condemn the dissonance: let them only know, let them only love, let them only be mindful of the object they adore/' With respect to the worship of animals, Plutarch apologizes for it in the following eiccellent man- ner in his treatise On Isis and Osiris.
*^ It now remains that we should speak of the utility of these animals to man, and of their sy]»- bolical meaning; some of them partaking of one of these only, hut many of diem of both. It is evident therefore that the Egyptians worshipped the ox, the sheep, and the ichneumon, on account of their use and benefit, as the Lemnians did larks, for discovering the eggs of caterpillars and breaking them; and the Thessalians storks, because, as dieir land produced abundance of ser- pent9, the storks destroyed all of them as soon as they appeared. Hence also they enacted a law, that whoever killed a stork should be banished. Bat the Egyptians honoured die asp, the weezle, and the beetle, in consequence of observing in them certain dark resemblances of the power of die Gods, like that of the sun in drops of water. For at present, many believe and assert that the weezle engenders by the ear, and brings forth by the mouth, being thus an image of the generation of reason, [or the productive principle of things.] But the genus of beetles has no female; and INTKODUCTION. XXXTll «}l die males emit their sperm into a spherical piece of earth, which they roll about thrusting it backwards with their hbd feet, while they themselves move forwaid; just as the sun appears to revolve iu a direction contrary to that of the heavens, in consequence of moving from west to east They also assimilated the asp to a star, as bek^ exempt from old age, and performing its motions unassisted by organs with agility and ease. Nor was the crocodile honoured by them without a probable cause; but is said to have been considered by them as a resemblance of divinity, as being tlie only animal that is without a tongue. For the divine reason is unindigent of voice, and proceed- ing through a silent path, and accompanied with ' justice, conducts mortal affiurs according to it. They also say it is the only animal living in water that has the sight of its eyes covered with a thin and transparent film, which descends from his forehead, so that he. sees without being seen, which is likewise die case with the first God. But in whatever place the female crocodile may lay her eggs, this may with certainty be concluded to be the boundary of the increase of the Nile, For not being able to lay their eggs in the water, and fearing to lay them far from it, they have such an accurate pre-sensation of futurity, that though they enjoy the benefit of the river in its access, during the time of their laymg and hatching, yet they preserve their eggs dry and untouched by the water. They also lay sixty eggs, are the same number of days in hatching them, and those 4hat are the longest lived among them, live just so many years; which number is tbe first of the measures employed by diose who are conversant with the heavenly bodies.
^^ Moreover, of those animals that were honoured for both reasons, we have before spoken of the dog. But the ibis, killing indeed all deadly reptiles, was the first that taught men the use of medi- cal evacuation, in consequence of observii^ that she is after this manner washed and purified by herself. Those priests also, that are most attentive to the laws of sacred rites, when they conse- crate water for lustration, fetch it from that place where the ibis had been drinking; for she will neither drink nor come near unwholesome or infected water; but with tbe distance of her feet from each other, and her bill she makes an equilateral triangle. Farther still, the variety and mixture of her black wings about tbe white represents the moon when she is gibbous.
^' We ott|^t not, however, to wonder* if the E^ptians love such slender similitudes, since the Greeks also, both in their pictures and statues, employ many such like resemblances of the' Gods. Thus in Crete, there was a statue of Jupiter without ears. For it is fit that he who is the ruler and lord of all things, should bear no one.* Phidias also placed a dragon by the statue of » Instead of «M*«j««ip, I read MM /*«»»^»K. » i. e. Should be perfectly impartiaL XXZfiu INTROBUCTION.
