tract them almoft infinitely: And it was in the Power of a Second, who understood thofe Things and Actions; for which they had fubftituted Words; and alfo other Things and Actions, which the first had not perceived, and fo did not understand; and fo in the Power of God from thofe Ideas of things perceived, or Words formed for them; or from Representations of the Things or Actions in Miniature, to convey Ideas of the Things or Actions to Man, which he had not perceived, or did not understand; fo, as Words convey no Ideas till they are conftituted for Things or Actions understood, or by the Help of thofe acquired Ideas and Reprefentations, they are applied to other Things or Actions; Man must have his Information or Knowledge of the principal Things, Motions, or Actions, either by Obfervations of the Things, which must have required many Years, or of the Representations of them, by other created Things refembling them in Miniature, &c. or of Matter framed for Objects fupernaturally, that is, Reprefentations framed on Purpofe. As Man could come at the Knowledge of Things within his Senfes; fo we fuppofe that God taught him by emblematical Reprefentations to frame Ideas of Things and Actions which

were

.

were neceffary for him to know, of those which he faw, and were difficult to underftand, by fmall Things, which were like Drawings, and of fuch as were out of the Reach of his Senfes. As Words were made Substitutes to convey Ideas of Things feen, fo God made, or fubftituted fome things feen, Reprefentatives of things unfeen, one at feweft, fuch as we call a Sacrament. And that which could not be reprefented by natural things formed and placed, was done by Appearances of Matter framed for Objects to answer thofe Ends. And though the Faculty of Memory to a certain Degree, be one of the Powers given to Man, yet as things once known are fupplanted by new Objects, we will fuppofe that God taught Man the Method of remembring fome of the chief Things, by fuch Methods of making things here Subftitutes, which were in ufe before Writing: So by things prefent, to keep in Memory things revealed; as he has more fully by Writing, fince. And we will fuppofe, that it was no more unlawful or fuperftitious, if they had not been inftituted by God, to use fuch Helps at that time, when no Writing was, than it is to ufe Writing, Drawing upon Paper, &c. fince, or now. And that VOL. III. F

it

it was no more a Crime to bow, when they came to fuch a Tree, or &c. which was fubftituted for a Name, than it is to bow when you fee the Letters, or hear the Sound pronounced now. Methinks, I hear fome felf-fufficient Fools already cry out, Popery; because Man at firft, or we now, can have no Idea of the Aleim, &c. of which hereafter, without Helps; therefore we must have no Helps; and because we can have no other Ideas of the chief Objects, but borrowed ones, in Order to be Chriftians, we must borrow none; I mean, not of our own making, but of the Aleim's making or ordering; for fear we shou'd, as many have done, abuse them. So we must have no Ideas of those very things, the Knowledge whereof to us is eternal Life, & e cont. a Caution fit for fuch to give.

I have faid in the Introduction to the

Second Part of Mofes's Principia, p. 43. it will at fome time be fhewed, that the Heathens took their natural Religion and Philofophy from the Worshippers of the true God: My Subject leads me to perform a great Part of this. I fhall venture to fay, that there was fcarce any one Act which the antient Heathens in their Service

L

to the Heavens, did, but there was fome Foundation before them, for that, or fomething which it bore a near Refemblance to: Where they miffed, they aimed at fomething, which, when applyed to the true God, had been right and true, though then fomewhat obliterated. Except that in perfonal Imitation of the Power of Production in the Heavens, they fell into that of unnatural Lufts.

If any one wonders how this could be, he may fee that there is nothing fo good which cannot be corrupted, mifreprefented, or abufed. There is no great Wonder that Truths revealed by Words or Emblems, and handed down by Tradition, were by the great Efforts made against them, perverted; the Devil had nothing else to do, to destroy Mankind. The things which were exhibited by God to Man in his State of Innocence, to give him Ideas of himfelf, of the Effence in the Trinity, of the Heavens as an Emblem of that Effence and Trinity, of Good and Evil, of another State; nay, thofe Things which were revealed to them after the Fall, when Adam had fuppofed Powers in the Fruit, from the Heavens; and they were in a Manner prefcribed to acknowledge that what it F 2 had,

had, came from God: when Man had forfeited his Body, and the Manner of the Satisfaction was to be fhadowed by the Life of Beafts, and finished by the Blood of human Sacrifice; when fomething inftead of the Tree of Lives was exhibited to represent the Effence and Trinity of Perfons, and the Subftance of Man taken into that Effence; fo the Means of Man's Redemption and Salvation: They were by their Pofterity, who mistook the Object, and abufed those things, by applying them to the false Object, made the Means of their Destruction. From the Representations of the Effence and Trinity, and their Powers, &c. in Paradife by Trees, &c. they made thofe Trees, &c. Emblems of the Effence, Trinity, and Powers in the Heavens. From the Reprefentation of the Figure, Parts, Motions, Powers, &c. of the Heavens, by a planted Plan in Paradife, they made Groves, Trees and their Fruits, fo planted, facred Reprefentations of the Heavens. From the Representations of the Effence, Trinity, and Powers, in the Effence of the Heavens, they fell to worship them. As the fuppofed Power in the Fruit had been imputed to the Powers in the Heavens, or Fire; fromthe Revelation of

the