THE FIRST TABLE. 213 fore him, it calls upon us to acknowledge and worship Him alone. The second prescribes the MEANS OF WORSHIP, not by images, or any other plan of human invention, but by the rites and ordinances which are divinely appointed. The third declares the MANNER in which the service of God should be performed, namely, with reverence, as opposed to profaneness, and every abuse of religious institutions. The fourth specifies the TIME of worship, to wit, one day in seven, which is to be wholly devoted to God; not, however, to the exclusion of other seasons which the events of Providence may point out, and the regular devotional exercises of every day. 486. The proclamation of this law was prefaced by these words:" I am Jehovah thy God," which contain an ample ground and satisfactory reason for the obedience of every human being. They evidently imply that He is the self-existent and eternal Being, who created all worlds, and peopled them with their inhabitants; that he has sovereign authority to prescribe a rule of action to his creatures; and that he knows best what laws are requisite to preserve the order, and secure the happiness of his vast empire. That these laws are not mere acts of divine sovereignty, but founded upon the nature of things, and are calculated to preserve the harmony and order of the intelligent universe, will appear from the following illustrations and remarks. THE FIRST TABLE OF THE LAW. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 487. It is worthy of remark that each precept of the law is addressed to men in their individual capacity, in order to impress their minds more deeply with their personal accountability, and to excite them to a more diligent and conscientious obedience. I. Prohibitions involved in the First Precept. 488. (1.) This precept forbids, in the first place, ATheISM, which may be divided into explicit and constructive. 489. Explicit atheism consists in the formal denial of 214 ATHEISM AND POLYTHEISM. the existence of God. He is an atheist who contends that the universe contains no other intelligence than the human mind; says that the universe is eternal; that there is nothing in it but matter and motion, and talks of nature, and chance, and fate-words which have no meaning, but serve as a substitute in discourse for the name of a living, designing agent, by whom all things were created, and are governed. 490. Čonstructive atheism is an expression which is designed to embrace all those sentiments which amount to the denial of God, or lead to this conclusion, although they do not formally express it. Such atheism was charged upon Epicurus and his followers, who, as Cicero says, granted in words that there were gods, but in reality took them away, because they represented them as removed to a distance from mortals, and taking no interest in their affairs. 491. The same charge which was advanced against Epicurus may be brought, with equal justice, against those who deny the providence of God, his particular oversight and regulation of each and all of the affairs of this world; and who substitute in the room of the all-perfect Being of the Scriptures, a god fashioned according to their own likeness, an ideal of their own brain. 492. The expression, practical atheism, denotes such conduct as virtually contradicts the profession of the lips; accordingly an apostle speaks of some "who profess to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate." 493. (2.) In the second place, this precept forbids PoLYTHEISM, or the worship of more deities than one. 494. Polytheism was introduced long before the time when the law was given at Mount Sinai. It existed in Chaldea while Abraham sojourned there; and it seems that this patriarch was a worshiper of false gods before he was called to leave his country and his kindred. By the time of the exodus from Egypt, the evil had spread far and wide; and we have reason to believe that Polytheism prevailed among all nations, although there might still be some individuals who continued exclusively to adore the Creator of heaven and earth. 495. The design of the call of Abraham was to sepa ANCIENT POLYTHEISM. 215 rate his descendants from the apostate race, and to constitute them a distinct and peculiar people, among whom the knowledge and worship of Jehovah should be preserved till the time for the introduction of Christianity, when He would again reveal himself to the world, and destroy the gods of the Gentiles. By this precept the religions of all heathen nations are condemned; for they are directly opposed to the fundamental doctrine of the unity of the divine essence; and they either exclude the true God, or they associate others with him as sharers in the honors to which He alone is entitled. 