learned doctor. They are at leaft as good as the relics or rotten bones of martyrs, anfwers his no less learned antagonist. Are you not mad, infists the Catholic, to cut one another's throat about the preference of a cabbage or a cucumber? Yes, fays the pagan; I allow it, if you will confefs, that those 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 cucumber*. Every by-ftander will eafily judge (but unfortunately the by-standers are few), that, if nothing were requifite to establish any popular system, but expofing the abfurdities of other systems, every votary of every fuperftition could give a fufficient reafon for his blind and bigoted 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 among mankind. DIODORUS SICULUS+ gives a remarkable inftance to this purpofe, 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 rofe upon him with the utmoft fury; and all the efforts of the prince were not able to save 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 AUGUSTUS a place in the celestial manfions; and would have dethroned every god in heaven for his fake, had he feemed to defire it. Prefens divus habibtur AUGUSTUS, fays HORACE. That is a very important point: And in other nations Cc 3 See NOTE [CCC]. + Lib. i. and and other ages, the fame circumftance has not been deemed altogether indifferent*. Notwithstanding the fanctity of our holy religion, fays TULLYt, no crime is more common with us than facrilege: But was it ever heard of, that an EGYPTIAN Violated 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 ftrictly true what Dryden obferves, "Of whatfoe'er defcent their godhead be, 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 their fhame, and make a merit with their deity in braving for his fake all the ridicule and contumely of his enemies. Ten thoufand Crufaders inlift themselves under the holy banners; and even openly triumph in thofe parts of their religion which their adverfaries regard as the most reproachful. There occurs, I own, a difficulty in the EGYPTIAN fyftem of theology; as indeed, few fyftems of that kind are entirely free from difficulties. It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would ftock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were ftill paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be eafier in EGYPT to find a god than a man, which PETRONIUS fays was the cafe in fome parts of ITALY; but the gods When Louis the XIVth took on himself the protection of the Jefuits' College of CLERMONT, the fociety ordered the king's arms to be put up over the gate, and took down the crofs, in order to make way for it: Which gave occafion to the following epigram: Suftulit hinc Chrifti, pofuitque infignia Regis: Impia gens, alium nefcit habere Deum. De nat. Deor. I. i. Tufc. Queft. lib. v. gods must at last entirely ftarve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining. It is probable, therefore, that this wife nation, the most celebrated in antiquity for prudence and found policy, foreseeing fuch dangerous confequences, referved all their worship for the full-grown divinities, and ufed the freedom to drown the holy fpan 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 later ages. The learned, philofophical VARRO, difcourfing of religion, pretends not to deliver any thing beyond probabilities and appearances: Such was his good fense and moderation! But the paffionate, the zealous AUGUSTIN, infults the noble ROMAN on his fcepticism and referve, and profeffes the most thorough belief and affurance*. A heathen poet, however, contemporary with the faint, abfurdly esteems the religious fyftem of the latter fo falfe, that even the credulity of children, he fays, could not engage them to believe it +. Is it ftrange, when mistakes are fo common, to find every one pofitive and dogmatical? And that the zeal often rifes in proportion to the error? Moverunt, fays SPARTIAN, & ea tempeftate, 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 CICERONIAN 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 take, in his writings or in philofophical Cc4 * De civitate Dei, l. iii. c. 17. +Claudii Rutilii Numitiani iter, lib, i.1. 386. In vita Adriani. con 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, addreffed to her, in which he seriously 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 †. AUGUSTUS was tainted with fuperftition of every kind. As it is reported of MILTON, that his poetical genius never flowed with eafe and abundance in the fpring; fo AUGUSTUS obferved, that his own genius for dreaming never was so perfect during that feafon, nor was fo much to be relied on, as during the rest of the year. That great and able emperor was alfo extremely uneafy, when he happened to change his fhoes, and put the right foot fhoe on the left foot. In fhort, it cannot be doubted, but the votaries of the established fuperftition of antiquity were as numerous in every ftate, as those of the modern religion are at prefent. Its influence was as univerfal, though it was not fo great. As many people gave their affent to it; though 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 fcarcely ever approaches, in any degree, to that folid belief and perfuafion, which governs us in the common affairs of life. Men dare not ayow, even to their own hearts, the doubts which they entertain on fuch fubjects: They make a merit of implicit faith; and disguise to themselves their real infidelity, by the ftrongest affeverations and Lib. xiv. epift. 7. and moft pofitive bigotry. But nature is too hard for all their endeavours, and fuffers not the obfcure, glimmering light, afforded in those shadowy regions, to equal the ftrong impreffions made by common fense and by experience. The ufual course of mens conduct belies their words, and shows, that their affent in these matters is fome unaccountable operation of the mind between difbelief and conviction, but approaching much nearer to the former than to the latter. Since, therefore, the mind of man appears of fo loofe and unfteady a texture, 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 lafting impreffion; how much more must this have been the cafe in ancient times, when the retainers to the holy function were fo much fewer in comparifon? No wonder that the appearances were then very inconfiftent, and that men, on fome occafions, might feem determined infidels, and enemies to the established religion, without being fo in reality; or, at least, without knowing their own mind in that particular. Another cause which rendered the ancient religions more loose than the modern, is, that the former were traditional and the latter are fcriptural; and the tradition in the former was complex, contradictory, and, on many occafions, doubtful; fo that it could not poffibly be reduced to any standard and canon, or afford any determinate articles of faith. The stories of the gods were numberless like the popifh legends; and though every one, almoft, believed a part of these ftories, yet no one could believe or know the whole; while, at the fame time, all must have acknowledged, that no one part ftood on a better foundation than the reft. The traditions of different cities and nations were alfo, on many occafions, directly oppofite; and no reafon, could be affigned I |