from the Creation considered in his works His best proof for this is out of Homer who brings in Jupiter and the rest of the Gods with him going in Progress into Ethopia both to the Sacrifices there made unto them and for the sweetness of the odours there And surely it is most congruous that such Gods as are devised by the fancies of Men and made at their pleasures should be well content to be served and worshipped according to the Fancies of Men and at their plea sure for undoubtedly Man hath as much power to devise a Divine and Religious Worship as to make a God any Service being good enough and too good to be bestowed upon the work of their own hands yea or upon their own Fancies either Yet the truth is there was a time when the Bridegroom of God's Church was pleased with bodily Sacrifices offered with good hearty and had his abode in the Mountains of Spices Cant. 8.14 Make haste my beloved and be thou like unto a Roe or to a young Hart upon the Mountains of Spices But this was only for a time until the day did break and the shadows fled away Cant. 2.17 The Lord Christ now adays is the most sweet smelling Savour both to God the Father and us by whom alone the Father is satisfied and our Souls sweetly refreshed Indeed I read that Hesiod and Homer were Primi Deorum opifices apud Graecos the first Crafts-masters in coining Gods among the Grecians in Herodotus lib. 2. p. 124. Graeco-Lat Hesiodus atque Homerus qui quadringent is non amplius annis ante me extitere fuere qui Graecis Theogoniam introduxerunt eisque cognomina honores diversa artificia figuras attribuerunt And p. 166. Ipsi Aegyptij extiterunt principes conventus pompas conciliabula factitandi ab iis Graeci didicerunt Cujus rei hoc apud me argumentum est quod illa constet priscis temporibus Graecanica verò recens fuisse institua And we know Homer lived after the Wars of Troy some say 80 years some 100 others 140 others 180 years after the taking of Troy Nay there are that make him 200 years yea 240 later than that yea some 400 others 500 later as Talianus gives instance in several Authors thus tar differing about the time of Homer as any may read in Eusebius his Evangelical Preparation Book 10. p. 492. Graeco-Lat We by the Word of God are brought acquainted not only with the Creation of Man but of the World also and how in 1656. it was drowned and all Flesh perished by the Waters of a general Deluge in whom was the breath of Life except those four couple eight persons in all who were reserved for a Seed to sow the World anew and preserved in the Ark which setled in Ararat commonly conceived to be a Mountain in Armenia though some think otherwise and from those parts near adjoyning and particularly from Babel after the Consusion of Languages began the dispersion of the People And as the Lord by his extraordinary Providence provided both for the making of the Ark and bringing all sorts of Creatures thereinto and maintenance for them and their preservation there did make himself known unto them after a degenerate time that came upon all both as a God of Vengeance in destroying others and also as a God of Mercy and Salvation in preserving them from that common Destruction promising withal never to destroy the World so again so from them and by them was the knowledge of God propagated to their Posterity which about 101. years after the Flood began to be dispersed over all the World And upon Nimrod's Usurpation Rebel-like his Nature answering to his Name it seems that both his Father and Grandfather and many of them separated themselves from him Cush into Ethiopia Misraim into Egypt Canaan into Palestine where we find Sidon a principal City by the Sea And as Egypt is called in Scripture the Land of Ham so by as good reason Ethiopia also Lydiat is of opinon concerning Ham that he was the eldest of Noah's three Children and by the younger Son of Noah Gen. 9.24 is meant Canaan Noah's Grandchild for even our Grandchildren we count our Children and Noah's Curse we know passed not upon Ham but upon Canaan which makes it probable that the lewd prank which gave such offence to Noah and he sound out by examination was play'd by Canaan and by him his Father Ham came to the knowledge of it who told his two Brethren thereof Sem and Japhet And thus indeed the Egyptians and Ethopians and whole house of Ham may be accounted the eldest House of the World if he were elder than his two Brethren Sem and Japhet But in this Lydiat is almost alone most Authors being for Sem or Japhet which is more likely being the eldest as may be seen at large in Usher's Chronol Sacra c. 4. Japhet separated towards the North both East and West but chiefly towards the West Sem's Posterity continued in the East towards the South