were, on their first appearance, deemed Atheists by the people; and so branded by the Mystagogue, as we nd in Lucian *, and exposed amongst the rest in Tartarus, in their solemn shows and representations. This may be gathered from a remarkable passage in Origen, where Celsus thus addresses his adversary: "But now, as you, good man, believe eternal punishments, even so do the interpreters of these holy

Mysteries, the Hierophants and Initiators; you "threaten others with these punishments: THESE, on "the contrary, THREATEN YOU t." This explains a passage in Jerom's catalogue of ecclesiastical writers; and will be explained by it. The Father, speaking of Quadratus, says; "Cumque Hadrianus Athenis exe

gisset hiemem invisens Eleusinem, & omnibus pene "Græciæ sacris initiatus, dedisset, occasionem iis, qui "Christianos oderunt, absque præcepto Imperatoris

vexare credentes, porrexit ei librum pro religione "nostra." Now what occasion was afforded at this juncture to the enemies of Christianity, but only this, That, the Grecian Mysteries representing the Faithful in an odious light, the Emperor (who but just then had been initiated into almost all of them) might be reasonably thought estranged and indisposed towards Christianity; and so the easier drawn to countenance, or connive at, any injustice done unto it?

This, without doubt, was what sharpened the Fathers against the Mysteries; and they were not over tender 1 * Καὶ ἐν μὲν τῇ πρώτη [τῆς τελικῆς ἡμέρα] πρόρρησις ἦν, ὥσπερ ̓Αθήνησι, τοιαύτη· εἴ τις ἄθεον, * ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΟΣ, ή Επικέρεια, εκει κατάσκοπον τῶν ὀργίων φευγέτω — Pseudomantis, T. II. pag. 244. Edit. Reitzii, 4to. Amstel. 1743.

† Μάλισα μὲν, ὦ βέλλισε, ὥσπερ σὺ κολάσεις αἰωνίες νομίζεις· ἔτι καὶ οἱ τῶν ἱερῶν ἐκείνων ἐξη[ηταὶ τελεταί τε καὶ μυτα[ωγοί ἃς σὺ μὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀπειλεῖς, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ σοί. lib. viii.

in loading what they did not approve. On this account they gave easy credit to what had been told to them of the abominations in the Mysteries; and the rather, perhaps, on account of the secrecy with which they were celebrated. The same Secrecy in the Christian Rites, and the same language introduced by the Fathers in speaking of them, as we see below, procured as easy credit to those calumnies of murder and incest charged upon them by the Pagans. Nay, what is still more remarkable, those specific enormities, in which their own Mysteries were known to offend, they objected to the Christians. "Alii eos [Christianos] ferunt ipsius Antistitis ac Sacerdotis colere genitalia *” But here comes in the strange part of the story; that, after this, they should so studiously and formally transfer the terms, phrases, rites, ceremonies, and discipline of these odious Mysteries into our holy Religion; and, thereby, very early vitiate and deprave, what a pagan writer † could see, and acknowledge, to be ABSOLUTA & SIMPLEX, as it came out of the hands of its Author. Sure then it was some more than ordinary veneration the People had for these Mysteries, that could incline the Fathers of the Church to so fatal a counsel; how ever, the thing is notorious ‡, and the effects have been severely felt.

46

We have all along supposed the Mysteries an invention of the Lawgiver: and, indeed, we had nothing to do with them, but in that view. Now though, from what hath been said, the intelligent reader will collect, we have not supposed amiss, yet since the pertinency

* Cæcil. apud Minut. in Octav.

Amm. Marcellinus, lib. xxi. cap. 16. Hist.

See note [Q] at the end of this Book.

of the whole discourse, as here applied, depends upon it, he may perhaps expect us to be a little more particular.

That the Mysteries were invented, established, and supported by LAWGIVERS, may be seen,

1. From the place of their original; which was EGYPT. This, Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plutarch, who collect from ancient testimonies, expressly affirm; and in this all Antiquity concurs: the Eleusinian Mysteries, particularly, retaining the very Egyptian Gods, in whose honour they were celebrated; Ceres and Triptolemus being only two other names for Isis* and Osiris: as we have seen above from Theodoret: and so Tibullus,

Primus aratra manu sollerti fecit OSIRIS,

Et teneram ferro sollicitavit humum †.

Hence it is, that the UNIVERSAL NATURE, or the first Cause, the object of all the Mysteries, yet disguised under diverse NAMES, speaking of herself in Apuleius, concludes the enumeration of her various mystic rites, in these words, "Priscaque doctrina pollentes σε EGYPTII, CEREMONIIS me prorsus PROPRIIS percolentes, appellant VERO NOMINE reginam "ISIDEMS."

