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

512 T'his Phyjiological Theology Book II 2. #.68. rical : jW/iJfif utroXx^oi f^e dyvoiTv, on tuv EXKhvikmv juufiuu £iO"i rm; avS^UTOiy j^owjuoi,oi' fji-iv iTriSeix.vvfjiivot ra. t*jj (pi/o-£Mf ^P}'* ^' a^Avij'Opiaf, oi (5'e Trapa^ixLifiiaf k'vfita!a-vkity-tvoi rwy dv^^uTreiuv avix(po^uv, &C. Z,^/ »0 ?«(W //;/«^ JW^ /O ^^ ignoratjtythat fome of the Greekijh fables are profitable to men, partly as declaring theN. D. I. 2. works of nature by allegories, partly as being helpful for human life, &c.p. 223. Thus alfo Cicero, Alia qucque ex ratiotie, U quidem phyjicd., magna fiuxit[Cap. XXIV. fjittidiudo Deorum, qui induti fpecie humana fabulas poetis fuppeditav eruntyp- 299°^iominum autem vitam fuperjlitione omni refercerunt.Eufebius^, indeed, feems fometimes to caft ir as an imputation upon thewhole Pagan theology, that it did ^ttiC^nv Wv ci^vyjv vQlocv, deify the inanimatenature ; but this is prop-rly to be underftood ot this part of theirtheology only, which was phyfiological, and of their mythology or poetickfables of the gods allegorized -, it being otberwife both apparently fwU'c, andall one as to make them downright Atheills. For he that acknowledges noanimant God, as hath been declared, acknowledges no God at all, accordingto the true notion of him; whether he derive all things from a fortuitousmotion of matter, as Epicurus and Deniocritus did, or from a plaftick andorderly, but fenfelefs nature, as fome degenerate Stoicks, and Strata the Pcripatetick; whofe Atheifm feems to be thus defcribed by Manilius'-:Aut neque terra patrem novit, nee fiamma, nee a'er,Aut humor., faciuntque Deum per quatuor artus,Et mundi ftruxere globum, probibent que requiriUltra fe quidquam.Neither ought this phyfiological theology of the P.igans, whicli confidedonly in perfonating and deifying inanimate fubftances, and the natures ofthings, to be confounded (as it hath been by fome late writers) with thatphilofophical theology of Sc^vola, Varro and others, (which was callednatural alfo, but in another fenfe, as true and real) it being indeed but a;part of the poetical firft, and afterward of the political theology, and owingits original much to the fancies of poets, whofe humour it was perpetuallyto perfonate things and natures. But the philofophick theology, properlyfo called, which, according to Varro^, was that, de qua multos li~bros philofophi reliquerunt •, as it admitted none but animal gods, and fuch asreally exifted in nature, (which therefore were called natural) namely onefupreme univerfal Numen, a perfedl foul or mind comprehending all, andhis v7rB^5/oi (TuKajUEif, Other inferior underftanding beings his miniftcrs created'by him, fuch as flats and demons, fo were all thofe perfonatcd god?:, or naturesof things, deified in the arcane theology, ir.terpreted agreeably thereunto.St. Auflin often takes notice of the Pagans thus mingling, and, as it were,incorporating phyfiology with their theology, he juftly condemning thefame : as in his 49th epiftie ; '^Neque illtnc exciifant impii fua facrilega facra (dJimulaihra, quod elegant er interpretantur quid quceque fignifictnt: omnis quippeilia interpretatio ad creaturam refertur, non ad creatorem, cui uni debetur fer~Vitus« Prsepar. Evang. Lib. IIT. Cap. I. V. p. 1 16. Tom. Vrr. Oper.* Aftronomic. Lib. I. Verf. 137. EpiO. CIL Quxft. IIF. §. XX. p. :i-,' Apud Auguftin.de Civic, Dei. Lib.V. Cap. Tom. II. Oper. Edit. Bendidin.