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

1^6 All Atheijls mere Corpor call fls. Book I.•nation, contending earneftly ' p»i fn;j;i Seov auSj-wir'i'uojSoy, that God (thoughcorporeal) yet muft not be conceived to be ot' any human fliape. And Xenophanes"*, an ancient philofophick poet, exprefleth the childilhnefs of thisconceit after this manner ;ToiauS'' olo'v TSTcj) >t, «^TOi (J£,uaf Ei;/oi/ Ojuorou.7/" o.vfw, //'tfw.t, fl//^i and horfes, had all of them a fcnfe of a "Deity, and ijcere ableto limn and paint, there is no queflion to be made, but that each of thefe feveralanimals would faint God according to their refpcclive form and likenefs. andcontend, that he was of that fjjape and no other. But that other corporealI'heifin fev;ms to be of the two rather more generous and genteel, whichfuppofes the whole world to be one animal, and God to be a certain fubtleand etherial, but intelledtual matter, pervading it as a foul: which was thedoftrine of oihers before the Stoicks,' to -nrUp 3-eov uirziX-n'pci.rcv"lTnrxiTQz n oMET«7rovIii/©^ >^ 'E^ej/^ 'HpaxAEil®^', Hippafus of Metapontus and Heraclitusthe Epheftan fuppofed the fiery and etherial matter of the v:orld to be Cod.However, neither thefe Heracliticks and Stoicks, nor yet the other Anthropomorphites,are by us condemned for downright Arheifts, but rather look'dupon as a fort of ignorant, childifli, and unfkilful Theifts."Wherefore we fee, that Atheifts are now reduced into a narrow compa(s,fince none are concluded to be Atheifts, but fuch as are mere Corporealifts ,and all Corporealifts muft not be condemned for Atheifts neither, but onlythofe of them, who alfcrt, that there is no confcious intelledual nature, prefidingover the whole univerfe. For this is that, which the Adepti in atheifm,of what form foever, all agree in, that the firft principle of the univerfeis no animalift), fentient and confcious nature, but that all animality,fenfe and confcioufncfs, is a feconSary, derivative and accidental thing, generableand corruptible, arifing out of particular concretions of matterorganized and diftblved together with them,XXXI. Now if the firft principle and original of all things in the univerfebe thus fuppofed to be body or matter, devoid of all animality,fenfe and confcioufneis, then it muft of necelTity be either perfedly dead andflupid, and without all manner of life ; or elfe endued with fuch a kind oflife only, as is by fome called pbftick, fpermatical and vegetative, by others theJife of nature, or natural perception. And thofe Atheifts, who derive all thingsfrom dead and ftupid matter, muft alfo needs do this, either in the way of qualitiesand forms, and thefe are the Anaximandrian Atheifts •, or elfe in the wayof atoms and figures, which are the Democritical. But thofc,who make matterendued with aplaftick life to be the firft original of all things, muft needs fuppofceither one fu.ch plaftick and fpcrmatick life only in the whole mafs of matteror corporeal univerfe, which are the Stoical Atlieifts; or elfe all matter as fuch tohave» Thefe are the words oi dcmais yilexan- * Apiid Clem. Alex, ubi fupra, p. 715.Jrinus concerning Xeuofhmies, Stromat. Lib. 3 Idem in Protreprtto, cap. V. p. 55.V. p. 71/J.