it was another, which the Ifraelites worfhipped; and if these and fuch were their Kings, as I have fhewed many of them were, and shall fhew all the reft below, all that has been faid by our Chronologers concerning them, and all their Chronologies, come to nothing.

The Degree of Knowledge of the true Religion, of the falfe one, of the Sciences, of each Nation or Man, when they began to write, or when any Writing preferved was writ, is chiefly to be confidered. There were fome who dwelled among the Heathens for feveral Ages after the Apostasy at Babel, who retained the Belief of Jehovah Aleim, of a future State, or &c. yet fome of them had loft the particular Knowledge of fuch Things as were historical, fuch as the Fall of Man, the Forfeiture, and other principal Things; among those was Job, and I think one of the Defigns in writing that Book was, to fhew the State in which that great Man was, and fo the Neceffity for, and Benefit of, a written Revelation. Those who remembered little or nothing of the firft Revelation, and had little or no Communication with those who had the fecond, knew little or nothing of the Effence, Persons, their Actions, the Fall of Man, the Covenant,

and

and Terms of Grace: Their Writings fhew this. But what is ftill further to our Purpose; it appears they had once a Revelation and perfect Knowledge of the Shadows, the Agents in this Syftem, and of each of their respective Powers and Actions, and of the Motions and Courses of the Orbs, &c. and expreffed them by proper infallible Words, as I fhall, in the Sequel of this, fhew; and that they loft the very Knowledge, not only of the Motions and Actions of the Agents, but the Motions of the Orbs, which they might have feen and obferved, fo that they afferted that the Earth ftood still, the Sun moved, &c. which is Evidence the most universal, and the ftrongest that can be given, that they had no Writing, either in that or any other Language, which could ever fince be understood, to preferve the Knowledge of them; nay, ftronger than if it had been poffible that it could have been recorded by any prior Way of Writing, and that had been preferved to this Day; that this Species of Writing with Letters was not used among them while any certain intelligible Language was in Being: Nay, it appears that they were fo far from understanding thefe Powers, the Objects of their Worship, that they did not fo much

much as give them Names which were expreffive of any Power, Virtue, or Strength, to move themselves, and communicate Motions, and produce Effects upon their Worshippers, or other Things; nor did they, as appears at last, by their Writings, fo much as know what the ancient Original Words, or Names for them, mean'd, For Example: They fuppofed Hermes, which I have fhewed was, in Hebrew, from, which fignifies, to project; and when applied to the Actions of the Mind, with which this God had no Bufinefs, was to deceive; from whence, Projectors and Deceivers are fynonymous, to this Day, to have come from the Word py, the Epithet of the Devil in the Serpent, who tempted Eve, T. y, "Hence Hermes, the Prince of Frauds, Tricks, and Cunning, whence Mercury has his Name, Alfo the God of Arts and Sciences; likewife the Interpreter or Meffenger of the Gods, whence Egunvõis, Egunveuw, an Interpreter, to Interpret. Margema, an Heap of Stones facred to Mercury, to point out the Ways over which he prefided, as he did likewife over Merchandise, &c." So they applied the Attributes this Word expreffes to him, and emblematically made him a Head, and Wings to it; but he was

not

not made for thinking, that was all Imagination; and fo the Attributes of one God to another, which were the only Things which diftinguished them, because they were not diftinct Substances, much less distinct Beings, but denominated from diftinct Actions, and fo they confounded them and the Emblems of them; fo that at laft they knew very little further of their God, than the Image they faw, and talked and writ accordingly. Upon fuch Blunders as this, the later Languages, and confequently all the Knowledge in them, is founded. There are fome who pretend to make Apologies; "Paulinus of the Number Seven. p. 449. Proclus on Timaus of the Generation of the Soul, talks thus. Plato for the fake of Mystery and hiding Things from the Vulgar ufed Mathematical Terms, as the Veil under which he hid the facred Repofitories of Truth: in the fame Manner as the Theologifts make ufe of Fables, and the Pythagoreans of Signs. For Images are the Glafs to fhew us the Examplars, and by these we have Access to the other, &c." and indeed, when they had loft the real Knowledge, and instead of it, introduced fuch a Parcel of Stories and Nonfenfe, it was neceffary to give out to the fimple vulgar

People,

People, that there were fome Mysteries under their Fables, for Fear they should revolt. Hence, fuch were feverely cenfured, who spoke too plainly, as appears Ibid. p. 452. when, in Truth, the Chiefs of them knew very little of the Matter themselves; which has made our Scholars, who have looked only fo far, and fo placed the Perfection of Knowledge, then and there, know juft, or almost as much, of these Things, as those who worshipped them then and there did, which amounted to little or nothing more than that they had that Religion, thofe Names, and those Services, handed down from their Fathers. And as they frequently, efpecially the great ones, called the Heavens, or Sol, Father; and as King was a common Appellation for any one of the mafculine Gods, fo Queen for one feminine, as appears, Bochart B. Phaleg. p. 326. "The Sun the Author of the Race of my Progenitors, &c. Macrob. p. 255. Because the Sun, the Original of Spirit, Heat, and Light is the Producer and Preferver of Life; therefore he is believed to be the Demon or God of Nativity; " fo alfo feveral of their Kings were called after the Names of their Gods. And as when they marched in Bodies to War, or to

make