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

Cha p. IV. lui a Scale or Ladder of Nature, k^^^animals. For which caiife, Proclus to make up this fcale complete, adds tothefe three ranks and degrees, below that third of fouls, a fourth of naturesalio ; under which there lies nothing but the pallive part of the univerfe,body and matter. So that, their whole fcale of ail that is above body wasindeed not a trinity, but a quaternity, or four ranks and degrees of being«,one below another ; the firft of Henades or Unities, the fecond of Noes,Minds or Intelleds, the third of Souls, and the lafl: of Natures ; thcfe being,as it were, fo many orbs and fpheres, one within and below another. In allwhich feveral ranks of being, they fuppofed one firft univcrfil, and unparticipated,as the head of each refpeftive rank, and many particular, or participatedones : as one firft univerfal Henade, and many fecondary particularHenades ; one firft univerfal Nous, Mind or Intelleft, and many lecondaryand particular Noes or Minds j one firft univerfal Soul, and many particularfouls ; and laftly, one univerfal Nature, and many particular natures. In whichfcale of beings, they deified, befides the firft Ti su and Ta^-afioi/, one, andgood, not only the firft mind, and the firft foul, but alfo thofe other particularHenades, and Noes univerfally ; and all particular fouls above human :leaving out, befides them and inferiour fouls, that fourth rank of natures, becaufcthey conceived, that nothing was to be accounted a God, but what wasintellectual and fuperiour to men. Wherein, though they made feveral degreesof gods, one below another, and called fome ci'ioia; and fomc j'^wnrifV,fome eternal, and iome. generated, or made in time ; yet did they no whereclearly diftinguifli betwixt the Deity properly fo called, and the creature,nor ftiow how far in this fcale the true Deity went, and where the creaturebegan. But as it were melting the Deity by degrees, and bringing it downlower and lower, they made the jundure and commifllire betwixt God andthe creature fo fmooth and clofe, that where they indeed parted was altogetherundifcernible ; they rather implying them to difi^jr only in degrees,or that they were not abfolute but comparative terms, and confified but inmore and lefs. All which was doubtlefs a grofs miftake of the ancient Cabalaof theTrinity.This is therefore that Platonick Trinity, which we oppofe to the Chriftian,not as \f Plato's own trinity, in the very eflential conftitution thereof,were quite a different thing from the Chriftian ; it felf in all probability havingbeen at firft derived from a Divine or Mofaick Cabala ; but becaufethis Cabala, (as might well come to pafs in a thing fo myfterious and difficultto be conceived) hath been by divers of thefe Platonifts and Pythagoreansmifunderftood, depraved, and adulterated, into fuch a trinity, as confoundsdie differences between God and the creature, and removes all the boundsand land-marks betwixt them ; finks the Deity lower and lower by degrees,(ftill multiplying of if, as it goes,) till it have at length brought itdown to the whole corporeal world ; and when it hath done this, is not ableto ftop there neither, but extends it further ftill to the animated partsthereof, ftars and daemons ; the defign or dired: tendency thereof beingnothing elfe, but to lay a foundation for infi'nite polytheifm, cofmolatry,(or