Idolatry an imposing and delusive Counterfeit of the Revealed
System, in respect to the leading features of its Ritual, and
the prerogatives ascribed to the Arch-deceiver--Reference to the
Symbols of the Apocalypse.
This antagonist system was, in respect to the attributes and
prerogatives impiously arrogated by the great Adversary, and in respect
to the leading features of its ritual, a bold, seductive, and imposing
counterfeit of the revealed system taught and practised by Noah and his
descendants in the line of Shem.
To substitute a false appearance, a deceitful imitation, a resembling
counterfeit, a cheat, a lie, was as obviously expedient, and even
necessary, in such a case, as it is in keeping with the craft and
subtlety of Satan to deceive and beguile. He had to entice, allure, and
impose on those who knew what the true system was, and by what miracles
and wonders it had been sanctioned; who witnessed its effects in the
lives of those who practised it, were familiar with its institutions and
public observances; and whose understandings must have been more or less
influenced by its inherent and its hereditary claims, and by its voice
of encouragement and hope to the righteous, and of alarm and terror to
the wicked. Under such circumstances, to resist and counteract the
system divinely prescribed and established, it was necessary to impose
on the understandings of men, as well as to enlist their feelings, give
scope to their propensities, and gratify their passions. To have called
on them to worship him directly in his true character, without
disguise, or to worship him as a being of inferior claims to those of
Jehovah, or by rites and ceremonials less significant and imposing,
would not have been likely to secure their homage and allegiance. His
own undisguised character would have been revolting; an inferior could
not protect them against the superior Being; to dispense with public and
visible rites and ceremonies would have been to disappoint and resist
their propensities and passions; and no others but such as were already
in use could be made to maintain a competition with them.
Accordingly, he arrogated the name, power, prerogatives, works,
relations and government of Jehovah. He claimed to be god of this world:
its creator, providential ruler, dispenser of benefits, protector of his
followers, and rightful object of their homage and obedience, in
opposition to Jehovah. He took the then current name in Babylon of the
sun, Bel--or, as pointed and commonly rendered, Baal--Lord of Heaven,
Supreme Ruler, like the sun in the visible heaven; afterwards, with the
same import, the Egyptian name of the same object, On, (often rendered
Aven.) Also, Moloch, (Melek,) King; Baal-Zebub, Lord of Hosts--Zebub
being a corruption of Zebaoth, hosts, as in the formula, Jehovah
Zebaoth, Lord of Hosts; and among the Ph[oe]nicians, Baal Samen, Lord of
Heaven.
He arrogated the sun as his tabernacle or shekina, and the solar fire
and light as his element: imitating, we may well believe, in respect to
the first of these particulars, what had been exhibited in Eden, and
from time to time prior to the age of Abraham, as it was afterwards, and
especially to Moses in Midian, in the pillar of cloud, at the Red Sea,
on Mount Sinai, and in the tabernacle. And in imitation of the
tabernacle erected by Moses in the wilderness, the partisans of Baal
created the tabernacle of Moloch, _i. e._, Baal under that name. Amos
v.; Acts vii.
Prideaux, Part I., Book 3, treating of the origin of idolatry, and yet
describing it at an advanced stage, when, in addition to the sun, the
planets and stars had been brought into its service, observes: "That
they took upon themselves to address the being whom they worshipped,"
and whom he supposes they regarded as the true God, "by mediators of
their own choosing. And their notion of the sun, moon, and stars being,
that they were the tabernacles or habitations of intelligences which
animated those orbs, in the same manner as the soul of man animates his
body, and were the causes of all their motions; and that those
intelligence were of a middle nature between God and them; they thought
these the properest beings to become the mediators between God and them;
and, therefore, the planets being the nearest to them of all these
heavenly bodies, and generally looked on to have the greatest influence
on this world, they made choice of them in the first place for their
_God's-mediators_, who were to mediate for them with the Supreme God,
and procure from him the mercies and favors which they prayed for; and
accordingly they directed divine worship unto them as such. And here
began all the idolatry that hath been practised in the world. They first
worshipped them _per sacella_, that is, by their _tabernacles_, and
afterwards by images also. By these _sacella_ or _tabernacles_ they
meant the orbs themselves, which they looked on only as the _sacella_ or
_sacred tabernacles_ in which the intelligences had their habitations.
