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

.the542 l^he Pagans Real Polytheifmy . Bo o k Lncr ' : ro ol '^x-m x.xracyiXama.i o iJiiy.'?^' ^e7rxi yx^ Ti^xrita^' That, which is eajyand crdiimry, ivill be contemned !>y the vulgar, or common people \ and thereforethere is need offomething jlrange and prodigious in religion for them. Flavinsc. Ap. 1. 2. Jcfephus making this tree acknowledgment, concerning the wife men among[§ XVI. p. the Greeks, kxZtx Trtpl S-eb ^^'o-.frv o\ ^-of^jT^-Tci SwJin^ -axoi. Tor? "EAAro-i, That they^}- S^ held the fame things concerning God which the Jews did; adds notwithftand-Cainp *"§ afterwards,£.': srArS-;^ io^xtq s:soy.xrn\rtu.fj:.i])0]j, rnn aAJiSsijsv t« coyfxa.r'^ £^•='•'--1'-1xi'i\i in EToAju-vKTizv, That they were afraid to declare the truth of this their doctrineto the vulgar^ prepojfeffed with other opinions. And indeed tiiey did not thinkit fafe to declare the natural and true theology promifcuoufly to all ; Plato *himfelf intimating as much in thefe words, toj uyoimm ^zTaripx. tS^i t? ura.-Tor, £iV zTxvTx? ixiuvxTov AEj^riv That as it was hard to find out the maker of thisuniverfe, fo neither, being found out, could he be declared to the vulgar. Whereforefince God was fo hard to be underftood, they conceived it neceiTary, thatthe vulgar fhould be permitted to worfhip him in his works, by parts andpiece-meal, according to the various manifeilations of himfelf ; that is, fhouldhave a civil theology at leaft, diftindl from the natural and philofophical, ifnot another fabulous one too.XXXV. We have now difpatched the firft of thofe three heads propofcdto be infifled on, viz. that the Pagans worfhipped one and the fame fupremeGod, under many perfonal names, fo that much of their polytheifm was butfeeming and phantailical, and indeed nothing but the polyonymy of one fupremeGod, they making many poetical and political gods of that one naturalGod ; and thus worfhipping God by parts and piece-meal, according to thatclear acknowledgment of Maximus Madaurenfis = before cited : Unius fummiDei virtutes, per mundanum opus diffufas, nos multis vocabulis invocamus ; ^dum ejus quafi quisdam membra carptim variis fupplicationibus profequimur, to-'tum colore videmur : The virtues of the one fupreme God diffufed throughout the'whole world, we (Pagans) invoke under many fevrral names ; and fo profecuting,with our fupplications, his as it were divided members, muft needs be thought tonjjorfhip him whole, we leaving out nothing of him. We fhall proceed to thefecond head propofed, that befides this polyonymy of one fupreme God inpoetical and civil theology of the Pagans, which was their feeming andphantaftick polytheifm, they had another real polytheifm alfo ; they acknowledgingin their natural and philofophick theology hkewife a multiplicity ofgods, that is, of fubftantial underftanding beings, fuperiour to men, reallyexifting in the world. Which though they were called by them gods, yetwere they not therefore fuppofed to be a.yi-y.r,roi and aJjoj/iufr?, unmade and felf-of them (one only excepted) yimT:'^\^i