god; he was deity rendered amiable. He is called by Horace in general the modest God, the decent God. The finest moral of his allegorical existence is, that he was never to be seen in company with Mars; so that he had 'juster claims than any other to be designated "the Prince of Peace." Orpheus, however, directly states that Bacchus was a lawgiver, calls him Moses, and attributes to him the two tables of the law. It is well known, however, that his characteristic attribute was immortal boyhood; and since it is admitted that no real Bacchus ever existed, but that he was only a mask or figure of some concealed truth, (see Horace's inimitable ode to this deity,) there can be no danger of our dropping the clue of his allegorical identification, in winding it through all the mazes of his vocabulary of names, and all the multifarious personifications of the same primordial idea. But the most striking circumstance of this particular emblem of the SUN is, that in all the ancient forms of invocation to the SUPREME BEING, we find the very identical expressions appropriated to the worship of Bacchus ; such as, Io Terombe !-Let us cry unto the Lord! Io! or Io Baccoth!-God, see our tears! Jehovah Evan! Hevoe! and Eloah!-The Author of our existence, the mighty God! Hu Esh!-Thou art the fire! and Elta Esh!—Thou art the life! and Io Nissi !-O Lord, direct us! which last is the literal English of the Latin motto in the arms of the City of London retained to this day, "Domine dirige nos." The Romans, out of all these terms, preferred the name of BACCOтH, of which they composed Bacchus. The more delicate ear of the Greeks was better pleased with the words Io Nissi, out of which they formed Dionysius. That it was none other than the SUN which the Jews themselves understood to be meant, and actually worshipped, under his characteristic epithet of THE LORD, see confirmation strong as proof of holy writ" in the Jewish general's address to the Sun : "Then spake Joshua to THE LORD, and said, SUN, stand thou still upon Gibeon! So THE SUN stood still in the midst * Orpheus, who for the most part is followed by Homer, was the great introducer of the rites of the heathen worship among the Greeks, being charged with having invented the very names of the gods. He wrote, that all things were made by One Godhead with three names, and that this God is all things.Hebrew Lexicon, 347. † Bacchum, Orpheus vocat μoony hoc est Moses et souogopor-Legislatorem, et eidem tribuit διπλακα θεσμον θεσμον quasi duplices legis tabulas.Porney. Panth. Mythicum, p. 57. of heaven. And there was no day like that, before it or after it, that THE LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man."—Joshua x. 12, 13, 14. The BACCHANALIA, or religious feasts in honour of Bacchus, were celebrated with much solemnity, and with a fervent and impassioned piety, among the ancients, particularly the Athenians, who, till the commencement of the Olympiads, even computed their years from them, dating all transactions and events, as Christians have since done, with an Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. The Bacchanalia are sometimes called Orgies, from the transport and enthusiasm with which they were celebrated. The form and disposition of the solemnity depended at Athens on the appointment of the supreme magistrate, and was at first extremely simple; but by degrees, it became encumbered with abundance of ceremonies, and attended with a world of dissoluteness and excess, probably competing in enormity and indecency with a Christian carnival: so that the Pagan Romans, who had adopted the orgies, were afterwards ashamed of the exhibition, and suppressed them throughout Italy, by a decree of the Senate. The orgies celebrated originally to the honour of Bacchus, are still continued in honour of the same deity, under another epithet; as may be observed by any person who should choose to waste an hour in attending the revival meetings of the wilder orders of Christian Methodists-the Dunkers, Jumpers, &c. and all who pretend to a more spiritual and primitive Christianity. The hysterical young women, sighing, moaning, under the impressions which our evangelical fanatics endeavour to produce on their imaginations, are the very antitypes of the frantic priestesses of Bacchus. Nor can any man doubt, that if the advance of civilization, and the improved reason of mankind, did not stand in bar of such excesses, the state of mind called sanctification, which our clergy aim to render as general as they can, would continue as evangelized Bacchanalia to this day. In the ancient Orphic verses sung in the orgies of Bacchus, as celebrated throughout Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, Arabia, Asia Minor, Greece, and ultimately in Italy, it was related how that God, who had been born in Arabia, was picked up in a box that floated on the water, and took his name Mises, in signification of his having been "saved from the waters, "* and Bimater, from his having had two mothers ; that is, one by nature, and another who had adopted him. He had a rod with which he performed miracles, and which he could change into a serpent at pleasure. He passed the Red Sea dry-shod, at the head of his army. He divided the waters of the rivers Orontes and Hydaspus, by the touch of his rod, and passed through them dry-shod. By the same mighty wand, he drew water from the rock; and wherever he marched, the land flowed with wine, milk, and honey." The Indian nations were believed to have been entirely involved in darkness till the light of Bacchus shone on them. Homer relates, how in a wrestling match with Pallas, Bacchus yielded the victory ; and Pausanias, that when the Greeks had taken Troy, they found a box which contained an image of this god, which Eurypilus having presumptuously ventured to look into, was immediately smitten with madness.