200 A NATURAL HISTORY 



Another Rcafon, may be the Pride' of the hiimdn Mind ■, 

 that is not fatisfied with rational plain Truths, but will adulte- 

 rate them with fooliili Imaginations : Hence it was that they 

 would have fuch Objed;s of Woifhip, as might immediately Arike 

 their fenfible Powers ; nothing would ferve their Turn but a Di- ' 

 vinity vifible to the Eye, therefore they brought down the Gods 

 to the Earth, and repreiented tliem under certain Images, which 

 by degrees commenced inferior Deities. 



The Egyptian Priejls x\o\. being able to perfuade the People^ 

 that there were any Gods or Spirits fuperior to Men, were con- 

 ftrained to call down Demons, or Spirits, and lodge them in Sta- 

 tues, and then bring forth thofe Statues to be vilible Objedis of 

 Adoration, and from hence fprung Idolatry. 



Among the Pagans were various Opinions about religions 

 Images. Sofne looked upon them as only Reprefentalives of the 

 true God, as Seneca, a Sioick Philofopher, and Plato a Native of 

 Athens, and a noted Academick. 



OTHERS faid, they did not adore material Images, but the 

 Gods in them, into which they were drawn by virtue of their 

 Confecration, or, in a more modern Language, their Canoniza- 

 tion ■*. 



SOME were of Opinion, that after the Confecration of I- 

 mages, the Gods adually incorporated with them, or were ani- 

 mated by them, as Man's Body is by the Soul-f-. The vulgar 

 Heathen paid their Adoration to Images asif they were real Gods; 

 which monitrous Practice was ridiculed by the mod fcnfible Pa- 

 gans, as appears firrher on J. 



The Ufe and Worfliip of Images has been long, and flill is 

 controverted. The Lutherans condemn the Cahinifls for break- 

 ino; the Images in the Churches of the Catholicks •, and at the 

 fime time they condemn tlie Romanifls (who are profelTed Image- 

 Worfliippers) as Idolaters. The modern Jews condemn all 1- 

 mages, and iufiv^r no Pid:ures or Figures in their Houfes, much 

 lefs in their Synagogues, or Places of Worfhip. 



Th e 



* y^rnohiui-, lib. vi. 



f Trifm.'gijiu:^ a learned Egyptian^ a great Philofopher, a great Priefr, and a 

 greac King. 



^ See La^a?jtiusy Ub- ii. 



