200 A NATURAL HISTORY 



Another Reafon, may be the Pride of the human Mind'-, 

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

 rate them with foolidi Imaginations : Hence it was that they 

 would have fuch Objects of Woifhip, as might immediately ftrike 

 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 reprefented them under certain Images, which 

 by degrees commenced inferior Deities. 



The Egyptian Priefts not 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 vifible Objedls of 

 Adoration, and from hence fprung Idolatry. 



Among the Pagans were various Opinions about religious 

 Images. Sojne looked upon them as only Reprefentatives of the 

 true God, as Seneca, a Stoick 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 aftually incorporated with them, or were ani- 

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

 Heathen paid their Adoration to Images as if they were real Gods; 

 which monftrous Pradtice was ridiculed by the moft fenfible Pa- 

 gans, as appears farther on X- 



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

 controverted. The Lutherans condemn the Cahini/is for break- 

 ing the Images in the Churches of the Catholicks ; and at the 

 fame time they condemn the Romanifts (who are profeffed Image- 

 Worfhippers) as Idolaters. The modern yews condemn all I- 

 mages, and fufFer no Pidures or Figures in their Houfes, much 

 lefs in their Synagogues, or Places of Worfhip. 



The 



* Arnohius, lib. vi. 



t Ttrfmsgijfus, a learned Egyftian, a great Phibropher, a great Prieft, and a 

 great King. 

 ^ See Lailantius, lib. ii. 



