'^.'S:! 'a •>:;;:;;H;K mm •:i*:?w ;■:;:>:»;•:•?:•:»: LIBRARY 1 r> r jiTy-i El ?n/-i »T XT T BS 511 .M4 1861 Meade, William, 1789-1862. The Bible and the classics 'rhe John 1(1. Krcbs I>oiiatioit. THE BIBLE THE CLASSICS. BY THE EIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM MEADE, BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. " Study the Sacred Scriptures : they have God for their Author, salvation for their end, and truth witliout any mixture of error for their matter." — John Locke. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS. No. 5 30 BROADWAY. 186L Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, BY THE RT. REV. WILLIAM MEADE, In the Clerk's OfBce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern Dis- trict of New York. NEW YORK: PRINTED BT EDWARD O. JENKINS, 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST. PREFACE. When a youth at school, studying the Grreek and Latin poets, I was, as doubtless other youths are, much struck with the accounts there given of the heathen gods and god- desses; of their visits to the earth and intercourse with mortals ; of the miracles ascribed to them ; and especially of their frequent assumption of the human form. The teacher made me understand all the allusions to these things by referring to the notes, and by carefully studying Tooke's " Pantheon," in which were many very shocking things which it could be wished were kept from the eyes of the young. Having been instructed in the Sacred Scrip- tures from a child, and continually hearing or reading the same, at home or in church, I could not but observe the strong resemblance between some of these fables in the ancient poets, and certain things in the Old and New Testa- ments,— such as the first formation of man ; the garden of Eden ; God's visits to that place ; the long lives of men before the flood ; the flood itself; the mission of angels to men afterwards ; and, above all, the incarnation of 4 PREFACE. Christ, and the miracles wrouglit by himself and his apostles. While noticing this resemblance, I well remember that unbelieving thoughts would sometimes enter my mind, in opposition to the faith in which I had been trained, and that I was tempted to say, perhaps all these marvellous things in the Bible and in the heathen mythology are alike false. To the blessing of God on a religious educa- tion I owe it, that this temptation was not more effectual, and that the impression was Jiot an abiding one, as I fear has been the case with thousands of the young who have not enjoyed the same religious advantages, and even with some who have been instructed in the scriptures of truth. When it pleased God more deeply to affect my heart with the truth and importance of our holy religion, and I saw how many of the classically educated youth of our land were disposed to regard alike the most sacred truths of the Bible and the wild fables of pagan writers, and how much impurity was learnt from the latter, I began to dread the effects of a classical education, and to think that more harm than good resulted therefrom. But on continu- ing and enlarging my course of reading with a view to the ministry, and carefully examining the Sacred Scriptures, and the heathen poets and mythologists, my mind was relieved of this apprehension, and I became satisfied that a candid study and comparison of the same with the Bible would produce quite a different result. All my subsequent examinations of this subject have only confirmed me in PREFACE. 5 the conviction, that one of the strongest arguments in flivor of all that seems marvellous in the Bible may be drawn from the remarkable resemblance between the marvellous in it and the marvellous in the religious history and sys- tems of the ancient heathen world ; much of which is to be seen, even at the present day, in the idolatries of the yet unchristianized world. There is no sentiment more generally admitted, than that " the universal consent of mankind points to truth," if not with an unerring hand in every particular, yet with sufficient clearness to establish all great truths."- If, not- withstanding great perversions and corruptions, the various religions of earth point to some early facts common to them all, we have only to examine diligently where the first and true account is to be found, and then show the origin and history of all departures from the same. But this can only be done by those wlio have the learning and the leisure for it. The youth in our schools, with only the heathen poets and the notes on the same, and some classical dictionary, are utterly incompetent to judge rightly on this subject. Their minds will only be overwhelmed by the multitude of contradictory and ridiculous stories about the gods, and either disgust, contempt, or scepticism, as to all among men claiming to be divine, will be the result. Who can ques- tion the importance of some work which shall bring within a moderate compass a comparative view of the leading * " Quod ab omnibus, ubique et semper creditum est pro veritute habendum." 6 PREFACE. principles and facts of the Bible, and of all tlie Mse relig- ions of earth, showing that they had the same origin, but how, under the latter, men gradually " turned the truth of God into a lie," and came " to worship the creature more than the Creator," and at length were given up by God to all the abominations which abound in the heathen world. The present volume is an humble attempt at such a work ; and if the author of it shall only succeed in provok- ing some one, more competent to the task, to execute it in a better manner, he will rejoice in the honor and privilege of having contributed thus much to what he has long con- sidered as a most important desideratum in the conduct of a classical education. It is now more than forty years since he has been engaged in the fruitless effort to persuade some one, either in this or our mother country, to undertake what he felt himself incompetent to execute in a manner at all worthy of its great importance. During that tinie he has adverted to it through the press, and spoken and written to learned and pious men urging the subject upon their attention, but in vain. He has long endeavored to find out some work already in use, in the schools of England and America, which had been prepared for this purpose, but without success. When in England, twenty years since, he made a special visit to the Rev. Mr. Faber, who has written so learnedly and voluminously on the subject, with a view to persuade him to condense into a small volume, for the use of schools, the substance of what he had published to the world ; but the years and increas- PREFACE. 7 ing infirmities of that venerable man and most useful author, forbade the attempt. Within the last few years, another fruitless effort has been made, by the help of two of the first scholars and most laborious authors in England, to find some book, already published and in use, which might answer the object which I have so long endeavored to accomplish. Thus disappointed in all my efforts at help from others, and feeling that old age and infirmities might soon unfit me even for the attempt at something which I have so long deemed important, I hope that my presumption may not seem greater than my zeal if I make an humble ex- periment myself. It will at once be perceived that I am only using the labors of others in compiling a guide for the young who are travelling the dangerous road of a classi- cal education. Nor have I had in view the young of one sex only. The greater attention now paid to the education of the female sex, even to the extent of embracing, in many instances, the Greek and Latin classics, — especially the latter, — makes it proper to have reference to them in any work of this kind. I have considered this, and in the execution of my task have endeavored to exclude every thing which might in the slightest degree offend against female purity and deli- cacy, though in so doing some things must be more lightly touched than the subject seems to require.* It will be seen * Luther was at one time charged with opposition to the study of the classics, but indignantly repelled the imputation. Julian the Apostate proposed to ban- 8 PEEFACE. that I have generally abstained even from the use of Latin quotations, and altogether from the Greek, preferring the English to either. In doing this I had reference to a class of readers who are unacquainted v.'ith those languages, but to whom I desire to render my book interesting and instructive. For the disuse of the Greek I ought to assign another reason, nor be ashamed to do it, when I have so high an example as the great and good Sir Mat- thew Hale. In the preface to his excellent work " On the Primitive Origination of Mankind," he apologizes to the reader for not using the Greek tongue in his quotations from ancient Greek authors, saying, " I was a better Gre- cian in the sixteenth than in the sixty-sixth year of m.y life." I can speak in like manner, only that I may say " I was a better Grecian in my sixteenth year at school, than in my seventj^-second in the study." But my book will suit more readers in consequence of my having nearly forgotten something which I once learned. Indeed, it is not for the learned antiquarian and scholar that I write, but for those of either sex. and of all ages, whether studying ish the works of the poets and m3-thologists from his kingdom, saying that the defenders of Christianity drew many of their arguments from the pagan writers, adducing their traditions in support of Bible facts and doctrines. Some are, even at this day, unwilling to expurgate any of the classics, lest anything should be lost which might furnish proof of the superior excellency of the morality of the Bible. They would even retain the most obscene and licentious passages in the poets, as proofs of the deep corruptions of the heathen world, and the greater purity of our system. That such testimonies should be preserved and used is very proper, and will doubtless be done, but whether the youth of either sex should be thus familiarized M'ith vice in connection with the charms of poetry, is quite a different question. PREFACE. 9 the classics, or desiring to be informed of some things which are common to them and to the Holj Scriptures. I may, therefore, in sending forth this work, speak somewhat in the words of the exiled Ovid, in his "Liber Tristium," or, " Book of Sad Letters from Pontus :" " Ergo, care liber tiniida circumspice mente, Et satis a media sit tibi plebe legi." " Wherefore, dear book, around thee look with timid mind, And be content if read by those of lesser kind." In the hope that this humble effort may either be itself useful, or lead to something which may be so, I commend it to the blessing of God and the kindness and candor of the reader. I invite friendly suggestions for its improvement, should it appear likely to answer, in any measure, the object of the author. To one and all I would say, as to any and every thing contained in it, " Si quid novisti rectius Candidas imperii — si non ; his utere mecum." " If aught thou better knowest, in candor tell; If not, use this with me." One word only in conclusion. The most pleasing thought associated in my mind with the following pages, (on which I have bestowed much labor, not to make them appear learned, but be useful,) is, that they may furnish interesting and edifying reading to the family circle on a winter's 10 PKEFACE. evening ; that they may also be taken up in private, and read by those of either sex and of all ages, who are anx- ious for information, presented in fewest words, and in the plainest manner, on those important questions touching God, as exhibited in the holy Trinity — the creation of the world and of man — the deluge — the unity of the human race — the rise and progress of idolatry — and others con- nected with these, which are now the subjects of so much discussion among the learned, and which sceptics and infi- dels seek to use against our blessed religion, as set forth in the Sacred Scriptures. Such being my object, I commend this humble effort to the divine blessing.'^'' WILLIAM MEADE, Bishop of the P. E. C, of Virginia. * Whether it might not be profitably used in classic schools, and especially in those of a higher grade, and be of some service to the young, even in col- leges, until something better of the same kind is furnished, must be left to the decision of those best qualified to judge. LIST OF AUTHORS REFERRED TO. I will not disguise the fact that in compiling this book I have often had in my view a large portion of my brethren in the ministry, who ought to be well-grounded in tlie subjects discussed in it, but who cannot be supposed to have access to many of the books which treat of them. For their benefit, and in order to inspire some confidence in the accuracy of my statements, I subjoin a list of the authors which I have consulted during the preparation of this book. I have not generally referred to the page and volume of the passages quoted, because these refer to other more ancient writers to whom neither 1 nor my readers have access. The following is the list of authors recommended to my brethren, as they may have opportunity or inclination to examine them : George Stanley Faber's works on the Pagan Mythology, 3 vols, quarto ; Hosa Mosaicpe, 2 vols, octavo ; Mysteries of the Cabiri, 2 vols, octavo ; On Sacrifice, 1 vol. octavo ; On tlie Three Dispensations, 2 vols, octa- vo ; Bryant's work on Mythology, 6 vols, octavo ; Mayo, 4 vols, octa- vo; 1st and 2d volumes of Stackhouse's History of the Bible; Prideaux's and Shuckford's Connections, in several volumes, octavo ; Prichard's Researches, 6 vols, octavo ; Harcourt on the Deluge, 2 vols, octavo; Asiatic Researches, 12 vols, octavo; Stillingfleet's Ori- gines Sacrro, 1 vol. folio ; Sir Matthew Hale's Primitive Origination of Mankind, 1 vol. folio ; Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, 4 vols. ; Cudvvorth's Intellectual System, one large volume ; Leland on the Advantages of Revelation, 2 vols, octavo ; Schoolcraft's Ameri- can Aborigines, 6 vols, folio, published by Congress ; Maury's Phys- ical Geography of the Sea, 1 vol. octavo ; Guyot's Earth and Man ; Cabell on the Unity of the Human Race, 1 vol. : Hardwic's Christ 12 LIST OF AUTHOES REFERRED TO. and other Masters, 4 vols, octavo ; Muir's Christianity and Hindoo- ism, 1 vol. octavo ; Cardinal Wiseman's Science and Eevelation, 2 vols, duodecimo ; Archer Butler's Lectures on Ancient Philosophy ; Prescott's Histories of Mexico and Peru ; Eivero and Pthudi on Peru, edited by Dr. Hawkes ; Lares and Penates, by Barker, 1 vol. octavo ; Egypt, by Wilkinson, 1 vol. duodecimo ; Bishop Horseley's Treatise on the Sibylline Books ; Grey's Key to the Classics, 2 vols, octavo ; Brook's Ovid, with notes ; Sandys' Ovid, with notes, 1 vol. folio; Fairbanks' Typology, 2 vols, octavo; Eawlinson's Herodotus, 4 vols, octavo ; Eawlinson's Historical Evidences, 1 vol. duodecimo ; Trench's Hulsean Lectures, 1 vol. duodecimo ; Faber's Many Man- sions, 1 vol. octavo ; Leland's Deistical Writers, 2 vols, octavo ; Pro- fessor Lewis' Divine Human, 1 vol. ; His Six Days of Creation ; His Bible and Science ; Guyot's Earth and Man ; Labagh's Glory of Woman ; Turnbull's Christ in History ; Hitchcock's Eeligion of Geology, 1 vol. duodecimo ; Hugh Miller's Works ; Pendleton's Science a Witness to the Bible ; Muller on Eumenides ; The Stars and the Angels, anonymous ; The True Glory of Woman, by Har- baugh, 1 vol. duodecimo. Beside these, many articles in different Quarterlies of our country. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CHANNELS THEOUGH WHICH THE EAELY HISTOET OF MAN HAS COME DOWN, CHAPTER IL ON GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CEEATOR OF THE WORLD, AND OF ALL THINGS THEREIN. CHAPTER III. ON CREATION. CHAPTER IV. ON THE CREATION OF MAN. — PART I. CHAPTER V. ON THE OEEATION OF MAN. — PART II. CHAPTER VI. ON THE INTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY AT THE FORMATION OF MAN. CHAPTER VII. ON THE TEMPTATION BY THE DEVIL IN THE FORM OF A SERPENT. CHAPTER VIII. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL AND THE EESUKRECTION OF THE CHAPTER X. THE DEATH OF ABEL AND THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICES. CHAPTER XL THE CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN. CHAPTER XII. PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION. CHAPTER XIII. ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. CHAPTER XIV. ON THE DELUGE. CHAPTER XV. ON THE DELUGE. CHAPTER XVI. ON THE DELUGE. CHAPTER XVII. THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL, AND THE DIVISION OF THE EARTH AMONG THE DESCENDANTS OF NOAH. CHAPTER XVIII. RELIGIOUS OPINIONS AND WORSHIP OF THE DISPERSED IN ASIA, ' CHAPTER XIX. THE RELIGION OF THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. CONTENTS. 16 CHAPTER XX. THE RELIGION OF THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. CHAPTER XXI. ON THE CANAANITE8 AND ANIMAL SACRIFICES. CHAPTER XXII. ON THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA. CHAPTER XXIII. ON THE RELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. CHAPTER XXIV. ON THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. CHAPTER XXV. ON THE PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE AND ROME. CHAPTER XXVI. ON PLUTARCH AND OTHER PHILOSOPHERS. CHAPTER XXVII. EFFECT OF THE PHILOSOPHY AND IDOLATRY OF THE HEATHEN ON THE MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. CHAPTER XXVIII. ON HOMER — THE ILIAD, ODYSSEY, AND OTHER POEMS. CHAPTER XXIX. ON HESIOD AND CALLIMAOHUS. CHAPTER XXX. ON THE THEOLOGY OF ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. CHAPTER XXXI. ON OVId's TRISTIUM and METAMORPHOSES. 16 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXII. ON ovid's metamorphoses. CHAPTER XXXIII. ON Virgil's georgics and ^neid, CHAPTER XXXIV. ON HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSIU3. CHAPTER XXXV. ON THE PROPER ESTIMATE OF THE PAGAN MYTHOLOGY, AND ON THE SALVABILITY OF THE HEATHEN. CHAPTER XXXVI. ON THE QUESTION WHETHER THE SAVAGE OR THE CIVILIZED STATE IS THE ORIGINAL AND NATURAL STATE OF MAN. CHAPTER XXXVII. ON THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. CHAPTER XXXVIII. ON THE HEATHEN ORACLES. CHAPTER XXXIX. ON THE SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE TO ALL OTHER BOOKS. CHAPTER XL. CONCLUDING REMARKS. i:^rTRODUCTION. AjLTHorGH the general character of this work is to be inferred from the Preface and Table of Contents, it may yet be well to introduce it by some further observations on what will form its main object. That object will be to establish and recommend the religion of Christ, not only as distinguished from and superior to all other sys- tems, but as lying at the foundation of whatever is true in every other. There is much of truth in the title of an old volume called " Christianity as Old as Creation," though the work itself is full of falsehood. In that title given to our Lord, " The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," we have the origin of all the sacrificial ofierings with which the world has so long abounded. All these are only symbolical and imitative of that in which the essence of all true religion consists, ISTot only the scriptures declare, but all humanity has ever cried out, that "in blood is the atonement;" that without " shed- ding of blood there can be no remission of sins ;" but the scriptures tell us plainly, what other traditions only some- times hint at, that it must be nobler blood than that of bulls and goats, or even of ordinary men, which is re- quired for the atonement of sin. A divine j^ersonage must combine with the human, by being born of a woman — must unite the fulness of the Godhead with the 2 18 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. truth of our mortal nature — be very God and very man, and pour out his human life and human blood for our sakes. If Christianity be not this, it is nothing but a cunningly devised fable, imposed on men, and utterly worthless. If it be this, then, large as is the volume which contains our religion, this must be its chief theme. Accordingly, we find the Old Testament declared to be a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ ; as the alpha and omega — the beginning and the end — the all in all of God's word. When our Lord was on earth, he showed to his disciples how he was set forth in all the ancient scriptures. These are they, he would say, which testify of me. This was the main object, also, of the inspired apostles. But, it may be asked, is nothing of this mighty truth to be found in any other of the many traditions, monuments, or books, which have abounded in the world for so many thousand years of man's history ? There is much reason to believe, and many interesting facts to show, that such is the case. The true religion of that God, whose voice spake to our first parents in the gar- den of Eden, was certainly known to them and their chil- dren ; as certainly to Noah and his family, in whom the human race was renewed and put on further trial. It must, in its main features, have been known to their descendants, both before and after their dispersion from Babel. More or less of it must have been retained in the worship, and the traditions, and monuments, and writ- ings of the various families or nations which were scat- tered abroad through the earth, though gradually per- verted and corrupted by the sinfulness and ignorance of man. To bring forth the evidence of this in a manner best calculated to convince the reader, is the object of this book. If the union of the human and divine nature in the per- son of Christ, in order, by his sufferings and death and INTRODUCTION. 19 intercession, to reconcile man to his oifended God, be the great theme of the Old and New Testaments, we must suppose that much of the same must have been spread abroad through the earth by the descendants of Noah, and been transmitted from generation to genera- tion, however darkened and corrupted and turned into fable. The sinfulness and misery of man, calling for such a hope ; the law of God written on the hearts and consciences of men ; the religious instincts of humanity, for such there are, must have ever inclined them to cherish a religion like that of Christ. Such it is believed was the case. But while we must cherish and maintain this belief, let us guard against error, for much error is to be found in connexion with it. A great controversy exists, and has long existed, as to the amount of natural religion resulting from the instinct of man and the law written on his heart ; as to the piety of the heathen, growing out of the remainder of revealed or original truth yet to be found in their superstition. This controversy began with some of the fathers of the Christian church, especially those called the Platonic, who supposed that there was more of divine truth in the philosophy and mythology of the pagan world, than it is safe to admit. Most inju- rious were the consequences of their error. In relation to natural religion independent of, if not contrary to re- vealed, it was advocated to a most alarming extent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At the head of its defenders stood Lord Herbert, Baron of Sherbury, who wrote in the early part of the seventeenth century, and maintained that there were certain great principles or articles of religion, five in number, written distinctly, by the hand of God, on the minds of all men, in every age and country, making up a system, which were universally received and not disputed. How contrary this to history I need not stop to declare. His Lordship's theory was 20 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. well answered bj different writers, as may be seen in Leland's view of deistical writers. The next eminent writer was the infidel Tindal, wlio wrote, in tbe early part of the last century, a popular and deceptions work, entitled " Christianity as old as Creation, or the Gospel a republication of the Law of ISTature." In this he endeavors to show that there is nothing in Christianity which had not always been written on the minds of men. Dean Trench, in his Hulsean lectures, calls him " one of the ablest of the unhappy band of infidels." Of late years the discussion has been renewed and has assumed a more dangerous form. Some of the German writers (called Geologists) have improved upon the Pla- tonic fathers, and found out so much of divine truth in the ancient philosophers and mythologists, and in their successors of the present day, that it matters little whether the gospel, in its fulness and purity, be preached to the heathen or not. They so magnify the amount of saving truth which may be found in all the perversions of religion, which prevail upon earth and in the deep recesses of the human mind, as to encourage the idea that all men may be saved by " the law or sect which they profess," if they be only sincere. It is our desire to seek for the truth on this important and deeply interesting subject, and to present it with candor to our readers. Many sound minds and honest hearts are engaged in its investigation ; and the inductive system, or that which reasons from well established facts, is faithfully used in the inquiry. The real character of all the various religious systems which are or have been among men, is carefully sought in all the monuments, traditions, and histories of the earth. How far Christ has been the desire of all nations ; how much there has been of what is called " the uncon- scious prophecy of Christ," in the groping after truth — INTRODUCTION. 21 the feeling after God — on the part of the philosophers and in the popular belief of the nations, is the inquiry. We are persuaded that there has been enough to form a most powerful argument for the truth of Christianity, as the revealed religion to the first parents of the human race, and as that which has been continued through the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian church to the present day. We are persuaded that either the human race was not created by God, according to the popular belief, or else that God did communicate religion to it. Frederick I^^ewman, the infidel brother of the great Tractarian of England, says that "religion was created by the inward instincts of the soul, to be pruned and chastened by the sceptical understanding." Much do we prefer the opinion of Tertullian, one of the early fathers, who said that " the whole of Gentilism was either a distorted copy of pri- mordial truth, or else was actually derived from a perusal of the Old Testament scriptures." A portion of what was true in paganism was doubtless to be traced to both of these sources. At the time of the Reformation, sonie, both of Romanists and Protestants, spoke too strongly of the amount of truth to be found in the ancient philoso- phers. A certain Romanist called the ancient philosophy " a tacit Christianity ;" and even Zuinglius spoke too favor- ably of some idolaters and philosophers. A much more careful and deeper search into the char- acter of the various philosophies and religions of mankind has of late years been made, by some of the most learned theologians and scholars, the result of which has been most favorable to the belief that the great doctrine of the incarnation and atonement is sustained by the gene- ral consent of mankind. Dean Trench, in his laborious and interesting ITulsean lectures, says, " All men have been In one way or another 22 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. asking for that gift (such as we Lave in Christ), or fancy- ing that they have gotten it, or mourning its departure, or providing substitutes for it." Speaking of man's near- ness to God in Paradise, he says : " Everywhere they had a tradition of a time when they were nearer to God than now, and a coniident hope of a time when they should be brought nearer again." " Ko thoughtful student," he says, " of the past records of man can refuse to acknowl- edge that through all its history there has been the hope of a redemption from the evil which oppresses it ;" nor of this only, but that " this hope has continually linked itself on some single man ;" and again, that " this help must be in a person ; that only around a person could souls cluster." Elaborate and learned as the Hulsean lectures are, a work of more labor and learning has since appeared from the pen of the candid and judicious Charles Hardwic,' M. A., Christian Advocate in the University of Cam- bridge, England. It is entitled " Christ and other Mas- ters," in four volumes ; being a most thorough examina- tion of all the religions of the earth, as they have been and now are. While evidently fearful of finding too many and close resemblances between the religion of the Bible and the corrupt perversions thereof, he nevertheless thus testifies to the proofs of a common and heavenly ori- gin. " The features of resemblance, few, dim, and frag- mentary though they be, should be welcomed as so many testimonies to the truth of revelation, as unconscious pro- phecies of heathendom, or else as portions of that spirit- ual heritage which men and tribes bore with them from the cradle of the human race." In opposition to the doc- trine that men have discovered and made a religion for themselves, he says, in discoursing of the Hindoos, that "Nearly all their writings, so far from advocating the no- tion that truth is self-evolved or a discovery of the human INTRODUCTION. 23 reason, recognize in God the only source of supernatural teaching ;" and so far from urging that the present age alone is in possession of such teaching, they proclaim their frequent obligation to the purer wisdom of antiquity, and to the " guidance of the sages who have delivered it unto us." They say that " truth was originally deposited with men, but gradually slumbered and was forgotten, and that the knowledge of it returns like a recollection." This, as we shall see hereafter, was the favorite doctrine of Plato. In regard to a Redeemer, Mr. Hardwic says, " Not- withstanding all the wayward tendencies of men, diverg- ing each in opposite ways from the principles of true religion, there was always in the heart of man a yearning after an external Saviour. There was always a presenti- ment that such a Saviour would eventually stoop down from heaven, and, by an act of grace and condescension, master all our deadliest foes, and reinstate us in our lost inheritance," What is this but the doctrine of the apos- tle as to the " whole creation groaning in pain, waiting for the redemption." " This doctrine," says Hardwic, " was to the Hebrews, from the time of Abraham, ' the pivot of their firmest hopes — the key to all their scriptures.' " Speaking of the Medo-Persians, among whom such tradition had lost all practical eftect, he says, "Among these, as well as in the darkest depths of Gentilism, the echoes of primeval truths had lingered ages after they had lost all practical eflfect." Mr. Hardwic very emphatically dwells upon the fact, that in all the other religions there was a sad absence of any deep and just views of sin, such as Jews and Chris- tians had, although they all admitted the fall of man, the existence of sin, the need of sacrifice, and a restorer. Having adduced these testimonies from European writers, I should do injustice to our land if I did not 24 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. mention one at least of the many valuable treatises of American divines, either in book or pamphlet form, which treat on this interesting theme. The Rev. Eobert Turn- bull, D. D., has just edited the second edition of his "Christ in History," a book to be recommended for its deep research into the writings of ancient philosophers and mythologists, and for the striking manner in which he shows how all his- tory bears some testimony to Christ as the central idea in all the religions of the earth, however o'Bscured and smoth- ered by the fancies and theories of men. Quoting the strong language of Shelley and Vinet, he says, that " His- tory, as a whole, is a successive revelation of God," and that " all the intractable and contradictory problems of philosophy find their solution in Christ." The result of his own researches is, that " God, manifested in some form, is the centre of all history, past, present, and to come." In the Prometheus of ^schylus he finds the half divine, half human sufierer and Saviour, the true friend of man, while Jupiter was the awful tyrant. Plato and other philosophers, he says, held to a divine manifestation, an emanating essence or deity, called logos, or wisdom, or reason, by which the world was created ; not a mere ab- straction, but a personality. As to the Hebrew doctrine, Philo Judeus, born a few years before Christ, and the greatest philosopher of the Jewish nation, maintained that some divine logos, or word, or reason, must intervene beween men and God in order that men might understand God. He it was whom the fathers called God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, and which is in- corporated into the Christian creed. He it is whom the apostle calls " the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." He it is whom the ancient Jews called the Messiah, the Shiloh, who was to come — the Angel of the presence — the Divine presence — Emmanuel, God with us. This was the God of Abraham, INTRODUCTION. 25 Isaac, and Jacob, who so often appeared to tliem in the human form. God as the infinite Father could not be seen or known to finite man, except he became, in a sense, finite also, embodying himself in some material form, becoming the word, or voice, or image of God. This doctrine runs through all the ancient religions, however perverted. Thus in India, Yach, or speech, is the active power of Brahma. In Eg^^Dt, while Aman is the hidden god, Phtha is the god by whom he produces the world, the manifested god. In Persia, Ormazd the Good creates the world, by Honovu the word. A Chinese sage also teaches the creation of the world by the " primordial reason." The early fathers maintained that the ancient writers, whether poets or philosophers, derived their be- lief of the eternal word, or reason, by whom the worlds were created, either from the sacred scriptures or some original revelation. All men, it seems, have ever been longing for an incar- nate God. Even pantheism, which supposes God clothes himself in every material object of nature, bears some tes- timony to this craving of humanity that God would con- descend to let himself down, and permit us to see him and feel something of him. Even rationalizing and sceptical men acknowledge that the human form is the fittest for the indwelling of the Deity, in order to convene with man and do him good. Wherefore, all the gods of the heathen were once men, or sometimes assumed the human form, and their images were the same. All these things bear some testimony to what the scrip- tures teach concerning one born of a virgin, and who thus became " Emmanuel, God with us " — a second Adam, but without sin as to his mortal nature, and yet the second person of the Godhead, as to his divine. It is imj)ossible to conceive of a method by which God could so effectually draw the hearts of men unto himself, 26 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. as that which was devised in embodying himself in the human form, going through all the stages of human life from infancy to age, and performing all the kind offices of humanity, enduring all the persecutions of the wicked, and at length suffering all the agonies of crucifixion. Well may we exclaim with a j)ious mystic : " The Lord of all things, in his humble birth, Makes mean the proud magnificence of earth ; The straw, the manger, and the mouldering wall. Eclipse its lustre, and I scorn it all. " All, all have lost the charms they once possessed ; An infant God reigns sov'reign in my breast : From Bethlehem's bosom I no more will rove ; There dwells my Saviour, and there rests my love. " Thou art my bliss, the light by which I move ; In thee alone dwells all that I can love ; Upon my meanness, poverty, and guilt, . The trophy of thy glory shalt be built. " The more I love thee, I the more reprove A soul so lifeless and so slow to love ; Till, on the deluge of thy mercy toss'd, I plunge into the sea, and there am lost." — Madame Gcion. The following testimony of the Rev. Mr. Cecil to the necessity of an incarnate God, will, I am sure, he accep- table to the reader. " A sick woman once said to me, ' Sir, I have no notion of God — I can form no notion of him. Tou talk to me of him, but I cannot get a single idea that seems to con- tain any thing.' ' But you know,' I said, ' how to con- ceive of Jesus Christ as a man. God comes down to you, in him, full of kindness and condescension.' 'Ah ! sir,' she replied, ' that gives me something to lay hold on. There I can rest. I understand God in his Son. And if God,' INTRODUCTION. 27 she added, ' is not intelligible out of Christ, much less is he amiable, though I ought to feel him to be so. He is an object of horror and aversion to me, corrupted as I am. I fear, I tremble, I resist, I hate, I rebel.' " The testimony of missionaries to the power of this great truth is also most weighty, and with one instance of it I close this introduction. Tlie following is the account given of himself by the first convert in Greenland: " Brethren," said he, *' I have been a heathen, and there- fore I know how heathen think. Once a preacher came to us and explained that there was a God. We answered, ' Dost thou think us so ignorant as not to know that ? ' An- other preacher began to teach us, ' You must not lie, steal, or get drunk.' We answered, 'Thou fool, dost thou think that we don't know that? ' and so dismissed him. After that, one came to my hut and sat down by me. He spoke to me nearly as follows : ' I come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven and earth. He sends to let you know that he will make you happy, and deliver you from the misery in which you live at present. To this end he became a man, gave his life a ransom for man, and shed his blood for us.' I could not forget his words. Even while I was asleep, I dreamed of that blood which Christ shed for us. I told this to the other Indians, and through the grace of God an awakening took place among us. I say, therefore, Brethren, preach Christ our Saviour, and his suiFerings and death, if you would have your words gain entrance among the heathen." If Christianity be from heaven, and God sanctifies men through the truth, and if there be religious instincts in man, then must they be moved to action by the plain and faithful exhibition of this its great fact, far more than by anything else. THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. CHAPTER I. ON THE CHANNELS THROUGH "WHICH THE EARLY HISTORY OF MAN HAS COME DOWN TO US. If, as we believe, Gocl made our first parents accord- ing to the account given to ns in tlie scriptures, we must suppose that lie himself communicated the knowledge of this fact to them, together with such information and instruction as were necessary for the preservation of life, and for their comfort and improvement on earth. Far be it from us to believe that he should have formed such a being as man, and then cast him out, ignorant and speechless, to grope his way to knowledge in such a soli- tude as was all around him. Superior as man is to all other beings on earth, and appointed Lord of all, yet, in his infancy, and without nursing care and instruction, he is the most ignorant and hel]3less of all. In order to intercourse with his Maker, and other beings who should be born unto him, there must be some power of speech and the use of words. Wherefore, we find God not only speaking to our first parents, and they replying to him, but bringing all the animals to Adam, that he might give them appropriate names ; for, as words are representatives of things, we may reasonably suppose there was some correspondence between the names given to the animals and the qualities of the same. Bishop 30 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Stillingfleet well remarks : " The imposition of n^mes be- longs not to every one, but only to him who hath a full prospect of their several natures." Our great poet, Milton, who was also no inferior divine, thus describes the first eiforts at speech on the part of our first father : " To speak I tried, and forthwith spake. My tongue obeyed, and readily could name Whate'er I saw." "When the various animals were presented, " I named them as they passed, and understood Their nature ; with such knowledge God endued My sudden apprehension." Bishop Warburton thus reasons in behalf of the divine gift of language. Regarding it as indisj)ensable that the knowledge of divine things should come directly from God, he says : " K God taught the first man religion, can we think that he would not, at the same time, teach him language ? If it be said that he might gain language by the use of reason, it might be replied, so he might relig- ion also."* * Many traditions of the ancient world point to this as a fact in the early history of man ; and, as there was, of course, only one language at first — and that, probably, the language used by Noah, the father of the renewed race after the flood — which continued until the dispersion of Babel, several nations have claimed for their language the honor of a divine original. The belief of many learned men is, that the origiual language was one from which the Hebrew and Chaldaic were derived, since there are so many words in each of them common to both, or bearing a strong resemblance. Homer, in his great poem the Iliad, speaks of the language of gods and men as difierent ; and one of his annotators 'aflBrms that the language of gods, who were once mortals, and most probably represent Adam and Noah, and three of the sons of each, was the Hebrew, while the language of men was the Greek, in which his poem was written. As to the question, which of those that were used after the confusion of languages at Babel comes nearest to the original, or whether that original one may not have been retained, for a time at least, by one or more of the dispersed tribes, the learned diifer. Recent investigations into the roots of various languages EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 31 The very reason of things, and tlie absolute necessity of the case, seem to require tiiat hmguage should be the gift of God himself. If our earthly parents teach us to speak as soon as our organs are capable of it ; if they, through words, communicate such knowledge as we are able to re- ceive, especially telling who made us, — how much more would the great Father teach his full-grown children, made after his own image, what was necessary to be known by them concerning himself, and their duty to him and each other. It has been justly remarked, that "K man had been left a single day without revelation, it would be like being born blind." Bishop Stillingfleet says, " If man was not convinced, in the very first moment after his creation, of the being of him whom he has to obey, his first work and duty would have been, a search whether there was any supreme, infinite, and eternal be- ing"— a question which has puzzled so many philosophers, and which would have puzzled them much more, but for the light of tradition coming down from original revelation.* trace them all, more and more certainly, to a very few, which were spoken soon after the dispersion. All these discoveries tend more and more to estab- lish the doctrine of the unity of the human race, which, of course, both in the first creation and after the deluge, spoke but one language. One of the ancients proposes to settle the question as to the oldest language by bringing up two children in a desert among goats ; to which Bishop Stillingfleet well replies, that " They would doubtless speak the language of goats." I believe some experiments of this sort have been attempted, but am unable to state the re- sults. * The following lines from an American, in a little poem which I have re- cently seen, very happily express the views contained in this chapter concern- ing the divine instruction given to the first man : " God left him not To grope his way, and win by long deduction Tlie precious linowledge that we have a God, But showed himself at once. "So Adam names to all the creatures gave, Because he saw them in the light of God, From whom to them he went." By the Rev. Adam IIood Bcrwell, Of Canada. 82 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. If, then, there was this express communication through words, by God himself, to om- first parents, they would certainly deliver what they had received to their children, in the same manner in which it was communicated to them, and this stream of knowledge would flow dow^n from generation to generation. This transmission of ac- curate knowledge of such important things as God's first dealings with man, would be the more easily effected by means of a fact of which we are assured in scripture, tra- dition, and all history, viz., that the lives of men were much longer than at present, so that only one link was necessary to connect Adam with Koah, and two with Abraham. Doubtless, after a time, some other method, whether by books or documents, was adopted in order to perpetuate the knowledge of what God had done for man, either at first or afterwards. There were not a few tradi- tions in the ancient world, that some sacred books existed before the flood, and even survived the flood. Nor can we see anything unreasonable in the supposi- tion that there were written characters and books before the flood, when we consider the advance made in some of the arts, as of instrumental music on the harp and organ, and tlie manufactures in iron and brass, which we have recorded in the brief sketch of antediluvian history by Moses. We know that soon after the flood letters and books were in use. Moses, in tlie seventh or eighth cen- tury after the flood, as is generally supposed, at the com- mand of God, committed to writing his laws ; and God himself, with his own hand, in characters which must have been well known, engraved the ten commandments on tables of stone. In all the wisdom of the Egyptians, with which Moses was acquainted, there must have been letters and books. Before his time indeed, there is reason to believe they had been communicated from Egypt to Greece. Is it then ini- EARLY HISTORY OF MAN". 33 probable that iu all the period preceding the deluge, no such advance should have been made through which cer- tain religious knowledge and history rnay have come down to JSToah and his sons, adding confirmation to oral tradition,* . Why God, in his providence, permitted such documents to be lost, and so little of antediluvian history to be rescued from the deluge ; why he has also permitted to be lost so much of postdiluvian history from the time of the deluge until Moses, and even after Moses, — for his history is very brief, and only of a small portion of the human family, and there is no other ; why so many of the documents and his- tories of his time and afterwards, of which we have only fragments, were permitted to perish ; why so much valu- able learning of Egypt and other countries was allowed to be consumed in the Alexandrine library, it is not for us to know. Doubtless God has wise and sufficient reasons for this permissive providence, as for all else.f Whatever may have been the character or amount of tradition and documents of the early antediluvian history of man, and of God's dealings with him, and of apostasies * A learned mythologist, the Rev. George Stanley Faber, who has written more extensively on ancient paganism than perhaps any other, after stating some of the traditions collected from the most ancient authors, concerning cer- tain sacred books said to have been preserved in the ark, or otherwise, con- cludes, that though he will not undertake to determine the point, yet that he sees nothing improbable in the supposition that Noah may have preserved and delivered to liis posterity some documents, which in time became corrupted into fable, though still retaining some original truth. Can anything be more probable than that genealogies were carefully kept before the flood, of births, ages, and deaths ; that they were preserved by Noah iu the ark; and that Moses was acquainted with these and drew his statements from them, just as the Jews kept their genealogies, and the Evangelists made use of them in tracing our Saviour's descent? + The Alexandrine library, the depository of the learning of the ancient world, was destroyed in the time of Julius Caesar. In the seventh century, the Sara- cens swept away all the libraries of the Eastern world. The remains only of ancient books may have been left, and are dispersed through the world, as the Jews are, to testify of Christ. 3 34 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. from him, it is certain that the knowledge and worship of the true God were retained in tlie family of Noah, and through him and his descendants diffused through the renovated world. "Whatever may have been the precise object of that great enterprise at Babel, Avhich so displeased the Almighty as to make him disperse the irreligious actors in it through various lands, they must have carried with them the tradi- tions of the leading facts of the history of man before, at, and after the deluge, and of God's dealings with him ; and these traditions must have formed a part of their religious system, however corrupted that system may liave been before, at, and after the daring association at Babel. Such was tlie perversion of the truth in the country of Chaldea, Avhere this impious proceeding took place, that we find God separating Terah and his family, (who, though descendants of Shem, and properly belonging to the land of Canaan, according to God's appointment, were found among the ungodly posterity of Ham, in Ur of the Chaldees,) and carrying them to Canaan. Although not renouncing the true God, yet Terah and his family, and perhaps Abraham himself, had partaken somewhat in the false worship, since Joshua, in his address to the Israelites after entering the land of Canaan, says, " Your fathers be- yond the flood — the river Euphrates — served other gods." Abraham is selected by the Almighty to be the father of a special people, whom he made the depository of his laws and revelations, in order to the preservation of the truth among men, from whom it was rapidly passing away. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob he manifested himself, at sundry times, and thus kept alive the true knowledge of God. To Joseph also he showed great favor, preserv- ing him from the then growing idolatry of Egypt. But something more was necessary to save even the descend- EAELY HISTORY OF MAN. 35 ants of "the father of the faitliful" from being over- wliehned by that deluge of impiety and idolatry which was sweeping over the earth. The children of Israel, though still having some knowledge of the true God, had become but too much attached to the abominations of Egypt, and could only be preserved from utter apostasy by an entire removal therefrom, under the guidance of Moses. With an "high hand and outstretched arm," amidst stupendous miracles, God led them forth from Egypt, keeping them for forty years not only separate from all others who might corrupt them, but in the midst of enemies who resisted their ]3rogress at every movement towards the promised land. While feeding them from heaven with daily bread, and performing repeated mira- cles, he was also speaking to them from Mount Sinai, and from the Shekinah between the Cherubim, delivering laws and appointing ordinances. An account of all this we have in the five books of Moses, besides a long narrative of man's history and God's dealings with him, before and after the flood. When our Lord was upon earth he recog- nized these books as of divine authority, and often re- ferred to them. Moses laid claim to divine instruction, establishing it by many and great miracles, during a pe- riod of forty years, beginning in Egypt and continuing until he was in sight of the promised land. Concerning this book we may say, without fear of contradiction, that by consent of the learned it is the most ancient in the world. Traditions and fragments of books, relating to the same great events referred to in Genesis, there have been in other countries, before the days of Moses and about his time; but none of these survive, except in some fragments which the fathers of the Christian church drew from the fragments of other writers, the oldest of whom was many hundred years after Moses. The books of Moses were written, according to general belief, about seven or eight 86 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. hundred years after the deluge, and about four hundred after the call of Abraham. God most emphatically com- manded him to write down all that was delivered him "as a memorial ;" and in no nation under heaven was so much care taken of records as among the Jews, in the time of Moses and afterwards. Some hundreds of years after Moses these books became so notorious in the world, that Ptole- my Philadelphus, a king of Egypt and a great patron of learning, caused them to be translated into the Greek by seventy learned men. Judea being situated, as it were, in the centre of the world, between the three most ancient nations, viz., Egypt, Phoenicia, and Chaldea, to which all others looked for his- tory, religion, and philosophy, must have been an object of interest to the prio^ts and wise men of the same ; and as many of the Jews, from an early period, were to be found in Egypt, and in Tyre and Sidon, cities of Phoeni- cia, and in Babylon of Chaldea, these sacred writings, and their religious opinions, must have been in some measure known, especially when the philosophers of Greece began to travel through those countries in search of all kinds of knowledge. About the same time that Ptolemy caused the Jewish scriptures to be translated into Greek, he en- couraged Manetho, the oldest and most celebrated histo- rian of Egypt, to draw up an account of the antiquities of that country, going back to the origin of the world, and embracing of course in some measure the history of other nations. The same great patron of learning induced the celebrated Berosus to write a similar history of the an- tiquities of Babylonia, a country vying with Egypt as to age and knowledge of divine things. Both of these his- tories were written some hundreds of years after the books of Moses. Some years later, Sanchoniathon wrote the his- tory of Phosnician antiquities. All of these profess to have gathered their histories from monuments, traditions, EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. ST temples, liieroglypbics, (not from any regular histories such as that of Moses,) which had come down to them from former times.* They were not employed to trans- late some venerable documents like the Old Testament, the larger part of which had been written and used pub- licly for some hundreds of years by a people living in the midst of the greatest nations of the earth, but only to pre- pare histories out of such materials as could be found amongst traditions and monuments, and in their worship. ISTeed I institute a comparison between them ? Even these three books, the oldest in the shape of history in the world except Herodotus, (whose work bears the title of the nine Muses, — very happily, some think,) are no longer in exist- ence, except, as we have already said, in some few frag- ments to be seen in the early fathers. How wonderfully has the providence of God watched over, preserved, and handed down to us this sacred volume, while permitting all others to perish.f And yet not all of these have been allowed to perish. Enough in fragments has survived to show that, notwithstanding all the fables into which divine truth has been turned, the leading facts of the Mosaic history are substantiated by general tradition, Moses, under the guidance of God's Spirit, was appointed to deliver to us the main facts of creation, and ancient history, and God's dealings with men, free from all admix- * Philo Biblius, the Jewish writer, says, "It was the good fortune of Sancho- niathon to light on some ancient documents which had been preserved in the innermost part of a temple of Amnion, and known to very few. He had, how- ever, to divest them of fable before he could draw any thing from them." I am aware that grave doubts rest on the authorship of the book ascribed to San- choniathou, but I give what was formerly the generally received opinion on the subject. HTs book is certainly a compilation of very ancient traditions. tSir Matthew Hale, on the Antiquity of Moses' writings, says, " Many mill- ions of books that have been written since Moses' time have been lost ; much more those books which were written antecedent to Moses' time ; — and the truth is, that the preservation of the books of Moses entire unto this day, when so many of a far later date are lost, is to be attributed to the special providence of Almighty God." 38 . THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ture of falsehood. It is not to be understood that God re- vealed to him all that he wrote, as something before un- known to himself or others, but only that he was guided to write down what was true, and leave out what was false in the general traditions which prevailed in his day. The knowledge of one God, and the temptation and fall of man by the devil, in the form of a serpent, and the banishment of our first parents from paradise, of the wickedness of the antediluvians, of the ark and deluge, of the tower of Babel, had all been understood among men ; but perversions and fables and idolatries had been blended with them, — and Moses was enabled to give a brief and true history of the works of God, and his deal- ings with men, not mixing poetry, or philosophy, or as- tronomy, or any human theories, with it. Much that he knew, and that others knew, was omitted, bnt nothing that was necessary to the great object of his appointment. So it was when the I^ew Testament was completed, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We are told by St. Luke, that if all which was said and done by our Lord was writ- ten down, " the whole world would not contain the books which must be written." The Evangelists only recorded such things as were " surely known among them," and were necessary to the great end and object of the Evan- gelical Eecord. Of both these Testaments we may say, with Mr. Locke, " They have God for their author, salva- tion for their end, and truth without any mixture of error for their matter." It is, however, gratifying to be able to bring in every kind of testimony to the truth of scripture, and therefore it is well worthy of being mentioned, in this connection, that there was a class of writers of a very early date, in the pagan world, who were esteemed sacred poets, and who preceded Homer, Hesiod, and others, who were the heroic poets. The former dwelt more on the creation of the world, on the first god or gods, on the EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 39 early history of man, before and after the dehige. Hor- ace, iu his book " De Arte Poetica," refers to these two classes in the following lines : " Fait haec sapientia qnontlain Publica privatis secernere,_ sacra profanis ; Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus at que Carminibus venit. Post hos insignis Homerus, Tyrteusque mares animos in martia bella Yersibus exacuit." — Horace De Arte Poetica. From these lines it seems that there were, before the time of Homer, some called divine poets, who wrote divine verses, and were held in high esteem. The term vates, or prophets, was applied to them. The names of the chiefs of these poets were Musseus, Orpheus, Linus, Amphion, and Hermes, who are supposed to have lived from 1250 to 1400 years before Christ, whereas Homer only lived about 900. If this computation be correct, they lived near the time of Moses. They refer to the same ancient events and periods with Moses, though they for the most part wrap them up in fables and extravagant verses. They evidently come much nearer the original truth, as to God and the creation of man, than those who followed after them. As to the supreme being, Orpheus, or who- ever wrote the Orphic verses, (for the authorship is doubt- ful,) had more scriptural views than most others. They all belonged to some part of Greece, though they repre- sented the earlier theology of Egypt and Chaldea. In the course of our work w^e shall have occasion to adduce proofs of this. They appear to have lived at a period when many of the families and tribes, which had been dispersed from Babel and had settled in different parts of Greece, had sunk into comparative barbarism and ignorance ; and these poets, by tlieir verses and instruc- tions, contributed to the improvement of the same. This 40 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. is what is meant by their taming wild beasts, by means of their harps and lyres and verses.* "When these ancient poets passed away, and with them much of original truth, though even then mixed with much error and fable ; and when Greece, emerging from a state of semi-barbarism, aspired to a place among the older na- tions from whence they emigrated, and from which they derived their arts and learning, — Homer and Ilesiod new- modelled their theology, and in their poems classified the gods, adding many things miknown before, and thus claimed antiquity and originality for Greece. We have abundant evidence of this in ancient authors. Plato says that " The most genuine helps to philosophy were bor- rowed from those who were called barbarous by the Greeks ;" that " they new mould and fashion everything ;" that " other countries abide more determinately by the terms which they have traditionally received." Plato acknowledges that " the nearer the originals the truer ;" that " the higher we go up to the ages nearest creation, the more visible the traces of truth." These things, however, he says, " were wrapt up in the fables of the poets ; that he could only try to make the * " Credibus et rictu fado deterrnit Orpheus Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres, rabidos que leones Dictus et Amphiou Thebaiiie conditor urbis Saxa movere sonu testudinis et voce blanda Ducere quo vellet." — Horace. Some modern wag has thus described the power of Amphion : " 'Twas said of old of one Amphion, That by his verses he could tame a lion, And, by his strange enchanting tunes, Make bears and wolves dance riggadoons." To these early poets of Greece there might doubtless be added others of the same period in Phoenicia and Chaldea, all of whom contributed their share to whatever remainder of primitive truth may be found in the Asiatic systems of Phoenicia, Persia, Chaldea, and Judea. EARLY HISTORY OF MAN", 41 best use of them until some one came to explain them." Thus spoke the best of the philosophers of Greece. They alluded to these allegories, by which some of the earlier poets set forth sacred and early facts, which were brought by the first settlers into Greece, but which were more and more obscured by the fictions of later poets. Of the pagan mythology, as held by the Greeks, Ave find little in the writings of the three ancient historians, Manetho, Berosus, and Sanchoniathon ; for this we must go to Homer and Hesiod, who settled it for all future times. Wherefore we find, that wh^en tlie best philoso- phers appeared, they went to Egypt and the East, the ear- liest settled countries, in search of wisdom. Tliales, the first of them, drew his wisdom from Egypt, where he spent some 3'-ears ; he advised his disciple Pythagoras to travel in seai'ch of wisdom among the ancient nations. Pythag- oras, obeying his master's advice, spent forty years in gathering a,ll the traditions he could get from the Egyp- tians, Jews, Phoenicians, and Chaldeans. Plato, after speaking of the traditions of the eastern countries, said, " Their knowledge of the Deity was de- rived from the gods ;" that " the ancients, who lived nearer to the gods than we, have transmitted it unto us." He speaks of Adam's state of innocence under the fable of Saturn's golden age, but says that " we want a fit inter- preter of the fable." Mr. George Sandys, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses, speaking of the philosophy taught in the ancient fables which were set forth by Ovid, says, " Phoebus Apollo sacred Poesy Tims taught ; for hi these ancient fables lie The mysteries of all philosophy." By philosophy he meant heavenly truths, as well as the secrets of nature. Mr. Shuckford, in his able work on 42 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tlie connection between sacred and profane history, says that " the works of the divine PLato were full of the ancient traditions, though he sometimes gives them a fabulous turn to humor the Greeks." Mr. Bryant, one of our most eminent mythological writers, alluding to this fabulous turn of the Grreeks, says that Ilecateus of Miletus acknowledges that " the traditions of the Greeks were as ridiculous as they were numerous." Theophilus, one of the fathers, says, " They were blinded by vanity, and neither discovered the truth themselves, nor encour- aged others to pursue it." Bishop Stillingfleet says that " the Greeks were beholden to their wits for their history, being so much given to fiction." They were anxious, he says, to be considered originals; ''HJie sons of the soil (terraegeni) ; the first of the human race.''^ Bishop Potter, in his Grecian antiquities, says, that " As geographers, on their maps, when they have gone as far as they can, fill up the rest with impassable mountains and frozen seas, so the poets and mythologists, who were almost all of Greece, do when they give an account of ancient things." They were tlie more anxious to establish their antiquity, because taunted by other nations with their recent origin, being all of them, or their numerous tribes and nations, colonies from Asia and Egypt. An Egyptian priest once taunted Solon with this saying : " The Greeks were always children, having no antiquity of their own." The Egyptians, however, became, in time, as obnoxious to the charge of exaggerating their age as the Greeks. If they were older, by settlement, and supe- rior in wisdom to the early Greeks, they carried back their history and genealogy much further into the region of fable than even the Greeks did. Their liistorian, Manetho, seemed determined to outstrip Moses in his history of the creation of the world and the dynasties of the Egyptian kings, carrying them back thirty or forty EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 43 thousand years. For this they have been subjected to the same ridicule that they cast on the Greeks. An ancient writer said of tliera, that " The wisest action they ever did was to conceal their religion" (meaning from the common people) ; and that "the best offices of their gods was to hold their fingers in their mouths, for such was the case with their images and statues." Bishop Stillingfleet says, " It was as easy to make an Ethiopian white, as to make an Egyptian tell the truth about his country." Nevertheless, both Greeks and Egyptians, notwithstand- ing all their silly fables and imaginations about themselves and their ancestors, bear strong testimonies as to the lead- ing facts in the early history of man, as to the creation, the chaos, the formation of the first parents, the fall, the deluge, the long lives of the antediluvians, the tower of Babel, and the dispersion. The origin of their gods seems very strongly to point to Adam and Koah and the three sons of each, although their poetry, philosophy, and astronomy made sad havoc with original history and truth. Very justly, therefore, does Bishop Stillingfleet con- clude, that " All our most laudable endeavors after knowl- edge (that is, original revelation) are only the gathering- up of some scattered fragments of what once was an entire fabric, and the recovery of what was lost out of sight and sunk in the shipwreck of human nature. Therelbre it is that the Eastern nations had more of sacred truth in their religious systems, because they rehed more on ancient tradition." They wrapped the ancient truth in wikl fables, which the investigations of such men as Sir "William Jones, Messrs. Faber and Bryant, and some others have now explained, by the help of the Holy Scrip- tures, in a manner that Plato, Socrates, and all the best of the ancient philosophers were unable to do ; but these philosophers always acknowledged the superiority of the 44 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. East, bj travelling thither in search of wisdom, beginning with Egypt, which is an eastern colony. These fables and traditions were merely shadows of original revelation. It is well, therefore, for us to adopt the plan of Thales the Athenian, when collecting wisdom in Egypt, and who ascertained the height of the Pyr- amids by measuring the shadows. The Bible is the great pyramid of truth ; all other documents and traditions are the mere shadows. In confirmation of the foregoing testi- mony to the superior authority of the Eastern nations over the G-reeks and others, we may add that the Persians and the early descendants of the inhabitants of the Ark are ac- knowledged to have retained the most accurate knowledge of the early history of creation, and true religion was longer adhered to among tliem^ than among otlier nations ; and their magi, or wise men, were the first to welcome the Redeemer into the world. In relation to the remark that the earlier systems of paganism M'ere as shadows to the substance, we add, that Archbishop Tillotson, in one of his sermons, after discussing the resemblance between them, says that " Paganism must either have been a corruption of our religion, or that ours must have been accommo- dated to it." The latter supposition is so contrary to all history, and so monstrous, that none can entertain it. We have Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apos- tles, to explain to us all that was true in the ancient fables. Truly does old Fuller say, " Without this history the world would be in total darkness, not knowing whence it came or whither it goeth. In the first page of this sacred book a child may learn more, in one hour, than all the philoso- phers of the world in a thousand years." To this we may add, that in a few succeeding chapters also, we have more accurate, though brief notices, not only of the nations de- scended from Abraham, through Esau as well as Isaac, but also of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Chaldeans, and EARLY HISTORY OF MAN". 45 Phoenicians, than can be found in any other history. Trnlj, therefore, did our Lord call the Old Testan)ent " The Scriptures," by way of eminence, there being none other to be compared with them.* There is one peculiarity of the Mosaic history and leg- islation, which deserves to be noticed before we close. "While all the reputed founders of pagan mysteries and laws lay claim to some god, or hero, or inspiring genius, (as ISTuma to the muse or goddess Egeria,) as the author or revealer of them, and allow all otliers to have their di- vine authors also, never disputing their claims, Moses is the only one who ascribes his system and history to the great Urst cause of all things — " the God of gods." lie alone declares all others to be false, claiming exclusive honor to his as the only true one. His God is a jealous God, and will not give any of his glory to another. All the gods of the heathen could live together in the great Pantheon at Pome in harmony ; but the God of Moses must dwell alone in the Heaven of heavens above, and his public worship on earth must be in the temple at Jerusalem, from which every recognition of other gods must be banished. Whatever is true in other systems, whether literally or figuratively, in whole or in part, must come from the same original whence Moses draws his his- tory. This is the basis of our book. Bishop Warburton says, that " Not one of the numerous rabble of Pevelations ever pretended to have come from the First Cause, or to have taught the worship of the one true God in their public ministrations." He adds, " I have said in their public ministrations, for I have showed it was taught to a few in their mysteries." He also quotes * Among the ancients they were called Pandect, or "Bibliotheca Sacra," be- cause containing all the books and tracts on the subject of God's communica- tions with men. 46 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Eusebins as saying, " For the Hebrew people alone was reserved the honor of being initiated into the knowledge of God, the creator of all things, and of being instructed in the practice of true piety towards him." APPENDIX. The subject of chronology, or the periods of time which mark and divide the great events of history, is so intimately connected with the preceding chapter, that we add some remarks concerning it and certain events asso- ciated with it. Infidels triumph in the fact, that neither sacred nor profane history gives us certain and accurate information on this point, as though the great historical events of the world and dispensations of providence and doctrines of revelation could be established or refuted by the certainty or uncertainty of chronology, affecting only a few hundred years out of thousands. We speak first as to the testimony of scripture, and acknowledge that the learned differ as to their under- standing of it, and that it does appear in some places to be inconsistent with itself. The possibility of some mistake in copying or translating is admitted as one cause of this seeming inaccuracy. Had accuracy been important in this, as in great saving truths, God, the faithful keeper of scripture, doubtless would not have permitted it. It is affirmed, that in this, as in some matter of science, the scripture was not given to teach all things which man might desire to know with certainty ; although all it says is true as far as it goes. The learned, who have examined the account of the generations and genealogies of scripture, affirm that the evident design of the same is not to give the regular succession of every individual in the line, but only of leading characters, of great events and dispensations, and there are, therefore, some EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 47 breaks or omissions, which, if thej could be supplied, would lengthen certain periods in the sacred history. This, they say, was common in the Eastern genealogies — as among the Arabians and others. They also say, that errors may have resulted from the fact that " figures had not come into use at an early period, but that alphabetical signs were employed as numerals." Thus it is that they account for the fact that the three oldest versions of the Pentateuch, or books of Moses, viz., the HebreWj the Samaritan, and Septuagint, differ from each other some hundreds of years — their difi'erence relating chiefly as to the period between the deluge and the call of Abraham ; that period about which all other histories and traditions are still more uncertain and variant. There is, however, aflf event in the history of the Jews which has served as . an era to all historians, sacred and profane, about which there is no dispute, viz., the building of Solomon's temj^le about a thousand years before our era. From that time to the birth of Christ, all history testifies with perfect accu- racy. The whole period from the deluge to the birth of Christ, must, of course, vary according as the preference is given to the computations of the Hebrew, Samaritan, ■or Septuagint versions, or that of Josephus, who agrees most nearly with the Septuagint translation made in the time of Ptolemy the First. Archbishop Usher's system of chronology, which is most generally adopted, makes that period between twenty-three and twenty-four hundred years. Others have extended it to nearly twenty-eight hundred years. There is also a difiference of opinion as to the period between the creation and the deluge. The more general opinion is in favor of between sixteen and seventeen hun- dred years. Those who adopt the theory that the ante- diluvian genealogy by Moses was rather of leading charac- ters and events than a full list of each generation, will of 48 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. course extend the period, witliout being able to deter- mine its length. Let us now inquire as to tlie chronology of the heathen nations of antiquity. Those which have boasted most of their antiquity were the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Chinese. Manetho, the Egyptian historian, and who, it is supposed, compiled his work at the instance of that Ptolemy who had caused the books of Moses to be translated, calculates that the Egyptian kingdom was thirty thousand years old. Berosus, who compiled the history of Babylonia about the same time and by the same authority, carries back its age to four hundred and sixty thousand years. " The Chinese, calculating their eclipses backward, are yet more extravagant. It seems scarcely worth our while to notice such idle dreams. They expose themselves by their own folly. But some things may be said which will serve to account for their extravagances, and the extravagances being deducted, the sober truth which remains will be found to accord as nearly as can be expected and reqiiired with the Mosaic history. The Eev. George Rawlinson, in his historical evidences, drawn in a great measure from the researches of his brother. Sir Henry Rawlinson, says, " Upon a little consideration the greater part of this difficulty vanishes. K we examine the two chronologies (of Manetho and Berosus) we shall find that both evidently divide at a cer- tain point, at which all is certainly mythic, (mere fiction,) while all below is, or at least may be, historical. Out of • the thirty thousand years contained (apparently) in Mane- tho's scheme, nearly twenty-five thousand belong to the time when gods, demigods, and spirits had rule on earth ; and the history of Egypt, confessedly, does not begin till this period is concluded, and Menes the first Egyptian king mounts the throne. Similarly, in the chronology of Berosus, there is a sudden transition from EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 49 kings, wliose reigns are counted by reigns of sixty and six hundred years, to monarclis, the average length of whose reigns very little exceeds that found to prevail in ordinary monarchies. Omitting in each case what is plainly a mythic computation, we have in the Babylonian scheme a chronology which mounts up no higher than 2450 years before Christ, or eight hundred years after the deluge, (according to the numbers of the Septuagint,) while, in the Egyptian, we have, at any rate, only an excess of about two thousand years to account for instead of twenty-seven. Mr. Rawlinson adds, that some of the greatest names in this branch of antiquarian learning, (the history of Egypt,) are in favor of a chronology almost as moderate as the historic Babylonian — the accession of Menes, ac- cording to them, falling about 2660 years before Christ, or more than 600 after the Septuagint date from the deluge. Herodotus seems to have been led astray as to the antiquity of Egypt ; but it should be remembered that, according to his own statement, he received all his infor- mation from the priests of that country, who showed him a long list of their kings. But it is now well understood that there were several divisions of Egypt, — the upper, middle, lower, etc., — all having their dynasties of kings, and by adding them all together, as it is ascertained was sometimes done, the number of kings and the whole period of their reigns would be greatly increased. In further confirmation of the more moderate estimate of Egypt's antiquity, let me adduce the testimony of Wilkin- son and Rawdinson, those modern, laborious, and faithful examiners of the monuments of Egypt and Babylonia. They affirm that Egyptian hieroglyphic al inscriptions on stone may be traced to 2450 years before Christ, and that inscriptions on brick were common in Babylonia two centuries later. Considering the probability that Noah 4 50 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and liis sons brouglit a knowledge of sucli tliingg from the old world, who can doubt that the exercise of such art should be exercised in a short period after the deluge ? They who knew how to construct such a vessel as. the ark, must have been artists and master workmen, compe- tent to almost anj thing which the ingenuity of men has done.* In relation to China, Mr. Hardwic and others have, in like manner, exposed their silly pretension to antiquity. Gutzlaif dates the commencement of the historical period of China, to 2207 before Christ. This may have been only a few hundred years after the deluge, as it is univer- sally admitted that the human family moved eastward with great rapidity. It must not be omitted to state, in connexion with this part of our subject, how recent investigations have served to raise the characters of Manetho and Berosus, and even of Herodotus, as witnesses to the main facts of scripture history. Manetho and Berosus (says Kawlinson) had free access to all national records ; and recent discoveries of monuments establish their fidelity, and give them a prominence above all others. It will be seen, during the progress of our book, in how many things these authors corroborate the testimony of Moses, and in how many things the testimony of the inscriptions found on tablets, recently dug up from the ruins of Babylon and N^ineveh, and found in the ancient temples of Egypt, corroborates both scripture and the fragments of these writers. The accounts which Herodotus has given of the great Darius, and those found in the book of Daniel, are now further * This whole subject has been very ably and judiciously treated of, in a volume entitled " Science a Witness for the Bible," by the Kev. W. N. Pendleton, of Lexington, Va. In it he has exposed the infidel geologists, who would find in the earth proofs of the existence of man long before the sixth day of creation, according to Moses, and has shown that the difficulties attendant on the scrip- tural chronology are of trivial import. EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. 51 confirmed by tlie cuneiform inscriptions to be seen at Beliistan, in the liiglier lands of ancient Persia. On a ledge of rocks in the mountains extending from the Eu- phrates to the Tigris, about three hundred feet from the surface of the earth, is engraved, by the order of Darius, his own history. Sir Henry Rawlinson and his com- panions deciphered the same ; and in the third volume of Herodotus, as translated by his brother, George Kawlin- son, are to be found twenty-four pages of this history in Persian and English. As Herodotus wrote after the time of Darius, and visited this, among other countries, in search of materials for his history, he may have ex- amined this document, or derived some of his information from those who were familiar with it. To this day it stands, high in air, establishing the truth of Daniel's history, while from the interior of the old palaces and temples of Babylon and Nineveh, long since buried deep under mouldered ruins, are continually being brought forth massive tablets, some of which are in our own and mother countries, bearing testimony to the truths of sacred history. For the period in which these things occurred, God had been preparing both his own chosen people and the nations around. " After the age of Moses," says Mr. Pritchard, " that of Samuel has been fixed upon as the probable era for the cultivation of literature, when a school of prophets is first mentioned. The times of David and Solomon were a sort of Augustine age of Hebrew literature. The age of the great prophets was that of the most sublime poetry. The time of Ezra, after the captivity, was the era of his- torical compilation." But it was reserved for the sixth century before Christ to be the period of more moral and religious changes, through the world at large, than ever occurred before. 62 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. While the Hebrews were suffering under the just judg- ments of God for past defection, and hanging up their harps on the willows bj the waters of Babylon, and learning a lesson on the unity of God never to be for- gotten, the philosophers of Greece were struggling for divine knowledge — feeling after God, hoping they might find him. In Persia, Zoroaster was changing the religion of the people, borrowing, it is thought, something from the cap- tives of Babylon. In India, Buddha was also new-model- ling the established system of the country. In China, Confucius was restoring a more ancient system, and all of these changes were gradually preparing the way for the future introduction of the religion of Christ, though a long and dark night still intervened. We have thus brought down the order of events, through the channel of God's appointments, to a most interesting period in the history of man, where chronology is certain ; and what though we are unable to fix the precise era of man's creation, or of the deluge, or of the dispersion from Babel, or the call of Abraham ? The general belief is that Moses lived about 1500 years before the Christian era, but whether he was nearer the deluge by one, two, or three hundred years or more, matters not. Disputes there ever have been as to the period when Homer flourished and Troy was taken. Herodotus places Homer between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries before Christ ; more than two hundred years later than Moses.* Others differ by one or two hundred years, but the Diad and all that is true and good in it still remain. Some say that Musseus and Linus were twelve or thirteen * Sir Matthew Hale thinks that Moses wrote 540 years before Homer, 350 years before the Trojan war, and a considerable time before the apotheosis or inauguration of many of the heathen deities." — Primitive Origination of Man- Mnd. EARLY HISTORY OF MAIST. 53 hundred years before Christ ; one or two hundred years after Moses. An old writer says that Musseus was the tenth ancestor of Homer, and so several hundred years older than Homer, and nearer the time of Moses. It may be that wliile Moses was composing, and Miriam and others were singing, the noble songs in praise of God's deliverance of Israel flying from Egypt, ancient poets in other lands were writing and singing, according to the light which was still in them, some of the hymns which under the name of Orpheus were transmitted to later ages, and which retained faint glimpses of the one true God and Saviour. CHAPTEE II. ON GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR OF THE WORLD AND OF ALL THIlSrGS THEREIN. Our plan in tlie following treatise will be, first, to state briefly from scripture the account there given of tlie sub- jects discussed in the several chapters, and then show what confirmation that account derives from heathen writers. In the first verse of the book of Genesis it is wiitten, " In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth." When Moses was commanded to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, he asked by what name he should call that God who spoke to him, for there were then many who were worshipped as gods. In reply, God declared him- self to be " I am that I am ;" bids him say, " I am hath sent thee." Its meaning was, the eternal self-existent God, by distinction from all others called gods. The name Jehovah is also often used in scripture, and means the same thing. The Hebrews, out of reverence to it, never used it in common speech, but chose some other expression of the divine attributes, as Eloi or JEloi- him^ Ja or Sabbaoth. In Deuteronomy vi. 4, it is writ- ten, " Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." In opposition to all the supposed gods in heaven and earth, Moses declares that God said to him, " I am he, and even I am he, and there is no God with me." Joshua calls him the " Living God," " Tlie God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath." Solomon says, "The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." David GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 55 says, " There is no God beside thee." Job says, " In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Isaiah says, " I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." St. Paul calls him " The one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all " — Eph. iv. Also, " The king eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God" — 1 Timothy. Let these suffice out of the numbers which might be adduced to the same efiect. Now, as to the confirmation of the scriptural account from other sources, I quote the words of the learned Dr. Cudworth in his most profound work, " The Intellectual System," as approved by Mr. Leland in his most valuable work " On the Advantages of the Christian Revelation." " Tliough the poets were the great depravers of the true primitive religion and theology among the pagans, yet they kept up the ancient tradition of one supreme deity. Amidst the crowds of divinities they mention, there is still runnino: throuo-h all their writino^s the notion of one supreme, of whom they speak in the most exalted terms, and to whom they ascribe the higliest divine attributes, and which are really peculiar to the true God." Still, these able writers acknowledge that the poets often con- founded him whom they represent as the supreme deity with that Jupiter who was the son of Saturn and Ehea, and of whom such indecent stories were told. St. Paul tells us that the heathen did not " choose to retain God in their knowledge ;" therefore God gave them up to them- selves, and they believed all the lies which in time came to be added to the original truth. But Mr. Leland quotes many passages from ancient authors, showing the existence of an eternal being, the creator of the world. Among the works of Aristotle there is a quotation from an ancient work, '•'-De Mundo^'' which says, that "this 5G THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. was an ancient tradition or doctrine descended to all men from their fathers." Plutarcli himself said, -though there were one, ten, fifty, or an hundred worlds, they were all subject to one su- preme, solitary, and independent God. The Stoics held one su^ireme, eternal, independent God, but also that the world was full of gods and demons. These latter being created, in time, by the one God, would all one day be de- stroyed. Most of the philosophers considered the Gods as being part of the supreme, as members of a body, as a congeries of gods, and therefore used the term Gods and God as synonymous. Thus did Plato, Socrates, and Cicero. In his last moments, according to Plato, Socrates said, " If the Gods will have it so, let it be so ;" but shortly after, " If God will have it so," using the term God and Gods as meaning the same thing. This is the constant custom of the philosophers and many others. Plutarch, in his work on Egyptian antiquities, repre- sents it as an opinion of the utmost antiquity, which had not its original from any known author, and was generally spread among Greeks and barbarians. Plato and Cicero speak often and strongly in the same. style. Traditions also exist to the same effect in nations where it was least to be expected, as among the Hottentots, the negroes of Guinea, throughout India, in Ceylon, and in America. Very justly does Mr. Leland conclude, with many other learned men, that " It is most natural to ascribe this remarkable fact to the remains of an ancient universal religion, which obtained from the beginning, and was derived from the first ancestors of the human race." The learned Stillingfleet, in his " Origines Sacrw," de- clares as the result of all his inquiries into the early records of man, that "There does not appear so much as a single dissenter, in the early ages, a^ to the existence of a God." GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 57 Atheism is a tiling of mucli later growth, and was sel- dom found even among the sceptical philosophers. Dr. Cudworth calls it " a dull, earthl}^ disbelief of the exist- ence of any thing beyond the reach of sense." The first approach to a reference to atheism is to be found in Homer, who makes Hector say, " The weakest atheist wretch all heaven defies, But shrinks and shudders when the thunder flies." Perhaps, however, as the thunderer was Jupiter the son of Saturn, we ought not to consider those who denied his supreme divinity as among the atheists. Neverthe- less, he certainly ascribes to him some of the attributes of the great God, as in the following lines : " 0 thou Supreme, high thron'd, all height above, Such was our word, and fate our word obeys." To him are ascribed " The wise counsels of the eternal mind." He is called the God of gods. " The first and greatest God by gods ordained." " If I but stretch this hand. The heavens, the gods, the ocean, and the land. The united strength of all the gods above, In vain resists the omnipotence of Jove, Supreme of gods, unbounded and alone." Again, " Immortal Jove, high heaven's superior Lord, Father of gods and men." The Gentiles, thus enlarging from time to time the number of their gods, yet retained, for the most part, the same rites and sacrifices of which we read in scripture, as appointed and used in the service of Jehovah ; still offer- ing them to him also as father and chief of the gods, — a fact which shows that originally it was the one God in whom they believed. In process of time there grew up 68 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. among the poets and pliilosopliers a kind of atheism, which supposed that God was not the creator of the world, but only the soul of it ; just as our souls animate and govern our bodies, but do not make them. Others, again, thought that the whole world of matter and spirit was God him- self, and had no maker. These were certainly atheists. Others of a less dangerous character there were, who thought that matter was eternal, but that a divine mind fashioned it into various forms, thus making our world and all things in it of eternally preexisting materials. This, however, is certainly not the scriptural account of God and creation. To ascribe eternal existence to matter -is to give to it one of the main attributes of God, and is a species of atheism. Sjiinoza, a modern infidel, held that all things were necessary emanations from God, and modifications of his essence, not creations by him. One of the philosophers, Plotinus, reasons thus: The great king of the universe shows his greatness chiefly by the multitude of gods — ^iiot by contracting himself into one, but by expanding himself and having many gods to rule over. Even Aristotle says, " There is one God, the king and father of all ; and many gods, sons of gods, co-reigners with God ; these things both the Greeks and barbarians alike affirm." Well did Strabo, the Eoman his- torian, declare, that "Moses had better notions of God than the Egyptians." The doctrine of pantheism became so current in Egypt, that there was an altar in that coftntry to the chief female deity, Isis, with this inscription : " Tibi unae quae es omnia." Others, again, there were, who held that matter was eter- nal, though not independent of God, but rather proceeding from him, and coeval with him ; as light, though proceed- GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 59 ing from the sun, was coeval witli it. It is somewliat in tlie same way tliat we speak in relation to the Trinity, that the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, though all are equal and all eternal. FUETHEE CONFIEMATIONS OF THE SCEIPTUEAL DOCTEINE FEOM ANCIENT AUTHORS. According to Diogenes Laertius, the ancient Greek poet Linus begins a poem, which, in our language, reads thus: " There was a time, when all things rose at once." To Orpheus, or the author of the Orphic verses, sup- posed to be the most ancient writer among the heathen, are ascribed the following lines : "All things were made by God, and God is all things." "All things were in the womb of God." "All things were out of God." Plutarch ascribed to Hermes, who was reputed to be the most ancient of Egyptian wi'iters, the following : " This whole world is a great god, and the image of a greater." " The Lord of eternity is a great God, and the second is the world." " It belongs to the great God to see all things, and to be seen of none." Plutarch tells us, that in the temple of Sais in Egypt there was an inscription in these words: " I am all that hath been, is, and shall be, and my peplum, or veil, no mortal hath uncovered." He also in- forms us, that the inhabitants of Thebais, one of the ancient divisions of Egypt, never would acknowledge any mortal god ; but worshipped an unmade eternal Deity, refusing to pay any tax for the worship of other gods. It is a well known fact, in ancient history, that the Persians retained the worship of the true God longer than any of the nations around ; and that they urged Xerxes to destroy all the temples of Greece, saying that God's temple was the universe, and that he would not be confined to 60 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the temples made witli hands. This sentiment is promi- nently set forth in the prayer of Solomon, at the dedica- tion of the temple at Jerusalem. Though the Persians fell into the idolatry of worshipping the heavenly bodies, still the remains of their early traditions furnish us with some valuable testimonies to the truth of the Mosaic account. The Egyptians worshipped God at an early period, under the name Cneph ; and they fabled the creation of the world, by saying that out of his mouth proceeded an egg, from which all nations sprung, or were hatched. At another period he was called Jupiter, whose spirit was said to per- vade all things. One of the ancient poets gives us the following description of Jupiter : " Jupiter est, fuit, atque erit ;" which comes nearer to the ^^I am that I am^'' of the scrip- tures, than an3''thing else we have found among the pagan writers. Cudworth maintains that the Jupiter of the ancients was often identified with the great God of the universe ; that when he is called Pater optimus Deorum, the Father of gods and men, he is then the great Numen, or God of the universe. Tlius Yirgil makes -^neas call him, OK Pater, oh hominwn Divum que, Eterna Potestas. Though, in another place, he falls into the pantheistic view^ and makes Jupiter pervade all nature, and identifies him with matter : "Spiritus intus alit, totas que infusa per artus, Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpori miscet." But there is no inconsistency in doctrine of which the poets may not be convicted, for the want of revelation. All that we can expect of them are some remnants of original truth, some testimonies to facts in the early history of men, and even these mixed up with more or less fables. As to the very name of the Deity, there was a feeling GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 61 among some of the pagans like that among the ancient Jews, which made them fear to use it lest it shonld be taken in vain. Thus Plato says, "The Father of the uni- verse cannot be named." "The fables," he said, "spoke most of God and creation ; but he could not explain them, and must wait until some one should come and tell their meaning," The ancient Romans worshipped one whom they called SvAmnanus, and who was greater than their Jupiter ; though, in process of time, when the great Jupiter Capitolinus was set up in Rome, they transferred the chief woTsMjp to him. As to the first god, Numa, second king of the Romans, and famed for his piety, directed that no one should attempt to express the ineffable name of God, and for nearly two centuries after the building of Rome no images were allowed either in sculpture or paint- ing. As to the difficulty of understanding the nature of that God who declares that " none by searching can find him out ;" that " no man hath seen him, or can see him ;" that " he hideth himself in darkness," — the story of Simonides, the poet, is worthy of being mentioned. " Being asked by Hiero, king of Syracuse, what God was, he desired a day to answer the question ; and when that period had expired, he requested two days ; upon being again called upon for his answer, he doubled the number, and continued so to do, when he was urged upon the sub- ject. The king, therefore, expressed his surprise, and inquired his reason. I do so, said the poet, because the longer I meditate upon the subject, the less I find myself able to answer the question." Yery much of the same mind was Plato, who said that " we ought not curiously to inquire what God is ;" and again, that " it was difficult to find out the author of the universe, and when found, it was impossible to discover him to all the world." Thus we see that Plato held the existence of a supreme, super- intending Deity, although he believed also in the eternity 62 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of matter, and of many inferior gods wlio watclied over the affairs of men, and onglit to be worshipped. Cicero also believed in the gods^ as well as in the su- preme Deity, and yet says, in relation to the works of natnre, "How is it possible for ns, when we behold these things, to entertain a donbt that there presideth over them some maker of so great a work." The same Cicero admits, that " The earth was the oldest of all the gods generated in the heavens," for he believed that all the heavenly bodies were gods moving through the heav- ens by an animating spirit, and shedding light and heat. Plato and Cicero are considered as the great teachers of the unity of God, and yet we see how far they fall short of the unity taught in scripture. They upheld, it is true, the ancient mysteries, and were initiated into them. In them the imity of God was sometimes set forth. Bishop Warburton, a great defender of the heathen against the charge of denying the unity of God, quotes the following passage from one of the hymns sung in the celebration of the Elusinian mysteries, " Go on and see the sole Governor of the world ; he is one, and of himself alone, and to that one all owe their being. He operates through all, was never seen of mortal eyes, but does himself see every- thing." As I wish to adduce whatever is most important in favor of the acknowledgment of the one true God by the ancients, I introduce the judgment of the cele- brated Sir "William Jones, as set forth in his "Asiatic Researches." Brahm, the great Father, thus addresses Brahma, one of his three emanations : " Even I was at first, not any other thing ; that which exists unperceived and supreme." Again he says, " I am that which is, and who must remain I am." Truth, however, requires us to say, that the worship of the supreme Deity did not keep pace with the acknowl- edgment of his existence. His original creative power GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 63 was admitted, but his providential care over men, in an- swer to prayer, was not relied on. On the inferior deities, as ministers of the great God, and as mediators between men and God, was the chief reliance. Of this we shall speak more fully hereafter. We only now say that the God of Moses and of Christians is especially the God " who heareth prayer," a God " near to us," and not " afar off," attending only to great matters, or else supinely enjoy- ing himself in the great abyss of eternity. " He that cometh unto God must not only believe that he is^ but that he is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek him," is the scripture doctrine. .-^ " T]iis notion," says Mr. Leland, " as to the Deity not concerning himself with the affairs of this world, and committing them to inferior deities, obtained very gene- rally among the pagans, and was a fruitful source of idol- atry." It was not a mere poetical flight which said " Ifec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus," but was a deep sentiment, which, it is to be feared, finds a place in the hearts of too many, even now. It was the very basis of the Epicurean system, and a source of much of its immorality. It appears, from both ancient and modern accounts of India, that they worship one great being as the cause of all things, but think he does not concern himself about little things, having created other gods to be his vice- gerents. These again have their subordinates, to each of whom worship is due. The Peruvians acknowledged a great God, but said he was invisible, and therefore they could not know him, and therefore seldom erected temples to him, or offered wor- ship to him. Only one or two temples to the great God were to be found in Peru. The people of Florida were of the same mind and practice. The people of Guinea also acknowledge a great being, but say he is too far ofi" to take notice of poor mortals ; therefore neither pray to him 64 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. nor praise him, but pray and sacrifice to a number of small deities. While the passage in St. Paul, taken from the poet Aratus, concerning " our being the offspring of God," and " living, moving, and having our being in him," shows that there were some at least who entertained more just views of his i-elation to us; yet, when we con- sider the difference of these and of Epicurean and practi- cally atheistic views, we must acknowledge the indispen- sable necessity of knowing God, and not wonder that St. Paul's spirit was stirred witliin him, at the inscription at Athens " To the unknown God." How thankful should we be that we know the one God, and one Mediator, and trust not to all the gods and mediators of the heathen. The great Mr. Locke says, that " In the crowd of wrong notions and invented rites, the world had almost lost sight of the true God." The fact is, that neither did the priests teach men virtue, as the same writer has well said, but it was not considered the duty of their greatest gods to make men good. It was their highest oflice to bestow earthly blessings and avert earthly evils. Sophocles might say, " There is one God, who made the broad earth and the waves of the sea and the force of the winds ; " but he could not say of him, that " every good and perfect gift cometh down from him;" and that " if any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." There is one of the ancient traditions of the poets and doctrines of the mythologists and philosophers in relation to the first cause of all things, which we must not omit. The oldest of the Deities, the source of men and gods and all worlds, is said, in some of the ancient systems, to be Love — the principle of Love. Every thing in the heathen mythology has been deified, whether of matter or mind, whether virtues or vices. Would that all had been as worthy of honor as the being or principle called Love y GOD, THE SELF-EXISTENT CREATOR. 65 for St. John himself says, " God is Love^ and whatsoever is born of God loveth also." Among the celebrated Orphic songs ascribed, whether truely or not, to Orphens, yet certainly among the oldest of the sacred poetry of pagan worshippers, we have the following : " We will sing a pleasant and delightful song concerning the ancient chaos ; how heaven, earth, and seas were framed out of it, as also concerning that much wise and sagacious Love, the eldest of all the Deities, and self-perfect, separating one thing- from another." Mr. George Sandys, who in the wilds of Virginia trans- lated Ovid's Metamorphoses into English, thus refers to this ancient tradition : "Fire, Air, Earth, Water — all tlie opposites That strove in chaos — powerful Love unites, And from their discord drew this harmony That smiles in nature." How dreadful to think that this doctrine of Love, as being the moving principle of God's creation, should, in the hands of man, become so corrupted as to be enshrined in the persons and actions of Yenns and Cupid, and the very worst abominations of the heathen worship. 5 CHAPTER III. ON THE CREATION, Having discoursed on tlie Creator, we now proceed to consider tlie Creation. Moses informs us that " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; and that the earth was with- out form, and void, and that darkness was upon the face of the deej) ; and that the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." St. Paul, in his Epistle to the He- brews, says, " The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." — Heb. xi. 3. In his Epistle to the Komans, he says that " the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, bemg understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." " In the beginning," according to Moses, and " from the creation of the world," according to St. Paul, must mean the same thing. "We must not, therefore, understand the words " In the beginning" as being from all eternity, since there is no beginning to eter- nity, God alone being eternal. The expression only means a certain point in what we call time, when God made the heavens and the earth, and all things therein. We measure time by the seasons, and revolutions of the earth, and the heavenly bodies. Of eternity there is no measure. Our English poet, Cowley, in his poem Davideis, or the troubles of David, has happily expressed this : ON THE CEEATION. 67 " Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does ahvays last. There sits the Almighty, first of all, and end. Whom nothing but himself can comprehend ; "Who with his word commanded all to be, And all obeyed him, for that word was he. Only he spoke, and all that is From the womb of fertile nothing ris.' The schoolmen call eternity the " Nunc stans^'' or standing now^ to distinguish it from the word now, as applied to time, and the poet prohably borrowed the thought from them. The scriptural account, therefore, is of what may be called an actual or proper creation of the world out of nothing which preexisted, and not the mere fashioning of the different things in the world out of matter eternally preexisting. This latter was a popular idea among the mythologists and philosophers of old. In this Moses con- tradicts them both, and asserts the infinite superiority of Jehovah over all other powers. In all the writings of the philosophers, and the fables and allegories of the poets and mythologists, chaos, or water, or some fluid mass, is often spoken of as the basis from which the great Mind drew all things. Sometimes it is made itself an eternal deity, out of whose womb all things came. Some of the philosophers maintained that it was impossible to create anything out of nothing. The words " Ex nihil, niliil Jltj'^ or, " out of nothing, nothing comes," were ever in their mouths, they having no adequate conception of the infinite power of Jehovah. Thus, Thales, one of the earliest and wisest of the Grecian philosophers, who trav- elled into Egypt in search of knowledge, maintains that water was the "basis, or first priuciple, of all corj^oreal things," but that "God was the mind that formed all things out of it." The ocean, from whence all the gods 68 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and men were generated, according to the allegories of tlie poets, was chaos, out of which the heavenly bodies were made. Adam himself came from a portion of its matter, and was afterwards worshipped as a god. According to the Chaldean cosmogony, or history of creation, " all things were darkness, water, and confusion." In the midst of this chaotic fluid existed various monsters, of horrible forms. At length the hour of creation arrived. The god Belus destroyed the misshapen animals and a gigantic demon which presided over them, divided the darkness from the light, separated the earth from the heavens, disposed the world in regular order, and called the starry hosts into existence. The human s]3ecies was formed, by some inferior deities, out of the dust of the earth and waters of the ocean, and endowed with divine reason. Some of the above must have come from the descend- ants of Noah, and the rest added to it. According to Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptians held that " In the beginning there was a boundless darkness in the abyss, but water and an ethereal spirit acted with a divine power in the midst of chaos. Then a holy light shone forth, and the elements were compacted together, with sand of a moist substance. Then the whole was, by all the gods, compacted together, and distributed into proper order." The Phcenicians, according to Sanchoniathon, though more atheistical than any others, yet had something in common with Moses. The principle of our world was a dark air and chaos, and these mixed together formed the ru- diments of all things ; then appeared the sun, moon, and stars ; afterwards, the fishes of the sea, and the whole finite creation. Last of all, two mortals were formed, the parents of the human race. Suidas tells us of an old Tuscan writer who described ON THE CREATION. 69 the creation in tlie same order witli Moses, only he makes it six thousand years, instead of six uatm*al days. Accord- ing to the Persians, God created the world, not in six days, but in six times, amounting in the whole to one year. According to the Institutes of Menu, which are supposed to have been written about the time of Moses, the Hindostanees hold that the universe at first existed " only in the divine idea, as yet unextended." God is there represented as a sole self-existing power from all eternity, but at length shone forth in person. Determining to pro- duce various beings from his own substance, he first, with a thought, produced the waters, and placed in them a productive seed, which became an egg, from which he himself was born, in the form of Brahma, the forefather of all spirits. From the supreme soul, or spirit, according to their system, emanated all things, — mind, conscious- ness, &c. This supreme power created a number of infe- rior deities, with divine attributes. It also gave being to time and its divisions, to the stars and planets, to the earth, and all things in it. Having thus created the uni- verse, he again retired into himself, from a state of energy to one of repose. What is this, but God^s resting/ on the seventh day ? The Chinese called their first man Puoneo, and said that he was born out of chaos — the famous egg of the Eastern mythology. From the shell of the egg was formed, in the deep gloom of the night, the heavens ; from the white, the atmosphere ; from the yolk, the earth. Moses declares the same order — the heavens first, the earth next, and then the atmosphere. Suidas informs us that a sage of the Etrurian nation wrote a history, in which it is said that God created the universe in six thousand years, and that he appointed the same period of time for its duration. In the first period he made the heavens and the earth ; in the second, 70 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the visible firmament ; in tlie tliircl, tlie sea and all the waters in the earth ; in the fourtli, the sun, moon, and stars ; in the fifth, all living creatures in the sea and on the land ; in the sixth, man alone. As to the Greek cosmogony, the ancient Orphic author tauo'ht that " In the beoinnino; were chaos and a thick darkness enveloping all things ; that the earth lay for a season invisible beneath the darkness ; that light then burst forth ; that the sun, moon, and stars all came out of chaos ; and that man was formed out of dust, and was endued with a rational soul by a supreme creative divin- ity. The ancient poet Linus is said to have asserted that there was once a time when " all things were, by nature, confusedly blended together." Hesiod, the Greek poet, who is supposed to have writ- ten from nine to twelve hundred years before the Chris- tian era, admits that chaos was the first state ; then the earth out of it ; and the heavens out of the earth. He also speaks of Jupiter as the king and ruler of the immor- tal gods, and the creator of men and all things. Homer, also, in one place, makes Jupiter the creator of all things. Although it is inconsistent with his account of the birth of Jupiter, still it is in accordance with the general notion of some supreme being. We must allow to the poets and painters unlimited license. " Pictoribus atque poetis, quid libet audendi Semper fuit equa potestas." TESTIMONIES OF THE ROMANS. Although it has been justly said that tlie Hebrews drank of the fountain, the Greeks of the stream, the Ro- mans of the pool, in respect of knowledge, yet can we derive something from the latter in support of our argu- ON THE CREATION". Tl ment. Yarro says, "Omnia iioctis erant" — All things were night. Ovid says, " Omnia pontus erat " — All things were sea. Thus combining what Moses said, that " dark- ness was upon the face of the deep." But Ovid is ranch fuller upon the subject. The opening lines of his Meta- morphosis speak of a confused state of things, — eartli, air, water, all mixed up together: " luem dixere chaos." His poetry seems only a copy of Moses' account, which, as Ovid lived only a few years before the Christian era, must have been well known at Rome. Ilis writings are full of one supreme God, though, like all the poets and philosophers, he speaks as certainly of other gods. In relation to the foregoing traditions and opinions of poets, historians, and philosophers, only for a moment let us suppose that some other than the Mosaic account had been the true one ; that some philosophical system, as that of the atheistic Democritus, who thought the world origi- nated by chance, or the fortuitous concourse of atoms whirling about in one immense void until they were formed into order, and that men, and all other things, were the result of the same process, — and is there any one who, for a moment, would think that such agreement of fill the nations or families of the world could have been drawn from that or any other system ? Is not the account given by Moses the fountain and all others the streams, though corrupted in their passage through so many ages and so many countries? It may be well here to allude to an opinion which finds place in many of the ancient traditions. AVe find in them much about a succession of worlds. The postdiluvian world was one of these successions. Another is to take place after the present world is destroyed by fii'e. The new world, of which Moses spoke as growing out of cha- 72 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. OS, was one made of the wreck of a former world. Chaos was not created at tliat time, but only refashioned. It is not pretended that they knew how many previous destruc- tions and renewals there had been, but, believing matter to be eternal, they left that to uncertainty. The resem- blance between Adam as the father of the old world, and Noah as the lather of the new, — the one in connection with the chaos of the first world, and the other with the chaos of the deluge, — and the fact that each of them had three sons with whom to begin the replenishing of the earth, strengthened the notion of a succession of worlds. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls also helped on the doctrine, and it was believed that Noah and his sons were only the reappearing of Adam and his three sons', Cain, Abel, and Seth, these being the only ones mentioned. Messrs. Faber, Bryant, and other learned writers believe this to be the true key to the ancient mythology, so far as hero-worship is concerned. There is certainly much to be said in favor of the belief that these were, in process of time, the chief objects of worship. The worship of the heavenly bodies may have commenced earlier, but that was soon blended with the other. Traditions prevail in many nations, of the division of the earth between the three sons of Noah, and their being exalted to deities; but Homer, who has systematized the pagan mythology, and arranged the gods in their proper order, has made this most clear and strikiug. He had previously spoken of Saturn and Rhea, the first of the beings of the earth. Then he makes Neptune give an account of the divisions of the earth, seas, and heav- ens, between the three sons : " Three brother Deities from Saturn came, And ancient Ehea, earth's immortal dame. Assigned by lot — our triple rule we know : Infernal Pluto sways the shades below. ON" THE CREATION". 73 O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plains, Ethereal Jove extends his wide domains. My court beneatli the hoary waves I keep, And hush the roaring of the sacred deep. Olympus and the earth in common lie." Here we have probably the origin of the gods. They were Adam and his three sons, as supposed to reappear in Noah and his sons, the latter dividing the earth between them; and superstition, or poetry, sinking Neptune in the sea, banishing Pluto to the shades, and raising Jupiter to heaven, and gradually investing him with the attributes of the great God of all. All admit that these three, — Ju- piter, Neptune, and Pluto, — were the great gods of the heathen world, though called by different names ; and that the other gods are divided under these into the celestial, terrestrial, infernal, and oceanic, all of them meeting sometimes on the common ground of the earth, which Ho- mer makes to belong to them all. From this digression on the rise of idolatry, into which we were led by some of the pagan traditions as to crea- tion, we return to the special object of this chapter, which was, to present a brief sketch of the Mosaic account of the six days of creation, in connection with traditions to be found in ancient authors. The first special act of God was the establishment of light, for " the earth was without form, and void, and. darhiess was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light."