flood 451 before Chrift 1897. Year of the to Abraham, whereby he should bind his pofterity to live in amity with his, and deal by them just as he had dealt by him. This was readily embraced by Abraham; but firfthe defired a difpute might be decided concerning a well, which Abimelech's fervants had forcibly taken from him. Abimelech declared he never heard of this outrage till that moment; and that nothing of the kind fhould have been then to be complained of, had Abraham informed him of it. And, that this matter might be terminated in fuch a manner, as to admit of no further difpute, Abraham, among the numerous prefents he made him of sheep and oxen, fevered seven ewe lambs, which he gave him to be a standing teftimony of his having dug, and confequently of his being the right owner of that well. Abimelech accepted of them accordingly, and the well was, from them, called Beershebah.* with fo violent a fit of fickness that his life was defpaired of: that in the midst of it he had a dream, which admonished him concerning Sarah; that finding himfeif mending, he called together his friends, and difclofed to them his dream, and the violence of his passion, and that thereupon he made up the matter with Abraham, &c. * Genefis, chap. xx and xxi. ver. 22 to 32. No. No. IX. The Religion of the Pagans. THEY were a fect of Heathens who wor shipped idols and falfe Gods; idolatry was not confined alone to the Pagans, every nation abounded with idolaters, who were guilty of impious, fuperftitious, and facrilegious worship. At this time idolatry flourishes moft in China. All religions, true or false, have their myfteries: The Pagan religion was remarkably full of them, but they were generally myfteries of iniquity, and concealed only because their being published would have rendered. their religion ridiculous and odious. Thus the facred writings often fpeak of the infa mous mysteries of the Pagan deities, in which moft fhameful crimes were committed under the fpecious veil of religion. The whole religion of Egyptians (who were equally idolatrous) was mysterious from the beginning to the end, and both their doctrine and worship wrapped up in symbols and hieroglyphics. The Heathens had formerly idols of all forts, and of every kind of matter, as gold filver, brafs, ftone, wood, &c.; even in the church of Rome too much of this is practifed, whofe extravagant veneration for the images and pictures of faints, efpecially the Virgin Mary; and the pretended efficacy and power they attribute to the crofs, gives too much ground for the charge of idolatry in their worship, though they pretend to the only true religion of Jesus Christ. No. No. X. The Religion of the Antediluvians. *THE only thing we know as to their religious rites is, that they offered facrifices, and that very early, both of the fruits of the earth, and of animals; but whether the blood and flesh of the animals, or only their milk and wool were offered, is a dispute not plainly cleared up. Some have endeavoured to prove that all the Patriarchs from Adam, had stated places, and annual and weekly times fet apart for divine worship, and also a separate maintenance for the priests; all which ticulars may be true, though they cannot be made out from the Scripture. But what is more extraordinary, they pretend to tell us Univerfal History, vol 1, page 229, k&. 7. par the the very day of the week on which the Antediluvian fabbath was kept, and that it was the fame with the Christian fabbath, or Sunday; which notion is, we fear, very groundlefs and precaricus.* When I am speaking of the religion of the Antediluvians, a fhort digreffion concerning their longevity may not be altogether unpleafing to the reader, though foreign to the scope of this history. One of the most extraordinary circumftances which occur in the Antediluvian history, is the vast length of mens' lives in thofe first ages, in comparison of our own. Few now arrive to 80 or 100 years, whereas before the flood they frequently lived to near 1000; a disproportion almost incredible, were it not inconteftibly certain, from the joint teftimonies of facred and prophane writers, whofe authority in this point being not to be eluded; fome, to reconcile the matter with probability, have imagined that the * Smith's Doctrine of the Church of England, concerning the Lord's |