so whilst an Eternal Existence or Being seems too hard to be believed of God the same Difficulty must be believed of no God For if there were not an Omnipotent and an Eternal Power by which all things are made and disposed it follows necessarily that all things must have been without a Beginning so that such a One must believe the World to be what he cannot believe God is And while he doubts of a Creator of all things he must believe all things created themselves or were Eternal and Infinite without a Creation the former of which is to imagine not one God but many the other supposes that Absurdity in Philosophy Ex Nihilo Aliquid or Effects without not only a Competent but any Cause Or if he imagins a thing called Nature the Cause of all things he acknowledges a God only under a borrowed name for whatever was without a Beginning the Cause and the Disposer of all things is that Infinite Power and Wisdom Hermes being ask'd what God was answered well the Maker of all things an Eternal and most Wise Mind Diogenes calls him the Soul of the World Plato says God is a Mind the Cause and Orderer of all things and Seneca that he is Mens Vniversi When Labienus desired Cato to consult the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon in their present hard Condition Cato answered from a Breast more truly Inspired than any Oracle those Priests could give by a Divine Way of Questioning What was the Throne and Seat of God but the Earth the Sea the Air and Virtue What farther Inquiry therefore saith he ought to be made when God is whatever is seen or moves or has a Being Thus all several Names Titles and Appellations must determine in an Infinite Power which is the Life and Disposer of them nor has any Person entertained a settl'd Opinion that things disposed themselves or that they gave themselves their own Life and Being or that they were without a Beginning as now they are without being the Effects of an Infinite Cause The World in general was ever so far from believing no God that they were prone to believe many Gods and from the Infancy of it that Opinion grew and increas'd with it An Opinion much cherish'd by Priests in all Ages because their Dominion Power and Riches encreased of Course and in the Nature of the Thing by the Multiplication of Divinities or Objects of Adoration and Worship and it seems indeed impossible that without some Direction and Design such various and phantastic Divinities and Opinions about them should enter into the Minds of Men more ready for Impression than Invention and having once made an implicit Resignation of their Sense and Reason they follow with even a zealous Submission those to whom they have resigned Upon this Foundation Priests raised themselves to Veneration and to an Equality with Princes mingling their Divine Interest with Earthly Ambition and Kings themselves thought it an Addition to their Titles to assume the Name of Priests In Suetonius you may see with the Titles of Roman Emperours that of Priest joined Among the Egyptians the Priests were next in Dignity to the Kings and of Counsel to 'em in all Business of importance from among them he was chosen or if out of the Souldiery he was forthwith invested in the High-Priesthood and instructed by the Priests in their Mysteries and Philosophy which were delivered under the cover of Fables and Aenigmatical Expressions And as I design in this Discourse to shew how the Priest-craft and Power have been continued to this time by the same and like Methods and Practices so I shall begin with taking notice of their continuing in that Ambition Dignity and Power which is so evidently practised and shown in the Church of Rome The Pope the High-Priest there has exceeded all his Priestly Predecessors in pretending a Power above all Princes even to the devesting them at his Pleasure of their Authority and Power over their own Subjects This Paramount Soveraignty was derived from Infallibility in virtue of both 't was easy for him to require Men to believe whatever was any way his Interest to invent taking his Pattern from the Heathen Priests as well in their Methods and Tricks of Devotion as in their Ways of supporting and propagating what they taught in all Ages of Mystery and Persecution The Heathen Priests however seem more excusable in their Inventions than Christians that follow and imitate them For the former had no Word of God in a revealing Gospel to direct and limit their Belief so that they were at large to teach and practise such things as they believed must make the most to them advantagious Impression on Men as many Gods and the lesser to be Mediators betwen the superior Gods and Men the Adoration of their Images giving Sanctity to Shrines and Pillars But for Christians who pretend to believe a revealing Gospel to continue in those Heathenish Doctrines and Methods seems to be continued by somewhat a greater degree of that Priest-craft which had been so long practised with Success God himself declares with Jealousy this Aptness in Men to receive and believe in many Gods and to worship strange and helpless things in the First Commandment he says