* Some suppose the light may have been mingled in small portions in cha- os, but was now separated, and made to circulate around the earth. After this, a firmament, — the air, — as placed in ♦Longinusthe Roman, in his celebrated treatise on the Sublime, adduces this as a most remarkable instance of the sublime in composition, because of the brevity with which so mighty a work is set forth. Almighty power alone could do it. 74 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, the heavens, dividing the waters from the waters, — that is, the waters in the clouds from those in the deep, — which firmament he called heaven. Then the waters were gath- ered together in one place, and the drj land appeared. Tlien the earth was made to bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees. Then was light distributed into the heavenly bodies, to give light upon the earth, and to divide the sea- sons, the days, and the years. Then were the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea created. Then were all beasts and cattle, and every creeping thing on earth made ; and lastly, man. In relation to the above, it is w^orthy of remark, First, that God gave names to all those things over which man had no power, but permitted Adam to name all the inferior animals. Secondlj^, not a word is said about the creation or the existence of angels, or any other gods, with which the pagan mythologies are filled, and which men have been so prone to worship. Thirdly, God speaks of the heavenly bodies, — sun, moon, and stars, — and the uses for wdiich they were designed, but not an in- timation is given that they were worthy of that adoration which was afterwards given to them by man. Fourthly : as it is said that God nuide all animals, even man himself, out of earth or water, it is not wonderful that so many traditions should prevail as to the origin of all things out of chaos, which was a mixture of earth and water, and that this chaos should be considered as the fountain and cause of all things. Thus Epicharmus says, "All things sprang out of chaos," and therefore he calls chaos the first of the gods. And Thales said water was the basis of all things ; and even Plato, and Cicero, with many of the philosophers, said that the earth was the oldest and chief of the gods wliich the great Supreme made. Hesiod said that all the gods sprung out of old ocean. According to his system, all creatures upon earth were more or less ON THE CREATION. 75 gods.* Fifthly : Moses says, after the work of each clay was over, that the evening and the morning were the first, or second day, and so on of all the rest. Now this mode of reckoning runs throngh many ancient systems, and is to be found in many ancient histories, and is snpposed to refer to the fact that darkness preceded light. It prevailed among the Jews in the Saviour's time ; wherefore, as he remained three nights in the grave, it is called three days, although he lay in the grave only one whole day, and a part of another, — for on the morning of the third day he had arisen. Even in our own times the terms " se'nnight" and " fortnight," which, according to Tacitus, were used by the ancient Gauls, are used to signify seven days and nights, and fourteen days and nights. f Moses tells us that God rested on the seventh day from all his work. The institution of the blessed Sabbath has prevailed and still prevails among so many nations of the earth, living at such a distance from each other as to space and time, that we are forced to ascribe it to some early and common or- igin. Mr. Faber says that the division of time into weeks, prevails from the Christian states of Europe to the remote shores of Hindostan, and has equally prevailed among the Jews and Greeks, the Romans and Goths. Homer and Hesiod unite in ascribing to the Sabbath a peculiar sanctity ; and Callimachus aftirms, that on it all things *Lucan tells us, "Jupiter est quod cunque rides, quo cunque, moveris :" this is the doctrine of pantheists, ancient and modern. St. Paul tells us, that " in God we live, and move, and have our being," not that he lives, and moves, and has his being in us. God has a distinct individual existence independent of all other things. + The same customs, we are informed by Caesar, prevailed among the Celtic nations. " All the Gauls," he says, " conceived themselves to be descended from Father Dis (Pluto), and they affirm it to have been handed down to them by the Druids; for this reason they measure time, not by the number of days, but of nights. Accordingly they observe their birthdays, and the beginnings of months and years, in such a manner as to cause the day to follow the night." The polished Athenians, according to Aulus Gellius, .computed the space of a day from sunset to sunset. 76 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. were finished. In the most barbarous nations of Africa they lay aside their occupations of fishing and agriculture for purposes of worship, one day in seven. To the foregoing, on the subject of the order of creation, I add the following, from the learned Shuckford, as to the opinions of some of the ancients. He says that the ancient heathen writers do not generally begin their accounts so high as the creation of the heavens and the chaos ; they commonly go no further back than the formation of the chaos into a world. Anaxagoras said that all things were at first in one mass, but an intelligent being came and put them in order ; which Aristotle endorses, adding that all things lay in one mass for a vast space of time, but an intelligent, agent came and put them in motion, and so separated them one from another. Sanchoniathon, he says, declared it was " the wind or the breath of the mouth of the Lord which brought all things into order." This agrees with the ac- count of Moses, that " the spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep." Shuckford thinks that Thales is mis- understood, when he is said to have made water the basis of all things ; that by water he meant only what many others did, " a thick fluid mass, or chaos ; and that Moses himself used a word which, though translated waters, meant chaos, or a fluid mass." He understands the Egyp- tians and Greeks to have held that " the heavens and the earth were at first in one confused and mixed heap ; that, on a separation, the lightest and most fiery parts flew up- wards and became the lights of heaven ; that in time the earth was drained of water, and that the moist clay of the earth, enlivened by the heat of the sun, brought forth liv- ing creatures and men." In this corruption and perversion of the Mosaic account, we can readily see the remains of ancient truth. Mr. Shuckford dwells much on Plato's ac- count of creation. Plato, he eays, refers to ancient tradi- ON THE CREATION. T7 tion, and not to philosopliy, for the true account of the ori- gin of the world and of man, and that he speaks of Phoeni- cian and Syrian, that is, Hebrew fables, as the source of their knowledge of these things ; that those who lived nearer to the gods were better acquainted with such things. He speaks of men as being made of earth and living in para- dise, and being at first of a double nature, male and fe- male, and afterwards divided. All these things suflS.- ciently agree with Moses' account to assure us of a com- mon origin. CONCLUDING KEMAEKS. In the two first verses of Genesis we are told that God created " the heavens and the earth ; and that the earth was without form, and void." We understand from this, that all which belongs to what is called the heavens and the earth, was created or made by God ; and as nothing is said of any preexisting matter, out of which this creation took place, we believe that God originated it out of noth- ing, as other scriptures clearly declare. We understand, by its being "without form, and void," that it was in a chaotic or confused state, and void of trees, plants, and animals, and man himself, which God afterwards placed in it. But a question arises, how long this state of chaos, or " without form, and void," existed, before God brought all things into form or order, and filled it with all the plants and animals mentioned by Moses. Commentators among tlie Jews, the early fathers and more modern ones, differ on this subject: very sound ones say that there is nothing in the language of Moses requiring a belief that the creation and disposition of light, and the ordering of all things, and the peopling of the earth with man, animals, and trees, took place immediately after the crea- tion of the materials which formed the chaos ; that an in- definite period may have intervened between these acts of 78 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the Deity. Moses, they say, was not directed to reveal anything concerning Jehovah's previous actings, as to this or any other world, although the Eternal and Almighty Being must have been ever at work. Jewish and Christian commentators have not felt them- selves at liberty to speculate on the subject of God's deal- ings with this planet before the time with which the his- tory of man begins, except so far as to acknowledge the fact, that numerous traditions of the heathen world refer to the belief of many successive creations and destructions of this earth occurring during a long previous period of time, extending long beyond that assigned by Moses to the formation of our earth and its inhabitants. These destructions have been ascribed to fire and water, which brought such destruction upon the earth as to require re- newing by the Deity. Connected with these traditions have been accounts of immense animals and monsters, which have perished, and were not renewed with the re- newal of other things. During the present century my- thologists have dwelt more on the ancient traditions, which have chiefly prevailed in the East; while geologists have been penetrating into the depths of the earth, to find out all that can be discovered, as to the history thereof, in the various strata beneath its surface, from only a few feet to some miles into the interior. On and near the surface they discover evident traces of men and beasts and plants, such as existed before and have existed since the deluge, ac- cording to the Mosaic account. But on reaching other strata, lying deeper and deeper in the earth, while finding nothing which belongs to man and many things made for his use, they find the remains and prints of animals and plants of im- mense size, and of a form unknown to us. They infer from hence, that they must have existed before the creation of man and other things, as related by Moses; and that, in the indefinite period lying between the arrangement of the earth ON THE CREATION. 79 as it is now, and the first creation of its materials, it may have been the habitation of other animals and other plants, before man was made to be its proprietor and the present races of animals and plants w^ere created for his nse. Those who adopt this theory are ready to embrace the hypothesis of many, both ancient and modern, who think that the earth was once in a heated state throughout, as much of its interior is still, and that in the lapse of , time the exterior became a crust, capable of sustaining animals and bearing trees of immense size. As the tropical cli- mates are now suited to the production of the largest ani- mals and trees, so the whole earth, in its previous and more heated condition, was suited to those immense ani- mals whose fossil prints and skeletons have recently been discovered, also immense forests, which are now believed to be the great coal mines of the mountains, and in the bowels of the earth. It is not my intention to jDursue this subject any further than my subject calls for. The scripture reveals nothing concerning it in the way of history, but it does prophesy a future destruction of the earth by fire ; and the fact that so much of that element and the fuel for it is existing in the earth, makes that possible and probable which the scripture makes certain. The numerous traditions of the ancient nations in relation to previous destructions of the earth by fire and water, the discoveries of geologists as to great changes in the interior and on the surface of the earth by fire and water, render it most probable that previous to the creation of man, and other races of animals for his use, this earth had been sub- ject to mighty revolutions, and may have been the habi- tation of gigantic animals and trees now no longer to be seen except in the ruins thereof. 80 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS AND TESTIMONIES ON THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS CHAPTER. Sir Matthew Hale says, " The time and order wherein the production of light was, is said to be the first day. What portion of duration the disorderly chaos had before this first production is utterly uncertain, because not re- vealed. Possibly it might be a very long time, but the perfecting of the world in its formal order and constitu- tion seems to be in the compass of six natural days. He could, in the first moment, have produced the whole world, but he chose not to do it." He says that " Some Jews and cabalists thought the six days of creation to be of differ- ent length from our days, and from each other ; that the language of Moses was only a kind of analogical expres- sion to give the order of the production of all things, and not the precise time required." Sir Matthew thinks that the period of chaos was a long one, during which the spirit of God, as a powerful agent, was moving on the face of the waters, — that is, of chaos, — separating and dis- posing all things for the time when he should put them in form and order during six natural days. He is afraid of the theory of long indefinite periods, lest it should ascribe too much to a natural, and intimate a doubt as to God's ability to work by his own independent power, in days or moments, as well as in ages or more immense periods of time. The modern doctrine of some of our most learned and pious men was held, it seems, by some of the ancients, among the Jews as well as Gentiles. Professor Lewis, in his learned work on "The Bible and Science," says as to this doctrine of the antiquity of the earth's material, that " it was an ancient speculation, philosophical as well as traditional and poetical ; that in modern times the thought had slumbered until geology 0]Sr THE CREATION. 81 had again awakened it." As to many things in connec- tion with it, he says, "They were discussed by the ancient mind with a keenness that modern philosophy fails to equal." He thinks that Hesiod has the germ of this idea of long periods, and Yirgil may refer to them in his " Magni Menses," and " Magnus Sseclorum Ordo," when speaking of the Sibylline verses. In his " Six Days of Creation," he adduces in proof of our great poet's cosmog- ony these lines in reference to chaos — " As yet the world was not, and chaos wild Reigned where these heavens now I'oll, where earth now rests" — calling it " The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave ; The dark materials to create more worlds, By God ordained " — while the spirit of God " Dove-like sat brooding o'er the vast abyss." — Milton. Herodotus, the most ancient of all historians whose works have come down to us except Moses, and who had gathered in his extensive travels the traditions of the oldest nations, bears testimony to this view of the antiquity of earth's materials. Eawlinson says, "Herodotus perceives the operation of the two agencies of fire and water in bringing the earth to its actual condition. He regards the changes as having occupied enormous periods of time — tens of thou- sands of years." — Itawlinson^s Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 91. Mr. Faber says of the words " In the beginning," it, the Hebrew original, is more explicit than our common English translation, for the literal version of it runs as follows : "In the beginning God created the very substance of the heavens and the very substance of 6 82 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the earth," which he understands to include the mate- rial heavenly bodies. But he adds, " Prior to the work of the six days, as the researches of geology seem- fully to have established, a series of great mundane changes, in the progressive organization of this globe out of the primevally created matter, had long been occurring, which all manifestly tended to perfection, each change successively tending to the final completion of a man- sion or permanent dwelling, suitable to the abode of sentient and intelligent beings." Mr. Faber admits the evidences of certain monsters in some of these changes, and even indulges the fancy that this earth may, in one of its best conditions, have been" the abode of the angels who fell, and who are now hovering around it with evil intent, and destined, in the future, to some subten-anean abode of misery. This of course is all speculation ; and as his work, " Many Mansions in the House of our Father," is the child of his old age, as he calls it, being written only a few years before his death, we must not be severe in our judgments, especially as the theory can neither be proved or disproved — the scripture not affirming or deny- ing it — and since such a man as Bishop Horseley, whom he greatly admired, indulged his fancy so much in relation to the interior of our earth, and so many pious and learned men are so positive in a belief in which Mr. Faber agreed with them, that this earth, when purified by fire, and covered with a pure, healthful, and fertile soil, is, one day and forever, to be the blissful abode of the saints, with the incarnate Saviour as their king. Among those who have most zealously argued in favor of the opinion that this earth is to be the future habita- tion of the saints, must be mentioned Professor Hitchcock, President of Amherst College, who, in his learned and deeply interesting work on the religion of geology, has given us his own views and those of such men as Chal- ON THE CREATION. 83 mei'S, Pye Smitli, and others of high standing in the theo- logical and geological world. Chalmers says, " The common imagination that we have of paradise on the other side of death, is that of a loftj serial region, where the inmates float in aether, or are mysteriously suspended on nothing; where all the warm and sensible accompaniments, which give such an expression of strength and life and coloring to our pres- ent habitation, are attenuated into a sort of spiritual ele- ment that is meagre and imperceptible, and utterly unin- viting to the eye of mortals here below ; where every vestige of materialism is done away, and nothing left but certain unearthly scenes that have no power or allurement, and certain unearthly ecstasies with which it is felt to be impossible to sympathize." The general result of the reasoning of those who advo- cate this theory, sustaining it by many passages of scripture which they cannot think to be figurative, is, that it seems to them favorable to piety and promotive of faith to bring our future abode as near as possible to the present, and our future condition as near to that of earth as may con- sist with the perfection of happiness and holiness, and not to send us, as an altogether new race of beings, into some distant spot of creation. They reason as we do in behalf of the resurrection of the body, viz : That it unites this life and the next more closely when we know that in these bodies we shall be raised up — although improved and glorified ; that we shall feel that we are continuous beings ; that om* future condition will much depend upon our present conduct. But however this theory may prove, true or false, it seems to be generally agreed that we can- not turn into figure or allegory the many passages of scripture which speak of the present heavens passing away with a great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat, and a new heaven and a new earth, wherein 84 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. dwelletli rigliteoTisness, being prepared for us here or else- wliere. ISTor can it be cpiestioned tliat there is much in ancient tradition favoring the idea of the dead, after a long interval, returning to this earth, and being con- nected with some new bodies. CHAPTER IV. ON THE CREATION OF MAN. Gn the sixth day of creation, every thing else being done, God said, " Let us make man in. our image, after our likeness." So " God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them." The particulars of the manner in which our first parents were formed are also stated in the second chapter of the book of Genesis. " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." And the Lord God said, " It is not good that man should be alone ; I will make him an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleei? to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." Scarcely had our first father time to feel the loneliness of his condition, before God instituted that relation which has ever been felt to be " Best bliss of Paradise wliicli has survived the fall." Looking upon them, and upon all the creatures which he had made for their use, over whom he had given them dominion, and upon all else which he had made in heaven and earth, he pronounced them not only good^ but very good. 86 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. And here we cannot but pause to say, how different this declaration from the doctrine of many of the ancients, who held that there were two eternally existing principles, the one of good, the other of evil, who were concerned in the formation of men, and the creation of all other things ; whereby it came to j)ass that there was a mixture of good and evil, pleasure and pain, beauty and deformity, in all things ; or else that there was something stubborn and malignant in matter, out of which men and all things were fashioned, which hindered the Almighty Architect from doing a more perfect work. " Kon potest artifex mutare materiam," said Seneca. According to Moses, God complains of no such thing. Both the material out of which they were made, and the creatures made, were the work of his hands. Between cause and effect, the Creator and creature, we naturally and reasonably expect to see a resemblance, and that the Author should impress something of his own character and image on his work. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." God is known by all his works. Man stands confessedly the first of all upon earth. This we might expect from the remarkable language used at his formation. God said " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him." In these few words, the terms image and likeness are used, in relation to God's purpose and work as to man. If there was any doubt concerning the main points of resemblance between God and man, as man was first formed, an inspired apostle tells us it was " in knowledge and holiness." In other respects also, he was like unto God. He was lord of this lower world, having dominion over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. His person was noble and com- ON" THE CREATION" OF MAN. 87 manding above that of all other beings. ^ God made him upright in body as well as soul ; perfect in his kind. It should elevate and sanctify our thoughts to know that when God determined to manifest himself upon earth in the person of his Son, he chose the nature and form, not of some angel or archangel, but of man, becoming very man (as to " body and soul ") as well as very God^ appear- ing in the truth of our mortal nature, though the ful- ness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in him. Yea, more ; we are assured that he will retain the same, though glori- fied and exalted, as king of saints in heaven forevermore. And even before the incarnation at Bethlehem he often appeared in the human form to some of his ancient people. If thus honored as to body, how much more as to soul, which was not made out of the dust, but breathed into us by the Spirit of God. In respect to the immortal soul, and its great capacities and noble affections, it is said that " man is only a little lower than the angels." " Winged to fly at infinite, and find it there, where seraphs gather immortality," to what heights may he not soar, I'ising from glory to glory, from angel to arch- angel. "VVe must believe that as man came from his Maker's hands, his faculties and affections and appetites were all rightly directed, and duly subordinate one to another and to God, and only required to be duly culti- vated and governed and exercised. How happy must our first parents have been, thus divinely constituted, loving God and each other ! It is not too much to say of him, with the great dramatist, abating somewhat of its jjagan cast : " What a piece of work is man ; How noble in reason ! How infinite in faculties ! In form and moving, liow express and admirable ! e8 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. In action, bow like an angel ! In apprehension, how like a god ! The beauty of the world ; the paragon of animals." — Shakspeaee. Or might we not address one of tins favored race in tlie language of a more chaste and sacred poet, and say : " Think deeply then, O man, how great thou art ; Pay thyself homage with a trembling heart. "What angels guard, no longer dare neglect ; Slightiug thyself, aftront not God's respect. Enter the sacred temple of thy breast, And gaze and wander there a ravished guest. Gaze on those hidden treasures thou shalt find ; Wander through all the glories of thy mind. — Dr. Yoiing. If any should say these are proud words and vain, to be spoken of such a creature as sinful, fallen man, we re- ply, that we ought to think of what he was, and might still have been, and yet may be, through the redemption wrought out for him. We should remember what may yet be seen : " The glorious fragments of a soul immortal, "With rubbish mix'd and glittering in the dust." It has been justly said, " His nature no man can overrate, Nor underrate his merit." With such exalted natures, and the high advantage of intercourse with God, our first parents, happy in each other's love, were placed in the choicest part of the earth, and in the choicest s])0t of the same. The garden of Eden, in the land of Eden, is generally supposed to have been in Armenia, one of the healthiest, most fertile, and picturesque parts of Asia ; where human nature has ever been seen in highest perfection of body and ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 89 mind. Tlie fair Circassian has long dwelt in that land, who, for complexion and form, is the pnrest type of humanity. The nations which have issued from that region, journey- ing and settling along the range of mountains from the Atlantic to the Pacific, have, as history will testify, been the most celebrated in mind and person of all others. It was meet that God should choose such a region (so auspicious for the continued excellence of the race) for the first pair and their descendants. Can we otherwise than suppose that God put forth his love and power in making them the most perfect speci- mens of the race, and that there is truth in the poet's description, — " Adam, the goodliest of men since born His sons. The fairest of her daughters Eve " ? On this subject we have more to say when treating of the garden of Eden. "All things were here given them richly to enjoy." They were required indeed to dress it, — that is, to culti- vate it : but it was " labor itself a pleasure" — " Labor ipse voluptas." Fruits and flowers, good for food, and beau- tiful to the eye, abounded in it. Inferior animals were the objects of their care and love ; and doubtless they returned this love. To love and obey him who made them and thus blessed them, was their duty and happiness. But even in a state of innocence, in paradise, self-denial was necessary, for they w^ere in a state of probation, and might lose the favor of God. One test of obedience was appointed. One only, of all the trees of the garden, bore forbidden "fruit. " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," that is, lose my favor, and be subject to death when- ever the penalty shall be required. The sad sequel I need not mention now. 90 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Tlie circumstances and tlie temptation I reserve for another cliapter. All that I shall say in this place is, that God's favor was lost through disobedience, and sin entered into the world. At what period, after the crea- tion of man and his entrance into the garden of Eden, man sinned and was banished from this blissful abode, it is not for us to know. We cannot suppose that it was immediately after their creation, or that the act of trans- gression was committed under a surprise, ignorantly, or fogetfully. They were on trial, and had a full view of the consequences of disobedience, so far as losing the favor of God is concerned. Their consciences must have been ex- ercised. They were tempted, and yielded ; it was not accidental. That God who knows how to have compas- sion on the ignorant, and has made provision for sins of ignorance, would not have visited them and their pos- terity so heavily for an accidental or unavoidable trans- gression. Many a time may our first parents have looked upon that forbidden fruit and been tempted to eat thereof, but were faithful and obedient, and turned away from it. At length their resolution failed ; they dis- obeyed, and forfeited God's favor. But we have reason to believe that the favor was regained, by faith in the promised Deliverer, and sincere repentance and an holy life, during the long period to which the days of Adam were prolonged. The pious Montgomery, in his interesting poem, en- titled " The World before the Flood," thus describes our penitent forefather : " With him our noblest sons might not compare, In godlike features and majestic air. Not out of weakness rose his gradual frame, Perfect from his Creator's hand he came ; And, as in form excelling, so in mind The sire of men transcended all mankind. ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 91 But deep remorse for that mysterious crime Whose dire contagion, through elapsing time, Diffused the curse of death beyond control, Had wrought such self-abasement in his soul, That he, whose honors were approached by none, Was yet the meekest man beneath the sun. He walked so humbly in the sight of all, The vilest ne'er reproached him with his fall." From these general remarks on tlie creation and fall of man, we proceed, according to tlie plan of our work, to sliow liow the main points of the Mosaic narrative are sustained by the traditions of other nations, and the opin- ions of the philosophers. Beginning with Plato, who always endeavored to find out the earliest traditions concerning the creation, we find him saying that " Our human nature was not of old what it now is, but different from it. For at first there were three sorts of human beings, not two only, as now, male and female ; but of the third sort nothing now re- mains but the name. This was common, and made up of the two others. But at length Jupiter determined to divide this hermaphroditic being into two, and the consequence was, that the one severed half ever had a longing desire for the other." Who can refuse to trace this ancient tradition to the foraiation of woman out of man, and which must have come down, not only through Moses, but through other channels ? Mr. Faber, and other writers on mythology, have col- lected various passages from the most ancient books, in relation to the four ages. They relate to two series of ages — one before, the other after the flood, though the two are sometimes mingled together. It is easy how- ever to perceive when the reference is to the Golden age of the first series — the age of innocence and happi- 92 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ness in paradise. The great father alluded to in these passages was Chroniis, or Saturn, in the Western "world, and Menu in the Eastern world, each of whom was none other than Adam, or ISToah. Plato informs us that the first inhabitants lived upon the spontaneous fruits of the earth, which was very fer- tile ; that they conversed, not only with God, but with the inferior domestic animals ; that these things had come down from an ancient fable ; that our forefathers who lived immediately after the first revolution, — that is, the deluge, — had delivered these things ; that the depravity of man began at the close of the golden age. The ancient mode of living among the Greeks is thus described by Dicearchus, according to Porphyry : " The first men lived near to the gods, and were of a most excel- lent nature, and lived most holy lives. At that time noth- ing that had life was slaughtered ; and, from the felicity that then prevailed, the poets have drawn their pictures of the golden age." This, he says, was the age of Chronus, or Saturn, — that is, Adam. Hesiod's account of the golden age accords with the foregoing : " When gods and mortal men were born together, the golden age commenced — the precious gift of the deities, who acknowledged Chronus as their sovereign. Mankind then led the life of gods, free from tormenting cares, and exempt from labor or sorrow ; — old age was un- known ; their limbs were braced with a perpetual vigor, and the evils of disease were unknown. When at length the hour of dissolution arrived, death assumed the mild aspect of sleep, and laid aside all its terrors. Every bless- ing was their own; the fruits of the earth sprang up spontaneously and abundantly. Peace reigned, and her companions were happiness and pleasure." The manner in which he accounts for this change is also striking. " The first woman, endowed by the gods ON THE CREATION OF MAN, 93 witli every accomplisliinent, yet destined to be tlie ruin of prying man, opened a fatal casket, and let out sorrows and calamities incalculable. Too late, wlien her mis- chievous curiosity was satisfied, she replaced the lid, but sea and land were alike replete with evil. Hope alone remained at the bottom of the casket." The traditions of the Hindoos are to the same effect. They speak of the first of the human race as " The su- preme and happy inhabitants of the earth. The first age was called the age of perfection. There was no fraud or extortion ; every heart glowed with gratitude to the su- preme Creator. Tlie gods frequently became incarnate, and held personal intercourse with mortals, and told them of a celestial region into which they were to be translated when their earthly probation was over. But, owing to luxurious abundance, men became corrupt, and fell into all kinds of wickedness, insomuch that Jupiter, disgusted with the scene, abolished the ancient order of things, and permitted the necessaries of life to be obtained only through the medium of labor." The Silver and Brazen ages then came on, when men were called " The moder- ately happy," and then " The least haj)py inhabitants of the world." The Cliinese speak of two heavens, which is supposed to refer to the state of men before the fall, and after the delnge. During the first, a "pure pleasure, a perfect tranquillity reigned over all nature. There was neither labor, nor pain, nor sorrow, nor criminality. Nothing made opposition to the will of man. The whole creation enjoyed a state of happiness. Every thing was beautifuL Every thing was good. All beings were perfect in their kind." In this happy age " Heaven and earth employed their virtues jointly to embellish nature. There was no jarring in the elements; no inclemency in tlie air. All things grew without labor, and universal fertility prevailed. 94 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. The active and passive virtues conspired together to pro- duce and perfect the universe." But when the second heaven is mentioned, tliey say " The earth fell to pieces. The waters which were enclosed in its bosom burst forth with violence and overflowed it, Man, having rebelled against Heaven, the system of the universe was totally disordered." All these evils, they say, arose from man's despising the Monarch of the universe. " He would need dispute about truth and falsehood ; and these disputes ban- ished the Eternal reason. He then fixed his looks on ter- restrial objects, and loved them to excess. Hence arose the passions. He gradually became transformed into the object which he loved; and the Celestial wisdom entirely abandoned him. Such was the source of all his crimes, and hence arose those various miseries which are justly sent by Heaven as a punishment of wickedness." — See Kamsey on the Mijthology of the Pagans. From this garbled account of the golden age, it is evi- dent that it is sometimes placed during the state of inno- cence in paradise, and sometimes as coming down after it, and sometimes as being after the deluge. We may fairly conclude that there was a period, both after the fall of man and after the deluge, when comparative innocence prevailed. The Zendivester of the Persians also furnishes a corrob- oration of the foregoing. Although this book, as it has been handed down, is of doubtful authorship and author- ity, yet the most learned agree that it contains much of ancient tradition, fragments of which were worked into it. Such is the opinion of Sir William Jones, and Mr. Faber. The Persians held, according to these, that the world was created in six diiierent periods of time, in the last of which man was formed by the immediate hand of God. Much happiness for a time prevailed ; but an evil one, Ahriman, after having dared to visit heaven, descended to the earth, ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 95 assumed the form of a serpent, and brought along with him a number of wicked demons. The whole world was corrupted and thrown into confusion, until it was necessary to bring a deluge of waters to purify it. Ancient books of Ilindostan, according to Mr. Faber, relate that " At the beo-innins of the world numerous ce- lestial spirits were formed, capable of perfection, but with the power of imperfection, both depending on tlieir vol- untary choice." This could not have been borrowed from Moses, as he makes no mention of angels, either good or bad, in his history of creation and the first years of Adam and Eve. It must therefore have come from some other source, even from most ancient tradition. opmioNS or philosophees ajstd poets. Simplicius, in his Comment on Epictetus, advances a similar opinion, saying that God, in order to fill the world with beings, made some (the angels) immutably good ; and some of a middle nature liable to be perverted, but hav- ing great powers and good aflections ; also inferior orders, that so the universe might be perfect in having all sorts of beings in it. It would seem, then, that among ancient philosophers, as well as modern divines, the cause of man's fall was a matter of discussion. ' Fate,' ' necessity,' and ' free-will ' were terms as much used among them, as ' predestination' and the ' self-determining power ' are among us. Perhaps our first parents may have discussed them, and even im- agined that the fruit of the tree of knowledge would give some insight into these. Milton represents some of tiie fallen angels as investigating these points : " Others apart sat on a hill retired, In thought more elevate, and reasoned high Of Providence, fore-knowledge, free-will, and fate : 96 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Fixed fate, free-will, fore-knowledge, absolute, And found no end, in wandering mazes lost." The pliilosopliers, on the origiu of evil, have been com- pared to the ancient Egyptians, who all witnessed the overflowing of the Nile, but for a long time could not find out the cause or spring-head of it. " Causa latet, vis est notissima." Porphyry says, "Let us at least join with our forefa- thers in lamenting this, that we are compounded of such disagreeing and contrary principles, that we are not able to preserve divine, pure, and unspotted innocency." Hierocles more fully declares it. " The most men in the world are bad, and under the command of their passions, and are grown impotent through their propensity to earth, which great evil they have brought upon themselves by their wilful apostasy from God, and withdrawing them- selves from that society with him which they once enjoyed in pure light." Plato seems much puzzled to give a satisfactory account of evil, but he approaches so much nearer to the Mosaic account though still at a great distance, that some have supposed that, in his travels to the East, he had met either with the Hebrew scriptures or with the Jewish doctors, and had borrowed something from them. According to the learned Cudworth, Plato held that " Matter being eter- nal, and emanating from the supreme First Cause, was di- vested of all qualities which could produce evil ; and he accounted for evil by ascribing it to a third unmade princi- ple, between God and matter, calling it an irrational soul, or demon, which moved matter disorderly." Plato held that it is impossible that evils should be entirely destroyed ; and yet they are not seated among the gods, but will of necessity always infest this mortal region and nature. Wherefore he says we ought to endeavor to flee from ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 97 thence with all possible speed ; and that onr flight, from heuce, is this, — to assimilate ourselves to God as much as may be: which assimilation consists in being just and holy, with wisdom, Plato therefore ascribes the evils of men to " the necessity of imperfect beings." In other words, that " man is of an order of beings necessarily lia- ble to some evils ; not necessarily and irresistibly good and happy." The greatest art, he says, is to " bonify evils, and to tincture them with good." The Mosaic account is, that God made man good, (perfect, certainly, in his kind,) but that an evil spirit tempted him to disobedience ; and we know that the same spirit has ever since been the en- emy of man, even daring to assail the Son of man with his temptations. We can readily see how this may have given rise to Plato's hjq^othesis of an evil unmade demon ; or disturbing matter, according to some ; or even to the eternal principle of evil, as held by others. CHAPTEKV. ON THE CREATION OF MAN PART SECOND. ISTo apology is needed for jnirsuiiig the subject of the last chapter yet further. Its iniportauce not only justifies it, but requires it. "The proper study of mankind is man." It has ever been spoken in praise of Socrates, that he brought philosophy down from airy speculations about the heavens and the gods to the consideration of man and his duty. Plato also, his disciple, though investigating every subject within the reach of the human mind, dwelt much on human nature and its origin, searching the most ancient records for his information. There are some questions growing out of the Mosaic ac- count of man's creation and fall, which are of deep inter- est to us, and are often discussed. To these we will de- vote a few pages. The first is, as to the goodness and justice of God in making an order of beings liable to fall, and permitting them to be tempted. The second relates to the appointment of such a trivial exercise of their fidelity as the eating or not eating of an apple. The third is, as to permitting such a low and loathsome reptile as the serpent to be gifted with speech, and to be used by Satan to deceive our first parents. The first of these questions is, "Was it right ; was it consis- tent with the goodness of that God with whom all things are possible, and who could make holy angels and archangels as ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 99 easily as man, to create such a race as man, well knowing that he would fall, and with him all his posterity ? Why did he not make him proof against any temptation, and strong enough at once to overcome the devil, or avoid him, though he should come in the garb of an angel of light ? To this it should be sufficient to answer, in the words of God by one of his prophets, "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why madest thou me thus ? Shall the clay say to the potter," &c., &c. ? But tlie falsity of such reasoning against God may be made to appear, by proposing some other questions, such as the following : Why did God make any inferior beings at all ? Why not make all at once of the highest conceiv- able order, even angels or archangels? Since all things are possible with God, why not make man, but also every beast of the field, and fowl of the air, and fish of the sea, yea, every insect, grain of sand, or drop of water, an angel or archangel at once, and thus rill the whole universe with pure, perfect, and blissful beings ? Such a train of thought may surely discover to us the absurdities into which we plunge, when we undertake to question the wisdom of God as to any of his works. He has thought proj^er to fill his universe Avith innu- merable orders of beings, from the grain of sand or little insect, up to the highest principalities in heavenly places, and in the midst of it placed man, endowing him with reason, imparting knowledge to him, making him capable of standing, yet lialjle to fall, and, even in his present state, of sinking lower or rising higher. But some in their wis- dom would sti'ike such an order of beings out of existence as unworthy of the Creator. As to the second objection, some ask, Was the test a suitable and worthy one ? Was it right to suspend the life and happiness of our first parents on obedience to so triv- 100 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ial a thing as the eating of an apple ? Was this a high moral code, worthy of the divine Legislator? Why did he not propose some great achievement, or painful sacri- fice, corresponding to the prize at stake? In answer we say, What if some mighty exploit or great suffering had been required in order to the continuance of that life and happiness, which God could so easily have done without any cost to humanity, how much greater the complaint ao-ainst God as an hard taskmaster ! Does it not become us to believe that God, who had a perfect right to propose what test or act of obedience he pleased, would- choose the most suitable one, neither too trivial nor too severely try- ing? Even our own reason may suggest some things showing the peculiar adaptedness of the one complained of by some. Man is composed of two parts — body and soul, the material and the spiritual — each having faculties and members which must be exercised and tried in order to the perfection of our nature and the service of God. The appetite for food is one of the strongest of our animal natures, and a large share of the sin and misery of man grows out of the undue indulgence of it. The forbidden ap- ple was not only beautiful to look on, but was pleasant to the taste, and our first parents were urged to taste and see how good it was. They were encouraged so to do by be- ing assured that it was good to make them wise, even wiser than God had thought proper to make them. Curi- osity, and the ambition to be wise, are powerful principles in human nature. They were told of other beings, called gods, higher than themselves, and knowing more, into whose state they might be exalted by eating the forbidden fruit. To resist these temptations was no trivial proof of allegiance to God, though tlie yielding to them was great folly and sin. Let ns try the force of the objection made, by considering what more suitable proof of obedience could have been required. ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 101 Let ns take the great and holy moral law issuing from the lips of Jehovah himself, and see what can be found in it more worthy of use in this case. As to the two first, forbidding idohitry, they could not be used, since idolatry had not found its way into the world at that time. As to the third, surely swearing was not practised. As to the fourth, surely tliere was no temptation to violate the Sab- bath, when all things abounded with so little labor. As there were no children at tliat time, tliere was no tempta- tion to violate the fifth commandment, enjoining filial obedience. "Were we to examine all the rest it would be seen that they were equally unsuitable as tests, if not ab- solutely incapable of application, under the circumstances in which the first parents of the human race were placed ; whereas the desire for delicious fruit, and the curiosity to know more, and the ambition to rise higher, were the proper subjects for probation and trial. Let us remeniber that when the Son of God, the second Adam, through whom we hope to regain all and more than all which was lost by the first, came into the world, Satan was permitted to tempt him, through the same ap- petites of body and mind. Li the mountain, where he fasted for forty da3"s and nights and was beset with hun- ger, he tempted him to sin in order to get food, by urging him to turn stones into bread, and thus break the appoint- ed fast. He addressed himself to the love of glory and power, by urging him to cast himself down from the pin- nacle of the temple, and to worship him, falsely promis- ing all the kingdoms of the earth. The third objection is, that it was unworthy of God to choose snch a low, odious, and contemptible reptile as the serpent, and endow him with speech in order to tempt our first parents. We shall have more to say on this subject, when we come to consider the history of the serpent and Satan, in 102 THE BIBLE A2sD THE CLASSICS. a separate cliapter. For the present, suffice it to sav, that the serpent was only the organ of a mighty spiritual being, the father of lies, and the author of all mischief. Moreover, as we must not judge of Adam in his first state, fresh from the hands of God, by what we see of him in some of his debased descendants, so we must not determine what the serpent of paradise was, from what the odious reptile now is, since the curse of God has glued him to the earth. Concerning the original perfec- tion of man, as coming from his Maker's hand and pro- nounced to be very good, we are liable to misunderstand the term. God alone, so far as we know, is perfect in the highest sense of the word, — that is, infinitely perfect. He is perfect, in that he existed from all eternity, and created all things. He is perfect in all his attributes of holiness, power, knowledge, &c. All other beings and things are comparatively imperfect. His very angels he chargeth with folly. " The heavens are not clean in his sight," " The moon sbineth not in his presence." Innumerable orders of beings, perfect in their kind, but imperfect by comparison with him, were made by him. Some angels have fallen ; others have not. Man, though inferior to some orders — as, for instance, the angels who have kept their estate, whatever he may be as to those who fell — is yet superior to innumerable orders of beings who fall below him in the scale of creation, and has, even in his fallen state, great cause for rejoicing, when redemption is taken into the account. It has been well said, that " Every child bringing into the world the guilt of Adam's sin, brings along with it the benefits of Christ's mediation and death." When we remember all that God has done for us by his Son and Spirit, in otir fallen condition, we should not complain, but feel that we are brought under renew^ed obligations to him. If the devil be still our enemy. ox THE CREATIOX OF MAX. 103 Christ is our friend, and he wlio is for us is greater than he who is against us — greater than all who are against us. Though man, especially in his fallen state, must be liable to temptation, or trial, in this place of probation, yet it is not a temptation or trial which justly subjects God to the charge of being the author of sin. God utterly disavows the authorship of sin. lie made the earth good, and out of nothing, and not out of some unmanageable malignant matter, according to some j^hilosophers. He made a good man out of the good earth, as to his body, and breathed a good soul into him. But he made him a rational being, to obey his Maker ; not of force and ne- cessity, but willingly, and of choice. Good and evil, obe- dience and disobedience, were set before him. God did not tempt him to choose the evil. The account of it is this, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man : but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." St. Paul calls this lust " a law in our members war- ring against the law in our minds," inclining us to evil when we would do good. The heathen poets speak in like manner : " Nitiraur in vetitum semper cupimus qne negata, Yideo ineliora, proboque, deteriora seqiior," The heathen knew not where to go for help. Chris- tians know that " tliere is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes free from the law of sin and death." The following passage from the celebrated Sir "William Jones, after considering the Eastern systems which speak of the formation of man as an order of beings caj^able of standing yet liable to fall, is much to the point: "And if perfect justice be, as it is most indubitably, an essential 104 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. attribute of God, the first pair must have been gifted with sufiicient wisdom and strength to be virtuous, and, as far as their nature admitted, happy, but entrusted with freedom of will to be vicious, and consequently degraded." The following passages from two of our most distin- guished English poets, on the subjects just discussed, will not be without interest to our readers. Milton, in his celebrated poem " Paradise Lost," thus speaks of the creation of angels : " Such I created all the ethereal powers And spirits, both them who stood and them who failed. Freely they stood, who stood, and fell, who fell." Speaking of the fall of man, he makes God to say, " They themselves decreed their own revolt." " If I foreknew. Fore-knowledge had no influence on their fault." Comparing the fall of angels with that of men, he says, " The first sort, of their own suggestion, fell, Self-tempted, self-depraved. Man Mis, deceived By the other first. Man therefore shall find grace, The other none." " Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will ; Yet not of will in him, but grace in me, Freely vouchsafed." " Some have I chosen of peculiar grace, Elect above the rest." But he warns against prying into the decrees of Heaven : " Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there. Be lowly wise ; Think only what concerns thee, and thy being." OlSr THE CREATION OF MAN, 105 As to discussion about the secret things of God, he says, "Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy." As to the much discussed question about the effect of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Milton has probably said as much in two lines as we shall ever find out : " Since our eyes Opened, we find, indeed, and find we know Both good, and evil. Good lost, and evil got." PASSAGES FROM POPE's ESSAY ON MAN. This is supposed to have been a poetical paraphrase of one of Lord Bolingbroke's works — an infidel production, and which, it is said, the poet did not understand himself, if his lordship did. He calls Lord Bolingbroke " My guide, philosopher, and friend." Though Pope was not one of the infidels of that day, yet tliere is little of Christianity in his writings, and much of the impure. In his " Universal Prayer to the Father of All," he addresses liim as worshipped " By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord " — as though all were alike the same. ^Nevertheless, in spite of his lordship's scepticism, and the poet's ignorance, tliere are some excellent things in the " Essay on Man," in relation to the subject of this chapter. He speaks of man " As a mighty maze, yet not without a plan." As to the objections made to some things in the world, he says. 106 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. *' All partial ill is universal good, All are but parts of a stupendous whole." " 'Tis but a part we see and not the whole." He speaks of man as "That chain which links the immense design, Joins heaven and earth, the mortal and divine." God only " May tell why Heaven has made us as we are ; Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind. There must be somewhere such a rank as man." But some are dissatisfied : " Men would be angels, angels would be gods." To those who ask, " Why is not man a god, and earth a heaven ? " he replies, " Who ask, and reason thus, will scarce conceive God gives enough while he has more to give." It was perhaps to some such feeling in our first parents that the devil addressed the temptation, " Ye shall be as gods." We conclude our poetic testimonies with a passage from Dr. Young, descriptive of man. " From differing natures, marvellously mixed, Connection exquisite of distant worlds. Distinguished link in being's endless chain, Midway from nothing to the Deity. Dim miniature of greatness absolute." Concerning Pope's " Essay on Man," Dr. Young has well said, ON THE CREATION OF MAN. 107 " Man too he sung : immortal man I sing. Oh ! had he pressed his theme, pursued his track, "Which opens out of darkness into day ; Oh ! had he mounted on his wings of fire, Soar'd where I sink, and sung immortal man, — How had it blest mankind and rescued me ! " On the whole we may say, divines, poets, and philosophers generally agree, that if God had not given a certain free- dom of will and action to man, but had by irresistible in- fluences made it impossible for him. to fall, or had set a strong guard of angels around paradise to prevent tlie en- trance of the evil one, he would not have dealt with him as a rational and accountable creature, and man would not have been a link of beings, on probation, lying be- tween perfected angels and the lower animals of earth. SIR MATTHEW HALE S VIEWS OK THE CEEATION OF MEN. Having occasion to quote the opinion of this great man, of whom it is written, " A light, saith the Bar ; a light, saith the Pulpit," because of his eminence in theology as well as in jurisprudence, and who was Chief Justice of England during four successive reigns, if Cromwell's gov- ernment may be reckoned as one of them, I mention a circumstance which I have somewhere read concerning his great work, "The Primitive Origination of Man," from which the following passages are taken. Unknown to any one, he spent the leisure hours of ten years in pre- paring it. When completed, he caused it to be placed in the hands of Archbishop Tillotson and one other learned divine, without permitting them to know its authorship, in order to find out their honest judgment of the same. After a careful examination of it, they agreed that there was but one man in the kingdom who could write it, and 108 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. that man Sir Matthew Hale. They informed him of this and insisted on its publication. Much as has been writ- ten on the various points treated of in his work, during nearly two centuries since its appearance, but little of im- portance has been added to it. As to the opinion of the philosophers concerning the origin of man, he says : " Aristotle, and even Plato, seemed sometimes to believe in the eternal generation of men, though at others asserting the contrary. Many affirmed it positively." Sir Matthew uses his logical powers with great ability in showing the absurdity of such an hypothesis. He also exposes the idleness of the theory of Epicurus and Lucre- tius, who held the origin of men to have been derived from the fortuitous concourse of atoms, with, perhaps, some seminal particles in them. He speaks of those who thought that man issued from rich and slimy earth, espe- cially that of Egypt on the Nile, after a long incubation or resting of the waters, with a certain conjuncture of the planets favoring vegetation, or the beginning of life. Ovid seems to refer to both of the foregoing in his Metamorphoses : " Natus homo est. sive hunc divino semine fecit, Ille opiferx rerum, mundi melioris origo ; Sive recens tellus, seductuque nuper ab alto, ^there cognati retinebat ssemina coeli." Here is a distinct recognition of the tradition of the heavenly origin of man. Others there were, as Zeno Citicus, who came nearer to scripture, and ascribed the creation of man to the jlat^ or command, the hoene ijlacituin^ or good-will, of God. They generally agreed that he was made by God out of moist earth, by the instrumentality of heat and light. "Again," he says, " some affirm, ' Semper homines ON" THE CREATION OF MAX. 109 fiiisse ; nee unqiiam nisi en hominibus natos.' Others maintain, 'Fuisse tempus cnm homines non essent.'" In other words, " Some say that men always were in eternal succession from other men ;" while others say there was a time when men were not, but that their origin was to be ascribed to nature — that is, were made, not immediately by the hand of God, but by some natural process or de- velopment, as vegetables and lower animals seem to be. In reply to those who object to the present state of things — that it ought to have been better — that if God be es- sentially good and perfect he should have been filling the universe with worlds and happy beings from eternity — he answers, that " In his acts of beneficence God is not neces- sitated by his own perfection to act ' ad ultmium jposse^ — that is, to do the utmost possible good, but is guided by the freedom of his own will," as to the time and manner of doing anything. As to the image and likeness of God in which man was made, he considers that it was a moral and intellectual one, and not a corporeal one, after the pattern of Christ in the flesh, as some suppose. He says : " In the language of scripture and the ancients, in the work of creation man was made like unto God ; but in the work of redemption the Son of God was made like unto man." " God," he says, " gave man a moral law, implanting it in his heart, and which is the original of that which yet remains in men in some degree, though so much weak- ened and obscured by the fall. He also gave him a posi- tive law, requiring obedience on pain of death. Left to the liberty of his own will, though having suflicient abil- ity to obey, he fell, through temptation of Satan and his own sensuality and ambition." 110 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. OTHER TESTIMONIES. On the subject of man's dignity and liigli station among the works of God, we must remember the apostle's injunc- tion not to think too highly of ourselves, but soberly. There have been those who seem to think that they really are what the serpent promised our first parents they should be, — that is, gods. I remember being much shocked, when a youth, at the saying of a noted iniidel, that he was as much God as any other being in the world. I did not then know that there had been some men, even in the days of Aristotle, who maintained that there were no greater beings in the world than them- selves, and whom Aristotle laughed to scorn for their folly. Herodotus, also, has well said : " God allows no one to have high thoughts but himself." " He loves to bring down everything that exalts itself." And yet we must not degrade our nature below the rank which God has assigned to it, which is one, even in our present state, only a little lower than that of the angels. The following passage in Mr. Trench's lectures is no extravagant eulogy on man's position in the earth : " Scrip- ture is no story of the material universe. A single chap- ter is sufficient to tell us that ' God made the heavens and the earth.' Man is the central figure there, or, to speak more truly, the only figure ; all which is there beside serves but as a background for him. Such he appears there in his unfallen condition ; and even now, when only a broken fragment of the sceptre with which once he ruled the world remains in his hand, such he is com- manded to regard himself still." Our great theological poet describes even the prince of the fallen ones as still retaining something of his past high rank : ON THE CREATION OF MAN. Ill " His form had not yet lost All its original brightness, nor appeared Less than archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured." We know not what was tlie difference between man and the angels that fell, before then- fall ; but this we know, that the relation we now bear to their great leader is that of children to a parent. " Ye are of your father the devil" is our lineage and character, and our final and everlasting doom will be the same with his and his rebel- lions crew. The same place is prepared to be the eternal abode of the impenitent wicked among men, and the devil with his angels. St. John speaks of the devil as being " created in the truth, but who abode not in it." St. Peter speaks of " the angels who sinned," and St. Jude of the " angels who kept not their first estate." All that is said of them would lead us to suppose them to be very like unto man. So as to the unfallen angels. Man, in his natural state, especially as to his body, and even Christ as to his natural body, were only a little lower than the angels. In his glorified state, man will be equal to angels. " When we are informed," says one, " that man was made after the image of God, this almost amounts to a declaration that his was the highest style of created being, and that no higher type, or pattern, could ever appear. The original, of which he is a copy, is the highest possi- ble, and the artist being God himself, we may be sure it was executed in the very highest style." The crime of mm'der is ever represented as most heinous, because man was made in the image of God. Clothed in a spiritual body, Christ is exalted to the right hand of God, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. 112 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. If it be said tliat man is very like to the inferior ani- mals in many parts of his structure, and that this detracts from his high dignity, it is replied, that this is only a confirmation of the doctrine of man's high order. " It is because they are all the hand-work of the same artist " that they are so much alike, and so perfect in their kind. " The human," says Fairbairn, in his excellent work on the " Typology of Scripture," " is the pattern form of all animal existences. In the structure of all other animal forms there are observable sttiking resemblances to that of man. Each man, in himself, is not the microcosm of the old fanciful philosophers, but something greatly more wonderful — a compendium of all animated nature, and of kin to every creature that lives." " Man," says another, " is the sum-total of all animals." Professor Owen says, " All the parts and organs had been sketched out, in an- ticipation, so to speak, in the inferior animals." What a piece of work is man ! we may truly say — how fearfully and how wonderfully made ! But while he thus soars above all the animals of earth, it is his connection with heavenly beings that constitutes his chief glory. He be- longs to the whole family of God, which is both in heaven and earth ; and if he so resembles the inferior ani- mals of earth, much more does he resemble the higher ones in heaven. But it is his connection with the great Head that constitutes his crowning glory. " How could God," says Neander, " place himself in so near a relation to individual men (as in the incarnation), and ascribe to them so high a dignity, if they were mere perishable appearances, if they had not an essence akin to his own, and destined for immortality ? " CHAPTEE YI. INTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY AT THE FOHMATION OF MAN. In the 26th verse of the first chapter of Genesis, it is written, " And God said, Let us make man, in_our image, after our likeness," Before dismissing tlie subject of man's creation, it may be well to inquire briefly into the meaning of the words, " Let us make man." Some of the Jewish doctors main- tain that this was a real consultation, held with such angelic beings as God might think proper to employ in man's creation. This of course cannot be accepted by Christians. Some modern expositors regard it as only a majestic form of speech, such as is used by some kings who use the plural number in giving commands, or addressing their subjects. But as there were no men, and of course no great men at the time this was spoken, so thei'e was no such manner of speech then or for ages after Moses ; for in order to assert great authority, the custom among kings was to use the first person. So it was formerly in England, and is in some countries to this day. The general belief is that there is reference here to the three persons of the ever blessed Trinity, as received by Christians. The word Eloliim, in the Hebrew, which is translated God, is in the plural number, and used with a plural verb. While the Scriptures, from first to last, assert the unity of God against all the notions and wor- ship of the heathen, yet do we fiud God acting towards man in what Christians, for the want of something more 114 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. intelligible, call persons. We read of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters at the beginning, and bringing all things into order. This Spirit is often spoken of in the scriptures, sometimes under the name of the Holy Ghost. We read also that Christ was the Logos or Word, by which, " in the beginning, God made all things, and without whom nothing was made." He it is that was called " the angel of God's presence," who watched over the children of Israel in all their journey- ings, and so often appeared to God's chosen servants. These three persons, though declared to be one God, and not at all interfering with the unity of the Godhead, are often united in the apostolic benedictions of the New Testament, where the Grace of the Father, Son, and Spirit is invoked. The learned Dr. Whitby says, that from the times of the apostles, almost all of the fathers understood these words as applied to the three persons of the Trinity. Learned Jewish rabbis maintain the doc- trine of the Trinity as drawn from the word Eloliim, or Alohim, as used in this and other passages, and declare that such was the understanding of the ancient Jews. According to the plan of this work, we shall briefly pre- sent the evidences of any tradition in relation to it which may have come down through other nations, or of any opinions bearing a resemblance to it. The number three has certainly been a most favorite one in the heathen world, as may be seen in all their sacred books. The triads of the Gentiles have been the subject of much dis- cussion in the Christian church. The learned Mr. Faber, who has written so voluminously on pagan mythology, and given such particular attention to this subject, and pays so much respect to concurrent tradition, does not think what are called the triads of the Gentiles are derived from original revelation and tradition, though he believes that the Trinity is referred to in the words ESTTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 116 " Let tcs make man." The result of his inquiries is, that the triads of the Gentiles have the same origin with the pagan idolatry, which elevated the sous of Noah, under the names of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, to the first rank of Deities. These three are mingled with all the mytholo- gies of the heathen world. The Persians had their three- fold distribution of the Deity, assigning to Oromasdes, Aramanes, and Mithras diiferent works, calling Mithras the mediator, or middle. The Chaldeans have also some- thing of this kind. They say that " in the whole world shineth forth a Triad or Trinity, the head whereof is a Mouod or Unity." Whether these mythological tradi- tions or opinions were the source of that Trinity which was set up among the heathen philosophers, and which at length, about 400 years before Christ, settled down into what was called the Platonic Trinity, we cannot say ; but certain it is that Plato and other philosopher's spoke of three operations of the Great Deity, in such a way as in after times misled many of the early Christians into a belief that his system differed but little from the Bible, and caused much Huhappiness in the Christian church. The learned Cudworth, in his " Intellectual System," says, " That some philosophers called the highest, Numen, the first god ; Intelligence, the second god ; the Mundane Soul, or animated world, the third," " Plato's eternal gods," he says, " were not independent, but two of them were derived from one eternal principle." An ancient writer, Numerius, commenting on Plato's Trinity, calls " the Father the first / the Maker of the world the second / the world itself the thirdr Another says that this Trinity was not the invention of Plato, as Plato himself acknowledges, but that Parmenides taught it before him ; and as Parmenides was a disciple of Py- thagoras, and Pythagoras drew much from the system of Orpheus, it may be traced up to that. Now, Pythagoras V* 116 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. taught that " Tlie first one or unity is above all essences " — " the second is ideas, and' intelligible " — the tJiird is the soul of the world, and partakes of the two first." According to the ancient Orphic system, Phanus, Uranus, and Chronus were three beings, or gods, or principles, corresponding to the Platonic Trinity, and probably sug- gested the idea. The Samothracians also had anciently their Trinity of gods, calling them by an Hebrew name, Cahharini, " the mighty gods." Aristotle says that the number three was a sacred number among the ancient pagans — " Wherefore from nature, and as it were observing her laws, have we taken the number three, making use of the same in the sacri- fices to the gods, and other purifications." Proclus also says, concerning the Trinity of the philoso- phers, that " It was a theology of divine tradition, coming first throiio;h the Jews, thoiis^h difi'erino- in some thino;s." Now, when we find so much in the ancient traditions and mythologies about the great Father triplicating him- self, and becoming three gods, and so -much among the philosophers about three principles, or beings, all eternal, and two proceeding from the first great one, and all three infinitely above all other gods, the thought will force itself upon us that there was either some original revelation and tradition about it, or else that there was something in the human mind which was always calling for some such distribution of the divine attributes, among what Christians call the persons or hypostases of the Deity, which were o'inoousias, or consiibstantial with each other, BO as not to interfere with the unity of the self-existent ( and eternal God, from whom all things proceed.* * It may have some effect on our young Americans, to adduce the following opinion of perhaps the greatest intellect this country has ever produced. The late Daniel Webster said, " I believe that God exists in three persons. This INTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 117 Such was the opinion of the candid and learned Dr. Cud worth, who, after a full consideration of the Platonic Trinity, and after showing the difference between it and the Scriptural Trinity, nevertheless acknowledges that there is " a wonderful correspondence between them, and that this parallelism between them might be of some use to satisfy those amongst us who boggle so much at the Trinity, when they shall find that the freest wits among the pagans, and the best philosophers, who had nothing of superstition to determine them that way, were so far from being shy of such an hypothesis, that they were even fond of it." To this it may be added, that although many of the early Christians were led into a snare by it, yet the favor shown to it by many learned men proves that there must have been no slight resemblance between the systems ; enough to justify our reference to it in this work. The following, taken from one of our American periodi- cals, is worthy of insertion on the subject treated of in the foregoing pages : ANCIENT JEWISH TKmiTT. " The proof of this doctrine of the Trinity must unques- tionably be derived from the scriptures alone ; but when a doctrine of this extraordinary nature is presented to the mind, we naturally feel a strong curiosity to know the manner in which the same has been regarded by others, particularly by such as have lived before us ; and pecu- liarly by the ancient members of the Jewish and Chris- tian churches. Nor is this a matter of mere curiosit3^ If the doctrine of the Trinity were first now .discovered I learn from Revelation alone. Nor is it any objection to this belief, that I cannot comprehend how one can be three, or three one. I hold it my duty to believe, not what I can comprehend or account for, but what my Maker teaches me." 118 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. by mankind to be contained in the scriptures — the words being supposed to have remained always the same — we should undoubtedly be surprised to find that those pas- sages which, in our view, clearly contain this doctrine, had never been understood by others in the same manner as by ourselves. But the ancient Jews always under- stood and taught this doctrine as it was understood and taught by the prophets. In the concise history of the creation, Moses says, more than thirty times, Aloim, — that is, gods, — created ; the noun being plural and the verb singular in every instance. These the Jewish Paraphrasts explained by Jehovah, — his Word, that is, his Son, — and his Wisdom, or Holy Spirit ; which they call ' three de- grees.' These three, they assert, are one, and declare them to be one inseparable Jehovah. This doctrine the Jews have exhibited in a variety of methods, clear, con- vincing, and impressive. These I shall briefly exhibit. The first remarkable sentence is from Kabbi Judah Hak- kadash, or Judah the Holy, — in which the doctrine of the Jewish church is declared, in the most explicit manner, to be ' God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost ; three in Unity, one in Trinity.' This Eabbi flourished in the second century. The Jews an- ciently used a solemn symbol of the Deity, which they called called SepJiii'oth, a word signifying enumerations, but used by their learned men to denote splendor. These are sometimes exhibited in the form of a tree with its branches extended, and sometimes by ten concentric cir- cles— that figure being the symbol of perfection. All these splendors are represented as issuing from the su- preme and infinite source, as light from the sun. Of this tree. Rabbi Schabte says : ' There are three degrees — the root, the stem, and the branches, — and these three are one.' By this he intends, that the infinite source and the other two degrees are one and inseparable. INTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 119 " Again : the ancient Jews wrote the name of God sym- bolically, by including three gods within a circle, and subscribing under the gods and within the circle the vowel hametz. The circle was the figure denoting per- fection. The three gods were the beginning letter of the word Jehovah, thrice repeated to denote the three persons in the Godhead. The kametz was the point of perfec- tion, and denoted the same thing with the circle, and the unity of the divine essence. The letter Schin was another emblem of the Most High, in use among the Jews. This letter, which is the first in the word Shaddai, or the Almighty, one of the scripture names of God, is formed of three branches, alike in size and figure, espe- cially as written in the old Samaritan character, and united in one stem. This letter is distinctly written on the Phylacteries which are worn by Jews at the present day. "Such are some of the testimonies of the Jewish church concerning this subject, — composed on the one hand of direct declarations, and on the other of symbols equally definite and certain, especially as explained by their own commentators. These prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the ancient Jewish church held uniformly the doc- trine of the Trinity. The latter have indeed denied it, but to this denial they have been led merely by their hatred to Christianity. {Signed^) "A Cheistian Israelite." ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS AS TO THE TRIADS OF THE GENTILES. Mr. Faber, in his great work on the Pagan Mythology, gives the following account in confirmation of his views of the triads of the Gentiles. His statement is condensed. As the earth after the deluge was divided between the three sons of Noah, who were worshipped in after times 120 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. as the tliree great gods, Koah being the great Father who had thus triplicated himself, so we find this fact jDer- vading all nations and systems of religion growing out of it. Among the Hindoos there is the Monad, a first great father Brahm, and the Triad, Brahma, Yislmn and Siva. Among the Buddhists, whether in India, China, or else- where, there is the selfsame triplicating father, whether called Buddha, or Fohi, or by any other name. The Tar- tars worshipped a triplicated Deity, under three several names. The Peruvians, whose ancestors probabl}'^ crossed over from Asia, had the same idea of a God who was three in one and one in three, worshipping the sun and air under three difi'erent images and names. The Per- sians had their Ormazd, Mithras, and Ahriman. The Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares. The Egyp- tians their Cneph, Eicton, Phtha. The Greeks and Eo- mans their Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, three in number, but one in essence, all springing from one Chronos, a fourth and older god. The Cannaanites had their self- triplicated Baal. The Goths their Odin, Yile, and Ye, who are described as the sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious Con, — that is, born of the Ark. The Celts had their triple Hu, or Menu. To the same class Mr. Faber and others ascribe the triads of the Orphic, Py- thagorean, and Platonic schools, and the imperial triad ot the old Chaldean and Babylonian philosophy. The poets and philosophers could easily lay hold of these traditions, and mingle them with their fables and systems so as to make them very difi'erent from the origi- nal facts from which they were drawn. To the above we add the opinion of Sir Matthew Hale, in his great work " On the Primitive Origination of Man- kind." In regard to the expression, "Let us make man in our INTIMATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 121 image, after our likeness," some of the ancients, lie says, tlionglit that this declared an actual conference with some angelic beings, and that Plato borrowed his notion on the subject from the history of Moses, or some tradi- tion of it. Plato, he says, and some other philosophers and mythologists, held that God conferred with those whom they called Dii ex Diis — inferior gods — born of the greater ones, or angelic intelligences ; that by them he made the bodies of men, though he alone formed their souls. Otliers, Sir Matthew says, with far greater evidence, think it was the deliberation and conclusion of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. OPINION OF SIE WILLIAM JONES. Although he was always desirous of establishing any affinities between the Bible and the sacred books of India, yet he complained that some of the missionaries were foolish enough to urge " that the Hindoos were even now almost Christians, because their Bramha, Vishnu, and Siva were no other than the Christian Trinity." A learned Jewish writer has pointed out that the Trinitarian God- head of Christianity differs from all other triads, in being exclusively and wholly good; whereas, in heathenism, one of the three divine powers was conceived to be opposed to the other two, — that is, the principle of evil. ME. HAEDWIC'S OPINION. He thinks that the Tramerti or Triad of India was the result of an endeavor to regain the idea of the unity of God. They thought that Brahma, or the Ineifable, liad made a revelation of himself in nature, in the three char- 122 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. acters of creator, preserver, and destroyer, and attempted thus to conceive of God. These three characters repre- sented everything that was divine. These three, said a learned Brahmin, have their phices in the earth, the in- termediate region, and heaven, or fire, air, and sun. All other deities are portions of these. The lord of the crea- tures is the deity of all collectively. The three, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, are deemed worthy of highest honor, because they gather up and place before the worshipper everything that he can possibly know of God. Mr. Hardwic protests against the germ of the Chris- tian Trinity being found in any or all of the physical pro- cesses of nature. He shows how entirely difterent from the Trinity of the Bible are all the triads of the philo- sophic Gentiles. L. CHAPTEE VII. ON THE TEMPTATION BY THE DEYIL, IN THE FORM OF A SERPENT. TVe proceed now to the more particular consideration of the instrument by which man was tempted and se- duced. If, in the wisdom of God, as ah-eadj stated, an order of beings, such as man, of whom obedience was required, but who was not to be irresistibly compelled to it ; who must be put on trial, and of course exposed to some temp- tation, though not with the view of enticing him to sin, then it must be for God to decide what the trial or temp- tation should be. While God solemnly protests that he does not tempt man to sin, — that is, does not seek to allure him to sin, — yet he proves him by certain trials, which are in one sense temptations, but with the promise of assistance sufficient for his preservation from sin. Man is still on trial, though under diflferent circumstances from those in which our parents are placed. Man, in his fallen state, has less strength and disposition to withstand temptation, but then he has peculiar and very great helps afforded him from above. Great things have been done for him, in order to his recovery, which were not done for our first parents. We have, however, many enemies which are tempters to us. The first great tempter still continues his malicious efforts to prevent our restoration. Besides this, God per- mits us to be assailed and tempted by evil men, in the 124: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. midst of whom we live. He warns ns against evil com- munications with the wicked, lest they corrupt. If any object to the doctrine of Satanic influence, as exerted against our first parents, and think hardly of God for permitting it, they must in like manner complain that God permits evil men to tempt, as they are continually doing. It is sad to tliink how many demons there are in human form, who are drawing away others, especially the young and inexperienced, from the paths of virtue and piety. Some there are who deserve to be ranked with Beelzebub himself. Sometimes they band themselves to- gether and become legion. But there is One mightier than all the wicked of earth and hell, who, as our repre- sentative— the second Adam — was tempted like as the first was, only without sin. Our Lord, as we said in a previous chapter, was tempted through the appetites of the body, as well as through the higher cravings of the soul, in the waste howling wilderness ; but for us he came off vic- torious, and Satan fell as lightning from heaven. In this view of man's nature and condition on earth, both before and since the fall, we must perceive the unsoundness of such objections as are sometimes made to the Mosaic ac- count of the temptation, before which our first parents fell. But it is sometimes complained that the narrative is obscure and defective ; nothing being said, until we come to other scriptures, of any being except the reptile serpent, — the great agent, the evil spirit not being alluded to. This may readily be accounted for in the same manner as many other omissions in the very brief, and, as it were, short-hand history of Moses, and may be ex- plained and fully justified. Moses was writing for a people who had received from their ancestors all that Moses told them, and in greater fulness ; oftentimes, indeed, with accompanying errors, which in time had been added to original truth. THE TEMPTATIOlSr. 125 Moses was inspired to separate the truth from the false- hood, and record nothing but what was necessary. The Israelites doubtless understood what he meant when saying that the serpent beguiled our first mother, just as well as we do who have all the other scriptures which testify to it. The world, in truth, was full of this tradition at that time, though often corrupted and turned into superstition. The devil had at this time more temples in the world than God himself. He is called in scripture, " The god of this world." The whole world is represented as "lying in wickedness, — that is, in the wicked one." He is the " Prince of the powers of the air," having many evil spirits subject to him, and leagued with him. We fight not, the apostle says, " against flesh and blood only ; but against principalities and powers, and spiritual wicked- nesses in high places." The wicked and unbelieving of earth are declared to be " of their father, the devil." From the earliest jjeriod of the Christian church this evil spirit has, at baptism, been solemnly renounced with all his works. Indeed, for a long time before Christ, wdien heathen converts were admitted into the Jewish church, by baptism and circumcision, this form of renunciation was used, for the Jews rightly considered all the idola- tries of the heathen world as the works of the devil. The thought has doubtless entered into the mind when considering this painful subject, and the question been asked. What could have induced a being of another and perhaps distant world, to come into this and seek the ruin of our infant race ? To this it might be answered. What can induce so many of our fallen world so wantonly to assail the peace and happiness of their fellow-beings? Sin is the moving cause — sin, which is glad at the calami- ties of others, and wishes to reduce all to its own level. The wise son of Sirach, a Hebrew, and author of one of those ancient books which are sometimes bound up with 126 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the inspired ones, and which, though not allowed to be used for the establishment of doctrine, are yet sometimes permitted to be used for instruction in manners, tells us that " The devil was moved of envy" to seduce man from his obedience and happiness ; and it is remarkable that such is the tradition (as will be seen) in many other na- tions besides that of Judea. Our great English poet has introduced this general persuasion, as a certain fact, into his poem, wherein he sings of Paradise Lost : " The infernal serpent, he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind." " For now the thought Of lost happiness, and lasting pain, Torments him." Speaking to his comrades in rebellion and suffering, he says, " To do aught good, never will be our task ; But ever to do ill, 6ur sole delight." He, with his rebellious host, has been cast out of heaven for desii'ing higher station, as our first parents were cast out of Eden for a similar fault : " To reign is worth ambition, though in heU ; Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven" was his motto. Ilis proudest feeling was — " All good to me is lost ; Evil, be thou my good." On reaching paradise, and seeing the happiness of Adam and Eve — THE TEMPTATION. 127 " Aside the devil turned For envy. Sight hateful, right tormenting ! " Another of our old English poets has adopted and forcibly set forth the same sentiment, viz., that envy was a moving principle in the bosom of the arch-fiend of hell, in seekino- the destruction of the hnman race. Mr. Cowley, in his poem entitled " Davideis," or the troubles of David during the persecution of Saul, makes envy the chief demon which infuriated the breast of Saul. He takes his readers down to the abode of the fallen ausrels : 'O^ " Here Lucifer, the mighty captive, reigns, Proud midst his woes, and tyrant in his chains." Myriads of spirits fell wounded round him there, " Since when, the dismal solace of their woe Has been, weak mankind to undo." " Then sought the tyrant fiend young David's fall, And gainst him raised the powerful rage of Saul. He saw the beauties of his shape and face ; His female sweetness, and his manly grace. He saw the nobler wonders of his mind ; Great gifts, which for great works he knew designed ; And well he knew what legacy did place The sacred sceptre in blest Judah's race. From which the eternal Shiloh was to spring, — A knowledge which new hells to hell did bring." Assembling his hosts, he exhorts them in terrific words to aid him to destroy the Lord's anointed ; but they feared to engage in it : " A dreadful silence filled the hollow place, Doubling the native terror of its face. Envy, at last, crawls forth, — from that dire throng, Of all the direfullest ! 128 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Envy, the worst of fiends, herself presents ; Envy, good only vrhen she herself torments. She spoke ; all stared at first, and made a pause. Great Beelzebub starts from his burning throne To embrace the fiend. The snakes all hissed, the fiends all murmured." Oispatclied to the court of Sanl, slie soon rouses lilm to fury : " Alas ! poor monarch ! you Slew thousands only, he ten thousand slew; Him Israel loves, him neighboring nations fear ; You but the name and empty title bear." Thus did Satan, in the form of a serpent, seek to excite ambition in the breasts of our first parents ; promising them that they shoukl be not only kings, but gods, if they ate of tlie forbidden tree ; intimating, perhaps, that God was jealous of the happiness and power they would gain thereby. And now, as to the form of that animal which was selected by the seducer for his wicked purpose, we re- mark, that the common impression, derived from the brief and simple narrative of Moses, is, that it was the same low, grovelling, and accursed thing, the object of the dislike and abhorrence of all, which now crawls along the earth, and licks the dust, and whose poison is the most deadly that can mingle with the blood that courses through the veins of man. But there is nothing in the scriptures which requires such a belief, and much in reason and in the general traditions and histories, as to the serpent, to induce a contrary opinion. If the earth was accursed on account of the sin of Adam ; if, when the fruit was plucked, " Earth felt the wound, And Nature, sighing through all her works, Gave signs> of woe that all was lost ;" THE SERPENT. 129 if thorns and thistles now grew np where once flowers and fruits and trees arose spontaneously, — why not the ser- pent be stigmatized, and made to crawl upon the earth, and glide away from view ? Once it was not only more subtle than any beast of the field, but our Lord himself speaks of its wisdom in the same sentence with the inno- cence of the dove. Is it likely that the tempter would choose the most inferior and loathsome of the animals in paradise, wnth which to approach our first mother ? Would he not rather choose one with which she was familiar — a favorite, perhaps, in the garden — and who would be heard most readily ? Such has ever been the impression amongst men, as will be shown by references to ancient authors. Our English bard, who, in order to the composition of his great poem, studied all history, sacred and profane, and was a deep philosopher as well as divine, describes the serpent as moving, not " Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear. Circular base of rising folds, that towered, Fold above fold, a surging maze. His head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eye, With burnished neck, of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant. Pleasing was his shape. And lovely." A passage from Yirgil's ^uead, as translated by Dry- den, shows that very similar was the ancient notion of the serpent. Milton, perhaps, took his picture from Yirgil and other pagan writers. When celebrating the funeral rites of his father Anchises, .^neas places certain offer- ings on his tomb : " Scarce had he finished, when, with speckled pride, A serpent from the tomb began to glide ; 9 130 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. His hugy bulk on seven high volumes rolled ; Blue was his back, but streaked with scaly gold. Thus, riding on his curls, he seemed to pass A rolling fire along, and singed the grass. More various colors through his body run Than Iris, when her bow imbibes the sun. Betwixt the rising altars, and around, The sacred monster shot along the ground ; With harmless play amidst the bowls he passed, And with the lolling tongue assayed the taste. Thus fed with holy food, the wondrous guest Within the hoUowed tomb retired to rest." It' the serpent of paradise was of an agreeable form, was it not wise and good in God to inflict a curse upon its body and make it odious in the eyes of men, that the very sight of it might impressively remind man of the sin and folly of our first parents in barkening to its de- ceptive voice ? Its degraded state should elevate our hopes. We should see the destruction of Satan in its curse. Even as it now is, some nations are prone to wor- ship the serpent ; to this all history testifies. Satan, the real deceiver, has ever used it for the purpose of leading men into idolatry. How much more evil might it have done with a more pleasing shape ! None can deny that the evil principle has been wor- shipped all over the world, in some form or other, with a view to avert judgments and calamities. Many of the philosophers, until the light of Christianity began to dawn upon the world, believed that the evil principle was co- eval with the good, and not equal to it, yet very power- ful for ill. Satan was the nearest approach to the philos- ophers' idea of the evil spirit, and was permitted by God to exert a certain power on earth. But this evil one was seldom found alone among the ancients, but rather with kindred spirits. Bishop Stilling- fleet, in his learned work " Origines Sacrse," doubts not that THE SERPENT. 131 the origin of that very ancient opinion among the heathen, " De invidia demonis," concerning the envy of the devil, is to be found in the fall of man to which Moses refers. Such, indeed, is the resemblance between the account in Genesis and that in some other ancient books, he says, that it was attempted to charge Moses with borrowing from them ; but the superior antiquity of the books of Moses is too well established to admit of this. Traditions among the ancient Israelites, and in other nations, to the same effect, are doubtless true, and make in favor of his narrative. Plutarch speaks of ancient tradition, that " there are certain wicked and malignant demons which envy good men, and hinder their pursuit of virtue lest they should become partakers of greater felicity than they themselves enjoy. Zenocrates, also, commenting on Plutarch, speaks of the tradition of " some great and potent beings in the air, which are of a surly and malignant nature, and re- joice to do men all the mischief they can." Even Por- phyry, the great enemy of Christianity, affirms that ac- cording to his pagan system " There are some wicked spir- its who help men to evil ; but these very spirits may sometimes commend what is good, lest they should be sus- pected of being what they really are." By which, says Bishop Stillingfleet, we have a good account of whatever was commendable in the heathen oracles, as, he says, Jamblicus himself confesses. The Bishop dwells emphatically on the fact that wher- ever the devil had most power, and idolatry and wicked- ness most prevailed, there the symbol or sign of the ser- pent was most used. Thus, also, the satirist Perseus says, " Pinge duos angues, pueri, sacer est locus." " In a short time," says an able writer, " the power of the devil was such that he outstripped God himself in the number and splendor of his temples, the number of his votaries, and 132 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the pomp of his worship." And this was almost always accompanied with more or less of the symbol of the ser- pent. That the ancient Jews thus understood the part that the devil had in the fall of man, is evident from what we read in the Book of Wisdom, where it is written that "Through the envy of the devil, death came into the world ;" that " Error and darkness had their beginning with sinners ;" that " By the woman came the beginning of sin." In the ancient mysteries of Greece it is well known that the people used to carry about a serpent, and were instructed to cry out Eva^ whereby the devil seemed to exult over the fall of our first mother. Even now, says Stackhouse, in idolatrous nations, there are evidences of this triumph of the devil under the form of a serpent. Melanchthon, the reformer, tells of some priests in Asia who " carry about a serpent in a brazen vessel ; and as they attend it with a great deal of music, and the charms of verse, the serpent lifts up its head, opens its mouth, and thrusts out the head of a beautiful virgin ; the devil, in this manner, glorying over the miscarriage of our first mother." Similar accounts are given by travellers in the "West Indies. Mr. Faber's account of the origin and import of the worship of the serpent is confirmed by many other mytho- logical writers, both ancient and modern. Its history, he says, is curious and perplexing. It is a symbol of evil, and of good also. The words cherubim and seraphim are of similar mean- ing, but seraphim is the name of the fiery fiying serpent of the wilderness. Yarious legends show that the worship of the serpent was in part derived from the form in Avhich Satan de- ceived our first parents. THE SERPENT. 133 Plutarch says the great serpent Python signifies destruc- tion. Porphyry, and otliers among the Greeks, speak of " evil demons " whose wish is to be gods, and the power which presides over them aspires to be the greatest of gods ; but the Most High, witli a mighty arm, restrains their machinations. In the Gothic theology, the god Thor, whom they es- teem as their middle divinity, or mediator between God and man, is said to have " bruised the head of the great ser- pent with his mace, but so severe was to be the contest, that he himself would be suffocated with the flood of venom from the mouth of the serpent." What can this mean but the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head, and the serpent biting his heel ? In India, also, two sculptured figures are yet extant, in one of their oldest pagodas, one of which represents Chrishua, an incarnation of Yishnu, trampling on the crushed head of the serpent, while the other exliibits the poisonous reptile encircling the deity in its folds, and biting his heel. But the serpent was also used as a symbol of good. " The word seraph, in Hebrew," says Mr. Faber, " signi- fies a flying serpent, — an animal of great beauty, and shining like burnished gold, and exhibiting the semblance of a face, as the raj'S of the sun strike upon it, when it wings its way through the liquid air." He thinks that this and the cherubim may have been confounded, and thus it may have become the symbol of good also. One of the Jewish rabbis observes that this is the mistake of our holy language, that a serpent is called seraph as an angel is called seraph', and it has been imagined by some that Satan tempted Eve under the form of one of those splendid winged serpents which are denominated seraphim. Hence it is that the serpent, or the image of it, is used in the pagan worship, sometimes 184 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. representing the evil principle, sometimes the principle of good. Perhaps the sacred writer may have alluded to this when speaking of him as " appearing in the garb of an angel of light." It has been asserted by soine of the enemies of Chris- tianity, that the doctrine of angelic beings, both good and evil, was borrowed from the Medo-Persians, who were in possession of Babylon during the seventy years of the Jewish captivity, and that it is a part of the Medo-Persian system of Zoroaster. This system supposed the existence of an evil principle from all eternity, coexisting with a good one. Man, as originally formed by Ormazd the good one, was endowed with noble qualities, and bidden to approve himself the lord of this lower world by culti- vating purity in thought, in word, and in action, and by making a constant warfare with his enemies, the Devas. At first, the parents of mankind were humble, and de- voted to the service of Ormazd — were innocent and happy. They were destined, also, to more perfect happiness ; but Ahriman, the sleepless enemy of man and purity, de- scending earthwards in the form of a serpent, plotted their corruption, and ere long, by means of fruit derived from his own province of creation, he seduced them from their true allegiance. The obvious resemblance between this and the Mosaic account would incline us to believe that the Persians borrowed from the Jews, and not the Jews from the Persians, if one did borrow from the other. But there is good reason to believe that both received it, by tradition, from an early common source ; in the one the tradition being preserved in its purity by the special providence of God, through Moses and the chosen people, in the other being intermingled with fable. Babylon was to the Jews a furnace, in which they were purified ; and, THE SEKPENT. 185 they came out of it, not corrupted, but purified, and never again returned to idolatry. There is an essential differ- ence between the two systems, — that of the Bible and the Medo-Persian. In the one there is a necessary eter- nally-existing principle of evil, coeval with the good one, and marring the happiness of God's creatures ; in the other — the Jewish system — the devil, the tempter, is a creature, a fallen being like man, whose fall — the origin of whose sin — is involved in the same mystery with that of man. He becomes fiendlike, after the same manner with some men, and seeks to communicate of his sin and misery to others. Satan is, indeed, a liar and a murderer from the beginning, but not from eternity, from unavoid- able necessity. Our Lord says, " He abode not in the truth," which shows that he was once in the truth, and neither a liar nor murderer at that time. — John viii. 4:4:. The existence and power of the evil one are made more and more apparent as the human race advances, and the scriptures reveal spiritual and invisible things to us. "The Son of God was manifested that he might de- stroy the works of the devil." — 1 John iii. 8. They were the works of that " old serpent, w^hich is the devil and Satan." — Rev. xx. 2. It has been well said, that " till the mightier power of good was revealed, we were, in mercy, not suff'ered to know how mighty was the power of evil." "Wherefore, at the time of our Lord's appearance on earth, the works of the devil were more open and daring than ever before. In relation to the form of his first appearance, Mr. Hardwic, after a most elaborate search into all ancient history and tradition, says, " There is found to be a most singular concert in east and west, north and south, in civ- ilized and semi-barbarous countries, in the old world and the new, not only to the fact that serpents were somehow associated with the ruin of the human family, but that 136 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. serpents so employed were vehicles of a malignant per- sonal spirit, by whatever name he w^as described." While on this subject, it may be well to consider the use of the words devil and devils in the New Testament. Mr. Faber, agreeing with many other learned men, says, " It is a remarkable thing, though not perhaps very gen- erally observed, that throughout the whole New Testa- ment the word devil, as applied to a fallen spirit, never occurs in the plural number. Our English translation, indeed, repeatedly speaks plurally of devils, but such is not the case in the Greek original." The word diabolos, he says, as applied to a fallen spirit, is never used plurally in the New Testament. The word rendered devils in the original is not diaboli, but demonia, or demones ; so that, as the singular, diabolos, is rendered devil, so demon and demonia ought to have been rendered demon, or demons. A distinction is made between a demon and a devil. A demon is the disembodied spirit of a human being, whether it be good or bad, gracious or malignant. The heathen worshipped the souls of deceased heroes. These were their gods — ^no gods, scripture called them ; these inspired their oracles ; these were the good or evil geniuses which were supposed to attend upon some men upon earth ; these were the devils against sacrificing to which we are warned in the New Testament. But because the devil is never spoken of but in the singular number, are we to infer from it that there is but one devil ? Far from it. We read of the devil and his angels, for wliom hell was prepared, and unto whom the wicked of earth shall be joined in the last day. We read of the devil as prince of the power of the air ; prince of this world ; god of this world. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians, exhorts us to " put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, THE SERPENT. 137 but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wick- ednesses in high places" — or, as some render it, " in the higher region of the heavens." The devil, therefore, is to be regarded as the master-spirit, who leads his evil angels in all wickedness and rebellion. Of course it will be seen, from the foregoing, that there are those who agree with some of the fathers — among them Justin and Ath- enagoras — that some of the demoniacal possessions of scripture are to be ascribed to the unclean and wicked spirits who were once in human bodies, and were per- mitted to torment those who were yet in the flesh. We do not enter into the discussion, but merely state the fact that such an opinion has existed, and still exists. "We conclude our remarks with some passages from tlie most complete and useful sketch of Satan and his works that we have met with. The present bishop of Maine, in a late charge to the clergy of Maine on the personality, kingdom, and power of Satan, thus speaks : " Scriptural as is the belief (in Satan), it did not originate with even the earliest of the sacred writings ; it was in the world, like the belief in God and the existence of good angels, before Moses or Abraham — before paradise was lost. It is presupposed in the Bible, which does not describe the author of human sin, nor formally assert his origin or his being, but tells his deeds and warns against his devices." On the subject of the supremacy of Satan, he says : " To believe the guilt of evil men and evil demons, and yet hold the primacy of Satan incredible merely for the in- tensity of his wickedness, would be as though we should see armies ravaging, plundering, slaying — feel all the hor- rors of their atrocious warfare — and yet be astonished when, at their head, the invading despot or iron com- mander should appear." " The universal tendency of weaker natures is to rally round the stronger." " If a 138 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. leader, in after times, possessing the practical intellect of Napoleon, should raise his standard, though his guilt were tenfold beyond the guilt of that great slayer of mankind, who can doubt that he would be surrounded by myriads of men, ready to pour out their lives on the battle-field at his feet?" After repeating the exhortation of the apos- tle to gird ourselves to battle against spiritualities and powers, etc., he adds : " The nature or degree of the exaltation of him whom the scriptures not dimly delineate as ' O'er the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent,' they have not defined ; but whether it be more or less, what motive can remain, what degree of probability can be asserted, after such a display of many adversaries, for rejecting the far more frequent and more distinct allu- sions to that one ? " To the wdiole charge I refer my readers, and especially my brethren of the clergy, as one of the most profitable treatises on a subject not now so frequently and emphatically dwelt upon as by the sacred writers, the early fathers, and the faith- ful reformers. At an early period of my life, after heart- ily embracing the Christian faith, I met with an ingenious argument intended to show that all the demoniacal pos- sessions mentioned in the Bible were only bodily infirmi- ties, or mere impositions. For a time I was led astray by the argument ; but as often as I took up ray Bible — especially the New Testament — and read the plain narra- tive therein concerning these unhappy possessions, and the miracles by which they were cast out, I found the theory untenable. I have been only strengthened in my conviction of the realities of those scriptural cases by finding how universal is the consent of mankind to the evil influence of wicked beings of another order, although 60 small a part ascribed to them be true. CHAPTER YIII ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. The place selected by the Creator himself, and adorned and enriched by his own hand, for the residence of our first parents, must have been a remarkable and deeply interesting spot. Beautiful and delightful as many others were, and still are, as to soil, productions, and scenery, this must have been surpassingly so. It was doubtless filled with all the means of present happiness to innocent and holy beings, and well calculated to satisfy them, especially when the presence and society of God himself were superadded. It is not surprising that the curiosity of men in after ages, even to the present time, should be exercised in ascertaining its exact location, even though its character and appearance may have been somewhat afiected by the deluge, and yet more by the lapse of succeeding ages and the agricultural operations of man. God has, per- haps wisely, concealed the exact position from us, even as he hid the body of Moses lest it should be worshipped by men, so prone as they are to idolatry. There are many circumstances, however, which enable us to form a sufiiciently accurate idea of the location for all purposes of gratifying an allowable curiosity ; thus fur- nishing, also, some proofs of the scripture history addi- tional to those previously possessed. That our first parents, after being driven from paradise and ever after excluded from it, continued to hover around the sacred spot, and 140 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. that many of tlieir descendants occupied that region, is so probable a circumstance that few would be found to dispute it* That it was near this place that righteous Noah dwelt, and built the sacred ark ; that mount Ararat, on which the vessel rested, was near to it ; that Noah and his sons, descending from the ark, here offered sacrifices, and here pitched their tents or reared their first dwellings, is ren- dered most probable by many facts and traditions, some of which will be mentioned. Considering the long lives of our forefathers, before and after the flood, it is most worthy of our belief that the localities of the garden of Eden and of Mount Ararat should have been well known to JSToah, unto whom one of the grandsons of Adam might have shown them ; and to Abraham, to whom one of the sons of ISToah may have pointed them. out. There can not be any mistake as to the part of the world where the first of the antediluvian and postdiluvian nations dwelt. No one thinks of placing them in Europe, or Africa, or the more eastern parts of Asia, where the millions of Hindoos and Chinese have long swarmed. From that disposition of cities and nations which leads them to put in a claim for the birthplace and residence of great men, and the occurrence of remarkable events, some may be found who claim the garden of Eden and Mount Ararat as belonging to their ancestors, whose pretensions, however, are entirely disregarded, as unworthy of con- sideration. By general consent, not merely of those who admit the Mosaic account, but of many other most relia- * Mr. Shuckford, in his " Connection between Sacred and Profane History," says, in vol. ii., p. 135, note : "It may seem to us a great retrospect to look back from Abraham to Adam's habitation ;" but adds, " Abraham might con- verse for many years with Shem, Shem with Lamech, and Lamech with Adam ;" and he therefore says, " It would not be more wonderful than for one of us to know the habitation of his father's grandfather." ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 141 ble authorities, the garden of Eden must have been near the sources of the two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris or Hiddekel mentioned by Moses, and which are still well known as taking their rise in the mountains ol Armenia. Moses does indeed mention two other rivers in connec- tion with the garden of Eden — Pison and Gihon — of which nothing is now known, there being no signs of them. They must have dried up, or sunk in the sand or morasses of the East, as other rivers have been ; or they must have been swallowed up by the remaining two, at the place whence Moses says they became parted into four streams, after passing through the garden of Eden. Moses would never have asserted their existence, and jeopardized his reputation as an historian, if there were none such in the land. Some persons are at a loss to understand what he means by saying of one of them, viz., Gihon, that " it compasseth tlie whole land of Ethi- opia." Their surprise will be removed by the state- ment that there were two Ethiopias mentioned in scrip- ture and other histories — one in Africa, and one in Asia. That in Asia was comparatively a small tract, and was doubtless bounded by the river Gihon while it continued to flow. As almost all the rivers in the world take their rise in some elevated, mountainous re- gion, and thence descend into the more level country to pass into the seas, so it has ever been believed that the garden of Eden was in some such high region, on some rich and commanding slope or flat, with mountains near, and the river flowing through it. Moses records, that a river went out of Eden, to water the garden ; that is, a river went out from the country of Eden, which was above and around the gar- den, and passed through it, watering it. It is proba- ble that it was small in its rise and early progress, but, 142 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. after passing through the garden, it parted into four heads, or streams, and became the four streams men- tioned in Genesis. Mr. Faber and some others think that it became a lake at the foot of a high region, from which it descended, and from this lake, or reservoir, issued into four separate rivers, which, in their passage to the gulf, became the great rivers Euphrates and Hiddekel, as well as those lesser ones which have disappeared. Mr. Faber, speaking of the opinion of some commentators who would locate paradise in the dead flat country below Babylon, says, that " Such a position might indeed rival the beauties of Holland and Batavia, but they would be physically in- capable of ravishing any eyes but those of a Dutch bur- gomaster." On the other hand, he says, " No tract of country could possibly produce more exquisitely beautiful and romantic scenery than one (like that he advocates) which contained a stream running through a finely- wooded vale into a glassy lake, and afterwards discharg- ing itself by four rivulets, murmuring through the same number of rocky glens." Who would not choose for his residence " Some fair eminence, where ether pure Surrounds him, and elysian prospects rise " ? More modern travellers represent this region still as being eminently the most interesting and fertile in the East. Milton calls paradise " The champaign head of a steep wilderness," — speaks of it as " A happy rural seat of various view." " While murmuring waters fall Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake." The only formidable competitor with Armenia for the ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 143 location of paradise and Ararat, is Moimt Meru, in the north of India, one of the highest hills of the Indian Cau- casus, where the celebrated Ganges takes its rise. There are some remarkable traditions in connexion with this place, touching the residence of the human race and the resting of the ark, which serve to confirm the Mosaic account of the garden of Eden, and of certain rivers flowing from it ; and also the appulse of the ark, although they will not change the general opinion as to the loca- tion of paradise and Ararat. Moses does not tell us where Ararat was, but writes as to those who were already well acquainted with its geography. Some Hindoo legends favor the idea that it was one of the Caucasian mountains, and all the descriptions of it agree with the Mosaic account of Eden. The summit of this mountain is a circular plain of large extent, surrounded by hills. They call it a celestial earth — the former residence of the gods. They say some strange things about four rivers issuing from it, and about a tree which produced wonderful effects upon knowledge and happiness. The Ganges is one of these rivers. Their sacred books declare that the first Menu, whom they called Adhna, as they did his wife Iva, lived in that region. The first Menu, or Adima, was the son of the Self-existent, and lived before the second Menu, in whose time the flood occurred. The Mussulmans of that region have the same legends about the first parents. They say, with the Buddhists, that our first parents continued to dwell long around and upon the holy mountain, but that the wicked descendants of a fratricidal brother were only allowed to dwell at the foot of it, while those of the other brother occupied a higher position. All, however, agree in this, — the ark rested near where the first parents lived. The Buddhists of Thibet have a tradition of a tree of knowledge in their terrestrial paradise, bearing the fruit 144: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of immortality, which they call amrita, and the Greeks ambrosia. It is said to adjoiu fom- vast rocks, from which flow four rivers. One thing is certain, that thronghont the whole world the most sacred places for worship have been high hills, mountains, and groves ; and that the heathen always rep- resented their gods as dwelling on some lofty summit, — which favors the opinion that the garden of Eden, as well as Mount Ararat, was in an elevated country ; that they were either the same or very near each other — the moun- tain perhaps overlooking the chosen spot where our first parents resided, and near which Adam and Noah after- wards lived. In the Gothic theology which was brought from the East, we have also an account of a celebrated tree which was the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, with an in- fernal serpent ever gnawing at its root. The celebrated garden of the Hesperides (of which the poets sing) with its golden apples, guarded by a serpent, is not without reason thought to have had its origin from the garden of Eden, however much diversified. The tradition concerning Mount Parnassus has doubt- less the same source. It was once tenanted by a mighty serpent which had the power of speech, and used to de- liver oracular responses, before the establishment of the Delphic Oracle. The chief deity who resided there was the god of knowledge, who slew the serpent. As to the worship of gods on mountains, Bishop Potter, in his "Antiquities of Greece," says that the Greeks and most other nations wor- shipped their gods on the tops of high mountains. Strabo says the same of the Persians. Zenophon records that Cyrus sacrificed to Jupiter and the Sun, and the rest of the gods, upon the summits of mountains. Balak car- ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 145 ries Baalain to tlie top of first one mountain, and then another, in order to get him to curse Israel. Abraham, at the command of God, carries his son to Mount Moriah, one of the mountains about Jerusalem, perhaps Mount Zion itself. Ilomer speaks of the worship of Jupiter and other gods, on high places. As to Apollo he sajs, " Thine all the caverns and the topmost cliffs Of lofty mountains." Tacitus speaks of mountains so high that there are no places where the gods could so easily hear prayer, and that the priests chose such places for that reason. Although these high places were at first selected out of honor to the elevated ground on which the garden of Eden stood and on which Noah's ark rested, yet we know what a snare it became to the people of God ; what abominations the high places of Israel became, being perverted to the worship of all the gods of the heathen — the principal of these being, as many think, none other than Adam, JSToah, and their sons. And when no such high places were to be found, still there was in the structure of their temples and pyramids an imitation of the same ; and in sandy deserts groves would be estab- lished seeming to vie with paradise itself. From the above and much more that might be said, it is evident that the fact of an earthly paradise, the habita- tion of our first parents, is one to which traditions and the religious observances of all ancient and many modern nations point with unerring hand. As to the locality of Mount Ararat, which is so gene- rally identified with the garden of Eden, I w^ill only add that Berosus, Polyhistor, and other old pagan writers say that the second father of mankind (ISToah) was saved in an ark or ship, which rested on one of the mountains 10 146 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of Armenia. Josephns, tlie celebrated Jewish historian, says the same. Such also was the opinion of Jerome, Epiphanius, and other early fathers of the Christian chnrch. That the place where our first parents were made by the hands of God, where they lived for some time the period not known, and where they worshipped God, should be copied in after ages ; that the temples of religion should be surrounded by groves like those which we may well suppose environed and shaded the garden of Eden, is so probable a circumstance, that none will hesi- tate to accept as a fact what is said of the sacred groves of the heathen upon their high places, and wherever their temples or oracles were found. The Elysian fields of the ancients were copies of the sacred groves, and both were drawn no doubt from the garden or paradise of our first parents. And even when these temples were in flat countries, barren and sultry, they would, either by the hand of art cover them with verdure and trees, or else select some oasis or green sjiot in the desert. Thus Quintus Curtius gives us the following account of a grove of Amon or Osiris in Africa : " The consecrated habitation of the deity was, incredible as it may seem, situated in the midst of a vast desert, and it was shaded from the sun by so luxuriant a vegetation that the solar beams could scarce- ly penetrate through the thickness of the foliage. The groves were watered by meandering streams which * flowed from numerous fountains, and a wonderful temper- ature of climate, resembling most of all the delightful season of spring, prevailed through the whole year, with an equal degree of salubrity." To some it may seem strange that any should seek to identify the garden of Eden, or paradise, with Mount Ararat, since all our ideas of the latter are associated with high and rocky peaks ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 147 and uninliabited places. But even allowing that they were only very neighboring places, the one overlooking the other, the garden of Eden may have been in a most elevated position, and yet a most fertile and beantiful one. It is probable that some of the most interesting and fertile spots on earth may be found in the midst of high moun- tains, and on their very summits. On the summit of the great Alleghany mountains, in the south-western part of Virginia, there is a large plateau, consisting of eight or ten thousand acres, of the richest land in the state, scarcely undulating. From it several rivers rise, taking various directions towards the Atlantic or Mississippi. Doubtless such may be found in the midst of various other mountains of the earth. Such may paradise have been, near the source of that river which, after passing through it, was divided into four other rivers. Near this delightful spot may the penitent and believing first parents of our race, with the pious descend- ants of Seth, have lived, though not permitted to enter it ; while Cain and his ungodly posterity went far away to the East, only to return with their fair but ungodly daughters to corrupt the sons of God, and by their inter- marriage to give birth to a race of giants in size, and fill the earth with violence. It is not wonderful that Adam, and the pious among his descendants, should linger to the last near the sacred spot. Tlie pious Montgomery, in his interesting poem " The "World before the Flood," makes him here to live, and here to die. The righteous Enoch is made to say — " One morn I tracked him on his lonely way, Pale as the gleam of slow awakening day ; With feeble step he climb'd yon craggy height, Then fixed on distant Paradise his sight. He gazed awhile, in silent thought profound ; Then, falling prostrate on the dewy ground, 148 THE BIBLE AI^D THE CLASSICS. He poured his spirit in a flood of prayer, — Bewailed his ancient crime in self-despair, And claimed the pledge of reconciling grace, The promised Seed, the Saviour of his race." Eiiocli is made to saj — " I stood to greet him : when he raised his head Divine expression o'er his visage spread. ' Once more I climb'd these rocks with weary pace, And but once more to view my native place, To bid yon garden of delight farewell, The earthly Paradise from which I fell.' " In the sight of paradise he is made to expire. His funeral sermon was only one line — " His youth was penitence, his age was peace." Bnt the most important consideration in connection with the locality supposed to be the abode of our first parents before the flood, and of the second parents of the human race after it, is yet to be mentioned. If we may reasonably believe that God, having pro- nounced man " very good," and having appointed him to have dominion over all other things here below, would select for him a delightful abode, and fill the garden of Eden with delights, — much more may we expect that, with a view not only to his own future happiness during the many hundred years of his earthly existence, but to the welfare of his posterity, he would have chosen that region of the earth most favorable to the continuance of the most perfect type of humanity as to bodily and mental beauty and vigor. That all parts of the earth are equally favorable to corporeal beauty and health, or to the more important qualities of the mind and character, none will pretend. All history would oppose the thought or assertion. And if it be asked in what latitude, in what ON THE GARDEN" OF EDEN. 149 zone of tlie eartli, in wliat lieniispliere lias man been ever fomid in tlie liigliest perfection as to body and mind, making allowances for some few exceptions easily to be acconnted for, — who wonld hesitate to say, in that very hemisphere, in that very zone, in that A'ery latitude where man was made, and where paradise was placed ? We might have supposed that the opposite temperate zone in the Southern hemisphere would be equally favor- able to the development and exercise and perfection of the powers and faculties of man ; but all history shows that it is not so. In the temperate zone of the ISTorthern hem- isphere, and along the line of mountains reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, — the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Tau- rian, the Circassian, and the Himalayan, — you must look for man and woman in their highest perfection. All the great kingdoms of the world, — the Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman,^ — have been in that range, and within the bounds of that zone of the North- ern hemisphere. Tliere have all the arts and sciences most flourished, and there, especially, has religion exer- cised most power. Whoever would see a lively exhibition of this fact need only furnish himself .with a plate containing the pictures of fifteen or twenty types of the human race in diiferent parts of the world. He will shrink back in disgust from all but those which belong to the region which has been mentioned. Only let us suppose that the tropical region, or the Arctic circle had been the birthplace of man ; that he had been made according to the types there prevailing, or had been subject to the various influences which have made those degenerate from the fair Circassian, or Arme- nian, or Persian, or the noble Grecian or Roman charac- ters, both as to body and mind. As we either ascend to the north or descend to the south of this broad belt, man gradually becomes more ferocious, barbarous, and ignorant, 150 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. or more feeble and indifferent in mind and body. Let all history, past and present, be examined, in order to test the truth of this statement, making due allowance for certain exceptions, the result of peculiar causes, which, however, do not affect the main position. Whoever desires to see this subject ably discussed, will do well to examine the interesting work of Professor Guiot, entitled " Earth and Man," in which he establishes this position by a reference to universal history. What has been said of Europe and Asia, is true also of America. The inhabitants of the tem- perate zone are, for the most part, not only derived from those nations of Europe which came from the finest types of humanity, but they still continue those types under the influence of the same causes which operated in their ancestors of the old world. And now, should any ask. Are the ways of God equal towards his rational creatures, in placing some of them in such favorable, and others in comparatively unfavorable circumstances, for continuing the perfection of the type first given to man? we should reply, that though God must not be questioned by man as to his gifts and favors, yet we should remember that in one respect, and that the greatest of all, we are on an equality. God made of one blood all the nations of the earth. His blessed Son tasted death for all. All are capable of everlasting glory in heaven. The religion of Christ is the great instrument of elevation to the whole human family. Let Christians do the noble work God has assigned them, and send the gos- pel to all the nations of the earth, and then shall the king- doms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ ; and if this earth is to be renewed, as some think, to be the future habitation of the saints, we may expect that it will be made a meet habitation for them throughout its whole extent ; and if not this, another and more perfect one will be made ready for their use. CHAPTEK IX. ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL AJSfD KESUERECTION OF THE BODY. Man, hj transgression, forfeited the favor of God, and incurred the sentence of death, though it was not imme- diately executed. Our first parents were put on a new probation, with the promise of a divine Restorer who should bruise the head of the great enemy. It becomes us now to inquire as to the extent and duration of his be- ing under this Deliverer. That he was not to regain the earthly paradise which he had lost ; that his life was not to be perpetuated, even on the outside of the garden of Eden, are clear from the whole history of man. Wone of the human race has ever escaped the penalty, so far as we know, except Enoch and Elijah, whom God received into heaven without requiring them to taste of death and go through the painful struggles of dissolution. What evidences have we then of a future state, or that the body ever revives, or that the soul does not enter on some condition of ignorance and forgetfulness of the past, if not of annihilation ; or that it is not, according to a favorite idea of many ancients, reabsorbed into the great Deity, — which some say is meant by " returning to the God who gave it ?" Bishop AVarburton, in his work on "The Divine Legation of Moses," asserts that the fact of a future state of rewards 152 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and punishments belongs so necessarily to sncli a being as man, that it must be generally received without any special revelation, except in the first instance, to the pa- rents of the human race ; and that it was purposely left out of the Mosaic system and writings, in order that the universal sentiment of mankind should establish it. He shows, in his learned work, how all legislators and phi- losophers, in every age and land, had made it a part of their system, and that the founders of every form of relig- ious worship had done the same. He is, however, generally regarded as a bold, daring, and somewhat unsafe theorist on this subject, though in most other respects a sound di- vine. Although life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel, by reason of the greater clearness with which a future state is revealed by our Lord and his apos- tles, yet it is evident that they speak of it as believed by the saints of the old dispensation. To suppose the Jews ignorant of a future state would be to place them in the scale of religious knowledge lower than other nations. For Bishop Warburton main- tains that all the Gentile nations had such a belief, while he labors to prove that all the passages of the Old Testa- ment which have been supposed to assert this, have no reference to the subject. When it is said that "life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel," may we not suppose that this had reference to the ignorance and doubts of the heathen, even of their philosophers, rather than the people of God ? When do we find any of the Old Testament saints expressing doubts as to their future existence, as Socrates and others of the philosophers did ? We must suppose that the Jews had a more certain belief in a future state than any other nation, although they may have seen all things pertaining to it " as through a glass darkly." Our Lord speaks of God " being the God of Abraham, IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 153 of Isaac, and of Jacob," in sncli a manner that none can doubt but that he recognized the doctrine of a future state as held by them and tlie Jews of old. St. Paul, in speaking of the believing fathers in olden times, expressly says that " they were only strangers and pilgrims on earth;" that "they desire a better country, that is an heavenly;" that "God had prepared for them a city;" and that " they expected a better resurrection." To suppose that the ancient Jews did not look for a future state, would be to question St. Paul's inspiration. In the book of Job, who, though not one of the He- brew race, but an Arabian, lived and wrote somewhere about the time of Moses, when there were still some pious persons in the Eastern world not of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we have a strong declaration as to the resurrection of the body, as well as to the im- mortality of the soul ; " I know (he says) that my Re- deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms de- stroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." — Job xix, 25. That such was the belief of the Jewish rabbis, none ac- quainted with their writings can question. There was, about the time of our Saviour's appearalfce, a sect of un- believers,— the Sadducees, — who rejected both the doctrine of the resurrection and the immortality of the soul ; but they were the exceptions to the general rule, just as infi- dels now are exceptions to the well-known fact that the great body of persons among us are believers in Christ. The dissolute lives of the Sadducees, it is well known, cast great discredit on their system. When, therefore, we find it written by Moses that " Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God took him," and that in the New Testament he is spoken of as 154: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. having been translated to heaven without the usual pro- cess of dissolution, on account of his eminent piety, we must regard this case as an early testimony in the infancy of the world, not only to the immortality of the soul, but to the resurrection of the body, as was that of Elijah ages after, and as will be the case at the end of the world with those who shall be found dwelling in the flesL, but who shall, together with the dead, rise from their graves, and be translated to heaven, if they have walked with God — such changes being effected in their bodies as shall be necessary. And surely if God can make new bodies of the remains of the old ones, or out of whatever he pleases, he can readily modify and perfect such as have never tasted death, or been laid in the grave. Our blessed Redeemer, who in his own person exemplified the resurrection of the body and the translation in the body, by rising from the grave and then in the presence of his disciples ascending up in the body, has promised to do both these for the quick and the dead on the last day. Let us now see what it is that ancient tradition, coming through other channels than our scrij^tures, can furnish in corroboration of this doctrine. In the history of the Atlan- tians, — a nation living near Mount Atlas, in Africa, — Ura- nus is said to have had many sons, only three of whom are mentioned ; as is the fact in the Mosaic history, which only mentions three of the sons of Adam, — Cain, Abel and Seth. Atlas, Chronus, and Hyperion are the three men- tioned in the Atlantian legend. One of these, Hyperion, is murdered by his brothers. Atlas and Chronus, who di- vided the empire between them. The former was a learned astronomer, and gave the name to Mount Atlas. He had a son called Hesperus, who pursued his father's studies, and was also eminent for his piety. Having one day ascended the mountain to make observations, he was sud- IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 155 denly carried away by a wliirlwiiid, and never was heard of afterwards. The people, venerating his piety, enrolled him among the immortals, and worshipped the new deity in the beautiful star of the evening. A similar legend is found in the antediluvian history of the Hindoos. A son of Adima and Siva kills his brother at a sacrifice. After the death of this holy personage, the earth is peopled by the descendants of the surviving brothers. One of these had a son named Dhruva, who gave himself up to the contemplation of the Supreme Being, and to the performance of religious austerities. His extraordinary piety gained him the favor of the Deity ; and, after deliver- ing many salutary precepts to mankind, he is translated to heaven without tasting death, where he still shines con- spicuous in the polar star. Among the idols worshipped by the Calmucks of Asia, there is one they call Zacca, the same with Buddha. They say that four thousand years ago he was only a sov- ereign prince, but on account of his unparalleled sanc- tity God took him to heaven alive. In the progress of these mythologies, however, the righteous Enoch melts into the character of righteous Noah, and the three sons of the first parents into the three sons of ISToah. Other traditions to the same effect may be collected from other mythologies, but the foregoing brief statement will suffice for this interesting account of Enoch's transla- tion. We also find the doctrine of the resurrection substan- tiated in the wild poetical mythology of the Greeks, after they had turned all the old traditions of other nations into the licentious fictions of their own. Wherefore we read of Bacchus assuring Cadmus that by the help of Mars he should live forever in " The Isles of the Blessed." Jupiter is also said to have made Aganympha immortal. After 156 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tlie death of her husband Hercules, Alkmena is translated by Mercury into the pagan Elysium, and married to Ead- amanthus. There are other fables of the same kind tend- ing to show that there was an impression not only that men might, as to their souls, survive the death of the body, but live forever in the body. But if there were no other proof of such general belief in a future state, that most popular belief both among philosopers and priests, and the multitude also, of the transmigration of souls after death into new bodies, would establish it. Bishop Warburton, who wrote before the middle of the last century, says that even at that time " The doctrine of the MetemjDsychosis, or transmigration of souls, flourished with greater vigor in India than in any place or age in the world." It was probably the most universal belief that prevailed in the ancient world. Of course it sup- poses the existence of the soul after the death of the body. It supposes, also, a state of rewards and pun- ishments,— the good being rewarded by being trans- ferred into the bodies of good and honorable men, who should enjoy the favor of God in this world, in other bodies and conditions. The punishment of evil men was that of their being transferred into the bodies of evil and suffering men, and even of the lower and more ignoble animals. This was preferred, for the most part, to another popular opinion, that the soul was reabsorbed into the great deity or soul of the world, from whence it emanated. There is an allusion to this opinion in the question put to our Lord, as to the case of one born blind, whose eyes he opened. Who did sin, this man or his parents, (was the question,) that he was born blind ? That is, did he sin in a previous body or state, and is he now being punished by being transferred into a sightless body ; or have his pa- rents been guilty of some crime, and has the judgment fallen upon their child ? IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 157 Bisliop Warburtoii speaks of a philsoplier, Apoloiiius by name, wlio declares that as to the opinion that good men should be rewarded after death, he could not reach either the author or original of it. Plutarch affirms the same with great positiveness. Cicero, who wrote so fully and ably in his day against those who doubted or denied the doctrine, says, "We conclude, from the consent of all mankind, that the soul is immortal." Seneca says, " The consent of all mankind, in their hopes and fears of a future state, is of no small moment to us." Ancient Greek his- torians tell us that the Egyptians, whose religion was of the earliest date, taught that the soul was immortal. The fact that they and other nations worshipped the gods in the human form, in the statues erected to them, proves that, though now supposed to be living and immortal, they were once mortal men. Plato argues in favor of the immortality of the soul from ancient tradition and the religion of his country, although his own view was rather a philosophical one, as will hereafter be seen. Bishop "Warburton says that the great lawgivers and founders of empires, who were afterwards deified themselves, and who taught the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, pro- fessed to have received their revelations from some god who had himself been a mortal, but was now immortal. Strabo says that "The Indian Brahmins invented fables about the immortality of the soul, after the manner of Plato." Plato, in his " Timmeus," speaks of those endless punish- ments which the terrors of religion pronounce against the wicked from above and below, as calculated to cleanse the mind from vice. Zeleucus, an ancient writer and lawgiver, says, "Men should set before themselves the dreadful hour of death, when the memory of evil actions past will seize the sinner w^ith remorse." Cicero also speaks of those whose merits have raised them to heaven, as Hercules, Bacchus, &c,, and advocates the erection of cha23els in 168 ■ THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, honor of tliose qualities wliicli liave raised men to this distinction. THE TESTIMONY OF THE MYSTERIES. The account Avhich we have of the ancient mysteries, represents them, in their first and purest state, as designed to inculcate a holy and virtuous life in order to a happy immortality : "While at death and leaving the body, the souls of the profane stick fast in the mire, those of the initiated, who were worthy, winged their flight to the habitation of the gods." " It was the end and drift of in- itiation," says Plato, " to restore the soul to that state from whence it fell as from its native state of perfection." We shall have more to say on this subject in our chapter on the ancient mysteries. That there were those in ancient as well as in modern times who denied future and eternal punishment, is most true. They argued against it from their idea of the God- head, affirming that the Deity was incaj^able of anger, and could not thus punish. Much was written on this subject by the ancient fathers of the church, in their contests with some of the philosophers. Julius Csesar, before the time of Christ, held that opinion, and publicly maintained it before the Eoman senate when defending Catiline, who was on trial for his life. He, being an Epicurean and an atheist, declared that death was no evil, as they who inflicted it imagined and intended it to be, Cato and Cicero, who advocated the death of Catiline, did not enter on any philosophical argument with Csesar, but simply affirmed that the doctrine of rewards and j)unishments had come down to them from their ancestors ; and that if it were not so, death would not be feared, and of course evil men would not be restrained from vice by the infliction of death." Caesar, however, in his Commentaries, furnishes IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 159 US with a fact in confirmation of the doctrine. He declares tliat tlie Druids of Gaul lield the imperishable nature of the soul. TESTIMONY OF HOMER. Long before the times of Plato, Cicero, and Caesar, the poets had held no dubious language on the subject. Ho- mer, first of poets, and whose Iliad is the oldest of pagan writings extant, (except in fragments,) makes his hero, Achilles, saj, "'Tis true, 'tis certain, man though dead retains Part of himself, — the immortal mind remains ; The form subsists without the body's aid ; Aerial semblance, and an empty shade." TESTIMONY OF MODERN POETS. The words which Addison has put into the mouth of Cato, when about to make trial of it, are worthy of inser- tion here, and will be read with interest by the young. On the night before he put an end to himself, he is made to read the argument of Plato, and thus does he speak : " It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well ; Else, whence this fond desire. This longing after immortality ? This [his sword] in a moment brings me to an end ; But this [Plato's book] informs me I shall never die. The soul, secure of her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger and defies its point. The stars may fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth. Unhurt amid the roar of elements. The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds." 160 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Shakspeare may also furnish us with some useful thoughts on the subject : " For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely ; The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of oflSce ; the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin, — But that the dread of something after death — The undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveller returns — puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear the Uls we have, Than tly to others that we know not of." Dr. Young, in his " Night Thoughts," has also clothed in strong language some of these arguments, which Plato, Cicero, and others, ancient and modern, have used in fa- vor of the immortality of the soul : " The man, immortal, rationally bi'ave. Dares rush on death, because he cannot die. 'Tis immortality and that alone. Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness, The soul can raise, can elevate and fill. Religion, Providence, an after state : Here is firm footing, here is solid rock ; This can support us — all is sea beside. 'Tis immortality alone can solve That darkest of enigmas, human hope ; Of all the darkest, if at death we die." " Man but dives, in death, — Dives from the sun, in fairest day to rise ; The grave, his subterranean road to bliss. Eternity struck off from human hope, Man is a monster, the reproach of heaven : If human souls, why not angelic, too, Extinguished, and a solitary God O'er ghastly ruins frowning from his throne." IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 161 " Man, ill at ease, Poor in abundance, famished at a feast, Sighs on for something more — Oh ! for a bliss unbounded." " Man must soar ; An obstinate activity within will toss him up. Souls immortal must always heave At something great." Some remarks on tlie state of souls between death and the resurrection, will conclude this chapter. As the great consummation of happiness to men in a future state does not take place until after its reunion with the body and glorification in the presence of the exalted Saviour, it has ever been an interesting inquiry among Christians as to what its condition and locality will be. Only so far as God may have thought proper to reveal it, may we feel justified in pursuing the inquiry. We read of paradise, and Abraham's bosom, as places of rest and peace, in which the souls of the faithful are admitted immediately after the separation from the body. As to their locality, and whether there be anything which can properly be called form around de- parted spirits, nothing is said so as to make it an article of our creed. It was an old dispute among the philoso- phers, the Jewish doctors, and the early fathers, whether anything but God himself could be regarded as pure spirit, as incorporeal in the strictest sense of the word ; and whether the souls of men could exist, and act, and en- joy themselves without some kind of body, however light and ethereal. We do not mean to enter upon any such investigation, but merely to speak of the opinions held on the subject. As to the locality of the place of departed spirits, until the final consummation, the most wise have foreborne to speculate. It is sufficient that the scriptures have declared that "we shall be with Christ;" that we 11 162 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. shall enjoy his presence. Whoever M^oiild see this sub- ject fully discussed, may refer to the learned Dr. Cud- worth's " Intellectual Philosophy," and to authorities in Bishop Hobart's " Treatise on the State of the Departed." The ancient j)hilosophers and the poets seem generally to have favored the idea of some light ethereal forms for good and evil angels, and for the inhabitants of their Elysium and Tartarus, thinking that such were necessary to their suft'ering and enjoyment. Plato speaks of some luciform bodies which were worn by apparitions or de- parted shades when revisiting the earth, as they do, ac- cording to the opinions of some. These genii or demons, and their lesser gods who were once mortals, were believed to have bodies or forms of a more spiritual or ethereal nature than the gross bodies of men. Thus, Homer, speaking of the blood of Venus shed at the siege of Troy, says, " Unlike our gross, diseased, terrestrial blood." He makes Achilles thus speak of the apparition of Patro- clus : " This night my friend, in battle lost, Stood at my side — a pensive, plaintive ghost. E'en now familiar as in life he came, Alas ! how different, — yet how like the same! " Thus, also, Virgil takes his hero ^neas down into Tar- tarus and Elysium, the two grand divisions of Hades or the place of departed spirits. vEneas sees all the various orders of ghosts, and hears their songs or groans ; wit- nesses their happiness or misery ; converses with his fa- ther Anchises, — but when he would embrace him, the ethereal form eludes his grasp : " Then thrice aronnd his neck his arms he threw, And thrice the flitting shadow slipped away." IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 163 Now shadows, we know, are not absolutely and entirely spiritual things ; there is some kind of substance in them. Tliis general disposition, then, to clothe all created spirits with some kind of form, however subtle, is one step to- wards the doctrine of the resurrection, Yirgil makes some of the ghosts below, in their aerial forms, expectants of more substantial bodies upon earth again. It may not be heresy to think, with some of the fathers, that even in paradise, or Abraham's bosom, the departed spirits may be clothed upon with some spiritual form, which may enable them to enjoy each others' so- ciety the better, and exercise the more readily love to the exalted Redeemer; but this is a subject not written upon in scripture, and we must not be wise upon that wliich is written. APPENDIX. Tlie intermediate state and the resurrection are sub- jects of such deep interest to man as to justify some further remarks. We have said it was the common opinion that God alone, of all beings, was " simple, uncombined sj)irit," — " without body, parts, or passions." The scripture repre- sents him as " dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto." Both of the St. Johns declare that " no man can see God at any time." For man, composed of flesh and blood, to see a simple spirit, unconnected with matter, is an impossibility. " No man," said our Lord, " has seen the Father, save he which is from God : he hath seen the Father." " The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," saith St. John ; that is, hath revealed him to us, as far as he is intelligible. God is revealed to us in the person of Christ. Christ, though " the very God," became " very man " also, by taking man's nature upon him, so that two 164 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. "wliole and perfect natures were joined together in one person, and thus constituted "Emmanuel, God with us." Some consider that when the Holy Ghost came down on the Saviour in the form of a dove, and on the apostles in fiery tongues, there was a kind of union of the Godhead with matter ; but in Christ's incarnation " the Godhead and manhood were joined together in one person, never to be divided." Before this inseparable union of the divine and human natures in the person of Christ, as born of the Virgin Mary, our Lord, on various occasions, appeared in the form of man, as to Abraham with the two angels ; to Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery fur- nace ; to Joshua, as captain of the host of Jehovah ; — and some suppose that in this form he may, long before, have visited other worlds on errands of love and mercy — though this must be all speculation. Certain however it is, that in his incarnate state he has to do with other worlds since the redemption of man. St. Peter says, " Jesus Christ is gone into heaven ; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him." St. Paul tells us that God hath put all things under his feet, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. All the angels are di- rected to worship him. By him the Father reconciles all things to himself, whether in heaven or earth. All things, whether on earth or in heaven, are to be " gath- ered together in him." As human nature seems to be the highest type in creation, and, when repaired and clothed with spiritual bodies, the saints shall be as the angels, or equal to the angels, it is reasonably inferred that the angels have bodies like unto those of men, though purified and exalted so as to commune with the glorified Saviour. On general principles, too, it is believed that all orders of beings, except God himself, have more or less of the material about them. Who can object to this, seeing that our Lord himself condescends to wear a glo- IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 165 rions body, and reign over tliem in the same ! The fallen angels may once have had bodies like those of men, only more spiritual, more like those of the redeemed in heaven, and may have lost them through sin and death. They may, however, retain light aerial forms, as some ancient traditions report, by which they hover over the earth ready to do evil, so far as permitted. They also may be in some in- termediate state, awaiting their final doom with the wick- ed of earth, when they shall both be cast into some place of endless suffering. Where the locality is in which the souls of those who have lived on earth shall remain until the resurrection, I undertake not even to form an opinion. That the souls of the faithful will be with Christ and in a state of happiness, though looking forward to a higher one when clothed upon with new and spiritual bodies, we must believe. "We must also believe that the wicked are in misery, and awaiting greater misery. We read of Tophet, or hell, of paradise, or Abraham's bosom, as the abodes of the wicked and the righteous. The gehenna, or hell of the Jews seems to answer to the Tartarus of the pa- gans, where was great suffering ; while the paradise of the Jews corresponded with the Elysium of the heathen, where delightful scenes abounded. Growing out of the belief that none but God himself is a pure disembodied and invisible spirit ; that the spirits of men, in their disembodied state, have some ethe- real form, — there has been in all ages the belief that such have been able sometimes to manifest themselves to the eyes of men. They were called manes, shades, or ghosts, among the ancients, and are called apparitions, or spirits, among ourselves. K disembodied spirits have some material forms or vehicles, though light, subtle, and ethereal com- pared with the bodies of men now, and even after the res- urrection, none can say that it is impossible but that God may permit them to visit earth, and make themselves, in 166 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. some measure, visible to the liiiman eye. That so gen- eral an impression should have prevailed renders it a most probable truth that some have been real ; but as dreams, though sometimes true, generally prove false, so with apparitions ; for the most part they are only vivid dreams of the night, or of the day, by an excited imagi- nation, which represents as real what are but phantoms. That God has not intended this to be a channel of commu- nication between the two worlds for much effect is evident from the fact that such few instances are on sacred record where it was used by himself. In the book of Job, Eliphaz says an image passed before his eyes, though he could not see the precise form thereof, and a voice spake to him, " Shall mortal man be more just than God?" Samuel may have appeared to Saul at Endor. Moses and Elias, though long before dead, appeared on the mount of transfiguration, together with our Lord, and were seen of three disciples, Peter, James, and John. Angels appear- ed at the sepulchre of our Lord, in the human form. God may have permitted such apjDaritions among men, at other times and in other countries, to strengthen the belief of the continued existence of friends after death. But the answer of Abraham to the rich man who wished one Bent from the dead to warn his brethren who were upon the earth, shows of how little avail such visits would be in comparison with the warning which we all have : " Tliey have Moses and the prophets ; if they hear not them, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead." THE EESUEKECTION OF THE BODY. But a much more important subject than the uncertain condition of disembodied spirits deserves some additional remarks, viz., the resurrection of the body. Tlie proj)het Daniel says, " They that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake — some to everlasting life, and some to shame IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, ETC. 167 and everlasting contempt." "When our Lord said to sor- rowing Martha, "Tliy brother siiall rise again," she answered, most emphatically, " I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Infidels of that day, as well as since, have asked, " JBut how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come ? " The apostle's reply was, " Thou fool," etc. To some modern infidels, raising this same question, one well replied, " It was time enough for them to ask that question when God should commit to them the task of raising the dead." Can any doubt the power of God to raise the dead, who believes that he made Adam out of the dust of the earth ? But it is said, How can all the particles of man's body be collected together into one place and be united into one body, after having been scattered through the earth, and so often changed its form by entering into other bodies, and seeing that the same person so often parted with much of the material of his own body and took on him other material, and thus was not the same identical person as to body at different periods of his life ? To this we might answer, "What is this world but one great alembic or chemist's vessel, in which all these materials are found in chaotic confusion; and w^hat is God but the mighty Chemist, who can, by the infusion of his power, bring together all the particles composing each body, or as much as is needful for its renewal ? "Who shall deny this power to God? But it is not necessary that the new bodies should be composed of the very same particles which at one time made up the earthly man, any more than that the grain of wheat on the stalk should be of the same particles with the grain which is sown in the earth in order to constitute a connexion between them, or that the man of forty should be of the very same particles with the youth of twenty, in order to constitute an iden- tity of nature. Every man feels that he is the same iden- 168 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, tical, responsible person eacli successive year that he was on the preceding, notwithstanding all the changes that have passed upon his body and all the vai-ied operations of his mind. JSTo man need expect to escape the judgment of God on the great day, by reason of any such change of material which may take place in his new body. Some have sought to escape the necessity of using any material, either new or old, for the reconstruction of man, by an ingenious theory derived from the comparison of St. Paul in his noble chapter on the resurrection. The grain of wheat, they say, has a germ in itself from which the plant grows and at length matures into a new grain ; so the immortal part of man, consisting of soul and spirit, has a germ in it which is made by God to grow into a new and spiritual body. They say that the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, speaks of the spirit and soul, as well as body ; and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. They consider the word Zoe to mean the immortal soul of man, and Psyche as meaning the spirit or life, and which is that light material, covering, or vehicle, which still adheres to the soul in its separate state. This, they say, is the germ which enlarges and matures into the new body. But, whatever be the merit of this theory as regards psychology or theology, do we stand in need of any such in order to the practical understanding of St. Paul's doc- trine of the resurrection ? God promises to make us new, spiritual, glorious, incorruptible bodies, instead of our present corruptible ones — to clothe our souls with the same — to make them like unto the glorious body of our Lord. Should not this satisfy us? When we see all na- ture dying and reviving again, can we not trust God to do the same with these dying bodies, believing that he who raised up Jesus from the dead will raise up us also, and prepare us to be ever with the Lord ? CHAPTER X. ON THE DEATH OF ABEL, AND THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICES. In tlie brief and rapid liistory of man, we are soon brought to the execution of the fearful sentence of death, — the penalty of disobedience. God had said to our first parents, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thoii slialt surely die." But it was an extended day, through the long- suffering patience of God. It is supposed that the infliction was delayed until the one hundred and twenty-eighth year of the life of Cain. This is inferred from the fact that the birth of Seth, who was given in the place of the murdered Abel, occurred the year after that tragic event, that is, the one hundred and thirtieth year of Adam's life — Genesis iv. 25 ; v. 3. But if the delay was merciful, the occasion and circum- stances of its infliction were most awful. The first-born of the children of Adam imbued his hands in the blood of the second. That fond mother, who in joyous hope had said at his birth, " I have gotten a man from the Lord," or, as the learned Lightfoot and others translate it, " I have gotten a man, even the Lord, or Jehovah himself," the promised Deliverer, — ^is doomed to see that son a mur- derer, following the example of the wicked one, who, out of envy, slew the hopes of our first parents by their se- duction in paradise, and was thus " a murderer from the beginning." Truly may it be said of Cain, " he was of his father the devil." How deeply affected must our first parents have been at seeing the bitter fruits of their own sin thus 170 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. exhibiting themselves in their first-born child ! How keen their misery in beholding in him a fratricide, instead of a Saviour — themselves condemned as though them- selves the guilty ones ! Montgomery, in his " "World before the Flood," has set forth this feature in penitent Adam, in a very touching manner, in the following lines : " Children were his delight : they ran to meet His soothing hand, and clasp his honored feet, "While, midst their fearless sport supremely blest, He grew, in heart, a child among the rest. Yet, as a parent, naught beneath the sky Touched him so quickly as an infant's eye. Joy from its smile of happiness he sought ; Its flash of rage sent horror through his thought ; His smitten conscience felt as fierce a pain As if he fell from innocence again." How aggravated must have been their grief at thought of the very institution, which was appointed for the en- couragement of their hopes and the exercise of their faith, being the occasion of this great sin ! The sacred narra- tive informs us that it was committed immediately after a sacrifice, and in consequence of the rejection of Cain's offering and the acceptance of Abel's. We will not, however, at this time, consider this part of the subject, as it will properly belong to the question of sacrifice ; but proceed to remark on the punishment of Cain, who was driven out from the presence of the Lord, (probably from some place contiguous to Eden, where the Lord manifest- ed himself to the righteous,) and became a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. Li bitterness did he exclaim, " My punishment is greater than I can bear ; every one that findeth me shall slay me." But this the Lord for- bade, setting a mark upon him in order to prevent it. The whole world became his prison and penitentiary. ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 171 None were allowed to kill him, altliougli, after the flood, God gave an universal law, "Whoso slieddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."* Surprise has been expressed that Cain should speak as if the earth was thus early filled with people, so that, go where he would, his life would be sought after. To this it is answered, that if, in the few hundred years after Jacob with his family of seventy persons settled in Egypt, they so increased that in the time of Moses there were six hundred thousand fighting men, it is not to be won- dered at that when Cain was one hundred and twenty- eight years old there should be in that part of the world which was first settled, sufiicient numbers to justify the apprehensive language of the first fugitive from justice. But God determined that he should not be punished with immediate death, but rather be made the wretched victim of remorse, and see a long line of wicked descendants, many of whom would upbraid him with his crime. Montgomery has also treated this with deep pathos : "Eastward on Eden's early peopled plain, Where Abel perished by the hand of Cain, The murderer from his Judge's presence fled : Thence to the rising sun his offspring spread. But he, the fugitive of care and guilt, Forsook the haunts he chose, the homes he built ; AVliile filial nations hailed him sire and chief, Empire nor honor brought his soul relief: He found, where'er he roamed, uncheered, unblest, No pause from suffering, and from toil no rest." Such have been the wretched lives of many of every age, whom justice has permitted to escape, until, unable any longer to bear the intolerable burthen, they have added * Some have rendered the passage, " My punishment is greater than I can bear. Is my sin too great to be forgiven ?" 172 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. suicide to murder, thus doubly violating that law which says, " Thou shall do no murder." Let us now speak more particularly of the time and occasion of this wicked deed. Both were sacred — the day and the act, and perhaps the place. In process of time, or in the end of the days, — that is, as generally understood by the learned, on the Sabbath or some appointed time, — Cain and Abel brought their offer- ings to the Lord, at some appointed place, from which they went into the field where the fatal deed was done. The act of sacrifice was a religious one, doubtless a commandment of the Lord ; for God says, " In vain do we worship him, after the commandments of men ;" but the result was envy, hate, and murder. The enemies of relig- ion and infidels exclaim, concerning this and many other things connected with religion : " Heu quantum est re- ligio causa malorum." " What strife, what wars, what bloodshed and misery have grown out of religion ! " It becomes us to inquire whether it is not the abuse, not the use of religion ; and therefore irreligion and not religion which is the true cause of the evils complained of. A writer of the New Testament tells us the cause of this murder was the hatred of one brother towards the other, the result of his own evil works. On this account was the murder committed. Both of the offerings were right in themselves, if pre- sented in the right spirit. The sacrifice of the wicked may be an abomination to the Lord, if not offered in a right spirit, no matter what the sacrifice be. The sac- rifices of the Lord are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. JSTothing can be accepted without these. Moses, who by God's direction appointed so many bloody sacri- fices, was meek above all men upon earth. Let us see if we cannot find out why Abel's sacrifice of a lamb was accepted, and Cain's offering of the fruits ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 173 of the earth was rejected, although both are so plainly- enjoined in God's word. AVe do not read of anything good or bad in either of these brothers before this event, which should make the difference manifested by God in accepting the one and rejecting the otlier, though there must have been a difier- ence in their hearts before God. The apostle tells us that " by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacri- fice than Cain," where he is speaking of the faith of a penitent sinner towards Christ. This serves as a key to unlock the mystery. Moses is spoken of as believing in Christ, in the midst of all his offerings. Cain's faith is not spoken of. Must there not have been something de- ficient in that, as there is in many proud moralists who place their religion in some love and obedience to God, but have no sense of sin and feel no need of a Saviour ? May not this have been the first beginning of infidelity in the world, — the proud rejection of the hope set before us in the Redeemer, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ? " Scarcely had our first parents sinned, when a promise was made of some deliverer. "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head" was supposed to contain the promise of a Saviour in the person of one who is called "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " for the sins of man. To this the sacrifice of Abel had reference, while that of Cain had none, but was mere natural religion offering uj) something to God by an unhumbled creature. The narrative of Moses surely favors this view of it. When Cain became wroth at the rejection of his sacri- fice, the Lord said to him, "Why art' thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen ? " "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? " that is. If thou art a holy man, and doest no wrong, shalt thou not be accepted for this? — "and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door ; " that 174 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. is, a sin offering ; a Lamb lietli or crouchetli at the door, whom thou mayest slay and oifer for thy sins as a penitent believer. Such is the translation and interpretation of this passage by able commentators, though there is some diiference of opinion about it. But all believe that the sacrifice of Abel had reference to the promised deliverance of the human race, by one to be born of a woman ; and that all the animal sacrifices ordained by God were typical of him, and derived their virtue from him who was emphatically called " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and who, in the fulness of time, was offered up in the per- son of Christ for the sins of men. This, indeed, may seem foolishness to the Greek, and be a stumblingblock to the Jew, and doubtless appeared so to Cain, who professed a diff'er- ent sort of religion. It has so appeared to numbers in all ages, whose reason and humanity are shocked at the sacri- fice of innocent animals. Thus Plato, the philosopher, says, "At first no animals were offered, but only the fruits of the earth and trees." And Ovid, though not ques- tioning the early practice of animal sacrifices, yet pleads for the unoff'ending victims : " Qnam meruistis, Ores, placidum pecus, Vitaque magis, quam, inorti juvabis Nou bove mactato celestia numina gandent." As to the reasonableness of the revelation of a Redeemer to our first parents, much might be said. If God, at the first formation of man, made himself human to him as the Creator and Lawgiver ; taught him speech and all other things necessary for his existence and happiness, in his first state, — andwho can doubt this ? — then, when man's condition was so changed by the fall, if God determined on doing more for him suitable to his fallen state, may we not expect that he would reveal this also to ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 175 liim ? Is not tliis necessary to liis cooperation with God in applying the remedy ? If God determined to save man by the death and atonement of his Son Jesus Christ, and by the renewing influence of his Spirit, is it not reasonable that he should reveal this by such means and in such meas- ure as shall seem best to him ? Is it unreasonable to be- lieve that God taught our first parents that this redemp- tion was the great object of animal sacrifices, and that they looked forward to the great sacrifice which gave vir- tue to all others ? Our first mother expected such a Deliverer to be born of her, but was disappointed. Doubtless other antediluvian mothers expected it. After the flood, the expectation con- tinued ; and after the separation of Abraham and his pos- terity from the rest of the world, Jewish mothers were expecting it still more, as the Messiah was to be in the line of Abraham. All the mythologies in the world were full of this tradition, and many nations claimed to have received the fulfilment of it. Nothing was so well calcu- lated to humble men and to produce penitence, as the belief that his sins were so great as to require the incarnation and sacrifice of God himself, in the form of man : all the bloody sacrifices typified this. That they were appointed by God may be inferred from the fact that he accejited and thus approved of Abel's sacrifice, and of the same kind of sacrifices in so many other instances afterwards, as of Koah, Abraham, Isaac, etc., etc., and under the Levitical dispensation. If they were mere commandments of men, would they thus have honored them ? Moses, indeed, gives us no account of the divine institu- tion of sacrifice before the flood, but the particular manner in which he mentions them shows conclusively its j^revi- ous and early existence, and of course its establishment by God himself. 176 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Altliongli the first and strongest and most natural feeling of man, when discarded from the favor of God, must have been, How can I recover it — how can I avert or postpone tlie threatened death ? yet surely the last thought of his mind and hope of his heart would be, that the death of some unoffending animal might propitiate God's favor, and avert his threatened death. That hope must come from some other source than man — even from God himself. The fact of tliere being skins of beasts used for clothing by our first parents makes it most probable that immedi- ately after the fall sacrifices were enjoined and practised ; for we read nothing of the permission of animal food to man until the renewal of the human race after the flood. Tliat sacrifices of animals prevailed before the flood is evident, also, from the fact that Noah, by the command of God, took with him into the ark such animals as were used in sacrifice, as well as others, and that his first act, after coming out of the ark, was to build an altar, and sacrifice to that God who had so wonderfully preserved him. In this we have the first of those sacrifices which, from the family of Noah, so soon spread through the whole world. I will not speak of the sacrifices of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others, before the days of Moses ; nor will I speak of those specially appointed to the Jews, in whose ritual "almost all things w^ere purged with blood;" but I will proceed to show, according to the plan of this book, that the divine appointment of sacrifice, from the first, is one of the most univei'sal traditions prevalent among men. Mr. Faber, who has examined this subject most exten- sively, afiirms that "Throughout the whole w^orld he finds a notion prevalent that the gods could only be appeased by bloody sacrifices ; and its universality proves that all nations have borrowed it from the same common source. There is no heathen people which can specify a time ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 177 wlien it was witliout sacrifice. All have equally had it, from a time which cannot be reached by their genuine records." Tradition alone can be bronght forward hj the Gentiles to account for its origin. That tradition sa^'s, that " the Egyptian Ilot/i, or Taut, (the same, he thinks, with Adam,) was the original inventor of sacrifices." Elsewhere it says that Osiris, — the same, he believes, with Dionusus, or Noah, — is the god who first instructed men in sacrifices. Janus, also, the first father, taught the Italians sacrifices. Phoroneus of Argos offered the first sacrifices to Juno. The Chinese Fohi raised seven kinds of animals for sac- rifices to the Great Spirit. The Babylonian Zizuthus, on quitting the ark, built an altar, and sacrificed to the gods. The same was said of the Grecian Deucalion. Tlie same is said of the British Hu, who sailed over the flood, with seven companions, and was emphatically called the sacri- ficer. All of these trace the origin of sacrifices to one of the great fathers of the human family, Adam, or Noah, though called by various names according to the diversity of languages. There is no part of religious worship less changed than this, as to the modes of observing it, though the objects of worship have been so numerous and so varied. "VYe will mention some few of the reasons assigned for animal sacrifices. Caesar, the infidel of Eome, says that the Druids of Gaul held that unless the life of man was given for the forfeited life of man, the Deity of the im- mortal gods could not be appeased. The Gothic, or Sythic Scandinavians laid it down as a principle, that the efi:'usion of the blood of animals appeased the anger of the gods, and their justice turned aside upon the victims those strokes which were destined for men. Herodotus informs us that the Egyptians, in his day, having cut oflP the head of the animal, heaped many im- precations upon it. The mode of imprecation was the 12 178 THE BIBLE i\ND THE CLASSICS. wishing that whatever evil was to befall the sacrificer himself, or Egypt, might fall upon that head : in conse- quence of which none would on anj account eat of the head of a beast. Such, says Mr. Faber, was the sentiment of the Athe- nians and Massilians, in their remarkable animal sacrifice of a man for the welfare of the state. They loaded him with the most dreadful curses. They prayed that the wrath of the gods might fall upon his devoted head, and thus be diverted from the rest of the citizens. They solemnly called upon him to be their ransom and their redemption, life for life, and body for body. After this ceremoiiy, they cast him into the sea as an offering to Neptune. In the history of the Chinese empire, " Ching Tang," it is stated that in a drought of seven years the sacrifice of a man was required. The aged monarch offered himself as a victim, with prayers that God would accept his death as an expiation for the sins of the people. The will, however, was accepted for the deed, as in the case of Abraham with his son Isaac. The Jewish rabbis, in their books, are full of the same, and to this day the principle of sacrifice and substitute is set forth in the private offerings of Jewish families, — die national temple worship being done away, or impossible. Each father of a family, according to Buxtorf, brings forth a cock, and, striking it three times on the head, at each blow says, " May this cock be accepted in exchange for me. May he succeed to my place. May he be an expiation for me." Then choking the animal, he mentally confesses that he himself is worthy of strangulation. He then cuts its throat, silently reflecting that he is worthy to be slain. Then he dashes it to the ground, to denote that he is wor- thy to be stoned. Then roasts it at the fire, to show that he deserves to be burned. Thus the animal suffers four kinds of death. ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 179 111 the Indian mythology, we learn that Menu, their great father, had three sons, one of whom was slain in the great act of performing sacrifice. Now Adam, though he had other children afterwards, had three principal ones. The only ones mentioned were Cain, Abel, and Seth. These were doubtless the three sons who were celebrated as the Cabiri in the mysteries of the Corybantes and others, and who were sometimes confounded with the three sons of Koah, the father of the new world. The mysteries of the ancients were scenic representations, according to Faber, Bryant, and others, of the events of paradise, and the deluge. The slaughtered brother, men- tioned above, was consecrated as a god, and worshipped by the Thessalonians with bloody hands. The poets also are full of deprecating as well as expia- tory sacrifices. Homer makes one of his characters say to the ruthless hero of his poem, the vengeful Achilles, " It befits thee not to have a merciful heart. The very gods themselves are capable of being turned ; for with sac- rifices and vows, libations and the odor of victims, sup- pliant men turn them aside for their purposes whenever any one sins and transgresses." — Iliad of Horner^ hook 2th. " Gifts," says Ovid, in his " Art of Love," " captivate both men and gods. Jupiter himself is appeased by the gifts Avhich are ofiered to him." — Book Sr'd. Perseus, in allusion to the pagan sacrifices, which he satirizes, asks, " With what bribe would you purchase the ears of the gods ? Shall your oblation be the lungs and milk of a slaughtered victim ? " That the divine appointment of sacrifices is the true view of the subject, though disputed by some who say " Man might have thought of it himself, and begun it without a command," we adduce the following opinion of a celebrated Jewish rabbi : "Abel (says Philo the Jew, who flourished in the first century of the Christian 180 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. era) brouglit neither the same oblation as Cain, nor in the same manner ; but instead of things inanimate he brought things animate, and instead of later and secondary pro* ducts he brought the oldest and the first ; for he brought his sacrifices from the firstlings of his flock, and always fat, according to the divine command." The following, from St. Augustine, shows what this great father thought : " For the prophetic immolation of blood, testifying from the very commencement of the hu- man race the future passion of the Mediator, is a matter of great antiquity, inasmuch as we find that Abel, in Holy Scriptures, is the first to have oflfered up the pro- phetic immolation." The testimony of Athanasius concerning all those things which came down from the first ages, and including this among the rest, is very strong: "What Moses taught, those things his predecessor, Abraham, had preserved. And what Abraham had preserved, with these things Noah and Enoch were well acquainted, for they made a distinction between clean and unclean, and were accept- able to the Deity. Thus also in like manner Abel bore testimony, for he knew what he had learned from Adam, and Adam himself taught only what he had previously learned from the Lord." In this manner it must have been that the sacrifice of animals, typical of the great sac- rifice, came down from Adam to Noah and his three sons ; and, after the dispersion of Babel to the various nations and tribes of the earth, being corrapted in its pas- sage until human victims were immolated, and all the abominations of idolatry were introduced. It was neces- sary that the Lord should separate a peculiar people, and through them restore the entire sacrifice, and by his proph- ets denounce the abominations which had taken its place. Alluding to the bloody rites of ancient Palestine and the surrounding countries, where even infants were ON THE DEATH OF ABEL. 181 slaughtered by tlion sands, the prophet Micah exclaims, " Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " The time was at hand when the sacrifice of all the animals was to be done away with, " for it was impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin." The blood of Christ, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," was appointed for that purpose. In his blood alone was the atonement; all other sacrifices ordained by God were types and prophecies of tliis. Tlie bloody rites of pagan- ism were only the corruption and abuse of this ; but the abuse of anything must of course be subsequent to its use, and thus establishes it. Such is the principle upon which the argument of our book is founded. To the foregoing I add something from the learned my- thologist, Bryant, taken from Sanchoniathon, the ancient historian of Phoenicia. He speaks of the sacrifice by the god Chronns (the same as El or Ilus) of his son to his fa- ther Oaranus, and whose example was followed in the natioif by the establishment of an expiatory sacrifice, which was considered as peculiarly mystical, having reference to things yet to come. After giving a full account of it, Mr. Bryant concludes : "According to this. El, the supreme deity, whose associates were the Elohim, was in process of time to have a son, well beloved, his only begotten, ' to be conceived of grace,' as some render it, but, according to my interpretation, ' of the fountain of light.' He was to be off'ered up as a sacrifice to the father, by way of sat- isfaction and redemption, to atone for their sins and avert the just vengeance of God. He was to make the grand sacrifice, invested with the emblems of royalty." Mr. Bryant leaves it to his readers to say whether this does not refer to an early tradition of the sacrifice of Christ. He evidently inclines to that opinion, and calls it "a most wonderful piece of history." CHAPTER XL THE CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN. In the last verse of the third chapter of Genesis it is written, that the Lord " drove ont the man ; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Various translations of this passage, differing somewhat from each other, with differing explanations, have been given. Mr. Faber appears to have studied this subject very carefully, by the light of scripture and tradi- tion, and I shall give his statement, " We are told," he says, " by the sacred historian, that when the first pair was expelled from paradise, God placed on the eastern «ide of the garden certain beings called cheruhitn, to preserve the way to the tree of life. The particular form of these beings is not specified by Moses ; but it is evident that the Israel- ites were well acquainted with it, for we find that when the workmen were ordered to make cherubim for the tabernacle, no directions were given them as to the shape of these sacred hieroglyphics ; nor had they occasion to make the least inquiry concerning it." But, although Moses is silent on the subject, the prophet Ezekiel has provided us with a very minute and ample description of the cherubic emblems. From him we learn that they were compounded of four different animals, of Avhich man was the most prominent, viz., the man, the bull, the lion, and the eagle. So remarkable an appearance (says Mr. Faber) as that of the cherubim, when they were first ex- CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN. 183 hibited before the garden of paradise, could not easily be forgotten, even supposing that their manifestation was only of a temporary nature ; but, he adds, so far as I can judge, we have every reason to believe that it was not of a merely temporary nature. Under the Levitical economy, which was ancient patri- archism adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the children of Israel, and ordained by God for special pur- poses, the cherubic symbols were placed at the adytum, or entrance of the tabernacle, and afterwards in the sanctuary of the temple. As they were used for religious purposes under the law, so may we fairly infer that they were thus used under the patriarchal dispensation, both before and after the flood. The force of the words used by Moses is, that they were placed in a tabernacle, as they were afterwards under the Levitical dispensation. The flaming sword turning every way, is, he rather thinks, better rendered, "A bright blaze of bickering fire." Such was the manifestation of the divine glory, the cher- ubim of the Mosaic dispensation. This was called the Presence of the Lord^ or the sheldnah — the fiery symbol of the divine presence. No one was permitted to enter the holy of holies, where this manifestation of God was, but the high priest, and he only once a year — thus shadowing forth the exclusion of Adam and his posterity from paradise. When there- fore we read of the wicked Cain going forth from the ''''presence of the Lord^'' we must believe that he left that part of the land where this manifestation of God was, and where Adam, and Seth, and the more pious antedilu- vians continued to reside. ISToah and his sons were doubt- less familiar with the form of the cherubim, and after the flood made use of it as a symbol of the divine presence. We may therefore reasonably expect to find it perverted and abused, as all other things are in the hands of men, 184 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. when the various families or nations descending from Noah spread over the earth and adopted their various idolatries, while God thought proper to continue it in his true temple and worshij) according to its original design and use. Monstrous and ridiculous as these per- versions are in the heathen world, they are not more so than many other caricatures of divine institutions. But now let us see what this great hieroglyphic, — this first of hieroglyphics, the source of all others, — has led to in the heathen world, and what testimony to the divine institution may he drawn from the imitation and perversion and caricature of it in all ages and coun- tries. It is impossible that any candid person can take a survey of all the strange and monstrous compounds of which we read in ancient history and worship, without tracing them to a common origin. I first mention, as the opinion of Faber and other learned men, the celebrated dog Cerberus, with three heads, — the dog, the wolf, and the lion, — and who was the keeper of hell, in the Hades and Tartarus of the Greeks, l^ext, that of Hecate, or the infernal Diana, who is rep- resented as having the heads of a horse, a dog, and a lion. The Osiris of the Egyptians, and Molock and Mithras, are also many-headed. The Minotaur had the head of a man and the body of a bull. In the Zendevesta of the Persians two persons appear, one at the beginning of the old and the other at the beginning of the new world, compounded of a man, a bull, and a horse. The bull-man of the Persians was doubtless the Centaur of the classical writers, which was composed of a man, a horse, and a bull. There was also an Orphic deity called Chro- nus, or Hercules, having the face of a man, the head of a lion, and the body of a dragon, to which some add the wings of a bird. The celebrated Sjihinx had the head of a woman, the wings of a bird, the claws and body of a CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN. 186 lion. Similar monsters may also be read of in the Ger- man, the Celtic, and the East Lidia histories. In the Hindoo system and history, to which we have already referred, there is a being composed of a man and an eagle, which is placed in a pass leading to their high garden answering to the garden of Eden, which they call Garu- da. The most striking circumstance in his history is, that a part of his office is to keep off or prevent the approach of serpents. Herodotns also informs ns that the Phoenix of Persian history is said to have resembled an eagle, and to have been placed in one of the mountains of the Indian Cau- casus, the same region claimed by the Hindoos as the seat of the garden of Eden, and the landing of the ark. A more probable account of the origin of these unnatural beings surely cannot be found than we have in the books of Genesis and Exodus. APPEi^DIX. To the foregoing we add the view taken by the learned Mr. Fairbairn, Professor of Divinity in the ISTew Church College, at Glasgow, in the second volume of his elaborate work on the " Typology of Scripture." We only give the substance of it. As the tree of life in the midst of tlie garden was the special object which the cherubim was to keep or guard from the approach and use of man lest he should eat and live for ever, Mr. Fairbairn very properly inquires what this was, and what its virtue or effect. The Mosaic nar- rative is very brief, but other scriptures cast some light upon it. In relation to this, the saying of St. Augustine is verified : " In vetere Testamento novum latet ; et in novo vetus patet ;" — that is, " In the Old Testament the New lies hid; and in the New the Old is brought to light." The 186 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tree of life was in the midst of the garden — its very posi- tion being significant. The effect upon the human frame, whether by something special in itself and differing from others, or i3y God's particular command, was peculiar. It perpetuated life. As angels may have certain kinds of bodies, that is, spiritual bodies, — and the saints after the resurrection cer- tainly will, — and as there must have been some means ap- pointed by God for the perpetuation of their existence, not having eternal life in themselves, so the lives of our first parents, had they continued faithful, may have been perpetuated by eating of the tree of life. We must be- lieve that this tree continued for some time after the ex- pulsion of our first parents from the garden, or else there would have been no necessity for the guard which was set over it. The sight of it, or knowledge of its existence, may have had a moral effect in letting them know what they had lost, and to encourage the hope of a recovery, if not in this world, yet in another. It was a symbol of immor- tal life. Through death there might be an entrance to a tree of life in the paradise above. The Jews thus under- stood it. "There are those," says one of their rabbis, " who say that the tree of life was not created in vain, but the men of the resurrection shall eat thereof and live for ever." The New Testament certainly encourages the hope of restoration to the tree of life in the heavenly paradise. " To-day," saith our Lord to the dying thief, " thou shalt be with me in paradise." In the book of Revelation, our Lord, by St. John, saith, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life that is in the midst of the paradise of God." And again : " Blessed are they that keep his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city." These passages seem evidently to recognize a divine virtue in this tree of paradise to per- CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN. 187 petuate liumaii existence. That God could give it tliis power or virtue no man can undertake to deny. "We must always remember, however, that the antetype or thing signified is greater than the type or sign. Al- though something material may enter into the paradise, or new heaven and earth, yet will all be exalted, and the food of spiritual bodies be far superior to the manna of the Israelites, or the fabled nectar and ambrosia of the pagan deities in their happy abodes. And now what were these cherubim, and what their meaning and design ? "Was not the flaming sword turn- ing every way, sufficient to guard the pass into Eden and terrify any daring intruder ? It certainly must have been designed to furnish instruction, and answer some moral end. Mr. Fairbairn considers the attempt to ascertain the meaning and derivation of the word cherub as hope- less, but thinks that other scriptures sufficiently estab- lish the symbolical character and intended use of the cherubim. He regards them not as any unknown figures or imaginary existences, but as realities and specific forms of being, though not as a distinct and permanent order of beings, but only temporary, for certain important pur- poses. He refers to the different places in scripture where they are mentioned, as in Exodus, Ezekiel, and Revelation, with the variations which are ascribed to them, though not at all affecting their main character and object. TJie gar- den of Eden is their first local residence. The next men- tion of them is in connection with the tabernacle, Mdiere the figures of them are over the ark and on either side of the mercy-seat — the throne of Jehovah — where God promised to meet Moses. It is said of him, that " lie dwelleth between the cherubim." Sometimes, as in the Apocalypse, they are called beasts, which is regarded as an unhappy translation of the original. At otliers they are called seraphim or burning ones, as in the sixth chap- 188 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ter of Isaiah. More frequently they are called " living ones." This title is given to them not less than thirty times in Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. In reference to the title seraphim or burning ones, and to what is said of the flaming sword in the hand of the cherubim in Eden, and to the outstretched wings of them over the ark ready to fly, it is probable that God's ministers are compared to a flame of fire or lightning. In relation to the combined form of the cherubim, all agree that it was composed of a man, an ox, an eagle, and a lion — the man being predominant, so that the ap- pearance was human. These three creatures, together with man, make up, according to the most remote an- tiquity, the most perfect form of animal existence. Hence the old Jewish proverb : " Four are the highest in the world — the lion among the beasts ; the ox among tame cattle ; the eagle among birds ; man among all (creatures), but God supreme over all." So that these " living ones" were a combination of all creature life on earth, issuing from the fulness of the Creator. The amal- gamation or combination of all in one would exalt even man. In some things the lion, the eagle, and the ox sur- pass man, and are looked on with admiration if not envy. The lion exceeds him in strength ; the ox in patient endur- ance ; the eagle in swiftness, though all so inferior in other things. If any should still say, how hideous the combination, as seen in a picture and in the worship of the heathen, we bid them look on man himself, the lord of creation, the noblest of all, and see what a combination of various animals lie is ; how many things he has in common with all. Nay, if disposed to disgust at combi- nation, let them remember that our Lord himself was a combination of very man and very God as to the spiritual part of him ; and that even as to the corporeal was tliis same compound ; and even in his glorified state will be CHERUBIM OF THE GARDEN. 189 very man and veiy God, reigning over his saints. To tliis we add, that although these forms may, among the heatlien, have been caricatured and perverted to idola- try, yet it does not appear that the Jews, in any of their imitations or adoptions of pagan rites and idolatry, ever used these as instruments of false worship. CHAPTEK XII. THE PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION. It lias been made a question, whether among the cor- ruptions of the old world the sin of idolatry found its way. When we consider how soon it commenced, and how rapidly it spread among the descendants of Noah, — who has been well called " the orphan of the old and father of the new world," — and how much human nature is the same in all ages, and what a remarkable propensity to idolatry, under every dispensation, whether Patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian, it has always displayed, we are led to think it highly probable. And yet there is no mention of it in the brief history of our fathers before the flood. It may, however, have been one of those things so generally known and believed, that Moses did not think it necessary to make particular historical mention of it. We are told that the wickedness of man was great in the earth ; that the eartli was corrupt before God ; that the earth was filled with violence, so that it repented him that he had made man. Now all this might be, and yet man might not embrace the follies of idolatry. There are other passages, however, from which we may probably draw the conclusion that verj^ false views of God had been adopted. When, in the sixth chapter of Genesis, we read of men and the daughters of men, and contrasted with them the sons of God, it may be that the former had de- parted from the true knowledge and worship of God, in theory as well as practice ; so that, after a time, by inter- THE PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION, 191 marriage the whole mass of mankind had become cor- rupted. There is also a passage in the same chapter which speaks of " every imagination of the thoughts of men's hearts being only evil continually." And when we run over some of the many passages of scripture in which the imaginations of men's hearts are spoken of and con- demned, in connexion with the abominations of idolatry, the probability increases in our minds that false notions of God were among the "evil imaginations" referred to. But whatever be the truth as to this, it is certain that man became corrupt and abominable before God. Polyg- amy, which our Lord says was not in the beginning, was soon introduced, as it was again shortly after the deluge. Violence, also, and the love of pleasure reigned. They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play, although, through the curse, man could with difficulty get bread with the sweat of his brow. Concerning ISToah, it was said, "This same shall comfort us, concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." There was doubtless much pov- erty then, as ever since. Marriage, which has been well declared " best bliss of paradise which has survived the fall," to which the union of Christ and his church has been compared, came to be entered into only with a view to earthly pleasure and gratification. The sons of God chose them wives of the daughters of men because they were fair; and giants in sin, if in nothing else, were the fruit. The earth was filled with violence. Warriors were the great men of the earth, and it is not wonderful that it should have grown into fable that they made war with Heaven itself; and truly the issue was the destruction of the human race, though mountain was piled on mountain (Pelion on Ossa) for the assault. The long lives of the ancients, extending to eight or nine 192 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. hundred, and in one instance to nearly a thousand years, must have contributed greatly to the increase of human depravity and misery. If even now, in seventy years, there be some evil spirits and ambitious men who can inflict BO much misery on man, what must have been the amount of mischief perpetrated by one whose age must be reck- oned by centuries. It was in mercy, truly, that God abridged the term of human life, and reduced it to its pres- ent period. " Old age standeth not in length of years ; but wisdom is the grey hair to man, and unspotted life is old age." " In hoary youth Methusalems may die ; Ah ! how misdated on their flattering tombs ! " Of how many old sinners may it be said, " Poorer for the plenty poured — More wretched for the clemency of Heaven." But some may say, all this is but the fable of Moses. If so, it must have been a most cunningly devised one, being made to suit so many other fables in difi'erent parts of the world, and with whom Moses had no acquaintance what- ever. Let us see what some of them say. The ancient poets and philosophers speak of four successive ages through which the world passes, — the Golden, the Silver, the Brazen, and the Iron, — representing their characters by the comparative value of the four metals. The last is the worst, and ends in the destruction of the world by the deluge. But in many of the ancient writings there are two series of such ages, set forth by the same four metals, — gold, silver, brass, and iron. The facts mentioned show clearly that the second series commenced immediately after the flood, with Noah and his family — as the first did with Adam and his, immediately after the creation. That the first age, in each, was the purest ; that each successive period was marked by gradual deterioration, sacred and THE PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION. 193 profane history attest most clearly. As to the event ter- minating the first series, there is no doubt. The deluge was sent to purify the earth from the deep corruption which covered it. The human race began anew, with the fiimily of Noah, and was for a time comparatively pure in its religion and morals. As the advent of Christ drew near, the Jews quoted their prophets, and the pagans their sibylline verses and oracles, in proof that another and better and more enduring golden age was at hand. Vir- gil especially alludes to this in an eclogue addressed to Pollio; but as this will be the subject of more particular consideration at a future time, we pass over it at present, and confine our remarks to the fact that ancient tradition speaks of a deterioration from time to time in the char- acter of the antediluvians, ending in the flood. Sometimes the ancients confound together the two series of ages, those before and those after the flood, as they do indeed (according to their doctrine of a succession of worlds) Creation and the Deluge, Adam and his children with Noah and his. We only state the general result of the researches of such men as Sir William Jones and others, in saying that they abound with references to the com- parative character and condition of the diflferent ages. The first, as we have said, was that of paradise itself, when all things abounded spontaneously, when men were called " the supreme and happy inhabitants of the earth." Then came a time when they were called the " moderately happy" inhabitants of the earth ; and then a time when the " least happy " inhabitants of the earth lived. Then came the iron age, — the age of war and lust and violence and ra- pine ; of heroes and giants, of which Ovid says, " Vivitur ex rapto ! Non hospes ab hospite tutus, Non socer a genero ; fratrum quoque gratia rara est, Victa jacet pietas." 13 194 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. As to the long lives of the ancients, which contributed to this corruption, let us see what tradition says. Jose- phus, the Jewish historian, a man of great learning and study, declares that all who had written on the subject of antiquity, whether Greeks or barbarians, agreed with him that the ancients (those before the flood) lived a thousand years. Of course he used a round number. He mentions the names of Berosus, Manetho, and nine other ancient authors as authority, Hesiod, the Grecian poet, coeval with Homer, says, that in the silver age, — that immedi- ately succeeding the golden age, — at the end of a century men were infants. He of course did not mean infants in strength either of body or mind, but only as by compari- son with their whole term of life. The Chinese have indeed some wonderful accounts of the longevity of their forefathers, saying that they lived eight or ten thousand years. But we know how prone to exaggeration the Chinese are in all their chronological calculations, making estimates of eclipses of the sun and moon backwards, and thus endeavoring to establish the age of their nation to be thousands of years before that of any other upon eartli. Or it may be that theirs were lunar years, as some would have those of Moses to be. That it was a most ancient tradition among them that men's lives were much shortened, is proved by an historical record. The emperor, Hoang-Ti, at a time after the deluge when men's lives were shortened to three hundred years, proposed an inquiry in a medical book of which he was the author, — " Whence it happened that the lives of their forefathers were so long, compared with the lives of the present generation." Certain it is that the life of man began to shorten from the deluge ; those born before it living longer than any born after it, and those born imme- diately after it longer than those at a later period. All history testifies to this. Some attempt to evade the scrip- THE PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION. 195 tural account by declaring that Moses meant months or lunar years, instead of one common year of twelve months, thus reducing the Mosaic account to one-twelfth of what we understand by it. The folly of this will appear by con- sidering that the antediluvians would have had children when mere children themselves, and thus would have fallen short of many old men in our own time. Methuse- lah would have been only eighty years old at his death. Between the creation and the deluge there would have been only one hundred and thirty years, and only some few hundred people alive on the earth when God sent the waters of the deluge. Abraham, — who, according to Moses, died at a good old age, — at one hundred and seventy-five — would have been only eight years old when Isaac was born, and some of the patriarchs only about five years old. Some, unable to deny the fact of the longevity of the ante- diluvians nor disposed so to do, are yet anxious to find out some other cause than God's will and decree, and think that some changes took place in the position of the earth towards the sun at the deluge, which interfered with the former equability of the seasons and the healthiness of the atmosphere ; but we have no account of this. Others think that the material which composed the human frame was better before than after the deluge. Had we not bet- ter resolve it all into the will of God, who had made trial of long life to man and found that he abused it, and there- fore made his days to be fewer? We are also told that there were giants in the earth in those days, the same who are supposed to be mighty men — men of renown. These few are all the words of Moses concerning these men. Other giants are mentioned in other places of scripture. We read, in Deuteronomy ii., of a people called Anakims, — great and large men, — which were called giants. In the time of Moses, only Og, the king of Bashan, remained of the giants, and he was killed 196 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. in the time of Joshua. In the days of David, we read of Gohath. The bedstead of Og was of enormous dimensions, as was the spear of Goliath. But the bedsteads of kings and warriors were made for ostentation ; and the weaver's beam, to which Goliath's spear was compared, may not have been so large as some sujDjjose. Still they were huge, gigantic men, and that there have been on earth men of immense stature cannot be denied.* There are occasionally to be seen, even now, men who are two feet higher than common men ; so are there to be seen dwarfs as much below the ordinary stature of men, — and a few such will make much noise in the world. In the hands of the poets, — Homer, Hesiod, and Yirgil, — it is not wonderful that they should be exaggerated as to num- bers and might, as the feats of Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant-Killer in our days. Certain it is, that in the an- cient writers horrid descriptions are given of these men as pests to humanity, and as by their blasphemy and wickedness bringing down the judgment of the deluge upon the earth. The poets, in their flights, make them engage in a regular war with heaven, piling mountain on mountain, Pelion on Ossa, and hurling burning rocks against the sky, — but the scriptures are guilty of no such exaggeration ; they give you the true foundation of all these fables. Lucian, of whom it is said that " he spared neither gods nor men," has given us an account that comes nearer to the real truth : " They were contentious, and did many unrighteous things ; they neither kept their oaths, nor * Whoever wishes to see proofs of this fact let him visit the palace of Ver- sailles, in France, and see the huge bedstead in which Louis XIV. slept and died. One would suppose it was made for a giant. Let him visit the Horse Armory in the Tower of Londou, and see the spears and other armor of the kings of Eng- land down to Charles I., and he will be the less surprised at what we read of the armor of the ancients. THE PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION. 197 were hospitable to strangers ; for which reason this great misfortune came upon them." On this and every other subject which will properly admit of it, we must make due allowance for the figurative language and the license of poetry. Thus, when the spies who were sent into the holy land returned and said that the men whom they saw were so large that they were but as the gi-asshoppers before them, we are not to understand this literally and strictly ; moreover, they were frightened not a little, and magnified their enemies. As to the language of the poets, we must remember how large a use of fiction our own Milton and Cowley have indulged in, in their great and sacred poems. " Pictoribus atque poetis, quidlibet audendi, Semper fuit aequa potestas." The daring wickedness of these giants in sin as well as in size, has given rise to poems in ancient days called the " Wars of the Titans," in which they are represented as actually assaulting heaven as we assault a stronghold upon earth ; but there are circumstances in the war which have led to diflferences of opinion as to time and place of the same. Some think it to be the rebellion of the wicked antediluvians, which led to their overthrow by the deluge ; others, that it was the rebellion of the builders of Babel, which ended in the confusion of language and their dis- persion through the earth. In either case we have the testimony of pagan poets to two most important events in the Mosaic history. We have only to add to this statement of the progress of corruption in the antediluvians, that God showed his long-suffering towards them by causing ]S[oah to warn them for 120 years of the approaching wrath. This proving vain, the ark was prepared before their eyes, and, doubtless, with due explanation of its object. Of this there are numerous and strikins: traditions. CHAPTEE XIII. ON THE KISE AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. If, at the first formation of man, God revealed himself as his Creator, and taught him how to worship and serve that Creator, bestowing knowledge and holiness on him, as both the Old and the l^ew Testament declare; if, after the fall, God revealed to man his purpose of redemp- tion through one born of a woman, but equal to the task of restoration, and appointed sacrifices to himself prepar- atory to and typical of the great redemption ; then any deviation from that appointment, any acknowledgment or worship of any being or object save him, must have been a daring violation of duty and a renewal of the disobedience of onr first parents, though in a difierent form. Seeing that God held such familiar intercourse with men in their own form, in the garden, and, as is most probable, in occasional intercourse afterwards, it must have been daring impiety to be looking out for some other god or gods to whom they might off'er worship ; as it was with the Israelites, when, during the brief ab- sence of Moses on the mount, they wished for some other god. How or where the thought of some other god originated is hidden from us. " Causa latet, vis est notissima." Doubtless he who is called the father of lies, who may assume the garb of an angel of light, and who did in the PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 199 form of a subtle serpent deceive our first parents in para- dise, had much to do with it. His first suggestion might have been plausible ; his first approaches gentle and gradual. He may have perverted sacred truths, as when he dared to tempt our Saviour in the wilderness, inviting him to fall down and worship him. He may have begun his work of mischief by perverting the blessed ordinance of sacrifice, which God had appointed to direct the faith and hope of men to a Saviour, just as he now perverts the great Christian feast — the Lord's Supper — into an idolatrous worship. Whether idolatry or polytheism ex- isted before the flood is nowhere positively stated in the brief narrative of Moses, although there is such a clear statement of the deep corruption of man, and the deser- tion of the human race by the Holy Spirit, so that the waters of the flood were required for its cleansing, or rather its extirpation. But, as it is written that " all the imaginations of men's thoughts were only evil, and that continually," and as so much evil has ever been connected with idolatry, and idolatry commenced so soon after the deluge, perhaps within one hundred years, and spread so rapidly, it has been thought that it was only the renewal of antediluvian corruption which had been suppressed for a time by the angry judgments of God, and the seeds of which had been lurking in the hearts of some of the sons of ]^oah, especially in that of Ham. At any rate, if it did exist before the flood, its nature must have been known to Noah and his family. A very early idolatry after the flood, according to his- tory, was the worship of the sun in the heavens, and soon after that of the other heavenly bodies. Hence it has been thought probable that it was borrowed from the antediluvians, and did not grow up so suddenly without any help from tradition and example. The worship of the sun was at an early period estab- 200 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. lished in Clialdea, beyond the Euphrates, where Terah and Abraham once sojourned, and who, for a time per- haps, partook somewhat of its idolatry. Here was the great temple of Belus, or the sun. Sanchoniathon, the Chaldean historian, or whoever wrote the work, gives the following account of its first establishment : " In the second generation of men, during a great drought, Genus and Ge7ua (supposed by Bishop Cumberland to be Cain and Caina) stretched forth their hands to heaven, in adoration of the sun, for they supposed him to be Beel Jamin, or the Lord of the heavens. Afterwards, in the fifth generation, two pillars were consecrated to the ele- ments of fire and wind. And at length, when the authors of this idolatry were dead, similar pillars with trunks of trees were dedicated to them, and their memory was pre- served by anniversary feasts." Maimonides, the Jew, seems to favor the same idea in the following passage : " In the days of Enos, the son of Seth, men fell into grievous errors, and even Enos himself partook of their infatuation." Their language was, that " Since God had placed on high the heavenly bodies and used them as his ministers, it was evidently his will that they should re- ceive from men the same veneration as the servants of a great prince justly claim from the subject multitude." Impressed with this notion they began to build temples to the stars, to sacrifice to them and to worship them, in the vain expectation that they should please the Creator of all things. At first, indeed, they did not suppose the stars to be the only deities, but adored, in conjunction with them, the Lord God Omnipotent. In process of time, however, that great and venerable name was totally for- gotten, and the whole human race retained no other re- ligion than the worship of the hosts of heaven.^ * Mr. Fabcr says that Maimonides has rightly understood the words in the PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 201 Sanclioniathoii, who is quoted as affirming that " The first worship before the flood was of the heavenly bodies," or the elements of fire and wind, does also say that after the flood "The first deified mortal was I^oah, or Chryson, and that the several members of his family after their death were raised to the rank of gods, in connection with the heavenly bodies " — thus making the worship of he- roes or celebrated persons follow after and mingle with the hosts of heaven. This species of idolatry soon enlarged itself into the deification and worship of everything in nature which had life and power, and could exert any influence over other things, especially generative and creative power. The sun, moon, and stars ; the wind, fire, trees, vegetables ; beasts of the field, fowls of the air, — all had some energies and influence, especially the power of propagating their kind. They became gods to men, as having some of the attributes of the Creator, and thus the doctrine of pan- theism, which exists to this day, was introduced. God was in all things, and all things were a part of God — God was the world, and the world was God. The idea of a self-existent, independent, and eternal God, separate from nature, and the Creator of matter and all things, was lost from among men. Though they professed to worship the Creator together with the things created, they worshipped the creature as being visible and near them more than the Creator, and thus robbed him of his glory. Such is the account that some give of the rise and progress of idolatry in the world.* But there are some who prefer a difi'erent way of twenty-sixth verse of the fourth chapter of Genesis — " Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord ;" he says it should be rendered, " Then there was pollution in calling upon the name of the Lord," or that men called on the name of the Lord in a corrupt or apostatical manner, which Maimonides ren- ders " men fell into grievous errors." * See Rawlinson. 202 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. accounting for its first beginning, althongh agreeing that after reaching the heavenly bodies its progress through universal nature is riglitly traced, nntil pantheism and materialism became prevalent. They think that it began with some in the human form, and then ascended to the heavenly bodies. The great and good Sir Isaac !Newton, without discussing the question of its antediluvian exist- ence, ascribes its origin among the postdiluvians to the worship of heroes and kings. " Idolatry," he says, " be- gan in Chaldea and Egypt ; for the countries upon the Tigris and Nile, being exceedingly fertile, were first fre- quented, grew first into kingdoms, and therefore began to adore their dead kings and queens." But Mr. Faber, with some other learned mythologists, in tracing the won- derful connection and resemblance between the facts and truths recorded by Moses, in his brief but most pregnant history of man before the flood, thinks that he perceives its origin and much of its progress in the imitations and perversions of God, as appearing in the human form in paradise and elsewhere, nntil his incarnation in the per- son of Christ. There is something very interesting in this theory, and well calculated to secure our partiality and our favor. There is something unnatural in the supposi- tion that man should in one bold leap have rushed into idolatry at once by a flight into the heavenly bodies. All the histories of man's errors and vices favor the idea of a gradual corruption and perversion. " Nemo fuit unquam repente turpissimus." The corruption of Christianity itself was ^y little and little, until it became guilty of abominable idolatry, and thus was so changed as to be " another gospel." The wor- ship of the true God, before and after the flood, was doubt- less the foundation of the false worship, " The devil (said PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY, 203 one of the fathers) would never have built a chapel for himself in any place, except that one to the true God had first stood there." There is reason to believe, as we have before said, that the error in the sacrifice of Cain was the leaving out of his system the doctrine of the atonement by omitting the animal sacrifice, and only ofieriug up the fruits of the earth. Thus did Unitarianism arise and spread, by omitting the atonement made by the second person of the Trinity, and speaking only the praises of God the Father for all his other works. Let us here see the argu- ment in favor of hero-worship being the first step in idol- atry. It is written in the Book of Genesis, chap, iii., verses 6 and 8, that after the transgression of our first parents, when they had discovered their nakedness and were ashamed of themselves, " they heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and that they hid themselves from his presence among the trees of the garden." Here was " a voice heard," and the presence of some one walking in the garden fled from. It must have been some one who could be seen and heard, — somewhat like themselves. All that follows favors this idea. The learned tell us that " the Yoice of the Lord," as ap})lied to God in Genesis, answers to the words of St. John in the opening of his gospel : " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by him," etc. Now we are told by the apostle, " That no man hath seen God at any time ; but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him unto us." In him, though in the human form, " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." By what he was and did, he declared the Father to us as far as we could know him. There first it is that he is called the Word or the Voice of the Lord, whereby he speaks and declares himself to men. The Jewish rabbis thus render the passage in Genesis. 204: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. They make it," The Word of the Lord walking in the gar- den," instead of " the Yoice of the Lord." They consid- ered it not merely as a sound, but as a person, — a divine person, — the same who was one day to appear as the Mes- siah. Many passages of scripture are adduced to show that this was only the first of those manifestations of God in the form of man, who was to be the Redeemer of the world. Angels are often spoken of as being messengers of God, — ministering spirits to men ; but when God him- self visits earth, it is by " the angel of his presence," " the messenger of the covenant." As such, it is believed he held intercourse with Adam, with Noah, with Moses, and others. As such, he dwelt between the cherubim over the ark of the covenant, and guided the journey of the people of Israel, and spake to Moses and Aaron. It is also believed by some that the cherubim that guarded the garden of Eden were attended by " the presence of the Lord," which is sometimes spoken of, and was an object of worship, though Eden was a forbidden place as was the " Holy of Holies." If God did in some perceptible human form speak to men, we know not how often ; if sacrifices were ofifered to him as to the Seed of the wo- man who was to bruise the serpent's head and deliver man ; if one to be born of a woman was to be so great, and such a benefactor to man ; if, as all agree, this expec- tation was not confined to our first mother, but continued even to the time of our Lord ; if Eve herself thus regarded her first-born, but was mistaken, — how probable that others may have been mistaken, and that some of the most remarkable among men may have been regarded as having the divinity within them — even as being the promised Seed. Let it be once established that God had appeared in the human form in paradise, and in that form afterwards had intercourse with men, and does it not seem most probable that some of the great and good men might become the PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 205 objects of the first veneration and worship, rather than the distant heavenly bodies, or the elements, or any other creatures of God? "Wlio among them all has so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much power, and is so dreaded by the beasts of the field ? as it is written, " The fear of him and the dread of him shall be upon them." And now, if it be admitted that man is the most power- ful of all beings upon earth, most to be loved and feared ; and if it be asked which of all the ancients would be the most likely to become the object of undue veneration, can there be any doubt as to the answer ? Must not the first of the human race, made at once in a state of matu- rity by God himself, and having so many of the attributes of God in a measure, — one so favored, the inhabitant of Eden, the father of the whole human race, having power to propagate his kind, millions proceeding from him, — be the very person ? Who could compare with him ? So as to the mother of all, so miraculously formed, so per- fect,— who of all the daughters of earth so likely to be adored? How probable that the first-born of them — Cain, Abel, and Seth — should be raised to the rank of gods ! And as to Enoch, translated " without tasting death," who could withhold veneration from him ? And then, when the human race became corrupt, let us think of Noah, a great prince, so holy a preacher of righteousness, with whom God conversed ; one so wonderfully saved in a mighty ship, holding more than was ever stowed away in any vessel which rode upon the waters — the second father of the human race — afterwards regarded as Adam renewed and reappearing by transmigration : — and his sons, too, the fathers of mighty nations, — who, we ask, so likely to be adored on earth, to be translated to the heavenly bodies? Lotus not, however, reason or conjecture, but inquire for facts. If history shows that this was the case, surely we must assent. It is admitted by all historians 206 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, and mythologists that tlie most ancient and leading doc- trine of the pagan world, except that of the Numen, — " the first great cause least understood" — was, that the great deities were the same the world over, though called by different names according to the diversity of tongues, and with some modifications of character. Let us take the account given by Homer and Hesiod, the great class- ifiers of the gods. Old Saturn, or Chronus, was the same male divinity ; E-hea, or Themis, or the Earth, the same female divinity, with different names, all over the world. The three deities most distinguished after the flood were Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. Sir "William Jones has established the identity of these deities of Eu- rope, Asia, and Africa, with the first fathers of the human race, in an able article in his "Asiatic Researches." Many other learned men have done the same. If the worship of heroes and great men, and sacrifices to them, be a perversion of the worship of the true God in the human form, then we may understand and accept the language of one of the fathers, that " Paganism was, in the beginning, rather a heresy from the patriarchal church, than a new system." Mr, Faber remarks, that '-Mankind were not so idioti- cal as to desert gratuitously the worship of Jehovah, and in his place to adore their defunct ancestors; but they were taught to believe that in venerating certain eminent and remarkable characters, they in reality worshipped the successive incarnate manifestations of that divine Word who was acknowledged on all hands to be Jehovah him- self," In proof of the deification of heroes, the fathers, — St. Augustine and others, — quote the celebrated letter of Alex- ander the Great, when in Egypt. After conversing with the chief priest in Egypt, he writes to his mother, as a great secret revealed to him, that the priest assured him, PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 207 that not only the lesser but the greater gods of Egypt were only deceased mortals. Cicero also informs us that " Death conducted illustrious men and women to heaven, while others of the meaner sort were unable to extricate themselves from earth. If," he says, " I should search out and examine antiquity, it would be found that those very gods who are deemed the Dii Majorum Gentium had their originals here below, and ascended from hence into heaven." In all the orgies of Samothrace, Crete, and Lemnos, says Mr. Faber, the same was declared. Hesiod informs us that his gods were originally men, who flourished in the golden age, — that is, immediately after the creation and the delut^e. Sometimes the chief deity of the Gentiles is represented as having sailed with seven companions in a ship during a great inundation ; at others he is represented as the sun himself, sailing in a great ship. So generally were ancient heroes worshipped in Egypt, that in only one place, Thebais, was it refused to pay a tax for the expenses of their worship ; yet one of their writers maintained that " tlieir ancient god, called Cneph, was the only god, and that no mortal could be god." All the varied incarnations and manifestations of the Deity in the mythologies of the ancient nations, — and they are numerous, — may be reasonably traced up to the differ- ent manifestations of God, in the human form, to our an- cestors before and after the flood. The religions of the ancient nations in the East are full of what are called Avaturs, or manifestations of God to men at successive periods. One of these represents the Deity as treading on the head of a serpent, while the ser- pent is biting his heel. In the Grecian mythology, Jupiter, in the form of a man, converses with the impious Lycaon, immediately 208 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. before the deluge ; while, with Mercury as his companion, he rewards the piety of Baucis and Philemon, and destroys an irreligious city by the waters of a lake. This reminds us of what is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul, having cured an impotent man, the people would have worshipped him and his companion Barnabas, call- ing one Jupiter and the other Mercurius, saying, " the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." We must not omit to mention Prometheus, the ancient king of so many nations, who was at once a king and a god, and yet none other than Noah. Jupiter having determined to destroy the human race, none of the other gods dared interfere except Prometheus. He brought fire from heaven to animate the clay, and on this account was devoted to severe punishment. yEschi- lus, in one of his tragedies, represents him as bound to a rock on Mount Caucasus, in the most painful posture, where he endured the most bitter mockery, and was thus taunted : " Now let us see thee bestow high gifts of the gods on wretched mortals! Can these mortals liberate thee from thy present suffering?" Nor must we forget another most important feature in this doctrine of the in- carnation, viz : that the Deity, thus becoming human, is born of a woman, generally of a virgin. Not more clearly is this stated in scripture than it is seen in some of the pagan mythologies. Now let us see how the worship of heroes became con- nected with that of the sun, moon, and stars, etc. Sancho- niathon, the Phoenician historian, in speaking of postdi- luvian idolatry, says that Noah, or Chryson, was the first deified mortal, and the several members of his family, after their deaths, were raised to the rank of gods, in con- nection with the heavenly bodies. Among the Hindoos, the Richis, who were preserved PKOGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 209 in the ark, afterwards animated the seven stai*s of the Great Bear, and their wives those of the Pleiades. In Chaldea it was believed that the great Father had made seven erratic living animals, which were the seven worlds or planets. The earliest king of Egypt was called Ilelius, or the Snn ; bnt the worship of the hero preceded that of the heavenly body into which he ascended. Thus, Julius Csesar \vas the cause of the star being worshipped, into M'hich he was supposed to ascend. It was indeed the pre- vailing idea, among tlie ancient philosophers and poets, that the stars were inhabited, and had souls. Some of the Jewish rabbis believed it. Philo, the Jew, calls them de- vout images ; incorruptible, immortal souls. Maimonides says they are all animated, having life, knowledge, and understanding. Perhaps in this way he construed a fig- urative passage in Job, which speaks of the " morning stars singing together, and all the sons of God shouting for joy." The adoration of the heavenly bodies has ever been the most plausible, and the most natural and innocent of the pagan idolatries ; therefore it is that the scriptures are so frequent and so strong in warning against being led into it. God calls himself " the Sun," and, in order to show his undivided authority, did, on certain occasions, make both sun and moon to stop in their accustomed courses. Nor could they move at all but by his mighty power and at his bidding. So noble are all the luminaries of heaven ; so probable does it seem that they are filled with inhabi- tants to praise him that made them and who delights to fill universal space with living beings, that even now there are those among Christians who, on beholding the vault of heaven covered with stars, say, " May not these be some of the many mansions of which our Saviour speaks, and may not one of tliem be the future habitation of the re- deemed souls and the glorified bodies of his renewed 14 210 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ones ? " And llioiigli none can establish it, who can gain- say it? When Enoch and Ehjah were taken up into heaven ; when the Son of God, after visiting earth so often in the human form, disappeared, perhaps as from Mount Olivet, and soared towards heaven, how natural the thought that some of the heavenly bodies might be his habitation ; and then how easy the transition to the thought that when the great ones of earth died their souls might ascend also ! Tlie kings and warriors of earth, out of ambition and vainglory ; and their flattering syco- phants, out of their folly and self-interest, did everything in their power to keep up this delusion. The former claimed to be descended from some god, and then declared their ascent to the stars after their death.'"' Thus did the evil one, who falsely promised to our first parents that they should be as gods if they would obey him, continue to carry on the work as the father of lies, and sought to persuade men that numbers of the human race had become gods and M'^ere worthy of their worship. The falsehood has been perpetuated upon earth, not only among the heathen but in some measure among Christians, as may * Some notice of astrology may here be introduced. "Mythology in one age," says Mr. Faber, " becomes romance in the next, and finally is degraded into nursery talcs in the third. Hence arose the fancies of judicial astrology, in which the stars, according to their various positions and combinations, at the birth of an individual, were thought subsequently to influence the whole of his life ;" and there were those who professed to foretell all the events of a man's life, from observing the stars at his nativity. " The heavenly bodies, in their first condition, were imagined to be living creatures, possessing sensation but devoid of intelligence. Next, however, they became a class of living creatures, possessing intelligence as well as sensation." This, Mr. Faber thinks, originated from the impression that the hero-gods tirst hovered over the earth as guardians of their descendants ; then were translated to the stars, and animated them; Some have maintained that the scriptures give countenance to this idea, as in the song of Deborah at the discomfiture of Sisera. — (Judges v.) " From the heavens they fought. The stars from their lofty places (or in their courses) fought against Sisera," and he was discomfited. Mr. Faber thinks that the prophetess, in a fine strain of irony, " is taunting the kings of Canaan with consulting the stars and believing that they fought with them ! " PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 211 be seen in the adoration of the saints and of the mother of our Lord. It is difficult to divest our own sacred poetry of the language of idolatry, as for instance in the beauti- ful hymn — " Star of the East, the horizon adorning, Dawn on our darkness," etc., etc. And in our great national song — "Hail, Columbia, happy land! Hail, ye heroes, heaven-born band ! " How few, in repeating and singing these lines, consider that they are using the language of paganism ! I conclude on this subject by stating a remarkable cir- cumstance which takes place in some of the Eastern sacri- fices, and which favors the idea that the origin of idolatry may be traced to the appearance of God himself in the human form, and of the sacrifice of " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The circumstance is this : if the victim slain be in the human form it is first wor- shipped. In the "Asiatic Researches," vol. v., we have an account of the ceremony and the prayer. The victim is thus addressed : " O best of men ! O most auspicious ! O thou who art an assemblage of all the deities, and most exquisite ! bestow thy protection on me, and part with thine organs of life, doing an act of benevolence." Thus it is written, " Let the sacrificer worship the victim." Brah- ma and all the deities are supposed to assemble in the victim. The sacrificer must say, " Mysterious praise be to this victim." Messrs. Faber, Bryant, and others adduce the above in favor of the view they take of this subject. As to the rise and progress of idolatry, when the philos- ophers undertook the management of religion tliey turned the persons of heroes or ancients into attributes of God or nature ; and wherever power or force was found, there they 212 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. found the Deity. The poets again took the abstractions of the philosophers and converted them into idle tales or un- intelligible allegories. These two things have perplexed the question of the origin of idolatry, leading some to as- cribe it to the brains and fancies of philosophers and poets rather than to some early facts in the history of God's dealings with man, which have been perverted into fable. CHAPTER XIV. ON THE DELUGE. PART FIRST. According to our plan, we will first give tlie account of it as recorded by Moses. In tlie sixth chapter of Genesis it is written : "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." " But IS'oali found grace in the eyes of the Lord ;" for " !Noah was a just man, and walked with God." "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them ; and I will destroy them with the earth." lie then bids him build an ark, or ship, after the pat- tern given him by the Lord, into which he and his wife, and his sons and their wives with them, must enter, taking with them pairs of all fowls and beasts which were unclean, and of the clean by sevens, and also sufii- cient food for all. This being done according to the divine command, the clouds from above opened their win- dows, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the waters which came forth prevailed and cov- ered the earth for one hundred and fifty days. In due time God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were assuaged. In the seventh month the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. At the end of one year and ten days Koah and his family descended from 214 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tlie ark, with, all that was in it. And he built an altar to the Lord, and offered sacrifices. Then began anew the race of man, and of the other animals made for his use, with a promise from God that he would never again thus destroy the earth. Of such a tremendous dispensation as this, if it did really occur, all must admit that the most undoubted proofs would be furnished, so long as the earth shall re- main to exhibit the effects of so tremendous a convul- sion, and so long as man is capable of transmitting, from generation to generation, any knowledge of what has hap- pened on earth. This surely, above all things, is that event of which all nations, in all ages and countries, must have some tradition. It is not our purpose to adduce the evidences which the geologist finds in those numerous fossil remains of animals and plants and trees of all kinds, and of every size, which are on and below the surface of the earth, aj^id which some mighty flow of waters only could have placed there. Though we may have cause to allude to such in the progress of our work, yet we must leave the details of the argument and the specification of facts to the geolo- gist, only referring our readers to some of the numerous works of that class of defenders of our holy religion. The plan of our work leads us to adduce, in behalf of the deluge, some of those numerous corroborations of scrip- ture which abound in the ancient histories, poems, and mythological traditions. Before we begin with our quotations, it is proper that we should repeat what has already been stated, and what may require to be incorporated again into other state- ments, viz., that the deluge was not considered by many ancient nations as the first great catastrophe which hap- pened to our earth. The doctrine of a succession of worlds, by destruction ON THE DELUGE. 