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

178 All Atheifms Nonfenje and Inipojfibility. Book I.even with its own weapons, and plainly demonftrate, that all forms ofatheifm are unintelligible nonfenfe and abfolute impofTibility to human reafon: as we fhall likewife, over and above, occafionally infert fome (as wethink) undeniable arguments for a Deity.The Digreflion concerning the Plajiick Life of Natiireyor an Artificial, Orderly and Methodical Nature,N. 37. Chap. 3.* i.rr^HAT neither the hylozoick nor cofmo-plaftick Atheifts are con-*j_ demned for aflerting an orderly and artificial plaftick nature, as a' life diflinft from the animal, however this be a thing exploded, not only*by the atomick Atheifts, but alfo by fome profefTed Theifts, who nocwith-• {landing might have an undifcerned tang of the mechanically-atheiftick* humour hanging about them. 2. If there be no plaftick artificial nature* admitted, then it muft be concluded, that either all things come to pafs'by fortuitous mechanifm, and material necefTity (the motion of matter* unguided) or elfe that God doth a-vT^s^ytiv aVai/lj;,, do all things himfelf* immediately and miraculoufly, framing the body of every gnat and fly,* as rt were with his own hands-, fince divine laws and commands cannot' execute themfelves, nor be the proper efficient caufes of things in nature.* 3. To fuppofe all things to come to pafs tortuitoufly, or by the unguided* motion of matter, a thing altogether as irrational as it is athciftical and*'impious -, there being many phaenomena, not only above the powers of' mechanifm, but alfo contrary to the laws of it. The mechanick Theifts' make God but an idle fpedlator of the fortuitous motions of matter, and' render hiswifdom altogether ufelefs and infignificant. /^r//?o//t''s judicious* cenfure of the fortuitous Mechanifts, with the ridiculoufnefs of that pre-' tence, that material and mechanical reafons are the only philofophical.4. That it feems neither decorous in refpeft of God, nor congruous to'*rcafon, that he fiiould a'jT»p;)/£ru aTravIa, do all things himfelf immediately'and miraculoufly, nature being quite fuperfeded and made to fignify no-' thing. The fame further confuted by the (low and gradual procefs of' things in nature, .as alfo by thofe errors and bungles, that are committed,' when the matter proves inept and contumacious, arguing the agent not to* be irrefiilible. 5. Reaibnably inferred, that there is a plaftick nature in'the univerfe, as a fubordinate inftrument of divine providence, in the or-'derly difpofal of matter ; but yet fo as not without a higher providence'prefiding over it, forafmuch as this plaftick nature cannot acSt eledlively' or with difcretion. Thofe laws of nature concerning motion, which the' mechanick Theifts themfelves fuppofe, really nothing elfe but a plaftick.* nature. 6. The agreeablenefs of this dodlrine with the fentiments of the* beft philofophers in all ages, Arijtotle., Plato, Empedocles, HeraclituSy* Hippocrates., Zeno, and the Paracelfians. Anaxagoras, though a profefiedTheift,