among men ;' as Hesiod expresseth it, in words very applicable to the fact of our mother Eve, and t e event following it.* I do not know also whether what Platot says concerning man's being at first årdpóyvros, (of both sexes,) and being afterward cleaved into two, was borrowed from tradition, or devised from his own fancy; it surely well comports with the sacred history concerning woman being taken out of man. That there are two prime causes or principles, one of good things, the other of bad, was the ancient doctrine among all the ancient nations; of the Persians, (who called one of them Oromasdes, the other Arimanius ;) of the Egyptians, (who had their Osiris and Typhon ;) of the Chaldeans, (who had their good and bad planets;) of the Greeks, (who had their good and bad demon, their Zeus and "Adŋs;) we have reported by Plutarch in his tract de Iside et Osiride, by Laertius in his Proœme, and others, (Aug. de Civ. Dei, v. 21.) which conceits seem derived from the ancient traditions concerning God the author of all good, and Sathan the tempter to all evil, and the minister of divine vengeance; (Plutarch expressly says the good principle was called God, the bad one, Dæmon.) Indeed there were many other relations concerning matters of fact, or pieces of ancient story, agreeing with the sacred writings, which did among the ancient people pass commonly, although somewhat disguised by alterations incident from time and other causes; which seem best derivable from this common fountain: such as that concerning the sons of God and heroes dwelling on the earth; concerning men of old time exceeding those of following times in length of life, in stature, in strength of body, whereof in ancient poets there is so much mention; concerning men's conspiring in rebellion against God, affecting and attempting to climb heaven; concerning mankind being overwhelmed and destroyed by an universal deluge, and that by divine justice, because of cruelty and oppression (with other enormous vices) generally reigning: -Qua terra patet, fera regnat Erinnys, In facinus jurasse putes: dent ocyus omnes * Sen. Ep. 90. χείρεσσι πίθου μέγα πῶμ' ἀφελοῦσα Ἐσκεδασ', ἀνθρώποισι δ ̓ ἐμήσατο κήδεα λυγρά.—Hes. Εργ. + In Phædr. 'All over the earth fierce rage doth reign; you would take them to have sworn to do mischief; let them all immediately undergo the pains which they have deserved; this is my resolution' so God, in Ovid's style, declared the reason why he decreed to bring that sore calamity on mankind; I might add that prophecy, commonly known, that this world shall finally perish by a general conflagration. These opinions and stories chiefly concern man; there were divers others concerning God and religion, sprouting probably from the same root. That divine goodness was the pure motive of God's making the world, seems to have been a tradition; implied by their saying, that Love was the first, and the chief of the God's :" πρώτιστον μὲν ἔρωτα θεῶν μηθίσατο πάντων, said Parmenides; and, Ἠδ ̓ Ἔρος, ὃς πάντεσσι μεταπρέπει ἀθανάτοισι, said Hesiod. That God made the world out of a chaos, or confused heap of matter; which is so plainly expressed in Hesiod, in Ovid, and in other ancient writers. That God did make or beget inferior insensible powers, (of great understanding and ability; whom they called gods, and the children of the sovereign God;t) whom God immediately did converse with, and in royal manner did govern; whom he did employ as spies and agents in providential administrations of human affairs; who did frequently appear unto, and familiarly converse with men; who do walk up and down the earth, observing men's actions; secretly assisting and comforting good men, restraining and crossing and punishing the bad; whereof we have so many instances in Homer, in Hesiod, and in other ancient writers; showing as to those matters the general conceits of the old world. That God's especial presence and residence was above, in heaven, Aristotle expressly tells us was the belief of all men: All men,' saith he, have an opinion concerning gods, and all men assign the highest place to the gods, both Greeks and Barbarians.‡ That God's provideuce did extend itself to all particularities of affairs; and that all things were ordered by him; he constantly exercising both benignity and justice suitably to the deserts and needs of men; encouraging and assisting; blessing and rewarding virtuous and pious men; relieving the distressed *Arist. Metaph. i. 4. † Arist. Pol. i. 1. De Cœlo, i. 3. and helpless; controlling and chastising such as were outrageously unjust or impious. That God at seasons used to declare his mind to men (his approbation or displeasure in regard to their doings) by accidents preternatural or prodigious; did presignify future events; did impart foreknowlege of them in several ways; by dreams, by visions, by inspirations, &c. To these opinions were answerable divers common practices: invocating divine help in need; consulting God by oracle in case of ignorance or doubt; deprecating divine vengeance; making acknowlegements to God in hymns and praises; returning oblations for benefits received, both common and special; expiating guilt, and appeasing God's wrath by purgations and by sacrifices, (a practice peculiarly unlikely to proceed from any other reason than institution;) fortifying testimonies and promises by oath, or appeal to divine knowlege and justice; invoking (on condition) God's judgments on themselves or others, what is called cursing; appointing priests for God's service, and yielding them extraordinary respect; consecrating temples and altars; making vows, and dedicating gifts; celebrating festivals; paying tithes (that very determinate part) of the fruits of the earth, of the spoils in war, of the gains