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

Fruftru2iy6 Pagans difclaim a Multitude Book I,magnum atquemagnificum, quis tarn demens, tarn menle captusneget ejfe certif-Jimum ? Hujus nos virtutes per mundanum opus diffufas multis vocabulis invocamus,quoniam nomen ejus cunSii proprium videlicet ignoramus. Ita fit,ut dum ejus qiio.ft qit^edam membra carplim variis fupplicationibus profequimtir,toltim colere profeElo videamur. Truly that there is one fupremeGod, without beginning, as the great and magnificent father of nature ;who is fo mad or devoid of fenfe as not to acknowledge it to be moft cer--, iain ? His virtues diffufed throughout the whole world, {becaufe we know notwhat his proper name is) we invoke under many different names. Whenceit comes to pafs, that whilft we projecute, with our fupplications, his, as itwere, divided members feverally, we mufi needs be judged to wor/hip thewhole Deity. And then he concludes his epiftle thus ; Dii te fervent, perquos ^ eorum, atque cunilormn mortalium, communem patrem, wiiver/i mortales,quos terra fujliiiet, mille modis, concordi drfcordia veneranlur. Thegods keep thee, by and through whom, we Pagans, difperfed over the wholeEp.li.world, do worjhip the common father, both of thofe gods, and all mortals, aftera thoufand different mamiersy neverthelefs with an agreeing difcord. Lon-_^z«/rt««j likewile, another niore modeft Pagan philofopher, upon the requeftof the iame St. Juftin, d-clares his ienfe concerning the way of worfliip-CCXXXIV. ping God, and arriving to happinefs, to this purpofe. Per minores decswe are to"a"'^ ftin*''^ ^"'EpUt".>? 647-] perveniri ad fummum Deum non fine j'acris purificatoriis ' -, Thatcome to the fupreme God, by the minor or inferior gods, and that not with-'out purifying rites and expiations: he fuppofing that bcfides a virtuous andholy lite, certain religious rites and purifications were neceflary to be obiervedin order to that end. In which epiftle, the fupreme God is alfoftyled by him, «««/, univerfus, incomprehenfibiliSy ineffabilis i^ infatigabilisCreator.Moreover, that the Pagans generally difclaimed this opinion of manyunmade fclf-exiftent deities, appeareth plainly from Arnobius, where hebrings them in complaining, that they were falfly and malicioufly accufed.•Lih, x.^-iQ by fome Chriftians as guilty thereof, after this manner nos falfo£3" calumniofo incejfuis y appetitis crimine, tanqnam inficias eamus Deum effemajorem ; cum a nobis 6? Jupiter nominetur, isf optimus habeatur id maximus :ciimque illi augufiijftmas fedes, & Capitolia conjiituerinius immania. In vaindo you Chriflians calumniate us. Pagans, and nccufe us, as if we denied one fupremeomnipotent God; though we both call him ]u^\r.tv, and account him thehefi and the greated, having dedicated the mojl augifi feats to him, the vajl Capitols.Where Arnobius, in way of oppofition, fhows firft, how perplexedand intangled a thing the Pagans theology was, their poetick fables of thegods nonfenfically confounding herology together with theology; andthatit was impofTible, that that Jupiter of theirs, which had a father and amother, a grand-father and a grand-mother, fliould be the omnipotent God.Nam Dei'.s omnipotens, jnente una OTtmium,