in the temples, and handing them down to
posterity. Altars might begin to be erected in _Europe_ a little before the
days of _Cadmus_, for sacrificing to the old God or Gods of the Colonies,
but Temples began in the days of _Solomon_; for [187] _AEacus_ the son of
_AEgina_, who was two Generations older than the _Trojan_ war, is by some
reputed one of the first who built a Temple in _Greece_. Oracles came first
from _Egypt_ into _Greece_ about the same time, as also did the custom of
forming the images of the Gods with their legs bound up in the shape of the
_Egyptian_ mummies: for Idolatry began in _Chaldaea_ and _Egypt_, and spread
thence into _Phoenicia_ and the neighbouring countries, long before it came
into _Europe_; and the _Pelasgians_ propagated it in _Greece_, by the
dictates of the Oracles. The countries upon the _Tigris_ and the _Nile_
being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and grew first
into Kingdoms, and therefore began first to adore their dead Kings and
Queens: hence came the Gods of _Laban_, the Gods and Goddesses called
_Baalim_ and _Ashtaroth_ by the _Canaanites_, the Daemons or Ghosts to whom
they sacrificed, and the _Moloch_ to whom they offered their children in
the days of _Moses_ and the Judges. Every City set up the worship of its
own Founder and Kings, and by alliances and conquests they spread this
worship, and at length the _Phoenicians_ and _Egyptians_ brought into
_Europe_ the practice of Deifying the dead. The Kingdom of the lower
_Egypt_ began to worship their Kings before the days of _Moses_; and to
this worship the second commandment is opposed: when the Shepherds invaded
the lower _Egypt_, they checked this worship of the old _Egyptians_, and
spread that of their own Kings: and at length the _Egyptians_ of _Coptos_
and _Thebais_, under _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_, expelling the
Shepherds, checked the worship of the Gods of the Shepherds, and Deifying
their own Kings and Princes, propagated the worship of twelve of them into
their conquests; and made them more universal than the false Gods of any
other nation had been before, so as to be called, _Dii magni majorum
gentium_. _Sesostris_ conquered _Thrace_, and _Amphictyon_ the son of
_Prometheus_ brought the twelve Gods from _Thrace_ into _Greece_:
_Herodotus_ [188] tells us that they came from _Egypt_; and by the names of
the cities of _Egypt_ dedicated to many of these Gods, you may know that
they were of an _Egyp