nied the power thereof. Indeed, after the introduction of the Grecian philofophy among them, and the forming of the fects of the Pharifees and of the Sadducees, we find no more traces of their ancient idolatry. They blended this philofophy with fome parts of the Mofaical inftitution, and at least kept up fome form of the worship of the God of Heaven. They waited for the coming of the Meffias, and for the fulfilling of the prophecies of their old prophets; but when he came among them, because he did not come in Afiatic pomp, to put their nation upon the fame footing that it was in during the reigns of David and Solomon, which they fuppofed would have been the cafe, they rejected him, as their fathers had done all the rest of the prophets, although the prophecy of Isaiah was thereby strictly fulfilled.

BUT before we proceed to examine that pure fyftem of morality and worship of the Supreme Being, which was taught mankind by Jefus Chrift, let us turn our attention again, for a moment, upon the different nations and people of the world which have already been defcribed, upon the inhuman and fuperftitious forms of worship which they offered up to their idol gods, or to the hoft of Heaven, and upon the variety of manners and characters of those people, and we fhall find, notwithstanding all thofe feeming contradictions, that uncorrupted nature teaches every where the fame Chap. 53. and 54.

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leffons

leffons of juftice and of honefty, which the human race owe to each other; and that mankind have always been unanimous in the opinion, that they owed an adoration and worship to fome fuperior being or beings. It is true we frequently find their ideas of those matters much confused, particularly in their worship of a divinity, from the warmth and irregularities of their paffions, or from the artful infinuations of cunning and defigning men, who have frequently endeavoured to corrupt the people, to confuse their understandings, and to make even their religious principles fubfervient to their wicked and ambitious defigns. History likewise furnishes us with fome examples, where the pure voice of nature has predominated, difperfed that chaos of fuperftition and idolatry in which the greatest part of the world were heretofore enveloped, and taught her faithful fons that there was a God, who was the creator and protector of all created beings; that there was an immortal part united to their mortal bodies, which would exift to all eternity, and which would be happy or miferable, according to the works which they did upon earth: But I cannot find one example, where any human being was made acquainted with the attributes of the Supreme Being, from the light of nature only. Socrates, Plato, and Pliny, as I have already obferved, were fenfible that this could not be done, and fo were fome of their followers, and felt much for the degenerate and unhappy fituation of their fellow-creatures.

The ancient Scythians or Celts, who are faid to have been the defcendants of Japhet, feem to have had, in general, the clearest ideas of the Supreme Being and of a future ftate, which continued among them 'till they formed connections with the southern nations, and fell, in fome measure, into that gröfs idolatry which the latter feem to have adopted from the moft early ages of the world. During the time of the patriarch Abraham, it was already become a part of their worship to offer up their own children as burnt facrifices to their idol gods; for it appears, that when the angel of the Lord ordered this patriarch to offer up Ifaac, his only fon, as a burnt facrifice, he had no idea that this order was only to prove his faith and obedience to the divine commands, as this practice was at that time fo common in the country where he lived.

The Indian Brachmans, the Magi, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the greatest part of the Greek and Roman philofophers, who trufted entirely to their learning and philofophy, not only fell themfelves into the groffeft fuperftition and idolatry, but by their examples drew fome million's of people into the fame wretched fituation: but thofe who, like Socrates and his faithful followers, faw the infufficiency of human reason to fathom the mysteries of the Supreme Being, and obeyed the pure and uncorrupted voice of nature, have not only outfhined all the others in the pu

rity of their morals, but alfo in their examples of piety and virtue.

Confucius and Mango Copac, who seem to have had the clearest ideas of civil government, and who formed the civil inftitutions of two empires, which are worthy the imitation of more enlightened nations, appear to have had very imperfect ideas of the Deity and of a future ftate; and left the inhabitants of their refpective countries in a ftate of idolatry, and in the groffeft ignorance respecting these matters; although the Peruvians were, and the Chineses actually are, very well informed in every thing that regards civil fociety.

The inhabitants of Mexico and of North Ame rica were in a ftate of barbarity, ignorance, and inhumanity, equal to that wherein the people of Africa are to this day; and although they were called human beings, their ideas were fo totally abforbed in a chaos of fuperftition and brutality, that, except from their form, we might fuppofe them to have been an order of beings of an inferior nature.

Odin feems rather to have been the caufe of plunging the people of the northern nations into the moft abominable fcenes of idolatry and inhumanity, than to have in the leaft contributed to their reformation or civilization. He appears to have been one of those infamous hypocritical priests who, taking advantage of the fimplicity and well-meaning difpofition of their fellow-creatures, employ all their art and cunning to draw them. infenfibly

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infenfibly into their selfish and ambitious defigns: for if we except Mahomet, history does not fur.nifh us with a more infamous and deteftable character than that of Odin; who having knowledge, and the confidence of great and numerous nations, instead of endeavouring, like Mango Copac, Confucius, and others, to draw them out of the ftate of ignorance in which they were then absorbed, plunged them into scenes of the most abominable and inhuman idolatry, to promote his ambitious defigns.

Mahomet, in a more enlightened age, and among people who had been informed of the mighty works which Mofes had done for the Ifraelites, and who had as well been inftructed in the pure and refined moral and doctrines of Jefus Chrift, which were preached both by him and by his apoftles, had nevertheless art and cunning enough, by giving into the humours, and flattering the paffions, of a depraved race, first, infenfibly by perfuafion, and afterwards by force, to make them obey his laws and dictates; although they were stamped with fuch ftriking marks of abfurdity, libertinage, and tyranny, as must shock every person who was not equally ignorant, libertine, and tyrannical with himself, and certainly, if his followers had not been forbid, under the most severe penalties, to enter into any enquiry about the truth, or probability, of his doctrines; and, for the most part, been born and bred in hot and fultry climates, which warmed their paffions, and rendered them

almoft