And yet the hiftory of all ages and nations informs us, that there was no principle lefs underftood than that of the existence of God ; nothing as to which men had more falfe and dishonourable conceptions, than of his attributes and real character; nothing fo unnaturally debased, and that gave rife to, and rendred venerable and facred, fo many childish, abfurd and execrable fuperftitions, as the worfhip they paid to their respective deities. Many nations scarce retained any notion of one fupreme all-governing power, cantoning out the world into fo many diftinct provinces, each governed by its peculiar god, and every one almost intirely independent of each other; and every nation choofing that god, for its peculiar and favourite deity, to whom they appropriated almoft exclufive worship, as his character beft fuited their own difpofitions, manners of life, particular views, and reigning vices; and no one nation amongst the Gentiles ever profeffing their adherence to the one true God, forming any tolerable fentiments concerning him, or paying him a worfhip, that had the leaft appearance of rational in its nature, and that could render the performers of it worthy the regard and favour of the greatest and beft of Beings.

Many ages did thefe abfurdities and corruptions prevail, and grew inveterate by long prescription, and univerfal authority; and though the nations boasted of their wife men, and

† Minut. Fel. §. 6. p. 51. &c. Edit. Lugd. Bat.

and human philofophy was held in the highest esteem; had its celebrated profeffors, its famous fchools and feminaries, and was reforted to and ftudied by many in all ranks and conditions of life; yet it proved wholly incapable to produce the defired and needed reformation, and inftead of prevailing with men to quit the long received and established errors, and the vain converfation they had received by tradition from their forefathers s every fucceeding age grew more fertile in gods, added new and worfe fuperftitions, if poffible, to the old ones, became more rooted and incurable in their prejudices, more distant from any real reformation, and more incapable of being recovered to knowledge and piety.

Socrates, amongst the Greeks, who was faid to be declared by an oracle to be the wisest man that lived, was undoubtedly a very extraordinary and excellent perfon, and of any one in his time probably the fitteft, and most capable of inftructing others, both in the principles of religion, and in the practice of moral virtue. He had unquestionably more worthy fentiments of both, than most of his contemporaries; and was befides poffeffed of the greatest fagacity of mind, had a furprizing quickness of apprehenfion, folidity of judg ment, eafiness of expreffion, acuteness of reafoning, and marvellous dexterity in discovering and expofing the fophifms, and false reafonings of the philofophers, who were in high reputation for wifdom and learning amongst

the Athenians. And yet what was this great and good man able to do? Or what change did he introduce into the religion and morals of his country? Though he was almoft intirely engaged in the work of inftructing others, thought and declared himself commiffioned and employed by God in this very fervice, and might have faved his life, if he would have promised the Athenians never more to concern himself in it; yet Athens, instead of hearkening to the venerable Seer, murthered him for his endeavouring to reform her; ftill retained her old fuperftitions; and though the feat of learning and the Muses, and fource of wisdom, ftill continued ignorant of the true God, amidst the innumerable deities The worshiped, was the very fink of fuperftition, and polluted with the most enormous and unnatural crimes. And fo little was the good, that he found himself capable of doing, as that he expreffly declares, that few who attended him gained any confiderable advantage from him; that they who did, generally loft it as foon as ever they could no longer converfe with him, and that the fuccefs of his inftructions, in making men good and virtuous, depended on the will and pleasure of God, and was not to be fecured without his

concurrence.

Of what mighty ufe were the writings of all the, ancient Greek Philofophers, when they

*Plat. Apol. Soc. p. 29. D. Edit. Serran. Id. in Theag. p. 128. B.

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they appeared in the elegance of the Roman drefs, with which Cicero adorned them, and their fentiments were fet off with the politenefs and charms of his incomparable eloquence? What number of converts did he make from idolatry and vice, to real piety and virtue, by his difquifitions concerning the nature of the gods, his treatifes of divination, his Tufculan questions, his tracts of friendship and old age, his paradoxes, and above all, by thofe immortal and invaluable books of the offices and duties of human life? And though Epictetus, Seneca, Arrian, M. Tyrius, and other philofophers, wrote many excellent things in favour of moral virtue ; yea though the majefty of the imperial diadem added authority to M. Antonine's philofophy, and the emperor of the world condefcended to become a kind of preacher and instructor in righteousness; yet ftill the old fuperftitions, with all their attending corruptions, maintained their ground and power, and every attempt to introduce a better ftate of things was found wholly ineffectual and vain.

As this fact is indisputable, and confirmed by the hiftory of all nations; it may be asked, what could be the reafons of this inefficacy of human philofophy and wisdom to reform and fave mankind, and that the celebrated names and writings of Plato, Cicero, Antonine, and others, could not effect what Peter, and Paul, and John, and their companions in the Gospel of Christ, did in a few

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years,

years, by their labours and writings; though they were obscure as to their nation and original, had none, or but few, of the advantages of learning, or oratory, or human power to affift them; yea, even though they were op pofed and perfecuted, their doctrine ridiculed, and every method taken that human fubtlety could invent, and the power of malice could exercife, to stop the progrefs of it in the world? Many caufes may be affigned for

this.

The policy and craft of government, that first introduced many of thefe errors and corruptions, for they are not all the inventions and offspring of prieftcraft, found many advantages by them; as they could make the fuperftitions, which held men in bondage, fubfervient to their fecular views, and by the awe of them, keep them in a state of more intire fubjection; and therefore employed all their power and authority to rivet them on the people, and render the practice of them facred; guarded them by numerous laws, and prohibited any change in them under the fevereft penalties.

They had, at length, the fanction of antiquity to render them venerable, and as the children received them as an inheritance from their forefathers, they became rigidly tenacious of them, and counted it a fort of impiety to depart from the maxims and cuftoms of their ancestors. Against this ftrong barrier of