215 and reproduction, pervades many of tlie pagan mytliolo- gies, especially tliose of the East. Fire and water are the elements supposed to be nsed by some god, or gods, in these destructions and reproductions. I mention this at once, because you will lind the fact so often inter- mingled with the testimonies about to be introduced, and they will thus be the better understood. These traditions favor the theory of those who think that before or dm-ing the period of that chaos which preceded the present or- ganization of the earth and heavens, and the formation of man, and of animals for the use of man, there may have been revolutions in the state of the earth, and even ani- mals suited to those revolutions, though not such as now exist and have existed since man was formed. Certain it is, however, that Moses has given us no hint of any such revolutions, or such races of animals, and therefore we confine ourselves to his record. TESTIMONIES OF DIFFEEENT NATIONS TO THE FACT OF A DELUGE. The great deity of the Hindoos is Brahm, who is said to appear at the beginning of every new world. He trip- licated himself into three deities, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, who are believed to be, first, Adam and his three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth, the only ones named by Moses ; and next, Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the only ones mentioned, and who, as we shall hereafter see, were the chief deities of the heathen world, except so far as they believed in one invisible su]3reme Numen, or god. The Egyptians held the same opinion as to a succession of worlds. In their most ancient books — those ascribed, whe- ther rightfully or not, to Hermes — the doctrine is taught that " nothing perishes ; " that " death is only a change or translation of things ; " that " the Supreme Being, be- 216 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. holding the manners of men from time to time, either washes away with water or consumes witli fire the malignity of the world, and then restores it again to its ancient form." Such was the account given to Solon by an Egyptian priest. Origen, the learned father, gives the same ac- count of their system, saying, that "According to their speculations the world was never produced, but existed from all eternity." Of course, this god of the Egyptians was not our God who " made the heavens and the earth," even though he may have permitted it to be in a state of chaos, or without form, and void, or in some other form than its present one, for a certain time. This Egyptian god could only have been the soul or mind of tlie world ; its regulator, not its maker. The Chinese and Burmans hold opinions in unison with the foregoing. The Chaldeans or Babylonians, according to their histO' rian, Berosus, held as follows : In the time of Zizuthrus, (the same with Noah,) and who like Noah was the ninth in descent from the first man, happened the great deluge whose histor}^ is tlius given : " The god Chronus appeared to him in a vision, and gave him notice that on the fif* teentli day of the month Desius, there would be a flood by which all mankind would be destroyed. After direct- ing him to write a history of the past and put it in some place of security, he bids liini build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations, and to trust himself fearlessly to the deep. The command was obeyed, and Zizuthrus takes with him into liis vessel all kinds of ani- mals. Tlie vessel was five stadia in length, and two in breadth. After the flood had covered the earth and begun to abate, he sent forth some birds, who came back twice, having their feet tinged with mud ; but sending them a third time, they returned no more. He now opened the vessel, and found that it was driven to the side of a moun- ON THE DELUGE. 217 tain. Descending from it with his family, he first paid adoration to the earth, and then buikled an altar and offered sacrifices to the gods. The remainder of his friends, after "waiting for some time in the ship, came out in search of them but could not find them ; but they heard the voice of Zizuthrus in the air, who admonished them to pay due regard to the gods, saying that he, his wife, children, and pilot had all been exalted to the rank of gods." Berosus remarks that the remains of the vessel were to be seen in his time, on one of the mountains of Armenia, and that people were wont to scrape the bitumen with which it had been coated, to use as charms. Whatever may be thought of this last affirmation, who will deny the proba- bility that the remains of such a vessel, which for size and excellency has perhaps never been surpassed if equalled, should for centuries be found on that high and healthy mountain-top ? THE GRECLOr AND SYRIAJf ACCOUNT, AS GIVEN BY LUCIAN. " This generation of men was not the first, for all of them perished ; but these are from a second race, which all in- creased from a single person, named Deucalion, to its pres- ent multitude." Concerning these men, they relate, that being of a ferocious and violent temper, they were guilty of every sort of lawlessness ; wherefore a great calamity befell them. The earth suddenly poured forth a large body of water ; heavy torrents of rain descended ; the rivers overflowed their banks ; the sea rose above its ordinary level, until the whole world was inundated, and all that were in it perished. In the midst of the general destruc- tion, Deucalion alone was left to another generation on account of his extraordinar}^ wisdom and piety. His pres- ervation was thus effected. He caused his sons and their wives to enter into a large ark which he had provided, and afterwards went into it himself; but while he was embark- 218 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. iiig, swine and horses and lions and serpents and all other animals came to him in pairs. These he took in with him, and they injured him not ; bnt on the contrary, the great- est harmony subsisted between them, through the influ- ence of the Deity, Thus they sailed together in one ark, as long as the waters prevailed. The Syrians (says Lucian) add to this a tradition of the waters being swallowed up by a large chasm in their country, and say that Deucalion himself had a temple built on it, and some religious cere- monies established annually to commemorate their deliv- erance. Nothing is here said about the dove, but Plutarch informs us that mythologists declare that Deucalion sent a dove out of the ark, which when it returned to him showed that the storm was not abated ; but when he saw it no more, he concluded that the sky was become serene again. THE HINDOO TESTIMONY. The learned Sir "William Jones translated a long tradi- tion from one of the ancient books of India, in which, not- withstanding all the oriental romance and figure, the main facts of the Mosaic account of the deluge are substantiated. Brahma, one of the three sons of Bralim, is represented as lying in a profound sleep for a whole night, — that is, a year, according to the Hindoo reckoning, during which the earth was destroyed by a deluge. Tlie traditions of the Druids in Europe, who derived their religion from the East, resembles the Hindoo tradi- tion. "Tlie profligacy of mankind had provoked the Supreme to send a pestilential wind upon the earth. A pure poison descended, and every blast was death. At this time the patriarch, distinguished for his integrity, was shut up with seven select companions in a floating island, or enclosure, with a strong door. Here the just ones wxre safe from injury. Presently a tempest of fire ON THE DELUGE. 219 arose, which split the earth asunder to the great deep. The lake llllon burst its bounds. The waves of the sea lifted themselves on high round the borders of Britain ; the rain poured doAvn from heaven, and the waters cover- ed the earth ; but that water was intended as a lustration to purify the polluted globe, to render it meet for the re- newal of life, to wash away the contagion of its former inhabitants into the chasms of the abyss. The flood, which swept away from the earth the expiring remains of the patriarch's contemporaries, raised his vessel or enclosure on high from the ground, bore it safe upon the summit of the waves, and proved to him and his associates the water of life and renovation." Such, according to Davies and Faber, are the Druidical traditions concerning the deluge. THE CHINESE TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE. " I may assure you," says Sir William Jones, in one of his addresses to the Asiatic Society, " that the Chinese, like the Hindoos, believe this earth to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of undisj)uted author- ity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subdivid- ing, and separating the higher from the lower age of mankind ; and that the division of time, from which their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fohi on the mountains of China." There can be no' doubt that Fohi was none other than Noah, Deucalion,. Zizuthius, and others, who by diflerent names rej^resented the patriarch of the deluge. AMERICAN TRADITIONS OF THE FLOOD. " At the time of the conquest of America," says Mr.. Faber, quoting from Howard, Purchas, and Herera, " the inhabitants of Michoaca, Thascala, and Achajagna still 220 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. preserved a tradition tliat the world was once overwlielm- ed with water in consequence of tlie prevailing wicked- ness of the age. The Michoacans believed that a priest called Tespi was preserved, along with his wife and chil- dren, in a great box of wood, in which also he had col- lected a variety of animals, and excellent seed of all kinds. After the waters had retreated, be sent out a bird called anrja, which did not return ; he then sent out several others which did not return. Last of all he sent out a bird much smaller than the others, which the natives esteemed most. This soon returned again, with a branch of a tree in its mouth." The Peruvians, we are informed by Gomara, believed in a similar manner that it once rained so violently as to inundate all the lower parts of the country, in consequence of which a universal destruction of the human race took place, a few persons excepted, who escaped in caves situ- ated on the tops of the mountains. In place of doves they substituted dogs, which they sent out to explore the country. They also reckoned the number of persons saved as seven. Such is the case with a number of the ancient traditions, for a reason hereafter to be mentioned. The Peruvian seven are doubtless the same with the seven Cabiri, the seven Titans, the seven Hindoo Rishis, the seven Arkite, companions of the British Arthur. The Brazilians also had their account of a general flood. When that event took place, all mankind perished, one person only and his sister excepted, who escaped on a janipater. From this pair the Brazilians deduce their origin. Lerius informs us that he was present at one of their assemblies, where in a solemn chorus they chanted a kind of requiem to their ancestors. In the course of the song they did not fail to notice the catastrophe of the deluge, in which the whole world perished excej)t some of their progenitors, who escaped by climbing big trees. ON THE DELUGE. 221 Tlie inhabitants of Cuba have very special traditions concerning it. They say, "An old man, fearing the deluge, built a great ship, and went into it with his family and an abundance of animals. After he had been shut up many days he sent out a crow, which did not return, but stayed to feed on dead bodies ; at length, however, it came back with a green branch in its mouth." They related, moreover, that this ancient man lay un- covered in consequence of intoxication, and that one of his sons scoffed at him while in that state ; but the others spread their garments over him. They added, that they themselves were descended from the former son, hence they had no garments to cover their nakedness ; and they argued that the Si3aniards had sprung from another son, that is, from one of those who had spread their garments over their father, because they had both clothes and horses. Herera asserts that this narrative was communicated by a Cuban, more than seventy years of age, to Gabriel de Cabrera, who in a quarrel had called him a dog : Where- fore he asked, " Dost thou abuse me, since we are breth- ren ? Do we not spring from the two sons of him who built the great ship to save himself from the waters ? " Numer- ous are the other testimonies to the same effect, from the same and different nations, but the above ought surely to suffice to satisfy all who are not steeled against all evi- dence in favor of a deluge. Some of its opponents object that these traditions relate only to some partial overflow of water which has affected certain localities of the earth, and whose occurrence is not denied. Others object to the theory of a general or universal deluge, that many of the fossils and skeletons and coal mines which once were considered proofs of a deluge, are now ascribed to revolutions and convulsions of a much earlier date than the deluge, and are believed 222 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. to be the remains of animals and forests wliicli existed before tlie period of Adam's formation and the establish- ment of the earth in its present condition. Others main- tain that the Mosaic account is fully established without supposing that the whole of our globe was covered by the flood ; that it is sufhcient to suppose that the flood de- stroyed the wliole human race, with the exception of Noah and his family ; that it is not certainly known whether the whole earth was covered with inhabitants before the flood ; whether the continent of America, or large portions of it, may not have been brought to the surface by the operation of the flood, and some parts of the other hemis])here have been destitute of inhabitants. They maintain tliat perhaps only large portions of Eu- rope, Asia, and Africa were settled before the flood, and that the deluge may only have covered these continents, or large portions of the same, destroying all the men and other animals except those in the ark. However we may prefer the more literal understanding of the language of Moses, and the doctrine of the more universal deluge, we must not condemn as unbelievers and unsound those who adopt a more restricted view of the subject. The Eev. Mr. Ilarcourt, son of the late Archbishop of York, who has written two learned octavos on the deluge, advocates the most literal understanding of the language of scrij)- ture as to its universality; and yet, he wishes to be under- stood as not denying that there are things which geologists have discovered in the bosom of the earth, which, though once ascribed to the deluge, must be ascribed to a pre- vious era and dispensation, though there are a sufficient number of phenomena yet belonging to the surface and the first strata beneath, which can only be ascribed to the destruction by the deluge. Mr. Faber, also, though hold- ing decided views as to a general deluge according to the literal Mosaic record, has, in his great work on the "Pa- ON THE DELUGE. 223 gan Mythology," presented those traditions and facts in relation to partial deluges which have encouraged the supposition that the Mosaic record related to the most ex- tensive of them, and to one in which God's anger at the sins of men was signally displayed, even to the total de- struction of the antediluvian race, except K"oah and his family. I conclude the present chapter by an account of some of these traditions. From an examination of these documents, and the locali- ties themselves, Mr. Faber thinks it not impossible that the Euxine sea, once a lake, may have burst its bounds, and poured its redundant waters through the cleft of the Bosphorus ; nor impossible that the Mediterranean sea may, in a similar manner, perhaps in the way of cause and effect, have broken for itself a passage into the ocean, thus discharging the streams which it had previously re- ceived from the Euxine. TLATO'S ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND OF ATLANTIS. According to Plato, when Solon was in Egypt a learned priest of the country informed him that there was once, at the entrance of the main ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), an island larger than all Asia and Africa, of which traditions very like those relating to l^oah and the flood existed ; but that the Mediterranean sea, at that time a large lake without any inlet into the ocean, was swelled above its usual level by an extraordi- nary influx of the great rivers which disembogue themselves into it. Tlie weight of the waters, assisted by an earth- quake, burst through the isthmus which there connected Europe and Africa, and by their sudden escape over- whelmed extensive tracts of land. Mr. Faber rather gives a mythological interpretation of this. The destruc- tion of cities and the submei'ging of islands were some- 224 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. times regarded as deluges, and perhaps identified with the great dehige. That islands have sunk in the ocean, is matter of history which is not questioned. As to the de- struction of cities, it is sufficient to mention Sodom and Gomorrah, nearly twenty miles apart, (one at the head, the other at the foot of the Dead Sea,) which were de- stroyed by fire and sunk in a lake. It is not wonderful that as Abraham was the tenth from I^oah, and Noah was the tenth from Adam, that Lot and his daughters should have feared another deluge, one of fire mingled with water. It is not wonderful that it should afterwards have been considered a deluge. Yery numerous are the tradi- tions of floods, — as in that of Samothrace, and those in Cashmere, a country very liable to overflowings, — which have been identified with the great flood of Koali. We are bold to affirm that not only scripture, but the traditions of the ancients, distinguish the latter from all others, so as to make it one of the most striking proofe of the truth of the sacred narrative. CHAPTER XY. ON THE DELUGE. PART SECOND. COMMEMORATIONS AND SYM- BOLS OF THE DELUGE, THE ARK, AND MOUNT ARARAT. TVe repeat the remark, tliat if sucli an overflowing of the earth as that recorded by Moses, with its most proba- ble eflfects on and beneath the surface, did occur, suffi- cient evidences of it must be found in and upon the earth itself ; while the traditions of nations would in all time bear witness to it. We further remark, that so memorable an event, be- yond any other whatever, would also be inscribed on the memory of the human race by monuments and usages and stated celebrations, such as man has been ever prone to adopt in regard to all things in which he was deep- ly interested, but which were likely to be forgotten ; wherefore, we find the ancient world filled with sacred places, mountains, caverns, temples, celebrations, referring to this event, while historians assure us of their design. But let us, according to our plan, first see what the most ancient of all books, the Bible, has to say on this branch of the subject. We have shown, in a former chapter, the great probability that the garden of Eden and Mount Ararat, if not identical as to locality, were very near to each other in the mountains of Armenia, where the great rivers mentioned by Moses took their rise. 15 226 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. According to some traditions, the ark rested on tlie side of one of those mountains, and not on the most lofty and craggy and inaccessible peak. At the foot or side of the mountain lay the garden of Eden, through which the river ran, afterwards dividing itself into four streams. That the mountain and the ark resting on it should be ever held in veneration, is not only probable, but, accord- ing to the constitution of man, and history, most certain ; and since tlie whole human race, in all ages and countries, could not see this mountain and ship, it is most probable that similar mountains and high places would remind them of it, and that vessels sailing on the ocean and rivers should be interesting objects to them, and that pictures and imitations of the mountain and ark should also be made in after time. Although we do not affirm that the scriptures give us the origin of the religious use of moun- tains, as it is altogether probable that they were thus used in other tribes and nations before the days of Abraham, when Moses first makes mention of it, yet we do affirm that the records of Moses furnish a divine sanction for this method of commemorating the use of Mount Ararat in receiving the ark. The first instance of the religious use of a mountain, as related by Moses, is that of Noah on Mount Ararat, where, on leaving the ark, he built an altar and offered sacrifice. The next is tliat of Abraham, on a mountain between Bethel and Hai, where he built an altar and called ui:)on the name of tlie Lord, and where he afterwards found his place of worship on returning from Egypt. The next was Mount Hebron, then Mount Moriah, where he went, by divine direction, to sacrifice his son Isaac, and which was called the Mount of the Lord, The next was Mount Gilead, wliere Jacob ofiered a sacrifice. Moses himself had evidence of the favor shown by God to elevated places in the manifestations of himself. ON THE DELUGE. 227 In Horeb, called the Mount of the Lord, he appeared unto Moses, commissioning liim for his great work, and told him by what name to call the God who sent him. At Sinai, not far distant from Iloreb, God appeared in the midst of clouds and lire and thunder, and spake unto him, and delivered the ten commandments, written with his own hand, and delivered sundry other statutes to Moses. If we pursue the history of the Jewish nation through the time of the judges, the prophets, and the kings, we shall find numerous instances in which God hon- ored mountains and high places by appointing them for sacrifices and holy observances. Especially did he choose Jerusalem as the place for his great temple, calling it Mount Zion, and bidding the people assemble there for his worship three times a year, and making it the per- manent abode of the hitherto wandering ark of the cove- nant. Kor did our Lord himself, wliile on earth, though declaring that God might be worshipped in every place if worshipped in spirit and in truth, despise the ancient and honored temples of nature. He chose one of them for the delivery of that first of sermons, the Sermon on the Mount. He himself loved to retire into some of the mountains around Jerusalem to pray ; he chose a moun- tain for his fierce contest with the evil one. The Mount of Olives was his favorite resort, and from a mountain did he ascend up into heaven when his work on earth was consummated. Doubtless some of the most acceptable sacrifices and efi'ectual fervent prayers were oftered up in such places by the faithful, not only in Abraham's line, but in other lines, before the true faith and worship were lost to the lat- ter upon earth. Koah himself, who with some of his more pious descendants may long have lingered near the bliss- ful seat of paradise, in sight of the lofty Ararat and of the 228 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. sacred ark, may sometimes have revisited it for sacred prayer and sacrifices. However natural, however innocent this use of elevated places in the early ages for purposes of worship and for perpetuating the recollection of the deluge, this, like all other things, became perverted in the hands of man to sinful and idolatrous purposes. Some of the learned be- lieve that the tower of Babel, which was the similitude of some high mountain peak, was built either M'itli a view of bidding defiance to another deluge, or for the purpose of worshipping the sun, moon, and stars. That these were worshipped afterwards on the tops of temples, mountains, and hills, is undeniable. The scriptures are full of God's denunciations against the high places in Israel, on which sacrifices to the gods of the heathen were offered. The pious kings and judges in Israel evinced their zeal in behalf of the worship of the true God by destroying the altars and the groves where these sacrifices w^ere made, although, in some instances, they were permitted to be used for the pure worship of Jehovah, at any rate until the temple worship was established at Jerusalem, on Mount Zion. But in process of time, in various parts of the world, not only were these and other memorials of the deluge used in the worship of false gods, — the deified inhabitants of the ark especially, — but the very memorials themselves, the high places and pillars and towers, were superstitiously regarded. The creature, instead of the Creator, was adored ; the sign and memorial, instead of the thing it- self, were worshipped. It is affirmed by some, that every sign in the Zodiac, as we have it in all the almanacs of the land, has special reference to the deluge. It would extend the length of our treatise too much to enter into an explanation of all this. The reader may find it all in the learned work of ON" THE DELUGE, 229 Mr. Ilarcoiirt on the deluge. We must content ourselves with selecting a few out of the numerous memorials of the deluge, which are furnished by the temples of religion, the sacred caverns, pillars, and towers celebrated in the heathen world. The mountains of Ararat consist of two high peaks, with a kind of valley between, presenting the appearance of the head of a bull with his horns, especially when in a mood to lock his horns with another ; or a new moon in its cres- cent state ; or of a ship, with its prow and stern. There- fore it is that these three things are so prominent in all the descriptions and celebrations of the deluge. The bull was called Taurus, because his horns referred to the residence of the great chieftain of the ship on one of these horns or peaks. Several mountains are called Tau, or Taurus, for the same reason. The Phoenician name for a bull and a ship is the same. Mount Ararat is called baris (a ship), by the natives, because of the ship, or ark, which rested on it, and whose remains were seen on it for a long time.'^' The ark was certainly, in some measure, the pattern after wdiich many temples were built in after ages. The celebrated temple at Stonehenge in England is circular, * Other mountains, it is true, lay claim to the honor of being the earthlj^ paradise, and the residence of those who were saved from the deluge. IMount Menu in Asia, at the head of the Ganges, in the Caucasian range of mountains, claims to have been the abode of the gods. Mount Olympus, in Greece, ^'■Eter- nal sun-^ldne settling on its liead" was the favorite seat of the Grecian gods. Parnassus was the haunt of the Muses. These, with others, claim the honor of rescuing the human race from destruction by the waves. This is not more wonderful than that so many localities claim to be the birthplace of Homer. These various claims pi'ove that there was such a poet as Homer, which some pretend to disbelieve. All these claims for the honor of being the receptacle of the tempest-tost ark, only establish the fact of the deluge and the ark. Deucalion was called "A Floater on the Seas." The Persians call Ararat "The Mountain of Noah" — some call it "The Mountain of the Eight." The Turks call it " The Beloved Mountain." Who can question the identity of Noah and his family with all others who, in different countries and languages, were said to be involved in a deluge, or saved by a mountain, or ship." 230 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. but the sanctum is like the hull of a ship. In Ireland, and elsewhere, the Druids had many such temples. We read of a large ship-temple in Egypt, dedicated to Isis. The Chinese sometimes have their tombs in the form of a crescent or new moon, or bull's head, all much tlie same in form, and place them in high situations. Travellers have said that the ruins of Babel, when last seen, resemble a hill with a tower on the top. In ancient times, the Druids, in Yorkshire especially, selected high hills for their bonfires (good-fires) so-called, because fires of peace, religious exhibitions. Tlie Per- sians, it is well known, used to ascend the highest moun- tain in order to worship and sacrifice. The summits of some hills in India are covered witli pagodas. The an- cient Celts loved the mountains, as well as rivers and lakes, for worship. The Pelasgi consecrated the summits of high mountains to Jupiter, and there erected altars, for which reason he was called Jupiter Epacrias, " the god of high summits." The Gauls had a sanctuary consecrated to Jupi- ter upon the highest of the Alps. There is also a remark- able one on that part of Mount Atlas, in Africa, which projects into the Atlantic, and is almost surrounded by the ocean. To the Western Lybians, now called Africans, it was both a temple and an idol. There is also Mount Athos, in Macedonia, which, like Atlas, is almost surrounded by the sea. It has been a holy mountain from the earliest period to the present time, being filled with cells for the priests. Wonderful things are told of it, in ancient fables. To these we might add, Phrygian Ida, the Sicilian Eryx ; and we might almost say that all the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa had their high mountains in esteem as places of public worship. The infidel, Baily, admits the historical fact, but is unable to account for it. What is yet more remarkable, all of them make one of these higli mountains the abode of the first gods, who were the fathers ON THE DELUGE. 231 of the liuman race, and also tlie place where the ark of the deluge rested. Man, ever prone to idolatry, has paid undue reverence to them all ; wherefore, God said by hie prophets, " In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountainSp" CHAPTEK XYI. ON THE DELUGE. PART THIRD. As there are many parts of the earth where high moun- tains and deep caverns resembling the ark were not to be found, and where yet the inhabitants wished to com- memorate the deluge and the ark in their religious wor- ship, artificial imitations of the same must be substituted. Such was the plain of Shinar in Assyria, on the river Eu- phrates, where the great tower of Babel was begun by Nimrod, and afterwards finished by ]!!iinus as the temple of Belus, where the worship of the sun was so long ob- served. How long this occurred after the deluge ; how many mountains and high hills they may have used on their migrations to this place ; how much error may have mingled with their v/orship ere they reached the plains ; how much of the worship of the sun may have been there established, are matters of dispute among the learned. Certain it is that this was the great metropolis of Sabi- anisra, or Sun-worship, for ages after, and that reference was had in its very structure to the mount of the deluge^ and the ark. Herodotus mentions that there was not only a temple on the top of this first and greatest of pyramids, which towered on high from the plain like the peak of a mountain, but a chapel or sacellum, lower down, with a figure of Belus in a sitting posture^ as in Egypt. A reference to those in Egypt will throw light upon this point. The first of the pyramids in Egypt was built on the bank of the Kile,, in the form of a mountain, with ON THE DELUGE. 233 a temple or tower on the top. It was doubtless built by those M'ho brought the Chaldean religion into Egypt when it was overrun by the shepherd kings, who subdued the original settlers, the descendants of Misraim the son of Ham, who it is believed had a purer form of worship. It was called " The Egyptian Babel," being an express copy of that at Babylon. Thucydides and other Greek writers speak of the remains of this neglected pyramid. Other pyramids, as those at Sackarra and Cairo, were built afterwards, in the same form, and doubtless during the six hundred years of bond- age to the shepherd kings, the period of its greatest glory in the arts and sciences. One of these is called the great pyramid, being larger than all others. In the centre, into which you must crowd hrough a small door and a long tortuous passage, much like a serpent, there is a chamber, thirty -four feet by seventeen and a half, wntli a pitch of nine- teen and a half. Thirty feet above this is another chamber of the same dimensions, except that it is lower pitched. In one of the other pyramids, to the north and west, there are suits of caverns cut out of the solid rock, with small doors. There was an interior chamber in the body of the pyramid, but the entrance to it was so closed up with rubbish that it was inaccessible. It is affirmed that these apartments were for the dwellings of the priests, and mys- terious religious celebrations.'^' Herodotus speaks of two other pyramids, which seem to refer still more to Mount Ararat. They were built where tlie lake Moeris was dug, the waters being let in all around them so as to enclose and bury a part of them, and * We read in the Prophets of a bed being shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than be can wrap himself in. The cells of the priests were sometimes called beds, and were often very small. Such was especially the case with the Druid priests, who were much given to austerities in religion. Some of these cells were little more than small arks or chests, in which they could scarcely move themselves. _ 234 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. thus give the appearance of the two peaks of Mount Ararat when the deluge was retiring. But we must not suppose the pyramids of Egypt were the only artificial mountains with doors opening into inward recesses, and thus bearing the resemblance to Ararat and the ark. Mr. Faber and others tell us of a large pyre with an oviform chamber in it, in the county of Meath, in Ireland, and of a still larger one in Wiltshire, in England. In Tanjore, of Asia, there is also a small island which is covered with a pyramid, all of whose sides rise up to a point from the water's edge, and appear like the peak of a mountain, in a retiring deluge. There was also a huge one near Tyre, said to have been built by earth-born giants. We find one also in the island of Otaheite, which is said to be two hundred and sixty-six feet long and eighty-six wide. But besides these, England, Scotland, and Ireland are covered with smaller buildings of stone, or earth, or ot both, from a few feet square to twenty or thirty, which are the remains of the Druidical houses of worship. They are called Barrows, Cairns, and Cromlechs, and have in- terior cells or chambers, reminding of the ark and its door at the side. They are to be found on the tops of hills and mountains, or on the borders of lakes and seas.* * The stone arks or chests of the British Druids were formed of three large stones, set up rectangularly, and covered with a broad slab, being open on one side, representing the door of the ark. This was called the womb of the great mother Ceridwen, and was also viewed as a prison. These small arks were some- times the abodes of the Druid priests. It may not be amiss, in this connection, to mention that among the Israelites, by God's command, pillars and piles of stones, somewhat resembling the peaksof a mountain, were set up as memorials of great deliverances and of covenants. When Joshua made a covenant with the people of Shechem, he took a great stone and set it up under an oak that was by some sanctuary, to be a witness between them. Also, when the people had passed through Jordan dry-shod, he made them erect two pillars of stones taken from the bed of the river, one being placed in the bed of the river and the other on dry ground in Gilgal, which were to be seen for a long time as memorials of deliverance from the waters of Jordan at the time when it over- flowed its banks; and must they not have been reminded by these of the greater deliverance of Noah and his family from a greater flood? ON THE DELUGE. 235 These were of early date, and evidently came from the East. The Brahmins are strong in their assertion of an early intercourse between India and the British islands. Britain has ever been celebrated for its religion. One of the islands was called the " "White Island," or, as Aristotle named it, Albion — which the poets love to this da}'-. In one of the Puranas, or sacred books of India, Britain is called Breta-st-han^ or "The place of religious duty." The arkite religion — which dealt most in the veneration of the deluge, the ark, Ararat, and the ISToatic deities — was the favorite in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and also among the Atlantians of Western Africa, so that we may expect to see more of these memorials among them. When the apostate Hercules forced upon the Irish the worship of the sun, it is said they cursed it while wor- shipping it. According to Pomposius Mela, the Atlantians cursed the sun as he arose, and as he set : "Atlantes solem execrantur et dum oritur, et dum occidit." But as there are various parts of the world where not only mountains but rocks and pyramids are not easily found, so we find that earth was used in order to raise something which might resemble a mountain for religious worship. In Hindostan these mounds or tumuli abound, from five to twenty-five feet high, on which, upon certain days, portable shrines, with images of their deities, are placed. They are called Meru Seringas, or Peaks of Meru, the Ararat of Asia. If we go to Upper Asia we shall find the whole of the plains of Tartary dotted with mounds or tumuli, from six to eight feet high, and often ten times wider at the base. Near Sardis the plain is covered with them, some of which, according to travellers, are of stupendous size. Though dead bodies are to be found in some few, yet it 236 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. is well established that they are not intended or used as sepulchres, but for places of worship. And if we pass over from the Old world to the ISTew, we shall find in its memorials a most important link connecting the two to- gether, and showing that their inhabitants had one com- mon origin. In the two Americas, among the Indians north and south, not less than three thousand of these mounds have been counted, varying in height from ten to two hundred feet. They are so ancient that the present race are unable to tell of their origin or design. That they are not sepulchres, with a few exceptions, has been well ascertained ; and that some of them in South Amer- ica were used for religious worship is also well known. But who can doubt their origin, when considering their universality and great antiquity ? But we have yet more numerous and striking memo- rials of the ark and Ararat in another class of sacred places to be found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. I allude to the temples, natural or artificial, in the interior of hills and mountains ; either caverns or excavations made by art, and divided into cells and chambers for the residence of priests, and the performance of religious worship or celebrations of dark mysteries. Could their number be estimated, or their figures and architecture displayed, what surpise would seize upon us ! Let us begin with Egypt. In Upper Egypt there are temples cut out of the granite rock of the mountains, three sides of course being closed. In the front only is a low, small door, as in the ark. Numerous cells and saloons are within, requiring artificial light. Mr. Bruce, in his "Travels through Egypt," says of these sanctuaries, " They are studied copies of the great gloomy ship of the deluge." Of that which was called the labyrinth of Egypt, He- rodotus says, " It exceeded all the other wonders and ON THE DELUGE. 237 works of tliat coiinby ;" it had three tlionsand apart- ments, one half of them above, tlie other half below the ground. lie M'as only allowed to visit the former : the latter were for the celebration of their mysteries. It is said that Sesostris bnilt a huge and magnificent ship, of cedar, dedicating it to the Egyptian Osiris, who was exposed in the ark. This ship was in the interior of the country, and of course not intended for navigation. In various parts of the British isles the Druids had rock- ing stones cut in the form of a ship. Mr. Rooke examined thirty of them, and found them all formed by art, and capable of being rocked like a ship on the M\ater without being overturned. There is a superstition in India which deserves to be mentioned as bearing witness to the x)ass- age out of the ark through the door, Avhereby the bless- ings of light and liberty were obtained. They pass or squeeze themselves through a perforated rock, in order to obtain what they call regeneration. Bishop Ileber tells us of a temple in Hindostan, to which devotees resort for regeneration. In it is a hole through which they pass from below, and, emerging above, they are purified from all their sins and come out regenerate. We must not forget to mention the interesting testimony to the ark, which we have in the history of the preserva- tion of Moses, when a child, in the ark of the bulrushes, on the banks of the Nile. It Avas doubtless committed to its waters with many prayers. Miss Hannah More's sacred drama of " Moses in the Bulrushes " represents the mother of Moses as thus describing her pious care in its construction : " Know that this ark is strongly cased With incantations Pharaoh ne'er employed, With magic spells which Egypt never knew, Witli aspirations to the living God. I twisted every slender reed together, And with a prayer did every osier weave." 238 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. The celebrated labyrinth of Crete was of the same kind with those mentioned by Herodotus ; and the Minotaur confined therein was believed to have been none other than ISToah, in the ark of many cells and chambers. The best idea of one of these temples would be derived from one of our subterranean caves seen by candle or lamp-light. If any are shocked at thus renouncing the light of heaven, and preferring such places to the temples lighted by God's glorious luminary in the heavens, let them con- template the tendency of such things in the splendid entertainments now become fashionable, in which at noonday the shutters are closed, and lamps and candles illuminate the halls and parlors. The temjjles for the idols in Peru and Mexico were also dark places. Those in Mexico, it is said, were darkened by the putrid gore of the victims which were offered to their idols. Justly does the Psalmist call those of the old world " The dark places of the earth, full of the habita- tions of cruelty." Passing from Egypt into Asia, we find the Persians, notwithstanding their reputed objection to temples, hav- ing their grottos in mountains. They are hewn out of perpendicular rocks, but so as to present the appearance of a square ark, in which there is an entrance through a small door. In Ilindostan, the pagodas have a single small door, five feet in height. They are without windows, artificial lights being required within. In Upper India, the cele- brated grottos of Ella are hewn out of a solid pyramidal rock. The entrance is througli a small door, as was that to the ark. Within are lofty pillars and many apartments, in which are many images of their gods, especially those of Siva and Parvata, the deities which, according to the Hindoo mytholog}^, floated on the surface of the deluge. In the island of Elephanta, three leagues from Bombay, ON THE DELUGE, 239 is another temple in a recess, thirty feet square. There is also one near Tyre, like the rest in form, but with the addition of two towers which resemble the peaks of Ararat. There are also some remarkable ones near Inker- man, in the Crimea, being cut out of the solid rock, and filled with cells and chambers. They are supposed to be the work of the Indo-Scythians at a very remote period. The resemblance between the ark, with the door in its side, and a cavern with its mouth, serves to explain the following tradition : The great father, in different countries, is often said to be " born from a cave," to be " nursed in a cave," and to have " dwelt in a cave." The most ancient god and king of Japan is said to have once hid himself in a cave, and was adored as sitting on a cow. The ark is often represented as a cow or ox, bearing the family of Noah in its womb, and swimming the deluge. The British Hu was worshipped in a cleft or cavern of an island washed by the ocean. Apollo was worshipped in a cavern near the river Lethe or Styx. The small shrines of Buddha were actually built in rocky caverns. The Peruvians used to say that when the earth was repeo- pled after the deluge, their ancestors were born out of a cave. To this we may add that the great mysteries were always celebrated in caverns or in temples built like caves, and that the chief things celebrated were the facts of the deluge, — ^an ark or boat always being carried about by the hierophant, and their songs related the delivery of some god from the deluge. The philosophers, such as Plato and Pythagoras, always spoke of the earth " as the dark cav- ern of imprisoned souls." To the above we must add that the sanctuary of the Crimean sibyl was a cavern, and that the mouth of the oracle of Delphi was the fissure of a rock. Yery difierent is the manner of our God. lie said, by the mouth of the 240 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. prophet Isaiali, " I have not spoken in secret in the dark places of the earth." When our Lord came, he spake openly, and bade his apostles to proclaim his words from the housetop. AVhoever would see the abominations car- ried on in dark places, must turn to Ezekiel, chapters viii. and ix., where he depicts the same as transferred to the people of Israel. The sins of their holy things, in the dark chambers visited in the vision of the prophet, beggar de- scription. ISLANDS ALSO MEMORIALS OF THE DELUGE. We read much in pagan mj^thology of sacred islands and floating islands. They are the favorite abodes of the gods and the seats of oracles ; and, though at the first men- tion of it the assertion may seem strange, yet on a little con* sideration it will be seen that between a high mountain such as Ararat, and an island, there is no little similitude. AVhat was Ararat, w^ien the deluge was retiring from it, but a circular island in the midst of a boundless ocean I Every island in like manner rises from the water, and is more or less like mount Ararat, as it is above the sea and is covered with hills or mountains, AVhen Xoah, then, looked out from the ark v/hile resting on the mountain, he saw a boundless ocean around, himself on a small island. It was the whole world to him. He saw the circle of the world. The ancients considered the world as an island in the midst of the sea, and, leaving out America, was it not so? What are all Europe, Asia, and Africa, but a great island in the midst of the ocean? Wherefore, many traditions tell of the deluge being the bursting of the bounds of the great lake or sea, and overflowing the land, and the inhab- itants being pursued by this monster, the sea, who is called Python or Typlion, one family alone escaping, in a raft or ship, to the top of a high mountain, or else burying them- selves in a cavern on the summit of the sam.e. The ark, ON THE DELUGE. 241 with the little island or peak on which it rested, was indeed a world in itself, for it contained the seed of the world of men and beasts which were soon to replenish it. The learned Hale estimates the ark as being capable of bearing more than forty-two thousand tons, equal to eighteen Eng- lish men-of-war, and able to hold twenty thousand men with provisions for six months. It need not therefore seem so incredible that such numbers of animals should have been preserved in it. THE MYSTIC EGG OF MTTIIOLOGY. We read much, in connexion with the ark and the del- uge, of a mystic egg which floated on the ocean during the deluge, and out of which was born a new world. It is sometimes the world itself, sometimes the great prolific father or motlier of all things. In the celebration of the mysteries it was always a prominent symbol. It is carried about in the baris, or ark. In the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the Eastern world it is sometimes placed between the horns of a bull, which, as we have seen, represent the ship or ark, with its prow and stern. As the egg, over which the fowl has brooded, in due time brings forth from itself its young, so the Deity brings forth all things from him- self; and so the ark in due time brought forth from its womb anew world. The ancient worship and celebration of the mysteries, as well as the poets and philosopliers, are full of such figures and conceits, or fal)les as they were called, yet they point to some sacred truths and events. The Hindoo theology is, above all others, rich with this theme. The mystic egg is said to have floated for a year on the surface of the ocean, and then to have brought forth the great father, and his three sons, who are triplica- tions of their father, and who together make the Hindoo triads. 16 242 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. THE LOTOS, OR WATEK-LILT, ANOTHER SYMBOL OF THE ARK AND DELUGE. In the mythologies of ancient nations, and in the celebra- tion of their worsliip, we read much of this remarkable aquatic plant. Its roots are nourished by water instead of earth. It shoots up in the form of a circular boat or bell, and floats like a vessel on the surface of the water. Its upright pistil is like the mast of a ship, and innumerable, almost infinitessimal seed are within the bell or calyx, which, when matured, are scattered by the winds and waves over the surface of the waters, to become the parents of new plants. It is prolific in the highest degree, and well might be selected to represent Noah and his family of men and beasts reposing on the surface of the ocean, and ready to repeople the earth and ocean with inhabitants. It is often confounded with the ark or baris, and the erect pistil is the hero or chieftain of .the ark, the pilot or mast of the vessel. Other symbols might be mentioned testifying to the great facts of the deluge ; but if these be not sufficient to establish the universal belief of those facts in the ages nearest their occurrence, wherever the human race made its settlements, we despair of doing it. This only we add, that pillars of stone, sometimes of wood, called stocks, and stones or columns, soaring high in the air, and which abounded in various countries, are supposed to refer to this same great event which occurred on the great mountain of Asia. They all became objects of idolatrous veneration. Therefore it is that we are for- bidden to " bow down to stocks, stones, and dumb idols.^' CHAPTER XVII. THE DISPERSION" FROM Bi\JJEL, AND THE DH^SION OF THE EARTH AMONG THE DESCENDANTS OF NOAH. In the eleventh chapter of Genesis we have the foHow- ing account of what will form the subject of this chapter: " And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar ; and they dwelt there. And they said, Let us build us a city and a tower whoso top may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language ; and this they begin to do ; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the whole earth. And they left off to build the city : therefore is the name of it called Babel." It is believed that before this time, probably before the death of Noah, and by him, God had distributed the earth among his sons, although they had not taken possession of their portions in order to replenish the earth. They seem to have kept together, and to be disposed to form one mighty nation. By building a great city and a mighty 244 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. teiDple, tliey thought to effect this. In all human prob- ability, through the corruption of human nature and its strong tendency to idolatry, they had already, in some measure, lost sight of the true God, as was the case with their fathers before the flood, and with the Israelites at a later period, notwithstanding God's wonderful dealings with them. Perhaps they had already begun to deify their great ancestor Noah, and his sons, if they had left the earth. Perhaps they imagined them transplanted to the heavenly bodies, and paid a joint adoration to them and their abodes. It may be tluit tJiey were about to es- tablish some common worship in this great tein[>le, and God saw lit to break up their schemes and disperse them through the earth. Such is the supposition of some of the learned, though no one can speak positively on a sub- ject which God has not thought proper to reveal to us, and to hand down by history and tradition. One thing i-enders this hypothesis most probable, viz : the remark- able i-esemblance between the traditions and religious systems prevailing in all the countries into which they were scattered, not only in general principles, but in ob- servances of a merely arbitrary kind. Had different systems of religion and forms of worship been first invented and established in the different coun- tries where the tribes and colonies settled, we might have expected a great variety of doctrines and forms instead of that renuirkable resemblance which is found to liave ex- isted, especially at the first. The difference of names, arising from tlie variety and multiplicity of languages, seems to have been the chief difference. Thus, all tlie early traditions and histories point to Noah and his sons, and the ark and deluge, tln^ugh the names given to them are as numerous and different as the languages them- selves. There is some variety of opinion among commen- tators and mythologists as to the number of persons con- THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL. 245 cerned in building the city and tower of Babel, and as to the time in which it was done. Althongh it is not our plan to enter into such discussions, but rather to select such facts as are most generally agreed npon, and make the best use of the same for promoting the object we have in view, yet we cannot but incline to the opinion which places the dispersion after the death of Noah and of at least two of his sons, Hani and Japheth : the life of Shem being extended to five hundred years after the deluge. There is nothing in scripture or any other history to lead to the supposition that Noah or either of his sons was at all concerned in this transaction : and there is somethinar shocking in the thought that they could have been alive, and had become " hoary rebels" against the God whom they had served in their j'outh, and who had so wonder- fully preserved them. Epiphanius tells us, that from an- cient documents, whence the history of the Scythians (a very ancient people) was compiled, it appears that Noah resided in Armenia until his death ; that his descendants multiplied there for six hundred and fifty-nine years, and then journeyed to the laud of Shiuar. Berosus, the his- torian of Babylon and Chaldea, who drew his statement from the national archives, says that Zizuthrus, — that is, Noah, — died and was translated to heaven before the emigration from Armenia to Shinar. He says the same of the wife and children of Zizuthrus, that they were " transplanted to heaven," which means the same as be- ing deified. Whatever difficulty there may be in deciding the exact chronology of the event, (and the uncertainty of early post- diluvian chronology is admitted,) these testimonies from pagan writers establish the fact of a great emigration from Armenia to Shinar, where Babylon was built. Berosus also confirms the scripture account of their coming from the East, which has puzzled some persons since. Armenia, 246 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. we know, is more to the north of Babylon. But Berosus says that " When they quitted the mountain upon which the ark rested, they travelled in a circle previous to their arrival at Babylonia." It is thought that they followed the course of the river Euphrates, descending by it to Shinar, and that by so doing they would take a route which would bring them from the East into Shinar, though not from the distant East. The other difference of opinion is as to the persons engaged in this work. Mr. Bryant, with others, thinks that only the descendants of Ham in the line of Cush, under the lead of his ambitious grandson, ISTim- rod, were concerned in the rebellion at Babel ; and that they, after having settled further East, according to a previ- ous division of tlie earth, came to Shinar, and determined here to establish a mighty empire, as was actually done, notwithstanding their defeat in building the city and tower. He argues in favor of this from the fact that tliese descend- ants of Cush and Nimrod were the warriors of the earth, once overrunning almost all lands, and establisliing their dominion in religious and civil government. Mr. Faber and others object to this, and quote the language of Moses, who says, " The whole earth w^as of one language and of one speech. And as they journeyed from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and there they dwelt. There they began to build the city and the tower ; and the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon all the face of the earth, and confounded their language." This lan- guage is thought to be too strong and comprehensive to admit of the theory which limits the ambitious act to the descendants of Cush, although there are difficulties in the way of supposing that all the inhabitants of the earth were concerned in it. But if they had not so multiplied as to be too numerous and too much scattered to be collected for this purpose, we may suppose them to be so mingled together that a considerable portion of all the families de- THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL. 247 scendecl from Noah might have been engaged in the work. Bnt in one thing nearly all are agreed, viz : that the de- scendants of Ham in the line of Cnsli and Nimrod were the chief actors, and that they were eminently scattered through the Avorld, giving laws and customs and religious^systems and worship to many nations in Europe and Asia, as well as in the whole of Africa ; nor ceasing with these, for many of the tribes of America are most probably de- scended from the Asiatic branch. The division of the earth, we are told in Genesis x., was in the days of Peleg, the fourth in descent from Sliem, the son of JSToah. The word Peleg signifies division. He must have been coeval with Nimrod, the grandson of Ham and son of Gush, who was called " a mighty one in the earth," " a mighty hunter before the Lord." The be- ginning of his kingdom was Babel. In the brief sketch we shall give of the division and settlement of the earth, we will take the sons of Noah in the order in which they stand in the Mosaic history, viz : Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We would premise that it was the work of God himself, and most probably by Noah before his death, although they do not appear to have occupied their several lots until forced to do so by the judgments of God at Babel. THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. In the thirty-second chapter and the eighth verse of the book of Genesis, Moses says, " When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he sepa- rated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Israel." Here is an evident allusion to the assignment of Judea to the descendants of Shem ; though it was seized on by the pos- terity of Canaan, who, as some one says, "in their whole 248 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. history seemed to be conscious that they were usurpers." The only other notice we have of an assignment of a lot to the descendants of Shem, is in the tenth chapter of Genesis, where we read of Joktan, the brother of Peleg and son of Eber, from whom the Hebrews took their name, and who was the third in descent from Shem. Of Joktan and his descendants it is distinctly written, that " their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest to Sephar, a mount of the east," that is Asia, east of Babylon. The south of Asia seems to have been settled by these ; they are the Hindoos, or East Indians, though, as we shall see, the descendants of Ham soon followed them, taking pos- session of large portions of Asia, and mingling with the descendants of Shem. The children of Shem were Elam, and Ashur, and Ar- phaxad, and Lud, and Aram. All these, the sons of the fa- vored son of Koah, seem to have settled in the countries around Babylon, and not far from Canaan. It is said of Ashur that he went forth from Babylon, and built Nine- veh and other cities, and established the Assyrian empire, which took its name from him. Mr. Bryant thinks it probable that the expression " he went forth," meant he was driven out by Nimrod, whose kingdom was at Babylon, and that he built cities of defence against Ximrod. In the course of time the de- scendants of Nimrod, at Babylon, called Cushites, were overconie by the Assyrians, and driven into Arabia and other places. They are supposed to have been the shep- herd kings who invaded Egypt, overcoming it, and reigning there for many centuries. It is thought that the countries settled by these sons of Shem were assigned to them in the division of the earth, — indeed, that Asia was given to Shem, Europe to Japheth, and Africa to Ham ; but that the ambitious descendants of the latter w^ould not comply with this division, but seized on what THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL. 249 countries they chose, preferring above all others the cen- tral regions, the portion of Sheni. When tlie Israelites took possession of Canaan, the prophetic curse of Noah was fulfilled on the son of Hara, "Nvho, according to some learned commentators, was prob- ably gnilty of irreverence towards his grandfather. The curse was in these words : " Cnrsed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." The descendants of Canaan became subject, it is well known, unto the descendants of Slieni and Japheth — their nation being utterly destroyed. Many of the other descendants of Ham have also been servants, although for the most part they have been lords over the rest. God has indeed blessed Shem, in making him the father of his chosen people and of the family in which the Saviour of the world was born.'^^ THE DESCENDANTS OF HAM, AND THEIR LANDS. The sons of ITam were Cush, Misraiu), Phut, and Ca- naan. Cush and his descendants seem to have been in possession of that part of Asia which comprised what was * Mr. George Rawlinson's remarks concerning the doscondants of Shem are worthy of insertion in this place. "What is especially remarkable of the Semitic family, (that of Shem,) is its concentration, and the small size of the district which it covers compared with the space occupied by the other two. Deducting the scattered colonies of the Phccnicians, mere points upon the earth's surface, and the thin slip of territory running into Asia Minor from Upper Syria, the Semitic races, in the time of Herodotus, were contained within a parallelogram 1,G00 miles long,from the parallel of Aleppo to the north of Arabia, and on an average of 400 miles broad. Once in the world's his- tory, and once only, did a great movement proceed from this race and country, — that of the Saracens, which was only temporary. It had not the power of any vigorous growth and enlargement like that promised to Japheth, and possessed by the descendants of Ham. But with its physical and material weakness is combined a wonderful capacity for afficting the spiritual condition of our species. Semitic races have influenced, far more than any other, the history of the world's mental progress; and the principal intellectual revohitious which have taken place are traceable in the main to them." 250 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. culled the Assyrian empire, the first of the four great em- pires of the earth, covering all of Ethiopia in Asia, which is sometimes called Mesopotamia, and is the territory be- tween the Tigris and the Euphrates; also Chaldea and Babylon beyond the Euphrates, or the flood as it was sometimes called ; also Media and Persia. Nirarod and his successors were the first kings of this empire, some- times called the Cuthric, or Scuthric ; sometimes the Iranian empire. A large portion of the northern part was afterwards called the Scythian, which name, as well as the population, was derived from Cush ; it was also called Cuthite, or Skuthic. The other sons of Ham, viz., Misraim and Phut, took quiet possession of Egypt, and in time spread themselves over all Africa. Some think that Phut removed to India, and became the father of the famous sect of Buddha, he himself being the divine Buddha. After a time some of the descendants of Cush and Nimrod, being warlike and am- bitious, invaded Egypt, and took and held possession of it for six hundred years, with the exception of a short period : these were called " the shepherd kings," the Pharaohs of Egypt. Egypt was iu its highest glory during their usur- pation. It was then that it reached its greatest attain- ments in the arts and sciences. But the descendants of Ham, through Cush and Nimrod, soon began to send out their colonies along the Mediterranean, and to the north of Greece and Italy, and in time mingled themselves with the earlier settlements of Japheth, — until they became the Germans, Gauls, Celts, and Saxons of history. At length they took possession of the isles of the north, and became our ancestors — the Ano-lo-Saxons of England. THE DISPERSION" FEOM BABEL. 251 JAPHETH AND HIS DESCENDANTS. The sons of Japlieth, according to Moses, were Go- mer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Mesliecli, and Tiras. "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." The isles of the Gentiles were all those lying in the Mediterranean and Arcliipelago, — compre- hending, indeed, the whole of Europe, which is surround- ed by islands. Javan seems to have been the most prom- inent of the sons of Japheth, giving name to the first inhabitants of Greece, who were called Javanites, and afterward Jaonites. But Moses tells us that in jS^oah's prophecy over his sons he declares " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." We have seen that Asia, or a large portion of it, was assigned to Shem ; but Japheth was to be enlarged, and dwell in the tents of Shem. This was fulfilled in the fact that all the northern parts of Asia, — that is,Tartary and Siberia, — were settled by the descendants of these, and that many of the Chinese are supposed to be from these settlements. To this we may add, the high probability that many of the Korth American tribes came from those who crossed over the narrow strait which divides the l^orth of Asia from America. Having presented this geographical and historical view of the dispersion and settlement of mankind, as set forth in scripture, let us see how other histories and traditions confirm the same. We have already adduced some pas- sages from Berosus and other ancient writers. To these Ave add tlie followino-. Among the Greeks, Chronus, their ancient god, who could have been none other than Noah, or Adam re- appearing in Koah, divided the whole earth between his 252 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. three sons, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. Plato mentions an ancient legend, that the gods formerly divided among these the whole earth. In the oracles of Zoroaster the Persian there is a similar tradition, except that the divi- sion is ascribed to Nous or the Intelligence, — that is, Noah, the father. In the Hindoo mythology we read of three worlds, under the god of the ark, Siva, which are sup- posed to be the three quarters of the earth, — Europe, Asia, and Africa, — under the three sons. There is one country mentioned in scripture whose name belongs to several dif- ferent places, and on which a few remarks are called for. It is that of Ethiopia. The name is derived from Ethiops, one of the names of Jupiter, the son of Yulcan. Concern- ing the Ethiopia which lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates, or what is sometimes called Mesopotamia, — that is, hetween rivers, — Stephanus, of Bysantium, says, " Ethiopia was the first established country in the world, and the people who first introduced the worship of the gods and who enacted laws." They are a branch of the Cushites, and the same with the Sythse, or Sythians, of whom Justin said, " The Sythse were ever esteemed, of all nations, the most ancient in the world." Situated as Asi- atic Ethiopia was, it must have been the most ancient of nations. There was another in the south of India called Ethiopia, whose inhabitants are black, though distin- guished from Southern Africans. Ovid, in his fable of " Perseus and Andromeda," represents Perseus as stealing and bearing away Andromeda from tlience : " Andromeden Perseus nigris portavit ab Indis." There was another Ethiopia in Africa, from which the whole of it, or a large part of it, was called. Stra- bo tells us of a tradition among the people of Tartessus, opposite to Spain, that the Ethiopians, — those from Africa, THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL. 253 I suppose, — once traversed that region of Africa quite to its western limits, and that some of them came and settled at Tartessus ; others got possession of dilierent parts of the coast ; some lived near the island of Ei'jthea." An ancient writer says, " Upon the great Atlantic, near the isle Of Erythea, for its pastures famed, The sacred race of Ethiopians dwell." Homer, in his " Odyssey," alludes to some in Mauritania, —a region of Africa, — as Ethiopians, and in stature the largest of any nation known to him." Eporus says that "The family of the Ethiopians seem to me to have estab- lished themselves from the winter tropic in the East to the extremity of the West." Strabo also speaks of them as extending " in a long line from the rising of the sun to the 2:oino; down of the same." Who is not reminded of that beautiful and most encouraging passage in one of the prophets — " From the rising of the sun even unto the go- ing down of the same, my Name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts ; and in every place in- cense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering ?" And how it enlarges our minds, when we read or hear the promise "Ethio])ia shall stretch out her hands unto God," to think of a country stretching from India on the Pa- cific, to Mount Atlas on the Atlantic, across two conti- nents, and from Gibi'altar, or the Pillars of Hercules, to the Cape of Good Hope, stretching out her hands in sup- plication or thanksgiving to the Lord for the gospel ! In relation to that part of the scripture which speaks of Canaan as being the portion assigned to the descendants of Shem, but being seized upon by those of Ham, we ad- duce the following testimonies: Eusebius says, '' Canaan, the son of Ham, was guilty of trespass and innovation upon 254 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the allotment of Sliera, and took up his habitation there contrary to the commandment of God." Sjncellns says, "The sons of Shem made war with the sons of Ham about the boundaries of Palestine." On the subject of the confusion and multiplication of lano-uases at Babel, I have, in other parts of the book, alluded to traditions among the ancient nations bearing upon and confirming the Mosaic account. As to what was the one speech of which Moses speaks, or one lip, as it is sometimes rendered, which was certainly the language of Noah, and probably of Adam and the whole antedi- luvian world ; and as to the number of languages at Babel, — I state the opinion of Sir William Jones, one of the great- est scholars and linguists of his day, who spent many years of his life in India carefully studying the Eastern lan- guages and mythologies, and contributing largely to the volumes of "Asiatic Eesearches" published by the society of which he was president. After digging into the roots of various languages, and tracing all their stems and branches, and comparing them together, he concludes that there were only three lan- guages, from which all the rest sprung as dialects. These three he says are so essentially difterent in grammar, words, and construction, that neither of them could have been taken for the other. Mr. Faber says that if the original language given by God to our first parents, and preserved until the disper- sion, had been continued, and two others had been added, the effect would have been the same, — that is, confusion of tongues would have ensued. May not all, in some degree, have been drawn from the original one, and yet so varied as to answer the divine purpose ? It deserves to be mentioned, as one of the additional testimonies to the truth of scripture, that the laborious re- searches of eminent linguists, since the death of Sir Wil- THE DISPERSION FROM BABEL. 255 liam Jones, have continued to confirm liis opinion. These liave shown that the resemblance between all of the hm- guages upon earth is such that they must have come from a very few which began to be used soon after tlie disper- sion from Babeh Previous to tliat time, we have the tes timony of scripture that all were of " one tongue, or lip." CHAPTEE XYIII. THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS AND WORSHIP OF THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. There have been and perhaps are still those who think that the confusion at Babel was rather a confusion of opinions and doctrines than of languages, by which God defeated their design of doing some great thing which displeased him ; that he sowed discord among them, and prevented them agreeing on any plan. The sacred narra- tive seems to contradict this, and tradition is in favor of the more general and literal construction put u\)on it. And yet it is highly probable that there may have been considerable diversity of opinion as to the religious sys- tem and worship to be established, however they might agree upon the main facts of their history, and the chief object or objects of their worship. If, as is most j^robable, this event occurred soon after the death of Abraham, then must we believe that false views of religion and im- proper adoration of some pei'sons called gods may have existed before the building of Babel, as we find him and his father Terali seeming to yield to it. It may have be- gun before the descendants of Noah left Armenia and settled in Shinar. How long they were taking their jour- ney, by slow movements, as the Israelites from Egypt; how long they dwelt in the plain before engaging in the work, is not known, and therefore we cannot decide posi- tively on the subject. Yery ancient traditions speak of THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 257 two sects before the dispersion, called Sf/thismand lonlsm, — the one exalting the male, the other the female principle in nature, — the one disposed to exalt the great father, the other the great mother of the human i-ace, for both were then very highly honored, if not worshipped. What other various opinions or systems may have ex- isted, if division had already begun, we know not, but certain it is that the earliest accounts since that time refer to religious differences. AVe read at the present day of the two great sects in the East, called Buddhists and Brahmins, little thinking of their very early origin, and of their wide extension over all Asia, Europe, and Africa, and of their translation into America with the first colonists ; and also of their per- petuation for a long time in our countrj', perhaps their con- tinuance to the present time in some places. Those sects did indeed divide thewdiole world for a long time, though some modification of their tenets and some additional objects of worship took place in different countries. Since Christianity took possession of Europe and a por- tion of Asia, one of these sects, Brahminism, has greatly declined, by comparison with the other, Buddhism. The latter greatly predominates throughout all Asia, though the former is still zealous for its peculiarities, its superior orthodoxy and antiquity. The nations of Europe were once attached to one or the other of them, though grad- ually modified in Greece and Italy by the introduction of practical and philosophical principles. These sects, probably, as some think, issuing from Babel,, spread themselves rapidly over Asia and a part of Europe. If it be asked wherein they differed, it will be diflicult to give an answer to the question, — as difficult as to say wherein some Christian sects differ. The deities whom, they worshipped, though called by different names, ac- cording to the various languages which came to be 17 258 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. spoken, were the same. Sir William Jones, in a learned article, establishes, beyond controversy, that all the leading deities of Europe, Asia, and Africa were the same, being none other than Noah's family in the ark. Various other learned mythologists have also established this. Other, deities and objects of worship have been added, but these are the great deities of the pagan world, except the ineifa- ble First Cause, who is scarcely worshipped at all. The Brahma and Buddha of India were the same with the Jupiter, the Bacchus, the Dionusus, the Taut, the Hu, the Woden, the Hercules, and others of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; therefore there was no difficulty in intro- ducing their worship, their system, and priests. As Noah had three sons, and was said to triplicate himself into them ; as Saturn triplicated himself into Jupiter, Nep- tune, and Pluto ; so Brahm divided himself into Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, — and Buddha into Ismara and others. In proof that the great objects of their worship were the same, there is a common festival or adoration, when the various sects of Brahma and Buddha, which never mingle together at other times and places, but are quite bitter towards each other, meet in perfect friendship, kneel side by side, and know no difference. This is the dreadful feast of Jagan-Nath. or Juggernaut, at Orissa in India. The meaning of Jagan-Nath is " The Lord of the Earth " — their great common Lord. This has been called the cen- tre of their great theological unanimity. Immense num- bers come u}) to ihis, annually, from all parts of the land, both Brahmins and Buddhists. Not only the inuige and character of Jagan-Nath, but other deities whose images are with his, ];)oint to an identity of religion. This wor- ship is, like much other in the pagan world, a mixture of obscenity and cruelty. It is indeed none other than a re- newal of the worship of Baal and Moloch and Astaroth in Canaan. And all these were none other than Buddha THE DISPERSED IN" ASIA. 259 and Brail ma, with their triads, — in other words, I^oah and his tlirce deified sons. All who would wish to be fully satislied on this point would do well to examine the works of Faber, Bryant, and many others who have written in relation to it. Mr. llarcourt, in his learned work on the deluge, says, "Amid all the wantonness of polytheism, some very in- telligible hints remain, that the real objects of their multiform idolatry were oidy few, and tliose their earliest ancestors." The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, M'hicli prevailed from the Indies to the British Isles, being taught equally by the Brahmins and the Buddhist priests and the Druids of Gaul, was a great bond of union helping to unite the world in one common religion. But that there should be disputes on a subject of such great importance as religion, it is most reasonable to sup- pose. There were such before the deluge, between the sons of God and those who corrupted religion, and the latter at length prevailed and produced a general apostas3\ There were controversies among the patriarchs after the flood, when idolatry began to encroach upon the true faith. So were there among the Jews, when many of them forsook the law of Moses and the true worship of Jehovah, while others continued steadfast. So also was it with Chris- tianity, when some began to relapse into semi-paganism. So doubtless after the dispersion there may liave been more of the true knowledge of God with some sects than others. At this distance of time it is impossible to form any probable opinion as to the comparative orthodoxy of the two great sects now spoken of. The Buddhists, who were most zealously espoused by the descendants of Ham through the line of Gush, appear to have been more dis- posed to worship Koah under his astronomical character, — the Ram. The temples of the sun were chiefly dedicated to Jupiter Ammon, — that is, Ham. Others were much 260 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. opposed to i\\Q%Q jire-ivorshi2)j)ers, as they were called, and preferred to worship Noah as the god of the ark, being called Arkites. At an early period, when the descendants of Misraini, son of Ham, had possession of Egypt, when a more primitive religion prevailed, the worship of the sun was not established there. Diodorns Siculus tells us of a certain king, — a worshipper of the sun, — who had inscribed on one of his temples an imprecation upon Cneph, the ancient Egyptian king and god, thus showing the opposi- tion between the two systems. But after the shepherd kings, — wlio were worshippers of the sun,— invaded Egypt and took possession of it, great changes took place in their religious systems and worship. In the time of Joseph they worshipped On, or the sun, though doubtless connecting ■with it that of Osiris, supposed to be the same with Noah. Other nations, though forced to worship the sun by the superior power of their conquerors, who were his worship- pers, would curse him when rising and setting, and even while engaged in the act of worshipping him. It is be- lieved that the ancient mysteries partook much more of the Arkite school, — all of their ceremonies and hieroglyph- ics relating to Noah in connection with the ark and deluge. We read of a great contest between the Arkites and the Fire-worshippers under the lead of the first and great Hercules, who was an Arkite, about the oracle of Delphi, which was rich in treasures. We read also of a contest between the Arkites and Prometheus and his followers. He is supposed to be the grandson of Noah, and to have been the first to erect fire towers. We read much in an- cient history of the wars of the Titans, which must refer to the religious as well as political wars of the worship- pers of the sun, or Titan, who were chiefly the descend- ants of Ham through Ciisli and Nimrod. These were the giants of the postdiluvian world, as will appear when we come to speak of ancient Europe, where their greatest feats THE DISPEESED IN ASIA. 261 were performed. AVe cannot omit some mention of tlicm, however, in speaking of Asia, the sonthern part of wliich was settled at first by the descendants of Shem, and the northern part by those of Japheth, but whose middle part, — along the great range of mountains, — was taken possession of by the Cushites or Sythians, and whose ambitious and warlike character was such that we find them ever min- gling with the others, and dictating laws and religious wor- ship, probably being the priests and warriors of the others. To them, by general consent of historians, is ascribed the establishment of caste in India, Persia, China, and most of Europe, an institution which gave the chief character to these countries in ancient times, and still is the most prom- inent and most injurious feature in some of them. The Cushites, or Sythians, as we see from Strabo and others, profess to be the most ancient people upon earth, and boast themselves against the Egyptians with their high claims. "When settling in India orHindostan, and estab- lishing caste there, the Cushites or Sythians claimed divine authority for it. They declared that it was given to them by the god of the ark, among other regulations found in a book contained in the ark. The name of Noah with them was Mahabab. The book was called Mahabab's "Book of Kegulations." The book which they profess to have thus gotten is still extant, and was examined by Sir WW- liam Jones, who declared it to be the same with the " Insti- tutes of Menu," which also claims to be of the same origin. Sir William Jones has translated the book of Menu into English. It contains many excellent rules for government, and establishes the difl'erent orders or castes, giving great power to the parents. He thinks this book of Mahabab the same with that of Menu, and that it was carried into Egypt and there called the book of Taut, or Thoth, which contains the same division into castes. The priests and soldiers in both, as in all other countries where the de- 262 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. scendants of Cusli prevailed, had immense controlling power. Sir William thinks that these were the same with the celebrated laws of Minos, or Meros, in Crete. The identity in respect to the priesthood in all countries is another proof of the common origin of religious institu- tions, when the people were all assembled at Babel. Py- thagoras, who spent forty years in travelling through dif- ferent countries, declared that he received the same in- strnctions from tlie Druids of Gaul, the Magi of Persia, the Brahmins of India, and the priests of Egypt. Who but mnst feel tlie force of this testimony ? THE RELIGIONS OF ASIA. Having taken this general view of the religious sects wliich sprang out of the dispersion or followed it, I now take the different quarters of the globe, according to their probable settlement, and in pursuance of the design of my book, will select such things in their religious history as will serve to establish the scriptural account of man. As Asia was the cradle of the human race, the favored spot of all God's visits to the earth, and as the first-born of ISToali was assigned his portion on this continent, we Avill begin with it. Of tlie land of Judea, usurped, and for some time held by the denounced son of Ham, we sliall say nothing particular in this place, as the scriptures are so full of its history, and as we have so frequent occa- sion to mention it elsewhere. ISTeither shall we dwell on Phoenicia, Persia, or Chaldea, having so often referred to them, and quoted from Berosus, Sanchoniathon, Herod- otus, and others concerning them. We will rather follow the descendants of Shem and Ham into Eastern Asia, and see what the Plindoos and Chinese will furnish us in aid of our endeavor to prove the divine origin of our holy relig- THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 263 ion from their tradition and worship. We sliall derive our inforniation chiefly from the volumes of the Asiatic So- ciety, which lias for many years employed the ablest of scholars in searchini; into the literature and mythology of the East, and especially from the learned articles written by its able and excellent president, Sir AVilliam Jones, who spent so large a portion of his life in India. In his universal reading, struck with the resemblance between the religious histoiy of all nations and the identity in the character of their gods, however different their names, (which of necessity must be, in consequence of the diver- sity of languages, the same god having as many names as there were languages,) he has written an article, ah'eady mentioned, showing the identity of the Eastern and West- ern deities. Old Janus at Rome, the oldest of kings and gods, has one in Hindostan minutely answering to him. Old Saturn, of Greece, has a striking counterpart in Saty- avater, Ceres, the daughter of Saturn, has her counter- part in one called the goddess of Abundance among the Hindoos. These are only specimens of his comparative view. The Indians, he says, believe that water, or chaos, was first created, according to Moses' account. As to the first Cause of all things, about which so much has been said by philosophers and mythologists, the Hindoos called the first inclination of the godhead to diversify himself, by creating worlds, by the name of Maya. Some, as we have said, called it Sagacious Love, reminding us of St. John's definition, " God is lom^ As to tlie ancient Jupiter, who was before all others, — not the son of Saturn, but of un- known parentage, — "The Life Giver," "The Father of gods and men," or, according to Orpheus, the Jupiter who produced the earth, and gods, and goddesses, and men, the Abyss and Emporium, Sir William says that he answers well to the Brahin of the Hindoos. He doubted for a long time whether their Veda, or sacred books, were 264: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. extant, but at length obtained and translated many of them. The Pnranas are also sacred books among the Hindoos, consisting of prayers and holy maxims. The following is an extract from one of these books : DESCRIPTION OF THEIR FIRST DEITY. " Even I was, even at first — not any other thing existed ; that M'liich exists unperceived, supreme ; I am that which is, and he who must remain I am." In his Treatise on the Mystical Poetrj- of the Hindoos, Sir AVilliam gives us some interesting specimens. The following is from the Poems of Hafis : " In eternity, without beginning, a ray of thy glory gleamed, when love sprang into being, and cast flames over all nature. From the moment that I heard the divine sentence, 'I have breathed into man a portion of my spirit,' I was assured that we were his, and he ours. Oh ! the bliss of the day when I shall depart from tills desolate mansion; shall seek rest for my soul ; shall follow the traces of my beloved ! " The following is from one of their Yedas, or Puranas : " Originally there was soul only. He thought, I will create worlds. So he created worlds. Then, I w^ill create guar- dians of worlds. He framed out of the water an embodied being. He showed him to the deities whom he had made. They exclaimed. Well done ! Oh I w^onderful !" Other contributions to the volumes of the " Asiatic Pesearches" deservcito be mentioned. Francis Buchanan informs us that they call the universe Logha, which signifies succession, — production and reproduction, — being successively destroyed by water, and fire, and wind, and restored again. To this we way add, that the Hindoos, as well as the mythologists of the West, say that at every renovation of the world THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 265 the same events take place, the same heroes appear. Bu- chanan sajs, as to their views of transmigration, that they believe the soul perishes with the body, and that out of the same materials another body arises, which becomes either a man, an animal, or something else, and that such changes take place in one or more worlds, until they reach the most perfect of all states, which is a kind of annihila- tion, free from all suffering and death. Mr. Colebrook, a writer in the "Asiatic Researches," gives us the following account of the Hindoo sects : " Five great sects exclusively worship a single divinity. One recognizes the five divinities which are adored by the other sects respectively. But the followers of this comprehen- sive' scheme mostly select one object of daily devotion, and pay adoration to other divinities on particular occa- sions only. Even they deny the charge of polytheism, and they repel the charge of idolatry. They justify the practice of adoring the images of celestial spirits, by ar- guments similar to those which have been elsewhere em- j)loyed in defence of angel and image worship." Mr. Pat- terson,— another writer on the Hindoo religion,— thinks that it was founded at first on pure deism, but in order to comply with the ideas of the multitude, they personified the three great attributes of God, — his Almighty power to create ; his providence to preserve ; and his power to annihilate or change what lie has created. Therefore they worship Brahma, as creator ; Yishnu, as preserver ; Siva, as destroyer. This, however, led to divisions and wars which long disturbed the whole land. To this, he adds a very just remark: "The mass of mankind lose sight of morality in the multiplicity of rites ; and as it is easier to practise ceremonies than to subdue evil passions, ceremonies gradually became substitutes for real religion and usurped the place of morality and virtue." Such was emphatically the case with Hindostan and Egypt, which 266 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ever liad mncli intercourse with each other, and adopted the same principles and customs. The change in the names of the gods was all that divided them, and this the diversity of languages required. The worship of animals was such, in both countries, that their very excrements were some- times feasted on. Everything that had life,^whether animal or vegetable life, — was supposed to have some- thing of the deity in it, and was worshipped. Eating animals alive, as well as their excrements, was practised. Wherefore it is said of Orpheus, the poet, "Coedibus et victu foedo deterruit." I conclude on the subject of the Hindoo religion, by referring to one topic which makes a prominent feature of it, and which ought to be properly understood. I mean the avatvirs, or manifestations of the deity in human form. A Mohammedan writer, who be- lieved in it himself, said that " The divinity existed in Adam, and was transmitted through him to Noah, and so on, through kings and great men of different countries. Ya- rious countries, — such as Egypt, Hindostan, and China, — had their dynasties of kings, gods, and demigods reigning over these. The higher we go in the histories of nations, the more we read of the gods and demigods, or avaturs and manifestations of the deity." This, indeed, is the his- tory of the gods of the heathen to the time when Julius Caesar and Augustus were aspiring to be worshipped, some- times even during life. So it was with I^ebuchadnezzar, and Darius of Persia, who required public worship of their people. This explains what is meant by Yishnu of Hin- dostan being the ninth avatur, or manifestation of God. He was ISToah, the ninth from Adam who received divin- ity from Adam, through a line of patriarchs and kings before the flood. It is easy thus to account for the numer- ous Jupiters, Herculeses, and Apolloses in pagan history. Strabo says there were three hundred Jupiters and forty Herculeses in his day among the gods, all from one of each THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 267 name. No wonder that Ovid slionld speak of tlie turha or rabble of gods in liis ([&j. A few remarks on China will close this chapter. Sir William Jones says they designate their comitry "All that is nnder heaven," that is, " all that is valuable on earth." Another title taken to itself is the " Celestial Empire." Of its first settlement difl:erent opinions prevail. Some derive the first colonists from Tartary, others from India. Sir William Jones inclines to the latter. Others believe them to have come from both countries. Their great Con- fucius acknowledges the difficulty of settling the question. Their priests and religion were certainly from India. Tlieir hieroglyphics were not from Egypt. They certainly had a knowledge of the deluge, and believed in a Supreme God. Before the time of Confucius they believed in genii and tutelary gods, and offered victims and sacrifices on high places. The morality of Confucius is certainly of a higher order than that of any other pagan writer. The doctrine of forgiveness of injuries is emphatically set forth, and the practice enjoined. The following, on the religion of China, is from a recent work by a Mr. Murray : " The belief in an almighty superintending power, under the name of Tien, Heaven, or of the great Shang-ti, with sacrifices offered on certain high occasions in his honor, comprehends almost the entire circle of orthodox faith and observance." But the charge of direct atheism, which has been brought against the primitive religion of China, seems to be with- out foundation. Some very unintelligible speculations indeed, said to be derived from the source of the Y-king, refer to a mysterious principle or power called Tayki, which, operating through certain active and passive agents called yang and yin, has given form to the various objects which compose the universe. Still, the Tien, or great 268 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Shang-ti, always appears decidedly superior to the Tay- ki as a being at once moral and intelligent. Confucius, who founded his system upon reverence for ancient times, and became himself the chief authority upon which the Chinese sought to found their belief, appears to have trodden in the steps of the early sages. We find him uttering the following sound maxims: "Worship the deity as though he were present ; " " If my mind is not engaged in worship, it is as though I worshipped not ; " " Offending against heaven, there is no supplication that can be acceptable." Still he seems not to have received religion as a principle of action, or even as a sentiment that ought to be made very familiar. Another particular in which the religion of China contrasts not very favor- ably with the least approved in the pagan world, consists in the imperfect ideas entertained resjoecting the future state. In certain crude speculations relating to the nature of mind, the souls of the good are represented, after leav- ing the body, as ascending by their native buoyancy, and mingling with the heavens from which they came. The rites performed in honor of ancestors are accompanied with the belief that their souls still exist, and are sensible of the homage paid to them ; yet this tenet is not held forth as the ground of hope or the support of virtue. We have not found in the writings of Confucius any thing contrary to the belief in a future state, yet he no where inculcates or makes it the basis of his precepts. The gloom which involved his latter days was in no de- gree cheered by those hopes of a better world M'hich, even without the aid of revelation, so brightly illuminat- ed the closing scenes of the life of Socrates. Instead of future retribution, the Chinese moralists and legislators endeavor to support virtue by rewards and punishments as administered by divine Providence in the j^resent world. The religionists, however, seem chiefly to have THE DISPERSED IX ASIA, 269 attracted votaries by holding out to tliem tlie hope of prolonging the short sj)an of life on earth by conforming to certain rules, and the application of certain means. The supposed intercourse between the condition of spirits and men, afforded to many the comfortable belief that as they had originally come down from the celestial abodes^ they would, after death, reascend, and occupy a more conspicuous station. But to princes and great men these sectaries recommended themselves chiefly, by the wild and delusive hope of an earthly immortality, for to those who possessed every good that this world could be- stow, its perpetual duration was of all boons the most desirable, That there existed somewhere on earth a fountain possessed of this marvellous and fabled virtue, was a doctrine always held by this visionary sect. In one account it is said, " On the summit of a mountain is a garden, where a soft zephyr blows without ceasing, and asfitates the leaves of the beautiful Tons: trees bv which it is surrounded. Tliis enchanted garden is placed near to the closed gate of heaven : its waters are the yel- low fountain which is very sweet and most abundant ; it is called the Fountain of Immortality. Those who drink of it never die." Elsewhere it is said, " Life came from it, and it is the road to heaven." In conclusion, we say, that if before the time of Con- fucius the Chinese believed in genii and tutelary deities, we shall see in the appendix that after his time they wor- shipped the manes or spirits of the deceased, and made gods of them, Confucius himself being the chief of them. 270 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. APPENDIX. In tlie preceding chapter we have chiefly dwelt on the earliest traditionary religions of the Asiatics, especially of the Hindoo and Chinese systems. But to do justice to this part of our subject we must refer to changes tak- ing place in the same, under reformers, philosophers, and priests, as was the case in all countries. Professor Hard- wic has devoted a large part of his learned work to the later developments of the Asiatic systems. He admits the very early existence of systems which were at least the foundations or beginnings of Brahminism and Budd- hism, which have so long prevailed over all Asia as well as elsewhere. He traces them to a period anterior to the Mosaic dispensation, and thereby admits the probability of what we have said as to religious divisions, even be- fore the dispersion from Babel. We give, in brief,- the substance of this learned wi'iter's investigations. The most ancient and authoritative of the Hindoo sacred books are the Vedas. The Rig-Yeda is the most prominent of them, and contains more than a thousand of their canticles and prayers. "We find nothing in them of a trinity or triad of gods. The doctrine of one great First Cause was not absolutely banished from the hearts of bards and rishis. But the idea of one God, supreme and spiritual, never formed a prominent article in the early creeds of India. "It retired far off into the back- ground. It seldom operated as the principle of life. It was the feeble and expiring echo of an elder and purer revelation." And even when they uttered this echo, the great being was rather " a nature god, than the god of nature." He was not " a personal, self-conscious being, ruling over nature as his works." " It bordered on pan- theism, often passing quite over the border." The Hindoo THK DISPERSED IN ASIA. 271 deified tlie elements, and even in tlie oflerings and sacri- fices wliieli lie presented, lie worsliijjped the deity as present in tliein, as some among ns worship the Saviour as present in the bread and wine of the sacrament. When he ofl'ers a sacrifice, he invites his favorite god, and the winds and fire, to come down and taste of his abundance, while the great God of nature appears to be overlooked. Such, in truth, was the case of all the pagan worship. It was lavished on the inferior deities as being nearer to men. As to the spirit and the objects of the Hindoo prayers, " we look in vain for penitential psalms or hymns, commemorating the descent of spiritual benefits." Their prayers to the gods are nearly all for some temporal prosperity, as in Greece and Rome and all other pagan lands. As an exception, one is given in a Yeda which reads thus : " Come, thou giver of life, and relieve us, prudent king, from our oftences ;" and pleads the eflicacy of their invocations and sacrifices. " Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to consume it on your lusts ;" describes the character of jDagan petitions. As to the unity of the Hindoo god, it consisted in all other forms of existence being traced up to him as their head, and are only rays of his glory. "The best concep- tion of the Supreme Being in the highest systems of Hindoo philosophy," says Ilardwic, " are one-sided and imperfect." " Their belief in one God," says Rammohun Roy, as quoted by Professor Wilson, " was held in consistency with the belief of innumerable gods and goddesses, who possess in their several departments full and independent power. To propitiate them, and not the true God, tem- ples are erected and ceremonies performed." The Brahmin philosophy saw production and destruc- tion and reproduction throughout all nature ; and these were adored as three deities, and constituted the triad of 272 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. I India. As to the elder Bralim or Bralima, from whom Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva came, he was so far removed from finite, sinful beings, that no temj)le was erected or victim oiiered to his honor ; nor did the personified Brahma, first of the three emanations, ever attract much popular favor. He, too, was a god afar ofl:\ The Hindoos offer sacri- fices, not to God, but to the gods, and the worshipper and the worshipped differ only in degree, both being creatures, and both deriving nourishment from the offering. Their sin-offering was an animal slaughtered and burnt, and was the chief sacrifice. This was offered to tlie whole group of Devas or gods, and perhaps in them to the Supreme Intelligence. It was held that " the worshipper who offered up an animal, duly consecrated, is able thereby to buy ofif all the deities at once." As to the fall of man, Mr. Ilardwic, ever cautious in admitting proofs of a connection between pagan traditions and scripture revelation, admits that here, as everywhere else that human steps have wandered, there are dim tra- ditions of the fall of man, and distant echoes of some promise of redemption, though they have been exagger- ated by some. Their idea of sin is indeed inconsistent with that of the Mosaic account. Their philosophical system holds that man is an emanation of Brahma, and is not chargeable with sin — that Brahma, who made him, is guilty. " Even to this day, the missionary, when speak- ing of righteousness and judgment to come, is sometimes met with the answer, I have neither sin nor guilt, for everything is wrought in me by Brahma." Such is also the doctrine of the Buddhist, who denies emphatically that the origin of evil is ascribable to any cause except " the mischievous and corrupting temper of man," received by emanation from Brahma ; but in the creed of popular Brahminism, the sin of our first parents was traced up direct to the guilt and malice of a tempter, not within us THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 273 but witlioiit US. That tempter was, in form at least, a serpent. The Hindoo legends, also, which go back to the early ages, very much resemble the account we have in the golden age of other nations, and remind us of man in paradise. The philosophical systems, however, super- seded and did away with them all. As to the method of recovering from the fall, the philo- sophic Buddhists " make ritual punctuality moral merit." " They lay the emphasis on repetition of texts — invocation of a host of deities — obedience to parents — and mercy to lower animals." The Deva or god who amiounces the coming destruction, tells how it may be avoided : " Let him assist his parents, respect his superiors, avoid the live sins, and observe the five obligations." The idea of an atonement or substitution had been departing more and more from the Hindoo mind for a long time. In place of this, rigorous penances and daily sacrifices had been gain- ing ground, until bodily tortures, instead of penitential exercises and works of charity, made up their religion. As to their avaturs, or descents of their gods, their philo- sophic systems turned the ancient legends into innumer- able incarnations. Any one might become a Buddha, or god, by a certain process of fasting and penance and religious observances. Still some legends of the avatur, or incarnation of a great god or king, appeared from time to time. One there was which so exactly answered to the account of Christ in the gospels, that it was suspected of being copied from one of them. Sir William Jones, on careful examination, became satisfied that it was in- troduced in the first or second century, when Christianity had, according to Eusebius, found its way into India, and modified and improved the moral and religious system of the Hindoos. So considerable was this change, that Mr. Belsham, an English infidel, afiirmed that the gospels did not teach a purer monotheism or unity of the Godhead than 18 274 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. do the sacred books of the Hindoos ; which was, however, a great exaggeration. Voltaire tried to prove the same, by publishing an Eastern book full of resemblances to the Christian religion ; but it turned out to be the fabrica- tion of a Jesuit missionary, who wished to propitiate a learned class of Hindoos [by showing that to their fathers were known some truths of Christianity. Concerning the philosophic systems of the Hindoos, we may perhaps say, they often bore about the same proportion and re- semblance to the ancient legends, from which they were probably derived, as those legends did to original and revealed truth, from which they were perverted. TKE RELIGION OF CHINA. Still taking Mr. Hardwic for our guide, and condensing his views, we would say as to the metaphysical or philo- sophical religion of a later period, as we might say of the Hindoo and other systems, that the theories of some of our modern free-thinkers, who are wise in their own conceit, are " little more than a return to long exploded errors, and a resuscitation of ancient volcanoes," which long since prevailed among the speculative religionists of the East. The governing class in China, we are assured, have long been familiar with the metaphysics of Spinoza. They have also carried out the licentious social principle of M. Comte, on the largest scale. For ages they have been what some people of the present day are wishing to become in Europe. But we will give a brief sketch of the rise and progress of their nation and religion. There is reason to believe that portions of her present territory were the seats of thriving and fully organized communi- ties, not less than two thousand years before the Christian era, that is, about six or seven hundred years after the •deluge, if we take the mean or average chronology of the THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 275 different versions of the Bible. It is true that no authen- tic records survive later than the sixth century before Christ ; but cups of the Chinese porcelain have been found buried in the ancient sepulchres of Egypt. Tlie whole empire seems to have sprung into civilization at one mighty bound, and to have grown into a world of itself. The Middle Kingdom, as it is called, was re- garded as the centre of the universe. Their sacred writings were called " The King," or " The Books." Although the Chinese believe in nothing supernatural, that is, in no God who has ever revealed himself to man, still they believe that the author of their sacred books was possessed with an unerring instinct which enabled him to see into the truth of all things. His teachings were therefore infallible. There was also a succession of sages who, by hard study, gradually came to the knowledge of truth. The first of their body, the infallible author of "The Books," was named Fuh-he. Ancient tradition says that he, with seven companions, escaped from a deluge, and thus identifies him with Koah. His first book, called " Yih-Kiug," has much about creation. The second, " Shoo-King," is more historical. The third is " She- King," and has more than three hundred moral odes, in which are mournings over our corruption, and aspirings after a better state. CONFTJCIUS, THE EEFOKMEE. About the ninth century before Christ, and when great changes in the ancient religion and customs had taken place, arose the great Confucius, who led the Chinese back to the ancient models. "My way of teaching," he said, " is simple. I cite the patterns left us by the ancients." He collected the ancient laws and tra- ditions, and digested them into a system. " The system of 276 THE* BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Confucius," says Mr. Hardwic, " ttougli planted in tlie twilight of the world's history, (about the time of Aristotle,) was not perfected until the twelfth century of the Chris- tian era, when the Magna Charta was obtained in Eng- land. The emperor is the centre and moving principle, or main-spring, of the whole. Heaven is present in him. He is the celestial potentate, — the pattern of ideal excellence. " I am one man," — that is, the only being of the kind. He is also the great high priest of the nation to offer the highest sacrifices, though there are inferior ones to offer the lesser sacrifices. The early em]3erors sacrificed to the hills and rivers, and the host of heaven. But in these most solemn exercises all is cold and callous. There is no consciousness of personal demerit. It is equally distant from the penitence of the Hebrew and the Christian, and from the asceticism of the Hindoo. Pride and self-compla- cency characterize the yearly sacrifice of the emperor. The Chinese philosophers afiirm that " Every man is, at his birth, in possession of a nature radically good." " Human nature," says a great Confucian authority, " is good, just as water has a tendency to flow downwards." " Water, by beating, may be made to splash over your head, and, by forcing, may be made to pass over a mountain ; but who would say that this is the natural tendency of water ? " This is the result of some unavoidable connexion with matter, and there is therefore no painful consciousness of guilt ; " and as moral guilt is thus unknown to the disciples of Confucius, so neither does he manifest any wish or craving after spiritual regeneration. " Confucius never refers to a pure and righteous God, whose moral law is broken by sin." The chief objects of worship among the followers of Confucius were the spirits or manes of the de- parted. He himself became the chief object. He was declared to be equal to heaven. The whole empire was dotted over with temples to him. Sixty thousand animals THE DISPERSED IN ASIA*. 277 were provided by government, besides numerous private ones, to be sacrificed to bis manes. They allege as a rea- son for worsliipping tbeir ancestors, tliat tliey owe tlieir being to tbem, — standing in tbe relation of a creature to its Creator. They repair annually to their graves, pros- trating themselves on the ground, and offering food to their hungry sjjirits ; for many think that the spirits actu- ally receive nourishment from the subtile portion that is carried to the ground, though in one of their books it is said the meaning is, " That we ought always to have the dead before our eyes, and honor them as if they were still living." Their parents were considered as the chief min- isters of heaven to them. It must be stated that the wor- ship of China, compared with that of many other nations, is pure and chaste. Of late the worship of virgins and chaste matrons has been much on the increase. As to the belief in one Supreme Being, anything like our God, there is diversity of opinion. Some Romanists sought to propitiate the Chinese by finding an identity between the principles and the god of Confucius and those of Chi-is- tians ; but the Jesuit, Longobardi, denies any such affin- ity, affirming that during their whole historic period, — whatever may have been in more ancient times, — they never worshipped a supreme spiritual intelligence inde- pendent of the visible universe. Mr. Ilardwic examines this question thoroughly, and concludes thus : "After threading my way as far as possible among this tangled, and in many points conflicting evidence, I am led to the conclusion that in China, as elsewhere, had lingered from primeval ages the conception of one living, bounte- ous, and paternal Providence, whose earthly shadow was believed to sit exalted far above his fellows on the throne of the Middle Kingdom ; but that, ultimately, this concep- tion was broken and obscured until the unity of God no longer .formed the basis of the Chinese creed." After this 278 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the philosopliers took hold of it and made a god for them- selves. Confucianism, or a rival sect of it called "Lao-Tee," pre- vailed for five or six centuries in China, but in the first century of Christianity Buddhism made an inroad into the empire, and was attended with a most rapid and entire success. Flattering the emperor, it obtained his patron- age so far as to be made a state religion, though violently opposed by the followers of Confucius. This Chinese Buddhism is usually called Fohism, which is only another name for Buddhism. THE MED0-PEE8IAN SYSTEM. Though this is one of the religions of Lidia, yet, as we have had occasion to notice it in other places, we shall make but brief mention of it here. As to its birthj)lace, or the birthplace of the nation, the learned difier; and Ave shall not undertake to discuss the question. The estab- lishment of anything like a Medo-Persian empire was long anterior to some others. The fact of its proximity to the birthplace of the human family, and to the mountain of the ark from whence the world was renewed, and of its being the country whence wise men were led by the guiding of a star to welcome the Saviour into the world, must ever give it a peculiar interest to the Christian. Here did Cyrus, the friend and patron of Daniel, the prophet and historian of the Lord, reign. Here also did Darius, another friend and patron of Daniel, hold his court. Here, on the great rock of Behistan, hundreds of feet in the air, is engraven the history of this Darius, corresponding with that in the book of Daniel.^'' From the seat of this * The following is part of an inscription now to be seen on the tomb of Da- rius, a few miles north of Persepolis, the seat of his empire. It is translated from the cuneiform characters of Persia by Sir Henry Rawliason. "The great THE DISPERSED IN ASIA. 279 empire issued decrees from both of these sovereigns, tliat in every province of tlieir kingdom the God of Daniel should be worshipped. Ancient legends there are belong- ing to this country, which seem to some to speak of a per- sonal god, called " Time without bounds," or " Uncre- ated Time," wliom philosophy afterwards styled the " Uni- versal Being," regarding him as the personification of eternity, and the basis of all beings. " We are at liberty to argue," says Ilardwic, " that faint glimmerings of one only God, — inert indeed, if not impersonal, — but still the primal cause of all things, are discernible here and there in the remains of Medo-Persian heathenism." Ormazd the Good shines gloriously and inestimably above all that were called gods. By common consent, whatever may have been the source of it, whether greater intercourse with the Hebrews, or primeval revelation handed down by tradition, sounder views of God and religion prevailed in Persia than elsewhere. Of the primitive state of man, his fall by the temptation of the evil one in the form of a serpent, as held in ancient Persia, we have already spoken, and shall not needlessly enlarge this supplement by adduc- ing more of the many testimonies which might be furnished, god, Ormazd, — he gave this earth; he gave that heaven ; he gave mankind; he made Darius king. Says Darius the king, — Ormazd, when he saw that the world was heretical, (or rebellious,) he rendered it subject to my power. By the graca of Ormazd, I have reformed it completely. Says Darius the king, — that which has been done, all of it I have accomplished by the grace of Ormazd. 