As SKETCH III. Principles and Progrefs of THEOLOGY. S no branch of knowledge can vie with theology, either in dignity or importance, it justly claims to be the favourite ftudy with every perfon endued with true taste and folid judgment. From the time that writing was invented, natural religion has employed pens without number; and yet in no language is there found a complete hiftory of it. That talk is far above my abilities: I propofe only a flight fketch; which I fhall glory in, however imperfect, if it excite any one of fuperior talents to undertake a task so arduous. T CHA P. I. Existence of a DEITY. HAT there are beings, one or many, powerful above men, has been generally believed among the various tribes of men: I may fay univerfally believed, notwithstanding what is reported of fome grofs favages; for reports repugnant to the common nature of man, require more able vouchers than a few illiterate voyagers. Among many favage tribes, there are no words but for objects of external fenfe: is it furprifing, that fuch people are incapable to express their religious perceptions, or any perception of internal sense? and from their filence can it be fairly prefumed, that they have no fuch perception? The belief of fuperior powers, in every country where there are words to exprefs it, is fo well vouched, that in fair reasoning it ought to be taken for granted among the few tribes where language is deficient. Even the groffeft idolatry affords * In the language even of Peru, there is not a word for expreffing an abstract idea, fuch as time, endurance, space, exiftence, fubftance, matter, body. It is no less defective in expreffing moral ideas, fuch as virtue, juftice, gratitude, liberty. The Yameos, a tribe on the river Oroonoko, defcribed by Condamine, ufe the word poettarraroincouroac to exprefs the number three, and have no word for a greater number. The Brafilian language is nearly as barren. : affords to me evidence of that belief. No nation can be fo brutish as to worship a ftock or a stone, merely as fuch. The vifible object is always imagined to be connected with fome invifible power; and the worship paid to the former, is as reprefenting the latter, or as in fome manner connected with it. Every family among the ancient Lithuanians, entertained a real ferpent as a household god; and the fame practice is at prefent univerfal, among the negroes in the kingdom of Whidah it is not the ferpent that is worshipped, but fome deity imagined to refide in it. The ancient Egyptians were not idiots, to pay divine honours to a bull or a cat, as fuch: the divine honours were paid to a deity, as refiding in these animals. The fun is to nan a familiar object: as it is frequently obfcured by clouds, and totally eclipfed during night, a favage readily conceives it to be a great fire fometimes flaming bright, fometimes obfcured, and fometimes extinguished. Whence then fun-worship, once univerfal among favages? Plainly from the fame caufe: it is not properly the fun that is worthipped, but a deity who is fuppofed to dwell in that luminary. Taking it then for granted, that our belief of fuperior powers has been long univerfal, the important queftion is, From what cause it proceeds. A belief fo univerfal, and fo permanent, cannot proceed from chance, but must have a caufe operating conftantly and invariably upon all men in all ages. Philofophers, who believe the world to be eternal and self-existent, and imagine it to be the only deity, though without intelligence, endeavour to account for our belief of fuperior powers, from the terror that thunder and other elementary convulfions raife in favages; and thence conclude that fuch belief is no evidence of a deity. Thus Lucretius, Præterea, cui non animus formidine divum Contrahitur? cui non conripunt membra pavore, Contremit, Contremit, et magnum percurrunt murmura cœlum* (a)? And, Petronius Arbiter, Primus in orbe deos fecit timor: ardua cœlo Fulmina quum caderent difcuffaque mania flammis, Atque ictus flagraret Athos t. Man, during infancy a defenceless animal, is endued on that account with a large portion of fear. Savages, grofsly ignorant of caufes and effects, take fright at every unusual appearance, and recur to fome malignant power as the cause. Now, if the authors quoted mean only, that the first perception of deity among favages is occafioned by fear, I heartily fubfcribe to their opinion. But if it was their meaning, that fuch perceptions proceed from fear folely, without having any other caufe, I wish to be informed, from what source is derived the belief we have of fuperior benevolent beings. Fear cannot be the fource: and it will be seen anon, that though malevolent deities were firft recognifed among favages; yet that in the progrefs of fociety, the existence of benevolent deities was univerfally believed. The fact is certain; and therefore fear is not the fole cause of our believing the existence of superior beings. It is befide to me evident, that the belief even of malevolent deities, once univerfal among all the tribes of