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"It is altogether impossible to fix exactly the period when idolatry
took its rise. Adam, coming immediately from the hands of God, had
experienced too many manifestations of his power and goodness to be
unacquainted with him, and must have preserved the purest idea of him
in his own family, which, most probably, continued in the branch of
Seth till the deluge. The posterity of Cain, on the contrary (the pure
idea of God gradually wearing away, and by loose men being connected
with sense), fell into idolatry, and every other crime, which brought
on the deluge; a period about which Moses has said but little, and
from what he has said we can draw no just conclusion with respect to
the idolatry of those times.
"A certain author, being persuaded that idolatry did not take its rise
till after the deluge, gives a very singular account of its origin.
According to him, atheism had spread itself over the world. This
disposition of mind, says he, is the capital crime. Atheists are much
more odious to the Divinity than idolaters. Besides, this principle is
much more capable of leading men into that excessive corruption the
world fell into before the deluge. The knowledge of a God, of whatever
nature he is conceived, and the worship of a Deity, are apt, of
themselves, to be a restraint upon men. So that idolatry was of some
use to bear down the corruption of the world. It is therefore
probable, that the horrid vices men were fallen into before the
deluge, proceeded only from their not knowing nor serving a God.
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