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VOL, EX.
. squad of recruits “ advance backwards, thrée
steps.”?
Dantet Chap. v.
“4! They drank wine, and prais: d whe Sods of gola, of sil-
ver, ofbrass, of iron of wood, and of st
Acts xix. o ,
i hea Ephesus
but almost throughout all Asia, this Peat. hath persuaded
and turned away much people vaying that tho ods
which are made with hands: £7, so that not only this our
craft is in danger to be set at nought ; but algo that the tem-
reat Goddess Diana bho uld be despised, and her
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the
»
t
“OG. M
worid .worshippeth.
_
Cor.
5, Fort though there bo that are called Gods, whethor in
heaven or in earth, (as there be Gods many and |
many.]”
8, Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service
unto them which by nature are ds.
Besides those passages we have several others in
of the holy scriptures which distinctly
mention the Polytheism of idolaters. I shall advert
to avery few of the early instane ces.
30. we read
stolen. Inchap.
ing the household to puts away STRANGE Gops, as
was preparing by the qin comm: and to erect an
tar, and.in 4. we find that Jacob. buri e Gods | 1
and their appendages. Th att the family ithe Patri-|in
archs were with great difficulty preserved from th
interval to ogive the solemn dnjunction. Josue xxiv Ms
&e. .
“ Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity
and trath: and put away the gods which
ed on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve yey.
e Lord ”
The choice he gives them in the next verse is
between the Gods at the other side of the flood, or
the Gods of the country of the Ammorhites in which
they were,each given in the plural Gops, or to serve
the true and only God, given in the singular, the
ORD: in y. 20. he tells them tliat they must cease
to serve the Lord,'if they serve strange Gods : and
in 23, he te s them to pit away strange Gods. This
also isshewn fally in Amos V. to which St. Stephen|*
alludes and indeed the very words of which this
proto-martyr quotes in his speech ehele
states that God per
the host of heaven,” when they kept “ the taberna-
cle of Moloch and the star of their god, Rompbon it
figures which they made to worship.” I need not
0 the books of f Judges, of Kings and the Pro-
rihets whieh teem
. the works Pagans themselve es, and yet some
‘of our good, sleek, modern Ch ristians Will say this
was not Polytheism ! {"! Jupiter was the cupreme |
god, and the other gods were saints ! !,!. Let them
read the fifteenth book of the Ilia:
w proceed to allude a few facts out of man
In
' that shew the belief which the pagans had in the} 4
virtue of idols, and though it might happen that Ci-|;
‘cero or a few ones formed an exception, I I shall
the eral impression to hav
that there was in n particular images, some virtue far
d the of their materials or their
eal effect. In the sixth book of the Iliad, He-
lenus tells Hector fo retire from the battle, and send
is mother other principal matrons of Tr
to the: tower it in which the Palladium was kept ; this,
now, was.an image of Minerva which si
protected to. the city as to prevent the fall thereof
so long as it was safely kept. Homer giveg us the
words which Pope thus translates, as Hector’s di-
‘ nection to his mother.
* You with your. Matrons gat { a Enotes train,.
‘and burn rich odours in Min
n> ke
ob &
o
8
Soon as to Tlions to opmos st tower the ey come,
And awful reach the high Palladian dome, . .
* Antenor’s consort, fair Theano, waits
As Pallas’ priestess, and unbars tho getes,
5 . A
q
7
Pla
The priestess thon the'shining voil displays, ~
ced on Mine erva's knees, and t thus she e prays.
‘So prayed the priestess in her holy fan
So vow'd the matrons, but they ny Sane in vain,”
The subsequent history is. well Twi
Greeks stole. the image and the city was then left an
is . From some dark
ii. wher
ermitted their father Ts “ to worship 0
UNITED STATES CATHOLIC MISCELLANY. | ,
[ynPrrecied prey to its enemies. But let us come to
Aineid, on the same subject. . oy
n que Palladis ibant
aasis, vpepluingue ferebent
uppliciter tristes, et tunsw pectora palmis. °
avers tenebat,. 1 Eneid. 483
nd rend their golden hair.
