That tendency is plainly evinced by the history of every nation
under heaven: Greek and Barbarian, Egyptian and Scythian, would have
their gods many, and their lords many. From one they would look for one
good; on another they would depend for a different benefit, in mind,
body, and estate. Some were of the highest grade, and to be worshipped
with supreme honours; others were of a lower rank, to whom an inferior
homage was addressed; whilst a third class held a sort of middle place,
and were approached with reverence as much above the least, as it fell
short of the greatest. In the heathen world you will find exact types of
the dulia, the hyperdulia, and the latria, with which unhappily the
practical theology of modern Christian Rome is burdened. Indeed, my
wonder is, that under the Christian dispensation, when the household and
local gods, the heathen's tutelary deities, and the genii, had been
dislodged by the light of the Gospel, saints and angels had not at a
much {98} earlier period been forced by superstition to occupy their
room.
We shall be led to refer to some passages in the earliest Christian
writers, especially in Origen, which bear immediately on this point,
representing in strong but true colours the futility of deeming a
multitude of inferior divinities necessary for the dispensation of
benefits throughout the universe, whose good offices we must secure by
acts of attention and worship.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125