And therefore, when they paid their devotions to any one of them, they
directed their worship towards the planet in which they supposed he
dwelt. But these orbs, by their rising and setting, being as much under
the horizon as above, they were at a loss how to address to them in
their absence. To remedy this, they had recourse to the invention of
images, in which, after their consecration, they thought these
intelligences, or inferior deities, to be as much present by their
influence as in the planets themselves, and that all addresses to them
were made as effectually before the one as before the other. And this
was the beginning of image worship among them. To these images were
given the names of the planets they represented.... After this, a notion
obtaining that good men departed had a power with God also to mediate
and intercede for them, they deified many of those whom they thought to
be such; and hence the number of their gods increased, in the idolatrous
times of the world. This religion first began among the _Chaldeans_,
which their knowledge of astronomy helped them to. And from this it was
that Abraham separated himself when he came out of _Chaldea_. From the
_Chaldeans_ it spread itself over all the East, where the professors of
it had the name of Sabians. From thence it passed into Egypt, and from
thence to the Grecians, who propagated it to all the western nations of
the world; and therefore those who mislike the notion advanced by
Maimonides, that many of the Jewish laws were made in opposition to the
idolatrous rites of the Sabians, are much mistaken when they object
against it that the Sabians were an inconsiderable sect, and therefore
not likely to be so far regarded in that matter.... Anciently, they were
all the nations of the world that worshipped God by images. And that
Maimonides understood the name in this latitude is plain from hence,
that he tells us the Sabians whom he spoke of were a sect whose heresy
had overspread almost all mankind.... That which hath given them the
greatest credit among the people of the East is, that the best of their
astronomers have been of this sect, as Thebat Ebn Korrah, Albatani, and
others; for the stars being the gods they worshipped, they made them the
chief subject of their studies. These Sabians, in the consecrating of
their images, used many incantations to draw down into them, from the
stars, those intelligences for whom they erected them, whose power and
influence they held did afterwards dwell in them."
"Directly opposite to these were the Magians, another sect, who had
their original in the same Eastern countries. For they, abominating all
images, worshipped God only by fire." These, instead of branching off
from the Sabians, doubtless preceded them. "Their chief doctrine was,
that there were two principles: one which was the cause of all good, and
the other the cause of all evil: that is to say, God and the Devil. That
the former is represented by light and the other by darkness, as their
truest symbols, and that of the composition of these two all things in
the world are made.... And concerning these two gods there was this
difference of opinion among them--that whereas some held both of them to
have been from eternity, there were others that contended that the good
God only was eternal, and that the other was created. But they both
agreed in this, that there will be a continual opposition between these
two till the end of the world. That then the good God shall overcome the
evil god, and that from thenceforward each of them shall have his world
to himself: that is, the good God his world, with all good men with him,
and the evil god his world, with all evil men with him. That darkness is
the truest symbol of the evil god, and light the truest symbol of the
good God: and therefore they always worshipped him before fire, as being
the cause of light, and especially before the sun, as being, in their
opinion, the perfectest fire, and causing the perfectest light. And for
this reason, in all their temples, they had fire continually burning on
altars created in them for that purpose. And before these sacred fires
they offered up all their public devotions, as likewise they did all
their private devotions before their private fires in their own houses.
Thus did they pay the highest honor to light, as being in their opinion
the truest representative of the good God, but always hated darkness, as
being what they thought the truest representative of the evil god, whom
they ever had in the utmost detestation, as we now have the Devil."
