372 
worthipped under various names; that the’ 
fame kind of worfhip prevailed in the 
ancient northern nations, both of Afia and 
Rurope; that traces of this worfhip are 
found among the African and American 
favages; and that among the Peruvians 
the fun was worfhipped in magnificent 
temples. ; 
- From the preceding detail, it evidently 
appears, that in almoft all countries, the 
moft ancient worfhip was that of the hea- 
venly bodies. In this worfhip, it is pro- 
bable, that the multitude confideréd the 
fun, planets, and ftars, as ultimate objects 
of adoration; but that the more enlight- 
enced looked beyond thefe vifible bodies, 
to one fupreme, invifible power, the firft 
{pring of their motions, and the primary 
caufe of their influence in terreftrial affairs. 
However this was, it is certain, that men 
did not conceive thefe objeéts of their 
worfhip to be infenfible maffes of matter, 
but believed them to be animated and in- 
telligent beings: for worfhip, without in- 
telligence in its objeét, would be an ab- 
furdity too -grofs for the moft ignorant 
favage to adopt. 
While men confined themfelves to the 
finple worfhip of the heavenly bodies, 
they were rather polytheifts than idolators. 
If they were at all chargeable with idolatry, 
it was in making ufe of the vifible fires of 
heaven, as fymbols of the invifible divi- 
nities which were fuppofed to animate 
them, or in bowing before the fun, as the 
vifible image of the univerfal foul of na- 
ture. Idolatry may be ftriétly faid to 
have made its firft appearance when men 
-began to pay homage to thofe ‘divine 
powers, which they conceived to refide in 
various parts of nature, but chiefly in the 
heavenly bodies, through the medium of 
certain terreftrial fymbols: and of this 
kind of fymbolical worthip, the earlicit 
indications, which hiflory furnifhes, are 
among the ancient Egyptians. 
Hieroglyphics, or emblematical cha- 
racters, were in Egypt at’a very early 
pericd, appropriated to religious worfhip; 
and this allegori¢al language was founded 
upon a real or imagiriary analogy between 
terreftrial and ccleftial objets. Many of 
thefe hieréglyphic charaéters are full 
preferved ; and, though it is found ex- 
ceedingly difficult to decypher them, 
enovgh is difcoyered concerning them, to 
prove that they had an enigniatical mean- 
ing, depending upon refemblances, real or 
Imaginary. ‘Lhefe fymbolical expreffions - 
the Egyptians employed both in ther 
facred writings and in their religious in- 
The Enquirer. No. V. 
| { June 
ftitutions. The images and ftatues of 
their gods were emblemat’cal expreiiions 
of their characters and aétions. An hie- 
roglyphic ftatue of this kind is deferibed 
by Eufebius (2), as reprefenting the new 
moon. Its figure was that of a man 
with a hawk’s head, who fubdues the Hip- 
poporamus, a fierce animal, which repre- 
fents Typhon, the principle of darknefs: 
the hawk, being a known fymbol of the 
fun, is properly made the head of this 
fymbolical figure, to denote that the moon 
receives its light from that luminary, as 
the body its lite from the head. % 
In order farther to prove that animals 
were worfhipped in Egypt, not on their 
own account, either through gratitude or 
fear, but as emblems of celeftial divi- 
nities, we may advert to the ox, honour- 
ed in Egypt under the name of Apis. 
If this animal had been worfhipped for 
its ufefulnefs, as fome fuppofe, it could 
not have been neceffary that the facred 
beaft fhould have had the figure of an 
eagle drawn upon its back ; upon its 
fhoulders that of a full moon; and over 
its whole body charaéters exprefiive of 
productive power. Aélian relates (4), that 
the number of fymbolical charaéters 
drawn upon the confecrated ox, was 
equal to that of the days of the moon. 
Hence it appears, that this animal was 
not worfhipped as an ox, but as a repre- 
fentative of the moon, and as a collec- 
tion of expreffive emblems, relative, as 
fElian fays, to the order of the world 
and to nature. The ox, or bull, which 
was introduced by the Egyptian aftro- 
nomers into the celeftial {phere, repre 
fented the ox confecrated in the temples, 
under the name of Apis. The fame 
theory may be applied to the lion, alfo 
confecrated in the temples of Egypt. 
This animal was introduced into religi- 
ous worfhip, not through terror of his 
formidable powers, but on account of 
certain fymbolical relations which he bore 
to the fun, and in reference to the in- 
fluence which the fun had upon the 
earth, while pafling through the fign of 
the zodiac which was appropriated -to 
this animal (/). The Anubis, or dog, of 
Egypt, reprefented the dog-ftar, or Si- 
rius, the companion of Ofiris and Ifis (7). 
According to A#lian (7), the dog was 
honoured in Egypt on account of the re- 
lation which the dog-ftar has to the over- 

(?) Prep. Evang. |. iii, c. 11. (@) de Ani- 
mal, |, xii, c. 7. (/) Allian, ib. | () 'Plut, de, 
Ifid. (1) Blan, 1. 10, c.q5. ro 
flowing 
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