second Thoth and Belus, which was the time of Moses. The priest of On, whose daughter Joseph married, was priest of the sun: and Moses, forty years after the exode speaks of hero worship as a new species of idolatry; saying, "they sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods newly come up, whom the fathers feared not" (Deut. xxxii. 17). Till the time of the exode, the Egyptians had no names for their months, but called them first month, second month, &c., as did the children of Israel. The idolatry in Egypt up to this period consisted in impersonating the primary elements and heavenly bodies, and ascribing particular forms to these impersonations expressive of their supposed attributes, and worshipping the idol so formed. These impersonations were used either by Thoth, or soon after, to designate the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and in their names and order have been transmitted without much variation to our own times. But they have changed in form in almost every country, and are scarcely anywhere to be found complete as first designed by Thoth or Belus. Characters, and not hieroglyphics, were first employed both in Babylon and Egypt; and these characters were similar to the present arrow-headed characters at Babylon, and somewhat resembled the present astronomical marks for the zodiacal signs in Egypt. But Thoth also made hieroglyphics as well as characters, and the difference between the hieroglyphics of Babylon and Egypt led to all the difference of form between these two idolatries. At Babylon, the primary elements do not seem to have been impersonated, but stand symbolized as the winged egg, the sun, the re-entering serpent, &c.; and the signs of the Zodiac either retain their natural form, or are impersonated in a human form with human face, and having the horns of the bull, ram, &c. to denote the sign intended. But in Egypt the hieroglyphics were formed by changing the man's head into that of the bull, ram, &c., and sometimes adding thereto the symbols of the primary elements, and also of some king or hero who was to be flattered or appeased. At Rome they put but two of the Cæsars into their calendar, timely pondering the question of the satirist, What will you do if you have thirteen Cæsars? But in the hieroglyphic times of Egypt, they heaped so many characters on the same hieroglyphic to make room for the various candidates for deification, that the history of the period between the second Thoth and Sesostris, corresponding with the time between Moses and Solomon, is involved in confusion almost inexplicable. From this different employment of the same symbols, which at first would seem trivial and accidental, the widest discrepancy at length resulted: Belus and the gods of the Babylonian idolaters retained the human form, and were worshipped as men; Thoth and the other Egyptian gods were worshipped in their symbols; and not only birds and beasts and flies, but trees and herbs stood in the place of God to the Egyptians. This difference influenced likewise the mode of recording events in the two countries: the records of Egypt became hieroglyphics, those of Babylon remained characters. And, as among the pure hieroglyphics of Egypt, three distinct applications of them is discernible, so the characters of Babylon are applied to three different purposes. The first of these purposes was a calendar; the second was astronomical, for the cycles and eclipses and periods; the third was genealogical, for recording the number and succession of kings in the different dynasties. To these might be added a fourth character, used for magical and talismanic purposes; but this last, though very extensively employed both in Babylon and in Egypt, was wholly arbitrary and supposititious, invented purposely to deceive; and so far from being meant to be understood, that it was purposely given a form to which no precise meaning could be attached. In Egypt nearly the same symbols were used for these different purposes, and they differed chiefly in the mode of their arrangement; but in Babylon different sets of characters were employed for these different purposes. In both countries the primary elements were first symbolized, and then employed for the purpose of the calendar, and at Babylon they were retained distinct for this purpose, and are so found impressed on the bricks at the present time; but in Egypt these primary symbols were first mixed with, then superseded by, hieroglyphics, though they may still be traced interspersed in all the remains, and some few of the smaller monuments have been preserved which retain them distinct from the hieroglyphics. The arts, sciences, and records of a country depend very much upon its natural