THE

DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES

DEMONSTRATED.

BOOK III.

SECT. I.

In the beginning of the last book, I entered upon the proof of my second proposition; namely, THAT ALL ANTIQUITY WAS UNANIMOUS IN

THINKING THAT THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS WAS NECESSARY TO THE WELL-BEING OF SOCIETY: and the method I laid down for it, was, 1. To show the conduct of legislators, and the founders of civil policy. 2. The opinions of the wisest and most learned of the ancient sages.

The CONDUCT OF THE LEGISLATORS hath been fully examined in the last book.

II. THE OPINION OF THE ANCIENT SAGES, is the subject of the present. THEY too, as well as the lawgivers, were unanimous in this point, how discordant soever and at variance amongst themselves, in other matters. Whatever system of policy the historian favoured; whatever theory of nature the philosopher espoused; THIS always remained an unquestionable principle. The favourer of arbitrary power deemed it the strongest bond of blind obedience; and the friend of civil liberty, the largest source of virtue and a public spirit. The atheist, from the vastness of its social use, concluded religion to be but an invention of state; and the theist, from that confessed utility, laboured to prove it of divine original.

To give the reader a detail of the discourses, where this truth is owned and supported, would be to transcribe antiquity: for, with this begins and ends every thing they teach and explain of morals, government, human nature, and civil policy. I shall therefore content myself with two or three passages, as a specimen only, of the general voice of ancient wisdom.

Timæus the Locrian, a very early Pythagorean, well practised in affairs, and, in Plato's opinion, of consummate knowledge in philosophy, discoursing on the remedies to moral evil, after having spoken of the use of philosophy to lead well-tempered minds to happiness, by teaching the measures of just and unjust; adds, that, for intractable spirits civil society was invented; which keeps men in fear by the coercions of law and religion: "But if we come," says he, "to a perverse ungovernable disposition, there, punishments should be applied; both those which civil laws inflict, and those which the terrors of religion denounce against the wicked from above and from below: as, that ENDLESS PUNISHMENTS attend the remains of unhappy men; and all those torments, which I highly applaud the Ionic poet for recording from ancient tradition, in order to cleanse and purify the mind from vice."*

That sage historian, Polybius (whose knowledge of mankind and civil government was so celebrated, that Rome preferred him to the august employment of composing laws for Greece, now become a province to the republic) speaking of the excellence of the Roman constitution, expresseth himself in this manner: "But the superior excellence of this policy, above others, manifests itself, in my opinion, chiefly in the religious notions the Romans hold concerning the gods: that thing, which in other places is turned to abuse, being the very support of the Roman affairs; I mean THE FEAR OF THE GODS, or what the Greeks call superstition; which is come to such a height, both in its influence on particulars, and on the public, as cannot be exceeded. This, which many may think unaccountable, seems plainly to have been contrived for the sake of the community. If, indeed, one were to frame a civil policy only for wise men, it is possible this kind of institution might not be necessary. But since the multitude is ever fickle and capricious, full of lawless passions, and irrational and violent resentments, there is no way left to keep them in order, but by the terrors of FUTURE PUNISHMENT, and all the pompous circumstance that attends such kind of fictions. On which account the ancients acted, in my opinion, with great judgment and penetration, when they contrived to bring in these notions of the gods, and of a FUTURE STATE, into the popular belief; and the present age as inconsiderately, and absurdly, in removing them, and encouraging the multitude to despise their terrors. For see now the consequence: in Greece, the man who is entrusted with the public money (to pass by other matters) though it be but of a single talent, and though he give a

- Εἰ δὲ κά τις σκλαρὸς καὶ ἀπειθής, τούτῳ δ ̓ ἐπέσθω κόλασις, ἅ τ' ἐκ τῶν νόμων καὶ ὁ ἐκ τῶν λόγων σύντονα ἐπάγουσα δείματά τε ἐπωμάνια καὶ τὰ καθ' ᾅδεω, ὅτι κολάσεις ἀπαραίτητο ἀπόκεινται δυσδαίμοσι νερτέροις· καὶ τἄλλα ὅσα ἐπαινέω τὸν Ἰωνικὸν ποιητὰν, ἐκ παλαιᾶς ποιοῦντα Tàs ivayias, wigi Yuxãs xóoμy.—Timæus, p. 23, in Opusculis Myth. Eth. et Physicis, Cantabr. 1671, 8vo.

