That great and able emperor was alfo extremely uneafy when he happened to. change his fhoes, and put the right foot fhoe on the left foot. In fhort, it cannot be doubted, but the votaries of the established fuperftition of antiquity were as numerous in every ftate, as thofe of the modern religion are at prefent. Its influence was as univerfal; tho' it was not fo great. As many people gave their affent to it; tho' that affent was not feemingly fo ftrong, precife, and affir mative. We may obferve, thar, notwithstanding the dogmatical, imperious ftyle of all fuperflition, the conviction of the religionitts, in all ages, is more affected than real, and scarce ever approaches, in any degree, to that folid belief and perfuafion, which governs us in the common affairs of life. Men dare not avow, even to their own hearts, the doubts, which they entertain on fuch fubjects: They make a merit of implicite faith; and difguife to themselves their real infidelity, by the strongest affeverations and moft pofitive bigotry. But nature is too hard for all their endeavors, and fuffers not the obfcure, glimmering light, afforded in those shadowy regions, to equal the ftrong impreffions, made by common sense and by experience. The ufual courfe of men's conduct belies their words, and fhows, that the affent in thefe matters is fome unaccountable operation of the mind betwixt difbelief and conviction, but approaching much nearer the former than the latter. SINCE, therefore, the mind of man appears of fo loose and unfteddy a contexture, that, even at prefent, when fo many perfons find an intereft in continually employing on it the chiffel and the hammer, yet are they not able to engrave theological tenets with any lafting impreffion; how much more muft this have been the cafe in antient times, when the retainers to the holy function were so much fewer in comparison? No wonder, that the appearances were then very inconfiftent, and that men, on fome occafions, might feem determined infidels, and enemies to the established religion, without being fo in reality; or at least, without knowing their own minds in that particular. ANOTHER caufe,, which rendered the antient religions much loofer than the modern, is, that the former were traditional and the latter are fcriptural; and the tradition in the former was complex, contradictory, and, on many occafions, doubtful; fo that it could not poffibly be reduced to any standard and canon, or afford any determinate articles of faith. The stories of the gods were numberless like the popish legends; and tho' every one, almoft, believed a part of these stories, yet no one could believe or know the whole: While, at the fame time, all must have acknowleged, that no one part stood on a better foundation than the rest. The traditions of different cities and nations were alfo, on many occafions, directly oppofite; and no reafon could be found for preferring one to the other. And as there was an infinite number of stories with regard to which tradition was no way pofitive; the gradation was infenfible, from the most fundamental articles of faith, to thofe loofe and precarious fictions. The pagan religion, therefore, feemed to vanish like a cloud, whenever one approached to it, and examined it piecemeal. It could never be ascertained by any fixed dogmas and principles. And tho' this did not convert the generality of mankind from fo abfurd a faith; Sueton. Aug. cap. 90, 91, 92. Plin. lib. ii. cap. 7. for for when will the people be reasonable? yet it made them faulter and hesitate more in maintaining their principles, and was even apt to produce, in certain difpofitions of mind, fome practices and opinions, which had the appearance of determined infidelity. To which we may add, that the fables of the pagan religion were, of themfelves, light, easy, and familiar; without devils or feas of brimstone, or any objects, that could much terrify the imagination. Who could forbear fmiling, when he thought of the loves of MARS and VENUS, or the amorous frolics of JUPITER and PAN? In this refpect, it was a true poetical religion; if it had not rather too much levity for the graver kinds of poetry. We find that it has been adopted by modern bards; nor have these talked with greater freedom and irreverence of the gods, whom they regarded as fictions, than the antient did of the real objects of their devotion. THE inference is by no means juft, that because a system of religion has made no deep impreffion on the minds of a people, it must therefore have been positively rejected by all men of common fenfe, and that oppofite principles, in fpite of the prejudices of education, were generally established by argument and reafoning. I know not, but a contrary inference may be more probable. The lefs importunate and affuming any species of fuperftition appears, the lefs will it provoke men's fpleen and indignation, or engage them into enquiries concerning its foundation. and origin. This in the mean time is obvious, that the empire of all religious faith over the understanding is wavering and uncertain, fubject to all varieties of humor, and dependent on the present incidents, which ftrike the imagination. The difference is only in the degrees. An antient will place a ftroke of impiety and one of fuperftition alternately, thro' a whole difcourfe: A modern often thinks in the fame way, tho' he may be more guarded in his expreffions. LUCIAN tells us exprefsly, that whoever believed not the most ridiculous fables of paganism was esteemed by the people profane and impious. To