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philofophical principles. And the like may faid for Pherecydes, who lived much about the fame age; for he is alfo by fome faid to have been the first, of whom we have any written account, that faid the fouls of men were eternal. And in this sense Tully takes it; for he says, there were as he believes many others of the fame opinion before Pherecydes. But their written Memoirs in the philofophical way, it seems, went no higher than his age. And this is agreeable to the opinion of Tully, concerning the belief of those who lived long before the begin ning of the philosophical age, in this cafe; a They, fays he, who had not yet learn'd any thing. of natural Philofophy, which begun not to be cultivated till many years after, had a full perfuafion of fo much as they learn'd from the admonitions of nature, though they knew not the reafons and causes of things. I need not mention the opinion of Pythagoras, who is faid to have been his scholar, and

L

very

Itaque credo etiam alios tot feculis, fed quod literis exflet, Pherecydes Syrius primus dixit, Animes hominum effe fempiternos. Tufc. Quast. 1. 1. cap. 16.

9 Qui nondum ea, quæ multis poft annis tractari cœpiffent, phyfica didiciffent, tantum fibi perfuaferant quantùm naturâ admonente cognoverant: rationes & caufas rerum non tenebant. Cic. Tufc. Qu. lib. 1. cap. 13.

and who was the head of the Italic Order of Philofophers, for his doctrine is fufficiently known. Now it appears, from the beginning of these two orders or fucceffions of Philofophy, from Thales and Pythagoras, that how much foever the firft Philofophers among the Greeks might be weary of those poetical fictions, which had been brought into the Religion of their forefathers, yet they had no fufpicion, that the principles upon which Religion itself was founded had been an human invention: And much lefs can they be fufpected of coming in for any fhare of fuch invention, fince most of them were fo far from being partial towards fuch principles any farther than the evident force of truth perfuaded them, that fome pretenders to Philofophy immediately after Thales, as Anaximander, Democritus, Leucippus, were the first that attempted to fow the feeds of Atheism in their Phyfiology, which yet did not grow up to any formed principle till fome time after, nor were they ever able to produce fuch a tolerable system, as to give men of fense any fatisfaction, without admitting an Intelligent principle, which they would fain have avoi ded.

As for those furmises which are raised from

påffages pick'd up out of Diodorus Siculus Lucian, Ammianus Marcellinus; or other later Authors, about the original of Religion in Egypt, as if the first principles of it had been invented there, what I have faid in my former Difcourfe, is fufficient to fhew the unreason ableness of them. And indeed fuch furmifes would never have been thought of, if there had been any probability of finding another time when Religion did first begin, besides the first beginning of mankind. But the Egyptians pretending to such an incredible antiquity of Government above other nations, might fafely claim the invention of every thing: And admitting their Chronology, no body could difprove them. And they were ready enough to impose their own fables upon the reft of the world that would believe them.

Herodotus (Euterpe, cap. 142.) acquaints us, that they pretended to fhew him a fucceffion of Kings of human race for above ten thou fand years together, down from the time of Orus (who was the last of the Gods that perfonally reigned among them) to Sethos the Priest of Vulcan, in whofe reign the army of the Affyrians under Sennacharib was wonderfully destroyed; and they told him, that in

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that long tract of time the Sun had fo altered his course, as to have twice rifen in the West and fet in the East, contrary to what it now does, and yet that Egypt had continued all the while the fame. And now are not fuch prodigious Antiquaries very fit to give an account of the original of Religion; who before this long race of men had a fucceffion of Gods reigning among them for I do not know how many ages together? However, if any are willing to allow Religion to be fo very old, we are well content; because then we are fure they can never prove its beginning to have been fince Egypt was firft inhabited.

Upon the whole therefore, confidering that neither time nor place can be affigned to give any reasonable ground for fuppofing, that the first principles of Religion were any human contrivance, we might without farther argument conclude, that they were from the beginning, and that, as Tully fays, * It was not any conference, compact, or agreement of men that made them, nor was the perfuafion

or

I -Omnes tamen effe vim & naturam divinam arbitrantur. Nec verò id collocutio hominum aut confenfus efficit: Non inftitutis opinio eft confirmata, non legibus. Omni autem in re confenfio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda eft. Cic. Tufc. lib. 1. cap. 13.

or belief of them, founded or established in Infitution or Law, but that the consent of all nations in them is to be esteemed the Law of Nature. However, because some men, who would fain have fome colour or pretence to be Infidels, are refolved to suspect every thing that relates to Religion, especially if it have the countenance of Law or Authority on its fide, and would therefore infinuate, that although all monuments of those antient times, when they suppose men were without all apprehenfions of Religion, be destroyed, yet confidering the advantage which Politicians make of it, to keep men in awe, they may be fufpected to have had a great hand in destroying them, the better to keep this fecret of Government from being ever examined into, after they had once luckily hit upon it: And fo Religion might be all art and contrivance at first, though no particular account can now be given of it. I fhall therefore endeavour,

2. To fhew very briefly the absurdity of such a supposition in the way of Reason and argument. And to this purpose let it be confidered,