Minerva^ and a soail by tbat of Veniifl at fllis, to show that Tirgins require a guard, and that keep- iog at home and silence become married women. But the trident of Neptune is a symbol of the diird region of the worlds which the sea possesses, having an arrangement after the heavens and the air. Hence also, they thus denominated Ampbitrite and the Tritons. The Pythagoreans likewise adorned numbers and figures with the appeUations of the Gods. For they called the equilateral triai^le Minerva Coryphagenes, or begotten from the summit, and Tritogeneia^ because it b divided by three perpendiculars drawn from the three angles. But they called die one Apollo^ being per- suaded to this by the obvious meaning of the word Apollo [which signifies a privation of multi- tude] and by the simplicity of the monad.' The duad they denominated strife and audacity; and the triad justice. For since injuring and being injured are two extremes subsisting according to excess and defect, justice through equality has a situation in the middle. But what is called the tetractys, being the number 36, was, as is reported, their greatest oath, and was denominated the world. For this number is formed from the composition of the four first even, and the four first odd numbers, collected into one sum.^ If therefore the most approved of the philosophers did not think it proper to n^ect or despise any occult signification of a divine nature when they perceived it even in things which are inanimate and incorporeal, it appears to me, that they in a still greater degree venerated those peculiarities depending on manners which they saw in such natures as had . sense, and were endued with soul, with passion, and ethical habits. We must embrace therefore, not those who honor these kings, but those who reverence divinity through these, as through most clear mirrors, and which are produced by nature, in a becoming manner, conceiving them to be tlie instru* ments or the art of the God by whom all things are perpetually adorned. But we ought to think that no inanimate being can be more excellent than one that is animated, nor an insensible than a sensitive being, not even though some one should collect together all the gold and emeralds in the universe. For die divinity is not ingenerated either in colours, or figures, or smoothness; but such things as neither ever did, nor are naturally adapted to participate of life, have an allotment more ignoble than that of dead bodies. But the nature which lives and^sees, and has the principle of motion from itself, and a knowledge of things appropriate and foreign to its being, has certainly derived an efflux and portion of that wisdom, which, as Heraclitus says, considers how both itself, and the universe is governed, Hence the divinity is not worse represented in these animals, than in the workmanships of copper and stone, which in a similar manner suffer corruption and decay, but are naturally deprived of all sense and consciousness. This then I consider ^ the best defence that can be given of the adora- tion of animals by the Egyptians.
■ Instead of itvxtmroif fjuifai»s as in the original, which is nonsense, it is necessary tp read, as in tl^e above translation wxy»rnri ms i*«m^»ff.
INTRODUCTION. 1XX1& With respect however to die sacred vestmeDts^ those of Isis are of varioas hues; for her power b about matter^ which becomes «id receives all things^ as light and darkness^ day atid nighty fire and water, life and death, beginning and end; but those of Osiris are without a shade and have no variety of colours, but have one only which is simple and luctform. Hence when the latter hate been once used, they are laid aside and preserved; for the intelligible is invisible and intangible. But the vestments of Isis are used frequently. For sensible things being in daily use and at hand, present us with many developements and views of their different mutations: but the intellectual perception of that which is intelligible, genuine, and holy, luminously darting through the soul Hke a coruscatioiv is attended with a simultaneous contact and vision of its object. Hence Plato and Aristotle call this part of philosophy epoptic or intuitive, indicating that those who have through the exercise of the reasoning power soared beyond these doxastic, mingled and all-various natures, raise themselves to that first, simple, and immaterial principle, and passing into contact with the pure truth which subsists about it, they consider themselves as having at length obtained the end of philosophy.' And that which the present devoted and veiled priests obscurely manifest with great reverence and caution is that this God is the ruler and prince of the dead, and is not differeflt firom that divinity who is called by the Greeks Hades and Pluto, the truth of which assertion not being understood, disturbs the multitude, who suspect that the truly sacred and holy Osiris dwelli in and undemhe earth, where the bodies of those are concealed who appear to have obtained all end of their being. But he indeed himself is at the remotest distance from the earth, unstained, unpolluted, and pure from every essence that receives corruption and death. The souls of men however, being here encompassed with bodies and passions, cannot participate of divitiity except as of an obscure dream by intellectual contact through philosophy. But when they are liberated from the body, and pass into the invisible, impassive, and pure region, this God is then their leader and king, from whom they depend, insatiably beholding him, and desiring to survey that beauty which cannot be expressed or uttered by men; and which Isis, as the ancient discourse evincea, always loving, pursuing, and enjoying fills such things in these lower regions as participate of geoe^ ration with every thing beautiful and good."
And lastly, the Emperor Julian, in a fragment of an Oration or Epistle on the duties of a priest^ has the following remarks on religiously venerating statues: '^ Statues and altars, and the preset^ vation of unextinguished fire, and in short, all such particulars, have been established by our fathers as symbols of the presence of the Gods; not that tpe should believe thai these symbols are Gods, but that through these we should worship the Gods. For since we arc connected with body, / For TiXtj ix«v 5MXM-«f Miy, it is necessary to read as in the transladon, nxtf ix«» f*x»^MK, ^ 1NTRO0UCTIOK.
