Superstition persuaded to build Temples For those Structures which were before Sepulchres being after magnificently built were called Temples But approves the Abbot of Cluny's opinion who writing against the Petrobusions whom Morney accounts good Christians even the same with the Woldensians imputes it is an errour in them quod dicunt Basilicas vel Altaria fieri non debere c. to affirm that Temples and Altars should not be made But the Mass being the chief use of their Temples in those times as Bellarm. de cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 4. in this regard they might well be opposed for that they denied the lawfulness of Edifices for the solemn Worship of God is no way credible The first Founder of Temples Clem. Alexandr in 's Admonition to the Gentiles p. 28. Gr. Lat. conceives to have been Phoroneus or Merops And so also Arnobius l. 6. Varro in 's Admiranda Aeacus the Son of Jupiter And Lactantius Divin Instit l. 2. c. 10. faith the first Temple was erected in the days of Jupiter Joh. Leo Baptista in 's Book of Architecture thinks Janus's Temple the first But the same Clemens Strom l. 5. writing of Moses faith He suffered not Altars and Temples to be erected in many places having built one Temple he means the Sanctuary did hereby declare unto all that there was but one World and one God alledging Isaiah 66.1 and Acts 17.48 and commending Zeno for saying in 's Book of the Common-wealth non oportere Templa faccre nec simulacra that Temples and Images ought not to be made For a Temple is not of any great price nor an holy thing being it is the Work of Artificers And in his Seventh Book distinguisheth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly rendred a Temple which he takes for that which is truly holy and this he saith is twofold God himself and that which is built in honour of him and this with him is the Church which he calls the Church of God not made with hands but made the Temple of God by the will of God Non enim nunc locum sed electorum congregationem appello Ecclesiam For I do not now call the place but the Congregation of God's chosen ones the Church Origen also against Celsus l. 8. p. 390 391. professeth Christians beware of building liveless and dead Temples to the giver of all Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which he speaks to depreciate those Works of men that men might not think God is honoured by such things which for the matter of them are common and for the figure and shape the works of mens hands As also to refute the Heathens who thought God was more honoured and better served in such Temples than in the poor Conventicles and Oratories of Christians and was in a more especial manner present in such Temples then in other places For we know that now under the Gospel God hath determined his Worship to no place any more than before the Flood or the days of the Patriarchs before Moses Who by God's appointment made the Sanctuary which yet was not confined to any place but portable and moveable to and fro for 400 years till the Temple was built in a place appointed by God to which all Sacrifices acceptable were to be brought and there offered upon his Altar And this was done as Athanasius Epist. ad Adelph contra Arrianos and Austin in Psal 64. for a figure of Christ's Body which was to come and when that Truth signified began evidently to be preached the Shadow was destroyed So Arnobius l. 6. saith We must not think that God is delighted in Temples because built of Marble and gloriously set forth with Gold to overthrow the opinion of the Heathens who professed that if their Gods were prayed unto sub axe nudo sub aethereo regimine nihil audiunt under the cope of Heaven and in the open Air they would not hear And Lactantius Div. Inst. l. 6. c. 25. Non Templa illi congestis in altitudinem saxis extruenda sunt in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore Temples are not to be built unto him of Stones laid one upon another to a great height every one ought to consecrate him in his own heart Not that these Ancients thought it unlawful for Christians to have Temples but in opposition to the Heathens opinion That God accepted of no Worship but that performed in Temples made with hands and that the more costly they were the better he was pleased as Lactant. l. 2. c. 6. Nec ullam religionem putant ubi illa non fulserint They think there 's no Religion where these are not shining i. e. with Gold precious Stones Ivory c. Itaque sub obtentu Deorum avaritia cupiditas colitur credunt cnim Deos amare quicquid ipsi concupiscunt Under colour of Divine Worship covetousness is worshipped For they think the Gods love whatsoever they are in love withal Eusebius in like manner in 's Evangelical Preparation l. 1. c. 9. shews That men in most ancient times took no care or pains about building Temples And that the first builders of them were Heathens with the occasion thereof And in very truth we have not the least colour of Evidence for any built before the Flood tho' we read how God was served from the first by Sacrifice in the story of Cain and Abel and was worshipped no doubt by the holy Patriarchs For tho' a degenerate condition increased amongst the Posterity of Cain yet Adam and Eve after the promise of Grace continued