CHAP. Worship, that an univerfal Corruption of ManIII. ners was the Confequence of it. If the Fountain is impure and polluted, the Streams must be fo of Course. It was a cunning devised Apology, to impute the Weakness and Vices of human Nature to the adorable Gods, the better to juftify themselves in them; but who, that believ'd them to be fuch in reality, could arrive at being better themselves? If Lewdnefs was the common Ceremony of Worfhip, and Vice an intimate part of their Religion, it must be an Ornament, inftead of Difgrace to their Lives and Conversations, and fhew forth fo much the more of God and his Religion.

IN fhort, all the Worshippers might acquit, or rather applaud themselves in their Irregularities, from the fame Patronage of Jupiter, the Fellow makes ufe of in Terence; fo natural, and withal, facred is the Argument to all, who believe Imitation of the Deity a principal Part of Religion and Homage: If the Thunderer does fo and fo, why am not I, a little Fellow and his humble Votary, authoriz'd to do as he does ? If the fupreme Jupiter, who is, or ought to be, an Example to Gods and Men, fhews his Almightiness in rakish Frolicks and Debaucheries, why should not my Weakness be excused? Why should I pretend to be better than my Principles? Or think of exceeding the Principal of all the Gods, and Goddeffes in Modefty or Morality? No, but I will love and obey him in thofe Things, as far as I am able, with all my

* Quod fecit is qui Templa Cæli fumma fonitu concutit, Ege Homuncio hoc non facerem? Ego illud vero ita feci, ac lubens. And St. Auftin has rightly obferv'd, Magis intuentur quid Jupiter fecerit, quam quid docuerit, Plato, vel cenfuerit Cato. C. D. Lib. II.

Heart,

Heart, with all my Soul, with all my Strength. CHAR. If the Religion of the Means, Prayer and Wor- III. fhip, which fhould be the Cure, together with Repentance, for recovering Men to the Religion of the End, is become the Disease, and the Devil is the Director of Confcience, how languishing and deplorable must have been the Condition of Mankind? How could it be otherwife, but that the whole World must have lain in Wickededness at the coming of our Saviour?

WHO therefore came at the fittest Juncture of univerfal Peace in the World, (the Roman Empire alfo then having the wideft Spread of Dominion over the Earth, for the Convenience of propagating his Religion far and near; and then alfo were Arts and Sciences, and human Reason, at their higheft Improvements, the greatest Curiofity after Truth joining and spreading itfelf every where, for the better proving, fifting, and examining into this new Religion) and at the greatest need, to deftroy the Works of the Devil who had ufurp'd and reign'd, as God, over the Idolaters of this World; his Works of Idolatry and Superftition, to which he had enflav'd the Nations, were accordingly diffipated, and difappear'd before his Religion, as Darkness when the Light approaches. To the Glory of Christianity, it cleanfed away that Sink of Wickedness, and caft out the greatest the devoutest Hindrance of all Good, that worst Corruption of all Morals, in the first place; and then fhewed the more excellent Way, to repent of their Sins, and worship God in Spirit and Truth, the true Mediator Jefus Chrift, and taught them all other Righteoufpefs.

THEN

CHAP.

III.

THEN vanished Sacrifices, the Reason of them ceafing; and none remain'd acceptable to God, but the prefenting our Bodies, in Oppofition to the dead Works of Drunkenness, Fornication and Impurities which defecrated the Body, in the Heathen Worshiper, a living Sacrifice, boly, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable Service * ; placing the Service of the Body in the Reverse of what the Heathens thought Reafon, Duty, and Devotion; and the doing good and communicating 'to the Needs of others, which is well pleafing to him t. Then ceafed very many abominable Practices against the Law of Nature; and fober, righteous, godly Living, the End of the Gospel, flourished in great Plenty; and still flourishes, in Comparison of the Behaviour of those who were, or ftill are Strangers to the Gofpel of Chrift. Therefore,

