as to declare, that he would rather err with Plato, than be right with any other.

The Grecian commonwealth, fays Harris, while on they maintained their liberty, were the most heroic confederacy that ever exifted. They were the politeft, the braveft, and the wifeft of men. In the fhort space of little more than a century, they became fuch ftatefmen, warriors, orators, hiftorians, phyficians, poets, critics, painters, fculptors, architects, and (laft of all) philofophers, as almoft compels us to confider that golden period, as a providential event, in honour of human nature, to fhew to what perfection the fpecies might afcend*.

Two of the four very happy ages for learned men, as mentioned by Dr. Blair, are, firft, the Grecian, which commenced near the time of the Peloponnefian war, and extended to the time of Alexander the Great, within which period we have Ariftotle, Anacreon, Apelles, Ariftophanes, Æfchylus, Demofthenes, Herodotus, Euripides, Ifocrates, Lyfias, Pindar, Plato, Phidias, Praxiteles, Menander, Socrates, Sophocles, Æfchines, Theocrites, Thucidides, and Xenophon. The fecond is the Roman, included nearly within the days of Julius and Auguftus Cæfar; affording us Catullus, Cæfar, Cicero, Horace, Livy, Lucretius, Ovid, Phædrus, Propertius, Terence, Tibullus, Salluft, Varro, Virgil, and Vitruvius.

Homer, the most ancient of the Greek poetst, was the father of poetry, as Herodotus was of hiftory, and Hypocrates of phyfic. His works were very highly efteemed by Lycurgus, Solon, and the kings and princes of Greece. Lawgivers, the founders of monarchies and commonwealths, it is faid, took from them the models of their politics, and learned the art of governing; and captains availed themselves of the fame, to form battles, encamp armies, befiege towns, fight and

* Hermes, fifth edit. p. 416, 417.

+ Homer flourished, according to Dr. Blair, about 900 years before Chrift; according to Dr. Prieftley 850; according to the Arundelian marbles 300 after the taking of Troy; and agreeably to them all, above 400 before Plato and Ariftotle. Seven cities difputed the glory of having given him birth.

gain victories. He travelled into Egypt; from whence he brought into Greece the names of their gods, the chief ceremonies of their worship, and a more improved knowledge in the arts than had prevailed in his own country. The only inconteftible works which he has left behind him are the Iliad and the Odyffey.Virgil, the most excellent of all the ancient Roman poets, has left the world ten Eclogues or Bucolics, four books of Georgics, and the Eneid in twelve books. Of these two diftinguished poets, Homer (as fays Sir William Temple) was, without doubt, the most univerfal genius that has been known in the world, and Virgil the most accomplished. To the former must be allowed the moft fertile invention, the richeft vein, the most general knowledge, and the most lively expreffions: to the latter, the nobleft ideas, the juftest institution, the wifeft conduct, and the choiceft elocution.-Horace was the most excellent of the Latin poets, of the lyric and fatyrical kind, and the most judicious critic in the reign of Auguftus. His talents foon made him known to the Emperor and Mæcenas, who, having a particular efteem for him, loaded him with favours. He alfo contracted a strict friendship with Agrippa, Pollio, Virgil, and all the other great men of his time. His Odes, Epiftles, Satires, and Art of Poetry, are ftill extant. That Homer, Virgil, and Horace, were men of extraordinary abilities, their works, which have been handed down to us, abundantly fhew; and these the mere English scholar may read in the tranflations, by Pope, Dryden, Francis, &c.

But while the Heathen world made fuch progrefs in other fciences, and the polite arts, there was none made in theology: not because the philofophers and poets neglected to cultivate this fcience; for there was not a fubject they thought of, nor difcourfed about, more than the existence and nature of the gods: neither was it for want of natural abilities, nor of learning, as has already appeared; for, the greatest wits, and the brighteft conftellation of geniufes that ever illuminated the republic of letters, were devoted to the investigation of the principles and caufes of things. And furely this

affords a strong prefumption, that religious truth is not congenial with the nature of man; for, otherwife, his progrefs in it would have equalled his other acquirements*.

Human learning and divine knowledge are diftinct; and however juft the claim of the Heathen to polite literature was, yet, in point of religion, they debased their powers, and were grofly ignorant. It is easy to harangue on the excellency and advantage of the light of nature. It is agreeable to the pride of mankind, to exalt reason, and pronounce it a fufficient guide in religion, and to eternal happiness. But, from the records. of antiquity, which exhibit the experience of mankind in all ages, we learn that thofe, who followed no other inftructor, have wandered in uncertainty, darkness, and error: the truth of which is demonftrable, from the existence, extent, and duration of pagan idolatry; to which, we shall now turn our attention.

