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

232 ^^^ oi^'^^^ Trifmegiftic Booh^ Book I.them as being cited by ancient fathers, may be prefumed to have been extantbefore Jamblichus his time ; we know no reafon why we fhould not concurwith that learned philofopher in his judgment concerning them, that thoughthey often fpeak the language of philofophers, and were not written byHermes 'Trifmegift himfelf, yet they do really contain J'o'^a; 'E^^aiwa,-, Hermaicalopinions, or the Egyptian doSirine. The ninth of Ficinus his booksmentions the Afclepian dialogue, under the Greek title ofo rsXaoj xiyo;, pretendino-to have been written by the fame hand ; x^^^ " ' A^axinrie, tod riXemaTToSiSuKX Aoyov, vZv S\ avxyxxiov ii)/?//,ai axoA«9o", iaa'-ja, VMitov tts^i xi^wiu; XoyovSii^eX^ur The meaning of which place Cnot underftood by the tranflator)is this ; Ilately ptiblijhed (O Afclepius) the bock entitled o TiXuo; xiyoq (or theperfe'.~?, as the jufl pwnfJomcnt of the nicked, isafterwards cried down and condemned in it, as the greatcft error. And theeleventh and twelfth following books feem to us to be as Egyptian as any ofthe reft ias alfo does that long book entitled, nopn x6(Ty.v, the thirteenth inPatricius. Nay, it is obfervable, that even thofe very books themfelves, thatare fojuftly fufpeded and condemned forChriftian forgeries, have fomcthing ofthe Hermaical or Egyptian philofophy, here and there interfperfcd in them.As for example, when in the Pa-mander God is twice call xy^im^nx-j;, male andfemale together, this feems to have been Egyptian (and derived from thenceby Orpheus) according to that elegant paflagc in the Afclepian dialogue concerningGod ; Hie ergo, q^ui folus eft omnia, utriufque fcxfis fxcunditate plenifftinus,fempcr voluntatis fu