INTRODUCTION.

FROM an attentive perusal of the Sacred Writings, it appears evident that idolatry, that is to say, the worship of any object except the one only living and true God, was introduced into the world at a very early period.

The descendants of Noah (particularly in the branch and posterity of Ham), neglecting or despising the instructions of their pious progenitor, yielded themselves slaves to their own passions and inclinations, and, departing from the worship of that Being who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, gradually lost that sense of his presence, and that hope of his protection, which are the best guides and most powerful incentives to virtue, till they ultimately sank into gross ignorance, bar

barity, and superstition. In this degraded state of mind, they offered their religious adoration to sensible objects; the first of which were the sun, moon, and stars, called in Scripture the host of heaven. This kind of worship obtained the name of Sabaism; and has been found to prevail, with more or less complexity and pomp of ritual, in almost every part of the world. To it may be justly attributed the early advances made by the Chaldean and Egyptian priests in the science of astronomy: the acquisition and abuse of which knowledge ultimately gave them an undue influence over the minds of the people, whose credulity and superstition (the natural effects of ignorance and fear) furnished the wily pretenders to judicial astrology with the arms by which they triumphed over their understanding. Chambers, in his Encyclopedia, informs us that Maimonides, an ancient writer, makes frequent mention of this idolatry in his work entitled "More Nevochim;" and adds, that Abraham, who was a native of Ur of the Chaldees, was brought up among the Sabæans, who admitted no other gods than the heavenly bodies; and who, in their works (many of which have been translated into Arabic), maintain expressly that the sun and moon are the great gods, and the stars and planets subordinate deities, acting

in obedience to their commands. The same writer observes, that Abraham opposed these errors, and asserted the existence of a creator distinct from the sun for the promulgation of which opinion the king of the Cushæans shut him up in prison, and ultimately confiscated his goods, pronouncing on him a sentence of banishment from his country. It was probably in this moment of distress that God called this pious patriarch, and communicated to him a knowledge of the blessings that should attend him and his posterity.

The adoration of the heavenly bodies induced, in process of time, an extraordinary veneration for certain animals, vegetables, and other productions of nature, that were imagined to possess some analogy to their aspects, form, or progress; and these in their turn were honoured with rites and ceremonies, always fraught with absurdity, and often with cruelty. To an ordinary traveller, the temples of ancient Egypt must have had the appearance of being but elegant compartments of one vast ménagerie; while to the eyes of the philosopher they presented abundance of ingenious emblems, designed to represent upon earth in living forms the hieroglyphic figures of the constellations, and the operations of nature.

The ancient astronomers, representing the stars

and constellations under the figures of animals, made use of the same hieroglyphical characters to express their aspects, conjunctions, and oppositions, together with the daily phenomena they exhibit. "Accordingly," says Monsieur Rabaud de St. Etienne, "when they spoke of the heavenly bodies as animals or persons, they were of course obliged to describe their relations, positions, and influences, as so many adventures. The rising of the stars, whose appearance regulated the labours of the agricultor, or directed the operations of the mariner, was hailed as the birth of beneficent beings, to whose influence mortals were indebted for the principal sources of their comfort and happiness. In like manner their disappearance from our hemisphere was announced and mourned as their death, which was often attributed to other heavenly bodies which became visible at their departure. The former were described as descending into the infernal regions, while those that advanced above the horizon were considered as reigning in splendour, or experiencing all the variety of adventures which the fertile imagination could draw from their different positions and changes. The account or description of these combinations obtained the names of the metamorphoses."

Embellished by the graces and ornaments of poetry, these ingenious fictions, in process of time, were found infinitely more pleasing and congenial to the taste of the people than the laboured investigations of exact observation; and the natural or physical heavens, with the characters by which the name of the Most High is inscribed thereon, being concealed under the dazzling veil of allegory, were at length forgotten, or at least little studied, and very imperfectly understood.

The idolatrous worship, first established in Phoenicia and Egypt, became refined in proportion to the increase of knowledge, and the invention and perfection of useful and ornamental arts. Painting and Sculpture lent their aid to this refinement. "Well-formed statues inspired respect; and men began to imagine that the ideal beings they represented took pleasure in inhabiting them. The invention of a useful art, the beauty of a work, gratitude for benefits received, filial piety and affection, conjugal and maternal tenderness; all these caused temples and altars to be raised, statues and portraits to be honoured, and woods. and groves to be consecrated."

In the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, chap. xiv. 15th and successive verses, is the following account of the origin of this image-worship: