NOTE [EEE.] p. 443. BACCHUS, a divine being, is represented by the heathen mythology as the inventor of dancing and the theatre. Plays were anciently even a part of public worship on the most solemn occasions, and often employed in times of pestilence to appease the offended deities. But they have been zealously proscribed by the godly in later ages; and the play-house, according to a learned divine, is the porch of hell. - But in order to show more evidently that it is possible for a religion to represent the Divinity in still a more immoral and unamiable light than he was pictured by the ancients, we shall cite a long passage from an author of taste and imagination, who was surely no enemy to Christianity. It is the Chevalier Ramsay, a writer who had so laudable an inclination to be orthodox, that his reason never found any difficulty, even in the doctrines which freethinkers scruple the most, the trinity, incarnation, and satisfaction: His humanity alone, of which he seems to have had a great stock, rebelled against the doctrines of eternal reprobation and predestination. He expresses himself thus: "What strange ideas," says he, "would an Indian "or a Chinese philosopher have of our holy religion, if they judged by the schemes given of it by our modern freethink"ers, and pharisaical doctors of all sects? According to the “odious and too vulgar system of these incredulous scoffers "and credulous scribblers,”---" the God of the Jews is a most "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 Asia, of which there are no remains. This "garden was furnished with all sorts of trees, fountains, and "flowers. He allowed them the use of all the fruits of this "beautiful garden, except one, that was planted in the midst "thereof, and that had in it a secret virtue of preserving them "in continual health and vigour of body and mind, of exalting "their natural powers, and making them wise. The devil en"tered into the body of a serpent, and solicited the first woman to eat of this forbidden fruit; she engaged her husband "to do the same. To punish this slight curiosity and natural "desire of life and knowledge, God not only threw our first "parents out of paradise, but he condemned all their posterity "to temporal misery, and the greatest part of them to eternal "pains, though the souls of these innocent children have no "more relation to that of Adam than to those of Nero and "Mahomet; since, according to the scholastic drivellers, fabu"lists, and mythologists, all souls are created pure, and infused " immediately into mortal bodies, so soon as the foetus is form"ed. To accomplish the barbarous, partial decree of predesti"nation and reprobation, God abandoned all nations to dark"ness, idolatry and superstition, without any saving knowledge or salutary graces; unless it was one particular nation, "whom he chose as his peculiar people. This chosen nation "was, however, the most stupid, 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 state, he changed all of a sudden, and "took a fancy for other nations besides the Jews. Then he "sent his only begotten Son to the world, under a human form, "to appease his wrath, satisfy his vindictive justice, and die for "the pardon of sin. Very few nations, however, have heard of "this gospel; and all the rest, though left in invincible igno"rance, are damned without exception, or any possibility of "remission. The greatest part of those who have heard of it "have changed only some speculative notions about God, and "some external forms in worship: For, in other respects, the « bulk of Christians have continued as corrupt as the rest of "mankind in their morals; yea, so much the more perverse and "criminal, that their lights were greater. Unless it be a ve"ry small select number, all other Christians, like the Pagans, "will be for ever damned; the great sacrifice offered up for "them will become void and of no effect; God will take de"light for ever in their torments and blasphemies; 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 unappeasable and irreconcileable. 