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

Chap. IV. the Principle of other things made. 195perfedl (as Arifiotle ' obfervcs of Pherecydes, and his followers, to ysma-xoTrcuTcv af irs'j TifiEaa-i, ihat they made the firjl caufe end principle of generationto be the bejl) and then apprehending, that to be endued with confcious lifeand underrtanding is much a greater perfecflion than to be devoid of both,(as Balbus in Cicero declares upon this very occafion. Nee dubium quin quod DeKat. Detr.cnimansfit, habedtque mentem, ^ rationem, id fenfum^ id fit meliusI'quam id 2-quod his careat) they therefore conclude, that the only unmade thing, whichl-^^P" ^'^^'was the principle, caufe and original of all other things, was not fenflefs xom ^1 X.matter, but a perfeft confcious underftanding nature, or mind. And thefeOper ]are they, who are ftriftly and properly called Theifts, who affirm, that a pcrfecllyconfcious underlhinding being, or mind, exifting of itfelf frometernity, was the caufe of all other things ; and they on the contrary, whoderive all things from fenflefs matter, as the firft original, and deny thatthere is any confcious underllanding being fclf-exiftent or unmade, are thofethat are properly called Atheifts. Wherefore the true and genuine idea ofGod in general, is this, A perfe£f confcious under/landing being (^or mind)exifting of itfelf from eternityy and the caufe of all other things.V. But it is here obfervable, that thofe Atheifts, who deny a God, accordingto this true and genuine notion of him, which we have declared, dooften abufe the word, calling fcnflel^ matter by that rvame -, partly perhapsas indeavouring thereby, to decline that odious and ignominious nameof Atheifts, and partly as conceiving, that whatfoever is the firft principleof things, ingenerable and incorruptible, and the caufe of all other thingsbefides itfelf, muft therefore needs be the divineft thing of all. Whereforeby the word God thefe mean nothing elfe, but that which is oLyiyjnrovy unmadeor felf-exiftent, and the .le\ feems to agree with that of Epicharmus *, 'AAXa xiyflai lAvX'^"'^ T-uToy ym^xi Sftov, But chaos is Jaid to have made the firft of gods ;unlefs we fliould rather underftand him thus, That chaos was faid to havebeen made before the gods. And this abufe of the word God is a thing,which» Metaphyficcr. Lib. XII. Cap. IV. p. 446. /^i^oc/rr, and his well known principles of TTeTx!;?Tom. IV'. Oper. and ^Mi'a. De Generatione & Corruptionc,» Chap. III. i XX. Cap. VI. p. 734. Tom. I. Oper.s Phis is a miftake of Dr. Cudicorth, for Apud Diogen. Laert. Lib. III. ff£m»Arifiotle does not fpeak of thofe philofophers, 10. p. 171.yttio confidered the elements as gods, but oi Em-