of Socrates, and one who has delivered fome of the moft refined fenti-
ments with regard to a deity, gave all the following marks of vulgar,
Pagan fuperftition. By Socrates's advice, he confulted the oracle of
Delphi, before he would engage in the expedition of Cyrus. De
exped. lib. iii. p. 294 ex edit. Leuncl. Has a dream the night after
the generals were feized; which he pays great regard to, but thinks
ambiguous. Id. p. 295. He and the whole army regard fneezing
as a very lucky omen. Id. p. 300. Has another dream when he
comes to the river Centrites, which his fellow-general, Chirofophus,
alfo pays great regard to. Id. lib. iv. p. 323. The Greeks, fuffer-
ing from a cold north wind, sacrifice to it; and the historian observes,
that it immediately abated. Id. p. 329. Xenophon confults the fa-
crifices in fecret, before he would form any resolution with himself
about fettling a colony. Lib. v. p. 359. He was himfelf a very
fkilful augur.
Id. p. 361. Is determined by the victims to refufe
the fole command of the army which was offered to him. Lib. vi.
p. 273. Cleander, the Spartan, though very defirous of it, refufes it
for the same reason, Id. p. 392. Xenophon mentions an old dream,
with the interpretation given him, when he first joined Cyrus, p. 373.
Mentions alfo the place of Hercules's defcent into hell as believing it,
and fays the marks of it are ftill remaining. Id. p. 375. Had al-
most starved the army, rather than lead them to the field against the
aufpices. Id. p. 382, 383. His friend, Euclides, the augur, would
not believe that he had brought no money from the expedition, till he
(Euclides) facrificed, and then he faw the matter clearly in the Exta.
Lib. vii. p. 425. The fame philofopher, propofing a project of
mines for the increase of the Athenian revenues, advises them first to
confult the oracle. De rat. red. p. 392. That all this devotion was
not a farce, in order to ferve a political purpofe, appears both from
the facts themselves, and from the genius of that age, when little or
nothing could be gained by hypocrify. Befides, Xenophon, as ap-
pears from his Memorabilia, was a kind of heretic in thofe times,"
which no political devotee ever is. It is for the fame reafon I main-
tain, that Newton, Locke, Clarke, &c. being Arians or Socinians,
were very fincere in the cteed they profeffed: And 1 always oppofe
this argument to fome libertines, who will needs have it, that it was
impoffible but that thefe philofophers must have been hypocrites.

NOTE [EEE], p. 461.

ACCHUS, a divine being, is reprefented by the heathen mythology as the inventor of dancing and the theatre. Plays were anciently even a part of public worship on the most folemn oc cafrons;

2 R 2

cafions, and often employed in times of peftilence, to appease the of fended deities. But they have been zealously profcribed by the godly in later ages; and the playhoufe, according to a learned divine, is the porch of hell.

But in order to fhow more evidently, that it is poffible for a religion to reprefent the divinity in ftill a more immoral and unamiable light than he was pictured by the ancients, we shall cite a long paffage from an author of taste and imagination, who was furely no enemy to Chriftianity. It is the Chevalier Ramfay, a writer, who had fo laudable an inclination to be orthodox, that his reafon never found any difficulty, even in the doctrines which freethinkers fcruple the moft, the trinity, incarnation, and fatisfaction: His humanity alone, of which he seems to have had a great stock, rebelled against the doctrines of eternal reprobation and predeftination. He expresses himself thus: What ftrange ideas,' fays he, would an Indian or a Chinese philofopher have of our holy religion, if they judged by the schemes given of it by our modern freethinkers, and pharifaical doctors of all fects? According to the odious and too vulgar fyftem of these incredulous fcoffers and credulous fcribblers,' " The God of the Jews " is a moft cruel, unjust, partial, and fantastical being. He created, "about 6000 years ago, a man and a woman, and placed them in a "fine garden of Afia, of which there are no remains. This garden “was furnished with all forts of trees, fountains, and flowers. He "allowed them the ufe of all the fruits of this beautiful garden, ex

6

cept one, that was planted in the midft thereof, and that had in it "a fecret virtue of preferving them in continual health and vigour

of body and mind, of exalting their natural powers, and making "them wife. The devil entered into the body of a ferpent, and fo"licited the first woman to eat of this forbidden fruit; fhe engaged "her husband to do the fame. To punish this flight curiofity and “natural defire of life and knowledge, God not only threw our firft "parents out of paradife, but he condemned all their pofterity to "temporal mifery, and the greatest part of them to eternal pains,

66

though the fouls of thefe innocent children have no more relation to that of Adam, than to thofe of Nero and Mahomet; fince, ac"cording to the fcholaftic drivellers, fabulifts, and mythologists, all "fouls are created pure, and infufed immediately into mortal bodies, "fo foon as the foetus is formed. To accomplish the barbarous, par"tial decree of predeftination and reprobation, God abandoned all nations to darkness, idolatry, and fuperftition, without any faving "knowledge

