the genuine principles of morals in our judgment of human conduct, but the abfolute neceffity of these principles y spa Livot dɔidwi mgo s.cry anand nonaquì sloni 10 med, catlisy 5 mugiv 251 part "God not only threw our first firit parents out of paradife, but he condemned “all their pofterity to temporal mifery, and the greatest part of them to « eternal pains, though the fouls of thele innocent children h have no more fee “lation to that of ADAM than to those of NERO and MAROMET1⁄2 fince "according to the scholastic drivellers, fabulists, and mythologists, all souls ❝are created pure, and infused immediately into mortal bodies, so soon as *the fatus is formed. To accomplish the barbarous, partial decree of pre-? #destination and reprobation, God abandoned all nations to darkness, idola“try, and superstition, without any saving knowledge or falutary graces ; "unless it was one particular nation, whom he chofe as his peculiar people. This chosen 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 fpecies, during near 4000 years, in a reprobate states) "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 hu« man form, to appeafe his wrath, fatisfy his vindictive juftice, and die for “the pardon of fin. Very few nations, however, have heard of this gof“pel; and all the reft, though left in invincible ignorance, are damned with-" out exception, or any poffibility of remiffion. The greateft part of "thofe who have heard of it, have changed only fotre fpeculative notions “about God, and fome external forms in worthip: For, in other refpects, "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} es lights were greater. Unless it be a very small select number, all other "Chriftians, 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 ever in their torments and blafphemies; and tho" he can, by one fiat, « change their hearts, yet they will remain for ever unconverted and un« convertible, because he will be for ever unappeasable and irreconcileable. « It is true, that all this makes God odious, a hater of fouls, rather than a « lover of them ; 'a cruel, vindictive tyrant, an impotent or a wrathful dx«s mon, rather than an all-powerful, beneficent Father of spirits : Yet this is a mystery. He has fecret reasons for his conduct, that are impene.” "trable and though he appears unjust and barbarous, yet we must believe ❝ the contrary, because what is injustice, crimej cruelty, and the blackeft « malice in us, is in him justice, mercy, and sovereign goodness." --Thus the • incredulous free-thinkers, the judaizing Christians, and the fataliftic docâTM •tors have disfigured and dishonoured the fublime myfteries of our holy ̈ ̈ faith; thus they have confounded the nature of good and evil; - tranf • formed the most monstrous passions into divine attributes, and surpassed the pagans in blafphemy, by afcribing to the eternal nature, as perfections what to the existence of fociety. If common conception can indulge princes in a fystem of ethics, fomewhat different from that which should regulate private perfons; how much more those superior beings, whose attributes, views, and nature are so totally unknown to us? Sunt Juperis Sua juraThe gods The gods have maxims of justice peculiar to themselves. bus o xa o sludi ar nada mina bejerit os meusi → eluor Ils „¿Alyoladsyn bne pihodať av lavin cifulous) wis et gribenssa " as nool of esibod 1** have SECT. XIV. Bad influence of most popular religions on morality. Here I cannot forbear obferving a fact, which may be worth the attention of those, who make human nature the objects of their enquiry. It is certain, that, in every religion, however fublime the verbal definition which it gives of its divinity, many of the votaries, perhaps the greatest number, will still seek the divine favour, not by virtue and good morals, which alone can be acceptable to a perfect being, but either by frivolous obfervances, by intemperate zeal, by rapturous extafies, or by the belief of myfterious and abfurd opinions. The leaft part of the Sadder, as well as of the Pentateuch, confifts in precepts of morality; and we may be affured alfo, that that part was always the leaft obferved and regarded. When the what hat makes the moft horrid crimes amongst men. The groffer pagans contented themselves with divinizing luft, inceft, and adultery, but, the predeftinarian doctors have divinized cruelty, wrath, fury, vengeance; »> and all the blackeft vices. See the Chevalier RAMSAY's philofophical principles of natural and revealed religion, Part. II, p. 401. de vadacz „nom The fame author afferts; in other places; that the Arminian and Meling schemes ferve very little to mend the matter: And having thus thrown himself out of all received fects of Christianity, he is obliged to advance aTM TMa system of his own, which is a kind of Origenism, and supposes the preexistence of the fouls both of men and beasts, and the eternal falvation 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 prétend not to warrant the juftness of i them outstang na woted (88.995 *1 OVID. Metam. lib. ix. 5ox. old old ROMANS were attacked with a peftilence, they never afcribed their fufferings to their vices, or dreamed of repentance and amendment. They never thought that they were the general robbers of the world, whofe ambition and avarice made defolate the