in the same gracious course with others of their Off spring who followed their Institution and Religion especially in the race of Seth. And in his days especially about the birth of his Son Enoch for the Scripture testifies that then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. And near unto the Flood we read of a distinction between the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men tho' afterwards this came to be exceedingly confounded which ended in a natural Confusion of them all through God's just judgment After the Flood 400 years Abram by Divine admonition left his own Country and came into Canan where he and his Posterity liv'd long in Tents like Strangers and erected Altars where God appeared to them and worshipped him in the open Air. And Lib. 3. c. 13. the same Eusebius faith That it becomes wise men with open face to preach unto all that they do not reverence those things which are seen with bodily eyes but him alone whom no man seeth even the Architect and Maker of all with much more to that purpose and that we should not think to worship the Divine Power with building of Temples And accordingly in his first Book of Evangelical Demonstration p. 18. Graeco Lat. To them who thought that God ought to be worshipped only at Hierusalem or on certain Hills and in definite places our Saviour for good cause answered The hour cometh and now is
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. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns near Mercers-Chappel MR. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most memorable Passages of his Life and Times Faithfully published from his own Original Manuscript by Mat. Sylvester Folio Sermons and Discourses on several Divine Subjects By the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson B. D. sometime Fellow of Clare-Hall Cambridge Recommended by the Reverend Mr. Iohn Howe and Mr. Mat. Mead. Fol. A Body of Practical Divinity consisting of above 176 Sermons on the Lesser Catechism Composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster With a Supplement of some Sermons on several Texts of Scripture By Tho. Watson sometime Minister of St. Stephens Walbrook London Recommended by 26 Ministers c. Fol. Forty nine Sermons upon the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians In Three Parts By the Famous Minister of the Reformed Church in Paris Mr. Iohn Daille with two Epistles of Dr. Tho. Goodwin and Dr. Iohn Owen Fol. 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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
I have had much ado to find from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a voice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read in Homer as an attribute of Men who alone of all bodily Creatures distinguish the Voice into Words Syllables and single Letters whence it is called articulate consisting as it were of several joints as Coelius Rodiginus writeth who by the way tells of a Cardinal Ascainus by name who had a Parrot which cost him 100 Crowns that could repeat the Apostles Creed distinctly and accurately I wonder of what Spirit he was that took such pains to teach a Parrot such a lesson I presume he was none of St. Francis his Auditors a part of whose Legend it is that he would preach the Gospel even to bruit Creatures so great was his desire of the Salvation of all The other Interpretation Rodiginus gives of the former Etymology is in reference to the Division of Languages upon the Building of Babel for years after the Flood and both of them are very ingenious in my judgment But concerning any Person whose proper name was Merops I find nothing in Coelius nor in divers others But in Stephanus Bizantinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find Merops himself said to be the Son of Triopas and from him the People of Coos called Meropes and that Island Meropis and so much about the time of Jo the second whom Eusebius observes to have lived in the days of Triopas as Ludovicus Vives relates upon the 18th Book of Austin de Civitate Dei and the third Chapter Antoninus Liberalis in his Metamorphoses makes this Merops to be cooetaneous to Jupiter for thus he writes Num. 36. as it is translated for he is a Greek Author Jupiter postquam Titanibus pulsis Saturno regnum ademit Aegem quae mammam ei praebuit immortalitate donavit ejus imago extat in astris aureum autem canem Templi Cretensis custodiae praefecit Hunc suffuratus Pandareus Meropis filius in Sipylum adduxit Custodiendumque dedit Tantalo Jovis Plutus filio cum autem aliquanto post tempore Pandareus in Sipylum venisset canemque reposceret Tantalus depositum ejuravit So that the Son of Merops by this Author's accompt was but cooetaneous to Tantalus who was the Father of Pelops Grandfather to Agamemnon chief of the Grecians at the Trojan War Now touching Clemens Alexandrinus he was to seek whether it were Phoroneus or Merops or some other qui eis posuerunt templa who erected Temples Belike he had some evidence that made him incline to think that Phoroneus was the first other evidence that swayed him another way and made him think Merops was the first and thirdly he had some ground to conceive that neither of these but some other after both these was the first Now of these