truth for yourselves, and acted accordingly. On your own principles, therefore, will you be judged.

Others, who have not gone these lengths, have yet been tempted to despair of finding out what is the true religion. Amidst the opposition of opinions which continually presents itself before us, (say they) how are we, plain people, to judge and act? If you mean to intimate that it is vain for you to concern yourselves about it, that is the same as saying, it is vain to attempt any thing that is accompanied with difficulties, or to walk in any way that is attended with temptations; and this would lead you to stand still in other things as well as in religion. But if it be the real desire of your soul to know the right way, and walk in it, there is no reason to despair. Follow no man as your guide; but go to your Bible, and your God, and there decide the question. You need not say in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the deep? The word is nigh thee.*

*

To read controversial books may, in many cases, be useful; but seldom, when it is done with a view to decide the great question, What is the right way to everlasting life? A book, as well as a sermon, may be the means of affording such direction. But when the mind is in a state of suspense, it is, beyond all comparison, the safest to consult the oracles of God. To launch into controversy, without having obtained satisfaction on the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, is to put to sea in a storm without a rudder. One great reason why men are "carried about with divers and strange doctrines" is, their "hearts are not established with grace +." They have no principles of their own, and therefore are carried away with any thing that wears the appearance of plausibility.

But one of the worst inferences that are drawn from the discordant doctrines which abound in the world is, that doctrine itself is of little or no account. As intolerance and bigotry, under the specious name of zeal, distinguished former ages; so sceptical indifference, under the specious name of candour, liberality and moderation, distinguishes this. This is the grand temptation, perhaps, of the present times. It would seem as if men must either fight for truth with carnal weapons, or make peace with error; either our religious principles must be cognizable by human legislators; or they are neither good nor evil, and God himself must not call us to account for them: either we must call men masters upon earth, or deny that we have any master, even in heaven.

It is a favourite principle with unbelievers, and with many professing Christians who verge towards them, that Error not only has its seat in the mind, but that it is purely intellectual, and therefore innocent. Hence they plead against all church censures, and every degree of unfavourable opinion, on account of doctrinal sentiments, as though it were a species of persecution. But if the causes of error be principally moral, it will follow that such conclusions are as contrary to reason as they are to scripture.

is

The above remarks are far from being designed to cherish a spirit of bitterness against one another, as men or as Christians. There is a way of viewing the corruption and depravity of mankind, so as to excite bitterness and wrath, and every species of evil temper; and there is a way of viewing them, that, without approving or conniving at what wrong, shall excite the tear of compassion. It does not become us to declaim against the wickedness of the wicked in a manner as if we expected grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles: but, while we prove ourselves the decided friends of God, to bear good - will to men. It becomes those who may be the most firmly established in the truth as it is in Jesus, to consider that a portion of the errors of the age, in all probability, attaches to them; and though it were otherwise, yet they are directed to carry it benevolently towards others who may err: "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God, peradventure, will give them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth."

Finally: There is an important difference between rasing the foundation, and building upon that foundation a portion of wood, and hay, and stubble. It becomes us not to make light of either: but the latter may be an object of forbearance, whereas the former is not+. With the enemies of Christ, we ought, in religious matters, to make no terms; but towards his friends, though in some respects erroneous, it behoves us to come as near as it is possible to do, without a dereliction of principle. A truly christian spirit will feel the force of such language as the following, and will act upon it: "All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace be unto them, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ-Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity!"

* 2 Tim. ii. 25.

A. F.

† Mr. Fuller means, that such are not to be borne with in the church; he does not mean to countenance temporal penalties for conscientious opinions, even in the worst cases, as is evident from the preceding page.

ESSAY II.

ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE TIME OF
CHRIST'S APPEARING.

BY MRS. HANNAH ADAMS,

OF PHILADELPHIA.

*

ABRIDGED FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF HER
"VIEW OF RELIGIONS."

CONTENTS. State of the World at Christ's appearing-Of the Pagan Idolatry,
Mysteries, and Secret Doctrines-Of the Corrupt State of the Jews-Of the Gentile
Philosophy.

WHEN Jesus Christ made his appearance on earth, a great part of the
world was subject to the Roman empire. This empire was much the
largest temporal monarchy that had ever existed: so that it was called,
"all the world." (Luke ii. 1.) The time when the Romans first sub-
jugated the land of Judea, was between sixty and seventy years before
Christ was born; and soon after this the Roman empire rose to its
greatest extent and splendour. To this government the world con-
tinued subject till Christ came, and many hundred years afterwards.
The remoter nations, who had submitted to the yoke of this mighty
empire, were ruled, either by Roman governors invested with tempo-
rary commissions, or by their own princes and laws, in subordination
to the Republic, whose sovereignty was acknowledged, and to which
the conquered kings, who were continued in their own dominions,
owed their borrowed majesty. At the same time the Roman people
and their venerable senate, though they had not lost all shadow of
liberty, were yet in reality reduced to a state of servile submission to
Augustus Cæsar; who, by artifice, perfidy, and bloodshed, attained an
enormous degree of power, and united in his own person the pompous
titles of Emperor, Pontiff, Censor, Tribune of the People: in a word,
all the great offices of the state.

