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ADVANTAGE AND NECESSITY
OF THB
CHRISTIAN REVELATION,
SHEWIT FROM THB
STATE OF RELIGION
Ilf THE
ANTIENT HEATHEX WORLD:
ESPECIALLY WITH RESPECT TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND WORSHIP OF THE
ONE TRUE GOD: A RULE OF MORAL DUTY: AND A STATE
OF FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,
Ji Preliminary Discourse on JS*atural and Eevealed Beligion.
IN TWO TOLUMES.
BY JOHN LELAND, D. D.
AUTHOR OF THE VIEW OF THE DEISTICAL WRITES, &o.
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VOLUME L
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PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED BY ANTHONY FINLEY,
AT THE N. E. CORNER OF CHESNUT AND FOURTH STREETS.
William Fry, Printer.
1818.
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ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION.
Dr. Leland's " Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation," and his " View of the Principal Deistical Writers,'* have been much enquired for; and both, particularly the former, very rarely to be procured. This circumstance, together with their high reputation, induced the subscriber to undertake to
republish them The " View," as best known in this country,
should,* perhaps, have been the first reprinted; but, as there were some few copies of it to be obtained and none of the present work, it was deemed adviseable to give it the preference. — The «< View" will shortly be put to press, and printed in a correspond- ing form.
It is the intention of the subscriber, if encouraged by the sale of these volumes, to proceed with the republication of a number oi standard uorks of a similar nature.— In doing this he will use every effort, by great typographical correctness, and general elegance of execution, to avoid the complaints which are some- times urged against American editions.
ANTHONY FINLEY.
Philadelfihia^ May 20th, 1818.
PREFACE,
As I am fully persuaded that the Christian Revelation, considering the excellency of its doctrines, the parity of its precepts, and the power of those motives whereby the prac- tice of them is enforced, and especially its exceeding great and precious promises, and the glorious and sublime hopes which good men are thereby raised unto, is one of the choicest gifts of heaven to mankind, so I think no man can be better employed than in endeavouring to display its ad- vantages to the world, and defend it against the opposition of gainsayers. This is what I have honestly intended in several books formerly published on that subject*; and which, I trust, have not been altogether without their use. It was however neither my intention nor inclination, consi- dering my years and growing infirmities, to engage any farther in this kind of service. But some personsf , to whose judgment and authority I owe great deference, urged me some time ago to review the books I had written, and out of them to form a treatise in which the arguments in favour of Revelation might be digested into a regular series, and considered both separately and in their joint connection and
* Against Morgan, Tindal, Christianity not founded on Argu- ment, &c. &c.
t Late Lord Bishop of London, Dr. Sherlockj Dr. Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster; and others.
yi PREFACE.
harmony, together with a refutation of the principal ob- jections. And that to make this the easier I might freely make use of my own sentiments and expressions formerly published, and transcribe them into this new work. Some progress was made in this design, but after a while it was laid aside. Fori could not satisfy myself to put a work upon the public, which should be little more than an extract or abridgment of what I had before published, though in ano- ther form. As this however occasioned my turning my thoughts again to the controversy between the Christians and Deists, it gave rise to the following treatise. I found, upon considering this subject, that the ablest of those who have attempted to maintain the deistical cause in a way of reason and argument (for T do not speak of those who have contented themselves with some ill-placed jest and ridicule, and with repeating stale and trifling objections which have been frequently answered and exposed) have placed their chief strength in asserting the absolute sufficiency of natu- ral reason, left merely to its own force, without any higher assistance, to answer all the purposes of religion and happi- ness. They maintain that even the bulk of mankind need no other or better guide; and particularly, that the common reason implanted in all men does of itself make the clearest discoveries of the imity, perfections, and attributes of God, of his providence and government of the world, of the whole of moral duty in its just extent, and of a future state of retributions: that these which are the main articles in which all religion principally consists, are naturally known to all mankind; so that an extraordinary Revelation from God is perfectly needless: and therefore we may justly con- clude, that no such Revelation was ever given, since in that case it could answer no valuable end at all. This indeed would not follow. For if we should allow that those main articles of what is usually called Natural Religion are what all men are able clearly to discern of themselves, by their
PREFACE. vJi
own natural light, without instruction, yet since all that make proper reflections upon iheir own state must be con- scious that they have in many instances transgressed the law of" God, and thereby exposed themselves to his just dis- pleasure, they might still stand in great need of a Divine Revelation, to instruct them upon what terms he is willing to restore his offending creatures to his grace and favour, and how far he will think fit to reward their sincere though imperfect obedience. In this view a Revelation from God, declaring the methods of his wisdom and love for our re- covery, and his gracious purposes towards penitent return- ing sinners, and publishing the glad tidings of pardon and salvation upon such terms as he seeth fit to appoint and require, would be an advantage we cannot be sufficiently thankful for. But if besides this, it can be made to appear, that mankind stand in great need of Divine Revelation to guide and instruct them aright even in the main articles of what is usually called Natural Religion, the cause of Deism, as far as it can be formed into a consistent system, exclu- sive of all Revelation, falls to the ground. I am very sensible that they who take upon them the character of Deists, are far from being agreed in those articles of religion, the clearness of which, when arguing against the necessity or usefulness of Divine Revelation, they affect mightily to extol: and that there is too much reason to think, that one of the principal sources of those prejudices many of them have entertained against the Christian Revelation is its setting those princi- ples, and their just and natural consequences, in too clear and strong a light. But since, the better to carry on their attacks against revealed Religion, they put on an appear- ance of believing both the necessity and importance of those principles, and their being universally obvious to all man- kind, even to them that never had the benefit of Divine Revelation; this led me to make an enquiry into the state of Religion in the antient Heathen world, especially in those
viii PREFACE.
nations which are accounted to have been the most learned and civilized, and among whom there were many persons that made the highest pretensions to learning and philoso- phy. This enquiry cost me a laborious search. For though this subject has been treated of by others, and I have en- deavoured to profit by their labours, yet I did not think proper to rely entirely upon them, but, as far as I was able, examined everv thing myself; and where, in a few instances, I had not an opportunity of consulting the originals, but de- pended upon the quotations made by others, I have refer- red the reader to the authors from whom I took them.
The result of my enquiries is contained in the following work; in which I first propose to represent the state of re- ligion in the Gentile world, with respect to that which lies at the foundation of all religion, the knowledge and worship of the one true God, in opposition to idolatry and polythe- ism. 2dly, To consider what notions they had of moral duty, taken in its just extent: a thing of the highest importance to mankind. 3dly, To take a view of the notions which obtain- ed among them of a future state of rewards and punish- ments; which is also a point of vast consequence to the cause of religion and virtue in the world. Under these seve- ral heads I do not pretend to argue from speculative hypo- theses concerning the supposed powers of human nature; or to affirm that it is not possible for any man, by the mere force of his own reason, to attain to any rational persuasiou of these things; but I proceed upon fact and experience, which will help us to form the truest judgment in this mat- ter, and will shew us what we are to expect from human reason, if left merely to its own unassisted force, in the present state of mankind. The enquiry is carried on to the time of our Saviour's coming, and the issue of my researches, as far as my own particular judgment and persuasion is concern- ed, has been to produce in me a full conviction of the great need mankind stood in of an extraordinary Divine Revela-
PREFACE. ix
tion, even with regard to those that are accounted the clear- est as well as the most important articles of what is usually called Natural Religion; and to inspire me with the highest thankfulness to God for the Gospel Revelation, which has set these things in the most glorious light. This is what I have endeavoured to shew; and if what I shall offer on those heads can be any way instrumental to excite the same sen- timents and affections in others, and to heighten their es- teem for the Christian Revelation as contained in the Holy Scriptures, and to make them more careful to improve it to the excellent purposes for which it was manifestly designed, I shall not grudge the pains I have taken, but shall count myself happier than any worldly advantages could make me.
This work has grown upon my hands much beyond my original intention. But when I was once engaged upon this subject, I was not willing to treat it in a slight and superfi- cial manner; and yet several things are laid aside which I had prepared, and which would have enlarged it still more. The materials of the first part were alone sufficient to fill a large volume; and therefore I designed to publish it sepa- rately. But some judicious friends were of opinion, that it would be better to lay the whole before the public in one view. This I have ventured to do, voluminous as it is, and hope the importance of the subject, as well as the great ex- tent of it, will be admitted as an apology. To the whole is fixed a Preliminary Discourse on Natural and Revealed Religion, which I believe will not be thought an improper Introduction to a work of this nature.
In treating of the subject proposed, I have sometimes found myself obliged to differ from persons for whose learn- ing and judgment I have a great regard. And though I am not conscious to myself of having made any wilful misrepre- sentations of things, yet it is very probable that in the course
Vol. I. b
X PREFACE.
of so long a work I have committed mistakes, which will need the indulgence of the reader.
As a book of this kind must unavoidably contain a great number of quotations, I have not thought it necessary in every instance to give the words in the original language, though I have frequently done so; but have, to the best of my ability, always given a faithful account of their sense. Great care has been taken to make the references to the quotations particular and exact, that any man who pleases may the more easily have it in his power to examine and compare them.
After I had brought the following work near to a conclu- sion, I met with a book written by the late learned Dr. Archibald Campbell, professor of divinity and ecclesiastical history in the university of St. Andrews, which I had not s^en before, intituled, '^ The Necessity of Revelation: or, an Enquiry into the extent of Human Powers with respect to Matters of Religion; especially those two fundamental articles, the Being of God, and the Immortality of the Soul;" published in 1739. As the design of this treatise seemed in some measure to coincide with what I had in view, I read it over with great care, and must do him the justice to say, that he has treated his subject with great learning and diligence. But the' method he makes use of is so different from that which I have pursued, that the one does not interfere with the other; nor has it occasioned any alteration in the plan which I had formed. I have however in several places added marginal notes referring to the Doctor's book, either where I thought it contained a fuller illustration of what I have more briefly hinted at, or where, as sometimes has been the case, I happened to diff'er from that learned writer.
Not to detain the reader any longer, the plan of the fol- lowing work is briefly this:
That there was an original Revelation communicated to mankind in the earliest ages, for leading them to the know-
PREFACE. Xi
ledge of God and Religion, some vestiges of which con- tinued long among the nations: that in process of time, through the negligence and corruption of mankind, Reli- gion in its main articles, and particularly in what related to the knowledge and worship of the One true God, became in a great measure defaced, and overwhelmed with the grossest superstitions and idolatries: that this was the state of things even in the most polite and civilized nations, and all the aids of learning and philosophy were ineffectual and vain; that therefore there was great need of a new Divine Revelation from heaven, to set the great principles of reli- gion in the most clear and convincing light, and to enforce them upon mankind by a Divine authority in a manner suited to their vast importance: that accordingly it pleased God to do this by the Christian Revelation, which was fit- ted and designed to be published to all mankind, and was accompanied with all the evidences of a Divine original which were proper to procure its reception in the world: that to prepare the way for this, there had been an extraor- dinary Revelation several ages before, which though imme- diately promulgated to a particular people, was in several respects of use to other nations, for checking the progress of idolatry and polytheism, and preserving the knowledge and worship of the One true God in the world, when it seemed in danger of being extinguished.
From all which it appears, that God never left himself without witness among men: that his dispensations towards mankind have been conducted with great wisdom, righte- ousness^ and goodness: and that we, who by the favour of God enjoy the benefit of the last and most perfect Revela- tion of the Divine Will which was ever made to mankind, are under the highest obligations to receive it with the pro- foundest veneration, with the most unfeigned g:atitudeand thankful admiration of the Divine Goodness, and to endea- vour to make the best use and improvement of it.
CONTENTS
OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, IN TWO SECTIONS.
Sect. I. Of Natural Religion. Page 2.
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. ' 13.
CHAPTER I.
Man, in his original constitution, and the design of his Creator, a religious crea- ture. Not left at his first formation to work out a scheme of religion for him- self. It is reasonable to sut)pose, and confirmed by the most antient accounts, that the knowledge of religion was communicated to the first parents of the human race by a Revelation from God, and from them derived to their descen- dants. God made farther discoveries of his will td Noah, the second father of mankind. Tradition the chief way of conveying the knowledge of religion in those early ages. Page 39.
CHAPTER II.
The first religion of mankind was not idolatry, but the knowledge and worship of the one true God. Some vestiges of which may be traced up to the most an- tient times. A tradition of the creation of the world continued long among the nations. The notion of one Supreme God was neverentirely extinguished in the Pagan world; but his true worship was ia a great measure lost and con- founded amidst a multiplicity of idol deities. Page 02.
CHAPTER m.
The first corruption of religion, and deviation from the knowledge and wwship of the one true God, was the worship of heaven and the heavenly bodies. This the most antient kind of idolatry. It began very early, and spread very gene- rally among the Heathen nations. . ^^S^ ^^-
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
The worship of deified men and heroes another species of idolatry of an antient date, and which obtained very early in the Pagan world. Most of the principal objects of the Heathen \\orship, the Dii majoium Gentium, had been once dead men. The names and pecuhar attributes originally belonging to the one Supreme God applied to them, particularly to Jupiter; to whom at tht same time were ascribed the most criminal actions. Jupiter Capitolinus, the prin- cipal object of worship among the antient Romans, not the one true God, but the chief of the Pagan divinities. The pretence, that the Pagan polytheism was only the worshipping one true God under various names and mamfest.itions, examined and shewn to be insufficient. The different names and titles of God erected into different deities. Page 99.
CHAPTER V.
Farther progress of the Heathen polytheism. The symbols and images of the Gods turned into Gods themselves. The Physiology of the Pagans another source of idolatry. They made Gods and Goddesses of the things of nature, and parts of the universe, and of whatsoever was useful to mankind. The qua- lities and affections of the mind, and accidents of life, and even evil qualities and accidents were deified, and had divine honours rendered to them. The most refined Pagans agreed, according to Dr. Cudworth, in crumbling the Deity into several parts, and multiplying it into many gods. They supposed God to be in a manner all things, and therefore to be worshipped in every thing. Divine honours were paid to evil beings acknowledged to be such. The Egyptian idolatry considered. Page 128.
CHAPTER Vr.
'the Pagan theology distributed by Varro into three different kinds: the poetical or fabulous, the civil, and the philosophical. The poetical or fabulous theology considered. The pretence, that we ought not to judge of the Pagan religion by the poetical mythology, examined. It is shewn, that the popular religion ' and worship was in a great measure founded upon that mythology, which ran through the whole of their rehgion, and was of great authority with the people. Page 143.
CHAPTER VII.
The civil theology of the Pagans considered. That of the antient Romans has been much commended, yet became in process of time little less absurd than the poetical, and in many instances was closely connected and complicated with it. The pernicious consequences of this to religion and morals. Some ac- count of the absurd and immoral rites which were antiently practised in the
CONTENTS. XV
mcjst civilized nations, and which made a part of their religion; being either prescribed by the laws, or established by customs which had the force of laws. The politicians and civil magistrates took no effectual methods to rectify this, but rather countenanced and abetted the popular superstition and i^^olatry. Pag^ 153^
CHAPTER VITI.
The Pagan mysteries have been highly extolled, as an expedient provided by the civil authority, both for leading the people to the practice of virtue, and for convincing them of the vanity of the common idolatry and polytheism. The tendency of the mysteries to purify the soul, and raise men to the perfectioa of virtue, examined. At best they were only designed to promote the practice of those virtues which were most useful to society, and to deter men from such vices as were most pernicious to it. In process of time they became greatly corrupted, and had a bad effect on the morals of the people. The pretence, that the mysteries were intended to detect the error of the vulgar polytheism, and to bring men to the acknowledgment and adoration of the one true God, distinctly considered: and the proofs brought for it shewn to be in- sufficient. Page 182.
CHAPTER IX.
Some farther considerations to shew, that the design of the mysteries was not to detect the errors of the Pagan polytheism. The legislators and magistrates who instituted and conducted the mysteries, were themselves the chief promo- ters of the popular polytheism from political views, and therefore it is impro- bable that they intended secretly to subvert it by the mysteries. Their scheme upon such a supposition absurd and inconsistent. The mysteries were, in fact, of no advantage for reclaiming the Heathens from their idolatries. The primi- tive Christians not to be blamed for the bad opinion they had of the Paga« mysteries. Page 211.
CHAPTER X.
The philosophical Theology of the antient Pagans considered. High encomiums bestowed upon the Pagan philosophy. Yet it was of little use for leading th« people into a right knowledge of God and religion, and for reclaiming them from their idolatry and polytheism. This shewn from several considerations. And first, if the philosophers had been right in their own notions of religion, they could have but small influence on the people, for want of a proper autho- rity to enforce their instructions. f^S^ 227.
xvi CONTENTS-
CHAPTER XI.
The affected obscurity of the Pagan philosophers another cause which rendered them unfit to instruct the people in religion. Instead of clearly explaining their senUments on the most im,)ortant subjerts, they carefully concealed them from the vulgar. To which it may be added, that some of them used their ut- most efforts to destroy ail certainty and evidence, arid to unsettle men's minds as to the belief of the fundamental principles of all religion: and even the best and greatest of them acknowledged the darkness and uncertainty they v ere under, especially in divine matters. Page 235.
CHAPTER Xn.
The fourth general consideration. The philosophers unfit to instruct the people in. religion, because they themselves were for the most part veiy wrong in their own notions of the Divinity. They were the gieat corrupters of the an- tient tradition relating to the one true (lod and the creation of the world. Many of those who professed to search into the origin of the world, and the formation of things, endeavoured to account for it without the interposition of a Deity. The opinions of those philosophers who were of a nobler kind consi- dered. It is shewn, that they were chargeable with great defects, and no way proper to reclaim the nations from their idolatry and polytheism. Page 247.
CHAPTER XIII.
Further proofs of the wrong sentiments of the antient philosophers in relation itt the Divinity. Plutarch's opinion; and which he represents as having been very general among the antients, concerning two eternal principles, the one good, the other evil. Those philosophers who taught that the world was formed and brought into its present order by God, yet held the eternity of matter; and few if any of them believed God to be the Creator of the weild in the proper sense. Many of tliem, especially after the time of Aristotle, maintained the eternity of the world in its present form. It was an established notion among the most celebrated philosophers, and which spread generally among the learned Pa- gans, that God is the soul of the world, and that the whole animated system, of the world is God. The pernicious consequence of this notion shewn^ and the use that was made of it for encouraging and promoting idolatry and IHjIy theism. Page 275
CHAPTER XIV.
The greatest and best of the antient Pagan philosophers generally expressed themselves in the polytheistic strain; and, instead of leading the people to the one true God, they spoke of a plurality of gods, even in their most serious dis-
CONTENTS. xvii
courses. They ascribed those works to the gods, and directed those duties to be rendered to them, which properly belong to the Supreme. Page 298.
CHAPTER XV.
Some farther considerations to shew how little w as to be expected from the phi- losophers for recovering the Pagans from their polytheism and idolatry. They referred the people for instruction in divine matters to the oracles, which were managed by the priests. This shewn particularly concerning Socrates, Plato, and the Stoics. It was an universal maxim among them, That it was the duty of every wise and good man to conform to the religion of his country. And not only did they worship the gods of their respective countries, according to the established rites, and exhort others to do so, but when they themselves took upon them the character of legislators, and drew up plans of laws and of the best forms of government, not the worship of the one true God, but polytheism, was the religion they proposed to establish. Page 318.
CHAPTER XVr.
Farther proofs of the philosophers countenancing and encouraging the popular idolatry and polytheism. They employed their learning and abilities to defend and justify it. The worship of inferior deities was recommended by them under pretence that it tended to the honour of the Supreme. Some of the most emi- nent of them endeavoured to colour over the absurd est part of the Pagan poetic theology by allegorizing the most indecent fables. They even apologiz- ed for the Egv'ptian animal worship, which the generality of the vulgar Pagans in other nations ridiculed. Their plea for idolatry and image-worship as neces- sary to keep the people from falling into irreligion and atheism. Some of the most refined philosophers were against any external worship of the Supreme God. Page 332.
CHAPTER XVn.
The state of the Heathen world with respect to their notions of Divine Provi^ dence. The belief of a Providence superintending human affairs obtained gene- rally among the vulgar Pagans: but the Providence they acknowledged was parcelled out among a multiplicity of gods and goddesses. Their notions of Pro- vidence were also in other respects very imperfect and confused. The doctrine of the philosophers concerning Providence considered. Many of them, and of the learned and polite Pagans, denied a Providence. Of those who professed to acknowledge it, some confined it to heaven and heavenly things. Others sup- posed it to extend to the earth and to mankind, yet so as only to exercise a general care and superintendency, but not to extend to individuals. Others supposed all things, the least as well as the greatest, to be under the care of Providence: but they ascribed this not to the Supreme God, wlio thev thought
Vol. I. c
xviii CONTENTS.
was above concerning himself with such things as these, and committed the care of them wholly to inferior deities. The great advantage of Revelation shewn for instiiicting men in the doctrine of Providence: and the noble idea given of it in the Holy Scriptures. Page 343.
