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

thenupon^72 ^^ Errors of Atheljis^ ixho male Book I.whereof is the Deity. And this perhaps may eafc the minds of thofe, whocannot but tliink it too much, to impole all upon one plaftick nature of tlieuniverfe.26. And now we have finifhed our firft taflc, which was to give an accountof the plaftick nature, the fum wi>ereof briefly amounts to this ; thatit is a certain lower life than the animal, which acfs regularly an.l artificially,according to tlie direftion ef m.ind and underltanding, reafon and wiillom,for ends, or in order to good, though itfelf do not know the reafon of whatit does, nor is mafler of that wildom according to which it afts, but only afervant to it, and drudging executioner of the fame •, it operating fuaiJyand lympathetically, according to laws and commands prefcribid to it by aperfed intelledr, and impreft upon it •, and which is either a lower facultyof fome confcious foul, or elfe an inferior kind of life or foul by itfelf •, buteflcntially depending upon an higher intelleft.We proceed to our fecond undertaking iwhich was to fiiew, how groflythofe two forts of Atheifts before mentioned, the Stoical or Cofmo-plaltick,and the Stratonical or Hylozoick, both of them acknowledging this plafticklife of nature, do miftake the notion of it, or pervert it, and abufe it, to makea certain Ipurious and counterfeit God-almighty of it, (or a firft principle of allthings) thereby excluding the true omnipotent Deity, which is a perfcftmind, or confcioufly underftanding nature, prefiding over tlie univerfe ;they fubftituting this ftupid plaftick nature in the room of it.Now the chief errors or miftakes of thefe Atheifts concerning the plafticknature, are thefe four following. Firft, that they make that to be the firfhprinciple of all, and the higheft thing in the univerfe, which is the laft andloweft of all lives ; a thing eflcntially fecondary, derivative, and dependent.For the plaftick life of nature is but the mere umbrage of intelk duality, afaint and fliadowy imitation of mind and underftanding •, which it dothas eflentially depend, as the ftiadow doth upon the body, the image in theglafs upon the face, or the echo upon the original voice. So that if therehad been no perfeft mind or intellecft in the world, there could no more havebeen any plaftick nature in it, than there could be an image in the glafswithout a face, or an echo without an original voice. If there be $jVjr,then there muft be No~; : if there be a plaftick nature, that afts regularly andartificially in order to ends, and according to the birft wifdom, though itfelfnot comprehending the reafon of it, nor being clearly confcious of what itdoth -, there muft of neceftity be a perfedl mind or intelleft, that is, aDeity, upon which it depends. Wherefore Ariftotle does Hke a philofopherin joining