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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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** When , therefore , either fortune iscertain or % mture uncertain , how muck better is it , and more venerable , to reveive the discipline of our ancestors for trndition of truth , observe the religions left us by them , to adore those oods
"Which thy parents hare from thy youth fetm iltari ?/ taught thee to fear and know , than to sit in judgment upon the gods . Let us believe our first parents , who , yet in the simple infancy of the world , did deserve to have the gods or their princes more favourable unto them . And by this
means , through all empires , provinces , cities , we see them have their several national sacred rites , and to worship their municipal gods : * the Eleusinians , Ceres ; the Phrygians , the great
Mother ; the Epidaurians , ^ Esculapius ; the Chaldeans , Belus ; the Syrians , Astarte 5 the Tauricians , Diana 5 the Gauls , Mercury ; the Romans , all . So hath their power and authority subdued the circumference of the
whole world , propagated their empire beyond the course of the sun and limits of the ocean : whilst with their arms they exercise a religious virtue ; whilst they fortify the city with sacred religions , chaste virgins , many honours and titles of priesthood :
whilst besieged and all taken but the Capitol , they still worship those gods which some would in anger have despised , and through the troops of the Gauls , wondering at their bold superstition , they pass naked of weapons , but armed with a worship of religion ; whilst now captive in their own
hostile walls , ai ? d victory pursuing execution oji them , they still reverence their conquered deities ; whilst from every quarter they seek foreign gods , and make them their own ; whilst they set up altars to unknown g * ods and spirits , and do entertain the sacred ceremonies of all nations , they
* He seems to have regarded tljcse municipal ijocts as deified princes , and this lias been a prevalent opinion . That it i . s , however , erroneous , as to llie Assyrian deities at least , is mo . ^ t ably and convincnigly iimintaiiifd in a late Essay in the
Manchester Transactions , by the Hev . JL Ken rick , which displays much learning " , acute ness and ingenuity , under the con-Iroul of a more solid judgment than has generally governed the speculations of those who have pursued such inquiries .
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deserved their empire . This perpetual course of religion hath hitherto re ^ wiained , not broken with antiquity , but increased . For age useth to give to ceremonies and temples so much
more sanctity as they have augmentation of years . " ** Therefore , when in all nations there remains a firm confession of the immortal gods , although their cause and original be uncertain , I can brook no man who , puft up
with I know not what bold irreligious wisdom , dare attempt to dissolve or weaken this religion of ours , so old , so useful , so preserving human society . " " When the Athenians did banish out of their territories
Protagoras of Abdera , who disputed rather indiscretely than profanely of divinity , and did in their assembly burn his writings , must we not mourn to behold men of an incurable , illegal and desperate faction , * so to forage upon
the gods ; who with a " collection of people drawn from utter baseness , and with credulous women easily falling iu the imbecility of their sex , institute a rout and profane conspiracy , which in their nocturnal congregations , by solemn fasts and
inhuman feasts , not with sacraments , but by impious rites , do league together ; a lurking and light-avoiding race , full of prate in corners , and dumb in fair assemblies ? They despise our temples as graves , they spit upon the gods , and deride our sacred ceremonies . If
a man may speak it , these miserable creatures with pity behold the honours of our priests , and half-naked scorn our purple . O their wonderful and incredible bold foolery I In fear of uncertain future torments they
despise all present ; and here they fear not to die , for fear of dying after death . 80 doth fear and faise hope flatter them into a comfort of living again . And now , as evil things grow in
greatest abundance , pernicious manners creeping in , these men have gained every where in the world terrible assemblies of their impious combination , n combination accursed ^ and to be plucked np by the very roots "
He then lays 'to their charge a plentiful catalogue of crimes , to which those calumnies which the orthodox have always been so ready to ? The Christians .
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310 The Nonconformist . No . X .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 310, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/30/
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