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EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION. [PART I.

the wise men and philosophers among the Pagans, to what can this so properly be ascribed, as to the light of divine revelation which shineth among us? How thankful, therefore, should we be to God, and how desirous to show forth his praises and virtues, who hath, in his grace and mercy, called us out of darkness into his marvellous light! Surely we should regard the having the holy Scriptures in our hands as the greatest and most valuable of all our privileges. And it highly concerneth us to endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, by walking in a holy exemplary conversation, becoming the gospel of Christ. And the obligations we are under to do this will farther appear, if it be considered, that we are thereby not only instructed in the right knowledge and worship of the only true God, in opposition to all idolatry and polytheism, but we have also a perfect rule of moral duty set before us in all its just extent, and enforced by a divine authority, and by the most powerful and engaging motives; and that we have also the fullest discoveries there made to us of a future state of retributions, and the great important realities of an unseen eternal world. And that, in both these respects, the nations stood in great need of an extraordinary divine revelation, especially about the time of our Saviour's appearing, is what I propose to show in the remaining part of this work.

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INDEX

TO THE

FIRST VOLUME.

THE LETTER N. REFERS TO THE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

A.

ABRAHAM-was at first an idolater, and in what sense he was so, page 60. He afterwards endeavoured, according to the Oriental writers, to promote a refor mation of religion among the Chaldeans, 60.—was regarded as a prophet among the Canaanites and Egyptians, ibid. His fame spread far and wide, especially among the people of the East, 343, 344. Nations proceeding from him for a long time retained some knowledge of the one true God, 344. Academics those of what was called the New Academy held that some things are more probable than others; in which they differed from the Pyrrhonians: yet in reality agreed with them, that there is no certainty to be attained to, and that we ought always to withhold our assent, 210. They and other Sceptics are represented by Epictetus as the most incorrigible of all men, and unfit to be reasoned with, 201, 211.

Alexandria-a celebrated school of philosophers established there, after Christian. ity had made some progress in the world, 371. There was a mixture of Chris tians and Pagans in that school, 372. Several things in the philosophy taught there were borrowed from the Sacred Writings, 372. See Ammonius. Allegories-the Stoics and other philosophers endeavoured to turn the traditionary fables concerning the gods into physical allegories, 229. See also 103, 291, 292. Altar-erected at Athens to the unknown God, 529. Altars of this kind in many

places, ibid. N.

America, People of-generally have a notion, according to Acosta, of one supreme God, who is perfectly good; but many of them confound him with the sun, 72. They worship an evil being or beings, for fear of being hurt by them, 73, 121.

Ammonius Saccas-a famous president of the Alexandrian school, lived and died a Christian, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, 372-was born and educat ed under Christian parents, according to Porphyry, but afterwards embraced Paganism and from him were derived the philosophers of what was called the Sacred Succession, ibid. He mixed with his philosophy several things originally derived from the holy Scriptures, ibid.

Anaxagoras-was accused at Athens of impiety, because he held the sun, moon, and stars, to be inanimate bodies, 80-severely censured on that account by Socrates and Plato, ibid. He was the first of the Greek philosophers who clearly asserted God to be an infinite mind, absolutely separate from matter, 218, 226. He held matter to be eternal, but that mind was the cause of the regular order of things, 227, 244.-yet he himself did not make a right use and application of this principle, in accounting for the phenomena of nature, which he ascribed to material causes; and for this he is blamed by Socrates, 227. His account of the formation of animals, not much different from that of Epicurus, ibid. Antiquities, extravagant-of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Chinese, fabulous, and not to be depended upon, 58.

Antoninus, Marcus-the emperor and philosopher, holds that the world is God,
252.—and that the human soul is a portion of the Divine Essence, ibid. N
generally expresses himself in the polytheistic strain; and represents the gods as
the authors and orderers of all things, 264, et seq. He was zealous and dili-
gent in the observation of the Pagan rites and ceremonies, 281, 370.
Arabians-noble notions of the Deity and of religion among them in the days of
Job, 61. yet in his time many of them fell into the idolatrous worship of the
heavenly bodies, 62, 78.

Aratus-the passage produced from him to show that the heathen Jupiter was
the one true supreme God, considered, 330, 331.

Aristotle-mentions it as an ancient tradition, that the stars are gods; and ob-
serves that the representing the gods in the forms of men and other animals,
was added afterwards, for political purposes, 79, et 365.-asserts one eternal
first Mover, whom he calls the supreme God; but that the stars are also true
eternal deities, 233. He taught the eternity of the world both in its matter and
form, and in this was generally followed by the Peripatetics and latter Plato-
nists, 244.-denied that Providence extendeth its care to things below the moon,
307. N.

