ftinct Parts fuited to their peculiar In ftincts or Actions, exhibited each of thefe Powers, by a Creature, or the Intelligent, or fome other Parts of a Man or Woman, and fome of thofe Parts of the Creature which distinguish'd the Inftinct, Action, or, &c. joined with them; as for Example, by what has come down to us, Pan, by Part of a Man, and the Parts of a Goat or Satyr, which diftinguished the Creature, and the Inftinct or Appetite, and not by a whole Man, except it were with Infignia, to diftinguifh each, because all Men have not the fame Inftincts, at leaft let them not appear in the fame Degree of Action; fome are libidinous, fome chafte, &c. But when Writing took Place, and the poetical Manner of Writing was introduced, the Poets could not represent the Actions of Agents but by Agents. When they were to reprefent the Actions of the whole, or of each Power in this System of Air, which they call'd Gods, they could not represent or exhibit them to Senfe, or mechannically, they did not understand them; and 'tis likely, if they could have done it in that Manner, the Itch after imagining was fo ftrong, it would not have fuffer'd them to have been bound by the Rules of Truth and have done it. There were no other mechanical Agents to represent them them by, nor other Agents in this System, but fimple animated Bodies, which they could not ufe for the Reasons aforefaid; befides, Animals compounded of Body and Soul, Men and Women; when they reprefented the Action of thefe Agents or Powers by the Actions of Men and Women, who could think; whether the Poets thought there was fomething in each of thefe Agents or Powers like the Soul of öf a Man, or what it was in Man which they fuppofed capable of thinking; whether they thought the Soul of Man acted or thought mechanically, is not eafy to know; but the Manner of their Writing has made Men fince believe, that they were not only thinking Beings, but really by fome Devils, by fome Men and Women, or their Souls. Several have attempted to divide the Religion of the Heathens among three Sets; the Poets, the Philofophers, and the States. I have fhewed it was orignally one; that the Knowledge of it was loft by Degrees, that the Poets help'd to lofe the Remainder And as I fhall fhew befow, when they knew not what was Active, what was Paffive, what moved, what ftood; the Philofophers attempted to retrieve scatter'd Notions of fome Pow ers in Nature, but knew not in what. Very late, when all the Knowledge of, and Reverence to thefe Gods was quite loft, and Men fet up Sects of Atheists, &c. the Governments for their own Security were forc'd to interpofe and appoint Laws, many whereof are ftill extant, to oblige Men to worship fuch Gods as they had, to pay fuch Services as were in Fashion, &c. From what Jofephus, &c. have writ, that the Viceroys fold the Jewish Priesthood, and to which Simon's Offer refers, it has been fuggefted, that the Princes had no Regard for their Religion; but that is a Mistake, they thought the Jewish Religion no ways concerned them; none were ever fo wicked as to do fo in the Religi on they believ'd and profefs'd: And the Viceroys, whether they were fuch as kept the Heathen Religion, or Atheists, who pretended to conform to the Jewish Reli gion, had no Concern for their Religion, and put in thofe who beft ferv'd their Turns.. Thefe Theological Writings confift chiefly of two Parts, the firft, the Genealogy of thefe Gods, that is to be fubdivided into antient and modern. In the eldeft they, under a Veil, aim'd at conforming their Names and Succeffion to the traditional traditional Account they had from the Beginning, or to the Defcription which Mofes gave of the feveral Steps in the Formation of the Machine. If all the mifconftrued Words were fet right, which is very difficult now, because, as the Greeks by Degrees loft the Remainder of the Knowledge of thefe Things, they mistook the Meanings of the antient Words, and gave them other Significations, to which our Lexicons conform, as the beft Judges have own'd: And as feveral of the original Words of the Greeks and Latines are mistaken or mifconftrued, we cannot poffibly know what they meant by Words us'd for fuch natural Things and Actions, because we have no certain Teft for the Use of thofe Words in thofe Languages, in thofe Times, few of thofe being us'd in the New Teftament, and those long after, and our Lexicons being framed to Ufages long after. And what makes it ftill more difficult, I am afraid our Critics have been conforming the Letters of the old Words to the modern Greek. I fay, if these were fet right, one might bring them pretty near the Truth; but even then they would be but poor Performances. The latter of this Sort, except fome which are Copies of Mofes, will puzzle one very H 3 much, much, after one knows from the Bible what they aim'd at, to know what they meant. The fecond is the Defcription or hiftorical Accounts of the Actions of thefe Gods; they have not in them kept each Perfon reprefenting a Power to the Character, nor to their respective Parts, in any of the Farces they made them act, nor have they fo much as obferv'd the Rules which those who fucceeded them laid down for Romances, Stage-Plays, &c. The very Hiftorians, whofe chief Bufinefs was to relate the Actions of Men, and only to fpeak occafionally of their Gods, had not much better Ground to go upon; for tho' fome Princes had kept Records in Writing, by Conquefts and other Accidents they were frequently deftroy'd: So what is before Writing, or where it was wanting, either of their Men or Gods, came from the Priests, or from Hear-fay, or was forg'd; there could be no certain Evidence of fuch Things before, or without Writing; therefore no doubt they thought they might fafely forge what Accounts they pleafed Perhaps they were not aware that there was any Method to detect them, or that there was a perfect Account of their Gods, in Writing; and per : haps |