Hence it is they asserted a Duplicity of Gods, viz. Two perceptive self-existent Beings, one the Principle of Good, and the other of Evil. This Opinion originally sprung from a strong, firm Persuasion, That God was invariably Good, and therefore could not possibly be the Author of the Evil upon Earth. Nor could they otherwise solve the Difficulty about the Entrance of moral Evil into our World, but by supposing another eternal self-existent evil Cause.
Yea, some among the primitive Christians fell into the Error of asserting this Ditheistical Doctrine; that is, two self-existent Principles in the Universe, to wit, a good God, and an evil Demon. Thus the Cerdonites, an heretical Sect, that sprung up in the second Century, held there were two Gods; one, the Author of all good, the other, of all evil Things. So the Marcionites held two contrary Gods; and in the third Century, the Manichees did the same.
Perhaps, this might be one reason why God past Sentence upon the Devil in the Serpent, in the presence and hearing of our first Parents, viz. to prevent the Error of imagining that there was any Principle of Evil, which was independent upon the Almighty. The Sentence past upon Satan in the Curse upon the Serpent, was a Conviction to Adam and Eve of his Dependency upon the Almighty Creator, before whose Tribunal he now was constrained to appear, to receive the Sentence merited by those, who make a Lye, and tempt their Fellow-creatures to rebel.
REASONS about the Adoration of different kind of Animals by the Egyptians.
If you ask, that if they worshipped a Serpent, why did they pay religious Honours to so many other Beasts? I answer, This monstrous Idolatry begun in Egypt, and the first occasion for it seems to be this, viz.
OSIRIS, a certain King of Egypt, who reign’d with great Equity and Mildness, having divided his Kingdom into several distinct Provinces, appointed Presidents over them, and in their Banners he placed the Figures, or Pictures of certain Animals, that bore some Similitude to the Peculiarities of those Countries, over which they were to preside: Thus to the Governor, whose Land was proper for Tillage, he design’d an Ox in his Standard, to which the Inhabitants of that Place paid a particular Veneration, which in process of time was worshipped by the whole Nation, for its Usefulness, and as the Symbol of Agriculture: Hence the Image of Osiris is set off with Horns.
The golden Calf which Aaron made in the Wilderness, and the Calves set up by Jeroboam to be worshipped in his Kingdom, were an Imitation of the idolatrous Adoration, which the Egyptians paid to their Bull Apis.
That part of the Country, in which was abundance of Water, the King set a Crocodile (an amphibious Animal) in his Banner, that was to govern there, which was had in high Veneration, especially in the City of Mira; and at last the Crocodile was worshipped all over Egypt.
Where the Country abounded with Wood, a Dog was fixt in the Governor’s Standard, to which the Egyptians gave no little Veneration, especially Sportsmen ... as the Poet observes[[430]].