Arnobius-represents the pernicious effects of the vicious examples of the heathen
deities, 106-observes that any man would be punished that should charge a
magistrate or senator with such actions as were ascribed to their gods, 140-
gives a long account of the impurities of their worship, 152—makes a very un-
favourable representation of the Eleusinian mysteries, 193.

Assyrians-gave the name of Adad to the highest God, and by him understood
the sun: they also worshipped a goddess called Adargatis, that is, the earth;
and to these two ascribed the power over all things, 83.

Athenians-condemned Anaxagoras for saying that the sun is a body of fire, and
the moon a habitable earth, 80—yet they showed no resentment against Epicu-
rus and other philosophers who ascribed the formation of the world to chance,
219. They had a great zeal for the mysteries, 189-were excessively addicted
to superstition and idolatry, 190. St. Paul supposes the true God to be un-
known to them, 328 et seq.

Attestations, extraordinary-given to the divinity of our Saviour's mission, and
to the truth of Christiany, 378, 379.

Augustin, St.-offers several things to shew the close connection there was be-
tween the civil and poetical theology of the Pagans, 139 et seq.-observes that
the theatrical plays made a part of the public religion of the Romans, and were
supposed to be acceptable to the gods, and fit means for appeasing them, and
averting their displeasure, 140.

B

Banier, Abbè de-shows that the fables of the ancient mythology were not mere-
ly allegorical, but originally founded upon historical facts, 89, 90.
Bel-the chief deity of the Babylonians, and Baal of the Phoenicians, were used to
signify both a deified man and the sun, 88, 89. Punishments denounced against
Bel by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, 99, 100. This might probably have
been at first used as the name of the one supreme God, but was afterwards
transferred to an idol, 244.
Bolingbroke, Lord-declares that man is a religious creature, and that this is his
chief pre-eminence above the brutes, 38-gives it as his opinion, that the vari-
ety of phenomena would be apt to lead the first men not to one first cause, but
to imagine a variety of causes, 43-owns that the Pagans lost sight of the one
true God, and suffered imaginary beings to intercept the worship due to him
alone, 74, 136.

C

Canaanites and Phænicians-it does not appear that they were generally idolaters,

when Abraham first came among them; but they were over-run with idolatry
and polytheism in the days of Moses, 60.

Capitolinus, Jupiter-worshipped among the ancient Romans as the chief deity of
their religion and laws; not the one true God, but the principal of their idol-
deities, to whom they ascribed the peculiar titles and attributes of the supreme
God, 100, et seq. et 137-the same with the Jupiter of the poets, 101, 102. See
Jupiter.
Ceylon, the people of-acknowledge one God to be supreme, but believe he does
not concern himself with human affairs; they have priests and temples dedicated
to inferior deities, but none to the Supreme, 71, 72—they worship evil beings,

121.

Chaldeans and Assyrians-were among the first corrupters of the most ancient
and primitive religion, 60, 76, 77-yet the knowledge of the one true God was
in some degree preserved among them, and in Mesopotamia, for a considerable
time, though mixed with some idolatrous and superstitious usages, 60.
ing to Berosus they supposed Bel to be the maker of heaven and earth; but
Diodorus tells us, they held the world to be eternal, and that it was neither ge-
nerated nor liable to corruption, 244.

Accord-

Chaos-the tradition of the world's having been made out of a chaos, of universal
extent, and derived from the first ages, 50, 64.

Chinese-probably in the most ancient times had the knowledge of the one true
God, but soon fell into idolatry, 59. They worshippped, from a remote anti.
quity, the heaven and earth, the sun, moon, and stars, ibid. et 83. Their philoso-
phers have a double doctrine, the one private for the use of the learned, the
other popular for political purposes, 205. N. Those of the learned sect in
China generally atheists, 221. N. Their absurd account of the origin of things,
ibid. Held one universal substance, and that all things are the same, 247. N.
Christian revelation-designed to promote the salvation of all, and therefore pub.
lished clearly and openly to the people, 208-suited to the necessities of man-
kind, and such as their state required, 379-admirably fitted to recover the
nations from their idolatry and polytheism to the right knowledge and worship
of the one true God, 380. It subverted the visible kingdom of Satan in the
heathen world, though strongly established, 382, 383, et seq. Christianity had
amazing difficulties to encounter with at its first promulgation, yet through a
divine power accompanying it, overcame them all, 382, 384. The speedy pre-
gress it made in the first age, and the wonderful change it wrought in the face
of religion among the nations, 383, et seq. It was published to the world when
it was most wanted, and in the properest season, 386-fitted and designed to be
promulgated to all nations, and in due time shall be so, 387, 388.

Chubb, Mr.-allows, that a revelation is possible, and may be useful, but pretends
we have no way of knowing whether it be divine, 17.

