Page images
PDF
EPUB

99 66

Although the gods of the heathen were innumerable, and of all ranks and orders, heavenly, terrestrial, and infernal, gods of the earth, sea, and air, gods of the hills and plains, gods of the woods and rivers, yet there seems to have been some general belief in one superior Being, the God of all these gods, the maker and ruler of all things. "Father of gods and men,' greatest among the gods," "supremely great and good," are the usual epithets of Jove among the heathen poets, while the philosophers speak in plain terms both of the unity, eternity, omnipotence and universal supremacy of the Deity. Their knowledge was indeed very imperfect, the result of instinct rather than of instruction; and therefore we meet with many inconsistencies and contradictions, which we shall not attempt to reconcile, leaving the following passages, together with those quoted, Gen. i. 1, and xvII. 1, Exod. III. 14, and at other places, to bear their own testimony to the truth which still prevailed in the midst of so much error.

"Jove, who rules over gods and men."-Hoм. Il. 1. 1. v. 281.

"So far am I above the gods and above mankind.”—IBID. 1. viii. v. 20.
"Highest of the gods."-IBID. 1. XIX. v. 258.

"First of the gods."-JBID. Odyss. XIV. v. 158.

"Jove in counsel wise, Father of gods and men."-HES. Theog, v. 457.
The Muses sing to Jove :-

"How excellent he is

Above all gods, and mightiest in his power."-IBID. v. 49.

"O most glorious Jupiter, greatest of the eternal gods."-IBID. v. 548.

"There is in truth one only God, who made the heaven and the wide earth, and

the blue depths of the sea, and the winds."-SоPH. fragm. apud Grot.

The following passage is quoted by Eusebius from Plato, to shew that the philosopher acknowledged one only God:

:

"When I begin my epistles with God, then you may conclude that I write seriously; but when I begin with the gods, then I am less in earnest."

EUSEB. Præp. evang. 1. xI. c. 13.

In the following, and some other extracts, Jupiter is asserted to have a natural, and not acquired, kingly power over all the gods, because they were his offspring, and made by him :—

"The paternal power or authority over children is a kingly authority; wherefore Homer, when he intended to set forth Jupiter's kingly power over all, very well called him the father of men and gods."-ARISTOT. de rep. 1. 1. c. 13.

"The Lord and Father of all things, by whom all things were made, is alone to be worshipped as the inventor and creator of such excellent works."

MENAND. apud Justin. de monarch. Dei. "Most glorious of the immortals, by whatever name thou art addressed, everlasting and almighty Jove, the author of all nature, ruling all things by thy law!"

CLEANTH. H. in Jov.

"Homer, when he calls Jupiter or Zeus, who ruleth and reigneth over all things, YTαTоs and MýσTwp, seems by the former word to denote his power and sovereignty; but by the latter his wisdom and knowledge.”—PLUT. de Isid. et Osirid. c. 51.

"Plato calleth the one unmade and eternal God the father and maker of the world, and of all other things generated."-IBID. Sympos. 1. vIII. c. 1.

"Megasthenes blames Calanus for following Alexander, and acknowledging any other god except the supreme Being."-ARR. Exped. Alex. 1. vII. c. 2.

"By Jupiter you are to understand that most ancient and princely mind which all

things follow and obey."-MAX. TYR. diss. 29.

The god Arcturus is brought in by Plautus speaking thus:

"With him who sways all nations, seas, and lands, I am a fellow-citizen in the realms of the gods. Jove, who is the ruler of gods and men, he disperses us here in various directions, to observe the actions, manners, piety, and faith of men." PLAUT. Rudens, prolog.

"That same Jupiter, who is by the poets styled the father of gods and men, is by our ancestors called the Best, the Greatest."-Cic. de nat, deor. 1. II. c. 25.

"Jupiter, the Best, the Greatest, by whose beck and command the heaven, the earth, and the seas are governed."—Cic. orat. pro Roscio, c. 45,

Venus thus begins her prayer to Jove :

"O king of gods and men! whose awful hand
Disperses thunder o'er the seas and land-

Disposing all with absolute command!"-VIRG. En. 1. I. v. 233.

"Claims not th' eternal Sire his wonted praise?
Awful who reigns o'er gods and men supreme,
Who sea and earth, this universal globe,

With grateful change of seasons guides;

From whom no being of superior power,

Nothing of equal, second glory, springs."-HOR. 1. 1. carm. 12.
Jove, whose equal sway

[ocr errors]

The ponderous mass of earth and stormy seas obey;
O'er gods and mortals, o'er the dreary plains,
And shadowy ghosts, supremely just he reigns."

"Jupiter, supremely great and good."-LIV. 1. VII. c. 3.

IBID. 1. III. carm. 4.

"There is a deity in heaven: thou dost exist, great Jupiter. Not without reason have we consecrated you in this mansion as the father of gods and men."

4.

IBID. 1. VIII. c. 6.

"Jupiter, the almighty disposer of all things."-TAC. Hist. 1. IV. c. 84. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

"The Persians have among them neither statues, nor temples, nor altars, the use of which they censure as impious, probably because, in opposition to the Greeks, they do not believe that the gods partake of our human nature.”—HDT. l. 1. c. 131.

