They continued long in religious reverence: some were more famous and more extensive than others; to which many accidents concurred. The most noted were the ORPHIC, the BACCHIC, the ELEUSINIAN, the SAMOTHRACIAN, the CABIRIC, and the MI

THRIAC.

Euripides makes Bacchus say, in his tragedy of that name*, that the Orgies were celebrated by all foreign nations, and that he came to introduce them amongst the Greeks. And it is not improbable, but several barbarous nations might have learned them of the Egyptians long before they came into Greece. The Druids of Britain, who had, as well as the Brachmans of India, divers of their religious rites from thence, celebrated the Orgies of Bacchus, as we learn from Dionysius the African. And Strabo having quoted Artemidorus for a fabulous story, subjoins, "But what "he says of Ceres and Proserpine is more credible, "namely, that there is an island near Britain, where

they perform the same rites to those two God"desses as are used in Samothrace t." But, of all the MYSTERIES, those which bore that name, by way of eminence, the ELEUSINIAN, celebrated at Athens in

that nothing very heterodox was taught in the mysteries concerning a future state, I collect from the answer Origen makes to Celsus, who had preferred what was taught in the Mysteries of Bacchus on that point, to what the Christian Religion revealed concerning it—περὶ μὲν ἦν τῶν Βακχικῶν τελετῶν εἴτε τίς ἐτι πιθανὸς đáng sống Toner colib. iv. p. 167.

* Act. II,

† Περὶ δὲ τῆς Δήμητρα καὶ τῆς κόρης πισότερα· ὅτι φησὶν εἶναι νῆσον πρὸς τῇ Βρετανικῇ, καθ ̓ ἣν ὅμοια τοῖς ἐν Σαμοθράκη περὶ τὴν Δήμητραν Thy Kógnv izgowoтal. Strabonis Geogr. lib. iv. p. 137. lin. 26. Edit. Casaub. The nature of these Samothracian rites is explained afterwards,

B 3

in honour of Ceres, were by far the most renowned; and, in course of time, eclipsed, and almost swallowed up the rest. Their neighbours round about very early practised these Mysteries to the neglect of their own: in a little time all Greece and Asia Minor were initiated into them: and at length they spread over the whole Roman empire, and even beyond the limits of it. "I insist not," says Tully, "on those sacred "and august rites of ELEUSIS, where, from the re"motest regions, men came to be initiated*." And we are told in Zosimus, that "these most holy rites were then so extensive, as to take in the whole

race of mankind t." Aristides calls Eleusis, the common temple of the earth . And Pausanias says, the rites performed there for the promotion of piety and virtue, as much excelled all other rites, as the Gods excelled the Heroes §.

How this happened, the nature and turn of the People, who introduced these Mysteries, will account for. Athens was a city the most devoted to Religion of any upon the face of the earth. On this account their poet Sophocles calls it the sacred building of the Gods, his figure of speech alluding to its fabulous

Omitto ELEUSINAM sanctam illam & augustam : ubi initiantur gentes orarum ultimæ. Nat. Deor. lib. i. c. 42. Edit. Ox. 4°. T. ii. p. 432.

† Τὰ συνέχοντο τὸ ἀνθρώπειον μένω αγιώτατα μυςήρια. lib. iv.

† Ὅσις & κοινόν τι τῆς γῆς τέμενΘ. τὴν ̓Ελευσίνα ἡγεῖτο. Aristidis Eleusinia, in initio.

§ Οἱ γὰρ ἀρχαιότεροι τῶν Ἑλλήνων τελετὴν τὴν Ελευσινίων πάλων ὁπόσα ἐς εὐσέβειαν ἥκει, τοσέτῳ ἦγον ἐντιμότερων, ὅσο καὶ τὰς θεὸς ἐπιπροσθὲν news. Phocica, l. x. c. 31. p. 876. In this elegant similitude he seems plainly to allude to the secret of the mysteries; which, as we shall see, consisted in an explanation of the origin of hero-worship, and the nature of the deity.

Electra, act. ii. sc. 1. ΑΘΗΝΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΘΕΟΔΜΗΤΩΝ.

foundation.

foundation. Nor was it a less compliment St. Paul intended to pay the Athenians, when he said, "Audpes Αθηναῖοι, κατὰ πάντα ὡς δεισιδαιμονεςέρες ὑμᾶς θεωρ *. And Josephus tells us, that they were universally esteemed the most religious people of Greece †. Hence, in these matters, Athens became the pattern and standard to the rest of the world.

In discoursing, therefore, of the MYSTERIES in general, we shall be forced to take our ideas of them chiefly from what we find practised in the Eleusinian. Nor need we fear to be mistaken; the END of all being the same, and all having their common ORIGINAL from Egypt.

To begin with the general purpose and design of their Institution. This will be understood, by shewing what they communicated promiscuously to all.

To support the doctrine of a PROVIDENCE, which, they taught, governed the world, they inforced the belief of a FUTURE STATE of rewards and punishments, by every sort of contrivance. But as this did not quite clear up the intricate ways of Providence, they added the doctrine of a METEMPSYCHOSIS, or the belief of a prior state : as we learn from Cicero, and Porphyry ||; the latter of whom informs us, that it was taught in the Mysteries of the Persian Mithras.

