" and employed themselves in Questions "concerning deep and abftrufe Matters; "in like manner the Fellows of the So"cratic Society purfue diligently the very "fame Studies which rendered the Druids "and Pythagoreans fo famous. Each "inftituted Societies. Yet our Members do not implicitly admit all their Tenets: Where they depart from Truth, "there we depart from them."

The Writers of all Sides have impofed upon Mankind, and none of the Parties who have produced Evidence from these Men, have ever ftated the Cafe, or fhewed what State they were in. The Authors of this Book have fhewed they pretended to no Revelation (except you will allow their Oracles or Obfervations from the Heavens, or, &c. to be fuch to thofe, who fuppofed an Intelligence.) They pretended to no other Knowledge, nor even to any intelligible Tradition from Antiquity, nor any but from what they faw, or told one another; they knew nothing that there was any Being, or Syftem before this, nothing of Jehovah Aleim, or of what had been revealed to the Jews about the Creation, Formation of the Names, Earth, &c. fo they knew nothing of their Beginning. They knew nothing of

the Knowledge of the Heathens who lived before the Confufion of Tongues, they could have no Books to convey it to them; and 'tis very remarkable that it was not in the Power of the Devil, by his Oracles, or any other Way, to restore that Knowledge to them; they knew nothing of Eternity, nor meant they any thing by the Word, as is fhewed from Ocell. Lucan. cited by the Reviver of Jupiter, in his Demonftr. &c. p. 62, That the World muft needs be Eternal without Beginning or End, because both its Figure and Motion are a Circle, which has neither Beginning nor End. So Pantheift. p. 6. ZenoStob. Phyfical Eclogues,

Every thing is made out of the Uni"verfe, and the Univerfe of every thing." p. 8. Diogenes Laertius, in his Proem. "All Things are made of one and are refolved into

Sect. 5. "Subftance

"the fame again."

They have fhewed that thefe Heathens univerfally agreed that the Fire, Ether, or the Air, in its feveral Conditions, was continually in Circulation, and that the Power was in them, that they acted, and as they knew nothing of Mechanifm, they supposed the Powers innate, and that the Earth, Water, &c. were passive. Panth.

P. 36. "When it is once known, that— Jupiter fignifies the circumambient Air: "Thefe Things, I fay, being well under"derftood, all the reft will be cafily ap

prehended, &c." p. 8. "It is God; "whom, if you pleafe, you may call the "MIND and SouL of the UNIVERSE." p. 60. Cicero's Academical Questions, B.1. c. 6, 7.—————" Which Force or Energy they call the SOUL of the World, and "fay, that this fame is that perfect MIND " and WISDOM which is named GOD." p. 59. "Of these Qualities fome are Principles, and fome Compounds. The Principles are fimple and uniform; the "Compounds are various and multiform. "AIR, FIRE, and WATER and EARTH

are Principles: From thefe arife the "Forms or Frames of Animals, and fuch

Things as fpring out of the Earth. There "fore these are faid to be the firft Seeds "and Elements, of which AIR and FIRE "have the MOTIVE and EFFICIENT "Power; Water and Earth are Paffives and Recipients." Pantheift. p. 13.

σε πῦρ ὅπερ πάντων ἐπικρατέεται Fire is "the univerfal Ruler, (fays the Author "of the Book concerning Diet, B. 1. "Sect. 11.) who difpofes every thing according to Nature, without any Noife << or

I 4

or Buftle, as to Sight or Feeling: In it "is Soul, Mind, Prudence, the Means of "Increase and Decrease, the Power of "Motion: It is the Caufe of Sleep and Waking It governs All in All, both "terreftrial and celeftial Operations, by a

perpetual Motion. It is Horace's Par"ticle of divine Air; Virgil's Spirit in"wardly nourishing and actuating, the heavenly Origin, the igneous Vigour, &c. and whatever other Name "he may make use of." Pantheist.

p. 61.

Mode.

"Let us Celebrate the Heavenly Foun"tain of Souls, which diffufes itself thro' "Great and Small.

MODE and ANSWER.

Virg. Georg. B. 4. v. 220.

Hence fome have thought

"That Bees partook of this Ethereal

"Draught

"And Mind Divine: For God his influ"ence throws

"Thro' Earth and Sea and Heaven, thro' "all he goes:

"Hence fpring the various Race of Beasts, << hence Men,

"And all that Nafcent draw the foft Air in And thither do they all return again.

"Death

"Death has no Place, alive they upwards

fly,

"Mix with the Stars and their congenial << Sky."

There is fomething that feems unaccountable,that my Partner (Woodward,) fhould lend Toland Books to furnish Materials for this Book; that after it was published, he fhould receive his conftant Vifits, and cry up his Performance, particularly because he had discover'd that their Ancients had Sentiments for themselves, but only believ'd, and conform'd, and worship'd in Appearance; and that they writ what they did not think; when he had not only struck off Gravity, the Power he had pretended to affert, and given the Agency to the Air, but ridiculed his pretended Discovery and Scheme. As Panth. p. 31. "That these " remains are the real Bones, &c. of Fishes " and other Animals has been fully proved "after several Trials and Experiments by "the learned Dr. Woodward, a Man as

fharp fighted as a Lynx in thefe Studies, "and who has upon that account deserv"ed well of the learned World -- but "that did not happen by any univerfal "Deluge, which there never was while "the Globe was in being."

And