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

C H A P. IV. of the Poems called OrphicaL 297as tk-ngning to gain credit and authority to them thereby, had there beenno liicK doctrine before, either contained in fomc ancient monument of Orpheus,or at leaft tranlmitted down by oral tradition from him. Whereforethe Pythagoricks themfclves conllantly maintain, that before Pythagoras histime, there was not only an Orphick cabala extant, but alfo Orphick poems.Tlie former was declared in that ancient book called 'Isfc? Ao'j/^, or, theholy oration^ if we may believe Proclus upon the Thiio'us. TIv!^ix'yo^£i^ Ju ° P.igt."a yxp 'Osfpf'-'? ^l a,'T(if(V]T'j3'j Xoyu:y nxuf-ixaj Trxpc/.ic^'jiy.e, raura Tlv^xyopx^ i^ifjiOcSivop'yiCt.Sli\g i\i A:o»jfipoif ToT; ©flajcioi?, ' Ay\a.opril>-if teAj—« fj.{]a.SiSoAo^' Taura yxp (p*;-(l*!';nuSaj/o'^^xf £1/ Tu 'Is^w Xo'7/u. Timasus being a Pythagorean^ follows thePythagorick principles, and thefe are the Orphick traditions ; for what thingsOrpheus deliver'd tnyjiically, (or in arcane allegories,) ihefe Pythagoras learn'dwhen he was initiated by Aglaophemus in the Orphick myfleries, Pythagorashimfelf affirming as much in his hook called^ The Holy Oration. Where Proclus.,without any doubt or fcruple, entitles the book infcribed 'Ijfo? Ao^of, orthe holy oration., to Pythagoras himfelf. Indeed feveral of the ancients haverefolved Py/^^^or(7j to have written nothing at all, as Fla. Jcfephus, Plutarch^Lucian and Porphyrins ; and Epigenes in Clemens Alex, affirms, that the 'Iffo;Aoj'O-, or holy Oration, was written by Cercops a Pythagorean. Neverthelefs,Diogenes Laerlius thinks them not to be in good earnelf, who denyPythagoras to have written any thing-, and he tells us, that Heraclides acknowledgedthis 'ii^o^ >~iyo;, or holy oration, for a genuine and indubitatefoetus of Pythagoras. Jamblichus is alfo of the fame opinion, as the moftreceived ; though contefiing fome to have attributed that book to TelaugesPythagoras his fon. But whoever was the writer of this Hieros Legos, whetherPythagoras himfelf, or Telauges, or Cercops, it muft needs be granted tobe of great antiquity, according to the teftimony whereof, Pythagoras derivedmuch of his Theology from the Orphick traditions. Moreover, IonChius in his Trigrammi teliified, a.s Clemens Jlexandrinus mCormeth us, that Sirom. L, uPythagoras himfelf referred fome poems to Orpheus as their author -,which/'- 333'[P-397- Edrt.is alfo the general fenfe of Platonifts as well as Pythagoreans. Whereforeupon all accounts it feems mofl: probable, that either 0/-/ij&«/j himfelf wrotefome philofophick or theologick poems, though certain other poems mightbe alfo father'd on him, becaufe written in the fame ftrain of myftical andallegorical Theology, and as it were in the fame fpirir, with which thisThracian prophet was infpired -,or at leaft, that the Orphick doftrine wasfirft convey'd down by oral cabala or tradition from him, and afterwards,for its better prelervation, exprelFed in verfes, that were imputed to Orpheus,after the fame manner, as the golden verfes written by Lyfis were to Pythagoras.And Philoponiis ' intimates this latter to have been yfrijlotle's opinionconcerning the Orphick verfes j he glofling thus upon thofe words of /iri-Jlotle before cited : xkAh^euoi? eitts, on fj.r, Scv.£7 O^plug rx 'iirn, us;^ aJroV Ev rJiTTfji (piXoToptxi ^lyit. AJt» ya.^ e'tiji tx Siyfj-oclx, raZrx Si) (px(rtv 'Ouo/xaxailov evtTjiTj nxlx^iT-jx!. Ariftotle calls them the reputed Orphick verfes, becaufe theyfeem not to have been written by Orpheus himfelf as the fame Ariftotle affirmethin his book of philofophy. The doilrine and opinions of them indeedQjl 2were? Comment, in A riflot. Libr. Ill, de Anima, fol. 2. Edit. Graces, Venet. 15:53. fol.