11 



Thus we see how grossly Mr. Hume abuses the credit, 

 which on other subjects he deservedly obtains from the 

 generahty of his readers, when he so confidently affirms, that 

 polytheism was the original religion of mankind. 



That the cessation of the before mentioned extraordinary 

 luminous symbol, in which the Divine Presence was mani- 

 fested, towards which prayers were addressed and sacrifices 

 were offered, was the first source of the corruption of the 

 patriarchal religion, can scarce be doubted ; when we consider 

 that the natural luminaries, and particularly the sun, were 

 the first objects that attracted the veneration of all the 

 polytheistic nations, as they imagined them to be the natural 

 symbols, and the habitations of the Divinity ; a suppositiorf 

 which soon degenerated into a belief that these luminaries 

 were inhabited by distinct intelligences, and, as such, received 

 divine worship. 



Thus Diodorus relates that the Egyptians at first adored 

 the sun, which they called Osiris, and the moon, whom they 

 called Isis* According to Plato,-f the first inhabitants of 

 Greece worshipped no other Gods but the sun, moon, and 

 stars, to which they afterwards (long after) added the earth, 

 as the parent of men and animals. The sun and moon 

 alone were worshipped by the ancient Arabians :|. Job men- 

 tions this worship, chap. xxxi. 26 and 27, and calls it an 

 high impiety, v. 28. The Phenicians, in the same manner, 



c 2 chose, 



* Lib. 1 . § 1 1 . Euseb. Prsp. p. 27. + In Cratylo. t Herob. Lib. 3, § 1 1 . 



