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

Chap. IV. Onelinefs containedJn the Idea,^ toycular) fuch as infinitely good, wife, and powerfhly neceffarily exijiing, And notonly the framer of the world, but alfo the caufe of all things.the Deity is fufficient, in order to our prefent undertaking.Which idea ofNeverthelefs, if we would not .only attend to what is barely neceflaryfor a dipute with Atheifts, but alfo confider the fatisfaftion of other freeand devout minds, that are hearty and fincete lovers of this moft admirableand moft glorious being, we might venture for their gratification, to propofeyet a more full, free and copious defcription of the Deity, after thismanner. God is a being abfolutely ferfe£l, unmade or felf-originated, and neceffarilyexifling ; that hath an itifnite fecundity in him, and virtually containsall things ; as alfo an infinite benignity or overflowing love, uninvidioufiy dif'flaying and communicating itfelf ; together with an impartial reElitiide^ or natureof jtfiice : who fully comprehends himfelf, and the extent of his own fecundity,and therefore all the pcffibilities of things, their feveral natures andrefpeils, and the befi frame or fyftem of the whole : who hath alfo infiniteahive and perceptive power : the fountain of all things, who made all thatcould be made, and was fit to be made, producing them according to his own nature{his efj'ential goodnefs and wifdom) and therefore according to the befi pattern,and in the beft manner pofiible, for the good of the whole ; and reconcilingall the variety and contrariety of things in the univerfe into one moft admirableand lovely harmony. Laftly, who contains and upholds all things, andgoverns them after the befi manner alfo, and that without any force or violence,they being all naturally fubjeEi to his authority, and readily obeying his law.And now we fee, that God is fuch a being, as that if he could be fuppofednot to be, there is nothing, whofe exiftence a good man could poffibly morewifh or defire.X. From the idea of God thus declared it evidently appears, that therecan be but one fuch being, and that Movwo-i?, unity, onelinefs or fingularity iseffential to it; forafmuch as there cannot poffibly be more than one fupreme,more than one omnipotent or infinitely powerful being, and more than onecaufe of all things befides itfelf. And however Epicurus, endeavouring topervert and adulterate the notion of God, pretended to fiuisfy that naturalprolepfis or anticipation in the minds of men, by a feigned and counterfeitaflerting of a multiplicity of coordinate deities, independent upon one fupreme,and fuch as were alfo altogether unconcerned either in the frame orgovernment of the world, yet himfelf notv,'ithftanding plainly took noticeof this idea of God, which we have propofed, including unity or onelinefsin it (he profeiTcdly oppofing the exiftence of fuch a Deity ; ) as mayfufficiendy appear from that argumentadon of his, in the words beforecited.^lis regere immenfi fummam, quis habere profundi ^-i ^ * ,qSIndu manu validas pot is eft moderanter habenas ? .Lamb^cis pariter ccelos cmnes convertere, i3 omfiesIgnibus ^therjis terras fuffire feraces ?Omnibus inqiie locis effe omni tempore pvtefto ?E eWhere