gusting obscenity. It is not in language to convey an adequate idea of their temples, and idols; and if it were, no purpose could be answered by it, but the excitement of painful and abominable emotions." (Priestley's Inst. of Moses, 227.)

Every pagoda, we are told, has a certain number of prostitutes annexed to it, dedicated to its use, by pompous and solemn ceremonies. In the Deccan, it is customary for parents to dedicate their children to this profession.

In the worship of modern pagans we find not only all that is impure and sanguinary, but the most degrading stupidity. By these institutions, the rational nature of man is debased and outraged. The Sovereign of the universe requires a rational service. The worship of the heathen is strikingly the reverse. "What the Hindoos call prayer, and which they suppose to be so efficacious, bears little or no resemblance to what Jews and Christians signify by that term. It is no proper address to the Supreme Being, expressive of the sentiments of humility, veneration and submission; but the mere repetition of certain words, the pronunciation of which can be supposed to operate only as a charm. The worshippers of Vishnoo, it is said, pretend that his name, though pronounced without any determinate motive, or even in contempt, cannot fail to produce a good effect. This alone they say, has the power of effacing crimes."*

The greatest part of the worship of the Hindoos, it is asserted on the testimony of Pietro della Valle, consists of nothing but music, songs, dances, and in waiting on their gods, as if they were living persons, viz. in presenting them things to eat, washing them, perfuming them, giving them betel leaves, dying them with a peculiar kind of wood, carrying them abroad in processions, etc. Inst. of Mos. 161.

The Schaimans of Siberia, whose religion has been mentioned, pretend, like the ancient Babylonians, to nourish their idols with food. By way of offering them incense, they make a smoke with burning flesh, blood, or boughs of fir and worm

* Inst. of Moses, 161.

wood, before them. But when misfortunes befal them, they load them with abuse; sometimes dash them against the ground, throw them into the water, or beat them with rods.*

Belonging to the Hindoo religion are great numbers of devotees, who give themselves up to the most severe abstinence and torture. Some will keep their arms constantly stretched over their heads, till they become quite withered, and incapable of motion. Others keep them crossed over their breasts, during their lives, some chain themselves to trees and particular spots of ground, which they never quit. Dr. Buchanan mentions an enthusiast, whom he saw going on a pilgrimage to Juggernaut, who had to merit the favor of the god, measured the whole way by the length of his body.†

It is related of the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who worshipped the sun and the stars, that, on solemn festivals, kept in honor of the deity, whom they adored, in a temple seated on the brink of a mountain, they threw themselves down into a vast depth, out of a religious principle, dancing and singing, their priests assuring them, that they should enjoy all sorts of pleasures after a death so meritorious. Millar, as quoted by Leland, ii. 220.

I shall close the lecture with a few remarks on what has preceded.

1. In view of those facts, which have been stated in the preceding lectures, can the necessity of revelation be reasonably denied, or even doubted? The doctrine of the divine existence which lies at the root of all religion, has been either unknown, or so corrupted and perverted, as to be no better than unqualified atheism; and this too, in countries, where the human mind. far from being permitted to lie inactive, has erected many beautiful and stupendous monuments to its own praise. So that there is no reason to believe, that the true God would,

* Feronia was plundered by Hannibal on his return from Rome, to avenge on that goddess his late disappointment. Eustace's Class. Tour, 2. 98.

Christian Researches, 102.

under any circumstances, have been generally known and worshipped without revelation. Most strikingly true, therefore, is the assertion, made by St. Paul, that the world by wisdom knew not God. It is conceded indeed, that the works of creation, if examined with a fair and impartial mind, are sufficient to indicate the being and perfections of their Author. The invisible things of God may be discovered by the things, that are made. But if these invisible things were not in fact discovered; but the whole world was overspread with gross darkness; and men had such notions concerning religion, as tended to degrade both the heart and the intellect, and to prostrate, rather than to establish moral principle; it follows that a revelation from heaven was inexpressibly important and desirable.