earth, and reduced opulent nations to want and beggary. They only created a dictator*, in order to drive a nail into a door and by that means, they thought that they had fufficiently appeafed their incenfed deity. In ÆGINA, one faction entering into a confpiracy, barbaroufly and treacherously affaffinated feven hundred of their fellow-citizens; and carried their fury fo far, that, one miferable fugitive having fled to the temple, they cut off his hands, by which he clung to the gates, and carrying him out of holy ground, immediately murdered him. By this impiety, fays HERODOTUS †, (not by the other many cruel affaffinations) they offended the gods, and contracted an inexpiable guilt. Nay, if we fhould fuppofe, what feldom happens, that a popular religion were found, in which it was exprefly declared, that nothing but morality could gain the divine favour; if an order of priests were inftituted to inculcate this opinion, in daily sermons, and with all the arts of perfuafion; yet so inveterate are the people's prejudices, that for want of fome other fuperftition, they would make the very attendance on these fermons the effentials of religion, rather than place them in virtue and good morals. The fublime prologue of ZALEUCUS's laws infpired not the LOCRIANS, fo far as we can learn, with any founder notions of the meafures of acceptance with the deity, than were familiar to the other GREEKS. * Called Dictator clavis figendæ caufa. T. LIVII, 1. vii. c. 3. This obfervation, then, holds univerfally: But ftill one may be at fome lofs to account for it. It is not fufficient to obferve, that the people, every where, degrade their dieties into a fimilitude with themfelves, and confider them merely as a fpecies of human creatures, fomewhat more potent and intelligent. This will not remove the difficulty. For there is no man so stupid, as that, judging by his natural reason, he would not efteem virtue and honefty the most valuable qualities, which any perfon could poffefs. Why not afcribe the fame fentiment to his, deity? Why not make all religion, or the chief part of it, to confift in thefe attainments? Nor is it fatisfactory to fay, that the practice of morality is more difficult than that of fuperftition; and is therefore rejected. For, not to mention the exceffive pennances of the Brachmans and Talapoins; it is certain, that the Rhamadan of the TURKS, during which the poor wretches, for many days, often in the hottest months of the year, and in fome of the hottest climates of the world, remain without eating or drinking from the rifing to the setting of the fun; this Rhamadan, I say, must be more fevere than the practice of any moral duty, even to the most vicious and depraved of mankind. The four lents of the MUSCOVITES, and the aufterities of fome Roman Catholics, appear more disagreeable than meekness and benevolence. In fhort, all virtue, when men are reconciled to it by ever fo little practice, is agreeable: All fuperftition is for ever odious and burthenfome. Perhaps, the following account may be received as a true folution of the difficulty. The duties which a man performs as a friend or parent, feem merely owing to his benefactor or children; nor can he be wanting to these duties, without breaking through all the ties of nature and morality. A ftrong inclination may prompt him to the performance: A fentiment of order and moral beauty He joins its force to these natural ties: And the whole man, if truly virtuous, is drawn to his duty, without any effort or endeavour. Even with regard to the virtues, which are more auftere, and more founded on reflection, such as public fpirit, filial duty, temperance, or integrity; the moral obligation, in our apprehenfion, removes all pretence to religious merit; and the virtuous conduct is esteemed no more than what we owe to society and to ourselves. In all this, a fuperftitious man finds nothing, which he has properly performed for the fake of his deity, or which can peculiarly recommend him to the divine favour and protection. He confiders not, that the most genuine method of serving the divinity is by promoting the happiness of his creatures. ftill looks out for fome more immediate fervice of the fupreme Being, in order to allay thofe terrors, with which he is haunted. And any practice, recommended to him, which either serves to no purpose in life, or offers the ftrongest violence to his natural inclinations; that practice he will the more readily embrace, on account of those very circumstances, which should make him absolutely reject it. It seems the more purely religious, that it proceeds from no mixture of any other motive or confideration. And if, for its fake, he facrifices much of his ease and quiet, his claim of merit appears ftill to rife upon him, in proportion to the zeal and devotion which he difcovers. In reftoring a loan, or paying a debt, his divinity is nowife beholden to him; because these acts of justice are what he was bound to perform, and what many would have performed, were there no god in the univerfe. But if he fast a day, or give himself a found whipping; this has a direct reference, in his opinion, to the fervice of God. No other motive could engage him to fuch aufterities. By thefe diftinguished marks of devotion, he has now acquired the divine favour; and may expect, |