0 people ! the law of Ormazd, — that having returned to you, let it not perish. Beware, lest ye abandon the true doctrine." Other inscriptions there are, which have not yet been deciphered. To this we add the following. Among the many interesting proofs of the accu- racy of scripture history, (after having been questioned,) which are furnished by the recent discoveries, we notice the following from Sir Henry Rawlinson. The apparent contradiction between Daniel and Berosus is completely reconciled. " Berosus states that Nabonidus, after being defeated by Cyrus, shut himself up in the city of Borsippa, and there surrendered himself to Cyrus."' Sir H. Raw- linson reconciles these discrepancies from the cylinders, (ancient records,) which distinctly state that Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonuhts, and that he was governor of Babylon (and was there slain) when Cyrus took Nabonidus. CHAPTEE XIX. THE RELIGION OF THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. The isles of the Gentiles, tliat is, tlie islands in the Mediterranean and ^gean seas, appear to have been assigned to the descendants of Japheth, and to have been taken possession of at an early period by them. But it does not appear that the continent of Europe was all in- cluded in the grant, and that they were restricted to that quarter of the globe, for in the prophecy of JSToah it is said, " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." This was fulfilled in the extension of Shem's descendants into the Korth of Asia, into Siberia and Tartary, and also a part of China, as it is supposed by some. These were regions adjoining those of Eastern Asia, which were assigned to Shem. The Canaanites were to be subject to both Shem and Japheth, which was fulfilled w^hen the Israelites took possession of Canaan, making many of the inhabitants slaves, and selling many of them to the isles of the Gentiles ; and also when the Gauls and Eomans conquered Carthage and Tyre, which were colonies from Canaan. When Carthage was about to fall into the hands of the Komans, Hannibal is said to have uttered these words, "Agnosco fortunam Cartha- ginis," — in which it is supposed he referred to the past life of the wicked people, the Canaanites, who colonized Carthage, and perhaps to some prophecy concerning it. There are those (among them Bishop Newton) who THE DISPEESED IN EUROPE. 281 tliink that the words " He shall dwell in the tents of Slieni," should be understood as referring not to Japheth, but to God's dwelling in the tents of Shem when he so blessed him by his presence with the Shekinah of the ark, and by his choosing that country for his appearance in the flesh. Japheth was a highly-favored branch, since from him sprung the two greatest empires of the world, — the Gre- cian or Macedonian, and the Roman, in which the arts and learning were carried to the highest degree of perfec- tion. The descendants of Japheth also extended their settlements into the North of Europe, occupying all that country now constituting France, Germany, and Austria. But it is to be noted that, as they penetrated into North- ern Asia and dwelt in the tents of Shem, so the descend- ants of Ham soon passed over from Asia Minor and colo- nized various parts of Greece ; took the lead in arms, and architecture, and the priesthood; and not only mingled with the descendants of Japheth in the countries and islands of Greece and Italy bordering on the Mediterra- nean, but, it is believed, almost monopolized the northern part, being the Gauls, the Celts, the Germans, and Sax- ons ; and in that way became the ancestors of the English, the Scotch, and the Irish. It is certain that they introduced the religion and priesthood of the Druids, whicli once prevailed all over tlie North of Europe and the British Isles. The identity of the Druidical system and that es- tablished by the descendants of Ham in Assyria and In- dia, cannot be questioned. It is believed that some of the descendants of Ham, probably the shepherd kings, when driven out of Egypt, came over and settled in Greece, bringing with them something of the Egyptian religion and literature. Such being the case, it is impossible to distinguish between the descendants of the two brothers, as they were probably in after times much blended to- 282 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. gether. As to those of Ham, through the line of Cnsh and ISTimrod, we know only that Nimrod was a mighty hunter, deeply engaged in the daring enterprise at Babel ; but that his descendants, in the various countries into which they were scattered, have been fierce in war and religion, — have been the soldiers and priests, and thus the leaders. Homer, in his " Odyssey," speaks of Nimrod under the name of Orion, as a man of gigantic make, and always in pursuit of wild beasts. The Greeks called him Nebrod. Many places were called after him. He was worshipped under the title of Belus, at the great temple of Babylon, which was finished by one of the Ninuses some time after the confusion and dispersion. The Greeks and their religion had more of the ferocious about them than most other nations. This is ascribed in a great measure to the large intermixture of Nimrodism in that country. Originally tliey were called Javanites, after Javau, one of the sons of Japheth, who first settled in Greece. We know but little of the first state of Greece but suppose that a purer form of religion there prevailed than when the descendants of Ham intermixed with them, introducing more of the worship of the sun and other ob- jects of nature, or after Homer and Hesiod had mingled so many deities with their theology. The general name of the deity among the Greeks was Theoth or Theos, which we translate Theism or Deism. Another name was that used by our Lord on the cross, — El, or Eli, or Eloi, a name adopted in other countries. It is admitted, how- ever, that the early inhabitants of Greece afterwards de- generated and became barbarous. After a time, they and the nations of the East bestowed the name of barbarians upon each other, and used them very freely and not without efii'ect. As to the early Greeks, Plato says, "They brought a mist upon learning, so that it was impossible to discover truth from them ;" therefore he sought information THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. 283 elsewhere, even from the East, from whence it was liter- ally true, as in the time of our Lord, " The wise men came from the East." Plato says the most genuine helps to philosophy came from those whom the Greeks called barbarians.'" Athenagoras says that " Homer and Hesiod (who lived about four hundred years before him) first formed the theology of the Greeks, and gave names to their deities. Until that time there had been no repre- sentations of the gods, either in painting or sculpture." All the gods of Greece, says one, were originally the sun. " The great heroes were translated to the sun, and wor- shipped with him." This was probably the case as soon as the descendants of Ham settled there, for they wor- shipped the sun, and Ham with him. They are called Ammoniaxs, and Jupiter Ammon. Before we pix)ceed to mention some of the early colo- nies of Greece, and the names of their leaders and times, we must make one remark, which is important to the right nnderstanding of their history. When their history was written, it always began, not with their first settle- ment in the diflferent places colonized, but with their great ancestor in the country whence they came, and with some events in his history. Hence it is that they declare that their first king was the monarch of the whole earth, or of a large p>art of it ; which was true of Noah, Ham, I^^imrod, etc., who were called by different names, according to their dialects or languages. The Greeks were sometimes called lonians, and were supposed to be a colony from Babylon after the dis- persion. Plutarch says, " They were the first who led mankind into idolatry, by introducing the enn, moon, * Lord Bacon says that the Greek fables " appear like a soft whisper from the traditions of more ancient nations, conveyed through the flutes of the Grecians." 284 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and all tlie stars as deities." Antioclms says, "They had been instructed by Joannes, one of the giant race, — the same person who, with his associates, bnilt the tower ; and who, together with them, was punished by a confu- sion of speech." Sometimes they were called Hellenes, which was the same with the lonians. Tlie Greeks, or a colony of them, were sometimes called Argives, from the ark or ship Argos or Argha, thus tracing themselves to N^oah, Sometimes they were called Pelasgi, from Pelasgus, another name for JSToah or Deu- calion. In one of the ancient hymns of Orpheus we have this descrij)tion : " On a high mountain brow The gloomy cave gave back to light Godlike Pelasgus, that the race of man Through him might be renewed." Another state of Greece was that of the Spartans or Sparti — a word which signifies " scattered abroad." They are supposed to have come into Beotia with Cadmus, when he migrated to Thebes with the people of tlie dis- persion, ^schylus describes them as the posterity of those "whom the chance of war had spared, and who were scattered abroad." The term Titans or Titanians, or wanderers, was given to them. The great object of build- ing the tower was, " lest we be scattered abroad ;" hence, those who went abroad from Babel were called wanderers. The wars of the Titans were the wars of these wanderers seizing on the inheritance of others. They were called " the giants," "the warlike." Sometimes they were called the Heliadse, or the offs2:»ring of the sun, — 'that is, of Noah and of Ham. The Meropes were another tribe or nation of ancient Greece. The author of the " Chronicon Pas- chale " says, " That the Meropes were originally concerned THE DISPERSED IN" EUROPE. 285 in building the tower of Babel, and were prevented by the confusion of their speech. On this account they had then* name of Meropes, because their speech was di- vided." Meropes was of the giant breed, and supposed to be the same with one of the Heraclidse. Pindar also speaks of the Deity ruining the Meropes — with their great and warlike monarch. The city of Ti-oy, also, is spoken of as the city of the dispersed. The Colchicans of Pontus were also a superior race. They worshipped Prometheus as a god. The grounds around his temple were planted with trees, and covered with pavilions and fountains. It was also called para- dise, or by a name answering to our paradise. There can be no doubt that all which is said of the race of giants since the flood, whether in scripture or in an- cient history or poetry, may be traced to the warlike de- scendants of Ham, in the line of the mighty Nimrod ; and that all the wonderful things in architecture, Avhether in Egypt or in Greece, are to be ascribed to the daring archi- tects of the tower of Babel. Poetry and romance have of course exaggerated them beyond the bounds of credibility. Homer and Hesiod, and even Yirgil and Ovid, have con- tributed largely to the tradition of monsters in the human form, who never had existence except in the imaginations and fears of man. "VYe do not deny that there was a Goliah in the time of David, and Anakims in the days of Moses and Joshua, of large stature, but not so large as the cowardly spies represented. Men as large as Goliah have lived since his day ; — even in our land there have been monsters in size, with dwarfs to stand between tlieir legs. There have been not only individuals, but families and tribes, ditfering greatly in size from others of the human race. Greece, ever given to the fabulous and the marvellous, has made herself ridiculous in the eyes of the world by her extravagancies, which deserve to be placed 286 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. alongside of the " Arabian ISTights' Entertainment," and of " Tom Thumb " and " Jack the Giant-Killer." Some of these are worthy of consideration, because of their connection with history and reh'gion. A small com- pany of the Titans or wanderers settled in Sicily, and established their bloody rites there, living on plunder. But let us see what has been made of it. These are the Cyclops, as they were called, only three in number. Virgil has given an account of one in his cave : — " Monstrum, hoiTendum, informs, ingens, cui lumen ademptum." Here it is that he forges the lightning and thunder for Jupiter. Virgil tells us that they built the great wall which, in the lower regions, divided Elysium from Tar- tarus. Homer makes Ulysses visit one of them, who seizes upon two of his men and makes a feast of them. Of them "He spreads a horrid feast, And fierce devours them, like a mountain beast." JSTow the true history is this : The Cyclopeans were re- markable for their skill in architecture, in every country where they went, and were men of great strength. They builded great temples and towers, which sometimes an- swered for light-houses on the coast. They had a round window in the upper part, like an eye, such as are put in the gable-ends of houses to this day, and are called " ox eyes," from their resemblance to the eye of an ox. Vir- gil, speaking of Polyhemus, referring no doubt to the high towers he built, says, "Ipse arduus, altaque pulsat sidera." Of his works, one of the ancients says, " Oyclopum sacros Turres labore majus humane decus." THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. 287 THE SACKED TOWEKS OF THE CYCLOPS THE GREATEST WORKS OF HUMAN ART. The Sclioliast, on Statins, says of tlieir architecture : " Quicquid magnitiidine sua, nobile est, Cylopum manu dicitur fabricatum." The secret of the cave of the Cy- clops in Sicily was this : on a high rock, called Scilla, there was a temple of the Cyclopean priests, where they sacrificed and devoured all the strangers who were thrown upon that coast. Petra was the temple, and the dogs surrounding it Avere the priests ; and the most agree- able repast to the priests was the flesh of strangers. On another part of the island of Sicily were the Lestrigonians, who were, perhaps, of the same race and character with the Cyclopeans — being giants in wickedness. Herod- otus, in whose day a story was told of a race with one eye, literally rejects it. The Syrens, of whom Homer speaks in the " Odyssey," lived on the opposite coast of Africa, called Campania, and were also of the race of Ham, through Canaan. Here, also, was a great temple in which women officiated, and sang most enchanting and irresistible songs, with which to ensnare and charm the travellers along the coast. Circe, one of them, says to Ulysses, " Unblest the man whom music makes to stray Near the curst coast and listen to the laj'. The ground polluted floats with human gore, And human carnage taints the dreadful shore. Fly! fly the dangerous coast ! " There was no fiction in this description of the blood and gore which defiled the temples, in many parts of Greece, where human victims were sacrificed. When an ancient writer speaks of Saturn himself, and Ops, and other deities " devouring their own children," it is easily 288 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. understood by referring to tlie liuman victims wliich were offered up to them in the temples. In the orgies of Bacchus and Ceres, one part of the ceremony was to eat the flesh with the blood. In Crete, at the Dionusiaca, they used to tear the flesh from the victim while alive. According to Ovid, most of the tem- ples of old were courts of justice. Thus lie says of the goddess Ceres, " Prima dedit leges." The laws of Solon were engraved in one of the temples at Athens. Proserpine, with Minos, and Radamanthus, were condemned to the shades below, as infernal inquisi- tors. The priests in the temple were sometimes called Furiae, wherefore an ancient writer speaks of " Proserpine among the furies." Herodotus speaks of a Prutanion in Achaia, from which none ever returned who were caught by the priests. The Harpies were also a college of priests in Bithynia. On account of their cruelty they were driven out of the country. They were styled " The Dogs of Jove." Some of the priests in the ancient temples, as in one at Megara, were celebrated for wrestling and boxing with the Ccestus, and obtained victims by challenging and even forcing strangers to the combat. We are told that this even reached America. When the Spaniards came to the Western world they found a custom resembling this. The person about to be sacrificed must engage in battle and be slain. The word campus or campi, was the space around the temple where the battle was fought, and the combatants were called campio. We read also of a monster called campi, who was said to have fifty heads of fifty different beasts. This was believed to be a college ot fifty cruel priests, who lived on human victims. The old story of a monster or dragon which covers fifty acres, is THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. 289 interpreted to mean a campus or enclosure containing fifty- acres around one of the temples. We may, in another way, account for the marvellous ex- ploits and travels and reformations. ascribed to the hero- gods of old, in Greece especially. The actions of a whole tribe or colony are ascribed to the great leader of the same. In scripture, the tribes are called after their twelve heads, as Judah, Dan, Reuben, etc., hundreds of years after their patriarchs were dead. The actions of the tribes were credited to the individuals. Wonderful are the accounts given of the travels, conquests, reformations, achievements, and instructions of Osiris, Pei'seus, Dionu- sus, Bacchus, Hercules, and others. The journeyings and works of these persons would require hundreds of years, and by many persons associated together, in order to their accomplishment; and many of these are so much alike, according to the tradition, that we must suppose them to be the same characters under different names, according to the diversity of tongues after the confusion at Babel. Noah answers to the description of the leading ones ; and his sons and their children, especially Ham and Gush and Nimrod, will represent all the subsequent heroes which make such a figure in ancient history and raythol- og_7. But then, we must connect with them the colonies which they settled, in order to j ustify these feats said to have been performed by them. And as to the accounts given of the nuirches and conquests of Bacchus, Hercules, Sesos- tris, Semiramis, and others, we must remember who were the nations overrun and subdued by them. They were petty tribes, under patriarchs called kings, like the nu- merous petty states "of Greece in their infancy, and some- what like the petty tribes of Africa at this day. What were the kings occupying Canaan in the time of Abra- ham, when with his three hundred servants he overcame so many ; or in the time of Joshua, when Adonibezek had 19 290 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, more than eighty at one time, captives and mutilated, Nimrod may have been a mighty hunter, like some great chieftain in our American forests, because there were so many wild beasts in the uncleared lands of the East, and of course a sparse population of human beings, as is al- ways the case with the savage oi' hunting state of man. Europe, with its numerous British and Mediterranean and -^gean isles, and immense sea-coast, was, of all the quarters of the globe, most favorable for multiplied colo- nies and independent states, and pirates and robbers, which would furnish material for extravagant fiction and wilder poetry. Plerodotus tells us that, even in his time, in one tract along the Hellespont and Euxine, there were thirty different nations. To this let it be added, that learned men believe some of the great heroes of the early times to have been religious leadei's who made wars against opposing sects. The descendants of Ilam, — the Titans, the worshippers of the sun, — and of Ham or Jupiter Am- mon, were especially zealous for their own, and intolerant of others. One of these nunierous heroes, going by the name of Hercules, signalized himself by waging war against the descendants of Japheth, (wlio were the Arkites of their time,) and with his followers made conquests in the Mediterranean, even in the British isles, establishing the worship of Ammon. The history of the Northern tribes of Europe, both civil and religious, is less known, by reason of their inte- rior position and remoteness from the Mediterranean. We have already said that the Cusliites or Scythians gradually encroached upon the Javanites, the descendants of Japheth, and if they did not drive them out of that region, yet became the nobles and priests, and established the Druidical worship — the same with the Buddhism of India, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and all the islands which cluster around them, were brought under the Dru- THE DISPERSED IN EUROPE. 291 idical faitli and worship. We have ah-eady quoted from then* wikl poems concerning the dehige, and Woden, and Ceridwen. Even to the days of Ossian there has been a succession of romantic Druidical poets, whose works have been read with interest by the literati and the religious. With all their extravagance, they bear good testimony to the Bible history. Of their temples, towers, caverns, cromlechs, and mounds, we have already spoken. Of the philosophic religions of Europe we shall say nothing now, as these will come under consideration when we treat of the philosophers in a subsequent chapter. CHAPTEE XX. ON THE RELIGION OF THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. We come now to wliat is often called " Degraded Afri- ca." Many think that the malediction of Noah on Canaan the son of Ham, for the irreverence shown by the father towards Noah, was designed to entail degradation and slavery on the descendants of Ham, in Africa. Others can see nothing but a prophecy of judgment on Canaan, which was fullilled in the destruction, or caj)tivity or ban- ishment of the wicked Canaanites ; and therefore sup- pose that Canaan must have participated at least in the father's irreverence. Traditions and conjectures have ever abounded among the Jewish rabbis and Christian fathers on this subject. We shall not enter on the discussion. Certain it is that all the descendants of Ham were not visited with servi- tude on account of their father's sin. Cush, one of the sons of Ham, Nimrod's grandfather, laid the foundation of two mighty empires, Assyrian and Medo-Persian ; to say nothing of the Senthian or Scythian, which preceded them. Their descendants were, and are to this day, the masters of the world, — for the English, French, German, and Prussian, besides the inhabitants of the United States, are descended from them. A large portion of South and Middle Africa — that sup- posed to be settled by Phut, one of the sons of Ham — has indeed ever been the seat of the slave-trade ; but so have THE DISPERSED iN AFRICA. 293 other parts of Europe and Asia, as all history testifies. The slave-markets on the Mediterranean were supplied with captives, taken in war and piracy, from all quarters of the ancient world, which were settled by the descend- ants from all the sons of ]!^oah. Even in Scythia slaves so abounded, that on one occasion they rose in rebellion against their masters. " For a time," says Herodotus, " they fought them with swords and spears, and sought to subdue them, but found it hard ; when one said, 'While we thus fight them, they think themselves our equals ; let us lay aside the sword and use whips, as their masters.' This was successful." A rather improbable story, however, like some others told by Herodotus. Those from Africa were sometimes preferred as slaves, by the rich and great of Greece and Italy, to those of any other country. If they were the same amiable race as at present, this is not to be wondered at. Still, in the time of Horace there was a reproach resting on them, whether for their color, their state of slavery, or some other cause, I know not. " Absentem qui rodit amicum Aut non defendit alio culpante Hie niger est ; Hunc tu Romane caveto." One thing is certain, that they were not ashamed of their color, for the great statue of Memnon in Egypt, supposed to be the same with Buddha in Hindostan, is very large and very black. 'Not only this, but in Hindostan the statue of Euddlia is more frequently black than of any other color, though it is to be found of all the shades of color among men ; thus showing the universality of Buddhism in the ancient world. It certainly once pre- vailed through Africa, though not at its first settlement. Misraim, the son of Ham, settled in Egypt, and brought with him, no doubt, a purer form of the religion of Noah. 294 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Pliut, it is tlioiiglit, settled in wliat was called Ethiopia and Abyssinia, though some think that he afterwards re- moved to Hindostan, and became the Buddha of that comitry. Misraim was worshipped under the name of Ethiops, and was supposed by some to have been the first king and god of Egypt, from which name Ethiopia was derived. But this first form of religion was afterwards changed by the incursion of the shepherd kings from Asia — the descendants of Ham, through the line of Cush and Nim- rod — who overran Egypt, and assimilated the religious worship and gods more to the pattern of those at Babylon. Herodotus and Manetho tell us of two descents upon Egypt by the shepherd kings, who drove out numbers of the inhabitants, and enslaved the rest. After holding the country in possession for a long time after each incursion, perhaps five hundred years in all, they were driven out by the natives. It is supposed that Joseph came into Egypt not long after the expulsion of the first race of shepherd kings, and was followed by his father and brethren after some years. The second race of usurpers oppressed both the Israel- ites and the natives, and probably made them both unite in building the great pyramids, and the other wonders of Egypt. The shepherd kings were called Auretse, from the word Aur, the sun, which they worshipped. They settled first in the upper part of the Delta, the richest portion of Egypt. This was the region from whence, after building a city called Abaris, for their defence, they were driven out. Its pastures were so fine, and the climate such, that sheep are said to have had lambs twice a year, and yielded two fleeces of wool each year. This was the part of Egypt that was given to Jacob and his sons, for themselves, their flocks and herds. In the providence of God it had been vacated THE DISPERSED IN AFEICA. 295 in time for tlieir reception. A passage from one of the books of Moses concerning it deserves some explanation, A reason assigned for its selection was, that every shep- herd was an abomination to the Egyptians, which might be easily understood if the worst part of the land had been assigned to Jacob ; but Pharaoh desired Joseph to choose the best part of the land of Egypt for him. The explanation of the passage is, either that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians because of the ill- treatment they had received from the shepherd kings, who, doubtless, had large flocks, or that the Egyptians, who at that time offered no animal sacrifices to their gods, or only certain kinds, with handfuls of corn, frank- incense, and myrrh, held in detestation the sacrifices of cattle and sheep which the shepherd kings had been ac- customed to offer from their large flocks and herds. Although Jacob had been accustomed to make such offer- ings to Jehovah, yet we are told that during all their res- idence in Egypt the Israelites never dared to do it. This explains the demand of Moses that they might be allov/- ed to go three days' journey into the wilderness, that is, to Arabia, in order to sacrifice ; pleading that if they should sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians, — that is, cattle, — the Egyptians would stone them. Although afterwards, and for a long time, according to Ezekiel, Egyptians " became a base kingdom," " the basest of kingdojns," and " without a prince," — that is, a prince of her own, — yet in the time of Joseph they became great, probably when he had the chief place in the kingdom. Though Pharaoh was the leading king, there were others, for the country was divided into many petty kingdoms. It was at that time in Egypt as in Asia, and many other countries : " In Asia regna voluptissima sunt Urbes sinG;ulte suos habcnt reges." 296 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. They were, however, all in confusion, as in the petty kingdoms of Canaan and the small tribes of Africa, and in Europe in feudal times ; but Joseph, availing himself of the opjDortunity furnished him by the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, got possession for Pharaoh of all the land, and cattle, and money of Egypt, and made the people subject to him, removing them from one end of the country to the other, changing their cities, and thus preventing all associations for regaining their licentious independence. Such was the case in other countries, according to ancient history. In relation to the shepherd kings, who took possession of Egy23t at an early period and held it so long, the fol- lowing passage from Manetho, the earliest of the Egyptian historians, will interest the reader : " "We had formerly a king named Timmaus, in whose reign, I know not why, it pleased God to visit us with a blast of his displeasure ; when, on a sudden, there came upon the nation a large body of obscure peo23le from the East : with great bold- ness they invaded the land, and took it without opposition. The chiefs of our people they reduced to obedience, and treated them in the most cruel manner ; set fire to their towns, and overturned their temples." He then gives an account of six of their kings, " who in succession were always in a state of hostility with the natives, and en- deavored, if ]3ossible, to root out the very name of Egyp- tian." The whole body of this people were called Ilukos, that is, " royal shepherds." Manetho also refers to the subsequent settlement of Joseph and the Israelites, and their removal. That the first shepherds were fire-wor- shippers is evident from a saying among them in their wor- ship : "111 Alia ; Alia Ouac, Oubar Alia." That is, "Tlie Sun is God ; the great Lord Aur is God." In relation to the architecture of Egypt, Sir William Jones, in speaking of India, says, " The remains of ar- THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 297 cliitecture and sculpture in India seem to prove an early intercourse between tliat country and Africa. Many indubitable facts may induce no ill-grounded opin- ion, that Ethiopia, — that is, Asiatic Ethiopia, — Africa, and Ilindostan were peopled or colonized by the same extraordinary race, that is, the descendants of Ham, through Cush and Nimrod, who overran India, overpow- ering the descendants of Shem, and took possession of Egypt, driving out or enslaving the descendants of Mis- raim, the oldest of the sons of Ham." An ancient tradi- tion also says, that the Chaldeans, — the descendants of Cush, — formerly invaded Egypt, and overcame the priests and worshippers of Canobus, their ancient king and god, changed its religion, and altered its annals. In the time of Joseph and also of Moses, we know that they wor- shipped the sun under the name of On. In relation to their annals, — the dynasties of their kings and gods, — the utmost confusion exists. Their first kings were called gods ; the second race were called demi-gods. As to the immense period of their past existence, that is all fable. We have nothing reliable till we come to the god of the ark and the deluge, and then the resemblance of their history to that of all the nations around is easily es- tablished. Their Isis and Osiris are believed by many to be the second father and mother of the renewed race of men, the male and female deities of the ark, called by so many different names in different countries, according to the languages thereof. Ausonius says, evidently referring to Noah, " Ogygia (that is, Beotia) me Bacchum vocat ;" " Osyrin Egyptus putat ;" " Mysi, Phanacem." These were only a few of the various names given to the hero- god of the ark. The names of the kings of Egypt were blended with their gods ; Pharaoh, the common name of their kings, is the same with Phree, or God. Tradition, in Asia, says 298 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. that Nanasli or JSToali was at first a mortal, but became a god while he was in the ark. We have before seen, from the Orphic hymns and oth- erwise, that the Egyptians had some idea of a Supreme Deity, the creator of gods and men and all things ; but they did not like to retain this God in their knowledge, and began to worship the deities of the ark, and the sun, moon, and stars, as emanations and parts of the great Deity. Herodotus tells us that they paid no religious honor to heroes as the Grecians did ; that they told him, when visiting Egypt, that their images were only the im- ages of great and noble men, but who were far from being gods ; that, at the first, God reigned over Egypt. He speaks of visiting the tomb of one at Sais, " whom I con- sider it impious to divulge on such an occasion." He tells us of " a great feast at Butastis, where more wine is consumed than in all the rest of the year," seven hundred thousand persons being present. At this sacrifice they all beat themselves violently : " But for whom they thus beat themselves it were impious to divulge." The Egyp- tians, after a time, it is well known, began to worship every thing in nature, whether in the " heavens above, or in the earth beneath." Pan, or all things in nature, was their deity. Xot a plant or flower of the garden, or grain of the fields, or tree of the forest, or fowl of the air, or beast, or reptile, which had the power of propagat- ing its kind, but was a part of the great Creator. Juve- nal, in one of his satires, speaks of them as adoring all which grew in their gardens, their fields, and their rivers. Especially did they adore rivers as deities, — the river Nile being the chief river-god because the instrument of so much fertility, and especially because its source was unknown to them. The Egyptians, like some other nations, divided theii gods into two sexes — sometimes combined them into one THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 299 hermaplirodite. In tlie mysteries of Eo;ypt, all tlie facts belonging to the ark, tlie deluge, and Noah's family are celebrated in the most imposing manner, as we have already stated in a previous chapter. Their religion having been, heretofore, so wrapped up in their unintelligible hieroglyphics, has been less understood than that of some other nations. The information gotten by some of the ancient philosophers of Greece and Home, while residing in Egypt and searching for knowledge, from the priests, has heretofore been the chief source of our acquaintance with the Egyptian theology. The fa- mous Rosetta stone, dug up by Napoleon Bonaparte's sol- diers while in Egypt, (now in the British Museum,) Avith an inscription in Greek, in Egyptian hieroglyphics and phonetic symbols, is proving a great help to the decipher- ing of the hieroglyphics which have so long shut up the Egyptian literature and theology from the world. The discovery of more of the ancient temples in Upper Egypt, with their inscriptions, will add something valuable, it is hoped, to our knowledge of the Egyptian antiquities. The burning of the Alexandrian library in the time of Ju- lius Caesar, and the ruthless destruction of so many others by the Saracens in the tenth century, has doubtless lost to the world much of ancient lore which can never be re- stored. And yet we doubt not that the famous school of the Christian fathers in Egypt, reared over the very ashes of the conflagrated library, has done much to recov- er many ancient fragments of literature ; while the es- tablishment of the Christian church all along the north- ern coast of Africa, converted one of the most barbarous and ferocious parts of the pagan world into a comparative paradise for many centuries. The history of the abomina- tions of the idolatry of Carthage alone is enough to stag- ger all belief, were it not too well established by un- doubted authority, and confirmed by the accounts of other 800 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. parts of the pagan world. The cruel rites of Moloch, prac- tised in Carthage, were only a transfer to that place of the abominations of the Yalley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, by the Canaanites who colonized it. In each place chil- dren were snatched from their mothers' arms, and thrown into the wide-open mouth of the burning, blazing, insati- able god. Of this we shall have more to say in another place. The Egyptians themselves, even after the introduc- tion of the worship of the sun by the shepherd kings, were for some time behind the Greeks and Romans in the abominations of their worship. Mr. Bryant says, "The ancient Chaldeans, from whence the shepherd kings re- ceived their religion, would have tliought themselves and their deities injured by a comparison with them. They doubtless were guilty of idolatry in worshijjping the Su- preme Deity under any resemblance, — yet there are de- grees even in idolatry ; they were not so gross m their conceptions or worship as the Greeks and Romans. Their god had no resemblance to Bacchus, the god of grapes ; or to Mulciber, the blacksmith. There are passages which show that, in the time of Abraham's visit to Egypt, there were evidences of the true religion. Li the time of Joseph the same may be said. His marriage with a daughter of the priest of the sun, and the favors shown to him by Pha- raoh, and the respectful language used in relation to the God of Joseph, is a proof of this. Although the prophets are so full of denunciations against Egypt on account of its increasing corruj^tion of morals and the abominations of their idolatry, yet we find kind reference to them, and favoring decrees in regard to them, at an earlier period. Thus in Deuteronomy it is written, " Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt." And while the Moabites and Ammonites must not enter into the congregation, even to the tenth genera- THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 301 tion, the children of the Egyptians might be admitted in the third generation. To the foregoing account of the religion of ancient Egypt, I subjoin a communication touching its present theology and worship. It is from the pen of my brother, Bishojj Payne, than whom no man living is better quali- fied to afford reliable information. My Dear Bishop : — I reply, as soon as I have been able to command time, to your kind favor of the 14th inst. It gives me great pleasure to assist you in the work which you have in hand ; especially as it atibrds me an oppor- tunity to give some reliable account of what has been very little understood, — the mythology of the pagan Africans. You will share in the surprise I felt on the discovery of the resemblance of this system to that of the heathen in all ages, and to some of the great truths of revelation. I will give the account of this very much in the lan- guage in which I received it from an aged Grebo deya, or demon-man : " In the beginning, God (or Nyesoa, — nye^ man, sou, abiding, — very like Jehovah, the Eternal One) lived on earth among men. Then there was no sickness, no sorrow, no death. After a time, however, Nyesoa let fall from his hands We, witchcraft, — or that which causeth death. A woman got hold of this : soon a death followed. Men, dismayed, went to Nyesoa to ask the cause. He re- plied, that ' We had fallen from him, and was in posses- sion of a woman. She had caused the death.' He told them, moreover, that ' he would now direct them to a test by which they could ascertain the guilt or innocence of the woman, and others suspected of like crime.' He showed them the gidu-tree, and directed them to make an infu- sion of the bark and administer it to the woman. If guilty, it would cause her death ; if innocent, she would vomit it and escape. The woman drank the mixture, and died. 302 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Before this, however, she had succeeded in conveying this mysterious We to lier cliildren. Thus sickness and death overspread the world. Men became so corrupt that Nye- soa told them he could no longer dwell among them ; and he withdrew to heaven. Before leaving, however, he assured them he should always take an interest in their affairs, and that he would leave among them a class of men through whom they could communicate with him. This class are the deyabo, or demon-men." In this narrative we have the professedly divine origin of gidii, or " sassa-wood," reminding one of " the waters of jealousy," and used all through Central Africa as a test of witchcraft and other crimes ; — the account, so nearly scriptural, of God's dwelling with men, the introduction of evil by woman, and the deyabo, representing almost ex- actly Balaam and the false prophets and oracles of all heathen countries ; — the idea being, in all these cases, that the daimon of the Greeks,— the Jyu of the Greboes, — is sent by N^yesoa, or the Supreme Being ; and hence the responses or directions of those acting under the influence of these spirits have a divine sanction. The senseless gre- grees or fetishes, therefore, made of horns, wood, or stone, ' are as potent for good or evil as the nicely chiselled statue of Jupiter, or the image of the great goddess Diana, which fell down from heaven. Like the Greeks and Romans, too, the Greboes deify their departed friends ; assigning them relatively the same position in the future world which they had occupied in this. Thus the warrior is the warrior Ji:u, or demon, ex- erting a powerful influence over war, and to be propitiated by oflerings in time of war, or when it is pending. The trader from the spirit-land exerts an influence over trade, and must be proj^itiated when it languishes. The rich man, who had his slaves to wait on him when living, must still have them when dead. And therefore, in the kingdoms of THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 303 Dahomey and Ashanti, slaves are killed at the death of the masters, to accompany and wait on them in the future world. The spirits of the departed (in order to eat the food ofiered to them, and for other purposes) enter into the bodies of animals, which for this reason become sacred. Thus monkeys and even snakes are, in particular places and circumstances, the objects of religious oiferings and fear. In strange opposition, however, to the view of the condi- tion of the departed, it is a very prevalent idea that after a certain time the spirits of the departed return to the world in the bodies of new-born children, who, accord- ingly, by the direction of a deya, receive their names. There is still another class of Ku^ or demons, with whose origin no one professes to be acquainted. Thus, in par- ticular localities, — generally a remarkable rock or grove, — they are said to have lived from time immemorial, and to have been the objects of worship. Of the idols of the Af- ricans, it is only the larger, — having, in a few cases, some resemblance to a human being, — that are supposed to have a. Jul, demon or spirits, in them. The smaller kind, worn about the person, are supposed to possess only a sort of magical influence communicated by the deya or demon- man who prepared them. In the office of bodia, theoretically the highest among the people, are many remarkable resemblances to that of the Jewish high priest. The office is hereditary in a par- ticular family. "When an incumbent is likely to die, the ring of office is taken from his ankle and put uj)on that of some member of his family, until an oracle is consulted to know who is to succeed. One of the older members of the family is generally chosen. A day is appointed for his inauguration ; the people all assemble ; the heads of fam- ilies now ap})roach and give, in turn, the newly-elected bodia a solemn charge. During his administration the seasons are to be propitious ; trade is to flourish ; witch- 30-i THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. craft and war are to be kept far away. An animal or lie- goat is brought for sacrifice. The proper officer taking up the animal, invokes Nyesoa, (God,) the spirits of the dead, and other Kioi demons. The animal is killed by being thrown violently against the gronnd, without mntilation. After being thus killed, the throat is cut, and the blood is sprinkled uj^on the bodia's ear, finger, and toe ; also upon the door-posts of his house and public idols within. He is then washed and anointed with oil. He remains in this anointing three days, and then takes possession of the pub- lic house prepared for him. That house is always of a long shape, unlike others ; it is called tai-l:ai^ the anointed house. In it are kept the public idols which are to be fed by the bodia, and a fire nnist be kept ever burning. In this house alone can the bodia eat and sleej), exce]3t when he may visit a parent town, or the one from which his peo- ple have been colonized. When he goes with his people, as is usual, to work on the farms, he must only drink wa- ter in the public highway. He may never become intox- icated, nor be guilty of unchastity. He may never weep for the dead, nor take part in a burial, nor take food in town while a corpse lies unburied in it. He has a vote on all public measures ; his house is a place of refuge where no one may be molested, whatever crime he may have committed. When the bodia, or his chief wife (also a sa- cred person) dies, no mourning is allowed, and they are buried at night. In case he has died by gidu^ or sassa- wood, his body must be buried beneath a running stream of water. I have not been able to find among the Greboes, or their pagan neighbors, the idea of sacrificing as atonement for sin. Their off'erings are avowedly to feed their demons. When these demons are said to be angry, and to inflict or threaten calamities, the reason always assigned by the de- mon-men is, that they are hungry ; or that they are dis- THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 805 pleased at some violation of political, social, or hereditary- rights of families or individuals. Sometimes it is because they themselves have been killed unjustly by gidic or sas- sa-wood. And yet the idea of moral purity seems to linger among them. This appears in the law of temperance and chastity for the bodia, and for the tibawaa, the next officer in authority to him ; also, in the formal ceremony to pu- rify the land from Tcamt, or pollution after war ; and the trial of all married women, to ascertain if they have been guilty of unchastity, when their husbands are going to war. The rite of circumcision is practised by the Man- durgos, Foulahs, the large Mohammedan tribes of Central Africa, and some pagan tribes in their neighborhood, or who have been brought under their influence. The right of primogeniture is everywhere acknowledged among the Africans, securing to the first-born son great authority during the life of the father, and succession to his full rights at death. There is a great prejudice against twins throughout the country, on the ground that " the elder will serve the younger." On the part of the coast near the equator there is a prac- tice which seems to point to infant baptism. The new- born babe is laid on a mat, in the centre of the village or town, and the citizens go in turn to welcome it to their society, and throw water upon it. Hoping that these facts may answer your purpose, and praying for God's blessing upon all your efforts for his glory, — I remain, my dear Bishop, Yery respectfully and truly Your Friend and Son in the Gospel, John Payne. 20 306 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. APPENDIX. Since writing the foregoing cliapter, I have examined all that the Rawlinsons, Wilkinson, and Hardwic have communicated to the world of their researches in Egypt, and find what I have stated abundantly confirmed. They unite in testifying that Egypt is no longer to be regarded as tlie land of useless ruins, and of enigmas not to be solved, but of sculptured monuments teaching ancient his- tory and science. The walls, platforms, piHars, and door- posts of their temples are covered, within and without, with explanatory^ and historic pictures wliich the learned are deciphering. IsTo colossus is so great, no amulet so small, but has tlie name of its owner and some account of it engraved thereon. The earliest sacred books of Egypt were those called "The Books of Hermes" — the ancient Mercury and scribe of the gods, according to their tradition. Even in the time of Clement of Alexan- dria, they were carried about in the temple of Isis by the priests in solemn procession. They treated on various sub- jects,— religion, philosophy, sacrifices, medicine, astronomy, etc. One of them yet remains, but that only in fragments. It is entitled "The Book of the Dead." In it are references to the times of the Pharaohs, and to funeral ceremonies. Mr. Hardwic says, " It is the same with the Egyptian as with the Hindoo ; a vague idea of the unity of God lingered in the background of his metaphysical system long after it had ceased to have any practical efifect. Fascinated by the mysterious powers and processes of nature, he abandoned the ancient faith in God, and bow- ed down in adoration to the world above, beneath, and around him." Still, at times lie would speak of a " Great Builder," a " Creator of the universe," a " Creator self- created," a "Soul of the sun," a "father and mother of the gods ;" but gradually the " bright memory of one THE DISPERSED IN AFRICA. 307 only God faded from tlie human spirit, and his functions were ascribed to a succession of subordinate divinities which constituted the objects of Egyptian worship." Na- ture was tlie highest god of tlie pliilosophic priests, while the people brought their offerings to some one or other of the various powers of nature in the form of some im- age or idol of the deity. Animal worship prevailed in the highest degree in Egypt, because the powers of nature were seen in them. Plutarch, who endeavored to make the best of their religion, nevertheless says, " The greater part of the Egyptians, by adoring the animals themselves as gods, have filled their ritual with subjects of laughter and opprobrium." Animal sacrifices were offered up in Egypt, says Hard- wic, during all its historic period; but it was done out of fear of the hostility of their gods, and to avert their an- ger. After a time, however, cows and heifers were ex- cepted, as being sacred to their god Apis. To offer them was to offer what Moses called " the abomination of the Egyptians," — that is, it was an abomination to sacrifice them. The Egyptians, like all other ancient pagans, sac- rificed much to the manes or spirits of their ancestors. Especially did they show piety to their parents in this way. With many funeral ceremonies they dedicated their hearts to their parents, as to the " authors of their bodies." As to a future state, they certaiidy believed in the im- mortality of the soul ; but when Herodotus says they were the first who taught it, we must take his explanation in order to understand his meaning. "They were also the first to broach the immortality of the soul, and that when the body dies it enters into the form of an animal which is boi-n at the moment, thence passing on from one animal into another until it has circled through all th-e creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame and is born anew. 308 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years. There are Greek writers, some of an ear- lier, some of a later date, who have borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians and put it forward as their own." It was, therefore, the doctrine of transmigration, — the mode of immortality, — they taught first, and not the existence of the soul after the death of the body, which was a uni- versal belief. They were also much given to astronomy. Their chief divinities, says a writer of the first century, were the seven planets and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. "With the figure and motion of the earth and the planets it is believed they were much better acquainted than many of the moderns suppose ; and Moses himself, being learned " in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," may also have had better views on this subject than are imputed to him, al- though natural philosophy and astronomy were not among the objects of God's revelation to him. As to their knowledge of the fall and man's corruption, however long they may liave retained correct traditions of it, we in vain look for any evidence of a proper sense of it in their rituals. There are no confessions of innate de- pravity in their prayers, no appeals for mercy to the great Judge. Theirs was the religion of the Pharisee, — a boasting of self-rigliteousness. In one of their books there is a form of self-justification in view of the judgment after death, consisting of thirty-six disavowals of sin, the first of which is as follows : " I have neither done any sin, nor omitted any duty." The rest are denials of all kinds of special acts. In embalming the dead bodies also, the embalmer says, in the name of the dead person, "If I have committed any fault during my life, either in eating or drinking, it has not been done on my own account, but on account of these," pointing to the cliest containing the entrails. CHAPTER XXI. ON THE CANAANITES AND ANIMAL SACRIFICES. The laud of Judea or Palestine, though set apart for the Israelites who descended from Shetn, and according to God's command taken possession of by Abraham, and held for them by Isaac and Jacob until the removal of the latter into Egypt, was chiefly occupied by the de- scendants of Canaan. The scriptural account of Canaan is as follows : Noah, having planted a vineyard and drank of the juice of the grape, became intoxicated — whether from ignorance of its power to produce this effect, or some other cause, is matter of conjecture. "While in this con- dition. Ham, one of his sons, is supposed to have been guilty of some irreverence toward him ; while the other two, Shem and Japheth, sohght as far as possible to con- ceal their father's shame. That Ham was really guilty is nowhere stated, but is inferred from what followed. It is written, that when Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son — or, as it is sometimes rendered, little son — had done unto him, he pronounced a prophecy, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, in relation to the future history of his descendants, saying, " Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his breth- ren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." 810 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. From the fact that the name of Ham is not mentioned in the prophecy, and the one who oifered the indignity to Noah is called "his younger or little son," and that all the curses were uttered against Canaan, it has been supposed that Canaan had done something offensive, though it is not mentioned Ly the historian ; and that the servitude prophesied was confined to that branch of the family of Noah. Others, in order to avoid this conclusion, propose an addition to the words of Moses, and instead of reading "Cursed be Canaan," say it should be "Cursed be Ham, the father of Canaan," so as to include any of Ham's descend- ants ; for the prophecy referred to nations yet to be born of Noah. Some there are who, losing sight of Canaan as mentioned in the prophecy, are disposed to think that the weight of the curse rests, and was designed to rest, upon those of Ham's descendants who in time were found in the interior of Africa, and of a different or darker color than the rest of mankind. If these were the only tribes of the human family who had ever been in bondage, and we were justified in so altering the sacred text as to make it read " Ham, the father of Canaan," there would be more plausibility in making this portion of the human family the special objects of the prophecy. But the en- slaving of the human species has ever prevailed in many other portions of the world, and in some of them, most probably, before the trade began in Africa, and before the hot sun, arid sands, and burning air of that country had done their part toward impressing the darker hue upon the race. Large portions of Europe and Asia were settled before the interior or South of Africa, the negro country, could have been settled ; and the slave-trade was going on at a very early period in each of these countries. It is supposed that Joseph was sold to the Phoenician merchants, between five and six hundred years after the deluge ; but he was a descendant of the favored Shem, ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 811 and from the land of Canaan. History informs ns that at an early period there were marts or slave-markets in many of the islands and cities of Greece, and throughout the Mediterranean, where immense numbers of persons, who were made captives in war or otherwise, were offered for sale. Wherever there was war the slave-trade existed, from a very early period. l*^ow Asia Minor and Greece, which were settled by the descendants of all three of the sons of Noah, were the scenes of the earliest wars and the densest population. Gush and Canaan, two of the sons of Ham, settled in Asia ; while Misraim and Phut went to Af- rica, where it is probable that (until the last few centuries, since the trade between the coast of Africa and America has been carried on) far more of the descendants of Gush and Canaan have been sold into bondage than of Misraim and Phut, because of the more numerous wars of Europe and Asia. Had it been the case, as some have perhaps supposed, that African negroes had from the first supplied the slave- markets of Greece and Italy, what numbers would have been found in these countries, during the whole period of their history, even to this day. During the two or three centuries of the African slave-trade with America, how many millions have been settled among us and are with us ? But we read no such account of millions of this race in Europe and Asia Minor. We may further infer the early and extensive existence of slavery in Asia — and that not of the negro race only, if at all — from the language of the Decalogue, in which God, from Mount Sinai, recognized that class, and from the other laws of Moses relating to the treatment of such, and the prohibi- tion of man-stealing. That there were many of the Etlii- opians who were in bondage in the time of Moses, who himself married an Ethiopian woman, is, I doubt not, true ; but let me here repeat what I liave before said, that 312 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Ethiopia in Africa and Ethiopia in Asia were different places, and the people of a different color. The one in Asia was the first settled country in the world. It lay between the Euphrates and the Tigris, the two great rivers mentioned by Moses, and which, issuing from the garden of Eden, after encompassing a large territory, emptied them- selves into the ocean. Babylon and Nineveh, and hun- dreds of other cities, belonged to that region. It contained the birtliplace of man, — where man, as to mind and body, was seen in highest perfection. The other Ethiopia, though sometimes used to denote the whole of Africa, is more properly the interior part, from whence after a time slaves were brought to Egypt and the countries on the Mediterranean, as also to Greece and Rome, where we are told they were preferred to those of any other country. The first of the African race who were carried into Eu- rope and sold as slaves, though of dark complexion, were doubtless not of the darkest hue as in centuries after, when African heat and exposure may have blackened and deformed them. It w^as not until near the Christian era, that Horace said, in reproach, " Hie niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto." The African color and character may, in some measure, have been traced to the complexion of Ham himself, or the wife of Ham, or to both, or to Phut and his wife. It sometimes happens that, in the same family, one son or daughter may, by comparison, be dark, and the others fair ; and let that one intermarry with one of tlie same dark hue, and settle in a tropical and sickly country, how soon their descendants would become darker and darker, and in other respects degenerate ! So may it have been with the African descendants of Ham, without the theory of some, that God, by a miracle, for a special purpose, ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 313 made Ham as black as the Guinea negro; Shem, tawney as the Asiatic ; and Japheth, fair as the European. As Bishop Newton has often been quoted in favor of the interpretation which seems to lay the weight of the curse or prophecy on the descendants of Ham in Africa, and to justify the African slave-trade, it is but justice to him to give his statement. He mentions the proposal to alter the text of Moses so as to adapt the prophecy to the case of the Africans, but dares not advocate it. Still he thinks it may be so understood as to embrace the descend- ants of Ham in Africa, and that the slave-trade fulfils it, though he does not say that it justifies it. On the con- trary', his language in condemnation is even offensive to some. " Africa," he says, " was peopled principally by the sons of Ham, and for how many ages have the better parts of that country been under the dominion of the Ro- mans, and then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks! In what wickedness, ignorance, slavery, barbarity, and misery live most of its inhabitants. And of the poor negroes, how many hundreds of them every year are bought and sold like beasts in the market, and are con- veyed from one part of the world to do the work of beasts in another!" We must also do justice to Bishop Newton in another respect. He most emphatically maintains that the weight of the curse was on Canaan, and gives us a history of the emigration of the Canaanitish race, not only in the abominations practised in Palestine, for which God cast them out, but also of Carthage afterwards, whither a colony of them went. He quotes the language of Hannibal, when conquered by the Romans, " Agnosco fortunara Carthaginis" — "I acknowledge the fortune of Carthage" — and thinks, with the learned Mede, that Han- nibal, a child of Canaan, was in these words uttering the sentiment of the nation, which, while in Canaan, seemed ever to be in fear and trembling, — conscious of being 314: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. usurpers, and still regarding themselves as under the curse of heaven. Whoever will carefully read what the scriptures and other histories say of the abominable vices and cruelties of the Canaanites, will not be much aifected by the taunts of infidels, who delight to dwell on the se- verities of the Israelites when driving them out of Ca- naan, and on the upbraidings of God because they did not drive them out sooner and more entirel3\ In the an- cient Book of Wisdom it is written, " For it was thy will, O Lord, to destroy, by the hands of our fathers, botli these old inhabitants of the holy land, whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of witchcraft and wicked sacri- fices, and these merciless murderers of cliildren and de- vourers of man's flesh, and their feasts of blood, with their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help ; for it was a cursed seed from the beginning." Referring you to the scriptures for the cruel and horrid rites of the Canaanites, and the Israelites who followed their example, I will adduce some testimonies from other histories as to their conduct at Carthage and Tyre, where they worshipped the gods Moloch and Kronos, — none other than the Baal of Canaan. Mr. Bryant says, " Be- sides the undetermined times of bloodshed, they had par- ticular prescribed times every year when children were chosen out of the most noble and reputable families ; and if a person had an only child, it was more likely to be put to death as being more acceptable to the deity, and more eff'ective for the general good. Those which were sacri- ficed to Kronos were thrown into the arms of a molten idol, which stood in the midst of a large fire and was red with heat. The arms of the idol were stretched out, and the hands turned upward as it were to receive them, yet sloping downwards so that they dropped into a glowing furnace below. To other gods they were otherwise ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 315 slaughtered, and, as it is implied, by the very hands of their parents. What can be more horrid to the imagina- tion than to suppose a father leading the dearest of all his sons to such an infernal shrine ; or a mother, the most engaging and aliectionate of her daughters, just rising to maturity, to be slaughtered at the altar of Ashtaroth or Baal ! Sometimes they embraced their children with great fondness, and encouraged them in the gentlest terms, that they might not be appalled at the sight of the hellish process, begging them to submit with cheerfulness to the fearful operation. If there was any appearance of a tear rising, or a cry escaping unawares, the mother smothered it with her kisses. These cruel endearments over, they stabbed them to the lieart or otherwise opened the sluices of life, and with the blood, warm as it ran, be- smeared the grim visage of the idol." But it must not be imagined tliat the Canaanites and their descendants were the only nation who were guilty of these same cruel sacrifices. Even the Egyptians, who of old, some say, brought no victim to their temples, and shed no blood upon their altars, afterwards brouglit human victims. The Cretans and Arabians did the same. The people of Dumah, though rejecting images, annually sac- rificed a cliild, and burned it beneath an altar. The Per- sians burned persons alive, Araestis, the wife of Zerxes, burned twelve persons alive for the good of her soul. The natives of Tauric Chersonesus ofifered up to Diana every stranger whom chance threw upon their coasts. The Pelasgi, in a time of scarcity, vowed a tenth of all that should be born to them, in order to secure plenty. Aristomenes, the Messenian, slew three hundred noble Lacedemonians, among whom was tlie king of Sparta, as an offering to Jupiter. " Of old," says Porphyry, " every Grecian state, before they march against an enemy, im- plored a blessing of the gods by human victims." Livy 316 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tells US that in the consulate of Emilius Paulus and Teren- tius YaiTo, two Gauls and two Greeks were burned alive at Rome. For a long time there is reason to believe that the captives who graced the triumphs of the Romans, were afterwards sacrificed to Jupiter Capitolinus. Cains Marius sacrificed his own daughter in order to obtain success in a battle with tlie Cimbri. Even Augustus Caesar offered up three hundred chosen persons on an altar dedicated to the manes of his uncle, Julius Caesar. The Gauls and Ger- mans entered into no business of importance without hu- man victims, and the Druid priests presided at the cruel ceremony. The places selected for the purpose were dark aud gloom}^ forests, and were held in highest reverence. All the nations of Northern Europe thus sacrificed to Thor and Woden, Harold, a king, slew two of his children to procure a storm of wind to destroy an enemy's fleet. Adam Briraensis speaks of the awful grove of Upsal, where these horrid rites were celebrated, and says, " There was not a tree which was not reverenced, and as if it were gifted with some portion of the divinity, because they were stained with gore." " These accounts, wdth many others," says Bryant, " were handed down to us from numerous authors in different ages, many of them natives of the countries whicli they describe. The like custom prevailed in a great degree in Mexico, and even under the mild gov- ernment of Peru, and in most parts of America. In Africa it is still kept up. In the inland parts they still sacrifice captives taken in war to their fetishes, in order to secure their favor. Mulgrave says, while in the king of Daho- mey's camp, he saw multitudes sacrificed to the deity of his nation. " The sacrifices," says Mr. Bryant, " of which I liave been treating, if we except some few instances, con- sisted of persons doomed by the chances of war, or assigned by lot to be offered up. But among the Canaanites the victims are peculiarly chosen. Their own children and ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 817 whatever was nearest and dearest to them, were consid- ered the most worthy offering to tlieir god. If tlie parents were not at liand to make an immediate offering, the mag- istrates did not fail to make choice of wliat was most fair and promising, that tlie god might not be defrauded of liis dues." The Cartliaginians, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, imputed tliese miscarriages to the anger of their gods. Touched with this, and seeing the enemy at their gates, they seized at once two hundred children of their prime nobility, and offered them a public sacrifice. Three hundred more, — being persons who were somehow obnoxious, — yielded themselves voluntarily, and were put to death with the others. The neglect with which they accused themselves consisted in sacrificing children purchased from parents of the poorer sort, who reared them for that purpose, and not selecting the most promising and honorable as had been the custom of old. An ancient poet has noticed this of the city of Dido, in the following lines : " Mos erat in populis quos condidit advena Dido, Poscere cede Deos veniara, et flagrantibus aris, Infandum dictu, parvos imponere natos." These cruel rites, practised in so many nations, made Plutarch debate within himself, says Bryant, whether it would not have been better for the Galatse or the Scythians to have had no tradition or conception of any superior beings, than to have formed to themselves gods who de- lighted in the blood of men, who esteemed hunum victims the most acceptable offering and sacrifice. " Would it not," says Plutarch, "have been more eligible for the Car- thaginians to have had the atheist Critias, or Diagoras, their lawgiver at the beginning of their polity, and to have been taught that there was neither god nor demon, than to have sacrificed in the manner they were wont to the god 318 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. which thej adored. These people used, knoAvnigly and willingl}^, to go through this bloody work and slaughter their own offspring. Even those who were childless would not be exempted from this cursed tribute, but pur- chased children at any price from the poorer sort, and put them to death with as little remorse as one would kill a lamb or a chicken. Tiie mother who sacrificed her child stood by without any seeming sense of what she was doing, says Plutarch, without uttering a groan. If a sigh did by chance escape, she lost all the honor which she purchased for herself in offering up her child; but it was, notwitli- standing, slain. All the time of the celebration, while the children were being slain, there was a noise of clarionets and tabors sounding before the idol, that the cries and shrieks of the victims might not be heard. " Tell me now," says Plutarch, " if tlie monsters of old — the typhous and giants of old — were to expel the gods and rule the world in their stead, could they require a service more horrid than these infernal rites and ceremonies ? " These were the sins of the holy things among the heathen, — the abom- inable idolatries spoken of in scripture, — and which some infidels and philosophers would justify as agreeable to the dictates of the consciences of the worshippers themselves, and therefore acceptable to God. These tender mercies of parents who wanted natural affection ; this calling good evil, and evil good ; this offering the fruit of the body for the sins of the soul, was the religion of ancient pagans, is the religion of modern paganism, is the religion of those " who hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell." " O my soul, come not thou into their secret ! " CHAPTEK XXII. ON THE RELIGION OP THE AMERICAS. In the division of the earth between the descendants of JS^oali, nothing is said in scripture concerning the conti- nent of North x\nierica. What was its condition before the flood, whether it was buried beneath the ocean, and raised to the surface by the operation of the waters of the dehige, is not told ns and cannot be known. Evidences of its preadamite existence may be found in the bowels of the earth. The immense bones of animals, and evidences of huge unknown plants, and the masses of coal and other miner- als, attest revolutions which could not be effected by the flood. Evidences of the flood may also be seen in the fossil remains of many animals and plants which lie near the surface of the earth, and which may have perished on American soil, or floated hither on the tumultuous waters of the deluge from the old world. Whether any remains of man are to be found I am not able to say ; if so, they may have also come from the old world. Tradition is of no service to us in determining this and other things touching America. We read, indeed, of some immense island, called Atlantis, in the direction of our continent, from Europe and Africa, and there is a tradition of a chain of mountains stretching over the Atlantic and con- necting the two worlds; but no reliance is to be placed on such accounts. That a commencement of the peopling 320 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of America may have been made within a few centuries after the dehige is altogether pi-obable. That the art of ship-building was known before the flood, none can question who believe in the Mosaic account of the ark, the largest ship that ever rode upon the waves, and which out-rode the mightiest tempest that ever agitated the great deep. That navigation prevailed be- fore the flood, necessarily resulted from or accompanied it. That ship-building and navigation began again after the flood as soon as any of the human race reached the Med- iterranean, the Euxine, the Southern or Eastern Oceans, who can question ; and if shipwrecks on islands and foreign shores have occurred, even since the mariner's compass has been discovered, how much more frequent they must have been before. That some of the settlements in tlie islands of Europe were the result of shipwrecks, is confidently asserted in an- cient history. And when the ancients doubled the Cape of Good Hope from the Persian Gulf, and came around the continent of Africa to the Mediterranean, and sailed along the coast of Europe and Asia, which they most cer- tainly did at an early period, who can doubt but that many vessels were driven by adverse winds across the Atlantic and Pacific, until crews were found increased into nations in the two Americas. Such may have been the method adopted by Providence, in whose hands are the winds and waves, to do his will, for the settlement of the human race in America, even before that (about which all seem to agree) most probable source of supply to the northern portion of the continent, viz., emigration from the North of Asia through Behring's straits into the North of America. The distance between the two continents of America and Asia does not exceed twenty miles, and a string of islands across this short space renders the passage yet RELIGION OF THE AMERICAS. 321 easier and tlie temptation to the enterprise yet greater. But a passage from Europe \o America lias also been proved to be mucli easier tlian some liave imagined. Even to this day there are those, and persons of some reading too, who believe that Columbus was the first discoverer of America ; whereas nothing is better established than the fact that from an early period in the tenth century, exploring voyages from the North of Europe visited vari- ous northern parts of North America. The Anti-Colum- banic Society of Copenhagen, established some twenty or thirty years since, has published to the world a number of volumes containing the reports of these voyages, and of the points at which they touched, with some account of the natives and the productions of the soil. Mr. Jefferson, in his " Notes on Virginia," says, " Dis- coveries long ago were sufficient to show that a passage from Europe to America was always practicable, even to the imperfect navigation of ancient times, by the way of Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador." And again : " The late discoveries of Captain Cook, coasting from Kamt- schatka to California, have proved that if the two con- tinents of Asia and America are separated at all, it is only by a narrow strait." Mr. Gallatin thinks that " the North American Indians may have been drawn from the old world w^ithin five hundred years after the dispersion from Babel." They may have gotten here either from Eu- rope, or Asia. One of our most practical philosophers, Lieutenant Maury, in his admirable treatise on the winds, waves, and tides, has added great force to the hyj)othesis of Professor Schoolcraft and others as to the early set- tlement of the North American Indians from Asia. He says, in reply to some questions jDroposed to him on the subject, that a man with a sufficient supply of provisions might cross the sea, in certain latitudes much south of the straits, on a log, by means of the trade winds and the 21 822 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. equable current in that region. Sir Alexander M'Kenzie tells us " that one of the Arctic tribes believes that its ancestors came from another country, crossing a lake full of islands, where it was always winter." Of another tribe, " they have a tradition," he says, " that they came from Siberia." Professor Schoolcraft, quoting Voltaire's "Essay on the History of China," says, "They were acquainted with the power of tlie magnet, and tlie mariner's "compass." Du- hald, in his " History of China," says, " Naval architec- ture has belonged to the Chinese and Japanese time out of mind." No donl^t it did, for they received it from the ante- diluvians, through Noah and his family. In relation to the early settlement of America, both North and South, we may well assent to the probability of the opinion of one who.said tliat "The foot of man has long since trodden many a soil supposed never to have been pressed before."'^' * Sir JIattlicw Hale llius expresses his opinion as to tlie clmiiges in the earth and sea. He quotes Ovid as saying, " Vidl ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus, Esse fretum ; vidi factas ex quore terras." " Some towns," he says, " that were anciently havens and ports where ships did ride, aie now, by exaggeration of saud between these towns and the sea, con- verted into firm land, two, three, and four miles distant from the sea. The delta of Egypt, and all Holland were once under water." He inclines to the belief of the great island of Atlanta, near Spain and Africa, beyond the straits of Gibraltar, and which might almost have connected Africa and Europe with America, and afibrded an easy passage between them. Again, he says, "There might have been, in former times, necks of land whereby communication between the parts of the earth, and mutual passage and repassage for men and animals, might have been, which in a period of 4000 years may have been altered ; that these parts of Asia and America which are now disjoined by the interluency of the sea, mi<;ht have been formerly in some age of the world contiguous to each other, and those spots of ground, viz., the Philippine Islands, and others that are now crumbled into small islands, might anciently have been one entire continent." Much of trans])lantation, he thinks, was by navigation, either casual, bj' tem- pests or contrary winds, or with design. "Navigation is of that great anti- quity, that it is didicult to assign when it began to be in use. The ark of Noah was certainly a most exact piece of architecture, and might give a pattern and instruction for vessels of great burthen." "Jacob," he saj's, "who died 600 veai'S after the flood, n^entions ships and havens for ships as things well known. RELIGION OF THE AMERICAS. 323 As to Kortli Americun Indians, there is something in them so resemhling the ancient Jews, — the descendants of Shcm, many of whom settled in China as is believed, — that some have supposed thc}^ were of that race, and belong to the lost tribes. Kotliing certain being known of them since the Babylonian captivity, it is thought tliey penetrated to the ISTorth of Asia, and crossed over to America. Hugo Grotius, and our American, Mr. Boudinot, adopted this opinion, and have written in defence of it. Al- though the resemblance is acknowledged to be striking in many respects, yet the proofs are not so well made out as to be satisfactory. The pious Cotton Mather, of Boston, used to say, " Our Indians were the ruins of man- kind ; and although we know not how or when they became inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet we may guess that the devil decoyed them hither in hopes that the gos- pel of our Lord Jesus Christ Avould never come to destroy his absolute empire over them." In this we trust the Evil One will be disappointed ; and though but little has been done towards the conversion of this race to that gospel M'hich has brought life and immortality to light, yet we trust that the means which have been adopted and are still used will be crowned with entire success, in God's good time, and through the influence of his Spirit, l^or was the devil able to prevent their forefathers from bringing to this land, or their children from retaining, some relics of the faith once delivered to the ancient saints, wherewith to answer the infidels of our day, who will not believe that God ever communicated a revelation of himself to the parents of the human race, or any of their successors. The resemblance between some of the leading princi- He speaks of an ancient mariner who planted a colony in Greenland in the year 082, and established the Christian religion there, from whence colonies may have been traduced into the northern parts of America." Some migration, he thinks, may have been within three or four hundred years after the flood. 324 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. pies and customs and traditions of the Indians and of the old world is too striking not to satisfy the candid inquirer after truth that they must have had one common origin. A late writer among us asserts the identity of some of the elementary conceptions of the primitive nations of the old and new world, and admits that tlie conclusion, from the many striking resemblances which appear, would naturally be, that their institutions, notions, and monuments are found-' ed on an original connection. This, however, he doubts, rather inclining to the opinion that the similarity results from the uniformity of the human mind and character, which tends to the same results of its own accord. He evidently inclines to the belief that the American families were distinct in their origin, and did not descend from the single pair on the banks of the Euphrates, spoken of in scripture.* Let the reader judge, from what has already been said as to the points of resemblance between the na- tions of the old world, and what will follow as to the iden- tity between them and many things in the new, whether such a conclusion is not both unscriptural and unphilo- sophical. I shall be chiefly indebted for the facts about to be stated, in relation to the northern tribes of America, to the researches of that learned and laborious investigator of their history. Professor Sclioolcraft, of AVashington, who has been for so many years in the employ of the Ameri- can Congress for this purpose. In the good providence of God it has fallen into the hands of a sound-minded believer in the Sacred Scriptures, and not into tliose of a specula- tive sceptic. Already has he furnished six folio vohinies of information touching the native tribes of North Amer- ica, illustrating the same with plates, which add much interest to the work. * E. G. Squier, author of several works on the Aborigines and Monuments of North America, RELIGION OF THE AMERICAS. 325 THE Indian's knowledge of the one tkue god. '' "We have seen how tlie ancient mythologies of tlic old world refer to some supreme Numen or first cause of all things, who does not seem to interfere much witli human affairs except through inferior agents or deities. AVe have also seen how different is the Mosaic account of God, whose name was " I Am," or, "I Am tHxVt I Am," — the eter- nal, self-existent God. Now the Indians seem to have come nearer to the Mosaic account than most other nations, though like the rest they have disfigured it by their addi- tions. The name of their god is " Jan," or " The Great I Am." Schoolcraft says it admits of no question that " when properly viewed, the Great Spirit of the Indians is a purer deity than that of the Greeks and Romans, with all their refinement." As far as the great good spirit is concerned, they hold the doctrine of the Unity better than many of the ancient philosophers. The Indian is a believer in the mysterious and the wonderful. To him, the world is re- plete with wonders and mysteries. Every phenomenon in nature which he cannot explain is the act of God ; God is everywhere present, — in the thunder and the lightning, in every sound of the forest, etc. But then he follows the example of the old world by super-additions ; lie has his inferior deities to do what the great God, — the Great I Am — does not choose to do. He sees these in all the ani- mals of the earth, or in the air, or seas, and they do good or ill to man as they are good or ill themselves. This, of course, fills their religion with superstition, and their wor- ship, like that of the heathen of old, would be given more to the lesser deities than to the great God. As to the prac- tical part of their religion, it is in many respects superior to that of the Hindoos and of the Europeans. They never destroy their children, nor do the widows immolate them- 326 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. selves. They never drown their old men, or, in false pen- ance, swing themselves up on hooks of steel. These pln= losopliers of the woods, as they have been called, rea- soned very much as the philosophers of Greece, Kome, and Egypt did. They say that God must be in every remarka- ble thing in nature. " Fire," they say, " must be God, or else it would not produce such wonderful effects." " The Yir- ginia Indians," says Ilarriotte, " believed not only in the existence of one god, but in the sun, moon, and stars, as sub- ordinate deities. They also believed that the gods were all in the human form, — wherefore they made images of them and offered presents to them." The Indians seem to reason as if acquainted with tlie history of man at his first creation, saying that " God made him exactly as he ought." He looks back to a golden age ; his present life, is one of suf- fering; the next is one of compensation and rewards. He does not believe in future punishment, but hold the same opinion on this subject as did many of the ancient nations and philosophers. His god is exclusively one of kindness, not of holiness. It never enters into his head that justice is one of the attributes of the Deity. He sings his funeral song at the stake with the assurance of happiness to come. The Indians account for evil in very much the same way with many of the philosophers and mythologists of the old world, affirming that the great God is only good. They exempt him from malice, by supposing an evil spirit who is inferior to him. Their pictorial and hieroglyphical symbols represent their Great Spirit, called " Wazatoad," the original animating principle, as invaria- bly good. He is sometimes called Menedo. The evil princi- ple is sometimes called Menedo, and indeed all the ma- lignant spirits are so called. When their god is called Menedo, they use the prefix Great. They never call the evil spirit Wazatoad ; — that name is only given to the great and good god. This is almost identical with the RELIGION OF THE AMERICAS. 327 Persian doctrine of good and evil, as taught by Zoroaster. The tradition of the Iroquois Indians difters somewhat from this. Thej say that two great principles or demons, sub- ject however to the great Jan, or I Am, were born at the creation, and are ever opposing each other. To this, let me add that the Camanche tribe of Indians acknowledge a supreme ruler, whom they call the Great Si)irit, but say they cannot worship him, he is too far off, but that they can worship the sun, who is between them and the Supreme Being. They are, like many, of the ancient philosophers and idolaters, Universalists, believing that they will all go, at death, to a place where they will all be happy. Their funeral ceremonies are much the same with those in Asia. The Indians generally have very false views of the purity and holiness of God, as was the case with their ancestors in the old world. They believe that he is good, but not responsible for or careful of the moral government of the world ; that he is not a lawgiver and a judge ; that to lie and steal and commit murder are not offences against him. He commits all this to inferior deities, and these are all mixed up together in a kind of chaos. These good and evil spirits are all under the direction of the superior good and evil spirits, and the earth, air, clouds, winds, and trees are always full of them. They are all, whether good or evil, called Manettos. The name Manetto is continually in their mouths, and the things themselves before their imagination. The Indian's religion has much to do with the doctrine and worship of the serpent. In Adams county, Ohio, there is a hill or elevation seven hundred feet long, representing the coil of a serpent; its jaw^s are widely extended as in the act of swallowing ; in the open- ing is an oval mound representing the "Eastern egg^^ of Ormazd. Here we have the Persic or Chaldean idea. I need not speak of the numerous mounds which here, as in all other parts of the w^orld, have been used for the 328 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. worship of the sun, and three tliousand of which have been discovered in the two Americas. The doctrine of the transmigration of tlie soul, so com- mon in the old world, is found also in the new. They believe that many souls pass into other bodies, either of men or animals. They believe also in the duality of the soul. There are two souls to every man : the one remains with the body in the grave, while the other forsakes it ; wherefore they leave a hole in the grave, where they de- posit food for a certain time. Tliey have very vague notions about a future state, all being dark and mysterious to them. Many believe they will have the same enemies in that state which they had on earth, and they therefore have their weapons of war buried with them. They know nothing of the Christian doctrine of forgiveness. The destruction and torture of enemies is their gloiy, their happiness. They have also traditions of the deluge ; that the earth was once destroy- ed by water, and will be again destroyed by lire. The Chickasaws say that the earth M-as once destroyed by water, and that only one man and tw^o of every kind of animals were saved. As hieroglyphics and pictorial language or symbols were nsed in Egypt, and still are used in China, so are they among the Indians, and the labor of the learned is every year deciphering it better, and discovering more and more of the histor}^ and religion of the nations who used them. I make one remark as to the languages of the Indians, which Mr. Schoolcraft 'and our missionaries have been carefully studying, and into which our scriptures and other books ai-e being translated. It is in America, as in other parts of the world, — examination into the words and grammar of the different nations is continually reducing the number of original languages, and showing the truth RELIGION" OF THE AMERICAS. 329 of Sir William Jones' declaration tliat there would not be found more than three, which were in use soon after the dispersion from Babel, and from which all others have spruuiT. When we consider that before this there was only one, and that one the tongue of Noah and his sons, and of his antediluvian forefathers up to our first parents in paradise, more force is added to the argument for the unity of the liuman race, proving that all the nations of the earth are of one blood, descended from those who were made by the hands of God in paradise. I conclude this chapter with an extract from Mr. School- craft's book, containing two specimens of the Indian char- acter and eloquence, which I am sure will delight the reader. Tlie lii'st is from the last speech of Passacon- naway, the chief of the Fenacook tribe of Indians, on the Merrimack, in ISTew England, where the good mission- ary. Ml". Eliot, labored. This celebrated chief became a Christian under Mr. Eliot's teaching. In the year 1660 there was a vast assemblage of the Indians at Pau- tucket, when, borne down with age and cares, the old Sagamore, at a public feast, made a farewell speech to his people. " Hearken," he said, " to the words of your father : I am an old oak, which has withstood the storms of more than a hundred winters. Leaves and branches have been stripped from me by the winds and frosts ; my eyes are dim, my limbs totter — I must soon fall. But, when young and sturdy, when no man of the Penacooks could bend my bow, when my arrows could pierce a deer at a hundred yards, and I could bury my hatchet in a sapling to the eye, no wigwam had so many furs, no pole 60 many scalplocks, as Passaconnaway's. Then I delighted in war. The whoop of the Penacook was heard upon the Mohawk, and no voice was so loud as Passaconnaway's. The scalps upon the pole of my wigwam told the story of Mohawk suffering. The English came ; they seized 330 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. our lands: I sat me clown at Penacook. They followed upon my footsteps. I made w^ar upon tliem, but they fought with fire and thunder. My young men were swept down before me when none were near them. I tried sor- cery against them, but still they increased and prevailed, over me and mine, and I gave place to them and retired to my beautiful island of Natticock. I, that can make the dry leaf green, and live again ; I, that can take the rattle- snake in my hand as I would a worm, without harm ; I, who held communion with the Great Spirit, sleeping and waking, — I am powerless before the pale faces. The oak will soon bend before the whirlwind ; it shivers, it shakes ; soon its trunk will be prostrate ; the ant and the worm will sport upon it. Then think, my children, of what I say ; I commune with the Great Spirit ; he whispers me now, Tell your people ' peace, peace is the only hope of your race. I have given fire and thunder to the pale faces for weapons ; I have made them plentier than the leaves of the forest, and still they shall increase. These meadows they shall turn with the plough ; these forests shall fall by the axe. The pale faces shall live upon your hunting-grounds, and make their villages upon your fish- ing-places.' The Great Spirit says this, and it must be so. We are few and powerless before them ; we must bend before the storm. The wind blows hard. The old oak trembles ; its branches are gone ; its sap is frozen. It bends — it falls! Peace with the white man is the com- mand of the Great Spirit, — is the wish, and the last wish of Passaconnaway." The other passage is from an Oneida chief, Skenandoah, who was a convert to the Christian faith under the Rev. Mr. Kirkland. He took part with the Americans in the war of the Eevolution, and lived to the age of one hun- dred and ten years, and, dying in March, 1816, desired to be buried by the side of his old pastor, that, as he said, RELIGION OF THE AMERICAS. 831 he mig-lit be near him in tlie great resurrection. On some occasion, when a number of persons were present, he uttered these words : " I am an okl hemlock ; the winds of a hundred winters have whistled through my branches; I am dead at the top ; the generation to which I belong have run their course and have left me. Why I live thus long the Great Spirit only knows. Pray to my Jesus that I may have patience to await ray appointed time to die." CHAPTER XXIII. ON THE RELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. That Mexico was settled long before tlie period sup- posed by our fathers is now generally agreed. The re- mains of its ancient buildings and monuments testify to this. Its early and most noted settlers, though not its original ones, came from the northern part of America. By mingling with the primitive ones they may have bor- rowed some of their religious observances from them ; whether they came immediately from the old world, be- ing the offspring of a few shipwrecked ones, or whether they came from South America. Pritchard says, they have a tradition that their ancestors came from the East in vessels or canoes. Mr. John Johnson, agent of our government for the Shawnees, says they have a tradition that their ancestors crossed the sea and settled in Florida. Montezuma told Cortes that there was an ancient con-, nexion between the Spaniards and the Mexicans, only he affirmed that the Spaniards sprung from the Mexicans. As to the ancient documents and pictorial representa- tions, of which there were many, Pritchard says, " The Spaniards sought for them and destroyed them with the most barbarous zeal and perseverance." Some of these have been more recently discovered, by the enterprise and zeal of travellers, especially of our enterprising country- man, Mr. Stephens, of whose visit to Mexico we shall speak hereafter. Ancient Mexico contained only about sixteen EELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. 333 tliousancl square miles, (about twice the size of Kew Eng- land,) with every variety of climate and productions. It is not at all wonderful that it became an object of desire to the adventurous ISTorth-men of America. The first of these came in the seventh century, and were called Toltecs, a name signifying architects, and justly, for they were the builders of those immense structures whose remains are yet to be seen. They were in America what the Cyclopeans and other architects — the descendants of ISTimrod — were in Europe and Asia, and may have de- scended from them and inherited their skill and ambition. The Toltecs not only built the temples of the Mexicans, but laid the foundation of their religion. Different tribes soon followed them, among whom were tlie Aztecs, a war- like race. These tribes poured down from the North on the milder climates of the South, as the hordes of Gauls did on Italy. After four centuries the Toltecs disappeared, both as to name and nation, and the Aztecs, with some smaller tribes, only are heard of. After a time, their name and the names of the others were all merged in that of Mexicans. The name of the country whence the Toltecs came, in the seventh century, was Anahuac. " The ancient Astecs or Mexicans," says Prescott, in his " History of Mexico," " had little of the poetry of relig- ion such as marked that of Greece, but resembled the religion of the Orientals, from which it probably sprang." Their ritual, like that of the Asiatics, was very burden- some. They recognized one supreme being, or Perfection^ according to their language. He was pure, omnipotent, knowing all things, incorporeal, by whom we live, and the giver of all things. Besides him there were thirteen principal deities, and more than three hundred inferior ones. They also believed in an evil spirit, who was the enemy of the human race. The chiefs of the thirteen principal deities were the Mexican Mars, — the j)atron of 334 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the nation, — a sanguinaiy monster, whose altar reeked with the blood of human victims in all the cities of the empire. Prescott says that scarcely any author estimates the yearly sacrifice at less than twenty thousand victims, while some place their number at fifty thousand. Their object in war was to gather victims as much as to extend territory. Therefore they always endeavored to take them alive. Though they were not cannibals, in the ordinary sense of the term, yet they were so in a most shocking one. They fed on human flesh, not to gratify a brutal appetite, but in obedience to their religion. " Their repasts," says Prescott, " were made on the victims whose blood had been shed on the altar of sacrifice." But this Avas not brought to them by the Toltecs, for they had nothing of it. It was superadded to their wor- ship, and came from other sources. It is believed that human sacrifices were not introduced until about two hundred years before the Sj)anish conquest. Beside the sanguinary god of war — the chief object of their worship —they had twelve other deities, who presided over the different departments of agriculture and the arts, thereby showing the derivation of their religion from the ancient world. Their temples were called " Houses of God," and were solid masses of earth covered with brick. On their tops were the images of their gods. A stone altar was also erected on each one, and on it perpetual fire burned, as in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the great temple at Mexico there were six hundred altars, in the numerous apartments of which it consisted. Every month was dedicated to some particular deity, and almost every day to some celebration. This leads me to speak of Mr. Stephens' visit to Central America, and of the ruins of a great temple Avhicli he discovered, among rubbish, trees, and bushes. In the RELIGION" OF MEXICO AND PERU. 335 yeai' 1839 he was employed by our government to visit and explore Central America. In the introduction to his book, detailing his labors and researches, he very justly exposes the ignorance of Dr. Kobertson in his " History of America," as to the improvements and buildings in Mexico. Dr. Robertson says, when discovered they were in the rudest state of society ; that their houses were mere huts, built of turf and mud and branches of trees, like those of the Northern Indians ; their temples noth- ing but a mound of earth covered with grass and shrubs. Very different is the account given by Mr. Stephens and otliers. His visit to the city of Copar alone resulted in the discovery of the remains of ancient buildings of massive structure, covered with engravings and sacred hieroglyphics, which show that what their most ancient writers and monuments testify of their former condition is correct. Their architecture is sucli as ancient Greece and Rome might not be ashamed of. In all human prob- ability, tlie principles of tlieir architecture as well as their reliu'ion were brought from the old world. Their images and pictures all point to Egypt and Ilindnsian as the sources of their religious creed and worship. There are many other things in the Mexican history, traditions, and customs, which also encourage the belief of a common origin with the nations of this old world. The method of com]niting time by days, months, years, and cycles, is the same in China and America. As to time past, they divide it into cycles and periods. Of these there were four. At the end of each of these, by the ac- tion of the elements, the human family was swept from the earth, and the sun blotted out from the heavens to be rekindled again. Who does not see in this the successive production, destruction, and reproduction of the world, as in the cosmogony of Ilindostan, and Chaldea, and Egypt ? In one of these cycles,— the second, — they have a tradi- 336 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tion of a race of giants who inhabited the earth. This perhaps they may have inferred from finding in the earth those huge skeletons which are now the subject of specu- lation to geologists. As to the various traditions in Mexico concerning the deluge, Mr. Gallatin's conclusion is, " that they originated in a real historical recollection of an uni- versal deluge which overwhelmed all mankind in the early ages of the world." The Mexicans believed in a fu- ture state, and divided men at deatli into three classes : first, the wicked ; secondly, those who died of certain dis- eases ; thirdly, the heroes. Of the wicked, the larger part was to be punished everlastingly. The diseased were to have a kind of negative existence. The heroes were to be exalted to the sun, and there distributed among the clouds, and beautiful flowers, and birds of paradise. They had also a baptism for their children, and a prayer for the new birth, — the doing away of the sin which it had before the foundation of the world ; also some good moral pre- cepts, though mixed with others of a silly and brutal char- acter. Here again we see a resemblance between them and those who were initiated into the ancient mysteries, who were baptized, and said to be new-born or regenei'ated. Mr. A. G. Mackey, a leading member of the Masonic society, and their chief writer, says, "Among the many evidences of a former state of civilization among the aborigines of this country, which seems to prove their origin fiom the races that inhabit the Eastern hemisphere, not the least remarkable is the existence of fraternities bound by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons, to possess an esoteric knowledge, which they are careful to conceal from all but the initiated." The members of one of tliem claim that their institution has existed from the creation. The times of their meeting they keep se- cret, and throw much mystery around their proceedings. The most remarkable of these was in the Mexican temple RELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. 337 Yitzlipntzly, which was accompanied by secret, severe, and soinetimes cruel rites. In one of them the god was seated in a square ark, and had a rod like a serpent in his hand. It is thought that tlie wandering of the Israelites through the wilderness is set forth. THE PKRUVIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA. For the history of this deeply interesting country, its origin, its boundaries, its political character, its public roads, its suspension bridges, its underground passages, its galleries cut through rocks, and many such things which almost defy belief, and which even modern inven- tions scarcely equal, we must refer our readers to the various histories of it, such as Prescott's, Rivero's, and others'. Its religious history belongs to this volume, and that can only be presented in a general way. The striking resemblance between the religion and priesthood of Peru and the religion and priesthood of Buddha, in Hindostan, China, and Japan, strongly inclines those who have ex- amined the subject most carefully to believe that the Peruvians were colonists from some part of Asia, either by voluntary emigration or by shipwreck. Let us briefly examine their religious system. In the work of Rivero and Tschudi, as edited by Dr. Hawks of New York, we have an account of their ancient belief, before the worship of the sun was set up by Mango Capac, whom he suspects to be a Buddhist priest. According to the best and most ancient account, the supreme being of Peru was called Con, and had no human form or material body, but was an invisible and omnipotent being, who inhabited the universe. By his word alone he created the world and all things in it, — peopling the earth with men, and providing for them all things necessary for their well-being and happi- 22 388 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ness. Thus, overflowing with the gifts of Providence, the human race for a long time remained happ}"^, nntil they gave themselves up to vice and crime, and neglected the respect due to Con. Con became enraged, sent judgments upon them, and converted the earth into a barren desert. At length Pachacamaek, the son of Con, undertook the government of the world, and renewed everything. The new generations raised a sumptuous temple to Pachaca- maek, on the banks of the sea, worshipping him with the greatest idolatry. The temple of Pachacamaek, where Con his father was supposed to reside, though incoi-poreal and invisible, was the only temple in Peru raised to the supreme being. The ruins of it are still to be seen at Lurin, to the south of Lima. It is probable that, even at this time, they worshipped some inferior deities. At length arose Mango Capac, the great reformei", who de- clared that the supreme divinity was the sun, without whom nothing could exist in the world ; that both Con and Pachacamaek were the offspring of the sun, as he himself was ; that they were his brothers ; that the omnip- otent father had permitted him to incarnate hin)self and descend to the earth, in order to teach men the arts and sciences, and to instruct tliem concerning the will of the Supreme being. The new doctrine was received, and rapidly spread. Mango Capac, a name which signifies great, or power- ful, was the first of the Incas, or divine kings, of Peru — Inca meaning king, or lord. All other Incas were the de- scendants of Mango Capac, the sons of him who was the son of the sun, and thus children of the sun, who was the supreme divinity. It was not very easy to establish or perpetuate this system, which had for its basis the aggran- dizement of the royal family, Not only was a free pas- sage granted to every nation subject to the Incas to the temple of Con and Pachacamaek, but on one side of the RELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. 339 great temple at Cusco the worship of Pachacamack was allowed, wliile great pains was taken to encourage the worship of the sun on the other. In regard to the doctrines of the Peruvians, as existing under Mango Capac, they believed in the moon ; called her the sister wife of the sun, and the stars her heavenly train, especially the planet Yenus. The thunder and lightning, and the rainbow, were also deities. To these, as in the old world, were added all the different objects in nature, — as winds, rivers, the earth. All things that were moving, and had life and the power of production, were objects of worship ; in fine, that most universal doc- trine of pantheism prevailed. Their system was kept up by the united authority of the Incas and the priesthood. The priests were all of the royal family ; they were divided into courses, and ever served at the temple. The great temple was that of Cusco. That to the sun was almost entirely of gold. Tiiree or four hundred others were in the city and round about it. The sacred fire was ever burning, and was kept, as at Pome, by vestal virgins, the virgins of the sun. Thus the government of the sun was a complete theocracy. The religion of the nations which w^ere conquered by the Incas was tolerated so far as ta allow their deities to be brought to Cusco, and placed among the inferior deities. But then the worship of tho sun must be introduced into all the conquered territories. Temples must be erected to the sun in all of thein. Wor- ship of the sun, or god of war, must be chosen. Two hun- dred thousand lamas were sacrificed annually to the sun in Cusco alone. The Inca was allowed to have as many wives as he chose. At his death they all immolated them- selves. One thousand have been known to have thus sac- rificed themselves at the death of one Inca. As sons of the supreme diviniry, the Incas alwaj's received ])rofound adoration. Virachoca was the name of one of the brothers- 340 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of Mango Capac, and was the incarnate deity, who often revisited the Incas, and prophesied of future events. He- roes were also worshipped in some places, under the name ofHuacos. To some of them temples were raised. House- hold gods were innumerable. But still it is said that even the Incas would sometimes recur to the ancient Deity. One of them said, "Many say that the sun lives, and that he is the maker of all things ; consequentl}^, that which makes everything must assist that which is made. But many things are made during the absence of the sun, therefore he is not the maker of all things. And that he does not live, is proved, because his trips do not tire him. If he were a living thing, he would grow very like ourselves ; or if he were free, he would visit other parts of the heavens where he has never been. He is like the tired bullock, which always makes the same circuit ; like the arrow, which goes where it is sent, and not where it wishes." Another said, " I tell thee that this one father, the sun, must have another lord or master more powerful than himself, who commands him each day to make his circuit, which he does without stopping ; whereas, were he the supreme lord, he would sometimes leave off travelling, and rest for his own pleasure, even though there might bei no necessity for so doing.'- As to the doctrine of the Peruvians, they believed in a future state ; that the just went to a beautiful and pleasant place, unknown to the living, while the souls of the mali- ■cious were tormented in a doleful place, where they were 'filled with sorrow and fright; and that after a cer- tain time they would return to their bodies, beginning a new life, having the same occupations as before. This made them careful to preserve the coi'pses, as the Egyp- tians did, and to bury some of their clothes and utensils and other property with them. The great god Con and his son Pachacamack were to be their j udges. They also RELIGION OF MEXICO AND PERU. 341 believed in an evil spirit, who was very powerful, and had a great hatred to the human race. The name of their god, Pachacamack, was a great antidote to the enmity of this spirit. On the birth of a child, they raised him in their arms, and offered him to this deity, imploring his protection for the new-born infant. They, like the Mexicans, had a tradition of the deluge ; and that seven persons were saved in a cave, from whence they issued, and were the ancestors of a new race. They had also a tradition of an ark very much like that of Moses. They also had their belief of a future destruction of the world. Surely nothing more is necessary to identify them and their religion with the people and the religion of Eu- rope, Asia, and Africa.'^ * There is also a resemblance between some of the Peruvian rites and the Christian sacraments and ceremonies. Some, to account for this, have said that, even in the apostles' day, some persons, by shipwreck or otherwise, may have found their way to America, and established Christianity among those already on that continent, though it soon became corrupted by intercourse with the natives, and degenerated, as the Jewish and Christian religion has in other ages and countries of the old world. Certain it is, that baptism, confirmation, holy orders, and penance were all found among the Peruvians, resembling those customs of the same name in the Christian church ; but, as there are similar rites in the pagan world, these may have had a pagan rather than a Christian origin. CHAPTER XXIY. ON THE PAGAN MYSTEKIE8. There were secret celebrations, more or less frequently observed, in different parts of the three great continents of the old world. In them were set forth the leading facts in the early history of man, as handed down by tradition ; viz., his fall, the deluge, etc. The existence of God and the gods, a future state, the necessity of a renovation of man's nature and a virtuous life in order to a happy im- mortality, are also said to have been the subjects repre- sented in their mysteries. There were the greater and the lesser mysteries ; all might be admitted into the lat- ter, comparatively few into the former. The greater mys- teries were those of the Cabiri, the Eleusinian, the Bachic, the Samothracian, and the Mithraic. Some others, per- haps, put in a claim to this rank. They were performed, with many religious ceremonies, in dark caves and grottos, or the lower apartments of great temples, either in the night, or, if in the day, the light was excluded so as to require lamps. The word mystery is also used in our Bible, especially with reference to that wonderful dispen- sation which was comparatively hidden from the Jews, viz., Christ manifest in the flesh, and dying for men ; of which it is written, " Great is the mystery of godliness." The Christian sacraments are also, in one sense, mysteries, though performed in open day, and fully explained, be- cause they have outward and visible signs of inward and THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. 343 spiritual tilings. Moses established no secret societies or mj'steries. He had nothing to conceal. The sanctum sanctoi'uni of the temple, with the ark, was indeed for- bidden to all, except the high-priest once a year ; but then, its design and all about it were known. In opposition to all the mysteries of the heathen, — those mysteries of in- iquity, for the most part, — God said, by Isaiah, to tlie Jews, " I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." Our Saviour delivered all his doctrines openly, and bade his disciples proclaim them upon the house-tops. Bishop "Warburton, one of the greatest admirers of the pagan mysteries, as setting fortli the unit}' of God and teaching morality, until they degenerated, nevertheless admits that " not one of all that numerous rabble of revelations (pre- tended b}' the heathen) ever professed to come from the First Cause, or to teach the worship of the one God in their public ministrations," though he thinks they did for a time in the greater mysteries. Ensebius says, " For the Hebrew people alone was reserved the honor of being initiated into the knowledge of God, the creator of all things, and of being instructed in true piety to him." Nevertheless, we may derive some good from these ancient institutions of the lieathen, which were doubtless permitted by God for the preservation of some truth, when it was fast dis- appearing from the earth. We have seen, in preceding chapters, what a remark- able resemblance there was between the gods and the early traditions of the heathen world, and endeavored to derive an argument therefrom on behalf of what was and still is held among the heathen, in common with the scrip- tures. This aro;ument will be strengthened if we find the same resemblance between the facts celebrated and the doctrines taught in the numerous secret societies spread throughout the ancient pagan world. Now such resem- blance and even identity are admitted by the ablest mythol- 844 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ogists, just as all must admit that tlie Jewish and Chris- tian ordinances and feasts set forth the same great facts and doctrines, when celebrated in all the tribes of Judea and in all the nations of Christendom. Mr. Faber and others account for the remarkable similarity between the things celebrated in the mysteries in the same way that they do for the similarity of the traditions of the ancient world, as to the facts of the creation and the deluge, — that is, from their holding them alike before the dispersion, and after the confusion of tongues carrying them into all lands. He thinks it probable that Noah and his sons and their childi'en may have established some celebration of their deliverance from the deluge, when as yet they were all one family. This may have been kept up and enlarged until the meeting at Babel, and then assumed a firm char- acter, and afterward been distributed through all the dispersed nations or tribes. The surprising similarity as to the deluge and the ark makes this theory highly prob- able. This will appear from an account of them. As to the purposes of the mysteries, so far as the gods of the heathen are concerned, all agree that they repre- sent them as having once been mortals ; that they were, at their death, translated to the heavens, and presided as tutelary deities over different departments of nature, and diflerent countries and towns. But on one point there is diversity of opinion among the learned. Bishop War- burton and Dr. Cudworth maintain that, besides teaching the earthly origin of the gods and goddesses of the lieathen, they lead on the initiated to the knowledge of the one true God, the creator of all things. Messrs. Faber, Bryant, Leland, and others question this, and say they do teach a certain unity, yet not that unity which is revealed in the scriptures, but rather an imperfect thing, the result of the deification of the first father of the universe, as re- aj^pearing in Noah, according to many of the old mythol- THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. 