that these and other things which were generally received, were probably owing to an ancient tradition derived from Noah: or they might be a part of the traditions derived to Noah from the antediluvian patriarchs, and which were originally communicated, by divine revelation, to the first father of mankind.

The latter Greeks, who had a high opinion of their own wisdom, were loath to own, that they derived any part of their knowledge from the Barbarians, as they called all other nations but themselves. Diogenes Laërtius blames those who presumed to say, that philosophy had its rise among the barbarians, and affirms, that they ignorantly applied to the barbarians what the Greeks themselves had rightly done and invented. His prejudice in favour of the Greeks carries him so far as to say, that from them not only philosophy, but the human race, had its original. Laërt. in Prooem. Segm. 3. And yet it is a thing certain, and universally acknowledged, and which appears from his own accounts, that the most celebrated among the ancient philosophers travelled into the eastern countries, Chaldea, Phoenicia, Egypt, Persia, and some of them as far as India, to converse with the wise men of those nations for their improvement in knowledge. A long catalogue is given by Diodorus Siculus of those of them that travelled into Egypt, who had it from the Egyptian priests. Plato, in his Epinomis, acknowledges that the Greeks learned many things from the barbarians, though he asserts that they improved what they thus borrowed, and made it better, especially in what related to the worship of the gods.* That

held, from the most ancient times, and still hold, that the world shall be destroyed by fire. See Burnet's Telluris Theor. Sacr. 1. iii. cap. 2. and his Archæol. 1. ii. Appendix. This tradition, like many others, was altered and corrupted, especially by those who, like the Stoics, supposed periodical conflagrations and renovations of the world; and some of them carried it so far as to maintain, that after such conflagrations, the whole series both of persons and things should be restored exactly in the same condition it was in before, and the same actions done over again. Orig, cont. Cels. 1. v. p. 245.

* Plat. Oper. p. 703. Edit. Ficin. Lugd. 1590.

great philosopher himself spent several years in Egypt among the Egyptian priests, as Pythagoras, of whom he was a great admirer, had done before. And it has been often observed, that there are many things in his writings which he learned in the East; and that from thence he seems to have borrowed some of his sublimest notions, though he probably embellished, and added to them by the force of his own genius. There are several passages in his works, in which he represents theological truths, as having been derived, not merely from the reasonings of philosophers, but from ancient and venerable traditions, which were looked upon as of divine original, though he sometimes intimates that they were mixed with fables. Eusebius, and others of the fathers contend, that all the knowledge of divine things among the Greeks came originally from the Hebrews. But this seems to be carrying it too far. Some of those things may well be supposed to have been the remains of ancient tradition, derived not merely from the Hebrews, or the Mosaic and prophetical writings, but from the patriarchal ages; some vestiges of which continued, for a long time, especially among the eastern nations.

The several considerations which have been mentioned, make it highly probable that religion first entered into the world by divine revelation: that it was not merely the result of men's own unassisted reason, or the effect of learning and philosophy, which had made little progress in those early ages: but owed its original to a revelation communicated from God to the first parents of the human race. From them it was delivered down by tradition to their descendants: though, in process of time, it became greatly obscured, and corrupted with impure mixtures.

CHAP. II.

The first religion of mankind was not idolatry, but the knowledge and worship of the one true God. Some vestiges of which may be traced up to the most ancient times. A tradition of the creation of the world continued long among the nations. The notion of one supreme God was never entirely extinguished in the Pagan world; but his true worship was in a great measure lost and confounded amidst a multiplicity of idol deities.

FROM the account which hath been given in the preceding chapter, it may be fairly concluded, that not idolatry, but the worship of the one true God, was the first religion of mankind. But this deserves to be more distinctly considered, as it is what some are not willing to allow. Mr. Hume, in his Dissertation on the Natural History of Religion, having endeavoured to show that the first men were not qualified to find out the existence and perfections of God, the sole Creator of the universe, by reasoning from the works of nature, draws this conclusion from it, that Theism was not the first religion of the human race. "If," says he, "we consider the improve❝ments of human society, from rude beginnings to a state of "greater perfection, polytheism and idolatry was, and neces"sarily must have been, the first and most ancient religion of "mankind." p. 4. And again he pronounces it" impossible "that Theism could, from reasoning, have been the primary "religion of the human race."* Ibid. p. 9. But his argument does not prove that Theism, or the acknowledgment and worship of one God, was not the religion of the first ages; it only shows that it was not the mere result of their own reasonings: and therefore if it obtained among them, it must have been owing to a divine revelation originally communicated to the first men. And this was the case in fact. He supposes, in the passage above quoted from him, to which others might be added, that it was impossible that men, in the

