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

'Chap. I. Suhjlance was ajferted by the Ancients. 2 rhim any thing at all, he mufl needs make him to be either the whole corporealworld, or elfe a part of it. Wherefore if God be neither of thefe, hemufl then be an incorporeal fiibftance. Now Plato was not the firft, who affertedthefe two things,but they were both maintained by many philofophersbefore him. Pherecydes Syrus, and Thales, were two of the moil ancient philofophersamong the Greeks ; and it is faid of the former of them ', that byhis Jedlures and difputcs concerning the immortality of the foul, he firfl drewoff Pythagoras from another courfe of life to the Ihidy of philofophy. PherecydesSyriis (faith Cicero "-,) primus dixit animos honnimm ejje fewpiternos.And Thales inan Epiftle % dircded to him, congratulates his being the firll,that had defigned to write to the Greeks concerning divine things; whichiThales alfo (who was the head of the lonick fucceffion of philolbphers, asPythagoras of the Italick) is joined with Pythagoras and Pla'.o, by the writerc^e placitis pbilofophorum , after this manner, sroj 7ra„TE,- ol TrpoTiTcyfj-im d^ul^xlovTYiv ^^v^ylv CTTOTi^e-jIcn^ (paVei ?,t'yoj]e; a.'^Toy.ny{!o\i noil kitixv vorsTru- All thefe determinedthe foul to be incorporeal^ making tt to he 7iaturally felf-moving (or felfadlive)and an intel igible [ubftance^ that is, not fenfibl Now -. he, that determinesthe foul to be incorporeal, mufl needs hold the Deity to be incorporeal muchmore. Jquam dixit Thales ejfe initium rerum (faith Ciceo \) Deuni autemearn mentem, qu^e ex aqua cuntJa fingeret. Thales y^/W that ivater vcas the firftprinciple of all corporeal things, but that God uas that mind, "ivhich formed allthings out of water. For Thales was a Phcenician by cxtrailion, and accoidinglyfeemed to have received his two principles from thence, water,and the divine fpirit moving upon the waters. The firfl whereof is thus cxprefTedby Sanchoniathon ', in his defcription of the Phcenician theology,X^'^ SoAf^ov, j^fGwcff;, a turbid and dark chaos; and the fecond is intimated inthefe words, yifci^ri to Trvivfj-x twv 'Jtuv d^x^i'j, the Spirit ivas affeHed with lovetowards its own principles ;perhaps exprefling the force of the Hebrew woidMerachepheth, and both of them miplying an underftanding prolifical goodnefs,forming and hatching the corporeal world into this perfe6lion ; or elfea plaftick power, fubordinate to it. Zeno (who was alfo originally a Phivfiician)tells us'', that He/tod's, chaos was water; and that the materialheaven as well as earth was made out of water (according to the judo-.ment of the befl interpreters) is the genuine fenfe of fcripture, 2 Pct.'in. r^.by which water fome perhaps would underfland ^ Chaos of atoms confiifcdlvmoved. But whether Thales were acquainted with the Atonoical phyfiology orno*; it is plain that he afTcrted, befides the foul's immortality, a Dvitydiflindl from the corporeal world.We pals to Pythagoras, whom we have proved already to have bern anAtomifl ; and it is well knov.'n alfo, that he was a profcflld Incorportalift.That he aflertcd the immortality of the foul, and confequently its immateriality,is evident from his doftrine of pre-exiflence and tranfmigration : and•Vide Auguftin, cap. i;;. pag. 50S. * Apud Eureb. de Pi-.epai-A;ione Evangclica,Tom n. Opcr. Lib. II. cap. X p 55.^Tufculan. Quxd. Lib. L c "KVL p. zjSCj. ^ Vide Scholitftcn'in Apollon. Argonaiiric.Tom VIII. Op;:r. I^ib. IV. verf. iTfJ- f. citatum ah Hug Giotio,3 Apud Diogen. Lacrt. Lib. \. Segm. 45. in Kotis ad Lib I. di Verirate Rclig. Cluilhp. ly § XVI. p 50.51.4 Lib IV. cap. III. p. 90S. » Vide Pluraah. de Placitis Philof. Lib. I.f DcNarur Dcor. Lib. L cap. X. p. 285^4. ca^. XVL p SS3.Tom. IX. Oper.ti;at