fing the cathedral service.-Upon the whole, notwithstanding all the works, and the whole conduct of Mahomet, clearly fhew him to have been a wicked impoftor of the worst kind, who, under the cloak of religion, wanted to establish his temporal authority over mankind, and to gratify his lufts and paffions; yet, as his Alcoran contains here and there fome good and moral precepts, which he copied from the New Testament, and from the laws of Moses; and as he taught the belief in, and adoration of one God, it is generally fuppofed, that his form of religion has done good, in many parts; especially in India, Perfia, Tartary, Arabia, and Africa, by drawing great numbers of people from the groffest scenes of idolatry, and bringing them at least to the belief of the Supreme Being; and the more particularly, as Christianity was so much corrupted, in those days, by Arianism, by the herefies, and by the wicked examples of many of the pretended teachers of the Chriftian doctrines. Indeed the Greeks, who abound in the Turkish dominions at prefent, have fo disfigured the Chriftian religion, by a multitude of ceremonies, by the veneration, I had almost faid adoration, of images, and by the principles of Arianifm which they have still retained, that, except believing that Mahomet was not fo great a prophet as Jesus Christ, I see very little difference between their religion and that of the Muffulmans.

Whoever has read the Alcoran, will undoubtedly join with me, in thinking it one of the most extraordinary

G

or three altars of this conftruction, very near each other. Of this kind are the places of their religious worship which we find in Zeland, in Denmark, in the Isle of Anglesey, at Abury in North Wiltshire, and the famous Stonehenge.

A

About the time of the coming of Odin into the north, when the Druids and the other Celtic priefts had a free communication with the Greeks and Romans, it is certain that all the defcendants of the ancient Celts fell into a ftate of the moft barbarous idolatry. They now erected temples, and offered human facrifices to their idols. very famous temple of this kind was erected at Upfal, in Sweden; another at Drontheim, in Norway; and a third in the island of Iceland *.—The great temple of Upfal was particularly confecrated to the three principal divinities which I have before defcribed. Odin was reprefented holding a fword in his hand; Thor was to the left hand of Odin, with a crown upon his head, a fcepter in one hand, and a club in the other. Frigga was to the left of Thor; and fhe was reprefented with all the properties of the two fexes, and with feveral other attributes, which made her be regarded as the goddess of voluptuousness. Odin was invoked as the god of war and of victory; Thor as the god who directed the atmosphere'; and Frigga as the goddess of pleasures, of love, and of marriage.

During the time of the ancient Celts, their

Arngrim. Jon. Crymogæa.

offerings

offerings were fimple, and their ceremonies so few, that the fhepherds could perform them. In those times, they offered only the firft-fruits of the earth; afterwards, the fatteft of the animals and then they appointed riefts to perform the ceremonies with more folemnity. But when those priests, perhaps after the example of Mofes, or of the inhabitants of the more fouthern nations, had once laid it down for a principle, that the shedding the blood of those animals appeased the wrath of the gods, and that their juftice turned upon those victims the terrible vengeance that they defigned for the guilty, they bent their whole attention upon gaining the favour of the gods by this easy method. Afterwards, when their defires became more violent, when they had any particular favour to demand of the gods, or when they would endeavour to prevent any public calamity, the blood of the animals appeared to be too vile, and not fufficient to draw the attention of the gods; then they offered up human facrifices upon their altars. The ceremonies now became very folemn, and the priests, who performed them, to have great authority among the people. In time of war, they chose a certain number of perfons for this purpose, from among their prifcners; and, in the time of peace, from among their flaves. Those unhappy people were chosen by lot from among the whole number; but they were treated with fuch honours, and received fuch careffes from all those who were prefent, Tacit. German. c. 15.

that

86

66

*

.

"ing pit, because they have not obferved the commandments of God; which torments will "be confiderably increased, if they have gone 86 after any other women but their own wives or flaves." There is no part in all the Alcoran which gives us so just an idea of the character of its author, as the chapters before mentioned; nor wherein he has fo clearly expreffed himself; for in all the other chapters, we find nothing but confufion and contradiction; and confequently we may easily form a judgment of this prophet from his works.

At a time when there was such a diversity of opinions in those parts of Afia and of Africa; when the opportunity of propagating a new system of religion was fo favourable, and when the greatest part of the inhabitants of those countries. were in such a state of ignorance, if the happiness and welfare of his fellow-creatures had at all entered into his plan, Mahomet might have done much towards the reforming of the Gentile world; efpecially as he was affifted by the moral precepts of Mofes and of Jefus Chrift; and without laying his followers under the obligation of deftroying all kinds of learning and enquiry among themselves, thereby have gained a great and immortal name.

THALES, Pythagoras, Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Zenophon, Ariftotle, and Epicurus, although they had none of the lights which revela

tion has afforded, to form the moral character of mankind, yet by the fyftems of morality which they respectively taught their followers, not only by precept, but by example, they drew great numbers of people out of that grofs ignorance, fuperftition, and idolatry, which then prevailed in the world, and which were a difgrace to human nature. Those great ancients made a noble entry upon the theatre of the world; as their opinions were corroborated by their examples. They did not, like Des Cartes, Hobbes, and fome other modern philofophers, endeavour to propagate fyftems which they did not believe themselves. Des Cartes, in particular, when among his friends, always called his philosophy his romance; and both he and many of the materialists published their fchemes of philofophy, as Noftradamus did his prophecies, only for their amusement, and without either of them believing any part of what they published themselves.-Many of our pretended modern philosophers have endeavoured to difcredit Pythagoras; and affert that he was a lawgiver, but by no means a philofopher. It is certain that Pythagoras was defired to form the civil conftitution of a state in which he lived in Italy, and had the misfortune to perish by a fedition in the government he had formed; fo that there remain no records or traces of any of his civil institutions: but, on the other hand, his philofophical and moral precepts, the principal of which have been already obferved, have been efteemed in