"appropriate to some planet, colours, me"tals, wood, stone, trees, fruits. They "made their images of some materials "more peculiarly proper to such particular planet, and chose a proper time, when "the planet was in its own exaltation, and "in a lucky aspect with other planets; "and then they imagined, that such an "image, made of such materials, and in "such position of the heavens, as a talis"man or charm, by which they supposed "the influences of the stars themselves, "with prayers and incense, were commu"nicated to the images, and that such images had the same powers and virtues "with the stars they represented. "This soon brought them to worship "these images, as well as the stars them"selves; they prayed to them, and sought " to appease them with incense; the wor shippers clothed themselves in garments "of such colours as they thought would "be most proper and agreeable to such a planet. In the mean time they forgot "God, and hoped to obtain the blessings, "and escape the evils of life, through the "favour of these spirits or angels inhabit ing the stars, and by the honours they paid to them in their images; consider«ing them as appointed the governors of human affairs, and guardians of mortal man. Hence their vain imagination, improving this hypothesis, made some of Hyde Hist. Relig. Persarum, l. I. p. 128. "these angels presidents over kingdoms, cities, and particular persons, and gave "them a dominion over the seasons of the year, the months, the days, and the "hours. The planetary distribution of our days of the week, at this distance of time, "is an evident proof of the antiquity and universality of this part of idolatry, in principle, as well as in practice." 66 It is no wonder, when all the planets were thus supposed the palaces and seats of angels and archangels, that the two more glorious lights, the sun and moon, should be the chief and most distinguished objects of religious worship; that the sun should be reverenced as the king, and the moon be addressed as the queen of heaven, or that they should be honoured as the heads of the other stars, the host of Voss. de heaven. Hence there seems so often menIdolatria, tion of Moloch and Baal, king and lord, for the sun; of Baaltis, Beltis, or Malcha, lady 205. and queen, for the moon, who is also supposed the Astarte of the Syrians and Egyptians, and the Astaroth of the Hebrews. 1. II. c. xxi. p. These seem the more common principles of idolatry; but some, as Maimonides observes, went further, to assert the eternity of the world, and that the stars they worshipped were a sort of self-existent beings, and was the real meaning of the fabulous account they gave of the history of Adam*. *Intentio autem illorum in commemoratione Adami, et eorum quæ ei attribuunt, ad nihil aliud tendit, quam How long it was before the souls of men departed were worshipped as gods, is not certain; but the doctrines of the existence of departed souls, and their advancement in understanding and power, were certainly very ancient. As the existence of departed souls seems to have been the received doctrine of the Hebrew nation, there was reason for a particular caution against consulting the dead, or, in our translation, a necromancer †. This way of divination by the dead, with the particular ceremonies of it, by filling a trench with blood, inviting the ghosts to partake of it, and the eagerness with which they came to feed upon the blood, are described at length, by one of the oldest authors of Homer Greece, and thoroughly acquainted with Odyss. 1. the most ancient doctrines and ceremonies of their religion. Such were the received principles of idolatry; it became the wisdom of God to guard the Hebrew nations against them, when they were to be raised up the guardians of true religion, to preserve the knowledge and worship of the one true God. 2. It also became the wisdom of God, in giving a law to the Hebrews, to weaken ad confirmandam sententiam de æternitate mundi, et ut .11 .Deut. xviii דרש אל המתים * 11, init. Hyde Pers. 129. all encouragements to idolatry. You see, the principles of idolatry had made spirits of great power inhabitants and governors of the stars, guardians of mortal man, presidents of countries and cities, who could foretel things to come, and bestow on their favourites plentiful seasons, and punish their enemies with barrenness and unfruitful seasons; so that they learned to look for health and long life, and all manner of prosperity, from their favour, and to fear every evil from their displeasure. Thus the astrologers (persons supposed best skilled in the knowledge of the stars, and of their influences, and the ways of making an advantage to themselves from them) imposed upon the ignorant vulgar, very desirous of these blessings. They joined advantages they were very fond of, with the notions of piety and devotion, and spread their poison more easily, till at the last they were brought to worship those stars, and their images, with a proper divine worship. Thus they came to regard the creature only, and to neglect altogether the only Creator of all. You easily perceive how fond most persons are of knowing things to come, and how greedily people use every method of inquiring into future events, or of curing diseases by charms, and such-like fooleries, without any good reason, against all probability, and often even without a possibi lity of any real effect at all. How much more easily must this desire prevail, when countenanced by numbers, as a point of great knowledge and deep wisdom, to know the natures, orders, and influences of the immortal gods, and how to make their office, as guardians of mortal men, highly beneficial to themselves! Many things concurred to draw the whole world into these corruptions, from the most common prejudices and affections of the vulgar. It was wise to prevent these fatal mischiefs, by cutting off these encouragements, by discrediting all such religious rites, and all pretenders to a skill of obtaining these blessings, in the use of them. It was wise to represent such rites themselves as criminal, highly dishonourable to the true God. It was even necessary, when such evil customs had such advantages of prevailing, to guard the Hebrew church by laws pointed directly against them. 3. It was further a point of wisdom in the Hebrew laws, to give a form of worship which should be a preservative against the use of any idolatrous rite, in company with their idolatrous neighbours. There were many temptations, even in their usual entertainments and conversations: their sacrifices were attended with feasts, in which they were used to indulge great lewdness, as well as great excess. These |