Thou shalt have no other Gods but ME and in the Second Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or the Likeness of any thing that is in the Heavens above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth These large and comprehensive Words forbidding every thing that was in Nature to be worshipped shew plainly that God saw and considered how ready Mankind was to be misguided under a Notion of Religion into extravagant Worships We hear very early of many Gods which probably were Men Deified as Saturn Jupiter Mercury Apollo Neptune Pluto Bacchus and also of divers Female Deities Mr. Bochart observes hereupon that Noah and his three Sons were the same with Saturn and his Sons Jupiter Neptune and Pluto He takes notice of several Appellations in Scripture as Vir Belli pro Milite Vir Brachii pro Robusto Vir Sanguinis pro Homicidâ but that of Noah is Vir Terrae and is so taken by the Mythologists as if he had married the Earth or the Goddess Tellus and the Earth were the same with Rhea the Wife of Saturn Noe coepit esse Vir Terrae plantavit Vineam but to Saturn also the Antients ascribed Agriculture and the planting of Vines And as Noah was drunk with Wine so the Feast of the Saturnalia was celebrated with Drunkenness C ham was cursed for seeing his Father Noah's Nakedness and the Poets affirm that such a Law proceeded from Saturn that none should escape unpunished that saw any of the Gods naked Therefore in the Hymns of Callimachus when Tiresias was struck blind for seeing Minerva naked the Goddess excuses it to his Mother saying She was not the Cause of taking away his Sight but that it was a
her Martyrdom pray to God to grant those their Requests that through her called upon his holy Name but in a higher Strain he makes St. Margaret pray that whosoever should for the Lord's sake worship the Tabernacle of her Body or should build an Oratory to her and there offer spiritual Oblations and Prayers and shall ask Salvation and Mercy through her that the Lord would grant them plenty of all good things Agreeably to all this Theophanes greatly complains of it that the Emperor Leo Isaurus erred saith he not only in opposing the Adoration of Images but the Intercession also of the Mother of God and of all the Saints and the Historians of that Kidney no less blame the Emperor Constantinus Copronymus for the same irreverent Error for he punish'd those that made Prayers to the Mother of God and the holy Saints through whom all Help is conveyed to us and in the 2 d Council of Nice the Council of Constantinople was condemned for being against Saint and Image-worship which was then established and for which the Bishops of Rome had appeared with great Zeal I cannot here properly omit an Observation that the Invocation of Saints and Image-worship were brought in by the increase of Priests in Monkery For about the Year of our Lord 370 the Invocation of Saints began to be publickly introduced into Churches at the very same time when by Basil Gregory Nyssen and Nazianzen the Practice and Profession of Monastical Life were brought out of Egypt and Syria into Greece When the Empress Theodora design'd to restore Image-worship she acquainted those in Authority with her Design and then sent for the chiefest of the Monks and proposed to them the restoring the Worship of Images She found them very ready for the purpose and thereupon called a Synod where the Idolatry was again erected 120 Years after it had been suppress'd by Leo Isaurus Having touch'd upon the Craft of Priests to frame the Worship and Scheme of Religion sutable to what the People in some measure knew and understood in things of this World we must also take notice that they contrived the Joys and Punishments of the other so as should be most agreeable to their Fancies and Apprehensions about what they saw here And as they found their Craft successful in making some Powers their Mediators in the Court of Heaven as was usual in Courts below and made also Deities of such Persons whose Courage or Vertue deserved well here or of the Publick so also they framed the manner of Sacrificing and Sacrifices as such a Description of the other World as was most easy to Fancy and Imagination In their Sacrifices they taught such and such Offerings were to be made as somewhat resembled the Powers they sacrificed to and had not this been an Invention very probable and likely to entice and lead Men especially the Vulgar they would never have thought of such Methods and Distinctions Tempest was consecrated for a God among the Romans and as Storms and foul Weather was dark and dull so the gentle Gales of Zephyrus made the Weather bright and chearful therefore they taught that black Cattel were to be sacrificed to the former and white to the other as resembling their dark and bright Natures When Dido implored Juno in the Concerns of her Love and Passion she poured Wine between the Horns of a snowy Heifer representing by the Whiteness of her Sacrifice that she implored a gentle Compassion A Bull was sacrificed to Neptune because his Noise and Violence seem'd to represent a troubled Ocean And when Aeneas