The author's account of the origin and nature of idolatry is in most
particulars undoubtedly correct. The exceptions, however, are of great
significance. He seems to suppose that the system was contrived and
adopted by men, without the instigation of Satan, and that their object
was the worship of the true God, in opposition to that evil being. But
the intelligence whom they called the good God was Satan himself,
supposed to be in the sun as his tabernacle, and in fire and light as
his element. And as to what they termed the evil god, it was obviously
necessary to the success of his system, as a counterfeit of the true,
that it should pretend to have a devil and a perpetual antagonism. It
was probably as well known then, and perhaps more generally believed
than it is now, that there was such an evil being; and that he was and
would continue to be utterly opposed to the true God. And a false or
counterfeit system, in which the false god was to arrogate the name and
pass himself off for the true God, must provide also an antagonist, a
competitor, a devil; and to carry out the cheat, assign to him darkness
as his tabernacle, in opposition to light as his own.
It were superfluous to dwell on the imposing and plausible aspect of the
scheme in the particulars above referred to, considered as addressed to
the depraved hearts, corrupt imaginations, and evil passions of men;
opposed to the purity, the requirements, and the restraints of the true
religion, and willingly the followers and servants of the Evil One.
While it imposed no restraint upon their corruptions, every point in the
contrast must have had its effect. It excluded mystery, and appealed
directly to their senses; presenting in the sun an object of homage, not
only familiar to their view without causing fear, but apparently the
beneficent and constant source of their daily comforts and greatest
blessings; and by means of fire and light, artificially produced,
enabling every individual to avail himself of the immediate presence and
the beneficial influence and effects of that object, brought thus within
their control, in their dwellings and on their hearths.
The ritual of worship prescribed the erection of altars, a priesthood,
various offerings besides the sacrifice of animals, prayers, the burning
of incense, feasts, celebrations, and other counterfeits of the revealed
system. As a counterpart to the sacred oracle and the gift of prophecy,
the worshippers of Baal had auguries, divinations, and pretended oracles
in every country. Their prophets prophesied in the name of Baal. Jer. ii.
8; xxiii. 13. "Ahaziah being sick, sent messengers, and said unto them, Go
and inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of
this disease." 2 Kings i. The responses of their oracles, which continued
till after the destruction of the first temple and the cessation of true
prophets, and more or less down to the Advent, when they appear to have
ceased, were studiously contrived so as to admit equally well of different
interpretations, and so as not to be interpreted with any confidence till
after the event; and in this respect they were just what the great mass of
learned interpreters and expositors of the Scripture prophecies have for
ages taken them to be; imputing to them a double sense: to their literal
language a figurative meaning, to their definite local references a
symbolical import, capable only of being guessed at, and in general
regarding them as enigmas--inspired indeed by Him who is head over all
things for the information and preservation of his Church, but not
intended to be understood, unless by those who survive the events
predicted.
It would be easy to show, by tracing the parallel in numberless other and
more minute details, that the false system was throughout a parody of the
true; and to illustrate the ceaseless antagonism and rivalship which was
carried on, in the face of the universe, by the conflict of the two
systems, with their visible agencies, institutions, instrumentalities, and
effects; occupying, directing and stimulating the attention and the
energies, the thoughts and feelings, the hopes and fears, and involving
the temporal well-being and the immortal destiny of the whole race:
presenting a scene which, whether considered in relation to one period or
another, the past or the present, Paganism or Romanism, superstition or
rationalism, can be accounted for, with or without the Bible, upon no
assumption or theory but that of the enmity and opposition announced and
commenced in Eden, which is still in progress and still has a future.
In the progress of this war, the Devil and his angels, the Prince of
the power of the air, with the principalities, powers, and rulers of the
darkness of this world under him, has, from policy if not from
necessity, kept concealed behind his instruments. But the heads and
leaders of his visible partisans among men, whether in the abominations
of heathenism, the enormities of idolatry, the wars and butcheries of
nations, the tyrannies of government, the horrors of anarchy, the
immolation of human victims, the persecution and slaughter of prophets
and martyrs, or in the no less fatal systems of heresy, false theology,
and false philosophy, have never scrupled or been backward to do the
utmost he could wish in furtherance of his object. Many of them, like
the Cerinthians, Marcionites, Valentinians, and other prevalent sects in
the first ages of Christianity, ascribed to him the works of creation
and providence; and there were not wanting such as worshipped him by
name, and others under the designation of the Serpent; and still others
who paid the highest honors to Cain, Judas, and similar characters, as
his most conspicuous representatives.
