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

Ch A p. IV. in the Platonick Trinity. 581wfoj TO jtaruway of natural emanation, there is no progrefs upwards, but all dozen-wards,andJim a gradual defcent into greater muhipUcity. We ihall cite but onlyone paffage more out of this philofopher, which containeth fomcthing of argumentationin it alfo : ou txvtov to e^ ekeiW eheivw. El ouy juii TXUTCv, oiStyt |3/X-£„ ^ I ^. c.X"'?^''^'I^ ^^^ things generated from eternity^ or -produced byTio/ ^hat which is generated, or emaneth, immediately from the firjl and bighejt i^. ['. 512]Being, is not the very fame thing with it, as if it were 7iothing but that repeatedagain and ingeminated ; and as it is not the fame, fo neither can it bebetter than it. From whence it follows, that it mufl needs be graduallyfubordinate and inferiour to it.Which gradual fubordination and elTential dependence of the fecond andthird hypoftafes upon the firft is by thefe Platonicks illuftrated fevcralways. Ficifius refembles it to the circulations of water, when fome heavybody falling into it, its fuperficies is deprefled, and from thence every waycircularly wrinkled, jilius (faith he) Jic ferme piofluit ex alio, ficut in aquacirculus dependet a circulo ; one of thefe divine hypojlafes doth in a manner fodepend upon another, as one circulation of water depends upon another. Whereit is obfervable alfo, that the wider the circulating wave grows, (till hathit the more fubfidence and detumefcence, together with an abatement ofcelerity, till at laft all becomes plain and fmooth again. But, by the PaganPlatonifts themfelves, each following hyportafis is many times laid to be'I'/y^ >cj TSTT^, a print, flamp or impreffwn, made by the former, like thefignature of a fca! upon wax. Again, it is often called by them, eixmu, andtrJioXuv, and [j.iiJ.nij.a, an image, and reprefentation, and imitation ; which ifconfidered in Audibles, then will the fecond hypoftafis be look'd upon as t.heecho of an original voice -, and the third as the repeated echo, or echoof that echo : as if both the fecond and third hypotlafes were b.it certainreplications of the firft original Deity with abatement ; which though notaccidental or evanid ones, but llibftantial, yet have a like dependence oneupon another, and a gradual fubordination. Or if it be confidered in Viji-Mes, then will the fecond hypoftafis be refembled to the image of a facein a glafs, and the third to the image of that image reflefted in anotherglafs, which depend upon the original face, and have a gradual abatementof the vigour thereof Or elfe the fecond and third may be conceived astwo Parhelii, or as a fecond and third fun. For thus does ' Plotinus call theuniverfal Pfyche, or third hypoftafis, irawx pou ^u>t,t