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are not easy to carry; it is not easy to carry it well under them; some of them are a ton weight. But my friend, if you were as near heaven as you ought to be, you would make light of them; you would bear them wonderfully!"

The acute Borelli has demonstrated that there is no such thing as positive levity, and that levity is only a lesser degree of gravity. But how useful is this, not only to divers tribes of animals, but also to the raising up of the many vapours, which are to be conveyed about the world? The evaporations, which, according to Mr. Sedileau's observations, and others, are the fewest in the winter, and greatest in the summer, the most of all in windy weather, and considerably exceed what falls in rain, many being tumbled about and spent by the winds, and many falling down in dews.

The ingenious Halley has yet a suspicion that there may be some certain matter, which may have a conatus directly contrary to that of gravity; as in vegetation the sprouts directly tend against the perpendicular.

Dr. Gregory demonstrates, that the ancient astronomers were not ignorant of the heavenly bodies gravitating towards one another, and being preserved in their orbits by the force of gravity.

Mr. Keil shews, that the force of gravity to the eentrifugal force, in a body placed at the equator of our globe, is as 289, to 1; so that by the centrifugal force arising from the earth's rotation, any body placed in the equator loses a 289th part of the weight it would have if the globe were at rest. And since there is no centrifugal force at the poles, a body there weighs 289 pounds, which at the equator would weigh but 288. On our globe

the decrease of gravity, in going from the poles towards the equator, is always as the square of the cosine of the latitude.

content;

Mr. Samuel Clark observes, it is now evident that the most universal principle of gravitation, the spring of almost all the great and regular inanimate motions in the world, answering not at all to the surfaces of bodies, by which alone they can act one upon another, but entirely to their solid cannot possibly be the result of any · motion originally impressed on matter, but must of necessity be caused by something which penetrates the very substance of all bodies, and continually puts forth in them a force or power entirely different from that by which matter acts on matter. This (he adds) is an evident demonstration, not only of the world's being made originally by a supreme intelligent cause, but moreover that it depends every moment on some superior Being, for the preservation of its frame, and that all the great motions in it are caused by some immaterial power, not having originaliy impressed a certain quantity of motion upon matter, but perpetually and actually exerting itself every moment in every part of the world: which preserving and governing power gives a very noble idea of Providence.

Dr. Cheyne demonstrates, that gravity, or the attraction of bodies towards one another, cannot be mechanically accounted for. The planets themselves cannot continue their motions in their orbs without it. It is not a result from the nature of matter, because the efficacy of matter is communicated by immediate contact, and it can by no means act at a distance. Whereas this power of gravitation acts at all distances, without any me

dium or instrument for the conveyance of it, and passes as far as the limits of the universe. Matter is indeed entirely passive, and cannot either tend or draw, with regard to other bodies, no more than it can move itself. And what is essential to matter cannot be intended or remitted; but gravity increases or diminishes reciprocally, as the squares of the distances are increased or diminished. It is plain this universal force of gravitation is the effect of the divine power and virtue, by which the operations of all material agents are preserved. They that press for a mechanical account of gravity, advance a notion of a subtile fluid, unto the motion whereof they would ascribe it. But then still those parts of matter must be destitute of gravity, which were very unlikely! And this hypothesis would still remove us but one step further from immechanical principles; for the cause of the motion of your subtile fluid, this, gentlemen, you must own to be immechanical. Since you must admit a first cause, you had as good admit it in this place. It is He who does immediately impress on matter this property. There never was yet afforded unto the world (as my doctor observes) a system of natural philosophy which did not require, postulates, that are not mechanically to be accounted for. The fewest any one pretends to, are, the existence of matter, and the impression of rectilinear motions, and the preservation of the faculties of natural agents. No man has pretended to fetch from the principles of mechanism an account for these. The impression of an attractive faculty upon matter, is no harder a postulate than the rest. It is a matter of fact, that matter is in possession of this quality.

And it can be referred to nothing, but the influence of that glorious One, who is the first cause of all things.

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Behold, a continual opportunity for a considerate and religious man, to have a sense of a glorious God awakened in him! and what is a walk with God, but that sense kept alive in every step of our walk? I am continually entertained with weighty body, or matter tending to the centre of gravity; I feel it in my own. The cause of this tendency, it is the glorious God. Great God, thou givest this matter such a tendency, and thou keepest it in its operation. There is no other cause but the will and work of the glorious God. I am now effectually convinced of that ancient confession, and must with affection make it, He is not far from every one of us. When I see any thing moving or settling that way that its heavy nature carries it, I may very justly think, and I would often form the thought, it is the glorious God, who now carries this matter such a way! When matter sinks downward, my spirit shall even therefore mount upward, in acknowledgment of the God who orders it. I will no longer complain, Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him. No, I am now taught where to meet with Him even at every turn. He knows the way that I take. I cannot stir forward or backward, but I perceive him in the weight of every matter; on the left hand and on the right I see him at work. My way shall be to improve this as a weighty argument for the being of a God. I will argue from

it, Behold, there is a God, whom I ought for ever to love, serve, and glorify. Yea, and if I am tempted to the doing of any wicked thing, I may reflect that it cannot be done without some action wherein the weight of matter operates. But then Ι may carry on the reflection, How near am I to that glorious God, whose commands I am going to violate! Matter keeps his laws; but, O my soul, wilt thou break them? How shall I do this wickedness, and therein deny the God, who not only is above, but also is most sensibly now exerting his power in the very matter, upon which I make my criminal misapplications!"

Before we go any further, it appears high time to introduce an assertion or two of that excellent philosopher Dr. Cheyne, in his philosophical principles of natural religion. He asserts, and with demonstration, (for truly without this he asserts nothing!) that there is no such thing as an universal soul, animating the vast system of the world, according to Plato; nor any substantial forms, according to Aristotle; or any omniscient radical heat, according to Hippocrates; nor any plastic virtue, according to Scaliger; nor any hylarchic principle, according to More. These are mere allegor ical terms, coined on purpose to conceal the ignorance of the authors, and keep up their credit with the credulous part of mankind. These unintelligible beings are derogatory from the wisdom and power of the great God, who can easily govern the machine he could create, by more direct methods than employing such subservient divinities; and indeed these beings will not serve the design for which we invent them, unless we endow them with faculties above the dignity of secondary agents. It is now plain from the most evident

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