CHAPTER XVni.
General reflections on the foregoing account of the religion of the antient Pa- gans. The first reflection is this: that the representations made to us in Scrip- ture of the deplorable state of religion among the Gentiles are literally true, and agreeable to fact, and are confirmed by the undoubted monuments of Pa- ganism. The attempts of some learned men to explain away those representa- tions considered, and shewn to be vain and insufiicient. Page S70.
CHAPTER XIX.
A second general reflection. The corruption of religion in the Heathen world is DO just objection against the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence. God did not leave himself without witness amongst them. They had for a long time some remains of antient tradition originally derived from Revelation. Besides •which, they had the standing evidences of a Deity in his wonderful works. The Jewish Revelation was originally designed to give a check to the growing idolatry, and had a tendency to spread the knowledge and worship of the one true God among the nations: and it actually had that effect in many instances. If the generality of the Pagans made no use of these advantages, but still per- sisted in their idolatry and polytheism, the fault is not to be charged upon God, but upon themselves. Page 394.
CHAPTER XX.
A third general reflection. Idolatry gathered strength among the nations, as they grew in learning and politeness Religion in several respects less corrupted in the ruder and more illiterate than in the politer ages. The arts and sciences made a very gi-eat progress in the Heathen world: yet thty still became more and more addicted to the most absurd idolatries, as well as to the most abomi- nable vices; both of which were at the height at the time of our Saviour*s ap- pearance. Page 414.
CHAPTER XXI.
A fourth general reflection. Human wisdom and philosophy, without a higher assistance, insufi^icient for recovering mankind from their idolatry and poly- theism, and for leading them into the right know ledge of God and religion, and the worship due to him. No remeily was to be expected in an ordinary way, either from the philosophers or from the priests, or from the civil magistrates.
CONTENTS. xix
Nothing less than an extraordinaiy Revelation from God could, as things were circumstanced, prove an effectual remedy. The wisest men in the Heathen world were sensible of their own darkness and ignorance in the things of God, and of their need of Divine Revelation. Page 424.
CHAPTER XXn.
The fifth and last general reflection. The Christian Revelation suited to the ne- cessities of mankind. The glorious change it wrought in the face of things, and in the state of religion in the world; yet accomplished by the seemingly meanest instruments, in opposition to the greatest difficulties. It was given in the fittest season, and attended with the most convincing evidences of a divine original. How thankful should we be for the salutary light it brings, and how careful to improve it! What an advantage it is to have the Holy Scriptures in our hands, and the necessity there is of keeping close to the sacred rule there set before us, in order to the preserving the Christian Religion in its purity and simplicity. Page 435.
AN
INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE
CONCERNING
J\'ATVBJ1L JUS'S REVEJILEI) RELIGIOJS'.
IvELIGION, in its true notion, necessarily supposes and includes an intercourse between God and Man: i. e, on God's part discoveries and manifestations of himself and his perfections, and of his will with regard to the duties he requireth: and on man's part a capacity and readiness to re- ceive and improve those discoveries, and to conform to all the significations of the divine will. For it is an undeniable principle, that whatsoever plainly appeareth to be the mind and will of Gcfd, in whatever way we come to know it, we are> indispensably obliged to observe. And there are two ways by which God may be supposed to manifest himself and his will to mankind, by his Works and by his Word.
Accordingly Religion has been usually distributed into Natural and Revealed. These are not two essentially dif- ferent religions, much less contrary or contradictory to one another: for as both are supposed to come from God, who is truth itself, there must be a harmony between them: nor yet are they entirely the same, and only differing in the manner of communication. For though all true Revealed Religion must be really consistent with, and contain nothing contrary to, the clear light of Nature and Reason, yet it may discover and reveal several things relative to Truth and Duty, which that Light, if left to itself, could not have
Vol. I. A
2 Introductory Discourse. Sect. I.
discovered at all, or not with sufficient clearness and cer- tainty. These, therefore, are not to be set in opposition: nor is the one of them designed to exclude the other. And, in fact, God manifested himself in both these ways from the beginning,* so that it may, with the greatest justness and pro- priety, be said, that he hath never left himself without wit- ness among men. Happy would it have been for them, if they had been careful to make a right use and improvement of those discoveries!
SECTION I.
OF NATURAL RELIGION.
The word Natural Religion has been taken in various acceptations. Some, by Natural Religion, understand every thing in religion, with regard to truth and duty, which, when once discovered, may be clearly shewn to have a real foundation in the nature and relations of things, and which unprejudiced reason will approve, when fairly proposed and set in a proper light. And accordingly very fair and goodly schemes of Natural Religion have been drawn up by Chris- tian Philosophers and Divines, in which they have compre- hended a considerable part of what is contained in the Scrip- ture Revelation: e. g", the important truths and principles relating to the existence, the unity, the perfections, and at- tributes of God, his governing providence and moral admi- nistration, the worship that is due to him, the law that is given to mankind, or the whole of moral duty in its just ex- tent as relating to God, our neighbours, and ourselves, the rewards and punishments of a future state, and other arti- cles nearly connected with these, or dependent upon them. And after having taken great pains to shew that all this is perfectly agreeable to sound reason, and founded in the na^
Sect. L Of Natural Religion. 9
ture of things, they have honoured the whole with the name of Natural Religion. It cannot be denied, that it is a real and great service to Religion, to shew that the main princi- ples and duties of it are what right reason must approve. And no small praise is certainly due to those, who have set themselves to demonstrate this with great clearness and force of argument.
But it does not follow, that because these things, when once clearly discovered, may be proved to be agreeable to reason, and to have a real foundation in the nature of things, that therefore Reason alone, in the present state of man- kind, if left to itself, without higher assistance, would mere- ly, by its own force, have discovered all these things with their genuine consequences, and have applied them to their proper uses, for directing men in the true knowledge and practice of Religion. It is a just observation of that great man Mr. Locke, That " a great many things which we have been bred up in the belief of from our cradles (and are notions grown familiar, and, as it were, natural to us under the Gospel) we take for unquestionable truths, and easily demonstrable, without considering how long we might have been in doubt or ignorance of them, had Revelation been silent («)." And he had said before, that " every one may observe a great many truths, which he receives at first from others, and readily affirms to be consonant to reason, which he would have found it hard, and perhaps beyond his strength, to have discovered himself. Native and ori- ginal truth is not so easily wrought out of the mine, as we who have it ready dug and fashioned to our hands, are apt to imagine (^)." To the same purpose the learned Dr. Clarke observes, that " it is one thing to see, that these
(a) Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, in his works, Vol. II. p. 535. ed. 3. {b) Ibid. p. 532.
4 Introductory Discourse. Sect. I.
rules of life, which are beforehand plainly and particularly- laid before us, are perfectly agreeable to reason, and another thing to find out these rules merely by the light of rea- son, without their having been first any otherwise made known (c)/' Accordingly some able and strenuous asserters of Natural Religion or the law of nature, though they con- tend that it is founded in the nature of things, and agree- able to right reason, yet derive the original promulgation of it from divine Revelation. Puffendorf observes, that " it is very probable that God taught the first men the chief heads of natural law, which were afterwards preserved and spread among their descendants by means of education and custom: yet this does not hinder, but that the knowledge of these laws may be called natural, inasmuch as the truth and certainty of th'em may be discovered in a way of reasoning, and in the use of that reason which is natural to all men." PufFend. de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. II. c. iii. sect. 20. Ac- cording to this account. Natural Religion or the law of na- ture is not so called because it was originally discovered by natural reason, but because, when once made known, it is what the reason of mankind, duly exercised, approves, as founded in truth and nature.
Natural Religion, in the sense now explained, is very consistent with the supposition of an extraordinary divine Revelation, both to discover and promulgate it at first, and to re-establish and confirm it, when, through the corrup- tion of mankind, the important principles and duties of it were fallen into such darkness and obscurity, and so con- founded with pernicious errors and obscure mixtures, that there needed an extraordinary assistance to recover men to the right knowledge and practice of it.
(c) See Dr. Clarke's Discourse on Nat. and Rev. Religion, proposition vii. p. 313. edit. 7,
Sect. I. Of Natural Religion, 5
There are others who take Natural Religion in a sense which is absolutely exclusive of all extraordinary Revela- tion, and in direct opposition to it. By Natural Religion they understand that Religion which men discover in the sole exercise of their natural faculties and powers, without any other or higher assistance. And they discard all pre- tences to extraordinary Revelation, as the effects of enthu- siasm or imposture. It is in this sense, that those who call themselves Deists understand Natural Religion, which they highly extol as the only true Religion, the only discovery of truth and duty which can be safely depended upon; and which comprehends the whole of what is necessary to be known and done, in order to the obtaining the favour of God, and attaining true happiness. But they who take Natural Religion in this sense are not entirely agreed in their scheme.
The ablest advocates for Natural Religion, as opposed to Revelation, assert it to be perfectly clear and obvious to the whole human race, and that it is what all men have a na- tural knowledge of. They argue, that since Religion equally concerneth all mankind, the wisdom and goodness of God require that it should be actually known to all. That since God has given the brutes natural instincts, which guide them certainly and infallibly to answer the proper end of their being, much more must it be supposed that he hath furnished all men with infallible means to direct them to Religion and Happiness. Thus it is that Lord Herbert fre- quently argues; and on this foundation it is that he asserts, that God hath imprinted on the minds of all men innate ideas of the main principles of Religion and Morality. And Dr. Tindal frequently represents it, as if there was a clear universal light shining into the minds of all men, and disco- vering to them the whole of what is necessary for them to know, believe, and practise; and which cannot be made clearer to any man by an external extraordinary Revela-
9 Introductory Discourse* Sect. I.
tion, than it is naturally to all men without it. This is the principle which lies at the foundation of his celebrated book, intituled, " Christianity as old as the Creation," and which runs through the whole of that boasted performance. And it is, indeed, the only principle on which the scheme of those gentlemen, who pretend that an extraordinary Re- velation is absolutely needless and useless, can be consist- ently supported. This last mentioned author often talks as if what is called the law, or Religion of Nature, was a per- fect scheme of Religion and Morality, fairly drawn on the mind and heart of every man, in such a manner, that it is not possible for any man to mistake it. And he carries it so far as to affirm, that even the most illiterate of the human race, and who cannot so much as read in their mother tongue, have naturally and necessarily a clear and intimate percep- tion of the whole of Religion and their duty. And it will be easily owned, that there is no need of an extraordinary Revelation to teach men what they all naturally and neces- sarily know. Nor, indeed, upon that supposition, is there the least need of instructions of any kind, whether by word or writing: and the best way would be (as this gentleman himself sometimes intimates) to leave all men entirely to themselves, and to the pure simple dictates of nature. This way of talking may, perhaps, appear fair and plausible in speculation. It seems to make a beautiful representation of the dignity of our species, and of the universal goodness of God to the whole human race. But, when brought to the test of fact and experience, it appears to be a visionary- scheme, no way answering to the truth and reality of the case in the present state of human nature. And one would be apt to wonder, how such a representation could be made to pass upon any man, that has the least knowledge of the world, or of the history of mankind. It supposes Religion, in its true nature and in its just extent, to be naturally- known to all men; so that they cannot mistake it: and yet
Sect. I. Of Natural Religion. 7
nothing is more certain and undeniable, from the history of mankind in all ages, than that they have mistaken it in its important principles and obligations: and that, in order to their having a right sense and discernment of those princi- ples and obligations, they stand in great need of particular instruction and information. It is evident in fact, that where no care is taken to instruct men, they have scarce any no- tion of Religion at all, but are sunk into the grossest igno- rance and barbarism: and accordingly the wisest men in all ages have been sensible of the great advantage and necessity of education and instruction. Plutarch, in his treatise De liberis educand. goes so far as to affirm, that "Nature, without learning or instruction, is a blind thing;" tJ ^h (pCru ttnv fAecH(riui rv(pxh(d). And, in his treatise De Auditione, he says, " Vice can have access to the soul through many parts of the body, but Virtue can lay hold of a young man only by his ears (^)," by which he receives instruction. Plato, in his sixth book of laws, after having said, that man, if, with a good natural disposition, he happens to have the advantage of right instruction and education, becomes a most divine and gentle animal, adds, that, if he be not suf- ficiently or properly educated, he is the wildest and most untractable of all earthly animals, ay^idreclcv ^oa-ec (pvH yH (y). The philosophers frequently complain of the ignorance and stupidity of the generality of mankind: and this even when they speak of the people of Athens and Rome, who were undoubtedly the most knowing and civilized among the heathen nations. And they would certainly have thought it a very strange hypothesis to suppose, that every man, even the meanest of the vulgar, is naturally so knowing in reli-
(d) Plutarch Oper. Tome II. p. 2. B. Edit. Francof. 1620.
(e) Ibid. p. 38. A.
(/) Plat. Oper. p. 619. D. Edit. Ficin. Lugd. 1590.
8 Introductory Discourse, Sect. I.
gion and morals, as to stand in no need of farther instruc- tion either from God or man. {g)
Sensible of the inconveniencies of this scheme, others, by Natural Religion, understand not merely that which is na- turally and necessarily known to all men, but that which Reason, duly exercised and improved, is able, by its own natural force, to discover, without the assistance of extra- ordinary Revelation. And as to this, it is a question not easy to be resolved, what is the utmost possibility of human reason, or how far our natural faculties, without any high- er assistance, may possibly carry us, when raised to the highest degree of improvement of which they are naturally capable. Nor is it a question of much use: since there are many things, which cannot be said to be absolutely above the reach of human capacity, which yet very few of the human race would ever come to know without particular information. The present question, as far as Natural Reli- gion is concerned in it, is, how far the bulk of mankind, taking them as they are in the present state of the world, and of human nature, immersed in flesh and sense, with all their appetites and passions about them, and amidst the many avocations, businesses, and cares in which th'ey are involved, can ordinarily arrive in matters of Religion, by the mere force of their own natural powers, without any farther assistance or instruction: If we should suppose that some persons of strong reason and extraordinary judgment and sagacity, were capable, by the mere force of their own reason and studious researches, to make out for themselves a system of Religion and Morals in all its main principles and duties, yet this would not reach the case of the genera-
^ (jg) I have elsewhere more largely shewn the absurdity of this scheme, jinswer to Christianity as old as the Creation^ ,vol. I. especially chap. v. See also the View of the Deistical Writers, yd. I. p. 49, et seq. edit. 3.
Sect. I. Of Natural Religion. 9
lity of mankind who have neither capacity, nor leisure, nor inclination for profound enquiries. Nor could these wise men pretend to a sufficient authority for imposing their own sentiments as laws to mankind. Or, jf the people should be brought to pay an implicit regard to their dictates, here would a way be opened for what those gentlemen, who set up for the Patrons of Natural Religion in opposition to Re- velation, so much dread, priestcraft, and the impositions of designing men (Ji).
Qi) It may not be amiss here to produce the acknowledgment of an ingenious author who cannot be suspected of being pre- judiced in favour of Revelation, and has taken pains to convince the world of the contrary. •' They," sailh he, *' who would judge uprightly of the strength of human reason in matters of morality and relis:ion, under the present corrupt and degenerate state of mankind, ought to take their estimate from those parts of the world, which never had the benefit of Revelation: and this, perhaps, may make them less conceited of themselves, and more thankful to God for the light of the Gospel." He asks, " If the religion of nature, under the present depravity and corrupt- tion of mankind, was written with sufficient strength and clear- ness upon every man's heart, why might not a Chinese or Indian draw up as good a system of Natural Religion as a Chris- tian, and why have we never met with any such?" And he adds, "let us take Confucius, Zoroaster, Plato, Socrates, or the great- est moralist that ever lived without the light of Revelation, and it will appear, that their best systems of morality were intcrn)ix- cd and blended with much superstition, and so many gross ab- surdities as quite eluded and defeated the main design of them." The same author observes, that " at the time of Christ's commg into the world, mankind in general were in a state of gross ic:no- rance and darkness with respect to the true knovvled^e of God, and of themselves, andof all those moral reladons and obliga- tions we stand in to the Supreme Being, and to one another." That ^* they were under great uncertainties concerning a future state, and the concern of divine Providence in the g'ivernojent «f the world" — That « our Saviour's doctrines on these heads,
Vol. I. B
10 Introductory Discourse* SioT. !•
But without entering into a nice speculative disquisition, concerning the powers and abilities of human reason in mat- ters of Religion, independent of all Revelation, the surest and plainest way of judging is from fact and experience. It is therefore of great moment, for the decision of this point, to enquire what it is that human reason hath actually done this way, when left merely to its own force, without any ex- traordinary assistance (i). And this cannot be judged of from any systems formed by persons that live in ages and countries, which have enjoyed the light of Divine Revela- tion, and where its discoveries, doctrines, and laws have been received and entertained; since in this case it may reasonably be supposed, that they have borrowed light from Revelation, though they are not willing to acknowledge it, or may not themselves be sensible of it. And there- fore systems drawn up by our modern admirers of Na- tural Religion in Christian countries, cannot be brought in
though they be true and genuine dictates of nature and reason, when he had set them in a proper light, yet were such as the people never would have known without such an instructor, and such means and opportunities of knowledge." And that it doth not follow, that, " because these are natural truths, and moral obligations, therefore there could be no need of Revelation to discover them; as the books of Euclid and Newton's Principia contain natural truths, and such as are necessarily founded in the reason of things, and yet none but a fool or a madman would say, that he could have informed himself in these matters as well as without them." Dr. Morgan's Moral Philosopher, vol. I. p. 143, 144, 145.
(0 A very learned writer, who will not allow that any single person of the human race ever, in fact, arrived at the right knowledge of God, merely by the natural exercise of his own rational powers, without foreign instruction and assistance, yet does not carry it so far as to afBrm, that it is not possible for any man to do so. He observes, thati " in examining how far
Sect. I. Qf Natural Religion. 11
proof of the force of unassisted Reason in matters of Re- ligion. And the same may be said of those Pagan philo- sophers who lived after Christianity had made some pro- gress in the world.
Nor can the sufficiency of the light of Natural Reason left merely to itself, without the aids of Revelation, be regu- larly argued from the systems of the antient philosophers, lawgivers, and moralists, who lived before the Christian Re- velation was published; except it can be shewn, that they themselves derived the religious and moral principles which they taught, solely and entirely from the researches and disquisitions of their own Reason, and disclaimed their hav- ing had any assistance, with regard to those truths and prin- ciples, from tradition or divine instruction. And it is no hard matter to shew by testimonies from the most celebrated an- tients, than this was not the case, nor was it what they as- sumed to themselves. It is a thing well known, that the most admired philosophers of Greece did not pretend to set up merely on their own stock, but travelled into Egypt, and different parts of the East, to improve their knowledge by conversation with the sages of those countries; who them-
mankind are able, of themselves, to extend their knowledge of religious matters, we must all along mean the bulk of mankind, and only regard the common powers of human nature, as they may, possibly, be employed and exerted by the individuals of our species in the common circumstances of human life: so that although one man, or some few men, is this or that age or place of the world, should happen, by some lucky juncture, from one step to another, to come at length to shew themselves able to discover the Being and perfections of God, the immortality of the soul, and other articles of Natural Religion, yet this uncom- mon event can never be accounted a fair standard, whereby to judge of the common powers and abilities of the bulk of man- kind" Campbell's Necessity of Revelation, p., 64. He express- es himself to the same purpose, p, 66 and 72,
12 Introductory Discourse. Sect. I
selves professed to have derived their knowledge, not merely from the disquisitions of their own Reason, but from a high- er source, from very antient traditions, to which for the most part they assigned a divine original. And indeed, sup- posing an original Revelation to have been communicated to the first parents and ancestors of the human race, which (I shall shew) there is -great reason to believe, the most con- siderable vestiges of it were to be expected in the Eastern nations, which lay nearest to the seat of the first men; and from which the rest of the world had their knowledge of Religion and Letters. To this it may be added, that the most celebrated and sagacious of the antient philosophers made pathetical complaints of human darkness and igno- rance, and the great difficulties they met with in searching after truth. Many of them were sensible of the great need there was of a divine instruction and assistance, for enlight- ening ?nd directing mankind in matters of Religion and their duty (/^). So that no argument can be justly drawn from the wise men and philosophers among the antients, to shew that the knowledge of what is usually called Natural Reli- gion, in its just extent, is wholly and originally owing to the force of human Reason, exclusive of all Divine Revelation. And perhaps it would not be easy to mention any nations, among whom any true knowledge of Religion has been pre- served, concerning which we can be assured, that they never had any benefit from the light of Divine Revelation; and that the principles of religious truth and duty, which were to be found among them, were originally the mere product of natural Reason, without any higher assistance. Several things may be observed amongst them, which seem to be
{k) This is particularly shewn in Dr. Clarke's Discourse of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 304, et seq. and in Dr. Ellis's « KnowledJ2:e of divine things from Revelation, not from Na- ture or Reason."
