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

C MAP. IV. Some Trifmegiflkk Booh counterfeit. 319loweji principles, as like-wife they who treat of the planets j the zodiack^ thePecans, the horofcopes, and the robuji princes. Jnd thofe things^ that an inthe Egyptian almanack {or ephemerides) contain the leafi part of the Hermaicalinjiitut ions, namely the phafes and occultations of the ftars, the increafe anddecreafe of the moon, and the like aflrological matters ; which things have thehwefi place in the Egyptian atiology. Nor do the Egyptians refolve all thingsinto {fenflefi) nature, iut they dijti}jguijh both the life of the foul., and the intellectuallife from that of nature, and that not only in ourfehes, but alfo inthe univerfe ; they determining mind and reafon firjl to have exijled of themfelves,and fo this whole world to have been made. IVherefore they acknowledgebefore the heaven, and in the heaven a living power, and place pure mind abovethe world, as the Demiurgus and architect thereof. From which teftimonyof 7rtffj^/zV/^aj, who was but little junior to Porphyrins, and contemporarywith Eufebius, and who had made it his bufinefs to inform himfelf thoroughlyconcerning the theology of the Egyptians, it plainly appears, that theEgyptians did not generally fuppofe (as Charemon pretended concerningfome of them) a fennefs inanimate nature to be the firft original of allthings, but that as well in the world as in ourfelves, they acknowledgedfoul fuperior to nature, and mind or intelleft fuperior to foul, this being theDemiurgus of the world. But we fhall have afterwards occafion more opportunelyto cite other paflages out of this Jamblichus his Egyptian myfteriesto the fame purpofe.Wherefore there is no pretence at all to fufpeft, that the Egyptians wereuniverfally Atheilts and Anarchirts, fuch as fuppofed no living underftand-:ng Deity, but refolved all into fenflefs matter, as the firft and higheft principle; but all the queftion is, whether they were not Polyarchifts, fuch as afferteda multitude of underftanding deities felf-exiftent or unmade. Now,that monarchy was an efiential part of the arcane and true theology of theEgyptians A. Steuchics Eugubimcs, and many other learned men, have thoughtto be unqueftionably evident from the Hermetick orTrifmegiftick writings,they taking it for granted, that thefe are all genuine and finccre. Whereasthere is too much caufe to fufpecft, that there have been fome pious fraudspradlifed upon thefe Trifmcgiftick writings, as well as there were upon theSibylline i and that either whole books of them have been counterfeitedby pretended Chriftians, or at kaft feveral fpurious and fuppofititious paffageshere and there inferted into fome of them. Ifaac Cafaubon*, who wasthe firft difcovertr, has taken notice of many fuch in that firft Hermetickbook, entitled, Fn'mander; fome alfo in the fourth book, infcribed Crater,and fome in the thirteenth called ^t fermon in the mount concerning regeneration\ which may jullly render thofe three whole books, or at leaft rhelirft aod laft of them, to be fufpeded. We fliall here repeat none of Cafau'bon^% condemned paflages, but add one more to them out of rhe thirteenthbook, or fermcn in the mount, which, however omitted by him, feems to bemore rankly Chriftian than any other ; As^f fioi tsto, tiV to yvitQix^yo; rrrTraXiyfevcQix; ; o tb ^tn nxT^, li'i/SouTrof f if, ^£Ary,«7» 3iS' "Tell me this alfo, who isthe caufe or worker of regeneration ? The fon of Cod, one man ly the will of God--T tWherefore,» Exercitau I. in Baron. N^im, XVIII. p. 54.. .