Among the ancient Persians, the worship of the _Sun_ and _Fire_ appears to have existed from a period so remote, that no record remains of its commencement, though there can be no doubt that it was an offshoot from the Babylonish idolatry. For ages, it appears to have existed in Persia, in a state of greater purity than in Chaldea, if such a term can be applied to a corruption of the worship of the true God; and to have been mingled with more intellectual notions of the being and attributes of Deity, than were to be found among other heathen nations. The Persians, indeed, appear to have had a more distinct idea, though still a very obscure one, of the method by which the human race were finally to be rescued from the power of the Evil One, and raised to a condition of purity and bliss. They worshipped the _Sun_ under the name of _Mihr_, _Mithr_, or _Mithras_; the latter term, according to Mr. Morrison,[47] signifying _the wounder or bruiser of the head_, and if derived from the Hebrew ‏מות־ראש‎, _Muthras_, _Lord of Death_, conveying a beautiful allusion to the primeval prophecy, and to him who, long afterwards was declared in apocalyptic vision, to have the keys of hell and death, and who “openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth” the gates of Paradise. Among the Phenicians, we find, according to a fragment of their ancient historian, Sanchoniatho, preserved by Eusebius, that one of their earlier gods was called _Elioun_, from ‏עליון‎, _the Most High_, who was also considered _Man_; and that Ὀυρανὸς και Γῆ, _the Heavens and the Earth_, were generated or created by him. They also worshipped the _Sun_, under the names of _Adonis_ and _Tammuz_; the former evidently from the Hebrew ‏אדוני‎, _Adonai_, _Lord_; and the latter from the name of the Hebrew month appointed for the celebration of his orgies. In the weeping for the absence, or eclipse of _Tammuz_, Selden sees the lamentations for _Osiris_, which originated in Egypt, and were observed in Phenicia; and in the rejoicing for his return or resuscitation, Parkhurst discovers a prelude to the joy of the nations at the advent of the promised Saviour, the true _Adonai_, or Lord of all;[48] Ezekiel viii. 14; and 1 John ii. 8. 3. The gods of the Hindoos, Vishnu, Buddha, Brahma, and Seeva, form no Trinity—The theft of their names and attributes from the Hebrew evinced by their meaning—Buddha an avatar of Vishnu—Origin of Fohi, the god of the Chinese—Druidical, Peruvian, Mexican, and Parsee worship—Origin of Surya, Suras, and Asuras—Russell’s citation of Macrobius on the worship of the Solar god—The concentration of Paganism.