Cicero-has many passages concerning the proofs of a deity from the works of
nature, 67, 68-approves the paying divine honours to men that had been fa-
mous, and worshipping them as gods, 88-asserts that the Dii majorum gen-
tium, those that were accounted gods of the higher order, were taken from
among men, 91, 92-makes very free with the Pagan deities, but was not for
doing this openly before the people, lest it should prejudice the public religion,
157. His account of the mysteries considered, 165, 164. His books De Na-
tura Deorum give an authentic proof how much the greatest men among the
Pagans were fallen from the knowledge of the one true God, 215. His notion
of God seems to come nearest to that of the Stoics, 234. He will not allow that
God created the matter out of which heaven and earth was made, 246-expres-
ses himself generally in the polytheistic strain, 260, et seq. In arguing for the
existence of God and a providence, he leads the people to a plurality of deities,
ibid.-in his treatise of laws prescribes the worship, not of one supreme
God, but of a plurality of gods, 284-passes an unreasonable censure upon
the Jewish religion, 354. N.

Civil theology. See Theology.

Clemens Alexandrinus-was well acquainted with the Pagan mysteries: the ac-
count he gives of them much to their disadvantage, 192, 193.

Conflagration of the world-the tradition concerning it was of great antiquity,
and spread generally among the nations, 52.

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Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher-was a great upholder of the ancient
superstitions, and would not suffer the least deviation from them, 283-seems
to have considered religion chiefly in a political view, ibid. et 286.

Cosmogony-or an account of the formation of the world, disguised and corrupted
by turning it into a theogony, or an account of the generation of the gods.
Such is Hesiod's Theogony, which is a jumble of gods, heroes, and the things
of nature personified, 113.

Creation of the world—many remarkable vestiges of the history of the creation
continued for a long time among the nations, 63, et seq.

Cudworth, Dr.-observes that the Pagan theology was all along confounded with
a mixture of physiology and herology blended together, 93, 99, 109. His
pretence that the Jupiter of the Pagans was the one true God, worshipped both
by the philosophers and the people, examined, 93, et seq. See also 325. He
was fond of the hypothesis, that the different Pagan divinities were only differ.
ent names and manifestations of the one true God, 109—gives it as a general
observation, that the most refined Pagans agreed in two things; in crumbling
the one simple deity into parts, and in theologizing the whole world, and deify.
ing the natures of things, accidents, and inanimate bodies, 118, 119-acknow-
ledges that the civil theology of the Pagans, as well as the poetical, had not only
many fantastic gods in it, but an appearance of a plurality of independent
deities, 137-asserts that all the Pagans were in one respect or other cosmola-
ters, or world-worshippers, 255. His apology for the Pagan idolatry shown to
be insufficient; and he himself passes a just censure upon it, as confounding
God and the creature, 256-endeavours to prove from St. Paul's discourse to
the Athenians, that the generality even of the vulgar Pagans worshipped the
true God, the same whom we adore, 324, et seq. He makes several conces-
sions in his book which are not well consistent with his scheme, 340, 341.

D

Demons-worship of evil demons very common in the Pagan world, 115, et seq.
See also 381.

Deluge, universal-general tradition concerning it among the nations, 48. N.
The remembrance of it had a tendency to impress men's minds with the fear
of God, and a sense of his providence, 48, 49. The heads of families after the
flood carried the main principles of religion into the several regions of their dis-
persion, which were never entirely extinguished, 50, 51. The eastern parts of
the world were first peopled and settled after the flood: there civil polities were
formed, and the greatest vestiges of the ancient religion were to be found. From
thence knowledge was communicated to the western parts, 51.

Diodorus Siculus-his account of the different way of philosophizing among the
Chaldeans and the Greeks, ibid.-blames the Greek philosophers for leading
men into perpetual doubts, 213. In the account he gives of the Egyptian
theology he takes no notice of the Deity as having had any concern in the for-
mation of things, 219.

Diogenes, the Cynick-his sneer at the Pagan mysteries, 163. N.
Diogenes Halicarnasseus—His judicious censure on the Pagan mythology, 133
-he highly commends the civil theology of the ancient Romans, 134.

E

Eclectics-Pagan philosophers so called after our Saviour's coming, who profess
to select that which was best out of the several sects of philosophers, and to
form it into one body, 371.

Education and instruction—necessary to give men just notions of natural religion,
6, 7-the great advantage of it shown from Plato and Plutarch, ibid.
Egyptians-it does not appear that they were idolaters in the days of Abraham,
nor was their religion entirely corrupted in the time of Joseph, 61, 62. The
pretence that a great part of the Egyptian polytheism was nothing but the
worshipping the one true God under different names and notions, examined,

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