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

1^8 Tl3& Materiarians Book I.fvcye made, Laftly, it is fufficiently known likewife, that fome modemfe£ls of the Chriftian proftfiion, at this day, do alfo aflert the uncreatednefsof the matter. But thefe fiippofe, in like manner as the Stoicks did, bodyto be the only fubftance.VII. Now of all thefe, whofoever they were, who thus maintained twofelf-cxiftent principles, God and the matter, we may pronounce univerfally,that they were neither better nor worfe, than a kind of imperfed Theifts.They had a certain notion or idea of God, fuch as it was, which feemsto be the very fame with that exprefled in Arijiotle ', Zmov apirov a/iJ'iou, ananimal the bejf, eternal ; and reprefented alfo by Epicurus in this manner -,Zuov TToi.iTXM lyjiv /;*«)t«fioT>;1« /ttfr' a-P^xaa-ixi' an animal, that bath all hnppinefswith incorruptibility.Wherein it was acknowledged by them, that befides fenflefs matter, therewas alfo an animalifh and confcious or perceptive nature, felf-exittent frometernity; in oppofition to Atheifts, who made matter either devoid of allmanner of life, or at lead of fuch as is animalifh and confcious, to be thefole principle of all things. For it hath been often obferved, that fomeAtheifts attributed a kind of plaftick life or nature to that matter, whichthey made to be the only principle of the univerfe. And thefe two forts ofI^at. ^. atheifms were long fmce taken notice of by Seneca in thefe words ; Uni-Praf. L. I. verfum, in quo nos quoque fumus, expers ejfe con/dii, tf aiit ferri temeritate quadarn,aut naturd nefciente quid facia t. The Atheifts make the univerfe, whereofour felves are part, to he devoid of counfel ; and therefore either to be carried ontemerarioujly and fortuitoufly, or elfe by fuch a nature, as which {though it beorderly, regular and methodical) yet is notwithftanding nefcient of what itdoth. But no Atheifl: ever acknowledged confcious animality to be a firflprinciple in the univerfe ; nor that the whole was governed by any animalifh,fentient, and underftanding nature, prefiding over it as the head of itbut as it was before declared, they concluded all animals and animality, allconfcious, fentient, and felf- perceptive life, to be generated and corrupted,or educed out of nothing, and reduced to nothing again. Wherefore they,who, on the contrary, afferted animality and confcious life to be a firil principleor unmade thing in the univerfe, are to be accounted Theifts. ThusBalbus in Cicero declares % that to be a Theift is to afll;rr, ab animantibusprincipiis mundum eJfe generatum, that the world was generated or producedat Jirfl from ani?nant principles ; and that it is alfo ftill governed by fuch anature ; res omnes fuhjeSlas ejfe nature fentienti, that all things are fubje^ to afentient and confcious nature, fleering and guiding of them.But to diftinguifh this divine animal from all others, thefe definers added,that it was a'firov and jj.o(.v.x^itJi-tcc\o)i, the beft and mcft happy animal ; andaccordingly, this difference is added to that generical nature of animalityby1 Metaphyf. Lib.XIV. Cap. VIII. p.479. p. 6;;.Tom. IV. Oper. 3 De Natura Dcor, L. II. §.xx.x. p. 2999.2 Vide Diogen. Laert. Lib.X. Segm. 123. Tom. IX. Oper.