Nebuchadnezzer is a compound word. Nebu means to bud, or germinate; chad, to shoot forth; and nezzer, a scion or shoot, which, though it be cut down, will florish.

THE WORSHIP OF THE TROJANS.

It appears consistent with the order of history, that the worship of the ancient Trojans should follow that of the Babylonians. The intercourse between these two ancient nations, on account of their proximity, must have been frequent, and their customs and habits must also have been similar, both as to their religious and civil policy.

It is evident from the writings of Homer, that the founders of the Trojan monarchy must have had just ideas concerning God and his superintending Providence. Although they admitted, in their list of Deities, something like polytheism, which was nothing more in its origin than a personification of the virtues and vices, yet they acknowledged one supreme being only. These gods are described in the Iliad at one time as asleep on their couches,

"All but the ever-wakeful eye of Jove."

According to Virgil, the idol of greatest repute among the ancient Trojans was Cybele, "the worship of which," agreeably to the best authorities,

was brought into Troas, or Troy, from Crete by Teucer, the king of the island, and the father of the Trojans." It is literally a Hebrew word from Chibabel, 'like Babel,' which shows that the religion of the Trojans came originally from Babylon; and, as the religion of Babylon came from Egypt, which was the worship of the serpent, the religion of the Trojans must have been the

same.

I may be told that the Goddess Cybele was not worshipped in the form of a serpent, but of a woman. It must, however, be noticed, that the serpent was worshipped under various forms descriptive of its ruling propensities; and, as it was understood to be superior to all animals for circumspection or prudence, so it was a personification of a virtuous woman, who, it must be allowed, possesses that great ornament of the sex in a far higher degree than man.

This idol was worshipped after the manner of the Babylonians, on hills and conspicuous places, which custom these nations took principally from the

. lib. 3.

Hebrews, who worshipped God on mountains and hills. The worship of this idol became very general throughout all Phrygia. Many of their ceremonies were taken from the ancient part of Scripture, but at length they fell into fable, gross idolatry, and superstition. They had a peculiar veneration for the pomegranate and the vine-tree, which were used as emblems in the worship of God: the first was figured on the border of the garment of Aaron.

Their ceremonies of mortifying the body were carried to the same pitch of frantic madness, as we read concerning the priests of Baal, who cut their bodies with knives when they worked themselves up into ecstasies, and pretended to have divine commu

nication.

It will not be difficult for us to determine the origin of the worship of this goddess. Cybele, in the heathen mythology, is said to have been the mother of the gods, who sprung from the rocks after the deluge; which was evidently taken from that epoch. The wife of Noah was by them honored as a goddess, and her three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, in after-ages were worshipped.

The history of Samuel also is preserved in the mythology, under the name of Attis, whose mother they feign to have conceived" by taking the fruit of

! Arnobius, lib. 8.

the pomegranate tree; she had a son, who was brought up by Phorbus, and who, being on the eve of taking a wife, was deprived of her, by a fatal soon after, he emasculated himself

occurrence;

under a pine-tree."

This is the account of Samuel mutilated, when. his mother went to the temple to ask of God to give her a child, who was taken by Eli, and devoted to the service of God in the temple.

Troy florished at the time of the Judges of Israel; and its destruction took place about the time of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. It is worthy of remark, that when Homer sung the battles of the -gods with the giants, he sung the battles of the Hebrew leader in the land of Canaan: as may be proved from the synchronism of events recorded in the Bible, and introduced by the poet.

Having said as much as is necessary concerning the descendants of Ham, from whom descended twenty-two nations, and of their different idolatrous sects, I shall now introduce those nations, which descended from Shem. Concerning Arphaxad the son of Shem, in whose line the Messiah was to come, I have spoken in the chapter of the second order of the patriarchs.

The true worship of God continued among some of the descendants of this people to the time of

Abraham and Moses, for Melchizedek was king of Salem, which was the ancient name of Jeru-salem, and a priest of the most high God: and Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a prince and a priest of Midian. So that, though idolatry was the established worship of the eastern nations at that period, yet the .worship of the true God, as it was established by Noah, was not altogether banished from the land of Canaan.

The descent from the patriarch begins in the 22d verse. Elam, Ashur, Lud, and Aram, who were the children of Shem, formed gentile nations. I shall therefore begin with Elam the eldest son of Shem; and the father of the Elamites, so often mentioned in scripture. This will introduce

THE WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENT PERSIANS

AND MEDES.

The worship of the ancient Persians is of very great antiquity; it is carried back by them as far as the time of Elam, the son of Shem; they believed him to be the author of their Soph, or holy book. Undoubtedly, there were sacred books delivered to him by his father Shem, who had them from Noah,

1 Prideaux, Vol. I. p. 299.