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according to which the Deity acts and governs Mankind. 3. That Necessity not being Intrinsecal to the Nature of every thing, but Men having such a Power over their own Actions, as to render them accountable for the same; there is therefore a Distributive justice running through the World.
The first of these (against Atheism) taketh up this whole Book: which is divided into five Chapters. Whereof, the first is an account of the Atomick Physiology, as made the foundation of the Democritick Fate, that is, the Atomick Atheism, or Material necessity of All things without a God.
Of the Atomick Physiology, he discourseth principally two things: 1. That it was not the Invention of Democritus or Leucippus; but of much greater Antiquity. Proved from the Tradition transmitted by Pesidonius, sc. that it was derived from Moschus a Phœnician, living before the Trojan Wars, and probably the same with Mochus, mentioned in Jamblichus. From Aristotles Testimony hereof. And in that Pythagoras, Empedocles, an most of the Ancient Physiologers, were Atomists. And by other Arguments. And that therefore, all that was true of Democritus and Leucippus, is only, that they were the first Atheizers of the Ancient Atomick Physiology.
2. That this Atomick Physiology, rightly understood, is no Nurse to Atheism, but the greatest defence against it: being founded upon this Principle, That Nothing can be caused by Nothing. From whence it was concluded, That in Natural Generations there was no New real Entity produced: And consequently, That the qualities and forms of Inanimate Bodies, are no Entities really distinct from the Magnitude, Figure, Site, and Motion of Parts. And, that Souls are substances Incorporeal, not generated out of Matter. Asserted by Pythagoras, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and all the best of the Ancients. That upon the same Principle was founded, the Pythagorick Doctrines of the Præxistence and Transmigration of Souls. And, that whoever admits and understands the Atomic Physiology, must also acknowledge Incorporeal Substance: which is the overthrow of Atheism. From these Premisses he concludes, That the ancient Moschical Physiology consisted, of Atomical Physiology and Pneumatology. And was mangled by Democritus, who superseded their Pneumatology: and by Plato and Aristotle, who superseded their Atomology.
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