what purpofe, indeed, would that agreeable author have employed the whole force of his wit and fatyr against the national religion, had not that religion been generally believed by his countrymen and contemporaries? k LIVY acknowleges as frankly, as any divine would at prefent, the common incredulity of his age; but then he condemns it as feverely. And who can imagine, that a national fuperftition, which could delude fo great a man, would not alfo impofe on the generality of the people? THE STOICS beftowed many magnificent and even impious epithets on their fage; that he alone was rich, free, a king, and equal to the immortal gods. They forgot to add, that he was not inferior in prudence and understanding to an * Witness this remarkable paffage of TACITUS: Præter multiplices rerum humanarum cafus, cœ"lo terraque prodigia, & fulminum monitus, & "futurorum præfagia, læta, triftia, ambigua, ma"nifefta. Nec enim umquam atrocioribus popu"li Romani cladibus, magifque juftis judiciis ap "batum eft, non effe curæ Diis fecuritatem no"ftram, effe ultionem," Hift. lib. i. AUGUSTUS's quarrel with NEPTUNE is an instance of the fame kind. Had not the emperor believed NEP- 1 Philopfeudes. old ter. m old woman. For furely nothing can be more pitiful than the fentiments, which that fect entertained with regard to all popular fuperftitions; while they very feriously agree with the common augurs, that, when a raven croaks from the left, it is a good omen; but a bad one, when a rook makes a noife from the fame quarPANETIUS was the only STOIC, amongst the GREEKS, who fo much as doubted with regard to auguries and divinations'. MARCUS ANTONINUS tells us, that he himself had received many admonitions from the gods in his fleep. It is true; EPICTETUS " forbids us to regard the language of rooks and ravens; but it is not, that they do not speak truth: It is only, because they can foretel nothing but the breaking of our neck or the forfeiture of our eftate; which are circumftances, fays he, that no way concern us. Thus the STOICs join a philofophical enthufiafm to a religious fuperftition. The force of their mind, being all turned to the fide of morals, unbent itself in that of religion °. PLATO introduces SOCRATES affirming, that the accufation of impiety raised against him was owing entirely to his rejecting fuch fables, as thofe of SATURN's caftrating his father, URANUS, and JUPITER'S dethroning SATURN: Yet in a fubfequent dialogue', SOCRATES confeffes, that the doctrine of the mortality of the foul was the received opinion of the people. Is there here any contradiction? Yes, furely: But the contradiction is not in PLATO; it is in the people, whofe religious principles in general are always compofed of the moft difcordant parts; especially in an age, when fuperftition fate fo eafy and light upon them'. 1 Cicero de Divin. lib. i. cap. 3. & 7: m Lib. i. § 17. n Ench. § 17. The Stoics, I own, were not quite orthodox in the established religion; but one may fee, from these instances, that they went a great way: And the people undoubtedly went every length. Phædo. P Eutyphro. XENOPHON'S Conduct, as related by himself, is, at once, an incontestable proof of the general credulity of mankind in those ages, and the incoherencies, in all ages, of men's opinions in religious matters. That great captain and philofopher, the difciple of SOCRATES, and one who has delivered fome of the most refined fentiments 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. Sees 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, CHIROSOPHUS, allo pays great regard to. Id. lib. iv. p. 323. The GREEKS fuffering from a cold north wind, facrifice to it, and the hiftorian obferves, that it immediately abated. Id. p. 329. XENOPHON CON THE fults the facrifices in fecret, before he would form any refolution with himself about fettling a colo lony. Lib. v. p. 359 He himself a very skilful augur. Id. p. 361. Is determined by the victins to refufe the fole command of the army, which was offered him. Lib. vi. p. 273. CLEANDER, the SPARTAN, tho' very defirous of it, refufes it for the fame reafon. 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 almost starved the army rather than lead 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 expedi tion; 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 encrease of the ATHENIAN revenues, advises them firft to confult the oracle. De rat. red. p. 392. That all this devotion was not a farce, in order to ferve a political purpose, appears both from the facts themselves, and from the genius of that age, when little or nothing could be gained by hypocrify. Besides XENOFHON as appears from his Memorabilia, was a kind of heretic in thofe times, which no political devotee THE fame CICERO, who affected, in his own family, to appear a devout religionist, makes no fcruple, in a public court of judicature, of treating the doctrine of a future ftate as a most ridiculous fable, to which no body could give any attention'. SALLUST " reprefents CÆSAR as fpeaking the fame language in the open fenate ". But that all these freedoms implied not a total and univerfal infidelity and fcepticism amongst the people, is too apparent to be denied. Tho' fome parts of the national religion hung loofe upon the minds of men, other parts adhered more closely to them: And it was the great bufinefs of the fceptical philofophers to fhow, that there was no more foundation for one than for the other. This is the artifice of COTTA in the dialogues concerning the nature of the gods. He