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own, though he be fo great an Advocate for the natural Deities. Saturnus, Janus, Faunus, Fatua, Romulus, and all the Dii indigites, are generally owned to be Princes of Italy; and the Latin Jupiter might probably be Æneas, who was called Jupiter Indiges. Neither doth he receive his Name à juvando, as being fo principal a Part of the Universe, as Varro, and Tully pretend; but is only the Greek Zeus, with the ufual Addition of Pater, as Marfpiter, Deifpiter, it being ufual to change the Greek ? when put in Latin into for G, which has the like Sound, as Zúzor jugum, Zifičng Gingiber. And as for Juno, I look upon her to be but the old Jana; and Saturn to be the true Name of that old King, which is preferved ftill in the Teutonick, Seater. So was the famous Hammon of Africa Cham the first Prince, or Founder of that Country, Bacchus a great Conqueror in the East, and the celebrated Rhea, or Cybele, an adopted Daughter of Minos, an ancient King of Phrygia, and Ceres, or Ifis, a Queen of Egypt. There is no Doubt, but these Deities were firft taken in as afcititious and tutelar Gods of the Place, and worshiped together with the fupreme God, but in Time, like Saint-worship among the Papifts, they juftled out God Almighty through Pretence of their particular Infpection, and brought his Worship to little or nothing. And befides People ftood upon Punctilio's of Honour, to have their particular God the greatest God; fo that there was not any little Hedge-God of a puny Province, but by his Votaries was equalled to the Gods of the King of Affyria. Hence Zeal for their Deities, and a fanciful Bigottry, founded abroad a Number of their Miracles and Excellencies, which coming to the Ears of foreign Countries, they in Time of Extremity, when they were willing to try all Experiments, adopted them their Gods too; as the † Mater Idea was brought to Rome when Hannibal with his Army was ravaging Italy, and Af culapins was canonifed there in that raging Peftilence which happened, An. V. C. 460. So that in Time

* De Nat. Deor. Lib. 3. + Liv. Hist. Lib. 39. c. 10. | Id. Lib. 10.

and Stars.

this tranflating of Deities from one Country to another, did very much conduce to the Increase of the Heathen Polytheism and fabulous Stories of their Gods.

en

By the wor-3. Another great Cause of it was the early and almost hip of the univerfal Worship of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. It is Sun, Moon certain, that the Idolatry of the Sun and Moon is very ancient, by the Book of Job, which probably is the oldest Writing extant; for Job there maintaining his In tegrity, difowns his ever having worshiped the Sun or Moon. If I beheld the Sun when it shined, or the Nioon walking in Brightness, and my Heart hath been fecretly ticed, or my Mouth has kiffed my Hand; this were also an Iniquity to be punished by the fudge, for I should have denied the God that is above. Job xxxi. 26, &c. And Macrobius fpends feven whole Chapters in his first Book of Saturnalia, to prove, that Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Æf culapius, Salus, Hercules, Ifis, Serapis, Adonis, Attys, Ofy→ ris, Horus, Nemefis, Pan, and even Saturn and Jupiters were nothing else but the Sun. And if one confiders the Glorioufnefs of that Planet, and its extraordinary Be→ neficialnefs to the Earth, one can hardly imagine, but that the first Idolaters paid their Worship to it.. 'Tis plain by Hiftory, that the Perfian Mithras was but another Name for the Sun. And learned Men have proved, that the Moabitish Baal-Peor, the Syrian Moloch, the Arabian Urotalt, the Ethiopian Affabinus, and other Deities, were nothing elfe but the Sun. V. Voffium de Orig. Idol. Spenc. de Leg. Heb. Selden, de Duis Syriss That Hecate and Diana were but other Names for the Moon, is known to every one; and, Orpheus in his Hymns makes her Proferpina too.

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*Ωρῶν συμπλέκλεια, φαεσφόρε, ἀγλαίμορφε
Ευφεγγές, κερόεσσα

Spinfter of Time, of bright and beauteous Form
Ofining, horned Goddess.

The

The fame was in Probability the Egyptian fis, the Affyrian Aftarte, or Aftaroth, the Arabian Alilat, and the Greek Ilithyia. The other Planets gave Names to fome Gods, as to Mars, Mercury, Venus or Dione, as the fanciful Forms of the Conftellations might do to others, as to Hercules and Orion; and when all these different Names, which were given the fame Luminaries in fo many feveral Countries, came to be carried to Greece and Rome, who understood nothing of these barbarous Languages, they prefently took them for new Deities to? vo, outlandish Gods, which they had never worshiped before; fo that this alone muft in Time fwell their Lift of Deities to a confiderable Length.

