the several Orbits, so that the old Occult Qualities and Substantial Forms were not more repugnant to the Mechanical Hypothesis than these Principles are. The Being of a Vacuum must suppose an immediate Divine Power necessary to keep the System of the World in that Order in which we see it continue. For otherwife by this Principle of Gravitation's being inherent in every part of Matter, all Bodies would press towards the Center, and in a Vacuum there can be nothing to hinder their Tendency towards it, till they come crowding one upon another; so that all the Order of things would foon be reduced to one confufed Heap or Mass, unless some immaterial Power interposed to hinder it. It is evident then, that the Mechanical Hypothesis is quite destroy'd by these Principles. For by these here is no Connexion of Causes and Effects according to any Laws of mere Matter and Motion; but all must be done by the immediate Power of God, Gravitation and the Projectile Motion must be impress'd and fufpended without any Dependence upon furrounding Bodies; they must produce their Effects through prodigious void Spaces, where Bodies have no Communication of Motion from one to another. And all being perform'd by the immediate directing and assisting hand of God, a Man may as well pretend to folve a Miracle mechanically, as to give any Account of the Phenomena of Nature by Mechanical Laws according to these Principles. Through an immense void space, the Sun's Rays find their regular and constant way, and in a few minutes pass from the Sun to the Earth: for which there is no Cause assignable from the Attractive Power; which should rather detain the Rays of Light in a perpetual Circulation about the Sun's Center, than dart them forth, by so violent a Motion, to the remotest Distances. But God said, let there be light, and there was light, Gen. i. 14. He has prepar'd the light and the fun, Pfal. lxxiv. 16. This is the best and most philosophical account, that has ever been given of the Production of Light. For by a late Difcourse of the fame dexcellent Author last mention'd, it is evident, that all the Phenomena of Light depend upon no Mechanical Laws, but are directly contrary to them. He shews, " That all homogeneal Light has " its proper Colour, answering to its Degree of Re" frangibility, or to speak properly, it has a certain "Power and Disposition to excite this or that Co"lour; and that Colour cannot be changed by Re"flexions or Refractions: That the Whiteness of the " Sun's Light is compounded of all the Primary o"lours mix'd in a due Proportion. That every Ray " of Light, in its Passage through any refracting Sur"face, is put into a certain transient Constitution or " State, which in the Progress of the Ray returns at " certain Intervals, and disposes the Ray at every Re"turn to be easily transmitted through the next re fracting Surface, and between the Returns to be ea"fily refracted by it. These Returns he terms, its "Fits of easy Refraction, and its Fits of easy Transmissi on, and the Space between the Returns, the Inter"vals of its Fits; and the Intervals of these Fits have "Analogy to the Notes in Musick. Lastly, that the Caufe of Reflexion is not the impinging of Light " in the folid or impervious parts of Bodies, as is "commonly believ'd. 'From all which we may conclude, that Natural Philofophy must now be no longer look'd upon as a Science, but a History; and he is to be esteem'd the best Philosopher, who can best discover the Operations of Nature, and least pretends to Mechanical Explications of them. 3. The Abettors of the Mechanical Hypothesis argue, that God acts in the most general and uniform ways; that it is more becoming his Wisdom to let Nature Sir II. Newton's Opticks, l. i. p. 87, 90, 98. l. ii. p. 65, 77, 78, 81, 83. have its Course; and that constantly to interpose, would be a Disparagement to the Order and Contrivance in his Establishment of the Laws of Motion; that Matter and Motion are with that Wisdom set to work, that they can perform all without any more than preserving and sustaining them in their Being and Operations; and that he is the best Artist, who can contrive an Engine that shall need the least meddling with, after it is made. But it ought to be consider'd, what the Nature of the Engine is, and what the ends and uses of it are, and if the Nature of it be such, that it cannot answer the ends for which it was framed without sometimes an assisting hand, it would be no point of Wisdom in the Artificer, for the Credit of his Contrivance, to lose the most useful Ends defign'd by it.. As if among other uses this curious Engine were design'd to reward the good, and punish bad Men; to remove the Punishment upon Amendment, and to renew it upon a Relapse: Since Brute Matter is uncapable of varying its Motion, and