tion of Christianity, changed this fate into the providence of the gods.

Other philofophers did not pretend that God, or the gods, had, in any fenfe, or in any refpect, the government of the world. According to Ariftotle, the Deity, if it can be faid that he believed in any proper deity, "is "eternally employed in the contemplation of "his own nature. He observes nothing (this philofopher fays), he cares for nothing be"yond himself. Refiding in the first sphere, "he poffeffes neither immensity nor omni"prefence. Removed from the inferior parts "of the univerfe, he is not even a spectator "of what is paffing among its inhabitants, "and therefore cannot be a proper object of "worship."

Epicurus, I have obferved, faid that there were gods, only to avoid popular odium. According to his own account of them, they were of no manner of ufe in creating or governing the world. "There are," he faid, "in the univerfe divine natures, but that it " is inconfiftent with our natural notions of "the gods, as happy and immortal beings, "to suppose that they incumber themselves "with the management of the world, or that

"they

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they are fubject to the cares and paffions "which muft neceffarily attend fo great a

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charge. We are not, therefore, to conceive "that the gods have any intercourse with "mankind, or any concern in the affairs of "the world." But, according to the fcriptures, every thing is conducted by the Supreme Being, without trouble. With respect to creation itself, it is faid, He fpake and it was done, he commanded and it flood faft. He faid, Let there be light, and there was light; and the government of the world is, no doubt, as eafy to him as the creation of it. It is, in fact, a continuation of the fame exertion, whatever that be. But no idea fo fublime as this was ever entertained by any heathen philofopher.

It was the confideration of the immenfity of the universe, and the idea men had of the multiplicity of cares that was neceffary to the government of it, that led thofe of the philofophers who fuppofed that the world was, in any fenfe, governed by fuperior Beings, to think it neceffary to provide a great number of them, each to fuperintend his particular province. They had no conception of the fublime, but truly rational doctrine of the fcriptures, according to which one intelligence,

gence, one mind, perfectly comprehends, and directs, the whole. And yet the uniformity we observe in the works of nature might have fuggefted the idea of one mind having arranged and directed the whole, immenfe as that whole is. But the amazing variety, and feeming difcordancy, of many parts of the system prevented their perceiving their uniformity; nor could Mofes, or any of the Hebrews, have been able to discover it of themselves.

6. Mention is made in the fcriptures of angels, as created beings, fuperior to man; but they are never fuppofed to interfere in the affairs of men, except on particular occafions, and by the exprefs appointment of the Supreme Being, never by their own voluntary agency. They are employed merely as mesSengers (for fo their name in the Hebrew fignifies) to convey the orders of the Almighty. But, according to the system of all the philofophers, as well as that of the vulgar, among the heathens, there are beings inferior to the Supreme, who, at their own pleasure, interfere in the affairs of men, and act according to their peculiar humours and paffions.

Among the Egyptians the idea of one fupreme God was, from the earlieft times, con

nected

nected with the belief of inferior divinities, refiding in the various parts of nature, whence arofe the worship of thofe parts of nature. According to the mythology of the Greeks, those inferior deities fprung from chaos. Pythagoras fuppofed the region of the air to be peopled with thefe beings, whom he calls gods, deand heroes, according to their rank, these last approaching the nearest to the nature of man; Thefe," he faid, " at their

mons,

pleasure, by means of dreams and other in"ftruments of divination, communicate to "men the knowledge of future events, and "the good demons are to be invoked by "prayer." Socrates admitted the existence of beings " poffeffed of a middle nature be"tween the Supreme Being and man; and to "their agency he afcribed the ordinary phe

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nomena of nature, and the particular con"duct of human affairs; and he encouraged "the practice of divination, under the notion "that the gods fometimes discover future ❝events to good men."

Plato fuppofed that there were "fubordi"nate divinities appointed by the Supreme

Being, both to form the bodies of animals, "and to fuperintend the affairs of the vifible "world." Xenocrates, a difciple of Plato, taught

8

taught that "the heavens are divine, and the "stars celeftial gods, and that besides these "divinities there are terreftrial demons, of a *middle nature between God and man, and

partaking of both mind and body, like human beings, capable of paffion, and liable "to a diverfity of character."

Ariftotle, who believed in no particular providence, yet fuppofed that there were "intelligent natures inferior to the first mo66 ver, who prefided over the lower celestial spheres."

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Though Democritus rejected the doctrine of a Supreme Deity, he admitted the popular belief of divinities inhabiting the aerial regions, faying that "they made themselves "visible to favoured mortals, and enabled "them to foretel future events." He faid, "they were in form like men, but of a larger fize, and a fuperior nature; being "compofed of the moft fubtle atoms, and "less liable to diffolution than human beings,

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but nevertheless mortal." According to the Stoics, "portions of the ethereal foul "of the world, being diftributed through all "the parts of the universe, and animating "all bodies, there are inferior gods and de

60 mons,