that all thofe are ftill madder, who fight about, the preference among volumes of fophiftry, ten thousand of which are not equal in value to one cabbage or cu cumber te gruten

ilqEvery by-tander will easily judge (but unfortunately the by-standers are very few) that, if nothing were requifite to eftablish any popular fyftem, but the expofing the abfurdities of other fyftems, every votary of every I fuperftition could give a fufficient reason for his blind and bigotted attachment to the principles, in which he has been educated. But without fo extenfive a, knowledge, on which to ground this affurance, (and perhaps, better without it) there is not wanting a fufficient stock of religious zeal and faith amongft mankind. DIODORUS SICULUS gives a remarkable inftance to this purpose, of which he was himself an eye-witnefs. While EGYPT lay under the greatest terror of the ROMAN name, a legionary foldier having inadvertently been guilty of the facrilegious impiety of killing a cat, the whole people

+ It is ftrange that the EGYPTIAN religion, though fo abfurd, fhould yet have borne fo great a refemblance to the Jewis, that antient writers seven of the greatest genius were not able to obferve any difference betwixt them. For it is very remarkable that both TACITUS and SUETONIUS, when they mention that decree of the fenate, under TIBERIUS, by which' the EGYPTIAN and JEWISH profelytes were banished from ROME, exprefly treat these religions as the fame; and it appears, that even the decree was founded on that fuppofition. "Actum & de facris ÆGYPTIIS, itself was "JUDAICISQUE pellendis; factumque patrum confultum, ut quatuor millia libertini generis ea fuperftitione infecta, quîs idonea ætas, in infolam Sardiniam veherentur, coercendis illic latrociniis ; & fi ob gravitatem cœli interiffent, vile damnum : Ceteri cederent ITALIA, nifi certam ante diem profanos ritus exuiffent." TACIT. ann. lib. ii. c. 85. Externas cœ"remonias, ÆGYPTIOS, JUDAICOSQUE ritus compefcuit; coactis qui fuperftitione ea tenebantur, religiofas veftes cum inftrumento omni com"burere, &c." SUETON. TIBER. c. 36. These wife heathens, obferv. ing fomething in the general air, and genius, and spirit of the two religions to be the fame, efteemed the differences of their dogmas too frivolous to deferve any attention.

Lib. i.

rofe

rose upon him with the utmost fury; and all the efforts of the prince were not able to fave him. The fenate and people of ROME, I am perfuaded, would not, then, have been fo delicate with regard to their national deities." They very frankly, a little after that time, voted Aub GUSTUS a place in the celeftial mansions; and would have dethroned every god in heaven, for his fake, bad he feemed to defire it. Prefens divus habebitur. AUGUSTUS, fays HORACE. That is a very important point: And in other nations and other ages, the fame circumftance has not been efteemed altogether indifferent †.

Notwithstanding the fanctity of our holy religion, fays TULLY ‡, no crime is more common with us than facrilege: But was it ever heard of, that an EGYPTIAN VİOlated the temple of a cat, an ibis, or a crocodile? There is no torture, an EGYPTIAN would not undergo, fays the fame author in another place, rather than injure an ibis, an afpic, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile. Thus it is Arictly true, "what DRYDEN obferves,

Of whatfoe'er defcent their godhead be,
"Stock, ftone, or other homely ped
pedigree,

In his defence his fervants are as bold,
"As if he had been born of beaten gold.
ABSALOM and ACHITOPHEL.

Nay, the bafer the materials are, of which the divinity is compofed, the greater devotion is he likely to excite in the breafts of his deluded votaries. They exult in

When Louis the XIVth took on himself the protection of the Je fuits college of CLERMONT, the fociety ordered the king's arms to be put up over their gate, and took down the cross, in order to make way for it: Which gave occafion to the following epigram:

Suftulit hinc Chrifti, pofuitque infignio Regis:

Impia gens, alium nefcit habere Deum.

De nat. Deor. 1, i.

