The Religion of Noah

From "Irenicum, or Ecclesiastical Polyty tending to Peace"

All nations were originally of the Religion comprehended in the Precepts of the sons of Noah, the chief of which were to have one God, and not to alienate his worship, nor profane his name; to abstain from murder, theft, fornication, and all injuries; not to feed on the flesh or drink the blood of a living animal, but to be merciful even to bruit beasts; and to set up Courts of justice in all cities and societies for putting these laws in execution.

In the ancient cities the Judges usually sat in the Gates of the city and were called the Elders of the city and judged of causes both sacred and civil and the father of every family was the elder of the family subordinate to the Elders of the city. This religion descended to Melchisedec and Job and to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the Israelites, and to the proselytes of the Gate. For so the Israelites called the strangers within their Gates who observed the precepts of the sons of Noah.

But the Kings of the nations by degrees causing their dead ancestors to be celebrated with sacrifices praises and invocations, the religion of Noah and his sons passed into the worship of dead men, and the laws of their courts of Justice into the moral Philosophy of the heathens...

The religion of Noah and his sons was therefore the moral law of all nations put in execution by their courts of Justice until they corrupted themselves.

- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)