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Phil. I befeech you, Sir, don't go to run down the Grounds we build our Affertion upon, without understanding what they are. For there is a great Deal of Rea¬ fon to believe, that the enigmatical Way of explaining the Nature and Providence of the Deity, gave Occafion to the Heathen Polytheism, and ferves very much to apologise for it. For I look upon the Heathen Zeus, or Jupiter, with the learned Ancients *, to be but the Ether, or that fluid agitated Part of the Universe, which permeates the Pores of all Bodies, and is the Caufe of all Motion, Generation, Fermentation, &c. and there fore is well called Jupiter, quafi juvans pater. The Goddefs Juno t, or Hen (i. c.) quafi aegen, is the Air, which warmed, or agitated by the Ether, is a principal Caufe of the Procreation of Animals and Vegetables, and was for that Reafon worshiped as the Goddefs of Childbirths, Saturnus quafi fatur annis, or Keivos, is faid to be the Father of Jupiter, becaute before the World was, Time was. He is faid to dethrone his Father because the Creation of the World put a Period to that long unmea fured Duration. Ceres quafi Geres à gerendo, the Goddefs of Corn, or Anunτne qu. Inμnine, or Mother-Earth, is only the Ground, as Neptunus, the Sea, or the fame Deity exercifing his Providence in all; or to use St. Austin's Words, who expreffes the Meaning of the Ancients well, thus: Ipfe in athere eft Jupiter, ipfe in aere Juno, in mari Neptunus, in inferioribus etiam maris ipfe Salacia, in terrâ Pluto, in terrà inferiore Proferpina, in focis domefticis Vefta, in fabrorum fornace Vulcanus, in fyderibus Sol, Luna,

Stella In divinantibus Apollo, in merce Mercurius, in Jano Initiator, in termino Terminator, Saturnus in Tempore, Mars & Bellona in Bellis, Liber in vineis, Ceres in frumen tis, Diana in fylvis, Minerva in ingeniis, &c. So that all the ancient Theology and Theogony is only an Account of the divine Attributes and Providence in an ænigma

Cic. de Nat. Deor. Lib. 3. Plat. in Timeg. Salluft. de Diis & Mund. Cap. 6. + Cic. ib. Plato in Cratyl. Cic. ib. Nat. Com Myth. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. Aug. Civ. Dei, Lib. 7, Cap. 19. § Civ. Doi. Lib. 4. Cap. 11. Vid. De. hac re Var. De Ling. Lat. Lib. 4

tical and mythological Manner; and it was only owing to
the mean Capacities of the Vulgar, that they blundered
into Polytheifm by it: Juft as if when the Scripture men-
tions Wisdom and Religion in the Notion of a Perfon,
Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness, &c. an ignorant Chri-
ftian fhould take her for a Goddefs, and as when St.
Paul preached Ings, Jefus and the Refur
rection, the Greeks took him for a fetter forth of strange.
Gods, Acts xvii. 18. an Introducer of a new God and
Goddefs, which the Athenians in all their Theogony had
never heard of, So that at laft there was but the fame
Deity under Varro's three thousand Names, and the fame.
fupreme Jupiter was not more diftinct under all thefe,
than when he was called ἐφέστος, ξένιος, απομυϊος, or
piter Capitolinus, or Stator. And this I think is a fair Ac
count of the Rife of the Heathen Polytheism, and the
many fuperftitious Rites which crept into natural Religi
on upon it.

Cred. I confefs, Philologus, you are not mistaken, that Heathen many of the ancient Philofophers have given this Ac- Polytheifm count of the Rife of the Heathen Idolatry which you do; not the diverfe Exhi but then I very much question the Truth of their Af-bitions of fertion, and the Validity of their Arguments, and I think Providence, there are other and better Reasons to be given of the Origin of it. Nor is the Opinion of the Philofophers much to be relied upon; for they lived long after Polytheism was introduced, and knew as little of its Origin as we do; and befides, they had an Intereft to ferve, which was to represent the Folly of the Heathen Polytheism as favourably as they could to Men of Senfe; they were (if I may fo fay) the Condoms of Paganifm, to qualify it, the better to go down with Men of Thought and Enquiry. Neither is there any Thing in it, for ought I fee, but a little Wit and Fancy, of which Plato, who (I think) was the Author of it, had enough. For Socrates having fuffered for an Unitarian, and deriding the Gentile Multitude of Gods, Plato had a Mind to trim the Matter, by this Kind of Reconciliation, which you have mentioned in his Dialogues Timans and Cratylus. And