Evidences we can say nothing by way of examining them because we do not know them Arnobius in his sixth Book specifies three by name in question about the primacy of building Temples and they are Phoroneus not Argivus of whom I understand Clemens Alexandrinus to have delivered his mind in this Argument but Phoroneus Egyptius the other two mentioned by him are Merops mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus and the third and last Aeacus who as he is placed after the former two ordered according to their Age so it seems he was later than both the former And for the last of the three to be the first in this kind of Devotion he alledgeth no meaner Author than Varro who was commonly accounted the most learned of all the Latins Now AEacus was but the Grandfather of Achilles and so but two Generations before the Wars of Troy which in common accompt is not above 66 or 67 years whereas Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt above 300 years before the Wars of Troy Therefore when Varro writes as Austin reports him de Civit. Dei lib. 18. cap. 3. that the Sicyonians did sacrifice at the Sepulchre of Thurimachus the 7th King of the Sicyonians surely at that time there was no Temple built at that Sepulchre for ought Varro found in all his reading And again when Austin saith in the same place that when Phegous the Brother of Phoroneus was dead there was a Temple built at his Sepulchre by reason as he guesseth that Phegous was a devout Prince and had in his time erected Chappels for Divine Service he had not this from Varro nay Varro acknowledgeth no Temples until many years after Not to mention that both Clemens and Arnobius thought it more likely that Phoroneus rather than his Brother was the first Erector of Temples yet neither of them had any sure and certain grounds for their Opinions 20. Thus much concerning the Graecians and Egyptians something remains to be added concerning the Assyrians and Babylonians and the Original of Temples amongst them also Diodorus Siculus lib. 2. cap. 4. writing of Semiramis and her building of Babylon adds that In vrbis medio templum Jovi erexit quem vocant Babylonii Belum In the midst of the City she built a Temple to Jupiter whom the Babylonians call Belus But withal he saith that of this Temple Nihil certi pronuntiari potest cam Scriptores discordent opus ipsum vetustate collapsum sit Nothing can certainly be affirmed considering that Writers differ and the Work it self is fallen to decay through Age. Herodotus also makes mention of the Temple of Belus but he makes no mention of him that built it and as for Semiramis Herodotus makes her to precede Nitocris but five Ages which is short of 200 years for three Ages makes an 100 years by his Accompt And Nitocris he writes to have been the Mother of Labynitus against whom Cyrus waged War No Cyrus we know took Babylon whilst Belshazzar reigned who also was slain that night wherein Babylon was entred into by the Persians through the Channel of the River Euphrates whose stream was turned another way by the Army of Cyrus yet we confess the Babylonian Monarchy was far more ancient than this Simiramis Herodotus writes of and that by Scripture evidence having been founded by Nimrod that mighty hunter before the Lord whom some conceive to be Belus Babylonius and I nothing doubt but the remembrance of so great a Man and the first Monarch might be preserved by figures made of him and these figures become Idols like as in the days of Sem yea and Noah also Idols were among the Posterity of Sem in the Family of Terah The beginning of Nimrod's Monarchy is placed by Lydiat and Usher the 14th year after the Dispersion of the People through the confusion of Tongues that is 115 years after the Flood 185 before the Death of Noah and 335 before the Death of Sem which they ground on the Babylonian Antiquities searcht into by Callisthenes the Philosopher and Follower of Alexander in his Persian War for he found by his Calculation of those Antiquities
that the Babylonian Monarchy began 1903 years before Babylon was taken by Alexander A little after the Assyrian Monarchy began as Scripture testifies Gen. 10. for Moses having mention'd the beginning of Nimrod's Kingdom to have been Babel and Erech and Accad and Calne in the Land of Shinar vor 10. he forthwith adds that out of that Land to wit the Land of Shinar went Ashur and built Nineveh and the City Rehoboth and Calab This Ashur was the Second Son of Sem ver 22. It is thought his Eldest Son was Ninus the First from whose Name was the Name Ninive given to the City built by him and Ninive I find is all one with Ninus in Herodotus whose Kingdom began 1360 years before Lycurgus gave Laws to the Spartans according to the Computation of George the Monk mention'd by Scaliger with one years only difference provided we understand Ashur to have reigned 60 before his Son Ninus and from the first of Ninus to Lycurgus his giving Laws are 1300 years And which Act of Lycurgus was 97 years before the Account of Iphitus his Olympiads began Now this was 1485 years before the Reign of the latter Belus Babylonius Beladan or Nabonazar by Name who in all likely hood was that Belus which Herodotus speaks of and Diodorus Siculus For this Baladan or Nabonazar the second Babylonian