A DISCOURSE

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•book iv impure rites and mysteries, which (without these coverings) even die• opaeousnefs of die places w 7 ere not obscure enough to conceal e .

* Can. lib. i. The famous Druids , or Saronides *, whom the learned Bochart, fromcap. 42. Sel- , ,

denjaniAngl. Diodorus , proves to be the same, derived their Oak-theology, namely,fac. cap,- 2 , y rom spreading and gloomy-shading tree, probably the Grove atMambre, Gen. xiii. 2. How their mysteries were celebrated in theirwmods and forests, is at large to be found in Caesar, PJiny, Strabo, Dio-dorus, Mela, Apuleius, Ammianus , Lucan, Aventinus, and innumerable-other writers, where you will see that -they chose the Woods and theGroves,-not only for all their religious exercises, but their courts of justice,as the whole institution and discipline is recorded by Caesar, lib. vi. andas he, it seems, found it in our country of Britain , from whence it wasafterwards translated into Gallia; for he attributes the first rise of it tothis once happy island of Groves and Oaks; and affirms, that the antientGauls travelled hither for their initiation ^ To this Tacitus afsents,14 Annal. and our most learned critics vindicate it, both from the Greeks•and Trench impertinently challenging it: But the very name itself, whichis purely Celtic , does best decide -the controversy: For though a/; beQuercus , yet Vofsius skilfully proves that the Druids were altogetherstrangers to the Greeks ; but what comes yet nearer to us, Dm, /ides,(as one observes) begetting our now .antiquated Trou or True, makes ourtitle the stronger: Add to this, that amongst the Germans it signified nojefs than God 'himself; and w r e find Drutin, or Trudin, to import Divine,or Faithful, in the Othfriclian Gospel, both of them Sacerdotal exprefsions.But-that in this island of ours, men should be so extremely devoted to

e For proofs of the lewdnefs and obscenity of many of the religious rites of the Hea-then, vid. Herodot. Euterp. cap. lxiv. Diodor . Sicul. lib. iv. Valef, Maxim, lib. ii.cap. vi. Juvenal, Sat. ix. ver. 24. and what Eusebius saith of a Grove on mount Li-banus, dedicated to Venus, in his Life of Constantine, lib . ii. cap. Iv. CompareI .Kings xiv. 23.

•f Caesar and Tacitus differ as to the origin of the Druids , the former saying, that theDruidica! religion originated in Britain , and the latter, that it was introduced by the CelticGauls, when they peopled this island; of this latter fact, there can be no doubt. It isCertain, however, that the British Druids preserved their religion in greater purity thanthe Gauls, insomuch that young men were frequently sent from Gaul into Britain , to beinstructed in the mysteries of the Druidical religion. The true derivation of Druid , jsfrom the Celtic word Deru, an Oak .