III.

the Worship of the Deity; ancient and mo- CHAP. dern History, and Travels abundantly inform us. Nor is there any Way of accounting how the whole World, with one Confent, in fo many distant Oceans, came to fall into Agreement about such a strange Part, and seemingly inhuman Perfuafion of Religion, as if without hedding of Blood there was no Remiffion; unlefs, in Fact, they received it, as they did their Blood, by Conveyance down from the Progenitor of our Race; who practifed it by express Direction from Heaven, after the aforefaid Promise made. Eufebius very judiciously refolves, that this Way of Worship was not taken up by Chance, or by human Motion, but fuggefted to them by a Divine Intimation, Demonft. Evang. Lib. I. cap. 10. Κατὰ θείαν δ ̓ ἐπίνοιαν ὑποβεβλημένον. Which Prc mise preferv'd under fuch Pre-figuration was to be fulfill'd in due Time, by a folemn Oblation of the facred Blood of fome Perfon, who should receive his Humanity only from the Woman.

FOR a Man's deftroying the Life of a Beast, and fhedding its Blood, can never naturally fignify a Man's Obedience to God; having no fuch Signification by the Dictates of the Law of Nature; it must therefore fignify only ex inftituto, and become a Sign of Obedience, or rather an Inftance of the Obedience of Faith, in Virtue of a pofitive Law or Inftitution from God; which fhews, that the offering expiatory or bloody Sa crifices, could never have its original from the Light of Nature, but from fome pofitive, additional Declaration of the Will of God *. Thro

Vid. Outram de Sacrif. pag. 10, 167, 244, 278. Concerning the first bloody or expiatory human Sacrifice offered

as

CHAP. this Faith Abel offered a better Sacrifice than Cain. III. So far is it from being true, what fome have

lightly imagin'd, that Chriftianity occafionally conform'd its Notion of a Mediator to the general Belief of, and Application to Mediators,

as Aure among the Race of Idolatrous before the Flood. See Bishop Cumberland's learned Remarks on Sanchoniatho's Phenician Hift. pag. 37, 137, 138, 170, 147. Whence he concludes, that Demons were worshipped by fuch Sacrifices before the Flood, when Idolatry was in its youngest Years. In the fifth Generation of the idolatrous Line of Cain, from Adam, there is mention of bloody Sacrifice of Beafts, pag. 239. When, as he probably infers, began the eating of raw and "bloody Flesh, which was therefore forbidden to Noah and "his Pofterity, both in the Cafe of Sacrifice and of ordi"nary Diet, to prevent all Correfpondence with their favage "Practices.". That human Sacrifices were not learnt by the Heathen from Abraham's going about to facrifice Ifaac, but intended by God in the Iffue of that Trial, to be discouraged by it, Ibid. pag. 139. &c. To this I fubjoin a Passage from Dr. Sherlock, (now Bishop of Salisbury) Ufe and Intent of Prophecy, pag. 74. 3d Edit. "We read that Cain brought

an Offering of the Fruit of the Ground, and Abel of the Firft"lings of his Flock, and the Fat thereof: The Lord had Respect "unto Abel, and to his Offerings; but unto Cain, and to his Offering he had no Refpect. Allowing the Maxim of the "Jewish Church to have been good from the first Institution

of Sacrifice, that without Blood there is no Remiffion: The "Cafe may poffibly be this. Abel came a Petitioner for Grace

and Pardon, and brought the Atonement appointed for Sin; "Cain appears before God as a juft Perfon wanting no Repen"tance; he brings an Offering in Acknowledgment of God's "Goodness and Bounty, but no Atonement in Acknowledg"ment of his own Wretchednefs. The Expoftulation of God "with Cain favours this Account; If thou doeft well, fhalt thou "not be accepted? And if thou doeft not avell, Sin lieth at thy

Door, i. e. If thou art righteous, thy Righteoufnefs fhall fave thee; if thou art not, by what Expiation is thy Sin "purged? It lieth ftill at thy Door. Add to this that the "Apoftle to the Hebrews fays, that Abel's Sacrifice was ren"dered excellent by Faith: What could this Faith be, but a "Reliance on the Promifes and Appointments of God? "Which Faith Cain wanted, relying on his own Well dọing."

86

in the Religion of the Gentiles; that the Heathen CHAP. Sacrifice, and Notion of a Mediator, had its, III. Origin from a traditionary Ufage of the one, and Belief of the Neceffity of the other, from the first Infancy of the World, as has been fhewn. Our Author, agreeably to his Principles, derives Sacrifices wholly from human Invention; and gives them fo late, and fo ridiculous a Date, pag. 79. that he is not worthy of a Refutation; every one that reads the Bible can confute him.

