omnium vero hanc rationem fuisse, nunquam sibi persuadebit, qui vel BACCHI MYSTERIA cogitaverit, quæ teste LIVIO Romani ferre nolebant. De rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum M Commentarii. Cap. i. Sect. 13. not. (***). But as to the pure and uncorrupt Mysteries of Bacchus, authorized by the magistrate, the learned Writer might have seen, pag. 4, note (1), that Celsus expresly affirms, even these taught a future state; which truth his adversary Origen confesses.

P. 66. [O] This short historical deduction of the rise and fall of the Mysteries will afford much light to the following passage of St. Paul, speaking of the leaders and instructors of the Gentile world,-“ So "that they are without excuse: because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagina❝tions, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools: " and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, into

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an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds "and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Where"fore God gave them up to uncleanness, through the "lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own "bodies between themselves: Who changed the "truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served "the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed "for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up "unto vile affections," &c. Rom. i. 20, & seq. In these words, the holy apostle evidently condemns the foolish policy of the Gentile sages, who, when they knew God (that is, discovered God, as Paul intimates, by the light of nature) yet glorified him not as God, by preach

ing him up to the people; but, carried away, in the vanity of their imagination, by a mistaken principle of politics, that a vulgar knowledge of him would be injurious to society, shut up his glory in their MYSTERIES, and gave the people, in exchange for an uncorruptible God, an image made like to corruptible man and birds, &c. Wherefore God, in punishment for their thus turning his truth into a lie, suffered even their Mysteries, which they erected (though on these wrong principles) for a school of virtue, to degenerate into an odious sink of vice and immorality; giving them up unto all uncleanness and vile affections. That this was the apostle's meaning, appears not only from the general tenor of the passage, but from several particular expressions; as where he speaks of changing the glory of God to birds, beasts, and creeping things: for this was the peculiar superstition of Egypt: and Egypt we have shewn to be the first inventress of the Mysteries. Again, he says, they worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, wapà tòv xlícana. This was strictly true with regard to the MYSTERIES: the CREATOR was there acknowledged by a small and select number of the Participants; but the general and solemn worship even in these celebrations was to their national idols. In the OPEN Worship of paganism, either public or particular, it was not at all true, for there the CREATURE was the sole object of adoration.

P. 66. [P] What hath been said above, shews that M. Le Clerc hath gone into the other extreme of party prejudice, when he contends (Bibl. Univ. tom. vi. p. 73.) that the Mysteries were not corrupted at all. I can conceive no reason for so violent a paradox, but

as

as it favoured an accusation against the Fathers, who have much insisted on the corruption of them-" Les 66 peres ont dit qu'on commettoit toute sorte d'ordures "dans ces ceremonies: mais quoi qu'ils disent, il'nest

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pas croiable que toute la Grece, quelque corrumpuë "qu'elle ait éte, ait jamais consenti que les filles & les "femmes se prostituassent dans les mysteres- Mais

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quelques auteurs chrétiens n'ont fait aucune difficulté "de dire mille choses peu conformes à la verité, pour "diffamer le paganisme: de peur qu'il n'y eût que les

payens à qui ou pût reprocher leur calomnies." Bibl. Univ. tom. vi. p. 120.

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P. 69. [Q] The reader will not be displeased to find here an exact account of this whole matter, extracted from a very curious dissertation of Is. Casaubon, a great and unexceptionable writer, in his Sixteenth Exercitation on the Annals of Baronius.“ Pii patres quum intelligerent, quo facilius ad veritatis amorem corruptas superstitione mentes traducerent; & verba sacrorum illorum quamplurima, in suos usus trans"tulerunt; & cum doctrinæ veræ capita aliquot sic "tractarunt, tum ritus etiam nonnullos ejusmodi "instituerunt; ut videantur cum Paulo dicere gentibus “ voluisse, ἃ αγνοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε, ταῦτα κατα[γέλλομεν ὑμῖν. "Hinc igitur est, quod sacramenta patres apellarunt “ mysteria, μυήσεις, τελεζας, τελειώσεις, ἐποπλείας, sive σε ἐποψείας, τελεσήρια ; interdum etiam ὄρδια, sed rarius : peculiariter vero eucharistiam τελετῶν τελετήν. Di"citur etiam antonomastice To μuspio, aut numero "multitudinis Tà μuspia. Apud patres passim de 66 sacra communione leges φρικτά μυσήρια vel τὸ " súπóppýlov μvsápiov; Gregorio Magno, magnum & pavendum ysterium. Musaba in veterum monu

