serving, that the priests and divines were wont to use this prayer in their devotions or holy ceremonies: "O almighty "or all governing Sun, the spirit of the world, the power of "the world, the light of the world.”—Héλe Tavríngarog, xóoμov πνεῦμα, κόσμου δύναμις, κόσμου φῶς.” And he adds a quotation from some verses ascribed to Orpheus, in which the sun is called Jupiter and Bacchus, the father of sea and land; and the generation of all things is attributed to him. *

The same Macrobius acquaints us, that the Assyrians gave the name Adad to him whom they worshipped as the highest and greatest God; that this name being interpreted signifies One, and that by him they understood the sun. "Assyrii "Deo, quem summum maximumque venerantur, Adad no"men dederunt: ejus nominis interpretatio significat Unus. "Hunc igitur ut potentissimum adorant Deum: sed subjun"gunt eidem Deam nomine Adargatin, omnemque potesta"tem cunctarum rerum his duobus attribuunt, solem terram"que intelligentes."+ It appears from Philostratus, that the Indian Brahmins, who were extolled by Apollonius, as far excelling all the wise men upon earth, made the sun the chief object of their worship, and were themselves called the priests of the sun. As to the Chinese, it is said to have been the custom from the time of their first emperor, Fohi, for their emperors to sacrifice to heaven and earth. And F. Navarette, who lived many years in China, and was well acquainted with their language, religion, and learning, looks upon it as a certain thing, that the Chinese have from a remote antiquity worshipped the sun, moon, and stars; and that they knew nothing more noble than the material heaven which we behold. He adds, that "so say their books, and their learned men own "it." Tavernier, in his account of Tonquin, which was ‡ formerly under the dominion of China, though for some hun

Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 23. p. 217. Edit. Lond. 1694. + Ibid.

Se Navarette's Account of China in Churchill's Collection of Travels, &c. vol. i. p. 74, 84, 85. et ibid. p. 188, 189.

dreds of years past it has had kings of its own, relates, that they sacrifice to the sun, moon, and other planets; and have four principal gods, and one goddess. We are told, that the greater part of the inhabitants of the vast Eastern Tartary worship a plurality of deities; and particularly the sun, moon, and the four elements.* Herodotus affirms concerning all the Libyans, that they sacrificed only to the sun and moon: and both he and Strabo say of the Massagetæ, that they esteemed the sun to be the only deity, and sacrificed a horse to him. † The sun was also the principal deity of the Mexicans and Feruvians in America, to whom they erected temples, and offered sacrifices, and paid their most solemn acts of worship: and if some had a notion of a God higher than the sun, they looked upon him to be too far above them, and therefore had little regard to him in their devotions. I might instance also in the ancient inhabitants of Terra Firma in America, of New Granada, and Hispaniola, the Canary and Philippine Islands, the Gallans, a people bordering on Abyssinia, and several other African nations; as also the ancient Gauls, Germans, and other nations in Europe. +

Thus it appears, that this kind of idolatry, which the Scripture calls the worship of the host of heaven, hath spread generally through the Pagan nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, not only among the savage and illiterate, but the most learned and polite. Human wisdom and philosophy, instead of reclaiming them from it, rather devised plausible colours and pretences to palliate or justify it. And it is owing principally to the light of the Jewish and Christian revelation, that this idolatry is now banished from so many nations among whom it anciently prevailed. Lord Herbert, who endeavours to represent the Pagan religion in the most favourable light, after having, in the fourth and following chapters of his book,

* Grimston's States and Empires, p. 701.

+ Herod. lib. iv. cap. 188. Strabo Geogr. lib. xi.

The reader may consult, concerning several of the nations here mentioned, Millar's Hist. of the Propag. of Christianity, vol. ii..

