Of such symptoms as properly belong to superstition, or that irreligious religion, I may say as of the rest, some are ridiculous, some again feral to relate.  Of those ridiculous, there can be no better testimony than the multitude of their gods, those absurd names, actions, offices they put upon them, their feasts, holy days, sacrifices, adorations, and the like.  The Egyptians that pretended so great antiquity, 300 kings before Amasis:  and as Mela writes, 13,000 years from the beginning of their chronicles, that bragged so much of their knowledge of old, for they invented arithmetic, astronomy, geometry:  of their wealth and power, that vaunted of 20,000 cities:  yet at the same time their idolatry and superstition was most gross:  they worshipped, as Diodorus Siculus records, sun and moon under the name of Isis and Osiris, and after, such men as were beneficial to them, or any creature that did them good.  In the city of Bubasti they adored a cat, saith Herodotus.  Ibis and storks, an ox:  (saith Pliny) [6502]leeks and onions, Macrobius,

[6503] “Porrum et caepe deos imponere nubibus ausi,
Hos tu Nile deos colis.”------

Scoffing [6504]Lucian in his vera Historia:  which, as he confesseth himself, was not persuasively written as a truth, but in comical fashion to glance at the monstrous fictions and gross absurdities of writers and nations, to deride without doubt this prodigious Egyptian idolatry, feigns this story of himself:  that when he had seen the Elysian fields, and was now coming away, Rhadamanthus gave him a mallow root, and bade him pray to that when he was in any peril or extremity; which he did accordingly; for when he came to Hydamordia in the island of treacherous women, he made his prayers to his root, and was instantly delivered.  The Syrians, Chaldeans, had as many proper gods of their own invention; see the said Lucian de dea Syria. Morney cap. 22. de veritat. relig. Guliel.  Stuckius [6505]_Sacrorum Sacrificiorumque Gentil. descript._ Peter Faber Semester, l. 3. c. 1, 2, 3. Selden de diis Syris, Purchas’ pilgrimage, [6506] Rosinus of the Romans, and Lilius Giraldus of the Greeks.  The Romans borrowed from all, besides their own gods, which were majorum and minorum gentium, as Varro holds, certain and uncertain; some celestial, select, and great ones, others indigenous and Semi-dei, Lares, Lemures, Dioscuri, Soteres, and Parastatae, dii tutelares amongst the Greeks:  gods of all sorts, for all functions; some for the land, some for sea; some for heaven, some for hell; some for passions, diseases, some for birth, some for weddings, husbandry, woods, waters, gardens, orchards, &c.  All actions and offices, Pax-Quies, Salus, Libertas, Felicitas, Strenua, Stimula, Horta, Pan, Sylvanus, Priapus, Flora, Cloacina, Stercutius, Febris, Pallor, Invidia, Protervia, Risus, Angerona, Volupia, Vacuna, Viriplaca, Veneranda, Pales, Neptunia, Doris, kings, emperors, valiant men that had done any