be observed, that it occurs for the most part in writers of later date, and particularly in Josephus*, in a favourable sense; in the sense of religion generally, not of depraved superstition. Nor should the observation be omitted, that, in the only other instance of the New Testament where it is found, in the twenty-fifth chapter of this very book of the Acts†, it is used in a sense which, there are the strongest grounds for considering, a favourable sense. When Festus is detailing to king Agrippa the accusations of the Jews against St. Paul, he says, "They had against him certain questions about their own superstition ;" in which the word translated "superstition," is a word precisely of the same derivation with that which is before us. But, as Festus was now addressing Agrippa, who was a Jew, it seems quite incredible that he should mean to designate the Jewish religion by a term of reproach; and therefore we may conclude, with some confidence, that the word which he does use, bore no reproachful or unfavourable meaning; that he designed to express, that they had certain questions against St. Paul "about their own religion," not "about their own superstition." Thus, if we consider our passage as it stands by itself, wholly distinct from the context, the interpreta

* See Note F f.

+ Ver. 19.

† Δεισιδαιμονία.

T

tion which I have, in accordance with many sound opinions, ventured to recommend, seems to be supported by the best authority.

But, in the third place, this interpretation seems to be more clearly justified by the succeeding part of the sentence. The Apostle says to the Athenians, "I perceive that ye are in all things (as the translation now is) too superstitious: for, as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I perceived an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God." Thus the latter part of the sentence manifestly gives the reason on which the former part is founded. It was because he had seen, in addition to other shrines, the altar to the unknown God, that he gave the people the character conveyed in the first clause of the sentence. Now the circumstance of their erecting an altar to the unknown God, in addition to their other deities, (in that sense especially in which we shall have to consider the unknown God), was by no means a proof of a gross and debasing superstition, but rather of an approach towards more exalted and more enlightened feelings of true religion. Superstition consisted in that which the Athenians held, in common with all the other heathens; in the false worship of deities subject to earth-born infirmities, and stained by human vices, and in the excessive and degrading fear of imaginary

beings. It was in that which they possessed peculiar to themselves, in their erecting an altar to the unknown God, that they raised themselves above the character of other heathens; that they made some approach towards true religion; that they displayed some faint indistinct knowledge of Him, who, as He is great beyond description, so is alone deserving of adoration from man.

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The Apostle, then, having pronounced respecting the Athenians (as I trust we may be safe in considering) a favourable character for religious dispositions, proceeds to state the reason on which he founded this opinion. "For," he says, as I passed by, and beheld your devotions," beheld the objects and places of your worship*, "I found an altar with this inscription, 6 To the unknown God." All the other circumstances connected with idolatrous worship they held in common with other nations; but this one circumstance was peculiar, and distinctive of them, that they had erected an altar to the unknown God.

It is, no doubt, a matter deservedly exciting some surprise, that, minute and circumstantial as is the information handed down to us respecting all the affairs of this people, their mytho

* See Note G g.

Apostle in fact tells us, that the Being whom they worshipped, without knowing His name, nature, or attributes, was the God whom he came to declare to them; was indeed the great and ineffable Jehovah, the Father of all created beings; He who is the first and the last; who is above all, and through all, and in all. "Whom ye ignorantly worship, HIм declare I unto you."

The knowledge of the one only God, impressed originally on the human mind in strong characters, although in most instances it had been very faintly and indistinctly retained, had never been entirely effaced. Amidst the most degrading rites of Pagan superstition, some lineaments of a purer religion are to be traced. Amidst all those corruptions and disgraceful abuses, by which vice, ignorance, and folly, had deformed the worship due from man to his Creator, some traces of better things, some remains of the primæval religion, some marks of that knowledge of Himself, which the Supreme Being had stamped at first on the mind of man, are at times discernible. Reason always revolted at the idea of adoring as God that which was known to be powerless and imperfect, subject to corruption and decay. Whenever reflection was enabled to catch a clearer light through the thick mists of superstitious ignorance which were cast around, it saw the worship of the Creator intended in

that of the creature; it discovered the one supreme invisible Almighty God, variously typified by outward emblems, and wrapt up in representations of His qualities and attributes. And there was always a tendency in the human mind to conclude, from that harmony of design which is seen and felt through universal nature, that there exists one supreme universal Cause; one sovereign Governor, who reigns without rival, without control, and without limit.

If, then, it be certain that, under all the clouds and darkness of heathen superstitions, a better sense and a correcter feeling pointed, especially in the more enlightened countries of the pagan world, towards the great spiritual God, higher than the pagan Jupiter, in every circumstance of majesty and perfection, as the heavens are higher than the earth, we have yet additional reasons for believing that, amongst the Athenians, this knowledge prevailed more strong, more clear, and better defined, than amongst other nations. It is more than matter of conjecture, that some of the Athenian philosophers taught in their schools the unity of the Supreme Being; a truth not deemed fit indeed to be imparted to the vulgar, but entrusted, as an interior doctrine, to the philosophic few. It is also well known that this people had, peculiar to themselves, one very remarkable description of reli