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Their ceremonies of mortifying the body were carried to the same pitch of frantic madness, as we readconcerning the priests of Baal, who cut their bodies with knives when they worked themselves up into ecstasies, and pretended to have divine communication.

It will not be difficult for us to determine the origin of the worship of this goddess. Cybele, in the heathen mythology, is said to have been the mother of the gods, who sprung from the rocks after the deluge; which was evidently taken from that epoch. The wife of Noah, was by them honored as a goddess, and her three! sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, in after-ages were worshipped.

The history of Samuel also is preserved in the mythology, under the name of Attis, whose mother they feign to have conceived* "by taking the fruit of the pomegranate tree; she had a son, who was brought up by Phorbus, and who, being on the eve of taking a wife, was deprived of her, by a fatal occurrence; soon after he emasculated himself under a pine tree."

This is the account of Samuel mutilated, when his mother went to the temple to ask of God to give her a child, who was taken by Eli, and devoted to the service of God in the temple.

Troy flourished at the time of the Judges of Israel; and its destruction took place about the time of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. It is worthy of remark, that when Homer sung the battles of the gods with the giants, he sung the battles of the Hebrew leader in the land of Canaan as may be proved from the synchronism of events recorded in the bible, and introduced by the poet.

Having said as much as is necessary concerning the descendants of Ham, from whom descended twenty two

*Arnobius, lib. 8.

nations, and of their different idolatrous sects, I shall now introduce those nations, which descended from Shem. Concerning Arphaxad the son of Shem, in whose line the Messiah was to come, I have spoken in the chapter of the second order of the patriarchs.

The true worship of God continued among some of the descendants of this people, to the time of Abraham and Moses, for Melchizedeck was king of Salem, which was the ancient name of Jerusalem, and a priest of the most high God: and Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a prince and a priest of Midian. So that, though idolatry was the established worship of the eastern nations at that period, yet the worship of the true God, as it was established by Noah, was not altogether banished from the land of Canaan.

The descent from the patriarch begins in the 22d verse. Elam, Ashur, Lud, and Aram, who were the children of Shem, formed gentile nations. I shall therefore begin with Elam, the eldest son of Shem; and the father of the Elamites, so often mentioned in scripture, This will introduce

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THE WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS AND MEDES.

The worship of the ancient Persians, is of very great antiquity; it is carried back by them as far as the time of Elam, the son of Shem; they believed him to be the author of their Soph, or holy book. Undoubtedly, there were sacred books delivered to him by his father Shem, who had them from Noah, the names of which are mentioned in the bible, though we have them not.

* Prideaux, Vol. 1. p. 299.

The descendants of Shem, dwelt to the east of all the descendants of Ham, ver. 30. "And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east," which agrees with Numbers, xxiii. 7. when Balak sent to that part of the country for a prophet to curse Israel: viz. " And he took up his parable and said, Balak the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel." It being known to him that they were worshippers of the God of heaven, and that the Aramitish prophets originally had the power of blessing and cursing, on which ground Balak expected success in opposing Israel. For it is said of Abram, which in Hebrew means, the father of the land of Aram, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee," Gen. xii. 3.

It is also sufficiently evident, that the founders of this very ancient nation descended from Elam, the son of Shem; that their posterity formed the Persian empire, and gave the name of their progenitor to the first province in Persia, which became the residence of their kings. Dan. viii. 2. "At Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam."

The ancient Persians cannot be ranked with the idolatrous nation; for, descending from the patriarch Shem, they were taught the worship of the true God, which continued among them, when almost all the eastern nations were sunk in gross idolatry. Some writers have charged the Persians with being worshippers of fire and the sun; but this has been a mistake. It appears, that they most scrupulously adhered to the worship of God in primary things, as was also commanded in the books of Moses, which was much the same as that established by Abraham. In the scriptures we find that the sacred

"ever-burning fire" was used as an emblematical repre

He appeared to Moses Israelites through the

sentation of the ever-living God. in the flaming fire, and led the wilderness by a pillar of fire. It was kept burning in the temple before the altar; it would therefore be as reasonable to charge the ancient Hebrews with being worshippers of the fire, as the ancient Persians, because they kept it burning in their temples.

According to the best authorities, they agree with the Hebrews in the accounts they give concerning the patriarch Abraham, and with the Mahometans in ascribing certain books to him.

THE WORSHIP OF THE MODERN PERSIANS

Was, in many instances, before the introduction of the religion of Mahomet, like the Mosaic, which was introduced by their legislator Zoroaster, who had his learning and religion from the books of Moses, as to essentials. It was, therefore, more like a returning to first principles, than an introduction of any thing new. According to the most authentic account of the Persian religion at this period, they believed that God created the world in six divisions of time; that these division of time were not days, but states; each comprehending a certain number of days.

The established religion of the Persians, is, however, Mahometan, who only differ from the Turks in the following particular: the Turks reckon the descent from Mahomet by Abubeker, derived from the Hebrew ab, 'father and 55 beker the first,' i. e. the first father; whereas the Persians begin the descent from Mahomet by Eli, from the Hebrew Eli my God.'

Ashur, the second son of Shem, appears

to

have giv

en the name to Assyria. The word Ashur mealas to bless, and it originally had reference to the author of all blessing, both in time and in eternity; viz. a belief in the promise, Gen. iii. 15. that the Messiah should come, which, as observed, was taught by Shem. They were, therefore, originally worshippers of the true God.

We have but little said in scripture concerning Lud: his descendants became a very considerable nation, and were a warlike people in the time of the prophets. According to the best authorities, the Lydians had their origin from Lud ;* for they are mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, as coming with Persia to Tyre; and we have seen that the Persians descended from Elam, the brother of Lud. It is also reasonable to conclude, that the Lydians, (in the original Ludims) were so called from Lud, as that the Elamites were so called from Elam.

Though they were undoubtedly worshippers of the true God, as taught by Shem, yet it appears, that, in after-time, they worshipped the Moon, as the queen of heaven. This species of idolatry was not confined to the Persians; for as there was a commercial intercourse between the Hebrews, the Persians, and the Lydians, the worship of the Moon, as the queen of heaven, by this means made its way into Judea. They had heard the fame of their renowned temple of Diana, or the Moon, which was built in the great city Magnesia. It was afterwards destroyed, according to Strabo,† by an earthquake.

They were very expert in the use of the bow, as is mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah, ch. xlvi. 9. though

* Josephus, 368, 369.

† lib. 1. c. 38.

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