into the infernal regions, to escape an earth from which the Divinity had been banished."*

In such a condition it was impossible that the human mind should long remain. Mankind discovered the value of a positive religion so soon as they tried to do without it: scepticism, and its ally credulity, had proved such severe masters, that men made an effort to get back to the polytheism of their forefathers, which, as belief was not in their power, was utterly impossible. They revived the forms, but the doctrines were gone; and in fact, when we examine the writers who flourished in the last age of polytheism, we discover obvious proofs that their doctrines were very nearly pure theism, and therefore utterly inconsistent with their forms. The philosophic system generally called Neo-Platonism was an attempt, and not a very infelicitous one, to combine both; but it wanted authority and consistency sufficient to elevate it into a rule of conduct; it proclaimed the want of some form which would embody the doctrine of the Divine Unity as the first great principle of the religious system, but it did not supply the deficiency. Reason continued hesitating before the gaping void, until Revelation came to its aid, and exhibited Christianity as "the divine system" for which the world had long wished, without comprehending the nature of its desires.

* Du Polytheisme, ii. 128. See also the Sixth Satire of Juvenal for a description of the arts practised by the fortune-tellers and sorcerers at Rome, too long and too disgusting to be quoted.

CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CIVILIZATION.

In all the ancient systems of religion previous to the
introduction of Christianity, we find that more atten-
tion was paid to the physical attributes of the Deity
than to his spiritual nature. That this should be the
case in polytheism is not wonderful, but it is equally
so in the purest systems of theism to which unassisted
reason has attained. Poets and philosophers have
celebrated the Almighty power that causes the sun to
shed its rays over the earth, but not the beneficence
which bade it shine on the evil and the good: they
have praised the wisdom which directed the rain to fall
in its due season, but not the tender mercy which sent
it equally on the just and the unjust. Under the pa-
triarchal and Mosaic dispensations, the Divine power
always appears more prominent than the Divine good-
ness: in Jehovah's address to Job, all the subjects intro-
duced refer to the attribute of Omnipotence, and even
the passage in which the moral government of mankind
is claimed, will be found to display the absolute sove-
reignty rather than the merciful care of the Deity:
Gird up now thy loins like a hero;

I will question thee, and answer thou me.
Canst thou render my purpose void?
Wilt thou condemn me, to justify thyself?

Hast thou an arm like that of God?

Canst thou thunder with a voice like his?

Deck thyself now with majesty and excellence :
Array thyself in glory and beauty.

Pour forth the fury of thy wrath;

Look on the haughty, and humble him;
Look on the proud, and prostrate him;

Crush down the wicked to the dust,

Hide them in the earth together,

Cover their faces with dishonour;

Then I will confess to thy praise,

That thine own right hand can save thee.*

The patriarchal creed of the Divine Unity was greatly enlarged under the Mosaic dispensation, and the moral government of the universe was more prominently brought forward as an article of faith; but still the attribute of power was more frequently mentioned than goodness or mercy, and even the declaration of the paternal protection accorded by the Deity to his creatures is introduced by an assertion of the terrors of his sovereignty. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.†

In the prophetical books, particularly in those written after the captivity, the spiritual nature of the Deity is more fully developed than in the Mosaic records; but we nowhere find it depicted with the force and univer

*Job xli. 13-20, Wemyss's Translation. I cannot for the last time refer to this work without adding, that during the many years that I have been a student of Biblical Hebrew, I have met with no version of a book of the Old Testament superior to Wemyss's Job in accuracy, elegance, and depth of information.

+ Deuteronomy x. 17, 18.

sality that belongs to the Gospels; everywhere in the Old Testament the material manifestations predominate over the mental.* "The remarkable passage," says Mr. Milman, "in which God is described as revealing himself to Elijah,-neither in the strong wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still small voice - may be considered, we will not say prophetic, but singularly significant of the sensations to be excited in the human mind by the successive revelations of the Deity."+

The two great corruptions to which polytheism led, were grovelling superstition in the vulgar, and scepticism in the philosopher. It is an error to suppose that the sublime speculations of Plato were influential, even in the schools; the colder reasoning of Aristotle exercised much wider sway. But notwithstanding the great difference between their systems, it will be found that the physical attributes of Deity almost alone come under consideration. Plato represents the Supreme as an absolute governor, delegating the regulation of the world to inferior intelligence; Aristotle goes farther, and denies a special providence, and any relation, mediate or immediate, between man and God. In fact

* Bauer's Theology of the Old Testament historically traces the history of the Jewish conceptions respecting the nature of Deity, from the days of Moses to those of Malachi. His object is manifestly to weaken the claims of the Holy Scriptures to inspiration, but in fact he rather confirms their divine authority, by shewing that each successive revelation was accommodated to the state of intelligence of the age in which it was made. But for the perverse habit of treating the Bible as a book, instead of a succession of books, the imperfections in the earlier descriptions of the Divinity would become evidences of scriptural veracity, instead of furnishing cavillers with grounds of objection. † Milman's History of Christianity, i. 45.

his reasonings lead to an identification of Deity with the physical laws of the universe and the moral order of the world, rather than its Cause. This view was not very different from the Fate or Necessity of the Stoics, and it was based on the same reasoning that led a modern German philosopher to the verge of atheism.*

A second characteristic of the notions formed of the Divinity by ancient nations, before the introduction of Christianity, is, that they were localised. In the Old Testament, Jehovah is represented as peculiarly, though not exclusively, the God of his chosen people; but the Jews themselves perverted the doctrine into the belief that they alone were the objects of his peculiar care. The religions of all the states round the Mediterranean were interwoven with their political constitutions, insomuch that they appear to have believed that the protection of their gods depended on the possession of citizenship. The several deities introduced into Rome, from Greece and Egypt, were in some sort naturalized ; and it was hoped that they would be thus induced to bestow their favours upon the state that had adopted them. Each religion was separate and national: no man was invited to become a proselyte unless he also wished to become a citizen. Religion, like policy, was designed for masses, for the collective body of the state, and it took no heed of any persons beyond the pale. Rome destroyed the various nationalities, but it had nothing to substitute in their stead. The world, or at

*Fichte. So far as I can understand this philosopher's system, he considers the notion of Deity to be a personification of the immutable laws that govern the universe, with the notions of power and will superadded. I cannot comprehend his reasoning, in the attempt to reconcile these notions with immutability.