As introductory to the Divinity of Serpents, I shall make a brief Inquiry into the Original of sacred Images, and Idol-Worship; the first Period of which is hard to trace. Some make _Cain_ the first Founder of it, because of his early Apostacy from the true Religion; which is not very improbable, since ’tis said, _He went out from the Presence of the Lord...._ He grew more wicked, and gave himself up to all sorts of Violence[365]. Footnote 365: See _Cluverius_, and Dr. _Cumberland_. That the old World was guilty of Idolatry, some gather from _Gen._ iv. 26. which they say will bear this Reading——_Then Men prophaned, calling on the Name of the Lord, that is, by setting up Idols_: Upon which some of the Rabbins paraphrase thus, viz. _Then they began to call Idols by the Name of the Lord_: With which agrees the _Jerusalem Targum_, that says, _That was the Age, in the days of which they began to err, and made themselves Idols, and called their Idols by the Name of the Word of the Lord_[366]. Footnote 366: _Schindl._ So they understand _Gen._ vi. 11. _The Earth was corrupt_, that is _idolatrous_. In defence of this Gloss, they quote the _Idolatry_ of the _golden Calf_, which is expressed by this very Form of Speech, viz. _The People had corrupted themselves_. We read _Gen._ iv. 26. _Then Men began to call upon the Name of the Lord_. There is no room to doubt, but they called upon God before; the Particle _then_ seems to refer to _Enos_, which is the next Antecedent: therefore ’tis said, They now applied themselves to the Knowledge of the Stars, which they apprehended were erected for the Government of the World, and consequently might be their Duty to adore them as God’s Representatives. But the general Opinion is, that Idolatry did not begin till after the Deluge, and that perhaps the Deluge might be one Occasion of it; for the old World, as some suppose, was drown’d for _Atheism_——which coming to the Knowledge of _Noah_’s mediate Successors, they run into the other Extreme, _chusing rather to have many Gods than no God_. _IDOLATRY_ is of a more antient Date than _Image-Worship_: To see Men kneeling before a piece of Wood or Stone, has something so low and mean in it, that Men were not immediately brought to that abject and scandalous piece of Worship. The Sun, Moon, and Stars, were their _natural Gods_, and ador’d before deify’d Men, who were their _animated Gods_.