[ =9 1 Cdnfequently in the firft Ages of the World, as well as in the prefent, none could know GOD, but thofe to whom He made himfelf known, and to whomHe im- parted the Light of Life. It cannot therefore be fur- prifing, that, being left of GOD to the Blindnefs and Folly of his own Mind, he thould corrupt the original Ideas of Religion and Truth, and begin thofe.Superfti-, tions and Idolatries, which fucceffive Generations carried. on and eftablifhed throughout the World. Accord-, ingly, fo early as the Time of Enós, the great Defe Lion,. from the right Object of Worship revealed to the firft Patriarch, is thought by many to have commenced ; and that the Text in Gen. iv. 26. rendered, Then BEGAN Men TO CALL UPON the Name of the LORD, might more juftly be tranflated, Then Men PROFANED in calling upon the Name of JEHOVAH ; as the fame Word is conftrued in Lev. xix. s a. and in other Places. So that, accord- ing to Selden's Opinion, which he confirms by the Ara- bic and other Verfions of the Text, it is as if Mofes had faid, " Thenbegan Men to depart from the right Wor- " fhip of the true GOD, and to attribute his effential `° Perfeftions to the heavenly Bodies, . his Creatures."* And indeed, nobody can doubt that Believers, fuch as Abel and Seth, for inftance, called upon or worshipped JE- HOVAH long BEFORE. that Period (which was about 240 Years after theCreation) fence Invocation isoftheEfï'ence ofFaith, and, without which, Faith'itfelfcould not pof flbly exift. It has been obferved by many, that all the an- tient Jews, and fome of the molt learned Chriftians, con- cur in expounding this Paffage, as giving an Hint of the firft Rife and Profefíìon of the. Zabaiffic Idolatry, which conffted in perverting or profaning the peculiar Names of the Deity, and in;afcribing to the Powersof Nature, to the Hoff ofYHeaven, and tofecond Caufes, what only per- tained to the Authorof Nature and to the firft. -f- St. Jerom deduces the Originof Idolatry from a íäll higher Source, De Diis Syris Prol. C. 3.' KiaCH. Obel. Pamyh. 1. iii. C. 13. SPAN r6M. Hifl. Eccles. Yet. refl. p. 279. Ros. Thai in 55n. Ant. Univ. ,Hill. Vol. i. B. i, Note R. C 2 and
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