The popular notion of idolatry, under the name of polytheism, as if it
involved the supposition of a plurality of supreme deities, owes its
influence, at least among those who read the English version of the
Scriptures, to the fact that the translators rendered the designations
of the god of the idolatrous system as plural, though in the Hebrew they
are written in the singular number. Knowing that there was but one true
God, they uniformly rendered Elohim as well as Elohe, when employed with
reference to that Being, in the singular number; but when employed with
reference to the rival usurper, the false god, their rendering is
plural, _gods_; as if the molten images and numberless idols in other
forms, instead of being all representative of one supposed deity, or
being regarded as mediators, or representatives of mediators between
them and him, were themselves so many independent deities. Thus, in
Laban's remonstrance with Jacob: "Wherefore hast thou stolen my
_Elohe_?" rendered _gods_, and in Jacob's answer: "With whomsoever thou
findest _thy Elohe_," rendered _gods_, the meaning plainly is, (though
there seems to have been more than one image, teraphim-images, v. 34,)
that which represents my Elohe. Gen. xxxi. 30-32. Again, Exod. xx. 1-23:
"And Elohim spake all these words: I am Jehovah thy Elohe; thou shall
have no other Elohim before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image. Ye shall not make with me Elohe of silver;" an Elohe, a god,
rendered _gods_. "Neither shall ye make unto you Elohe of gold;" an
Elohe, a molten image representative of me, rendered _gods._ "Against
the _Elohe_ of Egypt I will execute judgment." Exod. xii. 12, rendered,
"against all the _gods_ of Egypt," &c. "Thou shalt not bow down to their
Elohe," (_Eng. gods._) "Ye shall serve Jehovah your _Elohe_," (_Eng.
God._) Exod. xxiii. 24, 25. "Aaron made it a molten calf: and they said,
This is _thy Elohe_, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt." Exod. xxxii. 4, rendered, "_These be thy gods_, O Israel."
Undoubtedly the meaning is: This molten image is a visible token or
representative of Jehovah thy Elohe--a visible mediator or medium of
intercourse with thy Elohe, in place of Moses. So Jeroboam, having made
_two_ such images, two calves of gold, said: "Behold thy _Elohe_, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." 2 Kings xii.
28: rendered, Behold thy _gods_, O Israel. This usage characterizes the
translation.
Besides the absurdity of supposing that the Israelites, with the
revelation of the one Supreme Being by which they were distinguished, or
that the heathen should admit the notion of a plurality of such beings,
it is apparent from the nature of the case that the counterfeit of the
true system must originally, in order to its success, have been a
counterfeit in this, the first and most essential of all its
particulars. The very nature of the antagonism, and the false system of
mediation by which idolatry was sustained and rendered practically
successful, required this. Even when Astarte, as Queen of heaven, was
associated with Baal, it was only in a subordinate relation, as
mediatrix, the moon being her shekina, and her office being the
prototype of that of the Popish Mary; while Baal arrogated the
prerogatives of Jehovah, and the sun as his shekina.
To this evil being, among others, the following designations are applied
in the Hebrew Scriptures: _Serpent_, as in Gen. iii.: "Jehovah Elohim
said unto the _serpent_, I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed." Thee, the "tempter," "the dragon,
that old _serpent_ which is the Devil and Satan." Rev. xx. "The great
dragon, that old _serpent_, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world." Rev. xii. The apostle expresses his fear "lest by any
means" the false teachers should corrupt his converts, "as the _serpent_
beguiled Eve through his subtlety." 2 Cor. xi. The original word, when
not employed as a personal designation, is often rendered "enchantment,
divination," &c. _Satan_ is commonly rendered _adversary_; but
frequently Satan, as a personal designation of the Evil One, where his
local agency is particularly mentioned, as Job i, and ii.; 1 Chron. xxi.
1; Zech. iii. 1, 2.
