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attested and established, was fo much fuperior to any power in the Heathen Gods, that when they were adjured by Chriftians, they were forced to confefs themfelves to be wicked and feducing Spirits, as the Primitive Chriftians declare in their Writings, and appeal to the Heathens of their own Times for the truth of it, and undertake, upon pain of Death, to prove it before them. This Tertullian undertakes in his Apology, (as I have before obferved,) addressed to the Emperor and Senate of Rome, or at least to the Proconful of Africk, and the Governours of the feveral Cities and Provinces, written in Latin, and translated into Greek. And St. Cyprian affirms the like, in his Treatife to Demetrianus, a Judge of Carthage, or as fome think, the Pro-conful: To the fame purpose likewife fpeak Origen, Minutius Felix, and others of the Primitive Chriftians. And we cannot imagine, that Men of common Senfe would ever have made fuch publick and repeated Appeals, if their Pretences had been false, to the hazard of their own Lives, and the utter difgrace and extirpation of their Religion, which they endeavoured to plead for by fuch confident and bold Difcourfes, fo eafie to be difproved, if they had not been true. Men, who have the

Wealth and Power of the World on their fide, may perhaps fometimes make large boasts and high pretences, when they can easily hinder others from bringing them to the Teft; but Men that had all the power and policy of the Empire against them, would never have offered any thing of this nature in defence of their Religion, unless they had been able to make it good to the faces of their worst Enemies, to whom their Apologies were directed.

Tertul. Apol. c. 23.

Eufeb. Hift. 1. 2. c. 2.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions.

It

T is undeniable that the Doctrines of all the Heathen Religions have been wicked, and contrary to the Unity, and Goodness, and Purity of God, and to the Vertue and Happiness of Mankind. This might be made out at large by particulars, as

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I. The Theology of the Heathens was fo confufed and abfurd, that the only Evafion which the Philofophers could find, who undertook the defence of Paganifm against Christianity, was to expound their Theology by Allegories; but this Philo Biblius cenfures as abfurd, and maintains that it was a mere abuse and innovation in their Divinity; in proof of which, he alledges the Authority of Sanchoniathon; and Eufebius befides makes good the charge. Zeno first begun this way of Allegorizing, in which he was followed by Cleanthes, Chryfippus, and other Stoicks. Plutarch fays, that Cleanthes feemed to be in jeft, in fome of his Interpretations, and that those of Chryfippus were ftrangely forc'd; and he gives inftances of both kinds. It is well obferved by a Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, that those Expofitions were known to very few; but that the People understood the Fables of their Theology in the grossest sense, and either despifed all Religion, or encouraged themselves in Wickednefs, by the Example of their Gods.

a Eufeb. præpar. lib.i. c. 9, 10.

b Magnam moleftiam fufcepit & minimè neceffariam primus Zeno, pòft Cleanthes, deinde Chryfippus, commentitiarum fabularum reddere rationem. Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii.

Plur. Quomodò Juven. audiend. fint Poem.
Dion. Hift. 1. 2.

The

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The Chaldeans had Twelve principal Deities, according to the number of Months in the Year. And Zoroafter taught Men to facrifice to Arimanius the Damon, or evil Being, as well as to God, or the good Being, whom he ftiled Oromazdes. • Varro makes Three forts of Heathen Theology; the Fabulous invented by the Poets; the Phyfical, or that of the Philofophers; and the Civil or Popular, being fuch as the feveral Cities and Countries had fet up.

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The

Greek Theology was thus diftinguished: 1. God, who rules over all. 2. The Gods, who were fuppofed to govern above the Moon. 3. The Dæmons, whofe Jurifdiction was in the Air below it: and, 4. The Heroes or Souls of dead Men, who were imagined to prefide over Terrestrial Affairs. And befides all these, the evil Dæmons were worshipped, out of fear of mischief from them, which gives fome account of the prodigious multitude of their Gods; whereof Hefiod computes Thirty thousand hovering about the Earth in the Air, (unless he be to be understood of an indefinite number.) Orpheus reckoned but 365, and at his Death, in his Will, afferted only one. Varro reckoned up Three hundred Jupiters, and the Gods of Mexico (as the Indians reported to the Spaniards) were Two thousand in number. Varro, Tully, and Seneca, and moft fober and difcreet Men, were ashamed of the Heathen Gods, and believed that there is but one God; to which purpose, the Verfes of Valerius Soranus are produced and expounded by Varro.