desired the Assistance of the Sybil to descend to the dark Infernal World she proposes in the first place a proper Sacrifice of black Cattel to be offered representing to the Mind thereby an Image of those black Mansions Nor did they only fashion these Matters so as that they might be easy to the Minds and Fancies of Men but they modell'd also the other World sutably to such a taking and prevailing Method they made the Enjoyments of their Elysium or Paradise sutable to what they most affected in this World whatever inclined their Affections here their Enjoyments there were to be of that nature and to be made perfect by being made subject to no Disturbance or Alteration For Infants that were not arrived to Choice or Inclination there was a separate Place fill'd with their innocent Mournings an Opinion that has also prevailed with some Christians the warlike Heroes exercised there Eternal Musters driving their Chariots in large Plains and others in such Exercises and Divertisements as they were inclined to in their Life Lovers in separated Groves and the Poets in such Fields as had been the Subjects of their Songs On the other side the Punishments there were made sutable to the Crimes committed here the wickedly Ambitious were thrown into the lower part of Hell the Luxurious punish'd with tempting Feasts with-held from them by watching Furies restless and unquiet Minds that denied Peace to others were chastified with perpetual Rolling of Stones which pressed to return with their Weight upon them The Doctrine about these Matters in general was that the Punishments and Torments were sutable to the Offences committed here and direct Purgatory was described where some were purged or cleansed by hanging in the Air exposed to the Winds some were wash'd in vast Whirlpools some refined by Fire and after the proper time of Purgation all were released and sent to the happy Fields of Elysium their Heaven Nothing can be more plain than that the Priest-craft has continued such a Purgatory to this Day Mahomet's Paradise was framed after this manner the greatest and wickedest Sinners are to pass over a Bridg with heavy Sacks and by their Weight to be thrown off and press'd into Hell the lesser fall only into a Purgatory from whence they are to be released and finally received into Paradise but those that merited a happy Place shall be bless'd with the Company of fair Virgins who have large Eyes and perpetually flourish in a Bloom of Youth and Beauty while Boys of Divine Figures like so many Ganymeds shall attend with always renewing Feasts The Purgatory of the Romanists is distinguished into divers Apartments there is a Place for Children another for the Holy Fathers that died before the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour there are Lakes of Fire for such as have been long or prosligatly wicked and Flowry Fields and Shining Garments for such as have indeed been good but wanted some degree of the due and required Perfection thus is Purgatory described by Cardinal Bellarmine de Purgat l. 2. cap. 6. cap. 14. Thus has the Craft of those that taught Religion drawn the easy Minds of Men to believe in such things as had a Resemblance to things of this World and having by these Ways involved Men in Submission to what they taught they then enlarged into Opinions and Doctrines more difficult nay absurd and impossible
THE HISTORY OF Religion Written by A Person of Quality Quae quidem Disquisitio ad Animi Institutionem pulcherrima ad moderandam Religionem necessaria Cic. de Nat. Deor. L. 1. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCIV THE PREFACE SINCE Prefaces are so much in fashion I presume it will not be judged improper that I set one before this History of Religion to clear the Design of it and prevent Misapprehensions Though the Title be the History of Religion yet there is nothing contained in it of a Polemical or Controversial Nature no Dispute or Arguments upon any Controversy the World has been stuffed with too many useless Wranglings of that kind already The Subject of the following Discourse arises from Matter of Fact How Religion has from the beginning been managed by Priest-craft of the Heathens to mislead the Vulgar and Prophane as they are pleased to term them into a Blind Implicit Obedience to their Inspired and Divine Authority Teaching the Belief of many Gods or Divine Powers and Appointing so many various Ways of Superstitious Devotions such as the Worshipping of Idols of Pillars and Columns consecrated by them Adoration of Sepulchres and Dead Men all Artificially calculated and contrived so as they found would most easily make Impression upon the Minds of Men. So also the Notions they taught concerning the other World were made sutable to what is seen and familiar to us in this that they might be more easy for Mens Digestion By these Means the Priests made themselves and their daily increasing Numbers be thought absolutely useful to others But yet to confirm and preserve themselves in the Authority and Dominion they had gotten they invented two great Assistances Mystery and Persecution by Mystery to prevent