wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

Chap. III. without exprefs Confcioufnefs, 163upon our bodies. As likewife we are not confcious to ourfelves of thatenergy, whereby we imprefs variety of motions and figurations upon theanimal fpirits of our brain in our phantaftick thoughts. For though tliegeometrician perceive himfelf to make lines, triangles and circles in theduft with his finger, yet he is not aware, how he makes aH thofe fame figuresfirft upon the corporeal fpirits of his brain, from whence notwithftanding,as from a glafs, they are refledled to him, fancy being rightlyconcluded by Arijiotle 'to be a weak and obfcure fcnfe. There is alfo anothermore interior kind of plaftick power in the foul (if we may fo callit) whereby it is formative of its own cogitations, which itfelf is not alwaysconfcious of; as when, in fltep or dreams, it frames interlocutorydifcourfes betwixt itfelf and other perlons, in a long feries, with coherentfcnfe and apt connexions, in v;hich oftentimes it feems to be furpriz d withunexpected anfwers and repartees, though itfelf were all the wliiie thepoet and inventor of the whole fable. Not only our nictations for the modpart when we are awake, but alfo our no6turnal volutations in fleep, areperformed with very little or no confcioufnefs. Refpiration, or that motionof the diaphragma and other mufcles which caufes it (there being nofufficient mechanical account of it) may well be concluded to be always avital motion, though it be not always animal ; fince no man can affirm,that he is perpetually confcious to himfelf of that energy of his foul, whichdoes produce it when he is awake, much lefs when afleep. And laftly. TheCartefian* attempts to folve the motion of the heart mechanically feem tobe abundantly confuted by autopfy and experiment, evincing the fyftoleof the heart to be a mufcular conitridtion, caufed by fome vital principle,to make which nothing but a pulfifick corporeal quality in the fubflanceof the heart itfelf, is very unphilofophical and abfurd. Now, as we haveno voluntary imperium at all upon the fyftole and diaftole of the heart,fo are we not confcious to ourfelves of any energy of our own Ibul thatcaufes them ; and therefore we may reafonably conclude from hence alfo,that there is fome vital energy, without animal tancy or fynjefthefis, exprefsconfcioufnefs and felf-perception.18. Wherefore the plaftick nature, ading neither by knowledge nor byanimal fancy, neither elecftively nor hormetically, muft be concluded to adifatally, magically and fympathetically. And thus that curious and diligentinquirer into nature, before commended, refolves j Natura tanquam fato Har-uei dequodam, feu mandato fecundum leges operante, movet ; Nature moveth as it Gen. An.were hy a kind of fate or command, cSling according to laws. Fate, and thelaws or commands of the Deity, concerning the mundane oeconomy (theybeing really the fame thing) ought not to be looked upon, neither as verbalthings, nor as mere will and cogitation in the mind of God, but as anenergetical and effeftual principle, conftituted by the Deity, for the bringingof things decreed to pafs. The Aphrodifian philofopher % with others ofthe ancients, have concluded, that fate and nature are but two difi'erentnames for one and the fame thing ; and that tots tlfj.oc^i/.mv KOiT» (puViv, xjY 2TO' Lib. III. deanima, Cap. III. IV. p. 45.f, matione foetus, P. II. p. 195. f.Tom. II. Oper. ? Libr. de fato, § 6, p. 25. edit. Londin.* Vide Cartef. Libr, de homine & de for-