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

^2 Vyth.^gor2i^ his Tranfmigration flood Book I.Agreeably whereunto, Plato alfo tells us ', that it was TraAaioj Xoy^, anancient tradition or doftrine before his time,T»? ^wi/la? Ix. tuiv re^nmruv yiyonvxi,H?\\) rirlov r[ tb? n^viircc; ix. luv i^uvTuv that as Well the Uving Were made out ofthe dead, as the dead out of the living ; and that this was the conftant circleof nature. Moreover, the fame philofopher acquaints us, that fome of thofeancients were not without fufpicion, that what is now called death, was tomen more properly a nativity or birth into life, and what is called generationinto life, was comparatively rather to be accounted a finking intodeath ; the former being the foul's afcent out of thefe grofs terrellrialbodies to a body more thin and fubtil, and the latter its defcent from apurer body to that which is more crafs and terreftrial. " nV olSiv il to ^w fji.ev£rj xail^aveTv, to Kur^tx'je'i'v Je ^riv who knows whether that which • is calledliving be not indeed rather dying ; and that which is called dying, living ?Moreover, that this was the do6lrine of Pythagoras himfelf, that noreal entity perifhes in corruptions, nor is produced in generations, butonly new modifications and tranfpofitions made ; is fully exprefTed by theLatin poet ', both as to inanimate, and to animate things. Of the firfl;thus ;Nee perit in tanto qidcquam (mihi credite) mundo,Sed variat, faciemque novat : nafcique vocaturIncipere ejfe aliud, quam quod fiiit ante ; moriqueDefinere illud idem. Cumfint hue forfitan ilia,Hccc tranflata illuc : fummd tamen omnia conjiant.Of the fecond, that the fouls of animals are immortal, did pre-exift and dotranfmigrate, from the fame ground, after this mannerOmnia mutantur ; nihil interit : errat & illinc.Hue venit, hinc illuc, & quojlibet occiipat artusSpiritus,eque feris humana in corpora tranfit^Inque feras nojier, nee tempore deperit ullo.Utque novis facilisftgnatur cerafiguris.Nee manet ut fuerat, nee formas fervat eafdem,Sed tamen ipfa eadem ejl; animam fic femper eandemEffe, fed in varias doceo migrare figuras.Wherefore though it be a thing,which hath not been commonly taken noticeof, of Jate, yet we conceive it to be unqueftionably true, that all thofeancient' In Phaedone, p. 381. & Jo. Albert Fabriciiis on Sexms Empiric,» This pafTage of £«r;/)/(/w is cited by many Hypotyp. Pyrrhon. Lib. IH. cap. XXlV.of the ancients, as Piato, Cicero, Clemens Alex. p. 185.and Sextus Emph-icus. Sec the Notes of Dr. » Ovid. Metam. Lib. XV. verf. 254. &Potter, now Archbp. of Canleriury, on Clem. verf. l6j.Alexand. Stromac. Lib, III. cap. III. p. ji;.