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

utS2 Several hold paries of Athetfis. Book I.I^am gaiidere novis rebus debere videtur^oi veleres obfttnt ; fed quoi nil accidit legriTempore in anteailo, cum pulchri degeret ^evuniy^id fotuit novitatis amorem accendere tali .?Bid this Deity therefore h'ght up the ftars, as fo many lamps or torches, inthat vaft abyfs of infinite darknefs, that himfelf might thereby have a morecomfortable and chearful habitation ? Why would he then content himfelffrom eternity, to dwell in fuch a melancholick, horrid, and forlorn dungeon?'An, credo, in tenebris vita 13 mxrorejacebat,.Donee diluxit rerum genitalis origo ?Was company and that variety of thirtgs,by which heaven and earth are diftinguifhed,defireable to him ? Why then would he continue folitary fo-Jong, wanting the pleafure of fuch a fpedtacle ? Did he make the world andmenin it to this end, that himfelf might be worfhipped and adored, fearedand honoured by them i* But what could he be the better for that, who wasfufficiently happy alone in himfelf before ? Or did he do it for the fake ofmen,to gratify and oblige them ?-At quid immortalibus atque bcatisGratia nojlra qiieat largirier emclumenti,Ut noftrd quicquam causa ger-cre- aggrediantur ?Again, if this were done for the fajce of men, then it muft be either forwife men or for fools : if for wife men only, then all that pains was takenbut for a very few -, if for fools, what reafon could there be, why theDeity fhould feek to deferve fo well at their hands ? B?fidcs this, what hurt,would it have been- to any of us, (whether wife or foolifh) never to have,hfeen made ?' ^idve malt fuerat nobis non ejfe creatis ?Natt{s enir/i debet quicunque.ejl, velle mancrsIn vita, donee retinebit hlanda voluptas :^i nunquam verb vit^ gujiavit amorem.Nee fuit in numeroi quM obejl non eJJ'e creatum ?Laftly, •* if this Deity mufl: needs go about moliminoufly to make a world,ifyara iU'a >c, Tf>c7ouo?, like an artificer and carpenter, what tools and inftrumcntscould he have to work withal ? what minifters and fublervient opificcrs? what engines and machines- for the rearing up of fo huge a jQibrick ?How could he make the matter to underftand his meaning, and obey hisbeck? how could he move it, and turn it up and down ? for if incorporeal, hecould neither touch nor be touched, but would run through all thing.s, without» Id. ibid. ver. 1-5, \-6. -Vide Ciceron. do Kat. Deor. Lib. I,» Id. ibid. vcr. i66. cap. VIII. p. iS>o.\ Id. ibid. vcr. i", &c.