deny resurrection, &c., whom Pineda copiously confutes in _cap. 7.
Job, vers. 9._ Aristotle is hardly censured of some, both divines and
philosophers. St. Justin _in Peraenetica ad Gentes_, Greg. Nazianzen. _in
disput. adversus Eun._, Theodoret, _lib. 5. de curat. graec. affec._,
Origen. _lib. de principiis_. Pomponatius justifies in his Tract (so styled
at least) _De immortalitate Animae_, Scaliger (who would forswear himself
at any time, saith Patritius, in defence of his great master Aristotle),
and Dandinus, _lib. 3. de anima_, acknowledge as much. Averroes oppugns all
spirits and supreme powers; of late Brunus (_infelix Brunus_, [6667]Kepler
calls him), Machiavel, Caesar Vaninus lately burned at Toulouse in France,
and Pet. Aretine, have publicly maintained such atheistical paradoxes,
[6668]with that Italian Boccaccio with his fable of three rings, &c., _ex
quo infert haud posse internosci, quae sit verior religio, Judaica,
Mahometana, an Christiana, quoniam eadem signa_, &c., "from which he
infers, that it cannot be distinguished which is the true religion,
Judaism, Mahommedanism, or Christianity," &c. [6669]Marinus Mercennus
suspects Cardan for his subtleties, Campanella, and Charron's Book of
Wisdom, with some other Tracts, to savour of [6670]atheism: but amongst the
rest that pestilent book _de tribus mundi impostoribus_, _quem sine horrore
(inquit) non legas, et mundi Cymbalum dialogis quatuor contentum, anno
1538, auctore Peresio, Parisiis excusum_, [6671]&c. And as there have been
in all ages such blasphemous spirits, so there have not been wanting their
patrons, protectors, disciples and adherents. Never so many atheists in
Italy and Germany, saith [6672]Colerus, as in this age: the like complaint
Mercennus makes in France, 50,000 in that one city of Paris. Frederic the
Emperor, as [6673]Matthew Paris records _licet non sit recitabile_ (I use
his own words) is reported to have said, _Tres praestigiatores, Moses,
Christus, et Mahomet, uti mundo dominarentur, totum populum sibi
contemporaneum se duxisse._ (Henry, the Landgrave of Hesse, heard him speak
it,) _Si principes imperii institutioni meae adhaererent, ego multo
meliorem modum credendi et vivendi ordinarem._

To these professed atheists, we may well add that impious and carnal crew
of worldly-minded men, impenitent sinners, that go to hell in a lethargy,
or in a dream; who though they be professed Christians, yet they will
_nulla pallescere culpa_, make