Because Musæus, who had been hierophant at Athens, directed Eneas to the place in Elysium where his father's shade abode, Warburton thinks Anchises opened to him the doctrine of perfection in these sublime words, Principio cœlum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, Et quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus, &c. lin. 724. , and that with this discovery of the unity, Æneas's initiation concluded. On this supposition it will follow, that before the unity of God was discovered to the initiated, the shews which represented the blessed in Elysium, were exhibited to them. In these shews, they saw Legislators, and such as had brought mankind from a state of nature into a civilized state, enjoying happiness in the chief places of Elysium. Next to them, the initiated beheld patriots, and those who had died for the good of their country. Virtuous and pious priests, were represented as occupying the third place. And the lowest was assigned to the inventors of the mechanic and liberal arts. The shews being ended, the initiated, as was observed above, were introduced to the sight of the ayaux, or shining image, which represented the Creator, and the hymn in which the anopinta, or secrets concerning his nature, attributes, and operations, were delivered, being sung, the assembly was dismissed with the two following barbarous words, xoy oμağ, which, as Le Clerc thinks, are only a bad pronunciation of kots and omphets, which, he says, signify in the Phoenician tongue, watch, and abstain from evil, If we may believe Voltaire, the initiated at almost every celebration of their mysteries confessed their sins. For in his Essay on Universal History, chap. xii. after telling us that Aquinas said of confession, It is not a downright sacrament, but a kind of sacrament. He adds: "Confession may be looked upon as "the greatest check to secret crimes. The sages of antiquity, "had in some measure embraced this salutary practice. The "Egyptians and the Greeks made confession of sins at their "expiations, and almost at every celebration of their mysteries. "Marcus Aurelius, assisting at the mysteries of Ceres Eleu"sina, confessed to the hierophantes." But of the sins which the vulgar among the heathens confessed, those which the gods were supposed to commit, in whose honour the mysteries were celebrated, we may be sure made no part. The nature of the greater mysteries being such as above described, the wisest of the ancients, Warburton says, spake of them as very useful in forming men to virtue, and as the source of their best consolation. For which reason, as Zosimus tells us, when the Emperor Valentinian resolved to suppress all nocturnal ceremonies, Pretextatus who governed Greece as Proconsul, informed him, that such a law, by abolishing the mysteries, would cause the Greeks to lead acirov Blov, a lifeless life, a life absolutely void of comfort. Nor is it any wonder, saith Warburton, that the Greeks should have considered the abolition of the mysteries as the greatest evil, since the life of man, without the support of the doctrine taught in the mysteries, was thought by them as no better than a living death: On which account Isocrates called the mysteries, the thing which human nature stood most in need of But notwithstanding, according to Warburton, the greater mysteries were contrived to correct the errors of the popular religion, inculcated by the shews in the lesser mysteries, and to impress the initiated with just notions of God, of providence, and of a future state, he acknowledges that the discovery came too late, to counteract the pernicious influence of the shews in the lesser mysteries; and that the Orgies of Bacchus, and the mysteries of the mother of the gods, and of Venus, and Cupid, being celebrated in honour of deities who inspired and presided over the sensual passions, it was natural for the initiated to believe, that they honoured these divinities, when they committed the vicious actions of which they were the patrons. He likewise acknowledges, that the mysteries of these deities being performed during the darkness of night, or in dark places, and under the seal of the greatest secrecy, the initiated indulged themselves, on such occasions, in all the debaucheries with which the patron god was supposed to be delighted. The truth is, the enormities committed in the mysteries of these impure deities, came at length to be so intolerable, that their rites were proscribed in different countries; as were the rites of Bacchus at Rome. See Livy, B. 39. No. 8. 18. The English translator of Voltaire's Essay on Universal History, hath subjoined the following note to the passage quoted above from that essay. "These mysteries were so revered by "the ancients, and kept with such secrecy, that the disclosing of "them was reckoned the most impious action that could be "committed. This, however, did not hinder several writers in "the first ages of Christianity, from prying into the great se"cret, and bringing it to light. Tertullian says of it, Tota in "adytis divinitas, &c. Simulacrum membri virilis revelatur. Theo"doret says it was, Naturæ muliebris imago.” Induced by these and other testimonies, Warburton himself acknowledges, what he hath termed that very flagitious part of the mysterious rites when at the worst, namely, the carrying of the Ts and as in procession. Concerning this obscene rite, Leland, who, as shall be shewed immediately, differs from Warburton in his account of the design of the mysteries, saith, (Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. page 195. note.) that this obscene rite, instead of being introduced when the mysteries were at the worst, seems to have been one of those anciently used in the mysteries of Isis, from which the Eleusinian rites were derived. Warburton indeed saith, "It was introduced under the pretence "of their being emblems of the mystical regeneration and new "life, into which the initiated had engaged themselves to "enter." But Leland says, "It is no way probable that this was "the original ground of introducing it; but a pretence invented "for it after it was introduced; and observes, that Arnobius "justly exposed the absurdity of couching holy mysteries under "obscene representations, on pretence that they had a profound " and sacred meaning."