this, we may obferve, that the affent of the vulgar is, in this cafe, merely verbal, and that they are incapable of conceiving those fublime qualities which they feemingly attribute to the Deity. Their real idea of him, notwithstanding their pompous language, is ftill as poor "and frivolous as ever.

That original intelligence, fay the MAGIANS, who is the firft principle of all things, difcovers himself immediately to the mind and understanding alone; but has placed the fun as his image in the vifible univerfe; and when that bright luminary diffufes its beams over the carth and the firmament, it is a faint copy of the glory, which refides in the higher heavens. If you would escape the displeasure of this divine being, you must be careful never to fet your bare foot upon the ground, nor fpit into a fire, nor throw any water upon it, even tho' it were consuming a whole city t. Who can express the perfections of the Almighty? fay the Mahometans. Even the nobleft of his works, if compared to him, are but duft and rubbish. How much more must human conception fall fhort of his infinite perfections? His fmile and favour renders men for ever happy; and to obtain it for your children, the best method is to cut off from them, while infants, a little bit of skin, about half the breadth of a farthing. Take two bits of cloth ‡, fay the Roman catholics, about an inch or an inch and an half fquare, join them by the corners with two strings or pieces of tape about fixteen inches long, throw this over your head, and make one of the bits of cloth lie upon your breaft, and the other upon your back, keeping them next your fkin, there is not a better fecret for recommending yourself to that infinite Being, who exifts from eternity to eternity.

HYDE de Relig. veterum PERSARUM.
Called the Scapulaire,

The

The GETES, commonly called immortal, from their fteady belief of the foul's immortality, were genuine theists and unitarians. They affirmed ZAMOLXIS, their deity, to be the only true god; and afferted the worship of all other nations to be addreffed to mere fictions and chimeras. But were their religious principles any more refined, on account of thefe magnificent pretenfions? Every fifth year they facrificed a human victim, whom they fent as a meffenger to their deity, in order to inform him of their wants and neceffities. And when it thundered, they were fo provoked, that, in order to return the defiance, they let fly arrows at him, and declined not the combat as unequal. Such at leaft is the account, which HERODOTUS gives of the theifm of the immortal GETES +.

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SECT. VIII. Flux and reflux of polytheism and theifm.

1 A

It is remarkable, that the principles of religion have a kind of flux and reflux in the human mind, and that men have a natural tendency to rife from idolatry to theifm, and to fink again from theifm into idolatry. The vulgar, that is, indeed, all mankind, a few excepted, being ignorant and uninftructed, never elevate their contemplation to the heavens, or penetrate by their disquifitions into the fecret ftructure of vegetable or animal bodies; fo as to discover a fupreme mind, or original providence, which beftowed order on every part of nature. They confider thefe admirable works in a more confined and felfifh view; and finding their own happinefs and mifery to depend on the fecret influence and unforeseen concurrence of external objects, they regard, with perpetual attention, the unknown causes, which go

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† Lib. iv.

vern all thefe natural events, and diftribute pleasure and pain, good and ill, by their powerful, but filent, operation. The unknown caufes are ftill appealed to, on every emergence; and in this general appearance or confufed image, are the perpetual objects of human hopes and fears, wifhes and apprehenfions. By degrees, the active imagination of men, uneasy in this abstract conception of objects, about which it is inceffantly employed, begins to render them more particular, and to clothe them in fhapes more fuitable to its natural comprehenfion. It reprefents them to be fenfible, intelligent beings, like mankind; actuated by love and hatred, and flexible by gifts and entreaties, by prayers and facrifices. Hence the origin of religion: And hence the origin of idolatry or polytheism.

