THE 



n,en would be ffuiky of, were not ^^^Y f^'^J^f^ '^ ^ 

 uded on tl>e public theatres, and heard wuh p oafui-e by he 

 people, but Ihey were regarded as things pleal.ug to the 

 ^,themfelvcs, by which they were P'-°P"t'=>^'^f .^"^ ,^"- 

 Led favourable; and ^accordingly they were taken nUo 

 the public religion. Games were celebrated, and p ay we^e 

 fotufded upon them ; and the pubhc games and plays were 

 on certain occafions conCdered as ^ft^°f/<^''g'°"'/"'°"■ 

 raged bv their deities, and celebrated m honour of them 

 It is alfo iuiUy obferved, that the images, forms, habits, and 

 ornaments of their gods, their different faxes and ages, and 

 the facrcd feftivals inftituted to their honour, had all ot them 

 a reference to the fables of the poets and mytho ogifts, and 

 were founded upon them ; fo that the civil and the fabulous 

 thcolo<ry might each of them be called civil, and each tabu- 

 loas. Hence proceeded many abfurd and ridiculous, and 

 many immoral and inhuman rites, which were made ule ot 

 in the worOiip of their gods, and which were either prefcribed 

 by the laws, or were eaablilhed cuftoms, countenanced by 

 the magiftrates, and which had obtained the force of laws, 

 and may, therefore, be regarded as belonging to the pubhc 

 religion of the Pagans. See Leland's Chriftian Revelation, 



ubi fupra, cap. 7. , . n , • , i_ i. 



The third, .-t/T.^, natural, was chiefly cultivated by the 

 philofophers, as moft agreeable to nature and reafon. The 

 phyCical or natural theology acknowledged one only fupreme 

 God ; to which it added dxmons or fpirits, as mediators 

 between him and man. 



Dr. Leland has urged a variety of confiderations to prove 

 that, notwithftanding the high encomiums which have been 

 bellowed upon the philofophical theology of the Pagans, it 

 was of little ufe in leading the people into a right know- 

 ledge of God and religion, and for reclaiming them from 

 their idolatry and polytheifm. To this purpofe he obferves, 

 that, if the philofophers had been right in their own notions 

 of religion, they could have but little influence on the people, 

 for want of a proper authority to enforce their inftrudions. 

 The affeded obfcurity of the Pagan philofophers was an- 

 other caufe wliich rendered them unfit to inftruft the people 

 in religion : to which it may be added, that fome of them 

 ufed their utmoft efforts to deftroy all certainty and evidence, 

 and to unfettle men's minds as to the belief of the fundamen- 

 tal principles of all religion ; and even the beft and greateft 

 of them acknowledged the daiknefs and uncertainty they 

 were under, efpecially in divine matters. The philofophers 

 themfelves were alfo, for the moil part, very wrong in their 

 own notions of the Divinity ; they very much corrupted 

 the ancient tradition relating to the one true God and the 

 creation of the world, and endeavoured to account for the 

 formation of all things without the interpofition of a Deity. 

 And the opinions of thofe philofophers who were of a nobler 

 kind, were chargeable with great defefts : they generally 

 expreffed themfelves in the polytheiftic ftrain, and inftead 

 of leading the people to the one true God, they fpoke of a 

 plurality of gods, even in their moil, ferious difcourfes ; 

 afcribing ihoie works to the gods, and directing thofe duties 

 to be rendered to them, which properly belong to the fu- 

 preme. The philofophers likewiCe referred the people for 

 inftrudtion in divine matters to the oracles, which were ma- 

 naged by the prieils : this was particularly the cafe with So- 

 crates, Plato, and the Stoics. 



