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AFTER thefe there appeared a Crew who under renowned Names of old, fuch as OSIRIS (u), ISIS (x), and ORUS (y), and their Trains; with monftrous Shapes and Sorceries, abused the fanatick EGYPTIANS and their Priests, inducing them to feek their Gods wandering in Difguife in the Forms of Brutes, rather than human; nor did the Children of ISRAEL efcape the Infection, when the Gold, that they had borrowed of the EGYPTIANS, was made into the Likeness of a Calf in OR EB; and JEROBOAM, that Rebel King doubled that Sin in

(a) Ofiris. X. An Egyptian Word, i. e. A great Eye; because of his vaft Wisdom and Knowledge. A King and Philofopher of Egypt, about A. M. 2500, who first taught the Egyptians Hufbandry, Tillage, &c. for which they built him a Temple at Memphis, and worshipped him under the Form of an Ox. Some think this was Mizraim their Father and Founder. He is the fame as Bacchus among the Greeks and Romans; and Adam wrapt up in a Fable.

(x) Ifis. XI. Egypt from the Heb. i. e. The Women. The Wife of Ofiris, and Queen of Egypt, which were both deified after Death. They confecrated Cows, and the Females of all Cattle to her. She was the fame as Ceres and Cybele, viz. the Earth or Nature itself, and was worshipped every where; becaufe they thought he had invented the Ufe of Corn, Wine, &c. Some think they were the Sun and the Moon. was full of Dugs, to fignify the Benefits that Men do receive from the happy Influence of

She

the Moon. From these the Ifraelites made their Golden Calf, and Jeroboam his two Idols. She was a Memorial of Eve. Tiberius ordered her Temple at Rome to be demolished, and her Image to be caft into the Tyber, because her Priests were very lewd; as Jofephus relates. Her Temple at Paris. was destroyed, when Chriftianity prevailed there; but her Statue was preferved in the Abby of St. Germain des Pez, to the Year 1514.

(y) Orus. XII. Egypt, from the Heb. i. e. Light. The Son of is, another King of Egypt, deified after his Death. He reprefented the Sun, prefided over the Hours, and was the God of Time: Therefore in the old Egyptian Language he was called Horns, from whence came the Word Hora, i. e. an Hour, in the Greck, Latin, and English. The Greeks called him Apollo, i. e. A Destroyer; because he deftroyed many Things by the exceffive Heat of his Rays, or dif perfed Darkness and Clouds by his Light.

DAN

DAN (2) and in BETHEL (4), likening JEHOVAH (b), his Maker, to an Ox that feeds on Grafs; JEHováh, who in one Night, when he paffed from EGYPT, cut off both Men and Beafts (which were the bleating Gods that they worshipped) with one Blow.

LAST Came BELIAL, a more lewd Spirit than whom did not fall from Heaven, or one more grofs to love Vice meerly for itself; to him no Temple was built, nor did any Altar fmoak; yet who is oftener than he at Temples and Altars? when Priefts turn Atheists, as ELi's (c) Sons did, who filled the House

D 2

(2) Dan; Heb. i. e. A Judge. A City in the North of Canaan, at the Foot of Mount Libanus, and one hundred and four Miles from Jerufalem. It was firft It was first called Lefhem or Lais, Heb. i. e. A roaring Lion; because many Lions abounded there. about. When the Danites took and demolished it, they called it Dan, in Memory of their Father, Judg. xviii. 29. And the Canaanites, Lehem-Dan. This idolatrous King placed the other Calf there, on the other Extremity of his new Kingdom, to keep the People more attached to himself.

(a) Bethel; Heb. i. e. The Houfe of God. A City in the Tribe of Benjamin, eight Miles North from Jerufalem. At first it was called Luz, Heb. i. e. A Nut Tree, because many of them grew thereabout. But Jacob called it Bethel, in Memory of God's glorious Appearance to him there, Gen. xxviii. 19. In regard to that religious and antient Efteem of the Place, Jeroboam erected one of his Monuments of

of

Idolatry there. The Prophet feven hundred and eighty Years afterwards called it by Way. of Contempt, Beth-aven, Heb. i. e. The House of Iniquity. or Vanity, Hof. iv. 15. and Am calls it Aven, i. e. Vanity, Ch. i. 5. It was called Bethel in the Days of Abraham, Gen. xii. 8. There was an Academy or School of the Prophets, 2 Kings ii. 3.