2. The subject corroborates a remark of Dr. Paley, that the effects of revealed religion are not confined to those, who cordially, or even to those who nominally embrace it. There are those, in every Christian country, who do neither the one, nor the other. They are believers neither in heart, nor profession. But though they reject revealed religion, they do not question the existence of God; their notions of him are vastly more correct, than those, either of ancient or modern pagans. Why do they not worship the sun, the stars, the rivers, brute animals, or even vegetables, that are planted and cultivated by their own industry? Why do they not acknowledge, as the rulers of Heaven, those, whose passions and vices once disturbed and polluted the earth? Is it because their intellects are more penetrating and profound, than were those of the Greeks, Egyptians, Phenicians, and Chaldeans? No; but because they have been better instructed by that very religion, which they deny, and would gladly subvert. It is because some rays of celestial truth have fallen upon their understandings, notwithstanding the caution, which has been used to prevent a thorough illumination.

LECTURE XIV.

OPINIONS OF HEATHEN, ANCIENT AND MODERN, AS TO THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY.

THAT existence is not terminated by death, but that the soul survives the body, appears to have been a sentiment extensively diffused and generally admitted among pagan nations. This remark is applicable not less to heathen of ancient than of modern times. Why then, it may be asked, was it necessary that the doctrine of immortality should receive additional light by Jesus Christ in the Gospel? I answer,

For three reasons:

1. Though the doctrine of a future state was general among the ancient heathen, it was by no means universal. Socrates is represented in the Phaedon of Plato, as saying, "Almost every body fancies, that when the soul parts from the body, it is no more; it dies along with it. In the very moment of parting, it vanishes like a vapor of smoke, which flies off, and disperses, and has no existence." This testimony is the more important, as it is contained in a work designed expressly to prove the opposite doctrine.

Polybius complains of the general profligacy and want of integrity, which in his day, prevailed among the Greeks, and attributes it to the national rulers, who had encouraged the multitude to despise the terrors of a future state.

It will not perhaps be thought improper to introduce the following passage from Roman history, although it may have been repeatedly brought forward for a similar purpose.

In the speech which Cæsar delivered in a full Senate on occasion of Cataline's conspiracy, he endeavors to dissuade

them from passing a sentence of death on the conspirators, by this argument, that death would be no punishment, as they who were in favor of that sentence, intended it should be; assigning for a reason, that after death, there is neither enjoyment nor suffering; but that death is to all mortals, the end of evils.*

We cannot doubt, that he well understood the character of those to whom he was speaking. But if we had any doubts of this, they would be removed, by observing that this open avowal of infidelity, did not occasion the least surprise; those who replied, made no remarks, as if it were a novelty. Cicero answered coolly, that their ancestors had supposed it necessary to the public good, that the vicious should be deterred from crimes, by the fear of something after death. The same illustrious author informs us in another place, how generally the ancient belief as to infernal regions of reward and punishment, was in his time discarded.‡

The contempt in which this doctrine was held even by the vulgar in the days of Juvenal, is strongly represented in his second satire.

"Esse aliquos manes, et subterranea regna,
Et centum, et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras,
Atque una transire vadum tot millia cymba,
Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum ære levantur."

"That angry justice formed a dreadful hell,
That ghosts in subterranean regions dwell,
That hateful Styx his muddy current rolls,

And Charon ferries o'er unbodied souls,

Are now as tales, or idle fables prized,

By children question'd, and by men despised."

Gifford.

* Eam cuncta mortalium mala dissolvere; ultra neque curæ, neque gaudio locum esse. Sallust. Cat. § 1.

Apud inferos ejusmodi quædam illi antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esse voluerunt. 4 Orat. in Catalinam. See Timæus in life of Homer, 220.

Quæ anus tam excors inveniri potest, quæ illa, quæ quondam credebantur, apud inferos portenta extimescat? Cic. de Nat. Deor. L. ii. c. 2. Tusc. L. i. 15.