THE Spite of our Author against Christianity, is equal to his Falfhood, in afferting the Lives of Chriftians no better, but rather worse than Pagans. He might have feen in a Book ( he ought not to be a Stranger to, as a Civilian, a long Catalogue of innumerable grofs Corruptions of the Law of Nature current in the World, which Christendom is free from. His Accufation is not only contrary to Matter of Fact, but to the Reason of Things. For fome may be worse than their Religion, and no Fault in their Religion neither, but in themselves, for Want of complying with its Directions. But how are any, how can ever any be capable of being better

Rom xii. 1. + Heb. xiii. 16. + Page 366. Puffend. of the Law of Nature, &c. pag. 126.

than

III

than their Religion? How bad that was, has CHAP. been fhewn. If the Principles of a Man are depraved, his Practice must be the fame, as confequently as an Effect follows a Caufe. It is inconfiftent moreover with a favourite Principle of our Author, "That Chriftianity is neither more "nor less than the Republication of the Law of "Nature:" If fo, then the Lives of Pagans and Christians must be the fame, being governed by the self-fame Law; and fo he equally acquits, or equally accufes both. But let the Comparifon be fairly erected between the Philofophers of one, and the Philofophers of the other; the middle Sort of one, with the like of the other;' the lower Vulgar of one, with their Peers of the other, and the Difference will foon appear.

ALL the three Degrees of the former were equally involved in, and defiled with Idolatry, of which all the other three, who conform to the Scriptures, are clear. Their Philofophers, who fhould have been the Reformers of the Age, being the natural Prophets and Teachers of it, not only connived at, but did what they could to promote, and against their Confcience too, all manner of Ungodliness, and recommend the grand Corruption, the generating Caufe of all other Corruption, falfe, impious, and abominable Notions, and Sentiments of their Gods; though from visible Effects, they knew God the first Caufe and Author of all Things, and, by the Light of Nature, knew him to be a Spirit, yet worshipp'd him not as fuch; but jumbled him with the Silver, Gold, or Stone they created him out of; they glorified bim not as God, but debafed and depofed him with filthy, beaftly, blafphemous Rites, by regularly conforming themfelves to the publick

2

Service

CHAP Service and Worship: And fo the Seeing led the III. Blind into the Ditch, and fell into it themselves. They were Hereticks with a Witness against God and his Religion, by doing what they did, felfcondemned. What they would not, that they did, and what they hated and laughed at, that did they; and not fo much from the Instigation of Bethly Appetites, as out of a mean Pufillanimity and fervile Fear, as great an Immorality and Reproach, as can be imputed to a Philofopher. For they boafted of Fortitude, as the Head of their cardinal Virtues, but would not bear the aching of a Finger for the Cause of God, and the Promotion of the Religion of Nature. It is a vulgar Error, that Socrates himself, though the beft of the Bunch, and the most extraordinary Perfon that ever lived among them, died a Martyr for the Belief of one only God, for he held many, at leaft, and his laft dying Order was a Sacrifice to Efculapius t.

BEHOLD the Happiness, or moral Virtues of the Stoicks, a bonum theatrale, to be seen of Men! having no Eye to, nor Intention of ferving God, with whom they equalled their wife Man, and therefore they had their Reward, in this Life,

See Cudworth's Intel. Syft. pag. 401.

† Befides his Apologift, Xenophon in his memorable Things, declares of him, "That he never gave any other Answer to "those who enquired of him in what manner they ought to "facrifice to the Gods, than that every one fhould obferve "the Cuftoms of his Country. Thus, in all Actions of Piety, "Socrates took particular Care to do nothing contrary to the "Custom of the Republick, and advised his Friends to make "that the Rule of their Devotion to the Gods, alledging it "to be an Argument of Superftition and Vanity, to diffent "from the establish'd Worship." And Epictetus, ch. xxxviii. gives the like Advice, κατά τα πάτρια.

fuch