Assur his Son having erected a Monarchy in Niniveh But as yet no testimony for Temples any where 9. Diogines Laertius an approved Writer in his fifth Book of the Lives of Philosophers in the Life of Epimenides saith of him That Construxit apud Athenienses phanum verendorum Deorum ut ait Lobon Argivns in libro de Poetis Fertur etiam primus domus atque agros expiasse delubraque erexisse This Epimenides of Crete built a Temple to the Gods call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dij reverends some that deserved to be reverenced as he thought more than all the pack and he alledgeth Lobon of Argos in his Book of Poets testifying this This Epimenides also is said to have been the first that shewed a course for the expiation of Houses and Fields and that erected Temples The expiation here spoken of was by Sacrifice as appears by the Story mentioned a little before For having mentioned how the fame of this Man flying throughout all Grece he was reputed a Man most dear to God thereupon an Instance thereof is given thus The Athenians were sometimes visited with a sore Pestilence who thereupon asking counsel hereabouts as their manner was at the Oracle of Delphos Pythia the Nun Priest answered them That the City of Athens was to be expiated And they being ignorant how this was to be performed dispatched Niceas the Son of Niceratus by Ship into the Island of Crete to Epimenides to intreat him to come over unto them Upon their intreaty he came and expiated or purged their City after this manner He took Sheep some white some black and brought them to Mars his Street and there let them go whither they would sending some after them to observe where they lay down and wheresoever any of them lay down there he gave charge they should be sacrificed peculiari cuipiam Deo to some peculiar God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Laertius to a
Io Argiva the Story of whom the Poet calls Argumentum ingens in Virgil wherewith drawn to the Life he feigns Turnus his Buckler was flourished when he came into the Field against AEneas and that because he was the Progeny of Acrisius and Inachus Kings of Argos At laevem clypeum sublatis cornibus Io Auro insignibat jam set is obsita jam Bos Argumentum ingens custos Virginis Argos Caelataque amnem fundens Pater Inachus urna For whereas Poets feign that Io was turned into an Oxe by Jupiter being found by Juno the truth seems to be no other than this Osiris was that Jupiter and being represented by Bos mas no marvel if hereupon she becoming his Wife they feigned her to be turned into Bos foemina And whereas it is further feigned that Argos was set by Juno to watch her this Argos fairly represents Osiris also her Husband under another Notion namely as in an Hieroglyphical Interpretation he is taken for the Sun For such was the Oxe representing Osiris full of white Spots and whose Hair was towards the Head to signifie the Sun 's proper Motion from West to East contrary to the general Motion of the Heavens from East to West though Astronomers think otherwise in these days And the Stars of Heaven by Aristotles Doctrine receive their Light from the Sun Afterwards Poets feign that by Juno's means she was Oestro percita plagued with an Hornet and driven to fly into Egypt the Truth whereof was no other than Ostris his marrying of her and carrying her over with him into Egypt and there saith Servius she was turned into Isis Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 3. Jo filia Inachi this is that Argumentum ingens Virgil speaks of in reference to the true Story obscurely carried and drest by the Wits of Poets But some rubs I find lying in the way to hinder us in the Acknowledgment of so great Antiquity of Isis and Osiris For whereas Danaus that fled from his Brother Egyptus out of Egypt unto Argos in Grece is stiled by Mr. Lydiat à Belo Egyptio oriundus by this Belus meaning Osiris as from whom Danaus was derived but afar off as who is accompted but the 10th King of Argos beginning from Inachus Egyptus the Brother of Danaus I find stiled Beli filius the Son of Belus in a Monument of him erected in a Temple of Serapis the City of Patrae or Aroe a City of Achaia as Pausanias relates in his Achaicis Yet this is not of force to take me off from following Mr. Lydiate in this I understand filius here in a larger sense than to take it for a Son begotten of Belus and that it is no more than à Belo oriundus one that was derived from Belus For it is not credible that Pharaoh whom the Lord drowned in the Red-Sea or any of his Posterity or his Father was Osiris the great God of the Egyptians as before hath been argued As also that the Gods of Egypt in Moses his days were not the same with the Gods of Egypt in