De Religione Gentilium, given an account of the worship paid by the Pagans, ancient and modern, to the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, and which he represents to be universal, apologizes for it at the end of his eighth chapter, by saying, that they worshipped the stars to the honour of the supreme God. "Omnes stellas, sed in summi Dei honorem, certè "olim fuisse, et etiamnum esse cultas, concludimus." This indeed was pretended by some of the philosophers, and particularly by those of them who stood up as advocates for Paganism after Christianity had made its appearance in the world; as if it could tend to the honour of the only true God to render that religious worship and adoration to the works which he hath made, which is due to him the glorious Author. That noble writer himself, in his 3d chapter, after mentioning the names of the Deity which were in use among the Hebrews, and shown that those names and titles were also used among the Gentiles, owns that the Hebrews appropriated those names and titles to the one supreme God superior to the sun, but that the Gentiles understood by him no other than the sun itself. "Quamvis superius sole numen sub hisce nominibus intellexe"runt Hebræi solem neque aliud numen intellexerunt Gentiles." He insinuates indeed that the worship paid to the sun was symbolical, rendered to the sun as the most glorious image and symbol of the Divinity. And I do not deny, but that this might be the notion which some persons of sublime speculation entertained of it. But it does not appear, that the vulgar Pagans, who worshipped the sun and stars, carried their refinements so far. His Lordship himself expresses a doubt, that the people did not sufficiently understand that symbolical worship. "Symbolicum illum cultum haud satis forsan intellexit."* And I think from the accounts that are given us, it may be reasonably concluded, that the generality of the vulgar heathens, and many even of their learned men and philosophers themselves, though they had not entirely lost the idea of the

* Herb. De Relig. Gentil. p. 293. Edit. Amstel. 8vo. 1700.

To him they

one supreme God, transferred it to the sun. attributed the divine titles and attributes: on him they terminated their worship, and in conjunction with him, though in a kind of subordination to him, on the other stars, and on the earth and elements; all which they supposed to be animated. The last mentioned learned and noble author supposes them to have worshipped the sun "vice summi Dei;" and represents them as having acted no less absurdly than those would do, who, coming to the court of a most powerful monarch, should give the honours due only to the king to the first courtier they saw clothed in splendid apparel." Certè qui "solum vice summi Dei coluerunt, proinde fecere, ac illi qui "ad aulam potentissimi principis accedentes, quem primum "amictu splendido indutum cernerent, regium illi cultum de"ferendum existimaverint." *

Thus we have considered the first great deviation from the knowledge and worship of the true God among the heathen nations. And I shall conclude the account of this kind of idolatry with the elegant representation made of it by the author of the book of Wisdom. 66 Surely vain are all men by nature, "who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good "things that are seen know him that is: neither by consider❝ing the works did they acknowledge the workmaster; but "deemed either fire or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of "the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to "be the gods which govern the world. With whose beauty, "if they being delighted took them to be gods, let them know "how much better the Lord of them is: for the first author "of beauty hath created them. But if they were astonished "at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, "how much mightier he is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the creation, proportionably the "Maker of them is seen. †

* Herb. De Relig. Gentil. p. 26. Edit. Amstel. 1700.

+ Wisd. chap. xiii, 1-5.

CHAP. IV.

The worship of deified men and heroes another species of idolatry of an ancient date, and which obtained very early in the Pagan world. Most of the principal objects of the heathen worship, the Dü majorum Gentium, had been once dead men. The names and peculiar attributes originally belonging to the one supreme God applied to them, particularly to Jupiter; to whom at the same time were ascribed the most criminal actions. Jupiter Capitolinus, the principal object of worship amongst the ancient Romans, not the one true God, but the chief of the Pagan divinities. The pretence, that the Pagan polytheism was only the worshipping one true God under various names and manifestations, examined and shown to be insufficient. The different names and titles of God erected into different deities.

THERE was another species of idolatry, which also began very early in the world, and very generally prevailed, which was the worship of deified men or heroes. Here a new scene of polytheism opens, which produced an amazing multiplicity of gods, and continually increased. Philo Biblius, as cited by Eusebius, observes, that "the most ancient bar"barians, especially the Phoenicians and Egyptians, from "whom other people took this custom, reckoned those among "the greatest gods, who had been the inventors of things "useful and necessary to human life, and who had been "benefactors to the nations." And that to them they consecrated pillars and statues, and dedicated sacred festivals.* It is probable, that at first these things were little more than monuments or memorials to their honour, but afterwards became religious rites; and from honouring and celebrating their memory, they proceeded to regard them as deities. Thus, as the author of the book of Wisdom expresses it, "in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was “kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the "commandments of kings." It was the notion of hero deities, which principally introduced the worship of images in human form, to which divine honours were paid. And what is there said of kings, may be applied to most of the ancient

* Euseb. Præp. Evangel. lib. i. cap. 9. p. 32, 33. Edit. Paris, 1628. + Wisd. chap. xiv. 16.