Mr. Blount's oracles of reason examined and answered in nine sections in which his many heterodox opinions are refuted, the Holy Scriptures and revealed religion are asserted against deism & atheism / by Josiah King ...

Pag. 210.

Ocellus Lucanus says, his Opi∣nion is, that the Ʋniverse admitteth neither Ge∣neration nor Corruption, forasmuch as it ever was, and ever shall be.

ANSWER.

It is very evident, that our Naturalist pro∣ceeds (in asserting his Principle) of the usual Course of Generation and Corruption, which is obvious to our Senses; or on the Works of Art, which always suppose pre-existent Mat∣ter; which, if we deny, all his Arguments vanish. And in truth, he is guilty of that Sophism, which the Logicians call, Petitio

Principii, a begging of his Principle; in ta∣king that to be granted, which is the thing to be proved.

And whereas he says, if we could find out that of which the World was made, yet we cannot find into what it is dissolved, he is un∣der a great mistake; for the Production of a thing hath no necessary Relation to the con∣tinuance or discontinuance of its Existence, for one thing may begin to be, and last but an Hour, another may last for a thousand Years, another may last for ever; yet all three (and as many as you please) may begin at one and the same instant, the difference depending either on the Nature of the things themselves, or on the Pleasure and Will of God who made them.

We acknowledge, and firmly believe, that the Universe was made by God; yet with the same firmness we believe, that part of this Universe shall perish, part continue to all Eter∣nity, as Angels, and the Souls of Men; by which it appears, that some things which had a beginning shall have no end, and some shall have an end. So that Lucanus's pretended Universal Rule is not only precarious, but al∣so false.