4. Another Caufe of their Polytheifm and fabulous Di By deifying vinity, was their making Gods and Goddeffes of Words, Words a Sort of grammatical Deities, that were made Gods when of the Masculine, and Goddeffes when of the feminine Gender. Thus Somnus, and Dolor and Pavor, were He Gods; and Pecunia, Prudentia, and Concordia, were She ones, with a World more of the like. Now when the Heathen had gotten this Way of stocking Heaven, 'tis a Mercy they had not left us the whole Dictionary full of Gods. And juft at the fame Rate the Nurfes and good Women were the Authors of a Multitude of Deities. It was they that invented the Office of Lucina to give an eafy Labour, of Opis to receive the Child; of the God' * Vagicanus, that opened the Mouth of the Child to cry; of Levana, that took the Child up when 'twas down; of Cunina which guarded the Cradle, of the Carmentes which read the Destiny of it, of Rumina which made it fuck, Educe and Potina, which made it eat and drink, of Menas, Fortuna Barbata, Juguntinus, &c. Now I fancy, Philologus, I fhould make you break your Brains, fhould. I let you to give a philofophical Account of all thofe Deities, when an old Woman could coin twenty of them in a Breath.

Phil. I thank you, Sir, for your kind offer; but I don't Care to be fet to fuch Sort of Work as the Conjurers do

Vid. Var. Ling. Lat. Lib. 4. Auguft. Civ. Dei, Lib. 4. Cap. 11.

the

the Devils they raife, to pick Oatmeal and tell Sand. But although fome filly People might make odd Sort of Work with natural Religion heretofore; yet as it was taug!.. and practifed by the wifeft of the Heathen, it was a noble Religion, full of wife Thought and rational Deduction; the Dictates whereof were not proved by Chapter and Verfe, but by folid and curious Reasoning. And this your Divines are aware of well enough, when they are forced now and then to bring in a Shred or two of the ancient Learning, to add a Poignancy to their dull Difcourses of Morality, to keep the Folks from fleeping: And I obferve generally an Auditory on a fudden to look brisk upon Plato and Tully, when they have been nodding over Paul and Peter. And truly there is good Reafon for it; for their Books and Sayings afford us fuch admirable Lectures of Morality; in them we may fee the Duty of Mankind fet out fo fully and exactly, and in fuch charming Strains of Eloquence, that all your infpired Authors, as you call them, look very poor Things to them. Now who can blame me for ftanding up for natural Religion, when you fee it could raise these philofophical Minds to fuch a noble Height, as Revelation can never pretend to? I cannot read a Piece of Seneca, or Plutarch, or any of thofe excellent Philofophers, but methinks, my Soul is warm'd with the Bravenefs of the Thoughts, and I am at the fame Time convinced of, and in Love with my Duty. And I doubt not, but had I liv'd in those Times to have made the Obfervation, I might have perceived, that the Lectures and Examples of thefe admirable Men had confiderable Influence upon the Lives of the common People; at leaft, I am fure, there was Force enough in their Doctrine to make them completely good. Sit ani ma mea cum animis Philofophorum; and in another State, let me but confort with the Plato's and Zeno's, and I fhall never envy your Armies of Saints and Martyrs.

Cred. I will be kinder to you than you are to your felf; and will put up my Prayers to God, that you may have a place in the Refurrection of the Juft, and may be of the Number of God's Elect, and then I am fure you are fafe.

It fhall not be my Bufinefs to predetermine the future Stato, of thofe good Heathens, that have lived up to the Light of their Reafon. I know they are to ftand or fall by the Judgment of a merciful God; and therefore for my Part I am always inclined to hope very well of them. But this I am fure of, that the Morality of the Heathen Philofophers was fo far from being a compleat Rule of Morals, that it was very erroneous, both as it represented the Nature of God and the Notion of Virtue; and that it was fo far from having any Influence upon the Lives of tlie Commonalty, that for the moft Part it had little or none upon their own. As for their good Language and handfome Thought, that was the Talent and peculiar Study of thofe Ages; but then again, that which fullied all their Perfor mances, and fpoil'd the best Things they did, or faid, was, that Pride and Vain-glory, which was common to all of them, and which all their Words and Actions were bottomed upon. For I will make it appear to you, Phi Avlogus,

179

grounded

upon Pride.

1. That Pride and Vain-glory was the Primùm Mobile, Morality of the firft Spring of the Morality of the old Philofophers, the Philoand not a Delign of doing Good. Now fuch a pitiful fophers End, as this is, is enough to fpoil the beft Action in the World. Tertullian, I remember, calls a Philofopher the Animal of Glory; and if one confiders the Generality of their Writings and Practice, one shall find he had great Reafon for it. And Cicero is fo ingenuous as to own the Charge, though against himself: For he tells us fincerely, ↑ Vult plane virtus honorem, nec est virtutis ulla alia mercès. Virtue does plainly defire Honour, neither has fe any other Reward. And if a Man fcans the whole Tenor of the Philofopher's Lives, he can never think they had any other End. For what other Account belides gaining Glory, and a Name in the World, can be given of their Hatching fo many different Principles, both in Phyfiolo gy and Morality, but only to be taken Notice of for inventing fomething fingular and remarkable? What was

Lib, de Anima Cic. de Amiciti

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