on herbs and roots like brute beasts! They decreed divine honours to the person who first taught them to eat acorns as being more delicate and wholesome than herbs."a Both Egypt and Phoenicia contributed to civilize them by the colonies which they sent among them. The latter taught them navigation, writing, and commerce; the former the knowledge of their laws and polity, gave them a taste for arts and sciences, and initiated them into her religious mysteries." Though the Romans, and most of the Heathen world, received their learning from Greece: yet it is agreed amongst Heathens, Jews, and Christians, that Cadmus was the first who brought letters among them. Cadmus came originally from Egypt, and till he introduced them, says Herodotus, "letters were unknown in Greece." d Indeed it has not been proved that they have any writings preserved from that time, neither in their temples, nor in any other public monuments. All that concerns the Greeks happened not long ago: nay, one may say, is of yesterday only; I speak of the building of their cities, the invention of their arts, and the description of their laws and as for their care about writing their histories, it is the last thing

a Rollin, iii. 10. b Bryant, vol ii. 429. c Miller, vol vi. 305. d Bryant, vol. i. 228. e Miller, vol vi. 305.

they set about. Their first histories,' says Strabo, 'both of persons and things were fabulous. They wrote their histories from conjecture and confute one another. Stanyan observes, "it must be confessed, it was very late before letters were received in Greece; and even after that period, there was not the same care taken as in other countries, to apply the use of them to history. There is nothing accurately written by the Greeks, before the Olympiads. All things which are said to have happened before that time are confused, incoherent, and inconsistent. There is not any writing which the Greeks agree to be genuine amongst them, more ancient than Homer's poems: who must be confessed later than the siege of Troy." "Nay it is reported," says Josephus, "that even he did not leave his poems in writing, but that their memory was preserved in songs, and put together afterwards."a When they began to emerge out of barbarism the first instructions they received were from their poets, who greatly corrupted the lives of men, and, by a kind of magic, drew them out to idolatry. During the barbarous ages their only Gods were those,

e

ƒ Josep. vol. iv. 279. g Stillingfleet, 63. h Grecian History. a Year of the world, 3228. b Miller, vol. vi. 306. c The city was taken in the year of the world, 2820: before Christ 1180 years. d Josep, vol. iv. 247. e Stillingfleet, lvii. 59.

"natural divinities, the heavenly luminaries; but, when they became civilized, they adopted the Egyptian rites of worship. "Orpheus, whose very existence is questioned, is said, to have been the father and first teacher of polytheism amongst them. He diligently applied himself to literature, travelled into Egypt where he attained to a knowledge of their theology, and became the greatest of all the Greeks in the mysterious rites of religion, theological skill, and poetry. He gives the following account of the creation and of the creator:-"Jove is both the first and the last: Jove is both the head and the middle of all things; all things were made out of Jupiter: Jove is both a man and an immortal maid: Jove is the profundity of the earth and starry heaven: Jove is the breath of all things: Jove is the force of the untameable fire: Jove is the bottom of the sea: Jove is sun, moon, and stars: Jove is both the original and king of all things: there is one power, and one God, and one great ruler over all."a The Greeks looked upon Orpheus, not as a fanciful poet, but as a profound philosopher-a person transcendently wise and holy: they supposed all his fables, of his 360

ƒ Legation of Moses, ii, 229. g Bryant, ii. 261. h Cudworth ii. 82-275. a Cudworth, vol. ii. 289.

Gods, to be deep mysteries, and that he was indeed divinely inspired, "No writer," says Leigh, "of any human story, can be proved to be more ancient than Ezra and Nehemiah, who wrote about the year of the world 3500. Amongst the Grecians, Homer is the most ancient author that is extant, who lived long after Troy was taken, for that was the subject of his poem. Now those times were not near so ancient as those in which the scripture was written. Homer was after Moses six hundred odd years, saith Peter du Moulin. "Between Orpheus his writings, which was the heathens most ancient set, and Moses, are at least five hundred years!" The antiquity of which, the Egyptians boast is entirely fabulous.c What excuse can stop the indignation of a pious man," says Dr. Kennett, "when he finds Orpheus compared with Moses?" d This, however, is no new thing, for Celcus urged the first christians to renounce Christ and embrace Orpheus as a God. The monstrous idolatry of the Greeks and Romans may be learned from their books, their poets, and classics which are even in the hands of children. Hesiod reckons three myriads or thirty-thousand Gods."

Life of Orpheus. c Fol. Ed. pd. 1662. d Life of Orpheus. e Cudworth, 285. f Miller, v. vii. 45.

I shall give you Miller's translation of the

passage referred to:—

"Three myriads of immortal Gods there be

Upon the fruitful earth, of Jove's great progeny:

Who mortals keep, the laws observe, and wicked works do see.

Every thing had its peculiar deity, the cities, fields, houses, families, marriages, births, deaths, sepulchres, gardens, the heavens, the earth, the sea, and hell itself; every thing was made up of Gods. To these Gods they attributed every species of crime and villany. Cicero, was of opinion, that it did harm to represent the Gods "as exceeding in every kind of intemperance, enflamed with anger, and mad with lust as waging wars, fighting battles, and receiving wounds as being full of hatred, given to quarrels, and constantly engaged in strifes: as being born like mortals, uttering lamentations, and dying like men."b The primitive fathers used the testimony of Euphemerus-who published the birth and death of all the Gods, taken from authentic inscriptions found in their temples-to prove that, "the Gods they worshipped were no more than dead men." Cicero, himself says, "if we search into ancient records we may find that the whole heavens are filled with mankind-that the

a Miller, vii. 45. b Ibid, vol. vii. 46. c Ibid, vol. vi. 48.