SECT. V. Against the worship given to the stars and elements.

MORE ancient than this was the worship of the stars, and what we call the elements, fire, water, air, and earth;⁴⁸⁶⁴⁸⁶   There are reasons to persuade us that idolatry began with the worship of angels and the souls of men, as you may see in the in the index to the Oriental Philosophy, at the word Idololatria. Le Clerc. which was, indeed, a very great error: For prayers are a principal part of religious worship, which to put up to any but beings that have understanding is very foolish; and that what we call the elements are not such, is evident in a good measure from experience. If any one affirms otherwise of the stars, he has no proof of it, because no such thing can he gathered from their operations, which are the 162only signs to judge of beings by. But the contrary may be sufficiently collected from the motion of them, which is not various, like that of creatures endued with freedom of will, but certain and determinate.⁴⁸⁷⁴⁸⁷   By which argument a certain king of Peru was persuaded to deny that the sun could be a god. See the history of the Incas. We have elsewhere shewn that the course of the stars is adapted to the use of man; whence man ought to acknowledge, that he, in his better part, bears a nearer resemblance to God, and is dearer to him; and therefore ought not to derogate so much from his own high birth, as to place himself below those things which God has given him; and he ought to give God thanks for them, which is more than they can do for themselves, or at least more than we are assured of.