the days of Joseph Another rub is cast in the way by Ludovicus Vives upon Austin de Civit Dei lib. 18. c. 3. Pausanias affirmeth saith he that she was the Daughter of Jasius the sixth King of Argos Yet he confesseth that Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautes lib. 4. calls Jovem Inachidem but withal he takes notice that he calls her Jastam virginem as much as to say the Daughter of Jesius yet she might be called Inachides nevertheless because she descended from Inachus who was the first Founder of that Kingdom and Author of their Nobility He gives also another Reason drawn from the Testimony of Eusebius both in his Chronicles and in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation testifying that this Jo lived in the days of Triapas the seventh King of Argos 400 years after Inachus And indeed thus I find it in Pausanias in his Corinthiacks 58. that Triapas had two Sons Jasus and Agenow and that Jo was the Daughter of Jasus and so two Ages after Triapas and but one before Danaus who was after the time of Moses his leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt which I willingly confess is nothing probable and though this be to my greater advantage in this present Argument yet I choose rather to hold with Mr. Lydiate still so utterly improbable and unlikely it is tâ—aâ— Pharoah who was drowned in the Red-Sea or his Father either was Osiris the times of Moses and of Joseph are so congenerous as touching the same Saperstitions in course among the Egyptians And as touching Pansanias this I find that howsoever he writes thus in his Corinthiacks yet in his first Book called Attica reckoning up the Statues which were found in the Town of the Athenians two were of Women Jo the Daughter of Inachus and Calisto the Daughter of Lycaon whose Fortunes he saith were represented to be much the same both as touching Jupiter's Love and Juno's Wrath and the Metamorphosis of each the one into a Cow the other into a Bear But then you will say the more antient Osiris was the more evident it is that Temples were in use long before Moses yea divers hundred years Whereto I answer though I grant the greatest Antiquity ascribed to them and do not help my self with Testimonies out of the antient Fathers as Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 1. Stromat Tertullian in his Apology cap. 9. Justinus in his Oration against the Gentiles and Tatianus in his Oration against the Greeks and Epiphanius in his first Book against Heresies yea and of divers prophane Authors alledged by Eusebius in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation and third Chapter all testifying that Inachus King of Argos reigned in the days of Moses because Inachus by the computation of times was much elder for which v. Usher A.M. 2174. Yet Diodorus his Testimony of a Temple built by Osiris himself deserves no credit for he doth but relate what he heard from the Priests of Egypt who told Herodotus that between Orus his Reign and that ancient Amosis we speak of Contemporary to Inachus there were no less than 15000 years And as for Jupiter and Juno we know such Deities received by the Egyptians were no other than Osiris and Isis themselves which all the Egyptians worshipt as Herodotus testifies so did they not any other God And if there were any such building of Temples in Egypt in those ancient times when the Israelites were so much imployed in making of such store of Brick in all likely hood these Bricks would have been imployed about such sacred uses but the Scripture testifies that they were imployed about the building of certain Cities to be made Store houses for the King It is true Clemens Alexandrinus was to seek whether Phoroneus or Merops was the first Founder of Temples Phoroneus we know was the Son of Inachus and second King of Argos and Brother to Jo or Isis but who Merops was
fit God his meaning was to the God that plagued them but who it was they knew not And therefore Laertius addeth That even in his days there were to be seen in the Streets of Athens Altars without a Name as a memorial of that expiation and hereupon he saith that the Plague ceased And in all likelyhood the Altar that St. Paul observed as he went in one of the Streets of Athens with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God was one of those Altars Laertius writes of though the Inscription might be defaced in his days for in Causabon's judgment Laertius lived not until the year 200. after Christ that is about the time of Tertullian yet Altars with such Inscriptions were nothing strange such a one being mentioned by Pausanias in his Eliacks p. 162. Adjacet ei ignotorum Deorum ara Now this Epimenides came to Athens about this business by Laertius's