Gods

in the plural, is used of the false deities of the Heathens, many of which were only creatures to whom divine honours and worship were superstitiously paid. The Greeks and Latins, it is observable, did not mean, by the name _God_, an all-perfect being, whereof eternity, infinity, omnipresence, &c, were essential attributes: with them the word only implied an excellent and superior nature; and, accordingly, they give the appellation _gods_ to all beings of a rank or class, higher or more perfect than that of men, and especially to those who were inferior agents in the divine administration, all subject to the one Supreme.