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

Chap. III.CONTENTS.pathian atheifm^ to have been at leafi as old as Homer, "juho made the ocean{or fluid matter) thefather of all the gods. And that this -was indeed theancientefl of all atheifms, tvhich verbally acknoivledging gods, yet derivedthe original of them allfromnight and chaos. The defeription of this atheiftickhypothefis in Ariftophanes, That night and chaos firfl laid an egg, out ofii'hichfprungforth love, which afterwards mingling with chaos, begat heavenand earth, animals and all the Gods. i8. That notwithftanding this, inAni\.ot\^'sjudgment, Parmenides, Hcfiod, and others, who made love in likemanner, fenior to all the gods, were to be exempted out of the number ofAtheifls ; they underftanding this love to be an aSfive principle, or caufe ofmotion in the univerfe, which therefore could not rife from an egg of the night,nor be the off-fpring of chaos, but muft be foinething in order of nature beforematter. Simmias Rhodius his Wings, a poem in honour of this heavenly love.This not that love, which was the offfpring o/Penia and Porus in Plato. Inwhat reSlified fenfe it may pafs for true theology, that love is the fupreme Deityand original of all things. 19. That though Democritiis tf>;iLeucippus /-^elfewhere tay.ed by Ariltotle for this very thing, that they affigned only a materialcaufe of the univerfe ; yet they were not the perfons intended by him inthe fore-cited accufation, but certain andenter philofophers, who alfo were notAtomifts, but Hylopathians. 20. That Ar'Aotle's atbeiflick Materialifls wereall thefirft lonick philofophers before Anaxagoras, Thales being the head ofthem. But that Thales is acquittedfrom this imputation of atheifm by feveralgood authors (with an account how he came to be thus differently reprefented)and therefore that his next fucceffor Anaximander is rather to be accounted theprince of this atheiflick philofophy 21. A paffage oa/c/ Ariftotle objected,.which, at firjt fight, feems to make Annxiimnder a divine philofophe>; and thereforehath led both modern and ancient writers into that miftake. That this placewell conftdered proves the contrary. That Anaximander was the chief of theold atheiflick philofophers. 22. That it is -no wonder, //Anaximander calledfenflefs matter the ri ^uov, or God, fince to all Atheijis that muft needs be thehigheft '^ umen ; alfo how this is faid to be immortal, and to govern all',with the concurrentJudgment of the Greek fcholiajis upon this place. 23. Afurther account of the Anaximandrian philofophy, manifefting it to have beenpurely atheiftical. 24. What ill judges the vulgar have beenofTheifts andAtheifts ; as alfo that learned men have commonly fuppofed fewer Atheiftsthan indeed there were. Anaximander rt«^Democricus Atheifts both alike,though philofophizing different ways. That feme paffages in Plato refpeSithe Anaximandrian form of Atheifm, rather than the Democritical. 25. WhyDemocritus and Leucippus ncw-modell'd atheifm into the atomick form.26. That beftdes the three forms of atheifm already mentioned, zve fometimesmeet with a fourth, which fuppofes the univerfe, though not to be an animal,yet a kind of plant or vegetable, having one plaftick nature in it, devoid ofunderftanding andfenfe, which difpofes and orders the whole. 27. That thisform of atheifm, which makes one plaftick life to prefide over the whole, is differentfromthe Jyylozoick, in that it takes away all fcrtnitoufnefs, andfubjeclsall to thefate of one plaftick methodical nature. 28. Though it bepoffible, thatfome in all ages might have entertained this atheiftical conceit, that thingsare difpenfed by one regular and methodical, but unknowing fenflefs nature ;yetN 2it103