Court, altho', indeed, your old Gods are not of a better Family, yet they cannot but take it very ill, that you fhou'd offer to make Gods at this rate, now-a-days, as much as your Forefathers did of old.

CHAP. XIV.

That the Heathens do but mock their Gods in offering the Refuse, and the vileft Parts of the Sacrifice.

Shall now take a Review of the Rites of your Religion, but will not infift upon the Quality of your Sacrifices, which you know to be the oldeft and fcabideft Beafts you can find; if they happen to be fat and good, you chop off the Hoofs, and fome outfide Bits, and fuch Pieces only you vouchfafe your Gods, which you beftow upon your Dogs and Slaves. Inftead of offering Hercules the Tenth of your Goods,

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* De Decima Herculis.] Pliny in his natural Hiftory, lib. 12. c. 14. mentions a Law in Arabia, which oblig'd ev'ry Merchant to offer the Tenth of his Frankincenfe, the Product of that Country, to the God Sabis. We find alfo in Juftin, lib. 18. cap. 7. that the Carthaginians fent the Tenth of their Spoils taken in the Sicilian War, to Hercules of Tyre. The thiopians pay'd the Tenth to their God Affabinus. Vid. Plin. lib. 12. cap. 19. The Roman General Sylla dedicated the Tenth of all his Eftate to Hercules, and fo likewife did M. Craffus. Vid. Plutarch. in Sylla d Craff. Inftances in abundance of this kind are to be feen in Selden's Hift. of Tithes, cap. 3. Mountag. diatrib. p. 1. cap. 3. and in Spencer de leg. Hebr. lib. 3. cap. 10. Now from hence will arife

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Goods, you hardly lay one Third of it upon his Altar ; not that I blame you for this, for believe me, I take it for a great Inftance of your Wisdom, to fave fome of that which otherwise would all be loft.

But I fhall turn to your Writings; and bless me! What ftrange Stuff about your Gods do I find, even in your Inftitutions of Prudence, and fuch Books as are defign'd to polish a Gentleman, and form him to all the Offices of a civil Life? Here I find your Gods engag'd by Pairs like Gladiators, one against another, helter skelter, fome for Greeks, and fome for Trojans. Venus wounded with a human Shaft, in refcuing her Son Eneas from Diomedes, just upon the Point of killing him. The God of

a Question, how it is poffible that Nations fo remote, and who never feem to have had the leaft Commerce or Acquaintance withi each other, fhou'd come to hit upon the fame Notion as to dedicate an exact Tenth, no more nor no lefs. This Proportion is certainly in it felf a thing indifferent, and confequently not difcoverable by the Light of Nature, and the Practice was too conftant, regular and univerfal to be afcrib'd to Humour or Fancy; nor can it with any Probability be thought to have spread over the World from the Jewish Nation, a Nation debarr'd from correfponding with the Gentile World, and mortally hated for the Singularities of their Religion, and befides the Cuftom of dedicating a Tenth, was a Cuftom long before the Jews were an eftablifh'd People; it feems therefore moft reasonable to believe that this Cuftom like Sacrifice, Priefthood and Marriage, was deriv'd from Adam to Noah; and from him continu'd by his Pofterity to the Confufion at Babel, and by means of that univerfal Difperfion fpread over all the World.

Quod filium fuum Eneam pene interfe&tum, &c.] Thefe Words are not in Rigaltius's Edition, but being in that of Pamelius, and an Illuftration of the Story, I have tranflated them; and the following Fables, which the Poets have told to the eternal Difgrace of the Heathen Gods, are fo common, and fo frequently occur in all the Apologifts, that I will not prefume the Reader ignorant.

War in Chains for thirteen Months, and in a very lamentable Pickle: And Jove by the help of a Monster narrowly escaping the like Treatment from the rest of the Celestial Gang. One while he is reprefented crying for his Sarpedon, another while in the Arms of his grunting Sifter, recounting his Amours, and protefting that of all his Miftreffes, he is the Darling. Befides, which of your Poets takes not the Liberty to difgrace a God for a Complement to his Prince? One makes Apollo King Admetus's Shepherd; another makes Neptune Bricklayer to Laomedon; and the Man of Lyricks, Pindar, I mean, fings of Æfculapius's being Thunderstruck for abufing his Skill in Phyfick out of Covetoufness. But I must needs fay, that Jove did I, if Jove was the Thunderer, in being fo unnatural to his Nephew, and fo envious to fo fine an Artift. However, these things, if true, ought not to be divulged; nor invented, if falfe, by any who pretend fo much Zeal for the Gods and their Religion: But neither Tragedians nor Comedians are one bit more tender of the Reputation of your Deities; for you fhall not meet a Prologue that is not stuff'd with the Disasters and Exceffes of the Family of fome God or other. I fhall fay nothing of the Philofophers, let the Inftance of Socrates ferve for all, who in derifion of your Gods fwore by an Oak, a Goat, and a Dog. But Socrates, you fay, was put to death for thus denying the Gods; it must be confefs'd, indeed, that Truth has always been on the fuffering

