These he ascribes to the immediate operation of
Providence: And such events as, with good reasoners, are the chief
difficulties in admitting a Supreme Intelligence, are with him the
sole arguments for it....
"We may conclude therefore, upon the whole, that since the vulgar,
in nations which have embraced the doctrine of theism, still build
it upon irrational and superstitious grounds, they are never led
into that opinion by any process of argument, but by a certain
train of thinking, more suitable to their genius and capacity.
"It may readily happen, in an idolatrous nation, that though men
admit the existence of several limited deities, yet there is some
one God, whom, in a particular manner, they make the object of
their worship and adoration. They may either suppose, that, in the
distribution of power and territory among the Gods, their nation
was subjected to the jurisdiction of that particular deity; or,
reducing heavenly objects to the model of things below, they may
represent one god as the prince or supreme magistrate of the rest,
who, though of the same nature, rules them with an authority like
that which an earthly sovereign exerts over his subjects and
vassals. Whether this god, therefore, be considered as their
peculiar patron, or as the general sovereign of heaven, his
votaries will endeavour, by every art, to insinuate themselves into
his favour; and supposing him to be pleased, like themselves, with
praise and flattery, there is no eulogy or exaggeration which will
be spared in their addresses to him.
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