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

Chap. II. a7i Incorporeal Deity, ,67-Pr.r'er inane ^ corpora tertia per fe.Nulla pokjl rerum in numero nature relinqtii.Thus the ancient Epicureans and Democri ticks argued -, there being nothingincorporeal but fpace, there can be no incorporeal Deity,But becaufe this feems to give advantage to the Theifts, in making fpacefomething, or that which hath a real nature or entity without our conception,from whence it will follow, that it mufl needs be either it felf a fubttance, orelfe a mode of fome incorporeal fubftance ; the modern Democriticks are heremore cautious, and make fpace to be no nature really exilling without us,but only the fantafm of a body, and as it were the ghoil of it, which has noreality without our imagination. So that there are not two natures of bodyand fpace, which muft needs infer two diftinft fubftances, one whereof muftbe incorporeal, but only one nature of body. The confequence of whichwill be this, that an incorporeal fubftance is all one witli an incorporealbody, and therefore nothing.VIII. But becaufe it is generally conceived, that an error cannot be fufficientlyconfuted, without difcovering to' aTnov t? vJ/euok?, the caufe of thefjiiftake ; therefore the Atheifts will in the next place undertake to Ihow Jikewifethe original of this doftrine of incorporeal fubftances, and from whatmifapprehenfion it fprung ; as alfo take occafion from thence, further to difprovea Deity.Wherefore they fay, that the original of this doiftrine of incorporeal fubftancesproceeded chiefly from the abufe of abftraft names, both of fubftances(whereby the eflenccs of fingular bodies, as of a man or an horfe,being abftrafted from thofe bodies themfelves, are confider'd univerfally ;)as alfo of accidents, when they are confider'd alone without their fubjectsor fubftances. The latter of which is a thing, that men have been neceffitatedto, in order to the computation or reckoning of the properties ofbodies, the comparing of them with one another, the adding, fubtrading,multiplying and dividing of them ; which could not be done, fo long asthey are taken concretely together with their fubjefts. But yet, as thereis fome ufe of thofe abftract names, fo the abuie of them has been alfovery great ; forafmuch as, though they be really the names of nothing, fincethe eftence of this and that man is not any thing without the man, nor isan accident any thing without its fubftance, yet men have been led intoa grofs miftake by them, to imagine them to be realities exifting by themfelves.Which infatuation hath chiefly proceeded from fcholafticks, whohave been fo intemperate in the ufe of thcfe words, that they could notmake a rational dilcourfe of any thing, though never io fmall, but theymuft ftuft' it with their quiddities, entities, eflfences, hascceities and tholike. Wherefore thefe are they, who being flrft deluded themfelves, havealfo deluded the world, introducing an opinion into the minds of men,K 2that• Id. Lib. I. vcrf 441T.