315 ogies, and afterward the unity of all the powers in nature. It was the unity of Adam and Noah, the father of the races, from whom so many millions proceeded. The great Creator was lost and forgotten in these. Jupiter, the eldest of the three sons of Chronos, the great Father, usurped the supreme dominion, and became the great god of the Greeks and Romans. Certain it is that poets and mythologists, and even philosophers, speak of him in such a way as to ascribe a certain unity and supremacy to him, though they often contradict themselves, — Homer especially. There was also a philosophic unity among the ancients. The whole world was God — one God; and all things in it, men, angels, and gods, were only parts emanating from it, and at certain periods returning to it. This was the materialism or pantheism of the Gentiles. "Jupiter est aer — Jupiter est coelum," etc., was the language. This also was very different from the popular notion of the immortal gods, in whom so many believed, and who were, in a measure, independent of each other. The mysteries may have exposed much of the folly of the pagan idolatry, and yet not have taught the true nature of the God of the Bible, which even Plato and Socrates so imperfectly understood; modestly and humbly acknowl- edging the same, only feeling after God, "if haply they might find him." That the priests, politicians, and phi- losophers encouraged the mysteries, as teaching a purer morality and a higher theology, is doubtless true ; and yet they may fall far short of the morality and divinity of the Bible. St. Clement, one of the fathers, says, " That the doctrines delivered in the great mysteries are concerning the universe, and here ends all their instruction." Cicero tells us, that in the orgies of Samothrace and Eleu- sis, the nature of things as well as of deities was set forth ; that is, the cosmogony, or creation of the world, as well 346 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. as the theogony, or origin of the gods. Caesar tells us that the Druids discoursed not only about the nature and strength of the immortal gods, bnt taught their pupils " many things about the stars, and the universe, and the nature of things." The cosmogony and theogony of all nations were mixed up together ; and so it sliould have been, for God nuide all things tliat were made, though he made not some things tliat were imputed to him, and which had no existence but in tlie imaginations of men. Sucli were the no-gods of the heathen woi'ld, 'No doubt the origin of the universe was tauglit, but how far tlieir teacliing was in accordance with the Mosaic ac- count of it is not known. Tiiat it was something different from wliat was vulgarly received, we have no doubt. St. Augustine says, " There were many truths which it was inconvenient to the state to be generally known; and many tilings which, though false, it was expedient the people should generally believe; therefore the Greeks shut up their mysteries in the silence of their sacred enclosures." Cicero says, to one of the initiated, "Remember what 3^ou have been taught in the mysteries, then you will at length understand how far this matter may be carried ; " that is, "how far these things may be divulged to the people." Herodotus sometimes speaks very freely of the follies of the Grecians in their stories and worship ; and on one occasion says, "In thus speaking of them, may I meet with indulgence from gods and heroes," that is, the greater and the lesser gods. Yet in another place he sa^-s, in speaking of their great god Pan, " Why they represent him in such a way I had rather not mention." In his history of Egypt he is yet more careful. Speak- ing of the blows the priests inflicted on themselves at the great festival of Bubastis, he says, " But for whom they thus beat themselves, it were impious for me to divulge." Again, speaking of a certain tomb at Sais, he says, "I con- n THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. 347 sidei* it impious to divulge it on such an occasion," tliat is, whose tomb it was. Let us therefore hope that the unknown God, of whom St. Paul speaks as being worshipped at Athens in one of the temples dedicated to him, and to whom in Athens and elsewhere various temples were erected and inscribed, may have been the one who is so mysteriously spoken of in their celebrations, and who was, as he says, " ignorantly worshipped." But we must also remember that St. Paul connects superstition with it. But whatever may be the fact as to the doctrine taught in the greater mysteries concerning the unity of God, there can be no room for doubt that tiie deluge was a lead- ing circumstance commemorated, and a moral change the leading doctrine taught. To these things we now direct the reader's attention. In the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris, Plutarch and others speak of the ark as a leading symbol in the ceremonies. The long-robed priests used to carry it about, and within it was a small golden boat. Eusebius tells us, that in cele- brating the mysteries of the Cabiri, who were sup])osed to be the eight persons saved from the deluge, the Phoeni- cians used a consecrated ark. Clemens says that a sim- ilar ark was used by the Corybantes Cabiri, on Mount Olympus. In the mysteries of Bacchus a sacred ark was used to keep the symbols in the celebration. Several an- cient writers mention a golden ark, of wonderful anti- quity, in the temple of Belus, in Babylon. These are only a few of the numerous instances of the use of the ark in the mysteries of the ancient nations. The restoration of one supposed to be ISToah from the ark is also a leading feature in these mysteries. His re- turn to light, after having been shut up in darkness for so long a pei'iod, is intended to show the translation from darkness and ignorance to light and knowledge on the 348 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. part of the novitiate, who is afterward one of the illumi- nated. There was a small door resembling that of the ark, through which they entered the cavern or hall of cele- bration, and throngh which they came out again. In some of the celebrations an egg was much used — the celebrated egg of the Eastern mythology — floating in a vessel of watei', emblematic of Noah's ark, and out of which he was hatched or born into a new world. Mr. Byrant, in his learned work on the pagan mythology, says, " All the mysteries of the pagan world seem to be memorials of the deluge, and of the events immediately succeeding. They consisted, for the most part, of a melan- choly process, and were celebrated at night with torches, in commemoration of the state of darkness in which the patriarch and his family had been involved. The first thing done at these awful meetings was to administer an oath to the initiated. The ceremony began with a descrip- tion of chaos, or the deluge. The sad necessity by which the earth was reduced to the chaotic state was commemo- rated. They then celebrated Chronos, throngh whom the world, after a term of darkness, enjoyed again a pure and serene sky." In these mysteries, after the people had for a, time bewailed the loss of a particular person, he was supposed to be restored to life, and these words are used by him : "I have escaped a sad calamity ; my lot is greatly mend- ed." On that occasion an invocation is made to a door, which is supposed to be presented to view. " Hail to the door — the restorer of light," is said, or sung. The person supposed to be found is Osiris, the Egyptian god, and, as is believed, none other than Noah. The ark, says Mr. Bryant, in these mysteries, is represented in the shape of a crescent, or new moon. Hence a new moon is a type of the ark, and the moon is regarded by the Egyptians as the mother of all beings. After Osiris is supposed to be THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. 349 lost for some time, tliej go in quest of him. The priests go down to the river, carrying the vessel in M'hich is the golden boat. Into this they pour some of the river-water, when a shout of joy is raised, and Osiris is supposed to be found. He agrees with Mr. Faber in considering the mysteries of the Cabiri as instituted in honor of IN^oaii and his three sons. Noah was sometimes called Sadyk, or the just man ; and his sons, Dioscori or Cabiri. Some- times they were called Ileliadse, or offspring of the sun; at others, offspring of the ocean, because saved out of the ocean; He (Sadyk) was called Saturn, because he was the oldest of men, and father of mankind. He is said to have had three sons and three daughters, and to have once concealed them all in an insular cavern in the midst of the sea. Noble gifts were said to have been bequeathed to man- kind by the Cabiri, who were considered as great and beneficent gods. Tliey were the same who among the Jews were called Baal, or Baalim, and who, together with the luminaries of heaven, were called the host of heaven, and were sometimes worshipped by them. Perhaps it was one of the arts of the wicked one to persuade the Jews they were only honoring their great ancestors, Noah and his sons, and that they might still worship with them the great Jehovah. In the cities of Syria, we are told that Sadyk, or Sat- urn, was represented with four eyes ; two looking back to the old world, and two forward to the new. The double-faced Janus at Rome was probablj'' Noah; looking forward and backward — "the child of the old world and the orphan of the new," as has been said of him. In Saini)thi"ace, the mysteries of the Cabiri were cele- brated with peculiar interest. The history of that place was intimately connected with an ark and deluge. The Cabiri were said to be the burden of the first ship, the 350 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. celebrated Argo or Arglia of mytliologists. The Cablric deities -were tlionglit to preside over navigation, and those who were initiated into these mysteries were supposed to be secured against the perils of tlie sea. " The same," says Mr. Faber, " may be said of the Tnys- teries of the Druids. Tliey are full of the ark and the arkite God. The watchwords of the mysteries all ])oint to the loss and recovery of some one from a place of dark- ness called Hades." At the close of the mysteries the initiated cry out, "We have found him! let us rejoice together." After a certain ceremony with the image of a dead man, the priests chaunt the above words. Let us hear what Bishop Warburton, the great cham- pion of the mysteries, as teaching the unity of God and a high system of morals and religion, says in relation to them. In favor of their teaching the divine unity, he quotes the following passage from Plutarcli : "It was a most ancient opinion delivered down from the legislators and divines, the poets and philosophers — the authors of it entirely unknown, but the belief of it entirely established, not only in tradition and the talk of the vulgar, but in the mysteries and sacred offices of religion^ botli among Greeks and barbarians, sjn'ead all over the face of the gh^be — that the universe was not upheld fortuitously, without mind, reason, or a governor to preside over its revolu- tions." Though this does not exactly come up to the Mo- saic account, yet it is strong testimony in behalf of the system. The bishop also quotes Yirgil as giving veiy de- cisive testimony in his behalf. It is generally admitted, notwithstanding Gibbon's ingenious argument to the con- trary, that Virgil, in his sixth book of the ^uead — a book written at a time when the secrecy of the mysteries had ceased to be held so sacred — gives us a picture of the in- itiation into these doctrines, in describing the descent of ujEneas into Hades in search of his father, Anchises. Bish- THE PAGAN MYSTERIES. 351 op Warbnrton, as well as others, gives a fall analysis of this; and it would aid the youthful student of Virgil, to examine some of these sketches before making the de- scent. At the close of the whole, the unity of God, such as it is, is set forth. The shade of Anchises thus discloses it to ^neas : " Principio, coeluin, et terras, camposque liquentes, Lucentein que gloluun kuiaj, Titania astra, Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat niolem et inagno se corpore miscet Unde horainum pecudum que genus," etc. Although we have something in the above which resem- bles the Mosaic account, yet when the poet speaks of the spirit, or deity, mixing himself up with all things, we can- not but see much of that pantheism which identifies the deity with all things, but does not make him the creator of all things. In behalf of the doctrine of the divine unity being taught in the mysteries, Warburton introduces one of the Orphic hymns, sung in their celebrations, which is more to the point : "Look at the divine nature! incessantly contemplate it! He is one, and of himself alone ; and to that one all things owe their being. lie operates through all, was never seen by mortal eyes, but does himself see all things." As to their inculcation of a holier life than was recpiired either by philosophers or priests, he says, "These myste- ries were only for a select number, who would i)reparc themselves for it by holy exercises, fasting, and penance." It was taught that the initiated might be hai)pier than others in a future state ; that the souls of the profane stuck fast in filth and mire on leaving the hod\-, while those of the initiated soared to the Iiabitations of gods. But a holy life was also necessary. The doctrine of the 352 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. fall of man was certainly set forth. The object of the mysteries was to restore the soul to its primitive state by a new birth or regeneration, wliich was set forth by the birth of one from the ark into a new world. But in order to the initiation, previons holiness — consisting in prayer and penances and trials — must be had. This, the bishop acknowledges, was not always the case; for after a time "all men ran to be initiated," — that "a premium was charged for initiation," — that " many thought it as necessary as some did baptism, and even put it off until death," as Constantine did baptism. After a time chil- dren were initiated ; for Terence says, in his day it was customary to initiate children, calling it "natalis dies ubi initiabant." Warburton admits that by reason of their secrecy they became most corrupt, one and all of them. The Eleusinian mysteries were the last that retained any- thing good in them ; and he acknowledges that much of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans was directed against their abominations. All of the mysteries became so abominable that they were the subject of ridicule on the public stage, and were at length required to be put down by public authority. But then, he says, the Christians abused their vigils and noctunuil feasts in like manner, and were obliged to dis- continue them. He should have remembered, however, that this last was of necessity, not choice, by reason of the pei'secutions of the heathen, which would not allow them in the day-time, for these purposes. It must be ad- mitted, notwithstanding all the subsequent abuses, that for a long time the wisest and best of the ancients ap- proved of them, as having a good object in view, and producing a good effect. Socrates commends them be- cause they taught the initiated to entertain the " most agreeable exj)ectations concerning death and eternity." Plato makes Socrates speak of the author of them as well THE TAG AN MYSTERIES. 853 skilled in Iminan nature; and jet Socrates was never in- itiated, for reasons that none of the moderns can make known, and none of the ancients have revealed. Whoever would see the process through which the oupopto, or aspirant, must go in order to be initiated, must consult Faber, AVarburton, or Bryant. SufHce it to say, that whatever could be done by alternate darkness and light, sweet sounds and discordant ones, lovely and dismal scenes, hymns and songs, gods and goddesses passing in I'eview before the eyes — things, as one said, " most hor- rible and most ravishingly pleasant" — were adopted in or- der to frighten and delight. The first stage, says War- burton, is nothing but error and uncertainties. The latter part, of course, is delightful. The initiated is made to say, " On us oidy does the orb of day shine benignantly ; we only receive pleasure from its beams." In reading these descriptions, we are reminded of a pas- sage in one of the apocryphal books sometimes bound up in the Bible. In Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, we read, "Wisdom exalteth her children, and layeth hold of them that seek her; for at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline, until slie may trust his soul and ivj him by her laws. Then will she return by a straight way unto him, and comfort him,, and show him her secrets." 1 conclude this chapter by a brief and friendly reference- to a secret society still existing among us, of very ancient- date, which some of the most zealous of its advocates trace up to the great master-builder Solomon, some to a still higher date, who may indeed have some historical connec- tion with tlie builders of Babel, or the Cyclopean archi- tects of Europe, or the Toltecs of America — I allude to the society of Freemasons. Mr. Faber says it is probably a- fragment of those orgies which liave prevailed all the^ 23 354 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. world over, and have come to ns throngli the Knights Templar. All the most remarkable buildings of Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor have been ascribed to the Cabi- rian or Cyclopean_architects, and the present Freemasons claim it as their privilege to preside over the commence- ment of great buildings. The mysterious concealments of the moderns, vtdio act on the principle of one of the philosophers of old, "that people despise what is easy and intelligible, and call for something that is mysterious and wonderful," seems to connect them with the ancient mys- teries. Some of the initiated are said also to have been as much frightened and overcome by the terrific scenes which must be passed through, as were the oepopto ; but not being one of the favored number myself, I must not tread on for- bidden ground, but remember the words of the old Orphic poet — "To these a]one I speak, whom nameless rites Have rendered meet to listen. Close the doors And carefully exclude each wi'etch profane, Lest impious curiosity pollute Our sacred orgies." If 1 may be allowed to express an opinion, neither the good nor evil of these associations equals the praise or blame of their friends or foes. They were established with good intent, and are often conducted so as to effect good. Though they, like their ancient prototypes, liave often been abused to evil, within my knowledge to intemper- ance in some localities, I believe they are now in a com- paratively pure state. I am happy to be assured that the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is not only the rule and square by which, but the rock upon which, they purpose to build. So long as they adhere to this, and so far as they thus act, they must do good. Let their charity be the love which exalts the Creator and the created, the Redeemer and the redeemed, and all must wish them well. CHAPTEE XXV-. ON THE PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE AND ROME. An eminent writer on the ancient philosophy well re- marks, that "Four centuries of Greece (a little speck on the globe, containing a few cities on either side of a narrow sea, with a few small islands between) contained the whole universe of mind.''''^ This memorable period begins with the philosopher Thales, who died about 448 years before Clirist, being eighty-six years of age. Herodotus, the earliest historian of Greece whose work survives, flourished about 450 years before Christ. His work, di- vided into nine books, with the names of the nine muses, gives us some account of the primitive state of Greece. Butler calls him " the Homer of Greece without his poetry," but his prose was called " Musa pedestris," or, in modern phrase, " Prose run mad." Not much credit is given to some of his marvellous narratives, though recent investigations have raised his character as an historian. The patriarchal or kingly government evidently was the first form in Greece, as, of necessity, in all other countries. The father, or patriarch, was looked up to by his children and children's children. Before the establishment of a * " History of Ancient Philosophy," by William Archer Butler, M. A., Profea- sor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Dublin, with Notes by Professor Thompson, of Cambridge, delivered in the year 1842. To this book, to the learned Cudworth's works, and to Mr. Leland's book on the "Advantages of Revelation," the author is chiefly indebted for the contents of this chapter. 856 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. regular priesthood, he was their pi-iest and virtually their king. " Rex Anius, rex hominum, divum que sacerdos." After a time, with the increase of numbers and the en- largement of territory, the kingly government gave way to the democratic throughout Greece generally. " De- mocracy," says Butler, " made Greece never tranquil, but always brilliant." It was during this period that a suc- cession of men, called philosophers, carried the efforts and researches of the human mind to the utmost extent of their capacity unaided by revelation. It was a modest name which tliey assumed; the philosopher meant only a lover of wisdom, he did not assume the title of magus, or the wise man, or sage, but only of one who was in love with wisdom, and sought it in all lands and in all ways by which it could be obtained. Originally it was sophoi, or wise men, — afterward philosophoi, or lovers of wis- dom. Pythagoras was the first who took that modest title. That many of the philosopliers were most anxious to find out the truth, as to religion and morals, who can question that reads their writings? No doubt they sought assistance from God or the gods, so far as they supposed assistance from above could be given as to the attainment of wisdom. Phato held that philosophic "truth was reached by a course of protracted previous meditation, and of anx- ious mental conflict." So superior were their views of God and truth to those of mankind in general, that there has ever been a tendency to believe in a kind of semi- inspiration or providential guidance of their faculties not clearly distinguishable from revelation. Some of the fa- thers seemed disposed to trace the wisdom of Plato to a higher source, and regard him as the apostle of the Gen- tiles, to prepare the way for Christ. One of them calls him " Moses in tlie dialect of Attica " and thinks that in ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 357 his travels and his intercourse with the Hebrew scriptures and doctrines, and in liis great reverence for the highest antiquity and the most ancient poets, he obtained his su- perior wisdom and deserved that name. But we shall soon see how far his wisdom came short of that of the least in the kingdom which was set up by Christ a few- centuries after. Let us take, in their order, some of the leaders in that " universe of mind," which is said to have been confined to about four centuries, beginning with Thales and ending with the disciples of Socrates, and whose effect has been felt in the civilized world ever since Plato. THALES. We begin with Thales, the great mathematician, as- tronomer, and theologian of his day. He is supposed to have died in his ninety-sixth year, about 548 years before the Christian era. His main doctrine was, that water (chaos, perhaps) was the basis or principle of all things, but that God was the mind that formed all things out of it. Of course he held the previous and eter- nal existence of matter, — that is, water or chaos. He also held that God himself was unmade ; also, that the world itself is full of gods, — that is, good angels, who were made by God instead of being mere dead matter. Now this was a great advance toward truth, or rather a large step backward to primitive truth and revelation. PYTHAGORAS. Next to Thales came Pythagoras, the philosopher of Samos, who travelled for forty years through all the na- tions in search of wisdom, and who loved to hear and see so much more than to talk. He died about 496 years 358 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. before Christ, and fifty-two after Tliales. His doctrine was divided into two parts ; exoteric or public, and eso- teric or private. He was afraid to proclaim his whole system or counsels. According to Cicero, he believed that God was the soul of the world ; that every human soul was a portion of God. He had some idea of a trin- ity of gods, which Plato afterward improved upon until it became more like the trinity of scripture. God, he said, was the active principle in nature, and which he called monad. The passive principle in nature he called cluad, and the w^orld which was formed by these he called triad. While he believed in one supreme universal IS^umen, whom he called Zeus, or Jupiter, and who was the oldest of all thino-s because unmade, he also believed in manv inferior deities, among whom were the sun, moon, and stars, heroes and demons ; but they were not all to receive equal honor. Of course he was a polytheist. One of his followers has ascribed to him the following view of Jupi- ter's supremacy, and the instrumentality of good demons : " Jupiter alme, malis jubeas vel salvier omnes omnibus utanter, vel quonam dsemone monstra," — that is, Jupiter should either command that all men be released from evil, or show by some demon how they must be used. Pythag- oras was also the great advocate and teacher of the uni- versal doctrine of the transmigration of souls, declaring that he himself had passed through many such changes. He was also a great devotee to music, and said that the spheres, or heavenly bodies, in their motions made music, with which tlie gods were delighted. " The music of the spheres " is, we suppose, an expression that may be traced to this source. SOCKATES. Next in the order of time comes the wise and good Soc- rates, who sought to allure the minds of men from vain ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 359 speculations about the universe, and motion, and the gods, to morals and practical religion. The morals of the Gre- cians were very corrupt in his day. His great disciple, Plato, said, " that God alone could save the young men of his day from ruin ;" and again, "any soul that escapes the common wreck, can only escape by the favor of Heaven." The examples of the supposed gods greatly promoted this. Socrates, therefore, either rejected the gods of the poets, or denied that they were guilty of the actions and vices imputed to them. He was not, as some have said, a martyr to the divine unity, but was con- demned for rejecting the traditions which ascribed such scandalous accounts to the gods. Plato makes him say, " Can you in good earnest think that there are wars and contentions among the gods, and that those other things were done by them which poets and painters impute to them ? " In proof that he complied with the religion of the Greeks, and acknowledged the existence of the gods, he sacrificed a cock to Esculapius just before his death, and offered up a prayer to the gods for a happy transla- tion. He believed in one God, supreme above all others ; that he was the wise artificer by whom the world was made ; that he was a lover of all animals, — that is, all having life and being capable of pain or pleasure ; that he sees and knows all things ; that the mind of man is only a part of a great mind, as the body is only a small part of the great mass of nature. But he also believed in many inferior gods, who were a kind of body corporate, members one of another. Socrates, like Plato and most of the philosophers, identifies the gods. " E pluribus unum, et Unum e pluribus," was their doctrine and lan- guage. Thus Socrates said, shortly before his death, " If the gods will liave it so," and yet immediately after this he said, " If God will have it so." God, in the language of the heathen philosophers, is sometimes called " The 360 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. One," "The Good," "The Supreme." But it is just as "the government" is used to signify all the officers of the government, viz., the king or chief ruler, and all those connected with them. Socrates, however, is very clear in regarding him as the immaterial Governor of all things. In his " Memorahilia," he says, " As the soul is known by its operations, so God is known by his works." PLATO. Plato was born about 428 years before Christ. His doctrines, though somewhat corrupted, have been better preserved than most others, from having been commit- ted to writing. His works are the result not only of deep thinking and much travelling, but of the reflections and opinions of all the philosophers which had gone be- fore him. He was called the Divine Plato, because his views were so ])ure and lofty. He was also called the " Homer of Philosophers," because of his enthusiastic and figurative stjde. As to his views of the deity, he believed in one architypal animal or being, viz., God. AH things were formed according to it, and by it. This Being, which he calls " God over all " — " the fii'st God " — " the greatest God" — " The sovereign mind which passes through all things " — " who always was, and was never made " — "by him the things of the world were made, where they were not before." " The world," he says, " was made by God, and was the best of all his works, and he the best of causes." But while he held that there was only one self-existent, eternal God, who made the world, he also held that the world he made was God, and eternal, proceeding from the eternal God. He calls the world " an intellectual ani- mal ;" says that " the heavenly bodies were visible and generated gods." The earth he considered the oldest and ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 361 best of all the gods thus generated — the principal one. But, to use the language of another, " While none can fail to read on Plato's pages the main lineaments of the divine character, single, scriptural, and supreme, yet the same page is filled with a multitudinous throng of gods and demons. The inferior deities were only deputies of the supreme framer and ruler of all." He calls them " subordinate gods, co-governors and co-reigners with the supreme God," according to the whole tenor of the pagan theology, in which the gods are identified with the su- preme God, and co-workers with him. The demons he called "junior gods," who appeared and disappeared at pleasure. Cudworth, his great ad- mirer, says, "Plato sometimes speaks jestingly of these generated gods, ' as being without demonstration or even probability.'" He also 'speaks in one place as though Plato's recognition of these gods was only in compliance with public opinion ; and, perhaps, to avoid the same fate wutli Socrates. This opinion, however, cannot be sustain- ed ; for Socrates nowhere denied the existence of these gods, but that they were not guilty of the vices imputed to them. In relation to the supreme God, as well as the inferior ones, even the greatest of them, Plato says that there is, strictly speaking, no incorporeal god, or pure spirit?, such as we understand by spirit ; that he must have some subtile, etherial body, else the world would be like a vacuum or empty space. But while Plato separated God from common matter, he held that matter existed from all eternity — proceeded from the eternal God. God did not make the world out of nothing, as the scripture declares, but out of something already existing, which he fashioned into the world. He denies what some of the ancients held, that there was something evil in matter itself. His doctrine was, that a soul endued with all virtue, 362 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. moves the world, — that is, God ; but that " an irrational soul or demon got into matter, and moved it in a disor- derly manner ;" that " the generation of this world is mixed and made up of a certain composition of mind and necessit}^, yet so as that mind must rule over necessity." He maintains that evil cannot be utterly destroyed in this lower world, which is the region of lapsed souls. "Where- fore," he says, " we ought to flee from hence as speedily as possible ; and our flight from hence is this, — to assim- ilate ourselves unto God as much as may be ; which as- similation consists in being holy and just, with wisdom." As to the creation of man, he says, " God made man and all things," but speaks of an old tradition of man's being originally of both sexes, or hermaphroditic ; and yet there is a passage in his writings which would show him to be in much doubt on the subject. In his sixth book of laws, he says, " Either the present generation of men had no beginning at all, and will have no end, or else there has been an inestimable length of time since its beginning." Cudworth thinks that when he wrote this he must have been in his dotage, or else has written through fear of others. PLATO S DOCTRINE OF PEOVIDENCE. In nothing do the ancient philosophers and mytholo- gists difi'er more from the Bible, than in their views of providence. There were those who, though atflrming the existence of God, and that he made the world and all things therein, yet held that he only established certain laws at their first formation, and then retired, as it were, to a distance, to a state of repose, and only came on cer- tain great occasions to superintend and correct. " Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus," was the motto ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 363 of poets and philosophers. Plato wrote against all such infidels and atheists in his day. "Whoever," he says, "had any degree of seriousness or sobriety in them when they took in hand any enterprise, whether great or small, would always invoke the deity's assistance and direction." Whether by the deity here spoken of he meant the one eternal God, or the com- pound of all the deities, is not stated. He held, however, that notwithstanding this providence of God, some things were subject to fate or necessity. He gives us the following passage from an ancient poet : '' O Jupiter, king ! give us good things whether we pray or pray not for them, but withhold evil things from us, though we pray for them ever so earnestly." Plato's understanding of the plastic ok creativb powek of nature. On no subject does he speak more sensibly and satis factorily than on this mode of acting by the divine archi tect of all things, which so many of the ancient philoso phers and modern infidels substitute for God himself. Plato wrote a book against the atheists of his day, saying, " There always were some sick of this disease :" they de- nied that there was a God who was the working principle, or agent in all things, and substituted what they called the plastic power or principle, " which, without the help of God, was ever working things " to certain ends. The philosophy of Des Cartes, during the last century, was only the revival of the doctrine of atoms revolving themselves into certain forms or bodies, and was substantially this atheistic system, and of which, it is to be feared, there is still much in the minds of some. Plato's doctrine was, that the mind, or God, together with nature, was the author of the universe ; that nature, 364 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. according to reason and by it, — that is, God, — ordains all things. He speaks of the deity as using certain causes, and making them subservient to liimself. That which we call nature, said some of his followers, is the offspring of a higher soul, which hath a more powerful life in it. This was, perhaps, what Ovid meant by " Deus et melior natura." That, then, which we call nature, or working na- ture, is something which obeys the deity witliout under- standing why or for what purpose it is acting, — as the in- stincts of animals having no perception or enjoyment. AKISTOTLE. Aristotle, — called the Stagyrite, from Stagyra, the place of his birth, — was a disciple of Plato. He was born about 384 years before Christ. Plato called him " The mind of the school," When he was absent, Plato would say, " The intellect is not here." He was a pupil of Pla- to's for twenty years, — indeed, until Plato's death. Aristotle was the chosen tutor of Alexander the Xrreat chosen by his father Philip, wdio, on writing to the phi- losopher, said, " I am thankful to the gods not more for his birth, than that he was born in the same age with you." He formed a new sect in opposition to the Academy — the school of Socrates and Plato. A grove near Athens was his place of instruction. In this he used to walk about while teaching ; hence liis disciples were called Peripatetics. He was the great logician of his age, and his works on this subject are still held in high esteem. He died at the age of sixty-three. As to his theology, he believed in one God, who ordered all things, and called him " the first immovable Mover." Whereas some affirmed that the elements were the first and oldest of all things, he said, " It is more reasonable to suppose that mind is the oldest and first, and has a most princely and sovereign ON THE PHILOSOPHERg. 365 dominion over all ; that God was tJie mind that willed all tilings, and that everything had been disposed in the wisest and best manner." As to the lesser gods, which he called " the divinity," he said, " The divinity was either God, or the work of God." He rejected the doc- trine of self-made or self-existent gods. He divided the heavens into forty-seven splieres, over which the gods presided. He agreed with Homer, that the "government of many is not good ; therefore, there is one prince or monarch over all." He says, "It has been delivered to ns from ancient times, that the stars also were deities, be- sides that one great God who presides over nature and contains the whole of nature. All other things, he declares, " are fabulous, and used to satisfy the multitude, and for the utility of human life, and to teach men obedience to civil laws." Aristotle also speaks of some ancient writer, who, be" sides the material cause of the world, assigned an efiicient cause of motion, namely. Love. To this we have before alluded as being one of the earliest and most amiable mythological notions and traditions, corresponding witb St. John's declaration, that " God is love." LEIJCIPPUS Aiq^D DEMOCKITUS. We come now to the philosophers who sncceedcd Soc- rates, Plato, and Aristotle, and in whom we find a great falling off. An atheism, more entire and dangerous than that which Plato assailed, appeared in the philosophers Leucippus and Democritus. Of the country, birth, and death of the former, all is uncertainty. He was the in- structor of Democritns, the laughing philosopher. The latter lived to the age of one hundred and nine, dying about 361 years before the Christian era. He was born only forty-two years after Plato. He and his teacher 366 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. survived the doctrine of atoms, and perverted it to atheis- tic purposes. He believed that the soul died with the body, and that there was no such being as God. He laughed at the follies of men who were distracting them- selves about God and a future state. He believed that the basis of all things was infinitessimal particles of mat- ter, which, by a fortuitous concourse, form themselves into all the bodies of the universe. In a few words, his system taught that there were only three things in the world : atoms, vacuum, and the combinations of atoms, j EPICHRTJS AND HIS FOLLOWERS, Epicurus died about 2Y0 years before Christ, and in the seventy-second year of his age. His doctrines have been popular in all ages and to great numbers, because so grati- fying to the lovers of ease and pleasure. Rome was cor- rupted by his tenets, as were many other places, from which, after some years, his followers were banished on account of their pernicious principles and examples. The old Roman, Fabricius, is said to have entreated the gods that all the enemies of his country might be followers of Epicurus, thinking he could wish them no greater evil. The infidel poet, Lucretius, completed the work of ruin — on the morals of Rome — by translating the works of Epicurus into his fascinating verse. It is not too severe a criticism upon his principles to say, "As well have no god, as the god of Epicurus," who took no cognizance of human affairs, leaving men to their own choice and mode of seeking happiness. " Let us eat and drink, for to-mor- row we die," is the sum and substance of his teaching. A great intellect in our own country has said, " I believe in the providence of God, and leave to Epicurus, and his more unreasonable followers in modern times, the incon- ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 867 sistency of believing that God made a world which he does not take the trouble to govern." * ZENO THE STOIC. Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, died about 264 years before Christ, at the age of ninety-eight. His sect and doctrines were, in most respects, the very opposite of those of Epicurus. They were strict in their mode of liv- ing, endeavoring to make light of pain and trouble, — some of them saying " that pain was a mere idea." His chief followers and supporters were Cleanthus and Chrysippus, Tliey were materialists ; believing also that the souls of men were actual emanations of the deity — parts of the eternal God. Though they believed in one great God, they said the world was full of gods, who would one day be destroyed by fire. They compared the doctrine of future punishment to old women's stories, used to frighten children. It seems, from the manner of his death, that he did not fear then himself. " Walking out of his school one day, he fell down and broke one of his fingers, at which he was so afi'ected," says one of the an- cients, " that he struck the earth, exclaiming, ' I am coming. Why callest thou me? ' he then went home and strangled himself." MAKCUS TULLITTS CICEKO. His history and his writings are so familiar to those for whose benefit, chiefly, this volume is written, that a very brief notice of him will suflice. Yoluminous as were his writings, yet, it is said, not more than a tenth part have come down to us. He rejected the doctrines both of Epicurus and Zeno, and attached himself to the academy * Daniel Webster, 868 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of Athens, that is, to the followers of Socrates and Plato. He held that there were two things in nature to be in- quired of. First, the matter out of which every thing was made ; and secondly, the active and efficient cause. As to the first, he held that matter was self-existent and eternal ; as to the second, he reasoned as did Socrates and Plato, being a theist of their school. He wrote a work on the " To-en^'' or " summum bonum," or chief good of man, showing the various theories among men on the subject, affirming that they amounted to thousands, and conclud- ing, " Nil tarn absurdum, quod non dictum sit ab aliquo philosophorum" — " Nothing so absurd which has not been said by some one of the philosophers." His work, " De Officiis," has been called " The Pagan whole duty of man." His treatise on the immortality of the soul is considered his master-piece ; and yet, as we shall see hereafter, it failed to satisfy himself on that subject. The very title of one of his books, " De Natura Deorum," shows that he was a polytheist. His alternate use of God, and the gods, after the manner of Socrates, Plato, and others, shows that he regarded the divinity as a kind of body corporate. His patriotism and oratory were of the highest order. To these he fell a victim. His severe satire on woman, " that there was no animal so revengeful," and his bold denun- ciations of Antony, brought down upon him the rage of Pulvia, the wife of Antony, who had his tongue drawn out of his mouth, while her husband had his head and right hand hung up in the Roman forum, which had so often resounded with his eloquence. SENECA. Seneca was the brightest ornament of the Stoics. It is said that he was acquainted with St. Paul, and that some letters passed between them. St. Jerome and St. ON THE PHILOSOPHERS. 369 Augustine quote them as genuine. They were extant in the time of Jerome, who speaks most favorably of them. He was probably born about the time of our Lord, and may have seen St. Paul at Rome, where he lived for two years as a prisoner. Seneca may have heard of St. Paul from Gallio, who was Seneca's own brother, — having changed his name on being adopted into another family. His morals were considered of the highest stamp of hea- then virtue and religion. He was a fatalist of the most absolute character ; saying " that one and the same chain of necessity binds both man and God." His treatise on Providence contains some of the most excellent things against the cavils and murmurs of men on account of the evils of life : and yet ends with recom- mending suicide to the unfortunate. EPICTETUS. He lived in the first century of the Christian era, and belonged to the sect of the Stoics. He wrote much and well on morals. The morals of Epictetus perhaps came next to those of Christ, from whom, no doubt, they were in a great measure derived. He recommended contentment, on the ground that all things were ordained by Providence ; but, when we ex- amine what his providence was, we find it little else than, stern necessity, or fate. And yet, so superior were the mor- als and religion of Plato, Tally, and Epictetus to those of most of the ancients, that, at a certain period, the moral- izing clergy of England and Scotland used then so freely as to deserve the severe criticism of Cowper : "IIow oft, wlien Paul has served us with a text, lias Plato, TuUy, Epictetus preached." 24 CHAPTER XXVI. ON PLUTARCH, AND THE OTHER PHILOSOPHERS. "Wishing to do ample justice to the philosophers, believ- ing that God made use of them, not merely to show the insufficiency of human reason to find out the knowledge of himself, but also to remove much error from the minds of many, and to prepare the way for the reception of the truth, as seen in the religion of Christ, we shall dwell, a little longer on the opinions and character of Plutarch than we have done on those of any other. If Plato gave us the result of the intellectual efforts of all who went before him, as well as of his own, Plutarch added to them not only those of Plato, but of all those between Plato and himself, and at a time when unbelieving philos- ophers could not shut out from their minds all of the rays of light coming down from the true Sun of Righteousness. Plutarch was eminently a religious philosopher, accord- ing to the light which he had ; and a pure moralist, ac- cording to a high standard. He was born at Chseronea, an humble city Boeotia, about the middle of the first cen- tury of the Christian era. He endeavored to make him- self usefal in that place, in all civil and religious affairs. He acted as one of the priests of Apollo, and sought to promote piety among the people of his native place. His benevolence displayed itself towards all objects in nature which were capable of pain or pleasure. Con- demning Cato's treatment of his old servants, he said, " I ON PLUTARCH, ETC. 371 would not even sell an old ox that had labored for me, much less cast off a man who had grown old in mj ser- vice." He argues in favor of the lower animals having souls, and even reasoning powers ; and considers eating their flesh as cannibalism. He believed, with Pythagoras, in the transmigration of souls ; and this made him not only kind to brutes, but even to abstain from all animal food. He was, in one sense, most catholic in his religion. Though renouncing many of the superstitions of his day, he yet held that there was essential truth in all religions. As sun, moon, earth, and sea, he says, are common to all, while they have different names among different nations,— so he thought it was with the different modes of worship, and deities of different nations. He believed in one supreme and self-existent God ; but also, with Socrates and others, in some intermediate deities, who were the agents of divine Providence. The doctrines of Chance and Fate he abjured, believing in a special providence, which even made use of dreams and oracles to effect its purpose. He was a meek and humble man. In his writings, says Professor Tyler, for the first time the word papienos (which, like the Latin hiwiilis, in its usual classical sense, imports meanness and pusilanimity) occurs in a good sense, to denote a meek and submissive virtue. Plutarch held that God formed the body out of preexistent matter, but the soul was a part of himself, breathed into the body, — not made, but be- gotten by him. As to the mode of subduing our appetites and passions, he held that " vows and ]3rayers for divine assistance, and sacred days of fasting and abstinence, were important helps to a complete victory." His views of true bravery were fine. He tells the story of Zenophanes, who, when called a coward because he refused to play at dice, replied, " Yes, I confess myself a coward, for I dare not do a base or unworthy action," 372 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. His philanthropy and largeness of soul were exhibited in his quotations from Socrates, who said, ^'"We are all born, not Greeks, not Athenians, but citizens of the world, with no narrower boundaries to our country than the sky, and under the same supreme ruler." On the subject of a future state, he held that, at death, pious souls go to a place of unending day and unclouded glory ; while the wicked sink to an abode of perpetual darkness and oblivion, where they are punished, not as poets sing, " by vultures gnawing at their livers, and heavy burdens of fruitless labor oppressing their weary bodies ; but by ignorance and ignominy, plunging their souls into a bot- tomless abyss of inactivity and uselessness and obscu- rity." In his Moral ia there is one passage on the universality and superior importance of religion, and the belief in a providence, in opposition to the licentious doctrines of the Epicureans, which deserves, for its spirit, to be written in letters of gold. " Travel through the world, and you will find towns and cities without walls, without kings, with- out theatres, without gymnasiums, without money, and without houses ; but there never was and never will be a city without temples and gods, or without prayers, oaths, prophecies, and sacrifices, for the averting of calamities and curses, and for the obtaining of blessings and ben- efits." Although Plutarch may and must, to us, appear super- stitious, yet his book against superstition shows him to be a dry, sceptical philosopher, by comparison with the un- happy fanatics and devotees for whose benefit he wrote. His views of fate, and fortune, and chance, were conserva- tive and practical. Plutarch carefully studied the religion of Egypt, in its hieroglyphics and symbols, and perhaps learned as much of it as any other man ever did. He shows clearly the identity between the gods of Egyj^t and ON PLUTARCH, ETC. 373 Greece. He was a complete convert to the doctrine of two principles, — tlie good and the evil in the world ever warring against each other, the good, however, being predominant. In the consolatory letter to his wife on the loss of a daughter, he has some fine thoughts, and some strong assurances as to the immortality of the soul. And yet, as Mr. Tyler well remarks, " how far was he from at- taining to that full assurance of a reunion, and a reunion in a better world, which Christianity affords the sorrow- ing in this sinful world !" Plutarch, like all the philoso- phers, though sometimes seeming to admit the fallen and corrupt condition of men, yet wanted the deep views of his sinful state such as Christianity alone presents. As to the atonement and free forgiveness set forth in the scrip- tures, we look in vain for them in his writings. Transmigration and purgatorial processes are the means of purification and future advancement. On some sub- jects, as, for instance, future punishment, he is inconsistent and contradictory. At times he speaks of darkness and shame, banishment and ignorance, being the retribution to the wicked ; and then, again, he joins with the poets in supposing the most horrible tortures which God could de- vise. In fine, he never speaks, as God's word alone can speak, with authority and with certainty. I conclude with the admirable words of Professor Tyler, in the last of his valuable articles on the life and writino-s of Plu- tarcli. After giving him credit for much that his writings have in common with the scriptural account of natural and revealed religion, he says, " But he sheds not a ray of light on the darkest, dee23est problem in theology which has ever awakened the most profound solicitude in thoughtful and serious minds, namely, ' How shall man be just with God ? ' How unspeakably great are our obli- gations to the authoritative testimony of Him who came forth from the unseen world, who was not only in the be- 374 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ginning witli God, but who was God, and therefore had the right as well as the power to promulgate the precise and only terms of reconciliation to rebellious man ; who became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace as well as truth, and thus enabled men to hear and see and handle the Word of eternal life !" Having thus endeavored to do justice to the ancient philosophers by considering the sentiments of the most prominent, among them from the time of Thales to Plu- tarch, a period of seven hundred years, and these the most enlightened of all the ages of the world's history, as known to us, we will conclude with some of the various and contradictory notions which floated, a chaotic mass, through the world, without specifying who or how many entertained them. The great discussion among them was as to the origin of all things. Many, as we have already seen, main- tained that matter as well as mind must have been eter- nal. They said " Quicqidd moveiui\ ah alio movetur.'''' Of course there could be no first mover, — that is, no God, — since there must have been some other mover to move or make him, and so on, backward, eternally. Democritus and other atheists, therefore, were ever dwelling on the axiom that God could not make anything out of nothing, or unmake it again. It is very true that ^^ De7ii/iiUo nihil, in nihilum 7iil posse reverti,''^ without God ; but this is quite easy to him with whom all things are possible. That is the doctrine of Moses and the scrip- tures, as to the creation by God. Some of the philoso- phers, in opposition to the scriptures and Plato, held that there was no morality in the nature of God, that all the distinctions on that subject were indiff'erent to him ; whereas, Moses and all the sacred writers insist on the per- . feet purity and holiness of God, and his abhorrence of the opposite. Some held that all life and all understanding, ON PLUTARCH, ETC. 375 even the gods themselves, Jupiter at the head, came out of matter, by what was called plastic nature, without the help of God. There were many who held, with Leucippus and De- mocritus, that the universe was full of small atoms, which, by some chance revolutions, came into the forms of the various bodies which are to be seen. Epicurus and De- mocritus held that " cogitation or thought was only local motion." There were those who said '• that every thing labored under some intestine or inward necessity ; that even God himself was the slave of fate." Some disbelieved the existence of anything that could not be seen and felt. Some, as Empedocles, held that God was not the author or maker of the world, but only " a holy and ineffable mind, which, by swift thought, agitates the whole world." Many, perhaps the most of them, held that the whole world was God ; others, that he was the soul of the world. Some held that matter was eternal, yet that it procesd- ed from God as an emanation ; just as light, though coeval with the sun, yet proceeds from it eternally. Some blasphemous and silly atheists maintained that there was no life or understanding above, around, or any- where else in the world, but in ourselves ; that we were the highest of all beings; we were the gods. Others de- nied that God could have made all things, " because some were so badly made." Some of the materialists lield the eternity and self-exist- ence of matter, saying, that " if God had made it out of nothing, it would have been perfect, like himself; whereas, it was unmanageable." An ancient poet, however, main- tains that " the world was good, for that God made it as like to himself as possible." He was not far from Moses, 376 THE BIBLE j\ND THE CLASSICS, who tells ns that when God had made all things, he pro- nonnced them very good, man being made after the " image of God." Proclns saj's, ''If the whole world be a happy God, then none of the parts are godless, or without God." " The heavenly bodies," he says, " having particular souls and minds, partake of the one soul and mind. It is the same, also, with the elements." Some one says, that " All Hesiod's gods are nothing else than animated parts of nature, fictitiously personated after the manner of the fanciful Greeks." Proclus says " that all tilings were eternal, in the sense that they were irradiated or proceeded from God. That the other gods or parts of the world were an inefiable pro- cession from a superior first cause." They, of course, are worthy of adoration, and, being nearer to us, are more likely to be worshipped, as the saints and Virgin Mary are in the Romish church. Such was the polytheism of philosophers and poets until the time of Christ. Even after the coming of our Lord, there were some with whom the fathers had to contend on the same points. Thus Celsus, the great antagonist of the fathers in the time of Adrian, says, " These silly shepherds and herdsmen, following Moses their leader, and being seduced by his rustic frauds, came to entertain this belief, that there is but one God." At a later period. Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate, both of them bitter enemies to Christianit}^, becoming ashamed of many things in the poets and mythologists, asserted most earnestl}^ the belief of one self-existent God, maker of all things. But Julian acknowledged that they also held " that there are inferior gods, to whom he entrusted the government of different countries and cities, as prefects or presidents appointed by a king. Through these inferior gods man approached the Supreme." ON PLUTAECH, ETC. 377 Some of th? heathen upbraided the Christians with worshipping one who was himself a man, and who died the ignominious death of the cross ; but to this they had the ready answer in the acknowledged fact of the birth and origin and infamous character of so many of their gods. CHAPTER XXVII. EFFECT OF THE PHILOSOPHY AND IDOLATRY OF THE HEATHEN ON THE MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. Although, in the preceding chapter, we have shown some of the deficiencies of ancient philosophy, and the necessary influence of the same upon the morals of man- kind, we think it best to devote a chapter to the more spe- cial and fnller consideration of a subject of such impor- tance. St. Paul, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, has given us a most loathsome picture of the de- pravity of the heathen. They were vain in their imagina- tions. Their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They had changed the gloiy of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness and to vile affections. And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, but changed the truth of God into a lie, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and to do those things which are not convenient. He tells us that they were filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant- breakers, without natural afifection, implacable, unmerci- ful. Other scriptures, both of the Old and New Testa- MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 379 ments, abound in the same descriptions, not only of tlie heathen, but of the chosen people, when they adopted principles worthy of the heathen, as they too often did. The apostle, however, has evidently a strong allusion to the philosophers lalsely so called, and the effects of their doctrines on mankind. It is a principle clearly laid down by God and by the wisest of men, that we must jnd<>-e of teachers and their doctrines by their fruits. We may thus, beforehand, know what tVuits are to be expected from cer- tain doctrines. One has truly said, "The chai-acter of a people may be well known from the character of their gods." I have collected together, from various sources, some testimonies bearing on this subject. And first, as ignorance of God and truth is a fruitful fountain of vice, I will speak of this. St. Paul acknowledged that here, even with the light of revelation, " we see through a glass darkly," and only "know in part." What, then, the darkness of a Socrates, who said that " the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing ! " what that of Aristotle, who said that " As the eyes of bats are to the brightness of daylight, so also is the understanding of our souls even toward those things which, by nature, are most manifest to all!" Cicero said "that the liglit of nature no where appeared." All had been darkened by the speculations of men. "The world by wisdom (says St. Paul) knew not God." " Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Truly does Mr. Locke say, that "Philosophy, in the time of Christ, seems to have spent its strength and have done its utmost." Even four hundred years before, Plato said, "The supreme God was hard to be found, and when found, not easy and safe to be declared." "To declare him to the vulgar (said Cicero) is unlawful." Even as to the Creator of tlie world, Ovid, who lived nearer to the Christian era, and seemed to have more light than most of the poets and philosophers, 380 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and who, in one place, speaks of God as "Mundi fabrica- tor et opifex," yet believed in nutnerons gods, and, in one place, seems nncertain which of them framed the world from chaos : "Quisqnis fuit ille deoriim" is his language. The most ignorant deist of our day would despise the no- tions of most of the philosophers as to God and the gods, and a mere child might instruct them. Juvenal might well say of mankind in his day, and that the day of Rome's highest glory, "Et genus humanum damnat caligofutura" — "The human race is cursed by the darkness wliich hangs over the future." We have already seen how, not only at Athens but in many other countries and cities, there were temples to the unknown God, where the people ignorantly wor- shipped. Let us now see the opinions of the philosophers as to that great practical doctrine, the Providence of God. It is one of the perfections of our God that he can and does attend to the smallest thing equally with the great- est, and that lie can and does attend to all, small and great, at one time, just as easily and perfectly as though all his care were bestow^ed on one in particular. We have it from the highest authority, that each hair of our heads is numbered, each step marked and directed, and that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of our God. How different the case of the heathen, with all the multiplicity of their gods. ISTot only did Epicurus and his followers hold that there were numerous gods, and one superior to the rest, yet they took no concern in hu- man affairs ; but Plato says that in his time there were many who professed to believe in the gods, but yet did not believe that they minded human affairs. Cicero also speaks of the doctrine of Providence as a point much disputed among the philosophers. He him- self believed that the gods took care of great cities, and MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 381 great men and things, but neglected tlie smaller ones : " Magna Dei enrant, parva neglignnt." Great men, lis thought, were inspired : " Nemo vir magniis, nisi aliquo afflatu divino." Euripides affirms the sentiment, and Plutarch seems to endorse it, that " God only concerns himself with the greatest things, and leaves the smaller to fortune." Ju- venal, however, comes nearer to the truth : " l^ullum numen abest, si sit prudentia ; " " Sed te nos facimus for- tuna deum coelo que locamus ; " though it may be he meant to substitute man's wisdom for all the gods. The poet Ennius positively denies the doctrine of Provi- dence, because of the unequal distribution of good things between the virtuous and the wicked. He says of the gods, "Nam, si curent, bene bonis sint, male malis." Pliny, the great philosopher of nature, represents it as " ridiculous to suppose that the deity would be polluted with such a sad and troublesome ministry as that of at- tending to the petty affairs of men." Coecilius, a cele- brated Roman lawyer, makes this an objection to the Christian religion. He speaks of the God of Christians "as every where present, troublesome, impertinently busy, and curious," saying that " he cannot attend to every particular while employed about the whole, nor take care of the whole while busied about particulars." With such views of God and his providence, it is not won- derful that their views of a future state should be very faint and doubtful. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, AND A FUTURE STATE. Let US incpiire into their opinions on these points, on which so much of their religion and morality must de- pend. Socrates, who said that the knowledge of tliere being no punishments hereafter would be " good news to 882 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the wicked," declared that " in his day there were few who believed in the immortality of the soul " — though he tried to produce such a belief. Plato wrote very forcibly on the immortality of the Boul ; but both he and Socrates put it on a wrong founda- tion, viz : on the ground of a previous eternal existence, as if God could not create it and perpetuate its existence without a previous being. But after Socrates and Plato passed away, many of the philosophers denied the future existence of the soul, and the multitude were ready enough to adopt it. Some of the enemies of Christianity denied that the pagans did disbelieve it. Celsus, the greatest among them, wishing to put the pagan systems on a level with the gospel in this respect, thus argued ; but Origen is very strong in opposition to his assertion. But even when the doctrine of a future state was ad- mitted, how many of them stripped it of all terror to the wicked, and represented God as incapable of anger, even toward sin, and that there was no suftering, although there might be some shame and ignorance. Plutarch says that the most of mankind were ready to admit what he calls " the fabulous hope of immortality, but had no fear of the pun- ishments of Hades," which he calls " the tales of mothers and nurses." At other times, however, he speaks differ- ently, and perhaps is misunderstood here. Cicero, also, in his Tusculan disputations, says of the ac- counts of future punishments which had prevailed, that " scarce any person at Rome believed them." " What old woman," he asks, " can be so senseless as to be afraid of the monstrous things in the infernal regions, which were anciently believed ? " Juvenal also says, " Nee pueri credunt nisi qui gere lavantur." Could we only find that they had any fear of any kind of future punishment, we could readily excuse their unbelief of much that was taught in the fables, but MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 383 fear that there was little apprehension of future punish- ment, of any kind or degree. Equally doubtful and gloomy were their views as to the condition and rewards of the good. Plato complains of Homer for giving such dismal accounts of the dead, saying that " they weakened men's courage, and made them afraid to die." When Achilles meets Ulysses in Hades, (the heaven of the pagans,) he tells him that he had rather be a rustic on earth, serving a poor man for hire, than to have a large empire over all the dead, — thus more than reversing the choice of Milton's hero, " Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." Homer, how- ever, notwithstanding this, speaks of Hades as " a delec- table place." As to the later poets, though they say some things fa- vorable to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, they have other things and more against it. Thus Ca- tullus, " Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux Nox est pcrpetua una dormienda." So also Horace, " Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam Jam nox te premit, fabulte que manes." Persius also tells us that the language of his day was, "Indulge genio: carpamus dulcia, nostrum est Quod vivis: cinis et manes etfabula ties." Seneca also, in his tragedian, says, " Post mortem nihil est, ipsa que mors nihil, Quasris quo jaceas, post obitum, loco ; Quo non nati jacent." Julius Ca3sai', as we have seen elsewhere in his speech for Catiline, pleads lor his life by saying that death was 884 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. no punishment to Iiim ; that death puts an end to all those evils men are subject to; that beyond it there is no place left for anguish or joy ; that neither the soul nor body had any more sense after death. But let us once more hear what Cicero himself says — -that Cicero who wrote the masterly and unanswerable argument in favor of the im- mortality of the soul, and yet was not quite satisfied him- self. "A question," he says, "has been raised, whether the soul dies with the body, or whether, if surviving, it should have a perpetual existence or only a temporary one." "As to the question," he says, "which of these opinions be true, some god must determine." Which is most probable, is a great question. Cicero was a follower of Plato, who also wi-ote on the immortality of the soul, and who, it must be ever borne in mind, was the great advocate of the doctrine of "probabilities," viz., that the most fixed opinions were at best but probabilities. And this he got from his old master Socrates, the great de- fender of the immortality of the soul against the infidels of his day. He was the practical philosopher of Greece and the world. And how did he meet death, for defend- ing truth and condemning error too boldly! The doctrine of probability was his best hope. " I am in good liope^'^ he said, "that there is something remaining for those that are dead, and that, as hath been said of old, it is much better for good than for bad men." Ilis disciple, Plato, rested it on the same foundation, viz., " that we ought al- ways to believe the ancient and sacred words," — that is, "old tradition." Let us hear the last words of Socrates to his friends : " It is now time to depart. I am going to die. You shall continue here ; but which of us shall be in better state is unknown to all but God." How different the language of St. Paul : " The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith : henceforth there is MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 885 laid lip for me a crown of righteousness, wliicli tlie Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me on that day." But even this leap in the dark, this plunge into a world un- known, which Socrates made, how much better than the creed of another philosopher who, in the close of life, and in view of death, left this testimony to his followers : " Foede hunc mundum intravi ; anxius vixi, incertus mo- rior ; O causa causarum miserere mei ! " — " Unclean I en- tered this world ; anxious have I lived, uncertain I die ; O Cause of causes, pity me ! " I heard an old infidel of ninety years of age utter these words as his creed, " O my soul, come not thou into his secret." And how man}", under the influence of such a painful uncertainty, have rushed uncalled into eternity, to realize their future condition ! How many of the i^hilosophers have justified the experiment! Epictetus, one of the best of heathen moralists, says, as to the troubles of life, " Jupiter hath made these things to be no evils. He has opened a door whenever they do not suit you. Go out, and do not complain. If these evils be not great, stay where thou art. But the door is open. Do not be more fearful than children. When the play does not please them, they say, we will play no lon- ger. So do you say, in that case, I will play no longer. If my house be smoking, I will go out of it." Thus also did David Hume reason: "Whenever," he said, " pain or sorrow so far overcomes my patience as to make me tire of life, I may conclude that I am re- called from my state in the plainest and most express terms. When I fall upon my own sword, I receive my death equally from the hands of the Deity as if it had proceeded from a lion, a precipice, or a fever. Where is the crime of turning a few ounces of blood out of the natural channel ? " 25 886 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. THE KESUEEECTION OF THE BODY. This great incentive to virtue and preventive of vice, — the liope of happiness and fear of suffering in the body as well as soul, — was almost entirely wanting to the pagan system. St. Paul was reckoned a madman for teaching so incredible a thing. His great argument in defence of it was, "why should it be thought a thing impossible with you that God should raise the dead ? " Pythagoras and Plato could not have received it, because, according to their system, the soul preexisted, and tlie body was the mere temporary prison. The soul was to find some other abode at death, or be reabsorbed into God. The infidel Celsus treated it with contempt, calling it " the hope of worms." Among the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees held it ; but the Sadducees, — the infidels of Judea, — re- jected it. See our chapter on the immortality of the soul and resurrection of the body. THE EVIL CHARACTER OF THE GODS. We have reserved for the last that which contributed so much to demoralize the heathen, viz., the character of their deities. Jupiter, though sometimes regarded as the great self- existent god or Numen of the universe, was much oftener worshipped as an ancient king who was guilty of nunier- ous and great crimes. Thus does Homer represent him. His example was pleaded as a sanction for the n)ost in- famous vices. So scandalous were his repeated acts, that the primitive Christians could never be induced, though under penalty of death, to pronounce his name as that of the great God, without prefixing the name of Creator or Maker to distinguish him as the God of the Christian from the god of the pagan. MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 387 The animals also, whose images were used in Egypt, and doubtless elsewhere, were symbolical of the qualities of the gods w'hich they represented. Of course, Avhatever evil or peculiar qualities distinguished the animal, were ascribed to the gods themselves. The parts or objects of nature, when worshipped, as thej often were, were confounded with the hero-gods. Thus Bacchus was wine, Yulcan was fire, Ceres was corn. Temples were erected, not only to good qualities but also to vicious ones, — as to Yolupis, the goddess of pleasure ; to Libertina, the goddess of lust. In Athens there was one to impudence and contumely. Plutarch informs us that the people not only worshipped those who were fa- vorable to mankind, but those most unfavorable, as the Dirse, the Furies, and Mars, seeking to appease them by the most cruel I'ites and sacrifices, thus fulfilling the ac- count which Milton gives us in one brief half sentence, — '•''Lust Imrd hy liate^ Plutarch also speaks of some in Egypt who used, on certain days, to inflict the most cruel torture on themselves in order to appease some malignant demons, and avert their wrath. These were they, and there were thousands of others, as has been already said, " Wlio sought to merit heaven By making eartli a hell." As to tlie obscenity of the ancient worship and the de- scription of it, they were such that Plato did well to ban- ish the licentious poets from his commonwealth, although lie held that in the most ancient poets was most of primi- tive truth. He condemned Hesiod and others for the- scandalous things said by them of Jupiter. It is well known, also, that in some of the public games and plays the flagitious actions of the gods were publicly represented as a pious offering to them. At Rome, after the theatres had been closed as corrupters of the morals of the people,. 388 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. they were opened again in the time of a plague to pro- pitiate the mah'gnant deities who sent it, St. Austin says, that " There are some things in the sa- cred books of the pagans which treat of religion and the holy rites, which grave poets would have thought unfit to be the subjects of their verses." Varro, the Roman historian, says, " They call those gods which, if they had life and breath, and a man should meet them unexpectedly, would pass for monsters." " The same gods," says St. Austin, " are laughed at in the theatres, and adored in the temples." Ovid, in his sad letters from Pontus, complains that lie was banished from Home for some things in his "Art of Love," when worse things of the same kind were seen in the pictures and engravings of their temples.* As to the worship of Bacchus, — a most profligate deity, representing wine and strong drink, — revellings and drunk- enness were always a part of it. The victors in the con- tests of drinking, even to Alexander the Great, who fell a victim to one of them, were rewarded with a crown of leaves and a vessel of wine. Even Plato, according to Diogenes Laertius, said that " to drink wine to excess was not allowable, except on the festivals of the god who was the giver of wine." As to the rites in which lewdness and debauchery were practised in honor of Venus and other deities, we cannot defile our pages with the mention of them. Not even their sacred mysteries were free from them in some countries ; so corrupt were they as at last to require their prohibition by public authority. St. Peter speaks of "lasciviousness, * It were to be wished that nothing of this kind could be even now charged upon picture-galleries in public and private houses, and in the theatres. In the latter, vicious actions are not condemned as they should be, and false senti- ments are uttered, while the ladies are content to hide their faces with a fan or handkerchief, and pretend not to hear them. MORALS OF THE ANCIENTS. 389 lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, in connec- tion with abominable idolatries." The phih^sophers, poli- ticians, and rulers still encouraged the people to worship their gods, and the priests did not expose their error or seek to correct their morals. The celebrated John Locke, in his treatise on the " Keasonableness of Christianity," says, "The people, un- der pain of displeasing the gods, were to frequent the temples. Every one went to the sacrifices and services ; but the priests made it not their business to teach them vh'tue." In vain do we look into their books for treatises on morals such as we find in the Old and New Testaments. Even Cicero, the great moralist of Rome, says, " The gifts of fortune are to be asked of God or the gods, but wisdom comes from ourselves." "Jupiter," he says, "can- not make us just, temperate, and wise, but gives us riches and health," etc. Well, then, does our Saviour say, "After all these things do the Gentiles seek," and exhort us to "seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness." Happy those to whom it is said, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." CHAPTER XXVIII. ON HOMER THE ILIAD, ODYSSEY, AND OTHER POEMS. Homer is generally supposed to have lived somewhat later than Hesiod, — according to the great chronologist, Mr. Hales, about twenty-seven years later, but others say about a century before him. The siege of Troy is placed about twelve hundred years before Christ by Mr. Hales, though only about nine hundred by Sir Isaac New- ton. Homer is generally supposed to have written his Iliad about three hundred years after the siege of Troy. As the Bible is the oldest of all books, so Homer's Iliad is supposed to be the oldest of all heathen writings which have come down to us, except in fragments. Sir Walter Raleigh and others considered it indisputable that Homer must have read all the books of Moses, and borrowed many passages from them. The contiguity of Judea to Troy, and the admitted fact that Homer lived and wrote some time after the Israelites had settled in the promised land, bringing the books of Moses with them, renders this possible, if not probable. That such books as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey should be the earliest productions of pagan genius is a thing not for a moment to be supposed. They are too highly finished, too full of history, philoso- phy, and astronomy, and too refined to belong to the first stage of civilized life. The Greeks may not, generally, have made great advances in the arts and sciences, yet we must remember how noble and perfect their language was ON HOMER. 391 in the time of Homer. We must recollect tlie wisdom of the Egyptians long before the time of Homer, much of which was inscribed on the shield of Achilles, gotten from thence most probably by Homer himself, who M'as called the " strolling bard" because of his travels through so many countries in search of knowledge, and from whence he obtained materials for his poems. His translator, Pope, speaks of those " secrets of nature and of physical philosophy" which he everywhere displays ; " those innumerable knowledges," and " how he clothes all the properties of the elements, and the qualifications of mind, and the virtues and vices in forms and persons." Mr. Pope says, "Though he has some very low thoughts, yet has he more noble and excellent ones than any other writer ; " in proof of which he adduces the fact that " the writings of Homer have so remarkable a parity with scripture." Speaking of the noble simplicity of the sa- cred writers, and their use of words common at that age of the world, he says that, as Homer is the author nearest to these, his style must bear a greater resemblance to the sacred books than any others. Several writers have writ- ten treatises instituting comparisons between Homer and the Bible, and adducing numerous passages resembling each other, and calling him " the Bible of the pagan world." Although we cannot agree with Lord Boling-- broke. Pope's infidel patron and friend, and to whom he dedicated his translation, that to those who have read his great poem " All other books appear so mean, so poor, Verse will seem prose" — yet we must admit that some of Bolingbroke's school might read it, and mend their piety by the same. Li discoursing on Homer we shall use Pope's translation, with this remark, taken from Gray's " Connections," a very valuable work on the ancient authors : " They, however. 392 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. wlio read Homer in the beautiful translation by Pope, will suppose the poet to speak with more sacred dignity ©f expression than the original work strictly warrants us to admit. The translator's mind being familiar with the diction of the scriptures, he sometimes unconsciously ap- plies to the heathen deities expressions which bear the stamp of inspiration, because consecrated in the hallowed language of the Bible. Such a caution is the more neces- sary, as Mr. Pope, in his intimacy with and admiration of Lord Bolingbroke, whom he calls his " Guide, philosopher, and friend," was too much inclined to latitudinarian views. Thus, in his " Universal Prayer," he invokes the Deity as " Father of all, ia every age. In every clime adored By saint by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !" in reading which we are reminded of the words of a more modern writer, who says, " I am an Omnist, and believe in all religions." Concerning the birthplace and other things which have been discussed in relation to Homer, we have little to say. Ma^iy lives of him were written by the ancients, only one of which, that ascribed to Herodotus, remains ; and that so full of fabulous things that it is doubted whether it be the work of Herodotus, fond as he was of the marvellous. To him, who had done so much toward the honoring of the gods, temples were built and sacrifices offered after his death. Wishing to do ample justice to him and the whole pagan system, we now proceed to something like an analy- sis of his great poem, by selecting some choice passages which will exhibit the leading traits of it. First, I shall adduce a few which show the general ON HOMER, 393 spirit of piety pervading the whole work. It should, in- deed, rather be called superstition, after the example of St. Paul, who said to the Athenians, as to their worship of the Unknown God, " I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious ; " still, as any religion is better than atheism, we still pay some respect to it, though it be only, for the most part, a perversion of the truth. The princi- ple which pervades the poem is this : "Those who revere the gods, the gods will bless." " Blest is the man who pays the gods above The constant tribute of respect and love." The continual prayers and sacrifices offered up to the gods before engaging in battle, or entering on any great enter- prise, were also proofs of the dependence on some power above themselves. Although his heroes are generally dis- gustingly boastful, like Goliath of Gath, yet does the poet sometimes remind us of the youthful and pious David : " If thou hast strength, 'twas Heaven that strength bestowed, For know, vain man, that valor is from God : 'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven to give success.". His two great heroes. Hector and Achilles, are both made to bear testimony to religion, each in his own way. Hector, the more amiable and pious, thus denounces the atheist : " The weakest atheist wretch all heaven defies. But shrinks and shudders when the thunder flies." Even the monster Achilles is not wanting in this respect. His reverence for the ministers of God, and of God through them, is most profound. Although proudly defying the great Agamemnon, he humbly appeals to the priest and prophet : 394 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " Chalcas the Wise, the Grecian priest and guide, That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view The past, the present, and the future knew, Perliaps, with added sacrifice and prayer. The priest may pardon, and the god may spare." In M'liicli passage we have also the recognition of an order of prophets which carries us back to the patriar- chal times, when ISToah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the priests and prophets, offering sacrifices and predicting the future histories of their descendants. Secondly, Homer's account of. God and the gods. In Homer we find the same confusion and contradiction on this subject which we have shown to exist in so many of the mythologists and philosophers. Sometimes he ascribes the highest attributes to Jupiter, making him equal to the self-existent and eternal God, as set forth by Moses ; and then he throws all into confusion again. Thus he is sometimes spoken of as " Supreme of gods, unbounded and alone, Who in the heaven of heavens hast fixed thy tlirone !" Again, — " Immortal Jove, high heaven's supremest Lord ! The united strength of all the gods above In vain resists the omnipotence of Jove." Again, — " The sire of all the gods and all the ethereal train." Again, — " The high tribunal of immortal Jove, Father of all the gods." Again, — "And know the Almighty is the God of gods." Again, — " 0 first and greatest God — by gods adored !" ON HOMER. 395 Again, — " If I but stretch this hand, I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land." And yet in this same book we have the history of the earthly origin and birth of this great Jupiter. Neptune is made to give this history of him : " Three brother deities from Saturn came. And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame. Assigned by lot, our triple rule we know : Infernal Pluto sways the realms below. O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain Ethereal Jove extends his high domain. My court beneath the hoary waves I keep, And hush the roaring of the sacred deep. Olympus and the earth in common lie." Such was the division by lot between the three sons of Saturn ; but Jupiter is charged by Neptune with en- croaching on. his dominion, and is thus rebuked by him : " What claim has here the tyrant of the sky ? Far in the distant clouds let him control, And awe the younger brethren of the pole. There to his children his command be given, — _ The trembling, servile second race of heaven," Here we have the wliole history of the heathen gods. The three sons of Saturn, who were the great gods of heaven, hell, and the sea, the earth being common to them all, are the first and greatest. " The servile second race of heaven " are the hero-gods, the inferior deities, who came after these. Homer makes Juno, the sister and wife of Jupiter, give us some account of their old parents, who had by some means been gotten rid of, and sent down into a cavern of the sea. Old Saturn and Rhea, or old Ocean and Tethys, are thus described by Juno, who goes to " those remote abodes :" 396 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. "Where the great parents, sacred source of gods, Ocean and Tethys, their old empire keep. In their kind arms my tender years were past, What time old Saturn, from Olympus cast. Of upper heaven to Jove resigned the reign. Whelmed under the huge mass of earth and main." Jupiter, having thus dethroned his father, became the supreme ruler of the world, and his descendants are the inferior deities or demi-gods with which the pagan my- thology is filled. Still there are evidences of the recog- nition, not only of Saturn or old Ocean, and Rhea or Tethys, but of one wdio was before all these ; and Homer is continually endeavoring to invest Jupiter with the at- tributes of the ancient one, while at the same time con- tinuing to him his earthly character. This is the true secret of all the confusion that exists on this subject. homer's account of JUPITER AS IDENTIFIED WITH FATE. Thus,— "Angry Jove and all compelling Fate." Again, — " The hand of Fate works out our will." Again, — " Such was our word, and Fate our word obeys." Again, — " Thus have I spoken, and what I speak is Fate : Celestial states, immortal gods, give ear ! Hear our decree, and reverence what ye hear ! The fixed decree which not all heaven can move, Thou, Fate, fulfil it, and ye powers, approve !" Sometimes he speaks of a fatal Chance, as well as " all- compelling Fate." THE GOODNESS AND PERFECTION OF JUPITER. " ' 'Tis just,' said Priam to the sire above, ' To raise our hands ; for who so good as Jove ? ' " ON HOMER. 897 Again, — " Father of gods, oh I ever just and true." Again,— " Seek not thou to find The sacred councils of the eternal mind ; Whatever is — that ought to be." THE DEFECTS OF JUPITER AND THE OTHER GODS. So glaring are their vices, that both gods and men up- braid them. Thus Achilles reviles Apollo : " Powerful of godhead, and of fraud divine ! Mean fame, alas 1 for one of heavenly train, To cheat a mortal who repines in vain." Another upbraids Jove himself thus : '• Tn powers immortal who can now believe ;" Cans't thou too flatter, and can Jove deceive ?" Another tauntingly says to him, in allusion to his adul- teries : " Loth as thou art to punish lust." On one occasion Jupiter is represented as saying : " Let men their days in senseless strife employ, "VVe in eternal peace and constai^it joy." And yet they were constantly engaged in intrigues on the one side or the other, and sometimes came down from Olympus to take part in the battles on the fields of Troy. HOMER ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL OF MAN, ETC. He speaks of man as "calamitous by birth." Priam is made thus to account for evil : " Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The source of evil one, and one of good. From these the cup of man he fills ; Blessings to these, to those dispensing ills, — 398 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. To most he mingles both. The happiest tastes not happiness sincere, But finds the cordial draft is dashed with care." Elsewlierc it is said : " Whatever we feel, 'tis Jove inflicts the blow ; And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe." HOMEE ON A FUTUEE STATE DAEK AND CONTEADIGTOEY. Thus one is made to say to Andromache : " Thy Hector, wrapped in everlasting sleep, Shall neither hear thee sigh nor see thee weep." And Andromache, in lier last lament, says : " Thou to the dismal realms forever gone, And I — abandoned, desolate, alone." Another is made to say of Hades, or Elysium : " If in that gloom, which light must never know, The deeds of mortals touch the ghosts below. So comfortless was the thought of death, that old Priam, the venerable and pious king of Troy, is nevertheless obliged to beseech the gods to send him "A willing ghost to Pluto's dreary realm." It was of this Hades, or Elysium, that Achilles said : " Who dares think one thing and another tell ! My soul detests him as the gates of hell." But still this place was considered better than to wander about, without any abode, after death, which was thought to be the case witli those who were buried without funeral rites. Therefore Patroclus, in his apparition to Achilles, begs that he will discharge that duty to him : ON HOMER. 399 " Let my pale corse the rites of funeral know, And give me entrance to the shades below. Till then the spirit knows no resting-place ; But here and there the unbodied spectres chase The vagrant dead around the dark abode, Forbid to cross the irremeable flood." But whether in Hades, or wandering around it, Homer represents the dead as clothed with some light, ethereal bodies. When the apparition of Patroclas vanishes, Achilles says : "'Tis true, 'tis certfrin, man though dead retains Part of himself ; the immortal mind remains. The form subsists without the body's aid. Aerial semblance and an empty shade. This night my fi-iend, in battle lost, Stood at my side, a pensive, plaintive ghost : E'en now familiar as in life he came — Alas ! how different, and j^et how like the same !" HOMER ON ANNUAL SACRIFICES. These are everywhere mentioned as acceptable, even when human victims were offered. Let one example suf- fice. Achilles, as a pious offering to the gods, or to the soul of Patroclus, offered up on his huge funeral pile not only hundreds of animals, sheep, and oxen, but also twelve Trojan captives : " Then, last of all, and terrible to tell, Twelve Trojan captives fell." HOMER ON THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. " The gods, the great and only wise. Are moved by offerings, vows, and sacrifice. Offending man their high compassion wins, And daily prayers atone for daily sins." 400 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. One of the most interesting personifications and deifi- cations in the pagan system, is that of prayers ; they are represented as " Jove's daughters of celestial race, With humble mien and with dejected eyes, Mediating at the throne of grace." homer's doctrine of divine guidance and inspiration. Ko sentiments or words are more frequently in the months of Homer's heroes than this, — "Some god within commands, and I obey." HOMER ON THE IGNORANCE OF M0RT^y:.S. The Muses are called " All-knowing goddesses, immortal Nine, Seated around the throne divine." '• We wretched mortals, lost in doubts below, But guess by rumor, and but boast we know. Heaven only knows, for^He disposes all." HOMER ON THE LONG LIVES OF THE ANCIENTS. The long lives and superior strength of the ancients are thus set forth. After saying of old Nestor, "Two ages o'er his native realm he reigned. And now the example of the third remain'd," Nestor is made to say, " A godlike race of heroes once I knew, Such as no more these aged eyes shall view." ON HOMER. 401 HOMEK ON KEVENGE. .Not only is his great hero the very personification of re- venge, or another name for it, but even old Hecuba, the pious and venerable mother of Hector, in the midst of her grief for his death, is made to exclaim, as to Achilles, " Oh ! in Lis dearest blood miglit I allay My rage, and these barbarities repay." And the general principle or spirit of his poem is, "My friend must hate the man who injures mo." HOMER ON THE PATRIOTISM OF AGAMEMNON. There is one noble passage for statesmen and rulers which must not be omitted. While all others were in pro- found sleep, he is tlius described : "All but the king; with various thoughts oppressed, Ilis country's cares lay rolling on his breast. Inly he groans." HOMER ON THE DEIFICATION OF ALL NATURE. Not only were heroes turned into gods, virgins into nymphs and muses, virtues and vices into graces and furies, but everything in nature was deified. Thus the river Zanthus, near Troy, which was called " the immor- tal progeny of Jove," was turned into a god, and engages against Achilles, rolling its tumultuous waves over him, and threatening to overwhelm him. This was only a part of the theology of his day ; for rivers were \vorshipj)ed in various parts of the world. 2G 402 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. THE ODYSSEY, OR WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES FROM TROY TO ITHACA. In tills poem there are some few things, not noticed in the Iliad, which may contribute to the object of this book. Thus the word " daimon," sometimes improperly trans- lated, in the New Testament, devils, when it should be gods, — that is, hero-gods, or guardian spirits, (according to the use of it in the times of the New Testament,) — is used by Homer to signify Dens, or God, and not a guardian spirit, or good genius, such as Socrates believed in. It was not until after the time of Homer that it was used to signify a guardian spirit. The commentator on the Odyssey quotes the following from Rodolph : " Antiquis- simis temporibus daimon nihil erat quam deus." An- other proof this that the further we go back into antiquity, the more did language recognize the Deity. Another passage may well excite a smile in those whom the scriptures have taught to consider the highest praise to be that given to Nathanael by our Lord, " Behold an Israelite Indeed, in whom is no guile." Minerva, speak- ing to Telemachus in praise of his father Ulysses, says, "Divine Ulysses, your father, surpassed much in all kinds of deceit." The words God and Jove are used in the Odyssey, as elsewhere, to represent some supreme Numen ; thus the old swineherd, Eumeus, in entertaining his ancient but now unknown master, Ulysses, says, "For all strangers and beggars are from Jove ; " but again he says to his guest, " Eat, O divine one of my guests ! and delight thyself with these things, such as are present; for God bestows one thing and refuses another, whatever he wills in his own mind, for he can do all things." ON HOMER. 403 homer's hymns. Hymns and singing formed a part of the worship of the gods. They, of course, partook of the character and cele- brated the deeds of the gods. Homer has hymns to all the great gods ; very long ones to some, to Jupiter a very short one. He seems to he regarded by the mythologists and some of the pliilosophers of the East as too high or too far off to be reached or troubled, except through the inferior and mediating gods. Homer lavishes titles upon him, and nothing else, calling him " the many-named," *'tlie cloud-compelling," "the loud-sounding," "the king of kings," etc. In the hymn to the " far-darting Apollo," son of Jupiter and Latona, feared by all the gods as he moves through the house of Jove, he recounts the story of his birth in the Isle of Delos, and of all the mighty deeds and amours ascribed to him. In his hymn to Venus, daughter of Jupi- ter and Juno, we may expect to find something accordant with that character which the mere mention of her name suggests. Into her Jupiter himself inspires the love of mortals as well as of gods. She is formed to excite desire in both. She becomes the mother of godlike ^neas, Anchises being his father. To many-clustered Bacchus, also, crowned with joy and laurel, he has songs, though they do not partake of the character into which bacchanalian songs afterward de- generated, for, by universal consent of the ancients, he was no other than Noah or Dionusus, the god of the ark ; and it is probable that his planting a vineyard and intoxication by wine, as mentioned by Moses, may have given rise to this feature in his worship in after times. One of the Greek poets, Theognis, who lived about 550 years before Christ, in his address to Simonides, gives an 404 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. account of a convivial feast in his clay, upbraiding some who were present with intemperance, and thus concludes: " I shall retire ; the rule, I think, is right, Not absolutely drunk, nor sober quite." It is to be feared that some in our own day, in words as well as deeds, advocate the above sentiment. I once heard of a lady who, in defending a favorite minister from the charge of intemperance, said, that though she had never seen him drunk, yet she had often seen him ^^gentlemanly merry'^'' after dinner. This was not deemed unbecoming in the man of Grod. I fear it is too true, not only of many Christian professors, but of some ministers of religion, that after dinner they are "Not absolutely drunk, nor sober quite." His hymn to Mars begins with a string of titles : "Most mighty Mars," " weigher-down of chariots," " gold cas- qued," "great-minded," "shield-bearing," "city preser- ver," " brass-equipped," " untired," " powerful in the spear," " bulwark of Olympus," " revolving thy fiery circle among the seven wandering stars." How difierent from the names of God, as given in our scriptures : " Our Father, who art in heaven," " Onr Lord," " Jehovah," " God of love and peace." When we read of all these things in the sacred poetry of the heathen, it helps us to understand the apostle's ad- monition to "sing together in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord," and not to Bacchus, Yenus, Apollo, and others whose worship was an abomination. Li these hymns to the various gods we have the whole system of pagan idolatry, according to Homer and Hesiod. Thus we have one to the Earth as mother of all, mother ON HOMER, 405 of gods and men, wife of the heavens ; also to the sun and moon as deities. In tliis there is reference to the per- verted truth that Coehis, or God, made man and otlier things out of the earth, which is called his wife ; and then made the sun and moon. Saturn and Rhea, the son and daughter of Coelus and Terra — the first of human beings — were none other than Adam and Eve, formed, as to their bodies, out of the earth, and as to their souls, G-od breathed them into their bodies. We have also mention, in these hymns, of Pluto, the god of hell, under the name of Hades — "Hades, dark-haired Hades " — a name often used in scripture, and which we translate hell. CHAPTEE XXIX. HESIOD AND CALLIMACHrS. I SHALL not enter into any further discussion of the com- parative ages of Homer and Hesiod. Herodotus, the father of history, says, " Homer and Hesiod lived, as I consider, not more tlian four hundred years before my time ;" and he lived between four and five hundred years before Christ. But, as was said in our last chapter, others place Hesiod twenty-seven years before Homer ; others again make him one hundred years after him. It matters little, as to the object of iny book, how the question is settled. In main points they ai'e agreed. Homer introduces the gods in a desultory manner, only to aid in the great poem which has immortalized him. He- siod, whether coming before or after Homer, gives us a regular history of the creation, and the gods and hero- gods, — that is, the Cosmogony, Theogony. and Heroology, according to the prevailing traditions or his own fancy. We have already seen how Plato, Socrates, Zenophanes, and others denounced his account of the gods, as derog- atory to them and injurious to men.* HIS THEOGONY. Hesiod professes to write under the inspiration of the Muses, and * I quote from the translation by Elton. HESIOD AND CALLIMACHUS. 407 " They to Hesiod erst Have taught their stately song." But lie takes it from tlieir own lips : " They a voice Immortal uttering, first in song proclaim The race of venerable gods, who rose From the beginning, whom the spacious Heaven And Earth produced ; and all the deities From them successive sprung, dispensing good." The first of the venerable gods produced by heaven and earth are Saturn and Rhea, descended from Cceliis and Terra. This is believed to be a tradition of Adam and Eve, made by God, or Ccelus, out of clay, or lime, Saturn is cast out of the throne by Jupiter, his eldest son, and banished to the deep caverns of ocean. This is supposed to be a mutilation of Adam's banishment from paradise. Jupiter now becomes the supreme power, and though there are other children born of Saturn and Rhea, as Juno, Pluto, and Neptune, he reigns over all. Juno becomes his sister-wife, {uxor et sorO)\) as must needs have been the case in the infancy of mankind. The Muses are repre- sented as thus praising him : "Next also Jove, the sire of gods and men, They praise." " How excellent is he." " Above all gods— in his might supreme." " He reigns in heaven." " Disposes all things," etc., etc. The Muses then proceed " To sing the laws that bind The universal heavens, the manners pure Of deathless gods." 408 TtlE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. They are then called to " Declare how first the gods and earth became." " From the beginning — say who first arose." And this is the answer : " First chaos was ; next ample-bosomed earth, The seat eternal and immovable Of deathless gods." Then,— " The gloomy Tartarus." " Love then arose, Most beauteous of immortals." By means of Love, night or darkness sprang from chaos; and day or light from darkness. Then, by the same principle, the heavenly bodies were born from the earth. Then was Saturn born, " Youngest in birth. The sternest of her sons ; and he abhorred The sii'e that gave him life." Thus was Adam made last of all creation, and he dis- obeyed his heavenly Father. Then follows an account of the giants " Who all their sire abhorred, From the begiiming ; all his race he seized, As each was born, and hid in cave profound, Nor e'er released to day ; and in his work Malign exulted." Then come the wars of the giants against heaven, in which Coelus is overthrown and Saturn triumphant ; but he destroys his male children, lest one of them should supplant him. Jupiter is roused by his mother, and con- tends with Saturn his son, and casts him from his throne. HESIOD AND CALLIMACHUS. 409 This is Ilesiod's battle of the Titans and the gods, or the followers of Saturn and of Jupiter, which ends in the de- struction of the Titans or Saturnians, and tlie establish- ment of Jupiter as the god and monarch of the earth. HESIOD S POEM ON WORKS AND DAYS. In the opening of this poem we are reminded of the sentence pronounced on man : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread ;" and of the curse on the earth, " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth." " The food of man in deep concealment lies, The angry gods have veiled it from our eyes ; Else had one day supplied sufficient cheer, And, though inactive, fed thee through the year." There are passages in Ilesiod's "Works and Days," as well as in his Theogony, wliicli bear testimony to the Mosaic account of woman's share in the evils brought upon the human race. At the instigation of Jupiter, Yulcan " Moulded from the yielding clay A bashful virgin's image ; And lo ! from her descend the tender sex Of woman : a pernicious kind. A bane to men ; 111 helpmates of intolerable toils." The above is from the Theogony. In his " Works and Days," he says, " The name Pandora to the maid was given ; For all the gods conferred a gifted grace To crown this mischief of the mortal race." Then comes the account of the introduction of evil into the world through woman ; who, though forbidden to do 410 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. it, througli curiosity opens a casket containing all tlie ills of life. " The woman's hands an ample casket bear, She Hfts the lid, she scatters ills in air ; Hope sole remained within, nor took her flight, Beneath the casket's verge concealed from sight. With ills the land is rife, with ills the sea. Diseases haunt our fi'ail liumanity ; Now swift the days of manhood pass away. And misery's pressure makes the temples gray." The description of the diiferent ages deserves insertion here. Though agreeing generally with Ovid and others, it differs in this respect, that he adds a fifth age — that of the hero-gods : " When gods alike and mortals rose to birth, A golden race the immortal formed on earth. Like gods they lived, with calm, untroubled mind, Free from the toil and anguish of our kind. The virtuous many dwelt in common, blest, And all, unenvying, share what all in peace possest. When on this race the verdant earth had lain, By Jove's high will there rose a genii-train : Earth-wandering demons, they their charge began. The ministers of good, and guards to man. Then formed the gods a second race of men. Degenerate far — and silver years began. Unlike the mortals of a golden kind. Unlike in frame of limbs, and mould of mind. Nor feared tliey heaven : them angry Jove engulfed." The third race seem to have been located on this side the engulfing flood : " The sire of earth and heaven created then A race, the third, of many-languaged men ; Their thoughts were bent on violence alone. The deed of battle and the dying groan ; They by each others' hands inglorious fell, In horrid darkness plunged, the house of hell." HESIOD AND CALLIMACHUS. 411 Then comes the fourth age : " Them when the abyss had covered from tlie skies, Lo ! tlie fourth age on nurturing earth arise : Jove formed the race a better, juster line, A race of heroes, and of stamp divine ; Liglits of the age, that rose before our own As demi-gods, o'er earth's Avide region known." This was the age of Hercules, and Cadmus, and the Tro- jan heroes. Then came the fifth or iron age, in which the poet lived : " Oh ! would that nature had denied me birth Midst this fifth age, this iron age of earth ! Corrupt the age, with toils and griefs opprest, Nor day nor night can yield a pause of rest." A few passages from the part entitled " Tlie Works" will show what in it is agreeable to the scriptures, and what contrary to them. Honest industry is thus com- mended : "Love every seemly toil, that so the store Of foodfnl seasons heap thy garner's floor ; From labor shalt thou with the love be blest Of men and gods — the slothful they detest." The worship of the heart and purity of life enjoined : " With thy best means perform the ritual part, Outwardly pure, and spotless at the heart. E'er on thy nightly couch thy limbs be laid, Or when the stars from sacred sunrise fade." Love of friends and hatred of enemies enjoined : " Let friends, oft bidden, to thy feast rei)air. Let not a foe the social moment share. Who loves thee love, him woo that friendly woos." Of brotherly love: " If he the first by word or deed oflTend, Doubly thy just resentment may descend. 412 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. If, with conciliiiting love possest, lie come atoning, clasp hiin to thy breast." Let the two foregoing sentiments be compared witli the one enjoined on Christians. ON THE DAYS OF HESIOD. In the second part of the poem, called " The Days," he enjoins the strict observance of all the feasts and fasts of the pagan calendar. They are very numerous, and of divine appointment : " Lo ! these, the days appointed from above By the deep councils of all sapient Jove ; A decent heed thy slaves enjoin to pay. And well observe each Jove-appointed day." The most superstitions regard must be paid to all the changes of the moon, in sowing and planting. In every domestic operation they paid regard to her progress each day, such as the ignorant in some countries pay now : " Oh ! fortunate the man ! oh ! blest is he, Who skilled in these fulfils his ministry. He, to whose note the auguries are given, No rite transgressed, and void of blame to heaven." We add to the above a few lines of the poet Callima- chus, who flourished about two hundred and fifty years before Christ, and was coeval w^ith the poet Aratus, from whom St. Paul quotes. This shows what had been added to the Theogony of Ilesiod in the interval between the periods in which they lived. His hymn to Jupiter proves him to be in much doubt as to the birthplace of Jupiter, and he invokes the aid of the god to find it out : " But say, thou first and greatest power above, Shall I Dictean or Lycean Jove Attempt to sing? Who knows thy mighty line, And who can tell, except by power divine, HESIOD AND CALLIMACIIUS. 413 If Ida's hills thy sacred birth may claim, Or fair Arcadia boast an equal fame ? The Cretans, prone to falsehood, vaunt in vain, And impious built thy tomb on Dicte's plain ; For Jove, the immortal king, shall never die, But reign o'er men and gods above the sky." But althongli the poet asserts his innnortality, yet he adopts Ilesiod's account of his birth and birtliplace : "In higli Parrhasia lihea bore the god, Where gloomy forests on the mountains nod." Callimachus differs from those who held that the earth and heavens were divided between the three sons of Sat- urn,— Pluto, I^^eptune, and Jupiter : " Jove, yet a child, the prize of wisdom hears From both his brethren in maturer years, And both agreed the empire of high heaven, Though theirs by birthright, should to Jove be given : Yet ancient poets idle fictions tell That lots were cast for heaven, for earth, and hell. Chance placed not Jove in these divine abodes — Thy power, thy wisdom made thee king of gods!" Callimachus excels the poets before his day by ascribing the gift of virtue to Jupiter : " Oh ! from thy briglit abodes let blessings flow, Grant healtli, grant virtue to mankind below ; . For he with healtii is not completely blest, And virtue fails when health is not possest. Then grant us both, for these united prove The choicest blessings man receives from Jove." His hymn to Apollo also contains one passage which reminds us of the scriptures : " Depart, ye souls profane ! hence, hence ! oli ! fly Far from this holy place ; Apollo's nigh. Ye bolts, fly back ! ye brazen doors, expand ! Leap from your hinges! Phoebus is at hand. Begin, young men, begin tlie sacred song. Wake all your lyres, and to the dances throng, 414: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Reinemb'ring still The Power is seen by none Except the just and innocent alone. Prepare your minds, and wash your spots away That hinder men to view the all-piercing ray." We are reminded by these lines of the words of David, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ! and the King of Glory shall come in ; " and of his resolve, " I will wash my hands in innocency ; so will I come to thine altar ; " and of even the words of our Lord himself, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." I conclude with the testimony of Callimachus to the im- mortality of the soul, as seen in the following epitaph : " Beneath this tomb, in sacred sleep, The virtuous Saon lies, Ye passengers, forbear to weep— A good man never dies." CHAPTER XXX. ON THE THEOLOGY OF ^SOHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. For the following cliapter I am chiefly indebted to Pro- fessor Tyler, of Amherst College, Massachusetts, who has kindly consented to my free use of his learned and valu- able article as published in the Andover Biblical Reposi- tory. ^-Eschylus was a Greek tragedian, of noble family, who was born about the year 525 before Christ, and preceded Socrates and Plato more than a century. He was a fol- lower of Pythagoras. It is fabled that Bacchus appeared to him while watching the clusters of grapes iu a vine- yard, and bade him turn his attention to tragic composi- tion. Under w^hatever influence he may have directed his talents to the composition of plays, we must rejoice in the testimony he bears to the remains of ancient truth in his day. THE GREEK DRAMA. There can be no greater misapprehension of the Greek drama, says Professor Tyler, than to judge of it by the modern theatre. They have little in common but the name. The modern drama is exhibited within doors, at night, and by gas or candle-light. The ancient drama was exhibited by day, in the open air, and with the broad, pure light of heaven. The modern theatre is a common building, and capable, at most, of containing only two or 416 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. three thousand people. The Greek theatre counted its audience by tens of thousands. Tlie modern theatre is a private specuhition, and for the most part filled and sus- tained by the worst and lowest class of the population. At Athens the theatre was a public institution, and the audience composed of the enlightened, refined, and sov- ereign people of Athens, together with the elite of all the other cities of Greece. The theatre, as it now exists in the cities of Europe and America, is generally, if not universally, a school of vice and crime. In its palmy days, in the Grecian cities, it was a school of good morals and religion, according to the light then remaining, and taught by the wisest and best men of those times. Greek trag- edy grew up in connection with their religious worship. The theatre, says an old Roman writer, " was invented for the worship of the gods and the delight of men." Strange as it may sound to modern ears, the Greek stage came nearer than anything else to the Greek pulpit ; — the people hung on the lips of lofty, grave tragedians for in- struction touching the origin, duty, and destiny of immor- tal beings. It was the express office of the chorus, which held the most prominent place in the ancient drama, to interpret the mysteries of Providence ; to justify the ways of God to men ; to plead the cause of truth, virtue, and piety. Hence it was usually composed of aged men, whose wisdom was fitted to instruct in the true and right, or of young women, whose virgin purity would instinct- ively shrink fi'om falsehood and wrong. Greek tragedy carried men back to the origin of our race, up to the prov- idence of the gods, and on towards the retribution of another world. "With few exceptions, the subjects are mythological. The characters are heroes and domi-gods — monsters, it maybe, in crime, but their punishment is equally prodig ious, and sin and sufi'ering always go together. They ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 417 illustrate, by their lips and by tlieir lives, the providence and retributive justice of God. Nor is prayer wanting in their liturgies ; for so were they called, since the cho- ruses consist, in a great measure, of direct addresses to the Deity, ^schylus is preeminently the theological poet of Greece. The great problems which lie at the foundation of faith and practice, — the same problems which are discussed by Job and his three friends, — are the main staj)les of nearly all his tragedies. In this re- spect the sacred tragedies of ^schylus find their nearest counterpart in the Book of Job. On the whole, there is no book of which the reader of -i^Eschylus will be more re- minded. The poet who most resembles him in modern times, is the Puritan poet of old England, Milton. The actors in the plays of ^schylus handle the grand themes of theology very much as they are handled by the good and evil angels in " Paradise Lost. " Such is a true, but most unworthy abridgement of Professor Tyler's five most in- teresting opening pages. Before giving a brief analysis of the theology of ^schy- lus, we will only add that he supports the proposition for which we have contended throughout the preceding chapters, viz., that the more nearly tradition reached the beginning, the more of truth is in it. yEschylus, in his plays, acts on Plato's doctrine, who, in reference to the gods, said, "The subject is too great for us, for we must believe those who have spoken aforetime, who being, as they said, the offspring of the gods, doubtless knew their own sires, and must not be disbelieved when they tell us, as it were, things pertaining to their own household. " Who can Plato and ^schylus refer to as the gods, but mere deified heroes — mariners of the ark, whose descend- ants were regarded as the offspring of the gods, and who handed down the earliest traditions to the world ? ^schy- lus agrees with Ilesiod and other poets, that, under the 27 418 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. reign of Saturn, the golden age of the world, a better race inhabited the earth, who were the companions of the gods and the favorites of heaven ; but that a great change took place, which provoked the anger of Jupiter and brought his judgments upon them. These things soon became per- verted, and turned into fables and myths ; but, as Profes- sor Tyler well remarks, many of the heathen fables are doubtless the facts of revelation and primitive history in disguise. Even those myths which narrate the inter- course between gods and men, carnal and corrupt though they be, preserve while they pervert the memory of that intimate converse which God held with the patri- archs and first parents of our race. " May they not also," he says, " be regarded, like the Avaturs of the Hindoos, as fleshly anticipations and unconscious prophecies of Chris- tian truths ? " ^SCHYLUS ON THE NATURE OF GOD AND THE GODS. Like all other pagan writers, he is inconsistent, contra- dictory, and confused, as to the one only true God. In his tragedies, Jupiter is generally represented so as to ac- cord with our ideas of the true God and Father of all, as set forth in scripture. He calls him " the Father of gods and men ; " " the universal cause ; " " the all-seer and all- doer ; " "just and true ; " " king of kings ; " " of the happy most happy ; " "of the perfect, most perfect power ; " " The blessed Zeus. " He is sometimes spoken of as a "jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children ; " one " who will by no means clear the guil- ty ;" one whose mysterious providence is an unfathom- able abyss. In the play of Agamemnon, he is like Moses ; he hesitates by what name to invoke the invincible Dei- ty. He was in truth an unknown God to him, as to the Athenians in the time of St. Paul. Sometimes he is the ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 419 invincible deity of pantheism. lie is always high above the rest of the drama. Apollo and Athena are mere per- sonages in the drama, bnt Jupiter never. They, as in more ancient times in which the scenes were laid, walk the earth in human forms, and take part in the aifairs of men ; but he, never. As Miiller, the German mytholo- gist, says, " Jupiter is the only real God, in the true sense of the word — the spirit that pervades and governs all things." And yet, like Homer and others, how often does he degrade Jupiter to a frail being, by imputing crimes and follies to him ? He also recognizes a number of infe- rior deities, subordinate to the supreme authority of Jupi- ter, and who are the messengers of his will and the active agents of his providence. As it is not good for either god or man to be alone, so Jupiter must have his wife and children ; and these children must, in their turn, have others. Each generation being removed more and more from the perfection of their first fathers, these became inferior deities, whom he employs to manage the earth, differing in character, and being gods of the sea and land, the Furies, the Muses, the Fates, etc. Tliere is also a class of gods who are hostile to Jupiter, and who are overthrown in battle by him. Atlas and Typhon, with the Titans, feel his avenging j)ower in Hades and Tartarus. Kor can we read of them without being reminded of those giants and mighty men, of whom Moses speaks as so incurring the displeasure of God be- fore the flood, and bringing destruction upon the world, and of those to whom St. Jude and St. Peter refer, saying, " God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, or Tartarus, holding them bound in ever- lasting chains." 