the Use of Understanding and by Persecution to punish any that should attempt to break out of the Brutal Pound and use their Reason Montaigne says That Persecution is a Trial full of Uncertainty and Danger for what would not a Man say what would not a Man do to avoid intolerable Torments Etiam Innocentes cogit mentiri Dolor Many Nations less barbarous than the Greeks or Romans that called them so esteemed it cruel and horrible to torment and pull Men in pieces for doubtful and questionable Faults He says further That Julian called the Apostate had experimented by the Cruelty of some Christians that there is no Beast in the World so much to be feared by Man as Man All these Practices of the Heathens I have endeavour'd and I believe very plainly to make appear that they are retained and followed to this day in what is called the Church of Rome Where desembling Priest-craft under pretence of humbling and guiding the Understandings of the Vulgar and Unlearned hath usurp'd a Power over both Faith and Conscience they have made it a terrible Thing for Men to trust themselves or their own Reason in any thing relating to Religion 't is with them an equal Crime for the Prophane Vulgar as the Heathens also called them not to submit their Understandings to God and their Priests Not considering that no Dictates of any Superiours or Learned Men can engage a Man's Faith without he has reason to believe that God had taught what they prescribe but then not to believe is not opposing the Humane but the Divine Authority So that in truth the Business of submitting our Understandings to Humane Authority is but a Chimerical Notion and comes to nothing But being aware of this Reason which is so obvious and plain they clamour like Demetrius and the Silver-smiths Great is the Church which if fairly examined not any thing appears more unintelligible or ridiculous I confess some of our own Learned Men with too much Imitation of the Roman Clamour when they write with Presumption enough on some dark and difficult Points insert a Submission to the Judgment and Correction of their Holy Mother the Church when they themselves neither pretend to tell us nor indeed know when or from whence this Infallible Judgment should come And until it does they assume to themselves the dictating and prescribing Power and submit themselves to nothings less than that Great Nothing For if any should pretend to shew it or expect it from Tradition or Fathers or Councils or the Popes there is no one almost so meanly Learned as not to know how fallible and contradictory to one another all these have been The Church of Christ is no question in Believers the Houshold of Nymphas was called a Church and many other Places and Families where Believers were Much more must the Church of Christ consist of Believers in general in which diffusive Capacity she cannot judg of particular Questions and Controversies because of the Division into Sects and Parties The Divisions among us into contrary Parties and Opinions make it necessary to judg of what we may call the Church by the Doctrine not of the Doctrine by the pretended Church To supply all possible Defects they chiefly follow the Method and Pretence of Mystery as the surest Way to keep up their Authority they frame most of their Articles upon dark Places affecting to make Religion become an Art and themselves the sole Masters of it Plutarch tells us that Alexander the Great wrote a Letter to Aristotle complaining of him that he had set forth his Books of Select Knowledg to instruct others as well as himself but Aristotle answer'd that those Treatises which were his Metaphysicks were indeed published but so written as not to be exposed to common Capacities so that in effect Alexander was indeed the only Person to whom he had yet communicated them I suppose he had the like reason to write out of the reach of common Capacity that the Learned now a days have for their obscure Writings and dark Gibberish even to keep the Profane Vulgar from daring to use their own Understandings about Matters which they see to be so perplex'd and Intricate unless they will enter into their Society and so become free of the Trade In my Opinion it ought to beget Admiration to see with what Boldness those that pretend to extraordinary Share in Learning and Divinity write upon the most hidden and never to be determined Points with what Confidence and furious Difference some have wrote of the Trinity asserting their Opinions to be plain and easy and almost demonstrable while others as Learned call them ridiculous Absurdities and Heresy Nor has the sacred particular Providence escaped the impious Temerity of the Learned wresting the Intention of it to their own corrupt private Interests making it a Sanctifier of any successful Mischief or Murder of any Side of contrary Parties and to patronize Mens worst Imperfections I will not inlarge into a Dispute but if possible make them blush with a Character of Divine Providence given them by a Heathen Writer The excellent Plutarch in his Life of Pompey by occasion of some Discourse of that Nature says Providence is a Point of