Belus began his Reign but the twelfth year of Iotham King of Iudah a little before the Foundation of the Walls of Rome was laid by Romulus But whereas Scaliger conceives there were two Dinasties in Babylonia one succeeding the other 368 years before the most ancient Belus whom yet he accounts more ancient by 125 years than the Computation of Calysthenes doth reach unto This Lydiat conceives to have no colour of Truth And thus I have dispatched this Enquiry about the Antiquity of Temples according to my Power and present Leisure Yet I deny not but that as Men before there were any Temples did worship their deceased Ancestors and offer Sacrifices at their Sepulchres as Augustine testifies they did according unto Varro his Observations de Civit. Dei lib. 18. c. 3. Apud sepulchrum septimi sui Regis Thurimachi sacrificare Sicionois solere The Scythians were wont to sacrifice at the Sepulchre of their Seventh King Thurimachus which Thurimachus is said to have reigned amongst the Sicyonians before Inachus reigned amongst the Argives thô others make Inachus the First King of Argos to be more ancient than AEgialcus First King of the Sicyonians as Ludovious Vives relates upon the 18th Book of Austin de Civit. Dei chap. 3. And Pausanias in his Corinthiacks pag. 54. shews where was the Sepulchre of Phoroneus and adds Phoroneo quoque nostra etiamnum aetate parentant to this day they do offer Sacrifice to Phoroneus to wit at his Sepulchre And no marvel if they were of their Opinion who knew no other Gods than the Ghosts of Dead Men from whom they received Answers lying over their Graves as Melo and others write of certain People of Afriea call'd Augitae Likewise I deny not but that in process of time the Sepulchres of great Men were fair Houses or Structures built to no other end but that the Bodies of great Personages might lie therein as it were in State Such were the Mausolaea Regum Sepulchra faith Caelius Rodigimus l. 9. c. 10. the Sepulchres of Kings the first of them Mausolaeum having its Name from Mausolus as the same Author writeth l. 23. c. 6. King of Halicarnassus as Pausanias relates in his Arcadia and he adds that it was built ea operis magnitudine atque omni ornamentorum magnificentia ut Romani rei miraculo adducti magnificentissima quaeque apud se monumenta Mausolea appellarint So great and so adorned that the Romans admiring it afterwards called all such magnificent Monuments by the Name of Mausolaea And he writes strange things of the Sepulcher of one Helena an Hebrew Woman in Ierusalem before it was destroyed by Adrian And Lilius Giraldus in his Book de Vario Sepeliendi ritu writes that Temples and Churches had their Original from hence his words are these Fuit verò usque adeò antiquis sepulchrorum cura ut non aliundè templorum sacrarum aedium originem deductam diligentissimi scriptores tradant Eusebius Lactantius Qua de re Clemens Alexandraeus in adbortatione ad Graecos si ita rectè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretamur sic scriptum reliquit Superstitio inquit Templa condere persuasit quae enim prius hominum sepulchra fuerunt magnificentius condita Templorum appellatione vocata sunt Nam apud Larissaeam civitatem in arce in Templo Palladis Achrisii sepulchrum fuit quod nune sacrarii loco calebratur In arce queque Atheniensi ut est ab Anticcho in nono Historiarum scriptum Cecropis sepulchrum fuit In Templo verò Palladis jacet Erichthonius Ismarus autem Eumolpi atque Dairae filius in Eleusine una cum Celei natabus sepultus reliqua quae multa Clemens collegit ab eo Eusebius quae in Latinis codicthus non babentur He adds That as Temples so Images and Idols as touching the publick use of them took their Originals from Sepulchres also and he alledgeth Diophantes the Là cedemonian in his Books of Antiquities for the Proof of this But whether there were such in Egypt in the days of Ioseph or Moses I am very uncertain Suppose they had their Bull Apis severed and kept in a Placè by himself this required only Septum a Place compassed about with a Wall where might be asso some Place of Succour with a Covering to resort unto in time of Rain Hail Storm or Tempest though we read not so much as this of those ancient Times Only we read of those Times that some Creatures were accounted Sacred by the Egyptians and it was not lawful to kill such nay it was Abomination to sacrifice any such Or suppose they had Images of those Gods whom they worshipped yet Temples were not necessary for this for as I have shewed before many such together with Altars also were erected sub Divo in the open Air. I will conclude all with that which Alexander ab Alexandro writes in his genial days lib. 4. cap. 7. Persae nec Deorum imagines habent nec Templa erigunt crant enim aedium sacrarum simulacrorum eversores sed in loco mundo excelsorum praecatione Diis victimas immolant quod à plerisque usitatum invenimus Nam Carmeli Deus colebatur cui nec Templum erat nec simulachrum sed ara tantum divinus cultus Iudaei mente sola unum numen colunt ideo nulla apud eos simulachra non modo Templis sed nec urbibus insunt Germani queque nullam humani oris speciem Diis prae eorum magnitudinè dederunt nec Templa dicarunt sed lucos nemora Deorum nominibus appellant illa velut sacra templa venerantur And in his 2