felf by faying, that though he maintained the belief of the First Caufe of Infinite Power and Goodness, yet he had never denied the existence of gods and dæmons, fuch as were the objects of Athenian worship: on the contrary, he held that the Demiurgus, the immediate author of the universe, under the Supreme Being, created them when he made the world, and left to them the formation and government of all inferior beings.

Epicurus was not initiated. This extraordinary man was once expelled the city, but afterwards allowed to treat of the origin of the univerfe, in the way he did, as a point of philofophical fpeculation; taking care not to deny the gods of his country.

The Stoics gave no offence when they openly proclaimed and afferted in their books concerning the gods, providence, fate, and nature, that the gods were generated and will be deftroyed by fire, in order to be diffolved, like fo many pieces of wax or lead, into the anima mundi, which ftands in need of a conftant fupply, and without which it would in time confume, and walle into nothing.

On more ticklish points, the fear of giving umbrage to the followers of the established religion compelled philofophers to have recourfe to a vulgar and a fecret, to an external and internal doctrine.

The invention of a vulgar and a fecret doctrine, was plainly a contrivance to avoid the refentment of the people, fo extremely jealous of the honour of their deities; though other reasons had been affigned for it. Toland calls it the iue of craft; Fontenelle, the apanage of barbarifm; Warburton has dignified it, by attri bating to it a motive of public utility.

Fear certainly was at the bottom; for every attempt to substitute purer notions in the room of the reigning mythology, was a matter of alarm to the populace.'

With respect to Rome, the author adduces the following law of the Twelve Tables, as a proof, that, under the republic, even the private worship of foreign divinities was not tolerated. "Apart let no one have new gods."-" Those of ftrangers let no one worship privately, unless they be publicly allowed." As this prohibition was never repealed, he concludes that there can be no fufficient ground for afferting, as fome have done, that at Rome every family was left to worship in its own way. He examines the nature of the religious refpect paid to the tutelary deities, in order to prove that it was not of a kind to give umbrage to the national establishment.The perfecutions, actually inflicted by the Romans on Egyptians, Jews, and Chriftians, are adduced as fufficient refutations of the opinion, that the fpirit of the Roman government was tolerant. Although it be allowed, that, in the imperial state of Rome, the treatment of foreign religions depended on the caprice of the Emperors, yet, fince it must be owned,

T3

that

that by far the majority of them were perfecutors, and that among these the Emperors were most celebrated for maintaining a strict obfervance of the laws, it is urged, that the intolerance of the Roman policy may hence be clearly inferred.

A material circumftance, in which the pagan establishment differed from the Chriftian, and which had an influence in rendering the perfecutions of the former lefs fevere, is pointed out in the following paragraphs:

Nothing is fo true, as that no term is to be found in the ancient languages to exprefs an infidel, as contra-diftinguished from the faithful: no creed, by which the canon of orthodoxy was fettled: no fuch duty inculcated, as the fuppreffing of herefy: no court eftablished to prevent fchifm. These refinements in perfecution were the offspring of a dogmatical theology, introduced into the world by an order of priests, claiming a divine miffion and uninterrupted fucceffion*, infallible preachers of facred truths, heirs to exclufive rights, whofe energy and effects are fuch, that only to believe, is a title to life eternal.

In the revealed word of God committed to their cuftody, expreffions were inferted, which they perverted not only to authorife, but to direct compulfion. In confequence of which, it became a meritorious employment to force men into the pale of the church, to ufe wholesome feverities, and to make profelytes, not by argument merely, but by the fword, as it refcued them from eternal damnation, at the expence only of a few worldly enjoyments.

This fyftem of religion is fo unlike all others in its effence, that the ancients had no words to exprefs many of the ideas in it, ftill lefs to convey the general idea we attach to the word religion. Religiof, though it comes the nearest to it, means ceremonious obfervances; not modes of faith, confifting of the belief of myfteries, of affistance from the Holy Spirit, of the terms of falvation, of original fin, or of the redemption of mankind."