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. 13
the remains of an antient universal tradition, or primaeval Religion, derived from the remotest antiquity, and which, probably, had their original source in Divine Revelation, though, in process of time, it was greatly altered and cor- rupted. This is only mentioned here, but will be more fully considered in the sequel of this treatise.
SECTION II.
OF REVEALED RELIGION.
By Revealed Religion is commonly understood that knowledge of Religion, which was originally communicated from God to men in a way of extraordinary Revelation, for instructing them in important religious truth, and directing and engaging them to the practice of their duty. In a gene- ral sense, all truth, and the manifestation of it, may be said to come from God, even that which we discover in the or- dinary use of those rational faculties which he hath given us. Bat when we speak of Revealed Religion, as distin- guished from that which is usually called Natural, it is to be understood of that knowledge of Religion, which was originally communicated in an extraordinary and superna- tural way. And such a Revelation must either be by an im- mediate infallible inspiration, or illumination of every par- ticular person, for enlightening and directing him in the knowledge and practice of Religion; or by God's making an extraordinary discovery of himself, and of his will to some person or persons, to be by them communicated to others in his name. In the former case it could not be properly called extraordinary Revelation: For if it were an universal infallible light, imparted to every single person in every na-
14 Introductory Discourse, Sect. IL
tion and everj age, from the beginning of the world, it would be as common and familiar to every one as the com- mon light of reason, and by being universal would cease to be extraordinary. That this is possible to the Divine Power, cannot be doubted; but it is evident in fact, that this is not the way which it hath pleased the Divine Wisdom to take with mankind, t For if every man were inspired with the knowledge of Religion in a way of immediate infallible Revelation, it could not possibly have happened, that the most of mankind, in all ages, have been involved in dark- ness and error, and have fallen into a gross ignorance of true Religion, and into the most absurd superstitions and idolatries. If, therefore, there be such a thing as Revealed Religion, if it hath pleased God to make discoveries of his will to mankind with regard to religious truth and duty, in a way of extraordinary Revelation, the most natural way and that which is the best accommodated to the present state of mankind, seems to be this; that the Revelation should be imparted to some person or persons, to be by them communicated to others in his name(/); at the same time furnishing them with sufficient proofs and credentials, to
(/) When we speak of the Revelation's being communicated to others, besides those who originally and immediately received it from God, this is to be understood of the matter of that Reve- lation, or the docirines and laws which are thus revealed. For though the inspiration itself, considered as an act of God upon the mind, is a personal thing, and cannot be communicated by the person who receives it to others, yet the doctrines and laws hje thus receives from God, may be by him communicated to others by word and writing, as readily as if he had received them in the ordinary and natural way. And they to whom they are thus communicated, are obliged to receive them as of divine autho- rity, in proportion to the proofs and evidences which are given them, that the person that delivered them was indeed sent of God, and received them by Revelation from him.
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. IS
shew that they were indeed sent and inspired by him; and that the doctrines and laws they publish to the world in his name were really and originally communicated by Revela- tion from him. For in this method there is sufficient proof given to satisfy well disposed minds, and provision is made for instructing men, if it be not their own faults, in the knowledge of Religion, and engaging them to the practice of the duties it requireth: and at the same time, there is room for the exercise of reason, for examination and enquiry into the nature of the evidence, and for the trial of men's sincerity and diligence, of their impartial love of truth, and openness to receive it.
With regard to Revelation as now explained, several questions arise, which deserve to be considered. The first relates to the possibility of it. The second to the usefulness and expediency, or even necessity of it in the present state of mankind. The third relates to the proofs and evidences, whereby it may be shewn, that such a Revelation hath been actually given.
That God can, if he thinks fit, make a Revelation of him- self, and his will to men in an extraordinary way, different from the discoveries made by men themselves in the mere natural and ordinary use of their own rational faculties and powers, appears to me to be so evident, that I do not see how any man that believes a God and a Providence, can reasonably deny it. For if the power of God be almighty, it must extend to whatsoever doth not imply a contradiction, which cannot be pretended in this case. We cannot distinct- ly explain the origin of our ideas, or the way in which they are excited or impressed on the human mind. But we know that these ways are very various. And can it be sup- posed, that the author of our beings hath it not in his power to communicate ideas to our minds, for instructing and informing us in what it nearly concerneth us to know? Our not being able clearly to explain the manner in which
16 Introductory Discourse, Sect. II.
this is done, is no just objection against it. For this we have the acknowlede;ment of a noble and ingenious writer, who is of a distinguished rank among the opposers of Revela- tion. He observes that *'' an extraordinary action of God upon the human mind, which the word inspiration is now used to denote, is not more inconceivable than the ordinary- action of mind on bodv, or body on mind." And that " it is impertinent to deny the existence of any phsenomenon, merely because we cannot account for it (m)."
And as it cannot reasonably be denied, that God can, if he sees fit, communicate his will to men in a way of extra- ordinary Revelation, so he can do it in such a manner, as to give those to whom this Revelation is originally and im- mediately made, a full and certain assurance of its being a true divine Revelation. This naturally follows upon the former. For to suppose that God can communicate his will in a way of extraordinary Revelation, and yet is not able to give a sufficient assurance to the person or persons to whom he thus reveals his will, that the Revelation comes from him, is evidently absurd and contradictory. It is, in effect, to say, that he can reveal his will, but has no way of mak- ing men know that he does so: which is a most unreasonable limitation of the divine power and wisdom (ji). He that pretends to pronounce that this is impossible, is bound to shew w^here the impossibility of it lies. If men, like our- selves, can communicate their thoughts by speech or lan- guage in such a way as that we may certainly know who it is that speaks to us, it would be a strange thing to affirm, that God, on supposition of his communicating his mind and will to any person or persons in a way of extraordinary Re- velation, has no way of causing them to know that it is he,
(m) Lord Bolingbroke's Works, Vol. HI. p. 468. Edit. 4to. (n) See, concerning this, Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, Vol. II. chap. i. p. 3, 4. second edit.
Sect. IL Of Revealed Religion, 17
and no other, that makes this discovery to them. The in- genious author of the Moral Philosopher was sensible of this. He expressly grants, that " God may communicate and convey spiritual and divine truth, either mediately or immediately as he thinks fit, either by the superior strength and extent of men's own natural faculties, or by any more immediate supernatural illumination." And again, tnat *' God may reveal or discover truth to the mind ia a way superior to what is common and natural." And he owns, that " immediate Inspiration or Revelation from God may communicate a certainty to the man thus imm diately in- spired, equal to that which ariseth from a m \thematical demonstration (o)." Though he will not allow, that the knowledge of such truth can go any farther upon divine au- thority, or as a matter of divine faith, than to the person or persons thus inspired, or to whom the Revelation is imme- diately made.
This leads me to another observation on this subject; and that is, that God can commission those to whom he has made an extraordinary Revelation of his will, to communi- cate to others what they have received from him, and can furnish them with such credentials of their divine mission, as are sufficient to prove that he sent them, and that the d(ictrines and laws they deliver in his name, were indeed re- ceived from God. It must be acknowledged, that though the persons to whom the original Revelation was made, were never so sure that it is a true divine Revelation, and that they received it from God; their being certain of it is no assurance to others, except they be able to give some farther proofs and evidences, which may be sufficient to shew the justness of their pretensions. It is true, that if they'
(o) Moral Philosopher, Vol. I. p. 82, 83, 84. and Vol. II. p. 44,' 45. Vol. I. e
18 Introductory Discourse, Sect. IL
appear from their whole conduct and character to be excel- lent persons, of great piety, probity and simplicity, not ac- tuated by worldly ambition, avarice, or sensuality, nor car- ried away by a disorderly imagination and hot-brained enthusiasm, but of sound and sober minds: if the Revela- tion they profess to have received from God hath nothing in it contrary to the evident dictates of right reason, and is of an excellent tendency, manifestly directed to the glory of God, and to the good of mankind, and to promote the cause of truth, righteousness, and virtue in the world: if the doc- trines and laws they publish in the name of God be of such a nature, and have such a degree of wisdom, goodness, and purity in them, as is vastly superior to what could have been expected in an ordinary v/ay from the persons by whorei they were published to the world; and therefore could not be reasonably supposed to be the product of their own in- vention: and if there be nothing in the whole that gives a just suspicion of artful imposture, or a design to impose upon mankind; but much to the contrary: These must be owned to be strong presumptive arguments in their favour. But still it may be reasonably expected, that if God com- missions persons to deliver doctrines and laws to the world in his name, he will furnish them with positive proofs and evidences sufficient to convince reasonable and well-disposed minds that he sent them. That it is possible for God to give such proofs and evidences, cannot, without great absurdity, be denied. The omnipotent author of nature, and Lord of the universe, can undoubtedly, if he thinks fit, enable such persons to perform the most wonderful works in his name as a proof that he sent them; works of such a nature, and so circumstanced, as manifestly to transcend all human power, and bear the evident marks of a divine interposition ( /»).
{fi) Some of the most noted opposers of Revelation have made concessions which tend to shew, that miraclesi supposing them
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. 19
He can also endue them with supernatural gifts, and enable them to give express predictions of future contingent events which no human sagacity could foresee; and which yet shall be accomplished in the proper season. That God can, in his inexhaustible power and wisdom, by these and other me- thods, signify to the world that he sent them, and give a di- vine attestation to the doctrines and laws delivered by them in his name, no man that has just notions of the Deity, can consistently deny. A writer, who has distinguished himself in opposition to Revelation, has thought fit to own, that **when men are sunk into gross ignorance and error, and are greatly vitiated in their affections and passions, then God may (for any reason, says he, that I can see to the contrary) kindly interpose by a special application of his power and providence, and reveal to men such useful truths as otherwise they might be ignorant of, or might not attend to; and also lay before them such rules of life as they ought to walk by, and likewise press their obedience with proper
to have been really performed, may be of such a nature, as to yield a sufficient proof of the divine mission of the persons by whom, and of the divine authority of doctrines and laws in at- testation of which they are wrought. Mr. Collins acknowledges, that ^* miracles, when done in proof of doctrines and precepts, that are consistent with reason, and for the honour of God, and the good of mankind, ought to determine men to believe and re- ceive them." Scheme of literal Prophecy considered, p. 321, 322. Mr. Woolston says, " I believe it will be granted on all hands, that the restoring a person indisputably dead to life is a stupen- dous miracle, and that two or three such miracles well attested and credibly reported, are enough to conciliate the belief, that the author of them was a divine agent, and invested with the power of God." See his Fifth Discourse on Miracles, p. 3. And Spinosa is said to have declared, that if he could believe that the resur- rection of Lazarus was really wrought as it is related, he would give up his system.
\
2Q Introductory Discourse. Sect. II.
motives, and thereby lead them to repentance and reforma- tion." This seems to be a fair concession; but he endea- vours, as far as in him lies, to render it ineffectual by adding, ?* B't then that it is so, and when it is so, will, in the na-. ture of the thing, be a matter of doubt and disputation (^)." And elsewhere he confidently affirms, that " in what way so- ever God communicateth knowledge to men, it must always be a matter of uncertainty whether the Revelation be divine or not: and that we have no rule to judge, or from which we can with certainty distinguish divine Revelation from delusion (r)." The plain meaning of which is this, that if we should suppose, which is the case this author himself puts, both that men stand in need of an extraordinary Reve- lation from God, and that God sees fit to interpose, by a special application of his power and providence, to grant such a Revelation, yet he has it not in his power to effect this kind design, or to make it known to the world that he really gives such a Revelation, though his goodness should incline him to do so, and the circumstances of mankind should require it. This seems to me to be, in effect, an en- tering a protest against the Almighty, and a declaring be- forehand, that let him do what he can to assure us of his having given such a Revelation of his will, we are resolved not to believe it.
Another thing which ought to be observed upon this sub- ject is, that not only they who live in the age when the Re- velation was first published to the world, may have such proofs of it as may be sufficient to convince them of its divine authority and original, but that it may be transmitted with such evidence to those that live in succeeding ages, as may lay them under an obligation to receive and submit to it as a
(7) Chubb*s Posthumous Works, vol. I. p. 292, 293. (r) Ibid. vol. II. p. 5.
3ect. II. Of Revealed Religion. %%
Revelation from God. Supposing doctrines and laws to have been originally communicated in a way of extraordinary Re- velation, all that would be necessary to render that Revela- tion useful to distant ages and nations, would be that the doc- trines and laws, which are the subject matter of this Revela- tion, together with an authentick account of the proofs and evidences by which the divme original and authority of that Revelation was attested and confirmed, should be faithfully transmitted to succeeding generations. In this case, those to whom it is thus transmitted enjoy the benefit of that Reve- lation, and may be said to havt the light of it, as really, though not so immediately, communicated to them, as if they had lived in the age when it was first given. It must be acknow- ledged, that oral tradition is not a very sure conveyance. But it is manifest, that writings may be transmitted with such a drgree of evidence, as to leave no room for reason- able doubt. This is the most simple and natural way of propagating the knowledge of Revelation to succeeding ages. If, therefore, that Revelation had any original au- thority, then, on supposition that those of succeeding gene- rations have sufficient evidence to assure them of its having been safely transmitted, it is really of as divine authority to them, as it was to those to whom it was first published, and they are obliged to receive and submit to it as such: since, on this supposition, they have those very doctrines and laws in their hands, which were originally communi- cated by Divine Revelation, and have also a sufficient assur- ance of the truth of those extraordinary facts and evidences by which it was originally attested and confirmed. No mai^ is able to shew, that there is any thing absurd in this sup- position. And it may be, and has often been, cleared prov- ed, that what is here supposed as possible, is actually fact, with regard to the Revelation contained in the Holy Scrip- tures: and that we have greater evidence of the safe trans- mission of those sacred writings, without any general and i?ia-
\
'^
22 Introductory Discourse. Sect. II.
terial corruption and alteration, thaa we have concerning other books, the genuineness of which is universally ac- knowledged.
I know of nothing which can be objected against this, but the uncertainty of moral evidence, and the fallibility of historical human testimony. It is easy to declaim plausibly on this subject; but allowing all that can be reasonably al- leged to shew that it is often fallacious, and not to be de- pended upon, it cannot be denied that this kind of evidence may be, and frequently is, so circumstanced, that the man would scarce be thought in his senses that should seriously deny or doubt of it. It is by moral evidence, and the testimony of fallible men, capable of deceiving and being deceived, that a man who has never been at Paris or Rome knows that there are such cities, and yet he can no more reasonably doubt of it than if he had seen them with his own eyes. It is by moral evidence that we have all our laws and records, and the assurance of any past facts. And yet is there any man of sense, that does not as certainty believe many facts which were done in former ages, as he believes any event that has happened of late years, and within his own me- mory? It is manifest that the author of our beings, and the wise governor of the world, designed that a great part of our knowledge should come in this way, and that we should be governed and determined by this kind of evidence and testimony in many cases of great importance. The necessity we are under of doing this ariseth from the very frame of our nature, and the constitution of things, and from the cir- cumstances in which we are placed in the world, and conse- quently from the will and appointment of God himself. Why then should it be thought absurd to suppose, that he should so order it that our knowledge of some important matters relating to Religion, should also come in this way of conveyance? If God has been pleased, in a former age, to make a Revelation of his will to mankind, designed for the
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. 23^
use not only of that but of succeeding ages; and if this Re- velation, with its doctrines and laws, be transmitted to us in that way of conveyance, which we ourselves should count unquestionable in other cases, and with as much evidence aS we could reasonably expect, supposing a Revelation to have been really given in past ages; and if we have as much as^ surance of the extraordinary facts whereby it was originally attested, as we could fairly expect concerning any past facts, supposing those facts to have been really done; God may justly require us to receive and submit to that Revelation. And he that receives it upon that evidence acts a wise and good part, becoming a reasonable Being and Moral Agent. To demand that God should continually send new Revela- tions to assure us of his having formerly given us a well-at- tested Revelation, and should cause the same facts to be done over again for our conviction, would be the most un- reasonable thing in the world. At that rate those extraordi- nary facts must be repeated in every age, in every nation, and for the satisfaction of every single person; for one hath as much right to demand it as another; and by being thus common, they would cease to be extraordinary, and this very thing would hinder the effect. Miracles are not to be multiplied without necessity. Nor can it be reasonably sup- posed, that God will interpose in an extraordinary way to assure us of past facts, when the ordinary is sufficient, and when they come to us with as great evidence as the nature of the thing will admit of, and which we ourselves should count sufficient in any other case.
What has been offered may be of use to remove some prejudices against Revelation in general, and to shew that there is no absurdity in supposing that there may be such a thing as Revealed Religion.
But although it cannot reasonably be denied, that God can, if he pleases, make an extraordinary Revelation of his will, accompanied with sufficient evidence to convince those
24 Introductory Discourse* oect. IL
to whom it is made known of its divine authority, yet it can- not be supposed that he would do this if it were of no real use or advantage to mankind. For it is not reasonable to be- lieve, that an infinitely wise God would take such an extraor- dinary method, if there were no necessity for it, and if it would answer no valuable end at all.
The next thing, therefore to be considered, after having shewn that an extraordinary Revelation from God is possi'jle, is the great usefulness and advantage of Divine Revelation, and the need there is of it in the present state of mankind, for supporting and promoting the interests of religion and virtue in the world. And there are several considerations from which it may be justly concluded, that a >vell at- tested Revelation from God would be of great advantage, and a signal instance of the divine grace and goodness towards us.
It may be of great use even with regard to those truths and principles which lie at the foundation of all Religion; such as the truths relating to the excellent and unparalleled nature, the perfections and attributes of the one supreme God. The generality of mankind seem not to be well qualified to pur- sue these truths, and deduce them from clear and certain principles, in an orderly chain of argumentation. They are so taken up with their worldly concernments and carried oflP by a variety of pleasures and cares, so intangled in sensible and material objects, that if left merely to themselves, there is little likelihood of their forming right ideas of things spi- ritual and invisible. It is generally by education and instruc- tion that these principles first enter into their minds, and ■ivhere they have not been taught or instructed, they know little or nothing about them. And even as to persons of philosophical minds, who apply themselves to abstract en- quiries, and professedly search into the nature of things, how apt they are, when trusting merely to the powers of their own reason, to form wrong notions of the Deity, and how
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion, 25
strangely bewildered in their enquiries on this subject, the following book will afford many melancholy proofs. A noble author, who is an avowed patron of Natural Religion as opposed to Revelation, tells us, that " Theists will con- cur in ascribing all possible perfections to the Supreme Being:" But then he adds, that '^they will always differ when they descend into any detail, and pretend to be particular about them; as they have always differed in their notions of of those perfections (.y)." I think, therefore, it cannot rea- sonably be denied, that a true Divine Revelation might be of great use for giving men a more clear and certain know- ledge of that most adorable Being, and his glorious attri- butes, than they would otherwise have attained to, and for preventing or rectifying those errors they might be apt to fall into, in matters of such importance, and which' are so far above our reach. For who so fit to declare his own na- ture and perfections, as far as it is proper and needful for us to know them, as God himself? And it is what one would think every real and well-disposed Theist should earnestly wish for, that God would be graciously pleased to make such a clear and express Revelation of himself and his perfections, as might direct men in forming just and worthy notions of the Divinity, especially of what it most nearly concerneth us to know, his moral attributes.
Another matter of great importance, in which a Divine Revelation might be of eminent use, relateth to the Provi- dence of God. If left merely to our own reasonings and conjectures, many doubts might arise in our minds, whether that infinitely glorious majesty, who is exalted above our highest conceptions, would concern himself about such in- considerable beings as we are, or any of the things relating to us. And as there are many who are uneasy at the
(«) Bolingbroke's Works, vol. V. p. 255. 4to. Vol. I. D
26 Introductory Discourse, Sect. IL
thoughts of God's exercising a continual inspection over our actions, this would naturally byass them to lay hold on any pretence for rejecting it. But if God should condescend, by an express Revelation confirmed by sufficient evidence, to assure us of his concern for the individuals of the human race; that he takes cognizance of their actions, and orders the events relating to them; this would be the most ef- fectual way to dispel their doubts, to strike bad men with a wholesome fear, and to inspire the good and virtuous with a chearful hope, and entire resignation, and a steady affiance.
