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

one328 T^e Afcleplan Dialogue Book I.'*''books be, that are ftill extant ; as to inftance particularly, the Afclepian dialogue,entitled in the Greek rixu'^ Ao'y^, the pcrfett cralion, and in allprobability tranflated into Latin by Aptileius. For it caa hardly be imagined,that he who was fo devout a Pagan, To learned a philofopher, and lb witty aman, fliould be lb far impofed upon by a counterteit Trifmcgirtick book,and mere Chrirtian cheat, as to bellow tranflating upon it, and recommend itto the world, as that which was genuinely Pagan. But however, whetherApiileuis were the tranflator of this Afclepian dialogue or no, it is evident^that the fpirit of it is not at all Chriltian, but rankly Pagan •, inftancewhereof we have, in its glorying of a power, that men have of makinggods, upon which account St. Aufiin thought ' fit to concern himfelf in theconfutation of it. Moreover, it being extant and vulgarly known before Jamblichushis time, it muft needs be included in his t^ fpi^ifj-nc. w"; 'Eou.?, andconfequently receive this atteftation from him, that it did contain not merelythe Greekifh, but the Hermaical and Egyptian doelrine.. There are indeed fome objeflions made againft this, as firft from what we'read in this dialogue, concerning the purgation of the world partly by water,and partly by fire ; "Tunc ilk Dominus id pater Deus, primipotens, is} unitsgubernator mundi, intuens in mores faciaq^ue homintim, voltintate Jita (qu.e eft deibenignitas) vitiis rejiftens, id corrupteie errorem revocans, malign':tatem omnenivel al'uvione diluens, vel igne confumens, ad anlrqumn faciem munditm revocahit.When the ivorld becomes thus degenerate^ then that Lord and Father^ the fupremeGod, and the only governor of the ivorld, beholding the inanners and deeds ofraen, by his vjHI {which is his benignity) akvays rejijling vice, and reftcringthings from their degeneracy, will either waflo away the malignity of the worldby water, or elfe confume it by fire, and reftore it to its ancient form again.But fince we find m Julius Firmicus'-, that there was a tradition amonglt theEgyptians, concerning the Apocataftafis of the -world, partim per jtJc7«xAu(^^ov,.partim per £>£7!-Jjm(_''iv, partly by inundation and partly by conflagration, this objedfioncan fignify nothing. Wherefore there is another objection, that hathIbme more plaufibility, from that prophecy, which we find in this Afclepius,concerning the overthrow of the Egyptian paganifm (ufhered in with muchlamentation) in thefj words j Tunc terra ifta, fanSliffima fedes delubrcrum, fcpulchroriimerit riiortuortimqi'.e pleniffima ; then this land c/ Egypt, formerly thenwjl holy feat of the religious temples of the gods, fljall be every where full of theCiv. D. L. S fepulchers of dead men. The fenle whereo is thus expreflcd by St. Aufiin ; Hocc. i6. [p 1 6(5. vldetur dolcre, quod memorise martyrum noftrorum templis ecrmn delubrifque fuc-Tom Vil. cederent; ut viz, qui h.cc begun t, animo a nobis averfo atque perverfo, putent a^^''-'Paganis deos cult OS fuifj'e in templis, a nobis aulem coli mortuos in fepulchris :lie feer/is to lament this, that the memorials of our martyrs fhould fucceed inthe place of their temples, that fo they, who read this with a perverfe -mind,might think, that by the Pagans the gods were worflnppcd in temples, but by us(Chriftians) dead men in fepulchers. Notwithfbanding which, this very thingfeems to have had its accomplilliment too foon after, as may be gatheredfrom» DeCivitateDei Lib.VIII cap.XXIII. v. \6l. Tom. VII. Oper.J Mathclics Lib. HI. cap. 1. p.' 34-