THEY fufficiently indeed corrupted it, nay to that extreme Abuse in multiplying those who were no Gods; and after they had given them Being, ferving and worshipping them fo irrationally and ftupidly, that the Service and Worship might be call'd that of those who were, ina manner, no Men. Inftead of honouring Him, whom they profeffed to know as God, from the Works of Creation, they were fo vain and abounding in their Imaginations of all Sorts of impious Rites, that they prophan'd him, and made a Devil of him. For as Honor eft in Honorante, whether they intended to worship Devils or not, the Worship was fuch as became no other, and therefore it belong'd to them, and they claim'd it as their own.

NAY, the wife Philofophers themselves communicated in thofe Scenes of Abfurdity and Immorality. Many of them by long Train of Thought, had more fublime and purer Notions of the Deity, and of the Worship fuitable to Him; But what was the World the better for that? As long as they continued in Fact, like the reft, in notorious Immorality and Breach of

III.

CHAP. the Law of Nature, in not respecting and honouring God as He is, and as they plainly knew Him to be; the greatest, certainly, of all Immorality, as being the Cause of most other Wickedness. So far were they from vindicating the Honour of the fupreme Being, or bringing a Reformation into the World, by rooting out the first leading Principle of Vice, wrong Notions, and vicious Worship of God; that they, every where, countenanced and complied with the eftablish'd Dishonour and Contumely against Him; they were strictly Partakers of fo much known Iniquity, by being actually guilty of it, and promoting the fame in others by their Example. The chief of them, Plato and Cicero, encourag'd the Magiftrate, and civil Powers, by recommending it in their respective Plan of Laws; and fo got the Iniquity every where established by

Law *.

AND

Lactant. de falfa Rel. Lib. I. cap. 15. fpeaking of Cicero, fays thus, de legibus, quo in opere Platonem fecutus de religione ita fanxit. Divos & eos, qui cæleftes femper habiti funt, coluntò. The fame Author, Lib. II. cap 3. de Origine Erroris, reproaches him for it in a beautiful Strain of Eloquence. Intelligebat Cicero falfa effe, quæ homines adorarent: Nam cum multa dixiffet, quæ ad everfionem religionum valerent: Ait tamen non effe illa vulgo difputanda, ne fufceptas publice religiones diputatio talis extinguat. Quid ei facies, qui, cum errare fe fentiat, ultro ipfe in lapides impignat, ut populus omnis offendat? Ipfe fibi oculos eruat, ut omnes cæci finit? Qui nec de aliis bene mereatur, quos patitur errare; nec de feipfo, qui alienis accedit erroribus; nec utitur tandem fapientiæ fuæ bono, ut factis impleat, quod mente percepit: Sed prudens & fciens pedem laqueo inferit, ut fimul cum cæteris, quos liberare ut prudentior debuit, & ipfe capiatur? Quin potius, fi quid tibi Cicero virtutis eft, experire, populum facere fapientem: Digna res eft, ubi omnes eloquentiæ tuæ vires exeras. Non enim verendum eft, ne te in tam bona caufa deficiat oratio; qui fæpe etiam malas copiofe, ac fortiter defendifti. Sed nimirum

pra

AND the first Advice in the best of their Etical Catechifms is, to worship the Gods in the firft Place, but then it is, according to the manner it is establish'd by Law, i. e. of the City, or Country where you are; which, by the way, vied with one another in bringing the most Abfurdity, Obfcenity, and Profanation, into the Worship of their refpective Gods; fometimes one God being in favour with them, and fometimes another. So great a Corruption and Infatuation does Idolatry fuperinduce upon human Reason, where it is receiv'd, that to this Day, the politeft Part of the Heathen World, the Chinese and Japonese, are rather, according to the Account of Travellers, more guilty of the Exceffes and Abfurdities of it, than the groffer and more ignorant Parts; as if it was a standing Maxim, the more Fools they made their Gods, the wiser were the Worshippers.

No Wonder therefore, fince all manner of Encouragement was given to the Corruption of nimirum Socratis carcerem times; ideoque patrocinium veritatis fufcipere non audes. At mortem, ut fapiens, contemnere debuifti. Et erat quidem multo pulchrius, ut ob bene potius dicta, quam ob maledicta morereris: Nec tibi laudis plus Philippiæ afferre potuerunt, quam difcuffus error humani generis, & mentis hominum ad fanctitatem tua difputatione revocatæ. Sed concedamus timiditati; quæ in fapiente non debet. Quid ergo ipfe in eodem verfaris errore; Video te terrena, & manufacta venerari; vana effe intelligis; & tamen eadem facit, quæ faciunt ipfi, quos ipfe ftultiffimos confiteris. Quid igitur profuit, vidiffe fe veritatem, quam nec defenfurus effet, nec fecuturus? The Reader will excufe fo much about Cicero, if it is confidered our Author makes him not only the Model of his Opinions, but the Pattern of his Writing, by Way of Dialogue, against the prevailing Abfurdities and Superftition of his Countrymen. See his Preface.

* Νόμῳ ὡς διάκεινται, Τίμα. Pythag.

Worship,

CHAP
III.