• " Diogenes Laertius says of Pythagoras, Tkat he charged kit ditcipUt net to grot equal drgreu of honour I* Ms iiodt and heroes. Herodotus (in Euterpe) says of the Greeks, Thai they worthtpptd Ucrtvlu two meyt, mimjs imnurtal dcxty and to they HfriSrtJ to Mik : ami another at a Hero, and to they celebrated hit memory. Isoerata*
(Enoom. Helen.) distinguishes between the honours of heroes and Gods, when he speaks of Menelaus and Helena. But the distinction is no where more fully expressed than in the Greek inscription upon she statue of RegUla, wife to Herodes Atticu*. as Salmasiua thinks, which was set up in his temple at Triopium, and taken from tha statue itself by Sirroondus; where it is said, That tka had ntUhar tka konour of a mortal, nor ytt that which vat proper to the Goth : n>i turn •»»*•<;, m*~f *«•»'» It usilll by
the inscription of Herodes, and by the testament of Epicteta extant in Greek in the Collection of Inscription*, that it was in the power of particular families to keep festival days in honour of seme of their own family, and ra give ktroiaU konourt to th.-m. In that noble inscription at Venice, we find three days appointed every year to be kept, and a confraternity established for that purpose with the laws of it. The first day to bo observed in honour of die Mutes, and sacrifices to be ofJcred to them as dritiej. The second and third days in honour of the Scroti <>f the family ; between which honour and tkat of deities, the/ shewed the difference by th? distance of time between them, and tho preference given to the other. But wherein soever the differmca lay, that there w n mttincliun acknowledged among them spears by this passage of Valerius in his excellent oration extant in i>iouyaius llalicainass. Antiq Roiu. lit>. 11. p. 694. I call, says Ua,the Godt toaUxtt,mhou tem/>letand oitareamr ■amUy hat, uurthipped a ilk conmnn tocrifcet; and next after them, J eoil tka Ganii of our natation, to whom . e give lHT.r{ f^ij, the tetond honenrt nest to the Gods, as Celsus calls those w^ tka duo
honmri that belong to the lower damom. From which we take notice, that the Heathens did not confound all '"'greet of' divina wonkip, giving to the lowest object the same which they supposed to be due to the calnttai deities, or the supreme Gad. So tnat if the distinction of divine worship will excuse from Idolatry, the Heathens were not to blame for iL" See StilttngHeefs answer to a book entitled Catholic* bo Idolater*, p. 510,8 18,&c.
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xnv'di INTRODUCTION.
precept. Plutarch too in his above-mentioned treatise most forcibly and clearly shows the impiety of worshipping men as Gods, as is evident from die following extract :
" Those therefore, wbo tliink that things of this kind [i. e. fabulous stories of the Gods as if they were men] are but so many commemorations of the actions and disasters of kings and tyrants, who through transcendency in virtue or power, inscribed die title of divinity on their renown, and after- wards fell into great calamities and misfortunes, these employ the most easy method indeed of eluding the story, and not badly transfer things of evil report, from the Gods to men ; and they are assisted in so doing by the narrations themselves. For the Egyptians relate, that Hermes was as to his body, with one arm longer than the other; that Typhon was in his complexion red; but Orus white, and Osiris black, as if they had been by uature men. Farther still, lliey also call Otiria a commander, and Canopus a pilot, from whom they say the star of that name was denomi- nated. The ship likewise, which the Greeks call Argo, being the image of die ark of Osiris, and which therefore in honour of it is become a constellation, they make to ride not far from Orion and the Dog ; of which they consider the one as sacred to Orus, but the other to Isis.
" I fear, however, that this [according to the proverb] would be to move things immoveable, and to declare war, not ouly, as Simouides says, against a great length of time, but also against many nations and families of mankind wbo are under the influence of divine inspiration through piety to these Gods; and would not in any respect fall short of transferring from heaven to earth, such grta! and venerable names, and of thereby shaking and dissolving that worship and belief, which has been implanted in almost all men from their very birth, would be opening great doors to the tribe o# atheists, who convert divine into human concerns; and would likewise afford a large license to the impostures of Eucuicrus of Messina, who devised certain memoirs of an incredible and fictitious ' mythology,* and thereby spread every kind of atheism through the globe, by inscribing all the received God», tvithout any discrimination, by the names of generals, naval-captain*, and kingt, who lived iu remote perituh of time. He further adds, that they arc recorded in golden characters, in a certain country called Panchoa, at which neither any llarburian or Grecian ever arrived, except Euemcnis alone, who, as it beems, sailed to the Pnnchuaus and Tiiphyllians, that neither have, nor ever bad a being. Ami though the gnat actions of Semiramis are celebrated by the Assyrians, and those of Scs-jstris in Egypt ; and though the Phrygians even to the present time, call
tltoir ancient king*, whom some call Masdes, was a brave and powerful man ; and farther atill, though Cyrus among the Persians, and Alexander atnon^ the Macedonians, proceeded in their vic- tories, almost at far as to the boundaries of the earth, yet they ouly retain the name of good king*, and arc remembered as such, [and not as God*.]