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 dæ"mon, rather than an all-powerful beneficent Father of spirits: "Yet all this is a mystery. He has secret reasons for his con"duct that are impenetrable; and though he appears unjust and "barbarous, yet we must believe the contrary, because what is "injustice, crime, cruelty, and the blackest malice in us, is in "him justice, mercy, and sovereign goodness." Thus the in<credulous freethinkers, the judaizing Christians, and the fan'talistic doctors, have disfigured and dishonoured the sublime mysteries of our holy faith; thus they have confounded the ⚫ nature of good and evil; transformed the most monstrous 'passions into divine attributes, and surpassed the Pagans in blasphemy, by ascribing to the Eternal Nature, as perfections, 'what makes the most horrid crimes amongst men. The grosser Pagans contented themselves with divinizing lust, incest, and adultery; but the predestinarian doctors have di'vinized cruelty, wrath, fury, vengeance, and all the blackest 'vices. See the Chevalier Ramsay's Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion, Part II. p. 401. The same author asserts, in other places, that the Armenian and Molinist schemes serve very little to mend the matter: And having thus thrown himself out of all received sects of Christianity, he is obliged to advance a system of his own, which is a kind of Origenism, and supposes the pre-existence of the souls both of men and beasts, and the eternal salvation and conversion of all men, beasts, 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 justness of them. INDEX. The NUMERAL LETTERS refer to the Volume, and the FIGURES to the Page. Α ABASEMENT, not the natural consequence of polytheism, ii. 422. Abstraction, what, ii. 467, Note (P.) Absurdity, not always the greatest in polytheism, ii. 424. Addison quoted, i. 83, 188, ii. 176. Aschines quoted, i. 321, 419. Æschines Socraticus quoted, ii. 357. Ætolians their number, i. 423. Agathocles, the tyrant, his cruelty, i. 401, 530, Note (CC) Agreeableness, a source of merit, ii. 286. to ourselves, ibid. &c. to others, ii. 297, &c. Agriculture, how best encouraged, i. 256, 257, 410. Alcoran, its ethics, i. 223. - Alexander the impostor of Lucian, his artifice, ii. 120. - his toleration, ii. 421. his emulation of Bacchus, ii. 423. Alexandria, its size and number of its inhabitants, i. 427. Allegiance, its obligation, whence, i. 460, ii. 242. Allegory has naturally place in polytheism, ii. 404. Anacreon quoted, ii. 372. Analogies, and sometimes slight, have influence in jurisprudence, ii. Anaxagoras, the first theist, and the first accused of atheism, ii. 486, Ancillarioli, what, ii. 496, Note (XX.) Angels, modern, equivalent to the deities of the philosophers, ii. 402. Antioch, its size, i. 427. Antipater, the Cyreniac, his saying, i. 172. Appian Alexandrinus quoted, i. 322, 369, 389, 394, 398, 400, 404, 415, Arnobius quoted, ii. 400, 407. Ariosto, his character, i. 226, quoted, 84. Aristides the sophist quoted, i. 534, Note (KK.) Aristocracy, Polish, Venetian, in what respects different, i. 14, 15. Aristotle quoted, i. 208, 384, 421, 430, ii. 354, 486, Note (YY.) Arrian quoted, i. 124, 346, 407, ii. 421, 424. Atheism, whether possible, ii. 150. Athenæus quoted, i. 418, 419, 421. Athens, i. 89, 253, 321, 403, 417, 418, 420, 451. Athenians, on what they chiefly valued themselves, ii. 295. Athenian man of merit, ii. 359, &c. Augustine (Saint) his dogmatism, ii. 432. Augustus, his impiety mixed with superstition, ü. 400, his age compared with that of Camillus, i. 254. Aunoy, Madame, quoted, i, 183. Aurelius, Marcus, his theism, ii. 404, his superstition, 436. Authority of teachers useful, i. 115. B BACON quoted, i. 50, 85, 204, 262, ü. 130, 255, 410. Balance of power, i. 30, 331, &c.—Of trade, i. 307, &c.—Of property, i. 30, 42. Banks and paper-credit, whether advantageous, i. 281, 317. Barbarity, an attribute of the Deity in popular religions, ii. 465. Bartoli's plans of ancient buildings, i. 425. Bayle, quoted, ii. 423, 466. Beauty, why the object of pride, ii. 180. Belief, what, ii. 49, &c. Bellarmine, Cardinal, his saying, ii. 423. Benevolence, i. 79, disinterested zeal, ii. 233, &c. its kinds, 334, a vir- tue, 214, from its utility, 217, from its agreeableness, 293. Berkeley, Dr, a real sceptic, ii. 466, Note (N.) quoted, i. 204. Berne, canton of, its treasure, i. 322. Bentivoglio quoted, i. 205. Boccace quoted, i. 174. Boileau quoted, ii. 289. |