"&c. Nature's Work, and yet very "Nature herself. Plato in Epimonides "whence Tho. Smyrnaus tranfcribed thefe "Words in his Mathematics, B. I. c. I. "What God do I praife? None but "the Heaven or Air, who is above all "other Gods,- (cited M. P. p. 71.) The

great Pythagoras led Plato the way in "this, for Calus or Ether with him

cr

was God; and the Stars the eyes of his "Deity. Epiphanius against Herefies "tells us in the first Book, that Pytha goras makes God Corporal, viz. Heaven. He gives him the Sun, Moon " and the other Stars, with the celestial. "Elements, for Eyes, and other mem"bers fuch as are in Man." Parker's Effay, p. 235. After many Citations from the Philofophers that Deus was the Soul of the World, and inter al. one from Pythagoras, cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, which determines the Point. "God is

One, and is not as fome imagine with

out the World, but &c." and concludes, "What is plainer than that Pythagoras here means by God, the Mind of the "World? If you interpret these Words "of the true God; What are they to Py

ઃઃ

thagoras's Meaning? If to Pythagoras's "Meaning, what are they to the true "God? And Pythagoras in this agrees

"with

"with the Egyptians from whom,it is the "General Opinion, He received his Phi

lofophy: And they think God to be a Spirit pervading all Things, as Eufebius, fays Evangelical Preparation, B. 3. c. 28. Voffius, B. 7. p. 165. Tully of the Nature of the Gods, B. 2. fays, "We may "conclude that the vital Efficacy pervad

ing the whole World is the natural agency of Heat: And adds, that this Fiery Agent paffes thro' and vivifies all Things. "and a little after: Since all Motion arif

es from the heat of the World, and that "Heat not the effect of any external Im"pulse, but of its own Virtue, it must "neceffarily be a Spirit or Mind. Cornutus or Pharnutus fpeaking of Ju

piter fays, that as we exift in the man"ner we do by means of the Soul, fo "the World or Universe has a Soul which "animates, keeps and preferves it, and "this Soul or Mind is called Jupiter. Gyrald of the Gods of the Gentiles, "M.P. part 2. p. 70. The Stoicks for "the most part defined God to be a divine "Subftance, intelligent, and fiery; with"out Form; but who can change himself "into any Thing and take what Form he pleases?"

"

Parker's Effays, p. 249. So in Virgil's 6th Eclog fings Silenus,

"Thro'

"Thro' the great Void at firft collected (c were,

"The Seeds of Earth, of Sca, of Soul, or "Air."

So under the word Elios, Sun, Parker's Effay, &c. Trifmegiftus. "The Sun fending down or irradiating Effence, and drawing up Matter *, by these two "Means operates upon, and agitates the "Heaven or Air, and the Earth: And

drawing and attracting all Things around "himself, and into himself, and diftri"buting all to all from himself, difpen"fes Light freely and moft plenteously. "It is He whofe benign Operations act "not only in the Heaven and in the Air, "but in the Earth, and penetrate into the great Deep and Abyss. Again

1411

The "Sun is the common Parent and Prefer"ver of all Species, John Bocatius's Ge

.60

nealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles, "of all these benefits is the Course and "Rotation of the Sun the Difpenfer. "He is juftly therefore called the Heart of

Heaven, by whom are all Things done "which we fee to be done by divine Rea"fon and this is the Account upon "which he may defervedly be termed "the Heart of Heaven, because the Na

What is this but the contrary Irradiations of the Light and Spirit?

"ture

"ture of Fire is to be always in motion " and perpetual Agitation. The Sun is the "Source and Fountain of the Ethereal Fire, " and therefore the Sun is the fame in "the Ethereal as the Heart in the animal

"Body." Ibid. Lib. 9. c. 1. After proving that Fire is produced from Air, fays, "The Fire and Air are Agents, the Earth " and Water Patients."

The LXX durft not use the Word 'A.. nga for pn for fear of being ftoned, but render it av, &c. but 'tis ufed by Symmachus and in the Romish Translation. 'Tis explain'd in the Second Part of M.P. P. I10, 208, and 310. 'Tis the Names, here Light and Spirit in Circulation, which by their oppofite Motion make that Vibration which our Author obferves by Telescopes, and which, as above fhew'd, lays that Stress upon all Matter, which is call'd yp the Expanfion which was order'd to do every Thing here, which is faid to be as close as molten Glafs, is claimed as the Strength of the Aleim, &c. which the Greeks, &c. call'd Jupiter. Voffius B. 2. p. 255. (cited M. P. p. 73.) "What "the Latins call Cœlum, Heaven, the "Hebrews call Shemim, the Greeks A"ther; whether it be from aiei theein,

as Apuleius conftrues it, because of "its rapid Rotation; which was the Opi

2

"nion

"nion of Ariftotle, as alfo of the Writer "of a Book concerning the World, and Apuleius his Paraphrafer; or as Anaxagoras thought from Aithefthai, "i. c. burning, because it is Matter kind"led and on Fire; whenee Ennius in Thyeftes,

"Behold this great Sublime that glows « above,

"Which all confpire to name celestial Jove.

"You have alfo in Cicero of the Nature of the Gods, B. 2. Thefe Lines,

"See this uninterrupted Flux of Light "Diffus'd, and mix'd thro' all the Ethe"real Night.

Gyrald. p. 14. Porphyry. God is Light, " and inhabits Fire and Ether. Parker's Effays, p. 247. Hence in Ariftophanes, Socrates invokes Air and Ether " together,

"King! Univerfal Ruler wide fpread Air, Whose Ambient does fupport Earth's "pend'lous Sphere,

"And thou refulgent Ether!

"Parker's Effays p. 191. Lypfius in his

"Stoical