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

Chap. IV. the Supreme God dhove all. 429the language of fome other Pdgans, who, toge'-her with the geners;tfnn ofthe world, held indeed a plurality of eternal (though not indcpcrtdeni)Deities, than of the Stoicks, who aflerted one on!y eternal God*, an^d'rnppofed,in the reiterated conflagrations, all the gods to be melted and confoundedinto one, fo that Jupiter being then left alone, muft needs make upthe world again, as alfo all thofe other gods out of hinifelf. And thus does'Zeno in Laertius defcribe the Cofmopceia, tsu Ssoy xxt' «'j;^aV, y-y-V x'Stou oPix,That God at firft being alone by himfelf, converted the fry fubftance of the•world by degrees into water, that is, into a craffer Chaoss out of -Khich water^himfelf afterwards, as the fpermatick renfon of the world, formed the eU'ments and whole mundane fyftem. And Cicero himfelf elfewhere, in his deLegibus'-, attributes the firft original of mankind cautioudy, not to thegods in common, but to the fupreme God only. Hoc animal providuni, &c,quern vocarnus hominem, pr^clara quadam conditione geKerafum effe, a SUMM.ODEO : and this, rather according to the (tn(e. of the Stoicks, than of the Platonifts,whofe inferior generated gods alfo (being firft made) were fuppofed tohave had a ftroke in the fabrefadtion of mankind, and other animals. ThusEpiofetus plainly afcribes the making of the whole world to God, or theone fupreme Deity, where he mentions the Galileans, that is, the Chridians,their contempt of death, though imputing it only to cuftom in them, andnot to right knowledge; (as M. Antoninus likewife afcribes the fame to 4"^'' ^- " ^•wacaTJs^K, meer objlinacy of mind) C-iri jaavia? jAv S-jvoltxi n; KTM iixTtS>ivxi^ «lt 3'9]uVo f'flsf 01 ra^iAaToi, Jtto Xoyti ci )