VIII THEISM; EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 189 



events as, with good reasoners, are the chief difficulties in admit- 

 ting a Supreme Intelligence, are with him the sole arguments for 

 it. ... 



"We may conclude therefore, upon the whole, that since the 

 vulgar, in nations which have embraced the doctrine of theism, 

 still build it upon irrational and superstitious grounds, they are 

 never led into that opinion by any process of argument, but by 

 a certain train of thinking, more suitable to their genius and 

 capacity. 



" It may readily happen, in an idolatrous nation, that though 

 men admit the existence of several limited deities, yet there is 

 some one God, whom, in a particular manner, they make the 

 object of their worship and adoration.. They may either sup- 

 pose, that, in the distribution of power and territory among the 

 Gods, their nation was subjected to the jurisdiction of that 

 particular deity ; or, reducing heavenly objects to the model of 

 things below, they may represent one god as the prince or 

 supreme magistrate of the rest, who, though of the same nature, 

 rules them with an authority like that which an earthly sover- 

 eign exerts over his subjects and vassals. Whether this god, 

 therefore, be considered as their peculiar patron, or as the 

 general sovereign of heaven, his votaries will endeavour, by 

 every art, to insinuate themselves into his favour ; and suppos- 

 ing him to be pleased, like themselves, with praise and flattery, 

 there is no eulogy or exaggeration which will be spared in their 

 addresses to him. In proportion as men's fears or distresses 

 become more urgent, they still invent new strains of adulation ; 

 and even he who outdoes his predecessor in swelling the titles 

 of his divinity, is sure to be outdone by his successor in newer 

 and more pompous epithets of praise. Thus they proceed, till 

 at last they arrive at infinity itself, beyond which there is no 

 further progress ; And it is well if, in striving to get further, 

 and to represent a magnificent simplicity, they ran not into 

 inexplicable mystery, and destroy the intelligent nature of their 

 deity, on which alone any rational worship or adoration can be 

 founded. While they confine themselves to the notion of a 

 perfect being, the Creator of the world, they coincide, by chance, 

 with the principles of reason and true philosophy ; though they 



