1

SECTION

II.

Of the corruption of theology in particular.

HE primary and great cause of idola

TH

try was low and unworthy notions of God, from whence men were led to confider all that we afcribe to God, as too much for one being, what no one being could have made, or could properly attend to afterwards. They alfo thought it beneath the fupreme being to concern himself with the government of the inferior parts of the creation. They, therefore, imagined that he had deputies to at under him; and the firft objects to which they afcribed this delegated power, were the fun, moon, and ftars, which, on account of their fplendour, and beneficial influence, they supposed to be either animated themfelves, or directed by intelligent beings. That the worship of the ftars, and other heavenly bodies, was the

earliest

earlieft fpecies of idolatry, is agreeable to all antient history.

The temptation to this kind of idolatry appears, from the book of Job, to have been very ftrong, in the earlier ages of the world; and it is evident, from several circumstances, that it had a very firm hold on the minds of men. It was for affirming the ftars to be inanimate bodies, which was confidered as denying their divinity, and for advancing that the fun is a body of fire, and that the moon is a habitable world, that Anaxagoras was accufed at Athens for impiety. Even Socrates thought him guilty of great prefumption and arrogance; and Plato fpeaks of his opinion as leading to atheism, and a denial of divine providence. This worship of the ftars is what he himself chiefly recommended to the people.

Next to the worship of the fun, moon, and ftars, fucceeded that of dead men. This arofe from cuftoms which were originally intended to exprefs no more than a just re

gard

gard for their merit and fervices; but from this they proceeded, gradually, to acts of worship properly religious, erecting altars to them, and praying to them, in any place

and at any time. This introduced the wor

fhip of images in human forms, whereas they had before contented themselves with erecting pillars, or even confecrating rude ftones and altars to their deities. The philofophers were far from difcouraging this practice of worshipping dead heroes. Cicero in particular much approves of the custom of paying divine honours to famous men, and regarding them as Gods.

During this progress of idolatry, the worship of the true God was gradually fuperfeded, and the rites of it became intermixed with thofe of the inferior deities. What contributed to confound these things the more, was that to most of the heavenly bodies, and alfo to deified men, were afcribed the names and attributes of the one true God, till the rites peculiar to each of them could be no longer diftinguished;

and

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and at length the worship of inferior beings engroffed all the regards of mankind, the worship of the true God being intirely excluded.

Befides the worship of the celestial Gods, and of dead men, we alfo find Gods of an intermediate nature, fuch as are now usually called genii.. Of these there were fuppofed to be various claffes, and the worship that was paid to them made a confiderable article in the heathen system.

As if these three fources could not fupply divinities enow, we find that even different names of the fame God, and acknowledged to be the fame, were made to pass for different deities, and had their peculiar religious rites and worship. Similar to this are the virgin Marys of different places, in Popish countries. It was another fource of the multiplicity of heathen Gods, that the fymbols and images of their principal Gods. were converted into deities, and made the objects of religious worship, as Fire among

the

the Chaldeans, and the Bull, and other anithe Egyptians.

mals, among

The

There can be no doubt but that the images erected to their Gods were generally fuppofed to have divine powers in them. philofopher Stilpo of Megara, was banished by the Arcopagus at Athens for afferting that the statue of Minerva, made by Phidias, was not a God; and all that he ventured to alledge in his defence, was that this celebrated piece of ftatuary was not a God, but a Goddess.

Farther, all the parts of the universe being confidered as fo many parts of the divinity by fome, or expreffions of his power by others, were made objects of religious worship. Even the qualities and affections of mankind, and alfo the accidents to which they are expofed were worshipped, as if a feparate intelligence had prefided over each of them; and fome of thefe were not only natural evils, but even things of a morally vicious nature. Thus there was at Rome an

altar