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LAst of all, the Gentiles were Idolaters by justling out the Worship of the Supreme God, or very much of it, through their officiousness in the service of Inferior Deities. They could not but be guilty if they gave away Gods honour, in whole, or in part. And in part at least, it is certain that they converted it to the use of Creatures. God who governeth the World
ought to have received the honour of their devout Prayers, and becoming Sacrifices; and the greatest part of these, and sometimes the whole of them was offered to Daemons. For who esteemeth that Tenant faithful to the honour and interest of his Lord, who payeth the greatest rent to another, and offereth him a pepper-corn, though he hath reserved the whole pro∣priety, and the very reception to himself. Divers Ma∣sters cannot be at the same time observed with equal duty: and Devotion cannot flow in the same plenty, in divers streams, as in one. Therefore when Tarquinius Priscus multiplied Deities, and introduced Statues a∣mong the Romans, their Religion was immediately much debased: when they had many Jupiters, and a great croud of other Deities, and every Deity had its Statue, its Altar, its Sacrifice, its Temple; little time was left, and as little zeal for the Worship of the God of Heaven and Earth. To him some of them scarce ever said a Prayer, or offered a Sacrifice. Porphyry thought not such services to be agreeable to the Su∣preme God a 1.1, but he concluded that men were to adore him,
Without words, without Sacrifices, in silence, with a pure mind. But this was a Worship so abstracted,that few other Heathens either performed it, or so much as understood it. Yet some might do both. For Confusio the famed Philosopher of China b 1.2, acknowledg'd one Supreme God; but he did not serve him with Temples, Altars, Priests, or Prayers; though by such worship he Idolized the Heavens, the Earth, and Man.
Let this then from the Premises be the conclusion of the present Chapter, that the Gods of the Heathen are Idols and Vanities, and unworthy the submission of any reasonable creature c 1.3.
See Porphyr. de Abstin. l. 1. Sect. 57. p. 49. & l. 2. Sect. 34. p. 78. And see upon his words there, S. Cyr. Alex. cont. Jul. l. 2. p. 60, 61.
Alvarez Si∣medo in Hist. Sin. Par. 1. c. 18. p. 86.
Jer. 10. 8. They are alto∣gether brutish, the stock is a doctrine of Va∣nities.