in trade, by way of acknowlegement and thankfulness to the Donor and Disposer of all things: in which, and the like opinions and performances, (which it would be a long business particularly to insist on,) men's general concurrence doth fairly argue, that their religion did peculiarly result from one simple institution common to mankind. To these we might adjoin divers civil customs, wherein most nations did, from this cause probably, conspire: for instance, their counting by decades, or stopping at ten in their numerical computations; which Aristotle says, all men, both Barbarians and Grecks, did use, noting, that so common an agreement could not arise from chance, but from nature; but it is much more plausible to assign its rise to tradition. Their having every where anciently the same number of letters, and the same names (or little varied) of them. Their dividing time into weeks, (or systems of seven days;) of which practice to have been general, there be many plain testimonies. Their beginning the vux¤ýμepov (or account of the daily revolution of the heavens) from the night, grounded probably on the report that night did precede day; as Hesiod phraseth it, that 'night did beget day."* Their general abhorrence of incestuous copulations; of which there is indeed some ground in nature, but none, I suppose, so very clear or discernible, as might serve alone to produce such a consent; yea, perhaps, if one consider it, the whole business concerning matrimony will seem drawn from the head we discourse of. Their great care of funerals, and decently interring the dead; which Cicero indeed deduces as a consequence on their belief of the soul's immortality. In fine, the consent of the old world in all moral notions of moment doth (to my sense) much imply the same thing; which notions although natural reason well used might suggest to all men, yet men, it seems, were never so generally disposed to reason well, as thereby alone to discern and approve unanimously the same truths; especially truths of this nature; which many men are apt to dislike, (as repugnant to their desires,) and consequently not ready to believe; which yet might easily by education be infused into their minds, and by virtue of the prejudice thereby begot, (assisted by plausible reason and popular consent,) be preserved and rooted in them. Now these (with divers more, perhaps, which they who are curiously inquisitive might observe) common persuasions (whether concerning matters of universal truth, or of particular facts) and those common usages having little or nothing of foundation apparent in man's nature, or in the clear reason of the thing, no prevailing appetite or inclination of man's soul prompting to them, no occasion commonly incident to human affairs being apt to suggest them, (at least divers of them; there being indeed rather an aptitude in men to disapprove and resist them, as cross to their dispositions,) we cannot reasonably deduce them from any other cause than such as we have assigned, men's being, as St. Paul speaks, made of one blood,' and receiving, as their nature, so their principles of opinion and practice from the same common parents. To confirm which discourse, and to prevent farther objections against it, we may consider, that however perhaps among some * Νυκτὸς δ ̓ αὖτ ̓ αἰθήρ τε καὶ ἡμέρη ἐξεγένοντο.—Hesiod. Theog. very barbarous nations this principal tradition (together with others mentioned, attending thereon) may have been almost worn out by time and men's stupid negligence; that however also among some people, affecting semblances of singular wisdom, as among the Greeks, the matter thereof might fall under question, and some might doubt thereof, others contradict and deny it; yet most ancient histories (particularly that of Moses, far most ancient of all, and therefore, even secluding its special and more sacred authority, of all most credible) do attest them to have been, in substance, universally received, running with a strong and clear current among the eastern people, (the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians;) who that they were the most ancient inhabiters of the earth, from whom the rest of mankind was propagated, the antiquity of empires among them, the first use of letters, the rise of arts, the greater progress in all kinds of civil culture, (which things argue a longer continuance in one place and state,) beside express records of story and visible monuments of things performed among them, do sufficiently declare; whose consent therefore doth in reason, so far as serves our purpose, involve the consent of all mankind; and doth confirm those notions to have flowed from the clear spring of our first parents their instruction. It is also true, I must confess, that these original traditions, (concerning the being and providence of God,) as must necessarily happen not only by the malice of evil spirits, but from man's natural infirmity and proneness to change, even to the worse, (as also from men's aptness to mistake, from rude ignorance, from wantonness of fancy, from craftiness in promoting designs of ambition and covetousness by introducing novelties, and from such like causes,) did soon begin to be adulterated by many corrupt mixtures, did by degrees degenerate exceedingly into various shapes of superstition, falsehood, and futility. Yet even so was Judaism depraved by the Scribes; and Christianity itself hath been strangely debased by a long course of ignorant and bad times; yet who can doubt but both these were derived from one pure instruction; that of Moses, this of Christ our Lord? That it might so fare with the primitive traditions of religion is evident; that it really did so, we have even the judgment and assertion of Aristotle himself, in those |