496. We are informed by Hesiod, Varro, and other ancient authors, that no less than thirty thousand subordinate divinities were comprised in that system of Polytheism which prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. They had both celestial and terrestrial deities. They assigned peculiar gods to the fountains, the rivers, the hills, the mountains, the valleys, the groves, the sea, and even to hell itself. To cities, fields, houses, families, gates, nuptial chambers, marriages, births, deaths, sepulchres, trees, and gardens, they also appropriated distinct and peculiar deities. Their chief idol was Jupiter, whom they called the father of gods and men. Instead of worshiping the living God, they deified a host of dead men, called heroes, distinguished for nothing so much as for murder, adultery, sodomy, rapine, cruelty, drunkenness, and all kinds of debauchery. To such contemptible divinities splendid temples were erected, adorations addressed, costly offerings presented, and rites and ceremonies performed, subversive of every principle of decency and morality, and degrading to the reason and character of man. [For a full account of the rise of Polytheism and Pantheism, consult Douglas on Errors regarding Religion; also Dewar's Moral Philosophy, vol. ii. pp. 152-182.] 497. In ancient Egypt, the meanest, and the most contemptible objects-sheep, cats, bulls, dogs, cows, storks, apes, vultures, and other birds of prey; wolves, and several sorts of oxen, were exalted as objects of adoration. Each city and district in Egypt entertained a peculiar devotion to some animal or other, as an object of worship; 216 ANCIENT AND MODERN POLYTHEISM. nourished it with the greatest care and delicacy when living, and mourned deeply for it when dead. 498. If the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, who were distinguished from the rest of the world for their improvements in literature, science, and the arts, had so far renounced their allegiance to the true God, we may rest assured that the surrounding nations were sunk still further into the pollution of idolatry and of mental debasement. The Phoenicians, the Syrians, the Canaanites, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the Arabians, the Scythians, the Ethiopians, the Carthaginians, the ancient Gauls, Germans, and Britons, were, if possible, more deeply debased, and mingled with their idolatrous rites. many cruel, obscene, and vile practices. 499. The moral debasement of modern heathen nations, in consequence of Polytheism, is about as great as that of the ancient. Even the Hindoos, the Burmans, the Chinese, the Persians, and the Japanese, though ranked among the most polished nations of the heathen world, are sunk into the grossest ignorance of the true God, and are found perpetrating, in their religious worship, deeds revolting to humanity, and stained with cruelty and injustice. 500. All pretenses to witchcraft or to magic, fortunetelling, charms, astrology, or enchantments, are, by some, considered as herein prohibited; as, in these ways, men expect that information or assistance from other beings which God only can afford. 501. It has been alleged that ancient legislators and philosophers were not idolators themselves; that their doctrines to a considerable extent counteracted the tendency of idolatry, and that the mysteries which were so generally established, and to which the initiated only were admitted, were expressly designed to preserve the knowledge of the one true God. But Dr. Dewar and others have proved that these suppositions are unfounded; and that the philosophers and legislators of antiquity were the supporters and patrons of idolatry. Without alluding to all their erroneous opinions on this subject, there was one which, more than any other, seemed to make idolatry a duty, and furnished the most plausible arguments in its favor-namely, that the soul of the world (anima mundi) is God; that the mind which governs the world passeth through every part of it, as the soul doth in us: or, as the poet has expressed it,— "All are but parts of one stupendous whole, That changed through all, and yet in all the same, These lines, while they may be understood as merely expressing the doctrine of the omnipresence of God, and in that view must be considered as peculiarly beautiful and sublime, do also give a lively representation of the grossly erroneous doctrine of the Stoics and other heathen philosophers; for some of these, after proving the existence and providence of the gods from the beauty and order of the works that are made, gravely maintained that the world is an animal, reasonable, wise, and happy, and therefore is God. On this principle, whatever parts of the universe they chose to deify, were parts of God, and therefore entitled to religious worship. They themselves, also, and their fellow-men, were parts of the divinity, a notion which tended to produce that pride and self-sufficiency for which the Stoics were so distinguished. Need we wonder that an apostle should caution the disciples of Christianity to beware lest any man should spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit ? [Dewar, vol. ii. p. 170.] 502. Such effects have been produced by a departure from this fundamental law of the Creator, as correspond to the religious system adopted. Man generally copies the actions of those whom he conceives to be placed in a superior station. When, therefore, the gods were introduced to his view, as swollen with pride, mad with rage, fired with revenge, inflamed with lust, engaged in battles and contests, delighting in scenes of blood and rapine, in hatred, and mutual contentions, and in all kinds of riot and debauchery, it was natural to suppose that such passions and crimes would be imitated by their blinded votaries. Accordingly, we find that such vices universally prevailed, even among the politest nations of antiquity, and some of their sacred rites solemnized in honor of their gods were so bestial and shocking, as to excite K |