nevolence; and to him they afcribe every good that happens. But as it is against his nature to do ill, they believe in fubordinate malevolent beings, like our devil, who occafion thunder, hurricanes, earthquakes, and who are the authors of death, diseases, and of every misfortune. Το thefe devils, termed in their language Yowaboos, they direct every fupplication, in order to avert their malevolence; while the fupreme Deity is entirely neglected: fo much more powerful among favages, is fear than gratitude. The North-American favages have all of them a notion of. a fupreme Deity, creator and governor of the world; and of inferior deities, fome good, fome ill. These are fuppofed to have bodies, and to live much as men do, but without being fubjected to any diftrefs. The fame creed prevails among the negroes of Benin and Congo, among the people of New Zeland, among the inhabitants of Java, of Madagascar, of the Molucca iflands, and of the Caribbee iflands. The Chingulefe, a tribe in the ifland of Ceylon, acknowledge one God creator of the univerfe, with fubordinate deities who act as his deputies: agriculFf2 ture ture is the peculiar province of one, navigation of another. The creed of the Tonquinefe is nearly the fame. The inhabitants of Otaheite, termed King George's island, believe in one fupreme Deity; and in inferior deities without end, who prefide over particular parts of the creation. They pay no adoration to the fupreme Deity, thinking him too far elevated above his creatures to concern himself with what they do. They believe the stars to be children of the fun and moon, and an eclipfe to be the time of copulation. According to Arnobius, certain Roman deities prefided over the various operations of men. Venus prefided over carnal copulation; Puta affifted at pruning trees; and Peta in requesting benefits; Nemeftrinus was god of the woods, Nodutus ripened corn, and Terenfis helped to thresh it; Vibilia affifted travellers; orphans were under the care of Orbona, and dying perfons, of Nænia; Offilago hardened the bones of infants; and Mellonia protected bees, and bestow'd sweetness on their honey. The inhabitants of the island of Formofa recognise two fupreme deities in company; the one a male, god of the men, the the other a female, goddess of the women. The bulk of their inferior deities are the fouls of upright men, who are constantly doing good, and the fouls of wicked men who are constantly doing ill. The inland negroes acknowledge one fupreme being, creator of all things; attributing to him infinite power, infinite knowledge, and ubiquity. They believe that the dead are converted into fpirits, termed by them Iananini, or protectors, being appointed to guard their parents and relations. The ancient Goths and feveral other northern nations, acknowledged one fupreme being; and at the fame time worshipped three fubordinate deities; Thor, reputed the fame with Jupiter; Oden, or Woden, the fame with Mars; and Friga, the fame with Venus *. Socrates taking the cup of poifon from the executioner, held it up toward heaven, and pouring out fome of it as an oblation to the fupreme Deity, pronounced the following prayer: “I im * Regnator omnium Deus, cætera fubjecta atque parentia; Tacitus de moribus Germanorum, cap. 39. [In English thus: "One God the ruler of all; the "reft inferior and fubordinate."] "plore "plore the immortal God that my tranf "lation hence may be happy.” Then turning to Crito, faid, "O Crito! I owe a cock to Efculapius, pay it." From this incident we find that Socrates, foaring above his countrymen, had attained to the belief of a fupreme benevolent Deity. But in that dark age of religion, fuch purity is not to be expected from Socrates himself, as to have rejected fubordinate deities, even of the mercenary kind. Different offices being affigned to the gods, as above mentioned, proper names followed of courfe. And when a god was afcertained by a name, the busy mind would naturally proceed to trace his ge nealogy. As unity in the Deity was not an establifhed doctrine in the countries where the Christian religion was firft promulgated, Christianity could not fail to prevail over Paganifm; for improvements in the mental faculties lead by fure steps, tho' flow, to one God. The fifth ftage is, the belief of one fupreme benevolent Deity, as in that immediately foregoing, with many inferior benevolent deities, and one only who is malevolent. malevolent. As men improve in natural knowledge and become skilful in tracing causes from effects, they find much less malice and ill-defign than was imagined: humanity at last prevails, which with improved knowledge banish the fufpicion of ill-design, in every cafe where an event can be explained without it. In a word, a fettled opinion of good prevailing in the world, produced conviction among fome nations, lefs ignorant than their neighbours and lefs brutal, that there is but one malevolent fubordinate deity, and good fubordinate deities without number. The ancient Perfians acknowledged two principles; one all good and all powerful, named Hormuz, and by the Greeks corruptly Oromazes; the other evil, named Ahariman, and by the Greeks Arimanes. Some authors affert, that the Perfians held these two principles to be co-eternal: others that Oromazes firft fubfifted alone, that he created both light and darkness, and that he created Arimanes out of darknefs. That the latter was the opinion of the ancient Perfians, appears from their Bible, termed the Sadder; which teaches, That there is one God fupreme over all, many |