Some indeed ridiculed their senseless and stupid Neighbours, tho’ they themselves were not Masters of superior Sense in their Devotions. _Anaxandrides_ reproaches the _Egyptians_ for their wretched and foolish Idolatry; but after all, this was only one Idolater deriding another. _Dionysius_ was the most notorious this way: And most knavish in this kind was the _Painter_, who, when he should have drawn the Picture of _such a Goddess_ for a _Grecian_ City, drew the _Picture of his own Mistress_, and so made her to be adored by the Citizens. What Man could have forbore laughing, said the _Greek_ Poet above, to see an _Egyptian on his Marrowbones, praying to an Ox as to a God, or howling over a sick Cat, fearing lest his scratching God should die_? Upon the whole, ’tis no easy matter to discover the real Sentiments of the Heathens about their Gods: they admitted so many superior and inferior Deities, who shared the Empire, that all was full of Gods. Some of the Antients say, that a certain _subtile Matter_ that made Stars _intelligent_, did reside in their sacred Animals, Plants and Men, and escaped Death: And this made them fit to partake of such Worship, as they gave to the Stars.——_Sanchoniatho_ meant only, that the celestial Bodies are intelligent, and see what is done here below, and therefore were to be adored as Gods[391]. Footnote 391: _Sanchoniatho’s Phœnician Hist._ by the Learned Bp. _Cumberland_, vol. i. p. 20, 21. SECT. III. _Adoration of_ SERPENTS. The next thing that comes under Consideration is, the _Worship of Serpents, which is observed thro’ all the Pagan Antiquity_. The Devil, who, under the Shape of a Serpent, tempted our first Parents, has, with unwearied Application, labour’d to deify that Animal, as a Trophy of his first Victory over Mankind. The Conquest made by the _old Serpent in Paradise_, and the wonderful Cures made by the _Shadow of a Serpent in the Wilderness_, contributed very much towards making that hateful Creature so venerable in the Eyes of so many Nations. God having past Sentence upon the Serpent, Satan _consecrates that Form_ in which he deceived the Woman, and introduces it into the World as an Object of religious Veneration: This he did with a view to enervate the Force of the divine Oracle, the Seed of the Woman. Scarcely a Nation upon Earth, but he has tempted to the grossest Idolatry, and in particular got himself to be worshipped in the hideous _Form of a Serpent_. The Almighty foreseeing this general Delusion, guarded the World against it, by inspiring Men with the greatest Aversion to that venemous Creature, and yet was the Tempter ador’d in most places under the Appearance of a Serpent. If you say, that Men worship other Creatures; I answer, Those are beneficial to Mankind, and not so odious and hurtful as those who carry Poison in their Tails and Teeth.