It was an univerfal maxim among them, that it was the 

 duty of every wife and good man to conform to the reh- 

 gion of his country ; and they not only worfhipped the 

 gods of their refpeftive countries according to the efta- 

 blilKed rites, gnd exhorted others to do fo ; out when they 



T H E 



took upon themfelves the ch?rafter of legiflators, and drew 

 up plajis of laws, and of llie bell forms of government, 

 polytheifm, and not the worlhip of the one true God, was 

 the religion they propofed to eftablifh. Moreover, they 

 employed their learning and abihtics to defend and juftify 

 the popular idolatry and polytheifm. The worfhip of in- 

 ferior deities was recommended by them, under pretence 

 that it tended to the honour of the fupreme. Some of the 

 moft eminent of them endeavoured to colour over the moil 

 abfurd part of the Pagan poetical theology, by allegorizing 

 the moll indecent fables. They apologized for the Egyp- 

 tian animal worfhip, which the generality of the vulgar Pa- 

 gans in other nations ridiculed. They vindicated idolatry 

 and image-worfhip, as necelTary to keep the people from 

 falling into irrehgion and atheifm ; and befides, fome of 

 the more refined philofophers were againfl any external 

 worfliip of the fupreme God. 



Many of the philofophers, and of the learned and polite 

 Pagans, denied a providence. Of thofe who profeffed to 

 acknowledge it, fome confined it to heaven and heavenly 

 things ; others fuppofed it to extend to the earth and to 

 mankind, yet fo as only to exercife a general care and fuper- 

 intendency, but not to extend to individuals ; others, 

 again, fuppofed all things, the leafl as well as the greateft, 

 to be under the care of providence ; but they afcribed this not 

 to the fupreme God, who, they thought, was above con- 

 cerning himfelf with fuch things as thefe, and committed 

 the care of them wholly to inferior deities. See the illuflra- 

 tion and proof of thefe feveral allegations by Dr. Leland, 

 ubi fupra, cap. 10 — 17. 

 Theology, Bachelor in. See Bachelor. 

 Theology, My/lic. See Myotic. 

 Theology, Polemical. See Polemical. 

 THEOMANTIA, @icua.y^tl!t, tn Aniiqvity, divination 

 by the fuppofed infpiration of fome deity. For a particular 

 account of which, fee Potter, Archaeol. Grasc. lib. ii. 

 cap. 12. tom. i. p. 298. 



THEON, in Biography, a mathematician of the Platonic 

 fchool, was a native of Smyrna, and flourilhed under the empe- 

 rors Trajan and Adrian. His mathematical treatifes are faid 

 to have been written for the purpofe of elucidating the philo- 

 fophy of Plato ; and his difcourfes, treating of geometry, arith- 

 metic, mufic, aftronomy, and the harmony of the univcrfe, 

 may ferve to throw fome light upon the Pythagorean fyftcm. 

 Part only of his work, " De iis qux in Mathematicis ad 

 Platonis leAionem utiha funt," or that which relates to arith- 

 metic and mufic, has been publifhed. The remainder, which 

 pertained to aftronomy and geometry, is faid to have been 

 preferved/ in the Ambrofian library at Milan. Ptolemy re- 

 fers to his allronomical obfervations. Brucker by Enfield. 

 Montucla Hift. des Math. 



Another mathematician of the ' ne name belonged to the 

 Alexandrian fchool, and flour!. .led about A.D. 365. He 

 was the father of the learned but unfortunate Hypatiai 

 His works are various : among thefe we may mention his 

 " Recenfio Elementorum Euchdis," pubhfhed by Comman- 

 deni ; his " Fafti Grjeci priores, et Fragmenti Commentarii 

 in Ptolomxi Canonem expeditum, five Recenfio fuccinfta 

 Chronologica regem a Nabonaffaro ad Antoninum Pium ;" 

 " Schoha in Aratum," faid to be interpolated ; and" Cora- 

 mentarius in Magnum Ptolomaei Syntaxin," which is incom- 

 plete. Montucla. 



THEOPASCHITES, Theopaschit^, in Ecckftajl- 

 eal Hijtory, a fett of heretics in the fifth century, the fol- 

 lowers of P#trus FuUenfis, or Peter the Fuller, who 

 ufurped the fee of Antioch ; and after having been feveral 



times 



