Classical Theology.—Lxxv.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —LXXV .

LONDON , SATURDAY , MAY 21 , 1864 .

J UNO AND J ANUAKY . Uranus and Gaia anciently signified Heaven and Earth , from whence proceeded Kronus , that is Kpows , or Saturn , otherwise Time . , in the same manner as Ze & , ( Zeus ) and ' n a ( Sera )

meant the Sky aud the . Air ,, as likewise their appropriate departments and personifications . The first Greeks , among many other nations paid divine honours to the Sun , the Moon , the Stars , and the Earth , having observed their variability ,

and that continual motion was a property of their bodies , styled them , on that account , ©< = OM ( Theous ) , from see . ? ( Theeis ) , the verb to speed , or rather to run . Be that as it may , the Sabasn doctrine became very anciently corrupted and ,

indeed , under another name , Sabtemsm , in its purity , might have been in the time of Melchizedeck much the same as Judaism was in the reign of Ahab . In making this statement we will instance the text , as it is

written in the third verse of the twentythird chapter of the second book of Kings , " For he ( Manasseh ) built up again the hig h , place which Hezekiah his father had

destroyed ; and he reared up altars for Baal , and made a grove , as did Ahab King of Israel ; and worshipped all the host of heaven , and served them . " Now , giving Judah credit for belief in The One Supreme God , we still enter with her

into the elements of Sabamisin . At all events , Judaism diverged into the worship of idols . In this respect even the Holy Temple of Jerusalem itself is not exempted . It is not only once in the great Sacred Volume , but often recorded to the

same effect , as in the chapter of the book before us , " He set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house , of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son , In this house and in Jerusalem , which I have chosen out

of all tribes of Israel , will I put my name . " In fact , the previous verse declares , " He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord . " On the other hand , profane history relates Sabasnisni to have been the purest

and most rational of all heathen religious . It consisted of one pre-eminent' overruling Deity , to whose ministers , the other heavenly bodies , " the planets and the angels" were ascribed

inferior degrees of worship . These luminous beings , stationed under God , were supposed to be placed by Him to preside over the elements and the world at large . We are diversely told that the Chaldees or Chaldean . priesthood , as

distinguished from the Babylonians , were as much revered by them as the priests of Egypt were by its people ; for they were implicity honoured and obeyed . They were their learned men , and their knowledge consisted of the science

and power of enchantments and invocations ,, which were said to affect mankind with happiness or misery . They wholly devoted their studies to celestial observations , augury , the flight of birds , the inspection of victims , and the

phenomena of nature , as indicative of good or evil , to persons and kingdoms . They concluded that God had ordained the heavenly luminaries for the governance of the world in turnthe earth , in particular—and respectively ; that He

had placed them on high and appointed them to partake with Him and to be His ministers ; therefore to extol and worship them , as God , so

magnified them was but natural and right . In this persuasion they began to erect altars and temples or sakella , and institute sacrifices , and prayers , and bowings down in homage of them , that , through their intercession as

mediators , they might obtain grace and the favour of God , who they held to be inaccessible and invisible to beings so impure and impotent in comparison as ourselves . Like many other ancient beliefs this religion of the Desert , before the time

of Mahomet or Mahommed , embraced the idea , that , as all living things possessed life or a soul , the sun , earth , moon , and stars were the habitations or embodiments of

intelligences which animated them and occasioned their motions . These intelligences , we are told , quickened those orbs after the same manner as the spirit or soul quickens the body . These they maintained to be of a middle nature between

God and man , the mediators between them . The planets , consequently , being the nearest of the heavenly bodies , the greatest influences were attached to them . Thus , it is said , they first sought them as mediating powers , and offered them divine honours ,

and accordingly from thence was disseminated the practice of all the idolatry in the world . Maimomides sets forth this form of religion in the time of Enos , the son of Seth , which expressly indicates its great antiquity ; and Prideaux ( Connexion ) ,