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

io6 "Every Hylozoijl not to hz Book I.fuch a monflrous paradox as this is. That every atom of dufl or otherfenfelefs matter is wiler than the greateft politician and the moll acutephiJofopher that ever was, as having an infaiiible omnifcience of all its owncapabilities and congruities •, wereit not by reafon of fome ftrong prepoffeffion,againft incorporeal fubllance and a Deity : there being nothing fo extravagantand ouragioufly wild, which a mind once infefted with atheifticalfottiflinefs and difbelief will not rather greedily fwallow down, than admita Deity, which to fuch is the higheft of all paradoxes imaginable, andthe moft aftr^ghtful bug-bear. Notwithftanding all which, it may not bedenied, but that it is poffible for one, who really entertains the belief of aDeity and a rational foul immortal, to be perfuaded, firft, that the fenfitivethen that there isfoul in men as well as brutes is merely corporeal -, anda material plaftick life in the feeds of all plants and animals, whereby theydo artificially form themfelves ; and from thence afterward to defcend alfofurther to hylozoifm, that all matter, as fuch, hath a kind of natural,though not animal life in it : in confideration whereof, we ought not tocenfure every Hylozoift, profefTing to hold a Deity and a rational foul immortal,for a mere diguifed Atheift, or counterfeit hiftrionical Theift.III. But tho' every Hylozoift be not therefore necelFarily an Atheift, yetwhofoever is an Hylozoift and Corporealift both together, he that bothholds the life of matter in the fenfe before declared, aiid alfo that there isno other fubftance in the world beiides body and matter, cannot be excufedfrom the imputation of atheifm, for two reafons : firft, becaufe though hederive the original of all things, not from what is pcrfeftly dead and ftupid,as the atomick Atheift doth, but from that which hath a kind of hfeor perception in it, nay an infallible omnifcience, of whatfoever it felf cando or fuffer, or of all its own capabilities and congruities, which feems tobear fome femblance of a Deity ;yet all this being only in the way of natural,and not animal perception, is indeed nothing but a dull and drowfy,plaftic and fpermatick life, devoid of all confcioufnefs and felf-enjoyment.The Hylozoifts nature is a piece of very myfterious nonfenfe, a thingperfeiftlywife, without any knowledge or confcioufnefs of it felf; whereas aDeity, according to the tnie notion of it, is fuch a perfeft underftandingbeing, as with full conlcioufnefs and felf-enjoyment is completely happy.Secondly, becaufe the hylozoick Corporealift, fuppofing all matter, as fuch,to have life in it, muft needs make infinite of thofe lives, (forafmuch asevery atom of matter has a life of its own) coordinate and independent onone another, and confequendy, as many independent firft principles, no onecommon life or rnind ruling over the whole. Whereas, to aflert a God,is to derive all things «?>' svoj ni/©^, from fome one principle, or to fuppofeone perfed: living and underftanding being to be the original of all things,and the architeft of the whole univerfe.Thus we fee, that the hylozoick Corporealift is really an Atheift, thoughcarrying more the femblance and difguife of a Theift, than other Atheifts,in