"knowledge or falutary graces; unless it was one particular nation, "whom he chofe as his peculiar people. This chofen nation was, "however, the moft ftupid, ungrateful, rebellious and perfidious of all "nations. After God had thus kept the far greater part of all the "human species, during near 4000 years, in a reprobate ftate, he "changed all of a fudden, and took a fancy for other nations befide "the Jews. Then he fent his only begotten Son to the world, under "a human form, to appeafe his wrath, fatisfy his vindictive juftice, "and die for the pardon of fin. Very few nations, however, have "heard of this gofpel; and all the reft, though left in invincible ig "norance, are damned without exception, or any possibility of remisfion. The greatest part of those who have heard of it, have changed only fome fpeculative notions about God, and fome external forms in worship: For, in other respects, the bulk of Chriftians have con"tinued as corrupt as the rest of mankind in their morals; yea, so

66

much the more perverfe and criminal, that their lights were greater. "Unless it be a very small select number, all other Christians, like the "Pagans, will be for ever damned; the great facrifice offered up for "them will become void and of no effect; God will take delight for 66 ever in their torments and blafphemies; and though he can, by one "fiat, change their hearts, yet they will remain for ever unconverted and "unconvertible, because he will be for ever unappeafable and irreconcile"able. It is true, that all this makes God odious, a hater of souls, rather

than a lover of them; a cruel, vindictive tyrant, an impotent or a "wrathful dæmon, rather than an all-powerful, beneficent Father of "fpirits: Yet all this is a mystery. He has fecret reafons for his "conduct, that are impenetrable; and though he appears unjust and “barbarous, yet we must believe the contrary, because what is injuf❝tice, crime, cruelty, and the blackest malice in us, is in him juftice, "mercy, and fovereign goodnefs." Thus the incredulous freethinkers, the Judaifing Chriftians, and the fataliftic doctors, have disfigured and difhonoured the fublime myfteries of our holy faith; thus they have confounded the nature of good and evil; transformed the most monftrous paffions into divine attributes, and furpaffed the Pagans in blafphemy, by afcribing to the eternal nature, as perfections, what makes the moft horrid crimes amongst men. The groffer Pagans contented themfclves with divinizing luft, inceft, and adultery; but the predeftinarian doctors have divinized cruelty, wrath, fury, vengeance, and all the blackeft vices.' See the Cheva

1

lier Ramfay's philofophical principles of natural and revealed religion,
Part II. p. 401.

The fame author afferts, in other places, that the Arminian and
Melinift fchemes ferve very little to mend the matter: And having
thus thrown himself out of all received fects of Christianity, he is ob-
liged to advance a fyftem of his own, which is a kind of Origenifm,
and fuppofes the pre-exiftence of the fouls both of men and beafts,
and the eternal falvation and converfion of all men, beafts, and devils.
But this notion, being quite peculiar to himself, we need not treat of.
I thought the opinions of this ingenious author very curious, but I
pretend not to warrant the juftnefs of them.

INDEX.

1

A

IN DE E X.

The Numeral Letters refer to the Volume, and
the Figures to the Page.

A

CADEMIC philofophy, defence of it, ii. 57.
effay on it, ii. 166.

Alexander, the falfe prophet's wife policy, ii. 135.
Allegiance, foundation of this duty, ii. 258.
Allegory, a form of polytheism, ii. 422.

Ambiguity in moral reasonings, its origin, ii. 74.
Amnesty introduced into Greece by Thrafybulus, i. 398.
Amorous paffion, how compounded, ii. 210.

Animals, effay on their reafon, ii. 120.

Anthropomorphifm, inconveniences of it, ii. 518.

Arbitrary taxes, pernicious, i. 341.

Ariftocracy odious in ancient Greece, i. 404.

Ariftophanes's impieties, why tolerated, ii. 417.

Ariftotle's lift of the virtues, ii. 372.

Arts, the nature and confequences of their refinement examined, i.
266.

Arts and fciences, their rife and progrefs, i. 111.

Affociation of ideas, effay on it, ii. 36.

of impreffions and ideas, ii. 192.

Atheism not more hoftile than religion, to focial order, ii. 151.

Athenian law, a fingular one explained, ii. 261.

Athenians, money amaffed by them, i. 321.

Athens, number of its citizens, i. 416.

Attalus, criminal expreffion of his gratitude, i. 389.
Attributes of the Deity, their character, ii. 513.
Avarice, why blamed, ii. 290.

BALAN

B

ALANCE of power, mentioned by Xenophon, i. 330.
of trade, dependent upon industry and ingenuity, i. 307.
of power, effay on it, i. 330.
2 R 4

Banifhmemt