"" mentis

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"mentis sæpe leges pro cœnæ dominicæ fieri particeps; μύησιν pro ipsa actione; μύσης est sacerdos, qui etiam dicitur ὁ μυςα[ωγῶν & ὁ ἱεροτελεσής. In liturgiis Græcis & alibi etiam ἡ ἱεροὶ τελετή, & ἡ κρυφία “ καὶ ἐπίφοβ© τελητή, est eucharistia. Quemadmodum autem gradus quidem in mysteriis paganicis servati sunt, sic Dionysius universam τῶν τελετῶν τὴν ἱερεργίαν, "traditionem sacramentorum distinguit in tres actiones, quæ & ritibus & temporibus erant divisæ: prima est nálapois, purgatio; altera púnoss, initiatio; tertia, "TEXείWσis, consummatio; quam & irofía sæpe no"minat. Spem meliorem morientibus attulisse

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mysteria Attica dicebat paulo ante M. Tullius. "Patres contra, certam salutem & vitam æternam "Christi mysteria digne percipientibus afferre, con"firmabant: qui illa contemnerent, servari non posse: "finem vero & fructum ultimum sacramentorum "Jewo, deificationem, dicere non dubitarunt, quuin "scirent vanarum superstitionum auctores, suis epoptis "eum honorem audere spondere. Passim igitur

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legas apud Patres, τῆς ἱερᾶς μυςα[ογίας τέλος εἶναι "Jiwo, finem sacramentorum esse, ut qui vera fide "illa perciperent, in futura vita dii evadant. Athana"sius verbo JEOTETOα in eam rem est usus; quod "mox ab eodem explicatur, participatione spiritus

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conjungimur deitati. De symbolis sacramentorum, 66 per quæ divinæ illæ ceremoniæ celebrantur, nihil "attinet hoc loco dicere; illud vero, quod est & appellantur fidei symbolum, diversi est generis, & "fidelibus tesseræ usum præstat, per quam se mutuo agnoscunt, qui pietati sacramento dixerunt; cujus" modi tesseras fuisse etiain in paganorum mysteriis "ostendimus. Formulæ illi in mysteriis peragendis usurpatæ, Procul este profani, respondet in liturgia VOL. II.

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A A

"hæc

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“ hæc per diaconos pronuntiari solita ; ὅσοι κατηχέμενοι σε προέλθετε; vel, ἔξω περιπατεῖτε ὅσοι ἐνεργέμενοι, ὅσον apúnlo; omnes catechumeni, foras discedite, omnes possessi, omnes non initiati. Noctu ritus multi in "mysteriis peregebantur; noctu etiam initiatio "Christianorum inchoabatur: Gaudentio nominatur

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splendidissima nox vigiliarum. Quod autem dice"bamus de silentio in sacris opertaneis servari a "paginis solito, id institutúm veteres christiani sic "probarunt, ut religiosa ejus observatione mystas

omnes longe superarint. Quemadmodum igitur "dicit Seneca, sanctiora sacrorum solis initiatis fuisse "nota, & Jamblichus de Philosophia Pythagoreorum "in và áπópila, quæ efferri non poterant, & ra xpoga, quæ foras efferre jus erat; ita universam doctrinam "christianam veteres distinguebant in ra expopa, id est, ea quæ enuntiari apud omnes poterant, & τὰ ἀποῤῥητα arcana temcre non vulganda; rà déyμala, inquit Basilius, σιωπᾶται· τὰ δὲ κηρύγματα δημωσιεύεται, dog"mata silentio premuntur; præconia publicantur. Chrysostomus, de iis qui baptizantur pro mortuis :

Cupio quidem perspicue rem dicere; sed propter non "initiatos non audco: hi interpretationem reddunt "nobis difficiliorem; dum nos cogunt, aut perspicue "non dicere, aut arcana, quæ taceri debent, apud

ipsos eferre. Atque ut ἐξορχεῖσθαι τὰ μυςήρια "dixerunt pagani, de iis qui arcana mysteriorum

evulgabant; ita dixit Dionysius, Vide ne enunties, "aut parum reverenter habeas sancta sanctorum. "Passim apud Augustinum leges, Sacramentum quod

norunt fideles. In Johannem tract. xi. autem sic; "Omnes catechumeni jam credunt in nomine Christi, "SED JESUS NON SE CREDIT EIS. Mox Interro"gemus catechumenum, Manducas carnem filii hominis? " nescit