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

C H A P. III. Ti)^ Ajferten ofSenfit. and RatM, Matter. i X7have life and an energetick nature belonging to ir, (though without any animalfenfe or felf- percept ion,) and conlequently all the particular parrs of matter,and every totum by continuity, to have a dillinft plaftick life of its own,which are the Stratonick Atheifts. Wherefore there does not feem to be anyroom now left for any other form of Atheifm, befides thefe four, to thruft in.And we think fit here again to inculcate, what hath been already intimated,that one grand difference amongft thefe feveral torms of Atheifm is this,that fome of them attributing no life at all to matter, as fuch, nor indeedacknowledging any plaftick life of nature, diftinfl from the animal, andfuppofing every thing whatfoever is in the world, befides uAn aVoio?, the barefubftance of matter confidcred as devoid of all qualities, (that is, mere extendedbulk,) to be generated and corrupted ; confequently refolve, that allmanner of life whatfoever is generable and corruptible, or educible oat otnothing, and reducible to nothing again •, and thefe are the An:;ximandrianand Democritick Atheifms. But the other, which are the Stoical and Stratonical,do on the contrary fuppofe fomc life to be fundamental and original,efTential and fubftantial, ingencrable and incorruptible, as being a firllprinciple of things ; nevcrthelefs, this not to be any animal, confcious andfclf-perceptive life, but a plaftick life of nature only -, all Atheifts ftill a-greeing in thofi two forementioned things •, firft, that there is no other lub-Itance in the work! befides body •, fecondly, that all animal life, fenfe andfelf-perception, confcious underftanding and perfonality are generated andcorrupted, fucccffively educed out of nothing and reduced into nothingagain.XXXII, Indeed we are not ignorant, that fome, who feem to be wellwiftiersto Atheifm, have talk'd fometimes of fenfitive and rational matteras having a mind to fuppoie, three feveral forts of matter in the univerfe,fpecifically different from one another, that were originally fuch, and felfexiftentfrom eternity ; namely fenflefs, fenfitive and rational : As if themundane fyftem might be conceived to arife from a certain jumble of thefethree feveral forts of matter, as it werefcuffling together in the dark, withouta God, and fo producing brute animals and men. But as this is a mere precarioushypothefis, there being no imaginable account to be given, howthere fhould come to be fuch an effential difference betwixt matters, or whythis piece of matter fhould be fenfitive, and that rational, when another isaltogether fenOefs ; fo the fuggeftors of it are but mere novices in Atheifm,and a kind of bungling well-wifhers to it. Firft, becaufe, according to thishypothefis, no life would be produced or deftroyed in the fucceftive generationsand corruptions of animals, but only concreted and ll-creted in them ;and confequently all human perfonalities muft be eternal and incorruptible :Which is all one, as to affert the prs and poft-exiftencc of all fouls frometernity to eternity, a thing that all genuine -and thorow-pac'd Atheifts arein a manner as abhorrent from, as they are from the Deity itfelf. And fecondly,becaufe there can be no imaginable reafon given by them, whythere might not be as well, a certain divine matter perfcdly itltellet^lualTand