Thus we see an exact uniformity between the fables of the antient _Greeks_, and our present people. The former found these kind of patriarchal temples built by their first heroes and planters; admiring the vastness of the works, they affix’d these marvellous stories to them, and retain them as firmly, as our vulgar do the like now. And this is the nature of the ancient mythology; but by finding the end of the clue, we draw it out into useful truths. These _Cadmonites_, _Avim_, _Hittites_, _Hivites_, _Spartans_, _Lacedemonians_, (who are all one and the same people,) retain’d a distinct remembrance of their relation to the _Jews_, even to the days of the _Maccabees_, as we read 1. _Maccab._ xii. and in _Josephus_ Ant. xii. 5. Undoubtedly they reckoned themselves of kin to _Abraham_, if not descended from him; thus I understand it. _Joshua_ mentions chap. xi. the _Hivites_ in the land of _Mizpeh_ under mount _Hermon_ by _Libanus_. He says further, in the 19th verse, the _Gibeonites_ were a portion of that same people. The _Avim_ or _Horites_ about mount _Seir_ where _Esau_ dwelt, were the same people who were expell’d by the _Caphthorim_, as _Moses_ mentions: on which bishop _Cumberland_ has wrote largely. We read of the great intercourse there was between _Esau_’s family and these people; for _Esau_ married four of his wives from them, _Gen._ xxvi. 34. xxxvi. 2. no doubt but they married into his family again. Hence it is that _Strabo_ x. writes, that _Cadmus_ had _Arabians_ in his company. And in xvi. that the inhabitants of _Syria_ (he means properly _Phœnicia_) are originally deriv’d from the neighbourhood of the _Persian gulf_. I doubt not but that there are now upon the face of the earth, many of these serpentine temples remaining in _Europe_, _Asia_ and _Africa_. For instance, _Strabo_ xvi. from _Posidonius_ relates, that in a field call’d _Macra_ by _Damascus_, was a dead serpent, the length of an acre, so thick that two horsemen could not see each other across him, his mouth so large as a horseman might enter into it; each scale was as big as a shield. We may hence see the origin of idolatry, soon after these heroes we have recited; and it seems to have begun first in _Phœnicia_, which _Eusebius_ always puts before _Egypt_, when speaking of the matter. _Demaroon_ was _Jupiter_ the supreme, _Phut_ they deify’d into his son, _Canaan_ they made the third divine person. But wherever idolatry began, whether in the call of _Asia_, or the west, it flew too soon into other countries, and they made a _Jupiter_, a _Son_, and a _Mercury_ or _Neptune_ who are the same, of their own; ’till with every hero and benefactor to mankind they fill’d the heaven of the heathens. CHAP. XV.