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.

It is true he carried Things a great Length under the Patriarchal
Government of the first Ages, but still he was sixteen hundred Years
bringing it to pass; and tho' we have Reason to believe the old World,
before the Flood was arrived to a very great Height of Wickedness, and
_Ovid_ very nobly describes it by the War of