10 A View of ibe DEis TIcAL Writers. Let. r.

as different gods. It is plain, from expreſs and formal paſſages, produced by him from ancient writers, that ſome nations wor- ſhipped no other Deities but the ſun, moon, and ſtars. When in the third chapter of his book de Kelig. Gentil. he mentions the names of the Deity which were in uſe among the Hebreus, and ſhevs that thoſe names and titles were alſo uſed among the Gentiles; he owneth that the Hebrews appropriated theſe names and titles to the One ſupreme God, ſuperior to the ſun, but that the Gentiles underſtood by them no other than the ſun itſelf. He thinks it indecd probable that the worſhip they rendered to the ſun was ſymbolical, and that they iatended to worſhip God by the ſun as his moſt glorious ſenſible image; and ſometimes he is very poſitive that they did ſo, and that they rendered no proper worſhip to any but the ſupreme God. But at other times he ſpeaks very doubtfully about it, and pretends not poſitively to aſſert it, bt leaves the reader to his own judgment in this matter 0. And elſewhere he acknowleges, that the people per- haps did not ſufficiently underſtand this ſymbolical worſhip. Symbolicum illium cultum hauid ſatis forſan intellexit P. It is indeed a little ſtrange, that if the notion and belief of one only ſupreme God univerſally obtained among the Gentiles, none but the Hebreus ſhould have made the acknowlegement of the One ſupreme God, the Maker and Lord of the Univerſe, the funda- mental article of their religion; and that in the laws of other ſtates, particularly among the learned and polite nations of Greece and Romeé, Polytheiſm was eſtabliſhed, and the public worſhip was directed to be offered to a multiplicity of Deities. Many of the Heathens, by his own acknowlegement, thought that the God they were to worſhip ſhould be viſible, and looked upon it to be incongruous, that he who demanded worſhip from all fhould hide himſelf from his worſhippersa. And though it was a notion which generally obtained among them, that ſome kind of external worſhip was neceſſary to be rendered to their Deities, yet as to the manner of their worſhip he doth not deny that ſome of the Heathen rites were ridiculous, others abſurd and even impious. To which it may be added, that ſome of their wiſeſt men acknowleged, that they were ignorant of the proper manner in which God is to be worſhipped, except he himſelf, or ſome perſon ſent by him, ſhould pleaſe to reveal it. There is a remarkable paſſage in Plato's ſecond Alcibiad, which hath been often quoted. Sccrates meeting Alcibiades, who was

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9o) De Relig. Gentil. p. 25. 310. v Ibid. p. 293. a Ibid. p. 26.. going

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