A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
20. 3. where Satan was chain’d.
In this Doctrine then of Evil Spirits, Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, and Christians, agree, the common Sense of Mankind concurring with Revelation.
Of Genij, or Guardian Angels.
IV. The Pagans agreed, “That Good Demons are Guardian-Genij, which, tho’ Servants to the supreme God, or subordinate Deities, are Patrons of particular Persons, Nations, or Societies; of Things, and of Places.” So Servius, “The Genius, according to the Sense of the Antients, is the natural God of every Place, or Thing, or Person.” And this was a common antient Inscription, “To Jupiter the Best and Greatest, and to the Genius of the Place.” The Genius of the Roman People, (distinct from the tutelar God of the City, whose Name was kept secret,) was call’d the Publick Genius, and is usual in antient Coins. So the Trojan Palladium was not a Thing that fell from Heaven, but a Telesm, or Image, made by a Philosopher and Astrologer, under a most fortunate Horoscope, and enclosing the Genius, or Fortune, of the City, by Virtue of Astrological Magick. So the Lares were look’d upon, as the proper Guardian-Genij of their Houses, whence they were call’d Prestites, and, as Plutarch tells us, cloath’d with Dog-Skins. Among the personal Guardian-Genij, that of the Prince was thought by far the most August, whence arose a Custom among the Romans, of swearing by Caesar’s Genius, which if any did forswear by in a Suit, he was Bastinadoed, but Perjury, by the Name of God, was not punish’d, they supposing that God would sufficiently avenge the Abuse of his own Deity. It was a receiv’d Opinion “That every Nation had a Tutelar-Deity, with subordinate Demons.” The Nomes, or Prefectures of Aegypt, had each their distinct God, whilst Isis and Osiris were worshipp’d over the Whole, see Sir Is. Newton’s Chronology.39
With respect to this Doctrine, the Heathens were divided in their Sentiments, some allowing a good-Genius, only to every Man,40 others a good and a bad to each,41 which Doctrine Mahomet has adopted. Many Christians, especially they of the Church of Rome, have embrac’d the Doctrine of good-Genij, converting them into Guardian-Angels. The determining every Man’s Genius at his Birth, those who gave into the Astrological Scheme, ascrib’d to the Stars, and to every Man’s Horoscope at his Birth.
Geminos, Horoscope, varo Producis Genio.42
The Horoscope produceth Twins of diversity of Genius.
Heathenism, a Religion of Patron-Deities, and their Clients.
§II. This Doctrine of Genij, the Heathens ow’d to their Notion of the Polity of the Universe; every thing superior to Man, and subordinate to the supreme Deity, being with them a Genius, each other Being, nay, and Mode of Being, having their Genius. Jupiter was the President, or Genius, of Heaven, Neptune of the Sea, Pluto of the Infernal Regions, a Triumvirate. The Planets had each their Genius, the Elements theirs: Nations, Societies, and individual Persons, had theirs. Venus was Goddess of the Passion of Love; Mars and Bellona were Patrons of the State of War; Janus of Peace; Terminus of Bounds; Mercury, Apollo, and the Muses, of the Professions of Eloquence, Poetry, and several Parts of Learning; Esculapius, of Physick; Vulcan, of Smiths; and Minerva, of the Faculty of Prudence.
With which the Church of Rome greatly Symbolizes.
Hence it appears, “That the Religion of the Heathens is a Religion of Patron-Deities and of their Clients, in subordination to the supreme God.” Herein consisted their Polytheism: How much, in this respect, Christian-Rome has borrow’d from Heathen-Rome, is but too obvious; pursuant to which the Romanists pray to one Saint in Child-Bed; to another, in the Tooth-Ach; to a third, when they are Travelling by Land; to a fourth, by Water: as if the Providence of the one God, supreme over All, did not extend over All, and equally over All: as if he were not the God, both of Land and Sea, Hills and Valleys; and as if he had not appointed one Mediator and Intercessor, sufficient for All; who has requir’d these Things at their Hands?
Different Senses of the Word, Demon.
The Word Demon is sometimes taken in a larger, sometimes in a stricter, Sense; sometimes as extensively as God in the largest Sense: So Homer calls his Gods, Demons; and the Pagans say of St. Paul, Act. 17.18. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Demons, that is, Gods. Sometimes it is taken in a stricter Sense, for a class of Beings between Gods and Heroes. Thus, according to the Heathens, were all things full, not of God, but of Gods; and they were guilty of the Worship of Demons, in both Senses of the Word, from which neither the Platonists, nor Pythagoreans, were free; but were great Promoters of it.
The Jewish Notion of the Government of the Universe, falls in with that of the Heathens, in great Measure;
§III. The Jews fell into the Heathen Notion of the Government of the World, believing, “That their Nation had a Guardian-Angel, who could transact nothing without leave of the Divine Providence”; supposing, “That all other Nations were committed to the care of their Angels, who were to them as Gods”; believing also “Bread, the Water, the Fire, the Hail, the Winds, &c. had each their Angel-President over them.” They assign “Seven President-Angels to the seven Days of the Week, twelve to the twelve Months, and four to the four Seasons;43 Arch-Angels to the 7 Planets;44 every Nation, the Israelites excepted, being subject to its particular Planet.”45 Also, with allusion to the Government of the Nations by Angels in Stars and Constellations, and not by immediate Divine Providence, the Jews, in their Liturgy, give to God the Name of the King of Kings, that is, the King of those Angelical Powers, who rule over the Potentates of the Earth. They are also of Opinion, “That the Number of Nations and Languages upon Earth is 70, having 70 President-Angels, by whom the Division of Languages was made at Babel.”46 This their Opinion is visible in the Septuagint-Translation of Deut. 32. 8. “When the most High divided the Nations, when he separated the Sons of Adam, he set the Bounds of the People, according to the Number” [not of the Children of Israel, as the Hebrew hath it, but] “of the Angels of God”; which they say are 70, and whom they call the Sanhedrim above.
As does that of many Christian Divines.
§IV. This Notion, which transforms the Universe into a Paganlike Republick, and the holy Angels into Pagan Gods and Demons, has been embrac’d by many of the Christian Fathers, modern Divines, and Philosophers; allowing, among other Parts of their Scheme, each of the heavenly Bodies their Intelligence, as they call it. Upon this Plan has Idolatry principally prevail’d, both among Heathens and Christians: Upon this Plan also, the Devil, with his Angels under him, was suppos’d by some to have been President of our Earth, and never to have been an Inhabitant above, the Disagreement of which with Scripture is above shewn. The above-mention’d Mistranslation of the Septuagint seems, to have been a leading Cause of Error, in this Point, to the Fathers, who generally did not understand Hebrew, but made use of that Translation. This Notion was at last enlarg’d by many, even to the Assigning a Guardian-Angel to every individual of Mankind, which is nothing but the Heathen Doctrine of Demon-Genij with a new Name, and must have given the Heathens a great Advantage against those Christians, when they charg’d the Heathens with the Worshipping of many Gods and of Demons.
The Scripture-Notion of the Holy Angels, who have no Prefecture, nor Magistracy, in the Government