and their Worshippers are not assured of this, nor is there any more reason to affirm that they can, than that they cannot: And what is worst of all, is, that those Men who are thus had in Honour, are found to have been Men remarkable for very great Vices. A drunken Bacchus, an effeminate Hercules, a Romulus unnatural to his Brother, and a Jupiter as unnatural to his Father. So that their Honour is a Reproach to the true God, and that Goodness, which is well-pleasing to him; (a) because it adds a Commendation from Religion to those Vices, which are sufficiently flattering of themselves.

SECT. V.

Against the Worship given to the Stars and Elements.

(b) MORE ancient than this was the Worship of the Stars, and what we call the Elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth; which was indeed a very great Error. For Prayers are a principal Part of religious Worship, which, to put up to any but Beings that have Understanding is very foolish; and that what we call the Elements are not such,

66

66

(a) Because it adds a Commendation, &c.] See an Example hereof in Terence's Eunuch, Act III. Scene V. Cyprian, Epist. II. They imitate those Gods they worship; the Religion of those wretched Creatures is made up of Sin. Augustine, Epist. CLII. Nothing renders Men so unsoci"able, by Perverseness of Life, as the Imitation of those "whom they commend and describe in their Writings." Chalcidius in Timæus ; "So it comes to pass, that instead of that "Gratitude that is due to Divine Providence from Men, for "their Original and Birth, they return Sacrilege." See the whole Place.

(b) More ancient than this, &c.] There are Reasons to persuade us that Idolatry began with the Worship of Angels and the Souls of Men, as you may see in the Index to the Oriental Philosophy, at the Word Idolatria. Le Clerc.

Word

is

is evident in a good Measure from Experience. If any one affirms otherwise of the Stars, he has no Proof of it, because no such Thing can be gathered from their Operations, which are the only Signs to judge of Beings by. But the contrary may be sufficiently collected from the Motion of them, which is not various like that of Creatures endued with Freedom of Will, (a) but certain and determinate. We have elsewhere shewn, that the Course of the Stars is adapted to the Use of Man; whence Man ought to acknowledge, that he, in his better Part, bears a nearer resemblance to God, and is dearer to him; and therefore ought not to derogate so much from his own high Birth, as to place himself below those Things which God has given him; and he ought to give God Thanks for them, which is more than they can do for themselves, or at least more than we are assured of.

SECT. VI.

Against the Worship given to Brute Creatures. BUT that which is of all Things most abominable, is that some Men, particularly the Egyptians, (b) fell into the Worship even of Beasts. For, though in some of them there do appear, as it were, some Shadow of Understanding, yet it is nothing compared with Man; for they cannot express their inward Conceptions, either by distinct Words or

(a) But certain and determinate, &c.] By which Argument a certain King of Peru was persuaded to deny that the Sun could be a God. See the History of the Incas.

(b) Fell into the Worship even of Beasts, &c.] Concerning whom, Philo, in his Embassy, says, "They esteem Dogs, "Wolves, Lions, Crocodiles, and many other wild Crea"tures in the Water and on the Land, and Birds, as Gods." To which may be added, a long Discourse of this Matter, in the First Book of Diodorus Siculus,

Writings;

Writings; nor do they perform Actions of different Kinds, nor those of the same Kind, in a different Manner; and much less can they attain to the Knowledge of Numbers, Magnitude, and of the Coelestial Motions. But on the other Hand, (a) Man, by his Cunning and Subtilty, can catch the strongest Creatures; wild Beasts, Birds, or Fishes; and can in some Measure bring them under Rules, as Elephants, Lions, Horses, and Oxen; he can draw advantage to himself, out of those that are most hurtful, as Physic from Vipers; and this Use may be made of them all, which themselves

(a) Man by his Cunning and Subtilty, &c.] Euripides in Eolus: Man has but little Strength,

Yet can, by various Arts,
Tame the wildest Creatures
In Sea, or Earth, or Air.
And Antiphon:

They us in Strength, we them in Art, exceed.