Unmov’d with prayersy disdainfully she tro
relentlees, on the g) round.”
e have another instance in t! the next book of the
Eneid,
ruined city, and the carnage. |
ne sub athoris axe 512
.Hic Hecuba, ot nate nequicquam altaria circum
‘Procipites otra cou tompestate columl ©,
wie the courts, beneath the naked sky,
n altar rose, an aged laurel by
hat o’er tho hearth and household. \-gods display’d
mn gloom, a deep majestic 8
fithor, like doves, who clos ie spas %¢ :
k tempest, blocks’ ning in the sky’
The queen for refuge with her d doughtorsrany
Clung and embraced their images in vain.” -
In the beginning of this book Sinon in imposing
upon jthe ‘Trojans must have spoken to them ina
manner that was according to their mode. of. think-
ing, and he, line 1'71,-Sc. states.
“ Nec dubiis edsigna dedit Tritonia monstris... ° ...-'
Vix positum castris simulacram + arstre corusees
Luminibus lamm me arrectis, gals’ sque per artus
Sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mnirubile @ dietu)
' Ennicuit, 5 pari mamq3 ferens hastamq: tromentent
And mi dful s'
oT 9 trembling Greces proclain'd the wrath divine,
care
ven from her oye 3 she flashed a living flaine; :
briny sweat bedew'd her limbs around
nd thrice she sprung indi, ignant froin the ground,
‘hrice was she seen with martial rage to .
Jer pond'rous Spear, and shake her lazing ‘shiold. ”
T shall pass over: various other passages of Vigil
and L-now come’ to an extract from ‘ the school-
boys Pantheon.”
“Tho Palladium was an image of Pallas, preserved i in the
castle of the city o of Troy ; for while the castle mple of)
age fe! fe rn from hea-
it wag covered with a roof. This raised
every body’s admiration ; and when the oracle of Apolto wal
nm
mp5 -
where he is sernaaee the desolation of the | 5
37
jed by theidol Bel: “and ‘the manner in which Daniel
exhibited the fraud of those who eat the enormous
feastswhich the people were convinced was 'necessa-
ry for the idol.
Suetosiva tells us 6 that when Adgustus lost a num-
ber of ships in m, he was so angry with Nep
jane that be ordered his atatue should not be carried
in pro :
nent celebration of the Circensian games. /lug. 16.
pretty specimen of the manner in which the people
of Egypt and of Sinope regrded an idol, which of its
wn accord, went on: boa) Egyptian vessel,
when the ° people of Sinope rfid their permission
_{for its removal.
Se eral of those idols were said to have been sent
down fF
hos, nor so many of
« Fo; ia: d the. divi h
socn a sie and are told rok ‘roams?
“I believe that what has been already adduced, is
‘confirmed by your own fo awing of Beza’s transla-
tion of y. 38 of chap. xix. of the Acts of the Apos-:
tes i in which Demetrius i is made to say that the sta-
of Diana a at Ephesus was fet down from Jupiter.
St Augustin in lib. iii. oct. Christ. c. 7. says
1 confess, they. are hore besotted who look upon
‘** the works of men’s h o.be gods, than they
“who imagine. the ‘works of God to be such. Agai
he states two various classes. * They worship Hols
‘* either as gods,or as signs and images of gods.” An
Eusebius, “ Hesiod thinks that there.are thirty thou-
den-and stone:creaters of m Her
megs, as quoted by St. Augustine | ib.
viii. vik chap, 23. de c i. Deis is asked y sasclepis if
he. calls: the statues, gods! he ans
“ ‘ Yes the statues, A:
ut the divinity
which caine to dwell i in it upon its dedication, and
speak-
consulted? he -answ: ered, “ That the ci
e when
undertook to creep into the city | thro
ory, and bri ing @ way the fatal image. “When they had per-
k, Troy was taken without difficult ty. So ome
say it
or even to look upon it.
