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sical Jupiter; that is, the air; but without the least shadow of probability, and for no other reason, as we conceive, but only to shew his philological skill. However, this is set down by him, in the first place, as the genuine and proper sense of those words: Πρὸς τὸ πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεώντε· εἰ γὰρ αὐτ τὸς ταῦτα ἐδημιούργησε πρὸς τὸ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις βιωφιλές, αὐτοῦ ἂν κληθείημεν, αὐτὸν πατέρα καὶ δημιουργὸν ἐπιγραφό μενοι This agreeth with that title of Jupiter, when he is called the father of gods and men: for if he made us, and all these other things for our use, we may well be called his, and also style him our father and maker."-And that this was the only notion, which the poet here had of Zeus or Jupiter, appears undeniably also from the following words; as,

Δέξια σημαίνει

ὁ δ ̓ ἤπιος ἀνθρώποισι

Who, as a kind and benign father, sheweth lucky signs to men;-which to understand of the air were very absurd. And,

Αὐτὸς γὰρ τάγε σήματ ̓ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐστήριξεν,
*Αστρα διακρίνας· ἐσκέψατο δ ̓ εἰς ἐνιαυτὸν
Αστέρας

For he also hath fastened the signs in heaven, distinguishing constellations, and having appointed stars to rise and set at several times of the year. -And from this,

Τῷ μιν ἀεὶ πρῶτον τε καὶ ὕστατον ἱλάσκονται,

Therefore is he always propitiated and placated both first and last.-Upon which the scholiast thus: ἴσως δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν σπουδῶν, τῷ τὴν μὲν πρώτην σπονδὴν εἶναι θεῶν τῶν Ολυμπίων, δευτέραν δὲ ἡρώων, καὶ τρίτην Διὸς σωτῆρος" This perhaps refers to the libations, in

that the first of them was for the heavenly gods, the second for heroes, and the last for Jupiter the Saviour. From whence it plainly appears also, that the Pagans in their sacrifices (or religious rites) did not forget Jupiter the Saviour, that is, the supreme God.

Lastly, from his concluding thus;

Χαῖρε πάτες μέγα θαῦμα, μέγ' ἀνθρώποισιν ὄνειαρ

Where the supreme God is saluted, as the great wonder of the world, and interest of mankind.

Wherefore it is evident from Aratus's context, that by his Zeus' or Jupiter was really meant the supreme God, the maker of the whole world; which being plainly confirmed also by St. Paul and the Scripture, ought to be a matter out of controversy amongst us. Neither is it reasonable to think, that Aratus was singular in this, but that he spake according to the received theology of the Greeks, and that not only amongst philosophers and learned men, but even the vulgar also. Nor do we think, that that prayer of the ancient Athenians, commended by M. Antoninus for its simplicity, is to be understood otherwise, σον ὖσον ὦ φίλε Ζεῦ, κατὰ τῆς ἀρούρας τῶν 'Alŋvaiwv Kai Tŵv Tedíwv, Rain, rain, O good (or gracious) Jupiter, upon the fields and pastures of the Athenians :-upon which the Emperor thus: ἤτοι οὐ δεῖ εὔχεσθαι, ἢ οὕτως ἁπλῶς καὶ ἐλευθέρως We should either not pray at all (to God) or else thus plainly and freely. And since the Latins had the very same notion of Jupiter, that the Greeks had of Zeus, it cannot be denied, but that they commonly by their Jupiter also understood the one supreme God, the Lord of heaven and earth. We

L. ν. §. 5.

[§. 8. p. 146.]

των

P. 314, 315,

know nothing, that can be objected against this from the Scripture, unless it should be that passage of St. Paul, "In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God." But the meaning thereof is no other than this, that the generality of the world before Christianity, by their natural light, and contemplation of the works of God, did not attain to such a practical knowledge of God, as might both free them from idolatry, and effectually bring them to a holy life. XXXII. But in order to a fuller explication of this Pagan theology, and giving yet a more satisfactory account concerning it, there are three heads requisite to be insisted on; first, that the intelligent Pagans worshipped the one supreme God under many several names; secondly, that besides this one God, they worshipped also many gods, that were indeed inferior deities subordinate to him; thirdly, that they worshipped both the supreme and inferior gods, in images, statues and symbols, sometimes abusively called also gods. We begin with the first, that the supreme God amongst the Pagans was polyonymous, and worshipped under several personal names, according to several notions and considerations of him, from his several attributes and powers, manifestations, and effects in the world. It hath been already observed out of Origen, that not only the Egyptians, but also the Syrians, Persians, Indians, and other barbarian Pagans, had, beside their vulgar theology, another more arcane and recondite one, amongst their priests and learned men; and that the same was true concerning the Greeks and Latins also,

21 Corinth. i. 21.

P. 114, 115.

is unquestionably evident from that account, that hath been given by us of their philosophic theology; where, by the vulgar theology of the Pagans, we understand not only their mythical or fabulous, but also their political or civil theology, it being truly affirmed by St. Austin concerning both these, "Et civilis et fabulosa ambæ fabulosæ sunt, ambæque civiles;" That [lib. v. cap. both the fabulous theology of the Pagans

Civ. D. 1. iv.

c. viii.

viii. P.

tom. vii.

oper.]

was in part their civil, and their civil was

fabulous. And by their more arcane or recondite theology, is doubtless meant that, which they conceived to be the natural and true theology. Which distinction of the natural and true theology, from the civil and political, as it was acknowledged by all the ancient Greek philosophers, but most expressly by Antistines, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics; so was it owned and much insisted upon, both by Scævola, that famous Roman Pontifex, and by Varro, that most learned antiquary; they both agreeing, that the civil theology then established by the Roman laws was only the theology of the vulgar, but not the true; and that there was another theology besides it, called by them natural, which was the theology of wise men and of truth: nevertheless granting a necessity, that in cities and commonwealths, besides this natural and true theology (which the generality of the vulgar were incapable of) there should be another civil or political theology, accommodate to their apprehensions; which civil theology differed from the natural, only by a certain mixture of fabulosity in it, and was therefore looked upou by them as a middle, betwixt the natural and the fabulous or poetical theology..

Wherefore it was acknowledged, that the vulgar theology of the Pagans, that is, not only their fabulous, but even their civil also, was oftentimes very discrepant from the natural and true theology; though the wise men amongst them, in all ages, endeavoured as much as they could, to dissemble and disguise this difference, and by allegorizing the poetic fables of the gods, to bring that theology into some seeming conformity with the natural and philosophic; but what they could not in this way reconcile, was by them excused upon the necessity of the vulgar.

The fabulous theology both of the Greeks and Romans did not only generate all the other gods, but even Jupiter himself also, their supreme Numen, it assigning him both a father and a mother, a grandfather and a grandmother. And though the Romans did not plainly adopt this into their civil theology, yet are they taxed by St. Austin ⚫ for suffering the statue of Jupiter's nurse to be kept in the capitol for a religious monument. And however this differed nothing at all from that atheistic doctrine of Evemerus, That all the gods were really no other than mortal men,-yet was it tolerated and connived at by the politicians, in way of necessary compliance with the vulgar, it being so extremely difficult for them to conceive any such living being or animal, as was never made, and without beginning. Insomuch, that Callimachus, who would by no means admit of Jupiter's sepulchre, either in Crete or Arcadia (but looked upon it as a foul reproach to him) for this reason,

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