U is abo necessary'that our worship of the Gods should be performed in a corporeal manner; but they are incorporeal. And thej indeed have exhibited to us as the first of statues^ that which ranks as the second genus of Gods from the first, and which circularly revolves round the whole of heaven.' Since, however, a corporeal worship cannot even be paid to these, because they are naturally unindigent, a third kind of statues was devised on the earth, by the worship of which we rencfer the Gods propitious to us. For as those who reverence the images of kings, who are not in want of any such reverence, at the same time attract to themselves their benevolence; thus also those who venerate the statues of the Gods, who are not in want of any thing, persuade the Gods by this veneration to assist and be favourable to them. For alacrity in the performance of things in our power is a document of true sanctity; and it is very evident that he %vho accomplishes the former, will in a greater degree possess the latter. But he who despises things in his power, and afterwards pretends to desire impossibilities, evidently does not pursue the latter, and overlooks the former. For though divinity is not in want of any thing, it does not follow that on this account nothing is to be offered to him. For neither is he in want of celebration through the minbtry of wards. What then? [Is it therefore reasonable that he should be deprived of this f By no means. Neither therefore is he to be deprived of the honour which is paid him through works; which honour has been legally established, not for three, or for three thousand years, but in all preceding ages, among all nations of the earth.
** But [the Galilaeans will say,] O! you who have admitted into your soul every multitude of daemons, whom, though according to you they are formless and unfigured, you have fashioned in a corporeal resemblance, it is not fit that honour should be paid to divinity dirough such works. How, then, do not we \heathens'\ consider as wood and stones those statues which are fashioned by the hands of nun f O more stupid than even stones themselves! Do you fancy that all men are to be drawn by the nose as you are drawn by execrable d<tmonSy so as to think that the artificial resent blances of the Gods are the Gods themselves f Looking therefore to the resemblances of the Gods, we do not think diem to be either stones or wood; for neither do we think that the Gods are these resemblances; since neither do we say that royal images are wood, or stone, or brass, nor that diey are the kings themselves, but die images of kings. Whoever, therefore, loves his king, beholds with pleasure the image of his kmg; whoever loves his child is delighted with his image; and whoever loves his father siurveys his image with delight.* Hence also, he who is a lover of ■ Meaning those divine bodies the celestial orbs, which io consequence of participating a divine life from the incorporeal powers from which they are suspended, may be very properly called iecondary Gods.
* Dr. Stillingfleet quotes this part of the extract, in his answer to a book entitled Catholics no Idolaters, and calls Julian the devout emperor.
IKTBODUCTION. Ik divinity gkdl; surreys the statues ami images of the Gods; at the same time venerating and fcariog with a holj dread the Gods who invisibly bdudd him.< The Catholics have employed arguments similar to these, in defence of the reverence which thqr pay to the images of their saints* Indeed, it is the doctrine of the Church of England,* that the ' ^* Dio Chrysostome (says Dr. Stillingflect in the before-cited work, p. 414) at large debates the case about images, in bis Olympic Oration; wherein he first shows, that all men have a natural apprehension of one supreme God the father of all things; and that this God was represented by the statue made by Phidias of Jupiter Olympius, for so he said «ap* «» jw ta-fxn, before whom we now are; and then describes him to be the king, ruler, and father of all, both Gods and men. This image he calls the most blessed, the most excellent, the most beautiful, the most beloved image of God. He says there are four ways of coming to the knowledge of God, bjf nature, by the instructions of the poets, by the laws, and by images; but neither poets, nor lawgivers, nor arti- ficers were the best interpreters of the deity, but only the philosophers who both understood and explained the divine nature most truly and perfectly. After this, he supposes Phidias to be called to account for making suck an image of God, as unworthy of him; when Iphims, Lycurgus, and the old Eleans, made none at all of him, as being out of the power of man to express his nature. To this Phidias replies, that no man can express mind and understanding by figures, or colours, and therefore they are forced to fly to that in which the soul inhabits, and from thence they attribute