The apoftolical line has through all ages been preferved entire, there having been a conflant fucceffion of fuch bishops as were truly and properly fucceffors to the apoftles, by virtue of that apoftolical impofition of hands, which, being begun by the apostles, hath been continued from one to another, ever fince their time, down to us; by which means, the fame fpirit which was breathed by our Lord into his apoftles, is, together with their office, transmitted to their lawful fucceffors, the paftors and governors of our church at this time."

Though the bifhops of thefe days do not affert their apoftolical lineage fo roundly, yet they tell you, that they have fome claims to be originally derived from apoftolical appointment.- Bishop HALI

FAX.'

Beach's Calm and Difpalliunate Vindication of the Profeffors of the Church of England, P. 5.

• Such

Such a religion, fo tranfcendantly excellent, and fo univerfal, admits of no competitor, no intercommunity of rites and worship. "The feveral religions of paganism did not confift in matters of belief, in which, where there is a contrariety, religions deftroy each other, but in matters of practice, in rites and ceremonies; and in thefe, contrariety did no harm. Therefore, the pagans having no modes of faith, could not perfecute for any; but Chriftians having modes, did and might perfecute for themt." Such a perfecution would be more latting, more fyftematic, and more cruel than any other. In fuch a fyftem of theology, the fecular arm could come in aid only of the fpiritual power; and act a fubordinate part to the other, invefted with a higher commiffion, and which had authority to confider its enemies as the enemies of God. With fuch pretenfions, are we to wonder that Croisades have been preached, and the world defolated by armed fanatics? In vain fhall we feek in ancient history for examples of holy wars, in the modern fense of the word. Such as we read of under that name, had their foundation in a ftruggle for power, not for the right construction of a sentence, or the meaning of a word.'

A masterly sketch is next given of the hiftory of Christian perfecutions, from the time of Conftantine, to the present day.

* Perfecution for difference of opinion owes its rife to more modern ages, and Spaniards were the bloody enthufiafts, who, it has been remarked, caufed Prifcillian to be the first fufferer for mere fpeculative notions:-quales ab principio ad imum.

Prifcillian was a man of family and property, and was confpicuous for his eloquence and various good qualities of the head and heart. None of these availed him. The Emperor Maximus *, to whom the matter was transferred by appeal, at the inftigation of Magnus and Rufus, two zealous catholics, and of Ithacius his inveterate enemy, and allured by the confifcation of his riches, caused fentence of death to be executed upon him at Treves, and with him, fome of his molt refpectable friends and converts of either fex.

St. Martin being then at Treves, never ceafed to reprimand Ithacius, and to admonish him to defit from his perfecution. He also entreated the Emperor not to fhed the blood of these heretics; and when they were put to death, St. Ambrofe and St. Martin would no longer hold communication with Ithacius, or with the bishops who adhered to him, although they were protected by the Emperor; and Theognotus, a bishop, gave fentence publicly against them. As to Martin, he reproached himself all his life afterwards, for having occafionally communicated with the Ithacians, and even then with a charitable view, to fave the life of fome innocent perfons."

Warburton, Divine Legat. preface to vol. iii. p. 62.'

*Abregé Chronologique de l'Hift. de France, tom. i. p. 256. Ellai fur les Meurs et l'Esprit des Nations. Gibbon, chap. xxvii.

The mischiefs arifing from an intolerant policy are well reprefented in the author's remarks on the expulfion of the Moors and Jews from Spain:

The Arabian conquerors of Spain had introduced into that kingdom an hofpitality, generofity, and refinement, unknown before in the West. The court of Cordova was the most elegant and polite in the world. Together with the mechanical, the Saracens cultivated the liberal arts; and whilst a noble external appearance was manifefted in their buildings, furniture, and drefs, their poetry and mufic, confecrated to heroifm and love, difplayed an inward generofity and elegance of mind ftill more noble and affecting.

At the time of their expulfion, the Morefcoes were not only induftrious, but frugal and parfimonious to excefs.-The Spanish villages all over Caftile and Andalusia had fallen into decay, whilft thofe of the Morefcoes increafed and flourished. The Spanish farmers were unable to pay their rents, whilft the Morefcoes, who generally lived in the most barren parts, after paying the third part of their crops to the proprietors of their farms, were not only able to fupport themselves and their families, but annually increased their flock.

The Barons of Valentia, in their remonftrances to the court, fet forth, That there were feveral manufactures, equally neceffary for the internal confumption and foreign trade, with which the Morefcoes alone were acquainted; and that without their skill and labour, it was an unquestionable fact, that a great part of the kingdom would lie wafte. Thefe reprefentations availed nothing againft the determined bigotry of the court. Of the whole one hundred and forty thoufand who were at this time tranfported to Africa, there is ground to believe, from the concurrent teftimony of perfons who had accefs to know the truth, that more than one hundred thousand men, women, and children, fuffered death in its moft hideous forms, within a few months after their expulsion from Valentia.

Inftances are recorded of fuch inhuman cruelty exercised against this harmless, perfecuted, and defenceless people, by the owners and crews of private fhips in which they tranfported themselves, as equals any thing of the fame kind of which we read in hiftory.-As for Fonfeca the hiftorian, it is obferved by Watson, on these inftances of cruelty, that there is little ground to doubt, from the ftyle of his history, he would with pleasure have acted the fame bloody part which he defcribes.

The fate of the Morefcoes who reached the Barbary coaft, was not lefs deplorable than thofe who perished in their way.

Thefe were the defcendants of thofe Jews and Moors who, after the reduction of Granada, had chiefly planted themselves in Valentia, Caftile, and Andalufia; most of them had been baptized, and were called New Chriftians.-It is true, they were known to Jean fill towards their old fuperftition; but time and gentle ufage. might have brought them into the bofom of the church.

Notwithstanding Spain had been exhausted by bloody wars with the Morefcoes for about 775 years, reckoning from the reign of Don

Pelago

Pelago to the taking of Granada by Ferdinand, yet this laft-mentioned Prince, furnamed the Wife, entered upon the very ftrange scheme to banish all the Jews from the kingdom, though they had never been molefted by the Moorish government. Their religion was not fo incompatible with Chriftianity as Moflemifm; yet by a fevere edict, A. D. 1472, the Jews were compelled to depart; and Mariana computes, that there went away one hundred and feventy thousand families; in all, eight hundred thousand perfons.

When numbers occur in hiftory, we may fafely abate fomething for exaggeration; yet the partiality of Mariana fhould have induced him to diminish, not to enhance the number.

The conceffions made by the Arabian conqueror to the Gothic Princes whom he fubdued, is a ftriking picture of his lenity and toleration. He neither depofed the reigning prince, nor plundered his people; but, on payment of a moderate tribute, ftipulated not to deprive them of their lives or property, and gave them alfo their churches, and general toleration for their religion.

The Koran does not permit men who have laid down their arms to be vexed for their religion.-It declares, in very energetic terms, "Oh! infidels, obferve your law, and I will obferve mine." -Mahomet the Second, when he conquered Greece, though bound by no capitulation, permitted the inhabitants to enjoy their religion. But Cardinal Ximenes, contrary to a folemn treaty, obliged the Moors, after the taking of Granada, to renounce Mahometanifm. It is computed, that Torquemada the inquifitor general, in fourteen years, tried above eighty thoufand perfons; and of thefe he brought to the ftake between five and fix thousand: fo that when the defcendants of the Arabian conquerors came in their turn to be fubdued in Spain, they did not experience that indulgence and protection which had been granted by their forefathers.-The Mofem religion, established by a fucceffion of Arabian conquerors, grew more and more tolerating as it fpread; whereas the Chriftian religion, which was announced to the world by an angelic host in those memorable words, " on earth peace, good will towards men,' which was plainly founded in humility and mutual forgiveness, became more and more fanguinary, as it increased in power; till at length a tribunal was established to force the confciences of men, and to punish even the private exercise of any religious ceremonies not authorized by the church.

The inftitution of the inquifition in Spain, was principally levelled against Jews and Moors. Neither the merit of having in. troduced into that country the fine arts and abstruse sciences; neither great knowledge in agriculture, and fkill in manufactures; neither the charms of mufic and poetry, nor the admiration of bofpitality, valour, and eloquence, the three things of which the Arabs boat, could plead on behalf of a people whom a bigoted and ignorant clergy had doomed to deftruction.'

This volume concludes with feveral important deductions from the facts exhibited in the preceding fheets: among which the principal is, that the moft effectual means of preventing

religious