Act. Apost, xvii. 22,

† -εὐσεβετάτες τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἅπανες λέγεσιν. Cont. Ap. lib. ii. t. II. edit. Oxon. folio, 1720. cap. 15. pag. 1373. lin. 12.

Plutarch. de Is. & Osir.

§ [Mysteriis] neque solum, &c.-Sed etiam cum SPE MELIORE MORIEN DI. Tull. de Legg. lib. ii. c. 14. Edit. Ox. 4°. t. III. p. 148.

Η Καὶ γὰρ δόγμα πάλλων ἐςὶ τῶν πρώτων, τὴν ΜΕΤΕΜΨΥΧΩΣΙΝ εἶναι· ὃ καὶ ἐμφαίνειν ἐοίκασιν ἐν τοῖς τῶ Μίθρα μυτηρίοις. De Abst. lib. iv. §. 16. Edit. Cantabr. 1655. 8vo.

This was an ingenious solution, invented by the Egyptian Lawgivers, to remove all doubts concerning the moral attributes of God; and so, by adding a prior to a future state, to establish the firm belief of his Providence. For the Lawgiver well knew how precarious that belief was, while the moral attributes of God remained doubtful and uncertain.

In cultivating the doctrine of a future life, it was taught, that the Initiated should be happier in that state than all other mortals: that while the souls of the profane, at their leaving the body, stuck fast in mire and filth, and remained in darkness, the souls of the Initiated winged their flight directly to the happy islands, and the habitations of the Gods †. This doctrine was as necessary for the support of the Mysteries, as the Mysteries were for the support of the doctrine. But now, lest it should be mistaken, that initiation alone, or any other means than a virtuous life, intitled men to this future happiness, the Mysteries openly proclaimed it as their chief business, to restore the soul to its original purity.

"

"It

was the end and design of initiation," says Plato, to restore the soul to that state, from whence it fell, "as from its native seat of perfection." They

* So Tully. Ex quibus humanæ vitæ erroribus & ærumnis sit, ut interdum veteres illi sive vates, sive in sacris INITIISQUE tradendis divinæ mentis interpretes, qui nos ob aliqua scelera suscepta in vitâ superiore, pœnarum luendarum caussa, natos esse dixerunt, aliquid vidisse videantur. Fragm. ex. lib. de Philosophia.

+ Plato in Phædone, p. 69. C. p. 81. A. t. I. Edit. Henr. Stephani. Aristides Eleusiniâ, t. I. p. 454. Edit. Canteri, 8vo. & apud Stobæum, Serm. 119, &c. Schol. Arist. iu Ranis. Diog. Laert. in vita Diog. Cynici.

† Σκοπὸς τῶν τελετῶν ἐσιν, εἰς τέλος ἀνα[αγεῖν τὰς ψυχὰς ἐκεῖνο ἀφ ̓ ἔ τὴν πρώτην ἐποιήσανίο κάθοδον, ὡς ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς. Iu Phædone.

contrived

contrived that every thing should tend to shew the necessity of virtue; as appears from Epictetus:"Thus the Mysteries become useful; thus we seize "the true spirit of them; when we begin to apprehend that every thing therein was instituted by "the Ancients, for instruction and amendment of "life." Porphyry gives us some of those moral precepts, which were inforced in the Mysteries, as to honour their parents, to offer up fruits to the Gods, and to forbear cruelty towards animals †. For the accomplishment of this purpose, it was required in the Aspirant to the Mysteries, that he should be of a clear and unblemished Character, and free even from the suspicion of any notorious crime ‡. To come at the truth of his Character, he was severely interrogated by the Priest or Hierophant, impressing on him the same sense of obligation to conceal nothing, as is now done at the Roman Confessional §, Hence it was, that when Nero, after the murder of his

Οὕτως ὠφέλιμα γίνεται τὰ μυςήρια· ὕτως εἰς φανασίαν ἐρχόμεθα· ὅτι ἐπὶ παιδίᾳ καὶ ἐπανορθώσει τὸ βία καλεςάθη πάλα ταῦτα ἀπὸ τῶν waλawr. Apud Arrian. Dissert. lib. iii. cap. 21. My reason for translating is palaciar in this manner, was, because I imagined the author, in this obscure expression, alluded to the custom in the Mysteries of calling those who were initiated only in the lesser, Μύσαι ; but those, in the greater, Επόπται.

† Γονεῖς τιμῶν, Θεὸς καρποῖς ἀγάλλειν, ζῶα μὴ σίνεσθαι. De Abst. lib. iv. §. 22. Edit. Cant. 1655. 8vo.

† Οὗτοι γὰρ τά τ ̓ ἄλλα καθαροῖς εἶναι τοῖς μύσαις ἐν κοινῷ προαδορεύωσιν, •ior ràs xeigas tùr foxnr-eivas. Libanius Decl. xix. p. 495. D. Edit. Morelli, fol. 1656.

§ As appears from the repartee which Plutarch records, in his Laconic apophthegms of Lysander, Edit. Francof. 1599. t. II. p. 229. D. when he went to be initiated into the Samothracian mysteries; Ἐν δὲ Σαμοθράκη χρητηριαζομένῳ αὐτῷ ὁ ἱερεὺς ἐκέλευσεν εἰπεῖν ὅ, τί ἀνομώταίον ἔργον αὐτῶ ἐν τῷ βίῳ πέπρακίαι; πότερον ἂν σὲ