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The Worship of their Gods, and of their Images or Idols, was fo grofs amongst the ancient Heathens, and

Diod. Sic. 1. 1.
f Plut. de Ifid. &
Tertull, ad Nat. lib. ii. c. 1. Aug. Civ. Dei,

Ofir.

lib. 6. c. 5.
& Dier.lib.i.v.250.

h Eufeb. præpar. lib. iv. c. 5. i Hefiod. oper. & Dier.lib.i.v.250.

Theop. ad Autol. lib.iii.

1 Tertul. Apol. c. 14. Gage's Survey of the West Indies, C. 12.

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Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. iv. c. 31. vii. 9.

is to this day in China and in both the Indies, that one would almost think it impoffible for Men to be fo far deluded by the Devil: They Worshipped not only the Ghosts of dead Men, but Birds and Beasts, and creeping Things, and the Devil himself under Images of fuch hideous Forms and Shapes, as are frightful to look upon. The "wifer Heathens were afhamed of thefe Idolatries; and Varro particularly commends the Jews for ufing no Images in their Divine Worfhip, which, he fays, were not in ufe at Rome till above one hundred and feventy Years after the Foundation of the City; for P Numa, the contriver of their Religion, forbad Images: Which makes it the more ftrange, that the Romans fhould afterwards erect Temples and Altars to the most unlikely things, to a Fever, and to ill Fortune, as the Athenians did to Contumely and Impudence: But it is ftill more amazing, that they should, by the Decrees of the Senate, deifie the worst of Men, the very Monsters and Reproaches of Mankind: And whilft the Christians fuffered for refusing Adoration to their Emperors, they had divine Honours paid them by the graveft Heathens, fuch as Quinctilian, not only through fear of Death, but out of Compliment and bafe Flattery.

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2. All manner of Debauchery and Lewdness made up fo great a part of the Heathen Religion, that it is too fhameful and too notorious to relate. The Romans, when they received the Gods of other Nations, did not worship them after their manner, and yet the Rites of the Romans themselves, in the Wor-, fhip of Cybele, Flora, Bacchus, &c. were very scan

n Gentes verò quædam Animalia etiam, aliquæ & obfcæna, pro Diis habent, ac multa dictis magis pudenda, per foetidos cibos & alia fimilia jurantes. Plin. Hift. 1. 2. c. 7.

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Aug. Civ. Dei, lib. iv. c. 31.

P Plut. in vit. Numæ.

Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. de legib. lib. ii. Plin. ib. c. 7.

Quint. Inftitut. lib. iv. Prooem.

Eufeb. Præpar. lib. ii. c. ult. ex Dionyf. Halicarn. lib. ii.

dalous

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dalous and wicked. And all their Sports and Spectacles (which had nothing furely in them, that could be proper for Divine Worship) were invented and performed in honour of their Gods; whence Quintilian fays, the Theatre might be ftiled a kind of Temple. It was a custom to "perform Funeral Rites to the Dead, by killing Men at their Sepulchres; and for this Reafon, Captives were wont to be flain at the Funeral of a General, fill at the last the Gladiators, called Buftuarii, were appointed inftead of them. * Another account of the original of Gladiators, is from an ancient custom for Men, to devote themselves to Death, to appease the Wrath of fome Deity towards their Country. But this was a fort of Devotion, which was more especially paid to Saturn, whofe Image was placed in a Cavity contrived under-ground to receive the Blood of the Slain. And as fome of their Gods delighted in Punishments and Blood, fo others were fuppofed to be pleased with Sports.

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3. But befides their bloody Spectacles, where Men were exposed to be killed by Beafts, or by one ano ther, their Altars themselves were not free from humane Blood. For the barbarous cruelty of the Religions amongst the Heathens was fuch, that they were obliged to offer up innocent Men and Children in Sacrifice to their Deities. Some of the Rabbins have been of opinion, that Jephtha facrificed his Daughter,

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Quintil. Inftitut. 1. 3. c. 8.

* Capitolin. vit. Maxim. & Albin.

"Serv. ad Virg. Æn. xv.

* Εν ἀκμαῖς ἢ ἔσης ἔτι ο Ἑλληνικῆς δυσιδαιμονίας, ἅμιλλα μονομαχίας ἐπεξελᾶντο προς Ρωμαίοις και καιρός κέκρυπο τὶς ὑπὸ γῆν Κρόνο, λίθοις τετρημενοις ὑποκεχηνώς, ἵνα των πεσόν] Θ' καλαμιαίνοιο λύθρῳ. Cyril. Alex. contr. Julian. 1. 4. p. 128. Edit. Lipf.

z Labeo numina mala victimis cruentis atque hujufmodi fupplicationibus placari exiftimat : bona verò ludis & talibus, · quafi ad Lætitiam pertinentibus rebus. Aug. Civ. Dei, 1. 8. c. 13.

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