Bur I am too prolix on this Head, and trouble your Majefties with thefe Philofophical Interpretations, which you have a much greater Knowledge of. Why should I mention Minerva, which they interpret Wisdom, diffufed through All Things? Or Ifis, by which is understood natural Time, in which all Things are born, and through which they exist : Or Ofiris, who was killed by his Brother Typho, and whom his Mother fought for, and found his Limbs, and buried them; and whofe Tomb is to this Day in being, and is called by his Name: For, while Men wander among the Systems and Compounds of Matter, they deviate from the true GOD, who is comprehenfible by the Mind only; and thence they deify the Elements, and Parts of them, by different Names. Thus 0firis killed, is interpreted the fowed Seed, and Ifis gathering his Limbs the reaping

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*Notwithstanding what is here faid, and in moft Authors, concerning the Multitude of Gods worshipped by the Egyptians, fome very confiderable Men, both of the Ancients and Moderns, have thought, the more Intelligent among them believed, there was one GOD only; and this very Story of Ifis and Ofiris hath been itfelf urged as a Proof. The whole Thing is thus, in the learned Cudworth: Our fecond Obfervation is this, That the Egyp tian Theology, afferting one incorporeal Deity, that is, All Things; as it is evident, that it could not admit a Multitude of self-extent and independent Deities, fo did the feeming Poly-· theism of these Egyptians proceed alfo, in great measure, from thy Principle of theirs, not rightly understood; they being led

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Corn; and then, the folemn spinaμev, we εὑρήκαμεν, have found him, is the Joy of Harveft: The Fruit of the Vine they call Bacchus, and the Vine itself Semele, and the Thunder the Heat of the Sun. And thus they go on

thereby, in a certain Senfe, Jeorolev, to perfonate and deify the feveral Parts of the World, and Things of Nature, beftowing the Names of Gods and Goddeffes upon them: Not that they thereby worshipped the inanimate Parts of the World as fuch, much lefs Things not fubftantial, but meer Accidents, for Jo many real diftinct perfonal Deities; but becaufe, conceiving that GOD was All Things, ought to be worshipped in all Things, (fuch, especially, as were more beneficial to Mankind; they did, according to that Afclepian and Trismegiftick Doctrine beforemention'd, call God by the Name of every thing, or every thing by the Name of GOD. And that the wiser of them very 'well understood, that it was really one and the fame fimple Deity that was thus worshipped amongst them by piece-meal, in the fe veral Parts of the World, and Things of Nature, and under different Names and Notions, and with different Ceremonies, is • thus declared by Plutarch: Ελλίωικὸν ἡ Ἴσις ὅτι, καὶ ὁ Τυφών πολέμιο τῇ Θεῷ, καὶ δι' ἀγνοίαν καὶ ἀπάτω • πολυφωμούθ, και διασπῶν καὶ ἀφανίζων ἢ ἱερὸν λόγον · ὃν ἡ Θεὸς σωάγε καὶ σωτίθησι, καὶ δαδίδωσι τοῖς τε Axious DEWσews. Ifis is a Greek Word, which fignifies Knowledge; and Typhon is the Enemy to this Goddess, who being puffed up by Ignorance and Error, doth diftract and difcerp the holy Doctrine, (of the fimple Deity; which fis collects together again, and makes · -up into one, and thus delivers it to thofe who are initiated into her facred Myfteries, in order to Deification. • In which Words, Plutarch intimates, That the Egyptian Fable of Ofiris being mangled and cut in pieces by Typhon, did allegorically fignify the Difcerption and Diftraction of the fim•ple Deity, by reason of the Weakness and Ignorance of vulgar Minds, (not able to comprehend it altogether at once) into feveTal Names, and partial Notions, which get true Knowledge and Understanding, that is, Itis makes up whole again, and • unites into one. Cud. Intel. Syft. p. 414.

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with their odd Interpretations, but ftill can not find Salvo's for a Number of Abfurdities; and while they ftrain fome of these Stories into a myftick Senfe, they put the remaining into a more glaring, ridiculous Light.

FOR, let Jupiter be fuppofed to be the Air, Juno the Earth, and fo forth; what Relation hath Europa and a Bull, a Swan and Leda, to the Earth, or Air? What can his foul Adulteries mean, which can concern Earth, or Air? The true Fact is, Allthe Philofophers had but narrow and grofs Apprehenfions of the Greatness and Majefty of GOD; they were unable to raise their Minds, by any divine Sympathy or Devotion, to the heavenly Things; but funk into the Mire of Matter, and deify'd that in feveral Forms and Syftems: And with just the fame Folly, as if any one fhould honour the Ship he failed in, or any Part of it, as the Pilot. Tho' a Ship, however well rigged, if wanting a Pilot, is yet a good Emblem of the Imperfection of the Elements, which, without a GOD, would be of no Ufe, tho ordered as we fee them: For as the Ship without a Pilot cannot fail, neither can the Elements move without a GOD.

IT may be demanded here, by your Ma-` jefties, by what Means can the Idols perform fome very extraordinary Actions, if

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they were not the Statues and Reprefentatives of true Gods? fince it is abfurd to think, fixed and inanimate Images can do any thing of themselves, and without fome Mover? In anfwer to this Objection, we grant, First, That there have been in feveral Countries and Cities, fome furprizing Things done in the Name, and as if really by thefe Statues. But we think not this fufficient to oblige us to believe them Gods whether fome Perfons may have fuffered any Calamity, or gained any Profit through their Means. That I may prove this, I fhall ftrictly examine, in what Senfe Statues can be conceived to do any thing, and what thofe Beings are who affume their Names, and perform all the Actions attributed to them. In order then to fhew, who thofe are, who perfonate thefe Idols, and do fome ftrange Feats, and to prove they are not Gods, it will be proper to have recourse to the general Notions of your own Philofophers. And, Firft, Thales divides fuperiour Beings into three Orders, or Ranks, GOD, Damons, and Genii; GOD he conceives to be the Mind of the World, Demons he thinks fpiritual Beings, and Genii the feparate Souls of Men, good ones of good Men, and bad of bad Men. Plato too makes three Orders of fuperiour Beings; the uncreated GOD, the Planets and fixed Stars created for the

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Ornament of the Heavens, and the Damons? Concerning which Damons, he declines giving any Opinion of his own, and advises rather to acquiefce in what had been already delivered by other Writers. But to speak of the other Demons, and to conceive their Generation, is a Matter above my Abilities, we must believe what is already declared: And as being the Off-fpring of the Gods, according as they affure us, they themselves must have known beft their own Original: "For we ought not to disbelieve the Accounts the Sons of the Gods give concerning them"felves, though they do not prove them to us by neceffary Demonftration. And fince they declare, they speak of Matters peculiar to themselves, we fhould obey the Law of our Country, and believe them. Therefore, agreeable to what they have faid, I 'fhall give this Account of the Generation of the Gods. Oceanus and Tethys were begot by Calus and Terra; Phorcis, Saturn, and Rhea, by them: And Jupiter, and Juno, and a great many others, which we every day hear styled their Brothers and Sifters, were begot by Saturn and Rhea. And from thefe are defcended a great many other 'Divinities.' But could the great Plato, who had a Notion of the eternal Mind, GOD, only comprehenfible fpiritually, who gives Him His diftinguishing Attributes, perfect Existence,

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