That some kind of religious worship and homage ought to be rendered to God by his reasonable creatures, seems to be a dictate of reason and nature. But what kind of wor- ship will be most acceptable to the Supreme Being, and what rites are most proper to be made use of in his service, un- assisted Reason cannot pretend positively and with certainty to determine. Even with respect to the offering up prayers to God for the things we stand in need of, which is that part of religious worship in which mankind seem to have been most generally agreed (f), how far this might be proper, or consistent with the veneration we owe to his sovereign great- ness and majesty, might be matter of doubt and scruple, without some signification of his will concerning it. And ac- cordingly some persons who have made great pretensions to wisdom, and a regard to the law of nature, have endeavour- ed to set aside this part of our duty. But if God should, by an express Revelation, appoint the rites of his own worship, and shew men what kind of service he doth require, and will accept; if he should not only allow, but command them to
{t) This seems to have been part of the primitive religion derived from the first parents of the human race, and which was originally owing to Divine Revelation.
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. 27
ofFer up their prayers and supplications to him, and give them directions for the right performance of this duty, encourag- ing them to it by the most gracious promises; this would certainly, to all who believe and receive such a Revelation, be a great satisfaction and advantage.
The doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, and a Fu- ture State of Retributions, is of mighty importance to man- kind; and the natural and moral arguments to prove it are of no small weight: but yet there are several things to be opposed to them, which weaken the evidence, and may mi- nister ground of suspicion and doubt, if considered merely on the foot of natural reason. And accordingly some of the most eminent antient philosophers either denied it, or ex- pressed themselves doubtfully and waveringly concerning it. And though the general principle, that God will, atone time or other, either here or hereafter, reward good men, and punish the wicked, is very agreeable to right reason; yet with regard to several particulars comprehended under this general principle, and upon which the right use and applica- tion of it in a great measure depends, the unassisted light of Reason can give us little information. But if God himself should, by a well-attested Revelation, assure us, that death shall not put an uttej* end to our being; that this present life is only the first stage of our existence; that we shall be raised again from the dead, and that God will call all men ta an account, and reward or punish them in a future state ac- cording their behaviour in this; and should also signify to us the nature of those rewards and punishments, and the qualifications of the persons on whom they shall be conferred or inflicted; this must needs be of high ad- vantage, and tend to give us satisfaction in a point of considerable importance, for encouraging men to the practice of virtue, and deterring them from vice and wickedness.
The light of nature and reason may give us some general
28 Introductory Discourse, Sect. II.
ground of hope, that God will shew mercy to sinners upon their repentance and amendment: but how far this mercy shall extend; whether he will pardon all manner of sins, even those of the most heinous kind, frequently re- peated and long persisted in, barely upon repentance and amendment; and whether his pardon in that case will be only a mitigation or remission of the threatened penalty, without a full restitution to grace and favour; and how far he will reward an obedience attended with failures and de- fects; these things might create anxious doubts and perplex- ities to serious and thoughtful minds. Especially when it is farther considered, that reason leadeth us to regard God as just as well as merciful, a wise and righteous governor, who will therefore exercise his pardoning- mercy in such a way as seemeth most fit to his rectoral wisdom, and will best answer the ends of moral government. And of this such short-sighted creatures as we are cannot pretend to be com- petent judges. It must, therefore, be a mighty advantage, to be assured, by express Revelation from God, what the terms are upon which he will receive his guilty offending creatures to his grace and favour; that he will grant them a full pardon of all their iniquities, though they may have been very great and heinous, upon their true repentance and re- formation; that he will not only deliver them from the pe- nalties they had incurred by their sins, but will confer upon them the most glorious privileges and benefits; and that he will reward their dutiful and sincere obedience, though im- perfect and falling short of what the law in strictness requires, with eternal life and happiness. This must be an unspeakable satisfaction to creatures conscious to themselves of many failures and defects. And it must also give them great com- fort and encouragement to be assured, by express promises from God, that if they use their own earnest endeavours in the performance of their duty, he will grant them the gra- cious assistances of his Holy Spirit, when from a sense of
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion. 29
their own weakness they humbly apply to him for them. To have these things ascertained to us by a divine autho- rity and testimony, must needs have a great tendency to fill the hearts of good men with a pious confidence and joy, and to animate them to a persevering diligence and constancy in well doing, amidst the many difficulties and temptations to which they are exposed in this present state.
With respect to moral obligations, as comprehending the duties we owe to God, our neighbours, and ourselves, what- ever certainty we might have of the grounds of those obli- gations in general, yet we might be greatly at a loss, if left merely to our unassisted reason, as to the particular laws and duties comprehended under those general rules. There may be duties which seem to be agreeable to reason, and yet cannot be clearly proved by arguments from the nature of the thing, to be necessarily obligatory. There may be such objections brought against them, and with some appearance of reason, as may very much weaken the force and influence of them; especially if, as is often the case, a strong appetite or apparent worldly interest, happens to be on the other side. But a Divine Revelation, determining our duty in those in- stances, would soon decide the point, and give those laws and duties a weight and force which would over-rule the contrary pretences. And I may appeal to the common sense of mankind, whether a clear and positive Revelation from God, declaring what it is that he requireth of us with re- spect to the particulars of our duty, would not be a vast ad- vantage: and whether in that case men would not come far more easily and certainly to the knowledge of their duty, than if they were left to collect it, every man for himself, from the reasons and fitnesses of things; or from what he might take to be the dictates of his own nature, and con- ducive to his own happiness; as to which, through the pre- valence of appetites and passions, men are very apt to pass wrong. judgments; or from the reasonings of Philosophers
^0 Introductory Discourse, Sect. II.
and Moralists, who are far from agreeing in their sentiments; or, if the} did, are not to be absolutely depended upon, and have no authority to make their sentiments pass for laws obligatory upon mankind.
The last thing I shall here observe, with regard to the usefulness or necessity of Divine Revelation is, that there may be several things, which it may be of great advantage to us to know, which yet are of such a nature, that we could not pretend at all to discover them merely by the force of our own reason; as being things that do not lie within our reach, or which depend upon the free counsels of God. It is evident that in such cases a Divine Revelation is the only means of discovery: and our certainty rises in propor- tion to the proofs and evidences we have that it is a Divine Testimony.
These several considerations are sufficient to shew, that a true Divine Revelation, supposing God to give it to the world, would be of great advantage: and that there is great need of it in the present state of mankind. And where such a Revelation is given, and there is sufficient proof of its Di- vine authority, it ought to be received with the profoundest submission and veneration, and with the highest thankful- ness. But we are to take this along with us, that Divine Revelation is not designed to supersede the use of our own reason, or to render the exercise of it needless, but to guide, improve, and perfect it.
Revelation is far from discarding or weakening any argu- ment, that can be justly brought from reason, in proof of any truths relating to Religion or Morality; but adds to them the attestation of a divine authority or testimony, which must needs be of great weight. This both gives a farther degree of certainty with regard to those things which are in some degree discoverable by the light of reason, and furnisheth a sufficient ground of assent, with respect to those things which bare unassisted reason, if left to itself, could
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion, SI
not have discovered, and which yet it may be of use to us to know.
By the common consent of mankind, a competent autho- rity is, in many cases, a good and proper medium to assure us of the truth of things. And to believe upon the credit of such an authority and testimony is so far from being a renouncing our reason, as some have pretended, that on the contrary it is what reason and good sense require, and to refuse it would be to act an absurd and unreasonable part (v^. And particularly supposing an extraordinary Re- velation from God, and that of this we are convinced by sufficient proof, it is very reasonable to receive what is there revealed upon the authority of the Revealer. And indeed it would be a contradiction to believe it to be a Revelation from God, and yet refuse our assent to it: Since it is a most evident principle, that as God is incapable of deceiving ©r being deceived, whatsoever he hath revealed must be true.
That God hath made a Revelation of his will to men, hath been the general sense of mankind in all ages and na- tions. This might have been originally owing to a tradition of some extraordinary Revelation or Revelations really com- municated in the earliest times, to the first ancestors of the human race; from whom it was transmitted to their de- scendants, though, in process of time, in a great measure corrupted and lost. Or at least it shews, that men have ge- nerally thought that a Revelation from God to men was both possible and probable; and that this was agreeable to the ideas they had formed of the wisdom and goodness of God, and of his concern for mankind. It also shews, that they were sensible of the need they stood in of such extraordinary
{v) Sec, concerning this, Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, Vol. II. chap. i. p. 17. et seq. edit, second.
32 Introductory Discoune. Sect. II.
discoveries from God, to instruct and direct them in the knowledge of his will and their duty. It must be owned, indeed, that this notion of an intercourse between God and men in a way of extraordinary Revelation has given occasion to impostures and delusions: that it has induced men of warm imaginations to take their own reveries, the workings of their distempered brain and fancies, for Divine Inspirations; and that artful impostors have taken advantage from it to put their own inventions upon the people for divine discoveries and injunctions; in order to answer the ends of their ambi- tion and avarice, and to erect a tyranny over the minds and consciences of men. This has opened a large field for de- clamation. But it affords no reasonable presumption, that there never was a true Revelation given from God to men. All that can be fairly concluded from it is, that the best and most excellent things may be perverted and abused by the folly and wickedness of men. The same way of arguing has been employed by Atheists, to shew that mankind had better be without any religioc; and that there is no way of preventing or curing the mischiefs of superstition, but by de- nying a God and Providence. And it might as plausibly be pretended, that all kinds of civil government and polity ought to be rejected, and that it would be better for man- kind, that there were no civil government at all. And yet I believe every considerate and impartial person will be of opinion, that all the mischiefs which have arisen from the abuse of religion and civil government, fall vastly short of the evils of atheism and universal anarchy; which would bring along with it a dissolution of all order, and of the strongest bands of society; and would produce such a scene of confusion and licentiousness, that a wise and good man would be apt to prefer non-existence before it (?/).
(w) Cotta in Cicero has, in like manner, with great elo-
Sject. II. Of Revealed Religion, 33
Besides, it must be considered, that these gentlemen who make this objection against the usefulness of Divine Revela- tion, do not believe that there ever was a real Divine Reve- lation given to mankind. They cannot, therefore, justly argue from the mischiefs which they mention, and take so much pains to exaggerate, that a real and well-attested Revelation would be of no use or benefit to the world! Since, upon their supposition, the mischief was only owing to falsely pretended ones. And I cannot well see what method these gentlemen could take to prevent it. If they themselves
quence, displayed the mischiefs of reason, and has endea- voured to shew, that it would be better for mankind to be without it; and that if the gods had intended to do them harm, they could not have given them a worse thing. De nat. Deor. 1. 3. cap. xxvi. et seq. et cap. xxxii. The sum of what he there offers to shew that reason is not the gift of God, is because of the abuse that has been made of it. And whereas it might be said, that there are some who make a good use of their Reason, he answers that these are very few; and it cannot be supposed that God would only consult the welfare, or provide for the benefit of a few. If he did it for any, he would do it for all. " Si mens voluntasque divina idcirco consuluit homini- bus, quod iis est largita rationem, iis solis consuluit, quos bona ratione donavit: quos videmus, si modo ulli sint, esse perpaucos. Non placet autem paucis a Diis immortalibus esse consultum: Sequitur ergo ut nemini consultum sit. Ibid. cap. xxvii. p. 319. It is after the same manner that some have argued, that if the benefit of Divine Revelation were given to any, it must be given equally to all; and since it is manifest it is not given to all, this shews it is not given to any. This certainly would be thought a very absurd way of talking in any other case. It by no means follows, that be- cause some persons or nations seem to be advantageously dis- tinguished above others by having better means of religious or moral improvement, therefore they are to deny or slight their own advantages, and not acknowledge them as the gifts and blessings of Divine Providence, nor be thankful to God for them.
Vol. I. E
54 I?itroductory Discourse, Sect. II.
should set up for instructors of the people, what security could we have that in that case they would not come in time to acts the Priests, and take advantage to impose upon th« ignorance and credulity of mankind for answering their own political and interested views? Much of that false Religion that is in the world, has been owing to men, who, in reality, had no Religion at all. And it may justly be affirmed, that a real Divine Revelation, published for the use of mankind, and confirmed by sufficient evidence, would, if duly attend- ed to, be the best and most effectual preservative against the abuses and mischiefs arising from falsely pretended ones. This would be the most likely means to furnish the people with just notions of Religion, and to rescue them from that ignorance which exposes them to imposture and delusion, and tends to render them a prey to artful and designing men. And it is certain in fact, that in those parts of the world, where the Christian Revelation, as contained in the Holy Scriptures, is most generally received and spread among the people, the great principles of what is usually called Natural Reli- gion are most generally believed and best understood: and at the same time, the people, by being acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, are the least liable to be imposed upon by superstition and priestcraft (;\^). It is a thing not to be con- tested, that what abuses have been or are found among pro- fessed Christians, have not been owing to their adherence to that Revelation, but to their deviations from it. And the best and most effectual remedy against those abuses and corruptions, would be to keep close to the original rule of Faith and Practice laid down in those sacred writ- ings.
The considerations which have been offered are sufficient
(x) This is what I have endeavoured particularly to shew; Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, Vol. I. chap. ix.
Sect. II. Of Revealed Religion, SS
to shew the possibility of an extraordinary Revelation from God to men; and also that such a Revelation would be of great use, and is very needful in the present state of mankind, for leading them to the knowledge and practice of Religion. And whosoever duly considers this, will be apt to conclude, from the goodness of God and the necessities of mankind, that God hath not left men at all times destitute of such a valuable help for maintaining true Religion in the world, and engaging them to the practice of piety and virtue. And ac- cordingly it pleased God in his great goodness to communi- cate the knowledge of Religion in its main fundamental principles to the first parents and ancestors of the human race, to be by them transmitted to their posterity. This pri- mitive Religion became greatly corrupted in the succeeding ages, especially in what related to the knowledge and wor- ship of the one true God: and the nations were generally fallen into the most gross idolatry and polytheism. God might justly have left mankind without any farther extra- ordinary discoveries of his will; but he saw lit, in his great wisdom and goodness, to grant a new Revelation, which was particularly designed to establish, by the most amazing ex- ertions and displays of his divine power and majesty, the sovereign glory and dominion of the only true supreme God, in opposition to all idol deities: as also to give a sys- tem of written laws, enforced by his divine authority, con- taining the chief duties of morality in plain and express precepts: and likewise to keep up the faith and hope of that great Saviour of mankind, who had been promised from the beginning, and to prepare the way for his coming by a series of illustrious prophecies. This Revelation, though imme- diately given to a particular people, was intended to be of use to other nations, and really was so in several respects, for preserving some knowledge of true religion in the world, when it seemed to be in a great measure defaced and lost. This was succeeded, at the distance of several ages, by the
36 Introductory Discourse. Sect. II.
most complete and perfect dispensation of Religion that ever the world saw, and which was brought by that glorious and divine Person, whose coming had been so long promised and foretold, and who actually accomplished all the great things which had been spoken of him by the ancient prophets. By means of this Revelation, the knowledge and worship of the one true God came to be restored among the nations, which had been sunk in idolatry and polytheism for many ages: The best and noblest ideas are there given of God, and of the spiritual worship to be rendered to him: Precepts of the purest morality are published to mankind, setting the whole of our duty before us in its just extent: The most wonderful displays are made of the exceeding riches of the divine grace and mercy towards perishing sinners of the hu- man race, and the gracious terms and glorious promises of the new covenant are placed in the clearest light. The most express assurances are given us of a future state of retributions, some imperfect notions of which had long con- tinued among the nations, but at length, through the cor- ruption of mankind, and the false subtleties of men pretend- ing to wisdom and philosophy, had been almost entirely de- faced. The future punishments of the obstinately wicked and impenitent are strongly asserted, and the fullest disco- veries made of a blessed resurrection, and of eternal life and felicity for good men, as the reward of their sincere though imperfect obedience.
These several dispensations yield mutual light and support to one another. The same scheme of Religion for substance is carried through them all, but is especially completed in the last. This which comes nearest to our own times, and was accompanied with a fulness of evidence proportioned to its vast importance, gives an illustrious attestation to the pre- ceding dispensations. And as each of them have distinct evidences of their own, so there is a conjunct evidence aris- ing from the harmony of them when compared together,
ShbCT. II. Of Revealed Religion. 37
which exhibiteth a pleasing view of the divine wisdom and goodness towards mankind.
It is not my design at present to enter upon a particular consideration of the proofs that are brought for the divine authority of the Jewish and Christian Revelation; both of which refer to and confirm the original Revelation made to mankind from the beginning. This has been done by many learned pens with great strength of reason and argument; and I have on some former occasions, contributed my endea- vours this way (^/). Little has been opposed to the argu- ments which have been offered on this subject, but suspi- cions and presumptions, and often gross misrepresentations and rude ridicule; or such particular difficulties and objec- tions as do not affect the main of the evidence. Nor have I met v/ith any thing that could deserve the name of a fair and direct attempt, to invalidate the evidence of the extra- ordinary and important facts, by which the divine original and authority of those Revelations is attested and establish- ed. The principal thing on which the adversaries of Reli- gion seem to rely is the supposed sufficiency of human rea- son, when left merely to its own unassisted force and strength, for all the purposes of Religion; from whence it is inferred, that an extraordinary Revelation is intirely need- less and useless. But how little foundation there is for this pretence, I propose to shew from undeniable fact and ex- perience, in the ensuing treatise.
(y) See the Answer to Christianity as old as the Creadon, Vol. II. especially the six first chapters. See also the Authority of the Old and New Testament asserted, Vol. I. The same sub- ject is also treated in several parts of the View of the Deistical Writers. And an abstract of the whole may be seen in the Sum- mary of the Evidences for Christianity at the latter end of that work.
THE
ADVANTAGE AND NECESSITY
or TH«
CHRISTIAN REVELATION,
SHEWN FROM THE
STATE OF RELIGION
IN
THE BEATKE^ WORLD.
PART I.
RELATING TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND WOliSHIP OF THE ONE TRUE GOD.
CHAPTER I.
Man, in his original constitution and the design of his Creator, a religious crea- ture. Not left at his first formation to work out a scheme of Religion for him- self. It is reasonable to suppose, and confirmed by the most antient accounts, that the knowledge of Religion was communicated to the first Parents of the human race by a Revelation from God: and from them derived to their de- scendants. God made farther discovei-ies of his will to Noah the second Father of mankind. Tradition the chief way of conveying the knowledge of ReligioD in those early ages.
That man is a religious creature, u e. capable of Reli- gion, and designed for it, is apparent to anyone who makes due Reflections upon the frame of the human nature (2) By
(z) When we say man is a religious creature, we do not mean that every man is born with an actual knowledge of Religion
40 Man originally designed Part I»
Religion I understand the duty which reasonable creatures owe to God their Creator and Benefactor, their sovereign Lord and chiefest Good. It is manifest, from observation and experience, that men have faculties capable of contem- plating the great Author of their beings, and Lord of the universe, of adoring his perfections, and of acting from a regard to his authority, and in obedience to his laws. The inferior animals seem to be well fitted for the various func- tions and enjoyments of the sensitive life: but there is nothing in them from which we can conclude that they are capable of forming any notions of God, or of the obligations of Re- ligion. If there have been people among whom scarce any traces of Religion can be found, yet still they have faculties, which, if duly improved, render them capable of being in- structed in it. But who will undertake to instruct the brutes in the knowledge of God, and in the principles and precepts of Religion and Morality?
This seems then to be one remarkable proof of the supe- rior excellency of man above the other creatures in this lower world. From whence it follows, that he is designed proportionably for a more excellent end, and for a higher happiness. Since it is evident in fact, that man is capable of rising in his thoughts, when duly instructed, above the sen- sible objects which are before his eyes, to the invisible author of nature, the supreme and absolutely perfect Being, and of contemplating, loving, adoring, obeying him; it may be justly concluded, that this was the principal end for which he was designed, as being the worthiest employment of his noblest powers. And to suppose this to be a principal end of his being, and what he was originally made and de-
and its main principles, which is contrary to evident fact and experience: but with faculties capable of attaining to it by re- flection and proper instruction.
Chap. I. a religious Creature. 41
signed for, and yet that he is under no obligation to answer that end, is too absurd and inconsistent to be admitted. Man indeed hath a fleshy part and animal powers in com- mon with the inferior creatures, by which he is fitted for relishing and enjoying sensible good, but as he hath also a mind within him, which is undoubtedly the noblest part of his constitution, his principal end and highest happiness must be judged of from the highest and most excellent part of his nature: and in which his proper distinction and pre- eminence above the inferior animals doth principally consist.