suiting it self to the several States and Changes of Free Agents; he must assist it unless he will lose the Chief end for which it is to serve. It is no defect in the Skilland Wisdom of the Almighty, that Matter and Motion have not Free Will as Men have: But it would be a great defect in his Wisdom, not to make them the Instruments of Rewards and Punishments, because it is impossible for them of themselves to apply and fuit themselves to the several States and Conditions of Free Agents. The Nature of Matter and Motion is such, that they cannot serve all the designs of their Creator without his Interposition, and therefore he constantly doth interpose according to a certain Tenour which he has prescribed to himself; but this Tenour and Course is alter'd upon some important Occasions. In a natural and ordinary way he cures Diseases, sends Rain or dry Weather, or else our Prayers to him would be infignificant 04 ? significant upon such Occasions, and there would be no room left for his inflicting these Temporal Rewards and Punishments. He feeds the Hungry that cry to him, and he punishes the Wicked when he sees it fitting, by Famine, or Drought, or Pestilence, in the ordinary methods of his Providence. But sometimes he alters these ordinary methods, and acts above them or contrary to them, to signalize his Mercy or his Judgments: And thus Christ fed so many thousands in the Wilderness, and God rain'd down Fire from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah by a particular and miraculous Dispensation. Miracles are the particular Appointment of God in peculiar Cases and Occasions, and the Course of Nature is his general and perpetual Appointment at all other times. God at no time leaves Nature to it self, but ever concurs with it, by assisting its power and directing its course; he ordinarily interposes in the constant course of Things, according to establish'd Laws: But Miracles are his wonderful Work, when he interposes in an extraordinary manner, and alters that method which he has prescribed to himself to observe in the common course of Nature. God doth not in an extraordinary manner interpose to prevent the irregular or unusual Productions of Nature, as in monstrous Births, &c. For how irregular foever these may seem, yet they are according to this standing Rule, that they shall be suffer'd to happen in certain Cafes; and they rarely happening, serve to illustrate the Divine Wisdom in contriving Nature, so that in its general course all its Operations should be regular and uniform; and from hence it appears that God doth not extraordinarily interpose to alter the course of Nature; but for great Ends, superior to those which concern only the material World. We may well suppose that God has as much Regard to his Wisdom in his Government of the Moral, as of the Material Part of the Creation; and yet he has has added supplemental Laws to enforce the Moral Laws, and these additional Laws have been changed, as the Circumstances and Condition of Men required. Why then should the Laws of the Material World be so much more sacred, as that he should never intermeddle with them? He assists Moral Agents with the continual Supplies of his Grace, and Natural Agents with that Help which is needful for them to perform his Will. God may haften and assist Natural Causes upon our Prayers, he may quicken the Motions and enforce the Powers of Nature, and remove secret Impediments, to help and make way for Natural Operations, or he may suspend or retard Natural Causes. To say that God has so order'd the course of Nature, as upon the Foresight of Mens Prayers to him, to grant them what they pray for, and upon the Forefight that they will not pray, to withhold from them what they want by Mechanical Laws, is by no means fatisfactory. For there is neither Proof nor possibility of Proof of it; it is merely a Supposition without any ground of Reason, but only this, that the Mechanical Notion cannot otherwise be maintain'd. But I will suppose with much more Reason, that two Men are fick of the same Disease, that the Circumstances of the Disease are all the fame, and all outward Accidents likewise the fame, till the Prayers of one of them make a Difference. For one of these Men upon his Prayers recovers, the other neglecting to pray, dies. The Natural Causes are supposed to be the same, excepting only so far as Prayer moves God in his Mercy to make a Difference in their Case. To say that this never happen'd, is wholly precarious, and hard to believe; since it probably may often happen in Epidemical Distempers; but it is much harder to believe that it can never happen; and if this either have or can happen, it is not upon Forefight of their Prayers, by the Contrivance of Mechanical Laws in their first Establishment, but by an immediate Act, that |