accompt in the 47th Olympiad and others reckon him to be coaetaneus to Pythagoras who lived in the time of Servius Tullus the fifth King of Rome from Romulus Now Rome it self had its Foundation laid but in the days of Jotham King of Judab by Lydiat and Usher 's accompt and the very year after Nabuchodonosor had inchoated his Kingdom of Babylon which was a Type of Romish Babylon 10. Janus was a King in Italy long before Romulus and unto him a certain Writer Xenon by name in the first Book of his Italica ascribes the first building of Temples as Macrobius testifies in the first Book of his Saturnals Chap. 9. Now the beginning of Janus his Latin Kingdom Lydiat reckons to be 150 years before Aeneas his coming into Italy in the days of Latinus the fifth King after Janus Aeneas his arriving there being the third year after the taking of Troy which yet by Lydiat's accompt was 60 years after the death of Othniel the first Judge of Israel after the death of Joshua and 120 years after the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt Now this Janus was the Man that entertained old Saturn when he fled from his Son Jupiter into Italy and admitted him in Societatem Regni to reign with him Thence Italy came to be called Latium as Ovid Writes saying Et dicta est Latium terra latente Deo And Virgil in his Aeneids 8. Primus ab aethereo veniens Saturnus Olympo Arma Jovis fugiens Regnis exul adentis Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis Composuit legesque dedit Latiumque vocari Maluit his quoniam latuisset tutus in Oris where I observe the Poet's wisdom affecting to grace his Country for he feigns Saturn not to come thither flying from the Isle of Crete but from Heaven forsooth to salve the Reputation of his Deity and the Honour of his own Country and adds that his days were the time of that golden Age of the World as Ovid and other Poets feign His words are these Aureaque ut perhibent illo sub Rege fuere In the days of Saturn was the golden Age of the World Now this fairly may revive the remembrance of a Note made by Servius upon a Passage in Virgil describing the goodly Temple that Queen Dido was building when Aeneas after the taking of Troy came thither being cast by a Tempest upon those Parts Hic Templum Junoni ingens Sidonia Dido Condebat donis opulentum numine Divae Aerea cui gradibus surgebant limina nexaeque Aerc trabes foribus cardo stridebat ahenis Now whereas Virgil hath aerea limina brazen Thresholds Servius maketh a question of the reason why he calls the Threshold brazen it seeming unlikly that they should be made of or covered with Brass his answer is That Virgil delivers it allusione facta ad Saecula tunc temporis aerea in allusion to the condition of those times the brazen Age being then on foot Though for ought I see it might go for an Iron Age well enough when such ado was made in the World such Wars raised for 10 years continuance at Troy and all for the Recovery of a Whore if it be a true History and not a Poetical Fiction as some conceive In those days there were Temples I nothing doubt and before for the Trojans had theirs as the same Virgil mentions in the person of Aeneas Nos delubra Deum miseri quibus ultimus esset Ille dies festa velamus fronde per urbem we poor Creatures made that day a Festival day in our Temples which alas was to be our last day their Funeral following immediately after And not in the brazen Age only can we well admit that Temples have been but in the golden Age also as namely in the days of Saturn which yet will be found 160 years after the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt And if Saturn were the chief of Heathen Deities surely Moses is much more ancient than they all how much more ancient than Temples made to them It is true Cicero makes mention of three Jupiters one the Son of Saturn and Ops King of Crete whose Sepulchre is there found which Callimachus is impatient to hear and therefore brands them for lyars saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are always lyars for they have built a Sepulchre to thee O King whereas thou diest not but livest for ever-The other two Cicero saith were born in Areadia the Father of the one Aether of whom came Proserpina and Liber or Bacchus the Father of the other Coelum and he begat Minerva In like sort Japetus is said by Hesiod to be the Son of Coelum Terrae of Heaven and Earth as much as to say they could not tell who was the Father of them and therefore they feigned them to have been brought forth by the Heaven and Earth and Sea and Rivers But Virgil confounds these Jupiters which Cicero distinguisheth and feigns Saturn the Father of Jupiter Cretensis to have come ab Aethereo Olympo that is from from Aether and