It is certain that idolatry was in the world foon after the flood: but fome attribute its origin even to the antediluvians. In the days of Enos the fon of Seth, fays Maimonidest, men fell into grievous errors, and even Enos himself partook of their infatuation. Their language was, that fince God had placed on high the heavenly bodies, and ufed them as his minifters, it was evidently his will, that they should receive from men the fame veneration, as the fervants of a great prince juftly claim from the fubject multitude. Impreffed with this notion, they began to build temples to the Stars, to facrifice to them, and to worship them, in the vain expectation, that they would thus please the Creator of all things. At first indeed, they did not fuppofe the Stars to be the only deities, but adored, in conjunction with them, the Lord God omnipotent. In procefs of

*Lectures, fuppofed to have been delivered, by the author of a View of the internal Evidence of the Chriftian Religion, to a felect party of friends: dedicated to Edward Gibbon, Efq.

+ Maimonides was a celebrated rabbi, called by the Jews the eagle of the doctors. He was born of an illuftrious family at Cordova in Spain, 1131; fettled in Egypt, where he spent his life as phyfician to the fultan; opened a school, which was foon filled with pupils from Alexandria, Damafcus, &c. who fpread his fame all over the world: he died aged feventy, and was buried in UpperGalilee.

time however that great and venerable name was forgotten; and the whole human race retained no other religion, than the idolatrous worship of the hoft of heaven.

They might alfo imagine, that God, the firft, allperfect Being, and Governor of the world, did impart, to beings of a different nature, powers to influence men's happiness; and, upon that account, they terminated their worship in the Sun, Moon, and Stars. We may fuppofe them to have argued thus: We can take notice. of the profufion of the divine goodness, of that munificence which he hath expreft to his creatures; and why may we not take notice of the inftruments, why not worship the Sun, to express the regard which we have to that luminary, which imparts to us what is necessary for our subfiftence and comfort? Undoubtedly this reasoning was extremely wrong, because all the material beings that confpired to make them live comfortably, did not give thofe benefits by choice. The heavenly bodies being directed in their rotations by the infinite wisdom, and fuftained and continued in their proper orbits, by the almighty power of the Firft Caufe; had the Heathen attended to the voice of reason, they would not have fet up idol-gods in oppofition to, nor in conjunction with, the one true God, but would have feen it right to have acknowledged his unity, and to have offered worship to him alone

With this antediluvian fuperftition the patriarch Ham feems to have been tainted, (fays Faber,) and to have conveyed the knowledge of it to his own particular defcendants. Although he had been mercifully preferved in the ark, along with the other members of his family, yet his fubfequent conduct plainly fhewed, that he was not only ignorant of the fanctifying influence of pure religion, but that he was a ftranger to the laws even of common decency. The leaven of the ancient idolatry lay fecretly working in the bofoms of his pofterity, during the space of near four hundred years; but was prevented from openly fhewing itself by the dread of Noah, who was ftill living. At length that venerable patriarch was removed by the hand of death;

and the mighty hunter of men, the tyrannical Nimrod, rofe, like a baleful comet, above the political horizon. He was the grandfon of Ham, and the fon of Cufh; and appears to have been the first avowed postdiluvian apoftate. The very name indeed of Nimrod, which apparently fignifies a rebellious panther, points out the nature of his offence; namely, his arbitrary conduct in unjustly feizing the dominions of Afhur, in the land of Shinar; and we are juftified in concluding, that idolatry was openly eftablished at his metropolis Babylon.

The infertion of a conjecture here, may ferve to elucidate the establishment of the firft poftdiluvian idolatry. Confidering the dreadful catastrophe of the deluge, and that the recollection of it could not have been very foon erafed from the minds of the Noachidæ, it is natural to fuppofe, that the anniversary either of its commencement, or of its termination, would be regularly obferved by a folemn religious feftival.---Such a commemoration, in its primitive fimplicity, would doubtlefs be not only innocent, but even ferviceable to the caufe of piety and morality; but, at the fame time, it would be liable to grofs abufe, which in the refult proved unhappily the cafe: for, it is probable, that, previous to the building of the tower, they had begun to entertain too great a veneration for their arkite ancestors. This veneration was by the degenerate Nimrod foon perverted into grofs idolatry, and blended with the antediluvian worship of the hoft of heaven. Noah and the Sun were henceforth regarded as one divine object; and the Ark, in which he was preferved, was profanely reverenced in conjunction with the Moon.

It is not improbable, that the worship of the Moon and the Ark, conjointly, might have originated with the Chaldean aftronomers, who, having obferved the refemblance of a crefcent to a boat, thought that the waxing Moon was no unfit fymbol of the Ark: and hence we find, that the very fame goddefs was fometimes a perfonification of the one, and fometimes of the other. Varro accordingly afferts, that the Moon,