GOD 



fome devotee or other, elevated into the rank of deity ; tilings 

 iifelofs, or even deftniftive not excepted. 



The priiicip;il of tlie ancient gods, whom tlie Romans 

 called (I'ti iiia'jonim s;eiillum, and which Cicero calls cehjl'ial 

 gods, \-ii.xxafAtH gods, Ovid nrjl'ilcs dros, olhur?. confentes deos, 

 were Jupiter, Juno, Vefta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, 

 Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Vulcan, and Apollo. Jupiter 

 is confidered as the god of heaven ; Neptune as god of the 

 fea ; Mars as the god of war ; Apollo of eloquence, poe- 

 try, and phyfic ; Mercury of thieves, Bacchus of wine, Cu- 

 pid of love, &c. 



A fecond fort t)f gods, called dcmi-gods, femi-dU, dii wino- 

 riim gcul'nim, indigetes, or gods adopted, were men canonized 

 and deified. As the greater gods had polledion of heaven 

 by their own riglit ; thefe fecondary deities had it by right 

 and donation ; being trandated into heaven becaule they 

 had lived as gods upon earth. 



The heathen gods may be all reduced to the following 

 claflcs : 



1. Created fpirits, angels, or demons : whence good and 

 evil gods ; Genii, Lares, Lemures, Typhones, guardian 

 gods, infernal gods, &c. 



2. Heavenly bodies ; as the fun, moon, and otlier plai\ets : 

 alfo the fixed itars, conllellations, S;c. 



3. Elements ; as air, earth, ocean. Ops, Vella ; the ri- 

 vers, fountains, &c. 



4 Meteors. Tims the Perfians adored the wind : thim- 

 der and lightning were honoured under the name of Gery- 

 on.; and feveral nations of India and America have made 

 themlelves gods of tlie fame. Cailor, Pollux, Helena, and 

 Iris, have alfo been preferred from meteors to be gods ; and 

 the like has been pradifed in regard to comets : witnefs that 

 which appeared at the murder ot C;tfar. Socrates deified 

 the clouds, if we may give credit to Arillophanes ; ain! tlie pri- 

 mitive Chriltians, TertuUian affures us, were reproached with 

 the fame thing. 



5. They ere(;l;ed minerals, or folhls, into deities. Such was 

 the Ba;tyhi! ; the Finlanders adored Hones ; the Scytliians 

 iron ; and many nations lilver and gold. 



6. Plants have been made gods. Tims leeks and onions 

 were deities in Egypt ; the Sclavi, Lithuanians, Celts, 

 Vandals, and Peruvians, adored trees and forells ; the ancient 

 Gauls, Britons, and Druids, paid a particular devotion to 

 the oak ; and it was no other than wheat, corn, feed, &c. 

 that the ancients adored under the names of Ceres and Pro- 

 ferpina. 



7 . They took themfelves gods from among the waters. 

 The Syrians and Egyptians adored fiflies ; and the Tri- 

 tons, Nereids, Syrens, &c. what were they but fifhes ? Se- 

 veral nations have adorc-d ferpents ; particularly the Egyp- 

 tians, Pruffians, Litliuanians, Samogitians, &c. 



8. Infe£ts, j'.s flies and ants, had their prieils and votaries: 

 thefe among the Tlieifalians, and thofe in Acarnania, where 

 bullocks were offered to them. 



9. Among birds, the Hork, raven, the fparliav.'k, ibis, 

 eagle, griffon, and lapwing, have had divine honours ; the lall 

 in Mexico, the relt in Egypt, and at Thebes. 



10. Four-footed bealls have liad their altars ; as the bull, 

 dog, cat, wolf, baboon, lion, and crocodile, in Egypt, and 

 elfewhere ; the hog in the ifland of Crete ; rats and mice 

 in the Troas, and at Tenedos ; weafels at Thebes, and tlie 

 porcupine throughout all Zoroaftcr's fchool. 