But the fame anxious concern for happiness, which begets the idea of these invifible, intelligent powers, allows not mankind to remain long in the firft fimple conception of them; as powerful, but limited beings; mafters of human fate, but flaves to destiny and the course of nature. Men's exaggerated praises and compliments ftill fwell their idea upon them; and elevating their deities to the utmost bounds of perfection, at last beget the attributes of unity and infinity, fimplicity and Ipirituality. Such refined ideas, being fomewhat difproportioned to vulgar comprehenfion, remain not long in their original purity; but require to be fupported by the notion of inferior mediators or fubordinate agents, which interpofe between mankind and their fupreme deity. Thefe demigods or middle beings, partaking more of human nature, and being more familiar to us, become the chief objects of devotion, and gradually recall that idolatry which had been formerly banifhed by the ardent prayers and panegyrics of timorous and indigent mortals. But as these idolatrous religions fall every day into groffer and more vulgar conceptions, they at last destroy themselves,

and,

and, by the vile representations, which they form of their deities, make the tide turn again towards theism. But fo great is the propensity, in this alternate revolution of human fentiments, to return back to idolatry, that the utmost precaution is not able effectually to prevent it. And of this, fome theifts, particularly the JEWS and MAHOMETANS, have been fenfible; as appears by their banishing all the arts of ftatuary and painting, and not allowing the representations, even of human figures, to be taken by marble or colours; left the common infirmity of mankind should thence produce idolatry. The feeble apprehenfions of men cannot be fatisfied with conceiving their deity as a pure spirit and perfect intelligence; and yet their natural terrors keep them from imputing to him the leaft fhadow of limitation and imperfection. They fluctuate between thefe oppofite sentiThe fame infirmity ftill drags them downwards, from an omnipotent and fpiritual deity, to a limited and corporeal one, and from a corporeal and limited deity to a statue or vifible reprefentation. The fame endeavour at elevation ftill pufhes them upwards, from the ftatue or material image to the invifible power; and from the invifible power to an infinitely perfect deity, the creator and fovereign of the universe.

ments.

SECT. IX. Comparison of thefe Religions, with regard to Perfecution and Toleration.

Polytheifm or idolatrous worship, being founded entirely in vulgar traditions, is liable to this great inconvenience, that any practice or opinion, however barbarous or corrupted, may be authorized by it; and full scope is left for knavery to impofe on credulity, till morals and humanity be expelled from the religious fyftems of mankind. At the fame time, idolatry is attended with VOL. II. Ģ g

this

this evident advantage, that, by limiting the powers and functions of its deities, it naturally admits the gods of other fects and nations to a fhare of divinity, and renders all the various deities, as well as rites, ceremonies, or traditions, compatible with each other +. Theism is oppofite both in its advantages and difadvantages. As that fyftem fuppofes one fole deity, the perfection of reafon and goodness, it should, if juftly profecuted, banish every thing frivolous, unreasonable, or inhuman from religious worship, and fet before men the moft illuftrious example, as well as the most commanding motives of juftice and benevolence. These mighty advantages are not indeed over-balanced, (for that is not poffible) but fomewhat diminished, by inconveniencies, which arife from the vices and prejudices of mankind. While one fole object of devotion is acknowledged, the worship of other deities is regarded as abfurd and impious. Nay, this unity of object feems naturally to require the unity of faith and ceremonies, and furnishes defigning men with a pretence for representing their adverfaries as profane, and the objects of divine as well as human vengeance. For as each fect is pofitive that its own faith' and worship are entirely acceptable to the deity, and as no one can conceive, that the fame being fhould be pleased with different and oppofite rites and principles; the feveral fects fall naturally into animofity, and mutually discharge on each other, that facred zeal and ran

VERRIUS FLACCUS, cited by PLINY, lib. xxviii. cap. 2, affirmed, that it was ufual for the ROMANS, before they laid hege to any town, to invocate the tutelar deity of the place, and by promifing him equal or greater honours than those he at present enjoyed, bribe him to betray his old friends and votaries. The name of the tutelar deity of Rome was for this reason kept a most religious mystery; left the enemies of the republic fhould be able, in the fame manner, to draw him over to their fervice. For without the name, they thought, nothing of that kind could be practifed. PLINY fays, that the common form of invocation was preserved to his time in the ritual of the pontifs. And MACROBIUS has tranfmitted a copy of it from the fecret things of SAMMONICUS SERENUS.

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