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

^44- Themis; the Eternal Law ^ or God. Book I.book of laws ', would have men to fwear by the names of thofe three gods,T)t Dea The-Jupiter^ Jpollo, and Themis ; thefe were but fo many feveral partial notionswide, f. 39. ^£ ^^^ Q^g fupreme Deity j the meaning thereof being no other than this, asPighius obferveth, Tmore divino, veritate ipfa, e.c aqjiitatc [anciri debere juramenta.In Jove enim fummi numims potejlatem., falfi ac perjurii vindicem ; inApoUine veritatis lumen ; in Themide, Jus, fis, atqiie licitum ejfe intelligitur.Eft enim Themis ipfa lex aterna atque univerfalis, mttndo ac naiura: prajcripta;or, according to Cicero^ Ratio re£ia fummi Jovis. And Ficinus, in his commentaryas to the main agrceth herewith. So that, when the Pagan theologersaffirmed the Numen of Themis to prefide over the fpirits of the elements,and all thofe other fubftantial powers, from whom divination wasparticipated to men ; their meaning therein was clearly no other than this -,that there was one fiipreme Deity ruling over all the other gods, and that thedivine Mind, which prefcribeth laws to nature and the whole world, andcontains all the fatal decrees in it, according to the evolution of which thingscome to pafs in the world, was the fountain, from whence all divination proceeded; as thefe fecrets were more or lefs imparted from thence to thofe inferiourcreated fpirits. The philofophy of the Pagan theology amongft theGreeks was plainly no other than this ; that there is one unmade felf-exiftentBeity, the original of all, and that there are many other fubftantial powersor fpirits, created by it, as the minifters of its providence in the world : butthere was much of poetry, or poetick phancy, intermingled with this philofophy,as the flourifh to it, to make up their Pagan "theology.Thus, as hath been before declared, the Pagans held both one God, andmany gods, in different fenfes -, one unmade felf-exiftent Deity, and many generatedor created gods ; Onatus ^ the Pythagorean declaring, that they, whoafTnted one only God, and not many, underftoodnot what the dignity and majeftyof the divine tranfcendency confifted in, namely in ruling over gods ; andPlotinus conceiving, that the fupreme God was mod of all gloriHed, not bybeino- contracled into one, but by having multitudes of gods, derived from him,and "^dependent on him ; and that the honour done to them redounded untohim. Where there are two things to be diltinguilhed ; firrt, that, accordingto the Pagan Theifts, God was no folitary being ; but that there weremultitudes of gods, or fubftantial powers, and living underftanding natures,fuperiour to men, which were neither felf-exiftent, nor yet generated out of.matter, but all generated or created from one fupreme. Secondly, diatforafmuch as thefe were all fuppofed to have fome influence, more or lefs,upon the government of the world, and the affairs of mankind, they weretherefore all of them conceived to be the due objefts of men's religiousworftiip, adoration and invocation ; and accordingly was the Pagan devotionfcattered amongft them all. Nor were the Gods of the orientalPagans neither meer dead ftatues and images, as fome would concludefrom the Scripture, but living underftanding beings, fuperiour to men,(though worfhippcd in images) according to that reply of the Chaldeans»* Lib XII P 6S5 Oner.'^ Libro w=g/ St? y^a.1 .^i'k, apud Stoboeuro*in Ei;log. pli> ,ic. Lib. I. cap. I, p. 4.