men, cannot be accounted for from fear folely. I obferve, firft, That there are many men, to whom an eclipfe, an earthquake, and even thunder are unknown: Egypt in particular, though the country of fuperftition, is little or not at all acquainted with the two latter. Nor do fuch appearances ftrike terror into every one who is acquainted with them, The univerfality of the belief, muft then have fome caufe more univerfal than VOL. IV. (a) Lib. 5. E *What man can boaft, that firm undaunted foul, That hears, unmov'd, when thunder fhakes the pole ; When lightnings flash, and ftorms and tempests roar? When dread convulfions rock'd the lab'ring earth fear, fear. I obferve next, That if the belief were founded folely on fear, it would die away gradually as men improve in the knowledge of caufes and effects. Inftru& a favage, that thunder, an eclipfe, an earthquake, proceed from natural caufes, and are not threatenings of an incenfed deity; his fear of malevolent beings will vanish; and with it his belief in them, if founded folely on fear. Yet the direct contrary is true: in proportion as the human understanding ripens, our belief of fuperior powers, or of a Deity, turns more and more firm and authoritative; which will be made evident in the chapter immediately following, ་་ Philofophers of more enlarged views, and of deeper penetration, may poffibly think, that the operations of nature, and the government of this world, which loudly proclaim a Deity, may be fufficient to open the eyes of the groffeft favages, and to convince them that there is a Deity. And to give due weight to the argument. I fhall relate a converfation between a Greenlander and a Danish miffionary, mentioned by Crantz in his history of Greenland. "It is true," fays the Greenlander, we were ignorant Heathens, and knew little of a "God, till you came. But you must not imagine, that no Greenlander thinks about these things. A kajak "(a), with all its tackle and implements, cannot exist "but by the labour of man; and one who does not un"derstand it, would fpoil it. But the meanest bird "requires more skill than the beft kajak; and no man can make a bird. There is ftill more skill required 66 to make a man: by whom then was he made? He proceeded from his parents, and they from their pa66 rents. But fome must have been the first parents: "whence did they proceed? Common report fays, that "they grew out of the earth: if fo, why do not men "ftill grow out of the earth? And from whence came "the earth itself, the fun, the moon, the stars? Cer"tainly there must be fome being who made all these 66 things, a being more wife than the wifeft man." The reafoning here from effects to their causes, is ftated with great precifion; and were all men equally penetrating with the Greenlander, fuch reafoning might perhaps be fufficient (4) A Greenland boat. fufficient to account for the belief of Deity, univerfally fpread among all favages. But fuch penetration is a rare quality among favages; and yet the belief of fuperior powers is univerfal, not excepting even the groffeft favages, who are altogether incapable of reafoning like our Greenland philofopher. Natural history has inade fo rapid a progrefs of late years, and the finger of God is fo visible to us in the various operations of nature, that we do not readily conceive how even favages can be ignorant but it is a common fallacy in reasoning, to judge of others by what we feel in ourselves. And to give jufter notions of the condition of favages, I take the liberty to introduce the Wogultzoi, a people in Siberia, as exhibiting a ftriking picture of favages in their natural ftate. That people were baptized at the command of Prince Gagarin, governor of the province; and Laurent Lange, in his relation of a journey from Peterfburgh to Pekin ann. 1715, gives the following account of their converfion. I had curiofity," fays he," to question them about their worthip before they em"braced Christianity. They faid, that they had an "idol hung upon a tree, before which they proftrated "themselves, raifing their eyes to heaven, and howling "with a loud voice. They could not explain what they meant by howling; but only that every man "howled in his own fathion. Being interrogated, "Whether, in raising their eyes to heaven, they knew "that a god is there, who fees all the actions, and 64 even the thoughts of men; they answered fimply, "That heaven is too far above them to know whether a god be there or not; and that they had no care "but to provide meat and drink. Another question was put, Whether they had not more fatisfaction in worshipping the living God, than they formerly had "in the darkness of idolatry; they answered, We see "no great difference; and we do not break our heads "about fuch matters." Judge how little capable fuch ignorant favages are, to reafon from effects to their caufes, and to trace a Deity from the operations of nature. And it may be added with great certainty, that could they be made in any degree to conceive fuch reafoning, yet fo weak and obfcure would their conviction |