lay the ftrefs on a wrong place; when that fails them, and they difcover, by a little reflection, that the course of nature is regular and uniform, their whole faith totters, and falls to ruin. But being taught, by more reflection, that this very regularity and uniformity is the strongest proof of defign and of a fupreme intelligence, they return to that belief, which they had deferted; and they are now able to establish it on a firmer and more durable foundation. Convulfions in nature, disorders, prodigies, miracles, though the moft oppofite to the plan of a wife fuperintendent, impress mankind with the strongest fentiments of religion; the causes of events feeming then the most unknown and unaccountable. Madness, fury, rage, and an inflamed imagination, though they fink men nearest to the level of beasts, are, for a like reafon, often fupposed to be the only dispositions, in which we can have any immediate communication with the Deity. We may conclude, therefore, upon the whole, that, fince the vulgar, in nations, which have embraced the doctrine of theifm, ftill build it upon irrational and fuperftitious principles, they are never led into that opinion by any process of argument, but by a certain train of thinking, more fuitable to their genius and capacity. It may readily happen, in an idolatrous nation, that though men admit the existence of feveral limited deities, yet is there fome one God, whom, in a particular manner, they make the object of their worship and adoration: They may either fuppofe, that, in the diftribution of power and territory among the gods, their nation was fubjected to the jurifdiction of that particular deity; or reducing heavenly objects to the model of things below, they may represent one god as the prince or fupreme magiftrate of the reft, who, though of the fame nature,' I rules rules them with an authority, like that which an earthly fovereign exercises over his fubjects and vaffals. Whether this god, therefore, be confidered as their peculiar patron, or as the general fovereign of heaven, his votaries will endeavour, by every art, to infinuate themfelves into his favour; and fuppofing him to be pleased, like themselves, with praife and flattery, there is no eulogy or exaggeration, which will be fpared in their addreffes to him. In proportion as men's fears or diftreffes become more urgent, they ftill invent new strains of adulation; and even he who outdoes his predeceffor in fwelling up the titles of his divinity, is fure to be outdone by his fucceffor in newer and more pompous epithets of praife. Thus they proceed; till at laft they arrive at infinity itself, beyond which there is no farther progress : And it is well, if, in ftriving to get farther, and to reprefent a magnificent fimplicity, they run not into inexplicable mystery, and deftroy the intelligent nature of their deity, on which alone any rational worship or adoration can be founded. While they confine themselves to the notion of a perfect being, the creator of the world, they coincide, by chance, with the principles of reason and true philofophy; though they are guided to that notion, not by reason, of which they are in a great meafure incapable, but by the adulation and fears of the moft vulgar fuperftition. We often find, amongst barbarous nations, and even fometimes amongst civilized, that, when every strain of Aattery has been exhaufted towards arbitrary princes, when every human quality has been applauded to the utmoft; their fervile courtiers reprefent them, at laft, as real divinities, and point them out to the people as objects of adoration. How much more natural, therefore, is it, that a limited deity, who at first is fuppofed only the immediate author of the particular goods and ills in life, should in the end be reprefented as fovereign maker and modifier of the universe? Even where this notion of a fupreme deity is already established; though it ought naturally to leffen every other worship, and abafe every object of reverence, yet if a nation has entertained the opinion of a fubordinate tutelar divinity, faint, or angel; their addreffes to that being gradually rife upon them, and encroach on the adoration due to their fupreme deity. The Virgin Mary, ere checked by the reformation, had proceeded, from being merely a good woman, to ufurp many attributes of the Almighty: God and St. NICHOLAS go hand in hand, in all the prayers and petitions of the MUSCOVITES. Thus the deity, who, from love, converted himself into a bull, in order to carry off EUROPA; and who, from ambition, dethroned his father, SATURN, became the OPTIMUS MAXIMUS of the heathens. Thus, the God of ABRAHAM, ISAAC, and JACOB, became the fupreme deity or JEHOVAH of the Jews. The JACOBINS, who denied the immaculate conception, have ever been very unhappy in their doctrine, even though political reasons have kept the ROMISH church from condemning it. The CORDELIERS have run away with all the popularity. But in the fifteenth century, as we learn from BOULAINVILLIERS *, an ITALIAN Cordelier maintained, that, during the three days, when CHRIST was interred, the hypoftatic union was diffolved, and that his human nature was not a proper object of adoration, during that period. Without the art of divination, one might foretel, that fo grofs and impious a blafphemy would not fail to be anathematized by the Hiftoire abregée, p. 499. people. people. It was the occafion of great infults on the part of the JACOBINS; who now got fome recompence for their misfortunes in the war about the immaculate conception. Rather than relinquish this propensity to adulation, religionifts, in all ages, have involved themfelves in the greatest abfurdities and contradictions. HOMER, in one paffage, calls OCEANUS and TETHYS the original parents of all things, conformably to the established mythology and tradition of the GREEKS: Yet, in other paffages, he could not forbear complimenting JUPITER, the reigning deity, with that magnificent appellation; and accordingly denominates him the father of gods and men. He forgets, that every temple, every ftrcet was full of the ancestors, uncles, brothers, and fifters of this JUPITER; who was in reality nothing but an upftart parricide and ufurper. A like contradiction is obfervable in HESIOD; and is fo much the less excufable, as his profeffed intention was to deliver a true genealogy of the gods. ; Were there a religion (and we may fufpect Mahometanifm of this inconfiftence) which sometimes painted the Deity in the most fublime colours, as the creator of heaven and earth; fometimes degraded him nearly to a level with human creatures in his powers and faculties while at the same time it ascribed to him suitable infirmities, paffions, and partialities, of the moral kind: That religion, after it was extinct, would also be cited as an inftance of thofe contradictions, which arife from the grofs, vulgar, natural conceptions of mankind, opposed to their continual propenfity towards flattery and exaggeration. Nothing indeed would prove more ftrongly the divine origin of any religion, than to find (and happily Ff3 pily this is the cafe with Christianity) that it is free from a contradiction, fo incident to human nature. SECT. VII. Confirmation of this Doctrine. 2 It appears certain, that, though the original notions of the vulgar reprefent the Divinity as a limited being, and confider him only as the particular caufe of health or fickness; plenty or want; profperity or adverfity; yet when more magnificent ideas are urged upon them, they efteem it dangerous to refufe their affent. Will Will you say, that your deity is finite and bounded in his perfections; may be overcome by a greater force; is fubject to human paffions, pains, and infirmities; has a beginning, and may have an end? This they dare not affirm; but thinking it fafeft to comply with the higher encomiums, they endeavour, by an affected ravishment and devotion, to ingratiate themfelves with him. As a confirmation of this, we may obferve, that the affent of the vulgar is, in this cafe, merely verbal, and that they are incapable of conceiving those sublime qualities, which they seemingly attribute to the Deity. Their real idea of him, notwithftanding their pompous language, is ftill as poor and frivolous as ever. E That original intelligence, fay the MAGIANS, who is the first principle of all things, difcovers himself immediately to the mind and understanding alone; but has placed the fun as his image in the vifible universe; and when that bright luminary diffufes its beams over the earth and the firmament, it is a faint copy of the glory, which refides in the higher heavens. If you would escape the difpleafure of this divine being, you must be careful never to let your bare foot upon the ground, nor fpit into a fire, nor throw any water upon it, even though it were confuming |