I am
even of opinion (continues he) that the idolatry and polytheism after
the deluge derived their origin from the atheism and impiety that
reigned before it. Such is the temper of men, when they have been
severely punished for any crime, they run into the opposite extreme. I
conjecture (concludes the same author) this was the case with men
after the deluge. As they reckoned that this terrible judgment, which
carried such indications of Divine wrath, was sent for the punishment
of atheism, they ran into the opposite extreme. They adored whatever
seemed to deserve their worship.
"It is true, indeed, that idolatry is capable of furnishing a curb
against irregularity of manners; but this author has conjectured,
without foundation, that atheism reigned universally before the
deluge. He ought, at least, to have excepted the posterity of Seth.
"However idolatry might have reigned before the deluge, it is certain
that the knowledge and worship of the true God were again united in
the family of Noah; and as long as the children and grandchildren of
that patriarch made but one family, in all probability, the worship of
the true God was little altered in its purity. Noah being at the head
of the people, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth witnesses of God's vengeance
on their contemporaries, is it probable that they, living in the midst
of their families, would suffer them to depart from the truth? We read
of nothing that can incline us to this belief.
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