in theory and practice, believing neither in Providence nor a future state. It was a meeting of philosophers, of votaries to pleasure and ambition; all very dangerous sets of men, and who, accordingly, overturned the republic.

I would not willingly lie at the mercy of an atheistical prince, who might think it his interest to have me pounded in a mortar: I am very certain that would be my fate. And, were I a

sovereign, I would not have about me any atheistical courtiers, whose interest it might be to poison me, as then I must every day be taking alexipharmics; so necessary is it both for princes and people, that the minds be thoroughly imbibed with an idea of a Supreme Being, the Creator, Avenger, and Rewarder.

There are atheistical nations, says Bayle, in his THOUGHTS ON COMETS. The Caffres, the Hottentots, the Topinamboux, and many other petty nations, have no god: that may be; but it does not imply that they deny the exist ence of a Deity; they neither deny nor affirm: they have never heard a word about him; tell them that there is a God, they will readily believe it; tell them that every thing is the work of nature, and they will as cordially believe it; you may as well say, that they are Anti-Cartesians as to call them atheists. They are mere children, and a child is neither atheist nor theist ; he is nothing.

What are the inferences from all this? That atheism is a most pernicious monster in sovereign princes, and likewise in statesmen, however harmless their life be, because from their cabinet they can make their way to the former; that if it be not so mischievous as fanaticism, it

is almost ever destructive of virtue. I congratulate the present age, on there being fewer atheists now than ever; philosophers having discovered that there is no vegetable without a germ, no germ without design, &c. and that corn is not produced by putrefaction.

Some unphilosophical geometricians have rejected final causes, but they are admitted by all real philosophers; and, to use the expression of a known author, "A catechist makes God known "to children, and Newton demonstrates him to "the learned."

BAPTISM.

BAPTISM, a Greek word, signifying immersion: men being ever led by their senses, easily came to fancy that what washed the body likewise cleansed the soul. In the vaults under the Egyptian temples were large tubs for the ablutions of the priests and the initiated. The Indians, from time immemorial, purified themselves in the Ganges, and the ceremony still subsists among them. The Hebrews adopted it, baptiz ing all proselytes who would not submit to be circumcised; especially the women, as exempt from that operation, except in Ethiopia only, were baptized; it was as regeneration; it imparted a new soul, among them, as in Egypt. Concerning this, see Epiphanius, Maimonides, and the Gemara.

John baptized in the Jordan; he baptized even Jesus Christ himself, who, however, never baptized any one, yet was pleased to consecrate this ancient ceremony. All signs are of themselves indifferent, and God annexes his grace to such

as

as he thinks fit to chuse. Baptism soon became the principal rite, and the seal of Christianity. The first fifteen bishops of Jerufalem were all circumcised, and there is no certainty of their having ever been baptized.

In the first ages of Christianity this sacrament was abused, nothing being more common than to delay baptism till the agony of death; of this the emperor Constantine is no slight proof. This was his way of reasoning: Baptism washes away all sin, so that I may kill my wife, my son, and all my relations, then I'll get myself baptized, and so go to heaven; and he acted accordingly. Such an instance carried danger with it; and, by degrees, the custom of delaying the sacred laver till death, wore off.

The Greeks always adhered to baptism by immersion; but the Latins, towards the end of the eighth century, having extended their religion over Gaul and Germany, and seeing that immersion in cold countries did not agree with children, substituted in its stead aspersion, or sprinkling, for which they were often anathematized by the Greek church.

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, being asked whether they whose bodies had been only sprinkled were really baptized; he answers, in his seven. tieth letter, that several churches did not hold them to be Christians; that he does, but withal, what grace they have, is infinitely less than that of those who, according to the primitive rite, had been dipped three times.

After immersion a Christian became initiated; whereas before he was only a catechumen; but initiation required securities and sponsors, who` were called by a name answerable to that of god

fathers,

fathers, that the church might be sure of the fidelity of the new Christians, and the sacred mysteries be not divulged. Wherefore during the first centuries, the Pagans, in general, knew as little of the Christian mysteries, as the Christians did of the mysteries of Isis and Eleusis.

Cyril of Alexandria, in a writing of his against the emperor Julian, delivers himself thus: " I "would speak a word of baptism, did I not fear, "that what I say might come to those who are not initiated."

66

Children were baptized so early as the second century, it being, indeed, very natural that Chriftians should be solicitous for this sacrament to be administered to their children, as without it they would be damned; and, at length, it was concluded that the time of administration should be at the end of eight days, in imitation of the Jews administring circumcision. The Greek church still retains this custom. However, in the third century the custom prevailed of not being baptized till near death.

Those who died in the first week, some rigid fathers of the church held to be damned; but Peter Chrysologus, in the fifth century, found out Limbo, a kind of mitigated hell, or, properly, the borders, or suburbs, of hell, whither unbaptized children go; and the abode of the patriarchs before Jesus Christ descended into hell. And ever since it has been the current opinion, that Jesus Christ descended into Limbo, and not into hell itself.

It has been debated whether a Christian could, in the deserts of Arabia, be baptized with sand; but carried in the negative: whether rose-water might be used for baptism; it was decided that

it must be pure water, yet muddy water would do on an emergency. Thus the whole of this discipline appears to depend on the prudence of the primitive pastors, by whom it was instituted.

BEASTS.

Is it possible any one should say, or affirm in

writing, that beasts are machines, void of knowledge and sense, have a sameness in all their operations, neither learning nor perfecting any thing, &c.

How! this bird which makes a semicircular nest when he fixes it against a wall, who, when in an angle, shapes it like a quadrant, and circular when he builds it in a tree; is this having a sameness in its operations? Does this hound, after three months teaching, know no more than when you first took him in hand? Your canary-bird, does he repeat a tune at first hearing, or rather is it not some time before you can bring him to it? is he not often out, and does he not improve by practice?

Is it from my speaking that you allow me sense, memory, and ideas? Well; I am silent; but you see me come home very melancholy, and with eager anxiety look for a paper, open the bureau where I remember to have put it, take it up and read it with apparent joy. You hence infer, that I have felt pain and pleasure, and that I have memory and knowledge.

Make then the like inference concerning this dog, who, having lost his master, runs about every where with melancholy yellings, comes

home