A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
allotteth a Convoy of Angels for the departing Soul of one pious Man, Lazarus, to conduct him to Paradise; which Office the Heathen Poets assign’d to Mercury; which is also agreeable to the Notion of the Jews. But, if they convey single departed Souls in Troops, they, doubtless, minister to their welfare in this Life, in Troops also. Numbers of them associate with us in our religious Assemblies, and are inspectors of our Behaviour there.68 When the Jews were the holy People, the holy Angels, in some sort, resided among them; to which some, reasonably enough, refer that Voice, which was heard in the Temple, immediately before its Destruction, “Let us go hence”; those Angels of the Shechinah, or Divine Majestick Presence, then leaving the Jews naked and expos’d to all Calamities.
The company and custody of the holy Angels is, according to the Scriptures, a principal Privilege of God’s People, and a Privilege is an uncommon Right. This Principle, therefore, destroys the Heathenish sublunary Magistracy of the holy Angels, and of the Angel-Guardian, common to all Mankind. Yet we must acknowledge the holy Angels general Guardianship of Mankind in general. The evil Demons are under Laws and Government; God is the Founder and supreme Governor of the World; as he hath an universal Dominion, so he exercises that Right in a Superintendence of all, as the Sovereign Disposer of the private and publick Affairs of Men. In which Administration of Things, the holy Angels are employ’d in defence of Mankind in general, of publick Persons, and publick Societies of Men, which are not wholly abandon’d to the will of Satan and his Partisans, unless sometimes for their Punishment.
If we suppose the holy Angels to be sublunary Rectors and Magistrates, Lords and Rulers of this World, in their several Provinces, to whom Mankind are rightfully subjected; if our good and evil Things, our Welfare and Punishment, are in their Hands to dispense: This is that Notion, which the Pagan-Theology supposeth, a delegated Providence, whereby the World is govern’d. Whereas the Providence, which the Scripture-Theology supposeth and teacheth, is God’s own undelegated Exercise of Providence, in his divine Decrees, and the Execution of them. The Scripture-Theology representeth God, as the universal Inspector, (to the meanest Sparrow,) Protector, and Benefactor; the sole Arbiter of our Fate, upon whose Pleasure our well, or ill, being intirely depends. Pious Men submit to Afflictions, as to God’s Hand, give him Thanks for Mercies, as his Gifts, in Wants and Dangers, they trust to his Aid, and in all their Ways and Enterprizes, the Eye of their Observance and Regard is upon him alone, and their Service is to this their sole Lord.69 The holy Angels, indeed, are sent to execute his Commands. Psa. 103. 20, 21.
If the holy Angels are sublunary Magistrates and Rectors, they are, to Mankind, governing authoritative Powers; they must resemble Kings and civil Governors, God’s Vicegerents, but excelling them in Dignity; there must be Societies, consisting of the holy Angels, as Regents, and of Mankind, as Subjects; and the Societies of the World must be such Societies, more than human, or civil, Power and Authority belonging to such Rectors. But of such Political Societies, the Scriptures know nothing, unless we suppose them in the Kingdom of Darkness, which consisteth of Heathen Mankind, and of the Rulers of the Darkness of this World; nor are these Political Societies consistent with true Religion, for they manifestly imply and introduce Idolatry, and Demonolatry, by appropriating to them divine Honours, and subjecting themselves to them, taking them from their immediate Dependence upon, and Addresses to, God.
§VII. To bring what I have been laying down to a point. From what I have said, and, from a through Consideration of the Pagan Religion, it appears, “That the Kingdom of God does not consist of all rational Agents, as of one political System, with God at their Head”; there being a Kingdom of Darkness too, and a divided State of rational Beings: And it also appears, “That the Heathens were so far ignorant of the true God, that he is not to be found amongst their Deities,” notwithstanding what has been advanc’d by many Christian Divines to the contrary.
1. The supreme Deity, in the Heathen Religion, is the supreme among Heathen Deities. The Heathens acknowledg’d a supreme God, but not the true kind of supreme God. “This is Life Eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,” Joh. 27. 3. They Atheistically explain’d away the true Deity of God, into a Jupiter of the Heroe-kind, sometimes into a mystical first Nature, sometimes into the Soul of the World, and sometimes into infinite Matter. “It is much more easy, to deviate from the true God, than from the true” [partial] “Notion of the Deity; for the Gentiles, how good soever their Notion of the Divinity was, which they had in their Mind, yet in this they seem to have miscarried in the first Place, they did not attribute it to him, to whom it belong’d.”70 Many of the Heathens had a true Notion of the Deity; they suppos’d him to be the great Father of Nature, the Former and Governor of the Universe; yet every imaginary Deity, that has these Attributes, is not the true God, nor is the Heathen Deity such.
2. The true God was not the Deity of Religion amongst the Heathens. Among the Romans, Capitoline Jove was the supreme Deity of their Religion, with Augurs for his Prophets, and Juno and Minerva for his Coassessors; attended by a Nurse too, so confounding Cretan and Cosmical Jupiter. Capitoline Jove was the same with Babylonian Bel, threaten’d by God, Jer. 51. 44. The same with Jupiter Olympius, whom Antiochus Epiphanes endeavour’d to substitute instead of the true God, and to have the Temple in Jerusalem, call’d the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, who is therefore call’d the Abomination that maketh desolate.71 The same with Baal and Moloch, which are Names too that signify a supreme God, but extremely different from the true God. Summanus (Summus deorum Manium) was the proper Name of Jupiter Capitolinus himself; and denoteth what he was in the best Notion of him, only the chief of the Heathen Gods. Accordingly, in Scripture, the Gentiles are said to worship Idols, but never to be God’s Worshippers; the Assyrian Colonies, in their Heathenism, “feared not the Lord”;72 all the Deities of Religion amongst them, are constantly intitul’d no-Gods, Idols, other Gods, strange Gods. The Apostle saith, “When they knew God,” (had natural Notices of the true God of Religion,) “they glorify’d him not as God,”73 (they did not acknowledge him for their God, the Object of their religious Worship,) worshipping the Creature instead of the Creator. This the Apostle affirms of them, v. 25. ἐσεβάσησαν καί ἐλάτρευσαν τη̣̂ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα, which our Translation thus renders, They worshipp’d and serv’d the Creature, more than the Creator. The Words are also capable of this other rendering; They worshipp’d and serv’d the Creature besides the Creator. And, according to either of these Versions, as some observe, “It is suppos’d, that the Pagans did worship the true God, though they worshipped the Creature also besides him, or perhaps in some sense above him, and more than him also.”74 But the Words are capable of a third rendering, which is probably the true, for παρὰ is here render’d in the vulgar Latin, potius quam, rather than, as it usually signifieth, and, in this Version, there will be no difficulty, if the Word [Creature] be understood to signify [that which is not the Creator;] and then the Words will run thus, “They worshipp’d and serv’d that which is not the Creator, rather than the Creator”; which is perfectly agreeable to the following Words, v. 28. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Therefore they chose to worship the Creature, rather than the Creator.
3. The supreme Deity, among the Heathens, is the Deity of a Heathen Religion; which the true God is not. Accordingly, the Apostle argueth, that the religious Service of the Heathens was a false religious Service: “God, that made the World and all the Things therein, seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth, dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands. Neither is worshipp’d with Mens Hands, as though he needed any Thing, seeing he giveth to all Life, and Breath, and all Things. For as much then as we are the Offspring of God, we ought not to think, that the God-head is like