productions and soil. In Egypt the fine quarries for sculpture induced them to bestow the utmost labour in engraving the memorials of their religion and science in such imperishable records. But these, from the complicated nature of the symbols, and the different senses in which the same symbol was employed, constantly required the aid of a living interpreter, and could not be explained by the diffuse and inaccurate papyrus writing which was subsequently invented. This knowledge, therefore, was limited to the priests, and superinduced the necessity of a personal visit to Egypt for all foreigners who wished to be instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, as we know it to have been the case with so many of the philosophers of Greece. In the neighbourhood of Babylon they had no quarries of stone; and with the exception of some slabs brought from a distance for long inscriptions, and the small agate cylinders used as seals, all the inscriptions at Babylon were stamped on bricks, tiles, or cylinders of clay, and are of the four characters we have mentioned above, the calendal, the astronomical, the genealogical, and the magical or talismanic. The calendal characters are properly only seven; the first recurring as the eighth, and so on. But the tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth character is a distinct character in most cases, nearly resembling our cypher in its form and use; the twelfth character, also, is often distinguished from the rest, and they, all of them, have occasionally substitutes and equivalents in other characters. These seven characters were originally part of the symbols of the primary elements, which were ten in number; and gave occasion, on the one hand, for the ten Sephiroth of the Cabalists and Pythagoreans, and on the other, being impersonated in the ten antediluvian Patriarchs, were corrupted into the ten greater gods of the heathen. But in adopting for the calendar the symbols of the primary elements, the Babylonians dropped the first three, and made the fourth symbol the first of the characters of the calendar, thenceforth using the first three rarely, except as hieroglyphics. We have the whole series preserved on the legend of a cameo in Tassie's collection, and on another legend in Raspe; and we have the first three characters as hieroglyphics, and the other seven in the margin of many seals in the British Museum and elsewhere; and all the calendars and astronomical inscriptions with which we are acquainted, whether on brick or stone, without one single exception, begin with the fourth of the ten primary symbols, which represented the sun. Our readers will observe, that we are now speaking only of the Babylonian inscriptions, and only of the first or calendal form of these; the case is different with the inscriptions at Nineveh and Persepolis, though these are in characters greatly resembling those of Babylon. This mysterious Triad, set apart from the other symbols by the Babylonians, exalted as the corona summa by the Cabalists; as the Zavos Tupyos, the mens abscondita by the Pythagoreans; as Phanes, Zeus, and Eros in the Orphic fragments; undoubtedly gave that semblance to the doctrine of the Trinity which is found in the Gentile superstitions; and as it prevailed so extensively before the publication of the Gospel, it could only be derived from Divine revelation through patriarchal tradition, however obscure and corrupted. The first of these three, by the name of Light, by the symbol of a single arrow-head or horn, and by the hieroglyphic of a winged egg with horns, or an egg surrounded by a serpent, represented the incomprehensible Supreme from whom all things proceeded. In the fragments of Sanchoniatho, Berosus, and Zoroaster, the names given to the first being are manifestly the Hebrew names of God. He is called Beelsamin Lord of Heaven, Elion the Most High, and his auxiliaries Elohim, or gods: he is called Jao, or Jehovah, Sabaoth Lord of Hosts, and indestructible, eternal, unbegotten, indivisible, and incorruptible, the dispenser of all good. They identify him, too, with the Zeus and Hæphaistos of the Greeks, under which titles he is addressed in the Orphic fragments, and also as Protogonus, Phanes, and Ericepaios. One of these we give as an example: "Protogonus, I invoke, twofold, great, æthereal egg-born, rejoicing in thy golden wings; whose symbol is the bull, procreator of gods and men, renowned Light, far celebrated Ericepaios, ineffable, occult, impetuous, all-glittering strength; who scatterest the twilight clouds of darkness from the eyes, and roamest through the world upon the flight of thy wings, who bringest forth the pure and brilliant light, wherefore I invoke thee as