tenfold security in the most authentic form, and before twice the number of witnesses which the law requires, cannot be brought to discharge his engagements; while, amongst the Romans, the mere RELIGION OF AN OATH keeps those, who have vast sums of money passing through their hands, either in the public administration or in foreign legations, from the least violation of their trust, or honour. And whereas, in other places, it is rare to find a man, who can keep his hands clean, or forbear plundering his country; in Rome it is as rare to take any one offending in this kind. That every thing which exists is subject to mutation and decay, we need not be told; the unalterable nature of things sufficiently informs us of this truth. But there being two ways, whereby every kind of policy is ruined and dissolved; the one from WITHOUT, and the other from WITHIN; that destruction, which cometh from without, cannot be constantly avoided by any human provision: but then, there are known and efficacious remedies for those evils which arise from within."*

Polybius says literally, There are two ways by which a state is brought to dissolution, from without and from within: that from without is uncertain and little known; that from within is known and certain. By which words he must mean what I make him to say, as appears by what he immediately subjoins, where he shows how the power of the great, when degenerated into tyranny, may be checked by the people: whose opposition to power produces, as it happens to be well or ill managed, either the best or worst form of government, a democracy or ochlocracy.

μου

This long passage deserves our attention, and for many reasons. Polybius was a Greek, and, as all good men are, a tender lover of his Μεγίστην δὲ μοι δοκεῖ διαφορὰν ἔχειν τὸ Ῥωμαίων πολίτευμα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον, ἐν τῇ περὶ θεῶν διαλήψει. Και δοκεῖ τὸ παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις ὀνειδιζόμενον, τοῦτο συνέχειν τὰ Ρωμαίων πράγματα· λέγω δὲ τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν· ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἐκτετραγώδηται καὶ παρειστ ἥκται τοῦτο τὸ μέρος παρ' αὐτοῖς εἴς τε τοὺς κατ' ἰδίαν βίους καὶ τὰ κοινὰ τῆς πόλεως, ὥστε μὴ καταλιπεῖν ὑπερβολήν· ὃ καὶ δόξειεν ἂν πολλοῖς εἶναι θαυμάσιον· ἐμοί γε μὴν δοκοῦσι τοῦ πλήθους χάριν τοῦτο πεποιηκέναι. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν σοφῶν ἀνδρῶν πολίτευμα συναγαγεῖν, ἴσως οὐδὲν ἦν ἀναγκαῖος ὁ τοιοῦτος τρόπος· ἐπεὶ δὲ πᾶν πλῆθός ἐστι ἐλαφρὸν καὶ πλῆρες ἐπιθυμιῶν παρανόμων, ὀργῆς ἀλόγου, θυμοῦ βιαίου, λείπεται τοῖς ἀδήλοις φόβοις, καὶ τῇ τοιαύτη τραγωδίᾳ τὰ πλήθη συνέχειν. Διόπερ οἱ παλαιοὶ δοκοῦσί μοι τὰς περὶ θεῶν ἐννοίας, καὶ τὰς περὶ τῶν ἐν ᾅδου διαλήψεις οὐκ εἰκῇ καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν εἰς τὰ πλήθη παρεισαγαγεῖν πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον οἱ νῦν εἰκῇ καὶ ἀλόγως ἐκβάλλειν αὐτά. Τοιγαροῦν χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων, οἱ τὰ κοινὰ χειρίζοντες, παρὰ μὲν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, ἐὰν τάλαντον μόνον πιστευθῶσιν, ἀντιγραφεῖς ἔχοντες δέκα, καὶ σφραγίδας τοσαύτας, καὶ μάρ τυρας διπλασίους, οὐ δύνανται τηρεῖν τὴν πίστιν παρὰ δὲ Ῥωμαίοις οἱ κατά τε τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς πρεσβείας πολύ τι πλῆθος χρημάτων χειρίζοντες δι' αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὸν ὅρκον πίστεως, τηροῦσι τὸ καθῆκον. Καὶ παρὰ μὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις σπάνιόν ἐστιν εὑρεῖν ἀπεχόμενον ἄνδρα τῶν δημοσίων, καὶ καθαρεύοντα περὶ ταῦτα· παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις σπάνιον ἐστι τὸ λαβεῖν τινα περωραμένον ἐπὶ τοιαύτη πράξει. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν ὑπόχειται φθορὰ καὶ μεταβολὴ, σχεδὸν οὐ προσδεῖ λόγου ἱκανὴ γὰρ ἡ τῆς φύσεως ἀνάγκη παραστῆσαι τὴν τοιαύτην πίστιν· δυοῖν δὲ τρόπων ὄντων καθ' οὓς φθς ρεσθαι πέφυκε πᾶν γένος πολιτείας, τοῦ μὲν ἔξωθεν, τοῦ δὲ ἐν αὐτοῖς φυομένου· τὸ μὲν ἐκτὸς ἄστατον ἔχειν συμβαίνει τὴν θεωρίαν· τὰ δ' ἐξ αὐτῶν τεταγμένην, E Polyb. Historiarum, lib. vi. cap. 54, 55.