what

what I pray are all these fine Derivations of the Names of thefe Deities (which are the principal Part of the Argument) but mere fportive Rovings of Fancy, and as fplenetick as making Men and Chariots in the Clouds? I would undertake, as eafily to make thefe principal Deities to be the four Quarters of the Year, as you have made them the chief Parts of the World; and I think with as much Veri-fimilitude. Let Juno be the Spring, and the Greek "Hpn is higher "He the Spring, than Ang the Air. Let Zeds be the fervid hot Summer, Pluto the rich Autumn, and Neptune (or if you will Saturn) the cold watery Winter. Now if this had come from an old Beard, and a Pallium, and had had but the Prescription of two thoufand Years, it would have been lookt upon, perhaps, by many of your Gentlemen, as a rare Comment upon the Heathen Theology. But after all, thefe fabu tous Stories of the Gods are uncapable of allegorifing, or having any tolerable myftical Senfe put upon them. For what other Senfe befides the literal Meaning can be put upon the Rapes and Whoredoms of Jupiter, and the other Gods? What myftical Meaning can be put upon Jupi per's Rape of Europa, in the Shape of a Bull, or Danae in a golden Shower? Indeed fo far the Story may be unriddled, that Jupiter who committed this Wickedness' was a Gracian Prince named Taurus, as * Palephatus contends, or in a Ship called the Bull as others: That the golden Shower by which he corrupted Danae was by giving her Money, or by bribing her Keepers, But after all, the Story is a lewd Story ftill, and which cannot without Horror be heard to be attributed to the fupreme God of Heaven and Earth. And what good Senfe can be put upon thofe yet lewder Amours of Jupiter and his Boy Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinthus, Hercules and Hylas? Indeed Plato in his Dialogue de Pulchro, feems as if he had a Mind to interpret this infamous Familiarity of Jupiter with Ganymede into his platonick Love; but in my Mind that very Dialogue lacks Apology its fclf; for

*Palaph. de Incred. de Europa.

Marj

a Man finds there fo much of the ear and the igwuevos, the Amator and Amafius, with fuch odd Allufions to that execrable Vice, that one had need of very virtuous Thoughts, and a very charitable Mind to allegorife all the frange Metaphors of that Difcourfe into a chafte Meaning. A Man would be hardly put to it, to moralife and unriddle all the poetical Banter about Jupiter, and Mars, and Venus, and Bacchus, &c. and at the fame Time take them for Gods, or only particular Energies of the divine Providence. For what can one make, befides fome fanciful Remarks, of Saturn's devouring his Chil dren; of Jupiter's caftrating his Father; of Rhea the old Beldam Goddefs, her being in Love with Atys, a young Boy; of the Adultery of Mars and Venus; of the Ti tan's Wars, and Vulcan's celeftial Forge? Now who can ever imagine, that all this horrid, lewd, and fimple Stuff, was ever defigned for practical Divinity, and to teach Morality to Mankind by reprefenting their Gods fo mean, fo foolish, and fo debauched? It remains therefore, that fome other Account must be given of the Heathen Mythology, than that of ancient Riddles, and Theology, and Morality's being delivered under thofe Umbrages.

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Therefore, I fuppofe, that the Heathen Idolatry and Caufed by mythological Divinity was owing to the illiterate Dark, the Darknefs of fome Ages, which fucceeded after the Flood. nefs of the PoftdiluviVarro does very well divide Time (at least as far as an Ages. twas known to the Heathens) into the "Ador, or that obfcure Time which was from the beginning of Things to the firft Cataclyfm (i. e.) Ogyges's Flood; the fecond was the unor reaching from the firft Cataclyfm to the firft Olympiad, called fabulous, becaufe all the poetical Hiftory was tranfacted in it; and ever fince has been the istendy, or Time of Hiftory, when a true Account of Matters of Fact hath been given us. Now the Reason why there was no certain Account of these two former Stages of Time, was the Want of the Invention of Wri ting, or at least the general Ufe of it, So that all the

*In Cenforin. de Die Nat. Cap. 21.

Accounts

Accounts of former Times could only be deduced and carried down by Tradition; and what fad Work this would make in Hiftory and Theology, every one knows. The People of the feveral Nations had fome general Notions of the Deity; they had heard of Gods freely conyerfing with the Patriarchs after the Flood, of the Miniftry of Angels, &c. and this they jumbled together with the Stories of their Kings, like a Piece of Turkish Chronology. Their Kings, according to the ufual Flattery of those Ages, were made Gods; and then the common People who never ftood upon the Decency of the Character, afcribed to them all the Actions and Infirmities which belonged to their Manhood, after they were Gods. When they told a Story of former Times in a barbarous Age, it was hardly worth hearing, unless there was fomething ftrange and prodigious in it; and it was fafe making it as wonderful as one pleafed, because there was no ftanding History to contradict it. From hence no doubt it muft come to pafs that all our monkish Stories and Romances must be out-done, as the Barbarity of those first Times was greater; fo that all the Stories of Jupiter, and the Centimani, and Pelion and Offa, Bacchus and Thefeus, Andromede and Medea, &c. were but the firft Edition of Giants, enchanted Caftles, Knight-Errants and King's Daughters. Therefore it grieves me to fee learned Men (Chriftians efpecially) abufing their Time and Letters, to fifh out philofophical Reasons for all these lying

Fooleries.

By deifying 2. It was in great Measure owing to the deifying of of Princes. Princes. For moft of those Gods which were worshiped

by the old Heathens, were Kings formerly of the Country where they were adored. It is agreed by all, that the great Affyrian Belus was either Nimrod, or fome other great Prince of that Country: And* Diodorus Siculus relates the fame of the Egyptian Horus, and Oris. The Greek Zevs, or Jupiter, was King of Crete, at leaft he that was commonly worshiped; as Tully himself is forced to

Hift. Stabul. Lib. 1,

own

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