way the Absolute Natures of things. However we are of Opinion that neither Democritus, nor Protagoras, nor Leucippus was the first Inventour of this Philosophy; and our reason is, because they were all three of them Atheists (though Protagoras alone was banished for that Crime by the Athenians) and we cannot think that any Atheists could be the Inventours of it, much less that it was the Genuine Spawn and Brood of Atheism it self, as some conceit, because however these Atheists adopted it to themselves, endeavouring to serve their turns of it, yet if rightly understood, it is the most effectual Engin against Atheism that can be. And we shall make it appear afterwards, that never any of those Atheists, whether Ancient or Modern (how great Pretenders soever to it) did throughly understand it, but perpetually contradicted themselves in it. And this is the Reason why we insist so much upon this Philosophy here, not only because without the perfect knowledge of it, we cannot deal with the Atheists at their own Weapon; but also because we doubt not but to make a Sovereign Antidote against Atheism, out of that very Philosophy, which so many have used as a Vehiculum to convey this Poyson of Atheism by.
IX. But besides Reason, we have also good Historical probability for this Opinion, that this Philosophy was a thing of much greater Antiquity than either Democritus or Leucippus: and first, because Posidonius, an Ancient and Learned Philosopher, did (as both Empiricus and Strabo tell us) avouch it for an old Tradition, that the first Inventour of this Atomical Philosophy was one Moschus a Phœnician, who, as Strabo also notes, lived before the Trojan Wars.
X. Moreover it seems not altogether Improbable, but that this Moschus a Phœnician Philosopher, mentioned by Posidonius, might be the same with that Mochus a Phœnician Physiologer in Jamblichus, with whose Successors, Priests and Prophets, he affirms that Pythagoras, sometimes sojourning at Sidon (which was his native City) had converst: Which may be taken for an Intimation, as if he had been by them instructed in that Atomical Physiology which Moschus or Mochus the Phœnician is said to have been the Inventour of. Mochus or Moschus is plainly a Phœnician Name, and there is one Mochus a Phœnician Writer cited in Athenæus, whom the Latin Translator calls Moschus; and Mr. Selden approves of the Conjecture of Arcerius, the Publisher of Jamblichus, that this Mochus was no other than the Celebrated Moses of the Jews, with whose Successors the Jewish Philosophers, Priests and Prophets, Pythagoras conversed at Sidon. Some Phantastick Atomists perhaps would here catch at this, to make their Philosophy to stand by Divine Right, as owing its Original to Revelation; whereas Philosophy being not a Matter of Faith but Reason, Men ought not to affect (as I conceive) to derive its Pedigree from Revelation, and by that very pretence seek to impose it Tyrannically upon the minds of Men, which God hath here purposely left Free to the use of their own Faculties, that so finding out Truth by them, they might enjoy that Pleasure and