Side; but yet fince the Athenians repented of the Sentence, and reveng'd his Death with that of his Accufers, and erected to him a Statue of Gold in their very Temple; this I say is Argument enough, that upon fecond Thoughts, they came over to Socrates, and approv'd his Teftimony against the Gods. But Diogenes alfo rallies very merrily upon Hercules, and the Roman Cynick m Varro as

waggishly introduces three hundred Joves or Jupiters without Heads.

CHA P. XV.

Concerning the fhameful Representation of the Gods upon the Stage, and Amphitheatre.

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HE profane Wits are continually at work to raise you Pleasure at the dif grace of the Gods; when you see the Farces of Lentulus, or Hoftilins acted, tell me whether it be the Mimicks or the Gods you laugh at. You can fit out Anubis the Adulterer, and fee

Romanus Cynicus Varro.] He reckons up 43 Hercules's, as well as 300 Headlefs Joves. Vid. Tiraquell upon Alex. ab Alex. lib. 2. p. 379.

"Machum Anubim, Lunam Mafculum, &c.] We may eafily conjecture from the feveral Arguments of thefe Farces, that they were a Lampoon and publick Mockery of the Gods then in worhip; but none of thefe mention'd are extant as I know of. The

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fee Luna mafculus play'd, orDiana whipt, or the laft Will and Teftament of dying Jove, or the three hunger-ftarv'd Hercules. But befides these Pieces of Buffoonery, all your Comedies and Tragedies are chiefly freighted with the Uncleanness of your Gods. 'Tis a publick Pleasure to behold Sol in Sadness for the Fall of his Son Phaeton. You can fee without a Blush the Mother of the Gods, old Cybele, fighing after a coy Shepherd. You can bear to hear all the Titles of Jove's Adventures fung upon the Theatre; and fee with Patience Paris fit in Judgment upon Juno, Venus, and Minerva. What

Titles of all, but that of Luna Mafculus, do in fome Measure explain them, and if it may be forgiven in a matter of no Moment, and where the Commentators are filent, to put in my Opinion, 'tis this-There was in Affyria among the Carra, a Temple dedicated to Luna, in which whoever offer'd his Supplications to Luna was fure to be under Petticoat Government; but he who facrific'd to Lunus fhou'd continue Master of his Wife. Vid. Al. Spartian. in Antonin. Caracalla. This no doubt was a Subject comical enough for the Wits of the time to make merry with the Goddess Luna, and the God Lunus, which I take to be the Luna Mafculus; tho' there may be another Meaning not fit to be mention'd..

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Sed & Hiftrionum litera omnem feditatem eorum defignant.] An Urb. Cond. 400, there happen'd a great Sicknefs, and the Romans fuperftitioufly conceiting that the Wrath of the Gods cou'd no otherwise be propitiated than by the Inftitution of fome new Games, fent for certain Stage Players from Hetruria, which they called Hiftriones from the Hetrurian word Hifter, which fignifies fuch a Player. Vid. Polydor. de Invent. lib. 3. c. 13. Thefe Plays in time, especially the Mimica, grew to that exceffive Lewdnefs, that the Pantomimi were put down by Domitian. Vid. Sueton. in vita ejus. cap. 7. Afterwards expell'd by Trajan; and the Hiftriones by Tiberius. Vid. Tacit. lib. 4. and even by Nero, Tacit. lib.13.

Sueton. in vita ejus, cap. 16. And had Tertullian liv'd in our Days, and feen the Heathenifh Freedoms of the Stage in a Chriftian Commonwealth, he wou'd have pafs'd a feverer Cenfure upon the Authors, Players and Spectators, who countenance them without a Blufh, than he did upon thofe in the Age he liv'd.

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