not sufficient to reform deeply rooted and strongly prevalent vice.

The astonishing phenomenon of the Jewish dispensation was, that a whole people, inferior in every thing else to many other nations of antiquity, should be brought, not merely to acknowledge as a speculative truth, one only true and all-perfect deity, but to adopt this doctrine as the fundamental article of their religious system; should, at least, in their established and national institutions, abjure idolatry, and all the horrors by which it is attended; should admit it to be a detestable crime, and, notwithstanding their natural propensity towards it, and their gross and frequent violations of this fundamental principle, be, at last, inspired with such abhorrence of it as is still characteristical of that infatuated, though heaven-selected, and now, for a season, neglected people. Of what consequence such a fundamental principle, established, and firmly, and invariably maintained among an entire nation, was to the improvement and future happiness of the whole human race, must be evident to every reflecting mind. This fact, when the condition of the rest of mankind at the time of the introduction of the Jewish economy is considered, affords a convincing presumption of its divine origin.

131

CHAP. IL

OF PAGANISM.

a

PAGANISM has been represented as the religion of nature, and this notion seems to have induced the rejection of every idea of natural religion. Nothing, however, can be more false and absurd than such representation, which has proceeded solely from supposing that natural and revealed religion stand in direct opposition to each other. In fact, as I have already shown, revealed not only presupposes natural religion, but has repromulgated, confirmed, and extended all its genuine dictates. It is no less absurd to qualify all the absurdities and abominations of heathen superstition, by the name of the religion of nature, than it would be, as we see often done, to assert that every species of folly and vice is natural to man, in the true sense of these terms. Yet the former is directly repugnant to his intellectual, and the latter, to his moral nature; and both, on that very account, are denominated folly and vice. I have no objection to allow that paganism is natural religion corrupted, because it is the result of human ignorance and perver

a Part I. chap. iii.

sion, directed to religious matters. For, it is so stained with the blackest colours of vice, and so disfigured by the most distorted inventions of fraud or superstition, that every seed of piety and virtue seems to be buried and suffocated under the disgusting and overwhelming mass by which they are overlaid. It may not, however, be improper to bestow a few thoughts on the principal features of this religious spectacle, in regard to the deities worshipped, the ceremonies and rites practised, and the notions entertained, in relation to morals and a future state.

1st, Those who have most accurately examined this subject, appear to admit that, among such a diversity of deities, the heathen nations of antiquity acknowledged and worshipped one who was supreme and omnipotent, and to whom, as their sovereign, all the others were subject. If it were necessary, it could be evinced by the most credible testimony, that this was even the vulgar creed. That it was the decided opinion of the most illustrious ancient philosophers, and most enlightened poets, cannot be questioned, since they inculcate this doctrine in various parts of their writings. Indeed, the unity and supremacy of deity is so consonant to every dictate of reason, when duly exerted, that the wonder is, that a plurality of gods, and the idolatry consequent on this admission, should ever have become so prevalent as to pervade the whole

human race, unless where divine revelation has diffused its light. For, it must be acknowledged, that even the philosophers of antiquity, together with the belief of a supreme Deity, admitted others of inferior rank and power, and considered them as objects of religious veneration. Into this opinion they seem to have been led by their conception of orders of beings superior to man, such as Christians acknowledge angels to be, on the authority of scripture. On this point these philosophers had, and could have, no positive information, and, being destitute of divine light, they indulged the suggestions of their own imaginations. Acknowledging, however, one supreme Deity, it is astonishing that they perceived not that he must be adequate to the government of the universe; that nothing could happen without his express agency, appointment, or permission; and that he, therefore, should be the sole. object of divine honours.

The sun, the moon, the stars, and the whole host of heaven, seem to have been the first objects of idolatrous worship. Their influence on our globe probably suggested the idea of their divinity, and to these luminaries were ascribed intelligence and mind. Gratitude for the benefits derived from them dictated the veneration with which they were viewed in the first instance; and in the second, the adoration that was addressed to them. Instead of regarding these heavenly

bodies as the most resplendent displays of the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of the Supreme Being, and as demanding from man the concentration of his devotion in the great author and governor of all, deluded mortals stopped short in their ascent to his throne, and “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever."a But, proceeding on the same absurd, though, in some respects, specious principles, they, in the succeeding stages of idolatry, deified departed heroes, whose memories they revered; such of the inferior animals as are useful to man; and, lastly, the vilest and most insignificant of the brute creation. "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Nay, inanimate substances were converted into objects of religious veneration, as the residences of some superior spirits. Hence, the Dryads, Hamadryads, and Napææ, appropriated to groves and forests. Every river, lake, fountain, and hill, had its peculiar deity. These were the offspring of licentious imagination, directed to religious subjects, emancipated from the guidance of reason, and blindly led by overweening superstition. Amidst all this accumulation of folly and aberration, however, we