"By collecting all the passages where Satan or the Devil is mentioned,
it may be observed that he fell from heaven, with all his company; that
God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that by
his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils came into the
world; that by the permission of God he exercises a sort of government
in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself;
that God makes use of him to prove good men and chastise bad ones; that
he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and
heretics; that it is he or some of his that torment or possess men; that
inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to
him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master, and
to Ananias and Sapphira, to conceal the price of their field. That he
roves full of rage, like a roaring lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy
us, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness. That his power and malice
are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God.
In a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost
endeavors to rob God of his glory and men of their souls." "Devil--a
most wicked angel, the implacable enemy and tempter of the human race.
He is called Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek; that is, destroyer,
Rev. ix. 11. Angel of the bottomless pit, Prince of the world, John xii.
31. Prince of darkness, Ephes. vi. 12. A roaring lion and an adversary,
1 Pet. v. 8. A sinner from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8. Beelzebub,
Matt. xii. 24. Accuser, Rev. xii. 10. Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15. Deceiver,
Rev. xx. 10. Dragon, Rev. xii. 3. Liar, John viii. 44. Leviathan, Isa.
xxvii. 7. Lucifer, Isa. xiv. 12. Murderer, John viii. 44. Serpent, Isa.
xxvii. 1. Satan, Job ii. 6. Tormentor, Matt. xviii. 34. The god of this
world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. He is compared to a dog, Ps. xxii. 16. Fowls,
Matt. xiii. 4. A fowler, Ps. xci, 3. Lightning, Luke x. 18. Locusts,
Rev. v. 3. A wolf, John x. 12. An adder, Ps. xci. 13. These names are
given to the Prince of devils. Devil is put for, [1] Idols, Ps. cvi. 37;
2 Chron. xi. 15. [2] A wicked man, John vi. 70. [3] Persecutor, Rev. ii.
10." Cruden's Concordance, Art. "Satan and Devil."
This fallen being was expressly worshipped in or through the form of the
_serpent_, by the ancient Persians, under the name _Ahriman_; by the
Egyptians, under that of _Typhon_; by the Greeks, under that of
_Python_; and by the Syrians, Hindoos, Mexicans, and other nations,
under different designations.
In Leviticus xvii. 7, Satan and his angels appear to be referred to
under the word _devils_, where the children of Israel are commanded "to
sprinkle the blood of animals slain by them on the altar of Jehovah, at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and to burn the fat for
a sweet savor unto Jehovah." "And," it is added as a reason of the
command, "they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto _devils_, after
whom they have gone a whoring." Probably the images before which they
thus offered sacrifices were those of goats, as the same word is often
rendered _goats_. Again, 2 Chron. ii. 15, it is said of Jeroboam that
"He ordained him priests for the high places, and for the _devils_, and
for the calves which he had made." This may with propriety be rendered,
"and for the devils, _even_ for the calves," the representatives of
Satan which he had made. A different original word is rendered _devils_,
Deut. xxxii. 17, where it is said that Israel "forsook God which made
him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him
to jealousy, &c. They sacrificed unto _devils_, not to God; to Elohim
whom they knew not." The word here translated _devils_ is often
rendered _spoiler_, _destroyer_, _destruction_, &c. Doubtless the
reference is to an intelligence beyond any visible image. The same word
occurs, Ps. cvi. 36, 37: "They served their idols, which were a snare
unto them; yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto
_devils_."
Since the existence of the fallen angels and of their prince and leader
was known from the beginning; and that he was prince and leader also of
the party of the human race which was at enmity with the true
worshippers of Jehovah; and since they manifested their hostility
chiefly in their false system of religion, it seems reasonable and even
necessary to conclude that they followed and supported their leader in
his rivalship, and regarded him, however represented by images, as the
object of their worship, in opposition to Jehovah, the object, through
sacrifices, of the homage of his worshippers. In this view of their
conduct, it is easy to conceive that their serving and worshipping idols
should provoke Jehovah to jealousy. They served and worshipped an
antagonist, a rival.