These several observations lead us to consider man as de- signed and formed for Religion. If there be a relation be- tween God and man, distinct from the relation men bear to one another: (and this is as certain as it is that God exist- ctb, and that man is a dependent creature, and the subject of the divine government) then there must be duties arising from the relation men bear to God, distinct from the duties they owe to their fellow-creatures. And if it is the will of God that they should act correspondently to the relations they bear to one another, we are led, by the soundest max- ims of reason and good sense, to maintain, that it is his will that they should act conformably to the relations they bear to him. To suppose a rational creature, a moral agent, to be obliged to have a regard to his fellow-creatures, beings of the same species with himself, and to be under no obligation to have any regard to his Maker, the God and Father of all, would be a manifest irregularity and deformity in the moral system. As nothing can be more absurd and contrary to truth and reason, than to deny that there is a God, so nothing can be more unbecoming a rational creature, than to live as without God in the world, and to shew no more regard to him than if there was no such Being.
Nor is it any valid objection against this, that God is in- finitely happy in himself, and therefore standeth not in need of any homage or duty we can render to him, and is not
Vol. I. F
42 Man originally designed Part 1,
capable of receiving any benefit from our services. For this would be to make the very perfection and excellency of his nature, and the greatness of his majesty and dominion, an argument for neglecting him, and shewing no regard to him at all. God's being perfectly happy in himself is no reason for his not requiring of his reasonable creatures, such duties as the nature of things, and the relation between him and them, make it fit for him to require and for them to per- form. And what can be in itself more fit and reasonable, and more agreeable to the rules of order, than that reason- able beings, who derive their existence and faculties, and all the blessings they enjoy from God, and whom he hath made capable of contemplating, serving, and adoring him, should render him that religious veneration and submission, that love and gratitude, that adoration and obedience, which is most justly due to their Creator, Preserver, and Bene- factor, the Parent and Lord of the Universe?
To what hath been offered concerning Religion in gene- ral, it may not be improper to add the suffrage of two no- ble writers of great abilities, and who were certainly no friends to superstition. The one is the Earl of Shaftsbury, who says, '' man is not only born to virtue, friendship, ho- nesty, and faith, but to Religion, piety, and a generous sur- render of his mind to what happens from the supreme cause or order of things, which he acknowledges, entirely just and perfect (fl)." The other is the late Lord Boling- broke, who acknowledges, that " man is a religious as well as social creature, made to know and adore his Creator, to discover and obey his will — Greater powers of reason and means of improvement have been measured out to us than to other animals, that we might be able to fulfil the supe- rior purposes of our destination, whereof Religion is un-
(a) Characterist. vol. IIL p. 224. Edit. 5.
Chap. I. « religious Creature* 4S
doubtedly the chief — and that in these the elevation and pre-eminence of our species over the inferior animals con- sists (^)."
As certain therefore as it is that man had an intelligent and wise author of his being (c) so certainly may we con- clude, that he originally formed and designed him for Re- ligion. And if so, it is reasonable to think, that whenever he formed man he put him at his first creation into an imme^ diate capacity of answering this end of his being, and enter- ing on a life of Religion. Two suppositions may be here made, one of which must unavoidably be admitted. Either it must be said, that God at his first formation only gave him faculties and powers whereby he is capable of Religion, but left him entirely to himself to acquire the knowledge of Religion and his duty, by the mere force of his own unas- sisted reason and experience: or, it must be supposed, that the wise author of his being, at his first creation, communi- cated to him such a knowledge of Religion, as enabled him immediately to know his Maker, and the duty required of him: in which case it cannot be denied, that the first notions and discoveries of Religion came to the parents of the hu- man race by immediate Revelation from God himself.
The former of these suppositions appears to me very improbable, and not consistent with the best ideas we caa
{b) Bolingbroke*s Works, vol. V. p. 470. See also ibid. p. 340. 390, 391. Edit. 4to.
(c) A celebrated writer hath justly observed, that there cannot be a greater absurdity than to suppose beings, who have reason and intelligence, to proceed from a blind unintelligent cause. C'eux qui ont dit qu*une fatalite aveugle a produit tous les effets que nous voyons dans le monde, ont dit une grande absurdite. Car quelle plus grande absurdite qu'une fatalite aveugle, qui auroit produit des etres intelligens? L'Esprit des loix, vol. I. chap. i. in the beginning.
44 Man at his first Formation Part I,
form of the wisdom and goodness of God, and the care he must be supposed to exercise towards man at his first crea- tion. It is most reasonable to suppose, that the first man (and the argument will equally hold, whether we suppose one or more men to have been originally created) was form- ed in an adult state: for to have brought him into the world in a state of infancy, and left him to himself without any one to take care of him, or any parents to nourish and support him, would have been to expose him destitute and helpless to certain misery and death. And if he was first formed in an adult state, it is not reasonable to think that so noble a creature, endued by his Maker with such excel- lent faculties, capable, if duly instructed, of attaining to a high degree of knowledge, should be thrust out into the world, like a huge overgrown infant, perfect indeed in his bodily form and constitution, but with a mind utterly unfurnished; having sensible ideas and appetites to fit him for a brutal life, like the inferior animals, but destitute of that know- ledge and those ideas, which were necessary to enable him to answer the higher purposes of his destination. And what made his case more particular and different from that of those who were afterwards bom into the world, he had no human parents, nor instructors of his own species, which is the ordinary way by which men, in the present state, re- ceive the first rudiments of knowledge.
If it be said he might soon, by the force of his own rea- son, and the exercise of his intellectual faculties, acquire a sufficient knowledge of God, and of his duty, and conse- quently of true Religion, as far as it was necessary for him to know it: I answer, that though the main principles of all Religion, especially those relating to the existence, the uni- ty, the perfections, and providence of God, when once clear- ly proposed to the human mind, with their proper proofs and evidences, and thoroughly examined and enquired into, are perfectly agreeable to the most improved reason and
Chap. I. not left to seek his Religion. AiS
understanding of man, yet it can hardly be supposed, that that the first man or men, if left to themselves without any instruction or information, would have been able to have formed, in a short time, a right scheme of Religion for themselves, founded upon those principles. The arguing the Being, the Unity, and Attributes of God from the works of nature, and the harmony and order of the Universe, by a chain of reasonings and deductions, seems to be a task not very fit for the first of men, when rude and uncultivat- ed. It is an observation of the Baron de Montesquieu, that " the law which imprinted the idea of a Creator, and pre- scribes our duty to him, is the first of natural laws in dig- nity and importance, but not in the order of laws.— It is clear, that in the state of nature, man's first ideas would not be of a speculative kind: he would first think how to preserve his own being, before he searched into the original of his being." I think this must be allowed, supposing man, at his first formation, to have been left merely to him- self without instruction. It would probably have been a long time before he raised his thoughts to things spiritual and invisible, and attained to such a knowledge and con- templation of the works of nature, as to have inferred from thence the necessary existence of the one only true God, and his infinite perfections. So that to have left him to himself, in the circumstances he was then in, to find out all truths moral and divine, which it concerned him to know, merely by his own reason, without farther instruction, would have been to have left him for a long time after his first forma- tion without the knowledge of God and divine things, without Religion, and consequently incapable of living up to the highest end of his being. Supposing the first man or men to have been mere savages, it might have been ages before they came to a right knowledge of Religion, or to form just ideas concerning it. Or, if man at his first crea- tion be supposed to have had an excellent understanding
46 Man at his Jirst Formation Part I.
and powers of reason, yet if his mind at his first formation had been without any ideas but what he gradually acquired, he must have been a long time before he attained to the knowledge of divine and invisible things, or could form a language capable of expressing and communicating those ideas (<^).
Though I am far from approving the account given by Mr. Hume of the original of Religion, yet I cannot help thinking there is a great deal of force in what that inge- nious writer says, to shew that the first men in the earliest ages did not come to the knowledge of the existence and perfections of God by rational disquisitions and deductions from the works of nature. He observes, that " if men had been left to themselves, and the natural progress of the human mind, they could not at first stretch their concep- tions to that perfect Being, who bestowed order on the whole frame of nature. The mind rises gradually from the inferior to the superior — As nothing could disturb the na- tural progress of thought, but some obvious and invincible argument, which might immediately lead the mind into the pure principles of Theism, and make it overleap, at one bound, the vast interval which is interposed between the human and divine nature. I allow, continues he, that the order and frame of the Universe, when accurately examin- ed, affords such an argument; yet I can never think that this consideration could have any influence on mankind, when they formed their first notions of Religion — A ne- cessitous animal, pressed with numerous wants and pas- sions, has no leisure to admire the regular face of nature,
(d) If we suppose man to have been created at first with in- nate ideas of God and Religion, this is, in effect, to acknowledge that God revealed them to him, and that from him his know- ledge of Religion was derived.
Chap. I. not left to seek his Religion, 4/
and to make enquiries into the causes of the course of things (^)."
Particularly with regard to that great printiple of true^ Religion, the Unity of God, or that there is one only God and Father of all, this is not so easily demonstrable, as ne- cessarily to engage the assent of the first men, untutored in learning and philosophy. That the works of nature, which we behold, owed their original to wisdom and contrivance, and to some intelligent cause or causes, and were not the mere effects of chance, or a blind unintelligent nature, may seem clear, when duly proposed, to a common sound un- derstanding: But whether there might not be more causes and authors of the several parts of the Universe than one, to the mere natural reason of men, who have made no great progress in metaphysical enquiries, is not so evident. Mr. Hume indeed urges, that " were men led into the appre- hensions of invisible intelligent power, by a contemplation of the works of nature, they could never possibly entertain any conceptions, but of one simple Being, who bestowed existence and order on this vast machine, and adjusted all its parts according to one regular plan, or connected sys- tem." But, upon this supposition, the person who forms this conclusion must be able to regard this vast Universe as a well-connected system, one stupendous machine, all the parts of which are admirably adjusted to one another, so as to constitute one regular orderly harmonious Whole. And this is a point which requires much more knowledge, more extensive disquisitions and views, than generally fall to the share of the bulk of mankind, or than those have leisure or
{e) Hume's Dissertation on the Natural History of Religion, p. 5, 6. yet he owns, that " when the contemplation is so far enlarged, as to contemplate the first rise of this visible system, we must adopt with the strongest conviction the idea of som« intelligent cause or author,** Ibid. p. 112.
48 The will of God revealed Part I.
capacity to attend to, who are not accustomed to abstracted metaphysical speculations. If men were left merely to them- selves without any other guide, they might be apt to ima- gine a multiplicity of causes and authors; and that the most conspicuous parts of the Universe, which they might suppose to be distinct worlds, had different authors and ar- chitects. Lord Bolingbroke observes, that " though the first men could doubt no more that there is some cause of the world, than that the world itself existed, yet in conse- quence of this great event, and of the surprize, ignorance, and inexperience of mankind, there must have been much doubt and uncertainty concerning the first cause — The va- riety of phaenomena which struck their senses, would lead them to imagine a variety of causes (Z^)."
It is probable, from what has been said, that the first men did not acquire the knowledge of God and Religion by the mere force of their own reason. And since it may be justly laid down as a principle, that man was originally formed and brought into the world by a wise and good as well as all-powerful Author, it is congruous to suppose, that he made discoveries of himself and of his will to his yet innocent creature; and furnished him immediately with ideas of the things which it most nearly concerned him to know; especially of those things, which lie at the founda- tion of all Religion, and without some notion of which he could not be in a proper capacity to answer the chief end of his being. Such are the important truths relating to the existence and attributes of God, the creation of the world, his governing Providence, his being a rewarder of those that faithfully serve and obey him, and a punisher of evil doers; which supposes his having given a law to mankind
(/) Bolingbroke's Works, vol. III. p. 253. 259, 260. Edit. 4to. And he expresses himself to the same purpose, vol. IV. p. 21.
Chap. I. to our Jlrst Parents. 4j^
for the rule of their obedience. And indeed this necessarily follows from God's having made man a moral agent, capa- ble of being governed by laws. And as a law is not obliga- tory, unless promulgated, and made known, it is reasonable to believe, that when God first placed man in the world^ he made a plain declaration of the duty required of him, and did not leave him, at his first coming into the world^ to collect his duty merely in a way of reasoning from the nature and fitness and relations of things. This was a work for which, through want of knowledge, observation, and experience, he could not be supposed to be well qualified^ except God should extraordinarily interpose for his in- structiono
This, which in speculation is a most reasonable hypothe- sis, appears, from the account given by Moses, to have been true in fact. His history, abstracting from his au- thority as an inspired writer, of which yet we have suffi- cient proof, contains the best and most authentic relation of the first age of the world which is any where to be met with. The account he gives of the origin of the human race from a first pair, one man and one woman, both of them created by God in an adult state, endued with know- ledge and language, immediately capable of conversing with their Maker and with one another, is worthy of God^ and honourable to mankind. It is infinitely superior to the mean and senseless accounts of the origination of Mankind given by the ancient Egyptians, according to Diodorus, and afterwards by the Epicureans, and others who called them- selves philosophers. The history Moses gives us of the first ages of the world before the flood is very short: But it suffi- ciently appears from it, that the first parents of the human race were brought into the world, not in an helpless infant state, but in a state of maturity, placed in an happy situa- tion, and in advantageous circumstances for preserving their purity and innocence: and that to supply their wan^
Vol. I. G
50 The Will of God revealed Part I.
of observation and experience, God was pleased, in hi« great goodness, to favour them with extraordinary notices and significations of his will and of their duty. Some few particulars are mentioned, which shew that God made dis- coveries of himself to our first parents, and gave them laws. Of this kind was God's blessing and sanctifying the Sabbath day. This supposes that he communicated to our first pa« rents the knowledge of the creation of the world, of which this was designed to be a solemn memorial: That the hea- vens and heavenly bodies, the earth and all things that are therein, and particularly their own bodies and souls, as well as all other animals, were the productions of his powerj wisdom, and goodness. A most important point of know- ledge this! And which included in it the belief and acknow- ledgment of the existence, the perfections and attributes of the one true God, the supreme and absolutely perfect Being. Moses also gives an account of the early institution of marriage, and law concerning it, which, though repre- sented as spoken by Adam, yet, considering how soon this happened after the creation, and how little knowledge he could then have attained to by his own experience, must have been divinely revealed to him: especially since it con- tained directions in this matter, which were to be a rule to future ages. He also informs us, that there was a particular law given to our first parents concerning their not eating the forbidden fruit, which, whatever objections some have made against it, was very properly suited to the condition and circumstances in which they were then constituted (^).
(jg) I have elsewhere vindicated the Mosaic account of man's origintil dignity and of his full, against the objections ad- vanced by Dr. Tindal and others. Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, vol. II. cap. xv. And as to the particular injunc- tion which Moses tells ns was laid upon our first parents by way of trial of their obedience, it is no hard matter to shew, that
Chap. I. to our first Parents. 51
He acquaints us with the declaration and effects of the divine displeasure against them for their disobedience, and the original promise made to them to keep them from sink- ing under despondency: the true meaning and design of which was no doubt more distinctly explained to our first parents, than is mentioned in that short account. By it God gave them to understand, that though they had suffered
it had nothing in it unbecoming the supreme wisdom and good- ness. For since God was pleased to constitute man lord of this inferior creation, and had ^iven him so large a giant, and so many advantages, it was manifestly proper that he should re- quire some particular instance of homage and feahy, to be a me- morial to man of his dependence, and an acknowledgment on his part that he was under the dominion of an hig^her Lord, to whom he owed the most absolute subjection and obedience. And what properer instance of homage could there be in the circum- stances man was then in, than his being obliged, in obedience to the divine command, to abstain from one or more of the de- licious fruits of Paradise? It pleased God to insist only upon his abstaining from one, at the same time that he indulged him in a full liberty as to all the rest. And this served both as an act of homage to the supreme Lord, from whose bountiful grant he held Paradise and all its enjoyments, and was also fitted to teach our first parents a noble and useful lesson of abstinence and self- denial, one of the most necessary lessons in a state of probation; and also of unreserved submission to God's authority and will, and an implicit resignation to the supreme wisdom and good- ness. It tended to habituate them to keep their sensitive appe- tite in a due subjection to the law of reason; to take them off from a too close attachment to inferior sensible good, and to en- gage them to place their highest happiness in God alone: And finally, to keep their desire after knowledge within just bounds, so as to be content with knowing what was really proper and useful for them to know, and not presume to pry with an un- warrantable curiosity into things which did not belong to them, and which God had not thought fit to reveal. See the view of the Deistical Writers, vol. IL p. 144, 145, 3d edit.
S2 The Will of God revealed Part I,
tkemselves to be drawn into sin and disobedience by the tempter, he would, in his great goodness, provide a glori- ous deliverer, who was to proceed from the woman, to break the power of the enemy that had tempted them, and to rescue them from the miseries and ruins they had brought upon themselves by their apostacy. And it may be reasona- bly supposed, that they had hopes given them, that though they and their posterity were still to be subject to many evils and to temporal death, as the effects and punishments of sin, yet upon their repentance and sincere obedience, they were to be raised to a better life. And accordingly the hope of pardoning mercy, and the expectation of a future state, seems to have obtained from the beginning, and to have spread generally among mankind in the earliest ages, by a most antient tradition, as I shall have occasion to shew afterwards. And this is best accounted for by supposing it to have been part of the primitive Religion, derived from the first parents of the human race, who had it by immedi- ate Revelation from God himself.
That there was an intercourse between God and man in the first ages, and that he then communicated to men the discoveries of his will, farther appears from what is related concerning Cain and Abel: as also from the high encomium given of Enoch that he walked with God, and the distin- guishing reward conferred upon him for his piety, which exhibited a sensible proof of a future state.
As there is great reason to think that God communicated the knowledge of the fundamental principles of Religion and moral obligations to the first parents of the human race; so if this were the case, it is rational to conclude that they must have been led, both by a sense of duty and by inclination, to communicate that knowledge to their pos- terity. For it appears from the original constitution of the human nature, and was probably enforced by an express idiyine command, that the Author of our beings designed,
Chap, I. to our frst Parents,
53
that parents should endeavour to instruct their children; this being the ordinary inlet to the first rudiments of know- ledge, especially with respect to the main principles of Re- ligion, and the duties of morality. And the first of the human race, who came immediately out of the hands -)f God, must have had an authority this way, which non^; of those of succeeding generations, in the ordinary course of things, could have. The world was just made, the Creation fresh in memory, and the communications of God to men frequent and sensible. Nor could their children have the least just grounds to suspect the veracity of their informa- tion, or that they had any intention to impose upon them, They needed none of those credentials, which were after- wards necessary, when there had been false pretences to Revelation in opposition to the true. They delivered what they themselves knew to be true, and what they had re- ceived from God; and it must have come from them wi«;h a peculiar weight, and ought to have been received with great veneration and an entire credit. And the long lives of tho first man and his immediate descendants (A) gave them a singular advantage for preserving and propagating those traditions. It is easy to conceive, that they might, without
(A) Josephus, speaking of the long lives of men in the first ages, as recorded by Moses, concludes with saying — " I have for witnesses all those that have written antiquides both among Greeks and Barbarians." He particularly mentions Manetho and Berosus, Moschus, Hestiaeus, Hieronymus the Egyptian, those who composed the Phoenician history, Hesiod also and He- catseus, and Hellanicus and Acesilaus. And besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate that the ancients lived a thousand years. Joseph. Archseolog. 1. i. cap. 3. Mr. Whiston, in a note upon this passage in his English translation of Josephus ob- serves, that he might have added Varro, who made that enquiry, what the reason was that the antients are supposed to have lived p^ thousand yearso
54 Farther Discoveries of Part I.
much difficulty, be transmitted to Noah the second father of mankind. Methuselah was cotemporary with Adam about 245 years, and with Noah 600 years. And as Noah himself was a man of eminent piety and virtue, and lived 600 years with those of the old world, he would, no doubt, be particularly careful to get a true information of the ori- ginal principles of Religion delivered to the first parents of mankind. We may, therefore, reasonably conclude, that he retained whatsoever there was of chief importance in the ancient primitive Religion. And it is also agreeable to the divine wisdom and goodness, as well as to the accounts given us by Moses, to suppose, that God, who in so extra- ordinary a manner distinguished him, and saved him from the universal deluge, made farther discoveries of himself and of his will to Noah, to be by him communicated to his descendants. And this may be justly regarded as a second promulgation of Religion in its main principles to the whole human race. I'he deluge itself, the memory of which could not be soon forgotten (i) must have had a great influence
p) There is no one fact, considering its great antiquity, which comes to us better attested than the universal deluge. Josephus quotes Berosus the Chaldean, Hieronymus the Egyptian, who writ the Phoenician antiquities, Nicolaus of Damascus, and Mnaseas: and adds, that a great many more make mention of the same. Joseph, ubi supra. The tradition of it hath spread through the world, and is preserved in the memory of all na- tions: in the continent of America as well as Asia, in the East and West Indies, among the Africans and Europeans. See Burneti Telluris Theor. sacra, 1. i. cap. 3. See also testimonies to this purpose collected by Grotius De Verit. Relig. Christ. 1. i. sect. 16. and by the learned author of Revelation examined with candour, Part I, Dissert. 13, U. And indeed there many things in the present constitution of the earth, which show that such a flood there hath been, and that the whole earth was co- Tered with it.