420 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. JUPITER AS BOUND BY FATE. Althongli Jupiter is sometimes said to be superior to fate, yet, as in Homer and others, lie is identical with fate, and everything is made subject to irreversible des- tiny ; and yet this is, in some sense, connected with and influenced by prayer. Thus, in one of the plays it is said, " That which is fated may come to your praying." Professor Tyler justly remarks, " ISTo Calvinist was ever a more strenuous asserter of the doctrine of decrees than the chorus in these dramas ; " "at the same time, no Methodist ever offered up more frequent or more fervent prayers." When Thebes is defended, " the people must pray indeed, but look well to the fortification," Or, in the language of Cromwell to his Ironsides, " Trust Providence, but keep your powder dry." ^SCHYLUS OiSr JUPITER S RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. Our Lord says, " Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, ' An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' " " We have this ancient sajdng," says Pro- fessor Tyler, " standing out with great prominence, and repeated again and again on the pages of ^schylus : " " 'Tis robber robbed and slayer slain ; for though Ofttimes it lags with measured blow for blow," yet " Vengeance prevaileth, While great Jove liveth." Again,— " Blood for blood, and blow for blow, Thou shalt reap as thou didst sow. Age to age with hoary wisdom Speaketh this to man." ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 421 •Who can read these words witliout remembering tlic universal law proclaimed after the flood ? " Whoso shcd- deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; " or these words of our Lord, " Whoso taketli the sword, shall perish bj the sword." THE DELAY OF THE DEITY IN PUNISHING THE WICKED. This is often dwelt npon by^schjlus. Other moralists of Greece often quoted an old proverb, " The mills of the gods grind late, but grind to powder." ^schylus has a striking passage on that subject: "Some are punished in the light of day ; others in the dark twilight of life, with a lingering and overflowing flood of pains ; while for otliers is reserved the endless night of future retribution." How like is this to St. Paul's teaching, " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some they follow after." THE DOCTEINE OF A FUTURE STATE OF EEWAEDS AND PUNISHMENTS. This is taken for granted throughout the works of JSs- chylus ; and much is said about the condition of the dead, especially of the wicked. On this subject he is most ter- rific ; but as to the resurrection of the body, he knows nothing. I conclude with a few striking passages from Professor Tyler's able article. "The same subjects which constitute the staple of the epic and tragic mythology of the Greeks are among the earliest and most prominent subjects of Mosaic liistory and legislation." After reciting passages from the Eumenides, one of the tragedies which set forth the most important truths bear- 422 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, JEg a strong resemblance to some of the facts and doc- trines of our holy religion, he says, " The ideas are found- ed deep in the religious nature of man ; they set forth the theology of J^schylus, and the better part of his contem- poraries ; and it must be confessed that his theology is surprisingly healthy, sound, and truthful, in its essential elements. The great doctrine of hereditary depravity, retribution, and atonement are there in their elements, as palpably as in the Sacred Scriptures. Would that modern poetry were equally true to the soul of man, the law of God, and the gospel of Christ. He then proceeds to speak of the manner in which the atonement is set forth, in the part in which Apollo and Zeus, Soter, or Jupiter, the Saviour, are made to take in the reconciliation, which forms the great theme of the tragedy. He thus concludes : " There certainly are, in the poets and philosophers of ancient times, not a little of truth and of resemblance to the great central facts of Christianity." THE THEOLOGY OF SOPHOCLES. In this part of the chapter I use again the labors of Professor Tyler in his two learned articles on the theology of Sophocles. Sophocles, according to Professor Anthon's article, in his edition of " Lempriere's Classical Diction- ary," was born about thirty years after JEschylus, and fifteen before Euripides. A statue of him has been dis- covered within the last twenty-five years, and is now in the museum of the Vatican, at Pome, which represents him, as to body, to be the perfection of beauty and sym- metry. In character he was most amiable, and said to be the favorite of men and gods. At the age of twenty-five he bore ofi" the prize from all the competitors, among whon^ was the veteran ^schylus, who had been for thirty ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 423 years the master of the Athenian stage. Twenty times did Sopliocles bear off the first prize. He came on the theatre of life in time to celebrate the triumphs of Greece over the wealth and power of Persia, and left it only a little while before Athens yielded to Sparta in that strife in which the Grecian states were so exhausted as to pre- pare them for the Macedonian yoke. Sophocles dwelt in the golden age of Athenian government, literature, and religion. His theology was not so strongly marked in its character, and had not so much of primeval tradition as that of JEschylus, but probably presented a fairer repre- sentation of the average sentiments of the Athenians in his day. Only seven out of one hundred of his tragedies have come down to our day, but these are probably among the best. . We will select some passages from them, showing the prevailing views as to religion and morals. It seems, says Professor Tyler, as if, when they (the Greeks) advanced in time and progressed in the cultiva- tion of literature and art, they receded from the fountain of moral and religious truth, and the ideas of primeval revelation lost their vital power. In Sophocles more than in ^schylus there is room for the feeling, in some passa- ges at least, that the gods are powers or personifications rather than persons. Still there are passages in which God appears with some distinctness. In one of the dramas Jupiter is called " The all-controlling Jove ;" and again, " Thou of the all-pervading eye, In heaven and by subject gods adored." In another he is called " Jove all-beholding, all-direct- ing." The eternal and unchano-ino: character of divine law is also sometimes set forth in such a manner as to remind us of the law of God written on the hearts of men : " Heaven's eternal laws would' st thou contemn ?" 424: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. is the language of upbraiding in regard to one who would violate right. We read of one of whom it was said, " In every law divine, Which blooms with holiest awe above, A steadfast piety was thine, — The love of honor and the fear of Jove." Again, — " To contravene the firm, unwritten laws Of the just gods, thyself a weak, frail mortal ! These are no laws of yesterday : they live For ever more, and none can trace their birth." The supremacy of the divine over human laws is thus declared, in relation to one who plead the laws of the state in justification of an act in violation of divine law : " Dost thou revere them. When thou would'st trample on the laws of heaven ?" PIETY TO THE GODS. Piety, such as it was, is often strongly commended : " Revere the gods ! Second to this all else great Jove esteems. True piety alone defies the grave : Let mortals live, or die, this blooms forever." In his drama of Ajax, the father, at parting with him, upon setting out for Troy, says : " Seek, my son, in fight To conquer, but still conquer through the gods." To which the impious son replies : " I confide To win such trophies e'en without the gods." ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 425 Even the plons sometimes utter sentiments showing their want of contidence in the gods. " Yet wherefore do I turn me to the gods ? If acts like these are sanctioned by the gods, I will address me to my doom in silence." Another is made thus to speak of the infernal gods : " 'Tis a bootless task To render homage to the powers of hell." There are some passages which, though they savor somewhat of pagan pride and human glory, yet have also something of what scripture calls " a conscience void of offence," or the " mens conscia recti" of Horace. The doctrine of expediency rather than of justice is strongly set forth in the following lines : " Yet know, 0 prince, I deem it nobler far To fail with honor, then succeed by baseness." Again, — " All must be ill When man the bias of his soul forsakes, And does a deed unseemly." Again, — " To live with glory, or with glory die, Befits the noble." Again, — " Conscious of right. The soul may proudly soar." The providence of God, in its retributive justice, is often set forth in the dramas of Sophocles : " If Themis reigns on high, And Jove's blue lightnings rend the sky, E're long shall vengeance crush the guilty pair." Again, — " But when a house is struck by angry fate. Through all its line what ceaseless miseries flow." 426 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. The respect paid to the dead, and the care with which their bodies were interred, or their ashes preserved ; the dread on the part of the dying lest they should be left iinburied, — all point to the general belief of some kind of resurrection. The dramas are full of these things. So also as to sacrifices. The expiatory character of them runs through all the ancient dramas. "Reason about the justice of it as we may," says Professor Tyler, '• men have never been able to get rid of the idea of expiatory and vicarious sacrifice. In one form or other it pervades or underlies all religion, be it pagan, Mohammedan, Jew- ish, or Christian." But he justly concludes that " Holiness and sin are new ideas, almost new words as used in the Bible. The Bible convicts every man of personal sinful- ness in the sight of an holy God. The Jew and the Christian alone Avorship a God of holiness." " Glorious in holiness," is an idea which yon cannot get " from all the poetry and philosophy of the sages." SOME EEMARKS ON THE EUMENIDES OF ^SCHYLUS. The learned C. O. Miiller, of Germany, has written a critical treatise on this drama, from which we quote some passages and draw some remarks which will be a fitting close of this chapter. In further proof of the comparative purity and religious character of the stage in the early times of Greece, as set forth in the beginning of this chapter, it deserves to be mentioned that not only must ^schylus himself train the members of the chorus for acting their part in the drama, but he must apply to the chief archon to appoint them. They are supposed to have been from twelve to fifteen for each play, — respectable men, matrons, and virgins. The place in which this was acted was either the temple of Minerva, or the precincts of it on the Acropolis of Athens. During the service, the very Adytum, or Omphalos, or ^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 427 Holy of Holies is displayed, and Orestes the parricide is seen, covered with blood, in that sacred place. In this, as in other tragedies of JEschylus, the mythic or ancient is mingled with the political or present history of Athens. Shakspeare has copied somewhat after this model in his historical plays. The theatre, in the time of uEschy- lus, was, in a measure, a political arena, on which great questions of state were discussed by the help of the ancient myths. At a late period, Demosthenes, Pericles, and others, by their oratory in the great assemblies of the people, swaj'ed the multitude at pleasure, the Areopagus having become comparatively powerless. The Areopagus was present at the exhibition ol the tragedies of -^schy- lus, and acted as judge, -i^^schylus was the great defender of the declining rights and powers of the Areopagus, and would be regarded as an aristocrat in our times. De- mocracy was gaining ground. Any citizen might become an archon, and any archon an areopagite, which was not so in former days, ^schylus w^as the friend of Aristides, and took part with him against Themistocles, who was the man of the people. He warned the people against the abuse of their power, and against a warlike and am- bitious spirit toward the other states of Greece. The basis of this tragedy was the murder of Clytemnes- tra by her son Orestes. His mother had married Aga- memnon, king of Argos. On leaving for the Trojan war, he committed the care of his wife and family to CEgys- thus, a relative. During the war, Q]gysthus maiTied Cly- temnestra, and they united in murdering Agamemnon on his return. Orestes flies to some other state, but after an exile of seven years returns with his friend Pylades to Myceme, and kills both his mother and (Egysthus. He is, however, tormented by the furies or avenging goddesses, though patronized by Apollo. Being tried, according to the play, before the Areopagus, — the high court of Athens, 428 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. — he is acquitted by the decision of Minerva, Avho either gives the casting vote in his favor, — the judges being equally divided, — or else, one vote being wanted to make them equal, she effects a tie by her vote, and thus determin- ed the principle which is to this day acted upon, that where the judges are equally divided the accused is acquitted. But the use I would make of this tragedy, (according to the plan of my book,) is to show the resemblance between the story, and the doctrine and general usage of the pagan world, in relation to manslaughter and murder, and what we find in the Saci'ed Scriptures. The first murder men- tioned in scripture is that of Abel by Cain. The punish- ment inflicted is banishment from the country where the deed was done, and perpetual wandering over the earth, with the dread of death from all whom he might meet. The next mention made of this crime and its punishment is immediately after the flood, when to the renewed race of men this universal law with its penalty is ordained : "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of God made he man." Who should be the executor of this divine vengeance, whether the civil magistrate, or some relative or relatives of the de- ceased, is not mentioned. The simple decree is uttered, with a most impressive reason for its execution, viz : " For in the image of God made he man," But after the re- newal of the prohibition of murder, from Mount Sinai, in these solemn words, " Thou shalt not kill," or " Thou shalt do no murder," the mode and instrument of the exe- cution of the penalty is minutely detailed. In the midst of wrath, from the insult offered to the divine majest}^ in the destruction of one made in his own image, God remem- bers mercy in behalf of tliose who have shed man's blood accidentally, or without deliberate intent so to do. They must be, indeed, to some extent wanderers, like the first man-slayer ; they must flee from the place where the deed -^SCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 429 was done, and from the presence of the aggrieved relative ; but cities of refuge were prepared for them, whither they might flee until the character of the act was examined, and the grief of tlie bereaved was calmed. But for the wilful murderer there was no mercy. He might be seized, even tliough holding by the horns of God's altar, and put to death. The divine legislator of Israel has here given a law and set an example to men, which, however con- demned by some of the wise of this world, and neglected by legislators and magistrates, we doubt not is the most effectual that can be devised for the preservation of human life. The failure to inflict the penalty of death on wilful murderers has been the occasion of the deaths of tliousands of the best citizens of earth. Such are the tender mercies of man, when he would be more merciful than God. Let us now see how far this law and will of God, whether coming down from our antediluvian or postdiluvian fore- fathers througli different branches of the Noachian family, or borrowed from the Hebrews, God's chosen ])eople, is sustained by the practice and laws of ancient Greece, as set forth in this tragedy of ^schylus, and elsewhere. In the states of Greece as in Judea, though the wilful mur- derer has no provision of mercy made for him, yet the man-slayer has. He may fly the countiy, and wander about from place to place, seeking to be allowed some expiatory rites by some friendly king whereby he may be restored to his country. Sometimes, as in the case of Her- cules, he may appease the Erinnys or ghost of the deceased, by selling himself into servitude ; sometimes by the sacri- fice of animals. " Blood for blood was the law," unless the slain, on his death-bed, pronounced forgiveness. The nearest relatives of the slain were the avengers. xVt the burial a spear was stuck up in the grave, to be plucked up and borne away by the rightful avenger. Sometimes the proper avenger would petition the government to un- 430 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. dertake the work of vengeance, and thus be relieved. Un- til or unless some one of these things was done, the man- slayer was prohibited entrance into any of the temples of religion, or participation in any sacrifices, or to come into the town-hall, but was an object of commiseration. So dear was the life of man to the gods, according to the pagan system ; though it was not because he was made after the image of God, as the scriptures declare, but because, ac- cording to their philosophy, he was a part of God, — a part of one universal life, of which the great cause was the head ; and to murder a man was to assault the Deit3^ This was their perversion of the true history of man's creation. There was something peculiar in the case of Orestes, M'hich caused the judges to hesitate and divide. Though he was the rightful avenger of his father's death, yet a parricide could not be forgiven, and he had murdered his mother and her wicked accomplice. On this account he was tortured by the Erinnyses, or Furies, and fled from his kingdom and became a wanderer, like Cain and the man-slaying fugi- tives of Israel. I And who were these Erinnyses, or Furies, or, as after- wards called, Euraenides? The name comes, we are told, from a word which signifies " The deep offence and bitter displeasure" of those who have a right to be angry, as of parents slain by their children. The ghosts of murdered parents were considered the most terrific and tormenting of all the Furies. At length some of these became regular deities, with the name of Eumenides. These deities were introduced upon the stage in the tragedies, and were most fearful objects. Although even the unintentional man-slayer, — of whose weapon it might be said, according to Cicero, " Majis fugit quam jacit" — rather flew from the hand, than was thrown, — was still obliged to fly, yet we find a diflPerence made between the guilt of those who committed murder JESCHYLUS AND SOPHOCLES. 431 under some sudden impulse, and those who did it " of malice aforethought." The former was ascribed to Ate, the goddess of hate, Avho confounded the mind and de- stroyed reason for a time ; hence the goddess Ate " has in her train the litte, or humble prayers of penitence, which must make good before gods and men whatever has been done amiss." I conclude, in a few words, with the opinion of Miiller, as to Jupiter Soter : "The conception and worship of him were widely diifused through Greece." " Among the con- vivial customs of the Greeks, nothing is more familiar than their three solemn draughts after meals. The first is con- secrated to Olympian Jove ; the second to the earth and heroes; the third to Jupiter Soter." He is called "the lord of both worlds," and " the good deity," reconciling differences. Mr. M. considers him as " interposing in the character of a consummating Saviour God." Such is the opinion of many other learned men, who consider that the idea of a Jupiter Soter grew out of the ancient tradition and expectation of some divine Deliverer or Peace-maker. CHAPTER XXXI. ON OVId's METAMOEPHOSES, and liber TKISTItrM. — PART FIEST. There was something so peculiar and touching in the character and fate of Ovid, that more than usual mention of him will be excused. HcyWas born 911 years after the building of Rome, and lived until between forty and fifty years before the birth of Clirist, He was an Epicurean in principle, and being among the few poets who possessed the means of voluptuous living, made good use of it in the court of Augustus Ciesar, with whom he was a great favorite for many years. Coming under the displeasure of the emperor for some cause about which there is a diversity of opinion among his annotators, lie was ban- ished to Pontus, in Scythia, then a most barbarous coun- try. Of it he says, "Nobis habitabitur orbis ultimus. A terra, terra remota mea." Of its inhabitants he gives this fearful picture : " Yox fera, trux vultus, verissima martis imago." So wretched was his life while there, that he says, "Mors mihi munus erit"— " Death will be a favor to me." While in this place of exile he wrote his " Tristium," consisting of letters to his old friends at Rome. In these we have the only intimations from himself of the cause of his banishment. Some have alleged that an ac- cidental discovery of some secret or secrets in the family of Augustus, most discreditable to it, was the real cause of his disgrace and exile. It is to be hoped that such was not the case. If it were so, a more effectual method could ON ovid's metamorphoses. 433 not have been adopted for spreading abroad the shame of Augustus, and of transmitting it to posterity, than so heavy a judgment on so favorite a poet. We would rather hope that public opinion and the private judgment of the emperor condemned those works of Ovid which were calculated to promote the licentiousness of Rome, and which were chiefly embodied in his work entitled, " De Arte Amandi," or " The Art of Love," and to which the displeasure of Augustus was ascribed. Although there are hints in his writings that there may have been some other cause, either in whole or in part, yet to this, whether I'rom fear of some worse punishment, or from regard to truth, he seems to ascribe all his woes, though he thinks his judgment a heavy one. If he was really banished as the corrupter of the age, then it shows a strange inconsistency between the improving sense of morality at that day under the teaching of Cicero, Epic- tetus, and others, and the continued religious worship of Rome, in which, Ovid declares, worse things were to be seen than in his book. The very inscription on his tomb, however, seems to settle the question: " Qui jacet hie, teneri doctor amoris erat." The same is also shown in the following lines of Angelus Politianus, in his " Elegia de exilio et morte Ovidii : " " Et jacet Euxinis vates Romanus in oris, Romanum vatem barbara terra tegit Terra tegit vatem teneros qui lusit amores, Barbara quam gelidis alluit Ister aquis. NuUus erat. Procul ah conjux, parvi que nepotes, Nee fuerat profugum nata secuta patrem. Extinct um et montes flebebant et sylvae feroeque, Et iBesse in mediis dicitur Ister aquis." But his own words establish the fact, that his book was the alleged cause of his banishment. On sending his letters from Pontus, to be published at Rome, he says, 28 434 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " Vade sed incultus, qualem decet exulis esse, Inspice, die, titulum. Non sum preceptor amoris Quas meruit pcenas, jam dedit illud opus." But tliongli here he seems to acknowledge that he de- served punishment for it, yet he repeatedly professes in- nocence of intention : " Si me meus abstulit error Stultaque mens nobis, non scelerata fuit." And again, — " Conscius in culpa non scelus esse sua." He declares, also, that he did not practise the things con- demned in his book : " Crede mihi, mores distant a carmine, Vita verecunda est; musajocosa mihi." Moreover, he declares that he only set forth in his verses the things which were exhibited in the public places and in the temples at Rome : " Ludi quoque semina proebent Nequitiae. Tolli tota theatra jube ToUatur circus. Non tuta licentia circi. Quis locus est templis augustior ? hoec quoque vitet." He then proceeds to enumerate some of the licentious scenes exhibited in the very temples, being painted or en- graved on the walls, and over the gates or doors. It was doubtless somewhat in the ancient as in the present world, that some things were tolerated in public which would not be endured in private. Some things were heard and seen at theatres and circuses which must not be heard or looked on elsewhere. At such a time and in such a place, it may be difficult to decide on the amount of guilt belonging to the author ON ovid's metamorphoses. 435 of a book that could adduce sucli a sanction ; but that it "svas and is a most injurious book, no pure mind can now question. Still, his sufferings in the savage wilds of Scythia have ever touched the heart of humanity, and no one can read the account which he gives of the sudden announcement of the severe decree, and his immediate ban- ishment, without deep emotion. And should the youthful reader find a tear stealing down his cheek at the recital of the farewell scene, he need not be ashamed of it. The decree was communicated on the very night on which he was commanded to depart : " Cum subit illius tritissima noctis imago, Quae mihi suprenum tempus in urbe fuit, Cum repeto noctem qu£e tot mihi cara reliqui Labitur ex oculis, nunc quoque gutta meis Non alitur stupui quan qui, jovis ignibus ictus, Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae. Si licet exemplis, in parvo, grandibus uti, Haec facics Trojae, cum caperetur erat." The following is the inimitable description of the part- ing scene : " Ter limen tetigi ; ter sum revocatus, et ipse, Indulgens animo, pes mihi tardus erat. Saepe vale dicto ; nusus sum multa locutus Et quasi discedens, oscula summa dedi, Saepe eadem mandata dedi ; meque ipse fefelli, Respiciens oculis pignova cara meis Denique, quid propero ? Scj'-thia est quo mittimus inquam. Roma relinquenda est ; utraque justa mora est ; Uxor, in eternum, viro mihi viva negatur ; Et domus, et fidge dulcia membra domus." Turn vero conjux, humeris abeuntis inherens Miscuit hoec lacrymis tristia dicta suis. Non potes avelli ; simul, ah simul ibimus, inquit Te sequar, et conjux exulis exul ero. Te jubet patria discedere Caesaris ira 436 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Me pietas ; pietas hec mihi Caesar erit Talia tentabat sic et tentaverat ante." It deserves to be mentioned, in proof of the extent to whicli the flattery of great men was then carried, and which, in earlier times, laid the foundation of idolatry, that Ovid, hoping to propitiate the favor of Tiberius, the successor of Augustus Csesar, actually built a temple to him, and offered daily sacrifices to him in the wilds of Pontus. On his way to Pontus, when a great storm arose, he begs the gods to spare the vessel and not to unite in Caesar's wrath, saying, " Ssepe, premente Deo, fert Deus alter opem" — thus making Augustus one of the gods even while alive. It may now be asked of us, before entering on the con- sideration of Ovid's " Metamorphoses," if there be not much in them not only of the marvellous and unintelli- gible, but of the shocking and indelicate, calculated to disgust and pollute the mind, so as to make it an im- proper book for the young, at any rate without many omissions and expurgations. We answer, it is even so, and therefore some of the fables are omitted ; and yet these are not of the nature of his "Art of Love," but are the allegories of the ancient pagans by which they set forth the traditions concerning the creation, tbe traditions of their gods, and the early history of man. So corrupted had every thing concerning religion become in the hands of men, that it was impossible to describe the game without shocking purity and modesty. Thus must the Sacred Scriptures often shock us in order to do their work faithfully instead of deceitfully, in suppressing the truth. Ovid's " Metamorphoses" is a compendious his- tory, in verse, of all the ancient traditions in relation to God, and the gods of the pagan world, and the ancient history of man. They are not fables and allegories of his ON ovid's metamorphoses. 437 own invention, but those which he has collected from dif- ferent sources, putting them into some order, and clothing them with verse. On this account it has ever been the favorite book with the fathers, and with all who wished to find out the earliest traditions of the heathen world. Tliese were the very fables of the ancient world of which Plato and other philosophers often spoke as containing so much of primitive truth ; but many of which they could not understand. Nor can we at this day interpret them, although Ovid, coming nearly four hundred years after Plato, and having better advantages, has taken great pains to find out and explain their meaning. Plato, in his imaginary " Republic," has said, " That mothers and nurses should season the tender minds of their children with these instructive fables, where the wisdom of the ancients was involved." Lactantius calls him " an ingen- ious poet, and the ' Metamorphoses ' an excellent poem ; " St. Hierome styles him " a renowned poet ; " St. Augus- tine, "The excellent poet." Erasmus ascribes to him the perfection of eloquence. Marcus Antoninus Tritoneus says, " ]^^ever was there any one who so diligently col- lected, or so elegantly, learnedly, and orderly expressed the fables but Ovid, who composed out of Orpheus, He- siod, Homer, and others of the ancient poets, so excellent and noble a work." Bernardus Martinus says, " Ovid, out of the innumer- able volumes of the Grecian poets, first gathered their multiplicity of fables, and with great care composed out of them his divine poeni.''^ Jacobus Micyllus says, " What should I speak of its learning ? herein so great, so various, so abstruse, that many places have neither been explained nor understood ; no, not by the most learned, requiring rather a revelation from the Delian Oracle. " In the face of these testimonies to the unfathomable 438 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. depths of Ovid's learning, it may well be asked how I should dare to venture an attempt at understanding him, and making use of him for the object of this book. To this I answer, " that, like the scriptures, some parts of Ovid are deep enough to drown an elephant, while others are so shallow that a lamb may walk over." In other words, some parts of Ovid so plainly accord with scripture, that none can misunderstand them, although there be others that will baffle the ingenuity of the most learned. I will, how- ever, relieve myself from all charge of presumption by informing the reader of two works which I have before me, and from which I shall derive what may be presented on the resemblance between Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Sacred Scriptures. The first of these is a translation of the work by Mr. George Sandys, executed in the wilds of Virginia, at Jamestown, a few years after the settle- ment there. Mr. Sandys was the son of that noble re- former, and bold defender of civil and religious freedom, — Edwin Sandys, Bishop of "Worcester, then of London, and afterwards Archbishop of York. His second son. Sir Edwin, was secretary of the Virginia Company in Lon- don. George Sandys was the treasurer of the colony in Virginia, was educated by the celebrated Hooker, and after travelling through Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, joined the colony at Jamestown in the year 1611. There he devoted his leisure hours to a translation of Ovid, and to the preparation of a mass of learned my- thological notes, equally creditable to his head and heart. It was first published in England in 1627, and dedicated to Prince Charles, afterwards Charles the First. In his dedication, he speaks of its " being limned by that imperfect light which was snatched from the hours of night and repose. " He speaks of it as "a double stranger, springing from the stock of the ancient Romans, but bred in the New World, of the rudeness of which it cannot but ON ovid's mp:tamorphoses. 439 participate, especially having wars and tumults to bring it to light, " instead of the Muses. Alluding to the notes, he says, " To this I have added ' Mind to the Body ' — The history and philosophical sense of the Fables. " In his poetical preface, he says, " Pha'bus, Apollo, sacred poesy Thus taught : for iu these ancient fables lie The mysteries of all philosophie." He speaks of the fables as not being Ovid's ; for he says, " Most of them were more antient than any extant author, or perhaps than letters themselves, before which, as they expressed their conceptions in hieroglyphics, so did they their philosophy and divinity under fables and parables ; a way not untrod by the sacred penmen. " In writing these notes he appears to have consulted a large number of ancient authors from among the fathers, and the Greek and Roman writers, especially Plato. On his return to England he wrote other translations, particularly one of the Psalms, which was highly esteem- ed. Both Dryden and Pope spoke highly of his poetical talents. In him and in his brother Edwin we have addi- tional proofs of the zealous piety which was called into action in the first settlement of Yirginia. In my quotations from Ovid I shall use the translation of George Sandys in connection with the Latin text, and shall also make free use of his notes. The other book to which I referred is the edition of Ovid, with notes critical and mythological, by JST. 0. Brook, A.. M., Professor of the Greek and Latin lan- guages, and late Principal of the Baltimore High School. If all the teachers of youth and editors of the Classics had but followed the example of Professor Brook, then classical education, instead of ministering to scepticism and immo- rality, would have been a useful handmaid to Christian- 440 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ity. I projDOse to make free use of this book also. I now proceed to examine some parts of the Metamorphoses. OVID S ACCOUNT OF CREATION. " Ante mare et tellus et quod tegit omnia coelum, Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, Quem dixere chaos, rudis indigestaque moles ; Nee quicquam, nisi pondus, iners conjestaque eodem, Non bene junctarmii discordiaseminarerum." " The sea, the earth, all-covering heaven unframed, One face had nature, which they Chaos named ; An indigested lump, a barren load, "Where jarring seeds of things ill-joined abode." Ovid then describes the manner in which earth and heaven brought order out of chaos or confusion, and sepa- rated earth and heaven : " Hunc Deus et melior litem natura diremit." " But God, the better nature, this decides, Who earth from heaven, the sea from earth divides." But soon after, with the inconsistency and uncertainty of the poets, he says : " Sic ubi dispositam, quisquis fait ille deorum, Conjeriem secuit, sectamque in membra redigit." " What god soever the division vrrought. And every part to due proportion brought." Mr. Sandys, in his preface, has beautifully described the arrangement and harmony of all things by the Deity, under the name of Love, by which title some of the an- cient fables called the first of the gods : " Fire, earth, air, water, —all the opposites That strove in chaos, powerful Love unites, And from their discord drew this hai'mony Which smiles in nature." ON ovid's metamorphoses. 441 Mr. Sandys says that Ovid is not at all afraid to call God the creator of the world. He confesses God, nor dis- guiseth his name, whom he also calls " The better na- ture ; " so that by God and " the better nature," he un- derstands Ovid to mean the same thing ; and not God and plastic nature, as some suppose. God was the better na- ture by comparison with chaos or matter, or, as some of the philosophers said, " Mind," or " Reason," which was the name for God. Deus in Latin is the same with Theos in Greek ; and that comes from Theo, to dispose or arrange. This accords, not only with the account given by Moses of God's ordering or arranging everything out of chaos by Avord or command, but with the general idea of the ancients that God was the great architect of the world, — only that they do not ascribe to him the original creation of the materials out of which the world was made. Mr. Brook quotes Sophocles as recognizing a God who not only disposed all things, but created them : " There is really but one God, — The maker of heaven and earth And sea and winds." A passage from Orpheus is still stronger : " He is one self-begotten ; by him alone are all things which have been made." Mr. Brook very justly remarks, that " Quis- quis, fuit ille Deorum," who disposes all things, seems to have been an unknown God to Ovid, though he, doubt- less, with the heathen generally, assigned every thing to one supreme God. We now pass on to Ovid's account of the formation of man, only remarking that his account of the formation or ordering of all other things is so much after the man- ner of Moses, that it is not wonderful that some suppose him to be indebted to the books of Moses, or the writings of the Jewish rabbis, for some of his statements. 4:42 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. According to Moses, when God had completed every thing in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, he made man to rule over all other animals. The same order is observed by Ovid : " Sanctius his animal, mentisqiie capacius altse Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari coetera posset. Natus homo est ; sive hunc divino semine fecit Ille opifex rerum ; mundi mehoris origo. Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alto Ethere, cognati, retinebat semina coeli, Quam satus Japeto mistam fluvialibus undis Finxitfin effigiem moderantum cuncta Deorum, Pronaque cum spectent ammalia coetara terram Os homini sublime dedit ccelumque tueri Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus Sic, modo qute fuerat rudis, et sine imagine tellus Induit ignotas hominum conversa figuras." " The noble creature with a mind possest "Was wanting yet, that should command the rest ; That maker, the best world's original, Either him framed of seed celestial, Or earth, which late he did from heaven divide, Some sacred seeds retained, to heaven allied. Which with the living stream Prometheus mixt, And in that artificial structure fixt The form of all the all-ruling deities ; And whereas others see with down-cast eyes, He with a lofty look did man endue, And bade him heaven's transcendent glories view : So that rude clay, which had no form before. Thus changed, of man the unknown figure bore." Of this passage Sandys says, " The last in act, but the first in intention, was the creation of man. Sprung of celestial seed, in regard to the essence of his soul ; made of the earth, to teach him humility, yet after the image of God, not only with regard to his original integrity, but, as some think, in the symmetry and beauty of his body, as that shall be glorified and clad with a sun-like brightness." ON" ovid's metamorphoses. 443 As to Prometheus, the son of Japheth, or Japheth him- self bringing fire from heaven to animate the clay into man, he quotes Augustine, "who reports him to he a man of great wisdom, who informed the rude minds with knowledge, and raised them to celestial speculations and astronomical discoveries." Some said that he lived in the days of Jupiter, when temples and idols began to erected, and that he was the first who ever made statues. Mr. Brook illustrates and confirms the account of man's formation, by many ancient authorities. " Sanctius ani- mal," he says, must mean a more divine animal ; " Di- vino semine," or " cognati coeli," as though the earth, just separated from the heavens, had in it a divine seed, from which men might spring up like unto the gods. Cicero asks, " Are we to suppose that the divine seed fell from heaven upon this earth, and that man sprang up in the likeness of his celestial sires ? " He elsewhere says that man was a wonderful animal — " Generatum a supre- mo Deo, preclara quadem conditione." lie also speaks of man as being related to heaven, " as being his former habitation," from which he came. Moses' account of man is, " that God formed his body of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; " that thus God made man in his own image. In the ISTew Testament we are told that "the image or likeness consists in knowledge or holiness." Pythagoras says, " Man, the lord of creation, partakes of the nature of the gods." Cicero says, " Human virtue approaches nearer the di- vinity than the human form." The human race, says Orpheus, according to Cedrenus, was formed by an im- mediate act of the Deity, and received from him a rea- sonable soul ! Yirgil calls the soul " an ethereal sense ;" Horace, " a particle of breath divine." The latter says " that God made man capable of things divine : " " To beasts the breath of life, to us a Hving soul." 444 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " The supreme Grod," says Jamlicus, " is a monad, or one prior to the first god and king ; immovable in the solitude of his unity ; the fountain of all things, and the root of all primary intelligible forms ; the indivisible one, the first of efiigies." The pagan mythologists and philosophers are full of the doctrine of the great God as forming all things after the pattern of himself, — man above all. " Though but an atom in immensity, I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth : The chain of being is complete in me." It is somewhat remarkable that Ovid says nothing of the formation of woman. Mr. Brook is struck with this, and not only refers to what Plato says as to the two-fold nature of the first man, but quotes one of the hymns of Orpheus addressed to Protogonus, the first-born, — who was certainly Adam, — and in which he calls him two- fold : " Oh mighty, first-begotten, hear my prayer, Two-fold!"* In regard to Ovid's description of man's form, — " Os homini sublime dedit," — it is worthy of remark, that the Greek word for man, anthropos, signifies "to direct the countenance upwards." Cicero says, " when he made all the animals to feed on the ground, he made man upright, to excite him to view the heavens." Ovid says, " Quod loquor et spiro, coelumque et lumina solis Aspicio, (possumque ingratus et immenor esse) Ipse dedit." Concerning Ovid and others, Mr. Sandys remarks, "That the ancient poets among the heathen preserved that truth of the immortality of the soul ; and therefore Epicurus, who maintained the contrary, dehorted his scholars from reading them." * Taylor's Orpheus. CHAPTER XXXIl. ON OVId's metamorphoses. PART SECOND. If it be true that tliese books contain the sum and sub- stance of all the ancient fables of all countries, and that these fables contain the sum and substance of all ancient religion and philosophy, then I need offer no apology for a second chapter on the same. We now enter on Ovid's account of the four ages of the world. They are succes- sive periods of the world, represented under the fables or allegories of the four metals, — gold, silver, brass, and iron, • — each detei'ioratiiig from the preceding in value and ex- cellence. In like manner, the prophet Daniel represents the four great monarchies of the ancient world hy a huge image, whose head was of fine gold, arms and breasts of silver, his belly and thighs of brass, and whose legs and feet were part of iron and part of clay. Ilesiod adds to the four ages a fifth, which may perhaps answer to the " part of clay " in the prophet Daniel. The golden age is thus described by Ovid : " Aurea prima sata est oetas, qua vindice nuUo, Sponte sua, sine lege, fidem rcctumque colebat, Paena metusque aberant : nee verbara minacia fixo ^e Icgcbantur, nee supplex turba tinebant, Judicis ora sui ; sed erant sine judice tuti, Non galen, non ensis erant ; sine militis usu MoUia securse peragebant Otia gentes. Ver erat eternum placidique tepentibus auris, Mulcebant zephiri natos, sive semine flores. 446 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant, Flavaque de viridi stillabant illice mella." " The golden age was first, which, uncompelled, And without rule, in faith and truth excelled : As then there was nor punishment nor fear, Nor threat'ning laws in brass prescribed were ; Nor suppliant, crouching prisoners shook to see Their angry judge, but all was safe and free ; Nor swords nor arms were yet ; no trenches round Besieged towns, — norstrifeful trumpet's sound: The soldiers of no use. In firm content And harmless ease their happy days were spent. 'Twas always Spring. Warm zephyrs sweetly blew On smiling flowers, which without setting grew ; With milk and nectar were the rivers filled, And honey from green holly oaks distilled." Hesiod, from whom doubtless Ovid borrowed, says of the first inhabitants of the earth, — " Like gods they lived, Secure in mind, nor sweat with toil. Nor grieved. Death was as soft as sleep." Mr. Sandys, with other commentators, considers that the Sabbatical year among the Jews was instituted to rep- resent this period of innocence in the golden age, when they neither sowed their fields nor had a propriety in the fruits of the earth, which they voluntarily offered. " Sat- urn," he says, " under whose reign this state of things existed, is feigned to be the son of Ccelus, or heaven, and of Cybele, or earth ; so Adam had God for his father, and the earth of which he was made for his mother. Saturn was the first who invented or used tillage, and the first who ever reigned as king ; so was this the case with Adam. Saturn was thrown out of heaven, Adam out of paradise. Saturn is said to devour his children; Adam overthrew his ON ovid's metamorphoses. 447 whole posterity. Saturn liid himself from Jove, and Adam from the presence of Jehovah." Mr. Brook and others consider the saturnalia at Rome, — when all labor was sus- pended, and servants were exempted from their usual duties, — to have been instituted in honor of this first age of felicity in the time of Saturn or Adam. "The ancients who were nearest the gods," says Dicearchus, " were of an excellent disposition, and led so good lives that they were called a ' golden race.' " " The first men," says Tacitus, " before appetite and passion swayed them, lived without bribes and without iniquity, and needed not to be re- strained from the fear of evil through punishment." As to the perpetual spring, some of the learned have main- tained that at first, and before the curse or the deluge, the axis of the earth was perpendicular to tlie equator, and that the centre of gravity was in the centre of the earth, and thus the seasons were uniform. But this is now gen- erally discarded. The second is the silver age, under Jupiter. Saturn was dethroned, and his son Jupiter assumes the government of the world. " Postquam Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso, Sub Jove mundus erat ; subit argentea proles, Auro dcterior, fulro preciosior a3re. Jupiter antiqua contraxit tempora veris. Turn primum subiere domos. Domus antra fuerunt, Et densi frutices ct vinctae cortice virga3." " But after Saturn was thrown down to hell, Jove ruled ; and then the silver age befell, — More base than gold, and yet than brass more pure. Jove changed the Spring (which always did endure) To Winter, Summer, Autumn ; hot and cold. Men houses built, late housed in caves profound. In plashed* bowers, and sheds with osiers bound." * Bowers made of limbs of trees interwoven. 4:48 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. As to this Jupiter, different opinions prevail. Sandys, with others, thinks that Cain was this Jupiter ; that idol- atry first began in his family ; that in his time the people first fell from the worship of God, and, through fear or flattery, worshipped him as their king. Mr. Brook and others think that Jupiter dethroning his father Saturn and succeeding to the empire of the world, is a perversion of the doctrine of the Mediator. Tradition said that Saturn or Chronos, who were the same, and sometimes called " Old Time," being offended with the sins of men, had withdrawn from the superintendence of the earth and re- tired to the remotest star, hence called Saturn, — then sup- posed to be the most distant, — -and that Jupiter had suc- ceeded to the government of the world. Certain it is that Jupiter, in tlie heathen mythology, was often represented as a mediator. " He was originally," says Mr. Brook, "an embodiment of the idea of the true God, and was worshipped as the Father of gods and men, and the creator of the uni- verse." In this place he seems to occupy the place of a mediator. In the Gothic mythology he is called Thor, " the thunderer," and is called the first-born of the supreme God. The Edda calls him a middle divinity, or mediator between God and man. He is said to have wrestled with Death, and to have bruised the head of the serpent, and in his final engagement with him to have slain him. The brazen and iron ages come together, so i-apid is the transition from one to the other, — from a warlike spirit to every vice. " Tertia, post illas, successit, Ahenea proles, Seevior ingeniis, et ad horrida promtior arma, Nee seclerata tamen. De duro est ultima ferro, Protinus erupit venae pejoris in oevum Omne neflis : fugere pudor verumque fidesque. Vivitur ex rapto. Non hospes a hospite tutus, Non socer a genero. Fratrum quoque gratia rara est. Victajacet pietas." ON ovid's metamorphoses. 449 '• Next unto this succeeds the brazen age, Worse nurtured ; prompt to horrid war and rage, But yet not wicked. Stubborn iron, the last : Then blushless crimes, which all degrees surpast. All live by spoil : the host his guest betrays, — Sons, fathers-in-law, — 'twixt brethren love decays : Foiled piety, trod under foot, expires." Mr. Brook well remarks on Ovid's account of the in- creasing degeneracy of the brazen and iron ages, that ac- cording to the Bible, the rise of the different arts and the corruption of morals took place at the same tiine. Tubal Cain, tlie instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, was the son of that Lamech, who, by introducing polyga- my, poisoned the stream of life at its fountain head, and laid tlie foundation of that degeneracy which was consum- mated when the sons of God, the descendants of pious Seth, intermarried with the daughters of men, or progeny of Cain, who like him went out from the presence of God, and were equally godless and wicked. The floni'ishing state of the arts not only ministered to the necessities of men, but gave rise to wealth, luxury, and pride ; while polyg- amy gave loose rein to lust, and thus avarice, ambition, and lust held joint empire over the world. In conformity with the scriptural account is the tradition in the Gothic mythology, where it is expressly stated " that women cor- rupted the pui'ity of the early ages of perfection," A passing remark is due to one passage in the above quota- tion. The brazen age is said to be "Saevior injeniis, et ad horrida promptior bella," that is, more cruel in its tem- pers, and more prompt to horrid wars ; and still it is added, "nee seclerata tamen." How different this from the spirit of the gospel ! How does the next line exhibit the fruits of a warlike spirit, — " Protinus errupit venae pejoris in oevum Omne nefas ! " 20 450 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. THE FABLE OF THE GIANTS. Before quoting from the brief account of the war of the giants with heaven, we must beg the reader ever to bear in mind that these are fables, and do not profess to be nar- ratives of real events, though they are drawn from some things which liave occurred. Thej are not mere creations of the human mind out of nothing, but have some founda- tion upon which to rest, just as all parables and allegories and figures of speech refer to something which they at- tempt to represent. All of Ovid's fables, however fanci- ful and far-fetched, have reference to some historical fact supposed to have occurred: they are something like rid- dles, hard to be interpreted, and various have been tiie explanations given to them. The comiection between this and those going before, plainly proves that its design is to show that men in the iron age were not only guilty of all manner of crimes against their fellow-men, but proceeded to the most dar- ing impiety towards heaven ; were giants in sin, so that their sins might well be represented as " making war against heaven," — as piling mountain on mountain in order to besiege and assault God, and drive him from his throne in some miraculous manner. This is, no doubt, one of those successive destructions and reproductions of the human race of which the hea- then mythologies, especially the Oriental, were so full. It may be that this fable had reference to the rebel angels which were cast out of heaven, and of whom Mil- ton has given us so terrific an account in his " Paradise Lost." It may have been confounded with the account of the battles of the Titans and the gods, of which Ilesiod wrote in his great poem, and which some think relates to the rebellion at Babel. The attendant circumstances, the piling of mountain on mountain, Ossa on Pelion, the cast- ON ovid's metamorphoses. 451 ing them down by Jupiter, and the burying of tlic human race beneath, and the renovation of it from blood, of course are all fables ; and yet there may have been facts from which they were drawn. In the history of man there have been giants in stature as ^vell as in sin. In the his- tory of the revolutions of the earth, there have been vol- canoes which may have thrown up mountain upon moun- tain, and have then torn them asunder again. Islands, with their mountains, have arisen out of the sea, and others have sunk into the deep. The lightning of heaven has wrought wonders on the earth ; earthquakes have swallowed up whole cities. These have been the facts from which the poets have drawn their figures and mate- rials with which to describe the moral history of man. Our Lord himself said, " If ye have faith, ye may remove mountains." This we know was entirely figurative. Mr. Sandys says, "The earth, according to the fable, was so enraged with Jupiter for the slaughter of the Titans, that in revenge she produced giants of a vast proportion; yet rather so called from their monstrous' minds, for the stature of men is now as heretofore, as ap- pears by the embalmed bodies of the Egyptians and the ancient sepulchres in Judea." He adds: "As the former ages have produced some of prodigious height, so also have the latter." He then mentions some instances re- corded in history, none of wdiicli he says ever exceeded six or seven cubits. "The first giants we read of," he says, " were begotten by the sons of God of the daughters of men ; that is, they were the oifspring of the sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain. The name signifies ' to fall,' meaning their defection from God and his holy religion. They are called in scripture " men of renown," — that is, exceeding in pride and cruelty. Such was the giant Nim- rod, after the flood. He was the leader of the builders of the tower of Babel, whose top was to reach unto 452 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, heaven. Wliat was that," he asks, " but piling up moun- tain on mountain ? " THE DELUGE. After the judgment on Lycaon and his family by Jupi- ter, by reason of his great wickedness, we have an account of the deluge. The gods are assembled to determine whether the human race is again to be destroyed, and how, whether by lire or water. The latter is chosen, as it is to be destroyed by fire at some future day. " Occidit una domus, sed non domus una perire Digna fuit : qua terra patet, fera regnat Erjnnis : In facinus jurasse putes. Deut ocyus omnes Quas meruere pati, sic stat sententia poenas." The very process described by Moses being set forth by Ovid. " Jamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant, Omnia pontus erant, derant quoque littora ponto. Deucalion and Pyrrha alone escape in a vessel on Mount Parnassus. ' ' Jupiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem Et superesse videt de tot modo millibus unum Et superesse videt de tot modo millibus unam Nubila disjecit : Non illo melior quisquam, nee amantior oequi Vir fuit: aut ilia metuentior ulla deorum." The address of Deucalion to Pyrrha : " 0 soror ! O conjux ! 0 sola superstes ! Nos duo turba sumus ; possedit coetera pontus." " One house that fate which all deserve sustains, For through the world the fierce Erinnys reigns ; ON ovid's metamorphoses. 458 You'd think they had conspired to sin ; but all Shall swiftly by deservM vengeance falL" After the waters had fallen : "Now land and sea no different visage bore, For all was sea, nor had the sea a shore." " None was then better, none more just than he. And none more reverenced the gods than she ; Both guiltless, pious both, and all bereft." Affecting is the address of Deucalion to Pyrrha : "Oh ! listen, oh ! my wife, the poor remains Of all thy sex, — which all in one remains ; We two are all, — the sea entombs the rest." Messrs. Sandys and Brook, my guides in these notes, agree with many others, that Ovid transfers his narrative and fable from a partial deluge in Thessaly, in the time of Deucalion when most of Greece was overflowed, to that of Noah, which happened more than seven hundred ^^ears before. This, however, is nothing for a poet. It agrees too accurately with the Mosaic account to be otherwise interpreted. Many of the following fables are evidently located between this partial deluge and that of Noah, As to this, Mr. Sandys well remarks : " There is no nation so barbarous, not even the salvage (savage) Virginians, but have some notion of so great a ruine." Mr. Brook re- marks, that the flood of Ogyges, which was more ancient than that of Deucalion, and which submerged not a part but the whole of Greece, was doubtless Noah's flood, for the word Ogyges means the ancient : it is thus used by Hesiod in his "Theogony." The following comparative view of the Mosaic and Ovidian account of the deluge, by Mr. Harcourt, is wor- thy of a pemsal : 454 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. "We might almost," lie says, "imagine that they, Ovid's traditions, were copied from this record of Moses. Thus Moses says that the earth was filled with violence, and that the wickedness of man Avas great, and every im- agination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continu- ally. Ovid says that violence reigned as far as the earth extended, and that all men seemed to have entered into a compact to be wicked. In Genesis, God says, ' The end of all flesh is come before me, and I will destroy them from the earth.' In Ovid, Jupiter says, ' Let all instantly suffer the punishment they have deserved.' Of Noah, Moses says, that 'he was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and righteous before the Lord.' Of Deuca- lion and his wife, Ovid says, that ' they were the best of mankind ; innocent in their lives, lovers of justice, and fearing the gods.' Moses mentions that it was the pleas- ure of God to bring a flood of waters on the earth to de- stroy all flesh, in consequence of which, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows or floodgates of heaven were opened. Ovid says that it was the pleasure of Jupiter to destroy the whole race of mortals by a flood, and for that purpose the clouds poured down rain from every quarter of the heavens, and the fountains of the great waters were broken up by an earth- quake. Moses declares that all the high hills under the whole heavens were covered ; that the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and covered the mountains ; that they prevailed a hundred and fifty days, and that the fowls were destroyed as well as the cattle and beasts. Ovid represents the unbounded riot of the ocean covering the hills, and tlie strange waves dashing on the mountain- tops, and the birds falling into the water from fatigue, be- cause there was nothing left on which they could alight to rest their wings ; and though he does not specify the exact duration of the flood at its height, yet he supposes ON ovid's metamorphoses. 455 it to have lasted long, because lie makes length of hunger from want of food destroy all those whom the water spared ; namely, those who, availing themselves of rafts or boats, contrived to float above the flood, but being taken unprepared for so long a voyage, necessarily died of famine. Lastly, the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. The plural number is used, because, though Ararat is but a single mountain in the Armenian range, yet it is terminated at either end by a lofty peak. The name by which the natives distinguished it was Baris, the ship or ark, because the remains of that huge fabric were said to be still visible among its crags. In like manner Ovid lauds Deucalion on a mountain which rises above the clouds in two lofty peaks : he calls it Parnas- sus, but his annotator, Raphael, observes that its original name was Larnassus, from Larnax, the ark in which Deu- calion was saved ; others, however, make Olympus the diluvial mountain. Thus Paiisanias says, "At Olympia is the hole through which this flood retired, and honey-cakes were thrown into it as a eucharistic sacrifice, and there Deucalion built the first arkite temple to Olympian Jupi- ter. For the same reason, no doubt, Olympus was con- sidered the abode of the gods, and ' eternal sunshine made to settle on its head.'" DESTKUCTION OF THE WOULD BY FIRE. Having adduced so many authorities on the subject of the deluge in the former part of this book, I will only present some few of the many which might be furnished in proof of the traditions referred to by Ovid in this fable, when he tells us that the councils of the gods, un- der the direction of Jupiter, determined to punish the wickedness of men by water instead of fire, since its final destruction was to be by the latter element. 456 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. An old writer says, " Dies irae dies ilia Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David et Sibylla"— which is much used in the Roman church with the change of a word — " Teste Petro et Sibylla." and which Sir Walter Scott has used in his famous hymn,— " That day of wrath ! that dreadful day, v "When heaven and earth shall pass away." The prophet Zephaniah had used this same language long before any of them, in his first chapter, though not applying it to the final conflagration. The Sib_ylline verses, whatever be their origin, had spread the belief in,«or expectation of, a destruction of the world by fire, at some future period, far and wide through the ancient world. Plato tells us that the Egyptians held it — Cicero, that the Stoics held it. Plutarch speaks of the elements of the world as things to be burnt up with it, and to end with time. These traditions accord with Isaiah, who says that all '• the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens be rolled together as a scroll ;" also with St. Peter, who says that " the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Then will " Seas roar, earth tremble, and volcanic fire The mountains light, as if for Nature's funeral pjTe." But, it may be asked, where is the fable or allegory in the foregoing account of the deluge ? Is not this an his- ON ovid's metamorphoses. 457 torical fact most universally received ? We answer, there is much of fable connected with it. The manner of re- peopling the earth, by Deucalion and Pyrrlia, by casting stones behind them ; and Prometheus peopling it by making a man of clay and getting lire from the sun, — are fables. That these things were not seriously said by the poets, or believed by the people, 1 need not tell tlie reader. There was therefore some hidden meaning in the fables, about which there may be, and have been, various con- jectures. Plato acknowledges that he could not certainly find them out. As a specimen of the explanations given, take the following : " The stones wdiich Deucalion and Pyrrha cast behind them were the stones of the altar which l^oah builded and offered sacrifices upon, when God promised his blessing and so multiplied his seed. Stones are often mentioned in Scripture as being used to build altars and raise memorials to God ; and one of the blessings promised to those who worshipped God is that of children. The words of our Lord also are remark- able, supposed by some to have reference to this. " God is able of tliese stones to raise up children unto Abraham." It is not our intention to examine into the possible or probable meaning and design of any other of these fables, but only to put our readers in the way of understanding them in other than a literal sense. Thus, the story of Phaeton daringly and impiously mounting the chariot of the sun and producing a confla- gration, is literally believed by no one, the thing being too ridiculous ; but there may be conflagrations, such as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, produced by the sins of men, which contributed somewhat to the storj^, while useful moral lessons may be disguised in this extravagant fiction. As to all the monstrous, absurd, and wicked transform- ations, for scandalous purposes, which enter into many of the fables, no one of course for a moment believed either 458 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. that there was truth in thcin, or that the author of the fables designed that any should think there was. ISTot more did ^sop expect that his fables would be literally received ; and yet there were some most important ana ancient facts and truths wrapped up in the most extrava- gant and fanciful of them. We have the example of the poets in the time of Ovid for thus interpreting ancient fables. Horace, for instance, in his poem " De Arte Poetica," tells us that Orpheus was said fabulously to have tamed lions and tigers, because he improved the morals and religion of the people in drawing them away from slaughter and filthy food ; and Amphion was said to liave moved rocks by his lyre and prayers, because he built the walls of Thebes with stones. The authors of the ancient fables wrote on the principle set forth by Horace, in the words " Ex noto fictum carmen sequor." They drew their fictitious poems from well-known and historical or philosophical facts. The later historians and philosophers were ever inter- preting these as best they might. I do not mean that we have need to resort now to these fables for instruction and improvement, as though we had not the scriptures for our guide to truth and help to holiness, but as they have in former times done some good to the cause of di- vine truth, and aided the fatliers in their contests with pagans, so we may still cherish them as the depositories of the ancient traditions of the heathen world, subject to the correction of our unerring tradition which has come down to us from God himself. ON ovid's metamorphoses. 459 CONCLUSION. I cannot take leave of Ovid, wliose poetry I greatly admire, for whose sufferings I have felt sym})athy, and whose mythology I think may be used to .advantage, without calling the attention of my readers to the Pero- ration or close of his Metamorphoses, that they may see the melancholy deficiency of all pagan piety. Although he began, according to some, with the words "Dii caeptis adsprisate meis," yet how vain-glorious and even impious and daring he closes : — " Tamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira nee ignes Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas, Astra ferar ; nomenque erit indelebile nostrum." In this he was only a copyist of Horace, who concludes his work with these words : " Exegi monumentum asre perennius Regali que situ pyramidum altius, Quod non iraber edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis Annorum series et fuga temporum. Non omnis moriar." ITow different from the words of Milton to the Great Spirit : " What in me is dark, Illumine ; what is low, raise and support, That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men." Or those of Dr. Young : " 0 Thou, whose word from solid darkness struck That spark, the Sun, strike wisdom from my soul, — My soul, which flies to thee, her trust, her treasure !" CHAPTER XXXIII. ON VIRGIL, AND THE ^NEID, GEOEGICS, ETC. Virgil flourished in the reign of Augustus Cassar, the great patron of learned men and poets. Like Homer, he was much addicted to travel and the study of astrology. He frequented the schools of the most eminent professors of the Epicurean philosophy, which was then much in vogue ; but being dissatisfied with this system, adopted the tenets of the Academic school, or that of Socrates and Plato. He was denominated "The Plato of poets." Caesar being sick of what has been called the imperial evil^ — that is, the desire of being deified, — Virgil gratifies him to the utmost in man}^ of his writings, applying to him the pro- phetic sibylline verses, which have been supposed, by Bishop Horseley and others, to belong most probably to the Saviour of the world. This appropriation of these ancient verses had previously been assigned by flattering poets to others beside Augustus. Dryden, the translator of Vir- gil, prefers him as a moralist to all other poets. " Tliere is nothing," he says, "in pagan pliilosophy, more true and more just tlum Virgil's Ethics. The esteem for him de- generated into that form of superstition called the " Vigil- ian« Sortes," by which a passage accidently fallen upon in opening his book was said to contain a divine direction or prophecy. With the history and writings of Virgil we have nothing to do, except so far as they may contribute to the object of this book. Though living so near the ON VIRGIL. 461 Christian era, he substantially retains the mythology of Homer and Hesiod, the great classifiers of the gods. Some new deities had been added, and Yirgil does his best to ele- vate Augustus to an equal share on the throne of Jupiter : " Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet." In his fourth pastoral we have those beautiful lines in which he applies to Augustus the sibylline verses, suj^jposed by so many learned men to have been ancient ])ropliecie3 which had come down from early days, and which be- longed to the Saviour of the world. We give Dryden's translation in this and all following quotations, instead of the original : " The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes, Renews its finished course. Saturnian times Roll round again ; and mighty years begun, From their first orb in radiant circles run. The base, degenerate iron offspring ends ; A golden progeny from heaven descends." In his sixth pastoral he makes old Silenus sing of the origin of all things : " lie sang the secret seeds of Nature's pains ; How seas, and earth, and air, in active tlames, Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall, "Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball." He then gives the progress of all things from this chaos, very much after the manner of Moses, and proceeds to the formation of man : " From thence the birth of man the song pursued. And how the world was lost and how renewed. The reign of Saturn, and the golden age, Prometheus' theft, and Jove's avenging rage." 462 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, Here we have the deluge, and the improved manners of the renewed earth under Saturn or Noah, which is the second gohlen age. In his Georgics, where he teaclies the management of fields, orchards, gardens, trees, and cattle, he begins by invoking all the minor deities presiding over these several departments of nature, — " Ye deities, who fields ami plains protect, Who rule the seasons, and the year direct- Come, all ye gods and goddesses that wear The rural honors, and increase the year ! '* Then turning his fulsome verse to Augustus — " And chietly thou, whose undetermined state Is yet the business of the gods' debate ; Whether, in after times, to be declared The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar guard ; Or, o'er the fruits and seasons to preside. And the round circuit of the year to guide." In the following passages addressed to husbandmen, we are reminded of similar ones in the Sacred Scriptures: * " Tlie Sire of gods and men, with hard decrees, Forbids our plenty to be bought with ease ; And wills that mortal man, inured to toil. Should exercise with pains the grudging soil." In the following passage we have a description of God much like those in scripture : " The Father of the gods his glory shrouds. Involved in tempests and a night of clouds." VIKGIL ON PRAYER. In all his directions he never fails to enjoin prayers to ^he gods for a blessing on their fields and labors. ON VIRGIL. 463 VIRGIL ON THE LOM'ER ANIMALS. Speaking of the lower animals, he shows his dissent from some who think they have souls : " Not that I tliink tlieir breasts ■\vitli lioavenly souls Inspired, us mau who destiny controls. ' VIRGIL S DISTINCTION OF THE GODS. "Ye lionie-born deities of mortal birtli, Tliou father Koraulus, and mother Earth I " VIRGIL S ^NKID. Tliis is his masicr work, second on]_y, in the estimation of all ages, to the Iliad of Homer; b}' some, preferred be- before it. It opens with a sad account of the Queen of Heaven : " Arms and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate And liaiighty Juno's unrelenting hate." "Well does the poet ask — ■ " Can heavenly minds such high resentment show, Or exercise their spite in human woe?'' A doubt as to the existence and character of the gods is thus expressed : " If there be gods in heaven, and gods are just.'" The little respect felt for their deities is expressed in the fol- lowing lines, by an unsuccessful competitor in the Games : "Gyas blasphemed the gods, devoutly swore, Cried out for anger, and his hair he tore." 464 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Again, in tlie midst of the great sufferings of the Trojans, the poet says, " The goddess, great in mischief, views their pain." Again, one is made to exclaim, " If gods are gods, and not invoked in vain." Of one of them, — Hecate, — it is said, " A powerful name in hell and upper air." Jupiter, while drawing out the Fates, says of himself, "Equal and unconcerned I look on all." And yet Dido, disappointed in her love, exclaims, "The gods, and Jove himself, behold in vain Triumphant treason— yet no thunder flies ! Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies." Concerning the characters of the gods who presided over the armies of ^'Eneas and Latinus, we are shocked at the only atheist who appears in Virgil's poem. Mezentius thus speaks, when surrounded by foes and about to be slain : " My strong right hand and sword, assist my stroke ! Those only gods Mezentius will invoke : Nor fate I fear, but all the gods defy ; Forbear thy threats — my business is, to die." His only recpiest was a grave — • " Refuse it not, but let my body have The last retreat of human kind, — a grave." I only add on this subject two lines, which relate to two ON VIRGIL. 465 deities or principles on which, in truth, was the chief re- liance of the poor pagans : " But Fate and envious fortune now prepare To plunge the Latins in the last despair." On the subject of Fate, the theulogy and philosophy of Yirgil are exactly that of Homer and others. The chief deity was identified with late. The pious JEneas is called "The awful god elect," " And ripe for heaven. "When Fate ^Eneas calls, Then shalt thou bear him up sublime to me." Fate and the gods are often joined together — "If so the Fates ordain, and Jove commands." Again, — " Yet Where's the doubt to souls secure of Fate ? " Chance is sometimes introduced. Thus Dido, the suicide, is spoken of : " For since she died, not doomed of Heaven's decree Or her own crime, but human casualty. And rage of love, that plunged her in despair." Still Fate has a part, and thus does she sanction suicide : " My fatal course is finished, and I go A glorious name among the ghosts below." Again, Jove himself is said to be unable to manage Fate: " 'Tis Fate directs our course, and Fate wq must obey." 30 466 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. The sibjl is also thus represented : " Then full of Fate returns, and of the god." The piety of JEneas, — pious J^^neas, — is represented as " Observant of the right, and religious of his word." Again, — " Thus fearing guilt for some offence unknown, With prayers and tears the Dryads I atone With all the sisters of the woods And most the God of Arms." He is represented on one occasion as " FuU of religious doubts and awful dread." He was careful to carry with him from Troy his house" hold gods, more mindful of these, some think, than of his wife, Creusa : " My household gods, companions of my woes, With pious care I rescued from my foes." In his last battle this was his prayer : " All rosy sun, and thou Ansonia's soil, For which I have sustained so long a toil, Thou king of heaven, and thou the queen of air, Propitious now, and reconciled by prayer." "The god of war, The living fountain of the running floods. The power of ocean, and the ethereal gods," are all invoked. The pious Latinus, king of Italy, on the same occasion invokes " Heaven, Earth, and Main, And all the powers that aU the three contain : By hell below I swear, and by that upper God "Whose thunder signs the peace and seals it by his nod. ON VIRGIL. 467 JUPITER S TITLES AND AUTHOEITY. He is sometimes called " The Founder of Mankind ;" then " The Son of Saturn ;" then " All-powerful Jove," " Who sways the world below and heaven above, Disposes all with absolute command." Yenus calls him, — " O power immense !" " Eternal en- ergy ! " VIRGIL ON" ORIGINAL SIN, OR ENTAILED CORRUPTION, AS SEEN EST THE WICKED DESCEND^VNTS OF BASE LAOaiEDON. " Can gratitude in Trojan souls have place ? Laomedon still lives in all his race." WOMAN. " Woman's a various and a changeful thing." This is borrowed from Ilesiod. GOOD ANGELS. " 'Twas dead of night, when, to his slumbering eyes. His father's shade descended from the skies — And thus he spake : ' The king of heaven employs Mj'' careful ghost on his commands.' " THE SERPENT. The serpent, guarding the tomb of Anchises, comes out when ^neas celebrates his death with games : " Scarce had he finished, when with speckled pride A serpent from the tomb began to glide : His hugy bulk on seven high volumes rolled ; Blue was his breadth of back, but streaked with scaly gold. 468 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Thus riding on his curls, he seemed to pass A rolhng wave of fire, and singed the grass. More various colors through his body run, Than Iris' bow when it imbibes the sun." DIVISION OF THE WORLD. Virgil makes the same division of the world among the three great deities, — Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, — that Homer does. When ^olus raised a storm against the fleet of ^neas, imperial Neptune thus rebukes the winds : " Hence to your lord my -royal mandate bear : The realms of ocean and the fields of air Are mine, not his. By fatal lot to me The liquid empire fell, and trident of the sea. His power to hollow caverns is confined : There let him reign, the jailer of the wind, With hoarse commands his breathing subjects call, And boast and bluster in his empty hall." VIRGIL ON INSPIKATION, Inspiration was believed in by some of the heathen. " Jove will inspire him, when, and what to say." MULTIPLICITY OF NAMES FOR THE SAME GOD. The sibyl in the Cumsean cave " Thrice invokes the powers below the ground : Night Erebus and Chaos she proclaims, And threefold Hecate with her hundred names. And three Dianas." The whole character of the pagan religion and morality, ON VIRGIL. 469 both of Gods and worshippers, has been well set fortli by Milton in two words : '■'■Lust hard by hate.'''' Lust, revenge, and cruelty make up the parts and wor- ship of paganism. Amid the ravings of Dido at the flight of ^Eneas, she exclaims : " And unrevenged, 'tis doubly to be dead." When about to cast herself on the funeral pile, she thus imprecates curses upon him : " Thou Sun, who viewest the world below ! Thou Juno, guardian of the nuptial vow! Thou Hecate, hearken from thy dark abodes ! Ye furies, fiends, and violated gods ! All powers invoked with Dido's dying breath, Attend her ciu"ses and revenge her death ! " In nothing does the Christian religion more strikingly and favorably compare with all the systems of paganism, than in regard to revenge or hate. In the one these feel- ings are condemned as being not of God ; in the others they are cherished as noble traits of humanity. The strifes of the gods are tlie same in Virgil as in Homer. " Tanta^ne animis celestibus Irae," may well be said of them. " E'en Jove is thwarted by his haughty wife — Still vanquished, yet she still renews the strife." " For neither Fate, Nor time, nor pity, could remove her hate," is said of the enmity which she bore the Trojan race. 470 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. THE sibyl's cave AND THE ABODES OF THE DEAD. ^neas determines to visit Lis father Anchises in Hades or hell, in order to learn something of his own future fate. He therefore seeks the Oracle and temple of Apollo, that he might get the aid of the Sibylline priestess. " Deep in a cave, the Sibyl makes abode." After some awful scenes, the raving Sibyl appears — " When all the god comes rushing on her soul." She points to the road, but learns that " The gates of hell lie open night and day, Smooth the descent, and easy is the way ; But to return and view the cheerful sky, — In this the task and mighty labor lie." Having ushered him into the entrance, she begins to tell " The mystic wonders of the silent state." Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell are to be seen revengeful cares, sullen sorrows, pale disease, repining, age, want, fear, famine, toils, death, sleep, frauds, force, strife. Tiiere were forms without bodies — empty phantoms. They are hastening down to the shore to be ferried over. Some are assured by Charon that " The ghosts rejected, are the unhappy crew Deprived of sepulchres and funerals due. A hundred years they wander on the shore — At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er." Some by stratagem and daring and bribery get over the river Styx, contrary to law ; for Charon says, " My boat conveys no living bodies o'er." o:n" VIRGIL. 471 The first objects that present themselves are little chil- dren : " Before the gate the cries of babes new born, Whom Fate had from their tender mothers torn, Assault his ears." Then those who liad been unjustly condemned, and who were appealing to their judge for a reversal of their sen- tence. Then the unhappy suicides, " Who prodigally threw their souls away," are in a state of suffering;. Then come the mournful fields, where unhappy, disap- pointed lovers dwell : — and here vEneas sees the shade of Dido. Then he passes by the regions of the damned, who for great crimes are doomed to intolerable and endless pains. The guide thus concludes : " Had I an hundred mouths, an hundred tongues. And throats of brass inspired with iron tongues, I could not half their horrid crimes repeat. Nor half the punishment their crimes have met." * The guide then leads him to the Elysian fields, where " Those happy spirits which, ordained by Fate, For future being and new bodies wait." There he meets with the ghost of Anchises : " Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw. And thrice the flitting shadow slips away." * Among the sufFeriugs which the pagans ascribe to the damned, may be mentioned that of Syciphus, a noted robber, who was doomed to roll a huge round stone to the top of a hill in the infernal region, whicli, just as it reaches the top, rolls back again. " Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone." Another is that of Ixion bound to the peak of a mountain, with a vulture gnawing at its liver but never consuming it. Thus did they set forth eternal punishment. 472 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ^Eneas next beholds crowds of ghosts thronging to drink of tlie waters of Lethe, or Forgetfuhiess, and is in- formed by his father's ghost that they are those " To whom by Fate are other bodies owed." Then the poet unfolds their system. One soul, he says, animates the sun, and moon, and stars, and waters. From this soul, men and beasts obtain life : " The ethereal vigor is in all the same." Men cannot be reunited with this soul of the world, as some of the philosophers held. By varions penances, how- ever, some are so purified as to be permitted to enter the Elysian fields, where they are further purified, so that nothing but the pure ether of the soul remains. Then they are made to drink of the waters of Lethe, " That, unremembering of its former pain, The soul may suffer mortal flesh again." Here we have the doctrine of the transmigration of souls which was so generally held by the ancients. The highest hope held out by that system was, that after suffering for a long time, and waiting in Elysium till the soul was pu- rified and became pure ether, it might be transferred to some earthly body again, having forgotten all that was past.* The wicked, who were in Tartarus, had no such hope held, out to them. Thus was the doctrine of rewards and. punishments, and of the unity of God, set forth in the ancient mysteries. It is generally admitted that Virgil adopted this method of representing the doctrines which * The Druids taught the doctrine of transmigration to the Germans, en- couraging them to fight bravely and die, from the belief that their souls would pass iuto other bodies. Some of the Jews seemed to believe that the soul of John the Baptist had passed into the Saviour, and that he was John the Bap- tist risen from the dead. ON VIRGIL. 473 were set fortli in tlie ancient mysteries of the heathen. Bnt this seems rather the unity of pantheism than that taught in the Bible. And how different these bodies from those with which we expect to be clothed at the resur- rection ! We may well be shocked to find that those who are in the first division of Hades, or purgatory, or on the con- fines, were those three innocent classes of sufferers, viz : little children, dying as soon as born ; those who were un- lawfully condemned for any crime ; and those whose bodies were unburied. It has been pleaded, in behalf of these horrible things, that the legislators and founders of the mysteries introduced them from the most humane motives, viz : to prevent the destruction of children by their pa- rents, the unjust condenmation of innocent persons, and the secret murder of any who must thereby be deprived of funeral rites, seeing that those innocent ones would be exposed to so much suffering in the purgatory of the pagans. CONCLTrDING EEMAKKS. As to this doctrine of transmigration, we have but to say, that if all the wicked were confined in Tartarus for ever ; and if those who for a long period of time were doing penance in the pagan purgatory, or improving in Elysium until all stains were washed away, and only those were allowed to enter new bodies and live over again on earth, surely we might expect that a great improvement would have taken place in the world, and the human race would have been quite perfected by this time. "We still, however, grant that the mysteries which Yirgil represents in his sixth book were intended for good, and were for a time productive of good. Thus Euripides, in one of his plays, says, " Happy is the man who, initiated in the mysteries of the gods, purifies his life and makes 474 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. his soul expiate in the rites of Bacchns by pious lustra- tions on the mountains." This Bacchus was the same with Dionusus, the god of the ark. Mr. Harcourt shows how the same is set forth in the Indian mythology, where the god of the trident and the deluge, who was none other than Dionusus, Bacchus, or Noah, is thus addressed : "O worthy man! O Hara, Hara! ascend into thy cave; hence send letters ; but into thy cave go secretly." Again : " See the door of your cave ; break it ; 023en and conceal thyself therein ! " In which he believes there is reference to the ark and deluge, — things prominently re- ferred to in the ancient mysteries. The early fathers had frequent reference to them. Thus Clement compares the mysteries or sacraments of Chris- tianity to them. " Ours," he says, " are the venerable orgia of the word." " O truly holy mysteries ! being initiated, I am made holy." "These are the Bacchanalia of my mysteries ; come thou and be initiated ! " APPENDIX TO THE CHAPTER ON VIEGIL, IN WHICH HIS EEF- EEENCE TO THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS IS CONSIDEEED. Having promised, in a previous chapter, something more concerning these, celebrated books, we now give the views presented by Bishop Horseley in his treatise " On the Prophecies of the Messiah dispersed among the Heathen," which, though left unfinished at his death, showed a most careful study of the subject. He believes that these books contained some of those ancient traditions and prophecies of a great Deliverer who was to come, and which were floating through the world during the patriarchal age, not merely in the family of Abraham, but in other lines. An extraordinary book, under the name of the Oracles of the Cumsean Sibyl, was found at an early period of Rome, and held in such ON VIRGIL. 4Y5 veneration as to be kept in a stone cliest in the temple of Jupiter, and committed to tlie care of two persons, who were enjoined to keep the contents from the pnl)lic, under heavy penalties. About a century before the birth of Christ, the temple in which they were contained was burned and they were consumed. Tlie Roman senate thought it of so much importance to repair the loss, that they sent persons into various countries to collect the fragments of the same, which were supposed to be in ex- istence, and the most learned men of Rome were employ- ed to select from the returns what they judged to be most authentic. There was certainly a great resemblance be- tween some thino;s contained in these books as to the great Deliverer, and those in the scriptures as to the Messiah. Yirgil, in his fourth Pastoral addressed to Pollio, is supposed to be flattering Augustus as being that great Deliverer, by copying from the Cumaean verses, and ap- plying them to him : "The last great age, foretold by sacred rhj'mes, Renews its finished course. Saturnian times Roll round again ; and mighty years begun, From their first orb in radiant circles run. The base degenerate Iron offspring ends : A golden progeny from heaven descends. The jarring nations he in peace shall bind, And with paternal virtues rule mankind." Julius Csesar, through his friends, wished to have it believed that he was the person alluded to in the Sibyl line books, as a means of obtaining the kingly govern- ment of Rouie ; but Cicero, who had access to these docu- ments, and who was opposed to Csesar's elevation, denied that they were prophecies, alleging that they were not frenzied enough in their style to be the work of prophets, but bears testimony to their excellence by saying, " Let 476 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. US, tlien, adhere to the prudent practice of our ancestors ; let us keep the Sibyl in religious privacy. These writings," hie said, " are indeed rather calculated to extinguish than to propagate superstition." Bishop Horseley says, that " These prophecies, wherever they might be found, could be of no other than a divine original ; the matter and the style of them is, in my judgment, an irrefragable argu- ment." They were fragments, he says, mutilated, per- haps, and otherwise corrupted, but they were fragments of the most ancient prophecies of the patriarchal ages. He then proceeds to show the probability of such prophe- cies having been preserved in other than the Jewish na- tion, from the evidences of remaining truth and piety among them, as recognized in the Old Testament, until the time of Moses, and in some few instances after his time, before the universal and entire corruption had taken possession of the human race. The corruption of religion was gradual ; and even after some idolatry prevailed, the true God was acknowledged and worshipped. He in- stances the two Abimelechs, in the times of Abraham and Isaac ; also Melchizedec, in the time of Abraham ; Job and others, in the time of Moses. Bishop Horseley institutes a comparison between some in the patriarchal age, in other ftimilies than the chosen one of Abraham, among whom there was incipient idolatry, and the corrupt members of the church of Rome, and affirms that the Eomanists, who pay such adoration to the Virgin Mary and other saints, though still worshipping the Trinity, may have departed from the true faith and worship as much as some in early days before the total apostasy took place. During this period, such books as those of the Sibyls may have been preserved and handed down through diiferent channels just as the Eomanists preserve and hand down the scriptures, though departing so much in their worship from them. This view of the Sibyl's ON VIRGIL. 477 books is only an extension of tlie general principle of this book, which supposes that in all the religions of the pa- gan world there was and is a remnant of original revela- tion. Whetlier the bishop has carried it too far in his application to the Sibylline verses, I leave to the decision of the more learned and investigating. At any rate, by general consent, the expectation of such a person as Jesus Christ was gaining ground throughout the world for a century before his appearing, not only among the Jews but in other countries. Wise men from the East were ready, at the divine intimation, to follow the star which led them to Bethlehem, and lay their tribute at his feet. The mouth of Zacharias was opened by the Holy Ghost to say, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people," " and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David." " As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began." These words, " by his holy prophets since the w^orld began," may be more comprehensive than many have supposed ; they may re- fer to others whose names are not among either the greater or lesser prophets of scripture, may embrace others beside Noah of the old world, and Moses and others of the new, by whom God kept alive among men some knowledge of himself, and some hope of a Bedeemer. CHAPTER XXXiy. OK HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS, Horace was born about sixty-four years before the Chris- tian era. Some of his expressions seem to savor of Epicu- rus. Thus, in one of his satires, he says, " Carpe diem, quam minimum crecluhi postero," a sentiment condemned by the Apostle Paul in that passage where he quotes Epicu- rus,—" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Al- though he does not adopt and defend the doctrine of the inspiration of wine as necessary to good poetry, yet he speaks of it so as to gratify wine-bibbers, quoting the sen= timent of an ancient poet : " iSTulla placere diu, nee vivere carmina possnnt, QuEe scribnntur aquae potoribus." Homer and Ennius are represented by him as drinking much wine : " Laudibns arguitnr vini vinosus ITomerus. Ennius ipse pater, nuuquam, nisi potus ad arma Prosilult dicenda." As to his theological sentiments he was certainly no fa- vorer of the Jewish religion, although it is very probable that he only knew of it by its evil report among the nations, or the philosophers who regarded the Jews as a supersti- tious and bigoted race ; thus, in satirizing some improbable tradition or opinion, he says, " Credat Jud^us Apella, HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS. 479 non ego."' As to the providence of God, he was of the Epicurean belief, that it was only on great occasions that this deit}'- interfered : " Nee deus intersit, nisi dignns vin- dice nodus, inciderit." To flatter Augustus, he says, "Coelo tonantem credidiinus Joveni Regnari : prsesens divus hab- ebitur Augustus." And again, " Serus in crelum redeas." In his ode to Augustus, he says, '' Divis orte bonis, opti- me Romule. Gustos gentis," In a general way he advocates piety ; at any rate he places it on a footing with poetry : "Di mc tuenter— Dispietas raea, Et musa cordi est." Sometimes he speaks in quite an orthodox strain of the one great God. Thus, in Book 3, Ode 4 : " Qui mare temperat, Ventoram et urbis, regnaque tristia, Diosque mortalesque turbas Imperio regit unus aequo." And yet at another time (Book 1, Ode 5) he falls into Ovid's doubtful strain : " At O Deornra quidquid in ccelo regit, Terras et hmnanum genus." In another place he is at a loss to know which of the gods must be invoked in behalf of Rome in her distress : " Quern vocet divum populus ruentia Imperii rebus." He falls into the same low views of some of the philoso- phers as to the aids which Jupiter and the other gods fur- nish to mortals in the pursuit of wisdom and virtue, holding that they only bestowed earthly goods : 480 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. "Haec satis est orasse Jovem, qui donat et aiifert, Det vitam, det opes ; tequuin mi aniraum isse parabo "— than which nothing can be prouder or more contrary to the spirit of our religion, which teaches that we are not able "to think anything of ourselves as we ought to think." We have already cpioted the lines of Horace, recognizing the existence and sacred character of a class of poets of an earlier period than Komer and those of his day, and who give an account of the first ages ; but the fact is so impor- tant, that we must introduce them again as due to our no- tice of Horace : " Fuit haec sapientia quondam, Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis. Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque Carminibns venit. Post hos insignis Homerus, Tyrtensque mares animos in martia bella Versibus exacuit." The character of a priest, as honored in ancient times, and its union with that of a king or patriarch, at the head of his tribe, is also thus set forth : " Rex olim et vates, duo maxima numina coell." " The two best gifts God could on man bestow." The doctrine of original sin is also declared by Horace : " Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur ; optimus ille est, Qui minimis urgetur." So, also, the desperate depravity of man : " Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vebitum et nefas.'" HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS. 481 He seems also to recognize the doctrine and practices of astrology as used in his day : "Iiicredibili modo Consensit astrum." The doctrine of fate, or necessity, is also thus set forth : " JEqua lege necessitas Sortitur insignes et imos." As to patriotism and moral courage, he has some noble passages. " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" has been quoted in every age since it came from his pen, as an encouragement to self-sacrifice in our country's cause. The following description of a truly virtuous and brave man is worthy of all praise : " Justum et tenacem proposito virura, Non civirun ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyraaui Wente quatit solida." " Nee fulminantis magna manus Jovis. Si fractus illabitur orbis Impavidura ferient ruinfe." At other times his standard of wisdom and virtue is rather low. Tims, " Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima Stultitia caruisse." ON THE LOVE OF MONET. Some of his satirical strokes are very fine. Thus, lashing the covetousness of the age, he says, " Quajrenda pecnnia primum est Virtus post nummos." 31 482 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ON PEOCEASTINATION. Exposing the folly of procrastination, he says, " Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam, Rusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis, at ille Labitur et labetur, in omne volubilis sevum." As to anger, he well says, " Ira furor brevis est : animura rege ; qui nisi paret Imperat. Huncfreuis; hunc tu compesse catena." To these, a few other passages of a more theological char- acter may be added. In Book 1, Ode 2, he alludes to the deluge. Speaking of a great tempest — " Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret. Sfficulum Pyrrhoe." In Book 1, Ode 3, the long lives of the ancients are re- ferred to : " Semotique prius tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum." In the same ode, he is thought by some to speak of the building of Babel : " Nil mortalibus arduum est. Coilum ipsum petimus stultitia ; neque Per nostrum patimur scelus Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina." In Ode 10 he alludes to the happiness of the good in Elysium : " Tu pias laetis animas reponis Sedibus." HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS. 488 In Ode 12 he speaks well of the Supreme Being under the title of Jupiter, called Jupiter Optimus Maximus when regarded as the Supreme : "Qui mare et terras, variisque mimdum Temperat lioris : Unde nil majus generatur ipso, ^ Nee viget quidquam simile aut secundum." But then he proceeds immediately to say, " Proxirilos illi tamen occupavit Pallas lionores " — and then gives a list of the gods, in a certain order, Bac- chus coming next to Romulus, and closing witli Julius Caesar and Augustus. Of Julius Csesar, he says, " Emicat inter omnes Julium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores." In Ode 34 he seems to recant the doctrines of Epicurus, and to maintain the necessity of Providence, speaking of the former opinion as one of " Insanientis sapientise." Others might be added. A few remarks on Juvenal and Persius, and some pas- sages from their satires, will close this chapter. Juvenal was born about forty-two years after the Chris- tian era, in the reign of Claudius. His satires were writ- ten in the reign of Trojan. They are severe, but just. He belonged to the sect of Stoics, but condemned the liypo- critical manners of some of them. " Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis et umbra, Quum sit triste habitu, vultuque, et veste severum." That he was opposed to the doctrines of Epicurus, the fol- lowing lines from Satire 13 show : 484: THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " Sunt in Fortunse qui casibus omnia ponunt Et nullo credunt mundum rectore moveri ; Natura volvente vices et lucis et anni. Atque ideo intrepidi quaecunque altaria tangunt. In another place lie says, "Nullum numen abest, si sit pmdentia, sed te Nos facimus, Fortuna, Deum, coeloque locamus." And again, — " Permittis ipsis expendere numinibus, quid Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris, Nam pro jucundis, aptissima quasque dabunt Dii Carior est illis homo, quam sibi." That Juvenal was utterly disgusted at the follies of Egyp- tian idolatry is evident from the following passage : " Qui nescit — qualia demens Egyptus portenta colit : Orocodilon adorat Pars hoc. Ilia pavet saturam serpentibus ibin. • Illic ccerulios ; hie piscem fluminis : illic, Oppida tota canem venerantur. Nemo Dianara. Porrum et ceepe nefas violare et pangere morsu. O ! sanctas gentes, quibus hsec nascuntur in hortis Numina. Lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis Mensa. Nefas illic fotum jugulare capillse Carnibus humanis vesci licet." The corruption of morals was so great in the time of Ju- venal, and his satires are so pointed and severe, that it is offensive to any pure mind to read them. Scaliger con- sidered the satires as unfit to be read. " Se vel jubere, vel optare, toto opere abstinere virum probum" — "That lie either ordered or wished that a good man would abstain from the whole work." There are still many allusions to mythological traditions, of which we may make some use. His Sixth Satire is considered his best composition. It con- HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS. 485 tains a tirade against women and marriage. It may be that the female sex was then in its most corrupt state. But it coukl not liave been worse than that of the males, ac- cording to Juvenal's own account. In this satire there is also allusion to the different ages spoken of by Hesiod and Ovid. The golden age was under Saturn, son of Coelus or Coelum, and Terra. Then men were made of the earth and trees : " N^ullos habuere parentes." They lived in the trunks of trees, and in caves, and upon acorns, and associ- ated with the lower animals. Still Astrsea, the goddess of justice, with her companions, — Modesty, or Purity, and Truth, — presided over men : " Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam In terris." Then comes the sylvan age, under Jupiter, when Sat- urn had been dethroned. Much of good yet remained, though by degrees corruption prevailed, until AstrjBa and her sisters, Faith and Purity, took their flight. " Multa pudieitifB veteris vestigia fossaa Aut aliqua extiterint, et sub Jove." At length the iron age comes, when every vice is intro- duced : " Omne aliud ci'imen mox ferrea protulit setas." It is also believed that reference is made by him to the deluge, and the ark in which Moses kept the sacred me- morials and the law. In Satire 14 he alludes contemptu- ously to the Jews, and shows how little they were under- stood at Home, or by him. He represents them as being idlers on account of the Sabbath — adoring only the clouds and skies — abhorring swine's flesh as much as human, and despising the Roman laws, and only observing those of Moses. Thus : 486 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " Nil i^rfeter nabus et cceli niimen adorant, Nee distare pntant hnmana carne suillam Romanas autem soliti contemnire leges Judaicum ediscnnt, et servant ac metuant jus Tradidit arcano quodcunqne volumine Moses." The charge lie brings against the Jews of worsliipping only the clouds and the deity of the heavens, is equivalent to this, — that they worshipped none of the gods of the hea- then, but only Him who dwelt in the clouds and heaven. In Satire 6, lines 437-9, he says there would be more con- fidence henceforth in the Chaldean astrologers, (a set of strolling fortune-tellers like our gipsies,) since the oracles had ceased, — " Quoniam Delphis oracula cessant. Et genus humanum damnat caligo futura." In Satire 2, he ascribes this corruption of morals at Rome to the disbelief of a future state and its punishments, saying that none be- lieved them — " iSTec pueri credunt nisiqui nondum ore lavantur ; " — not even the boys believed in them, except such as were too young to be admitted into the baths by paying a piece of brass ; but he adds — " Sed tu vera puta." Juvenal also mentions in various places the persecutions to which the Christians were exposed. He speaks of the " pitched vestments " in which they were burnt, fixed to the stake, producing a long furrow as their bodies were dragged along the dust of the arena. PEBSIUS. He was born in the reign of Tiberius. His satires are obscure, and difiicult to be understood. His opening line deserves that some notice should be taken of him : " O curas hominum : 0 quantum est in rebus inane." What is it but a translation of the words of Solomon, — HORACE, JUVENAL, AND PERSEUS. 487 " Yanity of vanities, all is vanity." He was a Stoic, and con- demned the Epicurean motto — " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." He agrees with the scriptures in op- posing those who tliought that because the deity did not inflict immediate punishment on transgression, their im- piety was overlooked or forgiven. He addresses, in forcible language, the father of the gods, entreating him to punish transgressors by no other means than by making them " behold virtue, and pine away with grief for having de- serted it." " Virtutem videant, intabescantque relicta." Lucan, the friend and associate of Perseus, calls the God of the Jews " The uncertain or unknown God." Prob- ably Perseus thus regarded him. CHAPTEK XXXV. ON THE PEOPER ESTIMATE OF THE PAGAN MYTHOLOGY AND THE SALT ABILITY OF THE HEATHEN. Having now examined tlie various systems of belief and worship among the heathen, I propose to consider an im- portant question growing out of such examination, viz : What is the hope we may entertain of the salvation of those who have lived, or are living, under these systems ? Although it is a most important truth that God requires us " to be holy as he is holy," and that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," still the Bible declares that none in the human form but the immaculate Son of God was ever free from error and sin. The human mind is so constructed, that a diversity of opinion must exist, even on matters of importance. IS'o one can undertake to say what degree of error unfits for heaven, or what amount of transgression or remaining corruption is un- pardonable. This must be left to him who alone judgeth righteously. If left to our own decision, we sliould be dis- posed to desire the salvation of all men ; to pass the most charitable judgment upon them. But it is our part, by the light of scripture, candidly to inquire what degree of error is compatible with a state of acceptance with God. And since error of opinion and viciousness of life are closely connected with each other, and both are specified in scripture as proofs of man's unfitness for heaven, we must have reference to each in forming our estimate of PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 489 the characters and hopes of men. TVe may confidently affirm that a holy life and sound faith belong to each other, and that, without faith and holiness, it is impossible to please God. It is important, therefore, that we understand what this faith and holiness are. It may be asked, Have not the heathen, generally, a tradition of some First Cause, some ancient God, although they have added to him many agents and auxiliaries, many other gods, either deified heroes or parts of nature ? Have they not oftered some worship to this great God as well as to his subordinates, — even thanksgiving and sacrifices, — after the manner appointed by God to our first parents ? Have they not thus ac- knowledged their dependence upon the great God as well as upon the lesser deities ? Have they not sought to pre- pare themselves for a future state by sacrifices and prayers, as well as by penances and alms and good works ? It may be said, that although they multiplied the gods, and greatly perverted the sacrifices and offerings, yet that the spirit of religion was in them. It may be alleged, that as some of their gods, such as Apollo and Mercury, Her- cules and Jupiter Soter, were regarded as mediators and saviors, so we may hope, notwithstanding the imperfection of their penitence and faith, some may have become meet for the presence of the true God hereafter. To this we reply, that God will, no doubt, judge righteously, and we may be sure he will exclude none from his presence who are meet for it. We shall be the better able to decide this matter by considering some passages of scripture which have a bearing on this subject, since God will judge us by his word. That error has been gradual, both as to time and amount? all history, sacred and profane, clearly testifies. Men have in all ages fallen little by little. " ]N'emo fuit unquam re- pente turpissimus :" "Has nugce, sepe in seria ducun 490 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. are proverbs most true of the rise and progress of relig- ious error, as of other things. For many centuries after the deluge, and, doubtless, after the dispersion, when the fathers of different families were kings and priests, there was still much of the knowledge and worship of the true God remaining, though becoming mixed with not a little error. Error was evidently creeping into the family of Terah, the father of Abraham, when God commanded them to remove from Chaldea to Canaan. Nevertheless, we must believe they were still worshippers of the true God, and that there were others of the same character, though idolatry was rapidly increasing. God now estab- lished his covenant with Abraham, revealing himself anew to him. "When Abraham went into Egypt, he found in King Abimelech one who feared God. Doubt- less the true God was then known in Egypt, though idola- try may have been progressing. Even in Canaan Abra- ham found a Melchisedec, priest of the most high God, of so high an order that he paid tithes to him. At a later period, when Joseph went into Egypt, al- though the worship of the sun was established there, yet, from the fact that he married a daughter of the j^riest of the sun, and from the respect shown to Joseph and the God of Joseph by Pharaoh and his people, we must sup- pose that the adoration of the sun was in an incipient state, and was in connection with, and subordinate to, the worship of Jehovah as the God of tlie sun and of the hosts of heaven. More than two hundred years after this, when Moses, the nursling of Egyptian women who feared God, was raised up to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, now tilled with idolatry, the language of Pharaoh is such as to show that he admitted the existence and power of the God of Moses, though his heart was hard- ened against him. At this time there dwelt in the land of Midian, Jethro, PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 491 whose daughter Moses married, and who was a priest of the true God. Of course there were worshippers to whom he ministered. As evidence of the existence of some who worshipped the true God at this time in the countries around, we may refer to righteous Job, who is supposed to have lived in the time of Moses, and in Arabia, perhaps not far distant from Mount Sinai. We may also see a proof of the estimate in which the God of Israel was held even by a wicked and covetous man, — the prophet Ba- laam, in the land of Moab, just before the Israelites en- tered the promised land. He would fain, for hire, have cursed Israel, but was forced to bless him altogether. We may even go forward some hundreds of years to the time of Daniel the prophet, and for some hundreds of miles to the court of Darius the Persian, and find proof that there was still some knowledge of the true God in other nations besides that of Israel. The interesting his- tory of Daniel at Babylon and in Persia during the reigns of ^Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus, shows soine public recognition of Jehovah as the true God. Let the decree of Darius suffice : " Then king Da- rius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwelt on all the earth. Peace be multiplied unto you : I make a decree that in every division of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, he work- eth signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." How far this decree took effect in restraining idolatry we cannot say. It was followed by the accession of Cyrus to the throne of Persia, who was called " The Lord's anointed," and who also acknowledged the God of Daniel. These 492 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. notices of the knowledge of the true God in the nations around the descendants of Abraham, and kept to it, per- haps, by means of intercourse with them, are deeply in- teresting, and have some bearing on the question before us, giving good grounds of hope for the salvation of some in those times and countries. Let us now see how the knowledge and worship of Jehovah fared in the promised land, from the time of the entrance of the chosen people into it until the Babylonish captivity, at which time, and not before, they ceased from their relapses into idolatry, or the intermingling the worship of Jehovah with the worship of the gods of the heathen. From the language of God in regard to these, and from his dealings with the Israelites on account of their departure from the true faith and worship, we may understand God's will and mind with respect to the question we are discussing. In evidence of God's hatred of all idolatry, he declares himself, from Mount Sinai, amid the awful scenes of his appearing there, to be a "jealous God," in connection with his prohibition of any images or likenesses of things in earth, sea, and heavens. Instead of a noble, philosophic disregard of trifles, as some esteem them, and allowing a social liberality to- ward all other nations as to religious observances, a lead- ing feature in the Jewish dispensation is the endeavor to keep them distinct from all others. Many seemingly trivial prohibitions, such as not sowing divers seeds, and wearing mixed clothes of woollen and linen, and yoking the ox and ass together, were appointed only to make them diifer from the other nations who used such things in their worship. For this, among other reasons, did God make them wander for forty years in a strange country, among enemies, thus to wean thern from idolatry. Such is the proneness of man to idolatry, that, even in the days of the apostles, the last surviving one of them had PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 493 need to sa}', " Little children, keep yourselves from idols," whicli, I doubt not, was designed to be received in the most literal manner. Little children, — that is, poor, weak, silly children, — keep yourselves from worshipping idols, to which you are continually tempted, either by the heathen or by paganized- Christians, is the trne sense of the pas- sage, though it may be applied to other things. Remem- bering the adoration of the hosts of heaven, and well knowing that the same was practised in Canaan, God warns the Israelites against any such worship, however innocent some might deem it, especially in connection with and in subordination to the higher worship of Jeho- rah. In the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, God says to them, " In all things that I have said unto you, be circum- spect, and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth." In the twenty- seventh chapter of the book of Deuteronomy it is written, "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, tlie work of the hands of the craftsmen, and putteth it in a secret place ; and all the people shall say, Amen." Death was the penalty.* * What we now affirm, says an eminent writer, rests on no doubtful author- ity. It is a deep moral truth, stamped with the signet of heaven, and confirmed by the whole course of divine Providence for one thousand five hundred j-ears. When the Most High would preserve a national witness to himself in the midst of the idolatrous heathen, what course did Infinite Wisdom pursue? Did he leave the chosen seed exposed to daily and hourly contact with those systems of idolatry? 