Let the reader suppose himself to have been present as a disinterested
spectator of the condition of the Hebrew Church in Egypt prior to the
legation of Moses; to have witnessed their practice of the rites and forms
of the patriarchal worship, in contrast with the idol worship of the
Egyptians; to have witnessed instances, like that of Moses, of individuals
"choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of CHRIST
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt;" to have heard their sighs and
cries to God by reason of their bondage, and known that "God heard their
groaning, and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob, and looked upon the children of Israel, and had respect unto them;"
and that the Messenger Jehovah said, "I have surely seen the affliction of
my people, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I
know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of
the Egyptians;" and further, to have known that they were familiar with
the historical facts of the patriarchal history, and of the appearances of
Jehovah in the form and under the designation of man to Abraham and to
Jacob, and often visibly as the Messenger Jehovah; and that altars were
erected, and sacrifices and prayers were offered to him in that form; and
that he was customarily recognized and worshipped in that form, at places
specially appropriated by him for that purpose, where he was to be invoked
and acknowledged as Jehovah the Elohe of Abraham; and he will the more
easily conceive, in some degree, of the enormity of the insult and
provocation offered by the partisans of the rival counterfeit system, in
erecting altars, offering sacrifices, and bowing themselves down before
molten images as representatives of the great antagonist intelligence; or,
as in the case of Aaron, Micah, Jeroboam and others, as representatives of
Jehovah. If the reader suppose himself to have witnessed the appalling
demonstrations against the false system, in the plagues of Egypt, at the
Red Sea, at Mount Sinai, and in the wilderness, in connection with the
visible presence, agency, and glory of the Messiah; or under a vivid
impression of the reality and import of these scenes and wonders; to have
been present at those periods and on those occasions when the defection of
the Israelites to image and Baal worship was specially marked and signally
punished, his impression of the nature of the antagonism, and the
enormity of the provocation and insult, cannot fail to be heightened.
The apostle Paul, treating (Rom. i.) of the defection of men to
idolatry, says, "they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things:" meaning, it is presumed, that they
ascribed to the images of those creatures--which they made and served as
representatives of the created intelligence whom they worshipped--the
attributes, perfections, and prerogatives which he had conspicuously and
gloriously manifested in his works of creation and providence. Whether
the formation of such images was coëval with the earliest practice of
idolatrous rites or not, may be a question. But in the selection of men,
birds, and four-footed beasts as models of the forms of the images
earliest employed in their idolatry, there is ground to presume that
they copied or simulated the cherubic figures so familiar to the
Israelites under the Levitical economy, and probably to the Church at
all previous times, as a constituent of the instituted system of
manifestation and instruction, from the appearance of the cherubim at
the gate of Eden. That primeval appearance demonstrates that they were
not borrowed from any institution or example of the idolaters; and in so
capital a point as that of instituting representative images in their
antagonist system, they would be sure to counterfeit, and to pervert
from its office and meaning in the true system, whatever would serve the
purpose of craft and deception. In respect to "creeping things," they
had in the serpent a prototype altogether their own, which, when the
images previously mentioned had been adopted, and impiously consecrated
to idolatry, might easily be brought into use.
Pankhurst, under the word Cherubim, in his Hebrew Lexicon, describes no
less than sixty examples in which heads or other parts resembling the
cherubic figures are incorporated in the objects of idolatrous homage of
different heathen nations.
Maimonides, as quoted by Parkhurst, says that the first idolaters
regarded the heavenly bodies as messengers or mediators of a supreme,
infinite, invisible Being. In the worship of those bodies, or rather of
the mediating intelligence supposed to reside in them, either because
they were often out of sight, or for other reasons, they selected
representative creatures, chiefly of the species comprised in the
four-faced cherubim, but sometimes of other species, and among them of
the serpent, and at length of mineral and metallic images of such
creatures.
In a number of the examples cited by Parkhurst, the serpent, or the
serpent's head, appears conspicuous; and particularly in idol forms
representative of the sun or Baal. In most of the images, the human form
predominates; around which the serpent often appears entwined. The
cherubic wings are indifferently attached to the human and the leading
animal forms, and to the serpent. The combinations, especially of heads,
in these representative images, strikingly suggest that the example of
the cherubic faces was perverted to be the basis of the system, and that
the serpent, when not exhibited as a distinct and sole object of homage,
was foisted in and superadded to the figures which were familiar in the
original system of revealed religion. In most of the complex forms in
which different animals are combined, reference appears to have been had
to the sun or Baal, _i. e._ to Satan, the supposed mediating
intelligence resident in the sun.