Chap. I. God'*s Will made to Noah, $$
to impress men's minds with a sense of Religion and its obligations. It must have strengthened their faith in God, who made the earth at first, and placed man upon it, and who by this stupendous event shewed that he had power, if he pleased, to destroy it. It gave men a sensible proof, that he is the Lord of nature, and hath a sovereign dominion over it, and over all the elements; that his Providence con- cerneth itself with men and their actions; that he is a hater of vice and wickedness, and a punisher of evil doers, and is a lover and rewarder of righteousness, and delivereth those from the greatest evils, that love and serve him in sincerity. It cannot be reasonably doubted, that Noah, both when he was in the ark, where he had leisure and oppor- tunity, and after he came out of it, took care to instruct his children and descendants in those heads of Religion which he himself had received; particularly those relating to the knowledge and worship of the one true God, the creation of the world, the Providence of God as a rewarder and punisher, the laws he hath given to mankind, and a future state; some notions of which were, by tradition, generally spread among the nations.
The ages immediately following the flood cannot be sup- posed to have been ages of learning and philosophy. It is well observed by a learned writer, that " the manner of life men led in the ages next following the dispersion, and the pressing necessities they were under, occasioned their mak- ing a very slow progress in the sciences (i)-" As the wide earth was before them, it may naturally be supposed, that many of them would wander about seeking proper habita- tions; some of whom would remove to countries far distant from their first settlement, and fall by degrees into a rude and savage kind of life. They had little leisure or inclina-
(k) De rOrigine des loix, des arts, et des sciences, torn, t p. 396, 397.
56 The Knowledge of Religioh Part f .
tion for sublime speculations. The arts and sciences known before the flood were generally lost with the inventers of them, and those that exercised them; yet still some remains of Religion, some notions of a Deity, of a Providence, of a future state, and of the moral diff'erences of things were generally preserved, even in those parts which became wild and savage. It cannot well be supposed, that in their cir- cumstances they attained to a notion of these things in a way of reasoning and argument. And therefore it can be attributed to nothing so probably as the remains of an an- tient universal tradition derived from the first ancestors of the human race: and which the heads of families that pro- ceeded from Noah, and who had received those principles from him, carried into the several regions of their disper- sion«
Here it may be proper to take notice of a remarkable passage of Plato in the beginning of his third book of laws. He speaks of a destruction which happened to men by a flood, and from which very few escaped; who were shep- herds, and abode on the tops of mountains, and became the seed of a new generation. He says, that cities, civil poli- ties and governments, together with the knowledge of arts, having been lost and perished in the confusion, the succeed- ing generations of men were for a long time ignorant: that they followed the customs and manners of their ancestors, especially in what related to Religion and the Gods; and that they gradually formed themselves into societies, and had the most antient men among them, and the heads of their families, for their leaders and governors.
I think there are here manifest traces of the universal de- luge. The account he gives of it cannot be well applied to a particular inundation, confined to Attica, Thessaly, or Greece, as were those of Deucalion or Ogyges; though the Greeks after their manner blended and confounded them with the traditions they had received concerning the Noa-
Chap. I. Godh Will made to Noah. ST
chic deluge. Plato speaks of a flood which extended to the greatest part of mankind. And he supposes, that those who remained after the deluge still retained something of the customs and Religion of their fathers, which they transmit- ted to their posterity. He intimates that there were tradi- tions of this in his time, and introduces the account with this question, " Do the antient traditions seem to you to have any truth in them?" To which he answers in the affir- mative. But in this as well as other instances, the primitive traditions were very much altered and corrupted among the Greeks, and were kept more pure and distinct in some other nations: of which the testimonies of Berosus in his Chal- dean antiquities, and of Lucian in his treatise De Dea Syria are remarkable instances,* whose traditionary accounts con- cerning the flood are in several respects agreeable to that which is given by Moses.
It may reasonably be supposed, that in those parts of the world, which were first peopled after the flood, and which were nearest the place where the first restorers of the human race chose to reside, what remained of arts or knowledge, after the universal shipwreck, were chiefly to be found. There also it might be expected, that the greatest vestiges of the antient Religion might be traced, as being nearest the fountain head. And they that were afterwards scattered to distant parts, would be apt sooner to lapse into ignorance and barbarism. The best remains of antient history agree in this with the Mosaical accounts; that in the Eastern parts of the world, i. e. where Noah and his family first settled after the flood, societies and civil polities were first formed, cities built, and arts cultivated. The East was the source of knowledge, from whence it was communicated to the Western parts of the world. There the most precious re- mains of antient tradition were to be found. Thither the most celebrated Greek philosophers afterwards travelled in quest of science, or the knowledge of things divine and
Vol. I. H
58 The knowledge of Religion Part I,
human. And thither the lawgivers had recourse, in order to their being instructed in laws and civil polity.
It is a thing well known, that the wisdom of the East consisted much in teaching and delivering antient traditions, Diodorus Siculus has a remarkable passage concerning the different ways of philosophizing among the Chaldeans (and it holdeth equally of other Eastern nations) and the Greeks. He observes, that the former did not give a loose to their invention as the Greeks did, but were for adhering to the tetaets derived by tradition from their antient wise men. And indeed this was the oldest way of philosophizing among the Greeks themselves. The learned Dr. Thomas Burnet has observed, that the traditionary philosophy, which did not depend upon reasoning and the investigation of causes, but upon the primitive doctrine delivered by tradition from their fathers, seems to have continued among the Greeks, lower than the times of the Trojan war. Durasse mihi vide- tur ultra Trojana tempora philosophia traditiva, qua ratio- ciniis, et causarum explicatione non nitebatur, sed alterius, generis ct originis, doctrina primigenia et -^eeir^Q^x^echorm. Archaeol. Philos. 1. i. cap. 6. The same learned author, in the 14th chapter of that book, which treats De Originc Philosophise Barbaricse, speaking of the antient sages and philosophers among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Phoenicians, '^iEthiopians, Arabians, Indians, says, they never shewed an inventive genius, so as to make it probable that they owed the things they taught to the force of their own reason. It was not the manner of the antients to form systems and theories, and to demonstrate their doctrine by causes and effects. They delivered their tenets simply, not in a way of argumentation, but as what ought to be received by the learners or hearers upon the authority of the wise men, without doubting or disputing. He instances in the doctrine of the formation of the world out of a chaos, and the con- flagration or destruction of the world by fire, both which
Chap. I. conveyed by Tradition, ' 5%
spread generally among the antients, but without assigning any reasons to confirm them (/). He thinks, therefore, that these and other things which were generally received, were probably owing to an antient tradition derived from Noah: or they might be a part of the traditions derived to Noah from the Antediluvian Patriarchs, and which were originally communicated, by divine Revelation, to the first father of mankind.
The latter Greeks, who had an high opinion of their own wisdom, were loth to own, that they derived any part of their knowledge from the Barbarians, as they called all other
(/) I shall afterwards take notice of the tradition about the ori- gin of the earth from a chaos. As to the conflagration of the world, it was a doctrine of the highest antiquity. It was con- stantly maintained by the Stoicks, but they were not the authors of it. It was taught before them by Heracliius, Empedocles, and others. And it probably came to the Greeks from the Egyptians and Phoenicians. Zeno himself, the father of the Stoicks, was of Phoenician origin. The Egyptians, as Plato informs us, held suc- cessive destructions of the world by deluges and conflagrations. Thus they joined the traditions of the first destruction of the world by water, and the last which shall be by fire, together, mixing the traditions, and supposing those destructions to return at certain periods. The poets have likewise preserved theantient tradition of the conflagration of the world, as might be shewn from Sophocles, Lucretius, Ovid, Lucan, &c. The Brachman* also in India have held from the most antient times, and still hold, that the world shall be destroyed by fire. See Burnet's Tel- luris Theor. sacr. 1. iii. cap. 2. and his Archaeol. 1. ii. Appendix. This tradition, like many others, was altered and corrupted, especially by those who, like the Stoicks, supposed periodical conflagrations and renovations of the world; and some of them carried it so far as to maintain, that after such conflagrations, the whole series both of persons and things should be restored exact- ly in the same condition it was in before, and the same actions done over again. Orig. cont. Cels. 1. y. p. 245.
60 The Knowledge of Religion Part I.
nations but themselves. Diogenes Laertius blames those who presumed to say, that philosophy had its rise among the Barbarians, and affirms, that they ignorantly applied to the Barbarians what the Greeks themselves had rightly done and invented. His prejudice in favour of the Greeks carries him so far as to say, that from them not only philosophy but the human race had its original. Laert. in Procem. Segm. 3. And yet it is a thing certain, and universally acknowledg- ed, and which appears from his own accounts, that the most celebrated among the antient philosophers travtiled into the eastern countries, Chaldea, Phoenicia, Egypt, Persia, and some of them as far as India, to converse with the wise men of those nations for their improvement in knowledge. A long catalogue is given by Diodorus Siculus of those of them that travelled into Egypt, who had it from the Egyp- tian priests. Plato, in his Epinomis, acknowledges that the Greeks learned many things from the Barbarians, though he asserts, that they improved what they thus borrowed, and made it better, especially in what related to the worship of the Gods (m). That' great philosopher himself spent several years in Egypt among the Egyptian priests, as Py- thagoras, of whom he was a great admirer, had done before. And it has been often observed, that there are many things in his writings which he learned in the East; and that from thence he seems to have borrowed some of his sublimest Dotions, though he probably embellished, and added to them by the force of his own genius. There are several passages in his works, in which he represents theological truths, as having been derived, not merely from the reasonings of philosophers, but from antient and venerable traditions, which were looked upon as of divine original, though he sometimes intimates that they were mixed with fables.
(w) Plat. Opcr. p. 703. Edit. Ficin. Lugd. 1590.
Chap. I, conveyed by Tradition, 6t
Eusebius, and others of the fathers contend, that all the knowledge of divine things among the Greeks, came ori- ginally from the Hebrews. But this seems to be carrying it too far. Some of those things may well be supposed to have been the remains of antient tradition, derived not merely from the Hebrews, or the Mosaic and Prophetical writings, but from the Patriarchal ages; some vestiges of which continued for a long time, especially among the Eastern nations.
The several considerations which have been mentioned, make it highly probable, that Religion first entered into the world by Divine Revelation: that it was not merely the result of men's own unassisted reason, or the effect of learn- ing and philosophy, which had made little progress in those early ages: but owed its original to a Revelation communi- cated from God to the first parents of the human race. From them it was delivered down by tradition to their de- scendants: though, in process of time, it became greatly obscured, and corrupted with impure mixtures.
62 Idolatry not thejlrst Religion of Mankind. Part I.
CHAPTER II.
The first religion of mankind was not idolatry, but the knowledge and worship of the one true God. Some vestiges of which may be traced up to the most an- tient times. A tradition of the creation of the world continued long among the nations. The notion of one Supreme God was never entirely extinguished ia the Pagan world; but his true worship was in a great measure lost and con- founded amidst a multiplicity of idol deities.
From the account which hath been given in the preced- ing chapter, it may be fairly concluded, that not Idolatry, but the worship of the one true God, was the first Religion of mankind. But this deserves to be more distinctly con- sidered, as it is what some are not willing to allow. Mr. Hume, in his Dissertation on the Natural History of Reli- gion, having endeavoured to shew, that the first men were not qualified to find out the existence and perfections of God, the sole Creator of the Universe, by reasoning from the works of nature, draws this conclusion from it, that Theism was not the first Religion of the human race. " If, says he, we consider the improvements of human society from rude beginnings, to a state of greater perfection, Poly- theism and Idolatry was, and necessarily must have been, the first, and most antient Religion of mankind," p. 4. And again, he pronounces it " impossible that Theism cotdd, from reasoning, have been the primary Religion of the hu- man race," ibid. p. 9. (n). But his argument does not prove, that Theism, or the acknowledgment and worship of one God, was not the Religion of the first ages; it only shews, that it was not the mere result of their own reasonings: and
(n) Lord Bolingbroke is of the same opinion. See his Works, vol. III. p. 256. 260.
Chap. II. Idolatry not the first Religion of Mankind, 63
therefore if it obtained among them, it must have been owing to a divine Revelation originally communicated to the first men. And this was the case in fact. He supposes, in the passage above quoted from him, to which ethers might be added, that it was impossible that men in the first ages of the world, should, if left to themselves in the cir- cumstances they were in, have any other Religion than idolatry; and he asserts, that they were left to them selves accordingly, and therefore were necessarily idolaters. But I can hardly conceive a greater absurdity, than to imigine that a wise and good God, the parent of mankind, should place them in such circumstances at their first formation, and for many ag<^s afterwards, that they must either un- avoidably have no Religion at all, or a false one; so tlat it was absolutely impossible for them not to be idolaters and polytheists. This seems to me to cast the most unworthy reflections on Divine Providence. It is far more rational to suppose, that, through the divine goodness, the first partnts and ancestors of the human race had a knowledge' of Reli- gion in its main fundamental principles, communicated to them from God himself, at their first coming into the world, to put them into an immediate capacity of knowing and adoring their Maker. For in this case, if they, or their de- scendants afterwards, fell into polytheism and idolatry, it was their own fault; wholly owing to themselves, and not chargeable on Divine Providence; since there was an ori- ginal Revelation granted them, which they had it in their power, and were under the strongest obligations to trans- mit pure to their posterity (w). But the supposing mankind
(n) The account which Mr. Hume himself gives of the ori- gin of Religion among mankind is very extraordinary. He ac- knowledgeth, that "there is a consent of mankind, almost uni- versal, in the belief that there is an invisible intelligent power in
64 Idolatry not the Jir St Religion of Mankind. Part 1,
at their first formation to have been constituted in such cir- cumstances, that it was impossible for them to know and worship the one true God, the Maker and Lord of the Uni- verse; u e, to fulfil the principal end of their being; and
the world." But he gives no sufficient account, how there came to be such a general consent of mankind in this belief He never takes ihe least notice of a Divine Revelation as having given rise to it: nor will he allow, that the first ideas of Religion arose from the contempladon of the works of nature, for which he thinki the first men, in the circumstances they were in, were by no means quulified. Whence then doth he suppose the first no- tions of Religion to have proceeded? It is "from men's examin- ing iito the various and contrary events of human life, and in this disorderly scene with eyes still more disordered and asto- nished, they see the first obscure traces of Divinity." Dissert, on the Mat. Hist, of Religion, p. 13, 14, 15. A goodly account this of the first original of the idea of God and Religion among man- kind! It is true, that when men have once formed a notion of invisible intelligent powers, they might be apt to attribute to such powers, those events which they could not otherwise aC' count for. But the mere consideration of the fortuitous accidents, as he calls them, of human Ufe, and which they might be apt to attribute to chance, could not give them the first notion of supe- rior invisible power; nor doth it all account for this notion's hav- ing been almost universal among mankind, as he owns it to have been. According to his scheme, Elves and Fairies, to which he compareth the Heathen Deities, must have been the first Gods of the human race. Whereas it appeareth from the best accounts of the most antient times, that the worship of the one true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, was the first Religion of man- kind, and that the first idolatry, or deviation from the primitive Religion, was the worship of heaven and the heavenly bodies; to which they were led by their admiration of them, and by consi- dering their splendor and influence on this lower world. Mr. Hume's account of the origin of Religion among mankind is founded in his own imagination, without any authority or reason to support it.
Chap. II. Idolatry not the first Religion of Mankind. 63
that idolatry and polytheism was the necessary result of the state they were at first placed and long concinued in; this is laying the blame of their false Religion and Polytheism, not upon themselves, but upon God, and making him the pro- per author of it. The hypothesis, therefore, that Polytheism and Idolaitry was not the first original Religion of mankind, but only the corruption of it, is far more agreeable to reason, and more consistent with the best notions we can form of the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence.
And this, which is most agreeable to reason, is also riiost conformable to the best accounts which are given us of the antient state of mankind. Mr. Hume indeed appeals to facty that " all mankind, a very few excepted, were idolaters- from the beginning, and continued so till 1700 years agor and that the farther we mount up into antiquity, the more we find mankind plunged into idolatry: no marks or symp- toms of a more perfect Religion." But if by idolatry he- means, which seems to be what he intends by it, that man- kind, from the beginning of the world, were absolutely without any knowledge or notion of the one supreme Gody his assertion is not true. A notion of a supreme Deity con- tinued for a long time among the idolatrous Heathens themselves, and never was entirely extinguished, though greatly obscured and corrupted. And the same may be ob- served concerning many of those whom Mr. Hume calls the savage tribes of America: and indeed idolatry, in its first beginning, was not an utter casting off the knowledge and worship of the one true God, but the worshipping him- in a superstitious manner, and the joining with him, under various pretences, other objects of worship, to whom at first they rendered an inferior degree of religious respecty but at length came to render them that divine adorationf which was only due to the Supreme.
The most authentic history of the first ages of the world,^ as hath been already hinted, is that of Moses; who is th&
Vol. I, I
66 Idolatry not the first Religion of Mankind. Part. I.
most antient historian, and the most to be depended upon of any now extant. For as to the extravagant antiquities of the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and Chinese, the fabulous- ness and absurdity of them has been often sufficiently ex- posed, and has been so very lately, by the learned and in- genious Mr. Goguet, in his 3d Dissertation at the end of his 3d tome, De I'Origine des Loix, des Arts, et des Sci- ences. And from the account given by Moses it appeareth, that the worship of the one true God was the religion of the first ancestors of the human race, and that idolatry and polytheism came in afterwards. And the farther the nations were removed from the earliest ages, the more they de- generated from the primitive religion; and the antient and original traditions became more and more corrupted.
The nations which made the greatest figure in the most antient times were the Assyrians and Chaldeans, the Per- sians, Phoenicians, Arabians, and Egyptians; and there is great reason to think, that among all or most of these the worship of the one true God was preserved for some age* after the flood (o). To these might be added the antient Chinese, according to the accounts given of them by F. Matthew Riccius and others, and especially by F. Le Compte, in his memoirs of China. This last-mentioned author affirms, That the people of China preserved the knowledge and worship of the one true God, the Lord of heaven and earth, and the purity of religion among them for two thousand years. And it must be owned, that there are some passages in the most antient Chinese books, which, taken in the most obvious sense, seem to favour this hypo- thesis. But as this is contradicted by the Chinese them- selves, who give a different account of the true sense of those books, as well as by some learned Christians well versed
(o) See Shuckford*s Connect, of sacred and prophane his- tory, vol. i. p. 282, &c. 303, et seq.
Chap. II. Idolatry nqt thejirst Religion of Mankind, 67
in the Chinese language and literature (/?), I shall not lay any great stress upon it. As to the antient Persians, they seem to have been adorers of the one true God in the ear- liest times. Dr. Hyde thinks they learned this from Noah, and their great progenitors Shem and Elam: and that though they afterwards fell into Sabiism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, yet they still retained the knowledge and worship of the Supreme Deity, and that Religion in several respects was less corrupted among them than among
(/i) The proposidons in Le Compters Memoires relating to the antient religion of the Chinese, were censured by the supe- riors of the seminary of foreign missions at Paris, and afterwards by the faculty of divinity there, in their decisions of Oct. 18, 1700. Some of the Jesuits themselves have also given different accounts of the antient religion of China; particularly F. Nicho- las Longobardi, who lived many years in China, and was well acquainted with their books and learning. The reader may con- sult his treatise on this subject, which takes up the whole fifth book of F. Navarette's account of the empire of China. See also Millar's History of the Propag. of Christ, vol. ii. p. 281, 282, edit. 3d. As to my own sentiments in this matter, it seems to me not improbable, that the Chinese as well as the Persians, and some other eastern nations, had some knowledge of the one true God among them in the most antient times; especially as their first rulers and lawgivers seem to have been among the earliest descendants of Noah. But there is reason to think that their religion soon began to be corrupted, and that they early fell into the worship of the heaven, the earth, the elements, the mountains, rivers, and other parts of nature; to which, at least considered as animated by the spirits they supposed to be inti- mately united to them and inseparable from them, they offered sacrifices, from a very remote antiquity. This, I think, may be fairly gathered from the acknowledgments of some of those who are willing to give the most favourable accounts of them. See the Scientia Sinensis latine exposita, published by four Jesuits, lib. ii. p. 5 1 . Paris, 1 687.