-Be this however as it may, the facts above mentioned, which are acknowledged by all, shew with what truth the apostle Paul styled the so much boasted heathen mysteries, Ephes. v. 11. The unfruitful works of darkness; works which produced no good, either to those who did them, or to society; and prohibited Christians from joining in them, because the things which were done in them under the seal of secrecy, were such, that it was even base to mention them, ver. 12. Warburton tells us, that while all the other mysteries became exceedingly corrupt, through the folly or wickedness of those who presided at their celebration, and gave occasion to many abominable impurities, whereby the manners of the heathens were entirely vitiated, the Eleusinian mysteries long preserved their original purity. But at last, they also yielding to the fate of all human institutions, partook of the common depravity, and had a very pernicious influence on the morals of mankind. Wherefore, in proportion as the gospel gained ground in the world, the Eleusinian mysteries themselves fell into dis. repute; and, together with all the other Pagan solemnities, were at length suppressed; Rollin thinks, by the Emperor Theodosius. Ancient History, vol. v. page 15. II. It is now time to mention, that Bishop Warburton's account of the design of the mysteries, hath been the subject of much controversy among the learned. His supposition, that Virgil's account of Eneas's descent into hell, in the sixth Eneid, is a description of the mysteries and of Æneas's initiation into them, hath been contradicted by some, who are of opinion that the poet contrived that episode, merely to embellish his poem with an account of a future state; and that, by the apparition of the ghosts which were afterwards to return to life, and become the great men of his country, he might have an opportunity of celebrating their praises.-In like manner, Warburton's doctrine concerning the design of the mysteries, that they were instituted to expose the falsehood of the vulgar Polytheism, and to teach the doctrines of the unity, of providence, and of a future state, hath been opposed at great length by Dr. Leland, in his Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. chap. viii. ix. For, page 189. having mentioned, that the most learned and zealous advocates for paganism, as Apuleius, Iamblicus, Hierocles, Proclus, and others, after Christianity made its appearance, cried up the mysteries as the most effectual means for purifying the soul, and raising it to communion with the gods, Leland saith, "I cannot think that the legislators, in "instituting the mysteries, concerned themselves much about "restoring the soul to its original purity, in the Pythagorean or "Platonic sense. What they had in view, by Warburton's own " acknowledgment, was to promote the cause of virtue, as far " as was necessary for the ends of civil society. "thing farther than this, they were not solicitous. ❝teries seem to have been originally designed to civilize the "rude people, to form and polish their manners, and by shews "and representations, which were fitted to strike the imagina❝tion, to bring them to a greater veneration for the laws and "religion of their country; which, among the pagans, was al66 ways regarded as a necessary ingredient in a virtuous charac"ter."-Such is Leland's account of the mysteries, which he supports, page 190. by appealing to Diodorus, who saith, "That in the Sicilian feasts of Ceres, which lasted ten days, was represented the ancient manner of living, before men As to any The mys "had learned the use and culture of bread-corn." This representation was evidently designed to make men sensible of the value of a civilized life. The same thing may be gathered from more ancient writers, who tell us, "The principal subject of the "Eleusinian mysteries, was the life of Ceres, her wanderings "after her daughter, and her legislation in Sicily and Africa, "where she taught the inhabitants agriculture, and gave them "laws; and thereby reclaimed them from their rude manners.” This, Leland saith, is what Cicero seems to have had in view, De Legibus, lib. ii. cap. 14. "Nam mihi cum multa divinaque "videntur Athenæ peperisse, atque in vita hominum attulisse, "tum nihil melius istis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique ❝vita, exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati sumus; neque solum "cum lætitia vivendi rationem accepimus; sed etiam cum spe ❝ meliore moriendi."-With respect to what Cicero says of the mysteries, that they enabled men to die with a better hope, Leland thinks it relates to what was inculcated in the mysteries, that those who were initiated and purified, enjoyed after death greater felicity than others, and were honoured with the first places in the Elysian abodes: whereas others were forced to wallow in perpetual dirt, stink, and nastiness, page 191.-The like account of the mysteries, Cicero gives at the end of his fifth book against Verres, cap. 72. "Teque Ceres et Libera, ❝quarum sacra, sicut opiniones hominum et religiones ferunt, "longe maximis atque occultissimis cæremoniis continentur, "a quibus initia vitæ atque victus, legum, morum, mansuetudi"nis, humanitatis exempla, hominibus ac civitatibus data aç "dispertita esse dicuntur: quorum sacra populus Romanus a "Græcis accepta et ascita, tanta religione et publice et priva"tim tuetur." On this passage, Adrian Turnebus remarks: "Initia vocantur ab initiis vitæ, inventis a Cerere legibus et frugibus, in quarum rerum memoriam (mysteria) fiebant, "cum antea ferino ritu homines sibi vitam propagabant." Having thus explained and proved his own account of the mysteries, Leland proceeds to examine the proofs which Warburton hath produced in support of his doctrine, that the mysteries were instituted to disclose the error of polytheism, pag. 197. The first proof is that passage from St. Austin, concerning an Egyptian hierophant, who informed Alexander the Great, that even the deities of an higher order had once been men. This is followed by two quotations from Cicero, who, according to |