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

Chap. III.The ^a!er?7:c of Athetfms.XXX. We have d^fcribed four ftvcral forms of atheifm ; fird, the Tfylopathianor Anaximandrian, that derives all things from dead and Itiipidmatter, in the v/ay of qualities and forms, generable and corruptible : fc--condly, the Atomical or Democritical, which coth the fame thing in theway of atoms and figures : thirdly, the Cofmoplaftic or Stoical atheifm,which fuppofcs one plaltick and meihodical but fenfelefs nature, to prciideover the whole corporeal univerfe: and laftly, the Hylozoick or Stratonical,that attributes to all matter, as fuch^ a certain living and energetick nature,but devoid of all animality, ftnfe and confcioufnefs. And as wc d'o^not meet with any other forms or fchemes of atheifm befides thefe four, fowe conceive, that there cannot eafily be any other excogitated or deviled ;and that upon thcfe two following confiderations. Firft, becaufe all Atheiftsare mere Corporeal ills, that is, acknowledge no other fubftance befides bodyor matter. For as there was never any yet known, who afierting incorporealfubfxance, did deny a Deity •, fo neitlisr can there be any reafon,why he that admits the former lliould exclude the latter. Again, the famedull and earthly dilbelief or confounded fottiflmefs of mind, which makesmen deny a God, muft needs incline them to deny all incorporeal fubftancealfo. Wherefore as the phyficians fpeak of a certain difeafe or madnefs,called hydrophobia, the fymptom of thofe that have been bitten by a maddog, which makes them have a monftrous antipathy to water ; fo all Atheiftsare poirelTed with a certain kind of madnefs, that may be called Pneumatophobia,that makes them have an irrational but defperate abhorrence fromfpirits or incorporeal fubllances, they being afted alfo, at the fame time, withan Hylomania, whereby they madly doat upon matter, and devoutly worfhipit as the only Numen.IXoJThe fecond confideration is this, becaufe as there are no Atheifts but fuchas are mere Corporcalifts, fo all Corporealills are not to be accounted A-theifts neither : thofe of them, who notwithftanding they make all things tobe matter, yet fuppofe an intelledlual nature in that matter to prefide overthe corporeal univerfe, being in reafon and charity to be exempted out ofthat number. And there have been always fome, who, though fo flronglycaptivated under the power of grofs imagination, as that an incorporeal Godfeemed to them to be nothing but a God of words, (as fome of them callit) a mere empty found or contradidious expreflion, fomething and nothingput together; yet notwithftanding, they have been poliefTed with a firm beliefand perfuafion of a Deity, or that the fyftem of the univerfe dependsupon one perfe6l underflanding being as the head of it ; and thereupon haveconcluded that "An uruV 'iX'^Tct^ a certain kind of body or matter is God, Thegrofiell and moft fottifh of ail which corporeal Theifts feem to be thofe,who contend, that God is only one particular piece of organized matter, ofhuman form and bignefs, which endued with perfedt reafon and under-Handing exercifeth an univerfal doiuinion over all the reft. Which hypothefishowever it hath been entertained by fome of the Chriflian profeffefiion,both in former and later times, yet it hath feemed very ridiculous,even to many of thofe Heathen philofophers themfelves, v.'ho were mereCorporcalifts, fuch as the Stoicks, who exploded it whh a kind of indiglration.