§ Why should we further prosecute this laborious idleness? Demonstration can call for no more. Every part of the Old Testament, from first to last, is Pagan: not so much as one single line, containing or conveying the vestige of any idea or conceit whatever, find we in God's temple, but what will fit back again and dove-tail into its original niche in the walls of the Pantheon.-Compare the Chapter on the State of the Jews, in this DIEGESIS. CHAPTER XXVIII. PROMETHEUS-JESUS CHRIST. THIS was a deity who united the divine and human nature in one person, and was confessedly "both God and man"-perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the father as touching his godhead, but inferior to the father as touching his manhood: who, although he was God and man, yet was he not two, but one Prometheus; one, not by conversion of the. godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person for as the reasonable *From to draw out or forth." Because she said, p—I drew him out. Exod. ii. 10. § In Achais. +4μntoo-Bacchi cognomen. Iliad. 48. soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Prometheus who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate, and was made man, and was crucified also for us, under FORCE and STRENGTH; he suffered, and descended into hell, rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty." Thus far the Pagan and the Christian credenda ran hand in hand together; and it is a more than striking coincidence, that the name Prometheus should be directly synonymous with the Logos, or Word of God, an epithet applied by St. John to the God and man, or demi-deity of the Gospel, from go, before-hand, and undos, care, or counsel; hence directly signifying the Christian deity, PROVIDENCE, which we see emblemized as an eye surrounded with rays of glory, and casting its beams of light upon the affairs of our world. Indeed, under this designation, he continues to this day a more fashionable deity than the Logos of St. John. We find acknowledgments of dependence on Divine Providence, and the blessing of Providence, or PROMETHEUS, spoken of in our British parliament, occurring in his majesty's speeches, and received with the most respectful sentiment from one end of the kingdom to the other, where the introduction of the name of Jesus Christ, in the place of that of Prometheus or Providence, would be received with an universal smirk of undisguised contempt. The best information of the character, attributes, and actions of this deity, is to be derived from the beautiful tragedy of Προμηθεύς Δεσμώτης, Οι Prometheus Bound, of Eschylus,* which was acted in the theatre of Athens, 500 years before the Christian era, and is by many considered to be the most ancient dramatic poem now in existence. The plot was derived from materials even at that time of an infinitely remote antiquity. Nothing was ever so exquisitely calculated to work upon the feelings of the spectator. No author ever displayed greater powers of poetry, with equal strength of judgment, in supporting through the piece the august character of the divine sufferer. The spectators themselves were inconsciously made a party to the interest of the scene: its hero was their friend, their benefactor, their creator, and their saviour; his wrongs were incurred in their quarrelhis sorrows were endured for their salvation; "he was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their * Or Potter's beautiful translation of it, of which I here avail myself. iniquities; the chastisement of their peace was upon him, and by his stripes they were healed," (Isaiah liii. 5). "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." The majesty of his silence, whilst the ministers of an offended God were nailing him by the hands and feet to Mount Caucasus, could be only equalled by the modesty with which he relates, while hanging on the cross, *his services to the human race, which had brought on him that horrible crucifixion : "I will speak, Not as upbraiding them, but my own gifts The fire of heaven to animate their clay : In answer to a call made on him, to explain how his philanthropy could have incurred such a terrible punishment, he proceeds : "See what, a god, I suffer from the gods! A spectacle dishonourable to Jove! On the throne of heaven scarce was he seated, On the powers of heaven He showered his various benefits, thereby Confirming his sovereignty; but for unhappy mortals Had no regard, but all the present race Willed to extirpate, and to form anew. None, save myself, opposed his will. I dared, In the catastrophe of the plot, his especially professed friend, OCEANUS, the Fisherman, as his name Petræus indicates, (PETREUS was an interchangeable synonyme of the name Oceanus,) being unable to prevail on him to make his peace with Jupiter, by throwing the cause of human redemption out of his hands,† "forsook him and * The cross referring to the attitude of the sufferer, Prometheus may be called εσταυρωμένος, oι ανεσκολοπισμενος, as well as Jesus. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee."-Matt. xvi. 22. |