Tho' they set out with the Talents of Reason, and had solid Foundations of Information to build upon, it in Fact proved, that with all their strengthened Faculties, and growing Powers of Reason, the Edifice of Religion rose in the most absurd Deformities and Disproportions, and gradually went on in the most irrational, disproportioned, incongruous Systems, of which the most easy Dictates of Reason would have demonstrated the Absurdity. They were contrary to all just Calculations in moral Mathematics. He observes, That their grossest Abominations first began in Egypt, where was an Ostentation of the greatest Progress in Learning and Science: and they never renounced clearly any of their Abominations, or openly returned to the Worship of the one true God, the Creator of all things, and to the original, genuine Sentiments of the highest, and most venerable Antiquity. The Pagan Religion continued in this deep State of Corruption to the last. The Pagan Philosophers, and inquisitive Men, made great Improvements in many Sciences, and even in Morality it self; yet the inveterate Absurdities of Pagan Idolatry, remained without Remedy. Every Temple smoked with Incense to the Sun and Moon, & other inanimate, material Luminaries, and earthly Elements, to Jupiter, Juno, Mars and Venus, &c. the Patrons and Examples of almost every Vice. Hecatombs bled on the Altars of a Thousand Gods; as mad Superstition inspired. And this was not the Disgrace of our ignorant, untaught Northern Countries only; but even at Athens itself, the Infamy reigned, and circulated through' all Greece: And finally prevailed, amidst all their ⟨p. 54⟩Learning & Politeness, under the Ptolemy's in Egypt, and the Caesars at Rome. Now if the Knowledge of the Pagan World, in Religion, proceeded no further than this; if they retained all their Deities, even the most absurd of them all, their deified Beasts, and deified Men, even to the last Breath of Pagan Power; We may justly ascribe the great Improvements in the World on the Subject of Religion, to divine Revelation; either vouchsafed in the Beginning, when this Knowledge was competently clear and copious; or at the Death of Paganism, when this Light shone forth in it's consummate Lustre, at the Coming of Christ.
Tho' they set out with the Talents of Reason, and had solid Foundations of Information to build upon, it in Fact proved, that with all their strengthen'd Faculties, and growing Powers of Reason, the Edifice of Religion rose in the most absurd Deformities and Disproportions, and gradually went on in the most irrational, disproportion'd, incongruous Systems, of which the most easy Dictates of Reason would have demonstrated the Absurdity. They were contrary to all just Calculations in moral Mathematicks. He observes, That their grossest Abominations first began in Egypt, where was an Ostentation of the greatest Progress in Learning and Science: and they never renounced clearly any of their Abominations, or openly returned to the Worship of the one true God, the Creator of all things, and to the original, genuine Sentiments of the highest, and most venerable Antiquity. The Pagan Religion continued in this deep State of Corruption to the last. The Pagan Philosophers, and inquisitive Men, made great Improvements in many Sciences, and even in Morality it self; yet the inveterate Absurdities of Pagan Idolatry, remain'd without Remedy. Every Temple smoked with Incense to the Sun and Moon, & other inanimate, material Luminaries, and earthly Elements, to Jupiter, Juno, Mars and Venus, &c. the Patrons and Examples of almost every Vice. Hecatombs bled on the Altars of a Thousand Gods; as mad Superstition inspired. And this was not the Disgrace of our ignorant, untaught Northern Countries only; but even at Athens itself, the Infamy reigned, and circulated thro' all Greece: And finally prevailed, amidst all their ⟨p. 54⟩Learning & Politeness, under the Ptol•my's in Egypt, and the C•sars at Rome. Now if the Knowledge of the Pagan World, in Religion, proceeded no further than this; if they retain'd all their Deities, even the most absurd of them all, their deified Beasts, and deified Men, even to the last Breath of Pagan Power; We may justly ascribe the great Improvements in the World on the Subject of Religion, to divine Revelation; either vouchsafed in the Beginning, when this Knowledge was competently clear and copious; or at the Death of Paganism, when this Light shone forth in it's consumate Lustre, at the Coming of Christ.