In a published account of two "sculptured images" disinterred by Mr.
Layard from the ruins of ancient Nineveh, and forwarded by him to
Williams College, Mass., being supposed to have "been buried in the
ruins of that city not less than twenty-five hundred years," and to be
samples of the earliest "idols" instituted in that capital, the date of
which is supposed to be about one hundred and thirty years after the
deluge, the figure of one is described as "that of _a man with wings and
an eagle's head and beak_, well proportioned. The two wings, springing
from the back of the shoulders, are gracefully spread." The other is a
figure simply of a man, seven and a half feet in height. They are
pronounced "perfect of their kind. The slabs on which they are
sculptured are dark gypsum, such as are described as lining the walls of
the rooms and passages of the ruin, which Layard regards as having
constituted at once the temple and palace of the king. One of the slabs
is seven feet, and the other seven and a half feet high, and they are
each three feet and two inches wide. The figures are the whole length of
the slabs."
Here is a manifest, and in all likelihood a surreptitious combination of
two of the figures in the cherubic emblem, which, without some
prototype, and a prototype already associated with the religion which
was to be renounced, perverted, and counterfeited, would not be likely
to occur, or to be easily brought into use and favor. An existing and
familiar prototype might be copied exactly--as altars, sacrifices,
incense, and various rites appear to have been--or with some
modifications, and yet be readily adopted. In this view it would be
obvious to argue, that as Jehovah often appeared on earth in the
similitude of man, and thereby taught and virtually anticipated his
future predicted incarnation; and as that form was associated with
others in the cherubic emblem, therefore that emblem might be taken as
representative of the Intelligence to be worshipped, and as teaching the
doctrine of his incarnation not merely in the form and nature of man,
but also in birds, four-footed beasts, and all other creatures brought
into existence by him. Such pantheism undoubtedly resulted. But had the
first forms of images been wholly an original device of the idolaters,
they would naturally have selected not complex, but simple ones. They
would have copied nature. They would in all probability have selected
first the human form; but they would have taken that as it visibly
appears, without a mysterious and inexplicable combination of inferior
natures with it.
Next, they would very likely select the bird--the eagle--whose flight
transcends the clouds, and whose eye endures the blaze of solar light;
and next, the most docile and most useful, and then the most powerful
and sagacious quadrupeds; in all instances, as is held by Warburton and
others, and is highly probable in itself employing images and pictures
long before they idolized the animals themselves.
A progress and an analogy of this kind--notwithstanding that the whole
subject of idolatry, its origin, its nature, its rationale, its import
as an antagonism to the revealed religion, and as involving the reason
and an intelligible and ample justification of the jealousy, wrath,
indignation, judgments, retributions, and finally of exterminating
vengeance against it, has been mystified and misrepresented, under the
rabbinical and figurative systems formerly adverted to--might be traced,
and indefinitely illustrated, by reference to the Sphinxes, Centaurs,
Pans, &c., of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; the Brahmas, the
Vishnus, the Sivas, and the incarnations and transmigrations of India,
and the Boodism and Lamaism of the whole Eastern world.
The notion of local deities, national gods, &c., implied the doctrine of
incarnation, and was no doubt suggested by the Theophanies of the
patriarchal history and the Theocracy of the Mosaic, administered by the
Messenger Jehovah, locally present in the tabernacle in a cloud-like
form, where he was inquired of in respect to things future, and held
converse with Moses, Joshua, and their successors. In imitation, the
devotees of Baal conceived of him as present in their temples,
inhabiting the forms of their idols, and hearing their statements and
requests.
Thus Moses returned to Jehovah as present in the burning bush, and said,
"O Adonai! wherefore," &c. Exod. v. 22. "And David the king came and sat
before Jehovah, [_i. e._, in the tabernacle,] and said," &c. 1 Chron.
xvii. 16.