'No; he placed a double wall of separation between them. He placed them in a separate land, from which he commanded every trace of those accursed idols to be done away. He forbade the very mention of their names. He placed between them the barrier of a national antipathy so stern, the mem- ory of a judgment so terrible, as to be the stumbling-block of our sentimental philosophers, who cannot conceive that " the wrathful Jehovah of the Jews," as Goethe profanely styles him, can be the same with " the Father of mercies" and "the God of all grace" whom the New Testament reveals. And yet, ia spite of these prohibitions, and a system of laws made to converge with divine wisdom on this one great object, what does the Jewish history reveal to us but a scries of lapses into idolatry, followed each in its turn by some new and se- 494 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Just before his death, Moses, in his noble song setting forth the perfection of God, represents him as having no fellowship or partnership with other gods, in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt : " The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. I, even I, am He ; there is no strange god with me." Thus did God protest against any connivance at, and apology for, the adulteration of his worship. Moreover, he ex- pressly commanded the destruction or banishment of all the Canaanites through fear of such adulteration. From the entrance of Joshua into Canaan, we find noth- ing but warnings against idolatry, and not a hint of any connivance or winking at it, as thongh these gods might be worshipped in connection wath Jehovah. After com- manding them to put away all the gods of Chaldea and Egypt, from whence their fathers had come, Joshua says, (in allusion to the division of the gods into celestial and terrestrial,) " For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath." During the lifetime of Joshua, and while the elders lived who remembered him, the Israelites served the Lord, driving out the Canaanites as they^vere commanded. After this they began to take the daughters of the Canaanites that were left in the land for their wives, and gave their daughters to the Canaanitish men for wives, and served their gods. From this to the time of Solomon the history of Israel is a history of its partial and temporary relapses into idolatry, and of God's judgments upon them for the same. How often do we read that the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel on account of their idolatries, and that he sold them into cap- tivity to the nations around for the same ! Other crimes vere infliction of divine judgment?" Protestants ought carefully to remember this when they would connive at or imitate any of those customs among Ro- manists, by which undue veneration for saints and relics has been introduced among them. PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 495 are scarcely mentioned by comparison with tliese. From time to time God raised up deliverers for them, and they returned to the country and his worship. During the reigns of Saul and David, and until the close of Solomon's, the people of Israel seem to have been true to the Lord their God, and their kingdom reached its highest perfection and prosperity. We then come to a dark, melancholy, and mysterious passage in the history of man, viz., Solomon's defection. The sad account of it is faithfully stated. That Solomon could have been in a state of salvation while his heart was cleaving in love to so man}'- strange wives, forbidden to him by God, and while it was turned away from the Lord by other gods, while establishing the abominations of idolatry in the very sight of the temple, is not for a moment to be thought of. If it were so, no bounds could be set to the merc}^ of God ; then all idola- ters must be saved. Only on the repentance and reforma- tion of Solomon can such a hope be founded. As might be expected, Rehoboam his son followed in his footsteps, and the kingdom was rent in twain. A succession of kings doing good or evil in the sight of the Lord now followed, in both parts of the kingdom. They found favor in the sight of the Lord, or the Lord was angry with them and punished them, just in proportion as they were zealous in banishing or promoting idolatry. Partial praise is sometimes bestowed, but the same is ever modified by the declaration that his heart was not perfect or right before the Lord, because he did not pull down or destroy every vestig* of idolatry. So far was God from the latitudinarian charity which would embrace all the religions of earth as acceptable to him. But the measure of Judah's iniquity was full. Forty years' bondage to the Philistines, besides many smaller periods of subjection to other nations, and numerous other 496 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. judgments, were insufficient to cure the people of their obstinate and strong propensity to idolatr3^ A seventy- years' captivity in Babylon was awaiting him. In the reign of Jehoachim, Nebuchadnezzar came with a large army and carried them away into a strange land, where by the waters of Babylon they and their children sat down, and wept at the remembrance of Zion. And now, after this history of God's judgments upon his chosen people for conniving at and partaking of the idol- atries of the heatlien without entirely renouncing Jeho- vah as the God of Israel, will any one maintain, with the philosophers and poets and rulers of Greece, Home, and other places, that the worship of the gods was worthy of encouragement ; that the essential elements of all religious systems were the same, so that Jehovah will accept as offered to himself all the homage paid to the heathen dei- ties ? Might we not hold and maintain, with some, that to yield to the passions and appetites that belong to our fallen nature, and grant them unrestrained indulgence so as to riot in lust, intemperance, revenge, and other vices, is worshipping the god of nature, who made us with these several propensities? Some have so held and acted. But listen to the language of God as to all idolatries : " Be astonished, ye nations, at this, and be ye horribly afraid, and be ye very desolate, saith the Lord ; for ray people have committed two evils : they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water." Can any thing be more expressive of the utter unprofitableness and sinfulness of all pagan idolatry ? God cannot at one and the same time thus denounce it, and yet accept and re- ward it. Is there then no salvation to any of the human race, except to those among Jews and Christians, who, through the scriptures, have the knowledge of the true God and of PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 497 his Son Jesus Christ ? We have ah-eatly spoken of tliose scattered abroad through the earth after the dehige, and before the time of Moses, who retained the knowledge and worship of God, and of those who, after his time, may in their dispersion have retained a sufficiency of the truth for salvation.* But is there no hope for others who, in the progress of time, have become more and more in- volved in idolatry ? To this it is answered, that in all ages and countries, among the most savage and the most civil- ized, some knowledge of the First Cause, the Great Spirit, the Creator of all things, has existed ; and some knowledge of the fall and corruption of man, the need of atonement by sacrifice, the deluge, a future state, and of the neces- sity of some divine assistance. All these have been held, though a fearful mixture of error has been connected with their belief. The scriptures and reason unite in declaring that truth and not error is the divine instrument of im- proving and sanctifying the souls of men. Our Lord's last prayer was, " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." It were a reproach to our j\Iaker to suppose that he should have so constructed his chief work on earth, as that falsehood should be the means of its purification and ex- altation, instead of, or as well as, truth, and that the wor- ship of those who are no-gods should be as acceptable as the * 111 proof of the greater comprehensiveness of the Jewish church than some have ascribed to it, and the greater probability that there were devout persons in the nations around, we quote tlie following passage from Hardwic, vol. iii., p. 177. " These, for instance, like the Kenites, or the Rechabites, retaining the ances- tral faith in one living God, without conforming to the ritual law of JIoscs, lived for centuries on terms of amity with Israel, and were sheltered near the sanc- tuary of God. The psalmist and the prophet are both heard exulting in the thought that Zion was the home and mother city not of Israel only, but of the Gentiles also. At the dedication of the temple Solomon did not forget the strangers coming out of far countries to worship in Jerusalem. They also were embraced within the circle of his prayer — ' that all tlie people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people, Israel.' " 32 498 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. worship of himself, tlie true God. It is only in proportion as we know and serve the true God, that we are accepted. In falsehood there is no virtue to purify ; but in the hem of the garment of truth there is virtue, by the power of Him who is truth itself. All the prayers and sacrifices in the world to all the in- numerable objects in nature, and deified heroes, are utterly unavailing. They cannot hear or answer our prayers. Prayers are only acceptable so far as they are ofifered up to the Great Spirit. We would liken prayers oflfered up to the no-gods of the heathen, to the prayers and homage paid to the Yirgin Mary and the saints of the Romish calendar. No grace comes from God in answer to such prayers ; they are an abomination to him ; and yet pious Komanists are saved through the truth which they be- lieve, and the prayers they offer up to the IIolj^ Trinity. So among Protestants, we often find the most idle and silly methods adopted for promoting conversion. Now, though true conversion does often take place in connection with these, yet it is not to be ascribed to these acts, but to God's word, and the Holy Spirit blessing it, notwith- standing the follies and infirmities of men. It is impos- sible for us to determine what efl:ect the^ Spirit of God may liave produced on the hearts of some pagans by the in- strumentality of remaining traditions in which are to be found some correct views of himself, yet we must not suppose that he who is called the Spirit of Truth would make use of the instrumentality of him who is styled the father of lies, to do his good woi'k in the hearts of men. Some of these things may, from their resemblance to orig- inal truth, bear testimony to it, but only as the shadow testifies to the substance, though it be not the substance itself. It has been justly remarked, that "Error seldom walks abroad in her own raiment. She always borrows something of truth to make her more agreeable." PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 499 We may tlins see how God could save those heathen ■who are without haw, either tlie law of Christ or of Moses, by means of the remaining light handed down b}' tradi- tion, which becomes a law written in the hearts of men by the S})irit of God. Thus do we believe that thei'e have been devout men in every age — such as Thales, Pythag- oras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Cicero, Confu- sius, Zoroaster ; also, some of the Magi and Druids, who, by the Spirit of God through the instrumentality of sucli truths as they held, have been sanctified so as to be made meet for the happiness purchased for the holy by means of him who tasted death for all men. These men did indeed hold some things and do some things which the scriptures condemn, and did encourage, if not for them- selves, yet for others, some abominable idolatries. They were, however, not sanctified and saved by tliese things, but in spite of them. Through the mercy of God and by the power of his Spirit they were made humble and de- vout, by the instrumentality of that truth which thoy held. Although it is most true that there is no other name given among men except that of Jesus Christ, whereby we can be saved, and that no blessing comes down from heaven to men but through this channel, yet it is not necessary to salvation that the Saviour, in all his power and fulness, should be known in order to salvation ; else, where is the hope of the patriarchs and the Jews, who only saw him dimly through the types and prophecies ; or, for children dying in infancy ? But now a practical question arises, which has ever been a source of painful thought to many : "What is the probability that the heathen, in any considerable numbers, either of ancient or modern days, philosophers or people, shall thus be saved ? The scripture is the only book to which we can resort for an answer to this question, but this does not give us such a one as many might ask or 500 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. wish. We have seen what the Old Testament says, as to the heathen in the days of the prophets of Israel, from Moses to Christ, and how dreadful was the moral condition of the world under the influence of paganism, and how awful the denunciations of Jehovah against it. Let us see what the New Testament says of the philosophers as well as people of the Christian era. St. Paul, in his lirst chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, has the philosophers of Greece and Rome evidently in his mind. He speaks of them as " holding the truth in unrighteousness," by which it is supposed that he not only charges them with un- righteousness, but as concealing such truth as they had from others, as that which was too high for them ; and such, we know, was the practice of the philosophers. God had showed to them his eternal power and god- head, not only by the remainder of original revelation, but by blessing their inquiries into his invisible things, from the foundation of the world, which were clearly seen and understood by the things that are made : but they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and were without excuse ; for when they knew God, they glo- rified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became " vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they be- came fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like unto corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Such was the worship that they encouraged and even practised. Wherefore God in judgment gave them over to a repro- bate mind, to all uncleanness, and to every abomination. This was the general character of philosophers and people. The very mysteries which were designed, at first, to pre- serve the knowledge of original truth, and the practice of original holiness, had become so corrupt that the public authorities put them down as nuisances. If there were PAGAN MYTIIOLOGT. 501 any devout men among them, tlioy were only exceptions to the general rule. When, therefore, we consider the testimony of the scrip- tures, from first to last, and that of universal history as to the religious opinions and morals and worship of the heathen, where is our hope for any considerable number of them from a God of holiness ? and has not that testi- mony continued the same all the world over to the present time ? From the days of Moses to those of St, Paul, the constant language of God has been, " Be ye holy, for I am holy," showing the necessity of inculcating holiness on men, from the fact that God is holy and men unholy. Many doubtless would say, " Surely, if there be one attri- bute which all men would unite in ascribing to the deity, it must be holiness ;" and yet, if wa look through the whole heathen mythology, we find it to be the one most neglect- ed. Even in the time of Moses it was necessary to begin, as it were, a great way off, in order to raise the minds of men to this height. The ritual of Moses was filled with ablutions, that the mind might be led on by degrees to just views of the purity of God. We may realize the ditfer- ence between Jehovah and tlie gods of the heathen, by ])utting some of the words of Jehovah into their mouths. What should wo think of the lewd and adulterous Jupiter, of Homer and Virgil, thus addressing the children of men from Mount Ida, or Olj'mpus — "Be ye holy, as I am holy !" or of Yenus, exhorting to chaste conversation and virgin purity ; or of Bacchus, calling on young men to be sober- minded, and not to look on the wine when it is red in the cup ; or of a priest of Moloch, saying, " Blessed are the peacemakers ;" or of Mercury, saying, " Steal no more, but rather labor with your own hands ;" or of the Furies, coun- selliug to gentleness, meekness, and love ? Which of the fruits of the Spirit grows out of the ex- ample of the heathen gods, or from the genius of their re- 502 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ligion ? If it be true of every priesthood of the earth, " Like priest like people," how much more " Like gods like worshippers !" I conclude by applying this subject to an excuse some- times made for indifference to one of the most interesting and important objects now proposed to the zeal and lib- erality of Christians. The last command of our Lord to his apostles was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." This could not be done with- out the greatest perils and sacrifices, oftentimes martyr- dom itself. If, as some maintain, a God of jnstice must and does give to every human being precisely the same opportunity and help for salvation, then why all this waste of life and property on the heathen ? Let him who believes in the holiness of God only inquire what the heathen ever have been and still are in their tempers and lives, and then ask whether the religion of Christ ought not, at any cost and labor, to be given to these poor de- graded, benighted beings, who are, comparatively speak- ing at least, " without God and without hope in the world." Although the follow^iug passage from Professor Ilardwic is most discouraging as to the philosophers and people living after paganism became establislied, it does not mil- itate against the hopeful view we have presented of the case of those under the earlier and more partial corrup- tions of religion. He is a cautious and therefore a safe writer, and seems to consider the sacred books of some of the pagan nations as not yet sufiiciently examined. He says, " If it be found hereafter, on a strict examination of their sacred books and other ancient documents, that nearly all the heathen systems were defective in those very points which form the leading characteristics of re- vealed religion ; if the general tendency of pagan thought was, in philosophers, to pantheism, or the worship of ua- PAGAN MYTHOLOGY. 503 twre as a whole, and in the many to polytheism, or the deification of particular energies of nature ; if sin was then regarded as eternal and necessary, or in other cases as unreal, notwithstanding those frequent reclama- tions of the moral consciousness that drove men to devise new rites of worship, and to rear new altars in honor of the ' unknown ' divinity ; if, being thus ' without God in the world,' the heathen were also ' without hope,' the vic- tims, in their moments of distracting doubts, of abject terror and of withering desperation, we may thence de- rive not only a fresh stock of motives for disseminating truths that we possess, but special reasons for abstaining from all heathenish speculations, and for listening with more docile spirits to tiie Oracles of God," CHAPTEE XXXVI. ON THE QUESTION WHETHER THE SAVAGE OK CIVILIZED STATE WAS THE ORIGINAL AND NATURAL STATE OF MAN. In oiir first chapter we expressed the conviction that man, as coming from his Maker's liands, was highly en- dowed; that according to the testimony of scripture and all tradition, he was not only good, but veiy good, perfect in his kind, made after the image of God, though that image was faint and imperfect. Infidelity has sought to dispar- age the workmanship of God, so far as man is concerned, and to represent our first parents as only full-grown in- fants, and that all the savages of earth ever have been, and still are, in a state nearest to the natural and original one ; whereas, all the civilized nations have become so by their own power of improvement on the condition in which God placed the first of the human race. If such be the case, then Nvas man at first, by comparison with the other animals, the inferior, not the superior, and rather a reproach than an honor to his Maker, for all other animals almost at once attain to the perfection of their natures by the power of instinct and the rapid development of their powers ; whereas, man, by slow degrees and after many generations, attains to his highest state. If the savage state be the most natural, then we give countenance to the theory of those who would degrade the race of man by representing him as closely allied to the monkey or orang-outang, or being only a higher development of that animal. When we THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. [505 think ot the inhabitants of Van Dieman's Land, ot Terra del Fnego, the Esquimaux, the Hottentots, the Bushmen near the Cape ot" Good Hope, — of their disparaging ap- pearance, of their savage, ferocious, and unnatural charac- ters,— we may well shrink from the idea and belief that this was the original state of man, or one necessarily and rapidly resulting from it. And yet Mr. Burnet — after- wards Lord Monboddo, who says he " writes for men of liberal thoughts and more than common learning" — that is, for infidels — tells us " The orang-outangs are proved to be of our sjiecies by marks of humanity that ai'e incontesta- ble." Beattie, inliis "Theory of Language," and Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, of Princeton, in his work on the " Color of the Human Kace," have exposed in a masterly manner this work of Monboddo, and also the opinions of Ferguson and Robertson, which are not much better. Perhaps Mon- boddo's theory deserves no better notice than that of Dr. Johnson, "Of standing facts," he says, "there ought to be no controversy ; if there are men with tails, catch an homo ccnidatus so that we may see him." His lordship has gone far beyond ancient infidels in this theory. Horace does indeed speak of men at first as " mutum et turpe pe- cns," mingling with other animals and feeding like them, but he does not class them with such in the order of crea- tion. Diodorus Siculus also, in his history, says, " That men lived at first, dispersed like wild beasts in caves and woods, and subsisted upon the natural productions of the earth ; that they had no use of speech, and uttered inartic- ulate cries, — but having herded together for fear of wild beasts, they invented and imposed names upon all things." The Epicureans held the same doctrine, as we may see in Lucretius, — one of their free-thinking followers, — who represents the first inhabitants as living without laws or divisions of goods, each one providing for himself by plunder. 506 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. " Sibi quis que valere et vivere doctus," nature and utility forcing them to utter various sounds and give names to things. Even Cicero represents the first men as living with the wild beasts in the forests, but not as Moses, who speaks of the lower animals as subject to man. Very different is the account which Ovid gives of the first of the human race, of their celestial origin and supreme au- thority. Quintilian also rises high above Cicero and others, and represents man as having moral sentiments by nature, and speech from the beginning, as " the choice gifts of God." Homer also represents man as a being distinguished by his power of articulate speech, calling him Maerops, which means articulate speaking. Dr. Johnson says, " Speech, if invented at all, must have been invented by children who were incapable of invention, or by men who were incapable of speech." Dr. Beattie well remarks, that if they lived so long without speech, as some maintain, they would hardly have thougiit of inventing words, seeing there were none used by all the dumb animals around them ; ad- ding, " Therefore, reason as well as history intimates that mankind in all ages have been speaking animals, the young having acquired this art by imitating those who were older ; and we may warrantably suppose that our first parents must have received it by immediate inspiration." And wdiat is true of speech is true of everything else which was necessary to man's piety, comfort, and improvement, although all things may not have been bestowed in high- est perfection and fullest abundance at once. As man could not make himself at first, neither could he instruct himself in speech and knowledge. And yet there are those who seem doubtful as to this. " The important point (says one of the Humboldts) has not yet been re- solved, whether the savage state which, in America, has been found in different gradations, is to be looked upon as THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 507 the dawning of society about to rise, or whetlier it is not rather tlie fading remains of one sinking among storms, — overthrown and. shattered by overwhelming catastrophes. To me tlie hitter seems nearer the truth than the former." "The famous historian, Niebuhr, (according to Archbisliop Whately,) is said to have recorded his full conviction that all savages are the degenerate remnants of more civilized races, which had been overpowered by enemies and driven to take refuge in the woods, there to wander, seeking a precarious subsistence, till they had forgotten most of the arts of settled life, and sunk into a wild state." Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, of Princeton College, in his able treatise on the diversities of color in the human race, speaks more boldly, saying that the savage state could not have been that of the earliest generations; that such a state is contrary to all reason and history ; that not only did the savage state degenerate from the most civilized, but that life itself could not have been preserved if the first generation had been wholly untaught.* The opponents of this infidel doctrine, viz., that the sav- age state is the original and natural state of man, appeal to all history, and afiirm that it can afford no instance of any tribe or nation which was once in a savage state, that has recovered from it and risen to a civilized one without aid from the civilized who have intermingled wdth them. They appeal to the present condition of the American tribes, who have continued the same that they were in the days of Columbus, except in those few instances where they have been influenced by Christian missionaries and civilized neighbors. They also refer to the whole conti- nent of Africa, filled with tribes of savages for a long series of ages, not one of which has made any advance to civil- * r have taken these quotations from the admirable lecture of Archbishop Whately, prepared for the Youug Men's Association in London, in the year 1855. 508 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. ization except as tliey have come in contact with Euro- peans. These tribes are compared with their descendants in America, who, though in a state of slavery, have be- come, by intercourse with the civilized, fjir superior to those in Africa. What are all the accounts of the most ancient historians concerning the travels and conquests of Hercules, Cadmus, Prometheus, Bacchus, Dionusus, and others, but of heroes and colonies going into the various countries settled by the dispersed from Babel, teaching them letters and the arts, which they had forgotten in the forests to which they had migrated ? The savage state of man is that of the hunter in the wild woods. Agriculture and horticulture are the evidences of advancing civiliza- tion. Our first parents were placed in a rich garden, to dress it and keep it. Their children were not liunters. Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel a keeper of sheep. The second father of the human race was an hus- bandman. The ferocious ISTimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord ; and when the rebellious followers of Nim- rod were scattered over the earth, they became hunters and savages in many of the countries thereof, especially in Europe and the northern parts of Asia. Egypt, Babylo- nia, and Asia Minor continued to be the seats of civiliza- tion, and from thence colonies went forth and brought back the savage tribes to primitive arts, letters, and reiinement. No traces of savage life can be found before the deluge, and none after it until the dispersion. Arts and knowledge never ceased along the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Nile, and the parts adjacent. Here was the leaven preserved which was to leaven all Europe and Asia in after times. To these countries for centuries did the lovers of learning go in search of wisdom. From these countries did the skilful architects go forth throughout all lands, building temples and monuments to be the wonder of after times, — even of this day. The superior refinement and architectural skill of THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 509 the Mexicans and Peruvians are believed to have come from the same source. The resemblance not only of their relig- ious opinions, but of their buildings and arts, points to Eu- rope and Asia as the source from whence they came, while those emigrants which settled in North America, pre- ferring the hunter's life, soon degenerated into wild sav- ages, and continue so to this day. The confusion of lan- guages which took place at Babel, and which has been increasing ever since, doubtless contributed much to the degeneracy of man towards the savage state. Great must have been the crime and corruption which brought such heavy judgments upon the human race. Let us hope that the work begun in the day of Pentecost, when the gift of tongues was granted to so many preachers, and so many heard the words of the Lord declared in their various tongues, and which lias been carried on by missionaries learned in the languages, and especially in the translation of the Bible into numerous dialects, may go forward until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. And since the labors of the learned are continually finding out connections between the multitudinous languages now spoken and written, tracing them all to three or four orig- inals, who shall say but that the number of languages may be continually decreasing until some few shall swallow up the rest, and the nations be the more easily persuaded to cast their idols to the moles and bats, and to worship with one heart and mind, if not with one tongue, as at first, the true and great " i Am ? " That the arts flourished among the antediluvians we know from the sacred narrative. Cain, the first-born son, instead of living in the woods among inferior animals, tilled the ground and built a city. In a few centuries and generations we read of the harp and the organ, and of ar- tificers in brass and iron ; and before the seventeenth cen- tury, according to common computation, such was the per- 510 .THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. fectioii of sliip building, — as probably of other edifices, — that ISToah constructed one of the most stupendous and per- fect of human works — -the sacred ark, supposed to have borne in its bosom one hundred thousand tons. Not only Noali, but liis sons must have carried with them into the ark, and from it into the new world, the knowledge of the arts and sciences, and distributed the same among their descendants. And if Archbishop Usher and those agree- ing with him be correct, and the tower of Babel was built within a hundred years after the deluge, we have in that an evidence of the continued knowledge and skill in architec- ture of the highest order, for it must have been one of the mightiest edifices that ever rested on this earth, or lifted its head towards the heavens. Kor was the art ever for- gotten. It soon began to follow the dispersed families through the earth, and helped to recover them from the savage state into which they sunk amid the forests of Eu- rope and Africa. If Egypt did, even for a short time and in a measure, decline from man's natural state, — that of civilization, — it must soon have recovered it by means of colonies from Babylonia, as her mighty pyramids and tem- ples, arts and sciences, prove. Truly has it been said of even the present remains of Egyptian greatness — " O qnam te dicam bonam, Antehac fuisse, tales cum siat rcliquige." In regard to all the fine things the poets and some senti- mental philosophers have uttered about the state of nature, in which they suppose men to have been born, and in which so many now live, I will only say, with Archbishop Whately, " As to the alleged advantages of savage life, the freedom enjoyed by man in a wild state, the pure simplic- ity, magnanimity, and generosity of character which he exhibits, — I need not, I trust, detain you by offering proof THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN. 511 that all this exists only in poems and romances, or in the theories of the well-known Rousseau. The liberty enjoyed by the savage consists in his being left free to oppress and plunder any one who is weaker than himself, and of being exposed to the same treatment from those who are stronger. His boasted simplicity consists merely in grossness of taste, improvidence, and ignorance. His virtue merely amounts to this, that though not less covetous, envious, and mali- cious than civilized man, he wants the skill to be as dan- gerous as one of equally depraved character, but more in- telligent and better informed." Such was not man as he came forth from his Maker's hands, only a little lower than the angels, — being in the image of God as to knowledge and holiness, — when he dwelt in the garden of Eden, or even as he was on the outside of it, still beholding and remembering what he was, and having the hope of one day reaching a higher and happier one above." * See two admirable articles, on the subject treated of ia the foregoing chap- ter, by President Lindsley, of Nashville College, Teuuesaee, in the " Biblical Re- pository," published at Andover in the year 1840. CHAPTER XXXVII. ON THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. The great apparent diversity in the linmaii family, as to complexion, form, disposition, and mental power, has led to the inqniry whether it had one and the same origin. A doubt on this subject is scepticism as to our holy religion. A denial of one origin is a denial of the Mosaic history, and a disproof of it must be fatal to the wdiole Christian system. If there be such and so great viiriety from the lirst, how can one moral code answer for all, either for this present life or for the judgment of the great day? What a wide door would this open to licentiousness, by making every man his own lawgiver, according to his origin, since God has not given us vai'ious codes. For which of the races did Christ die ? Which of these varieties did he assume? It is written, "As in xVdam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive ;" and that " God hath made of one blood all the nations upon earth." Surely nothing can more strongly set forth the identity of the human race than these words of the apostle: "As the blood courses through the body, binding together and giv- ing life to all the members, so the whole human family is bound together by one blood or nature." Should it be said that although a number of first pairs were made in differ- ent countries and times, yet God, with whom all things are possible, could easily have made them so alike, so identical, as that one code of morals and religion might UKITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 513 answer for all now, and one rule of judgment answer for all at the great day, — we replj, that such is too unphilo- sophical, and too contrary to God's mode of proceeding with the various orders of beings on earth, to satisfy even the objectors themselves ; and that, if such had been the case, tradition and history would liave been full of these different creations. What does the oldest of all histories, — the book of Genesis, — say on this point? It gives us the particulars of the creation of one man and one woman in Eden, of their children, and the settlement of the same throughout the old world, without an allusion to the crea- tion of any others — these being sufficient for the peopling of the old world before the flood. It tells us of one family being miraculously preserved in the ark, while all the rest of mankind was destroyed. Kot a hint is there of any person dwelling in some distant part of the earth being saved, or any new creation of human beings in order to replenish the earth. All subsequent scriptures recognize this as tlie true account, and not a word, from Genesis to Revelation, can be so tortured as to countenance a dif- ferent doctrine. If such a remarkable fact as the crea- tion of different pairs of parents to mankind, in different countries and climates, and of any different character and appearance, had occurred, surely Moses, in enumerating all the different animals which God made, and the differ- ent families before and after the flood, must have made some reference to it. He tells us of giants before the flood, but never intimates a different origin for them. And now, if we adapt and apply the principle of our book, and see what other histories and traditions testify as to this point, we shall be strengthened in our conviction of the truth of the Mosaic account of the human family. If there had been these different creations of men, what a theme would there have been therein afforded for the wild fictions of tlie poets, and the dreams of the philosophers ! 514 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Chaotic as the mytholog}'- of the heathen was, numerous as were their gods, rivals and enemies as they often were, how much more so if such ground had been furnished for multiplying their hero-gods, and engaging them in angry contests ! We have seen, in the previous chapters of this book, how many of the ancient traditions point to the fact of the formation of two first parents of the human race, of their Asiatic birthplace, of their fall from primitive holiness and happiness, of the destruction of the race by a deluge with the exception of one family, from whom alone the world was replenished. The first parents, Chronos or Saturn, and Rhea, were born of Coelus and Terra, — that is, made by God out of Terra or earth, — whose sons, Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune, divided the earth be- tween them ; Jupiter marrying his own sister, as must needs have been, and calling her his sister-wife. Different nations may have claimed for themselves the honor of the birthplace of the human race, as also of the mount on which the ark rested, but they all speak of one and the same origin of man, and the one great deluge. The his- tory of the confusion of languages at Babel, and the mul- tiplication of them ever since, is another testimony to the unity of the human race. Had there been various fami- lies created, different languages would have been the un- avoidable result, both before and after the flood, and there would have been no difficult}^ in accounting for the variety of tongues. But not only sacred history, but profane tradition informs us, that before the dispersion from Babel all were of one speech ; that the diversity of lan- guage commenced at that time. Moreover, sacred and profane history agree most remarkably as to the settle- ment of the earth by those who survived the deluge ; all the families issuing from Central Asia, where the de- scendants of Noah dwelt for a period. If there was any part of the world where a new crea- UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 515 tion was necessary, that part was America ; Liit tlie traditions of tlie Peruvians, Mexicans, and the more northern tribes, all declare that their ancestors came from the other hem- isphere, and the identity of their religions principles and worship with that of the Asiatics, Europeans, and Afri- cans, establishes the fact. Although the character and object of this book only call for a statement of the scriptural account of the unity of the races, and such confirmation of the same as tradition and mythology confirm, yet, since the subject is one of deep interest and importance at the present time by reason of the assaults made upon our holy religion through doubts insinuated as to the unity of the human race, we shall be excused for a brief allusion to some of the principal defences of it by the learned of our day. First : It is asserted, not merely of man, but of the various races of animals, that they originated from one pair, made by the hands of God himself ; as one proof of which it is affirmed that they cannot intermingle, and then perpetuate the hybrid or mixed race which results, beyond one gen- eration. Thus, the mule is the progeny of the ass and the horse, but never goes further. Many animals of the same species become, by the operation of the circumstances of climate, food, etc., very different from each other, and form what are called varieties ; but then these varieties can intermingle, and yet perpetuate their offs])ring. Not so with those originally distinct. Thus with men : had they been, from the first, distinct races, as some maintain, they must, according to the laws established for the animal race, have continued distinct ; whereas, in all ages and countries we see them intermarrying and perpetuating the human race, — the color, features, form, etc., being only modified according as the offspring partook of the pecu- liarities of the parents. Second : It is contended by some, who deny the unity of 510 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. the linman race as tlie result of tlie formation of one pair originally, that the great diversities of color and confor- mation of the body are opposed to the doctrine ; but these objectors arc all thrown into confusion when they come to settle the question as to the number of the original types. Some say only three ; others, seventeen ; others, all the numbers between three and seventeen, N"or is this at all wonderful, considering the almost endless diversities of the human race in some particulars, none of which, how- ever, aifecting the main features of resemblance and iden- tity. The difficulties attending a satisfactory account of the varieties of the human race on the supposition that all are descended from one pair, are as nothing compared to those which belong to the question of the number of types originally formed, on the theory of different creations. The subject of color is the great stumbling-block to many. It is asked, How is it possible, in so short a time, for any amount of heat from the sun, or reflection from the arid sand, or exposure, to produce the negro color, such as it exists in large portions of Africa, and has existed from an early period after the deluge ? A recent infidel writer affirms that there are monuments in Egypt establishing the existence of this color in the human body twenty-four hundred years before Christ, which might be beyond the deluge. But even supposing that these monuments were thus ancient, and were not the imposition of later years, as we are persuaded is the case, and that tliey were older than the flood, who can say that there was no dark complexion before the deluge, ])roduced by the same causes whicli have produced tliem since ? Ko one can undertake to aftirm or deny it. Some there are who account for the tln-ee leading colors of men, — the fair, the tawny, and the black, — by contending tluit, by an act of providence, these three were impressed upon the three sons of Noah ; that UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 517 Japlaeth was fair, Sliem tawny, and Ilam black; that their descendants inherited the color of the fathers. Be- sides the want of any scriptural authority for this theory, well attested history is against it, for manj'- of the descend- ants of Ilani in various countries w^ere fair, and tawny ; while some of the descendants of Shem in South India, even in the time of Homer, were black, and many of the descendants of Ilam in Africa, from Egypt to Mount At- las, along the Mediterranean, were tawnj^ colored. We must therefore resort to the able work of Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith* on color, written more than sixty years ago, for the most satisfactory explanation of the causes of the difference in shades and colors which have distin- guished the races of men from an early jjeriod, viz: the operation of heat and exposure, sickness, and hard fare, to which the Africans of the interior have been peculiarl}'- subjected. According to his reasons, the dark color of the Africans may have been hastened by the fact that Mis- raim, or Phut, the sons of Ham, one of whom was the an- cestor of the more central Africans, may at his birth have been of a darker color, as is often the ease in the fairest families. He may have married a wife of similar com- plexion, and thus a darker hue have been transmitted to their posterity ; and that posterity, being subjected to a tropical sun in a sickl3^, bilious region, exposed to all the hardships of savage life, may have become darker and darker in color, and more and more gross in their features, and thus the varieties of the African race have resulted. In a similar way may we, in some measure, account for all the varieties in all the tribes and nations of the earth. Third : Another argument in favor of the unity of the human race is drawn from the study of languages, an- cient and modern. Its force is accumulating in proportion as the learned are making researches into the primary words or roots of the nunterous languages of the earth, 518 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and finding out tlie identity of their origin. Sir "William Jones began this work in Asia more than half a century since : the most learned linguists in Europe have followed in his steps. One worthy American, Professor Schoolcraft, has, under the patronage of Congress, established the fact that the languages of the aboi'igines of America may be traced to those few tongues which Sir William Jones and others have shown to be the languages of those dispersed from the tower of Babel, which few might be traced, doubt- less, to tlie one spoken by the family of Noah in the ark, and thus to the first parents of the human race ; although no man can now undertake to say which of those carried away from Babel partook most largely of the language of paradise. Fourth, and finally : But the great and overpowering argument in favor of the one origin of the human race is, the exact adaptation of one religion to all the varieties thereof. We have seen how human nature, in all ages and countries, has called for a religion which had one God above all, (though there were intervening and mediating deities,) which had atoning sacrifices, divine assistance, and future rewards and punishments; and notwithstanding all the perversions and corruptions of the same, these things surely pointed to a common origin, which is now more certainly established by the fact of the admirable suit- ableness of our holy religion to the wants of all mankind. Wherever the Christian religion is taught and embraced, whether in heathen or Christian lands, it is understood, felt, and acted upon in the same way, whether by the king on his throne, or the peasant in his cot. I conclude with the following passage from the admira- ble treatise of Dr. Cabell, Professor in the University of Virginia, on the unity of the human race. " The unity of the human race must be considered a fundamental and accepted truth. Every department of UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 519 knowledge has been searclied for evidence, and all respond with a uniform testimony. The physical structure, con- stitution, and habits of the race, the mode in which it is produced, in which it exists, in which it perishes, every thing wliich touches its mere animal existence, demon- strates the absolute certainty of its unity, so that no otlier generalization of physiology is more clear and more sure. Kising one step, to the highest manifestation of man's phys- ical organization, his use of language and the power of connected speech — the most profound survey of this most complex and tedious part of knowledge conducts the in- quirer to no conclusion more indubitable than that there is a common origin, a common oi'ganization, a common nature, underlying and running through this endless va- riety of a common power, peculiar to the race and to it alone. Thus, a second science, Philology, has borne its marvellous testimony. "Rising one more step, and passing more completely to a higher region, we find the rational and moral nature of men, of every age and kindred, absolutely the same : — those great faculties by wdiich man alone, and yet by which every man perceives that there is in things that distinction which we call true and false, and that otlier distinction which we call good and evil ; upon which dis- tinctions and which faculties rest at last the moral and intellectual destinies of the entire race, belonging to us as men, without which we are not men, with which we are the head of the visible creation of God. So has a tliird science, a science which treats of the whole moral consti- tution of man, embracing in its wide scope many subor- dinate sciences, delivered its testimony. If we rise another step, and survey man as he is gathered into families and tribes and nations, with an endless variety of develop- ment, we still behold the broad foundations of a common nature reposing under all, the grand principles of a com- 520 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. mon "being ruling in tlie midst of all. So a fourth and the youngest of the sciences. Ethnology, brings her trib- ute. "And now, from this lofty summit survej' the whole track of ages, in their length and in their breadth ; scru- tinize the recorded annals of mankind : there is not one page on which one fact is written which favors the his- torical idea of a diversity of nature or origin, while the whole scope of human story involves, assumes, and pro- claims, as the first and grandest historic truth, the abso- lute unity of the race. And tlien, mounting from earth to heaven, ask God — the God of truth — and he will tell you that the foundation truth of all his works of creation and of providence is the sublime certainty that our race was created in his own image and of one blood ; and thereuj)- on, when they had fallen, he offered to them a common salvation through his only-begotten Son, made manifest in their common nature. "A bond of common brotherhood unites every portion of the race ; it is felt the most keenly by those who are the most exalted ; and even in the most abject, its weak pulsations will still live to attest the depth of the truth, that our race is one. It is in the life and doctrine of Jesus Christ that this profound instinct of human nature finds itself exalted into one of the grandest truths of religion, and invested with the sanction of heaven. In Him the conception of this universal brotherhood, which nature teaches and all knowledge fortifies, becomes a precious, living truth." UKITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 521 ADDITIOXAL AS TO THE UNITY OF THE HUMxlN RACE. " Why Imman beings," says Dr. Cabell, " should have ever directed their wanderings to the regions of perpetual winter, we do not think it necessary to inquire. We will, however, venture to remark, that since the plan of God's wise providence has included the partial occupation by man of these inhospitable climes, there is no more diffi- culty in conceiving that he may have effected this by dis- posing a portion of his rational creatures to select such a home, than there would be in recognizing his power to create a distinct type of mankind as an autochthon (orig- inal) of the soil." Dr. Cabell is here combating the the- ory of those who maintain tliat different races must have been formed to suit the different climates and latitudes, as the Esquimaux and others. He quotes Lyell's celebrated work in explanation of the fact that such barren and cold regions were settled at so early a period : "In an early stage of society, the necessity of hunting acts as a prin- ciple of repulsion, causing men to spread with the greatest rapidity over a country until the whole is covered Avith scattered settlements. It has been calculated that eight hundred acres of hunting-ground produce only as much food as half an acre of arable land. When the game has been in a measure exhausted, and a state of pasturage succeeds, the several hunter tribes, being already scattered, may multiply in a short time into the greatest number which the pastoral state is capable of sustaining." "Tlie necessity," says Brand, " thus imposed upon the savage states of dispersing themselves far and wide over the country, affords a reason why at an early period the worst parts of the earth may have become inhabited." Sir Charles Lyell adduces many instances of shipwreck in proof of the mode in which the inhabitants of the old 523 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, world may have been at an early period cast on the shores of the American continent, and become the first colonists, so as to supersede the necessity of a separate creation ac- cording to the infidel theory. He says that Cooke, Foster, and others affirm that parties of savages in their canoes must have often lost their way, and been driven on dis- tant shores, where they were forced to remain, deprived both of the means and of the requisite intelligence for re- turning to their own country. Captain Cook found, on the Island of Wateeo, three inhabitants of Otaheite, who had been drifted thither in a canoe, although the distance between the islands is five hundred and fifty miles. Other instances are mentioned of crews in canoes, with men, women, and children, being drifted from two to eight hundred miles. One instance is mentioned of a party being drifted fifteen hundred miles. They were in the open sea for eight months, according to their reckoning by the moon, making a knot in a cord at every new moon : being expert fishermen, they subsisted entirely on the produce of the sea, and when the rain fell, laid in as much fresh water as they had vessels to contain it. The space traversed, in some instances, says Mr. Lyell, was so great, that similar accidents might suffice to trans- port canoes from various parts of Africa to the shores of South America, and from Spain to the Azores, and thence to Kortli America, so that mankind in a rude state of so- ciety is liable to be scattered involuntarily by the winds and waves over the globe in a manner singularly an- alogous to that in which many plants and animals are diffused. We have already mentioned Mr. Maury's opinion on the subject, but it deserves repetition and enlargement. In reply to some question put to him by Professor Schoel- craft, he says, "You wish me to state whether, in my UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 523 opinion, tlie Pacific Polynesian waters could have been navigated in early times, (supposing the winds had been then as they are now,) in boats and other rude vessels of the early ages. I answer, yes ; if you had a supply of pro- visions, you could run down the trades in the Pacific on a log ; there is no part of the world where nature would tempt a savage man more strongly to launch out upon the open sea with his bark, however frail. Most of those isl- ands are surrounded by coral reefs, between which and the shore the water is as smooth as a mill-pond. " In reply to your second question, as to the possibility of long voyages before the invention of the compass, I answer, that such chance voyages are not only possible, but more than probable. When we take into considera- tion the position of I^orth America with regard to Asia, of New Holland with regard to Africa, with the winds and currents of the ocean, it would have been more re- markable that America should not have been peopled from Asia, or New Holland from Africa, than that they should have been. Captain Kay, of the whale-ship Su- perior, fished two years ago in Behring Straits ; he saw canoes going from one continent to the other." Mr. Maury also speaks of a gulf stream from the shores of China. "Along its course westerly "winds are the pre- vailing winds, and we have well-authenticated instances in which these two agents (the gulf stream and the winds) have brought mariners in disabled vessels over to the coast of America." For further information on the subject of the human race, I refer to the chapter on the human family in Mr. Pendleton's recent work, " Science a Witness to the Bible," in which he adduces a number of illustrations and proofs of tlie views contained in Professor Cabell's book, which make it an excellent companion to the same. I also refer with pleasure to the argument drawn from the similarity 524 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. of the various languages of men, as used by Cardinal Wiseman in his masterly work on " Science and Revealed Religion." The whole work is recommended to the reader as full of striking and interesting proofs that the God of nature and revelation is one and the same ; that the Bible rightly understood, and science well established, are in perfect harmony. On the subject of the common origin of languages, the cardinal says it has been clearly proved that one group or family of languages pervaded a large part of Europe and Asia. The great members of this group or family are the Sanscrit, or ancient and sacred language of India ; the Persian, ancient and modern, formerly considered a Tartar dialect ; the Teutonic, with its various dialects, Sclavo- uian, Greek, and Latin, accompanied by its numerous de- rivations ; to which may be added the Celtic dialects. It has been found that new and important connections exist between these. The Teutonic dialects receive light from the language of Persia. The Latin language has remark- able points of contact with Russian and other Sclavonian idioms, and the theory of the Greek verbs cannot be understood without recourse to their parallels in San- scrit and Indian grammars. Thus may they all be traced up to one common source. The cardinal quotes the learned Alexander von Humboldt as saying, that "however insulated certain languages may at first ap- pear, however singular their caprices and idioms, all have an analogy among them." He says, " In eighty-three V American languages, examined by Messrs. Barton and Vater, one hundred and seventy words have been found, the roots of which appear to be the same, and numbers of them resemble the languages of the old world so strik- ingly as to force conviction upon the mind that they had their orig-in there. The structure of all the American languages leaves no room to doubt that they all form one UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 525 individual family, so strong is the grammatical analogy. Especially is this tlie case with the formation of the verbs, from one extremity of America to the other. Professor Schoolcraft, under the patronage of the Ameri- can government, has been for a number of years carrying on this investigation ; and in various articles, to be seen in his six folio volumes, has more and more clearly estab- lished the above in relation to the numerous dialects of the Korth American Indians. CHAPTER XXXVIII. ON THE ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. Before entering npon the consideration of these, we must, according to the plan of our work, inquire what there is in the Sacred Scriptures to which these oracles cor- respond, and to which they bear witness, as we believe there is nothing very general in the world which does not point to something which existed among God's people, either before or after the flood, or during both periods. The earliest use of the word Oracle in scripture was in reference to the covering of the ark or chest in which the laws of Moses were shut up, and from above which God manifested his will and delivered responses to Moses. It sometimes was designated "The holy of holies," in the temple where the ark was kept.* Dreams and visions, such as God sent to the patriarchs, and the interpretation of dreams such as Joseph and Daniel were inspired to give to Pharaoh, Darius, and Kebuchadnezzar, were also oracles, or answers from God. The answers to the high priest by means of certain signs and appearances on the urim and thummim, of the breast-plate, and the revela- tions to the prophets, were the oracles of God among the Jews. The recorded scriptures of the Old Testament are called the living oracles of God, in opposition to the false * It is somewhat remarkable that the tripod of the heathen oracles was orig- inally not a three-footed stool, but a chest or ark filled with stones — Ccelius. ORACLES OF THE HEATHElSr. 527 or dead oracles of the heathen, " If any man speak," says the apostle, "let him speak as the oracles of God." These are the oracles which all Christians are bound to consult in the momentous concerns of the soul, and with the assurance of a true and intelligible response. How long and how extensively God may have communicated by dreams and visions and angelic messages to the patri- archs, before the call of Abraham, and during his life in other than the chosen family, is not told us. That he did thus communicate with Melchisedec, Job, and others, we have good reason to believe. After the establishment of idolatry, the hero-gods began to be consulted in their tem- ples and caverns, and answers were sought for and said to be received ; but it is believed that this mode of consulting the Deity was rare, in the early ages. Homer only men- tions two of the oracles, — that of Jupiter Dodona in Epirus, and of Apollo at Delphi, in Phocis, near Mount Parnassus. These, with the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the des- erts of Libya, were the principal oracles. In process of time they became multiplied, so that in the small province of BoBotia there were not less than twenty-five, and the same number in Peloponnesus, the later hero-gods aspiring to the honor of having oracular temples. They are consulted not only on the more important questions of peace and war, or settling colonies, or changing governments, but even on tlie aflairs of private life. The oracular temples were usually located in deep forests, or steep, craggy places. Sometimes the tripod or chair on which the priest or priestess was seated was over the mouth of a cavern, and the vapor issuing from it was said to have a powerfully stimulating effect, inspiring or infuriating those who were upon it. The answers delivered were either in prose or verse, and were always in some mysterious or enigmatical or ambiguous form, so that in either event, whether fortu- nate or otherwise, the credit of the oracle might be sus- 528 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. tained. Oftentimes the answer was to be inferred, not from anything said, bnt from the fliglit of birds, or some appear- ance in tlie skj, or some nnnatnral sound, so tliat all was uncertaint}^ Still it is an admitted tact, that these oracles were held in high repute until the Christian era, when they rapidly declined, so that even that at Delphi was closed ; for Juvenal says, " Del phis oracula cessant. Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri."* If it were only the common people, and some very credu- lous and superstitious ones of the higher orders who be- lieved in them, we might account for it in the same way that we do for the popularity of the tribes of fortune-tel- lers and jugglers and astrologers, which have found em- ployment and gained some credit in all ages and countries, with a certain portion of mankind. But what shall we say to the countenance given to them and the use made of them by statesmen and generals and kings and philoso- phers? It is supposed by some that these did not really believe in them, but only used them to gain certain ob- jects with the credulous soldiers and people, when they wished to stimulate them to war or some great enterprise. It is well known that besides rich presents by which to propitiate the oracle, bribes were sometimes used to pro- cure a favorable answer, as with our fortune-tellers. It is also well known that a difference of opinion prevailed among the ancients as to their reliability. Eusebius, among the fathers of the Christian church, who believed that nothing but human ingenuity and fraud sustained * The most learned heathen were very much at a loss how to give a tolerable account of it. Porphyry says, " Since Jesus began to be worshipped, no man has received any public help or benefit from the gods." Christians under- stand how it is that the oracles wei-e deserted, in those words of our Lord : " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." All idolatry and falsehood are the works of the devil — " the prince of the powers of the air." ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN". 529 their declarations, sajs that there Avere not less than six linndred authors among tlie heathen themselves who wrote against the reality of the oracles. Although the fathers generally ascribed to them something superhuman, and said that the father of evil spirits aided them, yet there are those who think that for the most part this was considered the best method of arguing against tliem with the hea- then, viz., to charge them with collusion with the devil, though they regarded all their answers as the works of human fraud. Among the moderns different sides have been espoused. Bishop Sherlock contended that they were inspired by the father of lies. Dr. Middleton has taken the other side, maintaining that nothing but human sagac- ity and deception spoke from their oracles. That they did deliver some answers as to future events, of a most remark- able character, so as to gain them great credit, is too noto- rious to be denied. Their continuing for so long a period cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition of some- thing very remarkable in their character and conduct. The character of some of tliese answers ought to be examined into, in order that we may form a proper idea of the neces- sity for some supernatural assistance, whether of God or Satan, in order to make them. The ambiguous answer of the oracle of Delphi to Pyrrhus, when he wished to engage in a war with the Romans, requires no supernatural aid. It was a mere play upon words, — " Aio te Eacida, Roma- nes vincere posse ; " as it can be, with equal accuracy, grammatically rendered, " I know that you, O Pyrrhns, can conquer the Romans," or " That the Romans can con- quer you, O Pyrrhus." The oracle was safe, however the war might eventuate. But the famous answer to Croesus, king of Lydia, when about to engage in a war with Per- sia, is of a different character. Being doubtful of the oracle, Croesus determines first to try its superhuman knowledge, and sent a messenger, v/ho, at the end of a hundred days, 34 530 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. must inquire what the occupation of the king at that time would be. Tlie reply of the god was, "That he smelt the odor of a lamb boiled with a tortoise, while brass was at once above and beneath it," and such it was said was ac- tually his occupation at the time. It is clear that none but God, or some swift-winged spirit, could in a moment have flown from once place to another, or could communicate such information. "We can readily conceive that some exalted spirit might do this. But Croesus, wishing to be more sure, sent to inquire of the oracle whether he would be victorious in the proposed war : to which an ambig- uous answer was returned, viz., " That he would over- throw a great empire." In order to a true and positive answer to the last question, foreknowledge was necessary — an attribute of the Deity — wliich no being, human or angelic, possesses, except so far as God speaks by such a one. The oracle, therefore, resorts to ambiguity. Croe- sus, wishing to be yet more sure, inquires whether his power would ever be diminished. This also required knowledo-e of future events, and therefore the oracle resorts to a subterfuge, and advises the monarch to consult his safety by flight " whenever a mule should reign over the Medes;" which Crcesus understood as insuring him suc- cess, since a mule could not be king. But it turned out that the mule was Cyrus, the Medo-Persian, who united the two kingdoms of Medea and Persia, and conquered Croe- sus. In either event the credit of the oracle was secure. If Crossus was victorious and kept the kingdom, then the oracle had declared the truth, by saying that he m' ould be so until a mule should reign — a thing impossible. If he was overcome, then the oracle had prophesied it, and it was fulfilled in the union of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, by the conquest of Croesus. The first answer is therefore the only one which requires superhuman power, the others being ingenious subterfuges. The only ques- OEACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 531 tion therefore is, whether some superior being did aid these institutions. That the demons or hero-gods of the heathen did not and could not aid them, all who accej)t the scrip- tures must believe. God declares that Jupiter, Apollo, Minerva, and all the supposed deities of the different ora- cles, were nonentities, vanities, no gods, and of course could impart no knowledge whatever of things present or to come. Our God disavows all superintendence or gov- ernment over them, except such as he exerts over every- thing in the universe, and by which he derives some good out of all evil, and makes all things contribute to some wise end. But, although there are no gods such as the heathen worship, there are other beings besides men who are spoken of in scripture, called "principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness," who though not seen among men had something to do with men. Ancient mythologies have many traditions of such an order of malicious beings. The scripture makes frequent mention of them. It tells of an order of angels which was banished from heaven for pride and rebellion. At the time of our Saviour's resi- dence on earth they were numerous and most annoying. Although they knew who he was, and were forced to ac- knowledge his divine character, yet were they not re- strained from evil, but took possession of the bodies of men, and tormented them. This was doubtless permitted that the power and grace of Christ might be the more mani- fested in their discomhture. But there was one among them as a prince and leader, called Beelzebub, — " Prince of the devils," "Prince of the powers of the air," — who doubt- less possessed talents and abilities of the highest order, next perhaps to the God against whom he rebelled, and by whom he and his followers were cast out of heaven. He it was who first appeared on earth at the birthplace of our first parents, and under the guise of a serpent deceived them. He it is of whom we read in the books of Moses, 532 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. and Job, and the prophets, as the persevering enemy of the Imnian race. Ho it was who liad the daring to assail the Son of God by his temptation, and even perverted the oracles of God to induce him to violate his duty to the Father. AVith him the Saviour contended in the wilder- ness, and cast him down like lightning from heaven. 'Now the question before the Christian world, from the time of the fathers to the present day, is, whether God may not liave permitted thisanthor of all evil so far to influence the heathen oracles as to enable them to speak some remark- able things, whereby to establish great credit among men. God might, witiiout granting to him, or through him to others, his own attribute of prescience, allow to him the power of acquiring much knowledge of the affairs of men, and of rapid and invisible flight trom place to place, so as to answer the first question of Croesus, in reference to his occupation at a certain time and place, while he could not answer the otlier two, which required the divine power of foreknowledge, except by enigmas and subterfuges. Those who advocate this view of the devil's influence in oracles say, tliat God may have allowed it for the purpose of using his instrumentality in lavor of good, since the oracles, like the pagan mysteries at first, did advocate the cause of virtue and religion, No one can read the history of Greece, as given by Herodotus, and borrowed from him by others, in that most interesting and critical period when the millions from Asia, under Xerxes, Darius, and Mardonius seemed about to devour the little liandful of Athenian Spar- tans, without admiring and acknowledging the spirit of humble dependence on some superior beings which was shown by their constant appeals to the gods and oracles, before the almost incredible escapes and victories which signalized that most eventful period. Herodotus, though evidently not much inclined to favor the oracles, yet says that he dare not disbelieve them. Their encouraging re- ORACLES OF THE HEATHE^T. 533 sponses, whether the result of bribery and corruption or of anvthino; else, certainlv had the effect of stiuiulatine: to the most daring deeds of defensive war that the history of man has ever furnished.* But in opposition to the belief of superhuman assistance and inspiration to the oracles, from the great enemy of snankind and father of lies, it is asked, Can it be believed that God, to whom this wicked one is subject, would allow him thus to deceive the world and give encouragement to falsehood and idolatry ? To this it may be answered, that God permitted him in the form of a serpent to tempt and deceive our first parents, and to continue his evil influence over men to this day ; he was permitted to put it into the Iieart of Judas to betray our Lord, and into the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost; he has permitted him to appear sometimes in the garb of an angel of light, to "deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." Sometimes * In cue place Herodotus says, " In thus speaking of them, (the oracles,) may I meet witb indulgence both from gods and heroes." In another place, speak- ing of some things which occurred during the wars between the Athenians and Persians, he saj-s, " I neither dare myself to say anything against oracles nor allow othere to do so." The wonderful deliverances of the Greeks at that time raised the oracles of the gods to high esteem. The language which Herodotus puts into their mouths is remarkable. The Athenians, refusing to accept the terms of Xerxes by Mardonius, said, "We will trust in the gods who fight for us, and in the heroes whose images and temples he has burnt." While supplica- ting Apollo at Delphi, during the war with Xerxes, they said, " We will never depart from thy sanctuary without a favorable answer, but will remain here un- til we die ;" reminding us of wrestling Jacob who became prevailing Israel, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." After the defeat of the Persians, Themistocles is made to say, " We have not wrought this deliverance ourselves, but the gods and the heroes, who were jealous that one man should reign over both Europe and Asia, and he unholy and wicked." The piety of the Greeks is compared to the impiety of Xerxes, who scourged the Hellespont for having de- stroyed his fleet. The fatalism of the Persians is also spoken of by Herodotus. Ue says that one of the Persians who heard it himself, told him that a great man in the army of Mardonius, before the battle of Platca. predicted the destruction of the army, saying, " That which is fated by the Deity to happen, must be ; it is impossible for man to avert. We follow by being bound by necessity." 584 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. lie goes through the eartli like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. It seems to belong to tlie nature and condition of men, while under probation, to V)e exposed to some tem])tation, but it is also a part of that condition to be able to resist such temptation. In opposition to tlie language of some who say we are under tlie necessity of yielding to tempta- tion, God declares, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man ; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed ; and lust when it has conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." This declaration of God we may undoubtedly apply to the temptation of our first parents and all of their children by the devil. Had God sent liira forth into the world with irresistible power to do evil ; had our first parents been left alone in ])aradise with the deceitful tempter and witli no power to i-esist liim ; had not God given them a law, and been near at hand to aid them to obey it, there might have been cause to complain that he was a hard task-master, laying on man more than he was able to bear. But the language of God to our first parents and his treat- ment of them plainly show that they did not sin igno- rantly and under any avoidable necessity, tlirough the power of tlie devil. So it has been ever since, with the whole race of man- kind ; they have been exposed to temptation from the evil one — " the prince of this world" — and yet he has not had almighty and irresistible power, iLimits have been set to that power by God himself. Even though he may have been permitted to do and say some wonderful things through the oracles, which turned out to be true, for the most part he failed, was the father of lies, and constant apologies for the oracles were required. God never per- ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 635 mitted him to interfere with the free agency necessary to man in his probationary state. He had his chain, and that chain was in the hand of God, who said to him — " Thus far shalt thou go, and no fiirtlier." We need not fear to admit that this wise and artful being might be permitted by God to create some mischief among men by means of oracles, and the superhuman answers made through them, since he was permitted, through the instrumentality of a serpent, to do mischief in paradise. God permits evil men to be seducers, and yet not to force others to yield to their seductions. He gives the power of resistance to us, and calls on us to ex- ert it, and j)romises divine assistance to enable us to resist evil and do good ; we have also good men to allure us into the paths of duty, in opposition to those who would lead us into evil. So, in opposition to the evil persuasions of the devil and his angels, we have good angels to help us in our efforts of piety. Moreover, our Lord said that " He that is for us is greater than ho that is against us." It is promised that if we " resist the devil, he will flee from us," and that we shall in the end " beat him down under our feet." We conclude, therefore, that there is nothing unscriptural in the argument for Satanic influence over the pagan oracles, though we are not required to believe it, because the scriptures do not enjoin the belief. That the devil has exerted great power through the false priests of false religions, we may infer from the facts recorded in scripture concerning the rod of Moses. When it was turned into a serpent, Pharaoh's servants did the same, but it was permitted only that Moses' rod might swallow up theirs, and thus show who was the true God. Simon the sorcerer, and the seven sons of Sceva the Jew, who by their craft made much gain, may have been ena- bled by Satan to do some wonderful things, but we see what use the apostles made of them. 536 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. We read, says Mr, Faber, in the "Acts of the Apostles," of a young female who was possessed with a spirit of divination, according to our version, but with a sf)irit of Python, according to the original Greek. This spirit ena- bled her to utter certain oracular responses, by which con- siderable jDrofit accrued to her master. When she beheld Paul and his companions, the spirit was compelled to tes- tify through her organs that they were the servants of the most high God, and that they came to teach the way of salvation. At length the apostle, grieved to see such things, charged the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. This adjuration it was constrained to obey. Now, according to the plain and unvarnished im- port of this narrative, the young female was possessed by an evil- spirit, which compelled her to utter responses of an oracular nature. The spirit was an intelligent and liv- ing agent, as appears from his conveying to the girl a clear knowledge of the character and office of St. Paul. And he is denominated a spirit of Python, which is the precise name of the Delphic serpent that was slain by Apollo, but which delivered oracles from a sacred cave in Mount Parnassus. This fabulous monster, as it is well known, communicated the title of Pythius to the god, and of Pythia to his oracular priestess, who was supposed to receive the vapor of inspiration through the cleft of a rock. Putting these matters together, says Mr. Faber, we cer- tainly seem to collect that there was something more than mere juggling imposture in the responses of the ancient oracles. From a careful examination of the oi^inions of many of the most judicious as well as learned writers, ancient and modern, I find such to have been their prevailing im- pressions, though there be some diversity of sentiment among them. CHAPTER XXXIX. ON THE SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE AND FfS RELIGION TO ALL OTHER BOOKS AND RELIGIONS. Although man must be considered a religious being by nature, so far as to have religious instincts inclining him to receive the invisible things of God and of another life, still there is also in him an evil heart of unbelief, inclin- ing him to doubt many things in our sacred books, as well as those fables which are found in the pagan mythologies. We have endeavored to furnish an antidote to this dispo- sition, so far as it regards the Bible, by presenting an ar- gument in its behalf draAvn from opposing systems. There are some things in those systems which are well calculated to encourage unbelief in the reader as to all religion ; while there are other things which, rightly used, should have a different eftect. We have endeavored to make that right use, by showing that what is good and true in the pagan systems must have come from the same source with the Bible itself. In drawing our work to a close, we purpose to strengthen our argument by a brief compari- son of the mixed and imperfect systems of men with the pure and perfect one of God, as seen in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. It has been rightly said, that " Truth is the greatest gift which God can bestow, or man receive." The Bible is emphatically called the " word of truth." Compared with it, all other books, ex- cept so far as drawn from the same source, are but the 538 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. cunningly-devised fables of men. This has been " tried • to the uttermost" by the sophistries of infidels, the re- searches of the wise, and the practical experiment of its virtue and power on the hearts and lives of millions, and has proved itself to be that " word of the Lcfi'd which is settled forever in heaven." Tliis alone, among all other books, is "perfect, entire, wanting nothing." It has been the only thing of the kind which has been allowed to get old. All other ancient books have only been seen in frag- ments and corrupted versions. God has kept this as the apple of his eye, placing it in the very bosom of his church, against which the gates of hell have not been al- lowed to prevail, so as to carry away any of it. Although the devil may sometimes take a portion of the word, as read or heard, out of the hearts of men, he has never been permitted to steal it out of the hands of God's church. When our Lord was on earth, though upbraid- ing the Jews with so much misunderstanding and perver- sion of his word, he never charged them with mutilating it, so faithfully had it been kept.* Pursuing, as far as may be, the plan of our book, we first adduce some passages from scripture descriptive of their own character. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, * Cardinal Wiseman, in speaking of the integrity of the scriptures as proved by a comparison of all the various readings and versions of the same, says, "Although the fathers of every age have been gleaned for these readings, al- though the versions of every nation have been ransacked for their renderings, although the manuscripts of every age, from the sixteenth to the third century, have been again and again visited by industrious swarms, yet has nothing been discovered, — no, not one single various reading, — which can throw doubt upon any passage before considered certain and decisive in favor of any important doc- trine." He mentions the fact that Dr. Buchanan bought a Hebrew manuscript used by the black Jews of India, who had for ages been cut off from all com- munication with other parts of the world. It was the fragment of an immense roll, which must have been originally ninety feet long. It was written at dif- ferent times and by different persons, and contains a considerable portion of the Pentateuch. On a comparison of it with a standard edition of the Penta- teuch, it is found to contain no various reading of the least importance. SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 539 — the poet laureate of heaven, — who lived in the Angiis- tan age of Hebrew literature, says, "The words of the Lord are pure words ; as silver tried in a furnace, purified seven times." In answer to prayer, his " eyes had been opened to see wondrous things out of the laAv." He had also hid it in the deep of his heart, and had kept it. Thus was he made wiser than his enemies, wiser than his teachers, wiser than the aged. Thus does he describe it : " Tlie law of the Lord is an undefiled law, converting the soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, and giveth wis- dom unto the simple ; the statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant taught, and in keeping of them there is great reward." If we study this book, hiding it in our hearts — eating it, as the prophet bids — we shall ex- perience the truth of these words : " The entrance of thy word gives light," and shall find ourselves ever exclaim- ing, "Thy testimonies, O Lord, are wonderful." But David only spoke of the scriptures of the Old Testament before his time. Let us hear what St. Paul says of the same, as enlarged by later prophets, by our Lord, and the apostles. He Avas a man of letters as well as grace, un- derstood profane as well as sacred literature. Though once caught up into the third heaven, and seeing unutter- able things, he returned to the earth to study as well as teach Sacred Scriptures. "All scripture," he says, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doc- trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- eousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The psalms of David for devotion, and Paul's epistles 540 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. for doctrine, seem to comprise all other scriptures on these points. The learned Salmasius, on his death-bed, said, " Had I but one year more to live, I would spend it in reading David's psalms and St. Paul's epistles." " I have seen an end of all perfection," said David ; " but thy commandment, O God, is exceeding broad." Per- haps these words comprehend more than commentators usually ascribe to them. David may have known all that was true and good in other systems of religion, but found that the commandment or word of God was ex- ceeding broad, extending and spreading far beyond all of them. Other systems cover only a few corners of the field of revelation, this occupies the whole area. Let us hear the testimonies of some, who, though unin- spired among Christians, come as near as practicable to the plan of our book. The learned Selden was a great scholar and reader, and had the largest library, perhaps, in his day. In a conference with Archbishop Usher, just before his death, he said, that "notwithstanding he- had possessed himself of such a vast treasure of books and manuscripts on all ancient subjects, yet he could rest his soul on none but the scriptures." Sir Matthew Hale, in a letter to one of his sons, thus testifies : " I have been ac- quainted somewhat with men and books ; I have had long experience in learning and in the world ; there is no book like the Bible for excellent learning, wisdom, and use ; and it is want of understanding in them who think or speak otherwise." The king of Sicily once said to the celebrated Petrarch, " I tell thee, my Petrarch, these holy letters are dearer to me than my kingdom, and were I under necessity of quitting one of them, it should be my diadem." To these I only add the motto of this book. The learned John Locke, on his death-bed, after spend- ing twenty years chiefly in the examination of the sacred writings, said to a young friend at his bedside, '• Study SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 541 these books ; tliey have God for their author, salvation for their end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for their matter." The power of divine truth is strikingly set forth in the historical fact, that it did more to wean the Jews from idolatry than all the miracles and judgments of God in their behalf ; thus explaining and fulfilling the words of our Lord, " They have Moses and the prophets ; if they believe not these, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead." After the Jews, by the decree of Cyrus, had returned to their land, and, by the favor of Darius, the temple had been rebuilt, the worship restored, and the Sacred Scriptures multiplied throughout the land and expounded from the pulpit, in the time of Ezra and Neheniiah, the people re- turned no more to idolatry. What all their previous and long captivities and heavy judgments had failed to do, was now effected by the Sacred Scriptures ; and though the heavens do declare the glory of God and tlie firma- ment showeth his handywork, and philosophers had been pointing to these, and all nature had been teaching God for four thousand years, yet one has well asked, " How much did men learn ? " and truly answered, " Xot as much as a mother teaches her child out of the Bible in half an hour;" adding, "the Bible must teach us the God who is in nature before we can find him there. To the heathen every thing was god but God himself"* Pantheism has ever been the most universal religion ; Mohammedanism comes nearest to it, and has done some good by rooting * See an interesting discourse by the Rer. C. P. Krauth, of Philadelpliia, en- titled "The Bible a Perfect Book." See also the excellent things said in the volumes of Taj'ler Lewis, in praise of the Bible, especially as to the religious names of scripture. Mr. Lewis, in his work " The Divine Human in Scrip- ture," praises the Bible as being " the most translatable of all books." What book has ever been translated into so many languages? What book would bear it ? What an advantage this over all other books ! 642 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. or driving out some that were worse. " It was a mon- strous plagiarism from the Bible ; it was great only like Prometheus, in the fire which it had stolen.""'^ Let us proceed to a comparison, in some few particulars, of this with other books. Let us compare the great his- torian of the Pentateuch with all others. How free he is from all boasting as to himself or his countrymen ! He candidly tells his own faults and shortcomings, and God's judgments on him for them. Instead of flattering his nation, he records their shameless conduct and God's ter- rible inflictions upon them. It was not for their number or their goodness that God loved them, he said. He loved them because he loved them, and intended some mighty work by them. Compare this with the boasting and ex- travagant histories of Herodotus and others. THE PKOPHETIC BOOKS OF SCKIPTUKE. While the gift of prophecy to some men, and a class of men called prophets, are recognized in every pagan system, showing the universal consent of mankind in their favor, what other book in the world has ventured on a long * The identity of the language of the Bible in some of its most important theological terms, with those used in the Oriental systems of philosophy and religion, deserves to be noticed. The true meaning and design of many pas- sages of scripture cannot be properlj^ understood and felt, except as containing allusions to the language and doctrines of the Gnostics of the East. The terms light and darkness, the Word or Logos, the new birth or regeneration, the be- ing in Christ or in God, all have reference to the same phrases in the Eastern systems. In these systems they are connected with error; in the Christian system with truth. Christ is " the true Light." The new birth in Christ is by the power of the Spirit, not by the mysteries or the sacrifices. It was meet that the language of the Bible should be so far accommodated to the language of mythology and philosophy, as that each should cast some light on the other ; else would the scriptures be an unknown tongue to the heathen, and be unfit for their conversion. Whoever will I'cad the scriptures and these ancient writ- ings, comparing them together, will be surprised and pleased at finding so many terms and figures and illustrations in common, affording mutual help to the right understanding of both parties. SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 543 series of prophecies like that which, beginning with Noah, continues to St. Jolm, a period of more than two thousand years, predicting events to occur, some of them in a comparatively short time, and others at a very long distance in the future ? What other books ventured to rest their truth and authority on the destruction of proud cities and the downfall of mighty kingdoms, and the dis- persion of such a nation through the earth, even to this day, as the Jewish people ? Where were there ever, ex- cept in Judea, such men as Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, who dared to stand up before the world and predict the dis- grace and desolation of Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem, and the passing away of the greatest monarchies of earth ? Where is to be heard of such a prophet as St. John, who, in the Apocalyptic vision, looking through the long vista of ages to come, predicts events even to the end of the world, many of which have already occurred ? THE DEVOTIONAL SCRIPTURES. Let the brief prayer taught by our Lord to his disciples, for their use and for that of his whole church, in all ages, be compared with all the prayers ever composed and used by philosophers and priests of the pagan world. ISTay, let the devotional psalms and hymns of Moses, David, and others, by which we make melody in our hearts to the Lord, be compared with the bombastic and ridiculous addresses of Homer, Ilesiod, and Callimachus, to Jupiter Apollo, Bacchus, Yenus, Diana, and others, and we shall have some idea of the infinite superiority of this depart- ment of the Bible. COMPARATIVE VIEW OF DOCTRINE. What are all the fanciful systems of the Zendavesta, the Yedas, the Puranas of the East, and of the philoso- 54:4 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. phers of Greece and Rome, compared with that set forth in the discourses of our Lord and the epistles of his apos- tles ? Our Lord's sermon on the mount has more of true divinity and morality than could be extracted by the most sifting process from all the sacred books of the whole world beside. TUB ORDINANCES OF KELIGION. How shall we compare together the simple ordinance of baptism, in which parents and minister bring the little children to Christ, and with the sprinkling of pure water on their foreheads, place them, by faith, in his arms, en- couraged by his own act while on earth, with the horrid dedication of children to Moloch by the j)riests and pa- rents, who threw them into his burning arms and heard their piercing shrieks, and knew not but their souls were cast into a burning lake in Tartarus? How shall we compare the simple and expressive sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, where a little bread and wine are used as signs, with the bloody sacrifices of the heathen, where the priest and the oflerer bathe their hands and arms and faces in the blood of the innocent victims, and thus approach the altar of their gods, presenting some- times tlie fruit of tlieir bodies, — their own children, — for the sin of their souls ? How different the religion of David, who said, " I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I come to thine altar, O Lord." Who would com- pare with either of these celebrations, done in open day, and understood by all, the dark mysteries of the pagans, in deep forests or subterranean abodes, where the initiated were frightened with the most horrid rites and dismal groans, before being admitted to any thing that was cheer- ing and hopeful ? * * St. Paul, in more than one place, speaks of some " things done of them in secret," of which it is a shame even to speak. It is supposed that he alludes SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 545 THE SPIRIT OF THE TWO SYSTEMS. When the great author of all the idolatries of the world addressed his too successful temptation to our first ]3arents, he said, " Ye shall be as gods" if ye only take my coun- sel and eat of this tree. Himself had fallen by the same temptation. Ambition was the ruling principle of the heathen world. The gods (so called) set them the ex- ample, and were ever contending with each other for power. Even Homer, whose great poem is so well calcu- • lated to stir up this principle in men, must needs rebuke the gods for its mischievous indulgence : " Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make 'Mong all your works ! " How different the spirit and conduct of our Lord, who said, " Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" — ■ who chose the form of a servant, calling himself " the servant of servants," whose great prototype, Moses, " was meek above all men upon earth," though none more val- iant for Grod and the truth. When our Lord came, he took little children into his arms, saying, " of such is the kingdom of heaven ; " instead of encouraging ambition, and saying " Ye shall be as gods," he declared that only those who became as little children should enter the king- to some things in the celebration of the mysteries, probably at a later period, when they had become corrupted. Many such things there were, in which even females participated, and which formed a part of their philosophic sj'stem, with which I could not stain these pages. The use of the holy things in the worship of some of the deities well deserves to be called " abominable idola- tries." Even as to the good which was taught in the mysteries, one says, " If the doctrine of the unity was taught in the mysteries, it was under a tremen- dous seal and oath of secrecy." It is even affirmed that, in some of them, certain persons employed in menial offices about the celebrations have been put to death after the celebrations were over, lest they should divulge the secrets. 35 546 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS, dom of heaven. See how he rebuked every symptom of ambition which showed itself among his disciples, whether for earthly or heavenly superiority, saying, that those who would be greatest must become least, — that is, in spirit and temper. The poor in spirit, and the meek, were his favorites, and the blessed ones here and here- after. Hvimility, which has no word answering to it in the proud Roman tongue, was the grace in which he de- lighted, and which he exhibited in his whole life and character. How different the language of scripture from that of man, as to pride ! We often read of a noble pride, even now. In the time of the prophets, one said, " Be- hold, we call the proud happy," but he rebukes it, saying, " The proud, God knoweth afar off." There was a noted saying among the ancients, that " the noblest sight upon earth was that of a good man struggling with adversity, but unsubdued by it. On such a sight, even the gods looked down with admiration." But what saith the scripture : " To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit." " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." With such sacrifices God himself is well pleased. The object over which angels are said to re- joice is tlie repenting sinner. As to innocence and in- tegrity, of whicli men boast so much, one in Rome said of the honest Fabricius. " Sooner shall the sun be turned from its course, than thee, Fabricius, from the paths of honor." The scripture says of even the just man, that " he falleth seven times a day, but riseth again." The scrip- ture says, " God chargeth even his angels with folly." Epictetus said, "As to the body, thou art a small part of the universe ; but in respect of the mind or reason, neither more nor less than the gods. Will you not, tlierefore, place your good there, where you are equal to the gods ? " Instead of these proud imaginations, we should always conceive of heaven as a place, not for warriors and mighty SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 547 men and proud spirits, who miglit again rebel and war, but for luimble spirits which liave been chastened and subdued, and conlirmed in meekness. DIFFERENCE OF THE SYSTEMS AS TO REVENGE AND FOR- GIVENESS or INJURIES. In nothing does paganism and Christianity more differ than in this. Milton has described the former in two words, " Lust hard by hate." Revenge was and is the deepest and w^orst feeling in the human heart. Christi- anity sets itself entirely against it. We are not permitted even to ask forgiveness of God, except on the condition of forgiving others. We must love, not only our friends, but our enemies ; do good to them who seek to do evil unto us ; overcome evil with good ; forgive, not seven times only, but seventy times seven, — that is, as often as it is asked. Some have thought that the imprecatory Psalms of David are inconsistent with this feature of our religion, and say we should hate the sin and love the sinner ; to which it is replied, " that when sin and the sinner are finally committed to each other, both God and man must root them out together ; that man does not hang murder, but the murderers ; that God does not turn wickedness, but the wicked into hell.* In the Psalms we have an account of God's fearful punishment of idolatry, as the worst of crimes — the highest rebellion against himself. If we turn to the pagans we may indeed find here and there some good sayings on this subject, but intermingled with those of a difierent character. In Homer we find the pious old Hecuba thirsting to wash her hands in the blood of Achilles. * See the Kev. Mr. Krauth's sermon. 548 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. Hesiod says, " Who loves thee, love : him vroo, who friendly woos ;" — but, even as to a brother, " If he, the first, by word or deed offend, Doubly thy just resentment may descend." Let the thirteenth chapter of the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, on charity, be read, and in it will be found more and better on this subject than is contained in all the books of the pagans. COMPAKATIVE VIEW OF THE SCEIPTUEE, ON THE SUBJECT OF TEMPERANCE, WITH THAT OF OTHERS. St. Paul advises a little wine to Timothy for his often infirmities, and the scriptures are full of warning against excess, and regard it as sometimes expedient neither to touch, taste, or handle it. They condemn the doctrine of Epicurus, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Among the Egyptians, from whom this motto of Epicurus was borrowed, there was a custom, at their entertainments, to have carried about the image of a corpse in a coffin, with some words to this effect : " Enjoy yourselves now, for you will soon be as this corpse." Among the ancients there were prizes for those who could drink most. Alex- ander the Great was celebrated for his ability, but died a victim to it at last. Theognis the poet, being at a feast, thus describes his condition and opinion : " I shall retire, (the rule, I think, is right,) Not absolutely drunk, nor sober quite." Horace speaks of various poets who excelled by reason of the inspiration of wine, as Homer, Ennius, etc. Even Plato allowed drunkenness on a feast of Bacchus. SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 549 Solomon, on the contrary, advises — "When thou sittest at a feast with a ruler, put thy knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite ;" and St. Paul felt that even he " must keep under his body." Christianity teaches that " every creature of God is good, and to be used with thanksgiving" and in modera- tion. It is entirely opposed to the religion of penances, as substituted for that of faith, love, and good works. " We are no Brahmins, (said Tertullian,) dwellers in the woods, estranged from the affairs of life. We are temper- ate, and learn to use without abusing." DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EFFECTS OF THE TWO SYSTEMS IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. When Job was bereaved of all his possessions, he said, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; " but his wife wished him to curse God, and die. Here was the difference, even in that day, between the servants of the true God and others. We have also instances, in Homer, Virgil, and others, of blasphemy toward their gods. He- rodotus tells us of a nation, the Gaeta, who, when it thun- dered and lightened, would shoot their arrows against the sky, and utter threats against their god. As to the phi- losophers, when trouble came too heavily upon them they committed suicide. Thus did Brutus at Philippi. Thus the jailer would have done at the same place, had not Paul cried out to him, " Do thyself no harm," and preached to him the gospel of salvation. I might extend this com- parison to many other things, as for instance, to the moral law, as set forth under Moses and explained by our Lord, and to the estimate of woman among the heathen and among Christians ; but I content myself with a brief refer- ence to the different effects of Christianity and paganism 650 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. on the mind of man, in the hour of death and in view of eternity.* St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, speaking gener- ally, represents men as " through fear of death being, all their lifetime, subject to bondage." From this, Christ came to deliver us. However boastfully some men may speak, death has ever been the "king of terrors." There is a " bitterness in death." The remembrance of it is bitter to him who is unprepared. And to all men it is a solemn thing to die, for deatli is the wages of sin, appoint- ed and required by God himself. To the unbelieving heathen it must have ever been a bitter draft. Cicero says of Epicurus, " ISTever was a school-boy more afraid of a rod, or an enemy of his conqueror, than he was of death," Well might they shudder on the brink of eter- nity when making the fearful leap, not knowing where they would land ; whether they would find themselves in the body of another man, or of a toad, or an elephant, or in Hades, or in which part of Hades, wdiether Elvsium or Tartarus, or wandering around it, wretched ghosts be- cause their bodies were unburied, or be annihilated or lost in the deity, " Incertus morior" — I die uncertain what is to become of me, was the highest consolation of the pagan. How different the case of the true Christian : to die is gain to him, for it is to be with Christ, Instead of wan- dering about for thousands of years, an empty, wretched * Dean Trench says — "Before Christ, men could speak worthy things and really feel them, about the beauty of overcoming their desires and forgiving their enemies, of repaying injuries with kindness, of coming to God with clean hands and a clean heart. Such sayings abound in their code of morals ; but the unhappiness was, that they who uttered tliese sayings and they who admired them, did little more than this. There was a great gulf between the saying and the doing. It was reserved for the Christian to say, " Non eloquimur mag- na, sed vivimus." By mistake, in the early ages, the disciples of Christ were sometimes called " Christians," that is, doers of good, so active were they in all good works. SUPERIORITY OF THE BIBLE. 551 shade, lie shall be, on the very day of his death, with Christ in Paradise, in a state of blessedness. His life is already hid with Christ in God. Precious indeed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. The Christian alone can say, "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory ! Thanks be to God, who giveth ns the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord." Only compare together the death of Socrates, declaring to his mourning friends that he was going, he knew not whither, and whether it would be better or worse with him the gods only could tell ; or the last moments of the infidel Hume, playing cards wath his friends, and jesting about Charon and his ferryboat, — with the dying testimony of St. Paul in refer- ence to his martyrdom : " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good tight ; I have finished my course ; I have kej^t the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- eousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also who wait his appearing." Li relation to all the seem- ing confidence of irreligious death-beds, we may say, in the words of Dr. Youna: in his " Niarht Thous^hts :" *' Whatever farce the boastful hero plays, Virtue alone has majesty in death." But by virtue we must understand the true love of God, and thus did he mean it. " Talk they of morals ? O thou bleeding Love, Thou maker of new morals to mankind, Tlie grand morality is love of thee. As wise as Socrates, if such they were ; (Nor will they bate of that sublime renown,) As wise as Socrates, might justly stand The definition of a modern fooL" CHAPTEK XL. CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. A BOOK, like a sermon, should conclude with an applica- tion. I trust that what has been adduced in proof of a universal admission of some great principles and facts in religion, coming down to us from the earliest ages through yarious numerous channels, has not been without its effect as an antidote to infidelity. But for the most part the contest has not been with the denial of any God, or of all religion, but with the corruptions of it. One of the an- cients says, " Deos esse nemo negat, quales sint varium- est." Tiiere is a principle in these words which we may apply to our subject. That the great God gave man relig- ion at the first all admit, but what it was has divided the world. The learned Cudworth says, " The pagans agreed in two things ; first, in breaking and crumbling the Deity into many gods; second, in deifying all things." Hence all the corruptions of original truth. Against these corrup- tions, which of necessity must have been by little and little, God has doubtless, by his spirit and prophets, been ever protesting, before and since the flood. Without undertak- ino" to determine what he has done in otiier countries, in the earlier ages, w^e have a most clear and particular ac- count of his dealings witli a chosen people. The sum- ming up the history of these dealings as a warning against any perversion of religion on our part, will form the appli- cation of our subject. The Bible throughout " is full of CONCLUDING EE MARKS. 553 warnings against tilings which to some appear trivial. St. John says, " Little children, keep yourselves from idols," — that is, images of the no-gods of the heathen, which filled their houses and temples. God himself had, from Mount Sinai, said, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water un- der the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them." All such idols or images abounded in that day, and increased afterward. If they were not worship- ped as gods theniselves, yet the gods were supposed to be in them or with them. If the doctrine of transubstan- tiation was not held in relation to them, that of consub- stantiation certainly was, and we are assured by various ancient writers that the worship paid to them was as to gods themselves. In order to extirpate this superstition, God not only forbids the making of them, but orders those who made them to be put to death. The whole history of God's dealings with the Jewish nation is one of heavy judgments on those who gave any countenance to such things. Many of the special statutes for Israel, such as forbidding mixed garments, sowing divers seeds, etc., in which no morality is concerned, can only be understood as designed to keep the chosen people as far as possible from any practices which might familiarize and identify them with idolatrous nations and customs. Evil commu- nications corrupt good mannei's, and he that despiseth lit- tle things shall fall by little and little, were as true of the corruptions of religion as of anything else, " HsQ nugso soepe in seria ducunt" — " These trifles oft to serious matters lead" — is the history of the rise and progress of idolatry in all its forms. One of the defenders of the Keformation (Calfhill) 554 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. says, " Siicli is the vilest persuasion of error, such is the force of superstition, that whenever occasion is ministered, our corrupt nature inclineth to it." The tendency to the nn- due veneration of men, — our ancestors especially, — was the source of image or idol worship, and with these images those ancestors were soon identified. Mr. Harcourt, in his learned work on the Deluge, says the laws of Menu recog- nized eight guardian deities of the world. "And that these were in truth the ark-preserved family is evident enough, both because two of their names, Soma and Zoma, are with very little variation the same as Shem and Ham, whose posterity peopled Asia, and because one of the duties of their religion, described by a Brahmin, is the pouring out drink-offerings every day to the eight progenitors of man- kind. These eight progenitors w^ere also the earliest gods of the Egyptians." That such is the tendency of human nature, not only the Jewish and other ancient nations tes- tify, but the history of the Christian church too fully proves. Even in the apostle's days it was difficult to keep hero-worship — the doctrine of devils — out of the church ; and how soon after do we find it showing itself in the an- niversaries of the saints, after the manner of the pagans. What but this is the great corruption of the Romish church ? It has been well said, that " If the Eomanists, under the full blaze of Christianity, can pay such homage to the Virgin Mary, and rely so much on the saints, making them tutelary deities, actually spending more time on them than in the worship of God the Father, is it to be wondered at that the heathen should have departed from the worship of the true God, or mingled it with that of lesser deities, or that the Jews should have mingled the worship of Jehovah with that of the hero-gods ?" The homage paid to shrines and relics grew up in like manner among pagans, Jews, and Christians. It has, therefore, ever been the belief that there was design in the manner and place of Moses' CONCLUDING REMARKS. 555 death and burial. It is written, that the Lord buried him " in tlie hand of Moab, over against Beth-peor : but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Had it been known, how ])robable that some improper homage would have been paid to it, as to the supposed sepulchre of Jupi- ter in Crete, and of other gods in other places !* * A very interesting work has recently been published by William Buckhardt Barker, (who was many years resident at Tarsus, in Asia, as an officer of the British Government,) entitled "Lares and Penates; or, Cilesia and its Gov- ernors," in which the reader may find much that is worthy of his notice. Tar- sus was the place of St. Paul's birth, and tradition says, of Daniel's burial. It was, on many accounts, " no mean city," whether sacred or profane history bears testimonj'. It was, at first, called Tarshish, a name belonging to other commercial places in the ancient world. It was situated on the celebrated river Cydnus, in which Alexander, when bathing, nearly lost his life. It empties into the Mediterranean. W^hile resident at Tarsus, Mr. Barker collected a large store of the terra-cotta images of the ancient deities, — the household and coun- trj' gods, " the Lares and Penates," — paying a great price for them to persons who made it their business to dig them from the ruins of the city. Discover- ing the place where one of these men was wont to get them, Mr. Barker em- ployed a number of hands, and opened a mound which had been formed of the alluvial soil from the surrounding hills, against the tottering walls which en- close the city, and there found a huge pile of them, some in fragments, many entire. More than a thousand of them are now in the British Museum, and the pictures adorn his book. Mr. Barker gives his views of the Lares and Penates, as follows : " Though both were considered as household gods, the Lares were, more exclusively, being derived, according to Apulius, from lar-familiaris,— belonging to a family. They were sometimes confounded with the souls of de- ceased persons who had lived well. Those who had lived badly were called Larvas, or Lemures, and were regarded as vagabonds, wandering about and frightening people. The good were the guardian angels of families, and were represented by little images of ware, — terra-cotta, or other materials. The pe- natcs were also household gods, and these were called the lesser penates. They also presided over cities, and some over empires, having the special guardian- ship of their favorites." Mr. Bryant derives the name Lares from Laren, an ancient word by which the ark was represented, and says that the Etrurians and Latins held them to be the " Dei Arkitoc,"— that is, their arkite ancestors who became their house- bold deities. It should also be observed that the pagans would select any of the gods or goddesses to be their tutelary deities, whether Jupiter, Apollo, or others. No doubt these household deities were in use at an early period, and may have been the same spiken of in the family of Jacob, and the same refer- red to by Moses, where tlie setting up of idols in the secret corners of the house is forbidden. Cicero derives the word penates from penetralis, the inmost recess of the house. It is thought that this huge pile of images without the walla of 556 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. At the time of tlie Reformation, the subject of saint- worship and its connection with the idol or image-wor- ship of the heathen was fully discussed. In the book of Homilies of the English church, composed by Cranmer and other reformers, there are three sermons on the peril of idolatry, in which the ground is taken that all pictures and images in churches are contrary to the spirit of the second commandment, that eidolon in Greek, imago and simula- crum in latin, are to be translated idols or images. Ter- tullian is quoted as translating St. John's words, " Beware of idols," "beware of images." Moses is quoted as em- phatically declaring tiiat the people at Sinai and elsewhere " Heard only the voice of the Lord, but saw no similitude ■ — no manner of similitude," and therefore warned against any image or any thing in heaven, or eartli, or under the earth, saying, " Cursed be the man that maketh any such image, and setteth it up in a secret corner," thus forbid- ding even the private use of it. Origen is quoted as say- ing, " It is not only a mad and frantic thing to worship images, but also once to dissemble or wink at it." St. Angu£tine says, " Images be of more force to crook an unhappy soul, than to teach and instruct." The case of Epiphanius is mentioned, who, in the time of Tlieodo- sius, entered into a certain temple to pray, and found there a linen painted cloth on the door, having on it the image of Christ or of some other saint. Considering it contrary to the scriptures, he tore it down, and directed the keeper of the church to make a winding-sheet of it for a poor man who was dead, and to bury him in it, — order- ing that no more like it be used in the church. St. Je- rome and others praised him highly for this act. St. Jerome and Eusebius agree that the introduction of Tarsus, may have been the result of the zoal of the converts to Christianity, in one of the visits of St. Paul to this place, when stirred up by his preaching, which led them to carry their idols and images, and cast them outside the city. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 557 the nse of images and pictures was of Gentile converts, who were not thoroughly purged of some remnants of idolatry ; that, at first, they were not used in churches, but afterward crept into them out of private houses, and so bred first superstition, and afterward idolatry. At length, as the darker ages came on, images and pictures were more and more used, though some godly bishops and rulers would, from time to time, cause them to be removed, and also from private houses. The homily makes a dis- tinction between these and the pictures, images, and stat- ues of men and other objects, which are taken and used for the purpose of preserving the recollection of the same, and where there is not the least design or probability of their being turned into superstition, but condemns the introduction even of them into temples of religion, lest they minister to undue veneration, and thus promote idol- atry or image worship. The reformers felt it their duty also to protest against the superstitious regard paid to the sign of the cross. One whole volume, octavo, is filled with an account of its abuses by the Romanists, and with warnings against the same. On these and on all other subjects it becomes us to beware of the first beginnings of error, to meet them at the door, in their first stealthy approaches. Let us fear the semi-paganism of Rome and the semi-Romanism of some Protestants, remembering how " facilis descensus Averni." To conclude. While we still adhere to the conviction that the warnings against idols, by St. John, St. Paul, and oth- ers, are to be literally understood as warnings against any return unto, or connivances at, some of the forms of pa- ganism, we are far from restricting those and other pas- sages to such literal application. We may be, to the ruin of our immortal souls, guilty of spiritual idolatry in many other ways. Whatever we love and seek, and rely upon 558 THE BIBLE AND THE CLASSICS. more than on God, becomes an idol or god to ns. Bj seeking riches immoderately, we worship Mammon ; for covetousness is idolatry. Those who addict themselves to lusts and pleasures, are the sons and worshippers of Belial. Philosophers who passionately devote themselves to as- tronomy, neglecting the God who is above the heavens, worship the heavenly bodies. The blood thirsty, who de- light in war, worship Mars. Those who give themselves up to music, without making melody in their hearts to the Lord, worship Apollo. Those who delight themselves in the idle poetry of human genius, more than in the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs of scripture, wor- ship the Muses. Those who devote themselves to the su- perficial accomplishments of the person more than to the solid virtues of the mind, worship the Graces. Those who give loose to the angry passions of the soul, worship the Furies. Those whose highest aim is the cultiva- tion and attainment of eloquence, worship Mercury. Those who surrender up themselves to mere human love, worship Yenus. Those who are ravished with their own beauty, as Narcissus in the lake, worship themselves. Those who value and pride themselves chiefly on their personal strength, worship Hercules. Those who aim at empire, worship Jupiter. Those who admire all the ob- jects in creation, all the beasts of tlie field and fowls of the air, without looking through nature up to nature's God, worship Pan — are pantheists. To these, and all others who in their' hearts delight in any of the things of this world more than in Him who made, redeemed, and sanc- tifies man, we say, "Little children, keep yonrselves from idols." KRRATA. I'AGfi. tINK. PAGK. LINK 11 . . 14 . . Horte for Hosa. 445 . 21 130 . . 30 . . Though after and. " . . 23 isy , 30 . . War for roar. " . 23 163 . 14 . . Above for upon. " . 27 174 . 2'J . . Known for human. 45-2 . 17 171" . 21 . . From for for. 4.55 . 13 203 . 10 . . Then for here. 490 ; 28 275 . 27 . . Sixth for ninth. 481 . 14 335 . 12 . . Copan for ccpar. " . 15 840 . 13 . . Wear}' for very. 482 . s 855 . fl . . ,548 for 448. 484 . 17 432 . 3 . . 711 for 911. 48G .. 1 435 .. 14 . . Qua for qu;o. 501 . 30 " . 24 . . Rursus for nusus. 532 . 28 " . 27 . . Pignora for pignova. 551 . . 28 >i . 30 . . Vivo for viro. 504 .. 1 444 . . 27 . . Immemor for immenor. Verba far vetbam. JEre for ^Ee. Timebant for tinebant, Sine for sive. Decrant for devant. Land for laud. Vetituni for vebitum. Propositi for proposito. Civiuni for civirum. Compesce for compesse, Hie for hoc. Nubes for uubus. Mars for Moloch. And after Athenians- Lamb for love. Common for vilest. LIST OF BOOKS Published by ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 530 Broadway, corner of Spring-st., NEW YORK. A. L. O. E. Books. The Ci.AKKMoNT Tales, Tub Adkitei) Son. TlIK YoiTNG I'lUiKIM, . 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