Tufc. Quæft, lib. v.

their shame, and make a merit with their deity, in braving, for his fake, all the ridicule and contumely of his enemies. Ten thousand Croises inlift themselves under the holy banners, and even openly triumph in those parts of their religion, which their adverfaries regard as the most reproachful.

2

There occurs, I own, a difficulty in the EGYPTIAN fyftem of theology; as indeed, few systems are entirely free from difficulties. It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious vėneration were still paid them, it would in twenty more, not only be easter in EGYPT to find a god than a man, which PETRONIUS fays was the cafe in fome parts of ITALY; but the gods muft at laft entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining. It is probable, therefore, that that wife nation, the most celebrated in antiquity for prudence and found policy, foreseeing fuch dangerous confequences, referved all their worfhip for the full-grown divinities, and used the freedom to drown the holy spawn or little fucking gods, without any fcruple or remorfe. And thus the practice of warping the tenets of religion, in order to ferve temporal interefts, is not, by any means, to be regarded as an invention of thefe latter ages.

The learned, philofophical VARRO, difcourfing of religion, pretends not to deliver any thing beyond probabilities and appearances: Such was his good fenfe and moderation! But the paffionate, the zealous AUGUSTIN, infults the noble ROMAN on his fcepticifm and reserve, and profeffes the most thorough belief and affurance t. A heathen poet, however, contemporary with the faint, abfurdly efteems the religious fyftem of the

+ De civitate Dei, L iii, c, 17.

latter

latter fo falfe, that even the credulity of children, he fays, could not engage them to believe it th

Is it ftrange, when mistakes are to common, to find every one pofitive and dogmatical? And that the zeal often rifes in proportion to the error? Moverunt, fays SPARTIAN, & ea tempestate Judæi bellum quod vetabantur mutilare genitalia.

If ever there was a nation or a time, in which the public religion loft all authority over mankind, we might expect, that infidelity in ROME, during the CICERONEAN age, would openly have erected its throne, and that CICERO himself, in every fpeech and action, would have been its moft declared abettor. But it appears, that, whatever fceptical liberties that great man might ufe, in his writings or in philofophical conversation; he yet avoided, in the common conduct of life, the imputation of deism and profaneness. Even in his own family, and to his wife TERENTIA, whom he highly trufted, he was willing to appear a devout religionist; and there remains a letter, addressed to her, in which he feriously defires her to offer facrifice to APOLLO and ESCULAPIUS, in gratitude for the recovery of his health

POMPEY's devotion was much more fincere: In all his conduct, during the civil wars, he paid a great-regard to auguries, dreams, and prophefies 4. AUGUSTUS was tainted with fuperftition of every kind. As it is reported of MILTON, that his poetical genius never flowed with ease and abundance in the fpring; fo AUGUSTUS obferved, that his own genius for dreaming never was so perfect during that season, nor was fo much to be relied on, as during the reft of the year. That great and able emperor

+ Claudii Rutilii Numitiani iter, lib. i. 1. 386.

In vita Adriani.

4 Cicero de divin. lib. 2. c. 24.

|| Lib. 14. epift. 7.

was

was also extremely uneasy when he happened to change his fhoes, and put the right foot fhoe on the left foot t. In fhort, it cannot be doubted, but the votaries of the eftablished 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 affirmative.

We may obferve, that, notwithstanding the dogmatical, imperious ftyle of all fuperftition, the conviction of the religionifts, 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 implicit faith; and difguife to themselves their real infidelity, by the strongest affeverations and moft pofitive bigotry. But näture is too hard for all their endeavours, and fuffers not the obfcure, glimmering light, afforded in thofe fhadowy regions, to equal the ftrong impreffions, made by common fenfe and by experience. The ufual courfe of men's conduct belies their words, and fhows, that the affent in thefe matters is some unaccountable operation of the mind bétween difbelief and conviction, but approaching much nearer the former than the latter.

Since, therefore, the mind of man appears of fo loofe and unfteady a contexture, that, even at present, 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 lasting impreffion; how much more muft this have been the cafe in antient

Sueton Aug. cap. 90, 91, 92. Plin. lib. ii. cap. 7.

VOL. II.

Hh

times,