So, on the other hand, "The Philistines took Saul's head and his armor,
and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings
unto their idols and to the people. And they put his armor in the house
of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon." 1 Chron.
x. 9, 10.
Mr. Layard, in his recent account of "Nineveh and its Remains,"
observes, that the sculptured walls which he explored continually
exhibited forms corresponding to the description of the living creatures
seen in vision by Ezekiel, (chap. i.;) and also what he supposes may
have represented the wheel spoken of in that description--the former
showing the face of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle; and the latter,
a winged circle or globe, hovering above the head of the king, as an
emblem of the supreme deity of the Assyrian nation; with a winged
figure in the middle, representing the sun. The king, he adds, may, as
in Egypt, have been regarded as the representative on earth of the
deity, of whom the emblem is exhibited as above his head in battle,
during his triumphs, and when he celebrates the sacred ceremonies. The
author, who supposes the station of Ezekiel by the river of Chebar to
have been in the immediate vicinity of Nineveh, absurdly indicates that,
"As the prophet had beheld the Assyrian palaces, with their mysterious
images and gorgeous decorations, it is highly probable that, when
seeking to typify certain Divine attributes and to describe the Divine
glory, he chose forms that were not only familiar to him, but to the
people whom he addressed, captives like himself in the land of Assyria.
He chose the four living creatures, with four faces, four wings," &c.
The forms which the prophet _saw_ in vision assuredly did not depend
upon his choice; and if they had, he would not have represented the true
God by forms borrowed from idolatry. Nor is it likely that the captives
were admitted to the palaces of their Assyrian conquerors. These forms,
on the contrary, having been familiar in the patriarchal system of
revealed religion, had been simulated by the earliest idolaters.
But the most comprehensive and striking illustrations of idolatry, as a
studied, rival, antagonistic counterfeit of the revealed system and true
worship, are to be derived from those symbols of the Apocalypse which
relate to Antichrist; to the two-horned wild beast and the image--the
great Antagonist, and his Papal agents under that character; to his
arrogation of the attributes, prerogatives, rights, throne, dominion and
homage of God the Mediator, assumption of his titles and office, and
exercise of authority as lawgiver over his people; and from those
symbols which relate to the fall and destruction of Great Babylon, and
the imprisonment of "the ancient Serpent, who is the Devil and Satan;"
as those symbols are explained and rendered intelligible in "An
Exposition of the Apocalypse, by David N. Lord;" a work distinguished by
its discovery of and adherence to scriptural interpretations of symbols,
and by its originality in every respect. (See note A at the end.)
The great fabric of pagan idolatry, as a rival system to the true
religion, and a counterfeit Theocracy, combining the civil with the
religious administration, was the organism through which the Arch-usurper
carried on his rivalship in all the heathen nations down to the age of
Constantine. Then, to meet the exigences of his case, in opposition to
Christianity in the Roman Empire, he made the ecclesiastical hierarchies
in union with the civil government the medium of his rule. When the empire
was divided, the eastern from the western portion, leaving the eastern
under the dragon sway of preceding ages, he assumed for the western that
of the wild beast and false prophet--the civil rulers of the ten kingdoms
and the Papal hierarchy. Under these organizations he has, in both
divisions of that empire, continued to exhibit more boldly and arrogantly
even than in the regions of ancient paganism, his usurpations of the
Divine prerogatives; warring against the Lamb, corrupting and opposing the
propagation of the gospel, persecuting and slaughtering the saints; and
will continue that career till finally vanquished and imprisoned. The
issue at the advent of the incarnate Word with the armies of heaven, the
incarceration of the great Usurper, and the dejection of his followers
into the lake of fire, strikingly indicate the nature and purpose of his
previous antagonism and rivalship. Prolonged and desperate as his
rebellion and usurpation had been, extended and arrogant as were his
pretensions and sway as god of this world, the mystery of his iniquity is
at length terminated by the exercise, through visible agencies, of Divine
power over his person. (See note B.)