“Others add, thet it was made af
wood, 80 that
dor Low it coud move the o
ers on tho ¢ ontrary, ere; that it
of the bones of Pelops, and d gold to the Tro.
6 Sc. aac ang." as recovered it, “after it
edeg, and carri od
with him into Italy, where-it was laid up in the temple of
esta as a pledye of the stability of the Roing
it had been before a toke:
lastly, othera write, ‘alladia; one of
which Di lomedes olk and the other, neas carried with
The dedication of the statues, their consecration,
'&e. ar6.8
feren ation or exauguratio, in opposition
to inguguratio. is 3 equa ally swell known : by the latter
he divinity was called into: possession of the ido M
or image, or temple: by the former he was called o
or evoked, ‘and the objdct. was thus desecrated. ia
chi ap. lv. of the first book of: Livy, it is stated that
en. various: at! is were turned out to make
ot quit. next chaptef,
egation is sent by. the king to Delphos, for the
purpose oflearning from the oracle of Apollo; what no
Etruscan’, or man Shrine or image or. augur
could resolve. tu chapter x XX1. ofthe fifth book: to
by Charleston, (S. Cc.) Suly 21, 1829.
in and act
cting of images was not s0 revolting to
these
¢ people as it necesearily. must
ve now shew e@ grounds for the ‘statement
w hich I gave of Pagan Idolatry. In my next I shall
examine ine ihe precepts given by the living God upon
this su
. ¥ vewaain, gentlemen
: : Your obedient humble ceva
a village near rerarechts a set of fanatics:known by
the nam ig tsi and founded a few years ago.
at Rotterdam, bya
Muller. ‘Fhey wear.a 2 peculiar
ker-like deportment, and address each “other by the
term br other « or’ sister. ."I'licy evince a spirit of tole-
ration, and seem to ne ay alt worldly. possessions:
Their, meetings are he night ; ‘and in
gain proselytes, they ciate bute money a prayer.
books i in the Sflemish tongue.— Brussels Telegraph. ‘
The Spectator of the 23 23d hag the fullowing sto-
r n
“ “According to .rumour, the King
that Mr. O’Cunnell should ‘be permitted to take his
seat withont opposition from Government
Duke of Wellington is said to have “concurred ¥
his Majesty—whilst ur. Peel: and the Lord Chan
cellor wished to. make his exclusion (as it jas since
prove d) a Governm: ment. ques ‘Fhe opinions of
of the Jatter, having prevailed, an til “irieus Pe erso-
is performed, by which Sane ‘their tutelar deity, is
h
.| through her statue: invited to Rome,and it being sup-
Pe sed that she gave her assent by somé visible sign; i]
temple oni the Aventine hill,
which Livy mentions in chap. xiii, of the same book,
Grnsisted | in bringing the images of Apollo, Latona,
Tercules, Mercury, and Neptune to feast at a
well furnished table during eight days, to render them
propi tious, an
in rafter t times.
only gi e the history ofthe
The sealfcterainen i
am
nage is said to have given’ .express
of in indignation at.the unworthy charactor of the. op-
position ; and Mr. Pecl was mentioned j ina manner .
‘ar from Aatering ”
oe King of Prussia has granted the sum 0} of I, .
6i0 dollars” to the Observat
|| ridian circle by Pistor, and °600 for a chronometer
y Tiede. He has also presented the observatory
slausntsy of provisions given every “day to be consum-
of _Konigsburg with 4,000 dollars, for the building of:
t for the erection ‘of-a heliometer by. Fret cen
Tacitus at the close ofthis book i iv. of history,gives a”
so m: .
Chap. exhibit a passage from the Prophet Zachary,
ap. x
“ sand.gods on earth. but I see that rere are many .
n to sentiments |
~4
There has been established for soine. time past at. =
was desirous :