must be alfo Prieft or Pontifex: And from thence at this Day we ftile the Emperors Pontifices. And fo likewife in his Notes on the roth of the Eneids, he fays Ancas was likewife facrorum Rex, or Pontifex. And before him Priamus the Trojan King offers the Sacrifice which is defcribed by Homer. Iliad. 3. And fo not only Iulus, Æneas's Son, fucceeded his Father in the Priesthood, but the Priesthood continued for many Ages afterwards at Rome in the Gens Julia, which defcended from him. Numa inftituted thofe Sacra, called Regia, which were to be performed by the Kings only; ordaining likewife fome fubordinate Priests, who fhould fupply their Places, when they were engaged in the Wars. So Julius Cafar, in Right of his Family, was High-Prieft, and after him Anguftus; and at laft the Emperors were Pontifices Maximi of Courfe. So that you fee the Priesthood, Philologus, is not fuch a modern Incroachment as you Deifts would pre tend. Phil. Let the Invention be early or late, it matters noť much, for 'tis fo very useless an one that Mankind would not be a Farthing the worfe for, if it was quite laid afide; for it cofts us, I am fure, a great Deal of Money, and no Body, that I know, is the better for it. For People may live honeftly, and fay their Prayers as often as they think fit, without the Help of Parfons: or if they must have Guides, fuch an honeft old Author as Tully or Seneca, or the good Advice of fome fober wife Gentlemen, will con duct them in the Rules of Morality, without taking Tithes for it. The Al- Cred. The World is very bad as it is, but I believe it vantage of would be ten Times worfe, if there was not an Order of Ministry. Men that did continually put People in Mind of their Duty; and tho' they be very negligent of Inftruction, yet by hearing their Duty fo continually inculcated, fomething fticks at laft, even in the worst Minds, and keeps them from being fo profligately wicked as they would otherways be. 'Tis true indeed, 'tis poffible fome Meni may live good Lives without a Priefthood, or Clergy to inftruct them; and fo 'tis poffible to blunder out a ftrange Way Way in the dark; but all Men must allow 'tis more eafily gone with an experienced Guide. But befides, I have one Argument to prove the Ufefulness of a Priefthood, or Ministry, that will reach you Gentlemen that allow no Revelation. All you Theifts grant, that to pray to God is a Part of natural Religion, and that in publick too upon fpecial Occafions, as to deprecate God's Vengeance in publick Calamities, and to thank him for publick Mercies, and the like: Now you would not have all the People at Church to be charming and gabbling together every one his own Prayer, but for Decency and Order fake one ought to fpeak for the reft; to whom, if the Publick allow any Thing for his Pains, then you have what we call a Priesthood or Clergy. So that even upon the pure Principles of Deifm, this Order is requifite; and you must destroy your own Hypothefis by making them useless and infignificant. A good and confcientious Clergy-man that makes it his Bufinefs to encourage Piety and Virtue, will do more good than an hundred Tully's and Seneca's; and the World would be well hope up, if they had no other Guides in Morality, than fome of those wife fober Gentlemen, as you call them; many of which continue lewd as long as they can, and in their old Age turn Moral-mongers when they can be vitious no longer. But to go on. 2. Neither is your other Suppofition true, that there Pure natuwas ever any Age or Nation in the World, when or ral Religion where fuch a pure natural Religion as you imagine, with--where practifed. out any Manner of rituous Worship, was ever practifed. I know not what fecret Hiftories your Gentlemen may have of the Golden Age; but as for us dull Believers, we can't fee one Word in all the ancient Books we meet withal, that gives us the leaft Hint of fuch a naked natural Religion as you fpeak of. If we have Recourfe to the Poets, to whom we are beholden for all that is known of thefe Golden Ages, when thefe brave Men lived; they make Religion as Ritual as it is now, and altogether as full of Sacrifices and Revelations. Nay, the Account we have of the Goddefs Aftran, which is a principal Part of of the poetical Hiftory of the golden Age, is that the was a Numen fent from Heaven to converfe with Mer on Earth, to infpire them with Juftice and Sobriety, and to teach them. Virtue and a good Life. Οὐδέποτ ̓ ἀρχαίων ηνίψατο φυλα γυναικῶν, Δημοτέρας ἤει δεν όπισπερχεσα θέμιςας. Arat. Phca Although he did immortal Glories