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

Chap. IV. afferted Monarchy. ^6'Omnia regali funt hac in corpore clattfa^Jgfiis, y u^da, £if ierra, ather cum no5le dieque ;(Confilitim, primus. genitor, cum numine amoris :Juppi/er immenfo fub corpore cunSla cci'rcetEn hujus caput eximium^ vultufque decorosUndique refpkndens cesium^ cui pendula circumAurea Cafaries ajlrorum lumina fundit :Sunt oculi PhabuSy Phceboque adverfa recurrensCynthia, &c.Where probably that one verfe,Kat MiTI?, TT^WT^ yiViTUB, JtJ ''EcWJ TToAUT £jl TTv'fthough truly Orphical, and indeed divine, (it fignifying, that Mind and Lovewere the firft begetters and original of all things) was notwithftanding clap'din unduly out ot Ibme other place. But from all thefe citations it plainlyappears, that according to the Orphick theology, though there were manygods and goddefTes too admitted, yet there was one original and king ofthem ail, one fupreme Deity acknowledged. We are not ignorant, thatfome of the ancient and learned fathers ', conceiving it contradicSlious, forOrpheus at the fame time to aiTert both many gods and one God, apprehendedthis to be a convenient falvo for this difficulty, to fuppofe, that Orpheushad by fits and turns been of different humours and pcriuafions j firft arank polytheift, aflferting three hundred gods and more ; and then afterwardsa converted monotheift, they being the rather led into this opinion,by reafon of certain counterfeit Orphick verfes in Ariflcbulus, made probablyby fome ignorant Jew ; wherein Orpheus is made to fing a palinodia orrecantation, for his former error and polytheifm. Bm we muft crave leave,with all due refpeft, to diflent from reverend antiquity in this ; it plainlyappearing from that firft Orphick excerption in Produs, that Orpheus at thefame time acknowledged both one unmade Deity (the original of all things)and many generated gods and goddefles, that were all contained in it.Havinp- now made it fufficiently evident from fuch Orphick fragments, ashave been acknowledged by Pagan writers, and by them cited out of Orpheushis hymns and rhapfodies, that the opinion of monarchy or one felfexiftentDeity, the original of all things, was an eflential part of the Orphicktheology or cabala ; we fhall here further obferve, that befidesthis opinion of monarchy, (but confiftently with the lame) a trinity alfoof divine hypoftafes fubordinate was another part of this Orphick cabala.Proclus upon Plato's Timaus, making an inquiry into Plato's de- pmiurgus or opifex of the world, gives us an account, amongft other Platonifts,of the doftrine of AmeUus (who was contemporary with Plolinus,and who is faid to have taken notice of what St. ^o^k the evangeiift hadwritten concerning the Logos, as agreeing with the Platonick and Pythagorickhypothefis '-) after this manner : 'Af/.£Ai©^ ^\ r^iroj mieT, rov Atiui^o^-sv, y^Ni'; TcfTj, Bx(rt>.s~; tosTc, ro\i"Oflix., ro'j''E)(o'fl(x, tov 'OoavTcc' Sixpi^tQi il aroi, onR ro" i"£v» Juftin. Martyr in Cohortat. ad Grsecos, p. 63. & Cyrillus Alexandr- Lib. I. adverf.p. I ;. & Apol. II. pro Chrillian. p. 104. Julian, p. 25.Clemens Akxandr. in Protreptico,Cap, VII. ^ Vide Eufeb. Prsparat. Evang. Lib. XI.Cap. XVIII, XIX. p. 540.