Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/430

A Chajs Hi. OF MARCHES T ; % R. W j A irtts* the elements, mountains, rivers, and rock*, imaginary in- ^ telligenees, and departed fpirits, would next rife in fycceflton to the world the fenfeleii • deities of abufed reafrrw And ail of- thefo probably, and tnoft of theft certainly, were the national divinities of Britain K . Amid thefe wild wanderings of disordered religion, the two. origi&al inftitutions of Ood, pricfts and facrtficet, and the three Original dodnnes of a foperiutending Providence, of the . world'* • filial dsftru&ion, and of the foul's continuance in a future period of exigence, were all carefully retained by the Britons *. The great incident of the fall muft have originally occaiioped the in* ftitutions. And the great incident of the fall muft ftijl have been pointed out by the obfcrvancies. If die Deity had not known man to have fallen from his original perfection* if hea* thenifm had not believed a taint of corruption to have ftained his original purity, the former could not poffiMy have enjoined and the latter could 1 not poffiMy have retained thefe particular obfervancies at all. The appointment of interceding minifters and the inftitution of conciliating facrifices muft certainly have been made on account of, and muft as certainly have pointed out in their obfervance, fome fixed but efazeable principle of impy*" rity in man and fome permanent but appeafable principle of anger in God, And thefe were retained by all the Heathens in general. But the do&rines of a Providence, the fours immor- tality, and the world's deftru&ion, were almoft confined to the Britons in particular. They remained among them the peculiar incentives to moral a&ions. In that vitiated tone of the hujfiau mind however the united force of all thefe was very weak.' The do&rine of the foul's immortality had the abuflve nptfoji of transmigration engrafted upon it s . The priefts were pol- luted with human facrifices 6 . And, as I have (hewed before, the people were guilty of the grofleft impurities and the moftr abominable mixtures .' There toas fomething however in the Dniidical (pedes of heathenifm that was peculiarly calculated .tb'arreft the attention and to imprefs the mind. The rudely ftiajeftic cintture of fton£g E e e a , . in