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

each'dChap. iV. but not Atheifts. 4-21of C'jJ, or dcctrptions and avulfions [rem him. Neither were the rcafon?;, bywhich thtfeStoicks would prove the world to have had a divine original,at all contemptible, or much irif.;rior to thofe, which have been ufed in thefelatter days ; they being fuch as thefe : firft, that it is no more likely thisorderly fyftem of the world fliould have been made by chance, than thatEnnius his Annals, or Homer's, Iliads might have refulced from the fortuitousprojection or tumbling out of fo many forms of letters, confounded alltogether ; there being as much continued and coherent fenfe, and as manyfeveral combinations in this real poem of the world, as there is in any phanraftickpcem made by men. And fince we fee no houfes or cities, nobooks orlibraries any where made by the fortuitous motions of matter, it is a madnefsto think, that this admirable compages of the whole world fhould firfthave refulted from thence. Again, there could not po.Tibly be fuch anagreeing and confpiring cognation of things, and fuch a univerfal harmonythroughout the v/hole world, as now there is, nij: ea uno divifw, ^ continua'tofpiriiti continerentur, were they not all contained by one and the fame divinejpirit : v/hich is the mod obvious argument for the unity or onelinefs ofthe Deity. They reafoned alfo from the fcale of nature, or the gradual perleflionof things in the univerfe, one above another -, that therefore theremuft be fomething abfokitely perfed, and that either the world itfelf, orfomething prcfiding over it, v/as a frincipio fapiens^y wife frora the beginning,or rather without beginning, and from eternity. For as in thegrowth of plants and animals, Natura fuo quodam itinere ad ultinmm pervenit,nature by a continual progrefs, and journeying forivardi, arrives atlength to the greatefl perfection, which thofe things are refpeStively capable of;and as thofe arts of pidlure and architedture aim at perfection -, ita in omninaturd necefj'e efi abfolvi aliqitid tJ" perfici, fo in the nature of the whole univerfethere mufi needs befomething abfolutely perfect, .unto. Necejfr.eft pr^Jiantem aliquanieffe naturam, qua nihil eft melius ; fince there is fuch agradual afent and fcale of perfedtions in nature, one above another, theremuji needs be fame moft excellent and perfect Being, than which nothing can beietter, at the top of all, as the head thereof. Fvloreover, they difputed Socratically,after this manner * ; Unde arripuit homo vitam, mer.iem ^ raticjtcm?Whence did man fiatch life, reafon^ or underftanding? Or from whatwas it kindled in him ? For is it not plain, that we derive the moifture andfiuidity of our bodies from the water that is in the univerfe, their confiftencyand fclidity from the earth, their heat and aElivity from the fire, aud theirffiriiuofily from the air ? Jl/ud autem, quod vincii kgc omnia, rationem, mentemij conjilium, i^c. ubi invenimus ? unde fuftulrmus ? An catcra nnindus hahcbitomnia ? Hoc unam quod plurimi eft non habebit ? But that which far tranfcendethall thefe things, our reafon, mind and underftanding, where did wefind it? or from whence did we derive it? Hath the univerfe all thofe othertii>:gs of ours in it, and in a far greater proportion ? and hath it nothing atell of that, which is the moft excellent thing in us ? Nihil quod animi, qucdeiterationis eji expers, id generare ex fe poteft animantes compctefquerationis, mundus autem general animantes compotes rationis : Nothingthat'Cicero de Nat. Deor. Lib. II C.np XflT. p 2073. Tom. IX. Oper. » Id. ibid. Or. VI,V1T. VIII, iX.