6^ The Worship of the one true God Part. I.
^any other of the Gentile nations (jf). The Chaldeans and Assyrians seem to have been among tht- first corrupters of the t^ue antient religion. It is intimated. Josh. xxiv. 3. that Terah, Abraham's father, and even Abraham himself, had been infected with their idolatries. " Thus saith the Lord God, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood," i. e. of the river Euphrates, " in old time: Terah, the fa- ther of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they" (by whom we are probably to understand Terah, Abraham, and Nachor) " served other Gods." It can scarce be supposed, that they were so far corrupted, as intirely to lay aside the knov/ledge and adoration of the one supreme God. But they paid also an inferior kind of worship to other deities. From which however they were afterwards reformed: and according to a tradition still current among the eastern na- tions, Abraham endeavoured to promote a reformation among the Chaldeans. But, if what is said of this matter in the book of Judith can be depended on, the Chaldeans cast theni out; so that they were obliged to flee into Mesopo- tamia, where they sojourned many days (r). From thence, after Tcrah's death, Abraham, by divine commandment,
(y) There is a noble passage concerning; God produced by Eusebius"^, from a book ascribed to Zoroaster. If this passage be genuine, and that this Zoroaster was of so great antiquity as some suppose him to have been, he lived early in the Patriarch- al times, and may be supposed to have preserved considerable remains of the antient primitive religion, as being; not far from the fountain head. Or, if he was as late as the reign of Darius Hystaspes, where Dr. Hyde after the Persian and Arabian his- torians places him, he derived his notions of God, as well as some other parts of his religion, from the Mosaic and Prophetir pal w filings, as that very learned writer has shewn.
(r) Judith, chap. v. vers. 6, 7, 8.
f Euseb. Prxp. Evangel, lib. i. cap. 10. p. 42. A,
.Chap. II. the most antient Religion, 69
removed into Canaan. But still some of his brother Na- chor's family remained in Mesopotamia. And near two hundred years after this, by the account which is given us of Laban and his family, it appears, that the knowledge and worship of the one true God was still retained in those parts, though mixed with some superstitious and idolatrous usages. As to the Phoenicians and Canaanites, it must be acknowledged, that they were over-run with idolatry and polytheism in the days of Moses: but 400 years before, when Abraham sojourned among them, no traces of idola- try are to be found in the account given of them in the Mosaic history. The contrary rather appeareth from what is said of Melchisedek, a king in that country, who was also a priest of the Most High God, and to whom Abraham himself shewed great respect, and gave the tenth part of the spoils he had taken. Abimelech, who was likewise a king in Canaan about the same time, seems to have had a knowr ledge of the true Qod, and to have been a worshipper of him. Nor is there the least hint of any difference between Abraham and the inhabitants of those parts on the account .of religion, or any disturbance given him on that head. He seems rather to have been regarded among them as a Prophet of the Most High, and a person much in the fa- vour of God. The same may be observed with reg:ird to the treatment he met with from Pharaoh and the Egyp- tians. It does not appear, that they were as yet infected with those idolatries, for which they became afterwards so famous. And it seems by what is said of Pharaoh, that he was not absolutely a stranger to the true religion. And probably it was not entirely corrupted in the times of Jo- seph, as may be gathered from the particular respect he shewed to their priests, and from his marrying a priest's daughter. And if what we are told of the antient inhabi- tants of Thebais is to be depended upon, they seem to have preserved for a long time the primitive religion, as consist-
70 The worship of the one true God Part I.
ing in the worship of the one God, the Creator of the world, whom they worshipped under the name of Kneph, when the other parts of Egypt were over-run with idolatry (s). Of the antient religion of the Arabians, the book of Job, who lived after the days of Abraham, is a noble monu- ment. It abounds with the sublimest notions of the Divi- nity, and which are there represented as delivered down from persons of great antiquity: though it is also there in- timated, that the idolatrous worship of the heavenly bodies was then beginning to be introduced in those parts (?).
I would observe by the way, that it may be collected from the Mosaic accounts, that God was pleased to mani- fest himself on several occasions to particular persons in those antient times, as appears not only from the instances of Abraham, Isaac, (m), Jacob, and Joseph, but of Abime- lech, Pharaoh, Laban, and others. And there are several passages in the antient book of Job, which shew that it was no unusual thing in those days for God to favour the sin- cere adorers of the Deity with extraordinary discoveries of his will, for their direction and guidance, and for pre- serving a sense and knowledge of religion among men (^x). And it may reasonably be supposed that it was so, not only
(s) Plut. De Isid. et Osir. oper. torn. ii. p. 359. D. Euseb. Prgep. Evangel, lib. iii. cap. 11. p. 115.
(t) Sec the antiquity of the book of Job vindicated, in the Second Dissertation at the end of the first tome De TOrigine des Loix, des Arts, &cc.
(w) We are told that Rebecca went to " enquire of the Lord** concerning the children which struggled in her womb: which seems to shew, that there was at that time in Canaan a prophet or prophets distinct from Abraham and Isaac, to whom persons might have recourse to know the will of God. And accordingly the answer she received contained a signal prophecy. Gen. %rv, 22, 23.
{x) Job iv. 12—20. xxxiii. 14, 15, &c.
Chap. II. • the most antient Religion, Tt
in those countries where Job and his friends lived, but among other nations in those early times, where there were good and pious persons, fearers of God and workers of righteousness. And thus probably it continued, till, bv their increasing idolatries and impieties, the nations rendered themselves utterly unworthy of those divine communica- tions, and were in God's just judgment left to walk in their own ways. It was probably some traditionary accounts of these things which gave reputation to Oracles: though this^ as well as other advantages they had enjoyed, was greatly abused to superstition.
The learned Dr. Shuckford observes, that there continued for a long time among the nations, usages which shew that there had been an antient universal religion, several traces of which appeared in the rites and ceremonies which were observed in religious worship. Such was the custom of sa- crifices, expiatory and precatory, both the sacrifices of ani- mals (z/), and the oblations of wine, oil, and the fruits and products of the earth; altars were erected, and pillars, such as that set up by Jacob, who poured oil upon it, and thereby consecrated it to God. These and other things which were in use among the patriarchs, obtained also among the Gen- tiles, and were probably intended originally to the ho-
(y) It appears from the instances of Cain and Abel, and after* wards of Noah, the second father of mankind, that sacrifices were made use of as a rite of religious worship from the first ages. And its having spread so universally among the nations, can scarce be any other way accounted for, than by a most antient and general tradition derived from the first of the human race. And good reasons may be offered to make it probable, that it was not their own invention, but owed its original to a divine in* stitution.
t2 A Tradition of the Creation of the Woflcf, Sec. VAtit I.-
nour of the true God, but afterwards transferred to idot deities (2).
To this some learned persons have added, that the seventh day seems for a long time to have been distinguished among the nations, and to have had a peculiar sacredness ascribed to it (r/). Mr. Selden indeed has taken great pains to shew, that the seventh day mentioned by pagan writers is to be understood of the seventh day of the month: and that there is no proof of the religious observance of the seventh day of the week among the antient Gentiles. Yet it is plain from that very learned writer's own accounts, that there was a particular regard paid by them to the number seven, and that the numbering days by weeks, consisting of seven days,- was of great antiquit}^, especially among the eastern na- tions (^). And I think a more probable account cannot be given of it, than that it was originally derived from a tradi- tion of the history of the creation, and of a seventh day set apart, by divine appointment, in commemoration of it: though, like other antient traditions, it came in process of time to be neglected, and the true original design of it lost and forgotten. It cannot be denied however, that there re- mained for many ages among the nations, some remarkable vestiges of the history of the creation. It was generally believed, both that the world had a beginning, and that it was made out of a chaos or disorderly mass. This is agree- able to the account given by Moses, not that the nations generally took it from his writings, but from a tradition
(2) Shockford's Connect, of sacred and prophane history, vol. i. p. 301, et seq.
(a) Euseb. Praep. Evangel, lib. xiii. cap. 12 et 13.
(b) SelfJen De jure nat. et gent. lib. iii. the 17th and following chapters to the end of that book.
Chap. II. A Tradition of the Creation of the World, &c. fS
derived from the first ages (c). For, as Dr. Burnet observes, the remembrance of their original was still in a manner fresh in the most antient times: " The higher one goes," says the learned Mons. Goguet, " towards the ages nearest the crea- tion, the more we find of the visible traces of this great truth, which the invention and temerity of man in vain attempt to deface (d),^^ And that some notion of this con- tinued for a long time among the Gentiles might be shewn from several testimonies. The learned Dr. Hyde observes concerning the antient Persians, that from tim.es immemo- rial they had some knowledge of the history of the creations and to this he attributes their having retained more of the knowledge of the true religion than many other nations (^)rf Strabo informs us from Megasthenes, concerning the Indian Brachmans, who were remarkable for their adherence ta antient traditions which they had received from their an- cestors, that they believed the world had a beginning, and shall be destroyed, and that God made and governs it; and that the world was originally formed out of water. And in this he represents them as agi^eeing with the Greeks {f^ That very antient Greek poet Linus writ a poem on the cosmogonia or generation of the world, which he began thus, as Diogenes Laertius informs us,
*' There was a time when all things rose at once/^ And from him Laertius thinks Anaxagoras took his notion,?
(c) Concerning the antiquity and universality of this tradidon see Burnet's Archaeologia, lib. ii. cap. i. and his Telluiis Theo- ria Sacra, lib.i. cap. 4. et lib. ii. cap. 7. See also Grot. De Verit. Relig. Christ, lib. i. sect 16.
{d) De I'Origine des Loix, des Arts, &c. torn. ii. p. 451, 453.-
(e) Hyde Hist. vet. Persar. cap. iii. p. 81.
(/) Strabo, liv. xv. p. 1040. Edit. Amstel.
Vol.. L K
r* The notion of one Supreme God Part I»
that all things were mixed together, and Mind came and put them in order (^). Those philosophers who endeavoured to account for the origin of things merely from material and mechanical causes, without the intervention of an intelligent cause and author, and the poets who turned the cosmogonia, or account of the production of the world, into a theogonia, or an account of the generation of the gods, and confounded the one with the other, were the great depravers of tne au- tient tradition. Yet traces of it still remained among the people, and even among the poets and mythologists them- selves; a remarkable instance of which we have in Ovid, who formed his Metamorphoses upon antient traditions, and the received mythology. He begins his work with an account of the formation of the world out of a chaos, and has many things so agreeable to what Moses has said of it, that one would be apt to think that either he himself, or the authors whom he followed, had seen or heard of the Mosaic account of the creation; which, as appears from Longinus and others, the Pagans were not unacquainted with. But, supposing this to have been the case, he would not have made use of it in such a work as the Metamor- phoses, if it had not been agreeable to the antient received traditions. And it is observable, that he gives it a Pagaa turn. And though he supposes one God to have been the great agent in the formation of the world, yet he at the same time supposes a plurality of deities, and seems to be at a loss which of them to ascribe it to.
Besides what has been said of the tradition of the crea- tion of the world, it may be observed, that some notion of a supreme Deity was generally preserved among the na- tions, amidst all their superstitions and idolatries, and was never utterly extinguished in the Pagan world; and this is
(5-) Laert. in Prooemio, Segm* 4.
Chap. II. never intirely extinguished in the PaganWorld. 7$
a farther proof of the remains of an ancient universal reli- gion which had obtained from the beginning. There are several passages in Heathen writers which represent the be- lief and acknowledgment of a Deity iS having been derived by a constant tradition from the most remote antiquity. The author of the book De Mundo, among the works of Aristotle, calls it " a certain antitnt trar^ition or doctrine derived to all men from their fathers." *A^^eti6t rtg Ao'yef kxi wcir^fi ireirti ci*6^u^otf (^h). And before him Plato, speaking of God's having the beginning, the end, and the middle of things, and being always accompanied with justice to punish those that transgress the divine law, represents this as what antient tradition, o velxuioi AoV«?, testifies (i). And Plutarch, in his treatise De Isid. et Osir. speaking of the opinion, that the world is not upheld or carried about by chance, without understanding, or reason, or a go- vernor, representeth it as an opinion of the utmost an- tiquity, w<«^T«tA«/fl5 3<>|«, which had not its original from any known author, rhv i^x,^" ^^so-TdToi" 'ix>^TA<, and was ge- nerally spread among the Greeks and Barbarians (Jt). The most ancient legislators were not the inventors of it; but finding the notion of a Divinity among the people, made use of it to give a greater authority to their laws and institutions. It may be traced up, as was before ob- served, to the first parents of the human race, to whom it was communicated by the wise and benign Author of their beings. And when once this principle was thus com- municated, the standing evidences of a Deity, open to the view of mankind in all ages in his wonderful works, must
(A) De Mundo, cap. vi. Aristot. Oper. torn. I. p. 610. Edit. Paris 1629.
(r) Plat, de Leg. lib. IV. Oper. p. 600. G. Edit. Lugd. 1590. {k) Plut. Oper. torn. II. p. 369. B. Edit. FrancOf. 1620.
fS The notion of one Supreme God Part I,
have contributed to keep up the idea of it among the nations. And though it must be acknowledged, that they did not make that use of those discoveries which they might and ought to have done, yet the works of God, which were continually before their eyes, had undoubtedly a tendency to preserve some impressions of a Deity upon their minds, which could never be absolutely erased. I shall produce a few testimonies to this purpose among many which might be mentioned. Zaleucus^ the Locrian^ in his celebrated prooemium or preface to his laws, saith, that *' all those who inhabit the city and country ought first of all to be persuaded of the existence of the Gods, especially when they look up to heaven, and contemplate the world, ^nd the orderly and beautiful disposition of things. For these are not the works of chance or of men. And that they ought to worship and honour them, as the authors of all the real good things which befall us (/)."" It is easy," saith Clinias, the Cretan, one of Plato's dialogists, in his tenth book of laws, " to prove this truth, that there are gods." And when the Athenian hospes asks, " How is it proved?" He answers, ''In the first place, the earth, the sun, the ptars, and '■^ %v^frct.niC', the whole complexion and constitu- tion of things, the well ordered variety of seasons, dis- tinguished by years and months, shew it: as also the con^ sent of both Greeks and Barbarians, who all agree that there are Gods (m)." Cicero has many passages concerning
Q) This excellent Fragment has been preserved to us by Stobaeus. Serm. xiii. The reader may see it at large quoted and elegantly translated by the learned author of the Divine Lega- tion of Moses: who has also well vindicaied the genuineness of it against the objections of a famous critic Div. Leg. vol. I. book ii. sect. 3d. p. 1 12. et seq. et 127, 128. 4th edit.
(m) Plato Pe Leg. lib. x. Oper. p. 664. Ficin. Edit. Lugd, 1590,
Chap. II. never intirely extinguished in the Pagan World, 77
the proofs of a Deity, as being obvious from the works of nature. " Who," says he, " is so blind, that when he looks up to the heavens, does not perceive that there are Gods?" Quis est tarn csecus, qui cum suspexerit in coelos, non esse Deos sentiat (w)? And in his proem or introduction to his laws he represents him as not worthy of the name of a man, " whom the orderly courses of the stars, the vicissi- tudes of days and nights, the distributions and temperature of the seasons, and the various things produced out of the earth for our use and enjoyment, do not compel to be grateful?" Qutm vero astrorum ordines, quem dierum et noctium vicissitudines, quem mensium temperatio, quemque ca quae gignuntur nobis ad fruendum, non gratum esse co- gant, hunc hominem omnino numerare qui deceat (o)? And elsewhere, having mentioned several of the works of na- ture and providence, he asks, " How is it possible for us, when we behold these and numberless other things of the same kind, to entertain a doubt, but that there presideth over them some Maker of so great a work, if these things had a beginning, or a moderator and governor, if, as Aristotle supposes, they existed from eternity," Hsec igitur et alia innumcrabilia cum cernimus, possumusne dubitare quin his prsesit aliquis vel Effector, si hsec nata sunt ut Platoni videtur, vel si semper fuerint, ut Aristoteli placet, moderator tanti operis et muneris (/?). Plutarch, in his trea- tise De Placit. Philos. lib. I, cap. vi. reckons the observa- tion of the heavenly bodies, their influences, the harmony of their motions, and the effects which they produce, to be one of the principal things which had led men into the no- tion of a Deity: though it must be owned, that he there
(n) Orat. Haruspic. Respons. n. 9.
(o) De Legib. lib II. cap. vii. p. 95, 96. Edit. Davis, 2d.
(Ji) Tuscul. Quaest. lib, I. cap. xxviii. p, 68. Edit. Davis, 4to,
yg The notion of one Supreme God Part I.
speaks of men's acknowledging a number of gods; among which he reckons the heaven, the earth, the sun, moon, and stars (^). I think it appears with great evidence from the several passages which have been produced, to which others might be added, that in the heathen world men were sensible of the force of the argument which is drawn from the beauty and order of the works of nature, to the ex- istence and perfections of a Deity. But it is to be observed, that though they generally agreed that the formation of things was not owing to chance; yet in most of the passages here referred to, they do not argue from the works of na- ture to one only supreme Cause, but seem rather to infer a plurality of deities or intelligent causes, as the authors of this system. And many passages there are of this kind among the antients. It is also observable, as I shall shew distinctly in another place, that when the Pagan authors, who lived before the times of Christianity, urge the con- sent of nations against the atheists in proof of a Deity, they generally speak of Gods in the plural, and not of one God only. Yet, notwithstanding their polytheism, and the many- gods they acknowledged and worshipped, which was a great and most culpable defection from the true primitive religion, they still retained in some degree the idea of one supreme Divinity. But it must be owned, that it seemed at length to dwindle into a notion of one God, superior in power and dignity to the rest, but not of a different kind from the other divinities they adored, whom they looked upon to be really and truly Gods as well as he, and sharers in the sovereign dominion with him. That this was the general popular notion will appear in the farther progress of this work.
It is an observation of the learned Dr. Cudworth, that
{q) Plut. Oper. torn. II. p. 880.
Chap. II. never intirely extinguished iyi the PaganWor Id, 79
though the poets were the great depravers of the true primitive religion and theology among the Pagans, yet they kept up the antient tradition of one supreme Deity. Amidst the crowds of divinities they mention, there is still running through all their writings the notion of One Su- preme; of whom they speak in the most exalted terms, and to whom they ascribe the highest divine attributes, and which are really peculiar to the one true God; as that he is omnipotent, that he seeth all things and governeth the whole world. They often call him the Father Al- mighty, the Father of gods and men. They describe him as the Universal Monarch who ruleth men and the gods too. Several passages might be produced to this purpose from Homer and others of the Greek poets, who in this are followed by the Latins. The reader may particularly consult Plautus in the prologue to his Rudcns, ver. 9. Virgil, -L-Eneid. lib. x. ver. 2, et 18. Horace, ode xii. lib. i. et lib. iii. ode iv. Other testimonies are produced from the poets by that learned writer (r). Yet it cannot be denied, that they confounded him whom they represented as the Supreme God, with that Jupiter of whom they told such indecent stories, and thus corrupted this great principle of all religion. This however may be gathered from their writings, that the notion of one Supreme Divinity was still preserved among them, and never utterly extinguish- ed amidst all the confusions and perversions of the Pagan theology.
I do not now enquire into the sentiments of the antient philosophers concerning the one supreme God. These will be distinctly considered in a proper place. I shall only ob- serve at present, that many of them contributed not a little
(r) Cudworth's Intel. System, chap. iv. sect. 19. p. 355, et seq. 2d edit.
30 Tradition of one Supreme God Part L
to corrupt this great fundamental article of religion; though some of them were of a noble character^ and said excellent things concerning the Deity, at the same time that they join- ed in the public polytheism and idolatry.
If from the more polite and civilized parts of the Heathen world, we proceed to enquire how the case stood with the nations which are usually looked upon as illiterate and bar- barous, we shall find that many of them had also a notion of one supreme Divinity; and even some of those, from whom one would have least expected it, seem to have pre- served the antient tradition in this respect more clear, than the nations among whom learning and science flourished.
