Works, Treatise · Chapter 5
CHAP. V.The Apostasie of the latter Times PART I.
The manner and way of worshipping the Daemons and retaining their presence, viz. by consecrated Images and Pillars. That Images were as Bodies for Daemons to animate and dwell in. The worshipping of Images and Columns a piece of the Doctrine of Daemons. This proved out of Trismegist, Porphyry, Arnobius, Minutius Felix, &c. The worshipping of Daemons in their Reliques, Shrines and Sepulchres another piece of Daemon-doctrine. That the Gentiles Temples were nothing but the Sepulchres of dead men. The gross Idolatry of the AEgyptians.
BUT lest I might seem to have no measure in raking up this Ethnical dunghil, I will now leave the Theology of the Original of Daemons, and shew you yet another piece of that Doctrine, namely, Concerning the manner how Daemons were to be worshipped, and as it were brought to the lure of men, when they had occasion of devotion with them: And this was done by sacring of*Vid. Athanag. Legat. pro Christ. Non de…unt qui dicunt foreign, non alio modo humines convenire Deos posse, scil. quàm per Simulacra. Images. This you shall hear from an ancient Author and passing skilful in the mysteries, even Hermes Trismegistus, who in his Asclepius speaketh, in English thus; It is a wonder (saith he) beyond all wonders, (and he saith truly) that man should find out a way to make Gods: Yet because (saith he) our Forefathers erred much through unbelief concerning Deities, and had small regard of Religion and Divine worship; therefore they devised an art to make Gods, (he meaneth Images:) And because they could not make Souls, (he means to these senseless bodies) therefore they called the Souls of Daemons and Angels, and put them into their Images and holy Mysteries; by which means alone these Images have power of helping and hurting; which thus incorporated (he saith) are called by the AEgyptians Animalia sancta. And in another place, That kind of Gods (saith he) which men make, is composed of two natures, of a Divine, (which is first and more sacred) and of that which is amongst men, namely, the matter whereof they are made.Tertuol. de Idol. c. 7. Artifices Idolorum Daemoniis corpora con…erre. The summe of all this Mystery is, That Images were made as Bodies, to be informed with Daemons as with Souls: For an Image was as a Trap to catch Daemons, and a device to tie them to a place, and to keep them from flitting.
The like hath *De Praepar. Evangel, l. 5.Eusebius out of Porphyrie, That the Gods did exceedingly delight in consecrated Images, and were circumscribed and enclosed therein as in a sacred place; foreign, and the Image being taken away, that is dissolved which detained the Deity upon earth. This is that which Psellus calleth foreign, the Approachings or Presencings of Daemons. And Iamblichus termeth these consecrated Idols foreign, Images filled with divine fellowship or with divine society. And our forementioned Hermes calleth them Statuos animatas, sensu & spiritu plenas, animated Statues, full of sense and spirit.
Hence came that answer or defence of the Gentiles, as Arnobius (Lib. 6. advers. Gent.) makes them speak, Neque nos aera, neque auri argentique materias, neque alias quibus signa confiunt, eas esseper se Deos & religiosa decernimus numina; sed eos in his colimus, cósque veneramur quos dedicatio infert sacra, & fabrilibus efficit habitare simulachris: We do not think brass and gold and silver and other materials of Images to be of themselves Gods and holy Powers; but in these we worship and reverence the Gods brought into these Images by sacred dedication, and keeping their residence there. And in another place he makes this Objection for their behalf; An numquid dicitis fortè praesentiam vobis quandam sub his numinum exhiberi simulachris; & quia Deos videri non datum est, eos ità coli, & iis munia officiosa praestari? But you say, perhaps, the Deities present themselves unto you in some sort under these Images; and because the Gods cannot be seen, they are thus worshipped, and have religious service done unto them.
And thus have we seen the ground of the Idolatrous use of Images, and found that the Worship of them also is a Doctrine of Daemons: For as at first they were ordained for Daemons; so whatsoever Deity is worshipped in this manner, though it were the true and Sovereign God, is thereby made a Daemon.