"The Egyptians were the first who erected altars, shrines, and temples; and none before them ever engraved the figures of animals on stone."-IBID. 1. II. c. 4. "Moses set up no image; for he taught that God was not like

human being." any DIOD. SIC. Fragm. 1. 40.

"Moses, the Egyptian priest, declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments in representing the Deity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; and that the Greeks also were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God, said he, may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things. Who, then, of any understanding would venture to form an image of this Deity, resembling anything with which we are conversant? On the contrary, we ought not to carve any images, but to set apart some sacred ground, and a shrine worthy of the Deity, and to worship him without any similitude."-STRAB. 1. XVI. c. 2.

"The Egyptians impute absurd and blasphemous opinions to the gods, tending to atheism and impiety, attributing the names of gods unto natures and things senseless, lifeless, and corruptible, which of necessity men use as they need them, and cannot choose but mar and destroy the same; for we must in no case think that these very things be gods, for nothing can be a god which hath no soul."--PLUT. de Isid, et Osirid. c. 66.

"Numa forbade the Romans to represent the Deity in the form either of man or beast. Nor was there among them, formerly, any image or statue of the Divine Being. During the first 170 years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind, being persuaded that it is impossible to represent things divine by that which is perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but by the understanding."-PLUT. Numa, c. 8.

of art.

"The Egyptians offer divine worship to several brute animals, to images and works The Jews know but one deity, to be conceived and adored by the mind alone. They hold as profane and unhallowed those who are accustomed to fashion their gods after the likeness of men, out of perishable materials."-TAC. Hist. 1. v. c. 5.

5. Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them.

Bowing down did not always imply the highest degree of Divine worship: it was a form of adoration used towards the lesser deities, and even to kings and men in authority.

"CHORUS, to Polynices.-O thou allied to the son of Agenor, we fall at thy feet in lowly posture, O king, observing the custom of our country!"-EURIP. Phơn. v. 291. Callisthenes objected to the proposed adoration of Alexander, who claimed to be regarded as the third deity of the Indians, saying

“Divine and human honours are widely different as well in other things as in the rearing of temples and erecting of statues. To the gods we offer sacrifices and pour out libations: hymns also are addressed to the gods, but to men praises, accompanied by no adoration. It is therefore a matter of the highest importance for us to avoid confounding these things with one another, and neither by extravagant honours to exalt men above mortality, nor to debase the gods by robbing them of the worship they so justly claim, and reducing them to a level with mankind."—ARR. Exped. Alex. 1. iv. c. 11.

"The Persians did not adore Darius until his wanton horse had made him their king."-MAX. TYR. Diss. 19.

"When the Persians were prostrating themselves before Alexander, Polypercon, who reclined next to the king, began to jest upon one of them who touched the ground with his chin, bidding him strike it a little harder; which enraged the king to such a degree that he cried out-Will you not worship me? Am I to be ridiculed by you?' and dragging him from his couch he threw him on the ground, and as he lay there,' Now,' said Alexander, you are doing the same thing yourself which you ridiculed in another;" and ordering him into custody, he dismissed the rest."-Q. CURT. 1. viii. c. 5.

[ocr errors]

"The Carthaginian ambassadors, when complaining of the injustice of Massinissa, burst into tears, and prostrated themselves on the ground before the Roman Senate." LIV. 1. XLII. c. 23.

5. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God.

"The gods are very jealous."-HDT. 1. 1. c. 32.

"The gods were jealous that one man should be king both of Asia and Europe." IBID. 1. VIII. c. 109.

"The deity being envious, sends terror or lightning upon mighty armies, and destroys them."-IBID. 1. VII. c. 10.

5. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

"O that it might please the gods, that the father's infatuation should not in aftertime be a woe to the children; and that the children should not pay the transgression of their sires."-THEOGN. V. 732.

The whole race of Pelops and his successors were punished for his treachery against Myrtilus, by whose favour he had won the chariot race against Enomaus, and whom he afterwards slew.

"O Pelops! to thy country and to thee,

The fatal course brought woe and misery;

For since the time when, from his chariot thrown,

For thee the guilty wreath to gain,

The hapless Myrtilus was slain,

Naught has thy wretched race but grief and sorrow known."

SOPH. Electr. v. 504.

The Pythian oracle declared

"That Croesus, in his person, expiated the crimes of his ancestors in the fifth descent."-HDT. 1. I. c. 91.

"We shall suffer in Hades the punishment of our misdeeds here; either ourselves or our children's children."-PLAT. de, rep. 1. II. c. 8.

"Not only my children, but my children's children will bear the punishment of this disobedience."-EPICT. 1. III. c. 34.

"Your manner of justifying the gods is somewhat extraordinary, when you say that if a wicked man dies without suffering for his crimes, the gods inflict a punishment on his children, his children's children, and all his posterity. O wonderful equity of the gods! What city would endure the making of a law which should condemn a son or a grandson for a crime committed by the father or grandfather?