It was for a long time thought, that the Hottentots, or nations which inhabit the countries about the Cape of Good Hope, had no notion of God at all: but the latest and best accounts assure us, that they believe one supreme Being. F. Tachart tells us, that in conference with some of the most intelligent Hottentots, he found that they believed there is a God who made heaven and earth, and causeth it to thun- der and rain, &c. but did not think themselves obliged to worship him. This is confirmed by other writers of credit, particularly by Mr. Kolben, whose accounts of the Hotten- tots are most exact, and the most to be depended upon. He took particular pams, whilst he was at the Cape of Good Hope, where he lived several years, to inform himself of their religion and customs; and affirms, that they believe a Supreme Being, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things that are therein, through whose omnipotence all things live and move; and that this Being is endued with unsearch- able attributes and perfections; giving him a name which in their language signifieth the God of Gods. This may seem to argue high ideas of the Divinity. But then it is to be observ- ed, that they say of this Supreme God, that he is a good man, doing no harm to any body, and dwells far above the
Chap. II. amongst the most barbarous Nations, 81
moon; and that they pay no distinct worship to him, though they do to the moon. They also worship an evil being, whom they look upon to be the father of mischief, that they may avert his malice {s). Considering their character, it can hardly be supposed that their notions of a Supreme Being, as far as they are just and right, are the effect of their own reasoning, to which in matters of religion they are observ- ed to have an utter aversion; but must have proceeded from the remains of antient tradition, derived to them from their ancestors, of whose opinions and customs they are very tenacious. There are other old traditions among them, some remarkable instances of which are mentioned by that author.
The same observation may be made concerning the Ne- groes in Guinea. We are told, that they generally acknow- ledge one Supreme Almighty Being; but believe he is too far above us to take notice of poor mortals: and therefore they pay him no manner of adoration; neither praying to him, nor giving him thanks for any thing: but pray and sacrifice to a multitude of other deities, some of which are extremely ridiculous (t).
It appears from both antient and modern accounts of In- dia, that there are several tribes and nations there, who ac- knowledge and worship one Supreme Being, as the original and productive Cause of all things: but that this God does not concern himself immediately with things of little mo- ment, but has created other gods to be his Vicegerents; and these again have their subordinate gods, of whom they
(s) See Kolben's Account of the Cape of Good Hope. English translation. Vol I. chap. viii.
{t) See Salmon's account of Guinea in his Modern History, from Bosman and other authors.
Vol. I. L
82 The Worship of the Supreme God Part L
suppose an amazing number, to each of whom worship is due (w).
The people of Ceylon in the East Indies, as Mr. Knox informs us, who lived there twenty years, worship many gods, and even evil spirits, lest they should be destroyed by them; yet they acknowledge one God to be the Supreme, whom they call by a name which signifies the Creator of heaven and earth; but that he sends forth inferior gods, to whom he hath committed the care of affairs (x). Of these there are many images, and they have priests and temples dedicated to them, but none to the Supreme.
As to the people of America, Acosta tells us, " That this is common to almost all the Barbarians, that they ac- knowledge a God Supreme over all things, and perfectly good:" and he adds, "That therefore they ought to be care- fully taught who is that supreme and eternal Author of all things, whom they ignorantly worship. — Hoc commune apud omnes pene barbaros est, ut Deum quidem omnium rerum supremum et summe bonum fateantur — Igitur et quis ille summus idemque sempiternus rerum omnium opifex, quern ignoranter colunt, per omnia doceri debent (2/)." And Lafe-
(u) Narrative of the Danish missionaries, part 2d, p. 7, et seq. And Phillips's account of the religion, &c. of the people of Malabar.
(a?) This notion of God's not concerning himself with the af- fairs of this world, but committing them wholly to inferior dei- ties, obtained very generally among the Pagans, and was a prin- cipal cause of the idolatry which prevailed among them. For hence it come to pass, that in process of time their regards and worship were almost wholly confined to these inferior deities, upon whom they thought they immediately depended; whilst the Supreme God was regarded as little more than an ideal being, and almost intirely neglected.
(j/) Jos. Acosta De procuranda Indorum salute, lib. v. p. 475, as cited by Cudworth. But though they acknowledged the chief
Chap. II. paid to Idol Deities, 8.3
teau in his Moears des Sauvages observes, that they acknow- ledge one Supreme Being or Spirit: though he adds, that they confound him with the sun, whom they call the great spirit, the author and master of life (z). I believe this is true of many of those savages, but still it shews they had a notion of one Supreme Deity, though they misapplied it to the sun. Some of the Americans however seem to have had a no- tion of a Supreme Deity above the sun. Garcilasso de la Vega says, that the most antient inhabitants of Peru, before the Incas came among them, and whom he represents as extremely rude and uncultivated, yet acknowledged one Supreme God, whom they called Pacha Camack; and said, that it was He that gave life to all things, and sustained and preserved the universe, but that as he was invisible, and they did not see him, they could not know him: and therefore to him they seldom erected temples, or offered sacrifices; though they shewed their veneration for him by bowing their head, and lifting up their eyes, when his sa- cred name was mentioned. One temple however was erect- ed to him, in a valley called the valley of Pacha Camack, which was standing when the Spaniards first came into those parts. The Incas made them worship the sun from political views: in consequence of which Pacha Camack became in a great measure neglected. We are told also concerning some of the inhabitants of Florida, that they worship one God, the creator of all things, whom they call Okee: their high priests offer sacrifice to him; but they be-
God to be very good, many of them were principally solicitous to worship an evil being or beings, for fear of their doing them mischief.
(z) So we find in a passage, which I shall afterwards cite from Macrobius, that the civilized Roman and Greek Pagans, in their solemn acts of devotion to the sun, called him the" spirit of the world, the power of the world, the light of the world.
84 The Worship of the Supreme God Part I.
lieve he minds not human affairs himself, but commits the government of them to other deities, whom they therefore worship, especially the sun and moon.
Thus it appears that there are traces of the belief of one Supreme Deity among many different nations in the several parts of the world, and even among people which are ac- counted the most barbarous; and this can hardly be sup- posed to be merely owing to the force of their own rea- soning, destitute as they are of learning and improvement. It is most natural to ascribe it to the remains of an antient universal religion, which obtained from the beginning, and was derived from the first ancestors of the human race. It must be owned, that there have been and are other nations, among whom this great article of the antient religion ap- pears to have been almost entirely lost, and who acknow- ledged and worshipped many gods, without seeming to have had any distinct notion of one God that is absolutely supreme above all the rest. But not to insist upon this at present, I would observe, that even in those nations which still retained the notion of a Supreme Deity, this venerable /tradition, though highly agreeable to reason, came at length, through the negligence and corruption of mankind, to be amazingly perverted and depraved. It was covered and overwhelmed, so as to be scarce discernible under a mon- strous load of superstitions and idolatries. Some nations which acknowledged a Supreme Being rendered him no worship at all; in others his worship was so mixed and confounded with that of idol deities, that scarce any traces of it appear in their worship, in their religion, and in their laws. The great number of divinities which were introdu- ced from time to time, and the worship of which was esta- blished by public authority, turned off their attention and regards from the one true God, so that he was in a great measure neglected and overlooked, whilst they paid that worship to vain idols which was due to him alone. Mr.
Chap. II. paid to Idol Deities. 85
Locke therefore had just reason to say, that "in the crowds of wrong notions and invented rites, the world had almost lost sight of the only true God («)." Lord Bolingbroke makes the same observation, that " they lost sight of him, and suffered imaginary beings to intercept the worship due to him alone (^)»" Allowing the most favourable represen- tations that can possibly be made of the state of the heathen world, consistently with truth and fact, the darkness and confusion the people were under with regard to the know- ledge and worship of the one true God was gross and de- plorable to an astonishing degree; so that they stood in great need of an extraordinary divine interposition to re- cover them from it. This is what I shall now proceed to shew. And it will be proper to take some notice of the principal steps by which this grand defection from the right knowledge and worship of the only true God was brought about, and came to prevail so generally among the nations. And in carrying on this enquiry I shall have a particular re- gard to those Pagan nations which have been most admired for their wisdom, and among whom learning and philosophy seemed to make the greatest progress.
(a) Locke's Reason, of Christ, in his works, Vol. II. p. 530, 531. Edit, third.
(b) Bol. Works, Vol. IV. p. 80, et461. Edit. 4to.
8S The Worship of the heavenly Bodies Part I.
CHAPTER III.
The first corruption of religion, and deviation from the knowledge and wot'ship of the one true God, was the worship of heaven and the heavenly hodies. This the most antient kind of idolatrj. It hegan very early, and spread very gene- rally among the Heathen nations.
i HE most antient idolatry, and which was probably the first deviation from the worship of the one true God, seems to, have been the worship of heaven and the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars. Diodorus Siculus acquaints us, " That the most antient people of Egypt, looking up to the world above them, and the Nature of the universe, and being struck with astonishment and admiration, supposed the sun and moon to be the eternal and first or principal gods." And he afterwards adds, that " they supposed that these gods govern the whole world (c)." This passage is is cited by Eusebius, who also observes concerning the an- tient Phoenicians, that «J ^e^uroi <pv<riKot) the first natural philo- sophers among them, or the first who professedly applied themselves to enquire into the nature of things, "looked upon the sun and moon, and other wandering stars, and the elements, and the things that were connected with these, to be the only gods." Thus, instead of being led by contemplat- ing the wonderful works of God, to adore him the glorious author, these searchers into nature worshipped the works
(c) T»5 Kecr AtyvTrrov ecvB-^aiTriii to veiXetih ytvef*ivii9 ecvetZx'r^xvrcti lii Tov xoa-fiovy Kxi rhv tZv oXav <Pv<rivj KotrctvXtcyivrxi t6 kx} ^xvfcxa-xv' ixi v^oyx^iT* Uixi ^i>(i xihiiig rt xxi Tr^ara? tov re «A<o» KXt rh tri^KV^v
T8T«S Se T»$ B-iSi v!pkxv}xi T09 O-VfiTTXVTX KOTfiOV ^ICtKitV. Dlod. SlCUl.
Ub. I. Euseb. Prsepar. Evangel, lib. 1. cap. 9. ab initio.
Chap. III. the most antient Idolatry. 87
themselves as Gods. Trusting to their own wisdom, they began to neglect the antient tradition which Moses lays down as the foundation of all religion, that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. What has been said of the Egyptians and Phoenicians holds equally concerning the Assyrians and Chaldeans, whom many suppose to have been the first that rendered divine worship to the heavenly bodies. It is not however probable, that any of these nations fell all at once into the grossest kind of this idolatry. They began very early to apply themselves to the study of astro- nomy, and to make observations on the stars, their motions and influences. Among them judicial astrology had its rise. By indulging their speculations they came to regard them as living intelligent beings, a notion which afterwards ob- tained very generally among mankind ((f). At first probably
F (fl?) The learned Dr. Campbell is very positive, that «' beyond all doubt, man, if left to himself, without instruction, will con- ceive the heavenly bodies to be all animated; and that by inward life and power they perform all their motions.*" And again, he says, " I cannot help being assured, that mankind, left wholly to themselves, having no supernatural revelation, will not only apprehend the heavenly bodies are animals, but will confine their thoughts, their hopes and fears, to these superior beings, upon whom they judge, by experience, they depend; and will have no notion, no conception of an invisible Being, infinitely greater, who is over all, God blessed for everf" He expi^esses himself to the same purpose in other places, and thinks this is the most natural way of accounting for their original idolatry. It appears to me very probable, that men began very early to look upon the sun, moon, and stars to be animated beings; and that this, with the consideration of their influences on this lower world, was what principally gave rise to the first and most antient idola-
* Campbell's Necessity of Revelation, p. 185,.18G. > t Ibid. p. 211. and p. 393. '
€8 The Worship of the heavenly Bodies Part I.
they might consider them in a subordination to the Supreme, as the most glorious ministers of the Most High, and to whom the administration of things was chiefly committed; to whom therefore they paid a subordinate worship. But they came afterwards to regard them as the principal deities, who had an universal dominion, and on whom mankind had
try. But I cannot carry it so far as to pronounce with this learn- ed writer, that men, if left to themselves, would, " beyond all doubt," conceive the heavenly bodies to be all animated, and to perform all their motions by an inward life and power; and that it would be as natural for them to look upon the stars to be liv- ing beings, as to believe that the animals they see about them, men, birds, beasts, &c. are living beings. I should think that their constant unvaried motions, so different from the spontane- ous motions of animals, would rather lead men to conclude, that they did not move by an Inward life and power of their own. Or, supposing men to regard them as living beings, it would not ne- cessarily follow, that they could not raise their views beyond them to an invisible Deity. They might still look upon them to be the creatures and subjects of the Supreme; especially consi- dering that, as hath been already shewn, the notion of the Su- preme Being, who created heaven and earth, had been commu- nicated to mankind from the beginning. There have been Christians, who believed the stars to be animated. So did the famous Origen, who believed them to be endued by God with reason and wisdom, and yet did not think they ought to be wor- shipped, but God only, who made them to be what they are, and gave them light and understanding — and that the sun, moon, and other stars, all join with just men in praising God, and his only begotten Son*. The same may be said of that learned Rabbi Maimonides, who asserts, that the celestial orbs are intelligent and rational animals, which worship, praise, and celebrate their Creator and Lord. And he represents other Jewish doctors as of the same opinionf.
* Origen cont. Cels. lib. V. p. 237, 238. \ Maimon. More Nevoch. part ii. cap. 5.
Chap. III. the most antient Idolatry. 89
their chief dependence. Thus was introduced a plurality of deities; and the knowledge and worship of the only true God came to be in a great measure neglected and lost. Or, if they paid a greater worship to one God as superior to the rest, it was the sun. This kind of idolatry soon spread among the nations. Maimonides tells us concerning the an- tient Zabians, who, he says, had filled a great part of the earth, that they held, that there is no God beside the stars: that they are all deities; but that the sun is the great or chief god: and that the highest notion they formed of God was, that he is the spirit or soul of the celestial orbs (e). In like manner Philo Biblius, the translator of Sanchoniathon's Phoenician History, tell us concerning the antient inhabi- tants of Phoenicia, that " they accounted this god, speaking of the sun, to be the only Lord of Heaven" — " T^to? y«g S-«ov Ivofii^ot fiovov argflsvS kv^iov" And therefore he adds, that they called him Baal Samen, which in the Phoenician lan- guage has that signification {/)» The learned Mr. Sale, in his preliminary discourse to his translation of the Koran, observes from the Arabian writers, that the antient Arabs, from the rising and setting of the stars, by long experience, observed what changes happen in the air, and, at length came to ascribe divine power to them. And it appears from a passage in the antient book of Job, that in his time, which was probably before Moses, the worship of the hea- venly bodies was practised in those parts of Arabia where he lived: though it is likely there were still many among them, as well as Job himself, who regarded it as a great iniquity to be punished by the judge, and as a denying the God that is above. Job xxxi. 26, 27, 28. As to the antient Persians, though Dr. Hyde will not allow what Herodotus
(e) Maimon. More Nevoch. part iii. cap. 29. (/) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel, lib. I. cap. lo. Vol. I. M
90 The Worship of the heavenly Bodies Part I.
affirms, that they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and the elements, all along from the beginning, yet he acknow- ledges that they fell very early into the worship of the hea- venly bodies, even before the days of Abraham; though he affirms, that they were afterwards reclaimed from it, and that they all along still retained the knowledge and worship of the one Supreme God. But whether this account may be depended upon or not, certain it is, that the idolatrous wor- ship of the heavenly bodies had made a considerable pro- gress in the world before the days of Moses, as is evident from his writings. And it is most expressly prohibited in his law.
With respect to the antient Grecians, the testimony of Plato in his Cratylus has been often quoted. " The first in- habitants of Greece," says he, " appear to me, to have esteemed these only to be Gods, as many of the Barbarians now do, the sun, and moon, and the earth, and stars, and heaven (^)." The same thing is signified by Aristotle, when he saith, that " it hath been delivered down to us by the antients and those of old times, both that these (viz. the stars) are gods, and that the Divinity eomprehendeth whole or universal nature (A)." And he observes, that " all the other things were added afterwards, for the better persua- sion of the multitude, and for public utility, to keep up a reverence for the laws: such as, the representing the gods to be of human form, or like to other animals, and other things of that kind." When the Greeks grew in learning
{g) <S>xtic*Ttti f^oi 01 TT^arot reSv ivS^aTroiv ray TFt^i rn^ 'EAX«3«6
yhv^Ktci i5-^«, Kxt ii^etvh. Plat. Oper. Ficin. Edit. Lugdun. p. 263. B.
(//) n»^x}i^orect vTTo rav u^y^xlut xxi •vrxXxiS*, art B-ect, n u<rn cvroi) Kxi vi^i'i^fi TO ^toM T>]v oAjjv (pv<riv» Ari^t Metaph. lib. xir. cap. 8. Oper. torn. II. p. 1003. Edit. Paris 1529.
Chap. III. spread generally among the Nations, 91
and politeness, they were still ecj^ually addicted to the wor- ship of the heavenly bodies, as their rude ancestors had been, with this difference, that, as Aristotle intimates in the passage now referred to, they added other grosser idolatries and superstitions to it. It was for affirming the stars to be inanimate bodies, which was looked upon to be a denying their divinity, and for saying that the sun is a body of fire, and the moon an habitable earth, that Anaxagoras was ac- cused at Athens for impiety; and, as some authors tell us, fined five talents, and banished (i). And though Plutarch seems to deny this, yet he owns in his life of Pericles, that Pericles took care to send Anaxagoras away from Athens, from an apprehension that he would be in great danger of being condemned by the Athenians if he staid there. Even the great Socrates himself censured him, as guilty of pre- sumption and arrogance (i). And Plato, in the beginning of his tenth book of laws, charges that opinion as leading to atheism, and a denial of divine providence: and he himself frequently prescribes the worship of the stars, which seem to be the principal divinities he recommends to the people. The other philosophers, and especially the Stoics, were of the same sentiments. Balbus the stoic, in Cicero's second book De Natura Deorum, when he argues for a providence, takes particular pains to prove, that the stars are gods, and to be worshipped as such. Plutarch gives an authentic testi- mony of the general opinion and practice of the Pagans in his time, and plainly expresses his own approbation of it. In his answer to Colotes, the Epicurean, he reckons it among the things which are most firmly believed, and which cannot without great absurdity be denied, " That there i^ a provi-
(i) Diog. Laert. in Anaxagora, lib. ii. segm. 12, 13, 14.
(Jc) Xen. Memorab. Socrat. lib. iv. cap. 7. segm. 6, 7. p. 351. Edit. Oxon. 1749.
92 The Worship of the heavenly Bodies Part I.
dence, and that the sun and moon are animated; whom," says he, " all men worship, and to whom they offer up sa- crifices and prayers— ^0/5 TTotyTfj AV^^ufroi %ii<ri,x»t 9r§»o-cy;|/ovT«i text (ri^6vrxt (/)."
To this species of idolatry may also be referred their wor- shipping and ascribing divinity to the whole compass of the heaven or circumambient sether, which many of them esteemed to be the chief god; not indeed considered merely as inanimate, but as animated with a soul, of which all the heavenly bodies are partakers. Remarkable to this purpose is that passage of Ennius, preserved by Cicero. " Aspice hoc sublime candens, quem invocant omnes Jovem. — Be- hold this resplendent height of heaven, which all men in- voke as Jove." To this may be added a passage from Euripides, which Cicero translates thus:
" Vides sublime fusum, immoderatum aethera, " Qui terram tenero circumjeclu amplecdtur. ** Hunc summum habeto divum, hunc perhibeto Jovem. —
" Thou seest the high unmeasurable expanse of sether, which encompasseth the earth in its tender embrace. This regard as the chief of the gods, celebrate this as Jupiter (w)." The famous stoic Chrysippus argued, as Cicero informs us, that he whom men call Jupiter is the sether. " Chrysippus disputavit sethera esse eum quem homines appellant Jovem." That great naturalist Pliny says, " It is reasonable to believe, that this world, and that which by another name is called heaven, which encompasseth and governeth all things, is God, eternal, immense, and which was never made, nor shall be destroyed (n). — Mundum et hoc quod nomine alio
(/) Plut. Oper. torn. ii. p. 1 123. Edit. Francof. 1620. (m) De Nat. Deor. lib. ii. cap. 2 et 25. (n) Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. 1.
Chap. III. spread generally among the Nations. 93
coelum appellare libuit, cujus circumflexu reguntur omnia, numen esse credi par est, eternum, immensum, neque geni- tum, neque interiturum." But it is to be observed, that when they ascribed Divinity to the heavens, it is to be understood, not exclusively of, but as having a particular regard to the heavenly bodies, and especially the chief of them the sun. To him they ascribed the attributes peculiar to the one true God. Thus Ulysses in Homer saith of the sun, that '* he seeth and knoweth all things. — TlctvT kpc^u kx)