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

142 Atheiftn §luadrifartlte^ the Book I.'Neverthelefs it feems, that fome of thefe Stoical Atheids did alfo agreewith the generality of the other Stoical Theifts, in fuppofing a fiicceffiveinfinity of worlds generated and corrupted, by reafon of intervening periodicalconfligrations ; though all difpenfed by fuch a ftupid and fenflefs nature,as governs plants and trees. For thus much we gather from thofe wordsof Seneca before cited, where defcribing this Athciflical Hypothefis, he tellsus, that though the world were a plant, that is, governed by a vegetative orplaftick nature, without any animality, yet notwithflanding, al> initio ejusufque ad exittifn, Sec. ic had both a beginning, and will have an end-, and fromits beginning to its end, all was difpenfed by a kind of regular law, even itsifucceffive conflagrations too, as well as thofe inundations or deluges, whichhave fometimes happened. Which yet they underftood after fuch a manner,.as that in thefe ieveral revolutions and fucceflive circuits or periods ofworlds, all things fliould be aVaaaAAaKla, exad'tly alike, to what had beeninfinitely before, and fhould be again infinitely afterwards. Of which more. el fe where.XXXIV. Thisquadripartite Atheifm, which we have now reprefented, isthe kingdom of darknefs divided, or labouring with an inteftine feditiouswar in its own bowels, and thereby deftroying icfelf. Infomuch that wemight well fave ourfelves the labour of any further confutation of Atheifm,merely by committing thefe feveral forms of Atheifm together, and dafliingrhem one againft another, they oppofing and contradiifting each other, nolefs than they do Theifm itfelf. For firft, thofe two pairs of Athcifms, onthe one hand the Anaximandrian and Democritick, on the other the Stoical.and Stratonical, do abfolutely defl:roy each other ; the former of them fuppofingthe firft principle of all things to be ftupid matter devoid of all manmerof life, and contending that all life as well as other qualities is generableand corruptible, or a mere accidental thing, and looking upon the plaftick lifeof nature as a figment or phantaftick capricio, a thing almoft as formidableand altogether as impoffible as a Deity ; the other, on the contrary, foundingIible to give any account of the phenomena of the world, the originalof motion, the orderly frame and difpofition of things, and the nature ofanimals, without this fundamental life of nature.all upon this principle, that there is a life and natural perception eflential tomatter, ingenerable and incorruptible, and contending it to be utterly impof-Again, the fingle Atheifms belonging to each of thefe feveral pairs quarrelas much alfo between themfelves. For the Democritick Atheifm explodesthe Anaximandrian qualities and forms, demonftrating that the naturalprodudion of fuch entities out of nothing, and the corruption of them againinto nothing, is of the two rather more impoffible than a divine creationand annihilation. And on the other fide, the Anaximandrian Atheifh plainlydifcovers, that when the Democriticks and Atomicks have fpenr alltheir fury againft thefe qualities and forms, and done what they can tofolve the phacnomena of nature without them another way, themfelves.do notwithftanding like drunken men reel and ftagger back into them,and