But the similitude betwen the Rites practised, and the Doctrines taught in the Grecian and Egyptian Mysteries, would be alone sufficient to point up to their original: such as the secrecy required of the Initiated;

* Ἴσις δέ ἐσι κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλήνων γλῶσσαν Δημήτης. Herodot. lib. ii, cap. 59. And again cap. 156. Anunτne dè "Iois.

+ See note [R] at the end of this Book,

See note [S] at the end of this Book,

§ Metam, lib. xi.

which, as we shall see hereafter, peculiarly characterized the Egyptian teaching; such as the doctrines taught of a metempsychosis, and a future state of rewards and punishments, which the Greek writers agree to have been first set abroach by the Egyptians *; such as abstinence enjoined from domestic fowl, fish, and beans †, the peculiar superstition of the Egyptians; such as the Ritual composed in hieroglyphics, an invention of the Egyptians . But it would be endless to reckon up all the particulars in which the Egyptian and Grecian Mysteries agreed: it shall suffice to say, that they were in all things the same §.

Again; nothing but the supposition of this common original to all the Grecian Mysteries can clear up and reconcile the disputes which arose amongst the Grecian States and Cities, concerning the original of these rites; every one claiming to be the Prototype to the rest. Thus Thrace pretended that they came first from thence; Crete contested the honour with those barbarians; and

* Timæus the Locrian, in his book Of the Soul of the World, speaking of the necessity of inculcating the doctrine of future punishments, calls them TIMOPIAI ZENAI, FOREIGN TORMENTS: by which name both Latin and Greek writers generally mean, Egyptian, where the subject is Religion.

+ See Porphyrius De Abstin.

CU

Senex commissimus ducit me protinus ad ipsas fores ædis amplissimæ, rituque solenni aspersionis celebrato mysterio, ac matutiuo peracto sacrificio, de opertis adyti profert quosdam Fibros, literis ignorabilibus prænotatos; partim FIGURIS JUSCEMODI ANIMALIUM, CONCEPTI SERMONIS COMPEN DIOSA VERBA SUGGERENTES, partim nedosis, & in modum rote tortuosis, capreolatimque condensis apicibus. Apul. Metam. lib. xi.

§ Πρὸς δὲ τέτοις αἱ τελεαὶ καὶ τὰ μετήρια ταύτης τῆς θεῦ [Δήμης τότε κατεδείχθησαν ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι, τά τε περὶ τὰς θυσίας καὶ τὰς αρχαιότητας ὡσαύτως ἔχειν ̓Αθηναίας καὶ τὸν Αἰγυπτίας. Diod. Sic. lib. i.

Athens claimed it from both. And at that time, when they had forgotten the true original, it was impossible to settle and adjust their differences: for each could prove that he did not borrow from others; and, at the same time, seeing a similitude in the Rites *, would conclude that they had borrowed from him. But the owning EGYPT for their common Parent, clears up all difficulties: by accounting for that general likeness which gave birth to every one's pretensions.

Now, in Egypt, all religious Worship being planned and established by Statesmen, and directed to the ends of civil policy, we must conclude, that the Mysteries were originally invented by LEGISLATORS.

2. The Sages who brought them out of Egypt, and propagated them in Asia, in Greece, and Britain, were all Kings or Lawgivers; such as Zoroaster, Inachus, Orpheus †, Melampus, Trophonius, Minos, Cinyras, Erectheus, and the Druids.

3. They were under the superintendence of the State. A Magistrate intitled BAZIAETE, or King, presided in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Lysias informs us, that this King was to offer up the public prayers, according to their country Rites; and to see that nothing impious or immoral crept into the celebration. This title

Καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ τρόπον τινὰ κοινοποιεῖσθαι· ταῦτά τε, καὶ τῶν Σαμοθράκων, καὶ τὰ ἐν Λήμνῳ, καὶ ἄλλα πλείω· διὰ τὸ τὰς προσπόλεις λέγεσθαι τὸς αὐτές. Strabo, lib. x. p. 466, D. Edit. Paris,

1620. fol,

66

† Of whom Aristophanes says, Ορφεὺς μὲν γὰρ τελειὰς θ ̓ ἡμῖν κατέδειξε, φόνων τ' ἀπέχεσθαι· “ Orpheus taught us the Mysteries, "and to abstain from murder," i. e. from a life of rapine and violence, such as men lived in the state of nature.

$ † — Καὶ εὔχας εὔξεται κατὰ τὰ πάτρια ειδική, μηδὲ ἀσεβῇ περὶ τὰ ἱερά - in Andor,

- όπως αν μηδείς