What I say of Images, must be understood also of Pillars or Columns, whereof we read Levit. 26. 1. Ye shall make no Idols, nor graven Images, nor rear you up a Pillar to bow down unto it. For howsoever Pillars and Images, through some confusion at length surprising the Gentiles superstition, may afterwards seem to be ascribed to other Deities besides Daemons; yet by original institution they were proper unto Daemons, & no other. The Sovereign and Celestial Gods, they were worshipped in the Sun, Moon and Stars, where they were supposed to dwell: But Images and Columns were for Daemons; and if they seemed to be made for any other, Plutarch's Eremite would resolve us, that they were but Daemons called by the name of some Sovereign Gods whose Agents they were. The truth of this the History of the beginning of Idolatry by Images makes evident. For that Images and Pillars were at first devised and erected to the Honour and Memory of dead men*Vid. Herod. Clio, c. 35. Persa… stauas non erigere, quód non, ut Graeci sen…unt Deos foreign ex hominibus esse o…tos ex opinione Heredoti., this the fourteenth Chapter of the Book of Wisdom will tell us, and that by the vain-glory of men they first entred into the world: no less will the long-continuing custom of the world, using thus to honour not only their dead, but since also the living, be sufficient to perswade the truth. Minutius Felix in his Octavius will put us forth of doubt. Majores nostri (saith he) dum Reges suos colunt religiosè, dum defunctos eos desiderant in Imaginibus videre, dum gestiunt eorum memorias in Statuis detinere; sacra facta sunt, quae fuerant assumpta solatia: Our Ancestors while they religiously honour their Kings, while they desire after their departure to behold them in their Images, and delight to preserve their memory in Statues; what was at first taken up for their own solace, was at length made a matter of Religion. When therefore those whom they thus honoured and remembred were canonized for Daemons, then were these Memorials also worshipped for some supposed presence or divine respect of such Daemons in or to them. The worshipping therefore of Images and Columns is by its original and institution a piece of the Doctrine of Daemons *foreign. Constantin. Orat. ad Sancto…um C…tum, Cap. ….; so that whatsoever is thus worshipped, yea the glory of the incorruptible God himself, is thereby changed into a Daemon.
THUS much of Images and Idol-Pillars, of the reason of their supposed Divinity, and of the original and first occasion of worshipping them. But yet we have not done, there is another piece of Daemon-devotion yet behind, namely, The worshipping of Daemons in their Reliques, Shrines and Sepulchres In mortuorum Idolis Daemenia consistunt. Tertu… Spectac … 13. feré totum; for this was also a part of the Doctrine and Theology of Daemons. Plato, whom before we quoted for the Canonizing for Daemons, of the Ghosts of such as died valiantly in the field, would have their Shrines and Coffins to be worshipped, foreign, as the coffins of Daemons. Hear also what Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of this Daemon-doctrine, Sotrm. lib. 6. foreign, &c. They (that is, the Greeks) are of opinion that it matters not whether we call those Souls (viz. the Daemons whom they invocate) Gods or Angels. But the more skilful Theologists place the coffins of the deceased in many of their Temples as so many Statues of the Gods, foreign, &c. calling their Souls Daemons, and withall teaching that they ought to be worshipped by men, as being for the holiness of their lives intrusted by Divine Providence to be employ'd about this earth for the service of men: For they well knew that some Souls were naturally tied to the Body. Out of which words observe, That they supposed the like presence and power of Daemons at their Coffins and Sepulchres which before we observed and heard of in their Images; as though there always remained some natural tye between the Souls deceased and their Reliques; and therefore they there builded Temples unto them where their bodies and ashes were entombed. And hence it is that the Primitive Fathers which write against the Gentiles do so often upbraid them, That their Temples were nothing else but the Sepulchres of dead men; foreign, (saith Clem. in his Protreptie.) foreign; They were indeed called by the specious and plausible name of Temples, but were in truth nothing but Sepulchres; that is, the very Sepulchres of dead men were called Temples. He goeth on speaking to the Gentiles; foreign Be ye therefore at length perswaded to forget and relinquish your Daemon-worship, and be ashamed to worship the Sepulchres of dead men. To the like purpose Arnobius l. 6. advers. Gent. Quid quòd multa ex his Templa quae tholis sunt aureis & sublimibus elata fastigiis, autorum conscriptionibus comprobatur contegere cineres at que ossa, & functorum esse corporum sepulturas? Nonne patet & promptum est aut pro Diis immortalibus mortuos vos colere, aut inexpiabilem fieri Numinibus contumeliam, quorum Delubra & Templa mortuorum superlata sunt bustis? Where he tells them, that many of their Temples, famous for their high and golden roofs, were nothing but the Sepulchres of the deceased, covering dead bones and ashes; and that it was very evident that for the immortal Gods they worship'd men that were dead, or that they were guilty of doing an horrible dishonour to the Gods, whose Temples were built over the burying-places of dead men.
I might further add to these Oecumenical doctrines of Daemons that monstrous one of the AEgyptians, for which their fellow-Gentiles derided them, who worshipped living brute Beasts, yea Onions and Garlick, and Water it self, with Divine worship, as supposing some Daemon or other to dwell in them. Such were their Cow-god Apis, and their Bull-god Mnevis, and their Water-god Nilus, which it shall be enough to have only named, to make the former compleat; and that from it and the rest of that kind of abominations we may gather this Conclusion once for all, That since the Sovereign and Celestial Gods (as you heard before) might not be approached nor polluted by these earthly and material things, but kept always immovably, without change of place or presence, their heavenly stations; therefore the adoring or worshipping of any visible or material thing for any supposed presence or other relation of a divine power therewith, is to be accounted amongst the Doctrines of Daemons.