fhares Which Fable, by the Way, is but an ancient Tradi tion of the Frequency of God's converfing with holy Men, in the first Ages of the World. Neither did thofe golden Ages want their Sacrifices more than their Reve lations. Nay, if we will believe the Poet Hefiod, he tells us the Golden Age was particularly remarkable for their Sacrificing to the Gods; and that Jupiter was angry with thofe of the Silver Age, and took that Race of Men out of the World for neglecting it. αγάπες θεραπεύειν Ἤθελον, ἐδ' ἔρδειν μακάρων ἱερεῖς ὅπ' βωμοῖς τὰς μὲὺ ἔπειτα Ζεύς Κρονίδης έκρυψε χαλάμων, ἀνέκα τιμές Hefiod. Op. & Dies. Neither do we fee any of the ancient poetical Heroes, your Hercules's, and Pollux's, your brave natural ReligionMen, but they are as much at Sacrifices as other People. As we fee by the Examples of Priam, Ulyffes, and Achilles, and Aneas in Homer and Virgil, of Cadmus in Ovid, of Perfeus, Thefeus, and all the Argonauts in Apol lonius and other Poets. And as there was never any Age of the World, in which this fuperfite natural Religion was univerfally practifed, fo neither was there, nor is there, any Part or Nation of it, where it can be found. All the anciently known World, from India to Britain, from Africa to Scythia, was all full of Rites and Ceremonies. To begin with our old Britains at home: They were fo far from profeffing fuch a pure natural Religion as you contend for, that they were full of Idolatry, and cruel as well as filly Ceremonies. Their Rites were almoft wholly magical, arid they were fo much wedded to that Art, as Pliny fays, Hift. Lib. 30. Cap. 1. ut dediffe Perfis videri poffint, that they feemed to fet a Copy to the Perfians in it. They adored a Multitude of Idols, Portenta Diabolica pene numero Ægyptiaca vincentia, as * Gildas calls them, a Company of devilish Monsters, almost exceeding the Number of shofe in Egypt; for befides the Saxon Idols of Tuifco, Thor, Woden, Seater, &c. they had the Celtick Teutates and Hefs; and likewife Belenus or Bellatucadrus, as appears by an ancient Infcription lately found in Weftmoreland, dedicated Sancto Deo Bellatucadro; as alfo another old God mentioned by † Sedulius, (who was a ScotchBritain) called Geada, or Geta. And when we farther confider the fond Ceremonies used by their Priefts the Druids, in gathering || Oak-branches, and feeking Milletoe for their Sacrifices, their Cruelty in human Sacrifices, their killing the Victim upon the Altar with Arrows, or binding him round with Straw, and fo burning him alive, with other barbarous and devilish Ceremonies; I fay, when we confider all this, we may very well exclude the Britains from the Purity of natural Religion: And if we proceed to our old Neighbours the Guils, we fhall find them as deep in ritual Worship as the Britains: They Gildas de Excid. Brit. Plin. Lib. 16. Cap.43. M had * had the fame Foppery of the Druids with them, which Cafar fays they borrowed from the Britains, and thofe who would be exact in that Difcipline travelled thither. They had the fame human Sacrifices, and well nigh the fame Gods, as Lucan informs us, Lib. 1. Et quibus immittis placatur fanguine diro The Spaniards, as † Macrobius tells us, worshiped Si mulachrum Martis radiis ornatum cum maximâ religione, Neton vocantes. They adored an Image of Mars, adorned with Rays, with very great Veneration, calling him Netos. They had a Temple with the Rites of Apollo Delphinius, and Farro, as Pliny + relates, derives Lufitania from Lufus, the Companion of Bacchus, whofe Rites were celebrated there. If we look upon the ancient Face of Germany, there is as little of pure natural Religion to be found, as any where elfe, but all is full of idolatrous Ceremony. And Cafar fays they facrificed to the Sun, Vulcan or the Fire, and the Moon; which were the only Gods they faw; but as for others, ne famì quidem acceperunt, they never fo much as heard of. But Tacitus and † fornandes make likewife Mars their principal God. Tacitus mentions their finging Hymns to Hercules when they went to War, De moribus Germ. and Paulus Diaco nus fpeaks of their Woden, whom he interprets Mercury. To fay nothing of the Rites of Tuifco, Friga, &c. which the Saxons afterwards tranfplanted into Britain: If we look Southward into Africa, we fhall find them there bufy with the Rites and Oracles of Jupiter Hammon, and with the Worship of an Abundance of their dead Kings || ; and if we look Northward into Scythia and Sarmatia, we hall find the Scythians bloody with the human Sacrifices * Strab. Lib.4. * Ann. Lib. 4. Lactant. Lib. i. to |