At this period the Romans, according to Daniel's prophetic descrip-
tion, had trodden down the kingdoms, and by their exceeding strength
devoured the whole earth. However, by enslaving the world, they

* This Introduction was adopted at length in the first London edition of this work, and
was professedly taken from Mosheim's Eccles. History, and other authors referred to in the
Notes. But this abridgment, which was inserted by the Editor, in the second edition of that
work, and the first of this " Dictionary," was so satisfactory, that Mrs. A. adopted it verbatim
in her edition of 1817. The few additions here made are inclosed in brackets.

civilized it; and whilst they oppressed mankind, they united them together. The same laws were every where established, and the same languages understood. Men approached nearer to one another in sentiments and manners; and the intercourse between the most distant regions of the earth was rendered secure and agreeable. Hence the benign influence of letters and philosophy was spread abroad in countries which had been before enveloped in the darkest ignorance.

Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire not only rose to its greatest height, but was also settled in peace. Augustus Cæsar had been for many years establishing the state of the Roman empire, and subduing his enemies, till the very year that Christ was born: then all his enemies being reduced to subjection, his dominion over the world appeared to be settled in its greatest glory. This remarkable peace, after so many ages of tumult and war, was a fit prelude to the ushering of the glorious Prince of Peace into the world. The tranquillity which then reigned was necessary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute, with success, their sublime commission to the human race. In the situation into which the providence of God had brought the world, the gospel, in a few years, reached those remote corners of the earth, into which it could not otherwise have penetrated for many ages.

OF THE PAGAN IDOLATRY.

ALL the heathen nations, at the time of Christ's appearance on earth, worshipped a multiplicity of gods and demons, whose favour they courted, by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they endeavoured to appease, by the most abominable cruelties.

Every nation had its respective gods, over which one more excellent than the rest presided; yet, in such a manner, that the supreme deity was himself controlled by the rigid decrees of fate, or by what the philosophers called eternal necessity. The gods of the East were different from those of the Gauls, the Germans, and other northern nations. The Grecian divinities differed from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, and a great variety of the productions both of nature and art. Each people had also their peculiar manner of worshipping and appeasing its respective deities. In process of time, however, the Greeks and Romans grew as ambitious in their religious pretensions, as in their political claims. They maintained that their gods, though under different appellations, were the objects of religious worship in all nations; and therefore they gave the names of their deities to those of other countries.

The deities of almost all nations were either antient heroes, renowned for noble exploits and worthy deeds, or kings and generals, who had founded empires, or women who had become illustrious by remarkable actions or useful inventions. The merit of those eminent persons, contemplated by their posterity with enthusiastic gratitude, was the cause of their exaltation to celestial honours. The natural world furnished another kind of deities; and as the sun, moon, and stars shine with a lustre superior to that of all other material beings,

they received religious homage from almost all the nations of the world.

The learned Mr. Bryant, in his Analysis of Antient Mythology, supposes that the worship of the powers of nature, principally the Sun, was the original idolatry which prevailed in all nations; that the characters of the pagan deities of different countries melt into each other; and that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses mean only the powers of nature (especially the Sun) branched out and diversified by a number of different names and attributes. Sir Wm. Jones, in his History of the Antiquities of Asia, appears to have embraced the same opinion*. [Mr. Faber also, " On the origin of Pagan Idolatry," adopts the same system; and it seems by no means unnatural, that a Pagan, having lost the light of Revelation, should address the Sun in the language which Milton puts into the mouth of Satan on his first beholding it:

“O thou, that with surpassing glory crown'd,

Lookest from thy sole dominion like the god
Of this new world !".

The Sun might probably be considered by the more intelligent of the early idolators as the residence of Deity, and its fairest emblem; and fire would naturally be adopted as its representative. The "mighty hunters" of the earth perhaps held out the idea of going at their death to reside in that refulgent orb; and their flatterers, when they died, confirmed the notion, by celebrating their apotheoses, and paying them divine honours. And thus the gods of earth were transplanted to the skies.]

From those beings of a nobler kind, idolatry descended into an enormous multiplication of inferior powers; so that in many countries, mountains, trees, and rivers; the earth, and sea, and wind; nay, even virtues and vices, and diseases, had their shrines attended by devout and zealous worshippers. †

These deities were honoured with rites and sacrifices of various kinds, according to their respective nature and offices. Most nations offered animals; and human sacrifices were universal in antient times. They were in use among the Egyptians till the reign of Amasis: they were never so common among the Greeks and Romans; yet they were practised by them on extraordinary occasions. Porphyry says, that the Greeks were wont to sacrifice men when they went to war. He relates also, that human sacrifices were offered at Rome till the reign of Adrian, who ordered them to be abolished in most places. ‡

Pontiffs, priests, and ministers, distributed into several classes, presided over the pagan worship, and were appointed to prevent disorder in the performance of religious rites. The sacerdotal order, which was supposed to be distinguished by an immediate intercourse and friendship with the gods, abused its authority in the basest manner, to deceive an ignorant and wretched people.

* Analysis, vol. i. p. 308. See also Sir W. Jones's Dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.

+ Mosheim (Baynes's ed. 1810) vol. i. p. 23. Note h.

Dr. Priestley on the Evidences of Revealed Religion.-See also Ency. Brit. in Sacrifices.