(b) Jehovah. It denotes the Effence of God, is the peculiar, and an ineffable and moft myfterious Name of the Deity, and can hardly be tranflated into any Language. Ten Names are af cribed to him in the Hebrew, but this is the chief and moft expreffive of his infinite Nature, if it could be expreffed. See Pfalm lxxxiii. 18. A Name that the Jews never pronounced, (left it fhould be profaned) we tranflate it Lord. Hippocrat. ftiles it Euor moun, the great Mover of all Things.

(c) Eli, or Heli; Heb. i. e. Offering or lifting up. A Judge and High-Priest of Ifrael, about A. M. 1840. He was a good Man, but too indulgent to his

Sons,

of God with Luft and Violence? He reigns also in Palaces, and Courts, and luxurious Cities; where the Noife of Injury, Outrage, and Riot, afcend above their highest Towers; and when Night darkens the Streets, then the Sons of BELIAL wander out, flushed with Infolence and Wine; witnefs the Streets of SoDOM (d), and that Night in GIBE ON (e), when a Matron was expofed to prevent a more heinous Iniquity.

THESE were the chief in Power, and in Order; it would be too tedious to name the reft, though fome of them were far renowned; the Gods of GREECE, the Defcendants of JAVAN (ƒ), esteemed as Gods, tho' confeffed to be younger than Heaven and Earth, which they boast to be their Parents. TITAN (g), the Firft-born of Heaven, with his Brood of Giants,

Sons, Hophni and Phineas, which was their Destruction, 1 Sam. ii. 22, 23. He judged Ifrael forty Years, and died fuddenly, being Ninety-eight Years old, 1 Sam. iv. 15. 18.

(d) Sodom, or Sedom; Heb. i. e. A plain Field. The Capital of feveral Cities in the Plains of Jordan, which God deftroyed by Fire and Brimftone from Heaven, as a jutt Vengeance upon their Idolatry, Luxury, and fuch Wickednets as the Laws of God made to be punished with the moft ignominious Death, Gen. xix. OBS. That Plain was called Pentapolis, Gr. i. e. five Cities: because there were fo many Cities in it, viz. Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Zoar.

fituated upon a Mountain four Miles from Jerufalem towards the North. The Citizens were Sons of Belial, moft abominable and wicked Wretches, without the leaft Fear of God. This was the Birth-Place of Saul the first King of Ifrael.

Javan; Heb. i. e. Making fad. He was the fourth Son of Japhet, and the Grandfon of Noah. He and his Pofterity first peopled that Part of Greece, which was called Ionia from him. So Alexander the Great is called the King of Javan, Dan. viii. 21. See Gen. x. 2. And the Tartars call Greece, Javan from hence.

(g) Titan; XIV. Heb. i. e. Born of the Earth: Because he and all these other Gods were faid to be born of Heaven and Earth.

(e) Gibeah, or Gibeon; Heb. i. e. A Hill. A Metropolitan City of the Tribe of Benjamin, This Fable fignifies the Sun.

whofe

whofe Birth-right was faid to be feized by his younger Brother SATURN (b); and he found like Measure from mightier Jove, who was his Son by his Sifter RHEA (1), fo the ufurping JUPITER reigned.

THESE Idols were first known in CRETE (k), and IDA

(b) Saturn; XV. Heb. i. e. Hid, Lat. i. e. A Sower or full of Years, i. e. Old: The most antient of all the Heathen Gods, the youngest Son of Heaven and Earth, whom the Poets made the Grand-father of all the Gods,and Father of Jupiter. In the Greek, Chronos, i. e. The God of Time. Titan was his elder Brother; therefore Milton here calls him, younger Saturn, and in another Place, Old Saturn, because he was the God of Time; which was the oldeft of them all. Saturn was a wife Prince, but unfortunate; for his Son Jupiter expelled him the Kingdom of Crete, from whence he fled into Italy, and taught thofe People Hufbandry, Plowing, Sowing and the ufing of the Scythe, Saturn is Adam, who hid himself from God, Gen. iii. 8. or Noah, who was the Father of Men, the Inventor of Hufbandry, Wine, Architecture, Navigation, &c.

