D

A

SUCCINCT ACCOUNT,

O F ALL THE

RELIGIONS,

AND VARIOUS

SECTS IN RELIGION,
That have prevailed in the World,

IN ALL NATIONS, AND IN ALL AGES,
From the earliest Account of Time, to the present Period, from the
moft indifputable Tradition;

SHEWING SOME OF THEIR GROSS ABSURDITIES,
SHOCKING IMPIETIES,

AND RIDICULOUS INCONSISTENCES;

EXTRACTED

From ANCIENT and MODERN HISTORY,
And fome of the most Illuftrious Philofophers:

A History so replete with an almost incredible diverfity of Sentiments
and Opinions, as cannot fail to excite in the Mind Wonder and
Aftonishment, while it affords a no les pleafing Entertainment.

BY WILLIAM HECKFORD, Esq

And if it feem Evil unto you to ferve the Lord, choose you this day whom
you will ferve, whether the Gods which your Fathers ferved, that were on
the other Side of the Flood, or the Gods of the Amorites, in whofe Land ye
dwell: but as for me and my Houfe," we will ferve the Lord.

JOSHUA, Ch. xxiv. ver. 15.

Bear God and keep his Commandments: for this is the whole Duty of Man.
ECCLESIASTES, ch. xii. ver. 13.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM LANE,

AT THE

Minerba Prefe,

LEADENHALL STREET.

M DCC XC1.

PREFACE.

HISTORY is generally allowed by all distinguished writers, to be the most instructing and useful branch of literature, and as no work of this kind (divefted of all extraneous matter) has ever appeared in this shape, it cannot fail to render the ensuing pages entertaining to a curious and inquifitive mind, and needs little further apology to the reader.

The many glaring abfurdities, and shocking impieties to be met with in the course