1 1 . Nothing was more common than to place men among 

 .the number of deities ; and from Bel us or Baal, to the Roman 

 emperors before Conltantine, the inllances of this kind are 

 utiUFQcrable : frequently they did not wait fo long as their 

 deaths for the apothcoiis. Nebuchadnezzar procured his ilatue 



GOD 



to be wordiipped while living ; and Virgil fliews that Ailgu- 

 tns had altars and facrifices offered to him, Eclog. i 6, 7 

 As we learn, from other hands, that he had priefts called 

 Aug\ijlides ; and temples at Lyons, Narbona, and feveral 

 other places ; and he mull be allowed the firtl of the Romans, 

 in wliofe behalf idolatry was carried to fnch a pitch. The 

 Ethiopians deemed all their kings gods : the Velleda of the 

 Germans; the Janus of the Hungarians; and the Thaut, 

 Woden, and AfTa, of the northern nations, were, indifpu- 

 tably, men. 



1 2. Not men only, but every thing that relates to man, 

 lias alfo been deified : as labour, reft, fleep, youth, age, death, 

 virtues, vices, occafion, time, place, numbers, among the 

 Pythagoreans ; the generative power, under tlie name of 

 Priapus. Infancy, alone, had a cloud of deities ; as Vage- 

 tanus, I..evana, Rumina, Edufa, Potina, Cuba, Cumina, 

 Carna, Offilago, Statulinus, Fabulinus, &c. 



They alfo adored the gods health, fever, fear, love, pain, 

 indignation, Ihanie, impudence, opinion, renown, prudence, 

 fcience, art, fidelity, felicity, calumny, liberty, money, war, 

 peace, victory, triumph, &c. 



Lailly, nature, the univerfe, or 70 it-j.:, was reputed a 

 great god. 



Heilod has a poem under the title of 0=oyo»iK, i. e. the ge- 

 neration of the gods ; wherein he explains their genealogy' and 

 defcent ; fets forth who was the firll, and principal ; w!io 

 next delcended from liim, and what ifiiie each had: the whole 

 making a fort of fyllem of heathen theology. 



Belide this popular theology, each pliilofopher had his 

 fyllem : as may be feen from the Tiinxvis of Plato, and Ci- 

 cero De Natura Deorum. 



Jullin Martyr, TertuUian in his Apologetics, and in hii 

 book Contra Gentes ; Arnobius, Minutius Felix, LaCtaiitius, 

 Eufebiiis, Prnepar. Sc Demonft. Evangel. St. Augullinc D^ 

 Civit. Dei, and Theodoret Adverf. Gentes, fhew the vanity 

 of the heathen gods. 



It is very dithcnlt to difcover the real fentiments of the hea- 

 thens with refpect to their gods : they are exceedingly intri- 

 cate and confuied, and even frequently contradiiiforv. Tliev 

 admitted io many fuperior and inferior gods, who (harcd the 

 empire, that all was full of gods. Varro reckons up no lefs 

 than 30,000 adored within a fmall extent of ground, and ye-t 

 their number was every day growing. The way to hea- 

 ven wa,^ fo eafy for the great men of tlwfe days, that Juvenal 

 brings in Atlas complaining he was ready to fink under the 

 load of fuch a number of new gods as were daily placed in 

 the heavens : yet father Mourgnes feems to have proved that 

 all the philofophers of antiquity have acknowledged that, 

 there was but one God. Plan. Theol. des Setl. Scavans. de- 

 la Greece. 



God, ylcl of. See Div.ABrLrrv. 



God, Peace of. See Pkac e. 



God, Son of. See Son. 



God, I'ruce of. See TuucE. 



God, IVorJlnp of. See Worship. 



GODAGARY, in Geography, a town of Bengal; 18 

 miles N. of Moorihedabad. 



GODALMING, a market town and parifh in the 

 county of Surry, England, contains 474 houfes and 3405 

 inhabitants. TJie town is built in a valley, on the banks of 

 the river Wey, which is divided into fev<.r.il fmall llreams 

 here. The chief of thefe is navigable to Weybridge, where 

 it unites its watei-s with the Thames. In the vicinity of the 

 town are fome corn-mills, and paper-mills. Here are feveral 

 manufactories for weaving ftockings, patent fleecy holierv, 

 and coarfe woollen clotlis ; wool-combing and fpinning of 

 worfted alfo conlUtute part of the trade of the place. TJie 



parilh 



