The duty of the sabbath commences as early as our being, and is included with great propriety in that observation of the divine historian concerning _Adam_’s grandson, _Enos_; when it pass’d from a family-ordinance to that of several families united, as then was the case. The particularity of the expression, _invoking_ in the name of _Jehovah_, dictates to us the form of their religion, founded on the mediatorial scheme, which Mediator was a divine person, to be worshipped; and thro’ our faith and hope in him, or in his _Name_, we were to invoke God almighty for our pardon and protection. Therefore the same scheme of religion subsists, from the beginning to this day, the _Mosaic_ system intervening chiefly as a remedy against idolatry, till the world was prepar’d for the great advent; and patriarchal religion should be republish’d under the name of christian. From all this we must conclude, that the ancients knew somewhat of the mysterious nature of the deity, subsisting in distinct personalities, which is more fully reveal’d to us in the christian dispensation. All nature, our senses, common reason assures us of the one supreme and self-originated being. The second person in the deity is discoverable in almost every page of the old testament. After his advent, he informs us more fully of the nature of the third person: and that third person is discoverable in almost every page of the new testament. That the ancients had some knowledge of this great truth, the learned _Steuchus Eugubinus_ demonstrates, in _perenni philosoph._ from their writings which are still left, such as _Hermes_, _Orpheus_, _Hydaspes_, _Pythagoras_, _Plato_, the _Platonics_, the sibylline verses, the oracles, and the like. Our _Cudworth_ has very laudably pursued the same track, and _Kircher_, and our _Ramsey_ in his history of _Cyrus_, and many more, to whom I refer the curious reader, who has a mind to be convinced of it. I shall only add this, that upon supposition only of an ancient tradition of it, having been handed down from one generation to another, in order to light up and kindle our reason concerning it; that ’tis a doctrine so far from being contrary to reason, or above human reason, that ’tis deducible therefrom, and perfectly agreeable to it, as I shall shew in Chap. XV. Nor is this a slight matter; for if knowledge be a valuable thing, if it be the highest ornament and felicity to the human mind; the most divine part of all knowledge is to know somewhat of the nature of the deity. This knowledge the Druids assuredly attempted to come at, and obtained, as we gather from the different kinds of their temples; and when we have described them, we shall beg leave to resume this argument, and briefly to discourse on it again, as being the chief and ultimate purpose of all antique inquiries. [Illustration: TAB. IV. _View of Rowldrich Stones from the West Sept. 11. 1724._ _Stukeley del._ A. _the Kistvaen at a Distance._]