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

and•Chap. II. Incorporeal a7'id Corporeal Deity. 69cerning that one Deity, which is now commonly worfliipped -,that thereforethis alio is but the creature of mens fear and fancy, the chief of allfantafticl-c ghofts and fpedres, as it were an Oberon or prince of fairies andfancies. This (we fay) was the firft original of that vulgar belief of invifiblepowers, ghofts, and gods ; mens taking their own fancies for things reallyexifling without them. And as for the matter and fubftance of thefe ghofts,they could not by their own natural cogitation fall into any other conceit,but that it was the fame with that, which appeareth in a dream to one thatfleepeth, or in a looking-glafs to one that is awake, thin aerial bodies, whichmay appear and vanifli when they pleafe. But the opinion, that fuch fpiritswere incorporeal and immaterial could never enter into the minds of menby nature, unabufcd by doffrine ; but it fprung up from thofe deceiving anddeceived literati, fcholafticks, philofophers, and theologers enchanting mensunderftandings, and n^aking them believe, that the abftracl notions of accidentsand effences could exifi: alone by themfelves, without the bodies, ascertain feparate and incoiporcal fubftanccs.To conclude therefore,to make an incorporeal mind to be the caufe of allthings is to make our own fancy, an imaginary ghoit of the world, to be areahty -,and to fuppofe the mere abftracl notion of an accident, and a feparatecfTcnce, to be not only an abfolute thing by it felf, and a real fubftance incorporeal,but alfo the firft original of all fubftances, and of whatfoeverisin the univcrle. And this may be rcckon'd for a fourth atheiftick ground.IX. Fifthly, the Atheifts pretend further to prove, that there is no otherfubftance in the v/orld befides body ; as alfo from the principles of corporealifmit felf to evince, that there can be no corporeal Deity, after this manner.No man can devile any other notion of llibftance, than that it is a thingextended, cxifting without the mind, not imaginary but real and folid magnitude; for whatfocver is not extended, is nowhere and nothing. So thatres extenfa is the only fubftance, the folid bafis and fubjira/ urn oi all. Nowthis is the very felf-fame thing, with body ; for a'/lnvnicc, or rejiftance, feems tobe a necelTary confequencc and refult from extenfion, and they that think o-thcrwife, can fiiow no reafon, why bodies, may not alfo penetrate one another,as feme Corporcalifts think they do; from whence it is inferred, that bodyor matter is the only fubftance of ail things. And whatfoever elfe is in theworld, that is, .all the differences of bodies, are nothing but feveral accidentsaiid modifications of this extended fubftance, body or matter. Which accidents,though they may be fom.etimes call'd by the names of real qualities,and forms, and though there be different apprehenfions concerning themamongft philofophers, yet generally they agree in this, that there are thefetwo properties belonging to them ; firft, that none of them can fubfift aloneby themfelves without extended fubftance or matter, as the balls and fupportof them ;and fecondly, that they may be all deftroyed. without die deftrucflioiiof any fubftance. Now as blacknefs and whitenefs, heat and cold, fo likewifelife, fenfe and underftanding, are fuch accidents, modifications or qualities ofbody, that can neither cxift by themfelves, and may be detlroyed without thede. -