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

Ghap. IV. in its feveral Parts and Members, 5^37more 'prudent compendium^ they JJoould ivorjhip one only God ? For what of himcould be defpifed, when his ivhole felf was worjhipped ? But if they fear, lefthis parts pertermitted, or negle£led, fhould be angry, or take offence ; then it isnot, as they pretend, the life of one great animal, which at once contains all theGods, as his virtues, or members, or parts, but every part hath its own life byit felf, feparate from the refl, ftnce one of them may be angry, when another ispleafed, and the contrary. But if it fliould be faid, that altogether, that is,the whole Jupiter might be offended, if his parts were not worfhipped all ofthem feverally andfingly ; this would be foolijhly faid, becaufe none of the partscan be pretermitted, when he, that hath all., is worflnpped.Thus do the Pagans in Athanafms ' alfo declare, that they did not worfliipthe feveral parts of the world, as really io many true and proper gods, butonly as the parts, or members, of their one fupreme God, that great mundaneanimal (or whole animated world) taken all together as one thing;«AX t^'jf (fiaieKjaEva f/.£v, >Cj v.x) saura \a.y.fixvo[xi'jx, iTri^in ujtx xj auTOi (rmo[/..S i'i TToivrcc avvxTrlovlic, }^ ug 'n ocTrortXvvle; jj-iya (rw«a, to^ o'Aoi; ©eou eniai(pria-iia-r But the Pagans themfelves will acknowledge, that the divided parts ofthe world, taken feverally, are but indigent and iniperfe£l things ; neverthelefsdo they contend, that as they are by them joined all together into one great body,(enlivened by one foul,) fo is the whole of theyn truly and properly God. Andnow we think it is fufficiently evident, that though thefe Pagans verballyperfonated and deified, not only the feveral powers and virtues of the onellipreme God, or mundane foul, diffufed throughout the whole world, butalfo the feveral parts of the world it felf, and the natures of things; yet theirmeaning herein was not to make thefe in themfelves really fo many feveraltrue and proper gods, (much lefs independent ones,) but to worfliip'one fupremeGod (which to them was the whole animated world) in thofe his feveralparts and members, as it were by piece-meal, or under fo many inadequateconceptions.The Pagans therefore were plainly divided in their natural theology, asto their opinions concerning the fupreme God ; fome of them conceivinghim to be nothing higher than a mundane foul : whereas others of them, toufe OrigerC'i language, did LTrtfSaiWiv nS-irxv tjiu cx,\Bnrf,j (pdcriv, >^ [/.nSxixS xwykvof*iijtiv iJVuiSaiToi/ ©cc'ii, avw xai ii "ttip to, (raij.a.Tx ^yitiTv xvtov, tranfcend all the fen- X--'Jible nature, and thinking God not at all to be feated there, look' dfor him aboveall corporeal things. Now the former of thefe Pagans worfhipped the wholecorporeal world, as the body of God ; but the latter of them, though theyhad higher thoughts of God, than as a mundane foul, yet fuppofing him tohave been the caufe of all things, and fo at firft to have contained all thingswithin himfelf ; as likcwife that the world, after it was made, was not cutoff from him, nor fubfifted alone by it felf,. as a dead thing, but was clofelyunited to him, and livingly dependent on him: thefe, I fay, though they didnot take the world to be God, or the body of God, yet did they alfo lookupon it as ^i'^ov, as that which was divine andfacred; and fuppofed, that GodZ zz 2was* Crat. contiaGrxcos, p. ^i. Tom. I. Oper.