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

Chap. IV. God, and the Matter, *^^Tis not fomewhere. But befidcs thefe Stoicks, there were other philbfophers,who admitting of incorporeal fubftance did fuppofe two firfl: principles, asfubftanccs really diftinft from one another, that were co-exiftent from eternity,an incorporeal Deity and matter -, as for example, Anaxagoras, Ar- Set Eufeh.chelaus. Aniens, and many more; infomuch that Pythagoras himfelf was P'-^A f-w.reckoned amongft thofe by Numcnius, and Plato by Plutarch and Laertius. ^'^'T- '-7'And we find it commonly taken for granted, that Arijiotle alio was ofthis perfaafion, though it cannot be certainly concluded from thence (asfome feem to fuppofe) becaufe he affcrted the eternity of the world ; Plotinus,Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Proclus and Simplicius doing the like, andyet notwithihinding maintaining, that God was the fole principle of allthings, and that matter alfo was derived from him. Neither will that paffageof Arijlotleh^ in_^his M. taphyficks neceflarily evince the contrary, /-. i. f . r.®io; ^oKUTo aiTiou irocciv tivai >^ '^'^> '^-^X'''^"d feems to be a caufe to all things \^- ^^3-and a certain principle ; becaufe this might be underftood only of the forms c^^'V^'of things.^P"JBut it is plain, that Plutarch was a maintainer of this docflrine from hisdifcourfe upon the Platonick pfychogonia ', (befides other places) j3eAt(wZk IIAarwvi KiiS!o\i.iw% tOk ^Ju y.i(T^ov Jtto 3-£ou ytyojivxi xiyuv .^ t,t*a;1iV, x^ avJ^cxulof /f zj therefore betterfor us to follow Plato (than Heraclitus) and loudly to declare, that the worldwas made by Cod. For as the world is the beft of all werks, fo is God thebeft of all caufes. Neverthekfsy the fubftance or matter, out of which the worldwas made, was not ilfelf made ; but always ready at hand, and fubjeSi to theartificer, to be ordered and difpofed by him. For the making of the world, wasnotthe produSlion of it out of nothing, but out of an antecedent bad and diforderlyJlatCy like the making of an houfe, garment, or jlatue.It is alfo well known,, that Hermogenes and otfier ancient pretenders toChriftianity did in like manner afllrt the fclf-exiftence and improduftion.of the matter, for which caufe they were commonly called Materiarii, orthe Materiarian hereticks •, they pretending by this means to give an account(as the Stoicks had done before them) of the original of evils, and to free*God from the imputation of them. Their ratiocination to which purpofe,!is thus fet down by Tertullian : God made all things, either out of himfelf, orjj.y^^ ij^_out of nothing, or out of matter. He couU not make all things out of him- mog. p, 282.-.felf, becaufe himfelf being always u.nmade, he ftjould then really have been the ^^imakerof nothing : and he did not make all out of nothing, becaufe being ejfentiallygood,, he would have made nihil non optimum, every thing in the beftmanner, and fo there could have been no evil in the wo-rld : but ftnce there areevils, and thefe could not proceed from the will of Cod, they muft needs arifefrom the fault of fomeihmg^ and therefore of the matter, out of which things'5»•Tom. II.. Oper. p. 1014.were-