Phanes." The fragments of Zoroaster make the hawk the symbol, and in the Egyptian hieroglyphics the hawk, the bull, and an eye, were all employed to represent this first principle. The second of the primary elements, by the name of Wisdom or Counsel, by the symbol of four horns crossed like a star of eight points, and by the hieroglyphic of the sun, represented God in manifestation; as light is embodied in the sun, who appears to rule the heavenly bodies, and to educe and nourish life in the products of the earth. The Egyptian remains abound with ascriptions to the sun in this character; and from the earliest times there were temples to On, at Heliopolis, and other cities of Egypt. On one of the obelisks there are verses, the interpretation of which is given by Ammianus Marcellinus*: one of these runs thus, "I, the sun, the god and lord of heaven, have bestowed strength and power over all things, on king Rhamestes: he, whom Horus, the lover of truth, the lord of the seasons, and Hæphaistus, the father of the gods, have chosen on account of his valour, is the all-gracious king, the offspring and beloved of the sun.' And from the Egyptians, it is evident that Orpheus derived the same notions both of Metis and of the sun, whom he addresses "Oh, all-ruling sun, spirit of the world, power of the world, light of the world" (Macrob. Sat. lib. i. c. 23). To this second corresponds the second title in the Cabalistic and Pythagorean arrangement of the attributes of God, the Scientia and Sapientia; the Emornun, the ovoia, and λόγος. The third of the primary elements, by the name of Love, Intelligence, or imparted Wisdom, by the symbol of two horns resting on a triangle, and by the hieroglyphic of the moon, or a reentering serpent, represented God in operation or in influence. * Ancient Fragments, by J. P. Cory, Esq., p. 169 + Cory, p. 300. All these three Sephiroth occupied the corona summa of the Cabalists and Pythagoreans, and their symbols are engraved on the forehead of the bust of Isis at Turin; the seven next characters being engraved on the face and shoulders of the bust, and forming the corona inferior, or diadema, of the Cabalists. To these three the Jews attach the three highest names of God, Ehejeh, Jah, and Jehovah; and give all of them the attributes of infinity and eternity. In the fragments of Orpheus, too, the same attributes are indifferently and simultaneously ascribed to Phanes, Metis, and Eros, who are all comprehended in the one supreme Zeus, in forms of expression so mysterious and enigmatic, that nothing but the doctrine of the Trinity can explain or reconcile the contradictions; and therefore we conclude that they had received some imperfect tradition of that doctrine, which is distinctly perceptible in the remains of Hermes, more obscure, but still perceptible, in the Orphic fragments, but nearly obliterated in the time of Plato, and quite lost in the succeeding writers of Greece. In the first of the Orphic fragments quoted by Cory (p. 290), this appears: "Zeus is the first; Zeus the thunderer is the last; Zeus is the foundation of the earth and starry heaven; Zeus is the root of the sea, he is the sun and the moon; Zeus is the king, he is the author of universal life. One kingly frame, in which this universe revolves, fire and water, earth and ether, night and day, and Metis the primæval father, and all delightful Eros; all these are united in the vast body of Zeus. Would you behold his head and his fair face, it is the resplendent heaven, round which his golden locks of glittering stars are beautifully exalted in the air. On each side are the two golden taurine horns; the risings and settings, the tracks of the celestial gods; his eyes the sun, and the opposing moon; his unfallacious mind the royal incorruptible ether." These remarks and extracts, which our space obliges us to make short, but which might be enlarged to a very great extent, are designed to shew, first, that the heathen idolatries are gradual corruptions of Divine revelation, increasing till they not only obscure, but become the very opposite of the truth; and, secondly, that merely carrying our inquiries as far back as we have authentic and sure historical records, the superstitions of heathenism were not greater deviations from the truth than are the superstitions of Romanism of the present day. And under the third form of idolatry, we shall have to shew that the idolaters of science and intellect of the present day cannot better stand the comparison with the heathen. We, too, are less excusable than they, for we sin against clearer revelation and greater extent of knowledge; but we believe that these shall be no safeguard. For the Scriptures declare, that an Antichrist shall |