eism,
idolatry, heresy, hypocrisy, though they have one common root, that is
indulgence to corrupt affection, yet their growth is different, they have
divers symptoms, occasions, and must have several cures and remedies. 'Tis
true some deny there is any God, some confess, yet believe it not; a third
sort confess and believe, but will not live after his laws, worship and
obey him: others allow God and gods subordinate, but not one God, no such
general God, _non talem deum_, but several topic gods for several places,
and those not to persecute one another for any difference, as Socinus will,
but rather love and cherish.

To describe them in particular, to produce their arguments and reasons,
would require a just volume, I refer them therefore that expect a more
ample satisfaction, to those subtle and elaborate treatises, devout and
famous tracts of our learned divines (schoolmen amongst the rest, and
casuists) that have abundance of reasons to prove there is a God, the
immortality of the soul, &c., out of the strength of wit and philosophy
bring irrefragable arguments to such as are ingenuous and well disposed; at
the least, answer all cavils and objections to confute their folly and
madness, and to reduce them, _si fieri posset, ad sanam mentem_, to a
better mind, though to small purpose many times. Amongst others consult
with Julius Caesar Lagalla, professor of philosophy in Rome, who hath
written a large volume of late to confute atheists: of the immortality of
the soul, Hierom. Montanus _de immortalitate Animae_: Lelius Vincentius of
the same subject: Thomas Giaminus, and Franciscus Collius _de Paganorum
animabus post mortem_, a famous doctor of the Ambrosian College in Milan.
Bishop Fotherby in his Atheomastix, Doctor Dove, Doctor Jackson, Abernethy,
Corderoy, have written well of this subject in our mother tongue: in Latin,
Colerus, Zanchius, Palearius, Illyricus, [6682]Philippus, Faber Faventinus,
&c. But _instar omnium_, the most copious confuter of atheists is Marinus
Mercennus in his Commentaries on Genesis: [6683]with Campanella's Atheismus
Triumphatus. He sets down at large the causes of this brutish passion,
(seventeen in number I take it) answers all their arguments and sophisms,
which he reduceth to twenty-six heads, proving withal his own assertion;
"There is a God, such a God, the true and sole God," by thirty-five
reasons. His Colophon is how to resist and repress atheism, and to that
purpose he adds four