The Mysteries of All Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and TalesGrant, James (Archaeologist)
History
The Mysteries of All Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales
Grant, James (Archaeologist)
Occultism; Superstition; Trials (Witchcraft)
Superstition has prevailed in every generation and country in the
world. There are people who think that even Adam and Eve were tainted
with this hateful delusion, and that their offspring of the second
generation entertained opinions opposed to true religion. That man,
soon after the Creation, became acquainted with and yielded to the
doctrine of devils, scarcely admits of doubt. Those who conversed with
our first parents must have learned from them the circumstances
connected with the temptation, fall, and expulsion from the Garden of
Eden. It is not unreasonable, then, to suppose that the serpent was
looked upon at an early period as something more than an ordinary
earthly reptile. One can imagine Adam and Eve, when wandering in
perplexity and fear, after their first great sin, starting at the
sight of a serpent,--not being certain whether they beheld a reptile
of flesh merely, or looked upon their old enemy that had betrayed them
in their days of innocency. If they looked with suspicion on the
serpent, it is natural to suppose that their children would learn to
view this creeping animal as a creature endowed with supernatural
powers, by which it could bring about evil, and perhaps good.
Cain, there is reason to conclude, departed from the true worship of
the Most High before his offering was refused, and ere he dipped his
hands in his brother's blood. In Genesis iv. 26 there is an
implication that man had forsaken the right and holy religion prior to
the days of Seth. There is an opinion that men soon began to worship
the sun, moon, and stars, and that subsequently they paid homage to
objects which contributed to their preservation and to things that
might do them injury. The wandering Jew, Benjamin, one of the greatest
travellers in the East, gives an interesting account of solar worship
in early times. The posterity of Cush, he tells us, were addicted to
the contemplation of the stars, and worshipped the sun as a god. Their
towns were filled with altars dedicated to this orb. At early morn the
people rose, and ran out of the cities to await the rising sun, to
which on every altar there was a consecrated image, not in the
likeness of a man, but after the fashion of the solar orb, formed by
magic art. These artificial orbs, as soon as the sun rose, took fire,
and resounded with a great noise, to the joy of the deluded devotees.
Many Jewish doctors have condescended upon the precise time when man
began to commit idolatry, and they name Enos as the first
star-worshipper. Arabian divines tell a story of Abraham being brought
up in a dark cave, and at his first coming forth he was so much struck
with the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars, that he worshipped
them; and there are people who imagine that in the Book of Job they
discover evidence of the heavenly host being adored in the time of the
old patriarch of Uz.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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