s'd on the examining of
these Forms which he knew before, one by one, and found that they were
produc'd anew, and that they must of necessity be beholden to some
efficient Cause. Then he consider'd the Essences of Forms, and found
that they were nothing else, but only a Disposition of _Body_ to produce
such or such Actions. For instance, Water, when very much heated, is
dispos'd to rise upwards, and that Disposition is its Form. For there is
nothing present in this Motion, but _Body_, and some things which are
observ'd to arise from it, which were not in it before (such as
Qualities and Motions) and the Efficients which produce them. Now the
fitness of Body for one Motion rather than another, is its _Disposition_
and _Form_. The same he concluded of all other Forms, and it appear'd to
him, that those Actions which arose from them, were not in reality owing
to them, but to the efficient Cause, who made use of these Forms to
produce those Actions which are attributed to them, [_i.e_, the Forms].
Which Notion of his is exactly the same with what God's Apostle
[_Mahomet_] says; _I am his Hearing by which he hears, and his Seeing by
which he sees._ And in the _Alcoran; You did not kill them, but God
kill'd them; when thou threwest the Darts, it was not thou that threwest
them, but God_.

Sec. 50. Now, when he had attain'd thus far, so as to have a general and
indistinct Motion of this _Agent_, he had a most earnest Desire to know
him distinctly. And because he had not as yet withdrawn himself from the
sensible World, he began to look for this _voluntary Agent_ among
sensible Things; nor did he as yet know, whether it was one Agent or
many. Therefore he enquir'd strictly into all such Bodies as he had
about him, _viz_. those which he had been employ'd about all along, and
he found that they were all liable to _Generation_ and _Corruption_: And
if there were any which did not suffer a total Corruption, yet they were
liable to a partial one, as _Water_ and _Earth_, the parts of which are
consum'd by Fire. Likewise he perceiv'd, that the _Air_ was by extremity
of Cold chang'd into Snow, and then again into Water; and among all the
rest of the Bodies which he was conversant with, he could find none
which had not its Existence anew, and required some _voluntary Agent_ to
give it a Being. Upon which account he laid them all aside, and
transferr'd his Thoughts to the Consideration of the Heavenly Bodies.
And thus far he reach'd in h