews, as native Hebrews, must, like other natives, be best acquainted with their own language. But the case of the Jews is without a parallel upon earth. They are out of their native state; and have an interest in deceiving Chris * See more on this subject, p. 101 of the Life. tians |