5.

To what will ye liken God! or what Likenefs will ye equal unto him? Ibid. lxvi. To what will ye liken me, and make me equal? and compare me that we may be like. The Heathens never pretended to give any Definition, or to raise any Idea of God, as many of them own, collected in Girald. de Deis Gent. &c. "Among others Plato, as Apuleius interprets God is Incorporeal, Ineffable, Indifcribable. For Plato faith in Parmenides, that no Name can be given God, that he cannot be defined, he cannot be comprehended, that he does not fall under the Cognizance of our Senfes, nor can any Idea be formed of him; wherefore he is indifcribable, ineffable, incomprehenfible, and uncognizable by any Being." "Tisno Wonder that those who have mistaken Aratus's Jove (the Air) for God, and that that Jove conftituted an infinite Vacuum, fhould find no Room for a Christ.

Since the Words import, that God gave these things an Effence or Existence; as there may be feveral Sorts of Effences, Existences, or Manners of Being, we are next to confider the Manner of their Existence, "M. - At, denoting the very Substance of a Thing, B. C.-Particle that

is

is not divifible, an Atom. More Par. I. capi 73. Voff. Ibid. &c. Democritus he thought, that Atoms were the Principles of all Things, by whofe mutual Contact and interweaving, during their Motion, every thing was generated. Ibid. &c.-An Element is that of which any thing is firft compounded, fo that itself be in it, and fpecifically be indivifible into any other Species. They call the Elements of Bodies, thofe Particles that are the laft into which the Bodies are divided, the Bodies no longer differing in Kind-Galen and others, Naturally the first and most fimple Parts, and which cannot be refolved into any other. B. C. Ibid. TD-Hence with the Naturalifts, an Element is the first Princiciple of all natural Things;" lately called the Impenetrability of Bodies. This in general was never difputed, and for any thing I know, it agrees with the latest Definition, that-Matter is a Heap of Subftances-extended-its Parts diftinct Subftances, ununited and independent on each other. They pretend to fay, they know not what is the Subftance of any thing whatever — and that they know not by any Senfe or reflex Act, the inward Subftances; and I cannot inform them any farther, than that God made each of these Atoms or Substances

exist

exift in manner of a Solid, terminating at its Surface; and though they say they know not what any one of them is, that is only to blind you when they tell you they know not the Subftance of God; they and we know thefe Substances here are impenetrable and poffefs Space, and fo are; but neither they, nor we know any thing of the Substance of God, or how he bees. If they had aimed at Truth, and laid this down, as I think they intend it should be taken, they would have faid, we know as much, or we know no more of the Subftance, or Manner of the Existence of the Subftance of this Matter, than we know of the Subftance of God, or the Manner of the Exiftence of the Subftance of God; and then fomething might have been offered to determine the Affertion. I think they fay, that the Effence or Subftance of all Matter is the fame, and I fee not how there can be any Degrees of Solidity; if there be not, there can be no other Difference among thofe Atoms or Subftances, but in Figure and Size; and a Difference there muft be, becaufe they, when loofe or unformed, had different Names. The Atoms of the Heavens are not Atoms of the Earth, nor the Atoms of the Earth, Atoms of the Heavens, nor the Atoms of Creatures, called

Atoms of Man, for עפר מן האדמה called

whofe Body thofe of all the other Creatures were created, Atoms of either Hea vens or Earth; and these three Names appear to be only a Diftinction of Genus, for each of them must have a Diftinction of Species, as in thofe of Earth, Stone, Metals, Water, &c. The Rabbies, and I think almost all Writers, in Effect allowed, that Atoms, however difguifed by dif folving a Body of them, putting them into new Combinations by Fire, or, &c. always retained their Figures and Sizes, and were capable of being reformed into their first Order. This in many Cafes admits of Demonftration. "C. First Principles, Elements-Chald. Every Element returns to its proper Element." God by his Power fupports or continues the Existence of every Atom which exifts; and if the Motions, or Actions, or Effects of Matter, or what we call Nature be mechanical, and arofe from the Difpofition of thofe Atoms, and from their being once put into Motion, and be maintained by the Numbers, Sizes and Figures of thofe Atoms; fupporting their Substances, and Figures, fupports their Power of acting naturally or mechanically. Indeed the Rubbish Writings of the latest Heathens fhew us, that they were G 2 mad

mad with Notions of Tranfmigration and Tranfmutation, and metamorphofing of Souls, Bodies, and inanimate Matter (whether effentially or apparently I am uncertain) into I cannot tell what, no more than I can tell how nor why; and it appears that fome of them had Accefs to the divine Writings, and other Antient Books; and it appears that in many Points they underftood them, and that the wifeft of them laid down Pofitions, that the Atoms of each Sort differed in Figure and Size, nay even pretended to give us the different Figures, and comparative Sizes of those Atoms; which fhews it impoffible, without altering their Figures or Sizes, to change any Clafs of them, from one into another kind of Matter, fuch as another Clafs of Atoms were framed to conftitute : Yet whether they were afraid of the People, or whether they feared the People would deftroy their Works if they did not allow them their Whims, I know not; but we find that they, even in Contradiction to themselves, without giving us any Account how any fuch Change could be made, fometimes threw in a Dash of that Leaven; an evil Opinion once produced, is fcarce ever deftroyed: But this has but barely fubfifted among a few Roficrucians;