(i) Rhea; XVI. Gr. i. e. Flow ing. The Daughter of Heaven and Earth, the Wife and Sifter of Saturn, and Mother of Jupiter: She is called alfo Sylvia and Ilia. This Fable represents Eve and the Earth, which floweth with the Abundance of all good Things, for the Ufe and

Comfort of Mankind. For the old Heathens worshipped and feared Things according as they were good and useful, or terri. ble to themselves, as the Sun, Moon, Crocodile; and fome adored the Devil, that he might not deftroy them? which the wild Americans do still.

(k) Crete; Heb. i. e. An Archer: Because these People were excellent Archers. At first it was called Curete from the Curetes, Gr. i. e. Sharn; because they cut off all the Hair of their Heads they came from Paleftine. The Greeks called it Hekatompolis, i. e. The Inland with one hundred Cities. It is one of the largest Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Mouth of the Archipelago, between Greece and Africa, two hundred and forty Miles from Eaft to Welt, eighty from South to North; about fix hundred Miles in Compafs; and about fix hundred Miles from Jerufalem to the Weft, fix hundred from Conftantinople, and three hundred Miles from Cyprus. It is now called Candia, i. e. An Intrenchment, from the chief Town, built by the Saracens, A. D. 823. The Venetians bought it from the Marquis of Montferrat, A. D. 1 204. But the Turks took it from them, A.D. 1669. There

Jupiter

IDA (1), and thence upon the Top of OLYMPUS (m), covered with Snow; they ruled the middle Air, which was their highest Heaven; or on the Cliff of DELPHOS (n), or in DODONA (0), where Oracles were ;

Jupiter is faid to be both born, brought up, and buried. The old Cretians were famous for Ly. ing. See Titus i. 12. which St. Paul quoted from Epimenides.

(1) Ida; Lat. from the Gr. i. c. A Profpe: Because upon it one had a fair View of the whole Ifland of Crete, the adjacent Countries and Seas. A fa. mous Mountain in that Ifland, where Jupiter was nurfed in a Cave. It is now called Pfiloriti, Gr. i. e. The Little Hill: And from it Jupiter is called Idaus by the old Poets.

(m) Olympus; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. All faining, clear and ferene. It is the Name of feveral Mountains; but here, of that between Theffaly and Macedon: So high, that no Clouds of Darkness appeared upon it, and was covered with Snow; therefore it is called Cold: The Poets ufed it for Heaven; and faid that Jupi. ter reigned there, therefore it is called Jupiter Olympius. Anaxagoras found it but one Mile and a Quarter in perpendicular Height, as Plutarch relates. It extends from Eaft to Weft, and the Top of it extended a great Length all of a Height; yet fome Part of the Alps is much higher, Clouds are feen fometimes upon it, neither is it always covered with Snow, as the Antients reported.

(n) Delphian, of Delphi, from Adelphoi, Gr. i. e. Brothers; be

caufe Apollo and Bacchus, both Sons of Jupiter, were worshipped there. Or from Delphos, the Founder of it. It was very antient, and flourished one hundred Years before the Trojan War; the firft, moft magnificent and richeft of all the Oracles of Apollo, and of all the other Gods. An antient City in Baotia, at the Foot of Parnaffus, built upon a fleep Rock, without any other Walls; now Delpho. There was a magnificent and famous Temple and Oracle of Apollo, whither all Nations reforted for Anfwers in all dubious Affairs; and enriched with the most valuable Gifts; therefore he was called Apollo Delphius. It had its Original from a Flock of Goats, that reforted there, and from an enthufiaftical Girl. In it was kept a perpetual Fire; which Custom they borrowed from Mofes.

(a) Dodona; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Sounding Day and Night: Or because it was built by Dodon the Son of Javan, and Grandfon of Japhet, the Captain of a Colony, which firftinhabited that Part of Epirus, Gen. x. 4. A famous and antient Town in Chaonia, on the Weft Side of Epirus; famous for the Vocal Foreft and Oracle of Jupiter, where the Oaks confecrated to him, gave Anfwers; from thence he was called Dodonaus. Hefiod fays, it was the most antient of all the Oracles of Greece.

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