the seat of wisdom and reason to God, having nothing better to represent him by. And by that means joining power and art together, they endeavour by something which may be seen and painted, to represent that whidi is invbible and inexpressible. But it may be said, we had better then have no image or representation of him at all. No, says he; for mankind doth not love to worship God at a distance, but to comf near and feel him, and with assurance to sacrifice to him and crown him. like children newly weaned from their parents, who put out their hands towards them in their dreams as if they were still present; so do men out of the sense of God's goodness and their relation to him, love to have him represented as present with them, and 80 to converse with him. Thence have come all the [representations of God among the barbarous nations, in mountains, and trees, and stones.*^ The same conceptions abo about statues are entertained by the Braehmans in Benares on the Ganges. Far Monsieur Bernier when he was at their university, and was discoursing with one of the most learned men among Ihem, proposed to him the question about the adoration of their idols, and reproaching him with it as a thing very unreasonable, received firom him this remarkable answer: '' We have indeed in our temples many different statues, as those of Brahma, Mabaden, Genick, and Gavani, who are some of the chief and most perfect Deutas (or Deities); and we have also many others of less perfection, to whom we pay great honour, prostmting our- selves before them, and presenting them flowers, rice, oyles, saffian, and the like, with much ceremony. But we do not believe these statues to be Brahma or Bechen, &c. themselves, but only their images and representar tions, and we only give them that honour on account of the beii^ they represent They are in our temples, because it is necessary in order to pray well, to have something before our eyes that may fix the mind. And when we pray, it is not the statue we pray to, but he that is represented by it." The Brahmans have also ano« ther way of defending their worship of statues, of which the same author gxvss the followung account: *' That God, or that sovereign being whom they call Achar (immutable) has produced or drawn out of his own substance, not only souls, but also whatever is material and corporeal in the universe, so that all things in the world are hut one and the same thing with God himself, as all numbers are but one and the same unity repeated." Ber- nier Memoires, tome 9. p. 171* 178.
From this latter extract it appears that the Braehmans as well as the ancient Egyptians, believe that the supreme principle is all things. According to the best of the Platonists likewise, this principle is all things prior to all* For by being the one, it is all thingt after the most nmpk manner, i. e. so as to transcend all multitude.
* See its Homilies, tome 3. p. 46. froc. Vol. I, / xlK IKTRODVCTION.
Cathofics form the same opiiuoos of the saints whose images ihey warship as dM HeadieQS did of their Gods; and employ the same outward rites in honouring their images^ as the Headiens did in the religious veneration of their statues. Thus as the Heathens had their tutelar GodSf such as were Bdus to the Babylonians and Assyrians, Osiris and Isis to the E^ptians, and Vulcan to 4he Lemnians, thus also the Catholics attribute die defence of certain countries to certain saints. Have not the saints also to whom the safeguard of particular cities is committed, die same office as the Dii Frasides of the Heathens? Such as were at Delphi, Apollo; at Athens, Minerva; at Carthage, Juno; and at Rome, Quirinus. And do not the saints to whom churches 'are built and altars erected correspond to the Dii Patroni of the Heathens? Such as were in the Capitol, Jupiter, in the temple at Paphos, Venus, in the temple of Ephesus, Diana. Are not likewise, our Lady of Walsingham, our Lady of Ipswich, our Lady of Wilsdon, and the like, imitations of Diana Agrotera, Diana Coriphea, Diana Ephesia, Venus Cypria, Venus Paphia, Venus Gnidia, and the like? The Catholics too, have substituted for the iharine deities Neptune, Triton, Nereus, Castor and Pollux, Venus, 8cc. Saint Christopher, Saint Clement, and others, and especially our Lady, as she is called by them, to whom seamen sing Ave Maris Stella, Neither has the fire escaped their imitation of the Pagans. For instead of Vulcan and Vesta, the inspective guardians of fire according to the Heathens, the Catholics have substituted Saint Agatha, on the day of whose nati- vity they make letters for the purpose of extinguishing fire. Every artificer likewise and profession lias a special saint in the place of a presiding God. Thus scholars have Saint Nicholas and Saint Gregory; painters Saint Luke; nor are soldiers in want of a saint corresponding to Mars, nor lovers of one who is a substitute for Venus.
