390 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IIL 



in private, t'hough he did not communicate them to the people of 

 Athens in the Areopagus. But there is one fundamental dodirinc 

 of Chriftianity, and of Theifm in general, with which he fets out 

 in his fpeech to that aflembly; and that was the Unity of the God- 

 head : There was one God^ he fays, that made the world and all 

 things therein ; feeing he is Lord of heaven and earth, &c. jind this 

 •was, he fays, the unknown God, to ivhom they had ere£fed an altar, 

 and who was the God that he declared unto them. By this dodlrine, 

 of one God, St Paul meant to put an end to that Polytheifm, which 

 was univerfal in all the Heathen nations, and particularly among 

 the Athenians, who, as St Paul fays, were too fuberflitions ; more 

 fo, I think, than other Heathen nations, as appears from the altar 

 dedicated To the unknown God; fuch as, I believe, was not to be 

 found in any other nation in the world. Of this altar St Paul makes 

 a very good ufe, and lets them know, that the unknown God, to 

 whom they dedicated the altar, was the one God, who had made 

 the heaven and earth, and all things therein. And it was, as I have 

 faid, a fundamental doctrine of Chriftianity, that Jefus came from 

 this one God, not to eftablifh different religions in different coun- 

 tries, but to give one religion to all mankind, by which they were 

 to be faved, if they would embrace that religion, and conform them- 

 felves to the precepts of it: So that the miffion of Jefus was not, 

 like the miffion of Mofes, to one people, but to all the people of the 

 earth; and, therefore, the world, in confequence of this miffion, as 

 it had but one God, was to have but one religion; and not to be di- 

 vided into many local and territorial religions, of which there were 

 many different deities even in the fame country. 



I am nov^ to fnow, that it was not only a learned, philofophical 

 religion, but a religion for the people, and more fitted lo make them 

 virtuous and happy, both in this life and the next, than any religion 

 t^iat ever was among men; — In fliorr, that it was a popular religion 



of 