Heaven And Japetus we see how plainly it sounds Japhet one of the Sons of Noah as Mercer upon Genesis and many others observe And as Hesiod relates very strange things of Saturns dealing with his Father Coelum so the Jewish Rabbins relate as strange things yea the very same of Ham's dealing with his Father supposing they have some ground for it in the Scripture And sure we are that Noah himself had no Children after the Flood and this Ham was Japhet's Brother and both better known to the World than their Father Noah who with his Son Sem as it seems lived a private life whilst his Children and Childrens children divided the World among them calling the several Regions of it after their own Names and erecting Monarchies Nimrod in Babylon and Assur at Niniveh Horace makes mention of Aâ—dax Japeti genus his Posterity were bold Creatures that dâ—â—st venture in a Ship to make a way through the Sea which fairly refers to the
d. Book cap. 2. Nulla ficta apud Lycurgum vel picta imago fuit quippe hominum aut animalium species Diis tribui vetuit Templum verò in quo colebatur desuper patens foramen habuit quia nefas duxerunt Terminum Deum pacis justitiae custodem sub tecto conspici Sic Iovi Soli Lunae Deifidio in aperto mundo Templa hypaethra sub divo veteres extruxere quod à Graecis saepe factitatum novimus ut his Diis hypaethra templa constituant sicut aedes Iovis Pulverii in Attica semper sine tecto erigebatur Graeci verò Minervae in summa parte aedium sine victima sacrificant AEsculapio in montibus Apud Persas nulla dicabantur templa diis quia cum solem praecipuun numen Deorum maximum colant mundum universum illi Templum esse dixerunt A Bithynis usurpatum legimus ut adoraturi montium cacumina conscendant sine templis Iovem Pappam salutent sicut Scythae Pappaeum Quae etiam Diogenis opinio fuit qui mundum fanum Dei sanctissimum existimavit Fucre autem Termini atque Fidei Templa juxta aedem Iovis optimi maximi in capitolio primum a Numa constructa cui sacrum fest Terminalibus in agris sexto ab urbe milliario sub patente caelo fieri solebat With the Englishing of this I mean to set a period to this Discourse c. The Persians have neither Images of Gods nor do they erect Temples rather their course was to pull down to the ground Holy Houses and Images but in a clean Place in high Places with Prayers they did sacrifice to the Gods which we find to have been in use with many For at Carmel God was worshipped where was neither Temple nor Image but an Altar only and Divine Worship The Iews in their minds only worship One God and therefore with them are no Images neither in Temples nor in Cities The Germans also give no shape of Man to the Gods by reason of their Greatness nor dedicate Temples to them but Groves and Woods they call by the Names of Gods and they reverence them as holy Temples Lycurgus ordained no painted or graven Image as who forbad to express the Gods in the shape of Men or other Creatures And as for the Temple wherein God was worshipped that was open at the top as thinking it unlawful that the God Terminus the Preserver of Peace and Justice should be seen under a Roof or Covering In like sort Men of ancient Times built Temples to Iupiter Sol Luna and to Deus Fidius in the open Air which they called Hypoethra as much as to say under the cope of Heaven open which was the Graecians usual course as the House of Iupiter Pulverius in Attica was always without a Roof And the Graecians sacrisiced to Minerva on the tops of their Houses without slaughter made of any Beast and to AEsculapius upon the Hills Amongst the Persians no Temples were consecrated to the Gods beeause being of Opinion that the Sun was the chief Power Divine and the greatest of Gods they said the whole World was his Temple We read it to have been the Bithynians Practice that when they worshipped they went to the tops of Hills and there saluted Iupiter Pappas without any Temple as the Scythians did Pappaeus Such also was the Opinion of Diogenes who maintained the World to be the most holy Temple As for the Temples of the God Terminus and the God Fides they were by the House of Jupiter optimus Maximus in the Capitol which were first built by Numa Pompilius to whom Holy or religious Office was performed on the Terminal Feasts in the Field and under the open Heaven six miles distant from the City I might add our Learned Antiquary Inego Iones's Opinion concerning that strange Structure of Stoneheng on Salisbury-Plain that it was originally no other than Templum sub Divo a Temple all open at the top such as are mentioned by Alexander ab Alexandro but I reser the curious to his Book and conclude this first Disseratation Books sold by Tho. 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