II. It is common with unbelievers to decry both Christianity and Judaism, as species of fuperftition. But no misconceptions, or abuse, of the Jewish or Chriftian religions, led to more abfurd fuperftitions than the doctrines of the heathen philofophers, concerning the defiling nature of matter, their confequent contempt for the body, and their ideas of the purification of the foul by the mortification of it. It was, in fact, from the heathen philofophers that the Chriftians of the fecond and following centuries derived their opinions and practices on the fubject. It was from them alfo that the monkish ideas of the fuperior merit of a contemplative to an active life, and of the value of feclufion from the world, were originally derived.

Pythagoras faid that "contemplative wif"dom cannot be completely attained with❝out a total abstraction from the ordinary af"fairs of life, and a perfect tranquillity and "freedom of mind." But the later Platonists, among whom we might expect the most advanced and improved ftate of philofophy, carried these ideas ftill farther, "They prac"tifed the most rigorous abftinence, as by "this means they expected to purify them

8

"felves

"felves from moral defilement, and they paf"fed whole days and nights in contempla❝tion, and what they called devotion. Plo"tinus had fuch a contempt for the body,

that he never could be prevailed upon to "make use of any means to cure the diseases "to which his conftitution was fubject, or to "alleviate his pain. His rigorous abftinence, "and determined neglect of his health, at "last brought him into a state of disease and infirmity, which rendered the latter part "of his life extremely painful." In Chrif tians this would be laughed at, but in this deep philofopher, it may perhaps be admired.

To this fuperftition these philofophers joined the most extravagant enthusiasm. They fuppofed, that "the foul of man, prepared "by previous difcipline, might rife to a capa

city of holding immediate intercourfe with "good demons, and even to enjoy in ecstasy "an intuitive vifion of God himself;" a degree of perfection and felicity which fome of the more eminent among them, such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Jamblicus, and Proclus, were fuppofed actually to have attained. Plotinus is faid "to have afcended through all "the Platonic steps of contemplation, to the

"actual

"actual vifion of the Supreme Being himself, "and to have been admitted to fuch inter"course with him as no other philofopher "ever enjoyed." Porphyry fays that "he "himself, in the fixty-eighth year of his age, "was in a facred ecftafy, when he saw the fu"preme intelligence, the god," he says, "who "is fuperior to all gods, without an image.”

According to Jamblicus, "the human foul "has an innate knowledge of God, prior to "all reasoning, in confequence of its having originally derived its effence from, and hav

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ing fubfifted in, the divine nature; that by "the intervention of demons, it enjoys com"munication with the fuperior divinities, and "with God himself. Gods, demons, and he"roes," he says, 66 appear to men under va"rious forms, in dreams, or waking vifions, "to render them bodily or fpiritual services, "and to enable them to predict future events. "But these communications with the divine "nature are not to be obtained without the "obfervance of certain facred rites. The

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figns of divine communications," he says, "are a temporary fufpenfion of the fenfes and "faculties, the interruption of the ordinary "functions of life, and a capacity of speak

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ing and doing wonders, fo that in this ftate "the perfon does not live an animal, or hubut a divine life."

66 man,

Jews and Chriftians are reproached for their credulity, and for their faith in miracles, however well attested; but can they say that these Platonifts were lefs credulous? "With a "view to destroy the credit which the Chrif "tian religion derived from miracles, or at least "to advance their philofophy to a level with "it, they pretended to a power of performing fupernatural operations, by the aid of invi"fible beings, and faid that the miracles of "Chrift," which they did not deny, "were

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wrought by the fame magical, or, as they "termed them, theurgic powers, which they "themselves poffeffed. The emperor Julian "made great ufe of magical arts in executing "his political purposes. While he was at "Vienna, he reported that, in the middle of "the night, he was vifited by a celestial form,

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which, fpeaking in heroic verfe, had pro"mifed him the poffeffion of the imperial dig"nity."

With these facts before us, and many more of the fame kind might have been adduced, furely Chriftianity will no longer be exclu

fively taxed with fuperftition, enthusiasm, or credulity. But no countenance is given to these iḍle notions, or abfurd practices, in the fcriptures. Chrift and the apostles were not monks, nor had they any monkish ideas. Their piety was perfectly rational, and their love of God evidenced by benevolence to man. And they inculcated no aufterity, or mortification, befides that temperance, which is oppofed to vicious excess, and contributes to the true enjoyment of life.

On the whole, we may furely say that, had modern unbelievers found in the fcriptures any of the doctrines which I have shewn to have been profeffed by the philofophers of antiquity, had they found there the doctrine of two coeternal principles, that of the emanation of all fouls from the fubftance of the Supreme Being, the abforption of them into it again, with their repeated emiffions and retractions to all eternity; had they found there the doctrine of the formation of all things by the fortuitous concourfe of atoms, that the air is filled with demons of different characters, directing the affairs of the world at their pleasure, and giving intimations of future events by omens and divination; had they

found