the flightest resemblances have on the ignorant. Becaufe purification, in feveral languages, is a term applicable to the mind

talleft and ftouteft men that can be found in all "England, were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets "and two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half σε an hour together. At the end of this ceremonial "a number of unmarried ladies appeared, who, "with particular folemnity, lifted the meat off the "table, and conveyed it into the Queen's inner and

more private chamber, where, after he had "chofen for herfelf, the reft goes to the ladies of "the court." Forms were greatly regarded among the old Romans, dreffes appropriated to different ranks; lictors, axes, bundles of rods, and other ènfigns of power; military merit rewarded with triumphs, ovations, crowns of gold, of leaves, &c. &c. Such appearances ftrike the multitude with refpect and awe: they are indeed defpifed by men of plain fenfe; but they regain their credit with philofophers. Exceffive courage, the exertion of which is vifible, was the heroism of the laft age: "I fhall

never efteem a king," faid the great Guftavus Adolphus," who in battle does not expofe himself "like a private man." By acutenefs of judgement and refinement of tafte, we cling to the fubftance and difregard forms and ceremonies. External fhow, however, continues to prevail in many inftances. A young man is apt to be captivated with beauty or drefs: a young woman, with equipage or a title. And hence, many an ill-forted match.

VOL. IV.

U u

mind

dio bas day

mind as well as to the body, fhallow

thinkers, mifled by the double meaning,

imagine that the mind, like the body,

purified by water.

is

The fect of Ali ufe the Alcoran tranflated into the Perfian language, which is their native tongue. The fect of Omar efteem this to be a grofs impiety; being perfuaded, that the Alcoran was written in Arabic, by the Angel Gabriel, at the command of God himfelf. The Roman Catholics are not then the only people who profess to speak nonfenfe to God Almighty; or, which is the fame, who profefs to pray in an unknown tongue.

At meals, the ancients poured out some wine as a libation to the gods: Chriftians pronounce a fhort prayer, termed termed a grace.

ad

The grofs notion of Deity entertained by the ancients, is exemplified in their worshipping and facrificing on high places; in order, as they thought, to be more within fight. Jupiter in Homer praifes Hector for facrificing to him frequently upon the top of Ida; and Strabo obferves, that the Perfians, who ufed neither images nor altars, facrificed to the gods in high places. Balak carried Balaam the prophet

to

to the top of Pifgah and other mountains, to facrifice there, and to curfe Ifrael. The votaries of Baal always worfhipped in high places. Even the fage Tacitus was infected with that abfurdity. Speaking of certain high mountains where the gods were worthipped, he expreffes himself thus: Maxime cælo appropinquare, precefque mortalium a Deo nufquam propius audiri

Ceremonies that tend to unhinge morality, belong more properly to the following fection, treating of the connection between religion and morality.

It is now full time to take under confideration an objection to the fenfe of Deity hinted above, arguing from the grofs conceptions of deity among many nations, that this fenfe cannot be innate. The objection is not indeed directly ftated in the following paffage, borrowed from a justlycelebrated author; but as it perhaps may be implied, the paffage fhall be fairly tranfcribed. "The univerfal propenfity to believe invifible intelligent power, being a general attendant on human

29 As approaching nearer to heaven, the prayrigters of mortals are there more diftinctly heard,” dadgong bdt miss u 2 roxali “.nature,

' nature, if not an original instinct, may

be confidered as a kind of stamp which "the Deity has fet upon his work; and

nothing furely can more dignify mankind, than to be the only earthly being "who bears the ftamp or image of the u niversal Creator. But confult this i

* I

mage as it commonly is in popular religions: how is the Deity disfigured! "what caprice, abfurdity, and immora

* *

lity, are attributed to him (a)!" A fa tisfactory anfwer to the objection implied in this paffage, will occur, upon recollecting the progrefs of men and nations, from infancy to maturity. Our external fenfes, neceffary for felf-prefervation, foon arrive at perfection: the more refined fenfes of propriety, of right and wrong, of Deity, of being accountable creatures, and many others of the fame kind, are of flower growth: the fense of right; and wrong in particular and the fenfe of Deity, feldom reach perfection but by good education and much study. If fuch be the cafe among enlightened nations, what is to be expected from favages who are in the lowest stage of understanding?

(a) Natural Hiftory of Religion.

To

To a favage of New Holland, whose fenfe of deity is extremely obscure, one may talk without end of a being who created the world, and who governs it by wife laws; but in vain, for the favage will be never the wifer. The fame favage hath also a glimmering of the moral fenfe, as all men have; and yet in vain will you difcourfe to him of approbation and difapprobation, of merit and demerit: of thefe terms he has no clear conception. Hence the endless aberrations of rude and barbarous nations, from pure religion as well as from pure morality. Of the latter, there are many instances collected in the preceding tract; and of the former, still more in the prefent tract. The fenfe of deity in dark times has indeed been strangely distorted, by certain biaffes and paffions that enflave the rude and illiterate: but thefe yield gradually to the rational faculty as it ripens, and at last leave religionfree to found philofophy. Then it is, that men, liftening to the innate fenfe of deity purified from every bias, acquire a clear conviction of one fupreme Deity who made and governs the world.

The