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

C HAP .III. Digrejjhn concerning the PlafiickLife ofNature, 179Theifl:, feverely cenfur'J, both by Ariftotle and Plato., as an encouragerofatheifm, merely becaufe he ufed material and mechanical caufes morethan mental and final. Phyfiologers and ailronomers why vulgarly fufpededof atheifm in Plato's time. 7. The plaOick nature no occultquality, but the only intelligible caufe of that, which is the grandell: ofall phasnomena, the orderly regularity and harmony of things, whichthe mechanick Theiils, however pretending to folve all phenomena, cangive no account at all of. A God, or infinite mind, afll-rted by them,in vain and to no purpofe. 8. Two things here to be performed byus ; firft, to give an account cf the plaftick nature, and then to fliewhow the notion of it hath been mirtaken, and abuild by Atheifts. Thefirfl: general account of this plaftick nature, according to Arijlotk, that itis to be conceived as art itfclf ading, inwardly and immediately, upon thematter •, as if harmony living in the mufical inflruments fhould movethe firings of them without any external impulfe. 9. Two pre-eminencesof the plaftick nature above human art. Firft, that whereas human artafls upon the matter from without cumberfomely and moliminoufly, withtumult and hurly-burly, nature ading on it from within more commandinglydoth its work eafily, cleverly and filently. Human art ads onthe matter mechanically, but nature vitally and magically. 10. The fecondpre-eminence of nature above human art, that whereas humanartifls are often to feek and at a lofs, anxioufly confult and deliberate,and upon fecond thoughts mend their former work, nature is never tofeek, nor unrefolved what to do, nor doth fhe ever repent afterwards ofwhat file hath done, changing her former courfe. Human artiffs themfelvesconfult not, as artifts, but only for want of art ; and thereforenature, though never confulting, may aft artificially. Concluded, thatwhat is called nature is really the divine art. 11. Neverthelefs, that natureis not the divine art, pure and abflraft, but concreted and embodiedin matter, ratio merfa i^ confufa; not the divine art archetypal, but ectypal.Nature differs from the divine art, as the manuary opificer fromthe architefl. 12. Two imperfedions of the plallick nature, in refpeftwhereof it falls fhirt even of human art -, firff, that though it aft for endsartificially, yet icfjlf neither intends thole ends, nor underflands the reafonof what it doth, and therefore cannot aft eleftively. The differencebetwen the fpennatick rcafons and knov/lcdge. Nature doth but ape ormimick the dlvuie art or wifdom, being not mailer of that reafon, accordingto which it afts, but only a fervant to it, and drudging executionerof ir. 13. Proved that there may be fuch a thing as afts artificially,though itleU do not comprehend that art, by which its motions are governed•, firil from mufical habits ; the dancer refembles the artificial lifeof nature. 14. The fame further evinced froni the inflmfts of bruteanimals,direfting them to aft rationally and artificially, in order to theirown good and the good of the univerfe, without any reafon of their own.The inftinfts in brutes but paffive imprelTes of the divine wifdom, and akind of fate upon them. 15, The fecond imperfcftion of the plafticknature, that it afts without animal fancy,