abroad over the whole earth, and the absurdities of Polytheism fully understood by the people, an Impostor, who would now obtrude a new Religion on the world, must of necessity pretend to have received it from that only one God. But the probability of his giving a Revelation now, being seen greatly to depend on his having given one before, our Impostor would be forced to own the truth of those preceding Religions, which professed to come from that GOD. And as the credit of the new Religion was best advanced by its being thought a finishing part of an incomplete Dispensation, he would, at the same time, bottom it on the preceding. Besides, as an Impostor must needs want that necessary mark of a divine Mission, the power of Miracles, he could cover the want no otherwise than by a pretended relation to a Religion which had well established itself by Miracles. And thus, in fact, MAHOMET framed the idea of his imposture. He pretended his new Religion was the completion of Christianity, as Christianity was the completion of Judaism; for that the world not being to be won by the mild and gentle invitations of Jesus, was now to be compelled to enter in by Mahomet. And so again, to complete the imitation, this last and greatest Prophet, as his followers believe him to be, is pretended to be foretold in the New Testament, as the Messiah was in the Old. Thus this notable observation, from whence the Author of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion endeavoured to deduce so discrediting a likeness between all false religion, and what we believers hold to be the true, comes, we see, just to nothing. But he has yet another flagrant mark of likeness, in reserve: And thus he goes on, from discovery to dis 2 covery. covery. In building thus upon PROPHECY (says he) as a principle, Jesus and his Apostles had the concurrence of all sects of Religion amongst the Pagans. Is it possible? Yes. For the Pagans universally built their Religion on DIVINATION. pp. 27, 28. As much as to say, the people of Amsterdam, in building their town-house upon piles, had (in the mode of laying a foundation) the concurrence of all the cities in England; who build theirs upon stone, or clay, or gravel. In the Jewish writings there are Prophecies of a future and more perfect Dispensation; which, Jesus claiming to belong to HIS, his Religion was properly built upon PROPHECIES. The Heathens made Gods of their dead benefactors, and then consulted them at their shrines, as Oracles; they inspected the entrails of beasts; they observed the flight of birds; they interpreted dreams and uncommon phænomena; and all these things they called DIVINATION. But what likeness is there between these things and Prophecies, the Prophecies on which Jesus founded his Religion? Just as much as there is between TRUTH and what these men call, FREETHINKING. But he has found a device to bring them related. 'Tis a master-piece; and the Reader shall not be robbed of it. They [the Pagans], says he, learnt that art [Divination] in schools, or under discipline, as the Jews did prophesying in the schools and colleges of the Prophets; where, the learned Dodwell says, the candidates for prophecy were taught the rules of divination practised by the Pagans, who were skilled therein, and in possession of the art long before them. This idle whimsy of the learned Dodwell concerning the schools of the Prophets has been exposed, as it deserves, already. But for the sake of so extraordinary an * See Vol. IV. book iv. § 6. + Ibid. argument argument (an impiety, grafted on its proper stock, an absurdity), it deserves to be admitted, though it be but for a moment. The reasoning then stands thus: Divination was an art learnt in the schools; so was one kind of Prophecy, or the Jewish art of Divination: those who learnt this. Jewish art of divination were taught the rules of pagan divination: THEREFORE, pagan divination and ANOTHER kind of Prophecy, such as foretold the coming of the Messiah, were things of the same kind. Incomparable reasoner! and deservedly placed at the head of modern Freethinking! But his learning is equal to his sense, and his premises just as true as his conclusion: The Pagans universally built their Religion on divination. I believe there are few school-boys, who would not laugh at his blunder, and tell him it was just otherwise, that the Pagans universally built divination on their Religion. All that was ever built on divination was now and then a Shrine or a Temple.--To return : III. But these prejudices, concerning local tutelary Deities, which made the introduction of a Theocracy so easy, occasioned as easy a defection from the Laws of it. 1. For these tutelary Deities owning one another's pretensions, there was always a friendly intercourse of mutual honours, though not always of mutual worship. For at first, each God was supposed to be so taken up with his own people, as to have little leisure or inclination to attend to the concerns of others.-Now this prejudice was the first source of the Jewish idolatry. 2. But the pretensions of these Gods being thus reciprocally acknowledged; and Some, by the fortu nate nate circumstances of their followers, being risen into superior fame, the Rites used in their Worship were eagerly affected. And this was the second source of the Israelites' idolatry; exemplified in the erection of the GOLDEN CALF, and their fondness for all Egyp tian superstitions in general. 3. But of these tutelary deities there being two sorts, GENTILITIAL and LOCAL; the one ambulatory, and the other stationed; the latter were fixed to their posts, as a kind of heir-loom, which they who conquered and possessed the country were obliged to maintain in their accustomed honours. And whatever gentilitial Gods a People might bring with them, yet the local God was to have a necessary share in the religious Worship of the new Comers. Nay, it was thought impiety, even in foreigners, while they sojourned only in a strange Country, not to sacrifice to the Gods of the place. Thus Sophocles makes Antigone say to her father, that a stranger should both venerate and abhor those things which are venerated and abhorred in the city where he resides*. Celsus gives the reason of so much complaisance-" Because (says he) the several parts of the world were, from the beginning, distributed to several powers, each of which has his peculiar allotment and residence t." And those who were loth to leave their • Τόλμα ξενο Ἐπὶ ξείνης, ὦ τλάμον, ὅ, τι Act. i. Oedip. Colon. + — ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅτι, ὡς εἰκὸς, τὰ μέλη τῆς γῆς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἄλλα ἄλλοις ἐποπλαῖς νενεμημένα καὶ κατά τινας ἐπικρατείας διειλημμένα, ταύτη και διοικεῖται. καὶ δὴ τὰ παρ ̓ ἑκάσοις ὀρθῶς ἂν πράτλοιο ταύτη δρώμενα, ὅπη ἐκείνοις φίλον, παραλύειν δέ ἐχ ὅσιον εἶναι τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς κατὰ τόπος verusopéra. Orig. cont. Cels. lib. v. p. 247. See the passage, from Plato, pp. 230, 231. VOL. V. E paternal paternal Gods when they sought new settlements, at least held themselves obliged to worship them with the Rites, and according to the usages of the Country they came to inhabit. Against this more qualified principle of Paganism, Moses thought fit to caution his People, in the following words: When the Lord thy GOD shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land: take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou ENQUIRE NOT After their Gods, saying, How did these nations serve their Gods? even so wILL I DO likewise*. But the adoption of these new GoDs, as well as of their Rites, was so general, that David makes his being unjustly driven into an idolatrous land, the same thing as being forced to serve idolatrous Gods. For thus he expostulates with his persecutor, "Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear "the words of his servant: If the Lord have stirred "thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but "if they be the children of men, cursed be they be"fore the Lord; for they have driven me out this day "from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, "GO SERVE OTHER GODS t. To the same principle Jeremiah likewise alludes, in the following words, Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers: and THERE SHALL YE SERVE OTHER Govs day and night; where I will not shew you favour. By which is not meant that they should be forced, any otherwise than by the superstitious dread of divine vengeance for a slighted worship: for at this time civil restraint in matters of religion was very rare. * Deut. xii. 29, 30. ↑ 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. ↑ Ch, xvi. ver. 13. But |