country, whose ancient glory and virtue were then fast on the decline, and the Roman mounting to its meridian. The melancholy reflections, arising from this view of things, were always uppermost in his thoughts: so that speaking here of the great influence which religion had on the minds of the Romans, he could not forbear giving his countrymen a lesson, and instructing them in what he esteemed the principal cause of their approaching ruin; namely, a certain libertinism, which had spread amongst the PEOPLE OF CONDITION, who, ashamed of the simplicity of their ancestors, and despising the ignorance of the people, affected a superior penetration, which brought them to regard, and preposterously to teach others to regard, the restraints of religion as illusory and unmanly. This he confirms by showing the strong influence religion hath on the morals of men. But to understand what follows, of the two ways by which a state comes to ruin, from without and from within, which seems to be brought in a little abruptly, we must suppose, that those, to whom the historian addresses himself, had objected; that it was not a want of piety amongst themselves, but the force of the Roman arms without, which had broken the power of Greece; and that this disaster they were patiently to submit to, because all empires have their stated periods. Let us suppose this, and the political reflection on the fall of states will have a high propriety, and close connexion with what preceded. It is to this effect: "I agree with you, says Polybius, that evils, coming suddenly on a state from without, cannot be easily warded; but then, those arising from within, as they are commonly foreseen, have their remedies at hand. Now I take our misfortunes to have proceeded from these: for had not a neglect of religion depraved the manners of the Greeks, Rome had wanted both pretence and inclination to invade us, and Greece would have continued able to support its own sovereignty: therefore your trite aphorism of the mutability of human things is here altogether misapplied."

But had this great man lived only one age later, he would have found large occasion of addressing this very admonition to the Romans themselves; when the same libertine spirit foreran and contributed to the destruction of their republic; and religion had so lost its hold of those, whom, in the time of Polybius, it so entirely possessed, that Cæsar could dare, in full senate, with a degree of licence unexampled in antiquity, to declare, that the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments was all a groundless notion. This was a dreadful prognostic of their approaching ruin.

If this great politician then may deserve credit, it would be worth while for our people of condition to look about them, and compute their gains by such a conduct: those of them I mean, if any such there be, who profess to love their country, and yet as publicly despise the religion of

it. One of them, who did both in an eminent degree, and who would substitute a TASTE, instead of a future state, for the government of the world, thus expresseth himself: "Even conscience, I fear, such as is owing to religious discipline, will make but a slight figure, where this TASTE is set amiss. Amongst the vulgar perhaps it may do wonders; a devil and a hell may prevail, where a jail and a gallows are thought insufficient. But such is the nature of the liberal, polished, and refined part of mankind; so far are they from the mere simplicity of babes and sucklings, that, instead of applying the notion of a future reward or punishment to their immediate behaviour in society, they are apt much rather, through the whole course of their lives, to show evidently that they look on the pious narrations to be indeed no better than children's tales and the amusement of the mere vulgar."*

I will not now ask; where was the religion, but where was the civil prudence of this great patriot? For if it be indeed true, as he confesses, that amongst the vulgar a devil and a hell may prevail, where a jail and a gallows are thought insufficient; why would this lover of his country take off so necessary a restraint on the manners of the multitude? If he says he would not, I ask, why then hath he publicly ridiculed it? Or was it indeed his intention to make all his fellow-citizens MEN OF TASTE? He might as well have thought of making them all LORDS.†

So absurd and pernicious is the conduct of the freethinkers, even admitting them to be in the right. But if, instead of removing the rubbish of superstition, they be indeed subverting the grounds of true religion, what name must be given to this degree of madness and impiety?

On the whole, I fear we are in no right way. Whether in the public too we resemble the picture this sage historian hath drawn of degenerated Greece, I leave to such as are better skilled in those matters to determine.

The great geographer, whose knowledge of men and manners was as extensive as the habitable globe, speaks to the same purpose: "The multitude in society are allured to virtue by those enticing fables, which the poets tell of the illustrious achievements of ancient heroes, such as the labours of Hercules and Theseus; and the rewards conferred by the gods, for well-doing. So again, they are restrained from vice by the punishments, the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings which certain dreadful words and monstrous forms imprint upon their minds; or by believing that divine judgments have overtaken evil men. For it is impossible to govern women and the gross body of the people, and to keep them pious, holy, and virtuous, by the precepts of philosophy: this can be only done by the FEAR OF THE GODS; which is raised and supported by ancient fictions and modern prodigies. * Characteristics, vol. iii. p. 177, edit. 3. See note A, at the end of this book.

See note B, at the end of this book.