Shall Tantalus' unhappy offspring know

No end, no close, of this long scene of woe ?
When will the due reward of guilt be o'er,
And Myrtilus demand revenge no more?"

CIC. de nat. deor. 1. III. c. 38.

"Glaucus restored the money which had been entrusted to him, and which he had desired to keep for his own use; yet he did not escape punishment, being exterminated, together with his progeny and house, and (though derived from a wide-spreading clan,) with all his kin! Such is the penalty which the mere wish to sin incurs."

6.

Juv. Sat. XIII. v.204.

"This punishment shall they inherit from their arrogant forefathers."
SIL. ITAL. 1. XI. v. 127.

"The weeping sons of Thebes atone
For royal crimes and mischiefs not their own."

Jove says to the gods

STAT. Theb. 1. III. v. 206.

"Permit me, then, to warn succeeding times,
Avenging on the son his father's crimes;
And trace from records of a distant age

Past actions which deserve my present rage."-IBID. 1. III. v. 244.

And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

"The race of a liar is left in obscurity, but the generation of him who swears truly is more excellent in the time to come."-HES. oper. et dies, v. 280.

8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

"The seventh day is sacred."-HES. apud Euseb. præp. evan. 1. 13.

"The gods, pitying the naturally laborious race of man, have ordained for it as remissions from labour, the returns of feast days in honour of the gods."

PLAT. de leg. 1. II. c. 1. Jerusalem was taken by waiting for the day of fast, on which the Jews were in

the habit of abstaining from all work."-STRAB. 1. XVI. c. 2.

"The Hebrews solemnise the Sabbath with mutual feasting."

PLUT. Sympos. 1. rv. qu. 5. "Festivals and holidays have in view, with respect to man, rest from litigations

and contention; with respect to servants, from work and labours."

Cic. de leg. 1. II. c. 12.

"To-day is the thirtieth Sabbath," (pleaded as an excuse for not attending to business).-HOR. 1. I. Sat. 9. v. 69.

"The seventh day, held sacred by the Jew."

Ov. de art. amand. 1. 1. v. 76.

!

"The seventh day, a sacred festival with the Jews, but unpropitious for business." IBID. V. 415.

"An cmen, I said, prevented me; or it was Saturn's day, and therefore I delayed. (i.e. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, which the Latins thought improper for business, because unpropitious.")-TIBUL. 1. 1. Eleg. III. v. 18.

"It is said that the Jews chose to rest every seventh day, because on that day their wanderings ended."-TAC. Hist. 1. v. c. 4.

"In Judæa there is a river which is dry every Sabbath day."

PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. xxxi. c. 18. "Some whose lot it is to have a father who reveres Sabbaths, worship nothing but clouds, the divinity of heaven: their father is to blame for this, to whom each seventh day was a day of sloth, and kept aloof from all share of life's daily duties."

Juv. Sat. XIV. v. 96.

"Diogenes, the grammarian, used to hold public disquisitions at Rhodes every sabbath day."-SUET. Tiber. c. 32.

10. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant.

"Let servants enjoy the sacred festivals, their toils being remitted, for therefore they were appointed at certain seasons."-Cic. de leg. 1. 11. c. 8.

12. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

"Who on the threshold of afflictive age,

His hoary parent stings with taunting rage;

On him shall Jove in anger look from high,

And deep requite the dark iniquity."-HES. Oper. et dies, v. 329.

66 Honour your parents and kinsmen."-PYTHAG. Aur. Carm. v. 4.

[ocr errors]

They who dishonour their parents when growing old, for these there is no place."
THEOGN. V. 819.

"It is the Grecian fashion always to honour those of kindred blood."

EURIP. Orest. v. 486.

"In this mud and ever-flowing filth you will behold everyone who has ever wronged a guest, or beaten his mother, or smitten his father on the cheek, or sworn a false oath."-ARISTOPH. Ran. v. 146.

"Those who through anger have committed any violence against father or mother, and lived the remainder of their life in a state of penitence, these must of necessity fall into Tartarus, but after they have fallen, and have been there for a year, the wave casts them forth, the homicides into Cocytus, but the parricides and matricides into Pyriphlegethon."-PLAT. Phoedo, c. 62.

"It is just for a person who owes the first and greatest of debts, to pay those that are of the longest standing, and to think that the things that he has acquired and holds, belong all to those who begot him and brought him up, for supplying what is required for their service to the utmost of his power; beginning from his substance; and in the second place from his body; and thirdly, from his soul; by paying off the debts due for their care of him, and in favour of those who gave the pangs of labour as a loan to the young; and by returning what has been due a long time to those who, in their old age, are in want. It is requisite, likewise, through the whole period of life, for a person to hold pre-eminently a kind language towards his parents."-IBID. de leg. 1. IV. c. 8.

"Children ought to assist their parents, most of all in nourishing them, being, as it were, in their debt. They should also give honour to their parents as to the gods." ARISTOT. Eth. 1. IX. c. 2.

Demosthenes, speaking of the laws against undutiful children, says"To nothing are we more inviolably bound than to a just and cheerful discharge of that debt in which both nature and the laws engage us to our parents." DEMOSTH. Philip. 4.

« PreviousContinue »