[536] The former opinion was held by Democritus and his disciple Epicurus; the latter by Heraclitus, who supposed that "God amused Himself" by thus renewing worlds.

[537] The Alexandrian Neo-Platonists endeavoured in this way to escape from the obvious meaning of the Timæus.

[538] Antoninus says (ii. 14), "All things from eternity are of like forms, and come round in a circle." Cf. also ix. 28, and the references to more ancient philosophical writers in Gataker's notes on these passages.

[539] Eccles. i. 9, 10. So Origen, de Prin. iii. 5, and ii. 3.

[540] Rom. vi. 9.

[541] 1 Thess. iv. 16.

[542] Ps. xii. 7.

[543] Cf. de Trin. v. 17.

[544] Wisdom ix. 13-15.

[545] Gen. i. 1.