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

•gods, whole'And2^0 -^tt the Paga7t Gods B o o k I."Venus.Idjlly, in the fame manner, by the Mufes they ftgnified loth.thofe rational arts, rhetorick, ajironomy, poetry, and the goddeffes, -which ajfijtthtrein or -promo, e the fame. Nov, as the fever?.! things in nature and partsof the corporeal world are thus rrhetonymically and catachreftically calledand goddeflcs, it is evident,' that fuch d' itics as thefe could not befuppofed ro be unmade or felf-exiftent, by thofe, who acknowledged theworld to have been generated and had a beginning. But as thefenames were ufed more properly, to fignify invifible and und-rftandingpowers, prefiding over the things in nature, and difpenfing of them, how-,ever they have an appearance of fo many feveral difi:in(5t deities ; yet thc-yfeem to have been all really nothing elfe, but as Balbiis in Cicero ' expreffesit. Dens pertinens per natura;n cujufque rei, God paffmg through, and ailingin the nature of every thing ; and confequently, but feveral names, or fomany different notions and confiderations of that one fupreme Numen, thatdivine force, power, and providence, which runs through the whole world,as varioufly raanifefting it-felf therein.Wherefore, fince there were no other kinds of Gods amongfl the Pagans,befides thefe already enumerated, unlefs their images, ftatues and fymbolsfliould be accounted fuch (becaufe they were alfo fomctimes abufivcly calledgods) which could not be fuppofed by th^m to have bjen unmade or withouta beginning, they being the workmanfhip of mens own hands ; we concludeuniverfally, that all that multiplicity of Pagan gods, which makes fogreat a fliew and noife, was really either nothing but ftvcra! names and notionsof one fupreme Deity, according to its different manifeftations, giftsand effects in the world, perfonated ; or elfe many inferior underftandingbeings, generated or created by one Supreme: fo that one unmade fcltexiftentDeity, and no more, was acknowledged by the more intelligent ofthe ancient Pagans, (for of the fottifli vulgar no man can pretend to give anaccount, in any religion) and confequently, the Pagan polytheifm (or idolatry)confided not in worfhipping a multiplicity ot unmade minds, deitiesand creators, felf-exiftent from eternity, and independent upon one Supreme; but in mingling and blending, fome way or other, unduly, creature-worfnip with the worfhip of the Creator.And that the ancient Pagan Theifts thus acknowledged one fupremeGod, who was the only ©si; c.'yiivi)\(^ , unmade or unproduced Deity, (1 fav,Theifts, becaufe thofe amongft the Pagans, who admitted of many gods,but none at all unmade, were ablolute Atheifts) this may be undeniablyconcluded from what was before proved, that they acknowledged omnipotenceor infinite power to be a divine attribute. Becaufe upon the hypothefisof many unmade felf-exiftent deities, it is plain, that there could benone omnipotent, and confequently no fuch thing as omnipotence in reriimnatiira : and therefore omnipotence was rightly and properly ftyled by Macrobius', fummi Dei omnifctentia, it being an attribute efientially peculiarto one fupreme and fole fclf-exiftent Deity. And Simplicius, likewife aPagan,^ De Natur. Deor. Lib. 11. Cap. XXVIII. * In Soam. Scipion. Lib. I. Cap. XVII.p. 2996. I'om. IX. Oper. P» 87.