All diseases too have their special saints instead of Gods, who are invoked as possessing a healii^ power. Thus the venereal disease has Saint Roche; the falling Sickness Saint Cornelius, the tooth- ach Saint Apollin, &c. Beasts and cattle also have their presiding saints: for Saint Loy (says the HcHuily) is the horse-leach, and Saint Antony the swineherd, 8cc. The Homily adds,' ^' that in many points the Papists exceed the Gentiles in idolatry, and particularly in honouring and wor- shipping the relics and bones of saints, which prove that they be mortal men and dead, and there- fore no Gods to be worshipped, which the Gentiles would never confess of their Gods for very shame." And after enumerating many ridiculous practices of the Catholics in reference to these relics, the Homily concludes vdth observing, ^^ that they are not only more wicked than the Gen- tile idolaters, but also no wiser than asses, horses, and mules, which have no understanding."
In the second place the Homilies shew^ that the rites and ceremonies of the Papists in honour INTRODUCTIOK. d&i ing tiul wordiippiiv Ibek isMigefl or MtaaU, are tbe same widt the rites of the Pagena^ ^ Tbia, say tfaej, is erident in their pilgrimageB to visit images which had more hddoess and virtoe in them than others. In their candle-religion, burning incense^ offering up gold to images, hanging up crutches, chairs, and ships, legs, arms, and whole men and women of war, before ionges, as though by them, or saints (as they say) they were delivered from kmeneas, sickness, captivity, or shipwrack/' In spreading abroad after the manner of the Heathens, the miracles that have accompamed inures; f^ Sudi an image was s^it from heaven, like the Palladium, or Diana of the Ephesians. Such an image was brought by angels. Such a one came itself far from the east to the west, as Dame Fortune fled to Rome. Some images though they were hard and stony, yet for tender-heart and pity wept. Some spake more monstrously than ever did Balaam's ass, who had life and braalh in him. Such a cripple came and saluted this saint of oak, and by and by he was made wbok^ and here hangeth his crutch. Such a one in a tempest vowed to Saint Christopher, and scaped, and behold here is his ship of war. Such a one, by Saint Leonard's help, brake out of prison, and aee where his fetters hang. And infinite thousands more miracles by like, or more shameless lies were reported."
After all this, I appeal to every intelligent reader, whether the religion of the Heathens, accord^ ing to its genuine purity as delineated in this Introduction, and as professed and promulgated by Ae best and wisest men of antiquity, is not infinitely preferable to that of the Catholics i And vrhetfaer it is not more holy to reverence beings the immediate prt^eny of the ineffible principle of all things, and which are etemaUy centered and rooted in him; and to beUeve that in reverencing these, we at the same time reverence the ineffable, because they partake of his nature, and thai through these as media we become united vnth him,' than to reverence men, and the images (^ men, many of whom when living, were the disgrace of human nature i The Church of England as we see prefers the Pagans to the Papists; and I trust that every other sect of Protestant Christians will unanimously subscribe to her decision. And &us much in defence of the theology of Plato^ and the religious worship of the Heathens, it now remains that I should speak of the following work, of its author, and the translation. The work itself then is a scientific developement of the deiform processions firom the ineffable princifde > Tbe ineffable principle of things, as is demonstrated in the Elements of Theology in this work, is beyond self-subsistence. Hence the first ineffable evolution from him consists of self^^ubsistent natures. As we therefore are only the dregs of the rational nature, many media are necessary to conjoin us with a principle so immensely exalted above us. And these media are the golden chain of powers that have deified summits, or ^hat have the ineffable united with the efiable.
xllT INTHODUCTION.
xllT INTHODUCTION.
#f ttungs, and dut, m it appears to me in the greatest perfection poitible to man. For tbe reason- ing is etery where consummately accurate^ and deduced from sdf^vident principles; and the conclusions are tbe result of what Plato powerfully calls geometrical necessities. To the reader of this work indeed, who has not been properly disciplined in Eleatic and Academic stttdies, and who has not a genius naturally adapted to such abstruse speculations, it will doubtless appear to be perfectly unintelligible, and in the language of critical cant, nothing but jargon and revery. This, however, is what Plato die great hierophant of this theology predicted would be the case, if eftt* it was unfolded to the multitude at large. '' For as it appears to me, sojfs he, there are searuly any particulars which will be considered by the multitude more ridiculous than these; nor again, any which will appear more wonderful and enthusiastic to those who are naturally adapted to perceive themJ' '