" But if certain persons, inflated by ostentation, as Plato soys, having their soul at one and the same lime inflamed with youth and ignorance, have insolently assumed the appellulion of Gods, and had temples erected in their honour, yet this opinion of them flourished but for a short time, and afterwards they were charged with vanity and arrogance, in conjunction with impiety and lawless con luct j and thus,
Like smoke they flew away with swift-pae'd fate.
And being dragged from temples and altars like fugitive slave*, they have now nothing left them, but their monuments and tombs. Hence Arttigonus the elder said to one llermodotus, who had celebrated him in his poems us the offspring of the sun ami a God, 'he who empties my close-stool-pan knows no such thing of me.' Very properly also, did I.) sip pus the sculptor blame Apelles the painter, for drawing the picture of Alexander with a lliunder-bolt in his hand, whereas he had represented him with a spear, the glory of which, as being true and proper, no time would take away."
In another part of the same work also, he admirably reprobates the impiety of making the Gods to be things inanimate, which was very common with Latin writers of the Augustan age, and of the ages that accompanied the decliue and fall of the Roman empire. But what he says on this sub- ject is as follows :
" In the s-ccond plac*. which is of still greater consc-nuence, men should be careful, and very much afraid, lest before they are aware, they tear in pieces and dissolve divine natures, into blast* of wind, streams of water, semination*, t arings of land, accidents of the earth, and mutations of the season*, us those do « ho male Bacchus to be vt ine, ami Vulcan flame. Cleanlhes also some- where says, that Persephoue or Proserpine is the spirit or air that pasttt through ($tf«/*n»r) the fruits of the earth, and is then tlaitt, (4cnv5firvc>'.) Aud a certain poet says of reapers,
Then when the youth the limb* of Ceres cut.
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For the*; men do not m any respect differ from those who conceive the tail*, the cable*, and the anchor of a ship, to be the pilot, the yarn and the web to be the weaver, and the bowl,1 or the mead, or the ptisan, to be the physician. But they also produce dire and atheistical opinions, by •firing the names of Gods to natures and things deprived of sense and Soul, and that are necessarily destroyed by men, who are in want of and use them. For it is not portable to conceive that these things are Gods; since, neither can any thing be a God to men, which is deprived of soul, or is subject to human power. From these things however, we are led to conceive those beings to be Gods, who both use them and impart them to us, and snpply them perpetually and without ceasing. Nor do we conceive that the Gods who bestow these, aie different in different countries, nor that some of them are peculiar to the Barbarians, but others to the Grecians, nor that some are southern, and others northern ; but as the sun and moon, the heavens, the land, end the $e«, are common to all men, yet are differently denominated by different nations; so the one reason that
preside over all nations, have different appellations and honours assigned them according to law by different countries. Of those also that have been consecrated to their service, some employ obscure, but others clearer symbols, not without danger thus conducting our inteDectual concep- tions to the apprehension of divine natures. For some, deviating from the true meaning of these symbols, have entirely slipt into superstition ; and others again flying from superstition as a quag- mire, have unaware fallcu upon atheism as on a precipice. Heucc, in order to avoid these danger*, it is especially necessary that resuming the reasoning of Philosophy as our guide to mystic know- ledge, we should conceive piously of every thing that is said or done in religion ; lot that, as Theodorus said, while he extended his arguments with his right hand, some of his auditors received them with their left, so we should fall into dangerous errors, by receiving what the laws have vvr'l instituted about sacrifices and festivals in a manner different from their original intention."
The Emperor Julian, as well as Plutarch appears to have been perfectly aware of this confusion in the religion of the Heathens arising from the dedication of men, and in the fragments of his treatise against the Christians, preserved by Cyril, he speaks of it as follows : " If any one. wishes to consider the truth respecting you [Christians,] he will find that your impiety is composed of the Judaic audacity, and the indolence and cuii/mion of the Ileathtnt. For deriving from both, not that which is most beautiful, but the worst, you have fabricated a web of evils. Willi tl.. Hebrew* ndeed, there are accurate and venerable laws pertaining to religion, ami inuuiiieral.lv precepts which require a in-jst holy life and deliberate choice. But ulnvn the Jewish legislator forbids the serving all the Gods, and eisjoius the worship of one alone, whose portion is Jacob, and
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IKT ft«»«C*IOH. Uli
Israel ttwlim of k» nafc*ritsmce, end not only say* tkos, but also omits to odd, I think, yea not revise the Cod., the detestable wickedness and Mdacity of those in after times, wiping to take •way all religious reverence from (be mukitude, (bought that not to worship should be followed by blaspheming the Gods. Thia you hare alone tl>e»ce derived ; bat there ia no srtnihivtde in any ihiug else between you bik! them. Hence, from the innovation of the Hebrews, you bare seized blasphemy toward* the venerable Goda; but from our religion you hare coat tuidt reverence to tvx'rtf nature more excellent thou man, and the iov€ of paternal tHetttsstes -