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

554Ideas made Animals and Gods. Book I.Theologers pretended, in like manner, to worfhip thefe intelligible gods, oreternal ideas, in their religious animals, as fymbols of them.Thilo indeed Platonized fo far, as to fuppofe God to have made an archetypaland intelligible world, before he nude this corporeal and fenfible :De M'.m Opif- BxAriOtlj (o 0£o?) tov opxtov tutovi xci(rjj.0)t Sn'J'iv^'yncrcct, Trooe'^ervTrv tov whtov^ 'ivx^ gp.5. [p. 9, 4-] ;^fU|afi/of «(ra!ju.i>iTu >^ S's^jEiJ'ffaTu) Trocpoc^iiyf^Cilij tou (rW|V.«7i)io\ oinefyxunlctx^ Trp(a(ifJrifnveuTicm a.-rrtix.ovnTij.c., TOTSiiiTa Tnpu^ovTX cnQrija, yi'jri, UTXTrtp ei/exeikw vo*]t3s.Tov Si ix TUU ISiicv (Ti'vefWTX v.iir^ov £V TOTTw Tivi \J7ro]ioiiv ixSvvx'lo'j' God inicndin? tOmake a viftbk worlds firjl formed an intelligible one ; thatfo having an incorporealand moji god-like pattern before him, he might make the corporeal worldagreeably to the fame, this younger an image of that older, that fJoould contain asraany fenfible kinds in it, as the other did intelligible. But it is not poffible(faith he) to conceive this world of ideas to exifl in any place. Nay, accordingto him, Mofes himfelf philofophized a!fo after the fame manner in his Cofmopaia,defcribing, in the firft five verfes of Gf«^j, the making of an intel-Jigible heaven and earth, before the fenfible : tt^Htov Sv Trap* t» -joriTd xoa^fAV oTioiuv ETTOfi >icavov a,(Tt/iiJ.xlov Xj y-ffli c.ofoclw, itj ocifog wiav Yj xeva, {i6 hSod'^ a,(rta[jLXTHiiViav Xj 7rv£'J,ua7o', Kj etti Trao-iu i^SofJ.^ (pwro^, o ttxXiv a.(TUf/,alov nv )Cj \,o'rnO)j riAiK ttocpaJaj/|Ua,&c. The Creator firfi of all n:ade an incorporeal heaven and an invifiblcearth \ the ideas of air and vacuum ; incorporeal water and air ; and lafi of alllight, which was alfo the incorporeal and intelligible paradigm of the fnn andflars, and that frojn whence their fenfible light is derived. But Pbilo does notplainly make thefe ideas of the intelligible and archetypal world to be fomany diftinft fubftances and animals, much lefs gods; though he fomewhere 'takes notice of thofe, who admiring the pulchritude of both thefe worlds,did not only deify the whole of them, but alfo their feveral parts ; that is,the feveral ideas of the intelligible world alfo, as well as the greater parts ofthe fenfible, an intelligible heaven and earth, fun and moon; they pretendingto worfhip thofe divine ideas in all thefe fenfible things. Which highflownPlatonick notion, as it gave fanduary and protection to the grofTeft andfouleftofall the Pagan fuperfl:itionsand idolatries, when the Egyptians wouldworihip brute animals, and other Pagans all the things of nature, (inanimatefubftances, and mere accidents) under a pretence of worfhipping the divineideas in them ; fo did it diredly tend to abfolute impiety, irreligion andatheifrn ; there being few, that could entertain any thoughts at all of thofeeternal ideas, and icarcely any, who could thoroughly perfjade themfelves,that thefe had fo much reality in them, as the fenfible things of nature ; asthe idea of a houfe in the mind of an architeft hath not fo much reality init as a material houfe made up of ftones, mortar and timber ; fo that theirdevotion muft needs fink down wholly into thofe fenfible things, and themfelvesnaturally at length fall into this atheiftick perfuafion, That the goodthings of nature are the only deities.Here therefore have we a multitude of Pagan gods fupermundancand eternal, (though all depending upon one fupreme) the gods bythemIDe Confiafionc Linguar. p. 345.