As then both these are modern Inventions, _Satan_ went on gradually, and being to work upon human Nature by Stratagem, not by Force, it would have been too gross to have set himself up as an Object of Worship at first, it was to be done Step by Step; _for Example_. 1. It was sufficient to bring Mankind to a Neglect of God, to worship him by halves, and give little or no Regard to his Laws, and so grow loose and immoral, in direct Contradiction to his Commands; this would not go down with them at first, so the Devil went on gradually. 2. From a Negligence in worshiping the true GOD, he by Degrees introduc'd the worship of false GODs; and to introduce this he began with the _Sun_, _Moon_, and _Stars_, call'd in the holy Text the Host of Heaven; these had greater Majesty upon them, and seem'd fitter to command the Homage of Mankind; so it was not the hardest Thing in the World, to bring Men, when they had once forgotten the true God, to embrace the Worship of such Gods as those. 3. Having thus debauch'd their Principles in Worship, and led them from the true and only Object of Worship to a false, it was the easier to carry them on; so in a few Gradations more he brought them to downright Idolatry, and even in that Idolatry he proceeded gradually too; for he began with awful Names, such as were venerable in the Thoughts of Men, as BAAL or BELL, which, in _Chaldaick_ and _Hebrew_, signifies Lord or Sovereign, or Mighty and Magnificent, and this was therefore a Name ascrib'd at first to the true God; but afterwards they descended to make Images and Figures to represent him, and then they were call'd by the same Name, as _Baal_, _Baalim_, and afterwards _Bell_; from which, by a hellish Degeneracy, Saturn brought Mankind to adore every Block of their own hewing, and to worshipping Stocks, Stones, Monsters, Hobgoblins, and every sordid frightful Thing, and at last the _Devil_ himself. What Notions some People may entertain of the Forwardness of the first Ages of the World, to run into Idolatry, I do not enquire here; I know they tell us strange Things, of its being the Product of meer Nature, one remove from its primitive State; but I, who pretend to have so critically enquir'd into _Satan_'s History, can assure you, and that from very good Authority, that the _Devil_ did not find it so easy a task to obliterate the Knowledge of the true God, in the Minds and Consciences of Men, as those People suggest.