* Lord Bolingbroke is of the same opinion. See his Works, vol. III. p. 256, 260.

first ages of the world, should, if left to themselves in the circumstances they were in, bave any other religion than idolatry; and he asserts, that they were left to themselves accordingly, and therefore were necessarily idolaters. But I can hardly conceive a greater absurdity, than to imagine that a wise and good God, the parent of mankind, should place them in such circumstances at their first formation, and for many ages afterwards, that they must unavoidably either have no religion at all, or a false one; so that it was absolutely impossible for them not to be idolaters and polytheists. This seems to me to cast the most unworthy reflections on divine providence. It is far more rational to suppose that, through the divine goodness, the first parents and ancestors of the human race had a knowledge of religion in its main fundamental principles, communicated to them from God himself, at their first coming into the world, to put them into an immediate capacity of knowing and adoring their Maker. For in this case, if they, or their descendants afterwards, fell into polytheism and idolatry, it was their own fault; wholly owing to themselves, and not chargeable on divine providence; since there was an original revelation granted them, which they had it in their power, and were under the strongest obligations to transmit pure to their posterity.* But the supposing mankind at their first

The account which Mr. Hume himself gives of the origin of religion among mankind is very extraordinary. He acknowledgeth that "there is a consent of "mankind, almost universal, in the belief that there is an invisible intelligent "power in the world." But he gives no sufficient account, how there came to be such a general consent of mankind in this belief. He never takes the least notice of a divine revelation as having given rise to it: nor will he allow that the first ideas of religion arose from the contemplation of the works of nature, for which he thinks the first men, in the circumstances they were in, were by no means qualified. Whence then doth he suppose the first notions of religion to have proceeded? It is "from men's examining into the various and contrary events of "human life, and in this disorderly scene, with eyes still more disordered and as. "tonished, they see the first obscure traces of divinity." Dissert. on the Nat. Hist. of Religion, p. 13, 14, 15. A goodly account this of the first original of the idea of God and religion among mankind! It is true, that when men have once formed a notion of invisible intelligent powers, they might be apt to attribute to

formation to have been constituted in such circumstances,

that it was impossible for them to know and worship the one true God, the Maker and Lord of the universe: that is, to fulfil the principal end of their being; and that idolatry and polytheism was the necessary result of the state they were at first placed and long continued in; this is laying the blame of their false religion and polytheism, not upon themselves, but upon God, and making him the proper author of it. The hypothesis, therefore, that polytheism and idolatry was not the first original religion of mankind, but only the corruption of it, is far more agreeable to reason, and more consistent with the best notions we can form of the wisdom and goodness of divine Providence.

And this, which is most agreeable to reason, is also most conformable to the best accounts which are given us of the ancient state of mankind. Mr. Hume, indeed, appeals to fact, that "all mankind, a very few excepted, were idolaters from the "beginning, and continued so till 1700 years ago; and that "the farther we mount up into antiquity, the more we find "mankind plunged into idolatry: no marks or symptoms of a "more perfect religion." But if by idolatry he means, which seems to be what he intends by it, that mankind, from the beginning of the world, were absolutely without any knowledge or notion of the one supreme God, his assertion is not true.

such powers, those events which 'they could not otherwise account for. But the mere consideration of the fortuitous accidents, as he calls them, of human life, and which they might be apt to attribute to chance, could not give them the first notion of superior invisible power; nor doth it at all account for this notion's having been almost universal among mankind, as he owns it to bave been. According to his scheme, Elves and Fairies, to which he compareth the heathen deities, must have been the first gods of the human race. Whereas it appeareth from the best accounts of the most ancient times, that the worship of the one true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, was the first religion of mankind, and that the first idolatry, or deviation from the primitive religion, was the worship of heaven and the heavenly bodies; to which they were led by their admiration of them, and by considering their splendour, and influence on this lower world. Mr. Hume's account of the origin of religion among mankind is founded in his own imagination, without any authority or reason to support it.