Exposition of the Moral Law, Book 1 · Commandment 2 · Exercitation 14
EXERCITAT. XIV. Of the motives which mooved the heathen to worſhip idols. Commandement 2.
Rom. 1.21. Becauſe when they knew God they glorified him not, they became vaine in their imaginations.
IDolatrie amongſt the heathen aroſe eſpecially from three grounds, the firſt ground was the deſire which they had to continue the name of their predeceſſours, benefactors, and their nobles; the ſecond ground, was the deſire of ſome bodily pledge of Gods preſence to bee amongſt them; and the third ground which drew them to idolatrie, was their boldnes to repreſent God myſtically and hieroglyphically by ſundry images.
The heathen ſet up an image to continue the name of their predeceſſours, and their poſteritie worſhipped it as a God.The firſt ground was their deſire to continue their name to the poſterity, and therefore they ſet up images onelyonly at the firſt for repreſentation in remembrances; but the poſterity following, turned this repreſentation into adoration, and they made gods of thoſe whom they knew to have beene but men; therefore they ſet up in their temples, Harpocrates holding his finger upon his mouth, to teach them ſilence, that no man ſhould bee bold to ſay, that theſe were men once,Auguſtin. de civitate Dei lib. 8. whom they worſhip now as gods.
The ſecond ground which moved them to commit idolatrie,The people deſired much a viſible ſigne of the preſence of their God. was the deſire they had of ſome viſible pledge of the preſence of a godhead amongſt them; and even as the ſouldiers deſire to ſee their captaine viſibly in the field before them: So deſired they to have ſome viſible ſigne of a godhead amongſt them; and having theſe pledges, they thought that their gods would not leave them, and wanting theſe, they thought the gods would leave them.
When Alexander the great beſieged Tyrus, one of their Diviners told them, that it was revealed to him in a dreame, that their god Apollo was to depart from them ſhortly; what doe they to detaine Apollo ſtill amongſt them? they take the image of Apollo their god,They tyed the image of Apollo to a poſt. and bind it with a chaine of gold to a poſt, thinking thereby to detaine Apollo; they held that this image was a pledge of his preſence amongſt them,Diodorus Sic. lib. 1. cap. 1. and they thought ſo long as they kept the image of Apollo that he would not leave them.
The third ground which led them to this idolatrie, was their boldneſſe to repreſent god myſtically by their hieroglyphicks, repreſenting him as they pleaſed.Plutarch. de Iſide & Oſiri. In Thebe a towne of Egypt (as Plutarch maketh mention) they worſhiped a god whom they acknowledged to be immortall, but how painted they him? in the likeneſſe of a man blowing an egge out of his mouth,How they painted God in Thebe▪ Varro de re ruſtica lib. 2. cap. 1.11. whereby they ſignified, that it was the Lord that made the round world by his word, and they dedicated a ſheepe to him; becauſe of old, milke was their food for the moſt part.
So in the towne of Sai where Minerva was worſhiped, before the gates of the Temple they had this hiroglyphick painted an infant, an old man, a ſparhawke, a fiſh,Plutarch. de Iſide & Oſiri. and Hippopotamos whereby they ſignified, O qui naſcimini & denaſcimini, Deus odit impudentiam. By the young child they ſignified our birth, and by the old man our death, and by the ſparhawke they meant God, who was moſt ſharpe in ſight to ſee all things, and ſwift to revenge; and by the fiſh which liveth in the ſea, a thing hated by the Egyptians, they meant hatred, and by Hippopotamos the ſea horſe, who killeth his father and covereth his damme, they meant impudencie.
The Egyptians repreſented God by a ſerpent.So the Egyptians repreſented God by the ſerpent Aſpis who caſteth the skin every yeare and renueth the age of it, whereby they ſignified Gods immortalitie, and thus boldly They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birdes, and foure footed beaſts and creeping things. Rom. 1.23.