corruption in Human Nature, which the wifeft men could both fee in others and experience in themselves, but which they were wonderfully puzzled to give any tolerable account of: And not knowing the original cause of it, they must always neceffarily be at a loss, how to find a fufficient means of recovering out of it. And

2. Suppose they had really known the true state of their own cafe, yet the effectual cure for it was more than mere human power or skill could attain to. Philofophy, how much foever it may be magnified, was not a fufficient cure even for those that profefs'd it, who were at least but a small handful of men, and very unequal to fuch a vast undertaking, as instructing and reforming the Morals and Religion of mankind. And

3. If they had really intended fuch a thing, which few or none of them ever did, yet they were not qualified for fuch a work. They neither had so steddy a conviction of the truth of what themselves profefs'd, nor were their notions of several neceffary, Truths fo confiftent with one another, as ever to be likely to have any great influence upon others. To these confiderations I fhall now add,

4. That in matters of Religion, which na

turally have the greatest influence over the mind of man, and which therefore ought to be under the best and trueft direction of all others, they were ftill more deficient, than in any thing else. When mankind had once generally fallen from the worship of the one true God, they funk, by degrees, into the most brutal Superstition and Idolatry; which was accompanied with fuch an univerfal blindnefs and ftupidity, as to the true Nature of God and his Attributes; that if fome notion of God's Exiftence had not been fo deeply rooted in human Nature, as never to be wholly deftroyed, a general Atheism must have been the natural confequence of such monftrous practices. For as we find no ancient account of any that profefs'd Atheistical Principles, till Religion was fo entirely degenerated from its firft Original, that Primitive Truth and established Falfhood could not eafily be diftinguifhed; fo after things were come to this pass, we find feveral pretenders to utter infidelity. Now the Philofophers were fo far from being able to make any confiderable reformation in this matter, that, generally fpeaking, they made the cafe much. worfe; not only by fuffering themselves to be drawn away by the stream of vulgar Superftition,

ftition, and complying with every establish'd idolatrous practice, but likewife by endeavouring to find out fome diftinction or other to justify it, or at least to excuse themselves in complying with it. If they could not apply fome fymbolical meaning or other to the most abfurd and ridiculous ceremonies of their grofs fuperftition, by which they might feem to reconcile it to fomething that look'd like Natural Religion, yet however they defended them by the law and practice of the country where they lived: Thus not only the ordinary a Scholars of Pythagoras, but even fuch men as b Plato, Cicero,

C

A a 3

d

Epictetus, and

others

• ̓Αθανάτες με πρῶτα Θεές, νόμῳ ὡς πλάκες), Τίμα, καὶ σέβας ὅρκον· ἔπειθ' ἥρωας αγαυός. Τός τε καταχθονίας σέβε δαίμονας ἔννομα ρέζων.

Pythag. Aurea Carm.

* Πρῶτον μὲ φακὲν τιμᾶς τὰς μετ ̓ Ολυμπίας τε καὶ τὰς 7 πόλιν ἔχοντας Θεὸς, τοῖς χθονίοις ἄν τις θεοῖς ἄβλια καὶ δεύτερο και άρχ σερα νέμων, ὀρθότατα τα τα ευσεβέας σκοπό τυγχάνοι· τοῖς ἢ τέτων ἄνωθεν τα περιττά καὶ ἀντίφωνα τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ῥηθῶσι να δή μετά θεώς 5 τάσδε, καὶ τοῖς δαίματιν ὅτ' ἔμφρων ὀργιάζοιτ' ἄν ἥρωσι 5 μετὰ τάτας· ἐπακολυθεῖ δ' αὐτοῖς ἱδρύματα ἴδια πατρώων Θεῶν καὶ νόμον όργια όρθια. Plato de Leg. lib. 4. pag. 717. Which words are an encouragement both to publick and domefti Superftition and Idolatry.

.

c Constructa à patribus delubra habento; lucos in agris habento, & Larum fedes: Ritus familiæ, patrumque fer

others of the most eminent understanding among them, fuch as in many places, on other occafions, exprefs'd very noble and fublime fentiments, both of Morality and Religion, yet give fuch precepts for following the received customs, both in the manner and object of Divine Worship, as could not but greatly confirm all other lefs difcerning men in any kind of Idolatry, which had but been long enough practised to plead prescription in their feveral countries.

The Stoics, who valued themselves upon the ftrictness of their Religions, as well as Moral Principles, by Deifying of Nature or the Universe and the feveral parts even of the material world, were great encouragers of Polytheism and Creature-Worship; and by afcribing the incommunicable name of God to any thing, that was but the immediate inftrument

vanto: Divos & eos, qui cœleftes femper habiti, colunto. Cic. de Leg. lib. 2.

Sacra privata perpetua manento. Deorum manium jura fancta funto. lb.

Jam illud ex inftitutis Pontificum & Arufpicum non mutandum eft, quibus hoftiis immolandum cuique Deo, ec. ib. where may be seen much more to the same purpose, which he prefcribes in the way of a perpetual Establishment,

4 Σπένδειν ἢ καὶ θύειν καὶ ἀπάρχεις καὶ τὰ πάτρια, (ἐκάσετε) ἐκάσοις προσήκει, &c. Epift. cap. 38,

ftrument of any confiderable benefit to the life of man, they justified the practice of those who (in St. Paul's language) changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and Served the Creature more than the Creator who is bleffed for ever. And thus by refining upon the Mythological or Poetical Theology of their predeceffors, they were fo far from correcting the prevailing errors of Heathen Worship, that they rather added greater authority to the corruptions of it. Thus Balbus, in Tully, commends the wifdom of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for multiplying the number of their Gods by Deifying almost every thing that was of great virtue or benefit to mankind: And likewise for giving Divine Worship to dead men, who had been eminent in former times, fuch as A a 4 Hercules

e

e Multæ autem aliæ Naturæ Deorum ex magnis beneficiis eorum, non fine caufa, & à Gracia Sapientiffimis & à majoribus noftris conftitutæ nominatæque funt. Quicquid enim magnam utilitatem generi afferret Humano, id non fine Divina Bonitate erga homines fieri arbitrabantur. Itaque tum illud quod erat à Deo natum (1. donatum) nomine ipfius Dei nuncupabant-Tum autem res ipfa in qua vis ineft major aliqua fic appellatur ut ea ipfa res nominetur Deus.-Utilitatum igitur magnitudine conftituti funt ii Dii qui utilitates quafque gignebant. De Nat. Deor. lib. 2. cap. 23.