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

andC^HAP. IV. hn{{ot\ts Co7tfutatw?i of Many Prmctpks. 225And the fame is to be affirmed of all his Pagan followers, as alfo of theManicheans, forafmuch as they, befides their good and evil god, (the onlyunmade fclf-exiftent beings acknowledged by them) worfhipped alfo innumerableother deities.Hitherto we have not been able to find amongfl: the Pagans any, who affertcda multitude of unmade felf-exiftent deities-, but, on the contrary, wefhall now find one, who took notice of this opinion of ttcXXx) cca^a.\ manyprinciples, fo far forth as to confute it •, and that is Arijlotk^ who was notoccafioncd to do that neither, becaufe it was a dodtrine then generally received,but only becaufe he had a mind odioufly to impute fuch a thingto the Pythagoreans and Platonifts, they making ideas (fometimes calledalfo numbers) in a certain fenfe, the principles of things. Neverthelefs,the opinion icfclf is well confuted by that philofopher from the phasnomena,after this manner : Oi Si Kiyom^ tou a^t^iAov w^mto^ tov /i*aS7)'>i«7ixei/, >ej ouTWf oil] ^''ft-a,AXY:'j iyo^ijYtv o-jiTix)) -A-xi ac^y-; iKOCTTn; ciX\o'.;^ nriKroanaSri rtiv toj ttxvto^ oCa-ixv Trot- li'*"• '°o~iTir&c. They who f^y that mathematical numhir is the firjl, and fuppofe one Xo^^ fv'frinciple of one thing., and another of another, ivould make the whole world Oper.]to be like an incoherent and difagreeiag poem, where things do not all mutuallycontribute to one another, nor confpire together to make up one fenfe and harmony: but the contrary, faith he, is mofi evident in the world ; and thereforethere cannot be many principles., but only one. From whence it is manifefl:,that though Arijlotle were a worflTipper of many gods, as well as the otherPagans, (he fomewhere reprefenting it as very abfurd to facrifice to nonebut Jupiter) yet he was no Polytheifl:, in the fenfe before declared, of manyunmada felf-exiftent deities, nor indeed any Ditheift neither, no aflertor oftwo underftanding principles, a good and evil god, (as Plutarch pretendedhim to be) he not only here exploding that opinion of 7roXXx\ y^^x'^\ manyprinciples, but alfo exprefly deriving all from one -, in that very chapteraffirming, that good is a principle, but not evil. But as for the Platoniftsand Pythagoreans there perftringed by him, though it be true, that theymade ideas in fome fenfe principles, as the paradigms of things j yet, accordingto Arijloth'i own confefTion, even in that fame chapter, they declaredalfo, that there was aAA») as;i(^ii m^M-iox, another principle more excellentor fuperior;, which is indeed that, that was called by them the to ed, orjuouaV, unity itfelf, or a monad, that is, one moft fimple deity.Met. /.Though we did before demonftrate, that the Pagan gods were not allfuppofed by them to be unmade felf-exiftent beings, becaufe they acknowledgeda thcogonia, a generation and temporary produdlion of gods ; yet,forafmuch as it might be fufpedled, that they held notwithftanding a multitudeof unmade deities, w^e have now made the beft enquiry that we couldconcerning this : and the utmoft that we have been able yet to difcover,is, that fome few of the profelTed Pagans, as well as of pretended Chriftiaas,have indeed afleVted a duplicity of fuch gods {viz. underftanding beingsunmade) one good, and the other evil, but no more. Whereas, on thecontrary, we have found, that Arifiotle did profefledly oppofe this opinionG g 2of