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

426 The Stoich worpipped. Book I.Ep.e. piter and providence are really but one and the fame thing. Ar\A Seneca[Epiil.IX.^pjteth thus concerning the life of a wife man in folitude, Sl^talis futura"^'^"^li. OperT' fapicntis,^ft fi fine amicis relinquatur, in cujlodiam conje£ius, ant indeferttim littus eje5lus ? (^laiis eft Jovis, cum refoluto miindo, (^ DIIS INUNUM CONFUSIS, pauUfper cejfante natura, acquiefcit fibi, eogilationibiis fiiistraditus : If you ask, what would be the life of a ivife man either in a prifon,or defert ? I anfwer, the fame with that of Jupiter, when the world being refolved,and the GODS allCONFOUNDED into ONE, and the courfe of natureceafing, he refielh in himfelf, converfmg with his oivn cogitations. Arrianushis EpiHetus likewife, fpeaking of the fame thing, ironically introducesJupiter, bemoaning himfelf in the conflagration as now left quitealone, after this manner ; Tdxxq lyu, in niu "H^xv l-xj^,J. I',,.'' K-noXK'Mx, »Tf oAuf J] oi^i\(pov, jj lyoi;, v (rvyfivrf Alas, I ami-ri tw 'A-Jwav, vri tounow left all alone ; /[P. 291.] have neither ]\.\no, nor Minerva, nor Apollo with me; neither brother norfon, nor nephew, nor kinfman {neither God nor goddefs) to keep me company.He adding a!fo, according to the fenfe of the Stoicks, that in all thefe fuccefTiveconflagrations, Ziu? a-jTO,- tauTu o-Jvso, xj »iVu;^a^£i ip' s^ura, y^ vmuTKv SioturiTiv £a'jTK, o'la £{-', y~x] i]i tVivoiatc yiviTxt TTfETrxVaK 'ix,\jTu, Jupiter being leftalone, converfeth only with himfelf, and rejleth in himfelf, confidering his owngovernment, and being entertained with thoughts becoming himfelf. And thushave we made it unquefl:ionably evident, that the Stoicks acknowledgedonly one independent and felfexiftent Deity, one univerfal Numen, whichwas not only the creator of all the other gods, but alio, in certain alternateviciffitudes of time, the decreator of them-, he then fwallowing them up,and devouring them all into himfelf, as he had btfore produced them toge>therwith the world out of himfelf.It is granted, that thefe Stoicks as well as the other Pagans did religiouflyworfhip more gods than one, that is, more underftanding beings fuperiorto men. For it was Epiifetus'' his own exhortation, t'^x,"" S'sok, prayto the gods. And the fame philofopher * thus defcribeth the difpofition of aperfon rightly afi"'e£ted, SeAw ilSivxi. ri fAoi-Kx^rt-Aov rr^oq riz^dq, I would willinglyknow, what is my duty, firji to the gods, and then to my parents, and other relations.And they are M. Antoninus his precepts ','Aic^» S"u,-, revere thegods, and * £» aVao-i Seouj ETTixaAou, In every thing implore the aid and affiftanceof the gods. And accordingly in that clofc of his firft book ', himfelf doesthankfully afcribe many particular benefits to the gods in common ; Tra^aTOW SeJi' to, iyx^.o^i TTy'TTTTi*?, &c. 1 Dwe to the gods, that I had good progenitorsand parents, &c. Where, amongft the relf, he reckons up this for one,that he never was any great proficient, either in poetry or rhetorick •, bec.uifethefe would probably (had he fucceeded in his purfuit of them) havebindred him from the attainment of far better things. And after all his enumeration,he conchideth thus, -txvIx yx^ Toi^nx S-ewu j3o»)3-«v y.x\ Tj;:^»if SiTrxi,.For all thefe things need the affiftance of the gods and fortuney y\z. becaufethey are not in our own power..» Apud Arriar»Lib. I. Differt. I» p. ^^ * Lib. Vr. ^. 23. p. i8j'.*"''ib. • Ibid. Lib. III. Cap.XXVIL p. 2iz»' Lib. I. i.XVlf.p. jO;.Lib:VL S, ^, 30. JO. p. 190. icNeither