Which affords us no bad Explication of Genesis i. 26. and Psalm viii. 8. He that desires a large Discourse of this Matter, may look into Oppianus, in the Beginning of his Fifth Book of Fishing, and Basil's Tenth Homily on the Six Days of Creation. Origen, in his Fourth Book against Celsus, has these Words: "And hence you may learn, for how great a Help our Understanding was given us, and how far it exceeds all "the Weapons of wild Beasts; for our Bodies are much "weaker than those of other Creatures, and vastly less than

some of them; yet by our Understanding, we bring wild "Beasts under our Power, and hunt huge Elephants; and "those whose Nature is such, that they may be tamed, we "make subject to us; and those that are of a different Nature, or the taming of which seems to be of no Use to us, we manage these wild Beasts with such Safety, that as we will, "we keep them shut up, or, if we want their Flesh for Meat, "c we kill them as we do other Creatures that are not wild. "Whence it appears that the Creator made all living Creatures

66

subject to him, who is endued with Reason, and a Nature "capable of understanding him." Claudius Neopolitanus, in Porphyry's First Book against eating Living Creatures, speaks thus concerning Man: "He is Lord over all Creatures, void of Reason, as God is over Man.”

are

are ignorant of; that by viewing the Structure and Situation of the Parts of their Bodies, and comparing together their several Species and Kinds, he learns his own Excellency, and how much more perfect and noble the Frame of the human Body is, than others; which, if rightly considered, is so far from inclining him to worship other Creatures, that he should rather think himself appointed their God in a Manner, under the SupremeGod.

SECT. VII.

Against the Worship given to those Things which have no real Existence.

We read that the Greeks and Latins, and others likewise, worshipped Things which had no real Existence, but were only the Accidents of other Things. For, not to mention those outrageous Things, (a) Fever, Impudence, and such like; Health is nothing else but a just Temperature of the Parts of the Body; and good Fortune a Correspondence of Events with the Wishes of Men: And the Affections, such as Love, Fear, Anger, Hope, and the like, arising from the Consideration of the Goodness or Badness, the Easiness or Difficulty of a Thing, are certain Motions, in that Part of the Mind, which is most closely connected with the Body, by Means of the Blood; and they have no Power of their own, but are subject to the Command of the Will, which is Mistress of them, at least as far as respects their Continuance and Direction. So likewise the Virtues, which have different Names. Prudence, which consists in the Choice of what is advantageous: Fortitude, in undergoing Dangers; Justice, in abstaining from what

(a) Feter, Impudence, and such like, &c.] See Tully's Third Book of the Laws.

is

is not our own; Temperance, in moderating Pleasure, and the like: There is also a certain Disposition or Inclination towards that which is right, which grows upon the Mind by long Exercise; which, as it may be increased, so it may be diminished by Neglect, nay, it may entirely be destroyed in a Man. (a) And Honour, to which we read of Temples being dedicated, is only the Judgment of one concerning another, as endued with Virtue; which often happens to the Bad, and not to the Good, through the natural Aptness of Mankind to mistake. (b) Since therefore these Things have no real Existence, and cannot be compared in Excellence with those that have a real Existence; nor have any Knowledge of our Prayers or Veneration of them; it is most disagreeable to

(a) And Honour, to which we read, &c.] Tully in the forementioned Place; and Livy, Book XXVII.

(b) Since therefore these Things have no real Existence, &c.] Perhaps some may explain this Worship of the Heathens in this Manner; as to say, that it was not so much the Things, which were commonly signified by those Words, that they worshipped, as a certain Divine Power, from which they flowed, or certain Ideas in the Divine Understanding. Thus they may be said to worship a Fever, not the Disease itself, which is seated in the human Body; but that Power, which is in God, of sending or abating a Fever; to worship Impudence, not that Vice which is seated in the Minds of Men; but the Will of God, which sometimes allows Men's Impudence to go on, which he can restrain and punish: And the same may be said of the rest, as Love, Fear, Anger, Hope, which are Passions which God can either excite or restrain; or of Virtues, which are perfect in the Divine Nature, and of which we see only some faint Resemblance in Men, arising from the Ideas of those Virtues which are most complete in God. And of Honour, which does not consist so much in the Esteem of Men, as in the Will of God, who would have Virtue honourable amongst Men. But the Heathens themselves never interpreted this Matter thus; and it is absurd to worship the Attributes and Ideas of God, as real Persons, under obscure Names, such as may deceive the common People. It is much more sincere and honest to worship the Deity himself without any Perplexities. Le Clerc.