The remainder of the third book is occupied with a dissertation on the origin and progress of idolatry, in twelve chapters. Although the origin of idolatry is un certain, and great diversity of opinion prevails regarding it, some light on the nature of divine worship would be obtained from the renewed investigation of this subject. Before the deluge there was no idolatry, properly so called. Till the building of the tower, about the year of the world 1757, and after the deluge 101 or 102, no traces of idolatry can be discovered. — Chap. III. Two kinds of idolatry early acquired prominence, — Sabaism, or the worship of the heavenly host; and Hellenism, or the deifi cation of heroes upon their decease. The former was the more ancient of the two, Job xxxi. 26-28. The modes of worship were simple. To this kind of superstition were addicted the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, and the ancient Persians. The rudiments of it were found among the Greeks, and the Gauls, and the Germans. • — Chap. IV. The causes leading to this form of superstition might be some lingering tradition of the rule ascribed to sun and moon, Gen. i. 17, 18 ; the vanity of the human mind in succumbing to the thraldom of sense and outward objects ; and the natural glory .of the heavenly orbs. — Chap. V. Another circumstance gave impulse to the spread of the superstition. Under the worship accorded to deified men, the powers of nature, it was alleged, were in reality worshipped. To escape the shame of worshipping inani mate objects this explanation of the old idolatry was invented and urged, — more espe cially when men began to be ashamed of the follies and fables of heathenism, after Christianity was dissipating the moral gloom of the world. That no such philoso phizing explanation of the ruder idolatries prevailed at an earlier period, is proved by the long disputation of Plutarch, whether Apollo was different from the Sun. Certain points of analogy between the ancient Pagans and modern Jesuits are indicated ; as, for example, their tricks in the alleged exorcism of demons. — Chap. VI. The arts of painting and sculpture were first employed in subserviency to the interests of idolatry. Conscience dictated the necessity of some god. When the true God was unknown, some false god must be invented ; and the same instinct which required his existence prompted men to seek tokens of his presence, that evil might be averted from them. Hence the forms in which sculpture presented the imaginary deities of Paganism ; and hence the demand of the Israelites to Aaron, Exod. xxxii. 1. The influence of the deity was conceived to lodge in the statue dedicated to his honour. And thus, first, to have assurance of his presence, he was represented in a visible form ; and, secondly, to have assurance that he took charge of individual interests, his statue was multiplied according to the wish and necessity of each individual who relied on his aid. — Chap. VII. The visible objects to which superstitious worship was addressed were either tapering pillars or rude stones. Only after a lengthened course of aberration from the knowledge of God, did men venture to reduce their conceptions of Deity to the human form. The
8 ANALYSIS OF THE FOLLOWING WORK.
peculiar description of stones called EXITVXHK is held to be a corrupted tradition of what occurred with Jacob at Bethel. — Chap. VIII.
Wearied of the stars, whose unfaltering regularity rebuked the vanity and fickle ness of the human mind, men invented gods more like themselves, by elevating to the rank of deities those who, in this life, had acquired some renown and dignity. Various are the theories explanatory of the origin of statues. The Jews affirm that Terah, the father of Abraham, was the first sculptor; Pindar ascribes statues to the Rhodians ; Isidore, to Prometheus; the majority of writers, to Dsedalus. — Chap. IX. This eleva tion of men to divine honour began in the east, and the memory of those who were the fathers of the race after the deluge was held in peculiar veneration. GREECE took the lead in this fabrication of deities, so that it came to be styled " Patria et officina deorum." This deification of men became universal, from various causes. The names of the true God, after the confusion of tongues, were applied to the deities of the heathen. — Chap. X. The origin both of the inhabitants and of the name of BRI TAIN is unknown. The impression prevails that the European islands were peopled by the descendants of Japheth, and that the name of the inhabitants of Wales, Cymbri, Cambri, or Gomeri, is derived from Gomer, the eldest son of Japheth. The etymologies of Britain are exceedingly various, the conjecture of Bochart, that it comes from "]2X-n"a. "land of tin," being the most probable; but all agree that the aborigines of the island were addicted to gross superstition. Druidism was the prevailing form. Origen says they worshipped the sun; and it would seem, from other authorities, the moon also. The Druids are said to derive their name from the oaks — in Greek called ^fvs — near which their ceremonies were performed. Strabo describes three kinds of Druids. They used a peculiar dress, had schools for the education of youth, practised medicine, and in their theology certain peculiar tenets were contained; as, for in stance, the immortality and transmigration of the soul. They cultivated eloquence, rhetoric, geography, and astronomy. One Druid held a primacy over the rest. Sacri fices peculiarly barbarous obtained amongst them, particularly two kinds of human sacrifices. The introduction of Christianity into Britain is reviewed at length, the author detailing the same facts which appear in his answers to Vincent Cane, See vol. xiv. of his works, p. 94, 393. — Chap. XI. Some faint traces of the knowledge of the true God still existed. The Athenians had an altar " to the unknown God." There are references in Cicero, Philostratus, Sophocles, Justin, and Lactantius, which show that some dim belief of one supreme God prevailed throughout heathenism, in spite of. the popular superstitions. — Chap. XII. The corruption of this dim and primary belief gave rise to much superstition and idolatry, — the worship of Jupiter, Pluto, the heavenly orbs, and deceased heroes, and demons, and a crowd of idols, beyond enume ration. — Chap. XIII. As polytheism spread and grew, even living men, such as the Roman emperors, called themselves gods, and claimed divine honours. The condition of the world, in this respect, was never so bad as when Christianity began to spread among the nations. — Chap. XIV.