wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

45 The Sun^ not the Perjtan Jupiter. Book I.hlow it, they thought it not inconvenient here to make ufe of images, andfiElionor fabulcfity. From ;il! which it plainly appeals, that neither Macrcbiushimlelf, nor the generality of the ancient Pagans according to his appre»henfioD, diel look upon the animated fun as thcabfolutcly fupreme and higheftBeiiig.And perliaps it may not be amifs to fugged here, what hath been alreadyobferved, that the Pcrfians themfclves alfo, who of all Pagan nations havebeen moll charged with this, the worfliipping of the fun as the fupremeDeity, under the name of Mithras, did notwithflanding, if we may believeEuhuli'.s^, ("who wrote the hiftory of Mithras at large,) acknowledge anotherinvifible Deity fuperior to ir, (and which was the maker thereof, and of thewhole world) as the true and proper Mithras. Which opinion is alfo plain-1. 1. N. 131. ]y confirmed not only by Herodotus, diftinguifhing their Jupiter from thefun, but alfo by Xenophon in fundry places, as particularly where he fpeaksof Cyrus his being admonifhed in a dream of his approaching death, andthereuj^on addreffing his devotion by ficrifices and prayers, firfl; to theZiu? 7ra7fM'^, the Perfian Jupiter, and then to the fun, and the other gods.'''^'i7r£Vxoij.£v^, Zeu sraljwE >cj tj'Au jiJ w^vli; S-foi, Si'X^i^f -rciSi p/afiri"f»a, &C. He Ja.cnficed to their country {or the Perfian') Jupiter, and to the fun, and to the othergods, upon the tops of the mountains, as the cuftom of the Perfians is % prayingafter this manner : Thou, our country Jupiter, (that is, thou Mithras or Oromafdes)and thou fun, and all ye other gods ; accept, I pray you, tbefe my eucharijlickfacrifices. See. And we find alfo the like prayer ufed by Dariusin Plutarch, ZtZ iry^^w riffc-uv, 'Thou cur country Jupiter, or fupreme God cfBeTcrt. A- the Perfians. Moreover, Herodotus xwl Curtiui record, that in the Perfian•''* ^'pomp and proctfTion there was wont to be drawn a chariot facrcd to fupitcr^diflindl from that of the fun. But Cyrus his proclamation in the book ofEfdras putteth all out of doubt •, fince that Lord God of heaven, who is therefaid to have given Cyrus all the kingdoms of the earth, and connnandedbim to build him a hoitfe at Jerufulem, cannot be undtrftood of the fun.The Ethiopians in Straboh time may well be looked upon as Barbarians j.and yet did they not only acknowledge one fupreme Deity, but alfo fuch aswas diftindl from the world, and therefore invifible; he writing thus concern-1: 17. p. fizz, ing them, ©sou v6,«,/^i«ri tm ij-\vdSdvxlov, T»TOV i\ tiVai to\ amov tuv ttx-jtuv, tc-j l\.^'jr.TOv, d.u.w~ov ti'jx, ifOi / ETrircTToAu T«; iCfoyiTaq Xj |3^.0'iAij£»f Sfaj 1/0;/ I'l^tf j-»They believe, that there is one immortal God, and this the caufe of all things ; andanother mortal one, anonymous ; but for the mofi part they account their henefaiforsand kings go^s alfo. And though C(?/rtr ^ affirm of the ancient Germans,Dicrmn numero cos folos ducunt, quos cernunt, (^ quorum opibus aperiejwvantur, Soleni, ^ Vidcanum, & Lunam; yet is he concradifted by Tacitus^arc Sc/fd. a'.'V/lio, coming after him, had better information : and others have recorded,DijG.rm. that they acknowledged one fupreme God, under the name of Thau firft,[ n r. I. andp. 211.] ' » Apud Porpliyr, i!e Antro Kymphar. p. * De Ee"o Gallico, Lib. VI. Cap. XXI. p.''2,jl, &c. 125 EdU Cdiarii.