shipp'd in a Form proportionable to that kind of Natural Philosophy in which they excell'd. In Persia where the Skill of the Heavenly Motions first began, they had their Temples on the Tops of Hills, and open to the Air. In Ægypt they had the best Opportunities of studying the Nature of living Creatures; by reason of that variety which their River and their Land produc'd. And their Religious Mysteries were contain'd Hieroglyphicks, which were most of them borrow'd from Beasts. And why should Natural Philosophy be now condemn'd for contempt of all Divinity, when of old it did rather incline them to Superstition, which is the other extreme? It is true indeed, by that Knowledge which they had of many Creatures, they were drawn to adore them; but that was only because it was imperfect: If they had understood them throughly, they had never done it: So true is that Saying of my Lord Bacon, That by a little Knowledge of Nature Men become Atheists; but a great deal returns them back again to a found and religious Mind. In brief, if we rightly apprehend the Matter, it will be found that it is not only Sottishness, but Prophaness, for Men to cry out against the understanding of Nature; for that being nothing else but the Instrument of God, whereby he gives Being and Action to Things, the Knowledge of it deserves so little to be esteem'd impious, that it ought rather to be reckon'd as Divine.
Sect. XVII. Experiments not prejudicial to the Doctrine of the Gospel.But the chief Part of our Religion, on which the Certainty of all the rest depends, is the Evangelical Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ. In this there is nothing from which he that converses much with Nature, can be thought to be more averse than others:nay,