refutes the whole fyftem of mythology by leading the orthodox, gradually, from. the more momentous ftories, which were believed, to the more frivolous, which every one ridiculed: From the gods to the goddeffes; from the goddeffes to the nymphs; from the nymphs to the fawns and fatyrs. His mafter, CARNEADES, had employed the fame method of reafoning *. Upon the whole, the greatest and most obfervable differences betwixt a traditional, mythological religion, and a fyftematical, fcholaftical one, are two: The former is often more reasonable, as confifting only of a multitude of stories, which, however groundless, imply no express absurdity and demonftrative contradiction; and fits also so easy and light on men's minds, that tho' it may be as univerfally received, it makes no fuch deep impreffion on the affections and understanding. SECT. XIII. Impious conceptions of the divine nature in most popular religions of both kinds. THE primary religion of mankind arifes chiefly from an anxious fear of future events; and what ideas will naturally be entertained of invifible, unknown powers, while men lie under dismal apprehenfions of any kind, may easily be conceived. Every image of vengeance, feverity, cruelty, and malice muft occur and must augment the ghaftlinefs and horror, which oppreffes the amazed religionift. A panic having once feized the mind, the active fancy ftill farther multiplies the objects of terror; while that profound darknefs, or, what is worse, that glimmering light, with which we are invironed, reprefents the fpectres of divinity under the moft dreadful appearances imaginable. And no idea of perverfe wickedness can 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 creed they profefied: And I always oppofe this argument to fome libertines, who will needs have it, that it was impoffible, but that thefe great philofophers must have been hypocrites. Pro CLUENTIO. cap. 61. u De bello CATILIN. w CICERO (Tufc. Quæft.) lib. i. cap. 5, 6. and SENECA (Epift. 24.) as alfo JUVENAL (Satyr 2.) maintain that there is no boy or old woman so ridiculous as to believe the poets in their accounts X SEXT. EMPIR, adverf. MATHEM. lib. viii. be framed, which those terrified devotees do not readily, without fcruple, apply to their deity. THIS appears the natural state of religion, when furveyed in one light. But if we confider, on the other hand, that fpirit of praife and eulogy, which neceffarily has place in all religions, and which is the confequence of thefe very terrors, we muft expect a quite contrary fyftem of theology to prevail. Every virtue, every excellence must be afcribed to the divinity, and no exaggeration be efteemed fufficient to reach thofe perfections, with which he is endowed. Whatever ftrains of panegyric can be invented, are immediately embraced, without confulting any arguments or phænomena. And it is esteemed a fufficient confirmation of them, that they give us more magnificent ideas of the divine object of our worship and adoration. HERE therefore is a kind of contradiction betwixt the different principles of human nature, which enter into religion. Our natural terrors prefent the notion of a devilish and malicious deity: Our propenfity to praise leads us to acknowlege an excellent and divine. And the influence of thefe oppofite principles are various, according to the different fituation of the human understanding. IN very barbarous and ignorant nations, fuch as the AFRICANS and INDIANS, nay even the JAPONESE, who can form no extensive ideas of power and knowlege, worship may be paid to a being, whom they confess to be wicked and detestable; tho' they may be cautious, perhaps, of pronouncing this judgment of him in public, or in his temple, where he may be supposed to hear their reproaches. very SUCH rude, imperfect ideas of the divinity adhere long to all idolaters; and it may fafely be affirmed, that the GREEKS themselves never got entirely rid of them. It is remarked by XENOPHON", in praife of SOCRATES, that that philofopher affented not to the vulgar opinion, which fuppofed the gods to know fome things, and be ignorant of others: He maintained that they knew every thing; what was done, faid, or even thought. But as this was a ftrain of philofophy much above the conception of his countrymen, we need not be furprized, if frankly, in their books and converfation, they blamed the deities, whom they worshipped in their temples. It is obfervable, that HERODOTUS in particular fcruples not, in many paffages, to afcribe envy to the gods; a fentiment, of all others, the most suitable to a mean and devilish nature. ever, fung in public worship, contained nothing but epithets of praife; even while The pagan hymns howthe actions afcribed to the gods were the most barbarous and detestable. When TIMOTHEUS, the poet, recited a hymn to DIANA, where he enumerated, with the greateft eulogies, all the actions and attributes of that cruel, capricious goddess: May your daughter, faid one present, become fuch as the deity whom you celebrate". BUT as men farther exalt their idea of their divinity; it is often their notion of his power and knowlege only, not of his goodnefs, which is improved. On the contrary, in proportion to the fuppofed extent of his fcience and authority, their terrors naturally augment; while they believe, that no fecrecy can conceal them > Mem. lib. i. z It was confidered among the antients, as a very extraordinary, philofophical paradox, that the prefence of the gods was not confined to the heavens, but was extended every where; as we |