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

andC H' A F. IV. 'The Plaionick ChriJ^ians Apology, 595all, if they did not only fpeak, many timss unadvifediy, and inconfiftentiywith their own principles, but ahb plainly wander out of the rightpath. And that it ought much rather to be wondred at, that living fo longbefore ChrifHanity, as fome of them did, they fhoiild in fo abftrufe a point,and dark a niyftery, make fo near an approach to the Chrillian truth afcerwardsrevealed, than that they fhould any wliere fumble or fall fliort of theaccuracy thereof : they not only extending the true and real Deity to threehypoftafes, but alfo calling the fccond of them, Xoyo-u reafon or word too, (aswell as vsv, mind or intelleif) and likewifc the Son of the firft hypoftafis, theFather •, affirming him to be the Sny.i^sfyi'; and alVitv, the artificer andcaufe of the whole licrld; and ladly defcribing him, as the fcripture doth, to bethe image, the figure and character, and the fplendour or brightnefs of the firfl:.This, I fay, our Chriftian Platonift fuppofes to be much more wonderful,that this fo great and abftrufe a myftery, of three eternal hypoftafes in theDeity, fhould thus by Pagan philofophers, fo long before Chriftianity, havebeen aflerted, as the principal and original of the whole world ; it beingmore indeed than was acknowledged by the Nicene fathers thenTfelves ; theythen not fo much as determining, that the Holy Ghoft was an hypoftafis,much lefs that he was God.But particularly as to their gradual (libordination of the fecond hypoftafisto the firft, and of the third to the firft and fecond ; our Platonick Chriftian,doubtlefs, would therefore plead them the more excufable, becaufe the generalityof Chriftian docftors, for the firft three hundred years after the Apoftlestimes, plainly aflerted the fmie ; as Jujlin Martyr, Atheimgoras, TatianuSyIrericcus, the author of the Recognitions, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus,Qrigeiu, Cregorius Thaumaturgus, Diotiyfius of Alexandria, Lailantius, and manyothers. All whofe teftimonies becaufe it would be too tedious to fetdown here, we fliall content our felves only with one of the laft mentioned :Et Pater id Filius Deus eft ; fed ilk quaft exuberans fens, hie tanquam defluens ^"ft''r- ! 4-