This Worship was perform’d upon high Places, in Groves, and upon the Roofs of their Houses, which in those Countries, were flat. It was against this kind of Worship that Moses warn’d the Israelites, and threatens the Transgressors with Death. Deut. iv. 19, ’tis said Josiah King of Judah took away the Horses, that his Royal Predecessors had given to the Sun, and were fix’d at the Entrance into the House of the Lord, and burnt the Chariots of the Sun with Fire.
III. Animal Gods. In the next place, I shall briefly touch upon some Brutes and Birds, &c. that received Divine Honours from the Pagan People, and even from those who were supposed to excel their Neighbours in Understanding and Wisdom.
Thus Crocodiles, Serpents, Eagles, Dogs, Cats, Wolves, Oxen, were worship’d by the People of Egypt, those celebrated Sons of Wisdom; but their greatest Solemnities were consecrated to the God Apis, or Serapis, under the Image of an Ox or Bull.
They had an Ox consecrated to the Sun, which they fed at Heliopolis in Egypt: They had another called Apis, dedicated to the Moon, and fed at Memphis, (for some time, the royal City) where he had his Temple, and the Devils gave out their Oracles. In the time of St. Jerom, who flourish’d in the fourth Century, they worshipped here a brass Bull as a God.
The famous God Osiris was adored under the Figure of this Beast, and when dead, it was buried with great Solemnity and Mourning: And ’tis observable, that his Birth-day was celebrated thro’ the whole Kingdom. N. B. ’Tis very probable, that the Israelites worshipped the golden Calf in the same manner as the Egyptians did their Bulls, their Cows and Calves.
Before I proceed, give me leave to speak something of this golden Idol, which was the Figure of a Calf, which the Israelites cast, and set up to worship in Moses’s Absence; who, upon his return from the Mount, burnt the Figure, ground it to Powder, and made the People drink it mixt with Water, Exod. xxxii. The Learned are divided in their Sentiments on this Article; that is, the golden Calf, that was burnt and pulverized.
To pulverize Gold and render it potable, is an Operation in Chymistry of the last Difficulty; and ’tis hard to conceive how it should be done at that time, before Chymistry was heard of, and in a Wilderness too, where they had no proper Instruments. Many therefore suppose it to be done by a Miracle. But the chymical Art seems to be of greater Antiquity, and was very probably practised in the antediluvian World by Tubal Cain. Moses is the next Chymist mention’d in the Bible, whose Skill in chymical Operations, in pulverizing the golden Calf, seems to be incontestable, and artificial.
The Art is now much improved. Bid a Chymist convert Gold into Glass; and by means of a burning Concave, or otherwise, he presently does it: Ask him to Shew you Gold in Powder, and by mixing a little Antimony with that Metal, he will soon render it pulverable[[388]].
[388]. Boerhaave’s new Method. Proces. 268, 317.
But to return: Among other living Creatures, the Egyptians also paid a great Devotion to Dogs and Cats. We read of a certain Roman Soldier, that was like to be torn to pieces by the People, for having kill’d a Cat by Accident; and that when a Dog happen’d to die, the whole House went into Mourning[[389]]: Yea, in case of a great Famine, they would eat Man’s Flesh, before they would touch their sacred Animals; ibid. The Stork, Raven, Eagle, Hawk, Ibis, and other Birds, have had divine Honours paid them in Egypt and other Places....